[Podcast] Industry Spotlight | Adrian Dominguez: CEO ROLINC Staffing – Building Valuable Relationships in Staffing and Recruiting

Adrian Dominguez [00:00:00]:
Leaders are supposed to cast a vision. If you need to get the credit for everything, don’t become a leader. Like, that’s not what this is about. What this is about is you paving a way for people to become their best. You know, the adage of good leaders are quiet when you make mistakes and loud when you are able to succeed. Like, I think that kind of mentality as a leader goes a long way. Look, I’ll say it this way for a time. You can motivate people through pressure, through manipulation, and through fear, but it doesn’t last.

Adrian Dominguez [00:00:33]:
It doesn’t make people want to stay. So I want to find out, as a staffing leader, okay, how can I invest in your future? How can I make you want to be here?

Kortney Harmon [00:00:43]:
Hi, I’m Kortney Harmon, director of industry relations at Crelate. This is the industry spotlight, a series of the full desk experience, a curlate original podcast. In this series, we will talk with top leaders and influencers who are shaping the talent industry, shining a light on popular trends, the latest news, and the stories that laid the groundwork for their success. Welcome back to another episode of the full Desk experience. Industry Spotlight.

Kortney Harmon [00:01:16]:
Welcome back to another episode of the full Desk Experience, the podcast that brings you insights from the front lines of the staffing and recruiting industry. I’m your host, Kortney Harmon, and today I’m super excited. We have a truly exceptional guest joining us. Adrian is the CEO of Rolinc. Did I say that right?

Adrian Dominguez [00:01:32]:
Adrian got it. That’s it.

Kortney Harmon [00:01:33]:
Okay. Staffing. And he is a part of this Colorado staffing association and the knowledge that he has in our industry. He’s here to share his unique journey, his valuable insights from the roots of the manufacturing to leading a niche staffing firm. Adrian’s story is one of the most innovative, adaptive, truly passionate stories that I’ve ever heard. So we’re going to explore how he’s navigated through the challenges, whether it’s from the industry or in general, building a thriving company culture and the position of his organization as a leader in skilled trade and manufacturing staffing. So whether you’re a seasoned professional or executive, an upcoming leader, this episode is going to be packed with strategies that you can apply to your firm. So let’s dive in without further ado.

Kortney Harmon [00:02:21]:
Adrienne, thank you so much for joining me. Tell our listeners I know more about your story just because we’ve talked a few times, and it is truly one of my favorites. Tell our listeners a little bit more about you, how you got into the industry, and maybe a little bit more about rolling and what you do for this.

Adrian Dominguez [00:02:36]:
Absolutely. First off, Kortney, thanks for having me on. And I love the introduction. I’m just wondering if maybe I could hire you to introduce me at every single event. That was great. That was spot on. But as a matter of fact, I’m like, who is this Adrian guy? I wanna meet this guy, whoever that is. He sounds amazing.

Adrian Dominguez [00:02:50]:
Couldn’t be me. Anyways, it’s great to be with you. I think maybe what I should do is probably start off with the cause. You mentioned the name of our company. It’s like Rollink. Did I say that right? So maybe I could at least start with that. I didn’t found the company. The company was founded when I was twelve and I considered myself to be a smart twelve year old, but I wasn’t that smart.

Adrian Dominguez [00:03:09]:
So Bob Bidwell founded our company. And when it was started, it was actually started as a resume. An online resume database company. Kind of like a monster career builder. But you gotta keep in mind, online in 1990, 219 93, is very different than online in 2024, as we all know. And if you don’t believe that, go back and watch. You’ve got mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and you’ll be blown away at the whole instant chatting thing. And how exciting that was back then.

Adrian Dominguez [00:03:36]:
So that said, it was really started as that. And one day one of his clients just said, hey, bob, can you help me find somebody? And he did. And he said, man, I really like this. And then the client says, how much do I owe you? Then he’s like, wait, you’ll pay me to find people. I think I like this a lot more than what I was doing before. So that is how we became. It was resumes. Our online ol incorporated.

Adrian Dominguez [00:03:59]:
Resumes. Online incorporated. Rolinc. So that’s where the name came. And of course, since then we’ve pivoted and grown different niches. And about 18 ish months ago, we went from being rolling staffing to now we’re rolling staffing and search, because we have a search division as well. So. Yeah.

Adrian Dominguez [00:04:16]:
And then as far as how I got into this, yes. Oh, you know, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone in staffing that was like, you know, when I was five years old, playing on the playground, you know, and imagining things. I was like, I can’t wait to grow up and be a staffing person. Like, that doesn’t even enter someone’s mind, right? Most people, their. Their testimony, something like this. I didn’t know it was there. I fell into it. I needed a job, blah, blah, blah.

Adrian Dominguez [00:04:39]:
That’s kind of similar with me. I. I was moving from Nashville, Tennessee area, wherever staffing world is going to be this year. And I had been working for a manufacturing consulting technology company. And what I had been involved in very heavily was the automotive industry and working with quality control departments and engineering departments. And so I cut my teeth in the manufacturing world in a job that I also really had no training and background. I’m not an engineer. I’m not that.

Adrian Dominguez [00:05:07]:
That’s a long story in and of itself. I was a missionary in South America. Needed to get my wife healthy again, moved to Nashville. This guy says, you want to try this? I’m like, I’m not quite of qualified. He says, it doesn’t matter. I can train you. And that’s how that happened. And so I did that for a couple years, fell in love with manufacturing, really did.

Adrian Dominguez [00:05:23]:
Became kind of a manufacturing statistical geek. I geek out on that stuff, really enjoy it. And in 2009, my family and I moved here and with the purpose of actually getting involved in a ministry, starting a church, and some other things. And I needed a job. And Bob Bidwell was like, hey, I heard you moving to Denver. You know, have you thought about staffing? I’m like, what is staffing? And he started talking, and I was like, wait a minute. Are you picking people up in a van and dropping them off at work? Because if that’s what it is, I don’t know if I want to do that. And of course, his reaction was your reaction.

Adrian Dominguez [00:05:56]:
He laughed. And the more he talked about, I thought, you know, that sounds like something that I’m kind of into. I mean, even as a, as a pastor, like, I like connecting people and helping them. And so it was like, okay, I think I could do that. And this was 2009, though. I started in August. I just celebrated 15 years a couple weeks ago. Started in August, and it was 2009.

Adrian Dominguez [00:06:16]:
And so, of course, that’s during the recession. So I remember about a month and a half into it, I came home one night and long day. I remember that someone had eventually tell me, you can’t stay till seven for the rest of your career. You’ll burn out. You know, that kind of thing. So they push me out of the office, and I go home, and my wife’s like, well, what do you think? She’s like? She could just tell. I was like, in my head, I was like, well, either I made the biggest mistake of my life by joining the staffing industry during a recession, or there’s nowhere to go but up from here. And thankfully, it was the latter, not the former.

