Talent Recruitment 101: How To Attract And Retain The Right Candidates With Steven Jenkins

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Talent Recruitment 101: How To Attract And Retain The Right Candidates With Steven Jenkins

My guest is Steve Jenkins. Steve is a veteran of the recruiting industry with many years of experience. For the past few years, Steve has been active in the multifamily industry. I brought Steve on for his wealth of knowledge that he will hopefully share with us. Welcome to the show, Steve.

Adrian, I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you.

Let's start at the very beginning by introducing yourself and a little bit about your background, your business and what you're doing for our audience.

Many years ago, I sold a franchise that I owned and moved back to the Rocky Mountains, Colorado in specifics. I decided that I wanted to have a sales job. In the first interview I got, believe it or not, I was selling photocopies. I didn't enjoy it, so I went into a recruiting office and said, “I've always wanted to be a recruiter.” Very few recruiters grow up wanting to be a recruiter but fall into it. I did it by design.

Long story short, I started in high tech, did very well in high tech, and then several years ago, I was approached by a very large multifamily housing industry to see if I could help them develop a better recruiting firm. I closed my recruiting firm, went to work internally within the multifamily housing company and was there for a few and a half years or so. I built it up quite a bit and then decided that I want to have my company again. I then started recruiting specifically within the multifamily housing industry, as well as the construction that goes into multifamily housing. That's what I've been doing for the last little while.



 

My first question for you, Steve, is what are the best ways to attract talent in our industry from your experience?

It’s candidates, and we're all candidates to a certain degree. I place anywhere in this industry from maintenance techs and grounds people to CEOs. Sometimes you flip the script. To attract the best candidates, you've got to have a good opportunity and that is so multifaceted, the benefits and travel. There are many reasons that people have for making a change as there are people out there. You've got to have a worthwhile product. Not everybody wants to buy a chicken. If you stand on the street corner and say, “Do you want to buy a chicken?” someday, someone will buy a chicken from you, but you have to offer to that candidate something to them internally. It's got to satisfy something that is not being satisfied at present.



I'm so glad that you're bringing up the sales perspective. Selling a product. We offer jobs but we're trying to sell a product to our prospects. Your candidates are your prospects. I'm hearing very often that people don't want to work. I think that they don't want to work under any circumstances. It's not that they don't want to work. That's not the case. First of all, they don't want to work under any circumstance or any type of work environment. They're becoming very selective.

One thing that I will say to employers is, “Look at your product. Don't blame it on a customer that doesn’t want to buy your product. If they're not buying your product, you can't blame it on a customer. You have to go back to the drawing board and build a better product, whether it's benefits, salary or work environment.” Believe it or not, people are very savvy when it comes to jobs. They're checking glass doors and talking with their friends in the industry that cannot have experience with your company. If the feedback is not great, they're not going to be maybe interested in applying for your company.

Let's look back over history. This may not be the best example but I'm going to throw it out there anyway. It was said that when somebody retires and this was years ago, after retirement, they live maybe 22 months longer. Why is that? They don't have inspiration in their life. They don't have something to go after. I agree with what you're saying, Adrian.

People intrinsically want to be productive. People want to take something and make it better. The types of candidates that I try to attract try to magnetize those people who want to be able to say, “See that apartment right there? When I was working there, I started with 50 work orders and within a month, I was able to knock it down to 10 work orders.”

People, by nature, are goal-striving mechanisms. You're right. I don't want to anger employers out there but if they're not attracting the right types of candidates, they may not be the right type of opportunity. It's our world out there. As the recruiter, I'm known as the guy who tells the truth. If a client doesn't have what it takes, I do my best to try to upgrade a little bit so that they will attract the types of candidates that I'm able to chat with.

Candidates are coming your way because, for the most part, they're not satisfied with what they currently have. I'm sure that you have a lot of great wonderful insight that you might want to share with your audience about what they're looking for. Here’s my second question. What can property management companies do better to retain their current employees so they won't necessarily be out looking for different opportunities?

Property managers have to pay a particular need and not so much focus on each individual but pay attention to the likes and dislikes of each maintenance technician. Years ago, I asked a very successful manager. I said, “I recruit a ton of maintenance techs.” I had 8 states and 40 properties. She went into the training division so I asked her, “When you were a property manager, as a percentage, how many complaints came in that were not maintenance-oriented?”

