Harnessing Community-Powered Hiring, with Summer Delaney, CEO and Founder of CollabWORK

[00:00:00] I look back on my first job as Katie Couric's producer, and your first job, you really don't know much about, quote-unquote, the real world. I remember someone, the first day, told me they were giving two weeks notice, and I thought that meant two weeks until they were going on vacation, right? I didn't understand how, you know, the world of water works.

[00:00:38] Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to this episode of Small Talk Window, where we have a small window of time to dispense with a small talk as quickly as possible and settle into a meaningful conversation around the world of work. And today I have a very special guest, Summer Delaney, who is CEO and Founder of CollabWORK. Welcome, Summer. Brent, thanks so much for having me. Oh, absolutely.

[00:01:06] Thank you for agreeing to do the podcast. This is going to be a very interesting conversation today around talent acquisition and some of the new stuff that people can do to be far more effective at it, and I'm really looking forward to it. I know we're really chomping at the bit to get into it. But as I ask all my guests, if you would share with our audience just a little bit around, you know, what animates you around the world of work?

[00:01:33] What gets you up in the morning and, you know, keeps you going day in and day out, your passion around the work world? You know, as I look back on my career, I feel really fortunate that I've always had a really great network of supporters and advocates around me and really great communities that I have been a part of.

[00:01:56] You know, I look back on my first job as Katie Couric's producer and your first job, you really don't know much about, quote unquote, the real world. I remember someone the first day told me they were giving two weeks notice and I thought that meant two weeks until they were going on vacation. Right? I didn't understand how, you know, the world were to work.

[00:02:17] I remember being so overwhelmed and, you know, I've been really lucky to find Facebook groups, Google communities, Slack channels that have really helped me in those safe spaces. Ask those somewhat awkward questions or even questions about bettering my own professional development. What are salary expectations for certain roles? You know, what what responsibility should I get for this title?

[00:02:43] What is the company culture like of an individual organization that I was looking to, you know, apply for a job there? So, you know, what really gets me up and gets me animated is I've just seen how powerful having your network being your net worth in your career. And I'm really passionate about educating people on the importance of building that advisory board, especially since the pandemic through the wealth of digital communities that exist online. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[00:03:11] I love that saying, though, by the way, your network is your net worth in your career. That has such a great way of putting it. And it absolutely is the case. Build your network from a very early time so that you have a lot of folks that you can reach out to. And it's really insurance for your for your career. It really is a great a great approach. Now, collab work. Maybe you could share a little bit about collab work.

[00:03:39] And I think this is going to be a really good segue into what we want to talk about today around talent acquisition, some of the new ways of doing things. They're much more effective than the traditional conventional ways that we've all known for many years. Go back to digital communities. And I guess to introduce myself a little more to your great audience. I actually spent most of my career in media. So, as I mentioned, my first job was Katie Couric's producer.

[00:04:05] I then was on air at Channel 11 in New York, WPIX TV, the CW affiliate, essentially responsible for all their digital video strategy on Facebook, on YouTube, Instagram, other platforms. Got my MBA from Columbia, worked at News Corp doing partnerships, worked at Amazon Studios doing product management. And when I looked back on my career for all those roles, never got them through applying cold online. Never got those jobs through an interviewer reaching out to me.

[00:04:35] It was really through these digital communities I was in. It was the Media Maven's Facebook group. It was a Columbia Business School Slack community. It was a WhatsApp chat for, you know, strategy jobs. Really, these opportunities came for me at times when I was actively looking. But a lot of times when I was passively looking, happily employed, not looking to make that move. But I trusted these groups and communities.

[00:05:02] I spent time networking in them to build that network we just talked about, to upskill, to learn about events. But really, they were also places I was discovering opportunities of jobs from highly qualified sources that I trusted. Again, I was spending time at these walled gardens. So, the idea for collab work was I saw this happening to myself. And this is a trend that's been happening, especially since the pandemic.

[00:05:27] You know, we've seen an 80% uptick in online community engagement in the past four years. We're seeing that 90% of Americans subscribe to at least one newsletter, with 74% subscribing to 10+. We're really seeing that we're getting our information and we're networking it in new ways that previously weren't accessible.

