Recruiting Trailblazers

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In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Andrew Flowers, a labor economist at Appcast, a global leader in recruitment advertising technology.

In 2020, Andrew ran for State Representative of the 8th Norfolk District in Massachusetts. He narrowly lost the Democratic primary, winning 48.2% of the vote. Prior to running for office, he was an economist with Indeed.com, a data journalist at FiveThirtyEight.com, and an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Listen in as Andrew unpacks the top seven recruiting industry trends he foresees for 2023:

●      Despite economic uncertainty, there will be no major pullback in hiring.

●      Pay transparency laws will continue to change the rules of the game.

●      The pendulum is swinging back to center on work location, but remote work is here to stay.

●      Job boards will increasingly force good stewardship over the job seeker experience.

●      Moving beyond job boards to an automated, multichannel approach will be critical.

●      Hiring organizations will focus less on spend and more on the metrics that matter most.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:35] The growing disconnect between economic signals and the talent landscape

●      [04:19] Why there will be no major pullback in hiring in spite of economic turbulence

●      [07:25] How fear is affecting the job market

●      [12:54] How pay transparency laws are changing the rules of the game

●      [19:20] Why remote work is here to stay

●      [23:09] Why it’s a great time to be a tech recruiter today

●      [27:14] Why job boards will increasingly force good stewardship over the job seeker experience

●      [32:01] How many degrees are truly vocational, anyway?

●      [35:52] Moving beyond job boards to an automated multichannel approach

●      [42:16] Why hiring organizations will focus less on spend and more on the metrics that matter most

Key quotes:

●      “In 2023, the labor market will still be what economists call ‘tight’, which means an excess of demand over supply.”

●      “Job boards, led by Indeed, realized that their real asset is not necessarily the employers and recruiters and make up their revenue. Their real asset is job seekers.”

●      “It is a huge part of the job seeker experience right now to research the employer. That means employer brand, ethics, and reputation.”

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In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with John Boyd, Founder of Cirrus Group Consulting, a search firm specializing in providing top Cloud computing talent to companies who need those skills.

According to Jim’s LinkedIn headline: “We provide the industry’s most ridiculously capable Cloud techies.”

Listen in as Jim explains why it pays to home in on a specific niche in the recruiting industry, build a system around that specialization, and go all-in on that niche. He illustrates his own success in applying this lesson through Cirrus Group’s focus on Cloud technologies.

Jim breaks down the Cirrus approach to harnessing systems and automations to scale a recruiting business, using a playbook followed by both offshore resources and internal staff. He covers the process from beginning to end, from his go-to automation tools, to the initial outreach, to his system for tracking applicants, all the way to the onboarding stage.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:35] Putting a strong system in place for your business

●      [06:20] Jim’s vision for Cirrus Group

●      [12:00] The benefits of requiring everyone at Cirrus to be Cloud-certified

●      [15:00] Business development at Cirrus

●      [21:36] Cirrus’ go-to automation and email contact-finding tools

●      [26:15] How Cirrus conducts intake calls

●      [29:54] Sourcing candidates at Cirrus

●      [41:01] Cirrus’ applicant tracking system

●      [45:09] How automation has impacted Cirrus

●      [49:56] The candidate interview

Key quotes:

●      “75% or so of franchises are successful while 75% or so of non-franchise small businesses are not successful. Why? Franchises have systematized their businesses and built playbooks. They’ve tweaked, attempted, tried, and learned.”

●      “One of the top things that people look for when they buy a company is a system, a structure, a playbook, so that you, the owner, can be kicked out and the business does not take a hit.”

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Marcus speaks with Richard Cho, a Senior Recruiting Executive who has led Recruiting at companies such at Facebook, Dropbox , Chan Zuckerberg initiative and Robinhood and most recently Gem where he is an advisor. Up for discussion are the cornerstones of building an effective Talent Strategy and infrastructure to compete for talent in today's markets.

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Anil Dharni is the CEO and Founder of Sense, San Francisco, Calif. - the market leader in AI-driven talent engagement and communication solutions for enterprise recruiting.

 He recently commissioned a study, “An Inside Look: What Today’s Candidates Really Want” which polled over 1,000 U.S. based candidates who have applied for a job within the past six months, which provides some very interesting data for Recruiters.

• When asked what the top two non-negotiables are when considering a new job, salary/benefits (57%) and career advancement/upskilling opportunities (32%) were ranked highest followed by work from home opportunities (29%), stronger leadership (18%) and DEI programs (16%).  
• The overwhelming majority of candidates (76%) are looking to change careers/industries.
• Faster response time from recruiters was ranked as the top way for companies to improve the candidate experience, cited by 80% of respondents. 
• Slow response time from recruiters is the top reason candidates quit applying for a job. Only 19% of candidates report hearing back from recruiters within 24 hours of applying to a job.
• 27% of candidates said the job search/application process has become more complicated.

Marcus and Anil discuss the results and have an extremely lively conversation including the following topics:

• How candidates looking at the whole benefits package these days - not just salary
• Why companies are asking candidates to come back to the office
• How companies need to do a better job meeting candidate's needs - it's a two-way street
• How great candidates are always in need
• The correction we are seeing as a reaction to over-hiring
• The importance of "delightful, magical" candidate experiences
• Is there really a power shift moving back from the employee to the employer?
• What do you do with a candidate who applies for the wrong job?
• How Sense technology can effectively automate the candidate screening process and start building relationships at scale
• How Sense can set Recruiters up for success by scheduling meaningful conversations with relevant and qualified candidates 
• Using Sense technology to expedite the complete hiring process
• Redefining and enhancing both the recruiter and hiring manager experience
• The dangers of over-automation and the importance of the human touch
• It's not all about email anymore! texting, whatsapp, chatbots - you've got to skate to where the puck is going to be!

You can reach Anil at [email protected] or directly on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anildharni/

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Thanks to everyone who has participated and listened to the podcast this year!

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Ann-Marie is the Founder and President of The West Source, an executive search firm that supports staffing agencies across the country, primarily in the IT & Professional Services space. She launched The West Source in March of 2020 after having spent 10 years as a founder and managing partner at Satori Source in a similar capacity.

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Marcus speaks with Steven Perchikov about outreach tactics and how automation - when executed correctly- can help you achieve some degree of scale, without necessarily sacrificing quality.

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Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

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Marcus speaks with James Parker about building and implementing a successful in-house talent strategy and some of the recruiting challenges he's encountered in his 8+ years of experience as a Head of Talent.

In the podcast, James shares his mindset around TA, which falls into 3 separate buckets:

1. Storytelling - the perception you are creating around the company - all things "employer branding" related

2. Systems - the infrastructure around the entire recruiting funnel, to ensure that there is a structured process that produces consistent and equitable hiring results

3. Strategy - Getting it done. Sourcing, inbound, referrals - getting the balance right.

James reiterates how important getting the system piece right is:

You have to 

- Understand your needs

- Understand what attributes you are looking for

- Know what kind of answers you are looking for

- Know how to score card every candidate in a uniform manner

- Create consistency across the entire interview panel

- Be mindful of recruiting biases, such as overscoring charisma.

James reveals how each interviewer is pre-armed with a specific list of questions around a given set of desirable attributes whilst being mindful of not bombarding candidates with duplicate interviewing experiences.

Also, James points out how cognizant they are at Tropic of the need to provide a stellar candidate experience from top to bottom - from the minute they get their first piece of correspondence, such as an acknowledgment of application note - right through to the final offer.

From a strategy perspective, James breaks down the top of the funnel into 3 more buckets - referrals, inbound, and sourcing and maintains that world-class recruiting teams absolutely own the sourcing piece of the TA puzzle. And in fact, as a team, they have better conversion ratios for sourced candidates than any inbound or referrals.

He shares how important it is to split test messages - and try different tactics, ranging from playful to short/direct, and maybe some different touch points as well.

Finally - James shares his thoughts on the rejection process and how they like to give mid-stage candidates the choice of communication - if they want to discuss on the phone - that option is open to them. James believes that it is critical to give the best possible brand experience and even try to help set rejected candidates up for success in the future. 

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In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Maury Hanigan, CEO at SparcStart, an innovative recruiting platform which uses video, social media, and mobile capabilities to differentiate jobs and overall make recruiting much more productive.

Maury is a recognized industry expert and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, The Economist, ABC World News, amongst many other prestigious media outlets. She was also named on HR Tech’s list of the 100 Most Influential Talent Acquisition Thought Leaders and Top 30 Influential Women Leaders.

Listen in as Maury unpacks her best strategies for using video to build a powerful employer brand, alongside a stronger candidate pipeline in the outreach and recruiting process. By incorporating video into the application process, a company can attract not only more applicants, but better-quality applicants.

Maury also addresses common roadblocks to standardizing the use of short videos in an organization’s approach to job advertising, including video-phobia, privacy issues, and deciding on how to structure one’s message in videos directed at candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:18] The current state of the job advertisement market

●      [05:40] Making your job advertisement stand out

●      [10:14] Why show candidates video of the hiring manager in the application process

●      [15:00] Overcome video-phobia and roadblocks to incorporating video

●      [21:24] Tailoring your video’s message to your candidate

●      [28:27] Potential security issues with video

●      [30:09] Why videos fail

●      [33:46] The kind of story candidates want to hear in videos

●      [38:23] The benefits of using the SparcStart platform to host your videos

Key quotes:

●      “When a recruiter includes a hiring manager in their outreach, their response rate is eight times what it is when you only include a job description.”

●      “We don’t advertise products by telling consumers what they must have in order to purchase our product—we tell them what benefit the product gives them. And yet, in recruitment marketing, people are still doing laundry lists of requirements of what you must have to be considered for the role; then they wonder why people aren’t attracted to their roles.”

●      “The video that the candidates are most interested in seeing is of the hiring manager: They want to meet their boss.”

●      “The biggest challenge is to have to have employer brand and TA leaders understand that the content has to be what the candidate wants to hear rather than what the company wants to say.”

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/