Katrina Collier | Author, Facilitator & Speaker
Energising human connection through The Searchologist & DisruptHR
My company, The Searchologist, has two sides that both revolve around energising the connection between people.
- The Searchologist, focuses on energising the connection between HR, recruiters, and hiring managers to better recruitment and candidate experience.
- I also run DisruptHR London and Cambridge, fun community events that give HR a voice and inspire people to better the world of work.
And as an Ambassador for Hope for Justice, The Searchologist and my DisruptHR events support the charity. Because Hope for Justice aim to end modern-day slavery affecting over 40 million people globally.
The Searchologist
Founded in 2009, I initially taught HR & recruiters social recruiting & sourcing. Nine years later, after successfully working with leading companies around the world and speaking at all the major conferences, I saw a greater problem needing my attention.
So in 2018 I pivoted to focus on the problem of candidate experience and engagement. Because finding people online is easy! Sourcers and recruiters can find candidates, but evoking a response, because of the enormous amount of recruitment spam, is a real problem. But you also have to consider the impact of the transparency created by the Internet. Because the Internet highlights poor employee and candidate experience and creates a lot of distraction. Hence, recruiters are in a fight for attention in a world of interruption!
The Robot-Proof Recruiter
During 2018, the respected business book publisher, Kogan Page, asked me if I would like to write a book! Writing the book created an opportunity to amplify and address the problem of candidate engagement and experience in a tech-saturated search-engine led world. My first book, The Robot-Proof Recruiter, published on August 3rd, 2019. Subsequently, shortlisted for a Business Book Award and purchased by recruiters on 6 continents.
But researching and writing the book was eye-opening. Finally, I understood the real impact I could create by solving the imbalance between HR, recruiters and hiring managers. Fixing the imbalance between these connections is critical to improving recruitment and candidate experience.
The Searchologist beyond 2020
I entered 2020 on a mission to impact the behaviour of 1000 hiring managers through LDJ Facilitation because I believe that HR & Recruiters understand the importance of candidate experience more than hiring managers do, and it’s time to change that! Throw in a global pandemic, and I launched The Robot-Proof Recruiter Mastermind & Certification in June 2020.
Now in 2021, having seen the incredible results of both facilitation and the mastermind, I know exactly how The Searchologist can help. I know how to create real impact to all the people involved in recruitment, and to the candidates and job seekers, who unfortunately are mistreated, more often than not. My focus, through facilitation, speaking and the mastermind, will centre on energising the connection between HR, recruiters and hiring managers.
My mission is to energise 1 million people who recruit people to create true partnerships, to fix recruitment & candidate experience!
DisruptHR
As a typical “Generation X”, HR has ignored me, so it is with some irony that I have spent so many years working with HR and discovering they aren’t as bad as I thought! I soon realised that those HR professionals who are breaking rules and improving the world of work seldom spoke and that a new platform was needed.
After speaking at DisruptHR NYC in 2016, I brought the Disrupt movement across the pond and can’t quite believe what it has become – a platform where people have permission to be themselves and share their ideas. London’s HR community clearly needed something new and refreshing, and I am truly awed by it every time. In 2019, I brought DisruptHR to Bristol, York, Glasgow and Cambridge. For 2020, I handed Bristol to Lee Burman, and Glasgow to Alexandra Burns & Sandy Wilkie, to concentrate on London, Cambridge, (the first) Newcastle and York. Sadly, Covid bought my plans for events in Newcastle & Leeds to an end and I will focus on London & Cambridge when it is safe to run events again! 🔮
Why work with the founder of The Searchologist?
It’s 2021, people feel empowered to use the Internet to share their experiences. Therefore, disgruntled candidates or job seekers are happy to share their experiences on the 20+ review sites, Twitter, Reddit, and even on LinkedIn and Google Maps. And this is detrimental to your future hiring.
Too few companies focus on the human connections hampering recruitment. From my experience, energise the connection between the 3 key players and you immediately improve recruitment, and therefore candidate experience. Bring the relationship between HR, recruiters and hiring managers into balance, and you’ll create the true partnerships that make recruitment better, for everyone.
My facilitation process will swiftly give you deeper insight and actionable outcomes to fix recruitment issues in 90 minutes. And The Robot-Proof Recruiter Mastermind will develop the human skills of HR and recruiters so they create true partnerships, because this ensures future recruitment success.
I am also an in-demand keynote speaker, experienced delivering inspirational talks, webinars and masterclasses, to audiences on 5 continents. I have spoken at all the major HR and recruitment conferences and at corporate events; even to the Singapore Government!
Plus, you will find my opinion quoted in these publications and many more:
Serving Community
As an Ambassador for Hope for Justice charity I raise funds through my DisruptHR events and by donating the royalties from The Robot-Proof Recruiter, and as a founding member of #ConnectingHRforJustice, I regularly donate time in-country to support the staff and carers. I also mentor the founder of Radical Recruit, an agency getting disadvantaged Londoners back into work, am anti-racism, and I work hard to deliver diverse and inclusive DisruptHR events.
You’ll find me @KatrinaMCollier on Twitter & Instagram sharing too many (?!) photos of my dogs and championing the #BeHuman cause.
Let’s work together:
Recognition & Industry Contribution
– Debi Easterday, CEO & Chief H2B Consultant, H2B Consulting
I donate my time as a judge, ambassador or advisor to the following organisations:
- HR Experts: Top 100 Most Influential People 2021 Edition
- Engagedly: Top 100 HR Influencers 2020 & 2019
- UK Recruiter: 30 of The Best Recruitment Blogs, Podcasts and Content Providers 2018
- Firefish: Casting Our #RecNet
- Recruiting Daily: 300+ Women In HR Technology Worth Watching
- DevSkiller: 50 most game-changing influencers in recruitment [also for IT recruiters]
- Moodvise: No. 22 in The Top 100 Most Influential People In HR & Recruiting On Twitter
- DevSkiller: 31 Must Follow Blogs For Tech Recruiters In 2016
- SHRM: Becoming a Robot-Proof Recruiter
- HRD Live Podcast: Talent 2020
- The Global Recruiter: The Revolution Will Be Digitised pages 18/19
- Diginomica: Would you want to be hired by a bot? Why AI’s role in recruitment needs checks and balances
- People Management: It’s time to give your recruitment a makeover
- Dice.com: Exploring the Secret Practices of Tech Recruiters
- BBC Capital: Hate Talking On The Phone? This Interview Is For You
- Forbes: How To Find Technology Talent In The LinkedIn Era
- People Management: What are candidates saying about you online?
- Dice.com: 7 Social Recruiting Goofs That Turn Off Tech Pros
- Mashable: How To Recruit The Creme De La Creme For Your Business
- Inc.com: How To Write A Social Media Policy
- Cambridge University Students’ Union’s: Strategies For Success, contributing the section Managing Your Digital Profile in Chapter 1, Careers Toolkit.
I created a page for Interviews: The Robot-Proof Recruiter because I have been asked to talk about it so much 🙏🏻