This week in the Holistic Recruiter Club #014
Launch of Presage, 1 Week until the event, the power of LinkedIn and how to be the best in TA
Hello to all of you, lovely people taking the time to read this! I see you 👋
This week was a crazy week, Product building, Data Auditing, A Two Tired Dads episode, and meeting some very cool nice people. And me
In our latest episode, we welcomed Dr Ailish McLaughlin to talk about a subject close to our hearts:
What is Recruitment lacking in terms of Data, compared to the Sales and Product teams?
This is what I took away from the episode.
You can watch the full episode here
I WEEK TO GO - JOIN 150 TA Leaders in our SHOW
TA SHOWDOWN - WHERE IS THE DATA?
We surveyed over 200 TA Leaders from across Europe about their relationship with Recruitment data and what we discovered validated some intuitions we had but also some things shocked us and that’s what we can’t wait to do and share with you:
Thursday 17th October 12pm UK Time
13:00 French Time
There will be no recording or replay. It’s now or never so sign up here
So how do we break free from the Tools Prison???
I’m suggesting that we embrace systems and critical thinking.
I’ve already spoken about tools prison in previous newsletters so I won’t repeat myself but the premise is the shiny new toy doesn’t always give you what you need and can actually trap you into making poorer processes and decisions.
I was very lucky to meet Ben Ford who introduce me to systems thinking. Instead of viewing talent acquisition as a series of disconnected tasks, I began to see it as an interconnected system where each part affects the others. For example, insights from candidate assessments shouldn't just disappear into nowhere they should inform our onboarding processes. Feedback from hiring managers shouldn't disappear it should actively inform recruitment strategies.
I saw a survey conducted by Deloitte found that comapnies with a strong focus on systems thinking in their HR practices reported 2.4 times greater financial performance compared to those without (Deloitte, 2022). That's a proper reason to shift our perspective, don't you think?
Something Annie Gasgoyne drilled into me is now one of the biggest lessons I've learned is that context matters a lot. It's easy to get caught up in market trends and “popular metrics”, but blindly following them is a bad idea. Research shows that companies that tailor their recruitment strategies to their unique context see a 20% increase in employee retention rates (LinkedIn, 2023).
So instead of defaulting to metrics like time-to-fill or cost-per-hire, we should critically assess which metrics truly drive value for the company. By understanding our specific context, our company culture, business goals, and the unique challenges we our company has we can align our processes more effectively. This leads to better hiring outcomes .
So onto benchmarking - they can offer useful insights, they shouldn't be our only guide though. Relying too heavily on this can set us up for unrealistic comparisons unless they are in a comparable context. A report by SHRM found that 70% of HR professionals believe that internal data is more relevant to their company than external benchmarks (SHRM, 2023). (I do think this is an error though)
However, a good start is to measure our performance against our own historical data allows us to track progress meaningfully and identify areas for improvement. So start competing with yourself first and curate a culture of continuous improvement.
At the heart of all this is critical thinking. Its what is missing and polarising us in society at the moment. We must question assumptions, challenge the status quo, and evaluate the effectiveness of our tools and strategies. Stop saying people are awkward or difficult to work with when they question things. Instead when we approach talent acquisition with a critical mindset, we can the pitfalls of the “this is how we have always done it” mindframe
For example, we might ask ourselves whether that automated screening tool truly aligns with our hiring goals or if it's inadvertently filtering out good people. A study by McKinsey revealed that companies that prioritise critical thinking in their talent management see a 25% increase in innovation (McKinsey, 2023). Imagine we encouraged that in the TA team, the value would start to show straight away!
Balancing the act of sourcing and hiring to improve and working on projects is hard. The fear of losing your job constantly or not adding value, but it's crucial to strike a balance between leveraging tools and fostering a holistic understanding of our systems. My challenge is to start to look into systems thinking and critical analysis, this is how we get out of things like tools prison and create adaptable, context driven recruitment processes.
I hope that makes sense and please challenge me or talk to me about this you can send a message here
Productivity and Tools
LinkedIn take a lot of shit but its actually jolly good when used properly!
Over the last 20 months I have spoken to nearly 200 people I have randonly connected with on LinkedIn and asked for a call. And they have led to great conversations, business opportunities and also creating a new business!
So here are my 5 steps:
1. When you see something you like - reach out to that person and tel them, “I liked your post becasue” Or even better “ I like your content but I don’t agree on what you said about x", do you fancy a chat” Thats how I met Ben Phillips!
Have a coffee or video call! There is no need to just exchange over text and messages- that vace time builds trust.
Be Really authentic genuine and don’t make it transaction . Just be curious and learn about what people are up to and why. I always say we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. So listen!
Always follow up after to say thank you for the time. And then after the response get another time booked in
After this engage meaningfully with their posts and help each other along the way
So, here's my challenge to you: This week, reach out to someone new on LinkedIn. Maybe it's someone in your field you've always admired or a peer you'd like to know better. Send that message, set up that call, and see where it leads. You never know the conversation could lead to a big opportunity.
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