In this episode, we dive deep into the "Get It, Want It, Capacity" hiring model. We discuss the importance of understanding whether potential hires truly "get it" in terms of understanding the job demands and culture, whether they "want it" in the sense of genuine motivation, and whether they have the "capacity" to handle the job requirements.

We share real-world scenarios and valuable insights on how different generations perceive work, the impact of COVID on the workforce, and the need to build a culture of appreciation to attract and retain talent.

Whether you're an employer, HR professional, or someone passionate about workforce development, this episode provides actionable strategies and thought-provoking discussions.

As always, don't forget to like, share, rate, and review the show. Your feedback helps us continue delivering content that resonates with our audience.

Highlights:

• We discuss the importance of understanding the different contexts and perspectives of different generations when it comes to work, as well as the challenges of aligning these perspectives within a multigenerational workforce.
•  We emphasize the significance of setting clear expectations and articulating job requirements when hiring, and the potential complexities of gauging a candidate's true "want" for the job and their capacity to carry out the responsibilities.
• The episode delves into the importance of creating a positive and supportive workplace culture, where appreciation, respect, and a sense of belonging are integral to motivating employees, regardless of their age or experience.
• We also touch upon the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work dynamics, the evolving priorities of different generations, and the need for adaptation and flexibility in response to changing work attitudes and expectations.

Steve Doyle:

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Brad Herda:

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Welcome to Blue Collar BS, a podcast that busts the popular myth that we can't find good people, highlighting how the different generations of today, the boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, are redefining work so that the industrial revolution that started in the US stays in the US.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Blue Collar BS podcast. Listen and around the world by tens of. Tens of people, and we are grateful to have you all. So I am Brad, your co host, along with my other co host.

I'm Steve.

You are, Steve. There you go. Reviewing 2023 numbers, though, Steve, it was pretty impressive, the impact that we were having around the world. And thank you for what you have done to support the show. Even though Michigan is a balmy poultry, I think third or fourth on our all time listener list.

I mean, that's pretty low. Pick up the slack in other countries.

Yes, you have brought other things around the world, but Michigan, you have no friends, apparently. Yeah, you've burned all your bridges in. So thank you for that.

Thanks for that reminder.

Just saying. All right, so today, you know, we were talking a little bit before the show here. Some of the things that we're going through. One of the things I'm going through with the client right now is some implementation work and things know, reading through the book traction and Gino and his team have done and different things. And we were discussing their version of what they call get it, want it capacity. Get it, want it and capacity and understanding the importance of that when you're in hiring mode and training mode, and just in a teaching mode along the way to support your team in putting the right people in the right places so they can be successful. And I guess we wanted to just kind of talk through that, the simplicity that we often oversimplify. Do they get it? Scenario.

Yeah. And we struggle with that, particularly across multiple generations, that multigenerational workforce that we currently have. And in many cases, the younger guys, do they get manufacturing? Do they get construction? Do they get the trades? I'd argue they get it, but they get it differently than you or I.

Correct. And it comes from context, usually the context of which we grew up in it and how we were brought up, versus the context of what they see on TV, what they gather from social media, what they gather from friends or parents telling them, hey, this is what this is part of. It's from context. So let's dive into this a little bit deeper and with some of the work that we both have done with our clients in various aspects. So let's give a hypothetical situation. And let's walk through these. Get it, want it capacity standpoint. So let's talk.

We have some mutual friends, and we have some aspects of our understanding of machine shops. All right, so let's say something we know. So we need to hire a machinist, and we'll kind of leave it generic for a purpose. So we need to hire.

I got so many questions on that already.

I know, right? So we put an ad out for a machinist, and we've got five applicants. Right. So let's talk about do they get it standpoint. Now, the applicants range in age and experience. So some of them are 20 years experience. And yet we have another on the other flip side, we have somebody that's fresh out of school, fresh out of high school, dripping wet, and they want to be a machinist. Okay, so let's talk about do they get it?

So let me ask a couple of clarifying questions, if I may.

You may.

So are we expecting this particular position to become productive quickly, or are we hiring in this particular position in order to support our ability to have a lifecycle in the machine shop area that can be sustainable? What's the purpose of the hire would be my first question. Well, because I think that has a very distinct path of where you're going to set the framework for the intentions. Just saying. Well, Brad, as a high.

