Fractional People Leader | Founder of Stakkd - Join our #HRtech benchmarking beta

Hiii, I’m Jess!
I’m an Aussie living in Germany, a boy mum, and the founder of Stakkd.

I’ve spent over 14 years working across corporates, startups, and scale-ups. I’ve seen great HR teams drowning because of the wrong tech infrastructure.

While on maternity leave, I started putting together a Notion table to make sense of all the HR tech out there. It was meant to help a few friends, it ended up helping a lot more. That’s how Stakkd started.

Now I spend my days making sure People and Talent teams find the right HR tech for their business.

I’m also raising a little boy as a build Stakkd, and figuring it out as I go!

Head to the Stakkd platform now to discover the best HR tech: stakkd.tech

And if you’re a vendor who wants to be featured, send me a DM.

Why are we surprised when someone from HR becomes a CEO?

I feel like CPO's becoming CEO’s is a good thing.

→ Leena Nair went from leading people at Unilever to running Chanel
→ Mary Barra started in HR before leading General Motors
→ Anne Mulcahy began in HR and saved Xerox 

Apparently these are “unusual” stories.
But they shouldn’t be.

HR leaders spend their careers reading and understanding people.

They make decisions without perfect data.

And they manage risks you can’t put on a spreadsheet like TRUST.

THAT is what leadership is.

The best CEOs I’ve met don’t just understand strategy.

They also understand people.

I was in HR too.

And it 100% shaped how I’ve built my company.

It taught me that PEOPLE are everything.

If we took HR as seriously as finance or operations….

… we’d probably have better companies, and better leaders 🙃

Happy Friday 🫶🏻

Jessie Schofer

Helping you navigate HR tech | Founder @ Stakkd | HR Tech Queen | Speaker | Boy Mum

5 HR communities you need to know about 👇
(You never need to do HR alone ever again)

1/ Talent Crunch Berlin (TC) / Andreea

fastest growing private talent community based in Berlin with AMAZING events

2/ Open Org / Adam

exclusive, collaborative space where People & Culture leaders connect

3/ AI for HR Community / Vanessa

exclusive community to learn, build, and grow with fellow HR pros using AI

4/ PromptMates https://tally.so/r/wLlpg2 / Joe

private community giving recruiting leaders access to AI experts, peer support, resources

5/ Humans in the Loop HR Community / Jessie (me)

private community giving People leaders access to resources and learnings for their HR tech & AI transformation

DON'T be like old me who didn’t join any communities because I was “too busy”.

🔥 Save, share and tag other HR communities and I will create a central place for you to find them on stakkd.tech!

Happy Monday everyone

It’s been ONE year since I launched stakkd.tech 🎈
and here's how it's going...


Firstly, ONE YEAR, feels like TEN 😆

And let me tell you it has been a WILD ride

Here’s some things I am proud of:

- over 105 clients signed up
- over 50,000 database views
- 4520 connections to vendors
- launched trending insights
- leveled up the design

Annnddd Stakkd is being used by the global HR community
(over 70 countries!)

Not bad for an ex-HR solopreneur 😎

I am still figuring things out as I go...
But so far it seems to be working.

And I’m SO GRATEFUL you’re all here with me as I build this in public with all the cringe and mistakes that come with it.

I am ready for 2026!

LFG 👊🏻✨

ps. if you are a vendor and NOT on Stakkd and want to be - reach out!

.... and yes, that is a date with a candle in it lol.... I didn't have any cake but wanted to celebrate 🎂

7 AI NATIVE HR TECH TOOLS 👇
(you probably don't know)


1. Borderless AI - AI native EOR
2. DreamTeam - AI native HRIS
3. Kula - AI native ATS
4. Taito.ai - AI native performance management
5. Winslow - AI native people operations
6. Included - AI native people analytics
7. Metaview - AI native recruitment notetaker & sourcing

now I am not saying you NEED to choose an AI Native HR tech stack

but it is very possible

there’s also plenty of other great tech out there, not just these ones!!

go check out 330+ tools on Stakkd and discover the what's on the market before jumping in!

ps. does anyone know a company with a fully AI native HR and recruiting tech stack?!?

I’d love to talk to them 👀 

pps. these are all partners of Stakkd

I GOT BLOCKED BY LINKEDIN FOR 24HOURS FOR... *drumroll* 🥁


Commenting thank you 15 times in a row to people who congratulated me on my one year post 😄

Clearly my fast typing at 11:30pm before I went to sleep was too much like a bot.

Thanks for giving me anxiety linkedin.

ANYWAY

Moral of the story is... don't say thank you.

No I'm kidding... don't comment too fast 🫠 

and yes it's midnight and I am so happy to have my account back I am posting at this hour! 

Back to it tomorrow (today?) 🫶

I’ve seen 100s of HR platforms.
These are the 30 core HR tools you should check out 👇🏻

(PS: If you’re an SME and looking for your next HR platform, I did the job for you, start here)

BambooHR
Breathe
Calamari
Cercli (YC S23)
ChartHop
CharlieHR
Darwinbox
Deel
DreamTeam
Employment Hero
Evity HR
Factorial
GoCo.io, Inc.
Happy HR
Hailey HR
HealthBoxHR
HiBob
HoorayHR
Humaans
Leapsome
Namely
Personio
Plumm
Remote
Rippling
Sense Workplace
Simployer AlexisHR
Tellent
Worknice
Zelt

I’ve experienced core tech that doesn’t work.
And it hurt.

Some platforms genuinely make life easier for you, others look great until you actually start using them.
Make sure before diving into core tech that they do what they say they’ll do and support your business goals.

Hint: this will be different for everyone.

If you’re curious about other HR tech (ATS, engagement, AI for HR, Talent Management etc.), you can discover them all here → stakkd.tech

pps. some of these are verified partners of Stakkd! Toggle verified on to find them 🤓

48h in San Francisco
32h on planes 
9 oat lattes (minimum) 
1 sickness
absolutely ZERO hours of proper sleep thanks to jet lag 😂
and I’m finally back in Berlin!! 🇩🇪

did I win the grant? sadly no...

(thank you for all the supportive messages on Monday though... I am so lucky to have you all!!)

BUT what I won was WAY better.
and no it’s not a “network”

👉 it’s long life friends

- friends who support each other
- who are happy to talk for hours about GTM, sales conversion and automation
- and build each other up

THAT IS THE MAGIC

EVERYONE deserved to be there

And the 3 winners deserved to win!!! 👏 

Patricia Florencia founder of Pilou
Johanna Salazar founder of FoodStream Network
Douglas Wilson founder of SyncPop

PLUS I am so thankful to have meet all these other beautiful souls

Ryan B. founder of Squadies™
Tremaine Grant founder of Pulse: Fitness Collective
Sebastián Arjona & Leonardo Raúl Vilchis Padrón founders of Bullground
Tomás Uribe founder of Mavity
Jelanna Salas Olivera (she, ella) and Dr. Tracey Hathaway founders of auntedna.ai
Estrella Q. founder of Last Farewells
Melina Cruz Villafaña Cruz founder of Chain https://lnkd.in/gguCFsjP
Toby Oyetoke Engineering at KrosAI (DraperU S24)

We all have something to share and learn from each other

And I can’t wait to see us all smash it 🚀 

Happy friday everyone!

ps. thanks again to Lily Yuen Xu, Sara Lila Cordero Porta, the investors and the whole Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Techstars team for making this all happen 

AND to the amazing Allison McGuire, Mary McKenzie and Tijuana Ricks from the McGuire Method for teaching us everything you know

ALSO LOOK AT HOW MANY WOMEN ARE IN TAGGED IN THIS POST :) 

Okaybyenow 😄

50,000 people working in ONE department were laid off in 2025 

Can you guess which one?

It’s the same department responsible for building teams, managing culture, and holding a company together when things fall apart.

And yet, it’s still one of the first to go.

When layoffs hit, HR is often cut before product, sales, or engineering.

Is HR underperforming? 

Nope..

It’s because HR isn’t considered revenue generating.

That’s the reality.

The boardroom logic is simple: 
- if hiring slows, why keep the people who hire? 
- if budgets tighten, why keep the people who manage them? 
- if morale drops, well, that’s intangible.

Most don’t see “culture” important to their P&L.

So HR becomes expendable, even though every redundancy, every restructure, and every difficult conversation still runs through them.

We call HR a “strategic function,” but most businesses don’t treat it like one.

They measure it in cost, not consequence.

The result is pretty obvious: when things go to 💩, companies scramble to rebuild trust, rehire, and repair what could’ve been protected.

The irony?

The same leaders who signed off the cuts end up paying more to fix the fallout later.

Make it make sense 🤪

Ever tried building a business while being mum to a 2 year old boy?
Wouldn’t recommend it…😅
(Actually, I would. He’s the love of my life!)

But wow, it’s A LOT…
People ask me how I manage both.
The truth is, I don’t “manage” anything 😆
TIME BLOCKING is the only reason my days are not a mess.
Otherwise everything would fall apart very quickly!
It’s the only way I can survive

This is what a day usually looks like for me:
6:30 - trying to wake up before he does
7:30 - breakfast, play time and negotiating to get him dressed (iykyk)
8:30 - childcare drop-off
9:30 - Stakkd now takes priority (and cold coffee)
4 hours for everything: content, product dev, clients, podcast…work work work
13:30 - grabbing food because I forgot to eat
14:00 - 2h sales call block
16:00 - childcare pick-up
17:00 - toddler chaos + trying to prep dinner
18:30 - husband is home for dinner (THANK GOD)
19:30 - Sleep time for Hugo
20:30 - US calls, Brazilian dev team calls , catch up
10:30 - Try to sleep 😄

Without the structure of time blocking, my whole day would be a complete mess.
I need to be laser focused for all of it.
The founder part.
The mum part.
The human part.

some days I get it right.. some days I don’t.
But the structure helps 😅

Happy Thursday to all the working parents out there, you’re doing amazing 🫶🏻

ps. anyone else do the same?

Top 5 trending HR tech products right now 👇 



Plumm
Juicebox
Kula
DreamTeam
VoiceHubs
Hailey HR

Want to know know what else is hot right now?

Go to the TRENDING insights on stakkd.tech👇

You can see:
- top features
- top integrations
- new products
- top trending products

(by time period)

All you have to do is:
1️⃣ go to 👉 https://lnkd.in/gnHuU9mP
2️⃣ login
3️⃣ BOOM

Now you can see what's trending on Stakkd 😃

women don’t support women.
women compete too much.
women…. <insert negative thing>🤦‍♀️

I’ve heard this time and time again throughout my career.

usually said with so much conviction, like it’s just facts about women.

And I have to say, it’s usually said BY WOMEN.

But no one ever stops to ask why we were made to believe there are only a couple of seats at the top?!

why we were raised to think there’s not enough space for each of us?

why we were taught to protect our spot instead lifting each other up?

it definitely wasn’t women who built that system.

but we sure are getting messed up by it.

That is why I started the girlsclub

and it was so nice to meet up with some Berlin members for brunch yesterday!

No bs.

Just support, kindness and each of us wanting the other to win!

(and of course coffee)

women aren’t the problem.
the boxes we’ve been put in are.

And let’s remember, we can break the cycle

move over boysclub, girlsclub is here 🙌

Everyone loves to talk 💩 about HR…



…until they need us 🙃

And we’ve all been there.

Scared, confused, going through some tough moments and not knowing who to talk to..

And there’s always that ONE person in HR who really helps you.

The empathetic and human ones.

- the ones who listened during the pandemic
- the ones who handled the wild situations
- the ones who helped you figure out your next step or to hold it all together when it was all a mess

People forget how much emotional weight HR carries.

So let’s give them some credit for once!

→ who’s that HR person you can turn too?
tag them below!👇

they deserve it 🫶🏻

Giant ball pit?? Cool people??
Yes please!

Another great event by Talent Crunch Berlin (TC) and Corporate Culture Community!!

There's too much to say. 

So instead of typing a long post you won't read, you can live it through my photos instead 😄 

Lovely to see Hung Florina Rap Lucia Ariadna Nadine Sonita Hilary Harveen Tiffany  and meet the Greenhouse Software team + more

Thanks for all the hard work to make this happen Andreea and Deniz 🫶 

ps. scroll to the end to see the photos Hung Lee got of me in the ball pit lol 😅

LONDON HR COMMUNITY
(this is for you)

Rooftop +
HR crowd you actually want to hang out with
= must join event

I am jumping on a plane next week Tuesday for this rooftop HR community event

Do you know which one I am talking about?

it's the People with a (rooftop) View hosted by DreamTeam

There's no agenda
Just connecting and sharing
Meeting people

That's exactly the kind of event's I like.

The ones you can REALLY meet people.

So I couldn't miss it!

I also couldn't miss finally meeting Luke O'Mahoney, Adam Horne and Matt McFarlane IN PERSON!

Annnnddd seeing the wonderful Daisy Ilaria who will also be there 🫶🏻

PLUS all of you!

I think there only a few spots left 🔥

So if you want to join make sure to register: https://lnkd.in/g5YP82_f
I hope to see you there!

📅  November 11th, 6pm
🌇 NYX Rooftop

____________________


ps. I still can't believe I am going to meet Matt, not in Australia, but London haha - YAY!

pps. DreamTeam is a partner of Stakkd!

The 2 most IMPORTANT SKILLS you need in HR 👇


Focus and Delivery

Why?

because if we don’t know WHAT to work on

or

how to DELIVER it

then it doesn’t matter what we do, it won’t drive business outcomes

Focus:
• what do we invest in and prioritise and why
• how do we balance between them
• how do we communicate the expectations and focus

Delivery
• how do we deliver all of the things in focus
• how do we do it well
• use systems thinking and people skills

Too many HR teams just have laundry lists of unprioritised projects

and teams of people who aren’t sure how to deliver change properly

You can see why it’s critical.

