Episode notes
In this episode of the Leaders in Talent podcast, Adriaan Kolff sits down with Taylor Nelson, Talent Manager at Filevine, the legal AI platform that grew from 230 to over 900 employees in the two and a half years since he joined as recruiter number three. Taylor started out hiring 50 people a week in high-volume staffing, and that agency DNA still shapes how his team of nine runs today.
Taylor walks through the shift from operator to manager: letting go of the protective, commission-driven island mindset, moving from responsible for me to responsible for we, and the line from his own manager that stuck: you don't get points for doing it all yourself. His team fills every role in under 30 business days against an industry standard of 40 to 60, runs default aggressive communication with hiring managers, and fills out an intake sheet before any job is posted.
He also shows the data spine behind the growth: recording himself doing 26 minutes of onboarding admin per hire to justify a recruiting coordinator who now saves each recruiter three hours a week, forecasting headcount with finance (270 hires projected this year, 300 done by late July), and what he would do differently, from hiring that coordinator on day one to unblocking technical hiring faster. Plus the question every recruiter now faces: telling the candidates who use AI as a resource from the ones using it as a crutch.
Timecodes
01:18 Welcome and Taylor's background
02:00 Psychology degree to 50 hires a week in agency staffing
03:53 Recruiter number three at Filevine, now a team of nine
04:59 From me to we: the first-time manager shift
08:48 Agency habits worth keeping: 30-day fills and default aggressive
11:27 Building the case for more headcount with data
14:25 The coordinator math: 26 minutes per hire, three hours back per recruiter
15:58 Workforce planning with finance: 270 projected, 300 by July
18:16 What he would do differently
20:45 Intake sheets and the prioritization template
21:39 Manager habits: blocked time and specific sourcing sprints
23:53 Candidates using AI: resource or crutch
27:19 Three takeaways for first-time managers
30:09 The balcony and the dance
33:05 Where to find Taylor
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Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/
Get in touch with us: https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/
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Connect with Taylor Nelson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylornelsonhr/
Connect with Adriaan Kolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/
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