E21 | The Chief Talent Advisor—Suzanne Kelly

As a Chief Talent Advisor, Suzanne Kelly curates unbiased referencing for c-suite executives. When companies select their top tier candidates, they can’t accurately assess a candidate’s soft skills, work ethic, or integrity. With her proprietary method for unbiased referencing, she finds out if a candidate is exactly who they say they are even before the interview. [Timestamp 01:26]

 

What makes her service valuable?

She’s doesn’t know the candidates so she’s the only one in the hiring process that’s truly unbiased. [Timestamp 2:11]

 

What kind of student was she?

She was an average student that didn’t like school. She wanted to travel the world as a flight attendant. Her father’s only requirement was that she take a business course in case the flight attendant position didn’t work out.  [Timestamp 3:35]

 

What happened after high school?

She got married at an early age and didn’t follow her dreams of becoming a flight attendant. So instead she became an administrative assistant. Eventually, she was stuck working for a narcissistic boss. [Timestamp 5:56]

 

How she got started on her entrepreneurial path? 

She got enough of her narcissistic boss and quit. She vowed never to work for anyone again. She started her own employment agency. Her first client was the very company she left. [Timestamp 7:21]

 

What helped her to launch her own company?

She believes that her childhood was a bootcamp for life. She grew up with three brothers that teased her relentlessly. Her father was a senior-level corporate man. She learned to have a good work ethic, to have integrity and to be disciplined from him. [Timestamp 9:03]

 

What attracted her to recruiting?

She was aware of the fact that she had good people skills. It was easy for her to talk to people and elicit information from them. She researched, learned it was a lucrative business and thought it would be a good business to pursue. [Timestamp 10:38]

 

What can a good recruiter do?

She believes that a good recruiter can walk the tight-rope between the candidate and the clients they represent. The companies were the ones that pay the fee but the candidates have to equally be happy. [Timestamp 13:22]

 

What was Suzanne’s recruiting style?

Very personal. When she witnessed a candidate fight back tears as she rejected a job because her husband didn’t think the job was a good fit for her, Suzanne asked to speak to the husband. She recalled his love of cooking (as the candidate had shared with her before). Since Suzanne also loves to cook, when she got on the phone, the first thing they spoke about was cooking. They spoke at length. The ice was broken and Suzanne told him why she felt his wife was a good fit for the job. He said that it was her decision. The candidate took the job and twenty years later, she’s still at the same company. [Timestamp 15:16]

 

How did her proprietary method come about?

She had a client that hired a new head of HR that was firing employees that had been there for ten or twenty years. There was a job the company asked Suzanne to fill. She presented the person she found but the new head of HR didn’t feel he was the right fit. Suzanne pressed and asked why. Her instinct was telling her he was inflexible. As a result, Suzanne rolled up her sleeves and found about eight different references for this candidate. She kept records of phone calls verbatim and compiled a detailed report that documented how this client was anything but inflexible. [Timestamp 21:45]

 

The reason for hiring mistake companies make?

Not doing a quality reference check that verifies a person’s soft skills and that they’re indeed the right fit for the company. [Timestamp 25:56]

 

What are the common mistakes some recruiters make?

They make it all about themselves and their fee. [Timestamp 27:00]

 

Why did she start reference checking?

She felt it was time for her to do something else and she felt that the reference checking process was broken. Seven out of ten employees in America aren’t engaged in their work. Companies are who they hire. [Timestamp 28:47]

 

Biggest lessons learned?

Hiring mistakes don’t discriminate. They happen to the best of us. [Timestamp 33:37]

 

Has the lack of a degree ever held you back from getting clients?

When people ask where she went to college, she tells them she has a PhD from the University of Hard Knocks. She feels she’s learned the most valuable lessons by making mistakes, falling down, being resilient, getting back up, and most importantly failing forward. [Timestamp 35:09]

 

Advice for those looking to get into recruiting?

Do your research and look for the driving force behind that desire. [Timestamp 36:19]

 

What’s changed in the recruiting industry since you started to now?

Recruiting should be human interaction, not a transaction. It's a tragedy that many extraordinary candidates out there have developed skills throughout their careers that are transferable, but they don't have someone fighting for them. They're being screened out based on keyword searches.[Timestamp 39:08]

 

What’s next?

Suzanne wants to really get involved in training. Many companies are selecting the best of the worst candidates. [Timestamp 42:46]

 

What Suzanne sees because of the work she does?

The extraordinary, fully engaged superstar leaders all have the same qualities. They put people first.  They can have a thousand employees and they know almost all of them by first name. They know their families, they have empathy, they have faith. They do a lot of philanthropy and they give a lot and they're selfless. Anyone that's fortunate enough to work for people like this, it can really be life-altering.[Timestamp 45:15]

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Need training on hiring best practices, help with unbiased referencing for the next executive in your company or just for speaking engagements?  

Get in touch with Suzanne.

Contact info:

• LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannekellynyc/
• Website:  https://suzannekelly.com/
• Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/suediligence/
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/suediligence

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