With 11 million users in 130 countries, Talentsoft is the clear-cut European leader in Human Capital Management. With its open People@Work Platform, they help roughly 2200 customers worldwide accelerate their talent transformation journey. The company was founded 14 years ago in 2007 by Jean-Stéphane Arcis, Joël Bentolila and Alexandre Pachulski, who are each still involved high-up in the company.
Now, the well-established company will join forces with and become a part of Cegid, a leading provider of cloud business management solutions for finance and payroll & talent management. Cegid, a HR tech unicorn, was founded in 1983 by renowned businessman Jean-Michel Aulas. They were one of the first companies to adopt and integrate cloud-tech into retail solutions. With more than 20 years of expertise, and an incredible 350,000 customers in the world — Cegid has amassed a hugely respectable portfolio
‘A French Tech powerhouse’
The origins for both companies lay in France, with both Cegid and Talentsoft being founded by Frenchmen. Pascal Houillon, CEO of Cegid, is said to be delighted with the company’s fifth acquisition since the beginning of the year. “This major step for both companies will not only create a new French powerhouse but also a highly competitive European leader in a fast-growing sector — further accelerating our presence and category dominance in France, Europe, and the rest of the world”, he said in the official press statement.
“This major step for both companies will not only create a new French powerhouse but also a highly competitive European leader in a fast-growing sector.”
Together, the two companies will be responsible for more than 600 million euro’s in annual turnovers. “Our synergy will go well beyond that”, the companies add in their joint-statement. “The companies’ vision, brand strength, product portfolio performance, team expertise, culture of co-creation and entrepreneurship, and focus on cloud-based solutions (representing more than 80% of combined turnover) creates a powerful new opportunity to enter and conquer new markets.” The move will also see Talentsoft’s full 600 employee-strong team officially join Cegid, alongside its founders, Arcis, Bentolila and Pachulski.
Talentsoft recently became an official partner of ToTalent, Europe’s leading independent total talent acquisition platform. Interested in becoming a partner? Contact us directly.
It isn’t too far-fetched to state motivated people are at the heart of any business success. And throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, workforces throughout Europe have struggled to maintain a certain level of motivation. To find out how unmotivated the workforce was exactly, HR software provider Workday commissioned research with newly-launchedYonder Consultingto better understand the employee sentiment and priorities across Europe.
Yonder undertook just over 17,000 online surveys across the countries, with employees who were below Director level and work at an organisation with 250+ employees.
The research was conducted in nine European countries: the UK, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland. “These nine countries were chosen as they represent a large geographical spread across Europe, capturing the five biggest European economies and were all accessible using an online survey methodology”, as per the report. In total, Yonder undertook just over 17,000 online surveys across the countries, with employees who were below Director level and work at an organisation with 250+ employees.
’61% of Europe worked from home’
As business discussions in Q1 of 2020 seldom mentioned remote workforces — companies were forced to throw everything overboard when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. That lead to large numbers of people working from home. In total, an average of 61% of Europe’s workforce worked from home during 2020. The UK lead the charge, with 71%, while Germany was the last-ranked country with 52%.
A lack of motivation
Overall, one primary point came out of the research: a sincere lack of motivation across the continent. In Europe, British (53%) and Swedish (51%) employees were said to feel the most challenged in terms of motivating themselves at work, while Italians and Germans (39%) came out best (relatively speaking). The largest issue for employees overall was a fairly logical one: worsened communication with colleagues. While the world turned en masse to Zoom and Teams, employees couldn’t interact with colleagues in the ways they used to.
“Despite the conscious effort of many leadership teams to keep employees informed, when the different building blocks that make a successful working culture are examined in isolation, a different story emerges.”
Meanwhile, throughout much of 2020, leadership has been held under a loop. Poor leadership is cited as the number two, primary reason why employees struggled to motivate themselves at work. In France, Switzerland and Italy — it was the number one overall issue. “Despite the conscious effort of many leadership teams to keep employees informed, when the different building blocks that make a successful working culture are examined in isolation, a different story emerges”, the report adds.
‘A smooth, cultural reboarding’
As offices gradually re-open, and makeshift home-offices are once more replaced by on-location workstations — the next challenge arises. As working cultures have changed significantly since the last moment employees set foot in their respective offices — the onus is on leadership to ensure the reboarding process goes smoothly.
“Companies that are able to do that successfully, will be the most effective in retaining employees”
The report sees an opportunity for business who are able to blend the positives of remote working with the benefits an office environment can have. Primarily with regard to connectivity and collaboration. “Companies that are able to do that successfully, will be the most effective in retaining employees”, the report concludes.
As a globally operating distribution company specialised in steel pipes, and pipe and tube applications, Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group‘s presence reaches far and wide. The company is active in 33 countries worldwide, employs roughly 2.400 people — and has an estimated revenue of around €1.4 billion. “There’s more than an off chance you see something in your neighbourhood that is constructed with our pipe and tube products”, says Caroline van Nieuwkerk, the company’s Executive Director HR, who has more than 25 years of experience transforming international businesses.
As a globally operating distribution company specialised in steel pipes, and pipe and tube applications, Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group‘s presence reaches far and wide.
Toward the end of 2019, the Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group acquired German company , with 1.600 employees in 59 different locations. While every integration of an acquisition has its own unique challenges, integrating in a time of a pandemic brought upon its own degree of difficulty. As for many companies, for Van Leeuwen the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way business was done.
