On-Boarding New Agency Employees with IMPACT

This is episode 37 of Inbound Agency Journey. Andrew Dymski opens the show, and Gray MacKenzie runs the interview with Bob Ruffolo, founder and CEO of IMPACT Branding & Design in Connecticut, and Natalie Davis, employee number three and, at the time, Director of Talent. IMPACT had 26 people. Gray asked when to hire, where candidates come from, how IMPACT spots a bad hire, and what the first month looks like.

Hire a little ahead of the curve

Gray asked Bob how he knew when to hire. Bob said it was gut feel when the company was small and he was maxed out. As IMPACT grew, he built a clearer structure and kept watching revenue against payroll.

We tend to hire a little bit ahead of the curve, so we know we can get people in, we get them trained. Traditionally we’ve hired a lot of young talent right out of school, so it was really inexpensive to be bringing talent on and get them trained, and we can move forward.

(Listen at 3:07)

IMPACT had recently shifted to more experienced hires. Natalie handles recruiting, sourcing, and onboarding, and Bob does most of the interviews. Her candidates come from IMPACT’s own site, paid job boards like Indeed, outreach to people she finds on LinkedIn, and referrals from the team’s own networks. Her newest channel was AngelList, which she called Tinder for hiring: both sides opt in, and an email introduces you.

The hiring mistake, and the certification bar

Gray asked when Bob decided to hand off talent work. He answered with the mistake that came first.

We went through a period where I thought we were too big for this. A big mistake. I thought we were too big for me to be doing all the hiring, so I kind of had some other people here doing it that were not experienced… The system was very broken. We thus end up with a lot of bad hires over a period of time.

(Listen at 14:36)

He and Natalie then rebuilt the process together. Gray asked how they spot a bad hire. Bob said these were bad fits, not bad people, and the red flags showed up during onboarding.

Some of the red flags we saw right away were new hires that couldn’t pass the HubSpot certification, and that’s a big tell for us. So we’ve actually put the Inbound Certification as a requirement to even interview with us, and then the HubSpot certifications in your first couple of weeks during the onboarding process. And as you have your one-month check-in, if you’re not passing the certification, moving along at a rate that’s similar to our best people here, we have to make a decision right away.

(Listen at 17:36)

From the first conversation to a parting of ways is about 30 days now, and by then it isn’t a surprise. Bob’s rule: hire fast, fire faster.

Quarterly reviews where nobody is surprised

Gray asked Natalie what IMPACT’s performance reviews look like.

Right now we do performance reviews quarterly… The employee will first go through our review sheet… They will first say where they feel like they stand as far as our core values… They also will go through whatever their quarterly objectives were… And they also do a review of IMPACT.

(Listen at 21:52)

The supervisor fills out a similar review, then the two meet. By the end, the employee knows exactly where they stand: a 30-day plan if they’re underperforming, or a conversation about a new role or a promotion. Bob said the pieces came from the EOS people analyzer, Jack Welch’s Winning, and First, Break All the Rules. Supervisors also meet their people weekly or every other week, so the quarter never ends with a surprise. Bob’s advice to any owner: read Traction and Get A Grip.

The first month: goals before day one, two weeks of training

Natalie walked through onboarding from before the start date.

Before the employee starts, if we can, we like to really meet with them and find out what their personal and professional goals are… And then from there, whenever they actually come into the office, we do an IMPACT orientation and a general training process to get each employee up to speed.

(Listen at 33:07)

Orientation covers values, mission, vision, and history, and includes a meeting with the leadership team. New hires do role training in their downtime and the HubSpot certification in the background. After about a month they’ve passed it, know everybody, and start going deeper into the role. Bob put a shape on the ramp.

There’s a Trello board that every new hire has already set up for them, all their meetings already set up for them. So the first two weeks are really there, they have their meetings, they have their trainings, everything is really organized there. Then it kind of starts trailing off to about the one-month point, where now they’re fully into their roles.

(Listen at 35:34)

Pods, and advice for the owner stuck at three retainers

Client work runs in three pods of roughly 10 accounts each: a strategist, a delivery lead, a marketing coordinator, and a creative lead, with a shared pool of four developers for builds and integrations.

Gray’s last question was for the owner with two or three retainers who just lost their first client. Natalie’s answer: decide what you want your team to look like and don’t rush hiring. Bob built on it.

Focus on your internal before you focus on your external. Work on yourself first. Work on the clients that you have already, make that your number one priority before even focusing on new clients. Let the work sell itself… I have three retainers, in the mindset I got to be at four or five, it’s going to hurt you in the long run.

(Listen at 39:50)