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. 

This week Ilya Brotzky from VanHack joins us and there is lots to celebrate.

As they round the corner to nearly 2,000 hires and the VC market fell in love with what they do and how they are doing it with a $3M funding.

As a champion for improvement to immigration, Ilya explains the Canadian tech talent strategy announcements made by Sean Fraser Minister of Immigration for Canada at the Collision conference in Toronto.

• Ilya shares his journey and some key announcements to Canada’s immigration policy.

• STEM talent gets express entry

• Processing times for work permits are improving

• Entrepreneurs coming to Canada get the red carpet

• The digital nomad visa, everyone wins! 

• We debate the idea of 10,000 H1B visa holders making their way north to Canada, perhaps motivated by the 50 year wait for a green card

After Shelley’s brief trip across the pond, Serge is happy to be back with his favourite co-host.

Just when we thought life couldn't get better, Serge and Shelley are awarded TA Tech’s Top 100 thought leaders.  

In the News

• Appcast acquires Bayard Advertising to create the worlds largest recruitment marketing firm 

• Indeed is testing using employer data to help you write a better jobs ad. Role credits: ChatGPT

• The US job market cooled a tiny bit in June - but consider US employers had continued to add jobs now for the last 30 month.

• On the home front, Calgary lands a global HR tech firm as their North American HQ. Welcome Vantage Circle. 

• Threads by Meta wont kill Twitter, its more like new users who keep comparing everyone to their old girlfriend/boyfriend. 

Tip of the Week

• Write a better diversity statement on your job ad

Recruiting Insights

• With time to hire averages at 255 days, someone needs to get fired.

• More regrets from Elon Musk. If you let someone go, and then regret doing it, can you accuse Mark Zuckerberg of stealing trade secrets? 

• New US law for employees with new borns falls painfully short of basic care for mother and child. 

This week Serge sans Shelley interviews one of our favourite person in the industry Caitlin MacGregor CEO of Plum.io

Try your own Plum profile: https://use.plum.io/profile-recruitmentflex 

We cover a lot!

• Plum's recognition as a leader in the industry, highlighted in an article in The New York Times, signifies the impact and importance of their work.

• Changing Recruitment Landscape: Employees are no longer compelled to stay in one job for years to show loyalty. The labor market has changed, and individuals are more willing to leave for better opportunities.

• The importance of change management in adopting new approaches to talent management and skill-based hiring was mentioned, as well as the need for leadership support in driving these changes.

• Bias in recruitment, highlighting the role of objective data in mitigating bias and making more informed decisions.

• The challenges of de-risking hiring decisions and the role of referrals in the process.

This week we welcome the OG HR Famous Tim Sackett. Tim has come up with a great follow up book to the Talent Fix by releasing volume 2

After 5,000 blog posts, at what point do you just write a few books?  

With his latest book, Tim brings the wit and humour we all need after a long day in TA. 

Fun fact, he is one of the few people who can honestly say they were born to be in this profession.

Our favourite takes from his new book:

• Money fixes everything

• Hiring Managers are mad because they see us as HR

• Laughable metrics in TA

• Talent Streaming

• Referral to Interview ratio - aim for 90-100%  

The Talent Fix Volume 2 is out now!

This week Guest Co-host Kim Wilkinson is joining Serge while Shelley is off having a grand time in Europe, probably sending some questionable pics.

In The News:

• VanHack just announced a whopping $3 million in new funding. Big congrats to Ilya and the team for their continued growth. It's fantastic to see!

• Calgary based KIBBI Technologies, a job-finding app created by a fellow newcomer, raised a cool $1.1 million CAD. It's always inspiring to see such initiatives supporting those who are starting a new chapter in their lives.

• Canada's Minister for Immigration, Sean Fraser, has announced the country's first-ever Tech Talent strategy. The buzz surrounding it is simply overwhelming. Exciting times ahead for the tech industry in Canada!

Tip of the Week:

Brought to you by Kim. She shares her secret to running a successful recruitment firm: pick your clients very carefully. It's all about finding the right fit and working with clients who align with your values and goals.

Recruiting Insights:

• It seems like employees are deciding to stay put for now, what we like to call "The Big Stay." With all the uncertainties and changes happening in the job market, many folks are opting to stick with their current roles. It's a trend worth exploring further.

• According to the latest data from LinkedIn, job posts that feature talent tend to attract more applicants. So, if you want to increase your candidate pool, make sure to highlight the skills you're looking for.

• We have a surprising benefit for you—granternity leave! It's the kind of leave you didn't know you needed until now.

We first met Steph and the Hiring Branch at the Unleash America in Las Vegas. They hosted a bunch of HR podcasters from every corner of the globe, right in the heart of the iconic High Roller!

• A pioneering force in the Canadian HR tech landscape, they took note of a simple yet significant truth: people don't like interviews. This realization sparked a desire to challenge the status quo and to reimagine the conventional hiring process.

• Tracing their roots back to training for soft skills in call centres, the evolution of Hiring Branch was organic. Their expertise naturally extended to evaluating these same soft skills in a hiring context, thus creating a unique niche in the industry.

• In a world where a single company can receive a staggering 300,000 applicants annually, one can't help but wonder: how do you sift through this multitude to identify who possesses the crucial soft skills, such as a knack for sales?

• Comparing the soft skills of applicants against those of model employees, enabling them to evaluate the presence of mirrored skills among job seekers. This novel approach has proved to be an efficient way to uncover potential talent in the vast sea of candidates.

This week on The Recruitment Flex

• Shelley becomes Indeed famous!
• Brilliant driver recruiting ads on billboards in driving simulator video games: A creative and effective strategy for attracting driver recruits.
• Canadian recruiters expecting more job applications from international locations: Canadian recruiters anticipate an increase in job applications from candidates outside the country.

In the News:

• Uber cuts 200 recruiters: Uber announces a reduction in its recruiting workforce by 200 employees.
• Fake it until you make it...or just fraud? The truth about Joonko's authenticity: An investigation reveals that Joonko, a company, may have engaged in fraudulent practices.

Tip of the Week:

• Tips on how to get promoted: Valuable advice on strategies and actions to increase chances of career advancement.

Recruiting Insights:

• Anxiety in HR as university degree requirements are dropped: Removing university degree requirements causes concern in HR departments. Questions arise about how pay bands will be determined without this traditional criterion.
• Talent Acquisition still striving for a seat at the "table" among HR counterparts: Talent Acquisition professionals continue to work towards being recognized as equals within the broader HR field.
• The drawbacks of social media creeping on candidates: Cautionary advice against engaging in excessive online research of candidates through their social media profiles.

This week we welcome Maury Hanigan of SparcStart

Long before anyone was connecting the dots between traditional marketing and recruitment, Maury saw the enormous potential of bring boring job descriptions to life using video.

We Cover:

• The secret sauce was making it easy, fast and fun. 

• Conversion increases by 60%

• Quality of applicants, people who are interested and qualified (you had me at qualified)

• Real people want to find their tribe - being authentic and not over produced

• AI can't express emotion like a human, recruitment can rest easy.

This week on TRF

• Graduation day and Serge is worried all the well educated women will have a shallow gene pool to select from

• Shelley is off to celebrate her son’s graduation - who will be a positive contribution to the gene pool!

• ‘Remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation - Tony Soprano. Remember when we didn't have cell phones?

In the news

• Digging deeper into the express entry for trades and the French language requirement - makes more sense when you see the number of vacant positions broken down by province

• Inflation is dragging people over 60 back to work.

Tip of the Week

• 3 easy and cheap things to reduce candidate ghosting

Recruiting Insights

• Offer letters that feel like a baseball bat to the face. After a pleasant recruiting experience, the offer is supposed to be the best part not a 10 page legal contract.

• New research proves that simply changing gender troubling words in your job ad does go far enough to have a measurable impact. 

• DEI needs to up the game on collecting data. Why would a job seeker trust the company to NOT discriminate if I self-identify?

• IBM vs Accenture - polarising decisions on how generative AI will impact the world of work

Since Shelley’s HR celebrity crush was not available we had to go with her 2nd favourite dutchman. 

For the last 17 years Bas has run the Best Corporate Career site competition in the Netherlands. He knows a thing or two about what a great career site needs to have. 

In this episode Bas shares his vast experience.

• Corporate career sites are a conversion tool not a destination.

• Only 5% of career site in the Netherland force a candidate to register to apply!

• From the home page to the listing of jobs, Bas gave us his 2 favourite sites.

• Job descriptions are essential and the easiest place to start

• The 3 features of the top career site

This week on TRF A green lawn and perfectly manicured yard is a sign of a healthy marriage. Diana takes first prize!

Thank you to our loyal listeners for your positive feedback on TRF’s new logo and branding. 

No FOMO on SHRM, let’s talk about why we don't fit in there.

In the News

• Young women in Canada are the hardest hit for finding work. 

• Meanwhile, in the US women are returning to the workplace at the highest rate since 2007!!

• LinkedIn is testing the waters of charging job seekers for their Top Choice Jobs. We are throwing shade on this horrible idea.

• Indeed backing down on pay transparency?

Tip of the Week

• 3 great questions to ask when you are being interviewed 

Recruiting Insights

• You ‘register to apply’ created a monster! These apps will auto-fill thousands of applications that can be sent in a single day.  Good luck sorting through them all.  

• The top 100 European companies who set the pace for what great career sites should be

Dedicating a career to helping job boards and businesses increase traffic, Mark, formerly the Performance Marketing brains behind Snag-a-job, set out to optimize SEO solutions for job sites on Job Hub Central.

Mark's knowledge of this space is impressive, here's what we covered:

• Google Job Ads optimization and a fore-telling of the Alpha testing going on right now in the US

• Clean up of Google for Jobs to increase trustworthiness

• The transformation of search from Yahoo to ChatGPT

• Take the best from consumer marketing

• Know your drop rate by source so you will know where to fit the leaking bucket

• HR and AI will solve the problems of the mundane, if you let AI come up with new ideas

New branding, same show. We’d love to hear feedback on our new podcast cover and website, unless you don't like it…then you can keep your comments to yourself. 

Sincere thanks to our show sponsor, VanHack and Ilya, we are proud to be working with you.

Testing the limits of how much Serge would be willing to spend on the Apple Vision Pro? Shelley predicts its a matter of time before he breaks open the piggy bank and buys them.

Fighting wildfires, what do firefighters get paid in Canada and US. PLUS a public shaming of KL Farms Fire LLC.

In the News

• US job openings hit 10.1 million  - demand for workers remains hight

• Immigration Canada gets it right with a new system to align newcomers to Canada & the labour market

Tip of the Week

• Free - 10 Google courses designed to help you understand generative AI

Recruiting Insights

• Nobody likes a job hopper, the TikTok post goes viral - let’s all calm down and put some context around this

• No recruiters required - surprise McHire does 1 Million hires a year

• 4 possible scenarios for what recruitment will look like in the year 2028

This week we welcome Ben Eubanks w Lighthouse Research & Advisory

After an awesome conversation at Unleash.ai, we were so pleased to have Ben talk more about his new book “Talent Scarcity: Retain and Engage in a Shrinking Workforce”

The self proclaimed professional nerd, Ben is uniquely qualified in the TA world. As the founder of an HR research and advisory firm, Lighthouse Research, he has collaborated with numerous organizations to develop innovative talent strategies, making him a trusted authority in the field and a go-to resource for organizations seeking to navigate the evolving landscape of talent scarcity.

Mic drop moments

• The simple and cost effective way to stop candidate ghosting 

• A shocking truth of how candidates define a flexible work environment

• The Parent Shift

• When is it cool to use Ai in your hiring process.

This week on TRF:

• TATech success! Two full days of soaking up the knowledge of the TA industry’s top thought leaders. We will deep dive next week.

In The News

• Youth unemployment hits a frightful level in Toronto

• Closer to home, the Oil & Gas industry seems puzzled as to why new talent is avoiding them

• Women under 30 in the US have closed the gender pay gap

Tip of the Week

• Help recruiters help you. Adding a descriptive sentence of each company you’ve worked for helps give context to your experience. 

Recruiting Insights

• Last year, 36% of senior managers left their jobs because of mandated RTO policies, leaving a gaping hole in the succession plan.

• Jobs that pay over $250K a year don't come with remote or hybrid work options this year - last year it was 10% now its 4%.

• Plan for boomerang employees, let people leave for better experience and keep their seat warm as you keep the door open.

Serge contemplates his political career. Look for his name in the next provincial election. 

Unprecedented fires in Halifax, postponing DisruptHR

Dream job alert: live on a remote island and look after wild horses. Not our dream job but for someone else it is. 

In the News

• Veritone acquires Broadbean - Serge had his crystal ball out for that one. 

• Dice lays off 10% of their staff despite having increased revenue last earnings call. 

• The Government of Canada makes fem-hygiene products a law. 

• Summer jobs are 55% higher this year than in 2019.

Tip of the week

• Post your new jobs after a long weekend - NEVER before the long weekend. 

Recruiting Insights

• Stats Canada releases a report claiming the labour shortages aren't real. 

• The truth behind companies who lay off staff yet their GlassDoor rating increases. 

• Online Reputation Management firms take aim at GlassDoor and will charge for getting the site to remove your negative reviews.

• A new twist on military recruiting, the UK targets the Middle East and North African countries with job ads to serve in the military in exchange for UK citizenship.

TRF feat Julie Sowash, Executive Director at Disability Solutions

We finally get to introduce you to Julie Sowash. Dedicating her career to helping people who face barriers to employment by solving the problem on the corporate side.  

Disability Solutions is a non-profit who has trained over 10,000 Leaders and placed over 7,000 persons with disability. 

Our big light-bulb moments with Julie

• Recruitment process is a big problem 

• ATS systems are an even bigger problem

• AI’s potential begins with clean data

• Accommodation includes WFH

• 4% of Fortune 500 companies include Disability in their DEI strategies

Cant eat, can't sleep, nightmares? Recalling your first love and the first break up is something we all experience but that doesn't make it easier to watch someone else go through it. 

• DisruptHR Halifax is in full swing, watch for the exciting lineup of presenters being announced this week. If you’ve never been, it goes like this: 5 minutes, 20 slides, teach me something and make it disruptive.

• Elon Musk’s latest rant is meant to pit us against each other. The laptop class against trades people? How does that connect to the French Revolution? I’m lost…. 

• Even the CIA makes recruiting videos - for spies!

In The News

• Our friends at Pangologic make some changes and we make a prediction of what will follow.

Tip of the Week

• ChatGPT won't take your job. Someone who masters ChatGPT is going to take your job! Keep your technical skills sharp!

Recruiting Insights 

• Recruiting Brainfood’s survey of “What do Recruiters Want” and some interesting results

• We trash a Business Insider article that we see as grasping to tie random facts into some sort of pattern. Amateur hour at BI?

• The ‘Don't Call Me Karen’ series, Uber’s Head of DEI make a bad decision

The Recruitment Flex got the opportunity the meet the guys from RecTxt face to face the first time! We had a great chat with Brian Thompson Co-Founder of RecTxt

• RecTxt has experienced remarkable success with Unleash, enabling them to establish valuable face-to-face connections with numerous clients.

• RecTxt has gained recognition for their user-friendly texting service, which seamlessly integrates with all ATS platforms.

• During a demonstration of their recently soft-launched Smart Draft, we were thoroughly impressed by its flawless integration with ChatGTP.

• Adding to the excitement, RecTxt has introduced personas to enhance the tone of their texts. Initially, Chad and Cheese contributed their AI personas in the first iteration. One can't help but wonder if we will witness the introduction of Serge and Shelley personas in the future.

• Brian, along with his co-founder Bradley Clark, were once competitors in the staffing industry. However, they decided to join forces and establish RecTxt.

Check them out at rectxt.com

The CRNG event in Calgary was a huge success. Will van Middendorp did a great job despite some technical challenges. 

Donairs & DisruptHR Halifax Who knew Halifax was famous for this middle eastern dish? We will be co-hosting the event - June 22 - Get your tickets now

Industry News

• CareerBuilder is letting the air out of their tires. 60% of their US staff were laid off 

• ZipRecruiter revenue continues to decline - yet they have not announce layoffs

• Indeed on the other hand reported a rise in revenue a whopping 2.7% …. An increase tho!

• Plum.io partners with RoleBot - a marriage made in heaven?

Tip of The Week

Recruiter to Recruiter Advice: if you want to ace your next interview, use this:

 ‘Can I tell you a quick story of what I learned in my last role’ 

Recruiting Insights

• iHire survey of 600 job seekers, the results shocked us. 

