Career Journeys in Talent Acquisition: Bobby Blaney

Thanks for reading! This series is designed to shine a spotlight on Talent Acquisition professionals and highlight their career journeys and learnings so far. Today, we're joined by Bobby Blaney. If you'd like to be next, please reach out to a TTC Community Manager.

Introduce yourself:

I'm Bobby, an experienced Talent Manager and People Partner with over a decade of experience in talent acquisition, people strategy, and workforce planning. With a track record of designing and implementing award-winning recruitment processes, ATS integrations, and employee engagement initiatives, I excel at bridging data-driven insights with people-first solutions.

My expertise spans stakeholder management at C-suite level, DE&I frameworks and performance management. Having successfully led talent strategies across startups and global enterprises, I'm a strategic leader passionate about attracting, retaining, and developing top talent while driving business success.

Can you walk us through the key milestones in your career in the talent acquisition space? What were some pivotal moments or decisions that shaped your journey?

Starting right at the beginning, a key milestone to shape my career was the reason why I got into recruitment; working as a Restaurant Manager for a large stadium operation that was a high pressure and fast paced environment, I wanted to have more influence on the selection process and how we introduce new employees to the operation. So I joined the recruitment team and that curiosity continued to expand into how we attract the right people, develop the people we have, and retain the people that deliver the high standards we need to make the whole operation a success.

That curiosity still remains today as it has done through several of my roles, as I believe today just as strongly as I did back then, that if you want an organisation to be successful you have to get your people strategy right; in attracting, developing and retaining the right people for your operation.

In this rapidly evolving industry, what strategies or practices have you adopted to continuously enhance your skills and stay ahead of the curve? Do you have any resources or learning methods you'd recommend to others?

Staying ahead of the curve and in some ways staying relevant is something that aligns strongly to my belief that you should always be curious and always be willing to ask why. My curiosity often leads me to have conversations with new people who do different things, and so often I ask why someone does something and the answer is, “That’s just how we’ve always done it”, and that common answer is such a key driver in why I continue to ask why and also something I feel helps me stay ahead and relevant.

The world changes rapidly, and if we don’t stop to check that whatever we did 2, 5 or 10 years ago is still relevant today then we will absolutely fall behind. Another value and mantra I hold is “Don’t be afraid to be wrong”, being wrong is a part of life, nobody gets everything right but how you own mistakes and are willing to admit humility is the most powerful way to ensure continuous development and progress. Being afraid or ashamed to admit you’re wrong will only cause more pain for you and those around you.

What has been the most challenging aspect of your career in talent acquisition, especially when you were actively seeking work? How did you overcome it, and what advice would you offer to others facing similar hurdles?

They say that a builder’s house is never finished; and I think in many ways that applies to most of us, thinking about careers and personal life with Talent Acquisition certainly being no exception. My focus within my career is always on how I can help other people and businesses achieve goals; what is their objective? What does good look like for them? What do they need and how is that different from what they want?... Success for me is often success in others so to nail down a clear line or objective can be tricky, because specifics can be limiting and by definition, our roles are to understand what others need and then figure out how to get there.

That said, I have found that focusing on how I measure success, and focusing on what ownership, responsibility and accountability I want within a role helps me lead that conversation in the right way, and I find helps others see exactly how you will perform, and clearly how they can assess your performance.

The recruiting world can be fast-paced and demanding. How do you strike a balance between your professional commitments and personal life? Are there specific routines or rituals you follow?

It’s very easy to say you need a good work-life balance, and whilst you do, what is a good work-life balance for one person might be very different for someone else. I am quite highly driven and motivated by making an impact so that does mean I struggle to switch off, especially if I know I can do something right now to make an impact.

How I balance that and in ways keep it in check, is by taking more time to assess all of the impacts and then prioritising what I can do rather than telling myself I need to do everything. Not just focusing on the impact I can make right now, but what is the impact if it isn’t done, and also what is the impact to my time and other responsibilities to complete whatever the task is. Once I have all of the information, I find it much easier to make a rational and educated decision on when I can switch off.

As someone involved in talent acquisition, you've likely witnessed various technology and trend shifts. Which technologies or trends do you believe have had the most significant impact on the industry, and how have they influenced your role?

Technology has a huge impact, an indicator of that is that most businesses in some ways are all tech businesses in order to compete, because technology leverages so much and that again is no different to talent acquisition. From systems and databases that allow us to organise, sort and curate excellent candidate journeys, to analytical tools, research and forecasting that helps us report and reflect on trends to make strong data driven decisions.

Albeit social, I think one of the most significant impacts in the last decade or two has been the monopoly of LinkedIn within the professional network, it’s impact has made it a near non-negotiable in a successful recruiters arsenal, in how it not only has such a large portion of people, but the tools to quickly identify a number of criteria. The development and advancement of highly user friendly ATS systems such as Team Tailor that allow that average person to effortlessly create a careers site full of engaging content, and a seamless application process to build on your employer brand, is also a high impact area that continue to drive standards up in how we operate and how businesses need to consider their branding and experience.

Technology will continue to change and influence what we do; being aware of what is available and what you can achieve with different technology is vitally important for success.

For those entering the talent acquisition space or those looking to pivot within it, what's the one piece of practical advice you'd give to help them thrive, especially if they are actively job-seeking?

A lot of people say they fall into recruitment, and that’s fine and often true; It’s also true that a lot of people find they want a change from recruitment and to step into something else. I don’t think either are wrong, however it is a reminder of the first point I made that it’s important to ask why, and that includes asking what is your why? What are your motivators and drivers, what gets you going and what do you enjoy doing? You certainly won’t have all of the answers immediately and that’s reflective in those first two points because a lot of people are still figuring things out including themselves, so whilst you might not have the answers, keep asking the questions to help you understand more and more each day… and while you are figuring it out, always give it your best effort; if you don’t give it your best, you’ll never know what your best is.