The Recruitment Unconference - tru Zagreb 2024

Trust. Care. Humor. Resilience. Recruitment Culture. AI. Digital tools. Automation. Human behavior. Candidate Experience. Employee experience. Human touch.

What do all these words have in common? Together, they make the #truZagreb 2024 word-cloud! And speak volumes about the world of recruitment today.

The Recruitment Unconference (tru), founded by Bill Boorman, returned to Croatia in April 2024, after a seven-year hiatus. Doubling in size and sparking interest from all walks of HR and Talent Acquisition, tru Zagreb confirmed that we live in exciting times, when the world of recruitment is going through tectonic changes.

Organized by Taladria and TalentLyft, the event attracted over 140 participants, from seven countries, gathered to discuss the state of recruitment today and what lies ahead, through seventeen conversation Tracks and three recruitment technology product showcases. Throughout the day, there were enthusiastic, lively, and interesting conversations, sparking ideas to work on in our daily roles.

We would like to give a huge THANK YOU! to all participants, Track Leaders, and Show & Tell presenters for making this gathering a success, and are already looking forward to the next one!

What were our key takeaways from tru Zagreb?

With the dawn of the practical use of AI in HR and Talent Acquisition, a new era begins, and, for most organizations and recruitment professionals, there are more questions than answers around the real impact on their recruitment process, how will those changes take shape and how quickly.

At the same time, there is still a lot of room for improvement with existing tools, processes, and methods to deliver better experience and fulfill the duty of care to everyone involved in hiring.

While large-scale AI powered recruitment and HR implementations are still in infancy, now is the time to adopt what is available and keep up.

Within our organizations, we need to rethink how we hire, improve the existing hiring practices, and, at the same time, build tech-powered solutions designed for the best human experience for all involved. Understanding where the problem may be and what to improve on will be a steppingstone on the road to automation.

If there was ever time to look for help and expertise in hiring and technology it is now, as changes will be rapid and significant. There will be a lot of noise, so separating value-adding training and solutions from the rest will be especially important for success.

As AI powered tech evolves, there will be a continued need for regulation, standardization, and product certification. As HR, Talent Acquisition and Recruitment professionals, we have a role to play in ensuring technology fits the purpose.

In the world full of automation, human touch, expertise, building relationships and trust will be even more important - they are here to stay, but our roles are already evolving and changing.

Learn, implement, adapt, and repeat cycle will continue to be the ignition key for this drive into the future we are all on together.