The Scalability Solutions Podcast shares stories, insights, and lessons that are critical to hiring and leading teams with phenomenal retention. Brought to you by Scalability Solutions, where we partner with our clients to build and lead happy, successful teams.
Meet our Founder!
In this very first episode, Founder and Team Growth Strategist Leila Blauner shares about her professional journey that brought her to founding Scalability Solutions. She discusses how, at her previous company, she was able to make phenomenal hires for her own team, but it took too much time to do the deep candidate vetting needed to make those great hires.
She tried to find a company that could take on the really deep candidate vetting for her, but she couldn’t find anyone who could do it well and with the strength she wanted. This led to the idea for her business. Personal circumstances also helped her realize that she was no longer doing the work she loved to do, so on April Fool’s Day 2015 she started Scalability Solutions.
We partner with our clients to build and lead happy, successful teams
Our mission is to help our clients create happy, successful teams, with phenomenal retention. Leila highlights a bit about how we do this and talks about why the right fit is so important for both the company and the candidates who are looking to get hired. We also share tips for how to build or create a stronger team.
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This Episode’s Transcription
Welcome to the Scalability Solutions podcast, the show that explores how happy, successful teams are created and how to maintain phenomenal retention within your company. Join us for stories, insights, and client spotlights brought to you by Scalability Solutions, a team that believes you can love going to work every day.
On this very first episode of the Scalability Solutions podcast, we’re joined by founder and team growth strategist, Leila Blauner. She shares with us the inspiration behind starting Scalability Solutions back in 2015, both the personal and professional reasons that brought her to starting this company. She shares her passion for helping people build happy, successful teams; why it’s important to hire great people; and also finding the right fit and work if you’re the candidate. We talk all about how you can make sure you have a stronger team in the hiring process and some tips for what to do to maintain and create a happy and successful team. Enjoy this very first episode of the Scalability Solutions podcast.
All right, we are here for the very first episode of the Scalability Solutions podcast. Leila, welcome to our show.
Thank you, Sara. It’s good to be here.
I know. So let’s kick things off. Share with us a little bit about Scalability Solutions.
Well, we partner with our clients to help them build and lead happy, successful teams. That usually starts with revolutionizing their hiring and then from there we want to really help them thrive post-hire.
Awesome. Now, let’s have our listeners get to know you a little bit because I’ve loved everything I’ve learned about you so far. How did you come to this point of starting Scalability Solutions?
Well, I spent 15 years hiring my own team members and I had some early lessons learned and I really realized early on there’s got to be a better way. I started developing some methods that led to great hires and I kept fine-tuning those processes throughout the years. At my last company, we grew from 8 to 200 people in four years. I had phenomenal hires, consistently, with really great retention, but in that growth, doing that really deep candidate vetting because those people didn’t just come from a cabbage patch, it was a lot of work, doing that really deep candidate vetting really took a lot of work. I was already filling in for the vacancy and keeping my team engaged and they were working a lot of hours and doing that deep candidate vetting was really killing me. I needed a company that could do that for me. Recruiters, I worked with a lot of recruiters and they’re great in many ways, but what they don’t specialize in is deep candidate vetting for a number of reasons.
So I ended up leaving my job to start the business that I needed and couldn’t find. I knew that other companies needed …
We needed you.
…. people who can really deeply vet candidates for them.
Yeah, they needed what you were doing and I think that’s so interesting, that you were so successful at hiring great people, but the process that you had to go through to get to those people was exhausting and that was a role on its own in addition to what you were already doing.
That’s right.
So yeah, it makes sense that you would see the need for this sort of company. I know there was also a very personal connection, a personal story that sort of led to your realization that this is what I want to be doing. Can you share with us a little bit more about that?
Absolutely. Yeah. I had the idea for the company rolling around in the back of my mind that hadn’t really fully taken hold yet. I was visiting my mother and she had really severe Parkinson’s and dementia and that whole weekend that I spent visiting her, she could barely put together a coherent sentence. I had really loved my career, and yet at the same time as we grew to a certain size, I just started to really lose the passion for what I was doing. I flew from that weekend with my mother to a two-day company event where each department head needed to give a speech to the company. While I was giving the speech, my speech to the company, I had the thought in my head, this is a really great company. I think I’ve done all I can do here and if I only had 10 healthy years left, is this how I would want to spend it?
The answer was no. While I was giving the speech, I actually decided to quit my job and start that company. I did so a week later. A week later, I gave two months’ notice and I have never looked back. That company I quit ended up being my first client, which was a nice transition. That was five years ago, April Fool’s day, 2015.
Oh my goodness, so that’s, yeah, over five years ago. And how interesting too, on the one sort of business hand to see that what you were doing was exhausting, but it was rewarding in terms of finding good people for positions and you liked doing that, but that you didn’t want to continue in the role at that company. Then on your personal side, you realized, “Wow, what do I really want to be doing for the next 10 years, and is it this? No, it’s not,” and you use that as fuel to fire you to start your own company. I just think that’s really inspiring because I think a lot of people would maybe see it but get stuck or not have the braveness to go out there and do it. So that’s really impressive that you fought and went for it.
Thanks. Yeah. You know, I also had some really great friends that were business owners and mentors that I was able to really, who really inspired and helped me and it was just a true gift.
That’s amazing. So it’s clear that you’re passionate about what you’re doing and helping people build these happy and successful teams. What are some of the ways that you do that for your clients?
Yeah. Well like I said, we always start by revolutionizing their hiring and that’s in one of four service levels. So we either provide them with all the tools and training to be able to make phenomenal hires themselves or we will do the work for them or some hybrid model in between those two. Then like I said, we wanted to ensure that our hires are set up for success post-hire and we have a number of partners that we work with to help provide that. We’re also in the midst of some fun projects that are going to take that even further right now.
Well, we look forward to hearing more about that and sharing more about that down the road. But you talk about two really important parts, both the hiring of good people and then making sure that the team remains happy and successful and that there’s retention. I love that you call that revolutionizing hiring, that really is such a great way to look at it.
Yeah, yeah. That’s what it feels like if … when we’re talking to clients before and after this process change and how we work together, it feels like it was revolutionizing for them, the way that they talk about it and that’s, it’s not a brag, it just … we have some methods that worked well for us that we’ve been able to really leverage and customize that just seemed to be a real value to them, so …
Yeah, I think companies really want great people and they have some strategies for how to do that, but it’s not always successful or they think they find the right person and then it doesn’t feel like the right fit so it’s exciting that you can bring something better to the table.
Now share with us, why do you feel it’s so important not only to hire great people but to find a job that feels like the right fit.
Yeah. I know what it’s like to wake up and be so excited to start my day. I just, I can’t wait. I also know what it’s like to hear an alarm clock and think, “Oh my God.” That doesn’t happen very often because I’m just not willing to stay in that space.
The Gallup polls show that the vast majority of the country does not wake up excited to start their day. I just think that’s a shame. Everybody deserves that. We spend more of our lives at work than doing anything else and it shouldn’t feel like work. It’s also … so it’s the right thing to do for the candidate to help them be excited and then it’s also the right thing to do for the hiring manager. A great hire, what a difference a great hire makes. That’s revolutionizing.
The cost of the wrong hire is so expensive. It’s not just the tangible cost, it’s also the productivity, the innovation, the team being really frustrated, and their productivity. So it’s just, it’s endless. It’s absolutely crucial to business success.
I think that it’s such an inspiring message too that you can love what you do. Unfortunately, not everyone does and they don’t want to go to work or they’re dragging their feet and it’s just for the paycheck. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s what you have to do for a while, but you don’t have to stick with that. Why? As a company, you want people who want to be there. So I’m excited about all the things we’re going to be sharing with people about how to get to kind of the scenario that you described.
We’ll get into this in future episodes, but what do you think listeners can do who wants to build a stronger team and they’re in the process of hiring or they’re getting ready to make some new additions to their team?
Yeah. What I’m going to actually tell you instead of what should they do is what not to do, which is never ever hire out of desperation. The cost is just so expensive and then the time that you’re going to spend rehiring and retraining and picking up the pieces is going to be so much worse. So don’t hire out of desperation and then be very intentional and thoughtful and hire right the first time. There are ways that you can actually do that are truly successful. I know with us, our hires tend to have somewhere between 92% and 95% retention and they tend to get promoted and they’re actually happy so there are … it’s possible. It’s possible, and it’s possible for anybody just with the right methods and intentionality.
Absolutely. As we continue on with episodes on the podcast, we’re going to highlight those ways a bit more and share some more insights and ideas.
When it comes to people who maybe have existing teams, is there one thing that our listeners can do to maintain or create that happy and successful team?
Yeah, I think really listen, make them feel like partners, make them feel really heard, and then set them up for success and there are lots of ways to do that. So with this podcast, what I’m really excited about this podcast is that we’re going to sharing some of the ways that you can do that and we’re also going to have guests that are going to help share some of the ways that they do it. That success, it’s possible, and so just excited to help more people.
Definitely. This is our very first episode. We are excited to get into more as we continue on with the Scalability Solutions podcast. Leila, thank you so much for episode one today.
Thank you.
Thanks for joining us for this first episode of the Scalability Solutions podcast, where we got to learn all about Leila, her inspiration, and what’s going on with Scalability Solutions so that they can help create and maintain happy, successful teams. Don’t forget to check out our blog or sign up for a free consultation with Leila and the Scalability Solutions team scalability-solutions.com.