Hey, I’m Daniel 👋

I’ve spent the last 12 years in Talent Acquisition, hiring across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas in sectors such as Veterinary, Technology/Digital, Retail, and Energy. My focus? Making recruitment more human, efficient, and inclusive.

Along the way, I’ve led projects that saved over £7M in hiring costs, strengthened employer branding and EVP, and significantly cut time-to-hire. I’m passionate about leveraging tech and smart processes to streamline recruitment while keeping DEIB at the core.

Always happy to connect and chat about hiring, people, and how we can do it better 🚀

Is it just me, or is age bias quietly creeping back into recruitment?

Lately, I’ve noticed more and more job ads saying things like “3 years’ experience in Talent Acquisition”, followed by a list of responsibilities that read more like a Senior TA Partner than someone three years in.

Those descriptions aren’t just unrealistic, they’re exclusionary.

They subtly scream: “We want experience, but not too much of it.”
 
It’s code for: “We want the skillset of someone seasoned, but we’ll pay them the salary of someone early in their career.”

And that’s where it starts to feel uncomfortable.

We talk a lot about diversity, but age diversity seems to be the one that keeps getting quietly ignored. There are experienced professionals out there, with decades of knowledge, resilience, and emotional intelligence, being sidelined because they don’t fit a made-up “ideal” of what the market says they should look like.

If the role needs senior capability, call it that and pay accordingly. If it’s genuinely a junior position, then tailor it realistically.

Anything else just adds to the noise and pushes great people out of the conversation.

There. I said it.

Daniel Rennox

Talent Acquisition Partner - First Opinion @ IVC Evidensia UK

Riddle me this…
I’ve just been told, with a straight face, might I add, that I’m “risking my chances of getting a new role” by posting too much honest content about the current job market.

Give. Me. A. Break.

Since when did telling the truth become a career limiter? Since when did calling out the chaos, the ghosting, the endless “culture fit” nonsense, the hiring freezes-that-aren’t-really-freezes suddenly make me unemployable?

If anything, being honest about the state of things is the bare minimum we owe people. Candidates aren’t daft. Recruiters know what’s up and so do hiring managers.

If a company doesn’t want me because I tell the truth about the industry I work in… that’s the biggest red flag of all.

Honesty shouldn’t scare good businesses. Transparency shouldn’t threaten strong cultures. And if someone’s worried that sharing the reality of the market makes me “less hireable,” then maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s the situation that we’re all politely tiptoeing around.

So no, I’m not toning it down. I’m not swapping honesty for bland, beige LinkedIn bingo posts.

If speaking the truth costs me opportunities… then they weren’t opportunities worth having.

Why do companies ask diversity questions in job applications? 🤔

Let’s clear this one up, because it comes up a lot.

When you’re asked questions about gender, ethnicity, age, or disability status during an application, it’s not because someone’s judging you behind the scenes. That data never lands in a hiring manager’s inbox and any ethical Talent Partner wouldn't request to see it unless we have a hiring problem.

It’s collected anonymously and separately to answer one key question:

➡️ Who’s engaging with our roles and who isn’t?

Here’s a real example. When I worked as a Talent Partner in the energy sector, we noticed a big gap in women applying for STEM roles. The data confirmed what we suspected.  There wasn’t just a skills shortage, there was also a perception problem. Some women told me personally that they didn’t feel comfortable applying because the industry looked (and often was) heavily male-dominated.

So, we changed how we told our story. We started showcasing the brilliant women already thriving in those teams by sharing their experiences, career paths, and achievements. 

The result? A visible increase in female and female-representing applicants.
That’s the ONLY reason why this data matters.

It’s not about quotas or box-ticking, it’s about understanding barriers and building better workplaces.

So next time you see those questions, remember:

✅ You can always choose “prefer not to say.”
✅ Your answers don’t affect your chances.
✅ The goal is improvement, not judgment.

Data doesn’t discriminate, people do. The smart use of data helps us fix that.

Interviews don’t have to feel like an interrogation!

Lately, I’ve had a few interviews myself, and honestly, some of them have been rough. Question after question, no flow, no warmth, no real conversation. It felt more like a cross-examination than a chat about a potential fit.

Here’s the thing: yes, we absolutely do need to assess talent properly. That’s non-negotiable. But how we do it matters.

When you shift from a rigid Q&A format to a natural conversation, weaving questions into genuine dialogue, people relax. You get to see their true personality, their thought process, and how they actually communicate in the real world.

And that’s the gold, isn’t it? That’s where you see potential, attitude, and culture fit.

Some of the best interviews I’ve ever had (on both sides of the table) felt effortless, like a proper exchange of ideas, not a test. The candidate leaves feeling seen, and you leave with a much clearer sense of who they are.

So yes, assess skills. Ask the right questions. But make it a conversation, not an interrogation. 

You’ll get far more out of people and they’ll walk away with a far better impression of you and your company.

taplio

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