World's Greatest Boss

We’re seeing a major labor market shift towards the gig and freelance economy, and no one knows that area of hiring better than Lisa Cumes. She’s a hugely successful freelance copywriter, scaled her business to include a team of copywriters and contractors, and she now specializes in helping other freelancers build thriving brands.  We get into everything from what types of projects lend them...

Compliance issues aren’t the most exciting part of the hiring process, but it’s so important to get these details right because they can end in costly, time-consuming legal battles if they’re not. When determining if an employee should be paid hourly or salaried, there's a few key considerations you have to make. I break down the differences between paying someone a salary versus paying someone an...

A major part of being a business leader is learning how to have tough conversations with your employees about their performance and potential termination. There are six main reasons that contribute to someone underperforming in their role, and in today’s episode, I break down what those are and how to address underlying issues with your employees. I also explain what a performance improvement plan...

In honor of graduation season, I wanted to talk about hiring recent graduates and entry level roles. These positions are great to consistently have in your business so that new talent is coming through your door and you're constantly training and developing new people who can grow into different roles at your company. I unpack the job requirements for roles that are designed for people who are at...

I’m joined by Aisha Marshall, a content strategist and branding expert who's built and scaled a full-service marketing agency, as well as a luxury fine jewelry brand. Aisha is a pro when it comes to hiring and building teams, and she has tons of experience with internships. She shares her top two methods for finding great interns on college campuses and how she comes up with projects that help bot...

I recently read that 52% of interviewers make their decision about a candidate within five to 15 minutes of an interview starting. If someone is coming to a conclusion that quickly, it’s clear to me there’s a lot of unconscious biases at play in their interview process. All humans experience bias, but I have a few key tips to reduce your preconceived notions and make smarter hiring decisions. I br...

I think there are misconceptions about the saying ‘hire slow, fire fast,’ so on today’s episode, I’m clarifying what it means when it comes to your team and business. When it comes to hiring slowly, it’s all about making sure you're hiring the right role and choosing the right person for that position. It’s not about creating unnecessary hoops for candidates to jump through, or generally dragging...

Over my 15 years in the hiring and recruiting field, I’ve noticed that the lack of formal interview training has led to awkward, and sometimes illegal, practices. There are certain laws that prohibit us from asking questions about protected information that might lead to discrimination or the apperance of discrimination. I’m breaking down the exact topics that you need to avoid when you’re intervi...

Going from a corporate background in hiring experts and building teams to launching your own small business has its advantages, but there’s always more to learn when you’re starting from the ground floor. Nobody knows this better than today’s guest, Kelly Kussman, the founder of Cayla Gray, a luxury perfume and candle company. Kelly went from having endless HR support at PetSmart to now navigating...

I’m sharing tips and tricks on how to become a good interviewer and get the results you're looking for. Not only does a solid interview help you make the right hire for your business, but it also helps the candidate see what it'll be like to work for you and determine if they can see themselves thriving in that environment. It gives people a peek inside your company culture and sets behavioral sta...

I’m sharing my go-to tips for what I've done to fill jobs in the past, what I think we need to do going forward, and what I do whenever I have a client that has hired me to find the perfect candidate. There are two ways to fill the job: you need to go and find the talent, or they find you and they learn about your open job. Based on my 15 years of experience with recruiting, I’ve come up with thre...

We’ve all heard about The Great Resignation that’s been trending since last year, but what’s really going on? I get into why it’s so hard to find employees in today’s labor shortage and what you can do to attract talent in this market. There are three major factors that are making it challenging for employers to fill roles, but there are ways to address those concerns and create an attractive work...

I’m joined by my dear friend and recruiting powerhouse Molly Anderson. She has 15 years of talent acquisition and recruiting experience and has helped build teams at places like Groupon and Lumi, and now at Mothership. We discuss how she got her start in recruiting and how her background in improv, comedy, and writing has served her in this industry. Molly highlights what leaders of small business...

We’ve covered how to determine what you need to hire for and getting clear about who that person is. Naturally, the next step is establishing a solid recruiting and interview process. This is another one of those processes that doesn’t have an easy shortcut, but I’m breaking down the best structured hiring practices that will help streamline everything. I dive into how to create an interview plan,...

In last week’s episode, I explained how to determine what you need to hire for, and today I’m sharing my formula for how to figure out who can fulfill that role. I have a rubric on setting expectations for responsibilities and outcomes, expertise and skills, and core values. Instead of just copying and pasting a job description that you see online, this rubric will help you assess potential hires...

What + who + how = a great hire. Simple, right? The reality is that there’s a lot of work that has to go into each step to determine the right hire for your business. This episode is part one in a  three-part series where I’m defining the formula that I use to help small business owners make the right hiring decisions. Today, I’m explaining how to figure out what you need to hire for and tool...

Hiring School is a podcast for founders who need help scaling their businesses through hiring. I’m Jackie Koch, a tenured recruiter with 15 years of experience building teams for tech start-ups, Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. I teach entrepreneurs the people-side of running a business from the start of your talent hunt through an employees’ exit. My goal is to simplify the hiring and...

Why does hiring even matter? There is not a lot of straightforward information out there that answers this question. This is crazy to me because making a bad hire can be costly on so many levels. Today, I’m answering this question and sharing the many ways hiring the wrong people can be a huge setback for your business, but also how hiring the right people can help your company flourish.  I p...

Jesse Genet is the founder and CEO of Lumi, the end-to-end platform for packaging supply chains, which was recently acquired by Narvar. Jesse and I actually worked together previously where I helped build out her teams at Lumi in its earlier days. Jesse is such a savvy entrepreneur and has had a knack for it since she was in high school. She emphasizes how crucial it was for her to place a large f...