Adrian Dominguez [00:06:48]:
And so within about a year and a half or so, our skilled trades division became the largest producing division. And then one opportunity after another came along. And in 2021, I was very fortunate, very blessed. I’ve had Bob as my mentor, was able to purchase a company from Bob. And that whole story is a miracle story as well. We had planned a seven year plan, did it in about four years. And so here we are, trying to figure it all out and continue to grow.

Kortney Harmon [00:07:18]:
I love it. I love your story. It’s truly one of my favorites. And I’ve had that discussion with many people. So thank you for sharing that. Talk to me. Let’s talk brass tacks. Let’s talk tactics.

Kortney Harmon [00:07:29]:
That’s our listeners, our operations leaders, executive leaders, learning how to do what you did and scale and grow and do better in tough times and what that looks like. So obviously, from someone who transitioned from manufacturing into the staffing industry, what unique perspectives do you bring to our industry? And obviously, you said you’re kind of a nerd in that aspect. I love stats and things. Talk to me about how you were able to scale that division as one of the most successful at Rolinc in such a short period of time.

Adrian Dominguez [00:08:01]:
Yeah, there’s a couple of things. Number one, as an outsider, one of the. And this might be why I tend to generally, when we, when it comes to filling internal positions, I tend to lean towards people that don’t even have staffing experience. I think it’s because of, that was my experience. I’m not saying that’s the only way to do it or that there are no good people who have previous experience that should be hired. It’s not like that. But, you know, I didn’t have the we’ve always done it this way mentality. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas of what success would look like for me.

Adrian Dominguez [00:08:34]:
I think a lot of it goes back to having a fresh perspective, looking at it from the end user standpoint. So, like, if you’re used to talking to Bill and quality, you’re used to talking to Janet and the head of engineering or whatever it might be, well, when you’re doing that on a daily basis, you kind of know what their struggles are, you know, where they get stuck. And so when I entered into this, I really didn’t even know how to think from the recruiter‘s perspective. I had to learn that actually, what was more natural for me was the opposite. I’m thinking of like, okay, if I say this or if I do it this way, that would never square with them because they’re not going to come at it that way. They’re coming from a completely different perspective, being in the discipline that they’re in. So I think that was kind of helpful for me. I think that was an extremely positive experience because I wasn’t, I had no preconceived ideas.

Adrian Dominguez [00:09:25]:
It was more about providing something I knew that they needed in a way that would make sense to them because I had been there and I had been very, very, I mean, like, I kind of feel like when people ask me about my stroke, I kind of feel like Forrest Gump sitting on a park bench. Like there I was, you know, like, I just, I look back on it and I got to meet, like, one of the heads of manufacturing, I think, ever forget the title. But for Hyundai, I got to meet with people from, I mean, high ups in the manufacturing side from Honda, from Nissan, because in Tennessee, Nashville, you’ve got Toyota plants, three of them in Kentucky up there, and you got the motorcycle plant in Ohio for Honda. Then you got the Honda minivan plant in Alabama and Hyundai in Alabama. So I really was able to just get immersed in that world and that, even though I didn’t know recruiting, staffing, it really was a help. I think that’s one thing. The other thing is, and I just posted about this on LinkedIn today, I was talking to a young man last week, and he goes, I just feel stuck. And I don’t know what my problem is.

Adrian Dominguez [00:10:23]:
And I, you know, I want to take this step, but I can’t, blah, blah, blah, and won’t go into his whole story. But I said, look, man, I said, the moment you wake up and you decide to elevate yourself out of the bed, you are taking risks. Like life is about taking risks. And so now there are some risks that you’ll learn some valuable lessons from, and you’ll go, oh, I’ll never do that again. But I think that is also something that I would say to any business owner, be willing to allow your people to try things. Now, if you know something is a complete dumpster fire and it’s not going to be good for them, I’m not saying, yeah, jump into that. But there’s some things that you have to go, you know, I haven’t done that before, but let’s give that a shot. And I think having leaders here, that allowed me to be able to do that.

Adrian Dominguez [00:11:09]:
That was huge. Being able to, they had never really done, like a national account for a manufacturer. And so within about nine to twelve months, somewhere in there, I forget exactly how long I landed one. And it was like, okay, we’re going to need you in Hagerstown, Maryland. We’re going to need your help in Boston, Massachusetts, and we’re going to need your help. And of course, there’s some complexity to that. Right? And they went out of their way to do everything they could to allow me to spread my wings and to manage that. And this is before the age of Zoom and all that.

Adrian Dominguez [00:11:44]:
I mean, there was, there was webex and all that, but that just wasn’t something that people were using. And so it was, hey, I gotta fly over here to meet this person and go. They were very supportive. And I would say, you know, the coming at it from the perspective of the end user, number one, and being willing to take risks, those are two of the main things from a 30,000 foot view that really stick out in my mind.

Kortney Harmon [00:12:06]:
I love that. And you’re right. Even from training thousands of people, it’s like, well, we’ve always done it this way. So I love that you were able to come at that differently, to be like, well, how can we be creative in our industry and industries, across staffing and recruiting, we’re having to do things differently. Whether it’s because of AI, whether it’s because of processes, the candidate experience is different, how we’re working with clients, we’re having to shift. The fundamentals are still the same, the foundations are still the same, but we’re having to shift. So I love that. And I love that you give your teams the autonomy and the flexibility to do that.

Kortney Harmon [00:12:42]:
That’s going to lead me to my next question, honestly. Let’s go manufacturing. A, I’m going to ask something that’s maybe not on my list of questions I gave you. How’s manufacturing overall doing? And b, how are you identifying and capitalizing on skills, trade in, manufacturing in that niche now? And when you first joined, like, how is that different? What are you doing differently? What are you finding success in? Because in today’s economy, let’s face it, things are a little rough.

Adrian Dominguez [00:13:11]:
Yes, absolutely. So a couple of things I had looked about two months ago, and I wish I could, I wish I’d had the data for you right now. I don’t remember the exact, you know, like, where manufacturing is at as far as the index goes, but I will say overall, the last, I don’t know, 15 ish plus months, it’s not been beautiful. It’s been a little bit of a struggle. And so, yeah, manufacturing overall nationally is down, but there are certain pockets within manufacturing that are actually doing very well. I think one of the big things that we have seen in the last 18 months or so is because, you know, again, 15 years ago, throw up an ad on Craigslist and wait for all the former engineers to say, hey, I haven’t done machining in a couple years. I did it in college. Give me another chance.

Adrian Dominguez [00:14:02]:
I’ll do it. I’ll take it for $18 an hour. Like, that’s where that was at then compared to where we’re at today. Very, very different world. I think one of the biggest things I would encourage staffing companies to consider is, okay, so if you are, let’s say it’s manufacturing or construction for that matter, we do skill trades in that field as well. If you are going to be a representative of that industry, then in so many words, put your money where your mouth is and be willing to be heavily involved and represented and show up and volunteer at trade associations. Be willing to say, hey, what are the training and vocational programs that we could actually be involved in? Like, where could we volunteer? Where do you guys need help? The biggest thing I’ve gotten from, matter of fact, I can, I’m thinking right now about a local county vocational program, and one of the biggest questions they have is, okay, we love talking to staffing companies. And the reason we love talking to staffing companies is because you guys are on the front lines.

