On August 5, 2025, I had the pleasure of joining the HR Morning Show crew—Danielle Farage, Joel Lalgee, and Serge Boudreau—for their 55th episode.
If you missed it, you can listen to the full episode on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I also embedded it here:
Below is a full recap of the conversations and insights shared, including the segment I joined to talk about all things job descriptions.
HR Morning Show Episode Milestone: 55 and Thriving
The show kicked off with a celebration of their 55th episode. According to the hosts, most podcasts don’t make it past episode six. This makes HR Morning Show’s longevity—particularly as a live show—even more impressive. They credit part of that to the support from the Purple Acorn Network, which now hosts 15 shows covering recruitment, HR tech, and workplace trends.
HR Morning Show Headlines: SAP Acquires SmartRecruiters
Allyn Bailey Breaks the News
Guest Allyn Bailey of SmartRecruiters joined to discuss the recent acquisition by SAP. The announcement landed just before Smart’s annual summer shutdown, creating buzz across the HR tech space. Allyn shared that internal sentiment at SmartRecruiters was overwhelmingly positive, citing excitement, transparency, and alignment from leadership as key reasons for the smooth rollout.
Integration Strategy and What’s Next
According to Allyn, SmartRecruiters will continue operating independently for the foreseeable future, with the full team, roadmap, and brand remaining intact. She emphasized that this is a strategic alignment rather than a takeover. Rebecca Carr will stay on as CEO, and the collaboration between her and SAP’s Dan Beck was a major catalyst in the deal.
Sarah White (SVP, Head of Innovation & Transformation at SAP SuccessFactors) also played a key role in this moment. As part of the SAP team focused on innovation, her early involvement and leadership helped lay the groundwork for the partnership. If you’ve been following her moves in the HR tech world, her presence in the mix made it clear that something transformative was brewing.
SmartRecruiters is also doubling down on agentic AI frameworks and believes this partnership with SAP will help them scale their recruiting AI capabilities globally. The brand’s focus on configurability, composable tech, and inclusive hiring will remain central to its platform strategy.
Where to Find the Team
SmartRecruiters will be on the road at:
- HR Tech (Las Vegas)
- RecFest US (Nashville)
- Unleash World (Paris)
- multiple Gartner events in London, Sydney, and Orlando
They’ll demo their platform and allow attendees to test workflows and scenarios live at these events.
My Segment: Fixing Broken Job Descriptions
The Problem with Job Descriptions
I joined the show to talk about why job descriptions are often confusing, outdated, or riddled with buzzwords. A big culprit is what I call “copy-paste syndrome.” Hiring managers reuse job postings from a decade ago, often stored in some forgotten shared drive. These job descriptions tend to be legalistic, inconsistent, and not written with the candidate in mind.
What Candidates Actually Care About
Instead of leading with company jargon, we encourage our clients to focus on what matters to candidates—what they’ll be doing, where they’ll work, compensation, flexibility, and growth opportunities. A candidate-first approach means better engagement and higher-quality applications.
How Ongig Helps
At Ongig, we help companies centralize job libraries, build custom templates, and rewrite job postings at scale. For larger teams, we start with the roles they hire for most and work from there. We’ve helped companies clean up hundreds of job postings and streamline their job description workflow across global regions and multiple applicant tracking systems.
Using AI the Right Way
We also talked about the risks of relying solely on ChatGPT for writing job postings. It often produces the same generic output across multiple companies. That’s why we built our own custom GPTs—one for writing from scratch, one for rewriting—and infused them with templates, tone, and formatting standards. Legal and brand consistency matter, and that’s where a tailored platform like Ongig provides a real advantage.
ROI That Goes Beyond Words
Clients who modernize their job descriptions with Ongig often see more qualified applicants, better DEI performance, and less rewriting chaos. Internally, recruiters and hiring managers save hours per posting. And externally, candidates engage more with roles that are written in plain, inclusive language.
More HR Morning Show Guests and Great Conversations
Remote Work and Culture with Kaleem Clarkson
Kaleem Clarkson, CEO of Blend Me, Inc., joined to talk about the remote work landscape and how proximity bias shows up in hybrid environments. He emphasized the value of transparency and employee choice, drawing on insights from his new podcast, Return to People, also on the Purple Acorn Network.
He also reminded us that metrics (not just presenteeism) should guide decisions around remote work policies. For companies navigating return-to-office mandates, his commentary was timely and grounded in strategy.
Red Shoes and Conference Vibes
The team gave a big shoutout to ERIN, the employee referral platform, and their red shoes campaign—an inside joke among HR insiders and conference regulars. If you haven’t grabbed a pair before HR Tech or RecFest, you’re missing out. (I signed up for mine right after the podcast ended!)
RecFest Preview and Posner’s Announcement
Adam Posner joined to share that he’ll be hosting the Inspire Stage at RecFest US this October. He promised a personal keynote, big energy, and maybe even camping (some folks on the show prefer glamping, I think I agree!). He credited RecFest UK 2022 as a game-changing moment for his speaking career and encouraged practitioners to attend the U.S. edition if they want a fresh, community-driven experience.
Why I Wrote This
This episode was packed with insights, from major industry moves to practical job description advice. I was honored to share the mic with such passionate professionals and represent Ongig in a conversation that truly matters. Thanks to the HR Morning Show crew and the Purple Acorn team for creating space for these dialogues.
If you want to hear the whole conversation, listen to Episode 55 here. And if you need help wrangling and rewriting your job postings, request a demo of Ongig to see how we can help.
And if you want to follow my new podcast, The JD Fix, you can listen on Substack, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.
