AI Is Making Hiring Easier. So Why Is Everyone More Frustrated?

[00:00:00] When I say the phrase talent management, what comes to mind today for you? Chaos, frustration, frustration on all sides, herding cats. I know amazing people who have been struggling to look for jobs and I know amazing recruiters who say I can't find anybody. It's like where's the disconnect? It is totally this and I think technology is at the crux of it. I thought COVID was going to be this major turning point for talent management and I feel like we just

[00:00:27] we got through that and now we're heading up into another massive transformation. We'll know that we've arrived with AI when we don't say AI. It's like we don't say HTTPS or WWW. You know, we know that we've arrived with the internet because we just say they. We just go online.

[00:01:04] This is William Tencup and Tina, Tina would you do us a favor to introduce yourself to us? I'd be delighted to Tina Robinson. I am a multi-year SHRM speaker. After a long career in the corporate world doing humans at work work for the last nine years, I've been on my own. Launched Workjoy as my own brand and my first book is going to be sold here at the bookstore. Developing your business

[00:01:32] leader is a guide to investing at all levels. So I had to put that plug in because I have to spend the rest of my natural life marketing this book that I read. It's one of those bits. Well, published author. So now you can comma published author. I can see. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. I'm only a month in. So truly, I have to practice saying it. I usually start with speaker and then I have to remember. Oh yeah. I wrote a book. Published author. Speaker. How weird is that?

[00:01:57] Everybody's a speaker. Oh, come on. It's crazy. Too funny. So I'm just honored to be here. I love SHRM. It's one of the best conferences that I'm at all year. Do you do annual as well? I'm going to be in Orlando. Yes. Okay. We will as well. So you don't have to come podcast with us. Oh my gosh. I'd love that. Yes. I've been told I have, you know, a face for radio. So. Me too. Right there with you. All right.

[00:02:20] I got a couple of questions to ask. When, when I say the phrase talent management, what comes to mind today for you? Chaos, frustration, frustration on all sides, um, herding cats, um, optimism,

[00:02:43] potential, massive transformation. I mean, I thought COVID was going to be this major turning point for talent management. And I feel like we just, we got through that and now we're heading up into another massive transformation. Yeah. We went, we, we slid backwards a little bit after COVID. We did. I was just talking to somebody about that. Who's that? Yeah. That's what he said. 2019 was a banner year. Almost like we peaked in a lot of ways. We, and then you're absolutely right.

[00:03:13] I think a lot of people felt that, oh my gosh, 2022, we're going to come out of the chaos. It's going to be so much better. We can put the toothpaste back in the tube or the good things will stay. And then I think we hit smack Gavin to AI, which is this another massive tsunami force. Well, and again, we've been through several of these types of tsunamis insofar as on-premise

[00:03:35] software to SaaS, um, mobile responsive design, social, the internets, you know, like we've been through phases of this type of work. Yeah. Yeah. AI is a bit different in the sense of it doesn't look like there's an end point to AI. Like there's a lot of starting points that doesn't look like it's going to end, uh, or at least in our lifetimes, it doesn't look like it's going to end.

[00:04:01] So I think for me, talent management at one point it had, there's four corners. You kind of define it. Okay. From recruiting, onboarding, performance, learning, all this stuff. Succession. Yeah. And now they're like, there's, it was seen to be kind of linear. It's not linear, bless you. It's not linear anymore. And probably never was. Yeah. If I'm being honest. Okay.

[00:04:26] Second question is what's the hardest thing in recruiting right now? What's the biggest challenge you think? That's a great question. I'm not going to, it's hard to put a label on it, but the, the image that I have is that it is so easy to apply now. And so it's one click and everybody's writing

[00:04:50] AI resumes and AI copy letters. And so there's this massive, like everybody is basically trying to play the game. And then you have recruiters who are trying to keep up and are just, it's elite. It's the technology keeps leapfrogging. And so everyone is trying to keep up with the latest. And so what you have is, I don't think anybody's happy. I mean, I remember I've gone through various iterations of

[00:05:14] the war for talent. And I remember a fast company article about the war for talent. We're still, and I don't get it because I know amazing people who have been struggling to look for jobs. And I know amazing recruiters who say, I can't find anybody. Sorry. It's like the mismatch, like where, where does this connect? It is totally this. And I think technology is at the crux of it. It's almost like we need to just remove all the technology and everyone has to go back to streams and cups.

[00:05:43] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's interesting. I was talking to my wife about this the other day. It's like, candidates are using AI for all the reasons that you talked about. Recruiters are using AI AI to then suss all that stuff out. And so really it's a battle of AI, AI versus AI, candidate AI versus employer versus AI. It's like, okay, who wins in that? And it's not the humans because the humans on all sides are really frustrated. That's right. Yeah. That's right. I love that. What's, what's keeping you up at night these days?

