Episode 381: How 3 Pet Businesses Overcame Their Hiring Challenges with Jazz HR

Do you cringe at the thought of hiring new employees? Are you paralyzed by decision fatigue from an overflow of unqualified candidates? Have nightmares of disorganized chaos plagued your restless nights as your business scales? If left unaddressed, hiring woes can completely derail your business's growth trajectory. But solutions exist! Ones that can launch your business into the realm of automated bliss. In this power-packed episode, pet-sitting trailblazers Leia, Michelle, and Maris pull back the curtain on the hiring horrors that once left them frozen. You’ll discover how each entrepreneur went from begging any warm body to fill roles to leveraging systems that virtually guarantee 100% qualified applicants with Jazz HR.  Through first-hand accounts, you’ll witness the exact moment each leader swallowed their fear, committed to a standardized hiring process, and skyrocketed their business as a result. From initial application questions to cognitive skills assessments, these pet-sitting pros cover it all. Think onboarding new hires has to mean mountains of paperwork and orientations from heck? Think again. Discover how to create seamless experiences that awe promising candidates rather than turn them away. If you’re ready to step fully into your CEO shoes and remove the hiring roadblocks holding your business back, this episode is an absolute must-listen. Join Bella and her squad of industry standouts as they map the route from hiring headaches to operational bliss. Buckle up and take notes—class is in session! Topics & Key Points: Hiring challenges Using Jazz HR Cognitive testing for hiring Leveraging Jaz HR . Hiring and HR solutions for small businesses Timestamps: [7:09] Using Jazz HR for fair and standardized hiring process. [8:53] Biggest challenge in making the leap. [12:39] Leveraging Jaz HR for streamlined recruitment processes. [17:52] Using knockout questions in hiring process. [22:56] Streamlining hiring process with HR system. [26:08] Hiring and HR solutions for small businesses. Notable Quotes: [7:31] "And so I signed up and I got the free onboarding call. And they helped me create the workflows and questions like the questions were the hardest part for me, I had no standardized questions that I asked everyone. And that's really important when you're evaluating 20 30 people" [13:28] "I mean, you're literally breaking it down step by step, you can automate it with specific emails like that with each step. And integrating as much as you can into Jaz HR, like I have my payroll system connected to it that way, once I hire someone, all the information gets pushed to it, so I'm not filling it out. " [14:37] "It takes away the whole Oh, this is just a dog walking job. He's like, Oh, this is a legitimate business. They have processes, they have systems I need to be in it really helps make you look more like more professional and like you know what you're doing, which is always important." Resources: Podcast: Bella in Your Business: Pet Industry Business Podcast Join Mastermind Email Bella: bella@jumpconsulting.net Sign up for a 20 mins call  Better Marketing with Bell Jazz HR Maris Sonnabend: House of Paws Pet Care LLC Leia Johnson: Wonder Pups Pet Care Michelle Sabia: Paws & Claws Connect with Bella Website Facebook YouTube Did you love this episode? This episode was sponsored by Jazz Hr! Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business. Remember when life gets down, Always Keep Jumping. Transcript: Welcome, everybody to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today I have a really special episode we don't often have more than one person that we're interviewing. But today we've got three amazing business owners with us. And the reason why I did this, is they're all mastermind members. And I kind of put it out there, we do a lot of training and talking and strategizing in there. About jump, I'm sorry, about Jaz HR. And I know many of you guys have heard me talk about jazz HR and how it helped change and revolutionize many people's businesses. But I wanted to have an open discussion. And so if you guys have been, you know, struggling with hiring, if you've been trying to, you know, pedal through indeed and go through the mounds of, of, of applications and try to remember, oh, who did I say this to? And what is this person, let me go back to their resume, you get stopped in the middle of the day and an application comes through, you feel like it's a fire drill, because you don't want to lose that person. I think that you're gonna love this episode today, these ladies have lots of experience. And they're going to be sharing what they were doing before. Also, what their biggest challenge was, when it started, I think a lot of you might kind of feel that, and then also what their biggest tips are, and I think you'll be pretty surprised. And so I'm looking forward to sharing this episode with you. But before we get started, if you are looking into jazz HR, all you have to do is go to jump consulting dotnet forward slash jazz HR, you're gonna want to go there because you're gonna get 50% off, you're gonna get a free one-hour help session with them that they don't offer everybody. And then also a couple of other bonuses like knockout questions and a generic hiring ad just for being in the Bella crew and being a jumper. So without further ado, I'd like to welcome Michelle, Leah and Maris to the show. Thank you for being here. Ladies Maris, I'm gonna start with you, and then we'll go to layup, and then Michelle and you guys can all introduce yourself. So Maris welcome. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm there. I own half the Paws Pet Care in St. Louis, Missouri. We've been I went full-time time, April. We'll make it three years. So lots of growth in three years. We've got about 17 employees now and we just keep growing. So that is incredible. 17 employees in three years. You go girl. Leia, welcome to the show. Thank you. Yeah, so I'm Leia. I own Wonder Pups, a pet care in Crestview, Florida. Wonder Pups has been in business kind of since 2009. But it's gone over. It's been reborn several times. And so now primary pet sitting dog walking and we have three new employees. fairly exciting. I love it. You started out the door with a bang. You were like, I'm not just gonna hire one. I'm gonna hire a whole bunch. So that was amazing. I'm Michele, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you. Good to be here. Hello to your listeners. I'm one of your listeners. So fun to be on. My name is Michelle. I own Paws and Claws, a pet-sitting service in Cave Creek, Arizona. Currently, we have just hired three new employees plus an office manager who we found on Jazz, Jazz HR. And yeah, we just do dog walking drop-in visits mainly here in the Cave Creek Park, North Scottsdale area been in business since 2016. Fantastic. So we've got some seasoned professionals here with us who have been through the woes of hiring because I don't think anyone says they love hiring out the gate until they figured out how to actually systematize it and then scientists scientifically go through it as well. So, Leigh, I'm gonna start with you. Then I'll go to Maris and then Michelle. Leia, tell me what were some What were you doing before? Jaz HR? What did hiring look like for you? Well, it was a lot of like, ask a friend. Do you want a job do you want to help out? And then I tried to recreate what jazz does with Google Forms. I think that's what it's called, but tried to create phases where you fill out the survey and it was not concise. And I ended up getting people that were not a great fit. And I learned the hard way I'm the poster child for doing it the hard way first. I remember that you did that with better marketing so I guess I did. I'm sorry. I love that story. mirrors what were you doing before you implemented Jaz HR into your company? Oh gosh, a little bit of everything. I started by hiring a good friend of mine and then my sister so people I knew immediately Do you know anyone is posting on Facebook groups? If you're looking for a job working with pets reach out to me and have no formal questions, no formal process, or anything. And as you said, No one enjoys doing it. So I knew it was something I did not want to deal with forever. So again, just posting in every public forum I could think of I wasn't even on Indeed, I think I was just asking friends and the local Facebook group, so it was chaotic. There was no process, and I wasn't getting a ton of leads either, because who's gonna respond to a Facebook post for a hiring ad? So it doesn't exactly give us the most professional-like, stance. Right? Yeah, chaotic. I like that word. That's a good word. I think a lot of people can relate to that. Michelle, what were you doing before you implemented a jazz HR into Paws and Claws? Yeah, Facebook, asking friends, and even just if I needed the help, just asking other pet sitters in the area, and we would just kind of help each other out, which was great. I had ICs, pre COVID. So it was easier to do it that way. But just not finding people who are serious enough to work for me. Yeah, I think the one thing you all have in common there is that you're kind of just like, you're being scrappy, which is great. That's what got most of us to start our business in the beginning, right? We're just kind of trying to, you know, shoestring along and figure it out and throw stuff up against the wall. But it comes with a lot of stress. And let's face it, owning our businesses already comes with enough stress. Right. So I'm Maris and then I'll go with Michelle and Leia. What was the biggest challenge when you decided to start with Jaz HR?