Vetting the Vetter - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Kristin and Tony Case of Hi-Peak Staffing Solutions. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on-the-road adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seat belts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip. My name's Megan Ellsworth here at rooferscoffeeshop.com, and I am back with a roofing road trip. Welcome to Roofing Road Trips. I'm so excited. I'm here with Tony and Kristen from Hi-Peak Staffing. Hello.

Tony Case: Hi, Megan.

Kristin Case: Hello.

Megan Ellsworth: I'm excited. We're talking about vetting the vetters today, so how to put in a vetting process when you're hiring and working with a staffing company like Hi-Peak Staffing. So Tony, let's have you get us started and just introduce yourself and Hi-Peak Staffing.

Tony Case: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you, Megan, for having us on again. I wouldn't call us professional just yet, but we're starting to get in the mix with a few of these podcasts. We really are excited about our future, future growth, things that we see happening with not only Hi-Peak Staffing, but with RoofersCoffeeShop in that partnership. So we're super happy with that. But without further ado, I guess, I'm Tony Case. I'm co-owner of Hi-Peak Staffing with my beautiful wife, Kristin, that's also going to be speaking here. I'll let Kristin give a little bit more background, but like I said, we're super excited about the future and the growth that we've seen. So I'll pass that to Kristin.

Megan Ellsworth: Kristin, hello.

Kristin Case: Okay, so I think the question was who is Hi-Peak Staffing?

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, just introduce yourself and tell us about Hi-Peak.

Kristin Case: So my name is Kristen Case, co-owner of Hi-Peak Staffing. We are a commercial residential coatings and manufacturing recruiting agency for the roofing industry. And we're based out of Colorado.

Megan Ellsworth: That's right. I live in Denver.

Kristin Case: Yes, you live very close to us.

Megan Ellsworth: Where do you all live?

Kristin Case: Castle Rock.

Tony Case: We're in Castle Rock.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, that's right. We've talked about this. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Crazy.

Kristin Case: That was months ago though, last time we talked to you.

Megan Ellsworth: That was April maybe.

Kristin Case: Yeah.

Tony Case: Could've been.

Kristin Case: It was right when we were guppies.

Megan Ellsworth: You all were going on your honeymoon, I believe or something fun like that.

Kristin Case: We were. We did, yes.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay. So to get us started, can you tell us a little bit the backstory, the history of Hi-Peak Staffing, what made you all start this company?

Kristin Case: Yes, I'll go first. I came from recruiting 15 years, 10 years in the roofing space. And timing just happened to work out for us about three years ago that we wanted to go out on our own and see if we can do it. And so we started Hi-Peak Staffing with just the two of us. We specialize, like I mentioned, roofing contracting, so we started with a couple of clients. We grew from there. Now we work with over 40 roofing contractors across the US. We're really breaking into the manufacturing and coatings market now as well. And we've built our team to about eight. So I came with most of the roofing background, and then Tony, which he could talk on, is that he recruited a lot for college and in his previous roles. So when we joined forces, it was off to the races immediately.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. So I know we've chatted before about using specialized recruiters in the hiring process, but to reiterate, what should a contractor consider when choosing a recruiter? And Tony, I'll let you take this one.

Tony Case: Oh, okay. Yeah, perfect. Well, I was going to have Kristin speak first on this, but that's totally fine.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay.

Tony Case: And it's fine because we're going to say the same things, but we've had it broken down into different things that someone should look into. And especially if you're a commercial roofing contractor and you are seeking help and you're needing that assistance, that's the first thing that you should look for is who's going to be the best fit for me? And when deciding those factors, we've broken it down into a few separate things. So is the recruiter you're looking into industry specific? And so that's probably the number one thing that we see people don't do is there's a lot of big box recruiters out there with thousands of employees that recruit anything under the sun. And it's a numbers game for them. They're trying to meet a metric, they're trying to meet a goal. They don't care who they send, how they send them. So that's probably the first thing upfront, close and personal, is the recruiter we're vetting and we're vetting the vetter, basically, are they industry specific? Do they know what we do? Are they familiar with what we do and do they recruit and place people in our industry? That's number one.