[00:06:13] Keeping me up at night. Um, I think it's the general uncertainty of where all of this is going to go. And also I know for me, I read all the research. I know that human skills, creativity, strategic thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, um, the ability to network, the ability to build relationships are so, so, so, so critical. And yet I feel this just ongoing,

[00:06:41] compelling need to just slap AI on everything that I do to show that I'm, that I'm able to do it. Right. And I keep trying to put AI in a box. And I think what's keeping me up at night is how do I not lose my authenticity in the work that I do, um, as in a world that keeps forcing us to show that we are technologically fluent. Right. So I think, and this is unsolicited feedback, but

[00:07:10] I think a lot of people, a lot of practitioners have the exact same, whether or not they can voice it the same way. Um, I am the voice of the people as you should be author speaker voice of the people done standup comic standup. Um, we'll know that we've arrived with AI when we don't say, uh,

[00:07:33] it's like, we don't say HTTPS or WWW. You know, we know that we've arrived with the internet because we just say they, we just go online. That's right. Or, so I was working at, for success factors, which was purchased by SAP. Yeah. And it was when SAP was in the transition of moving from on-premise to the cloud. And we don't even say cloud solution anymore. It's just, we take it for granted that

[00:08:00] of course it's in the cloud. And even cloud is probably old, old, you know, is so 2019. Right. That was a wonderful acquisition for SAP had they kept Lars. And they kept Lars and their cloud strategy. They, they, they would have leapfrogged a bunch of people. I remember Lars. Yeah. Well, I remember in the early days, SAP bought this adorable little startup where everybody brought their snake to work and you

[00:08:29] played ping pong. And then it was little by little, these, the transformation and you saw waves of people leave and that's fine. Go to another startup. It's not sort of not your, not your vibe anymore. So it's fascinating to live through that. Lars is one of the only people in our industry that went from a garage to a public offering to an exit that most, most entrepreneurs tap out at one

[00:08:57] of those. They might come in, you know, if you're at a hundred million, I can get you to a billion, you know, that type stuff. But, uh, he did well, he did well. And he was beloved. I mean, in the early days he was absolutely beloved and it was, uh, he had, he left very big shoes to fill. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Okay. When your battery runs low, your innovation battery runs low, what do you do to recharge? Great question. Um, one of my very best friends is a very

[00:09:24] gifted massage therapist. And I always hear her voice in my head of get into your body, like check into your body. Cause my mind will tell my body you're not tired. And I'm like the little windup toy that has to hit the wall. And then like with its legs in the air, going, and so I actually have to physically stop and then do whatever I need to do to recharge because I have noticed I'm not in service to my clients. I'm not in service to myself or anybody else.

[00:09:54] So it's the learning, learning to read your body before you hit the level. I'm not great at that. I don't think any of us are golfers are athletes have to be, because they gotta know they cannot get hurt and they have to stop one, you know, one rep before the muscle full. Right. Other than that, I've never been great at like, does my back hurt or

[00:10:20] is it in my head? It's a twinge. I'll just, you know, I'll, I'll work through it. Yeah. If I threw it, I don't need to get more than, you know, five hours of sleep until you hit the wall. Uh, yeah. Uh, don't mind all the caffeine that you're drinking. It's probably tearing you up inside, but all right. So how can people find you as a author speaker, et cetera, voice of the people? How can folks find you? Oh, well, thank you so much. Um, well, anybody can email me, uh,

[00:10:50] Tina at work joy, coaching.com. Um, I'm probably, I think I'm the only Tina Schust Robinson work joy on LinkedIn. I'm speaking tomorrow, uh, at 10 30, uh, to talk about, uh, throwing spaghetti at the wall, a little provocative title. Um, how do you not do that? And how do you make a compelling business case for investing in leaders? One that's going to stick and one that's going to win hearts and minds at all levels. Uh, then I'm doing a book signing, which is my very first one. I'm like

[00:11:20] a little kid. I don't even know what to expect. I failed. Uh, you'll learn, you'll, you'll be better at this much better than I was the first time someone asked me for my autograph. I was at a bar. It was like 2008 and I had a book out at the time. Nice. Congratulations. A friend of mine came up to me at the bar and I'm drinking and she goes, Hey, will you autograph my book? And I'm like,

[00:11:46] then I just signed my name. It gave it to her. I didn't ask the questions that you normally like, Hey, if you could have, who do you want to make this out too? And Oh, right. Like I didn't do any of that stuff. I'm just like, right. Like here's my name. Picasso. I wrote, I wrote my name and I gave it to her and she's like, okay, let's kind of looking for something a little bit more personal interaction. My bad. So yes, when you do your book signing, I will remember my failure. I'm going to

[00:12:13] remember you were going to be haunting my dreams. Yes. And then I'm speaking again in the afternoon from three to four talking about how to weave leadership development into the entire talent life cycle. So it's not a standalone and to promote career agility. And so there's a session in the morning, session in the afternoon and two book signings. And then I'm reachable all the time. I love, love, love this community. It's given me so much. But we're going to, if we don't see the sessions, we'll see you in Orlando.

[00:12:41] I cannot wait. I'd be honored to come back. Congratulations on your book too. Thank you so much. Alrighty. And thanks to the audience. We love you. Thank you very much.