This week's episode of Automation Unplugged features a conversation with Sam Hodz, Director of Talent Acquisition Services at Amplify People.”

About this episode:

Sam brings a wealth of knowledge in hiring best practices and talent acquisition strategies, making her a go-to expert for integrators looking to build strong teams in 2025.

In the webinar, we’ll cover:

• How to build a sustainable talent pipeline.
• The power of company culture, mission, and values in attracting top talent—and how to communicate them effectively.
• How integrators can think outside the box when sourcing candidates, from leveraging industry networks to monitoring layoffs in tech and retail sectors.

SEE ALSO: AU #295: How to Evaluate Top Talent: Strategies for Making Effective Hiring Decisions

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there. Ron Callis with another episode of Automation Unplugged. And here we are in early 2025 and we wanted to bring you a special conversation. It's within the same theme of bringing in the experts from Team One Firefly. And in this case, we wanted to bring you an expert from our team at Amplify People so that we could focus on helping you with best practices to hire in the first part of the year here, 2025. So let me go ahead and bring in our Director of Talent Acquisition Services. This is Sam Hodz, and let me go ahead and see if I can get technology to behave and I can bring in Sam. Sam, how are you?

Sam:

I am good. How are you Ron?

Ron:

I am good. I'm ready for this conversation. We have in fact been at quite a hiring spree here at One Firefly. And I know even you, Sam, have been round-tabling with Alison and Tina and Pau, and some of the folks that help manage our day to day hiring at One Firefly. And there's a lot of activity going on right now. What big picture, what are you seeing out there in the wild across the industry? As you're working with integrators, what's an active trend right now?

Sam:

Big picture, I would say an active trend is…everybody is thinking about hiring. And some of the same things that we knew to be true in 2024 are still true in 2025. Limited supply of resources with experience, everybody looking for technicians and salespeople along with some other key roles. But I would say the real trend is everybody being open to discussions regarding what hiring looks like as we enter into this new year.

Ron:

You have been kind enough, Sam, to work with the internal team here, specifically Rebecca. And you've created a handful of slides here. We're going to rapid fire through some subject matter here related to hiring and let you drop some truth bombs and some nuggets of wisdom on our audience so that we can help them out, hopefully, set them up for success in this new year. And so that's the theme of our couple of minutes here today. We're going to try to keep it under 30 minutes. We'll do our best. And so let's just jump right in. And the slide is for my audio listeners out there. The slide says Q1 is prime time for planning your hiring strategy and sourcing new talent. What do you mean by planning the hiring strategy, Sam?

Sam:

Absolutely. Now is the time to begin thinking about it. You know, with the new year, not that far in our past, it's a time where people often reflect personally and professionally on what went well, what didn't go well in the previous year, what they would like to see differently, in the new year that is upon us. And so that is true of not just business owners and business leaders. That is true of candidates. There are a number of candidates that start flooding the market in the first quarter of the year as they have just spent the holidays with friends and family and heard about, you know, a cousin's promotion or a best friend's transition into a new role. And they start thinking and evaluating: what story did they want to tell the next time they're together to celebrate? And so that is why it's super, super important in Q1 to not just know that new talent is out there in the market. And you may start to see a flood of candidates if you're working with a talent partner or you've got resources on your own website. But it's important to have a plan to deal with that influx of talent, even if your needs are not in Q1. What is it that you can do now to build relationships with these individuals? Really, really join in their excitement and build something that's sustainable. So when you are ready, you've got a pipeline of people to pull from and aren't starting from scratch.

Ron:

That makes a lot of sense. I know here at One Firefly, we build out labor forecast models. The idea is that if we hit our sales goals, what sort of labor on any given team do we need? And if we miss our sales goals, or if we have accelerated, you know, client churn for some reason. Not putting that out into the universe. We never want that to be true, but if it did, if it was true, we have modeled out like, what does that mean and how does that affect our hiring or staffing needs? Are you seeing, out of curiosity, Sam, is it common with the integrators that you're talking to? Do they generally plan out their labor needs, or is there a type of business or you have to be at a certain size or a level of maturity in business or operations for that to be true? What is normal?

