March 12, 2025 • 9 mins
Hiring and retaining the right people is often the #1 challenge faced by small business owners. Lessons are often learned the hard way through bad hires and expensive mistakes. In this episode, Clint Smith, Founder and CEO of CareerPlug, will share tips on how to build a winning team to help you grow your business.
- [01:13] Where to start when you want to grow
- [02:31] How to attract the right people to your team
- [03:48] How to build your hiring process
- [04:40] How to evaluate candidates the right way
- [05:42] How to make the right decisions when hiring
- [07:30] How to onboard a new employee the right way
Download a free copy of Clint Smith’s book, How to Hire.
This content is based on generally accepted HR practices, is advisory in nature, and does not constitute legal advice or other professional services. ADP does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, and completeness of the content. Employers are encouraged to consult with legal counsel for advice regarding their organization's compliance with applicable laws. This content is current as of the published date.
Copyright © 2025 ADP, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The ADP logo, ADP, RUN Powered by ADP, and HR{preneur} are registered trademarks of ADP, Inc. and its affiliates. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
- Do you ever find yourself
struggling to hire the right people?
Today's guest has some tips
to make hiring processes less stressful.
Welcome to "HR{preneur}." I'm Jim Duffy.
From main street to your street.
The "HR{preneur}" podcast
is centered around helpingsmall businesses like yours
gain the knowledge you need,
from HR, payroll and hiring,
to time, taxes, benefits, and insurance.
(00:21):
Today we're talking about recruiting,
onboarding and retention of employees.
We're joined by Clint Smith,Founder and CEO of CareerPlug.
Clint started CareerPlug back in 2007,
and today, works with businesses
representing over 60,000 locations.
CareerPlug Software
is designed to help businesses hire
and retain the rightpeople they need to grow,
(00:42):
which is often the number one challenge
faced by small business owners.
Clint has been there himselfas a small business owner.
Many of the lessons he'll share today
were learned the hard way
through bad hires and other mistakes
such as not having written core values.
Clint, it's great to haveyou join us on "HR{preneur}."
- It's great to be here, Jim. Thank you.
- Terrific. Clint, so let's get started.
(01:02):
CareerPlug works with over60,000 small businesses
and helped over 200,000 peopleget hired last year alone.
So you obviously see what's working well
in the hiring environment.
So where does a business need to start
when they are starting to recruit?
- Jim, you would think that
you would start with a job posting,
but we recommend that you start
(01:23):
with understanding who you are
and that you really haveyour culture well documented.
For us, we define thatas having your mission,
your vision and yourcore values all clear.
And then you also want to beable to answer this question,
why would you wanna work here?
Why would I want to come work for you?
And having those two things together
I think is a really important foundation.
(01:44):
The second piece you wanna understand
before you actuallywrite a job description
is what are the mostimportant characteristics
that you're looking for in this person?
And how do you think you'regonna be able to find them?
We call that an ideal candidate profile.
My one recommendation on that
is don't list out 10 different things
that you're looking for for the person.
(02:05):
It's okay if you wanna put some of those
on the job description,
but there's really one or two things
that are gonna be criticalfor success in the role.
Get a good understandingof what those are,
and then have those as whatyou're really keying in on.
Each person has no morethan one or two superpowers.
You wanna make surethat the person you hire
matches up with the superpower
(02:25):
that you really need for that role.
- Clint, that's excellent advice
and a great way to startthe conversation here.
So my next question is,
after a business identifies who they need,
how do they best get the word out
and find the people they need?
- I recommend that youstart with a careers page.
If you don't have a careers page
associated with your website
where people can come, learnmore and apply to the job,
(02:47):
that's the first place to start.
And really that's taking all that stuff
we talked about from the first question,
your mission, your vision, your values,
and just why does someonewanna come work for you?
And put that on a nice looking page
and add some pictures of your team,
maybe some testimonials,
and then from there,
you've gotta get that job posting out.
Keep it simple, not too long.
Make sure it's not just a list
(03:07):
of everything that you're looking for.
Write it from their perspective.
What would they be looking for?
What are you offering?
And then get that jobout there and promote it.
Don't just go directly to the job boards
promoted in your network first,
that could be your employees.
If you have a retail store,
it could be a sign thatyou put up for customers
to be able to see and go and apply.
We found that people from your network
(03:29):
get hired at a 10 times higher rate
than someone from a job board.
But then you do wanna make sure
you get out on the job boards as well.
If you work with anapplicant tracking system,
they'll usually help you get
to all those job boards automatically
but if you wanna post directly,
there's a number of options in there.
The bigger players are Indeed,ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn.
- So Clint, what elseshould a business know
(03:50):
before they startadvertising their openings?
- They really should understandthe compensation, Jim,
and as well as benefits.
I've been amazed at howmany people post a job
and they don't really understand
how much someone's gonna be able to make
by working with them.
They'll understand, let's say,
for a salesperson what the base salary is,
but I'll ask 'em a question like,
how much could this person make
if they hit all their goals with you?
(04:11):
And they're not totally clear.
So I would say thatthat's really important.
I know ADP has some great tools
to help you benchmark compensation.
And then on the benefits side,
benefits are a critical partof the equation as well.
Being able to offerhealthcare benefits, 401(k),
and other benefits that don'teven often cost you money,
like flexible scheduling
(04:33):
can go a long way in attractingpeople to apply to your job.
- Clint, if we can switchgears to a related topic.
Can you please provide any advice
for a business when theymove into the interviewing
or evaluating candidates?
- Yes.
First thing is act quickly.
So don't assume that someonejust applied to your job.
(04:53):
They've probably appliedto a number of jobs,
and it's not always thebest employer that wins,
sometimes it's the firstone that gets back to them.
So being able to get back to 'em quickly,
we recommend using textingover email, if at all possible.
You're gonna reach people faster
and get a faster response.
And then in terms of theactual interview process,
(05:15):
the number one thing is use a scorecard
and use a standard set of questions.
Be consistent with howyou're evaluating people.
What we like to do and what we recommend
is to have three segments.
One that looks at ability,
one that looks at their motivation,
and one that looks at their culture fit.
And culture fit for us is reallylooking at your core values
and saying, "How does this person match up
(05:36):
against the core values that you have?"
How well do they live those core values?
- That's great advice.
So what about making the right decision?
We know that the cost ofhiring the wrong candidate
and the cost of the wrong hire is high,
and in some instances cripple a business.
What can a business do
to make sure they aremaking the right hire?
(05:56):
- There's a few things thatyou could do here, Jim.
I would say the first is
make sure that someone really has
a good understanding ofthe job on their end.
Either take them on a tour
or show them what it looks like
to be able to sit in that role.
And then on the otherside, if at all possible,
try to get a work sample from them.
(06:17):
If you're calling for someone
who's gonna be doing support on the phone,
maybe do a mock of support call with them.
If you're hiring for a rolethat requires graphic design,
take a look at their portfolio,
make sure that you're comfortable with it.
But really do that
and then I would sayconduct reference checks
and background checks, both of them.
They're both critical.
So talk to people who haveworked with them before,
(06:41):
preferably as a manager
to validate what you've heard,
and then run a background check,
just to make sure that youknow who you're dealing with.
It only takes one mistake like that.
You'll remember that forever.
The last thing I'd say I'd do
is to be able to have a, whatwe call a candidate defense.
And that is being ableto run the hiring case
(07:03):
by someone either on your team,
or it could be a colleague,
or someone else you know,outside of your business.
They can help you see your blind spots
and give you a different perspective
on a candidate than you might have.
Ideally, you can have more than one person
in your company and beinvolved in the hiring process,
but if it's really just youas a small business owner,
talk to someone else that you trust
(07:26):
and get their advice and seehow they look at the situation.
- Okay. Excellent advice.
So a business has now made the right hire
and they are ready toonboard the candidate.
This is where so many businesses struggle.
How does a business onboarda new employee the right way?
- Onboarding, for most people,
they think about that first day
(07:48):
and getting those forms done
and basically being compliant.
But for us, we really look at onboarding
as typically a 90-day process.
And it's really comes down to connection.
It's building connectionbetween the new hire
and their company,
the new hire and their team members,
and then the new hire and the manager.
(08:08):
And what we do is setup a series of workflows
that builds connectionwith each one of those.
So like for the company,
it might be about connectingthe new hire with that mission,
the vision, the values, company history,
being able to get assimilated that way.
With the team,
(08:29):
it could be assigningthem an onboarding buddy,
making sure that they have someone
that's looking out forthem right from the start.
And on the manager side,
it's really about havingan expectations interview
and a job descriptionreview on that first day,
being able to go and really talk about
how does someone win with me?
How does someone lose with me?
How do I wanna be communicated with?
(08:50):
And be able to have that,learn that from the new hire,
but then also share yourexpectations as a manager as well.
We found that if you do allof those things really well,
the chances of that personbeing in a thriving position
and still with you at 90-days goes way up.
- So Clint, thank you.
This brings us to the end of this episode.
And again, I want to give youClint Smith, a special thanks.
Clint is the Founder and CEOof CareerPlug for joining us.
(09:13):
And as a special gift for our listeners,
any listener of this podcast
can receive a free download
of Clint's book entitled, "How to Hire"
by simply clicking on the linkin the podcast description.
So Clint, once again, thank you very much
for sharing that generousoffer with our listeners.
