Partner spotlight: SocialTalent 

This month, we’re spotlighting Johnny Campbell, CEO of SocialTalent: the world’s leading e-learning platform for hiring and talent teams. Trusted by hundreds of global organizations—such as NOKIA, SIEMENS, and HelloFresh—SocialTalent helps build people-first cultures and drive hiring excellence at scale.  

Johnny’s favorite thing about his role? Seeing the real impact a job can have on someone’s life. 

“The right role can change someone's life. Helping people discover a career they’d never considered or achieve a salary they thought was out of reach—that always gets me.” 

As the CEO of SocialTalent, Johnny knows a thing or two about building capabilities to make better hires. We were excited to hear his unique insights into the future of talent acquisition—from recruitment to rejection; technology to transforming people’s lives.  

What trend are you seeing that’s reshaping talent acquisition?   

Without question: AI.  

Everybody’s talking about how AI is impacting their recruiting teams and hiring processes. But there’s another layer: skills. Specifically soft skills: influence, negotiation, empathy, problem-solving, and strategy.  

The role of a recruiter is evolving back into that of a ‘business partner’ or ‘talent advisor—which is an exciting development for the industry.  

In my 25+ years in recruiting, I’ve seen three major shifts:  

• The introduction of job boards: switching from running ads in the newspapers to advertising roles online.  
• Social media: transforming how and where we source candidates in the late 2000s. 
• And now, generative AI—arguably one of the most transformative changes to impact our industry in decades. 
  
  

What’s a common challenge your customers face?  

One of the biggest challenges customers face is driving behavioral change. Whether it's new tech or a new process, adoption is the hurdle. 

Let’s take ChatGPT as an example.  

We all recognize the potential, but most teams haven’t made it part of their daily routines. The tech is ready, but people need support to use it effectively. 

For me, driving change is all about excitement and simplicity. 

Through workshops and presentations, we show people how it’ll make their jobs easier or make the candidate experience better—and then we make it super simple to implement.  

Then our customers take over, tying adoption to KPIs, recognition programs, and peer learning so that it becomes an important metric to measure. 

Different customers approach this differently, but over the years, we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. Our role is to share learnings, connect customers, and scale what works best. It’s not just about tech—it's about the power of people and partnership.  

How has data challenged assumptions or influenced a strategic shift in your approach recently?  

Absolutely. Data is key to all our decision making.  

We work with over 120 speakers on the SocialTalent platform—different experts from around the world. And as you can imagine, our team and our customers have wildly different opinions on those speakers—who's good and who’s not.  

Most of these opinions are just personal preferences. Some people prefer a certain tone or accent, others connect with stronger or softer messaging, etc. It’s all anecdotal; all opinion.  

But a few years ago, we introduced the ability for our users to feedback on each course and each speaker—which equates to 40-50,000 data points on each speaker, each month. It's helped us move beyond personal bias and better serve our users.  

We’ve learned to celebrate speakers that are polarizing—those who evoke strong reactions. Having speakers that consistently rank 6/10 doesn’t cut it for us. We want speakers who are pushing the boundaries, and content that moves people to take action. 

What recent developments or emerging technologies do you think have the potential to transform the hiring experience for candidates?    

So much excites me, but two innovations come to mind.  

1. Hourly hiring   
   

   On the candidate side, we’re exploring hourly hiring: quick, automated job offers that don’t even require a CV. It’s incredible—the quality of hire has improved, candidate experience has improved, more underrepresented candidates are being hired, and it’s cheaper. It’s a win-win.  

   I was explaining the concept of hourly hiring to a group in Sweden recently, and they asked me, ‘But what’s the downside, Johnny?’. And I was like, there’s none. There’s literally none. Everybody wins here, which makes it such an exciting concept.

2. Rejection reduction 
   

   As an industry, we’re not really in the business of recruiting; we’re in the business of rejection—we reject far more candidates than we hire. But conversationally, AI could change that by helping people self-assess before applying, so they avoid setting themselves up for unnecessary rejection. 

   This type of technology is really exciting to me as it has the potential to shift the dynamic and change how we feel about applying for a job.  

   For the next generation—especially those entering the workforce in 2025—this could be revolutionary. Rather than being rejected by 99 companies, tech could help us match people to the right roles earlier. Technology is close to getting us there.
   
   

Is there a moment in your career that reminded you just how meaningful this work can be? 

One of the standout moments of my career is a hire I made for a company in the Caymen Islands. I was running a recruitment agency there and had to fill all sorts of jobs—mostly swanky lawyers and high-paying finance roles. But one year, I was asked to find a butcher. 

So, I headed online and connected with a butcher on Facebook. He thought it was a prank at first, but long story short, he took the job and 20 years later, he’s still there.  

He has a wife and a family now—and because I’m friends with him on Facebook, I get to see his kids growing up on the beach and living in the most incredible part of the world.  

Obviously, we did charge a fee to headhunt this butcher, but that’s not what matters. The long-lasting impact you can have on someone in such an important area of their lives—their career—is what it’s all about.  

Recruitment isn’t transactional. It’s deeply personal.  

Jobs change lives—and as recruiters, we have a massive responsibility to make sure we do our jobs well. We owe it to candidates to act with care, empathy, and integrity; to ensure the right person takes the right role for them.  

This story has stuck with me throughout my whole career—and it’s one I share with other recruiters to make sure we don’t lose sight of what we’re doing and how important it truly is.  

Introducing the Candidate Prep Program 

I’ve spent my career at SocialTalent training recruiters and hiring managers on how to build a really great hiring process. But one area that we left out was candidates—who are a really important part of the process! 

I have this firm belief that even if you have great recruiters and great interviewers, a lot of candidates fall short—not for lack of fit, but lack of preparation. They just haven’t had the right support to help them excel at interview.  

I’m really passionate about fixing that.  

That’s why we’re really proud to partner with Happydance to offer pre-interview training to all Happydance customers.  

Together, we can reach more candidates, help them show up at their best, and land roles they might otherwise miss.  

To learn more about SocialTalent, head to their website and connect with Johnny on LinkedIn.