Recruiting Tactics (2)
Recruiting Tactics
Why You Should Be Posting to Niche Job Boards
Employers who post their openings to just generalist job boards are missing out on a rich source of qualified candidates from hundreds of niche recruitment platforms. Indeed.com, ZipRecruiter, Monster and other generalist job boards attract millions of job seekers each day, so it would seem to make sense to post openings there. But if that’s the extent of your recruiting campaign, you need to know why you should be posting to niche job boards, too. Unlike generalist sites that have every kind of job, niche sites are specialists. They list jobs only in a specific field or industry or geography, or that target certain communities or societies. Instead of getting the 5 or 10 million visitors a day that Indeed gets, niche sites might get a few hundred to several thousand job seekers a month. That’s a good thing, as it eliminates the curious, the unqualified, but hopeful and others attracted purely by the pay or benefits. Even with sophisticated search tools, you can guess what the odds are the candidate you want will find your job among the 2 or 3 or 4 million listings on a generalist job board. 5 reasons to Use Niche Job Boards If that’s not reason enough why you should be posting to niche job boards, here are five more: Reach a targeted audience Because of the specialization of niche job boards, you are much more likely to find just the candidates with the skills and experience you want than on a general job board. Candidates coming to a niche site are looking only for the kind of jobs the site offers. As Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer for iCIMS told the Society for Human Resource Management, “Niche job boards are particularly useful for cutting through the clutter and finding talent for hard-to-fill roles, specialized positions, specific industries — or to tap into unique candidate audiences, such as military veterans.” Candidate quality is higher Niche job boards tend to attract only those candidates who are professionals in the field. These candidates have the specialized skills and relevant background. They’re attracted by the type of work, the opportunity of the job and they are more knowledgeable about companies and culture because of their networking than are the job seekers at one of the generalist job boards. Connect with passive job seekers The best niche boards offer far more than just a collection of job openings. Many, especially those of professional and trade associations, began as a source of news and information about their industry. They built a specialized community of engaged individuals committed to staying abreast of developments in their field and improving their skills. They may not be actively looking for a job, but could be interested if the right opportunity were to come along. Less competitive Instead of being one employer and one job on a generalist site with over a million jobs and thousands of employers, a niche site gives your job far higher visibility. Since most niche sites sell listings on a duration basis (a week, a month or longer), your job is going to show up in a search based on how well it fits, rather than how much you paid for a top position. Opportunities to build your brand Just by posting to a niche site sets you apart from your competitors and shows job seekers you know where the “real” talent goes. Mandy niche sites also offer companies opportunities to reach out to their members directly, sponsor webinars and continuing learning credits and post news of their organization. According to a recent iHire study, overall job board usage is up. 58.9% of employers said they increased their reliance on job boards and online recruiting platforms in the past year. Further, 49.6% said they do most of their recruiting through job boards, and 23.4% said they do all their recruiting through job boards. Just remember that niche job boards don’t have the traffic of the major job sites but they do offer better quality, particularly in some hard to fill industries. So it’s more about quality than quantity. ### John Zappe contributed
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
How to Host a Virtual Career Fair?
Well before the Covid pandemic, virtual job fairs were gaining on their live counterparts. Since Covid, these events have surged in popularity, so much so that Brazen, a leading provider of virtual recruiting events, says there are now five times as many virtual job fairs each week. And why not? The only difference between a live hiring event and a virtual career fair is the buzz from other interviews and the handshake and eye contact between recruiter and job seeker. More than making up for that is the convenience and cost effectiveness. No traffic and parking hassles for candidates who can “drop in” when they want and interview from home. For employers, the advantages are even greater. Virtual hiring events are far less expensive to host. They can run over multiple days and many more candidates can be accommodated. When you have multiple jobs, a virtual hiring event helps fill them fast. So how do you host a virtual career fair? It’s never been easier. Dozens of companies offer career fair platforms that range from the simple to highly sophisticated ones that let you customize interview “booths,” post videos, schedule and pre-screen candidates and deliver resumes and candidate leads to your ATS and CRM. Step one is to have a hiring plan. That will help you narrow down your choice of platform. You need to set goals and know how many different jobs you’ll be hiring for. How many recruiters and hiring managers will participate? This will let you know how many booths or chat rooms you’ll need. Will candidates be pre-screened? Most career fair software enable pre-screening questions with the successful candidates scheduling an interview slot or going immediately into an interview. Do you want to include videos? They’re a good way to give candidates a preview of the work place and introduce them to the company culture. A career fair is a branding opportunity. You also need to consider candidate registration. Some platforms provide a registration landing page. You can also use an event registration platform like Eventbrite or incorporate a registration form on your career page. Step two: Become comfortable with the technology you’ll be using. Practice as if you’re conducting a live event. Have employees act as job seekers interacting with your recruiting team. Be sure to get their feedback. You want the candidate experience to be positive, which means having everything run smoothly. As Brazen’s VP of Marketing said, “The last thing you want to do is invite a candidate to chat with you in a virtual event and then not have anyone available to chat.” Step three: With your goals spelled out, your plan in place, your platform selected and your dates set, promote your event widely. Choose your media based on the audience you want to reach – entry-level, blue-collar, specific job types, etc. If you have a talent community, email them and post to your group on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Niche job boards are a way to reach specific types of job seekers. Step four: As the date approaches, be sure to send reminders. You want to make sure your registered job seekers show up, so remind them. The more sophisticated career fair platforms will automate these reminders, sending them out as email or text messages. Augment these reminders with tips on how to prepare and what to expect. A day or two before, send registrants details on how to navigate the virtual career fair. Have them upload their resume before the event. Your team also needs to have their interview questions in mind and have created and customized their individual booths. Review the criteria for sending candidates to hiring managers and how the team is to rate candidates and leave notes. You’ll also want to decide what metrics to collect and how you’ll follow-up with participants. At a minimum, you’ll want to know how many job seekers registered, how many showed, how many interviews were conducted and how many offers or hiring manager referrals were made or how many candidates will go on in the hiring process. Step five: On career fair day, launch early to test all systems are working and that your team is in place. Have one person assigned as a troubleshooter. Make that their only job for the day. They can also fill in should someone need to step away from their booth for a while. Step six: Follow-up with all the candidates. Separate the no-shows sending them an email encouraging them to directly apply or to become part of your talent community. Thank all those who did interview and invite them to stay in touch. Virtual Career Fair Followup Debrief with your staff and get feedback from the candidates. A survey to all participants will help you improve your next virtual career fair. Include open-ended questions in your survey so they can offer suggestions and let you know what they enjoyed and what needs work. How many jobs were filled and candidates in the hiring pipeline may be the most important measures of a successful virtual career fair. But don’t overlook the importance of the candidate experience. A net promoter question will tell you what they thought of the overall event. A candidate who may not have gotten an offer this time, but who had a good experience is more likely to refer others and return again when a job that’s a better fit may be available. John Zappe contributed.
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
Intro to WhatsApp Recruitment
In a U.S. centric recruiting world, most talent professionals have ignored the most popular instant messaging app when it comes to recruitment. I’m talking about WhatsApp. It is used by many of companies to connect with consumers, but WhatsApp recruitment also has major benefits. Recruiters can easily leverage WhatsApp to connect with candidates on their terms in a channel they use every day. For starters, WhatsApp has two billion users – 2 billion! WhatsApp is a simple (and reliable) way to communicate and share information on a popular, widely available platform that boasts very high engagement. Its users don’t need to change their phone numbers or ISP to connect with people on it, which makes it ideal for global recruitment communication. So, now that you know about WhatsApp’s power and reach, let’s look at some reasons that you should make WhatsApp recruitment part of your overall strategy. Where Your Candidates Are More than 1 million people join WhatsApp each day. In addition, the average user checks WhatsApp 23 times per day! Talk about candidate engagement and “fishing where the fish are”. Sending your candidates a quick WhatsApp message will surely help you recruit faster in a medium they are already using. So instead of a cold email, go the texting or WhatsApp messaging route. Branding A lot of companies over-think the recruiting process, putting too many hoops in front of candidates. A WhatsApp recruiting strategy cuts through the clutter through simple, direct communication. WhatsApp for Business allows you to create a business profile with helpful information for your customers like your address, business description, email address, and website. So use it to link to your career site and leverage the profile to extend your employer brand messaging. It’s Global For large multinational businesses with a global footprint, WhatsApp Recruitment is a no brainer. WhatsApp is the #1 messaging app in over 100 countries, making it one of the most effective platforms you can find to engage with diverse candidates from around the world. It’s also won’t break your budget. Quick Tip Set an away message when you are unable to answer so your candidates know when to expect a response. You can also create a greeting message to introduce potential candidates to your career site URL. At Emissary we will soon be releasing support for seamless Whatsapp recruitment, so customers will be able to message via the platform as easily as they can send a text. Marketers often use the term omni-channel to describe their outreach efforts and talent professionals should follow the same playbook. The more you can go to where candidates are to spread your message and interact, the more efficient your recruiting efforts will become. It will take time and effort, but such is the life for recruiters these days. Hiring never stops. WhatsApp recruiting can give you the edge you need.
