Thirteen years ago, Steve Hayes, senior partner and founder of The Human Capital Group, had an epiphany. Through the mouth of his 11-year-old son, God opened his eyes to the pride-driven journey he was on. The goal was to be the Chief HR Officer for a Fortune 100 company, and he was well on his way. Motivated by a focus on work first, he moved his family 9 times in the first 14 years of his marriage. Then one night when tucking his son into bed, his boy asked, “Dad, will you move us back to Tennessee and commute to Atlanta for work?”
Steve felt like he was hit with a ton of bricks. His family was living a gypsy lifestyle, and he was justifying working so hard by telling himself he was taking care of his family, and that honored God. Through the voice of his son, he realized he had it backward and needed to put God first. Without God, he wasn’t going to take care of his wife and children the way he needed to. Work needed to be subordinate to them. So he took a leap of faith and began the process of rightfully aligning his priorities.
He resigned from his very lucrative $200,000+ per year job, with twice that in bonus and other perks, moved his family back to Tennessee and, eventually, started The Human Capital Group, a retained executive search and leadership consulting firm.
Steve recalled those early days. “I started in my basement with my previous employer as my first client. This allowed me to create a model that I wished I had when I was the customer.”
That model includes speed, quality and value, the three differentiators that characterize The Human Capital Group’s value proposition. Speed means that the client is guaranteed 4 to 5 thoroughly vetted finalists within 20 business days. Quality is not sacrificed for speed as the company guarantees each new hire for one year. Value is essential to a sustained relationship with their clients, so The Human Capital Group prices its services at 25% of total compensation versus the typical 331/3% fee charged in the retained search industry. This paradigm-breaking model of delivering quality candidates on a timely basis and at a fair price proved to be sustainably successful.
