1677 – Where We Are Today with Recruit Gyan’s Neha Naik

Josh (00:00:05) - Hey there, thoughtful listener. Would you like consistent and predictable sales activity with no spam and no ads? I'll teach you step by step how to do this, particularly if you're an agency owner, consultant, coach or B2B service provider. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create more than $10 million in revenue. Just head to up my influence and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to up my influence com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you. With us right now. It's Neha Naik. You are the founder and CEO of RecruitGyan. And did I say that right? I think you did slightly. Okay. No, you.

Neha (00:01:10) - Said it perfectly.

Josh (00:01:11) - RecruitGyan is on the web at recruit given to our friend that's listening to this really simple. You just kind of click around your podcast app.

Josh (00:01:19) - You'll find where we've got a show notes, pull up, pull up Neha's website just so you can kind of follow Neha's websites, you can kind of follow along. But it's so great to have you.

Neha (00:01:29) - So excited to be here. Josh Thank you so much for having me and thank you to all the listeners tuning in.

Josh (00:01:34) - Yes. All right. Give us an overview with what you do with RecruitGyan.

Neha (00:01:38) - So I'm actually founder and CEO of RecruitGyan, as Josh said, and Ryan actually means knowledge in Sanskrit. And I wanted to, you know, incorporate some of my Sanskrit roots as I'm from the Indian origin culturally. Um, so I started this business about eight years ago and I've scaled my team to about 50. And we primarily work with companies who are looking to scale, right? Our niche is tech startups. So if you think of Pre-seed to series E, but then lately we've also been working with enterprise companies and also working with people who are looking to transition because unfortunately, as we all know, there has been a bunch of layoffs this year.

Neha (00:02:15) - And so also working with candidates who are looking for that next step in their career or they're like, Hey, I've done this for like ten years. I'm looking for a change and want to do something different. We also partner with them and help them find the next best opportunities out there.

Josh (00:02:30) - What types of roles do you find yourself most commonly, or you and your team most commonly working with?

Neha (00:02:37) - Yeah. So if you think of like I like to say that the tech trilogy, right? So like product engineering and then data, so anything within like engineering, then product management, product design, UI, UX and then data. So data science, data analytics, data infrastructure, everything that's in that kind of realm I would say are kind of where we typically get our foot in the door with companies. But then also what happens, Josh, is once we build a rapport and they like our work, they're like, Oh, hey, we have this finance role position, or Hey, someone's going on maternity leave and our customer service department, can you help? Right? And so we kind of then spiderweb out into other business units within the organization.

Josh (00:03:14) - So you'd mention at the beginning of the year there was some pretty high profile rounds of layoffs at, you know, I kind of had a little bit of a ripple effect, I'd say, but where are we today? So we're recording this. It's the beginning of August right now. You know, when this publishes in September, you know, things might change a little bit. But what, you know, kind of what are you observing kind of middle of 20, 23.

Neha (00:03:38) - So let me actually backtrack and tell you why the layoffs are happening.

Josh (00:03:41) - Yeah. Yeah. How wonderful.

Neha (00:03:43) - A little bit of a misconception. So when Covid happened, a lot of companies staffed up because, you know, these technologically out there, companies were trying to develop products for people because they were working from home. Right. And so there was this huge scale up because there was a push to get products and services out, especially for remote technologies that would help people with their day to day as Covid hit. So now that that's done with basically Covid's almost gone, I don't want to say fully gone, but almost gone.

Neha (00:04:11) - Knock on wood, don't come back. But because of that, now the tech companies are like, okay, we don't need a big of a team, right? Like we've we've pushed our major product initiatives and we can kind of scale back. So part of the reasons that layoff has happened is that right? I would say that's 50 to 60%. The other part of it is obviously with the impending recession, technically we're not in a recession. But I know there was a lot of warning signs and the bank shutting off and all that craziness that happened in Q1. You know, companies are just trying to be really careful. Right. And so they are focusing on profit first and then kind of like, you know, I feel like a couple of years ago it was investing to grow the company. And now it's like moving from the investment piece to the profit piece. Right? And so, of course, the layoffs are also happening because they're shutting down programs that they don't think are really needed right now in the times that we're in.

