Differentiating Candidate Experience Through Unreasonable Hospitality with Greg Marsh, Sierra

Candidate experience is one of the few levers you can fully control in hiring.

Greg Marsh, Head of Recruiting at Sierra, joins Shannon to share how his team scaled from 25 to 600 employees while building a candidate experience that consistently stands out. He explains how Sierra approaches candidate obsession, why small moments like personalization matter more than big gestures, and how recruiting becomes a true partner to the business during rapid growth.

Greg walks through how his team operationalizes these ideas with simple systems, measures impact through candidate feedback, and builds a culture where every interviewer owns the experience. He also shares how AI fits into recruiting today and where human connection still makes the difference.

Key takeaways:

1. Candidate experience wins offers: A strong, consistent experience can outperform higher compensation offers.
2. Small details scale impact: Simple personalization creates meaningful candidate connections at scale.
3. Recruiting is a team sport: Interviewers and hiring managers shape the experience as much as recruiters.
4. Invest early in recruiting: Companies that prioritize recruiting early move faster and hire better.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:15) Meet Greg Marsh

(02:18) Why candidate experience matters in a competitive market

(04:00) Applying hospitality principles to recruiting

(05:30) Personalization through small candidate moments

(08:00) Balancing intensity and family in company culture

(12:30) Scaling candidate experience with simple systems

(16:30) Measuring candidate experience and NPS

(18:30) Why great candidates become your best referral source

(20:45) Adapting candidate experience across global teams

(22:43) Where to connect with Greg