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So, without further ado, Recruiting Regulators - mount up!
True Sound, Built In Front by Jeremy Lyons
TL;DR
You can incorporate honne (本音) and tatemae (建前) into your recruiting process by helping candidates understand your company’s vernacular, exhibiting empathy, and building out guides for your candidates.
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The words transparency and honesty are often used in employer branding and interviews. I have my own thoughts on how those words are used, but I was reminded the other day of how the concepts of honne (本音) and tatemae (建前) are often incorporated into TA when it comes to things like interviewing and candidate feedback.
Is this another Japanese lesson? Please tell me these are coming to an end soon…
Yes, it is another culturally influenced post. Yes, this will end soon, and I’ll return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Ok, great! I’m all ears then. Tell me more about honne (本音) and tatemae (建前).
The concept of honne (本音) and tatemae (建前) is often thought of as a key to Japanese culture and society. Simplified, and this is how it was explained to me when I was living and studying there, honne is your inside voice (or true sound), and tatemae is your outside voice (or built in front, like a facade). In this case, it isn’t talking about volume. It is talking about what you actually think or feel versus what you actually say or are required to do. Often, these two can run contrary to one another.
So, if I’m understanding you correctly and applying it to the professional world, honne would be those messages I send to my work bestie/wife/husband after a meeting where I get voluntold something, and tatemae is me saying to everyone, “I’m happy to do this!”.
Yeah, I meant to talk to you about those, but we’ll take that convo offline. Back on topic, essentially. If everyone on every team expressed their true, unfiltered feelings, it would be chaos, so instead, we opt for choosing professional speak. We opt to reduce discord as much as possible.
But wait… isn’t that slightly contrary to psychological safety? Shouldn’t everyone feel comfortable expressing their honne?
That’s a good point. You could say that it is. But there are other cultures out there that don’t approve of being completely open with your feelings and opinions. You must exhibit empathy when working with those whose cultures don’t align with your own.
How do you bring honne and tatemae to the candidate experience?
This is tough and nearly every recruiter has gone through this. On the one hand, you want to tell the candidate why they didn’t move forward (honne) but are advised to follow the corporate guidance (tatemae). Another situation could be that the recruiting process is dragging on, so candidates are waiting. You know that if they knew the reason (honne), they might have more understanding, but again, you are told to be vague to keep them holding on (tatemae). Obviously, both situations aren’t great and lead to a terrible candidate experience.
How can RecOps help resolve this?
Another fantastic question. There are a few ways.
Develop an authenticity policy. Most companies lack an authenticity policy in the recruiting process. By working with the leadership within the company, you can help design a policy that is in line with your company’s culture and values.
Share a company language guide. Every company has their own language. Some are easier to pick up than others. Because of this, it is important to share with candidates what specific words mean. This doesn’t need to be an elaborate dictionary but it tells the candidate how what they say matters.
Build out candidate guides that are public-facing. Most companies have job kickoff forms that capture exactly what they are looking for in simple language. However, the candidates often get the JD or guides filled with flowery language. Take advantage of fantastic tools (like candidate.fyi) or building your own to cut through that.
Candidate Experience
RecOps - Your Friendly RecOps GPT Update
RecOps is the #1 RecOps/TA Ops GPT in the OpenAI store. Thank you to all those who are using it. We work on it regularly to help it learn and keep pace with all the developments in the space. Again, suggestions are always welcomed.
Link: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-PDEG1n7fb-recops
Articles / Industry News
Articles We’re Reading/Podcasts We’re Listening To
Greenhouse’s How to Understand the ROI of Investing in People. Why? The data point of employee’s lifetime value (ELTV) is starting to creep into more and more conversations around internal mobility. This ebook does a great job of laying out things to look for, how to measure it, and how to understand the conversation.
Greenhouse’s 5 reasons talent operations is essential to your corporate strategy. Why? All in the title. But no, this is a quick hitting article that could easily be used to justify a business case for RecOps/TA Ops.
Matt Alder’s Episode 597 - Talent Acquisition Excellence. Why? This podcast episode covers a new book that talks about TA's future. While not about RecOps/TA Ops, it paints an interesting picture of the AI-enabled future that has you thinking about just that.
Praisidio’s Introduction to People Analytics: Strategy, Metrics, and Technology. Why? One of the jumps RecOps/TA Ops folks who are data-inclined make is into People Analytics. Additionally, we also often collaborate with People Analytics. This primer on the field is a great read that can help you better understand the field.