Neha (00:04:59) - So that being said, to answer your original question, where are we today? I think definitely we're going to continue to unfortunately see some, you know, layoffs happening in Q3 and Q4. I'm not a fortune teller, so I can't you know, people always ask me like, oh, you're in recruitment. Tell me when we can like, you know, have that confidence that we won't lose our job. Right. Nobody really knows. All we can do is say in somewhat confidence or high probability and all that. I do think that things will turn around and start in Q2, Q3 of next year. So you may still see people transitioning. A lot of people are using the layoffs to actually start their own businesses. So we've definitely seen an increase in the gig economy, right where it was like, okay, I really want to start this business, but I never had the time. But this layoff is a perfect kind of segue into doing that. So a lot of people are starting their own businesses and trying to get funding for their startups.

Neha (00:05:47) - So that's always like an interesting evolution, right? So I would say that unfortunately I think this year is still going to be a may here, but hopefully next year after the holidays we start to see things turn around for the better.

Josh (00:06:00) - Yeah, if I wanted to let's say I'm a let's say I'm a tech company and I want to create in your world, you know, kind of what would be just a really, really, you know, just how, how can I be a really attractive place to work so that I could get the absolute best team members? Is it just about paying a lot more money or are there other things that are, you know, if not, you know, just as valuable, if not more?

Neha (00:06:30) - Yeah, good question. And I say a lot of startup founders make hiring a triage situation, not a pre like pre thought. Right. It's almost like an afterthought like, oh my gosh, we need someone in right now, right away. Right? So first of all, don't do that.

Neha (00:06:43) - And then secondly, you also want to think about not just attracting talent, but retaining the talent. Right. Because, yes, like you can have people join, but if they leave you every 6 to 8 weeks, like you are burning your engine on rehiring, re interviewing, re onboarding, retraining. Like it's like it's kind of like sales. It's always cheaper to keep your current customer happy than to acquire a new customer. And at the same thing goes for recruitment. So that being said, the way to make sure that you're attracting the best employees is, I like to say, like I have my three pillars. So the first pillar is the first impression system, which is whatever you're putting out there that's online, make sure you create a presence, right? And I don't mean get on like the newest and the coolest trends. Pick one social media platform, whether it's LinkedIn, whether it's Facebook, wherever your audience sits, wherever your ideal candidates will live, pick that platform and be active.

Neha (00:07:31) - Be out there, talk about your values, your mission, your vision for your business. You scale, right? That's important. The second thing you want to do is make sure you have a website, even if it's like a simple one page or two page website. You know, one of the things I want to say is for startups specifically, we we don't necessarily have the competitive edge in terms of visibility like the enterprise companies, right? We've all heard of the big names, but startups is like, what's that? What do you all do? So we are in the Google generation. I always tell you know, even my six year is like, What's that? And the first thing he does is Google things, right? So when you approach candidates, they're going to look you up. And so you want to have some type of a social footprint out there where they can go and say, oh, this is what they do. They've been on this podcast or they're building this product and they're trying to help the economy this way or what? Whatever that looks like.

Neha (00:08:14) - The second. The second pillar of my methodology is the Compass leadership system. Right? So again, make sure that your leadership is transparent with people coming in in terms of the funds you have, what the runway looks like, what equity they're going to get. It's really important for leaders to be really honest in startups because you are literally building the foundation of your business. And if you have a shaky foundation, your house is not going to stay around for a while. So it's really important to have a really solid foundation. So that's where the leadership comes in. And then finally, the compass, the cohesive culture method, right? Which is the type of culture you're building. So are you motivating employees to, you know, beyond just the 9 to 5, are you, you know, telling them to do something professionally so that they can learn and upskill themselves? Right. Are you putting on like, you know, what are those call all hands on deck? Are you doing company off sites? What kind of benefits do you have? So doing a competitive analysis in terms of companies like you at your stage and the types of benefits they're offering and how can you differentiate yourselves from them? Right, because I don't think competition is a bad thing.

Neha (00:09:16) - I think there's enough enough of things to go on for everybody. I definitely live in the abundance mindset, but if you want to attract the type of caliber of candidates coming into your company, then you definitely want to make sure that your benefits and your compensation is aligned right, Because if you're paying them way less than what the market value is, you're not going to get the type of caliber of candidates that you want, and then you're just going to be frustrated and be stuck in a catch 22 loop. So I would say those are the three most important things that you want to look at.

