TTB - Dana Neiger
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[00:00:00]
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of The Talent Bar. I'm really excited to have our guest today. Um, she's has a really unique perspective because she recruits in one of the most niche industries out there.
Uh, known for short as AEC, but, uh, stands for architecture, engineering, and construction. The talent pools in the space are so small that literally everyone in the country in her discipline knows each other. So I'm excited to learn a little bit more about how you tackle, um, you know, growing a team in that, in that, uh, context.
She ran her own recruiting firm for eight years, specializing in transportation engineering, and now [00:01:00] she's leading talent acquisition for a 70-year-old firm with 26 offices and plans to grow from 700 to 1,000 employees in under two years. In her spare time, uh, she coaches girls' basketball, softball, soccer, and, um, has some really interesting opinions around what separates a recruiter from a talent acquisition professional.
She's the director of talent acquisition at Barge Design Solutions. Dana Niger, welcome to the show.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Colleen, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Um, okay, so I love to start off the show with my standard question, which is, what's the one thing or one action that you think sets the best recruiters apart from the rest?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: That is a good question to start off with, isn't it?
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: No. Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: I think one of the main things that sets recruiters apart from each other is their ability to understand that the relationships that they're developing in the moment that they're in, whatever that moment is, they're not necessarily being developed at that particular [00:02:00] point to help you right now, but that they are in fact being developed for energy utilized soon or in the future at some point.
And that general understanding of what who you meet today will help you in the future is literally I think the thing that really does set good recruiters apart from great recruiters
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: It feels particularly relevant because like I mentioned in the, in the intro, you are recruiting in AEC where everyone, you know, you've told me that everyone in the country in the discipline knows each other. So what does the relationship-based recruiting actually look like when y- when the talent pool is that small?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Sure. So AEC is an umbrella with architecture, engineering, and design over many smaller disciplines. And as those disciplines become niches, for an example, I spent eight years before the, uh, position I'm in now with Barge, as you mentioned, as a small business owner in the greater metro Atlanta area, and we worked specifically in the [00:03:00] southeast, but nationally.
Um, and our specialty arena was transportation engineering, right? And transportation engineering is one of many facets with multiple disciplines within it itself. And transportation engineering is one of those niche industries that is so small and so tight-knit, like we were talking about, that you burn one bridge, you burn them all.
It can absolutely happen, right? It is all about who you know, all about who you've worked well with, so that you can continue to develop those relationships. Again, not necessarily for today, but for the future
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: you have a team of four recruiters, and you said none of them actually had experience in AEC before they joined you at Barge. So how do you coach somebody into that type of industry and, and really, develop out the relationship building that they need to have?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah. It's, uh, gonna be what I like to call with them a three-year process of sort of an onboarding there from that perspective. All four of my recruiters are, uh, at different levels of experience, and within their expertises, the one and only [00:04:00] that they didn't have was AEC, right? They didn't have that experience, and I actually joined the team with all four of them... three of them, excuse me, in place. We hired the fourth, and 2026 is our first full year together, which is very exciting. So I set that stage to say the recruiters were sort of in flux without leadership in place. Uh, they were in survival mode. So the great part about their structure was they had skill sets, right?
They understood how generally to recruit, how to use the tools that were out there. When I came along, and what I'm still currently doing, is developing the strategic pipeline for some of our main books of business, if you will. Developing those pipelines over time. Again, it's not about who you meet today, how they can help you, but how they can help you in the future, and that's kind of what I'm training off right now. the way that we introduce people into the industry is to explain [00:05:00] from the jump, this is relationship based, right? So you need to have boots on the ground locally to wherever you are. You need to go to those industry specific networking events and physically meet people, get to know them, develop relationships, so that when opportunities arise, and it takes about three years to get to the point where you don't need to start from scratch with your tools, but that you can in fact go into your own network and go, "Oh my goodness, I know someone for this
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
you know, you talked about like the different, um, specialties and, and everything, I would imagine one of the things, uh, is that's also important alongside that relationship building is just knowing more about, you know, like how do you identify talent when the, when the, um, the skills are so specific and s- and so, um, you know, presumably it's, it's a lot of skills-based.
Like, so how do you as a recruiter who maybe doesn't have the same training or background as some of these help [00:06:00] assess talent?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah. So that is actually a perfect segue into what you were mentioning earlier about sort of the differences, not better, not worse, just different, between a recruiter and a talent acquisition specialist or a talent acquisition partner of some kind, right? And so what happens there is, again, not better, not worse, just a different perspective.
There's far more strategy on the talent acquisition side, right? A recruiter comes into a job, and for the general aspect of what a recruiter does, right? Identifying candidates, trying to match those candidates to the needs within the firm if they're third party within their client, right? Whatever the case may be there. difference there is the time spent can be unique of each other, right? Typically, recruiters do not spend time strategizing for long term because everything is right now, my clients need it right now. If you're on the agency side slash every hiring manager that we are working with at the
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Level needed it yesterday, right?
We all know that feeling.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: [00:07:00] Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: And so there-- the real difference there is at the talent acquisition, uh, t- uh, title, if that's what we wanna talk about, again, not better, not worse, just different. The title of talent acquisition implies that there is far more strategy, far more long-term thought process there. And my team is starting to understand that I was actually correct about that three-year mark, right?
We're starting to get to that point together sooner than later, which is exciting. None of them can yet dip into their network as it's new, but next year someone might be able to, and within two years all of them will be able to, and that's the exciting part from, from their perspective. What they don't even know that's coming yet is my goals as their leader and at the director level is I am spending a significant amount of time, I would say ten to twelve-ish conferences a year, that are very specific to five pillars of business that personally I feel from our business structure at Barge, I need to develop.
TA, talent acquisition, needs to develop, right? [00:08:00] And that is in certain aspects. I go to those conferences, I develop those relationships, and then I also hope to start bringing the team in within the next year, two years, three years to train those particular conferences off, right? They learn that stuff from me.
They learn and are introduced to these candidates. They start the ownership and, and relationship responsibilities with those candidates, and that's how you emerge someone fully into the idea of long-term strategy
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: I think something coming up for, for me, and it's largely because I just had a, a conversation with somebody else who was talking all about how some of the biggest changes that they've been able to make in their recruiting process have come from being able to use all the different sourcing tools that are on the market.
Given that it sounds like th- those aren't very helpful for you, right? Because you're talking about doing this relationship building a- and it taking ... So when you look at how recruiting has evolved, especially in the last couple of years, [00:09:00] where do you look for ways to bring efficiency when sourcing in, in some of the ways people are solving that now isn't really relevant for you?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah. No, that's an excellent way of putting that. And I will say I go at it from the organic perspective, because for me, the relationships are starting from an organic place, right? So my thought process is just like in sports with a farm system, right? Like baseball is a perfect
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: minor league with it, and minor league here will equate to the, the student levels in organizations, right?
So Barge has made major commitments with student-led organizations that are AEC associated as well as specific to what interests them. We don't forget about what interests the students, right? Or what interests the candidates, if you will, and their interests are vast, right? So from the diversity perspective, you wanna make sure you're getting in touch with, uh, chapters like NSBE, the National Society of Black [00:10:00] Engineers, SHPE, the Society of Professional Engineers from the Hispanic perspective, right?
And there are other groups out there also that are represented. You also wanna make sure that the ACECs, the ASCEs, the ITEs. I'm saying a lot of acronyms.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Have one, right? And they're all associated with civil engineering, with consultants, with traffic folks, with water folk, right? If you see where I'm going with all of
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: from the perspective of you're trying to develop those relationships specifically within these conference, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Like conference specific environments. just concentrated people. Going to the conferences, spending time in person, and I know that we're all getting to a point where we are people tired, right? We are, we are tired of each other. We're tired of everything, and I get that. We have to mentally rise above those things to know that the future is bringing what we need.
And the future of AEC is we are not prepared for the growth, right? So we've got [00:11:00] to develop these re- relationships yesterday, as everybody wants us to, so that we can be prepared for sooner than tomorrow.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. What do you think, um, I have so many questions like coming to me right now. I think w-what do you think makes Barge, um, like a special option for the candidates that you're talking to when, when you have such a tight market in terms of,
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Uh,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: of not only supply, but, uh, of folks, um,
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: maybe of--
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: and just the relationship aspect of it?
Like what, what brings people to Barge?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Barge is such a unique opportunity. I love talking about this place even though I've only been here for a little over a year now, because there are special and unique opportunities here. And an example of that is when you have a firm that's growing, and by growth I literally mean on the up and up, right? And when you have a firm that's growing from that perspective that is employee-owned, especially that is important. We are, and there are very few... We are what's considered like a solid [00:12:00] medium-sized firm at just about 700 employees. We're not quite there yet. Like, it kind of keeps going. So we're almost there.
