Community in Recruiting w. Lusely Martinez - HigherHer ep 21

[00:00:05] Welcome to the HigherHer Podcast by Talent Collective, presenting conversations with inspiring women in talent. And get ready ladies, because this is the last time you're going to hear a man's voice on this show. This is Natalie, co-founder of Talent Collective with my lovely co-founder Krista. Hello! Or you say hello.

[00:00:30] Hi! Hi everyone! I'm not used to doing the openings, gosh. We are here with our HigherHer Podcast, conversations with inspiring women that we've met along the way through our amazing Talent Collective community journey. And today we are joined with Lusely Martinez. Hello Lusely! Hi! Thank you so much for inviting me here to chat.

[00:00:57] Yes, Lusely is here from New Jersey and she, right? No, Long Island, New York. Oh, to me that's kind of like the same. I always get it confused. I'm sorry. I'm like, I know it's not Manhattan, but it's like somewhere on the other side. So my bad. Sorry about that. But we are very lucky to have Lusely. She has been helping champion our New York community,

[00:01:24] putting on a bunch of events out there. They have one coming up this month, which is always super fun. And so a little bit about Lusely. She has over eight years of HR and recruiting experience. She's currently a senior TA partner with Sindio. And she's also the founder of First Gen Labs, which is supporting the careers of First Gen professionals. She's also had experience building

[00:01:53] early stage startup teams and optimizing TA through technology and strategic workforce planning. But I would love to turn over to her to introduce herself and then we will kick off with a little bit more Q&A. So Lusely, tell us more about yourself and your TA journey. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for handing me the floor. Well, as you said, pretty much a whole lot

[00:02:19] of it, but I've been in recruiting for eight plus years. I first got into this, honestly, just administratively. It was one of those things where I feel like everyone that's in recruiting says this. They just kind of got thrown into it. And it was basically like that with me. I started off with administrative tasks that ended up being very HR related tasks. And then I was recruiting for new team members and then training them and then creating processes. And the next

[00:02:43] thing you know, these skills were needed elsewhere. So I basically built up my skills through that a variety of different startups, most notably at CodeSignal, Compliance, and now at Sindio. These are basically SaaS organizations. They work with some larger scale organizations to help them with pretty much HR stuff. So Sindio basically works with compensation data. So what they're able to do is

[00:03:13] help organizations analyze that and ensure that they're paying folks fairly. And this helps them ensure retention and also hopefully makes them a little bit more competitive and a more equitable employer. So that's currently what I'm doing at Sindio. Additionally, I am also a community leader. So I'm highly involved with, as you mentioned, doing events for the TA community, but just women in general, ladies in general, females in general. I'm also a Girl Scout troop leader because I recognize

[00:03:43] that these impacts start really, really young. And so we're tackling our first cookie season this year and really kind of crushing it. Honestly, I'm very impressed with ourselves. But yeah. So just doing a lot of different things, but really what I'm all about is community and knowledge sharing. I think that's one of the major things that I think we've been lacking in society is that kind of transparency all around. And so that's kind of what I like to bring to the table is a holistic

[00:04:08] view and transparency. Very nice. And tell us a little bit about like what your mission or your vision is for, excuse me, the New York community in terms of empowering women, empowering TA practitioners. Yeah. In terms of the New York community, we're really excited to just bring together more recruiters and more women in TA because we have a lot of, I would say, niche concerns when it comes to the work

[00:04:37] that we do. We have a lot of commonalities, a lot of... I think there's a difficulty in being able to break down and being able to really tell people and open up to them, this is what I'm experiencing. But when you're doing it with girlfriends, it feels a whole lot easier. And so that's kind of what I'm hoping we're able to do with Talent Collective here in New York is kind of create those spaces so that women can open up and really authentically ask for help and really kind of reach across the table and be like, I've done this before and let me help you. And we've already seen value in that

[00:05:06] in all the events that we've done so far. I think every single person has been like, yeah, I've done this before. Let me share my experience. So it's been great. Amazing. Well, thanks for sharing. We're very excited for the New York community. There's so many women there and women who, like yourself, really want and crave that connection with each other. And you're speaking to a lot of the reasons why we started Talent Collective. Like you

[00:05:34] talked about when you're getting together with your girlfriends. Um, you know, hopefully we've all had those, those relationships that you can really rely on and depend on. Um, and we really want to foster that kind of, um, that kind of culture within Talent Collective, where it is all about giving back and helping empower each other and, um, help each other succeed instead of, you know, tearing each other down as women. So thank you for championing, championing that, I hate that word, championing,

