By Brandice Sills-Payne, Director of Experiential Marketing and Content Strategy, Fetcher
Last week, Greenhouse hosted its annual Talent Makers conference at the Javits Center in Manhattan for over 1,300 talent professionals from across the U.S. As someone who has spent many years in event production, I can attest that planning a thoughtful, fun and engaging event can be a harrowing task, but the folks at Greenhouse took the challenge head on and provided a beautifully designed space and a content roster that was fresh, entertaining, educational and diverse.
Greenhouse was able to bridge the gap between its partners, who round out their applicant tracking system, and the end user in a way that provided impactful takeaways for both parties. We can imagine that Fetcher is in no way an outlier in approaching these events as an opportunity to network and bring awareness to our brand. Beyond that, we found ourselves filling our schedules through the event app to attend and participate in the content offered. To avoid FOMO, we decided to divide and conquer as a team because the content offered was so compelling we couldn’t decide on which sessions to attend. With three rooms for sessions this is saying a lot. It truly was some of the most tactical and creative content we have seen in the HRTech world.
While attendees may feel some of the topics offered have been overly circulated at these types of events and perhaps have grown stale in who is highlighted to offer insights around the topics themselves, especially around diversity and culture, I believe Greenhouse did a fantastic job to move the ball forward by having amazing moderators who were successful in driving conversations from fresh angles. Those in charge of steering their assigned ship within the time allotted to breakdown very complex issues were also very intentional about attendee engagement through Q+A where all questions were considered and answered.
With topics like; Forget Cold Brew and Ping Pong: Learn what really builds company culture, and 5 Strategies to Deliver Great Candidate Experiences, to Accounting for Remote and Distributed Workforces, there was no shortage of quotable moments.
Want a more diverse workplace? Katie Burke, VP People Hubspot, suggests doing your homework.
Day One Closing Keynote, Katie Burke, who serves as VP People at Hubspot, encouraged all OPEN attendees to take a hard look at how inclusive their organizations are and offered the homework assignments pictured here. I was emphatically co-signing with her on these two:
__1) drop the years of experience or degree requirement for a role you’re hiring for
2) read tough interview feedback from an underrepresented candidate and act on it.__
Porter Braswell, author of Let Them See You: The Guide for Leveraging Your Diversity at Work and Co-founder and CEO of Jopwell, spoke about leveraging one’s diversity as an asset and how his platform is helping to provide a deep well of diverse candidates companies can pull from when building out their pipelines. He also gave some practical advice to underrepresented groups to lean on by having prepared responses when called out for their “otherness”. Representation from people like Porter transforms a standard fireside chat into a memorable moment not just for those who make up the underrepresented minority but also educates those who hold the majority in the workforce. Founder and CEO of Greenhouse, Daniel Chait did a great job facilitating this conversation.
Daniel Chait, CEO, Greenhouse, in conversation with Porter Braswell, CEO, Jopwell
Greenhouse really met the challenge of providing attendees with an incredibly diverse set of voices which resulted in successfully executing well-rounded conversations throughout the event.
Panelists and keynote speakers did not shy away from offering practical tips surrounding their given topics. At Fetcher we find guiding users in practical implementation is key to effect real change. Greenhouse offered a deep dive into the minds behind the products many people leaders use to supplement their Applicant Tracking System. During a panel focussed on making the most of integrations, our own Co-founder, Genevieve Jurvetson, challenged the audience to make thoughtful decisions when bundling and integrating tools into their HR stack; “When thinking about integrating applications you have to ask: what problem is this tool really solving for me and will it make the core system better?” She added: “We see a future where sourcing goes away, and recruiters spend time talking to candidates instead of searching for them.”
Uncovering the Value of the Greenhouse Ecosystem with Tochi Nwachukwu of LinkedIn, Loretta Jones of Mix Max, Genevieve Jurvetson of Fetcher, Garret Starr of Greenhouse, and William Laufer of Interview Schedule
This commitment from each person that took the stage to not simply promote themselves or their products but offer actionable information to those in attendance was incredibly refreshing. Examples of this could be listed over and over but here are a handful of ‘tweetable’ moments we loved:
“Inclusion should be a competency. And it is a competency that can be learned.” -Jolen Anderson
“Authentic inclusion is the AI of the 21st century” -Albert Rizzi
“Having a diverse candidate interviewer slate is as important as having diverse candidates.” -Katie Burke
“Thank your candidates, no matter what the employment outcome.” -Saul Weiner
Planning great events with fresh, unique content is quite a challenge and Greenhouse delivered while creating a welcoming environment for shared learning and development. The design of the event was inspiring, and attendee engagement was tangibly felt. A warm thank you to the incredible team at Greenhouse for inspiring and educating us. We are proud to be your partner. Until next year…
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