Tim Sackett’s Top 5: A Mid-Year TA Trend Report
As we step into our third season of webinars, there was no one better to kick things off with than Tim Sackett, President of HRU Technical Resources & top 100 global HR tech influencer. 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.
So, for our August webinar, we kept the tradition going! Tim presented his top 5 trends that have shaped the talent acquisition landscape in 2024 so far.
Check out the full 1-hour webinar below or read on for a brief synopsis of the 5 trends Tim walked us through.
1.) Switch From DEI to MEI
There’s been some MAJOR controversy around this topic. Tim talked to us about the new MEI phrase (Merit, Excellence, & Intelligence) that’s been permeating the anti-DEI space. And it’s really stemmed from tech CEOs who have been pressured by investors to show how diverse hires truly affect profitability.
You might remember a highly influential report from McKinsey in 2015 that helped create a widespread belief that diversity is good for profits. Quite a few researchers, including Harvard, have tried to replicate this study and couldn’t, which led a lot of people to believe that DEI is worthless. However, Tim doesn’t find that to be true. In fact, he hasn’t met one leader that doesn’t care about DEI.
When we think about what DEI will look like in 2025, Tim believes the DEI function will be more data-driven around certain performance metrics and will be forced to have some bottom-line impact to the company…not just because it’s the right thing to do for society but because it actually helps make us better in a way that’s measurable.
2.) AI Exhaustion or AI Reality?
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. He hinted that a lot of AI-related vendor announcements will be coming during the fall conference season.
We also touched on a major topic related to AI - bias. Tim believes AI will get us the closest to bias-free hiring then we could ever get. He says this because you can measure the bias within AI, but you can’t do that with a real person.
3.) Politics At Work, Anyone?
Before we hopped into this trend, we polled the audience on their feelings related to discussing politics at work. 58% said it should be discouraged, 38% said it depends, and 4% said political discussions should be encouraged.
This is a tough one to comment on because opinions can vary based on demographics or the company culture, but the one thing Tim does encourage is telling your employees that they should go vote. When it comes to having formal policies around political discussions in the workplace, Tim thinks civility policies are actually better. Bottom line - we should all be civil towards one another no matter what.
4.) The Future of Work Is Female
61% of new college graduates are female, and it’s increasing. No one is talking about how the future of work is female, and Tim believes we’ll really start to feel this in the next 10 years. Tim doesn’t know what the impact will be yet, but this is something that TA/HR teams need to start thinking about as it relates to pay equity, leadership, training, etc.
5.) Taking The Long-Term View On People
This trend was actually inspired by a video from Steve Jobs where he talks about his thoughts on team performance. He never believed in firing someone as soon as they started to perform poorly, but instead, focused on how to get that person to perform well again. Tim mentioned that organizations can’t just keep cutting people left and right or they’re going to struggle with the talent they already have. It’s key to take a long-term view on their people.
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To conclude, Tim brought up that teams also need to be thinking about the current economic environment, especially related to compensation. Everything is becoming more expensive, so it’s important to prioritize how you can continue to take care of your people. He sees this becoming a really hot button for HR/TA to address, especially after November’s election.
And with that, we wrapped things up!
Huge thanks to Tim for joining us! Don't forget to check out the entire webinar linked above for more great insights from him. For more on Tim, check out his blog at https://timsackett.com/. You can also check out his recently-released book, The Talent Fix Volume 2: A Leader’s Guide to Recruiting Great Talent here (trust us, it’s a great read!).
And see you on September 18th for our next webinar! We’ll be joined by David Landman, Former Global Head of Talent Development at Goldman Sachs; Elin Thomasian, Head of Workforce Strategy & Consulting at TalentNeuron; and Elizabeth Tyndell, Head of Talent Acquisition at New York Life, where we’ll be digging into how skills-based recruiting transforms hiring. You can register for this live conversation here.
