Looks Good on Paper
Looks Good on Paper flips hiring on its head. Hosted by Andrew Wood and Anita Chauhan, we dive into why CVs and "perfect fits" are overrated. Through fun, insightful conversations with industry experts, we explore how skills, potential, and real experience should be the focus of hiring... not what looks good on paper.
Quick, candid, and packed with actionable insights, we’re here to rewrite the rules of hiring, one episode at a time.
Looks Good on Paper
Human-Centric Hiring At Scale - Inside Clio’s Global Talent Expansion (S2E7)
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At 1,700 people, Clio is no longer a startup — but it still has to hire like one in the sense that matters most: every candidate interaction either builds or erodes trust in the company. Scaling talent acquisition without turning it into a processing machine is one of the harder operational problems in high-growth companies.
Most scaling teams solve for efficiency and lose the human in the process. Response times slow down, feedback disappears, and candidates start to feel like numbers. The best talent notices. And the best talent has options.
Alyssa-Marie Lefebre, Senior TA Specialist at Clio, lives this challenge daily at one of Canada's most recognized legaltech companies. In this episode of Looks Good on Paper, she talks through how Clio keeps recruiting human as it expands globally, the real difference between culture fit and culture add in practice, and what most talent teams get wrong when they try to scale without sacrificing quality.
What you'll learn:
→ How to maintain a human candidate experience as hiring volume grows
→ The operational practices that prevent talent acquisition from becoming a processing machine
→ What culture add looks like in practice at a company of 1,700 people
GUEST
Alyssa-Marie Lefebre — Senior TA Specialist, Clio
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssalefebre/
YOUR HOST
Anita Chauhan — Fractional CMO, co-host
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan/
Chapters
00:00 – Intro & welcome
00:41 – Alyssa’s path into talent acquisition
02:11 – Clio’s scale, growth, and global expansion
03:12 – Culture add vs. culture fit
06:56 – Reassessing values and inclusivity at scale
09:19 – Hidden hiring bias: ambiguity in interviews
11:19 – Preparing candidates to show their best
13:02 – Should we remove CVs from hiring?
15:50 – Skills-based applications and equitable evaluation
20:40 – How to connect with Alyssa & closing thoughts
LISTEN & FOLLOW
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/0dbfz6y0tMq3crViHQD66H
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1625835562
All episodes → https://looksgoodonpaper.buzzsprout.com
WATCH ON YOUTUBE - https://youtu.be/el-x477B9uo
POWERED BY WILLO
Hire humans, not resumes → https://www.willo.video/looks-good-on-paper
CONNECT WITH US
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/10170893
If this episode changed how you think about hiring, share it with one person who needs to hear it. And subscribe — we're rewriting the rules of hiring, one episode at a time.
Scaling talent acquisition without losing the human element requires deliberate systems, not just good intentions. As hiring volume increases, the default is to optimise for speed — which degrades candidate communication, feedback quality, and the experience that shapes employer brand. The companies that scale well build those human touchpoints into process rather than leaving them to individual recruiter discretion.
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
