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

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