Courtesy of Walrath Recruiting, Inc.
By Susan Elise Campbell
If executive recruiter Renee Walrath has one mission for her business and her clients, it may be “helping people and their families.” As top-level and mid-level executives and managers move from position to position, Walrath said she and her staff of nine at Walrath Recruiting, Inc. are “dedicated to the perfect fit” as they connect companies and candidates.
The pandemic touched the executive search industry like every other. Employees quickly moved to their homes in great numbers and then slowly have been called back. Now an individual may want to work remote, but the positions are no longer out there, according to Walrath.
“I have no one-hundred-percent remote job openings in the Capital District,” she said.
Last year, in 2023, a “big chunk of organizations made the move back to their offices,” said Walrath. “Now our firm gets calls that ‘my company is calling me back in, but they are out of California or in Boston.’”
“They say, ‘we moved here to New York, like it here, and want to stay here,’” she said.
Only one of her client companies offers working at home full time, but the individual “has to live near headquarters in New Hampshire just in case,” she said.
Hybrid situations may allow some to work at home and at the office for portions of the week.
“But certain positions need to be in the office, and it seems people always want what they can’t have,” said Walrath. “Where an individual may work is now an important factor in our recruiting.”
“Candidates have to understand at the onset that although we know what their expectations are, they are not going to find remote jobs here in the Albany and Saratoga area unless their field is technology,” she said.
Each individual in Walrath’s team is dedicated to a specific industry. The firm covers attorneys and paralegals, manufacturing and construction, accounting and finance, technology, healthcare, logistics, and more.
The majority of placements are mid-level and contingency-based but for her market, C-level executive searches, Walrath works primarily on retainer. Related services she offers include resumé writing, compensation analysis, outplacement for those laid off, and helping client firms identify individuals to promote from within.
One challenge for the team is that headquarters or the human resources personnel the recruiters work with may be out of the area and therefore have no presence at the facility in this community, she said.
“It falls on us to get to know the local general manager and the particular hiring manager and to work closely with them,” Walrath said. “The hiring agreement will be with corporate, but mainly the relationship is where the new hire will be sitting.”
Her recruiters obtain the job description, benefits and salary range before visiting headquarters in person to get to know the client’s needs and corporate culture, she said.
That understanding informs whether Candidate A or Candidate B will be the better fit, she said, giving the example of an assignment to locate a potential new controller.
“One controller is looking for an opportunity to work directly under the CFO in order to be mentored by them,” she said. “Another may be ready for the next step, reporting to the president or owner with a few people under them.”
“Recruiting is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” she said. “It’s understanding the company and the candidate that leads to successful connections.”
The process is not always the same for every circumstance, but Walrath said her team adapts for the market, the economy and changing legislation.
A new New York State law enacted two years ago and implemented as of last year is having a huge and positive impact on employees, Walrath said..
Compensation transparency disallows asking an employee their current salary, she said. Job postings and advertisements now post a salary range. This makes it difficult or employers to discriminate on the basis of salary.
“Prior to 2022 it was an employee market and companies were bringing in new people at a higher salary than those who had been doing the same job for years,” said Walrath.
That could be $10,000 more on an average $90,000 job, she said. Addressing wage discrepancies head-on is good for all.
“Employees never used to disclose salaries, but they do now because they can,” she said.
Walrath said one goal for her company at this time is to add to her team “without getting too big.”
“We have sales goals and professional goals,” she said. “We are all educated and knowledgeable and are certified with the Society for Human Resources Management.”
Walrath Recruiting, Inc. is a state certified woman-owned business that was ranked #1 for executive search firms by Albany Business Review in five of the ten years since 2014. It has consistently been ranked in the top five since 2012 by the same publication.
“We want to help client companies brand their businesses and help organizations grow,” said Walrath.
“My work is definitely gratifying,” she said. “It is interesting to follow our success stories and see where our placements are today.”
There are two offices, at 3 Winners Circle in Albany and 511 Broadway in Saratoga Springs. For more information, email Renee Walrath at jobs@walrathrecruiting.com.