I founded CS Recruiting over 10 years ago with no real intention of starting a business. I had just delivered my third son and was leveraging my experience in recruiting and logistics to take on freelance projects to keep my head in the game. Little did I know at the time that I had stumbled into a much-needed niche service and there was essentially unlimited opportunity to help companies hire the right talent in our industry.
Over the past decade, CS Recruiting has grown and evolved by hiring the right people along the way and setting our team members up for success with the right training and tools. We currently have a 25-person team and manage a multimillion-dollar organization that is known and respected within the Logistics and Supply Chain industry. I have learned so much about business, leadership, and the power of relationships over the years and I truly believe this is the path I was meant to be on from the very beginning of my career.
My parents raised me to be a worker and I always gravitated towards service-oriented roles where I could hustle my way to success. Over time, I learned the ins and outs of client service through waitressing, babysitting and a handful of roles in the retail world. I believe that much of my success and desire to help others came from the time I spent in the service industry and the valuable lesson I was taught over and over that the “customer is always right.” In addition to this, I’ve always been a “connector” and get a thrill out of bringing people together and making relevant introductions.
When I first started recruiting, I loved the creative freedom I had to use various tools and really be resourceful to secure both business and to find candidates open to new job opportunities. I quickly discovered there is a “science and art” to recruiting and worked long hours to grow my network through connections and conversations. I learned early on that treating people with respect goes a long way and there is nothing more valuable than introductions and referrals. I truly believed there was a career match out there for everyone and would work tirelessly to help my clients find the right candidates and to help our candidates find the next home in their careers.
For the first eight or nine years of CS Recruiting, I prided myself on being a hard worker and was one of those people who went to sleep each night with an empty inbox. I was a “hands-on” leader that truly led by example and was never afraid to work alongside our team and get my hands dirty in the business. As we continue to scale and grow our business, I have learned to embrace my leadership role and have shifted my focus over the last two years to work “on” the business instead of “in” the business. While I still spend a good portion of my week working on our business development efforts, I have re-prioritized my focus and am concentrating on managing our leadership team and motivating our greater team to add value wherever they can.
We are in the business of brokering people and while I’m no psychologist, I am fascinated by human nature and love learning about people and discovering things about other walks of life, and learning about myself along the way. I am a big fan of personality/assessment testing and use the results internally to put our team members in the right positions. I believe our society is so focused on strengthening weaknesses and highlighting insufficiencies vs embracing our strengths and working to improve in areas where we already thrive. My goal for this year is to work with our individual team members to help them realize their unique potential so they can leverage their strengths and passions to develop a career path that excites them.
I am extremely proud of our WOSB (Women-Owned Small Business) status and our female leadership team. The Logistics and Supply Chain industry is male-dominated so there have been many moments throughout my career where I’ve felt like an Imposter or believed I had to work harder to prove myself and our team’s expertise in the industry. I have realized over the years that anyone can “fake it till they make it,” but I have also taken this idea a step further by pushing myself to learn. As a self-proclaimed “nerd,” I use every opportunity I can to learn by reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, or participating in networking groups or workshops where I can take away something new and bring valuable lessons back to our team.
I think one of the reasons I’ve been successful in my career is because I am motivated to help others. I worked in the corporate recruiting world before I started CS Recruiting and it admittedly took me a while to believe that companies would actually pay me for introductions to other people. I have since learned the power of outsourcing and truly believe our team offers a consultative and unique service offering that cannot be matched and I am proud of the work we do that generates revenue. As a visionary, I am constantly bringing new “big” ideas to the table and while sometimes my thoughts are a bit too out of the box, many of them have led us down the right path towards success. I am grateful for my team and their ability to ground me when needed.
Over the years, I have learned that sometimes “showing up” is the most important step in the process and that confidence is gained through practice and access to information.
I can never take credit for our achievements or success on my own and put a huge emphasis on team recognition and a positive culture. I have adopted a servant leadership mentality and am reminded every day that I could not achieve this level of success without my amazing team and their support.
Charlie Saffro – President at CS Recruiting
