Change is hard. And with a big shift in presidential and legislative power coming in January 2025, Talent Acquisition has to be ready for change.
A couple of weeks ago, at Unleash Paris, Kate Aunaas-Ingram, Vice President of Attraction and Mobility for Statkraft, spoke about change, specifically in recruiting and during periods of growth.
Whether or not your company is poised on a period of growth or not, the lessons she had for change can be helpful when looking toward 2025. Here are Aunaas-Ingram’s points for looking at change:
These points are great on their own, and each is worthy of a whole article–if not a book. I want to look more closely at three and how I think they apply to recruiting.
Every couple of months, I get an email from someone who wants to report the latest evil company. They send me screenshots of the offending job application questions. What are they upset about? Questions that ask about sexual orientation.
I explain that while the EEOC doesn’t require companies to report on sexual orientation, many companies want to know if they are reaching diverse populations. The only way to measure something is to ask about it! I assure them that that data is kept with the other demographic data and has no impact on the hiring decisions.
People are okay with that once I explain how it works. But I shouldn’t have to explain it! The company that decided to include that should explain that in the application, but they don’t.
The company wants to make a change for all the right reasons, but they just tell people. They don’t engage. They don’t explain.
When you simply tell people what you’re doing and why, it makes change easier. For instance:
People tend to be understanding when you make an effort to explain.
When I saw this on Aunaas-Ingram’s slide, I was a bit confused until she explained. What worked for her to expand Statkraft, a Norwegian green energy company, won’t work for you to expand your Silicon Valley-based startup.
If you just take your plan from your previous company and try to introduce it to a new company, you’ll fail. And even if you try to take your plan from 2024 into 2025, you’ll find out that even that copy and paste won’t work.
Things will change in 2024. The NLRB’s composition and general counsel will change, as will the EEOC’s and DEI programs’ programs. Talent acquisition will also have to change!
And those are just the changes at the federal level. There will be state and local changes. The biggest changes of all are likely to be market changes. Whether you expand or contract, it will be different.
So, prepare to be different and adjust recruiting plans as needed. Sticking to last year’s plan will not bring success to your job.
Everyone talks about how they want change! But they don’t. Well, they want other people to change, not themselves. Because change is hard.
Aunaas-Ingram walked listeners through the change curve. This started with denial, dropped down into frustration, and bottomed out in the valley of despair before climbing with experimenting with the new way, acceptance, and finally, integration. If you approach change with the idea that you’ll introduce the idea and immediately jump to acceptance and integration, you’ll find yourself sad and frustrated.
Change, even good change, is hard. Even something you’ve wanted your whole life can be difficult when you make the change.
We must stop associating “hard” things with “bad things.” Doing hard things is really the only way to better things.
Implementing a better applicant tracking system can be hard. Learning all the ins and outs of a new system can certainly send you into the valley of despair, but you’ll come out better in the end.
Hiring a new person, implementing a new process, or firing a slacker can all be very difficult. Yes, you may cheer when the slacker heads out the door, but even the worst slacker is doing something.
Change is hard. Brace yourself for a valley of despair, but know that you can get through it and emerge from it with integration and acceptance.
Who knows for sure what changes lie ahead? But you need to be ready to do the work.
