This is a podcast about the future of recruiting, and perhaps the one topic we’ve neglected to cover very often is the future of recruiters.
To redress the balance my guest this week is Amy Schultz, Director of Talent Acquisition at LinkedIn. LinkedIn has recently published a research report titled ” The future of recruiting, the 7 ways your role will change” and it’s great to be able to get Amy’s practitioner perspective on the findings.
In the interview, we discuss:
- What is the current state of the talent market and how is this affecting recruiting as a profession
- How the role of a recruiter going to change
- The three skills that will redefine recruiting
- What recruitment teams should be doing to keep up with rapidly changing business needs
- The essential metrics recruiters should be tracking and why
- The role of technology
Amy also shares her key advice to recruiting professionals on how they can be ready for the future.
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Transcript:
Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
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Edward Dias [00:00:25]:
Since we’ve been using Avature ATS globally, we have been able to massively improve our communication rate with candidates during and following their application. Before, over a million people worldwide would never get contacted, but with the smart optimization and flexible processes, we’ve been able to change that and that’s been a huge achievement.
Matt Alder [00:00:48]:
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Matt Alder [00:01:23]:
Hi everyone, this is Matt Alder. Welcome to episode 223 of the Recruiting Future podcast. This is a podcast about the future of recruiting and perhaps the one topic we’ve neglected to cover very often is the future of recruiters. To address the balance, my guest this week is Amy Schultz, Director of talent acquisition at LinkedIn. LinkedIn have recently published a research report called the future of seven ways your role will change, and it’s great to be able to get Amy’s practitioner perspective on the findings. Hi Amy and welcome to the podcast.
Amy Schultz [00:02:05]:
Hi Matt, thank you so much for having me.
Matt Alder [00:02:08]:
An absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Could you just introduce yourself and tell everyone what you do?
Amy Schultz [00:02:13]:
I can. Hi everyone, my name is Amy Schultz. I have the awesome job of leading product recruiting at LinkedIn. In product, we hire the people that design and build the products that help create economic opportunity for our LinkedIn members. And I don’t think I’ve ever had a job in my career where what I do as a recruiter so directly aligns to a company’s mission and vision, which is really cool. If you haven’t already guessed from my accent, I’m originally from Australia. I started my recruiting career in recruitment technology actually in a startup that’s core product was an applicant tracking system. I knew nothing about recruiting at the time. Our office was a converted one bedroom apartment. My desk was in the kitchen directly outside the restroom. And if you had told me, Matt, that 16 years later I’d be working in recruiting at LinkedIn in San Francisco speaking to you, I would have thought you were crazy. I’ve been really fortunate to work in agency recruiting. I’ve worked in house, I’ve worked in HR and RPO environments and have lived in China, Singapore and now the United States. And I am based in San Francisco. So it’s been a crazy ride.
Matt Alder [00:03:29]:
Fantastic stuff. So LinkedIn have just done a piece of research and published a report called the future of seven ways your role will change. Give us some background on that report. How was it researched and why have LinkedIn published it?
Amy Schultz [00:03:46]:
Yeah, thanks so much for asking. You know, as you well know, Matt, recruiting is on the rise, but it’s also changing. And I think recruiting teams are now needing to develop new skills, master new metrics, adopt new tools, all while trying to be more visible and more strategic within the business. You know, one of the reasons I joined LinkedIn was it had totally transformed how I did my job as a recruiter. And I was also sort of fascinated by what the power of LinkedIn’s data and how it could continue to elevate me in my role and also our industry as a whole. And our latest Future of recruiting report really aims to be a forward looking partner to our core audience of HR and talent acquisition professionals and really helping to advise how we should approach recruiting strategies for the coming year. We surveyed thousands of members across the global talent community, pulling in billions of our data points and interviewing talent leaders. And as you said, this year’s report really focuses on the seven ways that our role in recruiting is going to change, which is really cool.
Matt Alder [00:05:00]:
So I’m obviously really interested in finding out how the role of the recruiter is going to change before that though. I mean, obviously you’ve got access to huge amounts of data and there’ll be some interesting sort of background stuff to this report. What’s the sort of current state of the talent market and how’s that affecting recruiting as a profession?
