A Letter from Joe: 75 years of relationships, and what comes next

Shaker employees from across the country came to Chicago to celebrate our 75th anniversary. Not every company gets to say that. I don’t take it for granted, and I don’t think any of us should.

We filled a movie theater for our Town Hall. We honored employees, past and present, for their contributions. People who hadn’t met in person yet shook hands for the first time. We gathered around dinner tables, shared stories from every era of Shaker, and laughed more than I can remember laughing in a long time. Those two days will stay with me.

If there’s one thing I keep coming back to, especially in celebrating this milestone, is that 75 years doesn’t happen without community: our people, our clients, our partners, and an industry that inspires us to keep innovating. That community is what I value most, and it’s the thing I’m most focused on as we look ahead.

Our people are the reason Shaker has been able to evolve without losing itself. Every shift we’ve made, from expanding markets to new capabilities and ways of working, has been by people who’ve understood and grown our mission. My grandfather and father always said that to succeed, you hire talented people and get out of their way. I said it more than once in Chicago last week, and I’ll keep saying it, because it’s still exactly how we operate. And that unique trust is something we keep working for, by investing in the people who are building the future.

Our clients are who we’re building it for. The work has changed shape entirely: more players, more data, more complexity than a talent team could have imagined a generation ago. But the standard hasn’t moved. We’ll continue helping those teams reach and connect with the right people—with the right message, the right activation, and the right conversion.

Our partners have helped us form new relationships and show the industry what we can achieve when we work together. Collaborations and acquisitions have allowed us to scale and bring in unique perspectives and expertise for the next chapter in our story, and that’s made the work better for everyone we serve. That kind of partnership only compounds from here.

Our industry is where all of this plays out. Talent marketing is being reshaped by technology faster than almost any function I can think of. That’s an opportunity for the organizations willing to stay genuinely connected to the people they serve.

AI is a big part of that right now. As we continue exploring, testing, and figuring out where it genuinely makes our work better, we always come back to the same conclusion: people give it its power, the same as any tool before it.

The future I see is one where people grow more confident because they know the tools they use don’t define them. Their thinking, judgment, and creativity do.

So, here’s where I want to take this: a Shaker that keeps investing in the people who make this place what it is, keeps elevating our clients, keeps deepening the partnerships that make us better, and keeps showing up for an industry that’s going to keep moving. The community got us to 75. It’s also exactly what’s going to take us further.

Thank you for being part of it. Let’s keep building.

In gratitude,
Joe Shaker Jr.
President & CEO, Shaker Recruitment Marketing