The Experts: Bob Baer on Recruiting in the Digital Age

Bob Baer

Chief Operating Officer, BelFlex

Bob Baer is Vice President of Staffing and an industry professional with over 20 years experience in the staffing business. Bob is a proven leader who joined BelFlex in 2008 as Director of Business Development, was promoted in 2011 to Vice President of Business Development and in 2013 was promoted to his current position.

Welcome to our video series, The Experts. In the series, we interview staffing and recruitment leaders to hear their perspectives on industry trends, lessons they’ve learned in the careers, and their leadership philosophies.

In this clip, Bob Baer, Chief Operating Officer at BelFlex Staffing Network, shares why the key to thriving in today’s recruitment landscape is finding a balance between old school techniques and cutting-edge technologies.

What do firms need to do to thrive in today’s recruitment landscape?

Bob Baer: Everything. In this landscape in recruitment you really have to be doing a little bit of everything. For somebody like myself that’s been in this industry more than 20 years, and there’s a lot of old school techniques that were successful back in the day, and then as more and more technologies came into play, it’s really been about finding that nice mix of what has worked in the past with what’s going to work in the future. We’re also trying to time out what’s going to happen next and trying to be cutting-edge on that. 

From the organization I work with at BelFlex, I think we’re in a great position for that. We’re well capitalized, able to make some investments in things, take some chances that maybe some of our competitors can’t, and we’re able to move very quickly. That’s what gives us an advantage in this space.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

BB: Networking. It was something that quite frankly, I didn’t do a lot of at the time we were a one-office operation. We just did what we did in Cincinnati and didn’t get out a whole bunch. And it was something that I learned to capitalize on when I came to BelFlex. When I mentor younger folks and people in our organization, it’s the one thing that I push hard on them.

A great example: in my previous life I ran our sales group at BelFlex and some of these organizations you can go to a meeting and have five to 10 buyers of your services sitting there versus going out and knocking on 15 to 20 doors to get one person to see you. So really that networking, being active on social media, and having a wonderful partner in ClearEdge has helped us with our branding and outreach and they have helped our whole organization quite a bit in that space.

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