Talking Talent

Episode 10 - Talking Talent with Rob Vinke This week we have Rob Vinke join us on the podcast, bringing some great content and highlighting the pre-judgement culture around age in candidates. We need to shift the biased first impressions, and harness the experience of someone who has had a great career, and use this to help bring another wave of success to the organisation. by harnessing and utili...

Episode 9 - Candid Hospitality Delighted0 this week to have one of our podcast partners, the legends of Candid Hospitality! Co-founder Sam Brown & Head of Community Izzy Schwenn join us this week to talk about Candid, and their journeys in the talent space. Both from different backgrounds, but with a unified mission and passion to make job hunting better, easier and fair for everyone! A really...

Episode 8 - Talking Talent With Jo Knowler Jo has worked at some CV attention grabbing organisations, Lipsy London, LADbible, Supercar Blondie Media Group. Some great names that attract a lot of attention. But does this make it easier to attract talent? To retain talent? Employer branding is more than what the brand is actually known for when it comes to talent. It goes beyond the name, it's thing...

Episode 7 - Working Patterns 4-day working weeks, hybrid working, remote, office work. What's the best? why do organisations inists on one or the other? We deep dive into what is a huge divisive "benefit" and "offering" in the tricky market. Please give us a follow over on Spotify/Apple, TikTok, Instagram & LinkedIn! __________ Sponsored by Harri - The Employee Experience Platform www.harri.co...

Episode 6 - The state of play in TA The TA space is in a pretty dire place currently, with so many fantastic Talent Professionals donning the green LinkedIn banner. Organisations are trimming People teams, especially Recruitment/TA roles in order to combat budget cuts, rise in costs, and restructures. We take a deep dive into some of the problems facing the market, plus personal journey's where Be...

Episode 5 - Talking Talent with Mel Kelly - MK Talent Advisory The world of Recruitment and TA is evolving rapidly as you're probably more than aware, and so many more niche branches are shooting off the overarching TA umbrella. Mel realised this, analysed her strengths, weaknesses, passions and favourite parts of the Recruitment cycle/process, and set up MK Talent Advisory! We discuss how this pr...

Episode 4 - Talking Talent with Holly Hobbs - urfuture.io This week we've had the pleasure of welcoming Holly Hobbs onto the show to share her unique and expert insight to the world of Gen-Z. Gen-Z is more than a tagline blanket word for "young people", it's a generation that are shaping new norms, a generation that are empowered to challenge, grow, demonstrate entrepreneurship and be real trailbl...

Episode 3 - Recfest 2025 We've both wanted to attend Recfest for a number of years, it's the leading TA event in the UK where vendors, guest speakers and Talent professionals gather to learn, collaborate and network. Seemed the perfect place for us to meet friends, colleagues, upskill and plug the pod with our very own merch! We discuss our experience at Recfest, from the scorching temperatures, t...

Welcome to Season 2! This week we jump onto the buzz-line of "Quiet Quitting". What is it? How can it affect company cultures, company morale? Is it because of the company or is it a personal employee thing? We deep dive into this with some different opinions. Please give us a follow over on Spotify/Apple, TikTok, Instagram & LinkedIn! __________ Sponsored by Harri - The Employee Experience Pl...

Welcome to Season 2! We're back, with a slightly refreshed look, format, and merch! We're talking about the case with Workday and it's (mis)use of AI in it's processes and how far is "too far" when it comes to AI? We discuss summer socials with networking (big thanks to Harri & A2H for the invite), and trying to be a social butterfly whilst overcoming anxiety. Please give us a follow over on S...

Welcome to Episode 8 of Talking Talent. This week we discuss all things onboarding. It's a very generic term, and can mean so many different things in different organisations. How far does it go - first few weeks, 90 days, 6 months? So many different methods and approached, but what is certain is that it is critical to get this stage of any recruitment process spot on to ensure engagement of your...

We're Talking Talent with Stuart Hills - Managing Director for UK Operations at COREcruitment! Stuart possesses over 15 years of experience working for a leading recruitment agency, CORE. Stuart started as a consultant and worked his way up, forging some incredible relationships along the way. His ability to not just understand the roles and candidates his clients are looking for, but to take a ge...

Welcome to Episode 7 of Talking Talent. This week we discuss all things retention, however we have a slight variation on our usual episode format, as we have Paul Humphrey, Senior L&D Specialist at Wagamama join us this week, as retention is something he is renowned for, with a fantastic breadth of knowledge across hospitality. Paul talks us through why it's so important, the positive effects...

We're Talking Talent with Claire Clarke - HR/People Director, currently consulting for Cumulocity! Claire is a hugely experienced People Director, with over 20 years working within the hospitality sector. Claire worked her way up the ranks from an HR Assistant through to HRD / People Director. Claire's passionate thoughts regarding "HR" and "People" is what defines her and has made her so successf...

Welcome to Episode 6 of Talking Talent. This week we're discussing the power of Networking. Every Talent professional is aware of the benefits of having a great network, no matter how large of tight-knit it may be. Ben & Dale get very deep and honest in some of the struggles they've faced in certain situations, especially with disabilities and life changing events coming into play and tackling...

We're Talking Talent with Jose Rubio - Head of People at Spacemade! Jose is an experienced People Professional, making that transition from Recruiter to Head of People. He's had a fantastic experience throughout his career, with an incredible ability to self reflect and pinpoint the exact things that make him get out of bed in the morning. His unwavering drive and passion for excellence is unrival...

Welcome to Episode 5 of Talking Talent. How important is candidate experience? We think it is critical for success in talent acquisition and recruitment. In so many different industries candidates are also customers, and if you give them a poor experience, they'll have a negative impression of the organisation and that can spread rapidly, especially with the power of social media too. But why are...

We're Talking Talent with Will Salisbury, HR Business Partner at 2gether Solutions. This week we speak with Will, who isn't a Recruiter, but a HRBP, giving us his take on Recruitment/TA, and it's importance and place within organisations. We dig deep into the differences between Recruitment and Talent Acquisition, the actual definition of the 'business partner' role, and the attitudes and stereoty...

Welcome to Episode 3 of Talking Talent. This week everything is AI. AI is baked into almost everything these days, but what actually is AI? AI at times is just a buzzword, but with software such as Co-Pilot, ChatGPT and similar, it can automate so many "medial" tasks for us recruiters, and streamline efficiencies. The bigger question that comes out of this though however is, how far can we go to u...

We're Talking Talent with Paul James, Sales Director at HJUK. This week we speak with Paul James, who is uniquely placed within the Hospitality sector as the Sales director of job-board Hospitality Jobs UK. Paul gives us his viewpoints on how important job-boards still are in the market, the importance of Recruitment & TA teams to organisations and the cycles that appears to happen more often...

Welcome to Episode 3 of Talking Talent. This week, it's all about workplace environments and working patterns. since covid back in 2020, the Hybrid/work-from-home model was hugely popularised, allowing workers significantly more flexibility in the work/life balance, but also for an organisation to ensure operations continued to run smoothly. However, now covid is behind us, a lot more organisation...

We're Talking Talent with Paul Walsh, Senior Talent Partner for Burger King UK. Paul talks us through his career history, and the transition from agency recruitment where he first started his career, and moving into in-house recruitment. Paul discusses the difficulties, things he learned from agency that he still continues to do today. We also tackle the stigma that seems to still be apparent with...

Welcome to Episode 2 of Talking Talent. This week we discuss the topic of Early Careers, and the effects it can have within the organisation. Dale has an in-depth experience of this in a previous role, so he shares his knowledge and explains the huge impact it has around the attraction and retention piece for an organisation. Please give us a follow over on Spotify, TikTok, Instagram & LinkedI...

Welcome to Episode 1 of Talking Talent. This weeks' episode covers the general term "Talent Acquisition" - What is it? What's the difference between Talent Acquisition & Recruitment? Is it just an alternative job title, or is there a different skillset, and expectation, between the two? Plus, Ben & Dale introduce themselves to you all. Please give us a follow over on Spotify, TikTok, Insta...