It Needs to Make Sense

Detoxifying Success

Rockstar of the Week!

Chicago: Strong and motivated HR Manager with over 12 years of combined experience in payroll, benefits, recruiting and more. Experience spans across various industries, has Bachelor's Degree!

If you have a hiring need for this individual, want to be a rockstar of the week, or need help with anything else, email me at rob@zarrellco.com

First off, I want to thank all of you for supporting me and ZARRELLCO since we started a couple weeks before the election. I really appreciate how all of you have subscribed to this. I created this with the help of my wife Sami in opposition to hustle culture. Thank you.

I want to cover a topic that keeps coming up over the past few months. If you’re in a management position, you may find this beneficial. 

It needs to make sense to start a new job. Especially this year. I’ve been recruiting on a lot of positions this year, including some very hard to fill roles. This year, a lot of people are looking at job ads or taking my call and asking “How is this any different from my current job? Or “I looked at their job post last week and didn’t apply, it seemed the same as what I do now”

Some of the most important things people need are:

• A strong salary

• Some type of bonus

• Truck or vehicle allowance 

• Decent benefits

• A 401K match

• Some flexibility for them to balance work and personal life/family stuff

• A boss and/or leadership model that makes reasonable decisions

• Company Stability

• Room to grow and be promoted

If someone has all, or almost all of that, they probably aren’t leaving. 

Companies need to understand that by putting themselves in job-seeker shoes. They need to look inward right now and ask themselves “Who are we, and how do we treat our people? How are we different from our 10 other competitors? Do people know that about us?

Here are some key differences I’ve seen from companies that play a pivotal role in whether someone joins them or not. Again, no company is perfect and there’s only so much you can do to change, but these are key items to assess if you’re having trouble filling a position.

Interview Process

Company 1: We want to talk to this person. Sets up an interview for next week, 8 days from now. Goes well. Sets up video interview for the next week, another 8 days later. Sets up in person interview for the following week, person has job offer or is being interviewed quicker by another company. Person is impressed with how interested and fast the other company was. Joins other company.

Company 2: Was that other company

Onboarding

Company 1: HR emails you a week before you start, you fill out paperwork, show up on day one. Your boss greets you when you come in, you settle in at your desk, and have a few days of training. Then off to the races.

Company 2: After signing your offer letter, the company congratulates you and can’t wait for you to join. The hiring manager calls you after and shares their excitement about you coming aboard. They might invite you to lunch the week before or day of. When you show up, they have an itinerary for the week and have set meetings for you to meet with key personnel. They communicate again with you what the expectations are for the next month or so, with regular check-ins and an open door for questions. 

Professional Development

Company 1: Not much emphasis on professional development opportunities, maybe reimbursement for certifications, licenses, etc and a conference or two if they need business. 

Company 2: Emphasis on professional development opportunities. Some may have internal future leader program where their most interested project engineers pair up with project executives to get a better understanding of their career trajectory and best practices.

Business Development/Estimating

Company 1: Putting out a lot of bids or bids a little too low with fingers crossed and not looking for a longer term relationship strategy to business development.

Company 2: Strengthening relationships with companies they have helped previously and starting relationships with companies that they may do business with in the future. 

Career Growth

Company 1: Seeing their Project Engineers as Project Engineers, would rather hire outside for a “plug and play” Project Manager or APM that “doesn’t need a lot of training” and can “bring in all this business”.

Company 2: Promoting those who are putting in the work and doing a great job, willing to put in the hours and train them to get them to the next level.

I’ve seen contractors step out of their comfort zones this year and start posting on LinkedIn more regularly. More project update photos. More posts about how they are hiring. More back and forth with owners, GCs, subcontractors, and other vendors. More recognition posts celebrating their employee’s promotions and accomplishments. This is the kind of stuff that people look forward to and keep the company on everyone’s mind more.

At the end of the day, people want to feel valued, appreciated, and have some sense of sanity. The more they know about what makes your company different, the more interested they might be. 

Sami's turn, offering a different perspective, as she always does.

Sami’s Take

While I usually agree with Rob on our blog topics, today, I’m gonna take it in a bit of a different direction. I agree most people in job searches right now are asking themselves very logical questions about whether jumping ship is worth it. It’s important to search your logic for what makes sense. But to those same job searchers, I want to point something out that is often overlooked and undervalued; something you might want to start asking yourself.

