Matt Winning with People: Mastering Team Culture with Matt Ransbottom

Brad: 00:00:00

Welcome to Student of the Game podcast where we help you master the fundamentals, fall in love with practice, and win at the game of life. I'm your host, Brad Noll. Welcome to the classroom. Welcome back to another episode of Student of the Game. Today I'm with my guy, Matt Ransbottom.

Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt: 00:00:20

Thanks for having me.

Brad: 00:00:21

I'm excited for you to be here. Once a Don, always a don. Matt and I go way, way back to the IPFW days. Matt is a pitcher, student athlete, and was, was, was.

I. I feel that comment a little too much myself. But you, this is going to be a great episode. So you small business owners, here's why it's a great episode.

Because there's a book called the E. Myth Revisited, and they said the reason that most small business owners fail is because they are gifted in a certain type of work, but then don't understand how to run the business. And so people who start businesses, they don't know how to run the business. They may be the technician.

If you know everything about computers and you want to open a computer store, that doesn't necessarily mean because you know everything about computers, you don't know how to hire, you don't know how to fire, you don't know how to do marketing, you don't know how to do accounting. Matt is an HR manager at Omni, rebranded as Omni, but OmniSource.

A lot of people in our area here in northeast Indiana and throughout the world know what omnisource is, and we're going to talk about hiring and firing and culture and values and all of the things that small business owners really do struggle with. So, Matt, thanks for being here. Why don't you give the listeners a little of who you are and how you got to become the HR manager at OmniSource.

Matt: 00:01:40

Yeah, no. Thanks again for having me.

This is a long time coming as we got to know each other over the last handful of years and our backgrounds went back further as we found out we were both dons on a golf trip.

And ever since I got a chance to know you more on a personal level and hearing your podcast, I think we've always said is, hey, we got to hook up and drop a little knowledge if we can. So I'm really looking forward to being here today. And yeah, so a little bit about me. I currently work at Omni.

It's a company, part of Steel Dynamics, the scrap recycling side of the business. Been with the company almost 12 years. Before that, I worked at Menards Actually, that was my first HR job out of school, out of ipfw.

Originally from Warsaw, Grew up in, as I say, God's country. Love that area. Still go back there aloft. Tiger. Warsaw Tiger. Yep, through and through.

And so, yeah, as I ventured back to Fort Wayne in the Omni role, like I said about 12 years ago, I've got a chance to do a lot of different things. Not just in the HR world, but still heavily involved with baseball and coaching. Technically. I just retired.

We had a group of kids that kind of aged out, but we did that for the last six, seven years. Teach at IPFW or now Purdue, Fort Wayne. Teach some different. Various HR classes as well.

So try to be heavily involved with the community along with the, the work I do day in and day out. So.

Brad: 00:03:04

Well, you're a great representative of Omni. I know I see you at a lot of functions and, and in the community, but let's, let's go, let's go into this like, so, so hr.

Why don't like it stands for human resources, you know, but give the listeners like the things that you probably, you know, have forgotten. It's like, oh, yeah, this is, this is easy for you, but. But everybody else might struggle with HR hiring and firing.

Is that kind of like the, the basis of HR or what does HR do?

Matt: 00:03:34

Yeah, so great HR finds you is what they say. So even when I was in my undergrad studies in organizational leadership, I had an HR function to it. And I really was drawn to the legal side of it.

I had a teacher that came in briefcase and would tell us all these court cases and the employment side of it and how you treat people and how you document. And I was drawn to that. And I don't know why. And then the human side of it is, as you know, Brad, I love people.

I love talking to people, being out and about. And so when it, when it, when I saw myself going down that path, trying to get some. What's the best, best way to say it?

Some experience is tough in hr. And so that's why I said I worked at Menards and Retail for a handful of years. And then that's when I really, really, really enjoyed it.

And I decided to go back to grad school and study actually human resource development. And so you're right, my buddies or friends or family would be like, why hr? That's hire and fire. That's what people tend to think about.

And you're right, there is a part of that, the onboarding process and how you bring people into Your team or your company. And then yeah, you have the off boarding side and the documentation, but there's a lot more in the middle to that.

That really makes me excited about being in hr and that's the culture pieces. Working with your management team and developing people and training and there's just so to it.

So yeah, there's a pro and con to every job, every, every position that you have.

And so some companies have, you know, HR departments that are a little different than maybe how we do it at Omni or other companies where, you know, it's hey, we'll call HR when we need you, we need you in the, stay in the corner and there's a problem, we're going to call you when there's a problem. Right.

And what I like about our culture a lot is we're really forward facing with our employees because we want to have a lot of engagement, accountability.

And when people tend to see you in a light that is positive, when you do have to have a difficult discussion with them, there was already some respect there. So it's over the last 14 or 15 years of my career I find myself just really, I just enjoy it.

Every day is different and in my world I travel a little bit. So there's always something on my plate and I'm always on the move. So I don't know if that helps the answer. There's a lot to it there.

And I know we might dive into some more details here in a little bit.

