What should the talent leaders of the future look like?

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As priorities shift, a simultaneous shift occurs for what we look for in talent leaders of the future. Whether it’s the common shout for a more transparent, diverse hiring strategy or simply the integration of the right data and metrics: the onus is on recruiting managers and talent leaders to not succumb to everything asked of them. But in order to understand that latter part — we must first delve into just that: what should talent leaders of the future act like, look like? What type of traits and qualities are a must? 

1. Be aware of your biases

Unconscious biases, and all of its subsequent challenges, pose a huge threat to talent leaders, their teams — and the organisations they work for. Also often described as implicit bias, it can be described as a sort of prejudice or unsupported judgments in favour or against a thing, a person or group — drawing an immediate comparison to another thing, person or group. In other words: it is usually a process based on completely unfair, yet subtle discriminations.

“Talent leaders need to be fully aware of their own biases and know how to mitigate them.”

“Talent leaders need to be fully aware of their own biases and know how to mitigate them”, says Roy Baladi, founder of Jobs for Humanity. “Even better, they need to be aware of how to design hiring processes and safe spaces that can transfer a certain type of culture throughout the organisation. The idea of a culture where people from all walks of life feel safe, experience a sense of comfort — and thus are able to perform in their jobs.”

Danny Stacy, recruitment evangelist at Indeed sees a role for future leaders to ensure that Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging (DEIB) are deeply rooted within all levels of decision-making. “The reason is quite singular”, he says. “It’s not only because it has proven to provide commercial results, nor is it because it leads to better talent applying and staying — it should be a primary task because it is simply the right thing to do.”

2. Know the leader you want to be

And while self-awareness kicks in when it comes many aspects of recruiting — Bas van de Haterd, a European TA consultant, sees it as the most important quality of any leader. “My father used to say: he knows his own limitations, has one less”, Van de Haterd says. “Know the type of leader you want to be. Do you want to be an inspiring figure? Or do you want to be the servant leader?”

“A leader should realise that he or she is a generalist. That means that your team should be smarter than you in some specific areas.”

Part of that is what Van de Haterd describes as a sense of generalism; not thinking or trying to know everything. “It’s impossible to know all about everything”, he says. “A leader should realise that he or she is a generalist. That means that your team should be smarter than you in some specific areas. It is your job to make sure that they work together and, well, play nice.”

3. Never stop learning

While many may agree that a successful, inclusive culture is the bedrock for company success — seldom have talent leaders been trained to do just that: build a culture. “It’s just not part of a standard recruitment education”, says Roy Baladi. For a lack of better phrasing: those who have worked their way up in the world of talent acquisition and recruiting, have never really been trained on how to lead — or question their own conceptions.

“Most skills that make a person successful in a job are not in the resume.”

At the risk of sounding like an enormous cliche: part of the learning process is knowing how to evaluate talent. Or better yet: how to identify skill and potential in people. That’s where Baladi sees an opportunity for talent leaders to evaluate beyond the resume. “Think of perseverance, compassion, patience and team spirit”, he says. “Most skills that make a person successful in a job are not in the resume.”

4. Find the right balance between tech and people

While a metric-driven approach can optimise any hiring strategy — a balance is the way to go, says Mathias Heese, CEO of software provider Softgarden. “On the one hand, technology should help you automate your tasks, reduce your workload, and spend less time doing administrative work”, he says. “Ultimately, your ATS should help you get the work done. On the other hand, as a talent leader, you should focus on the people. People are the heart of any business; it is important to remember this every day. “

“As a talent leader, you should focus on the people. People are the heart of any business.”

Geert-Jan Waasdorp, CEO of labour market data providers Intelligence Group, goes one step further. “Being a data-driven talent leader is not about the data”, he says. “It’ll always be about people. It’s about asking the right questions and setting the right ambitions. Don’t measure stuff for the sake of measuring. You always need to find a balance between the tech you use, the data you use, and the people that are at the heart of your business.”

“This isn’t about me driving a TA strategy, this is about how we all work together to hire top talent, every single person has a role to play.”

“People can tell when a company is not being genuine”, Ginger Maseda, Head of Global TA at Bullhorn, says. “And this can backfire quickly on you with attrition issues and this can turn into a troubled reputation. I’m also a believer in the power of people, I like to empower, activate and enable the entire workforce – this isn’t about me driving a TA strategy, this is about how we all work together to hire top talent, every single person has a role to play.”

5. Showcase empathy, trust and authenticity

“We must care about our workforce as leaders, in a personal way”, Julie Sowash, executive director for Disability Solutions, says. “Only then will employees transform into something more than a cog in the machine. They have to trust the people we bring into organisations to execute on the mission. We may not always achieve those aims in the same way, but trust we are all aligned on a common vision and mission.”

“The best leaders can meet their teams where they are and coach them to tackle the next step in their professional and personal growth.”

To get all heads turned the same way — Sowash says talent leaders of the future should be able to engage teams where they are in terms of development and growth. “People learn and grow in every different ways”, she says. “So as leaders we should provide the environment and tools for success in not just a single format, but multiple formats. The best leaders can meet their teams where they are and coach them to tackle the next step in their professional and personal growth.”

“Leaders need to be inclusive – trained, open and curious to work with and mentor people from various backgrounds.”

That sentiment is echoed by DEI consultant Vessy Tasheva of Vessy.com. “Talent leaders of the future must know how to be playful at times or introduce play to processes”, she says. “Move away from silos and towards autonomy, put the infrastructure in place that allows you to hire people anywhere in the world. In that scenario, leaders need to be inclusive – trained, open and curious to work with and mentor people from various backgrounds.”

“Authenticity should always be the driving factor for any company culture.”

“It’s not just for the employees, but also for the company itself”, Maseda adds. “The more honest and straightforward about who you are, what are your values, what is it actually like to work here, and where you are going – the better outcome you will have in the recruiting process. Authenticity should always be the driving factor for any company culture.”

