Why 20 to 30 Percent Of Your New Hires Won’t Actually Show Up On Day 1. When A Recruit Says Yes, What’s Next?

Hey everybody welcome back, it’s your host for this podcast Richard Milligan, and you are listening I think to episode 38, what I wouldn’t give to be 38 years old again. I don’t know there’s no connection here, but man I tell you what now that I’m in my mid-40s I’m realizing 38 was pretty sweet and for those of you that are in your 20s, like wow 38 is old, I think we realized pretty quickly like that isn’t that old. I remember when I was looking at my parents who were in their early 30s thinking oh my goodness mom and dad are so old. Truth is that they weren’t and the truth is that we are only getting started here at episode 38. Our goal here as we look into 2020, which I love that 2020 or 2020 our vision which is connected to 2020 see what I did there. I talk about vision a lot, so I can’t even help myself but connect the dots on that as we look in the next year our goal for next year is to break the 100 mark for podcast and so we’re here to stay we’re committed to bringing you value to this podcast I hope that you found value and if your first is if this is your first podcast to listen to which every single week we pick up separate seems we pick up several hundred new listeners with this podcast then you’ll what you need to know is that this podcast is directed to the recruiting leader now what that means is that in a lot of industries there is this individual role that is a leadership role but this role is also responsible for growing and building the team most times I have found that most times this individual does not have great recruiting support. They typically are on their own in this area of recruiting if they do have recruiting support what I found is that somewhere around 8 & 9 hires that they make will still come directly from them they will not come from the recruiting department what the recruiting apartment typically does for organization is recruit for the organization not for you the recruiting leader so if you’re in a market leader role, you’re in a sales manager role, you’re in a branch manager role, some sort of area, or regional or divisional role you if you’re a company president or company CEO this podcast is really directed to you a lot of the insight we have is applicable in that range from just someone who’s a sales manager and I say just that person tends to be one of the most critical positions inside the organization. So that position all the way up to the CEO there are actionable items here every single week that you can apply the topic we’re going to talk about today comes from a recent conversation I had with someone that just it wasn’t an intentional conversation but I was asking a question trying to verify their process that they were meant that they had internally and just was trying to get clarity on where there were issues or where there weren’t issues around this area of recruiting the question that I asked was this. Do you measure the follow-up that you have from the time that you get an accepted offer whether verbally or in writing, to the time that someone actually joins your team?

Now this very typical that organizations do not measure this if you are an individual recruiting leader you should measure this as well because you influence this possibly more than anybody else inside the organization. I love what Tony Robbins says that the greatest resource we have is our own resourcefulness so as someone who’s a market leader you kind of fall in that middle management role and in a middle management role that tendency is that we always wait for someone else to you know create policy to create procedure to solve some of these larger problems or even just to identify some of these larger problems. As a recruiting leader myself one of the things that I became aware of is that I was losing two to three out of every top recruit then I made an offer to that verbally accepted the offer what I found is that I am not I was not an anomaly at an organizational level that is a typical number for an organization to lose. It’s from the time they make an offer and look let’s just backtrack on this. How much effort and how much energy do we have to put into someone to get them to a place we just even make them an offer throw out the getting the acceptance of the offer? Let’s just talk about making the offer when I make that offer I have an incredible amount of time and effort thought people human capital time resource all of that wrapped up in that individual. So the reason why I am elevating the noise on this is that look if we can capture one or two people out of every ten that we that were that were likely to lose simply by elevating