Welcome to Truth, Lies & Work, the award-winning workplace podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

Most businesses struggle with recruiting. They post jobs on Indeed, sponsor LinkedIn ads, and cross their fingers. Rachel Harris, co-founder of StriveX Accountants, does the exact opposite. She has built a multimillion-pound firm from her dining room table with a waiting list of over 200 people eager to join her team.

In this episode, Rachel reveals how she treats recruitment like a 24/7 marketing function and why her employees are her most powerful recruitment tool—even when they’re calling her a "micromanager" on social media.

🔥 What we cover in this episode:

The "Always-On" Strategy: Why Rachel never posts "we're hiring" ads and why waiting until you have a vacancy means you're already too late.
Franchising the Inside: How Rachel systemized recruitment and onboarding so the process runs itself, allowing her to focus on the human connection.
Employee Generated Content (EGC): The "no-rules" scheme where Rachel’s team earns bonuses for sharing raw, unscripted stories about their work life.
The "Micromanager" Post: How a post highlighting Rachel’s intense systems became one of their best-performing pieces of recruitment content.
Culture as Credibility: Why a lack of employee advocacy isn't a social media problem—it's a culture problem.

💡 3 Key Lessons for Leaders

Recruit Like a Marketer: Stop selling the job; start showing the life. Use day-in-the-life stories and team moments to sell the culture before a candidate ever applies.
Turn Your Team into Trusted Voices: Authenticity beats polish. Giving your team the freedom to share their real experiences without an approval process builds massive credibility with future hires.
Fix the Culture First: Rachel’s EGC scheme only works because the workplace actually delivers on its promises. If your employees won't vouch for you publicly, focus on the culture before the content.

🔗 Connect with Rachel Harris

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rachel-harris-a3192372
StriveX Accountants: https://strivex.co.uk
Instagram/TikTok: @accountant_she

📬 Connect with Al & Leanne

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork – Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott – Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne – Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com – Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat

Mental health support

UK & ROI — Samaritans Call 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org UK — Mind Call 0300 123 3393 or visit https://www.mind.org.uk US — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org Australia — Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au Global helplines: https://findahelpline.com