Building TA trust using the OXYTOCIN framework

If you’ve worked in Talent Acquisition for any length of time, you know this: trust makes or breaks the function. Without it, even the best recruitment strategies end up looking like a black box to the rest of the business. With it, TA moves from being a transactional service to a strategic partner. Neuroscientist Paul Zak’s OXYTOCIN framework offers a practical lens for this. It focuses on everyday behaviours, not just big-picture intentions. I’ve adapted it for TA Leaders with the help of some exceptional leaders who shine in these areas.

By Jo Vohland, Edan Haddock, Claire Planinsek, Keith Muirhead, Athanasia Corso, Eva Brookes, Pavi Iyer, Derek Del Simone, Lauren Forbes.

O: Ovation  – Celebrate TA Achievements Publicly and Consistently

Recognition isn’t just about a pat on the back. It’s a signal to the business: TA is driving real outcomes.

1. Within TA: Celebrate wins that matter like closing a critical role, improving diversity metrics, or pulling off a creative hiring campaign under pressure. These moments build team pride and reinforce that the work has purpose.
2. Across the Business: Don’t hide those wins. Bring them into leadership meetings, newsletters, or town halls. When a great hire accelerates a product launch or saves a department from burning out, tell that story.
3. Action: The magic happens when you link recognition to business goals. Filling a role is good. Filling it to deliver on a growth target and meet a critical business goal is where you draw a direct link between TA and business performance. It’s the TA Leader’s role to own the narrative making sure performance isn’t seen as fills or transactions but as evidence that TA is a critical driver of business success.

Edan Haddock, Head of Talent at Movember:

“When we celebrate outcomes, we’re not just applauding effort, we’re demonstrating how Talent and People Experience directly drives organisational success. By sharing our team’s work at leadership meetings, in newsletters, and at town halls, we make sure the business sees the clear connection between our achievements and Movember’s strategic goals. This consistent visibility not only builds pride within our team, but reinforces that our work has real purpose and measurable impact. Too often, Talent keeps its wins behind the scenes -but we’ve made it a priority to tell our story openly, proudly, and consistently. Because when you link recognition to business outcomes, you shift the perception of Talent from being a support function to being a true driver of growth, culture, and change. And that’s what makes our people feel valued, empowered, and celebrated.”

X: Expectation  – Set Clear and Shared Goals for Talent Acquisition

One of the fastest ways to lose trust? Misaligned or hidden expectations – TA assumes one set of priorities while stakeholder/hiring managers quietly expect another.

The goal isn’t perfect alignment forever. It’s having a shared baseline so when things shift (as they always do) you’re shifting together.

1. Within TA: Establish and continuously communicate clear KPIs which will include items such as conversion ratio’s, sourcing channel effectiveness, what is the reasonable time in various stages of the hiring process, customer satisfaction scores, diversity hiring metrics.
2. Across the Business: Sit down with hiring managers and execs and co-create mutual accountabilities or the hiring roadmap, before launching into execution mode. Agree on priorities and timelines including deadlines for reviewing resumes, conducting interviews, and providing feedback. .
3. Action: Keep it visible. Dashboards and regular updates help maintain trust and keeps everyone accountable. It also ensures timeliness and therefore greater consideration and likelihood of candidate centricity. 

Claire Planinsek, Head of Recruitment at Defence Force Recruiting (DFR):

“I am a firm believer that everyone comes to work wanting to do a good job. As leaders we can help that be the reality, by ensuring we always provide clear expectations. Even though our teams may be filled with experienced talent acquisitions specialists, every organisation they work in has different expectations and priorities change throughout the year. Having led large teams over a sustained period, I find the two most effective avenues are at the weekly extended leadership meeting to be clear on expectations as well as the monthly TA all hands meeting. You will find most teams and individuals value and appreciate expectations being shared in a candid and clear manner. Setting clear expectations builds trust, reduces uncertainty and strengthens relationships. When leaders and recruiters can articulate clear expectations, everyone feels more connected, valued and prepared to succeed.”  

Y: Yield  – Empower TA Teams and Hiring Managers with Autonomy

Micromanagement is a trust-killer. If you’ve hired good people, let them do what you hired them to do. Every time I’ve seen a team hit its stride, it’s because they were trusted to make calls without running every decision up the chain.

1. Within TA: Give recruiters room to manage their pipelines and try creative approaches for hard-to-fill roles. You’ll learn more from experiments than from sticking rigidly to a playbook.
2. Across the Business: Equip hiring managers with the tools to play their part (structured interview training, good job description templates etc.) and then let them own their piece of the process.
3. Action: Set boundaries, sure, but leave space for people to problem-solve. Autonomy is where trust breathes.

Director of Talent at Fonterra, Keith Muirhead: 

“I come from the school of ‘hire great people and get out of their way’. We built our strategy, team values and customer promises together which gained commitment from the team. The execution of that plan is a shared effort, but all the team understand the role they play, where they have freedom to act, and where we need to collaborate and align

I’m a firm believer that the role of a leader is to provide clarity, inspiration and create the environment for the team to be successful. We are really clear on the metrics/deliverables we want to achieve, but the how is down to individuals to bring their own style and creativity  – within some behavioural guidelines of respect, empathy, and fairness of course! “

T: Transfer  – Promote Transparency Across All Levels

Trust doesn’t grow in the dark. If people don’t know what TA is doing or why, they’ll make up their own narrative.

1. Within TA: Share your own metrics and lessons learned. Even the ones that sting. It builds credibility inside the team.
2. Across the Business: Keep hiring managers and execs in the loop on progress and challenges. It’s easier to have their support when the market is tough if you’ve been transparent all along.
3. Action: Push past the instinct to hold back. Transparency may feel risky – exposing challenges, admitting uncertainty, or sharing half-formed ideas but most people have a sense of where things are all but not all of the information. It isn’t about oversharing; it’s about not letting silence do the talking for you. Acknowledge what you know, what you don’t, and what you’re doing to close the gap. When you let people see both the progress and the vulnerability, you signal honesty and invite collaboration.

Athanasia Corso, Head of Talent at Insurance House: 

“Transfer goes both ways. You want someone to trust you? Listen more than you speak. Trust isn’t about you, it’s about the other person. When you truly listen, you can give them what they need and understand what’s driving that need. At the end of a meeting, when asked if there are any questions, I often laugh and say, ‘I always have more questions!’ because curiosity forms a foundation to transparency. The more you understand your objective; its purpose, deliverables, commercial impact, and historical context, the more effective and relevant your efforts will be, no matter where you sit in the value chain. Consider whether you’ve considered all aspects; individual, team, business, industry, economy. When you’re not quite sure how to pair data with meaningful conversation try using the ADDIE framework to guide that process. (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate). It ensures we align with business needs, maintain quality and consistency, stay agile when challenges arise, and measure outcomes effectively. This way stakeholders can see both the process and the results, which helps trust grow naturally.”

O: Openness  – Encourage Feedback

For many people, feedback feels less like a conversation and more like a confrontation. That’s exactly why you have to normalize it. When feedback is treated as a gift instead of a threat, trust tends to grow quickly and so does the partnership between TA and the business.

1. Within TA: Build regular check-ins where recruiters can speak honestly about process friction or stakeholder dynamics.
2. Across the Business: Ask hiring managers and execs what’s working and what’s not and then actually act on it. Nothing kills trust faster than soliciting feedback and ignoring it.
3. Action: Anonymous surveys can help, but so can an informal coffee chat where people feel they can speak freely.

Global Talent Leader, Eva Brookes has a mantra that is “Nobody’s world view is complete. This is a reminder to be open to feedback, and normalise that we all have blind spots.”

C: Caring  – Lead with Empathy, Back it with Action

Empathetic and caring Leadership isn’t about a constant pep rally or hanging out hugs, it’s acknowledging the human side of work. See the person, not just the performance.