She said, “About 75% of the issues that we had on the property were maintenance issues. They weren't loud noises. It wasn't all the other things that maybe disturb a tenant or resident. It was, “This isn't being fixed or picked up. I don't feel safe. There's no lighting in this hallway or stairway. There's ice out here.” I simply looked at her and said, “If that is the case, how about we spend a lot more time taking care of our maintenance techs?” We always hear this, “Pizzas don't do it. Recognition does. Respect wins the day.”

Anywhere you would go on the internet, especially on maintenance-related Facebook groups, you will see that the number one thing that maintenance guys hate is pizza parties. They abhor pizza parties. Everybody reading, please do something different for your games for recognition. Do not offer them free pizza.

I don’t love pizza. My wife is from the Middle East. She is a wonderful cook. I don't want Persian food every single day. I want it to be extraordinary. Pizza is not what I would call extraordinary. There are benefits that companies can offer. I know companies that offer free boots, gloves and tool reimbursement continuously. The boots can't be too provocative about that. You can't buy boots every month but at least once a year buy them.

What are the top reasons for your candidates to get frustrated that determine them to make this move, come to you and say, “I'm looking for an opportunity?” What are the top frustrations with our current employer?

Many of them are telling me that they wish the employer would be faster. We have a supply chain issue. I get that but in years past, we didn't have a supply chain to blame for the fact that we can't get supplies. Keeping the supplies flowing and having more inventory. These maintenance techs are the front line. They're the face of the company even more than a lot of the other employees. I hear from maintenance techs, in particular, a lot that they wish they had access to more and better supplies.

That's what I'm getting myself to for feedback. Better supplies are in general better support. It's not just supplies but, “How fast can we get the orders of food?” They place an order and it gets escalated to an approval chain. If it takes days and days for supplies that they need immediately, that doesn't solve the problems in the way that it should so that creates frustration for the teams and also for our residents too for them having to wait several days to get their issues resolved.

Let’s say this in defense of all maintenance techs. My heart goes out to maintenance techs. My son was a maintenance tech many years ago in an apartment here in Aurora, Colorado. It is not an easy job. I've recruited in several different types of industries like telecommunications, data, communications and in the environment of sales and that sort of stuff. It's not so much.

It's a unique industry but it is one of the top industries that I can think of that compared to a retail job, your customer is there today and tomorrow. When you look at an apartment community versus a retail store, somebody comes in and buys a backpack. Do your best job to satisfy their need and you may never see them again.

If somebody has a leaky faucet, you fix it. You will see them in the mailbox or walking their dog. They'll recognize you're the one who did a good job or you didn't do a good job. I'm not saying I'm on the maintenance tech side all the time but this is a very difficult job. Sometimes you need to give maintenance texts a little bit more of the attaboy treatment. Tell them, “Don't ever pass up an opportunity to praise somebody.”



Praise goes such a long way. I agree. Also the type of attention that we have to treat our customers with. We run into them all the time. This is not a retail or hotel type of business where people come and go every day. You might not see them again in your life so you have to continuously provide this type of great service if you want to have happy residents and increased resident retention rates. When it comes to your candidate, Steve, let's say you presented with offers, money, benefits and PTO, what are the main things that make them say, “This is the deal. I will take it?” What makes the sale for you when you sell it to your candidates?

I don't know if you'd call that a loaded question or what but I take every single candidate individually. I always try to do what I call the 3x3 matrix and that is every candidate, I try to give 3 to 4 separate opportunities. People do want not too many choices. There's this feeling out there that maintenance techs have an infinite number of jobs that they can go to, which gives them somewhat of a heady feeling like, “I don't need to take this or that.”

They've done studies that Baskin-Robbins is a great example. I go into Baskin-Robbins knowing what I want. If I didn't know what I wanted when I went into Baskin-Robbins, I'd be like my daughter. When she was young, she would sit there and analyze this and that. It would take her forever to decide but in regards to what candidates are looking for, for some people, it's not money. Statistically speaking, when you look over all the things, it’s like an eight-cylinder car. It's the money, travel, commute, team atmosphere and a lot of things.

I try to satisfy as many of those as I can. It's not the same with every candidate. That's why I rarely offer somebody just vanilla. If you can only sell your company, that's where it becomes very difficult because you may not have a community close enough to them. That's why I went independent again. I wanted to offer a lot more candidates and opportunities. If they're a good candidate, they're a great maintenance tech. I feel almost duty-bound to find them the right opportunity based on what they want and what the companies can offer. Not all companies offer everything just as not every candidate can offer every company their skillsets.



I want to pick up on a great observation that you had on the latest response. Your observation was that you want to offer them options but not 10 options or 15 options. People want to have options but a limited number of options, not too many. That brings me to a great situation that we're facing on our end of the industry.