Brad: 00:05:58

We will dive into that because I think one of the things that I'm seeing right now as a small business owner is, you know, like, like fractional AR HR departments or fractional CMOs where you can kind of hire a consultant that comes in and does that.

And so I think a lot of the listeners probably have questions on, you know, how do I hire the right person, how do I have core values, how do I build that culture that you're talking about that's so important when I don't have a department, you know, specifically designed for that. So we'll get right into it.

And before we get into the framework of our, of our questions, I think a lot of the listeners know, want to know, like what are some, what are some tips to hiring the right person? Like, you know, let's say I've got a small business owner on here.

Let's say there's a landscaper or somebody who is a financial planner and it's like their business is growing, they know they need to hire somebody. What are some of your pro Tips on how to even start that process.

Matt: 00:06:50

First, you need to know what you need, right? So if you're a landscaper, like you're using as your example, it's like, okay, I have a need. And then it's how you advertise for that.

And then when you get somebody that's interested in that role, once you understand the definition of what you're looking for is hiring the right people for your fit and your culture, right? That's you can ask questions. There's a lot of, as I always say, there's professional interviewers.

There's times where we interview somebody, and it's like, man, this. This person is just absolutely perfect. They hit every single thing that we're looking for.

From a cultural standpoint, they can do the job, the job description, all of that. And then when they get in, they're a dud. And you're like, where do we miss? And so it all sets up with at the beginning of what do you need?

And then really concentrating on when you're meeting with somebody, you're interviewing them.

What are those values that you are sticking to for your company and making sure that you're asking all those questions through and through during the interview process and trying to weed folks out from that standpoint. And there's just multiple things.

As some companies have it, as you said, when you have HR departments, you might have some really structured onboarding practices. So it's like, can you use assessments? Can you find ways to weed out those maybe bad candidates versus the really good ones?

And so that's what you have to focus in on, is what's important to you and your company and what are you looking for, like, sticking to the values. That helps a lot more than just do they meet the job description?

Brad: 00:08:17

Yeah, I tell a story a lot. I don't know how many times I've shared on the podcast, but David Hodgman, our office manager, when he got his job five years ago, we've had.

I think we probably had 12 or 13 candidates apply for that job is the most ever. And I just was like, you know, I was overwhelmed. And, you know, we had the team to help do that.

But one of the things that we did with him or with that group is all 12 or 13 people. We said, okay, here's our core values. Send us.

Send us a video that's, you know, about a minute long and tell us which core value you feel most attracted to. Like, which one represents you the most out of our five values. And I remember out of everybody, David was The only one to say serve others.

And we're in a service business, and so serve others is our number one core value for a reason. Like, it's number one. Like, we say it first. It's. It's on our, you know, material first. And. And that's the one he aligned with.

And to this day, he embodies that. And that's. That's the level in which, you know, we successfully interviewed and then. And then found somebody. But we've also interviewed wrong. Right.

And we've. We've had people that have left. You talked about the hiring side a little bit. What about the firing side? Right.

I think a lot of times people here be quick, quick to fire, slow to hire, quick to fire.

Matt: 00:09:31

Yeah, yeah. You hear all those cliches, and I think it's about what you learn. You really concentrating on why somebody's leaving. Right. That.

That's where you learn for your next hire. It's like, did we. Did we not meet their expectations? Did they not meet ours? Is there a way to do an exit interview with them?

Like, hey, where did we miss with this? Because then you're building that. That side for the front end of the, of the hire.

And, you know, yeah, I'm not a. I'm not a big component of, hey, get out. As soon as somebody does something wrong, oh, we got to document and write them up and build this file. I mean, there's time to do that over time.

But it's like the coaching, if you put so much effort into the front end of hiring somebody, you should have that care for them throughout their career. And again, again, that's a cultural piece, too. Right. So you saw that with David. He's been here for five years. It's like, okay, he's the standard.

Is a standard now. Like, he's. He's making that more difficult for your next hire, which is a great. That's a great thing.

I always think about that, that Sean McVeigh, he always says the standards, the standard of the culture is the culture.

And sometimes it's hard to put that in a jar and give that to people when you're interviewing, but when you are exiting somebody, hopefully you're trying to find, learn from it. Not just, oh, they were. Oh, they, you know, whatever the example is, they. They were always late. They never showed up on time. Well, why is that?

Why were they not hungry to come into work and be driven and. And so, again, trying to understand it's just going to make you better.

As you, Brad, as you say, it's like, oh, you don't have an HR department, that's okay.

I mean, somebody is hr, whether that's your leadership of your small business, I mean, really trying to dive into, you know, why you're hiring somebody and then why are you letting somebody go? Answering that why all the time is just going to continue to make you better.

Brad: 00:11:09

Yeah. You know, after, after two decades, more than two decades of, you know, serving the real estate community here in Fort Wayne.

You know, one thing that, that we've learned is not everybody's designed to stay with us forever, you know, and that's okay.

You know, there's been times where people have, you know, moved on based on their choosing and then there's been times where they've moved on and it was our choosing. And it's never easy.

Like, do you have any tips for people that, you know, maybe are going through this right now or they need to let somebody go or they need to hire somebody and it's like, it's convenient and it's consuming knowing that, okay, I've got to take on this HR responsibility and I'm not trained, you know, in hr. I mean, are there any tips for that?

Matt: 00:11:51

Yeah, I think the, you know, we work with different attorneys and again, being in an HR department, we're always trying to answer the why. Like if you, why are you at that point, have you given them, do they know why they're going to be off boarded?

Like again, if you just showed up and I just said, Brad, you worked for me and I say, hey, today's the day and we got to cut you loose and you don't know why, why that's not right for, that's not good for anybody. Right. You didn't, you didn't document.

So as you take your notes and if you have issues with people, hopefully you have a culture that you have a relationship with people where if they're not doing something or they're not up up to the expectations of the role or whatever, it could be performance. If they don't know that they are in jeopardy of losing their job, that's not fair to them. Right. Just as it's not fair to you.

So I think taking time to answer that why, like again, why are you hiring this person? Why are they your top candidate?

And you're never going to go wrong if you can answer that, you're always going to hire the right person from that standpoint. And it's the same thing as the off boarding or discipline that you're doing is why are we doing this and then being fair and consistent. Right?

That's the other thing that makes it sometimes a little difficult because you don't want to have pick a favoritism. You don't want to have pick the age, race, religion, sex, origin.

And now you could have some situations on your hands that you weren't treating everybody fair and consistent. So that's a message that we have as we, not just in my, my company, but just in general as HR folks is trying to answer that.

Brad: 00:13:16

Why, that's big. I think the other thing too, and maybe, maybe I'm answering our first question is like, you know, let's talk about the fundamentals of hr.

But, you know, I think the question, another question that comes up a lot of times for, for us as our team continues to evolve and grow and continue to experience different, you know, opportunities is, is job descriptions. Right. I mean, I think people talk about delegation.

This is something that some consultants of mine have shared with me is the difference between delegation and abdication. And I think if you're looking at an org chart, you know, everybody talks about delegating and moving up and being promoted.

And I think what happens is small business owners get delegation and abdication confused. You know, a lot of times they think they're delegating when they give somebody, you know, a task to do well, that's abdicating to somebody else.

Delegating is, I'm going to give you this task, but I'm going to come back and check on you and there's going to be a fluid circle and we're going to work on this together. But talk a little bit about job descriptions a little bit.

And you talked about why, and I think the job description might be the next piece that answers that.

But if somebody's listening right now and they're trying to write a job description, maybe even for themselves so that they know what they do every single day so they know what winning looks like. Before we hit record today, you talked about off air that having your team members know what winning looks like or a, a path to grow is vital.

So how does, how does the job descriptions play into that?

Matt: 00:14:44

Yeah, it's a, it's a great question because I mean, just think about it.

If you're, you're listening to us talk about this and you're driving down the road and you're like, hey, I hired somebody and you didn't have anything that had details to the job, well, then how can you hold them accountable to that job and the expectations and so on and so forth. Now Job descriptions can be a little bit different depending on the company.

I mean, if it's a company, heavy manufacturing like ours, you know, we've got, here's the job requirements and then we also have like lifting and things because we want to make sure that they can do the job and be, you know, physically able to do it.

But you sit down at whatever the position is, it's an HR position, there are requirements to say, hey, you know, these, these are your tasks that you're doing and you're held accountable to doing those. That also makes sure that you're falling in line with getting things done. Again, accountability plays a big role into that.

It can be difficult to write a job description if you don't understand the role too. What are you expecting this person to have?

So if you're going to hire somebody new and you're saying, hey, we have a new role, we understand it's going to be somebody in accounting for us, they're going to do the billing for us. Okay, well what's that role mean? What's it going to take? Is it a 40 hour job?

Is it a, you know, it's only 20 hours, so it could be a part time type job.

And then again, what are those, those bullet points that list out that, that accounts receivable pay, you know, whatever the accounting position is made up. What, what are those, those job details? Now again, it can grow from that.

And that's the, that's where I know we were talking kind of before we got on here, Brad is it's when, when somebody goes above and beyond that job description, then that's when you're like, oh, maybe they need to something more. Maybe we need to find a way to grow them horizontally and give more to them.

But there's also people that want to just come in and get to those bullet points of the job description. That's okay too.

I mean you need people that just want to come in and as I say air quotes, I punch the clock, they want to come in, do their job, they know those bullet points, expectations are set, it's clear you can hold them accountable. I mean, man, you definitely want those people.

But then you also want the people that push that envelope of that job description saying, hey, I want to take on more, I want to be involved with this or that.

And, and that's, and then, then it's always okay to go back and review those job descriptions time and you know, once a year, every other year to say, hey, are we, as this job changed, maybe it's worth More maybe it needs to be whatever it could be. I mean, I think it's. If you don't have a job description, you're kind of shooting from the hip as you're trying to hire.

And then again, as we talked about the air quotes, higher and fire now. Okay, why. Why are you terminating them if you're. Well, they're not doing this part of the job. Did they know whether.

That's not really fair to them either. Right. If you're just saying, hey, show up eight to five, and this is what I want you to do. So there's a hand in hand to that.

The whole job description.

Brad: 00:17:32

I love, I love how you talked about that, and we haven't talked about values yet, but I think that that's something that I keep hearing over and over that you're talking about, which. Which tells me you guys, you know, definitely do a great job with that. But I have a tip actually, for. For somebody who's.

Their business is growing, you know, maybe they're trying to figure out, you know, I need to hire my first employee or maybe my 10th employee, or it doesn't matter. Like, but. But what I did when I knew I needed to bring somebody else on is I created. And I got this from a buddy of mine who's a realtor in.

In Austin, Texas, and I sat down with them for breakfast in San Diego at a conference one day, and he goes, all right, let's work on this. So I took a piece of paper and I buil four quadrants, and the top right quadrant was things that I love to do that were profitable.

The bottom right quadrant quadrant was things that I didn't like to do that were profitable. The top left quadrant was things that I like to do that were not profitable.

And then the bottom left was things that I didn't like to do that were not profitable. And so I started plotting out everything that I do throughout my day, my week, my month, my year into this graph, which then started me.

Started for me to realize, like, where do I need to be spending my time? The highest and best use of my time. So for me personally, that's just a tip that I've done. I know.

You know, Lindsay has done that with her Noel Team Interiors. She's actually working on that right now. So when we get together for our December to remember, we're kind of like, elevate.

We are elevating both of our job descriptions as we move into the new year. Anything to add to that?

Matt: 00:19:05

No, I think it's great. I think just Understanding what you need. And sometimes we don't know ourselves as well as we think we do.

So taking exercises like you just did of saying, what do I need? Or what am I missing? Both. Personally, as your team, as your company, I think it's great to do that more often than not.

Not just wait, oh, it's year end, it's like, hey, what is that? Something you could do each week, each month, each quarter. So I think it's great.

Brad: 00:19:29

Yeah. One of the things that, whether that idea is great or not, the. The best part of it is what Coach Kaufman called forced reflection. So if you're.

If you're an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, you know, you're growing your business, you know, a lot of times we don't stop and slow down. And if you felt a certain way when I just said that, it's probably because you need to stop and slow down. Right?

I mean, we all need to pause and we need to all have some forced reflection, you know? Preparing for this podcast today, I'm forcing myself to reflect, interviewing my guy, Matt Ransbottom.

You're an expert in your field, and I'm just trying to make it to the next day when it comes to our core values, our culture, our hiring and our firing. So thanks for being here.

Matt: 00:20:13

No, man, I love it. This is great.

Brad: 00:20:17

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If you know someone moving out of your area, there's a great chance we can connect them to somebody we know like and trust. Remember, relationships win. Now back to the show. All right, let's get into this framework. So, mastering the fundamentals.

What are fundamental about hr? Like what? Like what do the people need to know as fundamentals about human resources?

Matt: 00:21:15

Yeah, it's a great question.

I think it's going back to the comment you just made about understanding and knowing yourself and aligning what your company goals and values are with the HR team's goals and values. I guess it's just as simple as that. Is trying to understand who you are and what you can do to help. Again, you know, HR is a, is not a profit center.

Right. We're a cost center, if I'm saying that right. Meaning we're a drain on the company. We're not making money for the company.

So it's like, how can we support those that are making money for the company? And it's making, whether it's just being out and being with the people, answering questions, benefits, things.

And again, onboarding, offboarding all of the things that we've talked about so far, is just understanding that what you can bring to the table.

And I think what you were talking about, reflection is so big on what your day to days are because again, in a world of hr, it can be thankless position at times because when the phone rings, there's not a lot of, hey, you know, thanks for everything you're doing. It's hey, how you doing on this Thursday? Oh, by the way, we have this issue. I want your input on it. Right?

So you know, when the phone's ringing or you're getting the emails, it's being responsive. And it's easy to let a day just absolutely get, you know, hey, I want to get these five things done.

And you don't even look at that piece of paper when you get it. By the end of the day, you're like, man, where'd the day go? And so I think reflection is huge.

What you were just saying is I think everybody needs to have that kind of, whether it's at the end of the day, end of the week, it's like, hey, what do I accomplish? What did I do really well? What did I struggle with? And journal and write down and then how do you attack the next week?

And a little off on the tangent there, Brad, but what you get when you ask me on the pod here.

Brad: 00:22:57

I think it's great because here's the thing, Matt, this is not, and I have to remind people, this is not a sports podcast, but I feel like I had an, an MBA from the locker room. Like, I got my master's in business from the locker room and I learned a bunch of stuff.

And so the things you're saying right now, you know, we're kindred spirits because I hear a lot of, you know, how I was raised and what I learned through sports showing up and what you're saying. Before we move on to the next question, past the fundamentals, I mentioned this, but I want to come back to it. So values.

So talk about value values a little bit, because through, through everything We've talked so far. It's evident that Omni has values.

