In this episode of Recruiting is No Joke, host Joel Lalgee welcomes Stephanie Murray, Senior Director of Talent at Brightside Health, for her first-ever podcast appearance. With nearly two decades in healthcare recruiting, Stephanie gets real about the state of the industry, the mental health hiring crisis, and what it takes to build a high-functioning, data-driven talent function.
They dig into Brightside’s massive scale—from 20 clinicians to 1,200—and why sourcing, not job posts, drives most of their hires. Stephanie opens up about postpartum depression, the personal “why” behind her work, and the game-changing strategy of turning meet-and-greets into a pipeline goldmine.
She also drops the playbook on Brightside’s award-winning Talent Collective and how adding free CEUs and wellness perks helped them build a community that actually converts. Plus, they tackle what AI, overregulation, and therapist burnout mean for the future of recruiting. Let’s jump in!
In this episode:
(00:00:03) Introduction
(00:02:19) Stephanie’s background and Brightside Health overview
(00:04:55) Scaling Brightside Health and data-driven hiring
(00:06:56) Challenges in healthcare hiring
(00:08:35) Recruitment marketing and sourcing strategies
(00:10:37) Building the Brightside Talent Collective
(00:11:37) Meet and greets and community engagement
(00:13:17) Impact of the Talent Collective
(00:14:34) Meet and greet structure and recruiter coaching
(00:18:07) Community value and engagement tactics
(00:19:17) Expanding to associate therapists and university outreach
(00:20:48) Community growth and brand impact
(00:22:04) Advice for building talent communities
(00:24:03) Career advice for aspiring mental health professionals
(00:26:03) Corporate hiring trends and market outlook
(00:31:47) Application volume and candidate screening
(00:32:51) Sourcing vs. waiting for applicants
(00:33:38) Podcast wrap-up and where to connect
About Stephanie Murray
Stephanie Murray is the Senior Director of Talent at Brightside Health, a national leader in tele-mental health. With nearly 20 years of recruiting experience—most of it in healthcare—Stephanie now leads with a passion for building high-performing teams that truly care about making a difference. From launching talent communities to reducing time-to-hire through proactive engagement, she’s redefining what strategic recruiting looks like in a mission-driven, fast-growth company.
Stephanie Murray
LinkedIn
Brightside Health
About Joel Lalgee
Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships.
Recruiting is No Joke Social Media
LinkedIn
Website
Instagram
TikTok
X (formerly Twitter