TecHR Series Interview with Carrie Walecka, Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition at Brightcove

VP of Talent Acquisition at Brightcove, Carrie is passionate about connecting the right people with the right opportunities. Catch a glimpse of this interview where she talks about her journey into the recruitment industry, the role of video in hiring, and her biggest learnings from HR so far.

Tell us about yourself, Carrie. We’d love to know how your journey in the talent acquisition / recruitment industry has been. What have been some of your biggest learnings so far?

I am incredibly passionate about the business of hiring which is why I love what I do as the VP of Talent Acquisition at Brightcove. Not only do I love being on the front lines of an organization where I have the opportunity to tell our great story to potential employees, but it’s also great to hear the stories from candidates around the globe and why they want to work for us. People’s careers and how they have architected them fascinates me, and I feel lucky I get to speak to so many different people daily. 

Some things I’ve learned along the way are:

• While most hiring managers want to hire people “yesterday,” you cannot sacrifice quality for speed and need to take your time in selecting the right candidate. 
• The more transparent you are throughout the process – by involving the right interviewers, sharing enough content to show what happens behind the curtains (ideally via video), and setting expectations up front and throughout the process – the better your hiring outcome will be.  
• Great interviewers do not always turn out to be the best hires. This means it’s essential to interview effectively across the board and loop in as many people as possible to ask a variety of questions so that a candidate’s interviewing abilities do not overshadow their talents.

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You’ve often spoken about the importance (or benefits!) of using videos in the overall recruitment / interview process. Given that more and more tech companies today have a globally distributed team, it would be great to hear about your top 5 best practices when it comes to using videos for recruitment.

1. 1. Show off the culture as much as possible – the term “culture fit” is a big part of hiring new employees as you want someone that’s qualified skill-wise but also shares similar goals and visions as the team they are joining.
   2. Introduce the team – many times candidates don’t get a full glimpse of the entire team they would be joining until the second or third interview. Having team members give a quick introduction in the beginning via a video allows them to say what they love about the company and why this potential candidate would want to work there.
   3. Encourage a video back – instead of a standard resume, ask candidates to send a video back that shows off their best qualities and why they are the best for the company.
   4. Show off perks outside of the office – many companies offer office perks like weekly happy hours, company off-sites, team building activities, and more. Showing these additional perks allows candidates to see how employees connect outside of work in additional to inside the workplace.
   5. Be authentic – don’t just show what candidates want to see. Show the brand’s authenticity so you attract the talent that will be the best fit.

What are some of the biggest challenges recruiters in tech face today when it comes to hiring top-quality talent? How would you advise them to optimize their HR Tech stack to address this?

The talent pool is very competitive today, and since there are hundreds and even thousands of jobs posted daily, it can be challenging for recruiters to stand out from other companies looking for similar candidates. By leveraging more technology in the recruitment process (like video), recruiters are replacing the traditional job posting with an engaging form of content that is more eye catching to the candidate, and also gives a more accurate perception into what the job entails / what type of person they are looking for. 

Today’s technology stack or rather, new innovations in tech are changing how typical roles in tech or B2B are evolving or functioning, can you share some points/tips on how HR leaders or team managers across Marketing/Sales functions can contribute to a streamlined upskilling & re-skilling initiative using HR Tech?

1. 1. Host educational seminars (you can also live stream them) that show how new technologies are impacting your workforce. Whether it be a new employee engagement tool, or automation process, showing audiences how your company is enhancing business processes through modern tech is a good way to show your company is evolving alongside the tech industry
   2. Work with local schools and universities to educate the future of work on what technologies and skill sets they’ll need for their future work. This way once they graduate, they are ahead of the game when they apply and accept jobs, and they can also feel prepared for what their future role will entail. 

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What are your top 3 best practices when it comes to using HR analytics to drive better hiring/recruitment decisions? 

1. 1. Look beyond just skill-based metrics and see what other accomplishments and non-professional skills someone could bring to the team.
   2. Understand how your job postings are being interacted with. When using video, you can see basic metrics like how many people viewed, if they applied after watching, etc.
   3. What postings create the most job applicants – analytics can look at the content of each job posting and determine which ones are producing the most applicants and which need to be improved.

What do you think the HR Tech landscape will look like in the future, given the influence of AI and automation? How can companies prepare their workforce for these changes?

Today automation technology is already very prevalent in the workforce, but it hasn’t been used as much in HR. Soon, recruiters will be able to set up automation tasks that easily pull candidates based on their skill sets, past social & cultural experiences, and more. Also, when new emerging technologies and processes are introduced to a company, HR typically plays a large role in change management techniques to ensure staff are prepared and educated on how new tech and processes will impact their jobs. This can be done by offering continuous training to current (and new employees). Video is a great example here and can stored on-demand so employees can access at any time and know how to use technologies properly. 

Tag (mention/write about) one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would like to read.

Even though I’ve never met her, I’d love to hear what Kyle Ewing, Director of People Operations at Google, would say about her role at leading recruitment for such a large, well-known organization like Google. I can imagine that so many people would dream to work at a company like Google, so it would be really interesting to hear how she and her team sort through the thousands (if not more) applicants they receive daily, and what their internal processes look like to select the best fit. 

Any parting thoughts that you’d like to share – a motivational tip, work-life balance, etc.?

It takes talent to find talent. When you ask people why they love where they work so much, they almost always say “the people.” While leveraging technology allows us to keep up with the increasing pace of businesses today, and to also scale recruiting efforts efficiently, when you find great recruiting talent you need to recognize it and do everything you can to help grow that talented person. The magic of great recruiting comes together when the right people know how to use the right tools.  

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