Jagler: ‘Boomerangers’ might make best recruits for Wisconsin, headhunter suggests
Steve Jagler
Have you ever known anyone who moved to another state because they were inspired by a television commercial with a celebrity voice-over or a placard on the side of a bus?
Neither have I.
Yet I have known professionals who were recruited by headhunters or approached by people with mutual connections in their networks to apply for new jobs.
Leveraging those social networks is the guiding principle of the business model for Nick Cromydas, co-founder and CEO of Hunt Club, a Chicago-based recruitment company that is serving Midwest clients.
Here are the essentials of Hunt Club’s recruitment model:
- Hunt Club identifies “influencers” by location and profession on LinkedIn.
- The influencers agree to open their LinkedIn networks to Hunt Club.
- When a company contracts with Hunt Club to find candidates to fill an open position, Hunt Club identifies influencers on LinkedIn who are connected to professionals who might be a good fit for the job.
- The influencer then refers a targeted candidate in their network to the open position.
- The candidate applies for and accepts the job.
- The influencer receives a cash referral reward of up to $2,000 from Hunt Club, and the candidate receives a signing bonus of up to $1,000.
As a corporate headhunter, Cromydas operates on the principle that “the best candidates are the ones who aren’t looking.”
Since its founding in 2014, Hunt Club has placed more than 250 candidates in new jobs, including three in the Milwaukee area.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker recently persuaded the state legislature to spend up to $6.8 million to recruit millennials and veterans to move to the state.
"We need more bodies," Walker said. “We need to go beyond our borders.”
Walker said the state will target markets such as the Twin Cities and Detroit.
It remains to be seen how the state’s new recruitment money will be spent.
However, Cromydas is skeptical that the tactics the Walker administration used to target Chicago millennials last year would be efficient or effective in luring young professionals to fill high-tech jobs in Wisconsin as the Foxconn Technology Group builds and opens its mammoth electronic display panel factory in Mount Pleasant.
Cromydas says Wisconsin and its companies that need high-tech employees should be proactive, strategic, targeted and disciplined as they attempt to persuade millennials to move to the Badger State.
"People don't just move to a new state because they saw an ad. People move to a new state because there are interesting career opportunities,” Cromydas said.
Cromydas said Wisconsin’s recruitment dollars would be better invested by helping innovative startups in Milwaukee.
“The (state) should focus its efforts on building the next GrubHub or Groupon. This type of investment could help build the type of companies that attract talent from the coasts and keep talent right here in Milwaukee,” Cromydas said.
Cromydas said the state should target “boomerangers,” whom he described as high-tech workers who went to college in Wisconsin and then moved out of the state to accept jobs on the coasts.
“The next time you’re looking to hire, don’t forget to reach out to your fellow Milwaukeeans that have moved across country for a career opportunity,” Cromydas said. “Many will be excited to hear from you and will be more than willing to boomerang back to familiar territory.”
ARCHIVES:C-Level columns explore executive strategies and leadership
I asked Cromydas to create a C-Level “listicle” of three primary strategies for recruiting millennial professionals to move back Milwaukee. Here they are:
- Search for those that have a connection to the region. “It’s difficult to convince candidates who have no affiliation to Milwaukee to accept a job here. Instead, employers should focus on sourcing candidates that have some type of connection to the area, whether the candidate attended Marquette University or the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee or they were raised in Elm Grove or Fox Point. Even having extended family or friends in the area can be enough to convince the candidate to head back to the Midwest,” Cromydas said.
- Use the relatively low cost of living in Wisconsin as leverage. “Appealing to talent in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco can be as easy as showing candidates how much further their paycheck will go in Milwaukee than other major cities along the coasts,” Croymydas said. “A software developer earning $250,000 in San Francisco is likely to be living in a cramped two-bedroom apartment with a roommate. But, in Milwaukee, that same software developer earning $250,000 could be living in a luxury condo in the Historic Third Ward all by himself. Which would you choose?”
- Be strategic about when to reach out and follow-up regularly. “In recruiting, we call this 'pipelining.' Every company in Milwaukee needs a pipeline of candidates that they’re reaching out to periodically. In these follow-ups, it’s important to find out whether there have been any shifts personally or professionally that make now the right time for the candidate to move into a new role,” Cromydas said. “If you come across a candidate who has been working for eight to 15 years, there’s a strong chance that he/she is getting ready to have a family and this could be good timing for them to settle in a city that will support these life changes. The only way for your organization to be involved in this decision-making process is for you to have a pre-existing relationship, which is why it’s so important to keep in close contact with these candidates as they build their career.”
Steve Jagler is the business editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. C-Level stands for high-ranking executives, typically those with “chief” in their titles. Send C-Level column ideas to him at steve.jagler@journalsentinel.com.
Nick Cromydas
Title: Co-founder and CEO
Company: Hunt Club, Chicago
Expertise: Executive recruitment
Hometown: Glenview, Ill.
Current residence: Chicago
Education: Bachelor’s degree and master’s degree at Vanderbilt University
Pet: Dog, Tucker
Favorite Wisconsin restaurant: Sobelman's Pub & Grill, Milwaukee
Best advice ever received: "My old tennis coach said, ‘Be proud, but never satisfied.’"