The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast

COMPANY CULTURE: AI FIRST VS HUMAN CENTRED?   We know the right answer is 'both' but really - when push comes to shove - what is the driving principle in how you build your business? Two emerging philosophies are driving the decision making in companies - lets use Brainfood Live to figure out which one is going to be the right one when it comes your business   - What is AI First? - What is Human Centred? - What are the main points of both / either? - In what points do they overlap, and which points are they fundamentally in tension? - What can we learn from the companies that use these philosophies? - What difference does it make to TA decision making when operating under one of these principles? - AI First companies have been innovative but have also rolled back from experiments - what does this tell us? - How do we assess for technology when operating under either of these principles? - Can Human Centred by characterised by 'human-in-the-loop' / humans-always-in-the-loop decision making? - Which principle ultimately is best suited for which sector?   All this and more with Jessie Schofer,Founder (Stakkd), Anna Ott, VP of People (HV Capital), Carrie Brophy, Senior Director Talent Acquisition (Marriot International) & Sammi Abdoh, People Technology Manager (ARM)     We are on Friday 18th July, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep319 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Great teams start with great hiring — and that’s exactly what Teamtailor is built for.   Loved by companies like Happy Socks, OneFlow, Oatly, and Five Guys, Teamtailor is the all-in-one recruitment platform trusted by over 10,000 businesses and 150,000 recruiters worldwide.   It combines a powerful ATS with fully customizable, AI-powered tools to elevate your employer brand and deliver a standout candidate experience.   From career sites to collaboration workflows, Teamtailor helps talent teams move faster, work smarter, and create hiring journeys that people actually enjoy — candidates and hiring managers alike.   See how top teams are hiring better with Teamtailor: Experience the magic today!

STATE OF TALENT ACQUISITION: THE RECFEST REVIEW 2025   Recfest is the largest in person event for Talent Acquisition professionals and the perfect barometer for the state of the market. Let's see what we learn from the 100+ talks and conversations with 1000's of delegates who will have attended the industry's premier event.   We will review   - RecFest main themes - UK Economy vs Global Macro - AI-enablement and the AI First Movement - Where are we with DEI? - Employer branding when the Internet is dominated by AI slop - All we need to know about bias - Organisational agility - can we train for this? - Update on AI legislation in TA / HR - Expanding scope beyond Permanent Hiring - Expanding scope beyond Recruiting - New Metrics for the AI Era - Core skills for Future Fit Recruiters - AI leaving TA Leaders Behind - TA transformation: Moving from cliche to confirmation   All this and more with Jamie Leonard, Founder (RecFest), Clair Bush, Fractional CMO (AM-Bush), Bas van de Haterd, Founder (Digitaal-Werven & friends)   We are on Friday 11th July, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep318 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   There’s no shortage of AI in recruiting. The hard part is finding what’s actually useful. Ashby’s one of the few building practical tools that make recruiters’ lives better.   Their latest Ashby One release shows what thoughtful AI looks like:   AI Notetaker that automatically captures transcripts, summaries, and feedback prompts AI‑Assisted Report Builder uses plain English to ask questions of your data AI Candidate Assistant to help you understand candidate histories and next steps at a glance Plus AI‑Generated Feedback Tokens that let you send polished rejection or update emails in seconds No AI for AI’s sake. Just practical tools that reduce busywork and help teams move faster.   See what’s new   Not on Ashby yet? Get a demo today.

