Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by My Global Presence. The award winning Atlanta public relations agency that elevates brands and non-profits through authentic storytelling and national media campaigns. Find them at myglobalpresence.com. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is gonna be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, my Global Presence. If you want global visibility and meaningful impact, go to myglobalpresence.com. Today on the show, we have the founder and CEO with Hire Ventures, Teresa Murphey. Welcome.

Teresa Murphey: Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s I’m excited to be here chatting with you today.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about higher ventures. How are you serving folks?

Teresa Murphey: Yeah we are, um, we are 25 years old. Just celebrated our 25th anniversary. Headquartered here in Atlanta. And we help companies grow. So we take those HR headaches off their plate and help with all things from recruiting through HR, through what type of payroll and technology system do we have to have?

Lee Kantor: So can you share a little bit about your backstory? What was the genesis of the idea, and what kind of made you the right folks to be leading the charge in this area?

Teresa Murphey: Absolutely. Well, I think I have always been an entrepreneur. I think from growing up and being a little bit scrappy, I was I’m the youngest of eight children. And so I’ve learned pretty early on that. If you want something, you kind of have to go after it. And, um, when I graduated from college, moved to Atlanta, I started working in a staffing company doing recruitment and landed with my first technology startup. And from there, just realized that there’s a huge need for smaller growing companies to have resources for hiring and managing people. So I started Hire Ventures in 2001 after recognizing that need and really offering, you know, the best recruiting support, uh, in a different model that isn’t fee based. It’s one that is providing services in an hourly model to really help companies identify and hire talent and be able to do it on their own as well. And then we, uh, also with that did HR consulting. So helping with everything from onboarding to creating that first employee handbook, to building out performance management and all of the things in between.

Lee Kantor: So how has the industry changed over this kind of two and a half decades?

Teresa Murphey: Oh my goodness. Well, that’s a loaded question, right? The only thing I can say is it’s felt like a roller coaster. I think a lot of business owners that have a couple of decades under their belt can probably relate from the.com bubble bursting to the recessions and all of that. And then of course, Covid, everything is really changed. And in the last couple years, it has changed tremendously from how employees, the expectations that that some of those employees may have. And also just the style of how you manage people has definitely changed. And I think Covid coming out of Covid has really transformed a lot of the way that we work with each other and the way that we manage our teams Now.

Lee Kantor: But haven’t the fundamentals stayed the same? Like companies need people to work there. Workers need companies to hire them. Like the foundational pieces are the same, aren’t they? Absolutely.

Teresa Murphey: Yes. To an extent. I will say they’ve gotten a lot more complex. So especially for small businesses, if you’re a small business and you have a team in one state, you’re subject to those state laws. Federal laws typically apply to larger companies. But if you’re a small growing company and you’ve got employees in multiple states, the complexity can really get tricky. And that’s really where we engage with our clients and find a lot of the challenges are not that they’re fundamentally trying to do something wrong, it’s that they just can’t keep up with the changing laws and expectations.

Lee Kantor: So if they’re kind of dispersed and they have a team around the country, it’s a lot of times more efficient just to hire an expert in this that rather than delegate this to somebody and just tell them to go on AI and figure this out.

Teresa Murphey: Yes, AI can actually be wrong. I think that to your point, like the the fundamental core is still interacting and leading your, your team and your people. However, the complexity comes in, if you’ve got one person in California and another in Massachusetts and someone doing sales in New York and someone in Florida, you’re subject to all of those different state laws and they can be really, really challenging. So yes, that’s, that’s where we shine. We provide that fractional level of support. So sometimes companies don’t need a full time HR team. They don’t need that chief people officer, but they might need some strategy. They don’t need that senior leader, but they might need a little executive coaching. And then they may not need a full time doer, but they need some of that day to day covered. And so what we offer is that part time HR team that has the the level of expertise to handle everything that comes up.

Lee Kantor: Now, what about from the other side of the coin, from the employee side? Has the employees kind of mindset shifted in terms of at one point they wanted a job and they wanted benefits. And now there’s a group of people out there, probably a large group that just wants flexibility. You know, they’d love to work a few hours here, a few hours there on their terms. Is that something that is a shift in how kind of you have to manage people?

Teresa Murphey: Yeah, we’ve definitely seen that. I think coming out of Covid, we’ve seen a lot of employees needing more validation and connection. Um, we’re also seeing a shift in the way people work. And I think a lot of things have been opened up. So the ability to work remotely in what we call fractional has really shifted. Uh, I do think the core people want to feel appreciated and they still want the benefits and they still want the compensation. But to your point, flexibility, we’re seeing that hybrid or that flexibility being the number one benefit that employees are asking for now.

Lee Kantor: So let’s, uh, go back into a company has a problem and they call you. So what is that typical first problem, uh, that they have when it’s time to call the higher ventures folks?

Teresa Murphey: Oh, well, that’s, that’s a good question. I think, you know, sometimes they, there may not be a complete understanding of what the problem is, but oftentimes the founder, the owner, the leader knows that something’s not working well, like either hiring is taking too long. They’re losing candidates that they would have been confident being able to hire. They’re seeing some employee turnover, or they’re just not seeing things move at the level that they want. Um, one thing of course, is if an employee submits a complaint, if there’s a complaint, that could be something, whether it’s a claim against someone else, against the way that they’re being treated or a policy violation, any of those types of things are obvious. Some of the other things we see, though, is just that that owner or leader is feeling like things are not moving forward, that there might be something going on within their people function that they they can’t seem to figure out, but they know it’s, it’s just not as good as it could be.

Lee Kantor: Now is another area where they would call you at a point where they’re noticing, hey, we were a team where I knew everybody and we would get our people from friends of people who are already here. And now we’re almost a point of inflection where I almost don’t know everybody, but I think I have to put somebody in this spot to know everybody.

Teresa Murphey: Yes, absolutely. I think that when you’ve got a leadership team or an owner kind of answering all of the people questions, making all of the hiring, onboarding and HR related decisions, it really can tap that owner or that founder. Um, we absolutely are the type of company that we come in and we build some clarity around the hiring process. Like once you’ve exhausted your own network and you need to cast that net a little bit wider, you just want to make sure you have clarity on who the person should be, what competencies they should have more than just resume kind of keyword matching, but what competencies would make them a great fit, not only for the role that you’ve got, but where you need them to grow.

Lee Kantor: And then also that they’re the right cultural fit. Because I would imagine in today’s world, that’s just as important, if not more, to make sure that philosophically you’re all on the same page.

Teresa Murphey: Absolutely. And some of those things, those competencies and those cultural fits are some of the hardest to vet. So, you know, it’s one thing to be able to, like I said, match a resume according to what the needs are within the job description. But sometimes what you’re looking for is mindset and it’s cultural fit and it’s problem solving skills and it’s communication skills and all of those other things. So what we do is we typically recommend to our clients a multiple, multiple steps in the hiring process. We’ve all heard hire slow fire fast. Um, I would say hire slow, but with clarity and with the ability to define success in that target that you’re trying to hire. So really determining what’s going to make that person successful in the role. And in order for them to be successful in the role, what competencies do they need to have, especially for smaller companies where you may be hiring someone that wears multiple hats, or maybe they own a broader function where they’re not specialists? It can be challenging to hire people that don’t fit that. If you’re a 50 person company and you have two people in marketing, hiring someone from a large organization that’s a specialist in marketing may not work. You may need someone that’s got that broader, more generalist, functional experience.

Lee Kantor: So is there any advice you can give that leader who is in that point of inflection? What are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to getting the right people on the bus in the right seats?

Teresa Murphey: Yeah, I think really it’s having that clarity to really defining the role and defining what success in the role looks like, and then identifying the competencies. And I think for all of us that have been around for a bit, not to age myself, but to think about those employees that really, um, stood out or have have been standouts over the years and those that really didn’t work. Think about the trends that you might be able to find within that their skill set and their ability, and then creating multiple steps in that process. So even if it’s one owner having another lead person help with an interview, or even engaging a firm like ours to help with an interview so that you can put those candidates through multiple steps. You don’t want to create a terrible hiring experience. You want it to all make sense. But a couple of steps with a screen, with maybe a Zoom interview, a face to face and then reference checking and that sort of thing moving forward. I think whoever you hire, in some ways it’s still a gamble because you’re still hiring a A person and people can be unpredictable. But if you go through and you vet them as as much as you can, and then you have a system in place with maybe an offer letter that has contingencies upon it, maybe you introduce them to your organization in an introductory type of way with a, we used to call it a probationary period. Now we call it an introductory period, but some of those other things. And then you’re checking in once they’re aboard to ensure that they’re really ramping up and successful. I think hiring is something that starts before you actually start reviewing resumes. And it doesn’t really end until that person is completely onboarded.

Lee Kantor: Now, is it appropriate to ask them to do work or a project or some sampling of what they can do?

Teresa Murphey: That can be a little tricky. So in certain states it is not, um, California is one of them, but most of the time you could ask them to tie a little bit of homework into the hiring process, as long as it’s not something that’s so super intensive. Additionally, you don’t want to be using their work and not paying for it. So you don’t want to ask them to create, say, for a marketing hire. You don’t want to ask them to create an entire campaign and then go turn around and use that campaign unless you’ve paid them for it. But I think depending on the role, it’s actually, it’s absolutely appropriate to have a homework step in that process or even a presentation step in that process. If that role is going to require them to be able to do those things during their regular day to day function. It’s appropriate to have that built in. You just don’t want to cross the line where it could be considered unpaid work.

Lee Kantor: So is there a story you can share that illustrates how you work with a client? Don’t name the name of the organization, but maybe share the challenge they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Teresa Murphey: Absolutely. Um, I’ve got a lot of stories to share. We’ve got some case studies on our website as well. But I would say, um, there is one client that we started working with that was, uh, in the skilled trade arena and they had a very, uh, very strong growth plan ahead. They were going to be opening multiple locations and had a lot of big plans. So we engaged with them to not only help with their hiring, we implemented an applicant tracking system. We looked at their employer branding, looked at their Glassdoor reviews, like, what can we do there to help with responding to some of those reviews and all of that, creating a really good employer brand Recrafting job postings so that it sounds like a compelling opportunity to attract the right talent. And then hopefully detract the wrong talent from applying. Getting really clear on that. So we help them with all of the hiring. And then we also engaged in a fractional HR capacity. One of their employees had an interest in moving into HR. And that employee wanted to get her certification and then learn, um, how to kind of take on the HR, but there was not yet the HR foundation built. So we worked with the employee and with the leadership team to really lay that HR foundation, which included things like onboarding for new hires, crafting your employee handbook that is state compliant because they were in multiple states, ensuring that you’ve got performance management in place, doing reviews and helping to exit some of those employees that needed to be exited. So all of those things that are foundational pieces, being able to do that and do it in partnership with this HR person who was newer in her career but had been with the company for quite a while. So I would say that that’s been one of our funnest engagements, one of our favorite clients that we’ve worked with, um, and just, we’ve done a number of different things with them over the years.

Lee Kantor: Now, any advice for the person who’s looking to be hired? What are some dos and don’ts from a candidate’s point of view?

Teresa Murphey: I think that’s great. That’s a great question. I think that, you know, one thing we really haven’t touched on is AI and how AI is disrupting everything, including HR, including recruiting. So I think companies can really they can leverage AI in Recrafting job descriptions and doing things like that, just like candidates can. And so sometimes we see resumes come in that are very clearly AI generated. Um, and skilled recruiters are going to be able to pick up on that and know what questions to ask. And so I think some of those, some of the, the mistakes I see candidates make is either they’re hiring or they’re applying for positions that they’re really not qualified for, or they’re not identifying the roadblocks right up front. So for example, if you have a position that’s an on site role in Atlanta and this person lives in new Jersey, why are they applying to an Atlanta based on site position if they live in new Jersey? If they’re moving to Atlanta, then go ahead and make that mention. So I always tell candidates, make it really easy on the person receiving your resume or your application. Answer their questions before they ask, because then they know that you’ve actually read the job description, you’ve read through the requirements of the role. You feel like you’re a really good fit. So I think that’s one of the the best things to do and the way to avoid mistakes is just being intentional about that application. If you’re logging into LinkedIn or indeed, and you’re just doing the one click apply and you’re doing it to dozens of, um, job openings, you’re most likely not going to have as much success as if you would if you really target the one that you want. Maybe you even connect with the hiring team or the recruiter on LinkedIn, send a personal message, follow their process, and just make it as easy as possible on that person who’s actually reviewing the resume.

Lee Kantor: So do those kind of larger job boards work. I mean, it just seems like a lottery ticket.

Teresa Murphey: You know, we believe that recruiting is a multi-pronged approach. So that’s one of the things I like to say, like if you think about a fork, you’ve got multiple prongs. One of those prongs is going to be, say, LinkedIn jobs. Another might be Indeed. Another is going to be the company career page. But the biggest source that we identify candidates is through direct outreach. So when we engage with a client on recruiting, we’re going to do all of those things. We’re going to work in their system, recraft their job postings, refresh them. We’re going to set all of that up. And then we define a profile. We develop a pitch for the company, and then we actually target candidate profiles using things like LinkedIn recruiter. And we send those messages. I’m sure you’ve gotten those messages with job opportunities, but we send those messages and we tend to have a very strong high response rate because we send it on behalf of the client, because we’re not a fee based agency recruiter or a staffing company. We’re an extension of our client’s team. So we’re representing our client in that outreach. And then we direct candidates back into their applicant tracking system so that we can screen through them and move them through the process that way. Um, we find that yes, about 85 to 90% of hires that our clients are making today are directly sourced, but it’s really important to have that presence for credibility. There’s so much fraud out there. Like it’s if you have a website, you should have a career page, you should view that page from like, why would a candidate want to work for you? Why would somebody want to apply to that job? Um, it really does help, help build credibility, help build traffic and presence and all of that. So there’s a lot that there’s a lot of unqualified candidates that can come in if your job description is a little too broad, but the positives outweigh the negatives of posting that position on those job boards.