• In other survey news, DocuSign commissions a report on the benefits of remote work, then, within days of the report being released, order their staff back to the office. 

• Reading between the lines, Elon Musk finds the best way to say hiring freeze without freaking out shareholders. He dares his Managers to bring hiring requests forward. 

• A great reminder from our friend, James Ellis, stop being generic and be interesting.

In our latest installment of the Unleash interview series, we had the pleasure of sitting down with the esteemed Ilya Brotzky, CEO of VanHack, who also happens to be a dear friend of the show.

• VanHack has established itself as a force to be reckoned with, facilitating the successful placement of nearly 2000 talented Software Developers in both Canada and the United States.

• With a personal background that includes immigrating to Canada from the former Soviet Union as a child, Ilya holds a profound understanding of the transformative impact his work has had on countless families.

• As we delved into the discussions at Unleash, the hot topic on everyone's lips was none other than artificial intelligence (AI). Ilya expressed his belief that AI will undoubtedly play a significant role in VanHack's future endeavors.

• The potential for AI and automation to enhance recruitment processes is a captivating prospect. However, the question remains: will it ever fully replace the indispensable human element?

• While AI and automation are poised to revolutionize the industry, Ilya remains hesitant to discount the enduring value of human interaction. There's an intangible magic that comes with personal connection and rapport-building, which may prove challenging to replicate through technology alone. After all, who wouldn't cherish the idealized notion of a dream recruiter's job—sitting on a private island, sipping fruity drinks, and engaging in delightful conversations with candidates all day long?

This week on TRF: DisruptHR Halifax has a great line up for all our Atlantic Canada listeners - this will be such a great event - get your tickets now!

In the news

• Canada added 41,000 jobs in April - almost all of which are part-time.

• USA job openings drop to the lowest we’ve seen since 2021 at 9.6 MM 

• LinkedIn lays off 3.5% of their workforce and sunsets their product in China call InCareer

• The 4 day work week wins! 93% of Canadian are in favour

Tip of the Week

PeopleGPT.io

Outbound sourcing just got faster & for $40 a month, why not? NB: If you are doing lots of sourcing - best to get a demo or Rolebot.io too

Recruiting Insights

• Jobs that AI will make obsolete, data entry and executive secretaries - according to the WEF (World Economic Forum) - just a little out of touch? Someone show let them know the term secretary died in the 1970’s

• The skills gap will level the playing field - it is soft skills like creative thinking, motivation and lifelong learning - skills that have nothing to do with a university degree

• White collar job at hitting the wall - no surprise here. 

• Showing us the receipts - Microsoft announced that 30% of its workforce is women and on top of that 53% of their core US workforce is ethnically diverse.

• MOD Pizza solved their staffing issues by tapping into a diverse talent pool 

As part of our Unleash interview series, we had the privilege of speaking with Click Boarding CEO Mike Ehrle.

• Mike shared his fascinating journey in the HRTech industry and how he landed at Click Boarding.

• He also discussed the emergence of "pre-boarding" as a replacement for traditional onboarding, and how Click Boarding competes against full-service talent management platforms.

• At Unleash, employee retention was a hot topic, and Mike introduced Click Boarding Retain as a solution.

• He also addressed the challenge of talent scarcity that many organizations face and shared some valuable tips to avoid ghosting.

Serge and Shelley are still basking in the afterglow of Unleash and ready CRNG event next week, May 11 at the Bank & Baron in Calgary.

Industry News

• Greenhouse and Jobcase rumours of reductions in staff

• SmartRecruiters bring the new CEO, Michael DeSimone to Unleash America

Tip of the Week

• The 101 of texting candidates, rules to follow

Recruiting Insights

• Survey says: 50% of business execs believe ChatGPT will replace the mundane work people don't like doing.

• If you want a raise, quit your job. Job switching is the best way to increase your income, especially for those who currently earn in the $75K/year range.

• No more than 3 jobs in 10 years. This job post goes viral as recruiters every where cringe at the backlash of posting such obvious bias in the recruiting process. 

• All the news about the big tech firm layoffs, why is recruiting tech talent still so hard? Here’s the reality, it was the 30 massage therapist and most of HR who got the boot.

Recording from the media center at Ceasar’s Forum conference center, we talked to the man behind the vision of Unleash.ai CEOMarc Coleman

200 speakers

3,000 in total attendance

150 vendors with 62 start ups in HR Tech

• Starting in 2011 in Amsterdam with 400 CHROs at a roundtable, the evolution of a world wide conference bringing together people and HR tech began to bloom. I

• By 2017, the HR Tech World Congress had its first North American event and found its home in Las Vegas.

• With a sharp focus on improving the experience, Marc hints at bigger and better future events.

• AI is accelerating the need to adapt quickly in the HR World! If we're not careful it might stand for Hardly Relevant

• A huge thank you for inviting The Recruitment Flex and allowing us to share great learnings, trends and exciting technology with our audience.

• Transitioned from academia to industry, driven by frustrations with the hiring process.

• Developed and improved HireVue AI-driven video interview analysis, moving from facial analysis to focusing on language and context.

• Lindsey explains HireVue processes to ensure fairness and reduce bias in AI tools.

• Optimistic view of AI’s role in creating more job opportunities and better job matches by understanding skills comprehensively.

• Emphasized the need for continuous adaptation and agility in the workforce as technology advances.

• We discuss HireVue mention in the book "The Algorithm"

In this special episode we record from the floor of the International Festival of HR - Unleash America. We needed a special guest co-host Jason Putnam who is one of the most connected and respected individual in this space to help us breakdown this impressive event.

Highlights:

• HR Parties where the vice of choice is Cannabis...good idea or brilliant idea?
• Deals in this industry are usually done at 2am at In-N-Out Burger
• Winners and Losers
• You would think Vendors would have trained representatives at their booths...not everyone got the memo
• Why more HR and TA practitioners should be attending this event
• Buzzword Galore on stage, how many times can you say AI, ChatGPT and DE&I

TA Practitioners Series

With a TA team of 80 across Canada, Nicole and Harneet share with us why KPMG is the best place to work if you are a recruiter.

• Hiring Leaders who understand the value of TA is no accident. With Nicole flying the plane and Harneet as co-pilot, Hiring Managers are fully onboard with investing in TA. 

• Early talent, campus, internal mobility, alumni, sourcing for domestic and international, this team does it all.

• KPMG’s pandemic response was to upskill the team by investing in better technology to allow Recruiters to spend time where it matters - with candidates.

• When offer acceptance rates declined they built their own offer Playbook to enhance negotiation skills. 

• If by the end of this episode, you aren't on their careers page, then you weren't listening!

Another germ makes its way thru the Boudreau household. Meanwhile, shares in Lysol products are a sure investment for anyone with school age children!

In The News:

• Another CEO scolds staff on a town hall to stop their pity party if they don't get a bonus, while her bonus swells to $1.29MM. How dare you think of your own families well being!?! Now get back to work

• Mega merger in Canada with 2 telecom giants merging with the promise to create jobs that no one wants; 3000 call centre staff to take your complaint about cable TV.

• LinkedIn goes legit by offering a free service to verify you are a real person and not another fake profile trying to sell you SEO services.

Tip of the Week

• Talk your top candidate out of taking the job. Drop the hype and give all the gory details of what’s not to love about working at your company.

Recruiting Insights

• Indeed walks back their plan to muscle customers into PPA and PPAS. 

• Full circle, the first quarter of 2023 is very similar to 2019. A positive sign if you over look inflation.

• Tech companies are throwing money at PhDs in the AI space. They could be cutting themselves off of future talent.

• Advertising benefit for low paying job is slowing while retirement benefits are hot in the high paying roles 

Hearing from the front lines TRF’s Practitioner Series Nancy Drees CEO of Vacare Group joins us.

Nancy took an arrow through the heart in her first professional recruiting job. She shares her journey into recruiting and why she started her own, very successful, firm. 

Taking the best part of recruiting in a staffing company and the best parts of being an inhouse recruiter, Nancy shares her light bulb moment that became Vacare Group. 

Highlights

• Tips to grow a remote only engineering team

• Emerging markets are not all that different if you take the time to understand what is important to the candidate

• ‘You simply cant replace humans’ the robots are not coming for the biggest part of a recruiter’s job

• Engineers love to talk to other Engineers, recruiting tips of when to get out of the way and let the magic happen

This week on The Recruitment Flex:

• UnLeash America Events - Watching the water cannon display at the Bellagio when you’re high may sound like fun, but only one of us are going

• After work plans? Save the date: CRNG meet up on May 11, 2023 in Calgary 

• Shelley is nominated for the 2023 RBC Women Entrepreneur Awards

Tip of the Week

• Cost Per Applicant is coming to Canada. Start planning for it now

Recruiting Insights

• The graduating class of 2023 fill find the world flipped on its head with companies offering $90K per year for truck drivers and $60K a year for MBAs

• Throw Back - 20 years ago when waves of layoffs were coming,  How did HR and Recruiting arm wrestle for who gets cut & who stays

• Show us your racist hiring practices! Arthur Grand Technologies will never recover from their job ad blunder.

• Recruitment metric trends to watch for 2023, our top 2 favorites OAR and Time to Offer. 

James Ellis Author of Employer Branding for Small Business

We are big fans of James and were pleased to have a preview of his new book. Employer Branding for Small Business : Your blueprint to compete for talent against anyone.

Available April 4, 2023 on Amazon

• Incredibly entertaining and always teaching, some snippets of our conversation with James.

• Social media and employer brand don't mix

• The #1 skill of an Employer Brand person is the ability to influence.

• What would Star Wars be without Darth Vader? Tell the whole story of what its like to work at your company. 

• The truth about your company career pages and why they go stale.

• Even your offer letter needs to embrace your employer brand

• Activating your brand and where to start.

We Cover:

• In more depressing news, we see layoffs at Canadian darling, Talent.com with a 25% reduction in their workforce

• Who knew that MacDonald’s had 150,000 corporate employees? Laying people off remotely was a choice!

• What’s old is new again. The title of CIO is outdated and hardly quantifies the role. Same with CHRO, the latest trend in what to call the top person in HR. 

Tip of the Week

• Proving age discrimination is tough! Recruiters need to choose their words carefully when declining candidates or they could end up in a world of hurt.

Recruiting Insights

• Not everyone wants to work for the high risk and high reward type of companies. In fact, one third of workers prefer dependable, stable employers.

• Branding your company culture as entrepreneurial is kind of a bad idea. Considering that most people who fit in this category were teenage vandals. 

• Changes in the last few years in job seeker behaviour, have HR teams spending 25% more of their time doing recruitment work. Time to hire your recruiters back?

• Doing it right - CANVA has no plans to lay people off; their hiring was well thought out and each role intentionally filled. 3 cheers for them! 

Alex Murphy of JobSync

As Co-Founder and CEO, Alex’s career in HR Tech led him to the creation of JobSync. Making the complex application process simple yet remaining compliant. Partnering with job boards and most ATSs, they make the process fluid, easy and beyond.

• The big industry news, Indeed laying off 15% of their global workforce; Alex had high praise for Chris Hyams as ‘The Masterclass on how to write a letter regarding layoffs’.

• Speculation and some warning signs that layoffs were coming

• Google job ads - Can you move any slower?

• TA Leaders concerns and opportunities

• Prediction for 2023, we have become resilient to bad news and Black Swan events. 

Florida tourism welcomes the Boudreau family! The ultimate family vacation, baseball, sun, lego and Peppa pig!

Join us for the Canadian Recruiting Networking group- the next in-person meet-up is May 11 for Calgary!  

James Ellis has a new book launching on April 4 - Serge and Shelley were given an early copy to read, so we can say, it's a great addition to Talent Chooses You.

Like watching a great movie, we want to see how this will turn out! Will the Americans ban TikTok? Will they continue to embarrass themselves with their out-of-touch questions?

Tip of the Week

LOXO.co is a great idea for anyone looking to hang out a shingle as a solo recruiter or small companies looking at an ATS/CRM - it has a free version!

Recruiting Insights of the Week

• Starting to write a job ad is difficult for a lot of recruiters, LinkedIn hopes to leverage AI to help you.

