Vanessa Raath & James Hornick: Double Trouble – Recruiting Trailblazers 1 Year Anniversary

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the podcast, Marcus Edwardes speaks with two amazing guests: Vanessa Raath, a global sourcing trainer and international keynote speaker based in South Africa; and James Hornick, partner at Hirewell, a 70-person recruitment agency in Chicago. James is also known as the publisher for the Talent Rants and Sarcasm newsletter.

Listen in as Vanessa and James give their thoughts on how market conditions have changed over the past year-and-a-half and how the roles of the sourcer and recruiter have evolved as a result.

Vanessa shares how attitudes have shifted with regard to remote working and how this has led to the rise of the hybrid workplace, why sourcers and recruiters need to optimize their online brand if they want to stand out in today’s market, and where to recruit and follow-up aside from LinkedIn Recruiter.

James explains the art of the counteroffer, why tenure is not a measure of good or bad decisions made by the recruiter, and the disconnect between what companies advertise and what job seekers really want.


What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:19] How the sourcing an role has changed in the last several months

●      [08:38] The rising importance of the recruiter’s online brand

●      [11:56] Recruiting for big versus small brands and automating your process

●      [14:42] Finding and following up with candidates beyond LinkedIn Recruiter

●      [17:21] Considerations around personalization

●      [20:04] Vanessa’s top advice for struggling sourcers and recruiters

●      [23:30] How Hirewell is differentiating itself in today’s market

●      [26:40] How unique, relevant content and teamwork keep Hirewell top-of-mind with candidates

●      [30:39] The art of the counteroffer

●      [37:19] Preparing candidates to deal with counteroffers from their employer

●      [40:11] Why ping-pong tables, beer taps, and the like are no longer in vogue

●      [41:36] How hybrid models will continue to develop in the coming months

●      [43:26] What engineers are really looking for in their new roles


Key quotes:

●      “The demand for sourcers and recruiters, from a global perspective, has literally gone through the roof.” ~Vanessa

●      “The beauty of your online brand is that it all comes down to you and how hard you want to work at it.” ~Vanessa

●      “If you’re a company in the employee perks industry, you have to be getting killed right now, because nobody cares about this stuff. All they care about is more money and to be able to work from home if they feel like it. Those are your two levers, and nothing else is really resonating right now.” ~James

●      “Companies have such company-focused language. They think they know what’s cool about their company that they want to sell, but it’s not in line with what job seekers want to hear about, typically.” ~James


Resources Mentioned:

●      Vanessa Raath

●      James Hornick on LinkedIn