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

Effective technology is a critical pillar of any TA strategy, and with the current unprecedented pace of innovation, regularly reviewing the tech stack is essential to success. However, securing a budget for new technologies can be difficult with the challenging economic backdrop.

So what can TA Leaders do to ensure they make a compelling case for investment?

My guest this week is Jeff Lackey, Founder of JKL Advisors, Former VP of Talent Acquisition at CVS Health, and former Global Head of Resourcing at Rolls-Royce. Jeff has unmatched experience in developing TA Tech Stacks and has some invaluable advice to share on building successful business cases for investment.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Framework for bringing in TA technology

• Understanding how TA creates value for the organization

• Finding budget within the broader organization

• Creating an agile space to experiment

• Aligning tech stacks

• Avoiding long technology implementations

• How do you get leadership buy in?

• Developing business cases

• Leveraging EVPs

• Mapping talent challenges to specific business objectives

• Advice for TA leaders on dealing with the current market

• Quality candidate experience

• How will TA evolve over the next few years?

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The vast amount of hype, speculation, opinion, and hyperbole around generative AI can make it difficult to know how to start integrating it into the talent acquisition workflow.

The long-term implications of AI for talent acquisition are profound, and it is essential for TA teams to get fully up to speed with current capabilities and use cases. So how can AI become talent acquisition's co-pilot, and where is the best place to start?

My guest this week is Siadhal Magos, Co-Founder and CEO at Metaview. I'm getting tremendous insight into AI's potential by talking to super smart vendors who are baking generative AI into their product sets. Metaview is a perfect example of such a vendor. In our conversation, Siadhal shares his experiences on how AI can save vast amounts of time and resources in the interview process.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Current market challenges

• How should employers react to the AI revolution?

• Turbocharging productivity

• The top-down drive for efficiency

• How will AI transform TA?

• Detection and pattern recognition

• Making sense of unstructured data in the hiring process

• How is the interview changing

• Building more transparency into the recruiting process

• The importance of specialist tools

• The future of AI

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Many employers have been publically committing to making DE&I their most important focus for several years now. However, as the economy becomes more challenging and some companies roll back from flexible working, is the needle still moving on diversity, and is it still the business priority that we were promised it would be?

My guest this week is Michael Barrington-Hibbert, CEO of Barrington-Hibbert Associates and Co-Founder of 10,000 black interns. Michael is an active influencer in driving better diversity and inclusion within the finance sector and instilling a belief in the importance of social mobility. He has essential advice on how employers can keep diversity front and centre by closely aligning DE&I strategies to critical business goals.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Talent market challenges 

• Wage inflation and overhiring.

• How the pandemic diversified the workforce

• The relationship between flexibility and diversity

• Advice to employers on how not the lose the progress they have made as the market changes

• Diversity of thought and creativity

• Reducing bias in recruiting

• The role of technology 

• The importance of brave organizations

• Aligning DE&I with business strategies

• What will the future look like?

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Elon Musk, David Soloman, and Sam Altman are three CEOs who have recently publicly spoken out against remote and hybrid work. Problems with communication, productivity, skills transfer, and culture are some of the most common issues cited but does dragging people back to the office really make these things better? The advantages of hybrid and remote work are considerable, and there are undoubtedly other ways of addressing their challenges than ordering a mandatory return to the office.

My guest this week is Jen Fong, VP of People at Customer.io. Customer.io is a fully remote business with employees in 30 countries, and Jen offers some great insights on embracing the advantages of remote while dealing with its challenges.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Current talent market challenges

• Why remote work is so vital to Customer io

• Innovation and global talent pools

• Autonomy and trust

• Dealing with the challenges of remote work

• How do you build community and connection?

• The importance of tools

• Being intentional about meeting in person

• Creating opportunities for people to connect socially

• Building a people-first culture that aligns with company goals

• Ensuring you have the right skills for the future with strategic workforce planning

• Attracting diverse skillsets

• The impact of AI on skills development and recruiting

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According to recent estimates, between 15 and 20 percent of the world's population is neurodivergent. Although our understanding of the brain has taken some massive leaps forward, a large proportion of neurodivergent people do not have a formal diagnosis.

The advantages for employers with neuroinclusive cultures are significant. Not only do they open important pools of talent, but they are also recognising that everyone's brain is different. This can enable a substantial increase in collaboration, innovation and productivity.

My guest this week is Ed Thompson, Founder and CEO of Uptimize and author of the new book "A Hidden Force: Unlocking the Potential of Neurodiversity at Work". Ed has a vast amount of knowledge and experience to share on how to increase neuroinclusion.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Different brains

• Belonging, collaboration, and innovation

• Common misconceptions

• The dangers of ignoring neurodiversity

• Boulders in the road; building an inclusive recruiting process

• Culture change

• Challenging the norm

• The future for neuroinclusion

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There is a strong argument that Employer Branding has never been more relevant or important. The last few months have seen many employers making layoffs as they respond to market conditions and some sense of normalization after the pandemic. It's fair to say that some employers and potentially whole industries have suffered severe reputational damage because of this.

