The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast

FROM TALENT ACQUISITION TO TALENT OPERATIONS is a forward-looking show for TA leaders who can feel the function changing - but need clarity on what it is becoming.     We'll examine the rise of talent operations as a distinct capability, driven by automation across scheduling, screening, compliance, and workflow management. As logistics are increasingly handled by platforms and AI, the skills that matter inside TA are changing fast. Data literacy is no longer optional. Leaders must understand demand forecasting, funnel diagnostics, quality signals, and cost-to-hire at a systems level—not just at req level.   At the same time, employer branding is making a return to centre stage. In a market shaped by transparency, social proof, and candidate choice, brand and messaging once again shape hiring outcomes. Talent intelligence becomes the strategic core: mapping skills, supply, pay, location, and future demand to inform decisions across the business.   Meanwhile, execution is fragmenting. More organisations are moving actual recruiting delivery to on-demand models—combining RPO, freelance recruiters, and specialist vendors—while internal teams focus on orchestration, insight, and governance.   This livestream will unpack what world-class talent operations looks like in practice, how leading teams are reorganising today, and what capabilities TA leaders must build next.   Viewers will learn how to transition from recruiter-led execution to an operational, intelligence-driven TA model built for scale, flexibility, and impact.   We're with Jamie Leonard, Founder of Recruitment Events Co, Jennifer Candee, Global Head of TA Transformation (IMI), Trine Rulffs, on Friday 20th February, 2pm GMT. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Ep362 is sponsored by Greenhouse   91% of recruiters and hiring managers have spotted or suspected candidate deception in the hiring process. Enter Greenhouse Real Talent™. Cut through spam and misrepresentation in your pipeline, verify a candidate's identity, and quickly identify which applicants are most aligned with your role. Learn more and book a demo today:

REDUCTION IN FORCE: HOW TO LEAD DURING CRISIS!   This show focuses on the practical reality of TA downsizing, told by leaders who have already been through it. Not theory. Not platitudes. Real decisions, real mistakes, and hard-won lessons. We explore how leaders decide when reductions are unavoidable, who to let go, and how to do it in a way that is fair, defensible, and humane—while still protecting the business.   The discussion covers: • Early warning signs that TA capacity is misaligned with demand • Objective vs subjective decision-making in role reductions • Legal and process risks specific to TA teams • Communicating layoffs with clarity, dignity, and credibility • Supporting managers who deliver the message • Handling survivor guilt and rebuilding trust post-reduction • What leaders wish they had done differently   Grounded in recent workforce data and employment best practice, this episode gives TA leaders a clear-eyed framework for making difficult calls without losing their values—or their teams.   Learn how to approach TA layoffs with structure, empathy, and confidence, while minimising risk and preserving long-term organisational trust.   We're with Andrea Marston, Head of Talent Acquisition (Nutanix), Yakub Zolinsky, VP of People (XYZReality), Julia Levy, Global Head of TA (ex-Commscope, Fiserv) & friends on Friday 13th February, 2pm GMT. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Ep361 is sponsored by Maki   At Maki, we help organisations like BNP Paribas, PwC, Booking.com, Nestlé, and H&M transform hiring with AI agents for screening, interviewing, and assessment.   By combining automation, behavioural science, and data, Maki enables talent teams to hire faster, fairer, and smarter.   Our global partnership with H&M saved 250 000 recruiter hours, cut time-to-hire by 4×, and reduced turnover by 22 %, delivering $85 M ROI.   Beyond automation, we're building a continuous reinforcement system where every recruiter judgment and employee outcome makes our AI agents smarter; creating a unique data moat in HR.   Learn more: makipeople.com

THE STATE OF TALENT INTELLIGENCE 2026   As we barrel through the year 2026, labour markets are being redefined by emerging technologies, shifting skills demand, and data-driven workforce strategies. Organisations worldwide are adopting sophisticated talent intelligence tools to forecast skills gaps, optimise hiring, and build resilient workforces — but staying ahead requires deeper insight and expert foresight. Drawing on the latest research and real-world experience from leading platforms like TalentNeuron, Lightcast, Horsefly, Gartner and Korn Ferry, The State of Talent Intelligence 2026 will provide practical, actionable perspective on where the industry is headed and how you can lead in your organisation.   Our expert panel will dive into the trends transforming talent strategies, from the rapid evolution of AI skill demand and skills-based hiring to the integration of internal and external workforce analytics for strategic planning.   The evolving role of talent intelligence platforms and how continuous labour market data is powering strategic workforce planning and skills forecasting. AI skills demand and compensation shifts, including insights showing AI-related roles commanding premium salaries in a competitive market. Transitioning from job titles to skills-based hiring as organisations seek quality and fit over traditional credential-based approaches. Balancing automation with human strategic insight as AI reshapes recruiting workflows and recruiter roles. Data analytics driving talent decisions, from predictive labour market insight to internal mobility optimisation. Employer branding and candidate experience in the age of intelligent hiring, aligning organisational value with talent expectations. Future workforce challenges and opportunities, including leadership pipelines, hybrid work models, and evolving HR capabilities for 2026.   We're on Friday 6th February, 2pm GMT. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Ep360 is sponsored by Joveo   As the global leader in AI-powered, high-performance recruitment marketing, Joveo is transforming talent attraction and recruitment media buying for the world's largest employers, staffing firms, RPOs, and media agencies. The Joveo platform enables businesses to attract, source, engage, and hire the best candidates on time and within budget.   Powering millions of jobs every day, Joveo's AI-led recruitment marketing platform uses advanced data science and machine learning to dynamically manage and optimize talent sourcing and applications across all online channels, while providing real-time insights at every step of the job seeker journey, from click to hire.   For more information about Joveo's award-winning platform and solutions, visit www.joveo.com.

WHAT RESPONSIBLE AI MEANS FOR RECRUITERS?   What is Responsible AI for Talent Acquisition Teams? is a practical, straight-talking podcast for recruiters who are already using AI—and now need to make sure they're using it properly.   AI is no longer a future experiment in hiring. It's embedded in sourcing, screening, assessment, and workforce planning. The real question facing TA leaders today is not whether to use AI, but how to use it in a way that stands up to governance scrutiny, fairness expectations, and growing legal risk. Regulators, candidates, and internal stakeholders are all paying closer attention—and the margin for error is shrinking.   This podcast explores the reality behind “responsible AI” in talent acquisition, cutting through vague principles and focusing on what recruiters actually need to know. We'll examine why so many organisations still lack formal AI governance, why confidence in bias reduction remains low, and what that means for teams deploying AI at scale. Drawing on 2024–2025 data and real-world TA use cases, the discussion will unpack the tension between automation, efficiency, and human accountability.   Key areas covered include: • What responsible AI really means in a TA context • Governance frameworks recruiters should understand—even if legal owns them • Bias, fairness, and explainability in screening and assessment tools • Legal and regulatory risk, including emerging obligations under the EU AI Act and employment law • The role of recruiters as AI operators, not just end users • How to balance speed, cost savings, and candidate trust • What “human-in-the-loop” looks like in practice   Listeners will learn how to evaluate their current AI stack, ask better questions of vendors, reduce risk exposure, and build hiring processes that are efficient, defensible, and fair.     We're with Martyn Redstone, Head of Responsible AI & Industry Engagement (Warden.AI) & friends on Wednesday 4th February, 12pm GMT. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)     Ep359 is sponsored by Oleeo   AI is now used by 62% of companies for hiring, but rapid efficiency shouldn't come at the expense of fairness. Oleeo and Aptitude Research's new report highlights a major gap: only 20% of employers have fully established AI governance frameworks, which can lead to unintended bias. To keep things fair and compliant, 85% of recruiters demand final decision-making authority.   Download 'Setting the Standard for Responsible AI: A Guide For Modern Recruiters' today to build a transparent, human-led strategy that uses AI responsibly.

6 x AI USAGE FRAMEWORKS FOR TALENT ACQUISITION   Closing the gap between proclaimed capability of AI vs the practical impact of AI is set to become one of the main stories of 2026, as function leaders in every department scramble to deliver against the expectations of an increasingly impatient C-level.   Are there any frameworks or maturity models which can help?   Brainfooder Soeren Winter has identified 6 AI Usage Frameworks most commonly cited in change management discourse and we're going to apply them Talent Acquisition and see what we can learn. Vital show for anyone interested in accelerating AI adoption, maximising the opportunity window for gains from AI, whilst ensuring the humans in the team, remain in and some cases, above, the loop.     We're on Friday 30th January 2pm GMT / 3pm CET. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Episode 358 is sponsored by Juicebox   PeopleGPT is the leading outbound recruiting platform built on Generative AI. Find talent across 30+ data sources, get interactive Talent Insights, and reach out with personalized AI email campaigns.   Key features include: PeopleGPT (Search): the world's first people search engine that uses natural language. Describe who you're searching for and find the perfect match from over 30 data sources. Talent Insights: Visualize your talent pool with 15+ interactive charts. Refine your search and dive deep into stats based on location, employers, job titles, skills, and more. Email Outreach: Maximize candidate engagement with AI-powered email campaigns. Personalize messaging at scale using AI commands, and boost response rates by 40%.   Get 15% off your Juicebox subscription with code: BRAINFOOD15   Trusted by 400+ companies including Scale AI, Mindbloom, and Patreon. Free trial available. Try Juicebox today

WHY YOU NEED RECOPS TO ACCELERATE AI IN TA   Recruiters are the busiest people in white collar work because there is often no way to accurately forecast resource demands - you never know how long a requirement is going to take to fill or how many hours of time it is going to take to get it done. People are variable and in recruitment, there are people who will impact the state of any project, who are fully outside a recruiters sphere of influence.   This is why AI adoption in Talent Acquisition struggles to move beyond isolated pilots. The operators - the recruiters with headcount targets - are too busy to switch to new ways of working, even those that promise significant efficiency gains. That is apart from one type of TA structure - where Talent Operations has a specialised function in making every other member of the team more efficient.   We're going bold with this one folks - we believe that RecOps is the force multiplier for AI adoption and you need this specialist function in order to migrate to the new way of working. Evidence from RecOps pro's in panel.     We're on Friday 23rd January 2pm GMT / 3pm CET. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Episode 357 is sponsored by Ashby   Drive faster, more confident hiring decisions with native AI-Notetaker   Ashby's AI Notetaker brings structured meeting data together with emails, notes, feedback, and more. It shortens time to feedback and provides rich candidate context, helping your team align quickly and make faster, more confident hiring decisions.   Spend less time typing and more time hiring with interview notes that practically write themselves.

