Recruiting Future with Matt Alder

I've done a lot of research this year around the move to skills-based hiring and skills-based organizations. Having spoken to a large number of employers on this journey, it is very clear that success is predicated on looking at skills strategically, holistically, and in the context of both business and personal growth.

Ultimately, employers need to think fundamentally differently about talent and reflect this new thinking in talent acquisition, talent mobility, and talent development.

My guests this week have just published an excellent book encouraging CEOs to embrace this new mindset to build the adaptable, skilled workforce they need in a way that doesn't undermine personal growth and champions the employee experience.

The book is called "The Talent-Fueled Enterprise," and it was great to be able to speak to all three of its authors, Mike Ohata, Larry Durham, and Eric Dingler, who between them have 85 years combined experience in leading talent at Fortune 15 companies.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The current most common talent challenges

• The tension between people growth and business growth

• Shifting from tech skills to Skills, Attributes and Experience

• Skilling for human potential

• Building teams for growth, adaptability, and empathy

• Rethinking Talent Acquisition

• Becoming a skills-based organization

• The vital importance of talent mobility

• Employee experience

• The impact of AI

• What will work look like in 5 years time?

You can get 30% off The Talent-Fueled Enterprise by following this link and using the code Recruiting24

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Improving the candidate experience has been a perpetual goal in recruiting. Despite the best intentions, the improvement process's effectiveness still ebbs and flows with the changes in supply and demand in the labor market. However, are things finally about to change?

Ever since the exponential acceleration in the development of AI, I've been excited about the possibility of technology delivering a genuinely personalized candidate experience at scale.

So, what does this vision look like? Which elements are already possible, and what do TA leaders need to do to make it a reality?

My guest this week is Don Tomlinson, CTO at Daxtra. In our conversation, Don gives us a refreshingly pragmatic view of the AI use cases that can combine to build a personalized candidate experience and highlights pitfalls and dangers to be aware of.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Using AI to diversify talent pools

• Taking out the background noise

• Personalizing the candidate's experience in real-time

• Bespoke communication at scale

• Automatically tailoring the hiring process to individual circumstances.

• Transparency

• The dangers of losing the human touch

• Efficiencies, investment, and ROI

• Build vs Buy, Core Vs Complementary

• AI self-auditing to improve strategy and process

• What will the future look like?

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In the last few weeks, many established software vendors have launched AI-augmented products, helping us move past the hype and get a much more hands-on view of what AI means for Talent Acquisition.

There are still a massive amount of unknowns, but it is evident that AI is a chief catalyst in what is now an unstoppable transformation of TA and the broader talent function. AI and automation fundamentally alter the speed and scale at which TA can operate, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

So, what does this mean for TA leaders and practitioners right now? How prepared are organizations for this level of transformation, and how can TA raise its game to drive more value for the organization?

This week, my guests are Dr. Swathi Palasamudram, Enterprise Business Architect at Bosch, and Nazim Ünlü, Global People and Organization Lead at Novartis, in two interviews recorded at the Smartrecruiters Hiring Success event in Amsterdam in September. Swathi and Nazim shared insights that reveal why the transformation of talent acquisition is truly unstoppable—and how TA leaders can harness this momentum to not only keep pace but lead the way.

In the interviews, we discuss:

• Fear, Adaptability, and the critical importance of strategic thinking

• Current AI use cases.

• How AI can raise the value of TA to the business

• Regional variations in AI adoption

• Retaining the vital human element of TA and HR

• Data literacy

• Building a personalized candidate experience

• The difference between Automation (efficiency through technology) and AI (insights and decision-making)

• Advice for TA Leaders

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Soft Skills, Hard Skills, Attributes, Traits, Competencies—these words sometimes get used interchangeably when we talk about assessment and team building. As the momentum around skills-based hiring increases, it is important to know what we really mean when we talk about skills generically and how exactly we are measuring someone's ability to do a particular role.

My guest this week is Rich Diviney, founder of The Attributes. Rich is a former Commanding Officer in the US Navy SEALs, where he was responsible for assessing and selecting the elite of the elite for the famous SEAL Team Six.

He now speaks and writes about the use of attributes in team building and hiring. We had a fantastic discussion about the difference between skills and attributes in the context of hiring and development. We also discuss my somewhat surprising results from taking Rich's attributes test. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• Identifying the elite of the elite for SEAL Team Six

• The difference between attributes and skills

• Understanding how people react in times of stress, challenge, and uncertainty

• How do you measure and assess attributes?

• Are soft skills and attributes the same thing?

• Can you develop attributes?

• The difference between perseverance, resilience, and tenacity

• What are companies getting wrong when it comes to skills and hiring?

• The "Dream Team Paradox"

• When AI takes over skills, attributes become even more critical.

• What does the future look like for hiring and managing talent?

You can get 15% of The Attributes Assessment by using the code RECRUITING15

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Skills-based organizations and skills-based hiring have been some of the hottest topics of the year. While it is hard to find anyone who disagrees that this way of thinking about talent strategies has enormous benefits, there is still much debate about some of the practicalities around strategy and implementation.

