The Noto Group team discussed key workforce and leadership strategies.
In this special episode of How I Hire, Roy is sitting down with Noto Group’s team of executive search consultants. He’s joined by Sara Spirko, Bridget Hope, Tami Bumiller, and Lena Knofler to dig into essential leadership, workforce, and hiring trends that they’re seeing for 2023 and beyond, along with the best ways to navigate them successfully for candidates and companies alike.
Listen to the podcast
HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR CONVERSATION INCLUDE
- What it’s like to be an executive recruiter (5:54)
- What today’s candidates want and need (9:06)
- Key talent strategy trends for 2023 (13:38)
- Leadership qualities executives should have in order to stand out (19:30)
- Factors that will make the difference between success and failure in hiring this year (24:59)
- Developments in executive compensation (29:22)
- What the team is excited about moving forward (31:07)
SHOW TRANSCRIPT – PODCAST WITH Sara Spirko, Bridget Hope, Tami Bumiller, and Lena Knofler.
[00:00:00] Lena Knofler: People are hiring for transformation right now. I’ve seen a bit of, let’s say, a soft skill trend. There’s a lot of strength needed and a lot of intelligence that someone needs to possess in order to empower employees and bring people together.
[00:00:14] Roy Notowitz: Hello and welcome to How I Hire, the podcast that taps directly into the best executive hiring advice and insights. I’m Roy Notowitz, founder and president of Noto Group Executive Search. You can learn more about us at notogroup.com. As a go-to firm for purpose-driven companies, we’ve been lucky to work with some of the world’s most inspiring leaders as they’ve tackled the challenge of building high performance leadership teams.
[00:00:43] Roy Notowitz: Today, we’re doing something a little bit different. I’m sitting down with my incredible team of executive search consultants to discuss key workforce and leadership trends that they’re seeing for 2023 and beyond. I’m joined by Tami Bumiller, Bridget Hope, Lena Knofler, and Sara Spirko. The team will share their predictions for the year ahead, as well as actionable advice for leaders, boards, investors, and CEOs seeking top talent.
[00:01:14] Roy Notowitz: Thank you all for being here. It’s great to have this dialogue and get out of our normal day-to-day activities to, to really think about what’s happening in the market and the future. So thank you, and I’m looking forward to this conversation. Can each of you share a little bit about your career path and how you ultimately ended up at Noto Group? Tami, why don’t you go first?
[00:01:39] Tami Bumiller: Okay. I’m Tami Bumiller, and I have 20 years of experience in hospitality operations, retail human resources, and now agency recruiting. I spent the first 10 years of my career in restaurant operations for independent brands across the United States. I pivoted to retail in 2000 and joined Eddie Bauer. In my final role as the Senior Vice president of HR, I worked with the CEOs on building out leadership teams which is where I met Roy and Noto Group. Roy and his team recruited several key leadership roles for me when I was at Eddie Bauer, and, in 2018, I was ready for a change in my career, and I left Eddie Bauer, took a year off, and then joined forces with Noto Group in 2019. And it’s been an awesome journey for me, a great translation of my HR skill set, and I’m really honored to be part of the team.
[00:02:30] Bridget Walsh Hope: My name is Bridget Hope. I’m an executive recruiter for Noto Group, and I have over 20 years experience with brands within the outdoor sporting goods and fitness lifestyle industries in leadership, in merchandising and category management. And I really think I started my career when I got my MBA, or what I consider my MBA, at Nike in category management. So, spent five years with Nike until I moved to San Diego and took a role as the director of merchandising for Eagle Creek until I moved into the licensing world and managed accessories for brands like Cobra Puma Golf, Puma Hurley, and Skullcandy, and then took some time off to be a mom, which was great, gave me the flexibility to work in consulting and work for some smaller brands until I circled back to Roy in late 2021 and started talking to him about an executive recruiter role. He was my original recruiter with Nike. We kept in touch and I loved watching him build his business, and I was really excited to become part of his team and work with other leaders in the outdoor and fitness worlds, building great talent as an executive recruiter.
