Contact Us
Questions, comments, ideas for future content? Contact us below.
If you ain't self-promoting, you ain't trying.
https://vimeo.com/1103189814?share=copy
Sometimes CEOs just ...
Innovators in the recruiting space since 2001.
Our sister company. Helping people become better job seekers.
Visit Hirewell.com
July 19, 2022
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
Let’s get beyond the basics
Aren’t we tired of discussing that same pointless recruiting topics over and over?
Ghosting. Should I Use A Cover Letter. Getting Past The ATS. The Green Open To Work Banner.
Tired topics that never go away. Because they’re results of bigger, more complex issues.
Here’s the 5 real recruiting issues we (the industry) should talk about:
????Recruiting and HR tech is woefully behind.
ATS systems are clunky, gloried spreadsheets. Difficult to navigate. Easy to lose candidates. The entire cause of The Resume Black Hole.
From the outside, this isn’t understood. Job seekers think it’s all driven by whiz-bang AI that’s out to get them.
In reality: saying you can’t get back the ATS is like saying you can’t get past the Excel sheet.
Sourcing tech isn’t much different. Every recruiter wastes hours every day. The search algos aren’t advanced enough.
Why? Let’s face it, it’s the least sexy industry around. Big money gets invested into sales and marketing tech. And it’s not like those guys have it sorted out either. How much LinkedIn DM spam are you getting nowadays?
Automation should enable human convos. Not replace them with low tier chatbots.
????Processes and collaboration between recruiters & hiring managers.
Stop me if you heard this one: “Where are my candidates?!?!”
If that’s happening, you’re already toast. There’s a clear disconnect between the hiring needs and the go to market recruiting plan. Or at least the expectations that were set.
Volume metrics and time to fill are things you worry about when things aren’t running smoothly. If you figure out a better way to unifying these two groups, your hiring problems go away.
????Updated agency business models.
One of the many Hills I’ll Die On™️: Contingent search is the dumbest business model in the history of business models.
Asking 5 firms to work the same search with 4 of them doing it for free is a 100% guaranteed to get everyone’s worst effort. Especially when these are people you’re trusting with your reputation.
No other industry in the world does this. For a reason.
????Improving candidate targeting and messaging. At scale.
This is THE problem for job seekers. It’s the issue that drags down the reputation of recruiter in the market. Poorly worded pitches, lacking details, sent the wrong people. Over and over.
Ever see someone give kudos to great recruiters they’ve worked with? It’s the people who put the time into this.
????Inclusivity, for all groups.
Yes, we’re talking DEI and underrepresented populations. But also career pivots. Ageism. Neurodiversity.
All sorts of folks out there who can think about solving business problems in a unique way.
Easy stuff to talk up and promote. Harder things to make a last change in the hiring culture.
So let’s talk about them. And start to solve them.
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
More blogs from James Hornick
Duh.
Traditional job postings are dead. (Maybe they were never alive to begin with.)
3 reasons why ...
Hiring trends truly are Groundhog Day
3 trends we’re seeing in hiring. By new, I mean in a “what’s old is new ...
Follow up from yesterday. I can argue both sides of anything.
I asked ChatGPT to make a list of jobs that AI ...
Check back tomorrow so I can tell you why we actually are ...
Everything is easier, except talking to people
https://vimeo.com/1092152471?share=copy#t=0
Old man ...
Coming Soon...
See all Talent Insights Blog entries....
Our Latest Featured Episode
No results found.
Plenty has been written about AI over the past two years. For much of that time, AI has been more hype than reality. I THINK 2026 is when that starts to change.
Here’s the first in a three part series of where we see AI going in the recruiting world.
———-
For the last few years, most companies treated AI like a recruiting assistant. It helped draft job descriptions, summarize resumes, and speed up outreach. Useful, sure. But it didn’t fundamentally change how hiring worked. And oftentimes, things needed to be double checked before hitting send.
I think that’s going to change.
In 2026, we’re seeing the rise of agentic HR. These are systems that don’t just support recruiters. They can execute work autonomously inside defined guardrails.
That shift is forcing talent leaders to rethink what recruiting teams are actually responsible for and what still requires a human.
From Copilot AI to Agentic Recruiting Systems
Traditional recruiting AI waited for humans to click “next.”
Agentic systems don’t.
They can interpret real-time funnel data, align to hiring goals, and take multi-step action. That includes adjusting sourcing spend, coordinating interview schedules, and triggering workflow changes without manual oversight.
This isn’t automation layered onto old processes. It’s the early version of a self-driving recruiting function.
The Metric That Matters More Than Time-to-Fill
Time-to-fill and cost-per-hire still matter. They just don’t fully capture what’s changing.
A concept showing up more in 2026 is Return on Autonomy. It measures the value created when humans and autonomous systems are paired intentionally.
In plain terms, the question is simple.
Are we using technology to eliminate busywork, or are we just doing the same work faster?
Because speed doesn’t help if it leads to worse decisions, a weaker candidate experience, or more noise in the funnel.
Why This Changes the Role of TA Leadership
As agentic systems absorb transactional work like screening, scheduling, and coordination, the role of recruiting leadership shifts.
The best TA leaders are spending less time managing process and more time doing what actually drives hiring outcomes. That includes aligning hiring to business priorities, building trust with candidates, and improving decision quality.
The real opportunity of 2026 isn’t more AI. It’s that recruiters finally get to focus on the work that requires being human.
The Mistake Companies Are Making Right Now
Here’s the trap.
Companies adopt advanced recruiting technology but keep the same habits. Long approval chains. Inconsistent communication. Unclear evaluation criteria.
When that happens, speed increases, but trust collapses.
Candidates don’t experience innovation. They experience silence, confusion, and a process that feels even more impersonal than before.
In 2026, the human experience of hiring is becoming a differentiator again because so many companies are getting it wrong.
What Talent Leaders Should Be Thinking About Now
You don’t need a total rebuild tomorrow. But you do need clarity.
The companies winning in 2026 are asking the right questions.
What parts of our hiring process truly require human judgment?
Where are we slowing things down out of habit?
Are recruiters trained for strategic work, or just process management?
Do our systems increase transparency, or just efficiency?
These aren’t technology questions. They’re leadership questions.
What’s Next
Agentic HR is changing how recruiting works. It’s also creating a new challenge.
As employers deploy autonomous systems, candidates are doing the same. The result is an emerging AI-on-AI hiring arms race that’s flooding pipelines with highly optimized but low-trust applications.
Next in this series: The AI-on-AI Hiring Arms Race and How to Protect Hiring Quality Without Breaking Trust
A lot of companies are going to try to AI their way into faster hiring this year and still end up with worse results. If you want to build a recruiting model that actually works in 2026, one that balances speed, quality, and credibility, we can help. Reach out if you want a second set of eyes on your hiring approach.
No results found.
Our Shows
