The ultimate compliment in recruiting these days is to be considered a talent advisor. So you can imagine how I felt when the following criticisms were leveled at my talent acquisition team by some of our more vocal business partners, as recently as 18 months ago:
- Recruiting isn’t good enough.
Talent Acquisition leaders are haunted by rejection and failed love stories of the past. They worry about losing the favor of CEOs and becoming social workers and therapists instead of strategic business partners and leaders. The problem is that plenty of people love their therapists and social workers. Many do not love recruiters.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Langhans heads up Global Brand and Talent Attraction for Expedia. He is also President of the Northwest Recruiters Association.
What did you want to be when you grew up? A corporate recruiter? Me neither. Most of us are plain lucky to fall into this profession.
Dr. Seuss and LinkedIn as a pair prove astute
As a new way to think about how you recruit.
Chicago is fast becoming a hub for tech companies: according to Built In Chicago, 193 digital tech startups launched in Chicago in 2011. Table XI is a ten-year-old digital consultancy that builds web and mobile apps in Chicago, and we love this trend. But it also creates a challenge, at least for development shops like us—while our industry may be booming, there’s a shortage of high-quality talent. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that software development-related roles and jobs will increase at double the national average through 2020. But Manpower Group’s annual Talent Shortage Survey ranks IT third among industries with unfilled jobs.
It was an innocent and seemingly nominal change: The day before I came on board as Head of Global Employment Brand at LinkedIn, I asked to switch my title. Let’s replace “Employment “with “Talent”. I didn’t think of it as a big deal – the HR team here is called the Talent Team, my boss is Head of Global Talent Acquisition, so why not be Head of Global Talent Brand? I didn’t realize that this small change in wording would come to symbolize such a significant shift in perspective.
From one to many