エピソード

  • 315: Reference Checking with James Lord
    2026/10/19
    James Lord says a background check tells you whether someone has been convicted of a crime, but a reference tells you about their character. He has spent nearly 20 years in HR tech, and the last decade of it focused on references. In 2025 he joined Refapp, a Swedish platform bringing structured, evidence-based reference checks to North America. Plenty of companies skip references or treat them like a box to tick. James says that’s a risk, especially when you’re hiring for roles that come with trust and access. With AI-polished resumes and teams that are only in the office part of the week, he argues that a real reference is how you learn how someone behaves when you aren’t watching. If you’ve ever skipped references to close a req faster, or called a candidate’s friend and learned nothing, this conversation is for you. In this episode, you’ll hear: How reference checking differs from background checking, and why people mix them up Why letting candidates pick any reference they want gets you nothing useful The 180% ROI James calculates for structured reference checks How to get references from people whose companies forbid giving them Why interviews miss counterproductive work behaviors like bullying How one reference turned into a brand-new candidate Why James’s upcoming DisruptHR talk is called “The Reference Check Is a Lie” Start your extended free trial of Refapp: https://www.refapp.com/hey-laurie-friend 00:00 - Intro 02:33 - References vs. background checks 03:53 - Taking the subjectivity out of references 06:38 - The ROI of checking references 08:40 - How Refapp works inside the ATS 09:54 - Who writes the reference questions 11:46 - Keeping reference answers confidential 13:09 - Getting around no-reference company policies 15:50 - The risks of skipping reference checks 19:01 - Making the need-to-have case 21:04 - Winning over reference check skeptics 22:19 - How Refapp differs from competitors 24:29 - Marathons and life outside work 26:33 - James’s upcoming DisruptHR talk
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    34 分
  • 314: Job Searching with Stefanie Fackrell
    2026/10/06
    Stefanie Fackrell was laid off in 2023 and decided to bet on herself. The next two years tested that bet hard. Her brother, who was also her best friend, was killed by a drunk driver in 2024, and a year later she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She kept building her business through all of it, and she kept showing up online to help people find work. She's now head of talent for two venture-backed startups through her firm, dysruptiveHR, and she isn't sugarcoating the market. Many white-collar tech jobs aren't coming back, and most of the job search advice flooding your feed is wrong. If you've been laid off or think you might be next, this conversation is for you. In this episode, you'll hear: Why two hours a day on job boards beats eight Using AI to tighten your resume, not write it Five solid resumes vs. a custom one for every job What actually gets people hired at the startups she recruits for The thank-you note myth Why your ego shouldn't keep you from a bridge job Chapters: 00:00 - The jobs that aren't coming back 01:58 - Who Stefanie is and why she gives job search advice 04:32 - Grief, cancer, and posting the personal on LinkedIn 08:04 - The job market in 2026 09:36 - Why two hours on job boards is enough 12:22 - AI, resumes, and the customization trap 15:34 - What actually gets people hired 18:09 - Bad advice: follow-up emails and thank-you notes 22:05 - The case for a bridge job 29:36 - Laurie's three takeaways
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    35 分
  • 309: Closing the AI Confidence Gap with Gemma Versace
    2026/06/01
    The CEO is pumped. The engineers are burnt out. And HR is the last to know. Gemma Versace is Chief Client Officer at X-Team, and her company's research on AI talent strategy should be required reading for every HR leader. The confidence gap between executives and the people actually doing the work is wide, and the organizations that ignore it are losing their best people. If you work in HR and you've ever felt like AI strategy happens around you instead of with you, this conversation is for you. In this episode, you'll hear: The gap between executive confidence and practitioner reality on AI talent What that disconnect looks like inside a real organization Why HR reports the lowest AI confidence of any function Why job description clarity predicts AI maturity more than budget The difference between naming governance as a problem and fixing it Why most organizations can't prove AI ROI to finance Why long-term embedded partners outperform short-term contractors
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    35 分
  • 308: Leading Into the Unknown with Tameka Vasquez
    2026/05/25
    Tameka Vasquez grew up in tech, where moving fast and breaking things was gospel. Then she started working with leaders outside that world and realized the gospel didn't travel. Most leaders, she found, are only equipped for change they've already seen. Everything else gets met with fear. That's the gap she has spent her career trying to close. Not by predicting the future, but by changing how leaders relate to it. Her framework, SHIFT™, treats the future as a verb. Something you do, not somewhere you arrive. The goal isn't certainty. The goal is building enough capacity to lead when nothing is certain. If you're tired of the inevitability narrative, the one that says the future is already decided and your job is just to comply, this conversation is for you. In this episode, you'll hear: How growing up in tech shaped Tameka's assumptions about change, and what working in slower-moving industries taught her about how rare those assumptions are The story of her Guyanese heritage and why multigenerational survival in precarious conditions is the personal foundation underneath all of her professional work Why she no longer tries to clear a credentials bar that keeps moving, and what she says instead when someone asks what qualifies her A full walkthrough of the SHIFT™ framework and why she calls it a practice rather than a program The false binary between being first and getting left behind, and why the whole spectrum in between is where most real strategy lives Her argument that discomfort with inevitability is a more honest starting point than certainty, and why she works with that discomfort rather than around it Why outsourcing critical thinking to institutions and thought leaders is cultural laziness, and what leaders actually need to do instead
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    48 分