Turn to page 68 of our new culture book, and you’ll find the following quote: “Almost nothing can stop you from succeeding if you have flexibility and self-accountability.”
Embracing this advice can significantly impact your career, as senior field recruiter Madi Prether learned during her first six months at The Connor Group.
Madi fills a wide variety of roles in the organization — from Central Support Office cleaners to Greater Dayton School bus drivers. She’s recruited managers across the country and every position in between. In addition to recruiting, Madi also impacts other operations in the Recruiting Department.
“She has been really helpful with idea generation,” recruiting coordinator Hope Collins said. “She has played a major role in brainstorming ways to not only improve our recruiting process, but also with vendor management. She has been a key individual in budgeting and tracking expenses to ensure we spend correctly and do not exceed our budget. Madi is truly a team player and is willing to help wherever is needed.”
Over the past year, Madi oversaw a social media contest. That contest resulted in more than 14,000 people seeing Connor Group posts in February and March. She’s trained new recruiters and helped execute our college career fairs for the Long-term Development Program, which brought in five top-performing sales associates in our Dayton and Cincinnati markets. In addition, Madi also manages the referral program. She ensures each referral is contacted and associates receive payouts for hires they helped find.
We asked Madi to share her most impactful Winners’ Circle card. She chose one from partner Brad Dykes from the start of her Connor Group career.
When did you get it?
May 09, 2020
Who was it from?
Brad Dykes
What does it say?
“Great work with the quantity and quality of candidates you are producing! Excited to have you working to build my team!”
Why did you get it?
We were six days from the end of our recruiting period, my first period at the Connor Group. I hired two sales associates on a goal of five. After recognizing the problem was me and taking action to fix the problem, I scheduled four more days in the field, three for Chicago and one for Denver. I finished the period hitting my goal of five sales associates.
Why was it so impactful?
I received this card while overcoming my biggest culture mishap — my mindset.
I chose to listen to bad advice from the wrong person when I got my goals for hiring for Chicago sales. I was told, “Chicago sales are impossible to hire for; Courtney Dies fails everyone. Good luck. I’ve been here for six months and haven’t hired anyone.”
After five failed days in the field, Courtney called (partner) Angela Burns and said, “You need to listen to this girl’s calls because these Day in the Field candidates are just not what we are looking for.” I was discouraged and started to believe that it was the market’s problem that we couldn’t hire. I didn’t think it was my own problem.
We didn’t have culture classes at this time, but luckily, due to COVID we had a weekly Friday Broadcast from Larry. Larry stated in one of those broadcasts, “When I hear a manager say, ‘It’s this market is different, or this property is different,’ I know exactly what the problem is. It’s the manager.” I knew that I needed to take a look in the mirror.
I took this to heart and scheduled an intake meeting with Courtney to find out the needs of the business and exactly what Chicago needed. It was impactful because it came at a point in my career where I made the choice every day to come to work, show up and persevere. I was recognized for those efforts.