I spoke to two genuine HR thought leaders in my fourth and final set of interviews recorded at this year's HR Technology Conference. Heather Jerrehain, VP of Product Management - Employee Workflows at Service Now, and Mike Bollinger, Global VP of Strategic Initiative at Cornerstone on Demand

Both shared their thoughts and insights on the power of skills, the journey towards skills-based organizations, and their sense of what the future might look like.

In the interviews, we discuss:

• The impact of AI on jobs, work, and skills

• How AI is revolutionizing skills analysis and intelligence

• Using data from the hiring process to get a fuller picture of a person's skills

• The power of skills-based mobility

• Advice on building skills-based strategies

• How to get started

• The importance of not overcomplicating the process

• What types of organizations are already successfully implementing skills-based strategies

• Soft skills versus hard skills

• Skills development and the value for employees

• Integrating technology into skills-based hiring and development.

• What will things look like in five years' time?

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Technology is evolving quickly, and advances in AI are likely to change Talent Acquisition forever. If you are a regular listener to this podcast, you will know that I firmly believe there is an opportunity here to make recruiting better for everyone, with the potential for AI to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and experience exponentially. I call this Recruiting Nirvana. However, other less favorable future scenarios still exist, and there is only a short window of time for TA's future to be in its own hands.

It is critical; then, that TA Leaders keep up to date with the art of the possible when it comes to AI and technology and have a clear vision of the future, they are moving towards.

At the recent HR Technology Conference, I sat down with six practitioners and analysts to find out what they thought the biggest challenges are in TA at the moment, which of the current use cases of AI they feel are most valuable, and, most importantly, what their own vision of Recruiting Nirvana looks like.

In this episode, you will hear from:

A huge thank you to Gem for hosting me at their booth at HR Tech so that I could have these conversations.

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Last week, I attended The HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. The event was full of energy and optimism for the future as hundreds of vendors showcased new AI products and AI integrations. Everyone was playing up the new heights of efficiency and effectiveness AI can take us as an industry.

However, there was much debate about the level of genuine innovation on offer and a sense that rather than thinking radically and reinventing what we do, we were just looking at faster ways of solving old problems that don't live up to AI''s potential to challenge the status quo.

Here are three interviews I recorded at the show to help you make up your own minds about the levels of innovation we are currently seeing.

First up is Allyn Bailey from SmartRecruiters who predicted the rise of recruiterless recruiting on the show last year. I was interested to see how far she thought we had come on that journey and what was going to happen next.

The second interview was with Josh Sklüt, co-founder of MyStandard, who was undoubtedly the vendor trying to be the most disruptive, with a very different way of looking at the relationship between employers and potential employers.

The final interview is a conversation with David Nason, founder and CEO of HireBrain, who seeks to better align hiring managers and recruiters and who were winners of the Pitchfest competition at the conference. 

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Round up is the monthly show on The Recruiting Future Podcast channel that highlights episodes you may have missed and gives you my take on some of the key learnings from the guests.

Episodes mentioned in this Round Up:

Ep 639: Inclusive Interviews Inspired By NASA

Ep 640: What Is The Value Of TA?

Ep 641: How Is TA Evolving?

Ep 642: Augmenting Talent Acquisition

Ep 643: Career Activism

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With labor markets still undergoing unprecedented shifts and volatility, employers are increasingly strengthening their focus on retention and internal mobility. However, the shrinking life span of skills, changing attitudes to work, and the rise of AI are complicating factors here. So, how can employers ensure they support their employees' future development and drive internal mobility at a time of significant change that renders traditional career pathing irrelevant?

My guest this week is JC Townend, CEO at LHH for the UK and Ireland. JC is a strong advocate of Career Activism, giving employees the tools they need to advance their careers in the way that makes the most sense for them. This can drive retention, supercharge internal mobility, and help ensure employers have the right skills available at the right time.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Labor market trends

• Why HR should be building for the future for right now

• What is Career Activism

• The end of linear career paths

• Giving employees the tools to advance their own careers

• Switching disciplines and industries

• A mindset shift

• Gig assignments

• Building brand and reputation

• Hidden jobs markets

• Skilling for retention

• What are the benefits for employers?

• The impact of AI on jobs and careers

• What will work and careers look like in 3 years time?

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Most conversations about AI in talent acquisition focus on efficiencies and automating repetitive tasks. However, we are missing the point if we don't start talking about how AI could help reshape recruiting entirely, making it more efficient but also more effective. Why stop at recruiting? AI could revolutionize work and the whole way we think about careers.

The current limitations of our thinking were really brought home to me when I attended the SmartRecruiters Hiring Success conference last week in Amsterdam. An overarching theme was that automation is a given with AI, and we should think much bigger.

So, what does this mean for TA strategies, and how can TA Leaders ensure they proactively shape the future direction of recruiting?

My guest this week is Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow. He is also an internationally renowned digital anthropologist and award-winning author. Brian gave the opening keynote at Hiring Success, and I caught up with him after he left the stage to get his thoughts on the current state of the AI revolution and the future of talent acquisition. 

In the interview, we discuss

• Where is the Gen AI revolution?

• New behaviors, skills, and expectations

• How are companies responding? 

• Empowering people with augmented intelligence

• How can we think differently?

• AI-enabled job seekers

• Using an empathetic lens to identify quick wins

• Differentiated use cases and transformational initiatives 

• The importance of the human touch

• Three things TA leaders should be doing right now

• What should recruiting look like in five years?

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