Talent Operators Anonymous

In this episode of Talent Operations Anonymous, Intel's Talent Transformation dream team—Allyn Bailey and Tyler Weeks—join us for a discussion of how they affect change through influence. We talk about building trust with stakeholders on the front line and in the C-suite We talk about inviting people to be a part of the vision We talk about adapting to shifting circumstances—you know, like a global pandemic turning everything upside down I hope you’re hungry—we’re serving up some serious transformation realness today.

This episode is an official COVID post-mortem. We’re 90 days out from the pandemic which brought the world of work to a screeching halt—and set a new standard for accelerated change in human capital management.  I've called on two longtime friends and respected experts in the world of work to help me unpack it all: Mark Stelzner, Founder and Managing Principal of IA and Will Staney, Founder and CEO of Proactive Talent. They’re both on my shortlist of people to call when I need to think through complex challenges talent leaders are facing—and I don’t know if there’s ever been a challenge as complex as COVID-19. In our conversation today: We talk about their experiences as consultants and as CEOs as they navigated the first 30 days of impact. We talk about how fast things moved, what they learned, and how they’ve put it to work for themselves and their clients. We talk about what the future holds for HR—not the new normal… a better normal.  This episode is packed with insightful tidbits, even if my audio sounds a little off throughout. If you can look past that, I think you’ll find some seriously compelling stuff. Dig in, fam!

Today’s episode is the second installation of our stakeholder series, where we dig deeper into strategy personas that play an important role in enabling—or hindering—talent transformation. For this session, we’re walking a mile in the shoes of the CIO, the chief information officer.  But we’re not just talking to any CIO—we’re talking to one of the most powerful women in Healthcare IT, one of the 50 Top Healthcare IT Experts: Sue Schade.  Sue is the Principal at StarBridge Advisors providing consulting, coaching and interim management services. She’s been in Healthcare IT Management for over 30 years and most recently served as the interim Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Stony Brook Medicine in New York.  Surprisingly, our conversation is the least nerdy on the show so far. Don’t get me wrong - we talk about systems and architecture, we talk about data management and integrity… but we also talk IT as an extension of the extended care team, about the problem-solving proclivities that drive the most innovative CIOs—and how TA leaders can tap into that drive to partner with the IT organization more effectively.  Sue is quick to tell me that technology can’t solve everything, but I think you’ll find her perspective on how technology has helped healthcare organizations navigate the COVID crisis—and how fast transformation can happen when it has to—really compelling. I certainly did. 

Today we’re talking about scaling a modern talent function from scratch—and we get to hear from two TA pros who are as nerdy for this stuff as I am! Joining me on this adventure are the brains and brawn behind Better.com's talent strategy: Daniel Morales, Recruiting Operations Manager and Arthur Matuszewksi, VP of Talent. Arthur and Daniel have taken on the monstrous responsibility of building a fully optimized and scalable recruiting operation from scratch—during a period of hypergrowth, no less.  Whether you’re a seasoned talent operations pro, a talent leader looking to shake things up, or new to your recruiting career and wondering how you can make your mark, we can all learn from Daniel and Arthur’s ability to balance vision and execution while innovating on the fly.  You’ll want to turn up the volume and lean in for this one, because we’re talking a mile a minute. 

Today’s episode is a real treat: it’s the first in our Strategic Persona series where we lean in with stakeholders who can help—or hinder—talent transformation. We’re kicking off with none other than the CHRO. I’ve called in a personal favor to get today’s guest on, please join me in welcoming the one and only Paul Rubenstein. As the Chief People Officer for Visier he’s responsible for ensuring they have the right culture and talent to continue the company's growth and innovation.  Paul spent years consulting and collaborating with CHROs over the course of his career, and his experience as a business leader makes him an especially interesting candidate for our first CHRO interview. You’ll find he has an incredibly compelling perspective on key challenges that the HR and Talent functions face.

Many talent teams struggle to fully utilize the technology they've fought hard to get budget for. While it may be tempting to rip and replace, the problems of change management and system optimization remain unaddressed in most instances. So what gives? Join Marcelo Mackinlay of Petco and Marissa Daly-Bennett of PepsiCo as they discuss the value of having someone with technical and functional aptitude on your team to ensure every tech investment is a win.

Elaine Orler, Founder of Talent Function (now a Cielo company) and Andy Rice, Principal and Lead Strategist at Black Box Consulting are pioneers of the modern talent operations function. They’ve learned a thing or two about weathering a storm—and coming out the other end stronger than before. As we enter this next chapter of the new normal—a new year ahead with new opportunities and new pressures—many are doubling down digital talent operations. Investing in new systems, optimizing their current processes, building better metrics… it’s an operator’s moment to shine! But where should we be focusing our time? What should we be prioritizing? And what will talent acquisition look like on the other end? Get your notebooks out, kids, cuz Elaine and Andy have some big ideas. Check it out!

The scope of the talent operations function varies wildly from one company to the next. Talent leaders don’t recruit, train, or develop for this role the same way, and they don't have the same expectations from it. That is why we invited for this episode: Jonathan “JR” Reyes, Director of Global Talent Acquisition Operations at Uber, and Eileen Kovalsky, Global Head of Talent Acquisition Operations at Mondelez International. Let's talk Talent Ops careers, folks.

Where employer branding and recruitment marketing step in to innovate, talent operation follows to reinforce and scale. So in this episode, we're digging deeper into the relationship between these two functions in the talent organization. We'll be hearing from Ashley Cheretes, who was until recently Head of Employer Brand & Marketing at Cigna, and Brandon Linn, who is the VP, Employer Brand Marketing & Social Media at Freedom Mortgage.

In our recent Transformation Readiness study, we found out that the number one priority of CHROs is to improve their teams’ ability to make data-driven decisions, and the number one skill they think is needed on their teams is data analysis. So for this episode, we’re going to dig into the role that talent operations plays in those aspects of transformation with Nikki Cochran, Recruiting and Operations Lead at Humans Doing, and Andrew Savage, Senior Analyst, Talent Acquisition Strategy at Toyota.

Where the head of TA sets the strategy, talent ops enables the execution by enabling prioritization, solution design, project management, analytics, and much more. But the talent operations function didn't always look like this; in fact, it still rarely starts out that way. We invited two stars from PwC Canada to tell us more about how they think talent organizations go through that journey and form successful operations function: James Davidson, Director of Talent Acquisition & Global Mobility, and Samantha Whitehall, Senior Manager - Talent Acquisition Strategy & Process.