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Quotes & Comments…

If you care about success as an executive, you care about who you hire, which means you need to care about your hiring process and thus, your candidate experience.” – Danielle Weinblatt, Former CEO @ ConveyIQ by Entelo

“Every employee that a candidate encounters has an opportunity to influence the candidate experience, and it’s important that everyone realizes the impact that their interactions can have on a candidate and their perceptions of our company.” – Olivia Melman, Recruiting Operations at DigitalOcean

“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’”  – Mary Kay Ash, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

“The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.”  – Steve Jobs, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder of Apple

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FM Broadcast – Summer 2021

6 Ways to Land Your Top Candidate

Even in normal times, recruiting exceptional talent to your company takes skill and effort. Currently, the market for top talent is fierce, and companies must stand out from the crowd to attract stellar executives. Candidates, like all people, want to feel important and valued, and your recruiting process must deliver that feeling. From the first outreach, through the interviews, and finally with the offer, each step of the hiring process shapes candidates’ impressions of your company. Hiring managers who put in the effort to make candidates feel wanted and appreciated have an advantage over the competition.

We continue to emphasize Candidate Experience because it is vital to success. Here are some tips our clients have used to attract amazing talent:

  1. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Candidates appreciate authenticity and transparency. From the first outreach to the end of the search, ensure every applicant knows what is happening with their candidacy. Talk openly about the hiring process and what will happen at each stage. When you communicate frequently and openly with candidates, you demonstrate that transparency is a priority in your organization. As a result, candidates will feel more comfortable being open with you, too. (Note: Your recruiting partner should excel at this aspect of the process, but once a candidate has interviewed with your company, you and your team should start taking over much of the communication with the candidate. It’s more impactful coming directly from you.)
  2. As the hiring manager, meet candidates early in the process. The more involved and proactive you are as their future manager, the better. Involvement by their prospective manager communicates that you are serious about bringing in great people. It should not take a candidate more than two interviews before they meet their future boss.
  3. Surprise and delight your candidates. If a great candidate is talking to you, they are likely talking to other companies, too. Here are some ideas to stand out from the crowd:
    1. Send a driver or pay for a cab/Uber/Lyft to bring candidates to their onsite interviews.
    2. Assign someone on your team to act as a “candidate concierge” to welcome the candidate, show them around, and ensure they are completely cared for.
    3. Send a follow up gift or card to let them know that you appreciate their time and look forward to continuing the process.
  4. Challenge candidates. Top candidates appreciate being challenged with purposeful interviews. Ask questions that are relevant and thoughtful. A thorough interview process emphasizes that your company sets a high bar and that you’re serious about hiring great people. It also let’s candidates know that they will be working with a strong team who went through a similar vetting process.
  5. Make the “close” a big deal. Invite your candidate to a nice dinner and present the job offer to them in person. Talk about how they will help you accomplish your corporate objectives in the short and long term. Delivering this message personally instead of through HR or your outside recruiter emphasizes how important the candidate is to you, and that’s ultimately the most crucial message.
  6. Follow up immediately after extending the offer. Have everyone who met the candidate reach out as soon as they receive the offer. These notes can be as simple as an email stating their excitement to work with the candidate, or a call/text with a similar message. Also, follow up yourself, emphasizing how excited you would be to have them on your team.

We’re sure you have some additional stories to tell about creating a special candidate experience, and we’d love to hear them!

The FlemingMartin Team

Client Snapshot: Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ)

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Named as a Forbes Fintech 50 for two consecutive years, Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) developed the first global modern card issuing platform, providing the most advanced infrastructure and tools for building highly configurable payment cards. Marqeta’s technology provides unprecedented control for companies like Instacart and DoorDash to issue cards, authorize transactions, and manage payment operations in real-time. Marqeta supports the world’s fastest-growing innovators at scale, and its technology powers many of the apps and services you enjoy daily. As of March 31, 2021, Marqeta has issued approximately 320 million cards. The Company went public on June 9, 2021, with a $15B+ Market Capitalization.

FlemingMartin is proud to partner with Marqeta, having placed their Chief Talent Officer (Ryan Weber), Head of Learning & Organizational Development (Ryan Bricker), Senior HRBP – Tech & Product (Tamika Smith-Anderson), and Employee Experience Lead (Melissa Frescholtz) to help steer the company through its next phases of growth.

Blue Angels

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Photo courtesy of Jim Barnhart

FlemingMartin can’t wait to resume hosting our clients on the USS Potomac during Fleet Week in the San Francisco Bay! This annual event was cancelled last year, but we are excited to revive the tradition of spending a lovely afternoon thanking our clients and supporting the Blue Angels Foundation. The Blue Angels represent the US Navy and Marine Corps in an inspiring flight show which has been viewed by more than 450 million spectators globally since 1946, and FlemingMartin has been supporting the Foundation for the past eight years. We’ll share pictures of our 2021 event in the next newsletter!

 

FlemingMartin News – Fintech Practice

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Since joining FlemingMartin in 2020, Scott Yen, who leads our Fintech practice, has served a Who’s Who list of top companies in the industry, including Bill.com, Marqeta, Opendoor, Coinbase, and Synapse. We recently sat down with Scott to get his thoughts on the industry and his search practice.

  1. What is it about Fintech that excites you? I love fintech because of the market opportunity and digital transformation we are seeing. Whether it’s banking, payments, or real estate, the technology and innovation from many companies are transforming how we transact in the present and in the future.
  2. What types of roles have you been working on? Which roles are in highest demand? It seems every role regardless of function is in high demand in this market, but in a unique time of growth and building, a lot of the roles we are working on are a reflection of the hyper growth and foundations that companies are hiring.  For instance, Covid has put a spotlight on HR and people, so we are seeing a significant uptick in demand for Heads of HR, Talent, and Total Rewards. These roles all address the same fundamental issues – how do you build a great culture, how do you attract the best talent in a competitive market, and how do you create a unique, data driven value proposition to attract and retain this talent.
  3. Tell me about how you approach your search practice? I have had the fortune of working with some great companies in Fintech. To me, executive search is about connecting dots, so it is extremely important to invest the time to learn about each client’s unique culture and the problems they are looking for the candidate to address. When I understand this, I am able to focus on the bigger picture and when I find the alignment of the candidate’s passions with my clients’ principles, we are able to connect the intellectual, emotional, and financial dots for both sides. Frankly, that’s why I love what we do because we can create both personal and professional value for our clients and candidates.
  4. Where should I eat the next time I’m in San Francisco? We are so lucky to be in a city where you can find some of the best ethnic and fine dining cuisine. We have all been cooped up during the pandemic, but if I think of one place that I miss, it’s House of Prime Rib, one of the lasting institutions in San Francisco.

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