Deep Dive: Joe Gross, President – CIO Partners & Talentric

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Since 2014, Joe Gross has served as President for CIO Partners®, a nationally recognized retained search firm with a niche practice in hiring top technology talent for their clients. Recently he also assumed the role of President of Talentric®, a talent acquisition partner that works with businesses to implement customized hiring solutions across their enterprise.

In this issue, Joe walked us through his career path, from starting off as a technical recruiter, to moving into the RPO world, and then to his current role. He shared his team’s success in delivering legendary customer service for both clients and candidates during the hiring process. Joe also shared some tips on building a team as a hiring manager and advice for attracting top level talent into a high performing organization.

Tell us about your current role for CIO Partners and Talentric. What do you do for your organization?

I currently serve in a dual role as president of CIO Partners and Talentric. CIO Partners has been in business for twenty years and Talentric is entering its fourth year in business. These brands complement each other well and offer a variety of solutions in the talent industry.

As president, I lead the business development and practice development areas in both companies. I also lead the delivery organization where we have created a Recruiting Center of Excellence in our Atlanta office. The alignment of those two functions are crucial in supporting our relationships with clients and candidates.

Explain the rationale behind your career moves, how did you progress to lead your current organization?

After college, I entered the job market into a role as a technical recruiter with a company called Paragon, which was a partner for AT&T in New Jersey. My father had a relationship with the company and worked with their consultants regularly. Working with Paragon blended what I had learned from a technology standpoint in college with the enjoyment that I have in working with people. As they expanded down the East Coast, I transferred to Orlando, then to Jacksonville, and finally to Atlanta.

From there, I progressed into a branch management role with an industry competitor. I then moved into the Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) sector with a company that supported multi-billion dollar organizations in their large hiring initiatives. In 2009, I decided to leave the industry and was recruited by a former client of mine to Recall, an organization that focused on document management, data protection, digital transformation and secure destruction. I led sales in the southeastern region for five years until there was a shakeup in the industry and I began considering other options.

Interestingly at that time, I was contacted by Mike Burgett, a recognized figure in the Atlanta entrepreneurial community. I had developed a great relationship with Mike over the years and we had kept in touch. He was looking for someone to lead the day-to-day operations of CIO Partners. It was an interesting opportunity as I did not have a great deal of experience in retained search, but I was willing to take on the challenge and learn. In 2015, I began a partnership with Mike, and here we are, where I continue to lead CIO Partners and have been recently entrusted to grow another one of our companies, Talentric.

Describe the difference in business models between CIO Partners and Talentric.  

CIO Partners is a traditional executive retained search firm. A key differentiator is that CIO Partners focuses solely on IT leadership, assisting clients with recruiting efforts and placements for the top IT roles in their respective organizations. This may include chief information officers, chief technology officers or senior vice presidents of IT. We go further by partnering with top IT leaders to build out their leadership teams at the VP and director levels. CIO Partners will also assist clients with interim CIOs on project-based work or where they may have gaps in leadership.

Our sister organization, Talentric was really born out of a similar process as CIO Partners. Talentric performs retained searches for functions outside of information technology such as supply chain and logistics, finance, human resources to name a few. Talentric also offers unique solutions such as Search Augmentation® that focuses on middle management and individual contributor roles within and outside of IT. With both companies, we have truly developed a full ecosystem of talent support for our client partners.

What initiatives have you overseen to date in your time with your organization?

One of my first initiatives was to continue to improve our retained search process, further enabling the trust of our clients to exclusively partner on some of their most important hires.

I would say that the biggest continuing initiative is growing our client base by sharing our success story and the proprietary process that has benefited so many. It is important that we continue to evaluate the entire landscape of potential partnerships, not aligning our organization to a single industry or function, rather expanding our hiring process to benefit potential clients in all sectors.

Finally, I am also charged with growing our CIO landscape through our CIO Professional Network. This is a very unique initiative that started when our firm began corralling CIOs by industry and geography many years ago.

The network is exclusive, and memberships are issued by invitation only. It is of great value to our member CIOs as it provides a way for top technology leadership to connect and share best practices with each other via an online platform. It also provides an opportunity for us to assist and advise member CIOs on their next career move. We will continue to nurture, grow, and provide value to this proprietary network, which is currently around 2,000 CIO members.

