#241 Chad Delligatti (InnoSource) — Staffing, AI, and the Future of Talent

Jeffrey Stern [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Lay of the Land podcast. I am your host, Jeffrey Stern, and today's episode is a crossover episode republished from The Ohio Fund Report, a companion podcast where I explore some of the most ambitious companies and builders shaping Ohio's future. Stories that feel right at home here on Lay of the Land. So with that, please enjoy. Hello everyone, and welcome to The Ohio Fund Report, a show dedicated to raising the collective ambition of Ohio. Before we dive in, just a quick note: this podcast is for informational purposes only. Nothing you hear today should be taken as investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. Please note that The Ohio Fund and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed.

Jeffrey Stern [00:00:46]:
Any forward-looking statements you hear today are based on current expectations and may change. Please do your own research and consult with your advisors before making any investment decisions. For more information on The Ohio Fund, please visit theohiofund.com. Ohiofund.com. Hello everyone, I am Jeffrey Stern, your host of today's Ohio Fund Report with Chad Delgatti, the CEO of InnoSource, a more than two-decade-old Ohio-based company that has grown into a national workforce solutions platform serving Fortune 500 and midsize organizations across the country. Since joining InnoSource in 2000 as one of its earliest employees, Chad has devoted his entire professional career to building the company. Helping it evolve from a regional staffing firm into the leading HR, talent outsourcing, and data solutions partner that it is today, employing more than 2,000 associates across North America and partnering with clients to deliver highly customized recruiting and workforce management solutions. But this isn't just a story about staffing.

Jeffrey Stern [00:01:44]:
From sweeping neighbors' floors in Bexley as a child to running a lawn care business in Granville to flipping Beanie Babies in college, Chad's entrepreneurial drive showed up early, and when faced with the choice between joining a large corporation or becoming one of the first employees at a small fledgling company called InnoSource, he chose the entrepreneurial path, a decision that has shaped the next 25 years of his life. In our conversation today, Chad reflects on what it means to dedicate decades to building one company, the evolution of the staffing and outsourcing industry overall, from newspaper classifieds to job boards to AI-driven recruiting, and how InnoSource is now entering a new chapter powered by technology. We unpack how the implementation of AI is shaping hiring funnels, reducing time to offer, improving tenure, and how fundamentally transforming how workforce solutions are delivered. We also explore what hasn't changed, the company's cultural anchors, leadership principles, and Chad's conviction that technology must enhance rather than replace the human touch. This conversation was a lot of fun. Chad exudes passion for his work,, and it does come through in spades. So please enjoy this awesome discussion with Chad Delgatti. Lay of the Land is brought to you and is proudly sponsored by Serity Partners.

Jeffrey Stern [00:03:03]:
As a wealth management firm, Serity Partners shares Lay of the Land's same dedication to serving local business owners, and the Serity Partners Cleveland team understands the challenges that entrepreneurs and founders face here in Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, and beyond. Wealth comes with complexity and increased demands on time and resources. It is easy to become overwhelmed. Serity Partners clients benefit from a unified team of local specialists who coordinate across both business and personal needs. With Serity Partners' commitment to transparency and putting clients' needs first, complexity can become clarity. To learn more, please visit seritypartners.com or call 216- 464-6266 today. Serity Partners, proud to be recognized as one of the top financial advisory firms in the country. I'm always thinking about where the best place to start these conversations is, and I thought it would be fun to kind of ground it in this kind of idea.

Jeffrey Stern [00:04:05]:
So Innosource is this more than two-decade-old Ohio-based company that you've built into a national platform., you know, helping companies hire and manage large workforces. And we'll certainly get into how that's evolved over time, but I wanted to start with something a little more personal to you. As I think it's kind of increasingly rare today to look at someone's resume or LinkedIn and see really just one company span their entire career. And you are part of, of that minority, having dedicated decades to building and, and leading Innosource from your own professional start. And I'd love if you could just kind of take us back to the beginning and set the stage for this whole journey that, that you've been on originally led you to Innosource and maybe the set of circumstances that, that shaped your own entrepreneurial proclivity at that time.

Chad Delagatti [00:04:56]:
Oh, great first question, Jeffrey. And going back to the beginning, one of the things I always think about is I really have the same values, drive, and loyalty that I did as a young child, I still have today. So as we look back at my career and where it really began is I was always an entrepreneur and I grew up in Bexley, Ohio till 4th grade. In 4th grade, we moved to Granville, Ohio. I graduated from Granville High School in 1995. Was gonna play a college sport, made the decision that I didn't wanna play a college sport, wanted to focus on my education in business. From there, went to Ohio University, graduated, and from there I went on to the University of Dayton and received my MBA. But early on when I was in Bexley, I got my first taste of what I'll call loyalty, drive, hard work, relationships.

Chad Delagatti [00:05:45]:
And that started by, I wanted to work and I was at home and I was under in the second or third grade. So I'd have been under the age of 12. And so I decided I would start sweeping my neighbor's floors. And so I offered for a quarter, I would go over and sweep any room with their vacuum. And so the first job I ever had was in Bexley, Ohio, working around South Res— South Roosevelt. And for a quarter, I would vacuum our neighbors' floors and they loved it. I got to know 'em. I was responsible.

Chad Delagatti [00:06:17]:
And that was the really, that was really the beginning of my career. From there, as we moved to Granville, I was in Granville, Ohio, and there was not a lot of big retail in Granville. We would have to come to the Columbus area to experience that. But one of the things we did have was a business by the name of Gummer Wholesale and Mr. Bulky's. And for those of you that remember back in the '80s, that was where you could buy bulk candy, bulk fun things. So I decided I was gonna sell the candy that kids or students otherwise couldn't get unless they went to Columbus or to Gummer Wholesale or to Mr. Bulky's.

Chad Delagatti [00:06:54]:
And so I began selling Blow Pops, the lollipops., at school, and I had a very successful candy business for a few years through school. And then when I got to 7th grade, I opened my first official business that was called C.D.'s Lawn Care. And I had a lawn mowing business. I had a couple buddies that worked for me. We ended up mowing about 35 lawns a week. We were headquartered in Granville where I lived, but we would go as far towards Columbus to Mount Carmel East, McNaughton Road. And then we would go past Granville, out past Newark, um, and mow some lawns out there. And that was really the first job that really taught me responsibility, delivery, and as I mentioned earlier, that loyalty and those relationships.

