Georgia Technology Summit 2025: Caroline Cochran with Qgenda

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Georgia Technology Summit 2025 at the Woodruff Arts Center. This is Business RadioX. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here broadcasting live from Georgia Technology Summit 2025. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Caroline Cochran with Qgenda. Welcome.

Caroline Cochran: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Well, for folks who aren’t familiar, can you tell us a little bit about Qgenda? How are you serving folks?

Caroline Cochran: Sure. We are a healthcare workforce management platform, uh, focused on, um, you know, making sure healthcare providers are deployed when and where they’re needed. Um, so we do that through a number of ways, whether it’s scheduling for physicians, nurses, staff, um, the credentialing, onboarding of of those individuals as well. Um, so we create a whole workforce platform.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved with this line of work?

Caroline Cochran: Oh, and in HR.

Lee Kantor: Yeah.

Caroline Cochran: Well, yeah. Well, so I’m the chief people officer. I have not been a career long, uh, HR professional. I started my career at a number of technology public companies, um, in the compliance audit space. Um, but I found myself with the opportunity to hop into HR, uh, in my last role during the pandemic. So go big or go home. That’s it. Yeah. Yes. Um, so, uh, drinking through a fire hose there. But it was it was a really great opportunity to build a team, which I’ve done several times, um, and kind of focused on the new way we work. Um, so, but since then, I evolved and, uh, stepped into agenda about two and a half years ago, um, to help them scale and grow, um, as they have been, um, we have been growing rapidly over the last few years, gone from 300 employees to almost 800 now. Um, so that’s been my role and how I arrived here.

Lee Kantor: So why was it important for you to get involved with tag?

Caroline Cochran: Oh, tag. So I’ve known Larry for a number of years. The tag CEO.

Lee Kantor: So he volun told you? Yeah.

Caroline Cochran: He volun told me. No, it was actually when I actually after I joined, after I stepped into HR as the chief people officer at my prior company. Um, you know. Yeah, I had the opportunity to step into tag with Larry, uh, and team and, um, haven’t looked back.

Lee Kantor: And then for folks, do you mind giving like, kind of the elevator pitch when you talk to other people about tag and why it’s important to get involved?

Caroline Cochran: Oh, yeah. I think you know why. It was important to me. And I feel like it would be important to others, too, is just having the ability to influence, you know, the technology ecosystem in Georgia. Um, we get a seat at the table, which is really unique. Um, driving whether it’s, um, you know, through, um, the education, how we’re going to be educating and offering, uh, in developing talent in the Atlanta space, uh, or in the Georgia market brought more broadly. Um, but really, it’s it’s got that critical role of influence. Um, and that’s why it’s so important to me.

Lee Kantor: So have you had a chance to work with other organizations like Tag and some of the other work that you’ve done.

Caroline Cochran: Yeah, sure. I’ve done a number of others maybe focused on women in technology, um, and other kind of executive leadership type, um, type organizations in the past.

Lee Kantor: Were they around the country or was it have you primarily worked here in Georgia?

Caroline Cochran: Yeah, primarily here in Georgia. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now, your speaker as well.

Caroline Cochran: Today I was yes, I already I just who just stepped off the stage completed my duties.

Lee Kantor: What was your what would you talk about?

Caroline Cochran: Uh, I, um, spoke on and introduced a video that is sharing the 2030 vision for tag. Uh, we’ve been developing this over the last couple of months. Um, as a member of the board. Um, we’ve been creating, you know what? What’s our vision for 2030? What do we want to be? What does what do we want tag to influence? What do we want to drive over the next five years?

Lee Kantor: So is there any can you share a little bit about what you talked about or what you saw?

Caroline Cochran: Yeah. Yeah. So so there was a great video. I was very brief in my comments on stage brief, but, you know, fabulous. Um, but uh, no, the video shared just kind of the pillars of what that vision is to promote, to connect and to elevate, uh, throughout the technology ecosystem in Georgia. Um, I have a particular passion where I’m spending a lot of time helping with this drive. This vision is around education. Uh, and just kind of you can imagine with my role as being a chief people officer. Sure. But wanting to develop and develop talent in Georgia. Um, so I’ll be spending a lot of time with Loretta, one of your your previous guests, um, kind of working on what that can be, how we can partner, uh, with, uh, educational institutions around Georgia, um, how we can get maybe potential certification programs in place and help prepare the workforce for the future.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that going to involve maybe expanding, uh, or just kind of not just thinking that university is the only path that there’s going to be? We’re going to have to kind of cast a wider net and really kind of reach people where they are in terms of certifications and things like that.

Caroline Cochran: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s not just university based. Absolutely. So, um, there are many programs. My company has actually gotten involved in an apprenticeship program. Um, so we have a number of apprentices in our at Q agenda that are focused in the technology space and have different technology roles. Um, so that’s one really important arm of kind of what we do. And um, through tagged as well. So yeah, it’s broad and not just focused on universities.

Lee Kantor: Can you share maybe some best practices or some ways to leverage that apprentice program? Like I know that you’re implementing it in your firm, but if somebody had maybe hadn’t considered it or thinking about it. What are some do’s and don’ts? What are some best practices?

