Hiring Success 2016 - the Future of Talent

As recruiters and Talent Acquisition leaders from across the globe came together at Hiring Success 2016, the excitement could hardly be contained. SmartRecruiters’ inaugural customer conference drew high profile clients like Square, AOL, Atlassian, and Skechers.

Kicking things off, Jerome Ternynck, founder and CEO of SmartRecruiters, gave an inspiring welcome highlighting the importance of the customer’s voice in building the industry’s leading talent acquisition platform. The speech started with a round of thanks to SmartRecruiters customers for helping the organization thrive. As Jerome says, “We would not be here today if it were not for all of you who share our belief in changing the way the world hires. Thanks for making it personal.”

The mutual appreciation transitioned into a panel on the Future of the Industry. Panelists, including industry thought leaders like Jason Averbook, Jeff Diana (CPO, Atlassian), Kyle Lagunas (Founder & Principal Analyst, Lighthouse Research & Advisory), Ben Eubanks (Learning Analyst, Brendon Hall Group) and Madeline Laurano (Co-Founder, Aptitude Research Partners) examined the global trends of a service-based economy. Gone are the days of simply posting a job and expecting good candidates to come to you. The focus of recruiters is changing. “You must run recruiting strategically like an amazing marketing and sales function. If you do, you might win. If you don’t, proceed at your own risk” states Jerome Ternynck.

The analysts took a look at the state of recruiting and how far it has come compared to the days when you simply had a way to track resumes. Today’s modern TA platforms enable recruiters to demonstrate ROI and drive business value for their organization. “Have fun with it” says Madeline Laurano of Aptitude Research Partners regarding how robust platforms like SmartRecruiters are in their ability to integrate with all HR solutions. “Instilling a culture of modern measurement is the best way to evolve”, relayed Kyle Lagunas of Lighthouse Research. He also added: “Act like a business analyst instead of just another recruiter.”

Everyone wants to know what comes next, and no customer conference would be complete without a product roadmap. During the morning session, Rebecca Meissner, VP of Customer Success, brought everyone up to speed on recent improvements. Highlights included the game-changing scheduler, which allows recruiters to organize interviews without leaving the platform, and the deepest integration with Docusign in the industry.

Later that afternoon, the anticipation and excitement could hardly be contained as Jerome Ternynck lead the journey into future releases of the SmartRecruiters TA platform. Customers were particularly impressed by candidate lead generation, live profiles, and self scheduling. Candidate lead generation uses related content to build a job applicant pool even before a position has been posted. Live profiles keep candidates’ information up to date, and candidate self scheduling for interviews brought applause from over-scheduled recruiters.

The day continued with breakout sessions led by SmartRecruiters customers that use the platform every day to enable their success in global rollouts, executive hiring, effective and efficient recruiting.

In Maximizing ROI, Cesar Rosales from Skechers shared how they increased job application rates on their career website from 40% to 80% by having an easy one-click apply. “Many candidates are also consumers, so foot traffic is key”, noted SmartRecruiters’ Charlie Nelson as he explained how mobile and in-store job applications contributed to success. Skechers also cut their job board spend in half by using Smartrecruiters analytics to understand which boards are most effective.

The Transparent Hiring Process featuring Tony Lopez and Daniel Gromik from Illumio showcased how focusing on a collaborative hiring process engages nearly half the company in the SmartRecruiters platform, including more than 80% of their hiring managers. This has lead to improving the quality of their hires and enabled them to focus on other projects like investing more time in active sourcing, building the pipeline and a high touch candidate experience.

The first ever SmartRecruiters Awards capped off the day. These awards highlight truly exceptional efforts in recruiting across four categories: Best Recruiting Team, Best Candidate Experience, Best Hiring Process, and Best Platform Deployment.

After the winners took their awards, there was a brief thank you and summary by Brett Queener, President and COO of SmartRecruiters, followed by a rocking Smarty Party held on the 30th floor of the Marriott where recruiters celebrated Hiring Success with stunning views of the city by the bay.