RECLive 2024 - The pace of change in an uncertain world.
The Recruitment industry is at the epoch of technological and societal change. They serve their candidates, they serve their clients and as a professional services industry, they must adapt.
The Weekly Walkaway highlights negotiation in its ‘good’, ‘bad’ and sometimes ‘downright ugly’ forms. Issue No. 83 (28th June 2024).
RecLive 2024
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) held its first full in-person conference this week (25 June 2024) in London, following four years of online events prompted by the global Covid-19 pandemic.
As a REC business partner, Kahvay was kindly invited to join the event and what a day!
The calibre of speakers was top notch and it was great to see the industry getting together to share insights and challenges ahead of 2025.
A few of the speakers that we were lucky enough to catch were:
Neil Carberry, Chief Executive REC
Priya Lakhani, Founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech
James Reed CBE Chairman & CEO REED
Pellegrino Riccardi, Keynote Speaker, Communication Skills Trainer
Simon French, Managing Director, Chief Economist and Head of Research
Panmure Gordon
Tiger Tyagarajan, Senior Advisor BCG and Board Member GENPACT, Jabil, and Kantar
Hung Lee, Editor and Community builder Recruiting Brainfood
Why It Matters
The topics were varied, but the general theme was clear.
The pace of change in an uncertain world.
The impact of AI, the macro socio / economic environment, recession and and and. Even though technological change is accelerating, the importance of human connection (and human ‘intelligence’) is still essential in navigating this change.
The recruitment industry is at the forefront of this change and they must adapt or struggle to find their place in the future of the workplace.
Inexperienced negotiators could prove costly
As we’ve discussed in a previous post:
There is an entire generation of negotiators who have never had to operate in a down market.
We at Kahvay passionately believe that the only way out of this is to stop talking about price and volume and start talking about value.
If you’d like to discuss how you can navigate better-negotiated outcomes, drop us a line below…
Recruitment industry: State of the Nation
"The challenge is we don’t know where we’re going, we just know we need to move."
Neil Carberry
Threats and opportunities.
Neil Carberry kicked off the proceedings with a recruitment industry State of the Nation, one that spoke to a challenging economic and political climate and how the industry must adapt to the market.
Although there are small shoots of growth in the economy, the need for recruitment firms to move away from purely transactional relationships with their client, to ones based on partnership is ever more important.
“International leaders looking at the UK often ask me why our market is so transactional. But these are the learned behaviours of a different labour market – one that has gone forever. We need to educate both our clients and our candidates on what comes next.”
“Firms are struggling with the changing expectations of our own workforce in the profession, and on a search for new routes to productivity. And, as part of that, the pace of technological change means that our businesses have new opportunities and threats emerging, every day.
Neil Carberry
The Impact of AI
Priya Lakhani, was definitely a highlight of the day as she dove into all things AI as she educated the audience on the different types of AI, and why it mattered.
Not all AI is equal.
The source of the data is the primary constraint and so she urged the audience to really consider what the problems they are trying to solve, before deciding which AI technology to implement.
What was clear is that AI is here to stay and businesses big and small need to get on the bus, or be left behind in its wake.
"You cannot have an AI strategy without a data strategy…
Write down the goals you want to achieve, personally and professionally and sit down and look at what AI can help you solve. Focus on the problems you want to solve, the goals you want to achieve…
If there is a person in your business that does not understand what AI is, they are your single point failure because the train has already left the station and it’s not going back."
Priya Lakhani
Voice of a Leader
James Reed was awesome, he spoke with Neil Carberry in a fireside chat format on the subject of the ‘Voice of a leader’ and Kate Shoesmith Deputy CEO at the REC could not have said it any better:
@James_A_Reed approached this fireside chat with humility, insight & wisdom.
James Reed clearly has a very strong moral compass and is driven by the purpose to “improve lives through work”. The Fireside chat covered several topics but some of our favourite quotes were:
“There should be a workforce strategy on how to get the best from people and how to give the best to people. There is a big cohort of people who are not getting help to get into work that could be. They need support from people like us and that support is not rocket science”
“We’re seeking to connect people in a healthy, constructive and positive way. It’s how we can use technology to do that with integrity – that’s super important. Recruiters play a really important role in helping people progress their lives through work.”
“On cannibalisation? I made a decision a long time ago I would rather eat myself than have someone else do it!”
“With the emergence of new technologies, it’s important to have a go. As we say at Reed, if the bus looks like it’s going somewhere interesting we want to be on it… although the joke is we often end up walking home.”
“good business places people first. Our purpose and values are the constants that must guide us in these times of great uncertainty and change. As Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for lunch” and a great culture is the result of clear values and clarity of purpose.”
James Reed
The debate to end all debates
We loved the debate format that was hosted by Neil Carberry and
. They each gave highly engaging, but opposing sides, of the argument for and against the following topics…Will we ever kill the industry's image problem?
Is productivity the biggest problem in UK recruitment?
Will today's consultants struggle in tomorrow's world?
Are our reward systems broken?
Is skills-based hiring a new variation on an old theme?
Are clients their own worst enemy?
Both gave a solid account for themselves, but we reckon Hung Lee, won the debate all in all…
"We need to understand the value we get from community intelligence, collective intelligence from events like REC Live and through shared knowledge like Brainfood. Some of the most important conversations you will have are through informal chats, they won’t be recorded, and won’t be available from AI. So those that are plugged into the community will have the advantage.”
Hung Lee
Leading through uncertainty
And last but certainly not least, Pellegrino Riccardi, spoke as the keynote close, and delivered an inspiring and insightful talk on ‘Leading through uncertainty’.
He used the five stages of the Kübler-Ross Grief Cycle to illustrate our need to adapt and move through change as quickly as we can…
"Our expectations were turned upside down during the pandemic. Sooner or later when you lose something you will eventually have to reassess your expectations and get to acceptance before you can move on. And it’s the same with tech and AI. You need to accept it’s happening and embrace it before you can move forward. "
"Your relationships with your clients are built on developing that long-term promise. Can you answer the 3 relationship questions? Are we safe? Are we connected? Do we share a future together?"
Pellegrino Riccardi
Pellegrino also played the following to the audience, Jorgen Dahl Moe, a singer on the Norwegian version of The Voice, where he currently lives, to prove a point about the power of human connection, and truthfully, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house…
Final Thoughts
The Recruitment industry is at the epoch of technological and societal change. They serve their candidates and they serve their clients and as a professional services industry, they must learn to adapt to this change.
Embracing this change, through community, conversation and collaboration are a few of the secrets to navigating these uncertain times.
Tactics that work in a buoyant market, are not the same tactics that will work in the current and future market. Sales (and indeed negotiation) is different, Recruitment is different, and the skills required are different.
I also loved James Reeds quote on them 'taking a bus on many an exciting adventure but to find they had to walk home' as a way of describing the need to push, test and not fear failing because sometimes trying something new, of reaching a different destination, is risky but could be so rewarding.