[00:06:05] championing, championing. It's like the worst word, but doing that for us in, in New York. So thank you. Um, so I'm going to get into some juicy questions here that we have for you today. Um, I'm going to start off with something on the more vulnerable, vulnerable side. Um, so, you know, we're all, we're all human and we all experience challenges. And, um, I think that that's something that can also

[00:06:28] really unite us as humans and, um, bring us together. So, um, if you're willing to share something that you've had a challenge with, you know, something on the more serious side, maybe, maybe it was personal, but maybe it was career wise, um, that was really difficult for you in your life. You know, what was that challenge? How'd you overcome it? Um, and what were some takeaways or learnings from that experience? So whenever I think back on some of the major challenges that I've ever had, they're almost

[00:06:56] always having to do with communications and I studied communication. So it's like, I dive deep into those and I think that, okay, this is, this is one of those things that it's like, I'm excited to get to the bottom of the problem. And not everyone sees it that way. Some people are like, uh, we don't like conflict. We don't like disagreements. Um, and I'm a hundred percent on board with that. I bring the elephant in the room to the center stage so that we can talk about it and make it less awkward. Um, so that's typically one of the things that, um, I think

[00:07:25] does kind of feel challenging at times is when you get into environments where they're not used to that. Um, I, I, I've been in startups for a good amount of time to the point that I have not been, um, I'm going to say traumatized, um, by, I have been in the past, but like, you know, no longer am I traumatized by the things that you would have known in corporate world where basically, you know, you can't say certain things to certain people because of who they are and because the titles

[00:07:52] that they hold. Um, I've gotten now more used to being in a flat organization where you're able to actually say what you see because your perspective is valuable. Um, that being said, I do encounter plenty of people that do come with that corporate trauma. Um, and so, uh, when somebody like myself comes and corrects them as a TA partner and says, you know, that's, I think that could be a little bit biased. Um, they, they fight back, you know, they're, we've definitely had a hiring managers that

[00:08:21] disagree. Um, but I'm going to go with an example that's not with a hiring manager, but I'm going to go with that example that I had with the Girl Scout troop leaders recently, just because they're also a very flat organization. They function very similarly to how startups do, which I think is really great. The values that they instill. Um, and the idea is, is that all decisions, um, are made by, you know, the girls, girl led, um, and our job is to facilitate that. Um, and we see, um, in most

[00:08:48] startup spaces that I've been in, leaders have specific duties that they're supposed to be doing rules. So then it's also to like lead them to facilitate their work, break down the blocker so they can bring their expertise to the table. So that was one of the reasons why, um, you know, with Girl Scouts, it's so critical to, you know, do that early on is teach girls confidence. So I work with a lot of parents, um, and I also have to have co-leaders and supporters and other volunteers to be

[00:09:13] able to bring out these programs for our Girl Scouts pretty much regularly. And that sometimes means that people are like really excited about what it means, but they have not actually done any of the research or even read really what they signed on for, um, when they signed up for the Girl Scouts. It's kind of like, you know, when you have an employee, they sign, uh, they sign on for the job and they're really excited, but they don't actually read the fine print and, and they're in, in, in, in what it really is.

[00:09:41] And, you know, how we function, how we work, this is, this is basically at the manual. Um, and so I had noticed that a couple of the people that were really, really excited actually brought this idea forward, um, and wanted to create a Girl Scout troop, had not actually done any of the work or any of the research or even done any of the support. And rather than like, you know, call them out on it, I kind of like shared with them, like, Hey, take a, take a look at some of the things that we had all

[00:10:06] agreed on, you know, when we signed on, are you, are you able to still do this? You know, this includes, you know, being on the bank account. This includes, you know, um, making sure that there's a bathroom monitor because yes, there's, we're dealing with girls. They have to be safe. Um, that means also understanding the lesson plans and being on par with the messaging that we're giving every single time that we have a meeting and facilitating the girls to do some decision-making. Um, and so that

[00:10:35] means also allowing the girls to vote. And with that also having a lot of open communication with the parents. And so some of the people, um, were pretty upset with me who had not actually done any of that work. And I had, and I was trying to move forward with doing the things. So basically I was trying to open up a bank account because we needed that to do cookie season. I was trying to get a meeting space. I was trying to get permission for dates and they were pretty much just upset with me,

[00:11:03] like saying, I thought we were all going to do this together. And I was like, yes, I thought we were too. You know, it was like, I did, um, this is all the things that need to get done. Can you volunteer for anything? And I just kept getting no's, um, left and right. So that's when I reminded them of, you know, these are, this is the guidelines is what we all agreed to do. If you're able to right now do this as a, uh, you know, as you had dictated, you wanted to be a leader, um, because you want to have some say in what's happening, then these are the requirements. You kind of have

[00:11:32] to do some of the other things. That means also being on the bank account. It means also doing all these other things, um, such as watching all the, for finances, um, shopping, creating the plans, talking with all the parents. That's another thing. My troop has 12 girls. So I'm managing a lot of parents too, not just my girls. Um, so with that said, uh, they ended up bowing out gracefully saying, you know what? I have way too much going on in my life to be able to do this.

