Emily Rushton: Recruiter and Staffing Agency Entrepreneur | Amy Adler's "How I Hire"

Emily Rushton on “Amy Adler’s How I Hire” Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: Hello, my friends and welcome back to another episode of How I Hire. I am so excited to have with me today Emily Rushton. Emily and I crossed paths it had to be going on 15 years ago when we were both doing very different things within the walls of Prince Perelson in Salt Lake City. I believe at that time you were heading up a new division. Am I right moving the company to new spaces and I was hanging out there and working with some of the clients and job Seekers that the company had on their job searches. I also am Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: So excited to put out there that Emily has launched her own recruiting firm called Hire Integrated that's housed in Salt Lake City as well. And when I was doing a little bit of Background research for today. I was so pleasantly reminded that Emily had been honored as one of the 40 under 40 by Utah Business, which is one of my favorite business magazines. It's so amazing to read what they are publishing about the business community in Utah and in Salt Lake City specifically and other fun fact turns out Emily and I have almost 400 Mutual connections on LinkedIn. Of course, I don't have nearly the 20,000 followers that she does but I'm so glad that we get to travel in the same Circle. So with that hello, Emily and welcome to how I hire. Emily Rushton: Amy thank you so much that was such a generous introduction and we were talking just super brief before we hit the record button to reconnect with you and have the honor to be on your platform incredibly grateful. Thank you for that Amy. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: again the honor is mine it is compelling to me to have an expert recruiter on the podcast. This is definitely something different up till now. We've had hiring execs talk about what they do from inside organizations. This is as I like to say, I'm gonna pull back the layers for all the things that happen in the recruiting. Process that we think we know as resume writers for I'm sure the job Seekers and candidates out there also think they know about what happens but it turns out the best way to find out what happens is to ask so with no further ado. Please let me ask a couple unless you want to introduce yourself in any other way. I will gladly start asking questions. Emily Rushton: I'm ready to Spill the tea ask away. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: You this is all about the Tea. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: so my understanding is that you have this broad swath of experience in types of hires from a recruiting agency lens. So contract temporary permanent. these are all different and I think job Seekers need to know how recruiting looks for all of those things and what they need to be aware of and how they need to think about candidate processes or what hiring managers might be doing or what you might be doing as you're hopefully finding them the right people and getting that match made in heaven done for those companies. Emily Rushton: Yeah, I'll start with the most kind of simple perspective and kind of go into the more complex which contract hiring is traditionally done by someone that owns their own company they're very comfortable being a 1099 employee and at that point. It's extremely project driven. Emily Rushton: So the ability to really advertise types of contracts that you've been engaged in the length of those contracts and the results and what you've produced during that contract is really what should be talked about when you're wanting to go after a contract position and typically procurement is going to know about the procurement department. So larger organizations are going to understand what type of contract opportunities exist within those organizations as well as kind of the approved vendor in this case a recruiting vendor and that's going to really help a contract or be able to diversify their portfolio for additional engagements and opportunities pretty transactional 100% results oriented. 00:05:00 Emily Rushton: Amy from there, I'll go into a temporary hiring since you mentioned it and temporary hiring gone wrong is when a hiring manager does several rounds of interviews with a candidate and they're treating it like a direct hire permanent opportunity in Disguise. Those are always really messy and complicated and a temporary hire should be someone that's available to start work immediately and they're typically taking on a single type of task so that they can get up to speed immediately in The position are entry level tasks. This is covering a front desk where they're doing more General, but again entry-level duties. Emily Rushton: Typically a meet and greet but we're a hiring manager is really going to know if that's a good fit is typically on their first day. How reliable are they taking notes are they asking the right questions and can they just offload either a singular task are a variety of entry level tasks rather quickly so that they can get the value from that true temporary employee quickly. And then the last Amy we could talk hours and hours about so I'll try to do it justice and toss it back your way here is a direct hire specialized position. And this is where we see variety all across the board different types of interview Styles and engagements, but at the end of the day it is about Emily Rushton: Trying to have an authentic experience during the interview and a connection with the company and hiring manager that both parties should absolutely strive for so I'll toss it back to you and happy to elaborate in the direction you like. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: thanks. I appreciate that. I don't think I've ever heard. It laid out in quite that kind of Continuum and it's really helpful to hear especially around the temp element that it's a very specific sort of single Focus opportunity. That isn't obviously temporary is an intended to last forever and it's supposed to be extremely Narrowed into one thing and that the first day is almost like an interview and I guess the hiring team. How are the manager whoever is doing the procurement there is Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: Is evaluating the person do I want this person to come back tomorrow are they doing enough to say that we should do this again? And then once that person I'm gathering is up to speed and they just keep doing that. One thing until The temporary assignment is complete. Emily Rushton: And Amy, we see tips to hire assignments where? the more the candidate is on sigh the additional duties that they pick up my only caution. There is that the company has not made a long-term permanent commitment to this candidate yet and the candidate should continue to keep their options open meaning they're gonna continue interview. They're gonna continue looking at additional assignments. and most situations they're going to be Emily Rushton: Making something long term permanent and so in order to alleviate that type of risk and liability that that company is continuing to take on by continuing to make this additional investment into this candidate and training. They really need to determine what their strategy is between the risk and the reward of finding that balance saying Amy you've been here for weeks. You've been on time you see the expectations you get along with everyone. We really want to talk about what type of long-term Focus commitment we can make in this role before they get the surprise conversation from the job seeker of saying this was just a tip. I took another job and I start on Monday. See you later. Thanks for all that time you invested it was great. 00:10:00 Emily Rushton: So I guess I'm putting out this statement in the hopes that Things don't go on too long between an unexpected surprise of a temporary candidate leaving that assignment long story short. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: I appreciate that. And so then your company's role as the recruiting team. How do you mediate those conversations? Are you staying in touch with the higher temporarily hired individual and the hiring manager? I don't know what to call them. But to say okay, so we thought this was be gonna be a month long job. They're two weeks in. What are we thinking? How's this going? Emily Rushton: Yeah, I mean a lot of it's expectations before the assignment starts. We try to give a predicted duration of the assignment. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: even the Emily Rushton: We really ask for a lot of Candor through the temporary employee saying, Amy we anticipate this the last four weeks. If anything changes from your commitment, please communicate with us ahead of time give us as much notice as possible so that we can have a transition and an ideal situation. We really want you to be completely focused to this duration for the entirety of the four weeks anything beyond that we can do, through an extension and real-time conversation. So we try to prevent those surprises, but you have to understand this is a person that typically is not employed. They've been looking for a job aggressively probably before they start at this temporary assignment and it's not uncommon that they get a call. Emily Rushton: back from a company are there interviewing during this temporary assignment and so assignment that keeps extending where again a company is treating a temp employee as a permanent employee. There's just risks that they're going to take on so it is a lot of candid conversations checking in making sure they're happy with the engagement the extensions you can make it work. It's just, pixel a lot of diligence on all parties involved. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: No doubt. I think if I could. interpret or reframe what you're saying for the eyes or the ears of job Seekers who are trying to figure out what to do and an economy that seems to have been upended so many people have been laid off in the last Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: 18 months, but certainly the last three to six has been pretty scary that if they're going to do temporary work to have money coming in pay the bills whatever they've got to do. First of all, no, shame do what you need to do to put food on your table do the thing that matters but also be mindful about how the engagement is supposed to go. And if you as the job Seeker continuing to look for work, this is probably a useful thing to communicate to all parties and there's no harm in doing so if the engagement is meant to go for a certain amount of time, you'll probably have that amount of work to do because it still has to get done and they've taught you how to do it. So keep going but at the same time be wise about how your personal strategy in your job search is going to shape the conversation or the way that you are engaging through the end of your particular temporary assignment. Emily Rushton: I love it a couple of things I would add if we have the tent conversation is… Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: peace Emily Rushton: I was placing a lot of temporary employees back in. where unemployment was very high. Right and we're in a much different market and Thank goodness. But with unemployment on the rise. If you think that you may be on unemployment longer than what you anticipate no one wants to be on unemployment. It's just not a thing but temporary assignments do help kind of expand that because every week that you're not collecting unemployment that you're collecting a paycheck from a temp agency or temp service is really kind of a good strategy for making sure that you're diversifying your immediate short-term earnings, even if it's gonna Emily Rushton: Traditionally be less than what you would make on a direct hire kind of permanent type of opportunity, but there is some strategy in it. And the other ones it's really a great thing to take to an interview, If you're comparing yourself to another candidate that's not working. That's not creative. That's not resilient. That's not getting creative. It really allows you to show a level of tenacity in the interview by saying to that hiring manager, what it was an opportunity for me to work in a new industry or learn a new software or get to know a new crew of hiring managers and people that normally I would not have an opportunity to get to know so I love the message and the character that it sends for someone that's very active in the interview process. 00:15:00 Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: then that was gold and in a nutshell Being out there in the workforce Fosters being out there in the workforce, and it's not Having a gap in your resume is a bad thing. Everybody has stories to tell and that's okay. But the more you're out there and the more resilience and tenacity to use your two words engagement excitement commitment to whatever the program is. Those are things to talk about in an interview that will. Speak to the fact that a hiring manager is also looking for a fit somebody who's going to show up and do the thing and love what they're doing and talk to people and be engaged. I'm all over it. it's amazing. Emily Rushton: I told you I wasn't gonna ramble on and on about tent. So here I am. Shut me down if you need to… Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: No, no,… Emily Rushton: but yes,… Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: we should shift to. regular recruiting right Emily Rushton: Please I could talk about him for hours too. So it appears I will say this and please please shift me after this but it happens frequently that a temp assignment will end up turning into a permanent opportunity for an employee. the nature of temp work is someone's out maybe unexpectedly the chances of that person not returning always exists the chances of an open position becoming available why they're on excitement exists are the chances of this company making an opportunity especially designed for this temporary employee. Those are all outcomes that are not rare quite the opposite. So, okay. Sorry Amy, I'll stop I'll stop. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: I know that absolutely music to my ears. I don't think I've ever again heard somebody lay out the value of this type of work as part of a long-term strategy in quite the same way and listeners if you're tuning in on to this or keying in on this specifically consider, of course always reaching out to Emily and to hire integrated because She's got the stuff. But this is something to think about that is. You might think of as supplemental in your strategy, but actually can be very, very cool stuff. So that is actually okay. I am going to Pivot now to the sort of complex timeline or strategy of learning about an organization's needs over recruiting agencies learning about an organizations needs engaging with them to find Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: amazing people because everybody wants that to happen all three elements of the equation want that to happen the recruiter the hiring team and this job Seeker who's out there or maybe not even as a job Seeker yet, right because this person could be working you could be waving some magic reading some magic and getting this person so compelled by a new role that they make a transition. So given that this is the first kind of conversation that we're having on. This is how I hire let's dig in tell all the things. Emily Rushton: I love this question Amy so much. Thank you. The reason why hire integrated exists Amy is to my core. philosophically, I believe that an employee that wants to be with an organization. Is going to contribute. Emily Rushton: So much more to that organization because they choose to be there. Versus if I had to choose an employee that checks every single box from a skill set standpoint, but there's not a culture Between that candidate and that company it is really critical for the success of I think engagement. Emily Rushton: So I have to train my recruiters at Hire Integrated and I still see this pop up on our social media from time to time and it drives me a little bit crazy, but I never ever want to tell I candidate that we have the perfect job for them. That should be their decision not our decision our involvement in the journey between a candidate and a hiring manager in a company is basically to introduce inform encourage and to kind of help them navigate the process. we don't know every single thing about that company. we don't work there and I think that's where the recruiting industry gets it wrong is they feel like they have to hit this. 00:20:00 Emily Rushton: Expectation of knowing every single thing about these opportunities. They're representing. No, we want to enable someone to have a high level of curiosity to seek knowledge themselves for things that aren't as readily available online and through their own research that's important to them to obtain or to at least set the stage so that conversation can happen between the hiring manager and the candidate and I think I got this philosophy from over my career. I would always ask kind of hiring managers. All right, if you could have one of two candidates one being one, that's perfect for the job that can do everything day one and that's all they've done for the last five or ten years and nothing else. Emily Rushton: Versus someone that's only maybe checking two or three of the boxes out of 10 that their capacity for learning in the future could wait exceed those 10 boxes. They could check 20 30 boxes and be dynamic and grow with the organization. Which candidate are you going to choose? it's a simple answer and it's a simple question but it kind of level sets the profile the person we want to hire which is someone that has capacity to grow and learn what the organization and they want to be there and they want to grow and learn with the organization. So if we can make sure that those synergies align Way Beyond just the skill set elements, we can really bring a dynamic candidate to the table. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: So I love hearing this because I don't know if you've been following some of the same LinkedIn chatter that I have. Emily Rushton: Okay. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: There's been a whole thing about preferred and required qualifications. And when you should apply how much do you need to have to impress a recruiter enough that they will present your resume or impress a hiring team enough that they even want to read what you've got to say or have a converter take any time, waste their time if you will speaking to you because they might see it that way and I'm feeling like there's two really aren't camped people who say everything don't bother or Give it the best go you can. Emily Rushton: Yeah, I dial this down to a question. If you are going to go interview with a hiring manager. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: Okay. Emily Rushton: Let's say you've made it through the screen the recruiter the AI matching all those things. You have to make it through. It's a journey I understand that. But you're setting down in front of the hiring manager and by this time, you've had a couple other conversations ample time to research right if you cannot articulate. To that hiring manager of how you can help the overall company. hit their objectives goals vision mission quicker Faster by hiring you You're probably not prepared for that interview. Emily Rushton: you have to be prepared to go out of your way and share the answer to that question in most of my, interviews that I do and podcast I always talk about Netflix because it was a huge milestone account for me and it kind of pivoted in shaped a lot of my beliefs and direction. I will always be thankful for that account and I talk about it frequently because of how much I adore it. But I really learned, the ability to every single person to be able to articulate that from a sea level higher all the way down to a customer service hire a customer service rep should be able to say to the hiring manager. Emily Rushton: If you hire me, I will protect the company I will protect the Envision and not only will I protect it. I'll enhance it. I'm going to talk about my favorite Netflix series when I'm talking to customers on the phone. I'm gonna figure out which one there's ours and one of your core values is providing an authentic experience. I'm not gonna ask someone how their day is and say How was yours and go on? Gonna tell them how my day was and I really want to know how their day was because that is one of your missions and I'm on the front lines and I want to live it and breathe it every single way that I interact with your customers. That's what you're going to get when you hire me. And that can be transferred at any organization at any level if they truly understand the vision and mission of a company. That's so readily available. 00:25:00 Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: so definitely is important for those in job search to research the organization so they can make those connections and feel authentic when they describe how they're connecting with them It's something we talk about in resume writing, but I imagine at the interview stage. It becomes even more crucial because people can see your face and people can know. We talk in the talk, but are you walking the walk and giving that? substance and depth Emily Rushton: ' That's right. Even I mean how impressive is it to go to an interview and be like, hey, I just watched your CEOs message, that was published last month and mentioned one of your goals this year was to break into a new market and to Japan, research that never worse than the market but here's something that I'm aware of and I want to contribute and I want to be a part of that because That's the company's mission in any way that I can by joining the team it just a silly example, but it shows a great deal of preparedness and you can bring connection and commitment to the conversation by identifying those indicators is more. So what I'm trying to say. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: I don't think it's a silly example because I think it does exactly what we were talking about sort of filling that gap between the things. I have done versus the things I have not done. So if it were me I've not worked and candidate. I've not worked in the Japanese Market, but I've done all these other things that will support your entry into the Japanese market and it says that you're paying attention to the ecosystem and explain, owning the fact, you can look as hard as you want. You won't find anything in my background about Japanese Market service. but I will be there every step of the way waving the flag and Living the mission and making every person who contacts me via phone if I'm a customer service rep or be I'll make their experience an amazing one no matter what country they're from and no matter what culture they hail from and how they live their truth. this is gonna be me every single day and… Emily Rushton: That's right. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: I love that. Emily Rushton: That's right. every company. They need the employees all marching in the same direction to get their successfully faster and to achieve goals. And that's what a CEO is trying to achieve a message a direction and just some type of alignment in March. And so you're not going to be able to go in a direction. If you don't know where you're headed and so to acknowledge you understand where the company is headed and to go out of your way and take ownership of that in the interview is going to set you apart. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: I truly again appreciate hearing all of this advice. And I don't know if you ever think of yourself as a career coach, but this is career coach gold. So folks out there who are hearing your voice should take what you are saying to heart and as real strategic coaching for how they should prepare for an interview and what recruiters know about the process that is going to connect with the needs of the person doing the hiring and I guess to be that bridge to find the right person who's going to make that message a reality for both parties and Enable them to have the conversations they should. Emily Rushton: It's hard Amy because the job Seekers are always the one that has to take on ownership to be the ones that are interviewing and we're always barking at the job Seekers to kind of bring on their level of preparedness and engagement and the truth of matter is a lot of times our hiring managers are experienced hiring managers and they're not always opening up the opportunities in the interviews to have those authentic dialogues. That's the secret right here is hiring manager can be just in not prepared not engaged not energetic not experience in interviewing and 00:30:00 Emily Rushton: it's hard because here I am saying I know that exists and hardly ever does it get talked about but it's a real thing. And so I'm trying to encourage that person that's going in for That interview to be brave and not to be asked to wait to share something that's important to them or ask an important question. That's really going to help them determine if it's the right job for them. They have to kind of make it happen. Be brave because our hired managers in the interviews don't always give us the opportunity to do that. Unfortunately, that's the truth of the matter. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: I'm sure your clients and your candidates what You probably call a candidate are going to value your stewardship and the way you broker these relationships for them both because they're probably both scared. They both want to see it to come to a positive conclusion. Nobody is a professional job ker. They want to do the thing. They're good at and that they're meant to do on this Earth and recruiters are such an amazing conduit for that to take place. So with that, I think we're coming to the end of our talk here. Although we could talk. I'm sure for hours and maybe we should do it again, but companies want to find your candidates want to see what positions you might have on your plate at the moment. How should they reach out to you? Emily Rushton: thanks I'm really active on LinkedIn even though I don't manage hardly any of our open jobs. I'm really fortunate to have an experience team of recruiters that can engage much quicker with the vast of candidates and job Seekers out there, but I try to be as responsive as possible. So I'm very active on LinkedIn personally, but how you're integrated we have Emily Rushton: A page that's completely dedicated to jobseekers on there was a labor of love. We put together a job Seeker packet that anyone can download that just gives tips. My favorite tip is smiling breaking the ice saying the name of the person conducting your interview Amy, right people feel a connection when you address them by their name, it's true. And so all those tips plus more can be found in that packet that anyone can download but that's how you're gonna find out about our opportunities and engage with us and I tell people and this applies not just the higher integrate it but any opportunity you're applying for if you apply for a job and you don't hear from them. we're not moving forward with your resume and you're so shocked disappointed because there was something really special about that job that maybe you felt a connection to go out of your way to be heard and Emily Rushton: And be okay to push back and say Amy, I think let me give you a little bit more context as to why I applied and why I feel like there's some connections and dive deeper into this. Can you please reconsider my candidacy? That is okay. What's the worst they're gonna say is it? No, you apply you don't hear anything back go out of your way to stand out connect with people on LinkedIn send them a message. Let them know that you applied. Willing to send over additional information again, you have to be bold. You have to stand out you have to bring a little bit of creativity to it and surround yourself with cheerleaders that give you the encouragement to do that. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: Mic drop, I don't know what else to say Thank you. it has been a delight to reconnect, of course Emily and to hear your wisdom and to know that this is coming direct from the expert that the Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: People who are going to be consuming. This content should listen twice or three times to your Sage wisdom and to reach out to you at Hire Integrated and on LinkedIn and connect with your team potentially and look at the positions that are under job seekers page and download that et. To find ways that maybe they can be the next great hire that's going to travel through your recruiting process, too. Emily Rushton: Thank you Amy for your time today. You're very kind. Amy L. Adler, MBA, CMRW: such a pleasure and I hope that we speak again soon. Thank you. Emily Rushton: Say same. Thank you.