Deanna Baumgardner of Employers Advantage On How To Identify and Engage The Best Talent For Your Organization

An Interview With Rachel Kline

Be thorough and thoughtful but quick and decisive so as to not lose good candidates through the process. And honestly, to not drag people along. Nobody wants to go through that, so don’t do it to people. This is why having a mapped out recruiting and hiring process is so important, so that it is easier to identify who does and doesn’t match the role therefore making it easier to make a decision and keep the process and candidates moving in a reasonable timeframe.

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 Deanna Baumgardner, President and Owner of Employers Advantage LLC.

Deanna Baumgardner started Employers Advantage LLC in August of 2010 to provide small businesses with a viable option for Human Resources support that fits the specific needs of small businesses and non-profits. Deanna and her team work with a variety of small businesses across the US and in a multitude of industries. Prior to starting Employers Advantage, Deanna worked in multi-faceted corporate HR roles giving her exposure to a wide range of both HR and business operations.

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?

When you talk to most HR people, they typically don’t start out in HR but rather fall into at some point. That is what happened to me. I started out in accounting and was working at a large company that had a pretty toxic environment but also a horrible HR person. I hate to say that, but there are good and bad folks in every industry and unfortunately, bad HR people have a significant impact on the culture. At the time, I didn’t know much, if anything, about HR but I knew that it didn’t seem right to treat people the way that she did, so I took an introductory to HR course at my local university and it all fell into place. I ended up getting my Bachelors in HR Management and then moved into an HR role after graduation and the rest is history. Since that time, it has been a mission of mine to be better and do better in HR but also to help people understand HR and see it for what it is rather than what the stereotype that gets perpetuated by people like the bad HR lady I mentioned.

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?

Oh my, well it kind of falls in line with what we are talking about today. When I was still in accounting roles but pursuing my HR degree, I was also looking for another job so that I could get out of the toxic work environment and start the process of pursuing HR roles. As I was interviewing for a role, the interviewer was very nice and made me feel very comfortable… too comfortable actually and I ended up talking about how horrible my current boss was, how horrible the HR person was and how horrible the work environment was. There was nothing in my responses to her questions in the interview that told her why I wanted to work there or do that particular job, but it was more so why I didn’t want to be in my current role. I cringe and laugh all at the same time when I think back to that interview, I can still picture it to this day. Nobody wants a negative nelly on their team. From a candidate perspective, the lesson is to stay focused on what you can bring to the role and not completely bash your current employer, no matter how comfortable you feel with the person interviewing you. From an employer perspective, it’s along those same lines as far as a lesson learned. When interviewing people, it’s really understanding if people want to work with you or if they just want to get out of where they are.

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

These are the three that immediately pop into my head when I think of this question.

Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t — Anonymous — This quote was front and center for me for the first few years of starting Employers Advantage LLC. I had it printed out and hanging up so that it was a regular reminder to keep going, give it all I got, and to stay focused on the bigger picture. It was also a good reminder for me to do what needed to be done while building this business. I worked part-time odd jobs for the first couple of years building Employers Advantage because any money that came in from the business, went back into the business and I needed to get by. Good lesson in staying humble and keeping your eye on the prize.

Live in the solution, not the problem — Unknown — For me, this is twofold. 1. It helps me stay positive by focusing on resolutions and what we can do versus dwelling too much on the bad stuff. 2. It also helps me keep an open mind and think more strategically. When I am faced with a problem, my mind is so focused on a solution that I explore all viable options.

A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor — Franklin Roosevelt — This one almost speaks for itself, but for me, it’s a good reminder that the hard times are how we learn and grow. When things get tough, I often recite this in my head and I forge ahead knowing that whatever it is, I can get through it and will be better on the other side.

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

As a company, we are working on expanding a little more and creating different functional areas of the business. Employers Advantage was started and has primarily focused on small business and companies with less than 50 employees. That will always be the case. However, over the past couple of years, the market has taken us down some additional paths that we are going to carve out, Talent Acquisition and the 50–300 employee companies. The small business market will always be and continue to be the heart and soul of what we do and at the very core of Employers Advantage. We are in the process of building out a structured Talent Acquisition functional area as well as a functional area to provide HR support to companies with 50–300 employees.

What this does internally is provide additional career paths and opportunities for the team but also allows us to make a bigger impact in the small business market.

Lastly, we recently implemented an additional health and wellness benefit that provides reimbursement to employees for an annual subscription to a health, wellness or fitness app of their choice. It is being well received and I am looking forward to seeing what they do with the benefit.

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?

Honestly, my most successful recruitment initiative is what we do day in and day out with the people on the team and the clients we work with. It’s our reputation and brand based on our work culture, our network, how we work with each other, and how we work with our clients. When you create an environment that people want to be a part of, it certainly makes the recruiting process a little bit easier because we get referrals to great HR folks from our network and from current employees, whether we have an opening or not. That creates an amazing pipeline and network of folks that you might be able to help at some point and that might be able to help you at some point as well.

As it relates to identifying and hiring talent, you must start by knowing who you are as a company. We have strong mission and core values at Employers Advantage and we use that as our guide through the hiring process. Obviously, when we look at a resume, we can see if they have applicable HR experience or not. After that, we really want to know who they are as a person, if their core values match our core values and would they enhance our current culture.

The other thing I keep in mind during the hiring process is that we aren’t just looking for someone to join our team, the candidates are also looking for where they want to be. I really think it’s important to keep that in mind and I appreciate candidates that are clear about what they are looking for. We are clear about what we are looking for and what we can offer, from there we can both decide if there is a match or not. If not, that’s ok. If so, then great.

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

To create a great candidate experience, it boils down to setting expectations through transparent communication. That means planning ahead to identify who on the team is involved in the recruiting and interviewing process, what their role(s) are in the process and the expected timeline to move candidates through the process. Outside of that, you really need to know what you’re looking for so that it is easier to identify the right people. What are the must haves, what are the nice to haves and what are the deal breakers? When those are identified and everyone is on the same page, then it is easier to know who to move through the process.

At each stage of the process, it is important to let the candidate know what the process and timeframes are but also to stick to that process and timeframe. If anything changes, let the candidate know. I know that a lot of times during the recruiting process, things change and maybe the position ends up being revamped or even put on hold. It is imperative to let people know what’s going on to successfully manage the candidate experience. Nobody likes to be ghosted, so don’t do it to other people. One thing we always say is, think about if you would want someone in your family to be treated like that. If the answer is no, then do something about it to make it right.

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

I think there is an opportunity for HR and Culture professionals to get even more engaged with teams and hiring managers to figure out where the gaps are, what’s working, what’s not and what other options may be available. Maybe an assessment of the overall department of function to see if work can be shifted, if there is untapped talent on the team or if someone might have an interest in learning a new skill that is needed.

When it is identified that a role needs to be filled, I like to dig a little deeper and ask the hiring manager to describe either someone current or past in the role that was the most successful and what was it about them that made them so successful in that role. What key job-related attributes and skills did they have that contributed to the overall success of that person in the role and at the company? When you have that information and can use it as a benchmark for hiring, it’s a great way to be able to identify talent that either matches or doesn’t match that benchmark.

Is there anything you see that recruiters, internal or otherwise, do regularly that makes you think, “No, stop doing that!”?

Making wild assumptions about individuals simply based on their resumes rather than taking the time to understand individuals. Again, I go back to whether you would want someone in your family to be treated like that. Probably not.

Things like employment gaps or movement with different jobs are typically looked at as reasons why to pass by that particular candidate. They may have all the work experience applicable to the role, but the assumption is that something must be wrong with that person. That’s not always the case. Life happens, people have gaps in employment for a variety of reasons and it really doesn’t matter the reason, quite honestly.

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?

Post the pay! Some states require that compensation be included in the job posting, but even if it isn’t required, do it anyway. Not only do you miss out on a significant portion of the candidate pool by not posting pay, but it also shows transparency, eliminates a ton of wasted time on both the employer and candidate side and gets the biggest thing that everyone wants to know out of the way. It can’t be said enough, post the pay, post the pay, post the pay.

Know your Employee Value Proposition and include that in the posting and outgoing communication to candidates. Your employee value proposition is why would someone want to work there? It’s not just about the paycheck, it’s the culture, the work environment, is there flexibility, do you offer any unique benefits, is it remote, hybrid or in-office only, things like that. Not only does it show why someone would want to want to work here, it helps people relate to what they may (or may not) be looking for in their next role.

Understand your employer brand and where that stands in the market. This includes employee reviews and ratings on sites like Indeed and Glassdoor. HR and marketing should be working together here to appeal to candidates, current and future, as part of the company’s overall marketing strategy.

