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INTERview








Veteran Owned Staffing and Recruitment Company HamiltonDemo Specializing in Diversity Continues to see Tremendous Success


Yvan Demosthenes

CEO


HamiltonDemo

https://www.hamiltondemo.com/


Contact:

Yvan Demosthenes

513-257-9683

yvan@hamiltondemo.com


Interview conducted by:

Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor

CEOCFO Magazine


Published – November 15, 2021

CEOCFO: Mr. Demosthenes, what is the overall vision and mission at Hamilton Demo?

Mr. Demosthenes: The overall vision is to help organizations of all sizes with their recruiting efforts. We provide recruiting assistance, executive search and professional placement to organizations. We will even do some recruitment and talent acquisition project work for organizations. We also happen to have a specialty in diversity recruitment.


CEOCFO: What does the company understand on a basic level about recruiting, executive search, about people, that gives you an edge perhaps over others in the industry?

Mr. Demosthenes: There are a few things, one which is a big topic that has been discussed for a few years now as our corporate environment changes and uses technology in leveraging all aspects of different resources that are available to us. Automation has really been integrated in a way that attracts talent and identifies candidates, potential employees especially executives. There has been a gap created that I believe not everyone is aware of or wants to open their eyes to. I believe when you deal with people there must be a human component to attract people.


Yes, automation is here to stay and you cannot get away from automation, but you also cannot get away from the human element, the eye test, the handshake etcetera. There needs to be a balance. Secondly, I have been doing this a long time and all the professional events and association meetings etcetera that I have been a part of from New York to California has really aided me in creating my network where I can tap into that network and burrow in on candidates and executives that can really be a game-changer for these organizations, candidates and executives that they may not have been able to reach.


CEOCFO: Who is turning to you for services; what types of companies/industries?

Mr. Demosthenes: We have organizations from all industries. My Wheel House has been in for-profit for the past eighteen or nineteen years. In the past three to four years, we have really seen a rise in small and medium sized businesses so that is everything from companies from fifty employees a thousand employees, so those small and medium sized companies are really coming to is for a lot of assistance in recruiting. It took us a while to put our finger on that, because we saw it happening and we wanted to understand. As we explored more, these growing companies are learning as they grow and many of them do not necessarily have an established recruiting department. Yes they may have a benefits and HR department, but they do not have developed recruiting for talent acquisition. I will say healthcare has been a huge area of focus for us here recently in the past couple of years and higher education as well.


CEOCFO: Given the challenges in the economy and COVID, scarcity of labor, materials, etc. how have you changed your approach and would you give us an example of what you might be doing different today than a year or two a year?

Mr. Demosthenes: With organizations trying to automate the process, I am really trying to Hamilton Demo and myself in front of the talent acquisition leaders and C-level people because I feel strongly that you cannot just walk away from these organizations. There comes a time and it happens a lot, it is never really no but it is just not right now or we have not hit the wall yet, we are still trying to figure it out internally. I would say just changing my sales approach, my business development approach where I continue to stay connected with those decision-makers to be sure that once they realize that they need outside assistance then I can react very quickly. I think that has been the key in allowing us to grow with new clients.


CEOCFO: Would you tell us about the diversity side of your business, how do you describe diversity?

Mr. Demosthenes: That is usually one of my first questions when I have organizations ask me to have a discovery call with them and I ask them how they would describe diversity. First of all, Hamilton Demo is a certified Veteran-Owned business enterprise, with VBE™ (Veteran Business Enterprise) certification through the Department of Veteran Affairs. We are very proud of that so we are not just a veteran-owned company by name but we are certified through the VA and that is a very lofty certification but we like to share because we identify diversity as people of different races, cultural backgrounds, females, religion, LGTBQ, AI, those with disabilities, and we also include our veterans from all branches of military.


More importantly I think diversity can be different from organization to organization, region to region, state to state. We are able to focus on those needs that each organization has. You take one organization of thirty, forty, or fifty thousand up to a million but a lot of times there are even subcultures within organizations that desire or are in need of a different definition of diversity from a different department within the same company. A company that has a location in New York may modify their definition of diversity a little different than a location in California. You talk about global diversity as well so if you have a location here in the US, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Asia, it then becomes easier to understand how an organization may have different definitions even within their own company.


CEOCFO: When you are talking with a company about diversity can you tell when they are genuine about it or just giving lip service because they need to?

Mr. Demosthenes: Yes. It has been a long time since I heard of an organization that would invite me to discuss diversity and not just give lip service. It does not happen very often and it has been years since that has happened to me personally. What I run into more often is that the motivation may not be there or organizations and leadership teams are not prepared for the commitment and the work at hand to move forward. That is usually what occurs more often that the lip service. They know there is a need but when they look around the room and they look at each other there is really not a commitment level to move the ball up the hill.


CEOCFO: In general, when you are looking to fill positions or place an executive in a company, how do you learn about company culture over and above what they might tell you, so the fit is good?

Mr. Demosthenes: That is very important to understand. We try to ask questions that include setting the right expectations to not only the client but for the candidate. For example, we have a lot of organizations that are just overwhelmed with the amount of work. This is a great time to be a recruiter because you can pretty much go anywhere and find a job. Setting the right expectations to candidates sometimes in a company’s best efforts, they are not able to turn around and hire a candidate immediately. I had a candidate that started the interview process in July and started their first day yesterday and they did not get their offer until about two-and-a-half or three weeks ago. There was lot of time between the first contact, to the offer letter, so the candidate was sitting around and waiting, and that is one of the issues that I see and candidates take it personally because they have been taught and they learned in past years that if an organization is not responding quickly, maybe they respond in speaking with someone else of more interest and more and more that is not always the case. I think it is important to get an understanding of an organization’s culture as well as their process so that you can set the right expectations of candidates so they are not deterred in any way or make any false assumption based on what they are seeing especially if they are not used to interviewing previously.


CEOCFO: Are people willing to relocate as much as they have in the past?

Mr. Demosthenes: I think people are still willing to relocate and I think they are willing to relocate a little bit more than before. I think if you ask other people, it may seem the opposite because there are a lot more job openings out there than previously. You are working with candidates that have a lot more options at hand and especially with COVID more people have gotten used to working remotely. I do feel especially within my practice and my experience that people are open to relocating.


CEOCFO: Why the focus on veterans at Hamilton Demo?

Mr. Demosthenes: Just to clarify, I am not a veteran myself. My business partner Shawn Hamilton is the part of Hamilton and I am Demo. He is an air force veteran so when we were putting our business together and putting together our business plan, we both agreed that it was important for us to have a designation and project to the workforce as well as corporate America our commitment to diversity and our veterans so that is what we decided to do and we are very happy that we did do it. I will say in my experience the connection of candidates to the organization that they are interviewing with, truly remains the most important thing. I talked to you about how the process has extended itself because of organizations and people being swamped and the automation but it never ceases to amaze me that when you find a candidate and you set the right expectations and you connect them with an organization that is a great cultural fit, nine times out of ten they will wait as long as they possibly can to make sure they are with that organization. I have had individuals that have waited months and it was supposed to be a few weeks but for whatever reason they were willing to put other things on hold so they had the opportunity for that company. Organizations are also more willing when that happens to make accommodations for those companies. There is nothing greater than that when you get the right match.


CEOCFO: What is next for Hamilton Demo?

Mr. Demosthenes: We are finishing up and closing in on year four of our organization, so although we still consider ourselves a startup, we are quickly approaching that five-year mark. When I went to business school, they said one of the most important things is to get to that five-year mark so you are not a startup anymore. We have been reaching our benchmarks and we are looking forward to reaching that five-year mark. We also have some global opportunities with organizations in New York were based on the professional candidates that we were able to place with those organizations, that the individuals were immediately impactful and they have over $300 million in potential contracts coming in the next few months. We got our fingers crossed because we are prepared to help our client with their potential and future recruiting needs should those contracts come into place, we are super, super excited about that. In addition, we are looking forward to having an office in New York City in Times Square which is pretty exciting so that should happen in the next couple of months definitely in preparation to 2022. I always love to visit NYC so that will give us an opportunity to visit more often. Finally, what is next for us is we engaged in a couple of strategic partnerships this past year, one locally here in the Cincinnati area and one based out of Florida. The collaborations have been phenomenal for us. We more than doubled our activity in the past three months and we are really looking at those partnerships as an opportunity to possibly merge resources and continue on the path that we are in the industries I mentioned to you before especially in healthcare and higher education, so lots of exciting things and yes the future looks bright for us.


HamiltonDemo | Yvan Demosthenes | Diversity Recruiting | Executive Search | Veteran Owned Staffing and Recruitment Company HamiltonDemo Specializing in Diversity Continues to see Tremendous Success | CEO Interviews 2021 | Business Services Companies | Recruiting, Professional Search, Diversity, Veterans, Certified Veteran Owned, VBE, Staffing, Talent Acquisition Consulting, HamiltonDemo Press Releases, News, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin

“It continues to be an honor for our entire organization to be a resource clients can count on when it comes to filling positions.  Having a specialty in diversity recruitment allows us to be nimble, providing a path clients feel comfortable with.” Stated
Yvan Demosthenes CEO
HamiltonDemo



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“Through our diverse experience we have been able to develop a network of candidates that is ever evolving. In addition, we understand what clients are looking for in their search for the right candidate. Having tremendous understanding in both provides a full 360 approach when it comes to the recruitment and staffing process.”  Said Demosthenes