Ashlie Collins
Hello and welcome to Hire We Go!, where we’re chatting all things talent acquisition transformation. Whether you’re an HR vet or someone who’s simply fascinated by how to find, attract, and engage talent, you are most certainly in the right place! I’m your host and Director of Solutions here at Joveo, Ashlie Collins, and joining us today is Lance Christensen. Thank you so much for joining us today, Lance. Why don’t you go ahead and kick things off by telling us a little bit more about yourself and your organization?

Lance Christensen
Alrighty, great. My name is Lance Christensen. I am a TA… considered a TA thought leader. My background, I started out in the trucking industry as a operations manager, then truck driver, then trucking company owner, then a recruiting leader, and then a recruiting agency owner, and then a trucking TA…Talent acquisition leader! It’s been a long and arduous journey, but I ended up becoming a talent acquisition strategist for advertising. So it’s all about how to reach the audience.

Ashlie Collins
Wow, that’s amazing. And I can see that you’re referred to as the “The Recruiting Strategy Guy”. What does that mean exactly?

Lance Christensen
I look at the TA industry from the applicant perspective. I always have. Media is great. Technology is fantastic. All the tools and resources that you have. But if you’re not focusing on the person that you’re trying to reach, I think you’re missing the mark. For the most part, I just start answering and asking questions as if I’m talking to that audience that I’m trying to reach. Who are they? Where are they? How do I get that message to them to start attracting them? And how do I engage them in some sort of a relationship where I can introduce them to an opportunity and get them hired?

Ashlie Collins
Yeah, that’s amazing. And what do you think prompted you to really start thinking about it that way? I think there are a lot of folks who’ve been in the industry for a long time and maybe think about like, ‘Okay, where’s the most cost effective way to attract or to find folks’, but maybe don’t lean in as much to ‘How do I engage them in a meaningful conversation?’ So what was that shift for you?

Lance Christensen
I think where I really cut my teeth on that is in that recruiting and staffing industry. In that role, you’re basically a third party. You’re trying to get somebody to work for a company that you don’t work for. So your methods of engagement and your rules of engagement are quite a bit different. You really need to understand both sides very well to create that alignment. And then when I moved over to be on the TA side, hiring for my own organization, it changes.

I just never lost that mindset where if you don’t create the alignment, if you don’t understand who it is you’re trying to bring aboard, your media and your advertising falls short and you end up overspending. I’m a big fan of trying to broadcast the message to… a majority of the audience needs to be your applicant, needs to be the person you want to have come and work for your company. If you do not have them in the majority, I mean, that’s wasted spend.

Ashlie Collins
Absolutely. And you know, that’s probably the first time I’ve had someone directly tie it to wasted spend, to overspending, you know, to attract a lack of quality, if you will, because it’s not the right alignment. So it’s an interesting way to think about, you know, the importance of that alignment on return on investment versus just the right channels but you know, what you say and how you say it. So it’s really, really fascinating! 

My last question for you today, if you had a magic wand, sir, what would you change about talent sourcing? And I have to say, I guess as we head into 2026 now, I’ve got to throw away my 2025. We’re almost done!

Lance Christensen
Well, it’s reared its head quite a bit with AI. There’s so much capability to bring folks into the funnel and get them interested in jobs. Sometimes they don’t even know they’re interested in the job. The AI is working on their behalf. I think it’s created a lot of noise. It’s created a lot of frustration on the TA side and on the applicant side. Ghosting on both sides has gone crazy.

If I could wave my magic wand, I would solve that. I mean, if we could reach some level of, where we understand the talent and the opportunity so much that we could create a parity of 1-to-1 or close to it. I mean, there’s a perfect person for every job. The better we can be at locating that person and getting them engaged, the better off we all are. Nobody wants to sift through a thousand applicants to find the right person. It’s cumbersome!

Ashlie Collins
Yeah, no, absolutely! I think you’re certainly speaking our language there with a job for everyone and getting that ratio down. So thank you so much for sharing your experience and your insights with us here today. It’s been an absolute pleasure to have you and thank you all for tuning in!