This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 56

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Is remote work already established at your company??By now we know that offering hybrid and remote working can help companies expand their pool of talent and attract candidates by accommodating greater flexibility.?

Half Your Staff Are Thinking of Leaving – Here’s Why

The bad news? Some 46% of employees in Europe’s small and medium-sized companies plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months. That number alone shows a very clear change in the needs, wants and opportunities at hand for top talent.

Now, onto the good news: We delved into why more and more employees are thinking about quitting their jobs, and what factors would help them stay. Teaming up with the market research institute Opinium, Personio conducted a pan-European study to dig deeper.

In the process, we discovered some eye-opening insights – alongside a host of possible solutions and strategies for organisations to retain their best talent.

Get the insights you need – read our HR study in full.

Personio is the People Operating System that gives HR teams time to focus on what really matters: people. We’ve helped 6,000+ companies in Europe to automate people processes and free up time for more strategic work, enabling HR to go beyond HR.

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Open Kitchen: Far Out: 5 Mega Trends for Recruiters in 2022

Forecasting the future is a fools errand, but it's probably more guessable than we think.

One method is to zoom out from industry level and observe the contradictions of the existing systems we inhabit and imagine what might happen if those contradictions were to be exacerbated or alleviated. We might be able to see a version of the near future in which we will have to operate and zooming back in to industry level, we can then figure out what our near future options might be - before we need to make them - and ideally ahead of the competition.

There are tons of trends out there to examine, but I want to discuss 5, because I believe they are currently under observed, and yet have direct relevance to the work we do as recruiters.

1. Geo-political Risk to Remote Anywhere

Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the prospect of building a truly location agnostic, remote only company seemed like an inexorable and enticing future for anybody in business. Talent was global and smart employers are going to have a globalised talent sourcing strategy to hire the best (and best bang for buck...), no matter where they were located on the planet. The ones which were going to win were the ones who got with the programme the quickest and out-hired the competition.

Whilst this dream is not yet folly, the events of the past 50 days have shown us the enormous geopolitical risk of having employees in different countries. If the world does indeed continue fracture in the competing and mutually antagonistic blocs (hint: it's gonna), it may be impossible for a true remote anywhere hiring policy to survive.

[image: wikipedia. Countries who have sanctioned Russia]

Note which countries are highlighted green in the above map, compared to those in grey. Most of us reading this essay will be living in one of those green countries. These are the richest countries on the planet, with the most powerful companies. When we talk about 'talent shortage' we are generally referring to conditions affecting employers in these countries.

Now have a think about which countries which we might be thinking about 'setting up a sourcing hub' in or building up a customer service department or a training a local engineering team. Most of those places are in coloured grey - less rich countries, less powerful businesses, more impoverished people - who with no less talent than any of us - nevertheless do not have the same opportunities or standard of living, and hence would be potentially great employees for a globalised, location agnostic business.

In the near future, these prospective employees may well be in a different regional bloc in a mutually antagonistic, chaotically de-coupled, de-globalising world. Think about data transfer; think about national security legislation; think about all the cloud / communication / collaboration tech which was built for a more benign globalised world, that we can safely say no longer exists.

Recommendation - Remote-to-Relocate / Remote but in-Country

Two options for employers appear most relevant. Remote-to-Relocate will be one niche option which will become mainstream - this is to source and connect and engage candidates from remote anywhere, but with an agreed plan to relocate after a certain period of engagement. Turns out this may be the ideal way to attract, assess and onboard remote workers anyway, so it is about to get a massive inadvertent boost from geopolitical fall out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The second channel - Remote in-Country - preserves the attractiveness of work flexibility, but sets the barrier that any employee needs to be in-country in order to be an employee of the organisation.

For some cool companies in these two latter spaces, check out Localyze and Relocate.me

2. Collapse of the Hybrid Hype

This time last year, we had achieved something near ideological consensus that the future of work was going to be hybrid. All the cool big tech companies publicly endorsed hybrid and made it official policy, whilst employers who went full remote and gave up their offices remained niche. Those employers who did commit to full on-premise, were widely lambasted for being antediluvian cranks.

[Image: David Solomon, CEO Goldman Sachs, BBC 2021)

There was always a sense though, that the hybrid consensus had emerged without a great deal of debate about the merits / demerits of this working mode, whilst almost entirely excluding the warnings from companies who were remote first pre-Covid, who had explicitly warned against hybrid as a bad and unworkable option.

I guess it was one of those which we needed collective 'experiential learning' to find this out for ourselves. The problems with hybrid are numerous and am I sure now pretty familiar to most of us now: no return of the office atmosphere (office always half empty), commute in only to zoom all day anyway, obvious risk of proximity bias in favour of in-person on premise employees (literally presenteeism), poor employee experience for early entry workers, massive cultural overhead involved in keeping remote / on premise employees 'on the same page'. The list goes on. The benefits of hybrid? Nothing but the avoidance of conflict with employees who say they want it.

Recommendation - Commit to working mode and stick to it.

If you are a CEO and your version of hybrid is basically kicking the can down the road for the fear of losing employees, then you need to realise you have finally ran out of road. Make the decision now - full remote, or full on-premise and brace for the workforce population change as employees decide what is going to be right for them. If you do decide to retain an office and offer remote, define hybrid in such a way that all employees know what it means. It will almost certainly be a version of 'hybrid fixed' i/e Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday on premise etc, rather than 'hybrid max' i/e employees can do what they want, when they want.

3. Old Plumbing, New Pressure

12 months of the candidate shortage - along with pandemic re-evaluation of the meaning of work - has fundamentally shifted the expectation we as workers and job seekers have from employers. We have hugely elevated demands for flexible working, massive escalation on salary expectations and concurrently elevated expectations to candidate experience.

[Image: Careerarc 2021]

In short, candidates are no longer tolerating previously accepted inevitabilities of the job search - the information gaps, lack of feedback, lack of transparency, lack of control, excessive assessment load. Candidates may even be renegotiating the inequity of relationship throughout the process where one side was always supplicant (candidate) and the other was always the benefactor (employer).

The problem we have is that the old plumbing, can't handle the new pressure. If we are honest, they never could, but we got away with it because the balance of power was always against the candidate, and the continuing globalisation of the past 30 years meant an successively expanding pool of candidates who would in turn tolerate the intolerable in order to get a chance of an acceptable standard of living.

[Image: my own awesome design, respect pls]

The above image is a diagram of the 'candidate information supply chain'. Information stops at each discreet stage, goes through some sort of interpretative information handling / processing process, before being moved to the next discreet stage. At each point - each link in the chain - a human being could stop or slow down the process, leading to vital information reaching the candidate way too late or not at all.

Recommendation - Get rid of the information supply chain model. Open source collaboration has shown us the value of working out in the open (heck, what do think Open Kitchen is most of the time?) - it changes the need to ferry information in stages. Instead you create a digital space which operates as the single source of truth for all of the stakeholders in process. It's pretty simple proposition and it has been tried and tested in open source projects for years. Why not in recruitment? New products already on the way dealing with dismantling the information supply chain - check out our buddies Guide.co as perhaps the most prominent dedicated example.

4. Erosion of the Distinction between Agency to RPO to In-house Recruiters

In the before times, the distinctions between what type of recruiter you were was stark and clear. Agency recruiter delivered services from outside of the end employer (in fact to multiple end employers in their client portfolio), an in-house recruiter would be an employee of that employer, whilst the RPO's would pretend to be an employee of that employer, but really be an external supplier to the company.

[Image: also my own design]

Turns out, physical location was a significant determinant to which type of recruiter you actually were. Agencies were always off client site as it would prohibitive to portfolio work on other customers should they be physically on-location with the client. RPO on the other hand, would be always onsite, for precisely the same reason - to preclude work for any other client, by dint of being physically on a single customers location. With in-house recruiters, the terminology would not apply because of course they would be onsite alongside their non-recruiter colleagues as full employees of the business.

The shift to remote changes everything about how each of the services were experienced by the customer. The recruiter - whether you were agency, RPO or in-house - were always offsite, and hence the service was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between one and the other, especially at the operational level.

Recommendation - huge opportunity for recruitment agencies to deliver different service models. We can see a future where staffing providers may provide a selection of service / payment offerings priced according to level of supplier commitment from lowest level CV service, all the way to fully committed in house recruiter, perhaps even in on-demand manner. Mass entry of agencies into RPO should reduce cost, increase choice for customers, whilst also providing new markets for agencies who can grasp the opportunity and fulfil the need.

5. Erosion of the barrier between Market vs Company

Pandemic, economic lockdown and shift to remote created push / pull factors for flexible working, which inevitably weakens the barrier of what is inside-the-company vs outside-the-company. There was a long term trend pre-pandemic in any case for greater flexibility of the workforce population, a trend which pandemic only accelerated as painful decisions on mass redundancies educated employers on the value of a scalable rather fixed state workforce.

