Episode 71 – Brigette Landy | Recruitment & Strengths

In this episode I chat with Brigette Landy, a passionate recruiter who loves helping businesses solve their people needs.

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Transcript

Murray Guest  00:01

So Brige, welcome to the podcast. I’m so excited to be catching up with you on this bit of a cold winter’s morning. How are you? 

Brigette Landy  00:09

Yeah, I’m well, thanks Muz. I’m very happy to be here. And thanks for the invite. 

Murray Guest  00:14

I’ve known you for a number of years, and I’ve loved your passion for recruitment and everything that you do. And I’m really looking forward to exploring recruitment, and particularly that customer experience niche that you focus on. How have you been, though, before we get into all that stuff, just in the last few months with COVID? And all that that’s brought us in 2020?

Brigette Landy  00:37

It’s such a fun question, isn’t it? Look, I think most people would agree that it’s been turbulent. I’ve been well, I’ve had my ups and downs, definitely. Especially with three months of working from home in isolation. That truly sent me crazy towards the end of it. So I was really happy to get back to the office. I think it was about a month ago now. And we’ve been able to find a really nice balance of office time and work from home time. We’ve got full flexibility to do that. So kind of balancing out now which is great.

Murray Guest  01:17

So what do you think has been the best and the worst of working from home?

Brigette Landy  01:21

Okay, the best part would be hanging out with Evie all day every day.

Murray Guest  01:26

And Evie is your dog? 

Brigette Landy  01:29

Yeah, the fur child. The worst part would probably be seeing the awful things that she gets up to. She ate a full live bird the other day, she caught a little bird. And yeah, I was trying to chase her to save the bird. But she wouldn’t let me chase her and instead she she gobbled the whole thing down. Beak, feet and all. It was horrifying.

Murray Guest  01:56

Let’s be clear, what sort of dog is Evie? 

Brigette Landy  01:59

Evie is a big standard poodle. Yeah, she’s a big girl. Super cute, but not when she does things like that. 

Murray Guest  02:10

Yeah, of course, I understand. But I mean, you get to experience part of the wild while you’re working from home, which is cool. 

Brigette Landy  02:16

That’s right. 

Murray Guest  02:17

I’m surprised you didn’t say something like tracksuit pants or you know, leisure wear at home all the time. You know?

Brigette Landy  02:23

Maybe the ugg boots? But yeah, definitely hanging with the dog. The worst part was, in reality, was not being around my people, though. That was really hard. I mean, we did daily zooms. But that just doesn’t match up to in person, real face time.

Murray Guest  02:42

I’ve even been talking to a few clients who admittedly say they are introverts. And they’ve also shared that whilst they are an introvert, they’ve missed just that day to day connection, even sitting by someone else in the office and just knowing that they’re there. And you’re sort of saying it a bit, I think lightheartedly, but I think you’re also absolutely correct that the heaviness and the the struggle it’s been for a lot of people being away from their tribe, away from their team they normally work with, it’s been difficult.

Brigette Landy  03:15

Yeah, definitely. And, you know, the amount of change that everyone has been going through, it does create so much weight for everyone. I mean, my top strength is adaptability, right, which means I can change quickly. But as a leader, you have to manage that change for everyone around you and the people that you’re there to support. And it’s it’s a massive thing. I learnt so much about change over the last three months.

Murray Guest  03:45

Yeah, I bet you have. When you think about your team that you lead, what have you also learned about the importance of, you know, connecting with them and these past few months?

Brigette Landy  03:58

Yeah, it’s, it’s super important. I think what I’ve learnt is that we do need that face to face time, we do need that people time. We work in recruitment, of course we’re people, people. But it is so important to connect, and be there for each other and to communicate with each other.

Murray Guest  04:21

Mm hmm. What I’ve also noticed with a number of clients that I’ve been talking to is the frequency of communicating is more often and they’ve really enjoyed that, as opposed to previously maybe saving up conversations or things to talk about in a project for a meeting, which is more spaced out. So that frequency is increased. The other thing is meetings seem to be more effective. Yes, there’s zoom fatigue and ohh not another bloody zoom meeting. But when they’re having those meetings it’s like we’re a bit more switched on, a bit more focused. Have you found similar, do you think, as well?

Brigette Landy  04:56

Definitely. I think when we started we were probably not as effective on zoom. But over the months we’ve definitely adapted and put more structure in place to our meetings, and they are super effective. We get in, half an hour, we’re out, and we can get on with our day. But that time is so valuable as well. Yeah it’s been great.

