Meet the Team
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Nicole Hartman
Senior Recruiter | Business Development Manager
Nicole has been successfully recruiting and sourcing top talent across the US since 2017. She joined OTS in September of 2024. With her extensive experience in Human Resources and Talent Acquisition, she excels at creating innovative recruiting strategies that align with organizational objectives. Passionate about building meaningful relationships, Nicole develops customized staffing solutions that lead to exceptional hiring outcomes. In her role as Senior Recruiter | Business Development Manager at OTS, she is committed to supporting companies nationwide in their search for skilled candidates. Nicole leverages her deep industry expertise to ensure client success by placing people at the heart of every strategy. Outside of work, Nicole enjoys spending time with her family, nurturing her many houseplants, attending local art fairs, practicing yoga, kayaking, hiking, and spending time outdoors.
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Jenny Munn
Senior Recruiter
Jenny joined OTS in April of 2024. She has been in recruiting for over a decade, specializing in Engineering, Tech, and Healthcare. She is passionate about developing strong relationships with companies and candidates to help both find the right fit. She realizes that a career move can change your life and finds it extremely rewarding to help facilitate that process. Jenny is eager to help candidates and companies meet their goals. Outside of work she enjoys gardening, ceramics, and painting, as well as spending time outdoors with her husband, daughter, and 2 dogs.
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Nick Swartz
Founder | Managing Partner
Nick started recruiting in 2008. Since then, he has spent half his career managing an internal talent acquisition team overseeing 200+ reqs a year and the other half working in third-party recruiting across multiple sectors of the economy. When it comes to recruiting, he loves the relationships and learning people’s stories. He also loves getting to learn the ins and outs of the business needs of the companies he serves. When he is not working, Nick loves to spend time with his family (wife and two boys), traveling, exercising, and listening to audible while cooking.
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Kendra Tygesen
Senior Recruiter
Kendra hit the ground running building rapport with clients and candidates alike in September of 2023 with OTS. Kendra’s favorite aspect of recruiting is learning candidates’ stories and building trusting relationships with them. She enjoys helping people find their “perfect role” and seeing them succeed. When she is not working, Kendra loves spending time with her husband and two boys, exercising (running and attending boot camp classes), and camping at different places in Michigan.
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Oliver Harmsen
Social Media and Marketing Intern
Oliver is currently a sophomore at DePauw University majoring in communications with an emphasis in business. In conjunction with her course of studies she sits on the Executive Board and is VP of Public Relations and Marketing for Alpha Chi Omega. Oliver has a strength for reaching out and connecting with people. She enjoys creating content that conveys a message and ignites interest. Oliver is on the Women’s Varsity swim team for DePauw University and enjoys traveling, hiking, and music in her free time. Her favorite hiking destinations are in Banff and the National Parks of British Columbia.
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You?
Email Nick at nick@hireoptimized.com to see if we have an opening.
Values
Community
We might be based in the midwest, but we firmly believe we are local anywhere. When we partner with your company, we get to know your team and community in which you are based. This includes leadership, human resources, the hiring manager, as well as the colleagues our candidates will join. We seek to become part of your team as our success is truly dependent on your success.
Communication
A common complaint in the recruiting industry is that hiring managers never hear from the recruiters they are working with. We commit to consistent and open communication. If we have the right candidates, you are going to see them. If we are struggling with getting the results you need, we will let you know in a timely fashion. We are passionate believers in setting the right expectations to a relationship and that comes down to communication.
Collaboration
Despite our most sincere desire, we won’t truly understand your team like you do. Finding the optimized talent is a team effort. As we search for candidates and send our top selections to you, we are looking for both good feedback and constructive feedback to further improve our process.
Commitment
You can’t grow without adding the talent you need and we can’t exist without delivering on our commitments. Time and time again, what has separated us from others is our commitment that no matter how hard the search, we are going to find the candidates that meet your needs.
Clarity
We value clarity, or transparency, in how we work with our clients, our candidates, and most importantly each other. We are transparent with our clients on what we see in the marketplace and where we think their culture/compensation/expectations fit in that. We are clear with our candidates on both the pros and cons our clients offer in the roles we are recruiting. Critically, there is no guesswork on where our team members stand with each other and with OTS, as a company. We are clear on the financials and have set up our baseline goals so people know what their contributions need to be (of course we can set up much more ambitious goals). We are transparent on real-time constructive feedback as well as real-time celebrations.
Life at Optimized Talent Solutions
Our vision is to be the most family/parent friendly company in the recruiting industry.
Transparent and Competitive Compensation
Email our founder Nick, nick@hireoptimized.com and he will share our recruiter one pager (though most of the information is below).
Pay Highlight: Competitive base salary with a tiered commission structure ranging from 10-50% of the total fee from your placements along with summer and winter bonuses.
Birthday bonuses that increase every year you are here.
Home Office Set Up (We are a remote company)
Macbook (or laptop), monthly internet stipend.
Work/Life Balance
Our standard (full-time) recruiter work week is 32 hours. Within some guidelines, you choose when those hours are.
We work remotely, even though most of us live in West Michigan which makes in-person meetings (when they happen) easier, that is not a requirement.
While our goals are not easy, they are realistic so that you can have time to train for a marathon, be with your family, manage your pet washing side hustle, or whatever it is you like to do when you aren’t working.
We offer 28 weekdays off a year, 73 weekdays if you count our four day work schedule (plus if you hit your exceeds expectation goal, PTO is untracked for the remainder of the year).
Four week sabbatical every six full calendar years you are with OTS, in addition to other time off.
Paid Maternity/Paternity Leave up to nine weeks.
Trust and Collaboration
Our default is to trust others, especially those we ask to join our team.
If you are struggling, ask a teammate, we are here to help each other.
Growth and Stability
Our goal as a company is to serve our team, our clients, and our candidates. If you can think of a way to improve yourself that also supports the team, our clients, and our candidates, let’s try it!
We will not have a layoff. If (or when) times get hard, we might temporarily adjust all our pay/working hours or go all hands on deck with business development, but we will remain a team.
Cons
We are a small firm, so health insurance and retirement are not yet what we can offer those who join us.