All-In Recruitment is a podcast by Manatal focusing on all things related to the recruitment industry’s missions and trends. Join us in our conversations with leaders in the recruitment space and learn their best practices to transform the way you hire.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Lydia: Welcome to the All In Recruitment podcast by Manatal, where we explore best practices, learnings, and trends with leaders in the recruitment space. If you like our content, please subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify to stay tuned for our latest episodes. I'm your host, Lydia, and we have Jay Olson, Director for Global Talent Acquisition at Medtronic. Thank you for joining us, Jay.
Jay: Thank you, Lydia. It's an absolute pleasure to be here.
Why Talent Acquisition Is More Than Just Hiring
Lydia: So, walk us through your career path. What's led you to talent acquisition? Why have you stayed, and what's the pull factor here?
Jay: I think I'm probably like most people who have wound up in talent acquisition, and it wasn’t on purpose. It was kind of an accident that happened. For me, as I was entering the workforce right out of college, I had a good friend of mine working for a recruitment firm.
As I would sit every day banging away on a keyboard, doing the same thing over and over again in a customer service position, I would listen to what his days were like. He was meeting with clients, meeting with candidates—it was constantly moving. There was always something new going on, and I was intrigued by it.
Fast forward a couple of years, and that same gentleman wound up opening his own recruitment agency with a partner. Through that time, it grew. It was just the two of them, but independent. Unfortunately, I lost my job in a layoff. I’ve been laid off a couple of times in my career, and that was one of those times when I went to him and said, “Hey, can I come and work for you? Could I come and learn to be a recruiter?” Because it just seemed so interesting to me.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t, because his partner at the time didn’t want to have anybody else coming in. But they did help me find a job. That was my first experience working with a recruitment agency, learning how they help coordinate getting work. That was all I knew about recruitment at the time.
Shortly thereafter, he ended up buying his partner out and then invited me to come and work for him. I jumped at it. There was no base salary, no benefits. There was nothing. It was just commission based on what you earned. This was also back in the day when Monster was just becoming a big thing.
I learned by putting ads in papers, putting ads on Monster, having people submit résumés, and starting to interview. That’s how I learned about talent acquisition. What I found, and what has grown through time, is that I love connecting talent with purpose and value.
What keeps me in it, what I love about it, is that we get the opportunity to help people in one of the most stressful times in their lives, and that’s a job transition. I take that seriously, and I want my team to take that seriously because I feel like we are shepherds, stewards through this process, and a direct representation of whatever organization we work with.
That draw to me of helping others find work, find value, and in some cases even find purpose behind that is remarkably valuable. There’s this element of talent acquisition that people look at and think, “All you do is post jobs, send résumés to hiring leaders, and hire people,” right?
Nothing could be further from the truth. What talent acquisition is in charge of and what I’m drawn to are all the elements related to human psychology. You have to be a good negotiator. You have to be a great listener. You have to be good at conversation. You have to be a psychologist. You have to be a psychiatrist. You have to be all of these different things.
What it allows for are some incredible, human moments. I know we’re going to talk about AI, but that, to me, is the other element of talent acquisition that’s so engaging. It’s all about the people. That’s what we are here for: to make sure that we find the best people for our organization and ensure that the match is a good one on both sides.
Lydia: So, right now you’re with Medtronic, and it’s in the med tech industry, right? Was this a new transition for you, or did you just move into the med tech industry from somewhere else?
Jay: Yes. Prior to Medtronic, I was the Global Talent Acquisition Leader for Andersen Windows and Doors, or Andersen Corporation. Andersen Corporation has the Andersen Windows and Doors division, which is their business-to-business side, and Renewal by Andersen, which is their business-to-consumer side.
I was the leader brought in to combine both of those talent acquisition teams to make an enterprise-wide team. I was in a space that had high-volume production, sales, and all of those different types of roles that go across the gamut for an organization that produces a product.
Medtronic is in the exact same category of producing a product, except that now we’re in medical devices, which are heavily regulated, and there’s just a very different feel to it. I’ve been fortunate to have the exposure that I have throughout my career, and a lot of that was through my work with Randstad Sourceright.
Working in an RPO environment allows you to see many different types of clients, processes, technologies, and all of this that’s out there. That’s what really led to the well-rounded background I’m so fortunate to have, with agency experience, RPO experience, and corporate experience. I think it brings a different perspective to what we’re trying to do.