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
Writing Job Descriptions for Attracting Quality Talent
92% of small businesses say they get few or no qualified applicants. So how can you change that dynamic? Better job descriptions may help. Hiring quality talent has never been easy, but since the Great Recession ended a decade ago the difficulty has multiplied. Now, as the headline statistics above suggest, the COVID pandemic had made it harder still to hire workers with the skills employers want. To entice candidates to apply, employers are offering signing bonuses and referral fees, sweetened benefits and pay and flexible schedules and remote work. Yet too many are overlooking one, simple and inexpensive way to attract applicants – a better job description. Writing job descriptions for attracting quality talent gets too little attention, yet for the majority of candidates, it’s the job description that makes them decide to apply or move on to the next opportunity. The Job Description is an Advertisement Talent management strategist Dorothy Dalton laments that most job descriptions don’t get changed much, while jobs do. When an opening comes up, the job description from the last time is dusted off and reposted. “Generally the only changes I see are to inflate the qualifications.” Ongig, a job description technology company, tells us there are at least a dozen reasons why a job description fails. Job titles are too long or too obscure. A majority begin by telling potential candidates about the company rather than the job. Too many read as if written by lawyers and are too complicated or impersonal. Others are too long. Still others are laden with gender-biased language like “go-getter,” “dominant” and “champion.” Writing job descriptions for attracting quality talent isn’t difficult. It starts with an appreciation of some of the science behind what gets a candidate interested in actually reading a job post, which, of course, is the first step in getting them to apply. LinkedIn says job seekers spend less than 50 seconds deciding if a job is a fit. They spend well over a minute reading through one that appears to match their interests and skills. The first place they look is the job title. If it’s more than 60 characters – that’s characters, not words – few candidates will click it to apply, according to an analysis by Appcast, a global recruitment ad placement company. The same is true if the title is shorter than 20 characters. LinkedIn points out that words like “wizard,” “rock star,” and “guru” in the title may be cute, but they don’t give a job seeker anything specific about the job. “Data Analyst” is more effective than “Data Guru” because it’s immediately clear what the job is. “A poorly written job title might puzzle the candidate so much that they don’t click through to read your job description,” explains Ongig. The Long and Short of Job Titles Just as job titles can be too long or too short, Appcast found the same applies to job descriptions. The sweet spot to get the highest percentage of candidates to click to apply are job descriptions between 4,000 and 5,000 characters. That’s around 500 words. Ironically, ZipRecruiter found the average job posting in 2019 was 70% longer than it was in 2016. That’s not necessarily a negative if the job descriptions were too short in the past and now provide more specific and helpful information. Even more important to writing job descriptions for attracting quality talent are the qualifications. The issue of qualification inflation is a key obstacle to getting candidates to apply. One of the leading studies of the issue by the Harvard Business School compares the educational requirements in job postings with those held by the people actually doing the work. In just one example, the researchers found that 67% of the job postings for production supervisor asked for a college degree. Yet, of those doing the job – foremen and other first line managers — only 16% had a degree. “By engaging in degree inflation, employers restrict their access to a wider pool of talent in several ways,” the report says. “Postings for many jobs traditionally viewed as middle-skills jobs now stipulate a college degree as a minimum education requirement, while only a third of the adult population possesses this credential.” It isn’t just education requirements that are inflated. ZipRecruiter’s study of the millions of its job postings found that as the unemployment rate was creeping lower between 2016 and 2018, employers were including more skills in their requirements. Not only does this narrow the pool of qualified candidates, it has an effect on who will apply for the job. Women won’t apply for a job unless they meet most or all of the qualifications. Men will apply if they meet 60%. In writing job descriptions for attracting quality talent the first step should be to analyze what qualifications are really necessary. Remember that headline at the beginning of this article about tech executives worrying they won’t find enough qualified people to hire? CNBC’s survey found they’re adopting hiring strategies that are an about face from their past practice. Besides instituting training and apprenticeships, a quarter are eliminating academic requirements, while 42% are rewriting their job descriptions and titles entirely. To interest more candidates and get more applicants, update those job descriptions to bring them into line with what’s really needed to do the job. Tighten up the inflationary skills and requirements, use gender-neural language and keep your job titles clear and short. Be specific about what the job is, but avoid delivering a laundry list of tasks. Instead, prioritize what’s crucial and what makes the job fulfilling. Writing job descriptions for attracting quality talent should be like speaking to the candidate as if they were right there in front of you. Spell out the good (and the not so good) aspects of the job to paint a realistic picture for potential candidates. When possible also use imagery and graphics to highlight the job in action. It’s a visual web and sometime job writers forget the appeal of pictures and images to sell the role. Contributions by John Zappe
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
Manufacturing Recruitment Strategies
Manufacturers, like most other employers, are facing critical hiring shortages across the country. Yesterday’s recruitment tactics are no longer sufficient for moving the needle in hiring so it’s time to change things up and rethink your strategy. Part of the problem is that manufacturing is not perceived as a desirable career path. Today’s workforce still has a negative perception of these jobs. Automation is replacing some workers and many people just don’t want to get their hands dirty in these types of work environments. Manufacturing Workers are Aging Out Where will the next generation of manufacturing workers come from? A recent study by Deloitte reports that 2.7 million manufacturing/industrial workers are expected to retire in the next 10 years. On top of that, another report shows that manufacturing work ranked last in career choices in workers aged 19-33! That’s a huge problem for manufacturing recruiters. Especially when you consider that hundreds of thousands of jobs are projected to be created in the next few years. I read somewhere that it currently takes 70-75 days on average to find and recruit skilled manufacturing workers. Throw in a global pandemic and you can actually feel the challenge employers face. Rethinking Manufacturing Recruitment Here’s what I think manufacturers need to do to begin to fix these problems; Change the perception of manufacturing among job seekers Get creative in sourcing and talent attraction Leverage the latest and great recruitment technologies Use Employer Branding to Change the Perception Changing the perception begins with establishing an employer brand built around the purpose of the products you produce. Why does your company exist? What value do your products offer? Answering these important questions will help you explain the value of a job at your company. For example if you are a defense manufacturer you can highlight how a job at your firm helps keep our country safe. Or if you are a food manufacturer you can tout how you help keep us fed. Playing to job seekers basic emotions will help you communicate your EVP (employer value proposition) in an effort to appeal to them. Rinse and Repeat Your Employer Brand Once you’ve established the right employer brand messaging, take that message out into the communities you recruit in. Build relationships with local high schools and colleges. Educate them on a career in your industry. You’ll have to think long term as well. It will not happen overnight. Consider forming an apprenticeship program to help take students and give them the training they need to become a full time employee one day. You’ve got to establish a pipeline of talent for the future. And keep that pipeline going day after day. Use Your Employees to Tell the Story Companies must also leverage their employees in helping shape perception of working for you in a manufacturing job. Highlight their stories, show them in action through video and let them speak about why they enjoy the job. Today’s generation appreciates authenticity, especially delivered in a video format. Embrace social media as well. You should be on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. These channels will help you create visually appealing content which will make your company an attractive place to work. Sourcing Manufacturing Talent Employers should also step up their direct sourcing efforts if they want to hire faster. This means everything from boolean searches online to virtual/in-person job fairs to billboards located near your competition. Souring platforms like Hiretual and Seekout are good places to start actively searching for talent. One of my favorite (and free) sourcing tools is called Recruitem. It’s a boolean search tool that helps you find talent by keywords across the internet, mainly using Google to do it. There are a handful of manufacturing job boards and communities you can also tap for talent. JobsinManufacturing.com – LINK ManufacturingJobs.com – LINK WomenIn Manufacturing – LINK Association For Manufacturing Excellence – LINK Install New Recruitment Technology Lastly, manufacturers need to upgrade their existing recruiting technology stacks to the most modern ones possible. Your outdated ATS needs to be replaced with something fast and ‘apply’ friendly. Candidates need to be able to apply in just a few minutes, they should be able to opt in via text message,and be able to self schedule interviews (as long as they meet basic qualifications). Implementing these ideas and strategies is no small task and will take time, so employers will need to show patience. But if you expect to succeed in the long term to win the manufacturing war for talent, they are mandatory changes that need to be put in place today.
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
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 Tactics
What is Automated Resume Screening?
How much time does a recruiter spend reviewing a resume? Would you believe mere seconds? 7.4 seconds to be specific, at least according to a 2018 study by The Ladders. With every recruiter handling a dozen or more openings and every opening getting 50 or 100 or more resumes, there’s little choice but to quickly scan. At least, that’s the way it used to be. Now recruiters at companies all over the globe rely on screening tools to review, score and rank the incoming applications and resumes. These tools free them to look more closely at those candidates that come out on top. They also can eliminate the bias that might unconsciously influence a human recruiter. The earliest of these screening tools merely compared resumes against the requirements of the job description. This keyword matching ranked candidates by how many of the requirements were present in their resume. AI Resume Screening Today, AI resume screening is the state of the art. Going far beyond the keyword matching of an applicant tracking system, these tools understand context, and can impute good communication skills to a candidate whose resume mentions conference presentations and written work. Many will supplement a resume with information gathered from social media and public profiles. The most valuable – and controversial – feature of AI screeners is their ability to learn a company’s hiring preferences. They do this by analyzing existing company records for patterns among those who were hired. If a company tended to hire more people who had worked for a competitor, candidates with that background would score higher than those without that experience. When performance information is included, AI systems can perform even better, looking for those candidates who most closely match the company’s best workers. Because preferences change, AI screening tools do, too. Their machine learning algorithms constantly update the scoring system based on who now is getting interviewed and hired. The more data these programs have to work with, the better their scoring and ranking. However, if the data used to train these systems about hiring preferences is biased, then the screening criteria and scoring will be too. Amazon’s company-built AI recruiting system may be the most famous example of this. After bringing its program online in 2015, Amazon discovered the system was biased against women for technical jobs. Programmers had trained it using a decade’s worth of tech hiring information. Since most of the software developers were men, the system learned to prefer male candidates. It penalized resumes that included gender-suggestive backgrounds and phrases. Eliminating Bias After trying unsuccessfully to eliminate this bias and finding unqualified candidates were being recommended due to other problems with the training data, Amazon shut down the project. Builders of these screeners have learned from the Amazon experiment and now routinely audit their scoring and selection systems. The data used to train these screeners is also scrubbed of details like names, gender and racial references and even suggestive phrases. Some vendors of these programs have turned to skills and personality assessments to predict candidate success. They work by comparing how candidates perform on these assessments to the performance of the company’s best workers. Though this selection method is less likely to discriminate on the basis of sex or race, it can result in hiring workers who all think and act alike, limiting the potential for creativity and problem solving. There’s no question that AI candidate screening is a powerful tool to help recruiters find excellent candidates they might otherwise overlook in a 7.4 second resume review. When audited regularly and managed by talent acquisition professionals sensitive to the issues, AI resume screening can lead to hiring better workers more quickly and more efficiently.
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
Make Employee Rehiring Part of Your Talent Strategy
As vaccination rates rise and the COVID pandemic begins to subside, companies looking to restaff are discovering hiring more of a challenge than they suspected. But rehiring former employees may prove to be an untapped resource. Just this month, the CEO of restaurant franchiser FAT Brands described finding workers as a “total nightmare.” The National Federation of Independent Businesses said 42% of the small businesses it surveyed said they have jobs they can’t fill. With 8 million fewer people in the workforce and an unemployment rate declining each month, employers are turning to a strategy many of the largest companies adopted years ago – rehiring former workers. They learned long ago that staying in touch with former employees – company alumni (sometimes referred to as boomerangs)– has all sorts of benefits, besides simple goodwill. One of the most valuable is that it gives the company a ready pool of talent recruiters can tap for referrals and rehires. When companies began opening up after the shutdown rules loosened, they first recalled workers they laid off. Now, as hiring becomes ever more difficult, employers are reaching out to former employees who left for other jobs even before the pandemic shutdown. The Benefits of Rehiring Employees Old policies against rehiring former workers have given way to the reality that the skills and experience they bring far outweigh dated notions of loyalty. These rehires – often called “boomerangs” — need far less training and time to get up to speed compared to a first time hire. Rehires are also cheaper and faster to bring on board. Besides those obvious advantages, a rehire is a known quantity. Their former manager can attest to their skills and their fit both on the team and with the company culture. Performance reviews provide a record of the rehire candidate’s work and productivity. Rehires “understand the company, the product, the services, the systems and what’s expected of them,” said the chief people officer for Kronos, an HR tech provider. “You also know that the boomerang will mesh with the culture, which can’t be understated.” Rehires also offer some less obvious advantages. During their time away from the company they learned new skills and improved existing ones. Their return may also give colleagues second thoughts about leaving. Pete Sosnowski, VP of People at Zety, says rehires benefit from the experience working for a different company, whether in the same or different industry. “When they come back after a few years, they bring new experiences, contacts, customers, or at least a fresh point of view.” The most famous rehire in recent history is Steve Jobs. Fired in 1985 from Apple, the company he co-founded, he was brought back as CEO in 1997 to save the company and build it into a global leader. Rehiring Issues to Consider Of course not all rehires turn out as successfully, so before rehiring a company alum you need to apply the same due diligence you would to any candidate. Their HR record is an open book, yet it’s important to learn all you can about what they’ve been doing since leaving the company. Here are some of the reasons even a previously stellar performer might not make a good rehire: The company changed in ways the rehire may resist. The worker may have changed in ways no longer compatible with the company or team culture. There may be unresolved personality issues with former colleagues. The rehire might expect to be accorded more privileges or benefits based on their previous years of service. Hiring them into a more senior position may affect morale. This is especially critical if the job is one others on the team wanted. There’s also the risk that having left once, they may do it again. How to Successfully Rehire While the first place to start is with company records, no matter how good a rehire candidate’s track record, don’t shortcut the hiring process. All candidates need to be treated the same. The interview is the place to probe not just for what they’ve learned and the experience they’ve gained, but also for personality issues. Review their exit interview to understand why the employee left the company. If they expressed dissatisfaction with a manager or situation or policies, these are red flags to explore with the candidate. Rehires who left for more pay or to take a promotion may become resentful if they have to take a step back. Hiring managers should also get input from their team. Encourage frankness. You want to identify any issues before making an offer. When you do rehire, don’t skip onboarding. Especially since the COVID crisis new procedures and ways work gets done – remote work, for example – have likely replaced the policies of the past. Even the most enthusiastic and talented rehire will need to be brought up to date and given time to adjust. It’s encouraging to know that studies show three-quarters of managers who have made a rehire are glad they did. A ZenBusiness survey found almost 6-in-10 managers would rather rehire than bring in an equally qualified new worker. That’s a good enough reason for every company to stay in touch with former employees. These groups of alumni not only can serve as ambassadors promoting the company and its products and services, but are a rich source of referrals and rehires. It costs little to start a group, yet the dividends are great. ### John Zappe contributed to this article.
