 Welcome to Connecting Hawaii Business on Think Tech Hawaii. My name is Kathleen Lee, owner of Kathleen Lee Consulting, and I am your host for this program. Think Tech Hawaii is currently live streamed on ThinkTechHawaii.com as well as on Think Tech Hawaii's Facebook and YouTube channel. And for viewers out there who are watching us live, you may send us questions to questions at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Just launching to today's show, I'm excited to introduce the principal owner of Banyan Recruitment, which is, you know, the show's title is Banyan Recruitment, the Business of Executive Recruitment. So we have Charlie Tate, principal owner of Banyan Recruitment, and my friend. So welcome to the show, Charlie. Great to be here, Kathleen. Thanks for having me. Of course. So tell our viewers about yourself. We happen to. Again, my name is Charlie Tate, principal owner of Banyan Recruitment. We are a local executive search firm. I'm sure we'll touch a bit on that as we go through it, but born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, been out here for about nine years, been doing executive recruiting here in Honolulu for about that entire time, about eight and a half, nine years. Yeah, as you mentioned, friend of yours, you know, as far as activities that I do outside of the business, I volunteer for Boys and Girls Club. I started paddling recently and part of the Young Professionals Organization Professional Development Committee. And that is a great network. That's, you know, we did meet through mutual friends through the YP program. So I'm thankful for that. So let's go into your company. How did you, what inspired you to start it with, you know, the individuals that you started it with? Or what was, what was your inspiration? Yeah. You know, good question. You know, one of the things I would say, just in general, I think that the world of recruitment, staffing, executive search, all get kind of bundled into one category. There certainly are a lot of designations and a lot of differences between all three of those, even within each subcategory. I guess my personal story is that I started working for a international firm here when I moved to Honolulu. We work specifically within senior level finance and accounting positions. I had been previously working in a larger market in Chicago. When I moved here, like a lot of people, I think there was a little bit of culture shock. It's a small community, which is truthfully one of the things that I've grown really love about working here, living and working here. I felt like quite honestly, the the tactics that were used were really sweeping and somewhat mainland based. I guess if you could put it that way, you know, I think very much of the people that succeed here, particularly in Honolulu and Hawaii, for that matter, are people that are here for the long haul and try to do not only the right thing that aren't guided by metrics and KPIs and worried about getting fired the next day. So from a base standpoint, I'd say that was a big piece of it. And then, you know, from a tactical standpoint, I felt like it was very much looking around at our competition. I felt there's a lot of catchall type organizations will fill anything from delivery drivers to CFOs. Our goal when we started the business was to be very tactical with it, targeted more quantity or quality over quantity that business. So people shy away from the term headhunters. I don't. I think that's very much what we do. We very selected with the companies we work with, as well as the candidates and try to provide a very tailored experience from start to finish on both parties. And part of that is by limiting your bandwidth and not taking on too much. So Charlie, let's go over that. What are the specific sectors or industries that ban and recruitment targets? Sure. So myself, my business partner kind of grew up in the world of senior level accounting, finance, management, consulting, and then peripherally HR operations. I'd say that that's still an IT. I'd say that that's still really our target demographic primary because I think we're the deepest knowledge base in those areas. We kind of start, I guess you could say admit to senior level positions again, to kind of get back to the difference between maybe staffing companies and executive recruiters. It does have to do with the level of candidates that we work with. So, yeah, quite honestly, in this market, it's been a lot of we started with mainly just financing accounting. We've branched off into different segments based on some of our better clients needs, some of the companies that people seem to want to work for. So we've stretched a bit. We've brought on a few people that specialize in IT. And we somewhat take it on a case by case basis if they've been a great client of ours in the past and they've got a very specific need. We'll we'll give it a crack. We'll give it a shot and come back either with with some options or at least some industry information and what we're seeing in the market. Let's delve into that further. So you service clients as well as candidates. Could you tell us more about your screening process when it comes to the companies you work with, as well as when it comes to the candidates that you help out? Yeah, that's that's a great question. And vetting is a big piece of, I think, what most quality recruiters do. And generally speaking, it's I think it's done on the candidate side of this. That's what the impression is. I think one of the advantages of working in a somewhat smaller market, you can't be time the amount of time that you spend getting to know companies and meeting with people that that share what their experience have been like, working for companies that became clear. The more you work here after nine years, those things can, of course, change. But focusing on clients, you know, I think the big piece is if you see consistent retention issues with organizations, the question inevitably has to be why is it a cultural thing? Is it based on the industry? Is it have nothing to do with the the way that they have things in place? But maybe it's just a high volume or high turnover type of industry. So I think that that plays a big role in the type of, I guess, the long term success that we have, because going into this, putting our name on a candidate that we place with the company, there's an inherent risk. People are irrational at times and you can't really predict. But I think that as a recruiter, as an executive search recruiter, the goal is to minimize that as much as possible, minimize the outside factors. And if you know a company has had a good reputation, they generally do what's right by their people. They compensate fairly to do regular evaluations. Those are things that I think speak to the long term viability and likelihood a candidate will stay from a candidate standpoint. You know, those are based on multiple conversations and somewhat of a gut instinct after doing this for some time. It's a it can be somewhat of a lengthy process, getting to know folks, particularly on the the intake side of things. The first time working with someone, I think sometimes we surprise them at how interested we are in their background in their life and insisting to go out to coffee with them or digging into things that you might not traditionally run into with a recruiter. And the reason for that is twofold. We want to get to know who they are as a person, but we also want to be able to tell their story to our clients so that we're not just forwarding resumes. We're taking an extra step, providing a bit of context in who they are personally, professionally, what's important, them outside of work. Those things all go into a successful partnership. You may have already slightly touched upon this, but what exactly is executive recruitment? What types of positions do you and your company help out with? What type of individuals and professionals approach you for assistance? Sure, that's a good question. Again, it is evolving somewhat as we go. Generally speaking, it's it's it's it's professional services, I guess, and where we specialize, so that that covers a broad range. I think we do take it somewhat case by case. I guess fully transparent. I think one of the easier ways to just distinguish where folks are at and I guess how much level of value you would be able to provide kind of does go by their target compensation range and where they've been at traditionally. You know, we've worked positions at staff, senior all the way up to C level positions, executive level positions, presidents, again, it's kind of case by case. Executive recruiting, I think just to separate it from maybe staffing or your general recruiter is the searches are more targeted. Organizations have a very clear idea on what they're looking for. It's usually a longer sales process, as far as them interviewing, vetting out the candidates. So it kind of goes back to what I said before. It's a bit more quality over quantity, which allows us to, I guess, shape our message and deliver on the promises that we are making as well. Does it cost people, whether clients or candidates, anything, you know, money or a retainer fear, whatever, to use your executive search for? Another solid question, Kathleen, because that does come up a lot, particularly folks that haven't worked with recruiters in the past. The one thing I always tell candidates and always have is the only thing that I ask for you from you, I should say, is transparency and do your best to try to get back to me as quickly as you can. Other than that, there's no fee for our service in the least bit. Looking back to being a small community, you know, referrals and doing right even by our competitors is something that I think helps us sustain as a business. So if I speak with someone and don't feel like our business or our model is really best suited for them, I'm happy to pass them along to anyone or provide any sort of advice or resume suggestions or anything that I can just to make sure that the experience was positive. It's a very simple concept, but it's written over our website. I mean, truly, the golden rule is just doing the right thing. You know, as best you can, obviously. So, yeah, I think that kind of sums it up. I mean, for the most part, it's really try to get back as best you can, be honest, to be upfront with folks, don't try to spend people's tires just for the sake of lighting up a conversation and saying that you did it. I love that everything has to be purposeful. We have a few minutes before we go on break. So could you walk us through the process of your services? Absolutely. So they all start maybe at different stages. We do a lot of proactive recruiting with folks that we just will reach out to and say, hey, if you're ever looking for something, you got a great background, here's what we do. We'd love to have a conversation, pressure free. Other times it starts with clients that are reactively looking to fill a position that they lost somebody. I'll say upfront right now as executive search team, we're not going to be fastest to market. So if you're looking for a CFO tomorrow, we're probably not going to be the best resource for you. And that's by design, ultimately. If you're ready to hire the first warm, blooded person that walks in the door, there's a chance that there there's going to be some would have maybe not the rest, the the right mentality going into the hire. We want it to be a long term partnership. And I think that there's a vetting process on the employer side as well as the employee side. So like I said, to go back to your question, sometimes employers come to us looking for new positions. Hey, we've got this idea. We've got this thought, do you have anybody that fits the mold? From there, you know, we take each position case by case. We'll spend some time either directly targeting folks, sharing some people within our network. Again, everything that we've done to build this business has been purely word of mouth. And in this market, you kind of have to do right by people to do that. At least that's our mentality. So they all started different places. But ultimately, the goal is to facilitate conversations with top tier talent and hopefully top level businesses that that process out, make it as smooth of a process as possible for both the client and the candidate. We help that process all the way through to providing references, background checks and then assisting with the negotiations, which truly, I think is one of the overlooked aspects of both sides really working with recruiters. That's one of the areas that I think there are a lot of times miscommunication. You don't know how high to come in, how low to come in. You don't want to alienate anybody, but you don't want you want to know your value. And that goes for both sides. Our goal is to make that process as transparent as possible, make both parties feel good about, you know, if it's the right fit joining this new organization and bringing this new person on. And again, it's a partnership between both sides. OK, well, thank you for that, Charlie. We are going to go on a short break, but when we return, we'll be asking you more questions about your business as well as some challenges that you may have based within the last couple of years. So we will be right back to connecting Hawaii Business on ThinkTech Hawaii. Our guest today is Charlie Tate, principal owner of Banyan Recruitment. So Charlie, let's pick up from where we left off. You were talking about the process. Oh, I I try not to say did not make it this time. But as far as the last two years have gone, what are some challenges that you and your company have faced, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic? Sure. Sure. I think, you know, every every organization is dealt with this in one way, shape, or form. There's no question about that. There were a lot of, let's be honest, there were a lot of concerns going into it. Particularly with, you know, recruiting can be seen as an ancillary service that not every organization budgets for. I believe that there's a lot of value in it and that's our job to prove that. But when the when people are being laid off and tough decisions were being made, there was some trepidation going into the year. We were very fortunate from a timing standpoint, particularly given the fact that we had several years prior to that to really establish our credibility with with our clients. I think if we had started this business at a different time, that would have been a hack of a lot different. So we're very fortunate from that standpoint. You know, challenges, I think, similar to what a lot of business owners have dealt with. You know, we had just signed a lease on a larger office. We had just hired two new employees in April of 2020. You can't script that any better. You know, for the longest time, we didn't utilize the offices. And we kind of needed to rethink how we train folks and how we communicated on a daily basis, which ultimately has really benefited us now. In particular, as we have offices throughout the mainland and we have employees working in Hilo, Chicago, Austin. So I think that, fortunately for us, our business lends well to being able to work remotely. It challenges, you know, I think those are really the big ones. I mean, ultimately, it was staying present in the minds of clients, even when you want to talk yourself out of it at times and say, you know, who's hiring at this point, the world's put on hold. So it really tested our, I guess, just ability to stay on it and talk to people and have those conversations and say, hey, you know, what's new with you? Not too much. I've been in my house like everybody else for the last three months and not sure what's happening next. But, you know, those conversations have led to multiple placements over the last couple of years, by just being honest, having those chats early on, even when there was so much uncertainty. So, Charlie, what you're saying is that as far as your clients and even the candidates go, the process when it comes to matching up the right professionals with the right companies is fairly long, right? Yeah, you know, does that sound accurate? It depends on your definition of long. I think if you ask your typical staffing organization that's used to getting a job and then pumping people out within the next four, eight hours, which is the business model for most, it is, it is, which is why we're very selective with the positions that we decide to undertake. Because, you know, from a bandwidth standpoint, this kind of goes to more of long-term growth and how that's managed. And so much of what we've done at Banyan is controlling our message. And, you know, I think any organization that's going through a growth stage or has that ability to bring on folks understands how important it is to control that message. It's one thing when it's two principal owners, but it's a different story when you have salaried employees or contract employees working for you. So, I would say, you know, we're very upfront with our clients as far as a timeline. And so if we have a position that we agree to undertake, again, there's no commitment from our clients as far as what we expect to be paid upfront. But what we do, give them as a general timeline and say, look, we're going to allocate time to this and we're going to come back to you in a week or a week and a half. We're going to come back with either what we're seeing in the market, hopefully a short list of candidates for you to choose from. But if for whatever reason, we're not finding people that are either A, interested or fit the requirements or the salary band that's provided, it's our responsibility to educate our clients on that because they don't have a chance to see it. They may be a mile deep in their industry, but it's a unique job market more than ever. It's changing. And I think that that's our commitment to our clients and our candidates is to tell them what we're seeing good, better and different. Can you tell us about some success stories that you've experienced in starting the company? When did you say you guys started 2014? We started then your group in 2017. 2017, okay. Approaching five years. There truly is, I had done multiple other sales in my career. There's nothing more satisfying than truly finding a great fit personality, culturally, technically and just seeing the gratification on particularly a candidate space. I mean, I've seen it on both sides. A position that's been hard to fill, a position that's critical. The level of relief when that person comes on board and they are who they thought they were going to be. The one that jumps to my mind right out of the gates is actually my most recent placement. And it was with an organization that I really think very highly of. They are a nonprofit venture capital firm locally here called Elemental Accelerator and they are committed to long-term sustainability, green energy and they not to go too far into their pitch but a wonderful company led by Don Lippert. I've worked with them a good amount in the past and have really bought into their cause. And most recently they were looking for somebody to kind of be an executive assistant and a shadow and to learn from their CEO and president Don. I was fortunate enough to meet this candidate and after the first conversation I just got the gut feeling I'm like this seems like the type of person that they're gonna love. Which helps getting to know organizations over time. You can't beat that. She started a few weeks ago. I've had many conversations on both sides and both parties are just thrilled. It was a good match. It was a smooth process. When it goes like that there are a few things better than not all like that but that's the first one that comes to mind. I think that's awesome. So a lot of what you do hinges on you being able to read people and going by your gut, right? Yeah, the more that I've done this the more I rely on my gut and the more I tell the people that I work with candidates and clients alike that it's tough to, you can't always measure it. You can't quantify it the same way. But I say if someone's even reluctant to go on an interview but they're like, you know what, I'll check it out. Go with your gut. What is your gut type? Are these people you could work with? Is this an environment? Is this a company that you could see yourself? It's one thing to match the right people on paper the right person or the right job. I think someday a computer could probably do that. And if people are always afraid monster and they're recruited that they would replace your traditional executive recruiter but I think where that doesn't quite work is when it comes to those soft skills and the emotional intelligence and interpersonal and just personality that folks have and getting to know your clients just as well because that plays just as big a role if not more in long-term success. What are some lessons that you have learned as a business owner that you can share with people out there if they would like to start maybe an executive search firm like yours or any business for that matter? I would say control your message. If we're talking specifically this industry I think there's a reason that there are a lot of column boutique recruiting firms that start up because generally speaking there's not a lot of overhead that goes into it. You're not buying a $5,000 Dutch oven or a refrigerator or all these fixed asset costs in a storefront brick and mortar. This is something that can be done remotely and even folks have done on the side. So there's a natural inclination I think to grow as quickly as you can. I think one of the things that's benefited me in my business partner the most really is managing our growth, controlling the process, making sure the folks that we bring on board are bought in completely. They understand what makes us different. The reason that we slow down on certain things. I would say if someone were to consider this I would say have faith in what you're doing and commit 100%. Don't start off as a side gig while you're working your other business. I think if you're gonna do it go into a full course. Be honest with yourself. People can read through you if you're just spouting out a line or reading off a computer. So find your own voice and then control your message to trust you. So not show you that I'm looking at my prompts. I'm kidding. Is there anything else that you would like to add? You know, I think if I could provide maybe some insights is what I'm seeing in this very unique job market now for both clients and candidates. I don't know how much time we have so cut me off if you need to. I get these questions a lot and it comes from every level any sort of industry any type of business. I think clients particularly in this post COVID world are struggling in a lot of areas to keep up. I think particularly in Hawaii. And I think I say that partially because I'm seeing a lot of organizations that used to get applicants at the lower to mid-level position that just aren't there anymore which is forcing them to reconsider their comp structures things that are very difficult to change as a business. So I think as a business owner one of the things that I'm seeing the most successful ones do or maybe if you can't change your entire department's comp structure because that's perhaps millions of dollars adding ancillary benefits particularly if you're telling to the millennial and Gen X or Gen Z or Gen Z generation little things like being open to some sort of a hybrid workforce that's becoming somewhat more of the norm and that's a massive bargaining chip. I think that offering little added incentives like taking a day off a month to volunteer or employee incentive programs where they help pay for your gym things that maybe will affect your bottom line and you're investing in employees but not only does that help you get them over the line but that helps with retention just far more expensive as a business owner replace an employee to bring on, then to bring on a new one. With that as an employer still I would say speed is very important because there's a smaller group of candidates out there businesses aren't able to sit on their hands for three weeks as they mull through 15 different applicants or even three different applicants I'm seeing more and more candidates just with more options part of that is mainland companies open to hybrid work so I think speed to market is important that doesn't mean you can't go through all check your boxes and vet them out as best you can but I think speed to market is important flipping over to the candidate side I think speed to market ironically enough is important as well. If you apply to a company and you're interested you have to respond relatively quickly and you have to be willing to move through the process somewhat at their speed which can be daunting to some people because it is a very important decision but that kind of leads into the final thing and that's something that I see with a lot of folks I would say you and I are age demographic millennials is it's really easy to hop and to say look this is hard this isn't what I expected this I'm not seeing the opportunities or I'm not getting evaluated the way that I thought my advice would be to stick it out as long as you can employers don't love to see job hopping there's always a reason behind it there's always a story you can tell that story as best you can but do your best to work through it try every avenue of making it work in your current employer before you feel like you have to jump ship and go somewhere. Great words of advice Charlie we have about less than a minute left let's pull up your website if people would like to get a hold of you to learn more about your company or you where do they go to? You can go to banyanrecruitment.com we have a subscribe button our emails are on there please feel free to dig around my contact directly is on the bottom there as well but charlieatbanyanrecruitment.com would love to hear from anyone interested. Thank you again, Charlie Tate principal owner of Banyan Recruitment for being on the show today really appreciate you and thank you to Jay Fidel and the entire staff at Think Tech Hawaii as well for making shows like this possible today we had Michael and Haley helping us out until next time Aloha Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com Mahalo