‘No one-size-fits-all solution’
“There was no one-size-fits-all solution, because every country, naturally, is different”, says Caroline van Nieuwkerk, the company’s Executive Director HR, who has more than 25 years of experience transforming international businesses. “We had to curate a solution for every country. 40% of our employees, mainly in warehouse jobs, couldn’t work from home. It extended to something we still talk about today: ‘What type of company are we, and how does hybrid working fit into that model?’.”
Built on data
As the leadership of the Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group discussed priorities, goals and strategies — they prioritised one working solution in terms of its HR. For Van Leeuwen, that solution was called Workday. Workday’s Enterprise Management Cloud system is used by some of the most-established and fastest-growing companies in the world.
“As we’re building our HR foundation, we always start with data.”
“Especially after the integration of Benteler Distribution, we needed one methodology, one system we could work with for all 33 countries”, Van Nieuwkerk says. “With Workday we saw an opportunity to do that with one system, rather than each with their own separate forms. As we’re building our HR foundation, we always start with data. With that, Workday can help us immensely.”
A transnational HR approach
Van Nieuwkerk also saw a much more transnational HR approach in dealing with the pandemic within the company. “We had a relatively similar approach in all countries where we operate in terms of how we dealt and deal with health and safety protocols”, Van Nieuwkerk says. “But what stood out to me is the fact that we brought all HR departments closer together. We had regular Teams sessions with HR managers in all 33 countries.”
“We had regular Teams sessions with HR managers in all 33 countries.”
The HR managers shared ideas on the major issues for every company throughout the pandemic: holding the fort together. “It was all about: What can I learn from you?”, Van Nieuwkerk continues. “I discussed ideas with HR managers in Asia, in the United Kingdom. I was also inspired by what one of my colleagues in the Czech Republic had thought of in terms of a virtual, personal team building exercise with personal photos of every employee.”
‘It all starts with leadership’
As the Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group approaches the next stage — wherein restrictions are lifted and people can return to their everyday normal ways of working, Van Nieuwkerk says the company looks at its leaders to ‘make a difference’. “To me, our goal is to facilitate our leaders to become the best possible leaders they can be”, she says. “Only then will we be able to help our people and thus our customers in the best possible way.”
“Understanding what it is you need, allows you to do your job more successfully.”
Van Nieuwkerk sees four main aspects wherein leaders can flourish. “Firstly, we need digital skills in every layer of our company, from warehouse to management”, she says. “Then you need a certain set of cognitive skills. Have a good mindset in terms of being agile. Thirdly, you need to be aware of empathy and how to work together successfully. Lastly, you need to be self-aware individually. Understanding what it is you need, allows you to do your job more successfully.”
“The primary goal should always be to keep everyone on board and aligned on the business strategy. And that all starts with leadership.”
Moreover, the Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group looks at hybrid working as something to incorporate into the business model. “Although we all miss the coffee corner conversations, the hybrid way of working and communicating is undeniably effective. But if you don’t see any body language, you can’t always know what’s going on. The primary goal should always be to keep everyone on board, and aligned on the business strategy. And that all starts with leadership.”
You have never heard of the towns of Tornio and Haparanda. If anything, they sound like they come directly from another sequel to the Lord of the Rings. Located in Finland and Sweden respectively, the distance between the two towns is all of one bridge. And though Scandinavians sure like a story involving a bridge — this is one where one bridge tells a story of two vastly different job board cultures.
In Finland, they like job boards. In fact, they hold the largest number of job board usage in the entire continent — an honour they share with Lithuania. With a usage percentage of 51%, more than half of the Finnish job seeking population uses job boards. In neighbouring Sweden, it’s a completely different story. With a mere usage percentage of 19%, Sweden holds last place among average usage of job boards among job seekers.
Enormous differences throughout
And while we don’t have the exact info on the job board usage in the towns of Tornio and Haparanda, which combine for all of 27 thousand inhabitants, it’s remarkable that job seeking behaviour in two neighbouring countries could be so different. It’s something only visible due to the insights of job market data pioneers Intelligence Group, located in the Netherlands.
“Their impact will continue to differ enormously in every country, as well as the composition between job boards, aggregators, social media, Google and agencies.”
“This decade, job boards will still dominate the European job market”, says Geert-Jan Waasdorp, founder and CEO of Intelligence Group. “But their impact will continue to differ enormously in every country, as well as the composition between job boards, aggregators, social media, Google and agencies.” The data-based company is expected to publish new, post-corona data in Q4 of 2021.
A fragmented continent
A couple of European countries do, however, have one clear-cut number one job board. In Bulgaria, Jobs.bg holds a 52% share, Norway’s Finn takes up 49%, Denmark’s Jobindex has a 45% share — while in Croatia Moj-posao.net takes up 43% and in Spain, 42% the majority of job seeking population takes to Infojobs.com. But it’s mostly a tale of a fragmented continent. With market leading percentages below 25%, Portugal (22%), Belgium (22%), Switzerland (20%), Lithuania (19%), Germany (19%) and Italy (15%) all are much more fragmented markets.
‘No European market leader’
Moreover, another remarkable fact to come out of Intelligence Group’s research is that only two European countries share a job board leader. According to its 2019 statistics, Indeed.comleads in both the United Kingdom (32%) and the Netherlands (29%). But other than Indeed, no two countries share the same job board leader.
