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

The assurance and audit profession is facing a talent crisis. Fewer graduates are choosing it as a career, and the perception of what auditors actually do hasn't kept pace with reality. At the same time, AI is fundamentally reshaping the work itself, automating repetitive tasks and opening up entirely new service areas around cyber risk and sustainability. The profession needs different skills, different mindsets, and a completely different value proposition for the next generation of talent.

So how do you transform a workforce of over a hundred thousand people while simultaneously making the profession attractive to a generation that wants purpose, flexibility, and career agility?

My guest this week is Sandra Oliver, Global Assurance Talent Leader at EY. In our conversation, she shares how EY is reskilling auditors at scale, bridging generational divides around technology adoption, and repositioning audit careers as a launchpad for business leadership.

In the interview, we discuss:

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The talent market is full of contradictions right now. There are many people looking for jobs, but for many organisations, finding the right talent remains difficult. Caution dominates on both sides, with candidates asking harder questions about stability and culture while businesses are slowing down decision-making around headcount. AI is promising to transform recruiting, but most organizations are still working out where it fits.

Through all of this, talent acquisition is clearly evolving. The best teams are thinking about workforce planning, internal mobility, and skills rather than just filling requisitions. However, many of them are still measuring themselves on time-to-hire and cost-per-hire, metrics which capture efficiency but say nothing about real business impact.

So what comes next for TA, and how should teams measure what actually matters?

My guest this week is Bharat Siyani, VP of People and Culture at Elmo Software. In our conversation, he explains what a broader set of success metrics looks like, where AI genuinely helps versus where humans must lead, and how he sees TA's role changing over the next few years.

In the interview, we discuss:

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A full transcript will appear here shortly.

Job boards have been connecting candidates with employers for over thirty years, but the relationship that made them work is fundamentally breaking down. Candidates are getting frustrated by applying for roles that may already be filled or have been taken off the market, while employers are receiving hundreds of identical, AI-generated applications they can't meaningfully evaluate. The Job Boards sitting between them are trapped in business models that reward volume over quality, which only makes the problem worse.

The result is a trust crisis that threatens the entire ecosystem. When neither side believes the process is fair, the whole system starts to unravel. So what would it actually take for job boards to rebuild that trust and stay relevant?

My guest this week is Lou Goodman, a job board strategy expert who recently partnered with Jobiqo to produce a major new report on the future of job boards. In our conversation, she explains why the industry is stuck repeating the same patterns, what job boards can learn from other platform businesses, and whether evolution or extinction is the more likely outcome.

In the interview, we discuss:

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Round Up December 2025

If you’ve not listened to Roundup before, it’s a short review of the episodes that I’ve published in the last month to make sure you don’t miss out on the valuable insights that my guests are sharing.

This month Round Up returns to its live format, and this is a recording of my live conversation with Mervyn Dinnen about six of the episodes published in January 2026

Episodes featured in this Round Up:

EP 758: Extracting Real Value From AI In TA

Ep 759: Career Sites and the Growing AI Gap

Ep 760 Co-Creating The Future Of TA

Ep 761: What Happens When Recruiters Embrace AI?

Ep 762: Moving From AI Hype To AI Value

Ep 764: Rewiring Organizations For AI

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There's a significant disconnect playing out in organizations right now. Leaders understand AI is probably the most transformative technology of their lifetimes. They're making bold announcements and setting ambitious targets. Yet they're not providing the structures, ownership, or vision needed to drive real change. The result? Small pilots, incremental efficiency gains, and nowhere near the transformation everyone keeps talking about.

The issue isn't the technology. Organizations simply aren't wired for transformative change, particularly when it cuts across departments and functions. Nobody owns it, and there's no clear model for what the future should look like. The implications for talent, skills, and how we think about work are enormous.

What does it actually take to rewire an organization for the AI era?

My guest this week is Stephen Wunker, co-author of "AI and the Octopus Organization". In our conversation, he shares what's really happening, what's holding companies back, and what this means for talent professionals.

