Talent Solutions at SPARK.Ed

Ann Arbor SPARK, a business incubator in the heart of Ann Arbor, Michigan, hosts weekly workshops to help entrepreneurs build better businesses. SPARK invites industry experts to present useful tips, tools, and best practices on a host of relevant topics. DISHER was asked to lead a training session on recruiting in September.

Keri McCarthy and I began our recruiting workshop by asking the participants the WHY questions. Why does your company exist? Why are you passionate about your company, your product, and your service? Why would someone want to work for you? The WHY speaks directly to company culture which is the greatest asset of any company. We explained that a company culture is not merely office perks like ping-pong tables, nerf guns, and the much anticipated beer o’clock.

Participants learned about free recruiting tools like LinkedIn to Angel.co to assist their sourcing efforts. DISHER’s internal interviewing process was also explained; DISHER utilizes a behavioral interviewing method. We like to ask questions that pull performance examples from candidates. For example, we might ask a candidate to describe a situation where they were able to have a positive influence on the actions of others. This type of questioning delivers real-world responses.

Since the businesses in attendance were in the early stages of their start-ups, we communicated the importance of putting together a deliberate plan of action for their hiring process. Our goal was to have each participant walk away from the training with some tools and examples in their back pocket to adapt and use to fit their needs and culture. Based on our feedback, this objective was met.

DISHER’s Talent Solutions Team specializes in recruiting for technical and professional roles primarily in the field of engineering. We know how to pick the key soft and hard skill indicators from what a customer needs, in order to find them the best qualified candidate. However, recruiting isn’t all of it. Our team has had numerous projects with customers which have included improving the hiring process.  Keri McCarthy, as the coach of the Talent Solutions Team, has overseen many of these process projects.  I work internally on DISHER process improvement projects, where we always keep our mission and culture in mind.

Written By: Allison Ives – Talent Engineer |
Allison is a graduate from Grand Valley State University, with studies in Public Administration, Business, and Public Relations & Advertising. She began with Disher as an intern, and now recruits for internal and external positions as a part of the Talent Attraction Team. Allison also loves continuing to learn through her passions in painting, playing music, and traveling.