Recruiting Future with Matt Alder - What's Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring?

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Currently, there are only four LGBTQ+ CEOs in the Fortune 500 and none in the FTSE 100. This really illustrates the hidden challenges and differences in professional opportunities for LGBTQ+ people, especially when it comes to promotion and recruitment into senior roles.

Many employers publically say that improving diversity and inclusion in their workforce is a significant priority, but this will only truly happen with appropriate representation at the top of the organization.

My guest this week is Layla McCay, Director of Policy at the NHS Confederation and author of a new book called "Breaking The Rainbow Ceiling." Layla shines a light on the challenges that LGBTQ+ people face at work and offers advice on how companies can recognize and address the barriers and build a more inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and succeed.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Why she wrote the book

• The barriers that prevent LGBTQ+ people from being hired or promoted into senior roles

• Roles models and self-esteem

• Conscious and unconscious bias

• Managers reinforcing imposter syndrome.

• Understanding different experiences

• Allowing people to do their best work

• Intersectionality

• Equity in talent management

• Advice to employers on inclusive hiring

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Skills-based hiring is not just a passing trend; it's a significant shift in the recruiting landscape. Many employers are eager to unlock its advantages in terms of flexibility, diversity, economic efficiency, and dealing with talent shortages. But is there a gap between theory and practice regarding understanding and implementation?

Over the last few months, experienced TA leader Adrian Thomas and myself have partnered with Neil Kelly at Vector on some research to uncover the realities and practicalities of skills-based hiring within large global employers.

Neil and Adrian join me on this episode to discuss the findings, some of which are quite surprising, and to look at what employers need to do to advance with skills-based hiring. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• Why and how we did the research

• Motivations for being skills-based

• Some surprising findings

• The problems with skills taxonomies

• Talent Acquisition and Talent Management 

• Training Hiring Managers

• The way forward for skills-based hiring

Download our report " Skills-Based Hiring, The Gap Between Theory and Practice”

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Podcasting at events and conferences is one of my favorite things to do. I love the joy of seeing people face to face, and you get the opportunity to access a broad range of views and expertise around the topics shaping the industry.

At the beginning of May, Recruiting Future was an official media partner of The HR Technology Conference Europe in Amsterdam, the first time the event had been held outside of the US.  

AI was a central theme in the discussions, and I was eager to gather insights on the current use cases of AI tools, as well as the potential future implications.

The first voice you will hear is Rebecca Carr, CPO and acting CEO of SmartRecruiters, talking about AI as a co-pilot and its potential to enhance the very human aspects of recruiting.

Next up after Rebecca is my friend and co-author, the ever-present Mervyn Dinnen, talking about his concerns about the impact of AI on employee experience and creativity

Finally, I spoke to Norwegian entrepreneur Eivind Arnsten about the AI employer lawyer his company is building and the potential for widespread automation throughout HR processes and activities.

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Inclusive hiring is vital to building inclusive organizations, and the benefits of getting it right are considerable, both at a human and a business level. Recognizing bias, standardizing hiring manager behavior, and analyzing data are just some of the things employers need to consider to be more inclusive in their hiring.

My guest this week is Sarah Harnett, Senior Director of People Business Partners at Greenhouse Software. In our conversation, Sarah talks us through the steps that Greenhouse has taken to build an inclusive culture through inclusive hiring practices.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What does it take to build a diverse workforce?

• Understanding your employee's experience

• Hiring as a starting point for building an inclusive culture

• ERGs as a vehicle to empower people

• Dealing with systemic bias

• Inclusive hiring manager behaviors

• Structured hiring processes

• Connecting DE&I strategy to corporate strategy

• The implications of AI on inclusive hiring

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The pace of change in recruiting technology continues to accelerate, and with it come opportunities to improve hiring outcomes, streamline operational efficiency, and make much-needed improvements to the candidate experience. When you add in increasing volumes of applications driven by candidate use of AI and the differing wants and needs of a new generation entering the workforce, it becomes evident that we are on the brink of a profound transformation in recruiting processes.

So, what are the most forward-thinking companies already doing? My guest this week is Hollie Powell, Recruitment Business Partner at EDF. EDF is reinventing its recruiting process for early careers and improving the candidate experience by carefully balancing technology and automation with high-quality human interaction.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The early careers strategy at EDF

• Increasing volumes of applications through candidate use of AI

• How EDF is evolving its recruiting process

• The enormous benefits of effective video interviewing

• Speeding up the process to improve the candidate experience

• Ensuring high quality human interaction during the process

• Using an organization wide strengths-based framework

• Keeping up with changing candidate wants and needs

• Planning for the skills shortages of the future

• Consumer brand versus employer brand

• How will early careers evolve in the coming years?