Europe’s RPO market: still largely dominated by British and American-made companies

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To get a sense of the European RPO market, data pioneers Intelligence Group decided to look at the presence of sixteen of the biggest names in RPO within the European Union. Apart from Adecco’s Pontoon and Randstad Sourceright, remarkably the RPO market consists of companies that of either American or British origin. This is a testament to the fact that the global RPO market is still dominated by players from markets where RPO first came to fruition.

Millions, not tens of millions in revenue

In total, Intelligence Group found 104 corporate entities in the various business registries of European countries that have some sort of link to an RPO-based operations. “That amount sounds like a lot, but it doesn’t tell us much about how they are actually doing”, the company said in an article accompanying the findings. “To get a sense of revenue size, we looked at annual accounts. It is, however, spotty — with just over a quarter of companies in business registries reporting income statements.”

“In total, fifteen companies had an annual revenue of less than 10 million — of which six with less than 1 million.”

The data that was available, however, showed that the revenue of the RPO market is perhaps less than anticipated. “We’re talking about millions, not tens, or let alone hundreds of millions”, Intelligence Group added. “We found three companies with more than 50 million euro’s of revenue in 2019 — and a total of ten companies with revenue between 10 and 50 million euro’s. In total, fifteen companies had an annual revenue of less than 10 million — of which six with less than 1 million.”

Half a billion in revenue

On the turnover side, Intelligence Group found that those 104 entities combined for a turnover total just shy of half a billion euro’s. But that numbers comes with a warning. “This is what we found looking for RPO activities in the European Union’s business registries”, the stated. “So while there is clearly a market for RPO in Europe, it does seem to be less developed than the market in the United Kingdom, for example.”

Emphasis on Northern Europe

In total, Intelligence Group found that about 60% of RPO entities in Europe are located in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. In contrast, only 12% of these entities are located in Southern Europe: Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. The Netherlands, France and Germany each have over ten entities in their business registries. Given their size, Scandinavian countries also harbour a large number of companies, relative to their population size.

Intelligence Group found that about 60% of RPO entities in Europe are located in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

The density of RPO entities in Europe.

More in May

In May, Intelligence Group plans to release a new, annual report on the landscape of the RPO market in Europe. Last year, its report showcased a market full of promise; one that registered double-digit growth, and a rapidly-shifting competitive landscape. “We will share more data and insights as well as a great number of interviews with industry leaders and experts in our upcoming report: ‘The value of European RPO’.”

Gender bias in job ads: new research shows women are still excluded

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Data pioneers Intelligence Group sought to put a number on it. Their study is based on various data points from a selection of 250 vacancies from 250 different companies, that were recruiting on October 29th, 2020. After their initial examination, a deeper analysis was carried out, to shed light on the relationship between vacancy texts and inclusion in the Netherlands.

Women continue to be excluded

Regarding the gender bias in vacancy texts, it is shown that both women and men are subjects to suboptimal recruiting. More specifically, women face exclusion in 9,6% of the vacancies and men in 1,2%, due to the wrongfully gendered-coded texts. Moreover, wrongfully coded masculine texts reinforce the norms regarding the exclusion of women from managerial positions and STEM (science, technology, engineering, or math) jobs — where numbers jump up to 32% in managerial roles and 90% for STEM jobs.

The language isn’t applicable to the target group

Language requirements and gender-coded writing are two characteristics in vacancy texts that lead to the exclusion of a significant number of candidates. They are the by-products of gender and literacy bias. Another bias, less measured but equally critical for the creation of inclusive vacancy texts, is the affinity bias. Affinity bias has to do with the gender and personal characteristics of recruiters and hiring managers, which are often projected in their vacancy texts.

“The obvious reason behind this is that functional profiles and vacancy texts are being constructed by highly educated people.”

So the language is key here — as IG!’s research indicates that it forms a key exclusion point for non-native, low-literate and dyslexic workers. They have a tendency too be written in far too difficult language – it’s not certain Einstein would be able to understand them. “The obvious reason behind this is that functional profiles and vacancy texts are being constructed by highly educated people”, their white paper reads. “Such as hiring managers, recruiters and management teams and this is reflected in their vacancy texts, which were mainly written on a C1 level.” 

The age of less bias

More than ever before, companies in the Netherlands are in a position wherein they can make hiring less biased, as recruitment practices develop alongside tech and data science. That IG! makes the following recommendations for more inclusive vacancy texts:

  1. Create awareness among recruiters and hiring managers about the effect of words, employer benefits and the language level used in their recruiting.
  2. Every jobboard and recruitment system should use integrated algorithms that signal the language level and the level of gender coded words, pull factors and employer benefits, alongside data that can, for every target group, tell the educational level as well as whether the position is male/female dominated. A recruiter should make an active choice to publish a text that is not inclusive, and he or she should then be able to come up with a valid argument against inclusive job texts.
Download Intelligence Group’s full whitepaper ‘How inclusive are Dutch Vacancy texts?’ here.

Buy or sell: which TA tech companies should you bet on?

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ATS and recruiting software provider Greenhouse’s majority shares were recently acquired by TPG, amassing a total investment of around $500 million. Their rise is all the more remarkable when you look at how the year started for Greenhouse: after the Covid-19 struck the entertainment, hospitality and travel industries (amongst others) in March, they were forced to lay-off close to a quarter of its employees.

Greenhouse: a leading one-stop-shop

While some sectors stayed behind, and are still largely at a similar point now, the tech industry blossomed — leading to a widespread need for what is now one of the hottest ATS and recruiting software providers around: with a reported revenue growth of 30% during 2020. Whether it’s candidate experience, DEI or onboarding — Greenhouse has become one of the leading one-stop-shops for recruiting solutions. With a reported 4,000 clients — ranging from smaller startups to the likes of Asana and Stripe.

Whether it’s candidate experience, DEI or onboarding — Greenhouse has become one of the leading one-stop-shops for recruiting solutions.

