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What’s The Secret To Better Talent Integration? With Mark Smith from The Kraft Heinz Company

Hear from Mark Smith, Head of Talent Acquisition at The Kraft Heinz Company, on the latest episode of The Talent Blueprint podcast.

Mark has been a Talent Leader for more than 20 years and has worked for a variety of world-class organizations. Before Kraft Heinz, Mark was Senior Director, Global Talent Acquisition, at SC Johnson. Here he implemented a new TA delivery model, which included establishing an employer brand team, executive hiring, and a focus on the candidate experience through one process and technology.

Mark discusses how he turned around the employer brand at Kraft Heinz, the power of leveraging leadership to drive change, and how to harness authenticity. How can TA teams ensure that talent is not only acquired but well integrated in an organization? How can they avoid becoming overly transactional as a team, and take a truly talent-centric perspective? 

“Keeping the TA organization closer to... not just, offer accepted and then next role, and you kind of stay over here in your lane... was to try and bring the organization a bit closer to the onboarding, and it gives us more skin in the game. And especially when it comes to things like employer branding and integrity of that; in terms of what we are selling to candidates, it has to be truly authentic.” - Mark Smith from The Kraft Heinz Company

Listen now

Talking points

  • The start of Mark’s journey
  • How Mark measures success
  • Biggest challenges
  • Lessons on mindset
  • Recipes for success
  • Hopes for the future

The Talent Blueprint podcast is for business leaders who understand the value of creating a talent-first culture, as well as HR and TA executives looking to do it at the highest level. Subscribe today and receive episodes every two weeks to guide you to become a talent-first organization, on Apple PodcastsSpotify, or Simplecast.

Discover more episodes of The Talent Blueprint podcast here.

About the Author

Sultan Murad Saidov is Co-Founder and President of Beamery. Sultan is a frequent speaker on AI, the Future of Work, and Talent Transformation, was listed in the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and is the host of the Talent Blueprint podcast.

Profile Photo of Sultan Saidov