The End of CoEs and the Rise of Total Talent

In this episode, Edan Haddock takes on one of HR’s most established models… the Centre of Excellence.

As technology accelerates and AI begins to take on more of the work traditionally owned by HR, Edan explores what this means for the structure of People functions. From the slow decline of HR Operations, to the identity crisis facing People Partnering, and the quiet disappearance of standalone OD… nothing is off limits.

The big question: if those pillars start to fall, what rises in their place?

Edan makes the case for Talent stepping into the spotlight… not just as hiring, but as the core operating system for workforce strategy, experience, and capability.

This isn’t about HR being broken.
 It’s about whether it evolves… or gets left behind.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

In this episode, Edan Haddock dives into one of the most heated debates in modern work: return-to-office, hybrid, and working from home.

Rather than taking sides in the location debate, Edan argues that the entire conversation is missing the real issue.

The problem isn’t where people work.

It’s how we measure work.

Edan explores why he has always believed in Work/Life Integration rather than Work/Life Balance, why rigid return-to-office mandates risk pushing organisations backwards, and why measuring productivity through time at a desk is one of the most outdated ideas in modern leadership.

He also looks at emerging discussions around potential legislation in Victoria supporting two days of working from home, and what this could mean for organisations that have enforced strict office mandates.

The future of work, Edan argues, isn’t about location.

It’s about outcomes, trust, and designing work in ways that fit real life.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

In this episode, Edan Haddock explores a difficult but necessary conversation for HR and Talent teams: bias inside our own profession.

HR spends a lot of time helping leaders understand bias in hiring, promotion and performance decisions. But the deeper question is rarely asked.

What bias exists inside HR itself?

Edan explores the different types of bias that appear in Talent Acquisition and People teams, including affinity bias, confirmation bias and the subtle ways “culture fit” can influence decisions. He also looks at how bias shapes leadership pipelines inside HR functions, and why even the most experienced HR leaders are not immune.

Drawing on real examples and practical thinking, Edan discusses how strong HR teams actively manage bias through structured hiring, evidence-based evaluation, diverse decision making and greater self-awareness.

The episode also explores the role of AI and augmented teams, and why technology alone will never eliminate bias from human systems.

This episode was inspired by a listener request and is a reminder that managing bias is not about perfection.

It is about awareness, accountability and better decision making over time.

If you work in HR, Talent Acquisition or people leadership, this is a conversation worth having.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

In this episode, Edan challenges one of the biggest assumptions in Talent Acquisition: that more automation means less humanity.

After years of digitising applications, scorecards and reference checks to survive scale, AI is now removing the manual admin that justified those systems in the first place. If the work disappears, what’s left for recruiters?

Using reference checks as the anchor, Edan explores whether AI could actually bring back conversation, judgement and network-driven hiring - and asks a bigger question: what deserves to be human again?

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

In this episode, Edan pulls apart the engagement survey playbook and asks a tough question: is it driving performance, or just collecting complaints?

As engagement increasingly moves into Talent functions, Edan explains why this shift matters and why Talent teams are uniquely positioned to turn engagement from a reactive survey into a predictive, strategic lever. He dives into the structural flaws of traditional models - fragmented action plans, unclear impact, weak data integration - and challenges the culture of venting without accountability.

Introducing the idea of Predictive Engagement, Edan outlines how organisations can align engagement to strategy, integrate it with performance and retention data, and build real predictive capability. 

This isn’t about happiness scores. It’s about performance, ownership, and Workforce 5.0 thinking.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

In this episode, Edan Haddock shares his perspective on the growing culture of audits, rankings, and public critique within the Talent industry. He explores how this trend can create fear, discourage experimentation, and push organisations toward safe, bland approaches rather than authentic ones.

Edan argues that there is no universal best practice in Talent, only what is real and true for your organisation. He encourages leaders to listen to their people and candidates, embrace experimentation, and have the courage to build something authentic. Because ultimately, Talent is not built by critics, it’s built by creators.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

In this episode of the Total Talent Podcast, host Edan Haddock dives into the future of Talent in Australia and why our HR industry is leading the global transformation. From the electric energy of ATC at Fed Square to the reflective strategic depth of Ashton Media’s HR Retreat at Cape Schanck, Edan explores how homegrown events are shaping a new era in workforce design.

He takes listeners behind the scenes of augmented Talent teams where Humans and AI agents (including his digital colleague, Joel) work together to create stronger candidate experiences, meaningful culture, smarter workforce planning, and more human connection.

Australia and New Zealand are not following global trends, we’re defining them. This is a bold conversation about community, innovation, and why HR here is more advanced, more values-driven, and more future-focused than the world realises.

If you care about the future of work — belonging, wellbeing, digital capability and what truly makes organisations thrive, this episode is unmissable.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

AI-generated résumés. Voice-cloned interviews. Dark-web fraud rings plotting to infiltrate your payroll. Sounds like a cyber-thriller, right?

This episode of Edan Haddock – Total Talent rips the mask off the panic narrative and calls out the fearmongering. Candidate fraud isn’t new, and organisations with strong hiring fundamentals already shut most of it down without breaking a sweat.

Edan argues that obsessing over AI-assisted deception distracts Talent teams from the real mission: leading the shift to Workplace 5.0, building smart governance, levelling up AI literacy, and designing hiring experiences where authenticity wins every time.

Instead of playing talent police, we need to play talent pioneers.

If you’re ready to turn down the fear, crank up the strategy, and rock a future where humans + tech = unstoppable, this one is for you.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

Edan Haddock dives deep into the messy reality of boundaries in modern Talent work. From 24/7 LinkedIn messages to global-time-zone burnout, he calls out the culture of constant availability - and offers raw, practical ways to protect your energy, your creativity, and your career. A sharp, honest, rock-and-roll reminder that doing meaningful work starts with respecting your own limits.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛

In this episode of Edan Haddock – Total Talent, Edan Haddock takes Talent teams behind the curtain on how to research, design, and select a Talent Tech Stack that actually works.

Forget the glossy vendor pitches and consultant playbooks — Edan lays down practical, no-nonsense tips that cut through the noise. He unpacks why every stack should start with the HRIS, how to test platforms through a total talent lens, and why teams should be cautious of “open API” promises and modular upsell traps.

Listeners will also hear how to negotiate like a headliner by using PR as leverage, why short-term contracts are smarter than five-year anchors, and why going live with an MVP beats chasing perfection.

Edan delivers it all with the trademark rock-and-roll edge of Total Talent — bold, clear, and built for Talent pros who want tech that amplifies strategy rather than slows it down.

🎙️ 30 Days. 30 Episodes. One Mission.

This November, Edan Haddock - Total Talent is taking on its biggest challenge yet.

30 consecutive days. 30 brand-new podcast episodes. 
1 goal: raising funds for Movember and helping change the face of men's health.

No sponsors. No shortcuts. Just honest conversations and a community coming together for something bigger than a podcast.

The countdown has begun.

If you believe in better conversations, better workplaces and better outcomes for men's health, I'd love your support.

🎧 Follow the podcast. Share the campaign. Donate if you can. Every action helps.

👉 Donate now: https://au.movember.com/mospace/15366090

Let's make this the biggest month in the history of Edan Haddock - Total Talent. Together, we can help change the face of men's health. 💛