And then, we do, as you mentioned so eloquently, plan to grow within the next couple of years towards, if not at, 1,000 employees. That type of growth, like jumping from 700 to 1,000 as people know, it's very challenging to get there. Once you finally do get there and that sticks and people understand that now you're considered either that solid mid or small large, whatever you wanna call that, right? People start recognizing you for that, right? But it's more than just that. It's how Barge gets their branding out there. It's the fact that every single person in our culture matches what we like to call our CARES model, right? And CARES obviously is another acronym. Us engineers, we love our acronym.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: engineer, by the way, just saying the engineering realm loves acronyms and who doesn't? Every industry has them. Um, but in order to get to that point of [00:13:00] understanding how special it is, you gotta come have a conversation. You gotta meet people to know people, and you gotta be willing to hear what they're going through, right? Do I think everybody's gonna be a great fit for Barge? That's actually not realistic, right, to say that.
As much as I would love for everybody to be a great fit here, the reality is we may not be the best fit for everyone out there. But what we are a great fit for is people who wanna come along for that ride, right? People who are open to change, but people who are open to really understanding that culture that stays solid during change like this says something, says something positive, and that
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: What we're doing. We yearly put together surveys that are answered significantly. Like, our percentage to, um, answer is over 80%, which is quite significant for any survey of any size in any firm or company, right? And so people know that they're being heard here. When [00:14:00] people want to discuss opportunities for changes in benefits, we hear them in human resources, and we see them for who they are, what they are, what they're looking for, and we make those changes.
And that is something that is super, super rare, um, in the AEC industry and in any industry as a whole. So I love to point those kinds of things out. I love to point out the fact that we moved to a merit-based bonus system, which is amazing. So we're all being held accountable for our work as opposed to it just being offered because, right? People love it here. They have decided that this is a place worth- fighting for, but it's a less of a fight when you love it,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: one of the things you and I talked about previously is that you've put together-- You've been putting together and working on a new way to tell the TA value story to your execs and the board. So what, what does that look like? What have you done, and, and where, what are you seeing in terms of the impact of it?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah, sure. Since the last time you and I even started speaking about that one aspect of it has actually come to fruition, which is [00:15:00] very cool. So I'll
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Nice.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: To finish some of the story with you, which
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Thanks for that. So, uh, part of my main goals is coming in as leadership for the talent acquisition team was being able to identify quality metrics to be able to tell the story of TA. Uh, the reality here is TA was carved out of human resources about three years ago, before I was even on board. And that team, as I mentioned, was sort of in survival mode without real leadership. So while they had been doing a fabulous job, they actually had nothing to compare to,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: After observing for a year, after seeing some of the pitfalls, seeing some of the struggles, understanding what our hiring managers, our needs, wants, and desires are, and combining that with the team's needs, wants, and desires, I've been able to put forth legitimate time to fill, which is super important, both average and median.
And the cool thing that I figured out there for the firm and for TA specifically was our average time to fill [00:16:00] was not bad, right? It was, like, average for benchmarks within the AEC industry, and we were quite pleased with that because we didn't even have our own benchmark internally yet
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: What I did with the median was I saw that there was a significant in the fact that at a certain level of position, right?
So more senior and very strategic technical roles with like whatever the specific licensing or certifications were. Those were absolutely pushing some of our time to fills to even, you know, triple digits, just being honest. And at one point, it's kind of like, okay, how do we fix that issue? Well, if we separate the median from the average, we can see that we're actually doing quite well, and there was like a seventeen plus day difference between the two.
So taking the median and going, "Hey, we're not doing so badly here at all," which was lower than the benchmark, by the way. That was really fun to see. The other metric that we came up with was RMR, [00:17:00] which is, uh, recruiter maintenance ratio. And where this started from was I was seeing that TA was doing really great work with, um, partnering with our HRBPs, our human resources business partners, and, uh, realizing that there was some mild turnover in some of our, you know, divisions, right?
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah. worked together, um, and came up with all these fantastic, uh, candidates, and I don't want to say out of nowhere. There was a lot of effort that had been put forward. But within a six-week period, they were able to fill 11 positions, and I'm using our numbers because I'm just so proud of that work and effort and that partnership, right? And everybody knows this is not high volume work that we were filling. These were significant roles with degrees and certifications and licensing and technical skills that were required, right? There were a lot of requirements there. they were able to fill all those roles. then there was this point where a couple people left within a three-month period.
