Why community orgs are the ultimate sourcing goldmine

Daniel Blaser (00:00):

Hello everyone. My name is Daniel. I'm with Workstream and it's my pleasure to be here today again with Sara Wasserteil. Sara is a managing director at Cara Collective and she joined us for a webinar about six months ago. We've been really excited to have her back and here she is. We're going to talk all about community-based organizations and why they're an awesome way to find hourly employees. Sara, thank you so much for being here.

Sara Wasserteil (00:28):

Thanks so much for having me, Daniel. It's great being back.

Daniel Blaser (00:31):

Yeah, absolutely. Now, community-based organizations also called CBOs for short. What are they? Let's just start there.

Sara Wasserteil (00:41):

It's such a great question. So CBOs oftentimes mean a nonprofit organization serving the needs of a community. So while that could take the shape of several things from homeless shelters to mental health services to youth programs in your neighborhood, like the YMCA, what's most relevant for companies is the network of more than 30,000 workforce development organizations and social enterprises. That can be an incredible source for talent for your company.

Daniel Blaser (01:09):

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Could you provide maybe a couple other examples that people have heard of beyond the YMCA, which I think everyone's familiar with?

Sara Wasserteil (01:17):

Sure. So Goodwill Industries, not only do they provide thrift stores around the country, but they're a social enterprise, so they're oftentimes preparing people for jobs throughout their thrift stores. Other examples might be the Boys and Girls Club of America, or if you have a youth program in your community, there's a good chance that could be a community-based organization.

Daniel Blaser (01:40):

Okay, cool. Yep, I've definitely heard of those. So community-based organizations like the ones you've mentioned, they're obviously doing a lot of good in the community as it is, but I like when we were chatting before this, we were talking about how they can really be a partner for finding potential employees, and I really like that word partner because it implies this symbiotic relationship. I'd love to talk a little bit about why are CBOs a great partner and maybe what some of the data says around why they're great for finding employees.

Sara Wasserteil (02:17):

Yeah, thanks for asking that question. So CBOs can be great partners for your talent strategy for a few reasons. So first of all, you mentioned that work partner and the idea of a symbiotic relationship for CBOs that develop strong relationships with companies, especially companies that hire frontline talent, they can really get to know them. That means not only do they know your company, they know your culture, they know the jobs you hire for, including what it is that you are looking for, and they know what it takes for somebody to succeed. So instead of you having to look through Indeed or LinkedIn or any of the platforms to kind of find that needle in a haystack, they know the right people who are going to be a good fit for your job. Number two, because they work with talent, they get to know them. That means that they can see beyond the resume, they can see the characteristics of the individual, not just their skills, but also their potential.

(03:14):

It reminds me of a particular candidate we worked with a couple of years ago where we were hiring for a bank and what they cared first and foremost was they wanted someone who's going to be dedicated for a customer service role. They knew they could train the customer service representative in a lot of those technical skills, but if they had someone who was dedicated and had a good attitude, they were willing to train them up. It made us think of one of our candidates, Brie, who worked in retail. So it wasn't necessarily that obvious fit when they were looking for the bank role, but we also knew that Brie took three different buses to get to her retail job every day. She was always there on time with a good attitude, a big smile on her face, and people loved working with her. Now, that didn't show up in her resume.

(03:58):

No one knew that it took her three buses to get to work, but because our team, because we are a community-based organization, A CBO, because we knew her and we knew that dedication, we're able to act as that translator between the talent and the employer. The last major benefit of working with community organizations is when you get talent from them, you are oftentimes getting a team. It means you are getting an employee who might have someone who can help them. If all of a sudden their housing becomes unstable or maybe they need an immediate payday loan, it means they also have someone who might be a coach, for example, who can help them navigate different challenges. So it means that you are not just hiring one person, but you're hiring a whole network of support who are all invested in seeing someone succeed. And we see that play out at Care Collective where I have the privilege of serving all the time because of this network of support and because of the preparation we provide and because of the relationships we have with the different corporate partners we work with, our individuals have a same firm one year retention rate that's 70%, which is 20 points higher than the national average.

(05:06):

So the data bears out that this is not just a great investment in hiring someone, but if you want talent who's going to stick and stay.

