The hiring market is improving, slowly but surely. It’s not going to the moon like Bitcoin, but it’ll get there.

Hiring needs create urgency. Urgency creates shortcuts. And shortcuts create every bad stereotype people have about recruiting.

What happens when scaling up becomes a hair-on-fire drill? And you didn’t spend your down time fine tuning your strategy and processes? Jeff Smith and James Hornick covered it in episode 83 of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, "Dumb Hiring Ideas Are Back, Baby!"

Remote on-the-job learning is hard. College loans are astronomically expensive. And no one knows what skills AI will make irrelevant (if any.)

Change is constant. But a lot of it at once is a lot to take in. Especially those just beginning their careers.

Jeff Smith and James Hornick aren’t going to play generational favorites but they are going to point out the obvious in episode 82 of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, "The Unique Sh*tstorm For Young Professionals"

The tech layoffs aren’t over. Marketing budgets haven’t recovered. DEI programs are slashed. 

Might explain why we don’t hear anyone talk about employer brand anymore. It’s probably for the better: workers are skeptical. A lot of people got burned in the last 18 months and no one believes the old corporate jargon when they’re looking for their next role.

Hiring isn’t dead, but the talent attraction playbook needs a reboot. Jeff Smith and James Hornick discuss what resonates with job seekers and what falls flat in episode 81 of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, "Remember Employer Brand? It's Dead."

New year. New hiring market. Hopefully.

2023 was a year a lot of recruiters are happy to turn the page on. But it wasn’t all bad. Hirewell did see some growth areas and a consistently strong demand for interim talent. 

Matt Massucci and James Hornick break down the previous quarter and look what what’s happening to start 2024 with “Hirewell Data Insights: Hiring Trends Q4 2023"

Replays will be available on Hirewell’s Youtube channel. Audio-only version will be available on the Talent Insights podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon and Spotify.

Subscribe to those channels here: https://linktr.ee/jameshornick

It’s January. Which means we’re in the lame duck period for year end bonuses. Earned but not yet paid.

With that comes complications. Some companies are bracing for post-bonus churn. Others are offering sign-on bonuses to jump the line and get the talent they need now.

And of course, some companies were beat up so bad in 2023 that bonuses went out the window. There’s the Haves and the Have-Nots.

Meanwhile, the real question: how effective is the yearly bonus model for retention anyway?

Jeff Smith and James Hornick kick off the new year with episode 80 of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, "Do Bonuses Buy Loyalty?"

For most of Hirewell’s existence, internal recruiter positions were the #2 most commonly filled roles on a yearly basis. Right after software engineers.

In 2023? Not even on the heat map. Almost no demand. And lots of A+ recruiters have struggled to find work.

Why? Rising interest rates. 

Jeff Smith and James Hornick put on their nerd hats and explain how the macroeconomic environment affects hiring in a very real way in episode 79 of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, "How High Interest Rates Tanked Recruiting"

Ever not get hired and wonder where you fell short in the interview? But your contact at the company left you hanging?

Or maybe you were on the other side. Looking to pay it forward, but were shot down by legal.

Behind every job seeker who didn’t get feedback, there’s a recruiter who got their hand slapped for giving it previously. Welcome to the exciting world of hiring litigation.

Jeff Smith and James Hornick unpack what both job seekers and companies have lost in the modern say-nothing feedback world in episode 78 of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, "Interview Feedback Is Dead"

The hiring world is obsessed with candidate pipeline building. Sure, the top of the funnel is important. But success in hiring has always been about conversion. Getting the right candidates to say ‘yes.’

And nothing converts offers to acceptances like an A+ interview experience.

Problem is: it’s really hard for your company to set itself apart when you’re doing 3 Zooms and an assessment like every other company.

Regardless of your office vs remote policy, onsite interviews offer so much more opportunity for curated, impactful interview experiences. Jeff Smith and James Hornick discussed how dramatic of a difference this can make in the next The 10 Minute Talent Rant, Episode 77 "Onsite Interviews Are Better"

Hiring leaders want the best. People with strong skills who fit very specific skill needs. No one ever says they’ll hire someone who is “pretty good at a bunch of stuff.”

Yet come layoff time, that’s who they prioritize retaining. Those who can take on the most workload. The old “do more with less.”

High for specialization. Retain for breadth. 

Why is that? And can layoff decision-making teach us how we should change our hiring process? Jeff Smith and James Hornick discuss in the next The 10 Minute Talent Rant, Episode 76 "The Disconnect Between Hiring and Retention"

It’s no secret that the recruiting industry doesn’t have the best collective reputation. There’s a lot of fingers to point. Executives think hiring is easy. HR is resistant to change. Job seekers have unrealistic expectations.

But perhaps we should point the finger at ourselves. If “hiring is broken,” why haven’t we fixed it? Sure, everyone complains about recruiting. But are we even listening?

Jeff Smith and James Hornick discuss accountability while dunking on themselves in the next The 10 Minute Talent Rant, Episode 75 "Recruiters Are Terrible Listeners"