The Recruiting Future Podcast - Innovation In Hr And Recruitment

Employer Branding and Content Marketing are two phrases that are being used more and more frequently these days. But what do they actually mean? How do they work together and why should employers be investing time and money into them? My guest this week is someone who knows the answer to all of these questions, James Ellis from Bex Consultants. James is an Employer Brand and Content Marketing specialist who has some really interesting insights into these topics. In the interview we discuss:     •    The definition of an Employer Brand     •    How employers can use re-framing to influence the perception of their brand     •    How Content Marketing can be used for Employer Brand activation     •    Brand patterns and story telling     •    The evolution of content formats James also talks us through the employers who he thinks are doing this well and give his advice for companies who are just getting started on this journey Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes Click here to pre-order “Exceptional Tal

As part of my continuing focus on getting a diverse range of opinions and voices on the show, this week I thought it would be interesting to get the views of a Global HR Director. My guest for this episode is Graeme Cook, Group HR Director at ground engineering specialist Keller, a company who employ 10,000 people across 40 different companies. Graeme’s career has itself been a global one and he has worked in several different countries for his past employers, giving him a genuinely global perspective. In the interview we discuss:     •    Some of the key considerations and challenges of operating HR at a global level     •    Skill shortages in the Oil, Gas and Engineering sectors     •    The three key parts of the HR Director’s role and HR’s position within the organization     •    Technology, automation and the future of HR Graeme also talks about his transition from working in finance to working in HR and gives his views on the challenges of managing a multi-generational workforce. Subscribe to

It has become very clear from the conversations I’ve been having with employers this year that the problems posed by current and future skill shortages have never been higher on their agenda. The best companies are acting to solve these problems by thinking differently and tapping into some extremely valuable pools of talent that they may have previously overlooked. My guest this week is Jane Hatton Director of Evenbreak, a job board that matches talented disabled job seekers with inclusive employers. In the interview we discuss:     •    The strong business case for employing disabled people     •    Popular misconceptions round the implications of employing disabled people     •    How people with particular impairments (autism as one example) can bring particular skills to the workplace     •    How employers should go about attracting disabled people to their organization and how they should be adapting their recruitment processes to get the best talent     •    Which employers are doing this well

Over the last few years there has been a massive proliferation in the number of talent acquisition tools and technologies on the market. The pace of change shows no sign of slowing down and it is increasingly difficult for talent acquisition leaders to know just where they should be focusing. My guest this week is Lance Haun, Practice Leader at The Starr Conspiracy Intelligence Unit. The Starr Conspiracy have recently published their 2017 Talent Acquisition Brandscape Report. A piece of research designed to help make sense of a confusing and fast moving market. In the interview we discuss:     •    How do you categorize and segment such a “nebulous” market sector     •    The current biggest area for innovation in talent acquisition     •    Dealing with the potential implications of Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn     •    The two key future trends everyone should be aware of Lance also gives us his view on the future pace of change in the sector and the likely impact of any potential global economic

It is always important to step back and see the world through a different lens. With that in mind, I’ll be talking to several people on the show this year who have a vested interest in recruiting but aren’t viewing it from inside the industry bubble. My guest on this week’s show is Charlie O’Donnell founder and partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures in New York. Charlie is an early stage investor in a number of fast growing start-up companies and has first-hand experience of seeing which recruiting strategies are working in these dynamic business environments. In the interview we discuss:     •    The importance of effective team building     •    The challenges of defining and hiring to cultural fit     •    An “A Player” culture versus a learning based culture     •    Where the real skill shortages are in start-up recruitment     •    The effectiveness of having an iterative approach to developing job descriptions Charlie also shares his advice on how recruiters and start up founders can work better t

Talent Attraction in areas of extreme skill shortage is something that is consistently difficult. I’m always interested in any creative ways that employers are using to tackle the problem, particularly when they don’t have a massive budget or unlimited resources to use to solve it. My guest this week is Ruth Penfold, Director of Talent Acqusition at Shazam, a company who are regularly having to use innovative talent attraction approaches to bring on the board the talent they need. In the interview we discuss:     •    Why Shazam’s existing employees are their most importance Talent Attraction tool and why recruitment is everyone’s responsibility     •    The benefits of a transparent culture     •    The importance of candidate communication and an authentic candidate experience     •    Why being seen in the right communities is critical to success     •    Generational mindset and purpose We also discuss Shazam’s priorities for 2017 and Ruth gives us an insight into the unique musical experiences o

For this first episode of 2017 I wanted to offer you something a bit different. Last year I was fortunate enough to deliver the opening keynote at HR Tech Fest in Johannesburg. My topic was the dual role I feel HR needs to play in the digital transformation of business. It was quite a personal presentation for me as I shared some of the lessons that I’ve learned from the 20 years of my career I have spent being digital disruptive in several different industries. The conference organizers, The Eventful Group, made an audio recording of the presentation which I’m delighted to share with you as this week’s podcast episode. In the presentation, you’ll hear me talk about five key lessons I’ve learnt about digital transformation: 1)    Change is Exponential 2)    There is a Revolution at Work 3)    Exceptional Talent Wins 4)    Perfect is not Best 5)    Think the Unthinkable In case you are wondering you don’t actual need to see the slides to understand the presentation but if you want to have a look you can fi

It’s always great to welcome a previous guest back to the show. I’m particularly pleased this week to be able to welcome back William Uranga, Director or Technical and Corporate Recruiting at GoDaddy. Last time he was on the show William shared the tactics GoDaddy were using to recruit in some highly competitive markets. In this week’s episode William gives us an insight into the journey his talent acquisition are on to move from being reactionary to operational and ultimately to be genuine strategic partner for their business. In the interview we discuss:     •    How GoDaddy’s recruiting challenges have changed     •    Finding new ways of being proactive and partnering with the business     •    Making talent acquisition predictable in its delivery     •    The benefits of providing analytics to hiring managers     •    An incredibly smart way of improving the candidate experience If you are an in house recruiting leader looking for a model for change then this interview really is a must listen. S

Some of the most interesting and effective technological innovation I have seen this year has been in the area of assessment. Whilst many of the new approaches aren’t yet widespread, I think they point towards a coming fundamental shift in the way we think about this part of the recruiting process. My guest this week is Dr Nathan Mondragon, Chief IO Psychologist at Hirevue. Hirevue have been doing some fascinating work within the science of assessment and its ability, via data and technology, to accurately predict performance. In the interview we discuss:     •    How technology and science are challenging the established norms of assessment     •    The hidden data in words, inflection, pauses and facial micro expressions     •    How video analytics can be combined with subsequent job performance data to develop predictive hiring models.     •    Using science to understand the art of recruiting and the changing role of humans within the recruitment process Nathan talks about the types of tangible RO

2016 will be remembered for many things but in our industry one of the most notable trends has been the reinvention and resurgence of recruitment marketing. I’ve been working in recruitment marketing since 1999 so its certainly not a new thing but it has been interesting that this year has seen so much discussion and debate around it. To help me make sense of this my guest this week is HR Pro, Recruiter and industry commentator Tim Sackett. Tim recently hosted Smashfly’s Transform recruitment marketing conference and I was delighted to have him on the podcast to talk about the latest thinking in what is a critically important area for talent acquisition. In the interview we discuss:     •    Why Recruitment Marketing is back on the agenda and what has changed     •    Marketing spin versus authentic employee experience     •    The role of story telling     •    How technology is supporting the reinvention of the discipline     •    The advantages of corporate recruiting and marketing departments worki

This week we return to the popular topic of improving the Candidate Experience. There is a lot of talk at the moment about the importance of treating candidate’s as customers but what happens when your candidates actually are your customers! My guest this week is Ben Gledhill, Talent Acquisition manager at retailer Sofology. Sofology is going through a digital transformation process at the moment to fulfill its aim of being an omnichannel retailer. They have been looking hard at their candidate experience and Ben offers some great practical insights into their learning and the improvements they have made. In the interview we discuss:     •    How a negative candidate experience can affect Sofology’s business     •    Building an emotional link with candidates     •    How to achieve total visibility on the candidate experience     •    Mandatory hiring manager interview training     •    The vital importance of a mobile optimized ATS     •    Using NPS ratings for candidate experience measurement   

The first digital project I ever worked on was building a career website for German engineering giant Siemens. Since then I’ve been fascinated by the evolution of corporate career sites and I am currently working with a number of my clients to help them optimize this area of their talent acquisition strategy. My guest this week is someone who shares my obsession with career sites. Bas Van De Haterd is an independent consultant and entrepreneur based in The Netherlands. For the last 10 years Bas has run a major piece of research which audits the career sites of the largest 500 Dutch employers and he has a huge amount of insight to share. In the interview we discuss:     •    How to audit a career site     •    The single simple thing employers could do which would improve their response rates by 25%     •    Three areas which can be improved to give a better candidate experience     •    How to optimise a legacy ATS system to improve the application process     •    The balance between jobs, conversion

In last week’s episode I featured interviews with nine people who were searching for innovation at the HR Tech Conference in Chicago. This week I wanted to continue the same theme but with more of a focus on specific trends in recruiting. My guest this week is Andy McIlvaine who is conference chair for The Talent Acquisition Technology Conference and The Recruiting Trends Conference both of which are organized by Human Resource Executive (the company behind HR Tech) and take place in Austin Texas in November. In the interview we discuss:     •    The changing role of video in the talent acquisition process     •    Candidate Relationship Management and Candidate Experience     •    The latest social media methods and Recruitment Marketing Platforms     •    Whether talent shortages are genuine and what employers can do to solve the problem     •    Unconscious bias in recruiting     •    Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Andy also gives us a taster of the case studies that will be pres