Chad Delagatti [00:07:45]:
I didn't like a lot of change. So what I learned early on is if you really want to be the best at something, You've got to commit to it. And when you think of traits that have experts, whether it's painting, whether it's fly fishing, whether it's making wine, no one became an expert or the best at that overnight. It took passion, dedication, hard work, loyalty, relationships, and the willingness to learn from others. And so I learned very early on that I didn't want to be jumping around I wanted to be dedicated. I wanted to be the best at what I did. So I mowed lawns from 7th grade through college and really became great at that. But I was becoming more great at learning how to run a business, learning how to deal with issues, learning how to deal with employees, learning how to motivate employees, learning how to schedule, how to hold them accountable.

Chad Delagatti [00:08:43]:
And so then as I moved past the lawn mowing business, I was in college and I still had this drive to do something, make money, be an entrepreneur while I was going to school. And while I was in school, I was in summer school. I did an overseas kind of internship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and we went to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. And when I came back, it was about August or late July, and on the news, people were going bananas for these stuffed animals at the drive-through at McDonald's. So I did a little research, I asked around, and it was becoming the trend of Beanie Babies. So fast forward a month, I had the ability to make a big purchase and I went all in and I maximized my college credit card, which at the time, if anyone remembers, you would sign up with a bank, they would give you a $500 credit card. And I bought $500 of Beanie Babies. I sat on 'em and I found a Beanie Baby show in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Chad Delagatti [00:09:46]:
I went over and in under 1 hour I sold $10,000 of Beanie Babies off of that original $500 investment. And I really began to love business even more and began to see trends, patterns, and where the supply and demand came into place. And if there was big demand and you could create a quality supply, you could really have something special. So through college, I became a BD broker dealer, had a lot of fun doing that, and then I went right into my MBA. And then as you said, Jeffrey, I started that career in June of 2000 at Innosource, and I couldn't be more happy with my decision. I love Innosource. I love that I've stayed the whole way.. And what I can tell you is I really feel that I've became an expert.

Chad Delagatti [00:10:36]:
I have been very loyal, and by sticking with Innosource for the past 25+ years, I feel I've put myself in a much better position to continue to succeed by becoming the best at what I do and constantly learning through people around me on how I can get better, what I can take from them. And I always felt if I would've had 5 careers in that same 25 I would've grown as a great business person. I would've learned a lot more other things or more diverse things, but I wouldn't be the expert and be the leader I am today in this human resources workforce solutions field. So I love the loyalty. I love staying here. I love getting better each day. And as I look back, I've always been a very loyal person from the initial sweeping to the Blow Pops. To the lawn mowing, to the Beanie Baby, to where I am today.

Chad Delagatti [00:11:30]:
And I've always been very dedicated at anything I do. And I believe you'll get much further in life putting all your passion into one thing than into five.

Jeffrey Stern [00:11:40]:
How did you know it was the right thing to focus on at the time? What, what kind of drew you originally to this, this opportunity and this problem space generally?

Chad Delagatti [00:11:48]:
Yeah, so great question. So I would say my parents were always very instrumental in giving me the values I have today, teaching me that your relationships, the way you treat others, is much more important than any outputs you can achieve. And so early on, I was graduating with my MBA from the University of Dayton, and ironically, I was being recruited by Lucid Technologies. I was very excited to get in the corporate world. I was going to get a good opportunity young to lead coming right out with my MBA. And I had met my future wife in MBA school. And I was taking my girlfriend at the time out to meet my parents for the first time. And I was in this job search finishing my MBA.

Chad Delagatti [00:12:38]:
And at that time, I remember sitting on the deck with my parents and my future wife and discussing with them. The opportunity at Lucent or this company called Innosource that was just founded less than a year before had called me and was interested in me working there. And the way that came about was in my lawn mowing years, one of my lawn mowing customers had started this company called Innosource. So once again, if you go back and think of those early lessons of building relationships, being responsible, being loyal, getting the job done, that individual that I mowed their lawns gave me the opportunity to come as employee, I'll say number 5 at Innosource. And when I spoke with my parents and my future wife, they were the ones that gave me that advice that you've always loved being an entrepreneur. You've always loved controlling your path and your destiny. You know, you're very loyal. Take the smaller entrepreneurial opportunity.

Chad Delagatti [00:13:43]:
Not the lucid. And when I interviewed with InnoSource at the time, the founder had given me the same advice in the interview. And I remember interviewing at the Polaris Grill. It was May of 2000, and the individual said, do you want to be one of 10,000, or do you want to be one of 5 and have the chance to do something special? And from my earlier years being dedicated and loyal in each of those businesses and successful, I knew I wanted that chance to be an entrepreneur and to create something special over the long haul and really dive in and be dedicated. So I go back to that interview with that question, and I go back to my future wife, Adrienne, my mom and dad, Tony and Linda, saying, hey, take the smaller avenue, take the entrepreneurial route, be dedicated and make something special. And I've never looked back, Jeffrey. And I love every minute of what I've accomplished at Innosource. But more important, I love the people I work with and I love our customers.

Chad Delagatti [00:14:41]:
They're what make it special and they're what keep, they're what keep, they keep me driven every day. And I wake up excited to get to work, to be with our customers, be with our internal employee, and be with all of our associates across the country.

Jeffrey Stern [00:14:56]:
Could you paint a, a quick picture just of what Innosource is today? You know, what do you actually do? Yes. Who do you serve? What makes your approach different and, and, and special, to use your language.

Chad Delagatti [00:15:09]:
Yeah. So we've really had a fun run over the last 25 years. We've really grown. We still stick to the same founding principles and service delivery, but we keep expanding it and finding ways to do it better. So InnoSource today is a human resources workforce solution company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Dublin, Ohio, serving customers across the United States. So we're a nationwide company. And what we do is we deliver workforce solutions to these companies. So we provide contract staffing services where we're partnering with large organizations looking to bring in long-term permanent talent, recruiting them from other full-time jobs with benefits through InnoSource for that career opportunity at one of our awesome customers.

Chad Delagatti [00:15:57]:
And then on the second half, we do on-site outsourcing. Which is where we're a compelling alternative to traditional outsourcing overseas or offshore, where we come in and we can actually take over a function of one of our customers. We make it a seamless transition from their customers' viewpoints. We typically retain the function in our client's facility, or we take it remote, and then we really work on the people, process, performance, and the technology. We do some data solutions work where we partner with organizations and we help them manage their data, report their data, organize their data, and see it in real-time reporting. And then the last piece that I'm most excited over is through this 25 years, we've recently taken on a huge pivot, and that pivot comes from the investment from The Ohio Fund, which I absolutely love. Mark Kwame has been amazing. Ray Leach, Mike Venerables, yourself, Jill, everyone has been outstanding to work with.

Chad Delagatti [00:17:03]:
But what we did was we took a pivot and we're now continuing to deliver these same workforce solutions in contract staffing, in onsite outsourcing, on the data side. But we're doing it with an AI focus and with a more technology focus. And when you think of recruiting and contact centers, So one of the areas that we are experts at and we've built the whole business on is what we define as contact center or customer service centers. And Jeffrey, that's really any type of work where you're interfacing with a customer live through technology or any channel that, that may be. And we're really the best at recruiting. So when you think of the recruiting and these service centers we work in, AI is coming and it's coming fast. And now we have the ability to work with our customers and with this AI, continue to do what we've always done, but do it better. So on the recruiting side, we can touch more candidates quicker.

Chad Delagatti [00:18:01]:
We can hire 'em quicker. We can get them in the role proficiently quicker and get a better result. So our customers get a higher quality hire quicker. And then on the onsite outsourcing side where we're actually running these service centers for our customers and having a ton of success. We now have the AI tool and the technology to make our agents that much better, having real-time answers, being able to navigate systems quicker with our AI mini tool to ultimately be able to deliver our service at a lower cost with a higher delivery output with handling our customers' inquiries, questions and at a higher level, and ultimately getting higher customer satisfaction scores.

Jeffrey Stern [00:18:47]:
To set the stage for a deeper discussion about AI and its implications for the work that you're doing, I mean, the whole industry— staffing, outsourcing— has changed, you know, quite a lot over the past couple decades, from job boards, temp agencies, automation, remote work, now AI. And you've experienced this change firsthand through the entirety of it. Yes. And I'd love to just hear from your perspective how the market itself has evolved in your eyes over those years and how Innosource has evolved with it and kind of what the chapters of evolution of the business have been through that time.

Chad Delagatti [00:19:27]:
Yeah, yeah. Great question, Jeffrey. So we've seen a lot of evolutions over the last 25 years in the recruiting and the staffing space. And when you think about just the overall society we live in with the technological advances, I would say recruiting and staffing has had a similar path. So when I first started, cell phones were not that common. They were out there, they were used. But one of the things I've always said is to be successful at recruiting, you must have multiple recruiting channels. And so When we first started, the channels were really more traditional paper.

Chad Delagatti [00:20:06]:
So you had classified ads, we had your job news, your local newspaper, you had your referrals. And then in 2000-ish, we had this neat thing come along called Monster and CareerBuilder, and it was very expensive. But you had the ability to start using technology to identify people versus using the traditional channel, which was landline phones or fax machines. Early on in my career, when we would run ads in the newspaper, we would either then answer the phones all day long to field thousands of calls, or we would have a fax machine just running all day long printing resumes off. So we worked through the phone calls, the resumes while beginning to integrate the Monsters and the CareerBuilders. What we found was we really were able to open up our ability regionally to get bigger with this technology as Monster and CareerBuilder came on. But Jeffrey, one of the things we never wanted to lose was that quality hire and that quality touch. So as we navigated through the referral the classified ads, the local newspapers.

Chad Delagatti [00:21:26]:
We really saw these job boards get more and more popular along with these large career fairs. So now let's move to 2005 to 2012, even '13, '14. And you saw Dice, you saw Recruit.com, you saw Monster, you saw CareerBuilder, and you saw these large platforms begin doing huge conferences in the Midwest, in the South, out West, where they would begin to congregate these people, and you would learn more about the transition into the technology. Then as we moved past '15, a big player came in by the name of Indeed, and Indeed really took it to the next level by not just having people post resumes and other people fish to find those, but really consolidating the industry, scraping other boards, controlling the flow of the resumes, and really helping you match that quality component. So in my 25 years, the most exciting time of the technological advances happened in the last 18 months for me. So we got to see the manual and how slow it was and the amount of hours it used to take us in the early 2000s to hire 10 quality people. Then we got into the teens and we found with these job boards, We could get people applying all night, but only the apply would come in. And then our recruiters in the mornings would have to begin going through mountains of people, thousands of resumes that came in through that technology.

Chad Delagatti [00:22:56]:
Then we had Indeed and got a little bit more focused where we could really identify more specifically what we were looking for by region, by industry, by skillset. And one of the things, Jeffrey, we always did with this technology is we always would behavioral interview. Because at the end of the day, everyone can interview, everyone could get applicants. But to really be the best, we had to understand our clients, our clients' culture, the work they did. What were those behaviors of those top performers so that in order for us to ensure that best candidate, once they went through that recruiting cycle, we would then behavioral interview them. So then as we pushed to 2024, as I mentioned, the most exciting time was when we partnered with the Ohio Fund. And had the ability to get a powerful customized AI tool. So now let me set the table.

Chad Delagatti [00:23:44]:
If I were to say to our recruiters 5 years ago, what would your dream be? Well, the dream would be that every day when I came into work, I would have my candidates ready to go, organized from best to worst, or from highest likelihood to succeed with the skills we're looking for and the workforce requirements requirements to the ones that didn't have that, that would be the least likely to succeed, and have more candidates and touch them quicker. And we do that now. So with mini AI recruiting, it's completely revolutionized our company, the recruiting industry, and those that aren't using it yet are still riding their bikes every day when they're recruiting. And those that are using the AI are driving their cars every day and getting there quicker. So now, Jeffrey, what our recruiters see are 56% of the candidates we touch, we're touching outside of normal business hours, 150% improvement in time to fill, 70% of people we're touching on first-time connect. And when you think back to before AI, those 56% of the people may apply after hours, but we couldn't connect with them till 2 to 3 phone calls or email attempts. When you think of the time to hire, we may have been at a 21-day average cycle to hire. We now have that down below 15 days, getting it close to 10 days.

Chad Delagatti [00:25:06]:
And then what we're finding with the AI tool is it's enabling us to identify the better fit quicker and getting them hired, which ultimately now our customers are getting better success quicker out of these hires from Innosource, and their tenure is improving. So turnover is going down. So by enabling the AI technology, it's completely revolutionized the recruiting industry to being able to recruit 24/7, hire people quicker, identify talent we otherwise wouldn't have with the AI tool. And at the end of the day, get our customers better quality people quicker to ultimately do a better job.

Jeffrey Stern [00:25:45]:
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Jeffrey Stern [00:26:48]:
What has surprised you most about how AI is reshaping both the recruiter and candidate experiences that you just kind of walked through and maybe more holistically the business itself of Innosource and how you are, you know, approaching it strategically?

Chad Delagatti [00:27:07]:
Yeah. So what I'm finding is one of the biggest, heaviest lists is getting people ready to use the tool. So what I call the mental preparation. And you can have the best AI tool, and I see many, many companies are buying big tools quick, um, buying Innosources AI tool, utilizing Innosources AI tool. But if they don't have their data prepared, that's one obstacle, but What I want to talk about now, to answer your question, is the mental preparedness or the mental readiness of companies and individuals to accept the AI and use it. And you've got to get them on board. So I think training's a very critical component, and it's like buying a high-powered car. If you don't know how to drive stick, if you don't know how to drive around a corner quick, if you don't know how to accelerate and brake, you're probably getting 20% of the use out of that high-powered car.

Chad Delagatti [00:27:59]:
And it's kind of like AI. So you can have the best AI tool, you could have the best data in there, but at the end of the day, if your users aren't mentally prepared to use it, aren't mentally accepting to use it, or are fighting it in some capacity, you're not gonna get that output. So what I'm really trying to do at Innosource is every day continue to get our users trained, get them to accept it more, but more importantly, get them to see the value on how this is gonna make them a better individual, a better contributor to InnerSource, and a better recruiter for our customers. So right now, I think getting people and getting society to continue to understand it more, understand how to use it the right way, not abuse it, and then accept it, we will have much more successful outputs in integration than trying to force the best AI down a culture where people are resistant to accept it. So we must get that readiness from the associate and the individual aside. Aside, there is equally as important as the power of the AI tool and the readiness of your data.

Jeffrey Stern [00:29:17]:
When you speak to the kinds of actual output results that have come from the implementation of AI and what it's unlocked for the business. Even just kind of thinking practically about, you know, what it takes to go through this funnel of thousands of resumes and applications to arrive maybe at a few placements. It sort of feels like an imperative if it, you know, with the kind of improvements that it yields in the business. How do you think about that at an industry-wide level? Is it a model that all staffing and outsourcing firms sort of have to adopt and, and follow to survive, or, or how do you kind of see it playing out within the industry? And how does InnoSource differentiate in that kind of space? Great question.

Chad Delagatti [00:30:01]:
So I, I don't wanna speak for all the other recruiting companies out there because they're all great. They all have different specialties and they're all going about AI and this technology differently or the way they want to. But we at Innosource see where it's coming quick and we are not changing who we are, what we do. We know who we are. We know what we do and we know what we do well. What we're doing is embracing it to continue to do what we do and do it better, do it quicker, and give our customers what they're looking for. The biggest obstacle I see, or that I would say in the marketplace, as you mentioned, be those companies that have resisted AI or felt it wouldn't impact the industry. I think they're gonna fall behind.

Chad Delagatti [00:30:51]:
And the way they're gonna fall behind is they're not gonna be able to move as quick as the competition to get to that same end result. And it's gonna be much more expensive for them to get there. So I think the key is accepting the change, but accepting it at your pace and making sure you understand your company on how is the best way to integrate and use that AI. And one of the things we talk about at InnoSource is the human touch will never go away. Our recruiters will always be here. They will always make that final hiring decision. And that's the differentiator between us and the competition. I see a lot of the competition we're going up with that does move a little quicker than us.

Chad Delagatti [00:31:34]:
They're eliminating the human touch. And they're utilizing 100% of the AI the whole way. But what that's doing is still creating the opportunity to have high turnover, maybe getting some fraud through your AI, 'cause you're not validating that human touch on the end. And ultimately, they're gonna have more cleanup than us. But our big differentiator is we're still doing what we've always done. White gloves, red carpet workforce solutions, recruiting great people, servicing great centers. And then across the country, you know, doing some other type of recruiting work for other industries and doing it well. But by using this AI, we're able to do it quicker, better, and we're working on making it more efficient to ultimately bring that cost down to our customers through the AI.

Chad Delagatti [00:32:24]:
And that's the differentiator for us, that we can do it better, quicker at the same service. And for those companies that, as I mentioned early, aren't bringing the AI in, they're falling behind, or buying an off-the-shelf tool, forcing it into their business, and then hoping they'll have user integration and data integration, they might fall further behind before they move ahead, where we are ensuring we're doing the same thing, getting our employees ready to use it, making sure our data is ready to be used, and then training heavily so that at the end of the day, we're quicker, we're more efficient, and we get a better result. And I think the differentiator us will still be at the end of the day being specialized in what we do and keeping that human touch to ensure we're getting the best individual through our process. And in that human touch is that behavioral interview on the back end.

Jeffrey Stern [00:33:22]:
I think you've you just alluded to it, but I, I want to explicitly call it out. So we've talked a lot about change so far, you know, what has changed in the business and the industry, these successive, you know, new waves of technology and tools and platforms that have shaped the industry over the last two decades. On the flip side of that, you, you've just, I think, introduced this concept of what's remained consistent within the business over time. You know, these kind of cultural anchors, the mental readiness, you know, these kinds of topics that I think stem from the culture of the business. Yeah. And I'd love to hear you articulate, you know, what those ground truths have been for you over the decades and how you think about, you know, culture and what that means to Innosource.

