The document outlines strategies for recruiting and developing teams within the outdoor industry, emphasizing the importance of aligning hiring practices with organizational culture and defining success through clear job descriptions. Key components include behavioral interviewing techniques to assess candidates' cultural fit, competencies, and judgment, particularly for seasonal staff. The document concludes with a reminder for organizations to clearly communicate their values and expectations while maintaining high hiring standards.

1. Skills for Building Your Team
Recruiting Strategies to Create a
Culture of Success
Dr. Kevin Kragenbrink

2. Today’s Agenda
 Part 1: Recruiting Systems
 The typical team development process
 Rules for Success Focused Recruiting
 Rules for Interviewing Systems
 Part 2: Core Issues for Recruiting in the
Outdoor Industry
 Seasonal Workers
 Judgment is the Key
 Part 3: Q&A

3. How an organization selects, develops and manages
its employees is the single
greatest predictor of organization performance.

4. Some Common Mistakes
 The Typical Process
 Reactive Hiring
 Measuring For Failure
 Accepting Turnover

5. Rules for Success Focused Recruiting
 Start with the Job Description
 How do you define success?
 How do you measure success?
 Recruit to the Job and Your Culture
 Match experience and credentials to the job.
 Match attitudes and behaviors to your culture
 Test both with behavioral interviewing

6. The Interview Is Key
CEO Rule:
“Candidates Will
Misrepresent Their
Past”

7. Rules for Interviewing
 Use Behavioral Questioning
S Describe a Situation
T Describe a Task
A Tell me what Action you took
R Tell me the Results of your action
E What Evidence can you provide?

8. CEO Rule:
“Past behaviors are the
best predictors of
future
performance.”

9. Hiring Seasonal Staff
In the
Outdoor Industry

10. All employees have an influence on:
 Your brand image
 Morale of the organization
 Overall quality of the products
 Customer service
 Bottom line results (NOI)

11. Don’t Make Hiring Seasonal
Staff a Crap Shoot

12. A successful business requires the alignment
of business culture, leadership practices
and
employee skills/ behavior.

13. Understanding Your Business Culture

14. Know Your Business Culture
Characteristics Control Collaboration Competence Cultivation
Defined By Driven short –term Harmony and Consistent Inspirited by
goals Cooperation challenge purpose to deliver
services or product
Values Consistent Inclusivity Internal and Individual identity
performance and external with the
reliable competition Organization
Environment Decisions come Consensus and Rewards Empowers people
from the top harmony winners
Strengths Pragmatic and Loyalty and High Allow for growth
realistic empathy Performance and and
Focused Strategy Develop human
potential
Weaknesses Limits innovation Lack of Excessive Excessive
accountability pressure emphasis on self-
Egocentric expression

15. Matching Cultures and Behaviors
Control Collaboration Competence Cultivation
Follows the specific Team Player Highly independent Believes in what the
job/role requirements Organization believes
Follows directives Willing to multi-task Demonstrate Value driven
personality
Doesn’t work well Sacrifices own agenda Seeks out growth and
independently for group goals Expert change
Good at performing Generalist in skill
specific functions Focused on being the Employees identify
best deeply with the
competent in specific Harmony and Organization and
skill set cooperation among make it their own
employees Organizational life is
Employees are intense, high-strung
expected to comply with challenge and
with decisions and performance
rules established by
higher authority

16. Chart your Staff
Collaboration Control
Cultivation Competence

17. Each Culture can be effective if the
business strategies, leadership,
employee selection, staff development and
rewards systems
are aligned

18. Categories of Seasonal Staff
 Support Non Technical –Back and front office,
logistical support
 Technical-guides/instructors- Primarily responsible
for the care and safety of clients, and all decision-
making in the field
My focus is on technical staff

19. Hiring Criteria
Evaluate and select candidate based on :
1. Cultural fit
2. Core Competencies
3. Judgment
4. Personality

20. Core Competencies

21. Core competencies – should be measured in two ways:
1. General Requirements - candidates possess the
physical ability and knowledge to safely
manage clients in the environment.
2. Technical Skills – candidates are proficient in
the essential skills required to lead clients safely
in the activity.

22. Measures
1. General requirements
• Physical Fitness
• Experience with the equipment
• Knowledge of the terrain
• Local weather
• Environmental hazards
2. Technical skills – documented experience
• Lead class IV and V peak ascents
• Captain a raft over class III and higher rapids

23. Judgment
Good judgment is:
• Having the experience and awareness to predict
an outcome to a situation.
• Making the right decision that leads to a
positive outcome given a set of circumstances.
“A leader with limited knowledge and superior judgment
is better than one with vast knowledge and little
judgment.”
Paul Petzoldt

24. Interviewing for Determining Sound Judgment
Case Method
Rafting Trip - A group of nine adults (male and female,
married and single) are proceeding down the Green River on a
multi-day paddling rafting trip in mid-summer. Among
participants there is a wide range of physical fitness, interest
and enthusiasm for the experience. One out-of-shape male is
complaining to the group about having to paddle long distances
and the un-comfortableness of camping and being outdoors. His
wife is the opposite -very fit, risk taker and an adventurist.
Among the singles from the start of the trip one male is paying
a great amount of attention to a very attractive female and she
does not welcome his advances. By Day three, the group is
starting to notice that a particular single male and female keep
disappearing during break and camp set-ups.

25. Backpacking – In the late morning of day one of a
backpacking trip in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, a 21
year old male is experiencing shortness of breath and an
irregular heartbeat. The group leader assumes that the young
man is out of shape. The group continues on and by the
afternoon the young man is lagging way behind with real
difficulty in breathing.
Canoeing - On a canoeing trip in the Southeastern United
States in July at 2:30 PM, a group is traveling down a river
about to enter a long, wide lake. The plan is to cross the six-
mile lake and camp for the night on the shore.

26. Interviewing Questions:
1. What is your appraisal of the situation?
2. What are your specific concerns?
3. What actions need to be taken?

27. “Judge a person by his questions
rather
than by his answers.”
Voltaire

28. Final Candidate Selection
1. Does the candidate fit and will he/she enhance the company
culture ?
2. Does the candidate have the required skills and experience to
safely lead clients?
3. Does the candidate have the maturity and judgment to
foresee potential hazards?
4. Does the candidate have the personality and ability to work
within guidelines
Next step: Invite the Candidate to your training programs

30. Summary
 Define Your Recruiting Systems
 Job Descriptions that Define Success
 Rules of engagement to set expectations
 Behavioral interviewing to identify behavior
 Clear communications to define next steps
 Set Your Hiring Criteria
 Ability (do they have the skills, resources, credentials, etc.)
 Willingness (do they have the attitude, behaviors, culture,
etc.)
 Communicate Culture
 Vision, Values, Mission
 Non-Negotiables Go Beyond the Employee Manual

31. Lessons Learned
 Take a minute to write down your
lessons learned?
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.

32. Thank you for participating in Today’s
Workshop
For more information on the Estrada Strategies Online CEO Club,
please contact me at kevin@estradastrategies.com or by phone at
865-804-1556