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Improving Sourcing Through Face Recognition

In the time of AltaVista, Yahoo, and early years of Google, when we tried to find something on the Internet, we simply typed our query into the search field, clicked, and we got a result.

Several years ago, Google, Bing, and others introduced a “Search By Image” capability.

We all use Google for most of our Internet searches, both at home and work. Google has become our personal source of any information we need and has become our library, map, TV, hard drive, and so on. It gives us whatever we need —  websites, videos, music, news, images, and more. It is our everyday tool and an integral part of our lives.

Google processes tens of thousands of search queries every second and more than 3.5 billion searches per day, and part of these queries are related to image search.

I’m a big fan of Google. There is no better tool for sourcers than this search engine. It saves time and becomes  very effective if you know how to use it properly.

Sometimes, I ask Google a very simple question, and the first answer I receive has far more information than I need. But sometimesm Google and I fight for hours and I can’t seem to get the answer I’m looking for, especially when I try to set up Google to send me new candidates via email that match my Boolean search strings.

However, Google is a very handy sourcing tool, and one of the reasons why I like it very much because it constantly amazes me with new things that I could use for my sourcing activities.

Google Image Search

Every Google user knows that Google can help find information through search. Most people are also using Google Image Search when they look for images.

Often, they are trying to find a picture of an object or a person. Alternatively, they might be trying to connect a name they know with a face. The first place they search for the photo is Facebook, and the second is Google Images.

All sourcers uses Google for their work, but not many sourcers use Google Image Search.

The Google Image Search sourcing method is very effective, especially if you are looking for new places to look for candidates. Photos of people you find through this method are mostly connected to their personal blogs, mentioned on company websites on pages like the “About Us” page, and so on.

This searching method will also help you find candidates who are not on LinkedIn. Additionally, if you find an interesting candidate who is mentioned as a speaker on a website, there is a high chance that other speakers mentioned there will have the same skills as the first person you have already found. They could also be potential candidates for your client or your company.

The great benefit of this method is that it brings sourcers additional information about candidates so they can learn more about them before they reach out and try to connect. As you know, doing the proper research before you contact with a candidate is the key! With the right knowledge, you can tailor a personal message and get a higher acceptance rate than when you use the template message for every candidate.

How to use Google Image Search

Note: The better your Boolean string is, the better your results will be.

Step 1: Visit https://images.google.com/. You can also go to https://google.com and select the “Images” tab.


Step 2: Type your keywords into the search field. In this example, we are going to search for a Java Developer in London.

Step 3: A small menu with more options will appear together with your results. Select “Search Tools,” select “Type,” and then select the option, “Face.” This setting will only show you images of faces and remove adverts and any irrelevant images connected with “Java,” “Development” or “London.”

The search results will also be full of images that belong to recruiters, recruitment agencies, or to related to job advertisements with a picture of the recruiter who is responsible for sourcing that role. You can remove these results by adding “-recruiter” or keywords like “-jobs,” “-job,” and so on to eliminate people connected with job advertisements.

Try to experiment with the keywords and with your Boolean search strings; there are many ways to get more accurate results.

Advanced Search

If you are looking for a way to sort your results better, you can select “Settings” and chose the “Advanced Search” option.

This option will give you an opportunity to select the region in which you would like to search and give you the option of only searching on websites connected to your location.

If you need to limit your results to a domain — in this case, the UK — just add “.co.uk” into the site or domain field, and you will get results only under .co.uk domains.

Final thoughts

The steps you have learned from this article are only some basic steps to use Google Image Search and Face Recognition for sourcing. You will need to create more complex Boolean search string to get more accurate results.

Sourcing through face recognition is just one of the many tools that Google offers to sourcers. When you use them the right way, you quickly find the people you are looking for.

Not too long ago, Bing added a new functionality to its image search. Now if you only want to search for a certain object you saw in an internet image or one that is in your photograph, you can use the Bing Image Search and find it somewhere on the Internet.

Last year, Facebook mentioned that it can accurately identify a person 98 percent of the time. With new AIs and technologies, maybe one day we all will be able to find almost every single person from a group picture.

It will be an amazing thing for sourcers, but personally, I hope that nobody will create this type of tool anytime soon.

Fixing the Candidate Experience: It Will Take More Humans, Less Automation

Everybody knows that automation has dramatically changed how people get hired.

In fact, automation is the very reason why job boards exist. It’s also why they can be so challenging because automation means, all too often, that the very best candidates get lost in the pile of every Tom, Dick, and Harry who has the minimum amount of brain cells required to apply online.

That’s why I’m not all that surprised at the results of a new study released this week by Randstad US that examined job seekers’ perceptions, attitudes and expectations of the job search process.

According to the report, while most candidates find value in technology, most are also very frustrated when automation supersedes the human part of the process.

Technology makes job hunting terribly impersonal

I didn’t get a deep dive into the survey data, but here are the intriguing but not surprising headline findings when it comes to how job candidates feel about the specific role technology should play during the job search process:

  • There needs to be a greater focus on aiding the candidate experience — Nearly ALL respondents (a whopping 95 percent) believe that technology should be used to aid the recruitment experience, not replace it.
  • It’s seen as a very impersonal process — Some 87 percent agree that technology has made the job search process more impersonal.
  • Candidates are frustrated by excess automation — More than four out of five (82 percent) say they are often frustrated when they have an overly automated job search experience.

Randstad’s analysis of this data is worth digging into:

Job seekers have become increasingly savvy about what makes a great candidate experience and what leaves them with a less-than-favorable impression. The study findings reinforce anecdotal evidence from Randstad’s recruiters, who have witnessed candidates’ desire for greater human interaction, despite their self-reported belief that technology has made the job search process more effective.

For example, beyond the overall job offer, the top two aspects of the respondents’ last job search that contributed to a positive impression of a potential employer centered on personal interaction. Respondents named “the degree of personal, human interaction during the process,” and “the recruiter/hiring manager I worked with,” as having most influenced their positive impression.

On the other hand, 91 percent of workers agreed technology has made the job search process significantly more effective. However, they also named “the length of the hiring process” and “the communication level throughout the selection process” as the top two aspects of job searching that created a negative impression of a potential employer.

That impression has lasting effects, as the survey found one-third of workers who had a negative experience during the job search process will never reapply to the organization, nor refer a friend or family member to the company.”

The pros and cons of the automated hiring process

“The findings reinforce what we’ve believed for quite some time, that successful talent acquisition lies at the intersection between technology and human touch,” said Linda Galipeau, CEO Randstad North America, in a press release about the study.

She added: “Employers today, and in the future, will be judged by the experience they create for prospective new hires. … In a tightening labor market, companies cannot afford to lose potential talent due to a poor hiring experience.”

