Hire Better People Faster: The Systems Every Small Business Needs | Ryan Englin

If your business feels stuck…
It’s probably not a sales problem.

It’s a people problem.

In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael sits down with Ryan Englin, CEO of Core Matters and author of Hire Better People Faster, to break down why most small business owners struggle with hiring, retention, and team performance.

Ryan shares the truth most entrepreneurs learn the hard way:

- More revenue doesn’t fix broken teams
 - Hiring without systems creates chaos
 - Culture isn’t accidental — it’s built intentionally

If you’ve ever felt like:

•  You’re constantly putting out fires 
•  Your team doesn’t care like you do 
•  You can’t find or keep “A players” 

This episode will shift how you think about building a business that actually runs.

Key Takeaways:

•  When you’re truly ready to hire your first employee 
•  Why culture fit matters more than skill fit 
•  How to attract great employees without competing on pay 
•  The real reason employees disengage (and leave) 
•  Why onboarding starts before day one 
•  How to fix team performance without constant stress 
•  The CoreFit Blueprint for building scalable people systems 

A Must-Listen For:

•  Small business owners hiring their first team 
•  Entrepreneurs stuck managing people instead of growing 
•  Owners tired of turnover, burnout, and chaos 
•  Anyone wanting a business that runs without them 

Small Business Pivots is a globally ranked Top 10% podcast (ListenNotes) helping business owners get unstuck and grow through real conversations with entrepreneurs. 

Transcript

Welcome And Show Purpose

SPEAKER_01 0:02

If you're a business owner feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and ready to grow, you're in the right place. Welcome to Small Business Pivots, where founders share insights, stories, and pivots that lead to sustainable growth. I'm your host, Michael D. Morrison, a business coach helping business owners get unstuck and grow. Hi, welcome to another Small Business Pivots where we bring special guests from around the world. And today we have a great one on a topic that we don't often talk about enough. But if you've listened to the show, you know that no one can introduce themselves or their business like the business owner. So, my friend, I let you do your introduction and give us a little short story about you so our audience can be relatable.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Of course. Uh my name is Ryan England. I'm the CEO and founder of Core Matters, best-selling author of a book called Hire Better People Faster, and a podcast host of a top 10% podcast called Titans of the Trades, where we bring hope and inspiration to contractors all around the world. At Core Matters, this is where we primarily do all our work. It's our think tank, it's where we do our RD, it's where we learn all of this stuff, sometimes the hard way. Our focus is what we call the CoreFit Blueprint. We are systems engineers. And what we do is we come into your small business and we build all of the people processes that you wish you would have had before you hired your first person. Everything from how we onboard them to how we manage them, how we communicate with them, how we follow up, how we engage them, how we even do performance reviews. Yes, you heard it right. If you're not doing performance reviews, you should be doing it. We all know owner operators who have this vision of, I'm gonna go start this business. It's gonna be great, it's gonna give me freedom. I'm gonna have more money. And then they wake up a decade later and go, got no freedom, don't have enough money. What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

How do I get rid of this thing?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

As I as I was a kid, I watched my dad and I just thought this was entrepreneurship. And I was like, I'm not doing that. And so I didn't go into the family business, got a college degree, and then went to corporate and said, I ain't doing this either. I'm gonna go be an entrepreneur. But I had this belief that my dad's problem was that he didn't have enough business. I remember people telling me, cash solves a lot of problems, like more revenue solves a lot of problems. And as I got older and I spent my time in corporate, I realized his problem wasn't more customers. His problem was no one ever taught him how to run people processes. And so as we shifted the business, I started focusing on the people process side, wrote the book, came out a couple years ago, and just really passionate about helping small business owners, like under 200 employees, really focus on how do we help it, how do we help people feel like they belong? How do we get managers to feel empowered and equipped to have tough conversations, hold their people accountable? And most importantly, how do we get the leader out of their own way? You probably deal with this a lot in coaching. How do we get the owner out of the way? You really start thinking about how do I get my people to do what I ask them to do? How do I get them to care about the business as much as I care about the business? How do I get them to want to be here? Because when they're not, they're not only letting the team down, but they're letting our customers down. How do we get the owner to start exemplifying that? It's a big part of what we do as well. So that's a little bit about me. Uh, ask away. I'm awesome, but I love this.

