We Must Run to The Fire

 This post first appeared on John’s Try Harder is Not a Strategy LinkedIn Newsletter.

Back in 2022, when things were peak crazy for TA, I wrote a post for LinkedIn's Talent Blog about what to do when we're stretched too thin - too many reqs, not enough resources, too many priorities. It's a good read, as while the context for being too lean relative to the work was covid-era hiring targets, the basic principles still apply now - we're running lean for different reasons now (economy, AI, capital vs human investments, etc.). You can read it here: https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/talent-leaders-stretched-too-thin

In that article I talk about how "try harder is not a strategy" (the name of this newsletter), and introduce the idea of running to the fire.

We must demonstrate our value always, but especially now with so much investment in automation and AI. We must take on the hard stuff, the stuff that demonstrates and justifies why we make the big bucks. We must run to the fire.

The most challenging reqs, the most challenging hiring teams, the most challenging HRBPs, the most challenging compensation and immigration and relocation requirements. That work requires amazing human Talent Advisors. It's always tempting to focus on the easier reqs and teams first, and no question you should have a way to align your time and resources to the most business critical work, even if it's the easy stuff.

But now we must start to imagine a world coming soon where that easier work - the work requiring only transactional recruiting support - will soon be mostly handled by AI and Hiring Manager self-service. For some well defined, higher volume reqs, that's been happening for years. 2 years ago I led a panel at Unleash with FedEx where they highlighted how they hired 300,000 hourly people with no recruiters - no human FedEx employees were involved until post-sourcing, post-screening, post-offer, post-onboarding paperwork. That was 2 years ago.

Some of the best career advice I ever received when I was a hands-on recruiter was to figure out how to engage and work with the hardest hiring managers and teams. It accelerated my skills, my career, and my confidence. While I have stories - like you do - of terrible hiring managers I've worked with, I mostly learned that the hardest to work with HMs weren't so bad if I showed up ready to run to the fire...to do the hard work, have the hard conversations, push back with data and insights, and show them how we could get their team top talent if we worked together differently.