We sit down with Martin Hauck, a fractional HR consultant at the Purple Umbrella and the founder of the People People Group, a community of 5,000+ HR, recruitment, and operations professionals across North America. Martin brings his extensive experience in reimagining recruitment processes and building supportive HR communities.

In this episode, we explore why traditional hiring practices often fail and how companies can make meaningful improvements to their recruitment strategies. Martin shares insights on why companies keep making the same hiring mistakes even when they clearly aren't working, and how inherited bad habits perpetuate throughout organizations.

We discuss the critical importance of auditing and modernizing hiring approaches, the hidden biases that even progressive companies unknowingly harbor, and the revolutionary concept of treating candidates as customers. Martin highlights the Virgin Media case study, where poor candidate experience cost the company millions annually, and shares practical strategies for creating more thoughtful, structured, and candidate-centered recruitment processes that pay dividends in the long term.

Resources Mentioned

• Virgin Media Case Study: How poor candidate experience cost Virgin Media £4.4 million ($5.4 million) annually and the steps they took to turn it around.

Connect with Martin Hauck

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martinhauck
• Podcast: From A People Perspective - Martin's podcast about fascinating professionals in HR and recruitment
• Community: The People People Group - A 5,000+ member community for HR, recruitment, and operations professionals
• Company: Purple Umbrella - A fractional HR and recruitment consultancy

Show Resources

• 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
• Willo: willo.video - The most cost-effective way to screen candidates at scale. Interview candidates anywhere & at any time
• Connect with the Hosts:
  • Andrew "Woody" Wood: linkedin.com/in/andrew-douglas-wood
  • Anita Chauhan: linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan