Australia: The Eurovision Entry of Talent Acquisition

This week on Edan Haddock – Total Talent, Edan takes Talent Acquisition somewhere unexpected… Eurovision.

As Australia steps onto the world stage once again, Edan explores why Australian Talent Acquisition still seems to seek permission to belong in the global conversation.

From the dominance of the US and UK, to the rise of markets like Singapore and the Netherlands, this episode breaks down who really leads Talent Acquisition globally, why they lead, and what Australia might be missing.

But this isn’t about tearing Australian TA down. Quite the opposite.

This is a raw conversation about confidence, tall poppy syndrome, Workforce 5.0, AI, hybrid work and why Australia may already be one of the strongest Talent Acquisition markets in the world… if we’re willing to finally own it.

Join the Edan Haddock - Total Talent community (formerly Rubberband)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Welcome back, everyone, to Eden Haddock Total Talent. I am your host, Eden Haddock, Head of Talent and People Experience at November. I need to start this episode somewhere slightly unexpected. Or perhaps not if you've read the episode title, but Eurovision. Yeah. Eurovision. Because this weekend, the world gathers around this giant, chaotic, glitter cupboard masterpiece of a competition, which I love. And once again, Australia is there. Still, still standing on that stage. Still somehow surviving the public debate every year about whether we deserve to be there. The more I thought about it this week, the more I realized that Australian talent acquisition feels exactly the same. Seriously. Because Australia has somehow become this weird little outsider participant in the global conversation. Good enough to compete, good enough to occasionally dominate, go Delta this year, good enough to influence trends, good enough to innovate, but still acting like we meet we we need permission to stand on that stage. And I think that mindset exists deeply inside Australian talent acquisition. Because if you do look globally, who are considered the big players? The US? The UK? Sometimes Europe? Increasingly Singapore. And Australia, well, we kind of get treated like the plucky side character, the underdog, the market that punches above its weight. I think we've accepted that positioning for way too long. Because I'm going to say something bold in this episode. I genuinely believe that Australia may quietly be one of the best talent acquisition markets in the world. Not perfect, not the biggest, certainly not the loudest, but one of the best. And the crazy part, I don't think we even realize it ourselves. So today I want to unpack which countries genuinely lead talent acquisition globally, why they lead, why Australia isn't seen in the same category, what we're missing, what we're getting wrong, and why I think Australian talent acquisition may actually be entering its strongest era yet. Maybe some people listening globally will hate parts of this episode, and that's okay. Because in all honesty, I I'm tired of the Australian talent acquisition. You know, I'm I'm tired of us acting like we're lucky to be invited to the table. I really believe we belong there. And maybe maybe it's time we just stopped apologizing for it. So who actually leads talent acquisition globally? The perception. And we'll start with the obvious one: the United States. Whether people like it or not, the US dominates the global talent acquisition conversation. It just does. Most of the biggest HR tech companies are US. Most of the biggest LinkedIn influences are from the US. Most of the major conferences are in the US. Most of the venture capital driving workforce technology, the US. And most of the employer brand case studies that everybody references seem to be from the US. Silicon Valley alone changed the language of talent acquisition globally. Think about how many concepts originated there or became mainstream there. Candidate experience, recruitment marketing, talent communities, sourcing culture, employer branding, recruiting operations, people analytics, and importantly today, AI and hiring. The scale is insane. And to be fair, the Americans are very good at packaging ideas. Very good. Sometimes better at packaging than executing, but still very good at packaging. Because the US understands something that Australia often doesn't. Visibility matters. Narrative matters. Thought leadership matters. And influence matters. The Americans don't quietly do good work and hope someone notices. They broadcast it relentlessly. And there's something that we can learn from that. But and this is important. The US talent acquisition market also has weaknesses, huge ones. And I work in this market. Sometimes it feels overproduced, over-commercialized. Everything becomes a framework. Everything becomes a methodology. Everything becomes a maturity model. And sometimes it feels like talent acquisition over there is becoming a performance, a content machine, an influencer economy. And occasionally you listen to