There is no European market leader, or one leading universal job board.
But simply put: there is no European market leader, or one leading universal job board. “It seems there isn’t one in the making either”, says Waasdorp. “That’s mainly due to the legal and language differences, but that won’t be solved in the next couple of years. Not even by AI. Maybe we’ll see a shift occur in the next decade, but even that remains to be seen.”
This article was written on the basis of a large-scale study conducted by Intelligence Group among 28 European countries and the US, with more than 40.000 respondents. In Q4 of 2021, the company is set to release its latest data on the European job market. Sign up to the ToTalent newsletter to receive the very latest news on all things talent acquisition.
Recently, Hung Lee, best known for his role as curator of the infamous Recruiting Brainfood, started a conversation on how to hire more women engineers. He spoke to hundreds of people: tech recruiters, women engineers, CTO’s and founders, who all shared their thoughts and experiences on the subject. Lee published his findings, based on their insights, as a thread on Twitter. Below, the 20 steps companies can take to hire more women into engineering.
1. De-bias company culture
Change, as always, starts top-down. As per Crunchbase research: women founded only 3% of all start-ups. So when founding teams are predominantly male, there’s a good chance a company culture (inadvertently) becomes optimised to hire more teammates of the same gender — men. Therefore organisations should think about rituals, language, values — and audit all of it to ensure every job candidate can feel like they belong within said organisation.
2. Improve demand planning
Time-to-Hire has received its fair share of criticism over the past few years — with some even arguing that it says nothing about if you are hiring the right talent. Moreover: for inclusivity goals, the TTH has proven to be a killer. Generally, inclusive hiring needs more time. “Better workforce planning gives you longer runway to build and hire from a more diverse candidate pool”, Lee adds on Twitter. His advice? Use the expertise of Foresight.
3. De-bias language in job ads
Words matter — that in itself is nothing new. Yet job postings still often get it all wrong. Women face exclusion in 9,6% of the vacancies and men in 1,2%, due to the wrongfully gendered-coded texts, according to Intelligence Group research.
With tools like Textio or Textmetrics, you avoid the risk of losing huge amounts of viable talent.
Using gendered language in job ads can be a big deterrent to viable job applicants. Being able to identify and amend language, with tools like Textio or Textmetrics, you avoid the risk of losing huge amounts of viable talent. But the buck doesn’t stop there. “Extend it to outreach messaging, company marketing copy, and the rest”, Lee adds.
4. Stop laundry-listing tech items in job ads
Women don’t apply to jobs if they don’t feel they’re 100% qualified, according to multiple reports. Men are much more likely to apply for jobs even if they don’t feel like they’re certain they’re the right fit. That’s why job ad lists shouldn’t list a vast amount of superfluous skills. In short: keep it short, and keep it to the essential skills, rather than aiming to hire the complete candidate.
5. Rethink tenure
Another element that skews applicant pools toward a male-driven hiring focus is the required number of job experience. Though the gender gap is slowly changing, asking 10 years of tech-related experience will ensure one thing: you’ll hire a man. “Think skills rather than time served as the proxy for capability”, Lee adds.
6. Actively support women in tech communities
A simple counter-argument is often made: women don’t want jobs in engineering. Besides the fact that stereotypes never help anyone — there are plenty of online groups who actively promote women into engineering. Ada’s List, Girls Who Code, Million STEM — to name a few. Start supporting them, sponsor events, offer coaching — do your part.
7. Elevate women teammates
We touched on the lack of female CEO’s earlier. It’s something former British Prime Minister Theresa May weighed in on the issue in the Women Count 2020 report. “Every single male CEO who looks around his boardroom table to see nine out of 10 male faces staring back at him needs to ask himself what he is doing to make his business one which his daughter or granddaughter can get on in”, she wrote.
8. Negotiate supply-to-hire ratio with hiring managers
Hiring managers are the ones with the final decision — putting a number on it might help everyone moving forward. Agreeing to a supply-to-hire ratio is something cited by Thomas Waldman, one of many questioned by Lee, as something that leads to more buy-in and acceptance on the managerial side. “It puts ownership squarely with TA”, he added. “Because the more women I put into the funnel, the more hires that come out.”
9. Institute female-focused employment benefits
Upwards of 75% of all caregivers are female. So if women continue to shoulder primary responsibility for caregiving, benefits should be optimised accordingly. Start removing career penalties for anyone without a default working pattern.
10. Shift to remote first
While some countries struggle with their ratio, certain eastern European countries have gotten it to an even-split. Namely: Lithuania (57%), Bulgaria and Latvia (52%). With some countries having a significantly higher ratio in STEM, one option might be accessing broader talent pools by shifting to (more) remote work.
11. Actively source those women engineers
Some are simpler than others on this list — but this may be a relatively easy one: start sourcing. Lee names Irina Shamaeva’s Boolean Search to help with identifying women engineering. Shamaeva is a recognised leader in Sourcing, Social Recruiting, and Internet Research. Lately, her content has been gaining popularity in OSINT circles. “Use women-only networking groups, job matching platforms and coder camps as source sites for candidates”, Lee adds.
12. Diversify assessment methods
Allowing multiple assessment methods is another option to diversify. While universal assessments may seem to work, there is always a chance they produce a gender bias in some way. By offering a choice in the assessment type — a take-home test, a live code-review, a tech-interview, etc. — you’re giving candidates the best available opportunity to succeed.
13. Consider blind hiring
Blind hiring has its fair share of pros and cons. One study conducted by the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government found that when a male name was added to a candidate’s application, the candidate was found to be 3.2% less likely to receive a job offer. When adding a female name to an application, however, the candidate was 2.9% more likely to receive an offer — so blind hiring might not be the answer. But in an attempt to combat our unconscious biases, it might be an answer.
Blind hiring might not be the answer, but it might be an answer.
14. Transparency salary calculation
With women much less likely to negotiate salary — and more likely to be penalised for doing so, the onus is on organisations to create some type of salary transparency. By publicly stating how you calculate compensation, candidates can stop guessing and organisations can avoid deterring otherwise viable candidates.
15. De-bias the interview
Then there’s the job interview, the moment where inclusion typically doesn’t triumph. Whether based on unconscious bias or a lack of structure — avoid the common denominators for less diversity. “Mitigate human bias by going with paired interviews at every stage, each with independently recorded scorecard”, Lee writes. “It increases overhead, but guess what? If you really care about DEIB, it’s an investment, not a cost.”
16. Build strong retention strategy
For years, companies that have done a decent job at diversity hiring — have failed to formulate a retention policy for its new hires. Through improved communication and true career flexibility, organisations can move from ‘process orientation’ to ‘people orientation’, as Lee puts it. By engaging more directly and deeply with employees, HR can regain a human touch by moving away from self-service solutions, as per McKinsey.
17. Be the market-leader for maternity leave
Estonia offers up to 85 days of paid paternity leave for mothers — something American mothers cannot relate to. The number of paid leave days varies enormously, but most have one thing in common: they’re nowhere near enough. Rather than waiting for governments to mandate and then going for the bare minimum — this is an area where employers can step up, and do so quickly.
18. There’s not one career ladder
When career ladders are typically optimised for one worker — usually a male with a partner at home that takes care of the household and family — then that’s another issue that must be addressed by organisations. Make sure that potential pathways are diverse and ensure that you don’t block all the other routes to Rome, when they might work perfectly others.
19. Differentiate employee referral programs
While rated highly by employers as sources for the best return on investment, employee referral programs can lead to more bias, as people refer people who are most like them. For underrepresented groups, this can actually work in their favour — Lee says. “Tap network value of women teammates by rolling out Employee Referral Programs to them before the general population.”
20. Shift your mindset from ‘Acquisition’ to ‘Development’
When hires need to perform immediately, then you’re automatically excluding those who may require a bit of training. It all boils down to a mindset shift, Lee says. “For entrenched challenges, like more women in engineering, we need a mindset shift from acquiring to developing talent. Try the recruit + train approach, rather than hires who need to be ‘ready-to-go’.”
This article is based on a Twitter thread by Hung Lee. Follow him on Twitter, and sign up for the once-a-week Recruiting Brainfood mailing.
From black leaders who aren’t given a fair shot to the blind and vision-impaired. From refugees to single mothers. From former prisoners to the neurodivergent. Jobs for Humanity is an international movement like no other. In an attempt to connect historically underrepresented talent to employers — it is creating unique job boards for those target groups specifically.
Founded in Lebanon
Roy Baladi
It all starts with Roy Baladi. Powered by the expertise and platform-building abilities of SmartRecruiters, Baladi was at the helm for the creation of a website called Jobs for Lebanon, which was designed specifically for helping job seekers in Lebanon after a financial crisis struck the country in 2019. Within weeks, the site was listed as the #1 option on Google for every search result including ‘jobs’ and ‘Lebanon’.
Baladi was at the helm for the creation of a website called Jobs For Lebanon, which was designed specifically for helping job seekers in Lebanon after a financial crisis struck the country in 2019.
When Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, was rocked by a devastating explosion in August — Baladi quickly pivoted. He used Jobs for Lebanon as a fundraiser website, amassing roughly 400 thousand dollars for supplies. But Baladi wasn’t satisfied in just helping those from his native country. In March of 2020, he launched yet another initiative: Jobs for Humanity, with which he seeks to help underserved job seekers everywhere.
Among those who were neurodiverse? Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, Alan Turing and Bill Gates — just to name a few. But unemployment among the neurodiverse population runs as high as 80%, as per the HBR. “On average, almost 1 billion people are neurodivergent”, Baladi commented. “It is a term that refers to a variation in brain composition that affects things like learning, sociability and mood.”
Unemployment among the neurodiverse population runs as high as 80%, as per the HBR.
And as of June 2021, Jobs for the Neurodivergent is the third unique job board launched by the Jobs for Humanity movement. It joins Jobs for Refugees, which was launched in March — as well as Jobs for the Blind, which was launched in April. “To aid them, we’ve partnered with Vanderbilt University’s Frist Center for Autism and Innovation and Spectrum’s Accessibility Center of Excellence to train employers on how to create safe spaces for neurodivergent talent”, Baladi said.
A comprehensive program
For employers, it has never been easier to connect with qualified candidates from any of the six underrepresented communities Jobs for Humanity helps. The organisation doesn’t stop at just creating a match — it coaches recruiters and organisations throughout the interview and hiring process — to create an enjoyable workspace for all.
