This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 92

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Open Kitchen: What Happened In Recruiting In 2022, Pt2

My list of 20 things which happened in 2022 went viral on both LinkedIn and Twitter last week and I thought I would continue to use it as the template for the completion of these essays before the end of the year. I notice that I only have one more issue of TWIR before 2023, so will have make Pt2 a 7 item list, and finish off next week with 8 items.

For those of you who can't wait until then, you can see the screenshot of the screenshot of the list here:

By no means exclusive, or even exact, just stuff that was featured in Recruiting Brainfood, discussed on Brainfood Live and seemed to both be recurring themes or discussion points which resonated with community. Let me know in comments below if you have any more to add, or any critique to make, in comments below.

6. Employee vs Employer Conflict (esp on Remote)

Divergence between what is optimal for employees and what is optimal for employers became explicit in 2022, with the primary area of contention being the topic of flexible working. The bottom line is employees want to retain flexibility, employers want to reign it back in. Indeed, in many cases you suspect that employers commitment to alternatives to conventional patterns of work was always somewhat half hearted, but market conditions were suppressing clear articulation of the case they wanted to make. Remember when David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, called for the return to the office back in 2021? He was roundly condemned on all sides by media and HR folks alike as an antediluvian relic, who was going to be left behind by the remote work revolution.

[Image credit: LinkedIn Economic Graph, November 2022 Pulse report ]

Job posting data from LinkedIn suggests David Solomon was just the first boss to be brave enough to put his head above the parapet and that many CEO's are now following suit. Remote job posting data has been in steady decline from end of Q1 this year and as job security takes over as top priority for active job seekers, we can expect this trend to continue as employers default to posting on-premise roles when they may have last year had to post the job as remote. How employees respond to this will be one of the main themes for 2023

7. Great Resignation as Employees Quit (in search for Flexibility)

One of the reasons why Solomon was so confidently condemned at the time was because we did indeed see employees walking out from employers as furlough payments ended and calls for a return to the office were made. Many workers had reconfigured their lives around not needing to commute in every day and most were not keen to roll back to the pre-2019 era; those workers who never had flexibility in the job - retail, warehousing, hospitality - left for sectors which offered it.

[Image credit: JOLTS June 2022]

The 'quit' rate was there - it just didn't last long enough for it become a wave, as the world flipped at the end of Q1, hostile de-globalisation became the unstated policy, inflation out paced wage growth, leading the Federal Reserve deciding that global recession was the necessary anti-dote.

8. New War for Talent, this time for Digital Nomads

Wars are a failure of moderated competition and it is misused to characterise competitions which might be fierce, but still operating under a set of rules under which all players continue to respect. However, the new war for talent - for digital nomads - might be a decent use of the analogy, as there is precisely zero global agreement on how to attract the highly skilled, in-demand, location agnostic digital workers. In 2022, 47 countries launched schemes designed to attract these folks - with tax concessions, visa waivers, path toward citizenship and the rest.

[Image credit: Nomadgirl.co]

It's not only the legislative environment that matters; the actual environment may be the decisive factor. It is clear that the countries who have been most progressive with digital nomadism are the ones which people wanted to visit as tourists anyway - warmer, sunnier, beach-ier type of environments. Opportunity to reverse brain drain has never been greater and I suspect a fair few amongst the readers here will follow suit in 2023.

9. Quiet Quitting & the Media Hype

2022 brought us a new term to learn - quiet quitting - to describe the phenomenon of workers moderating their commitment to the job (perhaps now back in the office?), doing the minimum required and nothing more. Cynics quickly argued that this is nothing new, that there have always been people who refused corporate indoctrination to perform the bare minimum. We called them 'jobsworths' back in my day, and quiet quitting was a manufactured conception of a phenomenon which was certainly there, but nothing particularly new or newsworthy.

[Image credit: Google Trends search 'quiet quitting' Dec 2022]

The power of the media to create and plant stories is both a fascinating and disturbing concept. Small numbers of people, with access to powerful channels of amplification, attempting to set an agenda for an entire industry or even wider. The incentives for doing so are clear - there is value to the person or publication (or consultancy, McKinsey famously coined the phrase 'War for Talent' in 1997) who starts a concept, a movement or a narrative. It is basically what the 'thought leadership' industry is all about 🤣. Still, the speed with which quiet quitting rose and fell might be an indication that we are wising up to tactic, maybe a sign of maturation of media literacy by the society at large, which is something to be hopeful for!

10. Big Tech Winter (200K Workers Laid Off)

The conversation in recruitment in the second half of 2022 has been dominated by the 'Big Tech Winter'. The realisation that the era of globalised total addressable markets was over, was followed quickly by a scaling back of VC funding upon which a significant component of the tech industry depends. Companies which had 'over hired' in the post vaccine period of the pandemic, took action and one layoff announcement followed another from late Q2 onward

[Image credit: Trueup.io/layoffs]

It looks like last month was the spike on tech layoffs - we have to hope so - as 200,000 workers found themselves involuntarily leaving their jobs in the tech this year. Good news is it seems most of these workers have no trouble finding new work and some degree talent dispersal across industry might be happening, as workers get off rocketships to join more sedate organisations with stronger fundamentals and maybe even a profitable business.