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As I've said many times before, automation in recruiting and HR is inevitable. This means that every TA and HR leader should be thinking strategically about automation, its implications, and, most importantly, the value that it will add right now.

So what are the benefits of automation, and where and how should talent functions be automated?

My guest this week is Brandon Sammut, Chief People Officer at Zapier. Automation is in Zapiers corporate DNA, and they are successfully using it to drive their talent density strategy through automation in recruiting, onboarding, and skills development.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What Talent Density means at Zapier and how they built it

• Focusing on what is uniquely human

• Being transparent about a remote-only employee experience

• T shaped talent

• Automated Onboarding

• Using automation to solve hard problems and make things more personal at scale.

• Experience design and empathy

• Understand where to apply automation and where not to apply it.

• Developing AI skills across the business

• What will the future look like?

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It is becoming clear that job seekers' use of AI tools in the application process has profound implications for talent acquisition. Many employers report a significant increase in application volume, and there is a potential technology arms race as employers and job boards attempt to use AI to identify AI.

While this may help in the short term, it won't work in the long term, and is job seeker AI use even a bad thing?

My guest this week is expert job board consultant Alexander Chukovski. Alexander has been doing a deep dive into how job seekers use AI and its implications for recruiting. He has valuable insights about job seeker verification and its potential to create win-win situations for candidates, job boards, and employers.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The implications of a new generation of AI-savvy job seekers

• The different ways job seekers are using AI include

• ATS integration

• The drawbacks and risks for candidates using AI tools

• A pointless tech "arms race."

• Why is it difficult to spot the use of AI in CVs and applications?

• How should the industry respond?

• The rise of verification technology

• What can be verified now and what might be possible in the future

• The importance of job seekers owning their data

• What does the future look like?

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Many aspects of how companies hire talent have been set in stone and unquestioned for decades. Even if Talent Acquisition wants to drive change, the power of accepted wisdom among hiring managers and the C-Suite is difficult to challenge. So what happens when the CEO of a business champions a completely different way of doing things?

My guest this week is Jeff Dewing, Group CEO at Cloudfm. Jeff's story is amazing, and his approach to business is encapsulated in the title of his book, "Doing The Opposite." When it comes to hiring, Jeff has challenged conventional wisdom around interviews and skills head-on with some spectacular results. I loved this conversation, and it is an absolute must-listen for everyone.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Jeff's rollercoaster journey to get where he is today

• Where everyone needs autonomy, mastery, and purpose

• Why Cloudfm no longer use interviews in their hiring process and what they do instead of 

• Removing the risk in hiring

• Achieving a 95% recruitment retention rate

• Individual career plans and ups killing

• Giving people autonomy about how and where they work.

• The office as a creative, problem-solving collaboration space

• The impact AI will have on the future.

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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 my take on some of the key learnings from the guests.

Episodes mentioned in this Round Up:

Ep 604: Building Talent Pipelines With Internships

Ep 605: Can AI Be Biased? Legal Implications for Hiring

Ep 606: Empowering Gen Z & Building A Social Brand

Ep 607: AI Powered Talent Acquisition

Ep 608: Transforming HR

Ep 609: Building A Neuro-Inclusive Hiring Process

Ep 610: Future Skills

Scottish Meet Ups

AI Whitepaper

Recruiting Future YouTube channel

Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts

Get my free whitepaper "10 Ways AI Will Transform Talent Acquisition" - Download Now

Trend Spotting - Find out how my digital course will help you shape the future of talent acquisition in your organization - Click Here

It's becoming evident that we are at a critical pivot point for talent acquisition. While the debates around AI are sucking up most of the attention, massive shifts are happening in terms of the shelf life of skills, ongoing challenges with skills acquisition, and upskilling people for a very different future world of work.

So, how should employers think about skills, and how can talent acquisition gain the future focus it needs to drive organizational value?

My guest this week is Lisa Monteith, Head of Talent Acquisition and onboarding for HSBC UK. In our wide-ranging conversation, we talk about the skills challenges facing organizations and the importance of taking a long-term view.

In the interview, we discuss:

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A full transcript will appear here shortly.