This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 165

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Sponsored by our friends HackerRank

Q: What is the impact of Artificial Intelligence on Software Development?

It should not be a surprise to us that the sector which has gone further than any other in the adoption of AI has been the one which helped build it. Software engineers were amongst the first to use Generative in GitHub Copilot, the first to measure productivity gains and the first to understand how AI will shape their job roles now and in future.

We are going to be exploring the implications of AI adoption in this in-person event later this week at The Royal Society in London. We'll hear from Juan Herrera, President of Field Operations at HackerRank on how software engineering behaviour is changing, the shifting skills demand for tech employers and how early adopting employers are positioning to be ahead of the competition in the next era of talent competition.

It's my pleasure to be hosting this (or co-hosting, as it is seems AI-Saac Newton will be taking point!), so invite all Talent Acquisition leaders to attend. There are limited spaces so you need to apply, but I hope you can make it. We're on Thursday 23rd May 1pm to 5pm at The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AG. Register here!

Open Kitchen: 10 Variables for Impact Candidate Engagement (Part Two)

So last week, we talked about the Variables which Impact Candidate Engagement. You can read 1-5 in Part One and for today's Open Kitchen we'll complete 6-10 for Part Two.

5. Subject Line

Every recruiter knows Subject Line is critically important. In fact, it may be the first or second most important part of any cold outreach message, in competition for first place only with your sender ID. Needless to say, this means that recruiters need to pay specific attention to this component of the message.

Three things to keep in mind when constructing this message:

• Mobile first - we are increasing consuming more on mobile vs desktop. It is a much more intimate device, with which we forge an emotional attachment which is unlike anything else. We touch it a thousand times a day, it is always in reach when we are not in touch with it and we never leave the house without it. Hence, it is the best device to sent outreach simply because of the contact time the receiver has with the post. Some things are important here - think screen real estate - subject line needs to be super concise and high impact
• First name address - the most important word for anyone is that person's first name. It may not be the first word they spoke, but it is the first word they learnt. As such it remains an arresting trigger whenever we hear it or read it. Inserting first name - as the first word - in any message will increase your Open Rate and Response Rate. Don't believe me? Feel free to conduct your own experiment on this!
• Question (Maybe?) - if you want to solicit a response you are asking a question at some point in the message. Why not ask it right away in the Subject Line? Now I don't mean shooting for The Ask straight away (see No9 below), I mean instead asking a teaser question which gets the receiver thinking. You need to be creative here, and as it is presumptive it is not without risk. However, a useful technique to use if you want to try and improve engagement.

7. Message Length

We kind of know where we are at with message length. 'No one has time to read all that' has become an Internet meme because we all share the experience of receiving an overly long message which demands too much cognitive effort to actually read. Data from LinkedIn supports this view - and I suspect data from any other message delivery service would be comparably the same.

The above chart - on InMails, from 2019 - shows that optimum message length is under 400 characters and there follows a clear trend line that the longer the message beyond 400 reduces response rate. It's 2024 now and I suspect these numbers are generous for today's distracted audience. We're in the era of TikTok, short form video's, zero cognitive effort media consumption - 400 characters must now be seen as the absolute maximum - and we are better off self imposing an even lower character length.

This pressure to reduce message length is actually a boon; we can spend less time writing the message for a start, which will at least improve output efficiency. We can then use the time saved to develop our skills in crafting the sort of message which produces the emotional state that encourages the receiver to respond.

But even if we had no art to the message, a short, concise message is better than a long one, simply because it is more likely to be read.

8. Message Structure

Kurt Vonnegut explained story telling in a lecture which everyone really should watch. It's called 'The Shape of Stories' and in it, Vonnegut explained how all stories had a shape, which could be plotted on a line chart. A great story was one which carried the reader/watcher/ receiver along that the emotional journey described in one of those lines.

Thankfully this lecture was recorded, and you can actually watch it on Youtube. It's only 5 minutes and you won't get a better ROI than watching it. Anyways, your InMail is not a Kurt Vonnegut story, but there are lessons to be learned in how to craft a message which takes the reader on an emotional journey. In 400 characters or less, this needs to be crunched down to Hook / Body / CTA

• Hook - this is the one liner which stops the person from doing what they were doing and converts them into a reader. As my mate Mitch Sullivan (follow) says, the only purpose of any sentence is getting the person to read the next one. So the most important sentence is the first one you write - this has been the arresting hook. We've already discussed above that we might migrate the hook to the subject line (I would ) but most people will use the main body of the message to do it. It has to be the first line of that though. You have to be creative with the Hook but it will almost certainly be about the person and not about you or the company you represent or even the job you're hiring for. Locate the hook where the person already is....
• Body - this is the justification or explanation as to why you are contacting the person. Lets presume the hook was a success and we have successfully got the person reading. We now that to connect the Hook to the solution - which our opportunity. This is the place where you describe the mission of the business, what you want to do for the world, and why hiring the right people is critical to the success of the project. Now remember, you are not going to persuade the reader to immediately leave their job on this copy, but you are going to hope that they start visualising the scenes you are describing.
• CTA - we end with a question. The purpose of the question is not to solicit a Yes / No to job but to secure consent to continue the conversation. Read further, and I'll explain...

9. The Ask

Perhaps the greatest problem we have with recruitment outreach is that we ask for 'too much, too soon'. I think because we are dealing with jobs as a matter of course, we often forget that most normal people do not always think about jobs in the same way. Switching jobs is a big deal, one of the most stressful things you can do. In fact, it so stressful that quite a few people never do so if they can avoid it and are happy to become lifers within a particular organisation. Saying 'yes' to a recruiter carries dangerous implications: does this mean I am now in a recruitment process? Do I need to time off to interview? Do I need to speak with my partner because this job is located across the country and we may need to relocate? Many considerations are attached to saying 'yes' to a recruitment message, which is why it is the least frequent response type we get from recruitment messages which ask for 'too much too soon'. We are much more likely to get a 'No' and because few people like direct conflict, we are even more likely to get no reply at all.

Remember that we have interrupted this person, who was doing something else, created a cool hook which got them to read more, but now we are asking whether they fancy changing their lives just like that? It's a massive escalation.

What we really want to do with The Ask is secure permission to continue the conversation. Like my Grandma says, never ask a question when 99% of the time the answer is going to be 'no'. Only ask questions where 99% of the time the answer is a yes or maybe.

• Can I send you some more information?
• We're not ready with the JD just yet but would you free to connect with me so I can better understand the type of role you would be most motivated by?
• How best do I keep you updated on future opportunities?

10. The Sequence

Another thing we all know is that - on average - one message is not enough. Email decay is about 3 days, less if the person works in a role where the inbox is typically hammered, so chances are not always very high that the person actually ever sees the email sent. Furthermore, the first message might have generated enough interest to get an open, but The Ask was too much for the person to immediately respond to and so they were going to do it later, which of course means they never did.

Hence the birth of the email drip campaign - automated sequencing based on If Then, Then That event triggers which enables recruiters or sales people to 'fire and forget' a sequence and have just have the machine do the work only jumping in when the receiver actually responds. Back in my day (2010's in case you were wondering...) it was standard to receive a drip campaign of 8 messages, but thankfully we've evolved and now we're down to 3.

We can see from the data that Ashby shares that there is a significant drop in open and response rate after the third message in the sequence, most likely because by this time you're already in spam folder and harming your domain reputation by persisting in sending more.

The lesson here is not only should you never sequence more than 3 messages, you should also follow up if the first or second message does not work. This is the salesperson in you. This is why you have 'resilience' as a bullet point in your CV. Persistence counts, especially if delivered in a way which established affinity and removes sense of risk.

Anyways, those are the 10 variables. I'm sure there are more - if you think of any, please don't hold back on my account - let me know!

Now out of the kitchen, onto the lounge ??

What's in the News?

Sona raise $27.5 Million to Fund US Expansion

Most exciting HR Tech fundraise of the year so far - fantastic to see a UK company address a serious gap in the market and do enough to prove the business case to launch a global expansion. Most HR Tech is delivered to white collar workers, but the future may be a return to the past, to the blue collar. Sona well positioned for this. TechCrunch with the report

If you have any news which you think the wider market needs to know about, put into comments below on this thread.

What's Going On?

Big List of Recruiter Events to Attend in 2024

There are 100+ events in the Big List of Recruiting and HR Events to Attend in 2024 - make sure you bookmark this spreadsheet, share it with your event organiser and event going friends and get yourself to one of these this year. If you see any that are missing and should be there, please do add to the bottom of the spreadsheet - I will merge them in weekly.

Founders Focus - Ep43 - Up close and personal with Reiner Bruns, CTO, Scotty AI, Tues 21st May, 12.00pm BST

We continue with Recruitment Automation, this time with the idea that perhaps a company might actually solve a great deal of the optimisation problems for us. That is the huge ambition of Scotty AI - a recruitment assistant which will accompany recruiters at every stage of the hiring process. Imagine becoming the x100 recruiter if you had Agentic AI which could take on your workload. Lets talk to the guy who is building it, Reiner Bruns, CTO of Scotty, in Founders Focus Register here

How to Build An Effective Employer Brand Ambassador Programme, Tue 21st May, 2pm BST

How do we improve an organisations 'recruitment capability'? The role of the recruiter in this framing is not just to do all the work but to find ways to activate GenPop to actively support the hiring, whether through EB, brand advocacy, referral promotion and the rest. Think about what this means: if we can get 1% improvement from every colleague when it comes to recruiting support, we would have a significantly improved hiring capability. Lets figure out how to do this: we're with Alex Her, Head of Global Employer Brand (GoDaddy), Vicki Saunders, Founder (EVP Consultancy), Charu Malhotra, Global Talent Attraction Leader (ex-Unilever) and Sam Davies, CEO (Real Links). Register here

AI Skills & Tech Talent Summit, Thursday 23rd May, 1-5pm, The Royal Society, London

What is the state of software development in the era of AI? Perhaps the one sector which stands to be most impacted by artificial intelligence is the sector which did most to bring it about. We're going to review data points from thousands of employers on what skills they are hiring for, how they are assessing for them and what this means for tech hiring. NB: this is for TA AND Tech Leaders, so if you want to bring your CTO, say so...register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep258 - Programmatic Job Advertising: A Masterclass, Fri 24th May, 2pm BST

Programmatic Job Advertising is the truth and it puzzles me that we are not already doing it! I think it is education problem, so I have stolen some time from Joveo Chief Growth Officer Yazad Dalal to give us an overview on how it works. If you want dynamic job ads which deactivate as soon as your pipeline is built, then this show is for you. Register here

How to Make Data Driven Recruitment Decisions in SME's, 28th May, 2pm.

Data Driven Decision making - DDD - was the way in which TA would move away from gut feel hiring and toward the a more objective, fairer and more efficient way of doing things. Can it be done in an SME? And if you're the solo recruiter, what do you need to do in order for it to be effective? We're talking about this in the next episode of the Tribepad Gro series. Register here

EMBRACE Festival, June 5th & 6th

I have been hearing so much about this event. Gero Hesse is the man in charge, and has gone the extra mile in importing a non-German speaker to this two day festival. I am doing to do my best to talk about the state of recruiting, explain the seeming paradox between talent shortage + rising applicant flow, and outline the changing mission for recruitment in the era of GenAI. If you're in Berlin in June 5th and 6th, make sure you come to this event! Tickets 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 at mention me so that I see it

What Are You Doing?

Lots of things happening this week. Lets start with our friends in the FIRM who are running Talent Acquisition Time & Motion Study. This really looks like a survey worth doing - please take 5 minutes to complete!

More surveys, this time from Ludmila Tomperi who is looking for Talent Acquisition professionals to share what they are doing with AI in Hiring. Help out folks, takes 5 minutes of your day.

Jean-Marie Caillaud is looking to learn more about "how people make better talent-related decisions thanks to the data". Where are we with Talent Intelligence? Take another 5 minutes and complete this survey here

James Osborne is doing a survey on Recruiter motivation, called 'Ignite'. This will be critical for recruitment leaders looking to keep energy high in their teams for what looks like another tough year in the trenches. 5 minutes of your time here

Moe Nazariha is Launching OpenShortlist Radio: A New Era for Indie Recruiters - very excited to see this - the indie recruiter is entirely underserved. Love to see this from my friend Moe - looking forward to see this goes. Good luck hombre!

Christopher Rainey launches the world first (?) AI HR resource. It certainly looks like the most comprehensive. Wonderful to see this from Chris, one of the real innovators and community builders in our space. Check out Atlas Copilot, looks like it could be a great resource.

Jim Berrisford is supporting Mental Awareness Week by undergoing the Distinguished Gentleman Ride. Support Jim here

Finally, Darren Bush, Ericsson's Global Head of TA for GFGO has a bee in his bonnet and it's MS PowerPoint(!). Love to see this critique and perhaps the start of a journey of a challenger. Follow Darren on his journey here.

End Note

End of the Premier League, summer seems to be here and I'm hoping that it is possible to synch with people in-person this week - two events I am attending, maybe three. Perhaps I will see you at one of them? Come up and say hello if you are.

Have a great week

Hung

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.