Kevin Jarvis

Kevin Jarvis

Founder & CEO - Hire With Jarvis

Like many talent leaders, Kevin Jarvis did not set out with a carefully planned path into recruiting.

Instead, he stumbled into talent acquisition early in his career through the agency side of the industry. What began as one of his first “proper jobs” quickly became a profession that captured his interest.

At first, Kevin was drawn to what he describes as the more romantic side of recruiting: the idea of helping people, connecting talent with opportunity, and making meaningful career matches.

But he quickly learned that talent acquisition is more complex than that.

“There is a lot of rejection,” Kevin explains. “You help people, but you also have to manage the negative side of it.”

Recruiters often carry the pressure of balancing candidate expectations, client demands, and the reality that not every person can receive the outcome they hope for. That early realization shaped Kevin’s view of the profession and gave him a deeper respect for the emotional complexity of the work.

Learning the Fundamentals of Recruiting

Early in his career, Kevin joined Huxley Associates, part of the S3 Group, a large global recruitment firm based in the United Kingdom.

One of the most influential leaders in his career was Gary Eldon, who was the managing director at the time.

Kevin credits Gary with helping him understand the importance of both ambition and simplicity.

Gary encouraged him to think big, stay focused on where he wanted to take his career, and look for ways to improve talent acquisition processes. At the same time, he reminded Kevin to stay grounded in the day-to-day realities of the work.

“He was great at breaking things down to simplicity,” Kevin says.

That guidance became foundational as Kevin advanced in his career. With Gary’s support, he opened several new divisions for the business and eventually moved to the United States in 2006 to launch the company’s first U.S. office.

Those experiences gave Kevin a front-row view of how recruitment businesses scale, how markets differ across regions, and how strong leadership can shape both people and performance.

Moving Beyond Transactional Recruiting

Today, Kevin serves as CEO of a global recruitment company.

Earlier in his career, he describes the agency side of recruiting as being heavily focused on placements, revenue, and growth. While those elements remain important in any recruitment business, Kevin’s perspective has evolved over time.

After selling his previous company to a private equity firm in 2015, Kevin took three years away from the industry to travel the world and reflect on what he wanted to do next.

When he returned, he realized he still had a deep passion for recruitment. What he had fallen out of love with was the transactional nature that can sometimes dominate the industry.

That realization helped shape the next chapter of his leadership.

“What motivates me now is trying to see how we can improve our industry sector,” he says. “How can we do things better today than we did yesterday?”

For Kevin, great recruitment is not just about filling roles. It is about improving the experience for everyone involved: recruiters, hiring managers, organizations, and candidates.

He believes the talent itself is too often overlooked in talent acquisition, despite being at the center of the entire process.

That belief now drives much of his work as a leader.

AI as an Enabler, Not a Replacement

Like many leaders across the industry, Kevin sees artificial intelligence as one of the biggest forces reshaping recruitment.

Over the past year, he has watched AI move from being a source of fear to becoming a practical tool for improvement.

At first, many recruiters worried that AI would replace jobs. Kevin acknowledges that in some areas, automation will change how work is done. But he believes the strongest talent acquisition professionals are learning to view AI differently.

The best recruiters and organizations, he says, are treating AI as an enabler.

They are asking better questions:

How can AI help recruiters work more efficiently?

How can it reduce repetitive work?

How can it create more time for meaningful human interaction?

How can it improve outcomes for clients and candidates?

Kevin believes the industry is still only scratching the surface of what AI will become.

“We’re going to see huge developments quarter after quarter over the next few years,” he says.

For him, the opportunity is not simply to adopt new tools for the sake of innovation. It is to use technology in ways that make recruitment more effective, more human, and more valuable.

Advice for Talent Leaders

As talent acquisition continues to evolve, Kevin encourages leaders to stay focused on improving the industry rather than simply chasing short-term outcomes.

Recruiting will always involve metrics, revenue, placements, and performance. But Kevin believes the future belongs to organizations that can balance those commercial realities with stronger relationships, better candidate experiences, and more thoughtful processes.

His advice is to keep asking how the industry can do better.

Better for recruiters.

Better for hiring managers.

Better for companies.

And most importantly, better for the people whose careers are being shaped through the process.

For Kevin Jarvis, talent acquisition is not just an industry built on transactions. At its best, it is an industry built on trust, relationships, and continuous improvement.

That belief continues to guide his work as he helps shape the future of global recruitment.