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How AI is Reshaping Staffing with Scott Fiore | Staffing Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:18
the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their
0:20
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:26
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Scott Fiore,
0:30
President of tri-star, a top staffing agency in Lancaster,
0:34
York and Central Pennsylvania. They successfully placed
0:37
hundreds of well qualified people in the right jobs every
0:40
year. Their rigorous process,
0:42
experience, and attention to detail dramatically increases
0:46
the likelihood of a successful employee employer match.
0:50
Tristar is more than a temporary staffing company.
0:53
They approach every single job assignment with the same level
0:56
of professionalism, whether the positions are temporary, temp to
1:00
hire, or permanent. They can serve as an extension
1:04
of your company's HR department for recruiting, staffing, and
1:07
they even offer consulting for the challenges your HR team may
1:11
face. Outside of his professional
1:14
commitments, Scott is deeply involved in the Lancaster
1:17
community. He has served as chair of the
1:19
board of trustees of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce
1:22
and Industry. He chaired the board of
1:24
directors of the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic and the Lancaster
1:28
Symphony Orchestra. He also served on the boards of
1:32
United Way of Lancaster and Affiliated Staffing Group and
1:36
the Longs Park Amphitheatre Foundation.
1:39
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:42
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2:10
Now back to our guest today, the President of Tristar, Scott
2:13
Fiore. I appreciate you making the time
2:14
to Share your story today. Thanks for having me, Anthony,
2:17
and thanks for that great intro. How did I do with the
2:20
pronunciation of Lancaster several times?
2:22
How many times? Did I get great?
2:23
You did great for someone that just learned it a few minutes
2:25
ago. Before we started recording
2:28
folks, I, I shared that intro with Scott just to make sure
2:32
everything was accurate. And I was pronouncing it
2:35
Lancaster. I spent a year studying in
2:38
Lancaster, England. And so I had to quickly rewire
2:41
my brain. And so thank you for your help
2:44
with that. So Scott, tell us first the path
2:48
that got you into the staffing industry in the first place.
2:52
Sure. Went to college, came out of
2:55
college and got into the financial industry not knowing
2:57
what else I was going to do. Didn't like it.
3:02
Spent a couple of years in it and then went to work for a wire
3:06
and cable manufacturer here in in the Lancaster area that I
3:10
enjoyed. I enjoyed selling products.
3:13
My wife at the time was working for a temporary staffing service
3:16
called Tristar and we were, we had become very close with the
3:19
owner of the business and my wife was starting, we were
3:24
starting a young family. We had a couple of kids.
3:27
And at the time my employer at the time was bought out.
3:33
So lots of changes with that. And with that employer for me to
3:37
continue in that industry meant moving again.
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The woman who now became my partner but owned Tristar at the
3:43
time came to me and said, hey, would you like to come to work
3:47
for me in the staffing industry? And I said, well, I don't know
3:51
anything about it. She said I can teach you and
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hopefully you'll become my succession plan.
3:55
And that's the short answer to a long to a long process.
4:00
But that's how it all worked out.
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So she must have, she must have had a really high opinion of you
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without even working with you to say, hey, I've got you in mind
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for being my successor. Well, she, we, we put a pretty
4:15
rigid plan in place. We spent five years where we
4:18
were both feeling each other out.
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She wanted to make sure I was the right fit for her
4:22
succession, but also that I was, I felt comfortable in the
4:27
industry and comfortable in the company.
4:30
And to her credit, she presented me with a, after that five years
4:37
with a partnership agreement that that she crafted.
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And I was a young, young buck at the time.
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I was like, yeah, I'll sign it. She goes, no, you won't.
4:45
You'll get an attorney. You'll have them review it.
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You'll come back to me with questions to make sure you're
4:50
comfortable with this agreement. So I did.
4:53
And that's probably the single best business advice I've ever
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received or tried to give to folks is when you're entering a
5:02
partnership like that, it's just like a marriage.
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You're putting together a prenup so that everybody knows should
5:08
that partnership dissolve, what that means for both parties,
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what the costs are for both parties.
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And I tell people all the time, we argued all the time and
5:18
continue to argue nicely about the business and direction of
5:21
the business and, and issues. We've never argued about that
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partnership agreement because we both vetted it, signed it, and
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you know, it is what it is and. What is her name that your?
5:34
Partner Joan Paxton. She founded Tristar in 19, the
5:37
Tristar in Pennsylvania in 1989. OK.
5:41
And so Joan gave you this advice which yes, also from my own
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experience, I think it's fantastic advice in those early
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days when a partnership is first forming, It's the honeymoon
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period, everybody's getting along, all they see are dollar
5:54
signs in the future. And so that's the time really to
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have a lot of those hard conversations of what if this,
6:00
what if that and get that all figured out and on paper.
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So that when you get into those, some of those tense situations
6:08
where things aren't going as well and you know, you've got to
6:11
make some hard choices, then you know, you've got a document to
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go by that says, hey, here, here's how we agreed to deal
6:16
with these things. Right.
6:18
So, OK, so you didn't have any background in staffing?
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No. But you, you had this
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relationship and you got invited in.
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And So what were those first, I don't know, weeks and even
6:29
months like switching from selling a physical product and
6:32
now selling a service? You know, that was tough for me
6:36
because I could go out and hold something and show something to
6:40
somebody, sit down with an architect, sit down with an
6:42
engineer and talk about how they want that one of that piece of
6:45
cable design to a difficult sales process.
6:50
Because I would go meet a prospect or a client and I could
6:56
do the best sales job in the world, Convince them that
6:59
Tristar was the right service for them.
7:01
But if they didn't have a hiring need at the time, I don't get an
7:05
order. So it took me some time to to
7:10
get that. But then also I had to figure
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out, OK, how do I maintain that top of mind for the time they
7:18
need somebody, which I may not know.
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So there's, you know, selling in the staffing industry is a lot
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about creating a relationship, creating trust, but also making
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sure you're top of mind when the need arises.
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And I'm curious what techniques you found have worked to stay
7:38
top of mind without being annoying.
7:42
Yeah, so in the old days it was phone calls, letters, you know,
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real letters that went through the mail with a stamp on them.
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And then it became e-mail. And our industry changed pretty
7:56
significantly when the, when the Internet boomed, because now we
8:01
could stay in touch easier and less intrusively through a quick
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e-mail. And the interesting thing was,
8:10
Anthony, you know, when the, when the first job boards came
8:13
about, the word in the staffing industry is they were going to
8:16
put us out of business because people wouldn't need us anymore.
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And those job boards pretty quickly figured out that we were
8:22
probably going to be some of their best customers because we
8:24
wanted access to that pool of candidates.
