The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast

NEW RECRUITMENT KPI'S FOR TOMORROW'S TALENT ACQUISITION   We are beginning to see some step change improvements in recruiter capability. The promise of AI has been overblown in many areas, but it is clear huge efficiency gains have been seen in areas such as sourcing, CV review, interview note taking, interview scheduling and more. These are areas which previously took large teams for recruiters a lot of time to manage. Now with increased in capability, what does this do to how we measure recruiter performance?   Lets deep dive:   - Pre AI, what were the industry avg numbers: how many reqs per capita, how many hires per month - What is the number today in 2025? - What does it look like in 2026? - Areas of greatest efficiency gain: Applicant Review, Sourcing New Candidates etc - How has the time distribution changed once AI comes into production? - Are we spending more time per candidate? Do we have more or less candidate interviews? - QoH...does this measure change? - What would we expect once every TA team becomes AI-enabled? - How do we design a dynamic system of performance measures, which takes into account AI maturity? - What does this mean for people currently in TA - what skills to develop? - How do we ensure early entry talent flow?   All this and more, with Adriano Herdman, CEO (We Are Move), Emma Mirrington, Founder (The Talent Labs), Alan Price, Global Head of Talent Acquisition (Deel), Neil Morelli, Founder (Workplace Labs) & friends.   We are on Friday 19th Sep, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep331 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Let's change it up this week, updated copy below;   Remember when hiring felt simple? A candidate applied, you picked up the phone, and great conversations just… happened.   Somewhere along the way, recruitment became more complicated. Too many tools, too many tabs, and too little time for the human side of hiring.   That’s why Teamtailor exists, to put people back at the heart of the process. From creating career sites candidates love, to managing every step of the journey in one seamless platform, we help you focus on what matters most: building great teams. Join more than 185,000 recruiters and discover the new way to attract and hire top talent — with all the AI powered tools you need.   Let’s make hiring human again.   See why 11,000+ companies trust us

IMPACT OF AI IN THE BLUE CHIP GRADUATE CAREER   In the before times, the passport to comfortable middle class prosperity was go to a good University, get a 2.1 or above, and apply to a graduate scheme with a blue chip organisation. Most attractive were the global professional services firms - McKinsey, Accenture, PwC, KPMG, BCG and the rest. With the advent of AI replacing a great deal of the knowledge related tasks previously performed by graduate entry into these firms, is this path no longer as viable as it once was?     Lets deep dive:   - State of the blue chip graduate recruiting market - What is the volume of intake 2020-2025? - What type of work might we have expected from early entry employees in PS? - How much of this is 'exposed' to AI disintermediation? - Does AI have a different impact rather than direct replacing the task? - What do PS firms expect from early entry talent in 2025 and beyond? - How can early entry talent best position for a future in PS? - How will Management Consultancy itself change over time?   All this and more, with Yazad Dalal, Chief Growth Officer (Joveo), Marketa Simkova, Partner, Head of People, Performance, Culture - KPMG Middle East & Sophie Jablansky, Senior PM (Veris Insights)from within the Professional Services and Management Consultancy sector.   We are on Friday 12th Sep, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep329 is sponsored by our friends Joveo   As the global leader in AI-powered recruitment marketing and candidate engagement, we are transforming talent attraction and recruitment media buying for the world’s largest and smartest employers, staffing businesses, RPOs, and recruitment advertising agencies.   Want to find out more?   Speak to one of our team today.

REALITIES OF AI - INSIGHT & ANALYSIS FROM 1000 HEADS OF TA   Get ahead of the AI curve with exclusive first-look insights from Fosway Group’s cutting-edge ‘Realities of AI’ research. Sven Elbert unpacks the biggest trends, priorities, and pain points Talent Acquisition leaders will face in 2025. Expect sharp analysis, no-nonsense guidance, and practical, data-driven advice to help you build smarter AI strategies – and finally cut through the hype.   Lets deep dive:   - What is the State of Talent Acquisition in 2025 - How have Talent Acquisition priorities shifted from 2024 to 2025? - Doing More With Less? Well, how are we doing with this? - Budget for tech vs Budget for Payroll - Avg size of Talent Acquisition teams - sector / region / country - Avg req load per capita - What investments in technology are going forward? - How is AI being adopted throughout the TA function? - How is talent acquisition being measured today? - AI Agents - where are they, are they now in the workforce?   All this and more, as Sven Elbert, Head of Analytical Services at Fosway, takes us through the research conducted on Heads of TA in US, UK, Germany and France.   We are on Friday 5th Sep, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep328 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Let's change it up this week, updated copy below;   Remember when hiring felt simple? A candidate applied, you picked up the phone, and great conversations just… happened.   Somewhere along the way, recruitment became more complicated. Too many tools, too many tabs, and too little time for the human side of hiring.   That’s why Teamtailor exists, to put people back at the heart of the process. From creating career sites candidates love, to managing every step of the journey in one seamless platform, we help you focus on what matters most: building great teams. Join more than 185,000 recruiters and discover the new way to attract and hire top talent — with all the AI powered tools you need.   Let’s make hiring human again.   See why 11,000+ companies trust us

SEO FOR LLM'S? WHAT TALENT ACQUISITION AND EMPLOYER BRANDING HAVE TO KNOW   Generative AI is transforming the way people discover and research employers - and it’s happening faster than most Talent Acquisition teams realise.   Google’s own research reveals a 30% drop in clicks from traditional search in 2025 alone, as AI-generated summaries answer more user queries before anyone lands on your site. This shift, from Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to LLM Optimisation, brings seismic implications for Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding.   In this live session, we unpack what this means - and what to do next.   Join us as we explore:   The current state of SEO in a world of LLMs How GenAI is reshaping user journeys and web traffic patterns The challenge: career site visits are down, but applications are up—why? And why reduced traffic doesn’t mean your career site is any less important - in fact it’s the opposite How to influence the new SEO with content designed for LLMs, not just search crawlers Why getting into the training data of GenAI models matters for brand visibility and influencing the narrative Prompt testing: which employers are being recommended by major LLMs? Tactical playbook: 5 essential things TA and Employer Brand teams should do today to stay visible, relevant, and in control   This isn’t just about traffic—it’s about trust, discoverability, and performance. Content is now the engine that fuels both external AI (LLMs) and internal AI (your own platform tools). And that makes it the new competitive edge.   All this and more with one of the first to draw attention to SEO for LLM, Nathan Perrott, SVP Solutions Engineering (Radancy)   We are on Wednesday 3rd Sep, 12pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep327 is sponsored by our friends Radancy   Radancy delivers the future of hiring. As the global leader in talent acquisition software, Radancy helps enterprises strengthen their organizations with an AI-powered platform that simplifies hiring, reduces costs and accelerates results. Fueled by rich data and deep industry expertise, the Radancy Talent Acquisition Cloud transforms every step of the candidate journey to hire the most qualified talent in any environment – driving efficiency, enhancing experiences, maximizing ROI and empowering organizations to build the workforce of tomorrow.   Book a demo with one of our team today.

HOW MUCH CAN YOUR TALENT ACQUISITION TEAM DO? CAPACITY PLANNING IN THE ERA OF AI   Working out how much capacity you have as a TA leader is pretty much critical to doing your job properly; in fact, it be one of the top three most important things a TA leader should be doing. How do we most effectively do this - does anyone have a framework? Better yet, does anyone have the experience?   We're going to do deep dive on the topic in Brainfood Live On Air.   - What is Talent Acquisition Capacity Planning? - Do you understand how your current actually operates (time / tasks study) - What types of recruiter roles do you have in team? - What levels of seniority do they have in your team? - How to account for different working styles? - How to calculate difficult of role? - How do we know the target is realistic? - How to ensure dynamism in the capacity plan - Do we factor in mental health?? - How about other life circumstance / external commitments - Risk factors to consider - Tools to help.   All this and more with Mary Kay Baldino, Head of Global Talent Acquisition (Morningstar), Amandeep Shergill, Director Talent Acquisition (Automattic), Bradley Clark, Director of Talent Acquisition (Article) & Karen Hutchinson Adão, Group Resourcing Director (Mitie)   We are on Friday 29th Aug, 2pm BST / 9am ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep326 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.   Learn more