Plenty will not find equivalent work though - especially those from the FAANG (such as it was), whose remuneration, working conditions and project interest were so far ahead that few non-FAANG employers could match it. A lot of these folks are surely going to start up themselves, potentially giving us long term gain in innovation as old tech employees become new tech entrepreneurs, with new ideas, business models and technologies.

11. Big Crypto Winter

It has been a shocking year for the crypto industry, a space which had drawn many of the best technologists, scientists and engineers away from 'Web2' and toward new Eden of decentralised, trustless Web3.0. It turned out that a great deal of the (real) money being made was because it was not centralised at all. The collapse of crypto exchanges, hedge funds and currencies has been catastrophic in 2022 and there is no question that the fate of the entire industry is in the balance, particularly in the remaining 'big beasts' like Binance or Coinbase succumb to contagion.

What happens from a hiring perspective is unknown - I suspect going back to Web2 after having worked in Web3, might be equivalent to going back on-premise after working remote, or becoming an employee again, after have some success at entrepreneurship. What we can say is that the size of the crypto market in terms of numbers of employees will continue to slow and maybe even contract as the market takes time to recover its confidence. Here's hoping it does.

12. Bad CEO Layoffs - Crying CEO & friends

At least one good thing came from the 2022 lay off wave - generalised condemnation of lay offs being badly handled. We need to first give credit to Better.com CEO Vishal Garg, who started the trend in December 2021 by firing hundreds of his employees via a mass Zoom call, which was not only as bad as it sounds, but made worse by the bad camera angle and the perceptible shift to me-orientation soon after he dropped the news. The exemplar must surely be HyperSocial CEO Braden Wallake, whose to-the-camera confessional remains one of the signature moments of 2022. Credit again to Braden, who has kept the post up, rather than delete. Whilst these egregious examples were nothing to celebrate, the industry response that CEO's need to do better certainly is. It may not be something that can be perfectly handled, but 2022 might be the turning point where at least thinking about doing it better becomes a higher priority going forward than has been to date.

Pt3 to come next week. As ever let me know in comments below, what you think of this review so far. Now uut of the kitchen, onto the lounge 👇

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What's in the News?

Beamery raises $50 Million Series D

Superb market positioning from Beamery makes them a bet worth making in an era when traditional organisational structures are under strain and new models of how talent flows through a company take hold. Didn't think we'd see another worktech unicorn this late in the year, but Beamery's $50million round makes it. Congratulations to all the crew, especially Abakar and Sultan, who George LaRoque with the exclusive here

Willo raise £1.5 Million

Fantastic to see the onward and upward trajectory of Willo - a superbly executed video interview solution for recruiters. Congratulations particularly to founders Euan Cameron and Andrew Wood, two great fellas with the passion and attitude to make a dent in this space. Interesting recruitment tech hub emerging from Glasgow - keep an eye out for more cool tech coming out from there in 2023. Euan's post on the raise here.

If you are a recruitment service provider or technology business and have any news to share, comment below, this is your application to get into next week's addition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to @ mention me so that I see it

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What's On Offer?

Ravio are offering real time compensation data benchmarking - in one hour!

At Ravio we want to empower European HR leaders to make the right compensation decisions. Whether you need to understand how much to pay for a new role or want to evaluate how your company stacks up against the market - Ravio is here to support.

We want to offer you this for free. In exchange, all we ask of each participant is for you to contribute your own data to be anonymised and aggregated, making the product even more valuable over time for everyone.

Get free real-time benchmarking data in one hour today!

If you are a recruitment service provider or recruitment technology vendor have any exclusive offer for the community, comment below with your offer in order to be included in next week's edition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to mention me so that I see it.

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What's Going On?

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep186 - State of Recruitment: 2022 A Year In Review, Fri 23rd Dec, 2pm

So we're going review the year, at the very end of the year on the last Brainfood Live of the year. See the most popular panelists and leading experts on topics like Employer branding, Recruitment advertising, Workforce automation, Sourcing, DEIB, Assessment, Future of Work, Artificial Intelligence and the rest, as we review the state of recruiting in 2022. Probably have a few drinks too. Register here

Understanding Your Barriers to Candidate Entry in Volume Recruitment, Wed 11 Jan, 12pm

High volume recruitment series continues with our friends at Crooton. Next up next year, I'm with Marcell Edwards, Global Talent Acquisition at Adidas who will share his case study on how to hire thousands of workers using smart processes and smarter technology. Early one next year, get your name down for it and register here

New Year New Career Hiring Week, Jan 16-20, Online

This looks like a really interesting initiative - a week long interview / hire session based around speed interviews connecting active job seekers with employers who need to hire. A collaboration between a few companies, including a few good friends of Brainfood, such as SmartRecruiters, led in case by my buddy Stanislaw Wasowicz. Employers and job seekers? Register here

How to Turbocharge your Employer Branding with Data, Thur 26 Jan, 2.30pm GMT

These are two of the smartest people in the business when it comes to EB (don't mean Danny H and I obvs), so I am excited to be co-hosting this webinar on companies can use data to make better decisions on Employer Branding. We're with Nick Thompson, Global Talent Marketing & Employer Branding Manager (IBM), Sarah Sturgess, Agency Director (SMRS) - Danny Hodgson, Founder (Foresight) and I moderating the chat. Register here

Recruiters Unite, Thurs 9th March, Lagoon Beach Hotel, Cape Town

Well one thing I know I will doing next year will be traveling to South Africa and visiting one of my favourite cities, to connect with one of my favourite communities. Sharing the stage with good friends Vanessa Raath, Founder (Talent Hunter) and Jonnathan Koch, Cofounder (Talent Genie) Thank you to Samantha-Leigh Hayward for the invitation - and friends who want to attend, super early bird tickets are now here.

