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

Contact: [email protected]

In talent acquisition we talk a lot about what technology can do, the problems it can solve and the benefits it can bring; however, we don't talk as much about the challenges of implementing technology, particularly at the enterprise level.

My guest this week is the one and only Alan Whitford. Alan is an expert at managing the logistics of large scale HR and Recruiting technology implementations and some incredibly valuable insights and advice to share.

In the interview, we discuss:

• How to approach a major software implementation

• How long should the planning process take and who should do it?

• Why RFPs don't work

• What are the most common planning mistakes

• Managing the relationship between talent acquisition, HR and IT

• The importance of involving users early

• Considerations for resource allocation

• Expecting the unexpected

• Will the current crisis change the way recruitment technology is implemented?

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

Contact: [email protected]

Crisis situations tend to be significant drivers of long term change. The scale of the crisis we are all currently living through simultaneously across the globe will drive substantial long term change to the way companies think about HR and talent acquisition.

Before I introduce my guest this week, I wanted to point you in the direction of an excellent whitepaper that my good friends at Calgary Communications have produced. While it is challenging to predict the future, the whitepaper looks at the potential long term impact of the pandemic on employer branding in the context of change that has been driven by previous global crises.

Continuing this theme of long term change my guest this week is Martin Glover, HR Director of Scottish legal firm Morton Fraser. In our conversation, we talk about the impact the pandemic is having on the legal industry and what the long term implications are likely to be for communication, HR and talent acquisition.

In the interview, we discuss:

• The challenges of moving from 3 office locations to nearly 300

• Communication, Connection and Culture

• The importance of a strategic approach to wellbeing

• How the legal industry is having to change the way it operates

• How the previously impossible becomes the new normal

• The future for recruiting technology

Calgary Communications Whitepaper

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

Contact: [email protected]

From the conversations I've been having recently, it seems that the level of adoption for recruiting automation is going to dramatically increase as we come out of the current pandemic crisis. The problem though it that recruiting automation is often thrown around as a trend without any insight into the strategic and tactical practicalities of implementing it effectively.

To help give us an insight into what recruiting automation looks like in practice my guest this week is a highly experienced recruiter and talent acquisition leader Izzey Hung. Izzey has implemented automation and chatbot programmes at several employers and has some excellent insights to share.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Dealing with recruiting challenges

• A strategic process for recruiting automation

• The importance of understanding the market

• Getting your organization engaged

• How to decide what to automate

• A chatbot centric approach

• The benefits of recruiting automation

• Insight from new data points

• The future of recruiting automation

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

A significant issue that I see time and time again is the disconnect between what CEOs say they want from talent acquisition and what is delivered. Why does this disconnect happen, and what can talent acquisition leaders do to fix it?

To help answer this vitally important question I'm delighted to welcome Jerome Ternynck, CEO of SmartRecruiters back to the show. Jerome has recently written a book on Hiring Success which is aimed at CEOs and illustrates what they need do to compete effectively for the best talent.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What is currently happening in the market and how SmartRecruiters are responding as a company

• The disconnect between what CEOs want from hiring and how talent acquisition is measured

• What does an enterprise need to do to acquire top talent on demand

• What should the main focus be for talent acquisition to drive change

• Rethinking hiring budgets

• AI bias versus human bias

• The future of talent acquisition

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

Contact: [email protected]

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 250: Recruiting In Extraordinary Times
Ep 254: Market Update
Ep 253: Remote Working - A CEO's Perspective
Ep 252: Happiness
Ep 245: Programmatic Advertising Explained
Ep 246: Solving Challenges With Technology
Ep 247: Working Strategically With Hiring Managers
Ep 249: Delivering A Custom Experience

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

To recap, I'm currently mixing content between topics that are relevant to the right now and topics that are important in the medium to long term. This episode is a right now episode.

Previously, in episode 250, I spoke to Johnny Campbell from SocialTalent about the state of the talent acquisition market. What feels like an infinitely long two weeks later, my guest in this episode is Holly Fawcett from SocialTalent to give us an update on what they are seeing in the market right now.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What is going on in the hiring market right now

• The supply of talent

• Adaption to virtual hiring

• Dealing with change-resistant hiring managers

• Talent acquisition as a leadership enablement function

• Building an engaging digital candidate experience

• The longer-term implications for talent acquisition

• How Social Talent is supporting recruiters

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

Contact: [email protected]

With everything that has happened in the last few weeks (just to timestamp this I'm recording on March 31st 2020) there is understandably already a massive amount of content being released and discussion going on about remote working. I wanted to add some value rather than some noise to all of this, so I've invited back one of my former guests to give us a CEO's perspective on remote working.

Wiktor Schmidt is Executive Chairman & Co-founder of Netguru, a company that has always had a remote-first operating model for its employees. Wiktor has a tremendous amount of experience leading remote teams and has some valuable insights to share.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What is a remote-first organisation?

• The difference between choosing to work from home and being forced to work from home and the implications for leadership

• Maintaining culture remotely

• The vital importance of trust

• Keeping a remote team motivated and productive

• Digital leadership

• Future equality of opportunity for remote workers

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

Contact: [email protected]

As we continue to move through extremely troubled and confusing times, I decided it would be good to have an episode about happiness. My guest this week is Nic Marks, a statistician who specialises in happiness and well being. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of happiness at work and how you can measure it. Nic also shares a lot of practical advice on how leaders can help improve the happiness of their teams in our current challenging times.

In the interview, we discuss:

• What does happiness actual mean

• The benefits of happiness at work

• Applying statistical thinking to measure happiness

• What can leaders be doing in the current crisis to improve the happiness of their teams

• The five main drivers of happiness at work

• Happiness in the recruiting process

• The future of happiness

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

Contact: [email protected]

The changing nature of assessment is something we have covered from several different angles on this show before with contributions from both practitioners and consultants. However, to date, we haven't actually heard the vendor point of view in all of this. So with that in mind, my guest this week is Sam Whiteman, Head of Product Strategy at SHL.

In the interview, we discuss:

• How technology has evolved assessment over time

• Using AI as a capability to drive specific outcomes

• How AI can be used to find hidden gems in the candidate pool

• The evolution of video interviewing

• Giving candidates more value by building an interactive assessment experience

• The importance of people and machines working together to be better

• The problem of algorithmic bias and how to avoid it

• The future of assessment

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

As I said in my introduction to the last episode, the focus of the podcast is going to alternate between content to help you with your long term strategy and content to help you right now. This episode falls into the right now category and was recorded on Thursday 18th March 2020.

My guest is Johnny Campbell, CEO at SocialTalent and in the interview we discuss:

• Current market activity among global employers

• Moving to a virtual recruiting process

• Some important considerations for video interviews

• Onboarding new hires when people are working from home

• Motivating a remote talent acquisition team in a time of high anxiety

• What help is there for recruiters who are being laid off or who are worried about their jobs

Subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts