Recruiting Brainfood - Issue 346

Remote working, Glassdoor company reviews, Responsible AI & speculations on the Future of Recruiting

May 28, 2023

This week’s brainfood is supported by our friends at Guide

How do you win top talent in 2023? Earn their TRUST.

Based on thousands of candidate surveys, we found that a winning candidate experience ranks high on the following 5 pillars (that spell TRUST, get it?):

Transparency: Does the candidate feel your organization has been sufficiently transparent?
Reciprocity: Does the candidate feel an equal sense of give-and-take?
Unity: Does the candidate feel they’ve been treated fairly and inclusively?
Speed: Does the candidate feel the pace of progress has been ideal?
Truthfulness: Does the candidate feel your organization has been truthful with all information shared?

Check out Guide’s Candidate TRUST Framework for best practices to implement today.

P.S. Want a behind-the-scenes look at Notion’s unique approach to building trust through efficient and effective candidate communications? Watch the video

SPONSORS

Friends,

It’s another Bank Holiday weekend in the UK. I have to say, its been sort of like a mandatory 4 day week. It’s been great - anyone campaigning for a permanent reduction of work time? Count me in as an advocate 👊

Last couple weeks of the What Do Recruiters Want 2023 survey - the initial surge has been great. I’m now going to go country by country review of the response volume to make sure we get even representation from brainfooders in different countries. If you get a message from me in the next few days, you’ll know why! If you haven’t done it yet, give it 10 minutes of your time today and complete here

Thanks to: Eugene van den Hemel, Joey NK Koksal, Tash Johnston, Kevin Green, Tim Sanchez, Izka González, Anessa Fike, Alison Birch, Mimi Le, Darren Bush, Denise Pereira, Thibault Martin, Jo McCatty, David Green, Lauren Patterson, Sharon Read, Elizabeth Murphy and Caleb Erondu for your support on all things brainfood. Scores updated on the Brainfood Hall of Fame.

Can you help? Share this newsletter with a friend in recruitment and have them subscribe. PS: we’re over 32,000 subscribers as of yesterday! 🙏

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

We might have all seen some AI-assisted job applications but so far, it doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming issue. Perhaps something to do with our detection capability, or maybe my choice architecture - 20% is the lowest option but might still seem to be quite significant!

In any case, we can expect these percentages to move upward; after all, why wouldn’t you use GAI to improve your job application? The question on whether this is good or bad - or when it moves from good to bad - is probably a debate we need to have. A future Brainfood Live?

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep208 - How Google Search AI will change Recruitment Marketing

The reason why OpenAI was able to beat Google to market with GPT was not because they were technically ahead, but because Google were fearful of disrupting their key revenue stream, ads from search. With the coming release of AI Search, Google are grasping the nettle, but it is going to be website and career page owners who will feel the sting. What does it do to web traffic when generated content dominated the screen after a search input? Our relationship with the web is going to change, with massive implications for recruitment advertising and employer branding. Must attend this one folks - we are on Friday 2nd June, 2pm BST. Register here (ps already at 368, its free but 500 seat limit)

The Brainfood

1. What Every CEO Should Know About Generative AI

Swap out ‘CEO’ for ‘Talent Acquisition / HR Leader’ and this article will land equally well; its an excellent primer for those who want to contextualise the rise of Generative AI with a time line, use cases and a very nice interactive table on the projected downstream impact of the implementation of GAI. If you haven’t yet found the time to get up to speed yet, this is as good starter post as you might find.

2. 8 Questions About Using AI Responsibly, Answered

So now that you’re fully versed on GAI and want to operationalise it into your working processes, what is the best way to do this in a responsible way? Outstanding post in the format of the FAQ + Answer, where both the questions and the responses are thoughtful, practical and ethical. One to read if you’re about do some ‘AI-enabling’ at some point, preferably before you do it. H/T to brainfooder Marcel van der Meer for the share in the online community

CULTURE

3. Layoffs Push Down Scores on Glassdoor: This is How Companies Respond

Gergely Orosz has transformed into one of the most readable investigative reporters on tech company and culture. His newsletter, The Pragmatic Engineer, is a must-read and this latest post outlines the conundrum companies have when faced with the reputational damage of bad Glassdoor reviews. The tactic seems to be ‘overwhelm the negative with the positive’ by flooding the site with positive reviews, a distasteful, yet perhaps necessary approach. Have a read. H/T to brainfooder Yuma Heymans for the share.

