Always on

Steve Paley has deftly combined aggressive with passive in refining the recruiting tactics at the fast-growing security firm he runs.

The aggressive: Paley, president and CEO of Sarasota-based Rapid Security Solutions, knows what he wants in a technician or salesperson, and he doesn't dillydally. “I'm on all the time,” says Paley. “If I'm in a restaurant, and I get really good service, I will begin chatting with that person about what we do.”

The passive: Paley says the biggest lesson he's learned in eight years at RSS is the best employees are the ones not looking for a job — the passive ones. “They aren't the ones you find on Indeed, Craig's List or Monster,” he says. “These aren't the jobs where would take out an ad in a newspaper.”

Paley needs a good system for hiring, given the rapid growth at RSS. Sales at the firm, with six offices in Florida, are up 275% since 2013, from $1.2 million to $4.5 million last year. Paley projects the company will surpass $6 million this year. The company also nearly doubled its payroll in the last three years, from 23 people to 45.

A lynchpin to Paley's aggressive-passive approach is to start internally. To Paley, that means having a place where people want to come to work. One of the nuggets at RSS, for example, is unlimited vacation, as long as the work gets done. “We need to have a good story,” to woo passive candidates, Paley says. “We spend a lot of time on that.”

Next up: Find the right people. Paley does that while out for dinner, but he also does that through a significant amount of networking. That happens at tradeshows and conferences, and also with people outside the security and alarm industry. The gist of the strategy is if someone Paley trusts knows the type of employees he seeks, he has an advantage. The bigger the trusted network, the better. “Our network is key,” he says.

Paley says people in his network, in addition to current employees, will often suggest candidates. He will check them out online, poke around, and give them a call. He recently landed a service manager and sales consultant that way. Many times during those first contacts, Paley plays the role of salesman to lure a passive candidate. Says Paley: “You sort of have to convince them they aren't happy.”

The interview process at RSS, the final step before an offer, is extensive. It includes phone calls and in-person sessions with the team on which the employee could be working. Paley also recently started doing one-week tests for technicians, to see how they work in the field. “We try to do as much as we can upfront to avoid a bad hire,” Paley says.

Paley has a counterintuitive approach to interviewing. He might tweak a candidate by saying he or she doesn't have what it takes to work at RSS, where clients include manufacturing facilities, gated communities and restaurants and hotels. “I might tell someone, 'I don't see the value you will add here,'” Paley says. “I want the person who will say, 'Steve, you're an idiot. You're looking at this all wrong.”

Adds Paley: “Our goal is to see how much someone really wants to come here and have a career with us.”

TIPS
• Look for recruiting opportunities to recruit anywhere. “The best people aren't always where you think they are,” says Steve Paley.

• Be open to greatness in people, even if it's not a specific person for a specific job. Says Paley: “Be open to the possibility of how a person like this can change your organization for the better.”

• Stay focused on finding fully formed adults, no matter if they are young or old.

— Mark Gordon