This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 48

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Open Kitchen: Energy In / Energy Out

I really didn't mean to write a Valentine's Day related post today ??.

But a discussion thread in the Brainfood Online Community - on whether recruiters always have a duty to give candidates feedback - got me thinking about the relationships, specifically, which ones we find valuable, nourishing and fair. Outside of the parent / child bond, the common theme in each of the strongest relationships we have seems to be the principle of reciprocity.

Applying this principle - equal energy in vs equal energy out - might be the simplest way to think about and deliver fair candidate experience. It might also a decent way to strengthen the relationships with the people you have in your life.

Some thoughts...

1. Do Candidates Always Deserve Feedback ?

H/T to brainfooder Stephen O'Donnell for kicking off this conversation in such a nuanced way. As Stephen inferred in his post, the socially desirable answer is 'of course, and every time'. However, a little deeper thinking will quickly show us the implementation challenges of applying this as a universal standard - it is practically impossible to give every job applicant feedback on the application.

Applying the principle of reciprocity gives us some idea on what to do about it. If, for instance, we recognise a candidate has adopted a mass job application strategy - applying to every job they see, without doing any due diligence as to their own suitability for them - we can all agree that no feedback would be necessary if he or she is found unsuitable. Inclusion in a mass reject response email to a mass job application is the appropriate response and as much as this candidate can expect. They have given low energy in to the application, so we give low energy out in response.

2. Matching The Effort

Matching the energy expenditure of the job applicant necessarily means the abandonment of universal standards of response. We want to give fair response, not the same response. It might look something like this ??

Where candidate experience becomes acutely problematic is in the top left quadrant - when the candidate does expend a lot of energy - attends interviews, conducts technical tests, gives presentation etc - and then receives low energy response from us in return - let's say, an auto reject email.

Where resource becomes misallocated is the bottom right quadrant - adopting an impossible standard of service, and not moderating our behaviour based on candidate effort and interest. If we did do this, we would deplete our resources which are better applied to other tasks, including focusing on job candidates who have put more energy in.

Top right / bottom left quadrants, we have matched the effort provided by the job candidate and should be safe from a bad CX report.

3. Good Reason Not To Be Too Demanding Up Front

Can we guess at which point we are going to be at risk of bad CX?

We are probably all good up until we overwhelm the candidate with too many stakeholders in 'More synch video'. And when we ask the candidate to take time to complete an assessment, the more intensive and demanding this is, the greater the risk of bad CX in the event of an unsuccessful application. For hiring for devs, it is one reason why paired programming often leads to better CX regardless of outcome - we are matching the time / effort, not just asking the candidate to do a load of work. If we do ask for async assessment, we had better be ready to provide concierge response.

4. Designing An Elastic Approach to Candidate Feedback

One of the conditions of reciprocity is that we cannot actually tell how much energy we need to spend on a particular a job applicant. We might develop standard tiers based on what we want candidates to experience as they go through process (i.e. invest more energy) but we do not know which individual candidate needs what type of response until they move through the process. Hence, we need to have an elastic approach to candidate feedback, one that is able to scale up to match the increase in candidate effort.

It's pretty clear that a full cycle recruiter is going to struggle to consistently do this!

Due to the nature of the recruiter job, where we cannot accurately forecast how easy a job is to fill, we already have a lot of ambiguity in how much capacity we actually have. We might hit absolute limit at any moment, leading to trade offs which inevitably lead to candidate neglect and produce bad CX. The rise of the 'candidate manager' - of recruiters entirely focused on candidate care - is a promising response to the challenge.

We need invest more into this recruiter specialism and build it out as a clearly defined career path, especially if we are hiring at scale.

5. Add +1

So far we have focused on matching the energy; understand that this is the minimum requirement, for your candidates and your personal relationships. Consistently undercutting your partner will lead to bad CX or the end of those relationships. However, you may wish to deepen your relationship and you can do this by the simple task of incrementally and periodically increasing the relative expenditure of effort. This used to be called 'being romantic'. Now you don't want to get involved in a competitive bidding process but you can use this approach to signal your deep appreciate for the other. And if your partner / candidate then reciprocally escalates, chances are you're onto a decent thing. Don't overdo it though, it can become expensive.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody ??.

Comment below if you want more recruitment or relationship advice ??

Out of the kitchen, onto the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

LinkedIn profiles Now visible in Microsoft Teams

The integration of Microsoft and LinkedIn has been so glacially slow that you can sometimes forget that it ever happened. Some signs that public + private data is now being connected, with this latest roadmap update on Microsoft Teams. Given that Teams is usually used in-company, this move probably qualifies as no big deal but it is a sign of the potential MS has of owning the communication infrastructure for knowledge work. Take a look at the Microsoft roadmap here

Phenom acquires Tandemploy

Interesting acquisition by Phenom People, who acquire German based talent market place, Tandemploy. Perhaps the first platform that tried to match non-full time job seekers, Tandemploy was a pioneer in a category destined to grow, especially with the elevated employee demands for greater flexibility. Whether that ever meant job share though, is unclear. Read the press release from Phenom here and from Tandemploy here

Equalture raises €2.8 million

Money continues to flow into work tech, especially assessment tech subcategory, as the shift to remote underlines the need for better ways of understanding an individuals suitability for the job. How about doing it via game based assessment? It's likely to be better than CV / interview. Read the press release 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?

Do your recruiters need to improve their 'tech literacy'? Our buddies at Tech Map have an exclusive 20% discount offer for the next 20 seats on TechMap.app course

TechMap is the one and only course to help tech recruiters (in-house or agency-side) learn all they need about tech, so you can stop winging it! Book a demo and mention #Brainfood to secure your discount!

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?

Founder's Focus - Ep15 - Pedro Oliveira, CEO, Talent Protocol, Wed 16th Feb, 12pm GMT / 1pm CET

Super excited to chat with my buddy Pedro Oliveira about his new project, Talent Protocol. If you wanted to know more about how blockchain can be applied to HR, then TP is maybe the best example currently out there. I believed in the vision so much I actually broke my 'no investment' rule with them ??. So, lets learn about Web3, Lisbon being the crypto centre of Europe and what's its like being a serial recruiting tech entrepreneur. Weds 12pm GMT - register here

Sonic Branding for Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding, Weds 16 Feb, 2.30pm GMT

So I'm going to go straight from Founder's Focus onto this webinar ran by my buddy Martyn Redstone. Conversational interfaces are the future for candidate experience, so how agout thinking about 'sonic branding' - how to design the audio environment to give your candidates the best possible experience. It's experimental, untested and totally here. On at 2.30pm, free to register so have at it here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep143 - TA should (re) integrate with HR, Fri 18th Feb, 2pm GMT

TA has spent the past decade desperately rowing away from HR. We wanted to be our own department, of equal standing, doing a fundamentally different job or so we thought. But do the changing reality brought about by the pandemic change the game again for us here? If we want to do internal mobility, diversify the worker population, practice total talent management, being stuck on talent acquisition looks like a shrinking function to me......we're arguing the case with Kevin Green, Chief People Officer (FirstGroup), Jo Weech, Global Head of People & Talent (Clements Worldwide) & Geraldine Butler-Wright, Chief People & Culture Officer (Healthily). Will be a spicy one folks - register here

7 Future Recruiting Trends for 2022 and Beyond, Thu 24 Feb, 9 am PT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm GMT

So I am actually going to do a presentation here (gasp!). Thankfully, we have Gem's Director of Customer Advisory, Matt Tague to help keep the ship on the course in the hour we have as we discuss the research data from thousands of recruiters we've independently surveyed on what they see are the main themes to tackle in 2022. Not one to miss to folks, even if you do catch it on replay - Thurs 24th, 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT - register here

How to Compare & Evaluate An ATS, Wed 2nd March, 2pm GMT

I can't remember how many times 'the ATS' question comes up in group discussions. Over 200+ products out there in a massively fragmented market, each with its advocates and detractors - how is a recruiter able to tell which ATS is best suited to their needs? My turn now to keep the good ship objectivity on the straight and narrow, as I interview?Nicole Tucker, Talent Acquisition Manager and?Matt Davis, Senior Product Marketing Manager on how recruiters should evaluate ATS's. Register?here

Talent Palooza - Peace, Love & Talent, Thu 7 April, somewhere in Melbourne

So I guess the word is out.....I will be in Australia for 2/3 weeks in April. The reason? Aside from visiting that amazing country, I will be speaking at Talent Palooza, as organised by the amazing Andrea Kirby. Good chance I will be flying out with my good buddy Bas van de Haterd and we will be attending not only this amazing event but also getting involved in a few meetups in Sydney, Brisbane and where ever else we can get to in the time we're there. Obviously, hope to see you there. Tickets on now, register here or comment below if you want a discount code....

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?

People Partner (m/f/d), Oda, Berlin, Germany

Manager of Recruiting, McKinsey & Co, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Senior Recruitment Partner, Cielo, Remote EU

Sourcing Lead, Shopify, Remote EU

Senior Tech Recruiter, Kinsta, Remote EU

Tech Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Mid-Senior Tech Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Business Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tech Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Berlin, Germany

Business Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Berlin, Germany

TA Manager - Tech (In-house), Join Talent, Remote Global

Senior Talent Acquisition Expert - Tech, Habito, London, UK

Senior Tech Recruiter (m/f/d), Hive, Berlin, Germany

Talent Acquisition Lead (f/m/d), Hive, Berlin, Germany

Senior Sourcing Partner, McKinsey & Co, Tampa, FL, USA

Recruiter - Marketing & Sales, McKinsey & Co, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Senior Sourcing Recruiter, McKinsey & Co, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Sr Recruiter / Recruiter - Quantum Black, McKinsey & Co, Manhattan, NY / NJ, USA

Recruiter / Sr Recruiter - Digital, McKinsey & Co, Manhattan, NY / NJ, USA

Recruiter / Sr Recruiter - Digital, McKinsey & Co, Manhattan, NY / NJ, USA

Executive Recruiter / Sr Recruiter / Recruiter, McKinsey & Co, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Blockchain or Fintech Recruiter, OntheBlock, Remote Global

Recruiter - EMEA, SentinelOne, Remote UK, NL or CZ

Embedded Talent Partner, KANDIDATE, Remote EU

Junior-Mid Tech Recruiter, OLX Group, Warsaw, Poland

Global Leadership Recruiter - Technology, OLX Group, Berlin, Germany

Senior Technical Recruiter, OLX Group, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Technical Recruiter, OLX Group, Lisbon, Portugal

EMEA Talent Acquisition Events Lead, Boston Consulting Group, London, UK

GTM / Sales Recruiter, Stream, Boulder, CO, USA

Recruiting Manager, First Mode, Seattle, WA, USA

Senior Recruitment Advisor - German Speaker, Cielo, Berlin, Germany

Sourcing Specialist - German Speaker, Cielo, Berlin, Germany

Technical Recruiter, Cielo, National Capital, Manila, Philippines

Senior Talent Acquisition Partner - Iberia - Spanish Speaker, Cielo, Remote Spain

Recruiter Life Sciences, Cielo, Warsaw, Remote Poland

Senior Recruiter - Russian Speaker, Cielo, Warsaw, Remote Poland

Senior Talent Acquisition Partner (DACH) - German Speaker, Remote EMEA

Principal Consultant, Life Sciences - SE Asia, Horton International, Remote SE Asia

Principal Consultant, Logistics - SE Asia, Horton International, Remote SE Asia

If you want to get your job featured, post jobs on the Brainfood Jobs Job Board?here

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Who's Moving?

Kasia Krotki?joins Shopify as Senior Recruiting Lead, after spending nearly 4 years at Amazon leading the EMEA tech recruiting. Big signing for Shopify, an e-commerce player who is massively ramping up recruiter hiring in 2022!

Nizar Palta joins Bally's Interactive as Global Talent Acquisition Manager, after spending the past 3 years building Sainsbury's digital and technology department. Interesting shift of domain from e-commerce to online gaming, both massive growth sectors.

Jeremy Davison moves up to VP of Sales at Workable, two former colleagues from my agency days doing great things - Dan Sackey, promoted to Head of Projects & Performance at Randstad Sourceright and my old boss Malcolm Kemp, promoted to Managing Partner - Europe, at Renaissance Leadership

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?

Tracy Montour, Head of Product Marketing from HiredScore is running a survey on Diversity & Inclusion in 2022, specifically what are the roadblocks that are stopping you from hitting your D&I objectives. 2 minutes folks, get to it here

Jamie Leonard launches a new newsletter, this time in up close and personal fashion, a behind-the-scenes look at the life and times of an event conference organiser. If you wanted to see what it takes to run some of the largest recruitment conference in the world, subscriber to RecFest Uncensored

Finally, congrats to all those who been included in the famous RL100 for 2022. Maybe the premier private group for in-house recruitment leaders, it is a great to see so many familiar faces get into the club - Becky Foden, Lesa Molinari, Raj Gill, Matt Buckland, Steve Jacobs and many others, great to see you in there, one of the many clubs that (rightly!) won't have me as a member ;-)

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

Busy week ahead, I get the feeling that this is going to be the pattern of play for the rest of this year, as the UK unilaterally decides Covid is 'done' and opens up the economy. Walking around London a bit more and I'm guessing the footfall is around 15% still - so people still staying away for the time being. Half term this week though, and I think once the kids are back in school, it's going to rammed again.

Fingers crossed, I guess.

Have a safe and happy 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.