Alyssa Jonker - The Optimist Recruiter

Alyssa Jonker is the Managing Director of Capital Recruit. They help professionals find greater purpose and meaning in their lives by providing Recruitment and Executive job placements across all industries. Alyssa shares with Opteamize what it means to have a good eye for finding talents and the importance of valuing employees' time and focus.

Thank you so much for this interview. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I’m Alyssa Jonker, I run a business together with my husband that we started last year. It’s a business that represents our passion for helping people find greater purpose and meaning in their lives through various channels—one of those being through their careers. We provide recruitment across all industries as well as executive placements. We are also very passionate about helping more people get off the street and find work. We have recently partnered with a tech company that is doing some progressive stuff. They provide free wifi. We have partnered with them to build a job portal that allows corporates to advertise their local jobs. That way when people are riding in taxis they can get notified of the jobs that are available. We also plan to do a lot of empowerment programs, especially in areas of career development. We want to see more people living a life that is true to who they are and makes them excited to wake up in the morning.

That’s a great initiative. Why did you choose this path?

I had a dream to have some sort of business that was in health, empowerment, healing, and the wellness space. I am someone who is empathic, passionate, and enthusiastic about a lot of things but predominantly, people. I have always been in a space where I had to work with people, specifically when it comes to business development. Eventually, those became very tech-driven organizations. I got exposed to recruitment and was made aware that I have a good eye for finding the right talent. I believe that’s because I look outside the box and I see beyond what’s on paper.

So, when last year my husband and myself found ourselves without work as one of the many repercussions of Covid-19. It really wasn’t a natural decision to just up and start a business. I first tried to find a job and just found that I couldn’t see myself doing what I was doing in the past. I suddenly had resistance to not living a life that was entirely true to me. I connected with a US client that’s doing some incredible stuff in the biotech space. This company is called MediBIO and they help people detect early on, via unique biomarkers, when they are stressed. By doing so they essentially help prevent problems such as depression and anxiety. Imbalances that we now know arise due to extreme stress. I was tasked with assisting them with finding some I.T resources, and so I did and I just continued from there and the business was born.

I resonate with the idea of finding a career path that aligns with what you really want. You talked about having a good eye for finding the right people, what are the things you look out for in a potential recruit?

Look the first thing is, can the person be relied upon. Is this person going to form part of my team and grow within my organization or will they disrupt the team and leave too quickly. Generally, a recruiter could dismiss a candidate based on one that hasn’t stayed within any given organization for over a year at a time. I am a bit of an optimist, I won’t always dismiss a candidate like that. Perhaps, this is someone who is very innovative or someone who thinks outside the box and hasn’t yet quite found where they wanted to be. Speaking to the candidates and understanding what drives them and excites them, there are ways to pick up on certain key personality and character traits. By talking about what the organization is doing and eliciting a response from them, you can gauge their level of excitement, and enthusiasm, in that regard, you can also gauge by what they have chosen to study in the past. You can connect the dots quite well-using tools, psychological assessment tools. There are certain ways that you can do a good assessment of a person based on a few factors.

This is not an easy business in the sense of it not being safe because there’s a lot of work that you potentially put in with no payment, you’re only paid once you hire someone.

What has now happened recently is, that there is a certain change in people’s normal behavior patterns. People that were normally reliable and had a particular type of profile have become more unpredictable of late. I think that’s obviously in response to the pandemic. There’s always a bit of risk when you are dealing with human beings. My methods aren’t foolproof. Sometimes, I get it wrong.

Do you think recruits’ tendency to be more unreliable these days, could be a result of a toxic work culture?

Yeah, definitely there is that. I can say firsthand that I… Gosh, I worked for one or two companies where I was a victim of sexual harassment. So, for a woman in toxic work culture, if it’s not sexual harassment, it’s bullying. These things really affect so many other areas of our lives and our general well-being. You’re being abused, essentially. You’re being emotionally abused. In a lot of cases, it’s not only emotional.

What drives you?

What drives me is justice and equality. A love for humanity and for all of creation. I’m all about correcting the wrongs because we are the only ones responsible for doing that. Otherwise, we just indulging in a very toxic culture that favors the rich over the poor. The greatest currency has shifted from being gold to focus. Focus and Time. People aren’t always treated as valuable contributors to the whole. Especially in South Africa, it’s a very big problem.

For so long individuals have had to endure harsh circumstances in order to make ends meet. I believe that people should be treated with respect. And there’s a lot of people demanding that these days. Insisting on respect and better work conditions, remote working, insisting on certain tasks not being part of their responsibilities…

People have become aware, mostly through social media that they can have more. People want it all. They are not compromising on that.

If organizations want to stay on top, they are going to have to realize that the currency of the new age is focus and time. People value their focus and time now, more so than ever.

What are some of the qualities that make a great team?

Honesty, open-mindedness, passion, and integrity. When members of a team honour their commitment to the goals they set. When members of a team are all passionate about the same values. The combined strengths, communicated in an open, honest, and clear manner can produce magical results.

What books have you read either recently or of all time, that will greatly shift one’s mindset?

I would definitely recommend, A New Earth, by Eckart Tolle as well as The Power of Now. Eckart Tolle’s books really get you thinking beyond our current reality. Apart from that, there are Molecules of Emotions by Candace Pert, where she talks about the origin of emotion and how to gain great awareness of your emotions, where they reside in the body, and how to manage them effectively. Something that was important for me to work through as a younger, more temperamental woman. Then, I’d say Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton, groundbreaking in terms of how he shows you what’s possible based on progressive studies in Biology, and issues relating to the placebo effect. There’s also The Placebo effect by Joe Dispenza. I also love books by Carl Jung. I’m a big believer in books that get you thinking beyond your general frame of reference. The Brain by David Eagleman gave me a better insight into how the brain works and what’s possible from a neuroscience perspective. I am also very passionate about energy healing, and books that talk about the chakras. I think there’s a lot of ancient wisdom there that predates even the birth of Christ. I have gotten to learn a lot about the various developmental cycles that we all undergo and how these ancients have contributed to tools that are now being used in this day and age.

Thank you so much for your time, Alyssa!