Your HR team, I know several of those people shout out to the people that we know over there, but, but your, your team and your department seem to have values and you seem to be forward facing, you said, and engage with a lot of your employees, talk about values and how, and how culture are impacted.

Matt: 00:23:59

Well, without the team that we have, we all work together so well.

And it comes down to again, when we're bringing somebody into our group, we take a lot of time, as we should, as I've talked about, is that we want people to be aligned with the same values, ethics that we have and showing up, doing the right thing when no one's looking, all those cliches.

But it falls into place, especially in an HR type position because there's a lot of times that we're, we're crossing paths throughout the week, like we're not seeing each other. Just like you said, Brad, it's like, hey, your, your group, if they're not here very often.

So you got to have trust and they have to understand your values and your expectations. And in having the trust into my team is, is everything.

Because if we get something thrown at us that we're not ready for, we sit down, we talk about it and I know it's going to get done and it's going to be done at a high, high level. And I think that that just goes, that's just building a team.

And no matter what, if it's like you said, it's not a sports podcast, but if, if you, if so, if there's a chink in the armor in your team, no matter if it's a basketball, you can't play basketball with four guys if they're going to find the weakness of the fifth one and they're going to attack at the other team.

And so it's the same thing with our group is everybody's so strong and self driven and we have to reflect and we support each other and that's what makes it so great. And again, we're unique if we have an HR department in our group. Right. Or in our company. Not everybody has that.

So again, it kind of goes back to that support, understanding, asking all the right questions. And as you talk about values, it goes back to the hiring. It's not about can this person do this job, right?

If I got, if I post a job, let's just use hr, for example. And we want to hire an HR generalist, call it. And we post the job out Online and you get 100 resumes. I could hire somebody without interview.

I'm like, okay, if it was just based on the job description, okay, they have this experience, they went to this school and this educator, blah, blah, blah.

Brad: 00:25:53

Check the box, check the box, Right?

Matt: 00:25:55

That's why you have interviews, is to find out are they a cultural fit. It's great to. You have to ask all the questions, the right questions, of course.

But really, I heard this a long time ago and I think this is so great. So I'll give this advice to the listeners and the one viewer or two viewer. I don't know how many you got. Hopefully I got a face for radio.

Brad: 00:26:13

So it's gonna be a lot now that you're on here.

Matt: 00:26:17

So is when you're sitting down and you're trying to make a decision on hiring somebody, and let's say you have two really good candidates and you're trying to, you're splitting hairs, you know, sit down. And again, this was a VP of HR that worked at Omni and SDI many, many years ago.

And it stuck with me for a long time is when, if you took this person to a baseball game, are you, are you hoping that it goes to extra innings because you want to spend so much time with them, or are you hoping it rains in the first inning to get out of there?

And when I look at that analogy, it's kind of interesting because again, you spend so much time with the people you work with, probably more than your family is. You got to be able to trust them. Do they meet your values?

Do they, you know, all the expectations you have, and then at the end of the day, do you want to go get a beer with them after work, you know, and spend more time with them?

And I, and I think when you, you put so much time and emphasis on that front part of the hiring and that interview process, you don't have to worry as much on that back end of the off boarding, hopefully if it all works out.

Brad: 00:27:17

Wow, that's. That's fantastic advice. Same. I mean, if you, if you don't go to baseball games, which you're a golfer, same thing.

Matt: 00:27:22

That's right.

Brad: 00:27:23

Do you Want to play 18 or you'll go just 9? I hope it gets rained out. Or are we going to run this back, you know, 36 tomorrow? So that's fantastic advice.

Matt: 00:27:31

Yeah. Play that emergency nine, right? Yeah. I mean, do you want it? Yeah. I think it's another way to look at it too.

As you, you know, folks are listening to this and they're they go back to their teams maybe, and they're saying, hey, I, you know, maybe I heard this one random thing. It's again, it's about, do you want to spend time with that person? Do you want to go to war with them? Do you want to go down the street?

One of my old baseball coaches at IPFW said that too. Like, hey, do you, your team, do they have your back when you're going down a dark alley?

Kind of a silly way to look at it, but it's like, if you're going to say, hey, Nat, let's just, let's just hire the person, give them a chance. You now you have a chance that it's not going to work out too.

So, again, I know your question was more based on the values, but I think trying to answer that with those examples kind of, kind of fill the gap.

Brad: 00:28:12

Well, and one of the things we do, if you've been a home buyer with us and you've gone through kind of our initial consultations, one of the things that we do, as opposed to maybe some other professions, people in our profession is, you know, we don't talk about necessarily our sales and our awards and our trophies and all of our recognition. We actually, one of the second slides in our presentation is our core values.

And so what I do is, you know, when we meet somebody for the first time or they're a past client, I'll sit down and I'll say, I'm, I'm not certain, but I'm pretty positive. You don't care about the awards that we've won, the number of homes that we've sold? You just want to know two things. You know, can I trust you?

And are you good at what you do? Right.

And so the fact that we're sitting here together and you've been referred to us and introduced to us, I find it important that I'm going to talk about our five values.

And I go over the five values that we have in our company and in our team, and I say, if I'm going to hire somebody, I kind of want to know what that person values. And so this is our way of showing you what we value and what's important to us.

And if you feel like we would be a good fit, we'll keep going on with this presentation. And we would love to serve you when it comes to buying or selling a home.

And so we lead, we lead the presentation with values just so that, just so that our clients can understand who they're working with. And I think that that's so important. That was just in addition to what you're saying, that wasn't really to add any more value.

Matt: 00:29:38

No, it was great value. And I do want to give the Knoll team a little plug.

I know that you've worked with a lot of people that I know and sold, helped them sell houses, buy houses, all that. I mean, the tlc, the attention to detail, the follow ups that you guys do, you probably, I would hope that you get that feedback.

But like, I see it in real time with, like you said, there's people that, you know, that I work with, that you guys have helped them. And like they, I mean, they become billboards for you guys, which. That's the way to do it again. My hat's off to you guys.

And hopefully whenever I go to buy that next, next house, I, I know where I'm coming. I can, I can tell you that.

Brad: 00:30:16

So I appreciate that. That's, that's, that's something that's important for us is.

So if you're, if you're an HR department in town and you're listening to how a great HR department works, we actually do prefer meeting with HR teams because it's something that we give community tours like, and I want to give a shameless plug here. But one of the things that we believe is we can be an extension of an HR team.

You know, you want to hire somebody, you know, we want to sell Fort Wayne, we want to sell Northeast Indiana, you know, just as bad as you guys do, and help communicate to, you know, to the talent that you're trying to bring in. And so that's something that's, that's a passion project of ours. But let's talk about falling in love with practice.

Matt: 00:30:51

Love it. Practice.

Brad: 00:30:54

Come on, we're talking about practice. Let's talk about what, what are the things you love to do that really nobody sees, Right? I mean, so I get on here and I have a small business.

We hire, we fire, we lead. We have core values. We have. This is what most people know, right, about HR at a surface level. But what are the things that you absolutely love to do?

How are you falling in love with the practice of human resources?

Matt: 00:31:19

Yeah, the grind. Like I was saying earlier, HR can be a position that is not for everyone. Meaning, like, it depends on the company.

I mean, again, our company, our culture are great with, is so great. But there is a piece that it's a grind. Like it can just.

People need you at a level sometimes that you're like, man, this just like, the phone doesn't stop. And then when you step back and you realize that one, you know, I could, I could. I might be helping with.

I don't know how many locations it could be, you know, 20 some locations over a handful of different states. If a manager's calling me, I could get that same, that same question 19 more times in the day.

And if you don't love the grind and want to be alongside the management team and trying to help and being involved, it can be tough. It can wear you out. And so what I love is that I keep saying the word grind. It's like every day is different. There's a lot to be done. I travel a lot.

I get a chance to see different facilities and work with different people. And so just making sure that I'm connected with my schedule. I love that at the end of the day is, hey, what do I have tomorrow?

I get excited about that. I get an opportunity to come on this podcast. You know, tomorrow's a whole nother day, and it just, That's. It feels like practice.

It's like the game is. Is easy, as they say, right? If you, if you were. If you're locked in and you give it all your time during the practice, part of it, it makes, When.

When the lights come on, it makes it easier, right? And so I guess what I'm alluding to a little bit is, you know, putting yourself in situations that you're learning, you're trying to adapt your.

But being approachable and visible to, to your leadership team goes a long way. So when they do, when that phone rings, they know that you're going to be there to help them and help solve that situation.

Or it can be good things, too. Being involved with cookouts and all the fun stuff and parties and, you know, like, our Christmas party that's coming up, like, that's a blast.

And my wife, I know she'll listen to this. She'll. She'll kind of roll her eyes like she says, oh, you know, I love going to that. But you're. You're always in HR mode.

Because I want to talk and I want to see people and I want to be. Be engaging with them.

So, so when you say it, when you kind of ask me that question about, you know, what, you know, being falling in love with practice, it feels like that's. That's every day and trying to find better ways to better yourself, our team, and keep pushing us to the next level, you know, year in and year out.

Brad: 00:33:45

I, I think a lot of the listeners Here, subscribe to this philosophy that relationships win, right? And at the end of the day, relationships win. And.

And so if you're listening to this or you've even listened to multiple episodes, you hear a central theme with the guests that I bring on is because we share a lot of the same values.

And what I'm hearing, what you absolutely love to do is, you know, most people think HR is, you know, pushing papers like, hey, sign this employee document. Hey, you're fired, or hey, I'm, you're getting written up, here's your pink slip, or I'm going to send you your benefits package.

You know, but what you're explaining is you're actually explaining how you and your HR team are building relationships to keep your culture at an all time high. Because, you know, let's not. We haven't even talked about retention yet. Like, you know, losing somebody and hiring is expensive.

It takes time, it takes energy, it takes resources.

And so what you're saying is, what I'm hearing you say, Matt, is you, you go the extra mile to invest in the relationships of the people in the company so that you can be in tune with what they're going through in their life.

