# Hiring Happens


## Posts

- [A Year of Hiring Happens](https://hiringhappens.com/a-year-of-hiring-happens/): It’s hard to believe it’s been 9 months and 33 editions since we decided to turn Hiring Happens into a weekly note. When we started, the goal was pretty straightforward. We wanted a place to share our candid perspective around hiring, the labor market, and anything else that caught our eye. Not just headlines or data releases, but what we and our team were seeing in actual conversations with candidates, hiring managers, and leaders across Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. We also wanted it to feel human. Conversational, not “marketing fluff.” Closer to what you’d talk about over coffee versus what […]
- [Our Gut Feel About the Labor Market](https://hiringhappens.com/our-gut-feel-about-the-labor-market/): The other day, we were talking with someone who tried to play golf professionally in the mid-90s. This was right as Tiger Woods was coming on the scene. To see what the buzz was about (he told us he wasn’t buying the hype), he went to the Phoenix Open in 1997 to see young Tiger play. When he first walked up to Tiger’s group, he couldn’t get close enough to see him swing. But he heard him swing. And from only the sound of the ball striking the club, he knew Tiger was different. We are very much “math & […]
- [It’s A Bird? It’s A Plane? No, It’s Marketing](https://hiringhappens.com/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-no-its-marketing/): What is recruiting? Is it HR? Is it sales? Is it marketing? We’re of the mindset that an effective recruitment process, one that results in the right person in the right seat, is a combination of the three. We’ve read all the studies across sectors that have been released this quarter. To summarize them for you: attracting and retaining skilled talent is a top projected workforce challenge for 2026.  With that on a lot of our partners’ minds, we want to hone in on the marketing piece this week. The reality is, we’re all competing in the same talent pool. […]
- [Show Me The Money](https://hiringhappens.com/show-me-the-money/): It’s compensation adjustment season, which means a lot of people are thinking about negotiations right now. So we wanted to offer some perspective for both sides of the hiring table. We’re not sure how often this advice is actually given, but for some reason the idea that “you should always negotiate” is burned into the back of our brain. There’s truth in this. Negotiating can be healthy. People should advocate for fair compensation. But in our experience, how someone negotiates usually tells you more than what they ask for. In negotiations class in business school, one of the first concepts […]
- [Great Expectations](https://hiringhappens.com/great-expectations/): We just wrapped up our fall career fair tour and we had a lot of conversations with students about their next steps. It reminded us just how big the gap can be between what new grads hope for, and what employers assume a degree guarantees. Almost every student opened with: “I’m getting a degree in X, therefore I’m looking for X.” X being a role that connects directly to their degree. And employers? Many want the “right” education paired with two to three years of experience for an entry-level role. Great expectations for a first step. And that gap shows […]
- [Burn The Boats](https://hiringhappens.com/burn-the-boats/): “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” – William Faulkner One of us had the privilege to visit Hawaii this summer, and while we were there we couldn’t stop thinking about how people first reached the islands. They are literally in the middle of the ocean.  It turns out the first people to reach Hawai’i arrived by canoe approximately 1,500 years ago from the Polynesian islands. They relied on what’s called wayfinding: a system of navigation using the stars, ocean swells, wind patterns, cloud formations, and the flight path of birds.  […]
- [When Experience Walks Out The Door](https://hiringhappens.com/when-experience-walks-out-the-door-2/): In the spirit of Halloween, we’re talking about something scarier than Michael Myers or Pennywise. It’s watching decades of hard-earned knowledge walk out the door. We recently attended an economic reaction panel where three Wisconsin CEOs discussed how they’re leading their organizations today. They covered the headlines that we all know: Birth rates are declining, skills gaps are widening. But the most compelling conversation came at the close: In light of these economic factors, how are they preserving tribal knowledge as experienced employees retire?  A few things stood out: These leaders came from very different industries Every single one said […]