HOW TO ASSESS JOB CANDIDATES FOR AI LITERACY?   There is no company in the world that is not interested in becoming more AI-enabled. One of the ways to do this is directly relevant to us - recruit new people who can bring up the level of AI literacy in the workforce. In a direct analogy to the digitisation wave of the early 2000's, we now have the AI wave of the 2020's - becoming AI-enabled by hiring AI-enabled employees.   Question is...how do we assess for this? This is the topic of Brainfood Live   - What is AI-literacy? - How close are we to an industry consensus on levels of capability? - Can we identify AI literacy on CV / background? - If so, what signals? - If not, can we do so via any other online method? - What is the best interview technique to assess candidates AI-fluency? - How do we assess in a non-interview based way? - What assessment tech assists that can help us with this? - Does AI fluency correlate with traits or attributes in any way? - For recruiter roles - what kind of assessments should we undertake to hire AI-fluent candidates?   All this and more with Martyn Redstone, Founder, Eunomia HR, Johannes Sundlo, FullStack HR & friends   We are on Friday 4th July, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep315 is sponsored by our friends BrightHire   BrightHire is the leading Interview Intelligence platform, used by teams at Canva, Hubspot, Ramp, Webflow, and 500+ other organizations to:   Scale structured interview planning   Improve interview quality   Speed up feedback   Level up quality of hiring decisions   Optimize with powerful insights   Learn why world class companies choose BrightHire to drive significant efficiency while raising the bar.   👉 Get a demo

RECRUITER SKILLS PROFILE: HOW AI CHANGES THE GAME   We all know that AI is going to change every job, but we don't know precisely how or when, much less the implications on the type of skills we need to be hiring when recruiting for 'AI first' employers.     - What do we know about the impact of AI / Automation in knowledge work? - What skills are going to be insulated and valued from this impact? - Do we 'design out' job roles which have high component of these insulated skills? - How do humans uniquely add value to any process, for any outcome? - Do we actually do this? - If AI takes on admin, logistics, note taking, CV screening etc - what other activities remain? - Will these remain valuable for the business or simply disappear if the scaffolding that holds up the rest of the job disppears? - What do we know are the skill we WON'T need on future TA? - What are the skills which we will need going forward? - How do we assess for those skills - with AI or without AI? - Do we go back to attribute based hiring? - Can incumbent employees improve their attributes in order to be future fit? - How do companies ensure that you have the right skills / capability mix in your recruiting team? - What do leaders themselves need to do to be future fit?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with the one and only Tom Sayer, Global Recruiting Strategy (Accenture)   We are on Friday 27th June, 2pm BST   Click on the Save My Spot button to attend for free, and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified for this and all future Brainfood Lives   Ep314 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Great teams start with great hiring — and that’s exactly what Teamtailor is built for.   Loved by companies like Happy Socks, OneFlow, Oatly, and Five Guys, Teamtailor is the all-in-one recruitment platform trusted by over 10,000 businesses and 150,000 recruiters worldwide.   It combines a powerful ATS with fully customizable, AI-powered tools to elevate your employer brand and deliver a standout candidate experience.   From career sites to collaboration workflows, Teamtailor helps talent teams move faster, work smarter, and create hiring journeys that people actually enjoy — candidates and hiring managers alike.   See how top teams are hiring better with Teamtailor: Experience the magic today!

CANDIDATE FRAUD: IT'S A RECRUITING EMERGENCY   We probably never thought we'd ever encounter this challenge, but in 2025 there is no denying that candidate fraud poses an increasing danger to the fidelity of traditional hiring practices, Increase global economic uncertainty, a globalised talent pool who can find jobs and apply from anywhere in the world and the advent of powerful AI tools on the candidate side have increase the risk to employers, as well as damage the prospects of legitimate and genuine job seekers.   It's a recruiting emergency and we need a plan!   - What is the current state of candidate fraud? - Can we taxonomise the fraud techniques? - How much as remote hiring practices increased risk? - What methods are employers currently deploying to deal with fraud? - Do we have any examples of successful fraud mitigation? - What do we anticipate the future top-of-funnel to look like? - What immediate steps should top talent teams take today? - Hiring managers; Help or hinder? - What tools / technologies can help reduce candidate fraud? - How do we ensure fair recruitment practices whilst hardening employer defences? - Are we going to roll all the way back to analogue recruiting practices?   All this and more with Ryan Coulthorp, Senior Director of Workforce Planning & Recruiting Operations (Okta), Glenn Lindley, Founder (TalentIP) & Timothy Khoo-Jones, Head of Talent (TBC)     We are on Friday 27th June, 10am PT / 1pm ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep317 is sponsored by our friends tofu   AI Agents for inbound resume screening, application enrichment, and applicant fraud detection   Hundreds of talent teams like Restaurant365, Luxury Presence, Garner Health, Crusoe Energy, Prophecy and many others use tofu to screen and recruit faster. We're also trusted by top venture funds like M13, LeftLane, Redpoint, Bessemer Ventures, Uncork and others to support their portfolio companies.   What to know more?   BOOK A DEMO TODAY

