Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
January 23-29, 2023:
• Reinforcing fairness in the recruiting process: Interviewing solution Clovers to buy Talvista;
• Exposing the Duh factor at Davos: CEOs admit “We need to think differently about work;”
• Going from bad to worse: Expert predicts more job cuts in companies that raised funds in 2021;
• Feeling cocky despite layoffs: Survey reveals tech workers expect to continue their job hopping;
• Making Skynet real?: US Defense Department issues new guidance on autonomous weapons.
PLUS
• Register now, before early Bird Discounts end for TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum, which will be held in Austin, Texas USA on May 22-24, 2023. This is the only conference totally focused on the providers of talent technology and their bottom-line success. You’ll get the right content, make the right connections and have the right conversations to propel your business growth. So, register today before the price of admission goes up!
Clovers Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire TalVista
Clovers has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire TalVista. Clovers is an HR technology company that provides intelligent interview software to its users. Their video interview solution supports structured, fair interviews and integrates natively with Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Clovers aims to help businesses improve the interview process and hire stronger, more diverse teams with efficiency. TalVista is also focused on helping organizations increase diversity in the workplace through better hiring practices. They offer technology that drives data-driven candidate attraction and screening and promotes bias-free hiring. To do so, they allow users to optimize inclusive language in job descriptions and redact identifying information from resumes for blind resume reviews. Together, Clovers and TalVista aim to further reduce the harm of bias in the hiring and interview process. Their integrated technology will help organizations reach DEI&B goals efficiently and effectively.
CEOs at Davos weigh in on quiet quitting: ‘We need to think differently about work.’
Doing the bare minimum and mentally checking out of a job is nothing new, although the latest term for it, “quiet quitting,” is. “We’ve had terms for this for generations. We used to call it ‘phoning it in.’ Before we had phones, it was called ‘mailing it in.’ This is not a new phenomenon. It’s not specific to any generation,” Adam Grant, professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said Jan. 17 during the Quiet Quitting and the Meaning of Work panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Grant characterized quiet quitting as “the natural sequel of the Great Resignation.” The people who quit during the Great Resignation were mostly those in toxic workplaces or subject to abusive bosses. “Those people just ran for the hills, empirically. What happened to all of the people who couldn’t? What did they do?” Grant said. After trying and failing to change their workplaces or improve their situation, those workers decided to recalibrate their contributions to align with what they were getting from their employers. And, for many, after working through the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing with longer hours and more stress without raises, that meant doing the bare minimum, Grant said. While quiet quitting is nothing new, leaders need to respond in new ways, panelists said.
Companies That Raised Money In 2021 Are More Likely To See Layoffs
When I asked startup hiring experts what we can expect from layoffs in 2023, Continuum founder Nolan Church told me: “I think we’re going to double what we have done so far.” That’s a bleak assertion, given 2022 ended with more than 107,000 job cuts to the U.S. tech sector. The new year has just started, and 2023 is already almost a third of the way there.ore than 30,000 people have been laid off from the tech industry in the U.S. so far in January, according to Crunchbase data. We’re likely to see as many staff cuts this month as in November 2022, when layoffs peaked. Church, whose company acts as a consulting agency for tech startups, is not the only one to make that prediction. Tech startup consultants say layoffs are likely to rise in 2023, in part due to how many startups raised massive amounts of money in 2021 at high valuations that cannot raise in today’s fiscal environment. “What founders are thinking about right now is that we need to grow into that valuation in order to justify our existence. And that’s where the rubber is meeting the road,” Church said. “If you raised during this boom period, call it August of 2020 through Q1 of 2022, you likely have a valuation that you cannot yet justify.” According to my analysis of startups that performed layoffs between September and December last year, the majority of companies announced raises in Q3 and Q4 of 2021.
Cautious but confident, tech talent won’t stop job hopping
In the first 24 days of 2023, more than 170 tech companies laid off more than 56,000 workers, data from Layoffs.fyi shows. The most high-profile of these, layoffs from tech giants Amazon, Google and Microsoft, impacted tens of thousands of workers. The cuts come as businesses economywide have tapered their appetite for tech talent. In December, businesses hired 7,000 fewer tech workers compared to November, declining from 137,000 to 130,000, according to a CompTIA review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. But the big picture for tech workers is not all doom and gloom. Businesses need skilled tech talent, and they are still willing to pay a premium. “Talent remains confident, I think they’re just more cautious,” Alisia Genzler, group president and chief client officer at Randstad Technologies, said. “While the war for talent isn’t as strong as it once was, I think the job market is still favorable to job seekers.” For skilled tech talent, work opportunities are still abundant, according to Genzler. Out of the workers who moved around during the Great Resignation, nearly 9 in 10 workers now in the tech field are happy in their current position, according to a report by educational technology company Cengage Group published Tuesday.
US Defense Department Issues New Directive: Autonomy In Weapons Systems With AI Policy Guidance
The U.S. Defense Department released on January 25, 2023 its update on autonomous weapons to take into account AI's "increasing role" in warfare. The directive called, "Autonomy in Weapons Systems," includes clarifications and changes to account for a "dramatic, expanded vision for the role of artificial intelligence in the future of the American military," said Pentagon's Director of Emerging Capabilities Policy, Michael Horowitz. The policy was an update from the 2012 directive which positioned the U.S. military focus on incorporating more advanced AI into its technology strategy. This directive: Establishes policy and assigns responsibilities for developing and using autonomous and semiautonomous functions in weapon systems, including armed platforms that are remotely operated or operated by onboard personnel. Establishes guidelines designed to minimize the probability and consequences of failures in autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems that could lead to unintended engagements, and Establishes the Autonomous Weapon Systems Working Group. The update, which is the first to the policy directive since 2012, cements the U.S. military's aim to incorporate more advanced AI and review that technology before it's used. There is also some guidance on ethical AI and the need to test and review AI systems before deployment which was good to see elevated.
Get Early Bird Discounts for TAtech North America
Register now, before early Bird Discounts end for TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum, which will be held in Austin, Texas USA on May 22-24, 2023. This is the only conference totally focused on the providers of talent technology and their bottom-line success. Unlike the conferences that treat talent technology companies as a subset of HR tech, this event is specifically designed to advance the success of job boards, aggregators, talent marketplaces and the enterprises that offer programmatic solutions, conversational AI products, recruitment marketing solutions, recruitment advertising services, candidate management platforms, and interviewing and assessment systems. If that’s you, don’t miss this opportunity to meet and interact with your industry peers. Its core theme is as simple as it is powerful: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats!