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 660: Recruiting Rewired by AI
Ep 661: Auditing AI For Fairer Hiring
Episode 662: Talent Acquisition On The Brink
Ep 663: Personalizing The Candidate Experience At Scale
Ep 664: Failure and Authenticity In Employer Branding
Ep 665: Aligning HR With Business Strategy
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Transcript:
Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
Support for this podcast comes from Plum. Plum is a revolutionary workforce solutions provider that knows when people flourish, business thrives. With their powerful platform Plum Thrive, you can unlock science based data to help you measure and match human potential to job needs. Plum Thrive provides personalized career insights, improves quality of hire and and creates high performing teams from a single simple to use platform. Want to learn more? Visit www.plum.IO and discover all the ways that Plum can help you thrive.
Matt Alder [00:00:59]:
Hi there, this is Matt Alder. Welcome to the December Roundup episode of Recruiting Future. If you’re new to Roundup, it’s a short review of the episodes that I’ve published over the last month to make sure that you don’t miss out on the valuable insights my guests are sharing. Before we start, I want to say a big thank you to Plum for their support of Roundup. Their pragmatic and innovative approach to skills based thinking is continuing to make waves in the industry, so go to Plum I.O. to check them out and learn more. 2024 was quite the transformational year for talent acquisition, and December’s episodes focused heavily on the biggest driving force behind this transformation AI. From revolutionizing high volume hiring to enabling mass personalization of the candidate experience, AI’s potential is reshaping how we think about talent acquisition. However, this isn’t without challenges. Bias, compliance and trust remain critical issues and TA teams face urgent questions about how to stay relevant and strategic in an increasingly automated landscape. My December guests offered some amazing insights that will help everyone as the pace of transformation IS accelerates in 2025. So AI had a profound impact on talent acquisition last year, but its influence varied widely. While some areas remained unchanged, others, like high volume hiring, have experienced a revolution. Processes are now faster, candidate experiences are better and hiring managers are more engaged, all thanks to automation. But as these advancements signal sweeping changes ahead, the role for recruiters is rapidly evolving. On episode 660, I spoke with John Vlastelica, CEO of Recruiting Toolbox, about how TA leaders and recruiters can navigate this shift from addressing bias in traditional recruitment processes to enabling AI as an opportunity for reinvention. John offered his usual smart and practical advice that staying strategic in an AI driven world. While AI promises to revolutionize talent acquisition without oversight, it does risk entrenching inequality rather than solving bias. My guest on episode 661 was Jeff Pole, CEO of Warden AI. He shared why auditing AI systems is essential for ensuring fairness, compliance and trust. We explored how talent acquisition leaders can better assess AI solutions and what continuous testing and monitoring look like in practice. Jeff also discussed the emerging regulatory landscape and whether AI can actually be less biased than human recruiters. While AI adoption offers transformational potential, many TA teams are struggling to keep pace, businesses are pushing for productivity gains, and TA teams must adapt or risk being left behind. On episode 662, Adam Godson, CEO of Paradox, shared how conversational AI is transforming high volume hiring at companies like McDonald’s and Chipotle from reducing time to hire in one case from 21 days to just three days to vastly improving the candidate experience. Adam explained why why AI adoption is being driven by tangible return on investment. If you’re looking to future proof your TA function, this is an episode you can’t miss. For years, delivering personalized feedback to candidates at scale seemed impossible. However, on episode 663 with Sam Dhesi, CEO of Pop AI, we highlighted how AI is now making mass personalization a reality. We discussed how conversational assessment tools are transforming candidate interactions, providing tailored feedback and improving engagement, all while reducing workloads for TA teams. Sam also shared examples of employers achieving incredible results and gave us a real glimpse into the future of hiring in a time of reduced budgets and scaled back employer branding functions. How can teams build meaningful strategies with limited resources? On episode 664, I spoke with Claire de Souza, co founder of the EB Space. Claire emphasized the importance of learning from failure, embracing vulnerability, and aligning branding efforts with business strategy. Her practical advice on demonstrating ROI and building strong stakeholder relationships is invaluable for anyone who’s working in employer branding right now. Finally, in December on episode 665, we explored the growing misalignment between HR and business strategy. This is a challenge that impacts everything from hiring to employee satisfaction. My guest was Teresa Wykes, Senior Director of Talent Centered Transformation at Eightfold AI, and she shared insights from some new research and offered solutions for bridging this gap. We discussed the importance of data literacy, the skills HR and TA teams need to thrive, and how AI can help realign HR with broader corporate objectives. As we head into 2025, it’s clear that the future of talent acquisition will be shaped by those who embrace change and rethink traditional ways of working. That’s very easy to say on a podcast, but very challenging to do in practice. So I’ve got some fantastic podcast conversations lined up for January that are really going to help. So don’t miss out. And make sure you subscribe to Recruiting Future wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you very much for listening. I’ll be back next time and I hope you’ll join me.
