RecTalk at RecFest: People Risk, Reputation & The Future of Hiring | Lorna Cobbett, Blue John

We’re still at RecFest UK 2026, and this time Nitin Sharma sits down with **Lorna Cobbett**, Founder of **Blue John**, to talk about one of the biggest issues facing employers and talent teams today: **people risk**. Lorna is bringing a very different perspective to the HR tech space, combining her background in investment banking and reputation management with neuroscience to rethink how organisations understand the people they hire. At RecFest, Blue John launched Gray, its new people risk intelligence platform, designed to help organisations understand who someone really is — rather than simply relying on what they claim to be. In this episode, Lorna and Nitin discuss: • What “people risk intelligence” actually means • Why personal reputation and reputation due diligence matter when hiring • Why most organisations focus their due diligence on senior leadership while doing very little across the rest of the workforce • Blue John’s Gray platform and the thinking behind it • The five Blue John “trademarks”: Human, Rock, Architect, Compass and Chameleon • How purpose, compassion, trust, resilience, initiative and adaptability can influence whether people engage, disconnect or ultimately leave • Why there is no such thing as a “bad hire” — only the wrong hire for the wrong organisation at the wrong time • Why employers need to take greater responsibility for accurately representing their organisation and roles • The financial, cultural, reputational and operational cost of getting a hire wrong • Why middle managers are the critical “glue” between senior leadership and the wider workforce • The growing importance of understanding people risk in regulated sectors such as financial services, professional services and healthcare • The changing employment landscape and why organisations have less time to understand whether someone is genuinely right for the role • The emerging “talent reset” and why CEOs and CFOs need to think carefully about whether they have the right team for what comes next Lorna also shares her view that “the talent system is broken” and explains why putting people at the heart of organisational decision-making is central to what Blue John is trying to achieve. Learn more about Blue John: https://wearebluejohn.com/ GUEST — Lorna Cobbett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorna-cobbett/ HOST — Nitin Sharma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitin-rectools/ SPONSORED BY **NOVA by Dweet** — Define what good looks like. Screen, source, and shortlist talent automatically. Nova works with your hiring team to build structured scoring criteria for each role, then screens every applicant, resurfaces past candidates, and finds new ones automatically. https://nova.dweet.com/ **Zyverno** — builds Frontline Hiring Intelligence for logistics, care, hospitality and retail: the sectors where a single vacancy can attract hundreds of applications that never get properly assessed. Its AI agent, Lina, conducts structured screening interviews against manager-defined criteria and returns ranked, scored shortlists. Lina screens and ranks. Hiring managers make every decision. https://www.zyverno.app/ **Screenloop** — is the all-in-one ATS built for SMEs. Replace your scattered stack of tools, from ATS to interview intelligence, scheduling, scorecards, and note-taking tools with one intuitive platform. Backed by AI time-saving features and an award-winning support team. That way, you save time, cut tooling costs, and make smarter hiring decisions faster. https://www.screenloop.com/ Find out more about **RecFest UK**: https://recfest.com/uk/ Discover recruitment tools and services: https://www.rectools.io/ Listen to RecTalk on another platform: https://rectalk.co.uk/ **#RecTalk #RecFest2026 #Recruitment #RecruitmentTech #HRTech #TalentAcquisition #PeopleRisk #Hiring #FutureOfWork #HR #Talent #EmployeeEngagement #ReputationManagement #RecruitmentTechnology #BlueJohn #LornaCobbett #Rectools**