Sometimes a strategic view doesn’t mean high-level, it means seeing what’s happening on the ground…

Lars Schmidt, founder of Amplify, joins SmartRecruiters for the fourth annual Hiring Success 19 – Americas, February 26-27 in San Francisco where he will be leading the session “Inside the Mind of Today’s Chief People Officer”. Full agenda here!

As a tech recruiter in the late 90s, Lars had a “front row seat” to the manic growth, and painful demise, of the first internet economy. Despite this trial by fire introduction to Talent Acquisition (TA), Lars continued in the industry, taking his talents in-house.

In the proceeding decade, he went on to run global recruiting for household names like Ticketmaster and NPR. Now, as the principal of Amplify, this people strategy chameleon helps companies build progressive talent functions for 21st century HR.

After so many years in TA, Lars’ view of the industry might be described as ‘high-level’. Yet, we prefer the descriptor ‘in-touch’ as much of his success has been his special attention to the ground-level of practitioners’ day-to-day.

For Lars, a big part of staying in-touch means continuous and open communication with the people in the field. That’s where HR Open Source (HROS.co) comes in, a not-for-profit he founded in 2015 along with fellow recruiting enthusiast Ambrosia Vertesi, VP of People at Duo Security. This global community aims to democratize access to modern HR practices through connecting practitioners who collaborate and share learnings to prepare themselves, and their organizations, for the future of work.

Speaking of the future of work, HROS.co recently put out a report on the near-future of TA, surveying over 500 HR/TA practitioners to understand what is happening on their teams now, and in the next three years!

Today, we speak Lars to learn about some of the surprising results, including how people-teams are investing in tech, and why TA is still wary of automation.

Why create another future of work report?

There’s so much content about the future of work, anywhere there’s another blog/podcast/report! The thing is, most of this content is developed by analysts, consultants, and pundits – entities that are a couple of layers removed from the actual work. We wanted to create a report that captured the perspective of practitioners on the ground: How do they view the future? What things are impacting them right now?

HR Open Source Future of Work Report found HR has concerns about job automation, and believe their organizations will be impacted in the next three years, what do you make of this finding?

The automation piece was certainly interesting. Our community tends to be on the innovative side of the practitioner spectrum and closely attuned to the technology impacting their work.

I don’t think automation will replace the majority of recruiting positions, but certainly, some roles will be impacted. Sourcing for instance: with everyone having such a large digital footprint it’s easier to find people, but harder to get their attention. Going into the future, sourcing will be more and more about personalized outreach sequences and tailored messaging.

Going into the future, recruiters will have to focus more on the human side of recruiting TA. Tech tools will automate tasks that don’t require empathy and human engineering. For the foreseeable future, humans are still the best equipped to understand what motivates candidates, and how to design the message to get them on board.

CRM is the top investment for the coming year, why is candidate experience coming to the forefront?

The reality is that most TA functions use their ATS as more of a transactional engine, than a talent database. Organizations have this dormant candidate database, of thousands – maybe more – who have already raised their hand and said, ‘yes, I’m interested in your company!’ Yet, recruiters approach every job as a ‘one off’ when they don’t have the means to leverage this talent pool.

With the means of a candidate relationship management (CRM) tool, recruiters are able to mirror the marketing function and replicate some of the more sophisticated branding exercises like audience segmentation and personalized nurture sequences.

Do you think tech in diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives will impact those programs’ efficacy?

Technology alone won’t solve a lack of diversity. Organizations need to have some non-tech foundational pieces in place, before these tech tools can be used to their full power. Pieces including interview design, closing the wage gap, internal mobility, continued learning, etc. – which come together under the umbrella of a general philosophical buy-in. Technology can then help you really accelerate those efforts, whether it’s software to scan job descriptions for gender bias, or bots to anonymize candidate details to prevent unconscious discrimination.

Was there anything in the report that surprised you personally?

One point, which I had experienced anecdotally to be true, that was interesting to see born out in the numbers, is that 70 percent of respondents previously worked outside of HR and recruiting. It’s a big shift from 10 years ago when HR was a very insular field, that people would enter and move through in a strictly linear fashion. This shift is important because it means the field of HR and recruiting is being infused with new skill sets and perspectives, and I view it as  extremely healthy for the function as a whole.

The biggest Hiring Success conference to date continues to drive engaging content alongside top-tier networking with over 1,200 talent acquisition (TA) leaders.