Matt: 00:34:45

Absolutely. I mean, I've heard you say it on multiple podcasts about relationships win. I mean, that's what it comes down to, especially in hr.

I mean, we have to be hand in hand with our employees, our management team, the leadership team. And if they don't know who we are, just say, look, step back and be like, oh, I never see that person. They're not going to call you.

You're not going to know what's going on. And so I think relationships just in general are huge. I mean, the community, the involvement, we do a lot of that stuff with our team.

It's not just at our company. It's. We want to be involved with many different things. And again, that goes back to the testament of our company and that culture that we have.

But yeah, I can't, I can't say it enough is, you know, pushing my, my team, myself to make sure that we're visible out and about. And that's where it goes back to that where I say grind is, you know, people want you, they want the, the more you get involved.

I was just telling Sophia, she works in our team, that, you know, you start to get overwhelmed with things like, man, the phone just doesn't stop ringing. I said, the best part of all of that is now that you're.

She's one year with our company, is she's showing her value and people are leaning, leaning on her. That's a good thing. Being those build relationships over.

You never know when that person, you need them for something else in life or something at work, and it's just never to burn that bridge is such a, such an important part of building relationships. So I couldn't.

I love when I hear it when you say it on your pod and other people come on and talk about it because that's life, building those relationships.

Brad: 00:36:19

Well, what you just described with Sophia is, it's funny because I go back to my playing days and our coaches, they would always say, if we're not yelling at you, you don't matter, right? If we're yelling at you, it's because we're trying to get the best out of you because we need you.

And if we're not yelling at you or we're not paying attention to you, it's because you're probably irrelevant. These are my words, and they didn't really say those things. But what I'm hearing again is it goes back to understanding your team member.

Like, Sophia is like, okay, her phone is ringing because she's adding value. You know, if, if her phone wasn't ringing or if you're not solving problems all day long, you know, you're not adding any value.

So I think that's a, that's a key piece to understanding the work that we all get to do every single day.

Matt: 00:37:04

So I will say too, I think that's a great point.

What you, what you brought up using the sports analogy is like, coaches always push the better players because they know that they could handle it, right?

So I think it's the same way in, in the, the world of business is people that do above and beyond that job description, or as you bring them on and you're onboarding them and you can see that they can do more, we naturally want to give them more. And that's a balance too, right? You don't want to, you don't want to push somebody again.

In the sports world nowadays, nil and everything like that, people are going to be like, hey, I'm out. So it's a fine, it's a fine line, but it's, it's great to sit down and recognize, recognize that and say, hey, these are good things.

Like the coach yelling at you in your example that can, you might be going home every day going, man, I cannot. The coach hates me. And I, man, this is not working out. It's the other way around. In the coach's Mind, Right.

So again, building that relationship, going back and saying, hey, why are you on me all the time? It's the same thing with the examples that we've given with the work stuff.

It's like sometimes your best employees are the ones that you tend to put so much more on, but you got to have that reality check because you don't want them to say, hey, I, I get a phone call from another company and now they're out the door. And again, you, you, you didn't realize that you push them too far. So I just thought that that was great when you bring that up. Right.

Because I think that hit a nerve for me too. So.

Brad: 00:38:25

Well, and, and, and this is. I, I tell my wife I'm allergic to average. Just something about me, I guess, don't. I don't want to average around.

But I heard a quote one time, and, you know, one of the things that I've tried to adopt myself as I'm helping coach and lead team members is I really tend to gravitate toward the philosophy of average people want to be praised, good teammates. Okay, so average teammates want to be praised, Good teammates want to be pushed.

Elite teammates, they want feedback, and it's because they're hungry to grow and they're hungry to get better. And average team members don't have necessarily that bent to grow and want feedback. They want to be, hey, did you see I do a good job? Praise me.

What awards am I up for? And so that's just something that's always stuck with me is being able to recognize, okay, when somebody's wanting praise, what do they really mean?

When somebody wants to be pushed, what does that mean? Mean? And, and when somebody's really asking like, hey, how can I get better? What can I do?

Can, you know, then that's just a sign of, you know, great, great culture, great values. As we, as we get close to wrapping up, we always like to say, what is winning at the game of life look like for you?

We talked about mastering the fundamentals through hr.

We talked about falling in love with practice and, and the things that you do that the behind the scenes, that makes your team at Omni different and better. But for Matt, what is winning at the game of life that look like?

Matt: 00:39:54

Man, it's, it's such a good question. And I think it goes back to, you know, taking time to kind of reflect.

It's like, you know, if you're trying to keep score and you're like, hey, where am I at? Or you're looking at your peers, and your, you know, or friends and oh man, this guy, he keeps getting promoted.

What am I falling behind or, you know, I use the example too. 12 years at AMI, I'm like, I'm proud of that. I've been with a company a long time.

I've had people be like, man, you got to move two years, you got to get out, you got to go make money, more money. And it's like, well, what's important to you at the end of the day?

And so what winning looks like for me is blessed to have an opportunity to work for a great company and to understand that it's not a charity. I don't just get to show up and just do what I want. There's expectations and being held accountable.

And I'm just so fortunate to work for this company and the opportunities that led me to get here.

And then, you know, obviously my wife and my friends and my family and you know, having so much support and whether it's in the community doing things like this with you, Brad, it's just sometimes you just got to take a reality check and just realize, you know, man, what you have in front of you and what you're doing today can be so impactful. And sometimes again, you don't. You.

The analogy that you were talking about the, you know, being average and how people want to be coached is sometimes, you know, you're like, man, am I in the right lane? Like, am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? And, and a lot of times you are. You just got to take that step back just to really think about that.

And so I again, kind of, hopefully that answers. It's a tough question. I think it's an awesome question.

I know you've asked it so many times and it's not an easy question for me to answer from that standpoint.

But I will, I will say this too is, you know, years ago when I was coming out of college and everybody could relate to that story as you get your undergrad and they're like, yeah, you're going to make X amount of money and you're going to have C suite, you know, go get em, you know, and then you're like, well, where's my job? And then I got out of school and I really struggled with getting interviews.

he downturn of the economy in: 0809

Can I share it really quick? Really quick of how I ended up at Omni. I think it's really cool story.

So two years I'm working there, and I decided to go to school at Indiana State, doing it online. And I really like this HR gig. And. And so my now wife, we were dating at the time, and she's like, hey, you should come back to Fort Wayne.

I'm living in Warsaw, and you come back every weekend, you see me, your friends or whatever. And I'm like, I don't know, man. I just, you know, I like this Menards thing.

Like, I'm the old school, my parents, and I'm like, I'm just going to work here for 40 years. So she, to humor her, I said, hey, let me. I'll Google search HR jobs, Fort Wayne. And I did, and it says OmniSource and HR Generalist role.

And I'm like, well, why not? I'll apply to appease her. They're not going to call me.

And then like three or four days later, I get a phone call and like, I think I went back, like, three different times, met with, I don't know, all the people that I'm working with today or, you know, over time, and it just, like, all works out. So when I go back to the winning at life, it's like.

Like sometimes the stars align and you may want it quicker than what you want, but sometimes just be patient. Just stay to the grind and go from there.

Brad: 00:43:15

You heard it here first. What does winning at the game of life look like for Matt? It's listening to your wife.

Matt: 00:43:22

Absolutely.

Brad: 00:43:23

There you go. Well, that's a great segue to finish this.

This has been a lot of fun, and I know this episode is helping a lot of small business owners out there trying to navigate, you know, the ins and outs of what human resources actually is and could be. And you've shown us through the work that you do at Omni and your group how you make it fun and engaging.

And going back to our flagship statement that relationships win. And you guys do a great job. And thanks for sharing what winning at the game of life looks like.

I think as I've asked this question to every guest, the thing that I've learned is I think winning at the game of life, it definitely looks different for everybody, but I think it also looks different in different seasons of our life. You know, there's seasons of my life that winning, you know, takes on a different shape than it did, you know, five years ago.

And five years from now, winning might look different for me. And so I love hearing all the answers, no matter what they are, because we're all in a different season.

So as we wrap up, the kids say, give this man his flowers or send them their flowers, which just means the accolades and appreciation and, you know, being. Being that this is a podcast built around, you know, relationships. Winning.

Who are some of the relationships in your life that you want to send some flowers to that have helped you get to where you are today?

Matt: 00:44:38

Yeah, there's so many people, and it starts with my wife, Brooke, and she gives so much support, whether it's at work and I travel for work or events and the community involvement, different things I do. She's all supportive. It's. And it's so great in our relationship. As you said, it's all about relationships. And she's the best. I love her.

I think about my family and my friends and people that have pushed me to get to where I'm at, whether it's career or sports or whatever it could be, and my HR team and the group, my boss and just our whole group at Omni and SDI and all the people I work with. It makes it fun to. Again, very fortunate. Winning at the game of life, as you.

As you say, is when you get to go to battle every day with the people that you want to and you're fortunate enough to have a great team, it makes your life so much easier. So it's. It's a lot of fun. And I know I'm missing tons of people. Throw some flowers at Brad Knoll. I, you know, I. I could go on and on. I got.

I got tons of people, but it's.

I appreciate you letting me come on and ramble a little bit, and hopefully I give a little help and support and some ideas and thoughts as we go to the listeners and. And Brad, you're more than welcome to share my.

My contact information if people have some specific questions or want to dive deeper into whatever we were covering. And I'm all for it. I love it.

Brad: 00:45:54

You're generous. I appreciate that. Matt Ransbottom, now an alumni, a student of the game. If this episode has helped you, go ahead and screenshot this.

Tag us on social media. And, yeah, like Matt said, get ahold of me if you have any HR questions. I know I have had some in the past, and I've reached out.

And like I say, you're always generous with your time. So thanks for being a guest today and keep up the great work at Omni and what you guys are doing in the community.

Matt: 00:46:20

Thanks for having me.

Brad: 00:46:22

All right, that's a wrap. Thanks for listening to Student of the Game podcast. Whatever game you are playing, I'm cheering for you. See you in the next class, Sam.