IAM780- CEO Helps in Talent Search and Assessment

As the CEO of The Hire Talent | A Talent Assessment Software Company and Wimbush & Associates, Inc. | A Talent Search Firm, Fletcher Wimbush has interviewed over 8,000 job applicants.

In addition to talent assessment and executive search work, Fletcher co-authored a book with his late father, “Hiring Talent Team Players: A Guide to Getting it Right”, created the “Power Interview Guide”, the most effective 30-minute interview ever of all time, and he and his team have published numerous articles across various media channels including SHRM, ERE.net, Recruiter.com, Monster.com and other thought leadership sites. Hundreds more articles have been published on our assessment testing website found at PreEmploymentAssessments.com/blog.

• CEO Hack: I use scheduling tools like the calendar to be efficient with my time
• CEO Nugget: Clearly define who your target customer is
• CEO Defined: Creating vision, mission, and a better environment for our customers and internal team

Website:https://www.preemploymentassessments.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3140635/admin/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHiretalent/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHireTalent

Booking link https://calendly.com/fletcher-4/30-minute-call

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:29.80] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Fletcher Wimbush of the Hire Talent. Fletcher, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:40.20] – Fletcher Wimbush

Thanks. I really appreciate it. Well, I'm looking forward to chatting with you guys today.

[00:00:44.50] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on and and hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Fletcher so you can hear about some of those awesome things that he's doing. As the CEO of The Hire Talent | A Talent Assessment Software Company and Wimbush & Associates, Inc. | A Talent Search Firm, Fletcher Wimbush has interviewed over 8,000 job applicants. In addition to talent assessment and executive search work, Fletcher co-authored a book with his late father, “Hiring Talent Team Players: A Guide to Getting it Right”, created the “Power Interview Guide”, the most effective 30-minute interview ever of all time, and he and his team have published numerous articles across various media channels including SHRM, ERE.net, Recruiter.com, Monster.com and other thought leadership sites. Hundreds more articles have been published on our assessment testing website found at PreEmploymentAssessments.com/blog. Fletcher, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:43.09] – Fletcher Wimbush

Oh, yeah. Thanks, guys. And so nice in the introduction, Gresham.

[00:01:47.79] – Gresham Harkless

No worries. Thanks for doing all the awesome work. So what I wanted to kinda do just to get us started is kind of rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on what led you to get started. Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you get started with your business.

[00:01:59.29] – Fletcher Wimbush

Sure. Sure. Yeah. Well, I mean, this has been a lifelong passion for me. So my father was a business consultant. He started his consultancy life in nineteen eighty, and I was born in nineteen eighty-two. So, early into that career, he really began and developed a series of behavioral type of assessments. In addition to the common stuff, personality, and things like that, it really took a focus on attitude and integrity. So really identifying team players, avoiding problem generators. I think all of us have worked or been in an organization with somebody who's maybe a very high performer, but kind of a pain in the ass. Right? You know? And that could have levels of different levels of disruption. And, so, you know, he was an analytical guy.

He was a researcher, you know, he was an introvert and, you know, he's he would spend we would spend all our time talking about best hiring, leadership practices, just being a better person, personal development when I was really young. It was like my time state. I mean, all that kind of stuff. So I was kinda inundated with a lot of these, leadership and coaching principles and, you know, I was actually kinda got sick of them. Right? You know? You know, a lot of people like you know, Tony Robbins, these things. And I and they're great. Don't get me wrong. I'm not I'm not, anti these things, but I spent my whole, like, childhood being kinda, like, you know, kinda pushed at me. Right? Yeah.

And, I took a keen interest in that if you get the right people on the bus, the organization will naturally be successful. And again, not discounting all the other best practices that we need to do. I mean, they're totally valid and they're important. We need to be good leaders and we need to have great systems and things like that. But to me, the very beginning of a great organization is with these people. So, I wrote papers on it in high school and continued to be a leader in different roles that I held all throughout my career. And about seven years ago, it was, you know, my time to, you know, begin to get involved in this business and take it over. And so I, have been able to use a lot of these strategies in other organizations.

So actually, out of college, I wanted to get involved in the business and, like, all I said, no. No. No. You know, you need to go get some, like, real-world experience. And so I did. And so I had an entrepreneurial experience, and I opened up twenty-five delis across the country. And then I worked for a large, b-to-b service company where I ran, manufacturing, sales, service, and administration. I mean, the whole business the whole business unit with all areas of discipline and for a much larger company. And so we saw great results following the principle of let's get the right people on the bus first.

And so I had that personal experience. I've been able to use the tools that I've been taught and be able to produce a result, significant result. We took a business unit from last in the country from a hundredth to up in the top ten percent. So, you know, it's my lifelong passion. So that's kind of what led me here. And and yeah. You know, at a certain point, it was my turn to, you know, take over the business and take it to the next level. And so here I am, and I'm continuing that journey.

[00:05:23.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. It sounds like you're continuing the legacy. And it's so funny because a lot of times I'll say and I love getting the people on the right bus, that visual Yeah. And helping leaders to kinda understand that because I say so many times that when we look at the business there are the financials, there are the marketing goals, and all of those things. But so many times we forget about that human aspect of business, and I love that, you know, you focus on that and you focus on how best to get those people in the right seats and in the right on the right bus.

[00:05:54.30] – Fletcher Wimbush

I mean, it's amazing if you get the wrong person. I mean, if you're a small business, big business, medium business, doesn't matter. I mean, you know, maybe you're a smaller business. I mean, think about it this way, like, okay. You go to hire a marketer or a salesperson. I like this analogy. I mean, you can use this for any position. But let's say a salesperson has a million-dollar goal. Right? And let's just say it takes them ninety days to sort of, like, get their feet wet and just begin rolling, you know, get rolling. And so that means in fifteen months, you want that person to generate a million dollars in revenue for you. What happens now when they fail? And usually, when people fail, they usually fail quite badly. I mean, you know, if the guy does, like, nine hundred thousand, you're probably not, like, probably not the worst thing that ever happened to your organization.

Right? You know, but they're usually failing at a pretty colossal rate, you know, or maybe doing half or even less than half. So let's say he does half that or he's on pace to do half of that. You know? So you just lost half a million dollars just if you if you keep the person. Right? So maybe you discover this six months into the employment. Right? So now this person's only, you know, generated a quarter million a dollar or maybe a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars versus the half a million that they were supposed to. So now you just lost three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. And now you've got to rehire and start over. Mhmm. And guess what? It's gonna take another Yeah. Six months to get back to where you're at. So you lose money when they don't produce the results that are supposed to happen. You lose even more money when you turn them over and you have to refill, retrain, and get somebody else back. And you're, again, you're rolling the dice, potentially, if you're not, you know, focused on this.

[00:07:35.69] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I'm sure anybody who's brought somebody on the team and, you know, coached them up and got them, onboarded and done all those things and it didn't work out, and you kinda have to start back from square one, if not, square less than one, in terms of kinda getting all those things in place. So is that kind of, like, what you do with your business and organization? Is that how you kinda serve the clients to help them find the right people to get on the bus?

[00:07:59.10] – Fletcher Wimbush

Well, we help them identify whether they have the right person. Right? So we're in the talent assessment business. So we offer forty-one different assessment-type tools. Most of them are traditional kind of assessment tests. Right? You have behavioral and cognitive skill testing, but we also have other tools like candid scorecards, interview guides, and automated reference checking. So all of these tools are a form of assessment. How do you determine if somebody is gonna be the right person that's successful on the job? So we give people these tools in order to help them determine whether the people in their pool are gonna be successful. Right? And then we spend a lot of time educating people on best practices. So that's where there's over fifteen hundred, you know, content pieces on our website under the, the higher talent slash the, hiring resources. You can go there, videos, podcasts, books, you name it. You know? Everything you need to know about hiring is on there.

[00:08:54.89] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Absolutely love that. And I feel like, you know, you can't always guarantee, you know, success guarantee is gonna be perfect, but I think you can get as close to that as possible. And I think having that knowledge, having those assessments that you kinda spoke to and you and your team create helps to increase that likelihood of being a success. Let me ask you this. What would you consider to be your secret sauce? And this is the thing that you feel kinda sets you or your organization apart. What do you feel would be you or your organization's secret sauce?

[00:09:22.20] – Fletcher Wimbush

Oh, wow. Well, I think it's I think the big difference is we're really looking at the whole picture or we'd like to look at the whole picture. Sure. Our clients come to us to use our tools, but as I've mentioned before, we've created a massive amount of content on the topic of hiring and recruiting from A to Z. And so we spend a lot of time helping our clients more holistically, not just providing, but having these conversations with it. So client uses the assessments or they use one of our tools, and then we have a conversation about the tool that they're using.

And a lot of times most of the time, the conversation is rarely about the tool. It's almost about their whole process. And every single time we have one of these conversations, there's some sort of light bulb that goes on. Some tidbits or strategies that they just didn't think about that they're missing in their process. So, you know, I think it's more than just a set of tools in our commitment to this personal service. This is, you know, as much as know, we live in this world of, like, SaaS and these hot, you know, software companies and things and, you know, we wanna be a hot software company, but, you know, maybe I'm old. I'm thirty-eight. I don't know. But I think the personal touch that goes along with the use of a complex product or software is really important, and we add that in.

[00:10:42.29] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:10:53.50] – Fletcher Wimbush

Yeah. I love this one. So, you know, I told you so about seven years ago, I took over this company and, you know, I was been working for a much larger company, great organization. We're actually, you know, still one of my best clients and really great friends to this day. But, you know, you know, I had to report to work forty hours a week and, you know, I was working more than that. I was working like fifty-plus hours a week. So as I got a little bit older in my early days, I mean, work I was a workaholic. So I'm what I like to call, a recovering workaholic. I get more work done than I probably ever did in my life, but I am a strict believer in the calendar.

So if it's not on the calendar, I don't do it, but it allows me to be very, very efficient with my time. I couldn't interview ten thousand people without being very, very efficient appointments or phone calls unless I do a blocked time, like free time that'll, you know, ad hoc. But it allows me to control my life and my schedule and, be very, very efficient and get a lot done in a much shorter period of time. You know, I don't need to spend twelve hours a day working. I could spend five or six, and I can get just as much done as most people do in twelve.

[00:12:11.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And you just told everybody, so you'll definitely see a lot more people do it including me. So I appreciate that.

[00:12:17.29] – Fletcher Wimbush

I hope so. And that Yeah.

[00:12:20.39] – Gresham Harkless

And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It could be around hiring or or recruiting, or it might be something if you hopped into a time machine you would tell your younger business self.

[00:12:32.29] – Fletcher Wimbush

One of the biggest realizations I had in business, and it came from, I'm an EO member, you know, really entrepreneur, the organization came through that, you know, was clearly defining who your target customer is. Mhmm. I mean, like crystal clear without a doubt. And, in our search business, in our in our, recruiting business, once we did that, it literally exploded.

[00:13:10.10] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. So now I wanna ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Fletcher, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:24.00] – Fletcher Wimbush

Wow. Well, it means, you know, creating vision and mission and an environment, you know, really to serve two people two groups of people. One, you know, it's definitely our clients first, hundred percent. You know, we got we've got to add value to their world. We gotta help create solutions for them, and we've gotta do the same thing for creating an environment, a rewarding experience, and a place to create an environment where they can both be personally and professionally successful. So if we do if we do those two things, then, you know, I've done my job as a CEO, and, everything else, you know, will fall into place and, you know, will be right, hopefully.

[00:14:08.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. When you get those people in the right seats and they're able to kinda serve those clients, in the right way, that's when everything starts to fall on.

[00:14:15.60] – Fletcher Wimbush

Allowing them to be successful. Right? Every day is possible. Right? And that's when, you know, part of being successful would mean being happy. Right?

[00:14:24.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And then so many times people forget about that. I think there's a quote that says, people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. And I think that making sure that you put their happiness or things that they value at the forefront again. The what's in it for me helps to kinda create that environment that you kinda spoke to as well.

[00:14:43.20] – Fletcher Wimbush

If you got a player, you know, why would you try to do why would you wanna do anything else other than try to make them happy? Right?

[00:14:50.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Fletcher, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do was pass in the mic, so to speak, just to see if there was anything additional. You want to let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

[00:15:06.29] – Fletcher Wimbush

Oh, well, it's been, it's been a great pleasure. I really enjoyed the chat. Great, great questions. So, yeah, you guys can find us at the higher talent dot com. So it's the higher spelled h I r e talent dot com or preemployment assessments dot com. So check us out there. If you're interested, I'm happy we're happy to jump on a call and chat with you about anything. You know, we do lots of free consultations for folks just understanding your hiring needs. You can check out on our website under the hiring resources, you know, one of those fifteen hundred plus different resources or podcasts or books, everything from, you know, full length, you know, books to, short, you know, ebooks on the topic. So, I mean, it's extensive and, really encourages people to study up on this stuff and, you know, we're here to support you, you know, one way or the other.

[00:15:58.39] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I definitely appreciate that. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too Awesome. So that everybody can follow up with you. But you're absolutely right. You know, we talked about, you know, being successful. One of the best ways you can be successful is to make sure you're getting those people in the right place and on the right bus going to the right place. And I appreciate you creating so much information for us to be able to do that. So I appreciate you, Fletcher, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:16:21.79] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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