This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 64

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Open Kitchen:?Deformation, Disorder & Diamond Jubilees

It's the end of the Diamond Jubilee Weekend in the UK, and as we lurch into yet another political crisis at No10 - vote of confidence for King Boris tonight - I thought it would be as good a moment as any to use today's Open Kitchen to sketch out the shocks we have experienced over the past 2 years, which appear to have deformed the global system into a state of permanent disorder.

I do this not to extinguish any lingering optimism but in order to better understand where we are, where we are going and how best we as recruiters & HR people can position for the most likely future conditions. For those who wish to directly go that future proofing, we are doing a Brainfood Live on this very topic on Friday this week, so register here and join and conversation.

So - for the record - I think we are now heading toward a state of stagflation, a fragmentation of the global market into adversarial regional blocs and therefore a permanent reset to a much lower rate of economic growth. Three concurrent shocks have made this happen now.

1. Pandemic Deepfreeze

Remember when the word 'unprecedented' was actually true? Covid-19 was a once-in-a-century contagion, which whilst overdue and widely predicted, nevertheless caught us entirely by surprise, with no country or system adequately prepared to deal with it. For most of us, the pandemic became real when we saw cities, regions and whole countries go into lockdown in an attempt to suppress the spread.

The collapse of global GDP that followed was indeed unprecedented, as economies went into a a kind of deepfreeze, where all but essential workers were told to go home and stay home until it was over. And of course, it was not over in 4 weeks, as poor messaging, porous borders, incredibly poor domestic discipline and zero international coordination meant that the pandemic is still ongoing today, albeit now mitigated by the miracle of rapid vaccine development and roll out.

A lot of people lost their jobs, a lot people lost their businesses, including a great many us in recruiting, who were in many cases the first to go. The Brainfood Hall of Fame and the Brainfood Tribune were started in large part in order to increase the profile of members of the community who saw the value in being more visible during times of economic insecurity. And the Brainfood Marathon brought many of us together - I think - to collectively mourn for futures diverted and deferred.

2. Furlough + Confidence of Dry Powder

[Image credit: Public Spending during the Covid-19 Pandemic 2022)

.....and yet governments worldwide responded, and did so in another unprecedented way - the supporting employers (some of them, at least) by paying employees wages. From Germany's kurzarbeit, France's ch?mage partiel, Ireland's Temporary Wage Subsidy to USA's FPUC, trillions were spent in ensuring non-essential workers who could not go to work, would still be paid enough to feed and house them and their families. We got to learn a new word 'furlough'. Now to be clear, for some, the funds did not go nearly far enough. And I suspect few would be happy continue furlough as permanent state. But for fixed period of time, for many others, this period led to a new understanding of how previously overly dominant work was in our lives. We perhaps began to think, there was another way of living where we work less, spend less - and do something else with our precious time.

We began seeing this sentiment change when the furlough ended and the workers did not come back. The 'Labour Market Paradox' was the conversation in late 2020 / early 2021 as labour market economists puzzled over the missing millions of workers who should otherwise be hyper motivated to return to the workforce. The Candidate Short market, had arrived.

Remember when LinkedIn published the news that 'Recruiter' was one of the most in-demand job titles advertised on this platform? The crisis in hiring in a candidate short (or candidate reluctant?) market had turned into a crisis in hiring the recruiters who were needed to do that hiring. It was a remarkable moment for us - we had never before been so wanted!

Salary inflation inevitably followed, as the laws of supply and demand led to surges in recruiter comp which - yes, were totally unprecedented. The crisis in hiring Recruiters led to another Brainfood innovation - The Brainfood Jobs Job Board, which immediately became saturated with recruiter job postings, so much so that I had to field complaints from what candidates there were, that 'there were too many jobs to review'.

