Fit to Be Tied with Liz Owens

[00:00:00] Yo Chad, what if I told you there's a platform that could completely revolutionize your hiring strategy in a matter of hours? Yeah, I'd call it bullshit. Well, it's not bullshit with AI for Jobs powered by our friends at This Way Global. Okay, I'm listening.

[00:00:19] Well, everyone else is fishing in the same old talent pools. AI for Jobs can source over 160 million diverse candidate profiles. This Way Global has established unique partnerships with over 8,500 trusted diversity partners. So wait a minute. All of the hard on-the-ground work is already done. That's right, cowboy.

[00:00:41] You can discover 300 qualified candidates per job rack instantly. Wow! It's like having a candidate sourcing magic wand. Dude, if you had a magic wand, you would have Mexican pizzas all day. Stop distracting me, So Wash.

[00:00:59] AI for Jobs' advanced matching algorithm analyzes past applicants using trillions of historical matching events and over 1,600 data points. Now that is what AI should be doing, saving recruiters time on sourcing while they provide a white-glove candidate experience. Let's wrap this shit up. I'm hungry. Listen up, kids.

[00:01:22] Revolutionize your hiring process today by jumping over to ThisWayGlobal.com and checking out AI for Jobs where you can learn more about how to leverage AI for your recruiting instead of just writing poems and grocery lists. That is ThisWayGlobal.com. We out. Hide your kids. Lock the doors.

[00:01:46] You're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast. Chad So Wash and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where it hurts. Complete with breaking news, brash opinion, and loads of snark. Buckle up, boys and girls. It's time for the Chad and Cheese podcast. Oh, yeah.

[00:02:08] What's up, everybody? It is Lady Gaga's favorite podcast, aka the Chad and Cheese podcast. I'm your co-host Joel Cheeseman. Join us always, The Garth to my Wayne. Chad So Wash is in the house. And we are here with Liz Owens. Don't call her Elizabeth.

[00:02:26] She is the manager of town acquisition at West Coast Fitness. And if someone knows fitness as much as me, it might be you, but I know so much. You're about fitness pizza in your mouth. I curled about two in and out burgers last night. Wow.

[00:02:42] At least 10 reps of 20. Wow. Just two? Yeah. Come on, Cheese. Give me more. Well, a couple fries, animal style. Yeah. Again. Don't test my endurance on you. Well, I bow down to the king of this burger into my mouth.

[00:02:58] The only way he uses fitness in a sentence is I'm fitness burger in my mouth. Fitness burger in my mouth. So a lot of our listeners, maybe all of them don't know who you are. Give us a Twitter bio about you. Likely they do not.

[00:03:10] A quick bio on me. I've been working with West Coast Fitness, which is a large ownership group of Orange Theory Fitness for four years. Orange Theory for five actually started with Orange Theory working in management for them out in Australia when I lived out there for several years.

[00:03:24] Yeah. Big global brand so I can kind of move all over and landed back in Los Angeles where I was born and raised and got connected with West Coast Fitness, moved my way around from sales and ops in management in studio to pre-sales.

[00:03:38] Then I got hooked into the HR team and now I'm the manager of talent positions. Hello. Here it is. So you got stuck with the manager of TA position. Yeah. Yeah. You have drama degree from NYU and you've ended up in TA. Yes.

[00:03:56] How does that make you feel? Well, back in NYU, TA meant a little different thing for us. Is it a TMA or just TA? Exactly. I'm glad to have moved away from that area of expertise because I felt like I was selling that a little bit too much.

[00:04:12] Wow. It's a thing. It is a thing. Yeah. But actually if you think about it, acting, psychology, sales, moved into restaurant performing, selling stuff. You were destined to be here is what you're saying. I was. Now here I am. So we're recording this at the end of January.

[00:04:28] Yes. And even I know that January is a huge month for the fitness industry. Talk a little bit about the complexities of staffing up for the holiday rush. Oh, God, yeah. What works best for recruiting? Are there professions that you pull from to be in the industry?

[00:04:45] Talk about the challenges of January in the fitness industry. Well, I will say not to brush myself off a little bit here, but bringing people on for fitness who are energetic, who are personalities. And whether that's in the studio coaching the class or it's the front desk staff

[00:05:05] or even management moving into that, people with my kind of background who are performers, particularly in LA where we're based, like we're going to find a lot of energy and personality with them. So it's easier in LA? Charisma. It is a little easier in LA. Okay.

[00:05:18] But a lot of competition too. A lot of competition. I mean, I definitely made a lot of money in restaurants versus, you know, an hourly kind of like front desk job, not a lie.

[00:05:26] But a lot of people get hooked on the product and then they want to be coaches and then they become personalities and famous in their own right in their own little communities. And then they end up being lifelong coaches as their career. So it's a thing.

[00:05:40] Competitive pay benefits. Like what can I expect as a fitness professional? Absolutely. So as a fitness professional with us, you would be looking at a nice competitive hourly wage clocking in and out for all of your classes,

[00:05:52] as well as a very well tiered pay system according to how many people are in your class. So if you are great at marketing yourself to the community, to outside communities bringing new people in, you're going to see that payout tenfold by having your classes sell

[00:06:07] out and then you're going to be making about $100 a class. So it's a nice little pay. How's that different in Q1 versus Q2? Because you've got that big surge in Q1, right? Or Q4. And then they start to kind of dwindle out.

[00:06:20] Well, I will say January 2024 has been our best month for the last few years as we've been getting ourselves back out of the COVID era, especially in California. It's been very tough. So nearly every one of our studios is hitting their goals this month

[00:06:33] and it'll be amazing to carry out into, you know, throughout Q1 into Q2. We are seeing a bit of a drop off in terms of our seasonal employees, of course, because they're coming, you know, a lot of our people are in college.

[00:06:44] So they're still working and in school. So what they are doing is, you know, they're leaving us after the winter months or getting back into their university programs. We'll probably see them come back in the summer. So it's all about just maintaining efficiencies throughout the studio

[00:06:59] and keeping on top of backfilling those roles, knowing when they're coming up, making sure that we are communicating with our teams and our hiring managers so that we don't fall behind. So do you have boomerangs? People who have been coaches and they kind of went out and they,

[00:07:13] they might still be a part of the orange theory or what have you, right? But do you have the boomerangs? That sitcom pilot didn't get picked up. So now I'm back at the fitness industry. Does that happen? Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yes, that does happen a lot actually.

[00:07:26] So we have a ton of people who leave for a little while, whether they're going to, you know, pursue their own private PT types of things, or they have other interests or they're in school again, you know, they're coming, they're go off and complete a degree.

[00:07:40] Then they end up coming back either, you know, part-time because they miss it. But when people are coaches, they become passionate about it. You don't just, you know, get a special certification and go through the process to get hired with us.

[00:07:51] We have a pretty rigorous training program to get in and become a coach with us because our standards are very high. And, you know, you don't go through all of those things to just have it be a side job.

[00:08:02] Most of the time people are really passionate about it. They want to be doing it. They want to be helping people. And it's a really great industry to work in because you get to watch people reach their goals every day. So let's get into the fun stuff.

[00:08:15] What's your tech stack look like? Let me loosen up a little bit. Tell acquisition, you got to go get them so you need the acquisition part, right? So the postings and all that. She's got a lot of problems with you people. All the way through.

[00:08:29] I don't know if we've got time for all of my... This is the place, right? All right, guys. Do I need to pay you for therapy as well? Because this is what it's going to turn into. We'll get to the end of this and let you know.

[00:08:38] Okay, perfect. She'll be sending me a bill. Okay, perfect. Great. Well, I take... I've got Anthem, so hopefully they'll cover me for that. We usually work for Bourbon. Oh, excellent. All right. I can... I think I can score a little bit. All right.

[00:08:52] So we have been working with a company for HRAS for several years now. We're not set up for success. I will say just to play devil's advocate, we've been working with Paycom and we are moving systems in the next very short amount of time.

[00:09:07] Paycom does not know this, so hopefully this does not go live before we make that move. We're huge with the Paycom folks. Hugely popular. You know, if you are, then I would probably readjust here. Yes, Chad Richardson listens to us all the time. CEO of Paycom.

[00:09:21] I love it. Well, if Barbara Corker is listening, look, bitch. I got a few complaints for you, so you might want to step out on that investment. Not the Shark Tank lady. Oh, yeah. That Q-tip. I'm upset. I'm upset with her. She's all on the ads, isn't she?

[00:09:35] Oh, 100%. Every time a commercial comes on, I change the channel. I can't do it. I mean, to play devil's advocate, the system probably works well for smaller companies. And when we started with them back in like 2017 or 18, we were probably under 200 employees.

[00:09:49] And we grew exponentially in the years prior to COVID and in COVID. So we went from 200 to 750 in a matter of probably a year and a half. And the system just wasn't set up for that. We didn't have the team and agility

[00:10:03] to be able to make those adaptations when it happened. So COVID shut down. We had just doubled in size. When we came back online, no one took that into consideration for the HRIS. So it really, really was at a, you know,

[00:10:16] we were at a detriment for that for a while to the point now where we can't really function in that system and we had to just move on. Ooh, it sounds like a cautionary growth tale. Yes. It's what it sounds like. If you grow too fast

[00:10:28] and you don't have the infrastructure to be able to take care of that growth, okay, paycom, then I mean, so did you have conversations with them around trying to build infrastructure that would support you guys? Or you say screw it. It's not even worth it.

[00:10:43] We're getting hell out of here. I mean, look, I, at first since I took the role in TA, I have been looking for other systems that can help us. Their back end, their, you know, communication with their teams and their reps hasn't been fantastic

[00:10:56] and they don't play nicely with others. So anytime we found a system that could help them, like, hey, you know, I found this ATS that gives us these, you know, these features. Can we integrate? They go, no, you'd have to get approval. And I'm like, okay, well,

[00:11:10] what about this required ATS that we have to use working with Orange Theory? We are required to use Career Plug to get hooked into their corporate careers page. Okay. And then want to integrate. So I have to use two different systems to get all of my candidates through

[00:11:26] and then they're having to reapply to get into Paycom where we can onboard them. It is a nightmare. So you're scraping jobs off of your system to push into another system. Yep. And then the candidate hopefully seamlessly goes into the other system. Hopefully, that's a big hopefully.

[00:11:41] Oh yeah. Absolutely. Bitch. What's the fix? Do you huddle up and like tackle this? Well, I did a lot of research. I found several companies that we could kind of look at and demo and talk through. We also have a very complicated payroll system.

[00:11:57] So that was obviously our priority when we're moving systems. We can't just take the ATS into consideration. We have to make sure that the whole thing is going to run well for us. People need paid. They really do. Any paid. I mean, look, I know,

[00:12:08] we lost our payroll manager several months ago and I actually stepped up with the rest of my like four people on our HR team and we are running payroll now. Wow. We're killing it. Okay, listener, how can you help your employees become more productive? I have answers.

[00:12:23] How about automating manual and repetitive tasks, giving meaning to data, then allowing that data to actually drive decisions? And how about matching people to your jobs quicker? Well, wait, the Chad and Cheese has a new LLM? No, cheese man. I'm talking about Tex Colonel. Ah, okay.

[00:12:44] That makes more sense. What I'm hearing is the groundbreaking concept of wait for it. Simplicity. Seriously though, seriously. Tex Colonel cuts through the complexities like a tortilla chip through some hot nacho cheese. Oh my God. Really? Nacho references already. Anyways, Tex Colonel brings efficiency

[00:13:06] and productivity to your operations. Tex Colonel seamlessly unifies your tools and data to drive efficiencies and success. Tex Colonel is creating new opportunities for your recruitment journey, kind of like adding guac to my barbacoa burrito. Oh my God. How about extracting meaningful insights from data?