TOO COMPLEX FOR AI? HOW POLICE SCOTLAND SOLVED THE UNSOLVABLE HIRING PUZZLE   Most recruiters think their organisation is too "unique" or "complex" to trust AI. Then there is Police Scotland. Operating across 13 regions, managing 22,000+ staff, and balancing the hyper-sensitive vetting requirements, their hiring process is as high-stakes as it gets. Yet, they didn't just implement AI—they used it to automate 90% of candidate enquiries and launch a 24/7 support system in just weeks.   Join us for Episode 356 as we deconstruct the PoliceScotland Model with Lorna Allison (ex-Police Inspector & HR Systems Manager). We're going deep on how to overcome the three biggest barriers to AI adoption: The Trust Gap: How to use AI in a highly regulated environment where public accountability is everything. The Admin Wall: How they removed the burden of repetitive tasks to let recruiters focus on high-value human assessment. The Inclusion Mandate: Why a "judgment-free" AI bot actually improved their pipeline diversity and candidate experience. The Reality: If you can solve for the complexity of the Police, you can solve for anything.   Wed 21st January 12pm GMT. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Episode 356 is sponsored by Oleeo   AI is now used by 62% of companies for hiring, but rapid efficiency shouldn't come at the expense of fairness. Oleeo and Aptitude Research's new report highlights a major gap: only 20% of employers have fully established AI governance frameworks, which can lead to unintended bias. To keep things fair and compliant, 85% of recruiters demand final decision-making authority.   Download 'Setting the Standard for Responsible AI: A Guide For Modern Recruiters' today to build a transparent, human-led strategy that uses AI responsibly.

TALENT STRATEGY: WHAT, WHY, HOW AND WHEN   Does your company have a talent strategy?   It's probably the right thing to say that you do, but how much do we know about what a Talent Strategy is really? I asked this question within the Brainfood community and received some outstanding observations, so much so that we have to elevate this to a full discussion on Brainfood Live.   “Talent strategy is how the business ensures it has the capability to execute its strategy and win” - says Lisa Scales, Director of Talent at the Royal Mail.   What does this compose of?   Succession planning. re-deployment investigations, competence mapping and calculating the gap between Core & Strategic competencies, developing a plan for how to close the gap, overseeing the global Talent Acquisition function says Ana Moller,   Where does it live?   On a Github Repo says Mark Deubels (!). But the point is that it should be living document subject contribution by others in the business, presided over by TA / HR   Lets talk Talent Strategy - not only why you need one, but what it actually is, how it is built, what makes it an effective orientating vision and how it informs the recruiting tactics which recruits will ultimately adopt.   We're on Friday 16th January, 2pm GMT. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Episode 355 is sponsored by Maki   At Maki, we help organisations like BNP Paribas, PwC, Booking.com, Nestlé, and H&M transform hiring with AI agents for screening, interviewing, and assessment.   By combining automation, behavioural science, and data, Maki enables talent teams to hire faster, fairer, and smarter.   Our global partnership with H&M saved 250 000 recruiter hours, cut time-to-hire by 4×, and reduced turnover by 22 %, delivering $85 M ROI.   Beyond automation, we're building a continuous reinforcement system where every recruiter judgment and employee outcome makes our AI agents smarter; creating a unique data moat in HR.   Learn more: makipeople.com

VIBE SOURCING 101: LEARN TO SOURCE FROM THE WEB & YOUR ATS WITH METAVIEW AI AGENT   We are going to look back at 2025 as the year it all changed for sourcing. AI Agents entered the market and immediately began to demonstrate talent acquisition teams could become massively more efficient by leverage the increasable ability of AI Agents to ingest huge amounts of candidate data and instantly return viable results from natural language prompts.   But we can already see that some recruiters are better than others when it comes to collaborating with AI Agents to source candidates. What are those recruiters doing, why do they get better results, what are the behaviours required to get the best out of your AI Agent?   We're going to deep dive how to source with AI Agents, revealing the techniques, the skills and the mentality which will reveal the best recruiters of tomorrow.   It's a mid week special - so we're on Wednesday 14th January, 4pm GMT / 11am ET. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)       Ep354 is sponsored by Metaview   Are you ready to supercharge your recruiting teams performance?   Metaview's AI Sourcing will feel like a cheat code. It's the first autonomous AI coworker that goes off and does the search for you and brings back spot-on candidates based on your exact brief.   Here's what recruiters have been saying about it:   “I don't know how you did it, but Metaview's AI Sourcing is absurdly good.”   Michael, Partner @ Super Recruiter   “Metaview's AI Sourcing really helps with niche roles. It surfaces profiles I wouldn't have found.”   Dea, TA Manager @ Miro   “So impressed by how Metaview's AI Sourcing turns a natural language prompt into great profiles.”   Leslie, Recruiter @ Cockroach Labs   Metaview gives high-performance teams a genuine unfair advantage in hiring. Join teams like ElevenLabs, Deel, and Pleo — along with 4,000+ others — and try it for free today.

HIRING BENCHMARKS FOR THE 16 MOST COMMON OCCUPATIONS IN THE USA   We all want to be 'data driven' but most of the time the only data we have access to are those which we have recorded of ourselves and our own activity. This is vitally important for tracking your progress over time, but not the complete picture when it comes to how you are doing against the market and against the competition.   In partnership with our friends Joveo, we are pulling together behaviour data from job candidates on the 16 most common job roles in the USA - book keeper, truck driver, construction worker, nurse practitioner, teacher - and finding out what the state of the Labour market is: what is the size of the labour pool, what is the average number of job applications per role in these sectors, what are the most important sources of hire, what is the CPA for the employer of each of these roles, what is the geographic distribution of the talent and so on.   Essential viewing for any US recruiter for some of the most employed positions in the country.   We're on Friday 9th January, 2pm GMT / 9am ET. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended)   Ep353 is sponsored by Joveo   As the global leader in AI-powered, high-performance recruitment marketing, Joveo is transforming talent attraction and recruitment media buying for the world's largest employers, staffing firms, RPOs, and media agencies. The Joveo platform enables businesses to attract, source, engage, and hire the best candidates on time and within budget.   Powering millions of jobs every day, Joveo's AI-led recruitment marketing platform uses advanced data science and machine learning to dynamically manage and optimize talent sourcing and applications across all online channels, while providing real-time insights at every step of the job seeker journey, from click to hire.   For more information about Joveo's award-winning platform and solutions, visit www.joveo.com.

Informing Happy Hiring: Signals from Willo's Hiring Intelligence Report 2026   This year, Willo didn't just watch hiring change, they measured it.   In this episode of Brainfood Live on Air, we'll explore what the data from Willo's Hiring Intelligence Report 2026 reveals about how hiring teams are actually operating in the AI-era, how this compares to previous years, and what that means as we look ahead. What will we be talking about? What's really happening to CV-centric hiring Where AI is being introduced into hiring workflows, and where it isn't How automation is influencing candidate screening and assessment Why final hiring decisions remain human-led How fairness and consistency are being approached in practice The role of asynchronous interviews in modern hiring What hiring leaders are prioritizing as they look toward 2026 All this and more on Brainfood Live on Air.   We'll be joined by Euan Cameron, CEO at Willo and Tanya van Soest, Head of Content at Willo on January 7, 2026   Register by clicking the green button (“save my spot”) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified when we go live.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2025 - Economy & AI   Final part of our 4 part series on the Review of the Year. The two dominant mega themes of this year has undoubtedly been the global economy and the rise of AI. The two are becoming intertwined, especially with the AI investment boom drawing down investments from other parts of the US economy, whilst Trump Trade War 2.0 hobbles global economic growth, likely inadvertently accelerating the adoption of AI...   - Global economic growth 2025 - Jobs Growth / Loss - Sectoral growth / decline - Staffing agency figures - ONS data on unemployed / underemployed - Employment Rights Bill - Immigration - UK vs Europe - UK vs US - UK vs Global Mean - Contact / FTE - Wage growth / decline - Entry level hiring - AI Economy - Adoption patterns and impact on employment - Sectors most exposed, greatest risk / greatest opportunity? - Forecast for 2026 - UK, Europe, US, Globe - Recommendations for TA, Staffing Agencies, Hiring Managers   All this and more on brainfood live on air.   We're with Neil Carberry, MD (Recruitment & Employment Confederation), Belinda Johnson, Founder, (Worklab) & Rt Hon Chloe Smith on Friday 19th December, 2pm GMT.   Register by click on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Ep349 is sponsored by Recruiting Brainfood   Thank you all for your support in 2025. We cannot do these conversations without the support of our amazing sponsors, our fantastic panelists but most of all, you the viewing public. Thank you and see you next year!

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2025 - Sourcing, Employer Branding & RecOps   Third of our 4 part series reviewing the major events and trends of the year in Sourcing, Employer Branding & RecOps What has happened this year that we got on talk about?   - End of an Era? Irina Shamaeva - SOSU review - Is Sourcing dead or shifting toward automation of candidate discovery? - Demand for sourcing training being replaced by demand for AI training - Employer branding - how is AI being used to support this? - How is AI being ab-used to inadvertently damage this? - How do we understand 'AI first' through the lens of EB? - What happened to 'Mission focused' btw, was it anti-DEIB in disguise? - What is the percentage of AI ten content on career pages, going up or down? - Have any organisations consciously thought about their AI principles through an EB lens? - RecOps ...what have been the priorities for recruitment operations? - Have we seen AI operations leads in RecOps? - How has AI changed the RecOps role...replaced or expanded? - Forecasts for 2026 - sourcing, eb and recops   All this and more on brainfood live on air.   We're with Alla Pavlova, Recruiter (Riot Games), Chloe Morrison, RecOps (datadog), Steve Ward, Employer Brand Strategist (Blackbridge Communications) & Jeremy Lyons, Founder (RecOps Collective) on Friday 12th December, 2pm GMT   Register by click on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Ep348 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Drive faster, more confident hiring decisions with native AI-Notetaking   Ashby's AI Notetaker brings structured meeting data together with emails, notes, feedback, and more. It shortens time to feedback and provides rich candidate context, helping your team align quickly and make faster, more confident hiring decisions.   Spend less time typing and more time hiring with interview notes that practically write themselves.

FRAUD PROOF AI? - ENDORSED LIVE DEMO   We will look back at 2025 as the year when candidate fraud escalated into amongst the top priorities of employers looking who were still looking to hire but also now needing to securitise their companies from risk.   Huge credit goes to technology vendors for responding to the demand - and we're seeing a lot of interesting techniques deployed to identify potential fraud risk. I'm delighted to welcome back one of those vendors at Live Demo to show us how his platform - Endorsed - is going to help recruiters find the right talent whilst mitigating risk of putting bad actors into the hiring process.   Its the man himself, David Head, CEO of Endorsed, at Live Demo! and we're on Weds 10th December, 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT.   Follow the channel here (recommended) and register for the event now (save my spot) to get notified when we go live.     Episode 351 is sponsored by Endorsed   Endorsed.com is the AI recruiting agent platform for rapidly building talent-dense teams.   Rapidly growing companies like Quince, Eight Sleep, and Prokeep rely on Endorsed to surface hidden stars, combat candidate fraud, and streamline sourcing and applicant review workflows. Endorsed increases quality-of-hire, reduces time-to-fill by up to 75%, and boosts recruiter role capacity by up to 2x.   Get 10% off your subscription with the code BRAINFOOD   See Endorsed instantly triple your number of gold medal candidates on your real role by booking a demo.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2025 - CX, Assessment & DEIB   Second of our 4 part series reviewing the major events and trends of the year in CX, Assessment and DEIB. What has happened this year that we got on talk about??   - Mobley vs Workday, let's get an update on this, the quintessential CX challenge! - CX resentment rate...where are we tracking on this? - What do we know about AI and CX, can we see positive impact of AI on CX? - ID verification, this is both an CX and Assessment issue. In fact, it may also be a DEIB issu - How to deal with overcapacity of job applications into traditional hiring funnels? - How to do this whilst maintaining, improving CX? - Candidate agency - can enablement of great participation in shaping the experience improve both efficiency and CX? - What is the state of DEIB...rhetorical question... - How does the new inclusion work, can we still think about 'protected groups'? - Divergence between US and UK / EU - Yet migration of cultural influence from US to UK / EU - What do we think of AI Interviewing? - What do we think of other forms of AI powered Assessment? - Forecasts for 2026 on CX, Assessment and DEIB?   We're with Morgan Lobb, Founder (Vercida), Maddy Roberts, Head of TA Solutions (Aon), Euan Cameron, Founder, (Willo) & friends & friends on Friday 5th December, 2pm GMT   Register by click on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Ep 347 is sponsored by our friends Willo   Hiring should be human, but too often it doesn't feel that way.Recruiting isn't slowing down; it's more competitive and more global than ever. Yet too many teams are still buried in CVs, optimising for speed instead of connection.   That's why teams are switching to Willo - the #1 candidate screening platform built for a world where connection matters more than credentials. With thousands of customers worldwide, Willo helps you meet talent faster, fairer, and smarter.Our 2026 Hiring Trends Survey is open until the end of October, and we'd love your take. What's keeping you up at night (or getting you excited) about the future of hiring?   Share your voice or book a demo to see why hiring feels different with Willo.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2025 - TALENT TECHNOLOGY   Can you believe that we're at the end of another year in Brainfood?   As is tradition, we're going to do a 4 part series to conclude the year - and I will be a 4 part series where we review the major events and trends which have occurred on all the topics which matter to us. To kick off the series, let's talk about the the talent tech landscape - what is going on the tools we rely on every day?   - Investment landscape in Worktech - Sector breakdown...where is the VC going? - Rise of AI sourcing tools - Big deals, the M&A's - what does this mean? - Linkedin Hiring Assistant - Open AI jobs - Monster / Career Builder Obit - Mercor... - Indeed, what is going on? - Verticalised AI Agents, what are the implications for core platforms? - ATS / HRIS combo - didn't happen? - ATS / CRM - did happen? - Job Candidate use of AI vs AI Assessment - Rise of Verification / Background Checking - What else is under-the-radar that we need to talk about?   We're with Alexander Chukovski, HR Tech Consultant, George LaRocque, Founder (WorkTech), Louise Triance, Founder (UK Recruiter) & friends on Friday 28th November, 2pm GMT   Register by click on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Ep 346 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   Feeling buried under a backlog of disconnected tools, spammy applicants, and stalled workflows? This latest guide from Greenhouse shares how their innovative platform brings simplicity and control back to recruiting.   Discover how to: Centralize sourcing, scheduling, and reporting seamlessly Gain end-to-end visibility into pipeline health Cut through noise with fraud detection and smart automation Download to see how your team can hire with confidence

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING ....WITH AI AGENTS?   We may look back at 2025 has a pivotal year in online job advertising. Economic chaos, investment uncertainty, rise of AI, has made employers change how they think about headcount and are increasingly scrutinising the ROI of traditional job distribution. The flood of irrelevant applications has more or less killed the ppc model - what other iterations do we expect to see over the next 12 months?   We're going to be speaking with the C-level team at VONQ to better understand state of market.   - Recruitment Advertising 2025 - What are the available job advertising models? - Which ones seem to be on the rise / on the decline? - Niche vs Generalised Job Board advertising and relationship with business models - AI-enabled Job Applications, how big an impact on job advertising? - How does this force job advertising vendors to adapt? - What are the mitigation strategies? - AI Agents, verticalised vs generalised - What can they do - How does this impact candidate acquisition? - What does Recruitment Advertising look like over the next 12 months?     We're with Ritu Mohanka, CEO & Bill Fischer, CTO, (VONQ) & friends on Friday 21st November, 2pm GMT. Register by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Ep345 is sponsored by VONQ   Transform recruitment advertising by leveraging AI-driven technology, deep ATS integrations, and expertise to deliver high-quality candidates to the shortlist while elevating employer brands. Our solution is now available via over 100 Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Human Capital Management (HCM) platforms, accessible to over 80% of the US and EU talent acquisition teams.   We have a +5000 global media channels network and back our solutions with reliable automation, data-driven recommendations, recruitment marketing expertise, programmatic advertising, and meaningful reporting.   Need to get more qualified, relevant and motivated job candidates at the top of the funnel? Get in touch with VONQ here

Diversity & Inclusion in an Era of Emerging AI and Cyberthreats   The rise of candidate fraud has been a huge topic in recruitment in 2025, so much so that employers have had to take extreme steps to protect their businesses, from asking candidates to physically move on command in front of screen to come in person to attend interview on premise, to go through ID verification procedures which would have previously been reserved for high security roles.   What does all this mean for diversity and inclusion? That the question we're going to ask in today's Brainfood Live   - State of Candidate Fraud - What are the potential concerns for D&I - On premise, requires car - More rigid work patterns is bad for primary care givers - ID verification techniques depend on photo ID - Bank records / Criminal records / Credit records - Economically deprived are most likely to have disadvantage in ID verification processes - Gender: name change for women married / divorce - Trans: ID change, no longer recognised in some states? - Ambiguity on legislation, concern over future direction - How do we ensure that ID verification and candidate fraud mitigation steps do not over step into identity profiling and prejudice?   All this and more on brainfood live on air.   We're with Kyle Barry, CISO (Clear), Torin Ellis, Principal Analyst (The Torin Ellis Brand) & Daniel Chait, CEO (Greenhouse) on Friday 14th November, 2pm GMT.   Register by click on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Episode 350 is sponsored by Greenhouse   It's tough out there for today's recruiting teams.   The rise of AI, slashed recruiting budgets and lean teams have made candidate funnels more chaotic than ever. Take back control of your candidate pipeline with new Greenhouse features that help put an end to application overload, messy data, and disconnected tools.   Check out everything new at Greenhouse here!

GRADING MY RECRUITMENT FORECASTS FOR 2025   Every year I write a long post making 20 predictions for the year ahead. This year, for the first time ever, I'm going to grade my predictions and see how I have got on   20 x Predictions for Recruiting in 2025   1. AI Assessment mainstreams; 50% of high volume hirers (more than 5000 hires per year) will have a solution in place by EOY. 2. ‘Skill based hiring' revives as employers describe deployment of AI assessment as commitment to SBH. %age of employers describing themselves as SBH increases 50%. 3. 2FA on job ads increases 400% as an attempt to suppress increased applicant flow. 4. Applications per job increase by 25% as AI-enablement mainstreams candidate side. 5. Big round of investment for AI voice interview vendors currently at Seed - $100M raised in this sector by EOY 2025. 6. Non-FTE vs FTE hiring increases by 10% in 2025. 7. Avg internal TA team goes 25% non-FTE. 8. Req load per recruiter increases 15%. 9. Percentage of solo TA function goes from 73% to 83%. 10. TA teams continue geographic dispersal - %age of TA teams with multinational component increases by 30%. 11. More companies decentralise talent acquisition - %age of employers where HM do outreach increases by 10%. 12. Candidate resentment stabilises - with 2% points either side of 2024 level. 13. ‘Chief Automation Officer' becomes an industry talking point in 2025, same as Chief Diversity Officer in 2020. 14. Speaking of DEIB, clear Atlantic divergence in 2025 - US explicit retrench, Europe implicit progress. 15. US vs UK economic integration deepens - %age of new UK based TA jobs from US employers increases 100%. 16. Global Staffing agencies revenue / profit down another 10% (profit warning again in Q1 2025). 17. But medium sized agencies / RPO stage mini bounce back as employers push more requirements out from denuded TA teams. 18. RecOps, Talent Intelligence roles decline 20%, EB roles decline 30%. People & Culture roles increase 15%. 19. Somebody Ubersises the legions of fractional TA's out there. Probably this is Indeed. 20. Over half of these predictions will be directionally incorrect, 20% will be absolutely incorrect.   What should the grading system be? I thinking a sliding scale A to E.   What should be the source of truth? That is where we will be bringing in experts from industry who can validate the claims.   It's going to be a good one folks.   Friday 14th November, 12pm GMT   Register by click on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Ep 344 is sponsored by our friends Popp   Popp's AI recruitment platform amplifies what your team can do by effortlessly and instantly scaling your recruiting capacity. Popp's recruitment platform sits between your ATS and your talent team, providing unprecedented hiring power at unlimited scale.   Our AI automates repetitive tasks throughout the hiring journey, intelligently and accurately. Meaning your team can focus on higher value tasks. Randstand, Robert Walters, Bloom & Wild, AMN Healthcare and more are using Popp to x10 their hiring capacity.   Want to know more?   Book a demo with one of Popp's friendly founding team

CAREER TRANSITION - LESSONS FROM EX-PRO ATHLETES   Changing career is never easy, especially if you've committed everything into a vocation which you might have thought to be your whole of life focus. I know well myself, having previously attempted to go down the tech entrepreneur path but now very happily but very fortuitously landing into what seems to be a media business!   Perhaps no other vocation is as tunnel focused as that of a professional athlete. You can imagine you cannot achieve elite performance without going all in. So what happens...when it doesn't happen and you have to switch?   We're going to bring in ex-pro athletes to help us better understand the techniques needed for transition.   - When did you know? - What were the feelings when you knew it was time to change? - Identity crisis: how did you handle the change of identity when changed? - What are the internal and external challenges of switching into 'civilian' life? - How did you choose your new path? - What resources did you have to help guide you to a new path? - How did you cope with the status change? - Did you feel people treated differently now in civilian life? - What does it feel like to work with a team / work by yourself? - Have there been any techniques from elite sports which you have found useful in civilian life? - What resources should be available for ex-pro athletes to more successfully transition? - What resources should there be for other people from any other profession to transition? - What are your top tips for successful career switch?   It's going to be a good one folks.   We're with Ben Stocken, Founder (West Peak) Charlie Mulraine, Personal Development (The Professional Cricketers Association), Agne Chmyznikova, Practice Lead (People & Transformation) on Friday 7th November, 2pm GMT   Register by click on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be noticed when we go live.     Ep342 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Drive faster, more confident hiring decisions with native AI-Notetaking   Ashby's AI Notetaker brings structured meeting data together with emails, notes, feedback, and more. It shortens time to feedback and provides rich candidate context, helping your team align quickly and make faster, more confident hiring decisions.   Spend less time typing and more time hiring with interview notes that practically write themselves.

BUDGETING FOR AN AI-ENABLED TALENT ACQUISITION FUNCTION   We're racing toward the end of the year and inevitably attention turns to plans for the future. But today we face a future which is increasingly difficult to predict and where agility, resilience and ability to quickly pivot without loss of performance are the qualities every function needs to develop to maintain value to the business. What does this mentality mean for how we allocate budget in talent acquisition? Today we're going to debate the issue with industry leaders who have experience of budget planning and have had to balance between competing priorities.   - Do we spend more on automation and less on payroll? - Do we create a buffer to spend on RPO partners who can help us scale up capacity, whilst we retain a lean permanent staff? - How about reducing payroll whilst maintaining headcount? - Do we spend on hiring entry level talent and ramp up with intensive AI upskilling? - What does the future look like in 2030 and should we start budgeting to a longer term framework? - How much recruiting work do we expect hiring managers to be doing in 2030? - Should we invest in diversification in related fields, adjacent to Talent Acquisition? - Do we go large with enterprise grade master software, or continue with a core platform + point solutions? - What about training and development? - Do we even talk about DEIB today?   All this and more as we discuss how the changing world of work, is being reflected in the changing priorities of for the talent acquisition function,   With industry heavyweights Johnny Campbell, CEO (Social Talent), Elaine Atkinson, Leadership Coach (In Wonder Coaching), Kobi Ampoma, Head of Talent Acquisition (The HEINEKEN Company) & friends,   We are on Friday 31st October, 2pm GMT follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spotfor this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep341 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   It's tough out there for today's recruiting teams.   The rise of AI, slashed recruiting budgets and lean teams have made candidate funnels more chaotic than ever. Take back control of your candidate pipeline with new Greenhouse features that help put an end to application overload, messy data, and disconnected tools.   Check out everything new at Greenhouse here!

FASTER, SMARTER, MORE HUMAN: THE FUTURE OF RECRUITER ENABLEMENT.   Hiring has never been harder.   Recruiters are under pressure to move fast, personalise outreach, and tell a story candidates believe in.   But here's the problem: recruiters don't have the same tools that sales or marketing teams take for granted.   I'm teaming up with Vouch to show how recruiters can finally catch up — with a new way to cut through the chaos: Recruiter Enablement.   Join us live for a demo, discussion, and Q&A on Weds 29th October, 1230PM PT / 330pm ET follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.

A PSYCHOLOGISTS TAKE ON CANDIDATE FEEDBACK.   Bad feedback - or no feedback - is perhaps the most common criticism by job candidates looking for work. Why is feedback important, and why do recruiters do this so badly? We're going to take the psychologists perspective one of the most persistent problems in our industry and see whether we can learn from a field of study outside of our own!   - What are the current theories about why feedback is needed? - What are the stories we tell ourselves about why we need feedback? - What is really going on? - Why is feedback particularly challenging in recruitment? - Are there unusual psychological conditions in the context of job search which make feedback both difficult give and difficult to give well? - Why do candidates vary in their demands for feedback? - Under what conditions are candidates most upset about the job search experience? - Will increased training help, or does this require simply more capacity on behalf of the recruiters? - Are incentives correctly aligned for good feedback to be provided? - What technology innovations can change the dynamic behind persistence bad feedback experience?   All this and more with brainfood favourite and professional psychologist, author and coach Nikolai Mihailov.   We are on Friday 24th October, 2pm GMT follow the channel here      Ep340 is sponsored by our friends BrightHire   BrightHire, the AI copilot for exceptional hiring used by hundreds of game-changing companies like Canva, Vercel, Multiverse, up to the Fortune 500.

INTERVIEWS AREN'T EVALUATING THE RIGHT SKILLS: INSIGHTS FROM ANALYSING 1,311 INTERVIEW LOOPS   What is actually happening at interviews?   It's the most critical part of any assessment process yet it is also the one which we know least about, not least because we've never had the means to really study them at scale. That is why this latest research from Harvard Business Review is so significant - across 1300+ organisations, 50+_ organisations and tens of thousands of interviews, researchers using BrightHire proprietary data track what is actually happening in this crucial step of the process.   The insight reveals challenges to which we will in recruitment have an urgency in handling.   (a) the gap between what JDs communicate to candidates are the critical qualifications for positions vs. what's actually covered in interviews   (b) the effectiveness of interviews in the evaluation of skills   (c) the extent to which interviews are evaluating for AI skills     We're doing a Brainfood Live special with BrightHire CEO Ben Sesser and William Leeds, Head of Data Science - we're going through this research with the Harvard Business Review!   We are on Thursday 23rd October, 4pm BST / 11am ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.   Ep334 is sponsored by our friends BrightHire   BrightHire, the AI copilot for exceptional hiring used by hundreds of game-changing companies like Canva, Vercel, Multiverse, up to the Fortune 500.

ANNUAL BENCHMARK REPORT 2025: CORPORATE EXECUTIVE SEARCH   There probably isn't a recruitment function more shrouded in mystery than Corporate Exec Search! This is hiring for the function leaders who will make disproportionate impact on your organisations bottom line and often involves a high degree of discretion, especially as incumbent-in-place is a common scenario.   For organisations are able to tell us what this world looks like better than ESIX - the premier community of Corporate Exec Search professionals. With thousands of members, across hundreds of the top employers in the world, ESIX have access to the collective intelligence of what hiring has been like the internal headhunters.   I'm delighted to invite ESIX Chairman, Simon Mullins to do a 1-2-1 with us and share data from ESIX Annual Benchmark report on how Corp Exec Search is operating - from budget allocation, tool usage, role profile and state of the leadership job market. We might even get a glimpse of some data which is usually members only   We are on Friday 17th October, 2pm BST follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep339 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Fraudulent candidates in hiring pipelines are increasingly draining recruiting teams time and attention. In extreme cases they pose security risks. Launching this week, Ashby's new feature automatically detects fraud signals so your team can mark candidates as fraudulent during your application review helping you focus on real candidates - all without disrupting the candidate experience. Follow their page to see when it launches   Live Webinar: AI Notetaker in Action and see what's next for AI at Ashby   Ashby's All-in-One recruiting software spans ATS, Scheduling, CRM & Sourcing, and Analytics, and now they're adding AI Notetaking to a platform already infused with useful AI.Their new AI Notetaker records, transcribes, and structures your meeting notes to help you make faster, more confident hiring decisions. In the event, you'll also learn how Ashby is uniquely suited to help teams adopt AI responsibly while preparing for an AI and agent-oriented future.

RECRUITMENT AGENCY: 2028!   It's been an incredibly challenging 3 year period for the staffing agency market. Hostile de-globalisation, End of ZIRP, and the Rise of AI has prompted employers to radically rethinking their workforce requirements - and in the case of many of the highest paying sectors - finance, technology, consultancy - reduce absolute number of heads in order to do more with less.   Forward thinking recruitment agencies are responding to new market conditions with innovations of their own - in business development, in service offerings and in candidate acquisition. More transformation will inevitably occur as the external macro continues to be volatile and the staffing agency market continues to become more competitive   We will cover;   - What are the episodic vs persistent trends in the staffing agency market? - How is business development changing? - Where are technologies having the most impact in staffing agency operations? - What markets will staffing agencies focus on going forward? - Where will agencies find customers in 2028? - Where will agencies find candidates in 2028? - Will the solo recruiter + AI enabled be the default template of tomorrow's recruiter? - What defensive moat do agents have against AI? - Will organisations turn more to agencies are internal TA continue to get cut? - What are the future proof techniques for maintaining relationships with clients who may not buy for 12 months or longer? - What business model best suits a staffing firm in anticipated market conditions in 2028?   All this and more with some of the smartest people in the staffing agency space. Join Louise Triance, Founder (UKRecruiter), Kalpesh Baxi, James Osbourne, Chairman (The Recruitment Network), Keith Langbo, Founder (Kelaca), Keith Southern, Founder (The Power Hive) & John Chirikjian, CEO (Hire Inc).     We are on Friday 10th October, 2pm BST follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep338 is sponsored by our friends Hire Inc   Hire.inc is an AI-powered recruitment platform that streamlines hiring with advanced AI sourcing agents, automated AI interview notes, bulk resume screening, and a collaborative ATS. Designed for startups & staffing agencies, Hire.inc helps recruitment teams find, evaluate, and engage top talent faster while integrating into existing workflows.   Question for all recruiters: how much is your time worth??   Answer: a lot more than you think   Demo and try for free here

RECRUITERS: SAY HELLO TO YOUR NEW CO-WORKERS ARCHER, CHASE & THENA! (LIVE DEMO OF AI AGENTS)   Is your recruitment supplier talking to you about AI Agents? Well this is the show where we challenge the founders to come on screen to live demo their new AI workers to the brainfood audience!   Not content will one agent, our friends at hackajob are have launched no less than three at the same time:   Meet:  

FRAUD SIGNALS: AI, JOB CANDIDATES & THE CYBERSECURITY OF RECRUITMENT   The rise of AI and AI Agents will fundamentally change the way in which we discover information. We are heading into a future which will everything digital will be mediated first by AI. This has huge implications in many aspects of professional work, with job search and hiring perhaps being one of the first areas of work where early challenges might be detected.   Let's talk AI, job candidates and the cybersecurity of recruitment.   - What are the most risky things which recruiters do which expose company to fraud risk? - Should recruiters download documents which are speculatively sent in? - How to process candidates if document is not a PDF? - What are the main signals of potential ID fraud? - IP address inconsistencies - LinkedIn profile recency - LinkedIn profile incompleteness - Inconsistencies on online profile aggregation - Time delay during interview - Camera off/on during interview - Implications for DEIB - Which jobs are most at risk for fraud? - Which companies, in which countries are most regular targets for fraud? - Implications for bias / racial profiling - How to be rigorous yet also fair - the challenge of CX in the era of high cybersecurity risk     We are on Tuesday 2nd October, 10am / 3pm BST follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep337 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   Hiring is hard, and getting it right is even harder. It's a core business-building function with high stakes that takes a lot of moving parts to see real success. You need workflows that accommodate how you function given your company size and goals. You need a user experience that hiring managers actually buy into. And you need an application process that locks talent in.   Only Greenhouse gives you all that in one platform.   Learn more

WHAT HAPPENS TO RECRUITMENT WHEN AI IS YOUR COPILOT?   2025 will turn out to be the year when AI Agents mainstreamed into the recruiting profession. We're going to move past the semantic conversations on what is or is not 'Agentic AI' and simply get on with working with software which is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting work for us.   I think we will be surprised in two ways: how effective these AI agents are in delivering results and how much wider a scope they will end up having, on many parts of the hiring funnel.   The question needs to asked: what does this mean for Talent Acquisition? What does our function look like when every recruiter - every hiring manager - has a hiring co-pilot? Talent Acquisition, as well as the wider Human Resources function, urgently need to centre the discussion on what the 'human value added' really is when it comes to creating great organisations.   We're going to do taking on the hard conversations in today's debate on the future of recruitment when everyone has a copilot.   - General vs Verticalised AI Agents - What can Verticalised AI Agents do today - What level of performance by AI Agents are required for work to be transferred? - AI ethics & legislation - are they paper tigers? - What is the human value added? - When does low cost mass produced 'Good enough' beat high cost, custom made, artisanally produced? - Human Value Added - what is this, can we articulate it? - What gets automated - expert or non-expert, routine or episodic? - Do we even control this, or do vendors determine what tasks get automated? - Humans-in-the-loop - how do we make this substantive, rather than rubber stamp? - Under what circumstances do we believe a human can / should veto AI recommendation? - How do Talent Acquisition professionals need to reposition in with the advent of effective AI Agents? - Do we need to talk about Capitalism?     We are on Friday 3rd October, 2pm BST follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep335 is sponsored by our friends Metaview   Our most ambitious agent yet is here: AI Sourcing   This isn't sourcing as you know it. Not another Boolean search. Not another rigid filter. This is flexible, agentic search - built on your hiring DNA.   ✔ Proactive: From your first intake call, the agent automatically runs a search. ✔ Collaborative: You guide the search, AI does the heavy lifting. ✔ Flexible: Context-aware and learns from unstructured data and feedback.   Source high-fit candidates faster than you ever thought possible with an AI teammate that learns from every action and hiring manager's feedback—getting more precise, personalized, and effective over time.   Be the first to try it. Join the waitlist.

TALENT POOLING: LESSONS FROM TA COMMUNITY BUILDERS   We all know that it easier to get engagement from people who already know you or your brand. Have a think about how you respond to known contacts in WhatsApp vs unknown callers on your phone! As we move toward a world where AI generated communication will come to dominate, we can anticipate that the establishment of trust relationships with your target audience is going to be key in effective hiring.   Lets deep dive:   - What is talent pooling, how is this different from 'collecting CV's - What needs to be done in order to 'acquire' someone into a talent pool? - How do you convert a database into a community? - What are the policies of exclusion in this community? - How do we balance this with an inclusive ethos? - How to police bad behaviour? - How formal should be safe spaces? - What is the best tech platform to use to organise communities? - If we are planning to hire from this community, do we remove people who then get a job? - What professions are most suited for community building? - What circumstances make most sense when putting together a talent pooling plan? - Do we need a specialist function to do this? - What can AI do to help build community - or is this antithetical to how things are done?   All this and more, with Willem Wijnans, Community Lead (Ashby), Marie Chaponiere, Founder (Behind the Mask), Vanessa Raath, Founder (Talent Hunter) & Mahmoud Aly, Community Lead (Egypt Recruiting Community) & Lars Schmidt, Head of Talent (Fruitist)   We are on Friday 26th Sep, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep333 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Ashby just raised $50M in Series D funding, and they're going all in on what modern recruiting teams actually need.   So, what's next?   AI is moving from novelty to necessity. Most tools talk about AI, Ashby makes it work. Their all-in-one platform gives AI real structure so recruiters get time back with AI note-taking, feedback summaries, and personalized outreach emails. In fact, 57% of Ashby's customer base is now using AI within the platform, up from 23% at the start of 2024.   Quality of Hire is finally getting real. More teams are rolling out Quality of Hire programs with Ashby than ever before. What used to be a slide in a quarterly review is now a real strategy, with surveys and reporting built in. It's clearer, faster, and easier to connect to business outcomes.   Community is the new operating system. Ashby already made a big splash with Ashby One, their first customer conference that brought hundreds of talent leaders and RecOps professionals together for a week of sessions, panels, dinners, and live events. With this new funding, they're doubling down on the community by expanding ACE (Ashby Customer Expert) chapters, scaling education programs, and giving local leaders more ways to connect, share learnings, and build lasting networks.   … and the word is out. Enterprise teams like Shopify and Snowflake are already in. With 123% growth and fresh funding to fuel what's next, Ashby is just getting started.   Bottom line: Ashby is not just building software. They are building the infrastructure for modern recruiting.   See the full announcement.   Not on Ashby yet? Get a demo today.

GHOSTING: WHY THE AI JOB APPLICATION TSUNAMI IS NO EXCUSE   Diffusion of technology innovation across society is something to be celebrated. We need to be aware of the challenges to existing structures that this will inevitably bring and refactor our processes to account for the changes. One of the first ways in which employers are experiencing this challenge is in how to handle the increased volume of job applicants, who have improved both the quality and quantity of their outputs.   We're going to talk today about the AI job applicant tsunami and how this does not mitigate employer responsibility for candidate experience. It's no excuse for ghosting!   - What is the state of candidate experience in 2025? - What are the factors which explain the trend lines? - What is the impact of AI in the job candidate experience? - How can employers balance between efficiency vs experience? - Can we kill the idea that 'more human' is always better candidate experience? - What are the common themes to great candidate experience? - Faced with lean TA teams + increase workload, what are top TA teams doing about this? - Ghosting: what does it take to eliminate this? - What role can technology play in supporting candidate experience? - Hybrid human + AI = when human vs when AI?   All this and more, with Daniel Chait, CEO (Greenhouse), Kevin Grossman, VP of CandE Benchmark Research (Survale), Cheryl Petersen, Global Head of Candidate Experience (Arup) & Bradley Cooper, Associate VP Technology (SASR Workforce Solutions)   We are on Thursday 25th Sep, 5pm BST / 9am PT / 12pm ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.   Ep332 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   Hiring is hard, and getting it right is even harder. It's a core business-building function with high stakes that takes a lot of moving parts to see real success. You need workflows that accommodate how you function given your company size and goals. You need a user experience that hiring managers actually buy into. And you need an application process that locks talent in.   Only Greenhouse gives you all that in one platform.   Learn more

NEW RECRUITMENT KPI'S FOR TOMORROW'S TALENT ACQUISITION   We are beginning to see some step change improvements in recruiter capability. The promise of AI has been overblown in many areas, but it is clear huge efficiency gains have been seen in areas such as sourcing, CV review, interview note taking, interview scheduling and more. These are areas which previously took large teams for recruiters a lot of time to manage. Now with increased in capability, what does this do to how we measure recruiter performance?   Lets deep dive:   - Pre AI, what were the industry avg numbers: how many reqs per capita, how many hires per month - What is the number today in 2025? - What does it look like in 2026? - Areas of greatest efficiency gain: Applicant Review, Sourcing New Candidates etc - How has the time distribution changed once AI comes into production? - Are we spending more time per candidate? Do we have more or less candidate interviews? - QoH...does this measure change? - What would we expect once every TA team becomes AI-enabled? - How do we design a dynamic system of performance measures, which takes into account AI maturity? - What does this mean for people currently in TA - what skills to develop? - How do we ensure early entry talent flow?   All this and more, with Adriano Herdman, CEO (We Are Move), Emma Mirrington, Founder (The Talent Labs), Alan Price, Global Head of Talent Acquisition (Deel), Neil Morelli, Founder (Workplace Labs) & friends.   We are on Friday 19th Sep, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep331 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Let's change it up this week, updated copy below;   Remember when hiring felt simple? A candidate applied, you picked up the phone, and great conversations just… happened.   Somewhere along the way, recruitment became more complicated. Too many tools, too many tabs, and too little time for the human side of hiring.   That's why Teamtailor exists, to put people back at the heart of the process. From creating career sites candidates love, to managing every step of the journey in one seamless platform, we help you focus on what matters most: building great teams. Join more than 185,000 recruiters and discover the new way to attract and hire top talent — with all the AI powered tools you need.   Let's make hiring human again.   See why 11,000+ companies trust us

IMPACT OF AI IN THE BLUE CHIP GRADUATE CAREER   In the before times, the passport to comfortable middle class prosperity was go to a good University, get a 2.1 or above, and apply to a graduate scheme with a blue chip organisation. Most attractive were the global professional services firms - McKinsey, Accenture, PwC, KPMG, BCG and the rest. With the advent of AI replacing a great deal of the knowledge related tasks previously performed by graduate entry into these firms, is this path no longer as viable as it once was?     Lets deep dive:   - State of the blue chip graduate recruiting market - What is the volume of intake 2020-2025? - What type of work might we have expected from early entry employees in PS? - How much of this is 'exposed' to AI disintermediation? - Does AI have a different impact rather than direct replacing the task? - What do PS firms expect from early entry talent in 2025 and beyond? - How can early entry talent best position for a future in PS? - How will Management Consultancy itself change over time?   All this and more, with Yazad Dalal, Chief Growth Officer (Joveo), Marketa Simkova, Partner, Head of People, Performance, Culture - KPMG Middle East & Sophie Jablansky, Senior PM (Veris Insights)from within the Professional Services and Management Consultancy sector.   We are on Friday 12th Sep, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep329 is sponsored by our friends Joveo   As the global leader in AI-powered recruitment marketing and candidate engagement, we are transforming talent attraction and recruitment media buying for the world's largest and smartest employers, staffing businesses, RPOs, and recruitment advertising agencies.   Want to find out more?   Speak to one of our team today.

REALITIES OF AI - INSIGHT & ANALYSIS FROM 1000 HEADS OF TA   Get ahead of the AI curve with exclusive first-look insights from Fosway Group's cutting-edge ‘Realities of AI' research. Sven Elbert unpacks the biggest trends, priorities, and pain points Talent Acquisition leaders will face in 2025. Expect sharp analysis, no-nonsense guidance, and practical, data-driven advice to help you build smarter AI strategies – and finally cut through the hype.   Lets deep dive:   - What is the State of Talent Acquisition in 2025 - How have Talent Acquisition priorities shifted from 2024 to 2025? - Doing More With Less? Well, how are we doing with this? - Budget for tech vs Budget for Payroll - Avg size of Talent Acquisition teams - sector / region / country - Avg req load per capita - What investments in technology are going forward? - How is AI being adopted throughout the TA function? - How is talent acquisition being measured today? - AI Agents - where are they, are they now in the workforce?   All this and more, as Sven Elbert, Head of Analytical Services at Fosway, takes us through the research conducted on Heads of TA in US, UK, Germany and France.   We are on Friday 5th Sep, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep328 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Let's change it up this week, updated copy below;   Remember when hiring felt simple? A candidate applied, you picked up the phone, and great conversations just… happened.   Somewhere along the way, recruitment became more complicated. Too many tools, too many tabs, and too little time for the human side of hiring.   That's why Teamtailor exists, to put people back at the heart of the process. From creating career sites candidates love, to managing every step of the journey in one seamless platform, we help you focus on what matters most: building great teams. Join more than 185,000 recruiters and discover the new way to attract and hire top talent — with all the AI powered tools you need.   Let's make hiring human again.   See why 11,000+ companies trust us

SEO FOR LLM'S? WHAT TALENT ACQUISITION AND EMPLOYER BRANDING HAVE TO KNOW   Generative AI is transforming the way people discover and research employers - and it's happening faster than most Talent Acquisition teams realise.   Google's own research reveals a 30% drop in clicks from traditional search in 2025 alone, as AI-generated summaries answer more user queries before anyone lands on your site. This shift, from Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to LLM Optimisation, brings seismic implications for Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding.   In this live session, we unpack what this means - and what to do next.   Join us as we explore:   The current state of SEO in a world of LLMs How GenAI is reshaping user journeys and web traffic patterns The challenge: career site visits are down, but applications are up—why? And why reduced traffic doesn't mean your career site is any less important - in fact it's the opposite How to influence the new SEO with content designed for LLMs, not just search crawlers Why getting into the training data of GenAI models matters for brand visibility and influencing the narrative Prompt testing: which employers are being recommended by major LLMs? Tactical playbook: 5 essential things TA and Employer Brand teams should do today to stay visible, relevant, and in control   This isn't just about traffic—it's about trust, discoverability, and performance. Content is now the engine that fuels both external AI (LLMs) and internal AI (your own platform tools). And that makes it the new competitive edge.   All this and more with one of the first to draw attention to SEO for LLM, Nathan Perrott, SVP Solutions Engineering (Radancy)   We are on Wednesday 3rd Sep, 12pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep327 is sponsored by our friends Radancy   Radancy delivers the future of hiring. As the global leader in talent acquisition software, Radancy helps enterprises strengthen their organizations with an AI-powered platform that simplifies hiring, reduces costs and accelerates results. Fueled by rich data and deep industry expertise, the Radancy Talent Acquisition Cloud transforms every step of the candidate journey to hire the most qualified talent in any environment – driving efficiency, enhancing experiences, maximizing ROI and empowering organizations to build the workforce of tomorrow.   Book a demo with one of our team today.

HOW MUCH CAN YOUR TALENT ACQUISITION TEAM DO? CAPACITY PLANNING IN THE ERA OF AI   Working out how much capacity you have as a TA leader is pretty much critical to doing your job properly; in fact, it be one of the top three most important things a TA leader should be doing. How do we most effectively do this - does anyone have a framework? Better yet, does anyone have the experience?   We're going to do deep dive on the topic in Brainfood Live On Air.   - What is Talent Acquisition Capacity Planning? - Do you understand how your current actually operates (time / tasks study) - What types of recruiter roles do you have in team? - What levels of seniority do they have in your team? - How to account for different working styles? - How to calculate difficult of role? - How do we know the target is realistic? - How to ensure dynamism in the capacity plan - Do we factor in mental health?? - How about other life circumstance / external commitments - Risk factors to consider - Tools to help.   All this and more with Mary Kay Baldino, Head of Global Talent Acquisition (Morningstar), Amandeep Shergill, Director Talent Acquisition (Automattic), Bradley Clark, Director of Talent Acquisition (Article) & Karen Hutchinson Adão, Group Resourcing Director (Mitie)   We are on Friday 29th Aug, 2pm BST / 9am ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep326 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   Hiring is hard, and getting it right is even harder. It's a core business-building function with high stakes that takes a lot of moving parts to see real success. You need workflows that accommodate how you function given your company size and goals. You need a user experience that hiring managers actually buy into. And you need an application process that locks talent in.   Only Greenhouse gives you all that in one platform.   Learn more

OVERCOMING IMPOSTER SYNDROME: LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM EXEC COACHING   'Imposter Syndrome' is perhaps one of the most well known of psychological phenomena, one which many of us are undoubtedly familiar. Why is it that we tell ourselves that we do not belong, are that we are not worthy of the role or the moment?   Let's dive into the psychology of imposter syndrome and see if we can find practical tips to overcome it.   - What is imposter syndrome? - How does it manifest? - What are the theories behind it? - What negative outcomes can come from having imposter syndrome? - Is it the correct path to pathologies this? - Imposter syndrome in Talent Acquisition - when is this most likely to occur? - What psychological profile of person is most likely to suffer from it? - Practical tips: what are the methods of reducing imposter syndrome? - Can it ever be removed from our psychic make up? - What steps should listeners practice now?   All this and more with Richard Ayre, Exec Coach (The Leadership Torch), Elaine Atkinson, Leadership Coach (In Wonder Coaching) & Tasha Cluskey, Comic / TA Partner   We are on Friday 22nd Aug, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep325 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Ashby just raised $50M in Series D funding, and they're going all in on what modern recruiting teams actually need.   So, what's next?   AI is moving from novelty to necessity.
Most tools talk about AI. Ashby makes it work. Their all-in-one platform gives AI real structure so recruiters get time back with AI note-taking, feedback summaries, and personalized outreach emails.   Quality of Hire is finally getting real.
More teams are rolling out Quality of Hire programs with Ashby than ever before. What used to be a slide in a quarterly review is now a real strategy, with surveys and reporting built in. It's clearer, faster, and easier to connect to business outcomes.   Community is the new operating system. Ashby already made a big splash with Ashby One, their first customer conference that brought hundreds of talent leaders and RecOps professionals together for a week of sessions, panels, dinners, and live events. With this new funding, they're doubling down on the community by expanding ACE (Ashby Customer Expert) chapters, scaling education programs, and giving local leaders more ways to connect, share learnings, and build lasting networks. … and the word is out. Enterprise teams like Shopify and Snowflake are already in. With 123% growth and fresh funding to fuel what's next, Ashby is just getting started.   Bottom line: Ashby is not just building software. They are building the infrastructure for modern recruiting.   See the full announcement.   Not on Ashby yet? Get a demo today.

Automate or Augment? Quarterly Spot Check on the State of AI in TA   With ChatGPT5 round the corner, as well as the release of ChatGPT Agent by Open AI, we are soon to see mass distribution of the next generation of AI. The innovation rate is cycling too fast for any one of us to accurately keep pace so I am going to do a regular quarterly check in on AI adoption in TA / HR and Recruitment use cases which are actually happening, and what can be achieved with AI in reality.     We will learn:   - Current state of General AI Agents - what can it do, can it not do - Current state of Verticalised AI Agents or Agent-ike AI? - Key areas of Hiring funnel which can be automated or augmented - Who decides what is automated or augmented - are humans consciously making these decisions? - What level of AI-literacy do you need to 'make AI work'? - AI Operations Lead ...are we going to be seeing this role in TA? - Where will be in 3 months time (where we will reprise show review!)   All this and more with Alla Pavlova, Tech & Art Recruiter (Riot Games), Marcel van der Meer, AI Automation Expert (Klikwork Talent), Leandro Gomes da Silva, Head of AI Operations (Nobel Recruitment)& Tony de Graaf, Founder (Gusto Consulting)   We are on Friday 15th Aug, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep324 is sponsored by our friends at Hire   Hire.inc is an AI-powered recruitment platform that streamlines hiring with advanced AI sourcing agents, automated AI interview notes, bulk resume screening, and a collaborative ATS. Designed for startups & staffing agencies, Hire.inc helps recruitment teams find, evaluate, and engage top talent faster while integrating into existing workflows.   Question for all recruiters: how much is your time worth??   Answer: a lot more than you think   Demo and try for free here

RecOps & AI: TECHNIQUES TO ACCELERATE AI ADOPTION   Recruitment Operations developed as a distinct function with Talent Acquisition with a purpose of ensuring the entire recruiting function operated as efficiently and as resiliently as possible. This was BEFORE the advent of Artificial Intelligence, so what is the situation in 2025 when AI powered efficiency are the No1, 2 and 3 priorities for almost every business?   We're going to be speaking with Ops leaders to find out how RecOps teams have helped TA functions accelerate their adoption of AI.   - What is RecOps in 2025? - What is the relationship between RecOps and the other functions in Talent Acquisition? - Order business: what are the items of work RecOps professionals do? - What makes a RecOps function a high performing one? - Can we measure RecOps efficacy from the performance of those they are supporting? - How does having an independent RecOps function accelerate technology? - What are the unique differences between AI adoption and adoption of other categories of technology? - How do you ensure tech implementation is a success? - How do you increase utilisation of tech products? - Do you get involved in decision making as to what gets automated? - What are the skills required to be an effective RecOps professional? - How do you see the function evolve in a future of workforce where humans are augmented by AI colleagues?   All this and more with Mark Harman, Global Head of Recruitment Operations (Wise), Victoria Murphy,Global Head TA Operations (JLL) & Stephen Collopy, Head of Talent Operations & Enablement (Delivery Hero)   We are on Friday 8th August, 2pm BST / 9ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep322 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Great teams start with great hiring — and that's exactly what Teamtailor is built for.   Loved by companies like Happy Socks, OneFlow, Oatly, and Five Guys, Teamtailor is the all-in-one recruitment platform trusted by over 10,000 businesses and 150,000 recruiters worldwide.   It combines a powerful ATS with fully customizable, AI-powered tools to elevate your employer brand and deliver a standout candidate experience.   From career sites to collaboration workflows, Teamtailor helps talent teams move faster, work smarter, and create hiring journeys that people actually enjoy — candidates and hiring managers alike.   See how top teams are hiring better with Teamtailor:   Experience the magic today!

HUMANS REQUIRED: CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE HIRING PROCESS   How many times have we heard the comforting phrase 'but recruitment will always need the human touch'?   Intuitively, I believe this is true at least for non-volume, permanent hiring but but do we really understand why, when, who and how? We probably need to find out because if we rely on comforting homilies, we might find the CFO won't quite get it ;-)   - Why do we think the 'human touch' matters? - When we think about the human touch, what scenarios come immediately to mind? - AI / Automation has proven to improve CX in many cases, so is the case being made that more AI / Automation should mean further improvements in CX? - Does the source of the candidate matter when thinking about the 'human touch' - When do we think are the most important moments in the hiring funnel for the human beings to be involved? - Can sometimes 'more human' make things worse? - What does it look like when we have the perfect blend of AI driven efficiency and human delivered empathy? - Do we need to quantify the human touch? If so how does that connect with OKR / KPI's? - What do we - as humans - need from a recruitment experience?   All this and more with Jean-Marie Caillaud, Founder (WorkMeTender), Carrie Brophy, Senior Director Talent Acquisition (Marriott International) & Mark Kunaseelan, Head of Resourcing (University of Arts, London)   We are on Friday 1st August, 2pm BST / 9ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep321 is sponsored by our friends Willo   Recruiting for high-volume positions in a global, diverse workforce is increasingly challenging, especially when relying on traditional methods and the limitations of written CVs. Managing thousands of applications manually is not only exhausting and inefficient, it can also prevent you from finding the top talent your organization needs to thrive.   Enter Willo. The award-winning team is transforming the hiring process with a dynamic candidate screening solution that users love, backed by an NPS score to prove it!   Their web-based, human-centric platform enables candidates to record responses to a predefined set of questions at their convenience. With over 5,000 secure integrations, Willo makes it easy to supercharge your recruitment process, reduce bias, and support diversity, equity, and inclusion goals—all while helping you tap into a larger, more exciting pool of global candidates.   Book a demo at willo.video this month to get 10% off—just use the coupon code "brainfood”. That's W-i-l-l-o dot video.

CANDIDATE FRAUD: HARDENING THE HIRING FUNNEL WITH INFOSEC TECHNIQUES   Candidate fraud is already a problem for some today but it will soon be a huge problem for everyone tomorrow. The uncomfortable truth is that AI will undermine trust in all digital communications and we need to rethink our recruitment approaches with security much higher in the priority list. It might even be said that security may become one of the main values human recruiters will perform as AI transforms the way we work today.   We will learn   - Line between legitimate AI use vs Fraud? - Is this fixed today or can we expect this to change tomorrow? - What is the international consensus on this line? - Taxonomise candidate fraud - what are the techniques, how they are using these techniques - Motivations for candidate fraud: material gain, desperation for job opportunity, IP theft? - Input from InfoSec: what practices will become standard? - Isn't trusting 3rd party verifiers just delegating the security responsibility? - What about bias - racial profiling, IP location bias etc? - Relationship between Candidate Fraud vs Remote working - Gender: fraudsters mainly male...?     All this and more with Daniel Chait, CEO (Greenhouse) & friends   We are on Wednesday 30th July, 12 Noon ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep323 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   Hiring is hard, and getting it right is even harder. It's a core business-building function with high stakes that takes a lot of moving parts to see real success. You need workflows that accommodate how you function given your company size and goals. You need a user experience that hiring managers actually buy into. And you need an application process that locks talent in.   Only Greenhouse gives you all that in one platform.   Learn more

STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING IN AN AGENTIC WORLD   Recruiters have long said that stronger SWP would solve all recruitment problems - if the business only told us with a bit more notice what they were looking for! But now with AI Agents becoming a population in the workforce, can we really know what the right size for a team is anymore?   We're taking a deep dive into the world of talent intelligence and trying to figure out how exactly we can plan for a future workforce of AI-abled human workers, perhaps alongside Human-empathetic AI workers...   - How has AI changed the demand Strategic Workforce Planning? - What have employers been looking for, what can we learn from their demands on TalentNeuron? - What types of company are doing what things - how does demand intersect with sector & region? - Real talk: are companies getting smaller or planning to get smaller? - What type of work previous exclusively done by humans, is likely to be done partly or wholly by AI? - How does SWP work when considering AI...how it takes to ramp up / train? - How do companies think about managing KPI's of Agentic workers? - What is the future of Talent Acquisition / HR in this context? - TA / HR Transformation: define the work that future TA / HR should be doing?     All this and more with Dave Wilkins, Chief Product & Strategy Officer, TalentNeuron     We are on Friday 25th July, 2pm BST / 9ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep320 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   There's no shortage of AI in recruiting. The hard part is finding what's actually useful. Ashby's one of the few building practical tools that make recruiters' lives better.   Their latest Ashby One release shows what thoughtful AI looks like:   AI Notetaker that automatically captures transcripts, summaries, and feedback prompts AI‑Assisted Report Builder uses plain English to ask questions of your data AI Candidate Assistant to help you understand candidate histories and next steps at a glance Plus AI‑Generated Feedback Tokens that let you send polished rejection or update emails in seconds No AI for AI's sake. Just practical tools that reduce busywork and help teams move faster.   See what's new   Not on Ashby yet? Get a demo today.

Forget Filters: 1,000 AI Recruiters On-Demand - ENDORSED LIVE DEMO   It should go without saying that finding suitable candidates is the primary purpose of recruiting. The promise of Artificial Intelligence is enabling more companies to do that more effectively than ever before. What does next generation sourcing tech actually look like?   We're continuing our Live Demo series by challenging the founders of the business to come on screen to show what their tech can do. Next up, David Head, CEO of Endorsed!   - When did you know Endorsed was going to be a thing? - Why this problem to tackle? - What advantage do recruiters who use Endorsed have over the competition? - FAQ's from buyers who say yes vs FAQ's from prospects who say no - Can we carry out some live searches? - How does application review work? - How do you handle questions on bias on candidate ranking? - Fraud detector - what caused you to build this feature? - Can you explain how this works? - How do you see this feature integrating with other software tools?   Any questions for David? Let me know in the comments below.     We are on Tuesday 22nd July, 10am PT / 1pm ET - follow the channel (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep316 is sponsored by our friends Endorsed     Endorsed.com is the AI recruiting agent platform for rapidly building talent-dense teams.   Rapidly growing companies like Quince, Eight Sleep, and Prokeep rely on Endorsed to surface hidden stars, combat candidate fraud, and streamline sourcing and applicant review workflows. Endorsed increases quality-of-hire, reduces time-to-fill by up to 75%, and boosts recruiter role capacity by up to 2x.   Get 10% off your subscription with the code BRAINFOOD   See Endorsed instantly triple your number of gold medal candidates on your real role by booking a demo.

COMPANY CULTURE: AI FIRST VS HUMAN CENTRED?   We know the right answer is 'both' but really - when push comes to shove - what is the driving principle in how you build your business? Two emerging philosophies are driving the decision making in companies - lets use Brainfood Live to figure out which one is going to be the right one when it comes your business   - What is AI First? - What is Human Centred? - What are the main points of both / either? - In what points do they overlap, and which points are they fundamentally in tension? - What can we learn from the companies that use these philosophies? - What difference does it make to TA decision making when operating under one of these principles? - AI First companies have been innovative but have also rolled back from experiments - what does this tell us? - How do we assess for technology when operating under either of these principles? - Can Human Centred by characterised by 'human-in-the-loop' / humans-always-in-the-loop decision making? - Which principle ultimately is best suited for which sector?   All this and more with Jessie Schofer,Founder (Stakkd), Anna Ott, VP of People (HV Capital), Carrie Brophy, Senior Director Talent Acquisition (Marriot International) & Sammi Abdoh, People Technology Manager (ARM)     We are on Friday 18th July, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep319 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Great teams start with great hiring — and that's exactly what Teamtailor is built for.   Loved by companies like Happy Socks, OneFlow, Oatly, and Five Guys, Teamtailor is the all-in-one recruitment platform trusted by over 10,000 businesses and 150,000 recruiters worldwide.   It combines a powerful ATS with fully customizable, AI-powered tools to elevate your employer brand and deliver a standout candidate experience.   From career sites to collaboration workflows, Teamtailor helps talent teams move faster, work smarter, and create hiring journeys that people actually enjoy — candidates and hiring managers alike.   See how top teams are hiring better with Teamtailor: Experience the magic today!

STATE OF TALENT ACQUISITION: THE RECFEST REVIEW 2025   Recfest is the largest in person event for Talent Acquisition professionals and the perfect barometer for the state of the market. Let's see what we learn from the 100+ talks and conversations with 1000's of delegates who will have attended the industry's premier event.   We will review   - RecFest main themes - UK Economy vs Global Macro - AI-enablement and the AI First Movement - Where are we with DEI? - Employer branding when the Internet is dominated by AI slop - All we need to know about bias - Organisational agility - can we train for this? - Update on AI legislation in TA / HR - Expanding scope beyond Permanent Hiring - Expanding scope beyond Recruiting - New Metrics for the AI Era - Core skills for Future Fit Recruiters - AI leaving TA Leaders Behind - TA transformation: Moving from cliche to confirmation   All this and more with Jamie Leonard, Founder (RecFest), Clair Bush, Fractional CMO (AM-Bush), Bas van de Haterd, Founder (Digitaal-Werven & friends)   We are on Friday 11th July, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep318 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   There's no shortage of AI in recruiting. The hard part is finding what's actually useful. Ashby's one of the few building practical tools that make recruiters' lives better.   Their latest Ashby One release shows what thoughtful AI looks like:   AI Notetaker that automatically captures transcripts, summaries, and feedback prompts AI‑Assisted Report Builder uses plain English to ask questions of your data AI Candidate Assistant to help you understand candidate histories and next steps at a glance Plus AI‑Generated Feedback Tokens that let you send polished rejection or update emails in seconds No AI for AI's sake. Just practical tools that reduce busywork and help teams move faster.   See what's new   Not on Ashby yet? Get a demo today.

HOW TO ASSESS JOB CANDIDATES FOR AI LITERACY?   There is no company in the world that is not interested in becoming more AI-enabled. One of the ways to do this is directly relevant to us - recruit new people who can bring up the level of AI literacy in the workforce. In a direct analogy to the digitisation wave of the early 2000's, we now have the AI wave of the 2020's - becoming AI-enabled by hiring AI-enabled employees.   Question is...how do we assess for this? This is the topic of Brainfood Live   - What is AI-literacy? - How close are we to an industry consensus on levels of capability? - Can we identify AI literacy on CV / background? - If so, what signals? - If not, can we do so via any other online method? - What is the best interview technique to assess candidates AI-fluency? - How do we assess in a non-interview based way? - What assessment tech assists that can help us with this? - Does AI fluency correlate with traits or attributes in any way? - For recruiter roles - what kind of assessments should we undertake to hire AI-fluent candidates?   All this and more with Martyn Redstone, Founder, Eunomia HR, Johannes Sundlo, FullStack HR & friends   We are on Friday 4th July, 2pm BST - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep315 is sponsored by our friends BrightHire   BrightHire is the leading Interview Intelligence platform, used by teams at Canva, Hubspot, Ramp, Webflow, and 500+ other organizations to:   Scale structured interview planning   Improve interview quality   Speed up feedback   Level up quality of hiring decisions   Optimize with powerful insights   Learn why world class companies choose BrightHire to drive significant efficiency while raising the bar.  

RECRUITER SKILLS PROFILE: HOW AI CHANGES THE GAME   We all know that AI is going to change every job, but we don't know precisely how or when, much less the implications on the type of skills we need to be hiring when recruiting for 'AI first' employers.     - What do we know about the impact of AI / Automation in knowledge work? - What skills are going to be insulated and valued from this impact? - Do we 'design out' job roles which have high component of these insulated skills? - How do humans uniquely add value to any process, for any outcome? - Do we actually do this? - If AI takes on admin, logistics, note taking, CV screening etc - what other activities remain? - Will these remain valuable for the business or simply disappear if the scaffolding that holds up the rest of the job disppears? - What do we know are the skill we WON'T need on future TA? - What are the skills which we will need going forward? - How do we assess for those skills - with AI or without AI? - Do we go back to attribute based hiring? - Can incumbent employees improve their attributes in order to be future fit? - How do companies ensure that you have the right skills / capability mix in your recruiting team? - What do leaders themselves need to do to be future fit?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with the one and only Tom Sayer, Global Recruiting Strategy (Accenture)   We are on Friday 27th June, 2pm BST   Click on the Save My Spot button to attend for free, and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified for this and all future Brainfood Lives   Ep314 is sponsored by our friends Teamtailor   Great teams start with great hiring — and that's exactly what Teamtailor is built for.   Loved by companies like Happy Socks, OneFlow, Oatly, and Five Guys, Teamtailor is the all-in-one recruitment platform trusted by over 10,000 businesses and 150,000 recruiters worldwide.   It combines a powerful ATS with fully customizable, AI-powered tools to elevate your employer brand and deliver a standout candidate experience.   From career sites to collaboration workflows, Teamtailor helps talent teams move faster, work smarter, and create hiring journeys that people actually enjoy — candidates and hiring managers alike.   See how top teams are hiring better with Teamtailor: Experience the magic today!

CANDIDATE FRAUD: IT'S A RECRUITING EMERGENCY   We probably never thought we'd ever encounter this challenge, but in 2025 there is no denying that candidate fraud poses an increasing danger to the fidelity of traditional hiring practices, Increase global economic uncertainty, a globalised talent pool who can find jobs and apply from anywhere in the world and the advent of powerful AI tools on the candidate side have increase the risk to employers, as well as damage the prospects of legitimate and genuine job seekers.   It's a recruiting emergency and we need a plan!   - What is the current state of candidate fraud? - Can we taxonomise the fraud techniques? - How much as remote hiring practices increased risk? - What methods are employers currently deploying to deal with fraud? - Do we have any examples of successful fraud mitigation? - What do we anticipate the future top-of-funnel to look like? - What immediate steps should top talent teams take today? - Hiring managers; Help or hinder? - What tools / technologies can help reduce candidate fraud? - How do we ensure fair recruitment practices whilst hardening employer defences? - Are we going to roll all the way back to analogue recruiting practices?   All this and more with Ryan Coulthorp, Senior Director of Workforce Planning & Recruiting Operations (Okta), Glenn Lindley, Founder (TalentIP) & Timothy Khoo-Jones, Head of Talent (TBC)     We are on Friday 27th June, 10am PT / 1pm ET - follow the channel here (recommended) and save your spot for this demo by clicking on the green button.     Ep317 is sponsored by our friends tofu   AI Agents for inbound resume screening, application enrichment, and applicant fraud detection   Hundreds of talent teams like Restaurant365, Luxury Presence, Garner Health, Crusoe Energy, Prophecy and many others use tofu to screen and recruit faster. We're also trusted by top venture funds like M13, LeftLane, Redpoint, Bessemer Ventures, Uncork and others to support their portfolio companies.   What to know more?   BOOK A DEMO TODAY

Brainfood on Tour - How to Hire in Brazil in 2025 & Beyond   Brazil - the largest country in South America, an emerging power in the world with enormous natural resources, a growing population and huge space for development. What is it like hiring in Brazil in 2025? How will it look going forward? Brainfood is back on tour, so let's talk to local recruiters and find out.   We're going to speak with Juliana Park, Founder (HRX Brasil), Monaly Malucelli, Exec Search (MMT), Patrick Gouy, CEO (Recrut.AI), Karina Fiod, Talent Acquisition Lead (SumUp), Davi Bufalo, LATAM Head of Talent (OLIVER) & friends   - What is the state of the economy in Brazil in 2025? - What are the main strengths, main challenge here? - What sectors are the largest employers? - What is the competition for the top talent? - What defines top talent here? - How do candidates behave - what is the best channel of communication for first contact? - What skills are most in-demand here? - How is the use of AI changing how companies recruit? - How is the relationship with the US & China changing the economy here? - What are the 10 things a recruiter should know in order to become more successful in Brazil? All this and more, on Wednesday 25th June,2pm BRT / 6pm BST   Click on here to follow the channel (recommended) and click on the green button to register for this show.

BEYOND TALENT ACQUISITION: LEADERSHIP SKILLS NEEDED TO EXPAND SCOPE   Talent Acquisition was the optimal specialism in the People Ops function during the ZIRP of hyper growth; but what organisations needed in 2019 is not what organisations need in 2025. We're already in a world where global growth is slowing, companies are getting smaller, more efficient, more automated. The need for everyone in Talent Acquisition is to expand scope but what skills are needed for us to get there?   - Lay of the land: State of Talent Acquisition - What is changing in terms of skills demand? - As companies become 'AI first', what does this mean for organisation structure and team size - Non-FTE: who is currently doing this and how does TA takes this on? - Workflow automation: can TA / HR take on the role of 'automators-in-chief'? - Internal mobility - how to unlock IM, retain the talent and reduce demand for external hire? - Technology: what innovations can support TA / HR expansion of scope? - It's too much - how to take on too much and still be effective? - How to delegate - How to hire and grow leaders to whom delegation is possible? - What the main attributes needed for a TA leader to expand scope? - What skills need to be developed? - How to accelerate the development of those skills?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with Johnny Campbell, CEO (Social Talent), Lyndsey Taylor, Global Head of HR Transformation (Brooks Automation), Christine Ng, Head of Talent (Quantum Motion) & friends   We are on Friday 20th June, 2pm BST   Click on the Save My Spot button to attend for free, and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified for this and all future Brainfood Lives   Ep313 is sponsored by our friends Greenhouse   Hiring is hard, and getting it right is even harder. It's a core business-building function with high stakes that takes a lot of moving parts to see real success. You need workflows that accommodate how you function given your company size and goals. You need a user experience that hiring managers actually buy into. And you need an application process that locks talent in.   Only Greenhouse gives you all that in one platform.

TALENT ACQUISITION WITHOUT BOUNDARIES: LEADERSHIP LESSONS FOR GLOBAL TA TEAMS   There are many reasons why companies become geographically dispersed - to better service local markets, to develop specific new products, tap into specialist labour markets, corporate tax efficiency and wage arbitrage, taking advantage of skilled labour wherever it can be found at the best cost coefficient for the business.   How is it like to work in, manage and lead a Global Talent Acquisition team? This is the question we'll be looking to ask in this week's Brainfood Live   - What are the main challenges of working with global TA teams? - How real are cultural differences when it comes to talent acquisition? - Do local recruiters NEED to operate differently, with behaviours best suited to the local landscape? - How does AI innovation impact global communication? - What is the impact of remote vs hybrid vs on premise on management of global Talent Acquisition? - Can it be said that different countries have different status for TA? - How realistic / fair is it to cultivate different practices in TA - how do we determine which is most appropriate? - DEI: how does this work in Global TA? - What are the best methods of fostering team cohesion across distance / time boundaries? - KPI's - are these localised and should they be? - EVP - are these localised and should they be? - Career pathing / Internal mobility - how can leaders provide internal labour liquidity in TA? - Hiring leaders...what best tips / techniques? - Implementing technology ...how to select and implement?   All this and more, with Brainfood Live On Air.   We're with Sandy Grewal, Global HR Transformation Lead (Kambi), Harpreet Kaur, Director Talent Acquisition (Adobe) & Jennifer Candee, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, (IMI)   We are on Friday 13th June, 2pm BST   Click on the Save My Spot button to attend for free, and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified for this and all future Brainfood Lives   Ep312 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   Ashby is the all-in-one ATS which evolves at the speed of AI.   Trusted by high performing recruiting teams at Notion, Reddit, Shopify, Duolingo, Deliveroo and thousands of other top employers across the globe. Ashby is your core recruitment tool designed to help your organisation excel at hiring.   Give your recruiters and hiring managers the chance to the best.   Get in touch for a personal demo today.