The Hirewell Update: Introducing CS Recruiting

[00:00:00] Happy 2026 and welcome to The Hirewell Update. Thanks so much for tuning in. I’m your host, Ryan Ross, vice president of our corporate functions team, and I am absolutely thrilled to be joined by none other than Charlie Saffro, CEO, and founder of CS recruiting. Welcome to the show Charlie. Thanks for joining me.
Of course. And today’s episode is a big one. I am super excited for this one. We’ve been chatting about this a bit internally since our onsite back in December. We had the chance to meet then Charlie, and announce that we are joining forces with CS recruiting and that you are now a part of Hirewell.
How exciting. So exciting. I can’t believe we’re finally here. And yeah, thrilled to talk about it and, share the news with everyone Absolutely. Us as well. And me specifically, I feel honored that I’m the one that you’re chatting with today. And again, thanks for carving out time to do so.
We’re gonna cover things like. Who is CS recruiting? I wanna hear the story and the background of everything. We also wanna talk about why this partnership makes [00:01:00] sense and you know, how it came to be, and of course covering what our client should expect moving forward. So let’s kick it off, Charlie.
Let’s start from, I guess, the very beginning. Yeah, tell you a little bit about our background. I’m happy to. So, I started CS recruiting in 2010, 15 years ago, and I kind of joke, but it is a little bit of the truth that it was kind of an accident when I started the company. I had been an internal recruiter at a transportation technology company that was acquired and
found myself overnight, without a job. I stayed on and did some freelance searches, but it didn’t feel like the right fit, long term. And so there I was, you know, I had two kids that were under the age of four. I was pregnant with my third son, and I had a lot of relationships in our industry and a lot of resumes.
And as people continued to send me resumes and, you know, they asked if I could connect them to any hiring managers. I also started to hear from [00:02:00] different individuals in my network that were hiring. So it was very natural and it started, you know, you’re a recruiter, like this is what we do and it’s, it’s our pleasure many times.
But started as a courtesy where I would connect people and do my matchmaking. And I remember one day my husband saying like, you need to start charging for this. Like this is actually a job and you’re spending a lot of time just connecting people. You know, helping people with their resumes. And it’s funny ’cause, I mean, back then I didn’t really grasp that I could charge people for an introduction.
I don’t think I truly appreciated the value of being that matchmaker and the middle, the middle person. So, eventually I got the courage to start charging and asking for a fee. And really the rest is history. So, we were probably maybe nine months in or so when, I took a meeting with a client that was just starting out, it’s a very large company today called XPO Logistics, but
I was introduced to them, when it was just their founder and he had, a [00:03:00] COO and kind of a right hand guy, and I met with them and. Maybe I faked it till I made it a little too hard where I overpromised that we’d be able to deliver. Exactly. And I walked outta that meeting with a huge contract to help them hire.
And I really remember driving home from that meeting and panicking and being like, what did I just promise? How am I gonna do this? And I either need to like. Yeah. Like I either need to like give it my all or back out. And that’s what led me to, creating a job description and going out and hiring my first recruiter, who is Beth Herber Holt, who will be our practice lead at Hirewell.
So she is still on our team thirteen, gosh 14 years later, she has her anniversary this week and yeah, have spent the last 15 years growing and scaling and carving out our niche, creating a brand, having a lot of fun, but more importantly, changing a lot of lives. So, we’ve always had this focus in our industry and stayed very true to this area of expertise that I came from.
And, we’ve really established ourselves as, an industry [00:04:00] leader in supply chain logistics and transportation. Absolutely. Well, I love the story. I think it’s incredible when folks like yourself have experienced something that’s kind of life changing and they, you know, make lemonade out of lemon, so to speak.
Exactly. And what an incredible company you’ve been able to build and scale and grow and having the chance to have met a lot of the folks from CS too, like an incredible team of people. I know you’ve been very thoughtful about the folks that have joined your organization just as we are here at Hirwell.
I’m curious, so you’ve obviously mentioned a little bit about, you know, your background and specialization prior to starting the firm. So what defines CS recruiting if somebody’s not overly familiar with the organization? Like what are the roles that you all have been working on? Where have you cut your teeth from an industry perspective?
Yeah, so I mean, really we focus in this greater industry and it’s a big industry that’s often very misunderstood, but we like to think of it as transportation, logistics, supply chain. Within that segment, I mean, we are really working on [00:05:00] any position that influences decision making within those verticals.
We are working with third party logistics providers. We work with what we call asset based providers, so the actual trucking companies, steamship companies, warehouse providers, and then on the supply chain side, working with what we call shippers, but essentially manufacturers and distributors. So
everything from, you know, early supply chain material procurement through manufacturing and production distribution, and of course transportation woven throughout the entire process. We also work with a lot of companies that sell into our industry, so, tech solutions, insurance solutions, consultants.
But yeah, at the end of the day, we really think about it as that, you know, just if the position influences any part of this process, it’s usually a role that, not only do we understand, but we also have the network to support that search.
Incredible. I mean, I think the deep specialization is something that’s obviously been important to [00:06:00] our partnership here.
Joining forces with CS, obviously Hirewell has built, you know, our focus is in those areas as well in terms of really defining things as like true expertise within different areas and verticals. So, you know, love that we’re gaining the experience and knowledge that your team has within, supply chain logistics and transportations as well.
Now, I wanna give you a quick minute because I feel like you have to be able to talk about the wonderful success that the organization has had through, you know, the not only your ability to scale and grow the company over the last 15 years, but also the highlights. I mean, you’ve made a lot of placements over the years, so just talk to us a little bit about some of the success that you’ve seen.
Yeah. You know it’s funny ’cause I think when you’re in it, you’re in it. And I know you get that. I mean, we go through the motions and we just stay laser focused on the task at hand. And when the acquisition closed, which was December 1st, and then obviously the holidays followed, I just, I had a chance to really step back and reflect and, you know, lots of [00:07:00] conversations with our team members and, really thinking about the individuals on our team, the impact they’ve made, but also hearing from so many
candidates and clients once we announced the news. And I think that is what made it so real.
I got a message today of someone who had seen our announcement and he just saw it on LinkedIn today about the acquisition and, he reminded me like we placed him at a company in 2012. He was like, I think he made $52,000 as an independent contributor.
Today he’s the president of the organization and they just got acquired last week. And so those are the moments where like you really stop and you’re like, wait, we did that. And you know, not only were we responsible for helping him along his career, but all the people he hired, all those families of those employees, and then not to mention all of their clients and all the trucking companies they’ve worked with.
So yeah, the impact is deep and I,
I think, you know, the easiest way to say it, and this was, it was not intentional, [00:08:00] although. Very intentional in a way that I led the organization authentically.
And, you know, just leaned into who I was as a person. And I’m someone who cares about humans and who sees people as individuals beyond their titles, not cogs in a machine. And the more conversations I had over the years with disgruntled candidates who, you know, felt like they were a number. Is what just continued us to emphasize like that human component. So focusing on the humans, giving, you know, courtesy to respond with pe to people to circle back, to give them time.
But also balancing like at the end of the day, our clients are hiring us and we need to really make sure we’re delivering to, the company that’s paying us as much as we wanna really lean into treating every candidate the best way we can. So it’s been a very human focused journey and I think that’s what sets us apart, especially, you know, in this world today of so much automation, so much ai, so many [00:09:00] bots.
Like, people are always surprised when they get a message from us and like, they’re like, is this a human? Like this is not an automated message. Like, no, it’s still me behind the screen. Exactly. Still me typing every letter. So. Just an emphasis on that. Obviously, like we do lean into technology and automation where it makes sense, but, not eliminating the most important part of the process, which is that judgment, that ability to use emotion and, creativity, curiosity, all the things that
come with being human. Yep, absolutely. And I think that, you know, those pieces play obviously into the success that you’ve had in terms of thousands of placements. You’ve worked with hundreds of companies in terms of partnerships, and you’ve developed a really massive candidate network and industry presence in general.
So all of that is kudos to you and your team and the expertise that you’ve been able to build. I wanna circle back to something. This is obviously the month of circling back. We’ve been doing that since December. But let’s circle back to something that you said a few moments ago where, you know, there’s a lot that’s misunderstood about the supply chain [00:10:00] industry.
So from your perspective, what do you think people misunderstand the most about recruiting within supply chain? Yeah, I think that people maybe underestimate how strategic supply chain recruiting is, and that, you know, we are not a vendor, we are a partner and we really want to support our clients as an extension of their team.
So what’s so interesting is that in the first few years I recall, like so many clients came to us and their direction for the search was very simple. It was find me someone who is doing the same job and having success at my competitor, and literally wanting someone who’s just done that job before and not to
say that that’s easy, but like, you know, you know the competitive landscape, you know where to go and look, but what we’ve seen in the past, certainly in the past, like six, seven years, is there’s so many new services that are being offered and one of a kind unique companies that didn’t exist before, mostly because of technology.
