The Talent Tango

In this episode of The Talent Tango, our host Amir Bormand meets with Andrew Zuckerman, talent leader. Talent Acquisition strategy is the main topic; Amir and Andrew discuss the importance of properly timing talent acquisition initiatives and supporting them with a strong product roadmap.

Highlights:

00:03:00 - Andrew Zuckerman discusses the steps his talent acquisition team takes when staffing fast-growing companies and startups.

00:05:48 - What qualities should you look for when hiring talent for entry-level/low-skill roles?

00:08:45 - Andrew shares his strategy for determining if a candidate can grow into a new role.

00:13:59 - When should you hire contractors, and when should you hire salaried employees?

00:16:16 - Building an effective leadership team without overextending yourself or your resources.

00:22:17 - Andrew shares the benefits of managing his Talent Acquisition Team like a Product Team.

About Andrew Zuckerman:

Andrew Zuckerman is a leader in people operations for high-growth, venture-backed tech startups.  Andrew is passionate about creating authentic relationships between companies and their employees. He frequently speaks as a podcast guest on creating employee experiences and talent strategy for startups. Andrew has a master's degree in human resources from New York University and a bachelor's degree in communications from Emerson College.

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Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Talent Tango, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player.

Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com

Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests?

Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Krystal Cooper Head of People Operations at Vizion, talks about building out the people ops function from scratch.

Key takeaways:

• Look at a fractional CHRO if you aren’t growing past a certain size
• Compliance and legal aspects of people ops
• When should you start a people ops function 
• Where do you start
• How much is too much to implement?
• Making sure benefits are equitable 
• Moving fast but doing things right 
• Focusing on buy-in and process

About today’s guest: 

Krystal Cooper brings over 15 years of People Operations experience as a servant leader and business partner, specializing in supporting the growth and transformation of organizations while fostering an entrepreneurial culture built on trust, employee development, individuality, and making employees feel valued. 

She has partnered with startups from Seed to D-round funding and mid and large-size businesses, helping them scale their organizations. She has developed and implemented key initiatives that directly impact employee engagement and job performance while supporting business objectives, ensuring brand and culture growth, and building an inclusive and diverse team.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystalwcooper/

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Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Talent Tango, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player.

Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com

Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests?

Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Brian Bailey, Sr Manager of Technical Recruiting at Achieve, discusses how to manage a fully remote technical recruiting team successfully.

Key takeaways:

• Re-evaluating mentoring and onboarding process.
• Delivering training when bandwidth is limited
• Break up training into smaller increments
• Be approachable to create safe spaces to discuss things
• Balancing autonomy and accountability (via OKRs)
• Four relationship-building characteristics.

About today’s guest:

Brian Bailey

Dynamic and Energetic Technical Recruiting Leader with 17 years of experience in staffing and recruiting.  He has the mindset of getting things done the right way and partnering with hiring leaders to hire and find the best technical talent. Brian enjoys traveling with his family, playing soccer and golf, and being competitive in anything he does. Brian has worked in the staffing industry, the fintech industry, and the SaaS space.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianibailey/

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Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Talent Tango, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player.

Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com

Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests?

Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

Key takeaways:

• Monthly calendar of planned Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion events
• Getting employee engagement
• Finding events that work within a remote setting
• Lessons learned and what has/hasn’t worked

Meet: Katie Conti is a senior talent acquisition professional with 20 years of experience in resource management and recruiting.  Working with a belief that understanding the business is the key to truly collaborating and partnering, she looks to have Talent Attraction be a strategic part of an organization’s success. She is currently focused on building a diverse, robust five-star healthcare IT talent pool at HealthEdge. Katie’s passion for building teams and impacting culture with every hire is evident.

You can connect with Katie via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-conti

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways:

-Too much process can get in the way of positive candidate and recruiter experiences

- Understanding the “why” helps in adopting new processes 

- Making sure what is put in place meets company goals and is done with purpose

Meet: Nadine Silverman has over 14 years of talent acquisition experience, including leadership experience ranging from hyper-growth startups to global Fortune 500 companies. She is currently the Head of Talent Acquisition at Freenome, a biotech startup on a mission to prevent cancer through early detection by a simple blood test. Prior to Freenome, Nadine worked for companies including Symantec, Facebook, Tesla, and SolarCity.

You can connect with Nadine via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadineabichahine/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways:

Focusing on community and not culture 

Eliminating the usage of the term “culture”

People that are outside the box

It’s not about fitting, but rather a community add

Meet: Erin McCann is the Vice President, People Operations for SevenFifty, a fully distributed organization that is modernizing the beverage alcohol industry. 

Erin is a SHRM-CP, and in her current role, she leads the People function and all its components (hiring; onboarding; talent management; DEI and Community; coaching; performance management; HR). With a background that spans customer success, SaaS integrations, sales, and marketing, Erin is well-versed in most aspects of company operations. She started her career in hospitality and has landed in the ever-changing world of B2B SaaS startups.

You can connect with Erin via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eehubbs/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Key takeaways:

Don’t undervalue your “other”  experiences

Talent professionals need to battle bias

Leveraging a cover letter to convey more context 

Reentering the workforce and compensation

Meet: Candi Kenney leads the awesome Talent Acquisition Team at Clari. With over 15 years of recruiting experience and a Human Resources background, she knows first hand how to be an effective, strategic talent partner. Candi has a passion for helping others find their passion as well as driving positive change across Talent and Hiring teams.

You can connect with Candi via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/candikenney/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Meet: Jeff Hopkins has 7 years within the talent acquisition space across agency and internal. Currently leading the build-out of talent acquisition within a growing health tech start-up called Nomad Health. A firm believer that kindness is the most important characteristic for success within a people function.

You can connect with Jeff via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jchopkins/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Meet:

Fiorella Bariani, Head of Recruiting, at Flatiron and has been with the company for 6 years. Fiorella has been helping to build teams since Flatiron was just under 100 employees (currently ~1k employees). Prior to joining Flatiron, Fiorella worked at another mission-driven company focused on education technology.

Prior to working in Recruiting, Fiorella was a mental health counselor, focusing on working with populations across underrepresented and low socioeconomic groups. Fiorella has an MBA from Baruch College and has a Masters in Psychology from Adelphi University. 

Meet: Marissa Parillo is passionate about building scalable recruiting programs, hiring high-performing teams, and navigating through the challenges of hyper-growth phase organizations. She is the Senior Director of Business Recruiting at Datadog, a SaaS monitoring, and security company, overseeing global recruiting for sales, pre-sales, marketing, and G&A.  As the first recruiter on the ground at Datadog, she has built a recruiting team who has contributed to more than 17x growth of Datadog seeing them grow from 120 people to over 2200 people worldwide.   

You can connect with Marissa via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/parillorecruit/

Meet: Ana Batista is the People Operations Manager at Kindbody, a start-up leading inclusive holistic reproductive health, fertility, and family-building care. Ana, a native New Yorker, graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University where she discovered her passion for Human Resources. Her career has led her to work in a variety of companies and industries such as Simon & Schuster, Jonathan Adler, and Morgans Hotel Group (now SBE). She is a true generalist, tackling HR needs from recruiting and onboarding, benefits and employee relations, to performance management, policy compliance, and more! In her spare time, Ana is the President of the Executive Board at her sorority alumnae chapter of Alpha Chi Omega supporting their philanthropy, Domestic Violence Awareness, and is a plus-size model and fashion influencer. 

You can connect with Ana via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anabatistaphr/

Meet: Ryan Elberg - Upon joining Albert in April of 2020, Ryan brings his expertise in talent for hyper-growth startups from his prior roles as Head of Talent at tech companies such as Datadog (Nasdaq: DDOG) and Bread (acquired by Alliance Data for 450M). 

At Datadog, Ryan was an early employee and managed the global tech and product talent teams, as they grew to 1000 employees. Ryan oversees the People team at Albert who optimizes the employee lifecycle from recruiting to human resources and office management.

In his spare time, Ryan is an avid fitness enthusiast and spends most of his free time with his wife, his son and his dog finding new Southern California hiking trails.

You can connect with Ryan via LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanelberg/

Meet: Kareem Medas-  Head of Recruiting at Thirty Madison a direct to consumer subscription-based health company bringing specialized care and treatment for chronic conditions. 

If you have any questions for Kareem, please feel free to reach out to him via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemmedas/

Meet: Harry Dannenbaum -  Head of Recruiting at Coda. Grew up in London, came to the US for university - where he studied History. Jumped into the tech world right after graduation, where he joined Box and subsequently helped grow the company from 160-2000+ people, leading the Technical Recruiting team. 

If you have any questions for Harry, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-dannenbaum-34809432/

Meet:

Great conversation with Gabrielle Hughes of Gong.io!

She is responsible for employer branding and recruiting marketing efforts. She has had an interesting journey to end up in this particular role.

She shares with us how she transitioned from a social/content role to employer branding. And what you can do to help your organization get the ball rolling on creating engaging employer branding content. 

To get in touch with Gabrielle, connect with her:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleh/

Instagram: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabriellehughes?lang=en

I had been looking to interview an engineering executive to get their insights into the hiring/recruiting process.

And to my great fortune, I was able to have Michelle Grover on the podcast. Michelle is a VP of Development at SAP focused on a variety of products including Hipmunk, Concur Mobile, and TripIt. 

I appreciate Michelle being on the podcast as she shares with us: 

• Her journey into engineering
• Views on diversity and inclusion
• Advice on how recruiters can work more closely with engineering teams
• How delegating is her productivity hack

To get in touch with Michelle, connect with her:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-grover-24b835149/

Recruiters' schedules are very hectic and fast-paced. You need to handle a ton coming at you. So I started to ask my guests about their favorite productivity tip. 

The list is pretty interesting and has helped add a few new tricks to my toolbox!

I hope you enjoy and can benefit from some of these productivity tips!

I had a great conversation with Devin Schroeder. He started his career in the sports world and then transitioned into recruiting. Talk about a big adjustment after having worked for the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco Giants! 

Flash forward a few years and Devin is the Head of US Talent Acquisition at Funding Circle. He is responsible for a distributed team in the US where the team is hiring in ultra-competitive environments. 

We talk about:

• Moving from an agency to an in-house role
• When HQ is based in another country
• Sell the company mission
• Transitioning out of the sports world

To get in touch with Devin, connect with him:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devin-schroeder-3321aa45/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrdevin37/

What IF...🤔🤔🤔

You’ll never know how door B would have been...so stop thinking about it.

Making a job change can definitely be scary. But trust your instincts and regret is far scarier than making the wrong choice.

In this episode, we talk about the challenges of having to make a decision and living with it. And if your decision doesn't go well, most people dwell on the alternative of what could have been.