Knowing When To Make First Hire

SPEAKER_01 3:41

I assure you that you got everybody's ears peaked on every topic that you just hit on because they're probably going, wait, what? You can get them engaged and care about the business just like I do. Well, I know there's a lot to talk about, but one thing you mentioned in the beginning here was processes or systems before your first hire. And one of the first questions that I get from new entrepreneurs is when do I know that I'm ready for my first employee? So let's just start from the very beginning because if they can start there, they'll be so much further ahead than other entrepreneurs who now have 10, 20, 30 and they're like herding cats all day. So let's just start from the beginning. I'll let you go ahead with that.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

That's the thing. When you're really small, say under five employees, one bad hire, it can, I mean, it can be catastrophic to the business if you don't get it right. Uh, but that first hire is really tricky. And here's why. Most entrepreneurs, I was in this bucket, so I lived it, think there's got to be someone out there like me who can help me do all the stuff in the business that I don't like to do. And the truth is, there is. They're your competition because they're an entrepreneur and they're not gonna come work for you. So I think being ready to hire that first person is a little bit more mindset than it is process. Because typically, when you are by yourself, you know everything. It's all in your head. You know how to do it, you know how to deliver. You probably haven't written anything down yet. So I would say that when you are feeling that burden, or when your spouse is telling you, honey, you're working way too many hours, you need to hire somebody. When you feel that the first thing you want to do is take a step back and say, What can I teach quickly? What can what kind of person can I lead? And what specifically do I need them to do? See, here's what happens. Our first hire, we're out with a drink with a friend who just lost their job.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

We're like, come work for me. It'll work.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah. Or, or we call that cousin who's unemployed, and we're like, come over here and help me out. And it never works out. Well, I can't say never, rarely works out. And the reason is is we didn't give them direction. You see, most people need to know what you expect of them. Now, you as the entrepreneur, you don't think this way. You think, hey, if there's a problem, I fix it. I can do whatever I need to do, I'll learn whatever I need to learn. That's not normal. That's why entrepreneurs struggle so much. We think differently than employees do. We have to give them clear direction, clear path, specifically how we're you have to know how we're keeping score. We have to do all of that. So, unless you can sit down and say, here are the specific things I need help with, you are not ready to hire somebody yet.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

I love that. And I know I would think most entrepreneurs have heard the uh analogy of like, if you're going on a trip, wouldn't you like to know where you're going, how you're gonna get there, how many days you're gonna be there? And it's really no different in business. Is that correct? Is that fair?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah. I mean, we it's so interesting. We we talk about vision, which is where we use that example. Like, where's this business going? What do we want to accomplish? Because you know what? You're inviting someone to come onto your metaphorical bus. Like anybody that's read good to great knows that your business is a bus and we can put the right people in the right seats. Well, if they're not excited about where the business is going, they're gonna get off when it breaks down, when there's a setback, when there's a traffic jam, when the market changes. They are going to get off the bus because they're not excited about where it's going. So we've got to be really clear on where it's going before we bring someone on. But more importantly than that, I think we have to be really clear on what that person's gonna do while they're on the bus. And often we make that first hire, or heck, our first dozen hires, and we're not quite sure exactly what they're gonna do. We just bring them on because we know we need help. And that's where I think we get into this rat race of constantly just backfilling positions because nobody knows what help means. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

What would be some advice on finding the right people? So let's say that they've got the role defined, they know what this person is going to be doing. How do they get people to fit their culture?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah. Well, I love that you said culture, because there's two parts to making a hire. Number one is do they fit your culture, how you behave, how you think, how you speak. And can they do the job? Because we've always we've all hired somebody who are like, oh my gosh, we just clicked. We just get along, like we finish each other's sentences. This is gonna be so much fun. Culture fit. And they ain't got a lick of skills to help you do the job, right? But we've also hired that 20-year veteran who ah, rubbed me the wrong way, didn't quite feel right, but boy, can they do the work. And it's finding the person that does both that's the key. And when you're first getting started out, it's actually harder because you might have the culture figured out, the person that fits, but you don't have the capacity to train them. You don't have the materials, the training materials in place to train them. You don't have the other staff to help train them. You got to do it all on your own. But I would say that first off, and then I'll answer your question, is focus on culture fit. It's way more important than can they do the job. Way more important because you can teach them to do the job. They can learn to do the job. It's really hard for people to change their behaviors and become someone they're not.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah.

Attract Talent Without Pay Wars

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So that's the first thing. But then I want to I want to uh shift the way we think about this. I don't want you to go looking for somebody. I don't want you to find somebody. What I want you to do is take a step back and go, how do I attract the right person? We talk about in marketing all the time we have to understand who our target market is. We have to understand our ideal customer again, if we define them or not. We need to do the same thing when we're thinking about attracting this because here's the reality You and a million other employers are looking for people right now. And the only thing when you are just looking for people, the only thing that you have to compete against is pay and benefits. They don't know you, they don't like you, they don't trust you, if you're a small business, they probably never even heard of you. Heck, maybe you don't even have much of a website or a social media presence. So, how are they gonna know if you're somebody that they want to get on the bus with? They're not. So if you don't want to compete with pay and benefits, which is always a question I get, like how do I compete with these big boys? Start attracting and stop looking for people. When you become attractive to the right person, you put your culture out there, you put your career plan out there, you put your vision out there, you put the things out there that the big guys can't compete with because they don't have that. There's a stepped career ladder when you go work for corporate and that's it. You come help me on the ground floor, look at where we're going. You know, we're doing half a million right now, we're gonna be doing five million in five years, and I want you to be employee number two on that. Like that's a different thing that you get to sell than here's a$60,000 a year job. So stop looking for people and start thinking, how do I become attractive to the people that I want to attract?

