HHH_Ed Zetusky
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INTRO: [00:00:00] Welcome to Hiring Happy Hour, where we celebrate the human side of hiring. I'm your host, Nicole Hammond, and together we'll pull back the curtain on people shaping the future of work, the innovators, the dreamers, the change makers behind today's hiring experience. These are the real stories behind the dashboards.
From leaders transforming talent acquisition to the everyday moments that remind us why we love hiring in the first place, to connect people with purpose, hiring happy hours. Brought to you by Smartrecruiters, an SAP company, the AI powered software for super human hiring, helping organizations hire faster, smarter, and we're human.
Nicole Hammond: Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Hiring Happy Hour. I am very excited, uh, for today's topic as it's a new one. And first, let me share more about our wonderful guest. He is a recruiting and talent strategist with a strong track record of building long-term partnerships [00:01:00] in e-commerce and retail.
He is a people-focused, professional, experienced. In identifying and assessing candidates across commercial, operational, and executive roles with a passion for the candidate experience. Hint, hint. He is the co-founder and former VP of Philadelphia based nonprofit focused on innovation and professional development, helping elevate and connect the local recruiting community, director of talent acquisition at Comoto Family Brands.
Please join me in welcoming Ed Dusky. I, I butchered it after We practiced it. Tuske, welcome to the show. Ed.
Ed Zetusky: Thank you, Nicole. Thanks for having me, and you make me sound a lot better than I am with that intro. Appreciate it.
Nicole Hammond: I have to tell you, I have a little help from my friends as if you don't know that song already, but they do an amazing job. But I think it goes to a testament of how humble all of my guests are and Speaking with you prior to this I can truly say I'm very excited about today's topic. I'm very excited to speak with you because not only have you [00:02:00] had this moment in time of success, but it's continued to accelerate, expand, grow.
So I'm gonna leave our guests on a cliff cliffhanger a bit, but um, I wanna turn it. over to you to kind of provide us a little more context and then share with us, uh, what your hiring happy hour is.
Ed Zetusky: Thanks Nicole. Uh, I've been with my current company, Comodo, Family of Brands for, for for 10 and a half years, So trying to pick one was very, You know, was very challenging. uh, as we go back, a lot of, a lot of awesome stuff. Uh. Over the years, uh, including some awards, like we won a town, a local town acquisition excellence award for the, uh, greater Philadelphia or Delaware Valley.
And then the year after that, our whole HR department won. Um, and uh, but a big part of it is, uh, why we won
that is would I be talking about today, which was around building our employee referral, You know, contest in addition to our referral program.
Nicole Hammond: Love it. Love it. So share with us more a little bit about what led up to this creation of the referral [00:03:00] program
And referrals for those of you out there I think. and hope that this is part of your hiring strategy, but if not, we're gonna learn more here.
Ed Zetusky: Yeah, so we actually, um, when I joined the company back then, it was just RevZilla and it was, uh, me and my colleague Becca McCormick, who
she's still with me today. She's our talent acquisition manager and employment and employment branding.
Um, and, uh, her and I have. Had a lot of adventures over the years, but we, when we walked in the door in 2015, they actually already had a good referral program that paid out pretty significantly. it had a, You know, a thousand dollars and, $2,500, uh, referral, uh, based on Um, the level and, um, which was, which is really good. That's very lucrative, You know, compared to what I've seen at other, other places. So that, was, so that was good. Um, but we, and we had a pretty good referral. Numbers in terms of referral percentage of of, of higher, I think year one was around 35%.
Year two was around 42%. Um, but the big challenge that we're looking to solve is [00:04:00] that it was a very small number
of people driving. Most of the referrals mainly in
fulfillment and our customer service, which back then, back then we used to call, uh, gear Geeks. Um, we're in the motorcycle industry, so, uh. The people you're talking to are people who, uh, eat, sleep, and breathe, You know, motorcycles.
So we
Nicole Hammond: had roles
Ed Zetusky: We've since changed that over time. Um, but uh, we were looking to expand referrals because we were seeing kind of around the numbers. You know, you were talking out, uh, You know, people stay longer, You know, uh. Typically accept the offer more engaged, move faster. So all that, You know, all that good stuff.
Both what you can measure quantitatively and also, You know, kind of just, You know how things go. So that was really the driver from it, is try to get more referrals from more people to. and, and also to highlight jobs from all across of, back then it was just, You know, RevZilla. Um, so that people were referring friends or, or, You know, ex co or former coworkers, You know, if you're in writer, in [00:05:00] customer service, referring people who are in, You know, creative design or in tech or in, You know fulfillment centers and vise versa, all over the place. So it was really trying to, You know, get more referrals from a a from our awesome people from all across the board, which was not happening at the time, even though, You know, we had a good, good, uh, referral program in
place.
Nicole Hammond: Love it. And I think to your point, no matter what industry, but this industry is super cool like motorbikes, all that, I think I, I mean I, this is so cheesy, but like I just think Vroom Vroom and I think of my kids riding their dirt bikes. Um, but I think no matter what industry you're in, right, there is an average of 30 to 50% are referrals.
And I think to take it a step further, and the piece that's very important is 80% of those stay for longer than a year. Quality of hire is. Incrementally higher. And I think it's just a testament, right? When you have like-minded individuals, whether it's from the same industry and probably in this arena, feels like it would make more sense.
Um, you just [00:06:00] get it. And to your point, they ramp faster. They understand the industry, possibly competitors and what you're looking for when you're looking to hire additional individuals. So I love that.
Ed Zetusky: Yeah, definitely. And um, You know, obviously too, another reason for that is, You know, we had put you know uh, some new processes, new systems in place, new tools. So we were expanding and, and taking ownership of, You know, recruiting in-house. And, You know, there was a good amount of, You know, in-house recruiting before, but we're using, You know, agencies and we're looking for that.
And, You know, getting more referrals is another way in, on top of the, You know, proactive sourcing and advertising and, and You know, all that, uh, all that good stuff of, as another way of, of, You know, getting more candidates so we can continue to. Moved down that, uh, moved down that path.
Nicole Hammond: That's great. And I think for our listeners and our watchers, what they might be interested in is what was in this program, right? Like how did you make it so successful the first time, but also how did you make it grow? So let's take that first [00:07:00] part. Tell us the secret sauce. Tell it what, what was included in this.
And I think I remember from our first conversation, like even theme, uh, matters, right?
Ed Zetusky: I think the most important thing too is like knowing your culture. So we, You know, RevZilla and, uh, what is, and now Comoto is, You know, it's an enthusiast vertical, so, um. It's people who eat, sleep, and breathe motorcycle. So it's a very, You know, engaging culture. Back then it was very Philadelphia centric, so when we had three locations that we had our office in Philly, our warehouse in Philly, and then we had a warehouse or fulfillment center out in Las Vegas.
So it was, and we had, definitely a fun and engaging culture. So there was, a thing we always said, 5% jokes and, the brand color of RevZilla was. Orange. So it was always like 10% orange. So really bring that, 10%
uniqueness
whatever it is, to the table. So knowing that going in
and one of our core values was take risks, wear a helmet.
And that's still, [00:08:00] that's one of the core values
That has actually translated over
once we became the Comoto family of brands, it's my personal
fun one So it was to come up with an idea of how can we get, how can we get more referrals? leveraging the new, applicant tracking system we had that made it a lot easier for referrals and, You know, making it simple for people and, You know, leverage the culture that we have to really amplify it, You know, in house, like what I've done at the same, I mean. I would've done this at other companies, um, but maybe not the same exact way because, You know, the cultures were, were different, but we really leaned into the, You know, kind of fun and engaging, uh, You know, culture of, of, uh, You know, RevZilla to be able to get it off the ground.
Um
I guess
Specifics around what what, You know, what we did so in, in knowing that.
Um, so one of the other things, You know, I mentioned with, in, You know. Generating more referrals and things like that. It was also, You know, it was tough [00:09:00] to get hired at RevZilla. So, You know, if someone referred and they make it through multiple rounds of an interview and or a silver, silver medalist, like that's a really good
Nicole Hammond: Sure.
Ed Zetusky: And a lot of times they might even get hired, You know, a year or two, You know, a year or two later, but. Someone who makes a great referral like that, especially for an important position. Like, You know, you might go through three rounds of interviews, like, You know, that's obviously a, a, a top quality referral 'cause they wouldn't be going that far if that wasn't the case. So we also wanted to find a way, uh. To reward people for, You know, for having, You know, good referrals, not just like referrals for the sake of referrals
So we wanted that, we wanted that part of it. We wanted the recognition part of it, and leverage like our, um, You know, like I said, the culture, You know, the recognition and doing. Um, so what we ended up, You know, doing was we did quarterly cash and prizes. So it was a point-based system,
So you got a point for every step someone took. And so we had four steps. So it was [00:10:00] like, You know, a recruiter interview, a hiring manager, interview a, You know, a second round interview or first, You know, then another interview and then.
Points for a hired, and it was based on the level, so, You know, all, You know, full-time team members were X amount of points for, You know, for each stage. And then it went to manager and director. And that's where, You know, so obviously a director, a phone interview, uh, You know, would be a lot of, would be more points than a, You know, a full-time team member, uh, You know, point system.
So it was the reward both, You know, everybody. more points for, You know, the harder and, You know, more senior roles where there's not as many, You know, not as the pool is smaller. So, um, so we, so we, so we did that. So basically we had a point threshold. So you had to hit 20 points, each quarter there was, um, a 2,500 hour cash pool. So let's say for example, um, the total points for the quarter were a hundred. So [00:11:00] we would pay out, You know, $25 per point at that point. So it's like 2,500 divided by the amount of points. And if you hit the threshold, you would get, You know, so if I hit, You know, if I hit, uh, You know, 20 points, You know, 20 times 25, You know, that's how many points I got.
So obviously there's gonna be people who don't hit the, uh, You know, the twenty, twenty point threshold. So all the leftover cash goes to the winner for that, for that um, for that quarter. So someone could go from, You know, they were, let's just say they made, You know, 300 hours for, You know, from their points for the quarter, but they came in first place and there was like a hundred leftover points they could end up. could end up with, You know, a lot of people ended up with over a thousand dollars for that. Um, the other thing that we did, um, since we are Philly centric, it since has changed as we become a family of brands and we have 180
Nicole Hammond: locations and
Ed Zetusky: things like that. We don't have the same benefit of [00:12:00] doing that.
But we had a Thursday meeting every week where the, three founders got up and talked. Other people would give, updates. And that's where we would do our big referral recognition. Me and Becca would get up and run through the program, give the stats, how many referrals we get, how many referers, how many hires, all that stuff, and then highlight everyone who won, who earned points that quarter.
And then we would get out into the winners and we'd had trophies for first, second, and third place. And we would hand them cash at the event. So you're getting not just the reward, but you're also getting the recognition of the, in front of the whole company.
So when we did that, so we announced it, so we actually leveraged our CEO, who was a, he's very, he's a great presenter, a lot of energy, so he and I kind of introduced the program and he got some
initial people who, got the wheels turning, like, oh, this could be cool. [00:13:00] so in the first quarter we saw a little bit, it was like a little bit higher than normal, but after we presented Q1 referral contest, you just saw, referrals kind of go through the roof. Um, You know, after, after that, uh, after that time.
Nicole Hammond: Wow. Okay, so I am going to use my active listening and repeat back what I heard in summary for our audience. So first and foremost, I think marketing a true program, right? Coming up with a theme, marketing it, but to your point, having executive advocacy, your CEO sounds like a rockstar that's effective with communication and motivating.
And so that is key as well to get buy-in and just continuous engagement. But I think I wanna forward to not only like you define the program, which I love, but reporting and the metrics, right? Like you have to, on an ongoing basis, have a good way to track all this. Then do the math for the points, and then finally that feedback loop of where you're providing, okay, here's what, here's our status this quarter thus far, here's our winners, and then let's plan for this to [00:14:00] be executed at the quarterly meeting with our CEOX.
So. There is a lot in that, but I think that program itself of the marketing, the advocacy, the reporting, um, is just truly effective. And I, and I would say that I don't think a lot of organizations take it that far. Right? They put something out. If someone refers, they have it come in. But this is a very thoughtful approach and you've scaled it.
Ed Zetusky: And the one other thing I forgot about when we were talking. About when we were selling the program and continuing to talk about it. So obviously we, You know, this was additional money that was, that was like in addition to our referral, You know, uh our referral program.
You know, bonus payouts. So we had to put a business case together to, to submit to the founders and the, You know, and the CFO, um, and, You know, all the things that I talked about, all the stats you gave was basically the business case of like, Hey, this is already successful, but we could be even better and leveraging [00:15:00] all those things so. we, You know, we already talked about rewards, we talked about recognition, but the third thing that we also made sure to highlight, which we didn't do prior to that, the contest was really around like, Hey, You know. You need someone on your team, we need other people that are Rockstars like you to join the team.
So it's like, if you hire someone, great, that's less work,that's less work on your plate that you're taking, you're picking up the slack for right now until we replace someone, or we are bringing on a new role to, help with the, with the increased, demand. So it was really, Telling people like, Hey, if we bring in a great person for position X, that's gonna make your life easier and, have a, another great team member
etcetera So that's like the three ways of really selling it, rewards, recognition, and also speaking to the person's, I guess, their best interest in their role
Nicole Hammond: Sure what's in it for them, and I appreciate that because I think we often [00:16:00] assume we know it, but. We don't necessarily communicate it or make it a priority, so I love that. Speak to me about taking this a step further and what is the legacy or how long do people stay at your organization? Right. We talked at the beginning about this stat of referrals being amazing, but then we also talked about retention and quality of hire.
Um, what have you seen within the organization if RevZilla, but then expanding to Comodo?
Ed Zetusky: I know that referrals in, in general for retention, back when we were, back then when we first got it off the ground was probably about, they were staying. About 15 to 20% longer in terms of that and, a lot less of that first year, turnover, which is, You know, pretty common. Uh, today, uh, You know, it varies 'cause we have, You know, business, You know, across our different business units. You know, we have fulfillment. Uh, we have our [00:17:00] retail stores, we have our. What we call customer service, which is rider support. And then we have our, You know, of our, of our shared services. So the, You know, kind of the tenure and it, You know, kind of varies by, You know, group, You know, in general, um, fulfillment and um, and retail stores have higher turnover than other parts of you know the business, but, um, I don't remember the, You know, it's probably be like, yeah, okay. Okay. Guy talking on the thing. I don't remember the numbers right off the top of my head. I, I apologize. Um, poor planning on my part.
Nicole Hammond: I caught you off guard. Don't worry about it. I know you're a staff guy and you're prepared.
Ed Zetusky: I Usually know those numbers, but, uh, I having a brain cramp right now.
I know, I believe
Like fulfillment is usually like, fit around 50, 45 to 50%. I think we're around, we're, You know, give or take around like 25 to 30%, You know, give or take. Um, You know, retail stores are for full-time. Our attrition is pretty low. We don't lose a lot. Most of [00:18:00] the, the attrition we have is in, in part-time team members.
Nicole Hammond: Which I love. I mean, that's a big deal, right? I think high volume retail, that's not always the case. A testament to your brand as well, and the industry, right? I think this is hard to break into, And so therefore once you're in, you wanna stay and. Based on the company culture, just from the referral program alone, um, it sounds like a great place to be.
So I love this. Um, we're gonna switch gears and I wanna learn more about what drives ed, what motivates ED and what your personal happy hour is.
Ed Zetusky: I'm gonna cheat and give you a, give you a two. Um, one is I have, uh, I have a big family. I have, I have five
Nicole Hammond: Which blew me away.
Ed Zetusky: they range in age from 10 to 10 to 18. They're all very involved in, in sports
and different activities. So, uh, one of them is spending time at a field. Gym or court somewhere watching them play or in, uh, certain sports coaching them. Um, so that's a big thing that [00:19:00] I en enjoy. Uh, and then my personal happy hour out, uh, tied for first, that's more, uh, You know, more selfish than the other one is, uh, sitting out back with a cigar and a, and a bourbon. And, uh, and, and that's my, uh, that's my personal happy hour.
Nicole Hammond: Both of those minus the cigar, but just the moment, uh, are so relatable and I love it. First of all, five kids and just all sports. I have three and I can barely even ponder how I'm going to continue to do this for the next 10 years. But the fact that you're doing it and with five is incredible. Um, and then that backyard moment.
I have a whiskey every Friday, so I'm with you on the b the bourbon topic. I think it's a, it's a healthy balance for us parents out there. Right. Um, but our CFO would love that. You, you are a cigar guy.
Ed Zetusky: I found our metrics if you were interested in them.
Nicole Hammond: Yes. Bring it back for us. Bring it back.
Ed Zetusky: So our full-time average tenure is five years.[00:20:00]
our, part-time, average tenure is, just under two years. and then our voluntary full-time turnover is 20%, and part-time is 50%. So low on the, low on the full-time side, that's across the board. That's not business unit specific. that's Comoto as a whole.
Nicole Hammond: I love that. I think I also love that you have all this data at your fingertips. Again, I think we take for granted data and um, the fact that you have this information is gold. Is gold. All right, last piece and fun part, this or that. Have you played this before?
Ed Zetusky: A version of it in the
Nicole Hammond: So I'm gonna give you two topics. You can choose your own adventure, you can choose one or the other and elaborate as to why. You can choose one or the other. And mic drop away. You can say, and you can say neither. Um, there is no right answer here, so we're gonna get into it. Some are related to hiring in [00:21:00] the TA space.
Some might be related to some of the things I've learned about you. Uh, and then we'll go from there. Sound good?
Ed Zetusky: Sounds good.
Nicole Hammond: Resume or LinkedIn profile.
Ed Zetusky: Not everyone has a LinkedIn profile, so I'd go resume, especially in high volume hiring
Nicole Hammond: Sure, sure. AI or no ai.
Ed Zetusky: ai.
Nicole Hammond: Find me or find you.
Ed Zetusky: Find you
Nicole Hammond: Okay. Career path or whatever comes my way.
Ed Zetusky: That's a tough one. Go either way on that. Um, I would say, but I didn't sign, I didn't look to be a recruiter, so whatever comes my way.
Nicole Hammond: And yet here you are, 10 plus years later.
Ed Zetusky: Yeah. Here I am.
Nicole Hammond: Um, uh, okay. This one, internal
mobility or referral.
Ed Zetusky: Oh, I like both of them. They're really, they're really good. Uh, I'll go internal mobility. I think when people can, you know, can grow their career, You know, ladder up throughout their current business unit or move to other parts of the company. I think that's, as much as I love referrals, and that's what I [00:22:00] talked about today, internal mobility is,
squadcaster-hi5i_8_03-20-2026_111202: or
Ed Zetusky: is a,
squadcaster-hi5i_8_03-20-2026_111202: reward
Ed Zetusky: um, is a great thing.
Um, You know, we've had, uh, in the last. In the last 12 months, about 206, um, promotions and internal hires over our last trail in 12 months
Nicole Hammond: Love it. Love it. There's that data again. Um,
okay. Another
fun one. Reward or recognition.
Ed Zetusky: That's a good question. And as you say that, that just brought up a memory, Uh You know, for me about the best part about the referral contest that I didn't talk about earlier. So shame on me is so on top of doing the court, You know, the quarterly rewards and recognition, we actually do an end of year Olympic style celebration.
So we had one of our team members who's, good at woodworking, built me a podium. And Then we had our recruiting coordinator at the time was a good sport. He dressed up as a, monopoly man. and he had all, the money in bags. So we had an Olympic style celebration, we had theme [00:23:00] songs.
We started it with the Olympic theme song that you hear on NBC. Caught up highlighted all the numbers for the year, thanked everybody, and then started with the top 10, got into the top three, and each person got a gold, silver, or a bronze medal based on which place you were on.
Bronze 1500 Silver 2,500 grand prize winner was 5,000. And they also got a plaque that is in the hallway of our headquarters. and they still exist today and they're still going strong. Uh, actually this last year we had.
Place for find you?
Someone won three. Uh, one of our fulfillment team members down in Louisville won three years in a row.
She was a referral machine. Um, And so, uh, it was pretty awesome. But yeah, that, sorry to, to, to go back to
that, but I, I'd be remiss if I didn't share that. That was literally the best part of the whole referral contest.
Nicole Hammond: That is awesome. And You know what I think, uh, Olympic theme is a genuine one that people can use across the board. I used it for [00:24:00] Sketchers, which was one of customers for a change management program. So rolling out to all of their stores, um, Smartrecruiters. So I Love it. I Love it. But you took it a step further with the podium and the medals and having it in the hallway, like the hallway of Legends or champions.
Ed Zetusky: We've now changed it to Comodo, refer the, You know, ref refer of the year. Um, and it went from orange now to, uh, blue. So our brand color for RevZilla was orange. And now, uh, we just went to a, You know, to a blue, a neutral blue color.
Nicole Hammond: Love it. Love it. Um, oh, thank you for sharing that. So, ed, if people wanna connect with you to learn more about this amazing referral program, or just ask some, You know, of the details, but also maybe even more like how you are meticulous about reporting
and how you have it at your fingertips. Where can they find you
Ed Zetusky: You can find me, you can email me at, uh, ed.zetusky@Comodoholdings.com, or you can go to. To LinkedIn and search Ed Zetusky. Um, there will be, there's two Ed Zetusky's on [00:25:00] LinkedIn. Uh, one is my dad who works in staffing and then me who works at Comodo. So I think you can figure out which one. One's a lot younger than the other one, so you could figure it out who's who.
Nicole Hammond: Love it. Um, well thank you for being here. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you for sharing that amazing success story and kudos to you for doing something amazing, but also having it continue scale and getting to see the return on investment daily. Um, with that, uh, this has been another episode of Hiring Happy Hour.
Uh. Keep joining us. Tell your friends. Uh, there's a lot of amazing topics that we cover, but more importantly, there's a lot of amazing people in this industry, uh, and you should connect with them because they do have great insight and they should be very proud of the accolades that they've done during their Hiring Happy Hours.
outro: And that wraps another episode of Hiring Happy Hour. Thanks for tuning in and for believing like we do that hiring isn't just about filling jobs. It's about the impact we make. To [00:26:00] catch more stories and show notes, visit hiring happy hour.com. This episode was brought to you by Smartrecruiters, an SAP company, an AI powered platform for superhuman hiring.
Until next time, stay curious, stay kind, and keep humanizing hiring. Cheers.