“We have a great reputation in our industry and are known to do the right things and execute flawlessly. We are a leader in product innovation.”
Terri Lass
Director, Recruiting, Global Headquarters, St. Jude Medical, Inc.

Terri, tell us about St. Jude Medical.

St. Jude Medical develops medical device technologies and services for the treatment of cardiac, neurological and chronic pain patients. St. Jude Medical is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn. and has four major focus areas that include: cardiac rhythm management, atrial fibrillation, cardiovascular and neuromodulation. The company sells its products in more than 100 countries around the world. Please visit www.sjm.com to learn more about us.

What do you do at St. Jude Medical?

My title is Director, Recruiting at our Global Headquarters. It is an interesting dual role. My team ensures that recruiting needs are met for Global Headquarters. The second hat I wear is cross-divisional, providing leadership and project management across the enterprise for recruiting (including applicant tracking and background screening), relocation, affirmative action and employment branding.

When you think back about your career in Human Resources, what was the starting point for you?

I started recruiting in a temporary agency – interviewing people, managing a client/desk area of the agency and later managing the agency.

What is a “day in the life” like for you?

Like many of DirectEmployers’ Members, there is no typical day. We usually have multiple projects happening at any given time in various stages of development. I spend a lot of time problem solving and looking at operational efficiency. I may be attending meetings, gathering business requirements, talking to vendors or pulling together some statistical information. I am involved in recruiting from time to time and enjoy keeping my interviewing skills up to date.

What are the key factors that contribute to your company’s success in recruiting?

We use this phrase a lot, “working together to change lives.” This captures the spirit of St. Jude Medical and attracts people to the company. Our great brand is a key factor in our recruiting success. Other factors include continued efforts to focus on the candidate experience and very good internal recruiting teams.

What trends are you seeing in today’s recruiting environment?

The whole area of matching recruiting efforts to job seeker behavior is really interesting. Google Analytics and SEO analytics are becoming very good tools to use on a regular basis. I also think mobile applications are going to change some recruiting activities.

What challenges do you face in recruiting? What keeps you awake at night?

The list includes things like: balancing cost, speed and quality of hire; how do we reach passive job seekers with unique skills in our industry; and how can we do more with less related to our budget. I don’t think these are unique challenges (and they don’t keep me awake at night), but I continue to strategize and take action in regards to them.

What is unique about your organization?

We have a great reputation in our industry and are known to do the right things and execute flawlessly. We are a leader in product innovation.

What types of people are you looking to recruit?

We recruit people for many different positions. We always have positions in clinical, regulatory, quality, and engineering. The engineering background or focus varies by division. We primarily look for people with biomedical, mechanical and electrical engineering degrees and experience.

Why would a job seeker want to work for your organization?

St. Jude Medical is a Fortune 500 company and continues to experience dynamic growth. Each employee can make a difference to influence the success of the company. We are team oriented and value people with great ideas. We follow the highest ethical standards. We offer competitive salaries and benefits and have a strong commitment to training and career development. We have a diverse environment and whenever possible, we promote from within. We also think it is important to “give back” and have community partnerships locally and globally.

Working in the recruitment industry you must have seen some crazy things, can you share any funny stories about the industry or about an interview or candidate?

There are many stories over the years. This one comes to mind from a previous employer. I won’t go into details, but for the “Friends” fans in the crowd, we came up with a version of the “Smelly Cat” song that we changed to “Smelly Candidate.”

What is your favorite DirectEmployers member benefit?

There is more than one favorite – SEO analytics, our key contact at DE- Brad Bickel, and the annual conference.

Why do you think it’s important that your organization is a member of DirectEmployers Association?

Our membership in DE is important for several reasons:

• It helps to meet our compliance needs and reaches out to a diverse candidate pool
• The SEO job posting functionality places our open positions on thousands of sites and helps to increase the number of qualified candidates
• The industry updates help us to stay current on new trends and regulations

My thanks to Terri for the fantastic interview. Great feedback!