Saying as a high C. So. Well, Brad, we both know the scenario that we're in. Scenario that we're in is Bob retired three months ago, and we ain't making. I haven't been able to find good people, Brad.

So what is it you do?

Right, right. So the scenario is I need somebody to be productive quickly to fill a gap by somebody leaving.

Fair. Okay.

All right. So there's pros and cons to the questions that you were going to ask and answer here for the type of people we're looking for. Right.

I just wanted to get the context around that because that's often some of the things that are there. From my vantage point, I am going to lean towards the opportunity of, do they understand what they're getting themselves into? Which is that get it part? Do they know that it's a fast paced, do they know that there's danger involved? Do they know that there's quality expectations? Do they know that we're here to service the customer? Do we understand that you got to show up to work every day? Do they get that there's going to be weekend work? Do they understand those pieces to it coming in as part of the factor.

And if they do, the other things we have to answer is, do we get it as the owners? Right. We think we get it. Of course.

Like, you're sitting on top of the mountain. Why wouldn't you?

Right. But we all know that we have blind spots, so it's a two way street. When we say, do they get it as owners, we have to be able to articulate those questions that you just laid out and asked, like, do you understand the ins and outs of the position? Do you understand the full requirements? Do you understand how you're going to make sure somebody is actually successful in their role? And can you clearly articulate it consistently? Because we often find where we are not consistent and clear. We get frustration and stress. No, especially, I know, all the time.

You're married, right? Yeah.

Perfect. I can read mines, too.

Well, you're better than I am.

At least somebody thinks they should.

Clearly set expectations. Do you get it? Apparently not.

Right? Clearly. Clearly right.

So, yes, being able to clearly articulate what get it means and have that clear definition when you're in that hiring process to set those expectations, often, and I've been part of this numerous times, often the person trying to hire the role is going to go to, well, this person has the most experience possible, and they worked at this really cool organization. They did this. I'm the guy that's sitting there going, okay, but why are they leaving? Why are they moving? If it's such a great organization and we pride ourselves and they're a cooperation type organization that we compete against and collaborate with, why would they want to come over to our side of the fence? Because everybody thinks the grass is always greener, but it's just different grass. That's all it is, right? You can say the grass is greener across the road, but it's just different grass. It's not greener. It's just different because other problems will crop up, and it's a matter of what your risk tolerance is for those things. So I'm the guys. Why are they leaving? What's going on? Maybe it's 10 miles closer to his house.

Perfectly legitimate reason, right? Or maybe the work hours are different, but usually many want to gravitate to the most experienced because, like you said, we got to make chips right away. We got to get that spindle turning. But they're also a clock puncher, and you don't find that out until afterwards, typically. So you got to figure out, are you there to be part of the team and be part of the growing organization, accept change? Or are you here just to come in, punch the clock, come out and do no more, do no less.

Well. And then that follows into the next category of do they want it right? Does somebody genuinely truly want the job or are they just the clock puncher? They're motivated by a certain thing or a certain aspect. And no, money isn't what typically is going to be the end all be all for motivation. You can throw more money at the problem, but really you're just throwing money into a furnace.

So as you have just put that there. When I left Interstate forge in 2000 to go to Busaris in June of 2000 as well, I was blessed to be able to interview and I will remember this vision is burned in my head. I did my second interview on a Saturday morning. So it's a Saturday morning. Our facility. I've been to the office building, but we're going to a little plant tour. Walk into a machine shop. Now my grandfather worked at Kearney and Trekker here in Wisconsin for a bunch of years.

So I've toured that plant. My dad did some stuff so I was able tour the old falk plant and different things back in the day. So I had an understanding of what manufacturing looked know we were in closed eye forgings. Now I'm going into welding and forgings and other things like that. Larger open die forgings. Walk in the machine shop and all you hear is the of electricity without the machines running on a Saturday morning it's dead silent. The light canopies up on top. Building was built in 1893.

Wood grained end grain flooring, different things. Get to the turnaround section and there's just the rollers from the shovels sitting there. All machine, all pretty shining in light. I was just like, wow. It was like a euphoria. The heavens parting way going you are here my friend. It was spectacular. I generally like this is way cool.

