Following the four pillars process can help with assessing talent that have been laid off to determine if they’re a good fit for your agricultural business.

According to Mark Waschek, President, Ag1Source, when you’re interviewing a candidate who has been recently laid off, it’s important to really understand what their goals are. Of course, their primary motivation is that they need a job, but is the job they’re being interviewed for aligned with their long-term focus?

Candidates have a variety of reasons for interviewing for a new role, such as moving to be closer to family, scaling back their work commitments to spend more time with their family, caring for aging parents, spending more time traveling or on a side project, etc. In Waschek’s experience, those motivations will trump the motivation for a job.

“The candidate will tell you what you want to hear, especially if they’re overqualified for the position,” he said. “So, what hiring managers need to do is dig into their long-term motivations. Do they see themselves staying in this community long-term? If there’s going to be an opportunity within the next 12 to 18 months that you can move them up into, then go ahead and hire them.”

Recruiting, onboarding and training are all costs involved with hiring a new employee, especially when an overqualified employee will be paid a salary most likely at the top end of the range. Thus, organizations need to be careful that they’re not paying too much for what ends up being a short-term need.

“That’s where the situation goes awry with so many companies,” Waschek said. “Both the candidate and employer are letting short-term needs drive the conversations. It’s a collision of short-term motivators that are not ideal for the long-term.”

However, a short-term approach can be leveraged to an employer’s advantage, if everyone goes in with the same expectations. Waschek shares the example of LinkedIn when it first started. LinkedIn’s founder, Reed Hoffman, knew he needed the brightest and best out there to help his fledgling start up. He offered a deal to people who were currently employed by Google and Microsoft: He couldn’t pay them the high salaries they were making in their current roles, but if they would work for him for two years, he would give them an opportunity to add something to their resume that they were looking for. After the two years, the employee could part ways with LinkedIn, with Hoffman’s blessing—and the career advancement they were seeking. While unconventional, Waschek notes that it’s actually quite effective.

“There’s nothing wrong with a short-term employment contract that guarantees that your organization will provide the employee with the training or experience they need or want,” he said. “By the end of those two years, they will appreciate the experience they’ve gained—and if there’s an opening in the company that’s coming soon, they may choose to stay.”

If you would like to reach out to Mark Waschek, President of Ag1Source, you can find his contact information HERE.

The post Assessing Candidates That Are Available Due to Layoffs appeared first on Integra Partners.

“An internal hiring manager might be able to work through their existing connections to find candidates, but what if they don’t have those connections?” Weaver said. “Typically, companies use job postings and hope that someone will apply for their job and make a decision from there.”

The problem with the typical approach is that it usually takes longer to make a hire and the company is only seeing applications from those who are actively in the job market seeking new roles. The recruiters at Career1Source are going to candidates who aren’t already looking at job boards, but are successful in their current roles and are always looking to find ways to grow personally or professionally.

“Connecting with those passive candidates requires someone focusing on recruiting in a concentrated manner and really taking the time before the interview process to determine if a candidate is a good fit,” Weaver said. “A recruiter can be valuable because we can do the heavy lifting and connect with way more people than a company typically would.”

Why is Career1Source Different?

Every recruiting firm tells the same story: They have a great process for finding candidates and will screen them for you and find the best. What differentiates Career1Source? Their recruiters are creative and resourceful, and their recruiters already have a strong network of candidates in their database for each highly specialized focus area. Whereas, your average recruiting firm takes on job roles from all different types of unrelated professions, lacking depth and focus.

“For example, I recruit for a lot of private equity backed, high-growth companies,” Weaver said. “I have a database and network full of people who will fit in roles for those types of companies.”

Another benefit of this deep network is that when Career1Source recruiters call passive candidates, if they’re not interested in the role, they can refer the recruiter to other potential passive candidates in their own individual networks. This helps the Career1Source recruiter further build their network, too.

