The 20 Recruiting Blogs Sourcing Professionals Should Be Reading

More often than not, the smartest industry insights are found in niche publications, not in big, mainstream outlets. These smaller blogs and trade magazines have the benefits of speaking to knowledgeable audiences who really only have an appetite for impactful news and thoughtful analyses.

In this post, we will explore the 20 best such blogs from the worlds of recruiting, HR and talent management. Directors of recruiting should bookmark or follow these blogs for industry intel and insights.

HR Bartender

Sharlyn Lauby’s HR Bartender is one of the best human resources publications going today. She covers all perspectives in her writing — how managers can be better leaders, how frontline employees can make smart choices with their own careers, what HR professionals need to know to be successful. Follow HR Bartender for unique insights into what keeps teams productive, engaged and successful.

Matt Charney’s Snark Attack

Matt Charney is the editor in chief at Recruiting Daily, and his personal blog, Snark Attack, has some of the richest insight into modern recruiting technology, practices and philosophies. He doesn’t publish frequently (maybe once every two months), but that’s because his focus is entirely on quality writing. A good starting point is his 2015 post “10 Candidate Experience Statistics Every Recruiter Should Know.”

Undercover Recruiter

Undercover Recruiter features a team of excellent business journalists who take the time to explore the nuances of recruiting. There are typically just one or two posts per day, but each is thoughtful and thorough. Nearly a half million industry professionals reader Undercover Recruiter each month, so following along is a good way to keep up to date with industrywide trends.

Fistful of Talent

Fistful Of Talent is one of two blogs on this list from talent management expert Kris Dunn, who has spent the last decade-plus teaching HR professionals how to find the most talented people, give these talented people the resources they need to do great work, and minimize the actual administrative aspect of HR.

FOT brings together some of the best minds in recruiting today to share their tips, advice, wisdom and insights.

The HR Capitalist

HR Capitalist is Dunn’s other blog, and it’s where you’ll find his raw analyses of all things related to recruiting and talent management. Here are a few excellent posts to get you started:

• Stop Lying To Candidates: Here’s a Good Way To Tell Them Why They Didn’t Get The Job
• Should You Fight Age Bias By Only Showing Your Last 15 Years On Your Resume?
• High Performing Employees Who Stay In Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid 50% Less Over Their Careers

The Aristocracy of HR

Consultant Janine N. Truitt is the owner, author and chief innovations officer at The Aristocracy of HR, a blog to which she brings more than a decade of experience in HR and recruiting. This is a great blog to follow for ideas as to how technology and organizations themselves can create opportunities for talented people to do great work.

The Employer Handbook

Eric B. Meyer is a partner at the law firm Dilworth Paxson LLP, where he specializes in employment and labor law. He also blogs about some of the thorniest employment law issues at The Employer Handbook, which makes this blog a fantastic resource. Case in point: After the pro-racist rallies and terror attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, Meyer explored what an employer can do if management learns its employees have participated in such an event.

TalentCulture

Meghan M. Biro founded TalentCulture in 2010 as a place to discuss and highlight the best ideas for fostering a collaborative and innovative working environment. Posts dig into issues such as philosophies of leadership, too. A good post to start with is contributor Matias Rodsevich’s piece “7 Ways Managers Can Build Trust in the Workplace.”

China Gorman’s blog

Consultant China Gorman has more than 20 years of experience in career transitions and executive coaching, so her blog is a great source of information on the realities of modern executive recruiting. Gorman has also served as CEO at the Great Place to Work Institute and as a C-suite executive at The Society for Human Resource Management.

McDermott Will & Emery’s Employee Benefits Blog

Law firm McDermott Will & Emery keep readers up to date on issues such as employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements with its Employee Benefits Blog. In a political environment where things such as employer-provided healthcare or timetracking among federal contractors become moving targets, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on new posts here.

Evil HR Lady

Evil HR Lady mainly speaks to the workforce in general (“I’m here to demystify your Human Resources department and tell you just why you worked your tail end off all year and still got a 1.7 percent bonus,” author Suzanne Lucas writes), which makes this an excellent resource for understanding the needs and concerns of the people you might be hiring.

Here are a few of Lucas’ best pieces, both from the blog and contributed elsewhere:

• How Not to Burn Bridges When You Resign from Your Job
• Team Building Activities That Actually Work
• Is the Six-Hour Workday the Key to Productivity?

HRO Today’s Talent Acquisition News Feed

HRO Today has a dedicated section to Talent Acquisition that is worth following. A recent post, Talent Grabbers by Debbie Bolla, explores some strategies that are allowing Asian-Pacific-based organizations to retain top employees, but the advice in this piece applies universally and deserves a read no matter where your offices are.

The SHRM Blog

The Society for Human Resource Management is one of our industry’s go-to authorities, and its blog serves as one of the very best outlets for that expertise. Many of the posts are authored by professionals in the field, so they’re written from the perspective of first-hand experience. Anyone in HR should be reading the SHRM blog.

Human Resource Executive Online

The trade magazine Human Resource Executive celebrates its 30th birthday this year, and its digital-only version, HRE Online, celebrates its 11th. Posts at the digital publication run the gamut, though content is typically grouped around monthly themes such as retirement, recruiting, benefits and HR technology.

Workforce Magazine

Another excellent trade magazine, Workforce reports news and offers analyses across all functions of HR as they pertain to business results. As the editors say, “We believe that there is no more critical element to a business and its success than its employees.” The magazine also has its annual Workforce 100 — a list of the companies with the best HR departments — that many in the industry look forward to. Google, Facebook and Coca-Cola topped the 2017 list.

HR Examiner

Not afraid to take a stand, HR Examiner has some of the hardest-hitting analyses in the industry. Just two examples of many: Stacey Harris’ excellent post Is Organizational Transparency Worth the Trouble? and China Gorman’s I Really Don’t Care If My Employees Are Engaged.

Human Capital Institute’s blog

The HCI blog publishes just a handful of posts per week, and most are from contributors who represent their own companies. This makes for excellent reading, too, as the posts are informed by real-world experience and wisdom. The conversations here are high level, and the posts are very likely being read by your counterparts at most major organizations.

DiversityInc

DiversityInc publishes its own annual list, a survey of the 50 organizations whose processes and practices invite a diverse workforce. This includes an exploration of each company’s talent pipeline, talent development, the accountability of leadership and the diversity of its suppliers. EY took the No. 1 spot in 2017. Throughout the year, too, the DiversityInc team publishes news and analyses about diversity in the workplace.

ERE Recruiting Intelligence

ERE is one of the most widely read resources on recruitment and talent acquisition, drawing some 200,000 readers each month. The analysis is top-notch, too: One of ERE’s reporters, Joel Cheesman, has done some of the best reporting on the rollout of Google Hire that you’ll read anywhere.

The Savage Truth

Four-time entrepreneur, consultant and Sydney resident Greg Savage offers up lessons he’s learned over four decades in recruiting at his blog, The Savage Truth. He’s one of the most widely read experts on recruiting and acquisition in the English-speaking world, and his blog is worth a follow for the depth of analysis and global perspective Savage brings.