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Recruiting Future with Matt Alder – What’s Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring? — Business
Recruiting Future with Matt Alder – What’s Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring?

Talent acquisition is undergoing unprecedented disruption as AI, economic uncertainty, and the ever-shortening lifespan of skills radically reshape recruiting. On Recruiting Future, Matt Alder explores this evolving landscape, using insightful interviews with transformational TA practitioners and forward-thinking experts to spark your imagination and provide the insights you need to shape the future of talent acquisition in your organization.
Each episode explores topics such as AI, recruiting automation, recruitment marketing, employer branding, skills-based hiring, assessment, candidate experience, DEI, internal mobility, and the transformation of TA teams. Recruiting Future is an essential resource for everyone involved in hiring.
Matt Alder is a globally respected talent acquisition futurist, author, and speaker with over 25 years of experience exploring what’s next in recruiting. Renowned for his expertise in strategic foresight and technology trends, Matt provides a unique perspective that empowers leaders to navigate disruption. His deep industry knowledge and ability to spark meaningful conversations make Recruiting Future a must-listen for talent acquisition and HR professionals everywhere.

Latest Episodes:

Ep 725: Making Neurodiversity Work Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

Up to 20% of the global workforce is likely to be neurodivergent and mostly undiagnosed. Understanding how to unlock the full potential of people with non-typical brains should be important to all employers. The difference between the right and wrong job fit for someone with ADHD or other neurodivergent conditions can be the difference between struggling daily and becoming a top performer.

So what if the key to creating exceptional teams lies not in trying to fit everyone into the same mold, but in asking the right questions to understand what each person needs to thrive?

My guest this week is Shell Mendelson, an ADHD career coach with 35 years of experience helping neurodivergent individuals find their ideal work fit. In our conversation, Shell shares her proven process for identifying the "must-haves" that enable neurodivergent employees to perform at their highest level and explains why understanding individual needs benefits both employees and employers.

In the interview, we discuss:

The challenges for ND people at work

Why everyone's needs are different

The benefits of recognising the spectrum of different brains in your organization

The contradictions of neurodiversity

The importance of job fit and asking the right questions

How small accommodations can make a massive impact

Making work better for everyone

Recruiting Future helps Talent Acquisition teams drive measurable impact by developing strategic capability in Foresight, Influence, Talent, and Technology.

If you're interested in finding out how your TA function measures up in these four critical areas, I've created the free FITT for the Future Assessment. It'll give you personalised insights to help you build strategic clarity and drive greater impact immediately.

Just head to mattalder.me/podcast to complete the assessment—it only takes a few minutes.

Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

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Ep 724: Search, Social, And Strategic Recruitment Marketing Aug 08, 2025

Show notes

Recruiting Future helps Talent Acquisition teams drive measurable impact by developing strategic capability in Foresight, Influence, Talent, and Technology.

If you're interested in finding out how your TA function measures up in these four critical areas, I've created the free FITT for the Future Assessment. It'll give you personalised insights to help you build strategic clarity and drive greater impact immediately.

Just head to mattalder.me/podcast to complete the assessment—it only takes a few minutes.

This episode is about Talent and Technology.

The recruitment marketing landscape has been about more than just job advertising for a long time. However, many employers are still missing out on the unique benefits search and social bring to the marketing mix by approaching these channels in the same way they approach job boards.

As AI reshapes these platforms and candidate behavior evolves rapidly, there's a widening gap between companies seeing dramatic results and those struggling with failed campaigns and wasted investment. The difference isn't budget—it's about building long-term strategies based on data and a strong understanding of each channel's unique strengths and differences.

So what can employers do to ensure they are getting full value from their recruitment marketing budgets?

My guests this week are Kelsey Krater, Chief Platform Officer at Appcast, and Appcast's Director of Digital Media, Alexandra Horwitt Anema. In our conversation, we talk about the unique strengths of search and social, how they are evolving and the critical importance of data in recruitment marketing.

In the interview, we discuss:

Driving quality hires from recruitment marketing

Why search and social aren't job boards

Search and intent

Filling funnel gaps and building diversity

A layered media approach

Telling stories with social

The danger of prioritising quick wins over long-term strategy

Recent developments in search and social

The critical importance of data

Nurturing and remarketing

Pipeline building over transactional thinking

What does the future look like?

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Ep 723: The Impact Of Career Gap Bias Aug 06, 2025

Show notes

For too long, gaps in resumes have been a red flag for recruiters. But what if this outdated bias is costing you your best hires? In today's world, where everyone's constantly reskilling and skills become obsolete within months, penalizing career breaks makes absolutely no sense. This red flag mentality drives ageism and automatically screens out experienced professionals. Organizations clinging to "recent experience" requirements are handing their competitors access to mature talent bringing fresh perspectives, proven loyalty, and decades of expertise.

So how can forward-thinking employers flip this nonsensical bias into strategic advantage by recognizing that career breaks often create stronger professionals, not weaker ones?

My guest this week is Hazel Little, CEO at Career Returners. Hazel exposes the real cost of resume gap discrimination and shares proven strategies for building returner programs that deliver business results. In our conversation, she reveals why the red flag mentality around career breaks belongs in recruiting's past.

In the interview, we discuss:

What is a career returner?

What are the common issues returners face

The human impact of bias

What drives career gap bias?

Incorrect perceptions, false assumptions, and outdated approaches to hiring

The significant advantages of tapping into the returner talent pool

The significance of the decreasing shelf life of skills

Advice to employers

What might the future look like?

Recruiting Future helps Talent Acquisition teams drive measurable impact by developing strategic capability in Foresight, Influence, Talent, and Technology.

If you're interested in finding out how your TA function measures up in these four critical areas, I've created the free FITT for the Future Assessment. It'll give you personalised insights to help you build strategic clarity and drive greater impact immediately.

Just head to mattalder.me/podcast to complete the assessment—it only takes a few minutes.

Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Follow this podcast on Spotify.

Ep 722: Soft Skills, Hard Data – Making Predictive Hiring Work Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

How do we move from reactive recruiting to predictive talent acquisition? In an era where performance metrics drive every business decision, recruitment often remains stubbornly intuition-based, especially when evaluating soft skills like empathy, communication, and critical thinking.

What if AI could help us predict performance before a candidate even starts? And what happens when we connect hiring decisions to actual performance outcomes, creating a feedback loop that makes recruiters smarter over time? Can technology help us understand which risks are worth taking, and which gut feelings we should trust?

My guests this week are Veronique Lacasse, Senior Manager at Bell Canada, and Stephane Rivard, Co-founder and CEO of HiringBranch. In our conversation, Veronique and Stephane walk us through Bell's integrated approach to talent acquisition, which utilizes AI assessment data on soft skills to create a predictive, performance-driven hiring system that is still very much driven by human recruiters.

In the interview, we discuss:

Soft skills and business performance

Measuring soft skills with AI driven assessments

Challenges in high-volume hiring

Building a feedback loop in recruiting, onboarding, and training

Showing recruiters the performance outcomes of their decisions

The candidate experience

Why human recruiters aren't being replaced

What does the future look like?

Recruiting Future helps Talent Acquisition teams drive measurable impact by developing their strategic capability in Foresight, Influence, Talent, and Technology.

If you're interested in finding out how your TA function measures up in these four critical areas, I've created the free FITT for the Future Assessment. It'll give you personalised insights to help you build strategic clarity and drive greater impact immediately.

Just head to mattalder.me/podcast to complete the assessment; it takes less than 5 minutes.

Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Follow this podcast on Spotify.

Ep 721: Inside Zapier's AI Transformation Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

Organizations face a critical AI inflection point: the pressure to implement quickly conflicts with uncertainty about the right approach. While some companies are still cautiously experimenting with basic AI tools, others have fundamentally reimagined how work gets done. What separates the companies achieving remarkable results from those stuck in endless pilots? Often, it's not the technology itself but the culture and approach to adoption.

So how exactly are companies at the cutting edge getting to the cutting edge?

My guest this week is Brandon Sammut, Chief People Officer at Zapier. Ever since Zapier's"CEO issued a 'Code Red" on AI back in March 2023, Zapier has been undergoing an AI transformation in every part of its business.. In our conversation, Brandon shares how their AI strategy is boosting both productivity and employee engagement, why and how every new hire must demonstrate AI fluency, and why it is critical to keep the human touch in talent acquisition and throughout the employee journey.

In the interview, we discuss:

Competing in an AI-first world

AI is a tool, not an outcome in itself.

AI in People Operations

Increasing personalization and connection in talent acquisition

Understanding the moments that matter

Using the human touch as a competitive advantage

The critical importance of psychological safety and experimentation

Why culture beats skills

The four levels of fluency in Zapier's AI Fluency Framework

Bias & ethics

Where is AI transformation heading, and what will the future look like

Recruiting Future helps Talent Acquisition teams drive measurable impact by developing strategic capability in Foresight, Influence, Talent, and Teyou'regy.

If you're interested in finding out how your TA function measures up in these four critical areas, I've created the free FITT for the Future Assessment. It'll give you personalised insights to help you build strategic clarity and drive greater impact immediately.

Just head to mattalder.me/podcast to complete the assessment—it only takes a few minutes.

Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Follow this podcast on Spotify.

Ep 720: Why Talent Acquisition Can Drive An HR Revolution Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

We are on the cusp of a significant transformation in the world of work, with HR and Talent teams currently at the frontline of change. CHROs face unprecedented questions about the impact of agentic AI on the structure of organisations and the continuing need for agility and adaptation as skills go in and out of relevance at an ever-accelerating pace.

The most innovative CHROs are looking in two directions - collaborating with IT teams in entirely new ways and studying how product teams operate with their test-learn-iterate mindset.

Over the last few years, talent acquisition has often been more exposed to constant tech experimentation and workflow optimization than their HR colleagues. So could TA Leaders play a significant role in driving this workforce transformation?

My guest this week is Amy Schultz, VP Market Development & Operations for RPO at Korn Ferry ANZ. Amy brings a unique perspective from a career spanning agency, RPO, and senior in-house roles at LinkedIn and Canva. In our conversation, she shares her belief that TA's natural product mindset and tech experience well-position recruiting teams to guide HR's evolution from fixed programs towards an agile, iterative product development mindset. This is a fascinating discussion!

In the interview, we discuss:

The core challenges employers are facing

A mismatch in AI readiness

What are the most innovative CHROs doing?

Learning from product managers to move from programs to products

TA's unique influence and tech adoption advantage

Removing silos in the talent function

The changing meaning of Build, Buy, Borrow, Bot, Bounce.

Human / Agent hybrid working.

Human first doesn't mean AI last and vice versa.

What does the future look like

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Ep 719: Recruiting for Skills That Don't Exist Yet Jul 25, 2025

Show notes

Recruiting Future is a podcast that helps Talent Acquisition teams drive measurable impact by developing their strategic capability in Foresight, Influence, Talent, and Technology.

This episode is about Foresight.

The pace of change has become relentless. Economic volatility, AI adoption, hybrid work challenges, and geopolitical shifts are forcing companies to completely rethink their workforce strategies. Organizations that once planned in five-year cycles now refresh their approaches on a quarterly or even monthly basis. This unprecedented disruption demands immediate action - but many HR and talent teams remain paralyzed by uncertainty. Traditional recruitment and development approaches simply can't keep pace with how rapidly skills requirements are evolving. What concrete steps should companies take today to build resilience into their talent strategies?

My guest this week is Peter Miscovich, Global Future of Work Leader at JLL. Peter has spent 25 years helping Fortune 100 companies navigate workforce transformation and has never been busier than right now. In our conversation, he shares practical insights on building adaptive talent strategies, why continuous learning has become non-negotiable, and the specific skills companies must prioritize immediately to remain competitive in a constantly changing environment.

In the interview, we discuss:

What are employers most concerned about?

AI integration and workforce transformation

The age of anxiety

Creating multiple flexible scenarios to shape the future

Building Liquid Workforces

Organisational structures that combine humans and AI

Continuous learning, psychological safety, and resilience

Anticipating the skills of the future and bridging the L&D gap

Reframing your professional identity

How should employers be preparing for 2030?

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Ep 718: Is Skills-Based Hiring Hype Or Reality? Jul 19, 2025

Show notes

Recruiting Future is a podcast that helps Talent Acquisition teams drive measurable impact by developing their strategic capability in Foresight, Influence, Talent, and Technology.

This episode is about Talent.

After years of hype surrounding skills-based hiring, the data is showing that it is really happening at scale and becoming strategically important across all sectors and company sizes, with some surprising patterns emerging. Organizations are seeing benefits beyond just filling roles, and the implications for TA and HR are significant. What's driving this shift, and what do TA teams need to know?

My guest this week is David Wilkins, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Talent Neuron. David has produced some exclusive data insights for Recruiting Future that paint a clear picture of where skills-based hiring stands today. In our conversation, he shares where the market is, what specific companies are doing, the real benefits they're seeing, and his thoughts on how AI might change everything in the future.

In the interview, we discuss:

What the data tells us about how skills-based hiring is being adopted

Which types of companies are moving the fastest

Expanding talent pools

Driving internal mobility

Spotting potential at scale

Implications for talent acquisition

Breaking the silos in the talent function

The full impact of AI is not yet being felt.

The intersection between tasks and skills

What does the future look like?

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A full transcript will appear here shortly

Ep 668: Strategic Budgeting For TA Leaders Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

Budgeting has long been challenging for talent acquisition teams, but the stakes have never been higher in today's volatile economic environment. Many TA leaders find themselves stuck in a cycle of defending past decisions, managing cuts, and struggling to align budgets with business strategy. Meanwhile, CFOs expect data-driven proposals, ROI insights, and long-term planning that TA teams often aren't equipped to deliver.

So, how can talent acquisition leaders transform their approach to budgeting, build trust with the C-suite, and position themselves as strategic business partners

My guests this week are Madeline Laurano, founder of Aptitude Research, and Joshua Secrest, VP of Client Advocacy at Paradox. We discuss Aptitude's new report, The Talent Acquisition Budget Playbook, which contains actionable strategies to move beyond reactive spending, harness automation for efficiency, and demonstrate clear ROI to unlock longer-term investment.

In the interview, we discuss:

The background behind the report

Some shocking stats about impending budget cuts, budget confidence, and wasted spend

Getting maximum return and building credibility

Thinking 3-5 years out

How to demonstrate ROI

Operations benefits versus financial benefits

Speaking the language of the CFO

The importance of automation and the results it delivers

What does the future of TA look like?

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Ep 662: Talent Acquisition On The Brink Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

The rapid evolution of AI is reshaping talent acquisition, but many TA teams are struggling to keep pace. While AI offers the potential to revolutionize processes, reduce friction, and improve candidate experiences, adoption rates remain low. At the same time, businesses are under pressure to boost productivity and efficiency, leaving TA teams vulnerable to being left behind—or worse, having changes imposed on them without their input.

So, how can talent acquisition leaders embrace AI and use it to align themselves with broader corporate objectives?

My guest this week is Adam Godson, CEO of Paradox, a pioneer in conversational AI for talent acquisition. Adam shares valuable insights from working with industry leaders like McDonald’s and Chipotle, exploring how AI is transforming recruitment at scale. He discusses how TA leaders can harness AI to future-proof their organizations, deliver tangible ROI, and create hiring systems that prioritize speed, efficiency, and better candidate experiences.

In the interview, we discuss:

Developments over the last 12 months

What are employers who use conversational AI for hiring achieving?

How McDonalds reduce time to hire from 21 days to 3 days

How AI is massively improving the candidate experience

The use of AI in high-volume hiring gives us a glimpse into the future.

AI adoption is being driven by its impact on the bottom line.

The importance of good system and experience design

What will TA teams of the future look like?

The challenge of challenging recruiting norms

The opportunity for TA Leaders

What is going to happen in 2025

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Follow this podcast on Spotify.

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