Talk Talent To Me (Rob Stevenson: Recruiting, Employer Branding, and Career Growth Expert.)

Referrals are an active, internal marketing campaign that recruitment leaders need to leverage alongside their external marketing campaigns. Today, global talent leader Neeti Upreti joins the show to discuss the power and importance of referrals in the recruitment industry. Hear all about Neeti’s incredible career, why recruiting isn’t only a push but also a pull, the importance of senior leadership roles in recruitment, handling referrals, and so much more! Neeti’s experience in various industries has helped her identify the dos and don’ts of recruiting and in this conversation, she delves into some of the best ways to increase referrals before talking about when to encourage employees to make referrals. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcoming today’s guest, Neeti Upreti. 

• Neeti shares her career journey and how she ended up where she is today. 

• The push and pull of recruiting: why there needs to be a buy-in from both ends. 

• Neeti outlines the imperative role of senior leadership in recruitment. 

• Balancing hiring referrals with the best-qualified candidate. 

• A few of the best ways to increase referrals within your company. 

• Why employees should be encouraged to make referrals from onboarding. 

• The importance of bringing an element of fun into recruitment. 

• Why Neeti is so excited about transformation in the industry.

Quotes:

“Behind everybody’s success, there are leaders who lean in to provide that development opportunity.” — Neeti Upreti [5:48]

“The reason why I think that [senior leadership roles are] important and why I still enjoy it is because I feel like you really need to be close to a problem in order to be able to find the solution.” — Neeti Upreti [8:01]

“We should – be working on an internal campaign to see how [we can] network with our internal employees to find – talent.” — Neeti Upreti [22:42]

“When you drive fun into a process, you get more engagement.” — Neeti Upreti [28:55]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Neeti Upreti on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

Abby joins to discuss recruitment career planning, shifting from an individual contributor role into management, and ingratiating yourself with hiring managers.

We are live at Talent Acquisition Week with another incredible guest, Jacob Rivas. Jacob is a Senior D&I Talent Sourcer and is here to share his knowledge about recruitment with us today. In this episode, you will hear all about his talks at Talent Acquisition Week, the response he is getting, how he got into D&I, what makes him different from other talent recruiters, how he communicates with candidates, and how to approach subject lines. Jacob also explains how things have changed for him since leaving Box. Finally, he shares the most amazing career advice he has ever received with us. So to hear all about D&I recruitment and why you should not be afraid to fail, tune in now!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcoming today’s guest, Jacob Rivas. 

• Jacob tells us about his talks at Talent Acquisition Week and how he felt during them. 

• What people are asking for from Jacob in terms of training. 

• How Jacob learned about and became interested in D&I. 

• Why you have to stand out from the crowd when it comes to engaging with candidates. 

• How Jacob approaches candidates and why that sets him apart from other talent recruiters. 

• The importance of asking what a candidate needs before giving them too much information. 

• How Jacob’s approach changed when he left Vox. 

• How to handle subject lines when communicating with talent. 

• Jacob shares the best career advice he’s ever received with us. 

Tweetables:

“Diversity is really the new area to go and if you’re intentional, you can make a big impact.” — Jacob Rivas [0:04:27]

“Candidates are people not products.” — Jacob Rivas [0:05:57]

“Fail fast, fail hard, learn from those mistakes, and don’t be afraid to make a mistake.” — Jacob Rivas [0:15:31]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jacob Rivas on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Craig explains how Match Group assesses for inclusivity as a core competency, and how the challenge of hiring from a finite amount of underrepresented talent is no different than any other kind of hiring.

To learn more about how Hired can help you find your next great hire, head to hired.com/tt2m

Jessica explains what her first orders of business are as Whereby's new VP of People, as well as how to assess whether a company is presenting it's authentic self to you in your own interview process.

People Ops as a Product

Carly explains how she's revamping MovableInk's interview training through a campaign aptly titled "Ink-redible Hiring", as well as how performance review structure can guide job descriptions.

Laurie explains why it's so important to develop multiple facets of your personality and life, and how to reflect on your values and goals to determine whether a company is right for you.

Today on Talk Talent To Me, we are joined by the Chief People Officer over at BlockFi, Laura Cooper. From big corporations to small startups, Laura has seen it all and has insights into the world of talent acquisition from every angle. Laura fills us in on the different approaches she’s been able to take in smaller organizations and the effectiveness and agility of a small, carefully composed team. We learn about social contracts and how to set the stage for high intellectual friction and ensure low social friction, before going on to consider the need for a balance of potential and experience within a team. Laura generously shares BlockFi’s recruitment process and cultural ethos, as well as her personal emphasis on the importance of being surrounded by people who are willing to challenge her.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing Laura Cooper, Chief People Officer at BlockFi.
• Laura explains what BlockFi does and what’s unique about it.
• BlockFi’s mission to make cryptocurrency accessible to everyone.
• The benefits of crypto being in the blockchain and outside of governmental control.
• Why BlockFi is poised to work with regulatory bodies.
• What appealed to Laura about working with BlockFi.
• Laura’s professional background from practicing law to her current position at BlockFi.
• Why she moved to a small startup from a large corporation and how her role differed.
• How a small team can be far more agile and effective than a big team with a big budget.
• Laura’s most difficult transition moving from a big corporate into a small organization.
• Laura breaks down the concept of social contracts in small organizations.
• The role of the recruiters at BlockFi and how they carefully discern new hires.
• BlockFi’s ethos and how the company abides by and emphasizes its social contract.
• What Bonusly is and how it inspires the right behaviors in employees.
• How to ensure that a hire for potential is supported to succeed in a new position.
• Why there needs to be a balance of potential and experience within a team.
• The importance of being surrounded by people who are willing to challenge you.
• The two primary things psychological safety is comprised of.
• How to set the stage for high intellectual friction.
• What low social friction means.
• How to manage your teammates’ failures.
• How setting boundaries creates a positive culture.
• Laura’s final advice: Don’t be afraid to learn and don’t be afraid to unlearn!

Tweetables:

“One of the things that’s most exciting about BlockFi is it’s also for the individual, like you, me, grandma, grandpa, and everyone has the opportunity to buy and sell and trade in crypto through BlockFi.” — Laura Cooper [0:02:04]

“I like the idea that money is in the hands of people versus under control of government.” — Laura Cooper [0:05:06]

“There is and there should be an expectation between the organization and the people who work for it about how we treat one another.” — Laura Cooper [0:20:45]

“Unfortunately, recruiters get a bad rap in a lot of ways but they really are the guardians of the culture.” — Laura Cooper [0:23:15]

“You can’t have everybody be a commander and you can’t have everybody be a scout. You need a combination of the two.” — Laura Cooper [0:30:04]

“The greatest thing is constantly learning. Don’t be afraid to learn, don’t be afraid to throw yourself out there if you don’t know how to do something.” — Laura Cooper [0:37:26]

“Don’t be afraid to unlearn, take the best of what you know how to do and tailor it for the climate in which you’re in.” — Laura Cooper [0:37:54]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Talk Talent to Me

Laura Cooper on LinkedIn

BlockFi 

Bluecore

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

Rob Stevenson on LinkedIn

Hired

The veteran community holds an incredible pool of highly educated and experienced talent, and yet they remain marginalized and underutilized when it comes to corporate employment. Joining us today on Talk Talent to Me is Chip Mardis, partner at Greenlight Connections, a veteran-owned, full-service talent acquisition and staff augmentation company that specializes in sourcing top talent from the military community. Chip guides us through the particular difficulties that a veteran may experience when transitioning into corporate America, and goes on to highlight how America is not well-prepared with regard to how to interact with the massive bank of talent coming out of the military. We discuss the biases and preconceived notions that this demographic faces, as well as the numerous positive qualities and skills which should stand out as an asset to any company, before diving into the various things that businesses can consider and do to make meaningful change and start placing hires. Tune in to hear this important and moving conversation today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing Chip, and his diverse military and retail background.
• A bit about what led him to found this company.
• Why it's difficult for veterans to transition into the corporate world and be received there. 
• Some of the challenges Chip faced when searching and applying for jobs after the military.
• The tenuous transferring of leadership and skills during this kind of transition.
• What recruiting organizations should know when they're interacting with veterans.
• The nature of the military family unit and why military spouses are often overlooked.
• The many valuable qualities that make veterans and military spouses an asset.
• Chip shares the wariness of military spouses and veterans due to being marginalized.
• The importance of credibility with this demographic and how Chip has achieved that.
• Some markers of these career journeys, including location and success in medicine.
• Some other factors to consider such as childcare and adequate compensation.
• Hear about the fantastic work of the Veterans Administration and Hiring Our Heroes. 
• Where to reach out to in order to hire more talented individuals like this.

Tweetables:

“The military demographic as a talent source is a mystery on both sides of the isle. The candidates, either the veterans as well as the military spouses that are leading are somewhat unsure or unclear how to go ahead and pursue a career strategy and job search strategy.” — Chip Mardis [0:04:44]

“[There are] two sides. I don’t think the hiring forum understands the incredible value that a military veteran or a spouse can bring to the program. And there’s this huge gap where our veterans really don’t know how to conduct job searches and how to adequately prepare.” — Chip Mardis [0:05:54]

You need to calibrate that these are incredibly successful people that have stood by our country. Not to wave the flag but candidly, they have, and have just worked their tail off to be in this position. I think it’s an honor to talk to a veteran.” — Chip Mardis [0:11:03]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Chip Mardis on LinkedIn

Greenlight Connections

The Veterans Administration

Hiring Our Heroes

The Limited

Designer Shoe Warehouse

nCino Corporation

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Today’s guest is Natalie Cleaver, the Head of People at Rune Labs, a software and data platform company focusing on neuromodulation. In today’s episode we learn about some of the challenges startups face during recruitment drives, the development of interpersonal relationships between team members, diversity and inclusion for startups, the importance of empathy from management, Natalie’s revolutionary compensation strategy, and much more.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Challenges for startups during the onboarding of new employees.
• The recruitment team’s role in sustaining the onboarding process.
• What Natalie is prioritizing regarding the onboarding process.
• Approaches Natalie has to soft skills and culture-norming.
• Risks an organization faces if it does not prioritize soft skills.
• Examples of resources that conflict within an organization uses.
• How much should you expect from your co-workers.
• Significance of forming interpersonal relationships with co-workers.
• Details about Natalie’s revolutionary transparent compensation strategy.
• Discussion about negotiating power with regards to salary.
• Reasons for why transparent compensation is not standard.
• Challenges faced during the roll-out of the transparent compensation strategy.

Tweetables:

“It doesn’t matter what kind of rock star you are, it doesn’t matter how great you are or what experience you came from, if you cannot work with other people there is no space for you in our organization.” — Natalie Cleaver [0:07:04]

“It doesn’t have to be this deep profound engagements but it does have to be respectful and collegial.” — Natalie Cleaver [0:12:49]

“Instead, you really want to think about how it is affecting people that you might have just been outside of your sphere of consideration before.” — Natalie Cleaver [0:20:02]

“Compensation is an indispensable building block in my mind. I think there is absolutely no way that you can be fair and equitable to the people who work for you in any way, shape or form if you cannot promise them that their compensation is equitable.” — Natalie Cleaver [0:21:56]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Natalie Cleaver on LinkedIn

Rune Labs

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Former Editor-in-Chief of SourceCon and Analyst at the Starr Conspiracy Lance Haun discusses which skills Sourcers and Recruiters should focus on as we move towards an automation-laden HR landscape.

Joining us today is the Head of Talent Acquisition at Buf, Ben Caggia. Ben started by studying medicine, even going as far as taking the MCAT, before realizing that he is actually more passionate about talent acquisition. We get an understanding of Ben’s love for the trenches, why you should find a job aligned with your passions and interests, how to make the shift from individual contributors to management, and what he believes are the attributes of a great manager. As a bonus, Ben tells us why it’s important to ask the right questions at interviews and how you should trust your gut to guide you towards the right company. This conversation goes against the grain compared to previous episodes, in the best way possible!

Key Points From This Episode:

• How he is spending his office time: hands-on with roles. 
• What recruiters struggle with when not completely backed by the company. 
• A combination of building the pipeline and understanding exactly who you are looking for.
• How he is grateful for all the support he received at Buf. 
• What Buf as a company does, and Ben’s role in it.
• Buf as a utopia for engineers. 
• Ben’s professional background and how he ended up in talent. 
• His love for being in the trenches.
• How he made the decision that medicine wasn’t for him.
• Finding a job that aligns with your passions and interests. 
• Making the shift from individual contributor to management.
• Wanting to help people as the cornerstone to the decisions he’s made. 
• The attributes of a good manager, according to Ben. 
• Whether there’s a cap on being the IC if you don’t want to pursue management.   
• How to know if you are speaking to the right companies: trust your gut. 
• Why it’s important to do the research and ask the right questions at interviews. 

Tweetables:

“I'm a little bit spoiled at Buf. The team is incredibly involved in recruiting. They recognize how valuable it is as a function.” —@BeNYCtech [0:01:50]

“There's elements of it that just aren't fun. That's why you get paid to do the job. But it's about finding the job that you're most excited in that aligns with your passions and interests, where it doesn't actually feel like work. Even the bad parts are bearable.” —@BeNYCtech [0:16:54]

“I knew pretty early on that I had my sights set on management. I think it's the hardest leap to take in your career.” —@BeNYCtech [0:18:11]

“I think a good manager is ultimately one that's a servant to their reports, and somebody that's a shield, and is constantly looking at ways to improve their workflows and make their lives a little bit easier.” —@BeNYCtech [0:19:32]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Ben Caggia on Twitter

Ben Caggia on Instagram

Ben Caggia on LinkedIn

Buf

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Cia explains how people leaders can position themselves as strategic leaders to the business.

Kyle explains his entrepreneurial journey starting Creative Talent Endeavors, and shares the benefits of working for an agency over an in-house recruiting gig.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Kyle shares his personal and career journey leading up to founding Creative Talent Endeavors.

• The decision Kyle made to leave a big brand and start his own agency.  

• Early days at Creative Talent Endeavors and the process of finding clients.

• Kyle talks about how he managed to take on Taco Bell as his first client. 

• Unpacking the process that Creative Talent Endeavors goes through with new clients and their goals. 

• Reasons to go the contingent route; experience, cost, and more.

• When to think about working for an agency versus the in-house option. 

• The most important questions to ask when considering an agency. 

Tweetables:

“I just wanted to have more autonomy in my career.” — Kyle Samuels [0:07:33]

“We go slow to go fast.” — Kyle Samuels [0:16:13]

“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” — Kyle Samuels [0:29:25]

“I do like the variety of having different clients and different things to work on every day.” — Kyle Samuels [0:31:42]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Kyle Samuels on LinkedIn

Creative Talent Endeavors

Rob Stevenson on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Lime's Recruiting Operations Manager joins to discuss how he works to identify funnel inefficiencies and make recruiter's lives easier.

Hannah Olson joins to discuss how companies can hire a chronically ill & disabled workforce (and why they should), as well as the training her company offers to help hiring organizations grow into more inclusive workplaces.

To learn more about how Chronically Capable can help your company hire from chronically ill & disabled populations, click here. 

Recruiting Manager for Virgin Hyperloop One, Greg Toroosian, explains how his team hires specifically to fulfill immediate projects and business needs, rather than hiring "opportunistically" when a particularly talented person comes along. He further unpacks the candidate experience and business impact of this approach.

New York City - The Canary Club - June 1st

San Francisco - Shelton Theatre - June 8th

London - The Steel Yard - June 16th

We are so excited to welcome the Director of TA at Comcast, Keith Friant. Our chat starts by exploring the humble beginnings of Keith's career, and the importance of embracing all potential job opportunities. Keith goes on to crack open his business model to help us understand the ins and outs of a successful recruitment company. While doing this, he highlights methods Comcast uses, such as the forecasting processes and bottom-up approach, to emphasize the importance of customer experience. We are lucky enough to end off the podcast with a personal nugget of career-driven wisdom from Keith.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Looking at how Keith’s career background led him to recruitment.
• How Keith organically moved up within Comcast.
• The growing popularity and success of recruiting as a profession. 
• The evolution of necessary skills, tools, and technology needed to be a recruiter. 
• The importance of focusing on the operational and production side of businesses.
• The forecasting of growth, hiring, and potential job opportunities.
• A bottom-up approach to running your company: focusing on customer experiences. 
• Understanding NPS and how Comcast utilizes its survey information and feedback.
• How Comcast helps its employees grow and move within the business.
• The importance of skill and competency-based interviewing in the hiring process. 
• Keith’s guide to forging a successful career.

Tweetables:

“Strategy and being strategic are such overused terminology — the business thinks we’re strategic if we help save them time, help deliver great talent, and help drive diversity.” — @keithfriant [0:06:32]

“I don’t think much has changed about what we should be doing but more about how we go about doing it, how are you saving time, how are you adopting best practices, how are you really understanding and listening and consulting with the business.” — @keithfriant [0:07:28]

“Having an engaging, succinct, and meaningful candidate experience is so critical.” — @keithfriant [0:14:19]

“It is good as a leader to know if you have people on your team looking, so you can either plan for the growth on their team or prepare for the “What’s next?”” — @keithfriant [0:25:06]

“Being able to foster an environment of trust, understanding, and empathy in tandem with driving excellent results, understanding your business, and really being able to collaborate with all of your talent partners, I personally think has been the key to my success so far.” — @keithfriant [0:28:11]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Keith Friant on Twitter

Keith Friant on LinkedIn

Keith Friant on Instagram

Comcast

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Bao explains his non-standard career path in recruiting as well as his current recruitment marketing approach at Just Auto Insurance.

The shift from an individual contributor into leadership is something that most people will face in their career at some point, and it's not always an easy decision. Director of People Ops and Total Rewards over at OwnBackup, as well as an accomplished opera singer, Shane Long is here to talk about his jump into leadership and take us through how he arms recruiters to be more effective during the offer stage and throughout. In this conversation, we dive into the best ways for startups to navigate total rewards, previously known as benefits and recognition, and the importance of identifying what motivates people, be it a candidate or team member. Shane weighs in on how to compete when there's a FANG company's comp offer that outpaces yours, before discussing that intricate matter of equity, transparency, and answering questions that are and aren't being asked. You'll hear about some frank feedback that was hard to hear but formed a crucial part of Shane's growth, plus the oddest and coolest advice he received early in his career that swung his decision to pursue leadership from a 'no' to a 'yes' and deeply influenced his leadership style. We also get a sneak peek behind the curtain of his enablement sessions with recruiters and learn the importance of empowering recruiters to be the most knowledgeable person in the room, and what that empowerment looks like in practice. He's a true powerhouse of leadership from a hugely successful startup that's experiencing endless and exponential growth, year after year, and we hope you can join us for another fantastic conversation!

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to Shane and a brief sprint through his illustrious opera career.
• How studying business and organizational psychology prepared him to be a recruiter.
• A great leader that impacted his early career and his decision to jump into leadership. 
• The oddest and coolest advice he's ever received.
• Hear about the type of leadership that most people react negatively to. 
• The frank feedback that was hard to hear but ended up pivoting his communication style.
• We discuss total rewards in the SaaS industry and why it's better to start at an early stage.
• Always revisiting candidate motivations, plus how to compete with FANG comp offers.
• A peek into the enablement sessions and calls that Shane does with recruiters.
• Diving into misunderstandings about equity and how to best navigate those conversations.
• Working with managers to coach them through figuring out what motivates their teams.
• Talking about what motivates different people and how to find the right questions to ask!

Tweetables:

“At the end of the day, for me, I want to have a positive impact on my team and on their development, and empower them to have the same impact on the organization.” — Shane Long [0:09:36]

“First and foremost, it's not just about comp you want to sell, you've got to sell the company as well. You've got to package the company in a way that's going to be appealing to [the candidate].” — Shane Long [0:15:40]

“A lot of companies keep equity structure, and logistics and calculations really close to the chest or really close to the top of the organization. I say that recruiters are the frontline, they're the ones talking to these candidates. They need to be the most knowledgeable about it.” — Shane Long [0:19:33]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Shane Long on LinkedIn

OwnBackup

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Arthur joins to discuss how to screen for a recruiter's ability to manage hiring managers, as well as how to teach people to give interview feedback that avoids unconscious bias.

We’re live once again from Talent Acquisition Week, and in this episode, we are joined by Chloé Rada, a Global Talent Acquisition Operations and Talent Attraction Leader. Chloé is here to share some nuggets of wisdom about the talent world with us. Tuning in, you’ll hear all about the future plans that she has for her career, the responsibility she places on herself in her role and why listening to people is imperative in the talent acquisition space. Our guest is passionate about data, and today, she shares what kind of data you need for hiring, who can help you access that data, and what her process of creating goals around that data entails. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing our guest, Chloé Rada. 

• What’s on Chloé’s mind currently, and what is next for her in her career. 

• What Chloé believes her role is as a talent acquisition leader. 

• How she goes about coaching people to interview effectively. 

• How Chloé builds rapport with people by showing them all of her professional layers. 

• The importance of listening and gaining an understanding of a business and its people. 

• Why not fitting into a company is a learning opportunity. 

• The questions she likes to ask during interviews to determine whether candidates are a good fit. 

• Why not having access to labor and market data is disadvantageous.

• The importance of reeducation and training as a talent acquisition leader. 

• Why you have to rely on your partners to help you make use of the right data. 

• How to improve your hiring abilities through benchmarking. 

• Why Chloé always starts with data before creating goals and trying to improve. 

• Chloé leaves us with the best career advice she has ever received. 

Tweetables:

“I think people need to be heard!” — @crada [0:06:17]

“I always try to strive and improve and be my best self and bring my best self wherever I go.” — @crada [0:08:12]

“Some organizations are not necessarily resistant to change but they don’t know how to see change through.” — @crada [0:08:19]

“Always be curious and surround yourself with smart people.” — @crada [0:17:23]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Chloé Rada on LinkedIn

Chloé Rada on Twitter

Chloé Rada on Instagram 

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Joining us on Talk Talent To Me today is Sarah Wasif, Chief People Officer at LandTech. Today Sarah outlines what scaling looks like for the company and how she plans on executing growth. Next, she outlines the important things to be considered when a company grows and how you can be adaptable to things that may not work on a larger scale. Sarah then tells us how and what elements of a business should be localized when moving into different areas and what should remain as is. Sarah discusses some of the tricks she has found helpful when trying to keep original employees happy and maintain the company’s original value system before telling us how she ensures that new employees align with those values and are a good fit. Lastly, Sarah discusses how the world has changed to incorporate an emphasis on personal behavior in the workplace. Tune in to find out how to expand a company globally and stay true to its values.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s guest, Sarah Wasif.
• Sarah explains her background and how she landed up working at LandTech.
• What scaling looks like for Sarah over the next few years. 
• How Sarah plans on executing her growth plans for the company. 
• How she will see what will work and what won’t in a company of a larger scale than before.
• Sarah outlines the pillars used in her strategies. 
• Pillar one: the way you attract people. 
• Pillar two: how you retain them.
• Pillar three: sustainability.
• How elements will have to be localized as the company expands globally. 
• Why Sarah thinks Americans index more on equity in a company. 
• Examples of areas LandTech are going to focus on before they expand.
• How the company keeps the original team members happy as the team expands.
• How maintaining the values of the company will keep employees happy for years. 
• How to ensure new employees align with company values. 
• Sarah explains the safe conversations she wants to have with potential employees. 
• The importance of teaching people about how the world works. 
• Sarah outlines how business has changed to emphasize employee behavior. 

Tweetables:

“I haven't joined and worked in a business where some of those early individuals are still A, here, and B, as passionate as the first day I landed eyes on them nearly four years ago.” — @Sarah_Wasif [0:15:12]

“I think I would have paid really good money, not even in my early career, even in school, [for someone to teach me] how the world operates.” — @Sarah_Wasif [0:22:27]

“The concept of emotional intelligence is no longer a soft, fluffy, nice to have. I think companies and successful companies are really honing in into it.” — @Sarah_Wasif [0:23:40]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Talk Talent to Me

Sarah Wasif on LinkedIn

Sarah Wasif on Twitter

LandTech

Tag

Omnicom

BBC

SwiftKey

Hired

Director of People & Talent at TrustToken Kerry Fischer walks us through getting referrals from unlikely places, turning down candidates with aplomb, and the new multi-faceted talent role she's hiring for.

Liz explains how to position the difficult parts of a role, as well as how Flatiron structures the reverse interview.

In a rapidly growing company, it’s often a natural instinct to solve your problems by throwing more bodies at them through recruitment. Today’s guest believes that there is a much better way to build and maintain your talent. Tyler Parson is the head of talent at Chili Piper, a series-B startup that does meeting lifecycle automation for sales and revenue teams. Tyler was hired as the company’s first people operations hire and has been instrumental in building the company’s talent. Initially, she was hired to spearhead recruiting, but after expressing her desire to be responsible for the entire employee life cycle, her role evolved. Tuning in today, you’ll hear why Tyler believes strongly that companies should hire a head of people before a head of talent and why it makes sense to combine the role of recruitment with that of employee ops. We discuss the importance of building the headcount plan strategically, instead of just hiring bodies, and why recruitment should not be an order-taking function, but a strategic partnership between talent and leadership. Tyler also explains why companies should do a better job of looking at their existing talent as plastic with the skills and the desires to move into other roles, and how companies can get a better understanding of their employees career ambitions to provide them with a path to grow towards what they love.

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to Tyler Parson and how she became known as the class clown.
• Insight into Chili Piper and Tyler’s role in the company. 
• Why it makes sense to combine the role of recruitment with that of employee ops.
• Why Tyler believes that new companies should hire a head of people before a head of talent.
• The first things Tyler implemented on the people ops side of Chili Piper.  
• The importance of building the headcount plan strategically, instead of just hiring bodies. 
• Why recruitment should not be an order-taking function, but a strategic partnership between talent and leadership. 
• The importance of differentiating between the critical needs and the wants of a role.
• Why companies should do a better job of looking at their existing talent as plastic, both willing and able to fulfill other roles.
• How the Piper Plan Initiative is used to understand their employees’ career ambitions. 
• The intentional conversations had between management and employees around individual development.
• How the Piper Plan Initiative feeds back into the recruiting process.
• How employees are responding to this initiative. 
• Thoughts on what makes a good employee. 
• The importance of providing employees with a path to grow towards what they love. 
• Tyler’s advice to anyone who wants to grow into a more fulfilling role.

Tweetables:

“Companies choose between hiring a head of people first or a head of talent first. I really fall into the camp where I think that the head of people should come in first. Get your culture locked down, get your impression plans locked down and then hire talent into the function.” — Tyler Parson [0:07:16]

“I really believe that if you – you can put all this time and energy into hiring the talent, but if you don’t develop it and enable it and retain it, then you’re spinning your wheels on recruiting.” — Tyler Parson [0:07:42]

“What we’re trying to build at Chili Piper, — is creating a culture where if you want something new, you always ask for it internally first and if it’s in the realm of possibilities, if it’s in our growth plan which it probably is, then we try it.” — Tyler Parson [0:16:36]

“When you work in a company where people love what they do in a genuine way and you allow other people the path to grow towards what they love, that makes a good employee. I don’t care how many meetings you booked.” — Tyler Parson [0:25:09]

“Be brave enough to be honest with yourself about what really does bring you joy and more importantly, be brave enough to identify when it’s not aligned with what you’re doing right then.” — Tyler Parson [0:28:23]

“It is just a matter of identifying what brings you joy and start to just insert it into your existing job as much as you can. If you can’t, then maybe it is time to find a new one.” — Tyler Parson [0:28:47]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Tyler Parson

Chili Piper

Hired

Talk Talent to Me

Solvvy Head of Talent, Cortlin Handly, explains how career progression isn't a pyramid so much as an hour glass, as well as the pros and cons of the talent consultant lifestyle.

Andon discusses how to make metrics jump off the slide deck, and how he's worked to create a learning environment amongst his team.

In this episode of Talk Talent To Me, we are joined by Paul Humphreys, J.P. Morgan’s Technology Recruitment Manager for all of EMEA. Paul has truly done it all, from studying politics to starting his own recruitment agency, to heading up jobs at Sky and Amazon, and finally settling on a prestigious position at J.P. Morgan. In our conversation, we discuss the pros and cons of working for a global company with larger resources, what cohort hiring is, and why it’s such a big focus for Paul, as well as what he believes the standard industry practice should be when dishing out application rejections. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Paul Humphrey details his career trajectory from studying politics to working for J.P.Morgan.
• What appealed to Paul about working for J.P. Morgan despite having no experience in finance.
• What he is responsible for within the company.
• The pros and cons of working for a global company with resources versus a startup.
• What cohort hiring is and why it’s currently number one on Paul’s agenda.
• Paul’s intentions for the future of recruitment within J.P.Morgan.
• Why hiring managers should be educated to screen candidacy in, rather than screening out.
• The opportunity for internal mobility at J.P. Morgan and how they look at both the internal and external market.
• The process by which existing J.P. Morgan employees are considered for other roles.
• Where Paul feels the firm could improve in terms of recruitment.
• Which kinds of mobility are the most and least common within J.P. Morgan.
• Why Paul believes that giving detailed and honest feedback when a candidate’s application is rejected should be standard industry practice.

Tweetables:

“As a recruiter, what’s always been the most interesting part of the career is trying to wrap my head around, firstly, technology, and then secondly, the business, and to understand how technology is valuable to that business and the role that it plays.” — Paul Humphreys [0:07:27]

“Speed is important in talent acquisition. The speed with which you can bring a candidate through a process [and] the speed with which you can respond to your client’s needs.” — Paul Humphreys [0:11:29]

“There is no such thing as a bad candidate. It’s about matching candidates with your requirements and also the reverse, whether your opportunity matches what a candidate is looking for.” — Paul Humphreys [0:16:16]

“Our role as recruiters is to try and ask challenging questions to the clients and make sure that they’re really assessing internal and external candidates in a similar way.” — Paul Humphreys [0:21:48]

“To shift that focus away from one-off interactions with candidates to a more open and constructive dialogue, that would be a great achievement.” — Paul Humphreys [0:29:23]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Talk Talent to Me

Paul Humphreys on LinkedIn

J.P. Morgan

Hired

Alison Kaizer returns! She explains how to maximize your bandwidth as a talent leader, how to source for nuanced one-off hires, and much more.

Databricks' Sr. Manager of Global Talent Ops, Ashley Santos, discusses what processes she's focusing on in a slower hiring environment, as well as when talent ops can be the right career route for an aspiring recruiting pro.

Joining us on this installment of Talk Talent To Me is the Head of Talent at Amplify, Natasha Katoni. Prior to Amplify, Natasha was one of the very first technical recruiters at Segment, where she went on to become Technical Recruiting Manager. In today’s episode, she shares her somewhat unexpected career journey and what she has learned about talent, scalable processes, and interesting problems along the way. We discuss the importance of really listening to candidates without bringing your own biases into the mix, why building strong relationships with external agencies and platforms is an essential part of the recruitment process, and why there is no one pathway in talent. Natasha speaks candidly about some of her personal motivations, successes, and shortcomings as she has progressed through her career. She even turns her own processes back on herself as a candidate and shares her advice for those currently on the job hunt: be thoughtful and process oriented, but don’t forget to trust your gut!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Natasha shares her journey at Segment, where she was one of their early recruiters.
• Some of the scalable process that were implemented as Segment’s talent operations grew.
• Learn more about Segment’s focus on pre-selling, candidate motivations, timing, and tools.
• How Natasha decided whether or not a candidate was worth the time spent on them.
• Questions to ask technical talent that is in high demand, like what is motivating their search.
• What Natasha has noticed about how candidates express their motivations or priorities.
• The importance of listening to candidates without bringing your own biases to the table.
• The value of taking a step back and reassessing your systems and potential problems.
• Three golden metrics: onsite to offer, offer to close, and top of funnel interested rates.
• Where these processes can break down and the value of building strong relationships with external agencies and platforms.
• Natasha shares what she loves about working at Amplify; how her personal interests align.
• Hear about her transition from an internal operator role at Segment to VC with Amplify.
• Why there is no one pathway in talent; more on Natasha’s less than traditional journey.
• Natasha weighs in on how talent partners can be most useful to early-stage companies.
• Her personal motivation for accepting her current position at Amplify: interesting problems. 
• Natasha emphasizes the importance of trusting your gut while also being thoughtful and process oriented when looking for a job.

Tweetables:

“One of the mistakes that companies constantly make is they talk about moving as quickly as possible. That’s not always helpful. You don’t always want to move as fast as possible. What you want to do is capitalize on the recency bias.” — Natasha Katoni [0:07:18]

“When you want to experiment, when you want to build, when you want to fix a system that isn’t working how you want it to, I would try to speak the language of the person that you’re trying to convince.” — Natasha Katoni [0:16:14]

“Spending time building those relationships with external people to be able to support and add to your internal recruiting team when you need it – but also not bloat your recruiting team so that it’s so big that you have to lay people off – that’s the key.” — Natasha Katoni [0:22:07]

“You should be very thoughtful and process oriented when looking for a job and use the checklist process on yourself as a candidate as well.” — Natasha Katoni [0:36:25]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Natasha Katoni on LinkedIn

Amplify

Hired

Triplebyte

Connery Consulting

Talk Talent to Me

Companies that place people at the center of their business are more likely to make quality hires and maintain a cohesive work environment. Joining me today to explain how her company puts people first, is the Head of Recruiting at Calendly, Kelly Minella. After explaining Calendly’s ease of use and how it has helped simplify the lives of everyone who uses it, Kelly tells me about her professional background and how she ended up in her current role. We discuss how she knew that her CEO cared about prioritizing people, the in-house systems and processes that Calendly is focused on improving, the undeniable wonders of stop, start, continue, and how Kelly and her team have implemented this habit. Kelly expressed the importance of a talent team having a shared understanding, how the introduction of interview training has made Calendly better, why you should always be asking for and reviewing candidate feedback, and the plans that she has for the future of her career.    

Key Points From This Episode:

• A warm welcome to the Head of Recruiting at Calendly, Kelly Minella.

• What Calendly is all about, and how it’s helped Kelly in her daily work activities.

• Why Calendly’s ease of use has been the key to its success. 

• Kelly’s professional background and how she ended up at Calendly. 

• When she first realized that Calendly’s CEO really cared about prioritizing people.   

• What’s keeping her busy at work these days. 

• The optimization of Calendly’s tech stack and improving its hiring partner experience.

• The insight that Calendly’s engineering team gained after its systems were codified. 

• The funnel-vision interviews that are needed for turning candidates into potential hires. 

• Exploring the wonders of stop, start, continue, and how Kelly and her team have implemented this habit. 

• How Kelly and her team go about sourcing content and their plans for a company intranet. 

• Why a recruiting team needs to have a shared understanding. 

• How Kelly introduced interview training to maintain a high level of candidate experience.   

• The importance of reviewing candidate feedback. 

• Kelly’s vision for the future of her career.  

Tweetables:

“[Calendly] is such a time saver. I can’t even remember what it was like trying to schedule time with candidates without it. It is a wonderful product.” — Kelly Minella [02:41]

“I applied [to Calendly], and my first conversation was with our CEO, Tope Awotona, and it was fabulous. I remember calling my mom afterwards and being like, ‘Mom, that was special’. And the reason why, and why it has remained special, is how much priority he puts on people.” — Kelly Minella [06:53]

“The other thing we are focusing on is the hiring partner experience. We want to make sure that we are setting our hiring partners up for success.” — Kelly Minella [15:10]

“Interview training has made a huge impact on our quality of hire and the satisfaction of our hiring partners at Calendly.” — Kelly Minella [32:06]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Kelly Minella on LinkedIn

Calendly 

Tope Awotona on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

In a world where workplace culture typically lives on posters and slideshows, how do you ensure it’s felt and lived every day? Joining us to explore this vital question is Frank Kellenberg, VP Global Head of Culture & Inclusion at Sandoz. With a career spanning leadership roles at Ingram Micro, Adidas, and Novartis, Frank is a culture champion and inclusion advocate with an inspiring mission: to bring humanity back to the workplace! In this episode of Talk Talent to Me, Frank shares the story of Sandoz’s cultural transformation following its spinoff from Novartis, including how the organization defined its own identity, shaped its unique values, and cultivated psychological safety to empower employees to speak up. From using employee feedback as a foundation to building a culture that drives both belonging and performance, Frank unpacks what it takes to ensure that company values aren’t just words but a way of working. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Transitioning from Novartis to Sandoz: a strategic cultural shift to forge a unique identity.

• Three questions that shaped Sandoz’s cultural evolution: what to discard, keep, and introduce.

• What it looks like to ensure that company values are more than just a poster on the wall.

• How Frank defines company culture using a three-layered housing metaphor.

• Why openness and transparency play an important role in Sandoz’s interview process.

• Difficulty attracting and retaining talent and other risks of neglecting workplace culture.

• Insight into the significance of employee feedback (including former employees).

• Psychological safety as a red flag signal for cultural issues in an organization.

• Measuring cultural success through surveys, unscripted employee feedback, and more.

• Going beyond curated narratives to uncover the true state of organizational culture.

• How leadership engagement and informal conversations foster cultural alignment.

• Frank's predictions about the growing importance of workplace culture.

Quotes:

“We integrated [Sandoz’s values and reflected them] in processes, tools, and performance management – so that, at the end, people could not just read it on a poster on the wall, ‘Here are our four values,’ but really experience it.” — Frank Kellenberg [0:08:32]

“You can have a great facade. You can have great architecture or a great house with great furniture. But if the people are not representing it, not living it, [or don’t] like to live in the house, then you have a problem. – This is how I would describe company culture.” — Frank Kellenberg [0:12:06]

“We came from a culture in which people had the feeling they [couldn’t] speak up. That was a signal for us that there was no psychological safety in the organization that people feel safe to speak up, to ask questions, to challenge the status quo.” — Frank Kellenberg [0:21:50]

“If an organization doesn’t care about [workplace culture], they will struggle.” — Frank Kellenberg [0:32:22]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Frank Kellenberg

Frank Kellenberg on LinkedIn

Sandoz

Sandoz People & Culture

LHH Recruitment Solutions

Becky discusses how to manage internal candidate mobility in terms of bias and candidate experience, why "slate interviewing" is better than "iterative interviewing", and what her new Recruiting Ops team is responsible for. Rob has a lukewarm take on coconuts.

Founder of Interviewology, Anna Papalia joins us today to discuss the evolving world of interviewing from the perspective of both sides of the table. In her recently published book, Interviewology: the New Science of Interviewing, Anna provides a guide to four different interview styles and how to get the best out of each one. Tuning in, you’ll hear the story of her leap from a comfortable role at an insurance brokerage to kickstarting a career in empowering candidates and interviewers through the hiring process. We discuss how to know when is the right time to make a change, what keeps people from listening to their intuition, and assess the state of the interviewing process in general. Anna also shares pertinent insights from her book and offers a starting point for anyone looking to improve their process of interviewing. Be sure to listen in to hear all this and more today! 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Anna’s evolution from a comfortable career to pursuing something bigger. 

• An earlier leap in her career that kickstarted her HR profession.

• How to identify when the time has come to make a transition or change. 

• Two types of change and where they originate from. 

• The fear that accompanies intuition.

• Acknowledging the privilege required to go out on a limb.

• Factors that motivated Anna to leave HR and create her dream job with her special skills.

• What is wrong with the interviewing process. 

• Why it’s so important not to blame candidates. 

• Factors working against the success of hiring managers.

• A candid reflection on where diversity truly starts.

• What motivated Anna to consider that there are different interviewing styles.

• Why each interviewing style is as valid as the others.

• Why thinking of an interview as a performance is not a good strategy.

• Distinguishing between authenticity in a personal and professional context. 

• What it truly means to show up as yourself. 

• How Anna’s book, Interviewology, is structured.

• Anna’s perspective on the inflection point we currently find ourselves in.

Quotes:

“I live and die by the saying, ‘If you don’t change direction, you’ll end up where you’re headed.’ You’ll get to where you’re going. I’ve coached so many thousands of people in their careers that I know this to be true.” — Anna Papalia [0:06:54]

“I looked out [at] the world and my dream job didn’t exist, so I created it for myself.” — Anna Papalia [0:15:33]

“When we are in a position of power, as people in the talent space – we have a tendency to blame the powerless.” — Anna Papalia [0:15:51]

“If you’re trying to build an organization that’s diverse – in gender, race, and thought, it starts at the interview table.” — Anna Papalia [0:20:50]

“I believe that interviewing well is all about building up your self-awareness.” — Anna Papalia [0:33:16]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Interviewology

Interviewology: The New Science of Interviewing

Anna Papalia on LinkedIn

Anna Papalia on YouTube

Anna Papalia on Instagram

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Imgur's VP of People Jason Medley joins to discuss the ideal relationship between the recruitment team and the greater people ops team, as well as career pathing options for ambitious recruiters.

Not everyone follows a linear career path, and pursuing a non-traditional route can often equip you with useful skills you wouldn’t otherwise have acquired. Our guest today, Wesley Gilbert, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at On, has had a varied and eventful career journey. After becoming disillusioned with the acting industry while running an events company, Wesley Gilbert discovered his enthusiasm for recruitment through pure chance. In our conversation, Wesley shares how a fortuitous encounter facilitated his first recruitment job at Google, what he learned during his time there, and how he realized the inflexibility of a larger organization wasn’t for him. We spend some time discussing his time at Uber, how he landed a job there, and why he finds the early-stage startup environment so stimulating. He goes on to expand on his passion for problem-solving and how working in an entrepreneurial environment has helped him become a well-informed leader. We also discuss the pressure many of us experience to become more specialized (and the benefits of being a generalist) before Wesley shares his advice on how to become a well-informed leader. There’s no correct way to approach your career, and Wesley is living proof of that. Tune in for a refreshing perspective that will inspire you to follow your curiosity and find environments that allow you to thrive!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s guest, Wesley Gilbert, Head of Talent Acquisition at On.
• Learn why Wesley describes himself as being on a never-ending search for talented people.
• Why agreeing on the perfect candidate is easier than agreeing on the perfect pizza.
• Wesley’s early career as an actor and his experience running an events company.
• The surprising story of how Wesley entered the industry as a recruitment coordinator at Google.
• What Wesley learned from working at Google and why it wasn’t a perfect fit for him.
• Wesley’s time at Uber and how being at a rising startup allowed him to grow.
• What Wesley has learned about the work environments that motivate him.
• Wesley’s appreciation for the high rate of problem-solving that you need to do at an earlier stage startup.
• How Wesley became Head of Talent Acquisition at On.
• The mix of leaders Wesley has worked with and what he has learned from them.
• The pressure generalists often experience from managers to become more specialized.
• The strengths and benefits of being a generalist leader.
• Wesley shares his enthusiasm for sourcing.
• Why sourcing is often oversimplified and how to attract high caliber talent to the role.
• Wesley’s advice on how to build a career that allows you to become a well-informed leader.

Tweetables:

“I realized really quickly that this was a great place to learn about recruitment. They have a lot of best-in-class processes. And they have a really great team.” — Wesley Gilbert [0:07:20]

“I started to realize that, ‘Hey, this is actually a really interesting career where you get to have a ton of impact on people and really help to make their dreams come true.’” — Wesley Gilbert [0:07:36]

“I realized that very quickly, I didn't fit in an environment that was quite as big as Google and gave me so much inflexibility.” — Wesley Gilbert [0:08:10]

“I think the sign of a good leader is that they surround themselves with people that are better than them, that are smarter than them.” — Wesley Gilbert [0:20:18]

“It doesn't matter how senior you are when you come into a company. We're going to give you some autonomy, we're going to give you some scope. And we're going to give you the trust to go and do that. And that means that you just attract a completely different caliber of people.” — Wesley Gilbert [0:27:47]

“Don't be afraid to take a sideways move. Don't always feel like you're chasing that next promotion, or you're chasing that next stage in your career. There's absolutely no race to the end.” — Wesley Gilbert [0:30:15]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Wesley Gilbert on LinkedIn

On

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

How do you create attainable, measurable, and sustainable diversity goals? Eric Thomas is the Global Chief Diversity Officer of Genesys, a global market leader offering customer experience solutions, and manages its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We hear why, and how, Eric uses data to provide useful and meaningful insights that help him not only drive his way forward but pivot when needed. Eric explains how to create a space for employees to have open conversations, and the measures to put in place to make sure their voices are heard. We begin to understand the importance of strategic conversations, how to promote systemic changes, and create plans for inclusive sustainability. Join us to start to understand how to ensure that you are focused on the right initiatives, recognize companies’ window-dressing attempts, and be an inclusive leader.