[00:03:49] Lena Knofler: Hi, I’m Lena Knofler. I, like many people, fell into recruitment. I started my career working for a family-owned aviation engineering investment company doing accounting and tax work. And, at the time, I was also coaching some sports teams in the area, which inspired me to pivot into more talent and development-oriented work. I did that for a few years with a small local agency in Portland, as well as some in-house work for Providence Healthcare before landing at Noto for the last three and a half years.
[00:04:21] Sara Spirko: My name is Sara Spirko, and I’m the managing director here at Noto Group. I started my career in-house recruiting for two different large consumer products companies. I did that for around seven years before I moved over into the business in marketing, where I spent just over five years doing go-to-market initiatives, leading brand activities for a couple hundred million brands across a couple different categories. The last slice of my career was really more focused on project management in both supply chain and global HR functions, and, over the course of my career, I’ve been fortunate to work with really great consumer products companies like Gibson Guitar Corporation, Mars Incorporated, and Godiva Chocolatier. I’ve also had some experience within the pharmaceutical industry as well. I hold a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University in organizational development, and then I also obtained my Lean Six Sigma certification from Villanova University when I was doing supply chain project management for Godiva.
[00:05:24] Sara Spirko: So how I got involved with Noto Group was I had just moved back home to Portland after about a 20 year detour, and Roy reached out. So I decided to take the call, and I’ve now been at Noto Group for four years.
[00:05:37] Roy Notowitz: One of the things that makes this team so amazing is the combination of business experience along with the talent acquisition or executive recruiting expertise, and a lot of people are interested in what it’s like to be an executive recruiter, so I’m curious to hear from each of you about how you view your role and what makes it fun, challenging, and rewarding.
[00:06:02] Tami Bumiller: For me, first and foremost is our team. I love the different backgrounds that everyone has. I enjoy the scrappiness of our business and our firm, you know, I sat in a corporate environment for 20 years, and so to be able to just shoot from the hip sometimes is really fun and, uh, Different environment from what I’m used to. The other thing that I just really love is geeking out on new clients and learning new business models. It’s great to understand founders — how they think, how they articulate their passion for their business, and then how they make decisions. What makes it challenging for me is customizing our service to the client, which you really have to do if you’re going to do great work because one size never fits all in search work. And then obviously the constant shifting world environment, whether it’s pandemic, whether it’s economy, whether it’s politics, all has impact on a daily basis on our work, and so that is what kind of keeps us on our toes.
[00:07:03] Lena Knofler: I think for me, especially when I started my exploration into a new career path, I was looking for something where I could learn about each function of a business and the entire business holistically, so I feel like recruitment was a bit of a surprise for me, but it really clues you in into how each function in a business intertwines together, and you can really understand how the structure of an organization, if done correctly, really sets up a company for success. I think that was really pivotal for me to learn.
[00:07:38] Bridget Walsh Hope: Yeah, I mean, I get really excited for the candidate and it’s really gratifying when they land the role, and then continuing that relationship with that candidate even after the role is closed and becoming a business partner with them in the future. For instance, today I had a call with a former candidate who’s now leading design for a company, and he wants to know my thoughts on a couple of people that he’d like to put on his team, and I just, I feel like becoming, like I said, a business partner for somebody who’s building and leading a team and a brand is really fun.
[00:08:13] Roy Notowitz: Based on all of your client and candidate interactions over the past year, can you highlight some of the more significant or unexpected or interesting things that you see taking shape in the market?
[00:08:27] Sara Spirko: So coming out of the last three years, we’ve seen candidates shift their priorities on what’s most important to them when they are looking for a new job. People have had a lot more flexibility over these past few years, and that is something that I feel people have had a really hard time thinking about giving up.
[00:08:45] Sara Spirko: One phrase that we are using right now is work/life integration. So, when companies are talking to candidates that work/life integration is becoming the topic. It is probably the first thing that candidates ask about, and it’s something companies need to be cognizant of and be able to pull some sort of work/life integration into their policies and how they’re talking with candidates.
[00:09:06] Roy Notowitz: Let’s talk about that tension, the work life integration, and dig into what a candidate really wants and needs, and what companies can do to attract the right candidates and be a great place to work.
[00:09:20] Lena Knofler: During the last two to three years, I felt like people really started looking inward to figure out what was really important to them and how they wanted to spend their time. I also think that showed up in a lot of different ways, like some people left the workforce altogether, some decided to prioritize family, and a lot of people just decided to move entirely to a different state. So I really think mobility and flexibility became candidates’ number one, competency and evaluation for any opportunity or new position that they were looking at. Secondarily to that, rather than just plugging into any job day-to-day, people really started searching for brands who are making a difference. I think people were really yearning to make an impact in a meaningful way. I also think culture was a huge part of this. A lot of people and companies had a direct eye on how leadership were responding to challenging times, like how leaders were bringing people together remotely, or how they were continuing to engage employees who are going through super unique challenges that they haven’t been through before.
[00:10:25] Lena Knofler: Today, I think I’m starting to see a shift. Candidates still want that flexibility and remote work, but they’re also looking for stability. Things have really changed over the last six to eight months with companies laying off employees and restructuring their teams, so I do think there is a lot of mobile talent out there, but finding the right one and attracting the right talent will still remain the biggest challenge and opportunity for companies.
[00:10:53] Bridget Walsh Hope: I think that we’re consistently seeing flexibility is here to stay with parameters and defined expectations. I do think that having either a four day work week or a hybrid situation, but creating an office where there’s an offsite/onsite feel to make the office more seamless and the setting more comfortable like it was at home, is a really great compromise.
[00:11:16] Tami Bumiller: The expectations of millennials and Gen Z are probably more different than any other generation to date. And one of the things I think is really important with leaders is that mandating policies to these generations around, you know, “We will do this, we will not do that,” is not the way to get to that generation. Being thought partners, making it an inclusive decision, and actually talking about practices and what’s effective and what isn’t effective and the why’s behind the decisions is the way to get to that generation, which then opens up the conversation for their flexibility and how they might meet the employer halfway. So, when hiring the younger generation, I think that’s a really critical piece that is lost on a lot of leaders who, for pre-pandemic purposes, were not even concerned with that because butts-in-seats was the expectation.
[00:12:11] Roy Notowitz: Yeah, that’s a great insight.
[00:12:12] Tami Bumiller: I think one of the things that cannot be ignored right now in going into the future is this idea of mental health and workplace burnout, and companies that lean into it and really give support and try to understand it are the ones that are going to win. The companies that don’t are going to continue to see Great Resignation, quiet quitting, people who just don’t show up and/or will have so much attrition. I think it’s going to take a lot of focus and intention on leadership part to figure out how to resolve it.
[00:12:43] Lena Knofler: Just in response, I think, to this whole trend of flexibility. I also want to acknowledge that there is a large portion of the workforce that never saw a change during Covid. So, what we would consider the “traditional nine to five work,” stayed very consistent through the entirety of Covid for maybe frontline workers or manufacturing environments. I do think it’s important to start to consider equity and how flexibility shows up for their hourly staff, or their frontline staff, or in manufacturing environments, for example, who maybe didn’t see the flexibility during Covid. So I think that will be an interesting trend and change to see how flexibility impacts those types of environments versus impacting the corporate environment, especially for companies who have to support both.
[00:13:36] Roy Notowitz: Yeah, that’s a great call out. Are there any other trends on your radar for 2023?
[00:13:43] Tami Bumiller: For me, there are two important trends for us to call out in this conversation. The first is the movement around justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. You know, over the past three years, the souls of brands have really been tested and judged on a world stage, and, specifically in the outdoor industry, I think leaders and businesses have had to really take a look at their teams and the makeup of diversity or lack thereof. What they found, I think, was pretty shocking. It’s been encouraging to watch the talent market shift with this reckoning. Women, minorities, LGBTQ communities are being lifted up, which is impactful for business and long, long overdue. I believe there’s more work to be done, but we’re starting to see employers open up to the transformation that can happen when leaders acknowledge different lived experiences, different life experiences, and leverage those experiences as they build their workforce.
[00:14:35] Tami Bumiller: So that’s one, and the other one is I don’t think there’s ever been a more important time for companies to really lean into having a talent strategy from hiring, to developing, to integrating, to dealing with diverse experience, I think if you don’t do that right now and your structure isn’t intentional for how you grow, and develop, and nurture talent inside your businesses, you’re going to spend your whole infrastructure and resources on hiring, which gets expensive, and what ends up happening is you spend money and you just turn and burn people. And not having a talent strategy is going to be detrimental, I think, going forward. I don’t think it’s ever been more important. It’s not just like an HR buzzword.
[00:15:18] Sara Spirko: Yeah, and I would add for our own practices at Noto Group, we’ve been very intentional about how we put forth a very diverse candidate slate to all of our clients, And we started with really figuring out what that means for us as a team and how we articulate that back to our clients with how we work. And Tami has to get a lot of credit because she put together a really strong D.E.I. Statement for Noto Group that we can then share with clients. We’ve been able to, I feel like, successfully bring in a more diverse candidate slate to these processes and get individuals hired, and it’s something that I think we’re all really proud of that we’re affecting change where we can from our point of view, since we are, you know, a third party in this. But it’s been a really good focus, and it’s been really rewarding and something that I think more companies can have an impact in these small ways that then turns into this big impact, especially on industries that need a little bit more assistance in that space.
[00:16:13] Roy Notowitz: Great call out. So, what are some creative or effective ways that companies can better compete for talent in light of the competition in the market?
[00:16:22] Lena Knofler: I think, first and foremost, especially when we talk to candidates over the phone and present them with unique opportunities, they’re first looking for a strong brand. Like, how does your brand differentiate itself from the competition, and how can it grow and continue to compete against some of the biggest names in the industry? So I think people are really seeking disruption, innovation, transformation opportunities. Something especially at the executive leadership level where they feel they can really make an impact in those specific areas. More and more, I think people are seeking a strong sense of community and really finding a place they can show up and be heard. So, diversity, equity, inclusion remains at the center point of the conversation, as it should be. We talk a lot here about culture fit versus culture add at Noto Group, and we consult with clients around this idea. More often than not, people are seeking leaders who can fit in with a current culture versus someone who can come in with a different perspective or different lived experience that they could add new elements to an organization. And I think if you’re really trying to attract the right candidates, it’s all about being open to how someone’s style and approach could impact your organization in new ways, rather than ways that are already existing on the team.
[00:17:47] Tami Bumiller: So I think creativity, for me, is less important as engaging in the process, and I think the most important thing right now, particularly with all the talent that’s out in the marketplace, that if you are not fast in your clarity and your decision making, you’ll end up not getting the best talent because the companies that are getting the best talent are the ones that are dialed into their processes.
[00:18:11] Roy Notowitz: Yeah.
[00:18:12] Sara Spirko: Yeah, you know, the candidate experience is really important. It’s simple things, you know, being prepped for the conversation. Have you actually read through the candidate’s background? Do you have questions ready to go? An interview is a human to human interaction, and it’s important for a candidate to feel like they’re being treated as an individual and not just one of many. Once the interviews have happened, you know, having timely, good feedback, keeping the process moving and not keeping a candidate in a holding pattern. One thing that companies can also do is really understand what a candidate needs. Finding and understanding what that person’s life looks like and how you can meet them where they are will be a huge game changer for them accepting the job.
[00:18:57] Tami Bumiller: I think we’re going to see in the complexity that is health and wellness benefits in every company — because they are highly complex — we’re going to see a direction towards more flexibility and it goes back to this workplace integration idea. I think that’s a trend we’re going to see increasing over the next few years for sure, and especially as companies are finding it harder to get people back in the office in a traditional sense.
