Ken Bouchard, VP of Talent Strategy at BJ’s Wholesale Club, joins Rob to break down how he led a full-scale HR transformation—without losing sight of the business. From splitting strategic and ER functions, to killing off “HR vanity projects,” Ken explains how he restructured his team to be faster, sharper, and more aligned to outcomes. Plus, he shares why some projects should be shelved even if they succeed, what HR can learn from restaurants, and how a little time in Iceland goes a long way for clarity.

Key Takeaways:

• Why BJ’s split employee relations from strategic HR—and how it improved both

• How to kill off “HR vanity projects” (even the successful ones)

• A practical framework for aligning HR work to real business outcomes

• Why HR pros should treat internal teams like customers

• The value of front-of-house/back-of-house thinking in HR org design

• Why experience across multiple HR domains leads to better leadership

• How to grow your career in HR when key processes only happen once a year

• The importance of postmortems—even when things go well

Ken Bouchard on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

A Soundbeam Studios Production

Trisha Degg joins Rob to unpack her zigzagging path through sales, HR, venture capital, and back to the hiring trenches as Head of Global TA at Rush Street Interactive. She shares how “Googling her way through HR” (pre-AI!) made her a sharper TA leader, why she hired a former recruiter to wrangle ATS chaos, and how her team is using AI to reverse-engineer their best hires. From global hiring hurdles to cleaning up messy data, Trisha proves that building scalable talent processes is as much about grit as it is strategy—plus, there's tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes

Key takeaways:

• Why cross-functional experience makes for stronger talent leaders

• How to clean up and future-proof your ATS and headcount data

• The value of hiring scrappy, fast learners into ops roles

• Using AI to identify common traits among top performers

• Tips for globalizing recruiting processes across 20+ countries

• How to build a strong CPO relationship (and why it matters)

Trisha Degg on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

A Soundbeam Studios Production

TTTM welcomes back Dom Farnan, who shares her journey from being the CEO of DotConnect to her current role as Head of Business Recruiting at Groq. Dom discusses the challenges and learnings from her transition, the importance of communication in leadership, and the need for a tailored recruiting process that aligns with the company's values. She emphasizes the significance of educating hiring managers about the recruitment process and the importance of choosing the right clients for successful partnerships. Dom also shares insights on assessing talent and the qualities that make a great recruiter, concluding with her thoughts on curiosity as a key value in recruitment.

Dom Farnan on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

A Soundbeam Studios Production