SHRM Talent 2026

SHRM Talent 2026

Welcome to the official limited podcast series from SHRM Talent 2026, recorded live at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. In collaboration with SHRM, WRKdefined created this 33-episode series, which captures real conversations shaping the future of hiring, recruiting, talent acquisition, HR technology, leadership, workforce planning, candidate experience, AI at work, and the evolving world of work. Across the series, WRKdefined sat down with HR practitioners, talent leaders, consultants, analysts, creators, founders, and technology providers to explore what’s actually happening inside modern HR and recruiting teams. No corporate theater. No overproduced sound bites. Just smart people sharing practical ideas, lessons learned, industry trends, and honest perspectives from one of the largest HR and talent events in the world. SHRM Talent brings together thousands of HR and talent acquisition professionals focused on recruiting strategy, employee experience, workforce transformation, leadership development, hiring technology, and the future of work. This limited series extends those conversations beyond the conference walls and into the hands of HR professionals everywhere. Whether you work in HR, recruiting, talent acquisition, people operations, HR tech, staffing, leadership, learning and development, or workforce strategy, these conversations were built for you. 33 episodes. One conference. Real conversations that matter. Recorded and produced by WRKdefined in collaboration with SHRM.

Episodes

June 14, 2026 12 mins
Applying for a job has never been easier. Finding the right candidate has never felt harder. Tina Robinson argues that recruiters and candidates are trapped in an AI arms race where both sides keep adding technology and nobody seems happier with the outcome. The real challenge isn't AI. It's figuring out how to stay human while using it. Talent management, recruiting, AI adoption, leadership development, authenticity, future of wo...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Hiring has always involved a little deception. AI turned it into a completely different game. Philippe Beucher argues that recruiters now face a challenge they’ve never seen before: candidates using AI to optimize every part of the hiring process while companies race to figure out what’s real and what isn’t. The future of recruiting may depend on one question: can you still identify genuine talent in a world of p...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Most workplace learning is built around convenience, not science. Three-hour presentations. Endless slides. Mandatory training sessions nobody remembers. Marcy Baughman explains why education research has known for decades that these methods don't work and why companies keep using them anyway. The future of learning looks a lot more like practice than presentation. Learning science, workforce development, experiential learning, AI...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
The best recruiting teams don’t fill jobs faster. They help businesses make better decisions. Paul Norman explains why too many recruiters are still measured by recruiting metrics while business leaders care about entirely different outcomes. That disconnect is costing companies more than they realize. Talent acquisition, business alignment, workforce planning, AI adoption, talent management, recruiting strategy. This conver...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
The recruiting funnel is overflowing, but confidence is disappearing. Mike Peditto explains why recruiters are battling fraud candidates, AI-generated applications, and record inbound volume while trying to figure out who’s actually qualified and who’s just good at gaming the process. The best recruiters aren’t screening people out. They’re finding better ways to screen people in. Recruiting, AI adoption, c...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Companies say there’s a talent shortage while millions of people are looking for work. Jim Stroud breaks down the disconnect sitting underneath modern hiring and why recruiting teams are struggling to match the right people to the right opportunities even with more technology than ever. Everybody’s obsessing over AI. Jim thinks the bigger workforce crisis is already here. Recruiting, AI adoption, aging workforce, skill...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Most companies are still treating branding like a billboard problem while their employees are becoming media channels overnight. Roy Abdo explains why polished corporate messaging is losing to authentic storytelling and why executives who stay silent are getting outperformed by people with less expertise but more visibility. The real shift is simple: people trust people more than brands. Executive branding, storytelling, LinkedIn ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
AI was supposed to fix recruiting. Instead, it made every resume look the same. That’s the mess recruiters are dealing with right now. More automation. More applications. More noise. And somehow less signal. The old recruiting playbook is breaking fast. In this episode, Robb Lifferth explains why AI is flooding recruiting with bad data, why job boards are losing value, and why recruiters now have to rethink how they source ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Most leaders spend more time asking why employees leave than why they stay. Njsane Courtney argues that’s backwards. The answers companies need are already sitting inside the organization. They just aren’t asking the right questions often enough. Retention isn’t a compensation problem as often as leaders think. Talent management, employee retention, AI adoption, leadership, recruiting, stay interviews. This conve...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