Private equity firm TPG liked Greenhouse’s growth so much that they invested $47 million, and bought $450 million worth of shares from existing investors. It is a clear and definitive win for applicant tracking systems, Chad Sowash notes on the Chad and Cheese Podcast. “This is something that no question puts a staple in what we’ve seen over the past couple of years that these applicant tracking systems, aren’t the old legacy types of applicant tracking systems that we once knew”, he says. “Those that just stood there, withered away and became, these old warehouses full of data that were really just difficult to manoeuvre through.”

‘The new age of tech’

Greenhouse is among a longer list of companies that Sowash dubs representatives of the new age of tech. On Sowash’s initial list, next to Greenhouse: Jobvite, iCIMS, and SmartRecruiters. “They’re really making a charge”, he adds. And with that new age, new spenders have seemingly entered the game too. That sparked Sowash and Cheesman to play a game: buy or sell.

Syndio

Up first: Syndio, an HR Analytics company focused on promoting fairness in the workplace. “Because every organisation who is touting pay equity, in most instances they’re doing it with calculators and spreadsheets”, Sowash says. As far as warning signs go, organisations have little oversight as to where it is not operating in an equal way. “While most competitors take a year to do similar analyses”, Sowash adds, “…these guys take a month.”

jobandtalent.com

Based in Madrid, Spain —  JobandTalent is a leading digital temp staffing agency. Their on-demand staffing marketplace aims to make the labour market more fluid and accessible. “It’s kind of like an Uber for jobs”, Sowash says. “These guys, it seems are on the right path, if not already have the infrastructure in place to build that.”

Swyg

Dublin-based Swyg came up with an interesting ‘candidates interviewing candidates’ format. ‘You don’t want to hire robots, so why have a robot do the hiring?’, as they state on their homepage. They combine ‘human insight and integrity’ with the ‘efficiency of AI tech’ for a collaborative, and objective assessment tool which job applicants can use ‘as practice’ for their interviews. As Cheesman puts it: “They’re sort of going after chatbots and automation.”

“I think it’s, it’s a great, fuzzy, wonderful, fluffy idea, but I think this just falls flat.”

“This all sounds great, but how do you provide the data?”, Sowash says. “I think it’s, it’s a great, fuzzy, wonderful, fluffy idea, but I think this just falls flat. None of it made sense until I dug into it.” 

Employee Navigator

Representing another one-stop-shop, but on the benefits, HR and compliance side of things. Maryland-based Employee Navigator serves as a HR software provider for leading insurance brokers and insurance carriers of all sizes. As far as HR management goes, their tool helps companies with the onboarding of new hires, time off and asset tracking. “It’s not exciting by any means, but this is infrastructure that you have to get right”, Cheesman says.

Listen to the full episode of HR’s most dangerous podcast, the Chad and Cheese show by clicking on this link.

How US-based staffing agency Cornbread Hustle is connecting employers with ‘second chance hires’

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As talent leaders see the available talent around them decrease — or candidates being harder to lure away from other jobs, there’s a clear and defined need for an alternative. But, as has been the case for years, companies don’t seem to be quite willing to take on candidates with a criminal past. Though an SHRM report from 2018 says otherwise. The research states that only 14% of HR professionals and 26% of managers say they would be unwilling to hire those with criminal records. That means a whopping 74% of the latter group would be willing to move forward with a ‘second chance hire’.

Likely… but, unwilling?

Another survey from Adecco painted a slightly different picture. Albeit positive in terms of a shift in the numbers, they found that 35% of business described themselves as ‘likely’ or ‘extremely likely’ to hire (temporary) workers with past criminal convictions. It seems like there is a fine line between ‘likely’ and ‘unwilling’, and not to the benefit of those looking for work, but currently unable to do so due to their past.

Research shows that 17% of white Americans with a criminal record get called back after a job interview, compared to 5% of Black Americans with the same history.

Whereas some statistics about Europe aren’t available — looking at the United States, where one-third of the adult working-age population (15-64) has a criminal record, it doesn’t quite match up with everything else. Research shows that 17% of white Americans with a criminal record get called back after a job interview, compared to 5% of Black Americans with the same history.

The active pursuit

Moreover, while some initial numbers above show us that there is indeed a willingness from organisations to hire people with criminal records, SHRM’s report shows only 5% of managers and 3% of HR professionals said their company actively recruits people with criminal records. And that’s where Cheri Garcia comes in. Based in Dallas, Texas, she has firsthand experience with the struggles of finding work, with her own history of substance abuse. Now, as the CEO and founder of Cornbread Hustle, she is slowly building her own legacy, offering opportunities to both job seekers and employers

“It’s a natural reaction to think that it’s risky to hire somebody coming out of prison. I don’t disagree with that”, Garcia told Spectrum News. “You’re looking at somebody who has a criminal record, and I do make a really great entrepreneur. […] Addiction simply does not discriminate and most crimes are a result of addiction. I believe and what I’ve seen through experience of running this staffing agency for four years, ‘second chance’ employees can make really great additions to your team.”

A wide variety of jobs

And the jobs continue to come in — while more Hustlers (as Garcia describes the second chance workers) get to work. Whether it’s a sales or production job, an analyst or a traffic director — Cornbread Hustle currently lists a wide variety of jobs on its page. A firsthand experience, as per the Spectrum News article, illustrates how one hustler was searching for a job on Monster, Indeed and Facebook Marketplace. But as soon as she reached out to Garcia and Cornbread Hustle, she landed a job on her first interview.

While the war for talent is still ongoing across all continents, pursuing and hiring ‘second chancers’ may be the perfect way for organisations to win some battles in both the short and the long term.

With a clear and defined goal, Garcia is making a huge difference in local job markets, though jobs already range from Texas to New York. While the war for talent is still ongoing across all continents, pursuing and hiring ‘second chancers’ may be the perfect way for organisations to win some battles in both the short and the long term. Talent leaders, take note.

