The Most Interesting Recruiting Stories of the Week

Welcome to “The Most Interesting Recruiting Stories of the Week,” a weekly post that features talent acquisition insights and information from around the web to kick off your weekend. Here’s what’s of interest this week:

New Research Identifies Five Types of Workers That Employers Can Reach to Fill Jobs

“There is now a structural gap in the labor supply because there simply aren’t enough traditional employees to fill all the openings,” according to this McKinsey Quarterly story. “Even when employers successfully woo these workers from rivals, they are just reshuffling talent and contributing to wage escalation while failing to solve the underlying structural imbalance. To close the gap, employers should try to win back nontraditional workers. But how?”

With Few Able and Fewer Willing, U.S. Military Can’t Find Recruits

“These are tough times for military recruiting,” begins this DNYUZ.com piece. “Almost across the board, the armed forces are experiencing large shortfalls in enlistments this year — a deficit of thousands of entry-level troops that is on pace to be worse than any since just after the Vietnam War. It threatens to throw a wrench into the military’s machinery, leaving critical jobs unfilled and some platoons with too few people to function.”

The Decline of Job-Seeker Confidence

Check out ZipRecruiter’s Job Seeker Confidence Survey results to gain insights into how inflation, interest rates, and major layoffs have impacted sentiment among job seekers.

Woman Adds ‘Sex Work’ to LinkedIn profile, Sparks Debate

“A woman chose to list being self-employed via ‘Sex Work’ on her LinkedIn profile — but her move of empowerment sparked a debate online,” reports the New York Post. “Arielle Egozi, who said she works as a brand adviser and creative director, lists an expansive list of work experiences, one of those being ‘sex.’ Three weeks ago, she reportedly left an in-house job with “fancy benefits” to pursue sex work after being dissatisfied with her role.”

Q2 2022  Job Market Report Provides Extensive Look at Current Challenges

“The economy and job market have made a remarkable recovery from the deep dive caused by the pandemic in the spring of 2020,” according to Joblist’s new findings. “After losing nearly 22 million jobs, employment is now less than one million workers shy of pre-pandemic levels. But soaring prices, rising interest rates, and a volatile stock market have led to speculation that a recession is on the horizon.” So now what?

Lean Out: Employees Are Accepting Lower Pay to Work Remotely

“In 2020, office workers were liberated from their cubicle farms and nasty commutes, as companies embraced what was supposed to be a temporary experiment with remote work while the pandemic raged,” explains this NPR story. “Approaching three years later, more than a third of American workers say they’re still able to work from home full time, and almost a quarter say they can do so part time, according to a recent poll by McKinsey & Company. In total, almost six in ten of the 25,000 Americans polled said they could work from home at least one day a week.”

Netherlands Poised to Make Work-From-Home a Legal Right

“As U.S. companies struggle to entice workers back to offices, the Dutch parliament approved legislation to establish home working as a legal right, setting the Netherlands up to be one of the first countries to enshrine such flexibility in law,” according to The Wall Street Journal. “The legislation was adopted by the lower house of the Dutch parliament Tuesday, and will now head to the Senate for final approval.”

Recruiters Need a Seat at the Table? Forget About It! We Are the Table

“Amy Schultz had had enough,” begins this LinkedIn Talent Blog post. “The global head of talent acquisition at Canva was recently at a recruiting industry conference in Australia when it was time for breakout sessions. One of the topics: How talent acquisition (TA) can get a seat at the table. ‘Oh my God, I am so sick of talking about this,’ Amy said to herself. Then she fired off a powerful LinkedIn post that has received hundreds of likes and dozens of positive comments.”

It’s Time to Streamline the Hiring Process

“Companies are scared of making bad hires, but as a result they have designed bloated, bureaucratic hiring processes. The treatment has become worse than the disease,” according to this Harvard Business Review article. “Companies can strip waste from their assessment process by reducing the number of interviews, replace consensus hiring by giving one hiring manager decision rights, asking interviewers to give numerical ratings rather than impressionistic assessments, and change your culture to reward those who spot great hires as opposed to penalizing the occasional mistake. Changing your company’s consensus-oriented hiring culture will not be easy. But the steps listed above can help you gain an edge in your industry by hiring highly productive employees that are overlooked by your competitors.”

What’s New and Fresh in the Candidate Experience? Absolutely Nothing

“As the leader of Talent Board and the Candidate Experience Awards, I’m often asked about the evolution of the candidate experience. What has changed in the decade that my organization has researched these experiences? What’s new and fresh?” writes Kevin Grossman. His reply? “Absolutely nothing.” Well, sort of.

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Join the conversation about all things talent acquisition in the ERE Facebook Group. It’s a great venue to gain information, support, and network with fellow peers. We’re talking about some of the stories above, as well as other hot recruiting topics, so come share your own views in the ERE Facebook Group. We’d love to see you there!

Additionally, got questions? Feedback on a story? Or want to pitch a story idea? Get in touch with ERE editor Vadim Liberman at vadim@ere.net.

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