• Hiring the best people as you find them - not based on a staffing requisition - the big 5 accounting firms do this well and they may be on to something great

• PepsiCo put their money where its mouth is with its DEI commitments. Paying up to $100 per day for caregiver expenses, paying for CDL training - and it's working they have the numbers to prove it. Well done

Shelley shares that she thinks Anthony Kiedis will fall in love with her when he sees her in the audience next week. You will have to wait another couple of weeks to find out!

This week we cover:

• Indeed lays off 15% of their staff world wide - no surprise as sponsored job postings are down 33% compared to this time last year. Take comfort, former Indeed employees don't stand on the unemployment line for long. 
• Serge’s home province of New Brunswick leads the way in adding new jobs in Canada for February
• Regina - Rhymes with fun! City counsel is uptight and has lost their sense of humour.  

Tip of the week:

• Check this cool free tool that real time analyses jobs on Google for Jobs and gives you insight on job titles being used, percentage of remote jobs, publishers etc.. https://rta.jobdescription.ai/

Recruitment Insights

• Take a fresh look at your company Career site; take the job seekers perspective. While you are at it take a look at the best and worst ATSs for trying to apply to your jobs.
• As we roll into spring, its time to clear out the old interview guides and bring in some fresh thinking
• Hiring for Culture Add VS Culture Fit, trouble is, culture is typically poorly and vaguely defined and will render nothing more than trite cliches! Does anyone else see red flags here?
• Posting jobs to placate overworked employees that we are ‘trying to hire’. This certainly explains a lot, since these are the same Hiring Managers who say ‘no one wants to work anymore’.

TRF for Friday May 31 2024

• TRF celebrates 4 years of podcasting

• Kids say the darndest things

• Thank god for Ring cameras

• TA Tech is June 4-6 

In The News

• CBSA voted in favor of striking, not the best time to travel

• Nvidia stock does a 10:1 split and Jensen Huang is now the world’s 17th richest person.

• Time to fill number are out

Tip of the week

Read Tim Sackett’s new book, The Talent Fix Volume 2. Just advertise the hell out of your jobs!  See page 145

Recruiting Insights

• Talent density is the hottest topic in TA. The 5 recommendations for hiring.

• Advising job seekers to game their resume and beat the ATS is the hair in our sandwich

• Special feature:  Masterclass in Programmatic Job Advertising. Hung Lee, host of Recruiting Brainfood Live On Air, breaks it down for us like we are 11 years old on what programmatic advertising is. The real star of the show is Yaz Dalal 

This week we release an episode of our practitioner series with a Calgarian Vered Levant, Lead Executive Officer at Vimy HR

After 12 years in the corporate HR world, building up a team with great hiring, making lots of great friends then having to lay them off was enough to inspire Vered to build her own company. 

• Helping the SMB compete, guiding Founders to attract talent with their values & vision 
• Pay transparency is complex no matter what size your company is
• The next generation of talent have high expectations
• Fears of the legal side of exits, SMB need guidance 

Shelley is officially done with winter, bad news is that she can't control the weather!

This week we cover:

• Meta lays off 10k more and we know that means more recruiters are looking for jobs.
• Silicon Valley Bank shuts down, we go through the timelines and try to determine what impact it will have to the world of work!

Tip of the Week

• Looking for transferrable skills is a great skill in itself!

Recruitment insights

• Dr. John Sullivan nails it with his think piece on how AI will impact recruitment. We highlight the key points.
• HR is more focused on spotting a lie on a resume than actually spotting a good candidate.
• Survey says....Talent Acquisition says that internal mobility is not something they really care about...question is should they care?

Lauren Sharp and Craig Watson the dynamic duo from down-under join us to compare notes on TA challenges faced in Canada and what they are faced with in Australia. The pressure is on for The Recruitment Flex and TaPod to unite in London for RecFest at Knebworth Park. We are saving ourselves for RecFest Nashville! Sorry 

• Australia was slower to recover after the toughest lockdown globally, the good news is, concerts with big acts are back in full swing

• Labor mismatch and attracting newcomers, what is the Dept of Immigration doing to solve this 

• Indeed in Canada is what Seek is in Australia holding 80% of the job seeker’s attention

• Seek is evolving - hear what they are doing to keep job seekers coming back

• ChatGPT is a hot topic in both countries

• Lauren & Craig share a few up and coming HR Tech players