The Human Capitalist

AI may not be the biggest threat facing HR. Irrelevance might be. In this episode of The Human Capitalist Podcast, I sit down with my friend Brandon Jeffs for one of the more candid conversations we've had about where HR, recruiting, and talent are actually headed. And we don't agree with every popular HR narrative. We dig into whether CHROs really need to “earn a seat at the table,” why I believe nobody deserves that seat, whether recruiting could become one of the most strategically important functions in the business, and why skills-based hiring may not be nearly as mature as the industry wants us to believe. We also tackle AI adoption. Companies are racing toward AI-enabled work, but adoption is messy, governance is lagging, and employees can now bring their own AI tools into the workplace whether the enterprise is ready or not. Then we get into a bigger question: What is HR actually for? If payroll and benefits move toward finance, employee relations works increasingly alongside legal, AI changes administrative work, and organizations operate with smaller headcounts—what is left for HR to own? Brandon makes the case that the answer may be closer to recruiting than many HR leaders want to admit. We talk about recruiting as a source of market intelligence, why revenue per employee matters, what's wrong with traditional job descriptions, the limitations of skills-based hiring, and why the HR organizations of the future may look very different from the ones we built in the past. If you're a CHRO, HR leader, recruiter, talent acquisition leader, or executive trying to understand where work is headed, this one may make you uncomfortable. Good. That's usually where the interesting conversations start. 00:00 — Is HR's biggest threat AI—or irrelevance? 02:20 — AI adoption, governance & the future of HR tech 09:50 — Does the CHRO really deserve a seat at the table? 16:10 — Why recruiting may be HR's most strategic function 18:36 — Job descriptions are broken 20:18 — Is skills-based hiring actually overhyped? 26:02 — Could recruiting become the future of HR? 34:30 — Brandon's advice for staying relevant I'm working on my new book, The FutHRist: The 5 Mindsets of the Future HR Pro, built around the five mindsets I believe HR professionals will need to remain relevant in the age of AI: The Architect. The CEO. The Engineer. The Scientist. The Coach. The book is coming this fall. Take the free FutHRist assessment and learn more at trentcotton.com. The Human Capitalist Podcast — at the intersection of AI and HR leadership. Hosted by Trent Cotton, author of The FutHRist: The 5 Mindsets of the Future HR Pro — available this fall. Take your free assessment at www.trentcotton.com #HumanResources #HRLeadership #Recruiting #FutureOfHR #AI ⏱️ TimestampsAbout The FutHRist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don't think the biggest threat to HR is getting fired by AI. It may be something much quieter: keeping your job, your title, your team, and even your seat at the table while the biggest decisions about the workforce get made without you. In this episode of **Is HR Being Fired?**, I break down what Monday.com's restructuring tells us about the changing role of HR in the age of AI. We're looking beyond the layoffs to the bigger questions facing HR leaders: • What happens when revenue grows but headcount doesn't? • Which jobs actually change because of AI? • Where can companies increase output without increasing headcount? • Where is human judgment still worth paying for? • Where is AI and automation riskier than it looks? • And who will design the organization of the future if HR doesn't? This isn't just a Monday.com story. CEOs and CFOs are asking new questions about productivity, automation, organizational design, and the workforce. If HR is still answering yesterday's questions, someone else will answer tomorrow's. The future of HR isn't about defending our seat at the table. It's about becoming the people who help design what the organization becomes. 📘 My new book THE FUTHRIST released on September 14th. 🎯 Take my Futurist Self-Assessment to discover whether you're operating as the Architect, Engineer, Scientist, CEO, or Coach—and where you need to improve to remain relevant in the age of AI: www.trentcotton.com/futhrist-self-assessment/ ▶️ Watch the full **Is HR Being Fired?** series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdyUKttA2krw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI is making employees more productive but where is all that productivity actually going? McKinsey data shows a striking gap: while companies report significant productivity gains from AI, far fewer can connect those gains to measurable financial impact. Meanwhile, organizations aren't waiting for the answer. Roles are being redesigned, hiring is being frozen, and workforce reductions are being considered. In this video, I break down three possible explanations for where the AI productivity gain is going—and what leaders should be measuring before making major workforce decisions. We'll look at research from McKinsey, Apollo, and Culture Amp to explore: • Why AI productivity gains may never reach the P&L • What wage data may tell us about who is capturing AI's value • Why employees can feel more productive without feeling less overloaded • The difference between eliminating work and simply making work faster • How to track AI ROI through the actual flow of work • How the Value of Work Matrix can expose where productivity gains disappear I also share three questions leaders should be able to answer about AI—and a practical exercise you can use with your team to determine whether AI is creating measurable value or simply creating more capacity nobody is tracking. Want to understand the five mindsets HR professionals will need for the future of work? Take the free FutHRist assessment: https://trentcotton.com/futhrist-start-here Learn more about the Value of Work Matrix: https://youtu.be/_umOtBmp_BY The FutHRist: The 5 Mindsets of the Future HR Pro: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HG4TBBX8 Resources for HR Leaders 📊 The Value of Work Matrix Toolkit — A practical framework to quantify workforce decisions and defend headcount to your CFO. https://cottontrent.gumroad.com/l/value-of-work-matrix-toolkit 📋 FutHRist Team Assessment Workbook — Diagnose your HR team's readiness for the future of work, skills gap and all. https://cottontrent.gumroad.com/l/futhrist-team-workbook 📥 The FutHRist Planner (free) — A structured planning tool for HR leaders navigating AI-driven transformation. https://cottontrent.gumroad.com/l/futhrist-productivity-planner Subscribe for practical analysis on AI, work, leadership, and the future of human capital. #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #AI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You meet the qualifications. You applied for the job. So why can't you even get an interview? Recruiters are being buried under hundreds—or even thousands—of applications while qualified candidates are wondering why they can't break through. In this episode of The Human Capitalist Podcast, I sit down with recruiter and creator Mike Petito to unpack what's actually happening on both sides of today's hiring process. Mike shares his four-bucket framework for job applicants, including perhaps the most frustrating group of all: candidates who meet the basic qualifications but still aren't getting interviews. We also dig into why most job descriptions need work, the truth behind recruiters spending “7 seconds” reviewing resumes, transferable skills, skills-based hiring, AI's growing role in HR, and what hiring teams can do differently. Whether you're an HR leader, recruiter, hiring manager, or currently looking for your next role, this conversation gives you a look behind the curtain at how hiring decisions actually get made. 📘 Want to prepare yourself for the future of HR? Order my book, The FutHRist: The 5 Mindsets of the Future HR Pro, on Amazon. Search Amazon for “The FutHRist Trent Cotton.” 🧭 Which FutHRist mindset are you? Take the free self-assessment: Take the FutHRist Self-Assessment Mike's media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpeditto/ Website: https://mikepeditto.teachable.com/ Book: https://a.co/d/0gvNfRY0 Chapters 00:00 Why qualified candidates aren't breaking through 00:41 Meet Mike Petito 04:00 Is HR moving fast enough for AI? 05:21 AI is a people transformation, not just technology 07:17 The problem with AI workforce planning 10:55 Should HR be at the center of AI? 13:22 The AI knowledge gap inside HR 15:09 Why Mike's recruiting video went viral 17:53 The truth about the “7-second resume” rule 20:10 Whose fault is it: candidate or company? 21:01 The four buckets every applicant falls into 21:55 The most frustrating applicant bucket 23:08 What's wrong with skills-based hiring? 25:22 Why transferable skills aren't enough right now 27:19 How to write a better job description 29:36 Skills you need on Day 1 vs. skills you'll learn 33:19 Why candidates should know the interview process 36:01 Mike's advice for today's job seekers 38:45 Advice for HR and recruiting professionals 41:19 Where to find Mike + Yes, You Are Being Judged The future of hiring isn't just about better technology. It's about building a better process for the humans on both sides of the table. People. Technology. Business. A Better Tomorrow. #HR #AIinHR #Recruiting #JobSearch #FutHRist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI isn't leveling the workforce. It's splitting it into two completely different tracks — and most organizations haven't realized it yet. In this episode of Is HR Being Fired?, I break down new workforce data showing how AI is changing the value of work, why some roles are becoming more valuable while others are being democratized, and what HR leaders need to do before this divide starts showing up in attrition, productivity, and the P&L. I'll also show you how I use my Value of Work Matrix and the five FutHRist mindsets — Architect, Engineer, Scientist, COO, and Coach — to diagnose what's happening inside an organization and build a workforce strategy around it. 👉 Links mentioned in the video: IS HR BEING FIRED playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdyUKttA2krw CEO Fires HR video: https://youtu.be/8zPu9YLUerc Information about the FutHRist: www.trentcotton.com Subscribe to the channel and check out The FutHRist playlist to learn more about the five mindsets that I believe will become the new operating system for HR. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — AI Is Splitting Your Workforce in Two 01:12 — Is HR Being Fired? 02:15 — The Data Behind the Workforce Split 02:30 — Professionalized vs. Democratized Work 03:21 — What's Happening to Entry-Level Jobs 04:00 — The FutHRist: 5 Mindsets for What's Next 04:40 — The Value of Work Matrix 05:15 — When Jobs Get Smaller but More Valuable 05:22 — How AI Democratizes Expertise 05:59 — The Number Your CFO Will Care About 06:25 — Applying the 5 FutHRist Mindsets 06:39 — The Scientist Mindset 07:07 — The Architect Mindset 07:29 — The Engineer Mindset 08:00 — The COO Mindset 08:06 — The Coach Mindset 08:40 — 3 Things HR Leaders Should Do This Week 09:57 — The Real Question: Is HR Being Fired? 📕 THE FUTHRIST I've taken 20 years of HR experience and condensed it into roughly 145 pages designed to help HR professionals not just survive what's coming next, but lead it. The FutHRist is available on Amazon September 14. Learn more at www.trentcotton.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices