This week in the Holistic Recruiter Club

TA is Broken Mini-Series: The Tech Dilemma

The Holistic Recruiter Club

Jul 12, 2024

🎙 Podcast Episode: Vicki Saunders from

This week's podcast features Vicki from The EVP Consultancy. Listen to the full episode here.

🎥 YouTube Rebranding: The Two Tired Dads of TA Talk & Tech

We’ve rebranded our YouTube Channel! Check it out: TTDTTT YouTube Channel

🎤 Call for Speakers

Interested in joining the show? Send a message to john@holisticrecruiter.club.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been sharing polls to get to the route problem in TA

62% of polled people said Talent Acquisition
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53% said ineffective hiring strategies was the main reason
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Then we have a virtual draw between Poor JD and Requirments 44% v Bias and Unconscious Bias 41%

So I have another poll below for you to take part in :)

TA is Broken Mini-Series

Last week I talked about the problem with hiring managers and how they contribute to the poor perception of TA teams!

This week I will go into tech!!!!

Most TA’s don’t know what systems thinking is and to be honest I probably have 1% of knowledge at best on this topic yet, I saw a poll where 50% of TA teams were thinking of changing ATS’ in the next 12 months.

Here are a few issue I see:

Many times, TA teams are not included in the decision-making process for selecting new tech. Instead, this responsibility falls to the Head of People or HR. This disconnect means the people who use the system daily have little to no say in its selection.
Tech companies often build tools based on what they perceive are the needs of TA teams, rather than what is genuinely required. This results in tools that look good on paper but fall short in real-world application.
Typically, the primary user considered during tech implementation is the TA professional, since they will interact with it the most. However, there are so many stakeholders involved, including HR, hiring managers, and of course, the candidates. Each group has different needs and expectations that must be met.
TA teams often don’t fully understand how new tech integrates with existing tools. This can lead to compatibility issues, data silos, and a host of other technical problems that hinder rather than help.
The implications of tech costs are often overlooked. Poor onboarding and inadequate training for new users can result in never getting the best out of the system, making it a costly and ineffective investment.

Misaligned and misold tool, exclusion from decision-making, limited user perspectives, integration issues, and underestimated costs all contribute to the ongoing struggles. It's clear that a more holistic approach is needed, yes I snuck that in on purpose ;)—TA teams need to be in the decision-making process and they need to consider the needs of all stakeholders.

Next week I will talk about prioritising projects!

This week’s top tip

Do not listen to influencers on LinkedIn. This one irritated me a lot sharing things without understanding them. This is why I started to post on LinkedIn and as I promised to myself I will only call out 1 thing per week haha.

I mean we have people commenting on this stating it’s super easy to spot people using AI who clearly use AI to generate their content 🙃

Here was my response!

The point of sharing this is use critical thinking and check what you are reading before reposting or sharing as “fact”

All it does is damage and reinforce the poor perception of TA’s.

What I Learned and Did This Week

I learned this week that networking is the best skill I have ever learned. For someone who is an extrovert in most situations, I absolutely hate going up to people and saying hello when I don’t know them, If I see someone I know on the train I will avoid them so I can enjoy the ride in peace yet contacting people on LinkedIn and then having subsequent conversations with them I love.

It is the main driver of my success I think, networking, and staying in touch with people as you never know when that connection you are hurting will be ready to develop!

So be brave to reach out to someone posting something you like or in a job you’d like to have one day. Just connect and then say “Hey I like your content can we have a chat I’d love to pick your brains!”

You’ll be surprised how powerful it is…..

If you want to connect or chat with me hit the button below