1140 – Finding and Retaining Amazing Talent with Stride Search’s Rick Girard

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to CEO of Stride Search, the host of the podcast Hire Power Radio, and the author of Healing Career Wounds, Rick Girard.

Rick shares why he named his book the way he did. He shares that the book was written for entrepreneurs and business owners. Rick wanted to teach his readers that in order to retain stellar talent and have a healthy company culture, you have to heal the career wounds of your employees before you mindlessly throw money at them. Make them feel safe and valued and you’ll see unprecedented happiness within your staff.

If you want great people, you have to frame things from their point of view. The employees control the selection process, so you have to demonstrate value beyond a paycheck to attract good talent. Stride Search is an executive recruiting firm and they specialize in filling hard-to-fill roles. They recruit executives, engineers, developers, and more. Stride Search seeks to help companies refine their recruiting and hiring processes so that forever moving forward, the companies they work with are equipped to find and keep the best talent possible. 

An unfortunate trend Rick has noticed is that the recruiting industry tends to ‘throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks’. Most recruiters only hope they sourced the right fit. At Stride Search, it may take a little time, but they find the perfect candidates for their clients. On average, the companies they work with choose a candidate Stride Search found within the first 3 candidate choices. 

People often fail in roles because they were either hired wrong or trained wrong. Too many companies seeking candidates aren’t up front about internal issues, so when a new employee is surprised, they tend to resign. Josh and Rick explore how to build a company culture and how as a business, you should want your employees to thrive. You want to have a more meaningful relationship with your employees beyond just what they’re paid and their roles. Make them feel a part of something with mission, purpose, and value. 

Rick shares the three things to look for when hiring. First, what is the candidate’s ‘pain’? Were they disenchanted by their previous job? How have they been mistreated in previous roles?  Next, what are the candidate's desires and how can you meet those desires? Finally, what impact did they make during their previous role? How did they grow in it? Ask these questions and make them an intrinsic part of your hiring process. 

Want to learn more? Check out Stride Search’s website at https://www.stridesearch.com/. 

Check out Rick’s book, Healing Career Wounds at https://www.amazon.com/dp/173580360X. 

Check out Rick’s podcast Hire Power Radio at https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio. 

Check out The Stride Search on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-professional-search/. 

Check out Rick Girard on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/. 

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