Making Recruitment Fun Again

The 7th edition of Recruitment Hacks proved to be an epic one

We always love to host our Recruitment Hacks event for the Talent Acquisition community because we get to connect with practitioners solving real problems around high volume recruitment. This event held an even stronger meaning for us as it coincided with our 4th year anniversary. Naturally, we had to go all in and this resulted in over 100 guests joining us at the Dusit in Manila, Philippines (thank you guys, we love you!)

The theme was pretty straightforward: Making Recruitment Fun Again. We all know that recruitment -whether you are a candidate or a recruiter- can be a stressful activity. So how can you make recruitment a more enjoyable experience for everyone? How can you turn it into an experience that will connect people in more authentic ways?

In an industry that is becoming more automated, recruitment remains a HUMAN activity. Automation and AI are built to handle repetitive tasks and top of the recruitment funnel activities. They save time, which can then be re-invested into more enjoyable activities, such as building a strong interpersonal connections between recruiters and candidates.

Each speaker dove into the strategies that their respective companies use to improve the candidate experience and they shared impressive results with the audience:

• Max Armbruster, CEO at Talkpush, kicked things off with a quick intro and a very cool keynote on “The Art of Conversation” and gave actionable tips and tricks you can use to build strong relationships with your candidates starting off with just a conversation.

Become genuinely interested in other people. Ask questions about themselves, their struggles, their passions and open up about yourself too. Candidates want to feel important, they want to feel listened.

• Angeli Recella, Chief People Officer at STORM, gave amazing insight on how they went from 15 employees to 100 in 5 years. Considering their source to hire rate is 1%, that’s a pretty big accomplishment. Another great take away from Angeli’s presentation is how they give their employeed the “Power of Choice”. Storm’s employees can actually choose which benefits they prefer. She gave an example of how one employee chose a Nintendo Switch over a few days of leave! You can download her presentation here.

Listening is caring. Engage with your candidates, be caring, be friendly. They deserve it and it will definitely be worth it.

-Angeli Recella

• Jun Abo, VP of Talent Acquisition at Transcom focused on the effort they put into talking their audience language. The talent pool of millennials loves being entertained and are attracted to authenticity, employers who are not afraid to think outside the box. They use all sorts of funny messages, gifs and memes to connect with that audience and the numbers show it’s really worked out for them. They went from a 26% completion rate to 70% just by implementing this type of messages. Download his presentation here.

Slide of Jun Abo’s keynote. Transcom’s fairy job father is always on point!

Make it fun. Take the format your candidates are using. A funny text will lead to your candidates feeling included, understood.

— Jun Abo

• Greg Kittelson, Director and co-founder of Kittelson & Carpo Consulting, closed the speaking activities with a bang. He shared the three key pillars Kittelson & Carpo use to establish awesome company culture and attract talent:

1. Take time to celebrate WINS: They run a quarterly “Fun Recognition Program” to celebrate small wins. Parties with the whole company helps them reward their employees and keep a light and fun environment.
2. Create “Company Wellness Clubs”: You can join different types of company clubs depending of your passions and hobbies! They even have a mountaineering club to hike mountains and achieve all sorts of hiking challenges.
3. Promote a health and wellness environment: Focus on employee well being and provide a healthy workspace. They have fruity Wednesdays (free fruit for everyone!) and pop-corn Fridays (free pop-corn!).

Greg Kittelson, Director of Kittelson & Carpo Consulting

After the talks, we had a wonderful panel discussion with the speakers and a few extra incredible guests, Patrick Gentry (CEO of Sprout Solutions), Me-Anne Batallones (Recruitment Director of 24/7) and Vida Arciaga (VP of HR at EXL Service).

We were honored to have such a fantastic roster of experts in the field as speakers and panelists. They all gave fantastics insights into the ways they handle talent acquisition and practical tips on how to make it fun and engaging for both candidate and recruiter avoiding burnout, which we know is very real.

Jun Abo kicking things off for the panel discussion

All in all, it was a brilliant day of learning, reconnecting with old friends, meeting new ones, growing networks and, of course, celebrating Talkpush’s birthday with a glass of bubbly (well maybe more than just the one). We want to thank each and every one who attended. These events are only as valuable as the effort that the guests put into participating and making sure they are a part of the conversation. So again, on behalf of all the Talkpushers, we want to say thank you for making this day one of the most special days we’ve had since starting out. Four years have come a long way and we’re so excited for the ones to come!

Cheers!