Something else that Career1Source does differently from other recruiting firms is that their recruiters don’t give up on filling a role, and each role is a priority.

“We’re not a high-volume shop.  Our goal is to fill 100 percent of roles on behalf of our clients,” Weaver said. “We keep working until they’re filled. We do not work on a search for a couple of weeks and then give up because finding the right candidate has become hard. Our clients—and our recruiters—are willing to wait to find the best “in the market”, just not the best “on the market.”

Weaver has been in the recruiting business for nearly 20 years, and he said that Career1Source recruiters come across to clients and candidates as industry experts and in a very genuine and relational way.  “We are not in the business for a “quick buck.”  Our goal is to be difference makers for our clients and candidates and I am confident we do a fantastic job of that.

If you would like to reach out to David Weaver, Executive Recruiter at Career1Source, you can find his contact information HERE.

The post Finding Candidates That Aren’t Out in the Open appeared first on Integra Partners.

“So many organizations get excited about a candidate’s potential that they tend to look over behavioral style and cultural fit,” said Mark Waschek, President, Ag1Source. “

During times when there are a bevy of candidates available for roles, Waschek encourages hiring managers to remember what they’re really looking for in a candidate. For example, if you’re hiring for a sales role, behavioral style, cultural fit and the specific needs of the role are very important. A company with high market share will need a sales person with a very different style than a company that’s trying to grow a market.

Crystal Clear Job Description

At every step in the hiring process, organizations should use the job description as their guide, while also being aware that in current economic circumstances, candidates will be more willing to apply for roles that they’re overqualified for.

“Just because a candidate was an outstanding salesperson for another organization doesn’t mean that they will excel in any sales role,” Waschek explains. “You have to take all four pillars into account—performance, skills, behavioral style and cultural fit.”

The job description should be specific and honest—you don’t want it to be vague just so more candidates will apply. Companies should want the right candidates to apply.

“A lot of organizations make that mistake,” Waschek said. “The job description should work to deter the wrong candidates from applying almost more than attracting the right ones.”

Candidates Should Align

A job description can talk about the company culture, the specific day-to-day duties of the job, and what personality traits may be needed to be successful in the role.

“When we’re screening candidates, the questions are focused on how they align with the four pillars,” Waschek said. “We want to avoid the mistake of getting excited about a candidate who’s a rockstar in terms of skills and experience, but not the right cultural fit or has a behavioral style that won’t work for the role.”

When assessing culture, Waschek has an exercise to help organizations not overly complicate identifying their company values. He has everyone in the room think of a person within the organization that’s a star of their culture—if they could replicate that cultural fit with every hire, they would. Then, each person is asked to list what that person does every day that makes them a star of the company’s culture. Do they work well with others? How do they treat customers? Do they show up every day with a positive attitude?

Once the specific qualities or attributes are identified, then the recruiter can craft questions to sort out candidates that have those qualities.

“Nobody is a 100 percent perfect match,” he said. “But you want to be clear on what you’re getting in a candidate, so there aren’t any surprises on both sides. If a candidate isn’t the right cultural fit, it will be a bad hire, and it could destroy the entire team. It’s also more costly to hire the wrong person than have an open position.”

If you would like to reach out to Mark Waschek, President of Ag1Source, you can find his contact information HERE.

The post Job Descriptions Should Hit All the Details appeared first on Integra Partners.

“I’ve seen some really talented candidates with less than stellar resumes,” said Devin Johnson, Executive Recruiter, Career1Source.

Career1Source has a proven process to assist our recruitment team with sifting candidates. After an initial call with a candidate, we’ll triple check everything with that candidate, making sure everything matches up and digging deeper.

All of the questions will be specific to the candidate’s resume, but try to assess more than just the candidate’s background. For example, a loan officer candidate will get asked questions about the types of credit they handled, why they’re looking to leave their current role, their business development strategy and how much their portfolio grew in the last year—which is a barometer of how progressive and aggressive that candidate is.