Adrian Dominguez [00:15:03]:
So we don’t always get all the answers we want from the private sector like we’d like to, but you guys are right there, so can you help us out? Like, where’s the gap between, here’s what our program offers and what your clients are actually hiring for right now? Like, what are they hiring for? What are the skills that they need? I think being willing to invest in that is a huge part of whether or not your company is going to be successful going forward. You mentioned something a second ago. The fundamentals are the same, and the fundamentals are the same. The foundation is the same. It’s connecting with people. That is, no matter what goes on, no matter what technology is introduced, it is about people and connecting with them. So how do we do that? Use the term you used earlier to scale our company and to meet the needs of the market. Well, rather than just posting and praying and, yes, advertising and all the other stuff that we’re doing, where can we be involved at the grassroots level? Not only is that a matter of goodwill.

Adrian Dominguez [00:16:03]:
Not only does that speak to what we say we actually believe in, which is the right thing to do, but also you’re going to be at the table with the individuals that are forming these training programs. You’re going to be at the table with, again, I mean, you’re networking, you’re bridging the gap between education and quasi government programs and things like that, grant funded programs and private sector, and you’re there rather than being on the outside looking in, you’re at the table making these connections happen. And so we’ve seen, I think, a lot of benefit from that. And it doesn’t matter what trade you’re in. If you’re not manufacturing, let’s say it’s construction, I’m just going to throw out a name. And this is not necessarily a commercial or anything like that for them, but if you’re in construction and you’re not considering looking at the local chapter of the association of general contractors in your area, then you’re going to be missing out. And it’s not just like, let me sign up and get my name in there. Like, that doesn’t do anything.

Adrian Dominguez [00:17:06]:
There are so many companies that do that. It’s okay. We want to learn what are the issues. We want to be at the table. We want to volunteer, we want to support. There’s a scholarship fund that we’ve been contributing to for years. And whether we get all the notoriety or not right up front, that’s not the most important thing. It’s like for us, people say, hey, we believe in your industry and we want to support it.

Adrian Dominguez [00:17:30]:
That goes a long way. So I would say that those are the things. And of course, Kortney, there’s all kinds of tangents. You can go off from here, from the marketing and business development side of things, but just from a out of the box ish kind of perspective, something that I think means a lot to the end users that you want to talk to. I believe that that’s a huge part of our success in the last 18 months or so.

Kortney Harmon [00:17:52]:
I love that. I love just getting to think differently and being, you know, we all have this discussion, meet them where they are. Yeah, but we say that and then we say, well, we don’t have time to actually go. We’ll just, you know, we’ll donate, we’ll do stuff. Right, but I love the idea of your concept is just show up. So I love that.

Adrian Dominguez [00:18:11]:
Yep.

Kortney Harmon [00:18:12]:
I’m going to talk to leaders in staffing and recruiting. You have kind of gone from grown from division manager to CEO what leadership lessons can you share with other staffing and recruiting executives that maybe were in your shoes before that want to be you when they grow up?

Adrian Dominguez [00:18:30]:
Wow. Well, there’s so many things that come to mind. I mean, I know it’s a term that. That is used, and you read it in books and hear it in podcasts and things like that. But I would challenge anyone that is in leadership or wants to be in leadership. Look back at your career, look back at your life, and look at the people that made you want to get out of bed in the morning, the people that inspired you to be better. And what do they have in common? And one of the common threads is, again, it’s a term we use a lot, but they were servant leaders. They were individuals that understood that being a leader doesn’t make it all about me.

Adrian Dominguez [00:19:07]:
Being a leader is supposed to make it about my team. And by elevating them, I elevate our brand. You know, someone asked me. They asked me, kind of in a backdoor situation through a DM on LinkedIn. They said, what? Why do you post about your team as often as you do? And I said, look, it’s not the reason I do it is because I want people to know that. It’s the people on the front lines that make the magic happen. Leaders are supposed to cast a vision. They don’t need to.

Adrian Dominguez [00:19:34]:
If you need to get the credit for everything, don’t become a leader. That’s not what this is about. What this is about is you paving a way for people to become their best. And I think that’s something that I’ve. Intellectually, you know, that. I think you should know that intellectually from spending time in industry and reading books and just being out there and seeing what people are talking about. Okay, this is what this leader says, but then you see it come to life when you’re living it out. You know, the adage of good leaders are quiet when you make mistakes and loud when you are able to succeed.

Adrian Dominguez [00:20:10]:
Like, I think that that kind of mentality as a leader goes a long way. Look, I’ll say it this way for a time. You can motivate people through pressure, through manipulation, and through fear, but it doesn’t last. It doesn’t make people want to stay. So I want to find out, as a staffing leader, okay, how can I invest in your future? How can I make you want to be here? And I would say that kind of goes into another answer, which is, don’t buy into shortcuts, because usually shortcuts aren’t and I think I was sharing with you before we get on. My wife is a fitness and nutrition instructor, and she’s got certified through, I forget, NASM for a company called Les Mills. Anyway, she’s doing all this stuff, and I can’t tell how many times people are like, okay, but how can do this quickly? She’s like, well, you can’t. And you can just see, like, the look on their face, like, well, I’ve tried this and I’ve tried this.

Adrian Dominguez [00:21:09]:
It’s like, you can keep trying all these different things, but really, it’s like, what is going to lead to sustainable success over time? And those are the things that they’re short gains with your people. You don’t always see. I’ll give you one example. I believe that it’s critical for staffing executives and leaders to understand the world that we’re in now. You mentioned this earlier. It’s changed. You have to be willing to invest time, resources, manpower, get your team behind the idea of, hey, we need to not just be, we’re not just recruiters. We’re not just staffing specialists.

Adrian Dominguez [00:21:45]:
We’re brand ambassadors. And that isn’t something that happens on accident. That’s an intentional thing that takes place in the company, from the leaders down, everybody else. And so I think those are the things that you don’t see. Like, okay, I posted this. I was on this podcast. I did this or that, and therefore, we have ten more clients. It doesn’t work that way, but there are huge gains that we have seen.

Adrian Dominguez [00:22:10]:
It’s just not instant. So I would say trying to, as a leader, be a servant leader, understand that’s the right mindset. Secondly, not taking shortcuts and trying to. I think, lastly, the thing that really comes to mind is consistent. Teaching your people and living by example, that it’s consistent action over time that gets the results. Those are things that really stick out of my mind. And then one last thing. One last thing, Kortney, it’s not just, okay, I’ve had this conversation with a lot of leaders.