Here’s my take: Automation is generally a good thing, particularly when it comes to hiring, but as someone who spent some years before automation finding jobs the old-fashioned way — by putting a resume and cover letter in the mail — I know from personal experience that automation makes it tough for the best candidates to stand out.

Automation has eliminated the barrier to entry to the point that anyone, qualified or not, can easily apply for a job. Of course, a great many people do, leading to the well known “drinking from the fire hose” effect where recruiters who post an ad online get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of applications. And, a great many of the people they get hit with don’t even remotely have the qualifications to be applying at all.

You had a lot fewer unqualified people applying for jobs when it took a lot more work and effort to do so. Today’s technology has made it terribly simple for people to apply, but that simply means that you get a helluva lot more candidates — and many of them have no earthly reason to be applying at all.

They gum up the works for everyone — recruiters and qualified candidates alike.

Add in the arbitrary way a lot of recruiting and hiring professionals operate — like deciding to only look at the first 300 out of the 800 plus candidates who applied — and you can see how automation can severely impact the way candidates feel about the process, aka, the candidate experience.

As a wise CEO told me once, you can be the greatest candidate in the world but it won’t matter a bit if you aren’t in that first batch of 300 people the recruiter decides to look at.

Will somebody see the value in more human interaction?

In other words, the Randstad survey makes it clear that an overwhelming majority of workers believe that when it comes to applying for a job, there the needs to be a way to temper the worst qualities of automation with more human interaction. If you can do that, your “candidate experience” will be off the charts.

I hope a lot more executives can see the tremendous value in that.

I’m not holding my breath that they will.

About the survey: The research findings are based on an OmniPulse survey fielded by national polling firm Research Now on behalf of Randstad US. The survey was fielded between June 19 and June 23, 2017. It included 1,200 respondents over the age of 18, and a nationally representative sample balanced on age, gender and region.

Time for an Upgrade? Recruitment Advertising Reloaded.

The candidate journey is constantly changing because it has to adapt quickly to rapidly changing trends. Recruitment advertising is no different.

Since the days of “Help Wanted” ads and posts, recruitment advertising has evolved through online and print ads, employment agencies, and job fairs. Job ads are everywhere, and every company is looking for people is touting their brand through ads on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media channels and websites.

In many cases, the company’s advertising visuals are the first thing a potential employee sees before deciding whether or not to apply for a job. 

Job ads have evolved, from text-heavy ads and job descriptions to compelling images, catchy headlines, and professionally-produced videos. Recruitment advertising has become one of the most important elements for any hiring professional, but we recruiters need the right data and tools if we want to create an effective advertisement.

I remember when I was trying to find the best time to post tweets for my network. I was running various tests, such as posting the content at various times and tracking the results in an Excel spreadsheet. I analyzed everything after two weeks of collecting data, and I found when people in my network were the most active.

However, this method was very old school, especially when I got more followers, because my results changed. As I later found out, there are many tools that could do the same thing as I did in minutes, so I did not have to waste hours on it the next time around.

Thanks to smart tools that use elements of Artificial intelligence (AI), we can now see the best time for our audience and let AI choose the best content and share it through our social networks. This type of tool will not only save time but also help present interesting and relevant content to the people we have in our networks. Additionally, this tool will raise the chances of getting the audience’s attention.

Artificial intelligence will have a positive impact recruitment advertisement. It will help us target our potential candidates more effectively, as well as showing our ads only to those who match our requirements. It will also prevent us from making the mistakes we make today.

Now, it is much easier for recruiters to launch two ads simultaneously, track the responses from candidates, and put more money behind the more effective ad. A/B testing results could be evaluated by AI and decide what brings the bigger benefit. Ultimately, this will save you time and money.

All recruiters know that recruitment advertising has become an important tool and that it has an enormous impact on candidates. However, most recruiters struggle with marketing and marketing-related activities. They are not born marketers, so there are many things — such as the best time for posting, the right size image for a certain social site, and many others — that recruiters do not know. Therefore, they need to guess about what is going to work or not, which causes problems and makes the ads ineffective.

Using automated media and tools with AI will not only help recruiters bring more quality candidates into the pipeline, but will also help support the personal and company brand of that recruiter.

While even the smartest AI will not protect them from all the mistakes they make in advertising, it could help lower the number of errors to the minimum.

 

Thanks to our sponsor Symphony Talent for making this article possible and after you’re done reading check out this webinar featuring Bill Boorman and Michael Drayer where they continued the discussion on all things recruitment advertising.

 

These are 12 common mistakes in advertising that people are still making:

1.  Job Advertisements Full of Typos

One thing can easily kill your ad and scare away your candidates or make it go viral on the Internet. This small thing is a typo.

Recruiters often rush to publish their ads, and they do not want to spend one extra minute to check them. That is why we can see so many “Scum Masters” instead of “Scrum Masters,” “Devlopers” instead of “Developers,” and the list of job titles and description with typos could go on and on.

Typos are a small human error. Yes, we make these mistakes, but that small thing could instantly make your open job invisible to candidates. When people are going to look for a Developer role on Google or Indeed, they will not see your position if you made a typo and posted “Devloper” instead of “Developer”.

2.  Choosing the Wrong Job Title

Candidates decide from a job title if they are going to open the ad or not. You have only a few seconds to attract them before they scroll down and see some other job opportunity from your competitors.

Keep in mind that not every job title works in every job market. Recruiters working in global companies use the same job title that the company uses in every market in which they are located. All too often, they will post the role without any proper market research.

 

For example, they may start hiring people for “Associate accountant” positions and not see more than two applicants in two months. This lack of response is because, in the market in which they are hiring, candidates are looking for a “Junior accountant” and not the “Associate accountant” title. Therefore, it is important to do the proper research on what job titles are most common for that specific location or market. Doing so will get you more views on your ads and more candidates in the pipeline.

Being creative is not a bad thing, but being too creative in a job ad ican be an issue, especially when recruiters start creating fancy job titles that have no connection to the job. “Guru Finance Manager,” “Superman Web Developer,” and other “Ninja” job titles are automatically invisible to job seekers. Candidates are not going to find these roles through Google or Indeed because they are searching for the job titles they know or for the job title of their current position.

I’m not expecting anyone to search for job title, “Time Ninja” when they are looking for a job.

3.  Ads That Are Too Short or Too Long

If one sentence of your two-sentence job ad is not “We pay $1 million dollars per month,” do not expect many candidates. Job ads are the one channel where you present not only the role you are looking to fill, but also the company brand. Two short sentences are not going to excite anybody to apply or get intrigued about your company.

On the other hand, you need to keep in mind that a candidate’s attention is limited. They are not going to read the 10-page description you post as a job ad. Most people visit LinkedIn and job boards through mobile devices, so if they need to scroll more than four times on a mobile screen, then your ad is too long and you should create a shorter version.

