Month: May 2016

Is Your Hiring Process Causing You To Miss Out On Top Talent? Here Are Some Mistakes That You Should Avoid

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

image_09Common Hiring Process Mistakes that Alienate Top Talent

Hiring qualified candidates to bring into your organization is a costly process in terms of time, energy and money. If your hiring process involves certain types of actions, you could actually be alienating the exact people who would benefit your company. Bringing in the wrong candidates could prove even more expensive. According to Mary Lorenz on CareerBuilder, 41 percent of corporations report that bringing aboard a bad hire cost them more than $25,000, and another 25 percent of companies said that their hiring mistakes cost them an average of $50,000 per poor candidate[1]. These tips can help your business avoid hiring mistakes that alienate top talent.

Interviewing to the Resume
A candidate’s resume is more like a statistical play by play of their past jobs and education. The interview is a part of the hiring process where you can really get a feel for whether a candidate would be a good fit for the job and for your company. Only asking questions about what is on the candidate’s resume or application is a mistake. The top talent will want to show off their skills, but you need to ask about them.

Lack of Opportunity
The top pool of candidates will want to know about opportunities for advancement within your company. Any statement suggesting that there are few chances to move up the ladder will alienate the top candidates. The best candidates want to be challenged and have opportunities for growth. Providing those opportunities within your organization benefits everyone.

Misunderstanding of a Candidate’s Skills
Talented individuals want to know how their skills will be put to use in your organization. As a hiring manager, you will need to explain how their skills will be used in both short-term and long-term projects. A lack of vision about how a candidate’s expertise fits into your organizational goals will alienate them, explains Kevin Jarvis, writing for Robert Half[2]. During the hiring process, discuss how your organization offers personal development benefits. Up to 21 percent of businesses fail to match candidate skills to job needs. This shows how your organization is committed to helping them succeed with you.

 

[1] http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2011/12/16/true-cost-of-a-bad-hire/

[2] https://www.roberthalf.com.au/blog/5-mistakes-companies-make-cost-them-top-talent

Does Your Website Work? How to Ensure You Get the Most from Mobile and Career Pages

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

image_16Does your company’s website work the way you think and hope that it does? If not, you may not be getting as much attention from prospective applicants who are qualified to work at your organization.

In today’s high-tech world, more than 77 percent of job seekers use the Internet as their primary source for finding leads and scouring open positions, explains an infographic from Beyond.com [1]. More than 84 million Americans use a smartphone to do their Internet searches, which means that your company’s recruiting and career pages need to be performing well in order to capture today’s top candidates.

Mobile Friendly

With most adults using smartphones to access the Internet, your website must be mobile friendly. Rather than having a separate mobile and traditional website, consider using a website with a responsive design. A responsively designed website is user friendly across devices and platforms. Responsively designed websites also rank well on all of the major search engines.

Social Media and Websites for Career Searches

According to a survey from Jobvite (featured on LinkHumans), more than 86 percent of job seekers use social media to find job openings [2]. This means that your organization needs to have both a great career page and an active social media account that is geared toward the type of candidates you are seeking. Your social media links should take guests to your career page or a landing page where users can enter search parameters to find current openings.

The Benefits of Responsively Designed Career Pages

If your organization is looking to hire tech-savvy individuals, a well-designed website is the first step to getting them knocking at your door. This is especially true if you are seeking new graduates who are well versed in the use of technology. Candidates who are highly comfortable with technology will use apps and text alerts to let them know when a job opening fitting their needs has been posted. Keeping your career pages optimized and up to date gets you fast results from candidates across the nation. Now is the time to make sure that your website is designed in a way that works well for all users.

[1] http://about.beyond.com/infographics/mobile-job-search-apps

[2] http://linkhumans.com/social-recruiting/jobseekers-social-media-study

How Members of the Baby Boomer Generation Can Learn Tech Speak from Millennials

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

image_04As the Millennial generation enters the workplace in numbers large enough to overtake the Baby Boom generation, there can be a communications chasm between the two groups. Millennials have grown up with in-hand technology, including smartphones and tablets. The Baby Boom generation has had to actively embrace these tools, especially when it comes to using them in the workplace. Forging that communications gap can be done by getting the members of the two generations together in a variety of situations. The Baby Boomers can learn tech speak from Millennials using these three strategies.

Exploit Similarities

One way to get Baby Boomers to start using tech speak is to explore the similarities between talking about tech and talking about any other specialized field of knowledge. Every industry has its own lingo. Take advantage of the similarities by engaging Baby Boomers with Millennials in familiar situations. What used to be a “conference call” may now be referred to as “Skyping,” for example. Moving about on a website used to be called “tabbing” or “paging” but now is just “scrolling.”

Mentoring Programs

Mentoring programs are a great way to get people of different experience levels working together. A member of the Baby Boom generation can be paired with a Millennial for practice opportunities to learn about tech speak. Millennials will benefit from the increased face-to-face interactions as much of their world revolves around digital communications. These mentoring programs do not only have to be among coworkers but can also include college and even high school interns who come into your organization for short periods of time.

Teamwork

Effective engagement can also take place through teamwork. Placing members of different generations into the same working teams in your organization can help everyone to learn each other’s styles of communication. While Millennials often see communication as a way to convey bits of information, the Baby Boom generation may see communications as a way to get to know another person. These ideas can be meshed by having people interact in a variety of ways in the workplace. Seeing a project through from start to finish enhances communication.