What’s Next For SMB Hiring? w/ Pete Lamson, JazzHR

In HRchat 290, we look at recruiting and onboarding in SMBs. Our guest this time is Pete Lamson, CEO at JazzHR - the recruiting software built to help growing companies exceed their recruiting goals.

Listen as Pete and host Bill Banham discuss the impact of the crisis on employees, leaders, and HR pros within SMBs. As some of us slowly start crawling out the other side, hear Pete's predictions for what a stronger future workplace and labor market will look like.

Pete has been CEO of JazzHR since 2015 where he's led the company through a strategic turnaround to become the category-leader in SMB hiring technology and successful exit.  As part of a new merger,  Pete recently took over the overall leadership of Jobvite, JazzHR, and NXTThing RPO.

Pete has 30+ years of experience in leadership roles with high-growth companies, spending most of his career with B2B technology solutions. Prior to JazzHR, Pete was Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Carbonite where he was responsible for all revenue and industry-leading expansion into the B2B market, which grew to exceed 100,000 customers. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Welcome to the HR chat podcast, bringing the best of the HR and talent communities to you.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Welcome to another episode of the HR chat podcast. I'm your host today, bill Banham. And in this HR chats, we're going to look at recruiting and onboarding within small and medium-sized businesses. My guest this time is Pete Lampson CEO at jazz HR, the recruiting software built to help growing companies exceed their recruiting goals. Peter has 30 plus years of experience in leadership roles with high growth companies spending most of his career within B2B technology solutions. Pete has been CEO of jazz HR since 2015, where he's led the company through its strategic turnaround to become the category leader in SMB hiring technology as part of a new merger, which we're going to be talking about today. Pete recently took over the overall leadership of jazz HR plus job Vite. Plus next thing RPO prior to jazzy job, Pete was senior vice president of global sales at Carbonite, where he was responsible for all revenue and industry leading expansion into the B2B market, which grew to exceed 100,000 customers. Previously. Pete served as SVP and GM for named media's SMB focused the main marketplace, the largest of its kind in the world and chief operating officer of monster worldwide it's consumer relocation division, helping businesses convert new movers into lifetime customers. Pete is a graduate of Middlebury college and Harvard business school. Pete, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 1:54

It's great to be here, bill.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Okay, so that was a, that was a pretty chunky bio there peaks. I feel like I know you're a little bit already, but why don't you, uh, why don't you start by telling our listeners a bit more about yourself, your career background and your role at jazz HR?

Speaker 1: 2:11

So I've spent the majority of my career working in technology, enabled businesses, uh, uh, helping bring solutions to market, um, that improve work performance and efficiency for, for all of our customers and, and, uh, most recently, or up until actually about a week or so ago. Uh, I was CEO of jazz HR, um, earlier this week, jazz HR job bite, and next thing RPO announced an exciting, uh, combination of forces. So our three businesses, uh, have joined together and I will be, uh, at CRM CEO of the combined organization going forward, which I suspect we may talk about in the next couple of minutes.

Speaker 2: 2:53

Well, let's, let's get right there now, Pete. Um, so what what's, what's the new enhanced wonderful mission of the three entities?

Speaker 1: 3:02

So, so JobBite and jazz HR are complimentary tech enabled recruiting solutions for their respective markets and jazz HR has as always focused on the SMB space that will remain intact. The brand will remain intact and the solutions that that jazz HR offers his customers and helping them recruit more effectively, more efficiently. And at a price point designed for small business budgets will remain completely intact. However, we're now joined by JobBite who is a, a mid-market and enterprise focused recruiting solutions with, uh, kind of a similar, uh, approach to solutions, but one that is purpose-built for the mid market and enterprise all customers. So, so what's exciting about this is we now have purpose-built tech solutions for the small business marketplace through jazz HR. We have purpose built tech solutions for a job bite for mid-market and enterprise. And on top of these, we've also now partnered with next thing RPO to provide human, uh, services to, to help both segments of customers, SMB, and then mid-market and enterprise, uh, improve, uh, their recruiting results through outsource recruiting solutions. So we have technology for all markets and we have outsource recruiting solutions that support both of our, our, our key core markets. We think it's an unmatched solution in the marketplace collectively. Uh, we service about 10,000 customers and, uh, so we're really excited about what this means for our customers, for the market and for our company moving forward.

Speaker 2: 4:42

That's amazing. Congratulations, Pete. And what about, what about the, the territory? Is, is that now global coverage or are you in pretty much every country in the world?

