Cynthia Hetherington of Hetherington Group On How To Identify and Engage The Best Talent For Your Organization

An Interview With Rachel Kline

Hard worker — In our company work ethic is paramount, so we look for candidates that would exhaust even me.

Mission-oriented — You need to believe in our shared goal to make the world safer.

Companies are always on the lookout for exceptional talent in today’s work environment. In addition, the perks needed to keep talent have changed as people are not simply running after a paycheck. They want something more. What does a company need to do to identify and engage the best talent for their organization? In this interview series, we are talking to HR experts who can share ideas and insights from their experience. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cynthia Hetherington, CEO and Founder of the Hetherington Group and author of OSINT: The Authoritative Guide to Due Diligence.

Cynthia Hetherington, MLS, MSM, CFE, CII, OSC, is the Founder and CEO of Hetherington Group, a consulting, publishing, and training firm that leads in due diligence, corporate intelligence, and cyber investigations by keeping pace with the latest security threats and assessments. She has published five books on intelligence and investigative best practices and is the recipient of many business and security awards.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before diving in, our readers would love to get to know you. Can you tell us the backstory about what brought you to this specific career path?

Beginning as a technology-savvy librarian in the early ’90s, I saw the growth and impact of the Internet on everything in my world while, at the same time, I watched law enforcement begin to combat crime in this new unique environment and thought I could help. Not only did I have the information skill set to understand the creation, storage and dissemination over many networked environments, but I also could create a computer network down to pulling the Cat-3 through the walls. Beginning with teaching at several law enforcement events, and eventually branching out into my own practice becoming a licensed private investigator and later operating my own company, I now am internationally recognized, managing due diligence and intelligence work for the world’s largest brands. Thanks to the early days when the Internet community — especially in the security space — was very small, I had doors open, received welcome invites, and enjoyed warm reception by anyone I interacted with. Here is where I found my people.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you first started? Then, can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

An amazing and gracious investigator with a strong British accent called and asked me for a quote to do some work. A few days later I handed him a finished report and a large invoice. Needless to say we were both shocked because he only wanted to get the quote, not the finished product. I learned communication is key to any engagement and not to rush to conclusions. Listening is as important as any skill we have.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” and how that was relevant to you in your life?

I’m sort of famous for quotes, so much so that they are tattoo’d on the office walls. Personally, and one I share with many new females coming into this industry is, “What you can’t hide, decorate!” If you stand out and are different, just embrace it and move on. No one cares. We only need you to work well, work hard, and work smart.

Are you working on any exciting new projects at your company? How is this helping people?

Hetherington Group works in the crisis industry. Our work is always exciting, whether it’s protecting executives from superfans and stalkers, or monitoring for risk against an impactful new product coming to market. We see fraud, deception, terrorism, threats, and cyber attacks daily. We also see good people making their way through complicated hiring, intrusive interviews, and awkward HR moments. A large part of our work involves empathy and integrity. We value the human in front of us and treat them as well as we would want to be treated.

Wonderful. Now let’s jump into the main focus of our series. Hiring can be very time-consuming and challenging. Can you share with our readers a bit about your experience with identifying and hiring talent? What’s been your most successful recruitment-related initiative so far?

Hiring in our industry always has the extra. We’re not just protecting ourselves, but we’re protecting our customers. The data we manage is overseen by several federal laws, many state controls, and company mandates. You need to be the best in class, but what’s more important is that you need to believe in our mission. We’re here to make the world a safer place. Everyone at this company has a direct involvement in securing life, property, and reputation management. Our team thrives on the victories of our customers and that includes their safety and sanity. Finding a candidate that “gets it” is one-third the way.

Once talent is engaged, what’s your advice for creating a great candidate experience and ensuring the right people go through the process?

Have a process. Our onboarding process was horrendous. We’d email a dozen pdf files of assorted content, forms, and legal requirements. It was a very small business approach to “once you get here we’ll figure it out.” In the past year we’ve formalized that to meet the growth of the company, and now have clear lines for new hires — what the expectations are, goals for themselves and the company, and accountability for each step.

Based on your experience, how can HR and culture professionals work with the broader organization to identify talent needs?

Putting on my corporate support hat, I would venture to say that in my experience companies that list generic job titles such as “data analyst” waste their time reviewing applicants, and the applicants’ time applying. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth and feels disingenuous. No one has one role anymore, we are all multi-tasking. List those many roles in your job requirements. If you don’t plan to let your employees work from home, pull out the hybrid office section. If you need them to work late nights, overtime required should be stated. From the investigative side, we see employees complaining on private message boards that they feel they’re being lied to and manipulated.

With so much noise and competition out there, what are your top 3 ways to attract and engage the best talent in an industry when they haven’t already reached out to you?

1. Use LinkedIn for messaging what you and your company are about. Social media is absolutely the platform candidates look and respond to before they walk into an interview.
2. Don’t be shy to be vulnerable as a company and share the reason why you’re hiring a data analyst. It gives them empowerment and a sense of authority that they’re actually on a team and not filling a slot.
3. Share your mission statement, your values and your company’s goals. Hiring an employee means bringing them into the fold. They wear your colors, speak your language, breathe your air, and eat your food. Get them embedded as soon as possible.

What are the three most effective strategies you use to retain employees?

1. Allow opportunities to explore all paths of the company, to teach, to write, to do other tasks, to be seen, and to be recognized.
2. Acknowledge their wins and help them understand their failures.
3. Compensation and, where possible, reward.

Here is the main question of our interview. Can you share five techniques that you use to identify the talent that would be best suited for the job you want to fill? Please share an example for each idea.

1 . Hard worker — In our company work ethic is paramount, so we look for candidates that would exhaust even me.

2 . Mission-oriented — You need to believe in our shared goal to make the world safer.

3 . Technology talented and curious — A critical thinker with analytical ability.

4 . Self-managed — I don’t want a push-button employee. I need staff to move on their own.

5 . Must love dogs — We are a dog-friendly office, and even if you work from home, you have to like my dog.

We are very blessed to have some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a private lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this.

We’re not in the business of naming names. It’s our work to maintain their anonymity. However, if VC funders are interested in the same goal of protecting our country, making the world a safer place, and supporting veterans transitioning into the workplace, please call.

How can our readers continue to follow your work online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiahetherington/ and https://hetheringtongroup.com/blog

Thank you so much for these fantastic insights!