TOP 100 MAGAZINE

Brent Wiltz
A Quest to Revolutionize How Staffing Solutions Empower Mid-Market Businesses

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Brent Wiltz is a respected figure in the business community, known for his role as the president and co-founder of Summa Staffing Technologies, LLC.  With an 18-year journey in staffing and business, Brent brings a wealth of experience and visionary thinking to every engagement.  His impact has resonated across most of the Fortune 500 companies globally, where he orchestrated talent platforms and pioneered solutions that have become industry standards.

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Creating performance-driven teams fueled by a profound understanding of business intricacies and a commitment to positioning talent for growth has been the lynchpin of Brent’s successes. Throughout his career, Brent has consistently showcased his expertise by successfully placing over 5,000 individuals in diverse roles, underscoring his passion for connecting talent with opportunity. 

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Beginning his journey in the staffing industry on the front lines as a recruiter he transitioned into sales, building an individual book of business that consistently exceeded $70 million in annual revenue. As a logical next step from his early successes, Brent leveraged the knowledge he gained along the way in various management roles culminating in his current entrepreneurial efforts.

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Under Brent's leadership, Summa has flourished as a recruiting firm headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2022, the company has rapidly expanded its footprint, encompassing both domestic and international capabilities. Their mission is to empower start-ups through mid-sized companies by accelerating their organizational development during critical growth stages.  A notable accomplishment is their innovative approach of integrating industry experts into every engagement, offering a cost model significantly below industry standards. This unique strategy allows businesses to reinvest what would have been spent on talent acquisition back into the enterprise, driving growth in client organizations and authentic partnerships.

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In essence, their comprehensive approach ensures not only access to top-tier talent, but also a meticulously crafted hiring journey for both clients and candidates along the way.  They believe that fostering a culture of adaptability and innovation is key to success, and their methodologies are tailored to meet the unique challenges faced by startups and small to mid-sized businesses.  By emphasizing positive candidate experience, leveraging technology for agile recruitment, and prioritizing cultural alignment and talent retention, their staffing solutions contribute to the sustained growth and prosperity of their clients while serving as a worthy extension of any client’s employer brand.

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We had the opportunity to engage in a conversation with Brent to gain deeper insights into Summa and to delve into the intricacies of their distinctive strategies and achievements.

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Brent, what inspired you to start the company? Having yourself owned several businesses, do you have a deeper appreciation for the unique needs of your clients?

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As a multi-industry business owner, I faced the financial challenge of affording staffing services, compounded by the fact that those offering these services lacked experience in both business and recruitment. Having come from the industry, I chose to forge a new path, based on what I wanted as a business owner myself.  It’s straightforward – build trust-based relationships and better outcomes based on our shared experience.  Those are the kind of people I would want to work with and the type of recruiters I want aligning talent within my organization.  Then pivot – give everyone access to a “luxury” service at a fraction of the traditional cost.  An exciting opportunity considering the small to mid-market sector constitutes 90% of US businesses.

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What makes Summa unique?

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It's crucial to emphasize that on the front end, we embody the spirit of entrepreneurs, business owners, marketing and sales executives, and IT and infrastructure experts.  Meanwhile, on the backend, within our delivery team, we hail from Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies, where we've crafted and managed Talent Acquisition platforms.  Why does this matter?  Our approach stands out distinctly; we bring the extensive knowledge acquired from managing large-scale operations to smaller companies, empowering them to thrive.

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Secondly, our innovative time-bound pricing model which lowers the barrier to entry for smaller organizations while fostering process engagement and prioritization.  Our philosophy is straightforward: extend the advantages of a premium service to everyone while collectively recognizing the pivotal role talent plays in driving business success.  This commitment is underscored by an impressive 87% fill ratio for positions we undertake, reducing the industry average time to hire from 30 or 45 days down to an average of 18 days at a fraction of the traditional cost.

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Lastly, our innovative "Community Profit Sharing" program underscores our commitment to making a positive impact. We pledge to allocate up to 5% of our profits from each placement to a charitable cause or organization chosen by our clients, in their name. This initiative not only supports companies but also contributes to the betterment of the communities in which we operate.

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Companies of all sizes have unique challenges in terms of finding talent. Can you share some of these, and what you’re doing to help remove these barriers?

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Identifying talent is the easy part; however, it is the art and science applied between discovering talent and aligning it with the business requirements that has the most significant bearing on outcomes. 

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For startup and small to mid-sized businesses striving to compete against established employer brands, we emphasize the appeal of innovative environments, highlighting growth opportunities and collaborative cultures.  Amid rapid growth, we recommend agile recruitment, utilizing technology for streamlined sourcing and onboarding.  Embracing startup adaptability needs, we encourage our partners to consider candidates with readily translatable skills and experience outside of their specific industry.  Acknowledging the paramount significance of retention, we engage in close collaboration with our clients to engineer competitive packages and foster a positive cultural alignment across peer groups, departments, and the entire organization. 

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To summarize, Summa is unique in its agility and creativity which is focused through the lens of decades of experience in human capital and our role as consultative partner in helping clients to challenge traditionally rigid thinking in Talent Acquisition. According to LinkedIn (2023), Summa outperforms the staffing industry benchmark by a factor of eight, surpassing our competitors in this area.

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What exciting new things are on the horizon for Summa?

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Our aim is to stay agile and creative, anticipating and adapting to shifts in the talent acquisition ecosystem.  One exciting avenue involves forging hybrid channel partnerships that prioritize direct sourcing.  For example: mid-market companies struggle attracting talent from job boards when compared to larger corporate brands.  They can’t compete, so the way they draft job posting and job descriptions needs to be refined.  The efficiencies around how companies proactively go after talent needs to become modernized and infused with technology.  We understand this and 77% of the people we place come from outside conventional job board channels.  Many companies struggle with implementing modern technologies due to time constraints or a lack of expertise. To address this, we're developing turnkey solutions that seamlessly integrate cutting-edge technology, offering companies zero-implementation solutions.

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Brent Wiltz
President and Co-Founder
Summa Staffing Technologies, LLC
Website: https://thinksumma.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentwiltz/  
https://www.linkedin.com/company/summa-staffing-technologies/