Talent Acquisition Leaders Podcast - Recruiting, Staffing, Human Resources

Most TA leaders are measuring the wrong things. Victor Gaines has spent 20 years fixing that.

As AVP of Talent Acquisition at Wellstar Health Systems, where his team hires 14,000+ people annually, Victor has led recruiting innovations across healthcare, fintech, food service, and media.

In this conversation, he shares the real work behind two of his proudest career wins: cutting turnover by 60% at Comcast using a validated assessment tool, and rebuilding clinical hiring at Aveanna from scratch during COVID by going fully digital and improving efficiency by 200%.

But none of it works if you're solving the wrong problem.

Listen in as Victor breaks down how to identify what your business actually needs, why most TA dashboards are "decoration," and how to build the credibility that earns you a seat at the table.

Key Takeaways:

[01:59] What shaped Victor's approach to solving TA problems at scale.
[04:25] How a validated assessment at Comcast reduced turnover by 60%.
[08:10] Building a fully digital hiring engine at Aveanna during COVID.
[13:32] The framework Victor uses to identify business priorities.
[18:51] The ‘5 Whys’ to identify the root cause of business pain.
[20:40] How a phased adoption strategy is making Phenom CRM stick at Wellstar.
[25:39] How to safeguard your priorities and say no without being seen as difficult.
[29:00] ROI, sunk cost fallacy, and smarter HR tech decisions

Resources Mentioned:

Victor Gaines: LinkedIn
Ryan Dull: LinkedIn | ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com
Wellstar Health System
Aveanna Healthcare
Phenom
ICIMS
HighMatch
Paradox
Workday US

Ideas Worth Sharing:

"You can spend millions of dollars trying to solve the wrong problem. Once you understand the problem, your success becomes much easier." - Victor Graines
“You also have to know where the real issues often are. And I think… 80+% of the time, it's something in the business. It might be comp. It might be hiring managers not doing the right thing…  And you find power in finding the truth and then speaking truth.” - Victor Graines
“Having a meaningful strategy gives you leverage for saying yes where you need to say yes, and no where you need to say no.” - Victor Graines

About Victor Gaines:

Victor P. Gaines, II is the AVP of Talent Acquisition at Wellstar Health System, where his team manages over 14,000 hires annually. With nearly two decades of executive TA experience across healthcare, fintech, telecommunications, and consumer goods, he has led high-volume recruiting transformations at companies including Comcast, Fiserv, Cigna, Aveanna Healthcare, and Papa John's. He holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Kentucky and a Master's in Organizational Psychology from St. Joseph's University.

This episode is brought to you by SageMark HR.

SageMark HR can help you:

✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.
✔ Identify opportunities to improve your talent practices and deliver tangible business results.
✔ Bridge the gap from "traditional" to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.

Learn more at www.sagemarkhr.com

#Talent #Recruiting #HRTech

On this episode, Ryan Dull is joined by John Heyliger, Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition at Lockheed Martin. They discuss how one of the world’s largest defense organizations is modernizing talent acquisition, shifting toward skills-based hiring, embedding AI into recruiter workflows and tying TA outcomes directly to business performance. John shares practical insights on workforce planning, operational excellence, and what it takes to evolve from recruiter to strategic talent advisor.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.
01:00 John's journey to talent acquisition and the roles that shaped his path.
03:00 Lockheed Martin’s scale, footprint and annual hiring volume.
04:00 The team modernizes HR and TA with a new ATS and HCM rollout, plus broader enterprise transformation and AI enablement.
05:00 TA success metrics go beyond time to fill, including candidate quality signals and funnel efficiency.
07:00 Tying recruiting speed to business outcomes — including faster hiring, enabling faster revenue recognition in some programs.
08:00 Short-term priorities include AI readiness, recruiter productivity gains, candidate experience and skills-based assessment pilots.
10:00 Candidate fraud and AI-generated résumés increase the need for stronger selection, detection and assessment practices.
12:00 Skills-based transformation requires “skills, roles and mobility.”
14:00 AI skill matching introduces adoption risks on both ends: too much skepticism or too much trust in the matching output.
18:00 Workforce planning is a strategic advantage when the business owns demand and HR owns supply, reducing reactive TA.

Resources Mentioned:

John Heyliger
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stem-workforce-transformation-data/

Lockheed Martin
https://www.linkedin.com/company/lockheed-martin/

Josh Bersin
https://joshbersin.com/talent-acquisition-revolution/

This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.

Sagemark HR can help you:

✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.

After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.

✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results.

We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.

✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.