[00:12:00] I really don't think I can. Can we ask somebody else to step up? And they gave some suggestions. Those suggestions were like immediately shot down, um, because unfortunately they had already communicated with them and they had said no. So that's when they were like, I need help. They, people said we need help finding somebody else. And I was like, okay, I will help. And I found somebody to help to step up as being a leader. And I had to speak with, um, council because council

[00:12:26] Girl Scouts of the council is actually like our head, you know, it's like a big, big umbrella corporation. So, um, I had to have them change some things in the system because when we initially started the troop, we needed to have leaders just to start the troop. And some people had signed up as leaders that were no longer going to be able to be leaders because they couldn't, they couldn't be part of the bank account. That was honestly like the biggest sticking factor with the bank account. Um, yeah. I mean, having that financial responsibility

[00:12:52] is a big deal. Um, I've been in HR since like, okay, I've been, I've been there, done that, you know, just have your, your sets together. Um, but yeah, no, I found somebody else that was very willing to do it. Um, I made clear to everyone the reason why this was happening and you know, whatever it was, but I still told them, you know, I still think that everyone's opinion is extremely valuable and I still believe that you should be sharing it with everybody else. But one thing that I will ask is, you know, to be kind, to be respectful. Um, because

[00:13:18] there were times where when they were disagreeing, they weren't very unkind. And quite frankly, it was very upsetting for many people in the group that were reading those messages and having to, having to be like, what's going on here? Um, cause there were times that even I was like, I came into this, like maybe a day late and I was like completely thrown, but ultimately it was resolved well because we were able to communicate through the things, you know,

[00:13:45] talk through expectations. Um, and very similar to how I would do with any of my own hiring managers. These are the expectations we signed on for. Um, are you cool with this? Or these are the SLAs. He said, you, we're going to get back to me in 24 hours. It's been 48. You have a response for me now. It's like the same kind of thing. Uh, just reminding people what they've agreed on and seeing if they're still down for that, if anything has changed, okay, let's readjust expectations then so we can move forward. But that was the

[00:14:10] most recent one that I would say really took me for a spin because it was personal for me. You know, the girls got treated for my daughter. It was close to home. These are the people in my community. Um, it matters. Yeah. Well, and like you were saying in the very beginning, like conflict and communicating is really hard. Um, and a lot of people shy away from conflict, but like you said, you've been able to lean in and through that, I think you've made a lot of

[00:14:39] progress. And, um, the company that I'm recruiting for right now, it's called constructive dialogue Institute. And, um, they're basically their whole mission is teaching young people how to communicate better. I think it's just something we all can learn. I think there's a huge generation now of us that do not know how to communicate well and can't lean into conflict and either shy away from it or just escalates too quickly. We can't be in the room with people that have different opinions than

[00:15:08] ourselves nowadays. And I think a lot of that needs to change. And, um, thank you for sharing and sharing like a real personal conflict that you've hopefully been able to work through. Yeah, we did. It's great. Everyone's happy now. Yeah. Good, good. Well, I'm glad you've come out the other side of that. So thanks for sharing. So let's talk about in work. Um, has there been a

[00:15:34] situation where you felt really empowered as a female leader, um, in your role where you've really kind of impacted something, uh, at your company? Um, so it's India. One of the main things that I do have to do is help them with hiring and I only help with hiring, like really all the roles are mid to senior. So pretty much every single role comes with some impact. So I take this extremely

[00:15:58] seriously. Um, and whenever hiring managers actually ask me to even build out their interview plan because they don't trust themselves or what they're looking for, I take that real to heart. One of the main reasons why is because, you know, Sindio, um, is built on being more equitable. Many of the people have been doing this for many, many years and they've been at the organization longer than I have many of the hiring managers. It's now gotten to the point where it's actually different where now I've actually been at the organization longer with some other folks. Um,

[00:16:24] and so I get to train people all the time. I get to train people in, in day in and day out on how to become better interviewers, how to, um, take a look at their own unconscious biases on recognizing that, you know, there's a lot of cultural diversity out there and we're globally hiring. So that means that our own biases might come into the room. We're trying to make decisions. Um, and so it's talking through that to a lot of our different teammates, but I think that one of the most exciting things that I've been able to do was help with opening, well, not completely opening

