Experience Leadership - The Small Business Podcast · Marc Haine

Effective Recruitment Doesn't Have to Be Hard with Kyle Patrick Smith

·56 min·1 clip

The biggest mistake is treating recruitment like it's about filling positions instead of building community.

The problem starts before anyone sits down for an interview. Mark treats hiring like the small business headache it often is: money goes into ads, hours disappear into resume review, and the person who gets hired can still leave fast or turn out wrong for the role. Kyle pushes the conversation back a step. Before blaming applicants, he wants owners to look at what their brand, communication, and assumptions are saying to the people they hope to attract. That shift is not a branding exercise. It is about the quiet filters that make a hiring pool smaller before a manager has really looked at who is available. Age gets a lot of attention here. Kyle pushes back on the idea that an older worker is automatically a short term bet or a risky hire. Some people later in their careers know what they want. They may not be chasing constant moves. They may just want a good place to contribute. That matters for small businesses that complain about loyalty while missing people who might already want stability. Kyle then widens the conversation to second chance employment, people with visible or invisible disabilities, and mothers returning after time focused on children. These are not charity cases in the way he frames them. They are people employers can screen out too quickly because the usual picture of a good candidate is too narrow. Mark keeps the episode practical by asking what owners can start noticing in their own process. The answer keeps coming back to curiosity. Who fits the familiar profile is only one question. The better question is who could be good at the work if the business gave them a fair look. Kyle's advice has a useful sting. If hires keep leaving early or underperforming, bad luck may not be the whole story. The job ad, resume screen, and interview may already be carrying myths that keep better candidates out.

As heard by us

A plainspoken hiring reset for owners who want better candidates.

This episode treats hiring as a systems problem, not just a matter of finding the right applicant. Mark Hain and Kyle Patrick Smith tie candidate attraction to the way a business presents itself, how its people communicate, and whether the company actually seems ready to welcome…

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Why you'd press play

You want to stop hiring on autopilot and widen who you attract.

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