Talk Talent To Me – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Ilona explains what it takes to transform talent acquisition at a 300,000-person organization. From consolidating a sprawling, decentralized TA function into a unified operating model to simplifying a bloated tech stack and driving global process adoption, Ilona shares how her team moved from fragmentation to focus. The conversation explores the difference between operational busy-ness and strategic impact, why process discipline must come before innovation, and how talent leaders can elevate their influence with the C-suite by telling a smarter story with data. Ilona also reflects on career growth, embracing discomfort, and the power of saying yes to unexpected opportunities.

1. Decentralization Creates Duplication
PepsiCo's TA teams were spread across dozens of reporting lines globally, leading to inconsistent processes, unclear ownership, and change fatigue. Consolidation created clarity, agility, and shared priorities.

2. Process Before AI
You can't layer automation or AI onto chaos. The team prioritized process adherence, data quality, and recruiter capability building before pursuing more advanced innovation.

3. Simplify the Tech Stack
Replacing multiple point solutions with a unified ATS ecosystem reduced complexity and enabled cleaner reporting, better adoption, and stronger governance.

4. Operational Metrics Aren't Enough
Time-to-fill and offer acceptance rates matter, but executives want insight. Strategic scorecards now combine performance data with external market intelligence and competitive context.

5. Capability Building Is Strategic Work
Interviewing skills, recruitment strategy conversations, offer management, and stakeholder alignment are foundational competencies that elevate TA's business impact.

6. Change Management Requires Intentionality
Regular pulse checks, global town halls, leadership alignment, and engagement committees helped stabilize morale and improve adoption during transformation.

7. Career Growth Requires Discomfort
Ilona's advice: say yes to unclear opportunities, embrace uncertainty, and get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Ilona Kremer on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions 

A Beautiful Working World

A Soundbeam Studios Production

Camye Mackey, EVP and Chief People, Diversity & Inclusion Officer for the Atlanta Hawks, joins Rob to talk about building culture inside one of the most community-connected brands in sports. From embedding inclusion into both workforce strategy and marketplace impact, to designing a "Talent Blueprint" that future-proofs the organization, Camye shares how HR can operate as a true business partner. The conversation explores generational diversity, AI adoption, workforce skill gaps, and why DEI remains a business imperative, not a buzzword. If you're thinking about how to architect a modern people strategy that reflects your community and scales with change, this episode offers a practical and inspiring roadmap.

• DEI Is a Business Imperative: Camye reframes diversity and inclusion as drivers of innovation and performance, not political talking points. Diverse perspectives fuel better decisions and stronger outcomes.
• Culture Must Be Lived, Not Framed: The Hawks operationalize values through behaviors (SMILE: Southern hospitality, Make a moment, Individuals matter, Listen & learn, Empowerment), turning principles into daily practice.
• HR Must Lead on Technology: AI and digital tools aren't side projects. HR is central to training, adoption, policy shifts, and workforce readiness.
• Workforce Planning Is Strategic: The "Talent Blueprint" approach connects business strategy to job design, compensation, competency development, and skill gap analysis.
• Generational Diversity Is Real: With five generations in the workplace, people strategy must flex to meet different needs and expectations.
• Curiosity Is Career Leverage: Camye's advice: stay close to the business, ask questions, be relentlessly curious, and position yourself as a solution partner.

Camye Mackey on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions 

A Beautiful Working World

A Soundbeam Studios Production

Katya Laviolette, Chief People Officer at 1Password, joins Rob to unpack how the company scaled from a scrappy, consumer-first startup to a 1,400-person B2B security powerhouse. She shares why shifting from B2C to B2B hiring isn't just about adding new roles—it's about evolving core competencies. Katya also explains how her team uses "anti-recruiting" to scare off the wrong candidates, and how being brutally honest during the hiring process actually leads to better retention. Plus: why every company is a train ride, and you don't have to ride the whole way.

• Why 1Password eliminated the "Apply Now" button—and what it means for candidate experience

• How hiring changed as the company shifted from B2C to enterprise B2B

• The buy-vs-build approach to talent in cybersecurity and SaaS

• Why "anti-recruiting" is a crucial part of high-growth hiring

• How to design an interview loop that screens for ambiguity tolerance

• The difference between relevant experience and transplanting culture

• Why some hires are "lifers" and others join for a chapter—and that's OK

• Katya's metaphor for growth: scaling a company is like a train ride

• Why strong employer branding should repel as much as it attracts

• How candidate curiosity and specificity signal long-term success

Katya Laviolette on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions 

A Beautiful Working World

A Soundbeam Studios Production

Maryjo Charbonnier isn't afraid of a challenge. In fact, throughout her career, she has sought out difficult problems so that she can be part of the solution. Her passion for change-making has led her to her current position as the Chief HR Officer at Kyndryl, an IBM spin-off which is now the world's largest startup with over 90,000 employees and $19 billion in revenue. In this episode, Maryjo and I do a deep dive into what it takes to cultivate and maintain a thriving company culture. Maryjo is a real expert on cultural processes, and leaders and HR professionals in any field will benefit from the wisdom she shares today! 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Maryjo shares the origin story of Kyndryl.

