2025 Recruitment Strategy Kickoff: Driving Smart Hiring Through Technology || Season 2 Episode 2

Recruitment is changing fast—are you keeping up? In this special live episode, our guests, Manjula Arikeri, Sanchi Bhatia, and Roger Lopez, break down the most significant hiring trends for 2025, from AI-driven screening to skill-based hiring. They discuss why a candidate-centric approach is no longer optional and share the key metrics you need to track. Discover how to embrace new technology without losing the personal touch that top talent expects.

Special Guests: 

• Manjula Arikeri, Vice President, TASC Outsourcing 
• Roger Lopez, CEO and Founder, National Search Group 
• Sanchi Bhatia, Director, COO, Vitalhunt Global Solutions Private Limited

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Transcript

Manjula Arikeri: 0:00

Music.

Andy Weiss: 0:22

Welcome friends to now hiring the podcast about the talent and recruiting industry brought to you by the good people at sepal. I'm your host, Andy Weiss Chief Marketing Officer at sepal, and this is a special edition of our now hiring podcast. In fact, we are today streaming live to both LinkedIn and sepals YouTube channel, and for those in the live audience today, you'll be able to interact with us and use by using the chat feature of both platforms to ask questions and contribute to the conversation. Today, we're looking beyond the trends to hear the real stories that are going to be shaping recruitment here in 2025 and I'm joined by some very special guests who bring some first hand insights into what's happening on the ground around the globe, how they're responding in their organizations, and what they're doing to plan for the future. And so with that, would like to introduce our distinguished guests today. Manjula R Kelly, sorry. Manjula R Kerry, Vice President at task outsourcing. And then Sanchi batea, Director. Coo from vital hunt, global solutions. And then shortly, we will be joined by Roger Lopez, the CEO and co founder of national search. Here's Roger the national search group. So welcome all Sanchi, if you could take a couple minutes and share with all of us a little bit about yourself and your experience in the staffing industry and what your firm does and is up to. Okay, we're going to go to Manjula. Manjula, yeah,

Manjula Arikeri: 2:21

good evening and good morning, some of the places, because the people are coming from the different countries to visit us. So it's for for all of them, good morning or good evening. I'm ankeri. I had the

Roger Lopez: 4:08

hiring strategies. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Manjula, Roger, do you want to share your background? Yeah, hi everyone. Roger Lopez, I'm the CEO of national search group. We help manufacturing companies in these particularly in the wood, metal and plastics industry, find top talent through three specialized divisions. I've been in the staffing industry for over 30 years. We've built a great team of over 50 professionals working with clients across all the United States and Canada from our headquarters here in Miami. So I'm really excited about being here today. Recruiting is always, you know, changing, and I love exploring new strategies and staying ahead. So looking forward to a great conversation. Awesome. Well, thank you.

Andy Weiss: 5:00

Thank you both. And as soon as it looks like Sanchi is having some technical difficulties, so as soon as she's able to rejoin us, we'll pull her back into the conversation. So as we're you know, as we think about 2025 I'd be remiss if we didn't start with, kind of where you all exited 2024 and you know, as a year of a lot of change, a lot of different types of challenges, but to help us kind of better understand where your organizations finished the year, and kind of how you maybe navigated 2024 Roger, if we'd start with you kind of give us your thoughts and takeaways on on the prior year.

Roger Lopez: 5:46

Well, the biggest, like recruitment challenges for 2024 like one of them, the toughest. It was pretty one of the toughest years for us. Many of our many companies were putting hiring on hold because of a lot of uncertainty, you know, around like elections, interest rates, concerns about inflation or just low decision making, you know, causing them to lose and on a great amount of candidates to faster moving competitors, right? So this created a lot of delays in hiring. And on top of that, you know, we saw a pattern where some clients seemed ready to hire, but they went silent when we send them top candidates, and in many cases, they were just exploring options rather than making a real, you know, making real hiring commitments. So it was a challenging time, but it gave us valuable insights on how businesses react in uncertain markets, and to tackle these type of challenges, we adopted a proactive approach. We doubled our efforts in marketing top candidates that in ensuring that our clients were aware that the exceptional talent was available in the market and how they could contribute to their business success, but also we created a sense of competition and kind of like an urgency amongst our clients, Driving like the the HR teams, the C level executives to act much quicker. So by highlighting candidate scarcity, we increased their interest and motivated them to secure top talent, you know, before their competitors did, right? So, you know, we Yeah. So, how did yeah? So,

Andy Weiss: 7:39

how did you this idea of kind of hiding or creating some scarcity. How did you guys come up with that kind of idea?