Chad Delagatti [00:34:01]:
Make sure I answer this question the right way because I can go a couple different ways. And so what I go back to is culturally we are embracing this change and we have to change with the times to continue to be successful and deliver what our customers want with this ever-changing landscape of technology. And I was given this quote years ago by someone else, but they said technology will never move as slow as it is today into the future. And that really resonated with me. So what we are really trying to do is maintain our culture and our position in the market while pivoting to bring more and more technology in. And the most simplistic example I can give is our recruiters are now working 24/7. Our recruiters, instead of working 8 to 5, 7 to 4, 9 to 6 to cover the West Coast Central Times, with this technologies, our recruiters have the ability to work a normal day, keep their personal life in balance, stay mentally happy, but keep that recruiting engine going 24/7 by having that AI bot as their friend. So getting that done, but more importantly, maintaining our culture, pivoting to being a technology company with those HR is what I'm focusing on most.

Chad Delagatti [00:35:32]:
So I want to make sure, and if I didn't hit that question, Jeffrey, please ask it again. But what I'm really ensuring is that our recruiters are not getting mentally frustrated, or our executives are falling behind with the frustration of the change to technology. They're actually embracing it more and seeing that opportunity and the ability to grow, that they can do more with less. They can change lives every day, which is what we talk about at Innosource, is taking that individual that has the skills, wants to work hard, but hasn't been able to get the look to get that job. We can give them that opportunity to change their life and give that recruiter that satisfaction that I changed a life. I love my job, but I'm growing as an individual by learning how to use this technology more and moving quicker. But we still are maintaining that same great culture at InnoSource. And I think that's one of the risks is if you automate too much too quick, you can lose that culture and that human touch.

Chad Delagatti [00:36:33]:
And then when does that come back to bite you in the rear end? When things change again or slow down. But I think moving forward, we must embrace that change. We must keep our culture in line with it, and we must make sure our associates are growing and finding satisfaction in this ever-changing landscape of technology.

Jeffrey Stern [00:36:57]:
And those that don't, I think, will fall behind. In the spirit of adaptability, you know, comfort in this ambiguity and willingness to work with the technology of the times, I'd love for you to reflect on your own leadership in parallel to that. You know, you came into Innosource right out of grad school and have grown with the company basically from inception to where it is now as the CEO of a much larger organization. Yep. And just share some of the, the lessons that have stuck with you over that time and how you've evolved as a leader.

Chad Delagatti [00:37:33]:
So as I said, I learned a lot from my parents early on and my wife. They were instrumental. They've given me great advice, really set me up for where I am. But I also had a partner at Innosource the first 25 years, and he was amazing as a mentor. He taught me a lot about what I know today, the value I have. So one of the hidden gems I had is my first 10, 12 years while I was president of Innosource and even CEO, I had a very successful mentor that had a very successful business career prior to Innosource. And so I was fortunate to be a sponge and learn a lot from him, and that really helped prepare me for the future. In doing that, I also think one of my greatest traits is I always wanna learn from others.

Chad Delagatti [00:38:19]:
Anyone I call Mr. and Mrs. or Ms. and Mr., my elders, I don't call them by their first name. I'm a big believer in always be on time, have a firm handshake, make eye contact. And the reason those are important are if you give someone with maturity, wisdom, that respect, they'll give you valuable advice, but you have to be willing to take it, digest it, and utilize it.. And one of the things I see people become leaders are they wanna do their own way or they wanna change it, and sometimes they haven't tested their own way or tested that change, and it may not work. So one of the things I always try to do is hold true to myself and my core values, and I'll share those with you in a second.

Chad Delagatti [00:39:06]:
My energy level, I'm a fun guy. I have a lot of energy. I've been coached many times that as a CEO, you need to calm down, you need to become a little bit more CEO-like. But Jeffrey, it's not who I am. I'm a people person. I'm a relationship person. I like to solve problems. I like to give people satisfaction.

Chad Delagatti [00:39:25]:
And when I make them happy, I become happy. But the only way I can keep those skills was I had to learn from other people. So all the way through school, through undergrad, best class I ever took at Ohio University, public speaking. I challenge anyone going to college early on, take public speaking. You may not get a great grade, but you're going to learn a ton and you're going to cut your teeth. And then from there, early on in your career, don't rush trying to be the boss. Don't rush trying to do everything. Learn from the people around you.

Chad Delagatti [00:40:01]:
Respect them. Test it. Ask for feedback. But at the end of the day, between my parents, my wife, And my mentor at Innosource and boss for my first decade plus, 20 years here, I had the opportunity to learn from them. And now as we look to the future, I'm partnered with the Ohio Fund. Innosource is partnered with the Ohio Fund, and there's amazing talent there. And so it's neat that we have the opportunity and I myself to still learn from them. But the way I lead at Innosource and the way I've led the whole way is by the NOA.

Chad Delagatti [00:40:35]:
And every person that comes to Innosource that gets hired signs the NOA pledge. It's a certificate that I get a copy and they get a copy. And I took this idea from Fred Smith with the Purple Promise at FedEx. We do a lot of work with FedEx, and at FedEx, when you get hired, you sign that Purple Promise, and that's the commitment to live by the FedEx ways that Fred Smith established years ago. At Innosource, We live by the NOA and its 5 principles. And what I talk to new hires about and our existing hires is if we all exemplify these principles and live by them every day and do them, we're going to be very successful as a team, as individuals, and for our customers. So the NOA is first, we want to do it right. In our industry, we have a lot of regulations, a lot of laws, a lot of policies, and we need to follow them and do it right every time.

Chad Delagatti [00:41:28]:
So we believe in training, ongoing proactive training. We believe in quality checking audits because at the end of the day, we want to do everything we do right for our customers. Secondly, we want to be the best, right? We want to be the best. We're here to deliver great solutions to our company, clients, companies, change lives every day, beat the competition, and let our customers know We're the best, and that's why you hire us. So each and every day, we don't want to just go through the motions. We don't want to be mediocre. We're challenging ourselves every day to be better, and that's the culture we have at Innosource. Third, we want to work hard, play hard.

Chad Delagatti [00:42:10]:
That's a fun one. And what I mean by that is everyone works hard. We're always working hard, but you want to achieve that great result. And when you do, Celebrate. I talk about celebrate everything you can celebrate. Life's tough now. This world is changing quickly. Technology's coming, as we talked about.