When I lost that job at Andersen, I was in the job market for eight months looking for something new until I ultimately wound up here at Medtronic. So even in that time, which was recently, as I’ve only been with Medtronic for 11 months now [at the time of recording], that very recent period of being unemployed put me on the other side of the fence from where I had been for a couple of decades, leading teams. To see how that has evolved from a candidate perspective was very eye-opening for me and shaped my perspective going into Medtronic.
Hiring with Intention in a Demanding Industry
Lydia: And being in the med tech industry right now, what do you think are the biggest challenges, or the biggest talent challenges, facing the med tech industry right now?
Jay: It’s the supply-and-demand issue. I know that’s true in many industries, but supply and demand are one of the biggest challenges we have. When we’re looking for folks to come and work at Medtronic, there’s a multitude of levels that we staff at.
What we do as an organization is create products that are meant to align with the mission that Medtronic has, and that’s alleviating pain, restoring health, and extending life. These are products meant to really impact a person.
Knowing that, having people who want to come and work in this industry isn’t the problem. We have people who want to work here.
Where we see the supply-and-demand mismatch is in specialized skills that are needed in some of our roles. We continue to see a decline in people interested in the skilled labor categories.
My group is called Enterprise Operations, the group that I oversee. And that encompasses all of the groups involved in building a product, packaging a product, or doing the distribution for the product. When you look across that spectrum, we have a number of challenges that come with it.
Obviously, finding the talent we need to do those jobs is one. There are geographic limitations that are part of it, and competition is not getting easier for us. This is where I take a slightly different view. We talk a lot about competing with others for talent, and in a way—
Lydia: Yeah.
Jay: But there’s also a part of me that really believes we’re not competing directly with other organizations, because we are only who we are. Medtronic is who Medtronic is, and we are not the right employer for everybody.
I’m one of the first people to say that we shouldn’t believe that everybody should work here. I don’t want everybody to work here. I want the right people to work here, the ones who believe in the mission and the values, who understand what we’re out to do. They need to really understand what it is about Medtronic that’s going to motivate them and drive them into the future.
Every organization that we “compete” with has those same sorts of priorities, but they differ slightly. For me, it’s about us putting our best foot forward as Medtronic, and then the right candidates will find us. We’ll have those conversations, and if it comes down to whether they want to go somewhere else for more money or whatever. That’s fine. I want people to be happy wherever they’re going to work. Ultimately, if we’re not going to make you happy, go someplace that will make you happy, because there will be someone else who’s going to enjoy what we have to offer here.
Finding People Who Add to the Culture, Not Blend In
Lydia: Jay, you bring up a critical point here about making sure that purpose and values are in line with the company and ensuring a person is really happy and content wherever they’re working. But in terms of assessing that, right, that’s quite an area to be able to dive into and to really understand what their motivations are. So what is your approach toward that?
Jay: I think the first thing that’s paramount in any of these discussions is having candidates understand the mission of Medtronic. What we’re here for, what we’re striving to do, and what place we want to have in the medical device industry when it comes to helping patients.
That’s the first element of talking to anybody: for them to understand who we are. It’s also our job to show them not only who we are from a mission standpoint but also what’s in it for them. What’s in it for the candidate if they were to come to Medtronic and potentially make a career here?
What is our culture like? The truth is, organizations have cultures, but there are multiple cultures. Cultures are layered. You have a corporate culture, a leadership culture, and a team culture, and all of that is driven by people from the top down. So there are multiple cultures that come into play.
It’s important for the candidate to understand what culture they would be joining. I hear this a lot. Hiring leaders are looking for candidates who “fit the culture” of the organization. I disagree with that. I don’t think it should be a culture fit. I think it should be a culture value add.
Lydia: Value add, right?
Jay: Yeah, because if you keep focusing on culture fit, you get an echo chamber. It’s the same thing over and over again.
If you think about where innovation and the best new ideas come from, it’s cognitive diversity. And you can’t have cognitive diversity if you keep hiring the same people over and over again because they fit your culture.
You need people to drive value and create a better culture for your organization. That’s how you evolve. To me, it’s just a slightly different way of thinking about it. I don’t want fit; I want somebody who’s going to bring value to that culture.