The inability of companies to hire - widely cited as a primary problem in for growth going into 2022 - fed into the frenzy of investment into revolutionary HR or 'Worktech' as employers scrambled for efficiency, automation and reach. I'm sure that George LaRoque will tell you that investment in Worktech startup / scale ups hit record consecutive quarterlies from Q3 2021 to Q1 2022 as VC money pored into companies building the infrastructure for the future work. Remote collaboration, employee engagement, internal talent marketplaces, workforce automation, global payroll provision - you name it, if it was something aligned to new normal of work, it got some easy and often massive funding.

3. Inflation + War

All this meant we were due for a decade of the 'swinging 20's' - a hyper decadent era when we would rush out with new found post pandemic zest for the good things life - sex, booze and jazz bars mainly, I think. After a year plus of not spending much at all, we would go ahead and spend frivolously as we YOLO through the next decade. Coupled with the tech adoption accelerated by pandemic, we would see massive efficiency gains in services, which would in turn be parlayed into yet more desirables which would inevitably find willing customers in a newly avaricious market of epicurean consumers. Inflation we had for sure, but the persistent labour market paradox gave us confidence that there was always going to be a better job with more pay if we ever needed to keep ahead.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine. If there is any event that will put a stop to the music it is the onset of war - war of the sort not seen in Europe since the 1990's. Economic consequences of conflict must always be secondary to the human cost of war, so our focus must remain with the people who are most directly impacted by this conflict - the men fighting against invasion and the millions of refugees displaced internally in country and externally now across the globe. I recommend that you follow my friend Andrew Stetsenko - the founder of such amazing recruiting resources as Relocate.me, GlossaryTech and CVCompiler - who is now operating as a full time emergency aid van delivery driver and fundraiser in support of his people - and support him in any way you can. But economics and conflict are inherently tied and we cannot conduct any forecast without considering what the impact this conflict will have on the global economy.

The world is now in a state of 'hostile de-globalisation'.

Economic sanctions by governments, private sector boycott by multinational corporations, along with the - yes, unprecedented - excising of Russia from the global financial and economic system - has destroyed the vision of a globalised world ordered under imperfect yet universally recognised institutions. This is the globalisation - for all its undoubted inequity - which brought cheaper goods, more purchases, greater growth and higher standard of living as more countries were connected in international trade. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty as a result.

Most of the dominant companies around today are predicated on the idea that such a global world exists, that globalisation is an irreversible trend as the logic of economies of scale supersede temporary reactions by political actors. We only have to look at the mission statements of the big tech companies whose products we used every day to see that this is the world they were building for. The valuations of these companies, and those of every other company which thinks of itself as a global provider, is that the total addressable market is the global market of 8 billion people, not a regional market of 1 billion or 500 million or less. Those valuations are grossly out of whack if the world does indeed fragment into mutually antagonistic blocs.

How to Future Proof Your Recruiting Career?

So where does that leave us in recruiting & HR? I don't know is the truth. The condition of our times is 'unprecedented' so we had best build our personal character and collective strategy around being able to deal with game changing change. That means agile with a small 'a', that means dispersing your risk across a wide area, that means achieving 'informational advantage' through network intelligence. What does all this mean? You'll find out on Friday - so register here

Out of the kitchen, onto the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

Personio acquires Employee Experience startup, Back

Buy or build is the constant question on the agenda of Unicorns with a market to corner; easy decision in this case for Personio, picking up Berlin based Employee Experience platform Back, whose product will be fully integrated into the Personio offering. Rsead the PR here

Utrecht based Smiler raise $8 million Seed Round

Stunningly great idea - can we convert the whole world into photographers, seeing as we all already take a load of photos? Customer gets only the photos they want, not the photographer bill for time. I can see the model being directly applicable to recruiting - perhaps the time has com??e for someone to give this another go? TechCrunch with the PR

Sheryl Sandberg leaves Meta after 14 years

One of the iconic figures in tech, Sheryl Sandberg announces her departure Meta after 14 years service. Sandberg joined Facebook as the 'adult in the room' and transformed its revenue from ￡200 million in 2008 to ￡100 billion in 2021, and through her book Lean In, additionally became a role model for women in the workplace. With Meta seemingly fully focused on the Metaverse, Sandberg's departure marks the definitive end of an era.

