The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast

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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep410 - Future of Hiring with Matt Wilson, CEO of Jack & Jill 15.09.2026 37мин

  The Future of Hiring, with Matt Wilson, CEO of Jack & Jill   Matt Wilson, CEO of Jack & Jill, joins Hung Lee live to discuss what happens when AI makes applying almost effortless, application volumes explode, and the traditional signals recruiters rely on start to disappear.   Key Themes We'll Cover:   The End of the Application? - What happens when applying becomes effectively free, and why more applications plus better filters may not be the answer   An Agent for Every Candidate - What changes when people have an agent that understands their experience, ambitions, salary expectations and what they actually want next   What Recruiters Do Next - Where agents can assist with searching, matching and introductions, and where human judgement, persuasion and relationships matter more than ever.   The Job Market in 2030 - What hiring could look like if agents continuously search the market on behalf of people and companies, without candidates needing to apply at all   Whether you're sceptical about AI agents or already exploring them for your team, this session will give you a clear-eyed view of where the technology stands and where it's going.   Follow Recruiting Brainfood here (recommended) and register (save my spot) now to join the live discussion on 15 September at 2pm - bring your questions, because this one is going to get interesting!
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep407 - Disconnected AI vs Multi-Agent Ecosystem: How to build a TA Tech Stack for the Agentic Era 11.09.2026 1ч 2мин

  Disconnected AI vs. Multi-Agent Ecosystems: Building a TA Tech Stack in the Agentic AI Era   For the past few years, talent acquisition teams have been bolting AI tools onto their existing tech stacks - an AI scheduler here, a chatbot there, a CV parser with some machine learning sprinkled on top. It's worked, sort of!   But we're now entering the agentic AI era, where autonomous AI agents don't just assist with tasks; they execute entire workflows, hand off work to other agents, and make decisions that ripple across your entire hiring process.   The question is no longer "Which AI tool should we buy?" but "How do we architect a system where multiple AI agents actually talk to each other?" A disconnected stack of point solutions risks creating more friction than it solves, while a well-designed multi-agent ecosystem could fundamentally reshape how recruiting gets done. In this session, we'll explore what it takes to build a TA tech stack that isn't just AI-enabled - it's agentic by design.   Key Themes We'll Cover: The Point Solution Problem – Why your current stack of disconnected AI tools is creating data silos, workflow gaps, and a fragmented candidate experience What "Agentic AI" Actually Means for TA – Moving beyond chatbots and auto-schedulers to autonomous agents that can source, screen, engage, and coordinate across the hiring funnel Multi-Agent Architecture 101 – The key design principles for getting AI agents to communicate, delegate, and collaborate without creating chaos The Integration Imperative – Why your ATS, CRM, assessment platform, and HRIS need to become agent-friendly, and what that looks like in practice Orchestration vs. Automation – How multi-agent ecosystems differ from traditional workflow automation, and why the distinction matters for scale Governance in a Multi-Agent World – Who's accountable when one agent's output becomes another agent's input? Building oversight without killing speed Vendor Landscape Shifts – Which platforms are pivoting toward agentic ecosystems and which are clinging to the old single-tool model The Recruiter's Role in an Agentic Stack – How the job changes when agents handle execution and recruiters focus on strategy, relationship, and judgment Building Your Roadmap – Practical steps to audit your current stack, identify integration gaps, and prioritise investments for an agentic future Whether you're a TA leader planning next year's tech budget, a recruiter wondering how your workflow is about to change, or an operations specialist trying to make sense of the vendor noise, this session will give you a clear framework for thinking about your stack in the agentic era.   The shift from disconnected tools to intelligent ecosystems is happening fast - don't get left stitching together point solutions while your competitors build agent armies.   We're on Friday 11th September, 2pm BST.   Follow the Recruiting Brainfood channel here (recommended) and register for the show here now.   Ep407 is supported by our friends Joveo.   High-Performance Recruitment Marketing Powered by Agentic AI. Integrated Talent Attraction - everything before the ATS.   Find out more here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep405 - What the EU AI Act Means for Recruiters 04.09.2026 1ч 1мин

  EU AI Act is Now in Force! What Recruiters Need To Do Now   The EU AI Act is no longer a future concern - it's live, enforceable, and already reshaping how organisations can use artificial intelligence in hiring. For recruiters and talent acquisition teams, this isn't just a compliance headache for the legal department. If your tech stack includes AI-powered sourcing, CV screening, video interviewing, or candidate assessment tools, the Act directly affects you. The stakes are high: non-compliance can trigger fines of up to 7% of global annual turnover, and the rules apply to any employer hiring within the EU, regardless of where the company is headquartered. Yet many TA teams are only now waking up to what "high-risk AI system" means in practice. In this session, we'll cut through the regulatory noise and focus on what recruiters actually need to do - and do quickly - to stay on the right side of the law without grinding their hiring process to a halt.   Key Themes We'll Cover: What the EU AI Act Actually Says About Recruitment – Which AI hiring tools are classified as high-risk and what that classification triggers in terms of legal obligation The Transparency Imperative – Why you now need to tell candidates when AI is being used to evaluate them, and how to do it without damaging the candidate experience Human-in-the-Loop Requirements – What "meaningful human oversight" really means and how to design workflows that satisfy regulators without creating bottlenecks Bias Testing and Documentation – The new standards for fairness auditing, dataset governance, and the paper trail you need to build around every AI-driven hiring decision Vendor Due Diligence – The hard questions to ask your HR tech providers right now, and red flags that suggest a tool won't pass regulatory muster The Extraterritorial Trap – Why US, UK, and APAC-based employers can't ignore the Act if they hire even a handful of people in Europe Building Your Compliance Roadmap – Practical, prioritised steps TA leaders can take in the next 90 days to assess risk, remediate gaps, and keep hiring moving What Comes Next – How the Act is likely to influence AI regulation globally and what early movers are doing to turn compliance into a competitive advantage Whether you're a TA leader scrambling to understand your exposure, a recruiter using AI tools day-to-day, or an HR tech buyer re-evaluating your vendor list, this session will give you the clarity and actionable steps you need. Join Hung Lee and our panel of legal, compliance, and talent acquisition experts as we unpack the EU AI Act and translate it into recruiter-friendly language. Follow the Recruiting Brainfood channel and register now - this is one compliance shift you can't afford to sleep on.   We're on Friday 4th September, 2pm BST / 3pm CEST. Following the channel here (recommended) and register for the show here   Ep405 is sponsored by our friends Ashby   The all-in-one recruiting platform that evolves at the speed of AI. Empowering ambitious teams from Startups to Enterprises. If you're looking for an upgrade to our core talent platform, you know you need to check out Ashby. Get a demo today here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep404 - In Conversation with John Vlastelica 28.08.2026 1ч 2мин

  IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN VLASTELICA   Few people have done more to shape the modern Talent Advisor than John Vlastelica. From leading recruiting at Amazon and Expedia to founding Recruiting Toolbox, John has spent the past two decades helping hundreds of organisations transform Talent Acquisition from a transactional function into a strategic business partner. His ideas around recruiter capability, hiring manager excellence, quality of hire and organisational influence have become essential reading for TA leaders around the world. In this special conversation, we'll sit down with John to explore how the recruiter role is evolving once again in the age of AI - and what the very best talent organisations are doing differently.   Key Themes We'll Cover: The Evolution of the Talent Advisor – How the recruiter role has changed over the past twenty years, and what the next generation of Talent Advisors will look like Quality of Hire Above All Else – Why the most important metric in Talent Acquisition remains the hardest to define, measure and improve Building Better Hiring Managers – How organisations can create a culture where hiring managers become active owners of hiring success rather than passive stakeholders AI Changes the Work—Not the Mission – Where AI and automation can improve recruiting, and where human judgement, curiosity and influence become even more valuable Strategic Conversations That Matter – How recruiters and TA leaders can earn greater credibility by speaking the language of business rather than recruitment Developing World-Class Recruiters – The capabilities, behaviours and mindset shifts that separate exceptional recruiters from the rest Leading Through Change – Helping Talent Acquisition teams adapt to economic uncertainty, organisational transformation and rapidly evolving technology Differentiation in an AI World – Why organisations may need to become more human, not less, as AI becomes commonplace across hiring What's Next for Talent Acquisition? – John's perspective on the biggest opportunities and biggest mistakes facing TA leaders over the next five years Whether you've followed John's work for years or are discovering his ideas for the first time, this promises to be an insightful conversation with one of the profession's most respected thinkers. Join Recruiting Brainfood for a practical, thought-provoking discussion on the future of recruiting, leadership and Talent Acquisition—and what it will take to remain indispensable in the AI era.     We're on Friday 28th August, 10am PT / 6pm BST.   Make sure to follow the channel here (recommended) and register for this show by saving your spot here.   Ep404 is sponsored by Ashby   The all-in-one recruiting platform that evolves at the speed of AI. Empowering ambitious teams from Startups to Enterprises. If you're looking for an upgrade to our core talent platform, you know you need to check out Ashby. Get a demo today here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep403 - From Talent Acquisition to Organisational Performance 21.08.2026 1ч 5мин

  From Talent Acquisition to Organisational Performance   For years, Talent Acquisition has been measured by hiring metrics: time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, source-of-hire and offer acceptance rates. While these remain important, they only tell part of the story. The real question is not whether we filled the vacancy quickly, but whether hiring decisions improve business performance. As organisations become more data-driven and AI makes recruitment increasingly efficient, Talent Acquisition has an opportunity to redefine its value—not as a function that fills jobs, but as one that directly influences productivity, innovation, growth and competitive advantage. In this webinar, we'll explore how TA leaders can shift the conversation from recruitment outcomes to organisational outcomes.   Key Themes We'll Cover: Beyond Hiring Metrics – Why traditional recruitment KPIs no longer capture the full impact of Talent Acquisition Connecting Talent to Business Results – How hiring decisions influence productivity, revenue, customer experience, innovation and long-term organisational success Quality of Hire Revisited – Moving beyond performance reviews to understand the characteristics of hires who create lasting business value The Rise of Talent Intelligence – Using workforce data, labour market insights and AI to make better strategic hiring decisions Partnering Beyond HR – Building stronger relationships with finance, operations and business leaders to align hiring with organisational priorities From Filling Roles to Building Capability – Shifting focus from immediate vacancies to developing the workforce needed for future growth Measuring What Really Matters – Exploring new ways to demonstrate Talent Acquisition's contribution through business-focused outcomes rather than recruitment activity The Skills of the Modern TA Leader – Why commercial acumen, workforce planning, analytics and strategic influence are becoming core capabilities The Future of Talent Acquisition – How the function is evolving into a critical driver of organisational performance in an AI-enabled world Talent Acquisition has the opportunity to become one of the most strategically important functions in every organisation—but only if it measures success differently and speaks the language of business. Join Recruiting Brainfood as we explore how leading organisations are making this shift, and what it takes to position TA as a driver of organisational performance rather than simply a provider of talent.   We are on Friday 21st August, 2pm BST. Follow the channel here and register for the show by saving your spot here.   Ep403 is supported by our friends Lavalier by Textio   Better hires, half the time. What happens when hiring is finally structured at scale.   Every TA leader has lived with the speed-versus-quality tradeoff for too long: go faster and quality slips; raise the bar and hiring slows down. But slow hiring and bad hiring come from the same place: a process that isn’t structured.   When hiring criteria isn’t clear and interviews are improvised, every interviewer assesses something different, candidates aren’t evaluated fairly, and teams stall and re-interview to improve decision confidence. That’s what produces both the delay and the mis-hire. Fix the structure and you fix both at once.   Lavalier by Textio gives you a complete structured interview platform, connected to your ATS, so you can: Save 12+ hours per hiring cycle Eliminate time and $$$ spent on training Cut total interviews in half Reduce time-to-decision to minutes Ready to save time and improve hiring quality? Book a structured interview demo and get a $50 Amazon gift card.
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep401 - National Interview Week - Helping 100,000 People Back to Work 21.08.2026 1ч 1мин

  NATIONAL INTERVIEW WEEK - HELPING 100,000 YOUNG PEOPLE INTO THE WORKFORCE   National Interview Week is a nationwide movement designed to equip young people from state-educated schools with the confidence, skills, and professional exposure they need to succeed in interviews and access meaningful career opportunities.   Over the next five years, we aim to support 100,000 students through structured interview training, industry-specific preparation, and direct engagement with professional volunteers from leading organisations. This initiative addresses a critical gap: many talented young people lack access to professional networks, tailored interview preparation, and industry insight. National Interview Week exists to change that.   We are getting together with an ensemble cast of recruitment practitioners to share insight on how to be a great job interviewee. We'll bring recruiters from agency side, RPO, in-house, from companies large and small, public and private in a collect   We're on Weds 19th August, 2pm BST. Follow the channel here (recommended) and register by saving your spot here.   Ep401 is supported by our friends Equitas   All-in-one interview platform harnesses the power of technology to make hiring more efficient and less biased. Focus more on candidates, and less on note-taking. Say goodbye to old-fashioned, paper-based interviews. Say hello to one source of truth.   Check it out here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep398 - Meet Ema - Your AI Employee for HR, IT and Finance (Live Demo) 19.08.2026 1ч

  MEET EMA - YOUR AI EMPLOYEE FOR HR, IT & FINANCE (LIVE DEMO)   We're back with another founder chat and live demo, this time with Surojit Chatterjee, CEO of Ema. Former CPO of Coinbase and Senior Exec at Google and Flipkart, Surojit is a vastly experienced tech executive. I'm delighted to be share some time with him to learn about his vision and why the future of human-AI collaboration is going to look lot like Ema.   Live demo folks so make sure you register   We're on Tues 18th August at 6pm BST / 10am PST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).     Ep398 is supported by our friends at Ema   Ema builds AI employees for the enterprise - purpose-built to automate complex workflows across HR, IT, and Finance, from hire to retire.   Ema's AI employees work end-to-end across the full employee lifecycle: sourcing and screening candidates, onboarding new hires, resolving IT and HR queries, managing benefits, and processing finance requests - delivering speed, precision, and security at enterprise scale.   Trusted by Fortune 500 companies worldwide, Ema is backed by leading investors and partners like Accel, Workday, ADP, and Hitachi. With a library of pre-built agents and dedicated deployment teams, Ema delivers fast time-to-value, taking enterprises from proof-of-concept to secure, large-scale production.   Learn more about Ema today here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep 400 - The State of AI Readiness: Is Your Organisation Ready? 14.08.2026 1ч 4мин

  The State of AI Readiness: A Framework to Gauge Your Organisation's AI Readiness   Every organisation says it's embracing AI - but very few can answer a simple question: how AI-ready are we, really?   While new tools continue to appear at breakneck speed, successful AI adoption depends on much more than buying software. It requires the right leadership, governance, skills, culture, data, processes and appetite for change. In this webinar, we'll introduce a practical framework for assessing AI readiness across your organisation, helping talent leaders understand where they are today, what gaps need closing, and what it will take to move from experimentation to sustainable transformation.   Key Themes We'll Cover: What AI Readiness Actually Means – Looking beyond technology to assess the organisational capabilities required for successful AI adoption The AI Readiness Framework – A practical model for evaluating your organisation across leadership, people, processes, technology and governance Leadership and Vision – Why executive sponsorship and a clear AI strategy are essential before scaling implementation Skills for the AI Era – Assessing whether your workforce has the capabilities needed to effectively work alongside AI systems Culture and Change Readiness – Understanding how curiosity, experimentation and trust influence successful adoption Governance Without Bureaucracy – Establishing policies for responsible AI that encourage innovation while managing risk Data: The Hidden Foundation – Why data quality, accessibility and security remain critical enablers of effective AI From Pilot Projects to Enterprise Scale – Identifying the common barriers that prevent promising AI initiatives from delivering lasting business value Benchmarking Your Organisation – How to identify your current maturity level, prioritise investments and build a realistic roadmap for progress AI readiness isn't a destination - it's an ongoing capability that organisations will need to strengthen as technology continues to evolve. Whether you're just beginning your AI journey or already rolling out AI across multiple functions, this session will give you a practical framework for understanding where you stand today and the actions that will have the greatest impact tomorrow.   We're on Friday 14th August, 2pm BST - make sure to follow the channel here (recommended) and register by saving your spot here.   Ep400 is supported by our friends CoderPad.   CoderPad is the technical hiring platform built for the AI era - trusted by over 4,000 organizations in 165+ countries to evaluate real engineering skill, not test-taking ability. From first screen to final interview, we help companies confidently hire developers who can build, collaborate, and thrive in modern, AI-integrated environments.   Request a demo now!
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep396 - The Employer Branding: the Reckoning - Automation vs Authenticy 07.08.2026 1ч 4мин

  The Employer Branding Reckoning: Authenticity vs Automation   Employer branding has entered a new era. AI can now write careers content, personalise candidate outreach, generate videos, and automate engagement at a scale that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. At the same time, candidates have never been better at spotting generic messaging, over-produced content, or a culture that doesn't match reality. So where should employers draw the line? In this session, we'll explore how organisations can embrace AI without losing the authenticity that attracts - and retains - the right talent.   Key Themes We'll Cover: The New Employer Brand Toolkit – How AI is changing the way organisations create, distribute and measure employer brand content Authenticity Still Wins – Why real employee stories continue to outperform polished corporate messaging in building trust with candidates Scaling Without Sounding Generic – Practical ways to use automation while keeping your employer brand distinctive and human Personalisation at Scale – Where AI can improve candidate engagement, and where human interaction still makes the biggest difference The Candidate Trust Factor – How job seekers evaluate employer claims through reviews, social media and employee-generated content Balancing Speed with Substance – Avoiding the temptation to prioritise content volume over meaningful communication The Role of Recruiters and Employer Brand Teams – How AI is changing workflows, skills and responsibilities rather than replacing them Examples That Get It Right – Organisations successfully combining AI-powered efficiency with genuine employer storytelling What Comes Next – How employer branding is likely to evolve as AI becomes a standard part of every talent acquisition function Whether you're building an employer brand from scratch or adapting an established strategy for the AI era, this session will provide practical insights to help you stay credible, competitive and connected with candidates. Join Recruiting Brainfood as we explore what authentic employer branding looks like when automation becomes the norm.   We're on Friday 7th August, 2pm BST. Follow the channel here (recommended) and register for the show (save my spot) here.   Ep396 is supported by our friends at Joveo   High-Performance Recruitment Marketing Powered by Agentic AI. Integrated Talent Attraction - everything before the ATS. Find out more here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep399 - The Essential Guide for Increasing Talent Density 31.07.2026 1ч 5мин

  Essential Guide for Increasing Talent Density   In an era of relentless cost optimisation, organisations face a pivotal choice: maintain headcount breadth or concentrate excellence. Talent density—the concentration of exceptional performers within a team, function, or entire company—has emerged as the decisive competitive advantage for high-performing organisations. This is not merely about hiring stars; it is about architecting environments where elite talent multiplies collective output, accelerates innovation velocity, and repels mediocrity through sheer gravitational pull. As remote work dissolves geographic constraints and AI democratises baseline competence, the organisations that win will be those that deliberately engineer density rather than accumulate volume. This webinar explores how talent acquisition leaders can become the architects of this transformation.   • Defining True Density – Distinguishing talent density from headcount reduction, and why ten exceptional performers routinely outperform thirty average ones   • The Multiplier Effect – How concentrated excellence elevates standards, accelerates peer learning, and creates self-reinforcing cycles of performance   • Hiring for Density, Not Just Fit – Shifting from culture-fit screening to identifying candidates who will raise the ceiling of those around them   • The Cost of Dilution – Quantifying how a single underperformer in a dense team erodes collective output, psychological safety, and retention of top talent   • Compensation Architecture – Why traditional pay bands suffocate density strategies, and how to justify asymmetric investment in exceptional performers   • Density in Distributed Teams – Maintaining and measuring talent concentration when physical proximity no longer enforces organic collaboration   • The Exit Imperative – Why protecting density requires the courage to move on underperformers faster than most organisations currently dare   • Measuring What Matters – Moving beyond individual performance ratings to team-level density metrics that reveal where excellence truly clusters   • TA as Density Curator – Elevating the recruiter's role from vacancy filler to strategic gatekeeper who protects and amplifies organisational capability   Watch this essential discussion to redefine your strategic mandate. Talent density is not a hiring philosophy—it is the operating system of future-ready organisations, and the recruiters who master it will shape which companies thrive or fade.   We're on Friday 31st July at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).   Ep399 is supported by our friends at Lavalier by Textio   Your interviews are where hiring decisions are made, but most aren’t designed to make good ones. Vague requirements, inconsistent questions, slow feedback, and gut-based debriefs all undermine your hiring quality.   Lavalier gives recruiting teams one platform to make your interview process 2x better at predicting candidate job performance.   Lavalier plugs into your ATS and helps you: Run structured intake that aligns your team on the right skills and competencies before the first convo. Auto-generate interview plans and assignments from intake, so everything is connected to role requirements. Guide interviewers in real-time with AI-powered prompts and notes that keep interviews consistent and give candidates a great experience. Get evidence-based hiring signals, so you can go from application to offer faster and with higher confidence. Built by the OG AI for TA team at Textio, Lavalier is free to get started. Recruiting Brainfood readers get 250 bonus credits when you sign up!
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep397 - Calculating Employee Lifetime Value (in Era of AI) 24.07.2026 1ч 4мин

  CALCULATING EMPLOYEE LIFETIME VALUE   For decades, talent acquisition has been measured by speed and cost—time-to-fill and cost-per-hire dominated the conversation while the true economic impact of every hire remained frustratingly opaque. Yet as workforce strategy matures into a board-level priority, a critical shift is underway: organisations are finally beginning to quantify what an employee is actually worth over their entire tenure. Employee Lifetime Value (ELTV) represents the holy grail of people analytics—a single metric that captures productivity, revenue generation, retention savings, and cultural contribution from day one to departure. This webinar demystifies the calculation, exposes why most organisations get it wrong, and reveals how TA leaders can use ELTV to transform recruitment from a cost centre into a profit-driving strategic function.   Key Themes We Must Address:   • Defining the Metric – Breaking down the ELTV formula beyond simplistic revenue-per-employee to include performance trajectory, promotion velocity, and knowledge transfer value   • The Data Dilemma – Why HRIS fragmentation, inconsistent performance data, and short organisational memory make accurate ELTV calculations notoriously difficult   • Hiring for Longevity vs. Performance – The tension between selecting candidates with maximum immediate output and those who compound value over years of tenure   • The Cost of a Bad Hire, Revisited – How ELTV reframes traditional cost-of-vacancy models by revealing the exponential drag of underperformers who stay too long   • Segmenting by Role and Level – Why a one-size-fits-all ELTV approach fails, and how to build role-specific models for revenue-generators, innovators, and cultural anchors   • TA's Credibility Currency – Using ELTV projections to secure executive buy-in for longer search cycles, premium candidate experiences, and competitive offer strategies   • The Retention Multiplier – How onboarding quality, manager effectiveness, and development investment directly inflate or deflate ELTV before a recruiter's work is even tested   • Predictive ELTV in Sourcing – Emerging signals and assessment methodologies that forecast lifetime value at the point of application, not just post-hire   • From Metric to Movement – Building organisational accountability around ELTV so that talent acquisition, HRBPs, and line managers share ownership of the full employee journey   Watch this essential discussion to elevate your strategic influence. Mastering ELTV separates transactional recruiters from architects of sustainable workforce value—and the window to lead this evolution is narrowing.     We're on Friday 24th July at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).     Ep397 is supported by our friends at Greenhouse   With application volumes at historic highs, AI claims shaping procurement, and candidate fraud entering the funnel in ways most teams can't track, your ATS decision carries more weight than ever. Download this updated guide from Greenhouse for a practical roadmap to cut through vendor noise, understand true total cost of ownership, and choose the platform your hiring function actually needs.   Download now
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep395 - The Death of the Junior Recruiter 17.07.2026 59мин

  The Death of the Junior Recruiter: Where Is the Next Generation Coming From?   Since 2022, the talent acquisition landscape has undergone a seismic shift. Once a thriving entry point for ambitious professionals, the function has been systematically truncated as economic pressures mount, headcount budgets shrink, and AI tools increasingly optimise workflows that once demanded human intuition. Companies have all but ceased hiring early-careers recruiters, creating a dangerous vacuum at the foundation of the profession. This webinar confronts an uncomfortable truth: we are witnessing the extinction of the junior recruiter role, and with it, the pipeline that has sustained the industry for decades. Where will tomorrow's talent leaders come from if we stop cultivating them today?   Key Themes We Must Address: • The Great Early Career Hiring Freeze – Why organisations stopped investing in entry-level TA talent after 2022 and what this signals about perceived value   • AI's Double-Edged Sword – How automation optimised efficiency while simultaneously justifying the elimination of junior roles traditionally used for training   • The Experience Trap – The growing expectation for "senior-only" hiring that leaves no room for developing raw potential or diverse perspectives   • Broken Apprenticeship Models – The collapse of structured learning pathways where junior recruiters once absorbed expertise from seasoned professionals   • Skills Atrophy at the Top – What happens when senior recruiters lose the ability to delegate, mentor, or scale their impact without junior support   • The Succession Crisis – Who steps into leadership roles in 5-10 years when an entire generation of developing talent never entered the pipeline   • Redefining Value in TA – Moving beyond cost-per-hire metrics to recognise the long-term strategic damage of eliminating early-careers investment   • Alternative Pathways – Whether adjacent professions (HR tech, marketing, operations) can realistically feed experienced professionals into TA leadership   • Reversing the Trend – Practical frameworks for justifying junior headcount to CFOs who view TA as a cost centre ripe for automation   Watch this essential discussion on the long term future of the function!   We're on Friday 17th July at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).     Ep395 is supported by our friends at Greenhouse   With application volumes at historic highs, AI claims shaping procurement, and candidate fraud entering the funnel in ways most teams can't track, your ATS decision carries more weight than ever. Download this updated guide from Greenhouse for a practical roadmap to cut through vendor noise, understand true total cost of ownership, and choose the platform your hiring function actually needs.   Download now
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep393 - Fixing Hiring Manager and Recruiter Misalignment 11.07.2026 1ч 10мин

  Fixing Hiring Manager vs Recruiter MIS-Alignment The recruiter-hiring manager relationship is the most consequential partnership in talent acquisition—and yet, according to Metaview's 2026 AI & Hiring Alignment Report surveying 505 recruiting and hiring leaders, it is also the most dangerously misaligned. While an overwhelming 90% of leaders describe their partnerships as "good," a staggering 58% privately admit they actively wish they could bypass their counterpart entirely. This silent fracture is not merely an interpersonal inconvenience; it is a direct driver of candidate loss, speed-to-hire erosion, and competitive disadvantage. As AI reshapes how hiring teams collaborate, the organisations that thrive will be those that confront this disconnect head-on and rebuild alignment as a strategic imperative rather than an assumed courtesy.   • The Alignment Illusion – Why 90% of partnerships self-rate as "good" while 58% of leaders secretly want to work around each other, and what this gap reveals about organisational honesty   • The Speed Tax of Misalignment – How recruiter-manager friction directly costs companies talent, with well-aligned teams 60% less likely to lose candidates to faster-moving competitors   • AI as Collaboration Infrastructure – Why teams that treat AI as core to hiring report excellent working relationships at 3.8x the rate of AI-hesitant organisations, and how shared context replaces tribal knowledge   • The Intake Call Failure – Why initial role alignment remains the highest-leverage moment most teams squander, and how to engineer shared understanding before a single candidate is sourced   • Signal vs. Noise in Feedback – How inconsistent evaluation criteria, delayed scorecard completion, and contradictory feedback destroy candidate experience and recruiter credibility   • The Power Dynamic Problem – Why hiring managers still view recruiters as order-takers rather than strategic partners, and how to reframe the relationship as co-ownership of business outcomes   • Shared Accountability Frameworks – Moving beyond service-level agreements to joint KPIs that bind recruiters and hiring managers to the same speed, quality, and candidate-experience standards   • Calibrating on "Good" – How misaligned definitions of ideal candidate profiles lead to endless iteration, offer rejections, and the demoralising cycle of "send more, I'll know it when I see it"   • The Business Goal Connection – Why 85% of companies exceeding their business goals actively use AI in hiring workflows, and what this reveals about alignment as a competitive differentiator   Watch this essential discussion to diagnose your own alignment gaps before they cost you your next critical hire. The recruiter-manager partnership is either your greatest strategic asset or your silentest competitive liability—and the data says most teams are living in dangerous denial.   We're on Friday 10th July at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).     Ep393 is supported by our friends at Metaview   Metaview is the Agentic Recruiting Platform built for radically efficient hiring, end to end. Source, engage, and hire better with agents that truly get your brief. Metaviews AI Agents finds candidates, reviews inbound applications, automatically captures notes, constantly learns and spots talent opportunities, whilst your recruiters spend time doing work which humans can only do - build relationships with candidates and hiring managers.   Need to uplevpel your hiring function?   Book a demo or start for free here.  
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep392 - The Recfest Recap 2026 08.07.2026 1ч 1мин

  The Recfest Recap 2026   We’re unpacking the absolute best moments, groundbreaking strategies, and actionable takeaways from RecFest 2026. Whether you were dodging the summer sun at Knebworth Park or couldn't make it across the pond, this exclusive recap session distills the high-impact content from the industry's top thought leaders. Get ready to supercharge your TA strategy, embrace the human advantage in an AI-driven world, and discover exactly what the future of recruitment looks like.   The Human Advantage in an AI World: Grace Lordan (LSE) explores how talent leaders can leverage AI, inclusion, and better decision-making to drive true performance rather than just processing efficiency.   From Recruiter to Talent Architect: A powerhouse panel featuring leaders from Amazon, EY, and Booking.com discusses the evolution of the recruiter role as AI absorbs operational tasks, shifting the focus to high-value, human-centric strategy.   The AI-Adjusted EVP: Joanna Hackett (Howden) reveals how forward-thinking organisations are evolving their Employee Value Propositions to focus on reskilling, internal mobility, and long-term career relevance in the age of automation.   TA as a Strategic Growth Engine: Chris Tennant (Infor) and fellow TA directors from Gilead and Mars share how to fundamentally redesign the talent acquisition function to operate as a core driver of business performance.   Amazon’s Strategic Business Partner Model: Beckie Longworth and the Amazon TA team reveal how they shifted from a transactional, requisition-driven service into a strategic business partner function that acts as a consistent interface for growth.   Talent Intelligence at Scale: Andrew Sinclair and Charles Rue (S&P Global) demonstrate how to build a connected workforce by turning overwhelming talent data into actionable, confident market intelligence.   The Early Careers Talent Crisis: Aisha Lysejko (2040 Leaders) and experts from Shell and Danone warn against cutting early careers investments, explaining how doing so creates a dangerous "missing middle" that cripples future leadership pipelines.   Standardised Hiring Metrics: Adrian Thomas (Walbridge) and Jonathan Berry (House of Commons) break down the UK’s first standardised hiring metrics, exploring what "good" really looks like in talent acquisition benchmarking today.   Global TA Transformation at Sanofi: Lia Manafova (Sanofi) shares the healthcare giant’s journey of taking back ownership of their global recruitment landscape, transitioning away from decentralized models to centralise and streamline their tech stack.   Why should you carve out time in your busy schedule to join 'The Recfest Recap 2026'? Because the recruitment landscape is shifting faster than ever, and relying on yesterday’s playbooks simply won't cut it. This webinar isn't just a summary; it’s your shortcut to the strategies that are actively reshaping the industry—from deploying AI without losing the human touch to transforming TA into a strategic business partner. By signing up, you’ll equip yourself with the tangible, future-proof tactics you need to attract top talent, elevate your employer brand, and lead your team into the next era of hiring. Secure your spot now and stay ahead of the curve!   We're on Wednesday 8th July at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).   Ep392 is supported by our friends at Screenloop   Screenloop is the number one ATS for SMEs: covering interview intelligence, background checks, automations, candidate NPS and Quality of Hire analytics, all-in-one package.   Rated 4.9/5 on G2 our Interview Intelligence transcribes, fills scorecards, coaches hiring teams, so every hiring decision is faster, fairer and evidence-based. Importantly, our AI tools do hallucinate or over promise, it improves human led conversations.
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep391 - Evolution of Talent CRM's 04.07.2026 1ч 8мин

  THE EVOLUTION OF TALENT CRMS (Building Talent Communities in the Agentic Era)   The recruitment technology stack is undergoing its most profound transformation since the shift from paper CVs to applicant tracking systems. Autonomous AI agents—capable of reasoning, planning, and executing complex workflows without human intervention—are now infiltrating every stage of the talent lifecycle, rendering traditional CRM architectures obsolete. The passive database of yesterday, where candidate records sat dormant until manually activated, is giving way to dynamic, self-orchestrating ecosystems where agents continuously nurture, assess, match, and engage talent at scale. For talent acquisition leaders, the question is no longer whether to adopt agentic technology, but whether their CRM infrastructure can survive the transition—or become a costly legacy anchor dragging strategy backward.     • From Database to Ecosystem – Why legacy CRM architectures, built for human-driven search-and-retrieve, collapse under the demands of autonomous agent orchestration   • Agentic Capabilities Defined – Distinguishing between automation (rule-based) and true agentic AI (goal-directed reasoning) in candidate engagement and pipeline management   • The Always-On Pipeline – How agentic CRMs transform talent pools from static repositories into living networks that self-nurture, self-qualify, and surface opportunities without recruiter intervention   • Hyper-Personalisation at Scale – Whether AI agents can replicate—or exceed—the authenticity of human relationship-building without triggering candidate alienation   • Data Sovereignty and Trust – Navigating the ethical and compliance minefield of agents autonomously interacting with candidates, processing sensitive data, and making consequential decisions   • The Recruiter Redefined – How agentic CRMs shift the human role from execution to exception-handling, strategy, and high-stakes relationship stewardship     • Measuring Agentic ROI – Moving beyond vanity metrics to evaluate whether autonomous systems genuinely improve quality of hire, time-to-productivity, and candidate experience   • Vendor Landscape Reality – Cutting through the marketing noise to identify which CRM platforms are genuinely agentic-ready versus those simply rebranding automation   Watch this essential discussion to future-proof your technology strategy. The agentic era will not wait for hesitant adopters—and the CRM decisions you make today will determine whether your function leads or is rendered redundant by those who moved faster.   We're on Friday 3rd July at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).     Ep391 is supported by our friends at Joveo   High-Performance Recruitment Marketing Powered by Agentic AI. Integrated Talent Attraction - everything before the ATS.   Find out more here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep389 - HR vs People Ops: Semantic vs Substantive Difference? 27.06.2026 1ч 3мин

  HR vs People Ops: Semantic or Substantive Difference?   IsIf your organization is still running a traditional Human Resources function - policy police, form processors, compliance checkers - you are bleeding candidates before they even apply. Modern talent acquisition doesn't need more administrators; it needs a People Operations engine built for growth, experience, and competitive advantage.   • From gatekeeping to enabling: how People Ops removes friction instead of creating it • Data over doctrine: using people analytics to drive decisions instead of hiding behind policy manuals • Employee experience as product: designing journeys that market themselves to passive candidates • Strategic workforce planning vs reactive backfilling and headcount approvals • Technology stack ownership: People Ops architects systems • Talent branding from the inside out: turning onboarding and internal mobility into recruiting assets • Velocity in hiring: streamlined processes that respect candidate time and manager urgency • Total rewards intelligence: comp, equity, and benefits strategy that wins offers, not just administers them • Manager enablement: coaching leaders to build teams instead of policing their paperwork • The cost of legacy HR: how bureaucratic drag directly inflates cost-per-hire and time-to-fill   This isn't a rebrand with a fresh business card. It's a fundamental rewiring of how your company attracts, supports, and retains talent. TA leaders cannot win the external market when the internal function is stuck in 1998.   Register now by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified of updates.   Ep389 is supported by our friends Greenhouse   The Hire Standard: 2026 Benchmark Report FREE ACCESS HERE
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep390 - How do AI-enabled Recruiters Spend Their Time 19.06.2026 1ч 5мин

  How Are AI-enabled Recruiters Spending Their Time?   The recruiter's day used to disappear into Boolean strings, resume scanning, and the futile pursuit of inbox zero. Now that AI has swallowed the repetitive mechanics of talent acquisition, a profound shift is underway. The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence will change recruiting—it is how the best recruiters are redeploying the hours they just won back.   Join us for an inside look at the new recruiter operating system.   • Building strategic hiring manager partnerships instead of transactional req intake calls • Architecting employer brand narratives and designing candidate experiences that convert • Nurturing passive talent communities with personalized, long-term engagement • Advancing diversity strategy through relationship-driven outreach, not checkbox screening • Delivering real-time market intelligence and competitive talent mapping to leadership • Driving internal mobility and succession planning alongside people operations • Owning high-stakes offer negotiation and candidate closing with emotional intelligence • Optimising the recruitment funnel through data analysis and process design • Providing human coaching and connection throughout the interview journey • Governing AI tools and leading change management within talent acquisition teams   AI did not eliminate the recruiter; it elevated the role from talent screener to talent strategist. But that upgrade only happens for teams that know exactly where to focus. If your recruiters are still drowning in administrative drag while competitors build genuine relationships, you are wasting the competitive advantage AI just handed you.   Register now by clicking on the green button (save my spot) and follow the channel here (recommended) for real time updates.
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep387 - GEO vs SEO - What Recruitment Marketeers Need to Know in 2026 12.06.2026 1ч 11мин