some of the loudest voices globally, and you realize they actually haven't hired anybody in years. They're not on the tools anymore. They're commentators, but not operators. And I think Australian talent acquisition is actually stronger operationally because of that. We still have practitioners leading conversations here. People actually doing the work, not just talking about the work. And that matters massively. Now, let's talk about the United Kingdom, the UK, another market I work in. Because if America dominates through scale, the UK dominates through sophistication. The UK recruitment market is incredibly mature, especially agency recruitment. Some of the best recruiters I've met globally have come out of the UK, including my partner. Commercially sharp, relationship driven, strong communicators, strong storytellers. And London became this global hub where talent acquisition, employer branding, and recruitment marketing all collided together. The UK also became extremely influential in EVP and employer brand thinking. Probably because British communication styles naturally lend themselves to storytelling. And we find that at Movember. There's polish, there's narrative, there's confidence. And unlike Australia, the UK exports its thinking really well. British recruiters and talent acquisition leaders are everywhere globally. And Australia exports talent too. But we rarely export identity. That's the key difference. And honestly, I think Australians somehow and sometimes downplay our own capability because we compare ourselves to markets with louder microphones. Not necessarily better operators, just louder microphones. Now, here's where I want to get interesting. Because some of the most innovative talent acquisition thinking globally, I mean, it isn't actually coming from the US or the UK anymore. It's coming from places people don't talk about enough. The Netherlands, Singapore, for example, Nordic countries, parts of Germany. And why? It's because these countries started focusing on workforce design earlier. Not just hiring, workforce design. And that's a huge difference. If you're not sure what I mean by workforce design, listen to last week's episode. I covered a full episode on this. And it's a huge difference. Countries like the Netherlands became incredibly progressive around flexible work, workforce mobility, skills-based thinking, talent marketplaces, future workforce planning, and HR technology adoption. Singapore, meanwhile, they became obsessed with future readiness. Artificial intelligence, workforce transformation, skills investment, and even government-backed workforce evolution. And this is where Australia should be paying attention. Because the future leaders in talent acquisition won't just be the country's best at recruiting. They'll be the country's best at redesigning work itself. That's Workforce 5.0. And Australia has the capability to lead there. We absolutely do. But we're still psychologically behaving like followers. So why isn't Australia considered a global telene acquisition powerhouse? This is the big question. I think part of the answer is cultural. Australia has a weird relationship with confidence. We celebrate sport, we celebrate entertainment, we celebrate founders. This weekend we're celebrating Delta. But we rarely celebrate talent acquisition. And when someone does build visibility in this space, tall poppy syndrome kicks in almost immediately. Who do they think they are? You're not changing the world, mate. You're just a recruiter. We minimize our own industry constantly. And that becomes dangerous. Because while we're busy downplaying ourselves, other countries are building influence. The second issue: Australia often imports frameworks instead of exporting ideas. We wait for validation. A methodology becomes popular in the United States, and then Australia adopts it. A trend appears in the United Kingdom, and then Australia follows it. Why? Why aren't we originating more globally recognised thinking ourselves? Because truly, a lot of the global frameworks don't even suit Australia properly. Australia's workforce is different. Our geography is different. Our work culture is different. Our hybrid work culture evolved differently. Our relationship with hierarchy is different. Australian workplaces are now genuinely they are flatter. They are less formal and less rigid. And that actually creates advantages in talent acquisition. This is where I want to shift gears. Because I'm tired of Australian talent acquisition underselling itself. I really am. Australia genuinely does some things exceptionally well. Let's start with candidate experience. Generally speaking, Australian candidate experience tends to feel more human, more conversational, less robotic, less corporate theatre. And I think that's because the Australian workforce and workplace culture is inheritant is inherently more relational, is what I'm trying to say. It's how we work, it's how we operate. People want authenticity here. Not scripts and not perfection, but authenticity. Now there are exceptions, absolutely, but globally Australia performs pretty well here. And as someone that works in all of the regions that we're talking here, in United States, United Kingdom, in Canada, in Ireland, I receive the feedback on the authentic approach to talent acquisition because it is led from Australia and we use, you know, we use the same frameworks that we use in Australia when it comes to assessing and evaluating talent. Our interview process is the same. It is very relational and conversational. I can't tell you how many messages and you know survey feedback that come back that say how unique that experience was for them in that market and how much they enjoyed it and how refreshing it was. Australia became one of the most progressive hybrid work markets in the world after the pandemic. And that isn't down to our long lockdowns. I think that came from our culture. Australians value lifestyle. We just do. And before people scream lazy workforce, look at the outcomes. Some of the strongest talent markets globally are increasingly flexibility first. The future of work is not about time at desk, it's about contribution. Outcomes, trust. And Australia adapted to that mindset faster than many global markets. The third thing, and the one that I feel is most important, they're all important, but most important community. I think this is actually Australia's superpower. Australian talent acquisition communities where we're unusually collaborative. People share ideas here. People help each other. People actually talk to each other like humans. Sometimes the US feels more like an audience economy. Australia, though, it feels like a community that matters massively. Now, before I continue, or before this becomes some, you know, patriotic love letter, we absolutely do have some weaknesses that we need to work on, and some of them are massive ones. Australia still underinvests in talent acquisition strategically. Too many organizations still see talent acquisition as transactional. Too many talent acquisition leaders still do sit outside strategic workforce conversations. And we all know that has to change. Because in Workforce 5.0, talent acquisition won't survive purely as a delivery function. It becomes workforce architecture. That's the shift. Second, we we still lack confidence globally. Sometimes Australian talent acquisition professionals become obsessed with overseas validation, and I see this frequently on LinkedIn, constantly referencing the US influences, the UK frameworks, the overseas conferences, while ignoring the incredible work happening locally. And third, this is huge. We don't create enough original IP. Australia needs more podcasts, developing more of our own frameworks. We need more conferences. We need more research. We need more bold thinking. And we need more experimentation. We need to stop acting like consumers of global talent acquisition content and become the creators of it. This part matters to me because I think Australian talent acquisition has achieved some genuinely world-class things. We've built incredible communities. We've created globally respected employer brands. We've adapted hybrid work faster than many markets. We've produced exceptional recruiters and talent leaders who now do influence globally. Australia has become surprisingly progressive around AI experimentation in talent. Not perfect, but practical. And that's the key difference. Australian talent acquisition tends to approach technology practically, not theoretically. And honestly, I think that's going to age very well. Because eventually the AI hype circle, it will calm down. And operational capability matters again. And Australian talent acquisition operators are good, really good. That on the tools mentality. I get so angry when that's described as a weakness. That's not a weakness. That has become our competitive advantage. And here we are. This brings me back to Eurovision. Because every year Australia walks onto that stage, and people still ask whether we belong there. I think Australian talent acquisition hears the same thing globally. Quietly, subtly, indirectly. Like we're the guests in the global conversation. Like we're lucky to participate. And maybe we've been thinking about this wrong. Maybe Australia doesn't need permission anymore. Maybe we already belong there. Maybe we already helped shape modern talent acquisition more than we realize. Maybe the future of talent acquisition doesn't belong to the loudest markets, but to the most adaptive ones. The most human ones. The most practical ones. The markets willing to redesign work instead of protecting old systems. Honestly, it sounds a lot like Australia to me. So maybe this is the decade Australian talent acquisition stops behaving like the Eurovision Wildcard entry. And starts acting like a genuine headline act. And if Delta Goodrum wins Eurovision this weekend. I think we can officially stop apologizing for being there. Go, Delta. We got you. Thanks for listening, everyone. This has been Eden Haddock for Eden Haddock Total Talent, and I'll see you here next week.