Talent marketing expert from Indeed – a Platinum Partner at the event – says qualified candidates are being missed
Alexandra Tillo has spent years watching companies talk about themselves when they should be listening to candidates. As a senior talent marketing consultant at Indeed, she works at the intersection of hiring data and human experience – threads that Tillo says connect to the main themes at HRFest Canada 2026, North America’s most exciting HR festival being held in Toronto on Nov. 10 and 11, where Indeed is a Platinum Partner.
Tillo says the company is excited to be involved in the event, which will be bringing together HR professionals and leaders to network and discuss the hot issues that the profession is facing today.
“We're proud to be part of HRFest Canada 2026 because it brings together leaders who are helping shape the future of work,” says Tillo. “With AI at the centre of many conversations this year, it's an exciting opportunity to explore how technology can help organizations solve real hiring challenges while creating better experiences for both candidates and employees.”
Tillo says she’s looking forward to hearing at HRFest Canada 2026 how HR leaders are balancing innovation with the human side of work. “At Indeed, we have the privilege of seeing both the data behind hiring trends and the real stories behind career decisions,” she says. “What we consistently see is that while technology continues to evolve, trust, transparency, and authentic human connection remain at the heart of successful hiring.”
What the job seeker is looking for
In her area of expertise of employer branding and talent acquisition, a common mistake Canadian employers are making isn't a lack of effort, but rather a misplaced focus, according to Tillo.
“I think the biggest mistake is that they treat employer branding more like a communication exercise instead of a real talent strategy," she says. "There are too many employers that seem to focus on what they want to say about themselves rather than really focusing on what the job seeker, the candidate, really wants to know when making a decision.”
Being an employer of choice isn’t just a label – job candidates want to see the evidence, adds Tillo.
She also points to a structural problem. In many organizations, employer branding and recruitment are still handled by separate teams. “There's one team for employer branding and one team for recruitment, and I think it creates a gap,” she says, noting that companies that don't control their own narrative will have it controlled for them through reviews, salary data, and word of mouth.
“Candidates nowadays are incredibly informed, and if the company isn’t being transparent, they're going to find that information somewhere,” says Tillo.
Pay transparency beyond the legal checkbox
Ontario's pay transparency requirements came into full effect on Jan. 1, 2026, requiring employers with 25 or more employees to include salary ranges in all publicly advertised job postings. For Tillo, the legislation is welcome, but she says compliance alone misses the point.
“Pay transparency really only becomes a competitive advantage when an organization views it as a trust-building exercise rather than just a compliance requirement,” she says.
Listing a salary is a start, but candidates want context on why this number, what does progression look like, how is performance is rewarded, according to Tillo. “If you're transparent with salary, a candidate expects transparency throughout the hiring process,” she says. "The organizations doing a pretty good job consider it part of their talent strategy and they’re being upfront about career growth, flexibility, benefits, and how performance is rewarded.”
She also reframes a metric that has frustrated some employers: candidates withdrawing after seeing a posted salary. “If you see it being a pattern, it's sending you a signal,” she says. “It might indicate a gap between what you're offering and market expectations, or maybe your overall proposition isn’t clearly communicated.”
Tillo believes that in such circumstances, salary disclosure doesn't create the problem, it exposes it.
The hiring conversation HR needs to have
For Tillo, these issues connect to a deeper challenge she believes the industry has been reluctant to fully confront in hiring practices. “The conversation is about access,” she says. “Companies are complaining about skill gaps and quality of candidates, but they've also created barriers that prevent really qualified people from accessing their opportunities in the first place.”
She says she sees it in job ads that rely on proxies for talent such as rigid credentials, specific years of experience that are hard to justify, and traditional career paths, while the same organizations struggle to fill roles.
“The question we need to ask is whether we're truly looking for capability or whether the company is looking for familiarity,” Tillo says. “Companies really need to shift towards skills-first hiring and focus on potential, not just experience. Talent is really distributed across our entire communities, but the opportunity is not, and HR has an enormous role to play in closing that gap.”
That message is one Tillo is bringing directly to HRFest Canada 2026 on November 10 and 11, as part of Indeed’s Platinum Partner presence. On the event’s themes of AI implementation, workforce planning, and well-being tied to hard metrics, she sees workforce planning as the thread that connects them all.
“If companies start their workforce planning first, knowing the impact AI opportunities will create, the roles that will shift, build that career path more clearly, and communicate that to their employees, it will impact retention,” she says. “With everything that's happening, trust has become the most valuable currency in recruiting," she says. “And I really think it starts there.”