Are you a compliance wonk? A D&I devotee? An HR buff? Or, an HRIT connoisseur? Do you live recruitment, breathe TA, and are always thinking ‘what’s the next level for the industry?’ If so, get ready, because we are ready to nerd out with you at the fourth annual Hiring Success Conference, February 26-27 in San Francisco!

SmartRecruiters returns, once again, to San Francisco’s storied bay for Hiring Success 19, where TA leaders from around the globe will come together for two days of interactive sessions, the latest recruiting tech innovation, and top-tier networking that will define the future of recruiting.

Register now until January 18 for last chance on early bird pricing!

With 50 sessions, 100 speakers, and over 1,200 attendees #HIRE19 will be our largest event to date.

Participants can look forward to the scenic views at  Pier 27 that overlook the San Francisco Bay, where floor to ceiling windows and contemporary design gives a refreshing indoor-outdoor experience that will promote presence throughout the marathon of learning that is #HIRE19.

Recruiters on the front lines of today’s talent scarcity know firsthand how digitization is pushing everyone – from candidates to employees – to constantly sharpen their skills and stay abreast of the latest innovations. Hiring Success 19 helps practitioners do just that. TA practitioners share their experiences, learn from industry leaders, and workshop challenges with their peers.

Hear from practitioners like Sam Sepah, Organization Development Program Manager at Google, Anita Grantham, Chief People Officer at Pluralsight, Tara Strebe, Senior Director Global Talent Acquisition at Visa, alongside industry thought leaders like Lou Adler and Bill Boorman.

Three tracks help you create your own learning adventure. Mix and match to meet our expert content at your point of need. (full agenda to be announced shortly!)

• Innovation: Understand the latest recruiting tech and see how these digital tools will actually affect you and your practice.

• Inclusion: Stories of success and inspiration from hiring practitioners that will help you create the business case for a diverse workforce and inclusive work culture.

• Hiring Success: The case studies and hiring hacks from practitioners who have #BeenThere and know your pain points.

Two fan favorites return this year: Hiring Success Hackathon and Recruiting Startup Awards.

Hiring Success Hackathon Grand Prize: $5,000

This year we are excited to announce our second annual Hiring Success Hackathon. Teams will challenge themselves to build innovative features on top of the SmartRecruiters talent acquisition suite in just 24 hours. Inspired by our commitment to innovation and usability, we invite developers to join us in testing the limits of our Public API – and their own creativity.

All are welcome to apply! Submit your idea and list of participants to hackathon_team@smartrecruiters.com by January 15.

Recruiting Startup Awards Grand Prize: Gold Sponsorship for #HIRE20

Over 100 recruiting startups leverage the power of their networks to earn a spot as one of the final six teams who will pitch it out for the grand prize in front of our expert panel of judges and the entire #HIRE19 conference. Vote here to decide who makes it to the final round!  

See the latest recruiting tech, from AI job boards, and in-depth analysis tools to chatbots with big-personality and even bigger functionality. Be amongst the vanguard when it comes to TA innovation alongside the dreamers, makers, and entrepreneurs disrupting HR tech.

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Finally, networking: the exchange of ideas that only comes from being together with your peers (and heroes) in person. As much as we all value planning and strategy, there must always be room for the spark of spontaneity that happens when we unwind and digest all the learnings of the conference with other people who speak our TA language.

At #HIRE19 we leave space for you to make connections and follow up with presenters. Catch-up during one of the networking breaks, or meet during the Smarty Party while we all relax with food, drinks, and entertainment.

Be sure to follow us @smartrecruiters for agenda and speaker announcements.

Register now until January 18 for last chance on early bird pricing!

Workers are quitting their jobs en masse to pursue the spoils of freelancing, but managing this fluid workforce is proving difficult for companies rooted in traditional employee relationship management.

It had been a disheartening failure to capture Jerusalem, and on the way home from the calamitous Third Crusade, King Richard I was captured and imprisoned by Austrian forces in December, 1192. Thousands of knights and men-at-arms loyal to the Norman king returned to England leaderless, or put another way, jobless.

In the peaceful years that followed, Europe was overrun with thousands of trained soldiers who lacked practical skills outside of combat. In order to earn a living wage, many soldiers of fortune pledged their allegiance to any wealthy patrons willing to hire them for battle. As a result, mercenaries became common war fodder for nobles and feudal lords during the Middle Ages, essential to the Crusades and other military campaigns up to the 14th century. In the early 19th century, in his novel, Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott collectively defined them as “free lances”.

