Hire Education: Recent Episodes
Catapult Solutions Group
Welcome to Hire Education, a workforce solutions podcast brought to you by Catapult Solutions Group.
Throughout the pandemic, the field of biotechnology has seen groundbreaking advancements, particularly in cancer treatment. This period marked a significant shift towards innovative strategies in developing immunomedicines, with many experts focusing on the life sciences sector. By the end of 2023, the spotlight was on companies like Reinvigoron, led by CEO Kejin Zhou, who brought a unique approach to tackling challenging cancers. This shift also underscored the importance of strategic team building and the emergence of new biotech hubs, notably in Dallas, Texas.
As biotech solutions continue to evolve, understanding the intricacies of these innovations and the dynamics of team composition becomes crucial. For those in the biotech industry and aspiring professionals, grasping the full scope of these developments is essential. Selecting the right partnerships and being part of a forward-thinking team is key to success in this rapidly advancing field.
In this episode of the Higher Education podcast, host Daniel Litwin delves into the world of biotech innovation with insights from Reinvigoron's Kejin Zhou and Catapult Solutions Group's Taylor Culbertson. They explore the following:
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Cutting-edge techniques in biotechnology for cancer treatment
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The role of strategic partnerships in biotech team building
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The rise of Dallas, Texas as a new center for biotech research and development
"Biotechnology is not just about the science; it's about bringing together the right people and ideas to make a real impact," Zhou said. "In this rapidly evolving field, staying ahead means being part of a dynamic, innovative team."
AI technology is reinventing traditional retail landscapes all over the world, and the need for innovation in inventory management is pivotal. Retailers are at a crossroads, facing the imperative need to synchronize online and offline inventories and enhance the customer shopping experience. However, a key player, Spacee, is driving this transformation by leveraging AI (artificial intelligence) and interactive technologies to provide real-time visibility into in-store inventories and solve billion-dollar problems in the retail sector.
How is Spacee transforming inventory management in retail with AI technology, and what does this mean for retailers and consumers looking for enhanced shopping experiences and better inventory visibility?
For an episode of "Hire Education," hosted by Gabrielle Bejarano, guests Tyler Lee and Hannah Anderson from Catapult Solutions Group, along with Skip Howard, the founder of Spacee, engaged in a thought-provoking conversation about the groundbreaking technologies in retail. They illuminated how Spacee’s advanced AI technology offers revolutionary solutions to retailers, solving critical inventory visibility issues and reshaping customer interactions.
They also explored further on:
Spacee’s technology enables real-time inventory tracking using a unique IoT rover with advanced computer vision.
Projecting interactive touchscreens on varied surfaces, Spacee creates engaging and dynamic customer experiences, leading to heightened consumer connections and increased sales.
Spacee’s distributed AI system processes immense data on-site, minimizing data streaming costs and ensuring real-time inventory updates.
Tyler Lee and Hannah Anderson are Account Executives at Catapult Solutions Group, a global, full-service staffing firm specializing in innovative solutions. They bring extensive knowledge and experience to the IT industry. Skip Howard is the visionary founder of Spacee, a company at the forefront of utilizing computer vision AI to solve significant supply chain issues. Recently named a top 50 AI innovator, Howard has insights and innovations that are shaping the future of the retail industry.
Travel nursing was in high demand throughout the majority of the pandemic. During this period, travel nursing became so lucrative many nurses left full-time healthcare positions to become travel nurses. By the end of December 2021, travel-nurse pay average rates were close to $4,000 per week.
Since that peak, travel nursing salaries have stabilized, but experts expect temporary nursing contracts will continue to account for a significant portion of the healthcare labor workforce.
For nurses considering travel nursing and allied health professionals seeking the right healthcare fit, understanding the complete picture of what’s involved is critical. Making the proper healthcare recruitment agency selection is paramount to having a good experience and maintaining longevity.
On this episode of the Catapult Healthcare solutions podcast, host Michelle Dawn Mooney got first-hand knowledge of travel nursing with two best friends working with Catapult Healthcare Solutions. Danyal Kelsheimer, a Registered Dialysis Nurse, and Brandy Miller, a Certified Surgical Tech, were joined by Catapult Healthcare Solutions’ National Recruiter, Cody Mirander, to discuss the benefits of being a travel nurse and what’s involved with the process.
Mooney, Mirander, Kelsheimer, and Miller discuss the following:
•Things to know about being a travel nurse and an allied health professional
•Benefits of travel nursing
•What healthcare institutions look for in the ideal travel nursing candidate
“Over at Catapult, our main thing is building relationships,” Mirander said. “We don’t care if you end up working for us, or if you end up working with another company. At the end of the day, as long as you’re happy, that’s what we’re looking for.”
Salespeople are one of, if not the most important people in any business; no one will know your business, let alone make sales or sell anything to anyone without them. Recruiters are also equally important to any business, as they help match it with the best talents available and help the organization grow.
Many people tend to use sales and recruitment interchangeably, even though they go hand in hand. They even say they are the same thing, but are they really the same? How do these two jobs differ, and how do sales relate to recruitment?
On today's podcast by Catapult Healthcare Solutions, host Gabrielle Bejarano chatted with Tony Williams, Account Executive, Catapult Solutions Group, and Taylor Culbertson, also an Account Executive at Catapult Solutions Group, to shed some light on these questions, talk about and define what sales and recruiters do, and how they can work better together.
"You can't have one without the other—the sales team can't succeed without the recruiters, and vice-versa. You truly need both sides of the business to keep the engine running," Culbertson said.
"They go hand in hand. From a business standpoint, we lean heavily on the recruiting team to find resources for our client and also cover different things going on in the market, such as lead generation, etc.," Williams added.
Bejarano, Williams, and Culbertson discussed:
How recruiting and sales are two different jobs
Major obstacles that come up when it comes to the communication between these two roles
Perspective on reading the lines between resumes
All recruiting is not sales, and all sales is not recruiting; they are two different jobs. Sales is actively going out, finding the business, and actively talking to clients, finding out what the market is on the business side, and not necessarily on the candidate side. Recruiting is about getting talents—asking where they are coming from, where they'd like to go, etc.—and that can be used as intelligence for the sales team.
Bejarano asked Williams and Culbertson to talk about the friction between salespeople and recruiters and how they can communicate effectively:
"It boils down to the communication. If your style is not like your sales partner's, then there can be challenges. You have to figure out who you are working with and what their styles are and not try to mimic them but just meet somewhere in the middle," Williams explained.
"Find who you work best with; there are people you are going to work better with, and the communication styles are going to match. It's easy to get lost in email and virtual meetings. Meet face to face to really gauge what the other person is trying to communicate. Be as transparent as possible from the very beginning," Culbertson added.
Culbertson is the Account Executive for Catapult Solutions Group. Her main job is to bring in more business and provide business development to Catapult. She focuses mainly on the oil and gas and energy sectors and the municipal space.
Williams is the Provider of Solutions along with Connector of Dots at Catapult Solutions Group. He started as a recruiter, transitioned to sales, and now focuses on business development.
Salespeople are one of, if not the most important people in any business; no one will know your business, let alone make sales or sell anything to anyone without them. Recruiters are also equally important to any business, as they help match it with the best talents available and help the organization grow.
Many people tend to use sales and recruitment interchangeably, even though they go hand in hand. They even say they are the same thing, but are they really the same? How do these two jobs differ, and how do sales relate to recruitment?
On today's podcast by Catapult Healthcare Solutions, host Gabrielle Bejarano chatted with Tony Williams, Account Executive, Catapult Solutions Group, and Taylor Culbertson, also an Account Executive at Catapult Solutions Group, to shed some light on these questions, talk about and define what sales and recruiters do, and how they can work better together.
"You can't have one without the other—the sales team can't succeed without the recruiters, and vice-versa. You truly need both sides of the business to keep the engine running," Culbertson said.
"They go hand in hand. From a business standpoint, we lean heavily on the recruiting team to find resources for our client and also cover different things going on in the market, such as lead generation, etc.," Williams added.
Bejarano, Williams, and Culbertson discussed:
How recruiting and sales are two different jobs
Major obstacles that come up when it comes to the communication between these two roles
Perspective on reading the lines between resumes
All recruiting is not sales, and all sales is not recruiting; they are two different jobs. Sales is actively going out, finding the business, and actively talking to clients, finding out what the market is on the business side, and not necessarily on the candidate side. Recruiting is about getting talents—asking where they are coming from, where they'd like to go, etc.—and that can be used as intelligence for the sales team.
Bejarano asked Williams and Culbertson to talk about the friction between salespeople and recruiters and how they can communicate effectively:
"It boils down to the communication. If your style is not like your sales partner's, then there can be challenges. You have to figure out who you are working with and what their styles are and not try to mimic them but just meet somewhere in the middle," Williams explained.
