Headcount is not a growth strategy. But in high-pressure, high-growth environments, adding people feels like the most immediate lever — and it gets pulled too early, too often, and without enough clarity about what problem it's actually solving.

The companies that scale well don't just hire more. They hire differently. They have a clearer picture of what they're optimising for before they open a role, and they treat team design as a strategic question rather than a reactive one.

Mike Bettley, Senior Director of Talent at StackAdapt — one of Canada's most recognised high-growth adtech companies — has built and scaled hiring functions that have to perform under real pressure. In this episode of Looks Good on Paper, he breaks down what separates companies that scale cleanly from companies that bloat and stall, how to know when adding headcount will help versus when it will make things worse, and what a mature workforce planning process looks like before you're already in crisis mode.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• The signals that tell you it's time to hire versus time to optimise
• How high-growth companies think about team design before opening a role
• The headcount planning practices that prevent over-hiring cycles
  
  

Guest:

Mike Bettley — Senior Director of Talent, StackAdapt

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbettley/

Hosts: Anita Chauhan

High-growth companies that scale well treat headcount as a last resort, not a first response. Before opening a role, they ask what outcome the hire is meant to produce and whether that outcome can be achieved by redesigning how existing capacity is deployed. Companies that skip this question tend to over-hire, bloat their org, and face painful corrections 12 to 18 months later.

─── FOLLOW & CONNECT ───

If this changed how you think about hiring, follow the show — we're one episode per week.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SO5y6HAasME

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dbfz6y0tMq3crViHQD66H

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1625835562

Try Willo — video interviewing for skills-based hiring: https://www.willo.video/looks-good-on-paper

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10170893

RELATED TOPICS

Talent acquisition strategy, workforce planning, scaling teams, skills-based hiring, high-growth startups, future of work, HR strategy

Show Resources

• Willo: willo.video - The most cost-effective way to screen candidates at scale. Interview candidates anywhere & at any time
• CV Free Toolkit: cvfree.me/join - Break up with the CV and get everything you need to modernize your hiring approach with skills-based assessments
• Anita Chauhan: linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan - Connect with the host