“If a candidate’s resume says ‘managed a $350 million portfolio’, we’ll ask more questions to help us understand if they inherited it or if they organically grew that portfolio,” Johnson said. “Clarifying information from the resume makes our client’s job easier. A small community bank may not be looking for a candidate that they’re going to push to grow their portfolio, while banks in more urban areas may be looking for a candidate with more sales focus.”

The recruiter is also trying to understand the candidate’s motivation for why they’re specifically interested in the position they’re filling. The candidate’s motivation can tell a recruiter a lot about their personality. For example, if a candidate is actively involved in their local community and they’re looking to move across the state for a new role, that candidate won’t have a problem jumping into a new community and getting involved.

The research team at Career1Source breaks down resumes so they look exactly the same for every referral. This standardization also removes the subjectivity of a résumé’s “look” when referring a candidate to our clients—it makes the candidate’s information stand out and not how fancy their resume is.

“Resumes have a lot of unnecessary fluff, and we want to be genuine about who our candidates are,” Johnson said. “We’re not just looking for technical skills. Our questions are designed to uncover the intangible qualities about that candidate.”

At the end of the day, many positions are about human relationships. However, sometimes a technical skill may be a dealbreaker. For example, a bank hiring an agricultural banker will not be interested in a candidate with no agriculture knowledge or experience. Likewise, a candidate that grew up on a ranch probably won’t have the skills to be a commercial real estate lender.

“You have to match the technical skills with the position you’re filling,” Johnson said.

If you would like to reach out to Devin Johnson, Executive Recruiter in the Banking Industry, you can find his contact information HERE.

The post Candidates are More Than a Resume appeared first on Integra Partners.

“Most leaders are great at explaining performance expectations to employees,” said Mark Waschek, President, Ag1Source. “Aligning employees with company culture isn’t easy, because most leaders don’t know what the company culture is, and they don’t understand the culture well enough to be able to hold people accountable to it.”

By focusing on culture fit in addition to other characteristics when hiring a CEO or other leadership role, your agriculture company will have fewer job openings to fill in the future, according to Waschek, because employees will be happier in their positions and less likely to leave.

“If you hire someone who is a poor culture fit, no matter how outstanding that person is, it will be impossible for them to perform at a high level, because they don’t fit in and the way they want to do the job isn’t working,” Waschek said. “Leaders need to be incredibly clear on the company’s culture as often as possible.”

There’s a popular phrase that states that your company culture is defined by the worst behavior that is tolerated. If there are several team members who are excellent examples of company culture and one person is not, then by allowing that one person not to follow the company’s core values that make up the company culture, the other team members are getting the message that it’s OK for that one person to act that way.

“Leaders base performance evaluations not only on metrics, but also on cultural fit within the team,” Waschek said. “By allowing one person to break a core value of the company, as a leader, you’re saying that those core values are worthless.”

When the leadership of a family-owned or legacy agriculture business mirrors the organization’s cultural identity, it results in more engaged employees who trust their leaders and each other.

Leaders who are a poor culture fit for an agriculture company can also cost the organization when it comes to the bottom line—and that impact affects everyone that touches them, including customers. When a leader or team member is not a good culture fit, the whole efficiency of the team drops, because the other employees’ jobs are impacted.

“When a leader is a poor communicator, bad team player, underperforms, when other people have to compensate for them, or when other team members become frustrated because their lack of leadership is affecting their individual performance, it will bring the entire team or company down, no matter how talented they are,” Waschek said. “Getting rid of that leader or manager may result in short-term pain, but the long-term impact of leaving them in a bad culture fit can cause even more damage.”

Change is a common denominator in the agriculture industry, and company leaders have to navigate changes with aplomb and by living their company’s core values and culture, each and every day. Doing so will make changes much more smoothly, whether it’s a transition in ownership, technology or market strategy.

