Yvette Hansen has spent nearly two decades leading talent acquisition at major health systems: UnitedHealth Group, Optum, Amedisys, and most recently as Director of TA & Belonging at Baylor Scott & White Health. In that time, she's learned that healthcare doesn't let you chase shiny tools. High stakes, compliance requirements, and tight labor markets force a process-first mindset.

But Yvette's also honest about what disappoints: vendors who oversell integration capabilities, tools that look great in demos but disrupt recruiter workflows, and the gap between "we can do that" and actually doing it. One vendor demo promised seamless integration. When implementation started? "Not so much."

One surprising insight: healthcare is no longer lagging in tech adoption. Health systems have moved to the front of the pack on responsible AI implementation, proving that constraints can drive better outcomes.

For TA leaders drowning in vendor pitches and paralyzed by options, this episode delivers a practical roadmap.

Fresh off conference season, Mark Tomasino and I break down what we actually saw on the show floor. The net out: If your differentiator is "AI-powered," you've already lost.

We dig into the feedback loop nobody's talking about: job seekers using AI to mass apply to jobs, employers using AI to filter the noise, and the whole apparatus just... creating more work for all.

Mark walks through his six-question framework for cutting through vendor pitches, why context matters more than the algorithm, and why the most interesting solutions may come from founders who've never worked in traditional TA.

Also: why everyone's fishing from the same data ocean, what skills taxonomy actually means (and why you're probably not doing it), and Mark's contrarian take on why AI won't take our jobs – but it will expose which work shouldn't have been ours in the first place.

If you're a TA leader trying to figure out where to put your AI budget, this one's for you.

Talivity helps employers see what others miss – brand reputation risks, workforce shifts, and the real value of AI – so you can make smarter decisions and achieve measurable hiring outcomes. Learn more at Talivity.com.

In this episode of The Changing State of Talent Acquisition, hosts Graham Thornton and Martin Predd welcome Maria Christopoulos Katris, Founder and CEO of Built In. Maria shares her 15-year journey growing Built In from a Chicago-based tech community to a global recruitment platform, offering sharp insights into why traditional applicant tracking systems (ATS) are failing to capture the full candidate journey and how employer branding has become a cornerstone of modern talent acquisition. With Built In’s latest trends report as a backdrop, Maria reveals why companies are doubling down on employer brand investments and how referrals are surging as a top channel for tech talent—while also exposing the limitations of relying on them.

Topics include:

• The evolution of recruitment from job boards to a marketing-driven discipline
• Why ATS source-of-hire data is only 20% accurate and how to move beyond it
• The rise of employer branding as a core pillar of talent acquisition
• The surge in referrals for tech talent and their potential impact on diversity
• Strategies for improving candidate experience and treating applicants like consumers
• The growing importance of employer branding for internal retention
• How to educate executives on the value of employer brand investments when ROI is challenging to measure

Links:

Maria Christopoulos Katris, Founder and CEO of Built In

• LinkedIn
• Built In 2025 Talent Trend Report
• Connect with the Built In team to learn more about how a recruitment marketing approach will help you attract top talent."

Tune in to discover how to transform your talent acquisition strategy by embracing recruitment as marketing and building a candidate-centric employer brand that stands out in today’s competitive landscape.