Before you post a new ad, ask yourself if you feel that the job ad you are about to post is appealing. If you have doubts, invest a little more time and rewrite it.

4.  Recycling Job Descriptions

Doing the same thing and expecting different results never works, so it is not going to work when you use the same job description for years but expect to get more candidates out of it.

Keep in mind that your company is evolving, so the information in your ads should evolve, too. The job market also changes every year, just as the  expectations of people also change. Therefore, you should not use the same ad over and over for years on end. Using a recycled ad will not attract more candidates; in fact, it could do the opposite.

Candidates who see these recycled ads for months or years could get the impression that something is wrong with your company. Maybe the accountant role was reopened because the person in that role did not survive probation and you are looking for a replacement (again). Even if you are looking for five accountants per year, the same ad could create the impression that you are not growing but only replacing people.

5.  Unreadable Job Ads

Ads that have no formatting look like a wall of text and are very hard to read. No bullet points or spaces to divide paragraphs will easily turn any good job opportunity into a very boring one. Ads are created by people for other people, and the rule is that if YOU have a problem reading it, they will have twice the problems that you do.

Splitting paragraphs, using bold or italic fonts, or using bullet points could very easily turn any ad into a more appealing one that will bring in more applications.

Do not confuse a job ad with a job description, however. Job ads need to excite candidates to apply and excite them about your company.

6.  Language That Is Hard to Understand

Recruiters who work for a company for a bit very often start using the insider acronyms or jargon when describing the work in advertising. The company’s internal lingo becomes their second language, but it is important to keep in mind that candidates outside the company will not understand all the abbreviations and phrases that are understandable only to internal employees.

Postings on LinkedIn, Twitter, and other sites also often include abbreviations and shortened versions of words to save space. Not every candidate will understand these abbreviations, which is why they will not apply. Job seekers may  get the impression that they do not match the requirements because they do not know what is behind these abbreviations. It’s important to present ads in a language that is understandable by most of the people who will see them.

Example: “This is a PT pos. w/bens. & pd. trng.” means “This is a part-time position with benefits and paid training.”

7.  The Wrong Channel and Format

Image sizes and formats differ from one social media platform to the next. What looks good on Twitter could turn into a marketing nightmare on LinkedIn. Therefore, it’s important to check how the post will look after you post it.

Here is a simple three-point checklist:

  1.    Is the image/photo/posts right for your followers on this specific social network?
  2.    Is the image/photo optimized (size and orientation) for this specific social network?
  3.    Does the image represent and fit your branding?

If one of the answers is no, don’t post it!

8.  Stock Photos

There is nothing wrong with using a stock photo for an ad or presentation, but using stock photos with a watermark does not look professional, and, you can easily send the message that your company does not have the money for a photo.

There are dozens of sites where anybody can find a photo for free, yet many recruiters still prefer images with watermarks, for some reason.

9.  It Is Simply Too Complex

“Simplicity is the essence of beauty.” this should apply to every job ad or image that you create. Creating a talent-repelling job ad is easy, but if you want to attract relevant candidates, make sure that your ads appeal to them to apply.

You do not have to add the whole job description, just basic information or the job title with a slogan that will get the attention of the person who is going to see it.

Keep in mind that most users will see the ad on their mobile device and not on the computer. For that reason, trying to squeeze everything into one small image is not a good idea.

10.  Missing Data

Ads without a URL linking to the job posting, or a call-to-action, are not going to bring good results. The current market is candidate-driven, so expecting that if the candidate is interested, he or she will start looking for your email or URL is foolish.

Every ad and posting should have the URL, contact details, or a call-to-action. If candidates need to spend time hunting down the URL, it could lead them to lose interest and look somewhere else.

11.  The Wrong Audience

If you don’t know your audience well enough, you can’t expect good results from your marketing activities. Knowing the audience is the key!

Consider your audience demographics — who they are, and what is important to them. If you have this data, you can design an optimal experience that will not only be appreciated but will also benefit them.

In addition, consider the seniority of the role you are trying to fill. Targeting senior candidates — like directors — will require a different approach than hiring college graduates. Using the same strategy could be counterproductive.

Keep in mind that each social networking site is great for a different audience. Adding hashtags with smiles could work on Instagram or Twitter, but LinkedIn is not a good channel for that.

12.  It Sounds Desperate

Every day, you can see posts on LinkedIn with “URGENTLY NEED FOR …” “WE ARE URGENTLY LOOKING FOR … “ or “WE NEED URGENTLY…” Not only that, but these companies are suggesting to candidates that they can pay more than usual because they are under pressure and need to hire somebody immediately.

However, not only do these ads sound desperate, but candidates could very easily get the impression that the company has problems hiring and keeping people. Who wants to work for a company that looks desperate?

Final Thoughts

Recruitment advertising is not the same as product advertising. Candidates are looking for new job opportunities; they are not planning to buy a new product or service. Therefore, it is important to use different language for recruitment ads than that used for product ads.

You are selling a new, amazing opportunity and presenting the company brand, not selling a new washing machine. And, you must keep your ads simple because a simple ad with one slogan is always better than complex ad. You do not want to overload your candidates with information.

Keep in mind that all your ads should be easily recognizable as coming from your company. Having a new design for every image, poster, or flyer that you share is not going to help to build a recognizable brand.

It’s important to keep the diversity of the channels in mind when you are preparing a new recruitment marketing campaign. Ensure that you are presenting your ads across a range of media to reach both passive and active candidates.

Do not confuse a job advertisement with a job description. Always try to create something that will attract candidates and not repeal them.

Another big thanks to Symphony Talent for sponsoring this article and don’t forget to check out an upcoming webinar featuring the Symphony Talent X-Cloud.

Evidence-Based Marketing: 3 Marketing Ideas for Recruiters that are Proven to Work

 

Marketing Ideas for Recruiters“How do I stand out in a crowded market?”

It is the age-old question that recruiters face each day and it is, unsurprisingly, not an easy one to answer.

I’ve always found that the best ideas are those that have proven to work elsewhere and can simply be tweaked to apply to your business. You can imagine my delight when I discovered a website whose sole purpose was helping people do just that.

Detailed.com bills itself as a site filled with “content marketing case studies you can actually use” so let’s get to work.

In this post, we will explore three of Detailed.com’s most interesting case studies and explain how a recruiter could re-purpose the idea for their own content marketing plan.

(When you’re done with this list, if you want a few more ideas, we’ve got three more marketing ideas for your recruitment agency in another post.)

The Amazon “Guest Post”Marketing Ideas for Recruiters

Nick Stephenson’s business is simple. According to detailed.com, he “helps authors get their first 10,000 readers”.

