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The second day of Transform 2024 continued to captivate attendees with thought-provoking sessions focused on leveraging unique talents, innovating HR practices, redefining talent search and driving organizational growth through strategic talent acquisition. Leaders from various sectors shared their insights, challenges and solutions, providing valuable takeaways for talent acquisition professionals aiming to enhance their strategies and impact.
Our Director of Business Development, Matthew Braccio, was there to bring you the recaps!
The Next Play – Building the Bridge for Career Outcomes, the Elite Athlete Experience
Session by Jason Price, Co-Founder & COO at NextPlayU
Jason took the stage to discuss the challenges athletes face when transitioning from sports to the workforce. His talk provided insights into how NextPlayU supports these transitions and helps integrate athletes into new professional roles.
Relevant Highlights
- Supporting Transitions: Jason emphasized the importance of supporting athletes through their post-sport career transitions. “We’ve all experienced transitions. The athlete one is such a unique experience that it takes a unique mindset to do it, and we’re unlocking that through your new team in the next phase.” He noted that NextPlayU serves as a new team for these individuals, offering a sense of community and helping them realize they are not alone in this journey.
- Diversity and Performance: The session highlighted that 84% of NextPlayU participants were team captains, and 74% were females or from underrepresented communities. These athletes not only bring diversity but also demonstrate high performance in their new roles.
- Case Study – Jamie’s Story: He shared the success story of Jamie, a Stanford graduate and former professional water polo player, who transitioned to a thriving career in tech, showcasing how athletes can leverage their skills in new industries. “Jamie thrived. She learned how to tell her story… and she learned what to say and what to do and how to bring that tenacity and that grit to help companies outperform.”
- Company Partnerships: NextPlayU partners with tech companies to offer marketing, training and support for athletes transitioning into new careers. This collaboration aims to enhance company performance by tapping into the unique skills of athletes.
This session offered valuable perspectives on leveraging the skills and experiences of athletes in the workforce, highlighting the potential for companies to gain from this untapped talent pool.
Elevating Strategic HR Outcomes
Session by Noelle London, Founder & CEO of Illoominus
Noelle addressed the burnout crisis among HR leaders in her session. She focused on the challenges HR professionals face, including the need to make strategic decisions without clear data from their tech stacks.
Relevant Highlights
- HR Challenges: Noelle opened by painting a vivid picture of the constant challenges HR leaders face, leading to a staggering 98% claiming burnout due to increased demands and reduced resources. “It almost feels like every single headline in a newspaper today is an HR problem to solve,” she noted, emphasizing the critical need for effective tools.
- Tech Stack Limitations: Despite having an average of 16 different tools, HR professionals struggle to get clear insights on what strategies are effective. She highlighted the gap in data analytics within HR tech stacks: “Even with an average of 16 different tools within your tech stack, the problem is that those tools are not telling you what’s actually working and what’s not.”
- Alumis Solution: Illoominus aims to unify disparate HR tools into one comprehensive platform, providing clear insights and peer benchmarks. Noelle explained, “We sit on top of your disparate HR tech stack…bringing that information together so that we’re drawing insights and learning across your HR tech stack.”
- Real-world Applications: Noelle shared examples of how companies in technology and retail are using Illoominus to proactively address challenges like voluntary attrition and quick-quitting, showcasing the platform’s versatility in solving industry-specific issues.
This session shed light on the critical need for integrated data analytics in HR to support strategic decision-making and address the high burnout rates among HR professionals. Illoominus presents a solution by offering a unified platform that draws insights from the entire HR tech stack, aiming to alleviate the pressures faced by HR teams and improve overall strategic HR outcomes.
Future of Search
Session by Brian Fink, Talent Acquisition Partner at McAfee
Brian delivered an engaging session on the “Future of Search,” demonstrating innovative techniques to bypass paywalls and find valuable candidate information online. His approach combines technical savvy with creative strategies to uncover resumes and professional profiles that are typically hidden behind digital barriers.
Relevant Highlights
- Bypassing Paywalls: Brian opened by challenging attendees to think beyond traditional search methods, introducing strategies to navigate around digital paywalls and access free resumes at scale. “We’re going to dismiss the paywalls that everybody gets tripped up on and that we all have to pay for. And we’re going to find free resumes,” he stated, setting the tone for a session focused on resourceful search tactics.
- Utilizing Site Command: The session detailed using the ‘site:’ command in search engines to isolate search results to specific platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, allowing for targeted searches of professional profiles and potential candidates. Fink demonstrated live how attendees could implement these techniques in real time to find profiles of medical professionals, among others.
- Finding Resumes with File Type Searches: A significant portion of Brian’s presentation was dedicated to showing how to use the ‘filetype:’ command to locate publicly available resumes saved as Word documents or PDFs on the internet. This method provides a direct route to candidates’ resumes without encountering the common paywalls of major platforms.
- Real-world Applications: He shared examples of how these methods could be applied to find IT managers in Texas, showcasing the practical benefits of his search strategies for talent acquisition professionals across industries.
This session highlighted the evolving landscape of talent search and the importance of leveraging unconventional methods to stay ahead in the competitive field of talent acquisition. Brian Fink’s expertise and innovative approach offer valuable insights for recruiters looking to refine their search techniques and discover hidden talent in the digital age.
Impact Through Talent
Session by Felix Mitchell, Founder & Co-CEO of Instant Impact
Felix explored how talent acquisition can be a driver for organizational growth. His session outlined Instant Impact’s approach to helping small and mid-sized companies hire transformative talent by leveraging dedicated on-site recruiters and cutting-edge technology.
Relevant Highlights
- Addressing HR Challenges: Felix painted a concerning picture of the talent acquisition landscape, with 59% of businesses unable to find the talent needed for strategic objectives. He noted the burnout issue among HR leaders, emphasizing the need for a new approach: “59% of businesses find that unable to hire will find the talent that they need to hit their strategic objectives.”
- Guiding Principles: Instant Impact operates on three guiding principles to reshape talent acquisition: expecting more from TA functions, adding value beyond immediate tasks and reimagining recruitment processes. He stressed the importance of these principles in transforming recruiting from an administrative function to a growth engine.
- Utilizing LinkedIn Insights: A significant portion of the session focused on the underutilized potential of tools like LinkedIn for strategic insights beyond recruitment. He showcased how data from LinkedIn could guide business strategies and support decisions at the executive level, offering a broader impact of talent acquisition activities on organizational success.
- Reimagining Processes with Technology: Felix highlighted innovative uses of technology for transcribing interviews, which not only improves candidate experience but also provides valuable data for making informed hiring decisions.
This session provided attendees with a fresh perspective on talent acquisition’s role in achieving business strategies, emphasizing the importance of innovative thinking and strategic use of technology in recruiting. His approach through Instant Impact illustrates how talent acquisition can become a pivotal element of organizational growth and differentiation.
