Indeed Leadership Connect Member Spotlight: John Dudley

The head of TA for North America at global logistics solution provider Kuehne+Nagel, Dudley recently shared his thoughts with Indeed about the future of work; why it’s important for recruiters to become trusted talent advisors; the two biggest challenges he currently faces in his role; and how employers can support employees of marginalized groups in an authentic way, among other topics. 

This is the first in a series of profiles of Indeed Leadership Connect members, a community of senior leaders in HR and TA. Learn more about the program and apply. The following interview has been lightly edited. 

How did you get into the HR and talent acquisition field?

My first career was in high tech on the West Coast, starting in business development, then product marketing and product management. 

Around the mid-1990s, I had my own marketing consulting company in Portland, Oregon, and I knew a lot of people in the industry. They’d call and ask if I knew, say, a digital video engineer who would be interested in a job, and I’d connect them. Eventually an acquaintance said I could make money by being a headhunter, and I added it to my consultancy. I then went to work for an agency and retained PwC as a client, They later hired me as a recruiting manager. From that point onward it has been “TA all the way.”

Even though I fell into this line of work, it truly fits me like a glove. Recruitment is very much like business development, and employer branding is very much like product marketing. There’s nothing more rewarding than giving someone a job opportunity that they’re excited about. 

What are the two biggest challenges you’re facing in your role right now? 

My biggest challenge right now is successfully implementing a full transformation of the TA function and team in my region. 

When I started in this role in July 2022, I quickly identified some gaps in the TA function in terms of best practices, and I realized we had some projects we needed to do. About one month in, I realized these weren’t simply projects. What we needed was a full TA transformation, so I developed a vision, strategy and plan, which has three phases, beginning now, and which will go throughout the end of the year. 

The other big challenge is upskilling my TA team from being primarily transactional recruiters to trusted talent advisors in the eyes of our hiring managers and leadership. I want what our recruiters do to be seen as strategic and collaborative, rather than transactional, and that takes training. My entire team has completed excellent training delivered by Katherine Moody — who literally wrote the book on consultative recruitment.

Why is it important for recruiters to be seen as trusted talent advisors?

When your recruiters are viewed as trusted advisors and are collaborative and feel empowered to advise as talent market experts, hiring managers become more confident that their jobs will be filled by quality candidates in a timely manner. And that frees hiring managers to focus on their own work and objectives.

What are you most proud of in your role over the past year?

As I mentioned, when I took this job, I identified gaps and issues in TA, including where we weren’t aligned with best practices. I put together a strategy in six months that has full buy-in from our leadership. To me that says a lot — not just about me, but about Kuehne+Nagel’s leadership and agility.

What will be the single biggest change in the workforce in the next 10 years?

It’s already here: ChatGPT. With this new technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just some cool technology of the future or the next big thing. It’s going to be a revolution across industries and functions. I don’t know yet exactly how it will affect talent acquisition, but I have no doubt that it will. Ultimately it’s up to us, the TA leaders, to figure that out. 

What’s your biggest hope for the next 12 months? 

My hope is that we have a successful TA transformation that increases our quality of hires, reduces our time to hire and achieves an exceptional candidate experience, with high hiring manager satisfaction. This will be driven by our recruiters, who develop a trusted advisor relationship with our stakeholders.

Has being a member of the Indeed Leadership Connect program helped you in any way? If so, how? 

When I attended the Recharge event in September, I’d only been in my role for two months. The topics that the Indeed team led, and the conversations that came from those topics, were thought-provoking and led me to some valuable insights. I made some great connections with TA leadership peers throughout the country, as well as with the Indeed Leadership Connect team. 

I’ve never been to an event that gave me so much in such a short time. Other conferences I’ve been to were maybe 20% useful and 80% “fluff.” The Recharge event was 100% relevant and useful.

The Recharge event’s theme was “Rebuilding for a Better World of Work.” The invitation-only, in-person event was held Sept. 21-23, 2022 at the Lake House on Canandaigua in New York. 

Is there a particular book, podcast or movie that has inspired you? 

Previously, I was the TA leader for EY (Ernst & Young) in the Middle East/North Africa region and had 30 people reporting to me in 16 countries and another 35 people offshore supporting my team. There was a lot of complexity to deal with in this region, and I had to hit the ground running. My manager at that time gave me a copy of “The First 90 Days.” It really helped me visualize, embody and embrace my role as a leader much faster than I might have done otherwise, and I recommend it to anyone taking a new role in leadership, regardless of their experience. 

More recently, I’ve created a new leadership layer on my team because I’ve had 20 people reporting to me, with no layer in between. I’ve given copies of “The First 90 Days” to the two new team leaders, so what goes around comes around! 

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received — or given — in your career?

The best advice I’ve ever received is that there's more than one right answer to a problem. People get so fixated on figuring out what’s the exact right thing to do that they end up wasting time and effort and delaying making an impact. When you realize there’s more than one right answer, you’re more likely to be successful because you can choose the best option to resolve an issue or move through a difficult situation. 

The best advice I’ve ever given is actually my motto: “Managers require, leaders inspire.” It means that regardless of your job title, we should all strive to be leaders — and trust our team members to deliver and bring their best every day.