Themes Discussed:‍

1. Transforming Recruitment Practices: Carolina shares the shift from an administrative recruitment function to a proactive and strategic Talent Acquisition team, focusing on centralization and efficiency
2. Challenges of Change Management: The episode highlights the complexities of driving change in recruitment, including overcoming resistance from leadership and implementing new tools and processes.
3. Building Scalable Systems: Carolina discusses the importance of designing recruitment systems that can grow with the business without adding extra headcount, focusing on automation and technology.
4. Leadership Buy-in and Collaboration: The importance of getting leadership support to make necessary investments in technology and restructuring recruitment processes.

Key Takeaways:

• Shifting from reactive recruitment to a strategic Talent Acquisition function requires strong leadership support and well-structured business cases.
• Scalable and automated recruitment processes can significantly reduce operational costs and improve efficiency, but require careful change management to succeed.
• Trusting in a well-designed recruitment process and continuously evaluating the success of hires are crucial to long-term success in recruitment strategies.

Shownotes:

• [00:00] - Introduction: Host Kristoffer introduces Carolina Manelsson and sets the stage for the episode, focusing on her role at Apoteket AB and the topic of transforming recruitment processes and talent acquisition strategies.
• [00:42] - Carolina’s Career Journey: Carolina shares her professional background, detailing her transition from various HR roles in the public sector and consulting to her current position at Apoteket.
• [02:16] - Role at Apoteket: Carolina explains her responsibilities as Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding Lead, emphasizing the strategic aspects of her role in a large organization with over 3,000 employees.
• [03:22] - Team Structure and Recruitment Scope: Carolina describes the structure of her Talent Acquisition team and how they manage recruitment for a wide range of roles across Apoteket’s operations.
• [05:10] - Driving Recruitment Transformation: The conversation delves into Carolina's experience leading a major transformation in recruitment at Apoteket, focusing on centralizing processes and implementing new tools and methodologies.
• [06:40] - Cost Management and Centralization: Carolina discusses the challenges of managing recruitment costs, particularly the move away from external recruitment agencies and the development of an in-house recruitment process.
• ‍[09:11] - Shifting from Administration to Strategy: Carolina explains how her team shifted from an administrative focus to a strategic talent acquisition function, prioritizing high-quality hires and scalable solutions.
• [12:00] - Leadership Buy-In and Business Case Development: Carolina talks about building a business case to secure leadership support for recruitment changes, highlighting the importance of demonstrating cost savings and efficiency improvements.
• ‍[19:26] - Process Implementation and Challenges: The episode explores the difficulties of implementing new recruitment processes and how Carolina’s team worked closely with hiring managers to ensure smooth adoption.
• [32:02] - The Role of Talent Acquisition Partners: Carolina describes how her team acts as strategic partners to business leaders, emphasizing the importance of building relationships and understanding long-term talent needs.
• [39:46] - Measuring Recruitment Success: The conversation touches on how Carolina's team measures the success of their recruitment initiatives, including candidate performance and retention rates.
• [44:13] - Key Learnings and Future Plans: Carolina reflects on the biggest lessons learned from the transformation and shares her vision for the future of talent acquisition at Apoteket, including further process optimization and leveraging technology like AI.