Round up is the monthly show on The Recruiting Future Podcast channel that highlights episodes you may have missed and gives you my take on some of the key learnings from the guests.
Episodes mentioned in this Round Up:
Ep 479: Neurodiversity Hiring At Microsoft
Ep 480: Are Job Boards Evolving?
Ep 483: The Power Of Talent Marketplaces
Ep 484: Innovation and Skills-Based Hiring
Ep 486: Building A Second Brain
Ep 489: The Personalization Megatrend
Listen to this podcast in Apple Podcasts
Transcript:
Matt Alder (18s):
Hi there. This is Matt Alder. Welcome to the December roundup episode of the Recruiting Future Podcast. If you’ve not listened to Roundup before, it’s a short review of the episodes that I’ve published in the last month to make sure you don’t miss out on the valuable insights my guests are sharing. Happy New Year and I hope 2023 brings you everything you are hoping for. It’s certainly gonna be another fascinating year in the evolution of talent acquisition. It’s been a crazy busy few weeks for the podcast and despite me having a breakaway from the microphone for the holidays, there was still 10 action-packed episodes of the show in December.
Matt Alder (1m 2s):
Back in October, I published three interviews to mark National Disability Employment Awareness Month. What particularly struck me was the amount of work going into neurodiversity hiring and I wanted to dive deeper by finding out how specific employers are developing their programs. My guest on Episode 479 was Neil Barnett, Director, Inclusive Hiring and Accessibility at Microsoft. Neil helped to develop Microsoft’s neurodiversity hiring program, which has been in place since 2015. He has excellent insights and valuable advice for employers looking to establish similar programs.
Matt Alder (1m 43s):
We also talked about some of the specific learnings from the program that have driven change in other aspects of Microsoft’s hiring. Job boards still play a central role in talent acquisition, but outside of the job board industry, there isn’t much discussion or debate about their current state and future potential. So are they still fit for purpose? How are they evolving and what can job board statistics tell us about the current talent market? My guest on Episode 480 was Dave Jenkins, Founder of Wave. Wave publishes Wave Tracker, a regular independent report that uses job board data to track recruiting trends, which means Dave has a wealth of insights to share.
Matt Alder (2m 34s):
I’m taking a different view to some industry commentators on the near future of work. For me, remote and hybrid is a given for knowledge workers and I feel strongly that we should be spending our time working out how to evolve the way we work to fit this new reality rather than arguing about whether people should be going back to an office. Although the rise in remote and hybrid working indicates a workplace revolution, how much have things actually changed? Presenteeism is still a big issue with some employers using economically tough times as an excuse to get people back to the office.
Matt Alder (3m 13s):
Meanwhile, many hybrid and remote employees are struggling with legacy working methods not designed for the world we are now living in. My guests on Episode 481 were Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst, co-founders of Hoxby and authors of the bestselling book Workstyle. Lizzie and Alex are campaigners for a more modern autonomous way of working. They’re using their own experiences of running a remote-first business to start a movement to make work better for everyone. Episode 482 continued the same theme where I spoke to Saad Siddiqui, General Partner of Telstra Ventures, a VC firm with several HR technology investments.
Matt Alder (3m 59s):
Saad has written extensively about the future of work and the advantages of a fluid workforce strategy. We talked through his take on the key issues, how employers can address them, and the role HR and recruiting technology will play in taking us forward. One thing that has remained constant in our changing talent markets is the importance of targeting the right audience with the right message at the right time. In the noisy world of recruitment marketing, talent marketplaces are proving to be effective platforms for bringing employers and minded potential employees together.
Matt Alder (4m 43s):
On Episode 483, I spoke to John Beard, Head of Corporate and Technical Talent Acquisition at One Medical. One Medical is competing for talent in some challenging markets. John has lots of insights to share on finding, connecting, and persuading the right talent to join the organization. In rapidly changing times. The pace of business change is continuing to accelerate. According to a recent McKinsey Global Survey, business leaders expect that by 2026, half of their company’s revenue will come from products, services, or businesses that haven’t been invented yet.
Matt Alder (5m 26s):
Innovation is critical for companies to survive and thrive. So how can employers ensure they have talent strategies in place to have the right skills to create and drive new ideas forward and could innovation be the catalyst that accelerates skills-based hiring? My guest on Episode 484 was Mauro Porcini, PepsiCo’s first-ever Chief Design Officer and author of a new book on people-centric innovation. In the book, Mauro does a deep dive into the skills, culture, and philosophy companies need to innovate, and it was brilliant to hear his views on what employers need to do to attract, retain, and develop people with a diverse skills required for effective innovation, a brilliant example of why employers need to think differently about hiring to get competitive advantage.
Matt Alder (6m 19s):
In an end-of-year special, the last week before Christmas was Productivity Week on the podcast. With so much going on and so many competing pressures, I know that everyone listening will at least at some point have had challenges with focus and information overload. Talent Acquisition is evolving quickly and managing attention and processing information are vital skills that aren’t highlighted as much as they should be. My first guest on Productivity Week in Episode 486 was one of the world’s leading personal knowledge management system experts.
Matt Alder (7m 0s):
Tiago Forte is the founder of Forte Labs and creator of the brilliant Building A Second Brain System. Building a Second Brain is a very effective knowledge and information management process. I can personally vouch for it as I used it to write my book, Digital Talent. Tiago has created a popular online course and a book on Building A Second Brain and in our discussion, he gives an excellent insight into the system. For part two of Productivity Week, in Episode 487, I wanted to focus on focus, and my guest was author and speaker Eric Coleman.
Matt Alder (7m 41s):
In 2009, Eric wrote a hugely influential book, predicting the rise of social media called Socialnomics, and since then has written extensively on digital leadership. His most recent book is The Focus Project, which highlights the problems humans have focusing in our hyper-connected world and explores some of the potential solutions that can help us. One of the key lessons from 2022 is the implementing effective strategies for DE&I is always a long-term journey rather than a quick fix. Sharing insights to learn from the experiences of others is a critical part of the process.
Matt Alder (8m 26s):
Progress can’t happen in a vacuum. My guest on Episode 488 was Eric Thomas, Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer at Genesis. Genesis is on a journey to become a more diverse company and a vital part of this is increased workforce representation to align with the markets they serve. Eric has some valuable insights to share on the lessons they’re learning, particularly around talent acquisition and employee experience. Anyone who’s listened to the show read any of my articles or saw me present in 2022 will know that I firmly believe that technology-driven personalization is the forthcoming Megatrend in talent acquisition.
Matt Alder (9m 15s):
For Episode 489, I shared a recording of a talk that I gave at the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals Global TA Day Conference. The subject was personalization, and this episode is a must-listen for anyone who wants to achieve automated, human-centric recruiting in 2023. A big thank you to Hyatt who sponsored the podcast in December. You can find out more about them and book a demo by going to hyatt.com/RecruitingFuture. So onwards into 2023 and what is sure to be another eventful year.
Matt Alder (9m 57s):
In a few weeks’ time, Recruiting Future will celebrate 500 episodes and 2 million downloads. In the meantime, I have some properly insightful conversations coming up in January, including interviews with Kyle Lagunas from Aptitude Research, Jane Curran, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at JLL, and Manjuri Sinha, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at OLX Group. If you haven’t already, then make sure you’re subscribed to the show in Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Finally, make sure you go to www.RecruitingFuture.com to subscribe to my monthly newsletter, Recruiting Future Feast.
Matt Alder (10m 39s):
Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next time and I hope you’ll join me.
