Hiring the right talent is fundamental to the success of any business. To find the right fit for their organizations, companies today are partnering with top recruiting agencies who are not only helping them find the best employee for a position but also prioritizing on defining goals, leveraging technologies and implementing strategies to ensure employee retention.
In this crowded market, standing out is no easy feat. With a strong business acumen and exceptional ability to identify the right talent for organizations, Zag Dutton stands as a beacon of inspiration, thriving in this competitive landscape and reshaping the future of talent acquisition.
Zag Dutton is the Founder and CEO of Career Connections Canada Inc, a professional recruitment firm offering permanent, contract and temporary hiring and employment solutions. Energetic, charismatic and confident better describes Zag Dutton. With a positive attitude and full of energy, Zag exemplifies the platinum standard of the recruiting industry.
A Journey of Passion and Self-Discovery
Zag holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill University in clinical psychology and started her career in real estate sales, which gave her the basics of finding the one niche thing that would be the compelling factor in making a purchase. After moving to Ontario, Zag made a transition in the recruiting industry in 1985 for a major national firm. Within a year, she ascended to a supervisory role and spearheaded the operations of the firm for several new locations.
The turning point in her life came when she gave birth to her daughter. “By the time she was almost two years old, it was very clear that we would never really know each other because I was working so much. I decided that since I had successfully developed branches in the past, I should try doing it on my own in the hopes that I could also be the master of my own schedule moving forward.”
Zag took her passion forward and started Career Connections Canada Inc. She wanted to do something different with her company, provide services beyond what was expected at other companies and offer a better work environment to her employees.
Essence of Leadership
It is her consultative leadership style that puts her above others. Reflecting upon that, Zag shares, “I know what I want to achieve or what the business needs in order to continue to be viable. I am always open to listening to my team and making changes where necessary as I am very well aware that we all have lives and demands on us outside of our work. I believe listening to make sure we are all still rowing in the same direction (for lack of a better expression) is critical.”
For Zag, every day is a new learning experience. “My journey taught me a great lesson,” Zag shares. “While we all want to achieve great things in life, we are not always willing to put in the effort that it takes to get there. When I left to strike out on my own so I could spend more time with my daughter, all I really did was to spend more of her awake hours with her and still get what I needed to get done in my work life to accomplish my goals on that side of my life. That meant I was working just as hard and just as many hours (probably more) as I could to get the business side of my day done when she was sleeping.”
Embedding Values in Business
Zag’s values underpin everything they do as an organization. In her journey towards building a successful company, Zag places a strong emphasis on flexibility. She believes in giving her team full flexibility and keeping in touch more closely with both the client and candidate to make sure everything goes the way each party envisioned it should go. They have clients who have worked with them for the last 20 years. There are clients who started out as candidates and turned into clients.
“As the CEO of the company, it is my responsibility to make sure everything is going the way they envisioned on both sides of the equation: the candidate and the client side. Keeping in touch and maintaining open communication lines is critical to that process. “Sometimes the flexibility I would like to give my team takes a back seat so we can serve all our stakeholders in turbulent times. To make up for that loss of flexibility, I try to take out time to celebrate the little things along the way. For example, go out for a group lunch to celebrate a ‘win’ and let off some steam.”
Driving Success: Building Team Relationships
Mutual respect is at the heart of everything Zag does. She strongly believes that mutual respect is fundamental to a thriving organization. “I will never ask my team to do anything I am not prepared to do myself. I firmly believe in leading by example.” Zag ensures that they deliver on their promise and stay on top of all new developments to meet every customer expectation on priority. Effective communication is another cornerstone of her organization’s success. By utilizing the power of team work and ensuring that the team is able to bounce back and think on their feet quickly, Career Connections Canada effectively takes charge of all situations.
Towards a Promising Future
With competition increasing in every realm of business, Zag wants to make her company future-proof by keeping the communication lines open, delivering on promise and keeping the client and candidate in the loop with respect to any changes or challenges.
Reflecting upon her own journey, Zag shares her piece of advice for the young and aspiring leaders. “Always think about how you can improve the lives of your internal team as well as your clients and candidates and never assume that you have heard or seen it all. Even after almost 40 years in this business, I still come across things that I have not seen or heard of in the past. We are in the people business and people will continue to surprise and amaze even though it may not always be in the way you envisioned or hoped.”
While we all want to achieve great things in life, we are not always willing to put in the effort that it takes to get there.
