Recruiting Brainfood - Issue 405

Toby Tornado art of CEO-ing, OECD Global Employment Outlook 2024, learnings from earnings (calls) and the world's first case of robot worker su1cide by overwork? It had to be Korea.

Jul 14, 2024

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Friends,

You know it’s a great event when the (positive!) aftermath is still with you for days afterward. Recfest24 was a triumph - a huge celebration of the industry, as well as a sort of modern potlatch where members from across the globe gather, connect and reconnect. We need to step closer together, because we are each more fortified by having stronger relationships in community. Looking forward to Recfest Nashville in September and Recfest25 when the tickets become available - if it is in your means, make sure to go.

Berlin is next up for me - I’m there for 5 days from 17th July, so if you’re going to the We Are Developers World Congress, let me know. If not and you want to meet up on Friday / Sat / Sunday, message me below and I’ll see if we can rustle up a meetup on the side 👊

Thanks to: Kevin Green, Bas van de Haterd, Dave Hazlehurst, Ruslan Halilov, Christopher Redmond, Sarah Merry, Kanwar Singh Kohli, Joey NK Koksal, Eugène van den Hemel, Michael Blakley, Clair Mohamed, Matthias Schmeisser, Manjuri Sinha, Evan White, Lindsey Milner, Felix Mitchell and Juliana Park - your public shout outs for this newsletter is the only marketing it gets - vital to keep it growing. Cheers 🥂!

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

2023 was tough, and we know now that 2024 is not going to be much easier. Still we have some promise that the second half of this year might give us some uptick in hiring volume. Lets hope so!

Founders Focus - Ep48 - Up close and personal with Sam Dhesi, CEO of Popp. Tues 16th July, 11.00am BST

‘A personal co-pilot for every recruiter on the the planet’ - you have to love it when a recruitment tech firm has this type of clarity of vision. Excited to be chatting with the CEO of Popp, one of the few companies which has a real chance of changing the way recruiters work today. Tune in on Tues 16th, 11.00am - register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep264 - How to Ethically Implement AI into TA, Fri 19th July, 2pm BST

As a function, Talent Acquisition has gone beyond the concept sale - we are now desperate for the guidance on how to become ‘AI-enabled’. Some outstanding work by Willo in collecting together expertise to create an implementation framework with ethics at the core. We’re back on Friday 19th July, 2pm BST - register here

The Brainfood

1. OECD Employment Outlook 2024

Transition from a fossil fuel to renewable energy is going to be one of the main drivers of economic growth - the switching costs are enormous and will require a lot human capital to do it. OECD Employment Outlook devotes 2 major chapters to green energy transition as far as it relates to jobs giving it a thorough treatment from discussing classification (what is a green job), what percentage of people currently do them, how many people work in the old energy system and which need to transition, where those jobs are located, how do we re-skill and so on. Essential market intelligence doc for those recruiters who want in on the green economy.

FUTURE OF WORK

2. How Should We Provide Benefits to Gig Workers?

There are two models: firstly, to reclassify gig workers are employees and have companies provide benefits accordingly, or secondly, to create benefits which are portable for the worker regardless of platform / employer. This research paper argues for the latter option, as we need to respond positively to new ways of working, whilst ensuring the safety net is secure for all for whom the traditional 9-5 is not preferable or available.

GIG ECONOMY

3. Questions to Ask Talent CRM Vendors

I don’t know why Joveo are producing these how-to guides but I am going to keep sharing them because they so good 😊. Following up on last week’s Questions to Ask a Programmatic Ad Vendor, this week we’re asking questions of Talent CRM vendors. This is a good series for any TA Leader who is shopping for software. Download here.

ENGAGEMENT

4. The Toby Tornado Approach to CEO-ing

Fascinating, possibly apocryphal anecdote from Shopify employees of CEO Toby Lutke’s habit of randomly dropping into company Slack conversations where he will abruptly cancel or endorse projects. Intuitively, this seems like tyranny - or at least authoritarianism - yet the post makes the case that the job of the CEO is to make decisions, as the CEO is the one who has the widest context and closest proximity to company mission. As employees, we’re obviously not going to like this, but that doesn’t mean that the right decisions aren’t being made. Lots to chew on here!

