“chaos into clarity”
One of the biggest challenges I have in owning and running my martial arts school business is finding the right staff members, managing them for their personal and professional growth, and leadership development. I had the privilege of Melissa Jones offering to coach me on how to improve my process of staff selection. Mrs. Jones was quickly able to identify multiple areas of improvement in my process, including how to better identify the type of individual who would want the type of position I had to offer. She taught me how to develop questions that would reveal insight on a behavioral level each candidate’s true personality, fit, ability, experience and decision making skills. Because of my work with her, I was able to identify that I needed two part time employees rather than one full time. I quickly found people that wanted the positions I had to offer and were a good fit for them (after having struggled for almost 6 months to hire someone on my own).
I was also overwhelmed in the daily functioning of the business, and was not spending time on planning the future of the company or on the development the staff. I was missing clear ideas of what each staff member should be doing, and my school manager and I were both trying to take on far too many responsibilities on our own, rather than developing ownership and skills within our staff. Mrs. Jones took us through a creative and fun process that helped us identify key issues we had neglected, how to prioritize our focus and that we needed to clarify job descriptions. Her process helped us to identify some big holes in our structure. It helped us to identify areas where we were underutilizing our staff, and created a system to support us in keeping clarity and focus in a meaningful direction. She coached us on how to communicate better with our staff, how to understand and address their behaviors and how to maintain a long term outlook of the business, with a structure that has allowed us to prioritize our focus. She took areas where we felt like things were out of control and she helped to create a clear, workable structure.
Since our time together, I no longer have the overwhelmed feeling that I once struggled with daily. I have made some positive choices regarding the direction of my business and the management of my time. She turned my chaos into clarity. Mrs. Jones has been invaluable to me and the future of my business.
“extraordinary and exceptional”
I have worked with many search consultants on both sides of the hiring equation and in my work for HR consulting companies. So I feel well qualified to state that Melissa Brooks Jones goes about her business in an extraordinary and exceptional way one rarely encounters. In an era when incivility is considered an asset, and rudeness is justified by flimsy excuses, I am most pleased to have encountered someone who is able to do an excellent job of serving her client and her employer without abandoning the simple courtesies of business. She asks intelligent, challenging and effective questions, and actually listens to the answers. Melissa provides the most thorough description and background for an available position I’ve ever seen. She defines a schedule and sticks to it. And Melissa’s courtesy, warmth and interest in the candidate is very rare and very welcome.
“delivering results”
During the two decades we’ve known each other, Melissa has distinguished herself in a variety of talent acquisition roles and developed very strong technical recruiting skills – including the ability to locate hard-to-find, specialized talent and effectively “close the deal” with these candidates. That said, Melissa’s credibility as a business professional is greatly enhanced by other stand-out qualities, including strong consultative skills, creativity in crafting a range of possible solutions, and orientation toward delivering results to the businesses she supports. Most recently, Melissa demonstrated her potential to successfully contribute in other HR domains by becoming an HR Business Advisor in SunTrust’s HR Business Partner organization. Importantly, she also brings a much appreciated sense of humor to her work, and always has been a pleasure to work with! I recommend Melissa and wish her every success for continuing career growth.
“outstanding team member”
Melissa was a key member of our leadership team, and was a strong contributor to the team in many ways. She was an outstanding team member who collaborated effectively across different lines of business to drive results, improve execution and enhance existing processes.
“exceptional service”
Melissa’s passion for recruiting is clearly reflected in every step of the hiring process. Creative, talented, professional, diligent and subject matter expert are only a few words to describe the exceptional service she delivers to candidates and the client.
“challenging and inspiring manager”
I am blessed to have had an opportunity to work with Melissa. Melissa is challenging and inspiring manager, and a very effective recruiter. We worked in an environment that was constantly changing, from reporting structures to our client relationships to the number and types of positions we recruited. Melissa always challenged me to see change as positive and face difficult situations by brainstorming how to do things differently. Melissa definitely is a catalyst for success.
Melissa Callison Jones 