At Marsden Services, a national provider of cleaning, security, and maintenance services, talent acquisition starts with clear and honest role-selling.
In this episode, Vice President of Talent Acquisition Ashley Lynch shares how visiting worksites, understanding the day-to-day realities of each role, and setting clear expectations have helped her team improve both speed-to-hire and retention.
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[00:00:00] Ashley Lynch: What can we do to help the company? And what can the company do to help TA? What can we do for each other? And how can all of the departments work together to ensure that we can keep people and get them there faster?
[00:00:13] Dave Travers: So what does it really take for your business to attract world-class talent today? I'm Dave Travers, President of ZipRecruiter and on Talent All-Stars.
We shine a light on the people and the day-to-day processes behind recruitment and retention at some of the world's most influential businesses. Today's Talent All-Star is Ashley Lynch, Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Marsden Services, a leading provider of cleaning, security, and maintenance services.
Ashley didn't plan on a career in recruiting. You'll hear about her unique background in a moment, but when she started at Marsden, her own hiring experience was so positive that it inspired her to lean into talent acquisition. Today, she leads the function for a company that's made huge strides in hiring and retention.
So let's hear more about her journey and how she's pulled that off. Ashley Lynch from Marsden Services. Welcome to Talent-All Stars.
[00:01:03] Ashley Lynch: Hi. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:05] Dave Travers: Delighted to have you. So great to be able to talk about so many different things, given your amazing background and interesting path.
But start out with a lot of people get into talent acquisition by being a recruiter or by doing other stuff in hr, and then coming there, your path was a little bit different. How did you end up as a talent acquisition leader?
[00:01:26] Ashley Lynch: Yeah, so through my history of my career, I've been in retail and the fitness industry.
Through that, you know, as you said, I'm worn the operations hat. I've been in customer service and sales, and we're HR and we're TA. So throughout all that, while you're running inventory and while you're getting prepared for the seasonal rush, um, we are ever hiring forever. You know, always making sure that we're out looking for new talent.
A lot of times in the retail and fitness industry, you have a lot of high schoolers or college students that are looking for, you know, that transition period or somewhere where they can work until they're out of college. And so I always had my hand in TA. I always was sourcing, interviewing, onboarding, hiring, training.
I always love digging in and figuring out, you know, what are your goals? Where do you wanna be up at? Where do you wanna be someday? Do you want to work here? Do you wanna grow here? Or do you, you're gonna college right now, what do you wanna do from there? And so I always feel that we have that opportunity to build that skillset for whatever adventure they're going to be going on in the future.
But we have that opportunity to learn that and help kind of mold them into their future environments and future careers someday. So I always had my hand in that, and so I interviewed with Marsden and met a great executive recruiter who won me over for a TA manager position here in this office. And that was an excellent opportunity that I jumped right on.
And I will say in TA, it really matters in how you interview and how you come across and how you sell the role in the company. And the executive recruiter, her name was Brandi Gale. The first time I spoke to her, she was really excited, energetic. She was very passionate about the role, passionate about the company, the direction the company was going, what their initiatives were, what all you're overseeing and doing on a day-to-day, you know, and getting a true snapshot.
And we ended up going over our interview time. It was, it was an amazing experience. It was very fun, lighthearted, and I was like, Oh, I really like this. This is really exciting. This is a little different from what I was doing. I always loved the human aspect of the business, and so, you know, I went through a couple rounds of interviews with people, had amount as passion and energy as she did. And I was like, this is where I wanna go. Let's give it a try. And here I am.
[00:03:42] Dave Travers: So what I love about that story, first of all, like Brandy in particular brought out and lit something up in you clearly. And what I love about is it connected with how you have always viewed interviewing as a hiring manager rather than a.
Earlier in your career as the TA lead or leader, and talk a little bit of like what was so clear, both as you talked about your own path to TA in that amazing interview, and also as you sort of approached evaluating people. And recruiting people. As a hiring manager, you talked a lot about where are you going, not just, you know, where are you at today?
What are your skills? What is it about where you're going, or your ambitions, or your dreams, or what is it about all that that makes talent acquisition come alive for you?
[00:04:27] Ashley Lynch: So, you know, I would really say that getting the opportunity to meet someone at any level, at any position, and understanding where they're coming from.
Sometimes they share in the interview, I just really need a job. I need to pay my bills, or this looks like a really exciting opportunity. Your company has some great things going on, and being able to build off that excitement and what they're looking for and then giving them that offer, you know, when we get to that point and hearing the excitement in their voice.
We help them find this opportunity, we offered them, and now they have an opportunity to kind of change their life or take a new trajectory. And I always find that to be very exciting, and everyone has an opportunity to grow. I started it in retail with my grandmother when I was a little girl, and I've kind of grown and someone gave me some keys one day when I was 19.
And you know, I've been a leader since then. And I wouldn't have had that opportunity if she didn't see in me the leader who gave me those keys. I could move on and be something someday. I wouldn't be in this spot right now without her giving me those keys when I was 19; she helped set my trajectory. So being able to set anyone on that trajectory, helping anyone accomplish those goals, no matter how minor or how large, I think, is super crucial.
Super exciting. Cause if you can feel, have someone feel that their goals are going to be met or have a potential to be met, might not be today, could be three years, but you're on a path, and so seeing that is always really exciting. And then seeing the internal promotions or seeing, you know, always having a backup plan is super crucial.
So being able to fill with talent that can do it is super exciting, and you know that you have something ready to go on the back wing. If someone wins the lottery someday, you have some good talent there. So I just find that all very exciting. Very passionate about development and getting people to where they wanna go someday.
[00:06:15] Dave Travers: I loved hearing you talked about, mentioned a couple times there, what it was like when those keys were handed to you. It doesn't sound like it was just the physical sensation of the keys in your hand. There was something big about realizing the responsibility that you were deemed worthy of at that point.
Talk about that and talk about how that shapes your, you now as a leader, as you think about developing other people.
[00:06:37] Ashley Lynch: This is a leader I'll never forget my entire life. Her name is, uh, Trina. So, and she was my leader at Bath and Body Works. I got hired as a seasonal associate, and I loved it. It was very lively, energetic, lots of customers you can help with inventory.
I would paint the building, like anything that could get me involved, I was all for it. So I was always volunteering for new opportunities. And she would teach me, you know, we, we wore aprons, we wear aprons at back and body works, and they had pockets. And so I would put my hands in my pockets in the front throughout the day and go, hi, how you doing? And welcome to the store.
And then she came up to me one day, and she's like, why do you put your hands in your pockets? And I was like, oh, I guess it's just like I'm fidgeting, and I don't realize that my hands are in the pockets. And she goes, do you think you'd be a little bit more inviting if you put your hands behind your back?
You're not closing yourself off, you're opening yourself up. You're being, hi, how are you? I'm not, I'm nervous. I'm open to talk to you. And she would always bring up challenges like that, but in a way develop you and kind of come to the answer yourself, and you know, kind of grow you from there. So, challenging my mind to think in a slightly different way.
And she would do that as we got into leadership, and she saw how much I was saying yes and how much, how receptive I was to everything she was saying. And we had an opportunity came up where a key holder left, and we did have an external hire come in, which was, which is great. I helped train and interview, and I was there about eight months at this point.
And she only stayed for two weeks, which was sometimes it doesn't work out for all. And Serena's like, I dunno why I didn't think of this sooner. How would you feel about being a key holder? You know, I was really excited, and she's like, you're very passionate, you're really excited, you're eager to learn.
And you know, I think you have a lot of potential. And so I worked with her fo couple years and I had got up to an assistant manager, um, at Bath and Bodyworks and she just helped kind of train me and develop me. And it was always a people-first mentality, and that I really grew in and my heart got attached to, and that's how I tried to continue my leadership to this day from that experience with her.
[00:08:40] Dave Travers: It's so clear as you talk about that story with Trina, that you were a willing and eager recipient of that attention, feedback, coaching on where to put your hands, et cetera. How do you now apply that as a leader yourself? How do you think about having that sort of an impact on other people, and for those other emerging leaders who want, like, wow, I would like one of my people to someday talk about me the way you're talking about Trina.
How would you approach being that kind of a leader?
