After many years of being seen as tactical, TA has the unique opportunity to reposition itself as a strategic function with insights to shape business strategy. However, this will only happen with a significant degree of transformation, and those TA teams that stick to doing what they have always done are at risk of further downsizing or being automated away altogether.
So, what do TA Leaders need to do to harness the current forces of change and reinvent their function
My guest this week is Lyndsey Taylor, head of Global Talent Attraction at Brooks Automation. Lyndsey has a wealth of experience in TA transformation, strategic workforce planning, and driving change. She shares her perspectives on the future of TA, the rise of strategic workforce planning, and breaking down traditional HR silos.
In the Interview, we discuss:
• How the work of TA is changing and the forces driving that change
• How can TA influence business outcomes?
• Aligning metrics to business goals
• Internal mobility and reskilling
• What role can TA play in Strategic Workforce Planning
• How to be more strategic
• What does AI make possible
• Enhancing the candidate experience
• Reducing bias
• Breaking the silos in HR
• What should TA look like in 3 years time?
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Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
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Matt Alder [00:01:40]:
Hi there. Welcome to episode 656 of Recruiting Future with me, Matt Alder. After many years of being seen as tactical, TA has a unique opportunity to reposition itself as a strategic function with insights to shape business strategy. However, this will only happen with a significant degree of transformation and those TA teams that stick to doing what they’ve always done are at risk of further downsizing or being automated away altogether. So what do TA leaders need to do to harness the current forces of change and reinvent their function? My guest this week is Lyndsey Taylor, Head of Global Talent Attraction at Brooks Automation. Lyndsey has a wealth of experience in TA transformation, strategic workforce planning and driving change. In our conversation, she shares her perspectives on the future of ta, the rise of strategic workforce planning and breaking down traditional HR silos.
Matt Alder [00:02:44]:
Hi Lyndsey and welcome to the podcast.
Lyndsey Taylor [00:02:47]:
Hi Matt. Thank you for having me. It’s an absolute pleasure to be here.
Matt Alder [00:02:51]:
And it’s a pleasure to have you on the show and be talking to you. Could you just introduce yourself and tell everyone what you do?
Lyndsey Taylor [00:02:59]:
Of course. So my name is Lyndsey Taylor and I am head of Global Talent Attraction here at Brooks Automation. Now we deliberately call it attraction and not acquisition. We believe it’s more than just acquiring talent, but I’m responsible for global ta, global onboarding, global mobility and HR transformation.
Matt Alder [00:03:23]:
Fantastic stuff. Now, before I press record, we just had a very long conversation about TA transformation, which I wish I’d recorded, but start off by talking about that. So I’m sure lots of the people listening are either going through a TA transformation or will go through a TA transformation in the coming weeks and months. Does TA need to transform and what does it need to transform itself into? What are your thoughts?
Lyndsey Taylor [00:03:49]:
I do believe, Matt, that TA needs to transform. And I believe as a function, we are very good at adapting and being agile enough to transform. And we have been doing as a function for many, many years now. But the nature of the work is rapidly changing due to globalization, remote work, and we can’t avoid the topic of any technological advancement. So AI, which does require a much more adaptive and responsive TA function. And you know, again, forever trying to move away from that transactional role of putting bottoms into seats, which is not ta. I’m sorry, it really isn’t. And moving into being more of that strategic business partner to really influence business outcomes and aligning those talent strategies with the organizational goals. But I do feel we have been doing that for a long time. It’s just something that’s the. It’s the nature of the beast of TA that we’re forever having to adapt to grow with the needs of the business.
Matt Alder [00:05:08]:
No, absolutely. And it’s something that gets said a lot in terms of, you know, TA needs to align itself with the business objectives and those kind of things. How does that actually happen in practice?
Lyndsey Taylor [00:05:19]:
It takes time. That would be the first thing I would say. I know in TA we’re very driven by metrics and governed by data and outcomes, but actually a lot of this is about not just seeing what we’re going to do, but doing it. I know that it’s a cliche when we talk about TE or HR should be at the table with business leaders, but it’s true. And that’s one of the important turning points for just HR in general, where you’re contributing to discussions about whether it’s future workforce needs or the skills that we have today versus the skills we need in the future. And how are we going to bridge that gap and how are we going to help shape the business strategy through insights into whether it be talent trends or labor market dynamics. And then I would say turning it into reality is what I’m finding. This is my 24th year in TA, and I’m finding that agility is most definitely essential so that TA teams can quickly pivot and respond to those changing priorities. Where we are leveraging technology to scale efficiently where we are focusing on measurable outcomes. And look, you can never get away from your time to fail and your quality of hire, but rather than, I would say, those traditional satisfaction metrics. And then as we are implementing more and more AI and analytics, not only to streamline processes, but to provide more predictive insights about the future, future talent needs. And so you’re moving beyond just external hiring. And that’s where. And I’m very privileged in my role at Brooks, where it does involve more than just ta. So it’s including internal mobility, the reskilling, the workforce planning. It’s all part of an integrated talent strategy.
Matt Alder [00:07:27]:
There’s so much to unpack there. There’s lots of, lots of things I want to ask you much more about. But let’s start with that last bit, that bit about strategic workforce planning, because I know it’s something that you, you know, you have in your current job had in your previous role as well. Why is it that so many organizations don’t do that or don’t have that as a function? And what can TA do to fix this? Or what role can TA play where strategic workforce planning is a function?
Lyndsey Taylor [00:07:54]:
I think that the answer to your first question is fear. Because the moment you hear the phrase strategic anything where workforce planning’s concerned. I’ve seen a lot of companies over the last 15 years bringing out an Excel spreadsheet. So toes start to curl, organizations start to prioritize immediate needs over strategic foresight. And a lot of organizations focus on filling positions quickly rather than thinking about the future workforce requirements. There’s also the lack of tools. Right. So a lot of companies will lack either advanced analytical tools or analytics tools. Sorry, Matt. Needed to help project future talent needs or the talent internally to help interpret that data effectively. And I would say there’s often a resistance to adopting strategic workforce planning because it does require a shift from, from the today, the next quarter, this year to much more proactive thinking, which can be a significant cultural change. And then there’s a disconnect between the functions. So you tend to find people saying, well, I own it. I’m finance. Someone says, well, we own it. We are hr. It’s all about the people. And you have business operations saying, well, it’s us. And so this leads to quite fragmented ownership and execution. To your next question, what can TA do to fix this? As a TA leader, it’s about advocating for workforce planning, whether it’s strategic or just critical workforce planning and helping to showcase its value and how that aligns with those business goals. So that is about TA leaders stepping up and demonstrating how workforce planning, planning can prevent talent shortages and align those workforce capabilities with your business needs. And again, there’s lots of tools out there. There’s workforce analytics platforms that can really help make life a lot easier and get away from this. Here’s an Excel spreadsheet. Everyone go and fill it out and come back because you lose about 90% of your audience there. And then it’s about developing the ability across the TA function to get everyone thinking more strategically and understand the business needs more deeply. Which does include more training on data interpretation and strategic thinking. And that leads nicely into working closely with finance, working with ops and with their colleagues across the HR function to make sure that workforce is a much more collaborative, integrated effort. And where I’ve seen it work really well is when you have a team of experts in the room who all put their hand up and say, I’m kind of out my depth here and we work on it together.
Matt Alder [00:11:06]:
No, that’s interesting. And I think, you know, there’s a wider, something much wider there, which I think is probably worth talking about, which is getting that kind of buy in and influence across the whole organization for TA transformation, you know, workforce planning, whatever it might be. What would your advice be to people in terms of how they can do that, how they can achieve that and really kind of, you know, set themselves up to, to operate in a much more strategic way?
Lyndsey Taylor [00:11:31]:
I would say I’ve learned my lessons the hard way. So hopefully this will help others and prioritize by always building those relationships. So foster strong relationships with those internal customers, those internal stakeholders, and aligning what you’re thinking and around those TA goals with their priorities. And then you’re ensuring there’s much more of a mutual understanding and support. So rather than just going to your stakeholders or your internal customers and pitching the idea, understand their world, understand their problems and what’s going to be in it for them, which then helps you start to show how those strategic initiatives in TA can lead to much more measurable business outcomes. Matt. So, for example, using the data to demonstrate the correlation between efficient hiring processes and overall business performance, and I would say it’s not the kind of thing I would ever recommend you switch on like a big bang globally. So it’s about a proof of concept with a smaller group or a function or even a particular line manager, people, manager, then you can start to share those early wins and it could be whatever you feel is going to work well to influence internally, whether it’s reducing time to fill or it’s improving the quality of the hire, that’s going to then build that credibility and support for larger initiatives. And I would say one thing I’ve learned is to make sure that you maintain clear and open communication about the goals, the processes, and the expected outcomes of these initiatives, but that it’s not okay. TA might be stepping up now and leading, but we don’t just own it. We all have a part to play in this.