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So it, you know, it went, like I said, it went from letters,
8:33
phone calls, emails, but it's, you know, it was still labor
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intensive. You know, you had to set a
8:39
tickler, send this person an e-mail, make, make sure you make
8:44
a phone call to this person. Back in the early days, we set
8:48
up some mail marketing campaigns through a marketing agency that
8:54
were were successful. Now what we've been able to do
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and and the big change now is automation and artificial
9:02
intelligence. Now we now we've made that
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process automated so that as a new prospect is identified by
9:12
our sales team, there's an automated process by which we
9:15
communicate with them, which includes e-mail, which includes
9:18
text messages, which includes phone calls, which might include
9:21
a personal visit. But now we can automate that.
9:26
We can scale it so I can do it to lots more people more often
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and allow my salespeople to spend the time actually being in
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front of people, whether it's like you and I are now or
9:38
actually in person. So that's these days, that's the
9:41
biggest change and that's been my vision to how I'm going to
9:44
scale this company. And so the, the tech, there's
9:47
some automation, right? It could send the e-mail, it
9:50
could send a text message. You still need a human being I
9:52
assume to make the phone call? Or are you using a recording or
9:56
AI to do that? Right now we're using a human
9:59
being, but the automation is telling the human being when to
10:02
make that phone call. So there are very specific times
10:06
when that happens throughout the process.
10:09
It would not surprise me if in the next 12 months that's not a
10:13
human being. OK, interesting.
10:17
And before we talk about your plans for growing the company, I
10:21
want to go back to sort of the last huge introduction into your
10:27
industry that people thought were going to put you out of
10:29
business, these job boards. Why do you think they didn't put
10:33
you out of business the way that people feared at the time?
10:36
Looking back, I think it was their business model.
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I didn't realize it at the time, but if I look back at Monster
10:45
Career Builder, what they were, what they intended to do was
10:51
create a database of resumes and candidates that they could then
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sell to people like me and people like you that are looking
11:01
to fill a job. But they needed to get those
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candidates first into the database.
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And the way they get them into the database is to advertise for
11:10
jobs. So they upload the date, so they
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upload their resume. So, so the people that have the
11:16
most jobs are the staffing industry.
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So they, they came to us and said, hey, we'd like to partner
11:20
with you, but we'll post your jobs for practically nothing for
11:24
free. And we were like, hey, that's
11:26
cool. So we did that and it drove a
11:28
lot of business to us. But at the same time, it enabled
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them to create this database of candidates with which they
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charge a lot more money for today because that's more
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valuable. So it didn't put us out of
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business because they came to us and we worked together.
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We really partnered with them and they helped us grow as an
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industry as we helped them grow also.
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And so, you know, as we look say, you know, today, Fast
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forward, I don't know, 20 years or so, 30 years, whatever it was
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since those job boards first came out.
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Why do you think a lot of clients, a lot of companies use
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Tristar instead of using Indeed themselves?
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So what Indeed can provide or another job board can provide is
12:14
a resume. What a company like we provide
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is the vetting of that resume, the qualifying that candidate
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and the determination if that candidate really matches that
12:25
position. And it's, it's easy to attract
12:30
a, it's easy and inexpensive to attract a candidate.
12:33
You, you put an ad out somewhere wherever it is and you get a
12:36
resume. Difficult thing that most hiring
12:39
managers and HR folks know is how do you know that that person
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is what's on the resume? That's our job.
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And we do that by looking at the resume, by interviewing the
12:51
candidate, by using automated and artificial intelligence
12:54
tools to vet that candidate, to make sure what we present to the
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candidate is a lot more than what they get from just looking
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from just getting that resume on a job board.
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So really what they're buying from us is the time and the
13:08
expertise. You know, and if somebody who
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has gone through the hiring process myself and getting
13:19
flooded with resumes, I can attest to the enormous value of
13:22
that process. It's like, OK, well, I'm going
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to put a job out there, you know, and I don't know if I'm
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going to get any responses. I hope I get, you know, at least
13:29
a few candidates to choose from. And then I get flooded with
13:33
resumes and I don't even know how to begin.
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Like, I don't have a process for it.
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I'm in over my head. So I'm curious, you know, now
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that AI is becoming better and better, how are you using tools
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like like that to help your agency vet through and kind of,
13:53
you know, serve as a filter for some of those job prospects that
13:56
come? Here.
13:57
So the first step in that process is the is the tools that
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we use. We'll search our database, we'll
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search the job boards, search the Internet for people who who
14:09
on paper match what the job description or what we've asked
14:12
that bot to look for. So once that is once that
14:17
candidate is identified, the next piece of artificial
14:20
intelligence tool actually screens that candidate.
14:23
So based on the on the resume of the candidate, based on the job
14:27
description, it will start asking questions through a text
14:31
message or an e-mail of that candidate, pre screening them to
14:37
come up with, to get to a point where the artificial
14:40
intelligence says this candidate, as far as, as far as
14:45
we're concerned, meets the criteria and turns it over to a
14:48
real human at Tristar or not. And that saves a, a tremendous
14:53
amount of time. And we can also do that 24 hours
14:56
a day, seven days a week, which you can't typically do in in a
15:00
with a human, you know, So, and that gets to my fewer people,
15:05
but able to screen more, more candidates more quickly and more
15:08
effectively. And that that tool is learning
15:11
every day and every screen what we're really looking for.
15:15
So it gets a little better and a little better every time.
15:18
So Scott, I know that you've got plans for growth.
15:22
You you want to be able to place more folks into jobs that are
15:26
good fit for them and for the employers you want to be able to
15:29
grow into new geographies as well.
15:33
All of this is typically rather labor intensive, but you guys
15:37
have been working on a tech stack for with the last 18
15:42
months that is positioning you for this growth.
15:46
Can you talk a little bit about that?
15:48
Yes. So about two years ago looking
15:51
forward into how I envisioned our industry, I knew that we had
15:55
to make some pretty significant changes if we were going to grow
15:58
the business and I'd rather grow the business than remain
16:01
stagnant and we could have remained just like we are been
16:04
just fine. But what I saw and and what I
16:11
envisioned was changing how Tristar sees itself.
16:19
We were a in the past, I would define us as a staffing and
16:24
recruiting firm that utilizes technology.
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I'm moving that to, we're going to be a tech firm that does
16:30
recruiting. So identifying core technology
16:35
and then ancillary technology that all ties together to #1
16:40
speed up the candidate identification and screening
16:43
process, then the communication process with them, then
16:50
communication and, and candidate presentation with our clients
16:57
back office automated tools. The more I can do with
17:02
automation and, and artificial intelligence and technology, the
17:06
less people I need to do that that will allow me to hire
17:11
different people. Two years ago, I didn't have a,
17:14
a person focused on tech in my business.
17:17
I do now. That's all they do.
17:20
And, and they know all of Tristar inside now because they
17:24
have to deal with all of those, all of those functions.