[00:19:26] Roy Notowitz: Leadership needs have certainly evolved over the past few years. What are you hearing from boards, investors, and CEOs and other top level stakeholders in terms of what they’re looking for in leaders this year?
[00:19:39] Lena Knofler: I think I’ve seen a bit of a shift in terms of hiring managers asking us not only about the hard skills to get the job done, but competencies around emotional intelligence, cultural sensitivity, D.E.I., cultural transformation, and how to communicate around change, and not just growth, but change management and influence. People are hiring for transformation right now. I’ve seen a bit of, let’s say, soft skill trend of how people can show up better as leaders of a total company, and also how people can lead through transformation. And instead of soft skills, I’ve been seeing this phrase called power skills pop up more and more, and I actually really like that. I think there’s a lot of strength needed and a lot of intelligence that someone needs to possess in order to empower employees and bring people together. We’re also placing leaders in positions with younger talent as direct reports, and I think the younger generations are really forcing everyone to have a deeper conversation on how leaders support development, and encourage collaboration, and really be able to lead with empathy. And I do think it’s true that phrase about people quitting their managers and quitting leadership. I think someone’s ability to retain their employees is really heavily weighted on their ability to lead with empathy while also driving against performance metrics to really be able to develop and retain hungry talent.
[00:21:10] Roy Notowitz: Some of these softer skills aren’t things that show up on a LinkedIn profile, so what should companies think about when assessing candidates for their leadership needs?
[00:21:20] Sara Spirko: I think the first step here is really understanding, from the company side, what those soft skills are that are important to the company. So at Noto Group, we do competency-based interviewing where we’re looking at those behaviors. We’re looking at does the candidate have self-awareness? And it takes practice, and it does take a little bit of skill to be able to have a candidate be asked a question in a way where they can prove and show the track record from a soft skills perspective. We can also assess soft skills via different leadership assessments, which we always recommend, especially for senior leaders within an organization. Interviewing is skill. It is a technique. It is something you have to practice, so I recommend finding ways within your organization when you’re about to go through a big interview process for a role, have someone within your organization who can help train people. It just makes the process feel more smooth and natural and it then goes back to providing a really good candidate experience, and you are going to be able to get to the deep things on candidates much faster.
[00:22:22] Lena Knofler: I think leaders who can connect mission, values, and vision throughout their everyday conversations and their everyday development of their employees can really increase how they develop the power skills throughout their team and their organization. I also think there are some standard leadership assessments executives can take to better understand their employees, as well as themselves and how they show up that connects back to leading with empathy. If we better understand how teams operate and how they show up, they can better lead the team and develop for success.
[00:23:03] Tami Bumiller: Something that’s come to the forefront during the pandemic is just grit. Like, what did the pandemic teach you about your leadership? What did the pandemic teach you about your ability to resolve an unwritten roadmap? What did the supply chain apocalypse do to your team, and how did you overcome, and stay afloat, and keep inventory on the shelves? And I think, now more than ever, being a person who can go into business, assess the landscape, figure out who’s going to be in their canoe, and just paddle through whatever comes your way, and come out the other side with results and people still standing, those are going to be the candidates that are going to win for clients. And I think, for me, when I’m talking through the hard skills and the soft skills, grit is something that is hard to define, but you can definitely get into a person’s head a little and figure out if they have it or they don’t through this last three years of leadership experience.
[00:24:06] Roy Notowitz: That’s awesome. Are there other things like that that you’ve picked up on?
[00:24:11] Sara Spirko: I’ve noticed more leaders talk about how they’ve made adjustments for their teams. I think there’s a lot of empathy that leaders have kind of been forced to reckon with, and I really look for that now. If you’ve been leading a team, and you’ve been having to lead a team remotely, onboard individuals remotely, which I’ve heard a lot of stories about how much of an adjustment that was, those are things that I’m looking for because those are people who can see what’s going on and make the adjustment and accommodate to each individual. Every individual situation is different, and hearing leaders talk about how they’ve been able to recognize that is huge.
