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Friends,

I’ve been spending a lot of time last week meeting people in-person - lunches, coffees, drinks, dinners. As a result, I have not only got slightly fatter, but also seem to have renewed my enthusiasm for socialising which was in some danger of petering out, mainly through laziness but perhaps also an over preoccupation with work. It’s important make space for ‘non-work’ and not to over optimise your time on what you think might be valuable or productive. Not only will you feel better for yourself but you will also pick up information which will give you a better picture of the world.

So, rolling forward in this spirit, I look forward to meeting as many people in person as I can, starting with all you Berliners who have signed up to now sold out Talent Horizons at HelloFresh on Wednesday - please make sure you come up and say hello. I will also be in Hamburg on Friday, so let me know by comment below if you are around after Brainfood Live and want to catch up and have a chat.

For everyone else: make sure you get out and about this week. Remote first / digital only is great but untenable if that is all we do.

Thanks to Achyut Menon, Matt Best, Eugène van den Hemel, Joey NK Koksal, Bas van de Haterd, Kevin Green, Ekaterina Davydova, Colin Donnery, Dave Hazlehurst, Louis Eastwell and Daisy Ilaria for your public endorsements of all things brainfood last week - essential for keeping this show on the road. Scores updated on the Brainfood Hall of Fame.

Can you help? Share this newsletter with a friend in recruiting or HR who could do with a boost.

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

Controversial poll from last week produced the expected result - brainfooders are divided on the value of mandatory diversity statements. Some interesting points respectfully made in the comment thread in last issue, I encourage readers to would like to know more go back and review those.

We’re going to keep this as a regular feature folks, so make sure you scroll to the end of the newsletter and cast your vote and opinion on this week’s question.

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep215 - Tech Hiring Landscape 2023 Mid Year Review

Everyone knows the tech sector has taken a hammering in 2023, and with the rumours that Microsoft are planning another big round coming up, it’s not clear whether we’ve yet hit the nadir so we’re going to be reviewing the tech hiring landscape with panellists from recruitment business owners, in-house Tech TA, marketing intelligence from hackajob and maybe the odd appearance from the techies themselves. We’re on Friday 21st July, 2pm BST - all tech recruiters should register here.

PS: if you want to broadcast the show on your own LinkedIn (and get the free profile views…), click on this link and follow the instructions. Free to do

The Brainfood

1. Understanding AI in HR - A Deep Dive

It was always going to take a master synthesiser like Josh Bersin to put together the definitive guide on AI for HR / TA. The content here is going to be the edges of our comfort zone but that is precisely where we need to spend more time when it comes to artificial intelligence. Expect to learn what LLM’s are, how a transformer works and what we can expect as different generations of worktech adopt, integrate and build in AI. Essential read folks. H/T to brainfooder Stanislaw Wasowicz for the share in the online community.

AI

2. How Does The LinkedIn Algorithm Work in 2023?

More on LinkedIn algorithm changes, all of which have been based on a single interview with Dan Roth and Alice Xiong (the actual podcast is linkedin below, so you can listen to it yourself), but this explainer from Buffer is probably the most understandable interpretation I’ve yet read. Main point worth underlining again is the linkage between your profile data and post content. We’re going to be talking about this on Brainfood Live on this in a couple weeks, so register here if you want to embed the lessons. H/T to brainfooder Michael Talarek for the share.

CONTENT MARKETING

3. Empty Spaces and Hybrid Places: The Pandemic’s Lasting Impact on Real Estate

Pre-pandemic, it seemed that economic agglomeration would guarantee the status of ‘superstar’ cities. New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin etc would continue to attract disproportionate percentage of investment, talent, opportunity and economic growth, extending their presence over the national economies they already dominated. Not so any more, as pandemic induced shift-to-remote moved agglomeration into reverse. Highly readable report from McKinsey on empty office spaces, with obvious implications for talent attraction.

REMOTE WORKING

4. Who needs LinkedIn Recruiter? X-Ray vs LinkedIn Search Comparison Chart

Well this is useful isn’t it? Thanks to brainfooders Irina Shamaeva and David Galley for updating their sourcing comparison table between LinkedIn Recruiter and X-raying the site off-platform.