And so I was like, how [00:18:00] did we do all this work? And where were we able to make the... Right? So I had to
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: back and I had to assess, and then I realized, oh, I see. Across the firm, I haven't been paying attention from a leadership perspective to the difference between replacement backfill roles and growth net roles, right?
Adding to Barge's bottom line. And I had to do that whole sort of if you will.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Up words. Had to do all that strategery there from the perspective of, know, the talent acquisition team itself has goals that we need to achieve by the end of the year as well that we've been tasked with.
And so that focus towards that net sort of was the a challenge to explain. You don't want hiring managers to feel like their responsibilities and their roles are less than others, right? Everybody has priorities. And in order to prioritize that, our s- the strengthening of our relationships between TA and our hiring managers had to continue to happen. And that is what's happening right now, which is wonderful. So [00:19:00] having these very strategic discussions and coaching TA and then coming back and talking with each other and learning from each other's experiences has really helped elevate those consultative skills within TA over the last year
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. So are you saying that you were noticing... Just to make sure I'm following what you were saying. You were noticing a difference in turnover between whether the role was a backfill versus if it was like a net new position?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Correct. And I started realizing that RMR, recruiter maintenance ratio, actually mattered here because I spent a lot of time and research, worked with our total rewards team, our comp people as well. We partnered so that I could make sure that the benchmark that I was setting to make comparisons, I was able to actually quantify that time, which was huge. So now all this news has gotten through to the big bosses, and now C-suite wants to see this for the entire firm. So that's very exciting.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: So is recruiter maintenance ratio the percentage or, or the, the ratio [00:20:00] of new hires to backfill roles that they have placed in the q- and, like, what's the timeframe you look at it in?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: That, that's an excellent question. Let me clarify. The recruiter maintenance ratio is the TA time being spent simply on backfills, right? As opposed to the bottom line of growth. And so that was a huge factor for me because I started realizing in this example that there was an inordinate amount of time being spent across the firm on backfills, and that we needed to be able to have conversations about prioritization so that we could fill things and also hit our bottom line of growth, right?
Super important. Yep
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: How, um, how are you thinking about, you know, you said you're, you're at a touch under 700 now and, and you have growth goals to get to closer to 1,000 in the next couple of years. Like, how are you thinking about approaching that from a, from a TA perspective?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: From TA's perspective, the goals for next year, you know, are gonna double from this year, just to be honest, from the [00:21:00] perspective of being able to hit up as many networking opportunities in person as each individual can as possible. And my team is spread out, right? I've got, um, a few all over the Southeast, which is wonderful.
So we have the opportunity for them to get boots on the ground in three or four different locations, uh, within the Southeast, which is great because that's what our regional footprint is currently. It's basically the Southeast up into Ohio
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: How are you thinking about in terms of like how does that impact your team? Do you see efficiency improving based on some of the learnings and everything you're, you've done or, um, or how are you... Does the expansion affect like TA or HR overall?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: So the ex- expansion, in my opinion, only affects everything positively because it sort of, I don't wanna say forces in a negative way, but it encourages, I will say, the human resources business partner team and the talent acquisition team to really partner up together to make sure that everybody's on the same page about keeping it moving [00:22:00] on what candidates need to be moving through as quickly as possible, but also as efficiently as possible, right?
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: All the different things behind the scenes that have to happen, varying from, you know, onboarding and IT and equipment being prepared to going through the appropriate legalities of background checks and drug screenings and all those good things too, right? Then taking into consideration if the priority pops up a little bit from the perspective of, hey, we won work that's been sitting in the hopper that's ready to start, and we need this person yesterday for real, for real,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: a, a higher level priority.
So that constant communication really levels the prioritization out. And the other thing that we're doing is quarterly reforecasts. And so when those reforecasts happen from the original labor plan, that body count, TA gets together quarterly right after those come out. We do a req reallocation and make sure everybody's got what they need as far as work, and we also do a reprioritization of said reqs.
That part's super key
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: How do you, um, I, I-- [00:23:00] You've talked so much about relationship building, both with candidates internally with the HRBP team and hiring managers. Um, I think sometimes that can be where there's a lot of friction or just misalignment between and, and what can cause things to push out and take longer. So what do you think are the...
Is it the upfront planning with the HR or with the hiring manager? Like, how do you find best, um, to work alongside them and, and make sure that you're, you know, being the strategic partner?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah, no, that's really great. So one of the keys that we're working on, I think I mentioned it very briefly before, is that consultative elevation. The advisory level of our talent acquisition team is getting to the point of excellence, right? They are doing such a fantastic job at partnering with their hiring managers and with those HRBPs from the perspective of at some point in the future, the goal is for the hiring managers to say, "Okay, who should I [00:24:00] hire out of this?"
Right? Like, and really taking TA's
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: the subject matter expertise level. So those are the goals from the training side of what we're doing. would say they're all almost there, if not there, which is amazing, and it's only been a year, right? They-- That is proven from the perspective of that trust that is built, right?
If you lose trust, you have to work extra hard to gain it. When the trust is there, it's much easier to build it back when you've got that bucket of trust under you, right?
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah, and sometimes that looks like saying no, right? Saying no to a hiring manager.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: And having reasons why. That's so important. I love that you said that. Absolutely. To be confident enough to say, "I would pass on this candidate," right? Um, "I know that you want this candidate. You've asked for my advice. Here's why," right? And giving lon- blah. Excuse me. Sorry, words. Giving non-emotional answers, simply sticking to facts, but advising on the fact that candidate risk factors are a thing, [00:25:00] right?
So being able to express why these risk factors are more significant, say, than certain other ones, and how they're going to affect the bottom line of this particular group, center, division, whatever you title your, your groups of work, right?
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Mm-hmm.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: And that is very exciting because when a hiring manager is able to look at your, your teammate and say, "I trust you.
Okay, let's do this," and it works out, they'll come to you again and again and again, right? That, that's a given
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: I would imagine too, um, I know you, you mentioned like going to conferences to build relationships, but I would imagine too those are super helpful for the team just to know what folks are talking about in the industry, right? It's, it's probably a conference that's geared with content, I imagine, towards professionals, whether it's a continuing education sort of credit type of thing, or how, how valuable, um, do you find it for that aspect?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Uh, extremely valuable from both sides, right? So I'll give a couple wonderful examples. the Georgia Association of Water Professionals, when [00:26:00] I just started here, right, a year ago, and now I've been to three water conferences, I feel like I can speak geek with water with the best of them, right, at that point, and I look forward to training that to the team.
And every conference I come back from, they are thirsty for that knowledge, and I love that, right? We are all learning together from that sense.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: I got. I've been in there for 10
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: And they're, they're absorbing all of that from me now. But there's water, there's land development, right?
There's the civil transportation side, there's the water transportation side, but there's also our architecture side here and our facilities side as well. And so those are areas where all of us are striving to build new relationships while also being able to find new ways to explain the business, explain the future of what's coming so that we can sell the crap out of barge,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah. when you're thinking about given what's going on with AI and how it's sort of changing the work that a human is [00:27:00] responsible for versus other things, how has that changed the way you are assessing talent, or has it changed it at all? Or, or what are you looking for in terms of, the ability to, to do the work that you want the human to remain doing?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah. We, we don't have any pressure as far as AI is concerned here, right? People utilize it, people don't utilize it. We encourage it for sure. I know for a fact everyone, including myself on the TA team, utilizes HI, HI, utilizes AI most days,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Sometimes several times a day. And it helps us in many ways, from identifying candidates that are passive, because those are the majority of candidates that we are looking to develop relationships with. And just for your knowledge, for whoever's listening, right? The, the passive candidate is someone who's not actively looking, right? There's a difference there in the active and non-active side. we wanna develop those relationships with those passive candidates on purpose. So we want them to think of us, we want them to think of Barge when they do decide they might be looking [00:28:00] or considering a transition.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: AI helps us identify those for sure. AI also helps us in many other ways, and it's a wonderful tool. It does not replace anything that we're using, right? Common sense and all the things like cognitive thought. We're not using it from the perspective of replacement of that, but it certainly enhances all of that
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Mm-hmm. Um, I guess shifting a little, I was speaking with somebody yesterday, um, or recently I, I should say, about, um, the impact of, you know, what's going on with, with early career hiring. H- are... When you're in a growth, growth mode like, like you're in, are you seeing more opportunities to attract talent that way?
I know you talked about, you know, getting involved with some campus organizations, but what, what's the, um, what has the early career, um, recruiting been look- you know, looked like for, for you all, and has that grown or stayed consistent, or how are you thinking about that?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: It's [00:29:00] both. It's growing, and it's growing consistently, which
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Exciting for us, right? So one of the things that's very exciting is more metrics to talk about. Um, our TA team has a representative on the team who just transitioned our intern program that she's run successfully for three years to our newer hire.
This will be his responsibility, and this was his first opportunity partnered with her. It was a full year of transition this year, and we're almost done with that, which is very exciting.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: and next year he will own that, which is wonderful, and she'll be there to support, right? From the perspective of those metrics, Barge is doing an amazingly good opportunity-- opportunistic job at re-identifying the positive intern experiences and seeing who wants to return and utilizing that return on investment towards hire, right? And the best thing that we can do is every career fair that we're at, we let people know those percentages, and we [00:30:00] say, "If you want to work for us, intern for us. It's one of the best opportunities to get to know us inside and out and who you could be working with in the future should you have an interest in getting hired."
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: one of the biggest things in entry-level hiring and early career hiring these days is everyone's looking for real, authentic experiences. Um, student transition into the workforce, the main things that students often say is they just wanna make sure they're prepared, right? They don't know what they don't know, right?
The fear of the unknown, and so we try to provide that for them. And our internships are anything but normal from whatever that means, right? From the perspective of our interns work on our real-life projects. They are not out there getting coffee for everybody.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: how it works here at Barge. They are intricate members of the team for their six-week period during that summer. Now, I do also wanna point out that Barge has recently, since I came on a little bit over a year ago, [00:31:00] transitioned. Not only do we have our wonderful summer intern program, we also do year-round internships if there's enough work, right? So in any of our offices, should there be work and should those schedules work out, we will take on interns at any point in the year, and that is exciting as well
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Are the, are the folks that you're taking on, um, if you have the capacity for it, is it like you're s- sticking with the people who were there previously and it's sort of like a part-time thing in addition to their coursework? Or is it just, is it more of the intense six-week,
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: No, it is, it is a little bit different and unique from the six-week. The six-week, as you said, I will say it is intense, but it's a cool kind of
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: And the relationships and the bonds that are built from the perspective of the majority of our summer internships are inside and from our, uh, corporate headquarters, which is Nashville. Now, we do have and we had our largest class this summer of 39, which is amazing. We're very, very proud of that, [00:32:00] and it looks like it's gonna continue to keep growing, 'cause out of that 39...
Well, I'm probably not supposed to give all these numbers out, so I'll say we have a significant percentage of interns that are coming back already next year, which is wonderful news, right? And out of those, the likelihood that those will get hired again would also be another great percentage. So we keep track of all of this stuff to make sure that it's on the up and up
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah. I was just reading something recently where it sounds like more and more companies are m- are doing what you were talking about, which is they'll do the intense, quote-unquote, um, internship over the summer, but then they'll keep people on part-time throughout the rest of the year to the extent that they have work, and it's really a way for, um, like you said, both for the students or candidates to assess what it's really like to work and, um, you know, be able to, for the company, be able to see, you know, how the, how this person thinks over time and, and see how their skills are growing and, you [00:33:00] know, as a college student, who, who doesn't love a little bit of, uh, extra beer money?
So, um, I can see that that would be advantageous for, for that reason too. Um,
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Thank you.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Well, transitioning a little bit more to, to you and your background, you, you owned your own agency for I think it was eight years, and then made the decision to go back into to corporate. Like, what was that, um, what was that like for you, and what w- what drove that?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah, it was challenging. Um, I had a business partner at the time, and so we decided together that it was just going to be the right time. She'd had some health issues. Her mother had had some health issues, right? So I completely understood that situation. She ended up transitioning with one of our clients, which was fantastic for her at the time. Talk about relationships, I had the honor and opportunity in that when I saw the Barge position open up, I tailored my resume to it and had a five-plus-year friend colleague who already worked [00:34:00] here, and the gentleman, um, was more than willing to refer me for the opportunity, and I thanked him for that, of course.
And within a week, I had the interview and then went through their process, which was wonderful. Um, very, very intense and very positive. And here I am, and I, uh, got him a little gift just to say thank you because that right there is exactly why you wanna know everybody, right? It is, in fact, all about who you know, and had it not been for this gentleman being, you know, more than willing to refer me, I'm not sure I would be here.
So,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: It was all meant to be, in my opinion.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah, and I think it speaks to some, um... There's an important lesson there too around when you see a role that you're really excited about, take some time to really make sure you understand the company, tailor your resume to it, and not in the here's the, the job description and here's my existing resume, AI make me a resume that matches the job description.
Um, you know, I, I, I think that sometime, [00:35:00] y- I think what's happening now is that's gotten a little bit lost, you know, um, because it's so easy to not spend time on it and like, you know, I, I know doing a resume has been always the thing I hated the most every time somebody was like, you know, I would get a call from a recruiter and say...
And I was like, "Oh, that, that sounds really interesting." And they'd say, "Give, you know, can you update your resume this weekend and send it to me?" And I was like, "Ugh," you know, the worst.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: So I understand the instinct to wanna do it, but I think you lose some of that capabil- or some of the ability to really, you know, in doing that, you learn a lot about the company, right?
Versus if you just take some scraped data and, and try and make it sound really generic.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: No, I totally agree with you. Listen, I, I would never want to push anybody any further than they feel they need to go or what they need to put forward. But I will say this, tailoring your resume to the job description and during your research of the firm, if you really are that [00:36:00] interested in the job that you're applying to, it does take a certain bit of extra effort, right?
I mean, I think everybody knows that. But I will say what makes you feel great is when you do know somebody in that particular location and they're able, or that place, and they're able to set you up for success, you also wanna make them look good, right? They've vouched for you, so you in turn also owe that responsibility of making sure that you show up
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah. Um, I guess, uh, one of the, one of my last questions is, um, how did you actually get into recruiting?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: I totally fell into it by accident, if you really want to know the truth. So quickly, a minor background on me. So I, uh, I'll date myself, which is fine. I'm proud of my age. I'm 46, and so I graduated college from Agnes Scott College, it's a private women's [00:37:00] college in Decatur, Georgia, in Atlanta, um, in 2002, which was not a great economy.
And I was actually senior class president, so I knew what all my ladies were doing, and the majority of them were going to grad school because there were no jobs. A few of us had jobs. I was one of those, but it was a s- it wasn't the good- the best fit for me. Um, I had thought at the time that I wanted to become a financial advisor, and so I was in the middle of trying to pass all these tests with numbers, like series six, series seven, whatever they were, right? All the numbers. I apologize into the finance industry that I don't know all your tests. Um, and I'm a terrible test taker. The, the reality is there, I could not pass those tests. And so I was like, "All right, uh, let's do a full reset," and I ended up spending two years backpacking through Europe, if you really wanna know the truth.
Came back in 2004, ready to become this pseudo adult, or so I thought, and a girlfriend of mine at the time was like, "Hey, I am recruiting or staffing at this [00:38:00] staffing firm and we're hiring. Come work with me." And I thought, "This is a great way to, you know, foyer into, you know, corporate America. Sure, I'll go work with my buddy." And so she and I, like, took over this staffing firm because those are our personalities, and we kicked butt for the year that we were there. Like, it was amazing. We, we did really, really well. Unfortunately, that staffing agency doesn't even exist anymore. But the cool part was it started both of our careers off into what we could have become, right?
And so we were recruited by her uncle, who owned a privately owned franchise at the time of MRI, which one of these, uh, really large recruiting firm, um, franchises that you can buy, and her uncle's was specific to intellectual property law, and he wanted us to Start and start understanding that industry and the, the candidates and developing relationships, but at a slower pace.
So he was like, doing like attorney stuff. Why don't you two focus on legal support staff local to Atlanta?" And so we did that, and we [00:39:00] kicked butt with it for a year, right? All the paralegals, all the legal secretaries, all the legal receptionists, we knew them all, and we were placing them left and right, and it was working out really, really well for us, so we were happy about that. She did decide she wanted to go and do other things. No problem. I stayed with him for five years. This was the start of my career, and I will never forget this man. May he rest in peace. He has since passed. But he and his wife spent so much time with me, and it was the structure into learning how to recruit, and I just
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: It up.