AI under scrutiny: new law bill serves as ‘a call to all algorithms’

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Although AI used to be solely applicable to the likes of Google, IBM, IKEA and Unilever — multi-million dollar companies — the usage of AI in recruitment is gaining traction in every way. While only 10% of all organisations described themselves as ‘making high or very high use’ of AI In recruitment, this number is expected to increase to 36% as soon as 2022. And above all: due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent increase in video interviews — that number may come out a lot higher. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent increase in video interviews — the number of companies that use AI may come out a lot higher.

You can now use Textio to help hiring managers optimise job descriptions. When that ad is completed, you can use AI to target likely applicants via Facebook, LinkedIn or Ziprecruiter. Once you’ve generated some type of response to your job posting, you can use a resume scanner — like CVviz, Skillate or Recruitment Smart — after which you use HireVue or Modern Hire to analyse those candidates in the actual job interview. 

Despite progress, the past isn’t forgotten…

It’s safe to say AI has come a long way after Amazon’s well-documented mishap in 2018. Rather than reducing bias, Amazon had to scrap their internally developed hiring tools because it actually discriminated against women. Its developers used the company’s 10 year history of resumes (which were predominantly male), which lead to the software effectively teaching itself that those (male) candidates were preferable. Luckily for candidates (and recruiters), the tool was never used — but illustrated the clear and obvious errors an AI system could be subject to.

The crackdown on AI screening

Next in line in the list of AI scrutiny: the aforementioned HireVue. HireVue offers a service wherein AI analyses candidates’ facial movements, word choice and tone of voice. Though HireVue says it uses AI to decide who’s best for a job, Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Instutute, a research center in New York, calls it ‘profoundly disturbing’. Moreover, universities in hospitality and finance are now training their students on how to look and speak for best AI results, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post recently wrote. 

The new bill would require companies to notify candidates about the use of automated decision systems, and companies would also be subject to an annual audit.

In an attempt to rein in the use of algorithms to screen candidates – as HireVue does – a new law bill has been launched in New York. The new bill would require companies to notify candidates about the use of automated decision systems, and companies would also be subject to an annual audit, to ensure the tech used would not result in bias. Several New York-based civil rights groups are already protesting the bill — saying ‘it doesn’t go far enough’. 

‘A call to all algorithms’ 

According to recruitment thought leader Chad Sowash, this new criticism serves as a call to all algorithms within the world of recruiting. “Here’s the key, kids. You have to be transparent”, he said on the Chad and Cheese Podcast. “You have to be white box around this stuff. To be able to say: ‘Our algorithm is way too smart for you stupid humans to understand, I totally get that. But guess what? I have to defend this in court. When it comes to compliance, it’s all about defence.”

“We start to look at the bright and shiny stuff, but we don’t focus on what matters most — and that’s equity.”

“Overall this does nothing more than help us hyperfocus on what matters most”, Sowash adds. “And that’s the biggest problem with tech. We start to look at the bright and shiny stuff, but we don’t focus on what matters most — and that’s equity. Are we treating people the right way in the system? Is the algorithm doing that? Can we audit it internally? These are things that have to be answered, and if you can’t do that — you don’t deserve my money.”

Transparent work to do…

Though AI’s seat is secure for Christmas in 2020, there’ll be some real work to do for it to munch on some turkey leftovers in 2021. While some of the scrutiny may be unwarranted in the long run, the need for transparency is as clear as day. In many ways, whatever does come out of the New York bill may be worth watching for C-suite executives who plan on using AI. It just might set the tone for an AI transparency crackdown everywhere. 

It just might set the tone for an AI transparency crackdown everywhere.

The 7 story archetypes that will save your recruitment

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Jim D’Amico’s route to talent acquisition was far from conventional. Before becoming one of talent acquisition’s leading voices, the president of the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals (ATAP) started his career in the US Army, before pursuing a career in stand-up comedy. Since then, D’Amico has received numerous awards and accolades for his talent acquisition efforts — including being named the best large recruiting organisation while leading Spectrum Health’s TA team in 2015. For the past four years, he has lead the global talent acquisition for Fortune 500 Chemical company Celanese. 

With help from a Hollywood screenwriter, they made an attempt to find out what really engages an audience.

In the past year, D’Amico and his team have delved into the world of storytelling. With passive candidates slowly turning into resistant candidates, organisations everywhere are scrambling to not only identify the right talent — but persuade him or her to actually join. With help from a Hollywood screenwriter, they made an attempt to find out what really engages an audience. All in all, they found a total of seven story archetypes. 

#1: Overcoming underdog

“Everyone loves an underdog”, D’Amico told the live audience during his ToTalent Silicon Valley Masterclass. “A scrappy underdog that takes on the biggest monster, and overcomes through pure force of will. And changes the status quote. It’s David versus Goliath. The monster has a a status that exists, and now we have to overcome.”

Example: Uber

D’Amico: “Uber fits into this narrative. They are one of the first really well-known disrupters. They said: ‘Hey, there’s this whole industry around taxi’s and cabs, where people pay to drive us from one place to another. Let’s change that’. They overcame that monster. This narrative can be used when you’re looking to defeat larger competitors.”

#2: Rags to riches

“A rags and riches archetype is uplifting”, according to D’Amico. “You go from a point of nothing, and rise to something significant. You tell the story of an operator who is now in a leadership position. Most companies have stories like that — someone who grew out of a basic position. You want the candidate to be able to visualise themselves in this story. You want the candidate to be able to see themselves as the hero in their own story.

Example: Amazon

D’Amico: “Perhaps the best example of a successful rags to riches story is the story of Jeff Bezos and Amazon. He started selling books out of his garage, and slowly built an empire — the largest retailer. That’s a great story.” 

Source: Amazon

#3: Hero’s quest

“It’s Jason and the Argonauts. It’s King Arthur”, D’Amico says. “Where the hero needs to overcome something, but the concept of why is more important than the how. It’s not as much about the destination, it’s about what it means to them. Is it to change something? Is it to improve something? The hero is going to win — we know that, but what captivates us is the journey.”