The above chart is taken from a Deloitte research paper from 2017 - three years before pandemic - which clearly shows an already existing employer interest in what was then called 'alternative workers'.

Employers now have a plethora of resourcing options for these alternatives to FTE's - reduced time workers, full time jobs that shared between workers, resources from gig platforms (which are increasingly diversifying and specialising often into high end professional skillsets), partnering with worker collectives and so on.

Workers equally have the corresponding options, their optionality based on how much they are able to leverage demand for their skills. For many of the highly skilled, in-demand, a FTE no longer represents the pinnacle career objective, requiring as it does significant compromises on freedom of movement and freedom of trade.

When push / pull factors align with incentives for both sides of the market, you can be sure that market will change. We are going to see flexible jobs and flexible companies. The soft erosion of what a company actually is - a discreet organisation separate to the external market - will continue as workers flow in and out of a company, under different conditions of commitment. Perhaps companies will end up in a way long speculated by the great Kevin Wheeler - as mere brand propositions, directed by a small core of stakeholder FTE's, and surrounded by a rotating cast of freelancers, workers from gig platforms, worker collectives with whom it creates potentially long term, impermanent, non-exclusive relationships.

Recommendation - Retain the relationship not the candidate / employee. We are not going to 'keep' 'our' people. In fact, we should give up trying to do so. This type of constraint might have been effective in a world that has less alternative options for workers and is modelled on the idea of ownership in which employees were closer to indentured servants than they are to free agent workers temporarily collaborating with you on shared interests. What we do need to do is ensure that our treatment of workers - from the beginning of the candidate journey to - yes - the end of their working life - is such that this person would wish to work with us in future, regardless of the contractual relationships we end up having. This should mean more investment in CRM and more investment in new roles such as community manager, community advocate and the like.

So, 5 Mega Trends that Recruiters might want to think about for 2022 and beyond. Love to hear your thoughts, and indeed, any other trends that might be worth exploring. And if you're in Sydney on Weds, I'll be delivering a talk on this topic so come and heckle me then.

Out of the kitchen, onto the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

Remote raise $300 Million Series C round

Who would have thought that payroll would be the most exciting segment in recruitment? The race is on between Remote, Oyster HR, Deel and a host of spunky new entrants as to which solution is going to be the one which employers use to pay employees from 'anywhere'. Remote raise another 300 million, so expect all the other players to follow with investment news soon. Read all about it here

IntelyCare raises $115 Million Series C

VC money continues to pour into platforms focusing the changing patterns of work. Flexible, long term healthcare workers? No greater need in the market today. IntelyCare raises Series C to continue the build of its marketplace product. Read the PR here

ImaliPay raises $3 Million Seed round

More investment into flexible working, this time looking at the financial infrastructure for gig workers in Africa. The opportunity is there for Africa to finally emerge as a powerhouse in the near future - young population, high birthrate, shift to remote opening the door previously locked by anti-African immigration policy. Techcrunch with the report 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?

We are going to continue to make space available to help with people and organisations suffering from the war in Ukraine. Andrew Stetsenko , who continues to do so much for his countrymen and women, and we should not forget the many organisations which have suffered during this time of war.

Please find here a list of Ukrainian recruitment companies which are available for RPO / partnership. If you are a employer who needs recruitment support or a recruitment supplier yourself that can't hire recruiters, here's your chance to get some super skilled people into your squad. Contact direct via the details in this AirTable

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?

Recruiting Trends: The Global Trends you need to Embrace in 2022 , Weds 13th April, 2.30 - 6.30pm AEST, JobAdder 10 Bond Street, Sydney

Excited to visit our mates at JobAdder's offices this week - not least because of the chance to share the stage with Bas van de Haterd and Greg Savage - two of the smartest people in the recruiting business. Looking forward to learning from these two gents, as well as from the interaction with the crowds. Free to attend, at JobAdders superb office location in Sydney. Register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep150 - Leadership Fitness (for a Remote First World) , Fri 15th April, 11am HKT / 1pm AEST

Gonna say it now - there is not a more thoughtful writer on LinkedIn than Dr Richard Claydon . If you don't believe me, just click on his profile and scroll through some of his posts. The man has mastered the 'long-form-in-short-form' style of essay writing, creating incredible conversations with his intelligent and well meaning provocations. I'm delighted to be in the similar enough time zone to get to have a proper conversation with him. We're on this Friday, 1-2-1, talking Leadership Fitness for the Remote First World. Can't miss this one folks - register here

New Perspectives - Unbiased Day 2022 , Thurs 28 April, 8.15 - 11.30

I'm doing a talk on on 'new DEIB' - the inclusion challenges that come from a remote first way of working. Might see some Metaverse here, if I have time to put the slides together. Will be alongside some great speakers and thought leaders from Sweden, I am deeply honoured to be invited to take part in this event! Register here

Become a Modern Agency Talent Wants to Work With , Tues 3rd May, 10.00am EDT / 15.00pm BST / 16.00pm CEST

I'm excited to be invited to interview Gerald Hetrick , VP of Talent Experiences at Bulhorn, on the challenges and solutions faced by modern recruitment agencies. How can agency recruiters create better candidate experience? How to become a recruitment agency which in-demand candidates want to work with? Critical questions to answer - join us to debate them. Register here

Greenhouse Open Day , 24-25 May, Javits Center in NYC

I've been meaning go to this event for several years, and I am delighted to confirm that I'll finally be able to make it! Thank to Dinah Alobeid and Carin Van Vuuren for your persistence and patience. Going to be great to see all the Greenhouse brainfooders out in New York, as well as the many customers who also sub to the newsletter. In fact, I expect the subscribers in the New York area to sign up and show up to this two day event, probably the best vendor managed conference in our space today. Register here

Hired!bcn , Thursday 16 June, Hotel Alimara, Barcelona, Spain

You just got to look at this line up - some fantastic speakers covering the state of the recruitment industry, including the state of the recruitment of recruiters. Another one which I'll be joining, as I actually plan to be in Spain from the beginning of June and do a two week tour of the country. Make sure you turn to the premier recruiting event in the country. Super early bird price has gone but prices are still a bargain to be had. Register here and see you there!

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?

Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist - Technology , Jet2, Leeds, UK

Head of People , Tender Foods, Boston, MA, USA

Talent Consultants , TQ Solutions, Remote Global

Talent Partner , Singular Talent, Cardiff, UK

Senior Talent Executive , Singular Talent, Cardiff, UK

Talent Partner , Solutions Driven, Remote Global

Human Resources Business Partner , Brad's Deals, Remote USA

Recruitment / Talent Specialist , TransFICC, London, UK

Talent Sourcer , Full Umbrella Talent, Remote US

Furniture Sourcing Specialist , Horton International, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

HR Specialist / Office Manager , Xolo, Tartu, Estonia

Partner, Life Sciences, SE Asia , Horton International, Remote Global

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

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

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Who's Moving?

Steve Jacobs joins Wayfair as Head of Talent Acquisition - Business, Europe & Asia. Anyone who knows Steve will know that he is going to 'bring it' in his new role, with one of the most exciting internet companies in Europe. Hugely experienced recruitment leader with previous stints at Ivalua, Upfield, Devoteam, Voi Technology, Freespee and many others. Looking forward to seeing how you get on hombre!

Amy Wolcott joins The Lattice Group as VP and Chief Connector having spent time with such great companies like The Muse, Sprout Social and Yello. Big step up in seniority and organisational responsibility in this latest role - fantastic to see this classic career progression!

Tristan de Kooker joins Recruitee as Partnerships Manager, after a fantastic 5 year stint at VONQ. Takes a particular type of talent to operate in the partnerships space - domain know-how, deep cultural intelligence and excellent business acumen. Great hire by Recruitee!

Daniel Pangritz joins HRS Group as Head of HR Business Consulting and Transformation, having spent time in HR and TA roles with keinbaum, Innogy and RWE

Nina Gordon joins Pleo as Employer Brand Manager after spending time in Content and Marketing roles with Dojo, Jolt and Hunted.

Congratulations to Aaron Hayhurst promoted to Head of Delivery at Spectrum Search, Adam Reid moves up to Recruitment Team Lead at Miro, Heidi Wassini goes up to Global Head of Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding at Vivino and finally to my good mate, Chris Raw who moves forward in a new role with SmartRecruiters, now as Strategic Customer Success Executive. Wonderful to see recruiters thrive vendor side, this is a transition many more of us could and should make. Congratulations 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?

Personally, I am trying to party and work at the same time

How about you? Comment below if you have any personal projects / initiatives / campaigns that you want more people to know about.

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

I've been on the Ocean Road with Bas van de Haterd and Andrea Kirby most of the day. Did you know that the road was built as a public works scheme for demobilised soldiers returning from World War I? You can travel far in this world, but you're never going to be far from the world of work.

Have a great week folks.

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.