Head of Talent at Axle, Alicia Kortmeyer breaks down the changes she made to the redundant processes when she first arrived at Axle, the importance of operationalizing the hiring process, and the reasons why a company must allow room for mistakes. We end the conversation by trying to figure out if it is indeed possible to avoid involuntary churn. 

 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing our guest, Alicia Kortmeyer, and a brief family history. 
• What she misses most about being home in Kansas.
• Axle as a company: who they are and what they do.
• Logistics as a recession-proof industry. 
• Alicia’s professional background and how she ended up working at Axle.
• How she knew that Axle was the real deal. 
• Thriving in chaos. 
• What her company said about hiring and growth that convinced her to want to succeed. 
• Finding motivation from a relationship between two best friends. 
• The things Alicia put in place to make an impact at Axle when she first arrived.
• Redundant steps in Axle’s interview process that she made changes to.  
• The importance of operationalizing the hiring process and how she was able to do it. 
• Why it’s necessary to allow room for mistakes. 
• Paying more attention to the candidates than the job position. 
• Seeing candidates not just as a transaction but as human beings.  
• Whether there’s a formula to avoiding involuntary churn and if it’s at all possible.  

 

Tweetables:

 

“Logistics isn't going anywhere. We're all Amazon Prime people. We all order things online, especially when the world shut down.” — Alicia Kortmeyer [0:05:22]

 

“I literally love who I work for and what I do. I love my team. I love the people. I'm so lucky to do what I do every single day. It's chaotic. It's crazy. It's never the same.” — Alicia Kortmeyer [0:08:06]

 

“I knew it wouldn't be easy. But who wants easy, right? That's so boring. I thrive in chaos. Even though I pound a bottle of wine often, I wouldn't have it any other way. Water is so boring.” —Alicia Kortmeyer [0:11:07]

 

“I love coming into that chaos, where it's like, ‘You are the smartest person in the room, go take this, and don't mess this up for us’. I love having that pressure under me. I love coming in and making things better and fixing things, and building people around me.” — Alicia Kortmeyer [0:12:33]

 

“I think it's so important to keep getting that feedback from candidates or in the industry, and seeing how we can evolve and how we can change and how we can improve because once you stand still, you're already behind the game.” — Alicia Kortmeyer [0:21:51]

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Alicia Kortmeyer on LinkedIn

Axle

Talk Talent to Me

Hired