In simply 11 years, Joshua McKee’s Atlas Staffing has grown to 5 western U.S. areas, having launched with one in Spokane, Washington. The corporate serves a burgeoning gentle trade area of interest, however to McKee, success stems from its core values. “Embrace development” is his favourite.
Explaining the time period, he advised me, “An individual with a development mindset finds which means within the journey and appears at failure as a possibility to study and as a stepping stone to the subsequent success.”
Values matter to McKee. I ought to know, as he was a co-founder years in the past of Beardbrand, my firm.
He and I lately mentioned his spectacular Atlas Staffing journey. Your entire audio of our dialog is embedded under. The transcript is edited for readability and size.
Eric Bandholz: Give us a rundown of Atlas Staffing.
Joshua McKee: We’re a lightweight industrial staffing firm. We’ve been in enterprise for 11 years. We’ve got 5 areas throughout the western U.S. and simply opened our latest department in Phoenix. It’s been an extended, laborious 11 years, however I’m happy with what we’ve constructed.
We’re an enormous believer within the Entrepreneurial Working System [EOS]. We carried out it years in the past in our enterprise. It was an essential first step to getting critical about core values and objectives and ensuring they movement to everyone within the firm. It’s been important to the place we’re right this moment.
We’ve got clear core values and behaviors and work laborious to speak them to all workers.
We meet our recruiters on the department stage day-after-day. We’ve got weekly huddles and Monday morning conferences just like the EOS prescribes. Throughout these conferences, we focus on our values. We wish our staff to convey tales about candidates who’ve embodied these values. We have a good time after we hear these tales and share them on our firm intranet.
We attempt to create and talk parameters, corresponding to, “That is the habits and values we count on. That is the objective, and that is the core course of. In case you’re following these, every thing else is as much as you.”
We wish folks to precise their uniqueness as a result of we study a ton from them. We don’t have all of the knowledge on this planet. We don’t command and management. We wish to see folks take dangers, fail, and make selections that maybe our govt staff wouldn’t make. However we all know what values and behaviors assist a recruiter achieve success. We wish to be certain that these values are entrenched early in somebody’s employment with Atlas.
Bandholz: What are these core values?
McKee: I’ll begin with my favourite: “Embrace a development mindset.” It stems from Carol Dweck’s e-book, “Mindset.” It’s not about monetary development. It’s about challenges and obstacles in your life. An individual with a development mindset finds which means within the journey and appears at failure as a possibility to study and as a stepping stone to the subsequent success. We wish folks to have the mindset of falling brief, studying, and transferring ahead.
“Get comfy with the uncomfortable.” That’s one other one. We wish folks to do the laborious factor first. It’s straightforward for people in a gross sales function to chase what’s straightforward in the meanwhile. “Eat the frog” is one other approach we phrase it.
After which we’ve, “At all times defend the staff.” That one’s simple. We glance on the staff because the enterprise. A rising tide lifts all boats.
“No optional-ism” is a made-up phrase that we like. It means, “I made a dedication. I promised one thing.” We wish folks to comply with by means of with their commitments, guarantees, and objectives.
Bandholz: What are your core values round clients?
McKee: “Obsessive about buyer success.” We wish to preserve the outcomes of the shopper in entrance of us. In case you neglect the shopper, you’re lacking the purpose.
We’ve got two kinds of clients: our candidates and the businesses that rent them. We’ve got completely different advertising methods for every. On the consumer firm aspect, advertising is extra of gross sales enablement, ensuring our staff has the swag and the collateral to get in entrance of a potential consumer.
On the candidate aspect, we’re asking, “What are our candidate acquisition prices? How are we reaching them? Is our messaging on level?”
Historically, staffing has been extra sales-oriented and fewer advertising. I heard one govt of an enormous firm say, “Advertising’s type of a passion. It doesn’t do a lot for the enterprise, however I take pleasure in it.” To me, that gave the impression of a possibility. We’ve determined to spend the cash to grasp how our candidates are trying to find work and the way we are able to attain them.
We at present have upwards of 35,000 candidates in our database, and it’s rising. Advertising has helped us perceive the worth of that database. We will dig into it as a substitute of going to Certainly or Expertise.com or shopping for Google Advertisements. We’ve bought candidates in our again pocket. It appears apparent, however it’s new in our trade.
We’re nonetheless a small firm. We don’t have a devoted chief advertising officer. We’ve got a fractional marketer who’s been phenomenal in serving to us perceive our metrics, corresponding to what investments are paying off. We do a number of e-mail advertising and automation. Now we’re utilizing bots to correspond and re-qualify candidates within the database. That’s been useful as properly.
Bandholz: When ought to firms use a staffing company versus hiring workers straight?
McKee: Each enterprise has to determine its core actions. Ecommerce firms have many actions and features which can be core.
If the duty of hiring shouldn’t be core to a enterprise, then staffing is smart. There are all types of staffing specialties. An industrial staffing firm may assist find the proper logistics particular person. Different nice corporations concentrate on advertising expertise.
Bandholz: How can listeners join with you?
McKee: Our website is AtlasStaffing.com. We serve employers and workers in Phoenix, Portland, Spokane, Boise, and Central Washington. We’re at all times looking for new recruiters, too. I’m on LinkedIn.
