The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast

TRANSITIONING TO CV FREE HIRING   The CV has been around for maybe even longer than recruiting itself become a distinct profession, so are we destined to forever have a document like this in our hiring process? What does it look like if we can remove the CV - does it thicken our pipeline, improve it or make it even harder to handle or process?   Lets have a chat with TA leaders who have made the shift to CV Free Hiring and see if we can learn how they did it, what they learned and what they would recommend to others contemplating the same.   - Why CV Free Hiring? - How does this argument translate into the business case? - What types of scenario is optimal for CV Free Hiring? - What kind of roles are most suitable for it? - Conversely, what scenarios / roles are NOT suitable for CV free hiring? - Change management: what were the expected outcomes of shifting to CV free hiring? - What challenges can TA Leaders expect to encounter? - How did you handle them? - What did the recruitment team think of CV free hiring? - What TA strategies are eliminated by going CV Free hiring - presumably, sourcing? - Short / Medium / Long term outcomes of the shift - CX impact?   All this and more as we tackle an issue whose moment may be now!     We are on Friday 9th May, 2pm BST with Jessie Schofer, Founder (Stakked), Matthias Schmeisser, VP People & Operations (Emnify), Tony McCaffery, Founder (Diversity Scotland) & Kare Heward, Talent Acquisition Manager (QVC)   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)       Ep306 is sponsored by our friends at 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.

AI REGULATIONS IN TA & HR: 2025 Q2 UPDATE!   2025 has been the year of AI innovation in recruitment technology.   There hasn't been a serious recruitment tech vendor hasn't infused their product with AI, and more than a few are moving toward to next step with Agentic or Agent-like AI now taking on significant chunks of the recruiter / hr workload.   Time is perfect for us to update on our understanding of AI regulations in the US, UK and EU!   - What is the latest with AI regulations across different territories? - Is the EU getting rid of GDPR, and if so, what does this signal? - What technology innovations are clearly within compliance? - Which are clearly outside? - Which are somewhere in the middle? - Humans in the loop: is this ethics or legislation at this point? - Cyber security...what is best practice, what is legal / illegal? - DOGE and AI....how legal is this?? - If law is broken by government, what does this mean for corporations and individuals? - Has anyone been sued for breaches of AI usage yet? - What is the current guidance we can give to vendors and buyers on the usage of AI?   We're with Jess Schofer, Founder (Stakked) , Dan Gallagher, Disrupt HR AI Advocate (Avanade), Martyn Redstone, Founder (genAssess), Bob Pulver, Founder (Elevate Your AIQ), Andrew Gadomski, Founder, (Aspen Analytics) & friends   We are on Friday 2nd May, 2pm BST   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)     Ep305 is sponsored by our friends at Greenhouse   Greenhouse is sponsoring HR Technologies on April 23–24, 2025 at ExCeL London. Swing by stand CC14 to see how an all-in-one hiring platform simplifies and streamlines every step of the hiring process. Also, don't miss an insightful speaker session on April 24 with Nkem Nwankwo from Greenhouse and Chris Lees from Monzo Bank, as they dive into how AI is shaping both recruiter efficiency and candidate experience. Finally wind down your day with Greenhouse and Lattice on 23 April at 4 pm for a happy hour with refreshing drinks, great company and even better conversations.   Register here

