Talent acquisition is evolving faster than ever. With AI reshaping the hiring landscape, skill gaps widening across industries, and businesses facing constant disruption, the role of TA leaders is shifting significantly. It’s no longer just about hiring—it’s about breaking down silos, driving workforce transformation, and ensuring companies have the right talent to stay competitive.
So, what does this mean for TA leaders? How can they move beyond being reactive and take on a more strategic role in shaping the future of work? And with the rise of fractional and interim TA leadership, is this the next big shift in how companies access talent expertise?
My guest this week is Virginia Tirado, an experienced TA and talent leader who has seen firsthand how the function is evolving. In this episode, she shares her insights on the growing need for skills-based hiring, how TA leaders can build stronger partnerships across the business, and why embracing change is key to staying relevant in an uncertain future.
In the interview, we discuss:
• From reactive to strategic
• Data-driven decision making
• How does TA now fit into the talent function?
• Breaking down silos
• Influencing business objectives
• The importance of partnering
• What skillset and outlook do leaders need right now?
• Fractional, interim, and consulting
• Skills-based hiring
• What does the future look like for TA
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Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
Talent acquisition is changing, which means the role of a TA leader is also changing. So what do they need to focus on? And what skills do they need to have an impact in these disruptive times? Keep listening to find out more. Support for this podcast is provided by isims. Isims is the hiring platform that you’ll never outgrow. I’ve got to tell you, some of their customers have some really cool stories about how their hiring and businesses have changed with iCIMS. Like Eagle View, a tech company that saved $2 million on their recruitment marketing and now hires twice as fast. There’s Benefit Cosmetics, a popular brand that saves 20 minutes per candidate during their screening process. And of course, Kingfisher, the home improvement company that will be very familiar to European listeners. Kingfisher increased their job offer acceptance rate threefold. These are just a few examples. For the last 25 years, iCIMS has helped thousands of the world’s largest and fastest growing brands hire the talent they need, often in challenging and competitive markets. Names like Microsoft, PetSmart, Children’s National Hospital, Greyhound Lines, and the Cheesecake Factory. iCIMS comprehensive hiring platform helps enterprise organizations hire by employing AI where and how you need it. To learn more, visit isims.com that’s icims.com.
Matt Alder [00:01:47]:
Hi there. Welcome to episode 679 of Recruiting Future with me, Matt Alder. Talent acquisition is evolving faster than ever with AI reshaping the hiring landscape, skills gaps widening across industries and businesses facing constant disruption. The role of a TA leader is shifting in a big way. It’s no longer just about hiring. It’s about breaking down silos, driving workforce transformation, and ensuring companies have the right talent to stay competitive. So what does that mean for TA leaders? How can they move beyond being reactive and take on a more strategic role in shaping the future of work? And with the rise of fractional and interim TA leadership, is this the next big shift in how companies access talent expertise? My guest this week is Virginia Tirado, an experienced TA and talent leader who has seen firsthand how the function is evolving. In this episode, she shares her insights on the growing need for skills based hiring, how TA leaders can build strong partnerships across the business, and why embracing change is the key to staying relevant in an uncertain future. Hi Virginia and welcome to the podcast.
Virginia Tirado [00:03:06]:
Hi Matt, Lovely to be here.
Matt Alder [00:03:09]:
A pleasure to have you on the show. Please, could you introduce yourself and Tell us what you do.
Virginia Tirado [00:03:15]:
Yes, so I’ve been around for a while. I am actually TA leader, evolved into a talent leader who started early on in legal and the business world. I’ve been doing recruitment for the last 10 years of my life, my professional life and love engaging in forward thinking ways of how we are preparing our talent to be future ready.
Matt Alder [00:03:45]:
Absolutely. And it’s obviously a time of quite dramatic change for talent acquisition at the moment. How are you seeing it changing? How has it changed over the last few years since you’ve been in the industry?
Virginia Tirado [00:03:57]:
Indeed, it is a very interesting time for all of us who are involved in HR or in the talent space. But I think we’ve been preparing for this change over the last few years. We keep hearing a lot about these buzzwords of becoming sort of more of that strategic partner, finding a place at the table, leaning in, being data driven. And it’s never been more relevant or more important, I believe, than what we’re seeing today. Because there is a lot of confusion, a lot of anxiety around what’s going to happen to recruitment or to talent with AI where people are of extremes. You know, some people may think, oh well, talent as we know it, you know, talent acquisition as we know it will probably disappear in a few years because we no longer need recruiters, which I think that’s kind of an extreme position. Right. And then the other position where, you know, some people aren’t even engaging, thinking it might be just a trend and, and, or a fad and are not even understanding what this means. So I think, you know, having a more balanced position, the reality is that it will change and we are seeing it, you know, in every aspect of perhaps becoming more efficient in the same way that we use it for our own personal use, you know, thinking about how we can bring it into the workplace. Right. So the function will continue to be more strategic than ever. I do think that, you know, we will continue to shift, if you haven’t yet, from being so reactive to that strategic business partner to think about how you engage in the conversations of what your businesses need to transform and stay relevant in the future. As much as things like skill based hiring, which is a topic that we’ve heard over and over, are again in the rise because we do now see some big gaps in different tech spaces, whether it’s biotech, med tech, green tech or AI machine learning. That data driven decision making for which we’ve been preparing is now helping us being able to answer and address questions around whether it’s workforce analytics or planning or what type of automation we need. Nothing that we haven’t seen before. But I think what is really, to me eye opening is the pace at which we’re seeing the need for those changes today.
