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The Recruiter’s Handbook 2016 is here to help set you up for the year ahead by giving you tips on what you need to stop doing in 2016, the Twitter accounts you need to start following, the books you need to pick up, and the conferences you need to attend.

The Recruiter’s Handbook 2016

learn | recruit | perform

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Recruiter’s Handbook 2016! Over the course of the following pages you will discover:

• 5 Things Recruiters Need to STOP Doing in 2016, which outlines five bad habits recruiters have developed over the last year, and the five habits you should aim to replace them with in 2016.

• We’ll be suggesting 9 Twitter Accounts Every Recruiter Should Start Following in 2016, and why having their knowledge in your feed will be invaluable.

• We’ll take you through the 7 Books Every Recruiter Should Read in 2016, and why we think they’re unputdownable.

• We’ll be exploring the 9 Conferences You MUST VISIT in Spring/Summer 2016 and why you should be making the effort to attend.

• We’ve also included a printable calendar of recruitment/HR events taking place from January to December 2016, for you to print out and keep.

Basically, by the end of this handbook, you should be fully equipped to take 2016 by storm! Happy Reading!

5 Things Recruiters Need to STOP Doing in 2016

1. Talking about “Employer” Branding

When the concept of employer branding was first introduced, many companies couldn’t wait to start rolling out video after video, telling us how amazing they are and why it’s so wonderful to work for them.

Take this “lovely” video from Mars, with cool graphics and a nondescript American voice narrating it, for example. It’s ultimately forgettable, boring and it’s not representative of the brand – Mars are renowned for innovative, creative and funny advertising and this video is just not it…

When the second generation of employer branding rolled around, we started to see more and more companies include their employees in their employer branding efforts (so far so good), but instead of letting those employees tell their own stories about the company, they asked those employees to tell everyone why their company is so great. Take this video, which showcases scientists from AstraZeneca, for example. In it a bunch of AstraZeneca employees talk about their work…. oh, and just how amazing AstraZeneca are. *Yawn*

Well, here’s the cold hard truth those companies need to hear: no one cares about your company or how great you think it is to work there. What they really want to know is how your company’s employees think it is to work there. OF COURSE, you think it’s fabulous to be an employee, after all you’re trying to get more people in the door so that the company can continue being profitable. Potential candidates know this. Your efforts to convince them are never going to hold as much water, as an actual honest-to-goodness employee telling them, in their own words, that actually, your company is a pretty sweet place to work.

Therefore, you need to start thinking less about “Employer” branding and focusing more on “Employee” branding.

Instead, try: Talking about “Employee” Branding

“So, if we’re not going to tell them how good we think our company is, how do we get people to care about our organisation, or the fact that we’re hiring?!” I hear you ask. The answer: You have to make them feel something about your company and in order to make them feel something you have to pull on their emotional strings.

Here comes the science part! According to the research findings of Chip and Dan Heath, the authors of Made to Stick, human beings are hard-wired to feel things about people, not abstractions. That simply means that it’s easier for us to have emotional thoughts and feelings towards other people than it is to other things. Therefore, in order to make people care about something (in your case, your organisation and the fact that you’re hiring), you have to bring people into the equation. But, just bringing in people is not enough, as we learned from the AstraZeneca example.

You need to let your people tell stories – their own stories. Chip and Dan Heath’s research also tells us that the right stories make people act, which as recruiters, is exactly what we need them to do. We need them to act by submitting an application to the job we’re offering.

Stories act as mental flight simulators. They are the closest thing to the real thing. By telling a story, we are able to put somebody into the shoes of that role and help them experience life in your

company. To make them feel like they’re part of your organisation.

A great example of a company that has used it’s employees own stories to boost their employer brand is Deloitte. For their series of employer branding videos promoting their graduate programme in New Zealand, Deloitte used a creative agency to do a mini-documentary on David (and 6 other graduates). Instead of the usual/predictable employer branding video detailing how ‘great’ the company is and how ‘fun’ it is to work there, Deloitte decided to make their current cohort of interns, the stars of the show.

The graduates introduce humour, they showcase their experience with the Deloitte internship process so far and what they hope to achieve from it. They give an insight into the day-to-day life of a Deloitte intern including snippets of the work, the offices, the desks, the equipment and the general look and feel of the Deloitte environment. Not once is Deloitte’s branding or cultural message shoved down your throat or forced upon you. It’s about the employee’s journey, not the company’s top-down “why our culture is great” strategy that the previous employer branding efforts we’ve mentioned, have ended up being.

Similarly, when it came to producing our own employer branding videos, we wanted to take a step away from the norm and do something a little different from the now standard corporate “look at how great our company is” video too. Our aim with our videos, was to show off how awesome it really is to work at Social Talent, which we figured was best demonstrated by the people that work here: our employees. Here at Social Talent we have an array of talented, creative, interesting people, all with their own quirky personalities, so what better way to let the world know that, than to give each of them some air time! They gave us insights into each of their individual personalities and, in turn, let everyone know what the culture here at Social Talent HQ is really like.

2. Using free LinkedIn

It’s 2016, if you’re a serious recruiter you need to stop trying to “beat the system” and using every trick in the trade to get around having to pay for LinkedIn. Yes, we’re very well aware that there is a hack for pretty much everything on LinkedIn (heck, we’ve even invented some ourselves), but using these hacks to find candidates in the long term takes far too much time and effort – time and effort that could be spent doing far more productive tasks.

According to our research, LinkedIn is the most used recruiting platform amongstrecruiters(96%ofyouuseittofindcandidatesonadailybasis),whileawhopping37%ofyoutoldusitwasyourprimarysourceforfindingcandidates “who were ultimately hired”. Therefore, in our opinion, LinkedIn are perfectly entitled to ask you to pay a (relatively small) fee for the service they provide you.

If you’re still not convinced, we also have conducted research which proves that users of paid LinkedIn accounts are actually more competent sourcers than those who use a basic account…

Try instead: Paying for the most basic level of LinkedIn

In the past, it has been hard to get a grip on exactly which paid account is best for recruiters. Thankfully, LinkedIn did become aware of that fact in the last year and have done their best to make the process as simplified as possible. Here are the facts.

There are 4 types of paid LinkedIn subscription:

1. Job Seeker2. Business Plus3. Sales Navigator4. Recruiter Lite

Luckily for us, Lindsey Stemann has drawn up a graphic that explains exactly what each offering will cost you and what you will receive for your money:

Let’s dive into what each of these paid features actually means for you:

• Who’sViewedYourProfile: While a free accounts lets you see a handful a people who have viewed your profile, the vast majority of this information is hidden from you, meaning you don’t get a complete picture of who has been viewing your profile. Why is this important? Well, if you’re a recruiter it’s exceptionally important for you to know whether or not the candidate you just reached out to has visited your profile to check you out, and in doing so, shown some interest in the role you’re proposing. When you notice a candidate has visited your profile, it’s the perfect time of you to take action on that activity by reaching out to them and starting a conversation.

• InMail Messages: LinkedIn InMail messages have an a staggering 85% open rate – 3 times higher than that of traditional email – so having access to more InMails means you have more chance of receiving a response from the candidates you do reach to (depending on how well you write your InMail). Plus, if the recipient accepts or declines your InMail within 90 days, LinkedIn will credit the InMail back to you.

• Premium Search Filters: Paying for LinkedIn will give you access to some useful search filters you can use to refine your candidate search and get to the right people more quickly. These include; seniority level, company size, interests, Fortune 1000, job function, years of experience, additional information about your groups and who is new to LinkedIn – filters you won’t be able to utilise with a free account.

• ProfilesPerSearch: This is the biggie! Last year LinkedIn allowed Basic (free) members access to 3rd-degree profiles, but as we all know this access came at an expense – the dreaded commercial search limit. As of the date this blog was posted, there is no commercial search limit when you upgrade to the Business Plus subscription or higher.

• Saved Search Alerts: The Saved Search Alerts are one of (three) emails you don’t want to miss in your inbox. LinkedIn will email you any new profiles that fit your search criteria on a weekly basis. So, LinkedIn will email you leads? Yep, you got it.

As a recruiter, we suggest selecting the Business Plus option to start with, but if you feel like pushing the boat out, definitely check out the Recruiter Lite option which is specifically tailored to those in recruitment and offers you more ATS-like abilities within LinkedIn itself.

3. Using corporate speak in your job specs

This needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW. Using jargon in your job specs does not make you look clever, nor does it make your open job role more enticing. In fact, quite the opposite is true. According to Jennifer Chatman, Management Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (Haas School of Business), “jargon masks real meaning” and acts as a barrier between individuals. And the last thing you need between you and the right candidate is a barrier!

When we decided to conduct our own online poll across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to discover which words/phrases make recruiters’ blood boil, we were astonished at the vast number of words/phrases they were able to ream off as being offensive yet commonplace within the industry:

The thing is, if your words don’t provoke the positive response you want, something isn’t working and when it comes to job ads, the most likely issue is the words you’ve used to describe the role. It’s time to shake things up!

Try instead: Using some emojis and talking like a human being

Like them or loathe them, emojis have become an integral part of everyday conversation and engagement, therefore it makes sense to us for recruiters to start using them on an informal basis within recruitment. In fact, there has been a lot of research into the benefits of using emojis in your communications, the most notable of which has been L’Oreal’s research into recruiting with emojis.

They began working with the colourful little images first, by asking their own employees to describe their job using only emojis.

Here’s an example:

The promotion proved popular, which caused L’Oreal’s Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition, Frederique Scavennec and Head of Talent Acquisition Lab, Zvi Goldfarb, to ask “why keep this internal?!” So they asked the public to describe their dream job in a tweet, using only emojis, and the response was impressive.

Here’s an example of the type of tweets they got:

Which means the following (in case you’re not fluent in emoji!):

The campaign proved a clever way to build buzz about L’Oréal and its recruiting team, while continuing to brand the company as an innovative and creative place to work - quite powerful for colourful little faces don’t you think?!

When it comes to the language and the phrasing you use in your job specs, here’s 4 questions you should be asking yourself when writing your job specs going forward:

• How would I explain this job to my 6 year old? Asking yourself this will force you to simplify your explanation and cut out any overly complicated words.

• What is thedictionarydefinitionof thisbuzzword? Asking yourself this will force you to clarify the meaning of the word you’re using. In some cases you may find the word has nothing to do with what you want to say.

• How else can I say this? We do this all the time when we find synonyms to use in our Boolean search strings, so do your best to think of other, less complicated, ways to phrase what you’re trying to say.

• Is there a story/analogy to better support my words? As I explained in point number one, stories motivate people to take action, so always turn elements of your job ad into a story where you can.

As recruiters, we must constantly test our audience of candidates to determine which words/phrases bring them to action i.e. apply for the job, and which words/phrases shut them down.

4. Jumping on every bandwagon going

We’ve all seen the headlines: Job boards are dead. Twitter is dead. ATS is dead. Boolean is dead. Blogging is dead. Pretty much everything is “dead” according to the internet. Why is it dead? Because by creating a piece of content with a title like that, you’re bound to get people clicking on it to see what all the fuss it about. It’s called click bait. And there’s no problem with it, except for the fact that it very often plants a seed in people’s heads and causes them to change the way they think and act, sometimes for worse.

Pretty much everything is “dead” according to the internet. Why is it dead? Because by creating a piece of content with a title like that, you’re bound to get people clicking on it to see what all the fuss it about. It’s called click bait - a tactic content marketing professionals (including myself) use to get people to click through and read their articles, download their whitepapers and quote their studies. And there’s no problem with it, except for the fact that by making such bold statements, it very often plants a seed in people’s heads and causes them to change the way they think and act, sometimes for worse.

But here’s the thing: just because you’ve read somewhere that job boards are dead, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are. Sure, they might not be the way the author of the article/study/whitepaper is finding their best candidates anymore, but they still might be the best place for YOU to find candidates. The same is true for Twitter. Just because someone else has decided they’re not reaching the candidates they need to on it, does not mean you won’t either. Heck, lots of people have said blogging is dead, yet here you are reading this!

Just because someone says something is not working for them, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.

Try instead: Running your own experiments

You can find data on pretty much everything these days. So, stop blindly following every piece of research out there and try running some experiments of your own. If you think job boards are dead, test it! Try placing an ad on one and placing the same ad elsewhere like Twitter or LinkedIn. Which source gets you the most high-quality responses?

Think Twitter isn’t working? Take a look your analytics! Maybe all you need to do is change up the way you’re wording your tweets or the hashtags your using or the time you’re posting your tweets. Do what marketers do and split test different tweets, then use your Twitter analytics to determine which tweet got the most replies, likes or retweets.

Test, test, test!

5. Using social media as a bulletin board

You wouldn’t walk into the middle of a group of 10 people having a conversation with a megaphone and shout “WE’RE HIRING!” would you? Answer: No you wouldn’t, because that’s just rude and obnoxious. So, then why do you think it’s OK to do the equivalent on social media?

Answer: No you wouldn’t, because that’s just rude and obnoxious. So, then why do you think it’s OK to do the equivalent on social media?

I for one am sick, sore and sorry of seeing the following messages plastered all over my social feeds of a Monday morning:

Instagram:

Twitter:

(Yep, multiple recruiters have used this image to accompany they’re “announcement”.)

LinkedIn:

Social media is a conversation. It’s not a soap box or a bulletin board, and neither should it be treated like one.

Try instead: Starting conversations

In real life, if you wanted to start a conversation with potential candidates about a job you might start by asking them a question, telling a joke or talking about a recent event. You should be doing the same on social media.

One of the best and most recent examples of a recruiter using social media as a conversation starter, comes from Microsoft, who recently posted a brilliantly timed and executed job ad on their Microsoft Careers - Western Europe Facebook page.

The ad, or should I say “letter”, was posted on December 15th (just before Christmas), and began with the infamous phrase “Dear Santa”.

The “letter” then went on to explain what Microsoft would “really love for Christmas” (answer: Data Solution Architects), and how Santa will know them when he sees them. It’s a really lovely, timely post that even came complete with a drawing of a Christmas tree by a 5 year old girl:

Bottom line: Use your social skills, not your shouting skills. Social media is your chance to engage with potential candidates on their level, not shout at them from on high.

9 Twitter Accounts Every Recruiter Should Start Following in 2016

Greg Savage @greg_savage

What to expect: Great recruitment tips, practices and techniques based on real life experiences.

With a career spanning 35 years, Greg is a leader of the global recruitment industry and is a regular keynote speaker at staffing conferences around the world. An active investor in recruitment businesses, Greg is a founder and significant shareholder of people2people, one of Australia’s fastest growing recruitment companies.

Blending old and new school techniques, tips and practices on everything recruitment from strategy to consulting to board advisory on a global scale, Greg Savage uses his Twitter account to offer everyone his sage advice on the recruitment industry and how to navigate it. In short, it’s all gold!

