Blue Signal recently attended the NAPS conference to gain insight on new recruiting strategies, learn tips from the most tenured in the industry, and connect with fellow recruiting professionals. The NAPS (National Association of Personnel Services) 2021 Conference is “the premier education opportunity representing the search, recruiting & staffing industry.” The conference was held September 26-28th at the Green Valley Ranch Resort, outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, with over 300 attendees from the recruiting and staffing industry.
The mission of the NAPS conference is for attendees to learn best practices, recruiting strategies, and understand how to improve their business through case studies, while expanding their professional network. Overall, the NAPS conference provided a wealth of knowledge to those in the recruiting industry. Here were some of our Blue Signalers’ favorite takeaways.
Matt Walsh – Counteroffers/Ghosting, New Tech, Working and Hiring Virtually: How to Recruit and Thrive during the NEW Roaring 20’s
Matt Walsh is the CEO and Founder of Blue Signal, a nationwide executive search firm. Matt founded Blue Signal in 2012 after noticing pain points in the recruiting industry, and has since grown the company to a multimillion-dollar search firm with over 40 employees across the country. With over a decade of recruiting experience, Matt’s expertise spans across various industries, from telecommunications to wireless, IoT, and more. As an awarded Pinnacle Society member, he is a highly sought after and well-respected leader in the industry.
Matt’s session explored ways to stay at the forefront of recruiter’s changing virtual landscape and how to get one step ahead of your competition. In the session, Matt dove into best tactics and recruiting strategies to build stronger relationships, win more business, and make more placements. As a result, attendees learned techniques to handle many new challenges facing recruiters today – including ghosting, counteroffers, and emerging technology.
Blue Signal’s Takeaway
Thriving in the new “Roaring 20’s” is going to take deliberate effort from recruiters and clients alike. Blue Signal’s recruiters are constantly learning new technologies, counteroffer techniques, and recruiting strategies to best support our clients in navigating these challenges. As the digital landscape of recruiting continues to evolve, Blue Signal strives to address these changes through direct partnership with our clients.
Rudy Ruettiger – Keynote Speaker
Rudy Ruettiger is an Emmy Award-winning motivational keynote speaker, producer, and author with over 25 years of experience speaking to corporations, universities, sports teams, and at special events. Rudy is best known for his underdog-to-hero performance in the 1975 Notre Dame football game against Georgia Tech. Despite being 5’6”, Rudy sacked Georgia Tech quarterback Rudy Allen in the last 27 seconds of the game – becoming the first Fighting Irish player to do so. His story of hard work, fierce dedication, and self-motivation inspired many. Today Rudy uses his platform to share his experiences of adversity and triumph, while encouraging others to “Never Quit.”
Blue Signal’s Takeaway
Once a one-man-shop, Blue Signal has its own underdog-to-hero story. Through hard work and perseverance, our CEO & Founder Matt Walsh grew Blue Signal into a nationwide recruiting firm with over 40 employees. Fierce dedication and self-motivation are in the blood of every recruiter at Blue Signal, especially when facing rejection comes with the job. Thus, Rudy’s mantra of “Never Quit” resonated with many Blue Signalers. As we continue to fight the war for talent, Blue Signal is dedicated to finding top talent through diligence, perseverance, and innovative recruiting strategies.
Barb Bruno – High-Tech High Touch Recruiting
Barbara Bruno is a recognized expert in the staffing and recruiting space, with over 30 years of experience. As an expert trainer, Barb has developed over 15 LinkedIn recruiting courses taken by millions around the world. She is currently the CEO of Good As Gold Training, a web-based training service for recruiting and staffing professionals, and the President of H & R Search.
In a world dominated by technology, it’s crucial that recruiting and staffing professionals use it for beneficial touchpoints with candidates. Barb’s session discussed how to implement changes to “combine high-tech with a high-touch approach to business.” Topics addressed in the session included how communication has changed, why we need to stop writing skill-based job descriptions, why we need to interview to eliminate emotion or bias, and how to place candidates who become engaged and retained.
Blue Signal’s Takeaway
Our team loved the way Barb took recruiting back to the basics to exemplify what we all work for – changing lives. Barb described recruiting as being “all about relationships,” and we couldn’t agree more. As a relationship-based recruiting firm, Blue Signal focuses on recruiting strategies that build long-term partnerships with both our clients and candidates. As a result, our recruiters are able to thoroughly understand the needs of our clients’ businesses and fill their talent gaps, while working with candidates throughout their professional career. We plan on continuing to strengthen our relationship-based recruiting strategies in the 2020’s and building powerful partnerships along the way.
Jeremy Sisemore - A Fresh and Unique Approach to Metrics That Really Matter
Jeremy Sisemore is a prominent IT recruiter with over 18 years in the industry. In 2006, he founded ASAP Talent Services, a firm offering direct-placement, executive-retained, and contract staffing. Throughout his career, Jeremy has over $12M in personal production (billings) and has placed SAP talent at all levels up to CIO with over 75 Fortune 500 clients throughout North America. Today, Jeremy serves as a Billing Manager for ASAP Talent Services.
In A Fresh and Unique Approach to Metrics That Really Matter, Jeremy covered how he measures his team, predicts success and failure, prevents slow periods, and limits the valleys in his business. Jeremy discussed the metrics used in the 90’s and 2000’s for search firms, and how those metrics have evolved for the 2020’s.
Blue Signal’s Takeaway
A key takeaway our team took from Jeremy’s session was one of his recruiting strategies, called the “5 Alive and 10 In Process.” This is how Jeremy’s team keeps track of their pipeline. At any point, his recruiters should have five “Alive” candidates actively interviewing with a client, and ten candidates somewhere “In Process” – that could be submitted, in scheduling, at the offer stage, etc. While traditional recruiting metrics focus on submittals, send outs, and placements, we find this process a more beneficial way to measure the pipeline. Finding metrics that really matter will improve our recruiting strategies and strengthen our recruiters’ processes – which will ultimately help us make more placements.
Jordan Rayboy – Mental Health – The Struggle is Real
Jordan Rayboy is a NAPS conference veteran, giving numerous presentations over the years. He is the founder of Rayboy Insider Search and a member of the Pinnacle Society. Jordan has over 20 years of recruiting experience, and he specializes in the storage, data management, and cybersecurity marketplace.
Stress caused by the pandemic has taken a major toll on the recruiting industry, and on us as recruiting professionals. In The Struggle is Real, Jordan shared the challenges he’s faced in the last year and a half, and what helped him in addressing his mental health.
Blue Signal’s Takeaway
The pandemic has affected each of our lives in unique, but unifying, ways. It’s caused us to pivot recruiting strategies, take on new challenges, and of course, face unprecedented times. A major takeaway from Jordan’s session was how imperative mental health is to our success – as a business, as recruiters, and as individuals. In such a stress-inducing industry, prioritizing mental health is crucial. Blue Signal strives to prioritize mental health and wellness by providing resources to our employees, clients, and candidates.
"Jordan’s [session] brought me back to the real reason that I love working in recruiting – to change lives and further a company that truly cares about its employees, candidates, and clients alike."
— Jessica Walsh, Blue Signal’s General Counsel
From metrics to mental health, the information we learned at NAPS was invaluable. The sessions gave us some key recruiting strategies to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends and technology in the 2020’s. Between the knowledge gained and the relationships made, NAPS was an unforgettable event for those in the recruiting and staffing industry. For many Blue Signalers, the event reignited their original passion for what they do. We look forward to implementing these recruiting strategies into our practice, and can’t wait to see you all at NAPS 2022!
