We meet up with Bob Coppedge who is currently going through the hiring process to see how it has been different than in years past, and what is working from him.

Video Transcription

Harry Brelsford 

Hey nation nation. We're sneaking in one more chit chat before the end of the year with Bob Coppedge. On the Midwest, how you doing, Bob?

Bob Coppedge 

Peachy, How about you?

Harry Brelsford 

Good, good. You and I were talking off camera, it's actually really contemporary conversation about trying to hire and recruit talent. So what's going on? You're trying to hire people, which is a good sign?

Bob Coppedge 

Is it because it's growth based. So growth based isn't something you usually say in polite conversation. But yeah, we're trying to actually hire or add two, two more people full time people. One is a level two service desk tech, and the other is the content creator, because we're deciding, we're really going to double down on creating valuable content for both potential and existing clients. And it's interesting, like you and I were talking, we just started looking at about two weeks ago, and so far, we've had really good response on the content creator, we're finding some really good people, hopefully, really good people, we're just starting the interview process. But got a lot of good candidates, I think we were able to identify about 30 or 40 applied. And of those, a lot of them were were good possibilities. So I think we've got a solution rich environment, as I like to call it. Whereas tech side, what a shock, exactly the opposite. We're not seeing a lot of good candidates yet. And so we're basically we'll be talking amongst ourselves, and we we posted this right at Thanksgiving weekend. Wow, there's a certain amount of of that that goes into it. But definitely surprised about the difference in terms of the response that we're getting.

Harry Brelsford 

And how are you posting? Are you going up on indeed or sending chamber of commerce site or something?

Bob Coppedge 

So we do a couple of things. One is we post on Indeed, and then the other is we post on LinkedIn, as far as the we're paying for that for those postings. We do a little bit of social media. I'm not. I'm not crazy about doing too much of that. But we definitely are pushing out on you know, we put puts out some stuff on LinkedIn, like, put a couple posts on Facebook.

Harry Brelsford 

Yeah. And is the nature of the technical opportunity. Realistically, would it be a local candidate or a relocation or remote candidate? You know,

Bob Coppedge 

it's interesting, because there's a part of me that wanted to hire somebody on the West Coast. Yeah, and simply because that adds three more, three more hours of coverage without asking somebody to stay late. Then you got cost of living, you've got all the insurance issue, all that kind of stuff.

Harry Brelsford 

 There's, there's some farm towns on the west coast, but go on.

Bob Coppedge 

Absolutely. Well, and I talked with the guy who it was we refer to as a service desk czar, who this will be his person. And he was like, this has been the six person for his team. And he was like, let's do that for the seventh one. So it wasn't and it says operation, it's his group. So for right now, we're going to go local and local meaning within you know, 30-50 miles of where we're at. But absolutely, and I've talked to all my teams who have who have texted me like that they they need to start thinking in those terms, though, that we're gonna be adding people.

Harry Brelsford 

Well, I think you should I mean, I talked to a lot of people like you that that's my job is to talk then occasionally listen, and but we're seeing people think a new eye and you read some of the same stuff I do. But it you know, people are just resetting it's like, well, yeah, let's, let's put someone in the west coast or the Midwest, I had a conversation with another individual who relocated to Austin, Texas based alone on the timezone. Normally, it's music and barbecue, that he said, you know, with what I do in the central time zones, kind of right in the center, right. So I kind of, I get this leverage, and I get that leverage. And it worked for me.

Bob Coppedge 

Talk to some other MSPs who who are seeing people who are moving from the west coast to like Minnesota. Yeah. Because of the house the difference in the housing costs, correct. You know, they sell their house on West Coast and by five times the amount of house sandals price, and I think it's really interesting. If you look at that from either an employer standpoint and employees standpoint or a client standpoint, and you you hit it with the word option opportunity. And it's gonna be interesting because work from home started out as as a reaction to very, very bad stuff, you know, the whole pandemic and the like. But now we're turning it into a well, there's actually some great opportunity. Yeah, no matter who you are the employer or the employee, as long as you treat it appropriately, you don't treat it as a, I can now abdicate my employees, I don't have to worry about them, I don't have to worry about security, you still have to worry about all that. But you have this much more productivity or potential productivity?

Harry Brelsford 

Well, and I'll end on this segment of the conversation, one of my clients, because I consult industry now, and one of my clients is completely remote, about 20 employees in the data center space, and it's not for everybody, you know, they've had, the CEO has had to make some very tough hires and some very tough fires. And we've seen it off, you know, some people just aren't wired that way. But there was also the sentiment that some of the team was getting a little frustrated with one or two other team members who thought work from home meant, like, semi retired part time, you know, what I mean, it wasn't the same sharpness for some people that make sense.

Bob Coppedge 

But again, it gets down to that whole, you have to have the KPIs in place, what are your key performance indicators, you have to have that communication going on. And, and however you define it, you have to have people who get it, what it is you're trying to do, and how you're trying to deliver your goods and services, and that they, if not want to be part of that, at least are willing to. And, and this gets back to the the old Russian proverb that I love. It's, it's a short walk to the to the church, it's cold outside, it's a long walk to the bar, I'll wear a jacket, you know, if if people if you bring people on board and give them the opportunity to do things they want to do, they will find a way to do it, they will excel that will be great. And you still have to encourage them, you have to guide them, you have to do all that. Whereas if you if you bring them in and you try to get them to do stuff that they're not keen on doing, then you're gonna have nothing but friction. And I think that's from the hiring process and the interview process, as well as a cultural process. I mean, I know, I keep referring to 2020 Is that was our Valley Forge year, we spent a lot of time a lot of resource and a good chunk of money, improving the way we work remotely, and also on security and all that. And we did so because our thought was this isn't going to go away anytime soon. And one of my challenges for next year is what do I do with my office? Because I've got like 4000 square feet of space. She's, you know that that my lease is up next year, thankfully. Because right now it's yeah, it me and maybe one or two other people a couple days a week and that's it. So I've got a great opportunity to cut down on some of my monthly

Harry Brelsford 

okay, and you know what, we'll talk about that next time I'm gonna make a note because I've been there and we can double click into that final question. All things being equal, as I like to say name one or two events you're targeting and 2022 where people might see

Bob Coppedge 

one is content we're going to go we're going to double and triple down on creating really helpful content to our vendor to our clients and our potential clients

Harry Brelsford 

you're gonna want content event to offer are you talking about events going to events Yes, sir. Nicole

Bob Coppedge 

Nicole data first of all I really hope we have a data con all that and and I really liked it glue they had a some small conference stuff going on. Yeah, I really enjoyed this, you know, and I think avec had one as well. Those were really great. So I will probably do data con I made you connect it nation. The question those are the couple and I may I started looking at doing it this this year and decided just wasn't right time. But I'm hoping next year I'm actually going to put on one of my own that's going to be aimed at co-managed it program development for MSPs.

Harry Brelsford 

Well, I'll tell you what, we have the capable Jennifer Hallmark a career event manager and I've learned events the good the bad and ugly so we're a free phone call away as you go down that rabbit hole man. We're here to help. All right, happy holidays. You too.