Matt Alder [00:06:32]:
Yeah, absolutely. I think that really is the thing about it. And nothing is standing still anymore. Just in terms of you’re talking there about TA being more strategic and better understanding business objectives and all of those kind of things, how does that role for TA shape out? I suppose, particularly within HR or within a talent function, are things getting more joined up? Do you think that the nature of these roles is going to change dramatically?
Virginia Tirado [00:07:02]:
I think I have been seeing it at least for the last four or five years. At the beginning of the pandemic, I took on the leadership of Salando as an online fashion retailer. And it was a time of a lot of change. I started as the director of talent acquisition, but in one way or another I saw the need for our teams to address bigger issues we had, whether it was around DEI in the tech space and thinking about upskilling talent and supporting our internal talent to become more engaged or actually taking on new roles in technology. And since then I’ve been thinking about how can we work in a more holistic way, whether it is partnering with or taking on the talent function to include learning and development, or whether it is to include succession planning, or working in areas around culture or dei. So that in fact is not something that will disappear, but becomes more and more a reality. I have many of my colleagues and esteemed peers who have been doing that transition, who have been taking on bigger roles, and in part because companies also feel like it is time to join the dots, but also when there are times of uncertainty, whether you can hire or not then becomes an issue about what do we do if we need the talent that we can go to the workforce or to the workplace, to the market to get new people is can we work with our talent to retain them, help them develop and promote them in ways that their career paths are much more adaptable for the needs that the companies are facing?
Matt Alder [00:08:56]:
No, absolutely. And I guess if you’re moving towards being kind of more skills based in your strategy, it’s impossible to do that in silos, isn’t it? Everything has to work together.
Virginia Tirado [00:09:07]:
Absolutely. And that’s, I think, one of the bits that I have managed to really focus on in my most recent years in my career. And I, whenever I can, have shared this advice with people I mentor or with other colleagues that want to figure out how you become more relevant in the Conversations, finding that place where your voice is listened and you can influence the business agenda. And a lot of it is through partnering, breaking down those silos. Where before I gave you the example at Salando, when I was working on upskilling talent to become software engineers from all sorts of drives and walks of life in the business and putting together a program, I would have never been able to do that on my own without support from our HR business partners, from our tech leadership, from our finance folks, and from our learning and development teams. Right? So all of us coming together to build an initiative that will eventually benefit everyone. If we don’t break those silos, we can’t really work in an effective way. And then you can’t join the forces you need to be successful. So more and more is what’s needed. And sometimes we have to take the lead. Right. If you just sit and wait for people to ask for your help, it may not happen. Right. So it’s about being proactive and understanding where those silos are. How can you break them? How do you build those strategic partnerships with your colleagues? And at the end, I think when you engage in these conversations, everyone is really interested in the same objectives, right? Everyone is driving and striving for success, and there’s easier ways of doing it if we work together.
Matt Alder [00:10:57]:
Where are all these changes and changes of focus and sort of continuing disruption? Where does that leave TA leaders now? Do they need a different skill set, a different outlook? What would your advice be?
Virginia Tirado [00:11:12]:
Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, as I said initially, I think that we have been slowly evolving and what we see today as we take on more and more responsibility has been part of that evolution. I think if you are a TA leader and all you are concerned with today is to continue to hire in the ways you did before, where you’re told this is the number of recs you need to fill and you figure out a way of doing that, that’s still okay. But you will see that there’s more and more, the possibility of doing more exciting things if you open your mind and your professional style to take on other skills. We hear the word being data driven, right? Like we should be data driven to make decisions and so on. But if you rarely talk to your finance director about what are some of the financial challenges or potential outlooks for the company and don’t understand sort of how does a workforce plan come together? What are the costs of doing business the way you are today? Are there going to be the need for you to maybe refine the size of your team and have these conversations in a way where you have credibility. You won’t be able to influence your leadership if you’re not increasing your business acumen, for example. So I think as a TA leader, it’s never been more important for us to continue to learn and stay engaged and be present. We are very lucky to be part of a number of communities of practice where we get the opportunity to engage with peers, where we get the opportunity to engage with other leaders that may have already faced certain challenges. And if you, you know, if you reach out, there’s always people that are willing to help. So I think that, you know, in short, it is our responsibility and it’s never been easier really to get the knowledge that we need to expand. Right. If you decide to continue to work in silos because you’re an introvert or you don’t feel like you can get the support or rally the support that you need, I think you’re going to find it very difficult to stay relevant and be successful in your roles.