I think that’s a differentiator in how we talk to folks, because it’s about what you bring as an individual to the organization that we can plug into. It’s that strengths-finder mentality: What are you good at? Help us understand that so we can put that great skill to use.
AI and Authenticity in the Hiring Process
Lydia: So, going into AI and the many different advantages it may have for practitioners in HR. When we look at candidates, there’s a very real situation in which candidates may be using these technologies to gain the process or misrepresent their skills, whether in assessments or even interviews.
How should a recruiter be thinking about this, and what are the red flags they should consider? How should they manage this?
Jay: AI is the Wild West right now. What’s funny to me about it is that AI in talent acquisition has existed for well over a decade, but now it has really come into the mainstream. It has evolved tremendously, especially with ChatGPT being that springboard for bringing AI into the limelight.
There are some crazy things now that AI can do from the candidate perspective. One of them, I can appreciate it in a way, but it’s scary to think about, is that there are candidates who will be on a phone screen with AI listening in on the side. As the questions come in, AI provides answers in real time for the candidates.
If you’ve been in talent acquisition long enough, you understand the flow and cadence of a conversation. Those AI-assisted conversations are still a bit disjointed because there’s a pause to get that data to the candidate before they respond. But they’re still trying to do it.
Now, God bless them for trying to game the system, but ultimately, this is where our recruiting process becomes so important. This isn’t about AI. It’s about how you use AI.
Here’s an example: if you want to get around that sort of thing, someone taking your question and regurgitating an AI-generated response. A lot of interviewing, both now and in the past, has been based on behavioral interviewing. “Tell me about a time…” or “Give me a situation when…”
What I’ve always struggled with in that interviewing style is that any of the answers they give you can be made up. How do you verify that? You have to take them at their word, which in itself is a trust factor. But you could ask me for a situation, and I could tell you one, and you’d have no idea whether or not it’s real.
It’s amazing what AI can come up with for situations it claims to have dealt with. So, how do we get around that? I like to take the approach of situational-based interviewing. Instead of asking them to “give me a time when” or “tell me something about your past,” I want them to explain how they would handle a current problem with current details.
What I mean by that is, it’s a question that forces them to pull from all their background to come up with a cohesive answer. If AI answered it, it would sound disjointed because it wouldn’t have the personal touch inherent in any real story.
So if we ask people, “Give us your advice on how you would solve this problem?” or “Here’s a current problem we’re working on at Medtronic; what would you do to solve it?” that helps because it forces the person to think strategically and in real time, rather than just reflecting on the past.
Lydia: Think on their feet.
Jay: Exactly right. We don’t give participation trophies to people after an interview because of what they’ve accomplished in the past. That past accomplishment doesn’t automatically equal future success. The only way it does is if you’ve learned from what you’ve been through, discerned those learnings, and implemented them going forward.
So can you do that in response to our questions about how you would handle a situation? That, to me, is one of the ways that forces a person to actually use their experience to answer the questions.
Lydia: And it also comes back to recruiters being alert or sensitive to what might be happening. It probably comes with experience. To be able to identify when something might be slightly disjointed or off. How do you approach that? Because sometimes the jobs themselves, the ones candidates are applying for, require them to use AI on a daily basis.
So these are AI-enabled jobs, and they’re using AI to get past certain things. There’s always that delicate balance, which makes it a little more tricky.
Jay: I think that’s where the interview process is truly supposed to be a two-way conversation. The candidate obviously has questions for the organization, and the organization has questions for the candidate.
The way I look at it is, if you’re going to fake your way through the interview, you can only fake it for so long. We’re eventually going to find out that you’re not capable of doing the job, and we should be able to find that out during the interview process.
But for someone who can sneak through and somehow get in, unless they’re very good at continuing to pretend, it’s eventually going to come out. Because the work although yes we want people to use AI (we use AI a lot and should use it a lot), is meant to make us more efficient and help us gain knowledge quickly. Things that used to take two weeks can be done in two hours now.
There are huge advantages to it. But if you’re going to use it to become somebody you’re not, or to give answers that aren’t yours, that aren’t your way of thinking, it’s not going to work. You might be happy for a moment when you get that job offer, but I have a feeling you’ll be disappointed when that job ends because we realized the capability wasn’t actually there, and AI was prompting you on how to respond.
