EP194: Transforming Onboarding: How Servecraft Sets New Employees Up for Success

Perfect. Well, so right off the bat, everybody should know, which is, this is not uncommon. I get a lot of guests from TikTok. And so I saw one of your company's post on how you onboard your new associates. And that's why I wanted to have you on the show. But before we get into all of that, Tim, why don't you just give us kind of a 30,000 foot view of what you guys do, like Servecraft, the whole thing. Just give us a quick little snippet of who you are and what you guys do. Yeah.

Awesome. And so surf craft is, we were talking off camera before we started, but it's like a parent company. You have six or seven other companies underneath you.

Yeah, makes perfect sense. So, Palmer, you are the social media and marketing expert. I'm assuming you're the one that's recording all of the TikTok videos that are being posted. That's correct. What's kind of like, what all do you kind of do in the, in the company? Just give her a bike, kind of an idea.

Okay, awesome. And how long has Servcraft been established?

Okay, I got you. And so the company that I saw the video for that you were posting was Crown Mechanical, which is, I'm assuming, a mechanical. You guys do mechanical services. Where is that located? Where is that company at?

Oh, okay. Okay. So everyone's local. It makes it nice and easy for local visits and all that stuff management wise. Yeah. So you have Crown Mechanical, which does, is that mostly commercial or do you guys do residential or? Yep.

Okay. So you got the three. The three trays covered there then. Yep. Perfect. So back to the reason for this call, and that was, or for this episode here, is that you guys had posted a video on TikTok of a new employee coming in on his first day of starting his new job there. And you had a full spread out of gear and all kinds of things. Take us through a little bit, just kind of start out high and then maybe we'll get in the weeds on some of it, but just kind of start with what's a normal onboarding like overall for a new employee with the companies.

Well, I mean like the first day, are you just getting them, you know, here's all your stuff or like just kind of give us an overview, like a 30,000 foot view of what that might look like.

I love it. You said that like kind of get six months ahead. Like you're, I mean, let's, let's be real. Like anytime you start something new, you're kind of, you know, you're. Yeah. You're guarding your emotions, you're guarding your thoughts and all that. And, you know, is this, am I going to fit in here? And so maybe it's not the right way to say it, but in a way you're kind of buying that easy access into that emotional, you know, connection. That makes sense. Yeah. So that's interesting. So obviously we can get into it here in a minute, but obviously you want to make sure you have the right candidate, right? There's a lot of pre-screening that goes on. Like when they're walking in the door on that first day. You're pretty solid. Like you're, you're pretty confident. It's going to be a good employee. Obviously we don't ever know for sure, but pretty confident. And then you're investing in them from day one. I love the term swag table, you know, where you have all these different tools and gear. And I think one, I saw you like giving them boots too. Is that right? Giving them work boots. Yeah. Yeah. Nice, nice set of work boots. Does that ever backfire though? Like if you, you give someone all of that stuff and then like a week later they quit, has that ever happened or? Yeah, it's

Well, I mean, yeah, you're just averaging out. I mean, if one out of 30 doesn't work out, that's not going to break the bank per se with buying all that stuff.

Right. Right. I was listening to a podcast. This was many, many years ago. And I can't remember the guy's name, but he was in South Florida, built a heating and air, mostly residential from the ground up. And he had, I think last time when I heard him on the podcast, he had like over 200 employees. I mean, built a significant company, but he was saying that like, he had to go through over 2000 candidates. to find those 200 that he currently had. And I don't, I don't mean like applications. I mean like people that he hired, you know, had hired over 2000 people to get down to that core 200 and something that he currently had that were solid employees. Have you guys kind of figured out how to narrow down to the right employee, like certain, you know, certain characteristics, certain personality traits where you can kind of say, this is going to be a pretty good shot. This is going to be a good employee.

Gotcha.

And that's, you know, obviously exit interviews are really important for that, to get that feedback on that. So do you know roughly, like, kind of with people that are applying, like, what kind of conversion rate you're getting with, you know, hiring? You may not know that. number. I was just kind of curious.

Okay.

The term I like is, you know, hire for character, train for skill. Right now, obviously. Oh, that's awesome. Obviously some, some positions you got to have some skill. Right. But yeah, it's funny. You said that I was laughing because that's whenever I would hire someone, the first thing I would do, like as soon as I got their application, I'd go to Facebook and see if they had a profile. you know, and if your profile picture is you, you know, flicking off the camera or, you know, drinking a beer bong or something, you know, there's all kinds of crazy political posts on there. I'm like, okay, you're not going to fit our culture.

Yeah. I mean, obviously the, you know, joking around a little bit about some of that. And then you, I mean, you don't want to like get crazy with it, you know, but still you can tell really quick, is this person going to be a problem? You know, are they going to be calling?

What's that Palmer? I'm sorry.

Absolutely. And, and even on, and I talk with my clients, like even on the residential side, if you're, probably more so for smaller companies. But if you are going to hire like a bathroom, you know, contractor, remodeling contractor, your clients are also social proofing you. Like they're also finding out who's the owner of the company and then going to the owner's Facebook page. Like it's not uncommon, probably more residential than commercial or industrial, but you know, people are going to social proof you. And it blows my mind that some people. have all of that, you know, out there on the internet for everyone to see clear as day.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the phrase that always stuck with me is like, you know, live your social life as if you're going to run for president one day and all of the stuff that you did is going to come to light. Like everything you post is going to come back to light. So back talking about marketing and stuff. How much have you found with the, like with the TikTok and all that, how much do you guys use social media to help recruit for recruiting purposes?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it caught my eye. You know, it's kind of, it sounds like it was kind of like a Bob Ross happy little moment for you guys where you didn't fully understand the impact it would have as a recruiting tool.

love it. Oh, yeah. I think it was fantastic. That's the reason I wanted to have you on the podcast was because of that. It's one thing to like, you can tell in the video, like you didn't set this up. Like this wasn't a setup for you to get some kind of popularity contest votes. It was a genuine, you know, you guys were genuinely documenting the first day for them. But I think that it's not that you're the only company that, you know, gives their employees. swag on the first day, right? Like that's not even that either. I think it's just, there's so much of that missed. Like there's, there's so many companies that don't do that, that that's the norm. The norm is day one. It's like, Oh, I'm glad you're here. Go and get, here's your truck. Here's your keys. We got a job for you to start, you know, right away. Like get out there and start making this money, you know, like that kind of mindset. And obviously you guys have put a ton of effort, a ton of time, a ton of money. into making sure that you guys, you're setting your employees up for success on day one. And I think a lot of people don't understand that that's what you're doing here. Yeah.

So you're sending out a questionnaire then after the job offer is, you know, is it after they accept the job or like with the job offer letter?

That's, that's actually smart. I would just have the, basically the questionnaire was day one. It's like, okay, what's your shirt size? You know, what, what, what's your pant size or whatever. And then I'd have to go get that stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If I didn't have it in stock, I'd have to order a shirt and then they'd have to wear some random t-shirt for three weeks until this stuff comes in. And it's like, you know, obviously that makes a little more sense. Okay. So yeah.

Have you ever had like a negative reaction to all of that? Like it was just...

on his first day as he ever had no

Do you have like a sign of waiver, not a waiver, but like permission that like, hey, we're going to film you.

And this is the reason, one of the reasons I want to have you guys on here is that people that are listening that aren't doing any of this, they're not doing any culture, like essentially you're videotaping a culture of your company, right? Like what people can expect on their first day, what it's like to work here, which is in and of itself a recruiting tool. But I've had people that are like, well, what if none of my employees want to be recorded? You know, what if they don't want to be on camera? And I'm like, you know, that's legit. Some people don't want to be on camera, but that should be part of your like, culture and hiring like questionnaires like hey we're going to film if you haven't you know if you just absolutely don't want to be on camera that might be a mismatch have you ever ran into

Yeah. How much power, how much of your time you spend is around recruiting

Yeah. Like you're like the marketing that you do, how much of it is like, you know, most of this is for recruiting efforts. Oh

Yeah, I wanted to ask that question because I don't think a lot of companies realize how much effort should be put into recruiting. It's a lot. It's a lot, a lot. And 50% of your time, roughly, is spent just on recruiting. And you're a full-time marketer. Now, smaller companies that don't have a full-time marketer, that's going to fall on the office manager or the owner or whoever can do it. And that usually just kind of gets pushed to the side. I'll throw some ads on Indeed, and hopefully that works. Yeah, exactly. For you guys, what's been the most successful way of recruiting? What type of medium have you used that's worked the best?

Okay. So you said that word of mouth and a lot of employee referrals, and I'm assuming your employees referring their friends and stuff. If referrals are like your number one, then why even bother with the social media stuff?

I agree. I kind of set you up a little bit on that question. I think that even potential customers, like you were saying, when they see the company culture, That makes you more attractive to them as far as a company to hire, because I mean, nobody wants to hire a company where the employees hate coming to work every day.

So it's hard to quantify, obviously, a lot of that with with social media. But I was going to say that it's a good tool that whenever one of your employees is saying, hey, you know. come work where I'm at, just go to their TikTok and you can see how, you know, what we do here in the culture. And then, you know, that's an easy evidence is what I'm trying. That's the word I'm trying to look for. It's evidence that you are actually doing what you say that you're doing. People can see that. So I know we're getting short on time here. What would you say is the most, like of all of the recruiting and stuff that you do, the social media, everything that you do, what would you say is like the most impactful thing that you do? to kind of ensure that continued success in your recruiting efforts?

If you only pick one thing, only one way to recruit people, what would that be?

Yeah. So it sounds like if I were to sum it up, it's just being authentically invested in your employees. Yeah. Good way to put it. Not for TikTok, but truly wanting them to have success and, you know, help them achieve their goals and all that stuff. So, you know, if I, if I was looking for a job, I would definitely be looking, you know, calling you guys up and seeing if I could come work there, get all that cool swag that you guys post. But no, on a serious note, I do appreciate you guys coming on here. I know that you're busy and all that you're doing with your company. I think it's fantastic. Thank you. Keep it up. If somebody was interested in learning, maybe reaching out to learn about what you're doing, what's the best way to do that? TikTok?

So Crown Mechanical is the TikTok account that you guys are. For the mechanical company, yeah.

So if you, if you guys want to check out the video, do you have it pinned on there on your tech talk?

Perfect. So if you guys are listening to this and you're, you want to see what I would have considered to be the, the gold standard for how you onboard employees. And I know we didn't get into all the weeds of stuff, but if you want to kind of see the gold standard, go to their TikTok, the Crown Mechanical TikTok account. They got the videos are pinned there at the top. You can see them. I think, I mean, I love what you guys are doing. I think that, you know, that is, like I said, the crown standard, the gold standard rather of how you should bring people on. I think it's something that sets a lot of the people that don't do that. you know, they set themselves up for failure and they don't realize what's really happening. And just kudos to you guys for, you know, the type of culture and environment you're, you guys are building there. And I appreciate you being on the show today.

Awesome. Well, guys, thanks again for hanging out with us. You know, where to find us on the social media platforms. You can just search for the hammer and grind podcast. If you haven't done it yet, make sure you pick up my new book, the contractor profit blueprint. There's links in the show notes for that. And remember guys, until next time, profit is not a dirty word.