The boys sit down with Chloé Rada, Senior Director of Talent Attraction at ZoomInfo. With over two decades of experience, Chloé’s here to school us on how to build an employer brand that doesn’t scream “we’re trying too hard.”
Chloé talks about her mission to snag top-tier engineering talent while rolling out international internship programs—because apparently ZoomInfo doesn’t have enough geniuses yet. She champions trial-and-error innovation, which is HR speak for “we might mess up, but hey, it’ll be memorable.”
From aligning employer branding with people ops to navigating the workplace vibes during global chaos, she’s got hot takes and strategies that actually work. Oh, and she’s planning to revamp the tech stack by 2025, proving that even in HR, you gotta stay one software update ahead of the competition.
Chloé also drops pro tips like leveraging employee advocacy, video storytelling, and LinkedIn (yes, LinkedIn—again) to network like a boss. If you’re ready to rethink talent attraction or just want to hear someone blend HR insights with a healthy dose of wit, this episode’s for you.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
Intro: Hide your kids. Lock the doors. You're listening to HR's Most Dangerous Podcast. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where it hurts. Complete with breaking news, brash opinion, and loads of snark. Buckle up, boys and girls. It's time for the Chad and Cheese Podcast.
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Joel: Thanks for sitting down with us today. Who are you and why are you here?
Chloé Rada: Sure. I am Chloé Rada. I currently work for ZoomInfo. I manage our employer branding and our recruitment operations. And so I'm a first-time RecFest attendee.
Joel: Okay.
Chad: Ooh.
Chloé Rada: I'm also hosting the Inspire Stage this afternoon with my lovely co-host, Allison Cruz. So, I'm pretty excited 'cause a lot of the folks I've known in the industry for a while. And we're gonna talk about what has been inspirational, why people are here. For me, it's all about the community and the connection. If I wouldn't be here in my role today, if it wasn't for the community, having grown up in the industry... I rely so heavily on the people surrounding me, like yourselves, who've known each other for a very long time; and especially when times get tough, those are the people that you need to lean on even more so.
Chad: Yeah, yeah. So, moving into out of, pretty much into Q4, but looking toward 2025, what advice would you have for your peers moving into next year?
Chloé Rada: Don't be afraid to build a plane as you fly it. I always like to think about things from a process standpoint. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, right? And it's okay to fail. And find a safe space where you can do some trial and error, and have some risks. I think find a place that you can feel comfortable being yourself and then also allowing yourself to fail fast.
Joel: How many employees are at ZoomInfo?
Chloé Rada: 3,500.
Joel: 3,500.
Chloé Rada: Whoo, yeah. Sorry.
Joel: So, not huge...
Chloé Rada: Yes.
Joel: But not small. Talk about how you look at branding from that middle zone. And is there some gorilla mixed with, we got a little budget to spend? Talk about how you look at branding as a middle-tier-size company.
Chloé Rada: Sure. We're an engineering forward organization, so the majority of our hires are coming up through engineering. We launched our international internship program this past year. We hosted 25 interns in the US. We're expanding to India and Israel. We're really focused around that experience for our interns and developing a pipeline of early talent, so that we have those available to work on the forward-thinking type of products that we have like CoPilot, for example. We're focused a lot around what is the give-and-the-get for individual personas, the engineering.
Chad: Yeah.
Chloé Rada: We basically have people who design our products, who sell our products, and then people who make sure the products are being leveraged, so your customer service folks. Those are the kind of our three verticals. So, I don't think it's any different from any other organization. I've worked at many complex organizations with variety of verticals and disciplines. And each of them have their different... The candidates have different motivations. They're at different stages within their career journey. And the reasons for joining and being attracted to a certain organization, whether it be tech or food service, are all very different. I think it's understanding that playing field, and then also match with what's happening in the marketplace with your competitors; looking at what do you have that's more advantageous than the other tech company down the road, for example. So we're diving in deep in that right now. We've done a lot of research and focus groups. We've done some pressure testing. We're about to launch a new employer brand across the globe, for some info.
Joel: That's some work. That's some work.
Chloé Rada: And doing a team of one right now with my early talent lead, who will be here later today. So, it takes a lot, I think, to manage that. But it's a repeatable process that I've used with the last several companies. And I wouldn't be able to do that if it wasn't for the partners that I bring on board like Shaker and some of the other folks behind the scenes that really help me deliver those career stories.
Chad: Yeah. So, 2024, what has surprised you the most about this year this far?
Chloé Rada: The emphasis on internal, activating your employer brand internally and the need to partner and be in lockstep with your people success teams and your people operations teams. I really am going at this from... And this is very different from past organizations...