Critical Thinking in the Age of Data-Driven Work
Lydia: Now, in terms of skills, as you said, what skills are becoming more and more important in the med tech industry that maybe weren’t as critical a few years ago? I wouldn’t even say five or three, it moves so fast, right?
Jay: I don’t think med tech is necessarily all that different from a number of industries right now, because I think there are some universal truths about what skills are increasingly in demand and necessary for future success.
A couple that come to mind right away are digital fluency—understanding how to look at, decipher, and report on digital trends and the data you receive, and how that data impacts your role. The understanding of the digital element of work is far greater now than it has been in the past.
With that comes data literacy. You have to actually understand what the data means. This didn’t exist years ago, when it wasn’t even really the job of an individual contributor to understand data. But now we’re in a place where, because we live in a very digital world, data feeds everything.
Understanding the different data points you need to use to be successful, for trending, forecasting, or whatever the case may be, these are skill sets that weren’t required of some of our leaders just a few years ago.
Within the talent acquisition team, there’s a big push around this learning mindset. Our global leader, Mark Smith, brings two key elements of thinking to his leadership style, and most of us on his leadership team share them: one is continuous improvement. So, we’re always looking for ways to be better, and the other is a growth mindset, understanding that there’s always something we could be doing better and having the desire to find it.
Having people who know how to think critically is another really important element moving forward. We can’t be content with saying, “We’re good, so we’ll just keep doing this.” That’s not going to get us to where we want to be.
It’s about building on good to become great, to become excellent, to become world-class, and that’s what we’re striving to do.
How Candidate Expectations Have Evolved
Lydia: So now let’s move to the other side, which is the candidate and their expectations. What are you seeing in terms of the differences in candidate expectations right now? How have some of these priorities shifted over the past few years?
Jay: I can speak to this one with full confidence, having been a candidate in the past year. I think there are a couple of things that have really come up over the past few years that have become not only wants but expectations. These things are now expected by candidates.
The first is transparency. They want to know what the pay is going to be. They want to know what the benefits are going to be. I’d argue that we can take it a step further. They want to know who their manager is, what makes them tick, how they lead, and what other team members think about them.
What candidates want is a wealth of information that they deserve to have. If you’re going to be interested in coming to Medtronic, or any organization, and you’re coming there to make a difference and have your career impact your life, I would hope it’s something you not only enjoy but also gain energy from.
So we need to be transparent about what it’s like to work here, so people come in with their expectations set appropriately. Transparency is a big one.
Flexibility continues to be top of mind, not just for the newest generation of workers but across all levels. Flexibility doesn’t necessarily mean remote work. It’s about being able to do the work at different times of day when life comes up. We want people to have that flexibility to live life the way they need to, and candidates expect that now.
Flexibility is no longer negotiable. It’s an expectation.
More than anything, what I’ve seen change over the past couple of years when talking to candidates or networking is that they want purpose behind their work. They want to know the work they’re doing has value and meaning.
Can every organization say that about the people who work there? I don’t know. But I can certainly say it for Medtronic because I know what we’re working toward.
I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic since I was two years old. My brother was diagnosed when he was four, and my sister when she was six. All of us have used Medtronic products—insulin pumps in particular. So knowing the purpose behind Medtronic was one of the biggest reasons I was drawn to this organization.
It was because of the purpose—and because I am a Medtronic patient—that I know the value of the work we do. There’s a patient at the end of that line every single time.
When there’s purpose behind the work, that’s a huge motivator. It’s not for everyone, but for those who care deeply, working for an organization that truly saves lives is powerful. Not many companies can say that, and that’s a differentiator for Medtronic.
Technology as a Multiplier, Not a Replacement
Lydia: So let’s move to technology and technology enablement. What does technology enablement mean in the context of global talent acquisition? What tools or platforms are you implementing right now?
Jay: When we think about technology, there’s a lot of talk about AI replacing people. Whenever I get that question, “Is AI going to take the place of recruiters?” My first question back is, “When was the last time you had an emotional conversation with AI?”
I don’t think that’s happening yet. Maybe it will someday, but not now. What we deal with in talent acquisition is an innately human process. Because of that, we need human interaction.
