Well, that wasn’t quite the start to the year I was expecting as I’ve been in and out of hospital for the last two weeks. I’m pleased to say though that I’m now well on the way to making a full recovery and regular podcasting service is now resumed. A huge thank you to Nick Price for helping me out and introducing last week’s episode, and I would strongly recommend you check out Career Life Stories to find out more about the great work he does.
So on with this week’s show. After my recent hospital experience, it seems very fitting that the main focus for this week’s guest is recruiting healthcare professionals. Blake Thiess is Director Of Talent Acquisition at Prestige Care. Recruiting healthcare professionals and nurses, in particular, is a real challenge in many countries, and Blake talks about the techniques his team use, as well as the importance of grit and resilience.
In the interview, we discuss:
- Recruiting in a hyper-competitive environment
- Pipelining with a CRM
- Highly targeted recruitment marketing
- Generating brand content
- What do grit and resilience mean in practice
- The skills recruiters need in 2020
- The importance of leveraging video
- Personal brand or employer brand
Blake also discusses the role of technology and shares his thoughts on the future of talent acquisition.
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Transcript:
Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
Support for this podcast comes from TA Tech, the Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions. T8Tech conferences are always great to attend, but they’re taking things to the next level this year by teaming up with Unleash. The joint TA Tech Unleash Mega Conference takes place in London on March 24th to March 26th and we’ll bring together thought leaders from both Europe and the US to explore key issues in talent acquisition. From avoiding bias in tech based recruitment products to exploring how automation will change the role of recruiters from how best to buy and implement technology to optimizing advertising, ROI and the candidate experience. The program will be loaded with one of a kind insights and tons of take home value. For more information, visit tatech.org events that’s tatech.org and click on the TA Tech Unleash London Conference tab.
Matt Alder [00:01:25]:
Hi everyone, this is Matt Alder. Welcome to episode 241 of the Recruiting Future podcast. Well, that wasn’t quite the start to the year I was expecting as I’ve been in and out of hospital for the last two weeks. I’m pleased to say though that I’m well on the way to making a full recovery and regular podcasting service is now resumed. A huge thank you to Nick Price for helping me out and introducing last week’s episode. I would strongly recommend you check out his website careerlife stories.com to find out more about the great work he does so on with this week’s show. After my recent hospital experience, it seems very fitting that the main focus for this week’s guest is recruiting healthcare professionals. Blake Thiess is Director of Talent Acquisition at Prestige Care. Recruiting healthcare professionals and nurses in particular is a real challenge in many countries and Blake talks about the techniques his team use as well as the importance of of grit and resilience. Enjoy the interview. Hi Blake and welcome to the podcast.
Blake Thiess [00:02:35]:
Hey, good to be here Matt. Really excited.
Matt Alder [00:02:37]:
An absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Could you just introduce yourself and tell us what you do?
Blake Thiess [00:02:42]:
Sure. So my name is Blake Thiess and I am the Director of Callen Acquisition for Prestige Care. We’re headquartered here in Vancouver, Washington, States of America and we own and operate over 80 assisted living and skilled nursing care centers up and down the West coast, about 80 locations in eight Western states and I oversee and set the recruiting strategy and function for the entire organization at scale.
Matt Alder [00:03:11]:
Interesting stuff.
Matt Alder [00:03:12]:
So I’m presuming you Must have some pretty interesting recruitment challenges in your organization. Could you tell us a little bit about them?
Blake Thiess [00:03:20]:
Yeah, understatement of the day, Matt. I’ll say that. So as far as challenges go. So here in the United States, you know, as we currently sit in the year 2020, we are in the midst of a nursing shortage. And it’s not just registered nurses, it’s licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, just really healthcare professionals in general, but primarily focused on registered nurses. And so unfortunately, the school system here in the United States is not graduating enough registered nurses to meet the demand. Basically, it’s economics 101 MAT, supply and demand. The demand is far outpacing the supply and that’ll continue for the next 20, 30, 40 years here in the states. And so what we’re up against is trying to attract and retain registered nurses in a highly competitive environment. A lot of our care centers and communities also are in remote locations. We’re talking Central Washington, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and some parts of Oregon in general. And so trying to attract highly qualified educated folks to remote markets in a hyper competitive environment is, it’s challenging. So we’ve had to think and act outside of the box and quite frankly hustle harder and implore our own grit to see success. Certainly it’s a never ending quest to find and attract and keep those folks. But I think, you know, being gritty and resilient, that’s really the slight edge between those in the recruitment space that are winning and not winning.
Matt Alder [00:05:08]:
Interesting stuff. And I think that that’s something that lots of, I think the challenges that lots of talent acquisition professionals will share, obviously people in the same sector as you. The problems that you outlined in nursing education and recruitment are certainly very true in Europe as well as the US but think lots of people are looking for, as you say, highly qualified people in very competitive environments, sometimes in remote locations. So I mean, talk us through some of the strategies and tactics that you’re using to overcome those challenges.
Blake Thiess [00:05:42]:
Yeah, great question, Matt. So there’s not one silver bullet, I will say that. But some of the ways that we’ve been able to see success is, is many ways. Number one, pipelining candidates. So talking to anybody and everybody that will talk to us and being vigilant about putting them in a specific pipe for a specific role at specific locations. So here’s a great example. We rolled out a CRM a little while ago which has truly acted as a game changer for us as an organization. We now have the ability to put various people in different buckets for different jobs in different geo locations. So that individual that says, hey, you know, I want to relocate to Oregon, I don’t care where. Prior to that we didn’t have a system in place in which we could put them in various buckets. Now we do. We also have the ability to inbound market utilizing programmatic job advertising and email drip campaigns. So that has been a true game changer for us. Matt, number one. Number two, sponsored ads on social against geographic radiuses as well as job titles. That has been a game changer. We utilize that strategy quite a bit to get our brain in front of people because I mean the unemployment rate in the United States for healthcare professionals, 0.9%, Matt. So that means for those keeping track at home, that’s under 1%. And so the fact of the matter is the eyeballs are not on job boards. Us as talent acquisition and recruiting professionals. I think my colleagues are tired of me saying this, but we’re in the attention game as recruiters and TA pros. We need to know where the eyeballs are at. If I know where your eyeballs are at, I can get my brand, my EVP in front of you. And so you can walk around any town, any city, whether it’s in the uk, Spain, the States, it does not matter. Everybody’s on their mobile device looking and they’re most of the time on social. So we go heavy on social to the extent that we can. Number three, you know, we also have been very vigilant, especially in the last 12, 18 months about pushing our employer brand out there. And keep in mind we didn’t have a budget of, you know, 75, 100, 200K to execute on this. We’ve been doing this with our smartphones, you know, creating the content and what that content looks like. I’d strongly encourage anybody to check us out on any of the socials jobs. At Prestige, you can kind of see examples of what we do. We highlight our employees, get quotes from our actual employees, get high resolution quality photography of our own team members and we share their story, we share their career path, we highlight the buildings, our beautiful buildings. Many people think that these places are dark and dingy and they stink. That is 100% inaccurate. And so we’re having to also battle inaccurate assumptions about our space. So we utilize various forms of media, high resolution photos, video, things of that nature to combat that. Those are just three ways that we’ve seen success now and quite frankly into 2020 and into the future.
Matt Alder [00:09:01]:
Now you mentioned grit and resilience being a Key part of your recruiter’s success. Could you tell us a little bit more about what you mean by that?
Blake Thiess [00:09:11]:
Yeah, great, great question there. So what I mean by that is, you know, if you look at most, most recruiter resumes, at least here in the States, a lot of folks are, are moving around every 12, 18, 24 months. I think a function of that is, or why that is, is because folks maybe aren’t as emotionally strong, internally strong to overcome the hard times, overcome the challenging times. And so I only have to look at myself and my colleagues here in the office. You know, a lot of folks, a lot of healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment, a lot of them don’t want to work in senior care because it has a bad, I guess I’m going to call it just brand. And so we’ve had to, you know, overcome adversity over, you know, grit adversity. It gives you motivation, it gives you the juice to, you know, if you’re gonna fall down seven that, you know, getting up that eighth time, you know, having that never satisfied orientation, always having that, I’m gonna use the term chip on the shoulder, you know, that, that drive and that will to overcome and to prove people wrong. You know, a lot of, a lot of our buildings too, sometimes they will have higher turnover for XYZ reason. And so we’ve had to go to the well again and again and we’ve seen success in recruiting for registered nurses in some of these remote locations. And I think past examples of overcoming adversity gives you that resilience and grit to push forward. Even when you’ve done something three, four, five times and you have to do it for that sixth time. You know, that is one way that my colleagues and I have seen success. And you know, for the, just the broader TA and recruiting audience as a whole, that’s another way that they can, that they can see success in their own practice. Whether it’s hiring, you know, engineers in the tech space, nurses in the healthcare space, you know, sales, you know, highly qualified salespeople in various spaces. So, you know, that’s what I mean by that. It’s, it’s intentionally sprinting towards what you fear, intentionally sprinting towards the hard stuff because the hard stuff makes us emotionally tough, spiritually tough. And that’s what allows us to level up our own careers.
Matt Alder [00:11:36]:
And just in terms of careers and talent acquisition professionals, what other attributes and skills do you think a talent acquisition professional needs in 2020?
Blake Thiess [00:11:50]:
I love this question, Matt. Thank you for asking. So, you know, and right off the top of my mind here, the ability to effectively write, I think is huge and undervalued. And what I mean by that is keep in mind, you know, not everybody’s eyeballs are on job boards, but when people’s and passive or active candidates eyeballs are on the job boards, they need to look at a job posting, they need to look at a post on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, whatever. And that content, that copy has to be engaging. It can’t just be a copy and paste of a job description. That is really boring. I think a true TA pro and I’m putting myself in this, we can always get better. All of us can get better at this is an effective, an influential writer. I know for me in my own practice and just really my own professional life. I’m not a writer, Matt. I’m an HR guy through and through. And I started writing and blogging probably two years ago. Not on a consistent basis, but some here and there. My game there has improved a little bit. There’s a long ways to go. But the ability, back to your question. The ability to, you know, effectively write and write in a way that’s influential can be the slight edge between that individual applying for your job, reaching out to you and not. So I think that’s a main, I think that’s a differentiator for a talent acquisition and recruiting professional in 2020. Number one, number two, video. Being comfortable on video, speaking your truth on video, being visual via video I think is so key. Hardly any TA and recruiting pros are doing that at scale. I’ve dipped into that. I want to just really go 10x20x on that into 2020. It just comes down to execution. So getting comfortable on video because video can allow you to stand out from the competition in a highly, highly competitive environment. I only have to look at my own practice here trying to recruit nurses. I mean no one else in my space is leveraging video. Talking to nurses, talking to nursing leaders, other operations leaders. I don’t see it because I’m connected with a lot of, you know, many, many of my colleagues in the healthcare space, healthcare recruiting space and beyond. So, you know, having the ability to being comfortable and bringing value via video. I think that is a differentiator in 2020 for recruiters and TA pros. And then number three, I think it’s the ability to effectively build pipelines. I know I talked about that a few moments ago and I view building pipelines as fundamental. That is a fundamental action that a high performing recruiter must be able to complete and execute on. I see a lot of recruiting and TA pros hiding behind their laptops. I think those that are out in front building pipelines, always talking, always engaging and having the systems in place to engage people, I think those are the folks that are winning. Because, you know, when that role in a, you know, in a, for instance, a registered nurse role in Boise, Idaho opens up, I’ve already had conversations with folks. And so when that role opens up and I reach out to that individual, they will remember me. They’ll remember the content I’m pushing out and that conversation. So it’s a more warm lead as opposed to a cold lead. So I would say the ability to effectively pipeline and build a robust pipeline that is key for recruiters and TA success in 2020 and beyond. Those are just the three things I would lean back on.
Matt Alder [00:15:39]:
Now, you mentioned earlier about the importance of the employer brand that you’re building and things like writing and video talent acquisition professionals. They’re obviously contributing to their personal brand as well. How do you see the balance between those two things? Should employers be leading with the employer brand or should recruiters be building a personal brand within their target audiences?
Blake Thiess [00:16:07]:
So I think it’s both, Matt. I really do. And that’s so weird that you bring that up because I was thinking about just this specific question. I think it was either on the drive into my office today or yesterday. You know, I think a recruiter’s personal brand is definitely, you know, married together with the employer brand, or at least it should be. You know, certainly as a recruiter and a TA pro, you’re a public relations officer for the organization. And in a lot of ways you’re a marketer for the organization, you’re a salesperson for the organization, amongst many other hats. But I think it’s imperative that individuals build a robust personal brand. And I think one of the cornerstones to a personal, I’m going to use the term personal recruiter brand is the ability to be viewed as a subject matter expert in the space, whether it’s nursing, whether it’s network engineering, whatever. And being visible too, allows you to build trust and influence. If you have trust and influence as an individual, you are then able to pivot that and be able to sell that employer brand as well. So I think it’s an and I think it’s a both and an and furthermore, and this is, I guess more talking about professional development. You know, in a lot of ways, recruiters and TA pros, you know, you want to be able to build influence and Build an audience. Whether you’re in at X company, Y company, A, B, C company, doesn’t matter. You need that influence and that subject matter, expertness, quote unquote, to be able to travel with you wherever you go. And so building an influential personal brand can only open up more doors for you as a professional now and in the future. To kind of speak my truth, I think that’s been a big, you know, boon for me is when I went all in on trying to build a personal brand that’s opened up so many awesome opportunities professionally, not only within my own organization, but outside to, you know, coach, guide, train, speak at conferences. It’s a boatload of fun. And I think building a robust personal brand can only allow an individual to level up their own career, which opens up more opportunity. And that’s what we’re all looking for as professionals. I don’t care if you’re in the recruiting, TA space, a nurse, it doesn’t matter. We just want opportunity to impact.
Matt Alder [00:18:40]:
Absolutely. I really, I couldn’t agree with you more. You mentioned your CRM earlier in the conversation. How important is technology in all of this? What kind of role can it play?
Blake Thiess [00:18:51]:
It’s a great question, Matt. So, you know, I’m pretty dialed into the space. So I, you know, I read a lot of the blogs and articles and things of that nature. And there’s so many folks that are, you know, talking about the AI revolution and how tech is going to overtake recruiting and ta. And I think it’s those that can, I think it’s those TA and recruiting professionals that can effectively leverage technology and not be overtaken by it. Those are the people that are going to win. And what I mean by that is, look, a passive candidate can’t trust a machine. By our nature, as humans, we want to be in community, in relationship with other human beings. And I think it’s those that can create genuine relationships. This is like recruiting one on one. Back to my earlier dialogue of the fundamentals of recruiting, kind of the cornerstones of recruiting, I think it’s those that can build relationship, meet people where they are at, not hiding behind a computer screen, but going out into the marketplace, connecting with people where they’re at. I’m going to use the term old school recruiting. I truly believe old school recruiting is going to come, be coming back. And that might be a differing opinion compared to some of my other colleagues here in the space. But I think it’s those that can get out in front of people and connect with folks. Those are the TA and Recruiting pros that are going to get the win. But back to your question. I think it’s those that can leverage technology and its scalability that can be a game changer. Here’s a great example Matt. So you know I’m actually, I’m looking at my CRM right now in front of me and a lot of who we get to hire here at Prestige Care, at least out of my office here are passive candidates. These are people that maybe don’t even know about the organization. They sure as heck haven’t applied. So I have the ability to effectively inbound market my employer value proposition and send email drip campaigns. Not out of this system, but I know other systems have drip text messages message, SMS text message campaigns. So that allows the user, the TA and recruiting pro to reach people at scale and all you have to do is press one button and a sequence of emails or inbound correspondence goes out. When before I would have had to carve out time to do this over and over again. But with this part with technology you’re able to do that. So I think it’s those that can identify the tech that’s going to work for you and your practice in your space that’s cost effective. I want to iterate that and that can harness that technology and leverage it to source and see success in their space. I don’t know if that answers your question, Matt, but that’s just kind of what I see when I think of AI and when I think of tech in the TA and recruiting space that.
Matt Alder [00:21:48]:
Totally answers the question. Building on that question as a final question, what does the future look like? Where do you think we’re going to be in two or three years time with all of this?
Blake Thiess [00:22:01]:
Well, I think I’d lean back on my comments before but two or three years down the road, I don’t think I am of the opinion that it’s not going to be chaos. Right? I mean some of the folks quarterbacking what could come or two or three years are saying oh well, AI is going to overtake all sourcers and recruiters. I don’t believe so. Again, I think it’s those individuals that can build relationships with passive and active candidates. Those that can build an influential personal brand, meet people where they’re at. Influential personal recruiter brand. Let me kind of italicize that Matt. I don’t think much is going to change. I am of that opinion. I think those that can effectively harness technology, I think those are the people. I think that’s where we will be. But I don’t think it’s going to be a situation in which AI is going to completely overtake this industry, causing mass layoffs and things of that nature. I think. I think it’s the soft skills of recruiters and TA professionals. I think those that have those soft skills that can build, brand and execute that at scale, I think those are the folks that are going to be pushed ahead in this industry and kind of to further that. I think those that have the ability to be gritty and move towards what they fear. You know, back to my original comments. I’m not a writer. I mean, I’m not a good writer, that’s for sure. But I’m sprinting towards that because I want to better myself, because I know that the ability to effectively and write in an influential way has allowed me to see success. I think it’s, you know, two, three years down the road. I think it’s those that can speak and get up in front of people. I only have to look at my own career. You know, if you would have told me at 18 years old, hey, Blake, get up and talk in front of a group of 200 folks, you know, 200 of your peers about a topic, I would have said, matt, you are absolutely insane. I will never do that. But now I actually really love doing that because I put, I sprinted towards what I feared and now it’s allowed me to level up my game and then also teach my colleagues these tenets of recruiting and TA now and in the future. So I’m able to coach and teach those, not only those here in my office, but those at scale at over 80 assisted living and skilled nursing care centers. You know, the path to success I’ve seen and how they can see that success now and in 2023, 2025. So that’s where I kind of see TA and recruiting going.
Matt Alder [00:24:57]:
Blake, thank you very much for talking to me.
Blake Thiess [00:24:59]:
My pleasure, Matt. Thanks for the opportunity.
Matt Alder [00:25:02]:
My thanks to Blake Thiess. You can subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts or via your podcasting app of choice. Please also follow us on Instagram. You can find the show by searching for recruiting Future. If you’re a Spotify or Pandora user, you can also find the show there. You can find all the past episodes@www.rfpodcast.com. on that site, you can subscribe to the mailing list and find out more about working with me. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next week and I hope you’ll join me.