Murray Guest  05:18

Yeah. And you mentioned change. Obviously, change has been frequent, rapid. Let’s throw in some more adjectives. 

Brigette Landy  05:27

Oh it’s painful sometimes. And, you know, in our world, we’ve got, we’re dealing with all of our clients that are in pain, we’re dealing with so many candidates that are in pain, downturn in business, redundancies, restructures. You know, it’s just huge change for people to deal with. And one thing that you taught me actually was that change is not, you know, there’s no start and end to change. I don’t think it’s, it’s more circular or goes in cycles. So, with the individuals in my team, I found that, you know, we might, one of them might be at the acceptance stage, but any small trigger could loop them back so quickly to fear and anger. So, one of the biggest things that I learnt was to expect that and not be so shocked when someone goes from that, you know, more positive end to the more nervous and frustrated end.

Murray Guest  06:25

Yeah, so I think that’s fantastic to expect it and make it okay.

Brigette Landy  06:31

Make it okay. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, not not fight that as well, you need to accept it and work with it and help that person along.

Murray Guest  06:40

Hmm. So for people listening right now, that maybe don’t have that insight into what it’s been like in the recruitment industry for the past, you know, six months. You know, no one would have obviously thought 2020 was going to start like this, what has it been like for recruitment? 

Brigette Landy  07:00

Look it’s been challenging, as I mentioned at the start, you know, I’d be surprised to hear anyone that said it hasn’t been challenging. But for SAS recruitment and HR, we’re quite lucky to have quite diverse service offerings. So things stayed fairly stable across our engineering supply chain and industrial businesses, had a little bit of a dip, but it was stable for most of that COVID period. And our HR consulting services, obviously, they had a lot of outplacement to do as you expect, but definitely not in my world. My world was hit the hardest. And my team. So I recruit, me and my team recruit, finance, administration, customer experience, marketing and sales. And the businesses that we work with anyway, they’re the positions that they got rid of, straight up, you know, they don’t, they didn’t need salespeople anymore. They weren’t looking to, you know, employ marketing people, even our temporary customer service and admin people, they were finished up earlier than expected, a lot of businesses had permanent staff that they needed to redeploy into those temporary positions. So we were hit really hard in my team, and that’s why I feel like we’ve probably experienced a lot more change than some of the other parts of the business. We restructured. We lost one person from our team. And yeah, that hit us all really hard. But in terms of the recruitment world it is coming back to life. Thankfully. It’s been really interesting, actually. As soon as restrictions lifted, businesses thought yes, we need to rebuild. Let’s hire salespeople. So

Murray Guest  08:51

The switch was turned back on straightaway.

Brigette Landy  08:53

Yeah turned back on, I think, in June and July, I think we had about 10 sales jobs to work on each month. And, you know, just for sales, after such a drop off during COVID, that’s pretty good. So and thankfully, we’ve got awesome candidate managers that were able to, you know, just look through our networks and, and fill those jobs straight from our existing talent pools. So it was, you know, really quick and easy processes, but really valuable as well. So that was really good to see, and other trends that we’re seeing at the moment is clients opting for unbundled services. So rather than engaging us to fill a role completely from end to end, recruitment, processing, or I guess, is choosing to engage us for a certain part of the process. So whether that’s, you know, video interviews, or whether it’s reference checking, or whether it’s searching and coming up with a long list and then handing it over to the client. So chopping up those portions and offering parts of the service as opposed to the full service has been really appealing to some clients.

Murray Guest  10:05

Yeah, I can imagine that flexibility in your processes that helps support different clients in different ways. And, you know, adaptability, number one showing again, awesome for the way that you can see, because I’m sure different clients have different needs. And that’s the individualness I’ve seen in companies and people and teams right now. It’s all very different, isn’t it? It’s not just, it’s impacting everyone the same way. Yeah. Well, I’m also thinking about recruitment being an emotional journey anyway, you know when someone goes for a job, or when someone’s hiring someone and they want the, the exact candidate they’re looking for to fit their team. And there’s additional emotions right now of how important it is. How are you ensuring that your team keeps their emotions up? And doesn’t take on maybe some of that heaviness with all the emotional journey of all the candidates and the people you’re working with?

Brigette Landy  11:04

That’s a really difficult question. But thankfully, my team at the moment are very resilient. You know, they’ve been through what was probably the hardest, it was the hardest time of my career, to be honest, that peak of COVID in those few months. So they’ve been through that. And I think now that they’re seeing some positivity out in the market, you know, they’re not carrying that weight as much anymore. Throughout the three months, it was challenging. As I’ve mentioned, you really had to help people through the change, make sure you connected with them, and stayed in touch with them, doing what you can to support them.

Murray Guest  11:39

And so I can imagine celebrating those little wins are really important along the way to keep that momentum and keep that positive energy along the way.

Brigette Landy  11:47

Yeah, definitely. We’ve had a few little team celebrations, obviously. So but you know, you’ve got to find little ways like that to celebrate, don’t you?

Murray Guest  12:01

Yeah. 100%. So 16 years at Forsythes Recruitment and HR. 

Brigette Landy  12:08

Yes! Why? 

Murray Guest  12:10

Well, congratulations. 

Brigette Landy  12:11

Thanks so much. 

Murray Guest  12:13

And as you know, in recruitment, that length of service isn’t as common these days as it used to be. So I think it’s definitely a testimony to the company you work for and the type of work you do. So that’s awesome. Great to celebrate this week.

Brigette Landy  12:28

Thank you so much. I’ve actually got a post coming out today that acknowledges that and answers a lot of the questions that I face when I tell people that I’ve been with Forsythes for 16 years. And especially because I’m still, you know, in my early 30s, I’m not in my mid 30s till next week. But yeah, it’s it’s, it’s been a ride, that’s for sure, but just so much fun. I work with such awesome people, they’re all a bunch of legends, very supportive, and would help you with anything. The team is awesome. They’re all really smart, really driven, like guns. They’re customer obsessed, which is a huge passion of mine, that customer experience and customer obsession. Which is another reason I say I love recruiting in that niche.

Murray Guest  13:18

So can I ask why recruiting? What drew you to recruitment?

Brigette Landy  13:25

I was thinking about this this morning, actually, I didn’t even know what the word recruitment meant, until about four days into my role at Forsythes. So I was just a little junior burger, straight out of high school. And I remember my first few days, and I was looking at all of these timesheets for temporary people that apparently worked for us. And I’m like, but where are they? And? Yeah, after a few days, I worked it out. Um, so I didn’t choose recruitment, to start with initially, but now definitely, I just love working with businesses to solve their people needs. And I love being part of that solution. In the CX world, in particular, as well, I just love the contact center leaders. You know, the key thing that they’re passionate about, or one of the key parts is people development. And I don’t know, I just love being part of that selection process for them and being able to provide that solution for them.

Murray Guest  14:30

Can you help me understand that customer experience area of the business you know, the call center, the contact center? What makes that unique do you think?

Brigette Landy  14:43

I love recruiting in that space because a lot of the time it’s not about technical skill set. It’s all about behaviors and personalities and culture fit and I get such a kick out of recruiting that sort of stuff as opposed to technical skill set.

Murray Guest  15:06

I can imagine some of those behaviors in those roles. And I’m reflecting back on my time when I looked after Consumer Services many, many years ago, it was about empathy, compassion, listening, a lot of those real people skills that really help you connect with somebody.

Brigette Landy  15:23

Oh, definitely, I think one of the biggest, well at the top of every criteria for us is resilience as well. And that can be a really hard thing to find when you’re recruiting for those sorts of people. And I like the challenge of that, finding that resilience in people. And contact centres are fun, they’ve always got, you know, good vibes, positive vibes only, is my latest hashtag. It’s just a fun place to work, a fun environment to work within.

Murray Guest  16:00

I just was thinking about the amount of our decision making, which is emotional based versus fact based and data based. You know, I bought a car recently. You know, when you go to a restaurant, or you know, all those fashion choices you’re making, there’s emotions, where do they come into play in recruitment, versus they’ve got the qualifications, and they’ve got the data, and, you know, I can do my spreadsheet of all the numbers, but what about the emotional side? How does that fit into your record?

Brigette Landy  16:31

I, when I first started consulting, in recruitment, so it was a couple of years after I’d started in my junior burger role, I based all of my decisions on emotion. So it was, you know, not necessarily how much I liked a person. But it was all about the gut feel that I had about a person. Over the years, I’ve learnt to find ways to evidence that gut feel. You know, it might be as simple as asking behavioral based questions that really shows the evidence that your gut feel is right about that person being the best fit. But we’ve also used psychometric assessment and other tools to find the evidence to back up your gut feel. So there’s a definite balance there, ways to prove that emotional connection. 

