Q: You've interviewed hundreds of talent leaders — what themes are showing up again and again right now?
Matt Alder: The disruption of AI, the importance of illustrating the actual business impact of TA, and the necessity of breaking down silos in the talent function to look at talent acquisition, strategic workforce planning, and talent management more holistically
Q: Who's been your most surprising guest on Recruiting Future — and why?
MA: Back in 2022, on Episode 465, I interviewed Stefaan van Hooydonk from the Global Curiosity Institute. Being curious about things is crucial in these fast-moving times, and it wasn't until I spoke to Stefaan that I realised curiosity is a skill that can be trained rather than a fixed attribute people have.
Q: In a world obsessed with hiring speed, how do you define a "quality hire"? And are companies measuring it properly?
MA: The definition is different for every business. The lack of standard metrics, potential subjectivity, and time lag in getting data are often used as excuses not to measure the quality of hire. Defining what quality means for the business and using it as a way of illustrating the value of recruiting is critical to the future of TA. Without it, recruiting runs the risk of being seen as a transactional activity that can be automated. AI is already helping forward-thinking employers identify leading indicators and develop predictive analytics that help define and measure quality.
Q: What role should recruiters play in shaping employer brand — beyond just job ads?
MA: Employer brands are just as much about how working for the company makes people feel as they are about tag lines and marketing. The employee experience starts with hiring, so TA needs to play a massive role in giving candidates an experience that delivers on the brand promise. I'm not sure many organisations understand that
Q: What's the next big story in recruitment tech?
MA: Mergers and acquisitions. There is an AI war going on among the tech vendors, and I expect to see a lot of market consolidation in the coming months.
Q: What's your secret for asking great questions?
MA: Doing my research and being genuinely curious during the conversation are a big part of it. I'm asking questions on behalf of the audience, so I also need to understand what they would like to know from the guest.
Q: How have expectations around internal mobility and career growth shifted?
MA: We are currently in a transition phase. The narrative around skills-based hiring points to a fundamental shift in mindset, but, in reality, many of the old biases and old-fashioned ways of thinking are still very much dictating who gets hired and why. I hope this will change, as taking a genuine skills-based approach will be better for both job seekers and employees.
Q: What innovations in talent tech have actually made recruiters' lives better?
MA: AI presents a significant opportunity for recruiters, but we are being sidetracked by short-term arguments and debates, with many recruiters seeking to preserve the status quo and vendors overselling their capabilities. The fact is, regardless of future development, right now AI offers recruiters the opportunity to automate a lot of their workload, augment some of their key skills, and amplify the value they provide to their businesses. It's great to see an increasing number of people getting this.
Q: What's one part of the recruitment process that's overdue for reinvention?
MA: CVs and interviews. Science has been telling us for decades that they are a completely ineffective way of predicting future performance. We need to move on.
Q: If you had to build a hiring process from scratch for a startup today, what would it look like?
MA: No CVs and moving assessment to the beginning of the process, conversational AI to improve the candidate experience with transparent communication and personalized feedback. Human recruiters to persuade, make decisions, and above all be an advocate for the candidate in the process.
Q: What are the biggest misconceptions about AI in hiring you've come across?
MA: It could never replace humans in the recruiting process. It absolutely can, and in some cases, it will. The real question is whether you want to replace humans in the recruitment process. We're almost at the point where an autopilot can completely fly a plane, but how many people are going to want to get on a flight without a human pilot? Recruiting feels like a similar situation.
Q: You've had a front-row seat to the evolution of TA. What does the recruiter of the future need to be?
MA: Everything is changing, so the most important things are curiosity, a flexible mindset, and the ability to learn quickly.
Q: What advice would you give someone starting a recruitment podcast in 2025?
MA: It's not about you, it's about the audience you want to build. There is a massive competition for attention out there, so you need to give people something valuable, something different, something they can't get elsewhere. People often ask me whether it is already too late to start a recruiting podcast, as there are "so many" already out there. In reality, there is a lot of room for new podcasts, but to be successful, they will have to stand out from the crowd and resonate with their target audiences. You also need consistency, tenacity, and a real sense of the amount of work involved. 90% of all new podcasts launched (across all categories) never make it past their third episode, and only 20% of those that do make it past their 10th episode.
Quickfire Round
Most underrated skill in recruitment today? Persuasion
Biggest buzzword of 2025? Agentic
One guest you'd love to have? Adam Grant
Favourite recruitment book or article? Anything Kevin Wheeler writes
If you weren't in talent, what would you be doing? Making podcasts about something else!
Biggest lesson from podcasting? Being consistent over a long period of time is the superpower that gets results
3 words that describe the future of recruitment? Disrupted. Deconstructed. Reinvented.
