Talk Talent To Me

Starring recruiting leadership from everywhere under the talent acquisition sun, Talk Talent To Me is a fast-paced rough-and-tumble tour through the strategies, metrics, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. Brought to you by your pals at LHH.

Talk Talent To Me is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 424 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts Talk Talent To Me, a business show with 424 episodes published.

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  Talk Talent To Me

  Where Is Tech Talent in 2026? CBRE's Scoring Tech Talent Report with Colin Yasukochi

  Sep 29, 202630 min

  Rob welcomes back Colin Yasukochi, Executive Director of CBRE's Tech Insight Center, to walk through CBRE's annual Scoring Tech Talent report. Covering 50 markets and millions of data points, the report is the definitive map of where tech talent lives, moves, and works. This year's findings are striking: remote job postings in San Francisco have collapsed from 24% to 7%, New York has overtaken the Bay Area as the largest tech talent market in the US for the first time, and AI is simultaneously responsible for the biggest boom and the biggest cut in tech talent in recent history. Colin explains what is behind each of those headlines, which emerging markets are worth watching and why, and what it actually means to find tech talent when 60% of them don't work for tech companies at all. Key takeaways Remote work is effectively over for AI companies. Tech talent is defined by what you do, not where you work. 60% of tech talent works outside the tech industry entirely. New York overtook the Bay Area as the largest US tech talent market in 2026, driven by finance sector investment in AI while Bay Area headcounts contracted. AI talent grew 45% year over year to 751,000, while AI-attributed job cuts hit 102,000, or 22.9% of all cuts. Emerging markets like Huntsville, Halifax, Colorado Springs, and Dayton are rising for specific reasons tied to local industry, not just cost or population. The 15 most VC-funded AI companies grew their combined workforce from 7,500 in 2020 to 56,000 today. The AI hiring boom is real, even if it runs alongside the cuts. Links: Colin on LinkedIn LHH Recruitment Solutions A Beautiful Working World A Soundbeam Studios Production

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  Talk Talent To Me

  Building a Quality of Hire Algorithm with Zapier's Tracy St. Dic

  Sep 23, 202643 min

  Tracy St. Dic, Global Head of Talent at Zapier, built a quality of hire algorithm from scratch. What it yielded helped them measure their ability to get better at hiring over time, but it also taught them the five durable traits that actually predict top performance, why credentials are a weak proxy for ability, and Zapier's four-component AI fluency framework that every single candidate is now evaluated against. If you want a masterclass in what a modern, rigorous, data-backed talent strategy looks like, this is the episode. Key takeaways Ability is equally distributed but opportunity is not. Credentials are a weak proxy for whether someone can actually do the job. Zapier's quality of hire algorithm tracked new hires across their entire first year and found the same five traits consistently predicted top performance: navigating ambiguity, proactive ownership, stakeholder communication, cross-functional collaboration, and fast on-ramp. Slope not snapshot. How fast someone is learning matters more than what they know on day one. Zapier measures this even within the hiring process itself. Manager and employee alignment on performance is more predictive of success than the actual performance rating. Misalignment is the real red flag, not a low score. Zapier's AI fluency framework has four components: mindset, strategy, builder skills, and accountability. 100% of candidates must meet a minimum threshold before an offer can go through. Not upskilling your team in AI fluency is management malpractice. TA leaders own this responsibility for their own teams, not just the broader org. Links: Tracy on LinkedIn LHH Recruitment Solutions A Beautiful Working World A Soundbeam Studios Production

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  Talk Talent To Me

  Inside the CHRO Role with Takkion's Marie Wardenski

  Aug 28, 202624 min

  Show Notes: Rob goes in-person for this one, recording live at Takkion HQ in Denver with CHRO Marie Wardenski. Takkion is a major player in clean energy with around 2,000 employees, 85% of whom are traveling wind technicians who never have the option to work from home, which makes the people function both critical and complex. Marie brings 20 years of HR experience across higher education, chemical distribution, oil and gas, and now renewables, and she has a lot to say about how HR earns its seat at the table, why the "policy police" reputation existed and how it gets dismantled, and what it actually takes to ascend to a CHRO role. This one is grounded, candid, and full of practical wisdom for anyone trying to build a career in people leadership. Key Takeaways: HR metrics only land with senior leadership when they are already framed in terms of business goals, not HR goals The policy police reputation was earned, and dismantling it requires HR to be proactive, not reactive, and visibly tied to strategic outcomes If you have a computer problem, you call IT. If you have a people problem, you call HR. Every problem is ultimately a people problem Being in office requires just as much intentionality as being remote. Physical proximity does not automatically create collaboration Business acumen is not optional for senior HR leaders. You will need to build it deliberately outside of your day-to-day work Understand the business you are in. HR can work in any industry, but the leaders who rise are the ones who become genuine thought partners to operations, not just subject matter experts in their own function Links: Marie on LinkedIn LHH Recruitment Solutions A Beautiful Working World A Soundbeam Studios Production

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  Talk Talent To Me

  Insatiable Curiosity & Talent Transformation with Selena Yuan

  Aug 25, 202627 min

  Selena is the Executive Director and Global Head of Talent Management at Cytokinetics, and brings a global perspective shaped by her upbringing in Beijing, a career that has wound through consulting, M&A integration at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, and culture transformation at Gilead. The conversation covers how to lead people through business transformation rather than just announce it, why 360 feedback only works when the recipient is ready to receive it, the architect versus contractor framework for thinking about senior leadership, and why HR needs to stop defending legacy processes and start asking harder questions about whether they still work. This one is for HR and talent leaders who want to think more provocatively about the function and their own role in it. Key Takeaways 360 feedback only works when the recipient is genuinely ready to receive it. Rolling it out org-wide without a readiness check is a waste of everyone's time. Feedback meant to vent and feedback meant to help are not the same thing and should not be weighed the same way. The architect sets the vision and the blueprint. The contractor executes the room. Organizations in transformation need leaders who can hold both, not just one. The 70-20-10 learning model says 70% of development happens on the job, yet most L&D budgets still go to the 10% classroom training bucket. Ask why before defending it. Links Selena on LinkedIn LHH Recruitment Solutions A Beautiful Working World A Soundbeam Studios Production

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  Talk Talent To Me

  33,000 Applications and Counting: Navigating the AI Hiring Surge with Katie Rakusin of Merit America

  Jul 29, 202632 min

  Katie Rakusin, Director of Talent Acquisition at Merit America. has seen the AI hiring surge hit in real time: 33,000 applications in five months, 10,000 in May alone, and yes, the bots have officially arrived. The conversation covers how her team is restructuring its entire hiring process around the assumption that candidates are using AI, why stopping bot detection might actually be the smarter move, and how a real four-day work week gets built and protected at scale. Katie also makes a strong case for why human judgment should be the last thing you automate, and what early-career TA pros need to hear about staying relevant in a market that keeps changing underneath them. Katie on LinkedIn LHH Recruitment Solutions A Beautiful Working World A Soundbeam Studios Production Key takeaways Stop trying to detect AI in applications. The detective work is exhausting, biased, and misses great candidates It's not "did you use AI?" It's "can you defend and own what's on the page?" AI can surface and prioritize candidates, but a human must make every decision on whether someone moves forward. Surfacing is not the same as deciding. A four-day work week only works if leadership actually models it. Write your rubric before you turn on any AI screening tool, or you will just be scaling your existing biases across thousands of candidates.

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