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. Let’s jump right in. What’s going on in your world and the world of sports today? Well, it’s been a pretty busy week, for being a Chicago Blackhawk sports fan, specifically.
Granted, we did see the Bears beat the Vikings on Monday night football and a real entertaining game filled with a bunch of field goals. But, Blackhawks had a big scandal go on. Led to a guy getting dismissed from the team. And then, we saw Patrick Kane sign with the rival Detroit Red Wings. So, it’s been a hectic couple of days and it’s only Wednesday.
Hectic couple days and it’s only Wednesday feels about right for the week after a holiday. So we’ll deal with it. Rivalry week in college football just concluded. You know, we had some really interesting games as per usual. Ohio State, Michigan, the Iron Bowl, Florida State, Florida. A lot of implications for college football playoff. Fourth-and-31 for the win from Alabama, crazy stuff happening over there. And we’ve got other rivalries.
Here in Cincinnati, in the MLS Eastern Conference Final, FCC is hosting down the road, Columbus Crew. It’s coined Hell is Real, because of the signs on the interstate between the two. So, Hell is Real, Part 3 will be this Saturday. I mean, exciting stuff. I mean, who doesn’t love rivalries in a lot of different facets?
And, you know, this past week in college football is arguably one of the best ones of the entire year. Just great matchups, especially seeing teams in the top four between Ohio State and Michigan, and what it means on the overall, like who’s going to go to the playoffs this year. And, you know, it’s just fun.
And then granted, I don’t know too much about the MLS, Hell is Real, Part 3. But, I know you’re fired up about it, and that gets me fired up for you. Should be pretty exciting. It’s awesome to see the current slate of CFP teams with Florida State, and Washington, in the top four right now. Really exciting on that part. Could even say another rivalry that just concluded would be Matt Canada versus 400 yards of offense, with 400 yards of offense, taking the win.
Finally! I’ll leave it at that. Happy for you and Steelers Nation. It’s been a long time coming. I mean, there was thoughts where this guy could do anything he wanted and still not get fired, but the axe has fallen. So, good for you guys. Hell has frozen over. They fired someone in midseason. Steelers are going to go win the Super Bowl this year.
Calling it now. Moving on. So we know that there are rivalries in corporate America. You’ve got the Coke and Pepsi wars. You’ve got Elon Musk and Zuckerberg trying to fight each other in a boxing ring or something like that. Stuff like that happening all the time. But Louie, let’s talk rivalry week in the recruiting world.
How does that even look? We got a few of them. We got internal recruiters versus agency recruiters. We got agency versus agency. And then one that’s kind of just a play on words though, as candidates versus companies. Just, you know, there’s rejection involved, so that’s kind of where the rivalry comes in.
But, I mean, I think we start-
internal recruiters versus agency. Although yes, they can be looked at as a rival. We’re not actually looking to replace internal folks. We’re looking to help them. Sure. Our slogan isn’t get rid of your internal recruiters and hire us instead. You know, we work with a ton of companies who have an internal recruiter, an internal recruitment team, multiple agencies they work with. Any semblance of that, you know, structure.
You know, we are here to help. We are not here to take from someone else. You know, we’re like an extra option. With what we do, for instance, as we utilize LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor. There are premium accounts for all these things. We use all of them, because they’re successful. Why would you only use one option when you have multiple avenues you can take in order to reach success?
It’s as simple as that. True, true. I mean, we do bring, I guess, a bigger tech stack than maybe an internal recruiting team has, because if that team isn’t as big as obviously an agency, I mean, you’re not going to pump as much money into all of these different applications and platforms to help with the recruitment efforts because the volume’s not there.
You know, we want to be that resource because, we have the hands, I guess, if you will. And we have the people that are willing to do the groundwork and fill the top of the funnel and do the sourcing. It’s a full-time job doing that. And internal resources don’t always have that.
