Trent Cotton
Head of Talent Acquisition Insights & Analyst Relations
iCIMS
Episode 56
HR's New Playbook: Make Talent Acquisition a C-Suite Business Driver
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleSeptember 11, 2025 · 14:48
Thesis
“Talent Acquisition must transform from a transactional function into a strategic business driver by deeply understanding business KPIs, leveraging data, and fostering strong, proactive relationships with executive leadership, especially IT, to align talent strategy with overall company goals.”
Show notes
Talent Acquisition still gets treated as a back-office function at most organizations — a pipeline that turns on when there's a req and turns off when it's filled. Trent Cotton has spent 20+ years making the case that this is exactly backwards. At iCIMS, where he leads Talent Insights and Analyst Relations, he's built a platform for translating TA data into the language executives actually use: revenue, growth, risk, and competitive advantage.
The shift Trent describes isn't just rhetorical. It requires TA leaders to genuinely understand how their organizations make money — so they can show, with specifics, how a 7-day reduction in time-to-fill translates to pipeline velocity, and how a skills gap in a critical function translates to revenue at risk. He's built those connections at companies across industries, and he makes the argument compellingly: the organizations that treat TA as a strategic capability consistently outperform those that treat it as a staffing function.
He also takes on two of TA's most pressing operational challenges: technology adoption (most implementations fail not because of bad software, but because stakeholders weren't involved early enough) and internal mobility (most companies have more talent than they realize, hidden in roles that no longer match their people's capabilities). Both are solvable problems with the right approach.
- Translating TA metrics into business language — how to connect time-to-fill to revenue impact in terms the CFO will act on
- Building executive buy-in for TA technology — why involving CIOs and stakeholders at the start is non-negotiable
- Agile practices in talent acquisition — using sprint cycles to stay aligned with fast-moving business priorities
- Internal mobility as a strategic asset — mining your own workforce before defaulting to external hires
- Speaking the business's language — the vocabulary shift that changes how TA is perceived at the executive table
Previ is an employer network that provides private pricing for employees — saving the average employee $2,200/year on essentials like cell phone service and insurance, at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1Translate TA metrics (e.g., time to fill) into tangible business outcomes like revenue impact to elevate HR's strategic value with the C-suite.
- 2Engage key stakeholders, especially CIOs, early in the HR/TA tech adoption process to gain buy-in and create internal champions.
- 3Proactively use market intelligence and internal ATS data to anticipate talent needs and inform business strategy, moving beyond reactionary recruiting.
- 4Prioritize internal mobility and upskilling to future-proof the workforce, retaining institutional knowledge, and maximizing existing talent investment.
- 5Develop a deep, trust-based relationship with the CIO through consistent, business-aligned communication (e.g., agile sprint-like updates) to achieve lockstep on talent initiatives.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Most HR professionals bring in key stakeholders for tech adoption at the very end; instead, they should be involved in the first phase, even for initial demos, to foster championship.
In Trent's words
“Now, I would go over the normal KPIs in recruiting, like time to fill and some of the others, but I always related it to business outcomes that was for that group.”
This quote highlights the critical need for HR to translate traditional metrics into business language for strategic relevance.
“Every key aspect of the TA tech that you're trying to use should relate to one of those key levers within the business because business leaders, they don't speak HREs or TAEs or whatever the different languages that a lot of HR professionals like to stay in. They understand key drivers.”
Trent emphasizes that HR technology investments must directly connect to business drivers, advocating for a business-oriented communication approach.
“My suggestion is always bring them in on the first, you know, the first phase. So, you know, if I'm looking for a new piece of TA tech or a new platform, I may narrow it down to my top 3. I'm going to bring in some of my C-suite executives to participate in that demo, to be able to ask questions, to be able to provide me feedback on which one do they think as a co-user is going to be the most beneficial for them.”
This provides a concrete, actionable strategy for gaining executive buy-in and fostering champions for HR technology adoption.
“To me, internal mobility makes sense because you've already invested time resources and development in this workforce, why would you not promote them? Why do you want to go to the street automatically rather than taking a good look inside?”
Trent makes a strong, logical argument for prioritizing existing internal talent over external hires to leverage prior investments and promote retention.
“And it was about talent in general. It wasn't give me an update on this role. It was, hey, I'm looking at my organizational sprint plan, 2 or 3 weeks from, or 2 or 3 sprints from now, we're actually going to need X, Y, and Z. Can we go ahead and start working on that now?”
This illustrates the ideal, proactive collaboration between HR and CIOs, where talent discussions move beyond reactive needs to strategic future planning.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Only 27% of CIOs view TA as a growth driver, indicating a significant perception gap between TA leaders and business executives.
- •A majority (66%) of CHROs view TA as either a support function or transactional, not a core strategic function.
- •Lack of early stakeholder involvement in HR/TA tech decisions leads to pushback and difficulty in adoption.
- •Many organizations fail to leverage the vast data on internal applicants within their ATS, leading to missed internal mobility opportunities and unnecessary external hiring.
- •CHROs are challenged by how to elevate and prepare their current workforce for the future of work, especially with the impact of AI.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
I am currently working for iCIMS as head of talent insights and analyst relations
Post-Bacc MS in HR: Career Paths
Trent shifted from traditional HR role to leading thought leadership at TA Tech
The Shift from HR to TA Tech
Only 27% of CIOs view Talent Acquisition as a growth driver
Teaching CIOs the Value of Talent Acquisition
Only about a third of CHROs view TA as a strategic function
AI and TA Tech in HR
Bring in key stakeholders on the first phase of any IT project
On TA Tech and Key Stakeholders
With most CHROs boosting TA budgets, how are they tying tech to business results
TA Tech: The Business Case
Trent, what parting advice would you give HR and TA leaders working with CIOs
A CIO's Last Lecture
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
Expand transcript (0 words)
Transcript is not available yet.