- It's my pleasure, Jim.Thanks for having me.
- You bet. Hope to have you on again soon.
So presented by ADP,
(09:34):
"HR{preneur}" focuses on the entrepreneurs
and business drivers
who are shaping thegrowth of their companies
and positively impacting thelives of their employees.
With each episode, we'llbring the experts to you,
answer your questions, andhelp you think beyond today,
so you can discover more success tomorrow.
As always, thanks forlistening to "HR{preneur}."
Be well and we hopeyou'll join us again soon.
- Do you ever find yourself
struggling to hire the right people?
Today's guest has some tips
to make hiring processes less stressful.
Welcome to "HR{preneur}." I'm Jim Duffy.
From main street to your street.
The "HR{preneur}" podcast
is centered around helpingsmall businesses like yours
gain the knowledge you need,
from HR, payroll and hiring,
to time, taxes, benefits, and insurance.
(00:21):
Today we're talking about recruiting,
onboarding and retention of employees.
We're joined by Clint Smith,Founder and CEO of CareerPlug.
Clint started CareerPlug back in 2007,
and today, works with businesses
representing over 60,000 locations.
CareerPlug Software
is designed to help businesses hire
and retain the rightpeople they need to grow,
(00:42):
which is often the number one challenge
faced by small business owners.
Clint has been there himselfas a small business owner.
Many of the lessons he'll share today
were learned the hard way
through bad hires and other mistakes
such as not having written core values.
Clint, it's great to haveyou join us on "HR{preneur}."
- It's great to be here, Jim. Thank you.
- Terrific. Clint, so let's get started.
(01:02):
CareerPlug works with over60,000 small businesses
and helped over 200,000 peopleget hired last year alone.
So you obviously see what's working well
in the hiring environment.
So where does a business need to start
when they are starting to recruit?
- Jim, you would think that
you would start with a job posting,
but we recommend that you start
(01:23):
with understanding who you are
and that you really haveyour culture well documented.
For us, we define thatas having your mission,
your vision and yourcore values all clear.
And then you also want to beable to answer this question,
why would you wanna work here?
Why would I want to come work for you?
And having those two things together
I think is a really important foundation.
(01:44):
The second piece you wanna understand
before you actuallywrite a job description
is what are the mostimportant characteristics
that you're looking for in this person?
And how do you think you'regonna be able to find them?
We call that an ideal candidate profile.
My one recommendation on that
is don't list out 10 different things
that you're looking for for the person.
(02:05):
It's okay if you wanna put some of those
on the job description,
but there's really one or two things
that are gonna be criticalfor success in the role.
Get a good understandingof what those are,
and then have those as whatyou're really keying in on.
Each person has no morethan one or two superpowers.
You wanna make surethat the person you hire
matches up with the superpower
(02:25):
that you really need for that role.
- Clint, that's excellent advice
and a great way to startthe conversation here.
So my next question is,
after a business identifies who they need,
how do they best get the word out
and find the people they need?
- I recommend that youstart with a careers page.
If you don't have a careers page
associated with your website
where people can come, learnmore and apply to the job,
(02:47):
that's the first place to start.
And really that's taking all that stuff
we talked about from the first question,
your mission, your vision, your values,
and just why does someonewanna come work for you?
And put that on a nice looking page
and add some pictures of your team,
maybe some testimonials,
and then from there,
you've gotta get that job posting out.
Keep it simple, not too long.
Make sure it's not just a list
(03:07):
of everything that you're looking for.
Write it from their perspective.
What would they be looking for?
What are you offering?
And then get that jobout there and promote it.
Don't just go directly to the job boards
promoted in your network first,
that could be your employees.
If you have a retail store,
it could be a sign thatyou put up for customers
to be able to see and go and apply.
We found that people from your network
(03:29):
get hired at a 10 times higher rate
than someone from a job board.
But then you do wanna make sure
you get out on the job boards as well.
If you work with anapplicant tracking system,
they'll usually help you get
to all those job boards automatically
but if you wanna post directly,
there's a number of options in there.
The bigger players are Indeed,ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn.
- So Clint, what elseshould a business know
(03:50):
before they startadvertising their openings?
- They really should understandthe compensation, Jim,
and as well as benefits.
I've been amazed at howmany people post a job
and they don't really understand
how much someone's gonna be able to make
by working with them.
They'll understand, let's say,
for a salesperson what the base salary is,
but I'll ask 'em a question like,
how much could this person make
if they hit all their goals with you?
(04:11):
And they're not totally clear.
So I would say thatthat's really important.
I know ADP has some great tools
to help you benchmark compensation.
And then on the benefits side,
benefits are a critical partof the equation as well.
