‘Walking the walk’ for more than a decade
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August 25, 2025
APPLETON –The Appleton-headquartered Employment Resource Group, Inc. (ERG) has again earned national recognition as one of Forbes’ America’s Best Executive and Professional Recruiting Firms.
“The Forbes recognition is voted on by everyone’s clients,” Sharon Hulce, president and CEO of ERG, said. “I emphasize this because the fact that ERG has [been recognized for] six consecutive years demonstrates that we have long-tenured clients with whom we have formed an advisory role.”
From a values perspective, Hulce said that aligns with ERG’s values to provide more than just talent, “but to truly advise our clients on market trends, growth strategies, talent planning and succession planning.”
Hulce said ERG is more than just an executive search firm.
“We are partners in success, committed to finding and engaging top-tier talent that aligns with our clients’ values and objectives,” she said. “With a customized approach to each search and a placement retention rate of 97%, we are transforming companies one exceptional hire at a time.”
Hulce said ERG has created its own formula for success – one that has been perfected and refined over time.
The driving force behind all of this, she said, is simple but crucial: positioning the right talent in the right roles at the right time.
Some of the aspects that contribute to this, she said, include:
- Each of ERG’s searches are customized, because no two companies or candidates are the same
- Focus on client values – understanding each business makes all the difference in search success
- Behavioral interviews are at the heart of the process – each designed specifically for the individual client
- Candidates are provided with customized position profile pages that include a company’s history, culture and the role
- Every shortlist is reviewed by Hulce and she only signs off when she’s convinced every candidate referred is a great candidate
Next year, ERG will celebrate 25 years of what Hulce called “transforming lives” in the industry.
She said the entrepreneurial mindset that drives her and ERG’s success today was shaped by the lessons learned growing up on her family’s farm and the challenges she experienced in her first years of working.
An unconventional farmer’s daughter
The formation of the company, she said, began with the values she learned growing up on her family’s dairy farm in Wilton.
“A little teeny town of 400 people,” she said.
Hulce said she and her father knew early on that she was headed for great things – beyond staying on the family farm.
“It was interesting, because [my] dad kind of [always] knew,” she said. “He always used to say to me, ‘You’re the one.’ And I never could understand what that meant.”
In addition to instilling the strong work ethic and values of farm life, Hulce said her father encouraged her to embrace other challenges as well, such as entering a public speaking contest and entering pageants.
“I think he knew early on that I was not going to [pursue a career in agriculture],” she said. “I think he knew I was going to be the one who was going to launch off and do something different than that.”
Hulce said she credits her strategic skills to her father, who was also very strategic, even being the first Wisconsin farmer to get an automated milker.
Though he was a man of few words, Hulce said her father was her source of humor and inspiration.
“[I watched] him and how hard he worked,” she said. “He was just a great dad.”
Hulce said her mother – who she describes as a “very kind-hearted person” – was equally supportive and a great listener.
Rising to the challenge
After graduating from Brookwood High School – in a class of only 27 students — Hulce said she continued her education at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Shortly after getting married, she said she started her own image consulting business and had a segment on TV in Marquette, Michigan, where her family settled.
However, when her husband was seriously hurt in an accident just a year and a half later, Hulce said it was necessary for her to become the breadwinner for the family and took a job as the district manager for the company that supplied her with clothing for her TV segment.
“It was my job to hire their salespeople from Green Bay north and through the Upper Peninsula [of Michigan],” she said. “I would put about 70,000 miles a year on my car. It was a lot of travel.”
When she first started in the role, Hulce said her district was 51st in the country for recruiting.
“We went from 51 to No. 1 in a year,” she said.
Hulce said when people ask her how she did it, she responds: “Because I was a maniac.”
“I was so young back then – I was 24 years old,” she said. “I just went all in, and that’s kind of how I do everything in life. I’m kind of an all-in person. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it all the way or I’m not going to do it. So, I decided I was going to be No. 1.”
After two years in the company, Hulce said she was promoted to national manager.
But after a work flight ended in a belly landing due to landing gear failure, Hulce decided it was time to find a new career path.
The search, she said, led to the relocation of her family to Appleton – where she reached out to Management Recruiters of Appleton.
Hulce said she was hired in June, and by the end of that year, she was the company’s national rookie of the year.
“The rest is history,” she said. “I’ve been in [the recruitment industry] for 29 years.”
Industry longevity
“Constantly reinventing” herself, Hulce said she started ERG because she didn’t love the transactional nature of how search was done.
She said she learned quickly in her career that people lose their jobs because they don’t fit into the culture, and they don’t integrate into the company.
“So, for me, I decided that I was going to start my own [company], and I was going to visit every client before I took a search,” she said.
Hulce said meeting clients face to face gave her more insight into the companies and the cultures – and what they were looking for in a new hire.
“One of my favorite things to do is walk a construction site or a plant floor with the boss and see how people react,” she said. “That’s what I spend most of my time doing today, and I love it.”
Hulce said that though ERG tends to work a lot in niche markets – such as construction, manufacturing, banking and financial services and hospital administration – “leadership is leadership.”
Regardless of the industry, Hulce said it is important to not only understand what’s important to the organization, but also where the organization wants to go.
At ERG, she said they use the terms “heart-hunters” instead of “headhunters.”
“Our job is to help people find their life’s vocation – sometimes when they don’t even know how to explain what that looks like,” she said.
As a business owner, Hulce said there are so many hats you have to wear, and some of them aren’t necessarily fun.
“It’s challenging being a business owner,” she said. “It’s challenging being a leader. We get to tell a lot more people [saying] ‘no’ than we do ‘yes.’ All of those things can be really stressful and taxing and sad sometimes.”
The challenges she has faced professionally and personally, Hulce said, have made her more resilient and better at her job.
“My motto: Be the buffalo,” she said. “The buffalo is the only mammal that runs toward the storm to get through it faster rather than running to try to avoid the storm. So, whenever we have anything that causes a challenge, I always say to my team, ‘We are going to be the buffalo.’”
Hulce said her team of 14 “is very much in alignment with ERG’s core values.”
“I have a great team,” she said. “We always call ourselves a big, dysfunctional family.”
For the past 24-plus years, Hulce said each morning, the ERG team shares gratitude.
“People will say, ‘I’m grateful for my grandma. I’m grateful for my little guy and I’m grateful for how much joy he brings me,’” she said. “You get to know their whole being really well, which is why I think we are so close. It gets your day off to a better start and helps us to remember that though there are always challenges in life, there is so much to be grateful for.”
Community
Over the past two-plus decades, Hulce said ERG has donated more than $7 million in not-for-profit search fees to the local community.
“I always say that if I die tomorrow, that is my legacy – the number of services that our community can now offer by having really great not-for-profit leadership,” she said.