Sam:

It really varies by integrator. The people that I have really interacted with in the industry fall along the full spectrum. Some have a great forecasting to your point, Ron, of where they see themselves in one year, three years, five years. But there are also people that are having conversations about hiring when something has gone wrong. Either they have gotten a project that they weren't anticipating and need somebody yesterday to help them fulfill it, or somebody left unexpectedly. So it really runs the gamut, I would say.

Ron:

So how can a business, how can an integration firm, position their company in the hiring market to attract talent? Like what does a business need to do? I'm assuming you're going to go into detail stating that just posting the ad and praying is probably not enough.

Sam:

Not an approach I would recommend for sure. The one thing that I will say, and we're going to dive deep into a number of things that you can do as a business leader, a business owner, to really position yourself well for success when it comes to talent. But the one or two kinds of traits that I would say are really, really important, no matter what it is that you do, is first off, you want to be transparent. And I'm not saying be an open book and let everybody know, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly. What I mean is be honest and open with your successes, what you have going on, don't try to hide everything and let somebody unpeel it like an onion. Discover that with a lot of effort. Those that are out there sharing their stories, their successes, what they have coming up, are those that are able to build a network that will not only bring them qualified talent, but attract qualified talent to them just naturally and organically. And the other thing that is really, really important is to be genuine. Candidates can feel when it's forced. They can feel when you're putting up a show just to try to get them in the door. And that is going to make retention a problem. That is going to damage the reputation and an already limited talent pool. And so my two pieces of advice before we get into any specific actionable items, would be remember to go and approach everything with transparency. And by being genuine, that is what is going to set you up for success.

Ron:

It’s good advice. So you've prepared a slide. Actually, this is some of the, there's a graphic actually here. You know what, for folks that are trying to look at our screen, I'll attempt to see if I can switch our view and I'll make the slide a little bit bigger. And what you've got on the slide here, it says mission, vision, our purpose, values, and it's really, these would be the definition of a company. For example, we have One Firefly’s North Star, our mission and our values. We have this on a beautiful graphic, our staff. In fact, some of our team will put this as their screen background on their computer. We at our team events at One Firefly, we've given our team leather notebooks, like the one that I'm holding up. And actually we've at different times put our core values and information actually on a custom insert into the notebook so that it's readily available at the fingertips of our team. What is the relevance of having this sort of definition of culture, Sam? And how does it relate to hiring? How are you connecting the dots?

Sam:

Absolutely. So there's a couple of ways that we're connecting the dots. First off, if you are able to articulate the purpose of your organization, the mission, what your core values are, you will be able to attract people that are looking to achieve those same goals and are looking for those same core values. It sets you apart from the integrator next door. There are some individuals that are very, very specific in what they are looking for in their next opportunity, especially when we're talking about those core values. And we started this conversation off talking about how to prepare and how to plan. It shows that this is not haphazard, that you are not just bringing people into an organization and hoping that they're going to, and hoping that it is going to work. It shows a level of commitment to not only the company, but those that are employed by the organization, that you took the time to write this out, to think about it. And it is completely okay. I know that there are a lot of integrators that are out there that actually maybe have these things, but they're not written down. Or have not thought about them yet. And that is completely okay. Now is the time when we talk about planning and what you can do to set yourself up for success in the first quarter of this year, it is the time to reevaluate them. If you have them or sit down and think about them, if you don't, because it shows intent again, to be genuine, to be authentic, you have to know who you are. And this is the way to demonstrate that.

Ron:

So Sam, someone's tuning in and they go, well, that makes sense. How do I exactly go about doing this? And I'm not saying there's a right answer, so I'm not putting you on the spot to give the answer, but what's an answer? What is some of the counsel that you've given some of the clients that you're working with regarding how to put pen to paper and get something down that feels honest and sincere as a representation of the company's mission, vision, and values.

Sam:

Absolutely. There's a variety of ways that this can be accomplished. One is I recommend that they sit with themselves for a moment and think of anything that may come to mind. But you can't do this on an island. It has to have buy-in from those around you. So if you've got people that have been with your company for a long time, bring them into this process. Talk to them about what they see as the purpose of the organization. What values are important to them that have kept them with the company? You can go to other business leaders, mastermind groups, network and talk with other people who have gone down this path and you can always go a consulting route, bring somebody in to help guide you through this process. Ron, I know you mentioned on the screen is One Firefly’s North Star. How did you arrive?

Ron:

I'll tell you the funny story is that if you looked at, by the way, the words on that screen, they're exactly as defined. And again, I'll change the view here. So the audience, if they want to see, it could read a little bit better. And our values, for example, own it, find a way, grow together, bring good vibes and speak up, that our mission is to design and execute solutions to help technology businesses grow, and our North Star is to help people feel proud, prosperous, and connected. That exact language was architected in the fall of 2019. And prior to that, and keep in mind, I started the business in ‘07, I had some word salad on the website. That was constructed likely entirely by me in isolation and was not terribly representative of who we truly were or who we had become as an organization. And so, the long answer to your short question is we hired an EOS facilitator, called an implementer, when we onboarded into EOS. And now we actually work with them every quarte to facilitate our planning sessions. But that facilitator then guided us through the first couple of months of getting on board and actually took my leadership team and myself through a process. It wasn't all done in an hour. It wasn't like, all right, here's 30 minutes. Let's nail this language. It was a multi month process of actually collaborating and thinking critically and brainstorming to land at all of these words. All of these words are very particular. And in fact, we just came out of our annual planning at One Firefly anyway, a few weeks ago, in mid December. And we actually always come back to our mission, vision, and values and determine, are we going to refine anything? And actually we'll be unveiling some refinements to this language in the coming week or to the entirety of the team at One Firefly. So it's always a living, breathing set of words and ideas that are evolving as your business evolves. But we at One Firefly came up with this language in ‘19 and then reassess it once a year.

Sam:

Very important point, Ron, that it can't be a one and done again. It has to be authentic. And as your company grows and evolves, it's got to evolve with you.

Ron:

Is it true, Sam, that if I'm a candidate out there in the wild, you know, I'm an integrator and I know I need to hire people. Maybe I need to hire that technician or I need to hire that project manager, that technician or that project manager candidate likely has lots of opportunities in the marketplace, right? It's a competitive marketplace for talent. So aren't they going to go to your website and consider what messaging is there? As it relates to this story of mission, vision, values, culture, team. Are you finding that matters to them?

Sam:

A hundred percent. You know, when I speak with integrators, we talk about a variety of things, but one of the key drivers to any individual deciding on taking on a new opportunity is culture. And so they're not just going to look at your website. They're going to look and see if they know anybody who's ever worked with you. They're going to look at Glassdoor and Indeed reviews and BBB reviews and a variety of things, social media. And so it is something that is important. Again, that supply and demand that you're talking about is in favor of the candidate. And so one thing that is really, really important, I know you transitioned for those that can see, to the website, is to make sure your website is updated. It is growing with you. It is accurate to and representative of your current state. And that people know that opportunities exist with you. So as we talk about creating a plan, Q1, if you don't have a career section, it's a great time to actually get one, whether you've got open roles now or not. What a lot of companies do is they keep ongoing open positions. You know that building a pipeline of technicians and things of that nature is going to be important. So you can have something really generic, but allows you to engage with the market and get some market insights that you wouldn't otherwise have opportunities to see and view. Making sure that it is up to date and modern and then something that I don't think a lot of people pay attention to from a business leader perspective, a lot of times you're focused on external clients. You know what they see when they go to your website, what that about us section says to them, those that can be your customer. But that about us section is also where talent will look to see who you are, why you exist, who they would potentially be partnering with and what are they putting out in the world. So it's really important, as difficult and challenging as it may be to look at it through multiple lenses.

Ron:

That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to keep us moving here. What is the role of social media for an integrator in the hiring process?

Sam:

Social media plays a role because it verifies who you are. If you say on your website that you are, you know, a family owned company that you have, or in your job ads that you're putting out there, social, that you've got barbecues for your employees and you're working on x type of projects or whatever the case may be. Your social media is where people can verify that what you said is actually true. It is also another box in checking that kind of authentic checklist. Are you just saying this to get me in the door? Or is this a living, breathing part of your organization that exists? And so candidates go to social media to verify that that is true.

Ron:

What do you have an opinion on what social platforms matter, at least from what you've gathered talking to candidates?

