In this episode of Pearland Stories, host Brant Mills sits down with People First co‑owner and fractional HR leader Will Kruer to talk about what it really means to build healthy, people‑first workplaces. From his unexpected journey from finance into HR, Will shares how hiring, culture, and leadership all intersect to create sustainable organizations that people actually want to work for. They dig into how AI is changing the hiring process from both the company and job seeker sides of the equation, why trust and storytelling matter more than “perfect” resumes, and what small and growing businesses can do to future‑proof their culture. Will also explains practical ways leaders can improve onboarding, performance reviews, and managing tough conversations so teams stay aligned instead of burned out. Whether you’re a business owner, a manager, or a job seeker trying to make sense of today’s hiring landscape, this episode offers candid insight and actionable ideas straight from the HR trenches. Transcript Segment : Can you talk about some of the things that have changedin that space over the last five, ten years? There's a lot of talk about AI.There's a lot of talk about things changing and moving, and there's a lot offrustration, I think, on both sides, because people don't really understand. So can you give me a little insight? Yeah. Well, it's it's I'm glad you brought it up becauseevery hiring professional struggles with you're helping your clients hire, but you're also helping candidates get jobs. And those are two very different jobs. And I think that's what has changed over the last few years,a lot of people are struggling with is if if you scroll through your social media, if you're a job seeker and the algorithm latches on to the fact that you're a job seeker, you're going to get a ton of stuff in your feed about, you know, do this to your resume. Use this AI tool for your resume. Make sure you ask thesequestions in an interview. When all those things are important and you should be doing them in an ethical and, constructive manner. But at the end of the day, the candidates that are getting the job offers are the ones that are ableto build trust and then interview the ones that can articulate that they can solve the hiring managers problem. And so, you know, a lot of these flashy AI tools, I think alot of people spin their wheels with them because if you have a lot of people use AI for their resume, and so they put their resume in and they say, match my resume to this job description. Well, that might qualify your resume, but itdoesn't differentiate it. And so the so then on the other side, the employers using AIto to screen resumes. And so if the employer gets 100 resumes that are all qualified and, you know, a small handful of them are differentiating them themselves, the AI is going to separate those. And and the qualified resumes are going to go into a second bucket that's going to say maybe a fit. You know, there's going to be three buckets fit, maybe afit, not a fit and maybe a fit and not a fit. Don't get a lot of time from the hiring manager because they get so many applications. You know, the hiring managers are going to be focusing on the fit bucket. And so I think that that'sthe interesting dynamic that we've seen over the last few years, is that companies are using AI to screen resumes. Candidates are using AI to to write resumes, and people havetotally lost the people element of it. So my advice would be to to maintain that, you know, that people culture when you're applying to roles, you know, thinking about your unique value proposition and, and using that in your resume and in your interview, being able to confidently riff about your experience. And if you were a, a hiring manager, using AI as a tool fororganization, but not as a tool for decision making.
