Interview with expert talent leader James Gardner
James Gardner has spent the last twenty years helping growth technology companies to build world-class talent functions.
We caught up with James to get his perspective on his career so far, building market-leading talent functions and how to approach hiring in the context of a high growth technology company.
How has your career evolved so far?
I began my recruitment career at Mortimer Spinks, an offshoot of Harvey Nash, during a period of rapid growth in the technology industry, where the role was highly sales-driven. I then transitioned into executive search, founding a firm that supported financial institutions, consultancies, and technology organisations in navigating post-2008 financial regulatory changes.
I later joined Cielo, where I aided the growth of the company’s Middle Eastern capability, before moving to Dixons Carphone as a member of the Group Resourcing leadership team. There, I developed an internal executive search function and as part of the Resourcing Leadership Team developed the strategy to successfully hire up to 7,000 employees across corporate and retail operations while transforming the talent acquisition team into a strategic advisory partner for hiring managers.
Following my tenure at Dixons Carphone, I joined a Danish private equity-backed software company, Planday, to build its talent acquisition function. Over the past seven years, I have focused on scaling venture capital and private equity-backed technology businesses. I specialize in crafting talent strategies to drive organisational scale and success.
Do you think it is beneficial as a recruiter to have experience working both in an agency and an in-house recruitment team?
Yes, I believe it is highly beneficial for a recruiter to have experience in both agency and in-house recruitment, as they are fundamentally different experiences.
The key differences lie in the scope of work, pace, and the relationships with internal hiring managers and candidates. When building talent acquisition teams for fast-scaling tech businesses, I often sought individuals from the agency market because they were accustomed to the high demand and fast pace required. However, these individuals often lacked experience in cultivating strong, sustainable relationships with internal hiring managers.
As an in-house recruiter, the focus shifts to identifying candidates who are the best fit for the organisation’s culture and long-term goals. In contrast, an agency recruiter operates their desk like a small business, navigating a highly competitive, sales-driven environment.
Working in-house also provides deeper insight into the organisation’s strategic objectives and allows for a focus on medium- to long-term outcomes. Agency work, on the other hand, is often more short-term, with immediate commercial pressures. In an agency, if placements are not made, the business is directly impacted. In-house recruitment supports the organisation’s growth but is not the lifeblood of the business in the same way.
Ultimately, having experience on both sides of the fence makes you a more well-rounded talent professional. Whether you are referred to as a recruiter or a talent partner, the ultimate goal is the same: to ensure the organisation secures the talent it needs to succeed.
Rapidly growing early-stage businesses are often very light in recruitment technology and infrastructure. You have worked in a variety of environments from an early-stage VC-backed companies to a later-stage PE-backed and public companies. What are some of the hurdles that internal recruiters in those companies encounter?
Talent acquisition in high-growth companies demands a combination of speed, strategic foresight, adaptability, and agility. Rapid scaling often makes it challenging to preserve the company culture, requiring a delicate balance between meeting the urgent demand for talent and maintaining the organisation’s core values. Embracing technology and fostering strong relationships with hiring managers are also essential to success.
Hiring needs in such environments are often unpredictable and sporadic. With the business constantly evolving, it can be difficult to forecast recruitment requirements six months ahead. This unpredictability requires a talent function that is both responsive and flexible.
At the same time, scaling recruitment processes to meet growing demands without compromising quality is critical. Speed is important, but so is ensuring that candidates are thoroughly vetted, aligned with cultural values, and provided with an exceptional candidate experience. The foundation of successful scaling lies in having operational processes and technology that can seamlessly support hiring, whether it’s for ten roles or a hundred.
How do in-house recruiters find candidates?
In a small organisation, a talent acquisition team can typically function with very few members. This team would include a “player-manager” who oversees both strategic and operational direction, a sourcing specialist focused on candidate research and energising the talent funnel, and possibly a recruiter dedicated to assessment and selection. Traditional agency recruitment processes often fail to scale quickly, so the goal should be to create what I call “gravitational pull” – attracting talent to your organisation instead of chasing them. This approach is faster, more cost-effective, and more sustainable.
The decision to use external support depends on your internal capabilities and specific circumstances. For example, at Planday, we needed to hire 40 app developers in four months. Recognising that our internal team couldn’t meet this demand, we engaged a specialist external agency, which successfully delivered. The decision comes down to factors like cost, urgency, scarcity, speed, and the organisational impact of failing to fill critical roles. For highly specialised positions, in-house teams may lack the niche expertise required, making external support the better choice.
Scaling quickly also requires leveraging technology and innovation. At Distributed, I designed a recruitment funnel inspired by the company’s sales processes. We used a tool called CandidateID, to utilise the customer acquisition funnel strategy to market the organisation to potential employees, running employer branding campaigns, and creating content that made our business top of mind for prospective candidates. By building awareness and engagement upfront, we made it easier to convert talent when roles became available.
Using tools such as CandidateID, we created multi-step marketing campaigns to nurture potential candidates. The first step often involved sharing valuable content about the organisation or market insights. If candidates engaged with this content, we would follow up with direct outreach or invite them to explore our careers page or talent community. Automating this process saved significant time and ensured consistent candidate engagement. Through this strategy I enabled an x10 scale and a 90% reduction in cost of acquisition.
Social media also played a crucial role in driving interest. On LinkedIn, for instance, I launched a series called “A Day in the Life of,” showcasing the experiences of our team members to humanise the brand and attract talent.
Additionally, a strong employee referral programme is invaluable for rapid scaling. In a company of 100 employees aiming to grow to 500, each employee likely knows 20–30 professionals in their field. A positive culture and employee experience naturally lead to high-quality referrals, which can significantly speed up recruitment.
If you were hired as the Head of Talent in a fast growing technology company, and were the first internal recruitment related hire, how would you approach the role?
To scale effectively, it’s crucial to understand the organisation’s values and commercial goals while ensuring the employee value proposition (EVP) is clear and compelling. The EVP will be a key driver in attracting talent at the pace required for growth. It’s equally important to assess how much the business is willing to invest in recruitment and evaluate the sophistication of its technology. For example, does the organisation have a proper applicant tracking system (ATS), or is recruitment still managed on spreadsheets? Technology is a critical enabler of efficient and scalable processes.
For small businesses, maintaining a strong presence on platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor is essential. These platforms are often the first stop for candidates conducting market research, and they play a significant role in shaping perceptions of your organisation. Consistently sharing positive messages about the company is key – showcasing what it’s like to work there, what skill sets are valued, and what success looks like in the organisation.
By proactively promoting your culture and opportunities in a positive manner, you can significantly reduce both recruitment costs and time to hire. Projecting the right image not only attracts talent but also helps build a pipeline of candidates who are already excited about the organisation, making the recruitment process faster and more cost-effective.
Each scaling organisation has it’s own specific identity and it is critical to understand what this is and how this will impact your decisions when establishing a TA function. There are numerous factors to consider such as, strategic alignment and vision, organisation structure and goals, team roles and responsibilities, process design, technology and tools and what is the current employer branding status of the organisation. However the most important factor is creating a data led function, start as you mean to go on and ensure that the foundations of the function enable it to scale to align with the organisation as it evolves.
See also:
- James Gardner’s LinkedIn profile can be found here
- Our guide to different interview techniques