In the interview, we discuss:

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A full transcript will appear here shortly.

Bias in hiring has been a topic of discussion for decades, yet our understanding of what actually happens within recruiting processes remains surprisingly limited. Most research focuses on single types of bias in isolation, making it impossible to build a complete picture. Meanwhile, the arrival of AI tools is intensifying the scrutiny of hiring decisions, demanding a level of accountability that many organizations simply aren't prepared for.

TA leaders often assume they know where bias exists in their processes. But what if those assumptions are wrong? What if the patterns are more complex and counterintuitive than anyone expected?

My guest this week is Bas van de Haterd, Co-founder of the TA Audit Institute. In our conversation, he shares findings from new research that challenges conventional thinking about where bias actually occurs and reveals how much we still don't know.

In the interview, we discuss:

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The constant noise around AI has created a strange situation in talent acquisition. On one side, relentless hype has made many TA leaders deeply skeptical, reluctant to invest in technology that feels oversold. On the other side, some employers have pushed through the fog and are getting genuine, measurable results from AI agents in their hiring processes. The gap between these two groups is widening fast.

So how do you separate what actually works from what's just marketing? What does effective AI agent implementation really look like in practice, and what value is it driving for the employers embracing it

My guest this week is Max Legardez Coquin, Founder and CEO at Maki. I saw Maki’s technology in action at UNLEASH last year and was genuinely impressed by what they're delivering for a variety of enterprise employers. In our conversation, Max explains how using AI to develop a scientific approach to hiring is driving tangible value in terms of quality, speed, efficiency, and a vastly improved candidate experience.

In the interview, we discuss:

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There are now tasks in recruiting where AI genuinely outperforms humans. Holding multiple evaluation criteria in mind while scanning hundreds of applications, spotting relevant experience described in unexpected ways, and ensuring no qualified candidate gets overlooked through fatigue, overwhelm, or shortcuts. These aren't things recruiters actually do badly, but there are things humans can’t physically do at scale that the current market requires

For many recruiters, that reality feels threatening. However, those who embrace AI as a partner rather than a replacement find they have more time for meaningful candidate conversations. Hiring managers get better-matched shortlists. Candidates finally feel seen and understood. Everyone wins.

My guest this week is Dr Ali Raza, CEO at Bytespark.ai. Ali is a former academic turned recruiting AI pioneer. In our conversation, he uses his hands-on experiences to explain exactly what AI does better than humans in the screening process, and why recruiters who adapt will thrive rather than disappear.

In the interview, we discuss:

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Strategic partnerships in talent acquisition can mean the difference between incremental improvement and transformational change. But what does a true strategic partnership actually look like? How do you move beyond the traditional vendor-client relationship to genuine co-creation?

My guests this week are Simon Bishop, Head of Talent Acquisition at SoftwareOne, and Ritu Mohanka, CEO at VONQ. Their partnership spans employer branding, recruitment marketing, and agentic AI deployment—all while Software One was navigating the complex integration challenge of merging two TA functions post-acquisition.

Their collaboration was central to VONQ's recent launch of EQO, their agentic AI platform. SoftwareOne was a development partner, helping shape the product through real-world testing and feedback. You can watch the full launch on VONQ's LinkedIn page.

In the interview, we discuss:

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If you’ve not listened to Roundup before, it’s a short review of the episodes that I’ve published in the last month to make sure you don’t miss out on the valuable insights that my guests are sharing.

This month, Round UP returns to its live format, and this is a recording of my live conversation with Rhona Pierce about six of the episodes published in December 2025

Episodes featured in this Round Up:

Ep 751: The Trust Problem In Recruiting

Ep 752: Using Job Architecture TO Drive Value From AI

Ep 753: Hiring Exceptional Executive Talent

Ep 754: Finding Clarity In Recruiting Chaos

Ep 755: Balancing Automation with Authenticity

EP 756: TA Trends that Matter

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