This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 89

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Open Kitchen: Big List of Recruiting & HR Events to Attend In 2023

Have you been to an in-person event this year?

I have and I am delighted to see that they're back. Don't get me wrong, I love the odd online webinar (see the 'What's Going On' segment for evidence of this ??) and particularly think livestream is under used in our industry, but there is something about in-person events which provides vitality back into the industry. Got me thinking as to what 'this something' is and I thought it would be a good discussion topic for this week's Open Kitchen segment.

First things first though, lets crowdsource some intelligence as to what is going on next year. Here is the Big List Of Recruiting & HR Events to Attend in 2023 - click on this to see it and if you notice an event you are attending or hosting yourself that is not already there, add it to the bottom of the sheet and I will merge it in date ordered by the COB today. Make sure you share this sheet PUBLICLY with your network on LinkedIn - the more recruiters see it, the more chances we're going to get a comprehensive document of all the relevant events for us next year. Cheers!

So why are recruitment events so necessary? 5 reasons....

1. We Don't Go Out Much Any More

The shift to remote and general increased work flexibility has meant that our social interactions with non-family contacts has significantly decreased in both quality and quantity. By and large, we don't mind this (!) because we truly value the increase of agency with which we spend our time, but we are also missing the opportunity to commune with our colleagues and peers in industry. Turning up 'on spec' to the office does not achieve this, as without the coordination of a central authority, not enough people will coincidentally time their forays in order to create the serendipity of unscheduled interactions which make in person connections so stimulating. Industry events are becoming one of the primary ways in which this is achieved - providing guaranteed opportunities to refresh social relationships and increase our sense of group belonging. Events then, are good for mental and social health!

2. Shared Experience Builds Company Culture

We have a problem with culturally onboarding new hires. Previously we may got away with this by just getting everyone to show up every day at the same place, and having individuals learn 'how it works around here' by observation and osmosis. However, in the distributed setting, these lessons are fewer and further between, especially as relationships with people you may have never met can remain under-developed as asynchronous nature of the communications tend to be specific and utilitarian. Events, especially hosted by 3rd parties, are an outstanding way of strengthening social bonds by subjecting team members to the same safe yet unpredictable experience. 'Go to this event and speak to people' isn't undoable but it is a little outside of the normal and would definitely qualify as shared experience. I suspect an increasing percentage of event attendees will be those on team tickets - not especially for the content or the networking, but for the team building. Correct me if you disagree folks!

3. Offline Information Improves Online Reports

There are two categories of knowledge - the type that you read about on the Internet and the type that you hear or experience directly in the real world. Both are essential for us to better understand the forces which shape our environment, and they can each serve as a brake to the other, avoiding the overly confident conclusions which often emerge when we rely only one category. The shift to remote has massively shifted knowledge acquisition to online sources, to the extent that we rarely have the opportunity to counter pose with knowledge in person interaction. How much more time are we spending online than we did in the before times? I would say at least 100% more for me. And whatever the degree of increase, I'm pretty confident that no one will say they have reduced time spent online today, compared to say, 2019. Events are a perfect antidote to the overconsumption of online media, a rebalancing of the type of information we fill our heads with and moderating influence on the some of the opinions we might be overly keen to hold.

4. Most Efficient Way To Deepen Digital Relationships

You can make friends exclusively online. I am proof - I am your friend ??! However, when you do get the chance to meet people you have connected with online, it truly does deepen that already great relationship you have. There is additional information exchange that places in person which is vital for relationship building - touch, sight, smell - are all vectors for information exchange which helps us understand where the other is coming from. Now we won't always have improved relationships as a result of meeting digital friends in-person, but I've largely found that improved relationships is indeed what usually happens when you meet a person for the first time at an event. I get it - I'm not ignorant to the fact I'm doing an unusual role in the industry, but I do think the responses would be the same were I still operating as a recruiter or a recruitment tech founder. Events are also the most efficient way of doing this with a large number of people. Think about how many coffee meetings you'd have to have were it not for in person events. Your engagements are shorter, greater in number and less stressful due to the 'no agenda' nature of the meeting. So, avoid 1-2-1's and instead get people to events and reconnect with them there!

5. Increase Collective Network Value Leads to Common Prosperity

Zooming out from all of this in-person networking, if we sum the value of 1-4 for everyone who attended in person events, we can see that the overall strength of the industry network will be significantly improved if we keep doing it. We each emerge with stronger relationships from people we knew before, more relationships with people we now know as a result of meeting them at an event. x 200 or however many people attended the event, and we can visualise the increase in overall network health. We should not under estimate when we might need to lean on the health of that network - it already is the key avenue for career opportunity for many of us, and compares significantly better than the vagaries of the open market. As we head into 2023, it will of course be another year of shocking surprises, and we need to feed the health of the network we're all a part of, so that we can each gain value from it should the need arise.

So here is the Big List of Recruiting & HR Events to Attend in 2023 again. Make sure you bookmark it, add to it, and share it. See you at an event in 2023

Now out of the kitchen, onto the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

Gen Z Job Matching Platform Placed Raise $4 Million Investment Round

They say only real change is generational, and maybe the moment is right for the 'no CV' job matching platform. Excited to see Placed continue on this journey, some exciting startups in this space, encouragingly many still based in the UK. Have a read here

Dublin-based Twitter Executive Secures Injunction to Prevent Dismissal

Elon Musk's fait accompli style of management might meet its match in the form of the mighty bureaucracy of the European Union. Sinead McSweeney, the group’s global vice-president for public policy, has won an injunction against Twitter, who can't use the 'presumptive close' on employee resignations. It's a fascinating story , and warning for any CEO tempted to follow Musk's approach!

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?

FIVE FREE months on Occupop if you sign up before 31st December!

Start your hiring new year off right with this amazing offer throughout the month of December with?Occupop, a beautifully simple recruitment software built for SMB's.?Sign up on any annual plan by 31st December and get 5 months discounted off your plan! *That's a total of 5 months free with their regular discount applied. Applies to annual contracts only. If you're looking for your first ATS, this is the deal folks - Book a demo today

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 - Ep34 - Up close and personal with David Rivel, CEO of Clinch / PathMotion , Wed 30th November, 10.00am GMT / 11.00am CET

Looking forward to this chat with David Rivel ?- we've known each other for years but never really had a chance for a proper conversation. This is going to be it - Founders Focus is the show where we get 'up close and personal' with the people changing the way we work and recruit today. Of interest to any entrepreneur, business leader or forward thinker in the realm of recruitment! Register?here

Transforming Reactive TA function to Strategic Advisors, ?Thu 1 December, 2.30pm GMT

It's a perennial question folks, which means we are very far from having figured this out. What does it take to move our recruiting function from tactical delivery to strategic consultant? This is not just departmental ego, but essential for creating the conditions where effective recruiting can actually take place. We're going to find out with Danny Hodgson , CEO (Foresight), Tony de Graaf , Global Director, Hiring Success (SmartRecruiters) and Charlotte Johns , Global Talent & Communications Director (Elide Lily) - register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep183 - Psychology of Redundancy: Mental Health Tips for Recruiters Affected , Fri 2nd December, 2pm GMT

Important one folks, as the truth of the matter is we are heading toward much tougher times than we've hitherto been used to. There has been a great practical response already from the industry to help our colleagues who have been laid off, but I'm not seeing much in terms of psychological support, especially in understanding what impact redundancy actually has on a person's mind and spirit. We're going to get psychological on this folks, as we explore the case; with Linnea Bywall , Head of People, (Alva Labs), Kristian Bright , Recruitment Lead (Rooser), Octav Buzoianu , Lead Tech Recruiter (Snyk) & Katrina Zlateva-Bowles , Founder (PeopleHealers). Register here !

How to Leverage the Power of Silver Medalist Candidates , Wed 7th December, 11am ET / 4pm GMT

Last in an amazing four part series with our friends at Fetcher, with whom we've had some great conversations on the practical challenges of recruiting. This one is a focus on what to do with great candidates who don't get the job. The usual answer is 'nothing' which is a massive waste of investment! Something we could and should do differently and we've got Wendy Landaverde , Senior Techncial Recruiter (Magnite), Dubi Ben-Shoham , Head of Talent Acquisition (Socotra) and Mark Tortorici , Sourcing Manager (Meta) to help us give us some guidance as to how - register here !

The Champions of talent: Empowering Recruiters and Elevating Recruiter Experience. (Pt.4) , Thu 8 December, 10.30am CT / 4.30pm GMT

Candidate experience, Employee experience - even Hiring Manager experience. Everyone in the recruiting process gets understanding apart from us recruiters! And yet without focus on recruiter experience, there is zero chance of anyone else have a great time in the process. This is the series where we centre the recruiter experience and learn about how to create the circumstances where great work can be done. With Kara Eisenberg , Senior Director Talent Acquisition, (ATD) - 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 & Who's Available?

OK so this is actually working - Brainfood Talent Collective now has 100+ immediately available recruiters and HR people, and now with a dozen or so employers who are now able to directly contact them!

Whether you are hiring for recruiters or a recruiter / HR person who has been made redundant and / or is ready to start conversations, join the collective here . Code for employers for FREE use is: BTCFREE2022. Get to it folks, lets make sure people get jobs lined up asap.

See above if you're hiring for recruiters

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Who's Moving?

Melanie Gretgrix ?joins Atlassian as Global Head of Talent Acquisition - Campus and Early Careers, after 6 years with EY. Great to see a tech company like Atlassian focus on early career talent - hiring tech talent is not going to get easier, going to make sense to make the talent yourself!

Georgie Maudslay joins Bloomberg as Talent Acquisition Partner - Data. A fellow University of St Andrews Alum(!) - I wonder how many of us are there in the industry, seems there should be a group ??. Congratulations on the move Georgie.

Alma Estefania Prado ?joins RAPP as Recruitment Manager, after leading TA with team x, and as Senior IC with Twilio and N26. Some great experience in the halcyon days of tech startup - these are going to be great bedrock for future action.

Michael Carter joins Industrial Light & Magic as Talent Acquisition Manager, after spending two years with Warner Bros and before then, with DAZN. Two things I like about this career path - working in the entertainment industry and the opportunity to experience new places to do recruiting!

Joanna Sitarz join SaaS group as Senior Tech Recruiter. First connected with Joanna, I think back in the Backbase days, when remote working was still a marginal activity. Thanks for the being a pioneer on this Joanna - great to see this next move.

Some promotions to celebrate: Dess Trampova promoted to People + Talent Operations Manager at Castor, Elena Kleshkova ?goes up to Team Lead Recruiting a HEADFOUND and my mate Jennifer Mullen continues her upwards trajectory at Intuit, adding US sales hiring to her remit as Global Director of Talent Acquisition - 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?

Emma Mirrington and Laura King are finalising the FIRM's TA salary survey. This is one of the few opportunities for UK TA recruiters to properly benchmark their salary. Take 5 minutes and complete this and make sure you get the report!

Jan Tegze has a new Substack. If you know Jan's writing you know that this is well worth a subscribe.This one is on the Job Search - subscribe here

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 realised that my commitment to watching the World Cup has entirely reduced time socialising to practically zero. 4 games every day, that's 8 hours worth of TV. Thankfully the 2nd group games conclude this week and the commitment can go back down. Really need to get out and about a bit more.

That's all for this week folks - see you in some of the webinars this week, or out and about if you're in London at any of these in person events

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.