This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 112

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Sponsored by our friends at?Greenhouse

Greenhouse is proud to sponsor Saastr Europa on June 6-7 in London. This energizing event brings together the world's largest community of SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs for two days of immersive content and networking.

Visit us at Booth 300, and attend Greenhouse's Speakeasy Sponsorship at Ye Olde Hexie's Pub.??

Finally, please participate in our session at the event?on Tuesday, June 6, at 10 am UTC.

Haven't registered for the event yet? So that you know, you'll be able to do so here

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Open Kitchen: What Do Recruiters Want?

Two years ago was peak recruiter.

You remember this: economies were opening up after vaccination rollout, and we had 2 years worth of pent up economic activity ready to go, with a new world to be built that was a remote first, people first, digital first paradise. Tech startups building for this future - ClubHouse, Zoom, Hopin - raised billions in the race to colonise a veritable New World of opportunity. Mark Zuckerberg abandoned Facebook and went even further in ambition - to build the infrastructure of that new world upon which all other apps and services would play. Everybody was hiring, and nobody could hire the people tasked with the hiring.

We were even temporarily the No1 most in-demand job role on LinkedIn and a fair few of us managed to parlay the demand into the highest compensation we had ever achieved.

It was around this time that I started the What Do Recruiters Want? Survey, in an attempt to discover what the community really wanted from employers, so that those employers could better design opportunities to attract the best recruiters to work for them. It was a huge undertaking, made more huge by my terrible survey design choices (free text input wtf was I thinking....) and also by the enormous response from you guys - over 10,000 people attempted it(!) and a magnificent 2571 actually completed it.

Now, 2 years on, we are going to do it again, because the world has changed discombobulating fashion again, this time toward a darker, gloomier dystopic vision of hostile de-globalisation, spiralling cost of living crisis, runaway climate change and out-of-control AI. But before we launch into the survey, lets have a look at some of the insights from the survey that went before:

1. Gender & Pay

We meticulously collected compensation data, enabling users to submit reports in own currency, with fixed as well as variable rate options. Whilst these we self reported figures, the anonymous nature of the survey hopefully gave people the confidence to submit honest figures and we were able to plot them against this chart. The clustering was predictable but still interesting - women dominated the lower ends of both fixed and variable rate incomes scores. There was some correlation with the level of seniority - of the 2571 responses, over 60% were from women, and over 60% of all respondents were in the Entry to Individual Contributor categories. It will be very interesting to see if we have seen progression of these recruiters in terms of pay over the past two years - lets hope the ones who had completed the survey in 2021 will do so again now.

2. Working Mode

The green bar was 'Hybrid Max' - my term for describing the maximalist approach to hybrid working, the provision of an office and the option for the employee as to whether they use it and under which circumstances. Two years ago this version of hybrid was the dominant modus operandi for all knowledge work and there was even some confidence that it would become the 'new normal'. Has it, or has the consistent return to office messaging from government, big corporate and media reduced the green bars, increased the blue and maybe even the red? I think we all suspect it has, the question is, to what degree!

3. New Job Opportunities

Perhaps the most interesting question to review is the volume of job opportunities members were receiving. 2 years ago, the demand was so high that it was not unusual for in-work candidates to be fielding multiple solicitations daily; now we understand that job adverts for recruiter vacancies get inundated with hundreds of responses. We know the market has turned, especially in tech where VC investment has 50% down from that of 2021-2022 and now with the advent of Musk, Big Tech Winter and Generative AI, likely to be a permanent correction to a lower level of tech hiring than we have seen before, which will in turn reduce the number of opportunities for recruiters in tech. Interestingly, we know that tech candidates themselves are not struggling for opportunity, so there is an angle for us in the recruiting space to investigate - what are they doing, where are they getting their opportunities, how can we be of use here? Anyways, this promises to the most interesting question to answer in a 2023 redo - how is the market looking like for recruiters, in terms of opportunities per week?

4. Preferred Recruiter Tools

The above screenshot is a breakdown of the tools which recruiters most wanted to see in their next recruitment job. You can see the degree to which this verdict was fragmented across a whole number of application categories, though with the consistent pattern that productivity and optimisation tools were at the top of the most wanted. Two things to think about on this segment - how much did employers 'tool up' over the past 2 years to resolve some of these needs, what is the impact of GAI to thinking of what is now required. At minimum we can expect a shuffle around in the order, but I suspect we might see some radical changes when we run this survey again.

5. Organisational Preference

I had forgotten the scope of this survey until reviewing the results again today; even though the survey was onerously long (50 questions), the reason for the length was to try and capture information such as this - how important were different aspects of employer brand? We were frustrated by the survey tool which did not allow us to force rank, so instead we had to just provide a rating and see if we could discern priorities overall. Peak recruiter was also 'peak employee' so this was the type when workers were casting opinions with mindset of abundance and I think we can see some signs of it here; purpose and culture being top ranked; in 2023 I think we'll see industry sector as the clear winner.

Anyways, this is just a small sample of the sort of information that I want to collect, and then present back to you. You can see the results from 2021 in the Survey top link.

Lets do it again folks: What Do Recruiters Want 2023 - give it a shot, your industry needs you.

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What's in the News?

LinkedIn Adds AI Generated Messages for Candidates

LinkedIn - of course owned by Microsoft - have had a number of AI features in their product for some time and are experimenting with more. This latest option, available for Premium Subscribers, enables candidates to write custom messages to hiring managers in support of their applications. Super interesting from a number of angles - on one hand, we can see this being a boon for job seekers who can get better, faster at an onerous part of the job seeking task, on the other, I anticipate resistance from hiring managers (and recruiters) who might be recipients of such messages - is it a form of deception? We can also factor in the ethical concerns of enabling a powerful tool for only those who can afford to pay, a wider problem than just for LinkedIn. What are your thoughts on this? Probably worth a Brainfood Live....

If you are a recruitment service provider or technology business and have any news to share,?comment below,?this is your application to get into next week's addition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to?@ mention me so that I see it

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What's On Offer?

50% off Prompt Engineering for Recruiters E-Book

50% DISCOUNT on this new e-book on Prompt Engineering for Recruiters by one of the most knowledgeable people in our community, Martyn Redstone. That means $13.75 down to $6.87 on?THIS LINK?using the code: TWIRHALF. If you want to get started on ChatGPT and haven't yet, this book will be a great foundation for you and your team. You know what to do ??

If you are a vendor and have something you want to offer the recruiting community, comment below and let me know what the offer is. It will go in next week's issue. PS: I don't accept affiliate deals, so everything you offer gets passed on entirely and directly to the community!

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What's Going On?

Big List of Recruitment & HR Events to Attend in 2023

We're into Q2 and we should be cranking up the events over the next few months. The Big List of Recruitment & HR Events in 2023 is your best friend folks, make sure you download or bookmark this spreadsheet - it is updated every week. Going to and holding an event which isn't appearing on this spreadsheet? Add it to the?bottom of the sheet?and I will merge it in.

Pay Equity Summit, Tues 9th May, 1pm ET

Pay Equity Summit hosted by Ashby, Mathison and OpenComp with incredible speakers including a keynote on the reckoning of pay equity from C. Nicole Mason. Great to see pay equity get its own conference - very interesting one to attend folks. Free to register so get involved, here

Talent Acquisition Conference, Tues 9th May, Athens, Greece

Incredibly, this will be my first time in Greece. I'm delighted to be giving a new talk on 'Trust Relationships in the Era of Generative AI'. The central thesis will be how we as humans can compete for attention with software which can create better content than we do. I have a theory on how we can do it. Come to Athens folks, see you there. Register?here

TruAmsterdam, 11 May, Teleportboulevard 121 1043EJ Amsterdam Netherlands

The line up here looks immense: Martijn Smit, Marcel van der Meer, Esther van Aalst, Aaltje Vincent, Koos Wurzer. Bill Boorman, Kevin Wheeler. Eugene van den Hemel, Eva Balúchová, Max Hunter, Arjan Elbers?and many more. I am going - are you? Tickets?here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep205 - Moving to Skill Based Hiring (SBH), Fri 12th May, 2pm BST

Skill Based Hiring would likely have been the HR phrase of the year were it not for ChatGPT and the wave of Generative AI which has crashed over all of us. It's still the focus for serious businesses who want to unlock a new way of hiring which gets away from tight specs on paper and moves toward deeper job analysis, what skills are required to do them and who we should go about recruiting for those skills. We're with Andrea Marston, Senior Director Global Talent Acquisition (VMWare), Luke Davis, Founder (Diversify.io), Chantelle Jones, Talent Strategy Director (Nash Squared) & Richard Bradley, VP, (Kelly Services) - don't miss this one folks. Register here

How to Cut Time to Hire by 50% With Marketing Automation, Tues 16th May, 2pm BST

Marketing automation....I really wish I was any good at it. I know that for a guy who sends newsletters, this really should be one of the things I excel at, but alas....good news that we have?Lauren Johnston?in conversation with me on how to get good at this part of the process, applied to recruitment. Don't miss this folks - register?here

What is Recruitment Operational Efficiency??Thurs 18th May, 10am EST / 3pm BST

Excited to kick off a four part series with our friends at Cronofy. Our focus is going to be on 'recruitment operational efficiency' - what is it, how to audit it, how to improve it and how to measure the improvement. If you are a recruitment leader - or have aspirations to be one - this is the series for you. We're with the legendary?Allyn Bailey, Executive Director of Hiring Success (SmartRecruiters) and?Mark Harbottle, Head of Talent (Cronofy) for this show. Register?here

Global IT HR & Recruitment Forum, 31st May to 1st June, Warsaw, Poland

Look at this folks - 2 day in person conference in what will then be sunny Warsaw. Some of the top think-doers in the recruiting business in show including Jan Tegze, Kasia Tang, Sofia Broberger, Katy Peichert and more. Tickets here folks - make the most of it!

