With over 18 years of recruiting experience, Carolyn Betts is an authority on hiring. She is sharing her valuable insights on The Business of You podcast, helping us to understand the dynamic nature of hiring and the art of employee retention.
This conversation will motivate you to drastically improve your workplace culture. Whatever your current retention rates, prepare to watch them rise as you implement some of Carolyn Betts’ innovative retention ideas!
Carolyn founded Betts Recruiting in 2010, and her knack for spotting top talent and pairing them with an ideal company has led to developing a trusted marketplace in the SaaS space. As part of this success, Carolyn has helped clients make key hires and navigate the ever-changing landscape brought on by the current Great Resignation movement.
Betts Recruiting is the go-to agency for companies looking to find sales, marketing and client services talent in the US. Featured in many publications including the the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Betts Recruiting has built the reputation of leveraging new technology, current market trends, networking and old fashioned head-hunting techniques to find top talent for clients more efficiently.
Betts Recruiting has offices in both Austin, Texas and Manhattan. Their team can choose whether to report to their offices or work remotely. They also enjoy annual summits to discuss values, market movement and upcoming projects in person. Carolyn Betts makes it her mission to build a great place to work – and she will help you do the same!
Identify a problem and develop a solution
After graduating Harvard Business School, Carolyn Betts fell into the recruitment field. She quickly became aware of a major issue facing the industry – the fact that after posting a position, companies received thousands of resumés – and few of them were actually qualified for the job.
It was laborious and time-consuming to evaluate floods of applications. At times it even felt like finding a needle in a haystack! She also noticed that a lot of recruiters prioritized closing the deal over long-term employee retention. Carolyn dreamt of a more personalized way to find talent for the tech industry, and the idea for Betts Recruiting was born in 2009.
By getting to know hiring managers on a more personal level, Betts Recruiting can better deliver talent that fits available roles. Betts acts as a professional matchmaking service for tech-based companies, ensuring that the needs of the team are met with assessments of the candidates’ skills, personality, values, and vision.
Bring your authentic self to work
Carolyn Betts believes in professionalism – but she enthusiastically encourages us to bring our authentic selves to work.
During the dissolution of her marriage, she grappled with how to present this information in the workplace. She disclosed the change to her team, not knowing what to expect – and received an outpouring of support. The team’s honesty with one another also helped them to collaborate more effectively on future projects. Carolyn wants to remind us that we’re people first and workers second, and that acknowledging our humanity can actually help us work harmoniously as a team.
Build a better work culture
Carolyn Betts isn’t just invested in helping other companies increase their retention. She is also engaged in making sure that Betts Recruiting is an amazing place to work!
After the pandemic hit, Carolyn could have lamented the transitions facing the growing company. Betts Recruiting was formerly a mostly in-person employer, and this was a major pivot. They had been steadily growing, with offices in several major US cities. There had been expectations that teams would be in-office at certain times and on certain days, ready to work.
Carolyn approached the market trends with positivity and excitement. She cheerfully developed a new plan to usher Betts into a new era and come out winning. She decided to allow all employees to choose their own adventure: Come into the offices in Austin or Manhattan or work remotely. Betts strategically discarded the offices in other cities, instead deciding to invest in plans for the collaboration and satisfaction of their team. To bring people together, they would host annual summits. They would also invest in the wellness of their workers and pay for vacations including flights, hotels and experiences. Driven by the evolving workplace philosophies of millennials and Gen Z, Betts Recruiting modified their practices to support the desires of the tech industry’s budding talent.
Quotes

“I did some soul-searching. I thought, there must be a better way to build companies and teams! There can be a much more personalized approach.”
“When covid hit, our business was affected pretty dramatically. 90% of our clients froze hiring. As leases expired, we transitioned out of [in-person offices]. Now it’s choose-your-own-adventure. The people who choose to, the offices are open in Austin and Manhattan. Anyone who wants to be remote, can be remote! We also make an effort to bring everyone together in person for summits.”
“The talent pool is limited when you have to come into an office every day.”
“Have a value based culture – does everybody in your company understand what those values are?”
“Our leading value is people first. This generation wants to feel valued, like their work matters and that they are part of something bigger than themselves. These people are awesome!”
“A company that still has that old-school mentality of ‘you work here, this is your job’ – even with amazing training, without career development and growth and without them buying into what your company is doing and where you’re going – you’re going to have a huge turnover issue. People are not going to want to work there. And they’re not going to be a part of what you’re doing and where you’re going.”
Links mentioned in this episode:

Podcast Resources
Visit the Betts Recruiting website at https://bettsrecruiting.com/
Read all of the Betts Recruiting press features at https://bettsrecruiting.com/press-coverage/
Follow Betts Recruiting on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BettsRecruiting
Connect with Carolyn Betts on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynbetts

Connect with The Business of You
Visit the Business of You on the web
Like The brandiD on Facebook
Follow The brandiD on LinkedIn
Join us on Instagram
Learn more about Branding on The brandiD Blog
Leave a Reply