Key Points From This Episode:

• What is Genesys?
• How Eric ended up in Genesys.
• How Genesys responded and evolved after the George Floyd incident.
• Why Eric felt aligned with his role as Global Chief Diversity Officer.
• How to define a good DEI office.
• How to assess an organization for meaningful, genuine DEI commitments.
• How to see window dressing versus a real commitment.
• The impacts of the great reshuffle/great resignation.
• Why Eric is well suited for his role at Genesys.
• How Eric is different from traditional DEI/HR leaders.
• Why we need collective standards for DEI.
• How to see (and deal) with people who are unwilling to promote and create DEI.
• How Genesys is measuring its success rate for its implemented DEI goals.
• How Genesys handled responses received in its employee surveys.
• Genesys’ long-term goals.
• Three things to help you achieve your long-term diversity goals.

Tweetables:

“Window dressing is when you have a lot of good marketing on your website, but you can’t point to any real material gains that you're making either in representation or in employee sentiment.” — Eric Thomas [0:11:29]

“DEI is a true key business imperative; it’s not a nice-to-have. Companies that are treating it like a nice to have or take the window dressing approach, they are short-changing themselves.” — Eric Thomas [0:13:08]

“What I don’t think we have yet is a collective effort or body that comes together across the industries to set standards and define what good DEI looks like so that you don’t just have your own self to benchmark against.” — Eric Thomas [0:17:25]

“It isn’t just about hitting that [diversity] goal; it is the work that has to happen, the attainment of that goal, and the work that goes into play that allows you to put in place a sustainable set of operating procedures.” — Eric Thomas [0:31:44]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Eric Thomas on LinkedIn

Genesys

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Preparing Underrepresented Talent For Success with Andrea Guendelman

Andrea Guendelman is the CEO of Speak_, the interview preparation service helping underrepresented software engineers clinch roles at the best tech companies in the world. In our conversation with Andrea, we hear about the structure and methodology of Speak_’s program, the level of their engagement with the companies in which they are placing talent, and what’s involved in the resume creation process. We discuss the multitude of factors limiting the hiring funnel, and what companies can do to make a difference from a diversity hiring perspective! Tune in for this informative episode on what’s being done and what still needs to be done to ensure fairness and equality in the hiring process.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The important service Andrea Guendelman’s startup, Speak_, offers underrepresented software engineers.
• How Speak_ was born of Andrea’s attempt to make the Latino community visible in the US.
• The lack of opportunities for underrepresented talent to interview for positions.
• How the current US economy is providing a great opportunity to level the playing field.
• The methodology used at Speak_ to prepare underrepresented talent for big tech roles.
• The benefits of the community aspect of Speak_’s course structure.
• The access and information that candidates receive in the program.
• Where the deficiency lies in terms of not having representative workforces.
• Why Speak_ focuses on teaching candidates to speak the language of the targeted company.
• The preferred source of hire of the companies in which Speak_ is placing talent.
• The prevalence of imposter syndrome amongst underrepresented candidates.
• What leads candidates to believe they’re not qualified according to the job description.
• Why years of experience isn’t a fair requirement in the software engineering space.
• Other factors which limit the hiring funnel.
• How the Speak_ program helps candidates create suitable resumes. 
• The consulting incorporated into Speak_’s engagement with clients.
• Why Speak_ does 12 cohorts a year.
• What Speak_ is looking for in its clients!
• The discrepancy Andrea has observed between recruiters and hiring managers.
• What companies can do to make a difference from a diversity hiring perspective.

Tweetables:

“Speak_ is interview preparation as a service using cohort-based company-branded programs to prepare underrepresented software engineers and place them at the best tech companies in the world.” — @FutureofWomen [0:01:38]

“A lot of underrepresented talent is not given the opportunity to fail often enough. In other words, they’re not even selected to take an interview many times, so they’re not given the opportunity to fail.” — @FutureofWomen [0:04:20]

“The name of our company is called Speak_because we’re teaching candidates to speak the language of the company.” — @FutureofWomen [0:10:52]

“If we compare years of experience so verbatim, we’re going to leave a lot of people behind that you actually need in your organization.” — @FutureofWomen [0:16:25]

“We have found out that companies will reject someone sometimes just because of their resume, even though we know that they’re qualified for the job.” — @FutureofWomen [0:18:21]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Webinar: Diversity Hiring That Works with Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait

Andrea Guendelman on LinkedIn

Andrea Guendelman on Twitter

Speak_

Speak_ on Twitter

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

The last year has been tough on all fronts when it comes to tech recruiting and hiring. Joining me on the show today is a returning champion and CEO of Hired, Josh Brenner.  He’s here with me today to talk about what’s predicted for hiring in 2024 and to discuss the report released by Hired called, ‘The Future of Tech Hiring: 8 Bold Predictions for 2024.’ Our conversation starts with a quick general overview of how things are going at Hired and Josh shares his thoughts on tech hiring and AI. We dive into some of the key points highlighted in the report including the predicted hiring resurgence in 2024, going back to a job that laid you off, and delve into a discussion on the raging debate between remote, hybrid, and in-office working. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• A general outlook and how things are going at Hired.

• His thoughts on tech hiring and AI. 

• Why he thinks there will be a resurgence in hiring in 2024; and clarifies what he means by resurgence.

• He highlights different categories of companies that are seemingly ready to start rehiring. 

• Boomerang employees and going back to a job that laid you off.

• We discuss the poor manner of handling layoffs over the past year and a half: you reap what you sow.

• The raging debate of remote working versus hybrid working versus in-office working.

Quotes:

“I think, over the next year or two, [AI] has the real opportunity to not only redefine how people are hired and find their jobs, all the way to how people do their jobs. It’s a pretty exciting time to be in this space!” —  [0:04:44]

“I don’t know the reason, or I don’t know the root of why it went down this way, but the layoffs were handled a lot poorer in this past and a half than I have seen in the history of my career.” — [0:14:55]

“I’m a firm believer if you are operating in a remote capacity, the value of getting people together, the team together, whether that is only once a year or multiple times a year, it obviously depends, but there is a lot of value in building that trust in person.” —  [0:17:55]

“Companies that have the best teams are the most successful, and you, as the talent professional, are the ones that are helping companies build those best-in-class teams.” — [0:22:21]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

‘The Future of Tech Hiring: 8 Bold Predictions for 2024’

Josh Brenner on LinkedIn

Hired

Talk Talent to Me

Alex explains how shuffling up the interview cycle has resulted in a far better close rate, as well as her team's approach of shifting away from a sourcing quota in the interest of having fewer, but more meaningful, candidate interactions.

Matt Valentino explains the strategic initiatives he's planning to tackle once he hires two recruiters, his take on CRMs for talent, and the type of organizations talent teams must find in order to ensure representative pipelines.

Life-life Balance Over Work-life Balance with Hannah Kreiswirth 

Episode 222: Show Notes

In most companies, the role of the chief operating officer is not directly concerned with employee wellbeing, satisfaction, or recruitment. This is not the case with AREA 17, where COO Hannah Kreiswirth makes it her priority to ensure that the employees are happy. Join us to find out why Hannah does this (people make the company), and how she ensures employee contentment.  Hannah explains the difference between jobs that are just jobs and those that are someone’s life, as well as why life-life balance is a better concept than work-life balance. We touch on the debate around remote work and returning to the office, and what companies can do to create a space that empowers employees to be the person they want to share. For all this and so much more, tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcome to Hannah Kreiswirth, COO and partner at AREA 17. 
• How Hannah moved from the film industry to publishing and finally to AREA 17. 
• Finding the company for you: identifying those that care about the same things you do. 
• Using storytelling in the interview process, from both a recruiter and a candidate’s point of view. 
• The pros and cons of “Some jobs are jobs” and “Some jobs are life”. 
• Why the distinction between “Life-life balance” and “work-life balance” is an important one to make. 
• Why flexibility is key in creating a work environment that benefits all parties. 
• What companies can do to empower people to design a work-life that is best for them.
• AREA 17's values, and what Hannah understands by them. 
• Why Hannah, as a COO, has focused on people. 
• The debate around remote work vs office work, and balancing the two. 
• How Hannah feels about the virtual work experience. 

Tweetables:

“I found myself engaged in the Internet and realizing that that is a space where storytelling and sort of social history is happening as we speak.” — @hannahteak [0:02:18]

“There’s that trope of ‘work to live’ versus 'live to work’. My view is that both of those are a bit wrong because work is inherently a big part of all of our lives unless you’re so privileged to not need to do that at all.” — @hannahteak [0:08:09]

“It never occurred to me that having a focus on people wouldn’t fundamentally be what a COO’s job is. Because at the end of the day, to me, our business doesn’t exist without our people and that’s something that has been central to who we are from day one and 19 years later.” — @hannahteak [0:21:33]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Hannah Kreiswirth on LinkedIn

AREA 17

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

NBCUniversal's VP of Global TA Suzan Vulaj & Shutterstock's VP of TA Valerie Vadala join Rob LIVE from the Canary Club in New York City to kick off Talk Talent To Me's 2022 Roadshow.

Joining us in conversation today is Bryan Menduke, head of recruiting at Kensho. Tune in to hear all about his journey into the world of recruitment and the ins and outs of his work at Kensho. We talk about the difference between working for large and small companies, and Bryan assesses the state of operations at Kensho, from communication to a profile of the type of person they are looking to hire. We talk about all things interview-related, from determining if a client’s values are in alignment with the company, to training staff to conduct these kinds of conversations. Learn what shadowing can show you that an interview can’t, hear Bryan’s advice to folks who are just getting started, and so much more. Thanks for joining us!

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to today’s guest, Bryan Menduke, head of recruiting at Kensho.
• Some insight into Bryan’s education and career thus far.
• Why he wanted to make the move to work for a smaller team.
• The tradeoff between the resources of a big company versus the agility of a small company.
• His assessment of the state of operations at Kensho.
• Defining what you are looking for when it comes to acquiring new talent.
• Standardizing feedback through forums, unit tests, checklists, and more.
• Communication and hierarchy at Kensho.
• Why they are looking to hire people who aren’t afraid to fail.
• Determining a candidate’s alignment with company values.
• The process of interview training at Kensho.
• Why arming an interviewer with specific questions for behavioral and technical interviews is essential.
• The role of shadowing, why it is important, and what it can determine outside of an interview.
• What the process of revamping the interview rubric looks like.
• Bryan’s advice to people who are just beginning the process: start by finding the biggest gap.

Tweetables:

“How do you get into recruiting? The answer is, I have absolutely no idea, I just do it now. Anyone that tells you differently is probably lying.” — Bryan Menduke [0:02:55]

“I joined a small team because I think there’s a lot of ability to innovate and take on a lot of things outside of just a really small scope that you get in some larger companies.” — Bryan Menduke [0:04:33]

“There’s way more than just what a job description says and what you're looking for in a role. How do we actually define for someone that’s never interviewed before?” — Bryan Menduke [0:09:07]

“We’re looking for people that aren’t afraid to ask questions or aren’t afraid to fail but you're going to run experiments and some of them are going to fail and some of them are going to be great, you’re going to try.” — Bryan Menduke [0:13:30]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Bryan Menduke on LinkedIn

Kensho

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Register for TT2M Roadshow Here:

New York City - The Canary Club - June 1st

San Francisco - Shelton Theatre - June 8th

London - The Steel Yard - June 16th

Today we are joined by the VP of Talent at Gusto, Emil Yeargin. Emil has a tech background and an extensive career in talent and recruitment. We discuss Emil’s recruitment goals for Gusto and tap into how leaders respond to the feedback he gives. Emil also explains what makes recruitment successful before diving into his background and an overview of his career up to this point. Emil then dismisses stereotypes surrounding his role and explains why the new generation will be passionate about recruitment. We discuss the new generation’s relationship with technology and how it has evolved over the last few years. Finally, Emil gives advice to those who want to pursue recruitment as their career.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s guest, Emil Yeargin.
• How things are going at Gusto.
• How Emil prepares for the meetings at the end of the year so the team gets what it needs.
• Emil’s goal for reinventing recruitment in Gusto.
• How leaders take Emil’s feedback about their recruitment skills. 
• Emil explains good recruitment on a very basic level – knowing your organization.
• An arc of Emil’s extensive career and how he ended up in his current role at Gusto. 
• How he realized that recruitment is about more than just placing someone in a job position.
• Why the new generation will be very passionate about recruitment as a career. 
• The new generation’s interaction with technology. 
• How Emil thinks HR tech has evolved over the last few years. 
• Advice Emil would give for people who want to have a similar career to his.

Tweetables:

“How are you going to be impactful in really driving this company to its optimal greatness?” — Emil Yeargin [0:04:43]

“I think the next generation unlike us are going to grow up wanting to be recruiters.” — Emil Yeargin [0:17:47]

“Drive impact, drive high-level philosophy and drive a culture where you can tie business objectives to your work, so that you feel attached to it.” — Emil Yeargin [0:26:26]

“Recruiting is all about narrative. It’s all about being able to tell a holistic cohesive story.” — Emil Yeargin [0:27:33]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Emil Yeargin on Linkedln

Gusto

Director of T.A. Arthur Yamamoto discusses the commitment Checkr has made to make hiring manager into recruiters via company wide sourcing OKRs and diversity pipeline requirements.

Eli Hamel discusses how Patreon is tackling their diversity hiring goals, how to measure your team's interview quality, and how he's conducting sentiment analysis on interview feedback to identify possible unconscious bias.

Senior Talent Acquisition Business Partner at ADP, Mike Rasmussen, discusses his strategy of engaging with leadership at professional associations to source from untapped talent pools.

We have a special guest on the show today: Lou Adler, Founder and CEO of the Adler Group. A fountain of knowledge, he is also the author of the Amazon bestsellers, Hire With Your Head as well as The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired. In this episode, Lou reflects on his 25-year advocacy of fixing a broken hiring system. He shares some perspectives on the art of generating referrals, thoughts on the sourcing process that have gotten him kicked out of sourcing conferences, and what he thinks is truly required in this day and age to find and make the best hires. Lou also draws some stories from his decades of experience about his use of boundaries and communication around the expectations placed on recruiters, important ways to guide a hiring manager to be prescriptive about the work needs, and some insight into the responsibility of a CEO in talent acquisition and prioritization. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing Lou and his 25-year mission to overhaul the hiring process. 
• How great new tools don't change the fact that the best people are still hired by referrals. 
• How sourcers need basic sourcing skills but also excellent phone, recruiting, and referral generation skills.
• How the best recruiters are network managers. 
• The concept that Lou would build a search firm or a sourcing career on. 
• Some examples of conversations where Lou extracts the real needs of the role to be filled. 
• Compromising on the skills required but never on the real-life work to be done. 
• That many hiring managers need help with clarifying expectations. 
• He shares the key reason why companies don't hire the best people.
• Hear what some studies had to say about what really drives peak job performances.
• Reflecting on how to set boundaries in being a strategic partner versus taking orders. 
• A couple of great offerings you can expect in his book Hire With Your Head.
• Lou discusses dealing with unreasonable expectations and communication around that.
• The fascinating story of how he got into recruitment.
• Where Lou would start if he was beginning his career in 2022!