SOURCING

5. Sales Compensation Structures in Europe

Compensation tech firm Figures are one of the few organisations in Europe which can accurately aggregate payroll data, and hence provide invaluable compensation intelligence like this. If you’re hiring for Sales / GTM / Commercial roles for your business in Europe, this is an essential report to download.

CULTURE

6. ChatGPT's Code Interpreter for Recruitment: A Glimpse into an AI-Enhanced Future

We might have hit a moment of ‘AI fatigue’ of late, with ChatGPT experiencing their first decline in web traffic since it sensationally brought GAI to the mainstream 8 months ago, but the drop in enthusiasm also coincides with one of its most important releases to date. Code Interpreter is essentially a sandboxed Python environment where you can execute Python code to perform any task you like. Built for coders, but as brainfooder Martyn Redstone superbly describes, can be applied to many recruiting activities….

AI

7. China's Grassroots Labor Market (Part I): Turbulent Destiny of Gig Workers in Platform Economy

Fascinating two parter on the state of the gig economy in China, especially with tougher economic conditions in the Middle Kingdom driving surges in applications to the gig economy. The transition of middle class (and middle class aspirant) knowledge workers to the precariousness of the gig economy might be a global phenomenon as we together experience the inevitable results of hostile de-globalisation. Part 1 and Part 2 both worth a read.

GIG ECONOMY

8. Towards Better 1-On-1s: An Awkward Manifesto

Check-ins are critical opportunities for managers and reports to connect but they can become deleterious if they are not managed properly. This how-to post references the superb Julia Evans blog, so I have plenty of confidence that the advice within is solid.

CULTURE

9. Labour Market Statistics July 2023

Brainfooder Tony Wilson is one of the must follows for those of you who are still on Twitter; his research and analysis of the UK Labour market is comprehensive, accessible and unafraid to be accompanied with recommendation. This report on UK labour market statistics in July makes some convincing observations - wage growth has been driven by white collar private sector, whilst critical demand for candidates continues in the public sector where wage growth continues to lag.

ECONOMY

10. Hollywood's 'Groundbreaking' AI Proposal for Actors Sounds Like a Nightmare

The ‘de-aging’ of Harrison Ford in the latest Indiana Jones movie portends a future which is most unwelcome for most other actors, who might find themselves outcompeted for work by immortal AI generated simulacra of existing and maybe even long dead stars. They are striking over it, and rightly so. Power law is beginning to be felt in AI, where the few, most bankable stars, become forever leads capturing the value that might otherwise have gone to the next generation of movie stars who might now never get a chance to be. Fascinating future, or non-future, depending on how you see it.

AI

The Podcasts

11. Why LinkedIn Doesn't Want You Going "Viral"

So this is the famous podcast which is getting all the LinkedIn influencers excited. It’s well worth a listen because whether we think of ourselves as content creators or not, we recruiters are on LinkedIn like a bad habit and need to keep on top of how to make the most of it.

CONTENT MARKETING

12. Difference between EVP vs EB vs Recruitment Marketing

Brainfooder Adam Gordon claimed that this was the best definition of the differences between EVP, EB and RM. Having listened to it - all 2 minutes of it - I have to say, I’m in inclined to agree, especially as it features Mars Bars as the central motif….

EMPLOYER BRANDING

13. How NASA Writes Space Proof Code

One of friends is an actual rocket scientist and he was the first to tell me why most coding he does on satellites was in FORTRAN. Cool video on why this is, and what other coding rules are required when your production environment is in space.

OBSCURA

End Notes

So Rishi Sunak’s solution for multi-year underfunding of the public sector is to fund the necessary wage increases by bilking immigrants for the money. When smarter countries are doing what they can to increase the talent pipeline, UK is doing the opposite by making it much more expensive to even apply for a visa. Global Britain to Little England has turned out to be a very short hop indeed.

Got me thinking about immigration policy across different countries - a good topic for this week’s poll I think, especially for a recruiter oriented community like us.

So this week’s question is quite simple:

Leave a comment

Make sure you comment as to what country you’re representing and why you voted the way you have - lets again try and have a respectful conversation on this.

Have a great week everybody, thanks for reading

Hung