Talent Acquisition "Wrapped" With Madeline Laurano

It’s crazy to think that we’ve already made it to December, which means there’s no better time than now to look back on the trends that shaped the talent acquisition landscape in 2022! 

…and who better to do it with than Madeline Laurano, Founder of Aptitude Research?! We brought Spotify’s “Wrapped” list to talent acquisition during our December webinar where Pillar’s Head of Growth & DEI, Edisa Rodriguez, sat down with Madeline for a deep dive into the data and trends Madeline saw throughout 2022.   

Check out the full 1-hour webinar below or read on for a brief synopsis of the five trends Madeline presented.
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Before we hop into the trends, Madeline opened with how 2022 was the year for rebuilding, and as we look to 2023, that same sentiment still resonates as TA teams look to rebuild their strategies and the technology they want to use. 

1.) Recruiter Experience  

Madeline has looked at 2 things throughout the year tied to recruiter experience: what does the recruiter experience look like and what technology provides a good experience? Come to find out, 51% of recruiters want better tools to automate their process and 1 in 2 recruiters would leave their organization for better technology. Bottom line, you have to think about technology tied to recruiter experience and arm your recruiters with tools to make their job easier.

2.) Interviewing  

Madeline mentioned that you can spend all the money you want on advertising to get the best quality candidates, but if you have an interview process that takes too long or includes a ton of bias, all that money is completely wasted with a broken interview process. In fact, 25% of candidates are dropping out of an organization’s hiring process at the interview stage. One in three companies are not confident with their interview process, which just proves that interviewing is truly something that needs to be rethought for a large majority of companies.

3.) Internal Mobility

Madeline discussed how internal mobility is the bridge between talent acquisition and talent development. Talent acquisition has owned internal mobility more than they have in the past, which Madeline sees as a positive. Organizations need to think about internal mobility in two ways: the promotion of jobs and employee development. Quite often, the development piece gets lost because employees have to go through the same process that external candidates do. This presents a huge opportunity to promote jobs in a way that candidates don’t have to go to their Managers to find out about while providing employees with growth opportunities at the same time.
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4.) AI

Recruiters are embracing AI now more than they ever have before. Madeline’s biggest point when it comes to AI is that it’s part of every area of talent acquisition…it’s not a separate solution or a separate capability. She also pointed out that you have to be very careful about the providers you’re evaluating as there are many companies out there that claim to use AI when they actually don’t or don’t use it in an ethical way. AI is part of our everyday lives, when we check the weather or when we watch Netflix, and we need to be just as comfortable with AI in our professional lives as we are with it in our personal lives…because it’s not going anywhere. 

5.) Candidate Communication 

Madeline mentioned that candidate communication is an omni-channel approach. You have to think about communication not just as one vehicle but how you can reach candidates where they’re spending most of their time, and that’s going to be through multiple forms of communication. The more you embrace an omni-channel approach, the easier it’ll be to reach talent and provide a more personalized, meaningful experience. Through her research, Madeline found that 47% of candidates don’t even open their emails from a recruiter, and it’s not that they don’t want to hear from them, but email is just no longer the preferred method of communication.
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We always like to end our webinar recaps by pulling out our favorite quote from each session. Here’s our favorite from Madeline and one that I’m sure many could use to hear right now as we close out the year: “It’s an important reminder that talent acquisition is such an amazing industry. The work is meaningful, and you’re supporting companies to grow through talent. You’re also supporting individuals as they’re looking for new jobs and trying to find their career paths. It’s important to take time out of your day, push pause, and reflect on the fact that you’re doing great work!” 

Be on the lookout for our January webinar topic and guest announcement soon. See you then!