SPEAKER_01 11:14

What are some examples of where you would put this stuff you're referring to to attract people?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Well, a couple of things. So right now everybody's thinking, oh, I go to the job boards, I go to Indeed to get people, right? That's everybody thinks. And I actually am not a big fan of Indeed for a whole bunch of reasons. Indeed's not a big fan of me because I don't talk kindly about them. Um, they're just there to take your money. Indeed's tagline is helping people find jobs, not helping employers find good people. So keep that in mind. What's their tagline? They're not on your side.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

So they specify it right up front.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yeah, they're very clear. We are not on your side, employer. You just pay our bills. Uh, here's the thing websites a great place. And when we talk about website and we talk about website design, I want you to really think could you build a website that is very attractive to the right kind of employee? Could you talk more about your culture, more about your leadership style, more about your communication, more about your vision? Could you put employee testimonials? If you've already got one, put some employee testimonials. Heck, if you don't have employee testimonials because you're a company of one, record one yourself. Let me talk about what it's like to work with me. Put that video out there. Do not be afraid of video. It can just transform your ability to attract the right people. Uh, so your website's one. Social media. Don't make your social media all about driving customer acquisition, which is what most of us do. Talk about where you're going with the company. Guess what? Your customers want to know that you have a vision for your business because they want you in business next year. But so often we're so afraid to talk about where we're going and what our plans are and that we need to hire because we don't want our customers to think we might not be able to serve them. Trust me, your customers want you to grow because they want you to be there the next time they need you. Stop being so afraid of that. Social media is a great one. Review websites. If you have a bunch of poor customer reviews, or you're just average on customer reviews, I encourage you to get in there, start responding to them, start focusing on greater customer reviews because you know what employees do? They pull up your Yelp page and they go, oof, if customers don't like them, maybe I won't like them either. Yeah. I don't want to be on the other side of this. So those are all opportunities just online to put this information out there so you can start attracting the right people.

Onboarding Starts At The Application

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Well, we've talked about when to hire the first, what to look for, how to attract. Let's say we get them on board, they get a peek under the hood, if you will, they want to work with us. What are some what's some good guidance on how to get that ball moving in the positive direction? Because first impressions are everything. And if I come to your company and you look unprepared and a little chaotic, guess what experience I'm probably gonna have? So, how do we get that ball rolling in the right direction right up front?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yeah, one one thing to think about too when you're doing this. So we all have that. I'm unprepared, I don't have all the answers, I don't know. And uh oh, nothing worse than that crazy owner who's like, I gotta cancel and reschedule because I gotta go on a job call today. Like, ah is here's the thing, don't fake it. I would rather you be real and say, Hey, I don't have my act together. I'm not perfect. That's why I'm hiring you because I need more perfect on my team, right? I would rather that be the message than let me put up this facade. And now, because you're gonna get exposed eventually. And then you're gonna be mad, you're gonna blame the employee. Well, it's not their fault. You faked it. So let's be real. If you're a little messed up, it's okay to admit you're a little messed up. Uh, but that's why you're hiring, right? Uh, I'll never forget it was one of my first hires after I started my business. And I was getting yelled at because all of my tasks were behind. And so for me, I'm sitting here telling her, I'm like, your tasks are behind. You need to get caught up, you need to get caught up. We got to deliver this for the clients. And she's like, Well, your tasks are behind. I go, my tasks are behind because it's my business. And I take on more than I want, and I hired you so that you could get your tasks up to date, so that you could get my tasks up to date. Like the whole reason you exist is not to be modeled after me. The whole reason you exist is to fix all the issues that I have. Uh, and that really opened my eyes to the fact that it's okay to tell people, hey, we're not perfect. So when you onboard people, one thing I want you to think about is that onboarding starts at application. Onboarding doesn't start after they've accepted your offer. Onboarding doesn't start under day one, onboarding starts at application. And if you don't believe me, ask anybody that's married if they can tell you about their first date. I haven't met too many people that can't. It's something that sets the stage for the rest of the relationship. So that's how you respond when they apply. So uh onboarding is really about expectations. If an employee doesn't work out, or you have to fire them, or they quit, it's usually because expectations were misaligned. Somebody's expectations, whether spoken or unspoken, weren't met. Oh, I thought it'd be a calmer place to work around here. I can't deal with the chaos, I'm leaving. Well, we faked it and we made them feel like we weren't chaotic, right? Or maybe the employee said they had the skills. We didn't test them because we trusted them because we were desperate and we had to hire quick, right, Michael? So uh they didn't have the skills and we didn't find out until six weeks in and we had customers' complaints like crazy. Well, our expectations was they said they could do the job. We thought they'd do the job, but they couldn't do the job. So when your expectations aren't met, that's when we have problems. So to get that first little bit going with onboarding, we like to have what we call an alignment meeting. We're gonna sit down and we're gonna map out expectations on both sides. Here's what I expect. Let's talk about what you expect. Let's get everything out in the open so that when we do start working together, we're neither one of us are surprised.

