Brian Hughes
Founder · Great Bay Staffing Group · Dover, New Hampshire
I've been recruiting since 1997 and running Great Bay since 2008. I'm a Franklin Pierce University graduate.
I run every search personally. There's nobody to hand you off to.
That's a limit as much as a selling point. I can only work a handful of searches at a time, which is why I spend a week understanding a market before I agree to take one on.
What I'm actually good at
Finding people who aren't looking, and getting them to take a call.
I'm a street-smart headhunter who learned the business on the phone and then spent the last decade figuring out how to use technology to do it faster and better. Both halves matter. The research tells you where to look and what the market will bear. None of it places anyone until somebody picks up the phone and has a conversation worth having.
That combination is the whole firm.
Why the research comes first
Most failed searches were unwinnable from day one, and nobody checked.
I built the research system behind our analyses after watching too many good employers lose a quarter to a search that a week of honest work would have reframed. Every report gets reviewed and marked up by me before it leaves.
The research is systematic. The judgment isn't automated.
What specialization buys you
Rehab and advanced practice recruiting rewards depth over breadth.
Knowing that a therapist won't cross a 75-minute drive between two labor markets. Knowing that a strong fee-for-service rate gets dismissed on sight by clinicians who've been burned by bad contracts. Knowing which nearby program actually graduates the specialty you need.
You only learn that by working one market over and over. So that's what we do now.
NPAworldwide
I lead the Healthcare Practice Group at NPAworldwide, a global network of independent recruiting firms.
The healthcare group is 75+ agencies. The full network is more than 500 worldwide. It means a one-person firm can support a national search properly — and you still deal with one person.
Outside the desk
Home is Dover, on New Hampshire's seacoast. Outside of work, I'm a capable golfer (sometimes), a competent skier, a black belt in Taekwondo, and a self-proclaimed Starbucks junkie. I love to travel, and my wife and I are currently restoring a lakehouse in Maine — one project at a time.