CULTURE

5. Lattice Makes History and Leads the Way in Responsible Employment of AI

This post caused a mini-sensation on the Internet this week, mainly because no one quite understands what is meant by ‘onboarding AI workers’. Some consider it nonsensical, others celebrate the advanced thinking of including AI workers into the workforce. It’s probably a bit of both - it would seem that it makes sense to indoctrinate AI’s into company culture before letting them loose in production, but until there is clarity in the practice, accusations of this being a PR stunt are going to stick. Which incidentally is a decent set up for a Pt2 from Lattice 🤣. H/T to brainfooder Colin McNicol for the share in the online community.

CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

6. First Case of Robot Worker Suicide

Our need to anthropomorphise AI seems to be inevitable, so this story coming from a country where ‘death by overwork’ has it’s own category is poignant and on-brand. Perhaps a more positive onboarding experience might be prevented this particular tragedy?

CULTURE

7. Promoting Gender Equality and Tackling Demographic Challenges

Inability to draw obvious conclusions is a paralysing feature of ideological commitment. Research here from IMF is a predictable example - increasing female LFP rate universally correlates with both economic development and demographic decline, yet it is a conclusion which cannot be made, so the recommendations are accordingly inadequate. We need a pro-human economic system, not one which throws piecemeal benefits to working mothers. It’s not going to happen, so we’re going to have to wait for the robots.

D&I

8. Does Worker Scarcity Spur Investment, Automation and Productivity? Evidence from Earnings Calls

Textual analysis of earnings calls is turning out to be a useful analytical tool in understanding what is happening inside businesses, especially if that data is then correlated with other publicly available information. This case reviews the correlation between mentions of wage inflation and increase rate of automation - no surprise that there was a strong connection. Cost of living crisis is a cost of business crisis, and so long as these conditions persist, the pressure to reduce costs will be inexorable, and that means offshoring or automating or both.

WORKFORCE AUTOMATION

9. Rice Farming Gets an AI Upgrade

Nice story on the application of technology to one of the oldest, and most important forms of work - rice farming. The use of drones reduces pesticide use by more accurately and evenly distributing the it. Anytime you can increase agricultural yield by using less pesticide is an unambiguously good thing. Also note the rise of new jobs for farmers as drone pilots, as well as the rise of an economy servicing and refuelling the machines, some evidence of the techno-optimist case.

FUTURE OF WORK

10. The Rise and Fall of the Blue-Collar Developers

The Internet used to be full of blog post like this - first person shooter, zero attention to SEO and definitely not ‘rewrite with AI’. It’s messy, flawed yet compulsive account from a ‘blue collar’ software developer who got into the industry in time to experience it’s heyday (2021) before now see its decline and AI-driven existential crisis. I think OP tells the story that will resonate with a lot of knowledge workers and his recommendations on mindset and future proofing are applicable to all. Read this.

The Podcasts

11. Why Don’t We Have Better Candidates for President?

Finding the best candidate for the right job is fundamentally what recruitment is all about, so why is that we cannot bring recruitment know-how to the most important jobs of all? Andrew Yang doesn’t have the answer, but at least he is asking the questions trying to look for one. Great podcast interview from 2018 on Freakonomics - and still highly relevant in 2024.

ASSESSMENT

12. Housing & Daycare as the Middle Class Divided

If you’ve noticed the dissonance between government reports on the state of the economy vs your own lived experience, then you’re not alone. The main factor is the cost of credit, and one of the crucial differentiators between the haves vs have-nots is when you bought your house…

ECONOMY

13. Farewell to a Generational Talent

Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow was one of the seminal books on human cognition which directly impacted the world of TA / HR; many of us have read it, or at least understand the core concept of human beings have two modes of thinking, the first of which isn’t analytical but emotional. This is a great podcast of people who knew or worked with Kahneman talking about his impact on their work. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share.

End Note

Massive day for sports today, as England take on Spain in the Euro2024 final.

As a football fan, I can’t help but become engrossed in tournaments like this - the thrill of the games, the audience participation with the incredible fans and the stories that emerge for every team, in victory or defeat. Spain have been the best side throughout the tournament and are the favourites but I suspect England will find the quality in the decisive moment to win it. Good luck to both and may the best team win 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇪🇸.

Recruiting Brainfood