[00:05:47] And so, the idea for collab work was what if we could build that distribution infrastructure for companies to promote their jobs to people like me that might not be on job boards because they're not actively looking, but are networking in these digital communities. And so, that's exactly what we've built. Our proprietary infrastructure, we can integrate with 40-plus applicant tracking systems. We also can pull jobs from API calls or XML feeds.

[00:06:17] Very flexible. And once we get jobs into our database, we analyze them based on function and industry, location, seniority, and other criteria. What are the best newsletters that these talent are reading every day? What are the best Facebook groups or Discord communities or Slack communities where they're networking? And how do we bring jobs organically into those watering holes?

[00:06:40] So, it's really about getting your employer brand authentically in front of those very targeted, often more diverse, and often passive candidates. I mean, really connecting and making those meaningful relationships because candidates are trusting the jobs that are coming through this source. We're not a job board. But again, these are places where jobs are currency. And we're really bringing those jobs to those talent pools. Jobs are currency. You're absolutely right about that.

[00:07:09] And it's really interesting. This makes so much sense to do this. In the mid-2020s, to look back on where we've been in talent acquisition and how recruiting and all that has sort of evolved over the past, gosh, more than 20 years, really. You know, it makes sense now. We've been through the whole advent of social media that's very much established now.

[00:07:37] And people, they conduct themselves online in a much different way than they did when the older approaches to recruiting were developed, which were really kind of adaptations of the, gosh, this is the Paleolithic era, the pre-Internet age, right? We already had classified ads in the newspaper and this sort of thing. It was the only model we knew. And it was really exciting. Oh, now we can put all these classified ads up on job boards online.

[00:08:06] And people can apply that way. And it was an improvement, obviously. But we're way beyond that now. And folks are really kind of parting ways and joining their own little groups online where they have very similar interests, walled gardens, if you will. And those are the places, like you say, those are the best places to reach folks. And with a value add, right?

[00:08:34] Not just kind of like, you know, spraying a bunch of jobs at them, but sharing jobs that would be interesting to somebody who isn't necessarily looking in a way that is engaging and informative. That, to me, just makes a lot of sense. Maybe you could elaborate on that a little bit. Yeah, you know, I'm really lucky for some great advisors, one of them being Josh Akers.

[00:09:02] And he, one time when we were talking about collab work, said it's not about spraying and praying. It's about posting with purpose. And I really think that sums up what we're doing and really what people are looking for. I think in the age of, you know, vast niche job boards that were being developed and, you know, really focusing on niche audiences. It got to the point where there's the beauty of our industry is we can integrate so quickly with different players.

[00:09:31] But your job was going everywhere, but actually not reaching anyone you're trying to get a hold of. And you're paying for clicks that are not qualified leads. And so really what our value proposition is, to your point, Brent, is about how do you intentionally meet the right candidates that are the right fit for your organization?

[00:09:55] And really, as companies realize that human capital has never been more important in their business strategies, how are you getting the right folks that can grow at your company, that can stay at your company, that can add real value? There's all these studies that people that are finding jobs on collab work, again, we're bringing them to industry-focused walled gardens.

[00:10:19] Whether that's a newsletter like The Morning Brew or where they're exclusive job provider, whether that is a serial marketers, a Slack community, whether that is women in climate tech, right? We can get very specific on the types of candidate pools that we're reaching. And again, people that are in these communities, there's all this data that because they're taking their own time to invest in themselves, right? Their company's not making them subscribe to these networks.

[00:10:49] They're innately interested in upskilling, in networking with peers, in participating in these kinds of forums. You're just getting a candidate that has data proven they're more likely to be promoted. They're more likely to stay at your company for two-plus years. Again, you're getting qualified candidates, but also employees that are going to stay at your company longer and grow at your company.