MITIGATION STRATEGIES VS FAKE JOB CANDIDATES   Reports of fraudulent job applications are on the rise. A globalised internet, universal job insecurity and the reduction of friction provided by technology innovation from EasyApply to AI-powered mass personalisation, is a producing a perfect storm which is overwhelming recruitment teams.   As these trends accelerate, we can expect the volume and sophistication of fake job applications to likewise increase. Let's talk about the techniques job candidates are using and what counter measures employers are thinking about to ensure only authentic, honest candidates get through to process.   We will explore:   - What do we categorise as fraudulent? - What types of candidate fraud can we describe? - What is our current mechanism of mitigation? - Detect or Deter? - How do we ensure Candidate Experience, whilst protecting employers interests? - Is the best way to change our talent attraction approach (i.e stop advertising) or can there be another solution? - Using tech to fight agains tech - What are the most fraud-proof assessment techniques - How to balance between security vs efficiency? - What skills does a recruiter need to be good at fraud mitigation? - What do hiring managers needs to do to become good at fraud mitigation? - What types of assessment are no longer viable? - What are the long term implications for talent acquisition?   All this and more as we dive into the world of recruiting and the job search in 2025   We are on Friday 25th April, 2pm BST   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)       Ep303 is sponsored by our friends at BrightHire   BrightHire is the leader in Interview Intelligence trusted by the world’s fastest growing companies: Canva, Ramp, Toast, Axon, Zapier, Vercel, Klaviyo, Rippling, Attentive, HighTouch, Groq, Navan, and 000s more. Not just another note-taking tool, BrightHire’s end-to-end AI platform is transforming how our clients hire — delivering substantial hiring efficiency and consistently raising the bar on quality.   “BrightHire has elevated both the quality and speed of our hiring process” - Tony James, Talent Acquisition Partner at AlphaSense   Discover why market-leaders call BrightHire a game-changer for how they hire.   If you schedule a demo with our team next week, and mention Hung sent you, we’ll send you a $50 eGift.

Agentic AI in the Wild: Live Demo   Some of you might have noticed that whenever a recruitment software business promotes their Agentic AI, Brainfood is here to challenge them to do a live demo. So far no one has yet shirked the challenge, nor have their agents disappointed - we're beginning to understand that the generalist agent is likely be to an aspiration goal for business, but those that domain specific are going to be in with a chance to truly transform our approach to recruitment.   Next up is Recruitment job advertiser, VONQ   Under CEO Ritu Mohanka and CTO Bill Fischer, VONQ have been experimenting with Agentic AI with enterprise clients already using different agents to optimise their hiring across organisations. What does all this look like for us on the outside? We're going find out as VONQ live demo's the agents on this special Brainfood Live On Air.   We are on Thursday 17th April, 2pm BST   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)       Ep302 is sponsored by our friends at VONQ   VONQ is transforming recruitment advertising with a results-driven platform that combines AI-driven technology, deep ATS integrations, and recruitment expertise.   Trusted by global leaders such as Danone, Bayer, Randstad, and PwC, we help employers attract, vet, and shortlist top-quality candidates efficiently. Our seamless integrations and real-time insights optimize hiring workflows, enhance employer branding, and drive measurable outcomes.   With VONQ, businesses can streamline their recruitment process, improve ROI, and build diverse, high-performing teams.

Sourcing Automation: What can be done in 2025?   Finding and engaging candidates more efficiently remains the No1 concern of recruiters the world over - nothing gets more clicks on the Recruiting Brainfood newsletter than cool new ways! And in 2025, there are so many things we can do - perhaps no time since the beginning of the web era have we seen such an opportunity to massively scale up our sourcing efforts.   Let's see what leading experts in the European sourcing scene have to say about the Sourcing Automation in 2025. What can we do - and are we actually doing it?   - Finding candidates - Enriching candidate data - Pulling email / phone data - Automated, personalised outreach - Automated, multi-channel drip campaign - DIY vs Vendor integrated - How much time saved? - Sourcing outcomes....does it bring results? - GDPR: are we breaching all over the place?? - Candidate experience....what are we seeing? - How long before automation scales outreach to far too noisy levels? - Best targets to apply sourcing automation techniques - Won't your ATS do this all anyway?   All this and more with with Alexey Geht, Talent Sourcing Lead (Added Value), Alla Pavlova, Recruiter (Riot Games), Kanwar Singh Kohli, Global Talent Leader (Booking.com) & friends     We are on Friday 11th April, 1pm BST   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)     Ep301 is sponsored by our friends at Metaview   Run an intake meeting for a new role and automatically get a perfectly-tailored, on-brand, and compliant job post based on the conversation. 🤯   That’s exactly what Metaview’s new AI Job Posts deliver. It’s your AI-powered co-worker that guarantees job posts that stand out and get results. Here’s what it does:   📷 Thinks like your team: The AI bases your job posts on insights drawn directly from your actual intake meetings and interviews.   📷 Sweats the details: Job posts stay compliant and on-brand. Every word, every time.   📷 Delivers at scale: Automatically ensures consistency and quality across all your job posts, at lightning speed.   Sign up for a demo to see the magic in action

Brainfood on Tour - How to Hire in China in 2025 & Beyond?   China has an enormous workforce and therefore a huge amount of recruitment. Most of the rest of the world knows very little about it! So it is time to speak to local Chinese citizens and residents to better understand how labour circulates through what by some measure has been the largest economy in the world since the mid 2010’s   We’re going to speak with Lin Xin, Marketing Director (Avature), Maria Ma, Talent Acquisition Regional Head APAC and the legendary Beecher Ashley-Brown, CEO of AJINGA.com   - What is the state of the economy in China 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? - What are the 10 things a recruiter should know in order to become more successful in China?   All this and more, on Wednesday 9th April,1pm CST / 4pm AEDT   Click on here to follow the channel (recommended) and click on the green button to register for this show.

Lia Taniguchi, a Senior Research Manager at Bullhorn, and Liam Ryan, a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bullhorn, dive into key recruitment trends reshaping the industry. They tackle the paradox of talent shortages amid declining job openings, highlighting the need for expanded sourcing strategies. The discussion reveals how top agencies leverage AI and automation to enhance candidate engagement and boost revenue. Insights from Bullhorn's latest survey shed light on innovative recruitment technologies and specialized tactics vital for navigating today's economic challenges.

Brainfood on Tour - How to Hire in Australia in 2025 & Beyond?   Australia is the 7th largest recruitment market by dollar value - a very decent barometer to how the global staffing market is performing. Let’s dive into the conversation with local recruiters and find out what’s going on in 2025   We’re going to learn:   - What is the state of the economy in Australia 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 has the cost of living crisis / do more with less mantra impacted hiring demand? - Will a change of government help? - How is the use of AI changing how companies recruit? - What are the 10 things a recruiter should know in order to become successful in Indonesia?   All this and more, on Friday 28th March,12pm AEST   Click on here to follow the channel (recommended) and click on the green button to register for this show.

DOGE, US Fed Gov and the Future of HR & TA in the USA   We have to talk about DOGE.   The US Federal Government is the largest single employer in the United States at 2.5 million employees. The intent of the Trump 2.0 administration is to radically reduce this number - by at least 10% in the first tranche - and maybe to end up with a workforce of about 10% when it is all said and done.   This is unprecedented downsizing of government function, the likes of which we have rarely seen outside of active conflict situations. The role of TA / HR and People Ops in general is multi-faceted. On of the one hand, there are thousands of colleagues in these roles who will be impacted (perhaps disproportionately so?) and so might now find themselves abruptly on the job market. On another hand, as People Ops' pros one of the most important functions is to ensure organisational compliance with employment law - how can one do this when the organisation itself seems intent in ignoring it? Finally, People Ops functions have responsibility and duty of care for other employees, who will no doubt by overwhelming HR departments right now with requests for advice and support on what to do.   Brainfood Live cannot solve any of these problems but it can help shine a light into what is going on, so that we can better understand the implications and in so doing, find a way to best support the people most impacted.   It's going to be an open mic style show folks, so if you are in the US and want to talk part in this conversation, dial in. We're with Steve Rothberg, Founder (CollegeRecruiter), Mike Bruni, Partner (Talent Acquisition Strategies), Kate Bischoff, Founder (K8bisch LLC) & friends     We are on Friday 21st March, 11am PST / 2pm EST   Register by clicking the green button and follow the channel here (recommended)   Ep297 is sponsored by our friends at 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

Join industry leaders Mary Kay Baldino, John Vlastelica, and Jim Miller as they explore the transformative impact of AI on talent acquisition. They discuss the current state of AI in recruitment and how it can reshape team structures for better efficiency and candidate experience. Delve into the critical balance of retaining human roles versus automation and the importance of empathy in decision-making. Expect a lively conversation on the evolving skills needed for recruiters and insights on how to navigate the future of hiring.