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

Conversations about AI's impact on recruiting tend to focus entirely on the employer and recruiter viewpoint. However, it may well be that the most potent force of change for talent acquisition comes from AI-facilitated shifts in jobseeker behaviour. 

Employers are already seeing a rise in applications they suspect are being driven by AI tools that facilitate bulk applying. The use of LLMs to create or edit resumes is undoubtedly widespread, and we are also seeing examples of AI being used to hack online interviews and assessments. There is still much debate about where these activities fall on the scale, from legitimate assistance to outright fraud.

What is very clear, though, is that this is an unstoppable tide that will have severe implications for recruiting processes. What do employers do when they are inundated by applications perfectly tailored to the role that are impossible to assess using current tools and techniques?

My guest this week is Richard Collins, Co-Founder of CV Wallet. Richard has decades of experience in recruitment marketing and talent acquisition. He has recently been diving deeply into the issues caused by jobseeker use of AI and how the solutions to the problems might make recruiting better for everyone.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The current talent marketplace

• AI-driven changes in job seeker and applicant behaviour

• The potential impact on the recruiting process

• Challenges of dealing with an increasing volume of applications

• Unreliable applicant data

• Pre-qualifying and pre-verifying without creating friction in the process

• Will we see a revolution in assessment and selection?

• How do we define what is cheating or fraud?

• A shift to assessing soft skills

• How does recruitment marketing need to adapt

• A cost-per-qualified application model

• Proactive versus reactive change

• How much change will there be in 2024

• What does the future of recruiting look like?

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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 584: Talent-Centered Design

Ep 585: Embracing Automation

Ep 586: Removing Silos to Improve Hiring and Retention

Ep 587: Getting The Basics Right

Ep 588: AI, Background Checks and Quality of Hire

Ep 589: Talent Acquisition As A Competitive Advantage

Ep 590: The Road To 2030

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The last few years have taught us that no one can predict the future. However, you can develop the insight necessary to make accurate forecasts with the right combination of trend analysis and strategic thinking.

We are currently in a period of accelerated change in talent acquisition, and it is essential to understand the direction of travel even if we can't predict the final destination. We must anticipate the skills that will be required in the future, how we can recruit them, and how talent acquisition must change to be fit for this new purpose.

My guest this week is Russell Beck, Director of Inspiration at ImagineThinkDo and author of a new book called "The World Of Work to 2030". The book looks at the megatrends shaping the future, and Russell's background and experience in RPO means he can provide some relatable insights into the likely future of talent acquisition.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Six megatrends shaping the future

• Future skills and how we hire them

• AI is removing your uniqueness.

• From STEM to STEAM

• Artistic engineers

• The cost of bad hiring

• How does TA need to change

• How can we future-proof our careers?

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As the debates about the future of talent acquisition rumble on, it's important to focus intensely on the critical value effective hiring brings to the organization. Talent remains a key differentiator that drives competitive advantage for a company, and this will be even more true in the future.

My guest this week is Simon Taylor, Head of Organization Effectiveness at Gap Inc., who has authored a forthcoming book called "Build Smart: A Blueprint for Building a High-Performing Organization." Simon has a TA background and, in the book, outlines just how critical hiring is for companies. In our conversation, he shares his insights into what makes great hiring and its role in high-performing organizations.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Common talent issues companies are facing.

• How important is recruiting in 2024?

• Competitive advantage from high-quality talent acquisition

• The long-term impact of bad hiring

• What makes a great hire

• The importance of potential

• Upskilling hiring managers and changing their mindset

• How to get buy-in across the organization

• Leveraging data to illustrate opportunities

• Why AI will be huge for talent acquisition

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Background checking is an area we've never really covered on the podcast. In the past, it has just felt like a necessary but very functional part of the hiring process. However, with the explosion in our digital footprints and the power of AI, that has now changed.

So, how can background checks now help prevent workplace misconduct and improve the quality of hire? Where does AI fit in, and how can we ensure everything is legal and ethical?

My guest this week is Ben Mones, CEO and Founder at Fama, an online screening technology company working with employers worldwide. If you haven't looked at what is happening in background screening for a while, this conversation with Ben will help you get up to date with what is possible.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The impact of workplace misconduct

• Talent screening

• How background checks have evolved in the last 10. years

• The "Cambrian explosion" of digital information

• Using AI to unlock the signal from the noise

• The importance of applying human expertise and judgment 

• The dangers of hiring managers doing their own checking

• How does AI-driven screening work

• Legislation, Compliance, Ethics and Bias

• Improving the quality of hire

• What does the future look like

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With so much focus on potentially AI-driven disruptive change and debate about the future, it is sometimes easy to forget that many employers are still struggling to develop and leverage their culture, and some still lack basic standardized processes for talent acquisition and other aspects of the people function. 