17:28
So as I grow, I'll be able to hire people who are really
17:33
skilled recruiters that don't have to worry about doing data
17:36
entry, that don't have to worry about doing initial screening,
17:40
so they can really focus their time on candidates and clients,
17:43
which is what makes the most sense and is most efficient for
17:46
them. So what you're describing,
17:49
Scott, is not spending a, a weekend learning how to use
17:53
ChatGPT, which you're describing here sounds like a pretty
17:57
significant lift. I mean, the way that you put it,
18:01
I, I think is evidence enough. You switching from a, a staffing
18:05
agency that's got, you know, some tech behind it too.
18:08
We are a tech company that does staffing.
18:12
Now you've got a full time person dedicated to helping to
18:15
build this tech. How's it going?
18:18
Where are you in this process? So we are just at the point I
18:23
added AVP of business development because I felt that
18:27
the tech stack was ready this summer and then started poking
18:33
around for for people and had one follow my lap.
18:37
So we just hired AVP of business development with specific and
18:41
extensive staffing industry experience, who in my
18:44
discussions with him really bought into the technology and
18:49
how we could use it to grow the business.
18:51
So he's been on board. I think this is his fourth week.
18:56
So we're still here. I mean, I spent a lot of money
18:58
on this tech and investigating the tech and technology and all
19:01
of that. And we're still here, we're
19:03
still making money and we're we're positioned technology
19:07
wise, but also financially to grow into those markets and and
19:11
really start to make a splash. What do you think the timeline
19:15
looks like? I mean, you know, you don't hire
19:17
the guy on day one. You know, with tech that's, you
19:19
know, brand new from this summer, there's going to be a
19:22
process there. There still is that business
19:24
development. You have to cultivate the
19:25
relationships in different geographies.
19:28
In a good case scenario, when do you think you might start seeing
19:32
some return on that investment? You know, I've really learned to
19:37
set my expectations over my career, and my expectation for
19:42
this one is 12 months. From about now, 12 months from
19:46
about now, OK. And the tech that you put in
19:50
place, was this mostly like out-of-the-box tools that were
19:54
made specifically for the staffing industry?
19:56
Have you guys had to, you know, customize or build your own
20:00
tools because what you wanted didn't exist?
20:04
All of it is out-of-the-box with some customizations for us,
20:07
obviously specific to the tech, to the staffing industry.
20:13
I know I could have built it all.
20:14
It would have cost me a fortune. I'd be nowhere near where I am
20:19
in the process right now. There's some great products out
20:22
there, great vendors to our industry and they're constantly
20:26
making updates, constantly changing.
20:29
Part of my job is just keeping an eye on what they're changing
20:33
and, and my my internal person page who does the tech, her job
20:36
is to keep on top of them because they implement change so
20:39
quickly and we want to make sure we're taking advantage of the
20:42
latest versions of the products they have, but also the new
20:46
stuff that's popping up. You know, it happened upon one,
20:51
I think it was in the winter that it really wasn't even on
20:55
the radar in this, in the staffing industry world, but has
20:59
been a super game changer for us.
21:01
It's an AI tool that listens to our interviews and then
21:05
populates the database. And that's that's been a game
21:09
changer for my team. Listens to the interviews and
21:13
then populates what specifically into the database.
21:15
Just everything that was talked about.
21:17
Yeah, it really does. It takes care of what we would
21:19
call the interview notes, getting that, getting the the
21:24
information that was in the interview spoken into the
21:27
appropriate field in the database and it does it.
21:30
And that was always a log jam for us and I think it is for
21:35
many people in the staffing industry.
21:37
You do the interview, but then you move to the next interview,
21:40
you move to the next problem. And it might be a day or two
21:42
before those notes get into the database and, and the, you can't
21:46
use the database to search if the notes aren't there.
21:49
So this tool, it's called Quil QQUIL, they've been one of the
21:53
best that I've seen come around in the last year, year and a
21:57
half. Real, real game changer for us.
22:00
And what's the accuracy like? It's unbelievably accurate,
22:05
probably better than we would be.
22:08
Wow, that's impressive. You know, and this this kind of
22:11
reminds me of what we're talking about with the job boards.
22:14
You know, some people were probably running scared when
22:17
those first became a thing. And, you know, and now that AI
22:21
is becoming so powerful in so many ways, but particularly in
22:25
the staffing industry, I think there are some people that, you
22:29
know, kind of doing the ostrich thing, sticking their head in
22:31
the sand and hoping that it it goes away.
22:33
But you guys are taking a much different tack.
22:36
You are embracing it. It's not going anywhere.
22:39
Let's get to be a part of it. Let's get ahead of the curve and
22:41
let's see how we can use this to leverage ourselves for future
22:44
success. Yeah, we're, you know, we're a
22:47
small company. There are huge global staffing
22:53
firms that have way more resources than we do and, and
22:57
they're making investments in that, in that technology.
23:00
The advantages I have is I can implement it a lot quicker than
23:02
they can. And that's always been my my
23:05
vision through the last couple of years is like, I have to find
23:08
the tech that's going to work for us, get it in into our
23:13
processes, get it into our systems and, and be using it and
23:16
be better at it than the big guys are.
23:18
What do you think happens to those companies who don't do
23:21
what Tristar is doing now in the staffing industry?
23:25
You know, I, I think many of them will be fine there.
23:29
There's, there's a whole lot of staffing firms that are small
23:34
and local like we used to be, are now, but used to be in my
23:38
opinion, that will maintain a, a good book of business through
23:42
relationships and just being really good at what they do.
23:45
I think over time those businesses will probably find
23:50
that they can't grow as quickly and they can't grow as
23:52
profitably because they've got such a big investment in people
23:57
and those people are doing things that they really don't
23:59
need to be doing. And so.
24:02
During interview notes, if you know, that's a long, detailed
24:06
process that takes a recruiter away from talking to a client or
24:10
talking to a candidate or an employee.
24:13
And they're most efficient and most profitable for me when
24:16
they're talking to somebody not doing data entry.
24:23
So two years ago, I had this vision, started working on the
24:26
tech stack about 18 months ago. It's ready this summer.
24:29
Now you got AVP of business development.
24:32
Do when you think about growth in terms of geography, do you
24:36
think about moving sort of from where you are in Pennsylvania
24:40
and kind of moving out? Or is it like, we don't even
24:43
have to think that way, Like we could go to Utah right now and
24:48
be a player there? We're looking for people in
24:51
Vegas right now, but you know, the plan is to is to be somewhat
25:03
the, the plan is to be somewhat careful about growing too
25:07
quickly. You know, I'd like to increase
25:09
my presence in this area in Pennsylvania first, Maryland,
25:13
Jersey, New York to some extent, but there's nothing to prevent
25:18
me from filling a job anywhere in the country that makes sense
25:21
for us. And so for you, it's about, I'm
25:26
guessing that, you know, you think about the chicken or the
25:28
egg. The thing that needs to come
25:29
first is the relationship with the employer.
