The Recruitment Flex – Details, episodes & analysis

This week on TRF we welcome Irene Santos VP Global Talent Acquisition with TD Bank.

• A true testimony of internal mobility, Irene brings a depth of business acumen to reflect the incredible career path of being part of TD Bank. 

• Self described as a Recruiter at Heart, Irene shares the intrinsic rewards of her longevity and commitment to the profession.

• Using the tools at hand, Irene created and led the most innovative thinking we’ve ever heard of. 

• Credit goes to the cross pollination of her team and breaking the traditional mold of where TA works best. 

• Irene shares the game changer for TD Bank’s approach to candidate experience - just brilliant!

• The magic wand, Irene paints the picture of what a global TA executive dreams of!

This week on TRF we welcome Rachel Liem-Smith AVP Talent Acquisition with Canadian Western Bank

• By way of Moose Jaw SK and now in PEI, Rachel is the up & coming TA thought leader to watch!

• In a short 7.5 years and the 3rd person hired in the TA team, Rachel now takes the steering wheel of a nation wide team.

• An early adopter of TA technology and master of Employer Brand (check out their branding!) Rachel reminds us the banking industry has one of the best examples of technology in our every day lives.

• A unique team structure and philosophy, prepare to be inspired

• Rachel share which metrics really matter

A heart warming shout out to Rachel’s valued partnership with HVI and Leah Sobering.

This week on TRF:

• After a whirlwind travel schedule, our final stop at TA Tech turns out to be the best ever!

• Feeling smarter. The knowledge drops just kept coming for 2 full days. Ben Eubanks Chief Research Officer with Lighthouse Research & Advisory stole the show! The great topics and top notch speakers were on fire, our friends Richard Collins, Guru Sethupathy and Allyn Bailey blew us away. 

• A special surprise for Shelley that she didn't see coming!

IN THE NEWS

• Canada’s job numbers from May

• US jobs report from May

TIP OF THE WEEK

• AI wont fix your employer brand. Tips on what can.

RECRUITING INSIGHTS

• What’s going on with LinkedIN? Content providers are bummed out about their audience traffic or have they been chasing vanity metrics the whole time.

• 25% of GenZ bring mom or dad with them to the interview. This could be a click bait. We dig in to figure out what grain of truth could exist in this report. 

• More click bait or self serving research. You decide if Phenom has fudge the numbers to pump their own tires. 

This week on TRF:

• Shelley’s feeling a little rattled. A perfect driving record is now tarnished, a cement parking barrier vs a front bumper isn't a fair fight!

• When are we too old to attend a rave? Serge takes in an outdoor performance of Tiesto.

• Get your tickets now, Serge will rock the stage at DisruptHR YYC.

• AND if you are on the East Coast, join Leah Sobering as she hosts DisruptHR Halifax.

In the news

• ZipRecruiter remains profitable despite a big drop in customer count.

• Staffing industry giant Airswift inked a deal to acquire Energy Resourcing, adding 11 offices in 9 countries.

• 3 options to choose from if you work for Amazon as they mandate 2 days a week in the office, the last option is to voluntarily resign - let that sink in a moment

• The irony of Zoom mandating return to office is not lost on the entire white collar working world. 

Tip of the Week

• A great measure, worth boasting about is a tight Applicant to Hire ratio. If you are hiring a single role, 50:1 is the target. 

Recruiting Insights

• Despite the fear mongers, most employers face little risk of being held liable for negligent hiring when it comes to people with a criminal record. 

• Use of social media while you are supposed to be working. A Monster study published says that 57% of workers think social media in the workplace is unprofessional yet 46% admit to spending up to 4 hours on social media during working hours. The real interesting result is half of those surveyed dont want their employer following them on social media. 

• Before you jump on the HR Tech bandwagon of AI powered this or that - get up to speed on what AI actually is and what is just an automated process.

• Here’s where to skill up for free and at your own pace https://www.edx.org/learn/artificial-intelligence/google-google-ai-for-anyone

This week we have the honour to have industry legend Stephen O'Donnell.

TA Tech’s Chief Growth Officer and founder of NORA, the national online recruitment awards joins share his deep knowledge of the TA landscape. 

• Starting in 1987, Stephen is the OG of aggregating jobs!  

• Latest trends in HR tech and who looks to be a game changer.

• Fiverr and Upwork a paradigm shift for some businesses.

• Video in job ads and how it is changing the job board space.

• The best idea to solve recruiting challenges will never see the light of day; there’s no money to be made by doing it!

TRF covers this week:

• When a CEO’s top measure of success is happy employees, you know you’re listening to Chris Forman with AppCast! Catch the episode released last Monday

• Friend of the show, Adam Gordon is teasing with his new company called ‘Poetry’ dressed in France’s national colours and on a boat!

• Lazy Girl Jobs - just set all women back 50 years, everything Barbie did to empower women has been undone by these viral TikTok's.

• What’s next? Paying your adult children to stay home and do chores?

In The News

• Netflix runs an ad for an AI Expert with a salary of up to $900K; causing outrage to the striking Hollywood crowd.

• Linked In is testing out a job seeker coach using AI, no word on the monthly price tag.

Tip of the Week

• Ask candidates how they want to be communicated to - email, phone or text. If you’re going to use text, better call our friends at RecTxt.com.

Recruiting Insights

• When having Canadian experience a real and legitimate job requirement, and you don't know how to read a resume, you best brush up on federal and provincial human rights act.

• The world’s first blind hiring experiment included voice masking technology soon to be the best intended worst experience ever.

• 3 powerhouse reports paint a stark picture of a brewing storm with a mandated return to the office. We watch as the pendulum swings with attrition and struggling to recruit. Good news for recruiters, the demand for our skill are headed back our way.

When the classiest guy in HR Tech buys the nicest recruitment marketing agency, you get happy employees and delighted customers. 10 cities in 10 days to meet the Bayard team, he’s convinced this acquisition is a win-win. 

• Chris gives us an inside view of his personal journey and his philosophy on how to build a successful company. 

• Smart people are everywhere, so invest in overlooked communities like Fredericton, New Brunswick.

• Chris gives us some inside baseball on how the conversations with partners unfolded before the acquisition with Bayard was announced.

• 20 years of building business and selling them, this is a first to acquire one!

• Appcast is now the world’s largest buyer of Indeed and ZipRecruiter media.

• The definition of success 2 years after the acquisition.

• What's next for Appcast?

Bonus material:

• The best explanation on why job postings are down in 2023

We have thrown out all traditional gender expectations, Shelley pays for lunch and Serge sings for his supper.

Is organizational hygiene the polite term for cleaning house, aka layoffs?

In the News

• 10,000 H1B Visa holders in 48 hours, highly skilled workers are eager to get into Canada!

• Twitter launches job listings @TwitterHiring - next up @TwitterDating

•  Former TA Exec sues his employer Goldman Sachs, we saw this coming from miles away

Tip of the Week

• Using AI to improve your Linked In summary statement. Be sure to edit it before you publish.

Recruiting Insights

• Cisco offers up training sessions to become talent influencers. Such a great idea!

• The 4-6 pm dead zone and MS Teams is big brother, watching your every move. 

• HireRight points the finger at TA when their customers demand faster service.

TRF feat. Joel Lalgee The Realest Recruiter

“You had me at remote job” is how Joel fell into recruiting. He’s never looked back. You can now find him and his large audience (over 400k Social Media followers) on pretty much every social platform.

Joel shared his vision on how and why he created such an incredible online presence:

• Be helpful

• Start with cringe and answer common questions

• Social media success starts with understanding who you are trying to attract

• Going viral on social media does not convert in the recruitment advertising space

Joel’s take on Meta’s Threads

The 5 things Recruiters need to be successful

Another exciting week in Talent Acquisition.

This week we cover:

• Blue sky over head and green grass under foot, RecFest US - Nashville, BiCentennial Park, September 13 & 14. 

• Does being late to every zoom meeting qualify as ‘time blindness’? We take shots at Sarah Trefren when her whining to be accommodating for her condition on TikTok went viral. 

• Threads seem to be going limp. 

• Listing your salary history on your Linked In profile; we are too Canadian for that!

In the news

• Canadian unemployment rose to 5.4%

• Indeed Flex, the contingency staffing firm in the UK, launches Same Day Pay. 

Tip of the week

• Evergreen job posting advice

Recruiting Insights 

• Using AI to make the hiring decision is a bit of a headline grabber, we won't see mass adoption in our lifetime. 

• Work love bombing is the same toxic behaviour seen in romantic relationships - it's never a good look.

• Corporate Tinder is a 1 way video interview. Finally we are all on the same page of what a horrible idea this was in the first place.