- [What Makes a Job “Good”?](https://hiringhappens.com/what-makes-a-job-good/): If you asked a hundred people what makes a job “good,” you’d probably hear some familiar answers: fair pay, good benefits, steady hours. But after that, the answers would start to differ. For some, it’s purpose. For others, it’s growth potential, flexibility, or simply working with people they like. October is Manufacturing Month in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s (WMC’s) annual spotlight on the state’s largest industry (it contributes almost ~$75B to the state’s economy) is a reminder that manufacturing jobs have long been considered the gold standard for “good jobs”. But as we reflected on Manufacturing Month, we wanted […]
- [Composing Partnerships](https://hiringhappens.com/composing-partnerships/): We recently came across an article in Wine Spectator called “Composing Opus One,” detailing the partnership between Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild. You don’t have to be a Napa Valley wine expert (we certainly are not) to appreciate an idea spoken 8 years prior becoming a solidified 50-50 partnership over a four-and-a-half-hour conversation. The vision was simple: produce great wine. But the early vintages reflected a tug-of-war between Mondavi’s innovative American team and Rothschild’s traditional French side. Over time, the two sides learned to trust, blend their strengths, and operate as one. Forty-five years later, Opus One has […]
- [When the Data Goes Dark](https://hiringhappens.com/when-the-data-goes-dark/): Since 1980, the federal government has shut down 11 times – sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for weeks. The longest was in late 2018, when Congress and the White House spent 35 days locked in a standoff over an appropriations bill. National parks close, paychecks pause, and agencies grind to a halt. When the most recent government shutdown began on October 1st, all but one of the 2,055 employees at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) were sent home (though some have since been called back). This means no monthly Employment Situation Report. No JOLTS survey. No fresh unemployment […]
- [From Paper To AI](https://hiringhappens.com/from-paper-to-ai/): *A special thank you to our colleagues – Loraine, Sharon, Lu Ann, and Jeanne – for sharing their perspectives on navigating one of the biggest workplace shifts of the last century. While the tech may be different, we’ve been here before. We had the opportunity to sit down with four of our team members who lived (and worked) through the Information Age: where we went from paper files to PCs at every desk. We discovered that, much like today, the transition was full of skepticism, awkward adjustments, and eventually, breakthroughs. As you can imagine, the blank Millennial stares as they […]
- [The IKEA Effect (and Our Deck)](https://hiringhappens.com/the-ikea-effect-and-our-deck/): A 2011 study conducted by Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon, & Dan Ariely found that subjects were willing to pay a 63% premium for something they assembled on their own versus an identical pre-assembled product.  Psychologists call this the IKEA effect. We tend to value something more if we built it ourselves. One of us had our own run-in with the IKEA effect this summer. Our deck was peeling and was painted a terrible red color (which we later found out was covering an even worse orange color). Thinking we could just power wash it off and move on (spouse’s idea…we […]
- [Don’t Sleep On Succession Planning](https://hiringhappens.com/dont-sleep-on-succession-planning/): The fashion world recently lost one of its most iconic designers of all time, Giorgio Armani, at age 91. Maintaining full creative control and working until his final days, Armani was the visionary behind quiet luxury, sleek tailoring, and timeless elegance. A fashion fan or not, creating a multi-billion dollar empire and becoming a household name gives Armani a (cough) bit of credibility as a business mind. And he left us with a far greater way to ensure success than dressing for it. He answered the question, how does the vision live on when the visionary is no more? In […]
- [Hiring (isn’t) Happens(ing)?](https://hiringhappens.com/hiring-isnt-happensing/): Our apologies to the English majors for the title. Yes, very grammatically painful. And yes, we still kept it because if you’ve been reading the news lately, you’ve probably seen the headlines: the U.S. added ~911,00 fewer jobs over the 12 months ending in March than previously reported. This is the biggest revision as a share of jobs “lost” since 2009 (it’s never good when you are referencing that time period).  A quick aside, while the Federal Reserve is not an organization that receives a lot of empathy, especially lately, it’s hard not to feel for them. Imagine being tasked […]
- [The Death of Productivity Theater](https://hiringhappens.com/the-death-of-productivity-theater/): There’s a phrase that’s floated around the workplace for years: productivity theater. We’re talking about the evergreen active circle on slack. The scheduled emails after 10 pm. The car in the lot before sunrise. All signals that someone is “busy” and clocking long hours. None of which actually tells you whether the work is getting done. Those signals were management defaults for years. When employees were physically in the office and you saw them at their desks, you assumed productivity by proxy.  Now, people might be showing up on time, but they’re leaving earlier. They’re working from home. They’re structuring […]
- [Chop Wood, Carry Water](https://hiringhappens.com/chop-wood-carry-water/): Recently one of our algorithms showed us a video of Mike Posner (the artist known for 2010s songs “Cooler Than Me” and “I Took a Pill in Ibiza”, among others) that covered his journey over the past few years.  We hadn’t been following along while it was happening, but in 2019 he traded stadium tours for something very different. He walked ~2,800 miles across the entire US over a six-month period, climbed some of the tallest mountains in the world, and pursued experiences that don’t fit neatly into a career timeline of a musician. Apparently he also just started hiking […]
- [The Automation Temptation](https://hiringhappens.com/the-automation-temptation/): The weekend morning rolls around and before my summer bike ride I am in need of a sweet treat (what can I say, I’m all about balance). And I find myself driving 30 minutes across town to my favorite little bakehouse on Willy Street in Madison. There are a lot of places to get a quick morning pastry. I’m one perusal of pre-packed boxes and a trip through the self checkout away from my morning sugar rush. But that’s not what I’m making the drive for. It’s the stay awhile. Offer of complimentary coffee. Conversation about how the business got […]
- [The Attrition Illusion](https://hiringhappens.com/the-attrition-illusion/): This has become the go-to line for leaders when I probe on AI, automation, and how they are evolving their operations.  I’ll admit there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about “managing through attrition.” It sounds polished. Strategic. Almost evolutionary. We’re just letting natural churn do its thing. It feels like it could have come out of a whitepaper or an executive offsite. The kind of phrase that sounds smart enough no one stops to ask how it actually works. Or, for the conspiracists among us, whether it’s working at all. And I may be among the latter, because every […]
- [The Ground Is Breaking](https://hiringhappens.com/the-ground-is-breaking/): There’s no shortage of groundbreakings in our region right now.  It feels like every morning we wake up to a press release for a new industrial park or expansion in manufacturing, logistics, biotech, healthcare or food & bev. These projects aren’t in the regions biggest cities. They’re popping up outside of Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Small-to-mid-sized communities are suddenly on the map. This isn’t serendipity. Site selection teams are doing their homework. They’re here because the numbers check out. Strategic location, tax incentives, transportation, housing, labor. In our business, we focus on the latter, because no matter how great the […]
- [What’s A “Labor Shed”?](https://hiringhappens.com/whats-a-labor-shed/): I was at a meeting recently where someone casually mentioned “labor shed”.  I’m in the hiring space. I read labor reports. I lead a staffing firm. I, of course, nodded along. But I had no idea what they were talking about.  When I was a consultant, I was frequently dropped into industries or clients I knew nothing about. Fresh out of college, I earned my fair share of eye rolls from clients who thought (and did) know more than me. But one upside of knowing so little? I had no choice but to ask “dumb questions”. Why do we do […]
- [To Infinity](https://hiringhappens.com/to-infinity/): Power off your desktop. Hang up the landline. Tidy your workspace. Rinse, repeat.  Leaving the office used to mean the workday was over. And if it wasn’t? You ordered takeout and burned the midnight oil until you could call it quits. Then came 2020. Commutes shifted to kitchen tables and spare bedrooms. Work-from-home setups lived on even after many returned to the office. And for a lot of us, working hours now stretch beyond the confines of the legacy 9-5. Enter the infinite workday. Where professionals used to hit two productivity peaks, before lunch and after lunch, there is now […]
- [The Gloves Are Off](https://hiringhappens.com/the-gloves-are-off/): If recent job posts we’ve seen are any indication, we’re not in Kansas anymore. The soft pitches about “flexibility” and “balance” are fading from corporate speak. Some companies are getting more blunt. Much more blunt: “If you’re looking for work-life balance, this isn’t it.” Or “Please don’t join unless you’re eager to work 70 hours a week.” Not subtle. The post-2020 era of employee-first recruiting is giving way to something much more direct. And in a softening hiring market, some employers are confident enough to say exactly what they want. Before you throw your laptop out the window, please note we aren’t saying this […]
- [Lessons From A Museum Curator](https://hiringhappens.com/lessons-from-a-museum-curator/): We recently became acquainted with a gentleman we had seen multiple times in passing but never spoken to. He stopped to introduce himself, and what we expected to be a quick hello turned into an unexpected conversation about work (he was a museum curator), history (moved to Madison from the south), and life (wife, children, pets, and so forth).  As we wrapped up, he said, “Thank you for sharing your time with me.” Had we ever been thanked for sharing our time before? In the fast-paced world of staffing and hiring, time seems like something we never have enough of. […]
- [What If Employment Didn’t Exist?](https://hiringhappens.com/what-if-employment-didnt-exist/): We read an article this week with a comment from a recent graduate that reminded us of one of our favorite hiring paradoxes: “Hiring for entry-level job. Two years’ experience required.” Recent college grads are entering the workforce with headwinds. The national unemployment rate has hovered around 4% since May 2024. But for graduates with a Bachelor’s Degree between the ages of 20 to 24, the unemployment rate was 6.6% over the past 12 months ending in May. Q1 2025 was marked by a “deteriorating labor market” per The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with graduates entering the workforce […]
- [Genchi Gembutsu (Go and See)](https://hiringhappens.com/genchi-gembutsu-go-and-see/): In lean manufacturing, there’s a concept called “Gemba” – a Japanese word that means “the actual place.” It refers to where value is created. This is commonly practiced as a “Gemba walk”, where leaders go to the floor to observe, listen, and understand what’s really going on. Not from a report. Not from a meeting. But by being there.  As individuals that tend to not shy away from rolling up our sleeves, we’re big believers in this idea. Because whether you are managing people, improving processes, or setting strategy, the most useful insights typically come from those closest to the […]
- [We’re All Going To Be Out Of A Job In 10 Years](https://hiringhappens.com/were-all-going-to-be-out-of-a-job-in-10-years/): We’ve been intrigued by Duolingo’s CEO making recent headlines. In a sensational all-hands email, Luis von Ahn sent a message: Duolingo will transition to becoming a more AI-focused company, including not using contractors to do work that AI can handle. The statement went viral. Prompting backlash, confusion, and ultimately, a walk-back.  While we can’t deny that AI is a hot topic in the workforce (and pretty much everywhere else we look), the real lesson here isn’t about navigating the newest tech, it’s about leadership. Words matter. Especially from the top.  To quote one of our favorite business minds of all […]
- [Skilled Trades Are Back In The Spotlight](https://hiringhappens.com/skilled-trades-are-back-in-the-spotlight/): One of us wrote a LinkedIn post this past week that seems to have struck a chord with a lot of folks. We commented on a recent WSJ article detailing how some high-school graduates are entering the workforce with offers as high as $70,000 for careers in the skilled trades. While the attention grab may just be one anecdote, we are seeing significantly more discussion across the board on the skilled trades.  The challenges in the skilled trades labor market, and how these challenges will likely get worse before they get better, are being driven by a few high-level trends: […]
- [Lessons From The Market](https://hiringhappens.com/is-your-workplace-worth-the-hype/): In honor of Memorial Day Weekend, we’re in your inbox a bit earlier this Friday! As many of us gear up to take a breather, soak up the sun, hit the pool, and enjoy a backyard barbecue with loved ones, this break in our schedules got us thinking about routines. More specifically, when it makes sense to break them. The rise of the morning routine has taken the world by storm. The viral 4 am wake-up is just one example of how people are trying to out-optimize each other and avoid missing opportunities before the day starts for most.  But […]
- [When Workers Stay Put](https://hiringhappens.com/a-tradition-unlike-any-other/): On the first Friday of every month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases its “Employment Situation” report (known colloquially as the “Jobs Report”). This report is a comprehensive snapshot of the labor market across a number of dimensions such as unemployment, labor force participation, and wage rates. On the Tuesday prior to the Jobs Report being released, the BLS also releases a monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). This JOLTS report provides data on statistics such as hires, quits, and layoffs.  Monthly jobs data gets plenty of media attention, especially in recent years. But the reality […]
- [Back To The Core](https://hiringhappens.com/dont-forget-the-music/): If you’ve popped through the drive-through for a morning cold brew lately at Starbucks, you might have noticed something new… handwritten notes that add a bit of magic to your day. After the coffee giant saw four consecutive quarters of declining store sales and a staggering decrease in quarterly per-share profit, they’re hitting reset. The Starbucks experience, the “third place” that once defined it, had slipped. Wait times grew longer, mobile orders became chaotic (one of us may have begrudgingly abandoned their drink a time or two, so we didn’t walk in late to work with a latte in hand […]
- [Reflections From The NFL Draft](https://hiringhappens.com/reflections-from-the-nfl-draft/): One of us was among the 600,000 in attendance at this past week’s NFL Draft in Green Bay. It was an awesome experience to see the event come to my hometown (I walked to the draft from my wife’s parents’ house), and a great reminder that the NFL is the undisputed heavyweight in American sports.  While the draft isn’t a perfect corollary to recruitment outside of sports (i.e., I don’t typically see companies select all their new employees for the year in sequential order with competitors over a three-day period…), it’s a great example of trying to find a recruitment […]
- [Don’t Forget The Music](https://hiringhappens.com/back-to-the-core/): We recently had a conversation with a local business owner who runs a cozy coffee shop by day that transforms into a music venue a couple of Friday nights per month. He sells $15 tickets to get in the door, gives away free tea, and offers a small selection of other beverages for those who choose to partake. In Wisconsin, where a fish fry and a brandy old-fashioned are typically the main event on a Friday night, we naturally asked: Any food? What kind of drinks? His answer surprised us. He couldn’t care less what you do or don’t consume […]
- [A Tradition Unlike Any Other?](https://hiringhappens.com/when-workers-stay-put/): Since 1934, Augusta National Golf Club has hosted the Masters, one of men’s golf’s four major championships. Every spring, the golf world is immersed in Augusta’s many unique traditions, and this year’s event took place this past weekend (hopefully you caught Sunday’s historic finish). At the Master’s, fans are referred to exclusively as patrons, cellphones are not permitted on the grounds, caddies wear a traditional white uniform with a green hat, and apparently, you can’t talk about “mud balls”. As much as any place in the sports world, the Master’s tournament is steeped in tradition and history.  But that hasn’t […]
- [Is Your Workplace Worth The Hype?](https://hiringhappens.com/lessons-from-the-market/): One of us may or may not have recently purchased a $39, 16 oz jar of yogurt (yes, you read that correctly) after learning about its cult-like following that exploded on TikTok. Beyond its catchy name, deluxe packaging, alluring monthly flavor drops, and delicious taste, it promises some serious health benefits. After a lot of trepidation, the ice was broken and the first purchase was made (when it was finally back in stock). While it’s still too early to say if this product delivers on its promises, this whole experience got us thinking: Just like consumers are evaluating whether a […]

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