As part of our brand new “Social Talent Presents” series, Greg will be running an exclusive Recruitment Masterclass on Thursday 2nd June 2016 in The Gibson Hotel, Dublin. Greg’s masterclass will be packed with cutting-edge insights for recruiters. Expect to go away with clarity on the changing world of recruitment and a host of new tools to help you bill more. More details and booking information can be found here.

Katrina Collier @WinningImpress

What to expect: Practical tips on how to use social media for recruitment from one of The 100 Most Influential People in HR & Recruiting on Twitter.

Katrina Collier has been consulting on the use of social media for recruitment since 2009. From start-ups to global blue chips, she’s delivered social media recruitment training across the globe and is a regular speaker at some of recruitment’s biggest events including; SourceCon Fall, SOSU Sourcing Summits in Sydney, Auckland & Amsterdam, DK Recruitment Day in Copenhagen, Signal Connect in Romania, and HR Vision in London.

Her social recruiting opinion is quoted in HRReview, SHRM, The Staffing Stream, and Cambridge University’s Strategies for Success, and she also writes for her own blog and for notable publications like Glassdoor and The Muse.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, Katrina also happens to be one of The 100 Most Influential People in HR & Recruiting on Twitter, which is why we’ve included her on our list today. Because her main expertise lay in recruiting on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a range of smaller, niche and technical social media sites, Twitter her account is full of social media usage advice in the form of blog articles, stats, quotes and figures.

Bad Job Ad Mistakes @JobPostShameWhat to expect: The worst job ads on the internet right now.

The folks who run the account do their best to “showcase the best of the mistakes” found in job adverts all over the world.

Barry Feldman @FeldmanCreative

What to expect: Priceless informational gems about how to improve your recruitment marketing practices, from a master of content marketing.

Content Marketing Consultant, Copywriter, Blogger, Podcaster, Speaker… is there anything this man can’t do?! While not an expert in the field of recruitment specifically, Barry is at the top of his game when it comes to content marketing and all things SEO related (he’s even written a book on the topic), and he can really teach you a thing or two about 2016’s biggest recruitment topic: recruitment marketing. If you use job ads to advertise your open roles or you are in charge of your company’s careers blog, you really need to start following Barry’s Twitter immediately.

The links he tweets to REALLY insightful information about improving your social media promotion skills, your blogging techniques, your SEO practices and your video marketing, are absolutely second to none. The stats he tweets are invaluable and his SoundCloud links are a great listen on your morning/evening commute.

Louise Triance @louisetriance

What to expect: The most comprehensive set of information, services and links to all in the UK recruitment industry.

Louise is the owner and editor of UK Recruiter, a website dedicated to providing UK-based recruiters with the most relevant information about the recruitment industry. As a result, Louise uses her Twitter to tweet almost all of the information she gathers for her site, as well as any 3rd party blog articles she finds interesting, events she considers worth attending, books she’s enjoying, and products she recommends other recruiters give a go.

She also regularly asks the opinion of her followers on prominent industry topics and browsing through the responses is really informative! EVERY single UK recruiter should click the follow button below right now!

Lars Schmidt @ThisIsLars

What to expect: A plethora of really great resources for recruiters including case studies, best practice examples, podcasts, and interviews with influential individuals.

Lars is the co-founder of Amplify Talent (a company that helps their clients develop innovative, scalable and sustainable talent strategies), an international speaker, panelist, and trainer who has presented at events held by LinkedIn, Life Is Beautiful Festival, Glassdoor, Recruiting Trends, Human Capital Institute, Social Media Week, Recruiting Innovation Summit and more. His work and his presentations are at the intersection of recruiting and employer branding and have been covered in Mashable, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the U.S. News.

Lars is a big fan of sharing really great resources for recruiters including; case studies from large organisations about their recruiting strategy, studies with industry-altering stats, examples of things like strong employer brands, podcasts you should be listening too, and interviews with influential, industry-leading individuals.

Craig Fisher @Fishdogs

What to expect: A truly dynamic source of information and inspiration for recruiters everywhere.

Craig Fisher is Head of Employer Brand at CA Technologies, and CEO of TalentNet, a social business strategy firm. His digital branding methods have been adopted as best practices by the likes of LinkedIn, Zappos, YUM! Brands, and Hootsuite. His expert opinion has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, NBC News, and The Huffington Post.

He was recently listed among the most engaging conference speakers by Bizzabo. And, most importantly, for us today, Craig created the first EVER Twitter chat for recruiters. Yes, Craig has always recognised the power of Twitter as a resource for helping recruiters do what they do better, and as a result, his Twitter account is one of the best recruitment-focused accounts out there.

But even though Craig’s account is recruitment-focused that doesn’t mean he limits himself to posting articles and reports just about recruitment. Oh no! In fact, that’s the beauty of Craig’s Twitter account. He likes to post all manner of articles from the world of business, tech, gaming, mobile and food that he believes will be beneficial to members of the recruitment community. The result? A truly dynamic source of information and inspiration for recruiters everywhere.

Lou Adler @LouA

What to expect: Links to game-changing articles written by Lou that will give you practical tips to help you improve your recruiting processes.

Lou is the CEO and founder of The Adler Group – a training and search firm helping companies implement performance-based hiring. He’s the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired and the award-winning Nightingale-Conant audio program, Talent Rules! Using Performance-based Hiring to Build Great Teams.

Lou believes that “in order to attract and hire top talent, a company’s sourcing, interviewing, and recruiting processes must be modified to meet their unique needs”. As a result, he uses his Twitter account to spread his unique teachings on how recruiters and hiring managers can improve their processes and therefore their productivity, by altering different aspects of their everyday activities. Recent game-changing articles of his include; Answer These Questions to Dramatically Decrease the Time You Spend Sourcing, A Hiring Manager’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Recruiting, and Why the ROI of Hiring is More Important Than the Cost.

Todd Raphael @ToddRaphael

What to expect: Real-time updates on the recruitment industry’s biggest news stories.Todd is Editor-in-Chief of ERE.net, one of the industry’s most popular websites.

If you’re looking for the most up-to-date news happening within the recruitment industry (particularly within the US), then click Todd’s follow button immediately!

7 Books Every Recruiter Needs to Read in 2016

WORK RULES!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform HowYouLiveandLeadbyLaszloBock

“We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It’s not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanising.” So says Laszlo Bock, Head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge; Google. And it’s that insight that is at the heart of WORK RULES!, Bock’s compelling, insightful and surprisingly playful manifesto that offers a number of lessons anyone in business can learn, including:

• Don’t trust your gut: Use data to predict and shape the future• Hire only people who are smarter than you are, no matter how long it takes to find

them• Learn from your best employees – and your worst• Pay unfairly (it’s more fair!)• Default to open – be transparent and welcome feedback

Drawing on the latest research in behavioural economics and a profound grasp of human psychology, WORK RULES! also provides teaching examples from a range of industries including lauded companies that happen to be hideous places to work and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock also takes us inside one of history’s most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into principles that are easy to put into action, whether you’re a team of one or a team of thousands!WORK RULES! shows how to strike a balance between creativity and structure, leading to success you can measure in quality of life as well as market share.

Our verdict: In a word? Excellent! Read it if you’re looking to build a better company from within rather than from above or read it just to reawaken your joy in what you do. WORK RULES! is well researched, well written, and a joy to read. EVERY recruiter should sit down with it in 2016. That’s why we’ve named it Social Talent’s Book of the Year for 2016.

The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born. It’s Grown by Daniel Coyle

This truly fascinating book tells the story of how journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Daniel Coyle, visited 9 of the world’s greatest talent hotbeds – tiny places that produce huge amounts of talent – and the pattern he found that’s common to all of them.

From a small music camp in upstate New York to an elementary school in California to the baseball fields of the Caribbean, Coyle found that certain methods of training, motivation, and coaching, were all being used in these places to grow extraordinary talent. This pattern, which has to do with the fundamental mechanisms through which the brain acquires skill, gives us a new way to think about talent — as well as new tools with which we can unlock our own talents and those of our children.

Our Verdict: If you’ve ever wanted to improve an aspect of your life, be it a sporting technique or something you do for work every day, you NEED to read this book. Coyle removes the mystery that surrounds true talent and gives you access to mechanisms that will help you unlock your own talents (even some you might never have known you had!)

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim C. Collins

How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? What are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? Those are the 2 fundamental questions Jim Collins aims to answer in his book Good to Great.

Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least 15 years. They then contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great, in order to find out what was different and why did one set of companies become truly great performers, while the other set remained only good.

After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness, including:

• the type of leadership required to achieve greatness• the curse of competence• why a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, results in magical

alchemy• how Good-to-Great companies think about the role of technology• why those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will

almost certainly fail to make the leap

“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, “fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”

Our verdict: Thought-provoking findings you can’t afford to ignore.

Social Media Recruitment by Andy Headworth

“In order to attract the right people into your organisation despite a global shortfall of talented candidates, new methods are now needed to reach future talent. Social media needs to become a vital part of any recruitment strategy.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves Andy! And in his book Social Media Recruitment, that’s exactly what Andy Headworth wants to help you do.

Using practical guidance with case studies and insights from industry thought leaders, Andy aims to provide recruiters with a full understanding of what social media means for our industry, and how to successfully integrate and use it in our everyday recruiting and sourcing activities.

Throughout the course of its pages, the book shows you how to create a step-by-step social media strategy (something ALL recruiters need to have in place) including; how to measure ROI and how to utilise big data.

Our verdict: Andy has been one of the foremost thought leaders within the recruitment industry for the last 25 years. He knows his sh*t and we’re big fans! This book is packed to the rafters with information, hints, tips and warnings about how social media can be used as a recruitment tool beyond just posting jobs on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath

This isn’t the first time these two authors have made it onto our book list. They appeared last year with their other title Made to Stick, an excellent book every recruiter should read about how to transform the way you communicate ideas (read: your open jobs or your employer brand).

In Decisive, the authors are more concerned with the decision-making process and the “four villains” associated with it. “When it comes to making decisions, it’s clear that our brains are flawed instruments”, they say and according to them, when it comes to making (hiring) decisions:

• We have too narrow of focus. We are guilty of “spotlight thinking.” We focus on the obvious and visible. We miss important facts outside our immediate view.

• We fall into confirmation bias. We develop a quick belief about something and then seek out information that confirms that belief.

• We get caught in short-term emotion. We are too emotionally connected to the decision and struggle with being appropriately detached.

• We are guilty of overconfidence. We assume that we know more than we actually do know and jump to conclusions, thinking we can accurately predict the future.

Our verdict:The great value of this book for recruiters is that it lays out a decision-making process that can be used to help and make fair each and every hiring decision you make – which, for those of you hoping to improve the diversity hiring practices within your company in 2016 or tackle you own unconscious bias, is absolute gold!The process is designed to counteract the influence of the 4 villains we mentioned and consists of 4 sequential steps, known as the WRAP process:

1. Widen your options.2. Reality-test your assumptions.3. Attain distance before deciding.4. Prepare to be wrong.

Follow this, and we promise you will look at the hiring process in a whole new light in 2016, one that will definitely improve the hiring decisions you make and how you make them. Reading this book is a no-brainer!

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely

“When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we’re making smart, rational choices. But are we?” That’s the question Dan Ariely wants to get to the bottom of with his book Predictably Irrational, which refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways when making decisions in our everyday lives.

The book’s description notes that from drinking coffee to losing weight, or from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, we consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. Yet these misguided behaviours are neither random nor senseless. They’re actually systematic and predictable, which ultimately makes us “predictably irrational”.

“My goal, by the end of this book, is to help you fundamentally rethink what makes you and the people around you tick” says Ariely, which is exactly what recruiters need to be doing – finding out what really makes our candidates tick so that we can better sell our jobs to them.

Our verdict:An oldie, but a goodie and a New York Times bestseller to boot! Ariely discusses many modes of thinking and situations that may skew peoples’ traditional rational choice theory, which can give recruiters a great insight into how candidates make decisions when it comes to taking a new job and may even help you anticipate any worries or questions they may have.

Headhunters by Jo Nesbø

Now, while we usually only suggest non-fiction books in our annual book list, this year our co-founder, Vincent O’Donoghue, brought Headhunters to our attention, and boy, was our interest piqued! Check out this for an official description:

“Roger Brown is a corporate headhunter, and he’s a master of his profession. But one career simply can’t support his luxurious lifestyle and his wife’s fledgling art gallery.

At an art opening one night he meets Clas Greve, who is not only the perfect candidate for a major CEO job, but also, perhaps, the answer to his financial woes: Greve just so happens to mention that he owns a priceless Peter Paul Rubens painting that’s been lost since World War II, and Roger Brown just so happens to dabble in art theft.

But when he breaks into Greve’s apartment, he finds more than just the painting. And Clas Greve may turn out to be the worst thing that’s ever happened to Roger Brown.”

Our verdict:Funny, dark, and really quite twisted (a bit like Vince ;P)! This novel is an absolute must for any recruiters who happen to be fans of Tarantino or the Coen brothers.

9 Conferences You MUST VISIT in Spring/Summer 2016

Recruitment Agency Expo – 3rd – 4th February, London

This was one of the best events we attended last year, which is why we are keen to return again in 2016!

Now in it’s 5th year, the Recruitment Agency Expo is the leading exhibition and conference for senior decision makers working within recruitment agencies in the UK. This year will see 26 free to attend seminars (on the most recent industry initiatives, the hottest topics, as well as new and developing products) including a session on the science of successful job advertising with our own Johnny Campbell, 13 free training sessions (bite-sized, best practice training content to immediately implement within your recruitment business) and with the opportunity to meet over 80 suppliers.

Tickets: Entry to the Recruitment Agency Expo is FREE for individuals who register here.

In-House Recruitment Expo – 23rd – 24th February, London

The In-House Recruitment Expo is a UK exhibition designed for in-house recruitment leaders and teams responsible for sourcing and recruiting candidates within corporate and SME businesses. If you’re looking to network with peers, learn about new products and services that will help you find the best candidates, and pick the brains of some of the industries most brilliant minds (this year Katrina Collier, Dave Hazlehurst, Emma Gunes, Mervyn Dinnen, and Shane McCusker are all leading Keynote and Masterclass sessions), than the In-House Recruitment Expo is for you.

With almost 100 exhibitors, a mix of seminars and workshops led by respected experts, masterclasses hosted by the industry’s brightest minds, and a host of exhibitor presentations and demonstrations, we think it’s fair to say that the In-House Recruitment Expo offers everything you need to make informed decisions about your sourcing practices, tools and organisational objectives.

Tickets:Entry to the In-House Recruitment Expo is FREE for individuals who register here.

SourceCon: All Stars – 1st – 2nd March, Orlando

The best thing about SourceCon every year is that all of its agenda sessions focus on real sourcing results and giving you, the attendee, actual tools and tactics you can take home and use immediately. You also get the added piece of mind knowing that each of those tools and tactics come recommended, tried and tested by individuals at the forefront of sourcing and recruiting.

As an added bonus, the networking at SourceCon is always world class! And, by all accounts, it’s going to be even better at SourceCon: All Stars where each and every one of the speakers has a proven track record and is at the top of their game.

Yes, this year’s SourceCon will be filled with the creme da la creme of recruiting experts who have actually worked and toiled in the trenches of recruitment and sourcing, and who know how to find THAT candidate. And they’re very keen to share their knowledge with you! Speakers this year include Glen Cathy, Stacy Zapar, Dean Da Costa, Shannon Pritchett, and our very own Johnny Campbell.

Recruitment Leaders Connect – 3rd March, London

Recruitment Leaders Connect is the largest recruitment agency event series in the UK and touts itself as “a cross between a structured conference and a social meet up”. The events are exclusively for Recruitment Owners, Directors, Managers and Senior team members and combine industry leading keynote talks, interactive discussion sessions and relaxed social networking opportunities to make one of the best conference experiences you’ll find in the UK. The theme of their March 3rd event is “Year Ahead and Growth Plan 2016”.

• An official agenda for the event hasn’t yet been confirmed but you can expect:• An average of 200 returning and new delegates• A relaxed and informal style• A huge range of networking opportunities• Fast paced, good quality, relevant keynote presentations• Expert speakers from around the world• A range of interactive roundtable topic discussions to join• Access to experts and leading suppliers in a non-sales-y environment• A social ‘meet-up’ style with buffet breakfasts, lunches and networking drinks

Tickets:The events are free of charge for Recruitment Owners, Directors, Managers and Senior team members on a first come first served basis. You can register to secure your ticket here.

Talent Acquisition Summit – 10th – 11th March, Dallas

According to the summit’s website, in a recent study Bersin by Deloitte stated that only 13% of organisations feel that their talent acquisition function is fully optimised. That’s why they want their event to focus on helping the people of talent acquisition build better, stronger, faster, and more optimised TA functions. And boy, do they deliver!Some of the sessions we’re really keen to see and participate in at this year’s two-day event include:

• “Which Metrics are Meaningful Including Recruiter Performance“• “Out-of-the-Box Ideas for Sourcing Hard-to-Find Talent on and off Social Media“• “What’s Next in the Evolution of Recruitment and How to Stay One-Step Ahead“

Tickets:The standard price of tickets for the summit are $1,895, but if you register 3 to 5 attendees you’ll receive a 10% discount, 6 to 10 attendees will receive attendees will receive 15% off, and groups of 10 or more will get 20% off. Register here.

HR Tech World Spring – 15th – 16th March, London

While many HR events seem to photocopy their speaker list year-on-year, HR Tech World Spring pride themselves on providing their attendees with a diverse range of speakers by mixing regular attendees with new kids on the block (so to speak). And there certainly isn’t a shortage of speakers either! Running alongside the main

Topics this year include really practical stuff like “Tactical Diversity Techniques That Work“, “Four Easy Steps That Turn Any Recruiter Into A World Class CyberSleuth” and “Undocumented Hacks for Your Favorite Sourcing Tools“. You’d be mad not to attend!

Tickets:Tickets for SourceCon can be found here, and are priced at $995, but be quick because early bird pricing ends on January 8th.

auditorium are 10 Breakout rooms including Labs and Product Demonstrations. Over 100 presentations will take place over the two days, all covering a variety of topics relevant to the HR function – all intend on discovering and discussing how HR can grow to solve future business needs. That’s what makes HR Tech World Spring one of the best sources of intelligent information on HR in the world and why we’ll be attending again this year.

Speakers at this year’s 2016 event include the likes of Simon Sinek, Mary Aiken, Peter Hinssen, Dave Hazelhurst, Lego’s Morten Ostergaard Pedersen, Barclays Mike Molinaro and Vodafone’s Catalina Schveninger.

Tickets:If you book before January 15th, you’ll get £300 off the regular single ticket price of £995 or you’ll save £995 off the regular team price of £1,990, if you book 3 delegates before January 15th. Book now.

Human Capital Summit – 29th – 30th March, New Orleans

According to the summit’s website, “tremendous success can be found with a simple change or a new approach – if agility is a new concept to your organisation, you’ll still reap the benefits by introducing even a single process to your talent strategy.” So the question is, is your talent management strategy adaptable enough to quickly switch gears as business conditions change?

If you feel it isn’t, the Human Capital Summit aims to teach you how agile practices can help develop your workforce to fill talent gaps, provide a collaborative platform for driving innovation, and better align your initiatives to business goals. By the end of the two days you’ll learn:

• How to increase organisational performance through agile learning programs that rapidly develop “time-to-proficiency” in workforce skills and capabilities

• What’s required to build a deep talent bench for robust and agile succession planning

• How to capitalise on rapidly changing business environments to drive engagement• How to develop managers to focus on flexibility, speed, and changing goals• To implement project based cross-functional teams for collaboration, innovation,

and efficiency• Ways to transform performance reviews to allow for real-time employee development• Keys to create strong external employment branding that attract agile and

specialized candidates• To create programs that measure and reward agility based behavior• How to leverage integrated talent management technology to help, not hinder,

talent acquisition• How to use new data measurements to determine current and future hotspots• How to facilitate and manage change within the organization

Tickets:The registration fee for this year’s event is $1,695. Book your ticket here now.

