"It’s essential for companies to pivot their hiring and retention strategies to be talent-forward"
Carolyn Betts Fleming is the founder and CEO of Betts, a leading nationwide recruiting services and technology firm for revenue-generating sales, customer success, and marketing roles. Her knack for spotting top talent and pairing them with an ideal company has led to developing a trusted marketplace in the SaaS space, ensuring that every partner, both talent and client, who comes to Betts succeeds.
Prior to founding Betts, Carolyn worked in sales and recruiting at Valley Yellow Pages, Andiamo! Group, and CareerBuilder.com, where she was a top performing enterprise sales executive working with clients including Netflix, Symantec, McAfee, and many more. She is currently a board member at BUILD, an advisory council member at Beam Founders, and a member of Young Presidents’ Organization and Entrepreneur’s Organization.
In 2013, Carolyn was selected as one of AA-ISP’s Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals and was a finalist for the 2013 Ebbies Change Leader Award. She received a BA in journalism and mass communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s owner/president management program.
Additionally, Carolyn has provided her expertise for Austin Business Journal, Business Insider, CNBC, Fast Company, Forbes, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Carolyn Betts Fleming: I’m Carolyn Betts Fleming, founder and CEO of Betts, a leading nationwide recruiting services and technology firm for revenue-generating sales, customer success, and marketing roles. My company recently launched Betts Connect, a recruiting tool that matches qualified professionals with innovative tech companies looking to hire new talent. In addition to Betts Connect, the firm also develops migration and compensation guides for various markets to better educate companies and job candidates.
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Carolyn Betts Fleming: My grandmother is one of the most influential people in my life. I grew up in the Bay Area, and my grandparents ran, what was at the time, the oldest art gallery in San Francisco. My grandfather was very much the visionary, while my grandmother ran the operations side of the business. She was the face of the gallery and was excellent at building relationships with employees and within the larger community. As a young girl, I remember working for them as a receptionist and learning so much about how to build and run a successful business from my grandmother, everything from the importance of relationships to the day-to-day basics of how to write a check and balance a checkbook.
In the 80s, women in business were uncommon, so at the time, she was a revolutionary. I’m always using the lessons she taught me in running my recruiting firm, Betts.
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Carolyn Betts Fleming: In terms of revenue, February 2020 was the best month in the history of Betts. When the pandemic hit the following month, 90% of our clients froze hiring, with business and revenue continuing to rapidly decline into April. Betts, at the time, didn’t have meaningful subscription revenue, which amplified this impact. Additionally, before the pandemic, Betts had over 100 employees, five offices across the country and significant overhead.
We had to quickly adjust by temporarily shutting down our offices and holding two rounds of layoffs, which were incredibly difficult. Much like our clients, we’ve spent the last year rebuilding our company and permanently closing our offices based on lease expiration to embrace the change in work environment brought on by the pandemic, with most of our employees being able to work from home to prioritize a better work-life balance. We are also actively looking for talent to join our Betts team.
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Carolyn Betts Fleming: Betts was no exception to “The Great Resignation.” The second round of layoffs were particularly painful, because we thought that the changes we had already made were sufficient enough to weather the storm and that the worst was over. After reevaluating our business, we determined more cuts were needed. Some of the employees we were able to retain after both layoffs questioned the long-standing potential of the company and unfortunately decided to take positions with other companies they thought would offer more stable employment.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Carolyn Betts Fleming: While this is a large number, it’s not surprising given the shift Betts has seen to a talent-forward hiring market. People are prioritizing compensation and the flexibility of new working environments, so they are seeking out opportunities that will give them these things and provide a better work-life balance. Companies have the opportunity to prioritize these aspects to hire and retain top talent, and those that don’t will be unable to compete and be left behind.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Carolyn Betts Fleming: It’s essential for companies to pivot their hiring and retention strategies to be talent-forward. Job talent want to be paid more and the flexibility of work-from-home or hybrid workplaces. Companies have the opportunity to cater to these demands or talent will take positions with companies that do offer these benefits and more. Additionally, maintain workplace evaluations and check in with existing employees on company changes they’d like to see, including prioritizing employee mental health and well-being. Implement these, if they make sense, to increase employee retention. Innovation is also key. Don’t rest on what made you successful in the first place, rather focus on what will make you successful in the future.
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Carolyn Betts Fleming: While we’ve seen numerous benefits to the flexibility provided by these new work-from-home and hybrid working norms, there is a downside as well that plays into the idea of “time poverty.” When you work from home, you can really work at any time on any given task, whether it be a professional assignment or a personal to-do.
This flexibility creates a never-ending to-do list and causes employees to have no division between home and work environments. Employers should take accountability for helping employees manage this division that is essential to business productivity and employee well-being. At Betts, we encourage our team to take breaks throughout the day and hold “no Zoom” meeting days so they don’t get fatigued. We prioritize Wellness Wednesday, the opportunity for employees to go out and exercise to take care of their physical health, as well as offering a flexible time-off policy and health & wellness and vacation stipends that encourage people to recharge and create that separation from work and home.
Overall, employees need to hear from their companies that it’s OK to take breaks and disconnect in order to take care of themselves.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Carolyn Betts Fleming: Again, companies need to pivot hiring and retention strategies to focus on talent and current employees. The flexibility that has come from COVID/remote work will remain for the majority of businesses. Betts deals primarily with tech companies looking to recruit top talent.
From a hiring standpoint, I see this as an advantage, not a problem. As well as benefiting employees, this new working style also benefits companies looking to hire by exposing them to a whole new group of talent that wouldn’t otherwise be tapped into. For example, with the new search parameters that Betts Connect offers, companies are able to search for candidates within their target markets as well as those with the necessary skills who are open to working remotely, with our platform providing them with the best, active, and already vetted candidates for their open positions.
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Carolyn Betts Fleming: We are concerned with The Great Resignation and The Great Rehiring in the sense that it’s our job at Betts to help balance the marketplace for our clients. The pandemic shifted the hiring marketplace from being company-focused to now talent-focused. Betts has built a great model with the Betts Connect recruiting platform to keep up with the significant demand of talent. Our job is to not over engage the talent and be mindful of balancing talent versus opportunity. Connect allows us to make strategic hires in real time for our talent pool and company clients.
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had $10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Carolyn Betts Fleming: I would make the money available to our entire Betts network and give them the opportunity to donate as much money to as many charities or causes that are important to them.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Carolyn Betts Fleming for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Carolyn Betts Fleming or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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