Talent and Growth - The Talent Acquisition Podcast

Hiring is an art in itself and it is incredibly important that businesses get their processes in place as soon as possible to that they can attract the best people into their businesses and work as efficiently as possible. Jonathan has a wealth of experience in recruitment and talent acquisition and helps businesses get where they need to be in terms of hiring. We covered: When a business should implement hiring processes What does strategic planning for hiring processes look like The blueprint for putting together hiring processes What the hiring process workflow should look like How the interview process should look What our time to fill should be How to deliver a great candidate experience Contact Jonathan here - Jonathan Durnford-Smith

Andy has done a fantastic job with his teams, transforming skillsets, capabilities and cultures. In this chat, he shares exactly how. We covered: How to identify the change needed in engineering teams, both in terms of skillsets and culture How to empower your developers How to get your team committed to projects and committed to upskilling How to create a healthy working culture? Advice for other leaders looking to transform their engineering team Contact Andy here - Andrew Macharg

Supporting the wellness of the people in your business, who, by the way, is your most important commodity, is crucial for any business. Kel cares about people, and she has an incredible amount of experience in looking after them and creating environments which enable them to be the best versions of themselves. We covered: How to create a wellness program How to create different elements which appeal to different groups of people Kel’s advice for businesses who want to build a culture that enables their staff to bring their whole selves to work What the modern leader needs to look like skills-wise Why everybody should be forced to use their holiday allowance Kel’s advice for individuals who want to support their wellness more consciously Contact Kel here - Kel Hartman

Hiring the right people can make or break your business. Charles found out the hard way what happens if you don’t get the right people in and has since used that experience to help him get the right people through the door. Charles is the Founder & CEO of Legislate, a legal tech company he started in April 2020 in Oxford to make contracts machine readable using patented knowledge graph technology. Before founding Legislate, he brought Machine Learning solutions to market for three years at Mind Foundry, a spin-out from the University of Oxford. We covered: Some of Charle’s early experiences of hiring, what worked and what didn’t The impact hiring the wrong people had on his business and his learnings How he now makes sure he hires the right people How much difference hiring the right people has had on product, performance and culture How to make sure that hiring the “right people” still means building an inclusive culture which attracts a diverse range of talent The essential qualities that Charles looks for Contact Charles here - Charles Brecque

Rich Chapple is the CEO of The Growth Foundation. As former Head of Marketing at play.com, Founder & CEO at THG Ingenuity and CMO at Gymshark, he helped grow all three into unicorn companies. With 20 years of experience in DTC eCommerce, he is an expert at unlocking huge, profitable and sustainable growth for start-ups, scale-ups and established businesses. We covered: At what point should a business be thinking about “professionalising.” The critical functions of a business need to be adequately understood to scale Where Founders often go wrong when building their businesses How do you ensure that your people are taken on that journey with you Rich’s valuable advice for Founders and business leaders about professionalising Contact Rich here - Richard Chapple

Emma is one of the most inspirational guests we have had on Talent & Growth. She is the Founder of Radical Recruit, a not-for-profit recruitment consultancy that exists to excite, agitate and shake things up in the recruitment industry. They represent the UK’s most diverse ‘hidden’ talent, help employers do recruitment better and create real and lasting social change. Emma helps us to diversify our definition of diversity. She gives some great advice on what we can do to open up our minds and talent pools and support some of the most underrepresented people in the UK. We covered - What we mean by diversifying your definition of diversity What people & companies generally think of when talking about diversity and why What sort of pools of people we should also be looking at attracting and how Some of Emma’s incredible success stories with Radical Recruit The types of schemes/initiatives/processes that businesses should be set up to make them more open to diverse pools of talent Contact Emma here -  Emma Freivogel

Garry is a People / HR leader with 15 years + of experience leading teams across multiple disciplines, including Talent Acquisition, Employee Engagement, Internal Communications and HR Central Operations; however now entirely focused on Inclusion, Diversity and Equity. In this episode, we talk around the how’s and why’s of building an inclusive culture, and Garry shares some of the challenges he has faced, as well as the solutions he has implemented, including some recent examples from working at Greene King and the ambitious journey they are on. We covered: Why inclusion comes before diversity How do you assess what type of culture you have The blueprint for building a more inclusive culture How to take your business on the journey of inclusion The importance of leadership training when it comes to building a more inclusive environment Where companies go wrong when trying to build a more inclusive culture How to diversify your talent pool Contact Garry here -  Garry Clarke-Strange

Alia leads the Sales recruitment team in EMEA for ServiceNow, the defining Enterprise Software of the 21st century. Her team’s mission is to fuel ServiceNow's growth by building diverse & high-performing teams. Her leadership philosophy fosters a sense of belonging for all so they can do their best work. In this episode, we all things diversity and hiring. We covered: We covered: The responsibility the whole business has to focus on hiring diverse talent How to push diversity hiring with authenticity How do we build an inclusive culture? How and why we need to rethink our view of talent if we are trying to diversify our hiring What innovations TA teams can start implementing to open up new talent pools How to ensure a positive and inclusive candidate experience How to make sure our employer branding is appealing to a more diverse set of talent Contact Alia here - Alia Khattab | LinkedIn

Charlie is the Founder of Ok Positive, a business-to-business Mental Health application designed to reduce the effects of Mental Health issues in the workplace (anxiety, stress, depression) and support end-users with their day-to-day Mental Health, creating a happier, loyal and more productive workforce. Mental Health costs £35 billion a year to the UK economy. While there is awareness, there is no action to support those affected. We provide the tool for people to acknowledge, monitor and maintain a positive daily impact on their Mental Health. Charlie is an inspirational Founder & Leader, and in this episode, we talk about the importance of taking your workforce on the company journey with you and how to do it. We covered: How to build your business culture Why it is important to you to take your people on the company journey What Charlie has learnt about the journey along the way How to ensure investment of your staff as the company scales What the future of supporting mental well-being looks like Advice for Founders who authentically want to take people on the journey of the business Contact Charlie here - Charlie Winton

Tash is the Founder of Slip, an award-winning start-up looking to humanise how we do digital receipts and customer information. Their innovative technology provides a robust solution for consumers and retailers to transform transactions and receipt waste into meaningful interactions. As well as an excellent product, Tash is passionate about building a diverse business. In this episode, we will focus on her plans to attract more females into her tech teams. We covered: Why there is still such an issue getting more females into tech The approach Tash has decided to take and why How the business has improved their outreach and response rate How Slip has made the hiring process one which retains diverse candidates Where businesses go wrong with diversity and hiring Tash’s advice on how to build more diverse tech teams Contact Tash here - Tash Grossman