Sam:

It really runs the gamut. A lot of it is geographic. There's a lot of different demographic breakdowns on social media. But whatever social media you are comfortable with, it's fine. Just make sure there's a clear path to it from your website. So people that are looking at your website can go directly to whether it is, LinkedIn, whether it is X, whatever it may be, make sure there's a clear path to get there.

Ron:

Got it. All right. Then I'll give my opinion. I think integrators should be active on Instagram, but with authentic content, meaning their team and their projects reels on Instagram are great. They could be talking to the camera and educating and teaching or demonstrating. And I think Facebook has a role. I think there's an age or a demographic that still uses Facebook. A lot of your clients, a lot of their clients, our clients, I think often are on Facebook. A lot of the younger generation may not be on Facebook. At least that's what the data supports. And I think LinkedIn is a great place to be. I'll be honest. I'm a bit torn on Tik Tok. Do you have an, I'm not on Tik Tok for anyone, you know, trying to find me. I'm not there. There's this whole like China, U.S. competitive thing. And I'm just like, I'm not going to go there until that gets figured out. So I haven't gone into Tik Tok and even as an agency, we have not. I'm admitting One Firefly as a business. We haven't gone into support on Tik Tok, although we've done some testing and it has not been definitive. So we have not gone down that path. Sam, out of curiosity, are you active on Tik Tok and should integrators or, or are the candidates on Tik Tok?

Sam:

So I have had success throughout my career. Tik Tok has been a tool that I have had success with, not in this industry. I haven't tested it in this industry. What I will say is out of all of the social media platforms that are out there, Tik Tok is the most time consuming. Reels are great on Instagram, but Tik Tok's algorithm, in order to gain visibility and to get the right eyes to see your, to view your content, it is sometimes multiple times a day posting and that's a full time job. So if you are just getting into the social media realm, I would not recommend Tik Tok for that reason. Not for any other, but the time.

Ron:

My doom scrolling is already bad enough on Instagram. If I added Tik Tok to that, it would, I don't know, I'd probably have a meltdown or my wife would have a meltdown. I don't know. One of the two. One of the two. I haven't gone in that direction. All right. So review sites, the idea that integrators are garnering reviews on, I'll just go with the biggie, Google, for example, for placement in their Google Business Profile. And then I'll also, I'm just going to lob the other element of reviews and have you give feedback, Sam. And that is, there are like employee review sites like Glassdoor. So can you kind of address both sides of those and what relevance they have for our audience?

Sam:

From a talent perspective, the talent is going to be looking at employee review sites like Glassdoor, like LinkedIn, mentions that you have to see what those that have interacted with your business from an employment standpoint have to say about you. I coach all talent that I've dealt with throughout my career, that you have to remember, to take it with a grain of salt, it's not the be all, end all. If you see a bad review on there, it may be a one off. It may be somebody disgruntled. But conversely, if you see a lot of great reviews that take effort, that take commitment and that really show how valuable employees are to that organization. So if you've got one or two bad reviews, it's not necessarily a be all, end all. But if you have multiple employees that have shared great things, that says something to a potential candidate and can be a huge differentiator.

Ron:

For anyone listening or watching that doesn't know what Glassdoor is can you give them the quick explanation just so they now can say they learned it here on Automation Unplugged.

Sam:

So Glassdoor is kind of an overall organization review site. So it is where employees can leave reviews on a company they've worked for. It's where potential employees can go and not only see those reviews, they can see jobs that they have open. They can see salaries that are public knowledge, not broken down specifically by person, but broken down by title or department, depending on the size of the organization. So it's a really, really great resource for those that are trying to decide whether to apply to a specific job that's been posted that a lot of people are going to Glassdoor to verify. Whether the posting could potentially be real and what I mean by that is there are a lot of kind of fake job ads that exist on job boards. So they want to know is this a real organization? Does it have a business phone number? Does it have reviews, and Glassdoor is a great resource for that.

Ron:

Love it. I'm going to keep us moving here. You're recommending that business owners should leverage their network.

Sam:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Again, we're talking about how to set yourself up for success with it being Q1, for the entirety of 2025. And so starting now, is a great time to leverage your network. Develop a plan to reach out regularly to your personal network. Check in with them, see how they're doing. See how their growth plans are coming along and share any roadblocks, share any successes you're having. Make sure to budget time and resources to attend industry events and trade shows. So you can practice what we call network reciprocation, not just calling on somebody when you need them, but really engaging, and building a network ongoing throughout the year so that if you do need to ask a question, if you do need to call somebody up and see if they've got a referral or a reference, even they are more likely to take your call.

Ron:

Makes a lot of sense. And you think businesses should think out of the box. What do you mean by that?

Sam:

It is the perfect time to start thinking outside of the box. I think when people think, Oh, I need to hire. They think traditionally I need to get a job description written. I need to get a job out there. Maybe they think I need to call somebody and see if they've got a referral or ask the people working for me. But everybody is taking those steps. So the only way to find success again, going back to an extremely limited market is to think outside the box. Now is the time to start reminding yourself, monitor layoffs in the tech and retail industries. If you see, LinkedIn is a great resource. They've got LinkedIn news right on the right hand side of the screen on the home page, and they'll say a lot about this. They'll also say a lot about economic forecasting, which for those that can see is on the screen as well. But a lot of skills are transferable. We at Amplify People, and I know Ron, you preach this regularly, we believe that it's not just the skill, it's the culture fit that makes somebody the right fit for an organization. And so, if they have transferable skills that maybe can be trained, but have the capacity to learn technologies. They've demonstrated that capacity in the past and have the right attitude and aptitude. Then they could be the right fit for your organization. So monitoring those layoffs will allow you to identify maybe a salesperson from the tech industry that's again shown the capacity to understand technical components and sell that to a potential customer that you wouldn't otherwise have access to or thought to reach out to. So it's a great way to start to think about, how can I engage in this content regularly throughout the year to set myself up for the most success possible? Another great thing to do, again, with it being towards the beginning of the year, is to reach out to local schools in your area. Or any programs that exist in your area. A lot of times, local schools, community colleges and things of that nature have a career services department. You can make friends with those people, ask if you can come and meet with the students, share what you do, and you never know what that relationship can build and grow into. But again, it's going to differentiate you from the person next door that never steps foot into a local school, and never has a conversation with somebody who is probably thinking, what am I going to do next?

Ron:

I always go back to, if you want to win or if you want to beat your competition, then you need to be doing things that they aren't doing. And you just gave us some wisdom there and ideas to practice, in some ways that maybe your competitors aren't doing. One tip that I would just add we practice here at One Firefly and maybe many of you are doing this I don't know if it's a secret, but it's a good idea, and that is some of our best hires come from referrals from our best team members. And so it's going back to our team and we like to deliver to our team cash rewards, so cash bonuses for referrals that we land and hire. And if you have rock stars on your team out there, the odds are they probably have some friends that might also be rock stars. It's very common. And, you know, top talent sticks around with top talent inside and outside of work, at least typically. So it might be something to practice there or to at least investigate. Sam, you did a hiring series, actually just back in 2024, mid and late 2024. And you had a number of different partners that joined you for that series. And we have a QR code. So now if you're listening, you will need to go find the show page, on the One Firefly website here for this episode. And it will likely also be down in the show notes. If you are going to check out this on our page, on our website or on Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube, you'll get this link, but there is a QR code where you could go and watch the full series again. It's not gated, it's not locked. There's no fee for it. It's just free information. And what parting words would you give us, Sam, for those out there knowing they really need people, dare I say, desperately need people to get their work done this year. Is there hope?

Sam:

There's definitely hope. We've seen an uptick to start this year of candidates kind of raising their hands and expressing interest. So there's absolutely hope. Again, I'll just leave you kind of with where we started. Develop a plan, follow that plan. It's often best to have some sort of accountability partner in this. It's easy like a new year's resolution to kind of fall by the wayside 30 or 45 days in. So definitely have a plan and a strategy in place and remember to be authentic and the right person and people will find you.

Ron:

I love it, Sam. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Automation Unplugged. It was happy. It was fun having you back on the show.

Sam:

It was a pleasure being here and happy to join anytime. Thanks for having me again.

Ron:

You are welcome. All right, folks, we'll see you on the next show. We'll see you next week. That's right. Because you know, we're dropping a new show every Wednesday and I look forward to seeing you next week. All right, everybody. Bye for now.

---

Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

---

Resources and links from the interview:

• Amplify People Website
• Hiring Success Webinar Series

---