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• The major challenges in attracting and hiring quality candidates and effective strategies to address them.

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Thanks to: Jan Tegze, Kevin Green, Joey NK Koksal, Eugène van den Hemel, Lauren Scott, Clair Mohamed, Andreea Lungulescu, Denise Pereira, Diana Gindeva, James Prashan, Ollie Roper and Charley Dowsell for your support on all things brainfood last week - scores updated on the Brainfood Hall of Fame 👊

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

Losing LinkedIn X-Ray is going to be a catastrophe for the efficacy of sourcing functions everywhere…..right?

Only if it is already important for your work. 34% of us don’t really use it much at all and so are sanguine 🤣. Thanks for all who voted - lets keep this up. Scroll down to end of this newsletter and vote on this week’s question.

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep243 - How to Hire for AI (10 Things Recruiters HAVE to Know), Friday 2nd Feb, 2pm GMT

We know we are in the era of AI, so we had better get busy getting good at hiring for AI…does anyone actually know how? Lets talk about what sourcing / attraction techniques work best when hiring for the data scientists, data engineers and research scientists. These are sectors where we genuinely do have a shortage of available labour. Must watch folks. We’re on Friday 2nd February, 2pm GMT - register here

The Brainfood

1. LinkedIn X-Ray Workaround

The more research our expert sourcers do, the more likely it seems that LinkedIn X-Ray is indeed if not dead then very much on it’s way to dying. Brainfooder Irina Shamaeva providing solutions and workarounds quickly, as you might expect. We’re talking about this in ‘sourcers town hall’ on Brainfood Live next month - make sure you sign up. As for sourcing leaders, we might want to review our KPI’s / forecasts back to business - sourcing functions will find it harder to be as effective in delivery if these changes from LinkedIn become fixed.

SOURCING

2. Work, Workforce & Workers: Reinvented in the era of GenAI

I would start by reading the methodology at the back: three scenarios modelled by researchers at Accenture: 1) Aggressive 2) Cautious 3) People centred. Obviously, No3 is favoured, but what are the chances when focus on achieving profitability has become a global phenomenon? 75% of organisations still lack a plan to re-skill their workforce for the GenAI present - pretty clear we have to take it upon ourselves to do so. Good read this, but do cut through the fluff. H/T to brainfooder Andy Headworth for the share.

FUTURE OF WORK

3. How to Write Job Descriptions in 2024: Best Practices from a Billion Job Posts

Did you know that using ‘you’ language in job ads might now result in worse performing job ads than using ‘we’ language? The most interesting element of this research from Textio is how dynamic applicant preferences are; what was data driven truth in 2019, might well be hackneyed cliche in 2024. Packed full of do-it-today tips, must read for anyone writing or generating job ads

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

4. NYC Hiring Law Gets Cold Shoulder

I’ve been raising the alarm about greater need of awareness of the legislative environment, but perhaps we can just afford to ignore regulations if they are not enforced? This was the unofficial policy of an unnamed-but-very-well-known rectech vendor I had a conversation with last year, and maybe they have a point. Even the simple act of disclosing whether you are using ‘automated employment decision tools’ seems to much for many employers, with only 18 of 400 employers that do use such tools actually publicly disclosing the fact. Laws only exist upon enforcement, I suppose…

AI

5. Amazon France Logistique fined €32 million for Employee Surveillance

Indicators tracking the inactivity time of employees' scanners were put in place. The CNIL ruled that it was illegal to set up a system measuring work interruptions with such accuracy

Remember the stories of Amazon workers being denied toilet breaks? Turns out this sort of stuff is no bueno in France, as the Commission Nationale Informatique & Libertés - CNIL - the French Data Protection Agency, levels a fine on the company for excessive employee surveillance, as well as retention of performance data over a 31 day period. A significant victory for workers, but a step back for People Analytics - after all how can you be too accurate in measuring employee performance? Analytics vs Surveillance depends mainly on which side of the screen you’re on.