1. Within Talent Acquisition: High-volume intakes, hard-to-fill roles, and shifting priorities can drain a team. A caring Leader will not only recognise the effort and acknowledge that the work is intense and critical, but also provide real support – better tools, flexible approaches, the right resources.
2. Across the Business: Hiring managers are balancing recruitment on top of their core responsibilities. A caring Talent Leader acknowledges that tension and brings solutions that streamline, not complicate – clarity of process, proactive scheduling, and timely communication.
3. Action: Caring extends beyond any single interaction. You can have expectations and be tough on values, ethics, performance whilst being soft on the person. Next time you have a tricky meeting, aim to open with what you agree on (e.g. we both agree on and want to achieve X ), be soft on the person (use a kind tone. Ask about challenges and roadblocks).Listen intently. Taking notes shows your commitment. Reading back those notes shows your understanding. Set clear guidelines and expectations (e.g. given we need to do this within the bounds of XYZ). Offer support.(what can I do to help you achieve what you need in the right timeframe?)

Pavi Iyer, Head of People & Talent

“In Talent functions, caring isn’t just about empathy, it’s about actions and creating the conditions where people can thrive. For me, it’s also a team effort: hiring managers are an extension of your team, and it’s your role to bring out their best just as you would with your own people. True care is about more than just empathy; it’s about shaping an environment where trust, growth, and potential can flourish. When leaders show up this way, they don’t just fill roles they build organisations people believe in and want to work in.”

I: Invest  – Commit to Growth and Development Across Stakeholders

Investment in your people signals belief in the team, in the function, and in the business outcomes TA drives.

1. Within TA: Give recruiters access to new skills and tools. It’s not just professional development; it’s a trust signal that says, “We believe you’ll use this to deliver more value.”
2. Across the Business: Train hiring managers on interviewing and bias. Involve the C-Suite in strategic TA discussions so investment decisions feel co-owned.
3. Action: Link TA investment conversations directly to workforce planning and growth goals.

Derek Del Simone, Chief Talent Officer, Abano Healthcare:

“I recall 5 years ago, the first sentence a newly appointed external CEO bluntly said to me: ‘I don’t rate TA, always wanting more money, more headcount, blowing budgets, and costing me money.’ That was a defining moment. I’d always been commercially focused, but it pushed me to become a louder, fiercer advocate for the value my team delivers. From that day forward, I took a clear steward leadership stance, owning not just execution, but the rigorous, intentional stewardship of every TA investment. Every dollar had to be justified, tied directly to business impact, and aligned with business priorities. That shift didn’t just change perceptions, it propelled my career, shaped my leadership identity, and drove how I embed TA strategy into the business strategy every day.”  

N: Natural  – Foster Authentic Relationships Between TA and Stakeholders

Transactional relationships can get you through a requisition. Authentic relationships get you through a crisis.

1. Within TA: Encourage team camaraderie and sharing of information. A cohesive team projects confidence outward.
2. Across the Business: Build ongoing relationships with hiring managers, broader HR and execs. Understand their challenges outside of active roles – it changes the dynamic when you’re seen as a partner, not just a process owner.
3. Action: Truly understand the business/function you’re supporting and how you can input into decision making utilising your unique external market perspective.

Lauren Forbes, General Manager Talent and PX, MYOB:

“Our secret source is having Talent Advisors, GMs of People and Executives operate as a team during workforce planning, well before a req has even been created. TAs share insights regularly, which results in them shaping decisions whether that be during a restructure, redeployment process or headcount planning for the following year. They are deeply involved in planning activities because of the unique perspective they bring to the conversation that adds real value.”

Why Building Trust in TA Across the Business Matters

When TA is trusted, everything flows easier. Collaboration gets stronger. Hiring outcomes improve. Candidates feel the difference. And crucially the C-Suite sees TA as a strategic lever for growth.