This Week in HR: Month of March

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You’re reading This Week in HR, a digest of news relevant to HR and tech. Here, we share some of the reading material that got us thinking, along with a mini commentary for each. We hope each edition opens a small window into the rapidly changing landscape of HR, and a step towards learning what it means to be managing Human Resources in this age 🙂



A recruiter analyzed results from 3000 tech interviews to find the most successful candidate traits

“We’re creating an efficient and meritocratic way to candidates and companies to find each other, and as long as you can code, we couldn’t care less about who you are or where you come from. In our ideal world, all these conversations about which proxies matter more than others would be moot non-starters because coding ability would stand for, well, coding ability. And that’s the world we’re building.”

headshot of Gordon Ng

Gordon says:
The findings are interesting for a very specific industry (technology), with a very specific kind of hire (engineer). Results showed that Coursera/Udacity courses played a more important role in getting engineers hired, as compared to factors such as having worked in top companies or studied in top schools.

But, knowing whether a candidate is right for the company takes more than picking the one with the right number of traits. It’s also about spending time with that person to find out what her/his work etiquette and learning style are like. Then only would you have a clearer idea.

Gordon is the CEO and co-founder of Talenox.



Workplace Culture: Finding The Right Fit

“A recent study by Deloitte saw 86% of executives cite corporate culture as an important issue, recognising the need to create a meaningful and inclusive culture to help engage employees and potential recruits.”

headshot of Jesslyn

Jesslyn says:
Culture has a massive influence on how an employee views the company she is working for. From attracting talent to retaining them, companies are increasingly placing value on improving their culture. Company culture can be shaped via a few things—1) diversity and inclusion, 2) teamwork, 3) trust, and 4) networking. However, it is not just the company’s job to define what culture is. As much as employees look for a company with the “right culture”, they too, are responsible for owning and shaping it.

Jesslyn is the Head of Marketing at Talenox.



Netflix’s former head of talent explains why she hates jargon like “empowerment”

“The truth is that ’empowerment,’ and appealing corporate jargon like it, are more than annoying. These terms are harmful, because they either mask the truth or are badly misleading.”

headshot of yan

Yan says:
I was drawn to the headline of this article because I too, hate corporate jargon. It always starts out innocent in the beginning—these buzzwords are convenient for referring to standard industry practices, and often used with good intention. But say them often enough and without awareness of what they imply (“career ladder” means the only way is up or down, right?) and one day you might find your employees hearing things you never meant to say in the first place.

I suppose the lesson here is simple: speak with honesty, clarity, and tact.

(Other serial offenders you may already be familar with: “appraisal”, “results-driven”, “value add”.)

Yan is the Editor at Talenox.

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