I talked to a [00:11:00] client yesterday and we talked through this, like there isn’t a company that we can just go poach someone from because his concept is new, it doesn’t exist. That’s where the strategic play comes in, where, you know, we’ve always done this, but just asking those questions about skill sets and not just hard skills and technical skills, but the soft skills and what is going to add value to your culture?
How is this person going to contribute, you know, with their personality traits and what makes them who they are. So I think that, clients are starting to realize like, yeah, it’s not just poaching someone who’s already doing this. It’s really thinking about the long-term and short-term goals of the company, of the role, and allowing us to just get really strategic and curious with the questions we’re asking when we’re taking direction.
So, also, and I think this applies to any industry or any, you know, function, just having that niche expertise, like our clients can get on a call with us. It’s almost like they’re speaking a foreign language with the amount of acronyms [00:12:00] in our industry and jargon, but we get it and I think that’s a big relief for our clients is they don’t have to start from scratch.
Like they can just talk to us the way they talk to their colleagues and we’re, you know, we’re right there with them under understanding exactly what the role is and exactly what type of experience is gonna lend best to the position. Exactly. I think, you know, with the expertise that you bring, obviously there’s an immediate trust that you build
when you understand that language, you can act as more of a true extension of their internal team and partner from that standpoint. Because you know the industry, you know the language, you know the rolls, even as the industry evolves and new focus areas, you know, come to light, you’re learning right alongside your clients from a perspective, but you’ve got the, you know, 15 years of deep expertise and experience to really match that.
So happy to hear, things from that perspective. I’m curious too, just in terms of like the solutions that CS has, offered over the last 15 years. Like where have you been able to provide talent solutioning to clients and what has that looked like? [00:13:00] Yeah, and I think this is one of the most exciting things about our acquisition and, and our partnership with Hirewell is now we can really expand. And, I joke that, you know, we, we made a lot of stuff up along the way and most of it stuck and most of it worked.
But we’re not reinventing the wheel anymore. Like we are working in a much more established infrastructure and Hirewell has a greater service offering that we can really extend to our clients. So historically, we focused on contingent search, and I think that’s very obvious. You know, when I was starting out, that was the low risk solution for our clients, the easiest way to get business and to really be able to like, prove ourselves and make that mark.
In the past maybe six, seven years, we’ve expanded into more of a retained offering as well. But we’ve really focused that on executive level roles.
Things like director or above. So that’s really what our service offering has been for the most part. Sure we’ve done a lot of custom projects or worked with our clients, I think as a,
a small firm and a boutique firm, you can be [00:14:00] very nimble and adjust to, you know, the terms or the type of project set up that your client needs. So we’ve tasted a lot of different things, but we’ve pretty much stuck with contingent and retained. But yeah, with Hirewell now, I mean, our team is already having these conversations with clients who,
you know, previously inquired about interim or contract roles or even RPO services that, many times I referred ’em back to Hirewell before we even had our partnership because I knew of your team and what you guys could provide. But, yeah, really, you know, being able to stay true to who we are and what we’ve always done.
But being able to offer a much more expansive service is really exciting for everyone involved. Yeah, we’re thrilled about it as well. And like you mentioned, having the internal foundation and the infrastructure to be able to support more scalable solutioning to clients is obviously key. And you know, we’ve done the same thing at Hirewell.
We’ve tried a bunch over the years. A lot of it is stuck. We’ve refined things too. So we’re excited that we have the opportunity to work with you all to [00:15:00] continue doing that. And, you know, expanding the talent solutioning that we offer to our clients. You know, it’s been interesting. I think when we’re thinking about the relationship that we’ve had with CS, you mentioned, you know, you’ve referred clients back to Hirewell.
This is a long partnership that’s been in the works for sure. But I think the why behind it and how it makes sense is really important for folks to, to understand, especially clients on both of our ends on Hirewell’s, traditional side on CS’s, traditional side as well. But, a couple things that I wanna highlight, because I think this is what stuck out to me the most about this partnership is obviously our shared values.
You know, we both have operated as a people first environment, both with our internal employees, with how we service the clients that we’re partnered with, and of course the candidate experience as well. I don’t think it’s off limits to say we have very high standards either. Our expectations are high.
We wanna ensure that, you know, we’re bringing in the best of the best from a recruitment standpoint, and that the employees that we have are those that are elevating the service [00:16:00] offerings that we offer, and that clients are always experiencing top tier client support. But I think there’s another piece too.
You know, there’s no fluff on either end. You know, we have, I think a golden role, which is on both Hirwell’s and CS’s side, where, you know, we don’t employ jerks. We accept that people are kind individuals coming in, but also that, you know, we can be direct when we need to and we’re doing so in a positive way.
So those shared values have obviously been an important factor of, you know, us coming together in terms of this acquisition. And I also think too, like the strategic fit, thinking about how Hirewell has evolved, how CS has evolved, it’s important that, you had mentioned previously like Hirewell’s, platform, our process, our ability to hire at scale and how that is going to
make for a really great marriage with CS and being able to expand in those ways too. But also the extreme and unmatched domain expertise that you all offer and how we can apply that to supply chain and expand our offerings from that perspective [00:17:00] are all key. So we, lay that foundation and groundwork so that folks understand, we’ve been really intentional with this partnership and understanding where things fit well and
why we’ve made a decision to partner together in this way. I do think it’s important though, too, like you, you have clients listening. Maybe they, you know, you’ve chatted with some and perhaps there’s been a little bit of a pause in wanting to understand why this is happening, but also what isn’t changing, because I think that’s the important piece too.
There’s not necessarily a rebrand by any means. So maybe you can, you know, put some of those fears and ease and talk about what’s not changing in terms of CS recruiting. Yeah, no, I think that’s a great way to put it. And you know, part of the conversations leading up to this were about just that and, you know, not wanting, again to like just fix what’s not broken.
And I think Matt at Hirewell has really respected a lot of the processes, the policies, the strategies that we’ve had. And so on [00:18:00] that note, like really not changing too much. I mean, our team is intact. It’s the same people our clients and candidates have reached out to and worked with for many years.
Like you said, our values were so aligned already that we’re not having to shift or become, you know, someone that we aren’t, we can really stay as, you know, the same people operating under the same values and carry our brand forward in the same way. What’s really funny, Ryan, is I got an email from one of our team members who shared the news with one of our clients yesterday.
This client in particular, we have a couple searches open with them and they are in major growth mode and they’ve got some new opportunities this year. And so as they were sharing some of their needs, she shared, or just I guess, reinforced the news about the acquisition and the client came back and said, oh my gosh, Hirewell, like, we’ve worked with Hirewell before, and they’ve, yeah, they’ve been such a great partner for some of their tech roles.
But the client just reinforced it was such, I, I’ve gotta share [00:19:00] this with the greater team, because the client was like, this is not surprising to us. Like, we know CS recruiting, we know Hirewell as completely separate entities. And now that we know you came together, like it makes so much sense because from a client standpoint, like we see that you guys are so similar and so aligned in this firm.
So that was really just a good reinforcement. It’s like, okay, they, they see it too. So what’s not changing is our expertise, the way we deliver. Really what is changing is just that we are able to offer more to our clients and really provide an expanded, solution, be more of that one stop shop and hopefully for some of Hirewell’s clients, who may have any sort of needs that, that fall into our wheelhouse.
It’s the same strategy that you can just deliver more, with people and faces and processes that they’re already familiar with. So yeah, best, best of both worlds when it comes to the marriage. Totally is, yeah, couldn’t, couldn’t have said it better myself. You know, this is not every [00:20:00] rebrand by any means.
It’s an expansion of our teams, of what’s possible, of what we’re, you know, providing to our clients. So I think it. Incredibly, exciting and obviously great to kick off the new year with this news and to go into 2026 really invigorated by what we can offer on both ends. So, you know, we’ve talked a bit about what this means for, just strategy in general, but for your clients and candidates alike, maybe it’s important to kind of lay out, you know, for, for those folks what it means in terms of recruiting and what our, partnerships will look like moving forward.
Yeah, I mean I think, as we’ve hit on, our clients know us as experts in our domain. So, many of our clients are in our industry, and I mean, they are a logistics company or a transportation company, but when we get into like the manufacturers and distributors, I mean, they are, you know, staffing an entire organization well beyond just the logistics, transportation, supply chain roles.
So, historically, [00:21:00] I think we just never went there with many of our clients. I mean, if they came to us and needed a programmer, we were very honest that that was probably outside our scope and our capabilities and we would refer them out to, again, Hirewell or, another solution. But now it’s this opportunity where we can really deliver and we can look at their entire organization and not be as transactional as maybe we once had been.
If they only had one role for us, you know, every so often. That was, you know, where we formed and developed our relationship. Now we can be that true partner and we can really look at all their different departments, all the different functions and roles and not, not try and just skirt by and say, we can do it because
we have access to, you know, candidates, we can do it because we have access to the Hirewell team and these different practices that have their own areas of expertise. So I think that’s what’s most exciting is sure, we could have filled a programmer role before we probably would’ve, you know, fumbled through [00:22:00] it, but.
