Hiring Happy Hour

SmartRecruiters
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Business

Welcome to Hiring Happy Hour, where we celebrate the human side of hiring. Join host, Nicole Hammond, and as she pulls back the curtain on the people shaping the future of work- the innovators, dreamers, and change makers behind today’s hiring technology experience.

  1. 6d ago

    Turning the Future of Hiring Into Reality, Pt 1 - Rebecca Carr - Hiring Happy Hour - # 037 (Re-Air)

    This week on Hiring Happy Hour, we're re-airing this conversation for a very good reason: Rebecca Carr’s story just picked up an exciting new chapter. Alongside her role as CEO of SmartRecruiters, she's now also the President of HCM Products at SAP. Rebecca Carr didn’t plan to end up at SmartRecruiters. What started as an accidental application through a demo recruiting account became the beginning of a decade-long journey helping shape one of the most influential companies in hiring technology. In part one of this special two-part series, Rebecca, CEO of SmartRecruiters and now President of HCM Products at SAP, joins Hiring Happy Hour to reflect on the early career moments, bold bets, and customer partnerships that helped define both her leadership journey and the evolution of SmartRecruiters itself. From a 94-day global deployment for Bosch to rethinking recruiting around trust, candidate experience, and long-term partnership, this conversation traces the career arc that enabled Rebecca to become the leader she is today, helping shape enterprise hiring through one of its most transformative moments yet. Along the way, Rebecca shares lessons on grit, belief, and what enterprise change actually requires — including why keeping the feedback loop between product and customer tight has always been central to her thinking, and why it matters even more as AI begins to reshape how companies hire. For HR and TA leaders navigating that same shift, this is a conversation about what it looks like to build the future of hiring, not just talk about it. Takeaways: Great implementations don't just go live — they create methodology. When you build around global standardization, candidate-first design, and real change management, you're not just deploying software. You're creating a repeatable playbook that the whole organization can use long after the project team moves on.Candidate experience has to be a non-negotiable line item in every design decision, baked into how your hiring technology should be built and deployed. The companies that get hiring right don’t just treat it as something to optimize for when it's convenient. Every process choice should be tested against one question: what does this mean for the candidate?The best vendor-customer partnerships are bidirectional. Real progress happens when both sides are willing to do things differently than they planned. That means customers trusting the vendor's product vision enough to standardize, and vendors trusting the customer's operational reality enough to build with them, not just for them. The tightest feedback loops produce the best products. Depth of collaboration during implementation is hard to sustain post-go-live, but closing that gap through technology is one of the most important problems companies (including SmartRecruiters) should be focused on solving now.Be unromantic about your processes. Great talent with grit and belief still needs well-defined processes to execute against — but the moment you fall in love with how something is done, you lose the agility that makes you competitive.The relationships built doing hard work together outlast the work itself. When both sides are fully invested in making something succeed, the personal connections that form become a lasting foundation that enables further success. Quote of the Show: “A lot of what I've been thinking about with my own product organization today is how do you keep that level of really high-touch alive in an agentic era? I'd love to keep that customer experience consistent through the life of a contract, not just the first critical months.” - Rebecca CarrLinks: Rebecca’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rebeccajcarrRebecca’s LinkedIn Post: https://lnkd.in/p/gaau238m Website: https://www.smartrecruiters.comWays to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

    Turning the Future of Hiring Into Reality, Pt 1 - Rebecca Carr - Hiring Happy Hour - # 037 (Re-Air)

  2. Sep 22

    A Deep Dive Into Transforming Hiring Tech - Dave Novak - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 036

    What happens when "migration" actually means starting over? In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with David Novak, Senior Director of Strategic Customer Engagements at SmartRecruiters, to unpack what it takes for enterprise customers to move off SAP SuccessFactors Recruit and onto SmartRecruiters. Dave leads the team built to support these moves, and his message is clear: this isn't a lift and shift, it's a transformation. They dig into why SmartRecruiters is built to be configurable rather than customizable, how that trade-off actually unlocks scale, and why governance now matters as much for monthly product releases as it does for AI. If your organization is weighing a platform change, this is a grounded look at what separates a rocky transformation from a successful one.   Takeaways: Treat a platform migration as a transformation, not a copy-paste job. If you rebuild your old system exactly as it was, you lose the reason you switched in the first place.Before redesigning any workflow, revisit why you wanted to change: a compelling candidate experience, less admin work for recruiters, and hiring managers who actually engage.A configurable system beats a highly customized one once you're thinking about scale. Custom builds are hard to unwind, and they slow down every future release you'd otherwise adopt in minutes.Pilot new capabilities in a safe test environment, one region or business unit at a time, before rolling them out org-wide. Small, intentional tests build confidence without disrupting the whole hiring organization.Assign one clear owner for monitoring and rolling out product releases. Governance breaks down fast when everyone assumes someone else is watching for what's new.Hold AI to the same governance standard as any other release. Know where the data comes from, keep a human in the loop on hiring decisions, and watch for bias baked into historical data.Look for a technology partner who flags relevant updates before you have to ask. That shift, from reactive support to proactive guidance, is often what unblocks a complex transformation.Quote of the Show: "Bring them [hiring managers] back to why they wanted to make the change in the first place... empowered recruiters, engaged hiring managers, and a compelling candidate experience."   - Dave NovakLinks: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davewnovak/ Website: https://www.smartrecruiters.com/  Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

    A Deep Dive Into Transforming Hiring Tech - Dave Novak - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 036

  3. Sep 15

    Designing for Trust in the Age of AI - Shefali Netke - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 035

    Great design isn't about pretty interfaces; it's about earning trust one interaction at a time. In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with Shefali Netke, VP of Product Design at SmartRecruiters, to explore how her team rebuilt their design process to keep pace with AI without losing sight of the humans on the other side of the screen. Shefali unpacks the three pillars driving her design strategy: agent coherence, intent-aware experiences, and scaling trust. She also shares how giving teams space to learn turned a moment of industry disruption into their most exciting product chapter yet. For HR and TA leaders navigating their own AI transformation, this conversation offers a blueprint for building technology people actually want to use.   Takeaways: Give teams dedicated time and space to build new skills, not just another task to squeeze in. Learning sticks when it isn't competing with everything else on the calendar.Root your product vision in real research, but stay flexible on the path to get there. About 80% should be grounded in reality; the rest can adapt as the industry shifts.Frame technology change as an opportunity, not a threat. Teams move faster and think bigger when they're driven by curiosity instead of fear of falling behind.Design AI experiences that adapt to how humans already work, rather than expecting people to reshape themselves around the tool. Usability should never be optional.Treat trust as a design requirement, not an afterthought. Visual consistency, compliance, and accuracy all shape whether people actually rely on what you build.When integrating teams or systems after a merger or acquisition, look for a better way of working together rather than defaulting to "how we've always done it."Invite HR and TA partners into research and testing early. Cross-functional curiosity leads to sharper products and stronger buy-in down the line.Quote of the Show: "The vision is not supposed to be 100% accurate. Things change, tech changes, industry changes. You need to keep it adaptable." - Shefali NetkeLinks: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shefalinetke/ Website: https://www.shefalinetke.com/ Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

    Designing for Trust in the Age of AI - Shefali Netke - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 035

  4. Sep 8

    Making Change a Skill, Not a Crisis - Michal Nowak - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 034

    AI moves fast, and the organizations building for it need to move just as fast. In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole Hammond sits down with Michal Nowak, SVP of Engineering at SmartRecruiters, to unpack the organizational shift behind building Winston and preparing for an increasingly agentic world of hiring. Michal shares why SmartRecruiters moved away from long-standing product teams and reorganized around six key outcomes, with small, short-lived squads focused on shipping specific features. He also explains how an “acceleration squad” protects teams from distractions, why process changes can be just as powerful as AI coding tools, and what the team has learned from making constant evolution a core part of how they work.   Takeaways: Change shouldn't feel like an emergency every time it happens. Build a repeatable process for reorganizing your team so each transition gets smoother instead of starting from scratch.When you're launching something new, define the outcome first and let people choose where they contribute. Teams show up more engaged when they pick their lane instead of being assigned to it.Not every task is exciting, but someone still has to own it. Rotate the unglamorous work across your team so the same people aren't stuck doing it indefinitely.Focus beats multitasking. A team working toward one clear goal at a time will consistently outpace one juggling five priorities at once.Before you build or roll out anything new, talk to the people who'll actually use it. Months of direct feedback upfront saves you from shipping the wrong thing.Don't just ask if a change "felt" successful. Track it: how fast work moves, how much gets delivered, whether people stay, and whether quality holds up.Give people a light at the end of the tunnel. Knowing their role or project will be revisited in a few months keeps people invested even when the current one isn't their favorite. Quote of the Show: “Organization change or change in general shouldn't be like an event. It should be a competence. It should be something that we operationalize and internalize, and just be better at it.” - Michal Nowak Links: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mjb-nowak Website: https://www.smartrecruiters.com  Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