Daniel Blaser (05:15):

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's a great number to kind of look at and say this. Obviously there's a lot of power behind these partnerships, and I love your example too because speaking for a lot of work streams customers, I chat with recruiters all the time and they're trying to hire, and I think that a lot of them, they would love to understand the backstories, like you mentioned about this specific employee who they're working hard and they're committed and they're sacrificing and they could be taught the other stuff, but they had the right attitude and they were there for the right reasons. Recruiters would love to know that and they would love to be able to factor that into their decisions as they're hiring, but they've got a lot going on and they're busy and there's a lot of candidates and a lot of applicants and anyway, so it just makes so much sense that if you are able to partner with a community organization, like you said, they can provide that important context, which really that's going to have a lot more to do with their ability to succeed on the job than maybe a couple of bullet points on a resume or anything like that.

(06:28):

So that's really cool. I like that. Now let's talk about there's traditional hiring and sourcing methods like job boards, maybe posting on LinkedIn, some of these things that people a lot of times think of now, how would recruiting outcomes, we talked about how they're better with CBOs. Can we talk a little bit more about maybe the qualitative outcomes that you get when partnering with a community organization versus more traditional sourcing methods?

Sara Wasserteil (07:02):

Yeah, absolutely. So we oftentimes think about high reach strategies versus high value strategies. So when I think about high reach strategies, I think about a lot of the examples you just gave, the job boards, the social media where you're getting a really wide reach of candidates and you might get tens, hundreds, or even thousands of applicants for a single role. Conversely, when I think about the high value strategies, which really leverages that word partnership you used before, you might be getting many fewer candidates, but I'd argue that they can be either higher value or just a better fit for the role. So where you can save time as a recruiter, because we know that it takes so much time not just to sift through resumes, but to really find the right candidates by partnering with the CBO O, it's almost a trade off. So you might not be opening the net quite as wide, but you're not going to be sifting through as many resumes because if you've developed a trusted relationship with that partner that the chances are that the 1, 2, 3, 4 candidates they send you are going to be much more likely to be successful in your firm.

(08:10):

So I think of it more as it might seem like more time upfront to invest in that relationship, but the likelihood of success is going to be that much more because they know your company and because of the additional support that they're going to provide to that candidate today.

Daniel Blaser (08:26):

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I know that a lot of recruiters think about almost like kind of a hiring funnel or a recruiting funnel. It's like if you can get a hundred applicants, then eventually that will trickle down to X number of hires. Usually those numbers, like you said, it's trying to cast a very wide net because you know that a hundred applicants is going to result in three hires or whatever it is. The conversion rate there isn't always that great, so you're almost like in a community organization scenario, you're almost creating a new funnel. It's almost one that's going to convert applicants down to long lasting employees. You're just improving your odds, I guess, like you said. Yeah, definitely. So some of the organizations that you mentioned at the beginning, they're like national organizations that everyone has probably heard of, but let's say someone watching this and they're feeling inspired and they're thinking, okay, I've been meaning to kind of look into this. I need to try to find a good organization to work with around my office where we're located. How should a company go about doing that and not just finding a high quality committed partner to work with, but also one that kind of matches up as far as what the company's looking for and what the organization's looking for?

Sara Wasserteil (09:51):

Yeah, absolutely. So even as an organization, a community-based organization ourselves, I'll be the first to say that not all CBOs are created equally. And so just like any decision you want to make in terms of any vendor or consultant you want to work with, you want to do your due diligence to make sure it's going to be the best match for your firm. So you're not going to the CBO O as an active charity, but that you're doing it because working with them is a choice of strategic advantage. And so I say all that because there's probably about five or so things that companies should look for when they're assessing potential CBOs to work with. So the first one is understanding who is it that they serve? Does their mission speak to you and does the population that they work with either have or can they acquire the skills that they need to be successful in your company?

(10:41):

Second, you're going to want to understand their track record. So just like any other partner you may want to work with, you're going to want to understand how many people are they placing every year, what is the retention rate, what is the rate at which people are getting promoted? Think about the metrics that are important to you and don't be afraid to ask because any organization that is doing this work and doing it well is going to be so excited to share their results with you so that you can understand if it's a good match. Third, you're going to want to look at how they partner with companies. So you are going to want to understand what does partnership look like, what does that commitment look like? And that goes from everything from what does the communication, what is the process, who's the relationship manager going to be?

(11:25):

You're also going to want to understand how they match job seekers with opportunities. Are they sending folks to you? Do you send them job recs? So really understanding the mechanics to make sure that it works within your processes. Fourth, you're going to want to know what kind of ongoing support that they provide. So for example, if you're working with a community or in a neighborhood that might be higher needs, it's been more disinvested in, you might want to understand what kind of support do they provide to assist with stability or resources so that if you identify that employee having a hard time, you know that you can go back to them to see if they can provide the support because let's be honest, we know that most companies aren't also trying to be social workers. So you really want to understand how you can leverage them for support.

