871: LIVE From Ellucian Live 2024 - with Bill Blackford, VP of Global Talent Acquisition & People Ops, Ellucian

Joe Sallustio: Welcome back everybody. It's your time to ed up on the EdUp Experience podcast where we make education your business. I've got a special guest with me. Usually I'll do a little bit of a song and dance and tell you all about what's going on. But I'm just going to tell you we're here at Ellucian Live for the third straight year. This is 2024 in San Antonio. A little bit disappointing in the eclipse, but the conference has delivered on every single note that we expected.

The product releases that Ellucian has, the guest speakers have been amazing. I'm gonna tell you, we've been podcasting our little behinds off here. And we've got another Ellucian leader with us right now. Let's get him in. He is Bill Blackford, the VP of Global Talent Acquisition. Big job, Bill. What's going on?

Bill Blackford: Hey, Joe, how's it going? Thanks for having me.

Joe Sallustio: Thanks for being here. Global talent acquisition. That's how global is Ellucian. How global is Ellucian?

Bill Blackford: We're very global. Yes, we are. We have close to 4,000 employees located all around the world. So we're hiring in all regions in North America, Mexico, India, Europe, Asia. It is hiring.

Joe Sallustio: This just came to me. Is hiring the same like, you know, when you're hiring in different countries? Or is the hiring process different? Is the way people interact and get hired just filling out an application and you get hired, or is there a different cultural aspect?

Bill Blackford: Yeah, thanks. No, that's actually a really good question.

Joe Sallustio: I only ask really good questions.

Bill Blackford: You do, Joe. I can tell we're getting off to a good start. Listen, I think hiring's hiring, right? And people are people. Regardless of where they sit in the world, people are people. And so our approach and strategy at a high level and holistically is maintained whether you're in the States, whether you're in India, whether you're in Australia, whether you're in Mexico. In terms of our ability to convey why somebody should want to work and grow their career at Ellucian, our ability to meaningfully show that value prop, provide the experiences to them as a candidate, and then how that pulls through from employee experience - all of that, I'd like to think, is very consistent.

There are localizations based on nuances, based on maybe something that's in an application that needs to be there in England, for instance, as opposed to somewhere else. So you have little nuances, but generally speaking, the high-level strategic approach is the same.

Joe Sallustio: How large is Ellucian, employee-wise? 4,000?

Bill Blackford: Almost 4,000.

Joe Sallustio: How many locations do you have across the US? I mean, you don't have to get every single number here, right? I mean, I know you have like, there's one in Mexico, I think.

Bill Blackford: Yeah, we have an office in Puebla. We have an office in Bangalore, an office in Australia. In the US, we have two primary locations in Reston and Malvern, Pennsylvania, which is right outside of Philly. We have a small spot in Rochester. We have offices in Ireland, in Dublin, in Milton Keynes, England. A small satellite office in Frisco, out in San Francisco, but tiny, it's like satellite.

Joe Sallustio: Amazing! It's a lot to keep track of. And people, it's interesting for hiring, you know, particularly in higher ed, right? There's so much to do in higher ed. There are a lot of people leaving higher education. I think some are coming to educational technology.

Bill Blackford: Yeah, well... It's interesting, you have people maybe leaving. I'm actually seeing more people wanting to come to education technology.

Joe Sallustio: That's what I'm saying, moving from higher ed institutions to...

Bill Blackford: Got you, sorry, it's been a long day.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah, for me too.

Bill Blackford: No, 100% right, that's a theme and a trend that we're seeing. I think it comes down to, listen. When how people want to spend their time? And I think when you think about Ellucian and why people want to work at Ellucian - like that's my job. So you got to take away the brain assault of the guy you're talking to - like my job's to get people excited, right?

But at the end of the day, I think that there are like three key reasons why people want to come to Ellucian. The first that we'll always go to is the mission. The work we do matters, and God, you know, we're talking about this yesterday. You see it here at E-Live, which is awesome. It's really bringing it to life. But you know, it is such a purpose-driven, mission-driven culture.

I remember when I got recruited into Ellucian, I was hearing that and my previous boss at the time was telling me, and I was like, "Is this just like the purple Kool-Aid? Is this just the corporate speak?" And I can say with 100% authority, it is so alive and well, which is great. Like the work we do matters. When you think about the technologies we build and what it impacts, like our technology touches more than 22 million students on a day-to-day basis. That's massive, massive global societal impact, which is awesome.

Joe Sallustio: But you know this, you're only as good as your people. Your tech is your tech.

Bill Blackford: Your tech is your tech. But you are bringing on talented people, right?

Joe Sallustio: 100%. We have the best talent in all of EdTech. And at the end of the day, that's why my team and our role is so important, because our company is only as strong as the employees it stands on.

Bill Blackford: And you have to match it with people who really believe in the mission, or else they're going to disrupt that culture.

Joe Sallustio: Yes, 1,000%. And that's actually why we're seeing more and more people come to EdTech, because I feel like there's this perfect storm in some ways. You have this big pullback in Big Tech. So we've had all that going on. Then you have a lot of these really smart people that are like, "Hey, how do I want to spend my time to actually make a meaningful impact?"

And we're not building widgets here. We're not building something so somebody's ad, like your conversion ratio could increase by 20%. We're building something that's driving and enabling student success. That's beyond one institution for thousands. Thousands and thousands. That's a fact. That's a fact. I go back to 20s.

What we talk about a lot is what our teams are building and the services we deliver. It touches over 22 million students on a day-to-day basis. That is freaking amazing. And our job, when you talk about enabling student success, is trying to help these students across the states to graduate, to become productive members of society, and try to enable them so they can go on and have happy, fulfilling, productive lives, right, which is awesome.

Joe Sallustio: Well, and you are, you talk about steps away from the student. A lot of times in industries, you can be steps away from that student. It's really important to communicate how every role impacts that student, even if you're steps away. How do you do that with all the different types of roles? How do you always, I mean, I would say you, but how does the team keep everyone excited to serve students, reminding them that everything they're doing is to serve the stakeholder, the student, even though you might be doing this technology or this hiring process?

Bill Blackford: Yeah, and it's not just, here's the thing too, so I'll answer your question directly, but just one other thing to pull the thread on. It's not just the people that are building technology, right? It encompasses everybody within the organization. How I look at it is every single role within the organization is super, super important. And that's through from interns all the way up through Laura and everybody in between, right?

And when you think about that, like that's real. And I think when you talk about, how do we get that to bleed through? Like it starts at the top with our leadership. Like I'd like to think we have a best-in-class executive leadership team. I feel super fortunate to work for my boss, who I work for, who's been our MC here. John Grande. He's awesome and has been an awesome MC.

But when you think of Laura and the whole executive team, they set the tone, and we talk about this consistently. Like a lot of what we've talked about today, right? When Mike's up there and Sonya and Justin, they're talking about transparency and how we're building and all the conversations around AI and how we're gonna be very transparent with what we're doing. That same transparency pulls through to how we communicate to our employees, how we set expectations, how we get everybody excited. So that's something that we have continuous conversations on.

Joe Sallustio: Nailed it. Bleeds through to the whole organization. You know, as you talk about people these days, mental health is a big issue. I mean, you know, in any company, in any industry, you have to take care of your people. How do you guys deal with this problem that exists? I mean, I don't even know if it's the epidemic or I don't know what it is. It's just the reality.

Bill Blackford: Yeah, it is a reality. I think that it comes down to like when we talk about, okay, showcasing a value proposition, why somebody should want to work and grow their careers here at Ellucian. You talk about the whole level, it's like a human deal framework, right? And it's like, why should somebody be there? And there are so many different factors in terms of mental wellness, financial wellness, just the medical, right?

So I think there's a holistic strategy that we take through benefits that we offer, right? We offer mental health and wellness benefits that can not just impact employees, but actually extends all the way through family members. And if you have partners, spouses, children, it provides direct immediate access. We have financial benefits in terms of literacy and how we can educate our employees. Physical wellness in terms of how do we get people moving, how can they stay healthy. So I think that's one element of it.

I think the other element goes back to... I shouldn't say transparency, it's more of communication, the expectations we set. We have continuous conversations on this of like, "Hey, take a break, go for a walk." We had something during COVID, which we still do now, but like Zoom-out Wednesdays, right? It's sometimes like get off the computer and just take a break.

