Inside the Cox Career Site Redesign: Data, AI & Candidate Experience

Chris Hoyt: Oh man, I love it. It’s 2026, and we’re podcasting again—we’re showcasting again, Adam. Happy New Year.

Adam Glassman: Happy New Year to you guys.

Chris Hoyt: Yeah. Was it a good holiday for you? Jerry and I had a pretty quiet one.

Adam Glassman: Yeah, good holidays. Mostly quiet for me too. We were renovating our kitchen, so we took some time to finish that project up, clean up, and put the house back together. We stayed put, but good holidays all around.

Chris Hoyt: Was it a massive renovation with contractors, or were you just switching out a sink and microwave?

Adam Glassman: No, it was top to bottom—pretty much everything. And no, I was not the one doing it. We had contractors, so you can feel comfortable with that.

Chris Hoyt: You’re a smart man. Jerry, how about your holidays?

Gerry Crispin: It was really good. My house looked like a store for Christmas. Normally we’d keep everything up through January, but I took it down this past week. I’m trying to reduce from 50 bins of decorations down to 20—still more to go.

Chris Hoyt: If you haven’t been there, I don’t think people can comprehend it. It supports the urban myth that Jerry is Santa Claus. I’ve been to your place twice now, pre- and post-reduction, and you still have 10 times more decorations than I do. It’s unbelievable.

Gerry Crispin: I don’t have a lot outside—just a couple of things. But I don’t really have room for everything anymore. I’ve downsized over the years, but still need to do more.

Chris Hoyt: So we installed these things called Gem Lights around the house. You guys seen these? They go up in the soffits, and you don’t see them during the day. At night, you turn them on and there are patterns, animations, and automated displays. So when a holiday hits, bam—your house is the Griswolds’. When the holiday is over, it goes back to subtle scene lighting or whatever you’ve set up. It’s the best thing ever for decorating outside. You just let the app do the work.

Adam Glassman: I love that idea. I’m going to have to think about that.

Gerry Crispin: If I could put it up and it stays up year-round—just some lighting—and then push a button for Christmas mode? I kind of like that.

Chris Hoyt: It’s not even hard, Jerry. Once it’s up, you can say, “Celebrate holidays automatically,” and every day in December the house looks different with new animations. I feel like we should get a spiff from Gem… Gemstone Lights. Actually, they don’t give us any money—we’re going to bleep out every time we say Gemstone Lights. There’s a beep. There you go.

Oh my gosh. Well, we have a fun topic today—one that’s near and dear to my heart. Adam, you’ve had some fun with a career site redesign, and I want to dig into it. You guys ready to chat it up?

Adam Glassman: Let’s do it.

Announcer: Welcome to the Recruiting Community Podcast, the go-to channel for talent acquisition leaders and practitioners. This show is brought to you by CXR, a trusted community of thousands connecting the best minds in the industry to explore topics like attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent. Hosted by Chris Hoyt and Gerry Crispin. We are thrilled to have you join the conversation.

Chris Hoyt: All right, everybody. Welcome to the Recruiting Community Podcast. I’m Chris Hoyt, President of CareerXroads. I’m with Gerry Crispin, co-founder of CXR. Gerry, say hello.

Gerry Crispin: Hello.

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Also check out cxr.org/podcast to see past and future episodes. We’ve launched an entirely new design there, with over 500 episodes featuring leaders and practitioners doing interesting work in our space—like our guest today. On the site, you’ll also find ways to like, subscribe, and make us internet famous. This is an ad-free labor of love. Nobody paid to be here—not even the Gemstone Lights people. And if they don’t write us a check, we’re still bleeping them out.

So today, I want to call out that the Cox Enterprises career site was rebuilt from the ground up in 2025. It was guided by deep data analytics, an intentional candidate journey, and some pretty bold reimagining of what a top-flight career experience can—and ideally should—be. Today with our guest Adam, we’re going to talk about thoughtful site architecture, interactive design, AI-powered support, and social-first content. All of it coming together to move the needle on engagement, applications, and performance.

So let’s welcome Adam Glassman from Cox Enterprises. Welcome again, Adam.

Adam Glassman: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

Chris Hoyt: For those who don’t know you—or haven’t had a chance to meet you—give us your escalator pitch. Who is Adam Glassman, and why should we be paying attention?

Adam Glassman: I don’t know if you should be paying attention—that’s up to you. But I’m Adam Glassman, Director of Marketing at Cox Enterprises. I’ve been with Cox for just over eight years. Sometimes it feels longer, sometimes like two months. Before Cox, I worked in agencies and on the client side. I’ve been in recruitment marketing and employment branding for 12–15 years. I’ve also worked in B2B and B2C. I think that cross-industry experience gives me a real advantage—I pull those learnings together at Cox.

Chris Hoyt: And you’ve been a CXR member for…?

Adam Glassman: I think it’s around four-ish years.

Chris Hoyt: I think it’s right at five. So let’s dive in. You rebuilt the site from the ground up, and you talked about a data mindset behind the design. What data or insights most challenged your original assumptions about how candidates experience Cox careers?

Adam Glassman: First, if you’re able to throw out your assumptions and actually use the data, you’re already in a healthier place. People in this space often assume a lot—we think candidates know our brand, our process, what actions to take on our site. Some people don’t even know how to search for a job properly or what happens after they apply. We had to throw all of that out and say, “What does the data tell us?”

Chris Hoyt: It’s almost like a headspace reset—starting with a blank slate. Is that where journey mapping played a role? Did you find friction points?

Adam Glassman: Yeah. We asked ourselves: what’s the goal of this redesign? For us, it was two things—improving conversions (applications, job alerts, talent community signups), and educating/influencing candidates about our brand. Cox is complex—we’re in a lot of industries. So we threw out the assumption that candidates know us. We found three distinct journeys:

People who don’t know Cox and want to learn about us.

People ready to search for jobs.

People who’ve applied and want support.

Gerry Crispin: I love that you’re looking at expectations and trying to set them clearly. That improves candidate experience in a huge way.

Adam Glassman: Exactly. And the career site is one channel. We can also share info via social media, our talent community, and communication from recruiters.

Chris Hoyt: Who determines those three audience paths—was that you alone?

Adam Glassman: Definitely not just me. We engaged TA leadership, marketing, business leaders, IT, HR tech… it was a collaborative effort. We looked ahead—2, 3, 4 years—to build for the future.

Chris Hoyt: Let’s talk about the future then. AI. It’s often overhyped. How did Cox determine where AI could truly help versus get in the way?

Adam Glassman: We looked at the site like a “choose your own adventure” book. There are many entry points—job postings, organic search, etc. So we wanted to meet people where they are. AI is one path. There’s a chatbot on the site that candidates can use—or ignore. It can answer questions, help them apply, sign up for the talent community, and more.

Chris Hoyt: So it’s optional, but fully functional?

Adam Glassman: Yes. And we debated it—would people actually apply through chat? Would it be faster? On desktop, maybe not. But on mobile? It’s huge. SMS functionality means no timeouts. No lost data. You can pick up right where you left off.

Chris Hoyt: You’re going to get fascinating data from this—on application paths, time to complete, usage by job type, etc.

Adam Glassman: We already are. And it informs content too. The questions candidates ask in chat help us know what content to create or update.

Chris Hoyt: Speaking of content—your site leans into a social-first mindset. How did that shift your thinking around employer brand and content ownership?

Adam Glassman: We noticed that video and short-form content performs best, especially on social. So we brought that to the site. Real-style, vertical, mobile-first videos—easy to digest. But we still use longer-form content where appropriate, like for our company story video.

Chris Hoyt: From a collaboration standpoint—what’s one lesson you’d share with other leaders trying to balance data, design, and stakeholders without slowing things down?

Adam Glassman: It takes a village. The site should be a living, breathing channel—not a “set it and forget it.” Collaboration across teams is key. I was fortunate to present our redesign to 130–150 top Cox executives alongside our head of TA, Marnie. That kind of visibility matters.

Chris Hoyt: That’s fantastic. How often do you plan to refresh site content?

Adam Glassman: It’s iterative and as-needed. If the business changes, or if data shows a page underperforming, we update. We also run experiments throughout the year—A/B testing headlines, images, button colors—just like consumer marketers do.

Gerry Crispin: And that responsibility sits with marketing?

Adam Glassman: Yes, but it’s done collaboratively with ongoing communication across teams.

Chris Hoyt: Was the whole project done in-house?

Adam Glassman: It was a blend. Strategy and design were done in-house. For coding and interactivity, we partnered with Happy Dance. They’ve been fantastic.

Chris Hoyt: Brian Adams and his team—great folks. And no, they’re not paying us to say that. Just truth.

Adam Glassman: Agreed.

Chris Hoyt: For those who want to check it out, what’s the site URL?

Adam Glassman: jobs.coxenterprises.com

Chris Hoyt: Easy. All right—last question. If you were going to write a book about this experience, what would you title it?

Adam Glassman: Can I Ask ChatGPT? No, seriously—probably It Takes a Village.

Chris Hoyt: I love it. And who gets the first signed copy?

Adam Glassman: Maya Ali. He’s on my team and was instrumental in the data, testing, and optimization.

Chris Hoyt: Perfect. Adam, thank you so much for your time. We know a lot of leaders are prioritizing tech stack and career site improvements this year—this is timely stuff.

Adam Glassman: Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure.

Chris Hoyt: And for everyone else, check out cxr.org/podcast to catch up or join the conversation. Thanks again!

Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Recruiting Community Podcast, where talent acquisition leaders connect, learn, and grow together. Be sure to visit cxr.works/podcast to explore past episodes, see what’s coming up next, and find out how you can join the conversation. Whether you’ve got insights to share or want to be a guest on the show—we’d love to hear from you. To learn more about becoming a CXR member, visit www.cxr.works
. We’ll catch you in the next episode.