EMPLOYER BRANDING

4. The Underground Economy of Company Reviews

You can - of course - always go one step further. How about diving into the dark waters of company reviews for purchase? Turns out there is an entire underground economy trading in the production and removal of Glassdoor reviews. Some even operate on contingent fees. Another fascinating research piece, perhaps only trumped by the mystery as to why anonymous reviews remain so widely used, when they can be so easily misused.

EMPLOYER BRANDING

5. Erevena Board Salary Survey 2023

One of the perennial reports which is worth keeping a watch out for, tech startup headhunter Erevena survey board members and find out who they are, what they do and how much they get paid.

D&I

6. The State of Digital Nomads 2023

The median digital nomad is a 34 years old single white man, with progressive values, who works in tech and, of course, loves coffee. Does this comport with your perception of the term?? Fun bit of research on the demographics of people who have profiles on Nomad List, as well as their preferred / favourite destinations.

REMOTE WORKING

7. When Digital Nomads Come To Town

One of the drivers of digital nomadism is (another ‘of course’) global inequality, specifically the wealth of the Global North vs the poverty of the Global South, which makes it make sense for the northerners to head to the south in order to escape cost of living crisis back home. The impact on the local economy and society? For some it is opportunity to repatriate some of the acquired wealth, for others it’s just another form of getting priced out of their homes. Great read from a great blog

REMOTE WORKING

8. Performance & Compensation: ‘Two Households Both Alike In Dignity’

I am going to say ‘I knew Jess before she was famous’ because I did know Jess and I am certain she is going to be famous 🤣. Part 1 of a great looking 3 part series on performance and compensation, focusing on how to measure performance and the unavoidable qualitative nature of it. Part 2 is already out here and well, Part 3 is going to make an appearance here at some point also. Follow Jess

CULTURE

9. Military Maintenance Technician

It seems that Brexit Britain has found a new / old way to get rid of unwanted immigration - by shipping them off to war in Ukraine. Astonishing job advert placed by a UK recruitment company specialising in hiring ex-military, offering £20K contract and the promise of UK citizenship to former servicemen (and women I guess?), so long as they from the Middle East and North Africa. DEIB, geopolitics, immigration, candidate shortage…it’s all here in this somewhat innocuous looking job ad.

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

10. What Will Recruiting Look Like in 2028?

Brainfooder Kevin Wheeler is one of the few futurists who actually deserve the description - his speculations are provocative but grounded in a sober analysis of underlying trends projected forward to logical conclusion. Here he present 4 potential scenarios for the future of recruiting - I particularly like the idea of ‘talent concierge’. We need to start think about this, because we are either going to shape the future or be shaped by it.

PS: Kevin will be joining Brainfood Live to talk Demographic Crisis and Future of Work next month. Register here

FUTURE OF WORK

The Podcasts

11. The State of GPT

Technical talk by OpenAI’s Andrej Karpathy, which is nevertheless accessible enough for the lay audience. Especially good on what happens on the pre-training phase, as well as a guided tour on the history of the GPT’s (2,3,4 etc). Give it a go people.

12. A Step-by-Step Guide to Using #chatgpt Video Insights & Zapier Plugins

ChatGPT has plugins, which unlocks the possibility of non-technical people writing natural language instructions to AI and have that AI execute decisions to deliver the desired outcome. I haven’t tried any of this yet, but I’m going to, especially having now watched brainfooder Denys Dinkevych’s how-to here.

SOURCING

13. One of the Most Significant Debt Ceiling Disputes of All Time

The possibility of US default is obviously negligible, but the pantomime itself has impact on market confidence, as well continuing to erode the US public’s esteem of political institutions, so it’s worth understanding the whys and wherefores of this ritual, which Lyn Alden explains better than most. Also good piece at 45 min mark on GFC root of move to multi-polarity. All this stuff cascades down to us in recruiting at some point, so worth knowing the why as much as the what.

ECONOMY

End Note

One of the ideas I’m beginning to find favour with is that Generative AI is most useful for the least skilled. ChatGPT is generally great for generating copy, but it’s going to give marginal benefit for an already skilled writer, whereas it would be a game changer to someone who is not skilled at writing at all. Got me thinking: this should mean that AI-enabled employers will begin to change their hiring criteria - focusing more on early career talent + AI, rather than experience contributor talent. Have you seen any sign of this sentiment in your employer?

That is the question for this week’s poll folks - give a go below!

Recruiting Brainfood