Key Things Discussed
The tools that Talentful provides clients ramping up and expanding (much as Talentful itself has been doing throughout its steep-growth startup trajectory).
Why strategy, replicable work, decisions and change are among four key areas  on which to focus when it comes to creating and implementing OKRs.
The data-driven tools Talentful’s state-of-the-art methodology leverages to help clients identify, onboard and retain talent.
How to manage competing demands and balance long-term, proactive startup development standards and priorities against near-term reactionary fire drills.
Show Notes
[00:02:13] Jenny introduces Jem, who shares her journey from teacher to recruiting at a time when Talentful was just launching in London.
[00:04:53] What Talentful brings to the table as a personalized intermediary aligning and optimizing companies’ hiring goals, practices and execution.
[00:06:00] Some of the tools Jem deploys to help clients:
Creating new Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to leverage metrics.
Training/interview prep.
Hiring qualified identified applicants.


[00:07:13] About Jem’s transition into an operational role and engaging Talentful’s employee base through the use of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
[00:08:11] Activity within companies typically fits into one of four buckets:
Strategy.
Replicable work.
Decisions.
Change.


[00:08:48] Jem highlights her areas of focus (strategy and replicable work) and the role that OKRs play in keeping operations on track.
[00:09:53] Standardization of replicable work practices and how OKRs serve as a framework to support the process.
[00:11:38] How “pushing down decision-making where the data  lives” enables teams to make the right decisions when leadership is not in the room.
[00:13:39] What a data-driven approach means in the context of onsite client consulting and aggregating metrics to understand timeline, pipeline and other activity.
[00:14:43] Jem explains outdated versus state-of-the-art hiring practices Talentful has developed to get the right people in the right roles at the right time.
[00:17:38] About the context-driven nature of recruiting – including the nuance of
understanding candidates, contours of individual roles and fit with team cultures.
[00:18:58] Weighing in on talent retention – what it takes and the culture as well as strategies that
Talentful deploys within fluid, often challenging, distributed workplace:
Knowledge sharing: Communication through channels like Slack is candid and supportive.
Heavy emphasis on collaboration over competition


[00:23:29] Jem traces the impacts of a steep growth trajectory and the challenges it has manifested throughout Talentful’s growth and development, including:
Siloing of work across geographies and departments.
Lack of global cultural understanding and shared definitions.
Lack of clearly articulated SOPs.
Time lag in communicating replicable models.
Fragmented data and segmented/overlapping systems.


[00:26:43] Strategies that Jem and the operations team use to advance understanding and move teams cross-departmentally towards OKRs include:
Writing down procedures and making sure everyone is on the same page.
Defining and validating data points.
Using metrics to establish baseline workplace integration and functionality.


[00:30:22] Insights on ramping up new team members quickly and effectively through strategies such as:
Establishing clear, standardized, replicable procedures.
Using tech tools, such as video resources, to optimize and customize training.
Providing data-driven decision points.
Fostering safety and permission to fail.
Deploying seasoned talent to share institutional knowledge with new team members.


[00:33:58] Getting down to startup priorities among competing urgent demands, balancing long-term proactive development against near-term reactionary fires.
[00:36:13] About making judgment calls for “edge case” clients with regard to bending SOPs based on mitigating factors (like revenue, le