Leveraging Recruitment To Grow Business Ft. Dan Valavanis & Oliver Comstock

About the Guest(s):

Dan Valavanis is an accomplished professional with over a decade of experience in building strategies within recruitment advertising. Prior to his current role, Dan worked at Indeed, where he spearheaded the creation of Indeed's RPO vertical, showcasing his expertise in solving high-volume hiring challenges. As the Executive Vice President and Head of Sales for Bayard, a prestigious full-service recruitment advertising agency nearing its centennial, Dan is passionate about crafting innovative solutions that impact clients' hiring goals.

Oliver Comstock holds the position of Vice President of Business Development at Bayard. He brings to the table over twelve years of experience in enterprise problem-solving, combining energy and creativity in every role he undertakes. A self-described empath, Oliver’s approach is all about understanding client problems genuinely and mobilizing resources to offer tailor-made solutions. An art enthusiast, particularly in pottery, Oliver also takes pride in being a proactive father to his three children.

Episode Summary:

In this insightful episode of "Growing Your Business with People," host Jeff Lackey invites the expertise of Dan Valavanis and Oliver Comstock from Bayard to unveil the secrets behind effective recruitment and leveraging human capital to scale business growth. Given Bayard's impending 100-year anniversary, the conversation holds valuable lessons from seasoned veterans in the industry.

The dialogue traverses through recruitment intricacies, focusing on brand positioning to attract promising candidates, refining company processes to enhance the applicant experience, and the interconnection between employee satisfaction and customer contentment. This episode dispels the myths of recruitment and presents it as a sophisticated intersection of human engagement and strategic advertising.

Key Takeaways:

The crucial role of a swift and humane recruitment process in retaining high-intent job seekers and impacting customer experience positively.

The application of cutting-edge technologies like programmatic hiring, Google's advertising tools, and social media remarketing in modern recruitment strategies.

Real-world examples demonstrating the effectiveness of having well-defined recruiter toolkits, metrics, and processes in hiring success.

The potential bottom-line benefits of optimizing recruitment processes, showcasing significant savings and the doubling of hiring rates for major companies.

A prompt to CEOs to evaluate and improve their company's candidate experience, ensuring that it reflects brand values authentically and resonates with job seekers.

Notable Quotes:

"We have full measurement… everything is fully measurable and they can look at it daily. It's real-time." - Dan Valavanis

"Those are people, those are applicants who are looking for meaningful work." - Dan Valavanis

"Try and apply for a job… Are you making the most of the process?" - Oliver Comstock

"All these things are all intertwined… providing a good employee experience, you're going to convert that candidate." - Dan Valavanis

"People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Jeff Lackey

Resources:

During the conversation, several resources were mentioned, including Paradox AI and Seven Step, noted for their advanced AI assistant and workforce solutions, respectively. Additionally, LinkedIn was mentioned as a professional networking resource. The guests also mentioned Bayard's official website, which is Bayard Ad, where more information about their services can be found.

Engage with the full episode and discover how your business can thrive through strategic recruitment and human capital leveraging. Stay tuned for more episodes that enrich your understanding and offer actionable insights into growing your business with people.