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

A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of days recording at the excellent Transform conference in Las Vegas, and this is the first of two episodes with a compilation of some of the conversations I had. My first guest is Danielle Farage, a renowned Gen Z Futurist, Educator, and Community Builder. Danielle shares her perspective on why it's crucial to give Gen Z a voice and discusses the current employee...

Talent Acquisition stands on the edge of revolution, with AI tools promising to make recruiting faster and more effective. But will it make hiring fairer? Recruiting and HR are already a key focus for governments as they develop legislation for AI, and employers are already at risk of breaking existing laws if they use AI tools that discriminate against protected groups of people. My guest this we...

Many employers regularly offer internships, but the role of these internships in long-term hiring strategies can be pretty tenuous. So what happens when a company puts internships at the centre of its hiring strategy and proactively leverages this to build long-term pipelines of valuable talent? My guest this week is Leah Bourdon, Vice President of Talent at staffing and consulting firm ALKU. For...

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 597: Talent Acquisition Excellence Ep 598: Building Exec Search In House Ep 599: Data Sophistication Ep 600: Did We Predict The Future? Ep 601: Quiet Hiring Ep 602: The Skills M...

Companies can learn a massive amount from elite sports in terms of spotting and nurturing the talent required to build highly effective teams. Having an adaptable, flexible, and self-aware mindset is critical in these disruptive times, and professional sports have coaching models that can help leaders develop this mindset in their teams. I was lucky enough to speak to former England Cricket Captai...

Skills-based hiring is a hot topic as many employers seek to better understand the skills they need in their businesses both now and in the future. With the shelf life of hard skills shortening by the day, companies need to bridge the gap between talent acquisition and talent management to ensure that they are hiring for the skills that actually drive value for the business. My guest this week is...

Skills shortages, shortening skills lifespans, digital transformation, the AI revolution, hiring freezes and layoffs. These are just some of the factors currently reshaping how companies think about talent. It's clear that this level of disruption is now the new normal rather than a short-term trend. So, how do TA teams respond, and what role do they have in helping employers redefine their thinki...

I launched Recruiting Future nine years ago to attempt to understand the future of talent acquisition. Back then, social media was the biggest driver of change, and we were starting to realize how much new technologies would change the world. Predicting the future is always risky; however, if you approach things correctly, you can spot the trends that will stick and get a sense of what is likely t...

We live in a world of work where understanding, interpreting and telling stories with data has never been more critical. Although Talent Acquisition has become more data-centric in recent years, many TA functions rely on summary statistics that don't provide a sophisticated enough platform to use data to inform and influence their organizations properly. So, what can TA leaders do to make their da...

Executive Search is often considered so specialized that it should always remain the preserve of Exec Search agencies. However, an ever-increasing number of large employers are now choosing to build in-house executive search functions. So what are the advantages of doing this, how do you do this, and what is the ongoing impact from tighter talent markets and innovations in technology My guest this...

I was delighted to hear two of my regular guests on Recruiting Future were writing a book together. “Talent Acquisition Excellence” by Kevin Wheeler and Bas Van De Haterd is now available, whether you get your books, and it is brilliant to welcome them both back to the podcast to talk about it. Kevin is the founder of The Future of Talent Institute and is highly respected for his skills in predict...

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 591: Is AI Changing Jobseeker Behaviour? Ep 592: Understanding Skills Ep 593: The Career Forward Mindset Ep 594: Recruiting Data Science Skills Ep 595: Proving The Value Of Tale...

It is almost four years since the first pandemic lockdowns, and even now, it doesn't seem long enough to get a proper perspective on how much the pandemic has changed things. It is already pretty clear that expectations of and attitudes to work have shifted considerably, with significant implications for recruiting and retention. My Guest this week is Annette Andrews, Founder & Director of Acaria...

These are turbulent times for talent acquisition, particularly for those teams operating in the technology sector. Despite the continuing demand for technology skills, layoffs are still happening, with many TA teams now considerably downsized from where they were a couple of years ago. Proving TA's strategic and monetary value has never been more critical, so how can TA leaders make their business...

With the development and adoption of AI accelerating at an unprecedented pace, the demand for data scientists and data skills in general is snowballing. To recruit successfully in this competitive talent market, TA teams must understand the specific data skills their organisation needs and the intrinsic career motivations of the data professionals they seek to engage with. My guest this week is Ak...

Work and jobs are changing, and the speed of change continues to accelerate. Whether you are in the fourth decade of your working life or looking for your first job, managing a career against this background of disruptive, often unpredictable change is a challenge for everyone. Things are also being made worse by continuing pay inequality and workplace bias. My guests this week are Grace Puma, the...

The shelf life of skills is getting ever shorter, which has significant implications for talent acquisition. It is essential that TA leaders take an active role in developing the overall skills strategy for their business. If employers want to be effective skills-based organizations, it is clear that talent acquisition, talent management, L&D and strategic workforce planning must be closely aligne...

Conversations about AI's impact on recruiting tend to focus entirely on the employer and recruiter viewpoint. However, it may well be that the most potent force of change for talent acquisition comes from AI-facilitated shifts in jobseeker behaviour.  Employers are already seeing a rise in applications they suspect are being driven by AI tools that facilitate bulk applying. The use of LLMs to crea...

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 584: Talent-Centered Design Ep 585: Embracing Automation Ep 586: Removing Silos to Improve Hiring and Retention Ep 587: Getting The Basics Right Ep 588: AI, Background Checks an...

The last few years have taught us that no one can predict the future. However, you can develop the insight necessary to make accurate forecasts with the right combination of trend analysis and strategic thinking. We are currently in a period of accelerated change in talent acquisition, and it is essential to understand the direction of travel even if we can't predict the final destination. We must...

As the debates about the future of talent acquisition rumble on, it's important to focus intensely on the critical value effective hiring brings to the organization. Talent remains a key differentiator that drives competitive advantage for a company, and this will be even more true in the future. My guest this week is Simon Taylor, Head of Organization Effectiveness at Gap Inc., who has authored a...

Background checking is an area we've never really covered on the podcast. In the past, it has just felt like a necessary but very functional part of the hiring process. However, with the explosion in our digital footprints and the power of AI, that has now changed. So, how can background checks now help prevent workplace misconduct and improve the quality of hire? Where does AI fit in, and how can...

With so much focus on potentially AI-driven disruptive change and debate about the future, it is sometimes easy to forget that many employers are still struggling to develop and leverage their culture, and some still lack basic standardized processes for talent acquisition and other aspects of the people function.  Looking at what is happening in start-up and scale-up businesses is always interest...

The ever-shortening shelf life of skills, fast-changing business priorities, ageing populations, and changing attitudes to work means that retaining the right talent is not only more difficult than ever, it is also likely to remain so for years to come. It's not surprising, then, that Talent Leaders are starting to think differently about the structure of their function to remove silos and foster...

As I've said before, automation is inevitable in talent acquisition. Automation can bring essential efficiencies and a vastly improved and personalized experience for everyone when done correctly. The question shouldn't be, do we automate; instead, TA and HR leaders need to ask what we automate and how we do it. My guest this week is Brigette McInnis-Day, Chief People Officer at UiPath. UiPath has...