Step into any coffee shop or coworking space today and see modern “freelancers” in their natural habitat. Today, the term includes all self-employed, patron-seeking workers, and while they wield wifi and laptops instead of swords and shields, they represent a steadily growing section of the American workforce in our post-manufacturing economy.

In 2015, Elance-oDesk relaunched under the name Upwork and rolled out a freelance talent platform that grew to become the world’s largest online marketplace for contract workers. The company estimates that 57.3 million Americans currently freelance—that’s 36 percent of the US workforce—and projects this growth to reach over 50 percent by 2027. Today’s independents are more agile than ever, and the promise of entrepreneurship, project-based work, and home offices draws new converts as fast as companies are reassessing strategies to accommodate them.

But for those who dream of quitting their desk jobs and adopting the lives of digital nomads, the reality is that, while companies are hiring more on contract, many lack processes and infrastructure to support these new workforces. Without proper relationship management in place, abuse will continue to rise, forcing many freelancers to push back against inept management, acting as their own enforcers and debt collectors.

* * *

Early this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the number of open jobs outstripped unemployment totals, a state of affairs that was encouraged, according to Upwork, by 63 percent of independent professionals going freelance in the last two years—as a choice, not a necessity.

For many companies, this shift represents major strategic challenges for recruiting. As more workers swap their cubicles for home offices—coupled with the widening skill gap across multiple industries—companies with openings are experiencing a talent shortage. In 2017 Upwork reported that 39 percent of hiring managers felt hiring had gotten harder over the previous year because of this shift.

“Everybody is chasing the same talent,” says Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel. “But hiring is time-consuming—you conduct multiple rounds of interviews, meanwhile candidates interview with multiple companies.”

It takes an average of 31 days to fill an open job in the US, with some reports claiming numbers as high as 42, up from 23 days in 2006 and about 15 days in 2009.

“Hiring is also incredibly expensive,” continues Kasriel, citing a study from SHRM that prices the average cost-per-hire for companies at $4,129.

With costs per hire that steep—and the demand for knowledge workers at an all-time high—talent platforms like Upwork, FlexJobs, Guru, Hired, and Hubstaff Talent work well to connect freelancers and agencies with clients who need skilled workers, regardless of where they live.

Upwork’s success hinges on the platform’s all-inclusive talent pool, which includes anyone with an internet connection. Freelancers can create an account and bid for projects within minutes, providing its customers with a nearly limitless global workforce. This business model feels apt given the independent spirit of freelance work, and offers Upwork an advantage in the project-based economy, where more organizations are considering contract workers over location-dependent ones.

“Twenty cities in the US account for over 50% of America’s GDP,” says Kasriel. “These are the places where the cost of living is rising fast, traffic and pollution are issues, and it’s difficult for people who don’t make high wages to live in these places.”

According to Kasriel, our traditional perceptions of work “all stemmed from this idea that work had to be a place,” emphasizing the idea that location-dependant work was an industrial era construct. One need look no further than the mass migrations to tech hubs like Silicon Valley to see this concept in action.

“We are at a point today where a lot of people are being left behind,” says Kasriel. “We aren’t considering the people who are highly skilled, want to work really hard, and just happen to be living a couple hundred miles away.”

* * *

“Freelancing can mean sacrifices, especially if you live on your own,” says Adam McNeill, a freelance web designer, developer, and communications strategist based between Toronto and London, Ontario, Canada. “There’s no safety net, but it’s exciting as hell.”

McNeill pivoted into full-time freelance work in 2016 after a personal injury hindered his mobility. When he asked his managers about working remotely until he healed, his employer dismissed his request, claiming there was no company policy for remote work. Frustrated by the miles of red tape, McNeill shouldered his lance and tendered his resignation. Nearly three years on, he is confident in his decision.

“Working from my home office, not having to commute, setting my own hours—the advantages of freelancing quickly outweigh the drawbacks and liabilities,” he says. “Plus, the ways these benefits affect your emotional wellbeing are impossible to overlook.”

Most self-employed workers report a better work-life balance, better health, and higher incomes than their office-worker counterparts, with a vast majority (97 percent) of current independent professionals electing to stay self-employed rather than return to traditional work.

With conferencing software and shared asset management platforms taking the traditional workspace into the cloud, “relationships with clients can be ongoing,” says McNeill. “This has opened up a new world of possibilities for freelancers at all levels. For many verticals, freelancing could even become the norm.”

Upwork highlights that 48 percent of hiring managers are already hiring freelancers, up 43 percent from last year, and the number of hiring managers willing to consider freelance workers is almost unanimous at 90 percent. The reason for this, according to Kasriel, is that 9 out of 10 hiring managers claim to be more satisfied with the skills of freelancers than those of their most recent full-time hire.

Freelancers are much more likely to have better, more updated skills because, “you have to market yourself constantly,” says Kasriel, “whereas full-time employees are less likely to reskill themselves between jobs.”

For many businesses, extending talent pools to include freelancers allows for greater talent diversity, reduces company spending, and boosts productivity on a project basis.

However, in order for a company to work successfully with its freelancers, the decision must be unanimous, where hiring teams and executives align to lay the groundwork for successful freelance-client relationships.

The Upwork model makes finding great talent convenient, but many organizations are neither aware of, nor sensitive to, the stiff competition and fierce undercutting that occurs on these platforms. Unfortunately for most freelancers, budgets often associated with posted jobs are unrealistic, “I routinely see jobs for 1500-word blog posts that are offering a flat $5 fee,” says McNeill.

A pittance for your average mercenary, but the problem, according to McNeill, it that “fresh grads will gravitate to those gigs ‘for the exposure’, but they’re lowering the bar for everyone else.” When speaking at local colleges, McNeill warns the next generation of workers about these practices. “One of the values I try to impart to them is not to pander to this crap,” he says. “If you don’t value your own tradecraft, how can you expect anybody else to?”

Many of the professional services offered by most online talent platforms can, in an increasing number of circumstances, be completed by anyone, regardless of location, which often pits workers from North America and Europe against technical and creative contractors in developing countries over pricing wars.

Allowing customers to purchase a service at the lowest cost often results in workers undercutting one another in an “arms” race to the bottom price. As one Upwork user noted, not only does this “drive the perceived costs down for the buyers, but also dramatically drives the quality of the work down as well because the freelancers don’t have the time to pay attention to the details, the budget not allowing it.”

Meanwhile, the companies managing these talent platforms are raking in huge profits. Upwork generates $1.5 billion in gross sales a year, works with over 100k SMB clients, and boasts that 28 percent of its clients are on the Fortune 500 list. To date, the company has completed over $4 billion in work via its platform. In just last week Upwork generated $187 million through its IPO, its shares rising 40 percent above their prior value in the weeks before trading.

Seasoned freelancers are no stranger to the pricing wars fought on these online platforms, but for contractors like McNeill, issues of relationship management are the greatest pain points. “Organizations build their businesses on the near-religious belief that it’s all about trust,” he says, “but when they deal with freelancers they forget that trust and accountability also matter in these relationships.”

McNeill cites examples when he or other freelancers suspended websites and withheld services when clients delayed payment for months without justification. “These were not knee-jerk reactions,” he says. “I’m talking about pulling the plug after 8 months of being told that your check is in the mail. It happens all the time, and with big brands—no freelancer wants to work this way.”

When it comes to getting paid, a recent survey from Bill.com found that 54 of freelancers feel it takes too long. “Most corporations have payment terms of 45 days or even 60, which is brutal when you’re self-employed,” said Liz Steblay, founder and CEO of the Professional Independent Consultants of America (PICA). “To add insult to injury,” she continued, “it’s surprising how many clients still pay by hard-copy check, which can easily add another week to the payment process.”

* * *

Even with trends suggesting that the freelance workforce is growing, are companies really willing to embrace freelancers and entrepreneurs, or are they merely paying lip service to the idea without understanding the full extent of what managing a freelance workforce requires?

For as much as companies strive to continually improve candidate and employee experience—offering benefits packages, further skills training, and hosting team-building events—is the same consideration given to freelancers?

Sort of. Traditionally, businesses saved money hiring freelancers because they were not obligated to provide medical benefits or paid vacation time as part of compensation, but more corporations are realizing they need to make their work environments more appealing to top-quality free agents with perks like retirement savings, health insurance, tax assistance, and workers compensation coverage.

Reticence from companies to hire remote workforces likely stems, in part, from expectations that these benefits packages will become standard offerings to freelancers, which often position companies in murky legal waters. Certain benefits could mean companies must classify its contract workforce as employees, which can result in additional tax and wage requirements for businesses.

But as Millennials continue to become the largest workforce demographic, they are driving change in the workplace by seeking an updated dynamic for how they bring their employers value, and on terms that facilitate the unpredictable demands of a hyper-pressure world.

So what exactly does the future of freelancing look like? Kasriel argues that workforces will soon resemble movie crews, where “teams are self-assembled and everything is project-based. Movies are an industry where flexibility, agility, and specialization are increasing to meet the demands of the labor market.”

The film industry has a long and well-established history, with unions like the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) tracing its lineage back to 1893, only a few decades after Sir Walter Scott’s first mention of the freelance crusader mercenaries of old. Likening the freelance economy to the movie industry sounds like hopeful conjecture, particularly when workers and organizations require more education on sustainable and responsible freelance practices.

“We should be teaching kids how to do this,” says McNeill. “I would really love to see more of a curriculum revelation. I don’t think we’re teaching the future workforce in a way that will prepare and support them for what will likely become an inevitable stage of their careers and lives.”

At the same time, companies need guidance in developing solid foundations for freelance talent management before they start hiring contract workers. This means establishing more efficient communication channels, prompt and fair payment methods, and contingency plans or systems to navigate conflicts and challenges.

Until businesses and contract workers can realize a more mutually beneficial work relationship, it’s likely that most freelancers, despite experiencing greater autonomy and reaping better opportunities than ever before, will continue to trek through the industry like battle-weary soldiers without leadership.

“The traditional way of doing things has engendered a false sense of authority in organizations, says McNeill. “Many managers have had it easy with employees who never push back and are happy to take their employers’ money, confident that warm bodies in chairs do productive employees make. This attitude doesn’t work for freelancers.”

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.

In a world where 47 percent of jobs are susceptible to automation, growing your skill set as job security is no longer enough. So how do you stay ahead of the machines?

“Your future job probably hasn’t been invented yet.” Who among us didn’t hear a version of this forecast as a bright-eyed schoolkid?

And while the prognostication ended up true for many, it wasn’t the full story. There are plenty of unchanged job titles, but the skills required would have been beyond the imagination of that childhood you. And this is where recruiting stands today, the job that once required people skills and a penchant for organization now asks it’s practitioners to be financial, data, inclusion, legal, and IT experts – all while the revolution of HR Technology creates expectations of hyper efficiency, leaving no space for practitioners to set aside time for development in their day-to-day.

It’s a recipe for burnout. Businesses need to start thinking like Apple and Google and reposition themselves as “learning organizations”. That means being a company in a state of constant transformation. They must provide employees the training they need to be the best person for their job two, five or ten years down the line.

What we know about adult learning, from research pioneered by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in the 1980s and carried on to the present day by the Center for Creative Leadership,  is that it usually happens socially, informally, and on-the-go. Seventy percent of what we learn about our job is from, well, doing our job, 20 percent is from our networks, and 10 percent is through formal presentations.

It’s in that last 30 percent where things get interesting, when people come out of their silos to discover the best practice of tomorrow, engage and expand their networks, and gain automation-proof skills to keep them relevant. That’s why, even in the digital age, it’s imperative to attend conferences, learn, and share ideas with the experts who put the newest learning into context.

That’s why SmartRecruiters has seized opportunities to dissect and discuss our industry with practitioners on the ground, and this summer, we take our Hiring Success Conference series global.

On September 19-20, we land in the heart of Europe for two days of seminars, product demos, and networking with 250 top talent acquisition executives, thought leaders, founders, investors, and the hottest recruiting startups.

Watch a live chatbot showdown in “Battle of the Bots,” where the audience asks these virtual helpers on-the-spot questions to test their functionality. Learn to inspire a remote workforce and leverage flexible employment options to increase diversity and productivity. Join the movement for gender parity by learning to recognize and mobilize talent without bias.

Join us this summer as we explore the latest in innovation, inclusion, and hiring success.

Check out our agenda here!

As more individuals pivot into freelance and self-employed work, companies are rethinking how to attract and retain independent professionals.

Corner offices and pensions are no longer the end game for many working professionals, and—as usual—you can blame millennials. As of 2015, millennials are the dominant demographic of the American workforce, and the white collars of this up-and-coming generation have a new career priority in mind: independence. It’s the gig economy, but for professionals, and it could be the answer to the talent shortage currently squeezing the tech sector.

By 2020 it’s predicted that 27 million American will transition to self employment, nearly tripling the number from 2015. And it’s a mistake to think those numbers are coming mainly from entry-level task apps like Uber, Postmates, or Task Rabbit. In fact, task workers only account for 10 percent of the 15 million full-time independent workers in the US according to an annual report from the accounting service FreshBooks. The study, which surveyed 2700 full-time independents, found that 43 percent of individuals desire more control over their careers, with an additional 43 percent planning on completely switching their careers once self-employed.

As a result, the labor market is now experiencing a talent vacuum, and employers are desperately seeking to fill a record number of openings. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers posted 6.6 million available jobs in March 2018, up from 5.6 million the previous year. With 6.3 million people currently unemployed in the US, there is a now surplus of open positions in the job market, allowing more individuals to lead their own charge in the war for talent, and command a premium price for their services.

A 2017 report from MBO Partners identified 3.2 million full-time independents who made more than $100,000 annually, up 4.9 percent from previous years. As a whole, 43 percent of full-time independents said they earn more money working on their own and experience greater job security than traditional work. Top earners in the freelance sector include: programmers and software developers, web designers, content marketers, and graphic designers—and companies are paying top dollar for their work.

Though higher incomes and more stable careers are attractive byproducts of self-employment, many next wave workers value the emotional and psychological payoff of work more strongly than previous generations. Quickly becoming the “work to live” generation, 51 percent of millennials with traditional jobs say more flexibility is an advantage of becoming an independent worker or starting your own business, compared to 42 percent of Gen Xers and 40 percent of Baby Boomers. Meanwhile, 44 percent of millennials with traditional jobs say pursuing a passion or interest is an advantage of working independently, while only 32 percent of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers say it is a factor.

While new independent workers value the flexible and emotionally rewarding lifestyle that self-employment provides, the transition is not without its challenges, albeit ones that millennials are willing to embrace. Independent work often demands longer hours with less availability for time off, even extending the age of retirement beyond the traditional 65 cutoff. Yet, 62 percent of millennials surveyed don’t expect to stop work after age 65, and will continue working as a choice rather than a necessity.

Delaying retirement also seems to have an effect on workers’ overall career satisfaction. Employee satisfaction in a traditional job typically diminishes as the age gap increases, but the FreshBooks report shows that self-employment has an upward trend the longer independents keep working. Despite more time spent working, many self-employed workers report that they experience a better work life balance, better health, and higher incomes, with a vast majority (97 percent) of current independent professionals electing to stay self-employed rather than return to traditional work in the future.

TA professionals also seem to struggle with sourcing and hiring great talent for permanent positions, as a 2018 study from Upwork revealed that 39 percent of hiring managers felt hiring was harder in the past year, citing difficulty in accessing candidates with specialized talents as the biggest challenge. As new technological innovations in fields such as robotics, AI, and blockchain further disrupt the industry, training workers to stay abreast of new technologies will become a high priority for many companies.

In response, hiring managers are now tapping into the independent workforce to fill open positions on a contract basis. Gene Zaino, President and CEO of MBO Partners, highlights how an increasing number of companies are hiring more independent workers over permanent employees as a way to stay flexible and agile in the swift modern economy. “If you are in a very high-change environment,” he says, “making full-time commitments is a bigger decision than just paying someone to get a project done.”

Independent workers may also have a positive effect on team dynamics. Jeff Christofis, VP & Practice Lead of KellyConnect at Kelly Services sees an increase in employee satisfaction and productivity thanks to their remote hiring practices. “Embracing the remote work environment has proven to be a highly effective approach to not only attracting talent,” he says, “but allowing companies to achieve higher levels of productivity, and gain efficiencies while providing employees with greater work life balance.”

It’s no secret that respected and valued employees are prepared to deliver their best work, and independent workers are no different. More companies are realizing the need to become the “clients of choice” for freelancers, and that includes treating them as a more than replaceable and inexpensive labor tools. Including independent workers in the company culture or offering services that promote their growth and success—such as job boards with new opportunities, training programs to expand their skills, and networking events with employees—can be foundational in building strong relationships with freelance workers.

The independent professionals of the future workforce are poised to be some of the best educated and highest paid contract workers in the modern economy, and companies will soon need to adapt their hiring practices and team structures to accommodate them. This shift in the American workforce hails a profound change in the American dream: Rather than climbing the corporate ladder, the next wave of professionals want to be their own bosses.