Chad Delagatti [00:42:30]:
So at work, when you achieve your result, celebrate it. So what we do at InnoSource is we work hard, we play hard. So we work hard to get that project done for our customer, roll out a new account. Maybe it's a new account that we gotta get all the SLAs in line. Maybe it's a new account where we've got to recruit and onboard 300 to 500 people in 30 days. We're gonna work hard, we're gonna stay focused, and we're gonna get that done. But once we achieve that result that the customer desires, then our team gets to play hard. And they may do a fun activity, they may do a dinner, but we believe in playing hard to celebrate and then to get back to work.

Chad Delagatti [00:43:09]:
The next one we have is customer service. I'm a huge believer in giving the best customer service in the marketplace. And the example I always give is when you're in a restaurant, you ordered your burger and French fries, and it comes out and you don't have mayonnaise, mustard, or ketchup. And you politely say, hey, if you don't mind, could I please have some mayonnaise, mustard, or ketchup? And that great customer service is when the waiter or waitress says, yes, I'm on it. Your fries are hot. I'll get it right back to you. No problem, and they run it out. They made your day.

Chad Delagatti [00:43:44]:
You're eating hot, salty french fries with ketchup. You've got your warm sandwich, you're feeling great. But think of that customer service interaction where that server kind of looks at you and nods their head, and 8 minutes later you get your ketchup. You now have had an awful experience. Your fries are cold, your sandwich is not hot, and you're in a bad mood. So we at InnoSource talk about giving everyone we deal with from applicants coming into our office to customers we're meeting with, to potential customers, to coworkers, to always giving great customer service. And that involves using their name, acknowledge them by their name, make eye contact, have a firm handshake. Anyone that comes to our office, we put their names up on a TV screen and then in the elevators and in the lobby.

Chad Delagatti [00:44:32]:
So we let them know you're important to us and you're coming in here. So we try to give everyone the best experience of customer service each and every day, because I believe if you have an outstanding customer service experience, you're always going to go back there for more versus the places you go that you have awful service. You don't want to go back. From there, the last one that we have is we bleed the Redeye passion, and I believe in being passionate about everything you do that you love. And if you're not passionate about what you do, go find a new job. Get out of there. You got to have passion. And when I look at hiring people, I want to hire people with passion, people that want to learn, people that are willing to work hard and build relationships.

Chad Delagatti [00:45:22]:
We don't always look for the smartest, most intelligent people. We want to find those people that are passionate, wanna make a difference, wanna learn, wanna work hard, and wanna be there for their customers. So bleed the red-eye passion is that fifth InnoWay principle. And what we believe is being passionate every day. And if you are passionate, passion is contagious. And that's what drives our culture. So one of the things I learned from Thad Mona, the old Ohio State basketball coach, was having two feet in. And what Thad would mean is we wanna make sure every player's two 2 feet in, meaning all into the team, the culture, and that goal we're trying to achieve.

Chad Delagatti [00:46:00]:
And occasionally you'll see one player, one foot in, one foot out. And we say to each other, hey, go grab that teammate, grab them by the arm and ask them, hey, what's going on? And see if you can help them out to get 2 feet in. And if you can't, we understand, we'll help them find another job and we'll be great team members. But if we can get them to be 2 feet in, we as a team are much more powerful. With everyone being passionate about what we do and being in that one direction versus having some people passionate and some people aren't. So at the end of the day, Jeffrey, I lead by the NOA, be the best, do it right, work hard, play hard, customer service, and bleed that red-eye passion. And if all of our associates continue to do that and live and breathe by that, we will continue to be the best and give great solutions to our companies And continuously integrating technology as the world changes and integrating that AI to still what do what we do, but do it better, faster, and give our clients a better outcome. So that I would say at the end, my leadership style is by the in a way energetic, and I'm also a hands-off leader.

Chad Delagatti [00:47:09]:
I do not micromanage. I want to show my leaders the way, energize them. Set the goals and the strategy, and then I always say, spread your wings and fly. And if you need help, come back and see me.

Jeffrey Stern [00:47:20]:
So I'm a very hands-off leader as well. I mean, every long-term entrepreneur and, and builder I think carries with them a few lessons that only time and experience can, can really teach. And I'm curious, when you reflect on your journey leading the business, what stands out to you as, as some of those important learnings along the way? In your evolution as a leader and in the evolution of the business?

Chad Delagatti [00:47:44]:
Yeah, so I would say my first learning lesson was rain, because when you mow lawns, you learn quickly that rain is not your friend. And whether you have a date, whether you have a dinner, whether you have a soccer practice, basketball, or football practice, you had a commitment at a job, and there was a factor outside of your control that you had to deal with. And factor was not gonna work with you to try to compromise on your schedule. So the first lesson I learned early on was how to overcome obstacles that were outside of your control, and you had to embrace them, you had to accept them, but you had to adjust. So that was an early on lesson. From there, I would say, I remember in 2004, I lost. And I don't like to lose. I don't like to lose at anything I do in life.

Chad Delagatti [00:48:36]:
And that could be a strength or a weakness. I say at times I'm too competitive at everything I do, but I also feel that competitive has got me where I am in life and put me in this position. But I remember a big deal that I thought I had won and we didn't win in '04, and it crushed me, Jeffrey. It crushed me. All weekend. I was crushed. And I finally grew from it that I learned you're not going to win every deal. And the deals you don't win may have nothing to do with you or your delivery.

Chad Delagatti [00:49:08]:
It may have to do with something completely outside of your control, like we talked about with rain and lawn mowing. But I had to learn how, when I did not win, how to deal with it the right way. And you keep your head held high. You still call them, treat with treat them with utmost respect because at any point they're gonna call you back to work with you in the future. The next big lesson I learned was in the teens on kind of leadership style. And I had always led from the heart early on and learned from my mentor, learned from my parents. But there became some techniques at some point where you had to learn, and I really began to learn about deflection styles and deflection techniques. And I was totally unaware to that.