The organisation doesn’t stop at just creating a match — it coaches recruiters and organisations throughout the interview and hiring process.
“Our training is offered online and with expert coaches covering the knowledge gap between talent and employers”, Baladi says. “It covers: Top blind spots and challenges, how to interview to look for skills and potential, reasonable accommodations and assistive technologies, how to keep supporting if you do not hire the candidate and how to onboard and support long term if you do hire. We have a comprehensive program to support your DE&I efforts.”
Want to know more?
Organisations can go to the official Jobs for Humanity website to post single jobs or navigate to each individual job site and post a job there. For larger employers — ithas an ATS support system, to ensure all jobs can be imported at once and the employer can keep working within its ATS. “Contact us at contact@jobsforhumanity.com and we’ll automatically import your job, identify top candidates, and support you and them throughout the hiring process”, Baladi says.
To measure the real impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future of work is a tough task. Particularly when in some countries, cases are still on the rise. Most European countries have seemingly picked up its vaccine rollout, resulting in less restrictions on a day-by-day basis. While the long-term impact is immeasurable for a reason, the shorter-term impact seems clear: people are less willing to move abroad for work.
Every couple of years, The Boston Consulting Group(BCG) and The Networkset out to complete one of the largest surveys that likely exist. In total, 209,000 people in 190 countries were asked to offer their two cents on whether and under what circumstances they would move to a foreign country for work. The study was previously conducted in 2014 and 2018.
Move over US, here is the Canadian Dream
Previously, the predominant answer under all those people was a fairly straightforward one: America. “If, 30 years ago, you had asked somebody from Brazil or the UK which foreign country they would most like to move to for work, there’s a good chance that each person would have offered the same answer”, the report states. “America, America, America.”
For the first time ever in its rankings, the United States dropped from the consensus number one spot. “Hurt by an inconsistent pandemic response, the adoption of more nationalistic policies, and social unrest, the US has fallen to second in the rankings. Behind Canada and basically in a tie with Australia”, the report states.
“Canada was the clear-cut number one for people with master’s or PhD degrees, those with digital training or expertise, and those younger than 30.”
Canada had previously been tanked third in consecutive reports, but has now taken over as the number one preferred work destination for foreign workers. With an emphasis on diversity and inclusion in all walks of life, Canada has seemingly excelled in creating a safe environment that people want to work, and thrive in. “It was the clear-cut number one for people with master’s or PhD degrees, those with digital training or expertise, and those younger than 30”, the report adds.
Europe suffering; Asia-Pacific thriving
Similar to one of the primary reasons why the United States dropped in the rankings, several European countries that didn’t quite have their COVID outbreak management in order, have subsequently lost appeal among foreign workers. Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands and Belgium have all dropped in the rankings — while several countries in the Asia-Pacific region, who overall did a better job at COVID management, rose rapidly.
Singapore: an increasingly popular destination for foreign workers
Several European countries that didn’t quite have their COVID outbreak management in order, have subsequently lost appeal among foreign workers.
The three countries that saw the highest growth compared to 2018 were all countries based in the Asia-Pacific region. Malaysia and Singapore, while not in the top 10, moved up 14 and 12 points respectively. Meanwhile, Japan, the highest ranked Asian country, reached the sixth spot, up from 10th in 2018. New Zealand, widely regarded as a model of effective coronavirus management, also entered the top 10 for the first time.
The remote world
As far as international remote employment, the global average of people willing to work remotely lies around 6% higher than the people willing to move abroad. Remote work in another countries appealed particularly South American and African respondents. Moreover, when the discussion is about just the work, the United States is once more the consensus number one preferred location.
“It makes sense that a person evaluating an offer to work fully remotely for a foreign company would focus solely on the job offer, compensation, job content, and how well established the employer is.”
“It suggests that American employment retains a lot of appeal if you take away the political and social risks that come with living in the country”, the report says. “In general, it makes sense that a person evaluating an offer to work fully remotely for a foreign company would focus solely on the job offer, compensation, job content, and how well established the employer is.”
Name some of the most successful games you can think of — and they’ll all have large studios and wealthy backers behind them. So much isn’t true for Sourcing.Games. What once started as a small, fun idea turned into one of the most complete, in-depth learning methods used by hundreds of thousands of recruiters and sourcers all over the world. All made by one man: best-selling author, veteran recruiter and gamification specialist Jan Tegze.
So many recruiters attend training to get a certain type of certification, but they only learn a few things.”
“I was looking for some way to test the knowledge of recruiters and sourcers after sourcing training”, Tegze says. “So many recruiters attend training to get a certain type of certification, but they only learn a few things. That is one of the primary reasons why I created Sourcing.Games: to test their knowledge and see if they learn something.”
Everyone is curious, but the object and degree of that curiosity is different depending on the person. That’s the reason why the levels are designed in the way they’re designed.
As far as the levels go, Tegze has adopted a sourcing-like mindset: everything can be solved differently. “In recruitment, you also have several ways how you can solve a problem you encounter and find your answers you’re looking for. Sometimes it turns out to be a short way, but others are longer. But in the end, it will lead you to the same result. Curiosity is a fundamental human trait. Everyone is curious, but the object and degree of that curiosity is different depending on the person. That’s the reason why the levels are designed in the way they’re designed.
‘Sharing is caring’
Jan Tegze
Whether you judge Tegze based on his experiences within the world of recruiting, or his best-selling book Full Stack Recruiter — the outcome will be similar: you’ll come away impressed. But while Tegze leads a busy life, he donated many hours of his time and money creating Sourcing.Games, and all of its 35 handcrafted, unique game levels.
“I never envisioned that this site would be that successful, but I am glad that so many people are returning and playing those games.”
“I am a fan of ‘sharing is caring’, and during my career I learned a lot from others. So this is my way to give back to the recruitment community”, he says. “I never envisioned that this site would be that successful”, Tegze continues, “but I am glad that so many people are returning and playing those games. And I am glad that not only recruiters or sourcers are using it, but many OSINT specialists and police specialists across the world are using it too.”
‘This game changed my entire career’
As far as Sourcing.Games’ impact goes, you won’t have to look far for glowing recommendations. When Tegze announced that the game had surpassed 200,000 users worldwide, the thankful comments came from far and wide — with many citing the challenge it offered. Freelance tech recruiter Teddy Dimitrova even made a comment stating: ‘This game has changed my entire career’.
“My life philosophy is to help others and creating those games and sharing them with people is rewarding. And it is great to see that these games inspired some of them to pursued work in sourcing and recruitment.”
For Tegze, it wasn’t about that to begin with. “I just love to help others to expand their knowledge”, he says. “My first intention wasn’t to change anyone’s career or have an impact on their lives, but I am grateful for all the positive feedback and all the messages I have received so far. My life philosophy is to help others and creating those games and sharing them with people is rewarding. And it is great to see that these games inspired some of them to pursued work in sourcing and recruitment.”
“I don’t think that there’s a gaming company that will hire me to create their own line of sourcing games. But who knows, haha.”
While more players join in, Tegze is still spending much of his free time creating more games. “EA Sports hasn’t come calling just yet”, Tegze jokes. “It’s hard for me to add new games like every two weeks, as creating them is very time-consuming. But I’m still trying to find time to create more game and add games that others created for their events. I don’t think that there’s a gaming company that will hire me to create their own line of sourcing games. But who knows, haha.”
Dutel has been in the remote business since 2014 — when he founded remote hiring platform Remotive. And while Dutel has ‘preached the same gospel’ for nearly seven years, 2020 marked a staggering shift in the sheer amount of people tuning into his concert. “2020 changed everything”, he says. “Our job has been to help companies transition to remote work and hire remotely. With hiring freezes, 2020 had been a complete stop when it came to recruiting — but now it’s been back to hiring on cylinders.”
“With hiring freezes, 2020 had been a complete stop when it came to recruiting — but now it’s been back to hiring on cylinders.”
While his companyis registered in France — the company does roughly 80% of their revenue outside of Europe, according to Dutel. Working for both organisations and job seekers, Remotive is a world-class, one-stop-shop for all remote work. “We have a world class, Google-like search-engine”, Dutel says. “So job-seekers can browse the thousands of available, remote jobs and be notified of them immediately.” On the organisational side, Remotive offers the unique ability to post remote jobs on their job board to its unique, enormous pool of remote job seekers.
Going ‘remote first’
Though the idea of remote work had been a long-lasting discussion among C-level executives — even those who were initially against it, will seemingly have no option but to adapt. “I may be deeply biased”, Dutel laughs, “but I do believe that people are now going to favour working remotely. Before COVID, people believed every major successful tech story originated and grew out of an office — well, no longer.”
“Before COVID, people believed every major successful tech story originated and grew out of an office — well, no longer.”
Coinbase, Shopify and Twitter have all recently announced the intention to go ‘remote-first’. And according to Dutel — they will not be the exception to the rule. “Many companies will stay in this remote state, where you do not have to come to the office, only for infrequent meetings and socialising. The bulk of them will be hybrid. What you’ll see is a small HQ, that is dedicated to a co-working space where people will meet every now and then — and the rest will work remotely.”
‘It’s about trust and flexibility’
“The future of work is all about flexibility”, Dutel says. “And that flexibility is enabled by remote work and an a-synchronous work culture, which in turn is enabled by a higher degree of trust. Wherein managers trust their people and vice versa. Most people got back 2 hours in their day, which they got to spend on their family, their dogs. They will no longer be willing to commute across town for hours on end just to please a company, the boss, or someone’s ego.”
… and a great job description
Meanwhile, organisations are still doing what they’ve always done: vying for the best available top talent. For talent leaders or recruitment managers struggling in that aspect — Dutel has one tip. “If you want to project yourself working with an individual for a certain amount of time, you want to give them a taste of what it feels like to work within your organisation. If you pride yourself on having a great working environment, you should invest the time and effort to have a great job description.”
“If they don’t know so much about you, and you only fire off a list of skills they need, it’ll be very hard to attain top talent.”
“It’s all about being thorough on what you have to offer, and being very explicit about your remote possibilities and what that person stands to gain. What’s in it for them? The more detailed the job description, the higher the calibre of the candidate. Passive job seekers need to be fully secure in their knowledge about what it is you have to offer. If they don’t know so much about you, and you only fire off a list of skills they need, it’ll be very hard to attain top talent.”
