Welcome back to the Hirewell Hot Corner, where sports and recruitment meet. I am your host, Dan Spittel, joined as always by my Ironman co-host, Louie Morici. Louie, great to see you again, episode 42, Jackie Robinson episode. Here we are. Let’s jump right in. What’s going on in your world and the world of sports today?
Well, right now we’re recording and I feel like it’s been five or six days since we’ve had, you know, major sports going on, you know, basketball and NHL, both going to the finals, next couple of days here. And they’ve had like that little lull break in between the conference finals and the final. So, getting that kicked off, we got the Celtics versus the Mavs in the NBA, and then you got the Panthers versus the Oilers in the NHL. You know, seeing a lot going on with the WNBA and Caitlin Clark and, you know, everything going on, I’m sure people have heard. So it’s been a pretty good time. And obviously baseball just trucking along.
Just moseying along through the middle part of the season where people start to lose interest until the trade deadline and we’ll get it back up in late August. But baseball games are a little cheaper and it’s a good weather for them typically right now. Caitlin Clark getting a little bit of the Jordan treatment over there in the WNBA.
Certainly I saw a stat where she’s getting blitzed more times than entire WNBA teams are right now by defenses. So, definitely getting a trial by fire into professional women’s sports for her.Yeah. Yeah. Not only like the, on the court stuff, like granted I’m not too embedded in it, but just seeing she is what is driving revenue. I know everyone wants to say that, you know, it’s not just her, it’s not.
But, she’s the golden goose of this going on. Like she is and anyone who says otherwise, I’m sorry, but you’re just kidding yourself.It’s good to see, you know, the awareness of women’s basketball. It’s something that has had it’s kind of ups and downs, but it’s probably hitting its peak in its existence right around now. So, you know, granted the talk and the kind of the back and forth is creating more attraction, which even though it’s sometimes maybe in a little bit negative light going at a certain player. But ultimately, we’ve never really talked about the WNBA before and here we are, so. I never thought we’d be talking about the WNBA on here. A lot of people have, you know, kind of surmised this to be similar to what Magic and Larry were able to do for the NBA back in the day when those ratings started to spike. You can’t tell me there’s no coincidence that all the teams now have chartered flights, with her in her first season of the WNBA.
And she has handled this with such, you know, respect. I mean, she has nothing but great things to say about the team she’s playing and all these players despite all this, I would say aggression towards her.
Otherwise, in the sports world, I guess the next major thing would be major league baseball draft, the trade deadline outside of the championships that are currently slated, so. We’re going to get a quiet period for a little bit.
Yeah, yeah. We’re getting a taste this past five or six days and not going to lie. It’s, you know, that Michael Scott meme where he’s just on the swings from the office, just like kind of alone and it’s kind of how it’s felt quite frankly. But, like you mentioned baseball, obviously that’s going to be the predominant sport for the next four or five months.
The draft, the trade deadline, and, you know, what you’re going to be assessing as a team as they approach the deadline, you know, and kind of brings up the topic of the great hesitation. Something we’re seeing in the recruiting world, but as always translate it to sports by highlighting are team’s going to hesitate? 📍 Are they going to pull the trigger sooner rather than later to maybe make acquisitions to get in a playoff spot. Are they going to be sellers closer to the deadline? Kind of looking at it from that scope.
Yeah, we’ve been one on the show to kind of utilize these slang terms for what’s happening in the market for us. And the great hesitation is one that’s been popular right now, you know, quiet, quitting, the great recession, whatever you want to call these things. The last couple of days for sports, things have been a little quieter despite all this talk we’ve had about the job market improving, being more jobs out there.
I think James our, you know, head of Chief Revenue Officer made up a great point on LinkedIn the other day. Unemployment rate is generally down except for those in their 20s. Unemployment rate is, I think he says 12%. So there are more jobs out there, but, it’s very specific jobs. And I think as far as like company expansion, team expansion, a lot of people are hesitant, the market is getting better. But, people have been burned recently. You know, at what point are things going to take a nosedive and, you know, everything’s going to be destroyed from what they were trying to build up. We talk about baseball. Honestly, a perfect example is the NL central. I know we love to talk about the NL central because of our teams.