[00:13:28] I mean, that's something. Swiftly matching people with jobs, automating repetitive tasks. Who knew such advanced concepts were even possible in the land of human resources? We did, Chad. We did. Dude, wrap it up. I'm a little hungry. Imagine that. Okay, listener, get ready to use today's tech

[00:13:52] to drive efficiencies and productivity. Visit TexColonel.com. That's T-E-X-T-K-E-R-N-E-L dot com. Mmm, nachos. We are killing it, but we just got a payroll manager and she's being trained. But we're moving to Paycore, which will integrate a lot of other systems.

[00:14:15] It will help automate a lot of our inefficiencies right now and get us back on track. How easy was the move? Was it sort of a click and move all the data over or was it a manual process? TBD, we go live tomorrow. So we're gonna see.

[00:14:28] You're good then. We're good. It's no stress. I'm here with you guys. I'm fine. Stress-free with chat and cheese. Any other vendors that you want to vent about here at the chat and cheese therapy session? Oh, man, that's tough. Paincom has really been our big one. Paincom.

[00:14:47] I'm getting that. Feeling the pain. It's been the major one. Or something that you really enjoy. What are some vendors and solutions that you're using to recruit that you want to highlight? Okay, okay. Well, the team at Career Plug has been really helpful. Career Plug. Career Plug.

[00:15:02] I've got a Plug Career Plug. I love the kind of plug you're thinking about. No, no. Teen A Plugs. You guys are on it. I love it. Wrong show. You're my kind of guys. So don't tell my husband. So I would say, I mean,

[00:15:15] Pig Core's team has been amazing in our transition. I really enjoyed looking at, I want to say Ripple. Ripple match? Ripple match. Ripple match. Okay. I'm forgetting, but... They clearly made an impact. They did at time. You know what? They're pushing me off guard here with your questions.

[00:15:33] But Career Plug, their team's been really wonderful. Even though it doesn't always do the things I need it to, they're always responsive. They're always helpful. They jump on phone, onto phone calls with me. And honestly, meeting the vendors here, they've all been really incredible.

[00:15:46] What are your biggest challenges in recruiting? Biggest challenge right now. We do own 19 studios in the Bay. And recruiting coaches up there has been the biggest challenge, I would say. It is a very, very hard industry. There because the cost of living is so high.

[00:16:03] So coaches are coming in at this part time where we talked about, hey, you know, like, people do this as a side gig. That's where they do it. They have to have full-time jobs. They work in tech. They work in other industries

[00:16:15] where they can actually make the cheese, bring home the cheddar. And then they do this as a passion project and they say, look, I can't make this work full-time. And then we've got holes to fill. We've got gaps in our schedules. We've got people moving, coming and going

[00:16:29] because they just can't pay the bills. And that's it. So you had a line of thinking that I think he rudely interrupted. It's okay. We're here at TA Week and there are plenty of vendors that are here. How many shows do you go to generally a year

[00:16:43] and do you get a chance to really dig into the tech nowadays to really understand what the hell a stack looks like? Well, this is my first rodeo for a conference like this. Hello. And I'm really stoked. This was, I didn't really think that

[00:16:58] the vendors would be as helpful for me because our budget is so limited. Like I have to use the manpower where I can and we're just moving into a new HRIS where a lot of our new budget is going and figuring that out.

[00:17:10] But understanding how all of these, especially new AI techs, can help automate and fully integrate now into a system that allows that can really help to loosen up some of the reins that we have on our people to go and perform other tasks

[00:17:24] rather than focusing on these minute details of a phone screen process and the sourcing and all of those things. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, without coaches, you don't have what? You don't have revenue. They are our product. Yeah, the CEO has to understand,

[00:17:38] hey, unless I get this great stack in place that helps alleviate a lot of this bullshit that we're dealing with right now, I can't get you the people that you need to be able to make the money that we need to...

[00:17:50] We're having a great month. Let's go ahead and spend some money. Absolutely, I love that. So for the good month, my CFO is much, much easier to talk to. Oh, I bet. Let's say that. So walk me through. You get an opening, a rec.