    Making Change a Skill, Not a Crisis - Michal Nowak - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 034

  5. Sep 1

    Where Human Connection Still Wins in Hiring - Compilation - Hiring Happy Hour - Ep # 033

    Many conversations on Hiring Happy Hour circle back to a familiar question: as hiring gets faster and more automated, where is human judgment most valuable? This special compilation pulls that thread together, bringing voices from across the show into one conversation about the moments that still need a human in the room. From the "hello" of a first interaction to the trust built long after the offer letter, this episode makes the case for a specific kind of balance: use AI to move work forward across the hiring journey so teams can spend more time on the decisions and relationships that shape a great hire. Takeaways: Protect the first 72 hours after a candidate accepts an offer. This window is often where trust is won or lost, and losing someone here wastes everything invested to get them there.Candidates still notice when a real person shows up instead of an automated line. That small moment of human contact can become a genuine differentiator for your brand.Automation should buy back time for face time, not replace it entirely. The goal is judgment and connection freed up, not completely removed.A genuine cover letter or note still tells you something a resume can't. Taking the time to actually read them signals to candidates that the effort is mutual.Give candidates more than one way to show up and shine. Options like in-person interviews or pre-shared questions help you reach people who'd otherwise be excluded by a single format.Use AI to get to a first draft, not a final answer. The best communication still needs a human pass, or it starts to sound like everyone else's. Quote of the Show: "The future of hiring isn't about choosing between tech and human connection. It's about using technology to make more room for the connection that matters." - Nicole Hammond Guest Links: Stormy’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stormy-jones-shrm-cp-prc-5536b327 Adam’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adamreynoldsrecruitment Angie’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/angie-goldman-241a2251 Kim’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kim-nicholas-26a23038 Rob’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rdunderdale Pia’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stenderpia Alexandra’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexandra-retif-gaillard Jamie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamieszymkowiak/  Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

    Where Human Connection Still Wins in Hiring - Compilation - Hiring Happy Hour - Ep # 033

  6. Aug 25

    Building a Skills-Based Workforce for 2030 - Lauren Tropeano - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 032

    70% of the skills needed for today's jobs are expected to change by 2030, and most leaders are still figuring out how to evolve their workforce. In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole Hammond sits down with Lauren Tropeano, Chief People Officer at Docebo, to talk about how organizations can build a workforce ready for what's next. Lauren shares how she thinks about skills, growth, and readiness at a foundational level, from why human skills like discernment and communication are becoming more valuable as AI takes on more of the work, to why naming a hard moment out loud is often the first step to managing it well. She also gets into what it really takes to hold onto culture through transformation, and why starting imperfectly beats waiting for a perfect plan. It's a grounded, experience-driven look at leading people through change. Takeaways: Break your workforce down into three skill types: technical, job, and human. It gives you a much clearer picture of what your people can actually do and where they can be redeployed.As AI takes on more technical and job-specific work, human skills like discernment and communication become the real differentiator. Don't treat them as a given; invest in developing them deliberately.If you don't have full buy-in yet, start with a willing business champion or pilot it within your own people team. You'll hit less friction and build a stronger case for scaling later.Name the change out loud when a team is going through something together. It builds trust fast and helps people feel less alone in the moment.Don't try to map every skill across the entire company on day one. Pick one function or a small group of roles and prove the concept there before scaling it further.Learning can't just live in a classroom or a long course anymore. It needs to be embedded into daily work in bite-sized, accessible formats that fit how different teams actually work.There's no perfect playbook for building an AI-plus-people workforce, so the organizations that start early and experiment will have the advantage, bumps and bruises included. Quote of the Show: "The companies that take those steps forward early are going to be the first movers, even if they've got some bumps and bruises along the way." – Lauren Tropeano Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenkrol/ Website: https://www.docebo.com/  Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

