Are you looking for new insights, hacks, and learnings in recruitment? The best way to be aware of the latest trends in the recruitment industry and get knowledge from practitioners is by following top recruitment thought leaders.
We picked the most influential people in recruitment who regularly share their knowledge on their blogs, podcasts, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks. You will find brief overviews of each recruitment thought leader, useful links, and tags to quickly find content that is relevant for you.
(The list is in no particular order.)
1. Jan Tegze
Topics: #recruitment, #leadership, #talentacquisition.
Jan is a global Talent Acquisition Leader with extensive experience in full lifecycle recruiting and broad knowledge of international recruiting, sourcing, recruitment branding, and innovative sourcing techniques. He is also the author of the famous Full Stack Recruiter (sold over 11,000 copies), sourcing trainer, blogger, speaker, and creator of Sourcing.Games.
Follow Jan on LinkedIn for witty thoughts about recruitment, leadership, and job search advice. Check out his blog JanTegze.com for expert articles about recruitment and sourcing!
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jantegze
Blog: jantegze.com
2. Hung Lee
Topics: #recruitment, #industry_news.
Hung has over 15 years of experience in the recruitment industry, working as an agency recruiter, Head of talent, and Strategic advisor for startups in London’s tech startup scene. He is the CEO of WorkShape.io, an award-winning online recruiting platform continuously improving how companies connect with talent. He also curates the weekly newsletter, Recruiting Brainfood, which is the industry’s best source of recruitment news.
Follow Recruiting Brainfood to receive the latest news on anything related to recruitment.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hunglee
Website: recruitingbrainfood.com
3. Katrina Collier
Topics: #hr, #recruitment, #talentacquisition, #candidateexperience, #robotproofrecruiter.
Katrina has around 20 years of recruitment industry experience under her belt. After starting her career in an agency, she worked in-house before teaching social sourcing and recruiting. Unexpected recognition in that field led to Katrina speaking on HR & recruitment stages around the world and the invitation to write The Robot-Proof Recruiter. Now she works with companies globally to improve their talent acquisition and recruitment and runs The Collective for recruiters.
Follow Katrina for expert articles, the latest news in the industry, meaningful conversations on all topics TA, and her show with Glenn Martin, Hear The T̶a̶l̶e̶n̶t̶ People.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/katrinacollier
Twitter: twitter.com/KatrinaMCollier
Website: katrinacollier.com
4. Greg Savage
Topics: #HR, #recruitment, #hiring.
Greg Savage has built four extremely successful recruitment companies throughout his four-decade career. He is a recognized keynote speaker and trusted advisor in the worldwide recruitment sector. Greg is currently on the Boards of 16 recruitment companies.
Greg was a pioneer in using social media for recruiting, and his business blog, The Savage Truth, is a must-read for anybody in the field. His book, “The Savage Truth,” has sold over 10,000 copies and is an Amazon top seller in its genre.
He is also the founder of The Savage Recruitment Academy, an online recruitment learning platform
Follow on Linkedin for regular observations and reflections on HR. Check out his website for weekly articles on the world of recruitment.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gregpsavage
Website: gregsavage.com.au
5. Adriaan Kolff
Topics: #recruitment, #sourcing, #entrepreneurship, #leadership.
Adriaan Kolff is a serial entrepreneur in the recruitment industry. He is the CEO and Co-founder of MatcHR, an outsourcing company that provides embedded talent solutions to fast-growing companies, and Pantala, which helps companies hire remote software engineers in South Africa.
Adriaan is a regular keynote speaker at events like SourceCon, Sourcing Summit, and TRC. He writes in-depth articles on his blog on sourcing and recruitment and shares his experience and learnings about being an entrepreneur in the recruitment industry.
Follow his blog for in-depth articles on sourcing automation and recruitment tools. Follow his LinkedIn for his experiences as an entrepreneur, starting and building multiple companies in the recruitment industry.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff
Blog: adriaankolff.medium.com
Recommended post: 20 Best (Tech) Recruiting Conferences to Attend in 2022
6. Gero Hesse
Topics: #employerbranding, #recruiting, #HR, #startup.
Gero Hesse’s professional passions are employer branding, recruiting, HR startups and new work, and HR technology. Since 2009, his blog and podcast have been a source of motivation for a better working environment. Gero is working to ensure everyone can access the best possible job and employer options.