[00:18:01] What action items are there? Do you post a job? Do you go source? How do you find those people? So our studio managers act as their own hiring managers through the entire process unless they get so slammed that they need to call up on myself or my specialist

[00:18:14] to come and help with phone screens. But we get those recs open for them. We post to all of the free job boards that are associated with Courret Plug to get those moving if they are in a particularly slow area, like a region that doesn't

[00:18:26] have a lot of pull from just a free post. We're getting sponsorship on there just to kind of pull in some leads. But for the most part, we're looking for entry-level positions. We're looking for customer service and front desk people. The coaches, of course,

[00:18:39] we do have very high standards, as I said. So we're looking for particular certifications. We're looking for experience and group fitness. And so our hiring managers are taking a look at the candidates that come through. They are doing some phone screens or bringing them in for a class.

[00:18:52] Because if you don't get Orange Theory, if you don't understand, if you don't care about it, if you don't feel like you want to be there and do the workout, then you're not going to want to sell it. You're not going to want to be there every day.

[00:19:02] I would assume that that would actually... I mean, you can grow your own at that point, right? Because you have all these people who are doing Orange Theory. They're into it. I mean, they're almost cultish in some kind of ways. 100%. Right? Yeah.

[00:19:14] So, I mean, that's a great, like, talent pipeline for you guys to actually start pulling the ones that you see. Absolutely. Who've been there. So how much of your hiring actually happens through that talent pipeline versus having to go out to the market? I would say about half.

[00:19:28] Okay. We have a great referral program, so sourcing is our current staff can go out and bring their friends. But also, our members are our biggest advocates. They are so loyal. They love the brand. Yeah. They want to be there. Plus, you get a free membership.

[00:19:41] So, I mean, that helps them out, right? Yeah. If they're coming over. Yeah. A lot of our members, because they're older with families, they're sending their kids over. So, they're 17 and 18 year olds who are like, I'm going to school or I've got after school, whatever.

[00:19:52] They're like, get a job. Go work at Orange Theory. So, that's great. And then what we have is our front desk. They end up loving the product. They're young. They don't really know what they want to do. So, they're like, hey, I'm going to get my certification

[00:20:02] and become a coach. And they end up being the best possible people to be running our classes because they love it. Yeah. They want to be there every day. And the members know them already. So, it's a win-win. Yeah. Are you struggling to attract

[00:20:14] the talent you need today? Yeah. So, you can attract visibility into where your recruitment ad dollars are really going. There's a better way. Acquire ROI is a programmatic job advertising platform built to optimize your budget and supercharge hiring. Acquire ROI automatically manages and measures recruitment ads

[00:20:32] across job boards so you can allocate your budget based on insights, not hunches. Get to quality candidates faster and cost effectively scale hiring across roles, all while gaining complete visibility and control over your recruitment marketing investments. Say goodbye to manual guesswork, inconsistent performance, and wasted spending.

[00:20:50] And hello to optimized automated campaigns that produce qualified applicants. At Acquire ROI, we make job advertising easy. Visit us at AcquireROI.com and start transforming your talent acquisition today. You have a pretty impressive resume in the food service industry. Thank you. Including a stand

[00:21:10] at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Yes. And Nobu. Yeah. So first off, who's the most famous person that you waited on? Axel Foley, of course. Secondarily, California in particular, we're seeing minimum wage rise in the service industry. I'm assuming you have at least some opinion

[00:21:30] on what's going on in California, whether right or wrong. So give me the best, the best person you've voted on and then what are your opinions on the rising minimum wage in the food service industry in California and the impact? Sure thing. Okay.

[00:21:42] So the next person I've waited on probably was Shaq. Took care of him and his family on Christmas. Wow. How much food does he put down? It was a lot of food. And his kids are not shy either. It was like 10 people.

[00:21:55] It was just constant chicken fingers and fries. Oh, yeah. Coming to the table. But he is so kind and so gentle. No cop salad for Shaq. Is that what you're saying? I don't think he was having a McCarthy at the time. Yeah. Yeah. But he's lovely.

[00:22:10] Bob Saget was also amazing. Oh, really? Yes. And it was super cool to help him out. He liked to smoke a secret cigar on the patio that was not necessarily legal. Okay. But you know, we hook it up for Bob Saget. You know, God bless him.