25:33
Correct, right? And then once you've got that,
25:35
then you can find, you've got your process for finding
25:38
candidates that you can bring and present to them.
25:40
Right. And I think we can do it more
25:43
quickly and more accurately than than most of our competition
25:48
right now. So talk to me about the types of
25:52
positions that you are really good at filling now and will
25:58
that change now that you have this new tech stack in place?
26:05
Yes and no. So we've built our business on
26:08
filling what's called office, clerical, administrative
26:10
positions, support positions, think customer service, think
26:14
bookkeepers, back office, that type of thing, Secretary's admin
26:17
assistants. We know how to do that and we
26:20
know how to do that really, really well.
26:23
What we're what we're growing into is that next step up in,
26:29
in, in management, not really the C-Suite or executive
26:34
placement, but you know, we used to do accounting assistants or
26:39
pair of bookkeepers. Now we can do accountants.
26:41
So that level moving up in an organization, engineers, project
26:45
managers, those types of things. Anything where there's where we
26:50
can utilize the technology that we have to screen this wide
26:54
funnel of candidates down to fewer that then we can spend
26:57
time with. Those are the ones that we'll be
27:00
focusing on. And how would you break down the
27:02
percentage of your business that is temp attempt to hire versus
27:07
permanent? Right now we're about 90 to 95%
27:11
attempt to hire on any given week or month and I anticipate
27:16
that will that spread will start to grow a little bit.
27:21
And that's because you're specifically growing into
27:23
filling these sort of higher level positions where it makes
27:27
sense that those would be folks that are there longer term.
27:32
What about industries then? What kind of industries do you
27:35
guys have a strong foothold in now?
27:37
And are there any that you're not sort of a big player in yet,
27:41
but would really like to get into?
27:43
Yeah. Right now, the industries that
27:46
utilize us the most are where we're, we've been super
27:48
successful in our healthcare, not clinical, but in support
27:53
positions, the insurance industries and then
28:00
manufacturing, but again, not on the floor in those support
28:04
roles. Where I envision US growing into
28:08
are those types of businesses just not in our current market
28:15
that that's where we tend to do best.
28:17
We don't fill warehouse positions.
28:19
And these days, you know, 20 years ago there was, there was
28:22
back office and support roles in warehouses.
28:24
There really isn't much of that anymore.
28:26
They've automated that. You know, you go to Amazon
28:29
warehouse, there's hardly anybody working in it, but the
28:33
people that are there are not the ones that we typically place
28:38
the order fillers, the picker Packers, the forklift drivers.
28:41
That's that's not what we do. So warehouse is not something
28:44
that we're going to really super focus on.
28:47
What you would do in those environments are more the office
28:51
jobs, the AD, the admin, OK. Yep, and those just don't exist
28:55
anymore. You know the the computers are
28:57
placing the orders and sorting the orders and telling the
29:00
pickers what to pick and that type of.
29:03
Thing. Talk to me about the consulting
29:06
work that you provide for some of your clients sort of becoming
29:09
an extension of their HR department.
29:12
So what I, many years ago, I was asked to serve on a search
29:17
committee for one of the non profits that I was on.
29:20
And you know, I hadn't learned to keep my mouth shut at that
29:26
time. So I, I jumped right in and
29:28
said, here's the process that we should use to hire this, this
29:31
executive director. And after that lots of
29:35
nonprofits started calling and saying, Hey, could you do this
29:38
for us? Could you help us find an
29:40
executive director? So we've worked with many, many
29:43
nonprofits and coached their search committee through the
29:48
hiring process. And then what we started also to
29:51
do is, is help human resources, excuse me, departments when,
29:57
when they needed more resources to come in and be an extension
30:01
of their recruiting arm. That's where most of our
30:03
consulting is done, doing what we know how to do, just helping
30:06
a, a client learn how to do that.
30:10
And we've kind of built a little name for ourselves locally in
30:13
the nonprofit world when they need to do a search to help them
30:16
through that process. And and you know, I don't charge
30:19
what a search firm would charge because they're a non profit.
30:23
They're in my part of the community and I don't offer the
30:27
same services that that search firm does.
30:29
Also, the search committee still does the bulk of the work.
30:32
I'm just there to coach them through it.
30:35
What, what might that look like? You're just you're sort of
30:38
teaching them the process that you would use for your own
30:41
clients so that they can do it themselves.
30:43
Yeah. So I'll sit in with the
30:44
interviews with them. I'll manage the interviews for
30:46
them. They still have to make the
30:48
decision. They still have to do the heavy
30:52
lift of screening, you know, going to the candidates that
30:55
they want to interview. We'll, we certainly call it down
30:57
for them a little bit, but it allows them ownership of the
31:01
selection of the candidate. One thing I learned is,
31:05
especially in, in the nonprofit world, the hiring of a, of a, of
31:10
a leader of an organization, an executive director or president
31:13
is critical when the, when the search committee and then
31:16
therefore the board feels invested in that hire.
31:20
And when the candidate has invested time with that group of
31:24
people, the odds of the success of that are much higher than if
31:28
they just go out, identify 2 candidates, have the search
31:31
committee interview them and, and then move on.
31:34
So the success rate seems to be a lot better.
31:38
And the other thing is I I often know the organization, so I know
31:41
what they're looking for. I'm going to guess this
31:44
consulting, this coaching that you offer is probably not part
31:49
of the scaling plan that you have going forward because.
31:53
We no there's. Too much work, yeah.
31:56
Yeah, that's too much work and I can't scale that.
32:00
That's personal. That's individual to me.
32:03
And it it, it would be it, it it would really take away too much
32:10
time away from the other stuff to really grow the business
32:12
effectively. I mean, obviously you're
32:14
charging a fee for the service that you're providing, but it
32:18
sounds like, you know, part of this is also you just have those
32:21
relationships. These are friends in the
32:24
community. I mean, we went through a number
32:26
of the, you know, the nonprofits in your area that you have been
32:31
are a member of chaired. And so it sounds like this is a
32:35
little bit of, you know, sort of that giving back to the
32:38
community kind of mindset that you have.
32:40
Yeah. And, and we've always felt both
32:43
Joan, the founder and I, this community has been very good to
32:45
us and we owe something back to the community.
32:48
And that's why we're active in the community.
32:50
We encourage our team to be active in the community.
32:53
And you know, most recently we, we helped the United Way of
32:57
Lancaster hire their, their executive director.
33:01
I've been involved with that organization for years.
33:03
Joan has, we know what they're looking for.
33:05
We know what they want. And The funny thing was they had
33:09
looked for an executor, We had helped them with a search for an
33:13
executive director about four, 5-6 years ago.
33:17
And she was on the list of people that I contacted because
33:20
I knew she would the one that they just hired, but she wasn't
33:24
ready. So when, when the current, when
33:27
the old executive director moved on, he had a great opportunity
33:31
left on good terms. She was one of my first calls,
33:34
the woman they eventually hired and now she was ready.
33:37
And, and then, you know, that's part of what a a firm like ours
33:40
recruiting firm can offer. They, they know the right
33:43
candidate. Maybe the candidate's not ready,
33:45
maybe the organization isn't ready.
33:46
But when that happens, it's our job to then make that match.
33:52
Scott, what's the biggest mistake that you see companies
33:56
make when hiring? The biggest mistake I think
34:01
people I, I think companies make is falling in love too quickly.
34:08
And once they fall in love with a candidate, not following
34:16
procedures that they had put in place to appropriately vet that
34:19
candidate. Certain, you know, some people
34:23
interview super well and the resume looks great.
34:27
And I always tell people 80% of what you see on a resume is
34:29
probably a work of fiction in many cases or embellished.
34:35
I was just looking at a something on the Internet where
34:38
they, a consultant was saying, you know, use this word when you
34:42
mean this on a resume, that type of thing.
34:44
There's plenty of ways, you know, ChatGPT can make your
34:47
resume look great. So you look at a resume, you
34:53
fall in love with it, it's perfect.
34:54
It's perfect because Chachi probably lined it up to your job
34:57
description. Then you interview the candidate
35:00
and they do a great job because they've gone on the Internet and
35:03
said, what questions might they ask me about this job and how
35:05
should I answer them and all those things.
35:08
And because everything's so great, maybe you don't do the
35:11
background checks as maybe you skip a step.
35:15
Maybe you don't look into their their credit history.
35:18
If it's a, if it's a, if it's an accounting position, or maybe
35:22
you skip the references because you know they'll be good and
35:26
maybe just call the references they give you instead of maybe
35:28
doing a little extra work and calling some people that might
35:31
be able to give you a reference that isn't on their reference
35:35
sheet. So it's, it's doing that work is
35:37
what I see most often when, when we make a placement and they
35:42
don't work out it, it, it is hardly ever because of a
35:46
candidate not having the skill to do the job because they don't
35:50
fit culturally with the company or or they don't have the soft
35:54
skills that that organization or that fit the culture of the
36:00
organization. That's mostly why candidates
36:04
don't work out. And these days when you can very
36:08
quickly skill up when you know, if, if the person that I hired
36:15
for our tech didn't join the organization for tech, just fell
36:20
into it and you know, she learns things by going on YouTube or
36:23
asking questions of the vendors, you know, and she learns it like
36:26
that because the resources are available for that.
36:29
You don't have to go take an Excel class to learn Excel
36:31
anymore. You just go into ChatGPT and
36:33
say, what's the formula for this?
36:35
So it's that ability to learn that is more important than the
36:40
skills that you may possess. And that that's another thing
36:45
that I think people put too much weight on.
36:47
What's their experience? Well, their experience probably
36:50
doesn't matter because of the way, because of how things
36:53
change so quickly these days. It's what's their capacity to
36:56
learn. How can you gauge that in an
36:59
interview process? You have to have a conversation
37:01
and you have to look at what they did in the past, not these
37:04
are the skills they have, but how did they learn them and how
37:07
quickly did they learn them and why did they have to learn them
37:10
and, and, and did they enjoy that?
37:14
Can they show me that they, they had a problem, they went out and
37:18
found a solution to that problem wherever it might be and then
37:21
implemented that solution. Those are the most effective
37:24
employees in today's environment in the office world.
37:28
How can they find out the latest and greatest way to fix this
37:32
problem that my company has? Are personality sets part of
37:36
your process for? Yes, much so.
37:39
And they they can also give some.
37:41
We use them because they give some validation to what we may
37:46
or may not find in the interview.
37:48
Someone says they're a great problem solver, but the
37:51
personality assessment leads us to believe they may not be.
37:54
And we're going to focus on those questions and then and
37:57
background checking that more than an area that may line up.
38:02
So yeah, we, we, we use them extensively now.
38:05
We've used them as long as as I've been involved in the
38:08
company as a validation tool. I always try to tell clients
38:13
they're not you. You don't make a final decision
38:18
on a candidate based solely on a personality or behavioral
38:21
assessment. It's just a tool that you use to
38:23
validate what you may see in the interview, what you may hear
38:26
from the references, and then what your gut tells you.
38:30
Do you have any specific favorites in terms of the
38:33
different personality tests out there?
38:35
You know, they're, I spent a lot of time with these things over
38:39
the the past several years and they're all based on young and
38:42
Freudian technology, not technology, whatever the.
38:48
Schools of thought, yeah. Schools of thought there you go
38:51
so you know, disk is one that I've used forever.
38:56
So many tools are based on the disk model and and how it works
39:00
and then when you get on the personality side, they they're
39:04
all based on pretty much the same science.
39:07
So find one that fits for you, find one that where you have a
39:11
good coach who can teach you about them.
39:14
Because you know, I've been looking at disk profiles for 25
39:18
or so years. So I can look at a profile
39:21
pretty quickly and make some some determinations.
39:24
But someone who just trained in disk and it's their first,
39:28
second or third interpretation, they're probably not going to
39:32
see some of the subtleties of that product or that report that
39:36
someone who's much more experienced is.
39:38
So you really need to be careful how you interpret those tools
39:43
because they can backfire on you pretty quickly.
39:46
You know, Scott, you threw out an alarming stat, and I don't
39:49
know if you were exaggerating this or if you believed this to
39:51
be true. 80% of what you see on a resume is some form of fiction
39:57
or embellishment. Do you believe that that's an
39:59
accurate number? I'd stick to that.
40:02
Yeah, it might be on the high side, but especially these days
40:08
where you can take a job description, put it in ChatGPT,
40:13
take your resume, put it in ChatGPT and make my resume match
40:17
this job. OK, so that's a thing.
40:20
Of course, that's the thing. Of course it's.
40:22
A thing. It wouldn't have occurred to me,
40:24
but it's a little bit clever, you know, here's a question that
40:30
I'm going to guess a lot of other business owners or
40:32
managers out there would like to know the answer to because I've
40:34
got some conflicting information.
40:36
When somebody calls me for a reference on somebody who worked
40:39
for me, you know, previously. Am I allowed to just be blunt
40:44
and honest or is my safest course of action to just confirm
40:50
their employment dates If it if it's not a good reference that I
40:54
would give. Right.
40:56
Yeah. I've asked attorneys this and
41:01
their advice is as long as you tell the truth, you're probably
41:06
safe. And I said, well, why?
41:09
Probably. And it's because they're lawyers
41:11
and nothing's ever, ever black and white.
41:15
But if, if you tell the truth and you and, and you can
41:21
validate that, you still may get sued and it still may cost you
41:24
money, but you're probably more likely to spend less money or
41:28
win. So I'm always honest.
