The Talent Economy Podcast

In an ever-changing world, the employer-employee relationship is more crucial than ever before. After nearly a year and a half of remote work and video meetings, properly managing employee burnout has become one of the most important factors in corporate success. In this episode, we speak with Mai Ton, Chief People Officer of Kickstarter, about what happens when a company takes the time to listen...

The past 14 months have changed the way we work. And as workplaces grow more flexible, companies can begin to adapt their cultures in creative ways. In this episode, we speak with Kristin Johnson, Chief Human Resources Officer of Fortune 500 company Edward Jones, about what reopening can look like.  Johnson joined the premier financial services firm in 1995 as a member of the internal audit d...

As lack of transparency in the hiring process is becoming a thing of the past, we ask our guest, Austin Belcak, CEO of Cultivated Culture, what this transition to greater openness looks like for both companies and job candidates. Belcak pursued a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wake Forest University and put his minor in entrepreneurship to the test after a harrowing experience working in health...

A healthy, empowering, and people-centered culture is vital for any company to thrive, but leaders must model the company’s culture every day for it to take root. Toptal’s Chief People Officer Michelle Labbe speaks about this with Ana White, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of F5 Networks. Ana White earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a minor in Economics from Seattle...

The COVID-19 pandemic produced what might be the largest workforce disruption since the Great Depression; its effects on the global economy are devastating. Unemployment in some areas hit 30%, which turns the economic crisis into a human resources crisis. Our guest, Christy Pambianchi, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Verizon, explains how her company has transformed r...

Companies have faced many challenges during the pandemic, but the best ones prioritized their employees’ mental and physical health—and were successful as a result. In fact, the only way to maintain a healthy work environment is to make sure staff feels safe, heard, and valued.  Joining Toptal’s Thought Leadership Lead Editor Meredith Bodgas today is Roche Diagnostics’ Bridget Boyle, People a...

The value proposition in the relationship between companies and employees is changing. A company's prestige or pay scale is not at the center anymore; people are. Toptal’s Chief People Officer Michelle Labbe speaks about this with Eric Hutcherson, Executive Vice President, Chief People and Inclusion Officer of Universal Music Group (UMG). Eric Hutcherson earned a bachelor’s degree in political sci...

How would you define the digital transformation of the workplace? Prior to the pandemic, many had begun incorporating some remote work into their schedules, and virtual meeting platforms were helping to keep distributed teams connected; cut to the present day, the transformation has been accelerated, and these practices have become daily standards. Today’s guest,  Amy Loomis, PhD, describes d...

Much of the conversation surrounding the staffing industry and the future of work has been centered on the US and Europe. Today, we speak with Yasmin Kumi, Founder of Africa Foresight Group (AFG), and Rasheeda Seshie, AFG’s Partner and Chief People Officer. AFG is the leading platform for freelance consulting services on the African continent. Over the past three and a half years, the organiz...

When you think about your career, do you think within the context of your current position? If you were to take into account the kind of life that you want and the things that you most value, how would that redefine your definition of success? These are the types of questions that today’s guest, Lisa Hufford—author, founder, and CEO—faced when she became a new mother. Driven by a desire for flexib...

When you think about a talent company, what roles come to mind? More than likely it’s a project manager, software developer, or copywriter. Have you ever thought about remote HR freelancers? Today, we are joined by Emma El-Karout, Founder and Managing Director of One Circle, an online platform connecting businesses with on-demand, freelance HR experts from around the world. One Circle provides bus...

As more teams are settling into their remote work experiences, a number of challenges have surfaced: prolonged workdays, increased time spent in meetings, feelings of loneliness among employees, and frustration from managers struggling to effectively manage their distributed teams. In this episode, we are joined by Shiran Yaroslavsky, CEO and Founder of Cassiopeia, a startup that empowers managers...

