From Empowering Women to AI in Talent Acquisition: Insights from the IHR Live London Conference 2023.
Last week, we visited the In-house Recruitment Live Conference, London 2023, held at the Business Design Centre in Islington. The conference brought together leading professionals in talent acquisition, employer brand services, tech solution partners and more. Attendees had the choice to visit a variety of stalls hosted by industry experts promoting services to streamline the recruitment process or watch one of the many discussion panels taking place throughout the day.
We had the pleasure of attending several panels exploring a range of issues, from attracting women and diverse talent into the workforce to the role of AI and technology in modern recruitment.
The Role of AI in Modern Recruitment
A major topic for those in the talent acquisition sector is the growing influence of AI on their roles. Hung Lee dispelled some of these concerns in his session We think, we feel: why both matter for recruitment. The audience squirmed in their seats and then relaxed again as Lee shared how the future of AI ‘exposed’ and ‘insulated’ aspects of TA roles.
His talk sought to demystify some of the prevailing narratives around AI, offering an alternative vision of generative technologies as a tool for improving efficiency – companies harvesting this as they continue to promote their own sensitivity and expertise to deliver excellent results.
Empowering Women into your Workforce
Other panels we visited explored how corporations are failing to appeal to diverse talent. Most companies today have awakened to the realisation that having a diverse workforce is essential to the healthy ecosystem and success of an organisation. They demand “Come join us”, yet candidates cannot see themselves reflected in their companies.
The disconnect between an organisation’s words and actions became a central theme in the panel discussion Future Proofing your Recruitment with a Blended Talent Team, hosted by the Rec Hub. The talk highlighted that to increase your potential female candidates, women must want to come to work for you rather than the other way around!
Instead of ‘championing diversity stats’, the panel emphasised the importance of the benefits, aspirations & culture you offer as a company; an organisation must have a strong employee value proposition (EVP) - that’s music to our ears.
Additionally, the speakers articulated the significance of female representation in leadership roles. It is challenging for women to envision themselves working and advancing professionally within your company if you do not reflect them in your top positions.
Jayne Hughes, SMRS, and Amy Farrington, PepsiCo, further reinforced the importance of representation in their discussion Nuancing a global EVP to talk to women. They stressed that women not only want to see themselves in an organisation’s leadership roles but also want to see women in leadership positions maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Moreover, women in different parts of the world hold varying cultural views and expectations of the workplace. A global EVP targeting women must be adapted to suit the needs and desires of women in specific regions. Hughes and Farrington emphasised in their conversation that an EVP should not be a stagnant proposition. A company must continually refine its EVP to reflect the changing needs and desires of potential candidates and employees over time.
Kianna Briggs & Jess Richardson discussed the importance of momentum and continued action in their panel Elevating diversity within talent: The power of placing ‘I’ before ‘D’ in diversity, equity & inclusion. They argued that in order to retain diverse talent in your organisation, it is crucial that you not only embed diversity strategies into your recruitment marketing but make them a part of your organisation’s DNA, from onboarding processes to day-to-day work life.
To conclude, the IHR Live Conference 2023 raised many questions at the forefront of our culture today. There are exciting possibilities and opportunities growing out of the development of AI. However, there’s still much more to discuss here – crucially whether AI is being used to think originally and creatively and the misinformation that can come from generative AI tools.
Conversations on attracting and retaining diverse talent shared an overarching message about the importance of an authentic and transparent work culture to engage meaningfully with the potential candidates that companies want to attract. The onus is on companies to adapt and change their own ways of working if they want to empower women to succeed. Further interesting conversations to develop out of these dialogues would be how to approach intersectionality within regional recruitment marketing and the role of men in shaping a workplace conducive to the needs of women.
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