Murray Guest  17:26

What’s it like, how would you describe that emotion? Or that feeling when someone gets that role that they’ve been really striving for, dreaming about? And they get that, that opportunity?

Brigette Landy  17:40

That’s what it’s all about. It’s, that’s, that’s why I do it. And, you know, that’s your success. You know, offering someone their dream job and, you know, telling them that amazing news that they’ve been waiting to hear it’s, yeah, I just get such a kick out of it. It’s excitement. It’s just a lot of excitement.

Murray Guest  18:10

Do you get the chance to reconnect with those people down the track and see how they’re going? Is that part of your process?

Brigette Landy  18:16

Definitely. Yeah, we have check in points. So we check in on their first day, at the end of their first week, after their first month, three months, six months. You know, it’s really easy to stay in contact with our candidates these days through the likes of LinkedIn and social media. But yeah, it’s always great to see how they’ve progressed through that career opportunity that you’ve provided, or facilitated for them. And ultimately, hopefully, that person will become a client one day.

Murray Guest  18:48

Yeah, I’m sure there are stories over the years where that’s happened. 

Brigette Landy  18:53

Yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah. That’s the ultimate goal. That’s what we strive for a lot of the time. 

Murray Guest  19:02

So obviously, recruitments changed right now, with, you know, physical distancing, and a whole range of other things. What has the process been like in recent weeks versus maybe last year?

Brigette Landy  19:19

It’s not hugely different for us. We implemented virtual interviews or pre recorded video interviews, I think it was about 2014. So we’ve been using them for over five years now. And that’s been a really, value add, like a nice to have for our clients. We pre recorded a video interview that our candidates then complete and we can send that video link to the client, with their resume, for example. So the client gets so much more insight, but now it’s a necessity. So it was really easy for us to adapt to that way of interviewing. But it does make those decisions a little bit harder as well. I think physical presence has a role to play in a recruitment process. So I guess you just need to dig a little bit deeper into those areas that you feel that you might not fully, fully know yet or or trust yet. But yes, it was easy for us to adapt to this new way of doing things.

Murray Guest  20:29

Yeah. Okay, gotcha. And I did hear the other day something about video cover letters, where people are applying for jobs as opposed to the handwritten or the typed up, cover letters. And I mean, I sound old, handwritten cover letter, who’s done one of those lately? Right. But a video cover letter, I guess that’s part of the process as well.

Brigette Landy  20:51

Yeah, definitely. So I came across a LinkedIn profile the other day as well, where a candidate, in her about me section, it was a video, selling herself, basically. So that was really cool. But these videos play such a vital role in the recruitment process now, even leaning towards, you know, customer experience touches and improving the candidate experience as well, as well as benefiting the client. There’s a little 1% we call it that we’re doing now in our virtual interviews, where this is our pre recorded interviews, where we’ll ask the question of the candidate, what is your guilty 3pm afternoon snack?

Murray Guest  21:34

Oh, I like that a lot.

Brigette Landy  21:35

And yeah the candidate might answer Tim Tams, or they might say, chocolate chip cookies, or they might randomly say, a green mango salad from Thailand, which is really hard for us to provide, but once the candidate gets the job, or once we get to meet them, we’ll provide them with their 3pm guilty snack. It just blows them away. It’s a really nice touch for the person. And one of those one percenters as we call it.

Murray Guest  22:06

Yeah. And I think that’s a beautiful question, which has got me thinking, what are some other fantastic recruitment questions that you have asked over the years, that you reckon that have really got people thinking? 

Brigette Landy  22:20

There was one we asked the other day that I really liked. And it was for a role where we needed someone who was going to be really naturally inquisitive. And we asked the question, okay, so say you’ve got a brand new iPhone. What’s the first thing you do? Do you rip it out of the box? And do you get into it and just have a go? Or do you read the instructions? And do you carefully back everything up? That sort of stuff? And the responses you got out of that were really interesting. There’s no right or wrong answer. But it just gives you so much insight into how a person approaches new technology, or problem. How do you approach change? It tells you so much outside of what the actual thing that you’re asking?

Murray Guest  23:06

Yeah, I love that question. Because it’s so relevant. And as you’re saying, it’s rich, you can get so much data out of it. And I love questions. I talk to lots of people about the power of questions and the impact they can have. And I’d love to share one that I heard and this may be one that you use, so please tell me, but the question was the, in the recruitment process to ask, Tell me what you’re like at your absolute worst? And what I heard was this leader would explain at my worst, when I’m when I’m grumpy, when I’m stressed, I might get like this, and so again, it shows vulnerability and openness. Now, I’m asking you, tell me what you’re like at your absolute worst? And I really liked that, because again, it’s building that connection early on.

