Candidate experience is no longer an HR side conversation, it is a direct reflection of your brand.

In this episode, Denise Chaffin sits down with Eric Smuda, customer and employee experience leader and former executive at major consumer brands, to unpack why candidates should be treated like customers, not transactions. Drawing from decades of experience in highly competitive industries, Eric explains how moments of friction, lack of communication, and poor process design quietly drive talent away long before an offer is made.

The conversation explores practical parallels between customer journeys and candidate journeys, how transparency and communication reduce anxiety, why AI must be managed, not deployed blindly, and what happens when companies ignore the experience of contractors, gig workers, and referrals. As hiring begins to accelerate again, this episode challenges TA and HR leaders to rethink how experience, culture, and trust are built from the very first interaction.

Key Episode Segments:

• Candidate experience is brand experience

Every interaction shapes whether a candidate trusts your company, even if they never get hired.

• Silence creates anxiety, communication builds trust

Candidates disengage when they do not know where they stand or what to expect next.

• AI requires ownership, not autopilot

AI tools must be actively managed, monitored, and improved to avoid damaging trust.

• Contractors and gig workers still define your culture

How you treat non-full-time workers sends a clear signal about values and leadership.

• Employee referrals fail when experience is broken

Poor candidate experience discourages future referrals and damages internal trust.

In this episode of Talking TA, Denise Chaffin sits down with Michael Goldberg, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition Operations at U.S. Renal Care, for a candid and deeply practical conversation about the future of recruiting. Michael shares his career journey from frontline recruiting into TA operations and explains why operations, metrics, and project management are becoming mission-critical for modern TA teams.

Together, Denise and Michael explore why sourcing is not disappearing, but evolving, how AI should support recruiters instead of replacing them, and why decision-making is the biggest gap in hiring today. They discuss recruiter accountability, candidate experience, retention responsibility, and the importance of truly understanding the business you recruit for.

The conversation also tackles the reality of today’s conferences, the loss of real community learning, and what TA professionals must focus on to stay relevant heading into 2026. This episode is a grounded, experience-driven look at what actually works in talent acquisition when technology, people, and leadership align.

Key Episode Segments:

• TA operations is no longer optional, it’s essential for scale and consistency

• AI should remove admin work, not human connection or accountability

• Recruiters share responsibility for retention through better hiring decisions

• Understanding the business is a required skill, not a nice-to-have

• Real recruiting success comes from service, curiosity, and communication

In this episode of Talking TA, Denise talks with Steven Swan, CEO of The Swan Group, about the rise of the “bionic employee” and the dramatic shifts happening across IT, business operations, and talent acquisition. Steven explains how AI is transforming technical roles, creating hybrid talent that blends business understanding with technical literacy. He covers how coding tasks are changing, why business partner roles are surging, and how transferable skills will matter more than degrees for future IT opportunities. Denise and Steven also explore what roles will become obsolete, which ones will grow, and how TA professionals can better support these evolving teams. The conversation offers a clear, grounded view into why the future belongs to employees who can sit between business and technology and articulate the “art of the possible.”

Key Episode Segments:

• AI is creating the “bionic employee,” where workers become faster and more effective by offloading repetitive work to AI.

• Business partner and relationship management roles are booming, as companies need people who can translate business needs into technical solutions.

• AI is shifting coding work back onshore, because employees can now generate and review code locally while maintaining direct communication with business teams.

• Transferable skills will fuel internal mobility, especially for TA, HR, operations, and customer-facing professionals who understand how business functions work.

• The middle of the hiring process remains irreplaceable, since AI cannot build relationships, qualify motivations, or manage offer dynamics the way experienced recruiters can.