And I brought that energy and enthusiasm to learn and go forward all the time because I did want to be there. It wasn't a means to get a paycheck. This is some really cool stuff that.

We'Re doing right, which is awesome. And when people understand that change for that motivation that you have, they quickly realize, hey, if we were to throw a couple more dollars at this person, the person will appreciate it, but it's not what motivates them in the first place, right? So we really need to understand when we talk about do people want it? How can we help motivate them? How can we help encourage them to genuinely be present in the job more frequently. And that's changed dramatically over the years. Right.

And COVID accelerated that change dramatically. And you may have heard me say this before and may have said it on the show before. I think millennials got it right. They just went about it the wrong way. Because even the boomers want to have that balance and want to have those things because they want to spend time with their grandkids, they want to go to the things they miss with their own kids. They want to show that support and be a good parent that maybe they weren't when their kids were growing up. So having that flexibility, being a place where people want to come to work, and you can shake your heads all you want for those listening and going, I'm just a framing shop. I'm just out in the field every day.

You need to build a culture. Somebody walks on that floor or walks into that construction site that they feel appreciated, they want to be there, and they want to tell their friends, yeah, come here, because this is really freaking cool what we're doing. And when you do that, half your problems go away. When you make that decision and it starts at the leadership level and you can do it in little pockets of excellence, but if your owners and everybody are on board, you create magic. And it's freaking awesome when that happens.

Yeah. And that's one of the things with a construction client that I have. The big thing that we tout with that is the culture and how people are treated. The culture isn't something that. It's something that was built. It was very intentional, but it's how it resonates with the golden rule of treat others as you want to be treated. And this client goes above and beyond with how they help treat people, and it starts to motivate people in a different way compared to throwing money at things. Oh, they're going to leave because they're throwing money at.

No, if they're going to leave, they're going to leave because somebody did some dumb shit. They're not going to leave because they're going to go find a different. Could they go find a job that pays them more? They could, but if they're already looking for that, it's because they don't fit the culture for what's going on, because people are now gravitating to that culture.

Could be culture or just that simple appreciation.

Part of the culture is how people are appreciated.

Fair. If we lump appreciation into culture, many in our world don't. Culture is separate from appreciation. In most organizations, most manufacturing and facilities and construction world, that when you say appreciation, they don't think of it from an organizational culture perspective. It's different. It's that, oh, I got to do something extra. I got to say thank you for doing job.

That's not appreciation. Appreciation is taking it to a personal level and being very sincere about it.

I don't understand that. You get it.

We get it. We're Gen X.

We get it. But there are others that say, oh, you need. I say thank you for doing your job. Sort of, kind of. Not really, but yes, you need to do that, and you need to not do it from behind your keyboard. And you do it not through a text, and it could be a text. I've got a client right now. They're in the process of making adding an expansion on their building.

Haven't talked to them because this fifth week, this fifth day of the month last month causes an extra week gap. In between our meeting, I just said, how's your concrete pouring? Know what's going know we've had decent weather here in Wisconsin this last week and a half. How'd it go? He's like, well, they're actually pouring next week. We had some delays. Okay, cool. Still supposed to be warm, but he was excited to say, oh, great, this is what's going know. Being invested in them and what's happening as a human level is vitally important to create a wanted scenario for individuals coming in.

So let's talk about this last component on this that we have here. It's about capacity, right? Do you have the capacity mentally, physically, time wise, knowledge wise, emotionally, to do the job? And I find this one to be pseudo interesting from the standpoint of, if you're applying for the job, are you applying for the job because you need a job, or are you truly applying because you actually know you have the capacity to do that? And it can be somewhat hard to really gauge, does somebody really have that capacity to really understand what it takes? And I know we were talking pre show. We are talking about.

So let's just go back to your scenario in the hiring, right. We have all these five candidates, and we got to fill the job, make the spindle turn. Let's go back to Aaron, the young guy that just came out of high school that is looking to start his career and his journey in the machine shop. Being able to gauge that from him or her ability to do that is going to be difficult. However, you can use those experiences, and I'll use the first robotics experience that you've been part of. I've been part of. Or we can use Eagle Scout as an opportunity as well. Through scouts.

If you have somebody that's been through a first robotics program and successfully been through that in four years and did that, what they've accomplished and been able to go through, they may not be able to articulate it in your words or in your vernacular, but if you see a first robotics piece to it, you need to investigate the hell out of that. If you see an Eagle Scout piece to it, you need to investigate. That's an automatic let's go have an interview. Because most of the time, they're going to have the capacity to understand and know and be able to get in to understand what that commitment looks like, at least from a first pass perspective.

Yeah, absolutely.

Just a little tip for all you out there recruiting.

And it's so often overlooked with, because most employers are going to want somebody that's got 30 years of experience, but they only want to pay a five year experience person or less. And in reality, somebody coming out of high school actually has a fair level amount or a fair amount of experience when they're coming out of the first robotics program. Right?

Yes.

It's very disheartening when you have that or you look at somebody that actually took, like, an unpaid internship or even a paid internship, and the amount of stuff that they've learned in a short amount of time often gets minimized because people make assumptions. Oh, you just got coffee, you just swept the floor. Probably did a little bit more than that.

Should have. Anyhow, don't get me wrong, there are slackers out there. Not everybody coming at a first is going to be an a player or even a B player or have the motivation to go do that. But investigating what that capacity looks like to understand that, because capacity and experience are different. Capability and experience are different. George, who's been 30 years to come over to your facility, George probably has over 30 years. Yeah. He's got a lot of wisdom and he's got a lot of experience.

Does he really have the capacity to do what you're asking him to do long term? To teach, grow, educate? Because eventually you need to hire Aaron.

Correct.

At some point, to have your sustainable ecosystem and your own state. When we had Stacia Hobson on a few weeks ago to record her show, and she outlined for us that her workforce is dead, split between Gen Z, millennial and X split. 33, 33, 33. You've not alienated anybody. You've got your own little groups. You can cross pollinate and do those things. I'm like, wow, that was spectacular. And it happened sort of on accident.

On purpose, which was very interesting. But I do want to go down that route a little bit of hiring somebody that does have that level of experience at 30 years of experience, 20 years, whatever that is. The real questions that can come into play is do they have the emotional capacity, do they have the mental capacity to transfer that knowledge?

Well, I want to learn something new, right? Yeah. So here's the other part.

Right.

The wisdom that I may have had at company A, their controllers might be something else. And these are new control. Well, we used to do it this way over here. I've worked with guys that would come into, well, this is the way we did it back at company XYZ. Well, you're not at company XYZ. This is how we do it here. So figure out how to adapt.

Right.

Because if you can't adapt, then you're not going to last very long. And we made a bad decision. Also, the dollars that that person might want to get paid for that wisdom, their wisdom bucket becomes significantly less because they're not the same parts, they're not the same things. And now their production value comes out from behind the curtain because they're slow, er, they might not want to put the same energy level in and are they willing and wanting to bring up to meet your capacity standards and requirements.

So this is a great topic of conversation around people. And do they get it? Do they want it and do they have the capacity?

It's a very simple process that Gino put together out there and grateful that that book was out there for us to use and talk through. So, yes, it's important to do that and look at it when you're going through interviewing cycle and even to understand your own people, because most of them, if you've hired good people, which most people say they have, when you ask owners, do you have a good team? Yes. And the owner is still working in the business all the time. They have a good team, but they haven't developed the trust. This is a way to potentially facilitate that level of trust and understand where that trust may come. And if you were to ask your employees to ask rate you on if you understood it and really want it anymore, there are a lot of owners out there right now that just don't want it or want the capacity to do what they need to do to get through this next eight to ten year cycle, it's a good conversation.

Right.

It's a harsh reality and it's okay. And the sooner those things are understood and recognized, the better off the company long term.

Absolutely.

All right, Mr. Doyle, you have a fantastic rest of your day, and maybe.

You should, maybe should go. Want it? All right. Later.

Talk to you later. Thank you for listening to blue collar BS, bro. Brought to you by vision forward business solutions and professional business coaching, Inc. If you'd like to learn more on today's topic, just reach out to Steve Doyle or myself, Brad Herda. Please, like share, rate and review this show as feedback is the only way we can get better. Let's keep blue collar businesses strong for generations to come.