Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Recruit Your Dream Team with Anisha Robinson Keeys

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How to Recruit Your Dream Team with Anisha Robinson Keeys · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Hi there, and welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, small biz lady, your host, and I'm America's number one small business
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  expert.
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  And I am so excited to introduce my guest, Anisha Robinson Keyes.
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  And she is an expert.
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  I don't know why I keep doing this.
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  Let's try this again.
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  I'm gonna start your introduction again.
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  Certainly.
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  Now it's time for me to introduce my guest, Anisha Robinson Keyes.
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  She's a fractional talent acquisition director with over a decade of experience helping
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  businesses build high performing teams.
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  She specializes in sourcing top talent, streamlining hiring processes and creating
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  recruitment strategies that drive growth.
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  Anisha is also a sought after speaker.
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  She addresses audiences on crucial topics, including diversity, corporate sponsorship,
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  personal branding, social media strategy, and fundraising excellence.
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  Passionate about empowering small businesses, Anisha helps leaders attract, hire, and retain
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  the right people to scale their company successfully.
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  Anisha, welcome to the Small Bitch
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  Tech you so much.
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  Thank you, Melinda.
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  Wow, you have such an amazing background.
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  I feel like HR is like one bad trick bag you have, but then there's some other trick bags
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  that you have that you can talk about.
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  But today I just want to talk about the whole talent thing, because I feel like there is a
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  war for talent out here and it's so hard to find talent, but it feels like it's harder to
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  keep talent.
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  Can you talk about, being a fractional talent acquisition expert, what that means and how
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  that can really benefit some small and mid sized businesses out here?
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  Absolutely.
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  So being a fractional talent acquisition director is simply taking the fractional away,
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  especially if you're a small business, and really looking to a small business partner that
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  can help you across your myriad of talent acquisition needs where you don't have to pay
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  like that overhead.
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  So those fringe benefits that can be like 30 to 50% of a director level's, salary, you know,
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  being, able to get someone scrubbed in particularly to your industry or particular
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  search you have, you sort of narrow your pathway to finding the folks that you need.
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  A lot of times, talent, fractional talent acquisition, directors and recruiters can also
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  help you with some of those things that your small business may not wanna make the
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  investment in.
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  So for example, the software, the programs that allow you to directly hit and contact the folks
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  that are on LinkedIn or the folks that are on Indeed or some of those other search engines
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  that you might find your ideal candidate.
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  So your talent acquisition director, if you have someone who's like more of a part time but
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  not a full time staff, can help you to lower that landing, you know, strip to getting there.
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  Now, how should a small business or any business, frankly, go about developing their
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  structured hiring process?
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  Yeah, if you don't want to make, so there's lots of software out there that can help you
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  develop and structure a hiring process.
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  If your small business is not at that stage where you need to make that investment in that
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  software, I think just being strategic, just sitting down with the powers that be at your
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  respective team.
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  So whether that is like an internal structure, whether that is business unit leaders sitting
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  down with them and just getting to the crux of what your organization is looking for first and
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  foremost.
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  So it's a combination of making that job description as specific and crafted as possible
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  to meet the hiring needs that you have, and then going to where those potential candidates
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  are, quite frankly.
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  If they're with a particular affinity group or agency going there, if they are blogging on
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  LinkedIn or on other platforms or in like Reddit threads talking about of the same issues
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  that are in alignment with your company, going and meeting those folks there.
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  Then good old fashioned like networking face to face is something that, you know, still works
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  too.
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  Well, let's talk about this.
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  I know that you believe that it's important to make it easy to apply for a job.
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  Why do you say that?
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  So you have a lot of folks that are on the job market despite what some of the outlooks say.
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  There's still a lot of people that are on a job market and looking for the right fit, right?
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  And you have a lot of people whose full time job these days, at least I have some colleagues
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  whose full time job is looking for either a job, because there's been a lot of changes in
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  their career landscape or like looking for the right opportunity or looking for the right
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  landing for their career.