Continue reading
Recruiting Tactics
High Volume Hiring Strategies
A year into the pandemic and the face of talent acquisition looks very different than in 2020. A recent survey of talent acquisition professionals identified that in 2021 they are: Hiring again – in fact 90% are! Considering talent outside the geographic location of their office spaces (72%) Using new sourcing techniques to increase the funnel of candidates Focusing on diversity hiring Investing in technology to identify qualified talent From health care services to fast foods, companies are hiring. High volume hiring is a big part of that upswing. The need for talent continues. Some companies are overwhelmed with applications and for others applications are barely dripping in. Whether they are receiving hundreds of applications or only a few, everyone is concerned about finding and identifying enough qualified candidates who will thrive and grow in their organization. High Volume Hiring Finding qualified talent is elevated to mission critical levels when your company has high volume needs ranging from hundreds to thousands of open positions a year. The unending demand and growing challenges for employers to attract, hire and retain talent for high-demand, high-turnover roles in today’s labor market are exhausting and intimidating when you don’t have a clear talent acquisition strategy and the correct tools in place. There are actions you can take now to optimize your high volume hiring by innovating your application process and creating a positive candidate experience that will increase the number of candidates applying for the positions while reducing the time spent screening qualified candidates. To help you improve your high-volume hiring process, here’s checklist that you can help you. Create a positive candidate experience for all candidates According to Indeed, 42% of job seekers found lengthy applications the most frustrating part of the application process and many will give up on the application process when they feel it’s too long. 65% of job seekers now use their mobile devices to look for jobs, allowing them to apply for a job at any time. Being mobile-optimized includes a job application site that’s both mobile-friendly and allows job seekers to upload their resume using their phone. Keep the application process short by having relevant qualification questions and time spent applying to a minimum. Efforts to create a fast and mobile application process can tangibly improve the candidate experience. Engage your candidates with a compelling employer brand Communicating effectively is also very important in creating a positive candidate experience. In high volume recruiting, recruitment technology can be especially helpful with communications and engaging candidates. A recent survey revealed that two-thirds of candidates are happy to communicate with a chatbot, as long as it provided them with the answers they sought. Here are things that candidates want to know and that you should communicate: An acknowledgment letting candidates know when applications close and when they can expect to hear from you. Let all candidates, both successful and unsuccessful, know the outcome. Send updates with relevant content about their application and engaging information about the company, its employees and happenings. Increase your talent pool Create and maintain talent pools for future job openings and use it! Talent rediscovery is the practice of mining your existing resume database to find previous candidates for openings. Although many ATS will allow recruiter to search through existing resumes, the results are usually limited and error-prone. As a result, it’s often an unsuccessful effort. A talent rediscovery algorithm will automatically screen every resume in your ATS to find the most qualified matches to a new posting. On average, companies need approximately 180 people to visit their career site to make one hire. With high volume recruiting, if a company has 50 openings, that would mean needing 9,00 views! Plus, you need to have those views be from people who could be great candidates. “Programmatic Job Advertising” (PJA) can help by getting a job posting to appear at places where you maybe wouldn’t think to advertise. A programmatic job advertising platform can help you find the most relevant talent in the shortest time. Speed up your talent sourcing On average, 75% of the resumes a job posting receives are considered unqualified. When you’re hiring for hundreds of open positions a year, this adds up to hundreds of wasted hours skimming through unqualified resumes. Software that uses AI to screen resumes can quickly identify candidates who have the right skills and characteristics to your roles. By automating manual resume screening, organizations such as retailers have reduced their time to hire by 75%. Identify critical soft skills Even with high volume recruitment, you should never compromise on quality of hire. An optimized recruitment process consisting of online assessments and the right interview questions will help you identify the qualified candidates faster and minimize taking the next steps with less qualified candidates. You can teach specific hard skills, whereas some critical soft skills can never be taught. There’s no need to wait until the interview process to get an understanding of your candidate’s soft skills. Increase diversity hires and decrease hiring bias Hiring bias can be imbedded in the preselection process. AI reduced hiring bias by carefully analyzing the algorithms being used in your preselection to ensure there are no hidden biases. Additional measures you can take include: Use assessments to evaluate actual skills, not candidates’ background Base hiring decisions on data evidence, not assumptions Have a consistent and transparent hiring process Provide interview training to all hiring managers Use recruiting metrics to achieve quality hires Recruiting metrics are essential for understanding where process improvements are needed and justifying investments into specific recruiting functions. Especially with high volume hiring, you need to optimize your time and resources where possible. Some recruiting metrics that can help you with high volume hiring include: Qualified candidates per hire Source of hire to optimize advertising spend Offer to acceptance ratio to reduce unnecessary steps and actions Length of time for each stage of your recruiting process to minimize bottlenecks Time to fill to understand how well your hiring team is doing Invest and use technology to save time and money Using an easy mobile application process and having the right tools for job advertising will increase your number of applicants. With the time savings accomplished through AI screening, recruiters can spend on building and nurturing relationships with candidates and moving the process along fasters. Conclusion If you have high volume recruitment needs, you will be lagging behind and missing candidates without a clear talent acquisition strategy and the correct tools in place. The speed to hire and hire right is available by having a high-volume candidate selection platform which: Handles large volumes of applicants Customizes the online assessment experience per role Sets hiring benchmarks Comes equipped with situational judgment tests Creates a branded experience for your candidates Automates parts of your communications
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.