This Week in Talent (27th January)

Jody Smith

Jody Smith

Welcome to the HOTTEST WEEK OF MY LIFE. Seriously, can summer please calm down? I’m a ranga, and my freckly pale skin and sunburnt eyeballs cannot handle any temperature above 30 degrees. (Yes… the optometrist has told me I have sunburnt eyeballs).

So, I’ve been making plans for the year, and I am flippin’ excited. I’m a “blue sky” thinker, and I love going BIG. I’m making a bunch of recommendations on things we can improve, and one of those things… is assessment tools. I want to totally revamp our engineering assessment tool library so we can finally move away from relying on behavioural interviews and start assessing in other ways!

What if assessments could be fun? Like… incorporating play and more interaction to make people feel more relaxed and comfortable? Now that the ball is most definitely in a candidate’s court, and good candidates are literal gold… why not have a recruitment process that candidates actually want to experience? Or… am I kidding myself? Haha!

This post on LinkedIn caught my eye this week – what a genius way to get a recruiter’s attention, without having to waste any time with the initial back and forth emails/phone calls. Gone are the days where candidates are coming to us looking for work… it’s the other way around now, that’s for sure! So… can I design the ultimate, fun recruitment process that candidates actually want to have a crack at? We shall see. Watch this space! #BigDreams

Latest update on “Zen AF Jody” – she just purchased the audio book ‘I Didn’t Do The Thing Today’ on Audible for her morning gym workouts. All about letting go of productivity guilt. She’s feeling zen, she’s feeling calm, she’s feeling ready.

Enjoy the article selection below this week – it’s a biggie!

The Next In-Demand Job Title – Head of the Future At Work

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that… we aren’t very good at predicting what the future of work will look like. Lots of companies were thrust into the future well before they were actually prepared to or had the infrastructure to cope. (Not to self – use “thrust” in more day to day conversations.)

The Tech Talent Gap Is A Self-Inflicted Wound

What is your definition of tech talent, and have you thought about looking outside the box or providing opportunities to people from minority groups that are bursting at the seams to get some meaningful training and work experience? It’s time to think outside the box!

‘Work From Anywhere’ helped Twitter Boost Black and Latinx Hires

We all know that being able to work from anywhere increases diversity – not just cultural, but also diversity of abilities, AND diversity of thought overall.

Unemployment plunges as post-Delta economic recovery sees jobs boom

A good news story, but staff shortages are still very real! We have literally pillaged the pool of available candidates in Australia. Now if only the borders would open up and let more people in to fill the bazillion job vacancies we all have lolol.

Free From The Office – 25% Of Atlassian Staff Cut Ties With Sydney

Ohhhhh – cheeky, and I’m sure totally unplanned (not), to get “stuck” in Noosa during the pandemic. Literally my dream scenario. I’m sick of the sight of Northcote! On a serious note, this is awesome. Not the first story I’ve heard where people are leaving big cities in droves to move to the country, or the beach.

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Before we wrap up 2025, it’s worth taking a quick look at the ideas that sparked conversations and big discussions, helping TA & HR Leaders solve thorny problems. Together they map the themes TA and HR kept circling back to. 
At ATC2025, the session “Canva Redesigned Tech Interviews for the AI Era” was a standout example of how hiring practices are catching up with the realities of modern work. I found this session both refreshing and thought-provoking. Canva’s approach challenges the old model of technical interviews by recognising that coding in 2025 isn’t a solo act, it’s a collaboration between humans and AI. Rather than testing memory or syntax, their process evaluates how candidates think, prompt, and problem-solve alongside intelligent tools. It felt like a glimpse into the future of hiring.
The Strategic Workforce Planning session at ATC2025, presented by Chris Hare and Alicia Roach, was one of those moments that made you stop and rethink how your organisation really plans for the future. It unpacked what happens when workforce planning evolves from a numbers exercise to a true business capability - one that connects people, purpose, and performance.