Tag: recruiting

The Importance of Entertaining New Recruits before Selling the Job Opportunity

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image_24Every successful C-Level executive understands the importance of recruiting and maintaining the best possible talent. It is the continual influx of new and competent individuals that allows a company to grow and expand. However, the very best talent always has multiple opportunities, and you have to show why yours is the most desirable.

In fact, today’s prospective employees are more discriminating and demanding than any generation before them. Numerous personnel and hiring experts have written about the ever-expanding expectations of this generation of job-seekers. In the world of social media, every company’s culture is under the microscope and sites such as Glassdoor ensure there are very few secrets about what life in your company is like.

On top of this factor, media discussions of the work environments at such companies as Twitter, REI, and HubSpot raise the bar for acceptable cultures. In light of these realities, it is important to show your prospective hire that the job you are offering is not the time clock-oriented and boring situation they fear.

While not everyone is expecting a playroom at work, it is possible to address the basic concerns about your company. Among other things you should include in the interviewing process, adding a little entertainment can be a win-win situation for both parties.

When you schedule a time to relax in the hiring process, you get to see another side of your best recruits. Likewise, they have the opportunity to see that their prospective fellow workers are not the dreaded corporate drones. Of course, the form of entertainment is an open choice. Certainly, the traditional formal dinner at a restaurant is not the only or best way to entertain your recruits. That may be a part of the hiring cycle, but it is seldom regarded as a form of entertainment.

Consider taking a group of recruits to a ball game, or adding recruits to a company picnic. Some companies even have special boxes they periodically use for sports, theater, or other out-of-the-office recruiting. Ensure those who participate in this part of the hiring process understand their role is not only to entertain the recruits but also to observe and evaluate their interactions and reactions.

You’ll find that the right form of entertainment is an effective addition to attracting the right recruits in today’s increasingly tight market for top talent.

 

Designing a Recruitment Page that Works Well on Mobile Devices

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image_11Recruiting top talent can be difficult in a competitive market. A solid recruitment strategy is very important in attracting the right candidates to your company. As technology continues to evolve, you should keep up with current trends.

With that in mind, it’s important to understand that smartphones have surpassed desktops regarding the primary method individuals use to access the Internet. Mobile platforms – smartphones and tablets – combined to account for 60% of total digital media time spent in 2014 according to research by comScore [1]. In addition, 86% of active candidates surveyed by Kelton Research use their smartphone to begin a job search, and 70% of active candidates want to apply via a mobile device [2].

When designing a recruitment page, the functionality of the website is critical to reaching users who are not only working from a desktop but also from a mobile device.

Utilizing new Technology

Recently, Google has developed an algorithm tailored specifically to mobile devices, making it easier for the user to find websites that are mobile compatible. This new algorithm introduced by Google rewards mobile-friendly websites by providing a boost in rankings, taking precedence over non-mobile optimized websites. In this ripe field of cutting-edge technology, incorporating a mobile- friendly recruitment website gives your company an advantage.

Design Time

Your IT team is your best friend when it comes to designing a website that is functional across a variety of platforms and devices. What works with an iPhone will not always work the same with an Android. However, you do not necessarily have to make two different versions of a website to make it mobile friendly. Small adjustments, such as changing the view from portrait to landscape and decreasing text size, can help make your website accessible from virtually any device.

Reaching out to More Prospects

Millennials, especially, have embraced technology to its fullest. Downloadable apps are available for almost every major website. Imagine a mobile app for your company that would allow prospective recruits to search and apply for jobs, upload their resumes, receive job alerts, join talent groups, and hear firsthand what it’s like to work at your company. As job seekers are using their smartphones more and more in the job search, it is your responsibility as an employer to adapt to these changes in technology. The results will be beneficial to potential employees and your company.

[1] https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/Major-Mobile-Milestones-in-May-Apps-Now-Drive-Half-of-All-Time-Spent-on-Digital

[2] http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2015/01/19/2015-is-year-of-mobile-recruiting/

Using Technology to Anticipate Your Future Hiring Needs

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image_08Whether you are a startup business or an already established company, planning ahead for the future is a necessity. Being prepared for the future means considering where your company is at today and where you would like it to be tomorrow. Find out how technology and strategic workforce planning can go hand in hand to help you anticipate your employment needs for the coming years.

Utilizing technology can make workforce planning more efficient and provide improved results. Special workforce planning software allows you to analyze your company’s current workforce trends and make educated projections for trends in the future. By plugging in internal and external data, software can help you arrive at more accurate results. Not only can software help you plan for the future, but it can also help guide you along the way by monitoring your progress and alerting you to any variations from the master plan.

Another key benefit is that software can help your company adapt to changing conditions. The talent that was critical for success a few years ago may not suffice in an environment with new challenges that demand new solutions. Workforce planning is not limited to software only, but utilizing your technological resources wisely can better support your executives, HR department, and hiring managers throughout the process. Have a one-on-one session with your IT consultant and discuss the kinds of workforce planning software that are available and which one in particular would be a good fit for your company’s needs.

In summary, using technology to plan for the future creates a culture where workforce planning is based on data and better equips executives in evaluating how changes in objectives and the environment impact staffing levels. Most importantly, approaching workforce planning in a way that fits your company’s needs and aligns with your future goals is key to a successful future.

 

Why You Should Keep Up-to-Date on Social Media for Recruiting Needs

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image_018People seeking employment are turning to corporate social media accounts to learn more about a business’s culture and environment. While traditional websites and career search boards can provide those searching for a job with nuts-and-bolts information, such as work hours and skill-set requirements, keeping up-to-date on social media allows jobseekers to gain a more complete picture of the corporation.

Cultivates Interest

Once jobseekers are certain that they meet the skill and academic credentials for a position, they next want to know whether their personality will fit well at a particular company. Current social media posts cultivate a candidate’s interest in becoming a part of the organization. By seeing that the company is up-to-date in industry trends and is building brand loyalty with its clients, candidates will be more eager to join such a company.

Engages Qualified Individuals

Today’s workers want more out of their work than just a paycheck. They want to be engaged and passionate about what they do, which is particularly true of the Millennial Generation. This generation is also the most likely to use social media to engage with potential employers.

Promotes a Team-oriented Environment

Active sourcing of job candidates through social media helps to promote the development and maintenance of a team-oriented work environment. Recruiters can show images and embed video clips of a variety of employees collaborating on projects. Social media is an efficient and effective way of showing potential staff members how current employees are working together to solve problems and showcase their talents.

Inspires a Creative Workforce

Social media is a newer way of communicating with people who are creative, highly educated and concerned about making a difference in the world. These candidates tend to think outside the box when solving problems and create a dynamic environment in which to work. Human resources staff who recruit candidates through social media are better able to promote the workplace as a creative community in which an employee’s time investment pays off through work that is satisfying personally, professionally and mentally.

 

The Latest Trends In Recruitment Marketing

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image_30Recruiting top talent to your organization requires a lot more these days than an ad in a newspaper or a posting on a real or virtual bulletin board. Your organization must truly engage with past, present and future clients and employees to get word out about who you are and what you need. Staying on top of the latest trends for recruitment marketing will help to ensure that you get the tech-savvy, highly skilled and creative staff members you desire.

Taking to the Skies

One of the leading trends in recruitment marketing is the use of cloud services. Organizations like yours are using the cloud for activities related to hiring, recruitment and retaining of staff. Some ways you can use the cloud include storing of resumes and references.

Creating Online Communities

The creation of online communities allows you to directly engage with potential candidates. Applicants can post questions to be answered by members of your team. Your current staff can also use these forums as a way to engage with one another, especially if your organization has staff around the state, country or world.

Establishing Digital Recruitment Strategies

If you’re looking for new team members that are attuned to technology and communication, you need to market yourself digitally through social media. Today’s applicants are increasingly looking to websites such as Twitter, Facebook and others to find out about potential opportunities for employment. Make yourself known so that qualified candidates can easily find you.

Shifting to Mobile Marketing

Members of Generation Y, Generation X and even the Baby Boomers are trending away from the use of desktop and laptop computers. Instead, they are using tablets and smartphones to conduct their communications, Internet searches and quests for employment. Optimizing your website for use on mobile devices will help applicants navigate through your application process more easily.

Engaging through Social Media

Building an online community on social media is another must-do for recruitment. Above and beyond posting your job openings, you should also use social media to build a following of customers and add to your contingent of partners across many industries.

 

Increase Brand Awareness and Your Recruitment Reach by Implementing Fresh Content

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image_16When you need to increase awareness of your brand and bring in new, energetic staff members to your team, one way to do so is to implement fresh content across all of your media. Your website is the first place prospective candidates go to find out about you. Old, outdated content that is no longer relevant or that never changes from one day to the next is a sure way to turn off high-quality applicants. Consider implementing these four types of content to keep your recruitment and brand up to date.

Informative News
When you’re launching a new company-wide initiative, releasing a new product or making updates to an existing service, let your customers and potential employees know about it. Take care to not only release statistics but to create small sound bites of 88 words or less about what’s going on this week at your organization.

Videos
Actions speak louder than words, and today’s job seekers want to see what your company is up to. Uploading relevant videos to your website and social media pages helps applicants really get a feel for what your organization is doing. Videos should not be highly choreographed or edited but should provide a glimpse of the important goings-on at your headquarters and facilities.

Asking Questions
Another way to increase your brand awareness and keep recruits interested in your organization is to ask questions as a part of your overall content stream. Be welcoming to any and all responses, including those that might not be as positive as you would like. Even criticism helps to keep the conversation going. The more likes and followers, the more of your content that will be shown on your followers’ feeds.

Success Stories
Your customers and potential recruits love to hear success stories related to your brand and not just self-serving ones. Let your customers, current employees or former staff members who have retired or moved on tell others about their successes with you. Perhaps an episode of exceptional customer service or a fantastic mentoring program is just what your recruitment marketing needs to draw in the best of the applicants.

 

Engineering, Designing and Deploying a Career Web Page That’s Accessible From Anywhere on the Employer Website

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image_016An increasing number of job seekers are using mobile devices to conduct their employment searches. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly or fully functional on mobile devices, your company may be missing a large segment of the candidate population as 77 percent of job seekers read postings and 45 percent apply for jobs on their smartphones [1]. Consider these tips when engineering your recruitment website.

Setting up a User-friendly Career Web Page

When creating a job recruitment page for your corporate website, take the time to work with the IT team to ensure the page is accessible on a wide variety of devices. What works on an iPhone does not necessarily show up correctly on a Blackberry or Android device. The page should also offer responsive design elements such as fluid images, flexible resolution and compatibility with different Web browsers.

Enhancing Website Accessibility

To make your career page accessible from anywhere on the corporate website, consider the page resolution. If you want to be mobile-friendly without having a separate mobile website, adjust the page format to portrait, rather than landscape. You’ll also need to adjust the text size and make images small, if you include them at all. Your IT department should test the accessibility using a variety of devices to ensure that the recruitment page works as expected from all the links on your website.

Making the Recruitment Page Easy for Job Seekers to Find

During the process of deploying your new recruitment page, ensure that the job listings page is easy to find from anywhere on your website. Simple buttons that direct candidates to the job search tool or application page make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. Each page should contain these buttons, including your home page. No animation or videos should be on the job seeking pages as these make the pages load too slowly for mobile device users. If you want to create a video to show users how to apply for a position with your company, embed a link to the video so they can view it from a separate page or window.

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

How to Attract the Ideal Candidate with the Requisite Skill and Experience Who Will Also Fit with the Corporate Culture

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image_05Hiring the right people who fit in with corporate culture but also have the requisite skills and experience needed for the job can be a challenge. So, how do you attract the best of the best to your company without sacrificing any of your values?

Attracting the Right Candidate for the Job

Developing a persona for the perfect candidate will give you a better idea of what type of person you are looking for. Once you identify the skills, goals and experience that your ideal candidate would possess, you can then optimize your job posting with the type of information that will attract a desired candidate. Using the Internet as a marketing tool is the best way to reach a large pool of possible job candidates, which in turn gives you a wider selection to choose from.

Your company has the opportunity to make a good first impression on job candidates. Many candidates develop a perception of an organization based on their initial interaction. This is the perfect opportunity to showcase your company and really hit it home as to why they should want to work there. This also gives you the chance to analyze whether or not a candidate will fit in well with company culture. Company culture can be described as the company’s personality and what it’s like to work there from an employee’s perspective. Hiring employees who understand and exemplify your company’s values and goals can have a huge impact on the success of your business. Not only can a good cultural fit have a positive impact on your business, but it also can lead to greater job satisfaction, higher retention rate, more dedication to work and a superior job performance. This is a win-win for both the company and the employee.

