At the Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC), talent is not just a workforce issue—it is an economic imperative.
Serving a 29-county region and working directly with Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies, MAC operates at the center of one of the largest and most complex labor markets in the country. When the organization made talent a strategic priority in 2022, the goal was clear: better align the region’s talent supply with employer demand. For Zach Fiore, director of talent pipelines, that meant figuring out how to apply the Talent Pipeline Management® (TPM) framework in a market where employer scale and complexity could not be addressed with a standard approach.
“When you’re working with employers of this size, a job created is not a job filled,” Zach explained in a recent TPM Academy® presentation, underscoring the gap between economic growth and workforce readiness.
To help close that gap, Zach and his team launched the ATL Talent Collaborative in 2023, bringing together 23 major employers from across industries. Unlike traditional TPM collaboratives, this group was intentionally cross-industry, reflecting both the diversity and scale of the employers involved. CEOs helped shape the effort from the beginning, nominating CHROs and talent leaders to participate and ensuring that those at the table had both the authority and accountability to drive change.
From the outset, the collaborative was grounded in TPM principles, but Zach and his team quickly realized that a standard approach would not be enough.
When Traditional Alignment Breaks Down
In its early stages, the ATL Talent Collaborative followed a familiar TPM model, organizing around job functions such as software development, data analytics, and frontline roles. The goal was to align employers around shared hiring needs and define common talent requirements.
But the reality proved more complex.
With employers operating at very different scales, across multiple industries, and with highly customized workforce strategies, alignment at the job level was difficult to sustain. Even with shared data and structured discussions, it was challenging to turn conversations into action.
Rather than forcing alignment where it did not naturally exist, Zach and his team made a critical shift.
From Job Functions to Shared Problems
By 2025, the collaborative had pivoted away from job-specific working groups and toward a problem-based model, organizing employers around shared talent challenges instead of specific roles.
New focus areas included:
- AI and automation
- Early-career talent
- Internal mobility
- Employee experience
- Talent attraction and retention
This shift changed the dynamic entirely.
Instead of asking employers to agree on job requirements, the collaborative asked a different question: Where are we all experiencing friction in the talent system?
The result was stronger alignment, deeper engagement, and clearer pathways to action. Employers who could not align on job titles could still align around shared challenges, such as retaining talent, adapting to automation, or building stronger early-career pipelines.
For Zach, this shift reflected a deeper understanding of TPM. The framework does not prescribe exactly what employers must align around; it gives them a structure for identifying the priorities that matter most.
Designing a System, Not a Program
Today, the ATL Talent Collaborative operates as a multi-layered system.
At the top level, senior leaders define shared priorities and maintain strategic alignment. Beneath that, smaller working groups function much like traditional TPM collaboratives: focused, cyclical, and action oriented. These groups conduct annual needs assessments, set their own goals, and adapt as employer demand evolves.
This structure reflects a key evolution in Zach’s approach: TPM is not a one-time implementation, but an iterative process that must adjust as employer needs change.
That mindset is especially important in a region like metro Atlanta, where talent needs continue to shift. As new technologies emerge and workforce expectations evolve, the collaborative must remain responsive.
Making Strategy 6 the Center of the Work
For Zach, the long-term success of TPM depends on Strategy 6: continuously improving the talent pipeline over time.
In practice, that means treating the talent pipeline as a living system—one that must be regularly evaluated, refined, and strengthened. Rather than assuming solutions will hold, Zach’s team actively looks for where the system is breaking down:
- Where are candidates falling out of the pipeline?
- Where are employers struggling to retain talent?
- Where are training programs misaligned with demand?
By identifying these “leaks” and responding in real time, the collaborative remains both relevant and effective.
This approach also helps sustain employer engagement. In a room full of senior leaders, participation depends on value—and value is demonstrated through progress. By continuously adapting the work to reflect employer needs, the collaborative maintains momentum and reinforces its role as a critical regional resource.
A New Model for TPM at Scale
Zach Fiore’s work offers an important lesson for workforce leaders: implementing TPM at scale requires an approach that is flexible enough to evolve with employer needs.
By shifting from job-based alignment to problem-based collaboration, embedding continuous improvement into the core of the work, and designing a structure that reflects employer complexity, Zach has helped redefine what TPM can look like in a large, dynamic market.
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