Time to Hire
Welcome to "Time to Hire," a dynamic and insightful podcast created by the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA) specifically for talent acquisition professionals to keep them well-informed about the latest industry trends and best practices.
In each episode, RPOA Executive Director, Lamees Abourahma, hosts prodigious talent leaders to share talent market intelligence and innovative recruitment approaches. Tune in to the podcast to help you enhance your hiring processes, strengthen your employer brand, and innovate your talent strategy.
Whether you're a seasoned talent acquisition professional or just starting in the field, "Time to Hire" provides an invaluable platform to expand your knowledge, learn from industry leaders, and stay up-to-date with the rapidly changing world of recruitment.
Episodes
56 episodes
Skills Over Jobs: Stefan Lint on Navigating Talent Scarcity, AI, and the Future of RPO
In today’s evolving talent landscape, organizations face a paradox: a cooling labor market alongside persistent shortages in high-value skills. As Stefan Lint explains, the shift from a “labor market” to a “skills market” reframes hiring strate...
Navigating Skills Gaps, Passive Talent, and Embedded Recruiting Strategy with Lori Prehar
Hiring demand is no longer linear—it’s uneven, unpredictable, and increasingly skills-driven. While some roles stall, others remain critically hard to fill, forcing talent leaders to rethink traditional hiring strategies. According to LinkedIn’...
Closing the Skills Gap: Jim Sheehan on the Silver Wave, Skills-First Hiring, and AI-Driven Talent Strategy in Advanced Manufacturing
The manufacturing sector is facing a talent crisis that no amount of job postings will solve. Gartner predicts that by 2030, half of all enterprises will face irreversible skill shortages in critical roles — a warning that lands especially hard...
Fede Calvino on Skills-First Hiring, AI Recalibration, and Global Talent Strategy in a Restructured Labor Market
When hiring slows but demand for specialized skills accelerates, talent leaders face a paradox. According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends research, 73% of professionals are passive candidates—open to opportunity but not actively applying—res...
Winning the AI Talent Race: Grant Jessup on Specialized Hiring, Passive Talent Strategy, and the Future of RPO
Hiring volume may be cooling, but competition for specialized skills is intensifying. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, organizations face a widening gap between evolving role requirements and available talent. According to LinkedIn...
Applicant Fraud and How to Detect Fake Candidates
Applicant fraud is no longer a fringe issue—it’s becoming a structural risk in talent acquisition. As AI tools make it easier to fabricate resumes, manipulate interviews, and even generate synthetic identities, recruiters face mounting pressure...
Ep 50 Skills-First Hiring in 2026: How AI, Emerging Skills, and RPO Are Redefining Talent Acquisition with Chip Holmes
In 2026, demand for emerging skills is accelerating even as overall hiring slows—yet only 21% of companies have fully adopted skills-based hiring, according to LinkedIn’s 2024 Future of Recruiting report. Talent acquisition and recruitme...
Ep 49 Skills-First Revolution: Kyle MK on Redefining Talent Acquisition
Did you know that 81% of jobs on Indeed are now matched to candidates based on skills, not degrees? Yet talent acquisition leaders struggle as employer expectations outpace candidate realities—creating a crisis where high hopes and rigid requir...
Transformation: The New Role of Recruitment Process Outsourcing with Alex Ridder
The RPO landscape faces a reckoning: according to Nelson Hall, 60% of buyers now view providers as largely interchangeable—a figure underscoring industry-wide commoditization. As Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) leaders struggle to differe...
Ep 47 The End of Recruitment as We Know It with Scotty AI Co-Founder
AI-driven recruiting is rewriting the rules of talent acquisition. At the 2025 RPOA Annual Conference, we learned of an innovative AI hiring platform that made 5,201 hires in just 12 hours, compared to only 40 by a traditional human team (accor...
Ep 46 Thriving Through Turbulence: RPO Leadership Resilliance with Terry Terhark
Global RPO revenue growth took a stark turn, with 2024 marking a -13% drop and 2025 showing flat or even negative growth (according to multiple industry analysts). As the RPO industry faces unstable markets, leaders must navigate economic uncer...
