This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 83

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Open Kitchen: Brainfood On-The-Move

I'm back in London after spending most of last week in Budapest, where I gave a talk at HR Fest 2022. The week before, I was in Lisbon doing a fireside chat at the Future.Works event, the week before that, in Milan and Madrid to deliver a private lecture for a multinational and a Meetup with local recruiters and community members respectively.

There are so many great places to visit and great people to see - I am blessed to be given the opportunity to do it. But I have to change the way in which it is happening. There is too much time spent on traveling, haven't quite figured out integration with BAU and not nearly enough connecting with the local community. This has been on my mind this week as I turn down further opportunities for travel (sorry New York, San Francisco, Berlin!) and rethink how I am going to go about doing brainfood, whilst on the move. As a lot of us are thinking about being more location agnostic, I thought it would be a good topic to discuss for this week's Open Kitchen.

1. Travel Time vs Non-Travel Time Ratio

Most of the travelling I am doing is short haul (yay Europe!) but even though the flights are 2-3 hours in the air, we all know that that they are a 5-6 hour door-to-door commitment and that is if all things run smoothly. The reality is if you're on the move across an international border, the chances are you will spending most of your working day just getting across that border. This is an important factor because it means for short trips (< 3 days), your ratio of time spent traveling is quite high.

An important complication in my situation is that the Brainfood Schedule that I am attempting to keep to. These are fixed points in the diary which require me to be on screen at specific moments in the day and week. As result, travel logistics has to cater around this, especially if those fixed points are livestreams. I never travel on Fridays, because Brainfood Live On Air is always on Fridays.

These constraints result in this type of rhythm, with the above visual is what it might look like if I were to give a talk or host an event on Tuesday. Travel on Sunday because Monday I'm sending out this newsletter and also doing Baked Fresh at 12.30. Deliver the talk Tuesday, Weds I see the Mona Lisa or something and travel has to happen on Thursday in order to make it back in time day before Friday.

It's intense - the ratio of time spent traveling versus time in place is more than 30%. Do this in consecutive weeks and basically you're going to be cooked! What I need to do is improve the 'non-travel time' ratio.

2. Option A: The Don't Go Home Method

One of the ways to do this is simply not to go home when there are consecutive trips. Going back to London HQ after every outbound trip adds on extra flight I didn't need to take so would it make more sense to keep rolling on forward city-to-city? I used to do this pre-Covid, but since pandemic increased the per trip travel risk, I haven't done it since. I do recall it being definitely more efficient but requires some compromises on luggage - you actually need to reduce the luggage your take for multi-city, the discipline to clean your clothes yourself (hand wash end of every day) and the acceptance of severe trade offs in how you appear in the photos ??.

No less a figure than Vitalik Buterin actually wrote a how-to on this, which is well worth a read for anyone who is attempting this method.

3. Option B: Stay Longer Per Place Method

Another way to improve non-travel time ratio is to do less frequent trips but stay longer each time. The 3-4 day stops I've been doing most of this year would feel very different if they were extended to say 10-14 days. In effect, this would be doing a series of working holidays - getting to a BAU mode for the most of the time you're in a new place. One of my buddies is currently doing precisely this but given the expense is generally having to stick to low-cost of living places to do it.

It does look a lot more attractive, though I have never actually done it so would welcome any input from a community member who has!

Some things to do before this approach - presumably you have to eat the cost of maintaining your property at home HQ, or Airbnb it out for the time you're away. If successful, it could well fund the entire trip by recycling the earnings into accommodation costs to the place you're going. Not the main consideration for most, but it would be an increasingly important factor depending on how long you plan to be away.

4. Option C: True Digital Nomadism

This means the abandonment of the HQ entirely and de-couple from any single location. I don't know that many people who have committed to this - it does seem like significant next step. Still, with London property market about the crash, there may not be a better to time to sell up than As Soon As Possible, park the funds somewhere and do a years worth of travel-work.