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  So I say make it easy to apply where you wanna make it as simplistic as good folks submitting
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  a resume and or cover letter, even though cover letters are a little bit antiquated, but make
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  it as simplistic as someone submitting a resume in response to your position.
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  There's a lot of, you know, organizations that have these, pretty elaborate application
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  processes.
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  And a lot of times you have people who may have a job or may have other responsibilities or
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  other ways of making money right now that are like literally on their lunch break clicking
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  that quick apply.
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  Make sure that those things like quick apply are like available and accessible.
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  You know, you get the opportunity to get somebody's resume and usually your good and
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  qualified people out there usually have a good and pretty qualified CV or resume to boot.
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  So make it accessible and easy for them to apply.
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  Create opportunities, whether, you know, you have a small or, you know, a robust website,
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  create opportunities for people to drop application or drop their resume into whatever
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  conduits that you have to apply, whether it's an email address that's to your HR team, or if
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  you're a sole proprietor, if it's an email address that's directly to you, make it easy,
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  make it clear how people can apply for current opportunities and even opportunities that you
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  might be building in the future.
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  Now is LinkedIn and social media the right way to be looking for people?
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  Like the last couple of hires I've made, I really have found them on LinkedIn, but you
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  know, is indeed is monster still a thing?
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  Like what like, you know, where do I go to look for people?
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  So I think that's a great question.
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  So I think it's really like the level of, you know, candidate or role that you have.
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  You know, if you have roles that are more administrative or service oriented in nature,
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  good old fashioned Indeed is always still an excellent resource and I think one of, you
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  know, the premier, you know, job boards out there.
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  LinkedIn is great if you have higher level or specialized positions.
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  I have a lot of luck and clients and organizations that I've worked with have a lot
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  of luck getting on to Indeed and utilizing some of their tools or some of your in mail.
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  So just introduce yourself and your organization and your role to people and just
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  kind of explore where they are in their career journey and ask them, are they interested?
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  Or do they have people in their network that might be interested in an opportunity that you
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  might have available?
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  So I think, you know, if you're looking for like a specialized candidate with those
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  specialized skill sets, LinkedIn is still the way to go indeed as well, depending on the
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  level of your position.
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  Well, you know, it's interesting, I've been an entrepreneur for twenty five years, but I am
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  often reached out to by recruiters looking for, do you know somebody in your network?
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  We know it's not you, but do you know somebody?
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  And I have actually referred quite a few people, frankly, for opportunities that way.
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  Every now and again, gets crazy trying to offer me a job.
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  I'd be like, I am not enjoyable.
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  Get off my LinkedIn.
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  Know, but they were- I'm
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  trying to get you on some of my lists too, I'm sure.
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  I'm like, no, you guys would run me out of it.
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  Now listen, I do wanna shift gears for you a little bit because I wanna know, a lot of big
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  companies use assessments to really, psychological assessment, but just like actual
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  skill assessment.
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  What is your take on that?
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  Do people use assessments to discriminate against people or should assessments actually
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  be part of your process?
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  So I recommend assessments with every part of a hiring process.
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  So one of the biggest things beyond your actual fit for a role is culture fit with any
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  organization, right?
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  And with culture fit, you're really looking for like what type of work styles best fit into
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  your culture.
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  If you have a fast paced culture, if you have, you know, a culture of like entrepreneur,
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  newership, or innovation, then maybe there are certain work styles that need more onboarding
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  assistance to get acclimated to your culture.
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  Maybe there are certain work styles that are more acclimated to a process or a organization
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  being a slower pace or people who are more interested in a faster pace would certainly not
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  like to go into a slower pace organization.
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  And so I definitely recommend that organizations look to some of those big box
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  work style assessments to really see what type of fit particular candidates are.
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  Like you have work style assessments that will tell you the kind of pace that people like to
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  work at, the kind of management that they need, the kind of managers that they best flourish
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  under and really manage those folks by the skill sets.
