Highlights from day one at SmartRecruiters’ annual EU conference on all things recruitment.

In the heart of Amsterdam, along the Kloveniersburgwal canal, lies the Compagnietheater— a former Lutheran church that now serves as an event location. The Baroque-era venue still lends itself to mass congregation, albeit it under different circumstances, and it’s here that talent acquisition executives, thought leaders, technologists, and investors from 31 countries have gathered to discuss the state of the recruitment industry, as well as the shape of things to come. 

Over four hundred attendees from across the world have come to the Dutch capital to network, participate in workshops, view product demos, and attend lectures from a diverse cross-section of industry experts. The venue is outfitted by accessibility experts to accommodate guests of any visible and invisible disability, including translators and a sign language-encouraged coffee bar! A key ingredient of Hiring Success conferences, the sessions touch on a variety of workplace-related topics that are significant for talent acquisition professionals. Topics range from the latest technology & process innovations to diversity & inclusion, and—of course—Hiring Success.

It would be impossible to account for the total Hiring Success EU experience in a blog post. That’s a pleasure reserved for attendees. However, here are a few highlights from day one. And to those who couldn’t join us this year, we hope to greet you in person in 2020.

Hiring Is Success — Kickoff with Jerome Ternynck, Founder & CEO of SmartRecruiters

The CEO of SmartRecruiters, Jerome Ternynck—affectionately known as the chief Smartian—set the Hiring Success festivities into motion on a personal note. 

“Some people believe their calling is to cure illness, for others it’s to find a way to get to the moon—for me, I’ve always believed that my calling is to help connect people to jobs at scale,” he announced to an audience of over four hundred talent acquisition practitioners and professionals. And, as anyone with recruiting experience knows, that’s no small feat.

The modern labor market is multi-faceted and more complex than ever. Among other things, globalization, remote work, the rise of the gig economy, and an increased demand for highly-skilled workers have made it increasingly difficult for recruiters and the companies that they work for to source the talent they need to succeed. This is a daunting reality not only for Ternynck, but the majority of executives. 

According to Ternynck, 77 percent of CEOs see hiring for key skills as the biggest threat to their businesses, and 82 percent of Fortune 500 companies don’t believe they’re in a position to recruit highly talented candidates. Given that by 2030, there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people, it’s not hard to see why this sentiment is so common among executives.

What, then, is the solution for this discrepancy in workforce supply and demand? For Ternynck, the answer to that question is clear: applying the guiding principles of Hiring Success to talent acquisition. In a nutshell, that’s accomplished by doing the following: 

1. Take a holistic approach to the hiring experience by providing an engaging candidate experience, ensuring that hiring managers are engaged during the process, and having a team of highly productive recruiters.
2. Ditching outdated hiring metrics like Cost-per-Hire and Time-to-Fill for more useful analytics like Hiring Budget, Hiring Velocity, and Net Hiring Score.
3. Treat talent acquisition as if it were a function of sales and marketing. Candidates should be treated like customers. 

In closing, SmartRecruiters’ CEO implored guests to take a non-traditional approach to connecting candidates to jobs by giving back and participating in Reverse Recruiting. Now adopted by over 50 major companies including Tesla, Twitter, and Visa, Reverse Recruiting is a program in which organizations help overlooked and/or marginalized jobseekers find employment. 

Select sessions included:

The Open Hiring Revolution 

For many job seekers, there’s one unfortunate obstacle that stands between them and their ability to secure employment: bias. For some, like former convicts, this bias is systemic and concretely difficult to circumnavigate. For others, it’s more subtle and harder to identify. An example would be victims of ageism or disablism. No matter the source of the bias, it excludes from the workforce countless individuals across the globe that are well-qualified and well-intentioned. 

This is an unnecessary loss for all parties involved.

Fortunately, there are a few progressive-minded companies and foundations that have taken it upon themselves to directly challenge this injustice by championing a concept known as Open Hiring, the belief that people should be allowed to decide if they’re able to perform a job—not someone else’s bias. 

Ingeborg Zwolsman, Program Manager for the Start Foundation, made a persuasive case for the movement in her morning session “The Open Hiring Revolution.” The Start Foundation, an independent venture philanthropy fund based in Amsterdam, partners with local businesses that are willing to give jobs to candidates that are traditionally overlooked. The only prerequisite for employment is a willingness to work. There are no interviews, screening questions, or other such hurdles.

The Start Foundation takes their inspiration from Greyston Bakery, an American non-profit that pioneered the concept of Open Hiring to create over 3,500 jobs and pay out over $65 million in salaries to employees that previously struggled to find work. Greyston Bakery was thrust into the public eye after Ben & Jerry’s, impressed with their mission, decided to source the brownies for their ice cream from the non-profit.

Let’s Debate the Future of Work 

As SmartRecruiters’ CEO Jerome Ternynck mentioned in his opening statement, the labor market is now more complex than ever. Phenomena like automation and a spike in the gig economy have complicated our traditional notions of the workplace. How recruiters and employers adapt and prepare for similar changes in the future is a point of contention. 

To gather insight into the future of work, we invited Karen Rivoire (IKEA) and Kevin Wheeler  (The Future of Talent) to an Oxford Union-style debate hosted by Hung Lee, co-founder and CEO of Workshape.io. Rivoire and Wheeler both ran global TA and HR organizations, and have dealt firsthand with the aforementioned issues at scale. 

Prompts for the debate were fielded from the audience, three of which were shortlisted: 

1. Will the gig economy become the primary workforce of the future? 
2. Will recruiting be fully automated? 
3. Is workforce planning a complete waste of time?

The questions, voted upon by the audience, seemed to convey a collective sense of unease about the ever-changing nature of the labor market and the implications that has for the recruiting industry as a whole.

Rivoire seemed to share the audience’s apprehension and called for a tempered, cautious response to transformations in the workplace, particularly with concern to automation and artificial intelligence. Wheeler, on the other hand, unflinchingly argued in favor of adopting technologies like AI to counter human bias. Though they held contradictory opinions, both participants comported themselves judiciously and in a manner befitting of democratic, spirited debate.

Though the debate was cut short due to scheduling constraints, it underscored the complexity of issues that talent acquisition professionals encounter and, consequently, why it’s essential for employers to invest in highly skilled recruiters.

Attaining Hiring Success

If Ternynck justified why Hiring Success must be a top priority for today’s business leaders, then Rebecca Carr, SVP of Success at SmartRecruiters, painted a clear path for attendees on how they can attain it. Armed with a methodology consisting of business assessments, maturity model frameworks and pillars of investment areas, Carr outlined how talent acquisition leaders can evaluate, strategize, execute, and finally optimize current processes and skillsets to level up in performance across:

• Talent attraction & engagement
• Collaboration & selection
• Management & operating model

Using candidate sourcing as a sub-topic under the talent attraction & engagement pillar, Carr floated sample business assessment questions and live-polled the audience to calculate their maturity levels. It was a fitting way to wrap up day one, connecting the dots on how to invest in various areas of talent acquisition in order to drive business outcomes while connecting people to jobs at scale.

Check back tomorrow for a recap of day two at #hireEU 2019, and join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn Live.

A venue trapped in time, surprise artistic performances, and limitless cheese options—these are only some of the wonders you can expect in Amsterdam.

Hidden behind the glitz and glamor of the Dutch capital’s inner city lies a narrow street that feels worlds apart from the shiny Rokin and Dam squares, despite running parallel to them. On a normal night, walking down this passage—called “The Nes”—requires jockeying for position between pedestrians and passing cyclists. You might feel as if you’ve been transported to the early 1900s with all the stone architecture, cozy houses, and theaters luring you closer with the promise of music and drink.

On this particular night, however, you will be surprised to find a red carpet juxtaposed with urban sprawl, inviting you to walk inside, past a giant wooden door. Passing through the looming edifice with the words “Tobacco Theater” etched overhead, you will find SmartRecrutiers’ flagship afterparty, the can’t-miss event of our Hiring Success conferences. This year’s celebration—made possible by Xref, our official party sponsors—is no exception.

Network with your peers, cocktails in hand, as you explore this centuries-old tobacco auction house that now plays host to one of Amsterdam’s biggest music events: the Red light Jazz Festival. Discover hidden corners throughout the building, engage with Hiring Success speakers, and bounce from one entertaining performance to the next. Of course, don’t forget to indulge yourself at the cheese stations and take in the sounds of the live band, bringing the atmosphere of Amsterdam’s street life into the theater for one special night thanks to our partners at Xref.  

You’d be hard-pressed to experience the ambiance of Amsterdam in a more historic space. So while you’re there, seize the opportunity to make new connections and digest the day’s learnings. The venue’s art-meets-business vibe, delicious food, and inspiring company are guaranteed to recharge you for another nonstop day of demos, panels, labs, awards, and interactive sessions.

Still haven’t secured your ticket for the industry’s coolest afterparty? Head over to the Hiring Success EU website and we’ll see you in Amsterdam!

With experiences that span across cultural borders and industries, here are the inspirational talent acquisition leaders speaking at Hiring Success EU you cannot miss.

Hiring Success is on the move again, this time heading to Amsterdam’s picturesque canals for two days of thought leadership, inspiration, and professional networking. Along with hundreds of TA leaders from global brands like Heineken, LinkedIn, and Facebook, dozens of dynamic speakers will join SmartRecruiters for the next installment of Hiring Success Europe. 

Occupying the majestic Compagnietheater from September 10-11, Hiring Success EU will showcase over 40 sessions led by more than 50 speakers who will help define the future of recruiting. Their tracks include discussions around innovation, diversity & inclusion, and Hiring Success. Conference attendees can customize their own learning path by choosing which sessions align with their interests and professional goals.

The speakers are a hallmark of every Hiring Success conference, and this year SmartRecruiters is excited to announce the following presenters who will make their debut appearances on the Hiring Success EU stage in Amsterdam.

1. Dr. Makaziwe Mandela, House of Mandela

Born and raised in Johannesburg, Dr. Makaziwe (Maki) is the eldest daughter of Evelyn Mase and Nelson Mandela. Maki earned a bachelors in Social Work and an honors degree in Sociology. Through a Fulbright Fellowship, Maki obtained a masters in Sociology and a doctorate in Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Mandela has written several publications on the role of women in a changing South Africa, as well as developed investment portfolios designed to uplift and economically empower women. Maki was also a director at Nestlé and the GM of Human Resources at Spoornet. Dr. Mandela currently serves as the Chairperson of the House of Mandela and sits on numerous boards.

2. Tukwini Mandela, House of Mandela

Raised by her grandmother in Cape Town until the age of 10, Tukwini is the granddaughter of Nelson Mandela. Having lived in the United States and South Africa, she has extensive education in Social Work as well as professional experience in advertising at Leo Burnett and Foote, Cone & Belding. Ms. Mandela’s expertise expanded to communications at First National Bank and marketing at several multinational institutions. Tukwini is currently the Marketing Director for House of Mandela.

3. Tim Ackermann, LIDL

Tim is an international and multi-industry HR leader with nearly 20 years’ expertise in talent acquisition and talent management. At LIDL he connected great people with one of the world’s largest retailers and created an engaging candidate & employee experience throughout the employee life cycle. Tim also has his own side hustle, which he now runs full-time, as the founder & managing director of a day spa and concept store in Potsdam, Germany.

During Hiring Success EU, Tim will lead discussions with other TA professionals as they share engaging and funny stories on how to be an entrepreneur within your own company.

4. Maarten Bokhoven, ABN AMRO

Maarten’s personal mission statement is to move people and make people move. He is passionate about driving business results, as well as helping team members achieve their personal and professional ambitions.

Maarten has exemplified this approach through his 20+ years of experience in marketing and communications for global brands such as Brunel and, most recently, as Head of Employer Branding, Sourcing & Community Management at ABN AMRO Bank. He brings a unique perspective to employer branding, having transitioned from content marketing for consumers to brand proposition for candidates. He is passionate about projects that create brand awareness and engagement but also drive conversion and deliver results.

5. Noor van Boven, N26

Noor is the Chief People Officer at N26, Europe’s first mobile banking service and one of few startup unicorns. However, this isn’t her first foray into the digital sector; Noor also spent several years as the VP Global Head of People at Spotify and even co-founded Hello, an online community designed to connect dynamic, professional women around the world. Noor is a leading example of the next generation of talent acquisition leaders, and during her session, she will share her experiences navigating hiring challenges for a company undergoing hyper-growth.

6. Anna Brandt, Uber

Anna is the Global Head of Talent Acquisition and Community Operations at Uber, a position she serves through her consultancy, Brandt Talent Solutions.  Anna enables organizations to scale their talent acquisition efforts in order to hire and retain the best talent available. She now focuses on Talent Acquisition Program Design & (interim) Management. At Hiring Success EU, Anna will join Noor van Boven in sharing her first-hand experience establishing hiring practices at Uber, as well as how to steer organizations through dramatic growth cycles.

7. Ben Clark, Heineken

Ben leads the Global Talent Acquisition function at Heineken and is proud to represent his organization’s home turf by speaking at Hiring Success EU. At Heineken, Ben established the company’s first-ever talent sourcing hub in Central and Eastern Europe. He also played a critical role in expanding Heineken’s highly publicized employer branding and global implementation of new recruiting technology. For his sessions, Ben will speak about what it’s like working for a well-loved and recognized global brand alongside SmartRecruiter’s Marketing Director, Prachi Gore. 

8. Michael Falkner, Ramboll

Michael spent the past 18 years hunting for the right match. Today, he is an experienced Talent Acquisition leader with an unusual background as a former Detective with the Copenhagen National Police. His drive to seek out people didn’t stop after he turned in his badge, so he launched a career searching for talented professionals.

Michael has extensive recruiting experience from Laigaard & Partners, Hays, Accenture, and most recently, Ramboll. As the current Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Ramboll, Michael is responsible for overseeing recruiting activities across 35 countries and the organization’s Center of Excellence, Operations, Talent Sourcing Hub, Offshoring and Employer Branding.

September is fast approaching, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to see these stellar speakers in Amsterdam. Stay tuned as we continue to publish speaker profiles, tease our flagship party, and more. To find out more about what to expect at Hiring Success EU, visit our website and secure your tickets for the recruiting industry’s most anticipated annual event here.

The second day of the SmartRecruiters first-ever European conference rolled out another full schedule of sessions, assembled a massive “crowd-sourced” band, and crowned another Recruiting Startup of the Year.

Day two began by looking towards the future of SmartRecruiters’ TA suite, in the opening keynote from Rebecca Carr, SmartRecruiters’ VP of Product. “Competition is fierce—we’re living in a talent economy,” she said, speaking to the packed conference hall in a converted warehouse in East Berlin. “It’s important that we deliver to you tools that are going to give you the capabilities to find and nurture talent well before the point of application.”

With many of the upcoming product updates taking years to develop, it’s clear that anticipating and predicting the needs of users is driving future innovation. Along with a design overhaul and new functionality that improves the first-time candidate experience at every stage of the hiring process, SmartRecruiters also revealed its plans to embed more intelligent features into the product, including the robust SmartJobs, which allows hiring teams to take the guesswork out of job advertising, placing your ads in front of the best candidates for the right price.

“SmartRecruiters doesn’t want to be a replica of the old system you used to use,” said Carr. “We want to be thinking farther ahead in terms of what we can be building and developing. We foresaw problems that you may encounter given how the talent economy is changing around us.”

Navigating change often requires the wisdom and insights of those who have already lived it, especially when it comes to achieving hyper-growth for you organization, chief among which is the ability to embrace failure. “In hyper-growth there is no room for perfectionism,” said Noor van Boven, Chief People Officer at online bank, N26. “You need to be able to make decisions quickly. If you are a true perfectionist you will fail.”

And hyper growth isn’t just a concern for company executives, as “being a leader in hyper growth means everyone can have an impact,” said Jeri Doris, Chief People Officer at Delivery Hero. “You’re building a brand, a product, and a company. That’s not just for leaders, but for recruiters—you are part of that company story.”

One of the most creative and surprising moments at Hiring Success Berlin was the participatory jam session, “Synchronicity”, led by Mehmet Baha, founder and senior consultant at Solution Folder. “We’re going to explore diversity and inclusion through music,” said Baha, who is also a percussionist, as he distributed shakers, drums, and other implements to a bewildered crowd. Baha then led the newly formed Hire18 band through a series of musical exercises, drawing parallels to how each has real-world implications in the workplace.

“Active listening is a crucial part of an inclusive work culture,” said Baha, instructing people to close their eyes and hear how each instrument’s unique sound worked together to create a unified composition.

To close out the conference, SmartRecruiters brought five companies on stage to compete for the title of Recruiting Startup of the Year. With only a few minutes to pitch their company to a panel of expert judges, the startup competition is now a central tenet of every Hiring Success conference. Find out which of the five finalists won over the judges and earned the shiny trophy tomorrow on the Hiring Success Journal.

But before we close the book on the first edition of Hiring Success EU we have to celebrate with an authentically Berlin party experience. Conference attendees who still have the energy will move up the banks of the river Spree to Säälchen, on the grounds of the renowned nightclub Kater Blau, where Berlin’s top techno and house DJs will share the stage with a ten-piece pop brass band, spectacular acrobatic performances, and a surprise guest performance.

Check out our day one conference wrap-up to read more about the sessions and speakers you might have missed.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and check back with the Hiring Success Journal for more #Hire18 insights coming soon.

SmartRecruiters’ first conference in Europe kicked off today in Berlin, with founder and CEO Jerome Ternynck setting the tone for two days of innovation, inclusion, and hiring success.

SmartRecruiters’ latest Hiring Success conference was inaugurated this morning by CEO Jerome Ternynck, who took the stage at the Glashaus, a former industrial space on the Spree river in East Berlin, promptly at 9:30am.

“Hiring success is a truly universal thing,” his voice reverberated throughout the hall, to 400 attendees, “and you are all here representing over 200 organizations from all over the world.

“All you recruiters, TA leaders, innovators, system owners, optimizers,” listed Ternynck, “all of us who’ve dedicated your career to helping companies find talent, to help people find jobs—we are critical to companies’ success.”

As HR Tech gets more sophisticated by the day, so does our community become truly global, as evidenced by the diverse crowds at conferences like this one. Plugging into the future of recruiting over the first of two session-packed days, speakers represented stalwart European players like Deutsche Bahn, Zalando and Lidl, as well as institutions as notorious as CERN and Humboldt University—represented by information-scientist duo, Dr. Juliane Stiller and Dr. Violeta Trkulja, linked hiring to one of the great issues of our age: forced migration.

Not everyone knows what it means to leave behind the life you know and rebuild everything, from the ground up, in an alien city. The scientists did a deep-dive with guests from Bayer and a Deutsche Banker, who is a Syrian refugee himself, into the programs available to refugees now, and how your company could start building its own systems to help integrate into the workforce talented people who need and deserve our help.

“Employers are insecure about the skills and language abilities of refugees,” said Stiller, “and applicants have a tough time knowing the systems for applying. Employers can help by accepting applications without cover letters, offer mobile recruiting, and embracing diversity.”

Another essential topic covered was how technology has changed when and where we work, and to assure this new world of remote work runs smoothly, Beat Buhlmann, one of the few people in the world with a doctorate related to managing virtual teams, the current GM for Evernote laid out the benefits of employing a remote workforce and relayed how to address the challenges created by managing off-site teams, from both a culture and a tech perspective. “It may sound simple, but if a candidate isn’t comfortable with video conferencing or sharing their screen,” he said via Zoom, presumably to prove a metatextual point, “it’s going to be a nightmare.”

To close out the day, Robindro Ullah, TA consultant and author, and Artur Skowronski, software engineer, Virtus Lab, ask the audience: What do Tinder, Amazon, and Alexa have in common?

Answer: they were repurposed by corporate recruiters to source quality talent. The keynote speakers shared some of the most innovative recruiting campaigns ever put together, and led an interactive workshop challenging left-brain functions to raise the bar on workplace creativity.

All this boils down to the premise that brought everyone together, from thousands of miles apart, for these two days: that hiring is the frontline of business success, and the more companies understand that, the better things will be for everyone.

“Who you hire defines your company more than any other activity,” stresses Ternynck. “It defines your outcomes as well as your culture. It defines your success as well as your failures. Who you hire defines you as a leader.”

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and check back with the Hiring Success Journal for lots of #Hire18 insights coming soon.