Sourcing Star Interview: Dennis Tupper

Published September 22, 2019

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Written by: Dennis Tupper
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Dennis Tupper

Dennis Tupper is Senior Marketing Manager, Business Strategy & Planning, Global Marketing for Kelly. A seasoned marketing and business strategist, he is responsible for creating compelling campaigns for B2C and B2B audiences, helping each find what’s next for the candidate’s career or the organization’s hiring needs. Dennis holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Framingham State University, as well as a certificate in Digital Marketing Analytics from M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management). When he is not working, Dennis spends 99% of his spare time parenting and 1% of it kayaking. 

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How did you get into this field – was it purposeful or by accident?  
As a recruiter, I loved paying attention to sourcing trends and was always curious on what channels and job boards worked best for finding and attracting talent. I found in staffing that marketing channel metrics were not practiced very well, often not at all. It was my curiosity and thirst for data that got me into it and my passion for analysis and optimization that made it a career for me. 
 
In what ways do you feel your professional contributions have influenced or transformed the industry? (This could be a new approach or methodology, the application of an existing technology in a completely new way, significant thought leadership or even a career of inspiring others.)  
Staffing organizations and sourcing professionals had been relying heavily on traditional methods and duration-based ads. By taking an advanced marketing, programmatic-based approach and applying it to the staffing industry has been a game changer. Segmentation, metrics, analysis, optimization, true partner performance metrics and exact cost per hire, per-channel resulted. Now there is the ability to shift advertising budgets on the fly and bring in and ship out new performers and underperformers in real-time, versus using a guessing game and only doing so annually during budgeting season has changed candidate acquisition into a true marketing machine.  
 
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges facing the industry today and what should be done to solve them? 
Differentiating ourselves is the biggest challenge to any organization hiring in a time when unemployment is at its lowest since 1969. Candidates have options, many of them. Why you? What’s in it for them? You must put time, effort and energy into your brand like no other time in sourcing history. Competition is fierce, so why go to work for you and not one of your several competitors? Tell your story, make it compelling and convert the candidate’s curiosity into your acquisition. 
 
Looking at the whole of your career, what do you consider to be your greatest achievement?  
Taking a new-to-the-staffing-industry methodology from a $200+ million-dollar company and successfully implementing it into a $5.5 billion-dollar company. Convincing stakeholders to break from years of traditional sourcing methods and philosophies, the change management it takes in an organization the size of Kelly. The results have been great. Close to a 200% increase in applications in the lowest unemployment market in our lifetimes and decreased advertising cost almost 20% in doing so. Doing both is not easy. Doing it at such a scale is even harder. I’m proud of that. 
 
What three words do you feel your colleagues and peers would use to describe you? 
Strategic, Analytical, Accountable 
 
What advice do you have for those who are new to the profession or considering entering the industry? 
We are doing work that directly impacts peoples’ lives. It is not a simple product with a feature and a benefit. A job is THE catalyst in someone’s life for what they want to do, how they want to live, where they want to be and how they can support their family and/or themselves. Putting people to work enriches their lives. It is the first domino to fall where the rest of their life is affected by it. What we offer them in a role and asking not only what interests them in the role and prospective company but asking them how it will impact them outside of work. That question as a recruiter was always very telling, and often the most fulfilling answers I got to any question I’d ask a candidate. No matter if we are on the front lines recruiting or behind the scenes putting together campaigns and using channels to attract talent, our work is incredibly meaningful. It’s important that we recognize that.

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