But like, you know, Greg, you know, we have a weekly, what we call "In the Know" that goes out, keeps everybody informed. And the amount of times where he will just, and it's a video, you know, pushes out every single week. But he is continuing the message on that. Like take time for yourself, right? Like take that break. So again, I think it just goes to leadership, communication, and how do we follow through with that?

Joe Sallustio: You're always having to think forward, right? You guys, Ellucian's growing rapidly. You need the highest talent that you can find globally. It's not an easy job that you have.

Bill Blackford: No, it's not, Joe. It's really not. But here's the thing though. It's a super fun job. I feel really fortunate. From my seat, I love building companies. I love it. And I love, like the company is my product. We heard all about Product Today, which was awesome, like they totally rocked it. But the company's my product. And that's how I look at it.

And being aligned with a company, which as I said, we're the best tech company in business. Candidly, I think we're one of the best tech companies, bar none, period. And while yes, it's a hard job, well, if it were easy, everybody could do it. And it's just not everyone can do that. That's not the fun part.

And here's the thing, like beginning when we were talking about the reasons why, okay, why somebody wanted to join Ellucian, we talked about the mission aspect and all that. The two other points I go to, and we'll hit on this, is one is impact. When I talked about whether you're an intern all the way through Laura, I think one of the things I value most here is your opportunity to put a thumbprint on something and say, "Hey, I did that" or "I was part of this team that really helped move the needle."

And which is awesome. That's why you want to be there. You don't want to be where it's like, okay, I'm just going through the motions. You're driving real impact. And that's what we talk about a lot is how do you, how are we driving meaningful impact?

And then the third thing I just point to is our people. We were talking about this yesterday. Like our people are awesome. I think something when you have mission-driven organizations naturally lend themselves to collaborative environments, just because it's the whole idea that if you can bring an idea forward on how you can propel the mission forward, then hey, listen, we want to hear about it. Like you're going to need to come with a business case and make your case and bring it forward.

People are genuinely open and willing and wanting to understand. It's a very collegial environment. Like honestly, the people at Ellucian are just fantastic. And at the core, it's like, that's why we're here and we're spending so much time working together. And it's just an awesome group of people. So.

Joe Sallustio: What else do you want to say about your role, about Ellucian, about the conference? Anything else? Close us out.

Bill Blackford: Yeah, I'll say this. This is my first E-Live.

Joe Sallustio: Get out of here.

Bill Blackford: It is. Surprise. First E-Live and it's been awesome. Like honestly exceeded any type of expectations I'd have. When I talk about the company being like the product, like my product, yeah, right. It's been so awesome being here. Like you have the energy and the vibe, but just seeing the reach of the ecosystem. Hearing from the community. The community is blowing my mind and talking to customers and seeing, like the sessions I'm in today, I came out at one in the afternoon and we had, I don't even want to... It's been a long day.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah, it's been a long day.

Bill Blackford: But they were talking about how our solutions, they were genuinely saying like, "This is making such a difference in our students' lives," right? It was one of the solutions that we have. And I was like, God, and it was so sincere coming from one of our customers, like a big customer. And it's just like, that's awesome, that's why we're here and that's why we do it.

But it's just been awesome. We've seen the reach of the ecosystem and seen all the product releases and what we have coming on. I think that's probably the last thing I'd probably just say is that I've been here for six and a half years and I talked to my team about this. Like I'm more excited now about Ellucian than I was six and a half years ago, right? And I think it's seeing this and what we have coming, I still feel like we're at the tip of the iceberg.

Like every year it's just more, it's more exciting. And we're in the time of rapid technological innovation, which makes the human element even more important. It's gonna come back to talent acquisition at the end of the day. Our company is only as strong again as the people it stands on, and that's always gonna be that.

Joe Sallustio: There he is, ladies and gents. He is Bill Blackford, VP of Global Talent Acquisition. Bill, I'm so glad that you made time for me to get you on the podcast. I really appreciate it.

Bill Blackford: No, Joe, thank you for having me on. This was awesome.

Joe Sallustio: All right, remember everybody. Be excellent to each other. You've just ed-uped.