<\/p>\n
This interview is a component of <\/em>Workology\u2019s HR highlight series<\/em>, where we highlight influential HR leaders who’re shaping the longer term of labor through daring ideas and real-world impact. For this post, we\u2019re talking to W. Chris Burcham, President and Chief Client Officer of Transworld Recruitment Marketing.<\/em><\/p>\n W. Chris Burcham<\/a> is a recruitment marketing and talent strategy leader with deep expertise in helping employers attract, hire, and retain talent at scale. As President and Chief Client Officer of Transworld Recruitment Marketing<\/a>, Chris works closely with operations and talent acquisition teams across industries to develop data-driven recruitment marketing strategies and helps to deploy hiring solutions that improve candidate engagement and hiring outcomes. He has supported workforce initiatives for 1000’s of locations nationwide, with a robust deal with recruitment marketing innovation, employer branding, and talent technology.<\/p>\n A graduate of Tulane University, Chris is understood for his collaborative, service-focused approach and his ability to attach business goals with practical recruiting strategies. Throughout his profession, he has partnered with HR leaders, recruiters, and operations teams to navigate changing labor markets and evolving hiring challenges. His work spans recruitment promoting, strategic workforce planning, talent technology evaluation, and employer brand development, making him a trusted voice within the recruitment marketing and HR space.<\/p>\n The trend I\u2019m watching most closely is humanization. At its core, recruiting is a human-centric activity, and my biggest concern without delay is ensuring we don\u2019t lose sight of that as AI and technology flood the space. Candidate response to AI screening tools and AI-powered products keeps getting increasingly more negative, and I understand why. No person desires to feel like they were filtered out by a machine before an actual person ever checked out them. At the identical time, these tools save recruiters and hiring managers time and permit them to spend more time specializing in running their businesses. So the challenge isn\u2019t selecting between technology and the human touch, it\u2019s finding the appropriate balance: let AI and technology assist your team, but stay laser-focused on the guest experience all the way through.<\/p>\n Finding that balance is why I preach the worth of using technology to get our teams to the in-person interview faster, fairly than using AI to exchange an initial screen. My clients are primarily restaurants and consumer-facing brands and we’ve a terrific interview automation solution that lots of our restaurant clients use. My goal with those teams is to get a candidate from application to an in-restaurant interview in under 72 hours. The technology handles the scheduling and the logistics so the teams can deal with interviewing.<\/p>\n I stress to those teams to keep in mind that a candidate is also<\/strong> a possible guest, so getting them through the door to interview is a terrific opportunity to allow them to see inside your restaurant. Chances are you’ll gain a customer in consequence, not only a hire. That’s the human side and the business side working together, and it only happens if you happen to keep the experience personal.<\/p>\n Along the identical lines, don\u2019t get overly complex about who you will screen out. With average restaurant turnover greater than 100% per 12 months, it’s possible you’ll not have a gap for one role without delay, but you very likely will soon. Screen candidates on the fundamental minimum qualifications (minimum age, U.S. work eligibility, proximity to the placement), after which let your management team do the remainder during an in-person interview. That face-to-face conversation is where the actual evaluation happens.<\/p>\n Nervous about interview no shows? (we typically see a 50% show rate on self scheduled interviews) then book 2 per timeslot and have the team within the restaurant offer a drink or app to 1 if each show up at the identical time. It keeps the experience positive, and it turns a scheduling overlap right into a real hospitality moment, which is precisely the purpose.<\/p>\n I disagree, they’re applying to MORE<\/strong> jobs today, and I feel it\u2019s due to evergreen postings. Job seekers have a tough time understanding what jobs are real, in order that they apply to more jobs to extend their probabilities of getting an interview. For them it\u2019s a numbers game. This has caused job seekers to try to make use of AI & easy apply technology to get their resume in front of more jobs, faster, with less of a watch on quality.<\/p>\n For the past few years I\u2019ve been working with clients to maneuver away from evergreen job postings. 24\/7 hiring is great, but employers are doing themselves a disservice if it\u2019s not an open role. We work with them to show their teams enable and disable jobs on their ATS or our interview automation dashboard. After they pause jobs when there aren’t any current openings, they don\u2019t lead job seekers on. I really imagine that employers have shot themselves within the foot by utilizing the evergreen model, and job boards that auto-refresh jobs are in charge just as much.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not only the candidate side that suffers. When a job is open 24\/7, or an ATS refreshes the job every 30 days to make it seem recent, the boards struggle to get any signal on whether a job is real \/ current \/ needed. In consequence, the one \u201ctrue\u201d signal employers have left to inform a job board or a candidate that a job is an actual need is to sponsor it, and without the appropriate strategy in place that may get expensive.<\/p>\n At Transworld, we deal with custom-built, hyper-targeted promoting support based on hiring needs. As an alternative of running a programmatic environment where we\u2019re driving traffic to many roles, we tightly goal our budget to the important thing role or roles we\u2019ve identified with our ops teams to get one of the best bang for the buck. While you construct the method out on a client by client basis, it stretches the identical budget loads further.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a self-defeating cycle of our own making, and the way in which out is straightforward: only keep the roles you\u2019re actually hiring for public and stop pretending every job is open 24\/7\/365.<\/p>\n I’m a huge<\/strong> proponent of pay transparency, and we\u2019ve been working to push our clients to embrace it for years, even before it became mandatory in lots of states. I saw the information and it was clear: candidates responded favorably to having pay included, with increased apply start and complete rates. We initially saw a 30%+ reduction in apply start costs when put next to jobs without salary, together with a greater apply complete rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Except for the financial side, on the human side there\u2019s nothing worse than finding the proper job (or candidate) after which moving into a complicated stage only to understand that the pay requirements are completely misaligned. Transparency allows for multi-party alignment, prematurely, saving either side precious time.<\/p>\n Flexibility matters for a similar reason, especially for white-collar and in-office roles. People expect their employers to be flexible, whether that\u2019s a hybrid environment or a reduced RTO mandate, but spelling it out is what really counts. Similar to with pay, it\u2019s about alignment and filtering out misaligned candidates and employers as early as possible. We coach employers to be sure that that information is structured clearly, not only for the candidate reading the posting, but for the job boards reading the information behind it.<\/p>\n Probably the most underutilized strategy isn\u2019t a tactic or a platform, it\u2019s your network. The very best hiring ideas I\u2019ve come across this 12 months didn\u2019t come from a vendor pitch or LinkedIn outreach, they got here from a phone call. I feel that we should always all take time every week to leverage our networks with an actual conversation.<\/p>\n I aim to have not less than two unstructured check-ins per week with partners in marketing and\/or operations, other recruitment marketing agencies, job board teams, or my broader network. We just have a pleasant check-in and spend the time connecting, commiserating in regards to the rapidly changing market, or talking about recent tools coming out.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve learned a lot this 12 months doing it. I\u2019ve seen how restaurants are using AI to innovate, kept up with which ad tech platforms are changing or have already modified, and located great recent tools to try for myself and for my clients. Those self same conversations remind me after we\u2019re on the appropriate path and help me course correct after we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n It also helps ground me. In a market moving this fast, the employers who stay connected to the people around them are those who hear about what\u2019s working first, and that\u2019s an actual advantage in attracting talent.<\/p>\n Be curious BUT<\/strong> even be skeptical. There are fantastical claims on the market from corporations about what their tools can do, and repeatedly they’re overstated. I\u2019ve seen so many \u201cvibe coded\u201d tools, products thrown together fast on the promise of AI, that can’t rise up to rigorous scrutiny by legal or compliance teams. With AI coding, developers are in a position to move faster than ever, and vendors are coming out with recent tools and add-ons left and right. That speed is exciting, nevertheless it means more of what\u2019s being sold to you hasn\u2019t actually been pressure-tested yet.<\/p>\n When considering a brand new tool, I at all times suggest asking for 3 to 5 current client references in a business just like yours, and truly check those references before making any purchasing decision. Also check when the online domain and the corporate were founded, so that you understand their history as well. Just a little diligence up front tells you loads about whether a vendor is built to last.<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, there\u2019s real<\/strong> risk<\/strong> in using AI to screen or rank candidates, and I don\u2019t think everyone takes that risk into consideration. Simply because the model says someone isn\u2019t the appropriate fit doesn\u2019t mean the model is calibrated accurately. It might be built on data that has nothing to do together with your industry or vertical, and it\u2019s hard for AI to take intangibles and soft skills into consideration.\u00a0<\/p>\n In high volume frontline hiring, candidates often have minimal to no opportunity to inform their story, they’re reduced to words on a screen. Using AI tools that haven’t any real approach to surface those soft skills can cost you good people before a human ever sees them.<\/p>\n Use AI to tell a human decision, not to exchange one, and keep checking what it\u2019s filtering out, not only what it surfaces. The very best use of AI in hiring isn\u2019t replacing people in the method, it\u2019s freeing them as much as deal with the moments that really want a human touch.<\/p>\n5 Questions With W. Chris Burcham<\/h2>\n
We\u2019re seeing continued shifts in candidate behavior, especially around frontline and hourly hiring. What trends are you watching most closely without delay in recruitment marketing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Job seekers seem more selective than ever about where they apply. How are employers adapting their recruitment marketing strategies to compete for attention in a crowded market?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Pay transparency laws and increased candidate expectations around flexibility are changing job promoting. How are these trends impacting recruitment marketing campaigns today?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What\u2019s one recruitment marketing strategy you think that employers are underutilizing without delay that would make a significant difference in attracting talent in 2026?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What advice would you give HR and recruiting professionals who’re interested by AI but unsure where to begin?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
RESOURCES<\/h2>\n