TBT - That time we stopped being a contingent recruiting firm

When I started Hirewell, the dream was to disrupt the industry. Back then, there were contingent recruiting firms and retained recruiting firms.  And very little in between.

Unfortunately, it was hard to disrupt the status quo in a recession. There was very little hiring going on anywhere. We had two options. Take whatever business we could find.  Or move back in with my parents. Needless to say, we did a lot of contingent recruiting in our early days.

So how did we move away from contingent?

Let’s turn back the clock nine years. 

Berkshire Hathaway acquired Duracell from Procter & Gamble. Despite being a multi-billion dollar company, Duracell had no dedicated IT function. We had a strong relationship at Berkshire and they called us to ask for help. After a dozen meetings, they retained us to help stand up their corporate IT function.

Sounds cool, right? Absolutely.  But it was also scary. It was bigger than anything we’d done beore. I knew I needed to hire someone better than me to manage it.

Enter Jeff Smith. Jeff was a long-time contact that I had wanted to hire for 5+ years.  But the role and/or timing was never quite right. Now it was. Nine months and twenty-five hires later, we had our proof of concept. It was an inflection point for us. It was our first step in moving from contingent search to providing talent solutions.  

Jeff’s role has evolved a lot since then. During his first month, he assured me he’d never sell anything. Now he leads our solution sales efforts. He’s designed dozens of projects where we’ve helped companies build teams, departments, or entire org charts. 

Throughout it all, we’d always considered ourselves a recruiting firm.  Finding great talent was why companies came to us. The work done before and after the search were things we did as part of our regular process. The big firms call it advisory work. It includes org assessment, compensation analysis, writing job descriptions, standing up applicant tracking systems, designing interview processes, interview training, writing offer letters, and onboarding candidates.

The talent advisory work was our special sauce. Of course, we can find great talent for our clients. But we strive to accomplish more.. We want to understand where the company is today and where they are trying to go. Then we outline how (and who they need to hire) to get there. 

I believe this is where the market has been going for a while. 

When we kicked off 2024, we identified a few key focus areas.  Simplify our offerings to make sure everyone understands them was a big one.

Here’s what we rolled out.

We’ve done these things for the better part of a decade.  Some of the old names didn’t really make sense (MRP, OnDemand Recruiting, etc). Admittedly, I was against the term RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), but that’s a story for another day.

Hirewell has come a long way from pitching an engagement we had no business winning back in 2015. Our team has grown and so has our ability to be a true partner for our clients.

Don’t worry, you’ll hear a lot more about this over the next few months. As a teaser, the ladies from Recruiting Reality talked about it.  They compared our evolution to the Kardashians.  

While I can say that I’ve never watched a minute of their TV, I have to admit I’m impressed by their staying power.  Check out what Liz and Shania have to say about it all…

Recruiting Reality, Ep 28 “Rebranding” 

As Hirewell has evolved into a “Talent Solutions Partner,” Liz and Shania draw parallels to the rebranding journey undertaken by the Kardashians, shifting from E! to Hulu. Much like the Kardashians’ strategic pivot, Hirewell’s evolutions represents a deliberate move toward greater success. Positioned as a premier Talent Solutions Partner, Hirewell is ready to address your organization’s diverse talent requirements with expertise and dedication.

Thanks for tuning in!

- Matt Founder, CEO - Hirewell