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  And then like once you, it's, I think that some of those more robust tools are really set it
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  and forget it in some regard, right?
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  Because you can look at how that person's skill set not only measures up to the job and the
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  deliverables, but you could look future facing and how you coach that person to be great at
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  their job, where they have some opportunities for growth, but then also coach them how to be
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  better managers or to be better managed by their manager based on those respective skill
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  sets.
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  It lets you know, there are tools that I use in some of my hiring right now that lets me know
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  like down to, hey, this manager and this manager might experience difficulty because
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  this person's style is fire, aim, right?
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  And then you have this other person's style where you need to kind of hold their hand and
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  you need to walk them through onboarding process, onboarding process week by week by
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  week, where you can just put some people out there that are very like fire aim and they're
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  out there getting things done and just like blazing a trail.
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  And so it really gives you an opportunity to like understand like how your people can grow
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  and develop and where they will fit.
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  And then I certainly recommend, I like hiring processes that are seamless.
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  You need to know like you're looking for because you kind of know it when you see it,
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  like with any relationship.
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  But I like processes that are seamless, but I also like for people to come and be ready for
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  the role that they're opting into and be prepared to perform.
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  And so I definitely encourage entrepreneurs, business owners, and even folks that are
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  working on their own respective talent acquisition campaigns to think of what kind of
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  exercise is a real life, something experiential, something that is a simulated
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  exercise that gives you a clue about how somebody would perform in a job.
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  Right?
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  So whether that is, I'm not a huge fan of role play all the time, but whether that's giving
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  somebody a scenario and saying like, hey, how would you solve for x y z problem?
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  And or, you know, giving someone a conversation with a real life customer that's having a real
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  life problem to see how, you know, they will perform on the job.
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  I think that it's a perfect indicator of future performances.
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  You know, I think that you should certainly, if you're going to have an interview exercise,
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  prepare your candidates for what that interview exercise is about.
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  I strongly caution organizations not to utilize an interview exercise to kind of get free
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  consulting out of someone that you're interviewing and ask them to solve for a big
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  problem, because a lot of your good candidates can kind of see right through that.
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  But really think about what exercises and experiences that you need as a hiring manager
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  that qualifies an applicant or candidate in your organization and for your respective
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  needs.
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  Well, I also want to ask you about job descriptions.
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  Is AI the way to go for job descriptions now?
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  Oh goodness.
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  So there's a lot of AI job descriptions out there and you find that a lot of job
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  descriptions are saying the exact same thing, I think, you know, keeping it, you know, plain
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  and simple, AI can, you know, certainly help you develop some frameworks, especially if you
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  don't have a point of reference in your organization.
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  So let's say you are, you know, hiring a technical support rep, you know, just kind of
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  from scratch for the first time in your organization's AI will help you aggregate and
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  kind of categorize what that person does.
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  But, you know, do the human parts that you still need to do, right?
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  Run that job description by the people that are going to work with, for, and around that
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  individual to make sure that it is sound and it has truly plain language.
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  Hey, this is what you're gonna do in the job.
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  And kind of, you know, make sure that those bullets are truly in alignment with what your
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  organization's needs are.
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  Even though you may not know what you need and even though it may be the first time that
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  you're hiring XYZ position, really make sure that in practicality, those things that you may
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  have used for AI as a framer or a primer to give you some guidance really truly are aligned
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  and really truly resonate with what needs to be done when you got butts in the seat and boots
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  on the ground.
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  I'm sorry if you couldn't say butts.
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  It's fine.
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  It's fine.
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  I wouldn't say we're rated R podcast, but people have said stuff way worse than that
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  before.
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  So listen, so I wanna just follow-up on two more things and that is, how important is
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  onboarding to future success of an employee?
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  My goodness.
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  I think that onboarding is super important.
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  I think onboarding is an invaluable experience and I have seen over like my now fifteen year
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  career in HR, how like onboarding being off can make certain that that person is not on board
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  for a long time, right?
