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You can’t automate empathy—and that’s the difference.

In this episode, recorded live at isolved Connect in Chicago, industry veteran Pamela Stroko joins William Tincup to talk truth in HR tech. With over two decades across Oracle, analyst firms, and practitioner trenches, Pamela cuts through the noise around AI, hiring mistakes, and vendor hype.

She shares lessons from launching The Five Talents That Matter podcast series, what 300,000 listens taught her about real talent signals, and why most companies are still getting hiring wrong—by design. From her earliest days in HR to her sharpest critiques of today’s tech landscape, Pamela makes one thing clear: connection still wins.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Meet Pamela Stroko: from practitioner to Oracle to analyst

02:24 — The Five Talents book and podcast: a talent strategy case study

04:46 — 85–95% of execs say they’re hiring the wrong people

06:15 — What you can’t teach: innate traits that drive leadership

08:11 — Getting honest about the cost of bad hires

09:02 — First impressions of isolved and what energy signals in a vendor

11:04 — Real customer love: isolved’s people-first approach in action

13:35 — How isolved’s roots shaped its culture and impact

15:00 — What vendors get wrong: overpromising features and roadmaps

17:12 — Why authenticity and humanity still differentiate great software

20:33 — AI can’t fall in love. That’s still your job

This conversation was recorded live at isolved Connect in Chicago.

The Heroes of HR podcast is a limited series sponsored by isolved. isolved is an HCM platform that modernizes HR, benefits, and payroll across Healthcare, Hospitality, Manufacturing, and more.

You can learn more about isolved here: https://www.isolvedhcm.com/


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