Dina DeMarco
Appearances
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Myself, as I said, I've been with the organization for 15 years. I am based in Atlantic Beach, Florida. I do a good amount of charitable work. I was previously on the board of our local humane society. So anything with animals, I love. I'm working on becoming a certified bird or wildlife rehabilitation specialist. That'll take a while, but that's the next thing on the docket for me.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah, yeah. So what we found is that lower middle market private equity firms that are investing in the lower middle market often have significant growth plans for their investment. However, those portfolio companies lack the resources and know how to effectively recruit.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
So rather than calling in a search firm, a different search firm for every role, Human is designed to be a holistic recruitment solution. So the majority of our partners are PE backed portfolio companies, and we can come in and hire one role up to 100 roles. And that's anything from your staff level positions up to your VP level roles.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And concurrently, we're not only there to fill positions, but we're also there to help these organizations build out their own recruitment functions. So we do something that we call an outsource to insource model, where we actually help companies build a best-in-class recruitment process.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
So when they're ready for their next transaction, they have the systems and processes in place to really maximize value.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah, I love that question. So first, I am a big believer in recruitment for all. And so I think that what we've realized is that you can provide really great recruitment service and it doesn't need to be at 33% of somebody's total year one cash compensation. We found that if we deliver really good results, we can help our partners out at a fraction of the cost.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And so we're able to execute on searches anywhere from a third to half of what traditional agencies would charge. And at that rate, what we find is that our partners can come to us with more searches.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
It might be something that historically they would stay away from an external partner because they didn't want to pay the large price tag, but they can come to human and they can get the same results and pay a fraction of the price. So we know that if we keep our rates low, we'll get scale.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah, yeah, great question. So we still have a very large portion of our business that's concentrated in healthcare, but we carved out a nurse staffing company and we actually sold that business to private equity in 2017. And it was during that transaction, we developed a really great relationship with the firm that purchased that organization.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And what happened was they kept coming back to us at Hume and saying, hey, we know you know how to recruit. We've just acquired this company and they need to hire a financial controller, but we don't want to pay 30 percent. Or we've just acquired this company. It's peak season. They need to hire 40 HVAC technicians. Can you help us figure out and do it? how to do it.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And so we had this informal relationship and we were doing that for about 12 months. And then we had a light bulb moment and we said, wait, there is nobody out there that is serving this, this group with a really scalable and affordable recruitment resource. And so that's when I had the opportunity to figure out what this business looks like.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And that's when we decided to formally launch this, this practice. Yeah.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah, perfect. Well, Scott, thank you so much for spending a few minutes with me today. As you've mentioned, I have been with Human for 15 years, and I have spent the majority of my time at the organization leading large-scale RPO operations, so helping organizations to build high-performing recruitment teams.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah, I guess. So it's very interesting right now. So obviously, everybody is watching the economy. Being a talent person, what I'm watching is the labor market. And I like to describe it as cooling but optimistically resilient. So I look at the JOLTS report every month and we're seeing this continued downward trend in job openings.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
But what's interesting is the number of hires is remaining relatively stable and the number of quits are remaining relatively stable. So we know that people are confident enough to make job changes, but we also know that employers are trying to hold on to talent. So it tells me that we're in really a strategic phase of hiring where organizations are doing precise hiring.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And so we have to focus on quality, efficiency, and making sure that we are putting forth the best candidate experience that we possibly can. From the candidate perspective, candidates are willing to take jobs It takes a bit more convincing than it would have historically a couple of years ago, for example.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
What we know is there's not as many active job seekers, but if you have a compelling position, candidates will have the conversation and they'll explore additional opportunities. The other thing we're watching, which I think everybody's watching this as well, is AI and how can we use AI in the recruitment function.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
So this is something that we're leaning into heavy and it can greatly increase our recruiter productivity. It upgrades the roles of recruiters. It just creates better candidate experience and search outcomes. So I love the use of AI in recruitment. I'm excited to see how this can continue to evolve. And I'm excited to see how it really upgrades the role of recruiters as well.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah, so I'm so glad you asked this question. This is one of my favorite discussions. So I think that depending on the candidates that you're trying to attract, there are different use cases for the AI tools that are out there. So when we think of the 40 HVAC technicians, at that point, what we're dealing with is a high volume of candidates. So what we want to look for in an AI platform is
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
is something that is going to help us get through a volume of candidates more quickly. So there are some AI tools that will do preliminary candidate screening and take that pipeline from, let's say 250 candidates down to 25 candidates. And then let's have the recruiter hop on the phone and speak with those 25 candidates before they were having to look at all 250.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
If we look at the other end of the spectrum and think about executive hiring, There are some systems out there that I love from a note-taking perspective that really allow you to capture every aspect of a conversation that you're having with a candidate.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
I like that because I know when I'm talking to a leader, I want to listen and I want to focus on that conversation and not necessarily have to worry about taking all of the notes. So I love some of the note-taking features that are out there as well.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
About five years ago, I pivoted my role and I have helped to launch and subsequently lead our private equity division. Today within our PE division, we created this division after we realized that there was a gap in the market. Portfolio companies needed help hiring and not just with executives.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah, yeah. First, we've had a lot of fun. One thing I would say is that we love the work we do here. So I think making sure that my team is happy and my team is engaged is something that I'm always very proud of. But if we look at some of the successes that we've had at our partners, I have two examples which I would love to share. So one of our portfolio company partners recently recapitalized.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And in their SIM under investment highlights, they had five bullet points. And one of those bullet points was best-in-class centralized recruitment. And at Human, we did that for them. We partnered with this portfolio company early in their hold period to de-risk their recruitment.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And we leaned into what we call our outsource to insource model, where essentially we took over recruitment for them for 24 months. And during that time, we built them a best-in-class recruitment function. So we streamlined processes. We implemented technology. We did a full employer brand revamp. And then we transitioned it back to their team. where we hired them recruiters.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
We hired their recruitment leader. And so by the time they were ready to go to exit, they had this thorough, high-functioning, high-performing recruitment function. So I was super, super proud to see that. And then the other thing I love is that we've been included in several of our PE partners' annual investor presentations.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And specifically, they talk about the partnership that they have with Human. And they reference the enterprise value that we've helped to generate through either cost savings or accelerated hiring. So those are two things that I like to brag on.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah. So we know that private equity firms are very good at most things that they do. But what we're seeing is that there is this gap around understanding talent acquisition as a lever. So what I want to do is I really want to push forth this idea of having a talent acquisition playbook.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And so we know there are playbooks for operations, accounting and finance, almost every other facet of the business. But what we don't see is this concept of a talent acquisition playbook. And really, that's what we are in Human PE Talent Solutions. We are your TA playbook. And so I'm focused on really bringing that to our partners and figuring out how we can further develop this concept.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
It's something that we're doing organically, but to really have it crystallized is something that I'm really excited about.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
There are tons of great executive search firms out there, but when it comes to hiring staff and middle management, what we found was there wasn't necessarily a great solution. So that's how we started this business.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Yeah. So let's see. So first – Don't overlook the middle. And when I say that, I think you can talk to nearly any PE firm and they're going to know really great partners for their C-suite hiring. But when it comes to hiring that financial controller, they're not going to have a go-to resource. They don't know what to do. They don't want to pay corn fairy 33%.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
So understand how to address the middle roles and understand how important they are. Build your recruitment resources early in the process. So have a partner in place who can help you scale and who can help you understand what the levers are to pull within a recruitment function. That's a shameless plug for human right there, but I think it's important that people have a good recruitment partner.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
And then my final tip would be, and this one's slightly controversial depending on who you ask, is consider decoupling recruitment from HR in its entirety. I think that oftentimes people think that recruitment is just a subset of HR functions. When in reality, recruitment is a strategic lever. It's not just a piece of HR.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
So I think it's important to evaluate, is this something that should be decoupled from the HR function and really have a seat at the table?
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Today, we partner with PE firms to ensure that their portfolio companies have access to scalable, flexible, and affordable recruitment resources so they can help build out their teams quickly without having to rely on an overpriced headhunter or Sometimes they're under-resourced internal HR teams. So that's what we do here in Human PE Talent Solutions.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Scaling Recruitment in Private Equity with Dina DeMarco of Hueman Private Equity Talent Solutions 5-28-25
Scott, thank you. I appreciate it. It was my pleasure.