Chad: Yeah.
Chloé Rada: Where we're developing our internal roadshow together. Not like, "Here is the brand, I want you to deliver it." Like, how can we activate this internally and making sure that it matches the employee experience? That to me is very different. So, it's like a little bit of internal comms I'm playing here, but then also really relying on the people success team to help us make sure that it's matching the promise.
Joel: Yeah. You mentioned Israel. Obviously, there are some geopolitical challenges with that area. Do you view that as an opportunity, or is there a threat that you are planning for? Talk about companies that are growing into areas that there may be geopolitical risks.
Chloé Rada: Yes. One of the things that we've done to alleviate that is really focus more on community, so bringing our employees back to the office. We actually just opened up a new office in Ra'anana. I may be saying that wrong, but... And having events and bringing and inviting family members of our employees, so they feel a sense of safety and feel a sense of community in a place that they can call home. This was built state of the art, sustainable materials, beautiful spaces that will allow for better collaborations among our sales and our engineering teams. And really I can see the employees thrive because they feel proud of a space that they can come to work, even though they were hybrid or they were working from home for a period of time. We're mimicking that same concept also in our India offices as well. We've opened up two new offices, one just being recently in the tech hub out there in Chennai and Bangalore. And the same thing, they've done family fest events. So, really creating this opportunity that the employee experience where they feel safe, and they feel a part of something bigger.
Chad: Yeah. So, 2025, what's gonna be your major priority in 2025?
Chloé Rada: Oh, gosh. I'm hoping I can really improve our tech stack. So, I'm looking for right now for efficiency.
Chad: Yeah.
Chloé Rada: Efficiency around a better candidate experience, being more conversational on our career sites; efficiency in terms of using AI to help source and find candidates within our CRM.
Joel: Yeah.
Chloé Rada: I think there's a lot of opportunity there that will increase the time to hire. Undertaking an RFP is a huge thing that's gonna be taking over my life for the next year.
Chad: Wow.
Chloé Rada: And sometimes it even means re-implementing the systems that you already have, and adding new features or doing more recruiter enablement to ensure that they're leveraging all the tools that they can.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: You mentioned being a one-man army, if you will, and I think a lot of listeners and viewers will relate to that. You have an agency that's helping you and Shaker, but what are some tools technologically that are invaluable to you as a one-man band in your daily activities?
Chloé Rada: There's two that are always have been very near and dear to my heart. Employee advocacy. So, looking for a tool that can help your employees share the content that you are creating to amplify what that culture is like, right? It's that employee experience.
Joel: Yep.
Chloé Rada: And also along those same lines, video capture platforms too...
Chad: Yeah.
Chloé Rada: To help tell those stories. 'Cause when you're activating a brand, people trust people before people trust brands, so you wanna leverage the voice of your own employee as much as you can. At scale, I think when I launched my... When I first launched this video capture platform, I think I got like... I think I have over 70 employee videos within the first eight months. And not every video is gonna be great, but the sentiment behind it also can be used in a variety of ways, whether it be employee quote cards or using that to build out your messaging for your different personas. So, those would be the two tools that I would recommend exploring. And a lot of times you'll "get to impact fast," that's actually our new employer brand, when you're using these tools versus being on the long list of priorities with your own internal communication team. And that can be a good route to go as well. But to me, I like to act... I like to be swift about things. And I wanna get those stories out as quick as possible.
Chad: Well, Chloé, thanks for sitting down with us. If somebody wants to connect with you, where would you send them?
Chloé Rada: Sure. LinkedIn, I think, will probably be a great place to find me. Send me a note, let me know your interest in connecting. Or you probably could just like Google me, user sourcing tactics here. But I'm not hard to find and I know a number of different people. So, ask around, right? Leverage that community and make those connections.
Chad: Network, baby.
Chloé Rada: Network. Yeah. Old school.
Joel: Network, baby. Well, enjoy the show. Thanks. Thanks for hanging out with us.
Chloé Rada: Thank you.
Outro: Wow. Look at you. You made it through an entire episode of the Chad and Cheese Podcast. Or maybe you cheated and fast-forwarded to the end. Either way, there's no doubt you wish you had that time back. Valuable time you could have used to buy a nutritious meal at Taco Bell, enjoy a pour of your favorite whiskey, or just watch big booty Latinas and bug fights on TikTok. No, you hung out with these two chuckleheads instead. Now go take a shower and wash off all the guilt. But save some soap, because you'll be back. Like an awful train wreck, you can't look away. And like Chad's favorite Western, "You can't quit them either." We out.
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