• The work that Maryjo and her team did to ensure that Kyndrl was a successful spin-off.

• Three core elements of any company culture. 

• Defining the culture at Kyndryl ("The Kyndryl Way") and the process they have gone through to develop it. 

• Why Maryjo advises HR professionals to seek out difficult problems. 

• What Maryjo loves about being part of business and cultural transformations.

• Maryjo's thoughts on how culture is created.

• The role of HR professionals in the development of company culture. 

• Values that Kyndryl aspires to embody. 

• The importance of getting continuous feedback when building a company culture. 

• An overview of Maryjo's career journey to date. 

• Advice for getting the most value out of your career as an HR professional. 

Tweetables:

"When spins happen, they are a chance to both do a big transformation on the business side and also in HR." — Maryjo Charbonnier [0:02:45]

"Culture manifests in three different ways; behaviors, systems…and symbols." — Maryjo Charbonnier [0:05:05]

"In an HR career, it's important, if you really want to accelerate your career, to seek the heat. Go where the big problems are because those are where everyone has eyes, and if you can make the difference it can really help accelerate your career path." — Maryjo Charbonnier [0:12:26]

"I think about [culture] as a garden. It's a garden that needs to be tended and cultivated. Yes, if left to its own devices, it will just grow organically, but that may or may not be what you want." — Maryjo Charbonnier [0:15:19]

"One of the most important things HR people do is listen to what isn't said." — Maryjo Charbonnier [0:16:36]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Maryjo Charbonnier on LinkedIn

Kyndryl

Kyndryl on LinkedIn

Walking the Talk

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Sometimes the best approach to a challenge is to start from scratch! When Jenny Cotie Kangas lost most of her memories as a result of a head injury, she had to undergo a process of extreme relearning. Though the experience came with hardships and frustrations, it turned out to be hugely beneficial to her professional life.  During this episode, Jenny shares how learning to explain things in their simplest form, eliminating biases and blindspots, and employing reverse engineering strategies can lead to true organizational change.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The life-changing event that Jenny experienced in 2020. 

• Systems that Jenny has created to enhance her productivity and well-being. 

• Jenny's approach to recovering after her head injury. 

• The difference between an issue and a symptom. 

• Why being able to simplify information is such a valuable skill. 

• How to build optimal processes within an organization. 

• An example of how incorrect assumptions can affect a business. 

• The benefits of reverse engineering. 

• Why Jenny delved into UX research after her head injury. 

• One of the biggest changes that took place in Jenny as a result of her head injury. 

• How to become aware of your blindspots and biases. 

Tweetables:

"When resources are thin and budgets are thin, it's absolutely critical that you build your strategies that are going to mitigate issues, not mitigate symptoms." — @CotieJenny [0:24:27]

"In the HR and talent acquisition space, the terms that we use, even within our organizations, they're in our vernacular and we understand them, but we don't always level set the definitions of those." — @CotieJenny [0:25:56]

"When you storytell something in a way that makes sense to a 10-year-old – all of a sudden everybody can understand it. Not just the top 10% or the most experienced in your organization, but everybody can. And when you're trying to actually make change happen, your goal is to hit everybody, not just the top 10%." — @CotieJenny [0:28:00]

"If you don't know what good looks like, you can't actually reverse engineer good." — @CotieJenny [0:29:39]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Jenny Cotie Kangas on LinkedIn

PandoLogic

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Today, we are joined by the Founder and Managing Director of Quintrix, Krishna Kumar. Investing in early talent is beginning to become more popular in the industry and we discuss whether it's better to groom in-house talent or source externally, why businesses need to think more about early talent in the long term, why many candidates are falling short of the mark, and how companies can better support their new recruits. We also examine Krishna's game-changing post-deployment framework, before he tells us why he'll always live life by one particular quote from Bill Gates.  

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing the Founder and Managing Director of Quintrix Solutions, Krishna Kumar. 

• The content that Krishna is enjoying at Talent Acquisition Week. 

• How investing in early talent is gaining more traction in the industry. 

• What Quintrix Solutions does as a company. 

• Whether it makes more sense to groom in-house talent or source externally.

• How a business's short-term goals may negatively impact its early talent strategy.

• Krishna's background and why he chose his current line of work. 

• The gaps and discrepancies he sees in the experience and skills of candidates.    

• Looking at the support (or lack thereof) that new employees have in the workplace. 

• Krishna's post-deployment framework, and why it's bound to be a game changer. 

• Assessing who's to blame for a lack of proactivity in the workplace. 

