This week's episode of Automation Unplugged we’re bringing you a webinar we recorded in July 2024 called “How to Attract Top Talent: Strategies for Ensuring Your Company Stands Out.”

About this webinar:

Attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent has long been one of the greatest challenges to growth in the custom integration industry and it remains a pressing issue today.That’s why we’re bringing you valuable insights on talent sourcing & hiring best practices to position your business for hiring success in 2025. The webinar we’re bringing you today is the first in a series of three, and covers proven strategies to make your custom integration company stand out to candidates and effectively position your brand in the hiring market.

You’ll hear from me and Samantha Hodz, Director of Talent Acquisition Services at Amplify People, One Firefly’s hiring division.

In the episode, we’ll cover:

• How to define your company’s brand identity in order to attract the right skills and culture fit candidates to your organization.
• How to create compelling job ads and calls-to-action.
• How to effectively position your brand through all the candidate research touchpoints.

SEE ALSO: Show #285: Building Businesses and Changing Lives with Jamie Kozub

Transcript

Ron:

Hello, Sam. How are you?

Samantha:

I am doing well. How are you, Ron?

Ron:

Very good. Well we have launched the webinar so we’re starting to get folks logged in, and we are gonna get this party started. So ladies and gentlemen, we are here, for the first of our summer series, where we're focused on your hiring success. And, Sam and I, and, those that are behind the scenes, including Rebecca, you all probably see her name there on screen, have been working diligently to put this webinar series together. Our focus today is to talk to you about how to attract top talent, to really ensure that you're looking at the idea of hiring people and wanting to grow your team with A players from all directions. So this three series, this three webinar series, we're going to be tackling the subject, from three very relevant areas. Number one, today, we're going to be looking at how to make sure your business is attractive. And in fact, the way that you are putting this out to the world is attractive to bring in that quality talent. My name is Ron Callis. I'm the CEO and founder of One Firefly and Amplify People, which is the sponsor and host for this webinar, is a business that we spun up, last year. We'll go into a little bit more of that detail, but really focused on helping integrators around all things hiring and staffing. And Sam is my co-host. Sam, if you'll introduce yourself.

Samantha:

Hi, everyone. My name is Sam. I am the Director of Talent Acquisition Services here at Amplify People, and very excited to be joining for the first of three in this webinar series. So looking forward to getting going.

Ron:

And Sam, you've been in the hiring space for 15 years. Can you give maybe just an umbrella overview of some of that experience?

Samantha:

I'd be happy to. So bulk of my career has been spent in the talent space. I have worked in a variety of industries and verticals. I spent a good amount of time in kind of the IT space, with finance and healthcare mixed in. And did a long stint in creative higher education as well. So pretty, mixed before arriving here and was really excited to come on board here with Ron and the team at the end of April. So coming up on three months, really exciting.

Ron:

Awesome. All right, folks, our agenda, we're going to go through intros. we're going to look at defining your company culture and the important critical role that has in your hiring process. And then we're going to get a bit more tactical hands on looking at the differences between job descriptions and job ads. And then looking at all of those touch points, potential candidates, reminder, regardless of what role, so whether it's sales or technicians or project management, or designers, or executive leadership, what are all the places those folks are going to consume information about your business and about the opportunities within your business. We will, if you've subscribed, to this, which if you're watching me, here live, then you certainly subscribe. But there will also be folks that subscribed or registered but were not able to make it. We're going to be sending everybody a copy of the video. We also are going to be going through a checklist of items to consider to, to define or refine how your business is positioning themselves in hiring. And we're going to send everyone here a complimentary checklist, in the thank you or the follow up email communication. And, just as I was previously stating, we, One Firefly, launched Amplify People, officially we launched this last September. So we issued a press release. Here's actually the copy of that press release, September, 2023. We posted it to our website, released it through media publications in the industry. And we've been serving multiple customers per month since that time. And we've been involved in the hiring and placement of dozens of candidates within our industry. And we learned a lot through that time and through those experiences and ultimately determined that there's a much larger opportunity for us to help a lot more people, which is really where you’re seeing this webinar series, bringing on additional staff into this business. And you're really going to see us ramping this up in the coming months, quarters, and years ahead, because we believe there's a lot of ways that we can help. Our mission here at One Firefly is to help technology businesses grow, and we believe this is one way that we can help you grow your business. So that's a little bit of the background or understanding the positioning around Amplify People.