As a hiring manager, what do you look for when you’re building a team?

Integrity and competitiveness are key qualities, but I would say the most important factor is flexibility. Whether I am building a sports team or corporate organization, I am looking for people that are capable from a skill set standpoint and have a willing attitude to perform any role on the team.

This means that if we all had to be recruiting one day, we all could and would do it enthusiastically. If you have a team with that kind of flexibility, you will be in a good position to thrive and be successful even in unfavorable conditions. We have been very successful with building a flexible team at CIO Partners and Talentric and are constantly seeking new talent to join our organization.

How do you measure the work you do for your clients?

In our organization we utilize Net Promoter Score (NPS), a customer service standard that scoreboards how we are doing with our clients and with our candidates. When we engage on a search, on the client side, we send out surveys halfway through, at search completion and six months down the road to ensure that we provided a great experience for our clients.

On the candidate side, we want to make sure that we are also providing a great experience with every candidate that interacts with us. We send out a survey when they complete what we call our RightHire Process which is an intensive high-hurdle rate process. We do this to make sure that our recruiters are developing the right relationships with candidates and are following up appropriately.

As a company, we do quite well in these measurements. Scoring on NPS ranks from -100 to 100, so a very good score could range from 40 to 50. But we have scored consistently over 60 in the last three years in both candidate and client assessments.

Tell us more about the RightHire Process. What does it mean to your company, your clients and your candidates?

Our RightHire Process includes multiple phone and in-person interviews, leadership assessments, and an executive summary written by the candidates that allows them to talk about their experiences, work product and how those align with the client’s needs.

All of our candidates complete this process prior to speaking to the client which serves as a purposeful vetting process. Early on we adopted the philosophy of preferring to lose a candidate early versus losing them late.  These defined set of hurdles are created to assess whether candidates have the skills required, whether they have a true interest in the role, and whether they are ready to make a move from their current employer. It is truly different than what exists in the marketplace.

Our clients value this consistency across the candidate slate as all candidates address the same items, whether business, skillset or culture related. They also love it because they get an early look at how a candidate thinks, acts and aligns themselves to the role.

This process also facilitates our recruiting efforts and speeds up the overall timeline. Our executive searches as an example are completed in about ten to twelve weeks, which is well ahead of our competitors who may regularly take six to eight months to complete a search.  We are simply leading the industry.

Speaking of success, tell us about some of the awards that your company has won and what you are most proud of.

We have consistently been recognized as an Inc. 5000 company. We are very proud of that, and it is a continued goal of ours. The Best Places to Work award is another by which we are proud to be recognized. We want to make sure that our employees are coming to a challenging, fun and fair environment that provides them opportunities to do things that they may have never considered or aspired to.

We also were recognized by Forbes in 2020. We were listed as #39 on the Forbes 200 America’s Best Recruiting Firms and out of that, we were the number one firm that focuses exclusively in our niche.

Aside from achieving success in your company, how do you decompress? What do you do for fun?

I enjoy spending time with my family, playing golf and fishing. I truly enjoy all sports as competition drives me not only at work but also outside of work. I can’t go fishing with my buddies without being competitive about the size of the fish or how many we catch. Whatever sport it is, I can pick someone or something to get behind.

Who have been your biggest influences, and why?

There are three people that come to mind. One is my dad, who instilled hard work and loyalty in me at a very young age. He was with one company for over 35 years, had a two-hour commute daily and sacrificed so that we could be in a location that we wanted to live as a family. From a business perspective, I had a leader at the RPO company that instilled responsiveness, sense of urgency and customer service. Thank you, Sara Robbins, for all that you taught me.

Interestingly, the same things that I learned from Sara are key drivers of success in my current organization as instilled by our founder, Mike Burgett.

If you weren’t doing the job that you have today, what would be your alternative dream job?

My dream would be to have been an active member of the PGA tour. I wish that back in my early teens that I would have switched from baseball to golf. Who knows where I would be today?

What advice would you offer our readers that we haven’t already discussed?