Determining whether a candidate is a culture fit requires more than just an interview process. At Ag1Source, we recommend also taking advantage of a behavioral assessment to dig deeper into a candidate’s style and personal values and whether those are aligned with your agriculture company—or not.

If you’d like to reach out to Mark Waschek, President of Ag1Source, you can find his contact information HERE.

The post Why Culture Fit Matters More Than Ever in Agriculture Leadership Roles appeared first on Integra Partners.

“Organizations led by transformational leaders are winning the game in business and the war for talent and are growing great returns,” said Scott Wedel, Chief Operating Officer, Career1Source. “I refer to transformational leaders as being ‘humble CEDARs’”.

It may be a unique qualifier, but “humble CEDARs” have several qualities that make them stand out as leaders. The “humble” part of Wedel’s description needs no explanation.

“These leaders have no outward ego or arrogance and are courteous and respectful to everyone,” he said.

The CEDAR acronym stands for:

• Clarity and vision communicated often and well
• Empower and trust their team to achieve
• Definition of their company’s core values and live them every day
• Adapt easily with changing business and team variables
• Resilient in moving the organization to higher levels of performance

“There’s a significant difference between a leader and a transformational leader,” Wedel said. “If a leader is backing up what they’re saying by actually doing it, it builds the company culture so everyone is rowing in the same direction.”

Transformational leaders look for opportunities in the challenges presented by needing to adapt. It isn’t easy being a leader, much less a transformational leader, and Wedel observes that the loneliness leaders feel at the top is real.

“Someone who’s resilient will find a way to win, even if they get knocked down,” he said. “They keep pushing the company forward and don’t settle. For achievers, that’s naturally who they are, so they keep raising the bar, being innovative and thinking about new solutions.”    

Transformational leaders ensure that their teams have the right people in the right roles and communicate their vision of the organization—that’s what sets them up to achieve more than other leaders. However, transformational leadership goes beyond being a high-achieving individual, according to Wedel.

“It’s hard to be a transformational leader if someone is only out for themselves,” he said. “Everybody has their own desires, but transformational leaders have a passion or mission that goes beyond themselves. They’re working toward a higher purpose.”

To reach out to Scott Wedel, COO of Integra Partners, you can find his contact information HERE.

The post Transformational Leaders Are Humble, Communicative appeared first on Integra Partners.

Wedel encourages candidates who have been part of a layoff to feel all the feelings that come with the experience, including shock, anger and frustration, until they can get to a place of acceptance about the situation. Being in a good emotional mindset about the scenario will be important during interviews for a new role, because candidates should be able to discuss the details in a factual manner—including how many were laid off at the same time.

“Don’t avoid the discussion,” Wedel says. “Be up front about it. Address it before the interviewer does. Tell the interviewer what you know and what happened—without pointing blame.”

When speaking about your previous role, Wedel encourages candidates to focus on their achievements and the positive things they did that added value to the organization. Demonstrating that you’ve done the internal work and analyzed the value that you brought to a former employer is important.

If a candidate has needed time to work through their emotional process before landing another interview, Wedel suggests showing hiring managers how you’ve constructively used the time. And answering that you’ve been spending time with family is OK!

“Hiring managers want to see continuous learning, adaptability and resilience, not a victim mentality,” Wedel says. “Yes, a layoff sucks, but a victim mentality will not help you. Everyone knows they’re not fun. Hiring managers are expecting that you don’t want to talk about it. If you’re part of a large layoff from a bigger corporation, wear it as a badge of honor. Focus on what you learned from that role and how it helped you grow.”

Warding Off the Stigma

Unfortunately, there’s still a stigma around candidates who were laid off—even if their performance was not a reason for the layoff. However, if a candidate is the only one who was laid off, that stigma can be even stronger.

Wedel says that candidates can overcome the stigma around layoffs by not being afraid of it. For example, if a former employer had a highly political culture and an employee formed the “wrong” relationships, admit that; if all the employees under a new VP were let go, explain about the power change.

