It was my honor to be invited by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to speak last Monday at this year’s

MITTONMedia President, John Mitton, speaks at NAB Show 2015 in Las Vegas.

MITTONMedia President, John Mitton, speaks at NAB Show 2015 in Las Vegas.

#NABShow2015 in Las Vegas. The topic: Recruiting Radio Sales Superstars in the New Media World. Or, as asked by one of the attendees, “How do I recruit for an environment that is predominately Baby-Boomer? What can Broadcasters do to attract Millennials and get them excited to work with Old People?”

Figuring out how to effectively reach, attract, hire, and retain three distinct generations and get them to co-exist under one roof in today’s workplace was definitely top-of-mind with these Radio owners, managers, and sales people from across the US, Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe. Especially how to find potential Radio Sales Superstars in a shrinking pool of applicants and how to cope with today’s candidates to whom other factors are more important than how much money they can make. (A HUGE curveball for Boomer and Gen X Sales Managers.)

mitton-media-aboutI began by sharing my story. How I went from being a Brakeman with Southern Pacific RR to earning a Behavioral Psychology degree from the University of Houston to being a professional tour caddie on the LPGA golf tour to getting into Broadcast Advertising Sales to becoming known as the originator of putting job ads on Radio & TV to today where MITTONMedia designs proactive recruitment advertising programs for a variety of industries on a local, regional, national, and global level. Using just about every kind of media resource you can think of in today’s New Media World.

The point of my story was that you do not hire Radio Sales Superstars. You create them.

I shared a repeatable 5-step process the audience could take back and insert into their own workplace:

  1. Determine the Purpose and Cultural Fit needed for the hire.
  2. Effective ways to reach, attract, and engage all three generations of today’s candidates.
  3. Setting up the Interview Agenda and selecting the most effective types of questions to ask.
  4. Hiring & Retaining strategies and processes.
  5. Repeat the Process.

Needless to say, we packed quite a bit of information into this session. K. Anders Ericsson introduced the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of doing anything before you can become an expert at it. We had 45-minutes. You do the math. Lol. Judging by the subsequent feedback of attendees, however, we at least got the ball rolling and sent them on their way equipped with new knowledge and a direction to follow.

My thanks to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and to Ms. Brandeis Hall, of the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), for this opportunity to share a few of our recruitment and retention secrets at the NAB Show 2015.

BTW, if you would like information about scheduling our training workshop, Beyond Post & Pray: Effective Strategies for Recruiting & Retaining Top Performers In Today’s Workplace, send me an email.

John Mitton

Founder/President, MITTONMedia