Tony Case: I think after that, you immediately are going to have to look at their track record. What does their placements look like? Are they familiar with our specific roles that we're working? If you're just looking for laborers, that's one thing that might not be necessarily directly up our alley, which we'll do that every once in a while. But if we're looking for project managers in six locations and we're a national company, we need project managers everywhere, is there proven track record that they can place those people? Do they understand our company and our culture and what does that look like for them? I think Kristin does a fantastic job with building relationships and understanding what our client's culture is and needs, so that we can make that fit and that connection with our candidates to our clients.

Tony Case: And next, I think that you would have to look at what is your recruiting firm's candidate pool look like? Again, if you go back to those big box recruiters, they might have a candidate pool of 55,000, 60,000, hundreds of thousands. How many of them are specific to your industry? Where we've built a candidate pool of 10,000 plus with roofers only. These are commercial roofers, very specifically and very exclusively. So our candidate pool is that because we are industry specific. How do you communicate with them? Are they open? Are they available? Is the person that sold you on their company, is the person that you signed with that you have familiarity with, is that the person you're going to be dealing with? Or are you going to be dealing with 10 other people? And so that's what makes Kristin and I's company unique is that we are that person. We are the direct line of communication. And if you can't get Kristin, you can always get me. If you can't get me, you can always get Kristin. So our recruiters report directly to us and we are the point of contact for our clientele.

Tony Case: After that, I would say, what does the fee structure look like? What's your budget look like? What's their fee structure? Can those two things align? And after that, it's what do they do after they've made a placement? Are they out of town? Do they wipe their hands clean? Again, like a lot of people will do, not us, but these are the questions that I would start with in asking as if you were looking for that recruiter. If I'm a contractor and that's what I'm looking for, those are the questions I'm going to ask.

Megan Ellsworth: Amazing, amazing.

Kristin Case: I agree with all of that.

Megan Ellsworth: I'd love to know, maybe you Kristin, how do you assess their industry knowledge? Because those are some great questions to ask, but maybe what questions should they ask if they want to vet that vetter and make sure that they know the roofing industry?

Kristin Case: Coming from the client side to the recruiting agency, if they're reaching out to us?

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

Kristin Case: So I would say if you're specialized, the word of mouth does get out. People will know who you are, and if they don't, they may be able to poke around and figure out some of that information. But also looking at their job boards. Every job we have posted on our website is going to be related to the roofing industry. So you wouldn't see a .NET engineer or anything tech-based because we don't specialize in tech. And so knowing that all the roles that we are working is in the space that we're working, they can look at that. They can look at any type of testimonials that previous either candidates or clients, other agencies or companies have written about them. That's big for us because that's how we get a lot of our business is through referrals. So definitely when you're doing your homework, not just looking on their LinkedIn or looking on their website, but seeing what they specialize in, what they're posting and what their candidate pool looks like.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. I think it's great, too, that you have such a large candidate pool, 10,000 plus in the roofing industry, that's big.

Kristin Case: We grow every day.

Megan Ellsworth: That's a big number.

Kristin Case: We put our recruiters to work. We have them add, add, add. Everyone that they talk to, we try to get them to put them in our system because you just never know if someone's maybe not looking today, their job situation can change in three days, three weeks, three months. So you never know when they might want that call.

Megan Ellsworth: Or they might just be looking on the peripheral. They might have a job that they enjoy right now, but maybe something bigger and better comes along and you can reach out to them and they'll bite at it.

Kristin Case: Yeah.

Tony Case: That's an excellent point, Megan, because Kristin does that routinely. She's built those relationships over the past decade where if she comes across an A+ player, just somebody that's either she's worked with in the past or maybe has familiarity with her, they're comfortable enough to reach out to her as a candidate saying, "You have my best interest in mind. Where do I need to be? You tell me." Because she's got those connections.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's awesome. Everyone be friends with Kristin is what we're saying.

