This Week in Talent (21st July)

Wominjeka!

Day 19 of Dry July and it’s actually not that hard to say “no” to drinks now! I’m stoked I’ve made it this far. I’m doing the Run Melbourne 10km race this Sunday… RIP me who hasn’t run 10kms since 2015.

This week I’ve been working with my team on a bunch of things – in particular lots of mishaps that I like to call “learning opportunities” trololol. Working in the talent acquisition field means working in the grey area, and whilst we try to keep things as objective as possible… sometimes we need to make decisions at short notice with the information we have in front of us at that time.

So when a decision is made that turns out to be the wrong one it can cause massive ripples across the business, and within the team. Bouncing back from these types of things shows resilience, and my number one tip to the team when sh*t hits the fan is this: no one has died, and way worse has been done before.

Whenever a mistake is made, I always think back to the absolute worst thing I’ve ever done. Or the worst thing a colleague of mine has ever done in the past. Both myself and my ex-colleagues have gone on to become managers, senior leaders, experts. And we’ve all made horrendous mistakes and misjudgements. But the key is the recover, and LEEEEARN. And share those learnings with others, so they can laugh (and cry) with you.

When something goes pear shaped at work with my team, I always try to help them put things into perspective. Has anyone died? Will anyone die? What were the intentions behind it all? When things have been sorted out, I also encourage them to share what happened at our next team meeting and what their learnings were.

(Hot tip – get yourself along to a ‘F*ck Up Night’ pronto!)

This article I read earlier this week got me thinking about how making mistakes is part of human nature. The term “mistake” is subjective – what someone considers a mistake, someone else might adamantly say is the truth. The article talks about normalising wrongness. Making it okay to be wrong, okay to fail, okay to make mistakes. I mean… if everyone was too scared to make mistakes or learn through failure, how would any innovation happen in the world?!

FYI – this is my second last TWIT for a while. I’ll be handing over the reins for August to a special guest editor from the talent industry who most of you probably know and love. They are witty, smart, knowledgeable about talent and titillatingly funny. You will be pleasantly surprised! Watch this space…

Unsuccessful job applicant reads out the ‘worst’ rejection letter she’s ever received

I have such mixed feelings about this article, and the subsequent TikTok video. On a “talent acq” level, I actually love that the recruiter behind this email put effort into trying to make the usually tacky and boring rejection email… unique? I can see what they’re trying to do, and I appreciate it! I mean… in a world where candidate ghosting is prominent, receiving a rejection email that you feel is condescending and then sharing it with the world is a bit over the top. On the other hand… there is definitely some re-wording that could be done here. And on the OTHER other hand… I’m scared to ever send another email again now for fear of being publicly shamed.

Open job listings advertising ‘senior’ positions surged by almost 60% during the pandemic

An interesting read, based on stats from the USA. In the war for talent, changing job titles and adding in the word “senior” or “manager” has been a trend throughout the last couple of years to entice and attract candidates when salary alone (or lack-there-of) isn’t enough. Has anyone here seen job adverts for managers and leaders, then clicked through to see that the job duties dont align with the title? I sure have!

Should commute time be counted as part of the workday?

My first reaction to this was YES! But then … I was thinking selfishly, and hadn’t considered all the other types of workers out there and how messy this would be to implement. Also I don’t work for a company that has strict start and finish times. But still … yes.

Employers are trying to lure workers back with offices that feel like living rooms

Working from the office should be based around communication, collaboration, networking, ideas sharing, and being with others. It shouldn’t be a place where you do work that you could have done at home. Offices that feel like lounge rooms, and encourage connection, sounds flippin’ great to me! Also check out this company that designed their hybrid office based on different personas.

Overcoming Graduate reneges and maximising your impact! – PeopleScout Australia

Are you a Grad Recruiter who has been fighting tooth and nail to secure your Grad cohort for next year, only to find out they all have 10 other offers on the table and you aren’t their first preference? *puts hand up* … click through to watch a the webinar with Lendlease and GradConnection, and learn some tricks and tools of the trade to reduce the reneges!

Finalists for the 2022 ITA’s Announced – WHOOP!

Massive congrats to the finalists for the 2022 Internal Talent Awards #ITAs2022! Tickets to the Black Tie Gala Event are almost sold out! It will be a very fancy black tie affair – click the link above to get amongst it!