We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

#Talent #Recruiting #HRTech

Building talent at enterprise scale requires more than efficient hiring — it demands a long-term commitment to capability, culture and growth. On this episode, host Ryan Dull is joined by Astad Dhunjisha, Vice President Human Resources - Talent Acquisition and Learning & Development at AT&T. They dive into Astad’s career journey, how AT&T hires and develops tens of thousands of employees each year, and why shifting from process-driven recruiting to talent-driven TA is essential for building a future-ready workforce. The episode also explores how skills-based hiring, internal mobility and emerging AI capabilities are reshaping how large organizations think about talent.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.
02:35 Astad shares how his broad HR background shapes his long-term focus on talent acquisition.
05:47 AT&T’s brand recognition streamlines candidate engagement across roles.
10:07 A leadership vision balances internal expertise with external perspectives.
12:19 A shift in TA to proactive talent hunting and future-facing employer-brand positioning.
15:10 Middle managers often grow internally through mobility and upskilling.
18:39 Skills-based hiring emerges as a key priority.
21:13 A university class dedicated to TA reflects its growing importance.
24:43 A strong eye for talent remains critical, despite AI-driven résumés.

Resources Mentioned:

Astad Dhunjisha
https://www.linkedin.com/in/astad-dhunjisha

AT&T | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/att/

AT&T | Website
https://www.att.com/

University of Texas at Dallas
https://www.utdallas.edu

This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.

Sagemark HR can help you:

✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.

After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.

✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results.

We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.

✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.

We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:

www.sagemarkhr.com
✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

#Talent #Recruiters #HRTech

The journey into talent acquisition is rarely linear, and this episode brings that to life as host Ryan Dull sits down with Stef Nikitas, Director of TA at Ace Hardware Corporation, to explore her global career path and the transformation of TA at one of the most recognized brands in retail. They discuss the unique recruiting challenges created by Ace Hardware’s cooperative store model, the evolution of TA operations over the past decade and how Stef has driven major initiatives in process design, technology, data and candidate experience. She also reflects on how COVID accelerated change, why quality must replace quantity in hiring and how AI and automation continue to reshape the TA landscape.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.
02:34 Stef fell into TA after a three-year HR apprenticeship in Germany.
07:01 Ace Hardware stores are independently owned and operated.
09:53 Hiring was siloed, driving the need to centralize TA.
11:56 Peak season becomes “speed dating” to hit staffing levels fast.
15:16 Grace, their chatbot, automates candidate care and keeps applicants engaged.
18:17 TA shifted from volume metrics to a deeper focus on quality of hire.
22:07 The career site was relaunched, and AI helped realign recruiter levels.
25:43 Be a sponge, say yes often and own your development.

Resources Mentioned:

Stef Nikitas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/snikitas/

Ace Hardware Corporation | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/acehardwarecorp/

Ace Hardware Corporation | Website
http://www.acehardware.com

This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.

Sagemark HR can help you:

✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.

After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.

✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results.

We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.

✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.

We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

#Talent #Recruiting #HRTech

The future of TA is changing quickly, and leaders who embrace adaptability, data and technology are setting the pace. Host Ryan Dull sits down with Daja Davis, Director of Talent Acquisition at Avis Budget Group, to explore her career journey, the transformation of Avis Budget Group’s hiring strategy, and the mindset required for long-term success in TA. They discuss Daja’s non-linear path from retail to admissions to automotive recruiting, how she leads high-volume hiring across the Northeast and Central regions, and the innovations shaping their TA function today.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.
02:30 Daja describes her path from retail to TA and her passion for recruiting.
04:25 Avis Budget Group is a global mobility provider with a large regional TA structure.
05:54 TA transformation centered on process, people and technology.
08:06 This year’s TA priorities focus on consistency, fulfillment, experience and retention.
10:10 Technician hiring surged after strengthening organization and pipeline management.
12:06 A focus on urgency led to structured outreach and faster interview scheduling.
13:11 Growth isn’t always vertical — lateral moves can unlock bigger opportunities.
14:25 The future of recruiting focuses on adaptability and embracing change.

Resources Mentioned:

Daja Davis
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dajadavis

Avis Budget Group | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/avis-budget-group

Avis Budget Group | Website
https://www.avisbudgetgroup.com/

"Miles" - Avis Budget's AI chat tool
https://www.avisbudgetgroup.jobs/

This episode is brought to you by Sagemark HR.

Sagemark HR can help you:

✔ Improve your talent practices and make better, more informed people decisions.

After 20+ years of experience leading Recruiting and Talent Acquisition across a wide variety of industries, I've seen enough hires (over 100,000 to date) to know that hiring decisions truly can make or break an organization.

✔ Identify opportunities to not only improve your talent practices, but also delivering tangible business results.

We understand every organization is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic solution. So we listen first and identify the gaps and sticking points in your current process before ever recommending a solution.

✔ Bridge the gap from “traditional” to modern recruiting, without the painful learning curve.

We believe recruiting, talent, and HR technology is a deep well of untapped business potential, and our mission is to help you identify and implement those hiring tools in a way that works for you.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can reach me at:
www.sagemarkhr.com
✉ ryan.dull@sagemarkhr.com

#Talent #Recruiters #Recruiting