9 Newsletters and Blogs to Make You a Smarter Recruiter

November 4, 2016 at 11:00 AM by William Clarke

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Content is the currency of the internet. Yet there’s so much out there these days, that finding interesting, relevant and, most importantly, curated articles is a full-time job. If you’re like us, you don’t have a ton of time to comb the World Wide Web every day, but you still want to read the good stuff. The goal, after all, is to find the right information, not all of the information.

Newsletters are the single best way to see the best stuff from every corner of the internet in one place. They’re like content cheatsheets. Blogs are a similar, slightly more exhaustive version of newsletters. Both deliver the interesting and relevant intel straight to your inbox in witty, readable, clever nuggets.

But picking the right content resource is like picking the right cable package; it all depends on your interests and habits. Sign up for too many and you’ll spend more time stressing over what to read than actual reading. 

Here are my favorite newsletters and blogs. They cover every facet of my life, including my love for current events, technology, recruiting, business, and productivity. Reading them will no doubt make you smarter and better informed, but they’ll also give you fuel and inspiration for those rainy days when you’ve run out of ideas.

The Skimm by The Daily Skimm

You’ve probably heard of it, but in case you haven’t, The Skimm is a stellar daily newsletter that zips into your inbox every weekday morning. What The Skimm does, summarizing the biggest news stories of the day, it does really well. They take two or three of the leading current events and explain what’s going on and why you should care. It’s pithy, smart, highly informative and it helps you make sure you’re never, ever out of the loop. For recruiters, whose job relies on communicating with people and understanding the world at large, being plugged in is invaluable.  

Several People Are Typing by Slack

Slack has carved out a reputation as a leading workplace innovator in technology. But they’ve also taken the lead on developing an inclusive culture of work. Several People Are Typing is where they give the public a look underneath the hood at how they do that, both on the product side and behind the company scenes. Okay, so it’s technically not a newsletter, but if you subscribe via Medium, you’ll get a newsletter-like email digest. Plus the content is so great that I had to include it. You’ll find everything from articles about how Slack manages their Twitter feed to articles about working with your spouse and how they onboard new employees. It’s practical yet thoughtful wisdom delivered from a talented stable of writers and editors, some of whom have worked at places like FastCompany and Rolling Stone. Can you say great copy?

The Modern Recruiter by Greenhouse Software

The Modern Recruiter is Greenhouse’s weekly newsletter. It includes a mix of recent Greenhouse articles, webinars and white papers, recruiting-related content from around the web, and even recruiting jobs at the bottom (in case you’re trying to make moves). It’s a straightforward digest, but for busy recruiters it’s a really easy way to stay on top of the industry and find information you may not see otherwise. Greenhouse also does a stellar job simultaneously marketing their product and their company culture, and The Modern Recruiter is a weekly lesson is how to effectively and persuasively brand your organization with awesome content.

Wavelength by Asana

Asana calls Wavelength a digital magazine, but functionally that just means it’s a newsletter with all original Asana content. It launched in mid-October with an issue focused on distributing authority highlighted by articles on how Zappos shifted to holocracy, an interview with IDEO Managing Director, Dana Cho, and how to create organizational decision making structures that fit your team. It’s a smart, in-depth publication about the nature of work and how to create a culture that works for your company. These are issues that every organization faces, and Wavelength is a worthy contribution to the conversation.

Glassdoor for Employers

Glassdoor has invigorated workplace transparency with its “Yelp for Employers” type service, so it’s no surprise that their Glassdoor for Employers newsletter is so useful. With a focus on practical tips, how-tos and tactical advice, Glassdoor knows its audience. If you’re constantly thinking of ways to develop your employer brand, recruitment marketing, and retention practices, Glassdoor is an excellent source of new ideas, tools, and advice for how to do it right. Don’t believe me? Check out this recent piece on creating a recruiting budget.  

The Benedict Evans Newsletter 

If you’re not familiar, Benedict Evans is a partner at Andreesseen Horowitz, the venerable venture capital firm. Though he says his focus is on mobile technology, few topics are beyond Evans considerable range of expertise. Given how recruiting continues to be upended by technology, it behooves many of us to keep track of advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, voice technology and other spaces. There’s no better or easier way than Benedict’s newsletter. It’s weekly and typically arrives on Sunday evenings, so it makes for a stellar Monday morning routine to stay on top of tech every week.

The Starr Conspiracy

The Starr Conspiracy is the brains behind the Influence HR mini-conference that occurs every year just before HR Tech. Their weekly-ish newsletter is short and sweet with between three to five article blurbs focused on social media, content, employee retention, engagement and other hot button topics in the recruiting space. As one of the most innovative agencies around that always pushing the envelope, knowing what The Starr Conspiracy is reading puts you in good company. 

Recruiting Daily

Home to writers like Matt Charney, Katrina Kibben, and  William Tincup, Recruiting Daily is one of the best sources of recruiting commentary on the internet. Whether its clear-eyed takes on trendy buzzwords or commentary on industry-shaking developments, you can trust Recruiting Daily to tell you something you won’t read elsewhere. The Recruiting Daily feed is less a newsletter and more like an RSS feed but at its best, RecruitingDaily is essential reading, especially when big news like major acquisitions or product developments pop up.

The Entelo Bulletin

Last but certainly not least, the Entelo Bulletin is pretty good way to keep your recruiting IQ on the up and up every week. With articles from yours truly and some other smart folks, it’s all killer no filler. If by some small oversight you haven’t subscribed yet, that's okay, you can you can push subscription at the top of this page. It's that easy. 

Compared to most people, I’m a bit of a news junky. I get five daily newsletters, and another half dozen weeklies is a lot of content. But the brilliant thing is that you can always go back to newsletters. Even if you don’t read them immediately, they’re there in your inbox, waiting for when you have spare a moment.

Just a handful a week can be the difference between knowing a certain company is laying off tons of talent ripe for the poaching, that a major vendor is buying a competitor, or that there’s some golden Game of Thrones rumors taking the internet by storm. Would you wanna miss that news? I didn’t think so.

Related Articles:
10 Podcasts Every Recruiter Should Listen To
Lessons from HR Tech: Candidate Transparency, Employer Branding, and the Future of Hiring
These Five Seth Godin Insights Will Help You Recruit Better 

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