Adrian Dominguez [00:22:43]:
I invest in this person, and then, like, two years later, they’re gone. Like, what was that all about? I’m like, yeah, yeah, but what did they, what did they do for you in two years? Well, they were a great employee. Okay, well, then what am I missing here? Like, yes, in a dream, in a perfect world, everyone stays forever. But that’s not reality. That wasn’t your course. It’s not my course. Right. So being able to provide a place where people can become their best and you let them know from day one, that’s what I want for you.

Adrian Dominguez [00:23:08]:
I am going to push you. I’m going to challenge you. But it’s because accountability to me is not. I’m lording over you as much as accountability. What it means to me is me caring enough about your future to keep you to what you said you wanted to accomplish. That’s what I’m here to do. So those are some things that come to mind. As a leader in this industry, I love that.

Kortney Harmon [00:23:29]:
What good is because of wisdom. I’m going to switch back to business. It’s less fun. Of course.

Adrian Dominguez [00:23:34]:
Let’s do it.

Kortney Harmon [00:23:35]:
But in the light of our economic shifts, what we’ve seen, what has rolling primary focus been for 2024? You hear the conversations, is sales. The emphasis is candidate retention. The emphasis perhaps business strategy and process planning. And that’s my number one question in part two to that is how has that focus evolved in response to the current market conditions today?

Adrian Dominguez [00:24:00]:
That’s great. Okay, so the answer is, do all of it. Do all of it now. I think I will say one of the, it kind of goes back to the whole shortcut thing I mentioned a second ago. I don’t know there’s any silver bullet. I think it’s everything kind of working in tandem. There are a few things that I can probably highlight, though, that kind of stick out of my mind. This isn’t necessarily the exact answer, but I’m going to lead in with this.

Adrian Dominguez [00:24:23]:
I think you as a leader have to keep a positive mindset in challenging times because if you freak out, that trickles down everybody else and that doesn’t do you any favors. So I think keeping a positive mindset and understanding, like, I’ve had people go, I’ve never seen it like this before. I’ve never seen it this bad. I was here for the last recession, but it was never like this. And there’s different things going on right now. Got companies that traditionally were using, relying wholeheartedly on staffing and recruiting partners, and now they’re going, we beefed up our own internal recruiting department, but at the same time, it’s like any other time in a weird market, there’s still opportunity. So how do we tap into that? Going back to one of the things I mentioned earlier, it has to be done with intention, but you have to develop some kind of approach to a marketing strategy. You cannot just wish that you can get out there and be in front of people or just post memes.

Adrian Dominguez [00:25:16]:
I only know one person that posts gifts and memes and gets away with it. The level that he does is Steve Gibson. He’s outstanding at that. Okay, if you’re not him, don’t do that for all of your career. Right. But for the rest of us, and I just, I’m sure there’s a strategy behind everything he’s doing, but for the rest of us, there really does need to be some kind of strategy and planning and actual thought put into this. Like, okay, what is our brand? What is our, why? What are our values? How do we reciprocate that in everything that we’re talking about? Are we planning on having any kind of approach to a weekly, some kind of consistent or monthly? What are we doing weekly? What are we doing monthly? How many touch points do we have on a weekly basis? These are the things that I think are critical. And for someone that goes, let’s just be honest, the staffing industry is not known for being cutting edge.

Adrian Dominguez [00:26:04]:
It isn’t. All right. We have a hard time adjusting. We have a hard time adapting. And it’s, you know, hey, we’re going to get my Rolodex out and start calling. You know, like, yeah, that’s important. Calling is also important. But how am I going to, in an, in a day and age where we are accustomed to seeing things over and over, images and video content, how am I going to be a part of that? Also, let’s also address this.

Adrian Dominguez [00:26:31]:
We have all been Amazon. All of us have. We’ve all been, whether you realize it or not, like, I can’t believe that. Like, as of less than two years ago, my daughters are like, dad, why don’t you use Doordash? I’m like, what kind of Star Trek crap is that? Like, what do you mean Doordash? You know, like, and so now it’s like, that’s a part of my everyday life. Oh, Doordash it. You know, what do we, we’ve been Doordash. We’ve been Amazon. We are accustomed to clicking buttons and stuff happening.

Adrian Dominguez [00:26:58]:
And so I think that finding a way to remove the traditional friction or challenges, obstacles that our clients are used to in getting what they need from us. How many channels of communication do you have with your clients in regards to the, I mentioned this earlier, the networking side of things, that was a big part of 2024. We went into it this year going, okay, last year we got punched in the gut pretty bad. We weren’t expecting that. We all thought like, oh, man, 22 was awesome. We’re going to carry that through. And it just didn’t really roll in like we thought it would. And so we said, you know what we need to do? We’re looking at the market going, you know what? People are craving human connection.

Adrian Dominguez [00:27:40]:
And so where are we missing out on? Where can we show up? Where can we invest? And so I would say having an actual marketing strategy, like a real, kind of like Pinocchio, maybe a real boy, you know, like be a real company and have a marketing strategy because again, and in staffing, it’s kind of like, well, we know what we’re doing. Like we go, we get orders and we fill. Yeah, that, nothing wrong with that. But to have sustainable growth in the market that we’re in and beyond this, it’s going to take an online presence that maybe you haven’t had before, may even considered before. And of course not just online, but where we networked, where are people, I mean, this year alone, when I look at who our new clients are, vast majority that’s been driven by those two things. Yes, we still believe in picking up the phone and calling, not against it. I don’t think you ever get away from it. I think the old fashioned and tried and true picking up the phone, cold calling, I think it’s great.

Adrian Dominguez [00:28:35]:
That’s how I grew my business in part back, you know, when I started here, I didn’t know any better. That’s all I did. So I’m not against that. But I think if you’re relying exclusively on traditional means and you’re not going, okay, post pandemic, you know, you went basically two years without conferences. You went two years without all these events. What are people wanting? What are people craving? Well, and the more technology that’s used, not against it at all. I think we need to find out how to implement it better in staffing and recruiting. But the more tech that there is, the more buttons there are, the more people go, yeah, but is it human? And they want people, right? So I think coming into this year, that was a big part, was how do we establish a real marketing strategy? And I’ll just do a little plug here for Kelly from thoughtful resound as she listens to this.

Adrian Dominguez [00:29:22]:
I got to throw that in there. She’s helped us out quite a bit. And where are we missing out opportunities in a human connection as relates to networking? And I’m not just saying like, join your chamber. I mean, that’s great if you want to do that, but I mean, look at, look at the places, not just in our industry, like, not just from an incestuous standpoint, but trade associations and places in the community where we can legitimately show up, network with them. Those two things have been extremely critical. They have allowed us to, frankly, with less people. We have a considerable amount less people this year than last year, and yet we are accomplishing more. And so that’s a really, and we did not go out and do massive layoffs or anything like that.

Adrian Dominguez [00:30:08]:
It’s just through attrition and things like that and going, okay, what do we need right now? And I would say that the marketing strategy and having a real life approach to trade association and networking, that has been huge for our businesses here.

Kortney Harmon [00:30:23]:
I love that. And I haven’t just heard that from you. Manufacturing, that is a big conversation across the board right now. So I love that you did talk about technology and is it AI, is it a human? I like to refer it as we look at technology as it’s the easy button, like, it’s the fast way, it’s the fast track. So how do you guys in your office determine and balance the idea from technology adoption with human touch and recruiting? Because you seem to have the human touches where things happen, and I’m a firm believer of that, because sometimes technology can be noise. So how do you balance those two things, technology adoption and human touch and recruiting?

Adrian Dominguez [00:31:05]:
I think that goes back to client experience and candidate experience. Okay. There are things that our clients really don’t care how it’s getting done, as long as it’s getting like, there are things that they don’t even know we’re doing. And if we can automate some of that, we can take some steps out, great. But there are some things that they don’t want to get an automated email for. There are some things that they really genuinely need to know. Adrian’s behind this, Alexis is behind this, Josh behind this, Mindy’s behind. They need to see that if they are experiencing anything that leads them to think that we are, for lack of a better term, I call it out of sourcing instead of outsourcing, but out of sourcing something that really should be a little bit more closely managed with human touch, then I think that would be where you cross the line.

Adrian Dominguez [00:31:53]:
That’s how I see that personally. It all goes back to them. It’s really not about me. It’s not about even, frankly, when it comes to the experience. It’s how can I make their life better, how can I make my candidates lives better? Where the magic happens, I believe, is what can I take out of my recruiters hands that will allow them to do their job better so they can connect with more people because what does that do? That makes them happy. That makes my client happy because they’re getting the results. Usually that makes the, the job seeker happy as well because the process is happening quicker. I was just on the smart idea summit with Haley and I think the, I just blanked on her name.

Adrian Dominguez [00:32:33]:
I feel terrible about this. The CEO Coo for Haley marketing mentioned, and it’s something I’ve heard from a number of people over there and it kind of sticks out my mind. Speed is the new currency, so, and again, that’s, you know, we’ve been Amazon, we’ve been doordashed. How do I get quality? And I think the old saying is that you can have cheap quality and quick, but you can’t have all three at once. Try to get, you know, two out of three or whatever. But I think our clients will. And this actually does touch on something else in the market I should mention as well. But I think if they can see that theyre getting quality and theyre getting it quickly and were using technology to make that happen, everyones happy as long as they still feel they can connect and engage with us.

Adrian Dominguez [00:33:14]:
The other thing I was going to mention, Kortney, is theres a huge, huge trend right now because the market is challenging to just go, okay, well, so staffing corpath down the road, what was the name of that company in office space, whatever that is, that’s all that comes my staffing corp. Yeah. So down the road they’re going to offer me this service at, you know, I don’t know, 35% or whatever it might be. This markup. My answer and our answer generally, not because we’re staffing snobs, not because, you know, that’s beneath us, but because we know what our value is, is, okay, hey, best wishes. We do wish you the best. We will be here if we can be here for you in the future. And I would say like 75% plus of companies that have tried that, they found out, like, it’s not what we thought, you know.

Adrian Dominguez [00:34:01]:
And so I think one of the things I would encourage staffing companies to do is don’t do the knee jerk reaction because it’s very common in this market is, okay, they’re cheaper. I’ll be cheaper, too. Usually my first question when they, whenever I approach a client, they go, well, staffing corp can do it, 35. And I’ll ask them, well, how’s that going? How do you get what you need? Because if you are the nice way, why are we talking right now? Yeah. Anyway, sorry, that was on my mind. Just had to get that out there.

Kortney Harmon [00:34:28]:
No, I love that. And that’s a great, you know, we oftentimes just think of our value as our price, and that’s not the value. Also, when you have the consultative relationship, your value is tenfold. And how, it depends how you’re interacting with your candidates and clients. So I love that you mentioned trends. So I’m going to pick your brain. Speaker of the House for Colorado Staffing association. What? Industry wide challenges.

Kortney Harmon [00:34:53]:
And when I say industry wide, I’m thinking staffing and recruiting in general. Are you currently seeing addressing having me conversations with, with the color staffing association?

Adrian Dominguez [00:35:02]:
Yep. So some of them are unique to Colorado. Okay. And I’ll get those out of the way up front. The last few sessions, maybe not so much this last one, but the prior two or three before we’ve had some big ins come our way. So legislative. I’m talking about legislative. Excuse me, on the legislative side.

Adrian Dominguez [00:35:23]:
That’s been a huge focus of our association because there have been changes that affect, and if you’re outside of Colorado, I’m not going to give you a bunch of names of things, but basically programs that, wherein you are, there’s paid sick leave for staffing temp employees. I want to say this and make sure I’m very clear when I mention these things. It’s not that we don’t want people to have these things. We clearly do. It’s just how do we do it in a way that’s sustainable to industry. And so what happened in Colorado is it kind of pitted hiring managers and employers against staffing companies because we came at them saying, hey, we have to pass this cost through like we do with federal income tax and federal unemployment and state unemployment. And some of them really were like, yeah, we get it, but not all of them. And so there’s that friction that came into play.

Adrian Dominguez [00:36:11]:
So I think when that’s one of the particular programs, there’s several other things. But when that happened, I think a lot of companies in our industry here in Colorado were like, whoa, we better start paying attention to what’s going on legislatively. And part of the, there was another big thing that happened in the medical industry, primarily with like CNA type care and things like that, but not exclusively. And it has affected our industry to the point where I’ve seen a couple of companies in the medical space kind of just go away. They’re just saying, we don’t want to do this anymore. So what happened is it kind of woke everybody up and we realized, hey, we can’t expect people who’ve never been in our industry to understand what we do. Good night. Like, I try to tell people that I’ve known for years what I do.

Adrian Dominguez [00:36:55]:
Like, I have people in my church, like, what is it that you do? You know? Like, and I tell them that he’s like, oh, okay, all right. So you pick people up in a van and take them to work. I’m like, no, I don’t do that. You know, and so that if they don’t understand, the legislators aren’t going to understand either if we don’t show up. So, you know, that was a big focus for CSA this year. We had our first, like, hey, let’s meet at the Capitol. And, you know, we shook hands and set up meetings and coffee dates with our legislators and try to explain, here’s what we actually do. We’re not the boogeyman.

Adrian Dominguez [00:37:23]:
We’re not here to hurt. We’re here to connect. We’re here to make it better. So that’s one, I think that’s a challenge. And I don’t think that’s going to be exclusively Colorado. There’s other states that are battling similar situations. Then I think I would say outside of that, there’s just one of the things I just mentioned, which is just, let’s see how far down the, if you, in a tough market like this, if you try to win your battle by going down on price, there’s always going to be someone lower than you. So you have to find out what value can you bring? And let’s face it, you can’t bring top value to every client.

Adrian Dominguez [00:37:57]:
Some clients, yours not going to be a match for them. Some of them will never perceive the value. And that’s usually a partner you don’t want to work with. You know, I look at it this way, next summer will be 25 years been married. And pray for my wife. She’s a good woman. Pray for her, please. But come home with ideas.

Adrian Dominguez [00:38:13]:
Just like, no more ideas, stop with the ideas. But in that 25 years, I can tell you this is not how it started. It did not start with me getting down on one knee and her going, well, the ring I got last week was bigger. Like, that’s not how that would have worked. I wouldn’t work well, right? And I could have flipped around and done it in my direction. That’s not how you build a partnership. So I would say in this market, and this is really hard to hear for some of my colleagues, be willing to let go of companies that are not really in a partnership with you, it’s okay. And I know it sounds just like, no, no, we have to hold on to it.

Adrian Dominguez [00:38:48]:
That’s it. We have to. This is bad. Things are bad. It’s tight right now. We have to hold. And it’s like, look, you could take that same amount of time and receive a tenfold benefit, not just for yourself, but for the company you’re serving, if you’re willing to let them go. And understand there are companies who really do want real partnerships.

Adrian Dominguez [00:39:07]:
And so I think the challenges we’re facing are legislative. They are the typical things happen in a downturn economy. Can you go cheaper? Can you go lower? And I think, of course, there’s, and I mentioned this earlier, too, there’s the reality that a lot of companies have built their internal recruiting departments up from where they were three, four, five years ago, some of them significant fashion. And the tendency is for us to go, well, they’re doing their thing and so good. You know, whatever our approach is, hey, look, at some point there’s going to be a time when you guys are collectively going, scratching your heads, going, we can’t figure this role out or these roles out. And, you know, in the meantime, I’m going to drop some coffee off. We’re going to chat. We’re going to talk.

Adrian Dominguez [00:39:50]:
We’re going to stay connected, because at some point, and I can tell you just this last week, there’s a client I’m thinking of who shall remain unnamed, who said, hey, it’s been a while, a while. It’s been like 15 months or so. But in that 15 months, I’ve sat down and taken this person to a great cuban place here. Locally, cuban food is amazing, by the way. We’ve talked and we had coffee and, hey, what are your issues? And even if they were not ones that were, how can I take an order from you? It was, hey, what are you struggling with? Even if it’s like, hey, I had one client that said, well, we really can’t use anyone right now. No, I’m not reaching out for that. What are you struggling with? Well, I’ve got to provide an analysis. And my CEO is telling me we can’t pay more for this role.

Adrian Dominguez [00:40:34]:
But I’m trying to tell them, I said, how about this? How about instead of you taking anecdotal stuff from indeed and this, that, how about you let me send you, and I’ll redact the names of the companies and all that stuff, but I’ll send you real data so you can show within the industry here’s the pay rates that are being offered for this role. Take that. Use it. Let me know how it goes. And sure enough, they got, well. Those are the relationships that you’re building. You’re building trust, and they will need help at some point, whether that’s a year down the road or five years down the road. Just staying in touch with them goes a long way.

Adrian Dominguez [00:41:06]:
And being willing to provide something and not expect something right away, I think that’s one of the keys in this market. Stay connected, continue to branch out, continue. You can’t sit down and go, they’re going to come back someday. They’re going to come back. It’s like, it’s like all the eighties and nineties movies for the kid, the nerdy kid waiting for the prom date to show up. Like, we can’t be that person, right? We have to be actively going out at the same time. I don’t think there’s any harm in a company where it was a really good partnership, but they just, their hands are tied. They’ve been told they can’t use you.

Adrian Dominguez [00:41:37]:
Communicate with them, find out where they’re struggling, and meet those needs. Even though you may not read the results right now. They will come. They will come.

Kortney Harmon [00:41:44]:
You mentioned something, and I like thinking through this. I’m thinking in my mind, short term placements, long term client. So how do you balance the short term placement goal with your long term client and candidate relationships? Because there’s two different lines of sight there, correct?

Adrian Dominguez [00:42:01]:
100%, I think. Again, and this is the challenge for not just the industry, this is the challenge for human beings. There’s an ancient proverb that says a false balance is an abomination. So, like, when something is out askew, and I set the scales myself, and I go, okay, if I just do this, then I can get this outcome that I want. Well, again, I said earlier, there’s no silver bullet. I think it’s really just a mix, and it truly is a matter of, I’ve got to keep my frontline recruiters mindful that, hey, we need to focus on the things that we can fill. Now, speed is a new currency. Continue to network on a consistent basis, even when you don’t have the order, because the order is coming and you want to be the first one to provide the people.

Adrian Dominguez [00:42:46]:
There’s that aspect with, okay, I’m also talking to my account managers. I’m talking to my branch managers. If you’re in staffing, I’m making sure that I’m empowering them. I’m giving them a budget. I’m giving them the resources necessary. I’m encouraging them to go and hey, take it two visits a week and find someone that maybe they don’t have a job order with you right now. Maybe they can’t even give you one right now. But stay in touch with them.

Adrian Dominguez [00:43:11]:
Do something to stay in touch with them. Send them some cookies. Hey, can I get you lunch? I know you’ve been really stressed out with this project. It’s open enrollment. You haven’t slept for four days. Can I buy you lunch? Be human. Right? So there’s. The answer is not to sound vague, but it’s both.

Adrian Dominguez [00:43:26]:
You cannot not fill the quick stuff. It has to be done. But you also can ignore what’s going to come to fruition in 18 months. I think both of them being met right now is possible. It’s just a matter of keeping both a priority.

Kortney Harmon [00:43:39]:
Yeah, I love that. So looking future wise, like, what role do you see staffing and recruiting firms playing and addressing? Talk specifically skill gap industries like manufacturing and construction. What do you see those staffing firms playing in the future?

Adrian Dominguez [00:43:55]:
Well, a couple things to consider. We are, and this is not like Adrian’s opinion, I’ve been reading up on this quite a bit lately. We don’t have, as a society, we don’t have as many children as we used to say, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago. And we’re living longer, so there’s more services that are being needed for more people. This just general number stuff, right? There’s more services that are being needed to be rendered more people, and there’s not enough people to do it. So it’s not even just a skills gap. It’s literally like a birth rate gap, is what I heard one of the professionals recently speak on. And let me just say my, I’m not saying this to encourage everybody to go out and have lots of children right now.

Adrian Dominguez [00:44:35]:
That’s not my point. I’m just telling you the reality is, here are the numbers, all right? And so because of that, and because of, again, the skills gap, I think that we are going to be in the long run. And who knows what next year has in store. You know, everyone’s got their prognosticator caps on. But I think in the long run, our industry is poised for growth. I really do. But I also believe the way that we understood it to be and the way that it was even just two years ago, 24 months, 36 months ago, will not be the same. I don’t think it’s just going to be people calling you with a plethora of job orders.

Adrian Dominguez [00:45:14]:
I think. I think everything has changed socially. You’re talking about our culture shift. With new generation of work coming into the workforce, there’s a higher demand. Like, I don’t know about you, but I remember going to McDonald’s as a kid. I’m dating myself here in the eighties and having birthday parties there. Like, McDonald’s was high class, man, right now, and you go to a lot of restaurants and trash is overflowing. Like, bathrooms are dirty.

Adrian Dominguez [00:45:44]:
And it’s like, what’s going on today is going on. There’s just, there’s not. These businesses can’t operate at the same level with the same amount of staff as they used to and be profitable. So they’re trying to maneuver through all that. You go, well, how does that anything do with our industry? Well, what you’re seeing out there is what we’re seeing in here just in different ways. So I think I, that one of the things that we have to do is, in regards to the going back to the skills gap, be cognizant of the fact that, yes, they’re going to need more of our assistance. But going back to some of those mentioned earlier, if we’re not at the table, if we’re not speaking to that, if we’re not invested in that, it’s not that we can’t be, we won’t still be around, but we won’t be leading. If you want to lead in the industry, I think that’s super critical.

Adrian Dominguez [00:46:29]:
I do think our entry will be in high demand. But again, going back to what I said, I don’t think it will be as we understand it as the norm maybe three years ago or four or five years ago, I think it’s going to be so much more about brand representation and showing up and being a real value added partner versus, hey, I do staffing, I can get you people work with me. And it’s not going to be the same market. But I don’t see that our industry goes away or that the need for staffing goes away. It will be different, but not, I mean, again, there’s no way for me to rationalize the idea that there’s less people for more work and yet the industry’s going to go away. I do think companies that are unwilling to adapt and unwilling to put together, you know, marketing strategy and put together a way of finding themselves connected and online more frequently, more consistently, the companies are unwilling to think, okay, how can I adapt to my clients needs right now versus three years ago? If you’re not willing to adapt, yeah, you’ll struggle, but the need for the industry is not going to go away. And the more regulatory compliance that is put on employers as a whole, and it just seems like with every passing year, we’re seeing more of it. More and more, I think they’re going to need.

Adrian Dominguez [00:47:45]:
And that’s why Europe’s staffing force, I believe, if I’m not mistaken, is actually a higher percentage of usage in Europe than it is in the United States because of the regulatory compliance. So the more that you see that here, and I don’t see that shifting the other direction in the next 20 years, I think the more demand there’s going to be for our services as well.

Kortney Harmon [00:48:05]:
I love it. I have two more questions and then I’ll let you go.

Adrian Dominguez [00:48:07]:
Yeah.

Kortney Harmon [00:48:08]:
I want you to take a look internally. So we just talked externally about clients who we’re working with, but look at your own internal staff. What key performance indicators do you find the most valuable in measuring the success of your staffing firm? We oftentimes get on this KPI hamster wheel, like, how many calls are you making? What are you doing? How do you measure that? What performance indicators do you find most impactful for your team?

Adrian Dominguez [00:48:33]:
Well, I’ll give you a couple thoughts here. One is one that it’s been more subjective, but it’s about to be very objective for us internally, has to do with someday that we just havent done a good job of capturing. But theres a correlation with time to fill. So I think that, I mean, the ultimate metric at the end of the day is whos producing and what are the gross margin dollars. Like that bottom line. Right. Really, though, its not enough for you just to look at that and go, wow, thats awesome. The real question is why? And just like the Simon Sinek book that it starts with why.

Adrian Dominguez [00:49:08]:
If you peel the onion and go back like, okay, why is that person so successful? What’s the common thread between this staffing specialist and this search recruiter? Why are they winning this quarter when so much of the industry is down? Like, what did they do different? And I would say that, yes, there’s some things that really, I think are not going to change. Yeah, you could, you could look at the number of phone calls. That’s always important, you know, but let’s also look at, okay, if we’re going to go down that road, let’s be honest, some people, I know some people internally, they don’t make us make calls, but they sure know how to connect with people online. So like, okay, are we measuring that? Are we measuring accurately? Time to fill, because again, if speed is a new currency, the best recruiters are not going to be the ones that are taking the longest to get the orders filled. Clearly. I would also say, and this is, want to be mindful of how I present this, there’s a lot online and I be real careful. I present this about working in toxic environments where, you know, the boss is like, you gotta be here at seven, you can’t leave till seven. And nobody wants to be in an environment like that.

Adrian Dominguez [00:50:18]:
However, I will also say the people that come to mind that have been the most successful, they find the way to get the most out of their day. I think 8 hours is a long freaking time to be doing anything. So if you’re gonna be doing something for 8 hours, man, get the most out of it. So one of the things that I have found, one of the metrics, and it’s kind of an unseen metric or maybe an unmeasured metric by many companies is, okay, well, like, walk me through your day, let’s walk through it. And when you do that, I think one of the things that really should be looked at is how distracted are we allowing our people to be? Now, I’m not saying you can’t have your phone, that’s actually not the moral of the story here. Please don’t read it that way. It’s how many tasks are we giving them in one day? And this is where the automation comes in. This is where being able to look at, okay, what do I want them, where are they going to be successful? Well, they’re not going to be successful by data.

Adrian Dominguez [00:51:14]:
Data entry is not going to be what wins them the staffing game. But that has traditionally been a part of it. Right. Okay, you know, sending confirmation messages for people’s appointments, that’s not going to win them. I mean, do they need to do that? Does that need to be done? Yes. So what can I, what can I get off their plate? Plate. And that’s a metric that maybe, you know, we’re always looking at how many phone calls and how many emails and how many, why don’t we as leaders look at how many tasks am I giving them to do that aren’t related to them producing anything at the end of the day? Like, yeah, it has to be done, but, but where are they going to shine? Do we, I didn’t hire a recruiter for data entry. Like, that’s not what I hired them for yet.

Adrian Dominguez [00:51:52]:
That is traditionally been, and I think that’s one of the things that, it’s a weird way, maybe, of looking at metrics, but it’s maybe more of our own metrics as leaders. Like, what am I giving? How many tasks am I expecting them to fill? That I can modify, that I can change, that I can automate and make their lives better and see higher production, higher yield. But traditionally, phone calls, emails, I think not. So traditionally, how many connects are you making on LinkedIn? For some of our staff, we sat down with and go, okay, everyone’s unique here. I’ve got some people that much rather just hunt on the phone. Okay. I have some people that say I’ve seen more success with what I’m looking for through this route. Okay, then we’ll measure that.

Adrian Dominguez [00:52:32]:
We’ll see. But at least we’re going to measure it that way. We know versus. I just feel. I just feel that this is better for me. Okay, great. Well, we’ll measure that and we’ll see how we all feel about that. We measure it.

Adrian Dominguez [00:52:43]:
So I don’t know if that answers your question or not.

Kortney Harmon [00:52:45]:
No, it does. I love. I love that people don’t always have to have phone time. Like, when Covid hit and I was coaching, one of the most impactful things that people were getting new business with was sending a LinkedIn video message because it was on their phone, the app was on their phone to these hiring managers. And, I mean, I’m hearing people today say, did you know you could send a LinkedIn video? I’m like, yep, I’ve been talking about that for about four years now. I’m glad you’re a part of the game. Yes. All your people should be doing that.

Kortney Harmon [00:53:15]:
And you’re right, not everybody functions that way. So I love that they have the diversity to do so. I’m not a number of connections. I want to know your connection time. In my career, I’ve had a lot of people that are, like, calling the Santa Claus hotline or the White House who boost their time on the phone, but their connections aren’t impactful. So.

Adrian Dominguez [00:53:35]:
Right.

Kortney Harmon [00:53:36]:
I love, this is one of my favorite questions, but I love that you said, how many tasks are we giving them? It’s not just like, what can we take off our plate? That’s where AI. And it comes down to our process and what we’re encouraging our people to do and what we of our people. So that’s a good self reflection of us as leaders, 100%. Last question, and I know you don’t have a crystal ball, so please understand that I’m fully aware. Looking ahead. Everybody wants to know ahead. What do you think, Adrienne? What major opportunities disruptions do you foresee the staffing industry have and how can we prepare? I know you don’t have the crystal ball, but give me your thoughts.

Adrian Dominguez [00:54:15]:
Yeah, what are we, 30 some days away from election day? So there’s that. And, you know, I think there’s so much that people put into that. I don’t know that that’s by itself it’s impactful. I’m not saying it’s not, but, but that’s what everybody’s thinking about right now. I think, you know, I would say that there are obviously crises that we overseas and things like that that do have an issue. They do have an impact on supply chain. They do have an impact on, on how we’re able to get out our GDP and things like that. We don’t control all those.

Adrian Dominguez [00:54:45]:
So what I try to do, this is kind of where Adrian lives is okay. What do I control? Because, yeah, I can vote, but I don’t control the outcome of the election and I can pray for peace in the world, but I’m not at the table making those decisions. All these things that I just don’t directly control. So as far as the staffing industry goes, I do think in the long run, as I mentioned earlier, it is, I think it’s actually positive outlook with some outliers. I think that the companies that are willing to adapt, like I said earlier, I think there’s so much opportunity for our industry as a whole where I see some challenges. I believe that we really do need to do a better job as an industry. And I know Asa does a great job with this, but just as local business owners, we’ve gotten so accustomed to, oh, someone else is taking care of this. I really do think this is where the work that CSA has done is so important here locally.

Adrian Dominguez [00:55:38]:
I do think keeping an eye on and being connected with people that are making decisions legislatively, that’s kind of an important thing. And if you’re not involved in that, you really should be because you can’t complain about something that you’re not invested in. You know, when my kids are like, oh, I didn’t want to eat this, I’m like, really? You didn’t want to eat this? You want to eat some dirt? Go get some dirt outside. You know, like, you didn’t buy it. You know, mom made that food for you, that kind of thing. So, you know, you’re not invested in that as it relates to the legislative side, that’s very important. I also believe that in regards to the technology that’s being implemented, technology that’s been not just discovered, but implemented, innovated. On the manufacturing side, specifically, a couple years ago, there was a lot of conversation about what’s going to happen with 3d printing.

Adrian Dominguez [00:56:28]:
There’s been some application for that. On the manufacturing side that’s really revolutionized certain things. But plastic injection molding, everyone thought that would, you know, maybe kick plastic injection. It’s still here. It’s still a huge part of the medical device manufacturing industry. So I believe there are areas where technologically, you’re going to see some shifts, and as a result, that’s going to change how people hire. But I don’t think that we are going to see this huge drop off and a continued downward spiral for the next five years in the staffing industry. I do think we’re going to see as interest rates are being lowered, that’s going to help.

Adrian Dominguez [00:57:06]:
And I think the economy, hopefully we’ll see a resurgence. But regardless of all that, I live in the world of, I can’t control that. So what can I do? Well, I can look at what’s happening right now. I can stay in touch with my clients and I think that staying in touch with them going, okay, where are you actually hurting? What can we do to make it different? You go, well, that’s not all that innovative. Yeah, but not everyone’s doing it. And if you are doing it, then you’ll be ahead of the game and then taking whatever feedback you get and actually being willing to do something with it. I know some people that are chronic, I call them advice getters. They ask everyone in the world for what they should do, and then they don’t do anything with it.

Adrian Dominguez [00:57:41]:
Don’t be that person. As a staffing company, when you sit down with your clients, go, okay, where are the challenges? Where are the obstacles to getting the people? What are you seeing in your industry? I have conversations with my clients that have nothing to do with staffing. Like, where are the challenges in your industry? Because that is so telling about the economy overall. So I think regardless of what takes place in the economy, regardless of what takes place in the election and a lot of other things that I don’t, that I don’t control, what I want to do is I want to provide the best training to my people in 2025. That’s a big focus for us, is we’re investing some more systematic training that we’d like to have for our team. I want to develop my people as best as I can. And I want to look at, okay, what are my clients? Where are the biggest struggles and what can we do to solve them? You go, that’s so simple. Yeah, but that’s literally it.

Adrian Dominguez [00:58:33]:
Whatever disruptions or opportunities may arise, they’re all going to come back to the fact that you know what your clients need because you are a good listener. And who knows? I mean, terrible wars could break out wherever else and affect all kinds of things. But. But again, we don’t control all that. So what do we control? I control how well I train my people. I control how well I invest in my people. I control how communicative I am with my clients, how much time I spend with them, even when they’re not giving me what I want. You know, let’s just face it.

Adrian Dominguez [00:59:04]:
It’s easy for companies to go, I’m not getting the order, so I’m just going somewhere else. You can’t do that. So I think going back to something that’s already been mentioned, staying present and asking the questions, listening, and then doing something with it, and changing processes internally to match what your clients expectations are going forward. Because what they are going forward may not be what they were six months ago, let alone five years ago.

Kortney Harmon [00:59:27]:
I love that. That is such good insight, Adrienne, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to be with me on the podcast today. Thank you so much.

Adrian Dominguez [00:59:36]:
It was awesome. It was a pleasure and honor. Appreciate it, Kortney. Look forward to doing it again sometime in the future.

Kortney Harmon [00:59:40]:
Absolutely. And to our listeners, there you have it. What an insightful conversation with Adrienne. From innovative approach to niche markets, thoughts on the future of our industry. Honestly, Adrienne, you’ve given us a lot to think about. So remember, whether you’re dealing with market disruptions, a differentiating your firm, a marketing strategy, how to build stronger relationships, whether it’s your clients or your candidates. I think moral of the story is be present, be there, and think about how you’re solving that for the future, not how it was done five years ago, because we’re not in the same market. So until next time, keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for staffing and recruiting.

Kortney Harmon [01:00:18]:
Kortney Harmon, signing off the full desk experience. Thanks, guys.

Kortney Harmon [01:00:25]:
I’m Kortney Harmon with Crelate. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Industry Spotlight, a new series from the full Desk experience. New episodes will be dropping monthly. Be sure you’re subscribed. Subscribe to our podcast so you can catch the next industry Spotlight episode and all episodes of the full desk experience here or wherever you listen.