Defining A Players And Standards

SPEAKER_01 17:36

This is all good. I love this. Uh I know as a business coach working with so many business owners, these are all common challenges that we have. I see some business owners that they just put cheeks in the seats, right? They're busy, like you said. They just need help. And then they get frustrated when the help comes, and then they call coaches and people like you and say, Where's all the a players?

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

So leading to that, are there really a players or do the companies turn them into a players?

SPEAKER_00 18:11

I'd like your thoughts on that. Yeah. Way to stack that question. Like the lead in. The answer is both. There are a players out there. They're working for somebody else who's probably coaching them to be a players. But here's the thing that most small businesses struggle with is if I were to ask 10 entrepreneurs to define an A player, I'd probably get 30 different answers. Because there's so many, it depends, right? So I think the important part is if you want to find an A player, you need to define an A player. Like, tell me what an A player means to you. And I'll help you find that A player or help you attract that A player. But if you don't know what an A player means to you, of course you're never gonna find an A player. They're walking down the street, walking by you all the time. You're like, that doesn't look like one, that doesn't look like one. Well, no wonder. Because you've never sat down to figure out what an A player means. And everybody's got a different definition. So they are out there, they are definitely uh looking for work, right? But they want to be attracted, they want to be wooed, they don't just want to go to Indeed and deal with the madness of looking for work. They want someone to come and say, Hey, I want you. That's what they want. And if you got a team of people right now and you look around and you go, I got no A players, I've got none. I'm gonna tell you, my experiences said you probably do, but you got a D player on your team that you won't let go of that's pulling everybody down. Amen. Go look around, and I promise you there is someone on your team that you are tolerating because you believe you need the extra set of hands, you believe you need the help, or maybe they're the brother of your wife. I don't know, right? You hired family and you messed that one up, right? Yep. So regardless, there's somebody on your team that you need to let go of, but you won't. There's somebody on your team you need to hold accountable, but you won't. And what's happening is their low performance, not only is it a morale suck and draining everybody else, but it's also they're creating problems that your team then has to go fix, which means they don't get to step up and perform. And so if you've got a team already and you're struggling with I don't have any A players, you get rid of that D player and you watch your A players come to life. But right now, when you keep tolerating it, guess what they believe? Oh, he doesn't care about me. He's not really doing anything. Gosh, is he even really a good leader? He can't even hold that person accountable. He tolerates that stuff. Maybe I don't need to work so hard and I get to keep my job too. Like you send the wrong message when you tolerate that low performance. We think we're doing it, what's best for the company, what's best for the team, but I promise you it's hurting you more than it's helping.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

You mentioned family and friends. I think you probably knew this question was coming. What are your thoughts on that? Uh, two, actually, two questions. One is if you already have them on staff, how to better get along. Yeah, because that's where most small businesses are, right? My aunt or my mom or my sister, somebody knew some bookkeeping. So now all of a sudden they're my accountant, you know, but they're a problem accountant. So we got people that already have them on staff, and then we have people that might consider bringing them on. So those are kind of two different areas.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

So if you have a choice, if you have a choice and you get to the point where you've got another leader on your team, you've got another manager on your team, and that person does not have to report to you, you're much better off. Not everybody has that choice. Sometimes we just need to fill a seat. Here's all I'll tell you hiring friends and family, that alignment offer, that alignment meeting I was telling you about. Before you sit down, you actually ink the offer letter, which by the way, if you're not doing offer letters, start doing offer letters. And by the way, that's not just a legal thing, it's a clarity thing. You both know what's expected of that person now. Like they know what's expected, you know what's expected to them. It's clarity. The lack of clarity is what really causes problems with friends and family members. See, we're afraid to tell them they're doing a bad job because we were never clear to them on what a good job is. They knew accounting. It's like, come be my bookkeeper. And they're like, okay, I'm gonna take over the books. Oh, you don't even have QuickBooks yet. I'll get it set up for you. You had no idea what they were gonna do for you. Therefore, the lack of clarity is what caused it to be a problem. Because they started doing things their way, not your way, because you weren't clear with them up front. So if you already have people, you can do a realignment meeting, which is you sit down and say, hey, we're gonna get clear on a bunch of things. First off, my company, not yours. Second off, here's how the org chart looks. I'm at the top, you're below me, you report to me. Thirdly, here's your new job description. I got very clear on exactly what I expect you to do, when I expect you to do it, how I am going to keep score, how I expect you to behave when you're doing this job. Let's talk about your new job description. Or for some of you, it might not even be a new one, it might be just it's new because it's the only one, right? And you give it to them and you sit down, you say, Let's have a conversation. This is what I expect. Can you meet these expectations? Yes or no? If the answer is no, well, you know what to do then.

Fire Without Surprise Using PIPs

SPEAKER_01 23:42

You're listening to Small Business Pivots with Michael D. Morrison. If you're ready to get your business unstuck and grow, let's chat. Schedule your free session at michaeldmorrison.com. Now back to the show. What is the best route to dismiss someone properly without bringing down the morale of the team? And I ask that because sometimes when we have bad employees, it sends a stronger message of fear when we let that person go. I know they're uh they're elated, they're excited, they're like, finally, it's about time, but then am I next? Like they got rid of the star that was the problem. You know, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Yeah. So here's here's my test for that. So when you've decided you need to let someone go, the question you need to ask yourself is will this person be surprised when I fire them? Because if the answer to that question is yes, you still have work to do before you fire them. Because that means you haven't been communicating the things you need to be communicating as their leader. So if they are surprised at their lack of performance or them bringing down morale or their insubordination, if they're surprised by that, that means you haven't been telling them that or holding them accountable to it since the beginning. So, and by the way, that is usually what happens. See, what happens is we hire somebody, we're all excited, and then six weeks go by and we're like, ooh, not as good as I thought they'd be. And we're like, oh, we need the help, we need the help. And then six months go by and we're like, oh, I just can't believe I hired this person, but I need the help, I need the help. And then a year goes by and you're like, that's it. I've had enough. I am done. Getting rid of them. And never once have you talked to them in a year. They thought they were doing what you wanted them to do. They had no idea. I truly believe that most people have no idea that they're a bad employee when they're a bad employee, unless you tell them they're a bad employee. So our approach to that is a performance improvement plan. Um, for anybody that's had any time over in corporate, you know, pips are a big thing in corporate. You got to put them on a pip. You got to prove to HR that they are not going to turn it around before you can terminate them. But here's the thing about a pip: it's not a corporate or an enterprise or a compliance tool. A pip is a clarity tool. Here's the deal. Things aren't going well. Here's what I need from you. If I can't get this from you, I'm gonna have to let you go in 30 days. I'm willing to give you 30 days to show me I can get this. What do you think? Is it possible that I can get this? Nine times out of ten, you know what they say? Nope. Great. Here's your last two weeks' pay. See ya. Like, I mean, it's easy then. Because we said, here's the expectations I have, here's what I need from you. Can our expectations align? And if the answer is no, well, the next step is easy. Now, if the answer is yes, great, we're gonna put you on this pip. You have 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, depends on the role, right? To make this stuff happen. And if that doesn't happen at the end of this time, I'll need you to find another job. And anytime in the next 60 days or whatever, if if it gets bad or you start calling in or you violate policy or any of those things, you're gone.

unknown 27:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

It's kind of like you're on the watch, you're on probation at that point, right? You're on the watch list.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yep. And as a business coach watching and witnessing business owners, once they find clarity, just and this is just some insight for our listeners. I have often found that the person will leave before you have to terminate them once they're crystal clear, because they're like, I'm not doing that. Almost always. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Almost always. And that and that's the thing. Now it's not me being the bad guy. Now it's not me that just fired them. I gave them a choice and they chose the thing that doesn't keep them employed here.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Now, I did say the probation thing. So if they completely disengage, maybe you don't keep them the whole time. Because you know what they're gonna do, right? They're using that 60 days to get paid while they look for another job. Right. Which I've I've seen people do that before. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Hey, you know what? I'm happy to keep you on for the next two weeks, three weeks if you want to leave. I don't want to hurt you and your family. You've been an okay employee up till now, like whatever your opinion is. And then, by the way, at the end of three weeks, your employment's done. So hopefully you find something fast.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

It's your business. You can do whatever you want, right? Yeah, that's what they say.

Retention Through Belonging And Growth

SPEAKER_01 28:25

What are some systems or I wouldn't say perks, but what are what are some things to keep people engaged? So, in other words, we've we've attracted the right ones, we've onboarded them properly. How do we retain them? What gets what drives their motors?

