How do you build people strategy across 60+ countries without forcing a one-size-fits-all model? Johnny is joined by Janaina Tavares, Global Head of People & Culture at ActionAid, to unpack a bottom-up approach to policy, culture, and wellbeing. They discuss power shifting from Global North to Global South, designing global standards that respect local labour laws, and delivering leadership development on tight budgets—starting with one skill: listening.

It’s a Holiday Special! Johnny is joined by long-suffering business partner Vince for a joyful roundup of the strangest jobs people had before recruiting, from goose wrangler to state-sanctioned beer-drinker. Vince also reveals too much about his B-movie days in Connemara. Grab a mince pie and enjoy!

Are we building hiring tech that helps or harms people? In this episode, Tara Turk-Haynes (Equity Activations) and Jason Pistulka ( StratTech Consulting) join Johnny to explore human-first and equitable AI design. They share real stories of bias, misapplied automation, and inclusive innovation, plus how “assistive intelligence” and process auditing can make hiring more ethical, efficient, and empathetic.

How do you run people tech and analytics at Marriott, a 420k-employee giant operating in ~140 countries with 40 brands?

Tyler Weeks, Managing VP of People Technology, Research & Analytics, shares what really moves the needle: measure time to respond (not just time to fill), use the 80% rule instead of averages, design automation that matches your brand’s tone, and borrow plus/minus “impact” ratings from sports to credit sourcers & coordinators. Smart, usable TA analytics, minus the fluff.

What does a three-person TA Ops team do for a global hiring engine? A lot.

In this episode, Molly Sly, Head of Global TA Enablement at Sage, breaks down how her “small but mighty” team supports ~35 recruiters across 6+ countries—standardizing process, training hiring managers, leveling up tooling, and proving ROI. Hear how Sage lifted average hires per recruiter from 54 to ~71 (with a sustainable target ~61–62), without just “buying more tech.”

What does AI-assisted interviewing look like inside a global enterprise? In this episode, Ilka Sagner-David, Head of Talent Discovery Solutions & Innovations at SAP, shares how her team is exploring interview intelligence to improve feedback quality, speed up hiring decisions, and enhance candidate experience while balancing legal, ethical, and privacy demands. Hear how SAP is setting new standards for transparent, human-centered AI in hiring.

What happens when AI removes the drudgery from recruiting? Live from Talent Connect, LinkedIn’s Hari Srinivasan breaks down Hiring Assistant, from natural-language job search to evidence-based sourcing, explainable matching, and smarter screening that boosts response rates. We dive into trust and security, Teams and ATS integrations, skills-first hiring, and early wins like 70% fewer profiles viewed and 70% higher InMail accept rates. Plus: how leaders can start adopting AI well.

How do you deploy interview intelligence at global scale without hurting candidate experience or adding bias? In this episode, Thoughtworks Global Head of TA Marcus Thorpe shares how his team rolled out recording, transcription, and AI-powered summarization across 19 countries. We dig into the business case (30k hours saved), legal/opt-in concerns, change management, interviewer coaching, and early ROI, plus what he’d do differently next time.

This week, Johnny sits down with Tugba Åkesson, VP and Global Head of Talent Acquisition at IKEA (Ingka Group), to explore how the world’s most iconic home brand builds its people culture through values-based recruitment. Tuba shares how IKEA blends technology with the human touch, why recruiters are seen as guardians of culture, and how their unique onboarding experiences bring values to life in the most authentic way.

In this episode, Johnny sits down with Chris Bleakley of Spire Healthcare and Emma Neary of Priory to explore the complex realities of recruiting in the UK healthcare sector. From staffing shortages and immigration trends to employer branding and RPO partnerships, they share lessons in balancing patient care with workforce stability. A must-listen for anyone facing high-volume, high-impact hiring challenges.