Tweetables:

“Every year, new great tools come out but, if everyone has these great tools, nothing gets better. Everyone has average performance. What hasn’t changed is the best people still get hired via referrals.” — @LouA [0:04:30]

“It is about building a network. You’ve got to get on the phone and talk to people, meet people, go to conferences, speak at conferences, get in front of business groups, and become a subject matter expert in your field.” — @LouA [0:36:22]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Lou Adler on LinkedIn

Lou Adler on Twitter

Adler Group

Hire With Your Head

The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired

Boolean

Q12

The American Workforce Index

Project Oxygen

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Technical and Talent Leadership from top London employer brands discuss how to measure employer brand, whether culture or mission is more important, who is responsible, and how retention and career development tie in.

Collin discusses redefining traditional HR approaches and his focus on practical, hands-on training. Collin boasts a wealth of experience as an HR and organizational development expert, with a track record marked by successful talent management and impactful operational enhancements. Heyday stands at the forefront of skincare, dedicated to revolutionizing the industry by offering a unique blend of personalized facial treatments and invaluable skincare advice curated by a team of seasoned estheticians. In today’s conversation with Collin, you will hear about his unconventional path to his current role, the unique qualities that he brings to HR, his various responsibilities at Heyday, and the value of pre-training. He explains his innovative approach to acquiring top talent, creating effective training content, and how he handles large amounts of applications. Collin also shares his advice for creating effective recruitment funnels and what HR should be doing differently. Tune in to discover new approaches to recruitment with Collin Russell!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Collin’s background and career journey into his current role.

• Ways that he has helped Heyday grow since joining.

• How development goals differ between retail and corporate.

• A look at Colin’s approach to delivering hands-on training content.

• Insights into creating an effective recruitment funnel.

• Steps for identifying weak points in the recruitment and training processes.

• Measuring the success of the systems Collin implemented.

• Addressing recruitment issues through innovative methods.

• The challenges and opportunities of leveraging remote workers.

• Heyday’s approach to processing large amounts of applications.

• Providing guardrails for people to make mistakes and learn from them.

• Exploring Collin’s opinion on the future of the HR landscape.

Quotes:

“Having a good team and the right mission behind you helps fuel that [passion].” — Collin Russell [0:05:47]

“If you hire great people but you don’t give them the right training to be successful in their roles, then they are eventually going to leave or become disengaged.” — Collin Russell [0:11:49]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Collin Russell on LinkedIn

Heyday

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Joining us in conversation today is a talent leader with 24 years of experience across the financial sector. Tune in to hear Simon Evans share an insider’s perspective on the role of a TA, along with his valuable insights on the importance of getting the onboarding process right. You’ll learn why he believes it is so important for HR managers to work closely with recruitment for a successful employee experience. Simon is at a crossroads in his career and shares his experience of interview processes along with the role of a strong and diverse network in navigating transitional times. Tune in for some fascinating insights from both sides of the recruitment experience today. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Simon’s experience of moving from relationship management in the financial services sector to an in-house TA function.
• The three aspects that the role of a TA covers.
• Why it is so important to get the onboarding process right.
• Why recruitment and HR managers should work collectively.
• The importance of engagement in creating candidate experience during the interview process.
• How to keep the candidate engaged during their notice period with sensitivities in mind.
• An experience Simon had where a candidate was hired and didn’t arrive to his role.
• Why having a strong and diverse network is so important.
• What his experience of interview processes has looked like. 
• The importance of having transparent conversations.
• What has surprised Simon about his experience on the other side of HR. 
• The story of an influential relationship Simon built with the HR manager who hired him.

Tweetables:

“If you get the onboarding process right, the attrition lowers. Where if you get it wrong, someone would leave within probably six to 12 months of joining that organization. It’s an integral part to get right.” — Simon Evans [0:07:38]

“The importance of a network is huge and networking is so important during positive times but also in rough waters. Make sure that you have a good, diverse network of industry professionals.” — Simon Evans [0:15:31]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Simon Evans on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Billd's Head of People Ops, Francisco Michel, discusses the importance of goal setting and KPIs being tailored specifically to each individual employee while keeping the company’s overall goals in mind. Francisco shares his plans to revamp the EMPS survey in the future. Next, Francisco shares his favorite ‘hat’ to wear, how he defines and manages his abundance of responsibilities, and his hopes for the future of Billd. He even delves into how his interview process at the company inspired him to make changes to it when he started, how he selects employees and the importance of having grit. Francisco also shares his belief that a start-up creates opportunities and implores listeners to work for one at least once in their career. So, tune in now to hear more and to find out why “Happy people produce and happy people stay!” 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s guest, Francisco Michel.
• An overview of Billd and Francisco’s role in the company is. 
• How much Francisco’s job is changing with his new promotion. 
• The issues he plans to tackle in the company right now. 
• How Billd has created KPIs for the company by focusing on the company’s goals. 
• Francisco shares his KPIs with us based on the different hats he has to wear at work.
• The one question Billd asks people when it comes to EMPS. 
• How Francisco manages being the bearer of good or bad news in Billd. 
• Francisco’s long-term plan to revamp the EMPS survey and make it more robust. 
• Why every individual person needs different KPIs and how Francisco goes about doing this.
• Why Francisco pushes employees quite a bit. 
• Francisco’s favorite part of his job and what he hopes to focus on in the future. 
• How Francisco defines and manages all of his responsibilities at work.
• Why working at a start-up presents many opportunities. 
• How Francisco figures out if someone actually wants to join his company.
• The importance of finding the right personality to fit within your company. 
• Why you need grit in Francisco’s industry. 
• What Francisco’s interview process was like at Billd and how he subsequently changed it. 

Tweetables:

“I do think it’s important to make [KPIs] simple but [focus on] what is really going to matter at the end of the day for this individual and what is going to show that they are a good performer.” — Francisco Michel [0:12:48]

“When it comes time to review this person on their performance, how are you going to define what good performance looks like if you don’t have something to measure it off of?” — Francisco Michel [0:14:00]

“At a startup, you really get to learn a lot not only about yourself but a lot about what other departments do, how everything works, how it needs to be built, and how to accept your failures because you don’t know everything and you are trying to build the plane and fly it at the same time.” — Francisco Michel [0:16:22]

“Take a chance on a startup at least once in your career, you’ll learn a lot. Either you’ll learn that startups are not for you or you’ll learn that you can really do more things at a startup and discover new job opportunities.” — Francisco Michel [0:17:32]

“If you can’t take your façade down, you won’t be successful at Billd”. — Francisco Michel [0:21:48]

“Happy people produce and happy people stay.” — Francisco Michel [0:23:30]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Francisco Michel on LinkedIn

Billd

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Ty shares how a non traditional background can help break barriers to creating change in talent acquisition. RSM US LLP the leading provider of assurance, tax and consulting services to the middle market. Focusing on careers and culture, Ty orchestrates an environment where individuals thrive, fostering their passions and professional growth while advocating for inclusivity at every level. His approach reflects a blend of professional prowess, a commitment to fostering a vibrant workplace culture, and a zest for life. In our conversation, we discuss Ty's career trajectory, from its origins to his present role, showcasing the distinct ways his prior experiences differ from his current position and how his unique perspective has helped transform the talent experience at the company. We explore how Ty's inexperience proved beneficial, his approach to nurturing talent, embracing innovation for success, the value of curiosity, and much more.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introduction and background about Chief Talent Officer, Ty Beasley.

• Details about his role and how it differs from his professional experience.

• His professional career journey to his current role at RSM US LLP.

• Why he is suitable for the role, despite his non-traditional career path.

• The unique approach and perspective he brings to the role.

• How he has helped enhance the talent experience at the company.

• Discover how his inexperience was beneficial for the role.

• Barriers to creating change and why embracing innovation is vital. 

• Ty shares his approach to supporting and developing talent.

• What personal traits Ty looks for in a potential candidate.

Quotes:

“I have always had a passion for the people side of the business.” — Ty Beasley [0:07:06]

“It is my vision to have a talent function that is more consultative in nature.” — Ty Beasley [0:08:40]

“The ultimate value I bring to the talent organization is not operating in the guts of it. It is leadership.” — Ty Beasley [0:15:28]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Ty Beasley on LinkedIn

RSM US LLP

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Russell is a seasoned professional with years of experience leading recruitment teams across various industries. His professional achievements and personal values make him a dynamic leader in the talent acquisition space. Hear how the shift from linear media to digital media has transformed the industry, his motivation for pursuing a career in talent acquisition, and what recruitment can learn from outsourcing channels. Discover how increased employee engagement results in better outcomes, why more information is better for candidates, and how Paramount plans to leverage AI to create opportunities in recruitment. He explains the power of collaboration, how skills create a shared language between HR and business, and the evolution of roles in recruitment. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Russell provides an overview of the current entertainment landscape.

• His diverse professional background and path into the media industry.

• Gaps in the talent acquisition process and where it needs to be improved.

• The importance of employee engagement and lessons from the referral process.

• Fostering trust in non-referral channels and the secret to retaining talent.

• Paramount’s approach to recruitment and the influence of brands on the process.

• Explore the role of AI in connecting talent to the brand.

• Why collaborating with other departments is an essential consideration.

• He unpacks the concept of building a skills-based organization.

• Foundational skill metrics and why they are vital for job descriptions.

• How to create and maintain the idea of continuous improvement.

• Final takeaways about the recruitment industry Russel has for listeners.

Quotes:

“The only constant [in the industry] for the last several years has been change.” —@weaveru [0:02:06]

“There is something fundamentally fractured still with [talent acquisition] processes and technology. I think we have to get back to basics  to make sure we are doing things that allow us to connect to that high-performing talent.” —@weaveru [0:06:35]

“If you are not building or maintaining active relationships with the marketing, corporate communications, legal, and tech departments, you are doing yourselves and your organization a disservice.” —@weaveru [0:20:21]

“Demotivated hiring managers are the biggest challenge facing any organization today. If you do not have your hiring managers engaged and locked in, you are going to fail.” —@weaveru [0:34:27]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Russell Weaver on LinkedIn

Paramount

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

INCREASE DIVERSITY SUMMIT REGISTRATION LINK

Use offer code TALENT40 for 40% Off Registration Fees!

Jenn Tardy returns to the podcast to update us on her diversity training experiences, and give a sneak preview (and an awesome discount!) to her upcoming Increase Diversity Summit Event.

The performance of any organization is unquestionably linked to its ability to tap into the “human energy” encapsulated in the talents, approach, and potential of every team member. This is the belief of today’s guest, Julie Flowers, mentor, coach, sought-after speaker, and HR Director, HR Talent Development Initiatives at Chevron. In this episode, Julie shares some pearls of wisdom from her 26 years with Chevron and offers insight into how the technology, high standards, and ethics at Chevron appeal to Gen Z candidates, how talent development boosts morale and improves company culture, and why she believes that HR is the human energy in progress that leads to not only business success but individual success too. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• An overview of Julie’s career journey and how it led her to Chevron in 1998.

• Branding non-renewable energy for the younger generations.

• Lessons from Julie’s transition from talent acquisition to talent development.

• What it looks like to reinvent HR every few years (and why it’s so important).

• The value of continuous upskilling in consulting, project management, and more.

• Reasons that we should view AI as an enabling tool rather than a skill.

• Innovative ways that Chevron uses AI for external recruiting.

• Personal development for talent professionals: how to grow in every role.

• The importance of fostering a curiosity mindset.

• Insight into Chevron’s strong HR culture and how Julie nurtures it.

• The relationship between long-term development and short-term incentives.

• Tips for leaders, employees, and organizations to encourage continuous growth.

• Why storytelling is such a critical skill for talent professionals.

• Humbling advice for those who want to up-level their recruitment career.

Quotes:

“We’re focused on creating an [HR environment at Chevron] where the business recognizes us as an agile force, capable of adapting – where we need to for this ever-changing business that we’re in – and delivering amazing customer experience.” — Julie Flowers [0:08:51]

“If people are paying attention, you grow in every role you have. Generally, the roles that you’ve had prepare you for the next role, you just don’t know it’s happened.” — Julie Flowers [0:17:01]

“As a leader, I need to [encourage, support, and reward]. As an employee, I’ve got to want to learn and grow. As a company, I’ve got to show that we’re building that type of culture. [Continuous development] takes all three of those things.” — Julie Flowers [0:27:10]

“Sometimes, when you come to the business with something HR, it might not be met with open arms. We have to be able to tell a story so they understand the value and impact it’s going to have.” — Julie Flowers [0:33:56]

“We don’t learn most from our successes. We learn from when we don’t do something right, when we fail.” — Julie Flowers [0:35:28]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Julie Flowers on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Founding pod member Matt Hughes returns to discuss his dynamic role at Hunt Club--a new breed of recruiting agency. We cover how to alter your approach to meet the expectations of an increasingly savvy, in-demand, and remote-centric workforce.

Career Coach Holly Lee shares the exercises and questions she goes through with clients to help them determine what they want out of their next job. Rob grapples with whether he should focus on his values or his desired outcomes.

Kelly Kinnard's triumphant return to the pod features a discussion about why recruiters should specialize, as well as the best times to use retained search.

Bianca McCann joins to discuss how she assesses career moves, including how to measure your own motivations and define for yourself what success means to you.

Explaining the resilience of modern talent acquisition pros is Brandon Jeffs, the Director of People and Talent at TLDR – one of the largest newsletters in the world with daily summaries of the most interesting stories in startups, tech, and programming. Brandon’s career is focused on empowering the employee-employer relationship, and he walks us through the best practices for cultivating lasting relationships in the talent ecosystem. We discover why he started The Revol•TA Podcast and what he’s learned from the guests on his show before unpacking the doggedness of modern recruiters, how recruiters can improve their job security, whether it’s better to be a generalist or specialist, and what it takes to be an exceptional talent acquisition specialist. We also learn more about TLDR, Brandon’s protocol for making really fast hires, and the role of AI in the future of talent and recruiting.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Brandon Jeffs explains what inspired him to start his show, The Revol•TA Podcast. 

• The best practices for forging meaningful relationships in the talent ecosystem. 

• What Brandon has learned from the guests who’ve appeared on his show. 

• Why recruiters are willing to do gritty and often thankless work. 

• Whether there’s a way for recruiters to be recession-proof in the likelihood of being laid off.

• An age-old debate: Generalists versus specialists. 

• The characteristics of a great job offer

• His protocol for understanding a candidate’s motivations, and why this matters.

• Insight into the markings of a great recruiter.  

• Where preparation meets opportunity and the importance of timing.  

• The ins and outs of TLDR, with details on a particular serendipitous role fill. 

• Understanding Brandon’s method for making really fast hires. 

• How the future of talent acquisition is linked to the possibilities of large language models. 

Quotes:

“The main driver for me is what can I give back to other people?” — Brandon Jeffs [04:50]

“The community is what brings us together. If you show up for other people, they will show up for you.” — Brandon Jeffs [11:52]

“If you have the fundamentals and the curiosity to learn new things, you can apply those to ways and roles that you may not think of.” — Brandon Jeffs [17:57]

“It’s really interesting to see how we position brand and prestige and pedigree in this larger game of capitalism.” — Brandon Jeffs [24:10]

“A great recruiter can fill roles on time but an exceptional one can create moments of serendipity.” — Brandon Jeffs [29:47]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Brandon Jeffs on LinkedIn

The Revol•TA Podcast 

TLDR 

LHH Recruitment Solutions

Hired's very own SVP of People Kelli Dragovich joins to discuss the ideal triad partnership between HR, Recruiting, and Hiring Managers.

Melanie explains how to develop and socialize meaningful company values, how to scope and design interview processes for new roles, as well as how you can position yourself for a Director/VP role in your next interview.

Capital One's Senior Director Diversity Talent Acquisition, Kanika Raney, explains how to remove the burden of cultivating inclusivity from those you seek to include, as well as how to effectively map the talent market from a diversity perspective.

To learn more about how Hired can help you find your next great hire, head to hired.com/tt2m

Hello London! We are live! And we are thrilled to welcome you to this Talk Talent To Me special edition: the Nightclub Rave Recruiting podcast. Joining us today at the magnificent Steel Yard nightclub is the Director of Talent at MasterCard, Sam Sparks. We take a look at Sam’s professional background and how she ended up at MasterCard, before diving into the complexities of acquiring a business, from a TA perspective. Our panelist gives us the makeup of her recruitment team while letting us know how she is able to ensure that they are getting involved with their clients and candidates. Sam prefers to silently observe interviews and meetings, and she lets us know what she wants to hear from her team in those situations. You’ll learn about cross-department partnerships, what it’s like to hire as a globally recognized organization, understanding what a candidate wants, the pros and cons of building a recruitment management team, and the importance of social media for big corporations. After getting an idea of Sam’s future career prospects, Rob steps into the audience to give them the chance to ask our guest a few questions. The impromptu interviews help us understand Sam’s views on how TA will evolve in the near future, the best ways to assess the technical skills of candidates, and how you can build a company culture in a remote-work world. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcoming our guest, Sam Sparks, and some thoughts on today’s nightclub venue. 
• A look at Sam’s professional background and how she ended up at MasterCard. 
• Understanding the complexities of acquiring a business, from a TA perspective. 
• What her team looks like: hiring managers and heads of departments. 
• How the other recruiters on her team go about their business. 
• What Sam is on the lookout for when observing meetings and interviews. 
• The other departments that she partners with to make sure that hers is not the last to know.
• Whether it’s a good thing that most prospective candidates already know MasterCard.
• Understanding what candidates want and how to offer it to them. 
• Localized marketing and building a recruitment marketing team. 
• If it is important to have a specialized local marketer on the recruitment team: Sam thinks not. 
• Why it’s important for big corporations to make good use of social media. 
• Sam’s future career prospects. 
• Rob goes into the audience to take some of their questions.
• How Sam sees TA evolving over the next two years. 
• The best way to assess the technical skills of candidates. 
• How to build a company culture in a remote-work world. 
• Whether it’s possible to make TAs a business critical at the decision-making table, and how.

Tweetables:

“Agencies are very salesy and I love the interaction with people, but I hated the KPIs.” —Sam Sparks [0:04:46]

“In order to truly sell what the team does, what the growth potential is, what the experience they can get being a part of that team, you really need to live and breathe it. I really encourage my teams to do that.” —Sam Sparks [0:08:13]

“It's empowering my team to be able to have the confidence to push back, ask those questions, and manage those conversations. You have to do that in partnership with HR, rightly or wrongly, because these conversations are important.” —Sam Sparks [0:11:08]

“What we're seeing in the economy now, MasterCard as a brand is not enough. It's all well and good working for a great brand, but you need more than that now.” —Sam Sparks [0:13:53]

“I'm a firm believer in thinking outside of the box. I think sometimes recruitment can be so boring, and we don't make the most of what we can do.” —Sam Sparks [0:18:28]

“That's the problem we had with our global approach to content. It was very professional. It was quite stilted. There was not a lot of personality coming through. It seemed too fake. It didn't really resonate. It didn't represent what we are in Europe.” —Sam Sparks [0:019:49]

“We're trying to do a bit more and push the boundaries a bit. I'm a bit of a maverick. I like to do stuff and just annoy my manager and say that we should do it” —Sam Sparks [0:20:33]

“I mean, she loves me now. She probably secretly hates me, but she knows I'm like a dog with a bone. I just won't give up. I think you have to be a bit like that.” —Sam Sparks [0:32:49]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Sam Sparks on LinkedIn

MasterCard

The Steel Yard

Mothercare

Essential

Codility

Vocalink

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

How do you earn, manage, and keep your employee trust? Soni Basi is here to explain why we need to start valuing authenticity, vulnerability, and throw away our cookie-cutter approaches. Soni is the Chief People Officer for Edelman, a communications company with an extraordinary reputation for being a global PR agency of choice, and explains how she uses a powerful combination of people skills and analytics to achieve success. Soni tells us about what she values in job positions, the importance of having a creative license, and how even performance management can be shifted to meet your personal values and goals. We hear about the outcomes of a low level of perceived trust, what employees are beginning to value, new expectations being placed on employers, and the potential results if these standards aren’t met.

Key Points From This Episode:

• A look at Edelman: number one PR agency globally.
• Soni’s role in Edelman.
• How Soni ended up working for Edelman.
• The different roles and job titles Soni has had in large companies.
• Common themes in how Soni chooses a particular job.
• Four important factors Soni desires in her role in a company.
• Why Soni values having a creative license.
• The findings of the Edelman Trust Barometer Report. 
• The growing sense of community within a workplace. 
• Current employee worries and new expectations.
• How companies can increase levels of trust between their employees and the organization.
• Soni shares a personal, vulnerable leadership story.

Tweetables:

“When you show that you can do great work, you show how passionate you are, and you build a network, I think your career can take you to many places.” — Soni Basi [0:07:46]

“Action earns trust.” — Soni Basi [0:09:06]

“The more you can do to showcase what you stand for as an organization and what actions and behaviors you’re taking, the more likely you are to earn trust.” — Soni Basi [0:18:15]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Soni Basi on LinkedIn

Edelman 

2022 Edelman Trust Barometer Report

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Mike Podesto joins to discuss his candidate-first agency, Find My Profession, and riffs on the merits of outbound vs. inbound recruiting.

Peloton's Tech Recruiting Manager Will Blaze and Glossier's Head of Recruiting Christian Fabros join Rob for a live show in NYC to discuss culture interviews, must-haves vs nice-to-haves, and how to get the most out of talent consultants.

Joining us today is Nick Cromydas, CEO of HR tech company, Hunt Club. Nick offers insight on the HR Tech industry as a whole, where talent lies in the priority list of most companies, and how he would think about offering a recruiting skillset to the market in an ever changing world.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Nick Cromydas shares his background and oddly non-linear path to HR tech.
• The insights that led to the creation of Hunt Club.
• How Hunt Club differs from the standard agency or RPO model.
• The power of a trusted introduction.
• What’s causing CEOs and investors to realize the value in investing in HR tech and talent leaders.
• Nick predicts that the great people officers of today will be the CEOs of tomorrow.
• Why there has been a change in behavior and the importance of talent is being recognized.
• What has caused the talent pool to thin out.
• The growing trend of remote work and contract work and how it’s predicted to alter behaviors.
• Examples of successful serial entrepreneurs joining companies not out of necessity, but because they believe in the mission of the business.
• How the shifting need for talent and approach to finding talent will affect recruiters.
• The benefits of working with one team rather than working alone on multiple contract gigs. 
• What makes a great recruiter and how recruiters should adapt in the new remote work era.
• The long-term vision for Hunt Club.
• The impossibility of automating human interaction and trusted relationships.
• The value of network and relationships as part of the recruiting skillset.
• How to identify your personal commodities.
• Using the centralized recruitment model in an increasingly decentralized world.  

Tweetables:

“By decentralizing the network and decoupling it from just one recruiter when you’re working with a traditional firm to a network of leaders across the country, you get amazing talent with a trusted introduction.” — @NickCromydas [0:07:24]

“In a universe where you can hire anyone anywhere and not just the person in your backyard, the only way that you’re actually going to get them to acknowledge something in your inbox or in your LinkedIn, is through a trusted introduction.” — @NickCromydas [0:07:37]

“Every company will be a tech company down the road in some form or fashion and it’s what’s making the market really challenging right now, given the limited amount of opportunities and the large amount of companies hiring and limited amount of candidates.” — @NickCromydas [0:13:53]

“I think there is always going to be a time and place for where being a part of one team is more exciting than working on your own in multiple gigs.” — @NickCromydas [0:22:04]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Nick Cromydas on LinkedIn

Nick Cromydas on Twitter

Hunt Club

Hunt Club on Twitter

Matt Hughes on LinkedIn

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

While the impact of successful mentorship has been proven in a multitude of ways, there is still the fear that participants could be mismatched or that a mentor’s time might be wasted. Concerns that the relationship will be short-lived or even fail can also get in the way of tremendous results. Today’s guest asks us to consider using intention and purpose to guide these relationships. Please join us in welcoming Tschudy Smith, Chief People Officer at ForgeRock, to share her perspective on purpose-driven mentorship. Tuning in, you’ll learn some of the characteristics of great leaders, why Tschudy believes we have to be more intentional than ever about who we bring into our network, and how to set outcomes and objectives before entering into a mentorship relationship. We also touch on the importance of empathy, the fundamental differences between a sponsor and a mentor, and the role that places and culture play for CPOs in a post-pandemic world, plus so much more.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Insight into Tschudy’s background and how she ended up in her current role at ForgeRock.
• How she came to understand the role that empathy plays in a leadership role.
• The value of mentorship and why Tschudy believes we have to be more intentional than ever about who we have in our network.
• A purposeful, outcomes-driven approach to inviting a mentor or a sponsor to work with you.
• Measuring the success of a mentor/mentee relationship against those initial objectives.
• An understanding of the differences between a mentor and a sponsor.
• Characteristics of a great leader, from transparent dialogue to advocating on behalf of others.
• Why the role of a sponsor is such a complicated one in today’s highly matrixed organizations.
• How Tschudy conceived of the role of Chief People Officer (CPO) and her approach to it.
• Why today’s leadership is about more than to-do lists and agendas; it’s about people.
• The role that places and culture play for CPOs in a post-pandemic world.
• Tschudy elaborates on some of the ‘non-negotiables’ for CPOs today.
• How Tschudy decided that CPO was the right role for her and how it aligned with her goals.

Tweetables:

“Some of those formal or informal engagements we might have expected to have are fewer and [farther] between, [so] we have to be even more intentional about who we have in our network that is there to support us, to guide us, and to give us some coaching and insight.” — Tschudy Smith [0:06:22]

“I feel like it’s important to pay it forward and, I’ll tell you, when you can play the role of mentor, you also learn.” — Tschudy Smith [0:07:32]

“The idea of a sponsor is to have somebody who advocates on your behalf, who is in those rooms, who is in those conversations, and who actually [thinks] about you when you’re not there.” — Tschudy Smith [0:15:07]

“This is 22nd-century leadership. It isn’t just about managing a to-do list. It isn’t just about showing up to run an agenda for a team meeting. It’s getting proximate, caring for your people, seeing them at their best, and figuring out how you can help them do more of that.” — Tschudy Smith [0:22:22]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Tschudy Smith on LinkedIn

ForgeRock

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

People-centered approaches to business emphasize the importance of prioritizing and supporting the well-being, growth, and satisfaction of employees. By adopting a people-centered approach, businesses can create a positive work environment that not only benefits their employees but also contributes to improved performance, productivity, and long-term success. In today’s episode, I sit down with Jessica Zwaan, Chief Operating Officer and  at Whereby, to discuss her innovative, people-centered approach to HR and business development. Jessica is the author of Built for People, a best-selling book that offers advice and tools for transforming HR activities by incorporating elements from product management. In our conversation, Jessica unpacks how the best aspects of product management can be applied to HR to transform the value of your workforce and business. Learn about the type of rigor that HR needs to increase productivity, the ins and outs of streamlining your workforce to increase its value, reducing regrettable churn through effective HR, and analogizing people with products. Gain insights into why justifying an employee based on revenue is outdated, viewing the business as an ecosystem, and much more. Tune in and discover a different way of viewing company culture and employee value with Jessica Zwaan!

Key Points From This Episode:

• A warm welcome back and a catchup with Jessica Zwaan.

• What motivated her to pursue a law degree.

• How her law experience intersects with her role at Whereby.

• Aspects of HR where her law background has been beneficial.

• How the traditional approach to recruitment needs to change.

• Differences in methods between C-suite and HR departments.

• Metrics to measure the performance and employee lifetime value (ELTV).

• Examples of her progressive approach to HR and recruitment.

• The types of conversations HR should be having with the C-suite.

• Limitations of the traditional forms of measuring employee performance.

• Core company values that determine its success. 

• Performance analysis and how it differs amongst employees.

• Explore the universal competencies that are true for all employees.

• Hear about her career transition into her current role.

• What Jessica has planned for the future. 

Quotes:

“Your company is a system; it’s not just a group of individuals.” — @jessicamayzwaan [0:15:52]

“I think that the experience is the product.” — @jessicamayzwaan [0:21:46]

“One of the most important behaviors that matters to a company’s bottom line is your ability to collaborate with other people.” — @jessicamayzwaan [0:24:15]

“Teams are more valuable together than they are as individuals.” — @jessicamayzwaan [0:24:23]

“We should be building [HR performance] systems which are built for the way human brains work.” — @jessicamayzwaan [0:27:36]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Jessica Zwaan

Jessica Zwaan on X

Jessica Zwaan on LinkedIn

Whereby

Built for People

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

William Tincup, President of RecruitingDaily.com, discusses the fastest way to find fit with candidates, and the best way to achieve outcome-based alignment between recruiting teams and HR teams.

Joining us in conversation today is Rick Jordan, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition over at DICK’S Sporting Goods. You’ll hear the story of how DICK’S was started and how Rick landed his current role with them with a background in hospitality and talent. DICK’S is a pandemic success story, and Rick tells us about the unexpected turn of events that resulted in the business thriving despite the restrictions. You’ll also hear about the exciting projects that DICK’S is working on at the moment, and why, in the current market, we need to think more like marketers and less like human resource people.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Meet today’s guest, Rick Jordan, with DICK’S Sporting Goods.
• The story of how DICK’S started in New York before opening corporate campus in Pittsburgh.
• Why Pittsburgh is called the Steel City and how it has evolved over the last 15 years.
• Rick’s background in hospitality and talent and how he ended up in his current role.
• Why nothing beats Resorts World Las Vegas.
• How DICK’S navigated the pandemic and what they are doing today to reach their goal of $15 million by 2025 (plus the role that talent plays).
• The natural upswing in interest in golf thanks to its natural social distancing.
• The new store where you can buy big brands: Going, Going, Gone! 
• DICK’S House of Sport stores that have opened in Rochester and Knoxville.
• Why brick and mortar stores are far from dead.
• The leaders that Rick works with across his company and their team dynamic.
• The role of the TA Focus Project Manager 
• Why we need to think more like marketers in the current market and less like HR people.
• The difference that having been funded to tell the story has made.
• Why Rick believes that the war on talent is over, and that talent won!
• Why people no longer settle for a job, but seek opportunities they are excited about.
• The mini war that is going on within HR talent and the power of investing in a strong team.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Rick Jordan on LinkedIn

DICK’S Sporting Goods

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Today on Talk Talent to Me, we are joined by Doreen Ghafari, VP of People at AllTrails, to find out how she and her team spearheaded a period of significant growth for the company, more than quadrupling the AllTrails staff in just over three years. Tuning in, you’ll learn about the value of making recruiting efforts an extension of the brand experience, why talent acquisition is so much more than putting butts in seats, and the importance of building a solid foundation of systems and processes during periods of hyper-growth. We also touch on the benefit of treating values as a core competency, data-driven frameworks for performance evaluation, and what a holistic approach to recruitment looks like from Doreen’s perspective.

Key Points From This Episode:

• An overview of AllTrails and Doreen’s role there as VP of People.

• How Doreen and her team quadrupled AllTrails’ employees in just a few years.

• The value of making recruiting efforts an extension of the brand experience.

• Navigating noise in the inbound talent funnel.

• The what’s and why’s of recruiting that go beyond the “butts in seats” mentality.

• Growing pains that come with 4X-ing a company and why processes are key.

• Core competencies behind rapid yet sustainable business growth.

• Key values and frameworks that AllTrails uses to evaluate performance.

• Insight into Doreen’s holistic strategy for recruitment and people operations.

• Advice for aspiring talent professionals and why it’s certainly not a linear career path.

Quotes:

“AllTrails is a beloved brand. People tend to have delightful experiences with the app and the site. We wanted our recruiting efforts to be an extension of that. We want people who come to AllTrails to interview, even if they don’t get the job, to reflect fondly on their experience.” — Doreen Ghafari [0:05:11]

“Scaling is hard – How do we set up the scaffolding that’s going to allow us to do that?” — Doreen Ghafari [0:09:41]

“Recruiting and people teams need to be in lockstep with each other. It’s not separate functions. It’s two halves of the same circle.” — Doreen Ghafari [0:21:10]

“Don’t think of your [talent career] as a linear thing. It’s more – of a bouldering experience rather than a linear ladder.” — Doreen Ghafari [0:28:36]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Doreen Ghafari on LinkedIn

AllTrails

‘TopFunnel Head of People Doreen Ghafari’

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Two Recruiters from Enjoy Technologies join to discuss how to hire a contract workforce, assess for agility, and kvetch about the crazy things candidates do in process.

Joining us today is Adam Redlich, Vice President and Talent Acquisition at Octane. Adam shares the difference between time to fill and time to hire, why if a candidate is a maybe, they’re a no, and why if a company pushes you to sign quickly, there’s usually something they don’t want you to find out.

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to today’s guest, Adam Redlich, at Octane.
• The state of things at Octane, having moved from hybrid to remote working.
• Expectations and predictions on how the remote and hybrid systems will evolve.
• Adam’s role at Octane and what the business focuses on within the Fintech space.
• How the growth they have experienced was not part of any particular plan. 
• Why they have chosen to be conservative with growth.
• Distinguishing between when it is time to fill and when it is time to hire.
• Why he works according to the mantra that if somebody is a maybe, they are a no.
• What you should do as a candidate if an employer tries to keep you on the line.
• Why he believes that transparency is key to the hiring process.
• How working in a bigger more established company might not be the best place to start.
• Diversity inclusion at Octane and how Adam was involved in the process.
• How, if a company is pushing you to sign quickly, there is usually something they don’t want you to find out.
• How upfront you should be with your current employer when you are looking for a new role.

Tweetable:

“One of the engineering leaders made the comment, if somebody is a maybe, they are no and for me, that's been a mantra that I've had since, because, especially at a growth stage company, we need to hire people that we're excited about.” — Adam Redlich [0:13:28]

“I believe that transparency is key throughout the process. I let candidates know, early on, during my very first conversation with them.” — Adam Redlich [0:15:50]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Adam Redlich on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

The recent radical improvement of AI has shaken up the world, and as more AI tools become available and easily accessible, the concerns surrounding the implications of AI on our future grow stronger by the day. But AI should be embraced and not feared, and to help us explain why, we are joined by two talent specialists who are using AI to improve their daily operations. We kick off the show with the Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard, Justin Ghio. Justin shares how he ended up in his current role before explaining how he and his team use AI with a practical demonstration for the live audience. After Justin shows us how to use AI to its full potential in recruiting, we welcome José Cong to the show. José is the VP of Talent and Culture at Humane, and his impressive resume includes being part of the team who brought the iPhone 1 to market (working under Steve Jobs!). José came out of retirement to join Humane and after explaining why he made this decision, he reiterates why AI is the future, why it should be embraced and not feared, how AI has improved his recruitment process, and how he and his team are using AI responsibly. At the end of the day, AI is there to support people rather than replace them, and to find out how AI can be used to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at the office, press play now! 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing Justin Ghio as he explains his chance encounter with Dennis Rodman. 

• Justin’s background and his role as the Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard. 

• How the Activision Blizzard recruiting team is using AI. 

• Why AI cannot and will not take over jobs in recruitment. 

• Demonstrating how Justin uses freely available AI technology for interviews and onboarding. 

• He explains how to use AI to its full potential. 

• Welcoming today’s second guest, the VP of Talent and Culture at Humane, José Cong.

• José’s background and the work he did for Apple for the iPhone 1. 

• Why he chose to come out of retirement to work at Humane; realizing that AI is the future. 

• How José and his talent team are implementing AI tools. 

• His reasons for why AI should not be feared. 

• A look at how AI is improving Humane’s interview and assessment process. 

• What José looks for in new team members. 

• How he still creates great candidate experiences in today’s remote work landscape. 

• The way he ensures that he and his team are using AI in a responsible way.

• How AI can help to eliminate unconscious biases to systematically improve DEI in the office.

Tweetables:

“We are constantly leveraging a lot of the new, latest, and greatest technologies to ensure [that] we’re not getting left behind” — @Just_in_Games [07:20]

“[AI] is not going to take your job; it’s just going to let you do things quicker.” — @Just_in_Games [09:53]

“That’s the power of ChatGPT and some of this AI technology: It’s not output-based, it’s input-based. We are always going to be the input — don’t be scared that it’s going to take your job; you are the key that unlocks its potential.” — @Just_in_Games [15:57]

“[Steve Jobs] was my direct boss, but the people underneath him were equally as impatient. There was a tremendous amount of pressure [at Apple] in terms of yielding results; we were literally racing the clock to get [the iPhone 1] out.” — @Jose_Cong [31:39]

“Unretiring was not an easy decision — life was pretty good, it was really good actually. But, the feeling that there was a paradigm shift potentially happening is what perked my interest — and I started to look into what AI was.” — @Jose_Cong [34:29]

“I hate the terminology ‘artificial intelligence’; it’s augmented intelligence. If we think about it from that perspective, we’re going to be less intimidated by it and we’re going to be more open-minded.” — @Jose_Cong [41:01]

“It’s not about hiring someone that can do the job; it’s about finding someone who is going to buy into what we’re doing, and who’s going to be passionate about participating and building what we have.” — @Jose_Cong [45:45]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Justin Ghio on LinkedIn 

Justin Ghio on Twitter 

Activision Blizzard  

ChatGPT 

José Cong on LinkedIn 

José Cong on Twitter 

Humane 

Talent Acquisition Week

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Tara explains the importance of defining nebulous terms and instead mapping them to core competencies and realities within the business, as well as why Leaf Group banned use of the term "Culture Fit"

To learn more about how Hired can help you find your next great hire, head to hired.com/tt2m

Nicole explains how to identify and remove technical recruiting debt, how to uplevel the quality of hiring decisions, and the importance of behavioral competency.

Viet Nguyen, One Medical's Head of Technical Recruitment, explains the successes he's seen giving candidates the choice to conduct a "reverse interview", as well as how to assess for whether a candidate's over-reliance on a soft skill makes them a risky hire.

Doubling up throughout most of his career, my guest today has both maintained his rank and activity in the Air Force while being a C-level HR professional at a large, well-established company. I’m joined on the show today by Lieutenant Colonel and Chief Human Resource Officer at Riceland Foods Inc., Lionel Riley. Join the conversation as we learn how he managed his parallel careers, his thoughts on the journey of transition from the armed forces to the corporate world, and how his leadership overlaps from being Lieutenant Colonel to CHRO. He unpacks why he strives to maintain mindfulness while managing his team, his responsibility as CHRO for a multi-billion dollar company, including the journey of how he wound up there. We learn about his big move from a long and stable position at Walmart, and Lionel shares three key pieces of advice for those looking at forging a career in this space. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• How Lionel maintains his rank and activity in the army while being a C-level HR professional.

• We delve into the journey of transition from the armed forces to the corporate world.

• His overlap in leadership from Lieutenant Colonel to CHRO Lionel.

• All eyes on him: Lionel recounts first realizing that people were starting to pay attention to what he was doing. 

• How he strives to implement mindfulness when managing his team and their lives. 

• He expands on the responsibilities of the CHRO of a multi-billion dollar company.
  
  

• Lionel shares the journey of how he wound up in his role as CHRO at Riceland Foods Inc.  

• Questions he asked in his interview process when deciding to leave a stable position at Walmart.

• He describes the words that settled him into taking a new position.

• Lionel shares three key pieces of advice for those forging their career in this space. 

Quotes:

“The struggle [to transition from the armed forces to the corporate world] is relative.” — Lionel Riley [0:04:03]

“It’s not that, from corporation to the military is so one-to-one, but there’s so many transferable skills: discipline, exposure, cultural experiences that military members who have had the privilege of servicing oversees; they’d be able to bring immense value to your corporation.” — Lionel Riley [0:06:01]

“HR, I tell this to everybody, is a thankless job.” — Lionel Riley [0:11:57]

“Never stop learning — relationships are key and always know that you can receive a nugget or two from anyone, on anything. Never stop learning!” — Lionel Riley [0:29:51]

“Complacency kills.” — Lionel Riley [0:30:17]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Lionel Riley on LinkedIn

Riceland Foods Inc.

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Lorraine explains how to formulate a back to work philosophy, as well as how to develop and self-educate as a talent professional. Rob gets some personalized career advice, learning why he should stop asking his favorite interview question.

Black Sheep Restaurants: COVID-19 Playbook

LifeLabs Learning Return to Workplace Discussion Guide

WeWork: Maintaining a Healthy Workplace

Joining me today is the Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield, Stephanie Browne. Stephanie is responsible for recruiting, retaining, and developing high-performing staff, as well as guiding diversity and inclusion strategies. Unique to Stephanie is her background in technology which has allowed her to streamline and automate processes regarding talent management and acquisition. In today’s episode, we hear about Stephanie’s background and discuss topics such as using technology in talent management processes, and diversity and inclusion goals. We also discuss her two roles in the company, how diversity is a strength, how technology can remove bias, what the pillar strategy is, and so much more.

Key Points From This Episode:

• A background into Stephanie and her work at Blue Cross Blue Shield.
• How Stephanie’s experience in technology has been benefitted her talent acquisition work.
• Examples of using technology for automation of talent acquisition processes.
• The removal of bias when sourcing processes are automated.
• The importance of sourcing from a wide candidate pool.
• Stephanie tells us more about her two roles in the company.
• The Pillar strategy regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion is explained.
• How building technology and services feed into overall diversity goals.
• Influence versus accountability regarding diversity and inclusion.
• Rob and Stephanie discuss the influence of a talent professional within an organization.
• What Stephanie enjoys most about her job.
• Highlights of Stephanie’s experiences within talent acquisition.

Tweetables:

“Between the sourcing team and the interviewing strategy and the goal for my team to actually bring a diverse candidate pool to the table day one, we were able to begin to move the needle around increasing the diversity of our organization.” — Stephanie Browne [0:08:04]

“You just need to have that candidate pool be very wide and varied so that they can find that fit.” — Stephanie Browne [0:10:46]

“It's good to have different experiences at the table so that we can then, in turn, have a better innovative outcome on how we build those engagements and strategies.” — Stephanie Browne [0:18:33]

“I work with my peers across the organization to help them understand what their organizations look like, what do they need and how experiences can shape the outcomes of the work that they do.” — Stephanie Browne [0:19:46]

“You are very valuable but you’re only as valuable as the relationships and the influence you have in those relationships.” — Stephanie Browne [0:24:40]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Stephanie Browne on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

VP of TA and Development at Hillsdale, Elizabeth Goncalves explains how to execute and build trust and the importance of defining priorities, leadership development, and structuring and delivering individualized leadership programs within your business. She also shares her advice for how to structure your career, skillset, and drive in order to find and secure your dream job.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Elizabeth’s background and how she ended up in her current role.
• How she decided on Hillsdale and grew in her role there.
• Executing and building trust
• How her work priorities shifted as she built up trust for the function of her role.
• Her approach to taking the temperature of what the organization needed.
• Leadership development: how she plans to approach the project and deliver it to their team.
• How Elizabeth is going about figuring out what a leader needs to grow and how to deliver it.
• Her advice for how to structure your career, upskill yourself, and then go out and find your dream job: always raise your hand!

Tweetables:

“One thing that I've learned in my career thus far: If something scares you, you walk through it. You don't back away from it.” — Elizabeth Goncalves [0:06:48]

“It took someone like me, who understands what it takes to have a successful firm and to have successful relationships, to come in and asked questions, and then to determine where that would fit in under our priorities.” — Elizabeth Goncalves [0:13:52]

“It doesn't matter how many years of leadership you have under your belt. There are always things that we can be doing better.” — Elizabeth Goncalves [0:21:07]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Elizabeth Goncalves on LinkedIn

Hillsdale

Talk Talent to Me

Tresha Moreland has over 30 years of experience in HR leadership, serving as CHRO for a slew of big-name organizations. Tresha defines ‘meaningful workplaces’ for us before giving us an in-depth analysis of what it means to be a workforce planning specialist. It is better to have a holistic approach to workforce planning and Tresha tells us how it could be beneficial to delegate important conversations, how to go about doing it, and laying out the importance of having a mentorship program. We finish off with an educational conversation about creating a culture of great communication and good practices in the workplace, highlighting the importance of knowing your employee’s hearts and minds before they hand in their resignation. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• What Tresha’s current role is and what her job entails. 
• Why she switched from an internal role to a consulting position. 
• How her motivation shifted to wanting to impact as many lives as possible.
• What a ‘meaningful workplace’ is: a space with a meaningful purpose. 
• Characterizing the scope of Tresha’s offerings. 
• What workforce planning is and what it means to be a workforce planning specialist. 
• Taking a look at a holistic approach to workforce planning. 
• How to start the retirement conversation with lower-level employees and candidates.   
• The benefits of having a mentorship program. 
• Why it’s a good idea to delegate important conversations and how to do it. 
• How to create understanding and a sense of community in a remote-work world. 
• Creating a culture of great communication and good daily practices.
• Why you should fully understand the hearts and minds of your employees before their resignation.  
• Tresha’s example of ‘stay interview’ questions.
• Her words of advice for those looking to follow her trajectory and forge a career in HR.