"Find who you work best with; there are people you are going to work better with, and the communication styles are going to match. It's easy to get lost in email and virtual meetings. Meet face to face to really gauge what the other person is trying to communicate. Be as transparent as possible from the very beginning," Culbertson added.
Culbertson is the Account Executive for Catapult Solutions Group. Her main job is to bring in more business and provide business development to Catapult. She focuses mainly on the oil and gas and energy sectors and the municipal space.
Williams is the Provider of Solutions along with Connector of Dots at Catapult Solutions Group. He started as a recruiter, transitioned to sales, and now focuses on business development.
Since 2013, Catapult Solutions Group has strived to be the very best staffing firm it can be. While it started out small, it has since grown to become a top staffing firm, winning multiple awards between 2021 and 2022, including being named one of the fastest growing firms in the USA.
On this episode of Hire Education, to celebrate ten years of Catapult Solutions Group, CEO & Founder Patrick Burke sat down with two of his co-workers—Chief Delivery Office Mitch Blackwell and VP of Delivery (as well as Founder) Chris Burke—to talk about this monumental achievement for the company. Patrick begins by saying “Chris and I, and a bunch of others, wanted to start our own company and do it our way” before going into the story of how the company came to be in San Antonio, TX. While it took some time to nail down what exactly they wanted to focus on, they eventually got there, becoming bigger than they ever expected to be.
The trio also discuss:
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The difficulty of starting a new business (and keeping the lights on).
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Stories of moments and events that occurred in those first ten years.
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The many employees who have come and gone.
While spending a lot of time telling stories, Chris also wants to make clear just how much has changed in the last decade, and how large Catapult Solutions Group has become. “What I realize today sitting here…it’s bigger than all of us,” says Patrick. This is bigger than Chris, and Mitch, and myself. There’s a huge company out there with seventy-five to a hundred employees we have, we have people intentionally in Europe, and so it feels really good to see something that’s much bigger than who we are.”
Staffing referrals are a way for companies to find potential candidates for job openings through recommendations from current employees, colleagues, or other contacts. It involves using the network of individuals familiar with the company and its culture to find qualified candidates for job openings. Typically, when a company has an open position, they will ask their employees and other contacts if they know anyone who would be a good fit for the role. The company may also provide incentives or rewards for employees who refer successful candidates.
Catapult Solutions Group has launched a new staffing referral program. How can this program benefit healthcare professionals, and how can they earn money through it?
On today's episode of the Catapult Solutions Group podcast, host Gabrielle Bejarano speaks with Joseph Turner, the President of Catapult Healthcare Solutions, and Rachelle Arnold, the Vice President of Customer Experience at Staffing Referrals, to talk about how staffing referral programs can benefit healthcare professionals and improve the quality of patient care.
The three discuss…
1.An understanding of what staffing referrals are and how it affects their clients
2.Simple steps to using Staffing Referrals, explaining the recruiter, ambassador, and leads network/chain of command
3.What are some of the benefits of staffing referrals
"What we do is automate the email and text communication on behalf of the recruiters. We are trying to make the recruiter's life easier. We know that recruiters have so much on their plate, and it can be a lot to handle," said Rachelle Arnold.
Recruiters play a critical role in the staffing referral process, as they are the primary point of contact for clients and also work to ensure that their staffing needs are met effectively and efficiently. They work closely with clients to understand their unique needs and also to develop tailored solutions matching their requirements with the best candidates.
"There is a whole variant of technical capabilities and opportunities, and I believe organizations are progressive in terms of technology automation, AI," said Joseph Turner.
Rachelle Arnold is the Vice President of Customer Experience at Staffing Referrals. She graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She has been with Staffing Referrals for a year and 7 months.
Joseph Turner, the President of Catapult Solutions Group, has been with the company for over four and a half years. He graduated from Texas Tech University and is an experienced executive in the healthcare recruitment and staffing industry.
Resumes are usually the key and, ultimately, the primary gateway to getting hired for a job. However, only some of these resumes make it to the recruiters who determine who gets hired for a job. According to CNBC, around 75 percent of resumes are not read by an actual human but are run through an automated reader. That is why in recent years, many experts have advised job seekers to use keywords and formats which can improve the odds of their resume making it past the automated reader and eventually into the hands of an actual hiring manager.
What should job seekers implement in their resumes, and how can they improve their resumes to stand out?
On an episode of “Hire Education”, host Gabrielle Bejarano was joined by certified corporate trainers at Catapult Solutions Group, Gina Hozumi and Drew Plaza. They discussed the best practices regarding resume creation and securing a job. They both work with clients and their resumes and know the best tools to ensure that resumes get past recruiters’ Applicant Tracking Systems.
Bejarano, Hozumi, and Plaza also discussed:
1.Ensuring that your resume is optimized for automated tools used by recruiters and hiring managers
2.Preparative steps that job seekers should utilize ahead of an interview
3.What job seekers should consider when sending a resume and researching a company
Hozumi, a National Account Manager at Catapult Solutions Group, stated that job seekers should put themselves in the mind of the resume recipient and think of what they might want to know about them to present the best information.
“Never assume that whoever is going to be reading the resume will know what you are doing on a day-to-day, even if it's pretty standard, because each role can be a little different. Therefore, being as descriptive as you can supplies information that brings a resume out. In addition, it shows the effort put into the resume,” said Hozumi.
In emphasizing the importance of company research, Plaza, a Senior Recruiter at Catapult Solutions Group, added that it shows initiative and effort when a job seeker wants to be more informed about the role and is actively seeking to be.
“Being able to know a little bit about the company may require you to visit the company page. Do you really want the job if you do not visit the page? Because if you were to put yourself in their shoes, if you don't know anything about the company, why would they want you to work there if you didn't take the time to gather necessary information?” said Plaza.
Gina Hozumi is a National Account Manager at Catapult Solutions Group and has been with the company for six years. She is also a graduate of the University of Rhode Island.
Drew Plaza is Senior Recruiter at Catapult Solutions Group and has worked at the company for four years. He is a graduate of the University of North Texas.
Outside recruiters and recruitment is widely accepted as a valuable resource as candidates enter the job market. Bobby Brill sits down with Michael Boyles, VP of Operations at Catapult Federal Services, and Josh Rainier, Human Resources Administrator of Catapult Solutions Group, to discuss what it takes to build a great recruiter and candidate relationship.
Boyles describes the Catapult approach as “old school meets new school.” He explains that while he values technology, the focus should first and always remain on the person and building relationships.
The first is the relationship with the candidate. Recruiters should focus on trust and transparency. Candidates should feel comfortable talking about themselves openly. “Be yourself, be honest with people, tell them up front where the gaps and warts are,” said Boyles. Catapult ensures that candidates don’t feel like they’re just another number in the system. Recruiters lay the foundation of the relationship with their candidates from the jump. “Catapult Solutions focuses on person-to-person contact,” said Boyles.
Rainier, who started recruiting but is now working within HR, understands the daunting task of being in the job market. First and foremost, recruiters need to build rapport with candidates. With empathy, recruiters should remember that this person is making a big life decision. “You need to have a certain amount of information [about the position] to make the decision that could impact your next 5 to 10 years,” said Rainier.
Trust and transparency are fundamental to the recruiter/candidate and the recruiter/client relationship. “Transparency and trust coincide. Trust is key to any relationship. If you don’t have trust, it’s really hard to build anything else,” said Boyles. From the initial description, it is up to the recruiter to clarify what skills the company needs; understand the absolute ‘must haves’ and ‘nice to haves.’ Knowing these elements will clearly define the role. “As a staffing firm, we need to do the right things to make sure we understand the [job] requirements,” said Rainier.
Catapult Solutions Group focuses on relationships and the people. These two elements are what remains the core of successful recruiting. To get your resume to a connected Catapult Recruiter, visit their website at catapultsg.com.
The digital laborer is a digitalized process that complements human tasks in various fields and helps generate efficiency and reduce errors while delivering consistency in quality. With nearly all workers utilizing digital technology, how can companies put AI solutions to work for their IT operations without reducing functionality or impeding standard business processes? Richard A. Negron, Chief Information Officer at Catapult Technology Services, and Mark Shivers, Founder and CEO at Ignite IPA, offered their insights on digital laborer trends that elevate the existing workforce to do better, more meaningful work.
Labor shortages are a well-known workforce side effect of the pandemic. “Tons of companies right now have open jobs […] but can’t find the right people at the right price to fill that hole,” Shivers said. “That is compounding with a market change right now where the market is slightly dipping, and companies are worried about expenses and wondering how to keep those margins balanced, right?” Companies are determining two things: how to lower expenses in a struggling revenue environment and how to grow when hiring for more operational and administrative roles is not feasible. Shivers believes this situation is what is driving the digital laborer conversation.
Resistance to digital automation fell away during the pandemic as more companies and workers realized how digital automation and laborers could enhance the work experience, not uproot it. “It introduces a concept that automation is a viable solution,” Shivers said. “And now, we’re more accustomed to automation in our lives right now.”
A lot of the automation taking place now does without anyone noticing. “Especially with IT folks working remotely, programming software for companies, doing cyber security, doing IT work where they require server capacity,” Negron said. “They need 10 servers. All of a sudden, they click a button, and 10 servers are provisioned on their behalf within minutes. Well, something is happening behind the scenes, and it’s not a human doing it.”
In Part 2 of this exciting 2-Part series, podcast host Gabrielle Bejarano sat down with Paul Shoe, RN, Suzanne Raymond, National Recruiter at Catapult Healthcare, and Shannon Kanakaole, Recruiting Operations Manager at Catapult Healthcare, to talk about how nurses and agencies can effectively work together and tackle challenges that arise while on contract.
Shoe, a registered nurse contracted through Catapult Healthcare, says that his experience with being hired through an agency has been smooth and he’s now preparing to extend his current contract. However, Shoe noted that traveling nurse contracts may have terms that those new to the industry may not understand. For example, many contracts include a floating clause.
Floating allows nurses to work on different floors and specialties to support hospital needs at any given time. Shoe noted that sometimes “people really get upset when they have to go to another place out of their comfort zone.” Recruiters would be prudent to discuss floating options with potential candidates, and candidates not comfortable with floating need to make sure their recruiter knows.
It’s important for nurses to “try to have communication as much as possible with your recruiter and the facility if need be,” recommends Shoe, RN. Travel “nursing can be very fluid… you’ve gotta be willing to roll with it,” said Shoe.
Suzanne Raymond, Recruiter with Catapult Healthcare, finds success with floating terms “if I tell people that upfront,” and they know what to expect. Of course, maintaining a comfort level with their skills and experience is essential. And if a nurse finds themselves outside of their comfort zone, they should get in touch with their recruiter right away. “We’ll do what we can from our side to advocate for our people,” said Raymond.
Choosing an agency as a registered nurse can be a daunting task. According to Nurse.org, “Hospitals are trying to cut costs by reducing the number of travel nurses and renegotiating contracts with staffing agencies, but some agencies are still making big promises to travel nurses that can make the whole situation seem like a bait and switch.”
Gabrielle Bejarano sat down with Paul Shoe, RN contracted through Catapult Healthcare; Suzanne Raymond, National Recruiter at Catapult Healthcare; and Shannon Kanakaole, Recruiting Operations Manager at Catapult Healthcare, to discuss recruiting best practices and how to work effectively with an agency, in Part 1 of a 2-Part podcast series.
“Communication and transparency are at the forefront of the relationship between the agency and the provider,” said Kanakaole. Nurses need to give recruiters clear direction on what they want and expect from a job. Recruiters need to understand the full range of responsibilities and expectations of the roles they are filling to ensure they are finding the best candidate.
“From the initial call, the first and most important thing is understanding the external factors of where they need to be for their next position or assignment,” said Kanakaole. Recruiters need to be clear on the top three priorities of their candidates. Establishing clarity on must-haves and nice-to-haves ensures recruiters can meet candidates’ needs and create a foundation of trust in the relationship. For nurses, that means knowing their desires and communicating them to a recruiter effectively.
As a nurse coming to an agency, Shoe recommended, “make sure all paperwork is up to date” including everything from licenses, medical records, shots, and vaccines. “The more you have ready to go, the quicker we can get you started after an offer,” said Raymond. It streamlines and simplifies the entire process. Once hired, nurses should continue to have open, honest, and frequent conversations with their recruiters. Maintaining the relationship will help when issues or conflicts need to be addressed.
Listen in to learn more about what to look for when seeking agency representation, how to work successfully with an agency, the role of communications, the changing landscape of the traveling nurse industry, and more. And don’t forget to come back for Part II.
Tyler Kern interviewed Hannah Anderson and Chris Lester to discuss hiring in an evolving market and what to know for the current climate. Hannah Anderson is the Managing Director at Catapult Solutions Group and is joined by Chris Lester, Chief Revenue Officer at Catapult Solutions Group.
There have been many readjustments over the years, and it is a candidate-driven market. Anderson highlighted remote work being a crucial part of the decision-making market in the more recent years. When COVID struck, the market went beyond the in-town network experience to a more expansive market. Furthermore, the expansion with the current market called for the competition to increase among job fields. Companies are having to make game plans to accommodate current market shifts.
Candidates are commonly looking for flexibility among hiring companies. Rate is another competing factor when candidates are looking to apply for companies. Benefits, technology, and a rich culture are also innovative ways to attract candidates.