In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Tricia Bailey, Director Executive Recruiting at Chime, a high-growth fintech startup in San Francisco.

Tricia has been in the recruiting industry for 20 years. She has held a variety of in-house and search firm roles at established firms which include Heidrick & Struggles, Kaiser Permanente, and Caldwell Partners, before going on to lead Global Head of Executive Search at Twitter.

Listen in as Tricia describes the differences between agency and in-house recruiters and the unique strengths that individuals in either profession need to possess to succeed. She also explains why she believes the contingency model to be flawed and not an ideal long-term path for many in the recruiting industry.

Tricia also speaks on the value of service-oriented leadership, through which every member of the recruiting team is empowered to make their own decisions and step into a variety of sometimes unforeseen tasks when needed, through their own initiative.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

● [01:54] From law to recruitment

● [08:58] Why the contingency model is broken

● [13:12] From agency to in-house recruitment

● [19:48] Advice to agency recruiters looking to transition to in-house

● [23:58] The Chime difference

● [27:42] Building a successful team of recruiters

● [34:52] Tricia’s leadership style

● [43:45] The importance of flexibility among a recruiting team

Key quotes:

● “I’ve always questioned the logic behind some of the contingency models in that, not only have you not won anything—you’re generally being paid less on a percentage basis than you are at the retained level.”

● “We do a lot of research on the front end to partner with our hiring leaders to have a very nuanced and realistic sense of what talent is out there and what the role would offer those individuals, so that we can be very targeted in the reach-out we do.”

● “If you focus on the quality of the work and having a motivated team, the metrics take care of themselves.”

● “Any recruiter on the team should be able to step in for another person to run an interview debrief.”