He is regularly active as an author and editor, his works include “Perspective Change in Employer Branding” and the bestseller “Practice Manual Social Media Recruiting.”
Follow his blog and podcast, Saatkorn, for regular articles on employer branding, personnel marketing and recruiting, and interviews with industry experts.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gerohesse
Website: saatkorn.com
7. Alex Her
Topics: #employer_brand, #storytelling, #talent_brand.
Alex Her is a Global Employer Brand Storyteller, Public Speaker, Head of the Global Employer Brand at GoDaddy, and recent winner of Talent Brand Alliance’s 2022 Talent Brand Leader of the Year. Alex records and shares incredible stories to assist GoDaddy’s talent acquisition and retention campaigns, as employer branding is all about storytelling.
He loves content marketing, recruitment marketing, employer branding (EB), and digital strategy. He also enjoys assisting outstanding job seekers in finding new jobs. Alex is a founding member of the Employer Brandwagon, a group of professionals in employer branding whose mission is to advance knowledge of EB and share knowledge, experiences, and insights.
Follow Alex on Linkedin for regular posts on employer branding and marketing in recruitment.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexher
Twitter: twitter.com/Alexhawj7
8. Johnny Campbell
Topics: #diversity, #recruitment, #talentacquisition, #candidateexperience.
Johnny Campbell co-founded SocialTalent, the most widely used platform for learning experiences in hiring, in 2010. He currently serves as CEO and leads their Product and Content. Their “Black Belt” program allows users to receive a personalized training journey consistently and measurably. He is a regular conference speaker on social media in recruitment.
Follow his Linkedin for regular posts on the latest trends and news in recruitment.
Check out the Social Talent newsletter for insights on the world of talent management from Johnny Campbell.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnnycampbell
Website: socialtalent.com
9. Robert Sher
Robert is a Founder and CEO of “CEO to CEO,” a consulting company that brings together former top executives and helps midsize businesses accelerate growth by improving the leadership infrastructure. Robert’s articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, CFO, and other major periodicals. He writes a column for Forbes.com and CFO.com and is a contributor to HBR.org. Before launching the CEO to CEO project, Robert was a director and co-founder of the Bentley Publishing Group. Under his leadership, the company has become a leading player in its industry.
Follow Robert on Linkedin for regular posts on consistent growth and development and how successfully scale your business.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robertsher
Website: masteringmidsized.com
10. Bas Westland
Topics: #recruitment, #linkedin_tips, #entrepreneurship.
Bas Westland serves as managing partner at the recruitment company E-people, which specializes in sourcing for the ICT and Internet industries. Along with his regular headhunting job, he also runs pieces of training and workshops on sourcing for the corporate, agency, and interim recruiters through his own business, baswestland.com.
He collaborates with non-profit JobOn to offer free LinkedIn training classes to the unemployed.
Additionally, he frequently serves as the day chair and speaker at conferences and seminars on recruiting innovation, social media, and entrepreneurship, like Emerce Recruitment and the Sourcing Summit.
He organizes the annual election for Most Influential Recruiter of the Netherlands and is the initiator of the largest Dutch recruiter group on Facebook, Recruitment Buddies.
Follow Bas on Linkedin and check out his blog on Linkedin tips, Recruitment trends, and industry news.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/baswestland
Website: baswestland.com
Recommended post: 24 Google Chrome Extensions for Recruiters & Sourcers
11. Anastasiia Holub
Topics: #hiring, #sourcing, #recruitment.
Anastasiia is TA Team Lead at Campo and a speaker (SOSU, TechRec, WeAreDevelopers, etc.). She started building her career building tech startups in Poland and the US. For the past 5 years, she has been building tech teams in Berlin; some very well-known ones are JustEatTakeaway.com, Zalando, and Omio.
Candidate connections and attraction are her passions. Anastasiia defines rules in branding and content production, pushing the boundaries of humor and putting smiles on the faces of her candidates.
Follow Anastasiia’s Linkedin to get more information on her journey in hiring tech specialists in Berlin.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anastasiaholub1
12. Joel Lalgee
Topics: #talent, #recruiting, #recruitment, #recruiterlife.
Joel Lalgee is the Founder of Headhunter media. Apart from that, he is also overseeing full-desk recruitment and account management within Hirewell’s Human Resources and Professional Services practice,
Joel has quickly risen to the top of the LinkedIn voices for recruiters to follow in just a year. He has interviewed some of the most well-known personalities in the recruiting and staffing fields while building his live-time series and attracting a massive audience.
Follow Joel’s LinkedIn for regular funny observations on the recruiter’s life and his take on the latest trends in the industry.
Check out his Twitter for daily comments on everything happening on his LinkedIn feed.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joel-lalgee-73a56621
Twitter: twitter.com/Humanheadhunter
13. Gary Swart
Topics: #hiring, #entrepreneurship, #tech.
Gary Swart serves as General Partner, Advisor, coach, mentor, and investor at Polaris Partners, an investment company that partners with business owners in the healthcare and technology sectors. Until April 2014, Gary was the CEO of oDesk (UpWork), the world’s largest online workplace.
On LinkedIn, Gary frequently posts about job interviewing, especially how to interview for a mutual match and consider personal qualities when hiring.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/garyswart
14. Marcus Edwardes
Topics: #content, #recruiting, #recruitment, #talentacquisition.
Marcus is a Podcaster, Recruiter, and Consultant. He hosts the Recruiting Trailblazers podcast every week – to talk with Leaders, Pioneers, and Individual Contributors who’ve got something worthy to share. He has covered the whole range of the Contract, Permanent, and Executive Search markets over his recruiting career (as a Producer and Leader), specializing in Technology, Video Games, and most recently, Talent Acquisition experts.
Follow Marcus’ podcast to get more useful and/or entertaining information in the Recruiting Industry. Marcus often meets the industry’s thought leaders, innovators, and contributors to their take on what’s happening in the industry.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes
Website: recruitingtrailblazers.com
15. Sharlyn Lauby
Topics: #hr, #leadership, #management, #hrtechnology, and #talentmanagement.
Sharlyn Lauby is an author, writer, speaker, and consultant known for her work on HR Bartender, an award-winning blog and podcast that aims to provide a friendly space to chat about workplace issues. She is the author of the following books:
- The SHRM Essential Guide to Talent Management: A Handbook for HR Professionals, Managers, Businesses, and Organizations
- The Recruiter’s Handbook: A Complete Guide for Sourcing, Selecting and Engaging the Best Talent
- Manager Onboarding: 5 Steps for Setting New Leaders Up for Success, Essential Meeting Blueprints for Managers.
Follow HR Bartender, a friendly place to talk about work-related issues.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sharlynlauby
Website: hrbartender.com
16. Matt Alder
Topics: #hr, #employer branding, #recruitment, #digital transformation.
Matt Alder, an author and expert in talent acquisition, discusses the latest trends on how the recruiting industry must develop to grow and thrive.
Based in the UK, Matt is the creator and host of The Recruiting Future Podcast and the author of Exceptional Talent. If you’re interested in getting away from social media, Alder’s podcast is educational.
Follow Matt’s podcast to get the most recent information on recruitment marketing, technology, and the future of recruiting.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mattalder
Podcast: recruitingfuture.com
17. Jim Stroud
Topics: #talentattraction, #employerbranding, #employeeretention, #recruitmentmarketing, #recruitingoptimization, #diversity, #employment, #recruiting.
For over a decade, Jim Stroud has built an expertise in sourcing and recruiting strategy, public speaking, lead generation, video production, podcasting, online research, competitive intelligence, online community management, and training. He has consulted for companies such as Microsoft, Google, MCI, Siemens, Bernard Hodes Group (acquired by Findly), and many startup companies.
During his tenure with Randstad Sourceright, he alleviated the sourcing and recruiting headaches of Randstad clients worldwide as its Global Head of Sourcing and Recruiting Strategy. Presently, he serves as VP, Marketing for Proactive Talent – the most recognized and respected name in talent attraction, hiring, and retention.
Follow the Proactive Talent blog for Jim’s insights on the world of work, which features:
- Tribe TV, an online video series offering a quirky but informative view of the world of work.
- TribePod, an HR Community podcast that explores the present day and future world of work by interviewing authors, practitioners, and luminaries in the HR space.
- Free downloadable resources designed to help you better attract, recruit and retain talent.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jimstroud
Blog: Proactive Talent
18. Heidi Wassini
Topics: #futureofta, #employerbranding, #talentaquisition.
Heidi offers a wealth of HR and TA experience to the TA industry and her job at Vivino. She has strong communication, marketing, and product and employer branding background.
Heidi is passionate about establishing talent acquisition strategies that strongly emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion and creating authentic employer brands that improve the candidate experience and support company goals. She believes in always testing her own biases and boundaries, learning new things, striving to understand other people’s differences, and inspiring those in TA to do the same.
Follow Heidi on Linkedin for all things hiring-related, and take on the latest trends in TA and employer branding.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/heidiwassini
19. Yulia Bondar
Topics: #tech_recruitment, #employerbranding, #culturaldifferences.
Yulia has worked as a senior individual contributor, consultant (through her own company, The Peopelicious), and recruitment manager for nine years, accumulating experience in TA and EB. She is a strategic partner in TA, scaling Engineering and Product teams and expertise at Castor, and leading D&I Initiatives company-wide. Yulia believes in the power of networking and community and that the right attitude comes first.
Follow Yulia on Medium to learn about her journey and experience as Tech Recruiter and insights on hiring for start-up and tech companies.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yuliabondar
Blog: medium.com/@yuliabondar
20. Liene Karaca
Topics: #cvtips, #salary, #jobsuche, #jobsearch.
Liene is a Digital IT Recruiter sharing job search tips and tricks. Based on her 9 years of international recruitment experience in-house and in agencies, she solves problems that keep job seekers awake at night and helps companies to navigate the Wild West of the candidate search.
On her daily LinkedIn posts, she shows candidates behind the scenes the two most important people in their career life – Recruiter and HR Manager. She also encourages companies to take non-traditional ways of attracting and retaining IT specialists.
Follow Liene on Linkedin for tips&tricks on hiring, HR, employer branding, and how to start and build your dream career.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lienekaraca
21. Yasar Ahmad
Topics: #tech, #future, #careers, #softwareengineering.
Yasar Ahmad is Global VP Talent at HelloFresh, Inclusion and Diversity Leader & RL100 Member. He is a skilled HR leader with more than ten years of TA and talent management expertise. Yasar is passionate about embracing digital innovation and automation to revolutionize all facets of an organization’s HR and people responsibilities, from training and development to global mobility, from diversity and inclusion to early career support for recent grads and interns.
He has supported company growth (more recently at Hellofresh, taking them from 11k to 25K employees in 12 months), sparked industry transformation, created new functions surrounding talent marketing, employer branding, and talent intelligence (among others), and launched TA 4.0 in his almost one year at HelloFresh.
Follow Yasar on LinkedIn and read his blog to learn more about his journey as Global VP of Talent at Hellofresh, Inclusion, and Diversity.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yasarahmad
Website & Personal Blog: YasarAhmad.com
22. Meghan M. Biro
Topics: #hr, #leadership, #worktrends, #workculture, #futureofwork.
The author of TalentCulture, Meghan Biro is a globally recognized Talent Management and HR Tech brand strategist, analyst, digital catalyst, author, and speaker.
As the founder and CEO of TalentCulture and the #WorkTrends Community, she has worked with hundreds of businesses, from start-ups to major corporations like Microsoft, IBM, and Google, to assist them in finding and empowering outstanding people.
In addition to being a featured speaker at international business conferences, Meghan has appeared as a guest on several podcasts, radio shows, and online forums. She frequently contributes to Forbes, Huffington Post, and other publications.
Follow TalentCulture on Twitter, and you’ll get all the news you need to stay current and hear from leading experts, HR tech vendors, and HR practitioners about what inspires them.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/meghanmbiro
Twitter: twitter.com/TalentCulture
Recommended post: Talent Mapping: How to Build a Strong Sourcing Strategy
23. Lou Adler
Topics: #jobs, #hiring, #diversity, #recruiting, #interviewing.
Lou Adler is the CEO and creator of The Adler Group, a consulting and training company that helps businesses establish “Win-Win Hiring” programs by utilizing his Performance-based HiringSM system for identifying and hiring top talent. Over the past 30+ years, more than 40.000 recruiters and recruiting managers have attended his ground-breaking programs.
He has written several books on recruiting and hiring, such as Hire With Your Head and The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired, and publishes regular insights as a LinkedIn influencer.
Follow Lou’s Linkedin to learn more about his “Win-Win Hiring” programs based on his Performance-based Hiring℠ system for finding and hiring exceptional talent and useful tips for hiring managers, recruiters, and candidates.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/louadler
24. J.T. O’Donnell
Topics: #careers, #jobsearch, #jobseekers, #resumetips, #careeradvice.
