Hosting my first live panel at Tide HQ for our latest Talent Behind the Screen event was equal parts exciting and intimidating. The session focused on scaling up and scaling down talent functions, and I was joined by two brilliant TA leaders, Cheryl White, Director of Talent Acquisition at Tide, and Rachel Barr, Group Head of Talent Acquisition at IG. Sitting in the moderator seat gave me a very real view of how senior TA leaders are thinking about flexibility, risk and reputation when things are uncertain.
One of the biggest themes was that flexibility in TA is now non-negotiable. High growth is no longer just “we are hiring lots of people”, it is about where, when and for how long you need that hiring capacity. Both Cheryl and Rachel talked about moving away from rigid “X roles equals Y recruiters” models and towards a smaller permanent core team supported by flexible capacity on top, whether that is embedded partners, contractors or project based support. TA leaders are expected to show how they can flex, not just scale.
I also took away how important early warning signs are. Red flags often show up long before a formal announcement, whether that is finance suddenly asking for more detailed reports, budgets being revisited line by line, requisitions quietly being put on hold or subtle culture shifts. Both speakers talked about gut feel backed by data. The closer you are to your stakeholders and their priorities, the faster you can start planning for change instead of waiting to be told that change is coming.
Another strong message was that TA should not be the first place to cut. We talked about the damage of treating TA as a tap that is switched off and on, then having to rebuild teams and pay agency fees when hiring ramps up again. Better options included redeploying recruiters into people ops, L&D or talent management, using slower periods to clear the project backlog, and investing in internal mobility so TA can support other parts of HR when hiring slows. Alongside that, communication came up again and again. Being honest in real time, cascading updates soon after leadership meetings, using open Q&A sessions and being clear on what you can and cannot share yet all help keep teams informed without fuelling gossip. Cheryl’s point about framing change as opportunity, not just threat, was something that really stuck with me.
Even though the session was about scaling down as much as scaling up, we kept circling back to candidate experience and pipelines. A good interview process, with real feedback and thoughtful follow up, creates candidates who will re-engage with you in future even if they do not get the role first time. That, plus consistent pipelining, is what makes it possible to move quickly when hiring bounce back. Rachel’s story about not getting a role at Lego but still naming them as a dream employer summed up the long tail impact of doing this well. AI also came up, but in a very grounded way. Both speakers see it as a useful productivity tool for tasks like drafting, research, admin and handling volume, not a magic fix that lets you quietly remove the human side of TA. The more interesting opportunity is using AI to free up time for deeper work, not to justify cutting heads and hoping the tech will cover the gaps.
Hosting this panel gave me a front row seat to how TA leaders are really thinking about flexibility, headcount, AI and candidate experience when the ground under them is shifting. If you were in the room, thank you for the questions and energy. If you were not, you can listen to the event audio on YouTube or Spotify using the link here TA insights and more… – Listen on YouTube, Spotify – Linktree