The Exchanges

Q Thanks for the introduction. I really appreciate it. One question or two questions, I guess, before we get into the meat of the conversation, what was the size of that team from that company and why did you want to leave the company?

A Yeah. So it was, um, when I joined about 70, 75 people, by the time I left, It was, uh, somewhere between a 150 and a 175. So really fast growth, large team in four different time zones. And, uh, the reason why I left was, you know, I was really good at parts of my job and I really enjoyed parts of my job. And ultimately I felt like I could make a bigger difference by doing things my own way and, and doing them in a different format. I love working with people and I love process. And I got to do both of those things in that job and I get to do both of those things now and, you know, on my own terms and in my own way, I get to be way more creative and I get to ultimately help more people.

AI assessment note: “when I joined about 70, 75 people... the reason why I left was”

Q What are those three things that you said you never got at other companies that you wanted to give yours?

A Mentorship and growth opportunities was really the first one. You know, I had a lot of great managers. I had a lot of great bosses. I was put in positions where I did grow and I rarely had like a mentor on my team who was continuously giving me feedback and pouring into me and pushing me to be better. Um, I think that, you know, I'm, I'm super type A. And so I think a lot of my managers were like, oh, she's good. Like she's on top of it. And I really craved someone to like Push me. And so that's a huge part of our culture is we're always going to be integrating the feedback. We're always going to be challenging ourselves to do this differently. The second thing was, um, a really generous PTO policy. Um, I wanted my team to have like, yes, competitive for our industry and the size business that we are, but also competitive, like in the U S. Um, it was really important to me that we were kind of ahead of the curve on that. And then the third thing is just like flex Um, so for example, we do fade out Fridays. So if you got your stuff done when you're done on Friday, like you can leave. There's no reason for you to punch a clock or stick around, like get your stuff done and head out for your weekend as soon as you want to. So those are a couple of the things that I just know I would really would have appreciated when I was employed by other people.

AI assessment note: “Mentorship and growth opportunities was really the first one.”

Q Okay. So then once you have a company strategy and an HR strategy for the culture you want to build and things like that, how can you determine the first position to hire for the second position, et cetera?

A What's been really helpful for me and how I did this and, and what I recommend is to do an audit on how you're spending your time. What are the most time consuming tasks that you have in your role? And then analyzing those things. So is this something that I need to be doing? Is this the thing that I want to be spending this much time on? And which of these things that I'm spending this much time on could be handed off to somebody else, could be done better by somebody else potentially. Um, and so identifying what are those main things that you spend your time on and then looking at, I would say the top like three to five and analyzing, do I need to do this? Like truthfully, is this something that I need to own for the success of this company? Or is this something that would be better handled by somebody else? And I would hire to fill like those specific needs. And then as the company grows, as the demand grows, as the inner workings grow, other gaps will start to reveal themselves.

AI assessment note: “what I recommend is to do an audit on how you're spending your time.”

Q we weren't terribly agile. We thought we were, but we weren't because I didn't understand what agile really meant. And, uh, and I'd say in the last year I've learned to be more agile. So yeah, that's, that's good advice. So once you know, I guess the next position you should be hiring for, how do you find that person? What is the best way to search for potential candidates?

A I think this really depends on the business. Um, I mean, you can definitely post a job ad and you can, you know, collect applications. You can put it out on the internet in all the places where people look for jobs. And what has worked really well for the type of business that I run and the size of team that I have and that I want is building long-term relationships in my community. I was building relationships with people who were telling me that they liked what I was doing, who I expressed some degree of interest in getting involved in some capacity for a long time before I was actually ready to hire. And so when it came time to actually build my team, I had this network of people who either had expressed interest in working with me, who I then interviewed and qualified, and or knew someone who wanted to be involved. And so I took a really community-based approach to building my team and really sourced from the relationships that I'd been building long before I was actually ready to bring someone on. There's pros and cons to that. I think that it was really important to me to have people who were bought in to what Kerry Welco was doing, right? Who had interest before they saw the job rec go up, um, and who really could get behind the ethos of what we're up to. And you, you'll definitely widen your, your candidate pool by posting online, by talking to people that you wouldn't …

AI assessment note: “what has worked really well... is building long-term relationships in my community.”

Q like, take a few minutes to think, but tell me how you would solve it. Then we listen to them explain their thought And that helps us to understand if they actually have the ability to strategize, plan, and then execute. And so that's been very important for us in hiring fantastic people. So what are some great questions you would ask during an interview when you're dealing with people?

A The way that I like to phrase my questions is actually in the past tense and, and eliciting a specific example. So instead of saying, how would you do X, Y, and Z, almost like a hypothetical, I like to ask, Tell me about a time when you did X, Y, and Z. What worked? What didn't? What did you learn? What would you do differently next time? And really, the very first thing I'm paying attention to is, did they listen to the question and are they giving a specific example? And do they have a specific example to give? Right away, that's going to tell you whether or not they're a good fit. And then depending on how they go about answering the rest of that question, you can get a feel for exactly what you were talking It's one of my favorite ways to ask interview questions because people tend to know the quote-unquote right answer to a question, and so if you ask for a specific example, you're calling upon them to actually speak to an experience they've had, and it's just going to give you so much more information.

AI assessment note: “I like to ask, Tell me about a time when you did X, Y”

Q How can I make it better? Uh, and then how can I find the right people to fit into that system? Cause the system that was existing before, it doesn't work very well. And the people have already gotten complacent. And so that it's hard to get them to change. So with that rant over, let's get into HR strategy and how can you establish a strategy for your company?

A So I think that what this really comes down to is a couple things. I think that there's no like one right or wrong way to put a strategy in place for your human resource function. In my experience, it comes down to having a long-term vision of where you see the company going and arguably more important, where you see each person in the company going and having core values that Really dictate how you do what you do in the business. And then a really crucial step is enrolling your people in both of those things. I think that if you have those two things in place, everything else will come as you start the doing. And I think that, you know, when it comes to finding the right people, enrolling the right people, getting people engaged and activated and interested, you have to operate in that intersection of the company's best interest and those people's personal Interest. And I think that that comes through having the vision, having the values and enrolling people in that so that you can share those things together and have them really understand how their time at your company is going to support their own personal vision and their own personal goals.

AI assessment note: “In my experience, it comes down to having a long-term vision of where you see”