Oracle HCM, AI Recruiting, and the Death of “But We’ve Always Done It This Way” with Cherokee Nation

This series was recorded live at HR Tech 2025 inside the HR Executive studios on the expo floor in partnership with the WRKdefined Podcast Network. ⁠Make sure you’re subscribed to the full series⁠ and ⁠visit ⁠⁠HRExecutive.com⁠⁠ for the news, analysis, and insights shaping the future of work. HR teams are still dragging around the habits they built on old systems. Too much comfort. Too much duct tape. Too much “this is how we’ve always done it.” Moving to something like Oracle HCM forces a reset. You can’t customize your way out of every problem anymore. You have to learn the system, adapt, and build processes that actually scale. That’s the part most organizations avoid, and it’s why so many implementations fall flat. The moment you stop treating HR tech like bespoke software and start treating it like a strategic operating model, the entire company runs cleaner. In this episode we talk about HR systems, AI in recruitment, candidate experience, vendor partnerships, tribal employment, performance management, generative AI, and what it really takes to drive adoption inside an organization. The conversation hits on where HR leaders get stuck, how to pick the right partner, and why excitement about tech is still the best fuel for engagement. What We Cover Navigating change in HR systems AI’s role in modern recruitment Vendor partnerships that actually work Improving candidate experience Tribal employment preferences Performance management and process clarity Tech adoption and the excitement factor Key Takeaways We got way too accustomed to old systems Adaptation matters more than perfection Modern HR tech is configuration, not custom builds Ask vendors for real live demos Your implementation partner matters as much as the product Fix the candidate experience first Tribal preference is key in Native American orgs AI upgrades matching and recruiting speed Clear HR processes prevent chaos Energy and excitement drive adoption Chapters 0:00 Navigating Change in HR Systems 2:54 The Role of AI in Recruitment 6:04 Building Effective Partnerships with Vendors 8:56 Enhancing Candidate Experience 12:11 Understanding Tribal Employment Preferences 15:05 Future Innovations in HR Technology