[00:09:08] Ashley Lynch: Yeah, so I would like to consider my coaching style and my challenge style is similar to hers. You know, like, what do you think of this? Or why are you doing it this way? And have them kind of tell me and come up the answer themselves as opposed to don't do this, do it this way.
Instead, having them come up with a conclusion and having them understand the path and be able to come up with the answer tends to stick and tends to help the realization a little bit more. At least it did with me, and what it's done so far with who I've led up to this point is because as a leader or as you develop, you need to be able to address challenges on your own.
You need to be able to think through something. You're not always, maybe not always gonna have a leader there. Maybe you're going to be the leader and you need to be able, the one, be the one that has the answers and can come up with solutions. And so I really pride myself on that coaching, the way of coaching of challenging in a way of you come up with a solution, you come up with the opportunity.
Opportunity and then now let's solution it together. What would you do to solution that? How would you improve that? Why would you improve it that way? So having them kind of understand that there's levels to some decisions that we make. Not that I'm saying no, or we're saying no, just let's talk through that. You know?
And so, I always find that to be a great way to challenge someone and grow someone is helping them. Learn through that aspect. And so I've just carried that through a successful, I feel with Trina towards me. So, I'm carrying the torch, um, and continuing that down, that path.
[00:10:36] Dave Travers: It's so much more, you know, all of us can identify with being the person being coached. We've all been there at some point, and it is so much more engaging. And similar to your story about where to put your hands, it is so much more of an opening rather than a closing. To invite someone, let's think this through together rather than to say, here's what you're doing, right? Here's what you're doing wrong.
So when you have the opportunity to, and the time and the space to engage somebody like that, as we're hearing now from you, the dividends can pay off long into the future.
[00:11:07] Ashley Lynch: Definitely, definitely. And then you build a self-sufficient team, a team of team innovators as opposed to a team of followers. You want your team to be innovators with you not waiting for what you're gonna tell them to do next.
You know, because again, for that next opportunity, someone needs to replace me someday. And if it could be someone who's here and continue growing, then that's amazing. And that's the ultimate goal, is preparing that next person to take over. So having a team full of innovators is super crucial in my opinion.
[00:11:34] Dave Travers: Totally. Right. And it is so. Easy to fall into the, as a manager, uh, and I think we've all done this, I certainly have. You can fall into the trap of why won't people just do what I'm telling them to do? But to your point, if people are just good at doing what you say, how are they gonna be good at saying, Hey, I'm an empowered thinker and business partner here to like think, hey, this thing that we're doing, no one's thought of this yet, but it's obvious it would be better if we did this instead. You have to show them, not just tell them.
[00:12:03] Ashley Lynch: And today, you know, my team, I would rely heavily on them to help me. Come up with ideas, and sometimes they're like, I was thinking about this. They send me a message in, you know, in the middle of the day, you know, and I'm like, that is an excellent idea. Let's kind of grow off that.
So you know it, I can't have all the good ideas. We all have to have the good ideas.
[00:12:19] Dave Travers: Yes. And even if you're not gonna use the idea exactly as they say, it's saying it's an excellent idea, does not mean, and we're going to implement it as you said it tomorrow. Okay. Fantastic. So fast forward now. So we've talked about how you came from operations and moved into talent acquisition.
We've talked about you developing as a leader. Now talk about, you know, you've shifted industries. You talked about being in fitness and in retail, and now you're at Marsden in facilities and operations for physical locations. What's the difference, and what's the sam,e as you switch industries in how hiring works?
[00:12:56] Ashley Lynch: I think the only difference, you know, in my opinion, is just how we operate. And the rest of it, there's internal customers and then our clients that we service. That doesn't change. We're selling the roles to our candidates, so we have sales in there, you know, our operations. We're still trying to make sure that we're doing all the necessary tasks to reduce risk and ensure compliance is on top.
And we're HR helping, answering questions, and then TA so we're still handling all of the similar things. In my opinion, though, the differences are what we're selling. You know, what's the product? What are we selling? I use the word, you're gonna hear this a lot, is selling the role. So, you'll hear that throughout the time as we talk is.
We're very passionate about selling the role, selling to the candidate. The candidate is interviewing us as much as we're interviewing them, and we wanna make sure that they understand the whole aspect of the job, what they're going to be doing, what they're walking into on day one. And so it's a little bit different 'cause in retail and LA fitness industry, you walk in, you know what you're going to get.
Every retail location is the same. Every fitness club is the same. There's maybe minor differences if they have a spa or not, something like that. But every client they could have. Multiple buildings, but the square footage could be different, or the meeting location, or if there's a bus route or not bus route, you know, in certain spots.
So being able to identify the differences between each of the locations. And noting that and being able to sell that to the candidate is like the biggest difference, I guess you'd say. But in how we're executing it, I would say is very similar.
[00:14:28] Dave Travers: Okay. So now that you've worked in different industries, you've played different roles at different companies, you come into a role where you're leading talent acquisition, and you've had other HR responsibilities too, but you're leading talent acquisition.
Where you've seen it done from several different angles and several different ways, how do you decide what to change about how talent acquisition works and what to double down on? So, like you're coming into this new role, where do you start? What is the framework you use to decide what to change and what to keep?
[00:14:58] Ashley Lynch: Yeah, so my big three I would say is understanding your data and market analysis, so you understand your area. Who are your competitors? What's nearby? Can they go across the street for 25 cents more? Something along those lines. How many openings do they have nearby? Really understanding the market and the wages and where they're at there, as well as the data.
So, looking into our KPIs, where are our bottlenecks? Where are our opportunities for each of the areas? What do we need to hone in on? Is it only specific type of accounts? Is it all of the accounts? Is it really delving into each layer of the KPI and really understanding where the issue might be, and then mixing that in with big picture thinking.
So seeing the end goal, understanding what the company initiatives are, understanding what are we trying to accomplish. We can't just change things to change things, you know, we have to have a reason. Coming in here, a couple opportunities that I definitely identified right away, lowering the days to fill, so ensuring that we can fill roles faster, hiring people faster as well as retaining people once we've hired them.
And so couple of those first things that stood out was those days to fill and, okay, what's taking us so long? Why can't we fill those roles? I'll have some examples for you on that, that were the eye openers for this exact question that you're asking me. And so, really understanding all those opportunities and going back and bringing it all together.
What can we do to help the company, and what can the company do to help TA? What can we do for each other? And how can all of the departments work together to ensure that we can keep people and get them there faster? Because if we can do that.
We're going to spend less money on overtime, the managers aren't gonna be working too much, so on so forth. So we can help solve, I think, a couple problems at once if we can get that end goal and look at the big picture. So those are my three bigs that I looked at and look into anytime I get a new area or an acquisition or anything like that is really understanding, understanding where those bottlenecks are and where do we need to get to.
[00:16:55] Dave Travers: Let's dive in on one of those. You mentioned speed. I don't think there's anybody out there who does anything with hiring who says, I like our process, but I wish it were just a little slower. So like, that's a, that's one where I think everyone listening to this can feel, but how do you then get confidence we can actually move the needle on that?
Like what, how did you dig in and say, Hey, there not just, it would be great if we could go faster, but we can actually do this. How did you figure that out?
[00:17:20] Ashley Lynch: Yeah, so actually have an example of two locations of when I first started that I went and looked at right away. So we had two locations. One people would last a day, maybe two days, you know, and it was so odd.
Why? It was considered a medical clinic, and it was a smaller building, and an okay in an okay area. It was off the bus line. It seemed like a great location, and so you know, had to go visit the site myself. I truly believe that our talent acquisition team really need to go get eyes on the site in order to sell the role and understand the site yourself and understand where this candidate will be going, what they'll be walking into every day.
And so when I walk into this facility. When I think of medical clinic, I'll think of like beds, you know, rooms, beds, there's a trash can, maybe a counter and a sink. And this was a long continuous hallways with big windows that were almost full-sized windows along the whole hallway. And it was actually a, uh, plasma and blood labs.
So there was actually plasma and blood kind of hanging around and everywhere through the windows. And so, thinking from a candidate's perspective, I hear medical clinics. And I walk in, and I'm actually not good with blood. Blood doesn't work for me, but I walk in here and I'm like, this is not what I was told.
This is not what I wanna do every day. I don't wanna look at clean a mirror and look at these blood plasma bags, you know, and throughout the day. So that was a great identifier. The moment we're just saying, this is a blood plasma place, are you comfortable being around this? The next person we hired loved it and was fine with it.
And he was there for a year and a half after that. So it's just a matter of that location identifying, let's just clarify what we're saying and how we're selling it versus just it's a medical clinic. Good. You know, good luck. So, um, really understanding and building that. And then my second example is in the same trip, so it was another location.
We couldn't keep people there for very long either. We knew it was like a warehouse-type of environment. It was large. So it's like, okay, large warehouse environment. I'm thinking of you like distribution center type. And so when I get there, it's actually 13 buildings on a couple city block, uh, with a fence surrounding it.
And so as you walk through, you realize a part of the team, 30% of the team that works on one side gets to be in buildings more often. It's it, and I went in the middle of the summer, so it was pretty hot. So they get to be in the buildings more often. They have a golf cart they can use, and so and so forth.
‘Cause those buildings are closer. Then, on the other side, you had to walk to each of the garbage cans that were on wheels. You had to stop at smoking stations, and you're walking around forklifts. You don't have a golf cart. You're kind of walking around. So you're outside, exposed to the heat. There's asphalt.
You're keeping your eye out for safety on the forklifts, driving around you, and so you're. A little bit more than just a warehouse. So once we were able to identify this and really find people who were comfortable, who understood the facility, we even started some site visit, go visit the site and walk it with the manager for an interview just to make sure that you're comfortable with the type of facility.
So once we were able to identify that and clarify the roles and what they would be doing exactly, there's some people who love being outside, even in the summer, not me, but others that wanna be out there. And so, we've been building retention in those areas where we're able to identify what it is that something could be, as simple as it's re-identifying the facility type is to help sell that role a little bit better or refrain from someone leaving in the first day.
[00:20:54] Dave Travers: What's so great, a couple things you talk about there. One is like you talk about selling the role. You can't sell something you don't understand, and your instinct to go feel it, not just read about it, is so powerful 'cause it gives you the ability. To sell. You can describe it in a way that if you had not been there, you would not have been able to make me viscerally feel the blood plasma, the hot asphalt as you just described that.
And secondly, that rolls through to then once you've sold it, the expectations management, you talked about you're not gonna get someone to stay in this role for a couple years or more if they come in having envisioned something in the reality, something very different, and because, if you can sell the vision that accurately, then you know, when you're bringing in five people for a final interview, all of them have already a visceral sense for what this job's gonna be like.
You're not gonna have four of 'em show up and be like, ah, this isn't for me, and then have to hit the reset button on the whole process. So now you've talked about some of the processes, you've, you've improved there, and you're in a business that is very physical and tangible in many ways with physical locations.
But we also live in a world where technology's now impacting everything we do. How do you think about in a very onsite-oriented, operational-oriented company like Marsden, how and when do we integrate technology and when does client service with a real human being who cares about solving a problem, have to be the way something gets done? How do you think about that?
[00:22:27] Ashley Lynch: I strongly believe in embracing and understanding, and learning about new technologies. You wanna be proactive and kind of ahead of the times as opposed to behind and reactive. Um, that's how you're gonna kind of stay ahead of your competitors and, and so on, so forth. So here at Marsden, we've actually started piloting some AI features.
So we haven't rolled it out on the broader side yet, but we have noticed where we've piloted at some big returns. So we have seen that our shell rate has improved. So, for example. I don't like to show our scars, but in some areas we do have 68, 70% no-show rate where people aren't showing up to the interviews, you know?
And so how do we fix that, and where do we find those gaps? So there's what we can do, and then there's how can we catch them earlier in the process and keep them engaged throughout the process, and being able to shorten the gap between that show rate and being able to use your time. By making sure people show up our show with the pilot has gone down 28% in the markets that we piloted.
So being able to improve that could go really help us in many ways. And another area that's really helped that we've seen the progress from is our 60-day retention. So, you know, we're able to catch people a little bit sooner. We're able to get them through the process in a more smooth way. We're able to get them kind of an idea of who they are before we get to talk to them.
But we haven't lost that element of human touch. So even though we have these features that we're piloting, they still have a human that they're working with throughout the process and that they're gonna get a welcome package from. So they're going to feel that they're still part of Marsden.
They still get to have a Welcome to Marsden email. Welcome to Marsden Video. You know, introducing who guy is, who we are, who our values are, so they still feel like they're a part of something. So we're really trying not to jeopardize the human touch while still] implementing and trying out some of these new features.
So for me, it's not a choice between, uh, efficiency and the human element. It's about the integration of it. So how can you handle that communication with your team? You need to be thoughtful. You need to be well planned. You need to have your communication ready and make it feel like the recruiters are still a part of the process and not being replaced by any technologies.
It's enhancement versus a detriment, anything that's gonna bring them down or replace them. So really leaning on that and then helping them understand that they get to focus on all the things that they're amazing at building that relationship after the technology phase, servicing our internal clients more, but having a little bit more time to be able to get through those processes, and you know, creating the ultimate candidate experience.
So still maintaining that while frying this. So we will be potentially rolling some out. Later, throughout the rest of the year and we'll be coming up with a strong communication strategy and bringing our team along for that because we have seen some improvements, and I think that our whole team can benefit strongly from it.
[00:25:17] Dave Travers: That's a such a great way of thinking about it, 'cause you, you've talked about selling the role and what you're talking about with technology is selling the enhancement to your own everyday life. The natural instinct of someone when you say, Hey, we have some new technology that's gonna change the way you do your job.
Like that isn't generally an exciting opener to a conversation. So when you can viscerally explain like, Hey, think about the third of your job that you like the least, we're gonna take that away and or take half of that away, you know, or whatever the thing is, and free you up to do more of the thing you like, whether it's talking to candidates or whatever the case may be.
I think that's really powerful and a great way to get someone who's gotta embrace some change to get out of a, how do I keep things the same into, oh wow, this is gonna be great. Can't wait until this new thing happens.
Okay, so we always end these episodes with a lightning round. And so what I want you to imagine is you're there in the Portland office and the CEO shows up one day and you're making a cup of coffee, and the CEO says, Hey, Ashley, you know, I've always been mean to ask you.
You are the expert on interviewing people. I spend a ton of my time interviewing. What's your like one tip best piece of advice for how to become a better interviewer?
[00:26:31] Ashley Lynch: So, you know, always focusing on our days to film the candidate experience, 'cause we're ultimately trying again to build our retention, to reduce our openings, which gives more time back to our leaders.
Gives more time back to being able to have customer service visits. Being able to service your employees, being able to avoid overtime, or reduce overtime. Any of those extra expenditures that can go back into the company. So, really improving that retention and being fast at it, as we mentioned earlier, is really crucial, and I think really speaks to the business.
And aligns with the business strategy of what we're trying to do and what we're trying to align with. And we're really trying to focus on bettering our sales close rate and which has improved, which is exciting. They're gonna get some business, and we need to keep up with that. So we need to be able to fill back.
The sales team needs to be able to come back to us and say, how fast do you think I can start this account? And I can look up and be like, alright, 25 days is how fast I can get you started on average. So, we have something that we can look forward to really backing the sales team and making sure they look good, making sure Marsden looks good, so their friends talk to other friends, which come to us again, so on, so forth, and having that candidate experience looks great to that client as well that we might have just been awarded or that we're working for currently in servicing our internal clients.
[00:27:52] Dave Travers: Ashley Lynch, it is so obvious why you were a talent all-star. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us today.
[00:27:58] Ashley Lynch: Thank you so much. It was great meeting you.
[00:28:03] Dave Travers: That's Ashley Lynch. She's the Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Marsden Services. We'll put her LinkedIn profile in the show notes below, and as a reminder, we put the video versions of these episodes on YouTube. Also, you can find them on the official ZipRecruiter channel if you've got feedback for us or ideas for future guests.
Send us an email at talentallstars@ziprecruiter.com. I'm Dave Travers. Thanks for listening to Talent All-Stars, and we'll see you right back here next week.