What to look for in a Head of Talent

With over a decade of recruiting experience, I’ve hired thousands of people for some of the world’s best companies. With a specialty in high growth tech, I’ve worked with top startups to build out their talent strategies and bring their growth to new heights through hiring the best and brightest. Now, I’m on a mission to bring that knowledge to as many companies as possible, making the hiring experience more human and enjoyable for all.

It’s no secret: the biggest challenge that startups face today is hiring. It’s the most tweeted about, talked about and generally the biggest frustration I run into with my clients. Hiring is time-consuming, pricey (At 15% — 20% a hire with an agency, that can add up!) and it can suck the life out of your senior folks who (let’s be honest) would rather be working vs. sitting in back-to-back interviews, especially when there’s so much to get done. However, the workload won’t slow down and the growth can’t happen unless you focus on hiring. And, in a competitive market, you need to ensure that this important work is not only getting done but that your company is excelling at it. Hiring an awesome Head of Talent can help to position your company as THE one to work for as well as transform your rickshaw of a recruiting system to a hyperloop recruiting machine.

So, what IS a Head of Talent? Fundamentally, this is someone hired not just to pound out messages in LinkedIn recruiter, or to respond to job applications. A true leader in the recruiting space, they know that hiring top performing employees requires more than being super connected or targeting folks with Google or Shopify on their resume. It takes grit, heart, strategy and empathy to attract and hire the best. Building companies with the brightest people takes hard work and a lot of time, and hiring the right talent leader can fast track your journey to getting there. They’re not just a recruiter- they’re a strategic leader.

When it’s time to make this important hire, you have to be strategic yourself. But, how do you recruit that ultimate boss of recruiters? Luckily, I’ve done the work for you and mapped out the top qualities to look for in a Head of Talent. I’ve even included my favourite interview questions to suss out their skills in each area. So, what’s a great talent leader made of?

One of the easiest ways to identify a great talent leader is to figure out if they can effectively tell a story. Being a great storyteller isn’t always an obvious quality and may be hard to assess in the interview process. Things I look for — Do they have a blog? Are they active with speaking engagements? Do they have a following? Are they actively sharing compelling content? Often times it’s said that the best talent leaders are inherently great salespeople. I don’t agree with this. Talent leaders and recruiters alike aren’t selling a product or even a singular experience. They are selling something that goes beyond that. They are selling growth, opportunity, change and impact — how can you do this best? Through storytelling, of course.

Interview Question: Tell me about a book or article that you read recently and why did it resonate with you?

Pay close to attention to how they tell this story. Are you interested? Are they engaging? Did you want to hear more? A good response would be one that has you hooked. Think of it this way — If someone can’t sell a good book they recently read how will they sell someone on jumping ship to join your org?

Being a good listener is a fundamental skill for a junior level recruiter. This is a must-have skill as a Talent Leader [period]. Often times, a recruiter is hiring for roles that aren’t just new to their company, but new to them. The best way to do this effectively? Listen. If you are interviewing with a potential Head of Talent and you find them speaking over you, racing to answer your questions or not answering your questions directly, in the words of Ariana Grande, that’s a “Thank you, next” for me.

Interview question: Tell me about a time when your active listening skills really paid off for you — Maybe a time when other people missed the key idea being expressed?

A good response to this question would be one where the candidate can describe a time when they were able to solve a problem, disagreement or simply better understand where someone was coming from — through active listening.

Heading up talent is no easy task, especially in a high growth startup. People are unpredictable and as a result, any Head of Talent is dealing with the least controllable, ever-changing and evolving piece of your business — your people! That executive hire just reneged on their offer? That new engineer just didn’t show up for their first day? Our whole hiring plan has changed? No problem! A Head of Talent needs to be able to roll with the punches and handle it all with grace.

Interview Question: Tell me about a time when things didn’t go to plan and as a result you had to change your workflow and iterate quickly? How did you handle the shift?

The ideal answer here would be if the candidate could clearly describe the change that took place, the challenge it presented for them and how they went about dealing with it. The response should be solution-centric and show that they were proactive in their approach.

In order to build an effective talent strategy, there needs to be a focus on metrics. Through assessing data you can leverage predictive analytics to understand where your talent strategy is doing well and where it isn’t. Ensuring the talent leader you are hiring knows what to track, where to track and how they intend on sharing it with the executive team is extremely important. A complaint that often comes up from hiring managers is that they simply don’t know what’s going on with their roles. Hiring a talent leader who is savvy with analyzing and sharing data will save you from that disconnect between hiring managers and talent teams in the future.

Interview Question: What are the most important recruiting metrics that you track, How have you tracked and shared that data in a way that’s understandable and actionable for various stakeholders?

This question is simple and the response should be as well. What you are looking for here is a clear answer from the candidate. You may not be an expert in people analytics or recruitment data but their response should be easy to understand for you and should present a great jump off point for more discussion around this topic.

Interview Question: Share a strategic diversity recruiting program you developed to attract and hire diverse candidates? What was the impact of the program?

Again, another simple question. What I look for with this question is a clear and concise breakdown of a program, initiative or strategy they built and the impact it made through its results.

Building a team takes passion, empathy and careful consideration. Hiring a Head of Talent who isn’t only passionate about what they do but enthusiastic about the impact they are making on the company and its people is important. Hire a Head of Talent who will move mountains to get the best people through the door. Your Head of Talent should have heart and a love for where they work because if they don’t — how will they encourage potential candidates to? At Bright + Early we believe the best workplaces strive to achieve their business objectives while building a culture of kindness. To me, this starts with how we hire and who we hire. The best Head of Talent will drive a talent practice packed with heart to ensure everyone through the hiring journey has a noteworthy experience.

Interview Question: Talk to me about your core values that regardless of any situation you stay true to and how do they show up in the work you do?

What I pay attention to here is the candidates' confidence when they share how their core values show up in their work. Do their values resonate with you? Are they compatible with your company values? This is a great question to assess culture add (notice how I didn’t say culture fit?) and compatibility with the role.

You heard it first here folks, a skilled Head of Talent can be one of the most important hires you make- their impact is exponential. Hiring someone with heart, grit, and a strategic bent will give you an edge on the competition and be an incredible boost to your growth.

Happy hiring!

Avery

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