Can you actually get a team to embrace constant change without burning them out on it? In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with Alastair Schirmer, Global Head of Digital Innovation at Randstad Enterprise, to talk through what it actually takes to build a talent tech stack that holds up under pressure. Al breaks his approach into three pillars: purpose, experience, and data connectivity, and explains why the principles behind a decision matter as much as the decision itself. The conversation moves into how organizations can adopt AI and agents without overwhelming their people, why "freedom within a frame" beats rigid rollouts, and where humans should stay firmly in the loop, especially when it comes to negotiation, relationships, and creativity. If you're rethinking your tech stack or trying to bring your team along on an AI transformation, this one is full of grounded, practical thinking. Takeaways:Anchor your tech stack decisions in purpose first. Know who does what work, where, and why before you evaluate any tool or platform.Don't overlook experience as a design pillar. Candidates, employees, and hiring managers all need the process to feel intuitive, not just functional.Treat data connectivity and AI as connective tissue, not an afterthought. Interoperability is what turns disconnected systems into an actual ecosystem.Give teams freedom within a frame instead of rigid, all-or-nothing processes. Guardrails paired with agency drive adoption faster than another big rollout ever will.Match the AI approach to the stakes of the task. High-value decisions like negotiation deserve human ownership with AI support, not full automation.Resist using AI as a cost-cutting shortcut. The organizations getting the most value are treating it as a way to create more value, not just cut headcount.Protect the parts of the job that require relationship-building, judgment, and creativity. Those are exactly the areas that shouldn't be handed to an agent.Quote of the Show:"Finding the space within the frame for innovation is how you can drive that change approach." - Alastair SchirmerLinks:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alastairschirmer/Website: https://www.randstadenterprise.com/Ways to Tune In:Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

What if the fastest way to lead a team forward is to slow down and understand how they already work? In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with Alison Bosch, SVP and Chief of Staff at SmartRecruiters, to talk about the moment she stepped into a much larger leadership role and what she learned about trusting the experts around her. Alison shares how understanding the systems behind an organization, not just the people in it, builds real trust fast, and why building processes with a team instead of for them changes everything.  The conversation also covers navigating the SAP acquisition, staying grounded through a year of major change, and why human judgment and connection will always matter just as much as the tools built to support it. It's a reminder that trust, not speed, is what actually moves a team forward. Takeaways:When you're handed a role that feels bigger than you, lean on the leaders already in the seat instead of trying to prove yourself alone. Trust and humility move you forward faster than control ever will.Before changing anything in a new role, take time to understand the systems already driving results. Bulldozing in with immediate changes usually costs more trust than it earns.Build processes with your team, not for them. People commit to systems they helped shape, not ones handed down to them.During periods of major change, active listening matters as much as guidance. Sometimes people just need to be heard before they're ready for direction.Make your work visible to your team and leadership, not for credit, but so others understand how it supports the bigger mission.AI and automation can speed up execution, but the human judgment layer connecting people to the right opportunities will never go away. Technology supports the work; it doesn't replace the relationships behind it. Quote of the Show:“ AI and technology continue to make execution faster, cleaner and simpler at the administrative and core level. But what is going to remain, what will always remain, is the ability to connect people. Connect people so that they can help each other, and that human judgment layer always has to exist.” - Alison Bosch Links:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alison-bosch-4360366Website: https://www.smartrecruiters.com/ Ways to Tune In:Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

AI may be changing hiring fast, but the real differentiator is still human judgment. 83% of job seekers research a company before they ever apply. 32% of candidates who leave within the first 90 days point to culture misalignment as the top reason. 70% of employees stay at least three years when onboarding is done well. These numbers frame one of the most practical conversations we have had on the show about what culture actually looks like day to day. In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with Jeremy York, HR strategist, author of People Not Tasks, and president of Invigorate HR, about building more human hiring in a world leaning harder on AI and automation. Together, Nicole and Jeremy trace culture across the full employee journey, from the job posting a candidate reads before they ever apply, through the hiring process, into onboarding, and all the way through the first few years of tenure. At a time when many organizations are focused on speed and efficiency, this conversation is a reminder that the best hiring technology should create more room for trust, communication, belonging, and better human decisions, not less. Culture cannot be delegated away. It has to be defined, lived, communicated, and reinforced at every touchpoint, whether that touchpoint is human or AI. Takeaways:Treat your job posting as your first culture document. Candidates research a company long before a recruiter ever sees their resume, so the job posting, career site, and social presence are already communicating culture, whether or not a company is intentional about it.The hiring process is a cultural audition, and it runs both ways. Communication, or the lack of it, tells candidates exactly what it will be like to work somewhere.Train AI on your culture the same way you would train a person. AI is only as good as what it is taught, so organizations that are explicit about their values, tone, and communication style will see that reflected in how AI interacts with candidates.Make onboarding about belonging, not paperwork. A structured 90-to-180-day plan turns a first day into a lasting impression.Culture has to be practiced daily. Recognition, transparency, trust, and authentic communication are not one-time events. They are habits that leaders and managers have to model and reinforce continuously.Human outcomes matter as much as efficiency outcomes. Better hiring is not just about moving faster. It is about creating a process that helps candidates feel respected, helps managers lead better, and helps employees build stronger relationships from day one. Quote of the Show:“Let's not forget that at the other end of that resume is a human being." - Jeremy York Links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyyork/Website: https://www.invigoratehr.com/Book Link - People Not Tasks: https://www.amazon.com/People-Not-Tasks-Building-Relationships/dp/B0GMTLJC25Book Link - The Joy Powered Organization: https://www.amazon.com/JoyPowered%C2%AE-Organization-JoDee-Curtis-ebook/dp/B098TX3F5Z Ways to Tune In:Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

1,500% ROI. 42% faster hiring. 570% more graduate applicants. 92,000 productivity hours returned. These aren't projections — they're what happened when one TA leader decided to treat hiring transformation as a business outcome, not an IT project. In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with Rob Dunderdale, former Head of Talent Attraction at KPMG Australia and Enterprise Talent Leader of the Year (International Talent Awards, 2023), to unpack one of the most measurable hiring transformations in recent memory. Rob shares how a business case built on commercial waste, a living ROI dashboard, a dedicated transformation team, and a culture of "green dot moments" helped turn hiring transformation into lasting business impact. At a time when many organizations are trying to modernize hiring through AI and new technology, this conversation is a reminder that real transformation takes more than tools alone. It takes process simplification, the right operating model, executive support, clear metrics, disciplined change management, and a relentless focus on the human experience at the center of hiring. Takeaways:Build your business case around commercial impact, not recruitment metrics. Framing slow hiring as financial waste rather than an HR inefficiency is what gets CFO attention and unlocks investment. An ROI dashboard isn't just a reporting tool; it's a trust-building mechanism. When every stakeholder can see progress in real time, leaders earn the space to do the deeper transformation work.Separate your transformation team from BAU delivery, or transformation will always lose. Giving a dedicated group ownership of the project made it possible to move fast without sacrificing day-to-day hiring.Tailor your data to your audience. The same underlying metric can mean something very different to a CFO, a hiring manager, or a TA leader. The most effective dashboards translate numbers into the language each stakeholder cares about."Best practice" is a ceiling, not a goal. Rob's team actively studied competitors and emerging players to reach what they called "next practice", raising the bar above what currently existed in the market.Great hiring technology gives humanity more room. Cutting application time from 40 minutes to three and integrating 19 solutions didn't just save hours; it put empathy back into the process by freeing recruiters to build real relationships.Quote of the Show:“As a human being looking at a career-defining moment, having the opportunity to do a transformation like that is gold. It’s great to see that you can leave such a legacy for an organization. It’s given the recruitment team a seat at the table.” - Rob DunderdaleLinks:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdunderdale/Ways to Tune In:Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/

What separates recruiters who thrive in an AI-driven world from those who get left behind, and what does it take to build a team that runs through walls? In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole reconnects with a powerhouse in the talent world, Mike Moriarty, Founder and CEO of Arsenal Pulse, on what it really takes to build strong teams and talent functions that can keep up with ambitious companies and fuel real-world strategy. Mike rose through the ranks at Google, where he built a data-driven recruiting model from scratch, then went on to lead a 160-plus person recruiting org at Dropbox, consistently hitting headcount targets within 1%. Now, he's recruiting for hard tech, aerospace, and defense, the sectors where the talent bar isn't just high, it's mission-critical. Mike has spent his career proving that the fundamentals of great hiring doesn’t change, even when everything else does. In this conversation, he gets into what AI is actually disrupting (and what it isn't) and why the recruiters who invest in people over process are the ones who will always have a place in this industry.   Takeaways:Dig into a candidate's mental model, not just their metrics. Understanding what drives someone, where their motivation comes from and why, tells you far more about how they'll perform than any number on a scorecard.How a leader frames an offer tells you more than their job description ever will. The ones who treat hiring as a partnership rather than a transaction build teams that actually want to be there.AI isn't replacing recruiters, it's raising the bar for them. As more of the administrative work gets automated, the human conversation becomes the highest-value part of the process. Recruiters who double down on rapport, alignment, and candidate understanding will do the work of three.Start building with AI now, not later. The leaders who will pull ahead are the ones who learn it deeply, experiment early, and pair that curiosity with the systems and hiring tech that let better work scale. Values can be your north star in hiring. Skills can be taught; integrity, work ethic, and genuine care for people cannot. Screening for characters first has compounding returns across any team - and even more so when the stakes are high. Individual AI and institutional AI are two different things. Personal tools make one recruiter faster; institutional AI alignment is what makes teams smarter, more consistent, and more scalable together. Understanding the difference puts you ahead of most leaders in the conversation.Quote of the Show:“You learn a lot about a leader if they say, ‘Come work for me,’ versus, ‘Come work with me.’ I think that's a really important delineation to understand about the leaders you're supporting or working with. I always say, "Listen, you work with me. We're in this fight together.” - Mike MoriartyLinks:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moriarty-mike/ Website:https://www.linkedin.com/company/arsenal-pulse/ Ways to Tune In:Substack: HiringHappyHour.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793 iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/ Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HiringHappyHour Transistor: https://podcast.hiringhappyhour.com/