But you look at the Pittsburgh Pirates, they are 28 and 32 as of right now, before Paul Skenes strikes out Ohtani four times tonight. But we’re seven games out of first place in a very competitive NL Central with a very young team led by two 22 year olds on the mound. Do the Pirates think they’re in a position to go make a playoff run this year?
Personally, I don’t think so. Maybe next year? The development would say that we’re probably not pulling the trigger on going for it this year. But they could go on a two week tear and all of a sudden we’re a game or two out of the division race with a month to spare before the trade deadline. Then what do you do?
Do you push all your chips in? Do you go get these big name players or do you hesitate? Do you wait and see what happens and keep relying on what you already got? That’s a huge question for a lot of teams this month and next.
Absolutely. And Cubs being right there with you, we have gone on an absolute slide, you know, now we’re below 500, right by where the pirates are and I’m not going to sit.
Yeah. I think, although we have some, I guess, bigger names than most, they’re not needle movers, like, to the point where teams, I think, are going to want them at the deadline, anyway. So our pitching has been great. Our bullpen’s been crappy, but enough about how bad our baseball teams have been performing. Back to kind of the segue to recruiting, is your team staffing up, is it a need to hire right now? Where you kind of have to pull the trigger or are you kind of passive? Are you sheepish to make a decision? And these are the things that we’re starting to see. You know, we’re on the search for 2, 3, 4 months for a specific client.
Is it hesitancy because they’re generally not seeing exactly what they want? Or are they looking for the unicorn, something that really maybe doesn’t exist or doesn’t align with their expectations? Where is the hesitation coming from?
You know, typically, when you’re looking at 2 sides of an argument, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. So, you know, I would say a lot more of the roles that we’re looking for and the things that we’re seeing as far as posted jobs by companies are more senior level roles. We’re seeing a resurgence of executive search, again, senior managers, directors, whatever that may be. We’re not seeing as much of more of the entry level type roles.
And so with these senior level positions, management, what it may be, people are hesitant because they are terrified of getting it wrong. You could go through a two, three month process, extensive interviews. Ultimately, you could be scared you’re hiring the wrong person. You’ve gotten burned by something that’s happened recently. You’ve built out this plan for your company and then curve ball happens and all of a sudden all the work you’ve built up is now gone to waste. You know, that has resulted in a lot of companies, not willing to pull the trigger, even on bringing us in as a third party, we’re not pulling the trigger on these offers.
And quite frankly, it should really be opposite. That’s kind of why we exist. You know, we exist for the advisory piece, the consultative side. We are the ones out there testing the market essentially for our clients, you know, we’re boots on the ground, talking to candidates, you know, assessing the market from a compensation standpoint, from an experience standpoint.
Have a really good idea of what’s out there and doing our best to align them with the best possible candidate. Our goal is to make sure that we get the hire done properly the first time. So you don’t get burned. So you don’t have to keep redoing it and you’re wasting time and money.
Absolutely. And you hit a lot of good points. You know, once you’ve kind of assessed, like, is this a need to hire, you know, you look at the team’s capacity, if everyone’s at capacity, and then there’s that extra spillover where it pretty much warrants a hire. Okay. Well, how can you go to market competitively? Are you going to pay more? Are you going to offer the best work life balance?
Whatever it is, what you’re going to offer has to align with the type of caliber candidate. You can’t expect, in this type of market, to get the absolute top and most desired person without having the comp or the rest to back it up. So, you know, that’s just one of those things that you kind of have to assess.
So if you’re going to go to market, you need it, you got to be the best, quite frankly. So, you know, that kind of takes the hesitation out. Being able to figure out first and foremost, are you going to hesitate? And if you are, maybe it isn’t the best time to hire. And that’s part of what we do, is we advise if you’re kind of wishy washy, you’re not sure if you need it.
