Largely Speaking: Exploring Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding in the Cannabis Industry with David Belsky

In this episode of the Largely Speaking podcast, host Justin Schmidt converses with David Belsky, the founder of FlowerHire, a talent acquisition firm focusing on the emerging legal cannabis industry. They discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in recruiting for cannabis-related businesses and the complexities of launching a business in a novel industry with ever-changing regulations. David provides insight into how talent acquisition and employer branding must consider cultural nuances in different markets and states due to the legal stipulations surrounding the cannabis industry. He also emphasizes the importance of skills-based hiring, given the industry is relatively new. The conversation also touches on the emerging technology and services catering to the cannabis industry.

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:30 Exploring the Unique Challenges of Talent Acquisition in the Cannabis Industry
01:37 The Journey to Founding Flower Hire
03:15 The Role and Services of Flower Hire
04:23 Key Metrics in Talent Acquisition
06:43 The Impact of Cannabis Industry's Unique Culture on Recruitment
07:51 The Evolution and Future of the Cannabis Industry
10:57 Challenges and Opportunities in Cannabis Industry Recruitment
14:56 Advice for Talent Acquisition Professionals
21:53 Predictions for the Cannabis Industry
28:16 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

FlowerHire
David Belsky

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Allison McCutcheon Barcz

Andrew Lewis is a Talent Acquisition professional who has combined his experience on the in-house and agency sides over the last ten-plus years to become a well-rounded talent leader and thought leader.

Andrew shares his experiences with a growing social media following where he helps talent acquisition teams and individuals on their job search. 

We cover the following:

• What in-house and agency talent teams can learn from each other.
• The importance of a personal brand.
• How to create pathways to communication with candidates.

Allison joins us to discuss the importance of personal brand and creating connections with candidates.

Links

Andrew Lewis on LinkedIn
The A Method of Hiring

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Allison McCutcheon Barcz

In this episode of 'Hired and Inspired', host Justin Schmidt talks with Maddie Nguyen, the founder of Talent Drop.

They discuss the various metrics, strategies, and trends that define talent acquisition, candidate experience, and employer branding.

Maddie shares her career path, which has included stints in politics and law, but ultimately led her to major tech companies like Instacart, Snap, Uber, and Facebook before starting her talent acquisition tech company.

They touched upon key issues surrounding talent acquisition, such as measuring success, salary transparency and its impact on recruitment, and the importance of adopting a more humanized, responsive, and efficient approach in the recruitment process.

Allison then joined the conversation to speak a little further about the impact of salary transparency in TA and the brilliance of RICFIO.

Madeleine Nguyen

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Allison McCutcheon Barcz

Brendan Orf is the VP of Talent and People at Relyance AI, which is a platform reimagining what data protection means in a globalized, technology-driven world. Relyance is shifting the entire landscape of data protection technology through automation and machine learning. 

Before his work at Relyance, Brendan held various Talent Acquisition leadership roles at leading tech companies. 

Brendan has built a TA team from the ground up several times and has learned some valuable lessons. In this episode, we cover everything from building custom reporting to normalizing recruiter effectiveness across various requisition loads to how to position yourself for further career growth. We also cover how Brendan recommends TA teams leverage AI to achieve their goals.

We cover the following:

• How to build a Recruiter Efficiency score.
• The perils of focusing on InMail acceptance rate.
• How to leverage AI in recruiting.

Allison then joins the show to discuss how she approaches managing different recruiting targets across an organization and offers her advice on climbing the career ladder in talent acquisition.

Links

Brendan Orf on LinkedIn
Relyance AI
Work Rules by Laszlo Bock

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Allison McCutcheon Barcz

Kylie Denk manages the employer brand of Index Exchange, a global advertising marketplace. Before Index Exchange, she worked in various marketing and recruiting roles. 

This episode is an excellent introduction to the world of employer branding. It covers various topics that will spark conversation inside any talent acquisition, recruitment marketing, or employer branding team.

We cover the following:

• How the concept of employer branding has evolved in the United States.
• The advantages of having your employer brand team sit within marketing vs talent acquisition and vice versa.
• How marketing data and best practices influence exceptional employer branding.
• The way employer branding is a window into the culture for candidates.

Allison joins us to discuss the pros and cons of having an employer brand team sit within marketing vs. talent acquisition and the beauty of being able to fail.

Links

Kylie Denk on LinkedIn
Index Exchange
The Book of Joy

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Allison McCutcheon Barcz

Dr. Jim is EngageRocket's VP of Growth for North America. He's spent much of his career in a startup or accelerating growth-stage organizations in the TA and HRTech spaces. Jim's doctoral research on employee retention and turnover and his experience building high-performing teams in TA offer a unique perspective for the HR community. He's helped build new markets and launch new products throughout his career and is passionate about delivering transformative solutions. 

He likes to say he has 15 jobs that aren't far from the truth. In addition to being the VP of Growth for EngageRocket, he's a board member and GTM advisor for Mattingly Solutions, a DEIB consultancy. Additionally, he is the co-host of The HR Impact Show by EngageRocket and the co-host of the Cascading Leadership Show.  

In his free time, he's usually wrangling "The Meatheads Three" (his sons) while trying to discover new and innovative ways to annoy his wife (this is mainly unsuccessful since she's immune). He likes to say he's a runner, but it's more of shuffling about rather than running. He's working on running a half marathon in each of the 48 continental states. 

In this episode, we covered a wide range of helpful insights:

• The importance of measuring submission to interview.
• The dark side of inbox zero and the mentality that gets us there.
• How to better position jobs for achieving true DEIB in your organization.

Then Allison McCutcheon Barcz joins Justin to discuss how recruiters can set themselves up for success by creating a brief with the hiring manger and how to avoid the pitfalls of restrictive college degree requirements in your recs.

Links

You can find Jim Kanichirayil on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjimk/
EngageRocket's website is https://www.engagerocket.co/
Customers for Life by Chris Sewell and Paul Brown https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/164457/customers-for-life-by-carl-sewell-and-paul-b-brown/

Largely Speaking (formerly known as Hired and Inspired) is presented by Largely. Visit largely.com to find out how you can bring meaningful touchpoints that drive results in your talent acquisition and internal communications processes.

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Allison McCutcheon Barcz

Chris Reed firmly believes that recruiting and talent is ultimately a people business. We agree. This interview was inspirational and full of great reminders of why talent acquisition is so important.

In this episode, we covered a wide range of helpful insights:

• Setting goals further in the talent journey can set you up for better long-term success.
• Stay focused on what matters and not the top funnel activity just for the sake of activity.
• Understanding motivators and how you can connect to those motivators.

Then Allison McCutcheon Barcz joins Justin to discuss how to tie the employee review cycle to recruiting and the proper ways to use automation in the talent acquisition process.

Links

You can find Chris Reed on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisreedstl/
Benson Hill's website is https://bensonhill.com/
How Not to Die by Michael Greger https://nutritionfacts.org/book/how-not-to-die/

Hired and Inspired is presented by Largely. Visit largely.com to find out how you can bring meaningful touchpoints that drive results in your talent acquisition and internal communications processes.

Largely Links
Largely.com
Largely on LinkedIn
Allison McCutcheon Barcz