Get Offshore Leverage

Imagine you had a flat tire. You pull over, call CAA and they come to deliver you a tire. Great, you now have the tools in your car + tire to move forward. But then CAA leaves without helping you install the tire and ensure your car rolls away safely. You wanted an outcome, but you got a tool. Recruiting firms finding your talent (the tool) is good, but you’re seeking an outcome (productivity against projects/initiatives). Don’t you find it silly that you’re left to your own devices once talent is provided to you?

Here is what we’ll cover this week:

1. Most recruiters suck. They leave you in the dark.
2. Testing offshore candidates with a case study for skill-based competency.
3. Our playbook for outsourcing social media posts.
   
   

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Most recruiters suck. They leave you in the dark.

It’s amazing how life comes full circle. When I started consulting back in 2010, I was building sales teams for local Toronto tech companies. I was frustrated that I wasn’t selecting the talent being placed in each customer (most sellers I met were duds). The founder of Sales for Life started the company as a recruiting firm, and he was frustrated that he wasn’t enabling the candidates he placed post-hire, and hated returning recruiting fees when a candidate left before their probationary period. Ironically we were introduced by a shared customer, and Sales for Life originally was talent recruitment + talent enablement. Why? Because it dramatically increased the success of each candidate.

As I launch and scale Get Levrg to recreate this model for offshore talent, I’m seeing the exact same problem. As a founder/CEO, you are provided talent from a recruiting agency, and you and the candidate are immediately left post-transaction to swim together in the deep end.

No help. No best practices. If you’re a seasoned outsourcing organization, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. But for most companies, offshoring is a new muscle. I think it’s imperative that the talent acquisition industry helps partner on the lifecycle of success:

1. Enable the customer to be successful in advance of talent arriving
2. Successfully identify great talent
3. Enable the talent to be successful inside a North American organization

This is what we have set out to create.

Testing offshore candidates with a case study for skill-based competency.

As a generality, offshore talent is amazing at saying “yes, I can do that” to just about any task or project. In India as an example, it’s an expectation that yes is the default answer. This leaves questions you ask in an interviewing process a little unclear.

We believe that every finalist candidate needs to be tested against the skills and capabilities you are seeing to unlock in your new hire. Do they have the chops to execute?

I’ve mentioned in other newsletter articles that I believe in 3 total tests in the interview process:

1. Video — testing for “do they do it” and verbal language proficiency
2. Written — testing for email, text, and Slack communication with customers
3. Case Study — testing for “are they committed”, strategic-thinking, and skill-based competencies.

To make this real, this is an actual example of a test given to candidates for a Shopify eCommerce marketing manager:

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Assignment: Add color circles for the Men’s Original Tuxy Suit and the Vibe Suit within the Tuxy website.

Final End Product example

Color selection:

• Vetiver 17–0613 TCX
• Vintage Blue 18–4220 TPX
• Lunar Rock 14–4201 TCX

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This allowed our customer to analyze:

1. Are they serious about the role by completing it on time, and correctly
2. Do they have the technical knowledge to accomplish the task
3. If they have questions, how do they approach the process?
4. Can they add more value to the process than just completing the task? Strategically, can they offer alternative solutions?
   
   

Our playbook for outsourcing social media posts.

If you outsource social media marketing, it’s critical to create a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) document for all for “point and shoot”. Like many things entrepreneurial, we didn’t have an SOP upfront and built the parachute on the way down.

When considering the details within your SOP, think about all elements of the process to achieve an outcome:

• How often are you posting?
• How are you creating the copy for the post?
• What research sources or copy inspirations will you gather from?
• What times of the day will you post?
• What’s inside a post? (words, emojis, videos, etc.)
• What is the structure of each post?

Our SOP is always evolving. Here are examples within the “structure” of each post:

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Optimum LinkedIn Post (for mobile optimization):

“The Hook”

Line 1 = MAXIMUM 46 characters.

Line 2 = MAXIMUM 30 characters. Add (more below) OR 👇

Line 3 = Blank

“The Meat”

Line 4 to Line X

1. People think in 3’s. Make 3 sections.
2. Separate each section with a space.
3. Bold the title of each section.
   

“CTA”

Define what people should do next. Like? Comment? Go to download in the Comments section.

“#HashTags”

We need to use the most popular Hashtags that people actually search, not make up our own. Here are examples.

#DigitalMarketing — 27.4 million

#Marketing — 20.3 million

#Salesenablement — 13,000

#CRO — 13,000

“Signature”

For Jamie’s personal posts (not corporate posts):

Jamie Shanks

3x CEO

• Pipeline Signals
• Sales for Life
• Get Levrg

Follow me. Connect with me.

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Create objective clarity in every role BEFORE you onboard talent — for example, Standard Operating Procedures

Access it here.

How have you prepared your Executive Assistant for success?

Here is an example of my Standard Operating Procedures document for my Executive Assistant (specific to Email and Calendar Processing).