Caroline Cochran: Yeah. Well, I think, um, what we did and I think what others should do could, could do to when if they’re considering something like this. First of all, it’s about building a pipeline of talent. Right. And it’s also about supporting folks that are learning and new. So there’s kind of a two fold benefit to it really. Um, and we looked across our organization at the teams that are growing, at the teams that are innovating, at the teams that have the ability and the cycles to teach at the same time as executing whatever their mission is or whatever their function is. Um, so we have we’ve spent um, we have two, two roles now we’ll be broadening, um, as, as we move forward. But within our, our kind of back office IT systems as well as our development teams. Um, and it really creates a great opportunity to, uh, teach someone, your company, your methodologies, your way of doing things. You’re also educating them, giving them real life experience. And we’re actually working on hiring one of them full time right now, too. So just kind of considering, you know, you have to have the time to invest, but also the opportunities where, you know, you can have folks that have been trained generally but haven’t had been able to have the chance yet to really focus on whatever, uh, subject matter area that they’re, you’re offering.

Lee Kantor: So how do you kind of teach a person an apprentice, maybe differently than you would teach an intern, or how you would teach an employee, like, how do you kind of, um, at least within, internally have that type of leadership that can instruct that individual. And it might it’s probably slightly different in each one of those constituents. Right. An apprentice versus intern versus an employee.

Caroline Cochran: Yes. Yeah. So, you know, interns, you kind of give them you let them get their feet wet here and there. Right. Give them a few projects. It’s short term too. Right. So they’ve got like three months and you. And then you let them let them go. Um, but from an apprentice perspective, there’s just you can immerse them immediately into your team. You can immerse them immediately into whether it’s a particular project, um, or a process. And it’s on the job learning, which if you look at how adults learn, 70% of it’s on the job, right? You learn a little bit in the classroom, maybe a little bit on your own, but really it’s on the job learning. And so when you have somebody who’s full time immersed in your team, um, with leader, a leader who has the capability to, um, to mold and shape and, and develop, uh, which is a really important part of it. You really can’t just put these apprentices and think that they’re going to be successful on their own. No, it’s not set. And forget it. So it takes time and investment and it takes someone who has the ability and the passion to do that. Um, but so, um, but really, it’s not terribly different from like, a new employee, but you do. You are starting more with basics. You need to have, um, you know, some very detailed actions, some very detailed support for them as well. Um, but, uh, so it just goes a little bit deeper and requires a little bit more investment than maybe your average new employee.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re when you have kind of an apprentice lined up, how do you find the appropriate person in the organization to kind of manage that? And is there kind of some training that you have to do to help them, you know, get the most out of The Apprentice?

Caroline Cochran: Yeah. So it’s new for us, right? So we just started doing this this year, but we did create. So we’re very familiar with our people leaders and the teams within our organization. So we targeted a few areas a few a few folks and say are you interested in this? And our development team resoundingly, yes. Because because.

Lee Kantor: They’re hungry.

Caroline Cochran: They’re hungry for it and they’re yeah. Talent is is not um, readily available in the development space, right? It’s limited. So and it’s very attractive to, to be able to mold somebody right, right to exactly what you want them to do, as opposed to having someone who may have.

Lee Kantor: To fix some bad habits.

Caroline Cochran: Yeah, exactly. They may have they may have done things differently in another role. So that’s what’s so appealing. Um, but we did we we focused on finding, you know, the, the managers in our, our team that are already really capable managers. Right. Um, and do that. Well, just, um, and that’s.

Lee Kantor: A.

Caroline Cochran: Pro.

Lee Kantor: Tip there.

Caroline Cochran: That’s a pro tip.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Choose wisely.

Caroline Cochran: Choose choose wisely. Choose their leader wisely. Um, but um, but yeah, it’s it’s been a fabulous experience for us. Um, and I hope we’re going to be getting we have one now like I said, two now in two different areas. But our development teams, we’re going to be expanding it.

Lee Kantor: So you’re pretty bullish that this is something that you’re going to be able to expand.

Caroline Cochran: Very bullish I mean we’re just hiring one now as a full time employee. She’s been with us almost a year. Um, so it’s a year long program right. So you do really kind.

Lee Kantor: Of look at it long term. This is an internship over the summer. This is.

Caroline Cochran: Right. This is not an internship. It’s a commitment. Right?

Lee Kantor: On both sides.

Caroline Cochran: Yep. Both sides. It’s a full time job. It’s a commitment. And it’s an opportunity to prove yourself, to learn and get a full time role.

Lee Kantor: And you’re happy because now this person is ready to go.

Caroline Cochran: Ready to go. They’re ready to go. We’ve trained them for a year, right. We know that they are motivated. We know that they are capable. And we now we know that they know what we want them to do, right? Yeah, exactly.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about Shugendo, what is the best way to do that? Is there a website? What’s the best way to connect?

Caroline Cochran: Yeah, we have Sina.com as our website. Also, we’re very active on LinkedIn and all of our open roles are posted out there. So yeah, check us out.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well, Caroline, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Caroline Cochran: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor back in a few. At Georgia Technology Summit 2025.