When attracting talent to your team, I would say keep an open mind and when presented with an opportunity to make a unique hire take a chance. We sometimes get too locked into job descriptions, industry expertise, and skillsets, when what really matters is the people. If you think you’ve got the right person, maybe you could sacrifice something in that laundry list of requirements and trust that if the person is curious enough and intelligent enough to figure it out, they will.

Deep Dive: Mike Burgett, Founder – CIO Partners

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Mike Burgett, Founder and Executive Advisor for CIO Partners, has built a reputation of hiring success over his 17 years in executive search, a chapter of his career that builds on his prior history as a Chief Information Officer. His experience in both technology leadership and executive hiring strategy has built the brand into a nationally-recognized executive search firm that partners with industry leaders to find and retain talent for critical technology leadership positions.

Technology positions are traditionally difficult to fill, and low unemployment levels make process-driven hiring strategies even more essential. From talent identification to final employment offers, Mike has fine-tuned every step of operations for CIO Partners.
We had the chance to ask Mike about his career and the state of hiring for this edition of the National CIO Review. From his past as a CIO to his current approach to identifying and placing technology executives, we went over a wealth of advice and information. We also spoke about some of the best interview questions for candidates, words of advice and some of Mike’s favorite books.

What would you offer as the biggest challenges for hiring IT leadership roles in the current market?

Prior to starting CIO Partners – I served as a CIO who had come up through traditional technology ranks. I am fortunate to have experienced the challenges of IT leadership hiring on the corporate side and also as a service provider in the industry, observing multiple cycles in the market place for talent.

I would say right now; any hiring endeavor will be affected by the historical low unemployment rate. Hiring organizations are challenged by a lack of available talent, as most people are in a role and aren’t proactively engaging with traditional postings on job boards. This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to find candidates, rather it is crucial to develop a passive talent acquisition strategy. To attract talent, one must step outside of a traditional hiring approach and directly recruit candidates where they sit.

What are the most important qualities when evaluating candidates for top technology leadership roles?

As we evaluate candidates, we assess fit first and skill second. The most important evaluation of a candidate is whether they possess the mindset to directly align with the needs of the business.

In my younger days, I was the head of IT for a restaurant company. I quickly learned that technology wasn’t the driving force in that organization. While it was an important enabler for success, business operations always took precedence. With that, the most important quality for a technology leader is to understand his or her company’s number one goal and quickly align the technology function toward that success.

I would also offer that the top 5% of technology leaders exhibit a process-based mentality and are detail-oriented. People who can quickly assess the business process and determine how technology can support or further innovate are quite valuable in their respective organization. An architect mindset is important, but only if that technology leader can effectively integrate that perspective within the business.  We want to see concrete examples of their previous success.

Finally, I want to understand a candidate’s passion for the company and the role for which they are interviewing. A commitment to the cause of an organization can be an early indicator of a great hire.

Are most leadership qualities universal, or are there meaningful differences that separate technology leaders from business leaders?

I would offer that most leadership qualities are universal. Many technology leaders may think that their role requires a completely unique approach given their domain, but we have found that the ability to lead in the CIO suite is no different than other executive level roles. 

As a CIO, it is very important to have a service mindset, as being able to listen closely and craft solutions is invaluable in any context. Given that the rate of change for technology is high, leaders must recognize that they are charged with the role of a teacher and must approach all of their relationships with that mindset. By all means, to garner influence one can’t be condescending or rely on trendy buzzwords to communicate their craft.

It is true that there can be different types of leadership styles based on specific organization or business needs, but most key leadership qualities are definitely universal.

What are some red flags in candidates that act as warning sights to hiring managers?

Candidates’ job histories are always important, as we want to see a consistent tenure and track record of success. There are caveats to every rule, of course, but a consistent job history with demonstrated business results is important for every candidate. It is a red flag if a candidate cannot articulate how their function led to success for the business.

Additionally, it is important that a candidate can share specific examples of where they acquired, transformed, or transitioned talent to build an organization of success.  Talent acquisition is a top three KPI for top technology leaders, especially in this market.

And while identifying these and other red flags are important, we always recommend that hiring managers expand their search and speak to as many candidates as possible.  The hiring process can be utilized to educate internal stakeholders on the market and may very well change the final perspective that leads to a great hire.

Has it become more difficult in recent years to find the best candidates for companies?

Hiring is particularly difficult right now because most candidates aren’t actively looking for jobs. A hiring manager can share an opportunity across various outlets, but in this market that doesn’t mean candidates are necessarily going to find the opportunity. Candidates these days are more passive, which means that – while they may be willing to listen to an opportunity – they aren’t active in the traditional channels on which most hiring leaders rely. Instead, hiring managers must employ strategies to network directly with these elusive candidates and nurture those relationships over time.  

The good news however is that the overall quality of the candidate pool has greatly improved.  CIOs and the like have evolved beyond an IT back-office mindset and companies that are ready to elevate their IT function can benefit from acquiring these types of leaders.

What are some of the most important parts of your hiring process?

One of our primary objectives in any search is timeliness. A lot of firms will start a search and take six to nine months before finding a hire, but my concern with that process is that it’s a little archaic and not in alignment with the speed of market. At CIO Partners, we have cultivated a network of over 1,500 CIO relationships in multiple industries and regions. We know that if we build and nurture these relationships, we can take an opportunity to this private network and find immediate interest or relevant referrals.

However, it is the case that most companies aren’t nurturing talent channels for an eventual hire, rather they are hiring based on immediate need.  That strategy may be viable once or twice, but to really find success on must think further down the road. Identifying talent beforehand will always position a hiring process to move more quickly.  Given the cost of an empty seat – we know that speed matters.

If you had to fill a CIO or similar role without the benefits of using CIO Partners, how would you start this process?

Many of the principles that I would recommend would mirror the internal process of our firm. The most important element is to make sure that you have the resources, the time, and the fortitude to carry the search forward. It’s also important to make sure that everyone involved in the process is aligned in their expectations of a successful hire. When a CIO makes a hire, there are other stakeholders who need to be involved. I have seldom seen a CIO make a successful hire that only he or she met with, which is a risk since technology influences so much of what companies do.

Additionally, there is a fallacy that the first thing one may think they need for a search is a job description. Job descriptions have a role, but I know that a description alone will never lead to a perfect hire. A good hire is more dependent on alignment between the stakeholders, what the hiring criteria are, and a map to the skills and leadership qualities of each candidate.

What are some of the most important interview questions to ask a potential technology leader?

A candidate can tell that hiring managers aren’t prepared when they have candidates walk them through their resumes. If you can get away from that tactic, you will gain a great deal of credibility with the people you are speaking to. And in this job market, you need to earn that credibility.

I also believe that it is important as an interviewer to really get to know the candidates you’re speaking with. It’s also crucial to ask how they specifically overcome challenges. I want to hear stories about how candidates have innovated or implemented solutions to business challenges. These stories are the most important to me. I also want to know their thoughts on the future evolution of technology and potential impact in their industry of experience.  

What is some of the best advice you have ever been given, either as an IT leader or a recruiter?

One of the best pieces of advice that I was given early on was to think outside your current mindset. The leaders who challenged me to think outside of my own box also affirmed for me that I had a role to play and provided the support to get there. They also consistently challenged me to be at the top of my game and pursue a path as a lifelong learner.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a CIO in the future?

The key measure of a technology leader is the ability to deliver. A CIO who wants to elevate his or her role and influence always needs to meet and exceed expectations for their function. If you are known as someone who gets the job done, you will obtain influence in your organization. By that same token, if you try to influence without delivering, you will experience a high failure rate and we often see it represented in a resume.

It’s also important to find mentors and to find people with whom you can share your story and who will share their story with you. It’s also important to be patient. Everything you’re doing in the here and now is preparing you for a greater future, even if you don’t know what that that future may ultimately be.

What books have you gifted the most over your career?

“A Message to Garcia” is one of my favorites. We give that book to every employee who joins our company and it is probably the book I have gifted most. There’s also a great book called “The Red Sea Rules.” It’s a story, a parable based upon Moses and his parting of the Red Sea. This book is a nice reminder that God shows up in difficult situations. I have gifted this book to those dealing with life challenges including navigating a career transition.

We can get so caught up in our day-to-day trials and it’s important to remember that there is always someone that stands with us during our journey.