This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 15

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Open Kitchen - So I turned on 'Creator Mode'

For the new folks, Open Kitchen is the place where I share my thoughts on what I'm doing as I'm doing it. This is part of the exercise in transparency in the operation of all things Recruiting Brainfood. If you want, skip directly to the news, jobs segments below.

So yeah - LinkedIn Creator Mode. This was one of the those hyped featured roll outs which turns into a damp squib, because basically no magic happens when you do in fact turn on Creator Mode.

It seems that you have to do it on mobile, so these screen shots are all step-by-step from my mobile device. Toggle from Off to On on your profile page, go through a couple of screens telling what the purpose is...

.....add 'topics' which presumably contributes to a content taxonomy they are building....

...and that's pretty much it

My guess is that nobody noticed. And nor should you, as this is a clearly a staging post for future development of creator features as they go. Some things to think about:

1. Default to Follow Rather Than Connect

LinkedIn have long had this feature (did you know?) where you could set 'action button' for people viewing your profile from 'Connect' to 'Follow'. I had done this in any case as I had hit the 30,000 connection limit a few years ago so follow was the only option practically available, though LinkedIn never disabled connection request despite making it impossible for me to accept. Some info on the differences between Follow vs Connection here.

2. Follow Count Now Publicly Visible

This is not entirely trivial I suspect. There is social proof in large follower counts, as we all succumb to herd mentality when looking at who to follow. Connections are also followers by default people with large networks will have a corresponding large follower count. As recruiters / HR folks, typically with larger networks than most, this should be to our advantage. It looks like I have close to 40,000 followers, (30,000 connections + 10,000 or so followers) likely a decent number but there are those in our industry with 1 million+ followers, and then again there are Bill Gates types who are into the multi-millions.

Obviously not everyone is going to get to these numbers but it does seems faster and easier to build up a following on LinkedIn than it is on any other social network. CEO's and business leaders obviously have other things to do, but their personal profiles on LinkedIn is likely one of the strongest marketing (and recruiting) assets for their business. For most of us, it's woefully under used.

3. 'Eligible to Appear In Search Results'

The implication here is that there will be 'creator search' function at some point, or a perhaps a way to filter people search based on topic category or follower count or a combo of both.

Being easily discoverable is a cheat code for success in this era of the networked business. You don't actually have to be very good - you just got to be good enough. And if you're findable, you'll get a chance.

What All This Means For You?

Probably not much, in truth. It's pretty clear that LinkedIn is encouraging users to spend more time on the platform, post more original content (have you seen the 'convert comment to a post' feature yet?), all to encourage more time-on-site - all the standard stuff social networks measure their success by.

However, by keeping an eye on the explosive growth of the 'creator economy', it's smart positioning by LinkedIn to be 'in play' when the time comes switch on some of the features associated with creator first platforms.

How many of us might actually make a living being a creator on LinkedIn? Not many I'd say, but probably not zero either. So give it a shot folks - turning on Creator Mode now won't do much immediately, but there is 'no harm, no foul' here - so you might as well.

PS: going to monitor what happens on the follower count - will report back if there is any significant change in rate of growth.

Anyways, out of the kitchen, onto the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

Oyster raise $50M Series B, just months after raising $20M in February.

As the world of work responds to our changed reality of remote / hybrid / not-going back, investment cash is piling into products optimises for the new way of working - distributed & global workforce. Oyster CEO Tony Jamous with the announcement post here

GoodTime, an AI-based interview scheduling solution, has added $9.5 million to its Series A funding, bringing the total round to $16.7 million. Ahryun Moon, the co-founder and CEO, stated:

“A meeting is a way for people to get together, collaborate with each other, and forge valuable relationships that last. GoodTime is the solution that enables companies to personalize the hiring process and improve each candidate’s experience.”

Congrats to Ahryun on this - exciting times for this segment. Scheduling has to be relentlessly eliminated!

Google's delay in deprecating cookies until 2023, likely in response to significant market push back against their FloC alternative. This may feel like a niche topic for a lot of us here, but a huge amount of what recruiters do is impacted by the war for the future of advertising currently being waged by Google, Apple, the EU, consumer alliances, privacy advocates and evangelists for the open web. Report from here

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? (New Segment)

Employer Brand Strategy Sprint Series - 25% off

Clair Bush and crew at Ph.Creative are offering 25% discount on all prices for their 2 week digital learning Employer Branding Sprint Series. Folks in the know, know that Ph.Creative are at the forefront of the storytelling business and this knowledge share will be of interest to anyone who wants expert insight on EB strategies. Check out course here and claim your discount using promo code: RBTWIR0721

If you are a recruitment service provider or recruitment technology vendor have any exclusive offer for the community, comment below with your offer in order to be included in next week's edition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to @ mention me so that I see it.

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What's Going On?

Exceptional Candidate Communication, June 30th, 1.00pm BST / 2.00pm CST

How do you communicate with candidates? This webinar looks like it might be a cool knowledge drop from our buddies Talenthub, whose research on this area has provided some real actionable insight on how to improve. Going to be some free templates on this too so sign up, here

The Europas 2021 - July 2-3, 1.25pm

The Europas are back, after the Covid induced absence in 2020. Mike Butcher hosts a two day event celebrating European Tech (I suspect UK tech will still be included...), outlining trends, changes, and forecasts. Usually very good conversations with top class panelists. Free to register to have at it, here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep115 - Headcount Planning for Hypergrowth, July 2nd, 2.00pm BST

How do you plan headcount after your boss has just secured a massive fundraise? This is the question I'm putting to recruiters who have found themselves in this position - being charged with hyper scaling the business after significant investment rounds. Robert Krzyzaniak, Head of Talent (Taxfix), Sanne Goslinga, Director of Talent (Marathon VC) and Matthias Schmei?ser, Director of Talent at Beamery join the conversation. Must attend for startup recruiters....register here!

Brand & Culture vs Efficiency - July 7th, 11.00am

Delighted to host this panel discussion with Christine Ng, Talent Acquisition Partner (Financial Times), Neil Denton, Director of Recruitment (CapGemini), Darren Topping, Director of Solutions & Insight (Lorien) and Richard Matthews, Head of Talent & Resourcing (The Co-op Bank). What is the optimal time-to-hire? Can we be too quick to offer? How do we manage the tension between due diligence (for both parties!) and efficiency? It's going to be a fantastic debate between some great pro's in the industry. Register here

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 @ mention me so that I see it

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Who's Hiring?

Recruiter (m/f/d), Viessmann, Allendorf or Berlin, Germany

Head of People / Talent, Laka, London (UK) or Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Recruiter, Free Agency, New York, NY/NJ, USA

Partner: Head of Hiring, Invisible, Remote Anywhere

Talent Sourcer - Commercial Functions, Expedia Group, Gurgaon, India

Talent Sourcer, Expedia Group, Seattle, WA, United States

Executive Recruiter, Expedia Group, Seattle, WA, United States

Senior Talent Sourcer, Expedia Group, Seattle, WA, United States

Director of Recruiting, Sensor Tower, San Francisco, CA, United States

Senior Technical Recruiter, Sensor Tower, Remote Anywhere

Technical Sourcer, Sensor Tower, Remote EMEA

Junior Recruiter (m/f/d), D!Mpact, Berlin, or Remote Germany

Senior Recruitment Consultant (f/m/d), Berlin, or Remote Germany

Director of HR (EMEA), Figma, London, UK

Senior Talent Acquisition Manager (m/f/d), Inkitt, Berlin, Germany

Talent Sourcer, Catawiki, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Hybrid)

Talent Sourcer - Germany, Catawiki, Netherlands, France or Germany (Remote)

Talent Sourcer - Tech, Catawiki, Amsterdam, Netherlands or Remote (Germany or Netherlands)

Talent Acquisition Manager - Business (m/f/d) (German speaking), Personio, Munich, Germany

Senior Talent Acquisition Manager (m/f/d) (German speaking), Personio, Munich, Germany

Talent Sourcer (m/f/d) (German speaking), Personio, Munich or Remote Germany

Talent Acquisition Manager - Product & Analytics (m/f/d), Personio, Munich or Remote Germany

Talent Acquisition Manager Engineering (m/f/d), Personio - Munich or Remote Germany

If you want your job freely promoted in this newsletter next week, comment below with the link to the job. No third party jobs or links to third party sites. Don't forget to @ mention me so that I see it

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Whose Story?

Do you know Carrie Corcoran? Carrie got in touch after answering a call for help I put out on the news on Tulsa's destination branding programme. She's an Employer Branding Consultant currently with TalentNet Media. I asked Carrie 20 questions - here are her answers.

If you are want to share your story, comment below in this article and let me know that you would like to join other members of the community in The Brainfood Tribune. This is a space for us to get to know each other better.

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Who's Available?

Again the recruiter / HR market is going crazy. As we seen in this chart from Axios, it seems that hiring for HR / TA is one of the hardest challenges in recruiting right now.

I feel like I need to do something to support businesses here - posting jobs weekly is all well and good, but it's not big enough splash for businesses really struggling to hire. In any case, if you are on the market and looking for work, let me know in comment below if you want to be featured as available!

If you are on the market or available for extra work, comment below with the ideal type of job you are looking for (job title, type of company, contract type, location). Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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Who's Moving?

Ian Storey leaves The Adecco Group after 11 years in senior management, including last year and half as Head of Spring, the IT division. Ancient history now, but once upon a time Stozza and I were young recruiters tearing it up in early days of web 1.0, then telco, followed by NHS IT. Great recruiter, great leader. Look forward to seeing and supporting your success in the next step hombre.

Martin Couzins joins Fosway Group as Head of Content. Fantastic to see investment into senior content roles in the HR industry - we have all got to be better story tellers. Congratulations Martin - look forward to what you come up with here.

Teresa Wykes gets a promotion, moving up from Talent Intelligence Lead EMEA to Global Head of Talent Intelligence at SAP. Super interesting subsection of the TA industry, Talent Intelligence - the analysis of labour / skills / geography - in high demand as the War for Talent begins anew.

In other moves, Sarah Childs joins the Trainline as Talent Acquisition Manager after 7 years with RedCat Digital, Sara Tanjga Tisler, joins Synthesia as Head of Talent & Culture, after nearly 4 years at Hawk-Eye Innovations and Keely Pollock gets a promotion to Senior Executive Recruiter at Twitter - congrats all!

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?

John Edmonds at Observic, the performance review platform, is building a version for the recruitment sector. Watch the webinar and contribute to the design of a new tool you could be using soon.

Finally, rumour has it that Bill Boorman is bringing back TruLondon later this year. For folks who are not in the know, TruLondon is the No1 'unconference' in the business. Keep an eye on this, keep an eye on Bill - if you get a chance of a ticket, go grab one (usually pay what you feel it is worth)

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

Have you been watching the football?

I'm a huge sports fan and really live for tournaments like the World Cup and Euro's. It's been a fabulous tournament so far, with so many great games to watch. There's a lot to learn I think from team sports - after all, isn't that the reason why we all did PE at school - to learn team work, morale, working together in face of adversity, adapting to changing circumstances and taking personal responsibility in the moments that count.

Which team has impressed you most, on these parameters - love to know your thoughts!

Cheers

Hung

PS: I picked Italy to win at the start of the tournament - and sticking to my prediction ??

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.