Chad Delagatti [00:49:57]:
And I trusted people so much. But an individual by the name of Norman taught me the 5 forms of deflection. And that really opened my eyes in 2016, '17, and '18 that I began becoming a better leader when I could recognize a form of deflection. I knew how to deal with that employee to still win them over and get to that end result. Whereas in my prior 15 years, I may have just been pounding my head against a brick wall, continuing to push, thinking they were doing it, but not understanding it was one of their forms of deflection. So that was a monumental moment. I remember as well really growing as a leader and better understanding other people's personal styles and deflection techniques to motivate them and continue to work through. And then the last thing I learned was from Mark Kwame and Tom Feeney, and I'm very excited about it.

Chad Delagatti [00:50:52]:
And what they are teaching me— they both are on the board of directors at Innosource— and what they are teaching me is what growth mode means as a leader. In the past, we would always protect Innosource and try to preserve what we have, or if times got tough, double down and protect. Where what Tom and Mark are teaching me, and I'm really growing on this right now, is growth mode. And how do you turn that company from preservation to growth? And it's really exciting for me now. And what I'm learning is to delegate more and more. Over the history of Innosource, I wore a lot of hats and I enjoyed wearing them, but you can't continue to wear those hats as you continue to grow to that next level. And we are a national company. We're looking potentially, where do we go next? We know Ohio's the sweet spot.

Chad Delagatti [00:51:48]:
We know Ohio's the Midwest culture. It's one of the best places to start a business, grow a business. And with The Ohio Fund creating this landscape for businesses and with the universities we have, we're one of the best states in the United States to start a business and grow a business. But now I'm getting to learn as a leader, and it's what I'm working through now at delegating to my awesome leaders. So right now I'm really in a delegation mode of sales. We have 3 phenomenal sales executives. We've invested a lot of time in them, and we're really excited to see how they can help Innosource grow to that next level and delegate sales off of me. We have phenomenal recruiting leaders and account manager leaders right now.

Chad Delagatti [00:52:31]:
Some of the best I've ever seen in my 25 years. And I'm working with them through Tom and Mark to continue to delegate to them. And it's going outstanding. My CFO and my C-level executives, they are off the charts, but I'm giving more and more to them every day. And what I'm finding is they're embracing it, they're loving it, and they're growing. So the last big leadership kind of lesson thing that I've learned recently is through our board of directors, and it's getting me to change, to really get into growth mode in delegating to the great leaders we have and continuing to grow that talent up from within the organization. And better things will continue to happen at the top.

Jeffrey Stern [00:53:18]:
What do you keep with you about Beanie Babies?

Chad Delagatti [00:53:24]:
I have them all still. My most coveted beanie is the royal blue peanut. I keep that one. And then I try to keep one of every other beanie. So my wife wants to throw them away. She hates them. But I have probably 8 tubs of Beanie Babies. And all I hope is someday they get hot like baseball, football, and basketball cards again.

Chad Delagatti [00:53:49]:
And we'll have a lot of fun. But at this point, I've just kept them more. I'm a collector. I have them put away, but I don't do anything with them. Blow Pops, I have zero Blow Pops. Sweeping customers from Bexley, Ohio, I do not keep in touch with. But the people I mowed their lawns, the people that mowed lawns with me, I keep relationships with. I still talk to them.

Chad Delagatti [00:54:14]:
I actually was fortunate enough to speak to a Dublin Jerome Business High School class last week, and it was really neat. One of the individuals has a lawn mowing company in high school in Dublin and came up and really wanted to learn from me. So it was neat to share some of the things I did early on and some of the things I told you I did. And then from there, my life and my baby is InnoSource. I love InnoSource. Everything I do, at the end of the day, people are what make it special. I love meeting new people every day. I love giving my word that, hey, give us a chance.

Chad Delagatti [00:54:45]:
You can trust us. We're in the business of doing great things. We're not in the business of just telling you we will. We will partner with you. We will embrace the challenges you have, and we will bring you great solutions. And we're gonna continue to do that with amazing technology and with technology solutions driving those same workforce problems that we've always seen out there.

Jeffrey Stern [00:55:07]:
So you've alluded to the future, this new chapter of growth for the business. Your, your vision and ambition for where you want to take it. I'm curious how you think about success and what that looks like for you and, and what you feel, uh, you know, is, is motivating you today.

Chad Delagatti [00:55:25]:
So, great question. So first I'm going to answer family. So the first thing I want to make sure is I take care of my family. So we have two outstanding children, Giada girl, Luca boy, my wife Minnie the dog, who the AI tool's named after, Minnie the dog, and my parents, my brother. So first and most important is I'm a great family man. I take care of them and give them the opportunity for all the same things I've experienced in my life and make sure I have good children. From there, what motivates me is watching the success of the people at Innosource. The associates we hire, and the satisfaction through our customers.

Chad Delagatti [00:56:09]:
I'm not someone to brag about myself. I'm not one to show off why I'm great, what I have, or what I accomplish. I get satisfaction through happiness of other people. So what my top priority with my family is making sure that Innosource is a great company. People are happy here. They're safe. They're learning every day. We're giving back to the community.

Chad Delagatti [00:56:35]:
I like to be a good community member through philanthropy, giving back through time, and also being there for the business community. I'm a big believer in YPO. I'm a big believer in the Columbus Partnership. They both kind of serve two different roles, but similar. But the more I can be a good member and give back to other business leaders and businesses and to the community and the people in Ohio, in Columbus, that need that. I want to do that. But at InnoSource, every day it's empowering our associates to do great things for our customers. It's changing lives every day for people that want those opportunities to go work for companies, to do a great job.

Chad Delagatti [00:57:17]:
We get great satisfaction off that. And then ultimately seeing our customer success. The more our customers are successful, the happy we are. We don't take a lot of the credit. We let them know whenever we're talking about a new deal or a new partnership, we want to be an extension to you. Our job is to make you look great. If we hire you great people, you take credit and take them. If we're running a managed service, an onsite-outsource division for you, we're going to deliver great SLAs, great cost, take that as your success and grow in your organization.

Chad Delagatti [00:57:52]:
So at the end of every day, my success and happiness comes from seeing Innosource continue to grow, individuals being happier, making more money, growing every day, giving back to the community, seeing that we are helping where we need to help, and Columbus is continuing to get better in the state of Ohio. And then last, our customers are happy. If our customers are not happy, I am not happy. And we do not see that often. We do not want to. But the ultimate success is getting that feedback from an associate you hired, a life you changed, or a client that said, thank you for the work you did. That's where I get driven and the most motivation every day.

Jeffrey Stern [00:58:35]:
When you reflect on the, the whole journey thus far, we, we've covered a lot of ground here. Both about yourself and the business. Is there something particularly important that you feel we haven't touched on yet that you want to bring up?

Chad Delagatti [00:58:47]:
Yeah, I think we've really hit everything. At the end of the day, what I always say is be true to yourself. Look in the mirror and see reality. So many people verbally tell them they're doing the right things to themselves, tell everyone what they'll do, but their actions don't back up their words. So make sure your actions back up your words. Look in the mirror, see who you are, and be who you want to be. You can be anyone you want, but be yourself and hold true to your values. Then find something you love, be passionate about it, and go all in.

Chad Delagatti [00:59:23]:
And let's go back to that first question. It's rare you stay at the same company 25 years, and I did it and I love it, and I wouldn't change it for anything. So don't feel like you always have to jump. If you like change, if you like something new, you like creativity, it's fine, do it. But if you really want to become the best at something, if you want to really be an expert, take your time and learn it. Learn from those people that have been there longer than you. Learn from their mistakes, not just what they do great, but learn what they did wrong. One of the pieces of advice I give new members in YPO all the time is not what I learned in my YPO forum to do the best.

Chad Delagatti [01:00:04]:
I learned from the mistakes other members made, so I won't make that same mistake. And I think that's another great piece of advice. So at the end of the day, be true to yourself. Hold yourself accountable. Make sure you love what you do, because at the end of the day, in your work career, you will probably spend more time working than relaxing in that 40 years. So make sure it's something you love to do and then make sure you have a great boss, a great mentor, and you have great coworkers. You got to love the people you work with every day. They're the Energizer Bunny to you.

Chad Delagatti [01:00:44]:
They, they help you when you're down and out. They bring you back. So make sure you love your job, you're passionate, and you have people you work with there.. And I think if you stick to those, you'll live a great life. But if you're not happy, if you don't have good values in the company you're at, if you don't like your coworkers, don't make yourself miserable every day. Go find somewhere to go. Or hey, what the heck? Call InnoSource. We'll help you find the job you need.

Chad Delagatti [01:01:10]:
Or if you love it here, we'll hire you here. But I assure you at InnoSource, we're always gonna have fun. We're gonna have a great culture. We take care of each other. We have each other's back and we all want to grow in that same direction. Well said, Chad. If I could get a little giggle, put a little pitch in there. And something else, Jeffrey, we are doing that I didn't talk about, but I do want to talk about, I'm very passionate about, is we're really investing a lot of money in upskilling.

Chad Delagatti [01:01:35]:
Over the years, you know, we hear more and more about demand is exceeding supply in different segments of the employment market.. And one of those areas is on some of the skilled traits or just in the business world that, gee, we, we can't find people with the right skills. And so I've heard a lot about upskilling and taking these people and putting them in a program and training them to give them the skills to be more successful. And in 2024, finally launched our own upskilling. We're investing our own dollars into it. We have a couple customers leaning in with us, helping us launch this. Otterbein University in Antioch, Dr. John Comerford leaned in and we have built a certificate upskilling program so that now Innosource is going out and finding people that wanna work, wanna get a job, wanna go from being a taker to a payer, but they can't find that opportunity cuz maybe they just don't have a couple of those skills left they need.

Chad Delagatti [01:02:39]:
So what we're doing is we're bringing people into our upskilling program at InnoSource. We're paying them while they're in the upskilling. We're offering medical benefits, and we're giving them the skills and certificate they need to, A, be successful and have the confidence to go out and get that job. And when they complete the upskilling with us, they get that certificate from Antioch, Otterbein, the Coalition of the Common Good, and they have something to be proud of. And then we guarantee them employment on that back end to put them in a job. And what we're finding is the customers we're working with, those individuals that go through that 2 to 4 week upskilling are much quicker to proficient levels than those that didn't. So even being maybe a little underskilled on the front end, going through that upskilling, we're finding when they're coming out of the formal training and the new job hire, new job training, they're doing much better. So I get satisfaction out of that.

Chad Delagatti [01:03:36]:
We're going to continue to drive this upskilling component, partnering with Otterbein and hopefully helping more and more people in Ohio and Columbus to get employed and fill these gaps where the skills are needed. And also take those individuals where maybe before they were unemployed and needed assistance to now they're getting paid in contributing back to the system. So I'm very excited over this upskilling and more to come, but we're having a lot of success with that so far.

Jeffrey Stern [01:04:07]:
Amazing. Well, I think, uh, this is a perfect place to wrap it up. If folks had anything they wanted to follow up with you about, learn more about those programs, learn more about Innosource, where would you direct them?

Chad Delagatti [01:04:20]:
Yeah, they can go to Innosource.com, contact us through that. Our main phone line is 614-775-1400, or you're more than welcome to drop me an email anytime, cdel@innosource.com. Would love to connect. Any additional questions, Jeffrey, if you ever want to do another podcast, I'd love to do it. I want to thank you. I really enjoyed being with you. I think you have an excellent podcast. Um, and I'm really excited to be partnered with The Ohio Fund.

Chad Delagatti [01:04:53]:
And as we talk about it at Innosource, we're creating the opportunity of the unknown.

Jeffrey Stern [01:04:57]:
We're gonna keep doing the great things we are, uh, and keep giving back to this great world. Uh, fantastic. Well, I really appreciate that, Chad. I appreciate you taking the time, reflecting on the journey. Yeah. And sharing your perspective on all of it. Thank you. So thank you very much.

Jeffrey Stern [01:05:13]:
Thank you very much. That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show. So if you have any feedback, please send over an email to jeffrey@layoftheland.fm or find us on Twitter @podlayoftheland or @sternhefe. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well and let us know. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred podcast player. Your support goes a long way to help us spread the word and continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show.

Jeffrey Stern [01:05:47]:
We'll be back here next week at the same time to map more of the land. The Lay of the Land podcast was developed in collaboration with The Up Company LLC. At the time of this recording, unless otherwise indicated, we do not own equity or other financial interests in the company which appear on the show. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of any entity which employs us. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.