[00:16:53] up because I'm not going to say there's an office there, but, um, making some of the first hires in Calgary. Um, so Calgary was one of the lowest locations for Sindio this year. Um, and we had not had anybody in Calgary, um, just yet, but the hope was to obviously be able to have some people on that coast or at least in that time zone, um, and be in another country because Sindio is a global organization. Um, so having the opportunity to open up there, you know, required and still does require

[00:17:22] quite a bit of ideas. Like I'm still working through partnerships right now at this time to see where we can open up, uh, uh, um, another source for just more diverse candidates. Because despite the fact that I have been able to find diverse candidates when it comes to, um, ethnicity and race, I have not found as many female candidates as I would like to find, you know, or female identifying candidates as I would like to find. But, um, I am very excited to say that now

[00:17:48] we do have plenty of employees in Calgary. Um, we actually started with zero, uh, at some point last year. And at this point we now have had, um, I'm going to say I've already hired at least three folks in Calgary and my teammate has also hired three. So we now have at least six people already in Calgary, um, since last year and we're still hiring there. So it's an exciting time. I know that down the line, they're likely going to need a people person in Calgary, just not yet.

[00:18:17] Very nice. Well, it sounds like the expansion's going well there. Um, we're getting close to time here. So I want to end with one question. So, um, outside of what you do with Cindy O, you have started your own company. So tell us a little bit about that. Tell us about, um, what was your inspiration for starting it? And, um, what, what do you think the future holds? Yeah. So I opened up first gen lab when I was at compliant, just largely because I'd noticed at

[00:18:45] the time that I was helping a lot of people with their resumes and helping them with interview prep and stuff. And I really needed a platform to put that under. So I was like, okay, who am I helping? Largely first generation folks like myself getting into the professional world. Um, and so that's kind of like where I went with it. Um, then after, you know, compliant, unfortunately, you know, they didn't succeed as much as I would have hoped. Um, but after that went, um, after we were no longer,

[00:19:11] I was no longer with the organization. Um, I kind of really leaned into it. And that's basically how I got my contract at Cindy. Um, Cindy does require me to be 40 hours a week. So I don't really have much time to work with other organizations, but I do provide a lot of feedback and product and product feedback to other founders in the recruiting space. So I worked with draft board, unfortunately, before they ended up, you know, sun setting. Um, and I believe I was part of the loud crowd that said,

[00:19:40] you need to have a larger incentive for recruiters here. Um, cause people do start off really excited. And then, you know, it was a downhill from there, but more than one platform, um, that I, that I test out on a regular basis and have given feedback to. So that also falls under first gen lab. But the idea basically is I work with you to help you figure out what it is that you're working on and give you insight into what I know. I recognize that my expertise is something that not everyone

[00:20:09] has. Um, and so I'm able to, to share it, whatever kind of questions people ask. So most of the time people have been really curious, okay, so you're a recruiter. How can you help me in regards to using my product or testing it out or recommending it to people or in regards to my resume? How can my resume be better? Um, what kind of industries would be really good for me if I'm looking to switch? Um, I've had a lot of those conversations and have a lot of people like land new jobs, which has been very, very exciting in my time. And that's what I hope to continue doing with first

[00:20:37] gen lab. My hope is in the future, um, to maybe even acquire a business or two under first gen lab and actually have something brick and mortar. Um, but the idea is just kind of like to show it's just a matter of building up your skills. And I think communication is one of the main parts of that. And so that's kind of what I provide is that kind of coaching, like, Hey, this is maybe what you're missing or this point of view or this perspective. Um, and it's been very helpful. And like I said,

[00:21:04] I have no problem speaking my mind. So that's been very useful for me. And that's kind of what first gen lab does. I speak my mind, but usually in an actionable way and the most kinds and actionable way possible, because I recognize that some advice is not good advice at all. Yeah, that's so good. I love that. Well, thank you. Thanks for sharing that, Luceli. And thanks for being here and being a guest with us today. Um, again, we thank you so much for

[00:21:29] everything that you're doing for talent collective in New York and, um, and nationally and, and for all the people that you're helping as well. So, um, if you want to connect with you, where should they find you? Definitely connect me on LinkedIn. I'm one of the very few loose alleys out there and I have a very cute notion picture that looks kind of just like this. Well, thank you again. And to all of our

[00:21:55] listeners, thanks for tuning in. Be sure to like, and subscribe so that we can continue making these amazing podcast episodes and sharing, um, all of our guests with you all. And until next time, thanks for being here.