While swinging through Nashville last week at RecFest, I scribbled a few notes as I went. What follows (below) are the bits that stuck once the music faded and my feet stopped hurting. Revolutionary? Busting the lid off TA via transformation or disruption? Maybe not. But slight changes like these and step-by-step iterations in our individual workplaces, or collectively as talent professionals, shift our mindset. Adjust our roles. Modernize how we approach what we do.
And make work better.
Self-Serve
We must stop designing hiring as if every touch requires HR’s hand on the doorknob. The parts of the process that are repeatable – requisition posting, basic scheduling – belong in a self-service flow that managers can run with confidence. Recruiting’s role then is to set the standard, provide the scaffolding, and step in where judgment matters – not to serve as perpetual hall monitors. ACTION ITEM: Think about how to equip hiring managers with appropriate tools/technology (and clear expectations) so they can move faster without sacrificing quality.
Learn From Others
The most useful recruiting ideas rarely come from recruiting alone. Product teams talk in experiments and feedback loops; marketing obsesses over message-market fit; customer success understands what keeps people engaged over the long haul. When we deliberately look across those fences – reading what they read, borrowing how they test, adopting their debrief habits – we expand our playbook in ways a TA-only echo chamber simply can’t. Cross-pollination is not a nice-to-have; it’s oxygen.
Measure What Matters
On the content front, the message was blunt: views are not outcomes, and vanity metrics (number of followers!!) do not hire engineers, nurses, or accountants. What matters is whether a piece of content prompts a next step – clicking through to a role, joining a live Q&A, referring a friend, or starting an application. That means tracking behavior, not just impressions, and it also means honoring qualitative signal. When a candidate says, “I saw your staff designer explain the portfolio review and it made me apply,” that anecdote is also data. Collect it.
The Robots
Generative AI, for all the noise, landed in a very grounded place for me: effective use is a craft you develop through repetition, not a wave-your-magic-wand transformation. Standing up a safe sandbox, saving your best prompts, and building one small tool that lightens the load this month will be more valuable than a twelve-month “plan.” What can you tackle? How to hone your skills? Think about using generative AI to clean up job descriptions, generate structured interview kits that align to outcomes, draft first-pass candidate communications that a human then sharpens. Practice breeds discernment and the more we use the tools, the better we get at knowing when to trust them and when to press for depth. Now go build a Personal GPT! (or two)!
Internal Brand
Internal mobility deserves the same intentionality we pour into external brand work, because employees cannot pursue what they cannot see. Naming the program, explaining the rules of the road, and telling honest stories about lateral moves, stretch assignments, and returns from leaves builds credibility and momentum. When the paths are visible and the process is comprehensible, people stay to grow; when they aren’t, they understandably assume their next step lives somewhere else.
Get a Move On
And finally, the adoption gap is real and it’s shaping candidate behavior. Roughly two out of five job seekers report using AI in their search while only about one in five TA teams are using it on the inside. That imbalance shows up as glossy interview answers, faster candidate communications than we return, and expectations that outpace our workflows. The fix isn’t to outlaw tools; it’s to update the game. We can design assessments that surface how someone thinks and solves, invite transparent use of AI with “show your work” expectations, and automate the drudgery so our time goes to judgment, coaching, and decision-making … the “human” part of our work that we’re supposedly protecting.
Lots to think about – which is, of course, always the sign of a great conference!
In short, none of these things require a sweeping reinvention. Rather, they require disciplined choices made repeatedly – clearer ownership for managers, tighter signals in our marketing, small but relentless practice with AI, and visible paths for people who already work with us. If we treat these as habits rather than campaigns, hiring gets faster and fairer, managers get better at the work that’s theirs, and talent acquisition professionals earn back time for coaching and judgment.
So pick one move, put it in play for thirty days, write down what you learn, and then do the next one. Progress can compound and recruiting effectiveness can shift in the wake of steady, practical actions.
****
Shout outs to Steve Levy, Gerry Crispin, Rhona Barrett-Pierce, Audra Knight, and Johnny Campbell for giving me some nuggets to think about during their sessions!
