It is a leader’s responsibility to create the best possible environment for their team and there’s no better way to get insight into how to do that than leveraging employee engagement. Tuning in to this episode of Talk Talent to Me, you’ll hear all about our guest, CPO of Gentrack, Fran Caldwell, why she has such a positive attitude towards her work, the responsibilities she has at her company, and the impact she has made at Gentrack. We delve into the critical nature of employee engagement before discussing the importance of building trust among employees in order to gain these insights from employee engagement. Our guest goes on to talk about key motivators for an engaged workforce and how that varies between generations. Fran even shares the metrics she uses at Gentrack to measure the success of employee engagement and how to evaluate them. Finally, hear how you can handle negative engagement survey results and get some incredible advice about creating a career as a CPO.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The importance of being proud of your role in HR

• Fran shares how she sees her responsibility at Gentrack

• How Fran makes sure employees trust the organization

• The key motivators for an engaged workforce

• How messaging needs to be adjusted for different generations

• Fran shares her strategy for measuring employee engagement success

• Fran tells us how she handles negative results from surveys

• Our guest gives advice for listeners wanting to forge a career like her own

Quotes:

“If you work in the people space, every day is an opportunity. And if you focus on it being challenging and in a negative way, well then frankly, how do you get out of bed every day?” — Fran Caldwell [0:02:31]

“When you come into a new business or when you’re in these roles, you absolutely need to be led by insights and the only way you’re going to get these insights is by asking a lot of questions but importantly, listening to the answers.” — Fran Caldwell [0:10:00]

“Engagement and productivity metrics are intrinsically linked.” — Fran Caldwell [0:17:15]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Frances Caldwell

Gentrack

Anastasia Pshegodskaya is the Director of Talent Acquisition at Remote—a global employment platform that eliminates barriers to international hiring so that great companies can work with great people—and she begins our conversation by explaining why she’s always been more susceptible to working from home. We unpack Amazon’s recent back-to-the-office mandate, why many other companies are trying to get their employees back into the office space, how trust is essential to creating successful remote work environments, and remote work limitations to be aware of. We also discover how Anastasia and her team onboard talent remotely, the talent-specific process that keeps changing as a company evolves, the role of AI at Remote, and why “changing lives” is one of the main reasons for Anastasia’s joy at work.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Anastasia Pshegodskaya details her work-from-home lifestyle even before joining Remote.

• Her thoughts on Amazon’s back-to-office mandate, and why many others are doing the same.

• The importance of trust in building a successful remote work environment.

• Exploring the limitations of remote work and when it’s more beneficial to be in the office.

• How Anastasia onboards talent remotely and still makes them feel like part of the team.

• Her journey to joining Remote, what her role entails, and some notable successes so far.

• How talent-specific processes change and evolve in line with a company’s growth.

• A closer look at Anastasia’s candidate application review process.

• The role of AI, and how the Remote team ensures they’re using AI responsibility.

• Why HR and other people-focused teams are happy to adopt evolving AI tools.

• Anastasia explains what she loves most about her job.

Quotes:

“For great talent; for candidates; job seekers, remote work remains a thing. This is something that inspires them and what they want to have in their lives, and I think that it really comes down to flexibility and having the ability to choose where you work and how you work.” — Anastasia Pshegodskaya [0:04:22]

“There is a common misconception, in my opinion, that remote teams lose productivity – the customers that we’ve been serving don’t see any productivity loss. On the opposite, they see that the switch to remote work enables more efficient collaboration and communication.” — Anastasia Pshegodskaya [0:05:29]

“It comes down to the fact that you just need to trust the people that you hire.” — Anastasia Pshegodskaya [0:06:08]

“Every day, my team is changing someone’s life, and I do think that we’re doing this in a good way.” — Anastasia Pshegodskaya [0:31:18]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Anastasia Pshegodskaya on LinkedIn

Remote

Cobie AI

Endorsed

LHH

The mental wellbeing of employees is a crucial part of the overall success of any organization. Today on Talk Talent To Me, we’re joined by the CHRO of Harvard Business Publishing, Angela Cheng-Cimini to discuss self-advocacy, career development, and most importantly, mental health. Angela shares how her father encouraged her to get into HR, why you (and your boss) need to advocate for yourself without being braggadocious, the importance of elevator pitches, ways to enhance your sphere of influence, be more visible at work, and so much more! We delve into the Mental Health First Aid Program and her current focus on mental health at Harvard Business Publishing. We even talk about how to measure success in mental health programs and what to do when a company doesn’t prioritize the mental wellbeing of its employees. Finally, our guest shares some pearls of wisdom about reflecting on your career, finding motivation, and knowing when it’s time to move on.

Key Points From This Episode:

• How Angela’s dad inspired her career path to become CHRO of Harvard Business Publishing.

• The importance of self-advocacy and the line between advocacy and braggadocious-ness.

• Angela encourages everyone to practice their elevator pitches.

• How to enhance your sphere of influence in your organization.

• Why making the case for your value is a shared responsibility between you and your boss.

• What Angela is busy with right now: the mental health of her employees!

• How to handle working in organizations that do not prioritize mental health.

• Angela explains what mental health first aiders are and what they do.

• The three business units in Harvard Business Publishing and her role in each unit.

• Angela tells us about the role they are recruiting for at the moment.

• How to measure the success of employee mental health programs.

• Angela shares how she reflects on her own career motivations.

Quotes:

“Know what’s important to your boss.” — Angela Cheng-Cimini [0:10:17]

“The bigger you enlarge your sphere of influence, the more likely you are to have allies in the organization and people who will think of you when there’s a piece of work that you can easily slot into.” — Angela Cheng-Cimini [0:10:25]

“Showing up for work is not just about your success, but how you make others successful.” — Angela Cheng-Cimini [0:12:11]

“[There’s no] single indicator. It’s a whole host of things that feed into whether or not employees can show up and be their best every day.” — Angela Cheng-Cimini [0:26:29]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Angela Cheng-Cimini on LinkedIn

Harvard Business Publishing

‘How to Become More Visible at Work’

Mental Health First Aid Program

Venture capitalists are far more collaborative among each other than one may think, and today, we learn how this willingness to share ideas enticed today’s guest to join his current company. Joe Burridge is the Head of Talent at Play Ventures – a venture capitalist firm that loves helping ambitious and passionate entrepreneurs to fulfill their dreams – and he begins our conversation by walking us through his latest career developments since his last appearance on Talk Talent To Me in 2019. After musing on the importance of talent professionals upskilling themselves by listening to podcasts like this one, we discuss the merit of going full-freelance in today’s economic climate, when and how Joe knew that he and his employer were on the same page, the importance of having vast talent pools and making the right hires, and the pros and cons of joining a startup as a talent professional. To end, Joe explains what we could be doing more of to embrace and encourage collaborative work environments.

Key Points From This Episode:

• How Joe Burridge's career has developed since his last appearance on this podcast in 2019.

• Whether he regarded his contracted work as a temporary or permanent solution post-layoff.

• His experience of working in-house and leading a team versus doing more consultative work.

• A brief interlude on the value of listening to podcasts like this one as talent professionals.

• When and how Joe knew that his concerns aligned with his employer's needs.

• A case study from his career, highlighting the importance of talent and making the right hires.

• The pros and cons of joining a startup.

• Joe's recruiting approach, and the trends he sees in current candidate pools.

• What we can learn from the (surprisingly) collaborative nature of venture capitalists.

Quotes:

“In North America, for the most part, if you get laid off it's a fairly immediate thing. Thankfully, in the UK, layoffs take weeks, sometimes months. So, you've got quite a bit of breathing room to figure out what you're going to do next.” — @JoeFindsTalent [0:07:04]

“If you spend your free time listening to a recruiting podcast, I think you're probably a pretty good recruiter. It signals to me that you really care about getting better at your job.” — @robstertweets [0:13:55]

“Yes, there's an abundance of talent available, but you need to be more honed into hiring for culture than ever before when you've got such a variety to choose from.” — @JoeFindsTalent [0:24:32]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Joe Burridge

Joe Burridge on LinkedIn

Play Ventures

Episode: Senior Recruiter, EA Joe Burridge

Alison Kaizer on LinkedIn

Kelly Kinnard on LinkedIn

Rob Stevenson on X

Talk Talent to Me

In today’s episode, I sit down with Gordon Patterson to discuss his mission of fostering relationships and championing individual empowerment. Gordon is the Director of Talent Acquisition at LKQ Corporation, a leading provider of alternative and specialty parts to repair and accessorize automobiles and other vehicles. In our conversation, Gordon tells us about LKQ, the changes the company is currently going through, and the different markets it serves. Hear about his role at the company, the ways he pushes the envelope in recruiting, and the value of brand recognition for finding talent. Discover the different organizations LKQ leverages for recruiting, how it retains employees, and details of its “Your Voice Matters” survey. Find out how Gordon overcame the tech hesitation hurdle, his approach to creating referrals, LKQ’s people process technology (PPT) framework, and what “sweat equity” is. Gain insights into the role of leaders in the recruitment process, the secret sauce to retaining talent, what he has planned for the future, and more. Tune in now!

Key Points From This Episode:

• History about the LKQ Corporation and what makes it unique.

• His role at the company and what he is currently working on.

• Gordon shares his approach to finding top talent for LKQ.

• How national and local partnerships help for networking.

• Hear how many hires LKQ has each year and its employee turnover.

• Exciting programs the company offers employees, such as scholarships.

• Taking feedback from employees and turning it into policy.

• The challenge of slow adoption of technology in the sector.

• Learn about the type of technologies LQK has invested in.

• Relying on non-technological tools for talent acquisition.

• Discover the red flags he noticed in the company’s staffing process.

• Why CRM (candidate relationship management) software is essential.

Quotes:

“It has been really fun to see, in my two years [at the company], how talent acquisition has evolved to impact the business.” — Gordon Patterson [0:05:51]

“At LKQ, we have been very fortunate, even with all the acquisitions and movement, that a lot of our front-line associates have been with the company for twenty-plus years.” — Gordon Patterson [0:11:20]

“The technology that [LKQ] has invested in on the [talent acquisition] side has worked really well.” — Gordon Patterson [0:17:28]

“When you see the business going to contractors or temporary talent or however you want to call it; where there is smoke, there is fire.” — Gordon Patterson [0:22:28]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Gordon Patterson on LinkedIn

LKQ Corporation

Talk Talent to Me

Are you curious about the evolving landscape of recruitment and the secrets behind successful talent acquisition strategies? In today’s episode, I sit down with Kelsey Sorensen, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Black Crow AI, to discuss the dynamics of recruitment in both traditional and startup environments. With a career spanning over a decade in recruitment, Kelsey has honed her expertise in sourcing, candidate assessment, and strategic human resource planning. Her commitment to fostering authentic connections and her ability to create impactful interactions have earned her recognition as a top performer in the field. Black Crow AI is a company that specializes in providing real-time machine-learning predictions without the need for coding. In our conversation, we discuss the how and why of her recruitment journey, her experience in the agency approach to recruiting, and her memorable career moments. Explore how her current role differs from her previous roles and why she prefers a relationship-centric approach to recruitment. Discover why career stability has become critical to candidates, the pros and cons of working for a startup, and hear Kelsey unpack the concept of career stability. Gain insights into the benefits of being a generalist in the recruitment space, the value of stepping outside of the traditional HR role, why you need to love the product or service to take the job, and much more.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Background about Kelsey and how she knew recruiting was the career for her.

• We delve into the pros and cons of the agency approach recruitment.

• Details about her current role at Black Crow AI and what she enjoys about it.

• Unpack the concept of job stability and why candidates are seeking it.

• How marketing can be utilized to enhance recruitment strategies.

• Ways that Kelsey incorporates marketing aspects in her approach to recruitment.

• Explore how to sell the vision of the company to future employees.

• The benefits of working in a startup environment.

• Her methods for building the recruitment pipeline at Black Crow AI.

• What she has planned for her future career trajectory.

• She shares advice and recommendations for fellow recruiters.

Quotes:

“Just, ‘Smile and dial’ is what we used to say in the agency days.” — Kelsey Sorensen [0:06:01]

“I hate to break it to you but no job is permanent.” — Kelsey Sorensen [0:08:01]

“I don’t think [career] stability means the same thing for every single person.” — Kelsey Sorensen [0:09:06]

“I have my hands in all different areas of the organization which allows me to paint a clear picture of what we are building and developing [at Black Crow AI] to candidates.” — Kelsey Sorensen [0:17:26]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Kelsey Sorensen on LinkedIn

Black Crow AI

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Modern talent acquisition is more than just making the right hires. Onboarding, mobility, and retention are just a few of the many new responsibilities that TA’s have to consider (and often, they aren’t even in the TA’s title). Today’s guest, Lavonne Monroe, explains how she became the Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition and Onboarding at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and what her role entails. We learn about HPE’s trustworthy DEI policy, how the TA role has evolved over the years, how our guest views employee churn, and the full scope of HPE’s talent team. We also discuss HPE’s recruitment strategy, what Lavonne and her team are currently working on, how she manages her team, and why TA’s are required to have a holistic comprehensive of their organizations.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Lavonne Monroe describes her role as VP of Global TA and Onboarding at HPE.

• Why she trusts HPE to walk the talk as it relates to equality and economic justice.

• Modern additions to the role of talent acquisition.

• How Lavonne views regrettable and non-regrettable churn.

• The scope of HPE’s talent team, and how they use skip-level meetings.

• What Lavonne and her team are currently working on.

• HPE’s recruitment strategy and current workforce.

• More specifics on our guest’s role at her organization.

• How she acquired the speech of a business leader, and how this fueled her success at HPE.

• A closer examination of how she manages her team.

• Why understanding sales (and the whole business in general) matters for a TA team.

Quotes:

“We are winning awards around the work that we’re doing but we’re not doing the work to win the awards, we’re doing the work because it is the right thing to do.” — Lavonne Monroe [0:05:00]

“For me, the acquiring part, that’s almost the easy part. It’s the retention; it’s the mobility; it’s the onboarding – it’s so much bigger than just the acquisition.” — Lavonne Monroe [0:08:29]

“Lead generation all the way to retirement, that’s the focus of our team.” — Lavonne Monroe [0:12:40]

“My team, we’re never satisfied. We’re always looking to, ‘How can we get better? How can we continue to improve?’ – we’ll continue to push the envelope.” — Lavonne Monroe [0:18:47]

“I’m really big on finding out what people are really good at, and then putting them in the [right] position to be great.” — Lavonne Monroe [0:20:42]

“We can’t survive without TA.” — Lavonne Monroe [0:26:30]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Lavonne Monroe on LinkedIn

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

There’s a saying that goes “Nothing grows in the comfort zone” and our guest today is a formidable example of success outside of comfort! We are thrilled to welcome to the Talk Talent to Me podcast, Nicolette Jackson, Head of Talent over at Zephyr. Nicolette shares more about what they do at Zephyr and her journey to becoming the Head of Talent. We dive into her inspiring and forward approach to negotiating her job offer at Zephyr, and she highlights what prompted her confidence to (always) ask for more! We then delve into the different facts of her mentor/mentee relationship with Lorraine Buhannic, and much more.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The Nicolette of it all. More about Zephyr and Nicolette’s background and journey.

• Viewing another Chief People Officer’s visible role at the table: how it was apparent to Nicolette.

• She elaborates on the different types of things the board asked Lorraine (the CPO).

• The sparks that influenced Nicolette’s Chief People Officer aspirations.

• Nicolette delves into her approach toward negotiating her job offer at Zephyr.

• The inspiration that prompted her confidence to ask for more (from her job offer).

• Nicolette sheds light on various facets of her mentorship dynamic with Lorraine.

• She shares Lorraine’s anti-imposter syndrome pep-talk/ concept.

• Painting her own data journey and the impact it has had on her confidence.

• She explains the different ways she is currently quantifying the role.

• Why owning your expertise is a beautiful thing to do for a business.

Quotes:

“When I realized that recruiting was — one side bringing people in but then also how to grow them and make them happy while they were there was the whole other side of the spectrum. And to truly be happy in recruiting — I feel like I also wanted a say-so on how people were treated once they were in the door.” — Nicolette Jackson [0:08:40]

“Who gets the oil? The squeaky wheel, honestly the people that ask for the things they want.” — Nicolette Jackson [0:14:44]

“Nothing that I’ve done in this life that has made me successful was ever comfortable. It’s always been uncomfortable. It’s always been a challenge.” — Nicolette Jackson [0:25:20]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Nicolette Jackson on LinkedIn

Zephyr

Hippo Insurance

Lorraine Buhannic on LinkedIn

Episode: Juxtapose Head of Talent Lorraine Buhannic

Juxtapose

Talk Talent to Me

Hired