Ep 587: Getting The Basics Right

With so much focus on potentially AI-driven disruptive change and debate about the future, it is sometimes easy to forget that many employers are still struggling to develop and leverage their culture, and some still lack basic standardized processes for talent acquisition and other aspects of the people function. 

Looking at what is happening in start-up and scale-up businesses is always interesting. They build business functions from a blank sheet of paper and often develop interesting new ways of thinking and working.

My guest this week is Roza Szafranek, Founder and CEO at HR Hints. HR Hints acts as the external HR team to over 70 scaling companies. Roza has used this experience to develop the Culturivy method of building organizational cultures and processes, which she has shared in a recent book called Culturivy: The Power of Changing a Workplace. Roza believes employers should address some long-standing issues in TA, such as candidate experience and biased hiring processes. She also has a counterpoint view on the current efficacy of AI in hiring.

In the interview, we discuss:

Building and scaling organizational culture

Managing a burnt-out workforce

Leveraging culture to power engagement

Practices, behaviours, and values

How should companies think about talent?

Strengthening the candidate experience


Building a non-biased recruitment process

Verifying candidates as a good match


Will AI and Automation have the impact we think they will

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