Recruiter Wins Podcast: Executive Search Insights with Ben Farber
President Ben Farber from Bristol Associates is a guest on this episode of Recruiter Wins, where he shares a recruiting success story in which a client struggled to choose between two strong finalists presented by the firm, and the unexpected decision they ultimately made to solve the dilemma. He also reveals his approach to finding high-quality talent, explains why retained search often leads to better hiring outcomes, and gives his perspective on AI’s role in recruitment. Tune in for a candid conversation about what truly separates recruiters who simply fill job openings from those who become trusted partners for their clients.
Listen to the podcast episode on Spotify or Apple.
Below is a transcript of the podcast episode, lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Zack Gallinger: Hello and welcome to another episode of Recruiter Wins. My name is Zack Gallinger and I’m the founder of Talent Hero Media, a digital marketing agency that works exclusively with recruiters. In this podcast, we sit down with a highly successful recruiting expert to ask them the same, simple question: tell me about your biggest recruiting win.
Our guest today is Ben Farber, President at Bristol Associates. Ben works in the hospitality space, filling senior roles at companies that work in industries like casino gaming, food and beverage, and restaurants. And so with that, let’s get down to business and I’ll ask you that question, “Tell me about your biggest recruiting win.”
Ben Farber: Hey Zack, biggest recruiting win, just to get straight to it, is what occurred for us last year. We had three separate clients that hired two people from us that came out of one search, if that makes sense. So, they originally came to us for one search, ended up hiring two people, split the role, and it happened three times in the span of one year.
Zack: Yeah, that definitely has to be a rare occurrence. So, why don’t you walk me through one of these searches in more detail?
Ben: Yeah, so we had one client in particular in the travel industry looking for a VP of Operations. And in fact, two of those three clients were operations-related roles. They realized that in order to fully support the department, they needed more than one person, not only in operations and product, but also from just a general management standpoint. So, as we were going through the interview process and providing good people, they ended up liking more than one person and created a second role for the second person.
Zack: Got it. So would you say that the success came from the fact that you were able to give them such a large list of high-quality candidates, or was it that you convinced them that this job might require more than one person, or was it a bit of both depending on the exact company?
Ben: I think it really does boil down to the quality of candidates, and we never want to take full credit for that. We feel honored for the candidates that we meet in our search process, what they bring to the table, and how they present as well. With that said, we’d like to think we have a keen eye for finding those people and making the alignment, of course.
There tends to be some hesitation on our client’s part whenever we start a search as far as, “Did we pick the right firm? Is this firm going to be able to present the talent we’re hoping?” And we’d like to think that we can exceed those expectations and that’s how these situations evolve – that our clients are pleasantly surprised with the talent we’re able to bring to the table, and then that gets them thinking about how else can they essentially take advantage of the people that we’ve brought forth and really improve their team across the board.
Zack: So obviously you’re good at finding high-quality talent, which I mean, that’s one of the core operations a recruiter has to do. What would you say is what you believe to be the secret to that?
Ben: You’re going to make me give that away, huh?
Zack: I mean, you know, we don’t need the special sauce but just tell us how you approach this topic.
Ben: No, no, I tease. I think it’s important. And I hope this is actually the one key nugget that everybody can take away from our conversation today. It’s really listening to what candidates are sharing beyond their experience. It’s not what they’re presenting to me; it’s how they’re presenting it and how they come across as the people that they are because we’ve started to track tenure over time and retention over time.
And it boils down to likeability more so than experience. And what that means is, is that somebody easy to work with? Can they remain calm under stressful situations, which are most days in a competitive workforce, right? So we’re paying very closely to those cues and how they present during the process, not only in the interview process with our client, but with us – how they correspond via email, during screening calls, etcetera. Those things we’re paying close attention to, and we would encourage everybody else to do so because that’s going to translate to their daily habits when they actually join the team.
Zack: That would make a lot of sense. I mean, I know from having hiring people in the past, how people show up is generally how they’re going to work. And I’ve made mistakes where I just overlook some obvious red flags because they have the right background and it never really works out.
Moving on past this story, I have a couple of questions I wanted to ask just about your business overall. I know that you do a lot of retained search. How do you think about selling that to clients when obviously, some clients are going to be tempted to go down the contingent route?
Ben: Yeah, and it really boils down to what we were talking about earlier about easing their hesitation about hiring a search firm at all. Why they need us and how we’re going to be able to perform for them. And so, once we can expand upon that and talk about our accomplishments – or talking about our biggest one today –we have many, many examples of successful placements over the years. We get into the details of that and then essentially convert that to how the retained process has helped in those successful outcomes.
And for us, it really boils down to how the candidates perceive the client and the process. That’s really going to increase our success in providing quality talent because candidates that we call passive and employed are just as sensitive in nature to being the right fit and the right opportunity as our clients are when they’re evaluating the candidates. And sometimes, I think even more so because they have to often take PTO and go through other logistic hurdles to, respectfully go through the process without taking time away from the current employer, or their families, or what have you.
Once they learn that companies are willing to retain a well-known firm like ours, then it increases their curiosity right off the bat, and from there, their interest builds and the clients tend to take the process more seriously as well because they’ve invested the time and money into it – not only in the process, but the candidates that we’re going to submit. And that just generates positive moments that we take from start to finish.
Zack: Okay, that makes a lot of sense. When it comes to talking to a candidate, do you ever slip in that this is a retained search so that they understand that your client is serious? Because I speak with a lot of recruiters and obviously one complaint is that companies hire them usually on a contingent basis and then turns out there’s no one, they’re actually not hiring for the role, or they’re pushing it down the road in six months and that probably frustrates both the agency and the candidates, who’ve had their time wasted. So, is that a selling point for candidates when they know that you’ve been retained? And I know candidates may not necessarily know the difference between a contingent or retained search. They’re not in recruiting, but are you able to slip that in somehow?
Ben: Very much so. It’s a part of our written correspondence. It’s a part of our conversations and screening calls and advertising if it’s not confidential searches. And the reason that is, is because many candidates are aware of the difference and it’s one of the common questions that we receive in the process and that’s what got me to thinking about it.
It wasn’t about how can we sell more retainers, it was about how can we improve our process? If businesses are improving, the screening process for us is improving, and they want to know our accomplishments and how we do what we do – well, in turn, we need to track the data and talk about why we’re successful and how, and really what’s going to lead to results. And so, I truly believe that retained searches are going to lead to the results that our clients want. And that’s why we encourage them to do so. And again, we see it based on not only the likelihood of placement, but how long those people last within their roles as well.
Zack: And it makes a lot of sense. I mean, obviously contingent recruiting maybe sells for some agencies, but obviously has a lot of bad incentives in terms of incentivizing that client behavior.
Okay, last question for you. It’s going to be a bit of a different type of question. So you know, AI tools – very big talking point in recruiting over the past couple of years. And this is obviously a big question. And so, you know, I don’t need the nitty-gritty. But how, if at all, has AI changed the way you or your team approaches things like sourcing, outreach, and candidate evaluation?
Ben: It’s sped up our process a little bit as it has, I think, for most businesses. I think the buzz and the feedback we get is that it’s – not to diminish AI, because there’s a lot of value to it and we’re curious to see what happens next – essentially a glorified spell check in a way that it’s very helpful to speed up a lot of the daily tasks you already do, but we’re very stuck on making sure that humans are still involved in our process. That we, the experienced recruiters, are still the ones screening the right people. We’re actually the ones having the conversations with both the clients and the candidates.
When we write up our candidates and present them, it helps with the presentation process as well, speeds that up. But we’re the ones ultimately making sure that it’s our voice. We’re the ones that are presenting the candidates how we want to in our “Bristol Associates” fashion. And we’re the ones clicking send. We’ve heard lots of horror stories already about people relying too heavily on AI – just expecting it to do the work for them, not checking it out before it goes out – and has caused some pretty big problems and fines, especially from a compliance standpoint. So that’s what we’ve seen so far, and that’s where we stand on AI.
Zack: Yeah, no, I think there’s a wide range of opinions on this topic ranging from people who still don’t want anything to do with it and the people who have integrated it into their daily workflow on a very serious basis. And, as you sort of hinted at, that’s where things are at today but you know things will likely change very quickly and I’m sure we’ll revisit this topic in later episodes. But that’s all the questions I had for you today. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me and have a great rest of your day.
Ben: It’s been a pleasure. Thanks so much, Zack.
Bristol Associates, Inc. is an executive search firm with over 55 years of excellence in recruiting nationwide. Bristol specializes in recruiting for the Casino Gaming; Facility and Concession; Food and Beverage; Healthcare; Hotel and Resort; Nonprofit; Restaurant; and Travel, Tourism, and Attraction industries.
If you’re interested in working with Bristol Associates, click here if you’re an employer or here if you’re a candidate.
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