Live From SHRM Talent

It's day 3 of the SHRM Talent Conference & Expo happening both virtually and in-person in Aurora, Colorado. 

Attracting and retaining staff continues to be a key priority for most attendees, as nearly half (49%) of U.S. workers are actively searching for a new job right now, or plan to do so over the next few months. 

Talent professionals at the event  are leveraging new tech and sharing fresh strategies to tackle the pressures of Great Resignation head-on throughout the rest of 2022.

Yesterday, Guild Education Chief People Officer and talent expert Lorna Hagen applied lessons she’s learned to the challenges of today on the Talent Main Stage in a conversation with SHRM Chief Global Development Officer Nick Schacht 

Dan Hunter, founder at Workzinga also presented yesterday. His session was called Aligning What You Offer With What They Need. 

Bill Banham is joined by Dan - live from the SHRM Talent floor - to get his thoughts on the conference so far and what he's hoping to see over days 3 and 4. 

Transcript

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Speaker 1 0:01

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Speaker 2 0:22

Welcome to this special episode of the HR chat show. It's day three of the Sherm talent conference and expo that's happening both virtually and in person in Aurora sunny , Colorado attracting and retaining staff continues to be a key priority for most attendees as nearly half that's 49% of us workers are actively searching for a new job right now, or plan to do so over the next few months, talent professionals at the event held at the Gaylor Rockies resort and convention center are leveraging new technologies and sharing fresh strategies to tackle the pressures of the great resignation head on throughout the rest of 2022. Now, sadly, I can't be there, but I know someone who is having a ball in Aurora and that's Dan hunter founder at work zinger, and Dan presented a session yesterday , uh, on the smart stage. And that was called aligning what you offer with what they need. And I'm pleased to say that I'm joined today by Dan live from the Sherm talent floor, just outside the expo hall doors, in fact, to get his thoughts on the conference so far and what he's hoping to see over day three and day four. Dan, it's my pleasure to welcome you back to the HR chat podcast today.

Speaker 3 1:38

I appreciate you having me on it's , uh, an exciting time and I'm , I'm happy to be here to share

Speaker 2 1:42

With you. This is about as live as this format of a podcast gets listeners. Um , we are recording this very first thing in the morning mountain time , uh, on, on , uh, the third day of the, the talent conference and expo by Sherm. Um , and it's gonna be going live within a matter of hours. Um , and , uh, Dan hunter was kind enough to agree to get on a call with me for about 15 minutes and talk about what's happening at the event so far. Um, other sessions that are coming up , um, anything that he's seen, which he's been particularly impressed by also Dan presented , uh, yesterday. I think it was. Uh , so we're gonna talk a little bit about that too. Uh , so Dan firstly , um, why don't you start by sharing why work singer is , is at the Sher talent conference and expo and , and , you know , what's that what's that fit with your brand, right?

Speaker 3 2:31

So , um, this is definitely an ideal setting for us. Um , the , the attendees of the conference here are really the target audience from our product. They're the ones that are gonna benefit the most from it. Um , you've got talent, acquisition managers and directors here. You've got leaders in the HR space and the recruiting space, and they're really the ones that truly understand the value of what our product is gonna offer. So just the conversations we've had so far, you can see it in their face, that when we start describing the product and the solution we're offering, that this really is the right place and the right time for us. And the conscience has just been , it's been great so far. Uh , the speakers are terrific. Uh , the expo hall is great. So , um, I'm looking forward to another good day today.

Speaker 2 3:14

Excellent. Any, any particular conversations that, that spring to mind that really stick out so far from, from being on the, the expo floor, Dan ,

Speaker 3 3:23

Um, you know , yesterday I had a , a really great conversation with someone who is from a nonprofit and when we've , uh, talked about the, the , the breadth of our offering and what we can offer into whom, and, you know, I I've said before that we're fairly agnostic on industry. Um, it's, it spoke to me yesterday. There is a, a special type of situation that nonprofits run into , um, when it comes to both recruiting and retention , um, frequently, they just cannot be as competitive on compensation and salary as for profit scenarios. So they have some additional , um, challenges in front of them . And so we had a really good conversation about how we could tailor , um, our approach to help them specifically. And I think it just, it , it just gave me a whole new view on another area that we could specialize in. So I, I definitely appreciate that , uh, that opportunity as well as , um, just in general, when I was having our conversation yesterday on the floor, I had a couple of people reach out to me already just to get further information and how timely they felt like this solution was for them.

Speaker 2 4:25

Okay. So let's talk a little bit about your session that you presented yesterday called aligning what you offer with what they need. Um , I'd , I'd love to get a chance to hear from you a little bit about , um, some of the key learnings from, from that session and, and maybe how, how folk reacted to it.

Speaker 3 4:42

Yeah, so I , I had three main points. Um, the , the first is that for companies who wanna hire based on culture, they first need to understand their culture and that , um, it's very easy to look at your mission statement, your value statement, your core values and, and everything else that you produce and say, that's your culture, but I would argue that that represents a piece of it, but it's certainly not your entire culture. And that you really need to understand the underlying areas where culture is prominent in your organization. Things like in your day to day conversations between clients and, and people with your company or between colleagues or between superiors and the people on their team, those types of conversations, you know , reveal a company's culture in vivid detail. And then there's many other areas. How do you employ compensation , um, rules and practices in your organization who gets rewarded, who gets , um, the opportunities for advancement and , um, many, many other opor , many, many other examples of how culture reveals itself in an organization in a very , um, subdued way, but very important. And you have to understand that , uh, our second point was just like, you have to understand yourself, you have to understand your candidates. Candidates will come to you with resumes and cover letters and well rehearsed answers to questions. But those are all things that they're saying, and they're writing purposefully. What about the things that go unsaid? The types of things that candidates don't reveal, maybe because they don't even know it about themselves, what are their real values? What are the things that really motivate them? What types of culture do they thrive in and what types of leaders do they most and best respond to? So candidates don't offer that up voluntarily. Like I said, simply because they don't understand it . So it's up to the talent acquisition process to draw that out. And then lastly, once you understand your own culture fully, and you understand the culture of your , the cultural preference of your candidates, then you can align, then you can really have a conversation about, is this the right fit? What are you bringing to the table? And are we the right company for you? So that was kind of it in a nutshell, I could spend hours on that. Um , but I was very fortunate and , and very thankful to have some time to, to talk about it in, in brief , um, with the audio yesterday.

Speaker 2 7:10

Awesome. Thank you. So let's look ahead to the last couple of talent then Dan . Uh , so today I believe features Mont president, super Barry and conversation with Sherm foundation, president, Wendy SRM , to address the importance of the changing workplace, one employee at time through the practice of sustained workplace equity, transparency, truth , and vulnerability. Um ,

Speaker 3 7:31

Very , it's a very full ball . We're joining that

Speaker 2 7:33

One .

Speaker 3 7:34

I will be. Um , and then there are a few others that I'm gonna be joining. There's a master class on , um, on creating a hiring funnel that I'll be attending. Um, and then there's a few other about recruiter, self motivation when you're going through difficult times, I'm looking forward to that discussion as well. But I think that that first discussion this morning is gonna be a barn burner. Um, everybody was lining up to go in there this morning. So I think it's gonna be amazing.

Speaker 2 7:57

Yeah. And then tomorrow, tomorrow on the talent main stage pro athlete , Tim Tebo, we'll be speaking on , on some of the factors that I impede or cultivate motivation in the workplace, Dan , and how HR leaders can energize their teams and create a healthy and inclusive work environment. Uh , are , are you hoping to go along to that one as well?

Speaker 3 8:15

Yeah , absolutely. I think the discussion around upskilling is gonna be incredibly important. So I'm looking forward to hearing Tim speak.

Speaker 2 8:22

Awesome. Thank you very much. Okay. So , um, any other events that you guys are gonna be at later this year in , in 2022 that , uh, you just wanna quickly highlight with our listeners? So for example , um, just to give Sherm a bit more love Dan, you and I hopefully will be meeting in person in new Orleans in, in a , in just a couple of months to June . Um, so that that's the Sherm conference, the big one that happens each year. Any other events that you guys you at work Ingel will be planning on attending this year?

Speaker 3 8:49

Yeah, yeah. We are definitely looking forward to the new Orleans , um, Sherm event. We think that's gonna be an amazing , um, what we've called our coming out party , um, or , um, our debut, because our, our full suite of both candidate and employer products will be available at that point. And we'll have , um, employers on board using the product at that point. So we've got a , a large , um, presence planned on the expo four , um, and some terrific events. Um, we really wanna give people , um, an , a unique experience when they come to the booth, hoping that they walk away feeling , um, not just that they got something from the product and they learned about it, but that they see what type of culture , um, can do for them and how uplifting it can be, and that maybe they can translate that back to their own organization. So I think the new Orleans , um, expo is gonna be terrific ReSTORs and then in September, we're gonna be going to the HR tech conference in Las Vegas. Um, again, we have a present plan there, and then I'll be doing a talk again about culture fit and alignment with candidates. Um, so I have an hour discussion in this at the September. Definitely look forward in looking forward to that event as well.

Speaker 2 10:01

Okay. Dan, you've been immersed in all things , Sherm talent for a couple of days now. Um, as I mentioned earlier, listeners, this is live from live . You can get from the Sherm talent conference and expert with Dan right now. Um , based on what you've seen, what you've heard, the conversations that you've had so far, Dan , uh, can you offer any predictions for the , for the future of recruitment and , uh, and HR over the next sort of six to 12 months?

Speaker 3 10:27

Yeah, I think , um, I think what you're hearing and you're seeing both from speakers and just from conversations on the floor is that recruiters are seeing that this is a new dynamic right now that the types of practices that have been employed up until this point, aren't going to necessarily be as successful going forward as they have been. You can't simply post a job and hope for the best. Um , you've gotta be more actively engaged in the process. You've gotta promote it, you've gotta advertise it. And you've really gotta focus on what you're offering once the candidate gets in the door. What are you offering during that interview process to really give them a glimpse of who you are as a company? I think a lot of companies have been good about that in the past. I think what you're gonna see is more companies adopting that strategy because they're gonna find it to be a competitive advantage if they do

Speaker 2 11:14

Excellent. And just finally for today, Dan , I know we've gotta let you go to, to get all ready for, for the expo floor and the , the sessions happening today. Um, how can our listeners connect with you? So maybe that's through LinkedIn, maybe you wanna share your email and how can they learn more about work zinger.

Speaker 3 11:29

Terrific. Um, absolutely join us on our website@www.work , zinga.com . Um, and you can feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. And my personal email address is Dan work.com . We'll be happy to talk with you more about the product offering, what we can do, how we can help you, and a little bit more about the , the challenge that we also in front of us and what we can do to partner with you. You

Speaker 2 11:53

Awesome. And if you wanna learn more about , um, all of the call events happening by , uh, the team over at Sherm, you can do that as well, listeners by going to conferences.sherm.org . Okay, well that just leads me to say four today . Dan , very much for being my guest on this episode, this special, almost live episode of the HR chat show .

Speaker 3 12:14

I appreciate it. Thank you very much. And thank you to the listeners .

Speaker 1 12:18

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR chat podcast. There are hundreds of conversations with business experts available for free on the HR Gazette website, apple, Spotify, and all the main platforms, and remember to like subscribe and follow us on social media.