[00:11:11] And so I think that having that authentic connection of meeting them where they are in the attention economy, foster that relationship. Again, we're directing candidates right back to that applicant tracking system or that career page or CRM wherever you want the candidates to go to meet your employer brand. We're just really that distribution tool that's bringing your jobs and your content and who you are to those networks and starting those kind of authentic relationships. Oh, yeah, that's a great point.

[00:11:41] And absolutely. And you mentioned something there. You're bringing those – well, I think I'm adding this, but it's what you meant. You're bringing those qualified leads to the ATS, right? This is not to disparage. There's a lot of folks that actually don't have jobs right now in this particular economy that are going to people's ATS and everything.

[00:12:02] But if you're just being bombarded, inundated with a large, large volume of job applicants at your ATS, you're not going to be able to sift through that. You're not going to be able to find the best talent. So I would say the inverse of this would be – or the flip side of it is I would advise anybody who's looking for work right now to also embrace the new ecosystem and kind of understand that. Completely.

[00:12:33] Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. You know, I always say that we hope candidates find jobs through us, right? Because we're generally meeting them in these communities where they're trusting. We hope we're that source that's bringing them authentic opportunities.

[00:12:51] Our proprietary AI analysis makes sure that, you know, each time a job is shared in a community, we get better at the curation based on, you know, which jobs got the most engagement, the most supplies, the most hires to make sure we're curating it. But I also always tell people that we're not the only job provider in these communities, right? And they don't let vendors in, but they oftentimes have hiring managers in those communities.

[00:13:15] So a company, you know, if you're looking for your next, let's say, product manager role, joining professional communities focusing around product, there are a lot of hiring managers in there saying, I'm looking for my next rock star on my team. DM me. Email me. Here's a direct lead to me, right? And so we're always, we actually have a feature on our app called Community Connect that if you sign up as a talent user, you can search through our database of communities to find different networking groups.

[00:13:45] Again, we're hoping you're finding our job because it's on our platform, but we're just as happy if you find a job through a community we partner with and you really become a value added member of that network. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And just to put a fine point on this or an exclamation point maybe is that, you know, the passive talent, that passive talent, it's just like you, just like you said, they're, they're putting in the work of their own volition to improve themselves in their career.

[00:14:13] They're happily employed somewhere else, but they are open to new opportunities. And those are the folks, I mean, it's that, it's the war for talent we've heard about for years and years and years and passive talent being sort of the, the holy grail of all that. You're not, you're not going to reach them even with niche job boards because they're not going to the job boards.

[00:14:33] They're not proactively looking, but if they receive word or some, some, some other sort of indication that there might be their next opportunity at the next place, right? Then they're going to be engaged.

[00:14:47] So it's really about a, about a conversation and, and meeting them where they are and, and kind of just slowly but surely kind of circumventing that, that, that, that, you know, sort of existing large ecosystem that's out there for recruiting and trying a new way and leveraging what exists in the ecosystem still to make it as seamless as possible.

[00:15:11] Well, you know, Katie Couric, as I mentioned my first boss and still one of my biggest idols was really lucky to work for her. She taught me a really valuable lesson, which was people love Katie Couric because she has been in their living room for decades. When she was on the Today Show, the first thing you did in the morning when you were making breakfast or getting your kids ready for school is seeing her deliver the news.

[00:15:36] Whether that was getting her colonoscopy done live on the air, whether that was September 11th, whether that's cooking with the latest celebrities, right? You feel like, you know, Katie Couric because first of all, she's as personable as she seems, but she's been part of your life for so many years. And these digital communities are filling that void, right?

[00:15:56] Candidates are tuning in or logging on or reading, consuming, networking in these spaces each and every day. And so there's the trust that exists there. They're 89% more likely to click on a job if it comes from a community than a cold inbound.

[00:16:15] And so it's really to your point about building those trusted relationships, bringing the jobs to them from those platforms that they trust, and then beginning that conversation. Absolutely. Absolutely. Couldn't have put it better myself. No, I'm really excited.

[00:16:33] And we have a really exciting white paper being published about some of these findings that I'm excited to share more about, you know, not only what CollabWork is doing, but how you can implement a community first strategy in your own hiring practices. Yes, indeed.