Matthew Daniel is a Principal of Talent Strategy & Mobility at Guild Education, and an experienced talent strategist. With deep research and practical experience in career mobility and talent strategy,  Matthew has extensive experience in understanding the importance of career mobility and what career pathways can do to unleash the potential and create economic opportunity for professionals. In his work at Guild Education, he leads a research team that works each day in thinking about how they can find more ways to help their clients create better career outcomes through career pathways and development.

During our conversation, Matthew spoke about his perspective on the current state of career mobility, the progress that has been made, as well as the challenges that lie ahead. He also shared some of his examples of where he’s seen companies who have made strategic investments in talent strategy and career mobility that have led to greater business outcomes, and offered some thoughts on how we collectively can embrace new thinking on career mobility to create better opportunities for our talent.

Links

• Matthew’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjdaniel/ 
• Matthew’s Articles: https://www.talentmgt.com/articles/2022/10/11/its-time-to-treat-internal-talent-like-campus-hires/
• Guild Education Website:  https://www.guildeducation.com/

Larry McAlister is a Talent Transformation Strategist and the Author of the upcoming book: The Power to Transform: A field guide to build a human-centered, tech enabled work culture. As a former talent leader at organizations including NetApp and Equinox, Larry has a demonstrated track record of helping organizations transform their business through an investment in technology and talent. As the Founder of the Consultancy The Corporate Humanist, Larry spends his time advising People and HR Executives on talent transformation challenges, and how they can use tech and talent to create human-first organizations.

During our conversation, Larry spoke about some of his experiences building successful talent strategies inside organizations, and also shared some of his insights from his latest book.

Links:

• Larry’s Book: https://www.larrymcalisterbook.com/ 
• Larrys’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrymcalister/

Jim Conti is an experienced talent and people leader, and is currently a Talent Partner for Hyde Park Venture Partners, a Venture Capital Firm based in Chicago, Illinois. In his role as a Talent Partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners, Jim partners with emerging startups at the earliest stages to consult on various talent, people and hr strategies so these early stage companies can set the foundation for success and growth as they scale their organization.

During the conversation, Jim spoke about his journey from working in house in talent and people roles to working across numerous companies within a venture firm as well some of the common talent and people related opportunities that early stage startups face. We also had an expansive discussion around current challenges with attracting and retaining talent in today’s economic conditions, the opportunity to think more strategically and expansively around talent retention and mobility, and some of Jim’s thoughts on the future of talent within the current economy. 

Jim Conti

Talent Partner 

Hyde Park Venture Partners

https://www.linkedin.com/in/contijc/

https://www.hydeparkvp.com/

Fresia Jackson is a Lead Researcher For Culture Amp, an employee experience software company that helps organizations capture and use data to create impactful employee experiences.

With over 6000 clients, Culture Amp has a significant data set that gives them a unique set of perspectives on the state of the workplace, employee experience, and what is and isn’t working between the relationship of organizations, managers and employees.

During our conversation, Fresia spoke about some of the current trends and insights she and her team at Culture Amp are seeing on what’s going on in the workplace right now, as well as some overall thoughts on company culture. We also spoke in depth about some their latest research based insights including:

• The importance of why you should let your high performers rest and recharge
• Why career development is so critical to employee engagement and retention
• Why the statement “people leave managers not companies” is not entirely true

Links

• Fresia Jackson’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fresiajackson/ 
• Culture Amp: https://www.cultureamp.com 
• Culture First Podcast: https://www.cultureamp.com/podcast/stories-for-a-better-world-of-work 

Salesforce, the CRM software company has long been an innovator in technology, but it’s also a pioneer when it comes to looking for, hiring, and developing diverse talent into its company. 

In this episode, we spoke to Jennifer Stredler, VP of Untapped Talent at Salesforce. Jennifer has extensive experience working in workforce development, leads many of the efforts at Salesforce to identify diverse talent, bring them in the door, and provide opportunities for them within the organization in meaningful and impactful roles. 

During our conversation, Jennifer spoke about the Untapped Talent team she leads at Salesforce, and some of their programs and initiatives they run within their organization, as well as sharing with us some of the ways in which she and her team have helped galvanize the rest of the organization to embrace new and different ways of hiring and providing more opportunities to individuals of different and diverse backgrounds.