Example: Toms

D’Amico: “Toms is a great example. They weren’t disrupting the shoe business.  Nor did they think of smarter ways to improve shoes; they thought of a better reason to buy shoes. You’re buying shoes for those in need, so you’re giving the buyer a journey. You share that journey of someone who went from no shoes, to Toms shoes… thanks to the hero. It needs to be relatable.”

#4: Voyage and return

“This is similar to a quest, but it’s all about how it ends”, D’Amico says. “What you take from your journey and you now apply. We refer to it as boomerang hires, which happen to be a great source of hire. Candidates know that when they take a job, it’s not going to be the last job they’re ever going to take. Most people are with their company for less than 7 years, so it’s comforting to know you can come back, and be valued. We use it in a way where we say: we value what you’ve learned.”

Example: Apple

D’Amico: “Steve Jobs is a great example of a voyage and return archetype. He left Apple, and returned. He came back as the saviour, turning Apple’s fortunes around completely. That storyline doesn’t exist without Steve Jobs. Not to say you need your own Steve Jobs, but when you tell stories of employees that come back — highlight those reasons why they came back, and how they used that periode to further their career. Then, tell those stories to candidates.”

#5: Comedy

“As a former comedian, I should warn you: it’s not for everyone”, D’Amico laughs. “Just because you think something is funny, does not mean anyone else will think it’s funny. You can use comedy as an icebreaker, but you should never make the whole story funny. Comedy comes from two places: truth or pain. You have to help people with your storytelling to understand those truths — and it can be a great hook for it.”

Example: Budweiser

D’Amico: “Dilly dilly! For a few years now Budweiser have ran a great campaign about a goofy king and his kingdom. It revolves around simple comedy, but really resonated with people. They did so before with their Wazzah commercials. They respected the two rules of comedy. Firstly: you can never make a joke at someone else’s expense. Secondly: the best comedy is when you are your own punchline. When you’re the subject of the joke.”

#6: Tragedy

“Tragedy is not the journey”, D’Amico says. “Tragedy is tragedy in the Greek tragic sense: everyone dies. We can talk about our response to tragedy, but it then tends to fall in other archetypes. About how a hurricane affected one of our plants in North Caroline, and how we responded by relocating our employees, and provided gasoline and such at no cost. 

Example: Save the Children 

D’Amico: “It is a very powerful story, but particularly useful for companies in the charitable spaces. They can talk about tragedy and about the consequences in order to engage action. We don’t have those. So again, companies can talk about their response to tragedy, but it tends to fall in other archetypes.”

#7: Rebirth

“People love these types of stories”, D’Amico says. “It’s the Phoenix rising from the ashes. It’s a moment of abject defeat, before ultimate triumph. Those types of stories resonate to people because we all endure ups and downs. People are always looking to recreate themselves, so they flock to these types of stories.”

Example: Chrysler

D’Amico: “Chrysler is a good example. They’ve suffered for years due to better product coming out of Asia or Europe. Then Chrysler built this messaging about being reinvented, and essentially about being a European quality vehicle, but made in the United States. It’s about reinvention and sharing that story. We, for example, don’t view ourselves as a chemical manufacturing company, we view ourselves as a chemical innovation company. It’s about our commitment to everything that we do in sustainability and stewardship that separates us from our competitors.”

“It’s like the world is moving at light speed, and recruiters are moving with a horse and buggy.”

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It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to suggest that Kevin Wheeler is somewhat of the Nostradamus for recruiting predictions. For centuries, he has combined his wealth of experience with a constant sense of awareness to always innovate, and adapt with the time. As the founder of the Future of Talent Institute, he is able to pro-actively look one step ahead, rather than playing catch-up. “I see a lof of the recruiting functions that are struggling. Budgets are strained. Staffs have shrunk. But it might be best to look exactly at what’s wrong with internal talent acquisition — can it survive?”

Issue #1: Their sourcing efforts gets an F

The first issue Wheeler identified is sourcing within internal TA teams — or the lack thereof. “I mostly see weak marketing and branding — not even targeted marketing to start with”, he says. “When companies say: ‘Come work for us, we’re great’, that’s no strategy to me. Then you have the issue that they don’t invest in sourcing deals. Maybe to help out, initially — but generally most organisations do a poor job of really creating a talent pool and adequate pipelines. With no in-depth knowledge about the marketplace, sourcing is a real weak part for most internal TA teams. They’d get an F, for sure.”

Issue #2: They’re part of a slow and bureaucratic process

“Often times there are 70 to 80 steps between when an organisation identifies a candidate, and when they make them an offer”, Wheeler says. “I see this all the time. Most of the steps add little or no value at all. Most of the recruiting and talent acquisition processes are really archaic; not of this time. It’s like the world is moving at light speed, and recruiters are moving with a horse and buggy.”

“It’s like the world is moving at light speed, and recruiters are moving with a horse and buggy.”

Within an environment where paper is pushed around constantly, while going through the motions of a hierarchy, it very rarely leads to better hiring choices, Wheeler says. “I don’t think recruiters really care. Particularly in the United States the recruiting job is widely seen as a stepping stone for a bigger job in HR. They spend 3 years doing recruiting, caring very little about the job and doing tasks that add little or no value, and then they move onto being a business partner.”

Issue #3: They’re limited by a lack of tech knowledge

Most recruiters aren’t technologists, nor do they need to be, Wheeler argues. “But most just don’t seem to get technology. Are the tools good or bad, are they effective? They don’t know. So they go to the internal IT department for advice — but they also don’t know anything about recruiting, or what they’re looking for in terms of an HR function.”

“Automated systems are a big investment, so there’s not a lot of hope they’ll be able to get this to a decent level, considering the limitations.”

Beyond a lack of knowledge, Wheeler also sees an issue with the overall tech budgets for talent acquisition teams. “Recruitment functions rarely have a budget for tech,” he says, “as you’re competing with every other HR department, so this one is difficult. Automated systems are a big investment, so there’s not a lot of hope they’ll be able to get this to a decent level, considering the limitations.”

