SHRM Talent 2026
by WRKdefined Podcast Network
AI Is Making Hiring Easier. So Why Is Everyone More Frustrated?
About this podcast
Welcome to the official limited podcast series from SHRM Talent 2026, recorded live at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. In collaboration with SHRM, WRKdefined created this 33-episode series, which captures real conversations shaping the future of hiring, recruiting, talent acquisition, HR technology, leadership, workforce planning, candidate experience, AI at work, and the evolving world of work.
Across the series, WRKdefined sat down with HR practitioners, talent leaders, consultants, analysts, creators, founders, and technology providers to explore what’s actually happening inside modern HR and recruiting teams. No corporate theater. No overproduced sound bites. Just smart people sharing practical ideas, lessons learned, industry trends, and honest perspectives from one of the largest HR and talent events in the world.
SHRM Talent brings together thousands of HR and talent acquisition professionals focused on recruiting strategy, employee experience, workforce transformation, leadership development, hiring technology, and the future of work. This limited series extends those conversations beyond the conference walls and into the hands of HR professionals everywhere.
Whether you work in HR, recruiting, talent acquisition, people operations, HR tech, staffing, leadership, learning and development, or workforce strategy, these conversations were built for you. 28 episodes. One conference. Real conversations that matter. Recorded and produced by WRKdefined in collaboration with SHRM.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 28 episodes
- AI Is Making Hiring Easier. So Why Is Everyone More Frustrated? · 13 minApplying for a job has never been easier. Finding the right candidate has never felt harder. Tina Robinson argues that recruiters and candidates are trapped in an AI arms race…
- Recruiting Fraud Is Exploding. Most Companies Aren’t Ready for It · 8 minHiring has always involved a little deception. AI turned it into a completely different game. Philippe Beucher argues that recruiters now face a challenge they’ve never seen…
- Corporate Training Is Still Teaching People the Wrong Way · 9 minMost workplace learning is built around convenience, not science. Three-hour presentations. Endless slides. Mandatory training sessions nobody remembers. Marcy Baughman explains…
- The Best Recruiters Don’t Fill Jobs. They Solve Business Problems · 8 minThe best recruiting teams don’t fill jobs faster. They help businesses make better decisions. Paul Norman explains why too many recruiters are still measured by recruiting…
- Recruiters Don’t Have an Applicant Problem Anymore. They Have a Trust Problem · 7 minThe recruiting funnel is overflowing, but confidence is disappearing. Mike Peditto explains why recruiters are battling fraud candidates, AI-generated applications, and record…
- Recruiting Has an Alignment Problem Nobody Wants to Admit · 10 minCompanies say there’s a talent shortage while millions of people are looking for work. Jim Stroud breaks down the disconnect sitting underneath modern hiring and why recruiting…
- Your Employees Have More Brand Power Than Your Marketing Team · 10 minMost companies are still treating branding like a billboard problem while their employees are becoming media channels overnight. Roy Abdo explains why polished corporate…
- AI Made Applying Easier. Recruiting Got Harder · 5 minAI was supposed to fix recruiting. Instead, it made every resume look the same. That’s the mess recruiters are dealing with right now. More automation. More applications. More…
- Your Employees Are Telling You Why They Stay. Are You Listening? · 19 minMost leaders spend more time asking why employees leave than why they stay. Njsane Courtney argues that’s backwards. The answers companies need are already sitting inside the…
- Your One-on-Ones Are Failing Because You Keep Asking the Wrong Question · 11 min“How’s it going?” might be the most expensive question managers ask. Joe Rotella argues that vague conversations create vague performance. Employees leave one-on-ones frustrated…
- Your Leadership Playbook Expired 20 Years Ago · 15 minToo many leaders are managing a 2026 workforce with lessons they learned in 2006. Krishna Powell argues that the biggest leadership challenge today isn’t attracting talent. It’s…
- The Best Candidates Aren’t Always the Most Qualified on Paper · 10 minResumes have never been perfect. AI just made the problem harder to ignore. Philip Nash argues that companies are spending too much time chasing credentials and not enough time…
- Time-to-Fill Is Broken. Nobody Knows What Great Recruiting Looks Like · 21 minMost recruiting teams are hitting their metrics and still getting told they’re failing. Tim Sackett argues that’s because the metric everyone tracks most obsessively might be the…
- How Employees Leave Says More About Your Culture Than How They’re Hired · 10 minMost companies spend years perfecting recruiting and almost no time thinking about offboarding. Sarah Rodehorst argues that’s a massive mistake. The way employees leave a company…
- Recruiting Doesn’t End When Someone Gets Hired · 10 minMost companies obsess over attracting talent and spend far less time thinking about what happens next. Chad Sorenson argues that real talent management starts before someone…
- Everyone’s Talking About AI. Almost Nobody Knows What Adoption Actually Means · 21 minAsk ten HR leaders about AI adoption and you’ll get ten different answers. Cole Napper argues that most AI conversations are broken because people are talking about completely…
- AI Is Turning Recruiting Into a Trust Problem · 9 minEvery candidate suddenly sounds polished. Every resume looks optimized. Every interview answer feels rehearsed. Isela Conley breaks down what hiring leaders are quietly…
- HR Is Under More Scrutiny Than Ever. Are You Ready to Prove Your Decisions? · 9 minThe days of “trust us, we investigated it” are over. Jackie Schafer explains why HR teams are facing increasing pressure to document decisions, prove fairness, and back every…
- You’re Hiring for Skills. The Best Companies Hire for Potential · 14 minMost organizations are still measuring the wrong things. They hire for today’s job description while the role changes six months later. Art Jackson argues the companies winning…
- HR Doesn’t Have an AI Problem. It Has a Trust Problem · 10 minAI adoption isn’t failing because of technology. It’s failing because companies still don’t know what problem they’re solving. Every HR platform suddenly has “AI” slapped on the…