Lee Kantor: So but if you’re an individual so you should spend invest some time in kind of beefing up your LinkedIn so folks like you can find the person.

Teresa Murphey: Yes. I think that, you know, LinkedIn is probably our number one source of targeting, but, you know, you can target direct profiles and candidates that fit your description. Uh, we have LinkedIn recruiter seats for everyone on our, on our team, so they can share projects and do all of that. Um, it is, it is an important thing. Like we look for profiles that are credible and valid. We like to see consistency within the profile. If we look at a resume, we’re also comparing it to the LinkedIn profile so that we can identify any gaps or anything that might be conflicting, uh, which sometimes we see.

Lee Kantor: So what are some red flags and green flags on LinkedIn profile for you.

Teresa Murphey: Oh my goodness. Red flags. Um, photos that, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of, I have found that there are a lot of profiles that are not real people. Now they may not be applying for jobs, they may be trying to sell you lead gen services and other things. So I’m sure your audience can relate to that. But we look for profiles that line up that have, you know, the right amount of engagement depending on the role. Is it an appropriate, uh, thought that they would be active on LinkedIn? So if I was hiring a recruiter, I want to see that they are active on LinkedIn because LinkedIn is one of the sources that we use for recruiting.

Lee Kantor: But how are you defining active?

Teresa Murphey: Well, I would look at we would look at their profile and look at their activity. Are they engaging? Are they posting, you know, things like that.

Lee Kantor: So do you give them more credit for posting over engaging? Like if they’re just saying like, like, like 20 times a day, is that worth X? And then, but if they’re writing, you know, having a thought on something, is that like ten X? Yeah.

Teresa Murphey: Well, I think that it really depends. I think it depends on the function. It depends on the person, the role, the level. You know, you also to that point, you don’t want someone who’s spending, you know, endless time on LinkedIn because you still have jobs to do and all of that. So it is a balance. I think LinkedIn is a, is a resource that you can use. Having a nice profile with a nice description, with a job history that lines up with your actual job history. Those are all like green flags, as you said, sharing a post here and there, liking a post here and there, engaging in a post here and there, I think is also great, especially when it’s supportive of their company or the initiative or any of those other things.

Lee Kantor: So what about what about kind of leadership roles in organizations related to your industry is that must haves or nice to haves?

Teresa Murphey: Um, when you say my industry, do you mean HR?

Lee Kantor: No. Like if your candidate is like a candidate, an accountant and they’re members of the local accounting, whatever the trade organization or business group, and they’re the vice president and membership is that is that a okay, that’s a good thing. We’ll put that in a good pile.

Teresa Murphey: Yeah, I think it, I think it really depends on the client and kind of the needs of that client. So yes, like for, for us, when we’re hiring HR people, I want them to have HR certifications and I want them to stay up on all of the different trending changing laws. So seeing that they’ve attended a conference or seeing that they’ve attended, you know, a legal update or things like that, I think are, are really great. It shows a personal investment. You know, I’m a big growth mindset person. So I’ve attended some executive education programs and things like that. So I love seeing that. It also gives you an opportunity to connect with those people or those candidates. You could say you saw this on their, you know, their LinkedIn profile. You’d love to learn a little bit more about it. So I think it really just depends on the role and the company.

Lee Kantor: What is the kind of what’s the conversation you’re so when you’re about to go and launch a candidate search, are you building kind of this, okay, these are what attributes we’re looking for. And you mentioned some of the things what we don’t want them to have. There are certain kind of negatives in there too. It’s part of like a negative search almost where you’re, you don’t want certain people to apply because that’s not the right fit. Do you discuss that as a team? Is that that sounds like that would be kind of part of your secret sauce on how you find the right candidate.

