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

We've featured several employers on the show with recruiting strategies focusing on hiring people with criminal histories. All of these employers have spoken about the benefits for the people they hire, the benefits they get from reaching new talent pools, and the benefits for society as a whole. 

Despite this growing list of case studies, several misconceptions about hiring people who have been involved with the criminal justice system are holding many employers back.

My guest this week is Shawn Bushway, a professor at the University at Albany and a researcher at RAND Corporation. Shawn has built a body of research on the impact of criminal background checks on employment, and his work informed the current standards of the EEOC. He now helps employers revise their background check policies to better reflect the science about re-offending and become compliant with EEOC guidance.

In the interview, we discuss:

• How background checks have evolved

• Ban the box

• How the tightness of the labor market dictates employers' attitudes

• Common misconceptions

• The myth around recidivism

• Overestimating the level of risk

• Why crime type is irrelevant

• Making factually informed decisions

• Avoiding false positives

• Age, time, and number

• The role of government in creating practical, useable incentives to hire people with criminal histories

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It has been an extraordinary year for technology. We can all broadly agree that the effect of generative AI will be transformational for talent acquisition, but how can we separate the hype from the reality to know where to focus in the short term and how to plan for a much-changed future?

With so much noise and minimal signal in the discussion about AI, I thought the best way to get a grip on everything was to talk to a genuine AI thought leader.

My guest this week is Jon Krohn, host of the SuperDataScience Podcast, Best Selling Author, and Chief Data Scientist at TA start-up Nebula. Jon was on the show back in 2019 and gave us a primer on AI that was so good people are still listening to now. This time, he is doing a deep dive into generative AI, giving us some history, explaining the current reality, and outlining the radical potential for the future.

This conversation was eye-opening for me, and it is a compulsory listen for everyone working in Talent Acquisition.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Developments in AI over the last three years

• Hype v Impact

• The development of the transformer architecture that facilitates ChatGPT

• Why the jump from ChatGPT 3.5 to ChatGPT 4 was incredibly significant

• Is artificial general intelligence possible in our lifetimes?

• Other notable examples of Large Language Models

• The immediate implications for Talent Acquisition

• How LLMs will supercharge vendor innovation

• The importance of TA Leaders embracing AI

• Are we heading towards a utopia or a dystopia?

Listen to this podcast in Apple Podcasts.

A full transcript will appear here shortly.

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.

This Round Up episode also features a short interview with Clive Meyers, Director of Public Sector Strategy at Indeed, talking about some up coming events to support refugees across Europe

Episode mentioned in this Round Up:

Ep 537: Strategic Workforce Planning

Ep 538: The Rise Of Short-Form Video

Ep 539: Building TA Technology Strategies

Ep 540: AI & Recruitment Marketing

Ep 541: The Skills-Based Revolution

Ep 542: Building A Global TA Strategy

Ep 543: Hiring At Speed And Scale

Ep 544: Transforming TA Teams

Ep 545: Using AI Strategically

Ep 546: Transforming Frontline Hiring

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Frontline hiring continues to be highly challenging with ongoing labor shortages in many countries. The business impact of understaffing is both significant and quantifiable, meaning hiring speed is a critical lever for business value and competing effectively in a competitive talent market.

So, how can employers speed up their processes while offering a great candidate experience and improving retention?

My guest this week is Joshua Secrest, VP of Client Advocacy at Paradox. During his time as a Global TA leader for McDonald's, Josh used technology to reduce frontline hiring times from 21 days to 3 days. He is continuing to help employers automate recruiting and innovate with AI at Paradox, and he has many valuable insights to share.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The current challenges in frontline hiring

• Business impacts of understaffing

• Having the ear of the C-Suite

• The critical importance of speed and moving fast at every stage of the process

• Turnoever and retention

• The power of automation

• The role of AI and the role of humans

• Delivering an excellent candidate and hiring manager experience

• The importance of simple, intuitive interfaces

• Speed of adoption in recruiting automation and advice to TA leaders

• Plugging generative AI into conversational AI

• What does talent acquisition look like in five years?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Earlier in the summer, I collaborated with the SmartRecruiters team to interview four fantastic practitioners who spoke on The Hiring Without Boundaries stage at RecFest in London. We recorded the conversations backstage at the event, and this is the third of three podcast episodes where I will be sharing them.

Talk about generative AI is everywhere, but most of the conversation is either inflating the hype or dealing with highly tactical short-term techniques and use cases. So, how can TA Leaders think about AI strategically to embrace current opportunities and plan effectively for the future?

My next RecFest guest is Ben Handyside, Director of Talent Acquisition EMEA at Colliers International. Colliers have recognized that ChatGPT was already being used by many people within their organization and are harnessing the advantages to boat innovation and make TA a key strategic driver of value.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Challenging barriers and boundaries to access new talent

• The forces driving change in TA

• TA as a strategic enabler

• Acknowledging AI utilization, understanding the risk, and establishing guidelines

• The risk of doing versus the risk of not doing

• Use cases and experimentation.

• Creating more time for human interactions

• Managing adoption

• Planning for the AI-driven future

• Understanding the problem you are trying to solve.

• Speed as a strategic lever

• Advice to TA Leaders

• What will the role of the recruiter be like in ten years?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Earlier in the summer, I collaborated with the SmartRecruiters team to interview four fantastic practitioners who spoke on The Hiring Without Boundaries stage at RecFest in London. We recorded the conversations backstage at the event, and this is the second of three podcast episodes where I will be sharing them.

It's an unprecedented time of disruption in talent acquisition. Economics, demographics, and technology are driving seismic shifts in how companies think about hiring. With the pace of change continuing to increase, the most successful TA functions will be the ones that adapt the quickest.

My second RecFest guests are Lindsey Stone, Group Head of Talent Attraction & Resourcing at Greene King, and Eric Houwen, Head of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding at Deloitte in The Netherlands. Although they work for two very different types of business, there are a lot of interesting commonalities in Eric and Lindsey's approach to TA transformation.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The forces driving change in TA

• Employability and Social Mobility

• Shifting workforces

• Evolving talent acquisition

• What skills does a TA team now need?

• Developing a consultative approach

• Positioning TA to drive value for the business

• The role of technology

• How do you take your people with you?

• What will the role of the recruiter be in 10 years?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Earlier in the summer, I collaborated with the SmartRecruiters team to interview four fantastic practitioners who spoke on The Hiring Without Boundaries stage at RecFest in London. We recorded the conversations backstage at the event, and this is the first of three podcast episodes where I will be sharing them.

Hiring for frontline retail positions has always been a challenge, but since the pandemic, it is a challenge that has increased exponentially. So how does an expanding retail group fill 30,000 roles a year at pace while ensuring a high-quality candidate experience that reflects the fact that their candidates are literally their customers?

My first RecFest guest is Adam Reynolds, Head of Talent at Frasers Group. Frasers Group is a multi-brand international retail chain, and Adam and his team have used technology to transform their TA strategy to meet the needs of the business in a very tough talent market.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Recruiting challenges

• Growing hiring exponentially

• Urgency, pace, and velocity

• Getting stakeholder buy-in

• Quality communication at scale

• Automation without being robotic

• Storytelling

• The fundamental role of technology

• Ratios and data

• Talent pooling silver medallists

• How will the role of the recruiter evolve in an AI-driven future?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Being a Global Head of TA in 2023 is highly challenging. Dealing with disrupted talent markets and global hiring nuances while building a consistent approach to candidate experience and stakeholder relations and keeping on top of emerging technology trends is complex, to say the least. 

My guest this week is Chet Ritchie, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Manulife. Chet is driving a TA strategy based on transparent relationship management and a core, common, and custom approach to the critical elements of recruiting and employer branding. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• Demographic shifts and talent market dynamics

• The importance of hiring manager and stakeholder relations

• A personalized and engaging candidate experience

• Providing feedback throughout the process

• Structuring a global team

• Core, Common, and Custom

• The role of technology

• Showing humanity through the recruiting process

• Leveraging data for talent intelligence and process optimization

• What does the future of TA look like

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

The skills-based organization and skills-based hiring have been talked about for several years now. Despite this, many employers are yet to start a shift towards skills or are still at a very early stage of the process.

So why is being skilled-based so important, and what are the implications for companies that haven't yet started a transition towards skills-based hiring and talent management? Is this another HR fad or a critical re-imagining of how we think about talent in a world of continued disruptive change?

My guest this week is David Blake, CEO of Degreed, a skills-based learning and development technology platform. David is a passionate advocate for the advantages that skills-based organizations will have in our AI-driven future of work.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Why is a skilled-based approach so important, and how does it translate into business success?

• Job titles are not the same as skills.

• Getting the best out of people

• Jailbreaking the college degree.

• Skills versus qualifications and experience

• Evolving the recruiting process to hire for skills

• Reskilling and upskilling

• Why the skills gap will continue to get bigger and bigger

• In demand skills

• Thinking differently about talent

• How will AI define the future of work?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

A few short months ago, many commentators predicted that AI would be a revolutionary force in recruitment marketing that would drive automation, efficiency, and engagement. So how does the hype live up to the reality, and what have we learned about how AI and humans need to work together to create effective recruitment marketing?

My guest this week is Kat Kibben, CEO and Founder of Three Ears Media. Kat is a recruitment marketing expert with a focus on job postings. They have some valuable insights and informed opinions on the relationship between recruiters, AI and recruitment marketing.

In the interview, we discuss:

• How has recruitment marketing evolved since the pandemic

• What is holding AI back

• Why marketing and recruitment marketing are not the same jobs

• What happens when everyone has access to the same tools

• Telling the truth, being unique, and standing out

• Training recruiters to be consultative.

• Driving a faster hiring process

• What makes a great job posting

• Are mandatory requirements really mandatory?

• Employer branding as an accelerator

• Advice for TA leaders on the future of recruitment marketing

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.