Talent Acquisition Leaders Podcast - Recruiting, Staffing, Human Resources

In this episode of the TA Leaders podcast, we sit down with David Feldman. A 20-year talent acquisition veteran, David started as a recruiter for Aerotek and Citi. He advanced his career and spent 13 years as Global Director of Talent Acquisition at Monsanto and Bayer. He currently serves as the VP of Talent Acquisition at Emerson Automation Solutions and Corporate Functions. David views talent acquisition from a holistic and strategic perspective of how it truly affects and fits into a company’s growth plans. And he has a passion for the operations, data, and technology that make it all possible. Emerson Automation Solutions hires over 7,000 people per year across multiple countries and continents. The challenge was these teams used different processes, policies, and technologies throughout the company. David shares what it takes to bring together decentralized teams into one centralized function, including the milestones that helped them make progress even while meeting virtually through a global pandemic. David also shares what strategic role he sees talent acquisition playing in the future of his company’s growth, which turns out to be helpful for TA professionals in any industry. Finally, David lays out his “four puzzle pieces for successful talent acquisition” which helps TA professionals go beyond recruiting and become an essential part of a company’s growth plan. Mentioned in this episode: Emerson Automation Solutions To learn more about Sagemark HR and how we can help you assemble the right tech stack for your talent acquisition team, visit sagemarkhr.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

In this episode of the TA Leaders podcast, we sat down with TJ Kreuziger, a 20-year veteran of and currently Head of Global Talent Acquisition and Contingent Workforce Solutions at 3M. He shares a little bit about his career path, the company’s biggest TA priorities for the coming years, and how he thinks the discipline will evolve in the future. TJ didn’t set out to be a recruiter. He walks us through how he got his start at 3M and the experiences he had that eventually led to a talent acquisition role — including what he calls the best career development experience of his life. One of the things that keeps him interested in the world of recruiting is the combination of marketing/sales and back-office processes. But that also creates challenges, he reminds us, as he explores the balance between automation and personal connection. Other goals he’s working toward at 3M include improving workforce and leadership diversity as well as increasing process consistency across the globe. We wrap the episode with TJ’s advice to future talent acquisition professionals. Even seasoned TAs won’t want to miss it! To learn more about how Sagemark HR can help you assemble the best tech stack for your talent acquisition team, visit sagemarkhr.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

This episode of TA Leaders is a little bit different. While host Ryan Dull usually sits on the interviewer side of the table, this episode was recorded originally as an episode of Select Software Reviews. Their team was kind enough to let us include the audio of that episode for this edition of TA Leaders. In this episode, Ryan discusses his framework for helping organizations determine what HR technology they need and how they can optimize their budgets and workflows. The five areas he digs into with his clients are the delivery model, recruitment marketing spend, external partners and services, current technology in place, and process efficiency. Ryan goes on to dig deeper into managing talent acquisition budgets. For example, if you identify $200,000 in your budget that you can save, how do you reallocate it in a way that keeps it in your business unit? And how can you prioritize the most impactful things for your organization? There’s a lot of valuable information in there about how to optimize your budgets, where you might be wasting time and money, and how to think about HR technology purchasing. To learn more about Sagemark HR and how to make the HR tech purchasing process simpler, visit SagemarkHR.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

In this episode of TA Leaders, Chad Melvin, Vice President of Talent Delivery and Enablement at Aflac, sits down with us to share his expertise and experience across more than two decades of talent acquisition experience. Chad discusses his career path up the ladder at Aflac, how he’s made strides by trying new organizational structures and technologies, and what he sees coming down the line for talent acquisition and human resources in general. One thing he mentions, in particular, is the decision to embed hiring managers within their business units so they have a better understanding of the true business needs. His reflections on the future of HR as well as on the technologies he uses provide insight for other talent acquisition leaders adapting to our digital future. Among some of his insights: mobile devices will keep increasing in importance, and artificial intelligence might just be the next big thing. He also shares his thoughts on building an employer brand and filling the talent pipeline. Learn more about how Sagemark HR can help you with your talent acquisition tech strategy at sagemarkhr.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