the noise around this and creating a process around how we handle this timeline between someone accepting my offer and someone crossing the finish line. That process can influence in a large way the production that I have at a market level the number of hires that I have in an organizational level and this is a over a long run of time is a mega influencer. Because once you get someone inside your culture inside your organization I find that most companies are actually pretty good at retaining them. So let’s dive into this and let’s just make this assumption most people have this problem if you’re recruiting leader that’s here and you’re just like I’m just now beginning to recruit or I’m just now in a recruiting leader role then now’s the perfect time for you to actually create a process around this so that this does not become a problem the future. So let’s just look and analyze this moment in time the moment that someone actually accepts the offer. At this moment this is the easiest decision that they will have you know over the course of that window of time of making the transition now most people that are in an experience cells role right and that’s typically what we’re hiring here. If you’re recruiting leader you’re typically in some sort of sales role if you’re in the mortgage industry you’re hiring another producing branch manager, branch manager, loan officer, loan originator mortgage banker loan advisor whatever you call them that’s that is going to be a sales role. If you’re in the real estate community you’re hiring a new realist another real estate agent if you’re in the insurance community, or hiring another real another insurance agent. These are all producers most times these individuals have influence in their book of business. And so when they go and make this decision to join your organization the decisions have only just begun because behind that now what they have to determine is when do I resign who do I resign to right when do my benefits in with my current company when do my benefits begin with you like the holiday season is coming up what’s good timing around that. Like what influence am I going to have coming at me in a reverse recruiting model which by the way companies are very wise to have a reverse recruiting model because if you think of this from a different perspective companies are influencing out of every ten they’re going to lose they’re potentially influencing two or three with this particular reverse recruiting process. And so let’s just think about how do we actually actually recruit someone and get them across the finish line, let’s actually think look if someone turns in their resignation today what is my plan as a leader to work towards retaining them.

Now if you don’t have a larger retention plan around how are you planning to keep people long-term and not just in this moment, then I would say shame on you. I’m not a big fan of saying shame on you but what I would say to you is this is this has to be something that organizations evaluate not just at this moment where they tender a resignation, but as a larger holistic perspective of how do we actually retain our people. And I encourage you at an organizational level at a team level, to look at and analyze what your average level or percentage of churn is over a five to ten year window of time, and that is an identifier of where you’re doing things right or where you’re doing things wrong. A lot of times we just move towards your growth, and we don’t actually think of this from the perspective of retention. But I do think you’re wise to have a reverse what I would call reverse recruiting model which is the moment someone tenders a resignation if it’s someone that you actually want and you want to keep them on your team,, then who gets involved how do they get involved what conversations take place immediately because you can’t influence people to stay,, and if I’m in an organization that is recruiting the individual to come to me then I’m going to have a process as well understanding that most organizations are going to have a process that they follow when someone tenders originated resignation. It could be an exit interview that they have and something as simple as that exit interview can be a reverse recruiting model. It could be in that X interview having that individual setting in front some in front of someone who’s of influence okay will accept your resignation, but what we ask everyone is that you set in front of the divisional president and do an X interview with him and he would love to do that with you in the next four hours 24 hours. But in a short length of time from the moment that resignation gets given that should be part of your reverse recruiting process.

On the recruiting side here’s what I would tell you, when most sales positions give resignation and look for a start date it’s very rarely a week out two weeks out most times it’s 30 to 45 days out. There are times where I’ve seen this 90 days out and the longer the wind’ of time from when they say yes to the time they actually going to start, the less likely that individual is to actually cross that finish line. It’s just difficult to have enough synergy enough feel in the recruiting tank to get them across that finish line. So immediately when someone says look it’s October 30th or November 1st or whatever data’s I’m gonna’ join on January 1 or February 1. I’m already immediately game planning out how do I move that timeline up if that’s possible and if it’s not possible, how do I create an incredible what I would call pre-onboarding plan. So a lot of organizations have an onboarding plan but what I found is that few organizations have a pre-onboarding plan. So what does a pre onboarding plan look like. I think there can be multiple layers to this and again this depends on your organization this will depend on your position inside the organization. Look I spent 15 years inside the mortgage industry in really what I would consider a middle management role an area manager regional manager divisional manager role. But I built my own a pre onboarding plan this was not something that the organization did for me I built this for myself. So what I did was this the moment that someone said yes I wanted to begin solidifying that decision in their own mind. Now if you’ve listened to many of my podcasts from time to time you hear me bring up this idea of what I call the BAM zone. This is this concept that people are motivated through a hire lens called belonging, affirming, or affirmation, and meaning. So I can take that BAM zone belonging affirmation and meaning and I can wrap it all around this process and I’ll build that I’ll create. Then when someone says yes the moment they all board this is not a game if I just got someone to say yes I’ll marry you okay this is I got a date this individual all the way to this finish line and guess what some industry data suggests that almost 70% of people don’t even make a decision whether you’re a good fit till I get to the end of year one. So this dating concept doesn’t go to when they start it goes on forever. Not just the end of year one if you know the worst thing that a guy can do when he’s dating a girl is pursue pursue pursue and pursue well and then get the girl and then stop pursuing. Okay that’s such a letdown / for all the married women out there that are listeners there they’re high-fiving each other going yes, exactly it is. So I’m not here to teach marriage but what I am here to talk about is how this affects our recruiting efforts so this dating game goes on forever. This pursuit game goes on forever right that the whole reverse recruiting thing that I mentioned prior when someone gives a resignation at an organizational level. If I’m having to reverse recruit a lot that I can actually look and say, I’m not dating my team the way I’m not pursuing my team the way I should be pursuing them. I’m not giving them a larger sense of belonging I’m not affirming them. I’m not an affirming encouraging inspiring motivational leader okay I haven’t created a larger sense of meaning for what we do and how we do it that’s that BAM zone I haven’t done that. And so I can follow this all the way back to that and say that matters way before recruiting, but for sure when I get a yes from somebody on the recruiting side I am strategically thinking, how can I give them a sense of belonging when they’re not here yet. So here’s a couple ideas for this in the pre onboarding what I like to do is actually have a pre onboarding team now this doesn’t have to be something you know a specific team this doesn’t it designated for this. But this becomes just part of a role and responsibility someone may play. For example one of my top sales people would be on this pre-owned boarding team. One of my top operational people would be on this pre-owned boarding team. Someone from my HR department would be on this team, I’m on this team okay my admin if I have a you know someone that’s a you know personal assistant would be on that team okay I’m going to have around five to six people on this team that would be part of the onboarding process and I want engagement over the wind of time from when they said yes to when they actually crossed the finish line. So get creative with this let me share with you an idea that I use for a long time. The moment someone said yes now I went to the trouble of having company t-shirts printed these were just generic t-shirts there were nice t-shirts oh they were just generic company logo t-shirts. I would have those t-shirts autographs I’d get a t-shirt pen yes there is such a thing a t-shirt pin where it shows up on the t-shirt well it doesn’t wash out and I would actually have every department head that I could get to sign these t-shirts and I would have them do it at one time. Might be a generic message you might say you know um you know might be signed you know John David’s and that’s just a name I made up but it’s up to you if your name’s John David’s. I’m not speaking to you but John David’s and it would be heard you just joined the team excited to have you on board, if I can ever assist don’t hesitate to contact me. Okay, and he would sign that and I would have department heads all over this t-shirt I would take that t-shirt was designed by the CEO the company president department heads and I and it was signed by me and at some level might have been signed at certain stages of my career signed by some of my team members at my immediate level that were underneath my leadership and I would send that I would