DAVE TIH, CPA, CA, CFA, PARTNER, RECRUITING IN MOTION, TORONTO, ONTARIO
DAVID TIH
“Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention.”
A unique approach to acquiring talent in the recruitment world is exactly what Dave Tih and his team at Recruiting in Motion (RIM) bring to the table. Necessity truly is the mother of invention, and a need to match qualified talent to the companies seeking to hire them is exactly what has led RIM to use creative innovation in their approach to recruitment services.
Finance and Accounting Recruitment Partner Dave Tih and the Recruiting in Motion team believe that every job seeker is much more than just a resume. Operating with a simple mandate to provide the best possible recruitment services to clients, Dave and his Business Partner Evelynne Ross, offer excellent service to employers seeking to hire in finance, accounting, IT, marketing, business development, administrative and human resource roles.
Established in 2009, Recruiting in Motion has multiple offices across the GTA, Ontario, in Western Canada and the United States. Using a combination of cutting-edge technology and traditional recruitment methods, the company is an industry leader in video-capture technology and secure web-based profiles which they refer to as the “Visual Advantage System”.
“We have developed a unique approach,” explains Dave. “Candidates create a short (60 to 90 seconds in length) video which is quite empowering and it gives them a chance to sell themselves directly to hiring managers. Essentially, they become more than just a resume or a piece of paper. Each candidate is given the opportunity to have more of a say in how they are presented, which is important – especially in today’s market where many job applications are done online and there’s nothing really more to it than the click of a button.”
The Visual Advantage System is good for employers too. Dave explains that employers can streamline hiring processes, cut costs and avoid extra steps in the hiring process.
“Many larger companies use artificial intelligence to short list the candidates they choose to interview. In many cases companies aren’t really picking up the person’s qualities, skills and attributes so much as the keywords they’ve set. We believe that the hiring process is about so much more than just keywords – it’s about the person, their experience, and cultural/personality fit. We feel that’s an important thing, so we try and capture a little bit of that through the Visual Advantage. For our clients – it gives them a sense of a candidate’s personality and skills. We can also eliminate the need for phone screening which reduces the time required for the hiring process. We can get to a much closer match right up front.”
Finance and Accounting Expertise
While Recruiting in Motion offers recruiting services in administrative roles as well as HR, IT, marketing and business development, Dave is an expert in finance and accounting. Completing his undergraduate at Queen’s University, Dave became a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) while working with a Big 4 firm in the audit practice. His next move was to a small private equity company in a Controller role and then completing his CFA designation and working in equity research with a bulge bracket investment bank. Eventually he realized that while he had thought he had found his dream vocation – something was missing. He stumbled across recruiting after discussing his next career move with colleagues and friends.
“I ended up talking to an old colleague of mine who was in recruiting. It was more to talk about job opportunities than it was to talk about recruiting as a career,” says Dave. “We ended up discussing recruiting as a profession and the way she described the job sounded very intriguing to me. It was at that point in my life that I knew I was ready for a new challenge, it sounded like something that could be a good long-term fit for me.”
In 2003 he made the decision to make the move to recruiting and has now been working in the field for over 16 years.
“I enjoyed it right from the start,” explains Dave. “I got into accounting because it was a respected profession that came with the backing of the CPA designation, but I didn’t have a passion for the work. I found that recruiting for finance and accounting was a way to leverage my education and experience. I understand the roles I am recruiting for. I can relate to my candidates. Understanding my clients, the job descriptions and the roles they seek to fill – but without having to actually be performing that work on a daily basis – is a nice middle ground.”
When Dave entered the recruitment field he started with a large international agency.
“I was there for about nine years and was promoted several times to eventually lead the Toronto permanent recruiting practice,” he explains. “Eventually, I was looking to branch off and do something on my own. I was considering people to partner with, different firms to work with, and I ended up connecting with the founding group at Recruiting in Motion. The founders included two of my former colleagues from my old firm. I already knew them well and was confident these were the type of people I wanted to be in business with. When I joined the company in 2012, they had one office in North York and there were about 6-7 employees. I joined with the mandate to open up a second office in downtown Toronto with my business partner Evelynne Ross. We work exceptionally well together and align on important areas such as how we approach the business and how we approach people in general. The downtown Toronto office opened its doors in January 2013 at the corner of Yonge Street and King Street”
The Recruiting in Motion Advantage…
While the key to any good recruitment agency is a strong network, Dave believes that his team can offer this and more. Dave’s team values creating long-term relationships, strength in the team working together to achieve success, finding humour and happiness every day and ensuring they always do the right thing.
“We’re very flexible in the search mandates we take on. We can provide quick turnaround times for core roles, but we also take on pinpoint headhunting exercises for many of our clients,” says Dave. “As the job market gets tighter and tighter, and company expectations/requirements haven’t really been loosened – it takes a lot of extra effort to really discover that ideal candidate for clients and keep them happy. We post jobs but don’t expect the ideal applicant to simply just apply to it. We search our database, do internet research, leverage LinkedIn and rely heavily on our broad referral networks.”