Issue #4: It’s hard to prove it’s worth the money

Similarly to the lack of tech funding, recruiters constantly find themselves on the receiving end of capital-related criticism. “It’s hard to justify and prove that a piece of tech is going to do anything”, Wheeler says. “It’s almost like a catch 22: you may have way too many administrative support staff within the TA team, but in order to have properly functioning tools, you need support staff. You can’t reduce staff to cut costs, but you need money for tools. It’s difficult.”

“You can’t reduce staff to cut costs, but you need money for tools. It’s difficult.”

Issue #5: More internal bureaucracy 

Though somewhat similar to the second issue, Wheeler again highlights internal bureaucracy as one of internal talent acquisition teams’ major issues. “HR has to approve things, then somebody else has to approve”, he says. “There are so many regulations in place for hiring externally, as wel as promoting internal people. You can’t fire bad staff easily, so you sometimes have to live with a very limited performance.”

“I think what’s going wrong, is that recruiters haven’t been totally focused on getting the candidate to the right place for them. It’s all about that. It’s not about making the hiring manager happy.”

Moreover, Wheeler sees an issue with a lack of formal training for recruiters. “Very few recruiters have received some type of training for the skills they require. Most have learned on the job, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I think there are skills you should be trained to do. Interviewing in particular is one aspect where you need training in. I think what’s going wrong, is that recruiters haven’t been totally focused on getting the candidate to the right place for them. It’s all about that. It’s not about making the hiring manager happy.”

Discouraged by the various issues Wheeler addresses? Stay tuned for the second article about Kevin Wheeler’s masterclass about recruitment in Silicon Valley, in which we’ll delve into what Wheeler thinks are opportunities for recruiters to really win in 2022. 

SmartRecruiters: Allowing teams to attract, select, and hire the best talent

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1) How would you describe SmartRecruiters in three sentences?

As a global leader in enterprise recruitment software, SmartRecruiters offers a cloud-based global Talent Acquisition Suite that allows teams to attract, select, and hire the best talent. 4,000 companies worldwide rely on SmartRecruiters to achieve hiring success—including brands like Bosch, LinkedIn, Skechers, and Visa—using recruitment marketing, CRM, AI, ATS, and a marketplace of 600+ connected vendors all within one scalable platform.

4,000 companies worldwide rely on SmartRecruiters to achieve hiring success.

2) And what would you say SmartRecruiters’ core values are?

  • CEO of Your Job: We own the work we are responsible for and believe in others to do the same.
  • As One: We win and lose as a team and take pride in fostering a transparent, diverse and fun working environment.
  • Work Smarter: We celebrate initiative, seek continuous improvement and consistently drive ourselves & others towards success.
  • Impact Always: We are here to change the recruiting world forever.

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3) How has this year changed your business?

2020 was a turbulent year, one that presented SmartRecruiters with challenges that helped us come together as an organization and redefine ourselves in the process. Highlights include:

  • Shifting to a remote first working model and establishing initiatives to support all employees wherever they are.
  • Helping our customers and prospects significantly reduce operating expenses through our ATS upgrade program.
  • Launch of Jobs for Australia/Lebanon to help connect people to jobs in emergent and struggling markets.

4) And what are your expectations for 2021?

Next year, it’s our mission to continue uniting our customers with user groups and other support systems as they navigate an ever-changing, challenging global economy. Additionally, we will continue to focus on delivering enhancements that improve the functionality of our product/platform for remote hiring, diversity/inclusion, and the future of work.

Next year, it’s our mission to continue uniting our customers with user groups and other support systems as they navigate an ever-changing, challenging global economy.

5) What are you hoping to get out of a partnership with ToTalent.eu?

By forging a strategic alliance with ToTalent.eu, SmartRecruiters’ wish is to empower TA leaders in the BENELUX region—and beyond. We firmly believe that this can be achieved by leveraging the Hiring Success methodology, a powerful strategy—developed by in-house industry experts— that empowers recruiters to build a modern TA function from the ground up. With this framework, we’ve enabled talent teams across the globe to become strategic business partners, and transform hiring into an indispensable competitive advantage.

By forging a strategic alliance with ToTalent.eu, SmartRecruiters’ wish is to empower TA leaders in the BENELUX region—and beyond.

 

How Dandan Zhu left behind a toxic sales job to lead a seven-figure recruitment agency

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When the person at the top of the chain is malignant and self-serving, unethical behaviour cascades through the organisation, as Lee Simmons of Stanford Business bluntly put it earlier this year. An argument could be made for the recent four years being the heydays of narcissistic leadership and toxic masculinity — with U.S. election in 2016 signalling a worrisome trend that seemed to surge in various sectors.

So much was true when Dandan Zhu quit her sales job in the very same year. “I was probably contributing to the problem”, she said in an interview with Thinknum Media’s The Business of Business. “I was a bro-ey sales girl. I had no idea sexism existed until I was 26, that’s how privileged I was. I was making excuses for everything I was experiencing, like my CEO hitting on me. […] I didn’t understand the power dynamic, it didn’t occur to me. We were right in that pre-Me Too time.”

Sexual harassment in the workplace continues to exist

Whether you want kindness and compassion, or simply someone to give you fair instructions — we all look for something different in a leader. Though mildly put malignancy and sexism aren’t necessarily the things we look for, for almost two-thirds of women, micro-aggressions are still a workplace reality. Even in light of the #MeToo movement, 35% percent of women in corporate America experience sexual harassment at some point in their careers. In Europe, numbers boil down to 6 in every 10 women.

“I saw that my growth trajectory was going to be stopped by external forces. This place is not gonna make me CEO.”

So much was true for Zhu, who continued to be a top performer within her sales job, despite the toxic culture around her. “At a certain point, the veil was lifted”, she said. “I began to understand sexual harassment. I saw a lot of boys club behaviour, and saw that my growth trajectory was going to be stopped by external forces. This place is not gonna make me CEO. Eventually I was the one female left on our team.”

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A transition to entrepreneurship 

Zhu then transitioned to entrepreneurship. She started studying the ins and outs of social media — while amassing more and more popularity on LinkedIn and Quora. She founded Dandan Global in the very same year she was fired. “I wanted to create a social media business that’s going to promote my career coaching business.” That social media business quickly transformed into a recruiting business, when she was offered a unique opportunity by a recruitment firm. 

“Somehow that never occurred to me. Recruitment firms are so isolated, that other than with a headhunter, how would you find candidates?”

“Recruiting companies also need candidates”, she said. “Somehow that never occurred to me. Recruitment firms are so isolated, that other than with a headhunter, how would you find candidates? Recruitment agencies use recruiters to hire recruiters.” Through LinkedIn, she met Victor Wong, who subsequently became her business partner — and that’s how DG Recruit was born.

DG Recruit: A five-star company

Glassdoor reviews are often telling. By giving former employees the opportunity to write honest (and sometimes unflattering) reviews about their previous employers, it helps people identify toxic cultures before they head into one. And is the case with DG Recruit, the reviews speak testament to the type of company Zhu and Wong have built. Multiple ex-employees cite an ‘amazing culture’, a ‘great environment’, as well as a ‘collaborative team’. 

DG Recruit is well on its way (if they aren’t already) to becoming one of the hottest recruitment firms around.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has had an immediate impact on DG Recruit, they’re still forecasting a seven-figure revenue in year three of its existence. “We have eight people, soon to be nine, and we’re totally dominating our space”, she said. Emphasising strong leadership from the very early beginning, DG Recruit is well on its way (if they aren’t already) to becoming one of the hottest recruitment firms around. 

COVID-19 and the employee experience: How leaders can seize the moment

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In this insightful research, conducted by McKinsey, more than 800 US-based employees were surveyed on a wide variety of topics related to employee experience during the COVID-19 crisis.  Although more than 80% of the respondents say the crisis is materially affecting their daily work lives, however those statistics fail to confirm a more fundamental truth about employee experience which is that even when faced with similar circumstances, people have widely varied experiences, perspectives and outcomes.

Leaders can now segment their employees like they would their customers and tailor interventions to support them in personalised, targeted and meaningful ways.

In the return phase, companies will have to rethink the employee experience in ways that respect individual differences – home lives, skills and capabilities, mindsets, personal characteristics and other factors. The good news is that with advances in listening techniques, behavioral science, advanced analytics, two-way communication channels and other technologies, leaders can now segment their employees like they would their customers and tailor interventions to support them in personalised, targeted and meaningful ways.

Build trust: Keep listening to your workforce

By being readily available and helping employees give meaning to a crisis, (“sense making”) leaders can build employee resilience and social capital with their people. Moreover, they can help connect employees to the organization and to one another and can help enhance social connection and affiliation – not just formally but also by allowing informal and organic conversations to emerge.

Return stronger: Focus on workforce effectiveness and well being.

Mckinsey’s research found a strong correspondence between employees’ stated needs and the underlying drivers of their engagement, wellbeing and work effectiveness. Organisations should seek the most critical, prominent needs of the broader workforce, while taking stock of unique needs of different segments and individuals. The four areas that organisations should focus on during the return phase are: safety and security, relationships, culture and purpose.

Continue to meet the need for safety and security

To mitigate further effects of COVID-19, McKinsey’s Organization Practice recently published a series of articles providing leaders with the research-backed set of best practices. Potential actions to secure safety and security include the following:

— Demonstrate compassionate leadership.

Leaders should focus on making a positive difference in people’s lives by demonstrating awareness, vulnerability, and empathy.

— Exhibit deliberate calm and bounded optimism.

In communications, leaders need to strike the right balance between realism about the challenges ahead and confidence that the organization will find its way through the crisis.

Invest in relationships

The survey results show that sustaining trust and acknowledging employee efforts are critical to employee engagement, well-being and effectiveness.

Potential actions to ensure strong employee relationships include the following:

— Coach managers on the ‘trust quotient.’

Managers will need to develop the mindset and capabilities to deliver on attributes such as high credibility, reliability, intimacy and low self-orientation, in order to be better able to support employees today and to earn their followership going forward.

 — Invest in the development of employee-to-employee relationships

If leaders wish the camaraderie which sustained many employees early in the crisis to endure during the return phase, they will need to take active steps (such as virtual talent shows and peer-recognition session) to ensure continued relationship building, particularly for remote workers

Create and maintain a culture that values inclusion, individuality and social harmony.

McKinsey’s research shows that for businesses, having a foundation of involvement, fairness, respect and equality, can help employees transition smoothly to new work duties, processes, and models of communication and collaboration.

Potential actions to ensure a positive culture include the following:

— Create a network of teams.

Leaders can set up a network of teams to promote cross-functional collaboration and transparency for quick problem solving and also for enhancing the strength of random connections across the network for effective team building.

— Cultivate inclusion and psychological safety

Leaders and managers can help create inclusive and psychologically safe team environments by modeling behaviors that value the contributions of all members, encourage individuality, and allow members to experiment without fear of negative consequences.

Connect people to something bigger than themselves and help them contribute.

Although purpose has a positive overarching impact on all aspect of work and business, yet researchers discovered that this experience element showed the greatest potential for improvement, as only one-third of respondents believe their organisations strongly connect actions to purpose.

Potential actions to ensure a strong sense of purpose include the following:

 — Embed purpose in how you talk to employees.

Organisations can move from the “why” to the “how” in establishing and linking employees to a clear purpose. As they make changes in how the business operates, they must consistently link the changes back to their purpose.

— Bring purpose to life.

 Leaders must share stories (through video or town halls) of colleagues who are embodying purpose through the period of crisis. They should also celebrate and create role models of those who are living their purpose.

— Start a longer-term conversation about purpose.