Brainfood on Tour - How to Hire in Brazil in 2025 & Beyond   Brazil - the largest country in South America, an emerging power in the world with enormous natural resources, a growing population and huge space for development. What is it like hiring in Brazil in 2025? How will it look going forward? Brainfood is back on tour, so let’s talk to local recruiters and find out.   We’re going to speak with Juliana Park, Founder (HRX Brasil), Monaly Malucelli, Exec Search (MMT), Patrick Gouy, CEO (Recrut.AI), Karina Fiod, Talent Acquisition Lead (SumUp), Davi Bufalo, LATAM Head of Talent (OLIVER) & friends   - What is the state of the economy in Brazil in 2025? - What are the main strengths, main challenge here? - What sectors are the largest employers? - What is the competition for the top talent? - What defines top talent here? - How do candidates behave - what is the best channel of communication for first contact? - What skills are most in-demand here? - How is the use of AI changing how companies recruit? - How is the relationship with the US & China changing the economy here? - What are the 10 things a recruiter should know in order to become more successful in Brazil? All this and more, on Wednesday 25th June,2pm BRT / 6pm BST   Click on here to follow the channel (recommended) and click on the green button to register for this show.

BEYOND TALENT ACQUISITION: LEADERSHIP SKILLS NEEDED TO EXPAND SCOPE   Talent Acquisition was the optimal specialism in the People Ops function during the ZIRP of hyper growth; but what organisations needed in 2019 is not what organisations need in 2025. We're already in a world where global growth is slowing, companies are getting smaller, more efficient, more automated. The need for everyone in Talent Acquisition is to expand scope but what skills are needed for us to get there?   - Lay of the land: State of Talent Acquisition - What is changing in terms of skills demand? - As companies become 'AI first', what does this mean for organisation structure and team size - Non-FTE: who is currently doing this and how does TA takes this on? - Workflow automation: can TA / HR take on the role of 'automators-in-chief'? - Internal mobility - how to unlock IM, retain the talent and reduce demand for external hire? - Technology: what innovations can support TA / HR expansion of scope? - It's too much - how to take on too much and still be effective? - How to delegate - How to hire and grow leaders to whom delegation is possible? - What the main attributes needed for a TA leader to expand scope? - What skills need to be developed? - How to accelerate the development of those skills?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with Johnny Campbell, CEO (Social Talent), Lyndsey Taylor, Global Head of HR Transformation (Brooks Automation), Christine Ng, Head of Talent (Quantum Motion) & friends   We are on Friday 20th June, 2pm BST   Click on the Save My Spot button to attend for free, and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified for this and all future Brainfood Lives   Ep313 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   Hiring is hard, and getting it right is even harder. It’s a core business-building function with high stakes that takes a lot of moving parts to see real success. You need workflows that accommodate how you function given your company size and goals. You need a user experience that hiring managers actually buy into. And you need an application process that locks talent in.   Only Greenhouse gives you all that in one platform.