Innovation and disruption are words that are used so often these days it is sometimes difficult to spot technologies that are genuinely innovative and genuinely disruptive. This seems to be a particular problem in the HR and Recruiting space. Last week I was one of the several thousand attendees at the HR Tech conference in Chicago trying to find clues about where our industry is heading. In this special HR Tech episode of the show you’ll hear from a number of people I met on my quest to discover HR innovation nirvana. My guests are: Gareth Jones from Chemistry Labs Bill Boorman from Recruiting Daily Kirstie Kelly from Launchpad Robert Newry from Artic Shores David Green from IBM Al Ademsen from The Talent Strategy Institute Chris Broderick from B .near Global Manish Goel from Trustsphere Neil Morrison from Penguin Random House We discuss everything from People Analytics to fake Artificial Intelligence and attempt to make some sense of the diverse HR technology landscape. Subscribe to this podcast in iTu

One of the topics we’ve never really covered in much detail on the podcast is the role of sourcing in corporate recruiting. It is obviously something that is absolutely critical to many organizations particularly those who are recruiting in market segments that are suffering skill shortages. My guest this week is Chris Shaw Director of Talent at Meteor. Chris has previously been part of the recruiting team at Google and was part of the team who recruited 300 hires in 11 months at Twitter. At Meteor he focuses on recruiting the top 1% of the top 1% of technology talent and I’m delighted he agreed to come on the show to share his thoughts and some of the practical techniques he uses. In the interview we discuss:     •    Why turning passive candidates into active ones is always better than post and pray     •    How to identify your Hiring Bar     •    The importance of a great ATS     •    Automation and personalization Chris also gives us a step by step walk through of the techniques he uses and share

The critical role employer branding plays in attracting top tech talent to companies is something we have covered a few times on the podcast. However, what happens when you need to create an employer brand for an entire country? The Irish government recently initiated a project to do just that in order to service the growing need to import top tech talent into the Irish digital economy. My guest this week is Niall Dowling who is Strategic Director at Atomic, the marketing agency who are delivering the project and its resulting website www.techlifeireland.com In the interview we discuss:     •    The strategic thinking behind the employer brand     •    Some surprising insights from the research that reveal the motivations that drive people to relocate     •    Audience segmentation and personas     •    The importance of quality of career and meaningful work     •    How the brand has been activated and optimized for the target audience. Niall also shares the results of the project so far and offers h

The balance between global consistency and local nuance in recruitment marketing is a difficult issue that provokes a lot of debate. It has become clear to me from working with a number of employers in this area that there are no right answers and every company needs a bespoke approach to be successful. My guest this week is John McCall who oversees Talent Branding for Groupon in the EMEA region. Groupon has grown via acquisition in EMEA, creating a number of challenges for brand and marketing consistency. In the interview we discuss:     •    Groupon’s definition of Talent Branding and how they are positioning themselves as an employer of choice.     •    Creating a core central truth with local variations     •    Marketing effectively in multiple languages     •    The role of mobile video and social engagement     •    The importance of messaging consistency throughout the business John also talks about what is next for Groupon and gives us his thoughts on the future of Talent Branding This episo

Changing established ways of thinking is difficult. Changing established ways of thinking about recruiting within large organizations can seem impossible. However, with economies fluctuating, technology improving and people’s communication preferences developing, driving effective change is a key part of the job for every in house recruiting leader. My guest this week is Samantha Ramsay, Head of Resourcing and Employer Brand for House of Fraser. Over the last two years Samantha has been systematically challenging assumptions, moving mindsets and embracing new technology to order to drive change within her organization. In the interview we discuss:     •    The difference between recruiting and resourcing     •    How fundamental change creates massive impact     •    Questioning standard practice in recruiting     •    Why House of Fraser prioritise behaviours and traits over past experience     •    Success with bespoke online assessment and video interviewing Samantha also shares her view on the re

Employer branding has never been a more popular discussion topic with a huge amount of content and conference time now dedicated to it. However, when you dig below the surface, there is very little that addresses the day to day concerns of employer brand practitioners, particularly those working within global organizations. Working in partnership with my regular co-collaborator Mervyn Dinnen and in conjunction with employer brand solution provider Papirfly, this summer we did a piece of research design to restore the balance by uncovering the real issues in employer branding. On the podcast this week I’m joined by Sara Naveda, Client Director at Papirfly, to discuss the research and its findings. In our discussion we cover four key issues: • How to align internal and external brand to greater effect • Why employer brand becomes even more important in times of commercial turmoil • How to adopt employee generated content to grow your employer brand at scale • The importance of measuring effectivene

Planning and executing a social media strategy for recruiting and employer branding is never a straight forward undertaking. However, doing this within a global organization can be particularly problematic. Complex stakeholder relationships with PR, marketing and comms are a key issues as is getting the right segmentation of channels across geographies and audiences. Local versus Global is a debate I’m often asked my opinion on. My guest this week is Charu Malhotra. Charu has a wealth of experience working as an interim within a range of global organizations and has some unique expertise in building global social recruiting strategies. She is currently leading EVP and Employer Branding projects at Ferrero. In the interview we discuss:     •    The specific challenges social media presents for complex global organizations     •    Transparency and fishing where the fish are     •    Content types     •    Alignment, stakeholder relations and project management     •    Global versus Local     •    The