What if most businesses have been going about their hiring, retention, and culture-building strategies all wrong? And how should today’s organizations rethink the traditional processes that might not actually be helpful?

Our guest this week is someone reimagining many of those “traditional” way of doing things — and for the greater good. Gil Winch, Ph.D, is the founder of CY (Call Yachol), a unique, 100% underdog company composed primarily of people with severe disabilities; a keynote speaker; and author of “Winning with Underdogs: How Hiring the Least Likely Candidates Can Spark Creativity, Improve Service, and Boost Profits for Your Business.” 

Listen to this episode for the full conversation about what businesses typically get wrong about the hiring process, how to build long-term employee engagement, strategies for keeping a team aligned around common values, and more.

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Learn: 

• The backstory behind Call Yahol’s founding — and why it wasn’t originally built to be a business
• Why it’s important to treat people “as they will be,” rather than “as they are” and how that relates to paying higher wages for people with disabilities 
• Why the “business isn’t personal” philosophy isn’t actually helpful or realistic, according to Gil
• The employee engagement data from Gil’s company, and why those statistics are so much higher than most other companies
• The problems with traditional screening processes in the hiring world — and how Gil’s company has reimagined those processes
• Why having a “culture of caring” is so important for employee engagement and retention
• The strategies that Gil’s company uses to keep employees behaving according to the organizational values 
• More about the “48-hour mourning period” at Call Yachol after someone makes a mistake
• Why Gil’s business is a means to an end, not the end itself 
• What keeps Gil motivated to do the difficult things, in his personal or professional life

Resources Mentioned in This Episode: 

• Learn more about Call Yachol
• Gil Winch on LinkedIn
• “Winning with Underdogs: How Hiring the Least Likely Candidates Can Spark Creativity, Improve Service, and Boost Profits for Your Business” by Gil Winch
• Gil’s TED talk, “How we can use the hiring process to bring out the best in people”
• “Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt, and Other Everyday Psychological Injuries” by Guy Winch
• “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World” by Adam Grant
• 40 Strategy
• Contact 40 Strategy
• Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn