In a rapidly growing company, it’s often a natural instinct to solve your problems by throwing more bodies at them through recruitment. Today’s guest believes that there is a much better way to build and maintain your talent. Tyler Parson is the head of talent at Chili Piper, a series-B startup that does meeting lifecycle automation for sales and revenue teams. Tyler was hired as the company’s first people operations hire and has been instrumental in building the company’s talent. Initially, she was hired to spearhead recruiting, but after expressing her desire to be responsible for the entire employee life cycle, her role evolved. Tuning in today, you’ll hear why Tyler believes strongly that companies should hire a head of people before a head of talent and why it makes sense to combine the role of recruitment with that of employee ops. We discuss the importance of building the headcount plan strategically, instead of just hiring bodies, and why recruitment should not be an order-taking function, but a strategic partnership between talent and leadership. Tyler also explains why companies should do a better job of looking at their existing talent as plastic with the skills and the desires to move into other roles, and how companies can get a better understanding of their employees career ambitions to provide them with a path to grow towards what they love.

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to Tyler Parson and how she became known as the class clown.
• Insight into Chili Piper and Tyler’s role in the company. 
• Why it makes sense to combine the role of recruitment with that of employee ops.
• Why Tyler believes that new companies should hire a head of people before a head of talent.
• The first things Tyler implemented on the people ops side of Chili Piper.  
• The importance of building the headcount plan strategically, instead of just hiring bodies. 
• Why recruitment should not be an order-taking function, but a strategic partnership between talent and leadership. 
• The importance of differentiating between the critical needs and the wants of a role.
• Why companies should do a better job of looking at their existing talent as plastic, both willing and able to fulfill other roles.
• How the Piper Plan Initiative is used to understand their employees’ career ambitions. 
• The intentional conversations had between management and employees around individual development.
• How the Piper Plan Initiative feeds back into the recruiting process.
• How employees are responding to this initiative. 
• Thoughts on what makes a good employee. 
• The importance of providing employees with a path to grow towards what they love. 
• Tyler’s advice to anyone who wants to grow into a more fulfilling role.

 

Tweetables:

 

“Companies choose between hiring a head of people first or a head of talent first. I really fall into the camp where I think that the head of people should come in first. Get your culture locked down, get your impression plans locked down and then hire talent into the function.” — Tyler Parson [0:07:16]

 

“I really believe that if you – you can put all this time and energy into hiring the talent, but if you don’t develop it and enable it and retain it, then you’re spinning your wheels on recruiting.” — Tyler Parson [0:07:42]

 

“What we’re trying to build at Chili Piper, — is creating a culture where if you want something new, you always ask for it internally first and if it’s in the realm of possibilities, if it’s in our growth plan which it probably is, then we try it.” — Tyler Parson [0:16:36]

 

“When you work in a company where people love what they do in a genuine way and you allow other people the path to grow towards what they love, that makes a good employee. I don’t care how many meetings you booked.” — Tyler Parson [0:25:09]

 

“Be brave enough to be honest with yourself about what really does bring you joy and more importantly, be brave enough to identify when it’s not aligned with what you’re doing right then.” — Tyler Parson [0:28:23]

 

“It is just a matter of identifying what brings you joy and start to just insert it into your existing job as much as you can. If you can’t, then maybe it is time to find a new one.” — Tyler Parson [0:28:47]

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Tyler Parson

Chili Piper

Hired

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