Hired!BCN, Thurs 15th June, Barcelona, Spain

Look at this amazing line up - some cool cats here including Renita Kasper, Piret Luts, Johnny Campbell and many others. It's the coolest conference in Europe, because it is 100% grassroots and it happens to be in the coolest city in Europe. Join us in Barcelona folks, I am in but I need to figure out what to talk about....register?here. PS: I got a discount code - comment below DISCOUNT and I will DM you a special link for 10% off.

If you have an event, webinar or podcast going on next week and want it featured on next week's newsletter,?comment below?with the link and event details. Don't forget to at mention me so that I see it

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Who's Hiring?

Talent Sourcing Specialist, Instant Impact, Johannesburg, South Africa

Talent Partner, Instant Impact, London, UK

Junior HR Generalist, Blinkist, Berlin, Germany

Recruitment Partner, Confused.com, Cardiff, UK

Senior Recruiter, Western Union, Vienna, Austria

If you are hiring for recruiters or HR people, you are welcome to post jobs FOR FREE on the Brainfood Jobs Job Board. Use coupon code: BTCFREE for 100% discount.

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Whose Available?

Recruiters remain disproportionately impacted by lay offs....and why wouldn't we be? What is important now is to make sure that you get connected with companies that are actively hiring for recruiters, and you can do that by joining Brainfood Talent Community. It's free, confidential and open only to approved employers. If you're hiring for recruiters or HR staff, apply for a free company account and get access?here, using this code 'BTCFREE' for 100% usage. If you're a recruiter or HR person looking for work, you can apply?here, and increase your exposure to employers vetted by me!

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Who's Posting?

Big List of Places to Post Jobs (Globally)

500+ job boards, community spaces and marketplaces where you can post jobs you are hiring for, filtered by over 50 countries. This spreadsheet is ideal for those of you who are hiring internationally for specific locations and want to connect with local job boards and providers. Crowdsourced, so open for anyone to edit and update. Bookmark it?here?folks.

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Who's Moving?

Christian Payne joins Falck on an interim project hiring for IT roles. Never any doubt this would be a rapid bounce back for Christian - moving on quickly is the best way to get over any set back. Well done hombre, and keep the forward momentum going!

Tim Sanchez joins Apex Global Mobility as Head of Talent, having previously lead the TA departments at Tigo, Mastercard, Citratek and more. Reminds me that I need to do a hiring in LATAM show soon, this is such a blind spot for brainfood, it really needs some light shone on it. Let me know if you're up for doing it Tim!

Holly Peterson joins Delivery Hero as Director, Talent Operations and Enablement, after leaving Meta earlier this year, and having previously lead recruiting teams at Genius Sports, YOOX NET-A-PORTER and Qubit. Some CV this, one of those career paths which must have involved some serious personal development.

Rachel Bates joins Happeo as Chief Revenue Officer, having previously held CRO at WorkStep and Workable. Always bittersweet to see a great character leave the recruiting space but at least this is in an adjacent space! Good luck with the move Rachel - let me know how you get on!

Annett Burger joins ZEISS Group as Team Lead Recruiting. I am kind of loving the shift into high tech manufacturing. Smart move by recruiters going to industry sectors which are primed to be resilient against economic recession and generative artificial intelligence. Some interesting hiring work to be done in fields like precision optics

Mark Ivan Serunjogi?joins Bitly as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager?- EMEA, having previously operated in EB / DEI roles at Zalando, sennder, GetYourGuide. Tons of great stuff still happening in Berlin - can't wait to visit later this summer.

Promotions to celebrate: Tanya Fielden expands scope and adds APAC to her responsibilities as Head of TA EMEA & APAC at Experian, Julie McGowan goes up to Senior Recruitment Manager at EY

If you have made a senior exec appointment to your business,?and feel the wider community needs to know about it,?comment below?with the details and see it featured in next weeks issue.?Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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What Are You Doing?

Joel Lalgee has launched his own business, The Realest Recruiter, to teach other recruiters how to build brand and audience online. For anyone who has followed any of Joel's channels, you knew this was coming, and you know it is going to be great. Follow and contact - Joel will help you!

Nicole Clarke, Co-founder of SHAZAMME, wins the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA) as the 2023 Influential Woman in Talent Acquisition Award. Congratulations on the recognition Nicole!

If you are doing something new,?comment below?with what it is and share a link to where you want people to go. Don't forget to mention me in it so that I see it

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End Notes

So I am sending this from Athens, Greece - amazingly a country which I have never before visited despite it being so popular for tourism. I am here for the next 3 days, so let me know if you are in town and want to meet up. Will be at TAC on Tuesday then on Workable for the evening on Weds. Have a great week everybody

Hung Lee is the curator of?Recruiting Brainfood, and now This Week In Recruiting. Subscribe to both if you are into recruiting or HR or just interested in world of work.