Skills-first hiring is having its moment. Degree requirements are disappearing. AI is making it easier to identify transferable skills. Organisations are talking more about capability and potential rather than simply years of experience. And broadly, that’s a good thing. But there’s a bigger question: Is your organisation
One of the biggest frustrations I see in organisations isn't a lack of strategy. It's the gap between strategy and execution. The executive team spends months developing ambitious growth plans. New markets. Acquisitions. Digital transformation. Productivity targets. Customer growth. Cost optimisation. The strategy is clear. The
There seems to be a growing belief that AI will solve many of Talent Acquisition's biggest challenges. Organisations are investing heavily in AI-powered sourcing, screening, interview assistants, recruitment marketing and analytics, expecting that technology alone will transform hiring. While AI is undoubtedly one of the most significant
For decades, Talent Acquisition has operated like an emergency service. A vacancy opens. A hiring manager raises a requisition. The recruiter springs into action. Candidates are sourced, interviews begin, and everyone hopes the right person can be found quickly. It's a reactive model, and for years it worked
AI is transforming Talent Acquisition faster than any technology we've seen before. It can source candidates in seconds, generate job advertisements, summarise interviews, forecast hiring demand, build talent pipelines, analyse market trends, and automate countless administrative tasks. The productivity gains are undeniable. But despite all of that, I
For years, time-to-fill has been one of the defining metrics in Talent Acquisition. Every dashboard includes it. Every executive report references it. Every TA team is asked how they can reduce it. The problem is that time-to-fill is a lag indicator. It tells you what happened
Let's get one thing straight. AI is not replacing recruiters. But recruiters who know how to use AI will absolutely outperform those who don't. That's already happening. The conversation has shifted from "Should we use AI?" to "How quickly can we
For many Talent Acquisition teams, planning season is one of the most demanding times of the year. Workforce plans. Budget submissions. Hiring forecasts. Executive presentations. Recruitment targets. Technology roadmaps. Team structures. Business cases. And while all of this is happening... The hiring doesn't stop. Recruiters are still filling
The best Talent Acquisition teams I've worked with all have one thing in common. They never believe they've "arrived." They're always asking: How can we make this better? Not next year. Not after the next system implementation. Not when hiring slows down.
One of the biggest hiring mistakes organisations make isn't failing to attract external talent. It's failing to see the talent they already have. I've worked with organisations where leaders can tell you exactly which competitors they're targeting for talent, yet struggle to
Many Talent Acquisition teams are working hard. But hard work does not always equal effective work. Recruiters are buried in requisitions, priorities change daily, hiring managers escalate constantly, meetings multiply, and reactive work dominates the week. The result? Busy teams, inconsistent delivery, burnout, and little time for strategic work. This
Most Talent Acquisition dashboards are built for Talent teams. They track recruiter activity, open requisitions, pipeline stages, interviews booked, and system metrics. Useful internally. But executive leaders rarely care about recruitment activity for its own sake. They care about business impact. If your TA dashboard for executives looks like an