IAMPHENOM Session Recap: The End of Talent Acquisition As We Know It

This year’s IAMPHENOM Conference was filled with a healthy mix of industry practitioners and thought leaders. One of the most interesting sessions came from RBC’s Vice President of Global Recruitment, Leona McCharles.

If you aren’t familiar with Leona or RBC, you should be. With a footprint in 17 countries and more than 16 million clients, RBC is Canada’s largest bank. There are 80 thousand plus employees, and RBC has consistently been ranked as a top employer.

Leona has spent the last five plus years working her way up the chain at RBC, directly impacting the organizational effectiveness, technology strategy, and global recruitment strategy. She has an unwavering passion for helping early talent cultivate the skills and experience needed for the future of work, and this showed in her presentation at IAMPHENOM.

Here’s a look at some highlights from her session.

Focused on the future of work and evolving skills, Leona began the session by saying that soft skills will not be as important as foundational skills in the not so distant future.

“Critical thinking and communication will be important for nearly 100% of new jobs in the next 4 years.”

Some talent acquisition professionals are nervous about AI and machine learning, but technology exists to help enable you. The question becomes: How do your recruiters become more strategic?

Jobs = Products, Talent Pool = Customers

Leona had some key takeaways around the evolving talent acquisition role and landscape. One is that we (as talent acquisition professionals) must create job “products” to meet the needs of our evolving job consumers.

“Every candidate journey is a design problem. Every role is a story. Right story, right place, and right time.”

The Future of Work Demands Human Collaborators

The bold statement is that the future of work is more human-powered than ever before. And what about technology’s role? Technology is only as effective as the people behind it. Your wisdom is irreplaceable, but technology’s purpose is to augment and assist new ways to deploy resources.

Technology Isn’t Stopping – We’re in Constant Beta Mode

Embrace technology, and figure out how to adapt and progress with the changing landscape. Start on a skateboard, and work your way up to a car. You don’t have to go big or go home. Get used to the fact that just as soon as you’re comfortable with a new technology or process, it is probably going to change again.

The biggest takeaway of the session revolved around one point:

“Get comfortable on your skateboard.”

Here at Phenom People, we are already gearing up for next year’s IAMPHENOM Conference. If you want to stay up-to-date on the latest news leading up to the conference, sign up for our updates at http://www.iamphenom.com/.