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The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast: Your weekly 60 minute dose of brilliant conversation about Recruiting & HR
Episodes
7 days ago
7 days ago
DOGE, US Fed Gov and the Future of HR & TA in the USA
We have to talk about DOGE.
The US Federal Government is the largest single employer in the United States at 2.5 million employees. The intent of the Trump 2.0 administration is to radically reduce this number - by at least 10% in the first tranche - and maybe to end up with a workforce of about 10% when it is all said and done.
This is unprecedented downsizing of government function, the likes of which we have rarely seen outside of active conflict situations. The role of TA / HR and People Ops in general is multi-faceted. On of the one hand, there are thousands of colleagues in these roles who will be impacted (perhaps disproportionately so?) and so might now find themselves abruptly on the job market. On another hand, as People Ops' pros one of the most important functions is to ensure organisational compliance with employment law - how can one do this when the organisation itself seems intent in ignoring it? Finally, People Ops functions have responsibility and duty of care for other employees, who will no doubt by overwhelming HR departments right now with requests for advice and support on what to do.
Brainfood Live cannot solve any of these problems but it can help shine a light into what is going on, so that we can better understand the implications and in so doing, find a way to best support the people most impacted.
It's going to be an open mic style show folks, so if you are in the US and want to talk part in this conversation, dial in. We're with Steve Rothberg, Founder (CollegeRecruiter), Mike Bruni, Partner (Talent Acquisition Strategies), Kate Bischoff, Founder (K8bisch LLC) & friends
We are on Friday 21st March, 11am PST / 2pm EST
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.
Saturday Mar 15, 2025
Saturday Mar 15, 2025
IDEAL STRUCTURE OF AI-ENABLED TA
You might have noticed a run of AI Agent demo's on Brainfood Live recently - product makers are increasingly confident that they are going to produce intelligent software which will increasingly behave more like a colleague than a tool. What does this mean for the humans in the recruitment function?
Transformation is closer than we think and we need to get busy thinking about a future where AI indeed transforms our function, how that function needs to be structured for maximum efficacy and perhaps most importantly, how we ensure the efficiency gains provided by AI, convert to experience gains secured for humans.
We will discuss:
- State of AI in TA today
- Current structure of TA teams - what are the options?
- Will AI simplify TA structure - Y/N?
- What functions will human TA retain, which will be automated?
- How do humans 'stay in the loop'?
- SHOULD humans stay in the loop?
- What do we know about candidate experience and how will AI improve this?
- Bias: how do we ensure AI does not exacerbate bias in hiring?
- Where will recruiters be spending time in 2026?
- How will the role of hiring managers change with the increase use of AI?
- What does the optimal structure of TA look like going forward?
- How do TA leaders start the journey toward getting there today?
All this and more, with some of the smartest people in the industry talking us through it. We're with industry legends John Vlastelica, Founder (RecruitingToolbox), Kevin Wheeler, Founder (Future of Talent Institute), Jim Miller, VP of People & Talent (Ashby), Syeda Younus, Director Research (Gartner) & Mary Kay Baldino, Head of Talent Acquisition (Morningstar)
We are on Friday 14th March, 12PM PST / 3PM EST / 7PM GMT
Ashby is what an ATS should be: an integration of sourcing automation, AI-supported outreach sequencing, native interview scheduling, a searchable CRM, and advanced analytics – all in one ATS++ system. That means better data, less context switching, and more streamlined workflows.
Chosen by over a thousand companies, including Quora, Docker, Ironclad, and Multiverse, Ashby stands out as the top-rated ATS on G2. It is renowned for its real-time and reliable reporting, the ability to centralize the entire hiring process, and unparalleled customer support.
Talent Trends Reports are freely available: Download the latest here
Saturday Mar 08, 2025
Saturday Mar 08, 2025
Autonomous Agentic AI Recruiters: Here, Now?
If 2025 is going to be year of the Agentic AI, then companies like SeekOut are going to be one of the tech companies at the frontier of building them. We have already reviewed what Agentic AI is (see Ep293!) - and discussed how close and how far we are away from seeing them in production. Can product builders shed more light on where we currently stand - can we even see some of these agents in action?
I challenged SeekOut CEO Anoop Gupta to show us what is on the roadmap, and of course Anoop was up for the challenge! Not only will we see the next evolution of one of the most popular recruiting tools on the market, but in doing so better understand how this will shape the contours of future recruiting work.
Expectations are high: lets see whether Agentic AI is here, now!
We are on Friday 7th March, 1pm PT
SeekOut is one of the world's most popular recruitment technology platforms. Trusted by 1000's of employers worldwide to provide exceptional AI-enhanced candidate sourcing and personalising messaging services. Help your team hire the best talent by using SeekOut.
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Brainfood on Tour - How to Hire in Indonesia in 2025 and beyond?
Indonesia has nearly 300 million people and therefore MUST have a huge amount of recruiting going on! And yet, it will come to no surprise to anyone that this is yet another country of which I am shamefully ignorant! Let’s talk to local recruiters and found out how exactly recruiters, employers and candidates interact in this incredible country.
We’re going to learn:
- What is the state of the economy in Indonesia in 2025?
- What are the main strengths, main challenges to the economy 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 is the education level of the general population?
- What skills are most in-demand here?
- Does Indonesia export talent / skills? If so, what?
- Does Indonesia import talent / skills? If so, what?
- What is the relationship employers have with recruitment agencies here?
- How is the use of AI changing how companies recruit?
- Are the island economies effectively separate?
- How has the new capital impacted demand in Jakarta?
- What are the 10 things a recruiter should know in order to become successful in Indonesia?
All this and more, on Tues 4th March, 11AM WIT
Click on here to follow the channel (recommended) and click on the green button to register for this show.
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Hiring Insights Report 2025
One of the best value changes for Brainfood Live in 2025 is showcasing proprietary data from recruitment technology companies who are able to aggregate data on how TA teams actually behave. Join us for an exclusive webinar as we dive into the key findings from GoodTime’s 2025 Hiring Insights Report, including trends, challenges, and strategies shaping talent acquisition in 2025. Here’s what we’ll cover: The state of hiring in 2025
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Why TA teams only hit 47.9% of their hiring goals in 2024
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How time-to-hire increased for 60% of companies
Top hiring challenges revealed
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What’s causing interview scheduling bottlenecks
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The rise of competition in a shifting talent market
How AI and automation are changing the game
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How 93% of TA leaders plan to use tech to achieve hiring goals
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Real-world examples of smarter tools driving efficiency and better candidate experiences
And so many more actionable strategies for success in 2025. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insights that can transform your hiring strategy and set your team up for success in 2025!
We are on Friday 28th February, 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm GMT
GoodTime supercharges your recruiting coordination team to schedule 2-10X more interviews and helps them become more efficient and error-free. Automated, intelligent and human-centric interview scheduling is the simplistic way to deliver impactful improvements on how your business recruits. Schedule a demo here
Wednesday Feb 26, 2025
Wednesday Feb 26, 2025
INTRODUCING AI AGENT BY JUICEBOX
AI Agents promise to revolutionise the work of recruiting but early experiments with generic products like OpenAI Operator have shown there is still some way to go - humans still needed to oversee, correct and train, especially for the unique use case of finding other human beings as candidates for the jobs we're recruiting for.
It's time for the recruitment technology vendors to step up and fill this need!
David Paffenholz, CEO of Juicebox, the company behind the groundbreaking talent sourcing tool 'PeopleGPT', think they have got the first breakthrough AI Agent focused on the recruiting use case. Let's put him and the AI Agent to the test in this LIVE DEMO of the how the product (or is it now, 'colleague'?) works.
We will learn:
- What instructions does AI Agent need to carry out its tasks?
- How does AI Agent identify candidates from natural language prompts?
- What sources does AI Agent use to find candidates?
- How does it ensure data currency?
- Does AI Agent score or rank candidates?
- What is the mechanism if so?
- Can AI Agent conduct outreach?
- Can AI Agent conduct prescreening?
- What can AI Agent NOT currently do?
- How does a company optimally use AI Agent?
- What is the story with compliance, especially with anticipated transatlantic divergence on AI safety?
- What else do we need to know before we deploy AI Agent??
We are on Wednesday 26th February, 7am PT / 3pm GMT
Ep294-a is sponsored by our friends PeopleGPT 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:
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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.
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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.
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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 it now here
Wednesday Feb 26, 2025
Wednesday Feb 26, 2025
Brainfood on Tour - How to Hire in Singapore in 2025 and Beyond?
Friends, we’re always on the move and visiting local recruiter communities to find out how those folks here in their local territories. I am delighted to be visiting Singapore once again - the Mighty Mouse of SE Asia! One of the smallest countries by landmass, yet one of the economically most important, the city state has been a huge centre of financial innovation and a place where many MNC’s have operations. What is it like to hire for talent in Singapore?
We’re going to learn:
- State of the Singapore Economy 2025
- Major challenges, major opportunities
- Political environment - how does business feel about Lawrence Wong?
- Economic plans from the Govt, what is the plan for employment / growth?
- Demographics …where is Singapore getting the workforce?
- Employment law…what do foreigners need to know about hiring in Singapore?
- Local vs Ex-pat vs Immigrant - who hires who and how?