Speaker 1: 4:52

So, so we, we do service, uh, all global clients, especially through our, our, our job by business jazz. HR has historically largely been North American focused. I think as we move forward, we will look to broaden those with international expansion as well. Uh, but yes, we do serve, uh, companies from all over the globe.

Speaker 2: 5:11

Let's hone in on jazz HR for a moment the pandemic hits small and medium-sized businesses harder than any other segment, probably. How did jazz Joel continued to help these teams to hire a mid such a volatile labor markets?

Speaker 1: 5:27

Great question. And so, you know, I think the reality was especially roughly a year ago at this time, many businesses weren't hiring, especially in, in the second quarter and third quarter of 2020, which was, um, uh, at least in North America, the real kind of dark period of COVID businesses were challenged because the, the economy had dropped precipitously and, you know, instantly and severely, there also was a question of how long this would go on for, uh, and how it would get, and all of those things were unknown. And certainly in some parts of the world that remains the case, um, where, where, what we attempted to do was, was number one work. And we were the solutions that we have, the technology that we offer, um, help out the, uh, businesses that we're trying to grow rapidly. Um, uh, because of some of the unfortunate circumstances in COVID. So an example of that would be we offered, uh, at no charge recruiting solutions to frontline, to businesses that were supporting or were directly involved in frontline healthcare. Um, we knew there'd be an immediate need for hiring, um, kind of in a, in a number areas of, of the, the healthcare and medical community. We wanted to support that, however we could. So we offered free recruiting solutions there. Um, secondly, within our existing customer base, we knew that their recruiting demands would, would be, uh, materially impacted by the downturn and, and customers who had relationships with jazz HR perhaps might not be in need of, uh, of our services of our solution in the near term. And we worked with those customers to ensure that the economic hardship, they were feeling that we did what we could to mitigate that, uh, by partnering with them on, on, uh, reducing costs, where we code and so forth. And, and the idea being that, that, uh, as, as terrible as COVID and the economic downturn was about a year ago, we also knew that in time, um, this would change and a recovery would happen and we wanted to take care of our customers, um, during their sort of dark time with the idea being that we're in this, in partnership, we're in this together, so that when things turn around, um, you know, we'll still be here for them as well. And, and, and they would hopefully, uh, see an even greater need for our services. So, um, so we're kind of working with our existing customer base to, to help mitigate some of the challenges was another kind of key tenant of, of what we executed. And then thirdly, um, we repositioned some of our target markets to industries that the unjust healthcare that were in need of, uh, recruiting and, and have more employees and, and a great example of that would be logistics and supply chain management. You know, all of these, for example, Amazon trucks that drive down our driveways every single day, uh, and, and all of the work that, that kind of enables the, the change in economy from, um, from store bought purchasing to online delivery. And that recreate created a, uh, a very material change in labor force requirements. So, so we did a lot of work there and there in other areas, so that were similarly, uh, impacted with immediate hiring needs. And so those were just some of the actions that we took in, in, uh, in adjusting to, to, uh, to life with COVID in a, in a, in a challenging economy at the time. And, and, um, uh, we have, uh, perseverance through that our businesses performing very well, and we're certainly grateful the customers that are still with us, and hopefully that we could grateful that we could play some small part in helping, uh, some industries like, like healthcare.

Speaker 2: 9:09

The majority of the questions pose that yet today, Pete are, uh, are geared to help leaders in HR folk. I just want to move away from that for a, for a second. And, uh, firstly chat a little bit about recruiters and what recruiters can expect. Now we're recording this interview, uh, the day after Biden did, uh, and addressed it at both houses. And, uh, he, he, uh, he announced some pretty big relief packages. And following that there, I saw a report where there's an expectation of around 6% growth in the us economy this year, which is huge. And that I guess is going to be a even bigger boon to recruiting than perhaps some of us expected, um, exactly how busy can recruit as, and TA pros expect to be in the latter half of 2021.

Speaker 1: 9:59

I think they are already exceptionally busy. And I think this level of hiring velocity is only going to increase and, and that's a problem, right? It's a high class problem, but it is a problem. And we've, we've seen this, we saw the severe downturn, um, uh, kind of in the economy last year, corresponding high unemployment rates. This now is all kind of vectoring back very rapidly in the right direction. Uh, virtually every industry now is, is hiring and hiring aggressively unemployment numbers are still not where we want them to be, but on the, with the trajectory we're on right now, um, we'll get there. W w w we should see a recovery full recovery, certainly within the next 12 months, uh, this is going to present challenges for recruiters, for sure. And, and technology is one of the ways that they will need to adopt to most effectively recruit because there's, while there are, there are certainly a high level of candidate flow right now for many jobs because of the unemployment rate still higher than we would like it to be. Um, this is going to be rapidly changing. And in some industries, it's, there's already a shortage, I would say, in, in engineering talent in particular, um, very, very difficult to, to hire talent in there because of there's just such a labor market demand for, uh, for those, for that type of skillset. So, so adopting the right technology to allow recruiters to efficiently work through a high volume of candidates to who are also receiving significant, uh, inbound, uh, demand and request for their services will allow those recruiters to, to be effective, efficient, and still deliver the results they need to for their companies.

Speaker 2: 11:44

Well, you're right. There are a lot of people who are, um, being head hunted for want of a better term, and that's fantastic, but I fear that there are millions that, um, if, if they are getting that kind of inbound interest, it might be spam. It might not be relevant. Um, but also many, many, many of them perhaps, uh, uh, struggling at the moment, um, while, while the labor market appears Pete to be, to be on the mat and many North Americans haven't kept their confidence. And a recent Pew research center study found that around half of unemployed or furloughed or temporarily laid off us adults who are actually searching for jobs and are pretty pessimistic about their employment prospects, uh, some 66% have seriously considered changing fields and occupations. What would you say to those who, who are struggling to get seen through, through the masses of applicants and also to that point for those people who are thinking well, you know, now's the time to change my career? Um, I think a lot of people have been thinking about that since COVID started, you know, is, is this the time to, I hate to use the word, is this the time to pivot? You're, you're a leader of people, Pete, as well as a leader of a, of a talent tech stack, um, as a leader of people, but also as someone who's, he's got a fantastic knowledge within this space, what would be your advice to those job seekers?

Speaker 1: 13:04

Well, first, I, I do think that the industries that were the hardest hit by the pandemic, you know, the restaurant industry, um, uh, hospitality, air travel, um, retail stores. I think that as the infection rates, uh, and hospitalizations continually begin to subside in the us, um, and, and slowly and other parts of the world as well, those jobs will come back. I think some of them, they may be different than a lot of the, the online and digitization that the, the flight to a digital economy is, is, is not going to lessen, but we we'll go back to restaurants. We will go back to movie theaters, we will begin traveling again. We will stay in hotels again. So, so this will come back. And in fact, I think it's, it's, you know, if you look at any of the air travel numbers, there they're significantly up until the right. So I think that those jobs will come back. Um, having said that they're not going to come back overnight. And so I think that to kind of speak to the other part of your question that a, you know, for, for candidates who are thinking, Hey, is this a time for me to reconsider, uh, uh, a re-pivot kind of my career, uh, trajectory or focus? Um, certainly for some of those people, the answer to that will need to be yes, and there are parts of the economy, especially the digital economy that are going to continue to grow, and it's not just the engineering and, and the, and the business and the, and the roles with technical backgrounds, um, that will, that work will be starved for talent. Although that is certainly true, but all of these businesses need talented customer support. They need talented salespeople, they need talented marketing people. They need finance help, they need HR help. And so there's an opportunity through, through learning new skills, to position yourself, um, uh, in a manner that, that, that can most effectively participate through through career training, um, in the, in the continued digit kind of flight digital, digital that we're seeing. But, but I do think that the, the industry's hardest hit will, will rebound in the near term as well. So I don't think hope is lost there by any means.

Speaker 2: 15:14

It's so nice to be doing interviews again, where there's a, there's this continual drip of optimism listeners. It's, it's been, it's been so long where a lot of the homework and it's all ifs and maybes, but now we can actually start, you know, saying, well, we expect this to be happening in this kind of timeframe. And it's good news again. It's okay. So one, one department that has been tested to the max, um, is, is the HR department during, during the crisis. Uh, new HR pros have certainly earned their stripes and some, um, more senior HR pros have rejustified perhaps why they are so important, um, within the organization that the pandemic in fact, sparked a massive shift in the HR business function, as teams took on new responsibilities in response to changing workforce and org needs, Pete going forward, how can CEOs and business leaders ensure that their HR people have a seat at the table in regards to business planning and change management? How do leaders make sure that they don't fall back on, on bad habits from before and recognize the importance of the HR function at the very, very,