41:31
And one of the questions I and many in the industry and many HR
41:37
people ask is a simple one. Are they eligible for rehire?
41:41
If they are, they probably left on pretty good terms.
41:44
If they aren't, you know, I might ask why they might tell me
41:48
why they may not. But that simple yes or no answer
41:52
is going to tell me a lot about a about a candidate.
41:56
Wow, that's powerful. But as long as you're honest,
41:58
Anthony, you, you should be able to, you know that that's what
42:02
references are about. And you know, we people get
42:05
scared about being sued and people get scared about
42:08
ramifications. But if, you know, if if someone
42:12
was late every day for two weeks and you coached them and you
42:17
tried and, and, you know, you had to terminate them, you can
42:21
probably verify that. So if you say, well, they were
42:24
late 10 days in a row, I coached them.
42:26
I gave them five warnings, I had to terminate them.
42:29
That's the truth. So if they sue you, you're going
42:31
to show them that information. And yeah, you're going to spend
42:35
some attorney fees probably. But you know, they really don't
42:38
have a case. Yeah, fortunately I, I had
42:42
mostly really good folks that worked with me in the past.
42:46
I can, I'm trying to remember the, the, the person and see
42:49
them in my head where I got a call, you know, to be a
42:51
reference for them. And they were just not a
42:53
reliable employee. And I wasn't sure how to, how to
42:56
approach that. And so my response is I just
43:00
kept confirming their employment dates.
43:01
They would ask a question and I can confirm that they and I and
43:06
eventually, you know, after two or three times, they figured out
43:08
the picture. Yeah.
43:10
You know, references are many companies are, are, are have
43:13
outsourced that process so that it's, it's automated or it's
43:17
simply these are the dates, you know, these are the, these are
43:22
their title. You know, that's a key
43:26
opportunity for you to learn about a potential candidate.
43:30
And we've automated it, but we have very specific
43:33
questionnaires that we e-mail out to, to references that
43:38
really get pretty deep and give our, give the person giving the
43:42
reference an opportunity to really provide good information.
43:46
And then then we put together all in one report for our
43:49
clients to look at. So they get a lot of information
43:52
in that reference. And you know, if, if you're just
43:55
calling for dates, you know, why do it?
43:57
I, I, I wouldn't even make that call.
43:58
It's a waste of time. What you want to find out is how
44:01
did they perform in the job? What were the things they did
44:05
really well? What were the where were the
44:07
areas they maybe needed coaching so that, you know, if you hire
44:10
that employee, what you might need to do to to help them be a
44:14
better performer. So, you know, that's an area
44:16
we've always spent time on. We will always continue to spend
44:19
time on. Many companies don't, don't
44:22
because it's hard. It's hard to get someone on the
44:24
phone. It's hard to get someone to give
44:25
a reference, but you know, we've always had a a policy that if we
44:32
can't get a reference on them and they haven't worked for us
44:34
so that we could be a reference for them, we're not going to put
44:37
them to work. Yeah, makes sense.
44:40
You know, a lot of the employers that I talked to, it's still a
44:42
pretty tight labor market. We're recording this in October
44:45
of 2024. And so, you know, we talked
44:48
about different strategies for finding good talent and
44:52
obviously that's where a company like Tristar comes in.
44:55
But then also once you have somebody and they're working
44:57
out, how do you hold on to them? It's probably a little bit
45:02
outside of the the scope of what you do, but obviously you have
45:06
been in so many different companies, you've seen so many
45:09
different employment scenarios, you've talked to so many
45:10
employers and employees. What do you think employers can
45:16
do to hold on to those folks that they like?
45:21
So here's my philosophy on that because I have 10 people that
45:23
work for me internally in my company.
45:28
My job is to give them the opportunity to reach their
45:30
potential number one, when I hire them, be the best they can
45:36
be within Tristar. Then another job I have is to
45:40
grow my business such that as they advance in their career, I
45:44
have a space for them. Now if I don't and they come to
45:50
me and say, hey, I've got an opportunity to take this job,
45:53
I've done half of my job. I, I, I allowed them to excel in
45:57
their job. And then I haven't enabled them
46:00
to advance in my own company. And that's why I want to grow my
46:04
company because I want to hold on to the people that I have.
46:07
So provide opportunities for people, provide training,
46:11
provide coaching, constant feedback.
46:15
You know, there's, there's all kind of schools of thoughts on
46:17
the different generations in the workforce.
46:19
But what I found is no matter how old an employee is, the more
46:23
feedback I give them, waited to the positive, the longer they'll
46:29
stick around, The, the, the, the happier they are in the job.
46:33
And then, you know, getting to know your, your, your team.
46:37
I, I, I noticed that my current team is, is on the younger side.
46:41
And every day they come in with these coffee cups from Starbucks
46:44
or wherever it was. We just did a, a kitchen
46:47
renovation at, at my house. So we had this whiz bang coffee
46:50
maker because I'm a coffee snob. And I, I figured, you know, why
46:53
don't I buy one of these whiz bang coffee makers for the
46:55
office. You know it.
46:57
So now they can make lattes, cappuccinos, you know, the whole
47:00
mine yards. And they were thrilled.
47:02
And now they don't have to spend $5 on a cup of coffee on the way
47:05
into the office. You just gave them a little pay
47:08
raise. I I kind of did and you know it,
47:11
it wasn't cheap. You know, it's not like a Mr.
47:12
Coffee coffee maker. It's not inexpensive.
47:14
But the ROI on that is fantastic because now they, they can at 10
47:21
in the morning, they don't have to run out to Starbucks to get a
47:23
coffee or they don't have to drink a Curry cup of coffee
47:26
because they're coffee stuff. So it's just understanding your
47:28
team, what makes them tick, talking to them like your
47:32
equals, but at the same time holding them accountable to do
47:36
their job. You know, it's a balance that
47:38
you know, a good manager has to learn over time.
47:40
And, and you know, I've made mistakes with that.
47:42
I'm sure most managers have. And over time, you learn.
47:46
Yeah. You know, Scott is business
47:48
owners, obviously one of our big jobs is to keep our eye on the
47:51
profit and loss statement, right?
47:53
Like we got to make sure that that those numbers look healthy.
47:56
And as I think about this in sort of two big levers we've
48:00
got, you know, increasing sales and, you know, decreasing
48:04
expenses. We've already talked about the
48:06
tech stack that you put in place, which is huge on both of
48:10
those. I wonder outside of that, this
48:13
new tech that you guys have put in place, think about each of
48:17
those levers. Is there a creative solution
48:19
that you've tried in the past that's worked well for you to to
48:22
move one or both of those? You know, I, I've learned in
48:26
this, in our industry, revenue is very, very much dependent on
48:34
the current economy. This is probably the only time
48:38
in my career where I've seen low unemployment numbers, but our
48:42
industry's kind of in a valley of, of revenue right now.
48:47
And, and, and my opinion on that is in the 2003 time frame, you
48:53
know, 2022-2023, it was really hard to hire people.
48:57
It was really hard and our industry was just booming.
49:03
And as the economy has slowed down and there's lots of
49:07
indicators to show that, what I don't think is happening is
49:11
employers are letting people go like they would have been a
49:13
previous slow down because they know how hard it's going to be
49:17
to find them again. And that's why I think the
49:20
unemployment numbers are still pretty low.
49:23
I, I think it's somewhat artificial because not
49:27
artificial because they're wrong, but companies are holding
49:30
on to people where they may not have in the past.
49:34
And that's made the hiring landscape a little more
49:39
difficult, certainly easier than it was a year or two ago, but
49:45
probably more difficult based on the economic conditions that
49:50
we're seeing. That's interesting.
49:54
So you're, you're saying the first time in your career in
49:58
this industry that you've seen there be low unemployment
50:03
numbers, which is what we have. But the staffing industry in
50:06
general is sort of in a valley. It's, it's in a little bit of a
50:09
funk right now. And the reason you believe is
50:13
companies are not hiring as much, right, Because a lot, a
50:16
lot of things have slowed down in the economy.
50:17
But even with that, companies are not letting go of employees
50:23
in the same way that they would have in the past.
50:24
So there's also not sort of this influx of extra workers
50:28
available. To be placed that's, that's
50:30
strictly my opinion and it's part of the puzzle.
50:34
I think I, I, I do think that companies are implementing
50:36
technology and and automation so that they may not need as many
50:40
people as they have in the past. But I think when you combine
50:43
those two things with baby boomers not retiring at the
50:47
rates we expected, you know, all these other things that are,
50:51
that are all coming together at the same point in time.
50:54
I think that's, those are some of the things.
50:56
And, and I always bring up that companies are holding on to
50:59
people. I think that's the the, the
51:03
difference. You know, the one thing that I
51:05
can say is the the oddity right now of of what we would see
51:09
typically. Are there any specific mentors
51:14
or books, maybe podcasts or experiences that have helped
51:19
shape you or your professional career?
51:21
Scott. I don't know that there's any
51:23
specific book I'm always reading.
51:25
If I threw my camera around, you'd see books everywhere, you
51:29
know, mentor wise. I, I try to, I, I, I love to
51:36
play golf and I spend a lot of time doing that and I try to put
51:40
myself, myself in a position where I can be golfing with
51:46
people who I can create a relationship with that can help
51:53
me grow personally and professionally.
51:56
I have a guy I met several years ago.
51:57
He's become a really good friend into all kinds of different
52:01
businesses as an investor. And you know, as as I've ticked
52:05
his brain over time, he's been a great source of help for me.
52:08
Just, you know, I'm in this little company, He's got 30
52:10
companies and what's he, what does he do for in this situation
52:13
or that situation? But I know he's giving me the
52:17
advice because he wants to help me.
52:19
And it's not because he wants something from me.
52:23
And I try to surround myself with people like that.
52:27
Yeah, that's really important to be able to have folks that you
52:30
can learn from, people who've been there before.
52:34
What about any like sort of mastermind groups or, you know,
52:37
sort of like small circles of like minded people is that?
52:40
Yeah, I'm in a group, A presidents group that meets a
52:46
few times a year in person and then every month or two
52:50
virtually. Right now, you know, it's about
52:52
12 of us that really can kind of lay it out, layout our issues,
53:00
our problems, our failures, our successes.
53:02
So that's the small group I'm in.
53:04
I'm in a bigger industry peer group which is independent
53:08
staffing service owners. There's about 40 businesses
53:10
represented in the group. That one we certainly get
53:15
together as owners separately from we most of the time we'll
53:19
bring our our key folks to provide them some learning
53:23
opportunities and provide them some networking opportunities.
53:26
But in any group like that, I've always, I always try to find
53:30
that that subgroup that thinks like I do, that has different
53:36
experiences than I do, that I can lean on either at that time
53:40
when we're together or when we're not.
53:42
Lots of emails, lots of phone calls go back and forth when
53:45
we're when you can trust someone like that, it's really
53:48
important. Yeah, I do think that's really
53:50
important just from my own personal experience, you know,
53:53
having sort of that safe place where you can open up about what
53:57
you're struggling with. Yeah, you know, and to be able
54:01
to get helpful feedback from people who have been there,
54:06
they've they've been through it, they've got some ideas and
54:09
solutions how to come through the other side.
54:10
Yeah, it's key. And you know, sometimes it's
54:14
good advice, sometimes it isn't. You have to be smart enough to
54:18
figure out what's the what's the good advice and what's not good
54:20
advice. You know, in while we're on the
54:23
topic, I'd be curious to hear about maybe a particular
54:25
challenge that you've gone through Scott, either personally
54:28
or professionally, maybe what you learned coming through the
54:31
other side. Oh, so I would.
54:36
Say one of the biggest challenges I went through or we
54:40
went through my partner Joan and I is in the 2008 recession.
54:45
You know, we're still a somewhat young company.
54:50
We, we, we're in OK financial position, but not great.
54:58
You know, we were, we were trying to grow the business.
55:01
We didn't have a ton of cash in the bank.
55:03
We were young in our careers both personally and
55:06
professionally. So that, that recession hit and,
55:10
and it was, you know, nail chewing time and us not taking
55:14
paycheck time. And, you know, we came out of
55:18
that and we came out of it stronger.
55:20
And I remember her and I sitting down and, and saying, you know,
55:24
we're never going to go through this again.
55:26
We're we're going to build a strong balance sheet so that we
55:31
can weather storms because economies are always cyclical.
55:36
We can, we can get through them. We can get through whatever
55:41
might be thrown at us and not have to worry about money.
55:47
So we spent the next several years, more than several,
55:51
improving our balance sheet, you know, getting rid of our debt,
55:54
making our cash position strong so that when the COVID crisis
55:58
hit, we weren't worried about money.
56:01
I sat my staff down and I said, you know, when they first sent
56:04
us home, they sent us home for what they said was going to be a
56:06
couple weeks. And it was certainly longer than
56:09
that. But I sat my whole company down
56:11
and said, listen, we could take 0 sales for this many months
56:18
before I have to worry, not before I'm out of business,
56:22
before I have to worry. And that allowed me to convey to
56:26
them that they didn't have to worry.
56:32
Your job's safe. You're going to work.
56:34
You're going to get a paycheck. You're going to come to work
56:36
every day. Your benefits are safe.
56:38
We don't lay anybody off. We certainly could have and, and
56:44
it would have made it made sense for a little while, but we
56:47
bounced back more quickly than I think some industries did.