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?

A massive 30% off from Cauldron if you book a demo before July 1st

Cauldron is a pre-screening tool which enables employers to set micro tasks for applicants as they apply. Useful for any circumstance but perhaps optimised for high volume applicant flow. Book a demo here

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?

Founders Focus - Ep30 - Up close and personal with Stephen Anderson, MD of Crooton, Tue 7th June, 12.00pm BST

We're back with a double header this week on Founder's Focus - first up is Stephen Anderson, MD of Crooton. Technology innovation from 3rd party recruiters has long been lagging, so this is a great opportunity to get an update on where modern suppliers are responding to market demand. We're up close and personal, on Tuesday - register here

Founders Focus - Ep31 - Up close and personal with Virgile Raingeard, CEO of Figures, Wed 8th June, 12pm BST / 1pm CEST

Compensation tech has been one of the emerging categories in the HR / TA teck stack. In the era of equity (real equity!) the requirement to pay fairly to all employees is a paramount concern for any business leader. We're with Virgile Raingeard, one of the few ex TA practitioners to jump over the fence to vendor side. What has he learned on that journey? Find out on Wednesday 8th June, 12pm BST / 1pm CEST - register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep158 - Recession Proofing Your Recruiter Career, Friday 10th June, 2pm BST / 3pm CEST

This is a tough one to do folks, but one where have to got to get ready for - how to Recession Proof Your Recruitment Career. We're with the amazing Vanessa Raath, Founder (Talent Hunter), Neil Carberry, CEO (Recruitment & Employment Confederation) & Dorothy Dalton, Exec Career Coach (3Plus International) - register here

Talent Acquisition and Solutions Communities Fundraiser for Ukraine, Thu 16 June

It's?Steven Rothberg?and?Andrew Stetsenko organising a 2 hour conference on how to get more applicant flow to your job ads, from the point of view of job board mechanics and SEO. One for the recruitment marketers, especially if you have some sort of interest in making sure you are getting maximum return to your investment. Register?here.

Hired!BCN - The Talent Acquisition Conference, Thu 16 June, Barcelona, Spain

This may be the No1 grass roots TA conference in Europe. Pressure is on as I will be following the likes of Manjuri Sinha, Global Director of Talent Acquisition (OLX) and Pawel Adrjan, Director EMEA Research (Indeed) talking about the market sentiment and what recruiters really want. I think tickets may already be sold out but if you want me to make some enquiries for you, please do comment below and I will see what I can do!

Politics, Religion & Sex in the Workplace, Jun 21, 11.00AM EST

The professional world is no longer separate from the personal and the old management technique of 'leave your opinions at the door' on the topics of politics, religion and work are no longer tenable. What do we, as TA / HR leaders need to do about this? How do we manage it? I don't know but I think we need to have a conversation about it. Join me and?Alex Murphy?and lets have a civilised discussion about it. Register?here

Inspire 2022 Executive Summit, Thursday 23rd June, 1pm, 30 St Mary's Axe, London

Private event folks, but as a speaker I can invite people to attend. CHRO / HRD level, talent and tech execs to discuss real challenges, share insights and connect with the community - at St Mary's Axe, a.k.a The Gherkin. Steve Lucas will be there, as will I. Don't let these facts put you off tho ;-). Message me directly if you want an invite or email?[email protected]?and mention my name.

SOSULead, 30 June, 12.45pm, Online

Like the idea behind this latest iteration of SOSU - focus on the leaders of sourcing departments and figuring out what the common themes might be in order to be an effective leader in today's recruiting world. One I think for anyone in leadership positions or otherwise aspires to it. Register here and discount code: BRAINFOOD10 for 10% off ticket prices.

