ColonialWebb

At Colonial Web, we do large construction and building services and manufacturing for mechanical and electrical projects.

Like many construction and building services companies right now, we are challenged by finding the right talent, having the right skill sets, growing them, onboarding them, doing it properly, making sure that they’re here to succeed, developing them through the organization and making sure they have a great career here, but also making sure that we have opportunities for them.

We were looking for a live presenter at our company management meeting and stumbled upon Ryan, which was a perfect fit for our group and our organization at this time. The majority of these people in the room are from the field or work in the field in some capacity, either leading people or in key roles there. Whenever we hire anyone to present or to speak to us or do any sort of training, we’re very selective because we have to have someone who we feel like they will relate to and they will listen to and they will really pull something out of.

He made the experience very easy for us. He was very open to hearing, listening to what we wanted to accomplish. And then he was really able to tailor his stuff to our company and our culture, which I really appreciated.

What surprised me most was the level of engagement with our roughly 200 person audience. The room was filled with probably 80% men that would probably rather be somewhere else than in that meeting. And he did a really good job at energizing them, engaging them, especially for us, he was positioned later in the day. And so that was really cool to see.

One thing I always look at when I’m judging great responses is, what’s the dialogue going at the tabletops in between the breaks or in between group settings? And the conversations just kept going on. He helped us think about different situations that helped us work through and be able to share our own stories. And so there were good report outs. There was good sharing. The overall perception was very positive.

What I heard the most of that we really liked was that it’s refreshing to do some hiring training that isn’t compliance-focused. So our people got a kick out of that.

This year, we knew we were going to do a ton of hiring. And so strategically, Ryan’s presentation was a perfect time for us. It helped our managers refresh their skills and especially think more about the experience from the interviewer’s perspective, which was very great. So we’re able to build that into what we do today.

Some of our business units took this as a launch pad to rework their entire interview process. So I was pretty impressed by the level of desire to want to take the interview questions, to take the process and design a better experience.

And also personally, for me, I’ve done hiring for many, many years. It’s kind of what I do for a living. And I even took so much out of what I learned from Ryan during that experience that I use today and will continue to use during my interviews and screens and how I go about my business and the whole hiring space.

We would absolutely consider booking Ryan again. Search his name on a podcast and listen to what he has to say, because chances are he’s going to catch you, especially if you’re in this construction, manufacturing, building services space. Although I think his message translates to other industries, I think he’s going to be relatable and he’s going to hit some topics that you’re going to think differently than you have before.