TaPod - for everything Talent Acquisition...

This week on Tapod we catch up with Kyle MacLean, Head of Talent at Metro Trains and today’s episode is all about the Choo choos! With over 1200 train drivers at Metro we explore all kinds of challenges including gender balance, new infrastructure, recruiting frontline staff and more.We hit all the big issues with no replacement buses in sight.Thanks to SmartRecruiters for partnering with us this month. 

On this special episode of Tapod, we catch up with Pam Stroud – Senior Talent Industry Legend, who has reassessed her career and ventured out on her own with ‘The Pivot Space’, supporting and navigating women in career transition. It may be menopause, single motherhood, returning to the workplace following family or any number of challenges; sometimes we question our relevance and our career choices. Coupled with the recent and rapid changes in technology and focus on gender pay gap, more and more women are looking to pivot. Pam brings her knowledge and understanding to support women in working their way through all of the questions. And Pam has generously offered all TaPod listeners a discount to work with her. Use the QR code on the episode slide to access the offer.Thanks to SmartRecruiters for partnering with us this month.

Today on the Scoop Bonnie steps in for Craig whilst he is on a little sojourn and the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News including…  acquisitions on steroids, bikini tradie wants to go topless, office worker encourages bikinis, Trump puts up skilled worker visas, boss is cruel (there’s a surprise), Gen Z pushing the workplace office fashion to the limit, WTF is ‘quiet-cracking’? and much more.Thanks to Indeed for partnering with us on The Scoop. 

This week on Tapod we catch up with the legend Jessica Gibson-Jones winner of Enterprise Talent Leader of the Year at ITAs2025! We get a great understanding of the achievements Jess has implemented at Toll Group over the past 12 months including commercialising the Talent function, simplifying hiring manager processes, maximising data, DE&I successes, insourcing the global RPO solution, TA capability calendar & many other ‘tah dah’ moments. Congrats, Jess – you deserve it!Thanks to SmartRecruiters for partnering with us this month. 

Today on the Scoop the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News, including…More news from the banking sector – good & bad, social media affecting hiring opportunities, and the PNG & Aussie Defence pact (and Craig shares a secret about his time living in PNG. Shhhh), two jobs are a lot harder than one, Gen Z love pretty pictures, Australia get its own Coldplay moment. Thanks to Indeed for partnering with us on The Scoop. 

 This week on Tapod we catch up with the winners of the Enterprise Talent Team of the Year at ITAs2025 – The Warehouse Group – represented by Kim Nicholas – GM – Talent Acquisition, HR Systems and Payroll, and Hayley Smith – Head of TA. We were also joined by the fabulous Brett Potts – Customer Success Lead APAC from SmartRecruiters. We cover the joy of the win and key aspects of the winning submission, including the challenging economic conditions over the past 12 months, the increased number of candidates and building a positive experience, the internal mobility project, massive internal restructures, Hiring Manager training, a complete EVP rebrand, HR Tech Stack and much more. Every year people ask us what it takes to win an award like this – listen in and find out. Thanks to SmartRecruiters for your support this month. 

EXCITING NEWS! It's official SmartRecruiters and SAP are GO!At TaPod - We Talk Talent we were lucky enough to sit down with SmartRecruiters CEO Rebecca Carr yesterday for an #APAC exclusive to talk about the acquisition, and what the future holds for the industry and SR customers.We also covered the topics of AI and the future role of the recruiter... Take some time to soak it all in!

Today on the Scoop the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News, including…A post-ITAs round-up, OpenAIjoins the hiring space, ANZ Bank in the poo again, some positive ads data, redundancy news, LinkedIn puts down an AI marker, Gen Z are now job-hugging, and much more. Thanks to Indeed for your ongoing support. 

This week on Tapod we sit down with David Dunne—Senior Manager, Workforce Services & Systems @Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect)—the largest national service provider for people on the autism spectrum, with over 1,500 employees across over 70 locations. With recent research suggesting that 1 in 40 people are living with autism, we cover topics around inclusivity hiring, including pre-access to interview questions, people being authentically themselves, and understanding requirements that make candidates more comfortable in their environment. It’s a really fascinating topic and one (as recruiters) we have a responsibility to know more about. Thanks to SmartRecruiters for your support this month. 

Today on the Scoop the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News, including…ANZ stuff-up – Big Time, training is only part of the AI story, Nestle takes the choccies away, where will the jobs be in 2030? Well done to NZ, Gen Z just not cutting it and much more Thanks to Indeed for your ongoing support. 

This week on Tapod we sit down with Ben Whitfield—Global Talent Acquisition Leader @Marsh McLennan - a global giant with over 95,000 employees. Ben has recently moved into the global role and is at the very pointy end of recruitment strategy, heading up a team of over 350, hiring over 16k new employees annually. So if we want to know what’s going on in the world of recruitment, Ben’s the perfect person to talk to! We cover AI, global economic conditions, difficult-to-recruit roles, DE&I programs, and more. It’s a fascinating discussion and one that will help guide your career in the right direction. Thanks to SmartRecruiters for your support this month. 

 On this special episode of Tapod, we catch up with Dan Balout—Solutions Lead APAC at Paradox. Unpacking the State of Volume Hiring Report is the name of the game, and we get a great understanding of how the function is coping with volume hiring as a challenge. We explore candidate experience, AI & automation, burnout, and speed to hire amongst a raft of other levers. If you are hiring in the volume space, you should be listening to this episode! 

Today on the Scoop the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News, including…Workday jumps on the acquisition merry-go-round,  training company covertly records employees, expressing yourself Madonna style, CBA backs up on AI, Reece blaming WFH for profit decline, gender pay gap improving (but is it fast enough?), laziness blamed for grad recruitment slow down, how many jobs can you do at once and much more! Thanks to Indeed for your ongoing support. 

This week on Tapod we sit down with Steve Ward – Global Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing Expert and Head of Strategic Insights at Blackbridge Communications. Steve and Lauren had a conversation at Recfest UK about the future of AI in Recruitment and right here is where we pick it up. At times the conversation gets a little heated—well, maybe not heated, but let’s just say that the three of us aren’t completely aligned on thinking. We cover usage, development, ethics, and government regulation—hell, we cover everything. AI is here to stay, and it will make our lives very different; just how different is the question we all want answered. Thanks to Paradox for your support this month. 

Today on the Scoop the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News, including… Qantas rapped over the knuckles, AI training not keeping up with rollout, Callam Pickering joins us to discuss key financial data, strange things brought to interviews, Gen Z are space bound, pilot in the buff, and much more! Thanks to Indeed for your ongoing support.

This week on Tapod we sit down with Andy Talbutt, Event Director at Auckland Recruitment Meetup. We talk about the NZ market, how it’s tracking, the effect of AI, doing more with less, diversity recruitment, the local Recruitment Meetup scene, and what we can all learn from the land of the long white cloud.  Thanks to Paradox for your support this month. 

Today on the Scoop the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News including… UK Recruiter smashes keyboard in anger… Why employees are leaving their jobs… Chatbots sabotaging female applicants… Gen Z being Gen Z. And much more Thanks to Indeed for your ongoing support. 

This week on Tapod we sit down with Angie Clarke—People Transformation & Experience Design Manager @KFC. Talent Function Transformation isn’t easy… Where do you start? What key metrics are you trying to improve? What’s the process & how do you sift through the tech? Within 3 months of implementation, KFC has seen drastic improvement in speed through the process, candidate experience, and hiring manager engagement—winner, winner chicken dinner! Thanks to Paradox for your support this month. 

Today on the Scoop the team from Tapod brings you all of the weekly TA & Recruitment News including… a massive acquisition in the HRTech space, working from home reserved for the elite… (except in Victoria), LinkedIn called out by industry, 20% of companies in the US impacted by DEI policy change, Gen Z accused of laziness… again. And much more. Thanks to Indeed for your ongoing support. 

This week on Tapod we sit down with the ultimate Swiss army knife of talent—Jo Vohland—to discuss exactly WTF is going on in the Talent Industry. Focusing on the ‘State of TA Report’ commissioned by ATC, we look at rumour vs reality. There is no issue left off the table, and we cover AI, DEI, RTO (a lot of acronyms), the future-looking recruiter, and much more. It’s a fascinating deep dive into real issues, challenges, and successes—we hope you’ll join us. Thanks to Paradox for your support this month.