Resources
AI in Recruiting
2 min read
Conversational AI Recruiting vs Candidate Black Hole
Job seekers browsing company career sites these days may be interacting with recruiter chatbots. But that recruiter who’s being so helpful may actually be a conversational AI chatbot in disguise. Surprised? Don’t be. Chatbots have come a long way from just a few years ago when they were little more than text versions of those annoying telephone option trees. Today’s conversational AI recruiting software is so good they sometimes are mistaken for human recruiters. Instead of offering a multiple-choice text list of questions or help, AI chatbots converse naturally, which is why they are often referred to as conversational chatbots. Many understand language so well they can figure out the intent even when the question is ambiguously worded. Today most vendors in the space refer to it simply as ‘conversational AI’. The advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) are prompting more and more employers to incorporate AI chatbots into their recruiting programs. When deployed on a company career site, surveys show these bots enhance candidate satisfaction and improve the quality of candidates who apply. A recent survey of organizations with a recruiting AI chatbot found 71% reporting their candidates were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the experience. Not one reported a negative response. In fact, 50% of organizations with an AI chatbot say the most important benefit is the improved candidate experience. What makes these conversational AI recruiting bots so popular is that unlike a human recruiter, they’re ready to answer questions 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Their instant response time is a plus for candidates who might otherwise have to wait hours or days for an answer to the simplest of questions – and that’s if there’s even a way to ask a question at all. That immediacy is a panacea for candidates who sometimes refer to the job search as a black hole unable to reach anyone at the company to get more information about the role. Besides helping job candidates at the pre-application stage, these bots can schedule phone screens and interviews, gather additional information and update candidates on the status of their application, eliminating the dreaded “black hole.” That adds up to a much better candidate experience, plus can also result in a significant savings in recruiter time. When the cosmetics company L’Oreal implemented a conversational chatbot to screen, schedule and automate phone interviews, the time was cut from 45 minutes to less than five. AI bots are also highly versatile in how they interact with candidates, communicating by email, text message, and even by voice phone. Some companies are using AI chatbots to help mobile users complete a job application entirely using voice responses. So useful are AI chatbots becoming that 40% of Gen Z users consider them important for an employer to have on the company career site. Increasingly, talent acquisition leaders are discovering chatbots also offer a wealth of intelligence into candidate interests and concerns. By analyzing the questions candidates ask, AI chatbots can help develop recruitment marketing programs and give recruiting leaders insight into what most matters to the talent they want to attract. Though the majority of recruiting chatbots in use today are still the multiple-choice. decision tree type, AI bots that understand natural language are fast becoming the standard. The reasons are clear: Conversational AI recruiting chatbots improve the candidate experience, save recruiter’s time and provide the kind of analytical insights that lead to more effective talent acquisition.
Continue reading
Human Resources
2 min read
The Importance of an Employee Onboarding Checklist
Next to making a great hire, onboarding them is the most important part of recruiting. Unfortunately, it’s also the part with so many pieces that without an employee onboarding checklist, it’s easy to miss a step, forget a detail, or, in the worst case, ignore it altogether until the new hire walks in the door. Onboarding is where a company makes a lasting impression on the new employee. Yet too many employers leave the process to chance, then wonder why the hire they had such high hopes for quit after just a few weeks or even days. The Internet is alive with onboarding horror stories: New hires no one was expecting or who had no desk, chair, computer or phone when they arrived. Workers scheduled for training on the day the trainer was off. New employees who were never told when to start and others who were sent to the wrong location. An employee onboarding checklist can prevent mistakes like these from happening. A comprehensive onboarding checklist that details every one of the steps will go far to ensuring the company puts its best foot forward in making the new employee feel welcome. Before digging into the specifics of what an onboarding checklist should include, it’s important to know the difference between onboarding and orientation. The latter is part of onboarding, but it’s the part than can mostly be handled before the new hire’s first day. Orientation is the paperwork part of onboarding, including completing I-9s, W-4 s and benefits, arranging employee identification and contact information, and delivering the company handbook spelling out policies and procedures. Increasingly, companies are handling this digitally, though some mail out hardcopies to be signed and returned. Beyond the paperwork, onboarding should be thought of as a strategic process that introduces them to the company culture and helps them become comfortable with their new colleagues so they’ll become an engaged, productive member of the team. Companies that think this way will assign a company email and login so the new hire can begin to become part of their new team even before their official start. More and more, these companies also see the value of extending onboarding beyond the traditional few days or weeks to several months and up to a year. Whatever your program, an employee onboarding checklist is crucial to success. Besides ensuring all the bases are covered and no detail is overlooked, it spells out who in the organization is responsible for each item and when the task is due. The nature of your business will dictate how many versions of the onboarding checklist you need. A company with a variety of jobs and a mix of hourly and salaried employees may have several different checklists, each differing only when it comes to the specifics of the job. Regardless of industry, all employee onboarding checklists should cover every detail from the forms required by law and by the company to the specifics of the job and the arrangements for the worker’s first day and week. A good onboarding checklist doesn’t just say “forms.” It lists each one required of the employee. It’s not enough to simply say “first day.” A checklist should list every specific element of what will occur that day, from the front door greeting to the office tour to introductions, lunch, and, of course, all the necessary set-up for where the employee will actually be assigned. Creating an employee onboarding checklist may seem like a lot of work, and it is. Listing each and every detail may even seem obsessive. It should and probably is. However, you only need to do it once. And if it keeps that great new hire from being one of the 25% to 30% of workers who quit in the first few months, then the effort will be well worth it.
Continue reading
Recruiting Trends
2 min read
Soaring Employee Turnover Rate is a Covid Legacy
The voluntary employee turnover rate is soaring, reaching levels rarely seen in the last 20 years. For March, the average for the private sector was 2.7%, which translates into an annual voluntary employee turnover rate approaching one-third. Imagine the impact to a company of losing every third worker, yet that is what many businesses are facing. For restaurants, hotels and motels the employee turnover rate is even worse, a stunning 5.3%. Now add in the number of workers retiring, fired and laid off and the average national private sector employee turnover rate – total worker churn – stood at 4.1%. It’s “The Great Covid Job Churn,” says William Vanderbloemen, CEO of an executive search firm, and it’s “coming for you.” Writing in Forbes in January, Vanderbloemen, predicted 2021 “will result in unprecedented turnover in job markets across the country.” Four months later, data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows how right he was. The government’s monthly surveys of job openings, hires and turnover shows openings were at a record high 8.1 million in March. Yet only 6 million hires were made, a number equal to the total separations – quits, layoffs, retirements and firings – during the month. No wonder employers are having such difficulty in filling jobs. Instead of being able to aggressively increase employment, employers are barely able to keep the workers they already have. Small business is being hit especially hard by the eagerness of workers to change jobs. The National Federation of Independent Business reported 44% of small business owners had openings they couldn’t fill. The Wall Street Journal said it was the highest level in 50 years. Employee Turnover Stats Business employing 10-49 workers, a group that includes most fast-food restaurants, had an employee turnover rate of 3%. Those with 50 to 249 employees had a voluntary turnover rate of 2.9%. The reasons for the increasing employee turnover rate are both practical and predictable, as wells as emotionally existential. While the pandemic raged and businesses were closed, workers who might otherwise have sought new opportunities or the next step in their career held off. The uncertainty of what might happen next was unnerving. Now that the light at the end of the tunnel is bright, workers are more confident about changing jobs. Another group of workers who discovered they enjoyed working remotely more than commuting to an office is seeking out employers who will permit them to work from home part or all of the time. A new survey of remote workers found 58% will look for another job if they can’t continue working remotely. Many others who might not have questioned their career choice had time during the Covid lockdown to reevaluate where they were and what they wanted out of their work life. Some of the turnover is due to these workers going back to school to learn new skills. Others are leaving for careers that may be more fulfilling than what they had been doing. While some turnover is inevitable, there are things an employer can do to minimize the loss of talent. The first place to look is compensation and benefits. If the pay is not competitive or the package is merely average, improving compensation will help take money out of the picture. Career advancement and training is a key reason people have historically changed jobs. Even in the smallest shops, owners and employers can provide opportunities for workers to develop their skills and learn new ones. Workers at larger employers can be given additional responsibilities and a detailed plan for career advancement. Scheduling and flexibility was becoming a hot button issue long before Covid. Now, retention may well depend on it. Workers have demonstrated they can be as productive at home as in the office; many were even more productive without the interruptions common in a communal workspace. Because of Covid, workers enjoyed the opportunity to take care of family chores and still get their work done. Providing flexibility will keep workers from searching for another job that does. With the employee turnover rate as high as it has ever been, employers need to consider doing everything they can to retain the best workers. Recognizing that the pandemic has changed the nature of work and that they must change how they manage employees is the first step. ### Contributions by John Zappe ###
Continue reading
Recruiting
2 min read
Restaurant Recruiting Strategies Getting Creative
Restaurant recruiting is an ironic description for what’s happening in the food industry today. Despite dangling everything from signing bonuses and premium pay to free college tuition to lure workers, restaurant hiring is barely a trickle. So difficult is it to hire workers, especially the more skilled kitchen help, that most restaurants are short-staffed, leading many to curtail hours or close one or sometimes two days a week. “It’s no secret that the labor market is tight,” said Kelly McCulloch, Taco Bell’s Chief People Officer, announcing a mass restaurant hiring event last month. Parking lots were converted into job fairs at some 2,000 Taco Bell’s nationwide. Applicants didn’t even have to get out of their car to be interviewed. Taco Bell is far from alone in going to almost any lengths to fill vacancies – its goal was 5,000 hires. Other chains, both big and small, are trying a variety of restaurant hiring tactics: Chipotle, which is looking to bring on 20,000 new workers this year, announced it would raise pay to an average of $15 an hour by the end of June. It will also pay workers $200 for referring a new crew member and $750 for apprentices and general managers. It also broadened its free college tuition program. Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse and other chains, raised its minimum wage to $10 and is dividing $17 million among its 90,000 hourly employees as a bonus, yet CEO Gene Lee told analysts, “I think our greatest challenge right now is staffing…It’s staffing, trying to attract people to come to work.” At the 169 location Donatos pizza chain, the company is giving away a free large pizza to everyone who just interviews for one of the 2,500 jobs the company wants to fill. Last month, the upscale boutique restaurant group KNEAD Hospitality + Design tweeted a $1,000 signing bonus for joining its team. Despite the incentives, restaurant recruiting tactics are not paying off yet, say owners and managers. Just getting workers to apply and show up for an interview can be an exercise in frustration. Laurence Edelman, owner of Left Bank bistro in New York City, told CBS Moneywatch that out of five interviews, only one candidate showed up. The situation at Manhattan’s highly regarded ilili, is no better. Even after running multiple ads for a cook, there wasn’t a single applicant. A Florida McDonald’s franchisee with 60 restaurants is paying $50 to anyone just for showing up for an interview. The reasons for the restaurant hiring shortage are nearly as numerous as there are restaurateurs. However, four are the most common: While restaurants were closed for all but takeout, other businesses were aggressively hiring. They feature steady hours and many like Amazon, Walmart and the home improvement centers, pay $15 or more an hour, well above that of quick service and casual dining restaurants. Combined with the normal state unemployment benefit, the federal $300 supplemental payment is close to or even more than restaurant work pays. Stimulus checks and income tax refunds provide an additional cushion. Servers, hosts, sommeliers and others who come into direct contact with the public, as well as the back of the house staff, may be hesitant to risk their health. Some who depend on schools for child care aren’t able to return to work, while teens and younger adults, the backbone of the fast food sector, have other job options or are simply not yet ready to join the labor force. Making a tough situation worse is that restaurant hiring is occurring simultaneously all across the country. Says Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor, “All of these factors combined are creating a perfect storm hitting restaurants.” ### Contributions by John Zappe
Continue reading
Recruiting Trends
2 min read
Hospitality Industry Trends in Hiring: Signing Bonuses
In today’s challenging job market, hospitality employers are going to great lengths to attract new workers. Some are getting rather creative when it comes to hiring perks. Take the Vivili Hospitality Group in Prescott, Arizona. They have partnered with a local college to offer free tuition in an attempt to incentivize new hires amid a national hiring crisis that has “plagued the restaurant industry since the pandemic.” The owner of Vivill, Skyler Reeves said, “Attracting and retaining the best talent is a top priority for Vivili and creating this program with Yavapai College allows us to do just that, while also contributing to the community by funding the education of people looking to get ahead in their careers. With this being a challenging hiring time for the service sector all over the country, our vision for this program is to find a creative way to alleviate this industry-wide issue.” Students who accept the job are able to choose any major at the college without restrictions. More interesting is that Reeves didn’t put many restrictions on the offer. They just have to be employed by Vivilli until they graduate. New workers must be employed by May 22 to qualify and those enrolling in the second fall term beginning Oct. 11 must start their employment by July 17. Employees must earn a passing grade of C or better to receive the reimbursement. Chipotle also offers a tuition reimbursement program, allowing eligible employees to be reimbursed for tuition up to $5,250 per year in qualifying programs. Signing Bonuses Reign Most hospitality job recruiters are not as creative instead turning to hiring bonuses to lure new hospitality workers. Here are some examples we’ve seen in the headlines. The Max Restaurant Group out of Hartford,CT is offering $1,000 sign on bonuses to new hires (even dishwashers. Must be employed for at least 5 weeks. The Mohegan Sun Casino also in Connecticut is offering $2,000 signing bonuses for culinary staff. Marriott Vacations Worldwide in Orlando is offering new hires a $1,000 sign-on bonus as the company adds staff for seven timeshare properties. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Rochester, NT offers a $275 sign-on bonus. BJ’s Wholesale Club does a $500 sign-on bonus and a $500 referral bonus for employees who are “in good standing for 90-days.” Hollywood Casino in Columbus Ohio offers a $1,000 sign on-bonus for select positions. Sign-on bonuses seem to be the main strategy for recruiting at this point in the hospitality industry. This trend is likely to stay at least for the next few months. It remains to be seen if these kinds of bonuses will become the norm going forward. Only more applicants in the talent pool can lessen the need to offer these kinds of monetary perks.
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
2 min read
Best Practices for Retail Hiring
It’s hard to be a retail employer today and get enough applicants to fill your shifts. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on recruiting for retail establishments as people remain hunkered down, bolstered by federally backed unemployment benefits or other personal reasons. We are seeing a lot of creativity when it comes to attracting new workers. Some businesses are offering signing bonuses (anywhere from $100 to $2,000) while some tout free food or other perks. But let’s take a look at some core recruitment ideas that your retail locations can use on an everyday basis to attract talent. Easy Apply Making it as easily as possible to apply is table stakes in retail recruiting. If you can’t apply by sending an email or form capture or apply by text, you are creating barriers for potential jobs seekers. Some retail seekers may not even own a computer so your website needs to be mobile friendly and offer a way for them to apply over their phone or through a social network like Facebook. By posting a job in their job marketplace people apply using the information on their profile thus making it super simple. Getting people to apply is a numbers game. The average Career Site Visitor to Apply rate is around 5% for mobile candidates (Source: Appcast). That means only 1 in 20 visits to your listing will apply. You’d better have a smooth application process that is short and sweet. Hire for Attitude There’s an old saying in recruiting, hire for attitude, train for skill. Look to hire people outside retail like in places such as warehouses or call centers. Any candidate with the proper character traits can be trained. So be sure to also focus your job ads in no traditional places to target talent. Offer Flexible Schedules Retail employees often demand that their job fit around their schedule. Oftentimes these folks are in school, have a second job or have family responsibilities they need to take care of. As an employer you have an obligation to do your best to offer them flexible shifts that fit within their schedule. One retailer I know of uses an app system where workers can claim the shifts they want to work. When advertising your jobs be clear about the weekly schedule such as the need to work nights or weekends. Hiring people who want to work days you aren’t that busy can quickly lead to turnover. Be Digital Savvy While working for you today’s workers love to see employers who are digital savvy and offer a great employee experience. This could mean things such as having direct deposit vs physical checks, mobile app based time cards and being able to onboard using their phone. Upgrade your HR technology stack to ensure paperwork isn’t a burden and allow employees to communicate with their managers over texting and app based messaging. Programmatic Job Advertising There are a number of platforms such as Appcast, PandoLogic and JobAdx that allow you to advertise your job openings across multiple job boards such as Indeed, Ziprecruiter, etc and you only pay per click for these visitors. Programmatic tends to save you money while advertising your job to the widest possible audience. Just give them a budget and let them work their magic. Go Social TikTok is now testing a recruiting platform with video resumes. Recruit where the audience is. On Facebook for example there are thousands of local job search groups for nearly every city and state. These groups are “mini job boards” that offer free ways to promote your openings. Use them daily to spread the word. Having an active social recruiting strategy across facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok will go a long ways towards ensuring a better applicant flow. Employee Referrals Incentive your existing staff with money and prizes to refer their friends. Gamify it to help generate competition among staff members with a leaderboard. Leverage your customers too! Advertise positions in store, and on your receipts and bags. You never know when one of them will want a job at a store they frequent. Also don’t be afraid to reach out to past employees. These alumni may make for a good hire since they already know you. Studies show that 20%-25% of employees do return because of discontentment with current position, so keep tabs on your ex-employees just in case.
Continue reading
Recruiting
3 min read
Hiring Process Steps Explained
The hiring process is comprised of many steps for bringing a new employee into your company. Employers identify a need, recruits from a pool of talent and eventually hires the candidate to fill the role based perviously determined qualifications. Most companies follow the same process but all have certain variables added to thehirinqg mix that vary widely based on culture and types of jobs. Below are the most common steps in today’s hiring process. Hiring Process, Step by Step Identify Your Need Hiring starts with identifying a role that needs to be added. Usually a hiring manager will tell his HR team that he needs to add staff to fill a need in their department. It could be a newly created job or one that has to be backfilled after a person leaves. Job Description A job description should be generated that is unbiased and speaks to the candidate. It should contain job requirements, how you qualify, salary/benefits and even reason(s) for why a prospective candidate should apply. Start Recruiting Recruitment starts with announcing the new opportunity both internally and externally. But before you begin that figure out where you are going to publicize the role, how you will screen potential candidates, what the interview process will be like and who will conduct the interviews. Advertise the Job Begin by posting the job to your applicant tracking system.Promoting the new job opening should start by informing your existing employees. They may be able to refer a friend or colleague to the position thus helping you generate candidates quickly. At most companies referrals are a major way (40% or more) people get recruited. Next, advertise the job on national and/or niche job boards to attract active job seekers. Post the job link to your companies social media channels as well to help spread the word. Job promotion will be important especially in tight job markets where good candidates are at a premium. Source Candidates If you have an internal recruiting team, sourcing candidates proactively should also begin. This type of practice recruitment ensures you are targeting good quality candidates who are already employed but might be the perfect fit for your role. Leverage sites like LinkedIn social media and external resume databases to find this talent. Review Applicants Companies receive applications mainly two ways, by email or through an applicant tracking system. At this point its up to your recruiters to review each resume and reject or move to the next stage. Some ATS platforms also will rank or score resumes according to criteria you set which is helpful when having to review a high number of applications. Screening Process Most interviews usually will begin with a phone screen (with recruiter or HR) although nowadays a video cover letter might be included in the process. These phone screens last around 20-30 mins and are used to determine if the candidate meets the minimum qualifications and is actually interested in the role. These quick interviews are used to narrow down the list of candidates for the next stage. Formal Interviews Each company has a different interview cadence but generally interviews are comprised of the following; One on ones with the hiring manager that usually focus on the candidates experience, skills, work history and fit for the role Follow ups for group interviews (or within a team) that take place in person or in a virtual interview setting. Technical interviews for candidates who may need to take coding tests or whiteboard complex problems. Final round with leadership so they can sign off on the new hire or go more in-depth on a particular topic to validate their expertise. Assessment tests may also be given after interviews to help gauge a candidates proficiency with certain software or other complex skill. The key to interviewing in today’s environment is to keep the total number of interviews to a minimum to ensure a smooth candidate experience. The Background Check For many roles expecicially ones that work with money or sensitive data, a background will need to be done to check if a candidate has any kind of major red flag in his/her background. Some employers may go a step farther and review any public accounts found on sites like Facebook and twitter. They are looking to ensure this person would represent the company in a professional manner. Dry screens may also be required at this step. Decision Time After whilltling down your final list of candidates to 3 to 5 people and vetting them, it’s time to make your decision on who to hire. Your team should also have a backup candidate identified in case your first choice turns down the job. Acceptance rates are usually high at this stage but it pays to be prepared for the unexpected. Check References Reference checks help verify any pertinent information shared by the candidate about previous employment. Questions like ‘would you rehire this person’ or ‘what do they need to work on’ are great for generating valuable feedback on your candidate. Make the Offer Once you’ve decided on a candidate it’s time to give them the good news and prep your offer letter. The letter must include the following information; Job title Start date Starting salary Location (or remote) Benefits and vacation time. Any other terms and conditions of the role. Your candidate may wish to negotiate the salary so be prepared to adjust the offer letter based upon those conversations. Onboarding After your candidate accepts its a matter of process of filling out paperwork related to their employment. You’ll need documents like: Form W4 I-9 form and E-Verify Tax Withholding and Registrations Copy of drivers license Employee handbook NDA Once the paperwork is finalized your onboarding can begin in earnest. Some employers do a better job at onboarding than others. You’ll need to make your new hire feel welcome by properly introducing them to your team, setting them with a computer, training if applicable, passwords and whatever else they need to be successful. You may even want to assign them a buddy or mentor to help guide them in their first 33/60/90 days of employment.
Continue reading
Recruiting
1 min read
How to Define Recruiting
Recruiting involves the art of attracting, screening, engaging, and hiring candidates from the available pool of workers. At a high level, it involves identifying the skills, traits (culture fit) and qualifications of your ideal candidate. To expand on that definition you can add the development of your employer brand and the evolution of the candidate experience to ensure a smooth process for both applicants and recruiter. Recruiting Definition Recruitment stages include: job requisition, job posting, sourcing proactively, assessing talent and engaging them. Recruiters must be trying to convert the candidate at each stage, eventually leading then to apply and accept the job offer. In Job analysis you identify the need and specify it on paper via a written job description. in Souring you scour the web for candidates and contact them proactively to “pitch” them your opportunity. In the assessment stage you screen them to ensure good fit and then convert them into an applicant. To complete the act of recruiting an offer is made, an agreement is reached on a salary and onboarding begins. Generally speaking recruiting is conducted by talent acquisition professionals (recruiters and sources) but if you are a smaller organization can also be handled by business owners and office managers. Alternatively some companies choose to outsource recruiting to 3rd party staffing firms who act on the company’s behalf and take a cut of the salary if a hire is placed. That’s Recruiting! A simpler definition of recruiting might be something like this: Convincing talent to come to work for you. Got your own definition of recruiting? Tell us.
Continue reading
Recruiting
3 min read
What are the 3 Types of Recruitment?
From job board postings to employee referrals, texting to talent pools, twitter announcements, LinkedIn messaging and scouring lists of conference attendees, these are just a sample of how recruiters try to attract candidates. As varied and creative as these tactics are, for our purposes we’ll sort them into three broad, yet basic types of recruiting: Inbound Outbound Internal These may appear to be distinct methods of recruiting workers, and they can be. More often employers use all three, announcing openings on company intranets to encourage internal applicants and employee referrals while simultaneously posting to job boards and reaching out to previous candidates and others sourced from business and social networks. Let’s take a deeper look into each of these categories. Inbound recruiting In its simplest and most basic form, recruiters post openings to job boards and then review, rank and select candidates from the resumes and applications they receive. Referred to as “post and pray,” this type of reactive recruiting – reactive because recruiters react to the incoming applications – now is part of a broader and sophisticated recruitment marketing program. Inbound recruitment today is a year-round strategy that begins with building a strong employer brand. It’s a program of continuous attraction and awareness that encourages the best talent to want to come to work for you. As they apply – even without a specific opening – they become part of a pool of talented people already interested in working for you. Then as jobs come open, recruiters tap the pool inviting candidates with the right combination of skills and background to take the next step. A solid inbound recruitment strategy includes showing what it’s like to work for the company, demonstrating the organization’s sense of social responsibility and providing an objective perspective on employer review sites. Posting jobs, participating in job fairs and college recruiting and similar recruitment tactics are all part of a comprehensive inbound effort. Outbound recruiting This type of recruiting is sometimes called sourcing, even if sourcing specialists insist the term should only be applied to them. It involves searching for people with special skills and unique backgrounds for jobs that are particularly hard to fill simply by posting a job ad. When the inbound effort fails to produce the right kind of talent, or the job is especially unique or senior, a recruiter will go hunting. They are looking for passive candidates, the people who aren’t job searching and might not even be considering a job change. More than a few studies tell us that 75% to 85% of professionals fall into the passive category. These are the candidates most coveted by employers for reasons both understandable – no one else is competing for them, and if they are working for a competitor, all the better – and less realistic – they must be good otherwise they’d be looking. Finding these passive candidates may be as simple as searching LinkedIn and texting them a compelling message. (Texting gets a much better and quicker response than email or voicemail.) Or, as is true in more cases, sourcing for especially challenging positions – the most difficult are called a “purple squirrel” hunt – may take weeks and involve scouring conference attendance and speaker lists, academic paper authorships, association directories and dozens and dozens of contacts. Once potential candidates are identified, the second step is to convince them to become applicants. That involves skills closer to sales than to recruiting. Though the statistics on converting a sourced candidate to an actual applicant run as high as only 1 in 30, the ratio of hire to sourced applicant at 1 in 43 is much better than for inbound candidates. Internal Recruiting Of all sources of hire, internal recruiting has historically been the weakest. That’s changing as employers recognize the value of promoting workers already familiar with the company culture and procedures and who have a verifiable work record. Many years ago, the tech company Cisco surveyed its entire workforce to inventory the skills and talents of each employee. Not only did Cisco want to know about the talents they use on the job, but what other skills and abilities did they have. The company then used this information to recruit first from its existing workforce. More commonly, recruiters will simply post job opening notices internally. A majority of companies, including many SMBs, have referral programs that pay a bonus to employees for recommending people who are later hired. Other companies leverage their alumni networks for this same purpose. The biggest challenge to internal recruiting is the reluctance of managers to part with their best talent and their eagerness to suggest the less able. To get around that problem, smart employers provide incentives to managers for mentoring and nominating employees for promotion. A combination of all three As we said earlier, at all but the smallest companies, recruiters employ all three methods in their efforts to find and hire talent. Building a positive employer brand and showcasing it on the company website and social media not only helps attract quality active jobseekers, but helps convince the passive workers your source to join the company. And no recruiter should overlook the top talent that may be working right down the hall.
Continue readingAbout Emissary
Emissary is a candidate engagement platform built to empower recruiters with efficient, modern communication tools that work in harmony with other recruiting solutions.
Stay in the loop!
Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter and keep up to date with the latest Recruiting and HR tips and trends.
By clicking send you’ll receive occasional emails from us.