Yes, when making big decisions, it does have to make sense, but not just to your brain; it should also make sense to your body. When was the last time you stopped to ask your body how it feels about something your brain thought was “logical”? Have you ever done this? Were you ever taught how? 

And if you don’t do this, how often do you think your brain agreed to do something “logical” that ended up being a negative experience for your body? Like, maybe, staying late at work past dinner to finish a project for your deadline so you could still be eligible for that promotion, but this was the third time in a week you did that so now your body is thrown off schedule, hungry, tired, and stressed out? 

Did you think to consult your body before committing to that choice? 

It’s okay if you didn’t. Many of us never think to do that. Those of us who don’t know how to do this often spend a lot of time in our heads. That can be a great thing and there are certainly many people we all wish would spend more time in their heads too. Logic is important to navigating life and making smart decisions, but it shouldn’t be the only way we make our choices. 

Our bodies should have a say in what we do and how we do it. To be clear, I mean this literally. I mean we should all be having direct conversations with our bodies and asking how our bodies feel about things we’re thinking of doing.

If this concept seems too foreign to you or maybe you’re someone who struggles to tune into your body, let's try an exercise. 

Start by closing your eyes and drawing in a long, deep breath. Make sure this breath fills your belly first, expanding it out as far as you can push it and then filling your chest. 

Hold it here for just a moment and then slowly let it all out. Feel a relaxing wave of relief wash over your whole body. 

Let your body sink down into whatever is holding you up right now. Then take another long, deep breath. 

Let it out slowly and feel all your stress melting away out through the bottom of your feet. 

Now, let’s take one more deep breath in, filling your belly, holding it a brief moment, and then slowly letting it all go and taking all your stress away with it. 

Take a moment to sit in this relaxed state and do your best to keep your thoughts light.

Once you feel still, begin to scan your body from head to toe. Just observe being mindful to not participate or entertain too fully anything that comes up. Just lightly glance over the body and notice how it’s feeling.

Maybe your eyes feel relaxed and heavy, but your jaw is a bit tight? Maybe your left shoulder is a little sore from that old injury; maybe your lower back could release a bit more; your thighs might be hanging on to tension; maybe that right foot is actually feeling pretty good, but there’s a strange flutter in your stomach or a lump in your throat? Whatever it is, just take a brief moment to acknowledge all that comes up. 

When that feels complete, try asking your body a question you’ve been searching for an answer to. Maybe it’s, “Should I leave this job?” or, “Should I take this new opportunity?”, or “Am I happy in this relationship?”, or, “Do I really want to go on that trip with that cousin?”. Whatever your question is, ask your body now and then do another scan. 

From your head to your toes, take note and acknowledge anything you notice and feel. Maybe now your right foot is hurting or that lump in your throat went away. Whatever you feel, just acknowledge it. 

When this is done, take another deep breath, thank your body, open your eyes, and then write down everything you noticed before and after asking your question. Did anything change? Did you struggle to feel anything? Was this easier than you thought? 

If you struggled, it is okay. Especially if this is something new to you, don’t expect to be perfect at it right away. 

We’re often taught to disconnect from our bodies in order to prioritize other needs and what is more “logical”. Sometimes that logic forces us to ignore our bodies and undoing that conditioning doesn’t necessarily happen in one sitting. If you stick with this practice and make a commitment to listen to your body it will start to respond and, in time, you may find a more alive and rich communication. 

As you continue this practice you may notice certain emotions coming up when checking in with certain areas of your body. This is a great sign your body is starting to communicate with you in a serious way. Always pay attention to those moments and write them down. The more you do that, the more your body will want to work with you and help you to know what is really best for you. 

Our bodies are incredible sensory tools and working with them can open up wonders with improving our overall health and way of life. Sometimes, it can even feel magical. 

The next time you have a big choice to make, consider spending some time with your body on that answer. Give it the time and space to communicate with you and allow it to be okay if your brain and body disagree. If it does, you can always ask why and take time deciding what is the right move for you. 

And if you find you need a little more help with all this, reach out to me for a Hypnosis Session or a Subconscious Consultation at sami@soundslikesami.com or by booking on my website at soundslikesami.com. 

Rob + Sami

ZARRELLCO