  GEO vs SEO: What Recruitment Marketers Need to Know in 2026   Everyone know's the search landscape has fundamentally shifted.   In 2026, candidates are no longer typing keywords into Google - they are asking AI assistants where to work, who pays fairly, and which cultures actually thrive. If your recruitment marketing strategy still revolves around traditional SEO alone, you are optimising for a shrinking platform while missing the one that is exploding.   Join us for a critical livestream exploring the new battleground between Generative Engine Optimisation and classic Search Engine Optimisation.   • Why keyword density is dying while entity recognition and semantic context dominate AI search   • How AI engines summarize your employer brand without ever sending traffic to your career site   • The structured data revolution: schema markup that helps LLMs cite your jobs and culture pages   • From backlinks to citations: how GEO rewards authoritative mentions differently than SEO   • The zero-click crisis: when candidates get salary and culture answers without visiting your ATS   • Voice and conversational search: optimising for "best places to work near me" spoken to assistants   • Content architecture: why job descriptions must be parsed by machines before they impress humans   • The trust equation: how AI models rank employers based on aggregated web sentiment and reviews   • Measurement mismatch: why ranking #1 in Google matters less when ChatGPT answers the query first   • Budget reallocation frameworks: splitting your 2026 spend between discoverability and generative authority   The recruiters who win 2026 will not be those with the most backlinks - they will be the ones AI systems confidently recommend to curious candidates. Do not let your employer brand become invisible in the generative search revolution. We're on Friday 12th June, 2pm BST.   Register by clicking on the green button (save my seat) and follow the channel here (recommended) and bring your team the strategic blueprint that keeps your talent pipeline full as candidate behaviour evolves.   Ep387 is supported by our friends Joveo   High-Performance Recruitment Marketing Powered by Agentic AI. Integrated Talent Attraction - everything before the ATS.   Find out more here
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep386 - What if AI Actually Costs More Than Humans? 05.06.2026 1ч 7мин

  What if AI Actually Costs More Than Humans?   The headcount reduction mandate has landed on your desk: replace talent with AI and cut costs. But beneath the vendor demos and boardroom promises lies a dangerous assumption - that artificial intelligence is automatically cheaper than human expertise.   What if the token economics tell a different story?   Join us for a provocative livestream that flips the AI narrative and protects your workforce strategy.   • The hidden maths of token consumption -and why projected savings evaporate at scale   • Why cost-per-inference is rarely modelled against fully-loaded employee costs in vendor ROI   • Talent attrition: when top performers leave because they see AI replacement unfolding   • Quality degradation and the invisible cost of human-in-the-loop error correction   • Vendor lock-in: how API pricing volatility turns fixed labor into unpredictable OpEx   • The productivity paradox: why AI-augmented teams outperform pure replacement strategies   • Compliance blind spots: liability, bias audits, and regulatory costs headcount never triggered   • Retraining debt: the unbudgeted expense of prompt engineering and system maintenance   • The competitive cost of hollow teams when institutional knowledge walks out the door   • Frameworks to model true total cost of AI ownership before approving any reduction-in-force   This is not an anti-AI argument - it is a financial reality check for leaders pressured to cut first and calculate later. Before you trade headcount for tokens, understand the true cost of replacing humans with models.   We're on Friday 5th June, 2pm BST. Register now and bring your C-suite the data they need!       Ep386 is supported by our friends Ashby   The all-in-one recruiting platform that evolves at the speed of AI. ✨Empowering ambitious teams from Startups to Enterprises.   Ashby can handle the whole pipe - ATS, CRM & Sourcing, Scheduling, and Analytics - while incorporating the latest AI advancements every step of the way.   Learn how Ashby helps companies at every size up level their hiring - contact one of team here today
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  Brainfood Live On Air - Ep384 - The Hire Standard 2026 Benchmark Report 29.05.2026 1ч 3мин

  The hiring environment has fundamentally reset—and most talent acquisition teams are still using benchmarks built for a world that no longer exists. Between 2022 and 2025, everything changed: application volumes surged 385%, recruiter teams were cut by 57%, and AI simultaneously flooded pipelines with noise while offering new efficiencies. Yet against this backdrop, Greenhouse data from 17M+ applications across 800+ European organizations reveals a surprising truth—recruiters are actually performing better, not worse. Monthly hires per recruiter have jumped 113%. Jobs closed with a hire are up 13%. The teams thriving aren't those with bigger budgets or larger headcount. They're the ones who redefined what "good" looks like in this new reality. This webinar distills the definitive 2026 benchmarks from The Hire Standard report—the metrics that actually matter when volume is permanent, teams are lean, and AI is rewriting the rules.   • The Volume Reality Check • The Productivity Paradox • Interview Intensity as Quality Control • Days-to-Fill Reinterpreted • Stage Progression Intelligence • Sourcing ROI Reality • The Recruiter-Sourced Advantage • AI at the Top of Funnel • Structured Process Under Pressure • The Employer Brand Imperative   The teams still measuring against 2022 baselines are making disastrous decisions—cutting resources that are actually delivering, or maintaining processes that collapsed under new volume. The Hire Standard data reveals what "good" actually looks like when pipelines are flooded, teams are lean, and AI is both problem and solution.   Includes exclusive access to The Hire Standard 2026 Benchmark Toolkit with calibrated metrics by organization size and industry. Live Q&A with data analysis leads. Recording and materials restricted to registrants.   We're on Friday 29th May at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).   Ep384 is supported by our friends at Greenhouse   What do high-performing TA teams look like in 2026? Greenhouse analyzed data from over 6,000 companies and over 640M applications over the last 3 years to understand how recruiters are really doing and how hiring teams can keep up with industry standards. Check out their new benchmarking report, The Hire Standard.