OVERCOMING IMPOSTER SYNDROME: LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM EXEC COACHING   'Imposter Syndrome' is perhaps one of the most well known of psychological phenomena, one which many of us are undoubtedly familiar. Why is it that we tell ourselves that we do not belong, are that we are not worthy of the role or the moment?   Let's dive into the psychology of imposter syndrome and see if we can find practical tips to overcome it.   - What is imposter syndrome? - How does it manifest? - What are the theories behind it? - What negative outcomes can come from having imposter syndrome? - Is it the correct path to pathologies this? - Imposter syndrome in Talent Acquisition - when is this most likely to occur? - What psychological profile of person is most likely to suffer from it? - Practical tips: what are the methods of reducing imposter syndrome? - Can it ever be removed from our psychic make up? - What steps should listeners practice now?   All this and more with Richard Ayre, Exec Coach (The Leadership Torch), Elaine Atkinson, Leadership Coach (In Wonder Coaching) & Tasha Cluskey, Comic / TA Partner   We are on Friday 22nd Aug, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep325 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Ashby just raised $50M in Series D funding, and they’re going all in on what modern recruiting teams actually need.   So, what’s next?   AI is moving from novelty to necessity.
Most tools talk about AI. Ashby makes it work. Their all-in-one platform gives AI real structure so recruiters get time back with AI note-taking, feedback summaries, and personalized outreach emails.   Quality of Hire is finally getting real.
More teams are rolling out Quality of Hire programs with Ashby than ever before. What used to be a slide in a quarterly review is now a real strategy, with surveys and reporting built in. It’s clearer, faster, and easier to connect to business outcomes.   Community is the new operating system. Ashby already made a big splash with Ashby One, their first customer conference that brought hundreds of talent leaders and RecOps professionals together for a week of sessions, panels, dinners, and live events. With this new funding, they’re doubling down on the community by expanding ACE (Ashby Customer Expert) chapters, scaling education programs, and giving local leaders more ways to connect, share learnings, and build lasting networks. … and the word is out. Enterprise teams like Shopify and Snowflake are already in. With 123% growth and fresh funding to fuel what’s next, Ashby is just getting started.   Bottom line: Ashby is not just building software. They are building the infrastructure for modern recruiting.   See the full announcement.   Not on Ashby yet? Get a demo today.

Automate or Augment? Quarterly Spot Check on the State of AI in TA   With ChatGPT5 round the corner, as well as the release of ChatGPT Agent by Open AI, we are soon to see mass distribution of the next generation of AI. The innovation rate is cycling too fast for any one of us to accurately keep pace so I am going to do a regular quarterly check in on AI adoption in TA / HR and Recruitment use cases which are actually happening, and what can be achieved with AI in reality.     We will learn:   - Current state of General AI Agents - what can it do, can it not do - Current state of Verticalised AI Agents or Agent-ike AI? - Key areas of Hiring funnel which can be automated or augmented - Who decides what is automated or augmented - are humans consciously making these decisions? - What level of AI-literacy do you need to 'make AI work'? - AI Operations Lead ...are we going to be seeing this role in TA? - Where will be in 3 months time (where we will reprise show review!)   All this and more with Alla Pavlova, Tech & Art Recruiter (Riot Games), Marcel van der Meer, AI Automation Expert (Klikwork Talent), Leandro Gomes da Silva, Head of AI Operations (Nobel Recruitment)& Tony de Graaf, Founder (Gusto Consulting)   We are on Friday 15th Aug, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep324 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

