So we’ve launched a new staffing podcast! It’s called Ref Around the Edges, or RATE for short, and we couldn’t be more excited. Let’s talk about it.
Why a podcast?
At RefAssured, we believe that software should improve people’s lives, and that the purpose of a platform is to actually solve a problem worth solving. That’s why we started the company and why we’re laser focused on the staffing industry, with its highly complex and nuanced operating models and workflows, and its overwhelming warmth, humanity, and dedication to effecting positive change on people.
Everyone on the RefAssured team has spent at least a decade in staffing technology – not just technology – and we care about convening conversations that will help move the industry forward. We want to live up to our reputation as partners to our customers, first and foremost.
That’s why we decided to interview our favorite leaders in staffing as well as their clients, to help educate and bring light to complicated and serious challenges facing the industry we all love.
What’s it about?
The podcast itself is light-hearted and the conversations warm and casual, but the topics are meaty. We want our listeners to feel better equipped to navigate uncertainty, capitalize on opportunities, logically process what’s happening in broader markets, and take action as needed. That’s why the hosts are RefAssured’s Tommy Semereaux and Vinda Souza, two industry veterans with 30 years of staffing industry experience between them and deep backgrounds in product design and go-to-market.
If you’re wondering where the name came from, it’s an obvious play on the concept of being “rough around the edges,” which speaks not only to the power of reference checks to deliver a 360-view of a candidate’s skills and personality attributes that a resume couldn’t capture, but also to our hosts themselves. A little tired, a little punchy, but well-intentioned and fervently committed to staffing.
Who’s the first guest?
We start RATE off with Episode 1 – “Check Yourself Before You Req Yourself” – featuring the indomitable Mike McSally, formerly of Allegis Group and a tour de force in the staffing industry. Mike and the RefAssured team go way back, and listeners will benefit from Mike’s “pull no punches” honesty on the tough decisions staffing leaders need to make in order to get out of this trough we’re all seemingly in right now.
Our staffing podcast first episode covers:
- The staffing industry’s selling problem: how do you prove value to reluctant clients in a soft buying environment?
- Why differentiating on quality is critical to long-term client retention and satisfaction
- The importance of vetting: if you wouldn’t hire a babysitter off the street, you probably shouldn’t do it with any candidate
- Why basing your staffing agency’s processes on economic boom times proves brittle in the tougher times, and how to rapidly adapt
- How to prioritize empathy and strategic long-term thinking in your decision-making calculus today