TALENT ACQUISITION WITHOUT BOUNDARIES: LEADERSHIP LESSONS FOR GLOBAL TA TEAMS   There are many reasons why companies become geographically dispersed - to better service local markets, to develop specific new products, tap into specialist labour markets, corporate tax efficiency and wage arbitrage, taking advantage of skilled labour wherever it can be found at the best cost coefficient for the business.   How is it like to work in, manage and lead a Global Talent Acquisition team? This is the question we'll be looking to ask in this week's Brainfood Live   - What are the main challenges of working with global TA teams? - How real are cultural differences when it comes to talent acquisition? - Do local recruiters NEED to operate differently, with behaviours best suited to the local landscape? - How does AI innovation impact global communication? - What is the impact of remote vs hybrid vs on premise on management of global Talent Acquisition? - Can it be said that different countries have different status for TA? - How realistic / fair is it to cultivate different practices in TA - how do we determine which is most appropriate? - DEI: how does this work in Global TA? - What are the best methods of fostering team cohesion across distance / time boundaries? - KPI's - are these localised and should they be? - EVP - are these localised and should they be? - Career pathing / Internal mobility - how can leaders provide internal labour liquidity in TA? - Hiring leaders...what best tips / techniques? - Implementing technology ...how to select and implement?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with Sandy Grewal, Global HR Transformation Lead (Kambi), Harpreet Kaur, Director Talent Acquisition (Adobe) & Jennifer Candee, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, (IMI)   We are on Friday 13th June, 2pm BST   Click on the Save My Spot button to attend for free, and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified for this and all future Brainfood Lives   Ep312 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Ashby is the all-in-one ATS which evolves at the speed of AI.   Trusted by high performing recruiting teams at Notion, Reddit, Shopify, Duolingo, Deliveroo and thousands of other top employers across the globe. Ashby is your core recruitment tool designed to help your organisation excel at hiring.   Give your recruiters and hiring managers the chance to the best.   Get in touch for a personal demo today.

VC Investment in WorkTech - Where is the Money Going in 2025?   We're halfway through the year (can you believe this??) and so a great time to stop and take stock on where we are going with recruitment and HR technology. It's pretty clear that investors know that the organisational transformation is underway - driven by AI innovation which is changing the nature of almost every job.   What can we learn from where the investment is going?   - Volume of VC investment in H1 2025 - How does this compare to 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020? - Breakdown of investment: regional, sectoral, company size - Categories securing most / least investment interest - Update on M&A activity so far in 2025 - who has bought what / when - Vendor updates - who is launching what - Microsoft / LinkedIn / Indeed - what are they doing? - Projections for H2 2025 - where do we end up? - What does this all mean for recruiters?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with George LaRoque, Founder (WorkTech), Madeline Laurano, Founder (Aptitude Research) & friends   We are on Friday 6th June, 2pm BST   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)     Ep311 is sponsored by our friends at Scotty AI   Scotty AI creates multi-agent systems, that speak with humans and other agents, use software solutions and operate across all communication channels, to automate cognitive labour!   Scotty AI can help recruiters achieve the hiring efficiency demanded for AI-first organisations. Some of our best use cases are from employers who have deployed Scotty to transform how they hire.   Want to know more? Book a demo and see how Scotty AI works first hand

HIRING EFFICIENCY: HOW AGENCIES, RPO'S AND IN-HOUSE USE AI / AUTOMATION   Agencies, RPO's and In-house - we're all recruiters at heart but we too often end up self siloing in order to create safe spaces, which whilst necessary, can also lead to a slow down in knowledge transfer across party lines.   Lets use this week's Brainfood Live to find out if we can break down some of these barriers   - How are recruitment agencies using AI / Automation? - Is AI transforming how business development is performed? - Where is AI / Automation in customer retention and up selling? - How are agencies using AI when it comes to interfacing with candidates? - Are we seeing any proctoring / ID verification performed by 3rd party recruiters? - How can technology help SME staffing firms differentiate? - Has anyone figured out how to actually mobilise the whole store of collected candidate data? - How do 3rd parties interact with customers when using technology? - How do we navigate governance and compliance when agencies, RPO and in-house each use different technology stacks? - Do we have embedded staff working within stack with in-house? - How is AI changing the skills recruiters need? - What impact as AI had on how we staff up staffing agencies?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with Neil Ray, CEO (Livero), Louise Triance, Founder (UK Recruiter), James Osbourne, Founder (The Recruitment Network), Rob White, MD (Redimeer) & friends   We are on Friday 30th May, 2pm BST   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)     Ep310 is sponsored by our friends at Hire   Hire.inc is an AI-powered recruitment platform that streamlines hiring with advanced AI sourcing agents, automated AI interview notes, bulk resume screening, and a collaborative ATS. Designed for startups & staffing agencies, Hire.inc helps recruitment teams find, evaluate, and engage top talent faster while integrating into existing workflows.   Question for all recruiters: how much is your time worth??   Answer: a lot more than you think   Demo and try for free here