Everything they put out there I was spongy with, right? And so I worked my way up over that five-year period into a VP of his intellectual property practice, had people under me at one point, like all the good things, right? And when they ended up retiring and closing the firm, I was very easily able to keep moving in various aspects of recruiting, which is where I've gotten all the cool exposure into many different industries.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: At one point, I definitely decided that I didn't want [00:40:00] just agency recruiting experience, that I also wanted corporate recruiting experience.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: then from that corporate recruiting experience, I also realized that I wanted more general HR experience.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Mm-hmm.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Um, probably about 10 years or so into my career was where I started receiving more of the HR aspect of that work, and now I'm pleased to say that after having owned successfully my own HR consulting firm, it wasn't just talent,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Mm.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: That part really set me up for success, and that's why I'm in this role today,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: The gentleman who of course referred me.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: yeah. No, I think that's, um, that's such a great point because I think, you know, you s- you spend a lot of time talking about how important it is that you're partnering with your HRBP team and really making sure that you are understanding what the source is of some of the turnover on the team, and making sure that as you're recruiting...
And I, you know, there's... I, I think that the chatter around this has died down a bit, but I remember, you know, four to six months ago, there was a lot [00:41:00] of talk of talent acquisition should be, uh, you know, separated out of HR, and I just thought to myself, "What a horrible idea." Um, you know, the... You don't need to make those teams feel, you know, dis- more disconnected.
You need to pull them closer together, um, especially when everyone is so obsessed with this quality of hire metric that's so hard to, to quantify. You can't do that if you don't have that tight partnership. So, um, um, you know, it makes a ton of sense that you've gotten to where you are having had that type of experience.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: And I totally agree with you, just to be clear too, right? Like it is detrimental in my opinion not to understand that talent acquisition is a factor under an HR umbrella, right? It's one of many as a matter of fact. And so to separate the two, now granted at Barge, while there is a separate team that I direct and there is a separate HR team that the HR director directs, we are partners.
We work together incredibly [00:42:00] well and that is why our talent acquisition team and our HRBPs as an example work so well together because I have her backing me up and she knows I have-
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Her up
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: all right. Last official question. What, what advice would you give yourself if you met yourself, uh, a few days after graduation before any of this started?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: You mean before leaving, leaving the world and pretending like I'm a, a full on, uh, traveling person? gosh, really good advice. I- empathy. You must understand empathy and compassion in order to be a recruiter, right? If you
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: really can't at least pretend to care about what other people actually want, don't, don't come over here.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Is not the place for you, right? But if you can compartmentalize at least and put on the face professionally of understanding and appearing like you really do care and do in fact want to help people [00:43:00] professionally, personally, and financially, you know, rise in their careers, then is the place for you
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: What do you do outside of, of work when you're not, or, uh, you know, recruiting or, or doing your coaching?
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Yeah. So I am married and I do have a son. He just turned 10 this year, and he's really into motocross, loves to ride around on dirt bikes and ATVs and all kinds of stuff like that. So we spend a lot of time outdoors, lot of time outdoors. We have three dogs. We have a pool. We're very fortunate. So we spend as much time outside as possible, whether it's active, whether it's lounging, right?
And we're kind of, you know, each other's like we're the three amigos
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're the, well, you're the six Amigos with the dog. What, what are the dogs' names? Because if you're willing to share, 'cause I remember think- them being very cute
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Thank you. Yeah, my son named, uh, two of the three. So my old man, who's gonna be 16, um, if you can believe that. He's a little 10-pound frou-frou. Um, he's a [00:44:00] coton de Tuléar, which is a little white ball basically
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: And Gus is his name. And, uh, Gus, Gus Gus. I named him that because of Cinderella, if you really wanna know
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Oh,
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: truth.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Gus Gus. I love
Gus Gus
Yeah. Yeah
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: he's tiny. And I was like, "I've always wanted a Gus Gus." So that's Gus. And then Deegan named the twins. We call them the twins 'cause they're from the same litter. So Toni Bark, like Tony Stark, and it's T-O-N-I because she's female. And then Donnie Barko like Donnie Darko.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Love it
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: never...
Just to be clear, right? I, I know I'm not winning any parenting awards anyway, but my 10-year-old has not seen Donnie Darko, just to be clear.
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Oh, amazing. I love that. Well, Dana, thank you so much for joining me on this. Um, I just, you know, I love hearing your perspective around, um, the relationship building aspect of it because, you know, in a world where people are really, um, starting to rely more and more on technology and tools around this, I think it's a good [00:45:00] reminder of what's important, um, in, in building the relationships and building a really strong team.
So thank you for sharing your perspectives on that.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: Thank you so much for having me,
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: Yeah.
dana-neiger--she-her-_3_08-19-2026_143302: I appreciate you
colleen-gallagher_12_08-19-2026_113302: All right. And thanks to all of our listeners. If you learned something today or laughed, please share this with a friend. See you all next time