- In-demand sectors
- How do recruiters operate here?
- Recruitment technology - who is using what?
- Talent import / export …who is going, who is staying?
- JB / Singapore economic zone…who big a deal?
- What do Recruiters need to know to become successful in Singapore?
All this and more, on Weds 26th February, 930am local time.
Click on here to follow the channel (recommended) and click on the green button to register for this show.
See you all later this month!
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Talent Trends: Recruiter Productivity 2025
Ashby produce some fantastic quarterly reports, taking information from their platform to better understand the behaviour of the recruiters in the market. Hot of the press with the latest report, we are going to take this session to deep dive into a topic we all need to care about in 2025 - Recruiter Productivity.
We will find out:
- What are the productivity benchmarks for recruiting in 2024?
- Can we distinguish between how A+ performers behave compared to C- performers?
- What are the most impactful changes TA teams can make when deciding to uplevel their productivity?
- At individual level, what are the ways leaders can fairly measure performance?
- Can we discern the impact of AI on recruiter activity?
- Are there any sectors, regions, company types that seem to be most productive?
- If so, what is transferrable from these to others?
All this and more, as we deep dive into the numbers, followed by panel discussion with Heads of TA!
We're with with Willem Wijnans, Community & Talent Advisory Lead (Ashby), Andrea Marston, Talent Acquisition Director (Nutanix), Alexa McWilliam, Global Head of Talent Acquisition (numa) & Andy Mountney, Global Head of Talent Acquisition (Chainlink)
We are on Friday 21st February, 2pm GMT
Ashby is what an ATS should be: an integration of sourcing automation, AI-supported outreach sequencing, native interview scheduling, a searchable CRM, and advanced analytics – all in one ATS++ system. That means better data, less context switching, and more streamlined workflows.
Chosen by over a thousand companies, including Quora, Docker, Ironclad, and Multiverse, Ashby stands out as the top-rated ATS on G2. It is renowned for its real-time and reliable reporting, the ability to centralize the entire hiring process, and unparalleled customer support.
Talent Trends Reports are freely available: Download the latest here
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Friday Feb 14, 2025
AI Agents in TA & HR Hype vs Reality?
Some people are saying that will be the year of the AI Agent - an advancement of AI where it crosses over from being an amazing tool to being a competent colleague. The Google Whitepaper shared in recruiting brainfood a few weeks ago was an outstanding introduction to the topic and we're going to use this session to deep dive into state of play when it comes to Agentic AI
You will learn what TA Leaders think about:
- What is Agentic AI?
- Why is this a step change from 'normal AI'?
- Do we have AI Agents currently out there in production?
- In what fields or sectors: can we see one in action?
- How are AI agents built?
- What might be the use cases for Agentic AI in Recruitment?
- How do we anticipate Agentic AI making an appearance in the workflow?
- Are there any Agentic AI's operating in recruiting or HR right now?
- What is the best thing that TA / HR should do in given what we know about Agentic AI?
All this and more on Brainfood Live On Air. We're with Johannes Sundlo, People Director, (Avalanche Studios Group), Jessie Schofer, Founder (Stakkd), Simão Nogueira, Head of AI (Talent Protocol) & Jose Kadlec, Author (HR Robosapiens) - on Friday 14th Feb, 11.00am GMT
Metaview is the No #1 AI Scribe purpose-built for recruiting.
Now with Metaview Free Plan, there is no excuse not to have an AI interview note taker. If you want to improve your hiring efficiency in 2025 and NOT yet implemented an AI interview note taking tool, then there is no longer any excuse: Metaview Free is a zero cost opportunity to build efficiencies into your own workflow; Metaview are SO confident that you will see the value that you will want to get your whole team and hiring managers on it too.
Friday Feb 07, 2025
Friday Feb 07, 2025
State of Hiring - What Do 100 Talent Leaders Think for 2025?
Every year Willo put together a report from an in-depth survey of 100+ Heads of Talent. And every year Brainfood Live gets CEO Euan Cameron on screen to talk us through it. If you're a TA Leader who needs to benchmark what your peers are thinking, this show is for you:
You will learn what TA Leaders think about:
- Budget allocation in 2025
- Tech / Tools which are the priorities
- TA upskilling, what are the skills gaps in the current Talent Acquisition set up
- Hiring: what is the scale of hiring for TA, what skills / attributes are most important right now?
- Compensation: what rates for which levels in TA
- How does the TA structure look like 2024 vs 2025?
- What is the degree of off shoring in team?
- FTE vs Non-FTE in team
- What even is the right size of a TA team?
All this and more on Brainfood Live On Air. We're on Friday 7th Feb, 10am GMT
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