This Week in Talent (28th September)

And just like that, my month of musings & September for that matter, is already coming to an end. Hard to believe that we’re just about to dive into the last quarter of the year already! Before I go, here’s a little of what’s been on my mind this week (that hasn’t been footy-related that is…!)

Are TA & Recruiters amongst the most optimistic beings on the planet?

A couple of weeks back many of us took time to reflect on the impacts of work & life on our mental health thanks to R U OK?Day. It also got me thinking that not only are us TA folks amongst the most resilient people around; we may also be eternal optimists.

I’ve recently been listening to Dave Grohl’s audiobook “The Storyteller” – It’s narrated by Dave himself, which is why I was compelled to listen rather than read it & it’s a fascinating insight into his life & times, you don’t even have to be a Foos fan to check it out. What struck me throughout the most is Dave’s endless optimism, his can-do attitude, even in the face of hardship & challenges. At various points in his tales, he is hit with a golf club, run over by a car, dumped into a river without a life jacket and falls off the stage breaking his leg – his path has most definitely not always been smooth but he embraces each experience with humour & a remarkable growth mindset, learning from the situation & staying curious, grateful, optimistic.

“What you think, you will be. What you feel, you will attract. What you imagine, you will create.”

– that’s one of my fave quotes from the book and for me there are more than a few parallels here with what we Recruiters do…I believe that we are also optimists, just like Dave.

As Recruiters, we choose to focus on the outcome & we believe that we have the skills & ability to make good things happen, to achieve the end result, that all-important Hire. There HAS to be a whole lot of optimism within us & in what we do? Otherwise, why on earth would we all stick with it…?? – I mean, our candidates & stakeholders are generally unpredictable & unreliable. Daily we handle ghosting, unresponsiveness, we field endless excuses – all the sad stories of sick/dead cats & grandmothers, accidents, car troubles, tech issues, the list goes on…and yet we bounce back up time again and come back for more. We create our all-important outcomes.

And over the past several weeks I’ve spoken about some of the key fundamentals that I think can enable us to reach the outcomes we want as recruiters – elevating recruiter & hiring manager capability, having a sound early careers strategy, building sourcing functionality into our process and so on. Additionally, focusing, in the right way, on Candidate Experience & intrinsically linking it to your EVP are some of the other key tools that should be in our hiring toolbox. If you want to explore these themes further, I’ve dropped a couple of links below that may be of interest.

I’m off to the Brisbane Recruitment Meet Up this evening – we have an exciting line up of discussions featuring the Swiss Army Knife of Talent herself, Jo Vohland from ATC & AI Sourcing Guru Marrin-Boyd Andrews from Fonterra providing us with 2 sides of a ‘How to Do more with Less’ topic taking a look at both Tech + Strategy – should make for another informative evening & looking forward to catch up with the awesome Brissy Recruitment Fam!

As I sign off for the final time, I’d like to say a big thanks to you all for reading & following along this month, if you liked what you read, then please feel free to connect & hit me up to chat about any of the topics I’ve covered or even just some footy chat. Slán Leat + go Lions for the Flag!

Want to be an Employer of Choice?

Must Read on why benchmarking is important in order to really understand if you are truly delivering on a positive candidate experience. Steve Gard has been on a one-man mission to put CX at the forefront of the minds of the Recruitment industry & keep us all accountable – check out the CircleBack Initiative on committing to respond to every applicant & if you are serious about making a positive impact in this space consider getting signed up!

Time Management Tips for Talent Folks

One of the themes of our Brisbane Recruitment Meet Up this week is how to do more with less, work smarter, not harder. Here are some great easy tips on how we can getter better organised as well as some practical methods (Eisenhower Matrix!)  to deploy to do it – it’s tips 5 & 9 for me, getting the most daunting tasks out of the way first (I’m a tragic procrastinator some days) & learning when to say no (that’s the people-pleaser in me) – what will you implement?

Implementing AI Takes Time – why Fast is not always good

Recruiting Futurist Kevin Wheeler nails it yet again with his hot take on how best to incorporate AI into recruiting processes. He describes the typical recruiting function comprising of 5 layers & unpacks some of the main watch-outs as well as illustrating his points in action. The overarching takeaway is that we must adopt closely & allow for a learning curve – quick is not always good.

Why Recruiting Silver Medallists is a Winning Hiring Strategy

I’m a big fan of this approach & Jen Dewar sums it up well in this insightful overview. Why do we so often overlook qualified & already engaged candidates? Seems to me that the benefits (reduced time to fill, Improved CX, improved quality of hire, lower cost per hire, engaged talent pool etc) of properly pipelining this talent shouldn’t be overlooked, some great tips on how to get started on this in here.

FREE Employer Branding Masterclass Series!

Unless you have been hiding under a rock you must know James Ellis as one of the global thought leaders in all things Employer Branding related. In partnership with PageUp they are running a 4-part webinar series over the next few weeks on everything EB – Strategy, Brand Stories, showcasing EB value, Business cases & more – this is a must sign up folks!

Sidenote on EB gurus – a shout out to Mark Puncher also who locally should be on your must follow/must connect list.

5 Key Changes to welfare & work rules announced in the Governments just-released Employment whitepaper

Some ambitious objectives here covering pensions, job security, productivity growth & skills needs – will it all deliver the ‘dynamic & inclusive’ labour market being hyped? Or is the plan itself potentially likely to be undermined by the government’s own workforce relations reforms? This may be a slow burn folks that we’ll all continue to watch with interest.

ATC’s Event of The Year Agenda – Last Tickets!

Folks the ATC 2023 Agenda dropped last week & what a line-up! Featuring case studies and insights from talent leaders at leading organisations like Google, Adobe, Optus, MYOB, Dentsu, Reece Group, and QBE (just to mention a few), insights and market predictions from leading experts, and even an interactive game show, this year’s ATC has something for everyone. Oh & did I mention it’s all taking place at the legendary Luna Park! Head over to the ATC website to grab your tickets otherwise I can guarantee there’ll be FOMO!