His key marketing technique is publishing a free ebook on Amazon that contains helpful tips but not enough information to fully solve his prospective customers’ problems. Once they’ve read the book, they trust that Nick knows what he’s talking about and they sign up for his email list, giving Nick an opportunity to sell them his “Author Marketing Toolbox”.

How can you use this idea?

As an experienced recruiter, you probably have acquired many tactics you use on a daily basis. The beauty of the experience is that you could likely give them all away to someone else and they couldn’t perform half as well as you until they put in the thousands of hours that you have. Let’s take advantage of this fact.

Write a 30-page ebook called “How to recruit in [your industry]” or “How to recruit for [your job specialty]” and publish it on Amazon. Your target audience, hiring managers and HR professionals, are certainly looking for this type of information and you’ve found the one place, Amazon, where you likely will not have much competition for their attention.

If you do this, make sure you have a newsletter that people can subscribe to once they’ve finished the book to give yourself a chance to ultimately sell them on your services. Plus, if you write a helpful book and get great reviews, you can point to the reviews as a credibility-building tool in all future sales meetings.

Awful ArticlesMarketing Ideas for Recruiters

People love downward comparisons of their lives to others and because of that trait, they have a constant need to find out about the worst things in a category. A site called Areavibes took advantage of this idea and published an article on the most dangerous cities in the US. It was shared 7,000 times on Facebook. An article on the worst cities to live in was shared 39,000 times.

How can you use this idea?

There are two ways I could see this working. First, you could try a sensational headline like “The worst recruiting strategy I’ve ever heard”. This post could start with a story about exactly what it purports to discuss and then transition into almost any topic you’d like. The headline will grab people’s attention and the meat of the post will keep them engaged. Second, you could try a list post like “The top 5 worst answers I’ve heard in a [your industry] interview” where you walk through a standard “what not to say in an interview”-type post but use horrible things you’ve heard people say as the foundation.

Spread The LoveMarketing Ideas for Recruiters

Linking to a competitor can have its benefits. No, you did not read that wrong. There are many reasons why this can make sense. In the case study cited in the article, the author looks at a website in the web design industry, Speckyboy, that compiled a list of “50 Free eBooks for Web Designers” and found the following benefits of linking out:

How can you use this idea?

There are a few potential ways you might implement this idea. If you insist on staying away from linking to competitors, you could create a list of the best recruiters in every industry besides your own. If you only recruit locally, you could write a list of the best recruiters in your own space in every city besides your own. (There might even be a potential reciprocal link scheme here that is worth considering…). Finally, you could do something more straightforward like a link to the best-recruiting blogs in your industry.

About our Author:

Zack Gallinger is the founder of a recruitment website design and marketing company, Talent Hero Media, that focuses exclusively on the recruiting and staffing industry. The company helps recruiters find new clients and place more candidates by building world-class websites that are optimized for search.

 

The Key to Building Candidate Awareness & Attraction? It’s Inbound Recruiting

Everywhere you go, people are talking about how hard it is to recruit talent. In an economy where the unemployment rate is below 5 percent, companies across the country are beginning to struggle with attracting quality talent.

Enter Inbound Recruiting

Inbound recruiting is taken directly from the methods and philosophies behind inbound marketing, which is focused around attracting customers through helpful content and interactions that build a relationship over time.

Similarly, inbound recruiting is all about sharing relevant information with candidates as a means to build awareness and attraction with the people you’d like to hire.

And, while inbound marketing arose as a means for companies to differentiate themselves against the disruptive and many times unwanted cold outreach of sales people, inbound recruiting is similarly rising as a response to the decreasing returns of cold outreach to candidates.

The best talent is now bombarded on a regular basis by various recruiters asking for 15 minutes so that they can sell them on a job they aren’t looking for. Companies need to start thinking differently about how they get in front of candidates and pull their attention in through unique content.

Look in the mirror

The first step to building a strong employer brand and driving more quality inbound candidates is to take a realistic look at your organization and why people work there.

Who better to answer that question than your employees? They are trusted by job seekers, and also have all of the in depth content that candidates are looking for.

While HR knows what the sales function is up to, they don’t necessarily know how the account executives celebrate the wins, or the career path for a sales development rep. These details are so important to communicate!

Asking your employees to share the in depth and authentic stories behind working at your company is also a great way to scale your efforts.

Imagine getting five of your account reps to share 10 stories about working at your company? That’s 50 pieces of content about working as an account rep at your company! Now, let’s do that for engineering, marketing, veterans, etc.

To edit or not to edit

Most companies fall down when they manicure the responses of their employees down to something akin to “We’re an innovative and diverse company!” Realistically, we all know an advertisement when we see one. And, we want to be shown, not told, how you’re innovative.

For the most part, the unedited voices of your employees are by far the most effective means to engage candidates with themes they’ll care about: how your company develops people, key aspects of your employee value propositions, culture, etc.

This can be a scary thought in the days of employer review sites.

But, you will be surprised what your employees say when you give them the floor. Trust us.

Inbound recruiting happens online

The majority of the candidate journey happens online. People read a press release and go to your careers page. Or, they hear about a job opening they may like and check out your social media.

To be an employer of choice, you need to have a career page that engages and converts visitors into candidates. Landing pages that dive into each role at your company are key. Engineers want to hear about working as an engineer, and job descriptions just don’t cut it. Toast even has a Spotify playlist embedded in the career site – it’s just another way to share culture.

Another key to inbound marketing is the idea of nurturing leads over time with interesting content. Inbound recruiting mandates the same.

Give your passive candidates a way to keep in touch with your company through talent communities they can sign up for. You shouldn’t need to apply for a job just to stay in touch with a company you’re interested in.

Be careful not to simply blast passive candidates with jobs. Send interesting information each month about your culture, new office opening, latest meet-up, etc.

The last piece of advice here is to segment; again, engineers want to hear about the engineering culture, sales candidates want to hear about sales, etc.

It’s offline, too

Don’t underestimate the power of engaging people offline. This could mean career fairs. More than that, it’s about hosting meet-ups that talk through hard challenges your engineers have tackled, or how your sales team is using the Sandler method.

Lastly, have a presence at events where your talent pools are hanging out – whether that’s a python hackathon or a craft beer festival.

If you have the opportunity, start to speak on panels and build your own personal content. Becoming part of the broader community as a thought leader means that your personal and talent brand become an employer of choice – making recruiting that much easier.

Where to get started

We all know that recruiting is like marketing. But, many times recruiters aren’t marketers. Imagine asking your engineering lead to write copy for your product page, it probably wouldn’t be that great.

Find the right internal or external partners to help build out an employer branding strategy that is executable and measurable. Start with one project: your careers site, an Instagram hashtag, talent com.

Find That Email : Email Address Generator

Recruiters are always hunting for email addresses. Sometimes, you will find that a solid educated guess is the best you can do. But you do not have to guess without help. In today’s tutorial, I am using an Email Permutator called Find that Email (Formerly A/B Email Permutator), Email Qualifier and an online edit pad.

An Email Permutator searches for every email possible based on name and domain name. For example, if I enter Dean and Dacosta as first name last name and Gmail as the domain using Find that Email, it will find every potential Gmail address. the results look like this:

Find That Email

Next, I enter the results on an online editor, in this case, Editpad.org.  The Edit Pad website is a free online text holder and simple online editor for plain text.

Find that Email

 

To find out what I did next, watch the video!

About our Author:

Find COntact InformationDean Da Costa is best known for his work in the highly specialized secured clearance and mobile arenas, where he has been a top performing recruiter and sourcer.  Dean’s keen insight and creation of innovative tools and processes for enhancing and changing staffing has established Dean as one of the top authorities in sourcing and recruiting.

Connect with Dean at LinkedIn or follow @DeanDaCosta on Twitter.

Zodiac Killer: A Horoscope for Human Resources.

It’s pretty obvious recruiting isn’t rocket science, but it might as well be.  The goal of talent management, after all, basically involves looking for “stars” and making sure they’re ‘aligned’ with organizational needs, lest they end up in the “black hole” of the hiring process.  That’s why it’s time to take a look at the newest weapon in the war for talent: astrology.

If you’re feeling skeptical about the ability of planetary alignment to predict quality of hire, remember that first feeling you had when you learned your Myers-Briggs acronym?  They have about the same amount of scientific validity (to true believers, anyway), after all, and both rely almost exclusively on confirmation bias to generate (and validate) their findings.

Truth is, when it comes to candidate selection, there’s really no scientific approach; intuition’s the most powerful tool in the recruiter’s professional tool kit, hands down.

After all, interpreting the meaning of things like “soft skills” and “cultural fit” is inherently as subjective an art as, well, looking at planetary alignment to determine if you’re going to have a good day.

Align Your Company Stars: An HR Horoscope.

Is that final candidate the right one? Here’s what the stars have to say:

CANCER (The Crab): June 21-July 20:

Largely introverted, Cancers don’t do particularly well in interviews, so it’s very important they have great resumes and excellent credentials before presenting for a role.  They’re generally not focused on title or compensation (or at least won’t push back too much on an offer).  The challenge with Cancer candidates lies in getting them through process, where they’ll often succeed only as a politically safe pick or “fall back” choice. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Scorpio, Pisces

LEO (The Lion): July 21-August 20:

Creative and loyal, Leos present well in an interview and get along well with most hiring managers, with whom they often share the traits of pomposity, bossiness and egotism.  And your organization likely already has enough of that to go around. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Sagittarius, Aries

VIRGO (The Virgin): August 21-September 20:

Considered to be “passive” and “introverted,” Virgos generally don’t get along well with people and are extremely process oriented, making them a great fit for HR roles. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Taurus, Capricorn

LIBRA (The Scales): September 21-October 20:

Libra candidates aren’t afraid to ask tough questions and are highly spontaneous, meaning they require a significant amount of coaching prior to meeting a hiring manager…or presenting an offer. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Aquarius, Gemini

SCORPIO (The Scorpion): October 21-November 20:

Scorpios are known for their intelligence, charisma and big-picture thinking…but also for their scheming abilities.  While introverted, they’re always on the lookout for new opportunities, so there’s a good chance that they’re using your company as leverage for a counter offer….or will soon. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Cancer, Capricorn

SAGITTARIUS (The Archer): November 21-December 20:

Type A all the way, Sagittarius candidates are more likely to interview you and the hiring manager than vice versa and approach situations opportunistically.  Their desire for control makes them an excellent fit for a management role or struggling department, but difficult to engage or retain. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Aries, Leo

CAPRICORN (The Goat): December 21-January 20:

Down-to-earth, approachable and easy to get along with, Capricorns are great mediators and can get along with a wide range of personalities while reconciling competing demands.  This means they’re likely happy with where they’re at, so you’ve got to make a case (and often, a hard sell). 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Taurus, Virgo

AQUARIUS (The Water Carrier): January 21-February 20:

As extroverts, these candidates will talk your ear off during a phone screen, even if you’ve already disqualified them, so allot plenty of time for interviewing.  On the plus side, they’re likely to come prepared and ask a lot of questions, but hiring managers will find it difficult to get a word in edgewise.  Better for pipeline than just-in-time recruiting. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Libra, Gemini

PISCES (The Fish): February 21-March 20: Pisces love brevity.

ARIES (The Ram) March 21-April 20: 

Known for their fiery personalities, the Aries doesn’t take bad news well; take special care with candidate experience or else risk a severe hit to your employment brand (or Glassdoor.com ratings).  Companies must carefully weigh their outstanding salesmanship and business development acumen with the known employee relations and retention risks associated with Aries.

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Sagittarius, Leo

TAURUS (The Bull) April 21-May 20:

Considered a “feminine” sign, the Taurus will likely help meet diversity requirements while slating.  With “earthy” demeanors, Taurus candidates are team players looking for process oriented, tactical work; not a significant long term flight risk, they’ll help retention numbers, if not the company’s bottom line. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Virgo, Capricorn

GEMINI (The Twins): May 21-June 20:

A “masculine” sign, Gemini fit in well with the aerospace, engineering and manufacturing sectors (or the average C-Suite).  Skilled communicators and extroverts, they’re likely already in process with several companies, so move them quickly through the hiring process (and the corporate ladder).  Be warned: they’re unlikely to accept a first offer, so give room for negotiation. 

Hiring Manager Compatibility: Libra, Aquarius

 

This handy candidate horoscope should help you make the right decision without paying an expensive vendor, although this methodology is completely transparent (unlike many on the market).

The horoscope, of course, represents the 12 signs of the Zodiac; an astrological sign can be easily determined during the screening process by asking for a candidate’s date of birth.  Unlike those “overqualified” candidates, though, this method’s completely legal.

And probably makes about as much sense, frankly.  Or at least as much sense as most standardized culture fit assessments (which, admittedly, isn’t saying much).

Who R U? What Every Recruitment Marketer Needs To Know About Employer Brand

Imagine this: You work for a highly visible company, everyone knows who you are, what you do and you don’t even have to advertise employment opportunities.

In fact, your company is so well known that it can be recognized by a symbol or catch phrase – not even the company name itself. That my friends is a quality employer brand at work. Now, back to reality.

Employer Brand – how’s your relationship with it?  Are you committed or is it ‘complicated’?

Isn’t that an uncomfortable question? You’ve been nodding along for too long now to other people telling you about the power of employer brand and you really don’t understand what they mean or why you should care. In this conversation, you’re going to learn what an employer brand really is (not the hype and marketing you might have been hearing lately), how it gets created or established and how to leverage it in your recruitment marketing strategy. Let’s answer the question that your organization needs to answer, “Who are you?”

This week on RecruitingLive we’re talking with employer brand guru, James Ellis. He’s taken time out of his schedule (where he’s normally running a podcast and oh, you know, assisting Fortune 1000 clients – but no big deal) to answer your questions LIVE.  So, join us and make sure to follow along on Twitter and use #rdaily.

More about James:

James Ellis currently runs The Talent Cast podcast where he can be found doing deep dives into all things employer brand and recruitment marketing. James has spent years helping companies get serious about employer brand, recruiting content and inbound recruiting strategies. Currently, in Chicago, James spends his time partnering with Fortune 1000 clients to think smarter about how they find and attract the best talent.

My Advice on Recruiting and Hiring: Do Better, Be Better

“A person who can think differently and truly on his feet will always find it difficult to sit and fit in as an employee in a workplace, for his attitude and approach towards the work will often hit the ego of most co-workers who can’t compete with him on his level of wisdom and wit.” ― Anuj Somany

Let me first point out that what you are about to read is not about recent events but a merging of functions of the many roles I have had over the last 20 years of my professional career.

For 15 years I have resided in our nation’s capital. Well, just outside of the capital really, I have no real reason to transverse the irrational world where politicians and lobbyists reside, so I live in a town across the river but close enough that if a nuclear winter occurs, I will be wiped out with the rest of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In this city, working with Government contractors is based on a contract. No one is guaranteed a job for more than two years, and for some, just six months based on when they start on a contract around here.

It is sort of madness orchestrated by a thought process with little thought.

A little background on where we’re headed

However, that is not what this post is about; it’s just a juxtaposition to give you the background of where we’re headed.

When you walk into an office the first day, week, or month, depending on the time frame of crazy within the confines of the location you are working, there is an anxiety that even the peppiest of people are constrained by. There is a fear of doing the wrong thing, saying something incorrect, or against the presumed notion of what the “culture” is.

You don’t learn this in an interview unless you are that big online retailer. God, what a nightmare that place is. Management dictates this in an office, culture is bread from the top of an organization, not the bottom, and no branding can ever hide this once you are actually working for the employer, right?

I have, in my career, walked away from roles based on the cruel treatment that was allowed by employees toward one another and only allowed by others because they were good producers or had been there a long time and it would be tough to replace them.

That’s not really true, of course, because most managers are just f***ing lazy and don’t really care about the company as a whole, just their bonus and what they can buy with it.

I’m sorry for the lengthy introduction, but I am a fan of history and setting the tone of my stories with a little bit of background. I endured a number of years at a particularly small Government contractor only because of the boss I had suffered indignity due to ignorance of my rights and sold out to make a dollar.

Management was particularly reprehensible as they had their favorites and those favorites knew, other than doing something illegal, they could say and do what they wanted without any repercussion. Ego seems to be the barrier towards success for so many companies as middle management is an anchor that is dragging behind the ship trying to move forward.

You know I hate lists, that is, if you have read any of my rants, but sometimes they do serve a purpose. This is one that you should read and learn from.

1 – The Managers

Let me begin this by saying this is not the manager that interviewed you, but the manager you were assigned to help get past their ideology and method hiring to lead a sullen team of people who are just hoping for Friday to be the next day every Monday.

You know the type — they know how to do your job better than you because they did a CareerBuilder search and found a candidate. Just. Like. That.

They did not call them ask them what THEY were looking for or if there was any interest at all in what we did, or if they would be interested in our roles. NO, they were on the internet and they were looking.

Of course, they don’t take the time to notice that they posted their resume three months ago and, if actually good at their position, are more than likely not looking. However if they were still looking, what a catch they would be, right?

As the kids say, SMDH.

2 – The Managers, Part Two

I honestly could go on a rant that would be pages long on just managers, but instead I will simply add my second biggest pet peeve when it comes to managers — interviewing.

I seem to always get that one manager that finds fault in every single candidate they look at or meet with. You know how this goes: they didn’t have the soft skills or the hard skills, they were not 100 percent perfect, or they were not like Larry.

3 – Hiring for Larry, Again

Let me tell you about Larry, the sales guy.

When you hire against a profile that vacated for whatever reason — be it money, work-life balance, etc. — and you turn around and hire for the same like-minded person, you hire for Larry. And, you know the guy who left you will be the same person as Larry and leave you in kind. You begin to cause your own vicious snake biting its tail scenario.

Listen, I get hiring for type, I really do, and I’m all for culture and all that nonsense, but dating the same girl/guy and having it always end up with them leaving should be a basic illustration that you are doing something wrong. We don’t think about that though, hence the reason I am penning this prose to help maybe put something out there for conversation.

4 – The Support Staff

As much as the managers of the world can dissuade you from not throwing in the towel and telling them to take this job and shove it, only to laugh and move on to the same situation at the next place you land, remember the support staff.

Do you know who gets more shit than us? The support staff, some of whom we helped get hired.

The IT help desk, the coordinators, the onboarding team, and the person at the front desk, are, at times, chastised by us, by managers, by candidates, by the guy on the street looking for a handout. These people are the backbone of any company.

They put up with more than we do at times, and we should be doing a better job of championing them.

I know I have had my bacon saved a few times by multiple people over the years. Like they say in the restaurant industry, “take care of your servers man, they work for tips.” The support staff doesn’t make tips, but they also more than likely don’t make what you are making, so maybe a nice lunch or something in that vein would be nice to do for them.

5 – The Candidates

Sorry for not being sorry, but you are just as much a part of this conversation as the managers when it comes to looking to obtain a new role.

I hate to break it to you and all the thought leaders out there, but there are no “passive” candidates, period. You may say you are not looking, but the moment you turn the key on a position, you are looking at making a move.

We are not in the United Arab Emirates; no one can push you or force you into to a role you do not want to do.

The Conclusion

I could rant about this for hours, however your time is valuable so I will leave you with this final thought: Do better, be better.

An adage in the Bible states, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31) and it speaks volumes. I’m not really a Bible guy, but frankly, there is some good stuff in there, and although I’m not religious, I do try and to follow the path of doing good and paying it forward.

I think, as you look at life, that we all could start doing a better job of it.

#zellerout

Keeping Employees Happy May Be Harder Than You Think

According to recent employment retention statistics, about half of all workers (51 percent) are thinking about leaving their jobs.

If you want to keep your top talent, it’s important to be thinking of new ways keep your employees happy and satisfied.

However, keeping your employees happy is not as easy as giving them a larger paycheck. In fact, the same survey shows that when it comes to workplace happiness and loyalty, only 22 percent of respondents said compensation and pay were their biggest considerations.