RecOps & AI: TECHNIQUES TO ACCELERATE AI ADOPTION   Recruitment Operations developed as a distinct function with Talent Acquisition with a purpose of ensuring the entire recruiting function operated as efficiently and as resiliently as possible. This was BEFORE the advent of Artificial Intelligence, so what is the situation in 2025 when AI powered efficiency are the No1, 2 and 3 priorities for almost every business?   We're going to be speaking with Ops leaders to find out how RecOps teams have helped TA functions accelerate their adoption of AI.   - What is RecOps in 2025? - What is the relationship between RecOps and the other functions in Talent Acquisition? - Order business: what are the items of work RecOps professionals do? - What makes a RecOps function a high performing one? - Can we measure RecOps efficacy from the performance of those they are supporting? - How does having an independent RecOps function accelerate technology? - What are the unique differences between AI adoption and adoption of other categories of technology? - How do you ensure tech implementation is a success? - How do you increase utilisation of tech products? - Do you get involved in decision making as to what gets automated? - What are the skills required to be an effective RecOps professional? - How do you see the function evolve in a future of workforce where humans are augmented by AI colleagues?   All this and more with Mark Harman, Global Head of Recruitment Operations (Wise), Victoria Murphy,Global Head TA Operations (JLL) & Stephen Collopy, Head of Talent Operations & Enablement (Delivery Hero)   We are on Friday 8th August, 2pm BST / 9ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep322 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!

HUMANS REQUIRED: CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE HIRING PROCESS   How many times have we heard the comforting phrase 'but recruitment will always need the human touch'?   Intuitively, I believe this is true at least for non-volume, permanent hiring but but do we really understand why, when, who and how? We probably need to find out because if we rely on comforting homilies, we might find the CFO won't quite get it ;-)   - Why do we think the 'human touch' matters? - When we think about the human touch, what scenarios come immediately to mind? - AI / Automation has proven to improve CX in many cases, so is the case being made that more AI / Automation should mean further improvements in CX? - Does the source of the candidate matter when thinking about the 'human touch' - When do we think are the most important moments in the hiring funnel for the human beings to be involved? - Can sometimes 'more human' make things worse? - What does it look like when we have the perfect blend of AI driven efficiency and human delivered empathy? - Do we need to quantify the human touch? If so how does that connect with OKR / KPI's? - What do we - as humans - need from a recruitment experience?   All this and more with Jean-Marie Caillaud, Founder (WorkMeTender), Carrie Brophy, Senior Director Talent Acquisition (Marriott International) & Mark Kunaseelan, Head of Resourcing (University of Arts, London)   We are on Friday 1st August, 2pm BST / 9ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep321 is sponsored by our friends Willo   Recruiting for high-volume positions in a global, diverse workforce is increasingly challenging, especially when relying on traditional methods and the limitations of written CVs. Managing thousands of applications manually is not only exhausting and inefficient, it can also prevent you from finding the top talent your organization needs to thrive.   Enter Willo. The award-winning team is transforming the hiring process with a dynamic candidate screening solution that users love, backed by an NPS score to prove it!   Their web-based, human-centric platform enables candidates to record responses to a predefined set of questions at their convenience. With over 5,000 secure integrations, Willo makes it easy to supercharge your recruitment process, reduce bias, and support diversity, equity, and inclusion goals—all while helping you tap into a larger, more exciting pool of global candidates.   Book a demo at willo.video this month to get 10% off—just use the coupon code "brainfood”. That's W-i-l-l-o dot video.

CANDIDATE FRAUD: HARDENING THE HIRING FUNNEL WITH INFOSEC TECHNIQUES   Candidate fraud is already a problem for some today but it will soon be a huge problem for everyone tomorrow. The uncomfortable truth is that AI will undermine trust in all digital communications and we need to rethink our recruitment approaches with security much higher in the priority list. It might even be said that security may become one of the main values human recruiters will perform as AI transforms the way we work today.   We will learn   - Line between legitimate AI use vs Fraud? - Is this fixed today or can we expect this to change tomorrow? - What is the international consensus on this line? - Taxonomise candidate fraud - what are the techniques, how they are using these techniques - Motivations for candidate fraud: material gain, desperation for job opportunity, IP theft? - Input from InfoSec: what practices will become standard? - Isn't trusting 3rd party verifiers just delegating the security responsibility? - What about bias - racial profiling, IP location bias etc? - Relationship between Candidate Fraud vs Remote working - Gender: fraudsters mainly male...?     All this and more with Daniel Chait, CEO (Greenhouse) & friends   We are on Wednesday 30th July, 12 Noon ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep323 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.   Learn more