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Tony Payne

Tony Payne

People & Talent leader, Founder of ApplyPRO and Promotion Tech

Joined June 2025
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10.4K connections
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Talent Acquisition Specialists
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Oodle Car Finance
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Mobile Engineers
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Travtus Alumni
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AI ML Eng
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RedCloud Tech
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Fintech Product Leaders

Summary

Tony Payne is a seasoned People & Talent leader with extensive experience spanning over two decades, consistently driving recruitment, HR, and talent acquisition strategies across diverse industries from fintech to tech recruitment. He has a proven track record of building and scaling international HR departments, developing innovative talent solutions, and focusing on data-driven approaches to optimize hiring processes. theorg
As a founder of both ApplyPRO and Promotion Tech, Tony is a deep innovator in the HR technology space. He specifically designed ApplyPRO as an AI-based CV screening tool to address inefficiencies in recruitment, save recruiters time, enhance company value, and promote diversity by moving beyond traditional scoring to 'YES, NO, MAYBE' ratings based on job requirements, making it 100% compliant with the EU AI Act. co+1
Tony is a thought leader and advocate for the strategic importance of People Operations and Talent professionals within leadership. Through his writings on Medium and LinkedIn, he shares insights on scaling businesses, fostering engaging workplace cultures, and challenging traditional hiring paradigms to embrace diversity and strategic people management, emphasizing that People teams should be at the forefront of defining business strategy. medium+2

Work

Education

Writing

Talent Acquisition data, 2023

August 1, 2023

A LinkedIn Pulse article providing useful data points for Talent Acquisition professionals, based on The Firm's Annual Report. Covers company size, team size, vacancies, success measurement, tracking metrics, hiring channels (LinkedIn vs. PPA advertising), job board usage, ATS ratings, cost per hire, time to offer, job fill rate, agency usage, recruiter workload, and challenges like salaries.

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The People takeover

October 1, 2019

A Medium article arguing that Talent and People professionals should be running businesses, highlighting their unique understanding of company dynamics, employee needs, and strategic direction. It advocates for People Ops to be integral to leadership teams, citing positive impacts on growth, profitability, and diversity.

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From Start-up to Scale-up, and how the Chief People Officer gets you there. Part One.

July 1, 2019

A Medium article discussing key learnings and People Ops leadership tips for Chief People Officers in startups, covering commercial strategy, product roadmaps, and customer engagement. Emphasizes the importance of mission, leadership, clarity through objectives, realistic hiring plans, constant communication, celebrating wins, external networking, and continuous feedback.

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