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

Measuring the impact of talent marking in a way that aligns with the rest of the business and demonstrates value for the c-suite has always been challenging. TA leaders often find themselves judged by measures and outcomes they don't fully control, which are impossible to translate into business value.

So how do you prove the business impact of recruitment marketing and employer branding, particularly in such volatile times?

My guest this week is Nick Thompson, Global Talent Marketing Leader at IBM. Nick and his team have been working on this issue for a while and have devised a way of measuring the value of talent marketing that resonates with the C-Suite and provides a laser focus for optimisation and improvement. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• The scale of recruiting at IBM

• The current state of the global market for tech hiring

• The shortcomings of existing talent marketing metrics

• Speaking the same language as the rest of the business

• Measuring where you have ownership and control

• What is the time to apply metric, and how was it developed?

• What insights does time to apply enable?

• Mapping onto business value 

• The reaction 

• The levers that reduce time to apply

• Removing the reasons why people don't click apply

• The role of employer branding

• Advice to TA leaders

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Back in 2020, there was an acknowledgement that talent acquisition had changed forever but a sense that things would eventually stabilise into a new normal. Two and half years later, it is clear that the only new normal is continual long-term disruption, change and uncertainty.

So what should TA leaders focus on to give their organisations the best chance of maintaining a competitive talent advantage in these challenging times?

My guest this week is Hayli Thornhill, Head of Recruiting at Brighthire. Hayli is an experienced TA Leader with experience in both start-ups and large corporates. She has some insightful advice on dealing with disruption and preparing for an uncertain future.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Long term disruption and uncertainty

• Intelligent interview and evidence based hiring

• What should TA Leaders be focusing on

• Efficiency and quality

• Auditing tech stacks

• Modernising interviewer training

• Improving the hiring process

• Five non-negotiables to focus on

• Providing a brilliant candidate experience

• Looking to the future

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A full transcript will appear here shortly

Many employers will claim to be people-centric organisations, but how many actually have the quality of employer experience to back this up? A high-quality employee experience dries value for businesses in many ways, including competitive advantage in talent acquisition, better retention, increased productivity and better service for clients and customers.

So how do you build a genuinely people-centric organisation with an employer experience that delivers on its promises? My guest this week is Mayra Chimienti, COO of Mister Carwash, the largest car wash operator in North America. Mister Car Wash is a certified Great Place to Work that has built a category-leading employee experience.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What it means to be a people-first business

• Employee experience and customer experience

• Building competitive advantage in Talent Acquisition

• Telling authentic stories and showing evidence in the recruiting process

• Retention, professional development and benefits

• The long term impact of the pandemic

• Innovation

• The future of people strategy at Mister Carwash

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With so much unhelpful noise around the topic of the future of work, I'm taking a deep dive into the practicalities of what is actually going on over three podcast episodes. In the previous two episodes, I spoke to authors Julia Hobsbawm and Bruce Daisley about our physical relationship with the workplace; in this episode, I want to explore happiness at work.

The John Lewis Partnership is a unique UK-based retailer jointly owned by its employees and founded on the premise of ensuring worker happiness. My guest this week is Lord Mark Price, the former UK Trade Minister who was CEO of Waitrose and Deputy Chairman of The John Lewis Partnership. Mark now works via his business WorkL to help employers increase workplace happiness using some of the lessons he learned during his time at John Lewis. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• Lessons from The John Lewis Partnership

• The six core elements of happiness at work

• Why looking at averages is dangerous.

• How can employers build a happier workplace?

• Using happiness for competitive advantage in talent acquisition

• The relationship between the individual and their line manager

• Prospects for the future of the labour market

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

With so much unhelpful noise around the topic of the future of work, I'm taking a deep dive into the practicalities of what is actually going on over a series of three podcast episodes. In the previous episode, I spoke to author Julia Hobsbawm about some of the challenges of this emerging new phase of work, and I want to continue this theme in this episode.

My guest this week is the perfect person to help me do this, and it is great to have him back on the show. Bruce Daisley is a speaker, author and workplace culture enthusiast. Previously a VP at Twitter, Bruce now hosts one of the world's most popular podcasts on making work better. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• Critical issues in workplace culture

• Why flex is the new pay

• The danger of uncoordinated hybrid

• Productivity and worker satisfaction

• The intentional curation of culture

• Using the office as a tool

• How management infrastructure is changing

• The rise of the community manager

• Rethinking knowledge transfer

• Understanding the demands of top talent

• Challenges for talent acquisition

• Work from anywhere

• The danger of nostalgia

• What will work look like in five years?

Pre-order Bruce’s new book “Fortitude”

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All around the world, debates about hybrid and remote working rumble on as employers and employees experiment to find mutually agreeable and effective ways of working. There is a lot of noise in the debate around the future of work, and I really want to cut through this. With that in mind, I'm going to focus the next three episodes of the podcast on the future of work, exploring the real issues, looking at the practical solutions that are being put in place and taking an informed look at what the future might look like.

My first guest in this mini-series is writer, speaker and consultant Julia Hobsbawm, author of the brilliant book "The Nowhere Office". In her book, Julia explores what is happening at the moment in the context of workplace changes over the last few decades and examines the current issues to help map the future. 

In the interview, we discuss:

• Reimagining and reframing how we work

• The four phases of work since 1945

• How the pandemic has accelerated trends that were already there

• The complexity of hybrid

• The real challenges with developing the next phase of work

• Undoing assumptions and old norms

• The challenge for talent acquisition

• Autonomy, flexibility and networks

• Thinking strategically to improve wellness and mental health.

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

I'm a firm believer in looking outside the talent acquisition universe to see what lessons we can learn from other disciplines and areas. Elite sport is always an interesting parallel as selecting and developing talent is a critical aspect of building a winning team.

My guest this week is Mehdi Kordi, the coach of the Dutch national track cycling team. The team have had a massive amount of success in recent years, including winning three golds, a silver and a bronze at the last Olympics, despite having considerably fewer resources and less funding than some of their competitors. It was fantastic to hear first-hand from Mehdi how they have achieved this, and there are some very valuable lessons here from TA leaders everywhere.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What makes a good coach

• Managing riders, employees and partners

• Getting the best out of people

• How do you spot talent?

• The importance of resilience

• The mental versus the physical

• The role of technology

• Running a world-class team with limited resources.

• Collaboration and partnerships

• Using culture to drive performance

• Clarity and transparency

• What does the future look like for track cycling?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Everything is changing very quickly in talent acquisition, and many employers are struggling to keep up with the ever evolving best practices that are driving results. It's a critical moment to get a helicopter view of what talent acquisition strategies are working and the successful attributes of the highest performing recruiting functions.

My guest this week is Janet Mertens, VP of Research at The Josh Bersin Company. Her organisation has recently published an independent report on Human-Centered Talent Acquisition which looks at the strategies and tactics successful talent acquisition teams are deploying in these challenging times.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The background and methodology of the research project

• A perfect storm in talent acquisition

• What business practices are having the most significant impact

• The critical business issues talent acquisition is addressing

• Being bold, creative and human-centered

• Intentional experience design

• What truly drives competitive advantage

• Attracting and retaining top talent

• The importance of authenticity and consistency in EVP and employer branding

• The role of recruiters as talent advisors

• Recruiting technology

• Levels of talent acquisition maturity

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

The current challenges talent acquisition teams face are well documented, and on this podcast, we explore the strategies and technologies that TA leaders are using to address them. The one thing we don't talk about enough collectively as an industry is the considerable effects two years of unprecedented pressure and disruption have had on everyone's mental health.

While wellness, in general, is a big industry topic, there hasn't been much direct conversation on the importance of self-care and strategies to build resilience for Talent Acquisition leaders and their teams.

My guest this week is Ben Gledhill, a Talent Acquisition leader who has done innovative work for several UK based organisations. Ben is one of the talent acquisition community's deep thinkers and, over the last two years, has done a lot of research into the importance of building individual resilience and the role it plays in the effectiveness of talent acquisition strategies.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What it has been like to be a Head of Talent Acquisition during the pandemic

• Why we need to talk more about mental health

• Resilience as part of the TA stack

• Five elements to build resilience

• Adapting to sudden change

• Self-compassion and self-care

• Changing the narrative

• Purpose and control

• Forgiveness

• Is technology a help or a hindrance

• What does the future look like for talent acquisition?

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Last week I attended my first face to face HR and Recruiting Technology conference for two and half years. UNLEASH America took place in Las Vegas and was an incredible mix of great content and the opportunity to meet the really innovative technology vendors in our space.

One of the most interesting keynote sessions was a panel debate on the ethics and legal responsibility for using AI in recruiting. The panel was hosted by my fellow podcasters, Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, so I caught up with them afterwards on the expo floor to find out more and get their views on the future of the industry.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The return of face to face conferences and events

• AI and The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

• What the future might look like

A full transcript will appear here.

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