EntreLeadership - The Most Overlooked Part of Hiring

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

🎯 Not sure what to do next in your business? Let’s figure it out together. Book a free 30-minute consult call with the EntreLeadership® Team.   A great onboarding process doesn't happen by accident.  In this episode, you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at how Ramsey onboards new team members and how you can apply the same principles to build a stronger team.   Next Steps: ·      🎥 Watch our video Guarantee You’ll Never Make a Bad Hire Again. ·      📝 Learn how to create an onboarding plan your new team members will love. ·      📞 Have a question for the show? Call 844-944-1070 or send us a message. ·      📚 Order Dave’s most recent EntreLeadership book, Build a Business You Love. ·      📧 Get EntreLeadership’s free weekly newsletter: expert advice and practical tips from the same playbook we used to build Ramsey Solutions into a $300 million company. ·      🌎 Attend our world-class leadership conference, EntreLeadership Summit. ·      📝 Stop guessing. Get a plan built for your business and someone who holds you to it. Find out which coaching option is right for you. ·      📈 Take a deep dive into the EntreLeadership System™ at our Master Series event, where our Executive Team shares the exact strategies behind our growth so you can run your business the same way.   Connect With Our Sponsors: ·      Go to Belay Solutions or text ENTRE to 55123 for their free resource! ·       See if Christian Healthcare Ministries Groups are the right fit for your organization. ·      Visit NetSuite today to learn more.   Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of business owners think they have a hiring problem. But if you're constantly dealing with turnover, confusion, and poor performance, the real problem might be your own boarding. Because if you're not taking the time to train new hires the right way, you're setting them up to fail. Here at Ramsey Solutions, we've spent decades building a team of more than 1,000 people. And one thing we're proud of is how many of them choose to stick around for the long haul. So today, we're taking you behind the scenes.

We'll be following a group of brand new team members during their first few days to show you how we set them up for long-term success. Let's get to it. All right, Ayesha. So you lead onboarding at Ramsey Solutions. And we've got new people starting today. We do, five. Five new people. Yes.

That's exciting. Yes. So what have you told them to get them ready for today? Goodness so much. So throughout the interview process, they heard about how great it is to work here. They've met our recruiting team, their hiring leaders, and actually they came on site to be able to tour the building. So over the past couple weeks, they received an email from our HR team to complete their onboarding paperwork. They received a phone call from me as well as their recruiter just to say, hey, we're excited about you joining today.

So the next thing is we go up on the hill for staff meeting, but first you have Daniel Ramsey, the president of the company, meet with them. Why do you have them do that? Absolutely. So we know that it trickles from the top down. and how cool to be able to tell your family and friends when they get home, guess who I'm at today. It's just that amazing way just to set the tone, give them an opportunity to meet him,

him share a little bit about himself. He's so intentional. He actually knows a little bit about each person that's in that onboarding room and takes time to talk to them. All right, well, let's head up the hill and get ready for staff meeting. Let's go, John. So Aisha, we have all of our new team members come to staff meeting and sit up here in the front row.

How does having them at staff meeting help them understand, how we do things around here. Absolutely. We communicate. We celebrate. We want the right and the left hand to know exactly what's going on. So they'll hear updates. And today we're celebrating at Ramseyversaries 1, 5, 10, 15-year Ramseseries today.

What happens after staff meeting? Yeah, our hiring leaders are going to come up and greet our new team members and welcome them. We're a leader-driven company and for them to be able to meet them day one and see them again, day one, escape. That's awesome. All right. Let's listen in. All right. Hey, we got five new team members this morning.

Give it up for these guys. Welcome. Okay, so now we're doing a tour of the entire campus. That way, new hires know where meeting rooms are, where the cafe is, even where bathrooms are. We're also going to tour the lobby so they know what it's like to visit here as a guest. What else do you want them to learn through that tour? For sure, we want them to know how to get to the cafe.

Where our refrigerators are, our freezers are, where to warm up their food. We have a library. We have a chapel. where our visitors enter versus where our team members enter. It looks like you're having the new hires watch the never give up documentary. Yes. Why do you do that? Why is it so important that they understand how the company got started?

Yeah, absolutely. We go back to the beginning. So back when Dave first began the company and just the humble beginnings and how he was told that you won't be able to do this and you won't be able to do that. But he knew that he had a calling and a direction and he never gave up. So you're the vice president of the Ramsey Network, and you're going to come talk to the new hires today. Yep. I'm excited to do it. I'm going to tell them that everything that they learned outside of these walls, they need to unlearn to win at Ramsey.

Okay. Why do you tell them that? Well, we just, we're different. And I think that what makes us different, we communicate about it early and often to these team members. And they're going to get a lot of training today. I've been there 12 years. And I want to tell them some real world examples. of how to win at Ramsey. So during this time, we're going over the Ramsey DNA. And what those are, that's a sheet that actually outlines all the fundamental, distinct characteristics that make at Ramsey. So we cover our mission, our vision, core beliefs, core values, and give them an opportunity to hear from one of our senior leaders, ask them questions, and then also give them some pro tips.

What are you really hoping that the new hires come away with after this session? One, that how cool is it that a senior leader would stop and spend time and interest? themselves to being able to hear their story. And Hank's been here 12 years, so they got to hear some of the highs and some of the lows that Hank has experienced and be able to ask him real questions. So again, just an opportunity to meet a long,

tenure leader that has been here at Ramsey. Ombording isn't over yet. There's still a lot more to do to really set our team members up for success. But first, a lot of business owners I talk to have a vision. What they don't have is capacity. is capacity. You're spending your days buried in 100 administrative tasks, like emails, scheduling, and travel arrangements. And those don't require your leadership. You should be spending

your time on things only you can do. That's why I recommend Belay. I've gotten to know the Belay team over the years, and they understand leadership, growth, and what it takes to help a business owner achieve more. Belay helps overloaded leaders carve out capacity by providing executive assistants who help them delegate detail work. These assistants are highly vetted and based in the U.S. So business owners can spend more time on strategy and leading their teams. Just think what you could get done if you weren't tied up with a bunch of little tasks. If you've never thought about it, check out Belay's free resource called 15 big moves you

could make this quarter if you had the capacity. You can download it for free by texting Entree to 55123. That's E-N-T-R-E to 55-1-2-3. Well, good morning, Ayesha. Good morning, Felkins. Here we are day two of onboarding. Yes. What are they doing today?

Yes, so we started the morning with Ramsey in Real Life. Ramsey in Real Life? That sounds so cool. Yeah, we talked about what it looks like actually being here. So where to park. We talked about dress code. We talk about our weekly report. And when you submit that, how that started, why you submit it,

who it goes to, what all to include, and that by Fridays at 3 p.m., right? That's right. That's right. Then we also have our IT teams come in. Okay, is that what they're doing now? Yep, they're getting their computer. They're getting logged in.

And then we'll also have security come in and talk a little bit about their responsibility and how all of us protect this place. One thing I'm noticing that it's not in there is a big, thick binder, because this is a lot of information. I'd forget pretty much everything. It is, and we tell them from day one.

They hear it a couple different times. We know it is a fire hydrant. We know that there's so much information that you're receiving. And if you forget, we do have a new team member page that has all of the information on it. It's on our intranet. Okay. And it's specifically dedicated for our new team members to be able to go back and refer to everything that we cover over these first two days is in there. It seems like they've been through a lot.

Yes. What do you do next? Yeah. So after this, we'll go to the lobby to shop. So Ramsey gives us, yes, $200 every year to be able to go shop in the bookstore. and be able to buy shirts and mugs and items that we can give to our friends and family. And then after that, we're gonna have a culture race.

A culture race. Yes, so they'll be able to go around the building, meet some team members, find out little fun facts about ReMC. We've got 10 items listed on there. They have fun as competition. We wear bandanas, and the first that comes back gets a little prize. Very cool.

Yeah. This afternoon, right before we head to lunch with our leader, we will talk about our top takeaways. So there's a slide that, I have that says onboarding highlights, and each person goes around and is able to share what their onboarding highlight is. Are there any themes that have emerged over doing this

over the years? What do you typically see? Some of the things I hear is meeting Daniel, day one. I also hear what our Ramsey DNA speakers share. And then they also just talk about the full experience, that it doesn't seem like it was just thrown together, but it was intentional. And that every single person that they engage with,

even when they're going around doing the culture they feel as though everyone's excited that they're here. We do send out a survey just to get their feedback, and we ask, was it too much information just enough? Do they feel ready to gather their feedback, as well as to rate each one of the onboarding sessions, too? How many times do you think you've looked at the feedback and actually iterated on the process?

