Three ideas to put into practice
Why hiring within seven kilometres of your office is a resourcing decision disguised as a culture decision.
How Gerard's own picture of Africa was built by charity advertising, and what changed it.
Why professionally produced video profiles outperformed every argument he could make in a sales call.
00:00 Meet Gerard Holland and Talent Match Africa 01:07 From outsourced CFO to fixing international student outcomes 02:55 The question Zondwa Mandela asked him 04:24 The trip that replaced the World Vision ad in his head 05:40 Where the team sits now and who they serve 06:27 The biggest hiring mistake: recruiting inside a seven kilometre radius 08:15 Why every second new worker will be African by 2035 08:53 The bias companies carry without knowing it 09:34 Why video profiles worked when arguments didn't 11:33 Why Gerard stopped reading CVs 12:25 Redesigning hiring with no CV at all 13:46 Hiring for potential, the problem nobody has solved 15:15 The thing that never shows up on a CV 16:03 Close
Full transcript
Most hiring leaders will tell you they hire for skills. Then they open a CV, scan for a university name, check a location field, and quietly filter out everyone who lives more than a commute away. Gerard Holland stopped participating in that process altogether. He came out of finance, spent years placing international students into internships, and then got asked a question by Zondwa Mandela that redirected his entire business: why are you helping privileged people? Today he runs Talent Match Africa, connecting companies in Australia, the UK and North America with full-time professionals working from enterprise grade offices in Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. In this conversation he explains why he no longer reads CVs, what he had to do to dismantle a bias his clients did not know they were carrying, and why hiring for potential is still the problem nobody has cracked.
Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/ZrfORkWBDoA
What you'll learn
- Why hiring within seven kilometres of your office is a resourcing decision disguised as a culture decision
- How Gerard's own picture of Africa was built by charity advertising, and what changed it
- Why professionally produced video profiles outperformed every argument he could make in a sales call
- What happens to a CV when a candidate can paste a job ad into a chatbot and get a perfect one back
- Why big Australian corporates have started mandating in person final interviews
- The case for using AI for shortlisting and humans for everything after it
- Why every second person entering the global workforce by 2035 will live in Africa
GUEST
Gerard Holland, Founder and Executive Director, Talent Match Africa
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerardholland/
Talent Match Africa: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talentmatchafrica/
YOUR HOST
Anita Chauhan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan/
LISTEN & FOLLOW
Buzzsprout: https://looksgoodonpaper.buzzsprout.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@looksgoodonpaperpodcast
POWERED BY WILLO
Willo is the video hiring platform built on a simple idea: you're more than a CV. https://www.willo.video/looks-good-on-paper
CONNECT WITH US
Willo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10170893
If this one made you rethink how you screen, share it with someone who still opens with the CV, and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.
Looks Good on Paper is a podcast about hiring, talent and the limits of the CV, hosted by Anita Chauhan and powered by Willo. In this Season 4 episode, Gerard Holland, founder of Talent Match Africa, explains why he no longer uses CVs to assess candidates, how video profiles changed his clients' expectations of African talent, and how companies can hire across borders without importing the bias that comes with geography and credentials. Topics include remote hiring, offshore talent, skills based hiring, AI generated applications, video screening and hiring for potential.
Show Resources
- Willo: willo.video - The most cost-effective way to screen candidates at scale. Interview candidates anywhere & at any time
- CV Free Toolkit: cvfree.me/join - Break up with the CV and get everything you need to modernize your hiring approach with skills-based assessments
- Anita Chauhan: linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan - Connect with the host
Gerard Holland
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