Now we do it with confidence. We do it with the right experts in place, but on the client side, like it’s one unified team that is delivering with, you know, the same terms, the same processes, and the same faces. So I think from a client standpoint, it’s just, again, like you said before, it’s an expansion.
With candidates, it’s funny because many of the candidates that we have not been able to support in the past, because they’ve been outside our industry and area of expertise, I’m just being bombarded by resumes. Like, I saw the news, now you’re part of Hirewell. Can you get my resume in front of the right person?
So. Again, like our pleasure, but just trying to manage the volume there and, give attention to the candidates that are most relevant for the searches our teams are working on together. But again, yeah, really just an expansion and being able to. If we at the CS team at its core cannot deliver, there is someone in our greater team of Hirewell CS now that can.
That’s really what’s most [00:23:00] exciting. Yeah, totally. And I echo that same excitement obviously for the clients that Hirewell has worked with over the years. Like the immediate access that we now have to truly best in class supply chain recruiters is phenomenal and will certainly provide a different level of service than we’ve been able to in the past.
And I think that deeper expertise as well across logistics and transportation and manufacturing and distribution and all of those areas that we’ve played in for quite some time. But having an even deeper touch in those spaces is gonna be just an incredible value add to the clients that, that we partnered with.
So I like to always, you know, wrap things up in terms of asking. You know, if there are any folks in this space that are listening, why should this acquisition matter to them? What would you say? I would say hopefully they think of both of our firms with, you know, as companies that represent themselves with integrity, with good ethics, strong values, and obviously a really strong [00:24:00] expertise.
And now it’s like we’re on steroids. I mean, that’s probably the easiest way to say it, is if we helped you before now we can really help you and we can help you in so many more ways. So that’s really the message is that we are coming together, to be, you know, an extension, of our clients and their teams, but truly a
just diversified and really well-rounded extension, not just limited to our area of expertise. So hoping to hear from many of our clients and still sharing the news out. So, I’m hoping that we’re gonna see a lot of opportunities that already we’re starting to really brainstorm where our teams can come together, even on a single search and just use, you know, different expertise within the larger organization to really find our clients the right rock stars.
Absolutely. I love that. You know, this acquisition is really exciting to me, in particular here at Hirewell. I’ve been a part of the organization for over eight years. I’ve seen many iterations of what Hirewell’s growth has looked like and [00:25:00] our strategy. And I think overall the one thing that you know, we’ve always focused on is,
how we’re growing in ways that continue to make us experts in the spaces that we operate in HIrewell started as an IT and technical recruiting firm, and that is, you know, where we cut our teeth as a company many years ago and we’ve expanded into other areas over time and I think that’s the type of strategy that we continue to want to emulate as we grow as an organization and, continue,
broadening the, offerings that we have to our clients and where we can be partners. And, you know, I think it’s important for us to reinforce that we are committed to being domain experts in various areas and this just, you know, helps us grow and, evolve in, in a new way, which is super exciting.
So I’m thrilled about it. Charlie, thank you so much for joining me today on the Hirewell Update. It was so nice to have you. You’re my first guest of 2026. We kicked it off as a phenomenal, start to the year, and we’re obviously thrilled to officially welcome you and the CS recruiting team to Hirewell.
We’re so happy that you all have [00:26:00] joined us. For anyone that wants to learn more about Hirewell’s acquisition of CS recruiting, you can check out a press release. I’m gonna link it in the comment section here. So, feel free to take a look at that, some really great info in it. Or you can always reach out to Charlie directly, to myself.
We’re happy to walk you through things. It’s super exciting to be able to share the news and talk about this. And then, you know, to our clients that are listening, we’d love to share more details with you. Obviously, Charlie and team are reaching out and sharing info with their folks. We’re doing the same here at Hirewell, but if you’re in particular very interested about learning more about, our expansion in logistics and supply chain and how those can benefit your talent strategies, please feel free to reach out.
We’re obviously happy to have, those conversations. But before I wrap things up officially here, Charlie, any final words. No, I think you hit it before and I think that that’s the message I really wanna leave everyone with is that, this is an expansion. Not much is changing beyond, like I said before, we are just on steroids now in a really good way that we can do [00:27:00] a lot more with our expanded team and just looking forward to serving our clients in a new way in 2026.
Amazing. Well, with that, let’s wrap things up with this episode of The Hirewell Update. Thank you all for joining us. As a reminder, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com. Or if you’d like to learn more about Hirewell and our new and improved service offerings, you can check on our website, www.hirewell.com.
Tune in next time and we’ll see you then. Thanks, Ryan. Thank you.