Organisations must begin the hard work of defining or revisiting their organisation’s purpose now and explain how employees will play a critical role.

Tailor your approach: Employees’ needs and experience vary

Although the employees surveyed in this search, men or women, working remotely or in positions with little workplace flexibility, with or without dependents, are all experiencing some degree of disruption, the range of experiences is wide from the very positive to the very negative. Those results may be a small slice of the insights that effective segmentation can provide, however they provide a strong enough lesson for the leaders that a one-size-fits-all approach to experience management simply won’t work. Instead, they must begin to address individuals in the same manner they do their customers.

To tailor employee-support approaches, McKinsey recommends two key actions:

— Use segmentation to identify who is struggling and what they need.

Leaders must use internal tools, such as open- listening channels, pulse surveys, and advanced analytics together with available data, to understand the diverse set of challenges that individuals and teams are facing and identify the best ways of supporting them where they are struggling the most

— Take a personalized approach to fostering culture and enabling change in this new world.

For the leaders, in driving new mindsets and behaviors (such as adapting to a new virtual- working model) at scale, it is important to engage employees in a continual two-way dialog that recognizes their specific needs, delivers personalized coaching and enables them to share best practices with others who may share similar challenges.

“If you’re a recruiter, and you don’t use data, you’re going to be unemployed”

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Dr. John Sullivan, the straight-talking recruitment guru, has been described as ‘Michael Jordan of Recruiting’, and ‘The father of HR metrics’, and perhaps if you read the article’s title, you may be able to see why. With a wealth of experience in talent acquisition, his thoughts and remarks have been published in every business source you’ve ever heard of. If all members of recruitment were to battle on a basketball court, there’s no doubt Team Sullivan will singlehandedly take down your favourite opponents. And after that, you might be on Team Sullivan too…

‘It’s all about hiring innovators’

According to Sullivan, innovation should be the primary focus, rather than productivity. “Working hard and staying late isn’t worth very much. Look at Apple, they get a €1.7m return per employee, while the market average is roughly €200k. Then you could make an argument that Apple is established, but when we look at Facebook or Amazon, their results are similar. The most valuable firms, they innovate. They recruit innovators and recruit people who produce that value.”

Dr. John Sullivan during Werf& Live.

“As we’ve seen in 2020, the world can change overnight, so you need to be adaptable.”

Innovators may seem like an abstract term at first, but Sullivan says it boils down to a simple question: “Can they learn? Do they have an ability to learn? A college degree doesn’t predict anything, nor does past experience. Learning ability is the #1 indicator of success. If you’re not the most innovative, you’ll not survive. As we’ve seen in 2020, the world can change overnight, so you need to be adaptable.”

“Here’s one message from me: stop hiring whoever you’re hiring.”

“Here’s one message from me”, Sullivan says. “Stop hiring whoever you’re hiring. The world’s going to change, so instead you need to ask your candidates one question: ‘How are you going to learn’. Some do it in university, some do it on their own. Start hiring people that learn quickly. No one cares what you did last year, 

Why you need to be data-driven

A sense of adaptability can be enhanced, but mainly through the use of data, Sullivan says. “It’s all just about being data-driven. The recruiters who don’t see the need in data are the same who didn’t see the need for a computer, or a mobile phone. The idea here is not not look for grades, experience, time-to-hire or cost-per-hire, but rather look for ability to learn. The only important metric is the performance-of-hire.”

“If you’re a recruiter who doesn’t use data, you’re going to be unemployed.”

“Pardon my French, but who gives a crap what their experience is? If a sales person sales well, he sells well. Sometimes, that’s all you need to know. You need to measure that performance as well as their ability to learn, and data can help you identify who might be top candidates. If you’re a recruiter who doesn’t use data, you’re going to be unemployed.”

Why referrals are the way to go

Sullivan also pulled no punches when it came to job boards, job fairs, agencies, or any type of recruitment strategy other than referrals. “They don’t work. I take the smartest employee we have, and ask them: ‘Who’s smarter than you?’. If I ask Lionel Messi to refer a player to me, he isn’t going to refer a bad player. So you have to use top referrals. If he says: ‘Yeah, there’s this one goalkeeper that always saves my shots’, you hire him.”

“You have to use top referrals. If you play football and someone scores on you, give us their name.”

“It’s that simple”, Sullivan argues. “If you see someone smarter than you, give us their name. If you play football and someone scores on you, give us their name. You need to hire someone who thinks differently. In Silicon Valley, they emphasise diversity because we need someone to think differently, they hire those who have been told they need to fit in, or need to think inside the box.”

“Wouldn’t you want to work for a company where they say: You’re tired? Go ahead, have a nap during the afternoon.”

But referrals in itself aren’t the hard part, Sullivan says: the hard part is getting managers to subsequently customise their jobs. “You need to be flexible and say, you don’t want to work on Friday? Go ahead. Do you want to have a nap during the day? Go ahead. Google encourages people to sleep during the day, they have actual sleep pods in their office! Wouldn’t you want to work for a company where they say: You’re tired? Go ahead, have a nap during the afternoon.”

‘Sleeping in the office is the best employer branding’

To follow that tune, Sullivan argues that that type of flexibility from a company is key to building a culture where people actually want to work. “If you were caught sleeping by your boss at your random Dutch firm, there’s a chance you’d be fired. If you went to the bar after work, and you’d tell your friends: ‘I slept at work today and my box gave me a chair to sleep in’, wouldn’t you also want to work there?”

“When employees say to their friends, their peers: ‘Wow, look what I did today, that’s employer branding.”

“That’s why I don’t believe in employer branding or candidate experience, because you’re not going to hire 99% of the people that come to your process. Just make sure that when you have Lionel Messi, you treat him perfectly. When employees say to their friends, their peers: ‘Wow, look what I did today, that’s employer branding. Ads are full of lies, but a person who works there, would they lie to you? They wouldn’t. That’s why Google has 24/7 talent scouts, we call it…”