Roger Lopez: 7:48

Or, well, you know, when we send out a good amount, you know, a list of, if we have a really, what is it, an MVP or, like, a most placeable candidate, right? We send them out. We just don't send them out to one client. We could send them to maybe 1000 so we create the competition. You know, these candidates, they, they, you know, they move real quick. You know, the ones that are interested in the roles, they interview real fast. They get hired immediately and then. But we do have a huge amount of those clients that receive that same candidate say, Hey, we're interested in this candidate. But, you know, when they get that, that reply back saying that the candidate is no longer available because the, you know, he got hired by one of their competitors, you know, it creates that, that kind of like urgency, where they need to respond much faster. We're trying to educate our client, our clients to to respond fast. If we're in a market where candidates have way more opportunities, you know, so and I think a lot of our clients have been just used to sitting back and waiting or or belonging the interview process, and that has just damaged, you know, them in the long run.

Andy Weiss: 8:58

Manjula, what was 2024 like for on your end, yeah,

Manjula Arikeri: 9:04

for us, it was a very dynamic year of recruitment, especially in the Middle East. The biggest challenge was the we faced, the intense competition, competition within the skilled professionals it and particularly in technology engineering roles and highly skilled professionals being digital transformation AI adoption and mega projects are booming, we definitely saw the scarcity of the skill talent in the Middle East. Okay, the major challenges also as a country that we have to balance the localization, which is called emiratization and Saudi AGS, while, while, while ensuring the best talent we have to play. Is at the right time. We also saw a shift in the candidate expectation and their behavior. They are demanding more flexibility in working than their career growth and digital hiring experience is something that we saw a shift in the people hiring. Yeah, it was very dynamic and very fast paced hiring that I see in the Middle East past one year. Andy,

Andy Weiss: 10:33

wonderful. Extremely challenging for both of you then. So was there for either of you, was there a specific moment or initiative that kind of made you rethink that approach? Roger, it sounded like from that speed standpoint, there was, there was something that clicked on. Oh, yeah. But curious for both of you, was there, was there one kind of pivotal moment or kind of aha?

Roger Lopez: 11:01

I mean, well, for us, you know, it was Yeah, 2024 was a we reached a pivotal realization that to attract top, top talent, you know, both our clients and internally. You know, for us, we had to evolve beyond the traditional recruitment message, right, the outdated approach, you know, of simply just like posting jobs or relying on conventional head hunting was just no longer enough for us, right? We in order to stay competitive, we had to embrace, you know, innovative, proactive strategies to connect with the right candidates. So we recognize that we need to be far more active on social media. We had to be leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, you know, Tiktok to engage, you know, both the past event the active candidates and at the same time, you know, we had to be committed to staying ahead of the curve with AI technology. You know, out there, a lot of them, you know, offered us tools with more precise talent matching, and, you know, streamlined our whole entire process, giving us, you know, and our clients good competitive edge

Manjula Arikeri: 12:12

on on this that, okay, yeah, traditional methods is no longer give, give The kind of experience, the candidates and the hiring managers are looking okay. So the social media is playing very big part of hiring now, right now, in most of hiring spaces, those Tiktok videos and YouTube job descriptions and LinkedIn explanation the job description in LinkedIn, those are now trending to attract more and more more candidates, and a traditional method like posting the like web portals, like like any of the job posting is screening the candidates through job porters, those are not at all helping the recruiters, not the heading managers. Yeah, I second Roger on that. Yeah.

Andy Weiss: 13:11

Awesome. So Sanchi, welcome back as as you know you would expect from we were talking about 2024 while you were going through some technical difficulties and some challenges there. So it would be fitting to you know, using that as a jumping off point to ask you to share with our audience a little bit about about yourself, and then also kind of jump into what 2024 was like on your end, for your for your organization,

Sanchi Bhatia: 13:45

for my organization, particularly 2024 was all about adapting new technologies that we as we dive into the new ATS, which we have adopted last year. So we were all in that stage to learn and grow with that particular ATS to understand the ATS, as you all know that day by day, the advancement of technology is leading us towards a new experiences, right? So we can daily find out anything new which comes up to us, and we can find a solution in the AI and the 80s. So everything where we were facing the problems, or maybe we were facing any gaps, where we were lacking the clarity in terms of data and everything. So 2024, for us, was all about learning those steps, how we can make those things simple and make those data more useful for our organization, and this is the base for our next few years of journey that we are planning to understand the data and to make our organization much better in terms of understanding, analyzing and then implementing the solutions accordingly. Okay, so for 2025 we all are planning to obviously, as Manjula was saying that the social media, the new terms of recruitment, which are now the industry, is adapting. So we are also in making the employers brand strong, so that the social media presence can help us hire for them. So obviously our 25 plans are in terms of that only

Andy Weiss: 15:29

Okay, so as great segue so into as we're thinking about 2025 a lot of headlines around either talent shortages or candidate expectations changing, and then technology kind of playing a bigger role, more of a bigger role, than than ever. What? And you kind of touched on this a little bit, but what's kind of, are there any driving kind of trends or ideas that you said, Hey, here's what's going on in the marketplace. We need to make sure, as we think about 2025 we address this trend or this challenge in our own planning.

