2024 Webinars Unpacked: Trends, Insights, & Lessons Learned
At the end of July, we marked the end of the second year of our webinar series. We’ve been so fortunate to host a diverse array of incredible guests who have contributed so much valuable content.
Throughout the September HR/TA events season (RecFest, HR Tech, etc), our team had a chance to meet a number of our webinar guests in person - some for the very first time. This is what inspired this month’s blog.
As we celebrate two years of webinar programming, I wanted to highlight some of the most impactful moments from our 2024 sessions. It wasn’t easy narrowing it down, as our guests consistently share incredible insights during each hour-long discussion. Nonetheless, here are some standout moments worth revisiting.
Let’s kick things off with our first webinar of this year featuring Hung Lee.
P.S. If you click on the name of each guest, it’ll take you to the full webinar (vs. just the quick clips here) and our recap blog.
1.) 5 TA Trends That Will Define 2024
Hung Lee
The legislative environment concerning AI is fragmented and evolving. Hung provided his take on how AI regulations will play out this year.
1.) There’s going to be a requirement for you to communicate with candidates on whether you’re using AI in the process.
2.) We’re not comfortable with AI making the final yes/no decision on whether someone gets the job or gets rejected.
3.) We also don’t seem to like any ranking or scoring of humans by AI. Legislation will probably go against this as well.
Since this webinar in January, there’s been some shifts to the legal landscape for AI in hiring. This HR Executive article provides a run-down of how you can start thinking ahead.
2.) Demystifying Culture: What Does A Great Culture Actually Mean?
Hebba Youssef
Recognition and appreciation are 2 different things...
Recognition is when you recognize somebody for the work they have contributed. Appreciation is about recognizing someone for their values and who they are as a person. A lot of organizations over-index on recognition and forget that on the other side of it, is a person who wants to be appreciated and seen for what they bring to the table.
Part of your culture should have a strategy for both recognition and appreciation...giving recognition to people when they deserve it and appreciating people for who they are and how they show up.
3.) Winning The Talent Game: Quality of Hire Trends in 2024
Tracy Keogh & Erin Peterson
When it comes to measuring quality of hire (QoH), Erin mentioned that it’s an evolving measurement. Years ago, the only thing we had to go by was early attrition. Now, technology has given us more opportunity to get our arms around QoH.
Typically the classic measures are:
- Early attrition
- Speed to productivity
- Hiring manager feedback
And the more modern measures are:
- Sentiment - candidate & employee
- Talent review position
- Bonus/sales quota attainment
- “Better than 50%” follow-up > asking yourself “Is this person better than 50% of the current people in that role?”
The important thing to do is to figure out what metrics are important for your organization. You should be talking to your hiring managers and asking them what they consider to be a high quality hire so you have a shared understanding with them.
4.) 5 Ways HR & TA Teams Can Contribute To A Work Revolution
Anessa Fike
We all know it - feedback is tough. While most people say they are comfortable with receiving feedback, they actually aren’t. And the biggest thing is - we don’t ever stop to think about how we should give feedback.
Anessa shared her 2 biggest tips for giving feedback.
1.) Managers need to seek feedback from more than one source to share with their employees
2.) Ensure there’s trust between you and your employees because there has to be an element of trust before you can give feedback
5.) AI: Is It The End of Talent Acquisition As We Know It?
Matt Alder
AI tech is a very noisy space right now, so most importantly, Matt recommends thinking about technology strategically in terms of the outcomes it can give you.
Secondly, ensure that you’re asking questions on how the AI works, how it makes decisions, how it’s learning, etc. and that you’re up to date on any applicable AI regulations. Ultimately, it’s about cutting through all of the noise and ensuring the AI is actually doing something (not just vendors saying their product has AI to jump on the bandwagon).
6.) Talent Metrics: Are You Looking At The Right Bullet Holes?
Trent Cotton
To truly understand how to measure what counts related to talent data, you need to understand the difference between leading and lagging metrics.
During our June webinar with Trent Cotton last week, he shared how leading and lagging metrics differ.
Lagging - these are metrics that reflect on results after an action has been completed (i.e. - time to fill, # of hires, etc).
Leading - measuring the activities that you think will help you reach your goal, allowing for adjustments before outcomes are finalized (i.e. - average days open, positions by stage, etc.).
7.) Optimizing Recruitment: Tips For Better TA & Hiring Manager Alignment
Katrina Kibben
Asking the right questions within an intake meeting is key. Recruiters need to ask questions that help the Hiring Manager imagine the person they’re trying to hire. Here are a few of Kat’s favorite questions to ask:
- You wake up, put on your pants, now what? Walk me through a day in the life of the role. - While on this topic, Kat presented an astounding fact - 26% of people quit within the first 60 days because the day in the life does not align with what they expected before they signed the offer.
- Why do people quit? - be transparent right off the bat!
- What’s happening in 6 months? - this way you can describe the projects that are happening within the next 6 months and candidates will be able to tell you if they’ve worked on similar projects in previous roles.
8.) Tim Sackett’s Top 5: A Mid-Year Trend Report
Tim Sackett
For the past two years, we've had the pleasure of sitting down with Tim to discuss what is trending today in the talent acquisition space. Why? Because Tim is continuously engaging with TA teams about their key initiatives, tech stack enhancements, and more.
To no surprise, one of the big themes discussed during this session was AI. It’s been about a year since the AI hype took the world by storm. So, is the AI hype over? Tim thinks we’re going to hit the exhaustion peak very soon. He also mentioned that he doesn’t think the AI products vendors have released over the past year are disrupting TA like he thought they would, but he does think we’ll start to see this soon - where AI will change TA as we know it.
9.) Unlocking Talent: How Skills-Based Recruiting Transforms Hiring
David Landman, Elin Thomasian, & Elizabeth Tyndell
When shifting to a skills-based hiring approach, the panel walked through 4 steps an organization should take:
- Have an honest conversation on what your scale is - are you overhauling the entire enterprise or just starting with a specific area
- Talk to peers - we’re all in this together, so learn from and collaborate with others
- Decide if you’re going to bring in technology to aid in your process (& when)
- Get an internal sponsor - someone who’s going to talk to the organization about why skills-based hiring work
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Reflecting on the webinars we’ve hosted so far this year, it’s clear that the TA/HR landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by technology, AI, skills-based hiring, and more. I’m excited for what we have in store for the rest of the year!
In fact, I’d love for you to join us for our next one on October 16th. We’ll be joined by an expert panel of leaders driving change in corporate DEI to help answer this burning question: “what will corporate DEI look like in 2025?”. I’ll link the registration page here if you’re interested in joining us.
We’re committed to continuing to create valuable content for you. If there’s any topics you’d like for us to tackle or any guests you’d love to learn from, shoot me a DM here. I’d also like to thank the members of the Pillar team who tirelessly work to make these webinars great: Edisa Rodriguez, Withe Thompson, and Alexa Amatulli.
Until next month,
Mark Simpson
Founder & CEO
