The Talent Bar

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This is The Talent Bar. Join Colleen Gallagher for candid conversations with talent leaders as we explore the work that drives them, the lessons they've learned, and how they're helping people find careers they love. The show is sponsored by Lavalier, an interview intelligence platform built by Textio.

Episode 20

The Talent Bar Trailer

Show Notes Template A new name. A new look. A higher bar. Welcome to The Talent Bar, the new home for candid conversations with the leaders shaping Talent Acquisition. Hosted by Colleen Gallagher, The Talent Bar goes behind the scenes with the leaders making big decisions about recruiting, teams, talent, and the future of work. The bar just got higher. Welcome to The Talent Bar! Ways to Tune In: The Talent Bar: https://thetalentbarpodcast.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-talent-bar/id1891705495 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77 iHeart Radio:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1333-the-talent-bar-328811219YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTalentBar
6d ago

Talent Is a Business Lever with Yolanda Hawkes

Yolanda Hawkes has spent more than 20 years building recruiting operations inside some of the most complex, high-volume environments in the country, from manufacturing and aviation to AWS, along with a side chapter advising professional athletes on career transitions. In this episode, she talks with Colleen about why curiosity and lifelong learning separate the best recruiters from the rest, how she approaches turnover as a root-cause problem rather than a "just hire better" problem, and why AI should give recruiters information, not make the decision for them. Yolanda also the advice she'd give her newly graduated self about networking long before you need anything from anyone. Takeaways: Curiosity is a hiring superpower. The recruiters Yolanda trusts most are genuinely curious about their candidates, their hiring leaders, and the business itself, and they treat staying current as part of the job, not an extra.Fix turnover with root cause analysis, not finger-pointing. When turnover runs high, Yolanda pushes TA and HR to dig into whether the issue lives in the screening process or with a struggling supervisor instead of blaming each other.Candidates are customers too. Yolanda's early years hiring taught her that even in high-volume, hard-to-fill roles, the people applying are customers of the business, and that shapes every interaction she has with them.Let AI inform the decision, don't let it make the decision. Yolanda has used AI screening tools to bring efficiency to high-volume hiring, but she draws a hard line at letting a tool make the final call on a person.Talent is a business lever, not an HR function. Whether it's staffing a plane crew or building a diversity pipeline from scratch, having the right people in place at the right time drives real business outcomes, and treating recruiting that way is how you earn a seat at the table. Quote of the Show: "Talent is not an HR function, it's a business lever." - Yolanda Hawkes Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yolandahawkes/Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gat-airline-ground-support/ Ways to Tune In: Recruiters On The Rise Website: https://recruitersontherise.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/recruiters-on-the-rise/id1891705495 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/328811219/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recruitersontherise
Aug 5

Going Slow to Go Fast with Jennifer Paxton

Jen Paxton just got promoted to SVP of People and Talent at Roofr, and she's earned it: an opera degree, three startup acquisitions, and a co-founded company (also acquired) later, she's built a people function that runs on urgency without sacrificing quality. In this episode, she talks with Colleen about why speed and momentum are everything once a candidate is in process, how "going slow to go fast" with hiring managers at the intake stage actually shortens time to hire, and why quality of hire is never one single metric. Jen also opens up about what it took to earn a seat at the leadership table as a people leader, and how her opera background sneaks its way into her day job more than she'd like to admit. Takeaways: Momentum is everything once a candidate is in process. The high they feel after a great interview fades fast, and any lull in communication opens the door to doubt, so recruiters need to keep things moving instead of letting a hiring manager sit on a decision.If a hiring manager is on the fence about a candidate, that's usually a no. Jen coaches managers to move on rather than let decision paralysis drag out a process and risk keeping a good candidate warm for too long.Slowing down at the very start of a search saves time later. A real intake conversation, or even having a hiring manager source three LinkedIn profiles themselves, forces them to name what they're actually looking for instead of defaulting to "I'll know it when I see it."Quality of hire isn't one number. Jen looks at ramp-up time, first-year turnover, nine-box placement after the first review cycle, and a simple gut check she asks every manager at 60 days: would you rehire this person?Knowing the business, not just headcount, is what earns people leaders real influence. Jen credits understanding company strategy and speaking the language of the leadership team with the trust that helped land her promotion to SVP. Quote of the Show: "Not every culture is for a person, not every company is." - Jen Paxton Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenpaxton/Website: https://roofr.com/ Ways to Tune In: Recruiters On The Rise: https://recruitersontherise.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/recruiters-on-the-rise/id1891705495 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/328811219/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recruitersontherise
Jul 29