PEOPLE ANALYTICS

6. Huawei Automated EV Factory TikTok Account

Here’s the solution to the headaches that come from employing people….simply don’t. Chinese telecoms giant Huawei have recently entered the burgeoning EV market and are using highly automated factories to make their cars, whilst running a TikTok account livestreaming the action. We human beings are entering into an uncomfortable squeeze - the fight for the better working conditions increases the cost of employment to companies who care only about servicing the market. The aforementioned Amazon, incidentally, installed 750,000 robots into their logistics functions last year up x 2 from 2021 installation figures.

WORKFORCE AUTOMATION

7. Job board AI Implementations Around the Globe

An interesting sample of how job boards are implementing AI into their services around the globe by brainfooder Jeff Dickey-Chasins. AI is washing over the recruitment technology landscape; when the tide goes out, we’re going to be looking at a very different (looking) rectech environment, hopefully one which will be an up levelling of experience for the user. Jeff btw is a must follow member of the community.

AI

8. Research: The Growing Inequality of Who Gets to Work from Home

We already know that remote / WFH is primarily a middle class perk, but always useful to validate with research. This report from the NBER correlates advertised salaries with potential for remote, whilst also taking time to note that remote was heterogenous across regions and industries. HBR interprets the report via the socio-economic lens

REMOTE WORKING

9. HR Predictions for 2024: The Global Search For Productivity

There is no better synthesizer in our business than Josh Bersin. You might not agree with everyone he says, or on the weighting of the claims, but if you want one person to tell the story of intersection between technology and work, this remains the guy. The ‘Productivity Advantage’ is the main idea in his thesis for 2024 and it’s hard to argue with the basic premise that we are in a global push for productivity (a.k.a profitability) in 2024. Easy reading, good substrate for any future brainfood.

FUTURE OF WORK

10. Google Shapes Everything On The Web

Mesmerising interactive long read on the enormous influence that accrues by becoming the gateway - and gatekeeper - between consumers and producers. Google’s two decade long position as the dominant search engine for the web has meant standardisation of web design, information architecture, coding styles and even programming paradigms, as individualism inevitably makes way for optimisation. I’m including this post not only because it is a fantastic read of the Google era of the Web, but because it also provides guidance on what we might expect in every future battle for platform dominance i.e open vs closed source AI

AI

The Podcasts

11. The Economics of Reproductive Choice

Our collective failure to design / evolve a social system which can truly include all members of society indirectly leads to existential challenges like demographic crisis. We want to have kids, but it costs to have them, with the highest price being paid by the mother who suffers immediate loss of income and a progressively weaker economic outlook with each successive kid. System needs a redesign methinks. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share.

SOCIETY

12. Futurist Amy Webb Shares the Most Plausible Outcomes for AI and Work

Optimistic tones from Amy Webb on the robust future of work in the era of GenAI. It’s a conventional take - AI saves time, therefore that time will convert to further growth. This may work for a consultant/entrepreneur but it operates differently for a factory that is about to be automated, because the issue isn’t that AI will save time, it is who ends up capturing the time saved. Still, this is a representative case for techno-optimist position of AI workforce disintermediation and therefore well worth a watch.

FUTURE OF WORK

13. ‘Why I’ve Made The Decision To Leave Liverpool’

Jürgen Klopp - unquestionably one of the world’s premier football club managers - announced his decision to leave Liverpool FC last Friday. The announcement video is typical Klopp - self aware, honest, vulnerable and principled. He will go down in history as an ATG but also I think a really interesting case study in leadership, culture building and succession planning. Well worth a watch, whether you follow football or not.

ECONOMY

End Note

It’s been great connecting with local recruiters and entrepreneurs here in Hong Kong - fascinating to learn of global challenges, local responses. Same pattern here as everywhere - record breaking 2022, followed by a hard, cold stone wall of 2023. Should probably start recording some of these conversations, podcast style - do you think this would be interesting?

In the meantime - sorry to indulge - but who should replace Jurgen Klopp as manager of Liverpool FC?

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Hung