Josh (00:09:47) - How about Neha? You know, being able to allow remote work versus know you're going to have to be in the office 40 hours a week is. What are you seeing on that dynamic right now?

Neha (00:10:01) - Yeah. So I definitely am seeing clients and companies transition from remote to either fully in person or a hybrid where it's like a couple of days remote, a couple of days hybrid. Right. To be completely honest, I do think that if you move drastically without any transition period to in-person, you will lose people.

Neha (00:10:18) - You are going to have turnover because again, people prefer that flexibility. If it's taught us anything, people have fallen in love with the flexibility to be able to work from anywhere at any time. Right? And so what I always like to tell my hiring managers and a lot of startups are doing this is looking at output based on milestone as opposed to the hourly right. So instead of saying like, Hey, I need you to be in office from 9 to 5, you can say, Hey, I would love for you to be in office like 1 or 2 days a week, right? And you can kind of decide what business hours work for you, but you are going to be kind of graded on or your performance is going to be measured on the the quality of output. So whether you're in office five days a week and you're whatever you're submitting in or your deadlines aren't met, or it's like really crappy quality, then you know, that's on you. But if you're just here 1 or 2 days a week and you're getting stuff done, you know, early morning, late at night, whatever that looks like for you or on weekends, then that's what you're going to measure on.

Neha (00:11:13) - And that's I think we're going to start seeing a trend towards measuring on less like, Oh, are you working 40 hours or 45 hours and more about what are you actually getting done in those times? Right? Because we all have different types of, you know, we are all optimized at different times, right? So I'm a morning person. My husband's an evening person, night person. And I think, like when I have some problem that I'm trying to solve or like a client email, usually I answer those emails like at 630 or 7 a.m. because my brain's like, okay on it. Like, I know what I'm saying, but that's technically not business hours, but I'm still doing business right? And so even if I schedule them out to go out later, I write them out early in the morning because I know that's when I'm like, okay, like my sharpest, my my brain is actually working right around 3 or 4 p.m. I'm like, Oh, okay, I need some coffee. I feel sluggish.

Neha (00:12:03) - I'm ready to be done with the day and play with my kids and stuff like that. So again, I think starting that initiative of judging people and your employees or kind of measuring them on their output and the quality of output as opposed to the hours that they're putting in, I think is going to be the key here.

Josh (00:12:19) - Yeah. All right Neha your website RecruitGyan.com who needs to be getting it on that website really quick grabbing some time ASAP.

Neha (00:12:32) - So if you're hiring and are struggling with hiring if you're a candidate and can't find a job and if you want to start your own recruiting agency or if you are a company who are laying off people and need help with transitioning your employees to the next stage, we offer services there too. So if it's any four of you, you need to jump on a call with me right away.

Josh (00:12:53) - Excellent. All right again the website recruit gyan.com. That's g y a n. When you go there, there's a big yellow button orange button that says get started or free consultation.

Josh (00:13:06) - You can click on that schedule a call and get connected. And I would imagine that now that you've had conversations, maybe they're not sure if they're ready or maybe they have questions like, you can you can have that kind of conversation too, which I highly recommend, like just bringing in smart people, have smart conversations. Don't try to make all these decisions yourself, bringing people that know not just what's going on in the industry, but your competitors are doing like, you know, So that's I'm always a fan of just just having those conversations, getting those start those relationships going because you know, when you're ready, it's nice to already know best practices or kind of, you know, lay that groundwork.

Neha (00:13:48) - Yes, I agree. And my I always like to say that my calls are value driven. My my calls are value first. I don't sell you on anything. I sell you on yourself like. So it's really about me, like, you know, just increasing your confidence so my calls aren't like.

Neha (00:14:04) - And there's more. And if you sign up today, you get like, it's none of those. It's really about the value that I bring to you. And if you decide to work with me, then I talk about those options as well.

Josh (00:14:14) - All right. Neha Naik, again, founder of CEO of Recruit John found on the web at RecruitGyan. Neha Naik, thank you so much for joining us.

Neha (00:14:24) - Thank you, Josh, for having me and thank you to all the listeners.

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