Talking Talent Leadership Profile: Mark Jauregui

If you ask Mark Jauregui to describe himself, the PeopleScout senior vice president of client delivery will tell you that he has Idaho roots, but a home in the San Francisco Bay Area; that he has his feet on the ground, but he’s still a dreamer; that he started his career answering phones in technical support, and now, well – he does a lot of video conferences.

Then, he’ll tell you that, at this point in his career, he’s worked almost every job under the customer success umbrella, and he’s here at PeopleScout now to serve his team and our clients. And even though that last bit might sound like a soundbite, it’s 100% true. We talked to Mark from his home about how he sees success in an industry at a time when the only constant is change.

Up until this point, you’ve built your career in technology and services. What opportunities do you see in talent acquisition right now?

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen significant changes in the workforce, and now the Great Rehire is here. Going forward, work is going to look different, and HR is going to be a driving force in the recovery for so many organizations.

Working in the talent acquisition space, HR and talent leaders have the opportunity to contribute to getting people back to work and to shape the future of talent acquisition for our customers. Now that workers aren’t necessarily constrained to a physical location, we can focus on how we get the right people into the right roles and the right jobs to be most effective, but also how to leverage HR to guide us through that process.

What lessons from your career are you bringing to PeopleScout?

I’m a customer success geek. I’ve seen, built and scaled a bunch of different business models, as well as services and support structures. One thing I’ve learned is the importance of having a strong culture. The quote that culture will eat strategy for breakfast – it’s true. We have to be all on the same page and building a culture of trust is really key to success.

But, I’ve also learned some lessons along the way. I don’t have all the answers, and that’s why we hire so many smart people and work with them to solve challenges. The people who are closest to a problem generally have the best answers, and so a decision-making framework needs to empower those teams to put solutions into action.

The line between services organizations and tech companies is getting blurrier. What’s driving that?

It’s about efficiency. The old services model that’s about people and relationships is important, but we can use technology to drive more efficiencies – especially at scale. You can’t be just services or just technology in talent acquisition and HR. It’s about the combination of the two.

I think wherever we can leverage technology to help our clients, that’s where we need to be. Whether it’s helping our clients make better decisions on candidates, how they fill roles or where they should be focusing their resources, technology can help us.

At the same time, human resources and talent acquisition is about people, right? You have technology, but you need humans to make decisions. So, our people, their expertise, their ability to engage with talent leaders and address business challenges – that’s what makes us who we are. We are focused on helping our clients navigate the pandemic and post-pandemic waters. We are here to help in rebuilding and growing their businesses.

We’re in the middle of such a unique time. What does a full-service solution look like in 2021?

This isn’t something we’ve come across before; there are so many things coming together at the same time. We have to contend with vaccine distribution, dropping COVID-19 numbers, significant job growth, hybrid workforces, and changing candidate needs and expectations. We all need to think outside the box.

The Great Rehire is happening. There’s a list of things talent leaders need to keep in mind: What roles do we have open? What’s the available talent pool? How are we going to marry those together? What is the best next step for someone’s career? If you’re trying to manage this time with just people or just technology, you’ll fall behind.

You have to have the right blend of people, technology and scalable processes to get this all done. There is a huge opportunity right now to look at your current processes, look at the talent landscape, and reimagine your talent acquisition function to better serve your business needs moving into the future.

What can we expect in the coming years?

We have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Last year was unprecedented and certainly nothing any of us had ever lived through before. This year and next year will continue to bring new challenges, including some we may not be able to predict.

So, instead of resisting the changes that are coming, we all need to learn, rapidly adjust and embrace it. Get comfortable with change and fall in love with the problem. When you focus on the problem – instead of being set on the old solution or how you used to do things – we can have fun ‘solutioning’ together. As a strategic partner, we’re here to help figure some of these challenges out together with our clients.

Post by Nicole Fuqua