You don’t need a New York Times or WSJ subscription to find out about ongoing issues surrounding talent shortages in the United States. But the country’s problems didn’t quite start mid-pandemic, but rather before it. In February 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t had any real impact on everyday lives in much of the US and Europe, Manpower Group published a new report entailing the problems companies had to find skilled workers.
The 69% shortage
The world leader in innovative workforce solutions managed to put a number on it: a staggering 69% of U.S. employees were struggling to find skilled workers. The highest skills shortage in over a decade. It painted a picture where the talent shortage, with ups and downs, shot up 45% in 2019compared to 2010.
Talent shortages in the U.S. have more than tripled in a decade with 69% of employers struggling to fill positions up from just 14% in 2010, according to a new ManpowerGroup survey.
But in 2019, and indeed much of 2020, the total number applications and openings were somewhat joined at the hip, according to recruiting platform iCIMS — whose services are predominantly used by large companies. But that completely changed towards the business end of 2020, when the country opened up, and thus job openings shot up — but applications remained at a similar level.
The age of the passive candidate
In his newest blog entry, renowned recruiting expert Dr.John Sullivan delves into fourteen pandemic-related factors that are responsible for the lacklustre amount of job applications in the US. When delving into these issues, it’s clear that most of them aren’t solely limited to across the pond. Whether it’s a struggling retail industry, older workers that have other priorities than a job, or upcoming, younger workers that are stressed out, confused — and are therefore delaying their job applications.
Geert-Jan Waasdorp, CEO of European Labour Market data pioneers Intelligence Group, sees a similar scenario playing out on the European mainland. “I think just like what is happening in The US, work habits and good employment are under pressure in Europe”, he says. “Part of it is the additional money that’s simply been printed and handed out— which, in turn, has reduced the urgency for people to seek employment.”
“Whenever the lockdowns eventually surmise in Europe — we’ll face similar issues as currently happening in the US.”
The moral hazard of this is that workers will think they’ll be helped regardless of what type of labour market participation they opt for, Waasdorp says. “Whatever happens, the government will pay the bills”, he adds. “Whenever the lockdowns eventually surmise in Europe — we’ll face similar issues as currently happening in the US. Factory, retail, hospitality jobs won’t be filled, and people will be less keen on 9-to-5-jobs than ever before.”
Whose fault is it anyway?
The talent shortage conundrum in itself is nothing new to Europe — but the COVID-19 pandemic has shed a new light on why it’s an issue. In a 2015 report, Cedefop, one of the EU’s decentralised agencies, identified skill mismatches as the primary reason for why European enterprises struggled to find and attract the right talent. They saw the organisational solution as threefold.
Foster a learning climate in the workforce: ensure everyone feels supported by a large number of learning opportunities.
Support work complexity: allow for workers to use a variety of skills in their daily work routines; don’t let them stick with one thing.
Enable a better work-life balance: with an emphasis on more learning, give workers ample time to recover and focus on their personal lives.
While the report is 6 years old, it still paints a stark reality: if companies don’t do enough to fix skill mismatches — and do so in a way that is primarily beneficial for employees, they may struggle for many more years to come. “In the long term, employees may struggle to adapt to changing circumstances and suffer from greater skills obsolescence”, Cedefop concluded.
‘We’re all living one life’
Offering a flexible, balanced learning environment seems a no-brainer for businesses, but Dr. Sullivan sees several strategy steps TA and recruiting teams can take to attract applicants. We won’t copy the full list, as Dr. Sullivan’s does a better job of explaining each detail. At the forefront of it all, however, is understanding why an applicant thinks the way he or she does — and what is subsequently behind their decision-making process.
“The power base has shifted from employer to employee in many cases, so we have to understand what employees, human beings behind our organisations, want.”
The 2020 Manpower Group research saw a whopping five new entries in its top 10 of jobs that were hardest to fill. Among them: IT, engineering, accounting and finance, construction and consumer support professionals. “The power base has shifted from employer to employee in many cases, so we have to understand what employees, human beings behind our organisations, want”, says Becky Frankiewicz, President of Manpower Group North America, in a video.
Where work once stopped whenever you walked out the company’s offices, that clearly is no longer the case, adds Frankiewicz. “Now, we are all living one life”, she says. “Due to technology, we’re all hyperconnected. I can be at work during my child’s baseball game. So the concept of one life requires more flexibility from organisations.”
Adapt or die
“I think recruiters are still operating on the same, old, foundation”, Waasdorp says. “It’s all about pushing for candidates, needing more recruiters in order to do so — and constantly being challenged on the terms of employment. Offering a signing bonus, or even going as far as offering money to take an interview might work in the short-term, but in the long run it’ll only do harm to your organisation.”
“The people are there, but they’re just not willing to go for the old labour conditions.”
Waasdorp names the Dutch Regional Public Health Services (GGD) as the prime example of how Europe is currently suffering — and in an area where you’d least expect it. As part of the vaccine roll-outs, they are in dire need of thousands of workers who can help with the vaccination. But people have to do so for a minimum of 24 hours, which they are unwilling to do. “Why not go for an 8-hour working day, or 12? The people are there, but they’re just not willing to go for the old labour conditions.”
Some sources indicate that one Leonardo da Vinci may have been the first one to accumulate a resume in the year of 1482. At the time, da Vinci sought a position in the city of Milan as a designer of bridges, a boat builder — or anything else the city needed. He sent a thorough explanation of his skills to Ludovico Sforza, the Regent of Milan at the time. And thus, the resume was born.