actually overnight that to the home address of the individual who had just said yes. Okay what I was trying to do was I’m trying to pull them into this commitment I’m trying to pull them into this larger sense of belonging you now belong over here we’re excited to have you joining here. I’m affirming you in this process the CEO signed this t-shirt. I don’t take these t-shirts to a sales rally and I would walk around the room because that’s your sales rise a lot of your department heads are there if you have sales rallies where you have you know a some sort of reunion event that you invite people to. So I walk the t-shirts around everybody signs us and I overnight these to my recruits,. and that’s just one thing of many things would transpire in this process. When someone says yes the next thing I say is look we do a pre onboarding call. We want to address any concerns or questions additional questions that you might have and so in this meeting it’s going to be a conference bridge or a zoom meeting, or you know maybe I can just even do it on my smartphone and merge everybody in. But I want to get these five to six people together and every person’s going to speak kind of what their role is in this onboarding process that you know who they are what they do and specifically you have their contact information should a question or concern come up during this timeline of when you’ve said you joined the ordering organization. And when you actually cross the finish line got it that’s an important component to this. This is your onboarding team because most corporations don’t have this and so you self-select okay. If I’m in the mortgage world it might be a regional underwriting leader, that just comes in and says hey I’m here to support you if you have any questions about this or concerns about you know things that come up as it pertains to loans that you’ve got questions and how we underwrite, I’m here for you here’s my cell phone number. It was the HR department once to have a direct line to me. If you got questions about benefits or questions about when do when does your insurance begin or when does your co-pay start or you know when does your deductible start. I’ll use the right vernacular here what is your copay on a doctor’s visit do we cover this okay I’m here for you. Someone on my team right, I’m a direct extension of Richard. If Richards not available I want you to have my cell phone number, I want you to be able to call me. Here’s a top producer on my team look you may have questions around our sales process or you may have questions around some for instances that come up between now and then here’s my cell phone number I want you to call me. But every single person is going to articulate on this pre onboarding meeting the role that they play, the fact that they’re available, the fact that they’re excited, and they’ve heard great things about this individual who’s decided to join the team. So I’m going to affirm them I’m going to allow them now to start developing connections meaningful connections on this side before they actually ever show up in day one okay. And this is going to be that springboard they need to get across that finish line think about it. If I turn in my resignation immediately the flag goes up the pole inside the organization I’m in and all hands are on deck to try and reverse recruit me. To try and get me to stay, and the fact is that if you’ve got any loyalty at all or if you’ve got some strong relationships there and you’re not walking out the door just beside yourself mad because someone did you wrong okay. Then you will most likely have some tension here so what we have to do is if we’re an organization that’s losing the individual create the tension and if I am the individual that’s recruiting this person then I actually have to help eliminate that tension by affirming they’ve made the right decision. Do you get that like we’re actually the decision yes has been made but they aren’t here yet in fact they haven’t even gotten the gun in the car yet to start driving toward that destination okay they’ve simply said yes I’ll show up to pick up the car all right, that’s kind of the analogy here. And so we want to make them understand more clearly you made a great decision.

You coming here was the best decision you may so let’s get creative in this space look bring your team together and say what are some of the ways that we can actually help solidify then once someone says yes that they’ve made the right decision to join the team look it could be let’s go out to dinner together as a team it might be invited them in to a potluck lunch and a potluck luncheon that you’re having at your office. It could be your CEO calling them and saying hey congratulations I heard that you’re joining us man, I’ve heard a lot of great things about you what questions do you have about our organization or how can I help could be specific department heads doing the exact same thing. I’m going to lay a timeline now okay so if you I’ve got my hands up in my video because I’m also shooting this on video right now. But I’m only a timeline now and if it’s a 45 day window, I’m going to actually have intentional spots on this timeline so I don’t have long windows of time where the individual can go dark. I don’t want them to get stuck in their own head, so I encourage you I implore you if you’re serious about growing this is something you have to do and even if you’re a sales manager in a local market you are equipped to do this. I encourage you go ask someone at your corporate headquarters would they be willing to be on this team when you bring people on board, go ask the people in your local office, if they’re willing to play a part. If you are an influential leader inside your organization you should lead this, you should lead it in both directions. What’s our plan when someone says I’m leaving and what’s our plan when someone says I’m joining. Define those implement those create a process around those, teach those to the people inside your organization so that everyone understands the importance of this. This is an important component at every level inside any growth minded organization and I’m assuming you’re here because your growth minded. Right? yes or yes. So I applaud you for having spent 20-some minutes with me here to kind of walk through this if there is any way that I can help my calendars live at Book Richard now calm you can always reach me there I’m happy to give insight look I don’t think I have a single appointment over the next couple of weeks but I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and speaking but as I look into the third week of November there’s a time slot or two on there you are welcome to that. And by the way I’m gonna plant a seed here, as we look over the next couple of weeks one of the things that we’re going to actually be launching is a coaching model that’s a very simplistic for people to get involved. Look one of the things I talk about in my coaching is that my coaching which I typically coach in a 12-week system it’s like p90x like p90x is 90 days long and it’s 90 days the body you love okay. My coaching is very similar to in 12 weeks it’s very intensive but you get if you’ll do what I asked you to do in 12 weeks you’ll come out of the 12 weeks and you’ll get some place where you actually have a recruiting model that you actually are in love with that’s a system that you can take action on for your entire career. So it’s literally 90 days to the recruiting system that you love but the truth is that not everybody has the time in the capacity or even the funds to actually do the p90x version of my recruiting training. So one of the things that we’re going to we’re actually going to start doing large group training for individuals who are recruiting leaders that want to hone the recruiting skills and but don’t have the commitment of an hour per week for the next three months, and an hour plus of homework every single week for the next you know 12 90 days or the next three months okay. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna break we’ve broken this down into 15-minute increments 15 minutes a week you apply one simple idea and over the course of the next year 2020 or launch this for January first over the course of 2020 what will happen is that if you will take action on the 15 minutes of homework that we’ve asked you to do over the course of 2020 we’re casting a vision to influence 2,500 recruiting leaders who would actually be able to move the needle significantly on their recruiting efforts. Our goal is to influence 2,500 recruiting leaders in three industries. That would be the mortgage arena the insurance arena and the real estate world. So if you happen to fall any of those three and you’re like that’s me I would be interested in that stay tuned because over the next couple of podcasts we will talk more about this and invite you into this opportunity to play a part where we will actually very simply break down for you in 15 minutes a week, how you actually improve your recruiting efforts. Our belief is this if you motivate before you actually have someone move towards something you can actually discourage them right. So you know we believe that you know motivation if someone’s uneducated equals actually discouragement so we have to move that equation that education piece all the way to the very beginning. It’s education okay plus motivation plus application equals transformation. But if you motivate and simply what you do is you motivate you ask somebody to apply it actually equals discouragement. There’s no wonder why people actually think that recruiting is hard because you have been educated in this area so you gotta educate yourself first and then if you are motivated and that’s part of what we do here we want to educate with this podcast we want to motivate with this podcast then if you will apply it then you will be transformed okay. So it’s education plus motivation plus application equals transformation that’s what we’re after here. Look our ten-year vision we started this organization in 2017 which would just cross the two-year mark this week. So rousing applause for me and my team my small team of eight people here but we crossed the two-year window our ten-year vision was to get to a place where we can influence 10,000 recruiting leaders in the open one year one window of time with this message of education okay. With this message of motivation around recruiting, because we do believe that if we can get people to apply that will be transformed.

So more information to follow on that but in the meantime if I could do anything to help you know how to reach me. Great ideas here today, take one two maybe max three ideas that you’re going to go apply there’s some very practical stuff here and then do that apply it to your business apply it to your company, and because of that you will increment incremental improvements that will influence you at a team level and an organizational level. Thanks for listening today. You’ve been listening to Richard Milligan here with recruiting conversations. I look forward to returning next week with another one of these for you we’ll be talking about vision soon and with 20/20 coming up. This is something that’s near and dear to my heart so stay tuned in the next podcast we will go deep. This will be a longer podcast I might actually break it into two we will go deep in this idea why is a vision critical to you being a successful recruiter. I look forward to sharing that with you in the next podcast have a great week everybody we’ll see you then.

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