Looking at what is happening in start-up and scale-up businesses is always interesting. They build business functions from a blank sheet of paper and often develop interesting new ways of thinking and working.

My guest this week is Roza Szafranek, Founder and CEO at HR Hints. HR Hints acts as the external HR team to over 70 scaling companies. Roza has used this experience to develop the Culturivy method of building organizational cultures and processes, which she has shared in a recent book called Culturivy: The Power of Changing a Workplace. Roza believes employers should address some long-standing issues in TA, such as candidate experience and biased hiring processes. She also has a counterpoint view on the current efficacy of AI in hiring.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Building and scaling organizational culture

• Managing a burnt-out workforce

• Leveraging culture to power engagement

• Practices, behaviours, and values

• How should companies think about talent?

• Strengthening the candidate experience

• Will AI and Automation have the impact we think they will

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The ever-shortening shelf life of skills, fast-changing business priorities, ageing populations, and changing attitudes to work means that retaining the right talent is not only more difficult than ever, it is also likely to remain so for years to come.

It's not surprising, then, that Talent Leaders are starting to think differently about the structure of their function to remove silos and foster collaboration between Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, L&D and other vital people functions.

So what kind of overarching vision is needed to drive effective cross-function thinking, and what strategic role should TA play internally within the organization?

My guest this week is Hélène Loine, VP of Human Resources at Ekkiden. Hélène has a background in recruiting, working at rapidly scaling companies. Her focus at Ekkiden is building a shared vision of employee experience to connect HR silos to improve hiring and retention.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The TA challenges in scaling different types of business

• The importance of understanding your target audience

• Automation and AI

• Using technology and a shared vision to connect the silos in HR

• Different ways of thinking about talent

• Building a people-centric talent function

• Looking at employee experience holistically to drive retention

• Personalization

• How can TA use data and insights to contribute strategically inside the business?

• What does the future of TA look like?

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As I've said before, automation is inevitable in talent acquisition. Automation can bring essential efficiencies and a vastly improved and personalized experience for everyone when done correctly.

The question shouldn't be, do we automate; instead, TA and HR leaders need to ask what we automate and how we do it.

My guest this week is Brigette McInnis-Day, Chief People Officer at UiPath. UiPath has been at the vanguard of Robotic Process Automation for several years, helping companies automate systems and processes across different parts of the enterprise. Brigette has deep expertise in automation and HR Tech and highlights some critical areas that TA Leaders should pay attention to. 

The first is using an enterprise automation platform to bring data, processes and quality of experience together across the entire organization. There is an assumption that TA tools will drive recruiting automation, and it is essential to understand that integrated company-wide automation strategies may dictate the pace of change. 

Brigette also highlights some excellent use cases, including how UI Path has automated onboarding to offer a quicker and more personalized experience.

In the interview, we also discuss:

• How automation improves experience

• Why are HR and TA so hesitant about automation?

• How the employer/employee relationship has changed

• Automation driven personalization

• Thinking holistically and planning strategically 

• The impact of automation on jobs and careers

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There is a growing consensus that 2024 will see the start of some fundamental changes in Talent Acquisition. The adoption of Skills-based hiring and the rapid development of AI are the catalysts here, but to truly understand what is happening, we must take a step back and understand the forces driving this potential revolution.

Work is changing fast, skills have an ever-shortening shelf life, and talent is still in short supply in many markets. Companies need to think differently about talent to grow and deliver value, and this is the driving force that will use skills-based thinking and AI to re-engineer the corporate talent function.

So what are the practicalities around this, and what kind of mindset does TA need to adopt to help drive rather than resist the change?

My guest this week is Jason Cerrato, VP of Market Strategy at Eightfold. In addition to working in an AI-driven HR Technology business, Jason has been a Director of Talent Acquisition and industry analyst. In our conversation, he draws on all of this experience to explain why talent-centered design is a critical foundation of the future of talent acquisition. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• The main talent challenges in 2024

• What is talent-centred design?

• Building around talent rather than around jobs

• The accelerating shelf life of skills

• Real-time data and intelligence

• The role of technology

• Prioritising skills over job titles and previous experience

• Redefining talent management

• The future role of recruiters

• How much change will happen in 2024?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

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 573: The Power Of Employee Value Propositions

Ep 579: The Value Of Employer Branding

Ep 582: Employer Branding With Gen AI

Ep 576: Generative AI – A TA Progress Report

Ep 578: The AI Hype Cycle

Ep 574: Building A Successful TA Function

Ep 575: RPO Evolution

Ep 577: Hiring In Challenging Talent Markets

Ep 581: An Inflection Point For Recruiting?

Ep 580: A New Community For Women In TA

Ep 583: Re-Inventing Your Career

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts

A full transcript will appear here shortly.