“How’s it going?” might be the most expensive question managers ask. Joe Rotella argues that vague conversations create vague performance. Employees leave one-on-ones frustrated, managers leave without clarity, and nothing actually moves forward. The problem isn’t performance reviews. It’s everything that happens between them. Performance management, leadership, coaching, employee engagement, feedback...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Too many leaders are managing a 2026 workforce with lessons they learned in 2006. Krishna Powell argues that the biggest leadership challenge today isn’t attracting talent. It’s understanding, developing, and deploying the talent you already have before it walks out the door. The workforce changed. Most leadership habits didn’t. Leadership, multigenerational teams, talent management, AI adoption, workforce develo...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Resumes have never been perfect. AI just made the problem harder to ignore. Philip Nash argues that companies are spending too much time chasing credentials and not enough time evaluating character, coachability, and the human skills that actually drive long-term success. The future of hiring may be less about what people know today and more about what they can become tomorrow. Talent management, recruiting, AI adoption, soft skil...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Most recruiting teams are hitting their metrics and still getting told they’re failing. Tim Sackett argues that’s because the metric everyone tracks most obsessively might be the one that matters least. Faster hiring doesn’t automatically mean better hiring. The future of recruiting isn’t speed. It’s trust, responsiveness, and human connection. Recruiting, candidate experience, AI adoption, workforce ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Most companies spend years perfecting recruiting and almost no time thinking about offboarding. Sarah Rodehorst argues that’s a massive mistake. The way employees leave a company can strengthen your employer brand or quietly destroy it from the inside out. Culture isn’t measured during the good times. It’s revealed during the hard ones. Talent management, employer brand, employee experience, retention, offboardin...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Most companies obsess over attracting talent and spend far less time thinking about what happens next. Chad Sorenson argues that real talent management starts before someone joins and continues long after they leave. The companies that understand that are building stronger brands, stronger cultures, and stronger talent pipelines. AI is changing recruiting fast, but people still want to work for organizations that treat them well. ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Ask ten HR leaders about AI adoption and you’ll get ten different answers. Cole Napper argues that most AI conversations are broken because people are talking about completely different things. Personal AI tools. Vendor AI features. Enterprise AI systems. Same words. Different realities. The gap isn’t technology. It’s understanding. AI adoption, people analytics, workforce intelligence, recruiting, skills develop...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Every candidate suddenly sounds polished. Every resume looks optimized. Every interview answer feels rehearsed. Isela Conley breaks down what hiring leaders are quietly struggling with right now: figuring out who actually knows the job versus who just knows how to use AI better. Recruiting isn’t getting easier with AI. It’s getting noisier. Quality of hire, candidate experience, hiring managers, AI recruiting, talent o...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
The days of “trust us, we investigated it” are over. Jackie Schafer explains why HR teams are facing increasing pressure to document decisions, prove fairness, and back every conclusion with evidence. In a world of growing compliance scrutiny, good intentions are no longer enough. The future of HR may look a lot more like legal work than people expect. Employee relations, investigations, compliance, AI, workplace trust...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Most organizations are still measuring the wrong things. They hire for today’s job description while the role changes six months later. Art Jackson argues the companies winning the talent game aren’t looking for perfect resumes. They’re identifying the people who can adapt, learn, lead, and grow into what comes next. The problem isn’t talent. It’s what we choose to measure. Soft skills, workforce agil...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
AI adoption isn’t failing because of technology. It’s failing because companies still don’t know what problem they’re solving. Every HR platform suddenly has “AI” slapped on the homepage. Meanwhile buyers are stuck asking the real questions: Is this secure? Is this ethical? And is my company data quietly training someone else’s model? In this episode, Amit Parmar breaks down why AI adopti...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    The MeatEater Podcast

    Building on the belief that a deeper understanding of the natural world enriches all of our lives, host Steven Rinella brings an in-depth and relevant look at all outdoor topics including hunting, fishing, nature, conservation, and wild foods. Filled with humor, irreverence, and things that will surprise the hell out of you, each episode welcomes a diverse group of guests who add their own expertise to the vast world of the outdoors. Part of The MeatEater Podcast Network.

    Crime Junkie

    Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.

    Hey Jonas!

    Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.

  • Help
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • AdChoicesAd Choices