S4 E69 | eXpert Tease: Technology and talent, buy vs build with Nick Mailey

Announcer 0:00Welcome to the 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 0:17I tell everybody, I'm Chris Hoyt, president of CareerXroads. You're dialed in today to hear from an industry leader he's going to share with you a career lesson or how to that's one of the many topics surface from a survey from hundreds of talent leaders this year. Now, in this series, the topic might be around DE&I leadership, innovation, or even headspace and sanity during some pretty unprecedented time. So these conversations are about 10 minutes long. And if you're dialed in live, you can both listen and participate with questions via the live chat feature. If you're listening to the podcast after the interview, you can find it anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts like iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc, etc. Or you can find it on our site at CXR.works/eXpertTease. If you do drop a question into the chat, we're going to try and answer it as time permits. But the good news is that if we do run out of time, or you'd like to ask our guests something later, after the podcast, we've set up a free space for you to do that in an open exchange hosted by CXR at CXR.works/talenttalks. So with all of that, let's jump in with today's guest and industry friend. He's the Vice President of talent acquisition at Equinix. Please welcome Nick Mailey. Nick, How are you this morning?

Nick Mailey, Equinix 1:27I'm doing really well. Thank you so much for the invite. I love this community. I've shared this before I continue to learn from everyone here. And so thanks for the opportunity to chat. To be right, it's 2020 COVID. We are in unprecedented time.

So for sure, for sure. Well, we know you get out what you put in. Right. So it's so it's exciting. Um, so Nick, today, we're going to ask the age old question that leaders face when thinking of technology and talent, right. And that's whether or not to buy or build what's needed. Now you've been doing this for a period of time, you've learned a few things as a leader at various organizations of note, what's one thing you'd really like our listeners to walk away knowing with regards to the challenge of buy v build?

Well, you mean, really getting narrow in on what you're solving for what's critical to the business in what you really need to deliver. And when you look at, it sounds really simplistic, but I do lots of interviews to really understand what's critical with executives, and then with employees, because those are ultimately your clients. That's really the number one thing and then it's getting alignment that you're going to deliver on that need. And then I the whole buy versus build I balance, balance, like what is the need? And then how are we going to deliver on that and balance can can look differently, whether it's technology or people or what you're going to deliver? deliver?

Chris Hoyt 3:02is there is there one big takeaway, though, so from a balance standpoint, I mean, when I are balanced, I think of priorities, right? Whether that's buy in on the front, you know, on the front end, or whether that's, you know, from an implementation and staging standpoint, or adoption and change management? I mean, is there one that's just been a particular we can go with victory or defeat, but just one that really stands out to you from from experience standpoint?

Nick Mailey, Equinix 3:30So let me answer this in a couple of ways, because I want to try to answer your question. When I think about balance, I think about the teams that were developing and growing to deliver on a on a business need. And invariably, when you do an assessment of an organization that you're working with, they may have some of the talent but not all of the talent. So you're buying, you're buying.