“We spend 50% of our lives working… What is crazy is that 8 out of 10 people in today’s workforce say they don’t even feel a connection to their jobs or their employer. Which means that most of us are probably half of our lives feeling disengaged and maybe feeling unfulfilled.”
This is how Charlie Saffro opened her TEDx talk on prioritizing people in your business. As the CEO of a recruiting firm, she gives insightful takes on how a people-first culture can positively impact you and your client’s retention and long-term revenue.
Charlie is the CEO of CS Recruiting, which specializes in the Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transportation industries. The company is based in Chicago and recruits nationally. Charlie founded CS Recruiting over a decade ago and has built it from the ground up into a multi-million dollar organization.
She leads a team of 28 talented recruiters, emphasizing a people-first culture.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [02:55] How Charlie fell into recruiting and eventually put up her recruitment firm.
- [10:46] Winning and completing a project involving hiring 50 people in the first year of business.
- [14:32] Milestones within the 10-year journey as a founder and CEO.
- [21:41] Fostering a People-First Culture and its long-term benefits to retention and revenue.
- [33:58] The four magnets in building a people-first culture.
- [36:25] Transitioning to and embracing the full CEO role by learning to delegate.
- [43:47] Keys to developing a strong brand.
- [53:33] Charlie’s perspective on the current market environment and how she responds as a leader.
The Four Magnets in Building a People-First Culture
From a business point of view, a people-focused culture benefits employees and contributes to the organization’s long-term success and resilience. Charlie gave very specific and pragmatic initiatives that they implement to engage with their employees. What strategies can you implement to foster a people-first culture in your recruitment firm?
Charlie explains that culture acts like a magnet in attracting the right talent while repelling those who don’t align with the company’s values. She breaks down this concept into four key “talent magnets”:
- Walk the Talk: The company should live its values daily, celebrating employees who embody these values, like recognizing “value winners” quarterly.
- Beyond the Paycheck: This magnet offers more than just a salary; it offers flexibility, benefits, and other tangible and intangible perks.
- Intentional Connection: This is about fostering genuine relationships within the team, getting to know them beyond their work roles, and maintaining regular check-ins to gauge team happiness.
- Growth Takes Two: This emphasizes collaboration between employees and leadership on career development, ensuring promotions align with employees’ personal goals, and conducting “evolution meetings” to discuss future aspirations.
Charlie believes that these magnets help attract and retain the right talent while ensuring a strong and aligned company culture.
Practical Steps to Enhance People Engagement
What steps do you currently take to enhance your team’s engagement? Does it need a big budget? I wanted to know the actual actions that Charlie implements from a leadership perspective to further a people-centric environment.
A notable takeaway is how Charlie initiates small, personal gestures of appreciation, like handwritten notes or small gifts, regardless of whether there is no budget allocation for these gestures. These small acts of recognition made a significant impact on employee morale and engagement. Over time, this evolved into a formal appreciation and recognition program within her organization.
The program includes a budget for recognizing milestones such as new hires, promotions, anniversaries, and personal achievements like buying a house or having a baby. There’s also a “petty cash” fund for impromptu recognition, where any team member can submit a form to acknowledge a colleague who might need a pick-me-up, whether it’s sending a gift card, treating them to lunch, or something as simple as giving them their favorite candy (a part of their onboarding process is asking members to share favorite foods or places).
These small, thoughtful gestures, which cost very little, can significantly boost employee morale and foster a strong, people-centered culture. She advocates for sharing these practices with clients, especially those in small businesses, to help them retain their talent by showing genuine appreciation for their employees. Would you apply the same for your team?
How to Develop a Strong Brand
While the topic of an engaging culture is certainly most interesting, I also wanted to pick Charlie’s brains on building a strong brand and online presence. Charlie is excellent at leveraging her voice through social media and building her brand. She became a recruiter back when LinkedIn was not yet a thing, and she is now utilizing various platforms to build her brand.
You may find the following action items helpful when building your brand:
- Start Posting Consistently: Initially, Charlie used LinkedIn like many recruiters—sourcing candidates and building projects without much focus on content creation. However, she began posting content regularly, even though her early posts were generic and received little engagement.
- Experiment with Content: After years of posting expected content, such as interview tips and salary negotiation advice, Charlie noticed that her posts weren’t resonating with her audience. Inspired by a viral TikTok video her son created, she experimented with more personal and relatable content. This shift in approach proved to be a game-changer.
- Share Personal Stories: The viral success of a family-related post gave Charlie the confidence to open up more about her personal life, including her experiences as a mother and leader. This authenticity helped her connect with her audience on a deeper level and drove business opportunities in unexpected ways.
- Engage with Your Audience: Charlie found that sharing personal content led to increased engagement, with people reaching out to her with business inquiries and personal messages. This interaction helped her build a community and strengthened her brand’s presence.
- Post Regularly and Stay Inspired: Over time, Charlie developed a routine of posting five days a week, always looking for inspiration in her daily life that she could share with her audience. She emphasized the importance of staying consistent and adapting content based on what resonates with her followers.