The Professional Cupid with Guillermina Cabello

Guillermina Cabello has spent more than 30 years recruiting IT talent across Mexico, Latin America, and the US, building her own agency from scratch and developing a proprietary screening method along the way. In this episode, she talks with Colleen about what nearshore recruiting really requires, from correcting cultural assumptions about salary bands to navigating TN1 visas and the accent bias that gets mistaken for a language problem. Guillermina also shares why she conducts nearly every interview by phone instead of video to strip out bias, how she coaches candidates even when they're not a fit for the role, and what it's like calling out ageism in an industry that treats her three decades of experience as both an asset and, in some rooms, a liability. Takeaways: Put the candidate's life ahead of your fee. Guillermina says thinking about the long-term impact of a placement on a candidate, not just closing the role, is what builds the kind of trust that keeps opportunities coming back around.Give candidates something useful even when they don't get the job. Guillermina flags resume tweaks or has candidates read English aloud to build fluency before an interview, because recruiters who help regardless of outcome are the ones candidates remember.Nearshore recruiting takes cultural translation, not just a second language. Understanding realities like candidates who worked through school, or an accent that has nothing to do with fluency, keeps good people from getting screened out for the wrong reasons.Roll AI out in small, measurable steps instead of cutting headcount upfront. Guillermina has watched companies rush to replace workers with AI only to end up rehiring, so she recommends testing tools in select areas and reviewing the return on investment before expanding.Market experience as an asset instead of hiding it. Guillermina compares her decades in the industry to wine, something that only gets more valuable with age, even in a market that still treats tenured candidates as a risk instead of a resource. Quote of the Show: "We recruiters are like professional Cupids. You have two individuals, and you have to see if they actually match." - Guillermina Cabello Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillec/Website: https://www.ascend-mc.com/Ways to Tune In: Recruiters On The Rise Website: https://recruitersontherise.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgRApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/recruiters-on-the-rise/id1891705495Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/328811219/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recruitersontherise
Jul 22

Building the Shipbuilding Workforce with Pedro Velis

Pedro Velis spent six years as a staff accountant at Wawa before pivoting into recruiting, and today he is the Director of Talent Acquisition and Workforce Development at Hanwha Philly Shipyard, a shipyard recently featured on 60 Minutes for its role in growing America's shipbuilding capacity. In this episode, he talks with Colleen about the massive skilled trade shortage facing the shipbuilding industry, why he builds his team out of people with nontraditional backgrounds, how he cut turnover at a food manufacturing plant by slowing down the hiring process, and the career advice he wishes he had given himself decades ago. Takeaways: Understand the business before you recruit for it. Pedro believes every talent acquisition professional has to learn how their company actually makes money and how each department contributes to that, not just the requirements of the job description.Diverse backgrounds build stronger teams. Pedro has hired a former elementary school teacher and a shipyard carpenter of 25 years onto his recruiting team, valuing the outside expertise they bring over a traditional recruiting resume.The country faces a massive skilled trade shortage. Pedro cited an estimate from the Department of Defense of roughly 175,000 skilled workers needed over the next ten years, and welding booths sitting empty is a lost opportunity.Growth is coming fast. Hanwha Philly Shipyard currently builds about one and a half ships a year with roughly 2,000 employees, and the goal is to reach ten to twenty ships a year, which could grow the workforce to somewhere between five thousand and ten thousand people.Slowing down hiring can fix turnover. At a previous food manufacturing job, Pedro pushed back on a plant director who wanted twenty new hires a week, arguing that better onboarding and training would keep more of the people they already hired.Do not be a one trick pony. Pedro describes himself as having a Batman utility belt of skills instead of one specialty, and he encourages his team to build a little bit of knowledge across finance, comp, and employee relations rather than mastering only one lane.Quote of the Show: "Don't be afraid to fail, and have confidence in yourself." - Pedro Velis Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedro-velis-mba/Website: https://www.hanwha.com/companies/hanwha-philly-shipyard.doWays to Tune In: Recruiters On The Rise Website: https://recruitersontherise.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/recruiters-on-the-rise/id1891705495 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/328811219/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recruitersontherise
Jul 15

Resilience Is the Job with Kathryn Knox

In this episode of Recruiters on the Rise, host Colleen Gallagher sits down with Kathryn Knox, Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Trailer Park Group. Kathryn brings more than 30 years of recruiting experience, starting at Arthur Andersen and moving through staffing, PE backed companies, and high growth tech before landing in entertainment marketing. She has led teams as large as 23 recruiters, and when her own company recently went through layoffs, she made a point of calling every person she had hired in recent years to ask how she could help them land their next role. Takeaways: Resilience beats any tool or process. The best recruiters treat every day as a reset, good or bad. If you can shake off a rough day and show up again tomorrow, you'll outlast almost anyone in this business.Don't let fear of AI shrink your skillset. Learn the tools, but keep building the core sourcing and relationship skills underneath them. The human nuance in recruiting won't be replaced, no matter what changes on top of it.Build the hiring manager relationship in the intake, not after. Set expectations up front about how many candidates they'll see and how you'll operate. That early trust is what buys you grace when a role takes longer than planned.Track quality of submission to offer, not just time to fill. Aim to know a role and a hiring manager well enough that three to five candidates gets you to offer. Document everything, because data protects you when a hire drags on for reasons outside your control.Treat your TA team like an internal agency. Control your spend, prove your value, and only go outside when you've exhausted what your own team can do. That ownership mentality is what makes hiring managers trust you instead of shopping you around. Quote of the Show: "You're as good as your last deal and you're as good as your next deal, as long as you continue the momentum forward." - Kathryn Knox Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynknox/Website: https://trailerparkgroup.com/ Ways to Tune In: Recruiters On The Rise Website: https://recruitersontherise.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/recruiters-on-the-rise/id1891705495 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/328811219/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recruitersontherise
Jul 8

