UNLEASH is now in its tenth year of events, and the largest gathering of HR leaders in 2022 did not disappoint.
We were invited to “experience the unstoppable energy of UNLEASH World”, and there certainly was a palpable sense of motion as the most forward-thinking leaders in HR shared their thoughts and opinions.
Staged in Paris’ Convention Centre, the event comprised of two days of thought leadership, case studies, product announcements, networking, peer discussions, and personal development.
PitchMe had the pleasure of meeting some engaging, highly experienced and prodigious professionals.
It was great to see so many noteworthy exhibitors under one roof, including recruitment and HR heavy hitters Workday, Beamery and Deel as well as many of our start-up peers, including Challenge Rocket, Hiring Branch and Talkpush.
The programme included some incredibly insightful talks from thought leaders on how to innovate and reinvent during crises, recession-proofing your hiring, remote teams in the future of work, and building a culture of innovation based on skills.
It was inspiring to see the speakers bring their topics to life and articulate the benefits of incorporating them into future hiring and HR strategies. To that end, there was plenty of food for thought regarding the next wave of breakthrough technologies and global innovators changing the future of work.
Post-event, we’re still feeling the energy of UNLEASH World!
What did we learn from UNLEASH World?
There were many salient themes from both days of this fantastic event. But here is a rundown most significant industry trends that we uncovered in Paris.
Automation continues to grow
As with Recruitment Agency Expo the week before, automation was the headline act at UNLEASH. We spoke to many people representing enterprises that are already using some form of automation in their recruitment cycle.
And their reasons for adopting automation by and large are to take care of labour-intensive repetitive tasks, improve the end-user experience and ultimately save time and money.
These motivations are generally mirrored by research from HR experts Gartner that shows 57% of companies using HR automation do so to improve candidate/employee experience, 56% do so to take care of repetitive tasks, and 51% do so to save money.
That being said, automation is yet to become a ubiquitous feature of the enterprise recruitment process. According to research by Forbes, only 37% of HR services adopt automation.
This could perhaps be explained by the complex and time-consuming process of switching between different hiring tools – a common pain point that many software companies at UNLEASH had sought to solve.
Social enterprises are on the rise
It was both refreshing and incredibly encouraging to see many businesses at UNLEASH with positive causes.
For example, Sunday, based in the Netherlands, offers high-quality company fashion produced sustainably.
Not to be confused with brand merchandise, these products drive revenue growth by generating instant extra visibility online, reaching a whole new target audience through passive social media marketing.
There was also MYNDUP, whose mission is to diversify mental health support by using tech to offer one-to-one video sessions for business employees. These include therapy, counselling, and life and career coaching.
While these companies may not exist within the typical area of ‘recruitment’ that is our usual bread and butter, they do reflect PitchMe’s approach to social responsibility.
In Sunday’s case it’s sustainability, for MYNDUP it’s making mental health support more accessible, and for PitchMe it’s about diversifying the workplace by leveraging data to remove unconscious bias in hiring.
GDPR in hiring is a primary concern for enterprises
GDPR has become a hot topic after the likes of Amazon was fined $877m for breaching regulations.
When we’re talking about automation in recruitment that uses algorithms to draw data on individuals from online sources, employers want assurances that it’s GDPR compliant – for obvious reasons. A fine for a data privacy breach is going to seriously impact your bottom line.
We engaged in many conversations around this issue and how it exists as a barrier to the adoption of automation among enterprises. It will always be a hot issue for the recruitment tech industry – one that will require constant development as laws inevitably change.
At PitchMe, we don’t store data, we only collect data when given permission to do so and everything we do around data adheres to GDPR standards. We have teams of people keeping on top of the latest regulation changes.
Lessons learned
UNLEASH doubled down on perhaps the most significant theme from Recruitment Agency Expo: Automation is changing the hiring landscape. And as the uptake increases year-on-year, the importance of consolidating tools into an all-in-one solution is clear.
For example (and mainly because we know our product the best!), PitchMe’s ATS integration enables you to do everything within your existing applicant tracking system, only better.
Whether you’re a Greenhouse, Bullhorn or a user of another ATS, PitchMe delivers the most accurately matched and up-to-date candidate profiles with information drawn from over 35 digital sources (GDPR compliant, of course). This means you can hire faster, for less cost and with less effort.
And if you don’t believe us, book a demo by clicking the button below and see for yourself.
What’s next?
We’re attending Web Summit in Lisbon from the 1st to the 4th of November. Dubbed by Politico as “the world’s premier tech conference”, by The Atlantic as “where the future goes to be born”, and The New York Times as “a grand conclave of the tech industry’s high priests”, it’s a gathering of the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers, and heads of state to ask one simple question: Where to next?
Look out for our posts across all streams in the lead-up to and during the event. And if you’re going, don’t forget to come over and say hi!