Samantha:

I think it's probably a good time to define Amplify People or give an intro for those that may be unaware. And so Amplify People, like Ron said, was created out of necessity, listening to those in the industry. and it's really designed to be the one-stop talent solution for the CI industry. So years of optimizing hiring strategies for One Firefly is really what brought Amplify People to fruition and it was created to serve the industry's toughest talent challenges. And so with that in mind, I think it would be fun if we started off with a poll. So if you all don't mind bearing with us, of all the employees you've ever hired, how many of them would you consider the perfect hire? Wouldn't hesitate, would clone them if you could.

Ron:

Sam, are we allowed to call out anyone's name if they do not participate in the poll? That's appropriate.

Samantha:

It looks like we're getting good participation since you asked the question about calling people out. Oh, there you go. Look at that. A surge in participation.

Ron:

It's crazy how that happens. I love it.

Samantha:

We'll give it another quick moment, but just reviewing kind of the results as they've come through so far. I know everybody can see, this is really what we've been seeing is that it is really, really hard to acquire that perfect hire. That great culture fit, the person that just sits within your organization from a skills perspective and a culture perspective. You'll see here, 57 percent of you all said maybe up to 25%. and then another 21 percent on top of that going at 25 to 50. So you'll see 75 to a hundred percent. One person said that they had one person that, that would have fit that perfect hire mold. So you'll see, there's a lot of areas for opportunity in this. And so I, I think it's really important to delve into what that means. And, Ron, if you don't mind going to the next one here.

Ron:

Yeah, I was, and there was even one person, that had shared, “I don't employ anyone I would consider a perfect hire.”

Samantha:

I noticed that. And so there is tons of room for opportunity, room for growth and opportunity there. So based on your answers, keep those in mind as we delve into this a little bit more, but without the right team in place, you really are bottlenecked in your ability to grow and get jobs done. And you've got to make sure that you're investing your time, resources, and energy before it's too late, before you're at that point where you're falling into desperation, I'll take anybody, you've got to have a strategy in place. And what we really recommend is right now, things are slower, and so take this time during the slower economy to improve your talent solutions, so that you can capitalize on what we know will be coming, because markets, they ebb and flow, we know that it's going to rebound, and so you want to prepare now for when that takes place. And again, like I said, if you are at the point of desperation, you are going to accept everybody, and you need to keep in mind that even though you may have an opportunity available or you're trying to strategize opportunities, every person is not the right fit for your organization. And so we're going to delve a little bit deeper into that and I'm going to let Ron share some thoughts.

Ron:

If you look at our business here at One Firefly, and so I'll speak from personal experience, I've been in business for 17 years and in the very beginning of our business, I did what maybe some of you do. Not to name anyone or call anyone out, but I would look through the resumes and I'd interview them, keeping in mind I had no, experience or schooling and training in officially how to conduct an interview. And I would occasionally hire someone that was amazing. And, I would say more than often, I would hire people that were average. And occasionally I would hire someone that wasn't that great. And in fact, maybe even toxic, whether it was their personality or their lack of skills. And so your data that you all provided in your answers on that poll of around 25, call it 25 to 50 percent of your hires, are great. That is because if you do things randomly, you will get random results and including randomly, you'll hire great people. So then what are great people? So great people, your company has some definition of a culture and we're going to talk a lot here. And I say a lot, we're only going to be here for a few tens of minutes. But we speak about culture quite a bit, both in our hiring practice at Amplify People and certainly in the way that we run One Firefly. But your company has some identity or some culture, and you want someone that's going to be a great match for that company culture. And at the same time, they need to have the skills that you need them to have. They need to be willing to get paid what you're willing to pay them. They need to be the right personality to work with their peers within that business. So it's really a matter of blending and finding that great person that has the skills that's willing to get paid what you're willing to offer that's also a great fit for your company culture. And so I want you to keep in mind, when you get really specific and focused on doing that you get more and more great hires onto your team, right? And it does, just a side note. It doesn't mean you have to be the company that's paying the most amount of money for every role, right? You might not be able to pay the most amount of money. So it's really not that. It's finding the best person at the salary range, assuming that's an appropriate or reasonable salary range. It's the best person at that salary range. That's going to be a great fit for your company. If you focus on that, then you're really, you're now you're cooking. We do that here at One Firefly. I'm, very proud. I'm not doing this to brag, but I'm doing it to give you a concept or an idea, something to consider. At One Firefly, we've been growing this business. Thanks to all of you. You're here in our webinar, I really appreciate that. This year, 2024, will be our fifth year in a row of achieving Inc. 5000 status. Inc. 5000 is one of the fastest growing companies in America. To do that five times in a row is rare air. It's really hard to do that. It's hard to grow, but it's hard to grow consecutively year in and year out. And you could theoretically focus only about growth and you could have a toxic work culture. But this recognition we actually received just in the last 30 days, is really, it's one of the awards or recognitions I'm most proud of. And our team submitted us to compete against the best tech companies in North America. And we came across not with just a top 100, but a top 20 rating ranking. And it really is about company culture. And it looks at the way that you care and take care of, and the, the benefits that you offer to your team. And it compares that to all the other folks out there that applied. And we were recognized for that. So it's a balance of running a hard driving growth minded company, but also very much focused on getting the right people in the right seats getting, the analogy of getting the right people on the bus and then putting them in the right seat on that bus. When you do that, really good things happen. And that is the flywheel of momentum of growth for your business gets to accelerate versus the stopping and starting that happens when you're trying to find the right people and struggle and you hire the wrong people. It can be very demoralizing as a business owner. I feel all of you that have felt that way. And I'm just letting you know, there is, there is an other side to that. It is possible to get hiring right. And to really be improving that. When you do, you really get to gain momentum. Things get a little bit easier. If you bring the wrong people on your team, because maybe you're feeling particularly jammed up. You've got to get this job done. If you made these commitments and you just need butts in seats, you need to get work done. Hiring the wrong people is very expensive. You all know this because you've made these decisions and you've had to fire them. Oh my goodness. Maybe it even went legal for some reason, or maybe they caused harm with your client or relationship you had with a builder. Maybe they caused harm with other teammates and other people left because you brought this bad apple onto the team. But hiring the wrong people is very expensive. This is a quote from this author, Brad Smart. I recommend his book, Topgrading. I read it many years ago. And he made this point to me. And I remember back in 2009, when I read that book and I read that quote and I was just nodding my head because I had made so many bad hires by that point. I was just like, man, Brad, I feel you. Please show me the light. How do I hire less bad people? Cause I really want to grow my business. I really want to work with all of you. I want to work with more and more integrators. So some of the costs related to making bad hires, certainly the advertising fees and the posting fees, relocation. If you do that, you're going to bring people into your company and you're going to get them trained up. And guess what? The salaries that you're paying for all those personnel to train them up, to slow down, to speed up. Those are real costs, impact on team performance. Maybe your team has to slow down to work, train that person up. Maybe you have timelines, for your various projects. They're not moving as swiftly because you've got new people or green people, regardless of their experience. They're new with your business and they're new doing things the way that you do them. And so you need to train them. God forbid, maybe you lose customers or relationships because you hire the wrong person. Your business, the brand that is your business is not just a logo. It's how people feel about your business. And a lot of the impact on how people feel about your business is the way that they interact with your people. And so if those people are not on-brand, then that's going to impact the way that your brand is received in your local marketplace. For those businesses that are out there kicking butt, it's because they have a stellar brand. Doesn't mean they're perfect, by the way. We're all human and make mistakes. It's what do you do when you make a mistake and are all of your people trained in interacting with the customer the right way and the on-brand way for your business. So this is really about you knowing who you are in your hiring process. And we've all seen this picture of Bezos in his garage, starting up Amazon. And this might be who you are and that is totally okay. You need to be authentic in the representation of who you are. Because the executive that goes and works for Amazon today, this is Amazon right now, this is their headquarters. The executive that works for them today is probably not the executive that went to go work for Bezos when he was starting up in his garage. So you can aspire for greatness. You can aspire to be that different company, but you need to accurately represent who you are and what you stand for through all of your marketing and messaging, particularly as it relates to your hiring so that you are attracting the right type of talent. If we asked five of your employees to list your company's core values, would they all say the same thing? So when we talk about knowing who you are and knowing what you stand for, I get it. It's in your head. “I know who we are. I know what we stand for. I know our mission, vision, values.” Some of you would call those overly corporate-y terms. I'm gonna go to this common denominator of your values, and Sam is talking to you and she says, “What are your company's values?” And, you rattle them off. Now, if we took five different members of your team, took them into an office, closed the door, no cheat sheet, and you're not in the room to give any hand signals, and she asked them, “What's the company's core values?” Does everyone know what they are? Could they say them in the same way? And I'm just pointing this out. Because there's an idea of knowing who you are as a business and knowing that your team uniformly understands that and to know that is transparently being communicated through all of the touch points that a future candidate might be experiencing or interacting with. So we want you to know and define who you are. And I'm going to pass the baton, to Sam.

