The Talent Economy Podcast

Adobe, the software company responsible for PDFs and Photoshop, is regularly listed among the best places to work and is considered a top employer when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion. One of the people responsible for fostering this culture is Brian Miller, Adobe’s Chief Talent, Diversity & Inclusion Officer. Miller joined Adobe after serving as Chief People Officer of Impossible...

How does the country’s largest supermarket chain manage more than 400,000 employees across the country? Tim Massa, Senior VP and Chief People Officer of Kroger, dives into the company’s comprehensive programs for employee engagement, such as diversity training, environmental volunteer opportunities, and leadership conferences. Tim Massa has more than 30 years of HR experience—20 of it with Procter...

Zoom meetings have become the norm for hybrid, remote, and in-office environments, defining a monumental shift in how and where work gets done. Jodi Rabinowitz, Head of Talent and Organizational Development at Zoom Video Communications, talks about how the company maintained its cohesive work culture during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Zoom has helped companies stay connected even as the very na...

It’s all fun and games and work at Amazon Games—thanks to their Chief of Staff, Liz Egol. The video game company maintains employee satisfaction by weaving gaming throughout its culture, and it makes an impact, as Egol’s onboarding efforts boast a 78% satisfaction rate. She began her career with Amazon in 2007, then joined Amazon Games in 2020. Egol wields empathy, authenticity, and flexibility to...

Chief People Officer of theSkimm, Lisa Dallenbach, reverses the old-time narrative of the high-pressure newsroom. In this episode, Dallenbach shares how theSkimm supports its employees by addressing obstacles, both personal and professional. By offering programs such as the respected “Sacred Hour” and providing tutoring services for employees’ children, theSkimm works to cultivate and champion a h...

Wholesale retailers, such as BJ’s, proved crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did the pandemic attract customers, but it also necessitated the hiring of new employees and the need to retain current ones. Mark Griffin, Chief Human Resources Officer of BJ’s Wholesale Club, discusses the ways in which the company retains and grows its employee base and maintains customer loyalty. Griffin a...

How can large organizations retain their talent and offer upward mobility to their diverse employee pool? Tanya E. Spencer, Chief Diversity Officer for GE Gas Power, describes how GE creates opportunity and fosters inclusivity to meet the changing, and sometimes unpredictable, future of work.  Read more: (Toptal link shortener to Staffing show notes) Some Questions Asked: What is the value of...

The soul of flexible workplace culture is trust, says Catherine Moy, Chief People Officer of BDO, one of the nation’s leading professional services firms. Some Questions Asked: How did your education and experience with accounting prepare you to lead people? (5:37) How has your flexible strategy impacted your ability to attract talent? (20:45) What should people teach their children about the futu...

How does an international communications firm ensure employee well-being in times of extreme uncertainty? Patti Clarke, Global Chief Talent Officer of Havas Group, speaks with Michelle Labbe, Toptal’s Chief People Officer, about rising anxiety levels among workers and how companies can help. Some Questions Asked: At almost 200 years old, how does Havas continue to evolve? ( 2:25 ) What have you se...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all sectors to change, but perhaps none has been affected more than healthcare. To keep employees motivated, Cardinal Health, one of the country’s largest healthcare companies,  established a sense of belonging by creating a culture of transparency and communication. This led to a robust hybrid work environment, cohesive company mergers, and an increase in ret...

The past two years have been the most challenging in recent memory for the hospitality and travel industries. Hyatt Hotels Corporation has met these challenges by prioritizing employee well-being and focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this episode, we speak with CHRO Malaika Myers about how Hyatt’s mission to care for guests starts with caring for employees, and how the company is lo...

For many CTOs and directors of engineering, building scalable and successful software engineering teams can be difficult, due in large part to competing pressures and responsibilities. In addition to managing growing teams, they are tasked with keeping an eye on overall business objectives and navigating the pressures of their leadership roles—overcoming technical challenges, motivating the teams,...

The COVID-19 pandemic not only brought about sweeping changes to the way we work, but it also offered crucial insights into what employees truly want and need from their employers. In this episode, we speak with Tracy Layney, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of iconic apparel company Levi Strauss & Co., about the adjustments the company has made since the pandemic when i...

Big companies have often treated efforts to build a cohesive corporate culture as an afterthought. More recently, however, and particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders like Angela Santone, Senior Executive Vice President of Human Resources for AT&T, have begun to realize that cultivating a positive environment is integral to maintaining a dedicated workforce. Santone says...

For those of us who continue to work remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve come to enjoy the flexibility that comes from it. But for many of us, there’s also a flip side: seemingly endless Zoom calls, lack of socializing, and an all-around feeling of burnout. In this episode, we speak with Scott Domann, Chief People Officer of Calm, the software company behind one of the leading min...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced massive changes to many aspects of our everyday lives, but few things were affected more than the way we shop for and obtain our food. In this episode, we speak with Mike Theilmann, CHRO of food and drug retailer Albertsons Companies, about how COVID-19 encouraged the company to work toward greater efficiency and spend more energy retaining and engaging their employees...

We’re currently experiencing a massive shift in the goals and philosophies of corporate culture. More and more, organizations are providing resources for their employees not only to improve their work experience, but also to improve their lives as a whole.  In this episode, we speak with three members of Diageo, the multinational alcoholic beverage corporation that represents renowned brands...

The last year and a half has caused massive changes in all of our lives, both personal and professional. What if a company decided not only to embrace those changes, but also to use them as a catalyst for large-scale evolution in the way we work and in the way we think about work? In this episode, we speak with Leena Nair, the first female, the first Asian individual, and the youngest ever Chief H...

With ever-evolving goals in an always-changing corporate world, it can be difficult for a traditional HR approach to keep up . Employing strategies that revolve around numbers and data has allowed one company to stay at the top of its game, even in the face of an unpredictable work environment. In this episode, we speak with Melissa Werneck, Global Chief People Officer of The Kraft Heinz Company,...

Many employers understand that their employees are the key to making their businesses successful. Yet, once those workers move on, companies typically don’t keep in contact with them. Should they? In this episode, we speak with Kim Seymour, Chief People Officer of WW International Inc. (formerly Weight Watchers) and Jeff Wald, an angel investor, entrepreneur, and bestselling author, about the valu...

As companies work to eliminate bias from their recruiting processes, some are turning to artificial intelligence to help them build a more inclusive workforce. In this episode, we speak with Suzan Morno-Wade, CHRO of Xerox, about how AI—coupled with an emphasis on building human connection—is helping the iconic company hire the best talent.   Morno-Wade has been the CHRO of Xerox since 2...

As technology continues to evolve, so must the way we learn and work. In this episode, we speak with Dan Domenech, CHRO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Financial Services, about integrating virtual reality into employee training, and how the immersive experience optimized the learning process. Domenech has almost three decades of experience holding HR leadership positions at several Fortune 500 comp...

The year 2020 offered innumerable lessons about our individual communities and even society as a whole . As we begin to wind down from a tumultuous year, many corporations are looking to their workforce to see what they can do to elevate them. In this episode, we speak with DJ Casto, Executive Vice President and CHRO of Synchrony, one of the nation’s premier consumer financial services companies ,...

Over the past year and a half, there have been seismic shifts in the workplace as we know it. Through these massive changes, many aspects of corporate culture have been reevaluated. In this episode, we speak with Donna Morris, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of Walmart Inc., about how people are the company’s most important asset and the ways she’s working toward building a bette...

The prospect of hiring new employees and growing a team that not only works well as a unit, but also fosters a productive, creative, and healthy work environment is a daunting one. In this episode, we speak with Steven Tristan Young, Chief Marketing Officer of Poshmark, about why it’s so important to hire individuals who elevate his team.  At Poshmark, the leading US social commerce platform,...