I've long been conscious of this map. It's a distribution of all the subscribers of Recruiting Brainfood newsletter (subscribe if you haven't already) and you can see how many people and places there are in the world who are part of this community. At a time hostile de-globalisation, I kind of feel that any attempt to maintain connection and strengthen relationships might be a good thing to do. So perhaps I shall pull the trigger, sell my apartment and live out of backpack for a year - what do you think?

Anyways, I am going to be at home HQ for the next 3 months so will be spending that time figuring out the ABC of this. Let me know which option you would take!

Out of the kitchen, onto the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

The Muse Acquires Fairygodboss

Understated move by The Muse, who seem to be signalling a shift toward a more acquisitions focused strategy with the purchase of FairyGodboss, I believe the No1 website for women job seekers in the US. Not much intel other than PR , one to keep an eye on.

Is it over for the Gig Economy?

The proposed legislation from the US Department of Labour mirror those which have been seen in the EU and the UK over the past 12 months. Reclassifying gig workers as employees will have existential threat to the platforms like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash - the share price of all of these falling at least 10 percent upon the news. Good chance this stuff is going to get passed, in which case, where does that leave the workers and the consumers? Read about it here

CareerBeacon Acquires Employer Brand platform Ruutly

Canadian job board and talent marketplace CareerBeacon goes visual with the acquisition of Ruutly, a video storytelling platform. The world is moving away from text, though I suspect job adverts will always be parsed as text before the commitment of time required to view video. Websites will get more interesting though, that's for sure. Read about it 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?

Free e-book, courtesy of JobAdder! I actually wrote this, so there's that. Think carefully then before you grab a FREE copy ??

Download it here , it's easy reading for in-house recruiters.

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?

How to Detect Candidate Fraud in Remote Interviews , 17th Oct, 2.30pm

Have you been victim to candidate fraud? It may be that you have but have not been able to able to prove it, or that you may not even have noticed it. Accordingly to internal operating data from FloCareer, as high as10% of all interviews conducted on their platform are flagged as potentially fraudulent, an extraordinary number and perhaps the first time anyone has been able to collect any data on it. I'm with CEO Mehul Bhatt to figure out how recruiters can detect fraud. Must watch folks here

Compensation Intelligence in a Troubled World of Work , 18th Oct, 2pm BST

We live in an unstable moment folks, as the globalised system unravels in a chaotic and hostile way. We are all going to pay a price for this, not least in economic slowdown. How can we use compensation intelligence to make tough decisions better? What are the ethics of using comp data when making staffing cuts? We're with Rachel Gibbs , Founder (Merities Consulting), Dr Sarah Ali , Global Economist (Radancy) and Virgile Raingeard , CEO (Figures) in the last of a fabulous series on the topic. Don't miss this folks - register here

Hacking EU & UK Tech Hiring: Challenges and Opportunities , 18 Oct, 5pm CET

Only hours later, and I'm back, this time with my buddy Ilya Brotzky , CEO (VanHack) and Kevin De Pauw , CEO (Summ.link) as we discuss what tech hiring looks like in Europe. The world is de-globalising and globalising at the same time. How do we make sense of this, and as employers, what can we do make sure our organisations are best placed to take advantage of this changing landscape? Register here

In-House Recruitment Live , 19th Oct, Business Design Centre, Islington, London, UK

Look at this line up here. We've had to reschedule this due to planned industrial action but if anything the line up looks even better now than it did before. FREE to attend for an in-house recruiter, this event is entirely sponsor supported, so a fantastic opportunity to network and learn from some of the best in the business. I'm moderating one of the stages, so come up and say hello if you're about. Register here

The Great Reconnection: Thursday 20th Oct, 5pm, 14 Bedford Square, London

I rarely attend anything as an attendee any more but I might actually go to this, seems like a really interesting premise and a good opportunity to stretch my social skills by actually talking to people who I don't know and who don't know me. Also in Bedford Square, which I'm pretty sure was the address of my first job in recruitment....Register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep177 - Hard Truths About Startup: Hiring, Firing & Company Culture , 21st Oct, 2pm BST

Is the era of scale up over? What have learned from the experience of these rapid growth / rapid de-growth businesses? We are going to reflect on scale up culture, what makes these businesses different, when they morph from startup to scale-up, and what the next generation of businesses will look like after we - if we - come out of this bear market. With Meggy Sailer , Author (Culture Up), Anessa Fike , Interim Head of Talent Acquisition (NPR) & Robert Krzyzaniak , Global Head of Tech & Product Recruitment (Forto). Register here

The Importance of DEI in Volume Recruitment , 25th Oct, 12pm

Loving this series with our buddies Crooton - it's familiar recruiting issues, viewed through the high volume lens. And it's always interesting to hear stories from recruiters of unique organisations, which the City of London Police certainly is. Me, Daniel Sandhu and others in this conversation on DEI - don't miss this one folks - register here

Hiring Strategies: Planning Ahead for 2023 , Thu 27 Oct, 2.30pm BST

Are you thinking about 2023 headcount folks? I guess we had better be as we're already in Q4. I'm not sure whether it has ever been more challenging to try and figure this out, so I'm with my buddies at Screenloop on a webinar on this essential topic. We're with Danny Hodgson , CEO (Foresight) and Andrea Marston , Senior Director, Global Talent Acquisition (VMWare). 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?

Brainfood Jobs Job Board has moved to a subscription rather than a pay-per-post model. This is not my decision but it's what we've got to roll with, hence I have decided to offer maximum number of jobs, for the lowest cost, for any employer who is hiring for recruiters, HR folks.

Check it out here folks - these prices will stay as they are until the end of the year before review and job roles on the board will be promoted on this space as an additional booster.

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

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Who's Moving?

Ivan Harrison joins Metro Trains Melbourne as Talent Sourcing and Engagement Lead, having spent the past two years a Motor vehicle manufacturer, Club Assist heading up TA. Ivan has been a huge contributor to the community, with his astute observations and commentary on the state of the industry. Also has fantastic hair what do you use for product man?

Noel Brown joins HSBC as Global Head of Talent Acquisition, after spending over a decade leading the TA function at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Some people have such a high achieving career journeys, incredible to think what lessons could be learned from them. Probably need to do Brainfood Live on this, in Noel is up for it

Elenora Valenti joins Amity as VP, Head of People. Lots of interesting things happening in Bangkok, absorbing a lot of talent from Europe, US and APAC. A fair few brainfooders have gone there. Thinking about doing a few months over there - let me know if anyone has any tips / tricks I should know!

Steven Dyer promoted to Director, Talent Acquisition at Arm, Ana Sim?es goes up to Talent Partnership Manager at askblue and finally to my mate Billy McDairmid who - despite having left the industry, remains such a great contributor to it - going up to Director of Customer Success at Hardenize - 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?

James Ellis , Employment Branding hero, has a new Youtube series out where he narrow focuses and deep dives into one EB concept at a time. I'm liking the sound of it. Check it out here .

Richard Collins , former CEO at ClickIQ, finally leaves Indeed.com three years after exiting the company to the aggregation behemoth. It's great to see some friends have this type of success, look forward to seeing what you get up to next Richard, even if it is more holiday with Beverly!

Mervyn Dinnen has finally launched his own podcast, HR Means Business! I'm delighted to see this, after many years of contributing as valued industry commentator and analyst, to hear more of Merv on his own show. Good luck hombre

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 end of the month ahead - loads of events, loads of webinars and some serious planning needed for 2023. What are you thinking of doing differently next year compared to this? Look forward to talking about this a bit more, its another topic which I think we could do with being more transparent about.

All those going to InHouse Recruitment live on Weds, looking forward to seeing you all there!

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.