Amy Schultz [00:05:21]:
Great question, Matt. You know, we’re just not operating under the same rules that we were five or 10 years ago. You know, the world of work is changing fast, as we all know. You know, the majority of our candidates are now online via their smartphone, looking at jobs. They’re also more informed than ever about opportunities before they make a decision. And what I find so fascinating is we have so many different generations in the workforce at the moment. You know, millennials aren’t at college anymore. It’s Gen Z or your English. So I can say Gen Z, but we have Gen Z, millennials, Gen X and perhaps still some baby boomers in the workforce. So these changing Demographics are creating new rules of work and the competition for talent is, and getting hired is just kind of reaching new levels. And, and when I think about that, I think about that old saying, what got us here won’t get us there. And I think recruiters, we can’t be creatures of habit anymore. And what we’re seeing in the talent market actually is demand for recruiting professionals is up. It’s jumped 63% since 2016. And that’s a trend that we think will continue. And the talent market is going to be more agile. When we spoke to our thousands of talent acquisition pros, the number one clear answer from them around priorities between now and 2024 was that they need to keep up with rapidly changing hiring needs and we need to be more strategic. We need to be in there advising our business leaders rather than being so reactive. And what I also find really exciting is that the career path to becoming a recruiter is evolving. Matt. Probably when you and I started our careers, no one actually goes to school or university to become a recruiter. And I think that that will change. And we’re also seeing that now heads of recruiting are coming from outside of HR or ta. I was speaking to a customer recently who’s the head of TA at a big organization here in the US and he came from running their global sales org. And I think that that’s. So we’re going to see that shift and I think that the role of recruiters will increasingly become one of being an advisor, which, you know, I think we all want to see happen.
Matt Alder [00:07:50]:
So tell us a little bit more about that. How specifically do you think the recruiter role is going to change? And indeed probably is changing at the moment.
Amy Schultz [00:08:00]:
Yeah, definitely. So I, you know, we see the role of recruiter changing in three big ways, Matt. We’re going to move from tracking recruiting activity, which will become easier through technology and recruiters are now going to care more about calculating business impact, which I think is really cool. And when you’re working as a recruiter, you’re probably also going to be working with non recruiting specialists. I can’t actually imagine doing my job now without working with my partner in our people analytics team. And we’re also going to see more, more strategic skill sets. So we’re already seeing an increase in people having data analysis, consulting, problem solving on their LinkedIn profile and we’re seeing a really great appetite and interest for our Talent Insights product. So, you know, we need to continue to keep up with recruiting technology. And I think that 52% of those that we surveyed said that that’s going to be a priority for the next five years. So those data analysis, consulting, problem solving skills are going to be really important.
Matt Alder [00:09:10]:
And obviously the world of business is changing at a rapid speed for many companies. Their recruitment needs will be changing just as quickly. What should recruiting teams be doing to keep up with the rapidly changing needs of the businesses that they work in?
Amy Schultz [00:09:28]:
Great question. I think that we really, as recruiting leaders, we need to create insights driven culture within our recruiting teams. You know, we’ve talked about data driven recruiting for a number of years now and I’ve seen firsthand, you know, even myself, taking data points into an intake meeting or a meeting with a leader and kind of confusing the situation more because there wasn’t necessarily a story that went along with the data. And I think, you know, leaders and hiring managers are wanting to hear that. So what or what our recommendations are. And data only becomes insights when it comes with recommendations. And so I see businesses needing recruiters more and more to get not only creative with talent strategies, but also being able to develop the new skills to meet these demands. And given the appetite for insights driven talent strategies, talent analytics roles have grown by I think 111% since 2014, which is incredible. And according to the data, the three skills that will become even more important over the next five years, the first one is engaging passive candidates. And I think what really is underpinning that, Matt, is a recruiter’s ability to tell a story. And we see that communication skills are increasing 3x among recruiting professionals since 2015. And your recruiters, they need to be able to tell their company story in a compelling and we also see the need for recruiters to be able to tell stories with data as well. And then that sort of flows on to being able to analyse talent data to drive decisions. And we’ve seen these data analytics skills increase 2x among recruiting professionals since 2015. And then lastly advising business leaders and hiring managers. And to be able to do that, moving from data to insights, being able to go in and problem solve real time with leaders, we’ve seen Problem solving skills increase 2x among recruiting professionals since 2015. And when we talk about what recruiters need to do and how we need to keep up with these rapidly changing business needs, as you ask, I think it’s also important to think what might be getting in the way. And you know, we also need to understand what could be blocking our recruiters and try and remove some of those roadblocks. And I think, you know, relationships with technology I think fear, you know, is technology going to automate my job? And then also just having the confidence to be able to make recommendations with data. You know, I think they’re some of the things that might be getting in the way of this progress. And as recruiting leaders, we really need to invest in our teams to make sure that we’re removing those roadblocks.