[00:24:49] Roy Notowitz: Yeah. That connectivity and ability to lead a team that’s remote or hybrid is a really special talent that people are developing these days. Okay. Let’s shift gears just a little bit and talk about what investors, CEOs, and boards need to know about how to get the best results if they’re initiating a search process.
[00:25:11] Sara Spirko: When groups who are making the hiring decision, be it a board, private equity firm, whatever, are more open to looking at a broad range of different types of backgrounds and candidates, they’ll surprise themselves because usually that preconceived notion is someone who is like them, and if you want someone to come in who can bring a new way of thinking that could challenge what you’re doing and maybe see holes that you have in your business plan or operating model. So I think people in those leadership roles that are making hiring decisions, like, be open. Yes, you have standards. Yes, you have certain skills and experiences that you need, but be open to how that shows up.
[00:25:49] Tami Bumiller: I’ve had a couple experiences recently that have been really fun around this topic. So, one, I had a client tell me that it was really hard to do the work upfront in the search that we require in our process, and, given her experience as an HR professional, she was surprised at how much we did upfront to get ready for the search. But, at the end of the search, she said, “Oh my gosh, I had no idea what a difference maker that was. You understood our brand, you understood our clients, you understood our candidates, you understood the business, and, because of that, we ended up with the most perfect candidate that we could, who was actually culture additive, not just culture fit.” And I think that’s where a lot of clients can get tripped up, to add to what Sara said, is a culture fit isn’t always the answer, but what’s important is to know where in your business you need disruptors or culture additive and where in your business it’s okay to have more of a fit and more of like-minded thinking and work, and a balance of those things ultimately leads to the best outcomes in my opinion.
[00:26:58] Lena Knofler: I think one trend I’ve been seeing recently, especially when we talk about small growth brands, is hiring for an executive to fill or fix every gap in your organization. Recognizing absolutely you need to hire for scale, but also recognizing that the talent you bring in can’t solve for every challenge you have in the business. So, which competencies are most important? Which hard skills are most important? And the recognition of people are specialists for a reason and have dedicated their lives and their careers to building a certain set of skill sets that can contribute to your business positively. We can’t find everything in one person, so how do we better define what are those actual gaps that you need to fill, and what are ones that maybe you can hire for in the future, or find talent to support that executive in their next hire?
[00:27:57] Roy Notowitz: That’s a great call out. Bridget Do you have anything else to add?
[00:28:01] Bridget Walsh Hope: I was just thinking, you know, the candidates are selective, right? Because they can be right now in some functions, in some industries, and, because of this, they’re looking for shared or similar values, so the hiring manager is not the only one interviewing. I have seen two leaders make a difference to a completely passive candidate who I reached out to, asked them to interview, they were like, “Sure, okay,” kind of had marginal interest until they met the leader. It was a Senior Vice President in one situation, and a CEO in another, and it was very evident after those calls that they were far more interested. So, I think this ability to, even on the hiring manager side, to be somewhat vulnerable as a leader and know that you’re potentially going to be hiring somebody that wants to follow you, and that is a motivation to take a role as much as compensation sometimes, right? Employees are looking for companies that do the right thing and are known for operationalizing their values.
[00:29:16] Roy Notowitz: You all covered a lot of important trends, and I’d like to talk about compensation a bit more. What developments are you seeing in relation to executive compensation right now?
[00:29:28] Tami Bumiller: Equity for sure is becoming more and more important to higher level executives. The thing that’s important about it for most of our candidates though, is that the equity packages have clarity and are attainable because there’s a lot of equity out there in the world that has never been actioned, and so there is a skeptical group that if you can’t truly explain it, help them understand how they can create value for the company, which then creates value in their equity package, which makes them walk away with X dollars, X multiples, then it isn’t as valuable. So being able to clearly articulate it and arm your HR person, your leader, whoever is going to make the offer, really needs to be educated and schooled in how to articulate the value of that equity from a short-term and a long-term standpoint. And then, the other piece that for me is becoming more and more important, one thing that I mentioned before, which is like sort of creative benefits, but also purpose-driven benefits. So lots of companies now are taking the purpose-driven benefits. All of the components are important, and I think it’s also companies thinking and really getting to know the candidate and what’s going to be important for their life over the next three to five years that will really get them on the hook for the right offer. And they’re going to get people to stay because you’ve leaned in right away to something that’s important to that candidate, and that starts to build that trust that’s so important throughout the employment cycle.
[00:31:00] Roy Notowitz: As a firm, and with all of your great work, we’ve grown over 250% over the last four years. I’m curious, as you envision the future of the firm, what are you most excited about?
[00:31:13] Sara Spirko: You know, it’s been exciting being here for four years. I was the first recruiter out of this batch to join the new Noto, if you will, and we have great people at Noto Group. We’re going to be hiring more people with our growth, and I think it’s just we’ve done a good job of pushing ourselves to stay in the loop of what’s happening out there. What companies are looking for, what candidates are looking for, and challenging ourselves to how we can better assess talent and get to the root of what you know a client may be needing, but having a hard time articulating. And it’s, it’s just, we have fun, you know, we get on podcasts at three o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon, and I think it’s just we’re continuing to challenge ourselves to see how we can grow as a firm and make a really good impact. I mean, that’s what we do at the end of the day, right? We’re hiring people that are going to go into a job that they love, where they can provide for their family, that are then helping a company grow so they can then do great things in the world, and I mean, that’s, that’s a great job to have.
[00:32:12] Roy Notowitz: We’re so lucky that we get to work with such great clients and with so many inspiring leaders.
[00:32:19] Tami Bumiller: I think the most exciting thing, and one thing we haven’t mentioned at all in this podcast, is our pride in being a certified B Corp and the fact that we get to work with so many cool companies who understand that critical balance of people and profits and do it well, and companies that are learning to do it better. And so, for me, it’s really exciting to work with leaders that value that ethos. And also, for me, I just. I love the talent puzzle so much. I love going in, learning a new business, learning a new leader, and really dialing into the best possible person because that outcome is why we’re in business, because then we get to sit back and watch people crush it and see companies thrive and that, for me, is kind of our do-good in the world at Noto Group.
[00:33:05] Roy Notowitz: 100%. Great. What’s the best way for clients, candidates, and friends of the firm to connect and stay informed about what’s happening here at Noto Group?
[00:33:15] Lena Knofler: You can follow us on our LinkedIn page. You can also subscribe to our newsletter that goes out monthly. You can follow us at www.notogroup.com and check out our content as well as all the jobs that we’re actively recruiting for.
[00:33:31] Roy Notowitz: You all are incredible at what you do. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules — I know how busy each of you are — to participate and share your insights. I’m hoping that we can do more episodes like this in the future. I’m sure we will. And I just have to say, I love working with each and every one of you. I feel so lucky to be able to work with such a great team.
[00:33:56] Lena Knofler: Super excited we could do this. Thank you so much for having us.
[00:34:00] Sara Spirko: Thanks, Roy. It’s great to be able to share what we see day in, day out, so hopefully there’s been a tidbit that someone can take away and learn from.
[00:34:07] Bridget Walsh Hope: Yeah. Thanks, Roy. This was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. It’s just so great to be able to reach out and speak directly to the community of people who are interested in building their talent, as well as candidates who are looking for a change. And I’m just glad that we can be a part of that and share our experience.
[00:34:26] Tami Bumiller: Thanks to you, Roy. This was a terrific way for us to share our thoughts on important business trends that impact our work.
[00:34:31] Roy Notowitz: Thanks everyone. Talk to you soon. Thanks for tuning in to How I Hire. Visit howihire.com for more details about our show. You can follow Sara, Bridget, Tami, and Lena on LinkedIn for more of their expertise. How I Hire is created by Noto Group Executive Search. To find out more about Noto Group, visit notogroup.com.[00:34:55] Roy Notowitz: You can subscribe to our newsletter there and check out our blog for more industry trends and career resources. This podcast was produced by AO McClain, LLC. To learn more about their work, visit aomcclain.com.