Speed Up the Good, Fix the Bad with Karin Wagner
#28

Speed Up the Good, Fix the Bad with Karin Wagner

Karin Wagner has spent 20 years building the operational engines behind talent acquisition. She started as a CPA, used an MBA to move into HR, and built a machine learning hiring model in 2016, before most of TA was talking about AI. Today she’s VP of Talent Acquisition Operations at Empower Pharmacy. In this episode, she talks with Colleen about why AI speeds up the good and the bad, what it means to see inside the black box of hiring manager interviews, and why quality of hire is everyone’s job. Karin also shares what changes when talent reports straight to the CEO, how a farm kid turned CPA found her way into recruiting, and why her house is currently full of elite figure skaters.
 
Takeaways:
  • Learn the business before you try to hire for it. Use AI to research competitors and how the company wins, then ask your business partners a little at a time about their next big goal. The best recruiters Karin has worked with are subject matter experts in the business they support.
  • Fix the process before you add AI to it. AI only speeds up whatever you already built, so a three-stage-too-long process just fails faster. Get the job description and the fundamentals right first.
  • Ask what you’re doing with the hours AI saves you. Hours saved is not the win. Reinvest that time in consulting with hiring managers, improving candidate experience, or evaluating talent better, then check that you’re getting the outcome you actually wanted.
  • Make vendors prove it before you buy it. Pilot new AI tools against a measurable outcome, and ask every vendor for their innovation roadmap. Then pick two or three things to get really good at, because trying to do everything will burn out your recruiters.
  • Share quality of hire instead of passing it around. TA, hiring managers, and even onboarding all play a part in whether a hire works out. When everyone owns the metric, nobody can point the finger at someone else.



Quote of the Show:
  • “The real story behind AI is what are you doing with the hours you are saving? I’ve said AI does speed up both the good and the bad.” - Karin Wagner

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