D-Tools Podcast #17: ‘What’s the Buzz’ about… Finding Labor

The labor shortage in the custom electronics industry has become an ongoing dilemma that is hurting integrators’ ability to grow at a more rapid pace. Chris Smith, principal at TheCoTeam, has some ideas. Smith’s industry experience includes starting as a technician crawling in attics for a local integrator, then having stints at leading manufacturers Bowers & Wilkins and McIntosh, followed by executive leadership roles at two prominent integration companies, Cloud 9 Smart (now e-home) and Advanced Audio. His background enabled him to learn the fundamentals of the industry from multiple perspectives and eventually led to the creation of TheCoTeam consultancy, where he helps integrators build a playbook for success.

Smith joined the D-Tools “What’s the Buzz” podcast to offer advice for integrators on the burning questions they have about finding, hiring, and onboarding employees.

Where should integrators be looking to find employees?

“You want to go where the eyeballs are,” says Smith, “and the eyeballs are on Indeed.” He noted that 75% of the applicants and eventually hired individuals he encounters working with multiple integrators come from Indeed paid ads, not organic. “If you are not on Indeed paid ads, you are getting one-fourth the number of people that you should be talking to.”

He adds that even if you don’t like Indeed as a platform, “you got to go fishing in the hole where the fish are.” Smith also notes that the old days of trying to find a new employee while hanging out at the counter at the local distributor just doesn’t work anymore, mainly because those potential candidates are not looking for a new job at the time you approach them.

What are integrators doing wrong when they try to hire a new employee?

Smith says the biggest flaw he encounters is wrong messaging that businesses use to try to attract a new employee. In many cases, dealers write up a job description and then try to use that same verbiage for the job post.

“A job description is an internal document created for accountability and other things. Most job posts are being converted from a job description without any change,” he explains. When writing up a new job post, Smith says integrators should first and foremost think about what it means to the applicant. That means being more than explaining “just the facts” about the job.

“You need to make this more like a marketing exercise. It needs to be an exhibition about what the role means to the applicant. The other thing is it means there needs to be radical transparency… What does it pay? What are my benefits? How many days off do I get?” he remarks.

How do you set a pay range for a job position?

When posting the salary range for a new position, Smith contends, “it actually doesn’t matter what you pay your current people. What matters is what the market is showing,” he advises. He notes that the Indeed website has a filtering mechanism for applicants to only show them jobs that have included a pay scale. Savvy candidates will use that filter and quickly be able to see what the pay scale is based on their role and location.

"You’d better be at that or better, or your current people are going to leave,” he adds.

How can you write a job post that will attract candidates?

Smith says the art of writing a good job post starts with “showing humanity” in the language.

“The first step is don’t use ChatGPT to write it, and if you do, it needs to feel ‘soft touch,’ not mechanical,” he says.

The next step is to express to potential candidates the core values of your company. That gives the applicant the ability to connect with your business by thinking, ‘That’s who I am, that’s who I want to be, or that’s who I want to represent.’

“Immediately you will stand out because expressing those core values will bring some humanity to the job post,” he adds. As an adjunct to that, Smith believes it is important for your website to have an About Us section that shows the members of your team with their photos and bios. Just that small change helps bring more humanity to a company to which potential candidates will be able to relate.

In the podcast, Smith goes on to discuss how an integration company can establish a good hiring, screening, and onboarding process.