Episode 41 of Big Fish in the Talent Pool podcast left me breathless. Not emotionally – physically! After all, it’s not easy keeping up with Trent Cotton, Vice President of Talent Acquisition (TA) and Retention for Bureau Veritas Group. He’s the King of Sprint Recruiting – with his quick wit and rapid-fire southern drawl. And yes, I know “rapid-fire southern drawl” is an oxymoron, but once you hear it, you’ll know what I mean!
Trent hasn’t always been a TA mastermind with entertaining stories about characters from his past like“Mr. Bob”, the “Mean Girls”, and the “Chicken Lender”. His career started in banking and lending, and he eventually made the pivot to HR and Recruiting by recognizing the connection between the two disciplines – client service and measurable results. His key to success, though, is leveraging his business knowledge to gain trust with skeptical internal customers, ultimately giving him a license to innovate.
Trent’s most recent achievement is his new book, Sprint Recruiting – Innovate, Iterate, Accelerate, (available on Amazon in print and on Kindle) in which he details the four tenets he uses to apply agile methodology to talent acquisition. He also walks the talk in leading his team at BFG, requiring radical prioritization, healthy boundary setting on sourcing efforts, and shared accountability with hiring managers on timely feedback.
We hope you enjoy the fast-paced chat on Big Fish in the Talent Pool on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, or wherever you access podcasts. And when you do, please be sure to rate and review us. We’d love your feedback and it will help others find us.
Erin McDermott Peterson is a Partner with PeopleResults helping clients with Interim TA Leadership, RPO Advisory, and TA Process Optimization. She has led TA and RPO globally for some of the most successful organizations in the world including Accenture, Aon Hewitt, and Amazon. She translates her unique global experience to help large and small clients solve their TA challenges.
Follow her on Twitter @ErinMcPeterson, connect via linkedin.com/in/erinpeterson or email at epeterson@people-results.com.