Onrec: How did you get started in recruitment?
I started my career working at an internet startup that was looking to create a social community for nurses. It was supported by ad revenue and we quickly found that nurse recruitment was going to be the main driver of revenue. When I left that company, I decided to create a marketplace that connected healthcare staffing firms with active travel candidates. With the success of 3 brands in healthcare, we launched a similar marketplace in Trucking and hope to continue launching new platforms as we move into the future.
Onrec: You were recently nominated for the Personality of the Year Award at the Onrec Awards in September. Why do you think you were nominated?
I think I bring something unique to the industry. I have deep knowledge in recruitment marketing as well as technical skills in SEO/SEM and conversion optimization. I was also a previous nurse recruiter so when I provide content, I’m able to bring a point of view that is not only rich in experience but based on tactical knowledge and real work experience. I also bring a sense of authenticity, real talk, and passion to the marketplace, which I feel is extremely relatable and needed in a time when the industry is suffering (post-COVID) and in need of help. My ethos is clear: provide value for the industry, bring encouragement, actionable tactics, and entertainment to our industry (whether you're our client or not).
Onrec: The recruitment market is very inflated. What are you doing differently to your competitors?
TrackFive has a superpower - We are 100% customer-focused. While many platforms use this as a tagline, we have it as our primary value. This means that we listen to our clients and put them first, even if that means taking the road less traveled. While we have guidelines for our CSM teams, our account managers have the freedom to offer creative solutions to help our clients succeed regardless of what “the book” says. This means we're more interested in our clients' success than our bottom line. We operate on the mantra, “good business leads to more good business”. Our Clients are true partners, and we work hand in hand to deliver them quality applicants in a workflow-friendly way to reach our common goals.
Onrec: What exciting new trends are you noticing?
A couple of trends I’m seeing that are really exciting.
1. Moving down funnel.
During COVID, recruitment was a volume game, and the mission was to provide as many candidates as possible for a growing demand for healthcare workers. Post covid, candidate pay rates dropped as much as 50% as health systems struggled to right-size their balance sheets. Candidates became harder to acquire and place as most were defiant in taking a pay rate that was 50% lower than the previous year. We quickly realized that the pain point here was not more candidates, it was in the art of helping the staffing agencies qualify, place, and engage these candidates. It changed our mission from acquiring candidates to candidate matching and engagement, and moved our primary focus to cost per qualified placement (not cost per candidate).
2. AI and Engagement
With the entrance of AI and automation into the market, there are been a de facto arms race when it comes to introducing AI automation into the HR tech stack. While this effort is still in it’s infancy, we are excited to see where this goes and are starting to implement AI into our platform to increase candidate matching, engagement and placeability.
3. Defeating bot traffic and spam applies
With the rise of AI and automatic job hunting software platforms like we have seen a massive uptick in spam/bulk applications by bots and clickfarms. Our engineering team has spent months developing spam detection software as well as verification systems to make sure our applicant pool is active, qualified, and spam-free. This is an extremely complicated task, as the bots can change their programming to conform to new workflows meant to stop them.
Onrec: What do you think will be the next big thing in online recruitment?
AI - There is a constant battle brewing over where AI will fit into the HR tech stack. One faction is using AI to replace mundane tasks (like sourcing, administrative work) while one faction wants to go “all-in” and have AI replace recruiting. I think we are in the infancy here, and it’s going to be really interesting to see where AI takes us over the next few years.
Onrec: Is AI in recruitment a friend or a foe?
My opinion is that AI used to replace repetitive and mundane tasks is where we should be heading. AI is used to put the “human” back into the process, not replace it. Matching, reengagement, sourcing, data normalization, credentialing are all great ways to use AI. I am very against AI replacing the role of the recruiter.
Onrec: How many people do you employ globally?
We employ 24 people, 3 in Brazil, the rest in the USA.
Onrec: Where do you see the recruitment industry in 5 years?
The recruitment industry is cyclical, and right now we are at a low in the US (especially in the tech, healthcare, and transportation markets). While some of our competitors have scaled back and are in survival mode. We are having our best year ever and using this time to double down on product development, customer feedback, and optimizing our user experience so we’re a step ahead when the market returns.
Onrec: Do you have any other plans to expand? And if so, where?
We are in the middle of preparing for a Series A round to take our first round of funding. We’ve operated for 17 years without any sort of funding, which means our growth was fueled by “good work” and producing results for our partners. With that funding, we hope to expand our capabilities, move down the funnel, double down on our AI automation and expand into new verticals (Aviation is next on deck).
Onrec: What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self?
Listen to your gut, take those risks and follow the market.
Onrec: What do you enjoy outside of work?
I’m a private pilot, I enjoy flying airplanes, and am continually working at increasing my knowledge on different skills. I also own and run a charitable family foundation (Feakins Foundation), which my wife and I award merit-based college scholarships to undocumented student immigrants (DREAMERS) who are unable to qualify for financial aid in the USA. We’ve put about 15 students through college with our foundation.
Onrec: What is your career low and how did you overcome it? And what is your career high?
Career Low - During the 2008 recession, we almost lost the business. We had almost half of the clients leave our platform in a period of 2 months. We had to work tirelessly to keep the platform solvent and work to rebuild our customer base as the market recovered.
Career High - I’m living it! As a kid from London who moved to the US when I as 10 years old with my family to start a new life, I never believed I’d be blessed enough to be able to do this every day and make a living. I’m incredibly grateful to my team, clients, family, and those to helped me along the way. I get to live out my dream on the daily - so lucky. I also believe in sharing the fortune. We recently celebrated our 15th year in business. We took all 24 team members to Las Vegas to bond, celebrate our success, and plan for the future.
Mini Q&A
Onrec: If you were stuck on a deserted island, what 3 things would you take with you?
- Pictures of my children
- Food and water
- My airplane : )
Onrec: If you could compare yourself with any animal, which would it be and why?
I’d be an octopus - because I feel like sometimes I have 8 arms doing 8 things at once!
Mini Q&A
Onrec: If you were stuck on a deserted island, what 3 things would you take with you?
My husband, daughter and my phone (assuming I could somehow charge it)
Onrec: If you could compare yourself with any animal, which would it be and why?
I never know what to say to this question, so I asked ChatGPT, which suggested I was a dolphin – “Dolphins are known for their resourcefulness, social nature, and adaptability. They live in tight-knit groups but also enjoy a degree of independence. They're playful, creative problem-solvers, and have a balance of both calm and energy.”
