This Week in Talent (21st October)

Hey peeps,

Lordy it’s happening – lockdown is easing tomorrow for Melbournians, and oh boy do I have plans! I can finally be my true extrovert self again. She’s been stifled since March 2020 when the pandemic began, and she’s ready to talk the ears of anyone that will listen. She is LIVING for a pub feed and a pint of tap beer.

I’m hoping we’ll start to see TA networking events start to pop up again, like the good old days. I’ve missed IRL networking a lot – virtual networking events are good, but they’re just not the same. Logging into a virtual event on my work computer usually means I start to multitask without realising, and before you know it I’m not paying any attention to the speakers and not interacting with other attendees. Give me a room full of TA people IRL any day.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be well aware of the Great Resignation that has been happening in the US, and is already having ramifications in Australia. Most companies are seeing their attrition rates start to increase, and TA folks like us are feeling the pinch trying to find candidates in an EXTREMELY candidate short market.

Have you been preparing for the Great Resignation, and if so – how? Have you got plans to talent pool more effectively, increase advertising spend, or perhaps offer relocation costs where you haven’t before? Obviously engaging your staff and aiming for retention first is key, but failing that I’d love to know how you’re preparing for the ‘Great Resignation’ from a TA perspective – and I’m keen to share insights here over the next few weeks so your fellow TA community can benefit. #SharingIsCaring. Hit me up here! 🙂

Lastly … this is NQR (not quite recruitment) but I have been listening to this AWESOME podcast called Revelations – it’s about the Fellowship of Friends doomsday cult, and it’s SO GOOD. I love cult-y stuff, and so I’ve been sucking this down my earholes for the past week. The poddie does cover cult recruitment, and how people were sucked into joining … so maybe it isn’t so NQR after all? What recruitment tips and tricks could we learn off cult leaders, and implement in our own talent attraction strategies? Trololol I’m kidding … (or am I?)

Hope the rest of your week is great! 🙂

Workers are ready to depart with nothing lined up

It’s a thing! Right now people are prioritising mental health and wellbeing over climbing the career ladder. I know a couple of people that have recently resigned in the last few months with nothing to go to, and they have mentioned feeling relief rather than panic. In this market no one would be out of work for very long – I predict this trend will continue for a while.

Lift the minimum wage and employment still rises? How to anger the establishment and win a Nobel Prize

Interestinggggggg look at unemployment, and how to tackle it. Do you lower the minimum wage so companies can afford to hire more workers, or increase the minimum wage so that employees spend more and companies have more money that way to hire more workers due to increased demand? Check out this Nobel Prize winning experiment!

Using data to attract talent

Have you heard of Talent Intelligence (TI)? Neither had I until today. TI analyses internal company talent analytics, and the external market and produces insights based on a wide range of sources of info. We do this already, but it’s very manual and (sometimes) subjective. Potentially a TI tool could be the bit that’s missing from our own talent research?

How We Describe Male and Female Job Applicants Differently

Okay, this is an old article – but it was eye-opening to me, I had to share. This article looks at the way female vs. male job candidates tend to be spoken about – and something for us to be wary of … I know I’ve been guilty of this!

When a candidate asks “Why should I work for you?” in an interview …

Loved this Twitter thread where @chikychikycarm told the Twitterverse that they asked this question in an interview, and the subsequent comments section has been enlightening! Have you been asked this in an interview before?