In this episode of the TA Leaders podcast, we sat down with Shelia Gray. Shelia is a long-time HR veteran who currently serves as the vice president of talent acquisition at Quadient, an IT and services business based out of Bagneux, France. Previously, she’s been a global TA leader at GE Appliances, Citrix, and AMD. Shelia talks about her journey in the human resources field, the things she loves about talent acquisition — both the fun and the challenging — and how she rose up through the ranks from HR generalist. She describes the point in her career when she knew she wanted to focus on the operations and technology behind recruiting. This was when she was working at a place called AlliedSignal (later acquired by Honeywell) as they went through their digital transformation. Fresh off her 2021 team goal-setting, Shelia shares what she’ll be most focused on this year, and some of the types of tools she’ll be investing in, which provides valuable insight into where she sees TA going in the foreseeable future. She also talks candidly about the changes Covid-19 brought around that will likely stick, and mentions that remote work — or at least a more rapid march toward it — is one of them. Mentioned in this episode: Quadient To learn more about Sagemark HR and how we can help you assemble the right tech stack for your talent acquisition team, visit sagemarkhr.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

On this episode, Sean Barry sits down with us to share his recruiting expertise and career experience over more than 20 years in talent acquisition. He’s currently the senior director of TA at Walgreens, leading talent acquisition across the organization. In 2020, that meant filling 135,000 jobs across the corporate call center, distribution center, and field networks. Sean dives into how he approached his first charge at Walgreens — creating an organizational structure allowing the team to expand and contract as needed while still providing a consistent candidate experience. He also describes changes they made at the beginning of COVID-19 to ensure faster hiring and onboarding, as well as what the company has done to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the hiring process. In sharing his reflections, Sean also points towards what he sees coming for the future of talent acquisition, eyeing opportunities for differentiation in empathy, candidate experience, and anticipation of market needs. That future, he says, will be largely bolstered by technology. To future talent acquisition executives, he advises: “Learn as much as you can about technology. I think that the way you communicate, the way you engage with people, has evolved tremendously. And it’s only going to continue.” Mentioned in this episode: Walgreens Learn more about Sagemark HR and consulting services around human resources technology at sagemarkhr.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

In this episode, Michael Gruber, SVP of Talent Acquisition at Compass Group, sits down with us to share a bit about his career and how he and his team have developed systems and processes that allow them to efficiently hire over 100,000 people every year. Michael got his start in HR during his time in the military, so it was a natural fit for him once he transitioned back into civilian life. After an interesting two decades, including joining a company in its first year and growing it to nearly 800 employees, he landed at Compass Group about three and a half years ago. Compass Group hires at high volumes — at any one time, the company has about 15,000 hourly jobs and nearly 1,000 professional jobs open. Michael shares how he and his team have implemented a technology stack to help them manage talent acquisition efficiently and give candidates a better experience. But, despite the necessary attention to technology, Michael reinforces the importance of relationships in recruiting. He closes with his thoughts on how TA teams should be building relationships to make their roles more effective. Wondering how to make technology work better for your TA team? Visit SagemarkHR.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

In this episode, Victor Gaines, SVP Talent Acquisition at Aveanna Healthcare sits down with us to share his journey in the talent acquisition space and his perspective on the state of TA today, as well as where it’s headed. Victor describes his career path through companies like Cigna, McKesson, and Comcast, and how he ended up at a startup doing $1.7 billion in revenue and growing fast. He leverages his experience to help recruiting teams scale up, exploring the ways that automation can lighten the load of administrative work so talent acquisition professionals can bring added value to the business. Every industry experienced a different set of challenges through COVID-19, but healthcare took center stage. Victor talks about leading his team to meet the unprecedented hiring demand in a growing organization, crediting process improvements and disruptive technology for contributing to their success. Victor wraps the episode with his perspective on the future of talent acquisition, how COVID-19 will shape the future of work, and why continuing technological advancement will keep the recruiting industry on its toes. Closing with sage advice to earlier-career TA professionals, he says, “Embrace your superpower. You’re hired as a team leader for a reason. So lean in and be the experts.” Resources mentioned in this episode: Aveanna Healthcare Learn more about Sagemark HR at SagemarkHR.com. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

On the Talent Acquisition Leaders Podcast, your host Ryan Dull of SageMark HR interviews today’s industry leaders in talent acquisition to discuss challenges, best practices, and what the future holds. If you are working in talent acquisition and have always wanted to sit down with your peers at other companies and pick their brain, this show is the next best thing. Topics for the show will include: recruiting, talent acquisition, recruiting technology, HR tech, and recruiting innovation. In this introductory episode, Ryan shares more about his background, and what you can expect on future episodes.  Join us each week as we bring you a new talent acquisition interview and extract their expertise. This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR. Sagemark HR can help you: ✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions. After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization. ✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results. We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution. ✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve. We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you. If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at: www.sagemarkhr.com ✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com