Ep 45 AI Governance & Trust in Recruitment: Insights from FairNow's CEO
AI adoption is transforming recruitment, yet 30+ new global AI regulations introduced in just four years reveal a sector racing to manage unprecedented risk. Recruitment leaders grapple with the mounting challenge of implementing trustworthy AI...
Ep 44 AI-Native Talent Strategies: Future-Proofing RPO with Jordan Morrow
Today’s talent acquisition landscape is experiencing rapid disruption. Did you know that 90% of employees use generative AI, yet only 40% of enterprises provide official access, according to industry research? Talent leaders face a mounting cri...
Ep 43 Ted Pierni of Robertson Explains How Organizations Can Transform Their Talent Acquisition Function
Across the talent acquisition landscape, 77% of companies report difficulty keeping teams right-sized amid unpredictable hiring cycles, according to the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA). Recruiting leaders confront a perfect s...
Ep 42 Why Joe Cote Champions RPO As A Stabilizing Force In A Volatile Tech Market
A handful of $500 million-plus Series A rounds in AI highlight capital concentrating into a small set of hyperscale bets. Tech hiring pipelines expand at unnatural speed as AI-focused candidates flood postings, creating a volume shock that over...
Ep 41 Heather Taylor of MAU: How to Build a Resilient Talent Pipeline Without Over-Hiring in a Downturn
A majority of talent acquisition (TA) leaders lack hiring strategies ready for market fluctuations. This data expose how qu...
Ep 40 Why RPO partnerships fail (and what ZRG and Symbotic did differently)
In high-growth technology sectors, talent acquisition leaders face an unprecedented scaling challenge: how can organizations rapidly deploy recruiting capacity while maintaining quality and cultural fit? The RPOA's 2025 RPO Trends Report shows ...
Ep 39 Diana Doro of Orion Talent: Why Employer Brand Matters More Than Ever (And What to Do About It)
Research shows referred candidates get hired at a rate of 30% compared to just 7% for applicants sourced through traditional job boards. Today's employers face an unprecedented challenge: quality candidates no longer fill the top o...
Ep 38 Elaine Nicol of AgileOne on How to Build a Magnetic Employer Brand Without a Massive Budget
Your Employer Brand Bleeds Talent—And You Don't Even Know ItAccording to Lighthouse Research & Advisory, 83% of candidates distrust employer brand authenticity—a crisis that costs organizations their best talent before intervi...
Ep 37 Hillary Jarman of Hueman People Solutions: How to Build Strong Healthcare Employer Branding Without Slowing Down Hiring
According to Deloitte, companies that effectively activate their employer value proposition can improve retention by up to 69%, yet healthcare systems face unprecedented talent shortages. The American Healthcare Association reports healthca...
Ep 36 Emily Gordon & Zack Flippo of Randall Reilly on Brand Marketing for Transportation Companies
With an 80% average turnover rate plaguing the trucking industry, transportation organizations struggle to fill critical positions while facing an unprecedented driver shortage. The trucking sector needs 1.2 million new drivers over the next de...
Ep 35: Michelle Krier of Advanced RPO: How to Fill Food and Beverage Jobs Without Losing Day-One Hires
The Food and Beverage industry and other high-volume-hiring industries face a critical employer branding crisis costing organizations qualified candidates and revenue daily. Production, quality control, and engineering roles now require ...
EP 34 Jamie Minier of NXTThing RPO: For Talent Leaders Tired of Losing Candidates to Slow Hiring
High-volume hiring faces a critical speed-to-hire crisis costing organizations top talent daily. Frontline positions now require what industry experts call "drive-through hiring" - candidates expect job offers as quickly as they receive ...
Ep 33 The Future of Workforce Intelligence: Raleen Gagnon on Building Predictive Hiring Strategies
Raleen Gagnon joins Lamees Abourahma to discuss how global workforce intelligence transforms talent acquisition strategy, why traditional outsourcing assumptions no longer work, and how predictive data gives companies a competitive edge in toda...
Ep 32 Heather Siler on Why Smart Healthcare Leaders Prefer Flexible Recruitment Solutions
Heather Siler from Hire Velocity joins Lamees Abourahma to discuss how Project RPO can solve healthcare's most pressing talent challenges, from managing workforce fluctuations to scaling teams rapidly across multiple geographies. They explore r...