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

Internal talent mobility remains a significant challenge for organizations despite widespread recognition of its importance. While companies understand the value of deploying existing talent to meet changing business needs, they often lack the scientific approach needed to make this work at scale. Many organizations collect a lot of data on people during their hiring process but fail to use it throughout the employee lifecycle, creating artificial barriers between departments and limiting career movement when it's needed most.So, how can organizations apply scientific principles to talent mobility to create more dynamic internal labor markets that benefit everyone?My guest this week is Lucy Beaumont, Solutions Lead, Talent Management at SHL. In our conversation, Lucy shares valuable insights from her work applying scientific assessment methodologies to internal mobility challenges. In the interview, we discuss:How are we defining "skills-based hiring"?The difference between perishable skills, semi-durable skills, and durable skillsThe three main barriers preventing effective internal mobilityMapping skills across the organization in a scaleable wayScientific approaches to balancing build, buy and borrow talent strategies.Building workforce resilience through talent intelligenceWhat does the future look like for talent mobility?Follow this podcast on Apple PodcastsFollow this podcast on Spotify.

Matt Ward, Head of Recruitment Services at WorkL, shares fascinating insights from their extensive research on workplace happiness, surveying 400,000 employees globally. He discusses six key elements that drive workplace satisfaction and reveals how happiness is on the rise worldwide. The conversation delves into generational differences in expectations and the vital role of flexibility in today’s work environment. Ward also highlights how talent acquisition teams can harness happiness data to attract and retain top talent in a competitive landscape.

Understanding today's complex labor market requires accurate data rather than just following headlines or anecdotes. For businesses and talent professionals, having reliable insights into hiring trends, wage movements, and worker expectations is essential for making informed decisions in these uncertain times.My guest this week is Jack Kennedy, Senior Economist at Indeed; drawing from Indeed's real-time analysis of millions of job postings, CVs, and marketplace behaviors, Indeed Hiring Lab's research provides a unique window into what's happening in the job market. We're focusing on the UK market in this conversation, but Jack does provide some broader global insights and highlights the many global commonalities when it comes to worker motivations, aging populations, and the impact of AIIn the interview, we discuss:The state of the UK labour market in early 2025How geopolitical issues are impacting hiring trends globallyThe surprising resilience of wages despite market coolingPrimary motivators for job seekers in today's marketThe truth about remote and hybrid work trends versus media narrativesHow AI is already reshaping employment and creating new opportunitiesA growing focus on neurodiversity in job postingsPreparing for demographic challenges and an aging workforceThe Labour market outlook for the next 12-18 monthsFollow this podcast on SpotifyFollow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

The pace of AI adoption is accelerating rapidly, yet most organizations aren't integrating it effectively into talent acquisition—and they certainly aren't thinking big enough about its implications. Many companies are simply automating existing processes rather than reimagining what recruitment could become in an AI-driven world. So, how can talent acquisition leaders think exponentially bigger about AI's potential, moving beyond incremental improvements to envision and create an entirely new paradigm for talent strategy?My guest this week is Richard Bradley, who has decades of experience in the RPO space and the wider staffing and TA ecosystem. Richard challenges us to think radically bigger about AI's impact, arguing that most organizations are severely underestimating the scale of transformation ahead. He explores how forward-thinking TA leaders must move beyond automating processes to reimagining the entire concept of recruitment.In the interview, we discuss:How does AI in 2025 compare to the Internet revolution of the late '90sAsk & Generate vs Search & ConsumeThe risks of automating bad processes with AI rather than reimagining themHow TA technology needs to evolve to be fit for purposeDurable soft skillsThe shift from traditional recruiters to talent strategistsWhy TA will evolve rather than disappearWhat the TA team of the future will look like Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

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:ForesightEp 690: How Can TA Make A Measurable Impact?InfluenceEp 689: How TA Can Adopt A Change MindsetEp 687: Agile EVPs For Faster Employer Brand ImpactEp 684: Are We Now Living In A Video First World?Talent & SkillsEp 685: Rethinking Skills In An AI-Powered WorkplaceEp 686: Personalizing The Employee ExperienceTechnologyEp 688: Is AI’s Impact On TA Underhyped?Follow this podcast on Apple PodcastsFollow this podcast on Spotify

There have never been as many forces driving change in Talent Acquisition as there are in 2025. Skills-based thinking, economic pressures, the rise of AI, and the resulting change in both C-Suite expectations and Job Seeker behavior, to name a few.Unsurprisingly, then, TA Teams are scrambling to demonstrate the impact they have on and the value they drive for their business. However, this is much easier said than done with the relentless increase in the pace of change.So, how can TA Leaders harness 2025's winds of change to demonstrate their teams' impact and the value they drive? Where better to get expert insights, shrewd commentary, and actionable advice than Transform? For those of you who are unaware of Transform, it is one of the best industry conferences out there, and I recently got back from Transform 2025.While there, I asked a range of people what they thought TA should be doing to make a measurable impact in 2025. Here are a selection of the answers. Get ready to hear from Daniel Chait - CEO at Greenhouse; Allyn Bailey - Senior Director of Brand Experiences and Communications at SmartRecruiters; Mike Stafiej - CEO at Erin; Jocelyn King - CEO of Virgill HR; John Baldino - President at Humareso and v- CEO at Elayne.Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

The talent acquisition landscape is fundamentally transforming. AI and automation are eliminating repetitive tasks and creating space for recruiters to become true strategic partners. This shift demands that TA professionals evolve beyond transaction-focused activities to provide consultative guidance backed by data and their unique expertise. So, how can TA leaders successfully guide their teams through this transformation from transactional order takers to valued talent advisors?My guest this week is Mike Aronson, Global Head of Talent Acquisition Operations at Johnson Controls. With over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition evolution, Mike shares practical insights on leading transformational change and proactively planning for the future.In the interview, we discuss:The shifting power dynamic in TAThe current impact of AIElevating the skills of TA Teams to be more strategicChange mindset instead of change managementHow do Talent Advisors add value to the business?The critical importance of skills-based hiringHow can TA Leaders drive transformation?Building a hyper-personalized recruiting experience What does the future look like?Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

The conversation around AI in talent acquisition often focuses on incremental improvements and point solutions – better job descriptions, faster candidate matching, or automated interview scheduling. But this limited view dramatically underestimates the fundamental transformation that's already underway. While many are still debating whether AI is overhyped, there is growing evidence that it is actually significantly underhyped, with implications far beyond what most TA leaders are preparing for.So, how can TA move beyond tactical AI implementations to develop the strategic capabilities that will soon be essential?My guest this week is Jonathan Kestenbaum, Managing Director of Tech Strategy at AMS and a long-time trusted authority in work tech innovation. Jonathan cuts through the noise to explain why current industry discussions around AI are missing the bigger picture – a future where talent acquisition transforms into strategic orchestration and the way organizations attract and deploy talent is fundamentally reshaped .In the interview, we discuss: The unprecedented speed of change compared to previous tech cycles The current AI use cases that hint at a much more significant transformation aheadWhy recruitment processes need a complete redesign, not just automation The split between humans and machines and the impact on jobsSkills based firingMoving from talent acquisition to talent orchestration What do TA Leaders need to do right nowWhat does the TA Tech stack of the future look likeFollow this podcast in Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

Sam Monteath, founder of Reason Why, shares insights on developing agile employer value propositions (EVPs) for swift brand activation. He emphasizes the need to streamline EVP processes, balancing speed with rigor to avoid unnecessary complexity. Discussing the concept of a minimum viable EVP, he advocates for leveraging existing knowledge to differentiate organizations effectively. Sam also highlights how AI can enhance content production and qualitative analysis, making EVP development dynamic and aligned with evolving business needs.

Technology-driven mass personalization has completely transformed how we engage with brands as consumers. However, while companies have raced to deliver tailored products and services to their customers, the employee experience has lagged behind, with most organizations still operating standardized processes that treat all employees the same. At the same time, technological, social, and generational shifts have dramatically raised expectations for personalized workplace experiences, leaving organizations vulnerable to disengagement and talent loss if they continue with outdated, uniform approaches.So, how can employers deliver the hyper-personalized employee experiences that today's workforce increasingly demands? My Guest this week, Ayaskant Sarangi, CHRO at Mphasis Limited, an IT services company headquartered in Bangalore with operations across 50 countries and over 30,000 employees. Ayaskant shares valuable insights on how personalization can work at scale across the employee lifecycle and the vital importance of skills-based thinking in achieving thisIn the interview, we discuss: • [02:03] Why personalization has become the fundamental employee expectation in today's workplace • [04:43] How HR can shape organizational culture to support individualized employee journeys• [09:54] Leveraging technology to create hyper-personalized experiences throughout the employee lifecycle • [13:17] Creating a horizontal tech layer that delivers consistent personalization across traditional HR silos • [15:19] Moving from standardized role-based frameworks to personalized skills-based approaches• [20:50] What the future is going to look likeFollow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.