The 24-Hour Promise

Anita (00:16)

Welcome to this week's edition of the Looks Good on Paper podcast. Today I'm joined by Taylor Genre. She is the director of recruiting and marketing at BMAC Logistics, a multimodal transport and logistics provider based in Pittsburgh in the US.

She came into logistics recruiting from roles at ePeople, Healthcare, and ADP and has built her reputation on doing the thing most companies only talk about: moving fast and being honest with candidates. She launched BMAC's 24-Hour Promise, a commitment to giving every sales candidate a final decision within 24 hours of the last interview.

Taylor Genre (00:58)

Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Anita. I've been with BMAC about five years now. We've always tried to move quickly. We hire a lot of sales reps at a fast pace. We're seeing a lot of growth — we went from three offices to five offices in my time here. With sales roles, we usually know after the interview if we want to hire someone. So it's like, why delay? We just started this in January, in a push to move more quickly — we've lost great talent for taking three days to make a decision. So we've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it.

Anita (01:57)

Yeah, with a little caveat about Fridays, but I still love the idea. It's like so many of the guests that come on here — it's not a good system when you take months and you're worried about missing out on good candidates. Kudos to you guys for doing that.

Taylor Genre (03:16)

Yeah, thank you. It's been working really well. We've gotten a lot of good feedback from candidates.

Anita (03:21)

Amazing. And I know having been in a position of hiring salespeople, that talent gets snapped up so fast. Why don't we get started — you know the drill for Looks Good on Paper: three questions, rapid speed dating style.

The first one: what is the biggest hiring mistake companies keep making even though it's clearly not working?

Taylor Genre (03:44)

Yeah, I really put some thought into this. I think the biggest one is not paying people what they're worth. When candidates accept a lower amount than what they wanted, in my experience, most of the time those people are going to keep looking. They're not going to be there long term.

Companies then pay the price later — you pay more money to replace them, more money because the next person wants the same amount you wouldn't pay the first one. The training costs, the opportunity costs of having that new person learning instead of hitting the floor running.

I think being more mindful and paying people what they're worth the first time just saves costs in the long run. And I tend to be pretty honest — if I'm interviewing someone and their salary ask is forty-five, I'm telling the hiring manager they asked for fifty, because that's what we were looking to pay. People really appreciate that, and it just builds great initial trust.

Anita (05:21)

Absolutely. I think about all those softer things too — if you lowball them, they will potentially leave. And then you think about the onboarding, bringing this person in, the psychological impact of someone leaving after being onboarded and being part of a team. This is one of those things that will reverberate through every part of your business.

Anita (08:16)

All right, moving on to question number two. What's a hidden bias companies unknowingly have even when they think they're being progressive in their hiring?

Taylor Genre (08:20)

I think an easy one that's sometimes overlooked is thinking someone's overqualified. Looking at a resume and being like, they have way too much experience, they're never going to want this job. I think we as the people in talent don't ever get to make that decision for someone. They apply for a reason and you don't know that reason until you talk to them.

And I think that has a very fine line to turning into ageism, because typically the more experience you have, the older you are. So unknowingly you're kind of turning it into ageism just by judging them from their experience. I always address this on my first call — if I notice someone has a lot of experience, I say, hey, I never like to say someone's overqualified, but I want to make sure this is what you're looking for at this time in your career.

I've had people say, I just don't want to be managing people anymore, or I really just love to sell and I love being at the front line. You just don't know until you have the conversation.

Anita (10:41)

So number three, question number three: if you were suddenly to remove CVs from your current hiring process, what would that look like?

Taylor Genre (10:52)

I honestly think I would love it. It would definitely affect how my team operates — receive the application, screen the resume, decide to move them forward or not. But I think it would give us an opportunity to learn a lot more about someone than just what's on paper.

I love getting to know people personally through the recruiting process. I like to ask, tell me something about you that I'm not going to find reading here. It makes me worry for candidates who maybe don't interview well or have a hard time talking about themselves, because sometimes they rely heavily on having everything laid out nicely in writing.

But from a recruiter standpoint, I love it and would love to get to know people personally a little bit more.

Anita (13:45)

Yeah, for sure. So we have one wildcard question for you. I really love the 24-hour promise. It sounds simple, but most companies can't even get back to candidates in two weeks, let alone 24 hours. From your experience building this, what has to be true inside of an organization for speed and honesty to actually coexist in this way?

Taylor Genre (13:59)

Yeah, I think it really stems from alignment. The recruiting team is on board, but sales candidates come in and interview with our sales managers. We're not always in the same office — we're in different offices, messaging back and forth, pushing them to make decisions faster. So it was really, hey, we need everyone to be on board with this, because we can only get feedback to candidates as quickly as you get it to us.

And sometimes it takes a couple of nudges. But we've determined they need to hear something after those 24 hours. It's really all about transparency — sure, there are going to be circumstances where something comes up. We had a manager who was out having his baby and I couldn't get in touch with him. So just clear, honest communication is what makes it work, and just everyone being aligned and understanding the commitment. It's really allowed us to hit our hiring goals this year. I'm a big believer, and it's a big part of why we're doing so well.

Anita (15:49)

I love it. And I really like that you've done it for this one area and it shows that it can be done and done thoughtfully. It's really difficult to find that alignment, especially with hiring managers and department heads — getting back to them is important, but we don't always prioritize it. So I appreciate them.

Taylor Genre (16:07)

Yeah, and we had to really get them to shift the mindset from, okay, I have these three great interviews, I want to see which one I like the most — to, if you really like two of them, we can bring on both of them. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Just shifting that mindset.

Anita (16:39)

That's amazing. A testament to your company's vision, values, and how fast you're growing. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I really enjoyed having you here.

Taylor Genre (16:55)

Definitely, Anita, it was so great. Thank you for having me.