Here’s why keeping your employees happy may be harder than you think.

1. Employees Want To Feel Fulfilled In Their Job

Because the job market is very competitive, some job seekers will settle for whatever job they can land, even if it is not in their chosen career path.

Actors may become office workers, or artists may find themselves looking for a stable 9-to-5 job. While employees like these might stay for a while because the job pays the bills, what happens when they find something that’s better suited to their plans and passions in life?

Employers need to think outside of the box in order to find ways the company can boost employees sense of fulfillment in the job they currently have, so they don’t feel the need to look elsewhere.

If you have aspiring actors, artists or any other creative group, you might think there’s no place for them in a corporate business setting. However, people with creative skills may be happy and could work wonders in creative roles like marketing.

If you have people that need to know their work is having a greater impact, offer access to things like charity events that allow them to fulfill that need. The point is to give your employees a chance to shine, especially for skills and talents that are not used regularly at work.

2. Employees Must Be Engaged To Remain Loyal

How employees feel towards their company is very important. If people feel like they truly belong, and their efforts are being recognized, they’re less likely to look for a new job — even one with better pay.

Communication is a key factor to increasing employee engagement. Employees feel like they belong if people in management positions freely interact with them.

Employees also feel a sense of accomplishment if their hard work is recognized, even if it’s a simple “thank you.” Another factor that builds employee loyalty is when they’re trusted with sensitive information and kept up to date with matters pertaining to the company’s growth and plans.

While all this may sound easy, many employers aren’t doing these simple things. Around 30 percent of employees say that their talents and skills aren’t being recognized in the workplace, and this is a problem that starts even during the recruitment and onboarding process.

Onboarding is the process by which an employee is introduced to the workplace in a way that will make them feel important and vital to the company. Experts say that just by improving a company’s onboarding process, employee retention is likely to increase by up to 53 percent.

3. Employees Need A Work/Life Balance

According to a recent survey, 82 percent of employees feel their work is stressful, mostly due to a lack of work/life balance. And, 80 percent said that most of their stress comes from the fact that they don’t spend as much time at home as they want to. Overburdened with work, some employees have to go into the office on their days off, and some even bring work home with them.

Demanding too much overtime from your employees frequently will result in burnout. Deadlines are important, but if there’s still time, allow employees to go home and get a break from work. Having a better quality of life makes for happier and more productive employees when they are at work.

Final Word

Keeping your employees happy is an ongoing process, but it’s in your best interest to take some time to figure out what will make them more loyal to your company.

Employee turnover is responsible up to a $550 billion a year in business losses, so it’s worth learning how to decrease losses that are the result of lost productivity, absenteeism, and money wasted on training employees who leave after a few months.

The Most Powerful Interview Question You Can Ever Ask

If you do a Google search on “interview questions,” you’ll get over 45 million links to all manner of advice on what you should be asking job candidates.

Glassdoor will give you the 50 Most Common Interview Questions. Monster dishes up the 100 Top Job Interview Questions. And, a website I’ve never heard of called The Balance has the Top 10 Interview Questions and Best Answers.

Clearly, there is a lot of advice available on how to interview candidates, as well as a variety of opinions on what are the best questions to ask them.

A never-ending quest to interview better

I’m a sucker for advice on how to interview better, because even after many years of recruiting, interviewing and hiring all manner of people, I still struggle to find the best way to get the most telling information out of a candidate I’m considering for a job.

It’s a never-ending quest, and despite all the jobs I’ve interviewed for myself, I can’t remember anyone who wowed me with their questions when I was on the other side of the table.

Clearly, this is something that just about everyone needs some help with, despite the 45 million articles on interviewing you can find on Google.

That’s why this recent advice on how to interview that popped up in The New York Times Corner Office column grabbed me, because although it doesn’t purport to be the “best” question you can ask, it does make a case for being the most “powerful” interview question you can use.

In my book, a “powerful” question is the best way to go in most any job interview.

The question that wowed me comes from Joe Andrew, global chairman of Dentons, which describes itself as the “world’s largest law firm … (offering) tailored solutions to meet the local, national and global needs of private and public clients of any size in more than 140 locations (in) 57 countries.

“Tell me about you”

Andrew grew up in a small Indian farming town, and he learned a lot from listening to his father, a small town family doctor, when he talked to patients. Here’s what Andrew remembers from his Dad’s conversations:

If you ask people about their personal history, rather than their professional history, you’re going to learn a lot more about them — how they interact with people, their values, and what they think is important.

I learned this trick from my father, who was a small-town family doctor before he passed away. The first thing he said to every patient was, “Tell me about you.” He didn’t ask them what was wrong or where it hurt; just, “Tell me about you.”

And that’s always my first question in every interview. The open-ended nature of it will tell you much more about what they value. As my dad always explained, if you ask them where it hurts, then they’re going to focus on that. You’re going to get distracted by what they think is wrong. If you say, “Tell me about you,” you get the context, which is going to tell you a lot more about how to diagnose the issue.

And hiring is about diagnosis. Hiring is about trying to understand whether the person is going to fit in and contribute to the mission of the organization.”

Reading this advice from Joe Andrew, I found myself having one of those “WOW” moments where the insight he offers hits me over the head because it is not only simply put but remarkably wise and instructive as well.

The basic question — “Tell me about you” — is perfect because it immediately lets you know what the candidate is about because it makes them have to decide what is the most important thing THEY want to tell you.

Because the open-ended nature of it lets the interviewee offer up what they value, it gives you great insight into where they’re coming from — and how they might fit in your job, and your organization.

Questions that get to their philosophy of work and life

Joe Andrew is right; hiring IS about diagnosis and getting a good handle on whether the person you’re interviewing will fit in the job, in your culture, and in your larger company mission.

He also had a great answer when The Times asked him, “If you only had five minutes to interview someone, what would you ask them?” I recently wrote about how you really only need a five minute interview, so this one interested me, too. Here’s what he said:

(I’d ask them to) tell me about the current environment you’re in or the current position you hold. What don’t you like about the culture of the place or the person you’re working with? Why are you looking to leave?

I love those questions, because they allow you to see whether the person is leaving for money, or because of the culture, or for a new opportunity. What are they looking for in their lives that they’re not getting in their current environment?

And do I have something that I could offer them that might fit that role? It will allow me to see that immediately.

There are right and wrong flavors of answers. And they might have the absolute correct answer, but I might not have the solution for them. So I know even if I offer them a job, it’s not going to satisfy what they need.”

Getting candidates to give you telling answers

Here’s my take: Yes, there always are “right and wrong flavors of answers,” and that’s the key when you interview a job candidate — getting the right flavor of answer from the candidate in question.

