Scaling Operations Without Losing Your Identity
Sep 3, 2026 · 32 min · 12 segments
Send us Fan Mail Tim and John chat with Westie Magnuson, Chief Culture Officer, HireAligned, Portland, Oregon. He’s also a Presenter at PHCC CONNECT…
Sep 3, 2026 · 32 min · 12 segments
Send us Fan Mail Tim and John chat with Westie Magnuson, Chief Culture Officer, HireAligned, Portland, Oregon. He’s also a Presenter at PHCC CONNECT…
John MesenbrinkHost
Tim WardHostAnd I think it varies a little bit, you know, depending on the shop culture and what part of the country you're in.
But something that's true is good communication, especially when it comes to retention.
One of the most commonly cited reasons, if you get to the root cause for people that are leaving a shop, it comes down to communication.
Um, we, I still do lots of the phone screenings for hire aligned and every day I'll talk to someone.
The first question I ask is, well, what has you looking for a different job opportunity? And when you pull apart their answers, it almost comes down to root causes communication.
Um, so as the employer, you should, that should be on your mind and you should be explaining to people what their career path could look like.
Um, They'll say, well, I was supposed to have a meeting, you know, six months ago to assess my performance and talk about my pay.
If they're expecting this conversation and you haven't had it, you know, imagine you wake up on your birthday and instead of presents already being ready from you, from people that are invested in you, you have to go around to everyone and say, hey, it's my birthday.
And then culture being, you know, fun and part of fun is winning, right? People are like, well, I don't want to focus on fun because like I need results.
You know, part of your bias is helping trade contractors scale operations without losing a company's identity.
What are, what are some of the pit, excuse me, some of the pitfalls of a company possibly losing identity?
Some of the pitfalls are, you know, for lack of a better way to put it, kind of taking your eye off the ball.
A lot of times companies are really focused on culture and being tight knit and having good communication and making sure everyone feels like they're a part of a journey.
And I think it varies a little bit, you know, depending on the shop culture and what part of the country you're in.
But something that's true is good communication, especially when it comes to retention.
One of the most commonly cited reasons, if you get to the root cause for people that are leaving a shop, it comes down to communication.
Um, we, I still do lots of the phone screenings for hire aligned and every day I'll talk to someone.
The first question I ask is, well, what has you looking for a different job opportunity? And when you pull apart their answers, it almost comes down to root causes communication.
Um, so as the employer, you should, that should be on your mind and you should be explaining to people what their career path could look like.
Um, They'll say, well, I was supposed to have a meeting, you know, six months ago to assess my performance and talk about my pay.
If they're expecting this conversation and you haven't had it, you know, imagine you wake up on your birthday and instead of presents already being ready from you, from people that are invested in you, you have to go around to everyone and say, hey, it's my birthday.
And then culture being, you know, fun and part of fun is winning, right? People are like, well, I don't want to focus on fun because like I need results.
You know, part of your bias is helping trade contractors scale operations without losing a company's identity.
What are, what are some of the pit, excuse me, some of the pitfalls of a company possibly losing identity?
Some of the pitfalls are, you know, for lack of a better way to put it, kind of taking your eye off the ball.
A lot of times companies are really focused on culture and being tight knit and having good communication and making sure everyone feels like they're a part of a journey.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