    Building a Skills-Based Workforce for 2030 - Lauren Tropeano - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 032

  7. Aug 18

    Brand, Talent, and Responsible AI - Alexandra Gaillard & Pia Stender - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 031

    Some companies rushed to be first with AI. Continental is taking its time to get it right. In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with Alexandra Gaillard, Chief Marketing Officer, and Pia Stender, Strategic Lead of Global Talent Acquisition, at Continental, to discuss how brand and hiring work the same problem from opposite ends. The conversation moves through Continental's glocal approach to recruiting, how they're building AI into hiring with intention rather than urgency, and why human judgment still anchors their process. It's a candid look at what responsible AI adoption looks like inside a 150-year-old company that's still evolving.   Takeaways:  Don't rush AI into your hiring stack just to keep pace. Build the compliance, data protection, and security review into your timeline before any tool touches a candidate's file.Keep AI in an assistant role, not a decision-making one. Your recruiters' judgment should still own the final call, especially in screening.Audit your AI tools for bias as rigorously as you'd question a recruiter's gut instinct. Neither is automatically fair just because it feels efficient.Resist the pressure to be first to market with new hiring tech. Being right earns more trust with candidates and employees than being early.If you're operating across regions, standardize what you can and localize what you can't. A single rigid process won't hold up against real cultural and legal differences.Loop your business leaders into recruiting strategy instead of building it in a silo. Skills are shifting too fast for TA to define hiring criteria alone.Protect face-to-face moments in your process even as you scale AI tools around it. That's still where you'll learn the most about a candidate. Quote of the Show: "We are not first movers, but we are quite dedicated to doing it right and on a global scale." - Pia Stender  Links: Pia’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stenderpiaAlexandra’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexandra-retif-gaillard Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

    Brand, Talent, and Responsible AI - Alexandra Gaillard & Pia Stender - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 031

  8. Aug 11

    The Human Side of Hiring - Stormy Jones - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 030 (Re-Air)

    What happens when a recruiter refuses to let technology replace the human connection at the heart of hiring? In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole Hammond sits down with Stormy Jones, HR Business Partner at Pyrotek, for a conversation centered on the human side of recruitment. Stormy shares how her transition from decentralized to centralized recruiting reshaped her career and strengthened her approach to hiring. She reflects on standout candidate experiences, the power of values alignment, and the importance of understanding team dynamics beyond the job description. Nicole and Stormy also dig into the role of AI and automation, generational differences in adopting new tools, and the need for thoughtful change management. Stormy’s farming background, people-first mindset, and deep appreciation for her team shine throughout the episode, ending with a fun “this or that” game that highlights her authentic style.   Takeaways: Human connection should lead the hiring process. Technology can streamline administrative tasks, but it should never replace personal, face-to-face conversations with candidates.Value alignment drives long-term success. Stormy explains that great hires go beyond qualifications. Their mindset, collaboration style, and cultural fit matter just as much.Centralized recruiting creates clarity and consistency. Moving from a decentralized model helped Stormy build stronger partnerships with hiring managers and improve outcomes across the organization.AI is helpful, but it shouldn’t dominate. Automating tasks can create efficiency, but recruiters must remain intentional about maintaining meaningful interactions.Small gestures from candidates still stand out. Follow-up notes and thoughtful communication demonstrate genuine interest and leave a lasting impression. Quote of the Show: “We have to learn a way to blend tech and human interaction.” - Stormy Jones Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stormy-jones-shrm-cp-prc-5536b327/ Website: http://www.pyrotek.com  Ways to Tune In: Substack: HiringHappyHour.com  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf   Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369  Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793  iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/  Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769  YouTube: https://youtu.be/OWWe2e88tpA Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/episodes/the-human-side-of-hiring-stormy-jones-hiring-happy-hour-episode-002

    The Human Side of Hiring - Stormy Jones - Hiring Happy Hour - Episode # 030 (Re-Air)
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About

Welcome to Hiring Happy Hour, where we celebrate the human side of hiring. Join host, Nicole Hammond, and as she pulls back the curtain on the people shaping the future of work- the innovators, dreamers, and change makers behind today’s hiring technology experience.

Information

  • Creator
    SmartRecruiters
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    38
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 SmartRecruiters
  • Show Website
    Hiring Happy Hour