Week of January 27th, 2025
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Debating Hung Lee’s Prediction on RecOps by Jeremy Lyons
Earlier in the week Hung Lee continued his examination of his Recruitment Forecasts for 2025 (which is a phenomenal read). In This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 201, he addressed his #18 - RecOps, Talent Intelligence roles decline by 20%, EB roles decline by 30%. People & Culture roles increase 15%. Admittedly, when I saw this one on the list, I wanted to know how the opinion was formed, the data to support it, and… well, all the things because Hung is a great writer. So let’s dive in.
Hold up…before you dive in, is the plan to rip it to shreds?
Absolutely not, and the reason is relatively simple: it helps no one do that. All ideas should be explored, no matter if they are uncomfortable or if you don’t like them. Just because an idea is uncomfortable or you don’t like it, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be avoided or is inherently wrong. Before you argue for a specific position you should always consider why the other side could be right and the holes in your own argument.
Got it! Thank you for that precursor. Let’s get into it. What is Hung’s central argument for why these roles will see a decline?
Here is the position he stated:
My argument is that AI + continued suppressed headcount growth is going to reduce almost all of these functions (Employer branding, Sourcing, Recruitment Marketing, Talent Intelligence, Candidate Experience, RecOps). Organisations are seeking capability via AI and Automation before headcount and we can kind of sense that interest in pumping more resources into the function which grows the cost base isn't really that high 🤣, or ever going to be that high again.
and
Forecast: I put numbers into the forecast, so lets restate them again here. EB roles down 30%, RecOps down 20%, Talent Intelligence down 20%. People & Culture - a function which will include L&D, Internal mobility etc will increase by 15% by dint of absorbing more responsibilities.
Why could he be right?
The technology has and is still evolving - RecOps largely came about as a response to the increasing complexity of the technology and the need to leverage data. Even before Gen AI jumped onto the scene, newer tools were already thinking of ways to make this easier, reducing the need for larger RecOps and Coordination teams.
We’re already seeing RecOps roles disappear into People Ops - Recruiting teams have shrunk since the market started to change at the end of 2022. To consolidate roles, many RecOps pros have been placed under People Ops leaders (this is a whole debate unto itself with pros and cons on both sides). A positive for this transition has meant a greater expansion of career opportunities as opposed to those only in Recruiting.
Talent Management is rising - Since mid-2024, there has been more and more of rise in Talent Management roles. These roles combine traditional HR/L&D and TA skill sets for improving the company’s current workforce and helping them shift into new positions. The TA side of the fence, with internal mobility, largely has fallen on RecOps teams to work on so that element of the role is disappearing.
Sales is to RevOps but Recruiting is not to RecOps - This is an uncomfortable truth that needs a little air: the relationship between Sellers/Account Reps to their Sales/RevOps functions are different than the relationship between Recruiters and RecOps. Unlike Heads of Sales who see their Ops function as a way to keep their sellers ABCing, many TA Leaders would rather hire “operationally” minded Recruiters as a fulltime head over hiring a RecOps position off the perception that RecOps is easy to pick up. So if AI resources can come in and are easy enough to use, then why have admin when you could get another Recruiter?
Why could he be wrong?
RecOps job growth has started again - Special thank you to the team at Live Data Technologies and Jason Saltzman for using their data to create this chart. While we might be seeing a ceiling on the level that can be achieved, the role is by no means disappearing.
RecOps is not just process optimization; it's strategic enablement - While automation will simplify certain tasks (e.g., scheduling, compliance, and analytics), it won’t eliminate strategic work like workforce planning, process design, and vendor management.
Organizations that embrace AI will still need operational expertise - AI adoption requires governance, integration, and oversight, which are core RecOps responsibilities.
TA may not fully absorb RecOps tasks - If AI removes the need for specialization, does it make sense for TA to manage automation workflows, reporting, and compliance or will RecOps evolve into a more technical function, overseeing AI-driven recruiting workflows? Poking a hole in our own argument here, this could also mean that IT now steps in (with maybe one individual covering both HR and TA workflows).
What This Means for RecOps Professionals
AI Literacy Becomes Critical - Those in RecOps roles should embrace AI-driven tools and position themselves as experts in automation and workflow optimization.
RecOps May Evolve into a Cross-Functional Role - Instead of being a standalone function, RecOps professionals may become integrated into People Ops, People Analytics, or broader HR Tech roles.
Fewer “Process Managers,” More “Strategic Operators” - Instead of focusing on documentation and process enforcement, RecOps leaders will be expected to drive efficiency, analytics, and innovation in TA technology.
Weekly Survey
RecOps - The GPT
RecOps - Available in the OpenAI store and free to use.
Articles / Industry News
Articles/Graphics/Podcasts/Posts On Our Radar (sorted by type - Bolded denotes individuals)
Martyn Redstone’s Understanding Disability Bias in AI for HR and Recruitment (article)
Johnny Campbell’s Are Your Hiring Practices Holding You Back? Introducing the Hiring Excellence Maturity Model (article)
Will Ducey’s Candidate Optionality Will Drive Efficient and Better Hiring Outcomes (article)
Joe Atkinson (PURPL) and Tom Hacquoil (Pinpoint)’s Stop Using Recruitment Data Wrong... (blog)
Growth by Design Talent - 2025 Recruiting Priorities: Quality, Efficiency, and the Human Touch (newsletter)
Luke Eaton’s Four Ways Poor Workforce Planning Wrecks Good TA (newsletter)
Pinpoint’s Dear Recruiter (Editor Note: lots of data in this issue) (newsletter)
The Revol•TA Podcast’s Flipping the Recruiting Script with Matt Alder (podcast)
The Offer Accepted Podcast’s Reframing Thoughtful Rejections with Selcan Sengul (podcast)
SmartRecruiters’s How to build great interviews resources (post)
Reports
Aptitude Research and SeekOut’s How to Bright the Strategic Workforce Planning Gap and Unite Your Talent Strategy
CoderPad’s State of Tech Hiring 2025 (report)
Findem’s Why talent operations is key to navigating recruiting’s complexity
Product News (sorted alphabetically)
Ashby (AiO) - New feature: Conditional Activities, updates to mobile
Cronofy (Scheduling) - Product Roundup 2025
Metaview (Interview Transcription) - Big reveal next week!
Permanent Articles
Recruiting Operations: Dictionary & Resources
Events
Week of February 3rd
Aylin Abdullah, Glenn Martin & Katrina Collier’s BRAINCAMP: The cognitive HIIT for People & Talent Leaders
Employ Connect’s Virtual Discussion: RecOps: Creating a Strategic Operations Function for Your TA Team with Jeremy Lyons
Recruiterflow’s Recruiting in 2025: How AI is Changing the Game with Blake Williams and Siadhal Magos
Oyster and Culture Amp’s Empowering Teams: Balancing Local Flexibility with Global Standards
Week of February 10th
HIGHER and Talentful’s Unlocking Efficiency: How AI is Revolutionizing Talent Acquisition with Alan Price and Siadhal Magos
CoderPad’s How to Shift Your Tech Hiring Process in the Age of GenAI
Week of February 17th
Talent Collective and Unicorn Talent’s Navigating Recruiting Capacity: Best Practices for Headcount in 2025
SelectSoftware Reviews and Humanly’s AI’s Place in TA: Building the Recruiting Team of the Future
Week of April 28th
Week of May 12th
Week of June 2nd
Talent Collective’s Talentsphere Summit. For an additional 10% off, use the code RECOPS.
Job Search
Here is the list of previously listed jobs, which may or may not be available.
Additional Resource
ATS/Tool-Specific Job Boards
iCIMS's HR professionals job board aggregates all the HR jobs across their customers
Metaview’s job board highlights companies in their portfolio that use their product
Workable’s job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use Workable
SmartRecruiters’ job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use SR
Denys Dinkevych's remote job board, which aggregates jobs from all the major ATS
Drew Callin’s list of VC and PE job boards for their portfolios (pay attention to the comments too here since there are more)
TrueUp’s Has a fantastic job board filled with information others don’t like the last time the company did a layoff, application experience based on the ATS, and more.
Boolean Strings for Specific ATS Job Search
We’ve consolidated our list of boolean search strings for RecOps professionals to make them more accessible for everyone. Check out the list here. Kaitlyn Elting also built a generator for you if you are worried about your attention to detail.
Thank you to Steve Levy for contributing so many beautiful and Gabi Preston-Phypers for QA help. Follow both of them for excellent boolean and sourcing content.
#YourNextHire / People Looking In the RecOps Community
Are you a RecOps professional looking for work? If you have 5 minutes, take the opportunity to complete this quick questionnaire. Not only will you be featured in an upcoming Roundup, it will also help us mention your name when people ask for referrals.
Here is a Google Sheet View for a list of people who were previously featured and are still looking.
🎉 Reminders and Disclaimers 🎉
If you’d like to contribute a job, an article (one you found or wrote), or you are a company and have a product update you want featured, contact Jeremy Lyons.
Please use this form if you or someone you know would like to be featured in our #YourNextHire section. The only condition is you are a RecOps professional.
Disclaimer #1: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis do not reflect the position of any entity other than the author. As critically thinking professionals, these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time. They are not to be held in perpetuity.
Disclaimer #2: We are sponsor-free. No company below has paid us to advertise their products or share their open jobs. If that changes, we will deliberately call out where we stand to benefit. Additionally, sharing these opportunities and information should not be read as support for these companies or their practices. Regarding jobs, we share these opportunities with the community and only post roles from the company's website. We encourage possible candidates to research each one, as their inclusion does not mean we support the companies or their values.
Until next week, Regulators 😊