Recruiting teams earn influence when they understand what the business is trying to build.

Mike Bettley, VP of Talent Acquisition at StackAdapt, joins Shannon to share how he rebuilt a TA function that was stretched, fragmented, and operating without a clear hiring plan. Before changing systems or metrics, Mike focused on the team’s confidence. He created space for honest feedback, reset expectations, and helped recruiters move from asking for permission to making informed recommendations.

Mike also explains how his team became more involved in workforce planning, compensation conversations, and FP&A partnership as StackAdapt scaled from 170 to 1,800 people. He shares why every intake should start with the business problem, how recruiters can challenge unrealistic profiles, and where AI can support better planning before a role ever reaches TA.

Key takeaways:

1. Start with business needs: Define what the role must accomplish before writing the job description.
2. Context beats pedigree: A great background does not always match the company’s current stage.
3. Alignment prevents drift: Shared definitions help interviewers evaluate candidates against the same bar.
4. Process builds confidence: Strong hiring systems reduce overreliance on back channels and outside validation.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:35) Meet Mike Bettley

(01:30) Why recruiter confidence drives business impact

(03:33) Rebuilding a fragmented talent acquisition team

(06:11) Creating trust through vulnerability and transparency

(11:00) Earning hiring manager trust across the organization

(12:00) Shifting from job descriptions to business problems

(15:30) Teaching stakeholders what great TA partnership looks like

(18:30) Fixing operational bottlenecks through TA Ops investment

(21:00) Lessons learned from launching recruiting KPIs

(24:00) Measuring success through consistency and hiring quality

(28:00) Using AI to improve hiring planning and intake processes

(30:05) Where to connect with Mike

Hiring senior leaders on gut feel is a risk most companies cannot afford.

Cristina Navarro, Senior Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Tubi, joins Shannon to discuss why traditional interview formats fail at the executive level and how her team built a structured leadership assessment to close that gap. She explains how the process was co-created with senior leadership, why prompt design matters, and how thorough prep on both sides of the table leads to better decisions.

Cristina also walks through how debrief structure protects against groupthink, how candidate feedback from the process informs onboarding strategy, and why the goal was never to add friction but to give everyone involved more confidence in one of the most consequential hiring decisions a company can make.

Key takeaways:

1. Co-creation drives adoption: When senior leaders help build the assessment, buy-in follows naturally once results come in.
2. Prompt design is the foundation: A role-specific, well-scoped prompt is what separates a meaningful assessment from a generic exercise.
3. Debrief order changes outcomes: Hearing from the most senior voices last protects the room from influence bias before a final decision is made.
4. Recruiting data shapes onboarding: Themes that surface during the assessment can directly inform how a new executive is set up from day one.

Timestamps: 

(00:43) Meet Cristina Navarro

(02:08) Why executive hiring carries more risk than any other level

(03:49) What Tubi does differently in senior leader hiring

(05:20) How the leadership assessment was built and who was involved

(07:14) Preparing both candidates and interviewers for the assessment

(10:25) Why no new faces in the room is an intentional design choice

(11:42) How debriefs are structured to reach a confident hiring decision

(12:55) What candidates say after going through the process

(15:37) Plans to expand the assessment beyond VP-level roles

(17:07) Using recruiting findings to inform executive onboarding

(19:25) Where to connect with Cristina

Hiring managers need better support, not more documents.

Kyle Gatlin, Head of Talent at Arrive, joins Shannon to discuss how his team built an AI hiring agent to guide managers through the recruiting process across 70 countries. Drawing from his background in education and talent operations, Kyle explains why accessibility, structured interviewing, and candidate experience became the foundation of the project.

Kyle shares how his team turned a 15-page hiring philosophy into a scalable internal tool, partnered with engineering and AI leaders to launch it globally, and improved hiring consistency without removing the human side of recruiting. 

This episode also covered why strong recruiting teams should challenge inefficient processes and help hiring managers make more confident decisions.

Key takeaways:

1. Structured hiring creates confidence: Clear interview goals help teams make faster and more accurate decisions.
2. AI improves accessibility: Hiring managers are more likely to ask questions when support feels immediate and judgment-free.
3. Small launches scale faster: Starting with one focused AI use case made adoption easier across the business.
4. Candidate experience reflects operations: Organized internal processes create stronger candidate trust and engagement.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Meet Kyle Gatlin

(02:00) Why AI agents matter in recruiting

(05:00) Turning recruiting philosophy into an AI tool

(09:20) Building structured interviews and intentional hiring steps

(14:11) Partnering with engineering and AI teams internally

(18:10) How AI supports recruiters instead of replacing them

(21:13) Testing tone, accessibility, and hiring manager adoption

(25:44) Are recruiters spending more time with other activities?

(27:00) Better candidate experiences through process design

(32:34) Where to connect with Kyle

Early hiring gets expensive fast when founders skip alignment.

Cassie Chao Leemans, VP of Talent at Craft Ventures, joins Shannon to share how early-stage teams can make stronger hiring decisions before scale adds complexity. She explains why pedigree can distract founders from what the business actually needs, how unclear expectations create mis-hires, and why every new role should connect back to company goals.

Cassie also shares how to define competencies, build trust in the interview process, and help recruiters move from order-takers to strategic partners.

Key takeaways:

1. Start with business needs: Define what the role must accomplish before writing the job description.
2. Context beats pedigree: A great background does not always match the company’s current stage.
3. Alignment prevents drift: Shared definitions help interviewers evaluate candidates against the same bar.
4. Process builds confidence: Strong hiring systems reduce overreliance on back channels and outside validation.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:43) Meet Cassie Chao Leemans

(02:06) Why founder alignment matters early

(06:09) Connecting hiring plans to business goals

(11:09) Preparing recruiting teams before scale hits

(13:29) Why great hiring takes longer than founders expect

(16:41) How hiring needs change as companies grow

(20:38) Defining what success looks like in a role

(25:10) Aligning interviewers on values and competencies

(27:58) What happens when hiring alignment breaks

(33:20) Where to connect with Cassie

Talent and people teams have more shared work than most companies realize.

Asha Beirne, Senior Manager of People Operations and Systems at Rula, joins Shannon to discuss how recruiting and people ops can work together across the employee lifecycle. Drawing from her move from recruiting operations into people operations, Asha shares what talent teams often miss when they do not have visibility into turnover data, engagement scores, onboarding feedback, and workforce trends.

Asha explains how Rula built stronger feedback loops through biweekly meetings, shared data reviews, and clearer guardrails around sensitive information. She also shares how her team improved onboarding communications, raised new hire survey scores, and began using AI to reduce manual work while creating more consistent employee experiences.

Key takeaways:

1. Data improves alignment: People ops insights can help recruiting teams forecast capacity, understand attrition patterns, and support stronger hiring decisions.
2. Guardrails build trust: Aggregate data, clear confidentiality norms, and thoughtful sharing help teams learn without overcorrecting.
3. Onboarding needs continuity: A better handoff from offer acceptance to start date can improve the new hire experience quickly.
4. Relationships come first: Regular conversations between talent and people teams create space to solve issues before they become bigger problems.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:43) Meet Asha Beirne

(01:44) Why People and Talent teams need stronger partnerships

(03:00) The People Ops data recruiters should advocate for

(05:29) Using early turnover to improve hiring conversations

(06:37) Forecasting attrition with a fuller People Ops picture

(08:39) Closing the gap between offer acceptance and onboarding

(10:12) Creating a regular operating rhythm between Talent and People Ops

(12:34) Using AI to reduce workload and create space for partnership

(15:33) Balancing compliance, speed, and candidate experience

(17:00) Connecting performance data to quality of hire

(20:41) Where to connect with Asha

Candidate experience is one of the few levers you can fully control in hiring.

Greg Marsh, Head of Recruiting at Sierra, joins Shannon to share how his team scaled from 25 to 600 employees while building a candidate experience that consistently stands out. He explains how Sierra approaches candidate obsession, why small moments like personalization matter more than big gestures, and how recruiting becomes a true partner to the business during rapid growth.

Greg walks through how his team operationalizes these ideas with simple systems, measures impact through candidate feedback, and builds a culture where every interviewer owns the experience. He also shares how AI fits into recruiting today and where human connection still makes the difference.

Key takeaways:

1. Candidate experience wins offers: A strong, consistent experience can outperform higher compensation offers.
2. Small details scale impact: Simple personalization creates meaningful candidate connections at scale.
3. Recruiting is a team sport: Interviewers and hiring managers shape the experience as much as recruiters.
4. Invest early in recruiting: Companies that prioritize recruiting early move faster and hire better.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:15) Meet Greg Marsh

(02:18) Why candidate experience matters in a competitive market

(04:00) Applying hospitality principles to recruiting

(05:30) Personalization through small candidate moments

(08:00) Balancing intensity and family in company culture

(12:30) Scaling candidate experience with simple systems

(16:30) Measuring candidate experience and NPS

(18:30) Why great candidates become your best referral source

(20:45) Adapting candidate experience across global teams

(22:43) Where to connect with Greg

Skills-based hiring only works when teams can consistently define, assess, and develop the right skills.

Alessandra Pegnim, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Udemy, joins Shannon to share how her team built a more practical approach to skills-based hiring. She explains how Udemy validates skills with managers, identifies patterns of top performers, and uses structured interviews to make hiring decisions more predictive.

Alessandra also discusses how this work extends beyond hiring. She walks through training interviewers with AI role-play, widens the talent pool beyond traditional backgrounds, and uses onboarding to close skill gaps early so new hires can ramp faster.

Key takeaways:

1. Start with top performers: Analyze what your best employees do differently and build hiring criteria from those patterns.
2. Validate skills with data: Combine internal insights with external benchmarks to confirm what actually predicts success.
3. Train for consistency: Use rubrics and practice sessions, so interviewers know what strong answers sound like.
4. Hire for mobility: Track skills beyond hiring to unlock internal moves and reduce the need for external hiring.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:54) Meet Alessandra Pegnim

(02:25) Why skills-based hiring matters right now

(04:04) What skills-based hiring actually looks like

(04:58) Building job descriptions around validated skills

(05:57) Three steps for skills-based hiring

(07:57) How to validate skills for hiring

(09:48) Turning skills into structured interview rubrics

(12:21) Training interviewers with AI role play

(16:33) Widening the talent pool through skills-first hiring

(18:19) How skills visibility supports internal mobility

(19:54) Adding AI proficiency to hiring criteria

(21:31) Using onboarding to close skill gaps faster

(22:32) Where to connect with Alessandra

Equity can be the difference between losing your best candidates and closing them.

Hannah Spellmeyer, Chief People Officer at Slingshot Aerospace, joins Shannon to break down how recruiters can confidently sell equity and compete with larger companies. She shares what most teams get wrong, the key numbers every recruiter should know, and how to position equity based on what candidates actually care about.

Hannah walks through how to make equity tangible, from explaining intrinsic value to using real market signals, such as secondary offers. She also explains how to enable teams with simple tools and stories so recruiters can speak with clarity and build trust in every offer conversation. 

Key takeaways:

1. Know the core numbers: Understand strike price, preferred price, and intrinsic value before every offer conversation.
2. Lead with candidate motives: Tailor equity positioning based on whether a candidate values upside or stability.
3. Make equity tangible: Use calculators and real examples to turn abstract value into something candidates can grasp.
4. Practice builds confidence: Role play and shared examples help recruiters speak clearly without overpromising.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:52) Meet Hannah Spellmeyer

(01:39) Why recruiting teams need to get good at selling equity

(04:55) The key inputs recruiters must know to close

(06:49) When to share equity details with candidates

(08:58) Handling “equity is fake money” objections

(11:49) How secondary markets create early liquidity

(13:22) Using equity calculators to enable teams

(17:52) What great equity selling unlocks for hiring teams

(21:09) Advice for recruiters

(23:10) Where to connect with Hannah

Hiring is changing quickly as AI tools reshape how teams build products and how companies evaluate talent.

Jonathan Durnford-Smith, Head of Talent at Synthesia, joins Shannon to discuss why recruiting teams must become more agile and strategic. He shares lessons from scaling talent functions at high-growth companies and explains how AI tooling is shifting what great engineers look like today. Instead of focusing only on coding execution, his team now prioritizes product sense, customer empathy, and strong problem definition.

Jonathan explains how Synthesia redesigned its engineering interview process, resulting in a hiring approach that adapts more quickly while maintaining a high bar for talent.

Key takeaways:

1. Redefine engineering excellence: Evaluate engineers on product thinking and customer empathy, not only coding execution.
2. Encourage AI collaboration: Allow candidates to use AI coding tools during interviews to better reflect real work environments.
3. Define roles before hiring: Spend time clarifying the real problem the role must solve before sourcing candidates.
4. Challenge hiring assumptions: Talent teams should question role definitions and push back when something feels misaligned.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:48) Meet Jonathan Durnford-Smith

(01:48) Why agility matters in recruiting during the AI era

(05:03) How AI is changing engineering hiring

(06:00) Why product sense matters more than coding execution

(07:24) Redesigning engineering interviews around real business problems

(09:14) Why engineers must be comfortable using AI tools

(11:36) The signal great engineers show early in interviews

(13:52) The culture principle that enables agility

(16:30) Aligning hiring with company strategy and leadership bets

(17:29) Why recruiters must push back on hiring decisions

(20:25) Why hiring processes should be revisited every six months

(24:29) Where to connect with Jonathan

Great hiring outcomes start with great interviewers.

Vanessa Paladini, Global Talent Acquisition Director at Nubank, joins Shannon to share how the world’s largest digital bank outside of Asia raised its hiring bar without slowing down growth. She walks through Nubank’s four workstreams, including structured assessments, technical bar raisers, and a data-backed interviewer scorecard.

Vanessa broke down how her team measured interviewer assertiveness, linked decisions to 90-day ramp and 12-month performance, and reduced the interviewer pool to improve their skills. 

Key takeaways:

1. Data builds credibility: Linking interview feedback to long-term performance helps TA influence the business.
2. Use AI thoughtfully: Evaluate how candidates use AI tools during exercises instead of prohibiting them.
3. Measure assertiveness: Track interviewer decisions against ramp time, retention, and performance data.
4. Hiring is collective: Moving accountability beyond recruiters creates stronger business partnership.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(01:03) Meet Vanessa Paladini

(01:40)   Three pillars of Nubank's Hiring Talent bar

(03:15) Four workstreams to raise the talent bar

(06:15)  Why companies should invest more on interviewer quality

(08:19) Building and measuring interviewer scorecards

(11:19) Defining the traits of a good interviewer

(14:40)  Who has access to the Scorecards?

(17:30)  Additional learnings from the Scorecard program

(20:53)  How the Scorecard data is expected to impact conversions

(23:44) Where to connect with Vanessa