Matt Alder [00:12:28]:
Absolutely. I mean, that all makes perfect sense. And I think the storytelling thing is really interesting. It’s certainly been a very big theme on the podcast this year, and I’m sure it will be next year as recruiters and employer brand professionals get their head around how get their head around storytelling and how it works for them strategically. So you’ve mentioned data a few times in the conversation and you also sort of mentioned measuring business impact. What are the most important metrics that recruiters should be tracking and why should they be sort of tracking those metrics? What’s your view?
Amy Schultz [00:13:09]:
Yeah, thanks for asking. You know, I think that in the future, Matt, we will see that metrics will track outcomes, not just actions. I don’t know about you, but I’ve sat in many performance reviews over my career with, with recruiters, and in their self evaluation form, we’ve really focused on the number of jobs filled and the time to fill. And while these are still important metrics, did those people that you hire really fast stay? And so I think that the three most important metrics will be quality of hire, candidate experience, and then also the diversity of candidates. When we think about quality of hire from the survey that we did, over half of the companies, the 52% aren’t currently tracking quality of hire. However, 88% say that it’s going to be incredibly useful over the next five years. So we still obviously haven’t cracked the code there, but we will. Candidate experience almost three out of four companies. So roughly 73% of those that we spoke to aren’t currently tracking this. But again, 70% will become more useful in the next five years. And as we know, candidate experience, that also impacts customer experience. And candidates are a lot more active research and vocal than ever before. So I think that’s super important to be focused on. And then diversity of candidates. Only one in three companies, Matt, are currently tracking it and a little over half think that it’s going to be really useful in the next five years. It’s something that we’re really focused on at LinkedIn. As we know, diverse teams build better businesses and better products. So I see that those three metrics are going to be increasingly Important to track.
Matt Alder [00:14:53]:
So you’ve also mentioned technology a few times. What role is technology playing in the future for recruiters?
Amy Schultz [00:15:04]:
Yeah, I think for the first time ever, recruitment has its own tech stack. Traditionally the technology that we use is perhaps sat in HR or maybe even before for that in it. But now we have our own tech stack and I think we will continue to see deeper investments in technology and that will be required to find quality candidates. But even technology is still playing catch up. And I think how the systems integrate and how we continue to grow and scale implementations are going to become more and more complex. And when we get to that utopia where recruitment systems and tools all integrate and processes become more efficient, I think that will kind of level the playing field. And so what then becomes the point of difference for a candidate? I think that really then comes back to the experience that the candidate has and that human, human connection. So that’s why I see storytelling going to be so important. It’s such a critical skill for recruiters to develop. I think technology will enable us to be more efficient over time and continue to kind of automate some of those more kind of volume value tasks and that will help elevate recruiters to be those advisors, be those storytellers and really make those meaningful connections with candidates.
Matt Alder [00:16:23]:
Final question, I mean how would you summarize your key advice to recruiting professionals? How can they make sure they’re ready for the future?
Amy Schultz [00:16:33]:
So if you’re a recruiter listening to this, I want you to know that your job has never mattered more and you’re given that talent is a top priority. Recruiters also need to be curious and agile. When I think about the most high performing, high potential recruiters that I’ve managed over my careers, the one thing that they have in common is curiosity. Asking for feedback, the ability to course correct and really be a learn it all rather than a know it all. And I think to, you know, to make sure that that curiosity and that development continues. Recruiting leaders need to be willing to invest in their recruiting teams and that means investing in their development which will lead hopefully to retention because we know how in demand recruiters are. And lastly I say to my team all the time, what interests a leader fascinates me. Truly understanding business objectives and how talent ladders up in helping them achieve those objectives is paramount. And I think to do that, recruiters need to be visible, you know, set those reoccurring meetings with execs and have the confidence to cascade insights and also share what you need from them. You know, we say it at LinkedIn, relationships matter. And you know, I find I’m happiest at work when I have really strong relationships. And I think to build strong relationships with business leaders, you know, you will be happier in your job but also better informed and be able to help keep you and your team on target and also the business on target. So I think headlines, your job has never mattered more. Recruiting leaders, you’ve got to invest in your team and then we really need to be business advisors. We really need to be interested, fascinated by what those business objectives are so our talent strategies can align to them.
Matt Alder [00:18:30]:
Amy, thank you very much for talking to me.
Amy Schultz [00:18:32]:
Thank you Matt. It’s been a pleasure.
Matt Alder [00:18:35]:
My thanks to Amy Schultz. You can subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts or via your podcasting app of choice. Please also follow us on Instagram. You can find the show by searching for Recruiting Future. If you’re a Spotify or Pandora user, you can also find the show there. You can find all the past episodes@www.rfpodcast.com. on that site, you can subscribe to the mailing list and find out more about working with me. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next week and I hope you’ll join me.