Tweetables:

“I'm among millions of other workforce members who are now reassessing their priorities. We've seen through the pandemic that life is short. We knew that intuitively, but now we're seeing it firsthand.” —@HRCSuite [0:02:52]

“I've reassessed my priorities, and I see now that I want to make a bigger difference in the world. I want to be a part of something where I'm making an impact and having some meaning or purpose that goes beyond just the daily grind.” —@HRCSuite [0:03:14]

“People are looking for purpose over popcorn. They want to be a part of something where they're making a difference, something bigger than themselves.” —@HRCSuite [0:04:43]

“I don't know about you, Rob. But I'm not liking surprises much anymore. I'm pretty sure leaders and HR professionals throughout the nation are feeling the same way.” —@HRCSuite [0:06:02]

“I'm a workforce planning specialist, and I'm a data nerd.” —@HRCSuite [0:06:41]

“What you want to do, getting into the career, take a look at your values and what makes you tick, and then look for organizations that might align and support you in that way.” —@HRCSuite [0:26:28]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Tresha Moreland on Twitter

Tresha Moreland on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Talk Talent To Me LIVE RSVP:

New York City - The Canary Club - June 1st

San Francisco - Shelton Theatre - June 8th

London - The Steel Yard - June 16th

We are so excited to welcome the Senior Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition at PepsiCo, Blair Bennett. Blair shares her background in politics & executive recruiting, and how her career prepared her to lead the talent function at PepsiCo. You’ll also hear about diversity goals within leadership at PepsiCo, and the strategies the team has implemented in order to achieve them. We talk priorities, and chat about Blair’s day-to-day life at PepsiCo, with a focus on her amazing team, partnerships, and leadership. Blair believes that there is no better career than talent acquisition. Tune in today to hear why. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Why Blair believes that there is no better career than talent acquisition.

Tweetables:

“I fell in love with the executive recruiting and at Korn Ferry, and I met my future husband, so I found two loves out of the deal.” — @searchblair [0:06:12]

“I'm constantly learning. I learn something new every day, whether it's something about the business, or something about talent, or something about another company, or something about an industry. Keeping that sense of curiosity is something that has been very important to me.” — @searchblair [0:10:30]

“Because I'm somebody who likes to learn and, because I'm somebody who continues to have a curiosity about what's happening in our industry, I try to find ways to bring that to the teams as well. I hope that people get some takeaways from it that they may not otherwise get in their day-to-day experiences.” — @searchblair [0:14:22]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Blair Bennett on LinkedIn

Blair Bennett on Twitter

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Buffy's Katherine Merrill explains what talent management means to her, and how she makes the most of the opportunity to chart an employee's path through the company.

CreativeMarket CTO Chris Winn explains how their company has grown to be comprised of 2/3rds remote workers, as well as how to hire them and train hiring managers to best lead them.

Raj discusses how his recruiting team functions as a business within a business, as well as how he calculates confidence indices on employees they've hired to improve the interview process and recalibrate internal ideas about what makes a great candidate.

Mike Moriarty explains how he distributes sourcing bandwith, how his team sells candidates beyond compensation, and how assessing for company values ensures higher retention rates.

Vadim Liberman, editor at ERE, shares some of the most insightful highlights from ERE's recent publications as well as featured speakers from ERE & SourceCon conferences. Vadim explains what the most exciting pitches he hears have in common, and what he wants to see the recruiting space cover in more detail.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Vadim gives some broad information about ERE and the brands that fall under the umbrella. 
• Reflections on ERE's most recent conference in Atlanta.
• The rising trend towards finding roles that better fit each individual. 
• Standout elements of the recruiting landscape right now; Vadim's perspective.  
• Investigating the grey and examples of why nuance is important in the talent field.  
• Weighing the usefulness of using quality-of-hire as a metric. 
• Vadim's thoughts on the hiring ideas that have been overused at this point 
• Why the data and methodology are important to back up findings and big claims.  
• Elevating the dialogue around candidate experience beyond the basics. 
• Bridging the gap between conference content and the reality for recruiting professionals. 
• Vadim's opinion about the topics in the recruiting space that deserve more attention. 

Tweetables:

“I think that any time something still feels new, there’s going to be resistance to it. So when talent leaders are committed to doing it the old or traditional ways, that’s just general resistance to change.” — @VadimsViews [0:08:45]

“The other elephant in the room is that when you have a good employee on your team, as a manager, you don’t necessarily want to lose them.” — @VadimsViews [0:10:03]

“I like anything that feels different, that feels contrarian, that piggybacks off of current news.” — @VadimsViews [0:11:08]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Vadim Liberman

ERE

Vadim Liberman on Twitter

Vadim Liberman on LinkedIn

SourceCon

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Dominic Heeraman is the Talent Acquisition Manager at Funding Circle, the number one provider of small business loans in the UK (to date, they have lent 13.7 billion pounds!) In this episode, he joins us to talk about how he has transformed their recruiting process by improving a number of valuable metrics (such as their time to hire and offer acceptance rates) and ensuring that each and every candidate leaves the interview process with a positive mindset towards the company, no matter the outcome of the interview. We also get into Dominic’s journey from talent partner to talent manager, remote versus hybrid work, and what employers can do to support the mental health of their staff. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• The motivation behind the founding of Funding Circle in 2010.
• The impact that Funding Circle has made since its founding.
• Dominic shares the journey that led him to become the Talent Acquisition Manager at Funding Circle.
• How Dominic transformed the interview process at Funding Circle.
• Changes in the job market that necessitate changes in recruitment processes.
• Goals that Funding Circle aims to achieve during the recruitment process.
• What recruiters at Funding Circle look for in potential hires.
• The work environment at Funding Circle. 
• Why Dominic has chosen a hybrid work style rather than being fully remote.
• Funding Circle’s approach to enhancing the mental health of its employees.
• Positive progress that Dominic and his team have made since the beginning of 2022.
• How Funding Circle moves candidates through the hiring process as quickly as possible.
• An overview of what Dominic’s role consists of.

Tweetables:

“There are candidate shortages everywhere, in tech especially. We need to move with the times and make sure we're selling to the candidate every step of the process.” — Dominic Heeraman [0:09:32]

“No matter what level the candidate is, whether they're successful, if they're unsuccessful, we want them to go away with a really positive mindset about Funding Circle.” — Dominic Heeraman [0:11:45]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Talk Talent to Me

Funding Circle

Dominic Heeraman on LinkedIn

Hired

Come See TT2M LIVE! Register below:

New York City - The Canary Club - June 1st

San Francisco - Shelton Theatre - June 8th

London - The Steel Yard - June 16th

Kin Insurance Recruiter (and formerly Rob's boss) Tessa Groll sits down with returning champion & Career Coach, Sarah Baker Andrus for a full career coaching session. Sarah asks Tessa leading questions about what fulfills her in her work, how she approaches her role, and gives advice on how she can stay in the driver's seat of her newfound career in the talent space.

To stand out as a recruiter, you need to shift your focus from being transaction-based to being relationship-based. Today on Talk Talent To Me, we are joined by the founder and CEO of the Estes Group, Kaylee Estes to discuss something we rarely delve into, the agency side of recruiting. Tuning in, you’ll hear all about Kaylee’s career, why she decided to start her own company, how she made use of the skills she’s best at, what makes the Estes Group different from other staffing firms, and much more! Kaylee talks us through the pressure associated with being a working mom before we explore unconscious bias, the freedom you have from being your own boss, and how functional recruiters fit into the recruiting world. Kaylee strongly disagrees with financial incentives and instead, her goal is to ensure that candidates are the right fit for a job. She even tells us how she makes sure she is representing companies well and finally, shares some words of wisdom for anyone brave enough to start their own business. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Why we’ve decided to bring more guests on the show from the agency side of recruiting. 

• A warm welcome to Kaylee Estes and how she ‘fell’ into recruiting. 

• How Kaylee made the choice to start her own company. 

• How she leveraged all of the skills she is good at within her business. 

• How she decided she didn’t want to work for someone else anymore. 

• Kaylee shares some of the struggles and pressures that working moms experience. 

• How unconscious bias affects recruitment and the freedom being your own boss brings. 

• What makes Kaylee’s company different from others of its kind. 

• Kaylee explains what a fractional recruiter is and where they fit in. 

• Why Kaylee is against financial incentives for recruiters to make hires.

• The importance of being relationship-focused as a recruiter. 

• How Kaylee makes sure she is representing companies well. 

• Kaylee shares some words of wisdom for anyone wanting to start their own company. 

Quotes:

“My goal is to help [clients] – make better hires.” — Kaylee Estes [0:07:46]

“Yes, people need to know how to make hires but at the end of the day, they just need to make good hires and they need help with that.” — Kaylee Estes [0:07:58]

“Being a mom factored a lot into my decision to start a business and it was definitely not going to be a barrier to starting a business – it was my motivating factor.” — Kaylee Estes [0:15:35]

“I promise every company that I work with [that] they’re not going to get candidates from me because I convinced that candidate to take the job.” — Kaylee Estes [0:20:27]

“In agency recruiting, your compensation is directly tied towards a candidate accepting a position and staying there for a certain amount of time.” — Kaylee Estes [0:27:11]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Kaylee Estes on LinkedIn

Estes Group

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Miki Johnson co-founded employer branding creative studio JobPortraits, which helps companies devise and execute content strategies to engage with prospective employees. She explains how candidates are skeptical of current employer branding language, and how people value work based on three basic principles: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

 Experiencing a career transition is overwhelming, to say the least. But that doesn’t mean it has to be lonely or even shameful. In this episode of Talk Talent To Me, we are joined by the incredible founder of Kindred, Maggie Mannion. Kindred is a community of professionals who are navigating career transitions together. Today, we talk about what led Maggie to start her company, the kinds of professionals Kindred targets, how she curates content relevant to people of many different professions, and much more! We then discuss how she ensures there is value for people beyond seeking jobs before delving into some common questions people ask recruiters in the community. Finally, Maggie shares her plans for the future of Kindred. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcoming today’s guest, the founder of Kindred, Maggie Mannion. 

• Maggie tells us about her journey in community work and what led her to found Kindred. 

• The kinds of people Maggie targeted for Kindred initially and the current representation. 

• How Maggie comes up with resources for people regardless of their career backgrounds. 

• What the people Kindred serves are looking for from the community they’re joining. 

• Some common questions people ask recruiters in Maggie’s community. 

• How Maggie is ensuring that there is value in Kindred beyond job seeking. 

• Maggie shares her plans for Kindred going forward: cohorts. 

Quotes:

“Kindred is all about career transitions and really is built on this thesis that career transitions and navigating career transitions don’t have to be a solo pursuit.” — Maggie Mannion [0:03:56]

“Lay-offs don’t need to be lonely!” — Maggie Mannion [0:04:54]

“The shared experience among people [part of Kindred] is that they’re navigating change.” — Maggie Mannion [0:10:56]

“So many of our experiences that feel really hard for ourselves are really common actually; we just don’t talk about them.” — Maggie Mannion [0:23:15]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Maggie Mannion on LinkedIn

Kindred 

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Today we are thrilled to sit down with Loralyn Mears, Ph.D., who is the founder of STEERus, a soft skills development company that works specifically with the Gen Z community to train up their soft skills as a pathway to success and productivity. We kickstart the conversation with a discussion on redundancy hires and strategy, before diving into how our mainstream education systems are creating soft-skill deficiencies by stunting vocabulary and growth around emotional articulation. Loralyn shares her thoughts on what shaped Gen Z and how this created a generation that uses their voices for what matters and aren’t afraid to walk away, before elaborating on the ways that employer mindsets are shifting. We also have a rich conversation all about the current anti-work movement and the many realizations that people have had since they no longer have to commute, plus you'll hear some valuable parting advice for anyone looking to create their own security and benefits outside of the corporate golden cage. To hear Loralyn’s perspectives on everything from tattleware and the Pomodoro method to how she recommends managing your notifications and why everyone is so burned out, tune in now!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Hear how Loralyn was fully remote long before we all put on our COVID slippers.
• The impact of members of a bootstrapped startup team getting sick.
• The concept of strategically building redundancy into their codebase.
• A bit about her rich background and how she ended up going into soft skills development.
• Diving into broken relationships and the results of being deficient in soft skills.
• How our education funnels us and doesn't teach us to articulate our emotions or full self. 
• Diving into the relationship between mass education and the current anti-work movement.
• What shaped Gen Z and how they learned to raise their voices for what matters.
• Discussing the Tang Ping phenomenon and concern over the climate crisis
• Finding employers who put people before process.
• The realizations people have had since commute and office pressure has reduced.
• How the concept of a workweek still works but there needs to be latitude on either side. 
• Talking about tattleware, the relevance of middle management, and the Pomodoro method.
• Death of a thousand cuts and how Loralyn manages her notifications.
• Hear Loralyn's insights into why everyone is so burned out and what the answer is. 
• The need for a shift in the employer mentality of ownership over their employee's time.
• Discussing people working multiple jobs, and how remote doesn't mean disengaged.
• Hear some excellent advice on what to do to break out of the 'golden cage' of benefits. 

Tweetables:

“The final outcome [of deficient soft skills] is broken relationships. People have much higher anxiety because they’re uncertain on how to proceed. They don’t know if it’s a safe space, they don’t know how to regard it.” — @steerus_io [0:08:51]

“[Gen Z] were shaped by the climate crisis, 9/11, all of these horrific things. They said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do what matters. I want to do what matters to me.’ They learned how to raise their voices.” — @steerus_io [0:13:38]

“Process has been put ahead of people for so long, that people are starting to rebel from it.” — @steerus_io [0:16:55]

“Gen Z knows their worth more than any other generation, and they’re not afraid to walk away.” — @steerus_io [0:18:22] 

“Through this pandemic epiphany, [we need to] take the time to reflect and to say, ‘What matters to me? What am I willing to tolerate? What am I not willing to tolerate?’ Again, back to that self-awareness and starting there.” — @steerus_io [0:38:27] 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Dr. Loralyn Mears on LinkedIn

STEERus

STEERus on Twitter

Talk Talent to Me

Hired