🎙 In this episode, I share my incredibly frustrating experience of recruitment, including hiring my replacement as an intern, recruiting for my various companies, and running a recruitment agency.  A journey that took me from hating recruitment to building an AI-powered, VA-driven system that finally makes hiring simple, objective, and repeatable. You’ll see why traditional recruitment is so slow and draining for business owners. I explain why my fully systemized recruitment process ignores CVs, how it removes early-stage gut-feeling errors, and instead uses standardised applications and AI-supported screening to objectively filter candidates down to a high-quality shortlist.  Whether you’re hiring your first virtual assistant or growing a small remote team, this episode is for you. It is the first step towards replacing guesswork with a clear, step-by-step process that will finally enable you to turn recruitment into a strength in your business. KEY TAKEAWAYS 💡Stop Trusting CVs and Gut Feel: AI‑polished CVs and “she seems nice” interviews are a terrible basis for judging who can actually do the work. 💡Use Test Tasks As An Initial Filter: Use structured applications, test tasks, and clear scoring to filter candidates. Reserve your human judgment for the final interview stage. 💡Own Your Recruitment System: When agencies control your hiring, you stay dependent, delay firing, and tolerate mediocre performance. 💡Make Hiring Easy to Run Without You: When a VA can run the entire process, you can mostly remove yourself and your management team from the equation. Creating a near-frictionless hiring process ensures you get the right people into the right places quickly - particularly important during periods of high growth. BEST MOMENTS 00:31 - 💬 “ There was no way of comparing like for like. It was purely down to my gut feeling about who should replace me in my role.”  05:17 - 💬 “You can waste huge amounts of time on taking someone through a recruiting process and interviewing them and even hiring them, only to find out they can't actually do everything they said they could do.” 07:47 - 💬 “I  believe a business owner can easily do the recruitment better than anybody else.” 11:17 - 💬 “You need your company to stand out from every other job advert out there. To be the one that's different, the one that actually speaks to that person.” TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW 00:00 Intro: “Hating Recruitment to Perfecting It” 06:44 Avoid Overreliance on Recruitment Agencies 08:32 AI-Powered Recruitment Made Easy 12:12 Streamlined Hiring Process Workshop VALUABLE RESOURCES If recruitment currently feels slow, hit‑and‑miss, and painful, this is your next step. Register for our Recruit Right Workshop at sys.academy/recruit LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE HOST Podcast: https://www.systemizeyoursuccess.com Website: https://systemsandoutsourcing.com/ Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@drsteveday42 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drsteveday42 ABOUT THE HOST Steve moved to Sweden in 2015 and transformed how he ran his businesses—switching to a fully remote model. A former NHS doctor, with a background in computing and property investing, he now helps overwhelmed business owners systemise and outsource effectively. Through his courses and coaching, Steve teaches how to automate operations and work with affordable virtual assistants, freeing up time and increasing profits. He runs his UK-based businesses remotely with support from a team of UK and Filipino VAs, and is passionate about helping others build scalable, stress-free companies using smart systems and virtual support.