Hiring Your First Employee with Adam Klug Ep75

Are you ready to transition from a solopreneur to a business leader with your very own team? That's exactly what we're tackling with the help of recruiting expert Adam Klug.

Together, we're unveiling the blueprint for solopreneurs to make their first hire, discussing the importance of finding a candidate who not only fits the job description but also aligns with your company culture. From the intricacies of creating a detailed scorecard for evaluating potential candidates to implementing a performance-based interview process, this episode is your guide to expanding your business with the right people by your side.

Hiring your first employee is a milestone, and we've got the insights to make it a success. I, Brenda Meller, share my own journey with Meller Marketing, discussing how a well-crafted careers page adds legitimacy and attracts quality candidates. We'll navigate the legalities and the must-dos of onboarding to ensure you're setting up your new team member for success. Our conversation is peppered with actionable advice and personal anecdotes, making the intimidating process of hiring feel like an achievable, exciting step in your business journey.

Wrapping up, Adam Klug from Express Employment Professionals shares his wealth of knowledge on specialized recruiting, particularly in light industrial, skilled trades, office services, and more. He underscores the value of a clear hiring process and how proper onboarding is crucial for employee retention. For those self-employed listeners eager for hiring assistance, Adam's tips, including using tools like chat GPT for crafting job descriptions, are invaluable. Tune in to be empowered with the expertise to confidently hire and foster your very first employee.

Originally Aired on Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Watch this on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/live/CenlCPMrv9w?si=ixzm7wYrhuBry1fl?sub_confirmation=1

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-klug/

Learn more about his company:
https://www.expresspros.com/FarmingtonHillsMIsrg/

Learn about HRUnite! Michigan
https://hrunitemichigan.com/home 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:01

Hey, good morning and good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where in the world you're watching this from. My name is Brenda Meller and my show is called enthusiastically self-employed, because I bring on folks from different areas, different industries, different backgrounds to help to educate you on different techniques as a solopreneur. And I'm delighted because today I have with me Adam Klug. Hey Adam, how are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 1:24

I'm doing well, happy Halloween.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Happy Halloween. It is Halloween here in the US and some folks will be watching this today with us live and some will be watching in the playback later. And I even thought about this topic hiring your first employees. What we're going to be talking about today, that could be a little scary, so maybe there's the Halloween tie in, but we're actually scared and that's why I brought Adam on to talk with us. Hey, as we are getting the conversation started, adam, I'm going to invite our guests.

Speaker 1: 1:50

If there's anyone who's watching us live right now, if you could do us a favor, do us a solid, if you will, and drop a comment below. Just say good morning, let us know where you're watching from, or maybe tag someone in who might be interested in this topic, and just like Doug did right now hey, doug, how are you doing? I will pull your comments up on screen and this is like the mic tap, adam, if we were at a live event, I would be tapping the mic and saying can you people hear me in the back? And the people in the back would wave their hand or they'd do the universal. I can't hear you. So let's just know that the live stream is picking up, so we look like we are good to go, and thank you to Doug for helping us with that.

Speaker 1: 2:27

So, as we're getting that conversation started, I want to let folks know how we met. We were both at in Frankenmuth this summer in July at the HR Unite Michigan annual conference organized by the wonderful Tina Marie Wolfield. I'll give her a shout out in comments in just a second. And we actually had. We both had vendor tables at the event and we were right across from each other. We were talking on and off throughout the day, talking shop, talking dogs, all the good stuff on there. So I know a little bit about you and your business, adam. But for the benefit of those that are watching who maybe haven't met you before, why don't you take a few minutes? Tell us what do you do, who do you help, and a bit about your company, if you could?

Speaker 2: 3:06

Yeah, so I'm Adam. I'm with the specialized recruiting group, the managing director over here and what I'm passionate about the reason I am in recruiting because I'm passionate about how employment affects the individual, the business and the community and how we're able to do that is that we work with professionals. We work with companies and help connecting people. The great opportunities out there. A lot of what we do is inside the construction space and also helping out a lot in accounting and finance All throughout, I would say, michigan, but all throughout the US. We can work as well too, and I've been in it, recruiting wise, for the past eight years. I've always loved it and the opportunity to help out people, the opportunity to help out my team and see as we grow and just place more people into better positions out there. That's why I come to work every day.

Speaker 1: 3:59

It's wonderful. It sounds like you've got a lot of knowledge about the whole hiring process, which is a great tie-in to the topic today. And when. I remember, when we were talking in Frank Mooth at the table, I said I'd love to host you, but I want to figure out what might be the right topic, because a lot of organizations you're working with are more the smaller to mid-sized and even larger organizations that are hiring a lot.