56:50
But knowing, you know, having went through that period of not
56:55
not collecting a check to pay team, you don't have to worry
57:00
because you know, now I'm a different financial position
57:02
than most of my employees. If they're not getting a
57:04
paycheck, that's if not the first or second week, the 3rd or
57:07
4th week, it's going to be a big deal.
57:09
And knowing that I could offer them that safety net and
57:12
security. And we worked on lots of
57:15
different things. We worked on vision statements
57:17
and we found, we found things to do.
57:21
But that's probably the biggest lesson I've learned is have your
57:23
balance sheet strong because things aren't always going to be
57:26
rosy. Yeah, it's going to.
57:29
The rain clouds are going to come in eventually.
57:31
Yeah. What was that like for you in
57:34
2008 when maybe there were some questions about are you going to
57:40
make it? I mean, you and your partner had
57:42
to stop taking paychecks at different times.
57:44
Like what kind of stress were you going through and what
57:48
helped you cope with that? I wouldn't say that we ever
57:54
thought we weren't going to make it OK, But you know, when that,
57:58
when the line of credit starts ticking up to its Max and you
58:04
know, you're, your, your revenue's down so you're not
58:06
collecting as much money, It, it, it was stressful because at
58:09
the same time, I don't want to go home and convey that stress
58:12
to my stress to my wife or kids. So, you know, at that time, it
58:19
really was that peer group, the big peer group, the, the 40
58:22
independent members, because we were all going through it and,
58:26
and, and knowing they were to, it wasn't just me, they were
58:31
doing the same things we were doing.
58:33
Having some of the members that have been through more than I
58:36
had older folks saying, hey, every time this happens, we come
58:40
out stronger. OK, So there is a light at the
58:43
end of the tunnel. This isn't going to be forever.
58:46
And then starting to see some signs from different members of
58:50
the group that things were starting to turn around helped
58:53
me alleviate my stress. But it was tough.
58:57
You know, I probably, probably I didn't eat as healthily as I
59:04
should have during that time. Probably drank a little bit more
59:07
than I should too. You know, and we laugh about it,
59:10
but I think those are good things for people to hear,
59:12
right? You know, people look at Scott
59:14
and they're like, wow, he's really successful.
59:16
He's got this great, strong business now and he's putting
59:18
the tech in place. He's going to be growing in new
59:21
regions. Like, you know, this is just a
59:23
sharp guy. He's smart and like, everything
59:25
comes easy to him. And it's like, no, like I went
59:27
through some really hard stuff and I drank a little bit and
59:30
maybe when I shouldn't have, I wasn't eating the best food
59:32
because, you know, I was searching for comfort in other
59:35
places. So yeah, thanks for sharing
59:37
that. I think that's.
59:38
Important for for people to hear.
59:39
You know, we're, we're all human beings.
59:41
We, we all bleed the same color of blood.
59:43
So keep that in mind, folks. Scott, I've got one more
59:47
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
59:49
do 2 things for those listening today.
59:52
If you like today's content, please hit the like share or
59:54
subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
59:57
I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch
59:59
with you, Scott, What would that be?
1:00:02
LinkedIn is is easy and or just go to our website
1:00:06
tristarjobs.com 2RS and star. All right.
1:00:10
So last question for you, and I kind of have a feeling I know
1:00:13
where you're going to go with this.
1:00:15
How do you see the staffing industry evolving in the next
1:00:18
few years? What do you think the big
1:00:19
changes are that are coming? I think that over my career the
1:00:25
the staffing industry has gone from filling quick open
1:00:29
positions, my secretary is sick, I need someone today to much to
1:00:33
being a much more strategic partner of our clients.
1:00:38
I think as I look out 510 and 15 years, I think the way our
1:00:43
industry is going to change is in response to how people work.
1:00:48
I think more people will work not just for one company, but
1:00:56
they'll have skill sets that they can work with several
1:01:00
companies at a time. And the way they'll be able to
1:01:02
do that and access benefits is, is through a company like mine
1:01:08
who will have the talent that companies need.
1:01:14
And I, and I think you'll see fewer and fewer companies, I
1:01:18
believe hiring full time people all the time.
1:01:21
They're going to, they're going to come to a company like me and
1:01:23
say I need someone that can do this project.
1:01:26
And it's going to take this amount of time.
1:01:28
And it might be a week, might be a year, it might be two years or
1:01:33
it might be 20 hours a week that they need something for.
1:01:36
We're starting to see that a little bit in the bookkeeping
1:01:38
side of the business. Small companies don't need a
1:01:41
full time bookkeeper. Can't justify it.
1:01:43
Well, if I can package two or three bookkeepers, 1 bookkeeper
1:01:48
to to handle two or three companies, they get their full
1:01:52
time work, they get their benefits through me.
1:01:54
The customer gets the 20 hours, 15 hours a week that they need
1:01:57
for that skill set. I think that's how our industry
1:02:00
is going to evolve. Interesting.
1:02:04
So when you first started talking about that, I thought
1:02:05
you were sort of describing like a like a fractional CFO kind of
1:02:09
a thing. That's that too.
1:02:11
You're seeing that too. And I think our industry will be
1:02:15
how those people can effectively and is easily get paid.
1:02:23
And so the, the benefit of this for both the employer and the
1:02:29
employee is the employer doesn't have to carry the expense of
1:02:34
this person on their payroll full time, but the employee, I
1:02:38
mean they want a full time job with benefits, right.
1:02:41
And so when they're on the Tristar team, they don't have to
1:02:45
worry about that when you know you are going to help to fill
1:02:48
in, you know, if this job's only 20 hours to fill in another, the
1:02:51
other 20 hours somewhere else and or you know, if this is the
1:02:55
three month assignment, they know that you're going to find
1:02:57
something else for them after that three months is up.
1:02:59
So they've got job security. Right, Yeah, that's the way
1:03:03
we're started. We're just in the beginning of
1:03:05
that companies, our clients are just, you know, they'll have to
1:03:10
get comfortable with that and we'll have to make some changes
1:03:15
as as an industry to get comfortable with that too.
1:03:17
And it may, not saying it will, but it may involve it may change
1:03:22
who pays us. Right now, our clients pay us.
1:03:26
I I could see a time when a fractional CEO is the person
1:03:33
paying us, much like a professional athlete pays an
1:03:36
agent. Oh, that's interesting.
1:03:39
We'll have to check in with you in a few years to see how this
1:03:41
is shaping up. See if you're Crystal.
1:03:44
That's that's further out there. That's that's my real wacky
1:03:47
thinking Long. Term.
1:03:48
That's what. That's what the second bourbon
1:03:50
usually starts. I like it.
1:03:53
Well, Scott, I want to be the first one to thank you for
1:03:55
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:03:58
I really appreciate it. It was my pleasure.
1:03:59
I enjoyed. It was a great conversation.
1:04:01
Anthony. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:04:03
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:04:05
Thanks for learning with us today.