They have interviews, they have screenings. Sometimes they handle other responsibilities like HR issues, and payroll. So, you know, we want to be a satellite, of their team. And I think, I don’t know if I speak for you, but most of the time, our closest resources at our clients, is the internal recruiter, or the head of recruiting there.
So we appreciate them. Hopefully, as much as they appreciate us. No question. I think oftentimes if you asked someone who’s in an HR role, who’s in charge of recruiting, if they wanted to do the recruiting for the company, they would say no. Because a lot of times recruitment gets lumped into HR, but it’s not necessarily HR.
You know, people think HR, they think working with employees, performance reviews, benefits, payroll, not so much the hiring side of it. But it just kind of gets stuffed in there because they need somewhere to put it. I just had a conversation this morning, actually, funny enough, about someone who just took on a new role as an internal corporate recruiter for a family of companies.
So seven companies, she is the only recruitment person for 450 employees across seven companies. Is there any world where she can handle that by herself? No. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we exist. We already work with one of the companies in that family. So when they got acquired, it was an easy transition, easy conversation. But divide and conquer.
Help me help you, in the words of Tom Cruise. We have, like you said, we have the firepower. You can pay one internal recruiter. But then you can pay our fees to have 100 internal recruiters, essentially, when you really boil it down to, you know, the logistics of how we do things.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And, you know, it can be overwhelming. I mean, I’ve been an internal recruiter before, and it’s where I got my start. Granted, it was specifically for a sales agency. So it was pretty one track when it comes to who I was hiring. But, you know, as a only internal recruiter, if I was like, well, hey, we need 15 hires because we just landed some big clients.
Well, the look on my face would be- I’d be very pale, and eyes would be wide open, and deer in the headlights. So, you know, having a resource like a Hirewell, where you can game plan together and know that you’re being supported. And know that these people are going to learn your business just as well as you know it and be extension of your judgment, extension of your team.
And ultimately accomplish the goal of hiring for the roles that are open, you know, it’s got to give you a peace of mind. Especially when something like this gets dropped in your lap, like your colleague. Not to mention when you really look at it, the only time we’re really making money off of this, is when we successfully hire someone for you, right?
When you win. We win. It’s that kind of situation. When I was a corporate recruiter beforehand, the peak of my time in the healthcare side, I had over 120 openings that I was managing, not ideal. So-
Not ideal. We’ll leave it at that. I mean, that’s tough. And I can see why you’re no longer in that type of role.
Well, yeah. But, all right, let’s jump over to the agency versus agency side. It’s the same beast, just different styles. And this one’s pretty natural. You know, there’s a lot of staffing firms, recruitment agencies, individual companies, and people out there doing this work. And there’s a lot of companies who are hiring staffing firms and hiring recruitment agencies.
Realistically, we’re all competing for the same jobs out there. We’re all competing for the same clients. So this one feels more like a rivalry. Absolutely. I mean, we, they’re, technically direct competitors. They’re another agency. We’re not going to talk about them specifically, but I guess highlight what we can do to separate ourselves, which I think is,
it’s really the personal touch and the people. I mean, the experience that we each have, because we’re specialists. I’m not hiring for tech roles that I know nothing about. I’m hiring for sales. I was a salesperson. I’ve done sales recruiting. I went to school for advertising. So I dabble a bit on marketing, but I would look at myself as a bit of a specialist. And bringing that expertise, the understanding of a sales role that I have and can relate to candidates.
I think those are some of the things that Hirewell has identified in its recruiting team. And I think it resonates well on the client side and the candidate side. And I think it’s the reason that we’ve been so successful as a company. And even me, personally.
For sure. You know, we always highlight the people because we have such specialized recruiters in all these different areas that know what they’re looking for, know what they’re doing.
They’ve done it before. We’ll do it again. We also, I know you touched on the tech stack before. We have proprietary recruitment technology that we love to highlight. But otherwise, I think the biggest differentiator for us is, we’re a larger agency, but we’re not massive, by any means. Whenever we’re working with clients, potential or existing, they know who we are.
They know who their talent partner is. They know who their recruitment-
account manager, whatever title you want to give it. They know who they’re talking to. They need to pick up the phone or send an email, they know who they’re getting every time. And a lot of complaints I get from prospective and current clients is their previous experiences with these firms, they’d get the runaround from like eight different people and it always changed. And there’s no consistency.
Absolutely. And it’s funny, you should mention that. Like I had a text conversation with a former client. It was someone that was like, we had another colleague of ours who kind of brought the relationship in and I was running the account management side, for a specific role.
And so technically it wasn’t my ownership, but that person left. And the hiring manager on the client side texted me, he’s like, “Are you still my guy?” I’m like, “Absolutely.” Like having that relationship with a client, I can’t tell you-
I can’t speak for other agencies, but having that type of relationship where I can get a random text and jump in a quick call out of the blue with a former client and let them know, Hey, like I’m your guy.
Whenever there is anything come to me and you’re going to be taken care of. It’s a great personalized touch. And it’s, I think, a perk of the business. I love having that type of close knit with someone. And, you know, it shows that we’ve done a good job for them and they want us to stay in touch and come back and help them again.
I just recently helped fill a role for a smaller client here in Cincinnati. And at the end of the conversation, he said, all right, I’ll be back sometime next year. And I said, I’ll be here, so. Right. Simple as that.
Let’s, roll it over to the last rivalry. Candidates versus companies. It really shouldn’t be a rivalry, but wow, it really feels like one sometimes.
Absolutely. I mean, you’re a candidate. You’ve applied to any number of roles and hey, you haven’t landed something yet. So yeah, they have something you want. They’re not giving it to you. There is the makeups of a rivalry, but don’t look at it that way. Stay positive. We’ve preached that enough throughout every single one of our episodes. But, believe me, they’re acting in their best interest.
It’s nothing personal. You will find someone in a place that values and you fit in. Keep pounding the pavement, if you will. Company has a need. You can fulfill that need. Ideally, you work with a manager who values the work that you do for them and has that relationship where you don’t feel like you’re working against your company while in the job you’re in.
So we’ll leave it at that because it’s really not, it shouldn’t be a rivalry. We don’t need to continue to stoke the flames on that one. Two minute drill, Louie. We’re talking about rivalry week, all these great rivalries. Favorite best rivalry in sports. What do you got? Okay, so there’s been a few we discussed.
I mean, I think a lot of them just go through their periods of time. Like, granted, Yankees and Red Sox, they are always a rival, but there was that point where it was like Jeter, Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Pedro Martinez, and there was legitimately fighting in baseball. So that, like, there’s those time frames where things are great.
So that’s one, but I think… Bears fan every year. There’s two games on our calendar that we could lose every other. But if we managed to win one of those two against the Packers, the season is made. So Bears Packers, final answer. Bears Packers, oldest rivalry. Probably thee rivalry in professional football, makes a lot of sense.
From my side, the Steelers have had a lot of rivals over the years. The Raiders were the rivals in the 70s. The entire AFC North is a rivalry, but I think the one that stands out the most is Steelers Ravens. That is the one that for the last 20 years has been, the hardest fought, hardest hitting, most jawing, but also respectful game.
Like the teams respect the hell out of each other, but it is a dog fight every time. And there’s so much at stake. Usually they’ve played in AFC championships before. Every game feels like a must win. It’s always good football. Yeah. I mean, when you’re looking at the defenses, I mean, you had James Harrison, you had Ray Lewis, like you had Ed Reed, you know, Hines Ward was involved, obviously on the offensive side. Like, their hall of famers up and down, on both sides of that rivalry, even to the coaches.
So, as just a non-bias fan, just a football fan, absolutely. Like that’s football. That is the pinnacle of football. Just the physicality, and those definitely worth watching. Absolutely. Well, on behalf of Louie and myself, thank you once again for tuning into the Hirewell Hot Corner. Please do join us again in two weeks for our next episode. And as always stay classy LinkedIn.