Dave explains that while his primary focus is on finance and accounting jobs, in 2018 the agency opened up a new office administration specialty line of business. Placements can be in any industry as long as the roles fit the silos of finance, accounting, administration, human resource management, IT, marketing and business development. Recruiting in Motion can place candidates in jobs that fit these functions across any company.
“The breadth of industries we work with include small Owner-Managed Companies up to large Public Multi-National Companies,” adds Dave. “We staff from entry level up to executive level and can help out whether the role is permanent, temporary or contract.”
Network connections come into play when searching for candidates to fill these roles, Dave explains that confidentiality can also be a big factor.
“People within our network often stay within the industry they’re in and get to know job seekers who they can refer to us,” explains Dave. “Since we also work with clients who have more visibility and are planning ahead to add new roles, we help them strategize and figure out what they need. We can be a little more proactive with situations like this. We can also be discreet when a client requires a confidential replacement search where they don’t want to let someone go until they’ve found a replacement for their role. Some companies know what they want in a job description and others need support in this process. Fortunately, our experience allows us to help in either scenario.”
With regard to the process, Dave admits that there can be some room for evolution during the discovery phase with a client. His team likes to get to know a client’s needs, understand the company culture and make this part of the process of hunting for the best fit. If there has been high turnover in a role, his team will seek to understand what is/is not working for both the client and employees who have previously held the position.
“If a company has been experiencing high turnover, we can help our clients with consultative ideas,” adds Dave. “We can offer different perspectives because we’ve seen what hundreds of companies are doing and we know what highly valued candidates are responding to.”
In the end the Recruiting in Motion advantage is a secret sauce combining technology, recruiting expertise and a solid foundation based on understanding candidate/client needs as well as maintaining valued connections with good people.
“We truly do believe we’re here to help candidates get a job and to help them with their career,” explains Dave. “We always act as a resource to help with interviewing tips or to demonstrate how to tweak resumes. We also provide information about the companies that we know about. For us it’s a long-term relationship. We may not place you in your next job but we may place you in a job 5 years down the road – you may come back to us as a future client. I always tell my staff this; if you treat people right and do the right thing – people will come back and hire from you even if they’re not going to get their next job from you.”
The strength of the Recruiting in Motion network is based on this principle – that being client-driven in the present can also lead to future results.
“If someone has a good experience as a candidate, they know that they will have a good experience as an employer and that the people that I’m looking to hire will have a good experience as well,” he explains. “A client-focused attitude comes in to play because we want to know what clients need and we take the time to sit down and talk about what is really needed. We want to know how that person fits into the organization and how they will impact the team – not just today but also 3 or 5 years from now.”
More Than a Recruiter, More Than a Resume
Outside the office Dave is a husband and father. He and his wife like to ski with their two sons aged 7 and 10. The family also likes to participate in sports and travel. While he and his wife used to travel to exotic locations and take backpacking adventures, today’s adventures are naturally more family-oriented. He enjoys spending as much time with his family as he can.
Dave’s youngest son has Down syndrome and this has led he and his wife to become active members with the Down Syndrome Association of Toronto (DSAT). Together they help connect parents of children who share their experience.
“My wife and I are active with DSAT and we host a new parent coffee night throughout the year where we invite new or expecting parents to sit down and meet members of the community,” says Dave. “We share advice and help people make new contacts and connections.”
Dave admits that his work with DSAT is similar to his work as a recruiter in so far as he is forging connections between people and helping to bring the right people together to fulfill a mutual need. Children are very important to Dave and his wife. In the past, the couple raised funds to support the education of underprivileged children overseas. His wife, a teacher and parenting coach, worked with him over a decade ago to set up a grassroots charity to sponsor children and purchase additional courses for their educational development. Eventually they decided to raise money to fund the construction of a small school.
As a recruiter and a Dad, Dave has fulfilled his dreams of helping others and is committed to discovering avenues to success for anyone who crosses his path.
“To me, in recruiting, there is a value to sitting down with someone face to face because it shows commitment from the candidate’s side and the seriousness of the job search,” says Dave. “It also shows that we care about that personal touch and we care that the person in front of us is more than just a resume.”
April Potter is a veteran writer with expertise in financial services including nearly 15 years in debt restructuring.
April has written for multiple online publications on a variety of subjects.
Also a painter, her background in finance is balanced by her artistic endeavors.
Dave Tih, CPA, CA, CFA
Partner, Recruiting in Motion
8 King Street East, Suite 500,
Toronto, ON, M5C 1B5
D - 647-490-8583 / 416-800-0367 x108
dave@recruitinginmotion.com