July 18, 2025 • 5 mins
A new study suggests companies tend to hire based on "vibes" and not skill. Business Strategist and CEO of Cornerstone Business Service Scott Bushkie joins us to discuss why this might not be the best idea.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A new study is out and it says that companies
tend to hire based on gut feelings on vibes. This
is West Michigan's Morning News. Steve Kelly Schmidty is back
with us in the next hour. Brett back with us
in a couple of days. Business strategists and CEO of
Cornerstone Business Service on the liveline with us, Scott Muski,
(00:22):
thanks so much for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you, Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Let's talk a little bit about this study. If I'm
looking for my next job, how what is a vibe?
My daughter uses this and it usually means something expensive.
We're planning a wedding and she's like, kind of, I'm
just not getting the right vibe out of this thing.
Is kind of hippie achievement.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah. What they call a vibe hiring is what you
find is when a company, you know, they don't have
any systems in place, they don't have any processes, they're
not using assessments, and when you don't have anything like that,
you typically fall back on who did we like the best,
who do we think would be the most pleasant in
the office. And the problem with that is that many people,
(01:04):
you know, if they're likable. They could be very likable.
But if you hire them and they can't do the
job and they do it the skills to do the
role that you're hiring them for, he puts the company
at risk, and really the honeymoon period will be will
be very short in many of those cases.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I guess it really points the finger back at the
employer and their their process. Right, So are you asking
the right questions or you're putting too much emphasis on
I mean, you want somebody that's comfortable, right, but maybe
not too comfortable in an interview. They can be kind
of stressful. So somebody really shines through if they seem cool.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, I think that's right. Some people that you know
hire well or you know, hey, they kind of look
and act like me, you know, the h the person
who's doing the hiring. You know. Another thing that it
usually puts that risk is that if everybody's kind of
the same in the company. Yeah, everybody can have a
lot of fun, but it also most people think and
look at things the same way, and it creates a
lot of blind spots per se for that company, which
(02:02):
again can put it at risk. You know, we focus
on selling companies here at cornerstone. It usually have you know,
annual revenues from what five to one hundred and fifty million,
And what those buyers are looking for is not only
you know, the future casuals of the company, but they're
also looking for a trained you know, a trained team,
a good management team, people you know, a little turnover.
(02:25):
And when you have a lot of turnover, or the
owner is the business and they just have a bunch
of worker bees just taking orders, it really makes that
company significantly less valuable or not saleable at all. And
that's a real shame and a real wake up call
for a lot of business owners that have been putting
money back into the company year after year after year,
and then they go to sell the company and find
(02:46):
out that they can't even sell it or it's worth
much less than what it you know, what they thought
it was just because of the you know, the turnover,
the lack of professionalism, the lack of management team, and
everything else that they the buyer sees with they do
their due diligence.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
If I'm an employer, if if I'm part of a
committee that's hiring someone, what's a smart question to try
to figure out just who this candidate really is maybe
one that you've you've heard recently that you've added to
your list when you're hiring.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, you know, I think a lot. There's a lot
of good questions out there. You know. One I like
to always ask is is you know why why why
are you interested in coming to Cornerstone? You know what,
what do you know about Cornerstone? And see just how
much work they've done to prepare for this, uh, this meeting,
and also talking about times that they've you know, you know,
what's the hard something hard that you've gone through, you know,
(03:37):
to kind of show the grit and drive that they have.
But really, at the end of the day, we rely
at Cornerstone and I think others do as well. As
on assessments. But there's always so much you can get
out of an interview because people know a lot of
the questions you're going to ask, and they can prepare for,
you know, having all the right answers. But it's the
assessments that they take to really find out do they
(03:58):
match you know well with this with this job. Do
they have the hard skills, do they have the sauce skills?
How do they match up with you know, with our values.
We talk a lot. We hire and fire from our
values that we found. You know, on one company that
we had that we sold or worked with was a
palette company. And you know, there's not many companies that
(04:19):
are less sexy than that a pallet company. And but
the owners had worked themselves out of the business. They
had a professional management team, they promoted from within, They
had a great system and structure in place to continue
to educate and develop their people, had very little turnover,
and when we went to market, we were able to
(04:41):
create something we call POMO, the power of multiple offers,
every sort of full moo, the fear of missing out.
We call it POMO, the power multiple offers. And we
were able to because of the the growth of the company,
because of the team they had, because of the culture
that they built, and the lack of turnover. We were
able to get twenty offers on that on that company,
and where the benchmark, which with Ustin Necello's was eighteen
(05:03):
and a half million, we had no asking price. We
were able to get twenty six million dollars for that company,
or a forty percent premium, because they had such a
great management team and improven processes.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Scott bushk Is the CEO of Cornerstone Business Service Pleasure.
Thanks for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Thank you have a great day.
A new study is out and it says that companies
tend to hire based on gut feelings on vibes. This
is West Michigan's Morning News. Steve Kelly Schmidty is back
with us in the next hour. Brett back with us
in a couple of days. Business strategists and CEO of
Cornerstone Business Service on the liveline with us, Scott Muski,
(00:22):
thanks so much for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you, Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Let's talk a little bit about this study. If I'm
looking for my next job, how what is a vibe?
My daughter uses this and it usually means something expensive.
We're planning a wedding and she's like, kind of, I'm
just not getting the right vibe out of this thing.
Is kind of hippie achievement.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah. What they call a vibe hiring is what you
find is when a company, you know, they don't have
any systems in place, they don't have any processes, they're
not using assessments, and when you don't have anything like that,
you typically fall back on who did we like the best,
who do we think would be the most pleasant in
the office. And the problem with that is that many people,
(01:04):
you know, if they're likable. They could be very likable.
But if you hire them and they can't do the
job and they do it the skills to do the
role that you're hiring them for, he puts the company
at risk, and really the honeymoon period will be will
be very short in many of those cases.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I guess it really points the finger back at the
employer and their their process. Right, So are you asking
the right questions or you're putting too much emphasis on
I mean, you want somebody that's comfortable, right, but maybe
not too comfortable in an interview. They can be kind
of stressful. So somebody really shines through if they seem cool.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, I think that's right. Some people that you know
hire well or you know, hey, they kind of look
and act like me, you know, the h the person
who's doing the hiring. You know. Another thing that it
usually puts that risk is that if everybody's kind of
the same in the company. Yeah, everybody can have a
lot of fun, but it also most people think and
look at things the same way, and it creates a
lot of blind spots per se for that company, which
(02:02):
again can put it at risk. You know, we focus
on selling companies here at cornerstone. It usually have you know,
annual revenues from what five to one hundred and fifty million,
And what those buyers are looking for is not only
you know, the future casuals of the company, but they're
also looking for a trained you know, a trained team,
a good management team, people you know, a little turnover.
(02:25):
And when you have a lot of turnover, or the
owner is the business and they just have a bunch
of worker bees just taking orders, it really makes that
company significantly less valuable or not saleable at all. And
that's a real shame and a real wake up call
for a lot of business owners that have been putting
money back into the company year after year after year,
and then they go to sell the company and find
(02:46):
out that they can't even sell it or it's worth
much less than what it you know, what they thought
it was just because of the you know, the turnover,
the lack of professionalism, the lack of management team, and
everything else that they the buyer sees with they do
their due diligence.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
If I'm an employer, if if I'm part of a
committee that's hiring someone, what's a smart question to try
to figure out just who this candidate really is maybe
one that you've you've heard recently that you've added to
your list when you're hiring.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, you know, I think a lot. There's a lot
of good questions out there. You know. One I like
to always ask is is you know why why why
are you interested in coming to Cornerstone? You know what,
what do you know about Cornerstone? And see just how
much work they've done to prepare for this, uh, this meeting,
and also talking about times that they've you know, you know,
what's the hard something hard that you've gone through, you know,
(03:37):
to kind of show the grit and drive that they have.
But really, at the end of the day, we rely
at Cornerstone and I think others do as well. As
on assessments. But there's always so much you can get
out of an interview because people know a lot of
the questions you're going to ask, and they can prepare for,
you know, having all the right answers. But it's the
assessments that they take to really find out do they
(03:58):
match you know well with this with this job. Do
they have the hard skills, do they have the sauce skills?
How do they match up with you know, with our values.
We talk a lot. We hire and fire from our
values that we found. You know, on one company that
we had that we sold or worked with was a
palette company. And you know, there's not many companies that
(04:19):
are less sexy than that a pallet company. And but
the owners had worked themselves out of the business. They
had a professional management team, they promoted from within, They
had a great system and structure in place to continue
to educate and develop their people, had very little turnover,
and when we went to market, we were able to
(04:41):
create something we call POMO, the power of multiple offers,
every sort of full moo, the fear of missing out.
We call it POMO, the power multiple offers. And we
were able to because of the the growth of the company,
because of the team they had, because of the culture
that they built, and the lack of turnover. We were
able to get twenty offers on that on that company,
and where the benchmark, which with Ustin Necello's was eighteen
(05:03):
and a half million, we had no asking price. We
were able to get twenty six million dollars for that company,
or a forty percent premium, because they had such a
great management team and improven processes.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Scott bushk Is the CEO of Cornerstone Business Service Pleasure.
Thanks for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Thank you have a great day.
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