If you have an event, webinar or podcast going on next week and want it featured on next week's newsletter, comment below with the link and event details. Don't forget to @ mention me so that I see it

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Who's Hiring & Who's Available?

Talent Sourcer - Poland, KANDIDATE, Remote Poland

US Diversity and Inclusion Facilitator, Diversifing Group, Remote USA

And now 84 active, ready-to-interview candidates on the Brainfood Talent Collective. Employers you basically have a choice - post a job ad, or sign up (for free) to the collective and get in touch with community members who have previously worked for the likes of Meta, Google, Spotify and the rest.

Employers sign up here, use the coupon 'BTCFREE2022' for 100% usage. If you're a recruiter or HR person looking for work, you can apply here, and increase your exposure to employers vetted by me!

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Who's Moving?

Todd Jenkins joins hackajob as Global VP of Sales, making the tough decision to leave another great recruitment technology business, Fetcher. It's really interesting to read Todd's post on this, the emotions involved in leaving a great job for another opportunity. With hindsight though, it's probably the best mindset from which to make such a decision. Congrats Todd, lets catch up in 2023.

Clive Smart joins Moneysupermarket Group as Head of Talent Acquisition, after 7 years at Sky Betting & Gaming. I think I first connected with Clive in the early days of his gig at Sky, back in my WorkShape days. Great innings to spend with a single company in that time - might be a good brainfood live to do - what changes / stays in the same in TA after a long period in the company. Let me know if you're up for it Clive, when you're settled down!

Shaun McInally Buckley joins Join Talent as as Client Success Manager, moving across from in-house where he had lead the people operations at Toucan Protocol, Zappar, Encompass, Quantacom and others. Who else better to support customers succeed in partnering with embedded solutions providers, other than someone who has worked the opposite corner? Great move Shaun, congratulations

Brian Fink joins McAfee as Talent Acquisition Partner after a no doubt tumultuous conclusion of his nearly two years at Twitter. Has a company ever combusted in such a public way as Twitter 2.0? I'm sure ex-employees will be fielding questions about it for the rest of their careers. Great move Brian - lets a find a way to connect in 2023 👊

Sara Wyke joins HIVE-ZOX International as Head of People & Culture, after spending 6 years moving up the HR department at Frontiers. Transport and logistics technology firms - got to be one of the best subsectors to operate in right now. Good luck on the move Sara.

Finally, some folks are still getting promoted at this late moment in the year! Joe Burridge goes up to Senior Recruiter (Manager) at Epic Games, Katerina Tichy goes up to Head of Talent Acquisiton at Wrike, Jemma Jones goes up to Senior Account & Commercial Partnerships Manager at Crooton and last but not least, Orla Doyle goes up to Marketing Director at Occupop - congratulations all, what a great start to 2023!

If you have made a senior exec appointment to your business, and feel the wider community needs to know about it, comment below with the details and see it featured in next weeks issue. Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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What Are You Doing?

Lars Schmidt, Founder (Amplify) is launching a new scholarship program for emerging HR Leaders from underrepresented community members. This is a superb opportunity to connect with industry leading HR professionals, secure 1-2-1 mentorship and increase access to opportunity. If you quality, apply here now - this is is going to be over subscribed, and trust me, you will want in on this!

Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill, Founder (Join Talent), joins an amazingly illustrious list of top 100 influencers, the alternative to UK's corrupted honours system! Influence can be a nebulous term but for folks who have tracked Katrina's career will know that this nomination is not only deserved but accurate! Congratulations Katrina - one of many more to come.

If you are doing something new, comment below with what it is and share a link to where you want people to go. Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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End Notes

Well, did you see the World Cup Final yesterday?

I still can't get over it - the last 40 minutes were as compulsive a sports experience as I can remember seeing. Got me thinking that 'over coaching' is part of the problem with a lot of sports, teams are too good at shutting down the opposition and playing to orders in order to win the percentages. When Mbappe made his 120 second intervention, all strategy went out the window and it became an unpredictable contest of physical stamina and mental fortitude - the stuff that makes for great sports entertainment.

Got me thinking about how greatness can be achieved. Sometimes it is successfully executing a plan, other times it is being able to respond when the plans are out of the window. I think I will work on how to get better at the latter, seems like something we under explore.

Have a great week everybody

Hung

Hung Lee is the curator of Recruiting Brainfood, and now This Week In Recruiting. Subscribe to both if you are into recruiting or HR or just interested in world of work.