• How to integrate the skill of successfully navigating the workplace into candidate training.

• The best advice Krishna has ever received: a quote from Bill Gates. 

Tweetables:

"It's really exciting. I'm seeing a lot more attention [being paid] to diversity and early talent. We've never seen this level of interest in these topics in the past, so I'm super pumped about that." — @candid_krishna [0:01:23]

"This conference is so exciting because people are now truly starting to think about talent from a long-term, pipeline-building perspective versus a just-in-time, instant-gratification mindset." — @candid_krishna [0:06:34]

"Career development, or lack thereof, is the number one reason for people to leave their jobs and explore other opportunities. So, you want to make sure that the candidates are constantly receiving the support, feedback, and career development to be successful." — @candid_krishna [0:11:20]

"This post-deployment framework, which I think is very unique to this industry, is going to be a game changer." — @candid_krishna [0:12:29]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Krishna Kumar on LinkedIn 

Krishna Kumar on Twitter

Quintrix Solutions

Talent Acquisition Week

Talk Talent to Me

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Companies that place people at the center of their business are more likely to make quality hires and maintain a cohesive work environment. Joining me today to explain how her company puts people first, is the Head of Recruiting at Calendly, Kelly Minella. After explaining Calendly's ease of use and how it has helped simplify the lives of everyone who uses it, Kelly tells me about her professional background and how she ended up in her current role. We discuss how she knew that her CEO cared about prioritizing people, the in-house systems and processes that Calendly is focused on improving, the undeniable wonders of stop, start, continue, and how Kelly and her team have implemented this habit. Kelly expressed the importance of a talent team having a shared understanding, how the introduction of interview training has made Calendly better, why you should always be asking for and reviewing candidate feedback, and the plans that she has for the future of her career.    

Key Points From This Episode:

• A warm welcome to the Head of Recruiting at Calendly, Kelly Minella.

• What Calendly is all about, and how it's helped Kelly in her daily work activities.

• Why Calendly's ease of use has been the key to its success. 

• Kelly's professional background and how she ended up at Calendly. 

• When she first realized that Calendly's CEO really cared about prioritizing people.   

• What's keeping her busy at work these days. 

• The optimization of Calendly's tech stack and improving its hiring partner experience.

• The insight that Calendly's engineering team gained after its systems were codified. 

• The funnel-vision interviews that are needed for turning candidates into potential hires. 

• Exploring the wonders of stop, start, continue, and how Kelly and her team have implemented this habit. 

• How Kelly and her team go about sourcing content and their plans for a company intranet. 

• Why a recruiting team needs to have a shared understanding. 

• How Kelly introduced interview training to maintain a high level of candidate experience.   

• The importance of reviewing candidate feedback. 

• Kelly's vision for the future of her career.  

Tweetables:

"[Calendly] is such a time saver. I can't even remember what it was like trying to schedule time with candidates without it. It is a wonderful product." — Kelly Minella [02:41]

"I applied [to Calendly], and my first conversation was with our CEO, Tope Awotona, and it was fabulous. I remember calling my mom afterwards and being like, 'Mom, that was special'. And the reason why, and why it has remained special, is how much priority he puts on people." — Kelly Minella [06:53]

"The other thing we are focusing on is the hiring partner experience. We want to make sure that we are setting our hiring partners up for success." — Kelly Minella [15:10]

"Interview training has made a huge impact on our quality of hire and the satisfaction of our hiring partners at Calendly." — Kelly Minella [32:06]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Kelly Minella on LinkedIn

Calendly 

Tope Awotona on LinkedIn

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

We're live once again from Talent Acquisition Week, and in this episode, we are joined by Chloé Rada, a Global Talent Acquisition Operations and Talent Attraction Leader. Chloé is here to share some nuggets of wisdom about the talent world with us. Tuning in, you'll hear all about the future plans that she has for her career, the responsibility she places on herself in her role and why listening to people is imperative in the talent acquisition space. Our guest is passionate about data, and today, she shares what kind of data you need for hiring, who can help you access that data, and what her process of creating goals around that data entails. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing our guest, Chloé Rada. 

• What's on Chloé's mind currently, and what is next for her in her career. 

• What Chloé believes her role is as a talent acquisition leader. 

• How she goes about coaching people to interview effectively. 

• How Chloé builds rapport with people by showing them all of her professional layers. 

• The importance of listening and gaining an understanding of a business and its people. 

• Why not fitting into a company is a learning opportunity. 

• The questions she likes to ask during interviews to determine whether candidates are a good fit. 

• Why not having access to labor and market data is disadvantageous.

• The importance of reeducation and training as a talent acquisition leader. 

• Why you have to rely on your partners to help you make use of the right data. 

• How to improve your hiring abilities through benchmarking. 

• Why Chloé always starts with data before creating goals and trying to improve. 

• Chloé leaves us with the best career advice she has ever received. 

Tweetables:

"I think people need to be heard!" — @crada [0:06:17]

"I always try to strive and improve and be my best self and bring my best self wherever I go." — @crada [0:08:12]

"Some organizations are not necessarily resistant to change but they don't know how to see change through." — @crada [0:08:19]

"Always be curious and surround yourself with smart people." — @crada [0:17:23]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Chloé Rada on LinkedIn

Chloé Rada on Twitter

Chloé Rada on Instagram 

Talk Talent to Me

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Speaking live with us on the floor of TA Week Conference is Dana Atherton, the Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Jamf; a company that has set the standard for managing and securing Apple at businesses, schools, and government organizations through its unique software. Dana has a range of experience in human resources, having worked across various sectors such as tech, marketing, retail, and healthcare industries. She combines her knowledge of global recruitment with a deep understanding to cultivate trusted relationships with strategic partners. In our conversation, we unpack what it means to be a true leader, what employees expect in the current climate, and how to remain positive during difficult times. Hear about her overall conference experience, the ultimate question to ask in an interview, breaking down biases in recruitment, the true definition of a hands-on leader, and much more.  

Key Points From This Episode:

• We start by finding out what Dana enjoyed most about the conference.

• The best ice-breaker question she has ever heard.

• Her approach to cultivating personal affirmation.

• Dana recommends a book to help you stay positive.

• How to get to know somebody without knowing anything about them.

• Why honesty and integrity are essential during an interview.

• She shares her experience working at Jamf.

• The core values at Jamf that attracted Dana to work for the company

• Learn about her approach to leading a team and communication.

• Common challenges that she has seen across sectors and businesses. 

• Hear the best career advice that Dana has received.

Tweetables:

"One of the most important things [we have learned] since the pandemic is leading with vulnerability." — Dana Atherton [0:07:50]

"I am the type of leader that is ever going to ask somebody to do something that I am not afraid to do myself too." — Dana Atherton [0:09:44]

"Always keep in mind why you do what you do, and that will propel you and drive you towards your passions." — Dana Atherton [0:17:31]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Dana Atherton on LinkedIn

Jamf

Talk Talent to Me

Hired

Today, we speak to Nancy Connery, the very first VP of HR at Salesforce, where she spearheaded strategic investments in human capital and fueled the company's remarkable growth by building its industry-leading HR infrastructure. After seven years, she left Salesforce to build her boutique human capital consultancy Connery Consulting. From this sprung her latest venture, compensational intelligence company OpenComp, where, in addition to being co-founder, Nancy is the co-host of the OpenComp podcast, High Growth Matters. In this episode of Talk Talent to Me, Nancy sheds some light on the early days of Salesforce and her critical role in recruiting (and retaining) the best talent as the company grew. We also look at her decision to leave her comfortable position as VP to pursue her own path in the industry and gain some insight into her belief that talent retention and upskilling are just as important as hiring, plus so much more. Tune in for a fascinating conversation and some thought-provoking advice from someone with a litany of experience in the human capital space!

Key Points From This Episode:

• How Connery Consulting helped Nancy realize the opportunity for OpenComp.

• A look at the core offering of OpenComp: charting your organization's compensation path.

• Insight into Nancy's career journey, starting with her role as VP of HR at Salesforce.

• The benefits of investing in human capital early on.

• Why recruiting and retaining the best talent is important as you build a company.

• The constant evolution of an organization's talent needs.

• Why retention is equally as important as recruitment and onboarding.

• The value of offering development opportunities and helping your people upskill.

• Nancy's decision to leave Salesforce after seven years to start her own consultancy.

• Advice for making the leap from something comfortable into the unknown.

• Themes that Nancy has recognized when it comes to client challenges.

• Why a high headcount isn't always a positive thing for team leads.

• How the attitude to talent has changed over the past five years.

• Tips for weathering the storm of tech sector layoffs as a leader in the field.

• What to expect if you tune into the High Growth Matters Podcast.

Tweetables:

"As people think about the evolution of their careers, [it's important] to think about [the fact that] you don't need to run everything. What are the core areas where you really shine and can help get the company to the next level?" — Nancy Connery [0:09:22]

"You need to think about employees [in the same manner as customers] as you grow the company, not only recruiting them but also how do you develop them? How do you retain them? Can they grow with the lifecycles and stages of the company?" — Nancy Connery [0:13:34]

"To me, [retention] is equally as important as the recruitment and onboarding piece for companies." — Nancy Connery [0:13:50]

"There's a lot of self-satisfaction and pride in the fact that I made that leap from something that was extremely comfortable to the unknown." — Nancy Connery [0:25:09]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Nancy Connery on LinkedIn

Connery Consulting

OpenComp

High Growth Matters Podcast

Talk Talent to Me

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