Bryq’s People Analytics Explained: Enhancing Recruitment, Engagement and Productivity. Why? Very similar reasons to the article above.
Gem’s WTF: Cut the BS: The Recruiting Tools You Actually Need. Why? Always good to hear about what tools are out there and what people think. Getting a little spicy, we’re always a little surprised when there isn’t a RecOps/TA Ops person on panels like these since we are often tasked with the boots-on-the-ground work, but maybe Gem has something up their sleeve for later.
Industry News (sorted alphabetically with space in the RecOps community in parenthesis)
Ashby (AiO - All in One) - Improvements to candidate availability, Integration: Juro
candidate.fyi (Candidate Experience/Scheduling) - Decoding Candidate Experience Data
Goodtime (Scheduling) - March Product Updates
iCIMS (ATS) - March Workforce Report
Jobsync (Hiring Ops Platform) - 5 Alarming Ways Your Recruiting Process is Violating GDPR
Lever (ATS) - Integration: Cobalt
Metaview (AI Transcription) - Capital Raise 🥰
Pinpoint (ATS) - March Product Updates, More Trend Dashboards
Poetry (Recruiter Enablement) - Job Playbook (video)
Screenloop (AiO) - Screenloop vs Notion: The Ultimate ATS Showdown for Startups
SmartRecruiters (ATS) - 44 Statistics on AI in Recruitment for 2024
Permanent Articles
Job Search
Gartner - Manager, Recruiting Operations
Fox Factory - Talent Acquisition Operations Specialist
Redbull - Coordinator, Talent Systems
Here is the list of previously listed jobs that may or may not be available.
Additional Resource
ATS Specific Job Boards
iCIMS's HR professionals job board aggregates all the HR jobs across their customers
Workable’s job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use Workable
SmartRecruiters’ job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use SR
Denys Dinkevych's remote job board, which aggregates jobs from all the major ATS
TrueUp - Has a fantastic job board filled with information others don’t like the last time the company did a layoff, application experience based on the ATS, and more.
Boolean Strings for Specific ATS Job Search
We’ve consolidated our list of boolean search strings for RecOps professionals to make them easier for everyone. Check out the list here. Again, thank you Steve Levy for contributing so many wonderful strings and Gabi Preston-Phypers for QA help. Follow both of them for excellent boolean and sourcing content.
#YourNextHire / People Looking In the RecOps Community
What I'm Looking to Do:
Over the past six years, I've delved into Recruitment Operations and Talent Acquisition, going beyond just recruiting to embrace data analysis, project management, and building vibrant workplace cultures. My journey has taken me from the innovative halls of Block and Latch (from Series A to IPO) to the creative spaces of AngelList and Tumblr, each step broadening my horizon.
Now, I'm seeking the buzz of startup life, particularly in early-stage ventures where I can contribute meaningfully. Whether it's shaping the future of an internal venture capital team or fostering a community, I'm all in. I'm flexible with onsite, hybrid, or remote setups based in New York City.
As someone from an underrepresented group in tech, I bring a unique perspective and a deep commitment to diversity and inclusion. I'm excited to find a team where my background and skills can help foster an inclusive and dynamic environment.
Roles I'm Looking for:
Title Agnostic: Recruiting Operations, Talent Programs, Org/Corporate Dev, or Chief of Staff/ Operations
Here is a Google Sheet View for a list of people who were previously featured and are still looking.
Events
Ashby - Scheduling 2.0 Webinar: Next-generation scheduling for modern recruiting
Talent Collective (with Ashby, CollabWorks, and MATCHR) - NEW YORK ~ Women in Recruiting Chapter Launch Event
🎉 Reminders and Disclaimers 🎉
We accept community contributions and like it’s content, always share this newsletter.
Our channels are open. If you’d like to contribute a job, an article (one you found or wrote), or you are a company and have a product update you want featured, contact Jeremy Lyons.
If you or someone you know would like to be featured in our #YourNextHire section, please use this form. The only condition is that they are a RecOps professional.
Disclaimer #1: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis do not reflect the position of any entity other than the author. As critically thinking professionals, these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time. They are not to be held in perpetuity.
Disclaimer #2: We are sponsor-free. No company below has paid us to advertise their products or share their open jobs. If that changes, we will deliberately call out where we stand to benefit. Additionally, sharing these opportunities and information should not be read as support for these companies or their practices. Regarding jobs, we share these opportunities with the community and only post roles from the company's website. We encourage possible candidates to research each one as their inclusion does not mean we support the companies or their values.
Until next week, Regulators 😊