Our founder and strategy director Emma reflects on the talent acquisition trends from RecFest 2023
Emma attended #recfest23 in early July and was so really struck by the interesting trends surfaced by the speakers. Emma made a journal entry about it - here it is and hope to see you at RecFest next year!
1. Hero stories 🦸♀️
So it was a bit of a drive from the South West to RecFest | The Recruitment Events Co. at Knebworth Park but hey was it worth it! Because I wasn't keen on getting up at 5am it meant I missed the first couple of sessions... but I got there in time to catch the end of Raj Lal of Totaljobs Group's panel discussion with Isa Wurie from Universum, Alexander Doyle from AstraZeneca and Marcell Edwards from adidas where I heard this bit of gold dust -
They were discussing that your sustainability approach should be as prominent as DEI running through your employer brand - but don't make the message bland and so high level it's the same as everyone else. Instead find the hero stories in your organisation that bring to life what you do and make it relatable.
2. Reasonable adjustments in hiring should be the norm
I jumped into an absolutely packed-to-the rafters tent where Parul Singh was demonstrating how neurodiverse inclusive hiring is good for everyone, whether you're neurodiverse or not. Music to my ears as a #dyslexicthinker myself!
Her two top tips for interviewers that resonated with me were firstly making questions transparent by sharing the interview topics in advance, and secondly making sure we don't ask questions that are actually three questions at once! I think we can all relate...
My form of dyslexia means I need more processing time to form an answer, and if I don't know the themes of an interview I'll try and prepare the world and then won't be able to be myself in an interview situation. And my working memory recall can be frustrating, so asking me three questions in one means by the time I've answered the first I've forgotten the second. Which is fine, I just ask to be reminded what it was - but someone else may be too nervous to do that.
Parul gave a huge shoutout to Scottish Water for holding transparent interviews for all - big applause to them! But I want to give my own shoutout to the NHS who were fantastic at levelling the playing field for me when I was interviewed to be a Non-Executive Director.
Then I went to see Sarah Manning from Baringa talk about her personal journey - as she put it, from free school meals to Global Head of Recruitment and Director at Baringa. Sarah's journey was also shaped by neuodiversity - alongside clear talent and always moving towards things she enjoyed. Really inspirational! Looking forward to following your continued journey Sarah.
3. Professional Services workforces are transforming - let's get ready now
After waiting it out in a queue for the much in demand wood-fired pizza with friends from Q5 I got out of the sun and hopped in to another tent to see Eric Houwen from Deloitte Netherlands talk about their transition to a workforce model where only 60% of staff will be permanent Deloitte employees in 2 years time - the 40% being contingent workers and global delivery centers. Wow!
Eric reflected on what this meant for the talent acquisition team - transitioning to a strategic advisory function informed by data, but also what it meant for the employer brand where non-permanent staff recruitment is just as important as employees. So much to think about there, and it really hit home how quickly our workforce models are changing. Crucially, Eric made the point that EVP now needs to be just as relevant to staff not on the payroll. What's going to be the next trend after contingent workers and global delivery centres? Will professional services firms be crowdsourcing or recruiting gig workers in the future?
4. Good enough is often great!
Next up, a panel discussion between Tom Portingale, Heidi Wassini, Vanessa Ferris and Nerida Rooney 🇦🇺🇬🇧 where they discussed Nerida's brilliant 'This is Kier' campaign at Kier Group, all produced in house. They've seen a 98% increase in applications since it launched in April.
We also heard about Vanessa's focus at Moove on creating content that can be used not just for for employer branding but also as content for internal and external comms and business transformation. In a truly authentic culture all these areas should be completely aligned anyhow.
Two lessons on when less was definitely more. 💪
5. Post-purposewashing
Last up, and by this stage the party was really happening outside the tents, music pumping and drinks flowing, the brilliant Julie Randall from Ph.Creative talked about the trends she is seeing in elastic brands (we must see consumers and employees as the same), post-purposewashing (LOVE this!), the pleasure revolution (where people are looking for fun now after the years of seriousness) and neo-collectivism (where the community of employees and consumers are the most important advocates for your brand). Thanks Julie - awesome presentation! So much jammed into a short time.
Then right before I legged it back to Bath I caught Will Staney talk through some stats from the Talent Brand Alliance. So much insight here to what is front of mind for employer brand specialists right now. What jumped out at me is how companies are shifting their focus onto retaining the brilliant talent they have worked so hard to attract, through employee advocacy and developing and activating their EVPs. All super interesting areas of work to improve the happiness of people and help organisations do even better work 🚀
And I think that upbeat note is a perfect place to leave you.
See you at #RecFest24!
😍
Emma at RecFest 23