Teresa Murphey: Yes, it definitely is. And it is absolutely what we do. So, um, typically if we were to engage on the recruiting side, we do something called contained recruiting or fractional. So fractional is basically we charge a monthly fee and we are that company’s dedicated recruiter for a certain number of hours each month. And we just are constantly hiring and screening and pipelining and doing all that contained is when a client has maybe one or 2 or 3 positions that they’re hiring for, and we’re going to contain that search into a bucket of hours, and we’re going to be dedicated for that bucket of hours. So we don’t charge like a percent of salary. We charge based on the effort. And so when we do that contained search, we, we have to get clarity around the actual job, like the requirements of the job. So we ask for job description, job posting history. Is it a newly created job? Is it one that’s being vacated? And if so, why? So we want to get all of that information. We want to understand what’s attractive about the company. Why would why would someone want to apply and work there? Uh, what does the compensation look like? What about benefits? Like all of those other things? So we build a little bit of a pitch on that opportunity. And then we also discuss process and we discuss process right in kickoff, because we don’t ever want to get a candidate all the way through to the end and find out that they have a background screening requirement, but we didn’t clear it with the candidate at the beginning or something like that.

Teresa Murphey: And so we get really clear on process all of those steps, including that homework, um, step. We’ve got clients that do pre, you know, pre-employment assessments, also called personality tests and culture index and strength finders, all of those good things. So we really understand that client’s hiring process, build it out and then we engage. And so when we go to develop a search, do a targeted search, we’re going to have all of those things in mind. So if it is a client, like I mentioned, with the background screening requirement or the, um, assessment, we’re going to mention that at the very first step of the process, if not already in the job posting. So if someone can’t clear a background check based on, you know, whatever the requirements are, we don’t even want the candidate to, you know, to, to go through any, any portion of the process or take their time to apply if they know that they wouldn’t actually be eligible to be employed. So we like to get clarity of what that successful hire is going to look like, and then build out that process and develop that strategy with all of that in mind.

Lee Kantor: Now in your, um, work, do you want more kind of fine candidate clients? You want more, uh, HR kind of fractional HR partnerships? Like what? What kind of a mix of clients do you want to have right now and where you’re at in your career?

Teresa Murphey: Yeah, we are we are definitely leaning. I mean, we’re sort of 5050, but we are probably a little bit heavier on the HR side. Um, they are separate functions within our company. So our recruiting team is all based here in the greater Atlanta area. Our HR team is also dispersed. I’ve got consultants in different states. And so they do work independently. Yet together when a client has both HR and recruiting, that is really a beautiful thing because if that client is growing through natural growth or possibly approaching an acquisition, maybe receiving, you know, any investment, private equity, VC funding, they’ve got plans ahead that require recruiting, being able to dovetail, Recruiting an HR together is it’s just magical.

Lee Kantor: So so who’s the ideal client profile for you? Um, in terms of that kind of work, is it, uh, technology? Are you industry agnostic or do you healthcare, like, are there certain niches that you kind of work in a lot?

Teresa Murphey: Yeah, that’s a great question. Our, our, uh, offices actually at Atlanta Tech Village. And we’ve always been very heavy on the technology, high growth, early stage startup, uh, industry kind of ecosystem. However, we also have done quite a bit on the skilled trade side. And both of those are very challenging industries for very different reasons. If you’ve ever tried to hire someone on skilled trade, you’ll if you’ve ever tried to find a plumber, you’ll know it’s a really tough industry. So we are not industry specific. However, we do have levels of expertise within the technology space as well as skilled trade. Um, also the services side of the business is, you know, very strong professional services. But I would say what makes our clients stand out is that they have, they are smaller businesses, so typically under 100 employees, but they have complexities because they either have a remote workforce. And that’s maybe in multiple states across the US or global, or they have other HR complexities like they’re in California, which is the most difficult state to have employees in. Um, and we’re able to really handle all of that. We are experts in U.S., HR, HR laws and rules and building cultures that support that. However, we have a lot of global experience as well.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Teresa Murphey: Our website is hireventures.Com and we are headquartered here in Atlanta. So, um, there’s no confusion there. And you can also reach out to me on LinkedIn. My LinkedIn, my name is Teresa Murphey with the E at the end. It’s a little bit different and I’m always open to having a call. I’m also always open to helping anyone if they need support in any way. They have an employee issue that comes up or a recruiting challenge and want to just chat through it. I’m here to help.

Lee Kantor: And Hire Ventures is spelled HIRE ventures.com.

Teresa Murphey: Correct? Yes.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, Theresa, thank you so much for sharing your story, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Teresa Murphey: Thank you. Lee, you as well.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.