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Growth Strategies for Business - An interview with Hire Velocity CEO

Friday, May 07, 2010

• GROWTH STRATEGIES for Business

COMPANY & EXECUTIVE PROFILE

Val Marks uses the internet and social media to automate much

of the heavy lifting at the recruiting firm she runs.

EXECUTIVE WOMEN I Annual Issue

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by Victoria Lim • vlim@tampabay.rr.com

Social media is a “passion” for Val Marks. And so isrunning companies. Her ability to do both well is why John West hired her to run his recruiting company, Hire Velocity.

“My brother and I were looking for someone who had those skills and a strong set of marketing,” says West, company chairman. “The three of us started talking and we decided she’d be a great addition to the team.” He founded Hire Velocity with his brother Byron in 2004 after selling his former recruiting company, System One, to Monster Worldwide, Inc.

Marks took the job in May 2009: “I love it. The industry is changing a lot, and I feel like we have the opportunity to be a pioneer in some of that change.”

For companies doing “volume hiring,” she says, technology processes can cut costs by as much as half. Hire Velocity’s use of the latest technology helped rank it No. 709 on Inc. Magazine’s 5000 fastest-growing, privately-owned companies list in 2009.

The process works like this: a retailer, say, needs to hire store managers for several new stores. After the client and Hire Velocity develop the criteria for ideal hires (think “keywords”), the information is put into an internet search string. Hire Velocity’s technology typically scours more than 200 job boards, social media and internet content sites for candidates who match the criteria. Then, the technology will score and rank the candidates.

“All of that work has taken place with hardly any human intervention. So, it’s a very low-cost infrastructure,” Marks explains. Recruiters then call candidates for further screening. “We fully screen and interview the candidates before they are ever presented to our client.”

Chairman West says this high-tech approach landed them one of their largest revenue clients, AT&T, when the company rolled out the iPhone and needed 1,760 hires, including bilingual candidates.

Based both in Tampa and Atlanta, Hire Velocity in 2008 had nearly 2,000 job placements and $2-million in revenues. But toward the end of that year – as hiring freezes, layoffs and revenue declines spread across the country – Hire

Velocity mimicked some of its clients and, as West describes it – “right-sized.” The company went from 70 employees to its current 35.

But today, like a number of its potential and current clients, Marks says business is picking up. “Our current revenue run-rate is already double what it was last year, and we’ve increased our head count (number of the firm’s employees and contractors) significantly over where we were at our low point in 2009.” 

“We’ve (recently) doubled our recruiting team in Atlanta due to client demand.”

Hire Velocity has a line of credit with the Bank of Tampa while still utilizing outside capital to grow the business. Its largest investor is Lion Investments, a firm privately held by West; there are some individual investors as well.

The types of jobs Hire Velocity is most often called on to help fill include sales, IT, customer service and finance positions. The recruiting firm historically serviced Fortune 500 companies with thousands of hires at a time; but those same companies also did massive layoffs as the economy soured. 

Now, Hire Velocity targets large to medium-sized firms -- which need typically 25 or more hires a year. 

“We primarily place permanent employees in director level and below positions,” says Marks.  And they also “help companies build out their teams from entry level to middle management.” 

“They’re really consultative in terms of listening to what we need,” says Fernando Delgado of Siemens Industry’s talent acquisition division. He previously used Hire Velocity when he was with Microsoft, Coca Cola and Deloitte & Touche. “They have a sophisticated technology suite, an inbound and outbound system to engage folks and peak interest.”

Hire Velocity (www.hirevelocity.com) does not post job openings. Rather its technology searches job databases. Marks does, however, use social media to post information about job trends, hiring strategies and employment news. From Facebook: a link to an article about a rise in temporary employment.  On Twitter: a link to an article about the Best Jobs in America.  On the company blog: an entry about the importance of diversity recruiting.

“It’s really exciting to me that small business people can reach a large audience through effective social media and other tools on the internet,” West says. And, says Marks, social media is how many of the company’s clients have found them. “Most of our clients are not in Tampa,” she says. “Many customers we’ve never met at all. You don’t need to meet me in person. You just need to know that if you need 40 people, I’m going to get you your 40 qualified people.” Beyond that, “Our recruiting process is tailored to the client’s needs,” she adds. “In most cases, we support the company until the positions are filled.”

Says John Medaska: “They let us focus on what we do, delivering technology solutions, rather than combing through hundreds of resumes and job boards.” He’s vice president of sales and marketing for Oldsmar’s Vology Data Systems, formerly Network Liquidators.

Marks began her career in telecommunications and ultimately became president of Ameritech’s Interactive Media Services division, launching the company’s entry into the internet marketplace with development of the Online Yellow Pages site.  Following the acquisition of Ameritech by SBC (now AT&T), she led SBC’s national internet division and its 1,000 employees. She came to Tampa to run New Homes Realty, an online real estate company that was later sold to Lending Tree. 

Hire Velocity is the first recruiting firm Marks has led. Like other companies she’s run, she says she may not have been well versed in the industry when she arrived – but she doesn’t need to be.

 “It’s about understanding sales, marketing and operations. What are the structures, metrics and goals of the place?” she says. “I’m like the orchestra leader. I don’t have to learn how to play each instrument; I have to be able to listen, harmonize and make sure I have the right players on my team, the right sheets of music.”

 Marks led “orchestras” in Massachusetts and North Carolina before coming to Tampa in 2006 to head up New Homes Realty. Instead of relocating after the company was sold, Marks and her family decided to stay in Tampa.

“Her decision to stay here, and the ability to attract her to Hire Velocity, is a win-win-win,” chairman West emphasizes. “It’s a win to me, to her, and to Tampa.”

For the full article, http://www.maddux.com/2010/May/growth_1.asp

MADDUX BUSINESS REPORT g www.maddux.com

May 2010

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