These are skills I learnt when I was 19.
And have kept learning since.

They have really been the reason why I have been successful.

When people ask me what my expertise is...

I used to say “portfolio and project management”.
But no one gets that.

So now I say focus and delivery.

Because it’s true for EVERY team and EVERY business.

And it’s something AI can’t do well.

So if you want to start somewhere with upskilling.
Start there 🤓

What other skills do you think are critical?

Two Skills for HR

Are we really surprised?

The participation rate of mothers with young children has dropped to 67% this year.

What the actual fudge!!?!

That number shows the issues women face daily.

We talk about flexibility, hybrid work, and inclusion.

But none of it matters if the structure underneath hasn’t changed.

Most workplaces still run on an old design built around uninterrupted time, predictable schedules, and someone else taking care of everything at home 🙄

So when costs rise, childcare breaks down, or the pressure builds…

It’s mothers who step out first.

Not because they want to, but because the system tells them to.

When I became a mum, I realised how hard it would be to keep working inside a framework that was never designed for me.

It’s SO broken. 

That’s why I built something different.

Until work is redesigned to allow women with children to participate properly in work (without killing themselves), we’ll keep watching the same data repeat itself.

Images like this are getting old.

But we have to keep talking about it to change things.

Some more action would be good too 😁

ps. I am building stakkd.tech - the go to place for HR tech discovery, go check it out!

I was asked to ROAST a HRIS product.
And I said no...

But then we were talking more, and I realised DreamTeam REALLY want honest feedback.

They want to know what isn't good and how they can get better.

So I said okay, because I do really like the vision they have and I've seen a lot of people asking about the product in communities recently.

So here we go!

This is the first time I am doing this.
(and maybe the last?!)

I am gonna keep this as tangible, short and sweet as I can.

So I jumped into the product and here are my notes:

✨ AI Nativeness:

You can see the platform has been built with AI in mind. It’s very much embedded into everything and they have recently launched an AI Agent.

✖️ Cons:

- it’s NOT suitable for enterprise, it’s suitable for small to mid market
- there’s no embedded payroll at the moment
- there’s no ATS functionality

✅  Pros:

- great customisation, you can make it look and feel yours
- I feel like the team are UX/UI obsessed, design is great + it's easy to use
- And well... it’s AI native like I said, which will be super powerful as they expand the product

Overall I do really love the foundation of what they have built.

I do want to see how they progress and how they leverage their AI native advantage and reimagine how a HRIS of the future can be.

All right that’s all folks.

Let me know what you think! 

ps. Dreamteam are a partner of Stakkd - go check out them on stakkd.tech/dreamteam

#partner #ad #payingpeoplefortheirtimeisgoodbusiness

Brand partnership • Helping you navigate HR tech | Founder @ Stakkd | HR Tech Queen | Speaker | Boy Mum

We built bias into hiring. 
Let's not do it again.


In this week's newsletter I dive into this uncomfortable topic 🙃 

The thing is, if we DON'T talk about it.
... we won't change things.

But talking about it also won't fix things magically. 

So I've got some suggestions about how you can take some control back when it comes to AI tooling.

Hint: vote with your $$$

As always let me know what you think 👇


𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺'𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘊𝘓𝘈𝘙𝘈 🫶🏻 https://lnkd.in/gCCSgRuQ

Today's newsletter is sponsored by our friends at CLARA. The future of recruiting isn't about replacing human judgment, it's about giving you better d

Open article: We built bias into hiring. Let’s not do it again. by Jessie Schofer • 4 min read

We built bias into hiring. Let’s not do it again.

Ever wondered how you could use AI agents in recruiting?

Well this weeks demo of hackajob will show us how you can!

CEO Mark Chaffey is joining co-host Adam Horne and I to show us how the tool works and how you can leverage AI and agents in your recruiting workflows.

Don't miss it!

📆 Thursday 27 November, 3:30 CET

Hit attend below 👇

Alana Marks, CPHR, Rūta Krasauskaitė and 73 other attendees

Live Demo: hackajob AI matching & sourcing

Do you care about ethical hiring?
Because you should.

And that is why this week we have a demo of CLARA AI screening tool.

CEO Natasha Nuytten is on a mission to make sure hiring is ethical.

And I am excited to jump in and see more about how she is tackling this with Joe Atkinson as our cohost!

This will be a good one.
Don't miss it 🤓 

Join us this Friday 3:30 CET
Click attend below 👇 

ps. you can find out more about CLARA on Stakkd https://stakkd.tech/clara

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