SPEAKER_00 28:43

So we do most of our work in the blue-collar space. Uh, we're branching out of that, we're getting into ops heavy businesses now. Anybody has lots of frontline employees. And you probably heard in the in the construction industry at least, there's a labor shortage. We don't have a labor shortage in the construction industry. That's something that people tell themselves so they don't have to be the you know victim. Like I it's just the I'm the victim, I'm not the problem. Um, we have a retention problem in the trades. And anybody that is listening right now that is a contractor or owns a company in the trades, ask yourself how many W-2s you issued last year versus how many employees you had. You have a retention problem, I promise you. And we think that it's this labor shortage, we think that the problem is not us, we think it's the market. But if you have a retention problem, if your turnover is more than, say, 30%, which means that you, you know, 30% means a third of the people you hire or the third of the the growth that you have in your company isn't around at the end of the year, then you're doing okay. But a lot of small businesses have four, five, six, seven hundred percent, which means you got to hire seven people to keep one. It's crazy. We have an engagement, we have a disengagement problem. People are disengaged at levels, I mean, just worldwide. In fact, uh, Gallup just came out with the state of the workforce report. 20% is the worldwide average for engaged employees, 31% in the United States, which means seven out of the 10 people that work for you are not engaged. Seven out of 10. Which is good news for you because if you want to attract people, that means seven out of 10 of the people you need are looking for work. But it's bad news for you because that means seven out of 10 people you currently employed are open to another job. And that's what we look at. When someone is disengaged, they are open to working for someone else. They might not be looking, but when their cousin calls them and says, Oh, you got to hear about this company, I just got a job and it's amazing, they're like, tell me more. And so to keep people engaged, it's a couple of things. Number one, people want to feel like they belong. If people don't feel like they belong on your team, the things that they give up, the time with their family, the time with their friends, their hobbies, the things they do for fun, they're giving that up to come work for you. And if they don't feel like they belong, if they don't feel like they have friends at work, if they don't enjoy the people they work with, they're not gonna be engaged. It's that simple. So we gotta make them feel like they belong. How do you do that? Common interests. We do it all the time. Oh, you went to the same school I did. Oh, come on, you can work with common interests. But beyond that, how do we really make sure that we build friendships at work? Gallup, who does a lot of employment surveys, has identified that people who have a best friend at work are six times more likely to be engaged than if they don't have a best friend at work. That doesn't mean the best friend. It just means at work they have a best friend. They have someone they look forward to seeing on a Monday morning. So it's really important. Make sure that you give opportunities for friendship. The biggest one for especially for the younger generation, because we all got millennial jokes and Gen Z jokes, right? Yeah. The biggest one for them is they want to know that training and development exists. Can you train them to be better at what they do? Can you train them or develop them into a leader? Are you willing to invest in their skill set? That's what they want. So if your idea of training and development is, oh, hey, this vendor of ours is putting on a class this weekend, go learn how to use our software better. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the leadership skills, the communication skills, the how do I manage more work skills, how do I become more valuable to you skills? That's the stuff they want. And if you're a small business and they have direct access to you, I mean, there's just so much gold and the wisdom and the knowledge that you can instill on them. They love that stuff. So they want to make sure that you want to make sure that you've got something that you're intentional about, a process or a plan for showing them opportunities for growth inside of your organization. That's a really important part to their them starting to engage more and stick around longer.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

I've met some business owners that hire outside consultants, coaches, things like that for their employees. But I don't know that the business owner is in those meetings. Would it is it more important to have everybody, or is it better for that coach consultant to work with the business owner and then the business owner be the example of the leadership? What's what's kind of your your preference on that?

SPEAKER_00 33:28

My take is we outsource the things that we don't want to have to deal with. So, what message are you sending to your employee when you say, Hey, I got you a mentor that doesn't know our business and doesn't work here? Right? What's the message you're sending? You're sending the message of, hey, it's easier for me to write a check to pay somebody to do this than it is to spend 30 minutes a week with you and coach you and train you. So is there a place for outside consultants and coaches? Absolutely. Like we're both in that space, absolutely. But I believe we need to be coaching and equipping the leaders within the organization so they can lead more effectively. And if you're by yourself and you don't have anybody else in your leadership team, that is you. So we need to be coaching you so that you can coach them more effectively. That skill set that you're learning as the entrepreneur will take you much further than when you just keep writing checks to outside consultants that don't know your business, don't know your people, don't understand your culture.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

What are some of the systems that you talk about as far as um well, like employee development? Like what would be an example of I think they call them employee development programs, EDPs?

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Okay.

Communication Fixes With Assessments

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Um what would be an example of a a good training when you when for example, if you have like 10 employees, they're all gonna have their own little nuances, their challenges, their differences. So how do you bring it together cohesive so that we're all kind of working on the same thing? But Johnny over here, he may be really good at that. So he's disengaged, and we really need to be working on Lucy because she's not, you know, and so you have all these personalities. How how's it best to bring them up together?

