Episode 93
A back to basics approach to TA | with Brad Cook
Brad Cook, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Intuitive Surgical, reveals how standardizing workflows, measuring the right metrics, and fixing top-of-funnel conversion beats chasing shiny innovation. A practical playbook for scaling TA in tight labour markets.
Episode Key Takeaways
Workflow consistency unlocks measurement. Without a locked, mandatory process in your ATS, you can’t diagnose where candidates leak from the funnel—or fix it. Brad’s team spent three to four months standardizing Taleo workflows globally before they could even see the real problem: recruiters were skipping mandatory screening steps, inflating manager-screen ratios and hiding bottlenecks.
Open-to-close ratio is the canary in the coal mine. Opening more jobs than you’re closing signals backlog mode. Watching this metric forces hard conversations with the business about capacity, recruiter headcount, and realistic hiring timelines—preventing the death march of overpromising.
Attraction doesn’t end at apply. It runs all the way through offer. Most employer brand work focuses on external visibility, but the real conversion leaks happen inside the process: slow recruiter response, black-hole candidate status updates, and clunky internal mobility platforms that bury existing talent. Fixing those steps costs nothing and moves the needle faster than a rebrand.
Programmatic advertising and SEO drive top-of-funnel volume when employer brand is still building. Intuitive saw 100% traffic improvement to the career site in one year by running PPC and CPA campaigns—proving you don’t need a perfect external brand to fill the funnel if you’re strategic about where talent searches.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it. This principle, learned from a manufacturing leader at Cisco, applies to every step: time to slate, time to interview, screen-to-interview ratios, fill rates by recruiter. Incremental quarter-on-quarter improvement on these metrics compounds faster than chasing new sourcing channels.
Frequently
Asked
Questions
How do you standardize TA workflows across global teams in an old ATS?
Start by locking mandatory process steps so recruiters can’t skip stages. Build Tableau dashboards to surface where candidates are actually flowing versus where they should be. Then migrate to a modern ATS (Brad’s team moved to SmartRecruiters) that enforces workflow globally. This took roughly a year end-to-end but revealed hidden bottlenecks that metrics alone couldn’t show.
What metrics should TA leaders track to diagnose funnel problems?
Open-to-close ratio (are you ahead or in backlog?), visitor-to-apply conversion on the career site, recruiter-screen-to-manager-screen ratio, time to slate, and time to interview. These two time metrics account for the biggest chunks of time-to-fill. Improving screen-to-interview ratios by just 5% can hit hiring targets without increasing top-of-funnel volume.
How do you improve candidate experience when your ATS doesn't auto-send rejections?
Configure the system to automatically notify candidates of disposition changes—no black holes. Create landing pages that expand on job descriptions for key talent communities (e.g., veterans, sales). Make the apply process frictionless so candidates enter the system quickly, then prioritize human-to-human recruiter contact as the real moment of truth.
Should you hire dedicated internal mobility recruiters?
It’s harder than it sounds. The best candidate—internal or external—often isn’t known until interviews are done. Instead, tag candidates by source (internal, referral, sourced) in your ATS so recruiters know context. Adapt interview questions accordingly. Avoid handing off mid-process, which breaks continuity and candidate experience.
How do you write job descriptions that actually convert?
A/B test everything: title, length, company blurb placement, first-person voice. Use SEO-friendly titles that match how candidates search, not internal job codes. Create supplementary landing pages for career paths and training programs you can’t fit in the JD. Measure average time on page and repeat views—signals of genuine interest—not just clicks.