We are live on day two of Talent Acquisition Week! And today, for the third time on this podcast, we welcome the VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Talent Management at Leaf Group, Tara Turk-Haynes. Tara has made it her mission to embed DEI into Leaf Group’s talent management strategy, with the hopes that this trend spreads across the entire industry. She explains why this mission is important to her and how she’s gone about it in her current role, as well as why she’s more likely to recruit ‘career changers,’ why the industry should pay more attention to how they market to emerging talent, and why all companies should do their best to accommodate for the post-pandemic concerns of candidates. We then discuss Leaf Group’s new Director of Recruiting Operations, Rhona Barnett-Pierce, paying specific attention to how Tara recruited her on Twitter, why Rhona’s career trajectory ultimately landed her the job, and how her resume stood out from the rest because she highlighted the strengths that she would be using in the role she applied for.  We end with a chat about the current state of DEI and how companies need to do more to tailor their DEI targets according to their own needs, instead of setting them based on law and societal pressures. In 20 minutes, we gained a wealth of knowledge from the remarkable Tara Turk-Haynes, including the best career advice that she’s ever received! 

 

Key Points From This Episode:

 

• For the third time on this podcast, we welcome the VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Talent Management at Leaf Group, Tara Turk-Haynes.

• How Tara is enjoying her second Talent Acquisition Week, and her favorite content so far.  

• What it means to embed DEI into TA practices. 

• Why Tara is focused on recruiting ‘career changers,’ and how she goes about it. 

• What her TA Week panel discussed, and the outcomes thereof. 

• The importance of paying attention to the emerging talent market.

• Why companies need to speak to the post-pandemic concerns of candidates.

• How Tara recruited her new Director of Recruiting Operations, Rhona Barnett-Pierce.

• Why your resume should always highlight your strengths in the position you’re applying for.

• How Rhona’s career trajectory made her the perfect candidate for Tara. 

• What Tara prioritized when starting her current role of VP of DEI and TM.

• How she went about embedding DEI in Leaf Group’s talent management strategy.

• Why companies need to be more deliberate and aware when forming their DEI targets.

• The best career advice that Tara has ever received. 

 

Tweetables:

 

“My mission, and my own personal goal, is to talk about how we [can] embed diversity, equity, and inclusion into our practices, and not making them this separate thing that we talk about alongside talent.” — @ttarahaynes [0:03:36]

 

“You should be grateful to have a job. Even though labor statistics go up and down and sideways and we’re telling all these different data stories, at the end of the day, something has shifted with the pandemic.” — @ttarahaynes [0:07:21]

 

“That’s what people want: What can you pull out of your toolbox to show people that you will be successful at the thing they want to hire you for?” — @ttarahaynes [0:13:50]

 

“If you focus on salary first, you’ll always get a little disappointed. But if you’re happy where you are, if you like the people that you work with, if you feel like you’re learning, then you’re going to grow in so many other areas.” — @ttarahaynes [0:19:35]

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Tara Turk-Haynes on LinkedIn

Tara Turk-Haynes on Twitter

Tara Turk-Haynes on Instagram 

Tara Turk-Haynes on TikTok 

Leaf Group 

Center Theatre Group 

Talent Acquisition Week 

Rhona Barnett-Pierce on LinkedIn

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