So how can companies rebuild their reputations as employers? This is not only important from a talent acquisition perspective; it is a vital part of retaining the talent they already have.

My guest this week is Emily Firth, Founder and Partner at The Truth Works. Emily is an Employer Brand and Employee Engagement expert, and it was great to get her view on how employers can rebuild and manage their reputations in the current market landscape.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The post-pandemic state of Employer Branding

• Lack of delineation between internal and external communications

• Transparency and control

• Moving away from a hyper-curated narrative

• Foundations and frameworks

• Rebuilding reputations

• Influencing and education leadership

• Generative AI and the future of employer branding

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Storytelling is one of the things that makes humans human. In recruitment marketing and employer branding, stories persuade, create empathy and drive the emotional connections that make people take action.

With the rise of automation and generative AI, human-based storytelling will likely be a critical differentiator between employers. So do we understand how to tell compelling stories, and are our strategies around storytelling sophisticated enough to deal with a future of more disruptive change?

My guest this week is Lauryn Sargent, Co-Founder of Stories Incorporated and an expert in storytelling for recruitment marketing and employer branding. I caught up with Lauryn at the recent UNLEASH America conference to hear her thoughts on the future of storytelling and listen to the great advice she had to share.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Does TA understand storytelling on a strategic level?

• What are the elements of a great story?

• Psychological safety

• Structuring the perfect story interview

• Making content work in different channels and formats

• The impact of generative AI

• The future of recruitment marketing

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I recently hosted a webinar on the future of talent acquisition and asked the audience to consider this question. Will there ever be as many recruiters again as there were in August 2022?

The arrival of universally available generative AI and a harsh economic climate has caused the perfect storm in our industry. But how much long-term disruption of talent acquisition and potential elimination of recruiting roles could there be?

My guest this week is Allyn Bailey, a highly experienced talent acquisition leader who previously held a global role at Intel and is now Executive Director of Hiring Success at SmartRecruiters. 

A couple of weeks ago, Allyn put out a challenge on LinkedIn that she was prepared to debate her belief that a major organization would move to recruiterless recruiting within the next 18 months. Because I consider her one of the most innovative thinkers in the industry, I took the opportunity at the recent UNLEASH America event to learn more about her hypnosis. I also got her thoughts on the future structure of talent acquisition teams and her advice around reskilling and retraining for those at risk of being displaced.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Fungibility and flexibility of technology

• Can you build a future-proof tech stack?

• Is it possible to implement a relationship-based recruiting strategy in a world of management by transactional metrics?

• Can AI be more human than humans?

• Can technology now address every step in the TA process?

• Will we see recruiterless recruiting within 18 months?

• The nuances of the hypothesis

• The TA team of the future

• TA Ops, system and experience design

• Will candidates push back?

• Legislation and regulation

• Reskilling and retraining.

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A full transcript will appear here shortly.

At the beginning of May, I attended UNLEASH America as a podcaster and panel host. It was UNLEASH's biggest event to date in the US, and the content and conversations were excellent. As you can imagine, the implications of Generative AI dominated the discussion. From talking to a range of practitioners, vendors, and thought leaders, it was clear that everyone agrees that Talent Acquisition will be changed quickly and forever by new technology. 

However, it is not just technology that is driving change; aside from the obvious economic issues, many employers are rethinking their whole approach to talent, and this was reflected in several conversations I had about the blurring lines between talent acquisition and talent management.

Next week I'll be publishing some long-form interviews I recorded at the event, but in the meantime, here is a series of short conversations that capture the essence of the discussion at the show. 

Appearing in this episode:

John Vlastelica, the CEO of Recruiting Toolbox

Sarah White, the Founder of Aspect 43

Mervyn Dinnen, HR Analyst and my co-author on "Digital Talent."

Crissy McConnell, Internal Recruiting Lead at Guild.

Topics discussed include:

• Thinking holistically about talent

• Breaking down the silos between Talent Acquisition and Talent Management

• The impact of Generative AI

• The market for recruiting technology

• Legislation and legal confusion around AI

• Psychological Safety and ERGs

• The future of jobs and the end of everything

• Candidate and consumer attitudes to AI

• Regenerating talent to open opportunity

• Surfacing internal talent

• Total experience

• The future of 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.

Episodes mentioned in this Round Up:

Ep 510: Candidate Experience 2023

Ep 511: How To Be A Global Employer Of Choice

Ep 512: Being More Agile

Ep 513: Building Connection In A Hybrid World

Ep 514: Build, Maintain & Leverage Your Network

Ep 515: AI And The Future Of Talent Acquisition

Ep 516: The Changing Workforce

Ep 517: Aligning Benefits To Values

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