[00:22:26] It's all good now. Yeah. Exactly. Not a problem anymore. So sadly. Anywho. So to move on to your minimum wage question, I know that as in the food service industry in California, they're making a lot of money. And that is super nice.

[00:22:42] Like to the point where I'm like, damn, T.A. is not even... It was like, I should be going back to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Like, yeah, it's crazy because they are... You are required to pay minimum wage. And it's very high, especially in L.A.

[00:22:54] while you're also making tips at these high-end restaurants. So it is a very nice industry where you're making a nice six figures and you're able to maintain your life. Imagine that. I know. A miracle. So what's the percentage that you would say that are Beverly Hills

[00:23:11] versus the rest of the state? Versus Taco Bell. Yeah, it feels kind of like Shining Star. You know, it's like, oh yeah, they could make $100,000 plus dollars. Not a problem. What about the guy who's not in Beverly?

[00:23:23] I mean, look, I lived in Australia where the minimum wage is much higher and very livable. So as a front desk associate at Orange Theory, you were making... And this was 2019. You were making $23, $24 an hour. You get paid more on the weekends. You get paid more on holidays.

[00:23:38] Like a Saturday is a lower rate than Sunday even. So you're able to make a wage here. You know, it's significantly less. The cost of living is really high. I wish that people could get paid more everywhere. If I could make that change, I would.

[00:23:52] And the fact that it's so high in California and so low in other states. I mean, obviously it's all relative, but it's not fair for anyone. No one has one job anymore. You can't do it. Yeah. But whatever, you know, if you're working at Beverly Hills Hotel.

[00:24:04] I think the Paycom CEO, he's worth like $1.7 billion. He should pay his people more. And then maybe you might get the service that you would need. Then they could have retained a client. Well, you know, I got the skinny because one of our reps

[00:24:19] from Paycore actually used to work for Paycom. And apparently this guy is a little loony tunes because he hires people to be his reps. He refuses to hire anyone who has experience working with another HRIS for exclusivity reasons.

[00:24:31] But then you talk to these reps and they know nothing. They know nothing about HR. They know nothing about the systems they're talking about. And they barely know Paycom because they're probably receiving horrible training that has nothing to do with anything. Yeah. So.

[00:24:43] And it's amazing because a lot of these technologies we're seeing are getting new CEOs who have no experience in this space. It's delightful. That is Liz Owens, everybody. Liz, for anyone out there listening that wants to connect with you or learn more about West Coast Fitness,

[00:24:58] where do you send them? Go to linked in under Liz Owens, manager of talent positions for West Coast Fitness. Follow West Coast Fitness as well. I am also on Instagram as at Liz in underscore life. Play on words there. So thanks for having me guys. Appreciate it.

[00:25:15] I like it lunch is coming up. Hopefully they'll have Chakarone pieces from Papa John's if we're lucky. Another one in the can Chad. We out. Thank you for listening to what's it called a podcast. The Chad, the cheese. Brilliant. They talk about recruiting. They talk about technology.

[00:25:34] But most of all they talk about nothing. Just a lot of shout outs of people you don't even know. And yet you're listening. It's incredible. And not one word about cheese. Not one cheddar blue nacho pepper jack Swiss. There's so many cheeses and not one word. So weird.

[00:25:56] Any who be sure to subscribe today on iTunes Spotify Google play or wherever you listen to your podcasts. That way you won't miss an episode. And while you're at it visit www.chadcheese.com. Just don't expect to find any recipes for grilled cheese. It's so weird. We out.

[00:26:21] How much do you understand the future of finance? I'm Jim Maruz, a top 10 banking influencer and host of the podcast Banking Transform where we dive deeply into the rapidly evolving world of banking and financial technology. Join me as I interview industry experts, thought leaders

[00:26:40] and innovators as they unravel the latest banking trends, disruptions and game changing technologies reshaping the world of finance redefine your understanding of the banking ecosystem. Subscribe now to Banking Transform available wherever you get your podcasts and now available on YouTube.