A candidate could preload their resume, go to the Indeed app and research if they're looking where I'm located in the Atlanta area. If they type in, “Maintenance tech in Atlanta,” there are probably 50 jobs that are going to populate the list. With a one-click application, he could apply to 50 jobs in 5 minutes. How long does it take to do 50, please?

The hard part comes when those applications go and we receive them. As a management company, the competition starts when the clock starts ticking. If you're not fast in responding, calling that candidate and making and securing an appointment, you're going to wait even for six hours. You have a chance that you might never hear from that person again.

They're only going to go to 1, 2 or 3 interviews. Between the first three interviews, they're going to make up their mind. Even though they might respond to maybe 10 or 15 recruiters, at the end of the day, they're not going to go to 15 interviews. Do you agree? Do you see this as a current candidate behavior that has changed due to the very easy way to apply via the internet or Indeed?

I could talk about putting your resume up on the internet for an hour but I discourage it. The trick to being a good recruiter is to find those candidates before they ever feel the need to put their resumes up on Indeed. The curious thing about Indeed is these other apps. Adrian, let's say that you're down a person and you need one maintenance tech, which a lot of times means that the other 3 or 4 maintenance techs are overworked.

One of them puts their resume up on Indeed. You happen to see that resume. I maintain and I've seen this happen scores of times every year. People lose their jobs, not immediately, for putting their resumes in too many places. When I see somebody with their resume on Indeed, I almost feel that maybe HR is going to see that resume.

The best way to recruit people is to get them before they have their resumes on Indeed. What that takes is a lot of communication. Keeping within your niche. Don't go too wide. There's a reason that I recruit in the state of Colorado and a little bit beyond that, not much. There are 1,600 apartment communities in Denver. There are 320-some apartment management companies. Some are fee-managed and others are asset-owned. There's enough to do here.

This is going to come to haunt me what I'm going to say it but I have found that when it comes to maintenance techs if you are looking for a job and you've got your resume on Indeed, I would say that there's a 10% chance that you're one of the best. Very few great people need to put their resumes on Indeed.

I want to follow up on this because you described how you see things. What would you advise candidates? If applying on Indeed is not the best idea for the reasons you mentioned, how would they go about finding new opportunities if the internet is not the best way to do it?

I'm not saying that being on Indeed is not the best way. It is a way to get a job. There's no doubt about that. You can apply to Craigslist but in this industry, maintenance techs who put their resumes on Indeed are subject to dismissal. You'd agree with this. Many of them are already unemployed. I'm a specialist recruiter. I'm not internally in HR. I'm not handling more than maybe 7 or 8 companies at one time.

When I see somebody's resume on Indeed, they're the last people that I need to go to. I go to the people that I've spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with. The answer to finding the very best jobs is simply no 2 or 3 good recruiters. I'll give you an example. I had a good regional manager. This will also feed into the question of what are candidates looking for. This regional manager is doing extremely well here in Colorado but she's from a different country that doesn't have direct flights from Denver to her parents.

She said, “Listen, Steve. Would you help me in Miami?” I said, “I don't do Miami but I have a relationship with another third-party recruiter like myself in Miami that can help you find a job there.” I say, “The best way to find a job has never changed. It's to network. The best jobs are coming through two sources, either through a third-party recruiter like myself or somebody whom you trust and know that can refer you to a company or into their company. 

I'm a big proponent and heavy networker. I want to pick your brain on this. The challenge comes to entry-level candidates like groundskeepers, punch and technicians level. How do we get those individuals to network in 2021 way? We do have the word of mouth for sure but then how do we get them to engage and be active on social media like LinkedIn and Facebook? How do we get them to be out there so individuals like me or you looking for talent make it easier for us to find them?

If you're asking about entry-level maintenance techs, I would have a good relationship with every tech school that has HVAC, plumbing and what we're going to call a blue-collar curriculum. I have a good relationship with several of the institutions here. They're not a long course, maybe eighteen months at the most but they're the technology schools that are doing a good job of getting people focused on HVAC, plumbing or electrical. That's one.

Also, having a good relationship with guidance counselors in high schools. I'm an older fellow. I remember a day when all high schools had the chop. Every person in my age category knows how to fix things. Part of that is Mr. Edwards in junior high, Laramie, Wyoming, fascinated me with how to fix things. He was one of my teachers. They don't have that as much in schools. We’re, in a way, a victim of having high schools do away with the blue-collar wonderful jobs like maintenance, plumbing, being a tinner, HVAC, automotive and the whole thing. I would have a good relationship with guidance counselors in the city where you're looking and the teachers at the trade schools.

