This time last year, most of us hadn't heard of generative AI, but it has dominated our industry discourse in 2023. The dramatic emergence of generative AI has illustrated how fast disruption is accelerating and has made us think deeply about the future of talent acquisition.

Back in July at RecFest, Tony de Graaf, Global Director of Hiring Success at SmartRecruiters, invited me to join him for a fireside chat about the potential impact of generative AI on TA. Even though three months is a long time in AI, this is still a very relevant discussion where we attempted to unpick what is happening and understand how AI is shaping the future of talent acquisition.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The AI hype cycle

• Does AI take away tasks or jobs?

• The pressure for change that is coming from the top of organizations

• Strategic workforce planning and hiring for future skills

• Moving from being operational to being strategic

• The transformation of marketing

• Democratized access to technology

• Is this the end of recruiting norms that we take for granted?

• Being relentlessly open-minded and questioning everything

• The future workforce talent and skills crisis

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Showing your vulnerability is becoming a common theme in personal development as a way of fostering good mental health and a route to building resilience and reducing anxiety. Leaders are often told to show vulnerability at work, but the dynamic between doing this in your professional life is somewhat different than in your life outside of work.

So, how can leaders use their vulnerability to motivate their teams, and what skills do they need to learn to do so?

My guest this week is Jacob Morgan, Futurist, Speaker and Author of a new book called Leading With Vulnerability. I've always been a fan of Jacob's writing. In our conversation, he talks about the art of leading with vulnerability and shares some insights about the skills we will all need for the uncertain future of work.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What is vulnerability at work?

• Adding leadership to vulnerability

• Taking action to create positive outcomes

• Creating connections

• Warmth and competence

• The importance of intention

• Motivation and growth mindset

• Predicting the future

• What skills do we need to develop for the future of work?

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Having covered both topics extensively on the podcast this year, I'm very much of the opinion that the move towards skills-based thinking will be more disruptive to recruiting norms than the rapid adoption of generative AI.

The adoption of skills-based hiring and the move towards skills-based organizations is still happening slowly. However, as more organizations question blanket requirements for college degrees, new upskilling and reskilling initiatives are emerging that could help move the needle quicker.

My guest this week is Michelle Westfort, Chief University Officer at InStride. InStride works with businesses to use skill-based hiring to expand talent pools by partnering with employers to construct career education paths to provide employees with the skills they need to do their jobs.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Why some employers are moving away from degrees

• Do employers understand skills-based hiring?

• Diversifying talent pools with more equitable hiring processes

• Understanding the skills needed for specific roles

• Just in time, skills development

• Evolving the relationship between Universities and employers

• Deconstructing the degree

• Strategies for long-term professional development

• Mapping education to skills requirements

• What does the future look like?

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The business world is changing quickly, and the skill sets that employees need are constantly shifting, developing and evolving. So, how can companies develop strategic workforce plans and build long-term talent pipelines in such an unpredictable and fast-changing environment?

My guests this week are Jennifer Longworth, Director of People and Culture at Entuitive, and Ugo Orsi, Chief Customer Officer at Digitate. Jennifer and Ugo have a unique combination of perspectives on how AI is shaping the workforce of the future and some solid practical advice to share

In the interview, we discuss:

• Current talent challenges

• Hiring for the skills of the future

• The importance of a growth mindset

• Building trust and motivation

• The current use and future potential of AI

• The emotional impact of the AI

• Powerful automations

• Embracing change management and curiosity

• Adoption issues within middle management

• Ageing populations and reducing labour markets

• Thinking instead of executing

• Strategic workforce planning

• Increasing the ability to collaborate

• What might work look like in 10 years?

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Recruiting and retaining the right talent continues to be highly challenging for many organisations. Understanding the key drivers here is critical for any company that wants to achieve a competitive talent advantage.

It's starting to become clear that the impact of prioritising wellbeing on an organisation's culture is significant enough to have a powerful influence on hiring and retention. So, what can employees do to move the needle here quickly?

My guest this week is Beth Ridley, founder and CEO of The Ridley Consulting Group. Beth works with CEOs to achieve thriving workplace cultures and embed diversity, equity and inclusion values into their business. She has some brilliant insights to share on the relationship between wellness, culture, recruiting and wellbeing and also offers some highly actionable advice.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Culture and leadership

• Diversity as an asset

• Applying an inclusive lens to leadership

• The role of culture and wellness in attraction and retention

• How can recruiting be more inclusive?

• Values, expectations and outcomes

• Elements of Wellness

• The value of wellness for employers

• How small things can make a big difference

• Generational expectations

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This special episode was recorded at the first ever Recruiting Future Podcast live event at the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. I was blown away by how many people came along and shared their views on the future talent acquisition.

On such a magical night (we even had a magician doing card tricks), it seemed fitting to ask people what we need to do to make talent acquisition more magical. Here is a selection of the brilliant insights shared with me and my guest co-host Jenny Cotie Kangas from White Rock Consulting.

Topics covered include:

• Automation and human interaction

• Candidate and employee experience

• Skills based hiring

• Speed and engagement

• Hidden pools of talent

• Influence and persuasion

• Co-operation and collaboration

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When discussing talent market challenges and recruiting technology trends, we often refer to talent acquisition as a homogeneous activity with common challenges and processes. However, many organisations have highly complex hiring operations that deal with challenges that can be as unique as the employers themselves.

My guest this week is Lisa Scales, Talent Acquisition Director at Royal Mail. As well as being one of the UK's largest employers, Royal Mail also hire 18,000 seasonal workers every Christmas. We discuss everything from supply chain management to sophisticated recruitment marketing and social mobility. Lisa gives us a fascinating insight into a highly complex hiring strategy. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• The recruiting challenges at Royal Mail

• Scaling up

• Outsourcing and driving results via third parties

• Appealing to a younger generation of workers

• Purpose-driven work

• Using recruitment marketing to shift perceptions

• Social mobility and reflecting your customer communities

• Recruiting 18,000 seasonal workers

• Agile management of a contingent workforce

• The role of technology

• Robotic Process Automation

• What does the future look like for talent acquisition

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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.

Episode mentioned in this Round Up:

Ep 547: Generative AI – A Deep Dive

Ep 548: Rethinking Background Checks

Ep 549: Rethinking Work, Jobs and Recruiting

Ep 550: Promotion, Motivation, Commitment and Retention

Ep 551: Interviewerless Interviewing

Ep 552: Hiring Innovation in LATAM and Asia

Ep 553: The Strategic Value of Talent Acquisition

Ep 554: Perfect Business Storytelling

Ep 555: Using Skills To Predict Job Performance

Ep 556: How AI Is Transforming Recruiting

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We've talked about generative AI a lot this year and its incredible potential to change and disrupt talent acquisition. A lot of our industry conversation has been about creating with Large Language Models to generate recruitment marketing content and automate interactions with candidates. However, the impact of AI goes much deeper than this, and its effect on the speed of vendor innovation is highly significant. AI is already changing the way candidates are found, and matches are made and has the potential to make boolean searching and keyword matching obsolete in a very short space of time.

So what is the art of the possible here, and how can TA Leaders ask the right questions of vendors to ensure they are dealing with genuine products that are ethical and legally compliant?

My guest this week is Mark Chaffey, CEO of Hackajob. Hackajob has integrated generative AI into its technology to vastly improve matching between candidates and roles. At the same time, they have a strong focus on using AI to improve diversity in tech hiring and are already getting some significant results.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Every company is a tech company.

• Market differences between the USA and Europe

• The continuing skill shortage in tech

• The impact of generative AI on vendors

• Building technology that actually solves problems

• Moving beyond boolean and keywords with richer LLM-driven datasets

• The questions TA leaders need to ask vendors

• Improving diversity in tech hiring

• Opt-in self, disclosed diversity data.

• Will AI change the way we think about skills and hiring

• What does the future look like?

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When we're talking about the future of talent acquisition, Generative AI has been taking all of the limelight this year. However, arguably, although it grabs fewer headlines, the steady evolution of skills-based hiring is potentially even more disruptive to traditional recruiting norms.

There is an enormous amount of data, science and research going into understanding the relationship between skills and job performance, and the results are smashing some of our longest-held assumptions about hiring.

My guest this week is Andy Nelesen, Global Head of Talent Acquisition Solutions at SHL. SHL has done an enormous amount of work to establish the link between skills and performance, and their research has revealed 12 skills that universally predict success. There is also a significant discrepancy between the skills employers ask for in job ads and the skills the science shows they actually need, so this is a must-list interview for everyone who wants to hire more effectively.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Why understanding skills is so important

• The adoption rate of skills-based hiring

• What does potential mean?

• Overlaying soft skills against performance

• The 12 skills that universally predict success

• Why a growth mindset is more important than resilience and adaptability

• Moving away from academic credentials and previous experience

• Are skills the key to diverse hiring?

• Talent mobility

• What does the future of work look like?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.