# recruitment
47 moments across 34 episodes. Click any moment to jump straight to that part of the episode.
49:34Workplace Surgery: Inclusive hiring and supporting candidates from disadvantaged backgroundsLeanne Elliott: The first thing I'd say is good for you thinking about hiring candidates from backgrounds that are disadvantaged in various ways and giving people a chance. I quote this all the time, but Adam Grant in hiEP 320 · 21 Jul 2026·workplace surgery· 49:34–55:1812:16Google embraces AI in job interviewsAl Elliott: Well, we've seen a lot, or I've seen a lot of stuff about companies who are still trying to work out how to stop candidates from using AI in job interviews. And it's becoming increasingly difficult because thEP 308 · 9 Jun 2026·news roundup· 12:16–16:080:00Intro: The waiting list problemAl Elliott: Most businesses struggle with recruiting great people. They post jobs on Indeed, they sponsor LinkedIn ads, they cross their fingers. Rachel Harris runs a mid-sized UK accounting firm, and she has the oppositEP 299 · 7 May 2026·intro· 0:00–0:1716:31Systemising the recruitment pipelineRachel Harris: Yes, absolutely. So, again, it looks like a systems, but actually it's a much wider business process where, again, I said at the beginning, I help people who feel like they're running their business blindfEP 299 · 7 May 2026·interview· 16:31–21:2426:45Why traditional hiring is normally a hard sellRachel Harris: I don't know if it's the worst way. I think In my opinion, it's normally— again, I'm a marketer by trade. I used to be an accountant. My full-time job now is being a marketer. I've always found that the soEP 299 · 7 May 2026·interview· 26:45–30:4830:49Choosing the right platformRachel Harris: Of course. And again, I think it's really easy to, you know, if I was an accountant right now coming into the industry, I would be thinking, who do I need to look at to learn? They might find me and they mEP 299 · 7 May 2026·interview· 30:49–35:2248:25Where to find Rachel and final takeawaysRachel Harris: I share lots more of the stuff that we've been chatting about today on social, so you can find me everywhere you consume content at accountant_she. It's punny, it's funny, it's Accountant Sheep. And yeah, EP 299 · 7 May 2026·outro· 48:25–51:0324:02Truth or Lie: Should you hire for culture fit?Leanne Elliott: I have no idea Al Elliott: I'm really enjoying it. I really, really like it. So, and I like it because I basically go, Leanne, Is this true? And then I just go and have a cup of tea. And then you sit therEP 286 · 24 Mar 2026·truth or lie· 24:02–38:2449:00Workplace Surgery: The '30-second' interviewLeanne Elliott: Always Al Elliott: Okay, so this person writes, what do you do when you know in 30 seconds it's not a fit? Okay. We've been interviewing for a few roles recently, and we're struggling with something. SomeEP 278 · 24 Feb 2026·workplace surgery· 49:00–54:2935:16Workplace Surgery: Managing hiring chaos without spending a fortuneAl Elliott: Bet they're a pain in the arse to work with. Bet they are. Anyway, we're on to the World Famous Weekly Workplace Surgery where I put your questions to Leanne. By the way, are there any links in the show notesEP 244 · 28 Oct 2025·workplace surgery· 35:16–40:5713:34MrBeast's vibe check hiring trialsAl Elliott: All right, so let's all be dark and humourless at work. Leanne, what else have you seen? Leanne Elliott: I've seen, is vibe checking new hires the way to recruit A-players? This was the question raised in BusEP 238 · 7 Oct 2025·news roundup· 13:34–20:2845:12Recruitment: stop selling the fantasyLeanne Elliott: Hiring is where misalignment sneaks in. And the fix is actually pretty simple. Stop selling the fantasy and just describe the day Ina Purvanova: I think as far as recruitment goes, I think a lot of organiEP 237 · 2 Oct 2025·panel interview· 45:12–48:1548:19Workplace Surgery: Experience vs. Talent in HiringAl Elliott: Yeah, that's the simplest version. So you've basically just done that to this person. So no wonder they're a little bit narked. Okay, so question number 3, Leigh. Are we too focused on experience? Are we missEP 232 · 16 Sept 2025·workplace surgery· 48:19–54:1010:47Hiring A-players: tough love or recruitment theatre?Al Elliott: Yes. So I saw on Twitter or Twix or X or whatever we're calling it these days. This post, I'm only going to say the person posting it, their name is, first name is Michael, who's essentially 6 strategies abouEP 216 · 22 Jul 2025·news roundup· 10:47–15:5718:32Story 3 — Why you're still hiring the wrong leadersLeanne Elliott: Sticking on the recruitment, um, chat, actually, um, a case study fell into my email inbox this week and I thought it was really quite cool. Um, I mean, I think we've all made a hire that we regret at somEP 204 · 10 Jun 2025·news roundup· 18:32–26:4727:39Why bad hiring experiences happenAl Elliott: So as someone who's been on both, both ends of this, you said at the beginning, why do bad experiences exist? If, if, if you know how to do a good job, why are people not doing a good job? Stuart Mace: I thinEP 196 · 13 May 2025·news roundup· 27:39–29:3944:59Recruitment — how PostHog hires at scaleAl Elliott: I am aware we are running a little bit on, um, low on time. So can you just talk us through recruitment? Like, do you do things differently? James Hawkins: Yeah. So there's a few things. I think one, having aEP 189 · 17 Apr 2025·interview· 44:59–48:277:24The ghosting epidemic and the recruiter's 'no excuse'Leanne Elliott: And what the fuck is going on here? John Tarnoff: Well, the number one thing that's going on here is people are getting ghosted. And this is not new to anyone in the job market. It's not new to Gen Z, milEP 187 · 10 Apr 2025·interview· 7:24–11:3411:34It is never too late — the short-sightedness of ageist employersLeanne Elliott: I'm with you. It's, it's what I work in recruitment as a as an organizational psychologist and the candidate experience is something that I'm constantly having to talk to organizations about, about how imEP 187 · 10 Apr 2025·interview· 11:34–19:1515:13The Dark Psychology of Job GhostingAl Elliott: We talked about this about 6 weeks ago. I think I was coming up with this idea of, and there was a, was there a particular term for it back then? Did we come up with this term? Leanne Elliott: Was it not job EP 184 · 1 Apr 2025·news roundup· 15:13–20:4041:54Recruitment lessons from the sidelinesLeanne Elliott: I love that you mentioned recruitment. Ugh, ugh. I just don't, it's not, it's the, you know, I don't understand how any conversation about leadership or culture can be had without a conversation about recEP 179 · 13 Mar 2025·interview· 41:54–43:398:54Story 2: Career catfishing and office ghostingAl Elliott: Okay, Leanne, I've got a new term for you. I know you normally do the terms, but I'm doing the term this time. So yeah, career catfishing. What have you heard of it? What does it mean? Leanne Elliott: I've noEP 172 · 18 Feb 2025·news roundup· 8:54–13:5529:46Why Recruitment Shapes the Entire Employment RelationshipLeanne Elliott: I want to ask you more about recruitment because of all the experts I've spoken to, there aren't many who will prioritize recruitment in shaping workplace culture, but reading more about you and your workEP 161 · 9 Jan 2025·interview· 29:46–33:3737:31The Third-Round Ghosting Story (It Happens to Directors Too)Leanne Elliott: It's, it's so interesting to me. Like you say, it seems so, like you say, low-hanging fruit, particularly if we've had a conversation with them. And what shocks me is I'll speak to people, it happens acroEP 161 · 9 Jan 2025·interview· 37:31–39:5238:22Workplace Surgery: Personality testing in hiringAl Elliott: Lovely. Great answer, love. I've got question number 2 here, and I think you're gonna like this Leanne Elliott: Okay Al Elliott: So, question number 2. I recently introduced personality assessments into our hEP 140 · 29 Oct 2024·workplace surgery· 38:22–45:2947:24Workplace Surgery: attracting young talentAl Elliott: Yeah. And I'm gonna have a look, give you a little bit of tough love, OP, here. You run a design studio. Your job is to design things that make people happy. So it sounds to me like you are a little bit sore EP 128 · 17 Sept 2024·workplace surgery· 47:24–50:465:32Top Traits of 10/10 Candidates (Adriane Schwager)Al Elliott: To be honest, I don't say anything on Twitter. I just, I just Sit there with popcorn and see what goes on. But yeah, so I was, I was trawling Twitter and I saw this post by the amazing Adrienne. Adrienne, I'vEP 109 · 25 Jun 2024·news roundup· 5:32–10:488:33AI in recruitment: a flawed future?Leanne Elliott: Yeah, I'm definitely putting it in the same category as, as pool table in the break room. Um, and I also, I hope that there will be some, some maybe some kind of TikTok coming out about this. I can see thEP 97 · 14 May 2024·news roundup· 8:33–13:5521:42Workplace Clinic: 'I found the perfect candidate. Do I need to keep looking?'Leanne Elliott: Yes. Al Elliott: Okay. So question number 1, I found a perfect candidate. Do I need to keep looking? Now I'll give you the context of this so you can make— so you can decide whether it's the right thing tEP 90 · 16 Apr 2024·news roundup· 21:42–24:540:33Google's hiring evolution: skills vs. personalityAl Elliott: Nice. Check out hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses Leanne Elliott: And that's the other thing. If you think she's good and her performance is good, then she's not good. She's frEP 86 · 2 Apr 2024·news roundup· 0:33–9:5217:50Why recruitment is the foundation of workplace cultureLeanne Elliott: the framework of the relationship has been I 100% agree, but I also know that recruiting is often done by management within a company, and therefore that's often where you need to start. Nora thinks the pEP 74 · 18 Jan 2024·interview· 17:50–21:3230:10Lesson 3: Never Bargain Shop for TalentAl Elliott: So, Kevin's 3rd leadership lesson is don't bargain shop for talent. Now, the tweet that first made me notice Kevin was about this story about how he got a guy who worked in a bike shop and how he basically ofEP 44 · 21 Jun 2023·other· 30:10–35:0744:52Ross's hiring secret: record yourself firstRoss: Before I made any hire, the first thing I did was I sat in a hotel room, set up a camera, and recorded myself recording a handful of videos to talk about our processes and procedures. And I did this intentionally bEP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 44:52–74:4032:59Lesson 1: Finding great peoplemidroll (Phil Agnew, Nudge): Keep that in. Al Elliott: So the 3 main lessons here from Oliver's story, all around people. The first lesson here is finding great people. I asked him, I said, you've got some really smart pEP 38 · 10 May 2023·interview· 32:59–37:4843:31How to spot a toxic superstar at recruitment stageAl Elliott: Yeah, so a couple of things. I mean, obviously, the first thing that everybody does is they take a look at your resume, they take a look at That sort of raw talent, I guess, kind of factors. But I think, to mEP 31 · 22 Mar 2023·other· 43:31–47:505:08Prediction 1: The fight for talent continues, but the strategy shiftsLeanne Elliott: My first prediction is that the fight for talent will continue, but I think the strategy will shift Al Elliott: Hmm Leanne Elliott: And I think it's gonna shift in a way that is more sustainable and in a EP 18 · 29 Dec 2022·other· 5:08–12:1412:15Prediction 1 summary: Focus on perfecting recruitmentLeanne Elliott: You say there's gonna be much more of a focus on perfecting the recruitment process to make sure you're finding the right people for the right role every time. And you know what, if it's the right person EP 18 · 29 Dec 2022·other· 12:15–13:073:25Why leaders should care: recruitment & developmentLeanne Elliott: I think psychometric tests tend to fall into 2 places that can be of use to an organisation. If you think about that through the lens of the OBLONG framework, which if you're a regular listener, you will EP 06 · 2 Aug 2022·other· 3:25–6:4914:06Silo 1: Recruitment in a Hybrid WorldAl Elliott: Yeah, why not? Leanne Elliott: So, I think recruitment is fairly, probably had the fewest changes in terms of how people recruit. People have been doing it online for a long time. They're used to advertising EP 05 · 25 Jul 2022·other· 14:06–20:167:14When culture fit does work — and when it doesn'tAl Elliott: Okay, so if someone's listening to this and thinking, shit, this is the way that I recruit at the moment based on culture fit, then what should they be doing differently? How do they pivot and transition to pEP 04 · 19 Jul 2022·other· 7:14–8:101:41What 'the fight for talent' actually meansLeanne Elliott: Yes. I don't think, Al, I know. I know how good it is Al Elliott: So let's kick off a little bit, sort of taking back a step and go, I've heard about this, this phrase called the fight for talent. Will yoEP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 1:41–3:533:53Why the nature of the role changes everythingLeanne Elliott: I think it depends on the nature of the role, and that's the number one thing you have to really think about and assess before you even put together a job description or even dream about advertising for aEP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 3:53–5:139:33Recruitment is science — the evidence baseAl Elliott: So, tell me then, so, if, for our listeners who predominantly are going to be service-based industries owners, so, like digital agencies, creative agencies, that kind of thing, then tell me, what is a good reEP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 9:33–10:5310:53Step 1 — Define the role properly (job analysis)Leanne Elliott: Sure. So, the, the process for recruitment really is, I guess it, it might be turning on its head perhaps what feels intuitive, but the first thing you need to really understand is the role that you're reEP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 10:53–18:4518:47Step 2 — Create a process, not a gut feelingLeanne Elliott: Step number 2 is to create a process. A thorough job analysis, which is step 1, is going to help you identify the competencies. What I mean by competencies is the knowledge, the skills, and abilities thatEP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 18:47–23:2923:29Step 3 — The search (and why it's not where you start)Al Elliott: So, we're coming down to the part that most people start with, which is the search. You have some thoughts on this? Leanne Elliott: Yeah, I think the search, and this is probably the bits that are a bit more EP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 23:29–24:5725:51Wrap-up and how to get in touchAl Elliott: Brilliant. Okay, I think we'll call that a day for the moment then. So, if you're interested in looking at this, this is step 1 of our Culture Blueprint or Culture Roadmap you can find at oblonghq.com/roadmapEP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 25:51–26:30
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