Suffice to say, da Vinci didn’t just make a quick summary of his extensive Photoshop and Indesign skills and expected his target audience to be wowed. Da Vinci’s words were bold, well-articulated, incredibly personalised — and written from a perspective where he delved into what he could do for the city of Milan.
Not much has changed since da Vinci
A mere 539 years later, the idea behind a CV is still serving recruiters and TA teams as the primary point of an application process. You could make an argument that while da Vinci’s CV was the first, it hasn’t changed at all for that amount of time. But a revolutionary of his time, Alexis Ohanian, may be on his way to change what has been set in stone for all those years.
Dubbed the Mayor of the Internet by Forbes Magazinein 2012, Ohanian is best known for being the co-founder and executive chairman of Reddit. With more than 430 million monthly active users and over 100,000 active communities, it is ranked among the most popular social networks in the world.
What are the alternatives?
Recently, Ohanian took to his Twitter page to ask a simple resume-related question to his 400k followers. The answer came in abundance and make for an interesting read. Some simply promoted their own company, some defended resumes, while some argued for online, interactive story maps. Some also advocated for genomes, which can be created on torre.com, an in-depth one-page accumulation of skills, reputations and personality traits.
An example of a torre.com ‘genome’.
“CV’s are static, not living-documents. They are text-heavy, stiff and no use of rich media and visual. They are dead on arrival.”
Above all, most of the suggestions below Ohanian’s controversy-laden Twitter post revolved around skills and some type of digital media. Artist Drue Katoaka shared the story of how she was recently asked to share a CV, describing the experience as ‘archaic’. “CV’s are static, not living-documents. They are text-heavy, stiff and no use of rich media and visual. They are dead on arrival”, she said.
‘Linkedin, but not shitty’
The clearest takeaway, however, may be that while some of the hundreds of responses shared some resemblance, the simple fact is that there is no clear-cut alternative. And one could speculate that Ohanian may be onto something, based on the tweet that came in response to yet another entry for his suggestion box: ‘LinkedIn, but not shitty’. ‘It’s coming’, Ohanian not-so-cryptically replied.
ALinkedIn that isn’t CV-driven could pose a huge threat to everything that is currently established in the world of recruiting.
The notion of a LinkedIn that isn’t CV-driven could pose a huge threat to everything that is currently established in the world of recruiting. And with Ohanian’s Silicon Valley power, it might just take over before we’ve all realised it. In case that happens: you got it here first, folks.
To state that HR tech is on the rise would be quite the understatement. In the United States, both California-headquartered upskilling platform Degreed as well as Philadelphia-headquartered Phenom have secured investments that will take them to valuations that surpass the $1bn mark. Despite the ongoing impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the world economy, global investors seemingly doubled downon HR technology, investing a total of $1.28bn (€1.06bn) into the global HR tech market.
‘Help a billion people find the right job’
Phenom was originally founded 11 years ago in 2010 — with a bold, thoughtful aim to help ‘a billion people find the right job’, as described by the company’s CEO, Mahe Bayireddi. The company prides itself on its AI-powered talent experience management platform that was adopted by 25,000 recruitersand hiring managers in 2020. That widespread adoption of Phenom’s tech led to a total of two million hires in the same year, the company says.
Flexible and complete
The AI-based SaaS platform itself is based on the four main talent experiences: candidate experience, employee experience, recruiter experience and management experience. It is, essentially, a one-stop-shop for all interaction points within a talent acquisition and management process. With offices in the US, Israel, India, Netherlands and the U.K., they aim to bring the right jobs to the right people in quite literally every part of the world.
In all, the platform counts roughly 25 billion interactions on a yearly basis, with more than a billion candidate profiles, 400 million jobs spread across 180 countries.
Moreover, it prides itself on flexibility; a wide array of talent-related elements that can be integrated into other HR tech platforms such as Cornerstone, Workday, LinkedIn and Glassdoor.Among them: a talent CRM, chatbots and (talent) analytics. In all, the platform counts roughly 25 billion interactions on a yearly basis, with more than a billion candidate profiles, 400 million jobs spread across 180 countries, Bayireddi added.
Jailbreaking the degree
With eight out of ten CEO’s on average actively worried about skill gaps — and the whole of Europe essentially on the verge of a real skill gap problem, Degreed’s growth shouldn’t come as a surprise. The upskilling platform was founded in 2012, with the premise of organising a widespread great escape from the common denominator in careers: the college degree.
A bigger global expansion
Rather than sticking to being degree-heavy, as often is still the case in many recruitment practices, Degreed saw an opportunity to take advantage of the ever-changing world, and therefore, the ever-changing demand in terms of skills. In 2015, the company shifted from B2C to a predominantly B2B strategy,Sarah Danzl, Head of Global Communications and Client Advocacy at Degreed wrote.
Degreed is now being used by a whopping one-third of Fortune 500 companies.
And while that shift may have occurred — it was done with what Danzl describes as a ‘laser focus’ on those who the company so desperately wanted to help: the workers. And so they did — as the company says it is now being used by a whopping one-third of Fortune 500 companies. Now, with a growing headcount and offices in United States, the U.K., the Netherlands and Australia, Degreed looks set for a bigger global expansion.
