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

Talent acquisition is fundamentally about people making decisions, but how often do we stop to consider why people make the decisions they do? Whether it’s a recruiter screening a resume, a hiring manager assessing a candidate or a successful applicant deciding whether to accept the role, behavioral science plays a role in every step of the process.Yet, despite its power, the psychology of hiring goes unnoticed, operating in the background rather than being used strategically. What if we could harness it to improve candidate experience, reduce bias, and make hiring more effective?My guest this week is Stephen Reilly, an experienced Global Talent Acquisition & Talent Transformation Specialist. In our conversation, he explains how behavioral science and psychology influence hiring, why recognizing these patterns is critical, and how TA leaders can apply these insights to transform their processes.In the interview, we discuss:Behavioral science and behavioral psychologyWhy behavioral science is so vital in TA right nowTransparency in the candidate experienceSmall interventions that make a massive differenceHow recruiters are already using behavior science but might not realize itApply science at scale to recruiting.Process optimization and evolutionAdvice to TA leaders on the first steps to takeFollow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

At a time when DE&I initiatives are facing increasing hostility, it's more important than ever to highlight the real value of inclusive hiring. Beyond being the right thing to do, inclusive hiring broadens talent pools, fosters innovation, and ensures that organizations tap into the full spectrum of people's skills and potential.But what does true accessibility in hiring look like, and how can companies create recruitment processes that are genuinely fair for everyone?  My guest this week is Ron Fish, Global Talent Acquisition Leader at Ivanti and a passionate advocate for disability inclusion in the workplace. Ron is at the forefront of championing accessibility not just to comply with regulations but to build environments where everyone can succeed.In the interview, we discuss:How a revelation about the corporate career site accelerated Ron's journey as an advocate for disability inclusion.Optimal work environments work for everyone.How accessibility has massively advanced inclusion and belonging at IvantiWhen bias outweighs common senseFocusing on skills and abilitiesTreating people as individuals rather than labelsAccommodations in the hiring process, how simple changes can make a huge differenceWhy individuals with disabilities might be reluctant to disclose their needs during the recruitment process, and what strategies can address these concernsShifting the perception of disability to make hiring more inclusiveFollow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

Have you ever wondered how an elite baseball player can track a 95-mile-per-hour fastball and actually connect? Or how a Premier League footballer can deliver a perfect pass over half the pitch to a moving teammate? The way elite athletes develop their attributes and build skills has big lessons for how we need to think about talent and hiring in the workplace.We've been discussing skills-based hiring and skills-based organizations for a while now. As the need for skills agility grows, we must deepen our understanding of the attributes, skills, and potential to make better hiring decisions.One area that uses cutting-edge science to do this is elite sport. My guest this week is Dr. Daniel Laby, a Sports Vision Ophthalmologist who works with elite athletes and top baseball teams, including the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox.This is a really fascinating discussion with some important lessons for HR and Talent Acquisition, for example, why we should emphasize future potential over past performance, the importance of recognizing that sometimes there is a specific order in which skills need to be developed, and why average can sometimes be mistaken for best in skills assessment.In the interview, we discuss:How do you improve elite performance?Working with Red Bull and Trent Alexander-ArnoldA common misconception about visionThe importance of specific attributes in specific sportsNature, nurture and brain plasticityThe skills pyramidHow small changes make a big differenceThe role of technologyFollow this podcast on Apple PodcastsFollow this podcast on Spotify.A full transcript will appear here shortly

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:Ep 666: The ROI Of Employer BrandingEp 667: Traditional HR is Dead, Here’s What’s NextEp 668: Strategic Budgeting For TA LeadersEp 669: How L’Oréal Group is Using AI To Evolve Talent AcquisitionEp 670: Jeff Taylor: Rethinking Hiring for the AI AgeEp 671: Balancing AI & The Human TouchEp 672: Are Career Sites Evolving Quickly Enough?Ep 673: The Route To Skills-Based HiringFollow this podcast on Apple PodcastsFollow this podcast on Spotify

The move towards skills-based strategies in organizations is still a big topic. This is unsurprising, as the advantages are significant. Skills-based thinking solves critical business challenges by better aligning talent strategies to business goals and offering the skills agility many employers badly need. Skills-based hiring also widens talent pools and challenges the entrenched mental models that sometimes form barriers to companies hiring the talent they actually need.However, the road to being a skills-based organization is long and complex, and only a small minority of employers are making real progress. So, what needs to change? How can AI be harnessed? How can we anticipate future skills needs? And how should TA teams be reimagined to make skills-based hiring a reality?My guest this week is Jen Cunningham, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Pearson. Pearson is leading the way with skills-based people strategies, and Jen has a wealth of experience and insight to share.In the interview, we discuss:How TA is evolvingElevating the candidate experienceAgility, resilience, and authenticityBetter alignment between people strategy and business strategyHow do you identify and validate skills?Internal and external agilityHow the traditional structure of HR is changing.Data, strategy, and influenceWhat skills should TA teams have in the age of AI?What does the future look like?Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

Bas van de Haterd, a seasoned Dutch consultant specializing in career sites, returns to discuss his extensive research spanning 18 years. He highlights the sluggish pace of career site evolution compared to rapid technological advances and candidate demands. Topics include the future landscape of career sites, the need for job advert redesign, and the impact of corporate podcasts on employer branding. Bas also tackles the decline of chatbots and discusses how conversational AI can reshape talent acquisition, emphasizing the urgency for improvement in the recruitment process.

Frontline hiring is more competitive than ever, with speed and efficiency now critical for success. However, the challenge doesn't stop at making the hiring process faster; employers also need to stand out from their competition by offering a high-quality candidate experience and having a recruiting process that allows them to showcase what makes their organization unique.It's clear that AI-powered recruiting is already driving speed and efficiency in frontline hiring for many large organizations, but what's the right balance between technology and humans to deliver an exceptional candidate experience and highlight an organization's unique culture?My guests this week are Sonja Breuer, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, and Aaron Einhorn, Senior HR Business Partner at Hamra Enterprises. In our conversation, they share how Hamra has successfully leveraged AI-powered recruiting technology to reduce their time-to-hire from 13 days to just 4. They also discuss how this has enabled them to better highlight the values, benefits, and culture that make Hamra Enterprises a uniquely attractive employer.In the interview, we discuss:Hamra's unique culture and employee programsUsing AI to radically reduce time to hire Maintaining a consistent and engaging candidate experienceCombining conversational AI with purposeful human connectionsWhy speed, experimentation, and agility are critical in AI-powered recruiting.What happens if the AI makes a mistake?Building a true partnership with their technology vendor to drive innovation.What does the future look likeFollow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

It feels like Recruiting has come a long way since the days of help-wanted ads in newspapers, but are we genuinely innovating or just consistently repackaging outdated ways of doing things? For well over a century, versions of the resume and job ad have been the foundation of hiring, but as technology and work itself move on at an ever-increasing pace, it's clear these tools weren't designed for the world we are now in. So, can we finally move beyond them to build a solid foundation for an AI-powered approach? My guest on Episode 670 is one of the original pioneers of online recruiting, Jeff Taylor, the founder of Monster.com, or the MonsterBoard as it was known back in 1994. Jeff built Monster during the infancy of the internet when the rest of the industry was still faxing resumes and placing ever more expensive ads in the newspapers. He introduced the world to online job postings and the resume database, which, very much to his surprise and increasing alarm, are still core tenets of recruiting 30 years later.Jeff is now back in the industry and is launching a new business later in the year. In our conversation, we discuss the need for innovation and reinvention in recruiting to harness AI and address complex challenges employers now face. In the interview, we discuss:Jeff and Monster's back story and what recruiting was like in 1994 The early days of the internet and what helped Monster to scale to 100 million registered resumesResumes and job postings have barely changed in over 100 years, and why this is now a big problem.How AI is reshaping recruitment without addressing its foundational inadequacies How employers are losing control of their own job postingsLooking at the whole person and the growing importance of the personal brandWhat the future of hiring looks like when we put people, not processes, at the centreWhat's next for JeffFollow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

With 1.5 million applications each year, L'Oréal Group's talent acquisition team faces challenges on a scale most organizations would never experience. Managing this volume while ensuring a high-quality candidate experience demands innovation, agility, and the right balance between humans and technologyAI plays a key role in L'Oréal Group's TA evolution, helping with screening and driving quality and efficiency via automation and standardization.So, how do you use AI to transform talent acquisition without losing the vital human touch?My guest this week is Michael Kienle, Global VP of Talent Acquisition at L'Oréal Group. In our conversation, Michael shares how his team is leveraging AI to improve the candidate experience and why he believes AI will help the TA teams of the future to radically increase the value they create for the business. In the interview, we discuss:The growing complexity of talent acquisitionL'Oreal Group's recruiting challengesThe critical importance of candidate experienceAI impacts the how but not the why or whatThe balance between humans and machinesStandardizing skillsBrandstorm, L'Oreal's unique business game and its impact on recruitingIncreasing the value creation of TAHow much change will we see in the next 12 months?Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.

HR is at a crossroads. The rapid pace of change, shifting employee expectations, and technological disruption have rendered traditional approaches ineffective. After years of being viewed as the department of policy and paperwork, HR must now become more agile, personalized, and human-centered to meet the challenges of the modern workplace.So, how can HR and talent teams adapt to a world where change is constant, collaboration crosses boundaries, and employees demand relevance and impact from their work experiences? What practical strategies can HR leaders adopt to build practices that are genuinely fit for the future?My guest this week is Lucy Adams, CEO of Disruptive HR. A self-described "recovering HR director," Lucy has firsthand experience of what holds HR back—and how to break free from outdated thinking. She shares her vision for transforming HR by moving away from paternalistic policies and embracing a more modern, adult-to-adult relationship with employees. Lucy also reveals practical ways HR can harness continuous learning and AI-driven insights to foster agility, collaboration, and innovation to ensure that HR is an effective force in shaping organizational success.In the interview, we discuss:Making HR more relevant and impactfulAgility, productivity, collaboration, and innovationPrinciples rather than policiesThe personalization of the employee experienceHuman-centered designHow do organizations need to think differently about talent?Changing the structure of the talent functionTalent Scouts and Career AgentsMarketing, consulting, and technologyWhat new skills are needed?What does the future look like?Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow this podcast on Spotify.