Speaker 1: 4:18

And I said what about solopreneurs and even people who are self-employed that are starting to grow into a small business? Is that something you could help us with? And I think you said, yeah, how about hiring your first employee? And I'm like brilliant, because there's a lot of us who are self-employed. We get to that point where we need to think about hiring somebody, and maybe that is a VA or an operations manager or an intern or whatnot. So we're going to jump into the conversation, adam, and I'm just going to lead with the big question, which is how do you get into the business Hiring your first employee? Okay, what do we need to think about to start with?

Speaker 2: 4:54

Yeah, I think what I look at in the recruiting, hiring process and actually going through this myself because I was a solo entrepreneur starting out a new division established company, but me on my own and hiring my first employee and going through it myself was definitely a different experience, a hands-on experience for me. But I always break down recruiting into fine, select and retain, so going off with the finding part. How do you ever expect to find that person if you don't know what you're looking for? And so this is where I work with a lot of organizations. The kind of what I looked at myself is saying, okay, who do I really need to have on the team? Who is that person?

Speaker 2: 5:34

What is their tools, experience and personality. And what I really looked at is building out a scorecard to begin with to help me vet out candidates. The tools everyone has a tool that they can use. They have so much experience, or they have experience inside of software system or experience inside of certain niche, but then more of their experiences, okay, how do they use that experience? To use that tool at the best of their ability?

Speaker 2: 6:00

And that could be good for you or it could be good for another great organization out there outside of yourself. And then, really, personality is and it's built up so much over the years about culture, fit value add and culture adds Coming into the organization. But personality of the, not only the person, the individual, but if you're hiring your first employee, what is essentially that culture that you want to bring and surround yourself with? And hopefully, at the end of the day, I always like to call either, I guess, the non-PC terms the late night beer test or Thanksgiving dinner test, to figure out hey, can you work with this person every day, all day? They're going to be your number two person. Can you sit around and talk with them for hours and strategize for them for hours too?

Speaker 2: 6:45

Personality is definitely a huge part when getting started, I think, and adding, just setting the tone of, okay, what your organization is going to be like and where you want to move the organization. And that's one thing. If I call in on it, when I started out, I had zero clients, zero candidates to start with, and for me it was saying, hey, I'm not going to bring someone into this huge, established business and we're going to have all this great success right away. And it was more just saying, hey, we're going to build the plane as we're flying it, and I want people on my team that, hey, we're going to come, we're going to grow this thing together. I'm not higher than you are, lower than you are. We're sitting on each other's shoulders right now and we're figuring out, okay, what is the best way to grow this, what is the best way to do this and how can we go about doing this together too. So I look at when first, like I said before, you can't find that person if you don't know you're looking for. So really locking in essential scorecard or maybe a self assessment of that exact perfect fit and that perfect profile that you're looking for.

Speaker 2: 7:52

And then, on top of that, too, is building out either a job posting or a job description. There's a lot of places where you can post a job for free. If you have a LinkedIn business account, you can post that one job for free, or indeed you can go out there, and so it's very much how to do the pre-work. If you're really serious about hiring someone and bringing someone on your team, really getting the upfront work together and then moving forward into how do you go after that talent. How do you focus on that talent and I would say for sole entrepreneurs, the easiest way to try to go out and talent, you only have so much time in the day.

Speaker 2: 8:32

But what are some what I call employee referral programs? If you don't have employees, what are some referral sources, networks, where are you already spending time? And then they're always asking the question hey, I'm looking for this person. Here's a job posting, job description I have. Here's somewhat of a scorecard or tool that I use to vet out people. Do you know anyone that could fit this mold? And the more people that are coming to you, hopefully, the less time you have to spend and go out and actually searching for a person out there. And so that, would say, would be huge. On that, brenda, I don't know if you have any comments towards that, but that's the first step in the bucket is really planning, strategizing as hard as you plan your business plan on that person and that next spot, next position you're going to fill.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Yeah, and it sounds to me like we're really talking today about finding and hiring your first employee. But I think a lot of the strategies that you've just discussed, adam, would really work as you grow your team, because maybe it's the first one that you're building right now. You're adding to your team to build that structure, that finding that person that you can have good conversations with strategy about. But I also could see that helping you with the bigger picture to continue to grow your team. Would you agree with that?

Speaker 2: 9:49

Yeah, 100% agree with that, because we work with a lot of organizations, seen organizations from startup mode and making that wrong hire. Statistics show that it can cost you three times that person's salary if you do make that wrong hire. And so it's very crucial in the beginning to at least get it right the first time. I know that's not always going to happen and that's not we don't live in a perfect world but it definitely does, I think, set the tone of what you're trying to do and then, as you add more employees to that, that tone and that culture stays with and then people are going to come join a part of that and want to be a part of that or save everyone's time and go a different direction, 100%, I think.

Speaker 2: 10:36

even for sole entrepreneurs or established businesses, everyone can pick up these tool and just really lock in on that first person or the thousandth person that they're hiring for their tool.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Think big right and, as you were talking about doing your job posting, after you get the job description written, crafted, and then you're putting it out. And I love that. You talked about the fact that you can do a free job posting on LinkedIn. I think it's 30 days and I think you can only do one at a time.

Speaker 1: 11:01

Now they don't get the best amount of reach, but I always tell folks, adam, that once you get the job posting created and it sits in the jobs area of LinkedIn, I also encourage them to merchandise it on your company page and even for you as a person to push it out as opposed to through your Adam's profile. But I love what you said about leveraging your networks and asking for referrals. And this is once you have a job link, whether it is through Indeed or through LinkedIn, if maybe you don't have a job support on your website yet, because it's one position, but once you have a link, it makes it real and then that's something that you can use to share out. Do you agree or anything to add on to that?

Speaker 2: 11:41

Yeah, no, you want something that's tangible, that people can see or people can share, and that has definitely happened for me. For a fact, everyone that I've hired on my team probably except the first person all came through referrals and all came just through natural networks of either people that I knew before or people that I talked to two years ago, or someone I just talked to yesterday saying hey, you really need to talk to this person. I know you keep saying you want to keep growing your team here. Take this conversation and, yeah, I 100% agree to have something that you can move around, share around. If you can put on your website, great. I see so many companies that don't have even a career page. I feel like that should be the first thing on someone's website. Maybe I'm biased that way. Yeah, but 100%.

Speaker 1: 12:27

And I'm just going to say that I'm self-employed and I have an intern. There's points and times where I've had two interns and there's been points and time where I've outsourced. So it's more working with freelancers, not full-time employees. But if you go to Mellor Marketing, in the footer at the bottom I do have a career's link and it's pretty much just the intern position and I let people know they can continually throughout the year apply for it. But it's funny how, when you're self-employed, when you're thinking about a website, you're really thinking about contact information, list of services, maybe testimonials, but careers is falling to the bottom of the list.

Speaker 1: 13:02

But at the point and time, Adam, that you're looking to hire your first employee and that's what we're here talking today about is hiring your first employee People are going to do some lookups on you. They want to figure out is this Adam Guy legitimate and does he have a real business? And they're going to do the same thing that your customers do. They're going to Google you, they're going to look you up. You might even go to your website and I think it provides a nice affirmation of legitimacy if they can see a careers page and they're seeing consistency with what they heard about the job description. Any thoughts to add on to that?

Speaker 2: 13:35

Yeah, I would say 100% to that. I've been called out by interviews saying, wow, you have all these and I was always big on LinkedIn recommendations and getting a lot of recommendations, so I've had a lot of people call that out in the interview. Whoa, you have a lot of good people saying good things about you. What have you done? What do you contribute your success to? And it goes down into a rabbit hole that way.

Speaker 2: 13:58

But the more, I would say, the more good press that you can have, the more people are talking about you, sharing good things about you, and then the more consistent your message is to everyone out there, hopefully, the more fruitful it's going to be in getting the right person to come to you essentially. So I would 100% agree with that, and then it's really just from there. Okay, and after you've spread that message out, how do you take it when you jump on the first interview with someone? A structured interview process is twice as more likely than an unstructured interview process to hire a high performer. How do you go about the interviewing process and what are certain ways you can go about and doing that? That's such a crucial part so you don't miss on any steps and hiring the wrong person as well too, I think yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:44

That's a really good point. And then for corporate Adam, you have HR and the recruiting department that they pretty much handhold you through the hiring process. If you're the hiring manager, they'll say, okay, here's a bucket of resumes that we have for you. They'll put them in a folder and email back and here's your 300 resumes to look through. And then here's your interview discussion guide and here's what we recommend in the process and here's what not to do and what to do going through the process. But when you're on your own as a solopreneur, now you're in this land of like where nobody is telling you what to do and you're in control. You're steering the ship and, gosh, you've got a hire employee. And then you start to get questions about the legalities of things and what to do and what not to do, what paperwork you need to do, and then there's payroll and it can feel very complex, very quick, and I know your area of expertise is really in the hiring process, but any thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: 15:38

Yeah, no, it's. I always thought about it internally myself, saying almost that oh crap, moment I am going to hire this person and I got so much work to do after the fact or not only getting the person in, but also having a good onboarding experience and retaining them as well too, and so it's.

Speaker 2: 15:57

there's a lot of you can put a lot of weight on your shoulders, a lot of all the after the fact and how it's going to be like, but really just what I typically say is a focus in the moment, even when I'm training other recruiters how to recruit. But simple. If I was going to give anyone advice, what I always do is performance based hiring and have a process set up and first initial call. I would say if you're talking with someone, they're new to you, you're new to them. Simple 15 20 minute phone screen and mark out three or four questions you really need to get answered to figure out if this even might be a right fit for the position in general. But it's really more of a get to know.

Speaker 2: 16:38

You call, why are they looking? What are they looking for? What are their compensation requirements, because if you just can't pay the person, then it may not be a good fit to begin with. And then everything from software if you're looking for certain software ability and that really the hard requirements. More than that, like that talent bucket that I was talking about before, do they have the talent to do the position and are they speaking to you or saying things that could have the right experience or right personality for it and then from there everything seems to go well.

Speaker 2: 17:10

Off that brief conversation, then leave it up to the person. But either do an hour or just how much time it takes to go through a person's background from past to present. That could be over the phone. I recommend in person, always, if you're hiring your first employee, get those now verbal cues or video, however you're set up, but really go through their background from past to present and figure out not only what they did how are they able to do it, major successes and accomplishments they've had them because they do the same for your organization and then why they transition from position to position and then what are the reasons why behind it. And that's so important, because if you hear someone oh hey, I just hated my boss, my last position, I just left more money are they going to do the same?

Speaker 1: 17:59

thing to you. We don't have a problem with people hating it, but we don't want to hear you say that in an interview. Because if you say that in an interview to us and we hire you and it doesn't work out, what are you going to say about us? You're going to have to develop it a little bit, right?

Speaker 2: 18:13

Yeah, and that's the thing about hiring your first employee. It's yeah, you're, you're going to gain some ROI, right, you want to gain revenue. We're in the business to get profit and I understand that too. Just the fact that someone's money motivated, don't let that deteriorate. But if that's really their only motivation, and whether that should be an area of pause or concern to say, hey, let's dive back in and check this out.

Speaker 2: 18:39

And always I think it is such a process because recruiting, hiring, it's all a gamble.

Speaker 2: 18:46

But if you have the right process, you're going to mitigate your risk and get the best odds out of it. And so I always tell people don't be afraid to have long interview process, especially up front, and make sure 100% about the person they know, 100% about you, and then, hopefully, once you do the final stage, making that offer letter out, that offer letter should just be oh hey, by the way, this is everything we've already talked about here go ahead and sign this and come to our side for you to join the team. That's that's what it should really be like. You should never, hopefully never, send an off letter without saying, oh, I'm second guessing this person, I'm not sure they're right fit and going through that. So it is like you said before, brenda. There's a lot of work to be done post hire, after that. But if you don't get the small steps right in between and vet out that person fully, then you're not doing a benefit to yourself, you're not doing a benefit to the person that that you're hiring in.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Yeah, that's a good point and it really does need to be a good fit and there's not a lot of advice out there about interviewing and getting the job and it really does need to be a good culture match and a good fit. And I always tell when I work with job seekers, I always tell them it's as much as it is them interviewing you to figure out if you're a good fit, as it should be you interviewing them to figure out do you want to work for the company?

Speaker 1: 20:04

would you agree with that and anything to add on to that?

Speaker 2: 20:08

Yeah, I would say, especially hiring my first employee. I was out. The nerves kick in because, as much as you're nervous interviewing the person and hopefully they like you, but you don't want to over sell yourself.

Speaker 1: 20:20

Yeah, you're trying not to be like too needy like on that when we think about dating that first date where we like the person so much and we're trying to be like you don't want to be with the taxis and just give them away.

Speaker 2: 20:30

Yeah, no, exactly. And then you're just putting yourself in the other person's shoes. Right, they're nervous, they're interviewing this career path. It's a huge life change. It's a life, it's just a life change in general, and so you got to factor that in.

Speaker 2: 20:43

So, as much as you might be your nerves racking, there's other things on your mind and you want to be doing something else rather than interviewing this person. I get it, I was there, but you really got to slow down the speed up. And it's definitely nerve-wracking on both sides because as a manager, as a leader, I don't want to make a mistake, because I know if I make a mistake hiring the wrong person, I'm going to take it all on me and that's all going to be on me at the end of the day, and no one likes to be in that position really at all. So that's it's just one thing you got to have to keep top of mind that it's a nerve-wracking experience, but if you have the right plan, the right strategy up front, those nerves kind of level off and, hey, you're doing something that's hopefully potentially going to grow your business tremendously for the future if you get this first hire.

Speaker 1: 21:33

That's exactly right. I'm going to change gears a little bit here. I'm going to invite our audience for those folks that are watching us live. If you have any questions or comments you'd like to bring into the conversation, feel free to drop your comments below and I'll let you know. Adam, there's a little bit of a delay. It's almost like when, when TV does like a live stream for the awards shows, there's a couple seconds delay in there and they do that to get the expletives some.

Speaker 1: 21:56

We don't have no issues here, but there is about a 20 to 30 second delay from the time I say, hey, drop your comments or questions below until our audience hears it, and then it might take them another 20 to 30 seconds to think of a question and type it in. So while we're waiting to see what comments or questions are coming in from the audience, I'm curious and for me I want to know from you what was your? Who was your first hire? What was the role within the company? For me it was an intern, and I've had a couple different interns that I've hired and they've all been part-time positions. I've not had a full-time employee and I wonder, if we were to change this a hair your full-time employee how that might change, but I'm curious what was the role that you hired for your first employee?

Speaker 2: 22:38

yeah, mine. So it was almost two in one and I can go full-time or hired some direct. But when I first started I had an intern myself. They were helping out a little bit different parts of the business. But then as I started to grow I was like, oh wow, I need more help.

Speaker 2: 22:55

So I snagged a current intern from my team, or from our team in general, and brought him over and really was more hand-holding at first and getting him off on the right foot. His name is Matt and he really just took my guidance and leadership and ran with it and then really, after hired Matt, the first employee that hired from the outside in on my own was Chris and with his background he had proven recruiting experience working on another recruiting firm and then he also had some industry experiences. We do a lot of work in construction. He worked in construction before leveling out those two things his personality, mentality that he had coming into it. That was the first person I hired outside in.

Speaker 2: 23:40

So I had a little groundwork with the intern at first, which I always think is a good play to give someone great experience to begin with, even if they end up do leaving. But then that first employee out, that was definitely a big hire because I just knew at the time I couldn't get it wrong. It was costly. I did get it wrong and went through. I don't know. I probably went through 30 interviews over just phone interviews, video interviews, and I probably brought 10 people in before I ever hired my first employee. So it's a process.

Speaker 1: 24:13

So first whole time was a recruiter for you.

Speaker 2: 24:15

Today Hear you say yes, it was more of a sourcing like sourcing specialist, cause our team is it's a sourcing specialist paired up with a recruiter, so he was doing a lot of the groundwork, finding candidates, setting people up on my schedule, and then I was doing all the recruiting and sales and then once we got more sales built up, essentially providing more opportunity to find that full time recruiter to help pair with kind of that sourcer, and then maybe they became a team and then it helped me just double down on my activities and double down on their activities to get the kind of traction that we wanted to see.

Speaker 1: 24:50

Yeah, and I'm looking at comments off to the side because I'm noticing on LinkedIn some of the comments I'm seeing are not coming into stream here. It's sometimes the technology doesn't play well together, so if you see me looking off to the side, it's not because I'm ignoring you, but I've. I've read a lot about this and I'll share this story because I'm sure there's other people who are self employed who might be thinking about when do you hire your next employee, and I've read a lot of articles and methodology about, I think, a lot of people that when they are hiring their first employee, it's some type of a VA or an assistant or an intern, and then the next hire after that is if it's a full, if it's a full time hire. I've read a lot that says you should be hiring someone who's helping to grow your business at that point. So it's either a lower price point or a lower hourly rate than you are, so that you can be freed up to do the things that are making money for your business, or they are revenue or sales generating or appointment generating in your case. So I think there's some rationale with that.

Speaker 1: 25:48

I do see a comment coming in from Eric and I want to say hey to Eric Eric. Eric, a good friend within the HR community, and Eric says I've heard it said that you should hire for values, fit and culture. I've always liked that philosophy and I think that's really what you're saying as well, adam, but did you want to add anything onto that?

Speaker 2: 26:05

Yeah, I think that that culture, add that someone, that that if they have the same core values I know what our core values are as well too it's a great. It's a great place to start. But I know, also being in the business, we, in recruiting and hiring, we just don't hire good people to hire good people, so to speak. So they could be a great person, great personality, but they don't have that right experience or the right talent that they can bring to your table. Then you have to look at the fact. Just Eric was saying hey, is there an opportunity if they're coming with the right values, right personality, could you coach them up? That's definitely a possibility, right. And could you teach them the experiences and the talent they need to have to be successful? And then you also have to look at that Is that the right thing for your business right now, right timing, right? Or do you want to hire that more experienced talent, but still, obviously, the personality, the values are huge, right, you can't mistake those, because that can break any culture, it can break any company in an instant. So it is.

Speaker 2: 27:12

I get that it is a double-edged sword, I would say a little bit. So I think it depends on where you're at in the business, but I've always lived by that philosophy where someone may not have the, I would say, the right talent that I need at the right moment, but they're coming in with the great personality, they align with our core values, is it worth it to take a shot on them and then help coach them up. And then, in fact, do I have time to take the time out of my day to coach them up, then I would 100% do it. So different, maybe a little bit of you, but still it's still a huge part of the conversation is something you can't miss on because it can break the culture instantly.

Speaker 1: 27:49

So relatable.

Speaker 1: 27:49

When you talk about the time investing and coaching up your employees and you mentioned this a little bit earlier, you almost get to the point is, if you're working for yourself, you're self-employed, you're no longer working for a company, so you don't have people helping you do all the things.

Speaker 1: 28:01

You're doing all the things and you might get to the end of the day and you love it and you're happy with what you're doing and you don't want to be back to working for an organization. You love being self-employed, but you're exhausted and then you start to think about what can I take off of my plate and what can I either outsource or bring in an employee and give them that work to do. But it does take some ramp up time. There is a period of time where you're doing more work than you were before because you're training and you're onboarding that person. But it's like the short term pain, long term gain type of thing. You need to invest that time in training them to get to the point where your time is free, and you probably can relate to that too, adam right.

Speaker 2: 28:42

Yeah, training never stops. Learning never stops. I know Eric will really appreciate that it's constant. No matter, I always think we're proficient, we're not good, we're not great yet, and there's excellence, and so everyone's on a different everyone's on a different area, everyone at a different skill level, training wise. And so, no matter what, throughout the whole time, no matter who you hire, they continuous learning and training. And just sitting along side by side with people who they're weekly, one to one, monthly, one to one, cape Guys, performance reviews, things that come up within that nature, you have to guide the training and get them, as a leader, the right resources to be successful in their positions. Yeah, I agree with that for sure.

Speaker 1: 29:27

Just made me think of another thing, and then I'm going to go to Kenneth's comment, which is up on screen right now. But for each of my interns, I created them a weekly report template and we've pretty consistently been meeting virtually pre-pandemic. When I had a local intern, we would meet in person at a coffee shop or a co-working space for once a week or something to do a project review. But part of what I have on their report was that it's just typical things that are in progress, assigned, not yet begun, completed, and then there's two sections at the bottom Questions.

Speaker 1: 29:59

So I want them always to come into our conversations with what questions you have, and I expect you to have questions, and I really try to enforce that early on in the position too, because I don't want them to be hesitating to ask questions and I always tell them as the position goes on as longer you're in the role, you're going to have fewer questions or they're going to be more strategic, not like how do I do this, but why do we, or things like that. And then the other thing is what did I learn this week? And sometimes that's tied into mistakes that you've made, sometimes it's just tied into gaining new knowledge. But if you're always thinking every week to put on your report something new that you learned that week and I tell them this is a good resume builder too Over time you can look back at these weekly reports and add some information in there. Any thoughts on that approach or?

Speaker 2: 30:43

Yeah, yeah, I've talked with a lot of candidates that have made to your point, but I would say some people call them like a brag book, but it's something tangible that they can take with them, especially if it is an intern. Take on with them for the next position. If it's maybe not with you, but it's something they can show and it can help level them up. And then also, that puts your own company in a great position with a great name and have great recognition out there. That, hey, you provide them with this experience and something tangible to move forward with as well, and I've also there's this one client that we do have that I know.

Speaker 2: 31:18

The CEO sends out an email every Friday, and he just has one question. He just says why do you like working here? So you don't see why everyone likes working here. I haven't implemented that yet. I want to, though, because someone could have a really bad week, or you could have a really bad week, but you still come back day after day. So why are people coming back? Why do they like work with you? And that's things as a leader, you want to know, and, hopefully, on bias reasons, you want to know too, to keep growing in the right way. So that's just one question to.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Why do you like working here? Another question I ask and I'm going to invite our guests If you have any thoughts or on questions, you should be asking your employees. If you're a solopreneur, feel free to drop them. You're no longer a solopreneur Now you're starting to become an entrepreneur with employees. I guess we should say there too. But what are the other questions you asked?

Speaker 1: 32:08

One thing I'm asking my interns as they reach the end of their internship is and at this point they pretty much do what I need them to do Social media marketing. I can say to my intern, julia, right now, can you do this, and she'll do it, or she'll figure out how to do it. So now I say to her is there any other experience that you'd like to gain through this internship that you haven't had the chance to yet? Because I want to help to build up your portfolio, and I think that they really like that. All right, I want to move to Kenneth, though, and Kenneth had put in a comment. He said we added a part-time marketing person to our company page, and he alludes to it from time to time. Kenneth, I put into comments to add which page is this on, because there might be somebody watching this video today or in the playback later. Who's interested in a part-time marketing role? And they can go into it, but I think you can do that with the LinkedIn job postings as well as Indeed.

Speaker 2: 32:56

I think, adam, those can be part-time roles as well, yeah, I would, just if you're going to, because we're also hiring a part-time person too. So I'm going through it right now myself. But it's really making it clear in the job posting job description right up front hey, this is a part-time role and maybe how many hours associated with it. Because what I've seen through my own efforts is that the can at market. They see a job posting apply, maybe they don't read fully on it.

Speaker 2: 33:25

Maybe they just read the top half. So just being, I think, really clear about it, having the right expectations, even asking in person after they apply to it hey, I know I saw you applied to our part-time marketing role or part-time, whatever role it is. Is that the right understanding that you had? You keep the timeframe and you protect your time, essentially, so you're talking with the right people, but yeah, but in the front of the job posting though.

Speaker 1: 33:52

So that's clear that it's part-time right.

Speaker 2: 33:54

Yeah, I would 100%. They're always going to get candidates that may not read that or skip over that or gloss that, but just making that first, whatever you want to make most most known and most clear, put at the top of your job posting and just so that's one of the first things that they see to attract the right talent that you want to talk to.

Speaker 1: 34:16

Essentially, that's a really good point, really good point. I like that. All right, I want to start to grab this up here and, as I'm doing that, first thing I'm going to do, adam, is I'm going to share your website up on screen and I'm also going to drop the link into the chat. And, as is common with many people who are growing their business, you told me in the pre-interview you're like hey, we're going to be working on updating our website.

Speaker 1: 34:39

Actually, that's a good thing and I think most organizations understand that updating and rehauling your website is something you do about every five years. Three to five years is the timeframe for that, and especially as your business grows and evolves. So right now, the web address is expressproscom slash, farmington hills, mlsrg. I am going to drop that into the comments and it will be in the show notes later, but as it's up on screen, we can see some things that are flickering around. Adam, but tell us a bit about if people that are watching the show or maybe they're watching the playback, listening to it on the podcast, even if they're interested in doing business with you, can you summarize for us what are the services and offerings that you do?

Speaker 2: 35:19

Yeah, for us, specialized Recruiting Group, as you can see from that here, we're a part of Express Employment Professionals, a large staffing and recruiting company, one of the largest in the US. There's about 850 offices across the US, canada, south Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The Specialized Recruiting Group is the professional recruiting arm for Express Employment. On the express side, what I would say is that we do a lot of light industrial recruiting, a lot of work with manufacturers, automotive, within just our general area, and then we do a lot of skilled trades office services like call center, office manager, receptionist type roles. And then on my side of the business, the Specialized Recruiting Group, we work a lot within the construction space with general contractors, civil engineering firms, and then on the other half we do a lot of accounting and finance type placements.

Speaker 2: 36:13

That's our core niches, what we know, what we're good at, and we've done other HR positions, other roles outside of it that we can take on, but those definitely are our main two. And then, yeah, if I would say if you want to find me, I always give out my cell phone freely. I'm happy to take any call. My cell is 269-757-1125. That's an open line for everyone to call, even my family, friends. They always call me with employment questions. And then I'm on LinkedIn, of course, too, just underneath Adam Kluge, and my email address is just adamkluge-expresscom.

Speaker 1: 36:57

Great, and I think I have that inside your contact info here. I'm pretty quick on the draw, so to speak, so I will drop that into the chat for folks that are watching us here today. And I did pull up your LinkedIn profile up on screen and let me just make that a little bit larger. Now I can tell, because I've got a trained LinkedIn coach's eye, adam, that you have Creator Mode turned on your profile, and I know that because I see at the top of your profile it says talks about and there's a list of these hashtags. Now what that means for the viewer is, if you're not yet connected to Adam's profile and you go to his profile on LinkedIn, you're not going to see a connect button. You're going to see follow, and follow is a one-way action.

Speaker 1: 37:38

But if you're really looking to connect with Adam and I would encourage you to do so you'll want to click on the more button. From your view, if you click on the more button, you'll see a dropdown underneath that will say personalized invite or connect, and I always choose the personalized invite. If you see that one connect. If you see that, just make sure you choose, add a note and just mention hey, I saw you on the interview with Brenda Mellor. Just name drop me. He'll remember because we've only done one of these interviews. He's not going to be like what's your interview with Brenda Mellor? It was the interview you had and it sounds like you'd be open to connecting with folks if they were to invite you to connect Adam.

Speaker 2: 38:10

Oh, 100%. So I definitely take a lot of calls that sometimes I'm just giving advice or words on the market and, hey, if we can help out, we can help out, if we can't. We just want to be transparent as possible and then try to connect you with people like Brenda or like Eric. That'll get you in the right spot and get you connected to the right group of people. So so.

Speaker 1: 38:31

So I think you can all see now that you learned a little bit more about Adam's business and you're talking to each other across the table at this HR Unite conference and I'm like you really work with larger organizations but it sounds like you've got a lot of expertise about the hiring process and when we came up with this topic hiring your first employee it's certainly something that Adam has a lot of insights and expertise working within. So I just wanted to say thank you so much, adam, for you joining, and do you want to give our audience any final comments on hiring their first employee?

Speaker 2: 39:02

Yeah, I would say what we talked about, but definitely have a process up front. I'll always harp on you can't find that person if you don't know what you're looking for. So really figure out what that first employee is going to look like for you, Stick to a consistent interview process and go with that process and then after that retain that person. Onboarding that person that's a lot of work too, but you already did the upfront work and all the grinding and the grit work to get that person. You got to do everything on the back end to retain that first employee, first hire or even that pundit hire that you have down the road. So I would say do that.

Speaker 2: 39:41

It's nerve wracking, Don't let your nerves rack up on you. And you can do it. It's possible. I did it and I'm in this business, but it was still a challenge for me to even recruit my first employee. So I was so much harder on myself than maybe if I was recruiting for a client or anything like that. You just want to make sure it's that right fit and you're doing it the right way all the way through the process to get the best odds possible.

Speaker 1: 40:08

Good, and I'm putting on the spot with this last question too, but can you work with individuals who are self employed to help them to hire their first employee? Is that a service that you offer through your business?

Speaker 2: 40:17

Yeah, definitely, we wrote up, I would think, numerous job postings, job descriptions and putting everything together for everyone. I would say cheat code might be chat GVT to give you a rough outline. Yeah, it's not perfect but try it out. But yeah, we definitely can and I'm always happy to field those questions because I know how I was being in that person's shoes and just trying to get everything together to begin with. And if I can ease that nervous or pain or anything up front, I'm happy to do it Awesome.

Speaker 1: 40:49

Thank you, adam and guys. Adam's a great guy, isn't he? That's part of the reason we had this great conversation at the event. I'm like I got to bring you on my show. We'll figure out something to talk about, and I thought this was a great topic. And I talk a lot about marketing and LinkedIn, but sometimes I like to bring other aspects of business and hiring your first employee and thinking about helping my audience to grow their business. So, adam, this was such a great conversation. I just want to say thank you again for joining.

Speaker 2: 41:12

Hey, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 41:14

All right, well, thank you, and thank you to our audience for watching. And while we are wrapping up, I want to remind you that as soon as the video is done playing here on LinkedIn, you'll see a little share button at the bottom. If you have not yet posted on LinkedIn this week, this month, maybe even this year, go ahead and click on share and share that along and then tell people something that you learned by watching, or maybe tell them why they should watch this interview, this conversation today. If you tag us in the post, we will comment back and remember to tag people. Use that little at symbol and then just start typing in our name and there'll be a drop down. Click on that. Then we'll get notified that you're talking about this inside the post and I don't get performance reviews anymore. I don't know about you. Adam, now that you're working with the team, do you have performance reviews now?

Speaker 2: 42:00

Yeah, so we do 30, 60, 90 days yearly reviews every year and then for our yearly review we do first it's all the employee giving their feedback and advice how the first year went, and then we come back to the table writing up everything from a leadership perspective how the first year went and that first year went, and then we have that conversation together.

Speaker 1: 42:24

So do you get a review? Do you have a review?

Speaker 2: 42:26

Oh would you like. Yes, I have a review too, by a couple of owners that own the business here and, yes, I'm constantly have a monthly meeting and always have a yearly review, which is coming up here next week, so I usually have people that are self-employed on them, I'll say we don't get reviews, so your reviews, like comments from the audience, helps us to know how we're doing.

Speaker 1: 42:51

But I'll say, even though Adam does has reviews in his organization, I'm sure he would love the feedback. So if you enjoyed the conversation, we would love to hear that from you. All right, adam, I'll get you back to your business day. Thank you again for joining and thank you to our audience for watching. Stay safe and stay healthy everyone, and we will see all of you on LinkedIn and take care and have a wonderful day. Thank you, Adam, bye-bye.