SoSu Asia – 13th – 14th April, Singapore

#SOSU (Sourcing Summit) started in 2011 and is now held across 8 cities in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and of course Asia where April’s event is taking place in Singapore. Because the world of talent acquisition is changing rapidly in Asia, this year’s event will focus on the whole talent sourcing life-cycle with a particular focus on the issues and challenges faced by sourcing leaders across the regions including; cross-border sourcing and the implications of social engagements.

SHRM Talent Management Conference & Exposition – 18th – 20th April, Orlando

SHRM is a typically fast- paced, energetic conference with no shortage of ideas that will advance you personally and professionally! It’s designed specifically for recruitment and talent management professionals and the topics being discussed at this year’s event reflect that.

Revolutionising your company’s culture, recruitment metrics, hacks for talent pipelining, diversity, onboarding techniques, your online application process and even Gangnam Style, will be discussed over the 2 days, and keynote speakers include Jim Knight, Kat Cole and Peter Bregman.

Oh, and this year, the conference is being held right beside Disneyland!!!

Tickets:Early bird tickets for SHRM Talent Management Conference & Exposition can be found here, and early bird tickets are priced at $1,320. But hurry, early bird only lasts until February 26th.

The event promotes the spread of new thinking, and brings together practitioners to network, try new tools, test new technologies and discuss sourcing best practices, all of which should help you decipher the ever-changing behaviour of talent. will be discussed in some of the most hands-on sessions you will ever experience at a major conference.

P.S. This is one of the most hands-on conferences you will ever experience!

Tickets:Tickets for this year’s event start at $395 for a one-day workshop and can be purchased here.

January12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728 TruDublin (Dublin)

293031

February123 Recruitment Agency Expo (London)

4 Recruitment Agency Expo (London)

5678 TruDallas (Dallas)

9101112131415161718 HR PRO Conference (Moscow)

1920 Career Zoo (Dublin)

212223 In House Recruitment Expo (London)

24 In House Recruitment Expo (London)

25 Talent Leaders Connect (London)

26 HRU Gdansk (Gdansk)

272829

March1 SourceCon (Orlando)

2 SourceCon (Orlando)

3 Recruitment Leaders Connect (London)

45678910 Talent Acquisition Summit (Dallas)

11 Talent Acquisition Summit (Dallas)

12131415 HRTech Europe (London)

16 HRTech Europe (London)

1718192021222324 HRU Kiev (Kiev)

2526272829 Human Capital Summit (New Orleans)

30 Human Capital Summit (New Orleans)

31

The Social Talent Recruitment/HR Conference Calendar 2016:

April123456789101112 TruParis (Paris)

13 SoSu Asia (Singapore)

14 SoSu Asia (Singapore)

15 HRU Sofia (Sofia)

161718 SHRM Talent Management Conference (Orlando)

19 SHRM Talent Management Conference (Orlando)

20 SHRM Talent Management Conference (Orlando)

21222324252627282930

May12 Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference (Boston)

3 Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference (Boston)

4 Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference (Boston)

567 891011 REC Breakfast Briefing (London)

12 Recruitment Leaders Connect (Manchester)

1314 NRF Annual Conference (Dublin)

15161718 HR Tech MENA (Dubai)

19 HR Tech MENA (Dubai)

202122232425 Indeed Interactive (Dallas)

26 Indeed Interactive (Dallas)

27 Indeed Interactive (Dallas)

28293031

June12 Social Talent Presents: Greg Savage (Dublin)

34567 RecFest 2016 (London)

8 Engage 2016 (Boston) (2 days)

9 Recruitment Leaders Connect (Dublin)

10111213 London Talent Week (London)

14 London Talent Week (London)

15 London Talent Week (London)

16 London Talent Week (London)

17 London Talent Week (London)

1819202122 Recruitstock (London)

23 Recruitstock (London)

24252627282930 TLCon Summer Conference (London)

July123456789101112 The Onrec Trade Conference 2016 (London)

13 Australasian Talent Conference 2016 (Sydney)

14 Australasian Talent Conference 2016 (Sydney)

1516171819202122232425262728293031

August123456789101112131415161718192021222324 RCSA International Conference (Port Douglas)

25 RCSA International Conference (Port Douglas)

26 RCSA International Conference (Port Douglas)

2728293031

September12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728 Recruitment Agency Expo (Birmingham)

29 Recruitment Agency Expo (Birmingham)

30

October1234 HR Technology Conference & Expo (Chicago)

5 HR Technology Conference & Expo (Chicago)

6 TLCon Autumn Conference (London)

7 HR Technology Conference & Expo (Chicago)

891011 RMS Conference (Paris)

12131415161718 Online Recruitment Conference & Expo (London)

192021 Bullhorn Live (London)

22232425 HR Tech World Congress (Paris)

26 HR Tech World Congress (Paris)

2728293031

November12345678910111213141516 Personal Hungary (Budapest)

17 Personal Hungary (Budapest)

18 Recruiter Show (London)

19 Recruiter Show (London)

2021222324252627282930

December12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031