Speaker 1: 16:33

Yeah. Great, great. I great question though. I think that, that the pandemic, um, accelerated a change that frankly was already happening. And I think that that for, for nearly all companies, there is an understanding and a realization that the HR team are not the, um, the paper pushers. It's not where you go to sign up for benefits and get your paycheck. I mean, of course there's some element of that. Um, um, but, but this idea of not only recruiting and bringing on, on, on the right talent for, for the kind of the right rule to help companies achieve their objectives, but additionally, the, the overall, uh, wellbeing of the employee base, um, especially during COVID has taken on such an important role. And I don't see that I don't see that changing at all and this notion of, of not just physical wellbeing, but of course, mental health and ensuring that we're able to bring our whole selves to work in, in a well-rounded manner. And that, and that businesses will, will benefit from, from kind of a, a balanced approach to, to bringing employees, bringing their whole entire selves to work. And I think that these, these differences that we all have being celebrated as is new, I think it's important think businesses perform better with a diversity of thought and opinion and background, um, which is a great segue into, uh, diversity and inclusion being another, uh, kind of area that, that while this is a, that DNI is something that entire organizations much to embrace and must embrace. And it must start from leadership on down HR often, uh, or the, the team that's leading the charge on that. And, and certainly over the last year, that has become a critical, critical component to, to so many businesses, um, kind of internal fabric and core values and mission, um, at job bite and jazzy char. And next thing RPO, just to, to give you an example, this is top of mind for us, um, as a team in just our first week of existence, we're already talking about this. So I think that's so important, um, that, that we embrace that and support again, not just recruiting for diversity inclusion, but a sense of belonging and certainly leadership development, and again, another key strategic role that HR plays. So it's, uh, having HR, having that strategic seat at the table as you put it is very true. Uh, um, I don't know any forward thinking organization that, that isn't already there. Um, but I think for the, the HR community, um, it's, it's, uh, kind of about time because it's, it's, it's, it's like the, the, the, the rest of the functional areas of business are waking up to what they of course have known all along on how important this is. So, so grateful that we're here now. And I think there's only continues.

Speaker 2: 19:22

I'm having a lot of fun. I'm enjoying the interview today. However, I'm sad to tell you that we're soon going to be wrapping up and we're going to have to definitely get you on again. Um, before we do wrap up, I've got two more questions for you, firstly, and, um, I'd like to challenge you to answer in 90 seconds or less do a bit of a, do a bit of a recap of some of the things that you've spoken about so far today in, in the context of maybe sharing what you believe is, is next what's coming up for hiring within SMBs.

Speaker 1: 19:52

I, I think that that continuing to embrace a, uh, I'll call it digitally augmented recruitment and, and HR, uh, combination in terms of how we bring employees into organizations and how we work with our teams is going to be critical. Um, increasingly remote work, which is now a part of all of our lives by health necessity. Um, but I do not envision us going back to where we were pre pandemic. So that means that more technology that will, that will be required to, to support our employee basis, both recruiting like we offer in our businesses. Um, but video interactions, efficiency, optimization, communication tools, um, small businesses continuing to embrace these, uh, so that they can remain competitive with, with some of the larger businesses they go up against every single day will be critical. And, and, and, and the same as going to hold for a mid-market and enterprise business as well. So can continue to embracement of, of technology to, to improve, uh, our, our overall daily lives in HR, in, uh, in the workplace is going to be a key piece of what we do. I also think that, that the, uh, mission critical work for diversity and inclusion across all elements of what that means, um, uh, will help companies be more competitive, uh, as they compete for talent by and by embracing these sort of core values and defining what they stand for and what they don't stand for. Um, I think that's another critical component of this as well. So those would be just some of the things that I, uh, that I, I think about, uh, that are, have been, become more magnified over the course of the last year. And I would look and, and hope for those to continue.

Speaker 2: 21:36

I didn't think you were going to do it, Pete. I was looking at my watch. I was thinking, well, what I know he's got about 10 seconds left to meet the challenge, but you succeeded, you succeeded, okay. And just find lethal today. How can listeners connect with you by, but that's LinkedIn email, whatever you'd like to provide. And also how can they learn more about all the awesome services happening over at those three different, fantastic organizations.

Speaker 1: 22:00

You can find me on LinkedIn, just type in Pete Lampson. And I think you'll find me there. Uh, and, and in terms of our three companies, we would love to chat with you and see how we can help with your recruiting needs, uh, for small businesses, jazz hr.com for mid-market and enterprise it's jobbite.com and for recruitment outsourcing it's next thing, RPO ducks.

Speaker 2: 22:21

All right. Brilliant. Well, that just leaves me to say for today, Pete, thank you very much for joining me on this episode of the HR chat show. Great to be here, bill and listeners as always until next time, happy working and please do, although we're all getting optimistic, please do continue to stay safe.

Speaker 3: 22:40

Thank you for listening to the HR chat podcast brought to you by the HR.