(12:12):

You'll also want to know if they'll provide any ongoing coaching or mentorship so that if they are for whatever reason, having a challenge on the job knowing do they have someone who they can lean on, who can be their thought partner, their navigator to be the best employee that they can be? The last thing to look at is do you currently partner with them? There are so many community-based organizations that offer a myriad ways where you can partner with them, so be it hiring talent, but it could also be if they have other services, there could be other volunteer opportunities. So if you already volunteer with them, it's a great way just to understand what the company's experience has been and where you can leverage that partnership to create better value for your company and for the organization you're working with.

Daniel Blaser (12:58):

Yeah, those are some great recommendations. I feel like as you're walking through all five of those, I'm like, oh, maybe I'd love to maybe create a checklist or create a little one sheet for maybe some of the people watching to make that a little easier to track. And one question as you're kind of going through these five recommendations, what sort of warning signs or what things to you would be like an indication of maybe this is not the best fit?

Sara Wasserteil (13:31):

Great question. So I think first of all, it's going to depend on the type of talent that you are looking for. So number one, the mission might speak to you loud and clear, but for example, if you have certain policies that's going to preclude the individuals from being hired in your firm, those are great conversations to have outright to find out can they be a great hiring partner or maybe do you want to engage with them in a different way? I think number two, pay attention to their communication. When we talk about partnership, it should not just be one way, it should be two ways. So you're going to want to look for are they responsive? Are they doing what they say they're doing? Are they sending you candidates that are meeting your requirements? And if they aren't, are they willing to be a partner with you to have that conversation?

(14:20):

So those would be some of the big pieces of just if you think about any partnership, you you should have the same standard for any CBO because what's so important in those relationships is that there's mutual trust. The more you can trust each other, the more you can have those honest communications and the more you are going to trust that the candidates they send to you are going to be ones that you want to interview and vice versa. If there's a challenge, you want to know that you have a partner who you can go back to and raise the red flag so you can problem solve and troubleshoot those challenges together.

Daniel Blaser (14:51):

Yeah, great recommendations. So let's say someone watching, they're going through these steps, they've identified some organizations that might make sense to partner with, and like you said, I love that you mentioned this is kind of almost like vetting a vendor or any other partnership that a company might have. You don't necessarily want to just dive in with both feet right away. A lot of times with a partner or a vendor, you want to get a trial period or just make sure things are going to work as you've kind of discussed prior. So can you do that with a CBO and how do you go about testing the waters before you fully commit to a partnership?

Sara Wasserteil (15:34):

Absolutely. So there is nothing that most CBOs like more than inviting people into their space so that you can get to know them and they can show off their talent and their programs. So there are three things that I recommend that companies can do to get to know them, to see if this is going to be the right fit. So number one, really get to know them. Ask if you can visit them and take a meeting at their space so you can really see what they're about and potentially even see their programs in action. In action. Very similarly, invite them to come to you, see how they engage with your space, see what types of questions they're asking as you connect about a potential partnership. I think secondly, look for different ways you can volunteer within the organization. So for example, there might be opportunities to help some of their participants with things like developing a resume, doing mock interviews, organizing a clothing closet or many other things.

(16:32):

So there's oftentimes many ways where you can engage with a CBO O outside of hiring their talent, and so if you want to get a little bit of taste of what it's about, but you might not be ready to dive right in, that can be another way just to start building that trust and getting to know 'em. And then lastly of course, hire their talent. So develop that referral relationship, hire that first individual or if they have attempt a perm option, consider what it would look like to test the talent and kind of a try before you buy model. Oftentimes organizations are excited to work with companies and they're most excited for ones who come in with an open mind and want to work with them to hire the wonderful talent that they have.

Daniel Blaser (17:14):

Yeah. Now we've chatted about this word partnership a little bit and why it's so important to think of this relationship as a partnership, but ultimately companies that are entering into this relationship, they do want to hire people. I feel like there might be a tendency to sort of see all of these efforts that you mentioned of investing time and getting to know the organization. It's hard to maybe not see that a little bit a transaction, right? I'm going to put in some time I'm going to put in the work, but I do want to see results on the other end. Why would you recommend against seeing it as a transactional relationship versus a partnership?

Sara Wasserteil (18:03):

I'm so glad you asked that, Daniel. I think one of the biggest, I'll start by saying one of the biggest challenges with partnering with CBOs is sometimes they don't have as much talent as you want. So maybe you are looking to fill 10 open roles and they only have two individuals that are going to fit. It can feel like a lot of work to invest in a partnership where they can't provide the yield that you're looking for. That is a major challenge and sometimes one that we face ourselves, but the reason we would always encourage companies to partner with CBOs, and it doesn't need to be many of them, is because the more that you invest in the partnership, it means the more that the CBO gets to know you, the more that they get to know the talent that you need, and so effectively it helps them help you.

(18:48):

One of the things we also talked about is it helps to create that honest feedback loop. Some of our best partnerships are when a company can come to us and let us know if someone's maybe having a little bit of a tough time on the job. What it allows us to do as their CBO partner is we get to have our coaches and our social workers reach out to that individual to understand if there's something getting in the way to ensure they can be successful on the job. Very similarly, it allows us to work with our corporate partners and give them feedback too in case there are things that are getting in the way of allowing them to hire or retain great talent. One very specific example is so often we might run into a company that has a job description that might be a little bit hard to understand, or it might require things like a college degree for a janitorial position. When we create that relationship over transaction, it allows us to have honest conversations and say, Hey, we actually have this really great candidate. He doesn't fit all of the qualifications you have, but here is why we think that they're going to be good for the role. Would you be willing to be flexible? It's really hard to do that when you have a transactional relationship where it's just pinging job orders and referrals back and forth. It becomes a lot easier, a lot more fruitful when you're able to develop that trusted relationship between two partners.

Daniel Blaser (20:10):

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Now, we've talked a little bit about how partnering with an organization kind of changes the dynamics of that hiring funnel. You don't necessarily need as many people at the top in order to get committed employees, but you also do maybe have numbers that you need to hit, and I feel like a lot of companies, if they have success with one organization, they're going to say, well, we're able to hire X number of people here. Maybe we need to take the number of organizations we're working with and multiply it by five and then we'll get the outcome that we're looking for. Is it good to work with multiple CBOs at once? Is it hard to manage all those relationships? What's your thought on that?

Sara Wasserteil (20:58):

It's such a good question. I think it really depends on what your talent needs are. So to develop a meaningful relationship with the CBO o, we already talked about if it's transactional, it's probably not going to yield what a company is necessarily looking for. So when I think about is it good to work with multiple CBOs, I'm always going to be the first person to say yes. Should it be 30 CBOs? Probably no, but that's why it's really good to really understand the CBO, who they're serving, what their outcomes are, and if that partnership works for you. Because to your point, recruiters, they've got metrics they need to meet. We know that almost all recruiters right now are burned out and they have more open requisitions than they can fill, and so you want to make sure that that partnership is going to be worth the time that it takes.

(21:46):

I think the other thing that I would recommend for recruiters as well is if you do have a favorite CBO where maybe they've sent you 2, 3, 5, 6 candidates who've worked out really well, many of them will work with you on maybe a customized program to increase the size of that pipeline. So for example, I think about a partnership that we have with BMO Harris Bank where they hadn't hired too much from us in the past, but we had been a partner with them in many other ways, and they were looking to hire from a couple of neighborhoods in Chicago, and so we worked with them collaboratively to think through what that job description could look like and how we could even reformat it to make it more welcoming to the job seekers that we worked with. We worked with them on hiring days on orientation, and we moved from helping them hire maybe two or three candidates a year to more than 30 candidates a year because we worked together to develop that program. So sometimes it is not about quantity, but it is about quality, and if you find those partners that you work with, highly recommend doubling down on those partnerships. I guess the last thing I would say to that too is we also know that many companies have many different verticals that they hire from. So if you're working with a CBO partner, introduce them to other talent acquisition specialists or business partners in other domains, it can increase the depth of the partnership and increase the number of candidates that are coming through to your firm.

Daniel Blaser (23:13):

Yeah, I love when you're talking about some of the long-term value, and you mentioned earlier it might take a little bit of time upfront to find the right organization, develop these relationships, but it's like recruiters, they might want to hold these hiring faires. There's all these things that they probably want to be doing anyway, and they just can't because they don't have the bandwidth. So I really love this idea of investing in the long term and then all of a sudden you have these partners, they're running a hiring fair, they're doing some of these things that you would want to be doing if you had more time in the day.

