Talent All-Stars

Ace Hardware’s hiring strategy is grounded in one core principle: a consistent, transparent experience for every candidate—regardless of outcome.

In this episode, Stef Nikitas, Director of Talent Acquisition at Ace Hardware, outlines how her team developed “The Ace Way of Hiring”—a structured, brand-aligned approach that sets clear expectations for candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters.

She also shares how Ace applies technology thoughtfully across the hiring process, and how her team navigates the complexity of supporting multiple business units under a unified talent strategy.

You’ll learn:

• How Stef’s life changed when she went from team-player to team-leader
• Why a well-delivered rejection can still strengthen your employer brand
• What skill TA leaders need most to stay relevant in a changing world

Connect with Stef on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/snikitas

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app.

Verizon is one of the biggest brands on the planet—but behind the scenes, it’s the people who keep it moving.

In this episode, Steve West—VP and HR Business Partner for Consumer Sales—reflects on his own journey from recruiter to executive and shares his approach to building teams, developing talent, and leading with trust.

Steve also shares:

• How Verizon’s “Culture OS” connects values to decision-making
• What “clear is kind” looks like in action
• Why employee experience and customer experience rise (or fall) together

Connect with Steve on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevewest11/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app.

At Delaware North, recruiting 20,000 employees annually across 200+ unique locations requires more than operational scale—it demands strategic clarity, brand cohesion, and relentless focus on candidate experience.

In this episode of Talent All-Stars, Amy Duncan-Menendez, Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Global Innovation Center, and Laura Murray, Director of Employee Branding and Strategy, reveal how they are transforming one of hospitality’s most complex talent ecosystems. From lodges near national parks to concession stands at major league stadiums, their team is building a centralized talent model that honors local nuance while driving consistency and efficiency.

They pull back the curtain on:

• The centralization strategy that made their recruiting scalable, without becoming rigid
• How they navigate employer branding when their name sits behind someone else’s logo
• Why protecting the candidate experience is non-negotiable—especially when AI and automation enter the picture

Connect with Amy and Laura on LinkedIn:  

Amy Duncan-Menendez - https://www.linkedin.com/in/admenendez

Laura Murray - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-murray-pmp-48641943/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app

When you're hiring cleaners, commercial real estate brokers, and everyone in between—in dozens of countries—your recruiting strategy has to be both scalable and local.

Danielle Kensinger, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Cushman & Wakefield, shares how her team customizes talent acquisition strategies by region, role, and urgency—without losing speed or consistency.

She also shares:

• Why passive candidate outreach is more important than ever
• How recruiter feedback helps her reengineer workflows
• Why “boomerang hires” might be your most underutilized competitive advantage

Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-kensinger-262bb744

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app

What happens when you drop a former agency recruiter into a hypergrowth environment with no budget, no ATS—and 15,000 hires to make?

Joe Leno, Senior Director of Recruiting at Leaf Home, shares the inside story of how he scaled a grassroots recruiting operation into a full-fledged TA engine that powers one of the largest home improvement companies in North America.

In this episode, Joe reveals how he earned a seat at the strategy table, how he leads a team that supports 260+ locations, and what it really takes to scale hiring with consistency and culture.

Joe also shares:

• How to recruit across vastly different markets and geographies
• Why rapport and respect drive cross-department collaboration

The importance of tying investments in recruiting directly to company profitability.

Connect with Joe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-leno-4018a3126/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app

How do you recruit top-tier dentists and hygienists for 1700+ practices—when demand far outweighs supply?

Tyler Micenheimer, SVP of Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning at Heartland Dental, breaks down how his team tackles competitive hiring—matching top talent to the practices where they’ll thrive.

Tyler shares:

• Why Heartland built its own school to solve a talent shortage
• How their in-house scheduling app became a key employee value proposition
• The 2 skills that will define the next generation of TA leaders

Connect with Tyler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylermicenheimer/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app

What if your talent team was the key to unlocking tens of millions in revenue?

At Lockheed Martin, that’s not a hypothetical. John Heyliger, VP of Talent Acquisition & Workforce Transformation, shares how his team recruits high-stakes technical talent at scale—while avoiding costly hiring mistakes and proving their value in terms business leaders appreciate.

John also shares:

• The tactics John’s team used to track down and reach out to a small group of highly specialized satellite engineers
• The four macro trends he sees shaping the future of talent acquisition
• The critical set of questions to ask yourself before launching any candidate search

Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stem-workforce-transformation-data/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on 

How is IKEA keeping voluntary turnover under 23%—in an industry where 40-60% is the norm?

In this episode, Neena Potenza, Chief People Officer at IKEA US, reveals the values-first approach that drives co-worker loyalty, leadership development, and cultural consistency across thousands of frontline and corporate team members.

Neena shares:

• How IKEA turns its values into a felt experience from day one
• The everyday habits that define leadership at IKEA
• The moment Neena forgot to run payroll (and what the reaction revealed about the company’s culture)

Connect with Neena: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neena-potenza/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app

Southwest Airlines has a team of 200 people whose sole responsibility is to source the company’s “secret sauce”: its people.

That team’s leader? Greg Muccio, who started his career as a struggling salesman—before pivoting to agency recruiting and eventually joining Southwest in 2001.  

It took him seven tries to land his first leadership role, but that journey shaped who he is today: humble, focused on team success, and deeply committed to delivering an exceptional candidate experience.

In this conversation with ZipRecruiter president Dave Travers, Greg shares how Southwest sustains its legendary people-first culture at scale—while embracing innovation and preparing for what’s next.

You’ll hear Greg explain:

• Why every candidate interaction is treated like a customer touchpoint
• How he convinced skeptical execs to invest in a “high-tech, high-touch” approach
• The two metrics that prove talent acquisition’s value to C-level leaders

💼Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-muccio/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app.

Most HR leaders want a seat at the table. But what does it take to get there?

As the Chief People Officer at Skillsoft—and a former consultant for brands like Comcast, Johnson & Johnson, and Coca-Cola—Ciara Harrington believes the best CPOs think like business executives first, and HR leaders second.

In this episode, she explains what true transformation looks like, how to overcome resistance when making big changes, and why proving HR’s impact with data is no longer optional.

Ciara also shares:

• The #1 mistake HR leaders make when reporting up to the CEO
• Her thoughts on external hiring vs. internal upskilling in the age of AI
• Why perfectionism is the enemy of progress when leading big transformation

💼Connect with Ciara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciarabarry/

Connect with us:

💻 All Episodes: TalentAllStars.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ziprecruiter/

💼 Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetravers/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziprecruiter

🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ziprecruiter  

Enjoyed this episode? We’d be grateful for a rating or review on your favorite podcast app.