Thank you for sharing with the audience.

Like what our mother says, “Easier said than done.” When internal HR is tasked with finding 30 maintenance techs in 15 different areas, it's impossible to have a good relationship with the trade schools in 15 different cities.

You're making a great point but I want to say to the audience that what we're talking about right here is practical solutions but it doesn't mean that that’s the solution. We're not providing the silver bullet. We're providing many ways for recruiters and companies to get better at the recruiting game but it doesn't mean that there are easy ways. There are no easy fixes or shortcuts. You’re putting in the work and a lot of work. It takes a lot of time, yes but if you are willing to do it, then that's going to get you there.

Recruiting is a full-time task. Before we started this conversation, I'm amazed that you spend so much time recruiting. Most HR people and managers don't have the time to recruit. That's why they rely so heavily on people like me and third-party recruiters. This is all we do.

I'm passionate about helping people to find their next best opportunity. That's why I am so involved with this. A lot of time I help individuals not necessarily come to work for my company but also help them get an opportunity anywhere. I use my network for that to refer them and help them secure a position.

We're all in this together. If I can ever help a company that’s not exactly an actual client of mine, I'll do that. My philosophy has always been one more happy person is a good thing for the entire planet.

Change starts with us. If we expect the change to happen or if we're just sitting passively, it's not going to happen. We have to become the change. You have to invest in that. At the end of the day, it is a good car model. There's no better feeling than just helping. I got a message from someone that I've helped get a property manager job. She said, “I can't thank you enough. This is so wonderful.” She used to be in property management and stepped out for a minute. When she was ready to get back into the game, she reached out to me.

We knew each other. We worked together several years ago. I said, “I love to help you.” I used my connections. I sent her resume to a few of my connections. Sure enough, it's 2 to 3 weeks from the moment we had our initial conversation that she got an offer and she accepted it. She couldn't be happier. This is the type of stuff that brings a lot of meaning to what I do, seeing everything come to fruition and people getting jobs. Changing their lives changes your life.

Let's think about this. Years ago, I was on a climb. My older brother's an expedition leader so he's climbed all over the world, from Mount Everest, Xixiabangma, to all the big mountains. He's been to some of it. We were on a climb one day and he looks at me. I'd only been recruiting for ten years at that point. He said, “The way I look at it, you sleep, work and play a certain amount of hours a day. You have to like whom you work and play with.”

People have to give thought to where they spend their time. When people ask me, “What keeps you in this recruiting game,” my contention is about everything that you have like your house, car and vacations. The ability to have a family is generated from your work. As a professional recruiter, it gives me, like yourself, a lot of happiness to be helping people be happy and turn in the thing that they spend probably percentage-wise most of their days working.

I couldn't say it better, Steve. We could go like this for hours and I would love to go for another hour or so but I hope that we'll do a part two. Before we close, Steve, I'd like to give you the opportunity to say something to the audience, something that you wish you would've said but there was not a question that came up or just about anything about you, how can people or candidates find you or whatever you'd like to add in closing.

In regards to the multifamily housing industry, I may get some pushback for this but I'm not always looking for that person who lasts an entire lifetime in this industry. This industry is replete with great training. A good property manager can do very well for 6, 8, 10 and 15 years and then easily segue into something else because of their broad scope relationship with so many different types of people and financial equations, the same with maintenance techs.

I would encourage people to enjoy what they do here, knowing that if you put in a good 5, 6 and 10 years as a maintenance tech, there's no reason that it might be the stepping stone to something else. As a recruiter and a guy who makes his living, having people come into this industry and maybe stay that may be looked upon his blasphemy but this is such a multifaceted industry. You get in and enjoy it. If you're not enjoying it, please step aside and I'll find someone that does enjoy this business truly. This is a great business. I would not have closed my very successful recruiting firm to go into this type of business. I wish I would have done this years ago. That's my ad for the multifamily housing industry. I am at Steve@StaffChasers.com.

Please make sure to follow up with Steve on LinkedIn. He's fairly active out there, so network with him. Maybe something great is going to come out of that networking part. Steve, it was a pleasure. I truly enjoy our conversation. Thank you very much for coming. To our audience, thank you very much for reading. I hope we will see you again in the next episode.

Important Links

• Steve Jenkins
• Steve@StaffChasers.com
• LinkedIn – Steve Jenkins