Corey Roberts, Managing Partner and CEO In an exclusive interview with Manage HR magazine, Corey Roberts, managing partner and CEO, and Aurora Coya, managing partner of Talent Equity Group, share insights on how they are optimizing the value and performance of their client’s business through a three-pronged people, process, and technology approach.
How is TEG established in the talent management space, and what really makes the company unique?
TEG has decades of experience and expertise in helping companies grow and innovate by empowering them with superior talent. We try to identify any gaps in a business’s performance and offer people-centric services to solve issues related to their HR processes and talent retention and management. In fact, our ability to stay in lockstep with the everevolving talent ecosystem trends perfectly positions us to help enterprises of varying sizes across the spectrum, from large Fortune 500 companies to mid-sized firms that are investor or private equity-backed.
The mid-cap enterprise market is particularly one of our biggest focus areas and for a reason. Today, small- and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) are considered the backbone of the U.S. economy. The 28 million American SMEs account for nearly twothirds of net new private sector jobs in recent decades, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Our proven competencies help such SMEs optimize their investments, whether by finding them the best CEO or the finest management team or by helping refine their HR functions to perform better.
While offering such solutions, our philosophy of ‘doing it with you, not to you’ is what differentiates us in the industry. For us, it is not about inertly recommending industry best practices but really standing side-by-side with our clients at every step of their journey to ensure successful business vision execution. The other unique aspect is how we constantly bring new thinking and innovative technologies, such as behavioral assessments, psychometric testing tools, or interview intelligence to our talent solutions space.
What are some of the key challenges that Talent Equity Group solves for its clients?
We solve challenges around ‘all things people.’ Be it hiring the right talent, assisting companies in developing the right recruitment processes, or implementing the right technologies for talent acquisition and management to boost business outcomes, we are your one-stop resource.
At the same time, we also bring unconventional yet potent forms of talent sourcing for our clients by creating unique digital recruitment campaigns that help increase the funnel of their potential candidates. The idea behind this stems from the decades of proven digital client acquisition, sales, and engagement strategies that businesses have been applying. We are bringing the same philosophy to the employment space. Our recruitment digital marketing solutions (RDMS), for instance, create compelling digital campaigns for our clients to drive candidate engagement in markets where companies are struggling to find people. Likewise, we also leverage a tool called Predictive Index to help clients select the right people.
How exactly does your company recharge clients’ corporate culture?
We recharge a company’s culture by helping themfind better talent. To elaborate, people who work smarter, faster, and are reliable, positively spirited, success-driven, passionate, and empathetic toward others around them are true winners. We help companies to get those winners so that their corporate culture is inherently recharged.
When our clients acknowledge us for boosting their business performance culture, we know we are doing it right.
Monty Staggs, CEO of Southwest Foodservice Excellence, says, “Talent Equity Group’s support has added scalability to our company with top tier talent and advisory services that helped us to navigate national labor challenges in the market exponentially better than that of our competitors. They are invested in our success and have a passion for our business. They act seamlessly as part of the Southwest Foodservice Excellence Team. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Rose Zory, former chief human resources officer of the leading digital marketing firm, Acoustic, says, “As the CHRO of a private equity backed carve-out scaling 20 countries, ensuring that we had a robust and innovative talent acquisition function to meet our business strategy was a key priority. TEG was a true consultative partner, sharing their knowledge and expertise in all things talent acquisition. They demonstrated agility and flexibility as we worked through the right organizational model and changes to the business strategy with very compressed timelines and rigorous reporting requirements.”
These testimonials only stand to emphasize TEG’s collaborative spirit and can-do attitude, which constantly defines how they engage with clients.
Could you also cite a few business case scenarios to explain how TEG has helped clients overcome complex talent management challenges and achieve successful outcomes?
In one particular example, a former IBM company was becoming independent and creating its own entity. Being a global company operating in over 20 countries, it had to conduct large-scale, massive volume recruiting and build a whole new culture. When they partnered with TEG, we offered them a service we call Build, Operate, and Transfer, which is a part of our advisory division. What it entailed was the creation of a brand-new global talent acquisition function from the ground up that included people from around the world, along with innovative processes and selection and implementation of the necessary technology systems. We operationalized the entire project within 10 months and transferred the workflow to the business as an internal talent acquisition function. With that support and quick turnaround, the company had no trouble setting up a best-in-class talent acquisition solution for their sector, and by leveraging it they are now able to recruit the best and brightest people, including leaders that are helping them build a new culture and identity.
In another instance, we partnered with a commercial kitchen equipment and maintenance organization. They were looking for employees with a very specific skillset with multiple certifications, a typical purple unicorn. Based on the recruitment digital marketing campaigns, they saw a significant increase in their career site views and monthly job applications within a few months of the campaign launching. The campaigns did not just generate more candidate volume but really helped the organization drive the volume to the top of the funnel.
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Talent Equity Group is an innovative team that brings real-life problem solving to businesses and investors alike. Since my first interaction with Corey and his team in 2012, as a candidate for a CEO role, they have continued to earn my trust and confidence. Today, the TEG team has worked with my teams on multiple portfolio companies and created new approaches to solve the human equation with a humble confidence I have grown to appreciate. The outcomes delivered over the past 10 years have created exponential business outcomes and forged a lasting partnership unparalleled in today’s ultra-competitive market
What’s the next big step TEG is taking in terms of business expansion?
We will continue investing in more innovative solutions that help our clients drive and build value around the ‘people’ equation in terms of services, technologies, as well as geographies.
From a business standpoint, we will continue expanding our services for the private equity sector. The mid-cap private equity sector is one of the fastest-growing business economies, and we have a unique capability to serve those clients and their portfolio businesses. For some private equity clients, TEG works with 10 of their portfolio companies at once and has no trouble catering to their specific talent requirements. At the same time, sectors that require a lot of support, such as healthcare, are also a big part of our business. In a nutshell, our roadmap is to continue supporting our existing mid-cap clients and growing our capability in terms of digital and automated sourcing solutions to support larger firms.