DisruptHR London, 6 July, The Royal Institution, London, UK

DisruptHR is the type of event which is guaranteed fun and educational - standard format for all the speakers, who have (5 mins?) to talk on their specific topic and then have to handle the crowd. Hosted by the amazing?Tim Sackett, this is the perfect appetiser for Recfest the next day. Get your ticket?here

Recfest, Thu 7th July, Knebworth, UK

Look at the line up at the Employer Brand & Experience stage. Myself and?Christine Ng?will have the honour of hosting this incredible line up with guest speakers coming in from US and Europe to talk about how to connect with present and future employees. It's one of FIVE stages that will be going on during the day, never mind the hundreds of sponsor stands, live entertainment, and - I daresay - a fairly convivial atmosphere. It's going to be the TA event of the year folks - get you and your team to it, fantastic team building & L&D - get your 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 @ mention me so that I see it

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Who's Hiring?

Talent Acquisition Partner, Join Talent, London, UK

Talent Acquisition Lead, GSK, London, UK

Technical Talent Sourcer - Remote, ThoughtSpot, Remote USA

Sales Recruiter - EMEA - Remote, ThoughtSpot, Remote UK

Talent Acquisition Lead - US, GSK, San Francisco, CA, USA

Technology Acquisition Partner (Go To Market EMEA), Join Talent, Remote Global

International Talent Acquisition Specialist, iDeals, Berlin, Germany

Talent Acquisition Manager (German Market), Choco, Berlin, Germany

Talent Acquisition Manager, Choco, New York, NY/NJ, USA

Business Recruiter, Choco, Berlin, Germany

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

Talent Partner - Germany, KANDIDATE, Remote Global

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?

Rob Long boomerangs back to Workable, rejoining now as CHRO after spending nearly a decade leading the sales, marketing and partnerships arm of the business. Credit to Workable for immediately retrieving exec talent temporarily lost!

Guillaume Alexandre joins Meta as Tech Sourcer, Reality Labs. It was always going to take an amazing opportunity to get one of the great sourcers of our industry to go full time, and there can be few which are more attractive than helping Mark Zuckerberg build the Metaverse. Amazing move, just sorry that we might lose Guillaume from the speaker circuit as a result.

Ewa Zajac joins Social Talent as Talent & Learning Advisor after spending time as at Intercom and Zendesk in recruiting and talent ops roles. I can say 'I knew Johnny before Social Talent' ?? and it is quite amazing to see the development of this recruiter (and now sales) enablement agency. Great move by Ewa, great change of pace

Erin Mathew joins PayPal as Senior Talent Sourcer after working in Maxar Technologies as Strategic Talent Sourcing Manager. There are many pathways to success and it is great to see TA follow the example of engineering in creating new career development paths that don't always mean 'more management'. Look out for Erin who returns to Brainfood Live later this month.

Brittany King joins The Kraft Heinz Company as Senior Manager Talent Acquisition, Talent Intelligence and Diversity after spending the past year with Meta as Diversity Recruitment Lead, Software Engineering.

Adrian Holtham joins Atlassian as Senior Recruiter - Engineering, after spending time with the likes of Amazon, IRESS and Zendesk

Finally, some promotions to celebrate - John Scrooby promoted to the top job as Chief People Officer at Masabi, Bianca Alves goes up to Senior People Business Partner at ProductsUp and Wiebke Günther?who is promoted to Senior HR Manager at Peakwork - 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?

Simon McSorley survey request is conducting a survey on Recruiter market sentiment. 5 minutes worth of your time - give your input and help give us all a picture of what we are seeing on aggregate. Do it here

Christy Spilka, newly appointed to the Board Liaison at ATAP, is looking for speakers to present at the 2022 Global TA Day. Complete the survey here, if you want to appear!

Paul Karrmann steps into the world of recruitment technology, and launches a new product ebats.io, a candidate relationship management tool. On the look out for beta testers, early adopters and a tech co-founder. Get in touch with Paul directly

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

Going to be in Barcelona from Thursday, through to next Saturday, so I hope I will get a chance to see some of you if you're in town. I'll doing the next two episodes of Brainfood Live from Spain, in case you get puzzled as to the change in backdrop.

Have a great week everybody

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.