Brigette Landy  23:53

Do you think you’d always get an honest response? 

Murray Guest  23:56

Well, that’s an insight in itself isn’t it.

Brigette Landy  24:00

It’s like, you know, the weakness question, which we don’t ask directly. But, you know, you don’t want to get, lots of candidates don’t want to, you know, talk about the negatives of themselves. But I like the way that you’ve worded that, I feel like that would get the right sort of response.

Murray Guest  24:23

Yeah, well, I think that the framing up obviously is important in that question, and lots of other questions, as to what’s my intent in asking that question. You know, my intent is to actually get to know you. Do I want to work with you day in day out? Can I trust you? I think that’s so important. Where do you think recruitment’s going in the future?

Brigette Landy  24:44

Look, there’s a lot of talk. I mean, after 16 years, you tend to hear the same stories over and over again, right. And I think for the last 10 years, there’s been a lot of nervousness in the market about automation, about technology, about LinkedIn taking our jobs in terms of being a recruiter, but technology will always play a role and it is going to be so useful moving forward as well. But in recruitment, you always need a human, you need a human side and human perspective, human input. So I could tell you all these fancy new things that we’ve we’ve got lined up and that we’re talking about, but at the end of the day, there’s a really nice balance of technology, automation and human input.

Murray Guest  25:39

Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. I think what you said earlier about the one percenters, and also the cultural fit, and the gut feel, they’re all, you know, extremely important in that recruitment process aren’t they and you can’t take those away.

Brigette Landy  25:58

Yeah, definitely. And I think the things that we’ve been really focusing on lately, and moving forward, as well as the candidate experience. The candidates are our resource really. And we want them to, you know, have the most amazing experience with us, we want them to be our biggest fans. So we’re always trying to find ways to make it better for them, to leave them with this amazing feeling.

Murray Guest  26:28

Yeah, and I totally agree. And I think my addition to what you’re saying, which I unfortunately don’t think a lot of companies do well, so I think recruitments generally done well. It’s even to the point of, let’s have morning tea, and welcome Brige to the team and everyone, let’s welcome. And then there’s inductions, and onboarding, and a lot of that good stuff. I think the area and please correct me if I’m wrong, that we could do a lot better in companies is, how do we let people go? How do we transition them out? How do we, if it hasn’t worked out, how do we say goodbye in a way that’s respectful? And no matter what the reason, I think the way that you have someone leave your company is indicative of your culture. And I think the other end of the process can be improved, just generally, quite a bit.

Brigette Landy  27:19

Yeah, definitely. And I think our outplacement consultants are all about that sort of stuff. It’s all about the the care and nurturing that you give someone as they’re departing an organization. But you know, we’re part of that process to an extent when it comes to telling people that they’re unsuccessful for a job. And leaving those people with an amazing feeling, after they’ve just been told that they don’t have a job that they really wanted. Our goal is to hope that they leave with a really great impression of us.

Murray Guest  27:55

Yeah, and some valuable feedback. I think that’s, I know that you guys do that really well. But I’ve heard and I have experienced in the past myself where you weren’t successful, and you don’t find out or you don’t know why. So that feedbacks really important. So I’d love to ask you about your Strengths. And it’s something you and I have talked about a few times and obviously in the past, you’ve done the Clifton Strengths Finder assessment. And you’ve mentioned your adaptability. Just for those listening, Brige’s top five: Adaptability, Positivity, Achiever, Responsibility, and Woo. And I would just love to know from a personal or professional perspective, what’s been the impact of knowing your strengths?

Brigette Landy  28:46

It’s been absolutely awesome. It’s been so good, knowing these strengths and I guess they’re, they’ve always been with me as my natural go-to strengths. But just being so much more aware of them has helped me relate to people better, professionally, and in my personal life as well. I got Zach, my partner, to do his Strengths assessment. And that was really insightful for me. I thought I knew him. But yeah, it’s been really positive. I’ve even seen it rub off on my nephews. So it’s a little story I posted about a little while ago about when I heard my five year old nephew, his name’s Dylan. He was talking to his friend and he said, oh, what’s, what does your dad do? And his friend said, my dad doesn’t have a job. And Dylan goes, Oh, he should talk to my auntie Brige. And I was blown away. I’m like, What? He’s a five year old kid man. Like, how does he know what recruitment is? How does he know that I’m a recruiter. Um, but I think, you know, for me, my positivity Strength is all about contagious enthusiasm. And I think you know, given my enthusiasm for my job and what I do, I think that had just rubbed off on my five year old nephew. You know, he’d obviously taken that on board. And you know, that was really insightful for me. I was blown away by that.

Murray Guest  30:18

Did you give him a couple of business cards to hand out at preschool? Tell me, knowing your strengths, has that helped you? Because I think about all those conversations you have with people, whether that’s within your team, or potential candidates or clients, how knowing your strengths has helped in those conversations.

Brigette Landy  30:45

Yeah, I, it’s been most most helpful. Because it’s just been really insightful for strengths based leadership, I guess. I think talking to clients about what they want to get out of candidates in the recruitment process, and really being able to consult with them on, you know, this candidate is really good at this sort of stuff. So let’s give them more of that sort of stuff to do. Let’s not force them to do the things that they’re not great at, because they’re gonna see themselves, you know, failing or not living up to your standards. And that’s been the same with my team, you know, really offering them opportunities to do more of the stuff that they love, and are good at and want to do, rather than forcing them to do things that they’re not real good at.

Murray Guest  31:40

That’s a fantastic explanation of strengths based leadership. And I know that your whole team has embraced strengths and seeing how that’s helped them. And not just themselves, but then in the way that they interact with each other as well. And that’s, as you know, and we’ve talked about, it’s a journey isn’t it. It’s not like, hey, we’ve done our strengths, tick the box. Always new layers and new experiences with it. 

Brigette Landy  32:07

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It’s been great. 

Murray Guest  32:10

Tell me about you and Zack, though, from a personal level, what did you learn if that’s okay, about you and your partner’s strengths and how they complement or contrast?

Brigette Landy  32:20

Yeah, I think I can’t remember all five. But I know, consistency and discipline, were definitely in there, and harmony. So I think just knowing that, you know, knowing why he does things a certain way and knowing why he’s got to get up at the same time every morning and go through the same routine every day and have the same sorts of meals for dinners and all that sort of thing. You know, me being adaptable, doesn’t line up so much to that consistency piece. But just knowing that that’s where his natural instincts are, helped me understand him so much more.

Murray Guest  33:02

Yeah, I always come back to Don Clifton’s quote about, you know, what’s going to happen when we focus on what’s right with people rather than fixating with what’s wrong with them. And that, that example there about well, Zach likes this way of living, this way of approaching his mornings. It’s different to mine. And that’s okay. Except for when we go on holidays. Yeah, that’s right.

Brigette Landy  33:29

Yeah, that’s right, which is next week. Actually, I’m off to Byron Bay next week. We were meant to be flying to New York today. Following a road trip across the states, but Byron will do.

Murray Guest  33:44

Yeah, I think there’s a lot of people with stories like that. I actually read somewhere something like canceled holidays. The value of those is $6 billion, or something.

Brigette Landy  33:54

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I’m definitely feeling for the tourism industry at the moment. Yeah.

Murray Guest  34:01

Now, just to wrap up our conversation on strengths. Which one do you think out of your top five do you think can hinder you the most? So you love those, and I can hear that in the way you talk about them, but is there one that you think or sometimes it can get in my way a little bit? 

Brigette Landy  34:18

I don’t know. I wouldn’t say they get in my way. But they definitely get in other people’s way. Like the responsibility and the achiever. I feel like those two definitely, some people see it in me and just go Brige’s on a roll again, let’s just, let’s just avoid her. I really am passionate about doing what I say I will do and I live by that. And if I’m going to miss a deadline, that’s a huge deal for me. It’s not really a huge deal for a lot of other people if it’s a small, insignificant deadline, but even those ones are a big deal to me. So I’ve had to learn, and you’ve been a huge part of this process Muz, learn to understand that, you know, while it’s a priority for me, it might not be someone else’s priority. And that because that’s not their strength, their strengths are doing other amazing things. So, you know, just to, for me to accept that. So I don’t feel like they get in my way, they probably do. But I know that the achiever and responsibility, you know, some people probably don’t appreciate.

Murray Guest  35:35

And I have responsibility number five, so I totally High Five you on that, I get that 1,000,000%. And I would say what strengths enables is that understanding, but also a way to articulate it to other people as to why it’s important to you. And then find that middle ground about how do we make that work?

Brigette Landy  35:56

Oh, definitely. And throughout…When did we first do our strengths? Is it a couple of years ago? Yeah, those last couple of years, our team has had so many conversations about why each of us do things a certain way and, and why we don’t. So it’s been massively helpful.

Murray Guest  36:15

Yeah, that’s awesome to hear. And I’m so glad to hear the conversations continuing. Because as we said a bit earlier, it’s not a tick in the box. It’s a journey of depth of understanding ourselves as we go along. I’m still learning about mine. And I did my assessment first time 12 years ago. So definitely still learning and finding out the little ways that they can help me be a better version of myself, that’s for sure. 

Brigette Landy  36:42

And have they changed at all in the last 12 years? 

Murray Guest  36:45

So based on the research, if I was to quote Don Clifton’s research around the point seven retest validity, so 70% of that dominant strengths are going to stay the same throughout your life, because they’re primarily from nature, and those early nurture years. However, the other bit too, that is, if you go through a major life event, they can change. So I would say after my accident at the end of 2018, my empathy was already low, but it’s lower. If it could be. My family’s well aware of that. And I would say my deliberative, though, deliberative has gone up. Deliberative being that deliberate decision making, weighing up the pros and cons, that risk awareness that definitely has increased, I’d say. And, yeah, and I think that’s understandable. I think the empathy piece comes from a bit of, well this happened to me, what you’re going through is not that important. 

Brigette Landy  37:51

I get that, too. That’s understandable as well. I reckon. 

Murray Guest  37:54

I’ve got to be careful about that. I think.

Brigette Landy  37:58

I just wanted to, say, give you a shout out as well, you connected me with a guy by the name of Luke Jamison. He’s a thought leader in CX and EX. And he’s actually presenting at our next CX networking session, which you would know all about, because you presented at the last one.

Murray Guest  38:19

And such a great network. I mean, we had a huge attendance. This is, I think it was the last one before COVID.

Brigette Landy  38:26

It was yeah. The lucky last in person. And we’re hosting them online now. So another, another fun zoom session, but it will be awesome.

Murray Guest  38:35

So yeah, no, Luke is a great guy. I met Luke through the Lego Serious Play certification we did together. He is an awesome guy, a great thinker, energy, sort of thought leader in that CX space and gamification. And it is a shame it’s not in person. But that is where we are. I’m doing a presentation next week to a networking group online. So another one of those. But yeah, great. I’m glad that you guys have connected.

Brigette Landy  39:06

Yeah, definitely. And we’ve already put the word out to our network. And they’re really needing it at the moment. They want something that, you know, can help them through whatever it is that they’re going through, which a lot of their struggles at the moment in that CX world is employee engagement, and finding ways to make things fun for people while they’re not, probably not in the office environment, or not in the contact center environment, a lot of them are at home, and I think it could be awesome for that.

Murray Guest  39:36

Yeah. And that that connection you talked about, and I think my experience in that CX world and of course, nowhere as big as yours, but that passion that people have for people, and then that connection, if they’re all been working at home by themselves, they’re missing that. So I think bringing that back in is is so important right now.

Brigette Landy  40:01

Yeah, totally my, my biggest problem with hosting this session is that I think with our zoom account, I think we’ve only got a maximum of 100 attendees. So I’m probably going to have to upgrade that because there has been such a positive response so far. I’m really looking forward to it.

Murray Guest  40:17

When is it on? 

Brigette Landy  40:18

On the fourth of September. 

Murray Guest  40:20

Awesome. Well, of course, we can also put, we’ll make sure the links in the show notes. We’ll put it out there as well. Yeah. So recruitment is all about people. And having that connection. So this is rapid fire. I only do rapid fire every so often, but rapid fire questions Brige. Okay, so people get to know you even more. Okay, you ready? 

Brigette Landy  40:44

I’m ready. Yep. 

Murray Guest  40:46

What is your 3pm guilty snack? 

Brigette Landy  40:50

Look at the moment it would be apple and peanut butter. 

Murray Guest  40:56

Okay, there’s no judgment here. That’s fine. 

Brigette Landy  41:01

Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. 

Murray Guest  41:03

Okay. All right. You play guitar. What do you like to play on the guitar?

Brigette Landy  41:10

The last thing I played was Nirvana. So I like I like acoustic grunge. 90s stuff.

Murray Guest  41:19

Nice. Okay. So question. Have you ever had a mullet? 

Brigette Landy  41:26

No, no. I’ve had an undercut? 

Murray Guest  41:30

Yeah. Okay, cool. Gotcha. What’s a food you really don’t like?

