Leah Cottham sits down with Josh Hill, VP People at Tier 11 and co-founder of Super Hired, to explore his revolutionary approach to employment as a subscription service. Josh brings a unique perspective from his 10 years in the Australian Army to his 4 years transforming HR practices at a 50-person digital marketing agency. He shares how treating employees as internal customers fundamentally changes hiring and retention strategies.

Josh walks through his discovery-led hiring framework that prioritizes deep qualitative research over surface-level metrics. He explains why traditional one-page job descriptions and resumes create poor matches, and demonstrates how his comprehensive job maps and transparent work product descriptions act as powerful self-selection tools. The conversation covers his philosophy of first-principles thinking, the importance of continuous employee discovery, and why he believes hiring should be treated as matchmaking rather than a race to fill seats quickly.

Key topics covered:

[00:00] Intro

[02:38] Military to HR transition insights

[05:25] Early hiring lessons from army background

[10:34] First principles approach to reshaping culture

[16:43] Employment as subscription model explained

[21:56] Features and updates employees expect

[31:35] Why Josh created Super Hired

[38:44] Early warning signs of employee unsubscription

[45:39] High framework hiring process walkthrough

[57:22] Key takeaway for reducing employee churn

[58:54] Discovery habits for better leadership

This episode offers practical insights for HR leaders and managers looking to build more intentional, human-centered approaches to talent acquisition and employee engagement.