Sanchi Bhatia: 16:12

Yes, obviously that, from my point of view, personalized experience for the candidates matters a lot, because while we are hiring and we are making them feel that they are the right fit for that particular organization, will be looking forward for their like career. They will be planning their career on the basis of that one yes, they will be going to say to one of the organization. So personalized experience matters a lot in our organize, in our industry, particularly, and obviously, the new ways of like chat bots, are getting introduced in each and every platform where every person can have a personalized answers to their particular problems, or maybe the transparency increases with the Help of that personalized experience. So in my terms, that personalized, or I can say hyper personalized, experience for the candidates will be more of the thing in coming years.

Andy Weiss: 17:16

Manjula or Roger, any, any similar type ideas are

Manjula Arikeri: 17:26

in our industry, particularly, there are too many tools. Okay, now the competing like, okay, every everything is just another tool. Okay, in that market, which is right for the recruiter. What helps your industry is something that one should look into. Otherwise, just because of digitization in AI, you pick up anything will not help for the people or the recruitment or not even hiring managers in this person, what I feel that okay, so you what is the recruitment is? Is it's not a process anymore. It it is a experience for the candidate and also the hiring manager. So that's how the landscape changed of recruitment, right? It was a, it was a workflow before that, okay, hiring a candidate is, is the only if you see the KPI for the recruitment department is, is time to fill quality hire and other things. Now people talking about the candidate experience, candidate, candidate, NPs core, or the the client NPS code. So the the shift from process to experience is something we are looking for, 2025 and going forward, because now this become a candidate led, uh, market. It's no more employer led recruitment. So I see 2025, is a great change for the experience, per se. What I feel

Andy Weiss: 19:06

that's not, that's exciting, because this is ultimately, you know, we're all dealing in people. And, you know, talent is people, and to be able to get back to the people side of the business, that's, that's super exciting. It's like, why not?

Manjula Arikeri: 19:22

But it took for years to bring to this level, always a process, right? Yeah,

Andy Weiss: 19:29

Roger, from your perspective, and you know, sitting in Miami, what are you finding these personal experiences?

Roger Lopez: 19:37

I mean, we, you know, we have other as well. You know, for us in the States, things have changed drastically, right? So the like for us, the hiring trust for 2025 is like the growing demand for hybrid and remote jobs, right? Especially in the engineering, sales, administrative and project management. So, you know, companies want their employees to go back. To the office, right? But many workers are preferring flexibility, so businesses are needing to adapt. You know, we're doing our best to help our clients create remote and hybrid rows. You know, work options. You know, to attract top talent, but while keeping you know, operations rooming, you know, running smoothly, but at the same time, you know, we're getting in the US. We're getting, you know, major government investments in big infrastructure projects. You know, particularly because we deal on the the wood, metal and plastics industry, that you know, they're creating a huge demand for workers, especially in skilled trades and project management, engineering and so forth. So like, just to stay ahead, we're expanding, you know, our candidate pool and focusing on industries that will benefit the most of you know, of these type of investments to stay competitive, we're improving our hiring strategies, you know, researching a lot of AI tools to find and and connect with those type of remote ready candidates.

Andy Weiss: 21:07

So with that, using that technology thread, so you know, you've each kind of mentioned a little bit, but are there specific things that is you're you're looking at in terms of software or AI tools. So, Manjula, you mentioned, you know, evolving the workflow on your end. Is there, you know, for any of you, is there anything, and specifically that, hey, we're looking to kind of bring this type of technology on board to enhance one of our processes or replace the process? So in focus on people? Yes,

Manjula Arikeri: 21:48

I can take that question. Andy, so as a as a company, we have done many of the larger campaigns for for many of the retail technology and other side of the hiring. Okay, so these campaigns means a lot of people coming in a day that that the campaigns are very large, like you will meet 100, 150 people to 200 people in a day to complete the process to hire maybe 50 to 100 people in one day, okay? This, this experience is when you see 100 or 200 people on the on the floor. It's lot of paper going around, right? So the CV coming from the registration to the recruiter, from there to the hiring managers. So we felt, okay, there is a, there is a bit of digitization required here, right? Because one is that we should give a experience both the hiring managers and the candidates. Okay, we built the complete process. It's, it's on our in house project called recruitify. What we did, this, this whole thing, we bring it to the digitization so there is no paper now. Okay, candidates come seamlessly. Okay with the QR code, they register, they get their their number sequence, they they allot to the rooms. The hiring managers see that profile within the system, there will be assessment sheets attached to the each position differently, and they read the candidates. From there the selection moves. At the end of the day, they can see okay with each position, how many people came, what how many interviews happened. So it is seamlessly. And those are some touch points for the candidates, because they come, whether they shortlisted, they are rejected, whether I'm on hold. So everything the communication is part of the digitization. So it gives a seamless, transparent, paperless, digitization platform for the hiring managers and the candidate. It gives a recruiter immense free time so that he need not to manage the large volume of the CVS anymore. So Okay, this one thing that we we felt it is required for the business where you have a lot, lot of campaigns and recruitment drives, campus hiring happens outside your offices, which is not one to large number of people. So that's where we shifted. We want to give experience for both the candidates and the hiring managers. So we built as a what I can say this 22 years of experience, we've developed this product. It is in house product. We understand what is the kiosk handling this recruitment drives outside the office. Yeah, that is one of a great experience now, which is maybe we will soon come to the market to marketize that product. But currently we are using for in house. It is a great help for both the recruiters and the hiring managers. Using one

Andy Weiss: 24:59

that's super. Exciting, and it starts to explain, kind of the especially with the free time, or the additional time or bandwidth that you're freeing up for the team, kind of being able to focus on the relationship side, Sanchi, any kind of technology or kind of IT Process enhancements going on, on, on your end,

Sanchi Bhatia: 25:20

not a particular new one, but, yeah, obviously ATS is being, I already said that ATS being we have recently adopted ATS last year. So ATS it itself is a quite, I can say, a very large thing for us, because day by day, we are facing certain issues, and accordingly, we are preparing something in it only, and it is giving us the solution like we have never had in our organization. And obviously things are quite getting resolved through this, productivity is getting enhanced because of the less tracking work which we have to do earlier on the one to one basis. So productivity enhancement, which we are working on currently, and which is truly helpful through the ATS, and we are able to develop different departments to track different activities earlier. It was the end to end recruitment process which a recruiter was doing, and now it is only the recruiters doing the recruitment, actually recruitment they are able to do, and the other departments, like cam, BD, and every other department who takes care of the other process which is being taken place after the recruitment and actual sourcing and interviewing part is done by The recruiter. So after this particular technology which we have introduced, we are able to track each and everything through different set of departments which has enhanced the productivity in our organization and the businesses has business, monthly business, I can say, has given a quite hike in a percentage terms as well, in monetary terms as well, and we are able to now attract more of the talent. We can easily train through these type of ATS, ATS, and we can adapt new technology easily, as we are now capable enough, and we are ready with the technology driven team, where our team is also excited with all these changes and the learning perspectives, which which they are getting, and they are now able to do the data analyst, which was a very big question earlier for the recruiters to do at this time, is this level.

Andy Weiss: 27:34

So it strikes me that, you know, we were, we've touched on a little bit, kind of the changes in the market in terms of the talent, but each of you is shared in your own way, like the evolution of the skill set and the roles within your own team. So how are you, you know, managing this balance between technology and people and then kind of upskilling or training your people and not and being able to benefit from the reward of more personalization and more kind of relationship building.

Manjula Arikeri: 28:14

So for us, one is that, yeah, the biggest question is EI replacing the recruiters, right? That that's where the people have question all the time. This, this technology is, is a replacement, or what I could say, it is definitely not a replacement at all. It is a enhancement of your workflow, okay? The the mundane jobs of recruiter, like screaming 1000s of the CVS short listing, then talking to them and interview schedules, those are something is taken over the AI and automations, where the real recruiter will spend a quality time with the top candidates, so that the engagement, the relation with those will help for a quick hiring and retention of the candidates for the company. So it's so it's always been propaganda of that okay, whether the AI replace the recruitment or recruitment process or the recruiter, I don't think it is any replacement. It is. It is just an enhancement for the recruiters. They can do the quality work rather than doing the mundane jobs.