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

Understand and respect them as individuals. Each person on the team brings something special and unique that enhances the overall culture. Being able to tap into that and appreciate it in each person, I believe, helps people feel like they belong, and they can be themselves in their jobs. And why shouldn’t they feel that way? That’s how it is supposed to be. They were hired for who they are and what they can do, so why would I try to get them to be anything other than that? It’s also important to understand each individual’s personality, what motivates them, what interests them but also what might be triggers for them or what type of communication/feedback to they respond the best to.

Empower and support them to take ownership of their roles and work. Each person on the team manages their own time, schedule, and work. I provide resources, support and set performance expectations based on our Core Values, and then they each manage their role from there. I find that much more effective than micromanaging and it allows each person the freedom and flexibility to balance their work and personal lives as they see fit.

Be empathetic and allow for open, honest communication. The team I get to work with are wonderful human beings and I look at each of them as human beings, not employees or resources for my company. Because of that, I think I am able to better empathize during certain situations because I am not blind to the fact that people bring their whole selves to work and their lives aren’t only work. What happens outside of work has an impact on how people perform and function while at work, so it’s important to allow for open and honest communication as well as practice empathy so that I can better understand what might be going on with them and how I can support them. The same goes for work-related items, of course. I don’t do the same work they do every day so I don’t always see what happens or doesn’t happen, so it’s vitally important that people are comfortable communicating with me about what works and what doesn’t work. That can only be done by allowing people to have open and honest communication without fear of repercussion. I am very transparent with the company information and things that are going in the business, and in turn, the team knows that they can be transparent with me as well.

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 . Know who we are as a company. In addition to our core values, we are very focused on boundaries and protecting our time and well-being. This team works extremely hard, and they hustle when they need to, but we do not glorify multi-tasking, being stressed, or overworked. We actually frown upon that, so if someone thrives in that environment and needs to feel all of those things to think they are important, they won’t thrive here. We know that about ourselves and can easily identify that as a key component of our culture that helps in identifying talent for our team.

2 . Ask the candidate what they are looking for in a company and their next role to see if it matches what the role is and what we can offer. Dig deep with this and ask for specifics about what is important to them as individuals. Again, we aren’t just looking for someone to join our team, the candidates are looking for where they want to be. When you ask that question, it can really bring up a lot of things and be a good indicator of whether or not there is compatibility. If they are unsure of what they are looking for or if what they are looking for are things that we aren’t able to offer, that’s telling in itself.

3 . Be thorough and thoughtful but quick and decisive so as to not lose good candidates through the process. And honestly, to not drag people along. Nobody wants to go through that, so don’t do it to people. This is why having a mapped out recruiting and hiring process is so important, so that it is easier to identify who does and doesn’t match the role therefore making it easier to make a decision and keep the process and candidates moving in a reasonable timeframe.

4 . Know the role and what makes someone successful in that role. By having those characteristics and that work experience in mind, I ask questions that are designed to solicit the information that I am looking for. Meaning, I ask very specific questions, even actual situations that we’ve encountered with clients, and then asking the candidate to walk me through what they would do in that situation. I also ask them very specific behavioral-based questions to get an idea of how they handled certain situations at work, with employees, co-workers, etc. Outside of that, I ask them how they got into HR and their philosophy of what HR is and our role in an organization. That’s important to me because the philosophy of HR needs to align, not to mention that when you ask someone how they got into HR, it’s usually a good story and that relaxes people and helps them be more open.

5 . Be realistic. There have been a lot of times that I’ve talked to really great people through the hiring process, but they either didn’t have the experience we needed at the time, they needed something that we weren’t able to provide, or some other reason, when I really thought about it and looked at it realistically, it wouldn’t work and I have to pass on the candidate. The other part of being realistic is sharing the good, bad and the ugly with candidates and not being blind to the fact that there may be difficulties that the person runs into in the role. There are difficulties in any job and at any company, but it’s how they are handled is what makes the difference. If you aren’t realistic, it can really set someone up for failure and create turnover.

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.

I would love to have lunch with Savannah Guthrie. I admire her work, how she has diverse business interests and she seems like an overall good person. In her work, she seems to have a genuine interest and concern for people as individuals and isn’t afraid to express that. Plus, she’s funny!

How can our readers continue to follow your work online?

I welcome individual connections on LinkedIn as well as following Employers Advantage LLC on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Our website is where you can sign up for our monthly newsletter, read out latest articles or watch our Team Live discussion videos. I also welcome direct outreach to me via email at deanna@employersadvantagellc.com

Thank you so much for these fantastic insights!