Brigette Landy  41:37

Peas. I love all vegetables. Except peas. I still will eat them. But I would never choose them.

Murray Guest  41:45

I’m going to talk about my wife here, she is to put the peas in the pockets of her dressing gown at the table cause she hated them so much. And emptied them out in the toilet or somewhere down the track. 

Brigette Landy  41:55

Oh, that’s awesome. I’m all for that. Go Tammy. 

Murray Guest  42:00

Where’s your dream holiday destination?

Brigette Landy  42:04

I love the United States. As I said I was meant to be there right now. Anywhere tropical, hot with some ocean or a pool. I’m usually pretty happy with that.

Murray Guest  42:16

Gotcha. If you were hosting a client in Newcastle, where would you take them?

Brigette Landy  42:23

Ah, this is a great question. So my favorite place to go at the moment is The Falcon, which is up on Pacific Street in Newcastle East, an American vibe bar. You can probably catch a bit of an American theme for me at the moment. So we’d go to The Falcon and then I’d take them along the harbour and the beaches and the Anzac walk. That’s pretty cool, too.

Murray Guest  42:49

It is, it is. And for anyone listening that hasn’t made it to Newcastle. Honestly, it’s the best in Australia, isn’t it Brige? 

Brigette Landy  42:57

Oh, in the world. 

Murray Guest  43:00

Awesome. Well done. That was painless, just some rapid fire questions there just to get to know you even more. So thank you. 

Brigette Landy  43:08

Thanks, Muz. I’m intrigued by that word, painless. To describe that. 

Murray Guest  43:14

Some people just don’t like those questions. But you know, related number one, I’m happy to ask anything. So that was good. So thank you, again, so much for this conversation, talking about recruitment, talking about your passion for what you do. I love what you do. I love the work of the team and Forsythes Recruitment and HR. So thank you. Your energy comes across fantastically. And speaking of energy, what is your definition of inspired energy?

Brigette Landy  43:47

I had to think about this. But I came back to what I had immediately thought when you asked me that question. And I feel like it’s doing the things that give you energy. So doing the things that really energize you. So whether it’s a certain task at work, or whether it’s doing the things that give you energy at home, taking the dog to the park, whatever it is, it’s the stuff that gives you energy.

Murray Guest  44:16

I would love to add too, if I may, I can imagine that phone call that you make to clients or to candidates when they get the job that they’ve been dreaming of, that must give you this energy that inspires you just go, right what’s next. Let’s keep going. 

Brigette Landy  44:34

Totally yeah, you’re spot on with that. 

Murray Guest  44:37

Thanks again so much. I’ve loved catching up chatting to you. And can I just ask if anyone wants to reach out to you, want to know more about the work you do and connect online, where’s the best place to do that?

Brigette Landy  44:49

Probably LinkedIn. I’m always on LinkedIn. So linkedin.com/blandy.

Murray Guest  44:57

Great. Yes. And you post some fantastic stuff on LinkedIn. I think it’s a really valuable what you’ve been putting on there. So yep, please keep doing that.

Brigette Landy  45:06

Yeah, that’d be great. I’ve been loving the posting and the engagement. And we started doing it during COVID. Actually, I started getting a bit more active and regular with my LinkedIn. And yeah, the engagements been awesome.

Murray Guest  45:20

Great. So one last question, though. I’ve just thought of this. I was gonna ask earlier, it’s come back around into my conscious. If someone is looking for a job right now, what would be your tip for them to take action on? 

Brigette Landy  45:38

Just one tip, or? There’s a whole heap of tips. 

Murray Guest  45:40

Give us hundreds. Well, just give us a couple.

Brigette Landy  45:43

Well, they need to get on to LinkedIn, and follow my colleagues because they’re always passing advice about how to look for a job. And you need to get comfortable with video. Definitely. And, and if you can access some free online courses about or not even free, if you happen to pay for it even better, but about personal branding, as a candidate, or a job seeker, you are selling yourself, you need to get really comfortable with that. You need to get good at that.

Murray Guest  46:14

Wow. And I’m so glad I asked that question because there’s some really good tips there so thank you. Brige. This has been awesome. I hope all goes well over the coming weeks. I’ll make sure I share the upcoming cx networking event in the shownotes and have a great holiday next week. Keep well and healthy. Look forward to a coffee maybe sometime in the future. 

Brigette Landy  46:37

Yeah, maybe in 2022. Thanks. It’s been great.