Oh, we already have even this year. Really? So that's kind of a continuous thing? It is continuous because if we continue to doing the same thing, one, we're not valuing and taking their input, and we're not also tweaking. One time Dave said that if you look up Ramsey in the dictionary, you see change. And that's what we do.

We do change and we improve. And we value the feedback from team members that are coming through. Well, good morning, Ayesha. Good morning, Tolkien. Here we are, day three. Day three, yes. What has happened so far? And what are we doing today?

So in a moment, we're about to hear from a speaker every Wednesday. We come up here and we have authors, pastors, worship leaders, and they'll give us a message for the next. 30 minutes, and then after that, our new team members will go up on stage, and all of us will pray over them. We will start their journey here by almost 1,000 people praying over them before they actually head to their desk and begin in their room. I love it. Very cool. Yes. Well, let's get to it. All right, let's go. So, believe it or not, our onboarding doesn't just take the two days. It takes 90 days. Walk us through what that looks like. Over the next

30 days, it's just settling in. It's understanding where they are understanding their care. Taking a breath. We will come together in 30 days. Okay. We'll have a couple of executive leadership team members talk about how we operate and give them an opportunity to meet more senior leaders. Thirty days after that, they'll meet a couple of personalities. Again, still getting settled into their role. We have an onboarding checklist of multiple different things that they will accomplish.

So just continue nuggets dropped throughout the full experience. It's not just two days and then go. It's a full 90 days and beyond, honestly. Yeah, it takes a full year to fully get settled, understand your role, understand Ramsey and our culture. That's what we've always told team members is like, hey, our expectations of you for the first year are you just getting used to being here and understanding how things work.

And people, I feel like want to come in and, like, make their mark, like, you know, the first week that they're here. And they usually stub their toe when they do that. A couple of us have. I'm in there as well. And Daniel touched on that yesterday. Hank touched on that. And I'll touch on it. This is a hard place to work. And it's the best place that I've ever worked. Absolutely. We do things differently here. And it does take time. And I do share that all of the, anything that you brought in here, the imposter syndrome, which may sneak up again or the self-doubt or worrying. You've got almost a thousand people here that are cheering you on, that are side by side with you. And you can let go of that. So this is the onboarding that we have built over the years for a thousand person company, but I know not every company is that big.

When people watch this, what do you want them to take away as like the one main thought? Absolutely. So think about what you told them throughout the interview process. And they're coming in for day one. You want to reiterate that. You want to continue to drawstring everything that they experience throughout the process. So meeting and hearing from senior leaders because our owners, presidents, they create that culture. So being able to hear and meet someone, if you can't do it

day one, that's okay. But make sure that you're intentional sometime within that first week to be able to go by so that they know you, knowing where how to clock in, clock out, where the restrooms are, meeting rhythms, the hours that they should be in, the expectations that will set them up for success, what their role looks like, what it entails so that they can be successful. meeting other team members, that they'll be working side-by-side-with and building those relationships. We know that it's the foundation. It's the beginning. Does it seem like there's a lot of different processes that have changed over time, but the principle underneath is we're wanting them to be set up to succeed?

We want them to know that we're glad that they're here. That's what we want them to feel welcome. We want them to be settled, especially when someone moves here, a whole new city, we want them to build community both here as well as outside. So, yeah, the principles are the same. The way we may do it changes, and the principles remain the same. Thank you for letting us tag along through this whole process at each other. I guess now it's time they have to actually get to work.

Yes, we get to work now. We get to work. Yes, thanks, Falcons. Thank you. That's how we do things here at Ramsey. But as the business owner, you get to decide exactly what onboarding looks like for your team. At the very least, every new hire should feel welcome, understand the business. mission, know what's expected of them, and have what they need to do their job.

And if you don't know where to start, ask a few of your most recent hires what confused them when they first started or what they wished they had had before they started working. You'll probably get more insight from that than you will from hours of brainstorming. Then pick just one thing, just one thing to fix before your next hire. We've also got an article on how to create your own onboarding plan, and we'll leave a link of that down in the description. Great onboarding is preventative medicine. It takes a little more time on the front end, but it saves you a lot of frustration later.

If you want team members who perform well, fit your culture, and stick around for the long haul, onboarding can't be something you make up as you go. It has to be intentional. But it starts with getting the right people in the door to begin with. So go watch this next video on how we make better hires. We'll leave the link. in the description. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, share, and subscribe for more real world leadership content. I'm your host Dave Ramsey and this is Entree Leadership.