Tony Case: It's true.

Kristin Case: Oh, my gosh. On my good days, on my good days, sure.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, all days. Okay. How does a contractor make sure the recruiter knows what they want in an employee and they get a vibe of their company culture?

Kristin Case: So this one is really big for me, and I feel like this is where a lot of my client retention comes from is because not only on your initial job order call or intro call, so that's just when you're reaching out or they're reaching out to you to test the waters of what do you guys do? What do you specialize in? How can you maybe help us? And we get through all of those hurdles and we decide we want to move forward. One of my first questions is what does it look like on the day-to-day in the office? If this person is coming to work every day and it's not a remote role, what are they walking into? What's the environment like? Is it empty because everyone's out in the field or is it family-like? Is it a bunch of A players hitting the ball running in the morning? What are we looking for culturally and attitude-wise?

Kristin Case: And so when we ask those questions, they're taken aback because they're like, "Oh, you're not just asking us what software they need to have or what experience in roofing systems they need to have." We need to understand is this person going to work well with you, you, you and you? So I really try to gauge, and I always take it back to my roots. I'm Italian Irish, so we're always judging people in our big family. So I am always like, "You're going to have this person come in. You want everyone to like them." So don't just send someone who's good on paper that it's going to walk in and it's not going to be a good vibe. We want them to walk in and be excited and enthusiastic about this person. So that's what I would say is always making sure to just dig a little deeper, go beyond the surface level and find out what they are really looking for besides a certain software or five years of experience.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. And as the contractor, make sure that the recruiter you're having work for you and hiring to recruit knows those things, knows that you want someone that has a personality or is detail oriented and maybe introverted so they're more detail oriented or whatever, knowing those details.

Kristin Case: Yeah.

Tony Case: The only thing I would add to that is that Kristin is able to, and our team, myself included now, is we're able to share some of those success stories and some of those failures, where we've lived, we've learned, we understand that it's because we work nationally, we have clients and jobs in all 48 of the continental United States. So we understand that sometimes this might come off as just a unicorn on paper and we're doing everything we can to vet them appropriately and then they still don't work out. We have to learn from that. We have to adjust some of the questions we ask. We have to learn from those experiences. And Kristin's already done that for over a decade. Our team's been doing that for decades on decades. And so that's something that we bring to the table that someone that recruits an IT person or someone outside the industry won't have any clue to do.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

Kristin Case: Well, and also, once you start figuring out your clients, you understand what personalities are going to match and in what geographics they're going to match. So we just have to be really mindful of personality matches, not because they're just, at the end of the day, good on paper. I will walk away from more candidates not presenting them to that particular role if I know that I'm just basically going to waste my company's time. We are not an agency that's just trying to push resumes in front of a company. We're really trying to find that match. And it sounds cheesy, but it's true. I really am looking for them to call me back and say, "Oh my gosh, slam dunk," not, "We're not so sure about that person."

Megan Ellsworth: I feel like you're so right with the geographical differences though, because as a born and raised Oregonian, traveling to the East coast is very, very different for me.

Kristin Case: Yeah, it's intimidating.

Megan Ellsworth: People are just different.

Kristin Case: Yeah, they're fast and I know that. So that's the value of building relationships. When you know a certain office, I know, no, not going to send that person or yes, I'm going to. And so those are just things, I think, that keep our clients coming back to us. It's those small details that they recognize that we are taking that step to do that for them.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, I love it. It's amazing. Okay, so how do you assess your candidate's experience and make sure that they're just as good in person as they are in-

Tony Case: I think the only way to really do that is to follow up with them in a year. If we place someone with one of our clients and they're still one, gainfully employed with them, happy in their scenario and our clients are happy with them, that's really the only way to look back on it and say, "This was a successful placement because we did X, Y and Z." But if we're talking contractor to us where we can really... We can boast about what our metrics are, our placement rate, our retention rate, our time to fill, some of those things where we're going to have those numbers to present and to provide for our clientele, but ultimately, it's going to be did we find the right person for your metrics, for the right compensation, for the right geographical fit and are they still employed there? That's really what we're about.

Tony Case: And Kristin will have numerous success stories of, I placed a foreman in 2012 and now he's the branch president. And that's what real success looks like to us is are we placing the right people for upward mobility and growth, or are we just placing people for six months to a year and then they're out of there onto the next? Because that's not what we do. That's not how we operate.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, I like what you said, placing people for upward mobility and growth. Placing people to stay in that role, that role for years, that's great too, but I love that you said placing them for upward mobility. They're going to take this company further. They're going to grow within the company. They're not just going to stay stagnant in that role. They want to grow. I think that's cool.

Kristin Case: Well, or on the flip side, let's say you're working with a smaller organization who doesn't want to grow. They want to retire in five years. When you're talking to a candidate, you have to make sure to deliver that message to them as, "Listen, this is going to be a PM role for the rest of your days here and are you comfortable in that or in three to five years, are you going to be looking for that next step? Because if you are, this is probably not going to be the home for you. But if you just love edge estimating and you like to just sit at your desk heads down, work on those projects all day long, this would be the great role for you. Maybe you'll get yearly salary increases, but you're never going to go from an edge estimator to, let's say, ops manager," or whatever it may be.

Kristin Case: That's the pivot that you have to make sure that you're doing is when you're talking to candidates and your clients is, is there growth in this company? And if there's not, what does it look like money-wise growth for them if they stick around? So those are really important things we got to ask too.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think for all of the contractors out there listening, those are the things to ask your recruiting company like Hi-Peaks Staffing, again, vetting that vetter, making sure that they understand the role that you are looking to fill. So can you share any examples of a time when a poor vetting process for a recruiter negatively impacted the hiring process, maybe from some horror stories of your clients?

Kristin Case: Well, if it's a company that does not know about us, let's say and I'm in sales, so I'm always trying to grow Hi-Peak Staffing, pick up new accounts, fill more job orders, that's my favorite thing to do. A company might say no five times, and then they finally say, yes. I'm so excited. And I get on the phone with them and I'm ready to tell them all about Hi-Peak Staffing. And they say, "No, we've had nothing but terrible experiences with recruiters." I'm so excited to hear that because I know that they're going to tell me we hired recruiters that didn't know what they were talking about. They were sending us candidates for positions that don't fit our company culture or the skill set that we need. And after sending us 10 resumes and us interviewing three or those candidates, no one accepted a role or we never extended an offer.

Kristin Case: So I know when I hear that, I'm able to say, "Walk me through your stories." The biggest thing is probably time and time management. They're losing time when they hire. The horror story is that they'll go through 5 to 10 interviews, 3 to 4 second interviews, a month has gone by because we're doing a bunch of different calendars. And at the end of the day, no one can agree that this person's going to be the best fit for them.

Kristin Case: So the difference for us is that when you're going to work with a specialized recruiter is we're going to take down that job order, we're going to figure out what your requirements are and then we're going to turn around and get you those candidates in a timely manner. And if it's a remote area that's not a big metro, we tell them, we front load, "It may be two weeks before you get a resume from us, but they will start coming through the door." So we make sure that we're transparent there. But a lot of times what we do here is when you don't have a specialized recruiter, you're just getting maybe general construction candidates that are awesome. They'd be awesome for a certain company, but not specifically to roofing.

Megan Ellsworth: I think that's great. And again, I just love that it's specialized to roofing and I think, like you said, that is just a really important detail and something to ask. So are there any pitfalls to working with a recruiter that a contractor needs to avoid that we haven't touched on already?

Tony Case: Yeah, I would say there's a few things and this is not maybe specific to us, I feel like this is in general, but it's when we see that some of our clients are either dragging their feet or taking too long to hire, we start losing qualified, really good candidates, interested candidates. If we've got clients that one, are not communicating openly and clearly with us, we say every day, clear and open lines of communication is the only way to succeed in this industry and if we can't get in touch with you within a day, we don't know if we're going to be the right people for you because we have to communicate. So if we present someone on Monday and it's Wednesday and we haven't heard from you, that person might have another interview or another job offer or something that's going on.

Tony Case: So timing of presents to interviewing is crucial. It's crucial in any industry, but specifically for us, so the timing of that. We don't want to vet these people, get them excited about a company or an opportunity and then that opportunity gets lagged on. So we say every day, "Follow up, follow up, follow up." Well, we do that every day with our clients, our candidates, each other, our team. I'd say that timing aspect, Kristin, I don't know if you agree or maybe add something onto that.

Kristin Case: Yeah, I would say schedules are always changing in this industry when it comes to hiring managers, so it's really just the transparency aspect. We are all okay if there's been a storm and you're not able to do the interviews because of that reason, maybe if it's someone out of state and you're not able to talk to them, that's okay, but don't not show up. Just let us know. Keep that open line of communication open because you want to also, as much as we are working for our clients, we're also trying to help candidates get the best job for them. So we want to make sure that every great thing that we've said about this company comes to fruition. And sometimes when things are missed or the ball's dropped, you lose momentum. We can always bounce back and recover, but we just want to always try to keep it on the up and up. Does that make sense?

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. That's so true, especially in this market right now, this hiring market. There's so many people looking for jobs, but there's also a labor shortage at the same time. And I don't know how those two things can coincide at the same time, but they are actively. And so being on your toes, being responsive, so important, couldn't agree more. What advice would you give companies listening to this podcast right now looking to build long-term relationships with staffing agencies?

Tony Case: I'd say do your homework. Make sure that the things that we've discussed throughout this entirety of this podcast are make sure you're doing the appropriate things to vet these recruiting agencies. Try to find somebody industry-specific. There are other people out there. I think the thing that you're going to see and find out when we do more of these podcasts is we accept competition. We want it, we thrive for that. And so we are not going to be beating someone's door down to be exclusive recruiters for them only because sometimes it just doesn't work that way. Sometimes companies have 200 openings that they need to fill, and if we said we are the only ones that can do this or going to do all of these, we might come up short. So we invite that competition.

Tony Case: But for a contractor looking for a recruiter, do your homework. Make sure you've got someone that's industry specific, that understands your culture, your needs, is familiar with the terminology. Someone says TPO to you, they're going to understand what you're talking about, what surfaces you're talking about. So I would say, do your homework, make those decisions educationally, not irrationally off the hook, so do your homework.

Tony Case: The last thing that I'd say is someone trustworthy. We meet with our clients routinely. We fly to places, we drive to meetings. We are open and honest with our clientele, with our partners, because that's ultimately who we are partnered with. Now, we care deeply about our candidate pool and about our candidates. We want to make sure we get the right people through the door. At the end of the day, our clients are our partners. And so we had a nightmare story from a client just last week where a recruiter was working a little bit more on behalf of the candidate, saying things that were not true, getting things that were, "I got this for you. You only asked for this, but I got you more." Ultimately, we are our client's partners and so we try to do the best thing we can for our clientele and make sure that our relationship is long-lasting and it's not just one-off scenarios.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, totally, completely. So how does a contractor find out more about working with Hi-Peak Staffing?

Tony Case: Listen to our podcasts with Megan. We're super active on LinkedIn. We're actively reaching out, looking into everything. So I would say if we haven't already contacted you, we're easy to find and anxious to talk with you.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. Yay. Well, thank you both so much for chatting with me today. It's always a pleasure. I know I learned a little bit. So hopefully all the listeners out there had their notebooks open and were taking notes. Everyone out there listening, please go to rooferscoffeeshop.com to the Hi-Peak Staffing Solutions directory to learn more. You can find all their information, all their contact info, their website, everything there and that'll be linked in the show notes below. So Tony, Kristin, this has been amazing.

Tony Case: Thanks, Megan, for having us. Appreciate it.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely, absolutely. Yes. Thank you for being here. Everyone out there listening, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes we post. And we will see you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

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