Matt Alder [00:14:06]:
I want to dig a bit deeper into AI and technology, which sort of you touched upon right back at the kind of the beginning of the conversation. What impact is AI having and what do you think it makes possible, you know, moving forward? Kind of based on what we’re talking.
Lyndsey Taylor [00:14:21]:
About, the impact AI is having? I think right now everyone feels like they’re an expert as long as they’ve got ChatGPT in front of them. That’s one thing I’m learning. And look, hey, I’m a massive advocate for using tools like ChatGPT. I use it every day. But you have to be able to know what you’re using and be very careful with how you interpret that information and fact check it. I would say, say, thinking about the TA space, you cannot move away from the fact that AI is going to and has been helping to automate a lot of routine tasks. So screening, resume, CVS or scheduling interviews for recruiters or hiring managers so that TA can focus on much more high value activities. AI is providing insights again into the future of talent needs. It’s helping companies stay ahead of that curve. From my past experience and what I aim to do here at Brookes is have an enhanced candidate experience. So whether you’re active talent or passive talent, it’s having a much more personalized communication and streamlined process that enhances the candidate journey. And I know bias is always up there, so I know we still have a lot of work to do here, but properly designed AI will help us reduce unconscious bias. So again, looking to promote much more.
Matt Alder [00:16:02]:
Diverse workforce and in terms of how it kind of really evolves the way that HR works, do you think that it’s going to kind of bring the silos in HR closer together? What does the future look like from.
Lyndsey Taylor [00:16:18]:
That perspective, yeah, I wholeheartedly agree that it will bring HR closer together. I think we in the HR function have a shared goal, right, which is to enable the growth of our business. And so by utilizing AI and aiming to eliminate more of those non value added activities, we can start to empower our existing team members to focus on those higher value activities where they do work together. So it really is a core part of business planning and providing insights that shape the company strategy.
Matt Alder [00:17:04]:
What would your advice be to someone who is right the beginning of a TA transformation process? How should they be thinking about it? What should they be doing first?
Lyndsey Taylor [00:17:15]:
I would say we start with aiming to drive cooperation between functions. So I talked earlier about some of those shared goals and feeding into the enterprise wide strategic objectives and initiatives. So defining and communicating those shared goals across the function will be an important part to play whether we’re looking at increasing internal mobility or what. Even as our external and internal global mobility strategy, it’s about making sure we’re establishing teams that include members from various functions to work together on specific projects or initiatives and then you’re ensuring that we have different perspectives and expertise incorporated and that then helps lead on to the encouragement of continuous interaction through regular meetings, shared dashboards, collaborative tools and then securing alignment from leadership across those functions, again highlighting the strategic importance of collaboration and achieving business goals. I don’t know if I completely answered your question there. I may have gone off on a tangent, getting far too passionate about bringing some of these silos together.
Matt Alder [00:18:37]:
That makes perfect sense and it sounds like a very logical thing to do. As a final question, give us your vision for talent acquisition. What do you think it should look like in two or three years time?
Lyndsey Taylor [00:18:50]:
That’s a big question for a Friday after or Friday morning. For me right now I would say the TA should be a core part of business planning. It should be providing insights that shape company strategy. We should be and we will be continuing to use technology to enhance those efficiencies that we’ve talked about, Matt, whilst maintaining strong human connections with not just candidates or talent, but people. So driving a positive experience for all who engage with the recruitment experience. And I would say in the future we have a much more agile function, Matt, that can quickly pivot in response to market changes and then looking at how we leverage AI to foster more unbiased hiring processes and build that diverse workforce. But for me, the TA of the future. I am excited to work here at Brookes on moving us from more traditional satisfaction driven design TA models to something more productivity driven design. So for me that’s how the future of TA looks. Less of the generic post and pre high volume recruitment where you have generalist recruiters and we are looking to streamline and focus on particular talent segments and focus on how bringing those talent segments in how that then feeds needs of the business map.
Matt Alder [00:20:29]:
Lyndsey, thank you very much for talking to me.
Lyndsey Taylor [00:20:32]:
Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.
Matt Alder [00:20:36]:
My thanks to Lyndsey. You can follow this podcast in Apple Podcasts on Spotify or via your podcasting app of choice. You can search through all the past episodes at recruitingfuture.com also on that site you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter Recruiting Future Feast and get the inside track on everything that’s coming up on the show. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next time and I hope you’ll join me.
