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Friends,

It’s shaping up to be quite the summer: Glastonbury, Euro 2024, Paris Olympics, Tour de France, the final arrival of summer, and of course, political upheaval in Western democracies (!)

Have to say, the juxtaposition between joy and despair feels fairly surreal right now. All I can say is ‘good luck / bon chance’ to everyone who is voting. We have suboptimal options to choose from and I have feeling that deep political reform is what we really need to better connect the people with the outcomes they - we - care about most. This matters at every level in society, so am going to start experimenting with this in our community. Expect a roll out of something which will enable you to better contribute your view on things you want to see happen in the brainfood. It’s probably going to be WhatsApp community, with robots 🤣

Thanks to: Joey NK Koksal, Clair Mohamed, Kevin Green, Nuno Lopes, Bas van de Haterd, Liz Ayling, Belinda Johnson, Ling Taylor, Chris McKibbin, Tracey Clay, Ron Laneve and Jared Cameron - your public endorsement of all things brainfood makes sure this community is free to consume for everyone else - thanks! Scores updated on the Brainfood Hall of Fame 👊

Can you help? Share this newsletter with a recruiter / HR friend and have them subscribe. Cheers!

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

One of the most important things human beings can do today is to ensure your professional network is broad and deep. How good are we at this?

Our self assessment looks pretty much a standard distribution! For those who think they are better than average / great at networking - can you comment as to what you do to make you reach this view? Thanks

Founders Focus - Ep47 - Up close and personal with Dina Bay, CEO of PitchMe, Wed 3rd July, 12pm BST

How are you feeling about the Founders Focus series folks? We’re on a weekly rhythm on these to date, and they remain one of my favourite things to do. This week, we have first time founder, brainfooder Dina Bay, CEO of PitchMe. We’re on Wednesday 3rd July, 12pm BST. Register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep257 - Public Speaking Tips for Newbies, Fri 5th July, 2pm BST

We’re a week away from perhaps the No1 event for talent acquisition - RecFest in Knebworth! I’m delighted to be hosting Inspire stage this year and one of my tasks will be make sure speakers feel comfortable to taking to the big stage, so it was natural to do a Brainfood Live on the public speaking. We’re getting trained professionals, experienced speakers, event organisers and MC’s to be give advice on how best to do it. If you’re looking to get on stage at some point, this one is for you. We’re on Fri 5th July, 2pm BST. Register here

The Brainfood

1. The Pros and Cons of Sharing Interview Questions Early

An intriguing question to kick off this week’s newsletter - should we share interview questions with candidates prior to interview? Excellent post laying out the pros and cons of either position with recommendations for the middle way. Lots to chew over here. H/T to brainfooder Michael Blakely for the share

ASSESSMENT

2. State of Candidate Experience Benchmarks Report 2024

Phenom People conducting a career site analysis of across the US Fortune 500 companies. I wish we could have more detail on how exactly the scores where calculated, as well as access to the raw data, but we do have nice segmentation on engagement, conversion and AI. Beautiful website - as you would expect from Phenom - and an un-gated PDF, which you can download here

CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

3. Workplace, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Realities of a Changing DEI Landscape

Important report from our friends Culture Amp - the ‘wokelash’ seems to be confirmed by the survey data, with the retreat of DEI from corporate comms, as well as an erosion of confidence from practitioners on the commitment employers have to DEI. The rise of the cultural right across Europe adds important macro context to this industry conversation - diversity is going into adversity. Lots to think about, great and necessary read here.

D&I

4. The A.I. Boom Has an Unlikely Early Winner: Wonky Consultants

The reason why I am advocating for TA / HR to become AI-enabled is so that we can provide internal services for a C-level determined to AI-enable the business. Because if we don’t do it, the hundreds of thousands of management consultants from the likes of EY, Accenture, McKinsey, BCG et al are going to. Have a read, have a think - and change your priorities accordingly.

WORKFORCE AUTOMATION

5. Talent Insight Optimisation Report 2024

120 HR leaders surveyed on the state of 2024. We know most of the trends ourselves at this point - low growth economy + high inflation + hostile de-globalisation increases the cost of business, therefore cost reduction is the top line priority for C-level. The shift in priorities for people teams should be clear - it is away from talent acquisition and toward talent management, internal mobility and AI-enablement. H/T to brainfooder Emma Mirrington for making this available outside of the gate

ECONOMY

6. My Last Five Years of Work

Superb essay which asks a rather novel question - can we create ‘shame-free’ unemployment? We enjoy not having to work, hence why we prefer weekends to weekdays, look forward to holidays and in many cases, look forward to retiring from work altogether. And yet the prospect of being permanently unemployed is a huge stressor for almost everyone you might ask. As AI & Automation continue to eat away at once human-only tasks, we need to match the technological innovation with social innovation, in order to create a society where it’s a good thing that the machines are doing the work for us. Great read, with loads of useful references too to research on job satisfaction, free time, job displacement etc.

SOCIETY

7. Foreign Interest in UK Jobs Remains High

The irony of anti-immigrant Brexit is not only an increase in the absolute numbers of immigrants, but also a replacement of what types of immigrants are coming into the UK. One of many insights in this UK labour market overview from Hiring Lab - essential blog to follow. Have a read here

ECONOMY

8. Analyzing Gender Differences In Interview Data

One of the real boons of the mainstreaming of Interview Intelligence software is gaining visibility as to what actually happens in interviews. Our friends at Pillar do a follow up their post on gender differences and come up with some more intriguing intelligence - women get asked more questions on aggregate, have less time per question to answer them (makes sense…) and generally talk far less about compensation during interview. Lots to think about here, including the impact of the gender of the interviewer.

D&I

9. Questions To Ask Programmatic Job Advertising Vendors

Nice how-to from our friends at Joveo; programmatic is one of those technologies which has achieved widespread adoption in the US, but struggled to make similar headway in UK and mainland Europe. No idea why, because it is the best way to control ad spend, which you would’ve thought would be a priority in 2024. Anyways, if you are thinking of going beyond manual or multi-post job ads, here’s a guide on questions to ask a programmatic vendor. H/T to brainfooder Heather van Werkhooven for the un-gated share

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

10. Peak Remote….November 2022

Pieter Levels, who freely confesses to be a mediocre software developer, yet has become an exemplar of the dream case of being a indie hacker, builds what he wants and makes millions(!) in passive income every year. He’s a genius trend spotter - and an example of the difference between being a great developer vs great product builder. One of his tools - remote job board Remote OK - recorded record profits in November 2022, a very decent measure of ‘peak remote’.

REMOTE WORKING

The Podcasts

11. Anton Korinek on Automating Work and the Economics of an Intelligence Explosion

Techno-optimist view is that AI will disrupt jobs but will create more jobs as this is just ‘how technological innovation goes’. Nuanced views are rare, so this one is welcome, where Anton Korinek does a great job of outlining the competing arguments before making recommendations on what is the most likely outcome, as well as pointing out that it is the pace and extent of innovation which might in the end be the determining factor. Good watch / listen. H/T to brainfooder Jacob Sten Madsen in the online community

WORKFORCE AUTOMATION

12. The Future of Labour: AI and the Multi-generational Workforce

I had the pleasure of guesting on brainfooder Felix Mitchell’s excellent podcast, We Need To Talk About HR, and we ended up talking about how formative experience with technology makes generational cohorts a valid taxonomy to analyse the workforce. Great chat, I think - at least the audio quality was great 😊. Have a listen here

SOCIETY

13. The Big Shift in Globalisation

Hostile de-globalisation is the undercurrent behind the cost-of-living crisis, and it’s continuation is one of the reasons why I am generally bearish about economic growth over the next decade. Richard Baldwin one of the few economists who offers nuance on the reality of de-coupling. He’s writes on LinkedIn (!) so do follow him there and this is a rare interview with him on screen presenting some of his key ideas - historical shifts in globalisation, re-globalisation and the trade of goods, factories and offices. It’s mind bending but compulsive viewing.

ECONOMY

End Note

LinkedIn native video is coming.

Remember how Day in the Life content took over TikTok? LinkedIn want in on some of that action, so we had better get ready for it. Apparently it is on beta release to selected users in Canada right now (Canadian friends please confirm!) and obviously I’m going to get involved, so quick poll for you lot on video short cadence from me….

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That’s it - thanks for reading

Have a great week everybody

Hung