Matt Alder [00:13:38]:
Obviously, with so much change and disruption, work is changing as well. And more and more people are looking to work on a fractional or an interim or a consulting basis. How do you see that kind of market developing? And what is the advantage for companies of working that way? And how can engaging with sort of senior TA talent really help them move forward?
Virginia Tirado [00:14:05]:
Yeah, that’s such an interesting question and I think it’s a topic I’m really fascinated by because we have been seeing it, we’ve been seeing it in many other spaces from the launch of the gig economy over the last 10 years with the rise of Uber and others, right? You see this. The creatives are taking advantage of it, the CTOs are taking advantage of it. The finance world is taking advantage of these fractional models, these interim models. And if you think about the economy that we’ve had to live through the mic, the market conditions have not been great for HR and many of us in the recruitment profession, it’s been one of, it’s gone from being a very hot market where you would lose people that may have three or four offers at a given time in this phase three or four years ago to where we are today. And, and I think the expertise, you know, the rise of fractional leadership as we’ve seen in every other industry is starting to become a reality for TA leaders. Many companies are embracing that on demand TA leadership instead, where you as a smaller company may not be able to have access to a certain level of expertise on a full time basis. People are also looking for more flexibility and even the possibility of working remote and just having a bit more freedom has allowed then for both sides, the businesses and the professionals to engage in these models that end up being win win for each one. Right? So you’ve got that scalability and flexibility that you normally wouldn’t have. As you are growing, you want to have access to a more sophisticated workforce plan or access to a sprint of recruiting because you need now to hire. You know, you’re at a stage in your company where you may need to hire 10 developers and no longer, you know, fill in your jobs by your friends, right, the folks that you went to school with and you might need some help, but you’re not quite ready to bring somebody on board full time. So I think that we will see more and more of this modality of employment that will allow people to bridge gaps, you know, to help them in more of a transformative and evolutionary model versus going in directly and setting up a recruitment department. Right. Or just working only with agencies. We’re seeing more and more of this in this current market. But I also feel like it is what we as professionals want to do more of instead of just working for one company, thinking about getting that flexibility of not putting all your eggs in one basket, right. And getting that flexibility of deciding which areas you want to invest more in or do more about. And funny enough, I have seen several of my well respected colleagues engaging in consultancy businesses at the moment because they, for whatever reason found themselves in the market and decided that this is a route they wanted to explore and they’ve been doing really, really well.
Matt Alder [00:17:44]:
No, absolutely. And I think in a time of so much change, people need a lot of help and guidance to know the way forward and I suppose bring that all together for us. You know, the changes that are going on, the different approaches to work. What is the future going to look like for ta? You know, what’s the kind of ultimate impact of AI? What do you think the TA team of the future is going to look like if it’s even if it’s even called ta.
Virginia Tirado [00:18:08]:
Yeah, I like to think of myself now more of an expert of sorts in providing talent solutions versus just ta. Because I think that in reality we’re not just acquiring talent, we’re helping our internal talents become more future ready. Whether it is through partnering and developing learning and development programs or taking on new roles because you’re upskilling your workforce. But in fact, I feel like the next three to five years are going to be even more transformative and the stuff that we are hearing, that we only dream of are starting to see as a reality. I do see that AI will continue to be that enabler. I don’t really necessarily feel that we are about to lose everyone in the recruitment. We will no longer have recruiters or the need for recruiters in the next three years. I actually do feel like the soft skills of a recruiter, the things that a recruiter can do around that candidate, experience about advising our leaders into which direction we should go, what markets we want to explore, that more strategic thinking will be where we would spend more time and we would use AI much more as an enabler. Automate whatever tasks we need to automate. Whether that’s not taking and you’ll see more tech coming out in that space or whether it’s a metaview helping you figure out not just your copilot, but specifically note taking for recruiters for example or same but it could be there’s so many other products that are coming up in the market and you’ll see that coming in and those of us that start embracing that technology will become ahead of the pack and hopefully also our businesses will benefit from that adoption of the technology. I do think that skills based hiring and workforce intelligence are two areas that we have heard of for years, but they are now going to become so much more important. Because the reality is that if we’ve had a shortage of skills and we’ve had gaps in our skills and professions, we are seeing it today more and more that with AI there’s a huge demand for talent that is just not there. Whether it’s in machine learning or we were talking about biotech or green tech. There are a number of roles that didn’t exist 10 years ago, but there’s certainly a number of roles that we don’t even know will exist over the next three years that sort of the result of this technology evolution we’re in. So I think that ultimately we will have the opportunity to continue to do great things in the talent space. But a lot of that is going to depend on how we embrace these changes and how do we help our workforce transform so that they can be future ready 100%.
Matt Alder [00:21:25]:
Virginia, thank you very much for talking to me. My thanks to Virginia. You can follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts on Spotify or via your podcasting app of choice. You can search all the past episodes at recruitingfuture.com on that site. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter Recruiting Future Feast and get the inside track on everything that’s coming up on the show. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next time, and I hope you’ll join me.