Andy Weiss: 29:28

So Manjula kind of building on that a little bit a question that came in from our our audiences, wanting to peel back the layer on some of the tools and technologies that you all have been testing or trying or playing around with. So Manjula, I think you mentioned, you know, you've developed something in house for everyone else. Kind of are there? Are there things that you're excited about, or specific tools that, hey, we've. We've tested this, or we want to take a look at that and kind of get a little bit more granular for people,

Manjula Arikeri: 30:06

I have definitely seen some of the tools I can recommend if somebody was not using they have a lot of database within the outlook, because outlook search incentive doesn't work for the candidate matching and other things. Maybe somebody can look into tobu.ai which will actually connect all your outlooks within the within the system of all the office systems. And with that, it creates the database. From there, the matching of the series happens. Right? It is a powerful it is, it is very low cost. Somebody can easily try with a small, small recruitment agencies or anything, because there is a lots of CVS in the Outlook where they don't have the proper ATS to scrutinize, and other things they can use Tobu dot i, even though they have a ATS, the connection between the ATS with the outlook is difficult to manage, so some of this, AI tool definitely will help. One is job matching, scoring the database is also possible with COVID or AI, if you have a lots of CVS within the within the system. Maybe, if, if you are, if anybody is looking specific area of AI tool, maybe I can suggest some of those this. This is for the job matching and auto searching engine that we can call as

Andy Weiss: 31:37

Roger or Sanchi. Anything else to add to that mix?

Roger Lopez: 31:42

Well, we're investing a lot into AI tools. I mean, we're looking at automated sourcing tools to help find and connect the right talent for specialized roles. We're very actively right now, also looking into AI interviewing software for better communication tools or recruiters can reach candidates way faster, and you know, so we're not missing any opportunities, and training is just as important. You know, as the hiring industry changes, you know, our team needs to keep up. So we're, you know, we're prioritizing ongoing learning, both in technology and industry, you know, trends and so forth.

Sanchi Bhatia: 32:24

I totally agree with Roger like we are also now implementing more of the AI technology in the organization. We are looking forward to more of the chances of getting certain similar products in callings and video interviewing these days, because we are upgrading our recruiters by giving them trainings, particularly every week, to get adapt to these type of technology, where they are also now exploring and getting new things on our table and the things they are facing while in the market. Well, they are interviewing the candidates, the time gap, the skill gap. And I can say they are also facing that the skill based hiring is now increasing day by day. So they are also looking something in the AI where they can have certain stages of like particular test for them. They are developing test for the candidates who are like aptitude test on which, on the basis of that, they can have a video interview with them. Basic screening is done through that skill based test, and accordingly, they can onboard certain type of candidates. So obviously, these particular things are now in demand, and we are exploring those things

Andy Weiss: 33:45

awesome. So you you touched on kind of competing with or trying to source these highly skill based talent and roles. So what are you? What are you all doing to compete for those best candidates in your industry. And I know, you know the three of you compete in different geographies and different in different verticals, so no trade secrets probably going on between the three of you. But if you can lift the hood a little bit in terms of what you're doing to make sure that you're bringing the best candidates to your your clients and your customers

Roger Lopez: 34:23

just trying to be faster than everybody else.

Andy Weiss: 34:26

Speed, okay, yes, for us,

Roger Lopez: 34:29

is speed. You know, it is in the States, clients, when they sign a contract, they want it now. They don't want to wait. They have that Amazon, you know, shipment mentality, where they want it fast, right? So it's, it's very difficult, and trying to get, they don't understand the whole process that's involved in, in sourcing, interviewing, just trying to get somebody on the phone. It's, it's difficult, you know, mission. So that's, that's what we struggle with every single day. It's just trying to find ways to make it much faster and easier for our. Recruiting teams. I think that that's where AI interviewing software and automated sourcing and improving the, you know, the ATS that's going to take us to the next level.

Sanchi Bhatia: 35:11

And first of all, convincing the candidate to hire on the skill basis is a big question, or I can say, big task for our type of companies where we cannot convince the can client to have a candidate on their skill basis. They want a traditional candidate on the basis of degrees, on the basis of their certifications experience. So this is the particular question. Yeah. The question is that, how we have to convince a can client when they are asking us to find a candidate and we are convincing them to hire through a skill based particular program, then they are not getting ready. So this is a particular problem for us,

Roger Lopez: 35:56

yeah, for us, and manufacturing is quite different. I mean, I started 30 years ago, and back then, it was like, Oh, you needed to have all these these specialized degrees in the industry. Right now, skills based hiring has been like a transformative shift for the industry that we work with, particularly in manufacturing, you know, where hands on expertise often outweighs the the formal credentials. So with the ongoing talent shortage, which we're facing the US right now, many of our clients have had to move away from those rigid degree requirements and embrace skill based hiring. This shift has opened up a broader and way more diverse talent pool, allowing us to identify a bunch of candidates with practical, know how and experience to excel in these specialized roles. So real good for us.

Andy Weiss: 36:45

A different kind of angle on that. Because we were talking, we talked about AI and using AI to kind of help us filter through candidates. But then Roger, you're also talking about the, you know, the talent shortage and stuff. So one of the questions that came from the audience was, by ruling out so many candidates with AI, are we missing out on some that if we spoke to them, they could actually be great candidates?

Roger Lopez: 37:11

Well, that's why we do a two step. You know, we start out with we haven't started out the AI interviewer yet. That's something that I think we're going to start this week, or maybe next week. What we're thinking about starting, you know, the first initial interview should be with the AI. This way we'll be able to send, send out a mass amount, you know, to many, you know, many candidates, and whoever responds back, we could get a recruiter to call, call them back and get a little bit more details, you know, and have them get that feeling that, yes, they are, they are talking to a human and somebody who, who cares about their careers and what, you know, where they who they want to apply with. And, you know, since we're niche based, we we have to be a little bit more focused and had that capability of

Andy Weiss: 38:03

connecting with them, thoughts from from anyone else on how to, how to make sure that we don't use AI to, you know, inadvertently filter out that that diamond in the rough. Yeah.

Manjula Arikeri: 38:17

So the thing is, that how you train your AI, right? It is the screening questions of the job, okay? And how the candidates replies to those is important aspect in the whole system, right? It can happen same thing to the recruiter. You the recruiter would have also left some of the good people because the presence of mind of the candidate at that point, how he responded to the recruiter. Is matters to shortlist audit, similar way to AI. Also, you may miss out. But the thing is that candidates should accept the AI assist as the as a first cleaner, okay, if they want to play that, okay, this is not the this is the AI. There is no human here. I don't want to give great respond to this. They will lose out of the opportunities, okay, so the candidate, acceptance on the AI, and being part of that journey is, is very important. And when this this journey begins with the screening questions, asking repetitive questions. These all is the part of the journey, so candidate also should be accepted and react as a person he's reacting to the AI assist in that case. Okay,

Andy Weiss: 39:37

great. Um, so, oh, sorry. Start again. No,

Sanchi Bhatia: 39:47

I was just saying that India is not ready, actually, with this particular technology so, but in replacement of AI interviewing, we can replace this particular skill. Training with a test, aptitude test, where they can fill out the few basic questions in terms of yes or no or maybe one or two answers. So this can easily help us and which we are currently adapting to that test before an interview gives us a much higher chances of getting to understand those candidates and the candidate to understand the organization, or the questions they might get while getting interviewed on the call. So this is particular the India is ready for this type of technology, but adapting to AI interviewing, interviews and video interviews with the chat bot. I don't think so key India is particularly ready for at this particular year, for this particular year.

Manjula Arikeri: 40:47

I don't think not only India, any country, is not ready yet for this challenge.

Andy Weiss: 40:55

Yeah, somebody's got to start. But I think there's going to be a lot of evolution as we're all trying these different tools, and some things we're going to find are going to work, and yes, there are, inevitably, with any process, some candidates that are going to miss out. I think that's part of it's just the nature of what we do and the business.

Sanchi Bhatia: 41:18

So talent shortage, with talent shortage, losing certain candidates we cannot afford.

Andy Weiss: 41:27

But AI is also helping candidates, in theory, get better as well. So it's this kind of rat race of, how do you how do you use technology to help you all do what you do best and find the right candidate for the right role, but then it's also helping candidates improve their marketability. So it's this balance, if you will.

Roger Lopez: 41:53

Yeah, you know, a lot of our candidates complained, oh, you know, I don't have time. I'm working. I can't interview. So we're going to use this as like, hey, we, we have this 24 you know, seventh day a week option where you could do your interview, you know, through a, through a, you know, interviewing, AI, so, you know, a system and and avoid it's speaking us to us, you know, up at, you know, upfront. I mean, eventually we will speak to them, but it would just give us the opportunity to just see a lot more completed candidates than a traditional, you know, recruiter could do right now, our recruiters can maybe complete maybe 40 candidates a month. I mean, we deal with supervisory all the way to executive level roles, so we have to be a little bit more focused there, right where in AI bring in hundreds in a month. Wow. So it's going to help out.

Andy Weiss: 42:50

So if we collectively take a step back and kind of look at it now, 2025, as a whole, how are you each feeling about the year in recruitment, optimistic, cautious, somewhere in between. Kind of, what's the what's the crystal ball temperature read across this group.

Sanchi Bhatia: 43:14

I am particularly optimistic and curious both. I'm somewhere in between, obviously, because the technology is getting advanced day by day, and the adaptability which we have built last year is helping us. So I am curious about the technology and recruitment, but also the optimistic part, I can say the skill based hiring, which is increasing is the basic need of the industries, which we are tapping these days. And the skill based hiring is helping us to evolve the market. And the evolvement is making us to like our existence. Is making more efforts and making more I can say the challenges which the organization face, while skill based hiring is making our existence more reliable for them. So obviously, the recruitment agencies, or maybe HR consulting companies may have wider chances of getting on board in the organization, as the shortage of talent is making them move to the skill based hiring.

Roger Lopez: 44:30

So extremely optimistic. You know, that's just how I approach everything in life. There's always a way up, and that's exactly where we're headed, no matter what the recruitment landscape maybe growing more competitive, but, you know, I see it as an opportunity, rather than a challenge or organization staying ahead of the curve. You know, leveraging tools like AI, focusing on innovation, we're positioned to thrive. You know, this optimism. Drives how we approach our work, our partnerships, there's much more potential to create meaningful impacts for both the client and the candidates, and with the right mindset and strategies, I believe the future is real bright for the recruiting industry.

Manjula Arikeri: 45:19

I too optimist, but realistic in a way that how is how we started 2025 it is already, already been a month. I see how the, how the landscape of recruitment is changing, as Sanji, very well, said, on the skill based hiring and the candidate experience evolving what they are needed to be hired for, okay? They are not just the Gen Z professionals, not just looking for the salaries anymore, right? They need a flexibility in working, career growth and purpose for the work. So these are some elements are taking top of the priority for the Gen Z professional so, so definitely a lot more learning this new AI tools coming into the picture, automation of many of the workflows, it is the recruiters and also bring a lot of challenges, how to how to run the business when while you're learning. So that's what I feel 2025 been learning, put it in practice and execute, and same time, continue the business hiring is part of that. So, so I see all of that running insane platform at the at the same year, looks like that's that's going to happen for 2025 for us, especially in the Middle East.

Andy Weiss: 46:53

Wonderful. So, Manjula, Manjula, I think you, you teed up perfectly some questions that we got from from the audience, just in terms of first every all of you seem seem very optimistic to different degrees, about 2025 so kind of bringing that down a couple levels in terms of metrics and KPIs that you Think we should be focusing on to measure recruitment success this year, is there, you know, any, any one or two kind of KPIs or metrics that that you each hone in on?

Manjula Arikeri: 47:30

See the always recruitment KPIs. It's never going to change whether, whether we use AI or automation, the the the time to fill is one KPI and the quality of the hire is another KPI that the recruitment departments or the staffing industry look for. These are the main two KPIs. What makes better this year you are adding those the other two KPIs, which is your candidate NPS score and the client NPS score that the experience of those elements maybe bring the our KPIs in a better measuring score. Okay, so I think these, traditionally, the all the recruitment agencies or the corporate the key KPIs for the recruitment is, is the time to fail and quality of the higher and plus experience is adding for 2025 for us especially,

Roger Lopez: 48:29

Yeah, same thing, yeah. We're, you know, we're laser focused on key numbers to drive the, you know, recruitment success. And one of the biggest things that we track is how many interviews our recruiters complete each week. Keeping our pipelines active means that we can move candidates through the hiring process much more quicker and efficiently. So you know, we're also ensuring making sure that management stays involved as well. Our leadership team checks in regularly with candidates to make sure they they feel informed, you know, and valued, you know, with the whole ghosting situation going on out there. So just not only creates a better experience for candidates, but it also leads to a lot more successful placements and referrals, right? So, you know, we keep it every day is over. We keep a close eye on daily call volumes. We listen to to recordings. You know, we give our recruiters feedbacks. This helps them. You know, fine tune. You know, our outreach strategies to improve communications. You know, we hold division, divisional meetings every week, where we get to share, you know, our key metrics, our challenges, our wins, keeps everybody in the same page and encourages the team to share ideas to help us improve, right? You know, we've, since last, think about year and a half ago, show we implement. The EOS model, which has been a huge game changer for us, you know, keeps us all focused, accountable, you know, aligned on the goals. So by using these strategies, we're making sure, you know, our hiring process is not just fast, but it's highly effective,

Andy Weiss: 50:21

awesome. So a question from the audience. So in the beginning of the conversation, we touched on, or talked a little bit about turning recruitment from process to experience. But then as we drifted into a conversation around AI, question comes up, if we introduce an AI interviewer or shortlist or Roger, as you were talking about, the question is, doesn't that seem to contradict that transformation of going from process to experience? So it kind of

Roger Lopez: 50:58

well, they're still going to get the same experience. It's just they're giving them an additional option. So if they're not available for the phone call, we don't want them to lose out on the opportunity. Right? Clients, like I mentioned before, they want fast. They want they want to see these resumes today, yesterday, not not in a week. So if we're calling them and calling them, oh, I can't now, I can't now. I can't. We do it next week. They're going to lose that on the opportunity, because 100 200 people,

Andy Weiss: 51:25

yeah, and it strikes me that you're you're using, you're potentially using this AI screener in a slightly different and more focused application, in that your staff, your team, has certain number of hours that that they work and that you're placing these calls, but that may or may not overlap with your candidates. And so by implementing this technology, you're expanding that that work window for these candidates that may be able to later that day when they're not as busy they're not. They have greater availability now they can get back into the pool. So I think that's a really cool kind of slightly narrow application of it, but I think it actually benefits both parties. Yeah, in that sense,

Roger Lopez: 52:19

yeah, it's

Sanchi Bhatia: 52:20

just like Job invites. If we all are aware of job invites mass mailing, which we used to do through nock tree or maybe other job portals. So it is just like that, that whenever they are available, they can see the opportunity they are having their inbox, and they can give a particular interview for them, and then that thing can take them to the next level. Whenever the recruiter is available, they can screen them, and then can take them to the next level. So they are also not missing that opportunity, and the recruiters are also not making any more efforts to, like, give a call to a candidate 10 times a day to get in touch with them like so it works both way.

Andy Weiss: 53:06

So if you, if you could each give one piece of advice to the hiring leaders in this in this live session as they're thinking about or finalizing or implementing their plans for 2025 what would that one piece of advice or guidance be to that to these folks

Sanchi Bhatia: 53:28

adapt skill based hiring, first of all, because that can change and give wonders to their results and their business. And I am the live example which we because we have started skill based hiring from last six months, and it has given us more than the results which we were expecting from them. So this is the major need of the market, and I think the recruiters, the companies and the hrs of the organizations, should start adapting skill based hiring,

Roger Lopez: 54:08

I would say, embrace technology, you know, without losing the sight of the human element, right? Stop thinking that you know it all and that the old ways will always work like this. This mindset holds back growth. You have to embrace new and innovative ways of attracting talent and landing the right clients. So AI isn't just something of fear. It's a tool that's going to enhance the our recruitment strategies and but not replace them. You know, avoid letting you know, if you're in the US or the political rhetoric or external noise, dictate your business decision or limit the ability to adapt and grow. You know, never stop learning. So it is

Manjula Arikeri: 54:54

yes. What my advice would be, okay, first, accept. Technology, okay? Now there is a lot of fear accepting the technology for the hiring managers itself. Some people still have their traditional way of doing things, okay? Because this hiring managers and and the the leadership is many aliens, right? So they are still in the traditional way of doing things first is embrace the technology and harness the technology in what workflow you want to introduce to help in your workflow of recruitment, okay? And be quick for that. Okay? Because we already late in a way, to understand it is already taken a lot more better shape. What we are seeing today, okay, we are already late. Okay, don't be late again. Okay, catch up. Catch up with the with the with the with the new tools and technologies and and give a weapons and the tools to the recruiters. They can work better for you and get faster hiring numbers, that's what I can I can talk about to giving any advice to the recruit hiring leaders.

Andy Weiss: 56:11

Wonderful set of advice from from all of you. Thank you for that. And I'm sure there our audience will will appreciate and echo my my thanks for for that, as well as all the other insights that you've that you've shared today. Personally, the thing that my biggest takeaway of this conversation is just the excitement of the fact that you're each looking at technology as a way or a tool to get back to the people side of the business, and I think as somebody who works on both sides of the equation, I think that's something that's been lacking over the last couple of years, though, it started to become a numbers game, and less so a people's people focused game. So I think that's super exciting, and I want to thank you all for being a part of our conversation today and for our audience, for joining us. Hopefully you all have learned something that you can take back to your business and apply to your 2025 recruitment strategy. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please subscribe to our now hiring podcast and newsletter, and connect with any of us and our wonderful guests via LinkedIn. And we also invite you to join us at sepal connect, our virtual industry event on Thursday, March 6. So stay tuned for details on that and from all of us, thank You, and until next time, we are now hiring you. Oh, we lost, there. She, hang on, just a second. I.