J.T. O’Donnell is a Career Coaching, HR & Recruiting industry executive with 18+ years of experience developing and delivering professional and executive-level career management and outplacement services. She is the CEO of WorkItDaily.com, which focuses on helping people further their careers. O’Donnell usually shares tips for candidates, which is a great opportunity to better understand your interviewee’s mindset.
Follow J.T.’s blog WorkItDaily to get more tips on hiring processes, employer branding, and career advice.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jtodonnell
Blog: workitdaily.com
25. Torin Ellis
Topics: #diversity, #inclusion, #opportunity, #mastermindgroup, and #equityandinclusion.
Using the lens of recruiting, Torin Ellis, a consultant and coach, focuses on assisting some of the most progressive businesses in developing inclusion, representation, and belonging initiatives. He is an engaging speaker who draws on his own experience as a BIPOC and uses his position in the recruitment industry to provide innovative solutions with a high investment return. While challenging the established norm with debates on corporate diversity and inclusion processes, Torin operates from a place of compassion and transparency.
Follow Torin on Twitter to discuss diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the future of work.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/torinellis
Twitter: twitter.com/torinellis
Website: torinellis.com
26. Liz Ryan
Topics: #leadership, #recruiting, #careeradvice, #hrleadership.
Liz Ryan is CEO and founder of Human Workplace, a think tank that focuses on reinventing work, and the Author of Reinvention Roadmap; Righteous recruiting; Red-Blooded HR. She frequently publishes in-depth posts on LinkedIn with guidance for both HR departments and job seekers.
Follow Human Workplace to learn more about the modern workplace and information for working people, job seekers, career changers, entrepreneurs & leaders and create job-search,
Check out Liz’s Twitter for regular insights and thoughts on hiring and recruitment.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lizryan
Twitter: twitter.com/humanworkplace
Webiste: humanworkplace.com
27. Josh Bersin
Topics: #hr, #hrtech, #diversity, #leadership, #humanresources.
Josh Bersin is the principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, a company that focuses on “people strategies” for leaders and their organizations.
At the same time, he is an industry analyst, researcher, educator, and technology analyst covering all aspects of corporate HR, training, talent management, recruiting leadership, and workplace technology.
Follow Josh’s blog and LinkedIn with insights into Work, Talent, Learning, Leadership, and HR Technology.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bersin
Blog: joshbersin.com
28. Ashten Fizer
Topics: #tech, #design, #employerbrand, #culturaldiversity, #diversityequityandinclusion.
Ashten Fizer is a Talent Brand Go To Market Specialist, Equity & Inclusion Leader, Designer, and Storyteller. Having a communications degree, she did a lot of research to find materials for her numerous diversity design research projects.
Currently, she is an Adobe Creator and works at Dropbox. As a Global Employer Brand Go To Market Lead, she supports the team’s efforts to engage employees and potential candidates with targeted content through social media, employer branding, graphic design, and web design. Before that, she was a senior project manager for the employer brand, social and creative at GoDaddy, and the integrated marketing manager, global diversity at Meta.
Follow Ashten’s LinkedIn to see her posts on employer branding, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/afizer
29. Stevie Buckley
Topics: #hiring, #scaling, #interviewing.
Stevie is Hiring & HR Advisor to startups and organizer of HNLondon, Europe’s largest regular tech meet-up with 500+ monthly attendees and over 12k active community members. Currently a Global VP Talent at Permutive, Stevie is a very outspoken advocate of treating candidates more like actual people than human resources. He talks about hiring, scaling, and interviewing.
Follow Stevie on Linkedin to get more content on how to be successful in the workplace and the latest news in the industry.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/steviebuckley
30. AJ Thomas
Topics: #peoplestrategy, #entrepreneurship, #futureofwork, #leadershipandmanagement.
AJ is a skilled HR leader whose expertise in leading teams at startup and enterprise tech companies has helped to build her style of coaching and leadership.
She is passionate about bridging the gaps between talent, culture, and career, and her coaching approach is based on the values of compassion, curiosity, and courage. Her work focuses on providing underrepresented talent with access to education, learning, and growth, as well as influencing the future of work through open-sourced experimentation.
Follow AJ on LinkedIn for more information about the future of work and innovative HR and recruitment approaches.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/itsajthomas
Do you know people who share recruitment insights and are not mentioned on this list? Reach out to Andrew Demianenko, our Head of Content, and suggest which recruitment thought leaders deserve to be on our list.
