Recruiting Brainfood: Big List of Communities To Join in 2019

EDIT

I've updated last years list to include several others I've come across and gained valued from this year. I've also removed a few which have become moribund over time. These are the communities I recommend you join in 2019

What is a 'community'?

It's going to be a huge topic in the world of recruiting / HR in 2018.

With GDPR, the era of 'candidates as inventory' is over - we're going to have to convert static databases of dormant records into dynamic communities where those records can talk to each other, as well as to us.

Fortunately, we have some outstanding examples from our own industry from which we can model this conversion and see how it might look like. There are no greater examples of thriving 'talent communities' than the ones we've seen spring up over the past few years within the talent community itself.

It's all very meta.

Here's a list of the ones who've let me in.

Recruiters Online - highly engaged Facebook group dedicated to recruiting. 13,000 or so members, great discussions expertly curated by admin / owner Recruiting Animal. You probably should be in this group, though not without controversy or politics.

DBR - community in-house recruiters. Primarily a Slack channel where in-house recruiters share tips, tricks, how-how and support. Based / focused UK, but now global. Admin are Matthew Bradburn, Nick Yockney, Tris Revill, Kris Bright, ZeShaan Shamsi and Matt Buckland.

Growth Hacking Recruiters - community of recruiters who are using techniques lifted from marketing - specifically, startup-marketing-on-a-shoe-string. It's Tris Revill again, ably supported by Sofia Broberger, Jan Tegze and Denis Dinkevich. Has rapidly become one of the best communities for knowledge transfer & engagement.

Recruiting Brainfood - yes, it is about time I started organising a community. 10,000 subscribers on the newsletter to date, this is a Facebook group for those subscribers to discuss topics that were shared in the brainfood newsletter. [Warning] I am running this

Recruitment Slackers - members group for in-house recruiters based in the Netherlands Primary a Slack channel, sharing news / content / techniques. English language friendly. Admins are in-house tech recruiters James Lesner, Enrico Heidelberg, Tommy Thomassen.

Recruitment Open Community - Highly engaged facebook group ran by Kasia Borowicz. Superbly moderated, this is a thriving community from one of the most dynamic regions in Central Europe for recruiting. H/T mods Micha? Bieńko, Mateusz Macha and Lukasz Korcyzk. Polish language native.

The Secret HR Society - members group for in-house recruiters / HR. Primarily a Slack channel for in-house recruiter / HR types. Focused Germany, but English language friendly. Hilary Klassen and Anna Ott manage.

The Purple Squirrel Society - members group for recruiting / HR professionals. Based in Berlin, this is a channel primarily for German language pro's. Managed by a board of founders, main guy is Sergej Zimpel.

Berlin Talent Acquisition Lab - Facebook group focused on technical sourcing. Events and Facebook group, led by Zalando recruiters Matthias Schmei?er and Joseph de Garr Wilkinson. Based Germany, but English language friendly.

HROS - group for in-house / HR folks. Ambitious initiative designed to break down the walls between companies and share information / content / techniques from HR folks within those companies. Managed by my buddies Lars Schmidt and Ambrosia Vertesi.

Recruiter's Kitchen - group for recruiters. Primarily a slack channel for French speaking recruiters. Managed and moderated by Amélie Collinet

Talent Product Plays - focused on tooling, especially on recruiting / HR tech - funding news, product updates, analysis, feedback. Useful for any tech vendor with a product directed towards talent. Admin by Martin Burns and George LaRoque

Tech Recruiter Community (DACH)? - primarily a group of German speaking recruiters organised on XING. Set up and curated by the 'papa bear' of German Recruiters, and my good friend, Wolfgang Brickwedde!

The FIRM (Forum of In-House Recruitment Managers) - was perhaps the first 'user generated' community of internal recruitment folks who got together to talk shop. The largest group of its type in the UK, the FIRM has been a significant player on the recruiting landscape for the past decade. H/T Ian Everett for making it clear it belonged in this list. Actually managed by an ex-colleague (she won't remember), the excellent Emma Mirrington?

TechHR - Slack channel organised by my buddy Pedro Oliveira, of Landing Jobs. Launched late in 2018, this figures to be the central place of co-ordination for recruiters based in Portugal. English language friendly.

HR Stories - LinkedIn group with a fascinating premise - post anonymous requests for help via a Google Form - and the mods will post it up for discussion on the LinkedIn group. Think: Post Secret but for HR. H/T Nikolas Tore, George Tsalaportas and Igor Bobryk for launching this amazing idea.

Sourcers Who Code - Facebook group focussing on 'technical sourcing' - recruiters who are able (or want to learn) to use scripts or code editing to automated often manual processes. Quite technical but really friendly group. The awesome Susanna Frazier organises

#Speaking4All - Facebook group with a specific purpose - to help event organisers diversify their speaker line ups. All recruiters who want to get up on stage more are welcome, especially from those from backgrounds which are under represented on the conference scene. Organised by another ex-colleague of mine (she does remember) Katrina Collier.

Boolean Strings Network - a unique network based on Ning, ran by Irina Shamaeva. Regular updates on specific sourcing techniques, especially on advanced usage of boolean operators. Also: Has excellent updates on little known features on LinkedIn

BARS (Badass Recruiters & Sourcers) - Facebook group ran by Marcel van der Meer. Mix of content from growth strategies, technical sourcing, cool tools. English language friendly.

Recruiters Who Actually Make Placements - Facebook group ran by Jerry Albright. Out of respect for group rules, I am not a member, but over 2700 people are. Strongly moderated, discussion focussed group.

Straight Outta Candidates! - Facebook group ran by Piret Luts. Focussing on the Estonia / Balkans region, highly engaged English language friendly group. If you're local to the area, I recommend you join.

Barcelona Recruitment People - Slack group and active meetup community for recruiters in Barcelona. Highly engaged, English language friendly, must join if you are local to the area. Ran by Dani Martos and Andre dos Santos

This list is just a list but certainly also an endorsement. Most have membership rules, so chances are you're going to have to apply - I recommend that you join, if you can. Please note, I have not included paid-for associations. These are all cost free communities, usually set up by the users themselves.

Are there any others I am missing?

Feel free to add a comment in this thread below.

Hung Lee is the founder of WorkShape.io - the revolutionary recruiting platform for Software engineers, and the curator of 'Recruiting Brainfood' - the weekly newsletter for the talent industry.

?Sign up for the former if you're hiring for developers; sign for the latter if you hiring, full stop.