Hiring Top Talent Is Getting Weird. Here’s How To Do It Better.
Hello ingagehr community,
I’ll just say it: hiring used to feel relatively straightforward. Write a good posting. Post it. Receive applications. Screen candidates. Interview the best ones. Make an offer. Offer accepted. Welcome to the team. Lovely. Tidy. Done and done.
But that is not the recruitment market many employers are dealing with right now.
Today, employers are facing high application volumes, inconsistent candidate quality, AI-polished resumes and responses, and job postings that are just super boring. Everyone is trying to be ‘polished’ and somehow, everyone is starting to sound exactly the same. Thank you, AI.
One recent posting we supported generated more than 800 applications in three weeks. That may sound like a great problem to have, but in recruitment, volume is often the killer of quality. Internal hiring managers rarely have the time, patience, or structure to review hundreds of applicants consistently and fairly. Good candidates get missed. Poor-fit candidates slip through. Decisions become rushed, reactive, or biased. The result? Someone who looked great on paper, aced the interview, and then created a very different reality on the team.
The new recruitment reality
We are seeing three clear trends right now.
More applicants are applying for roles they are not remotely qualified for. True event: an office administrator applying for a role requiring PhD in chemical engineering. While a ‘can-do’ attitude is lovely; misalignment is expensive. Some of this can be connected to Canada’s still-elevated unemployment rate, combined with tightening immigration pathways from temporary status to permanent residence.
AI is doing a lot of heavy lifting for candidates. Resumes, cover letters, screening answers, emails, and written scenarios can now be polished, or entirely generated, quickly and convincingly. That does not mean every candidate is being dishonest, but it does mean written materials are no longer enough to assess fit, experience, communication, or judgment.
A resume may tell you someone can do the job. A real conversation tells you whether they have actually done it. You cannot fully fake eyeball-to-eyeball communication. A candidate can either speak clearly about their experience, explain their decisions, respond to practical questions, and demonstrate judgment - or they cannot.
Employers are often posting generic, uninspiring job ads. Many postings say the company is “fast-paced,” “collaborative,” and “looking for a motivated self-starter,” while telling candidates very little about the real role, company, culture, or opportunity. You attract what you put out. Generic is often matched with generic.
Top talent needs clarity, not confusion
Before you post a role, you need to know what you are looking for. Not in vague terms. Not with general adjectives. You need to define the real requirements of the role: skills, experience, behaviours, communication style, working conditions, values alignment, and the non-negotiables that matter most.
This is why our recruitment process starts with clarity. We confirm what would make someone an optimal candidate, then screen against that standard. If you know who would genuinely excite you in the candidate pool, you know where to look and how to assess. Internally, that’s the goal too: know precisely who you are looking for before the applications start rolling in.
We use a simple triage process: Yes, Maybe, No. We validate top candidates with short summaries explaining why they meet the criteria, so the process stays organized, transparent, and grounded in the requirements of the role. If more than one person is screening, this matters even more. And yes, we always recommend two sets of eyes on applicants. It helps keep everyone honest professionally, and removes or at least question emotions/biases.
And, healthy discourse/discussion of a candidate’s fit is a good thing.
Practical ways to improve recruitment now
1. Talk about your company like you actually like working there. Your job posting should not read like a job description with a salary range duct-taped to it. Tell candidates what the company does, why the work matters, what kind of team they would join, what success looks like, and what is hard about the job too. Adults appreciate honesty.
2. Stop posting and hoping. Posting a job and hoping the right person appears is not a recruitment strategy. It is a wish with a budget. Monitor application quality early. If the posting is attracting the wrong people, adjust it. Rework the language, clarify the requirements, tighten the screening questions, or change where you are posting. Do not leave a weak posting up for weeks and then complain that the candidate pool is poor. The posting may be part of the problem.
3. Add a few “Easter eggs.” If the role requires attention to detail, communication skills, or the ability to follow instructions, build that into the process. Ask candidates to answer a specific question, include something simple in the subject line, or provide a short cover note. Then pay attention to who actually follows the instructions. Not everything is a test, but some things should be.
4. Be disciplined in screening. Stick to your criteria. A ‘Yes’ means the candidate meets the required qualifications and should move forward. A ‘Maybe’ means they meet some, but not all, of the criteria and may be worth revisiting. A ‘No’ means they do not meet the requirements. Screening fatigue will have you compromising your categories. Resist the urge.
5. Use more than one set of eyes. Multiple reviewers help reduce bias and improve decision-making. One person may notice technical strength, another may pick up on communication style, and another may assess team fit or leadership potential. The goal is not groupthink. The goal is better thinking.
6. Test for the real job. Written exercises can still be useful, but AI may be helping candidates produce very polished answers, with no true ability behind the response. Use practical, role-specific questions. Ask candidates to walk through their thinking. Explore examples from past work. Ask follow-up questions. Listen for depth, judgment, ownership, and clarity. That is much harder to fake.
7. Hire for behaviour, not just credentials. Skills, experience, and qualifications matter. You are not just filling a seat. You are inviting someone into your team. In many small businesses, that team can feel like a work family, which means fit matters a lot.
Ask the practical fit questions: Can we work with them? Will they carry their weight? Will they communicate well? Will they add to the team instead of draining it? Will they help move the business forward? That is real fit.
8. Communicate with candidates like your reputation depends on it. Because it does. If someone has interviewed with you, keep them informed. If the process is taking longer than expected, say so. If they are no longer being considered, tell them respectfully. Quality candidates often have options. Leaving people hanging is not just rude; it damages your employer brand.
When to bring in help
Recruitment takes time, structure, judgment, and consistency. If your internal team does not have the capacity to properly screen candidates, manage communication, assess fit, reduce bias, and keep the process moving, it may be time to bring in support.
A good recruitment partner should not just forward resumes. They should help define the role, sharpen the posting, screen candidates fairly, challenge unclear criteria, manage candidate communication, support interviews, conduct references, and keep the process grounded in both quality and equity.
They should also be willing to tell you when your expectations are unrealistic, your posting is too generic, your screening criteria are too fuzzy, or your “gut feeling” may need a little adult supervision. That is part of the value.
Final thought
Hiring top talent is not about finding a mythical unicorn, though we all love it when one trots in with relevant experience, great references, and reasonable salary expectations. It is about building a clear, fair, disciplined process that helps the right people recognize your opportunity and helps you recognize them when they show up.
The market is noisy. AI has made everything look more polished. Candidate volume is high. Attention spans are low. Generic postings are not doing employers any favours.
If your hiring process is feeling heavy, inconsistent, or wildly time-consuming, this may be a good time to reset your approach. The right process will not guarantee a perfect hire every time, but it will dramatically improve your odds. And in this market, better odds are worth their weight in coffee.
Christine
ingagehr