Samantha:

Sure. Thanks so much, Ron. All of the points that you just made are really critical. You can't put yourself out in the universe to attract talent until you understand who you are as an organization, where you are, what your organizational goals are, what is the current culture of your company? What adjustments are you looking to make, your growth trajectory? All of those things stem from starting with who are you as an organization? What is your purpose? What is your mission, your core values, and really important to think, one of the most important components to attracting talent is being able to articulate what sets you apart. Why would somebody want to join you on your journey to what you're trying to accomplish? Versus going to join somebody up the street across the country around the world? So that's just something to keep in mind. That being said, there are 10,000 integration firms in North America. So is it clear to candidates why they should work for you and why they should work with you? Those are really, important things to have self reflection on. And so understanding your company's identity needs to be known to everyone on your team. It needs to be documented and it needs to be driven throughout the entire organization. Because one thing that will be a killer to all of the pieces that you can put into place, you could write the best job ad and you can have the best interview structure and all of these things. But if a candidate gets in there and feels like they have been sold a bill of goods. Or the wrap, the mask is going to be ripped off if they talk to somebody other than you, then none of this matters. It all goes out the window. And so that's where it starts, with what you put out in the universe. And what you put out in the universe starts with understanding and identifying what job you're looking to fill. And so there's some key differentiators between a job description and a job ad. A job description is really a document used internally. And so it's used to provide a detailed overview of what you're looking for and it's really what you're measuring candidates against for all intents and purposes. Versus a job ad, which is an external document. This is used to mark a job role with purpose of attracting potential candidates. So diving deep into that job description for a minute. This is where, again, you are going to be able to start leveraging your network. And by your network, that starts with the people who work with you every day. Get this in their hands. Let them know the job title, the role summary and purpose, what responsibilities is this person going to have, what qualifications are you looking for, because everybody hates getting referrals that they feel bad for not being able to utilize. And so you've got to give people a very clear outline of what you're looking for so they're not just flailing and throwing everybody your way. So do they meet those qualifications? What are the education requirements? What is the reporting structure? Who is this person going to report to? What salary are you targeting? And one thing that's really crucial is the reason for the role availability. That is going to be key. And that's where your team starts to recognize, oh, we're looking to bring somebody on the team because we're growing. They're going to start buying into that process. Versus, am I about to be fired? Is that why they're looking to bring somebody on? Being honest and transparent up front is really going to help with that. Your job ad, on the other hand, is where, this is what you're putting out into the universe. This is where you're going to put down your job title, your company introduction, your why join us, key responsibilities, essential qualifications, benefits, and call to action. And you'll see here as we dive deep into some of these, when a candidate is scrolling through to look for a job, it is easy to fall into the trap of your job ad looking exactly like everybody else's. A key differentiator, and I can say this, I know we've got, people on our team who have heard this. And I've been told myself, a key reason I applied to your role is because you sold me on the opportunity with this why join us section. And so this is where you get a chance to showcase those values, that culture that you've built up, anything innovative and a differentiator for your organization. People are going to pay attention to that. And as soon as they're sold on why join us, the next thing they're going to do is look at, do I qualify? Do I have enough of the things that they're looking for to jump on this exciting opportunity that I've just found? And if they do, what they're going to do from there is they're going to look at, is it still going to be exciting when I look at the benefits package? Is that going to stand out to me? Is this too good to be true? And the last thing, if you've caught them with the why join us, you've caught them with the qualifications, they're excited about the benefits. There has to be a clear call to action. The worst thing is having them click through 75 different steps to try to attract, get something done. They're just going to move on to the next thing. The excitement is gone. And we're skipping a little bit in terms of diving deep into where to put these because that's going to be coming up next. But it's important to remember some key differences. A key difference in the job description versus the job ad is going to be the audience. It's also going to be the detail level. Job descriptions are remarkably comprehensive and detailed. Again, that's your internal measuring stick. Job ads are just supposed to be concise and attract somebody to click on the button right then and there. The purpose is completely different. And again, remember that content focus is going to be a key differentiator. Job descriptions focus on the specifics of a role while a job ad really highlights the selling points to attract applicants. So again, next month, we're going to tell you what to do to find the top talent. You've got your job description and your job ad. Where do we go from here? I know, some of you might've already registered for that one, but if you haven't, there's a link there and excited to see you on August 6th.

Ron:

We're excited to partner with Chris and, the team there at One Vision to help put together some of this content.

Samantha:

Absolutely. And so now that you've got an idea of what you're looking for, you've got it in the hands of your team, you've identified who you are as an organization, you need to make sure that the candidates that are researching you after they view your ad, you need to know what they're going to find. Because I guarantee you, again, 10,000 integrators, they are going to be checking you against somebody else, their current job, other opportunities. They're going to look at your website, they're going to look at social media, they're going to review Glassdoor or the Better Business Bureau even. And so knowing what is in each of those different components that can be uncovered and having a plan to address them is the only way to attract people to you. So if you look at the website, do you have a career section? Can they verify that what they just saw on LinkedIn or on Indeed or any other random job board, can they verify that is actually your organization and it is a real opportunity? Can they verify some of the things that you said in the why join us section? Do you have an about us section that says some of those exciting things and showcases your organization? And learn more about you beyond again just that concise paragraph? And is it up to date? Is it something that is relevant right now, or are we still showing things that happened 10 years ago? And after they do your website, they're absolutely going to check social media. And with social media, is there a clear path to your social media from your website? Again, we want to make this easy for candidates. They don't want to go digging around and become investigative journalists. They just want to get the answers to their questions. Only direct to social media from your website if you are active on social media. You want to make sure that this is relevant information that says, again, who you are today. And so make sure it looks professional. It's geared towards business. Make sure that you're showing yourself as a business. Is there profiles that you can showcase with certifications and experience that make you attractive as an employer? You'll see an example there. If you're, a Black Diamond dealer for Lutron, something to be celebrated, candidates would be interested in that. But beyond just what you do from a skills perspective or a manufacturer's perspective, do you celebrate your team? Are you going to announce promotions? Do you have clear career paths for people? This is a fun kind of surprise for an admin team on Admin Day. Can they really feel like they can be a part of your organization by scrolling through your social media? And then from there, looking at review sites, Glassdoor is something that candidates will bring up. I screen candidates regularly and without a doubt, once they learn the name of an organization, they go to that Glassdoor, and I need to know what it's saying on there. Are you checking that regularly? Do you have a plan if it dips? Are you responding to reviews on Glassdoor and the Better Business Bureau? Do you know your LinkedIn Insights, if somebody's a premium member where it shares tenure and size of an organization? One thing that I think is really important to keep in mind, and I know I'm being mindful of the time here, but it's really important that you remember that you are responding to a person. So if you are going to respond to a review somewhere, you want to do so in a professional manner. You want to address the issue. You want to acknowledge what people are saying. And it really just needs to be straightforward and non defensive. And that is a way that will, even if, there is a negative review, it can be combated.

Ron:

I agree. So folks, we do have two more webinars here. The next month, August, we're partnered up with Chris, at One Vision and that's going to be Sam and Chris, delivering, on where to find this talent. And then Sam, in September, so this will be post-CEDIA, are going to talk about how to evaluate candidates. So you have candidates that have raised their hand, maybe they've sent in an email or filled out a job application. How do you know how to filter or vet them to know who should move forward and who should get a denial response from you? And, it's really around this belief that every person that contacts your business is probably not the ideal new member of your team. So you need to understand how to run filters to find that best talent. And on that note, Sam and I say thank you. I'm going to bring in Rebecca and if see if they're… I know we ran a few minutes overi, so if you need to go we understand but we are going to stay sam and I and we're going to field a few questions That got submitted and if you have not yet submitted, feel free to either in the chat or if you want to submit a private question, feel free to do there on your, webinar link, you should have the way to submit those questions. Rebecca, do you want to join us and help us curate some of these questions?

Rebecca:

Yeah, absolutely. So we did have a great question come in from one of our guests that said, “Do you advise sharing the job description with the candidate or new hire?”

Ron:

I’ll let Sam take that.

Samantha:

Yeah, excellent question. And the short answer is no, I do not. That job description is remarkably comprehensive. And remember, it is a checklist for you to use internally. A candidate is not a member of your internal team. So you want to use that job description to develop interview questions, and they can ask maybe what some additional qualifications are. It's a great way to gauge how invested they are in the process, but you don't want to give them a cheat sheet to it so they can prepare for that exam. So no, I do not recommend it.

Rebecca:

Awesome. We have another good question that came in. “My company currently does not have a mission or core values. How do I get started defining those for my organization?”

Ron:

I can tell you what we did here at One Firefly is, we practice, at One Firefly, EOS Traction. And, which, there's a great book called Traction. If you haven't read it, it's, worth a quick read. And, we started adopting that, philosophy or that business operating system back in 2019. And in that process, we had a facilitator and coach that kind of helped guide our leadership team through developing those. I would say stay tuned to One Firefly, and specifically, Amplify People because we intend to offer that type of consulting in the future. It's currently not part of our offering, but, it is, I would say mandatory or imperative upon you to find the consultant or the advisor, even if you want to do it self-facilitated, to try to define that language about who you are, why your business exists, what you're trying to strive to achieve both for your team, and for your community, and for your customers. And, maybe a good place to start with all of that is really what are the best attributes of your best people? Call those your core values. So we're not talking about aspirational values of maybe one day, some of your people will demonstrate some of these values. But when you really look at their best of your best on your team, what are the words that would define what makes them up? Who are they and how they act every day? How do they show up every day? And try to work to refine language around that. And, that would be a good practice. That's my two cents, Sam, do you want to add anything to that?

Samantha:

No, I think that you really, hit it on the head. I think, it starts first with identifying a strategy. Are you going to do it on your own? Are you going to invest in bringing somebody in? And really a lot of self reflection. What is it that you're trying to accomplish? And where are you as an organization currently that is within reach to jot down? Look at the employees as, Ron said, look at kind of growth plans, put everything together and have an honest sit with yourself and then dive into kind of this exercise of identifying.

Ron:

I'll add one more comment on this theme of what makes you marketable. And so it has to do, it has to do with this dirty word called marketing, but what are the marketing differentiators for your business? What are the elements of your business that you think you're particularly good at? You think are potentially different than others? And you want to really codify that language. What are those things? And you then want to shout those from the mountaintops. So that's, that language should be on your website. That should be in your marketing collateral. That should be in your, if you were to ask, yourself and or your leaders or members of your team, what would they talk to a candidate about what makes your company particularly special or different? What are those things? And we would call those your marketing differentiators. And you want to write those down. That could potentially be a good place to start so that is really in the language of anyone that would be interacting as a touch point with a candidate. And it would be documented on the touch points that candidates might consume online.

Rebecca:

Awesome. We had one more question. We'll slide in one more, says, “I hate social media!” So probably not the only person on this call who thinks that, “But you guys mentioned posting about your company and your team on social media. Why?”

Ron:

I'll just give two cents and I want Sam to bring us home on this. I can just tell you, at One Firefly, how do I look at all of our online assets, our website, and our social media? I look at that I'm speaking to two audiences. I'm speaking to all of you. I'm speaking to my industry. I'm speaking to my current and future customers, and I'm speaking to my current and future members of my team. If you look at our website and you look at our social media feeds, you will see very clearly I'm speaking to both audiences. I'm trying to appeal to both audiences. It is one of the reasons we've been successful at growing our team and attracting such wonderful people. Why? Because I need those wonderful people on my team so they can take care of you, my customers. So I believe that if I bring them in and I keep them and love on them and nurture them, they will take care of my customers and take care of my industry and we'll grow together. So I would recommend you look at your website and your social media through that lens and determine, are you doing that? Maybe Sam, you could give us more specifics of how that could be done.

Samantha:

Yeah, I think it's a, the short answer is you may hate social media, but everybody loves it. The masses, that is a reality in today's world. So ignoring something you hate doesn't make it go away. It just means that is a mark against you when candidates are going through their checklist of checking things. That's one thing that is going to stand out as a differentiator and probably not a good differentiator when they're doing a comparison against others. And the one thing I want you to keep in mind, if you've gone through the exercise of identifying a company culture; identifying a vision, a purpose; identifying why you're trying to attract new people into your organization; and you have done the work to make sure that is documented and known throughout the company, you may hate social media, but you've got somebody else in your organization that would love the opportunity to step up and prove to you how much they're buying into what you're trying to do and believe in where you're trying to go. So just because it may not be on your radar, your skill set, something you love, doesn't mean ignore it. Just means make sure when you build a team, you build somebody with that strength.

Ron:

I don't want to get too techy or nerdy here on everybody. I know you're all getting ready to try to get back to your lunches and whatnot, but the internet is changing pretty dramatically in the last 18 months with all this AI stuff. And watch some of our other webinars and you'll learn about some of what's going on online. But what that also means is the role of social media in our lives is changing. And there's a lot of theories that it's likely going to become more and more relevant now and in the future, as the role of Google and online search is really finding its footing. So that means there's an opportunity there for you both in business and in your HR hiring world to rethink the strategies you're presenting online and how you're leveraging those platforms. I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I get it. It's fun to pick on Facebook or Zuckerberg or whatnot. But there's millions and millions of people on those platforms, and you want to leverage those platforms for good to the benefit of your business. And a lot of opportunities to do that. So I think on that note, I'm gonna sign off. I thank you, Rebecca, for moderating, and for helping Sam and I put this content together. And Sam, great job co-hosting. Thank you so much. And we're gonna say goodbye to everybody. And, we'll see you on the next webinar.

Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

Resources and links from the interview:

• Amplify People Webpage
• Hiring Success Webinar Series