When we think about technology and digital tools, it’s about freeing up time to give us more human interaction. Let’s remove the administrative work that has us just banging away on keyboards and focus instead on how we can bring in technology to help us, and then focus more on the relationships we’re building with candidates, hiring leaders, and local and regional communities. That’s where we want people spending their time.
When we think about digital enablement, there are a couple of things we’re looking at. We recently implemented a system called Paradox, which helps with interview scheduling and text-to-apply. It’s a tool that makes the process more efficient and provides information to candidates when they want it.
We’ve become a 24/7 society, and the old business hours of 8 to 5 no longer work. We need technology that allows flexibility in our work schedule, not just for internal employees but also for candidates.
Gone are the days when people had to lie to their employers about a doctor’s appointment just to go to an interview or sit in their car during lunch to take a phone screen.
We’re looking at allowing candidates to complete initial screens, normally done with a recruiter, through AI. This isn’t the make-or-break part of the process, but it allows candidates to have those conversations whenever it’s best for them.
If two o’clock in the morning is the best time for them, they can do it. That allows greater engagement because we’re not confined to standard business hours. It makes it easier for people to get their information in and do it on a schedule that’s comfortable for them.
The way we look at technology is that it should be a multiplier, not just a band-aid or something we’re adding because it looks cool. We want it to be a multiplier that allows people to focus on the most meaningful work rather than the administrative tasks that take so much time away from what we’re meant to do. That is connecting with people.
Lydia: So, Jay, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to other people leaders who are driving large-scale HR transformations? I would imagine the implementation you just talked about was quite an exercise in change management.
Jay: Anytime you bring new technology in, it’s a huge exercise in change management. That’s due in large part to the fact that, usually, when you’re bringing in new tech, you’re making a significant step forward. Occasionally, it’s incremental progress, but in most organizations I’ve been with, bringing in new technology represents a big leap forward.
My advice to people leaders, especially when bringing in new technology, is to make sure you’re aligning your goals with the business goals. What’s important to the business? What do they need you to accomplish? And how does that align with the technology, process, or project you’re working on?
So often, we make things way too complex. Keeping it simple is really important. One of the greatest skills leaders can have is to take something highly complex and, as I like to say, apply the “Reddit mentality”—explain it like I’m five.
Being able to take something complex, break it down into its most fundamental elements, and explain it clearly to a hiring leader or a candidate who may not have the same background is a critical skill that I hope more leaders develop.
Lastly, for any people leader, don’t forget that we’re often challenged with solving problems, that’s why we’re in these positions, and that’s wonderful. I love that kind of work. But we can’t forget to celebrate the wins, because we’re often focused on fixing problems when there’s so much good happening, too.
Celebrate what you’ve accomplished. Look back and say, “Look what we’ve done over the past six months or twelve months.” Celebrating progress is important because when you’re in the day-to-day, it can feel like you’re not moving forward.
Sometimes you have to rise up to that 30,000-foot view. We always talk about looking forward, and that’s important, but you won’t find the same motivation if you don’t also look back occasionally and appreciate where you’ve come from.
Don’t forget the progress that’s been made. It might not seem like much for those in it, but even small changes, like removing two clicks from an ATS process, can be a big win. Two clicks can mean huge efficiency gains. Multiply that over the course of a year, and that’s time saved, time given back to recruiters to focus where it’s most valuable.
So don’t forget to look backward and appreciate where you’ve come from, because that will make you even more excited about where you’re going.
Lydia: Thank you very much, Jay, for your time and these wonderful insights you’ve shared, both personal and professional. We really value that. For those who are listening in and want to continue this conversation with you or explore any part of it further, where can they find you?
Jay: LinkedIn is the best spot to find me.just Jay Olson, J-A-Y O-L-S-O-N. You can’t miss me. I’m the Global Director of Talent Acquisition with Medtronic.
If you’re interested in what we’ve got going on at Medtronic, the main website is medtronic.com, but for career opportunities specifically, visit careers.medtronic.com.
If you’re on LinkedIn, the hashtag we use is #CareersThatChangeLives. The reason we have that hashtag is because we believe that when people join our organization, their career will not only change their own lives but also the lives of the patients at the end of it. So it has a double meaning for us, and I’m super proud of that.
Lydia: Thank you so much, Jay. We have been in conversation with Jay Olson, Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Medtronic. Thank you for joining us, and stay tuned for more All In Recruitment episodes. Catch us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
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