Well, maybe that says it in itself. The uncertainty in the market, the uncertainty in business, the ebbs and flows. You have to make sure that if you’re going to make a hire, that it’s not something that can immediately be removed. If something does take a turn.
Yeah, I mean, these conversations, you know, these are conversations we’re having on a daily basis and oftentimes the initial conversation aside from, okay, what, what are your pain points?
What are you searching for? Is, is this search feasible? Is this what you need as a team? As an organization? Is this a good partnership? Can we help you facilitate this? And are we looking at all the different avenues, you know, just because you have a, we’ll say a senior level world posted for a team.
Yeah. One, do you have someone internally who could take on a senior level role? Is this an opportunity where we might be able to bring in one or two people at a lower level? Because we’re talking about the unemployment rate for more entry level folks is higher. There are more people out there looking.
Could you fill that need elsewhere? Utilize the strengths you already have internally and Not get so fixated on one role that you posted in one title. You’d have that’s the conversations we’re having, you know, we’re trying to get creative. We tailor our talent solutions and the plans we do to each of our clients, each of their needs.
So maybe, you know, is it uncertainty? Partially are you just not looking at every scope of lens and whatnot could be it as well.
Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot to like evaluate here. Where is the hesitation kind of look inward, you know, whatever the reason is. You know, hesitating can be looked at in a lot of different ways. And, you know, when it comes down to it,
it’s the why, and once you kind of figure out that why it should kind of dictate where you’re going to go from there. But again, it’s really about that self assessment, self awareness, company awareness. Company culture, what you’re looking to get out of this. And, you know, that’s what it ultimately comes down to.
And by no means are either Louie or I financial professionals or gambling professionals. But typically our advice would be, you know, if you’re looking at things and things have been good and the market is good and you know, you need to do this, bet on yourself. Bet on your team. I don’t think anything’s ever a hundred percent certain.
You’re never going to get the green light, 100 percent of the way. Bet on yourself, bet on your team. It’s okay to be a little more forthcoming with this. And if you have to reel it back, look, not everything’s going to go your way. Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes or bad decisions at some point. But, you never know until you try. Right? Yeah.
I mean, you got to do your due diligence, use your best judgment, do whatever you can to fact find and uncover things. But ultimately, every hiring decision is a risk. What can you do to kind of mitigate it? As upfront as possible. But again, if I identified something as a need. If you find someone you like, market’s going to move quick.
I’d say bring them in, but again, we’re not pushing you to make decisions because you have to make decisions. It’s just do your due diligence on both sides and assess from a candidate perspective, an absolute need for the role perspective. And you know, again, take a swing and see, you know, do your best.
Well said. Two minute drill. Take us home. Who are winning the NBA and NHL finals? I got the Celtics in the NBA. I just think they just got a little bit more experience going this far, I guess you could say. I think they’re overall just a deeper team. And then I got the Florida Panthers again, lost in the finals last year.
I mean, their team is built for this. They’re deep. They are physical. They can score. They check every single box and their goal is the best one of the two and their defense are the best of the two. So defense wins championships. Those are my two.
So thinking with my head, I would agree with your assessments of both of those. I think Boston has a deeper roster. I think they’re a more well rounded team. Same goes for the Florida Panthers. Thinking with my heart and the star studded abilities of Luka Dončić and Connor McDavid, I’d love to see the Mavs and the Oilers. I think Canada as a whole has gone on quite long enough without winning a championship in the sport that they claim is theirs. It’s been 30 plus years. It’s time to return the Stanley Cup up north. So I’d love to see those two.
Yeah. Yeah. You’re absolutely right. Like, I like the Mavs, I like Luka, I like that my brother lives in Dallas, so that kind of gets caught up in it, and McDavid is incredible. I just think this is going to be the year he loses before the years where he’s going to win.
For sure. Well, on behalf of Louie and myself, thank you once again for tuning in to the Hirewell Hot Corner. Please do join us again for our next episode, and as always, stay classy on LinkedIn.