“Mobile First” has become the reigning mantra for a number of organizations and platforms, and it was only a matter of time before the staffing industry joined the ranks. Paul’s guest today is Ahmad Kadhim, the head of product at TimeSaved, a platform that provides mobile-first workforce management solutions that help to attract, manage, and deploy a workforce in a timely and effective manner. Ahm...

As the nature of work continues to evolve, more platforms spring up in an effort to tackle the pain points of staffing, for both the talent and the organization. Easing friction in the hiring process is paramount, and Vivek Anand, the founder of Workonomix, has a unique vision for doing so. Anchored in blockchain technology, Workonomix is a verified, portable worker passport that reduces friction...

There are currently five generations in the workforce, with millennials representing almost 30% of new managers. It’s no secret that younger generations tend to disrupt the status quo, and while this new group of leaders has certainly shaken things up, being so misunderstood upon entering the workforce led to a number of widely held mischaracterizations of their work ethic. Today, Paul speaks with...

The future of work is here and it’s redefining how and where teams collaborate. In this episode, Paul speaks with Mariano Suarez-Battan, co-founder and CEO at MURAL, a visual collaboration workspace for modern teams. Mariano, a three-time co-founder and an inventor by trade, is on a mission to inspire, enhance, and connect imagination workers so they can collaborate and problem solve, building wha...

What if the secret to your organization’s success existed outside of the organization? Hackster.io is a testament to this, having used top freelance talent to achieve exponential growth. Hackster, an Avnet community, is the world's fastest-growing developer community for learning, programming, and building hardware. Arthur Beavis, an award-winning marketing professional and Hackster’s CMO and...

Have you ever thought about an organization as a living entity? Think about it. Much like our bodies’ organizations, as Parker Lee describes, are “living, breathing networks with integrated holistic systems that will thrive in a networked fashion” and can build the necessary defenses to fight off any type of invasion or, in their case, innovation—making it challenging to enact even the slightest c...

The best products are those built to address and solve a problem. Amir Salihefendić did just that in his college dorm 13 years ago. He built a simple task management app to help him stay organized. That app would eventually become Todoist, one of the world’s most popular to-do list apps with nearly 25 million users. Salihefendić, Founder and CEO of Doist, leads a fully distributed team of more tha...

We talked with Dr. Jonathan Wright about the diagnostic and economic challenges that need to be overcome before patients can fully take advantage of the benefits of telemedicine. Learn more about Dr. Wright’s practice and research, or connect with him on Twitter: Dr. Wright, University of Washington, Dept of Urology UW Medicine, Dr. Jonathan Wright Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Dr. Jonathan Wright...

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a very small percentage of marketing, advertising, and PR agencies were engaging with the talent economy—most operated primarily with their in-house teams. The pandemic forced an immediate workforce transition and has collectively challenged the world’s views on where and how work can be done. However, imagine having insight into the benefits of contingent work 10 y...

If you could design your best life, what would it entail? Are there aspects of your personal life that you feel, if addressed professionally, would create greater harmony in your life? For example, how many of you have creative outlets that are completely removed from your professional lives? What would it mean to have an organization consider the totality of your talents and not just those that p...

“Think outside the box” is a famous adage. Yet many of us—as we advance in our education and begin to specialize in our careers—begin thinking more within the boxes defined by our areas of expertise. While our specialties are important and necessary, they can often create blind spots. It turns out that the majority of the problems faced by large organizations are solved by people outside of the or...

With suddenly remote educational institutions being in the spotlight recently, why has employee learning and development (L&D) gone under the radar? Many companies offer L&D resources to their teams—it’s among the top benefits discussed during the interview process. With the sudden shift to remote working, Paul welcomes Keith Keating for a conversation about how L&D has been impacted d...

When did you first realize the benefits of remote work? Were you hearing requests from your employees for more flexibility around their work? Was it talent-driven? Did you realize that requiring employees to be on-site was limiting your ability to attract top talent? For those of you who are still on the fence about remote work, what’s still giving you pause? Iwo Szapar is a remote work advocate a...