(23:53):

It just makes so much sense in that regard now for companies that they've vetted, they've found the right organization, they've begun their relationship, their partnership. At what point does it make sense to stop and say, okay, let's make sure that everything is working out the way that we wanted it to kind of assess, is this worth our continued time and commitment? At what point should that kind of evaluation phase happen and how do you even do that? I mean, you mentioned are they delivering what they said that they would be able to deliver? That makes sense. In what other ways should you kind of evaluate the success and determine, okay, let's stick with this partnership?

Sara Wasserteil (24:45):

I love that question, Daniel, because it goes back to a question you asked earlier where you're asking like, well, what are the red flags? When might you want to walk away or not even say yes from jump? One of the things that our team does, which has really deepened our partnership with employers is we do either a semi-annual or an annual review. What that allows us to do is we come to our corporate partner and we're able to bring some of the data. Here's the number of people that we've been able to place in your firm. Here's what the one year retention rate has been, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It also allows us to unlock roadblocks. So for example, let's say we've sent 20 people, but you've only hired one. It allows us instead of to say, maybe this isn't the right fit partnership, it actually allows us the opportunity to troubleshoot in real time.

(25:36):

Is the problem with us, the CBO that we're not sending you the right candidates? Or is it that maybe there's something in your process that you don't even realize is preventing some of these candidates from being successful? And so I think asking for things like a semi-annual or an annual review where you both really come to the table as partners, honestly, to really look back to where you've been and what you can do together, that is a great tangible step you can take to really think about not just the partnership of the past, but the partnership of the future and if you're able to meet each other's needs. So it isn't as quantitative of an answer as I can provide, but I would say that is the number one way where we oftentimes assess is this a great partnership moving forward? And likewise, it's also where some of our corporate partners decide, is this a great partnership? Do we want to deepen it, or is this actually not meeting our needs anymore?

Daniel Blaser (26:31):

Yeah, I like that to be able to ask for that proactivity that every six months or 12 months to come together. Yeah, I feel that seems like it would be really reassuring to be able and to once again goes back to the relationship that you are able to kind of build this mutual trust. So yeah, great recommendations there. You've mentioned a lot of different things that I think are good recommendations, but just to kind open up a more broad question, what other recommendations would you have for making a partnership with A CBO successful?

Sara Wasserteil (27:12):

Absolutely, so I'll boil it down to three things. The first is one we've already talked a lot about, but I'll bring it up again because it is so important. It's that treating it like a partnership over a transaction. The more they know you, the more you know them, the better fit those matches are going to be. The second thing is to really understand their capacity and don't be afraid to ask. CBOs oftentimes can only offer a few roles at a time. While they can be a very excellent source for candidates, they will likely be one of many partners, and so having that really honest conversation can help set those expectations so you aren't expecting one thing and they are able to provide another. The last thing is commit to the long-term. Despite setbacks, not everyone is going to work out if you get them from A CBO in the same way that not everyone will work out in the general labor pool.

(28:08):

I think most people can think of a hire that they made that didn't work out, and so if someone didn't work that you got from A CBO, even their first one, don't anchor on the profile of that person or we'll never work with this organization. Again, just encourage folks to continue to double down and understand the value they can provide and that individuals are, individuals are not representative of an organization, a demographic or a background or mistake that they made. So I think that CBOs can be a tremendously valuable partner for hiring and hope that you all give them a chance.

Daniel Blaser (28:46):

Yeah, absolutely. Sara, this has been a great conversation for me personally, just to kind of understand more about how promising working with these organizations can be. I feel like everyone watching this is going to come away and probably think the same thing and just talk about a win-win, right? This just to me seems like the ultimate win-win, which I'm always a big fan of and I think a lot of people are obviously. So I wanted to give you the chance. You've shared so much good knowledge and advice, but just the chance to maybe share one final takeaway, one final word before we jump off.

Sara Wasserteil (29:26):

Oh man. I think if it's one thing is right now we continue to be in an unprecedented labor challenge across the country. While there's a lot of things that individuals can do to continue to upskill and become great candidates, continue to look inside, are there different ways we can make it easier for great talent to find us? Are there ways we can sell ourselves as a company, so great talent wants to work for us, and are there great partners like CBOs who maybe we haven't been willing to give a try who we can begin to see not just as an act of charity, but as an act of strategic advantage.

Daniel Blaser (30:03):

That's great. I love it. Well, thanks again so much for being here and sharing your knowledge, and you have a great rest of your day.

Sara Wasserteil (30:10):

Thank you so much, Daniel.