Links

• Salesforce Untapped Talent: https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/how-salesforce-is-opening-the-doors-of-opportunity-for-untapped-talent/
• Jennifer Stredler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-stredler-341bbb80/ 

Ann Parker is the Associate Director of Talent Consortiums for the Association For Talent Development (ATD). ATD is a professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees around the world. Talent, and attracting, developing and retaining it, has become front and center to helping organization’s thrive in today’s world of work, and ATD’s members are on the front lines of this.

During our conversation, Ann spoke about some of the key trends and observations she’s seeing and hearing from her work with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking talent development leaders. We also spoke about the role that talent development plays in organization’s today, how leaders are navigating the short and long term goals and strategies for learning, and how ATD is helping talent development leaders build a better future of work.

Links:

• ATD Website: https://www.td.org/ 
• Ann Parker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-parker-280313a/
• ATD Forum: https://atd-forum.td.org/
• CTDO Next: https://ctdonext.td.org/ 

Thomas Brunskill is the CEO of Forage, a technology and recruiting platform that provides free and accessible education and opportunities to connect with employers and to learn about potential fields, functions and roles. Currently, they work with employers like Lululemon, Wal-Mart, Bank of America and Visa, and are expanding rapidly across the globe.

Forage works with companies to design digital learning experiences about job and internship opportunities, what it’s like to work at the company, and educational insights into fields and functions to allow students to gain access to more information and exploration.
During our conversation, Thomas spoke about how his own work experience inspired him to come up with the idea for Forage, and how Forage and its platform are promoting more inclusive and equitable opportunities for early in career talent to explore career paths and roles.

Links

• Forage’s Website: https://www.theforage.com/
• Thomas Brunskill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tombrunskill/

Nancy Soni is the CEO at Pathmatch, a talent marketplace that helps students explore and identify potential career paths and then matches them with employers for internships and full-time job opportunities. Her inspiration for building Pathmatch comes from her own experience navigating career choices when she was in college, as well as after working for almost 2 decades in the corporate recruiting and hiring space.

During this interview we covered:

• What is Pathmatch, and how it’s providing a new approach to helping early career talent explore careers and internships
• How the current way of hiring college students is outdated, and how Pathmatch is better serving students and employers
• How Pathmatch is bypassing traditional routes to students, and using technology to meet them where they are
• What’s next for Pathmatch and their plan for creating career mobility and opportunities for more students

You Might Enjoy This Episode If

• You are trying to recruit college students and early career talent
• You work in career education and are looking for new and different ways to help your students explore career paths
• You are interested in how technology can improve the career exploration process

Links

• Web: https://www.pathmatch.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysoni/

Aki Ito is a reporter and columnist with Insider. Aki writes and covers issues that are topical and timely around workplace and careers, and has written about a number of workplace trends that have picked up in the modern media around topics including the great resignation and quiet quitting.

During our conversation, Aki spoke about some of her thoughts on the workplace, and we delved in depth into evaluating the topic of “our relationship with work” as well as what is changing, and what is new about today’s state of the workplace.  

Links

• Web: https://www.businessinsider.com/author/aki-ito 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itoaki/

Raffi Salama is the Co-Founder of PassionFruit, a talent marketplace that connects fast-growing companies with independent talent and freelance workers. 

While talent and freelance marketplaces are not new, their acceptance and usage is growing, and PassionFruit takes a unique approach as many of their independent workers are younger professionals. In addition to matching freelance talent to opportunities, PassionFruit also provides a community and wrap-around services to their freelancers to ensure they have the skills, support, and guidance they need to thrive as independent professionals. 

During our conversation, we spoke about the reasons for building a talent marketplace, the evolution of the workplace from the working world of the Victorian era to the modern day workplace, and the opportunities that exist for employers and independent workers through the use of independent and freelance talent. We also spoke about some of the biggest challenges companies face with hiring more freelance talent, and what PassionFruit is focused on to scale their ambitions and business.

• Website: https://www.usepassionfruit.com/