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  So I think that you know onboarding needs to be strategic, there has to be like benchmarks
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  outcomes And with some companies that I'm working with right now, the onboarding process
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  is something that is looked at really, really strategically and carefully because retention
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  is the ultimate goal, right?
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  And so what do those, like what are your benchmarks that you need to meet over your
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  first thirty days versus your first ninety days to even get off of an evaluation or a
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  probationary cycle versus your first six months and your first twelve months?
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  I think that as a business leader, you really have to be prepared to let people know what
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  some of those benchmarks and achievable bite size things are within those first thirty days.
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  If you're an aggressive culture, really put it on them and let them know like what's expected
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  over those first ninety, know, first one hundred and eighty and then those three sixty
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  days out.
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  It's critically important.
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  It also helps you at evaluation time, whether someone is doing positively or there are areas
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  for improvement.
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  Your evaluation time should never be a surprise for you or the individual that's getting
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  evaluated if there are things that need to be coached towards.
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  Those onboarding metrics and those benchmarks that you set at the very, very beginning, being
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  very clear, reiterating the job description and going down to like, you know, having your new
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  staff person say, Hey, this is the job description.
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  Here are those other duties as assigned that I can be very clear about upfront, but there
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  might be some other stuff that comes up in organizations that you stay nimble.
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  But also, here's what you're accountable for.
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  Here's what I'm evaluating you for and on, excuse me.
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  And then here are those like timeline benchmarks in which you need to meet those.
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  I think it really creates some more like transparent and comfortable culture for the
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  individual.
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  That's coming to work for you too.
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  If you know what you're supposed to achieve before you even get really into it.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  All right.
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  What's the best business advice you've ever gotten?
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  My goodness.
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  A lot of folks are saying it's advice that Melinda gave me, right?
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  I think that it's, put yourself out there in networks, and and put yourself at the tables.
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  Put yourself at every table that you're invited to that you didn't think that you'd be invited
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  to, but also put yourself out there and put yourself, put your thoughts and your ideas out
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  there on the table and just be out there in networks that you didn't think was possible.
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  It's amazing, you know, when you have, you know, some thoughts and you feel like maybe
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  you're more junior or maybe you don't know as much, you know, start to do things like put
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  your content, put your blog posts out, answer questions on LinkedIn, create yourself as a
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  thought leader if no one else is like handing that baton to you.
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  Demonstrate what your skill sets are, study the market, become an expert in your space, put in,
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  what is it, your ten thousand hours.
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  But even if you don't have that, there are so many like groups out there that you can be a
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  part of that you can start to set yourself aside by just answering questions and being
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  supportive of like people, places, and things and issues that are in your functional area.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Thank you so much, Anisha.
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  That is such sage advice.
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  Pull your own chair up to the table.
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  Absolutely.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  If you want to learn more about how to run a successful business, please head over to Small
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  Business Lady University, where we have lots of tools and tips and courses to help you move
• 20:16
  your business much faster.
• 20:19
  And if you're a woman or a Chica, I want to invite you to check out Small Business Lady
• 20:24
  Academy.
• 20:25
  It is our private exclusive membership site for women entrepreneurs.
• 20:30
  We designed it with you in mind.
• 20:32
  We have two pathways, How to Start and Ready to Grow.
• 20:36
  So if that describes any of you, come holler at the Small Biz Lady.
• 20:40
  Y'all know I have been doing this for a long time and I put all of my best information and
• 20:46
  ebooks and trainings in this site.
• 20:48
  Plus I coach people live once a month.
• 20:51
  So I wanna make sure that you know that Small Biz Lady Academy is built for you.
• 20:57
  If you're ready to make more money, you need to be in my community, honey, because that's all,
• 21:01
  if it don't make money, it don't make no sense.
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  All right.
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  Thank you so much for being here for another episode of the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
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  And I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
• 21:34
  more fantastic information and interviews.
• 21:37
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 21:42
  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
• 21:45
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.