Being able to offerhealthcare benefits, 401(k),
and other benefits that don'teven often cost you money,
like flexible scheduling
(04:33):
can go a long way in attractingpeople to apply to your job.
- Clint, if we can switchgears to a related topic.
Can you please provide any advice
for a business when theymove into the interviewing
or evaluating candidates?
- Yes.
First thing is act quickly.
So don't assume that someonejust applied to your job.
(04:53):
They've probably appliedto a number of jobs,
and it's not always thebest employer that wins,
sometimes it's the firstone that gets back to them.
So being able to get back to 'em quickly,
we recommend using textingover email, if at all possible.
You're gonna reach people faster
and get a faster response.
And then in terms of theactual interview process,
(05:15):
the number one thing is use a scorecard
and use a standard set of questions.
Be consistent with howyou're evaluating people.
What we like to do and what we recommend
is to have three segments.
One that looks at ability,
one that looks at their motivation,
and one that looks at their culture fit.
And culture fit for us is reallylooking at your core values
and saying, "How does this person match up
(05:36):
against the core values that you have?"
How well do they live those core values?
- That's great advice.
So what about making the right decision?
We know that the cost ofhiring the wrong candidate
and the cost of the wrong hire is high,
and in some instances cripple a business.
What can a business do
to make sure they aremaking the right hire?
(05:56):
- There's a few things thatyou could do here, Jim.
I would say the first is
make sure that someone really has
a good understanding ofthe job on their end.
Either take them on a tour
or show them what it looks like
to be able to sit in that role.
And then on the otherside, if at all possible,
try to get a work sample from them.
(06:17):
If you're calling for someone
who's gonna be doing support on the phone,
maybe do a mock of support call with them.
If you're hiring for a rolethat requires graphic design,
take a look at their portfolio,
make sure that you're comfortable with it.
But really do that
and then I would sayconduct reference checks
and background checks, both of them.
They're both critical.
So talk to people who haveworked with them before,
(06:41):
preferably as a manager
to validate what you've heard,
and then run a background check,
just to make sure that youknow who you're dealing with.
It only takes one mistake like that.
You'll remember that forever.
The last thing I'd say I'd do
is to be able to have a, whatwe call a candidate defense.
And that is being ableto run the hiring case
(07:03):
by someone either on your team,
or it could be a colleague,
or someone else you know,outside of your business.
They can help you see your blind spots
and give you a different perspective
on a candidate than you might have.
Ideally, you can have more than one person
in your company and beinvolved in the hiring process,
but if it's really just youas a small business owner,
talk to someone else that you trust
(07:26):
and get their advice and seehow they look at the situation.
- Okay. Excellent advice.
So a business has now made the right hire
and they are ready toonboard the candidate.
This is where so many businesses struggle.
How does a business onboarda new employee the right way?
- Onboarding, for most people,
they think about that first day
(07:48):
and getting those forms done
and basically being compliant.
But for us, we really look at onboarding
as typically a 90-day process.
And it's really comes down to connection.
It's building connectionbetween the new hire
and their company,
the new hire and their team members,
and then the new hire and the manager.
(08:08):
And what we do is setup a series of workflows
that builds connectionwith each one of those.
So like for the company,
it might be about connectingthe new hire with that mission,
the vision, the values, company history,
being able to get assimilated that way.
With the team,
(08:29):
it could be assigningthem an onboarding buddy,
making sure that they have someone
that's looking out forthem right from the start.
And on the manager side,
it's really about havingan expectations interview
and a job descriptionreview on that first day,
being able to go and really talk about
how does someone win with me?
How does someone lose with me?
How do I wanna be communicated with?
(08:50):
And be able to have that,learn that from the new hire,
but then also share yourexpectations as a manager as well.
We found that if you do allof those things really well,
the chances of that personbeing in a thriving position
and still with you at 90-days goes way up.
- So Clint, thank you.
This brings us to the end of this episode.
And again, I want to give youClint Smith, a special thanks.
Clint is the Founder and CEOof CareerPlug for joining us.
(09:13):
And as a special gift for our listeners,
any listener of this podcast
can receive a free download
of Clint's book entitled, "How to Hire"
by simply clicking on the linkin the podcast description.
So Clint, once again, thank you very much
for sharing that generousoffer with our listeners.
- It's my pleasure, Jim.Thanks for having me.
- You bet. Hope to have you on again soon.
So presented by ADP,
(09:34):
"HR{preneur}" focuses on the entrepreneurs
and business drivers
who are shaping thegrowth of their companies
and positively impacting thelives of their employees.
With each episode, we'llbring the experts to you,
answer your questions, andhelp you think beyond today,
so you can discover more success tomorrow.
As always, thanks forlistening to "HR{preneur}."
Be well and we hopeyou'll join us again soon.
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