Hiring great people has never been easy. But in a tougher tech market, closing top candidates takes more than a strong brand, a compelling role, or a polished interview process.
It takes discipline.
That is the focus of the latest episode of Let’s Table That, the HR podcast from Borderless AI, featuring Tonci Hockmann, Senior Recruitment Manager at Rootly.
In the episode, titled “Closing Talent in a Tough Market,” hosts Jazmine and Glaze speak with Hockmann about what it really takes to recruit, engage, and close candidates when companies are trying to scale carefully and talent has more questions than ever.
Hockmann brings experience across startups, scale-ups, and enterprise organizations, including Instacart, RBC, and Rootly. That range gives him a clear view into how hiring changes as companies grow, and why recruiting at scale is less about heroic individual effort and more about building systems that can work repeatedly.
The conversation covers several of the biggest questions facing tech employers today: how to hire in a more cautious market, how AI is changing the recruiting function, what candidates are really looking for, and why closing strong technical talent requires alignment long before the offer stage.
For founders and hiring leaders, one of the episode’s strongest takeaways is that recruiting cannot be treated as a last-mile function. By the time a company is trying to close a candidate, the outcome has often already been shaped by the clarity of the role, the quality of the process, the consistency of communication, and the trust built along the way.
Hockmann also speaks to the difference between recruiting for “culture fit” and recruiting for “culture add,” a distinction that matters as companies try to build teams that are not only high-performing but also adaptable. In a market where every hire matters, companies need to be clear about what skills, perspectives, and behaviours will move the business forward.
The episode also explores AI’s growing role in hiring. While new tools can help recruiters work faster and manage more complexity, Hockmann’s perspective is that technology does not replace the fundamentals. Strong recruiting still depends on judgment, relationship-building, process design, and understanding what both the company and candidate need.
For Canadian tech companies, the conversation feels especially timely. After years of rapid growth followed by a more selective hiring environment, startups are being asked to build leaner, stronger teams. That means every hiring process needs to be sharper, every candidate interaction needs to be more intentional, and every offer needs to connect clearly to the company’s mission and opportunity.
At its core, the episode is a reminder that great hiring is not just about finding talent. It is about building the conditions that make the right people want to join, stay, and do their best work.
For recruiters, founders, and people leaders navigating today’s market, Hockmann’s message is practical: the companies that win talent are the ones that treat recruiting as a system, not a scramble.
Watch the full episode of Let’s Table That below.
Borderless AI is a sponsor of Techtalent.ca. Through its Let’s Table That series, the company is featuring conversations with leaders about work, people, and the realities of building modern teams.