If done correctly, you will see that this process will bring in more qualified candidates for your consideration. It is important to make sure that everyone involved in the hiring process is fully trained to do so. The interview process should include more behavior-focused questions. The behavioral interview indicates that past performance is a good predictor of future performance. This interview process is the perfect opportunity to communicate your company’s core values. When communicating these values, use specific instances such as stories or examples that demonstrate those values in action.

Sources:
http://www.ere.net/2013/06/21/cultural-fit-in-the-workplace-how-personality-affects-hiring-and-teamwork/
http://www.hrotoday.com/news/talent-acquisition/fitting-in/
http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/corporate-culture
https://www.themuse.com/advice/beyond-the-resume-how-to-choose-the-best-candidates

 

How to Balance Long Term Goals and Short Term Objectives in the Recruitment Process

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image_21As an HR leader, planning for the future is an important part of the recruitment process. Recruiting people without any plan in place can end up being a disaster for a company in the long run. It is important for HR personnel to be able to balance both the long-term goals and near-term objectives that have been set in place.

To have a cohesive staffing policy, a blend of long-term goals and near-term objectives should be implemented. Near-term objectives related to staffing are generally easier to identify and fulfill, but without long-term goals, they are not conducive to successful business. With an increasingly competitive labor market, companies simply cannot survive without a long-term plan and vision with regard to hiring new employees. Employers who set long-term goals as a part of their recruitment strategy tend to have a higher employee retention rate. Near-term staffing strategies are ideal for entry-level jobs, while long-term staffing strategies work best for positions requiring a specialized skill or talent.

Ultimately, your recruitment plan is unique and should be tailored to the goals of your business. You will want to ask yourself some questions in order to determine those goals. For example, what skills are needed to meet the objective? Once you have outlined the generalities, you will want to lay out the specifics. Of course, finding the best person for the job is a No. 1 goal.

Some other recruitment goals you may have include:

  • Attracting high-quality candidates
  • Increasing employee referrals
  • Retaining your employees
  • Marketing your company
  • Determining your overall recruitment goals

Before implementing staffing plans, you need to consider future implications that may arise. Recognizing and responding effectively to change is the key to operating in a positive manner. When conditions change, staffing policies should be assessed and reviewed for any repercussions that may come about.

The benefits of balancing both long-term goals and near-term objectives are going to save your business time and money in the future, leaving you to focus on more important efforts such as employee growth and development. Having a dynamic recruiting strategy will give your company an edge in uncertain market conditions.

The Importance of Selling the Job Opportunity

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image_017Every employer wants the best staff that his or her money can buy. In order to attract the most desirable candidate, you need to sell the opportunity as you would any other product. The purpose of this is to attract top individuals to your organization. These prospective employees need to feel like working for your company is the ideal career choice.

Peaking Their Interest

When you post a job opportunity, there is little doubt that you may see an influx of resumes and applications. With the job market the way it is, even unqualified individuals may send in their information. By putting more effort into selling the job, you may increase the interest of candidates that excel in the position. With his or her skills and knowledge, the candidate can find a job in a variety of locations, and you want your organization to stand out among those prospective employees that have superior qualifications.

The Competition

The employees of competing organizations are what drive its success. If you don’t secure highly qualified staff members, you could be inadvertently strengthening the competition’s hold within the market. By enhancing the listing of the job opportunity to engage those individuals, your company could become stronger as a whole. Cases in point, brand name organizations such as Apple and Google are successful because of the people working within the establishment. Talented employees can drive the success of virtually any business platform.

Being More than a Brand

While many people will seek employment from various companies simply because of the brand name, others may want to know why they should apply. What kinds of opportunities are available for growth? What is the general atmosphere like? Questions such as these can speak to a potential candidate and give him or her information about what it would be like to work for your company. Certain working atmospheres can play into people’s personalities creating an enjoyable environment. The happier staff members are to remain at their jobs, the less likely you’ll have to find replacements and train new employees.

Selling the job opportunity doesn’t need to sound like you’re begging for qualified staff. You need to focus on why a person would want to work within your organization. This can help you find the right staff member who will be an asset to the team and enhance the company profile.