The Power of Follow Through with Allison Dykes

Allison Dykes joined her current company, Harness, as its first and only HR hire at 25 employees and built the entire people function from the ground up, recruiting through termination. In this episode, she talks with Colleen about why follow-up and follow-through are non-negotiable in candidate experience, how she uses the EOS "right person, right seat" model to evaluate both candidates and current employees, and why AI-polished resumes are making human conversation more important than ever. Allison also shares what it's like owning the entire employee lifecycle, from the first interview to the final goodbye, and how that shapes the way she treats every single hire. Takeaways: Follow up is not optional. Telling a candidate when to expect feedback, and following through even when the update is that there is no update yet, builds trust and keeps people engaged with your process.The candidate experience is the company's first impression. How someone is treated during the hiring process, whether or not they get the role, shapes how they talk about the company afterward.Getting hiring managers to adopt intake forms takes more than handing them a template. Allison drafts the process herself before the kickoff call so the conversation starts from something concrete instead of a blank page.AI has made resumes easier to tailor and harder to trust. Getting candidates on the phone to talk through what they actually owned in past roles matters more than ever.Owning the entire employee life cycle, from the first interview through termination, changes how Allison shows up for people. Employees already know and trust her, which makes hard conversations easier on both sides.Quote of the Show: "Follow up and follow through. If you say that you're going to do something, make sure you do it in the timeframe that you say it's gonna be." - Allison DykesLinks: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-dykes/Website: https://goharness.com/Ways to Tune In: Recruiters On The Rise Website: https://recruitersontherise.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/recruiters-on-the-rise/id1891705495 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/328811219/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recruitersontherise
Jul 1

Fraud Squad with Stacy Zapar

Stacy Zapar spent almost 30 years teaching recruiters how to find great talent. She built the Zappos Insider program and trained teams at Amazon, Netflix, and Walmart. Now she's back from a multi-year hiatus with a new mission: helping recruiters catch candidate fraud before it costs them the hire. Colleen and Stacy dig into how organized this fraud has gotten, why AI made it worse before it gets better, and Stacy's new model, "candidate curation," for blending attraction, assessment, and authentication into every stage of the funnel. Plus the origin story behind her new community, Fraud Squad, and a few personal detours involving Fireball shots and a serious game show obsession. Takeaways: Fraud and volume are two sides of the same problem. Bots, auto apply, and AI written resumes have made every funnel noisier, so the real fix isn't more screening at the end, it's reducing junk at the front door.Assume sophistication on the other side. Fraud rings operate like businesses, with shared scripts, proxy interviewers, and laptop farms; recruiters who treat fraud as a one off problem will always be a step behind.Don't bolt AI onto a broken process. Layering automation on top of an outdated 2019 hiring funnel doesn't fix it, it just breaks it faster; redesign the process first, then apply AI.Build deterrents that are invisible to good candidates but costly for bad actors. Things like in person final rounds or small pre-screen tasks create friction for fraud without adding burden for legitimate applicants.Authentication isn't a final round checkbox, it's a continuous thread. Talent attraction, assessment, and authentication should run together at every candidate touchpoint, not in sequential funnel stages.Quote of the Show: "We're not organized as an industry, but the fraud rings absolutely are. I just want us to be one step ahead for once." - Stacy ZaparLinks: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacyzapar/ Website: https://thisistenfold.com/ Ways to Tune In: Recruiters On The Rise Website: https://recruitersontherise.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6j8LK95YtqW7ZMU4kwBNgR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/recruiters-on-the-rise/id1891705495 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b7f77aa2-de4c-4e5c-b5de-cfe60fe39c77 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/328811219/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recruitersontherise

This is The Talent Bar. Join Colleen Gallagher for candid conversations with talent leaders as we explore the work that drives them, the lessons they've learned, and how they're helping people find careers they love. The show is sponsored by Lavalier, an interview intelligence platform built by Textio.

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Lavalier
Years Active

2026
Episodes

20
Rating

Clean
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© 2026 Lavalier
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The Talent Bar