Smart Hiring: Building Smarter & Stronger Teams in Today’s Talent Market

A bad hire is more than a mistake: it’s money down the drain. As Atty. Lester Ople of Sprout Solutions explained in our recent webinar, Smart Hiring: Building Smarter & Stronger Teams in Today’s Talent Market, poor recruitment decisions cost organizations heavily.

In fact, a CareerBuilder survey found that 75% of employers admit to hiring the wrong person, with each bad hire costing about $17,000.

Sprout brought together leading HR and business experts to share strategies for overcoming recruitment challenges — from misalignment and delays to poor candidate experience. Speakers included top industry leaders:

• Xandra Feliz Galang – Head of Strategic HR Talent Management at Ayala Corporation
• Atty. Lester Ople – HR Evangelist at Sprout Solutions
• Jun Abo – VP of Recruitment and Training at Quantrics Enterprises

“When I joined Ayala, it felt like walking into a maze,” shared Ms. Galang. With each business unit running its own hiring process, the company faced missing job descriptions, inconsistent role definitions, and varied interview formats. This fragmentation created confusion, slowed hiring, and weakened retention.

So, what does this mean for HR leaders? Misaligned hiring processes drain resources and harm employer branding. Building smarter systems means closing process gaps and creating a faster, more consistent, retention-focused experience.

According to Ms. Galang and Atty. Ople, many organizations struggle with slow, fragmented, and ineffective hiring processes because of the following reasons:

• Reactive hiring and undefined roles: In his session, “Hiring Matters: Getting Off on the Right Foot”, Atty. Ople explains that many organizations, especially smaller ones, reactively hire only when a vacancy arises. This rushed approach often leads to scrambling for talent under pressure, increasing the risk of making poor hires. 
• Recruiter–manager misalignment: Unclear roles and weak communication make HR processes inefficient. When hiring teams are not aligned on what a role requires, priorities become inconsistent, and the recruitment process becomes inefficient and fragmented. This misalignment can also prolong interview rounds and decision-making.
• Poor candidate experience: Ms. Galang points out that candidates often face delayed updates, rescheduled interviews, or even ghosting, which damages employer brand perception. 
• Limited use of key metrics: Atty. Ople stresses that without tracking key metrics like candidate satisfaction or offer acceptance rates, organizations miss opportunities to improve and create a more engaging candidate journey. 
• Difficulty hiring specialized talent (“unicorns”): According to Ms. Galang, finding candidates with rare skill sets is especially challenging in tight talent markets.

To address these issues, the speakers recommended five approaches:

Promote Internal Talent Mobility

Ms. Galang emphasized promoting internal talent mobility to fill roles faster and more cost-effectively. By using AI-powered talent marketplaces, companies can match internal employees’ skills with available jobs and projects, reducing external hiring costs.

Invest in External Talent Mapping

When companies build proactive relationships with top external candidates for critical roles, it helps them avoid last-minute hiring scrambles. This shortens time-to-hire and enhances the quality of hires.

Partner with Academic Institutions

Collaborations with global and local academic institutions can help attract diverse talent pools, including Filipinos with international experience. These partnerships nurture future-ready talent by developing specialized skills and creating ongoing talent pipelines for difficult-to-fill roles.

Adopt Strategic Workforce Planning

Business leaders should consider annual strategic sessions to identify the most critical roles and forecast future skills needs. This shift from reactive to proactive planning better aligns talent acquisition with evolving business strategies and market demands.

Unify Employer Branding

Standardizing recruitment communications and building a consistent employer value proposition improves candidate experience throughout the hiring journey. Authentic and transparent branding strengthens organizational reputation and helps attract and retain top talent.

Both Ms. Galang and Atty. Ople emphasized the importance of competency-based hiring. Unlike experience-based models, competency frameworks assess knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that predict long-term success.

Companies adopting this approach report stronger retention and adaptability. However, organizations must track outcomes carefully to ensure consistency across roles. 

In the fireside chat, Mr. Jun Abo highlighted the evolving recruiter profile. Modern recruiters need more than interpersonal skills: they must now combine data analysis, marketing know-how, digital fluency, and prompt engineering with AI tools.

This shift empowers recruiters to operate as strategic partners in workforce planning, not just gatekeepers of CVs.

HR professionals are urged to audit their hiring experiences by focusing on candidate moments rather than just metrics. Ms. Galang recommends the following practices:

• Identify gaps and misalignments in job descriptions and role expectations. 
• Streamline interview processes to reduce delays and avoid losing candidates.
• Communicate transparently and promptly to build candidate trust.
• Align hiring decisions with company culture and long-term growth plans.
• Start by fixing one area within 30 days and build a roadmap for continuous improvement.

Atty. Ople highlights the value of leveraging technology to optimize recruitment processes. For example, Sprout’s Recruit+ is an AI-powered recruitment platform that streamlines tasks like job posting, applicant tracking, and digital offer management. Clients like Belo Medical Group have reported up to 30% faster hiring cycles using Recruit+, a significant advantage in specialized industries like healthcare.

Tip: Need to accelerate your hiring? As employee referrals remain one of the most effective sources of quality hires, consider tapping into Referrly, Sprout’s AI-powered employee referral platform. It automates and energizes referral programs — still one of the most effective channels for quality hires.

To succeed in today’s talent market, HR leaders should:

• • Align recruitment goals with business priorities.
  • Track meaningful metrics like time-to-hire, quality of hire, and candidate satisfaction.
  • Focus on adaptable, growth-ready talent instead of narrow experience.

• Embrace AI and automation to cut manual work while maintaining transparent, people-centered communication.

As Ms. Galang summarized:

“Hiring isn’t just about filling roles. It’s about creating alignment, speed, and a positive experience at every step.”

Watch the Full Webinar 

Missed the live event? Watch the full Smart Hiring webinar replay for expert insights and strategies. You may also explore our blogs and thought leadership resources for more insights on building smarter and stronger teams.

If you’re ready to transform your hiring process, explore how Sprout Recruit+ can help you source quality candidates faster and build stronger teams.