Hiring Outside The Industry...

[Lee]

Just wondered, those of you who have hired marketers from outside the adult industry, how have you explained to your candidates what type of work is involved?

This is a problem i have right now, ive already mentioned 'adult' related stuff but, they came back thinking all they are going to be doing is looking at 'porn' all day LOL

Id actually really like to hire this guy as he seems to have a level head on his shoulders but, at the same time, i dont want to put him off.

He knows that its not all 'porn' but at the same time, i want to make sure that he really does understand that and that im not just saying that in passing as it were.

Any advice you could share to help me out with this one? LOL

Regards,

Lee

[maxpower]

Well personally after a few months like me I am sure he would be sick of content, you could say “you’ll get over the content thing really quick” The last thing I want to do is look at porn all day, that really sucks. If he can not be professional enough to get his other duties done and thinks he should only be looking at content all day I would get someone else to do the job that you need. :whip:

[chadknowslaw]

Hiring someone from within the industry--this one or any other--often means that person brings their book of business with them. That is the Rolodex of contacts they already know and already have a relationship.
Someone entirely new to the adult industry is a complete newcomer who not only needs to be trained in the specifics of the position you have, but also needs some time to earn some name recognition. "Go with who you know" doesn't just happen in adult, it happens in every industry.

Can an outsider break in? Of course. Will there be a learning curve and a "get to know him first" curve? probably.

Conversely, someone within the industry might be carrying some baggage. Would you hire a former IBill officer? Or a convicted spammer? Can that person break from the old company or will he always be "GoldenShowerCashGlenn" forever?

There are good and bad points to both the fresh face and the experienced veteran. Sounds like an executive business decision to me. :toff:

[basschick]

you talking hiring him full or parttime as an employee or hiring him as a marketer?

i've broken non adult people into the industry before. it's a pain in the ass and takes too long to be financially feasible if you're paying them by the hour. i'm not talking slackers or idiots - i'm talking about college graduates with business experience. there are SO many little things that make up any industry - it sometimes amazes me how much stuff we all know that we assume everyone does.

just yesterday i was working on a new reality site with someone. his tour talks about "servers" 'cause he feels like everyone knows what they are. i've asked dozens of people this and some feel servers are something to do with computers, a few know they are something to do with websites and the majority had no clue. yet pretty much all webmasters know what a server is.

[gaybucks_chip]

I think it totally depends on what the person is going to be doing for you.

If it's someone who will be dealing with marketing and such, hiring someone from the industry is probably a good idea. If it's more mundane stuff (updating data in a CMS, resizing images, basic customer service) I'd say you could pretty easily train someone into the position.

[Becky]

Only twice have I hired someone from the industry. All the rest of the employees that have gone through ARS were from outside the industry and learned by working for ARS.

If you are worried about the reaction of the potential employee to it being adult in nature, you just have to be up front with them at the beginning. Read their reaction and go with your gut. I remember trying to hire someone in sales/marketing a few years back. She was a great interview and when I brought up it being in the adult industry, she said she found it deplorable. Well needless to say I pretty much cut off the interview right there and showed her the door.

One thing I always worry about is hiring someone from outside the industry and showing them the ropes. Then, when they think they know enough, they try to break out on their own. So look for loyalty in a person as well.

[Lee]

One thing I always worry about is hiring someone from outside the industry and showing them the ropes. Then, when they think they know enough, they try to break out on their own. So look for loyalty in a person as well.

Thats something ive been thinking about the last couple of days to.

The problem im having with that is that in Florida, i legally cant put in to the contract about them not being able to work for anyone else for X period of time after they leave here and, from what i recall, that holds true so long as the person has been with you for at least 6 months

Regards,

Lee

[Becky]

I've always had employees sign at will employment agreements with a non compete clause in it. But enforceability on that will always be an issue. I chose never to try to enforce it because no one who left was important enough in the company that they could do damage by working for a competitor LOL

[chadknowslaw]

Some states prohibit enforcement of non-compete clauses for employees. California is one of them but I didn't think florida was on that list.

Non-competes, even in states that allow them, must be very narrowly drawn and for a short period of time. 6 months is probably acceptable in most states, 1 year is not and would void the clause.

[gaybucks_chip]

Whether it's enforceable or not, putting a noncompete in the employment agreement (you do have an employement agreement, don't you?) :eek: never hurts... if the employee *thinks* it's enforceable, or even if s/he thinks you will spend some money to fight it, s/he will be a lot less likely to try and go into competition.

The other route is to actively encourage the employee to go into the adult biz... we have a couple guys who worked for us who are developing their own affiliate sites promoting our content and I think they will eventually do very well and make a lot of money for us and for them... and we can always hire more people and repeat the cycle.

As for advertising for employees, we use Craigslist more than anything, and since you don't pay for number of words, we write a detailed description, including the fact that we're a gay adult company, and then an explanation that says, in so many words, it's just like any other job, with a professional office environment, except that we hapen to work with pictures of naked guys having sex, and we go on to say that we don't care if you're gay, straight, male, or female, and that an interest in porn is neither particularly desirable or required. That usually gets across that it is a professional operation. We get tons of resumes, and very rarely does anyone indicate they have a problem with it.