First of all, thank you to the 3,900+ amazing people who read this newsletter.

Hi, it’s Joel Lalgee, AKA The Realest Recruiter.

I publish this newsletter every 2 weeks and highlight all my top content from TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

Along with bad takes, news, and a ton of other stuff I think is not boring.

I hope you enjoy it!!!

This email was sent to me by a connection who is out of work currently and she was upset by the way the email seemed to suggest that the job market was booming.

I’ve made several videos of late that talk about how brutal the job market is and every time I do, people comment things like “What about low unemployment?” or “What about the JOLTS report?”.

My response is always the same, take a deep dive and try, and understand the data. Yes, there is low unemployment (according to how it’s measured), and yes there are lots of job openings mainly in industries people aren’t interested in.

That DOESN’T magically make people’s job search any easier - especially for white-collar jobs right now.

All I ask is people listen to the job seekers going through the market before throwing out vague data.

There is a massive pushback to the office. I have been vocal that I 100% believe this is about control, quiet layoffs, and commercial real estate.

What’s also becoming clear is who this initiative hurts. Women and those with disabilities are likely to be negatively affected, whether that was by design or an unfortunate side effect of the return to office, it’s interesting that this data is showing up while productivity data is yet to be confirmed.

The same companies that boasted flexibility, opportunity for diverse candidates, and employee-first environments are the same companies screaming that nothing can replace “in-person” collaboration a few years later.

If you guys follow me, you know my prediction is a “remote work comeback” the moment that recruitment becomes more challenging and the market bounces back.

2022 and 2023 have been tough times for recruitment teams...

I've spoken to thousands of recruitment agency owners, Internal TA leaders, and recruiters and most have been scratching their heads wondering what they're doing wrong.

Well, now we can see that the Big players in the Recruitment/staffing space have taken significant hits.

This may seem like "negative" news but to me, it's a wake-up call, and a moment for companies to rethink strategies we've been using for decades that quite frankly aren't as effective as they were.

Using a playbook from the 90s won't work in today's hyper-competitive market.

My partners at Recruiterflow have put together a comprehensive analysis that covers what we've all been filling with actual data and analysis.

I won't spoil all the results but my key takeaway for agency and internal recruiters is simple.

Whether you're internal, agency, an individual contributor or a leader figuring out how to provide value that differentiates you from other partners is the key to job survival.

Providing creative solutions to client problems and understanding how to build meaningful partnerships vs transactional relationships will be key.

Learning how to build a digital brand and leverage automation/AI will be crucial over the next decade to win.

Let me know what you think about the report in the comments: you can access the full report HERE.

#staffing #recruitment

There may have been a little clickbait with this post 😂 , but hey it’s social media that’s part of the game… The most interesting part of this post is the clear disdain for “Unlimited PTO” that popped up in the comments.

I’ve never been burned by Unlimited PTO, mainly because I worked for companies with supportive leaders and strong cultures.

However in most studies they’ve published on the topic, people take LESS time off and end up getting burned.

Again, I’d argue that this is just poor leadership vs a vacation policy but the data doesn’t lie.

What do you think? Are you a fan of unlimited PTO?

TikTok 

This post resonated with many obviously!

Are you experiencing this yourself?

By now you’ve probably already seen the news that Tiktok may get banned… You may have also seen that Linkedin is playing around with a video/TikTok feed.

My personal thought is Linkedin will struggle because they don’t have enough video creators on the platform and people just don’t spend that much time there.

What do you think?

Referrals will always be a powerful referral source, apparently, people agree!

Character is talked a lot about in hiring but so far no one has come up with a “solution” to rate it.

That’s why Kanny caught my attention. They are essentially a Peer 2 Peer social scoring system that helps companies understand character and helps candidates develop their character where needed.

They look at things like honesty, reliability, coachability etc.

As you can see from this Poll. Character matters, more to come on this cool company.

Since I started in recruitment a decade ago, nothing has been "easy"... but there are so many great tools available that can help you focus on being a better recruiter.

Since I got back in recruitment at the end of last year, here are the tools I am using, and the great news, you can try most of them out yourself for free:

EQ Buddy: Eq Buddy is the best AI personal recruitment assistant on the market. From sourcing, messaging, and creating job ads, EQ Buddy does it all. With membership, you get access to the product as well as networking opportunities in the EQ Connect community. I use EQ Buddy for Business Development, candidate outreach, and gathering news for the industries I serve. It’s a must-have and getting even better every day.

Recruiterflow - When I started in recruitment I used a spreadsheet, since then I've worked with a lot of frustrating ATSs. When I started my own shop I decided I needed a new tool, so I was referred to Recruiterflow. Their interface is clean and customizable, they can provide me with client portals so I look more professional, and best of all their data migration is painless. You can try them here if you're sick of the ATS Bull**** 😉 

Betterleap: Contact information is expensive and usually not accurate, and most sourcing tools have confusing prices. That's why I love Betterleap, you can source using natural language and they have access to the best contact information (DM me if you want to put it to the test against your tool). You can try Betterleap for free!

Metaview - of course, I love this one. No more note-taking for recruiters with instant conversation summaries so you can focus on being the most engaged recruiter you can be. This is a time saver and easily one of my favorite tools. You can try Metaview here and mention “Joel 2024” for the extended month-long trial.

So please guys, if you aren't upping your game, try these tools for FREE,

It will make your life easier, even if recruiting is still a challenge 😉

I am partnered with all the companies above and highly recommend their services!

Thank you for reading this episode:

About the Author: Joel Lalgee has built a social media following of over 700,000. In 2019 he started creating content on Linkedin and since then he has expanded to Tiktok, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram… yeah everywhere. He’s also hosted 2 successful podcasts. His content has been viewed over 500,000,000 times and he now coaches recruitment teams on how to create content successfully to win on social media.

If you need additional help with your content I’m providing 1 on 1 coaching, corporate team workshops/training, and ghostwriting and advising services. Want to work with me?

You can book a quick call here

Until next time!

Joel

✌🏽

therealestrecruiter.com