Global Talent Acquisition Delivery

Chris Hoyt: Talked to—um, I got some time with a friend of ours in the industry who’s the same age as me. So he’s 52, and he’s got a one-year-old, I think, and a four-year-old. And as I was saying earlier, he was like, “Man, you got it made. Your kids are in their twenties, they’re off the payroll, and they’re great.”

And I’m like, dude, we all make decisions. This is where we’re at. Some of us lived it up late, and some of us are trying to live the dream now. You’ve got some youngsters too, don’t you, Marcus?

Marcus Thorpe: Yeah, mine are all born around the same time of year, which makes the November paycheck a really painful one. They’re all born between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. But they’re six, nine, and thirteen today—soon to be seven, ten, and fourteen.

I’m a governor at my kids’ primary school. I’ve already been a governor for six years because we had the oldest kid there. And the youngest one means I’ve got another four or five years to go—if I stay on as a parent governor. But yeah, leisurely time on the beach is going to be a little delayed.

Chris Hoyt: Yeah, but here’s the thing—you were probably on the beach when you were in your prime. Now I’m out there leaving my shirt on at the beach. You got better beach time than I did.

Marcus Thorpe: It’s possible. I’ve always—

Gerry Crispin: I’ve always said if I could, I would’ve started with my grandchildren.

Chris Hoyt: I don’t think the math works like that.

Gerry Crispin: Or the biology either.

Chris Hoyt: Marcus, now you’ve got me thinking—all your kids are born in about the same month?

Marcus Thorpe: Yeah, that’s apparently the time of the year that we procreate. Spring, basically. I think it’s the sun—the sun comes out for the first time.

Chris Hoyt: Oh my God. All right. Well, all those non-TA-related topics aside, are you guys ready to get started?

Marcus Thorpe: Yep.

Gerry Crispin: You bet.

Chris Hoyt: All right, here we go.

Announcer: CXR channel—our premier podcast for talent acquisition and talent management. Listen in as the CXR community discusses a wide range of topics focused on attracting, engaging, and retaining the best talent. We’re glad you’re here.

Chris Hoyt: We’re a couple years in, Jerry, and I’m still jamming to that music. I always want to change it, then we pump it up, and I’m doing the little dance.

All right, everybody. Welcome to the Recruiting Community Podcast. Weekly insights, updates—we do it in the form of a conversation.

I’m your host today, Chandler. And with me is Joey.

Gerry Crispin: Well, thank you.

Chris Hoyt: Could that BE any more obvious? No? Too soon? It’s not too soon.

Look, today our guest is Marcus Thorpe, Global Head of TA at ThoughtWorks. Longtime CareerXroads member. Super impressive industry leader and just a great guy. We love hanging out and chatting with him.

We’re going to talk about what’s going on in his world, what he’s seeing in terms of innovation at some of the world’s most innovative TA organizations.

Quick housekeeping—we’re streaming on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitch. If you’re on LinkedIn, you’ll see a little chat window—say hi, drop questions for Marcus, Gerry, or me.

Want past or upcoming episodes? Visit cxr.works/podcast. Hit subscribe for updates and alerts—we’re on just about every platform. Also, this is ad-free, a complete labor of love.

That said, a plug for our new CXR Marketplace. Visit cxr.works/marketplace. This came directly from the community—it’s like a G2, but just for TA. Lots of community elements. About 500 vendors, 7,000+ ratings and reviews.

Members can invite vendors, leave ratings, unlock features. Jerry, anything you’d add?

Gerry Crispin: My favorite feature is benchmarking. If a member is looking at a product, they can see who’s rated it and reach out to them.

Chris Hoyt: Yeah, I love that. We used to be the middlemen—people would ask, “Who’s using Paradox?” or “Who’s using Shaker?” And we’d compile and share that list. Now it’s all on demand if folks engage with the platform.

All right, let’s bring Marcus in. Marcus, welcome!

Marcus Thorpe: Am I Ross in this Friends equation?

Chris Hoyt: Boy, I hope not. He’s my least favorite Friends character. Is he your least?

Marcus Thorpe: Absolutely. Not exactly a fun guy, is he? So whiny.

Chris Hoyt: He was even whiny in Band of Brothers.

Marcus Thorpe: Right? Very grim individual.

Chris Hoyt: Look, Marcus, for those who don’t know you—give us your escalator pitch. You’ve been at ThoughtWorks, Two Sigma, Amazon, Activision, Twitter before it was, uh, “Shitter,” Skype, and even Google.

Marcus Thorpe: Yes, and I like that pronunciation—X-I-T-T-E-R. It had its problems back then, but definitely not in a good place now.

I’ve spent my life in tech recruitment. Did a short stint in the Middle East for a think tank hiring economists and political scientists, but otherwise—it’s been tech, tech, tech for 20+ years. I think you stop counting officially after 20.

Chris Hoyt: I think that’s fair. Jerry, do we stop counting after 20?

Gerry Crispin: We’re all beyond that number.

Chris Hoyt: So Marcus, we’ve been doing a fun thing lately—dad jokes. Do you have a dad joke?

Marcus Thorpe: I do! What do you call a fish with no eyes?

Chris Hoyt: I don’t know.

Marcus Thorpe: Fshhh.

Chris Hoyt: That’s pretty good! It gets a groan—that’s what makes it a dad joke. All right, I’ve got one. Why don’t applicant tracking systems make good comedians?

Marcus Thorpe: Dunno.

Chris Hoyt: They’re too focused on keeping professional profiles.

Marcus Thorpe: Fish might have been better.

Chris Hoyt: It’s free, folks. Can’t complain.

Let’s jump in. Marcus, ThoughtWorks is an amazing org. You’ve done incredible work. Let’s talk innovative strategies—can you share some approaches that really transformed the TA teams you’ve worked with? Doesn’t have to be AI-related, but it can be.

Marcus Thorpe: Transformation starts with credibility. And that starts with great data.

In the last three roles I’ve had, I’ve had access to a dedicated analyst who owns the data from our systems—cleans it, pulls it into our BI tool, removes our reliance on spreadsheets.

You can’t make a strong business case for new tech or process changes without credible data. You can’t walk into a stakeholder meeting with too little data too often.

You need a vision, alignment, ruthless prioritization, and everything must be measured—accurately.

Chris Hoyt: I love that—and the callout of having a data partner. Should this be someone on the TA team? Or a dotted-line partner?

Marcus Thorpe: My current analyst came from a recruiting background, which really helps. Analysts can create pretty dashboards, but if they don’t understand TA, they can’t identify outliers or explain the nuances.

They don’t have to be on your team, but they should sit within Talent. Ours started in TA and now works across all people functions.

Chris Hoyt: And they have to connect the data to insights. And for those trying to poach this analyst, Marcus says they’re on a PIP and always late—don’t waste your time!

All right, staying on tech—has ThoughtWorks integrated any advanced technologies in TA that made a significant impact?

Marcus Thorpe: Two schools of thought: one is the all-in-one ATS approach. I prefer the platform model with best-of-breed add-ons.

We use Greenhouse and its APIs to integrate tools for scheduling, analytics, and more.

We’re adopting an AI tool soon—it takes recorded interviews, transcribes them, summarizes responses against predefined criteria, provides interviewer prompts, allows tagging, flags concerns, and populates notes into Greenhouse.

It lets interviewers stay present and build rapport. It’ll also support shadow interviews, audits, and silver medalist tracking.

Chris Hoyt: That’s exciting! Is this a homegrown system or a vendor?

Marcus Thorpe: Vendor—BrightHire. We’re in the approval process now. We also evaluated Metaview and Screenloop. BrightHire answered all our questions.

Chris Hoyt: Very cool. We’ve heard great things about Greenhouse’s setup at HR Tech recently too. What else are you exploring?

Marcus Thorpe: Ashby has potential—especially their analytics engine. Even if you don’t use their ATS, they can bolt on analytics to something like Workday.

Chris Hoyt: That’s compelling. We’ve heard horror stories from members struggling with Workday integrations—especially with AI-generated JDs pulling in incorrect or competitive info.

So how do you future-proof your tech stack and vendor decisions?

Marcus Thorpe: We’re lucky—we’re a software consultancy. We have internal engineers and a close relationship with our recruitment systems team.

I bring our analyst and tech team into vendor conversations. We ask detailed questions early—before we fall in love with a vendor.

Someone technical will always be part of implementation. The earlier they’re involved, the better.

Chris Hoyt: That’s the second time you’ve emphasized partnerships. On the flip side—what do you think about IT leading the ATS implementation?

Marcus Thorpe: Doesn’t scare me in our context. But you need support. Don’t rely solely on vendor support—it’s never enough.

For complex systems like Workday, we probably should have used a third-party consultant. Implementation was rough. But yes—build internal expertise eventually.

Chris Hoyt: Totally agree. I’ve done four ATS implementations. I’d always bring in a third party to manage and protect the TA team. The internal trust risk is too high.

Marcus Thorpe: It varies by org. Greenhouse was easier. Workday, not so much.

Chris Hoyt: Marcus, thank you for this. Final question—if you wrote a book about TA today, what would the title be?

Marcus Thorpe: Agile in Mind, Robust in Process.

You need to pivot quickly in TA. But your processes have to be solid—replicable, scalable, dependable.

Chris Hoyt: Love that. And who gets the first signed copy?

Marcus Thorpe: John Oliver.

Chris Hoyt: He’s a national treasure!

Marcus Thorpe: He was one of ours first. Lives somewhere between the US and UK now. Brilliant guy—and my top pick for a dinner guest.

Chris Hoyt: Love it. Marcus, thank you again. We know how busy you are and we’re super grateful for your time.

Marcus Thorpe: Pleasure. Thanks, guys.

Chris Hoyt: All right, everybody—visit cxr.works/podcast. Subscribe, watch past episodes. You’ll want to rewatch this one three or four times. See you next time!

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