This episode features an interview with Cherry Ainsworth, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at The Financial Times. For the past twelve years, Cherry has helped to establish and grow the FT’s talent acquisition function while meeting the businesses strategic hiring goals and increasing diversity across the organization.
On today’s episode, Cherry discusses FT’s Next Generation Board, her own experience returning to work after maternity leave, and the importance of retention.
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About Cherry
Cherry has spent the last 12 years working in recruitment and is currently Global Head of Talent Acquisition at The Financial Times. In her role at The FT she has established and grown their TA function and is responsible for meeting the businesses strategic hiring goals and increasing diversity across the organisation. She is adept at building and embedding recruitment functions, having previously carried out similar roles at two technology startups and is a passionate about scaling successful teams and developing people.
About Financial Times
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT has a record paying readership of one million, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community.
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“At the end of the day, we want to automate as much as possible and we want to be as efficient as possible. But we're hiring humans into businesses. So those humans will want to interact with other humans.” -Cherry Ainsworth
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Show Notes
- The Blueprint
- (1:33) Cherry’s role building out the TA team
- (3:19) The most rewarding part of the role: a ripple effect of growing teams and processes
- The Journey
- (4:13) Measuring success through diversity initiatives and positive feedback
- (8:57) Advocating for sponsorship
- (10:33) The candidate journey and reaching a different audience
- (12:35) Realigning the FT’s external reputation
- (15:35) Cherry’s experience returning to work after maternity leave
- The Future of Talent
- (17:59) Recipe for success: knowing your marketplace and being agile
- (21:03) A new initiative with FT’s Next Generation Board
- (23:35) Creating career journeys and succession planning across the FT
- (26:47) Delving into data and talent mapping
- (29:52) Cherry’s advice to her past self
- (31:54) Keeping the personal touch in recruitment
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Sponsor
The Talent Blueprint is brought to you by Beamery. Beamery's Talent Lifecycle Management Platform makes it possible for companies to deliver more human talent experiences and unlock the skills and potential of their global workforce using industry leading AI. Learn more at beamery.com.
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Links
Connect with Cherry on LinkedIn
Connect with Sultan on LinkedIn
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Bonus
For fans of The Talent Blueprint, check out the latest episode of Often Imitated with Beamery Co-Founder, Abakar Saidov. Brought to you by Caspian Studios, the same team behind The Talent Blueprint.
