In this episode of the HigherHer podcast, Natalie Stones speaks with Katrina Hutchinson O'Neill, co-founder of Join Talent, about her inspiring journey from a successful corporate career to entrepreneurship. Katrina shares her experiences in talent acquisition, the challenges she faced as a female leader, and her vision for the future of Join Talent, including their innovative training programs. The conversation also touches on the evolving landscape of recruitment and the importance of supporting women in the workforce.

Chapters:

00:00

Introduction to Talent Collective and Guest

02:18

Katrina's Career Journey and Entrepreneurial Leap

10:02

Growth and Future Plans for Join Talent

15:03

Controversial Perspectives on Recruitment

18:42

Challenges as a Female Leader in Talent Acquisition

Bio:

In 2018, Katrina turned her back on her well-paid corporate career to start her own business. “As a mother-of-three, and the main breadwinner, it was a risky move,” she says. “But I didn’t want to look back and think, ‘What if?’”

4 years later Join Talent was named the fastest growing company in the UK (first female founded business to take that title), 12th fastest in Europe, and also won the King's Award for Enterprise.

Join Talent now employs over 225 people across 41 countries, working on talent acquisition inside companies including scale-ups, unicorns and Fortune 500 brands. She says the company’s USPs are its ‘practitioner-led’ model and proprietary talent-sourcing platform called Yoke, an active directory of candidates pulled from 53 different sources: “We’re the only company in our space with this game-changing capability.”

TA is Still NOT Broken blog