This Week in Talent (28th April)

We’re into the 3rd short week of our glorious ‘3 weeks of short weeks’ … week? I’m confused. Haha. Anyway – it’s a great time to be a full-time office worker at the moment. I have to admit though, having 3 short weeks in a row (1 of which I was off sick with COVID) has sent me into a bit of a tail spin. My weeks have been chokkers full of meetings, with the admin parts of my job happening outside of hours. I’m also still not feeling 100% after COVID, and someone said to me today “if you’re not quite better yet just take sick leave”. But … who will do my job if I’m off sick when my team are always feeling the same feels? I don’t feel quite sick enough to take sick leave – I still have internalised sick leave phobia from my time working retail (retail and hospo workers will feel me on this one).

I’m just wrapping up a bunch of recruitment for my team at the moment which will really ease the load for us. As I said a few weeks ago – for these recruits I’ve been focusing on personality and transferrable skills fit rather than previous experience. The senior role in my team yes – I looked at previous experience. However, I didn’t ask 1 single behavioural question. Yep!! I’m proud of myself. They were all “what would you do if” questions, and activities.

You know what’s funny? Even I doubted whether I’d be able to decide who my preferred applicant was without behavioural questions. SO SILLY! Of course hypothetical questions and work samples are a much better indicator to me of whether someone can do the role or not. I had to shush that little voice in the back of my head saying “ask them to describe a time when they’ve done it before! Do it! Go on!!”

Ergh… sometimes I wish I could wipe my memory of all the boring, corporate “rules” I’ve learned in the past and just start fresh.

Hey – something else I want to share. If you’re not quite into Wordle, but you like the idea of a daily game and you consider yourself a movie buff… check this out. Framed is the daily game where you get 6 different frames from a movie and you have to try and guess which movie it is. You start with 1 frame (the hardest) and if you don’t get it, the subsequent frames start to get easier and easier. Obsessed.

Also this … WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!

Anyways, I hope I get to see all the Melbourne peeps at TA Brew later on today at the Bodriggy Brewery! Have a good one 🙂

Inside San Francisco’s $1 million bet on female construction workers

As a recruiter that works within this field – I think this is a fantastic idea!

What not to do via a LinkedIn inmail

This is quite harsh, but … true? Firm but fair? Haha. I’ve known for a long time that when you’re “cold messaging” a candidate, it’s important to personalise the message. It is awkward though, and unnatural. How do you start a virtual convo with someone you’ve never spoken to before? Have a read of this on how NOT to start it…

How Effective Is Unconscious Bias Training?

I did some unconscious bias training recently, and I’ve done many similar trainings in the past. Interesting article looking at the pro’s and con’s of running the training with employees.

How to plan for The Great Re-Entry

YES another ‘Great’ to add to the list! I’ve read a few articles like this, but I really liked this one on how to make the most of heading back into the office.

Disney’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ debacle shows how quickly employees’ trust can be damaged

I’ve written about this before – one of our favourite Futurists, Reanna Brown, has consistently predicted the increased likelihood of employees uprising against the companies they work at if their values aren’t aligned. Here is another example of this happening…

The Imperfects Podcast – Why You Can’t Pay Attention (With Johann Hari)

Did you know that the average office worker spends only 3 minutes of deep focus on a task? And if you’re interrupted it takes about 20 minutes to get back in the zone again? Give this a listen and learn all about how to pay attention betterer!

Createfulness – Edan Haddock’s new biz venture!

You may have seen on LinkedIn, but Edan has left the world of TA, and has gone off to do his own thing. It’s people focused but … with a twist. Imagine a team bonding floristry activity? I mean … I am a flower girl. I buy myself a bunch every week as a little Jody treat, so I am ALL IN FOR THIS!