“If a layoff was due to performance, hiring managers will eventually figure that out,” he says. “Sometimes, there are really good people who get laid off, so you have to separate yourself from the crowd by how you explain the situation, your proactiveness, resiliency, and self-reflection. It’s not easy.”

Tread Carefully

Wedel reiterates that if you’re in the middle of a layoff, don’t do anything that would reflect badly on you. When you’re going through the emotional cascade as a result of a layoff, avoid posting on social media—hiring managers will see that.

“There’s an aspect of self control to it,” Wedel says. “Even though you want to scream to the hills, it’s not appropriate or professional, and plays into the stigma. Show that you’re above that.”

Wedel says that although a layoff is never ideal, he’s seen many people who have used a layoff to launch them into another step in their career.

“If a candidate is able to not take that victim mentality and spread their wings to fly, they may find that their former position was holding them back, and the layoff was the best thing that happened to them,” he says. “That approach may not work for everyone, but it can happen.”

The post Talk about Layoffs Head-On appeared first on Integra Partners.

“A huge percentage of people with agriculture degrees that we work with didn’t grow up on a farm, but fell into the industry for various reasons,” says Rhonda Werner, Director of Culture & Marketing, Integra Partners. “Taking college classes only teaches you so much and cannot give you those skills that farm kids or those with hands-on farm experience get.”

There are still many people who find the agriculture industry to be a desirable field to work in, but it’s going to take some flexibility on the part of agricultural companies to take the available talent and mold it into what they really need.

Investing in Employees

Werner says that agriculture companies should consider bringing back training programs to give a boost to new hires without ag experience. Many companies had moved away from providing training programs for new hires due to budget cuts, but they are very much needed, according to Werner. Many smaller agriculture companies don’t have the budget to offer training programs, and thus require more ag experience from candidates, while larger ag companies can offer some leniency because there are more employees to help train a new employee without ag background.

“Agricultural employers should also get creative,” she says. “For example, equipment dealerships will offer to pay for diesel tech school, a set of tools and promising a job after graduation for new technicians to sign a three-year commitment to the organization.”

Investing in those new employees is worth the time, effort and money, Werner notes, especially if you’re in the ag retail space. Equipping salespeople with the knowledge of how to work with farmers is very different than typical business to business sales.

Soft Skills > Technical Skills

“If a candidate has the soft skills you need, like a good work ethic and communication skills, it can be a worthwhile investment to bring them up to speed on the technical skills required for the position,” Werner says. “But you can’t just keep someone in a sales role without growth opportunities for them to move up.”

Today’s candidates want a clear picture of their career path and how they can continue to grow when taking a role. Werner encourages managers to talk with their employees and plot out a career path to crystallize everyone’s expectations.

“Employees are tired of going to a job without any stability,” she says. “Sometimes, young people think they know what they want to do, but then discover they want to do something else.”

For example, a new diesel technician may have made a three-year commitment, only to figure out that diesel mechanics isn’t right for them. In that case, Werner encourages employers to consider other options—is there a different role within the dealership where that employee can serve out the rest of their commitment while learning and growing?

The critical piece of this is that an employer must then follow through on their end of the deal by offering a deserving employee the chance to move up. Holding an excellent employee in a position because they’re crushing it—and not allowing them to grow—will only backfire on an employer, according to Werner.

Transitioning to Ag Later in Life

From time to time, a more experienced professional may make the transition into the ag industry. Werner says that in those situations, the company will have to determine what that candidate can bring to the organization and how the company can leverage their skills.

Werner encourages those candidates who don’t have hands-on farm experience to take the initiative to learn more about the agriculture industry. Volunteering, pro bono work, and involvement in community organizations can even provide opportunities to dive deeper into the ag industry.

The post Considerations for Hiring Those Who Did Not Grow Up on a Farm appeared first on Integra Partners.

“A job posting is not the same thing as a job description,” she says. “A job posting should include the things the employee ‘gets’ to do, not only what they must do or qualifications they must have.”  It should create interest and utilize descriptive words that are going to attract the type talent they are seeking in that role.

When a candidate writes their resume in a way that only describes their job duties, it doesn’t give the person who’s reading the resume any indication to what they have actually accomplished in their role. A job posting should also give the reader an indication of what they can accomplish with that organization, why someone would want to work there.

“Yes, potential candidates need to know the job duties, but companies miss the opportunity to sell themselves and their company culture,” Werner says. “That might include what a career path at that company looks like, or what that candidate can accomplish by working at their company in this role.”

If your company is putting together a job posting, take advantage of that valuable white space to share the details of why someone should want to work for your organization. A compelling job posting could include what skills a candidate can gain from the job opportunity, what career advancement looks like at your organization, pay and benefits, or what type of candidate will succeed best in your company’s culture.

“Human resources staff forget that writing a job posting is about helping candidates better understand the company they’re coming to work for, what they can expect, and why they should want to work for that organization,” Werner says. “Compelling job postings are especially helpful for small companies that candidates might not have heard of before. It’s a time to tell your company’s story and share your core values.”

Werner says that being very specific about the type of candidate a company is looking for helps candidates be more discerning about whether to even apply in the first place.

“If your job description scares candidates away, that’s OK,” she says. “It might help a candidate see if a position is not a good choice for them.”

The post Spice Up Your Job Descriptions appeared first on Integra Partners.

Companies have to put in the work before even starting the hiring process to define what the “ideal” candidate looks like to help ensure that candidates brought in for the interview process are a better fit in regards to behavioral style and company culture.

“Each candidate has different core values and beliefs about what the ideal work environment is,” Waschek says. “If those are not a fit, no matter what training and incentives you give that employee, they just won’t be happy—or their manager won’t be happy with them.”

A resume only tells hiring managers what a candidate has done in their past roles. It doesn’t dig into who they really are and how they’d do the job they’re applying for. A behavioral assessment is the best way to get below surface level before an interview, Waschek points out.

“Even using behavioral interview questions during an interview won’t get at those things, because the candidate may say they’re more aggressive than they really are, or the candidate may genuinely think they’re more aggressive than in real life,” he says. “Behavioral style interviews are also difficult to get consistent results.”

A quick behavioral assessment will reveal who that candidate truly is. Waschek notes that there are hundreds of behavioral assessments available at various price points for organizations to choose from.

Defining the ideal candidate for a role is also helpful because the type of person needed for a position will vary with each role. For example, if a company is hiring a salesperson for a territory with their best customers that they don’t want to lose, the style of that salesperson should be very different than a salesperson in a territory that the company is trying to expand in that has zero current customers.

“One of those salespeople should be motivated to meet new people and close deals, while the other salesperson is focused on building relationships and providing customer service,” Waschek says. “They may have the same title and even an equal sales volume, but how you go about it is starkly different.”

Waschek suggests that companies start the candidate definition process with evaluating and customizing the job description. No two job descriptions should be alike, because every territory, business culture, market customers and expectations are different. The supervisor and colleagues for the role should also participate in the process.

“Organizations start the hiring process off on the wrong foot when they pull the same old job description based on the title and not tailoring it for the position,” Waschek says. “Taking that time to identify what makes that specific role unique will help down the road in determining if a candidate is truly the right fit.”

Although exit interviews can get a bad rap, Waschek says they are an important opportunity for companies to get feedback on their company culture. If an employee is leaving on good terms, they can give insights into what their replacement should be like. A frustrated employee that’s leaving can also provide suggestions on what changes should be made to the job description, what qualities or traits the organization should look for when hiring again for that role or insights about company culture that others may not recognize.

The post Define the Ideal Candidate Before Starting the Hiring Process appeared first on Integra Partners.