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

Having covered both topics extensively on the podcast this year, I'm very much of the opinion that the move towards skills-based thinking will be more disruptive to recruiting norms than the rapid adoption of generative AI.The adoption of skills-based hiring and the move towards skills-based organizations is still happening slowly. However, as more organizations question blanket requirements for college degrees, new upskilling and reskilling initiatives are emerging that could help move the needle quicker.My guest this week is Michelle Westfort, Chief University Officer at InStride. InStride works with businesses to use skill-based hiring to expand talent pools by partnering with employers to construct career education paths to provide employees with the skills they need to do their jobs.In the interview, we discuss:Why some employers are moving away from degreesDo employers understand skills-based hiring?Diversifying talent pools with more equitable hiring processesUnderstanding the skills needed for specific rolesJust in time, skills developmentEvolving the relationship between Universities and employersDeconstructing the degreeStrategies for long-term professional developmentMapping education to skills requirementsWhat does the future look like?Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

The business world is changing quickly, and the skill sets that employees need are constantly shifting, developing and evolving. So, how can companies develop strategic workforce plans and build long-term talent pipelines in such an unpredictable and fast-changing environment?My guests this week are Jennifer Longworth, Director of People and Culture at Entuitive, and Ugo Orsi, Chief Customer Officer at Digitate. Jennifer and Ugo have a unique combination of perspectives on how AI is shaping the workforce of the future and some solid practical advice to shareIn the interview, we discuss:Current talent challengesHiring for the skills of the futureThe importance of a growth mindsetBuilding trust and motivationThe current use and future potential of AIThe emotional impact of the AIPowerful automationsEmbracing change management and curiosityAdoption issues within middle managementAgeing populations and reducing labour marketsThinking instead of executingStrategic workforce planningIncreasing the ability to collaborateWhat might work look like in 10 years?Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Recruiting and retaining the right talent continues to be highly challenging for many organisations. Understanding the key drivers here is critical for any company that wants to achieve a competitive talent advantage.It's starting to become clear that the impact of prioritising wellbeing on an organisation's culture is significant enough to have a powerful influence on hiring and retention. So, what can employees do to move the needle here quickly?My guest this week is Beth Ridley, founder and CEO of The Ridley Consulting Group. Beth works with CEOs to achieve thriving workplace cultures and embed diversity, equity and inclusion values into their business. She has some brilliant insights to share on the relationship between wellness, culture, recruiting and wellbeing and also offers some highly actionable advice.In the interview, we discuss:Culture and leadershipDiversity as an assetApplying an inclusive lens to leadershipThe role of culture and wellness in attraction and retentionHow can recruiting be more inclusive?Values, expectations and outcomesElements of WellnessThe value of wellness for employersHow small things can make a big differenceGenerational expectationsListen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

This special episode was recorded at the first ever Recruiting Future Podcast live event at the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. I was blown away by how many people came along and shared their views on the future talent acquisition.On such a magical night (we even had a magician doing card tricks), it seemed fitting to ask people what we need to do to make talent acquisition more magical. Here is a selection of the brilliant insights shared with me and my guest co-host Jenny Cotie Kangas from White Rock Consulting.Topics covered include:Automation and human interactionCandidate and employee experienceSkills based hiringSpeed and engagementHidden pools of talentInfluence and persuasionCo-operation and collaborationListen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

When discussing talent market challenges and recruiting technology trends, we often refer to talent acquisition as a homogeneous activity with common challenges and processes. However, many organisations have highly complex hiring operations that deal with challenges that can be as unique as the employers themselves.My guest this week is Lisa Scales, Talent Acquisition Director at Royal Mail. As well as being one of the UK's largest employers, Royal Mail also hire 18,000 seasonal workers every Christmas. We discuss everything from supply chain management to sophisticated recruitment marketing and social mobility. Lisa gives us a fascinating insight into a highly complex hiring strategy. In the interview, we discuss:The recruiting challenges at Royal MailScaling upOutsourcing and driving results via third partiesAppealing to a younger generation of workersPurpose-driven workUsing recruitment marketing to shift perceptionsSocial mobility and reflecting your customer communitiesRecruiting 18,000 seasonal workersAgile management of a contingent workforceThe role of technologyRobotic Process AutomationWhat does the future look like for talent acquisitionListen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts

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.Episode mentioned in this Round Up:Ep 547: Generative AI – A Deep DiveEp 548: Rethinking Background ChecksEp 549: Rethinking Work, Jobs and RecruitingEp 550: Promotion, Motivation, Commitment and RetentionEp 551: Interviewerless InterviewingEp 552: Hiring Innovation in LATAM and AsiaEp 553: The Strategic Value of Talent AcquisitionEp 554: Perfect Business StorytellingEp 555: Using Skills To Predict Job PerformanceEp 556: How AI Is Transforming RecruitingListen to this podcast in Apple Podcasts

We've talked about generative AI a lot this year and its incredible potential to change and disrupt talent acquisition. A lot of our industry conversation has been about creating with Large Language Models to generate recruitment marketing content and automate interactions with candidates. However, the impact of AI goes much deeper than this, and its effect on the speed of vendor innovation is highly significant. AI is already changing the way candidates are found, and matches are made and has the potential to make boolean searching and keyword matching obsolete in a very short space of time.So what is the art of the possible here, and how can TA Leaders ask the right questions of vendors to ensure they are dealing with genuine products that are ethical and legally compliant?My guest this week is Mark Chaffey, CEO of Hackajob. Hackajob has integrated generative AI into its technology to vastly improve matching between candidates and roles. At the same time, they have a strong focus on using AI to improve diversity in tech hiring and are already getting some significant results.In the interview, we discuss:Every company is a tech company.Market differences between the USA and EuropeThe continuing skill shortage in techThe impact of generative AI on vendorsBuilding technology that actually solves problemsMoving beyond boolean and keywords with richer LLM-driven datasetsThe questions TA leaders need to ask vendorsImproving diversity in tech hiringOpt-in self, disclosed diversity data.Will AI change the way we think about skills and hiringWhat does the future look like?Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

When we're talking about the future of talent acquisition, Generative AI has been taking all of the limelight this year. However, arguably, although it grabs fewer headlines, the steady evolution of skills-based hiring is potentially even more disruptive to traditional recruiting norms.There is an enormous amount of data, science and research going into understanding the relationship between skills and job performance, and the results are smashing some of our longest-held assumptions about hiring.My guest this week is Andy Nelesen, Global Head of Talent Acquisition Solutions at SHL. SHL has done an enormous amount of work to establish the link between skills and performance, and their research has revealed 12 skills that universally predict success. There is also a significant discrepancy between the skills employers ask for in job ads and the skills the science shows they actually need, so this is a must-list interview for everyone who wants to hire more effectively.In the interview, we discuss:Why understanding skills is so importantThe adoption rate of skills-based hiringWhat does potential mean?Overlaying soft skills against performanceThe 12 skills that universally predict successWhy a growth mindset is more important than resilience and adaptabilityMoving away from academic credentials and previous experienceAre skills the key to diverse hiring?Talent mobilityWhat does the future of work look like?Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Are you going to be at the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, October 10th? Recruiting Future has teamed up with the lovely people at Hackajob to host an early evening soiree that we're calling Hack A Pod. We will be crowdsourcing a live episode of The Recruiting Future Podcast on the roof terrace of BrewDog Vegas's very own Scottish brewpub, and one of the best viewing points there is to watch the sun set over the Vegas strip.So please come along to join in or just watch and mingle with some great people. We've got free drinks, food, and even a magician to keep you entertained. Not only that, BrewDog is only a short walk or an even shorter taxi ride from The Mandalay Bay, where the conference is being held.We've only got limited capacity, so to find out more and register for your free ticket, go to mattalder.me/vegas

Regular listeners will know just how essential I believe it is for talent acquisition to learn the art and science of storytelling. Being able to craft stories that resonate isn't just part of effective recruitment marketing; it is vital to building internal stakeholder engagement and developing more influence to move TA up the corporate strategic value chain.So why is effective storytelling so powerful, and how can we all build our skills in this area?My guest this week is Karen Eber, CEO of the Eber Leadership Group and author of a new book called The Perfect Story: How to Tell Stories That Inform, Influence and Inspire. The book deals with the science and structure of good storytelling in business and is full of advice that can help everyone tell more powerful and engaging stories.In the interview, we discuss:What happens to your brain when you listen to stories?Being memorable and engagingWhy business storytelling is so importantUnderstanding your audienceConflict as fuel to drive the narrativeTelling stories with dataContext, Conflict, Outcome and TakeawayHow do you know if your story is resonating?AI and storytellingListen to this podcast in Apple Podcasts.