SPEAKER_00 35:18

So the number one issue, I mean, and it's so far ahead of every other one. It is the number one issue that I see on small teams. And I'm I'm I mean, we work with companies as large as 500. So I mean, big teams, small teams, they're small teams, is we don't know how to communicate well. Period. Whether it's up, down, sideways, all the way around, it doesn't matter. We do not understand how to communicate well. My communication style is different than yours. My way of giving bad news is different than yours. My way of giving good news is different than yours. Right? My way of coaching is different than yours. All different. And if we don't spend the time to come together and understand our differences, we're never gonna be able to communicate effectively. So I believe that one of the most effective ways to build a team, bring a team of 10 together is to do a behavioral assessment. Take your pick, I don't care. Whether it's a disk or a culture index or we use ProScan a lot or Colby. I don't care which one it is. Really understand it. Assess everybody and say, here's why we work together really well here, but not so well here. And really coach people and train people on that. Now, that's a case where you can bring in an outside consultant and do it as a group. Amazing use of that investment, right? Have them come in and do that. Uh, sometimes we see entrepreneurs, they get so excited about it, they go figure out how to coach it and do it themselves, and they do it themselves. But I think the biggest gap we have in small businesses, especially a size team of 10, is uh we just don't know how to communicate well. No one's ever taught us. No news is good news, right? Yeah. These are the mindsets. Um, don't if you think it, don't say it. Like we tell these people all this stuff. And it hurts us. It hurts us because we don't know how to give bad news. We don't know how to share good news. We don't know how to celebrate the wins. That's all communication. And that's what I think hurts us more than anything.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

How much time do you feel a business owner should spend on culture building?

Culture Takes A Third Of Time

SPEAKER_00 37:28

A third of their time. Been asked that question many times. A third of your time. You work 60 hours a week, that means 20 hours a week, you are focused on the culture, whether that's how you communicate, the behaviors, defining it, uh, figuring out the vision, being able to better communicate this stuff effectively. Whether it's maybe it's hiring, right? Because if you're responsible for culture, guess what? The quality of people you hire directly impacts that. Maybe it means even you are getting trained on how to have tough conversations and hold your people accountable who don't align to your culture. Third of your time as the entrepreneur should be spent on company culture at a minimum.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

I asked that question to follow up with this statement. And that is for those business owners that say, that's a lot of time. I where am I gonna find that time?

SPEAKER_00 38:19

You've heard it, I'm sure. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Here's the thing you're spending the time now, you're just using it to put out fires. If you were to sit down and be proactive about your company culture and protecting it, being intentional about it, you'd have a lot more time on your hands. But what you're all what you're doing right now is you're constantly showing up, putting on the fireman's cap and saying, What fire did I got to put out today? Because I did not be intentional about the company's culture.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Yeah. And I always have to kind of bulldoze my way through here with this. As business owners, we have to remember the challenges we have today. Those fires you keep putting out are usually because of us, right? We we either created that mess or allowed it to happen, one or the other. We're the captain of the ship, so we have to recognize in one hand, the fire extinguisher in the other.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Like, what are you doing? Yeah.

CoreFit Blueprint And Hiring Systems

SPEAKER_01 39:13

So uh once we have self-discovery, self-realization of going, these people didn't bring that here. I allowed it, or I created it, or I let this get too far without punishment or whatever. So well, we've talked about the rest of us. Let's talk about you. Let's talk about your business. How does your business help others?

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Yeah. So I I've talked a lot about systems and processes, and we just scratched the surface. Uh we've developed I've developed what's called the CoreFit Blueprint. It's a seven-phase program that we take every company through that we work with and everything from stopping the bleeding, which is phase one, uh, because if we don't stop the bleeding and and solve the immediate problems, you might not be around for phase two, all the way to phase seven, which is scale with confidence. See, when you've got these tools in place, when you've got these processes in place, when you've equipped your team with the skills that they need to help you grow, scaling becomes so much easier because you're not worried about where your next hire is going to come from. You're not worried about someone not calling, you know, someone not showing up for work or calling in. You're not worried about those things. And when you have an amazing team, guess what? The customers line up because they want to be served by an amazing team. Yeah. Growing your business becomes so much easier. So we have a seven-phase program. We call it the CoreFit Blueprint. You can learn all about it on our website at core matters.com. We've got a 14-minute video that I've put together, a little masterclass that explains how it works. And when you work with us, like we are in the trenches with you, getting dirty with you. This is not the type of thing where I'm like, hey, go do this. It's like, oh, let's go do this together. We're gonna meet with all of your leaders. You're gonna put them on a Zoom call with me, and I'm gonna coach them for you, and I'm gonna show you how it's done so that you can do it when I'm not there. And so we do a lot of that work with them. And then, of course, I told you we're process engineers. We love building processes. So we've got processes from everything on how do you audit your website to make sure that you're the most attractive you can be, to how do you communicate with someone during an interview? How do you make the right hiring decision? How do you make that objective and not the, oh, I just need help, I'm desperate. They smiled, I smiled, let's hire them. To how do you onboard them well? Even we even get so particular, we have a process called the wait. And the wait is that period of time from when that person's accepted the offer to the day they start. Well, in your world, you walk out of there and you're like, okay, cool, we hired somebody, they'll be here in two weeks. But in their world, the things that they have to go through now over the next two weeks, if you're not there hand holding them when it gets hard, they're gonna no-show you. They're gonna accept that counteroffer from their boss because he doesn't want them to leave. They're gonna get sad when their friends say, No, I don't want you to go work somewhere else. And they're gonna be like, Okay, I'll stay. There are so many things that happen in that period of time while you're waiting and they're waiting, that if you aren't there to walk alongside them in that, they're gonna think that you've abandoned them. There's so many little things that you can do in that period to give them hope and confidence and inspire them to push through all of the challenges. But as employers, guess what? We never think about that. And then all we do is, oh, they were supposed to start today and nobody didn't show up. Nobody wants to work anymore. Like that's the mindset. And here's another thing. Here's another thing I'll tell you. Stop starting people on Monday. I'm just telling this right now. This is my public service announcement. Stop making Monday start days. I don't know a single entrepreneur that wakes up in the morning and goes, Monday's chill. We bring people in on Monday. We're like, oh, we didn't set up their accounts, we didn't finish their background check. I got to check and see if that's back. And we're going crazy because we're dealing with Monday. Why do we do that? And then they sit around on Monday and go, I thought they wanted me here. It doesn't feel like they want me here. Start them on a Wednesday or Thursday. Stop the whole Monday thing. That's madness. But that's what we do. So our processes, we get really dialed in to building these processes for you. And then instead of instead of you building them, we build them, we implement them, we train your people on them, or you, and then you manage them. So we build the whole thing, and now you just manage it. So it's uh it's been very effective, especially if you're a small business. Like our smallest company we work with had just the owner. He's like, I gotta make that first hire and I want to do it right. All the way to our largest client. Um, they're just about when I met them, they were about 200 employees, now they're almost 500. And uh that's uh I'm starting to get a little nervous, they're getting a little big for me. But um, but I've been around them for so long, they still feel like a small company for me. Uh, but that's our process, that's our program. People always ask me how long this takes. And uh, you know, Rome wasn't built in a day. These problems didn't happen overnight. These problems aren't gonna get fixed overnight. Now, are we gonna fix some problems? You bet. That's why we have phase one stop the bleeding, and we get in there and we stop the bleeding. But to permanently fix the problems, it's gonna take a while. We usually tell people about three years is what you'll need. If you're committed to this, it'll take about three years. And uh, that doesn't mean that we stop working together after three years. We've got some clients have been with us eight years or longer. Um, just because their business continues to evolve and they're like, well, now this is new. We just went into a new market and what we did here doesn't work there. What do we do now? And so we're alongside to help them build that employee experience and make sure that all of their processes are dialed in no matter what.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

I know you've peaked the ears of many. What are some social media channels you're on that they can learn more and connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Well, LinkedIn is the social media channel for us. Um, we post a ton of stuff there. We also have Facebook and Instagram. We just don't post there as much. But LinkedIn, I'm very active there. Connect with me, DM me if you got any questions. I'm here to support you. Uh I just I want to make this easier for so many entrepreneurs. I want people to not be like my dad, who always struggled uh being able to walk away from the business and go on a weekend vacation with his family because he's got a cell phone. Yeah, he's the only one that can solve the problems. I really want to help fix that. So if there's anything I can do to support you, uh reach out to me. Corematters.com, we have a wealth of information on that website, a bunch of free tools. And uh, you know, for anybody that might be interested in my book, happy to send them a signed copy, just pay shipping and handling. You can go to core matters.com slash free book, and uh you can read all about our process and how to hire the best people, because that's I think that that's what really transforms the business is creating an amazing team.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

Absolutely. Well, I know from time to time when I'm on podcast, I'm I start thinking towards the end, oh, I wish I would have said this, or I wish we would have talked about that. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you feel like I really need to say this?

SPEAKER_00 46:19

Well, now that you bring it up, you know, I I I meet a lot of people and they go, Ryan, what's the number one thing? Like if there's one thing that I do as an owner, what's the one thing that will transform the experience I have with my people? And it's this care about the things that are important to them. Don't make it all about your business. Because at the end of the day, your business isn't as important to them as it is to you. Care about the things that are important to them. Care about the fact that they're growing their family and they're struggling to make ends meet because they just had to buy a bigger house. Care about the fact that they're maybe having some marital issues. Care about the fact that maybe their kids are not doing so hot in school or there's a health diagnosis. These are the things that matter to them. And when you disconnect with people and you don't care about these things, the things that are real life, they ain't gonna care about your business. Care about the things that are important to them.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

Well said. Powerful advice. Ryan, I appreciate you. You've been a blessing to many, and I wish you continued success. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Small Business Pivots. If you're ready to get unstuck and grow, schedule your free coaching session at michaeldmorrison.com. On social media, you can find and connect with me using the handle Michael D.Morrison OKC. And if today's episode helped you, subscribe and share it with other business owners. Until next week, keep pivoting.