Why Can’t We Hire Faster—And Better? It’s Time for a Talent Acquisition Revolution.

That’s the question I hear echoing in boardrooms and leadership offsites across industries. As a Chief People Officer who’s wrestled with the talent acquisition beast for years, leading teams responsible for filling tens of thousands of roles annually, I can tell you the standard answers just don’t cut it anymore. We’re often told “recruiting is broken,” followed by a predictable menu of tweaks and tech solutions. But what if the entire framework needs a fundamental rethink?

I’m not talking as a consultant offering theoretical solutions. I’ve been in the trenches, implementing these very ideas to drive tangible, outsized hiring outcomes in both hyper-growth startups and established public companies. What I’ve learned is this: we can hire faster and better, but it demands a bold shift in mindset, accountability, and ownership. It’s time to ditch the outdated playbooks and embrace a new era of talent acquisition.

The Sticking Points: Where the Old Ways Fall Short

For too long, hiring has been viewed as a separate function, a task delegated solely to the recruiting team. This siloed approach creates bottlenecks, dilutes ownership, and ultimately slows down the entire process. We treat candidates like transactions, not the valuable individuals they are. We cling to outdated notions of what constitutes “ideal” talent, overlooking a wealth of potential right under our noses.

Here’s what I’ve found to be true – and what we need to change:

1. Shifting Ownership: Make Hiring Everyone’s Business

How often do hiring managers treat talent acquisition as an urgent, mission-critical priority? Often, it’s seen as an add-on, a distraction from their “real” work. This needs a radical reset. We must incentivize hiring managers to prioritize talent acquisition. Tie a meaningful portion of their bonus, OKRs, or performance reviews to successful and timely hires. When their skin is in the game, urgency and ownership skyrocket, and so does the speed and quality of your hires. If we truly believe talent is our greatest asset, we need to treat its acquisition with the same level of importance as sales or product development.

2. Streamlining for Speed and Sanity: Less is Truly More

Our hiring processes have become bloated, riddled with unnecessary steps and approvals. Seven-person panel interviews that exhaust both candidates and hiring teams? Multiple redundant rounds that add weeks to the timeline? This administrative drag is a talent repellent. It’s time to simplify ruthlessly. Create fast tracks for exceptional candidates. Audit your process and eliminate every non-essential step. Design a process that respects the time and energy of both your team and your candidates – one that works for humans, not just for the sake of process.

3. Tapping into Untapped Potential: The Opportunity in Transition

The recent wave of layoffs, while unfortunate, presents a unique opportunity. Many incredibly talented, high-performing individuals are now available. Yet, we often view “available now” with suspicion. This is a critical blind spot. Actively seek out recently laid-off high performers and include them in every relevant candidate slate. These individuals are often hungry, possess valuable experience, and can contribute immediately. Build relationships with known top performers impacted by macro events – they could be your next game-changing hires.

4. Beyond Credentials: Focusing on Outcomes, Not Just Pedigree

Our reliance on degree requirements and traditional career paths is artificially limiting our talent pool. We’re disqualifying brilliant individuals based on outdated notions of what constitutes “qualified.” It’s time to ditch the rigid degree requirements and rewrite job specifications to focus on proven outcomes and adjacent industry experience. This opens the door to a more diverse and capable set of candidates who might not fit the traditional mold but possess the skills and drive to excel.

5. The Extended Handshake: Onboarding for Impact

Hiring isn’t a finish line; it’s the starting point of a crucial relationship. Yet, onboarding is often treated as an afterthought. We need to build a structured “Day 1–Day 100” onboarding sprint that sets clear goals, fosters connection, and accelerates new hires’ time to impact. Make this process visible to executive leadership to ensure it receives the priority it deserves. A well-designed onboarding experience is a powerful tool for retention and early success.

6. Cultivating a Modern Lens: Equipping Managers to Recognize Diverse Talent

Hiring managers don’t need to become recruiters, but they do need to evolve their understanding of talent. Equip them with the tools and training to assess for adjacent skills, transferable experience, and growth trajectory, not just a checklist of resume keywords. This requires a conscious effort to address unconscious bias and broaden their perspective on what constitutes high-potential talent. This shift in mindset is critical to unlocking a wider and more innovative workforce.

7. Empowering Recruiters: Unleashing the Power of AI as a Research Partner

Our recruiters are often bogged down in administrative tasks and manual research, limiting their capacity for strategic engagement. Give them a true research partner in AI. Leverage AI tools for market mapping, competitor analysis, candidate profile scraping, and cross-industry skills matching. By automating these time-consuming tasks, you free up your recruiters to focus on what they do best: building relationships, assessing nuanced skills, and selling your company to top talent.

8. Reclaiming Time: Eliminating Repetitive Tasks

Every hour a recruiter spends on scheduling interviews or formatting job descriptions is an hour lost on engaging with potential game-changers. Implement automation for repetitive tasks, from interview scheduling to AI-powered job description creation. Freeing up their time allows recruiters to become more consultative and strategic partners to hiring managers, ultimately leading to better hiring decisions and a more engaged recruiting team.

9. Rethinking Rewards: Aligning Incentives for Referrals and Internal Equity

Standard referral programs often yield standard results. To truly leverage the power of your employees’ networks, reimagine your referral bonuses. Consider tiered rewards based on the speed of hire, milestone-based payouts, and even team bonuses for multiple successful referrals. Furthermore, ensure your internal compensation ranges are aligned with market rates. Nothing kills a promising referral faster than a perception of unfair compensation.

One Last Thought: The Human Touch – Would You Treat a Customer Like That?

Ultimately, candidates are people. They are forming opinions about your company based on their experience throughout the hiring process. Ask yourself: would you keep a valued customer waiting weeks for an update? Would you make them jump through hoops and re-enter their information repeatedly? Probably not. Yet, we often subject our candidates to exactly that.

Candidate experience is not a soft metric; it’s a critical component of your employer brand and your ability to attract top talent. If you’re serious about fixing hiring, get serious about the candidate journey. Provide clear communication, consistent updates, and a seamless process. Audit your systems for friction points and designate ownership for the end-to-end candidate experience.

This last point deserves its own deep dive. But for now, remember this: the talent you seek are individuals with choices. Treat them with the respect and consideration you would extend to your most valued customers.

The time for incremental improvements is over. We need a fundamental shift in how we approach talent acquisition. By embracing these bold yet practical strategies, we can move beyond the endless cycle of “recruiting is broken” and build a system that delivers exceptional talent, faster and better, fueling the growth and success of our businesses. The revolution starts now.