I also think that Joe Andrew’s open-ended question approach helps to get you to the most critical information you need from the candidate in the most expedient way.

Asking someone “Tell me about you” and “Tell me about the environment you’re in” forces the person being interviewed to dig into their own philosophy and cultural outlook on work and life. You drill deep into what they would bring to the table from the start of your interview, and you also get insight into what they might bring to your your organization.

Of course, it can also quickly tell you if they’re shallow and unthinking, but that’s also something important to find out quickly.

The more I hire people, the more I think that interviewing someone should be something you can do quickly and easily. It doesn’t take hours, or multiple rounds of interviews, or all sorts of hoops that candidates have to jump through at far too many companies today.

It’s tough to interview well, but all you really need are simple, direct, and telling questions that allow you to get thoughtful and measured responses from a candidate. In other words, if you ask the right questions, you’ll open to floodgates to the right answers — and “Tell me about you” is a great start.

When you think of it that way, it almost sounds easy.

Recruiting Metrics that Matter

Recruiting MetricsSo, this morning, I’m in the gym. Don’t judge; I’m a mediocre CrossFit enthusiast. Anyway, a new guy joins the class, and he’s “that guy.” Starts talking almost immediately about how he goes to “a LOT of classes, just haven’t been to this one yet” and does what I call the “tough guy stretch” – big, visible flexing, mostly unnecessary. Noisy. Class starts, and he’s the same way – loads up the weights; drops them in a way guaranteed to let you know just HOW heavy they are. Now, here’s the thing – he has a keg where his tummy should be. Yeah, super strong. Definitely ripped arms, strong legs – it just seems he’s neglected abs… permanently.

I don’t say this to shame this partly fictional character – we’re all working on stuff, right? I’m certainly no Adonis. But, it got me thinking – why do we measure some things but not others? Who DECIDES what our industry measures? If we’re super strong in some areas, can we ignore others? And doesn’t it seem that we focus on the metrics that are easy to see and measure? Not that we shouldn’t, but what ELSE should we be looking at? Here are a few of my favorite unofficial, unquantifiable recruiting metrics that everyone in recruiting should be familiar with.

Recruiting MetricsRecall

What happens when most recruiters get a new req? Don’t most of us start with a fresh slate? Post the job, start sourcing? Maybe reach out to someone you have a fresh memory of? I worked with a guy who was the Rain Man of recruiters. I could ask him if he had any pharma reps who had sold a particular class of drug, and he would reach into his omnipresent stack of 100+ manila folders and produce 2-3 resumes in seconds. Seconds! No exaggeration. Candidates he’d met AND KEPT UP WITH, sometimes for years. Each resume had notes about what they were looking for, where he’d attempted to place them (if he had), who they could refer him to. This was pre-LinkedIn, and it was amazing. A magic trick that I never learned how to do myself.

 

Recruiting MetricsCustomer Management

I’m speaking specifically to in-house recruiting teams. Here’s a simple test: How does it feel when it’s just you and a hiring manager you worked with two months ago in an elevator? Do you exchange pleasantries and stare at the doors? Or, did you build rapport during those intake meetings, the interview process? Were they super happy to hire the person they did? Or did they accept that this was “the best of the bunch”? If you’ve ever taken the stairs rather than get in the elevator with a certain manager, you know what I’m talking about.

 

Recruiting MetricsCandidate Contacts

I worked with a company that really (REALLY) cared about how many outbound calls their recruiters made…until they ran a report on how many HIRES the recruiters were getting. The “winners” were the recruiters who sent targeted, personal emails/texts to candidates that were at least an 80% match to the requisition. There’s been a lot written about this lately, but I hear every day from candidates who say they are constantly being approached by recruiters for jobs they’re neither interested in nor even qualified for. Sure, quantity “has a quality all its own,” but as a manager, I monitor not just WHO we contact, but HOW we contact them very closely. Can I “measure” it? No, it’s purely opinion based. But when I’ve tweaked the outgoing messages we’re sending, I’ve seen more candidates, of better quality, come in.

And that, in my opinion, is what it’s all about. What is recruiting? It’s finding the best person for the job, effectively wooing them, and utilizing a process that gets them hired quickly. It should be fair. It should be unbiased. It should always be a win/win.

But when we focus on the wrong things, or too much on some things but not enough on others, we end up LOSING our focus and walking around like Mr. Keg-for-abs. It’s not a great look.

Robotics and Automation: 4 Steps to Prepare for the Coming Talent Shift

Although AI, Robotics and Automation have all been around for a while in certain sectors, only recently has their true potential has been shown in the media.

Whether it’s a new robot development to aid a manufacturing process, or an AI bot to speed up customer service inquiries, questions have been raised, primarily — “What will happen to the jobs that they’re taking?”

In short, and although it’s hard to estimate, not a lot. What we’re seeing is a future shift in demand for certain types of candidates.

For each company that replaces a customer service team with an army of AI Bots, another company will be hiring developers and engineers to both create, support, and maintain said bots. For every manufacturing firm that replaces staff with state of the art assembly robots, another company will be sending out employees to create, support, maintain, and install said bots.

Headline: “By 2030, 25 percent of travel through Dubai will be automated.”

Headline: “1.3 million industrial robots to enter service by 2018”

Reverse engineering the process

Changes and innovations within any sector will cause changes and shifts in the markets in their supply chain. Adaptation within these markets will mean the demand for certain types of candidates shifts.

The questions being posted throughout social media shouldn’t say, “Why are robots taking our jobs and leaving us unemployed“, but rather, “For each job lost through a new product innovation, how many other jobs are being created?”

By calculating this answer (which will take a lot of time, guesstimation, and extrapolation!), not only will there be a greater confidence in the current employment trends, but we may avoid a situation in which technology has advanced at a rate that is quicker than we can supply skills to maintain it. And, we can understand and start to implement processes that’ll ensure we can provide the talent to feed the shift.

When understanding the impact that Robotics, AI and Automation will have, ironically, we will simply need to think (which will soon be done for us!), and reverse engineer the process we’re expecting to see over the next 20-30 years.

Ensuring a smoothly-running operation

Cast your imagination to a manufacturing plant festering with autonomous robots and AI software. Now, overlook the operation, and understand what needs to be done in order to ensure things run smoothly.

First of all, we’d look at QC — Quality Control. Robots may run millions of products off in a year, but can they look at the detail and quality level of a finished product, and either discard, suggest improvements within a process, or adjust? Probably not without human intervention, aka,“QC Manager(s)”

How about we look at Operations Management? The chances are, the robots in mind will be working as part of a chain. They’ll be automated to keep churning products.

Now, let’s say that a malfunction occurs within one robot. The chain is now broken, meaning that any further process implemented by a robot thereafter is obsolete. Now, the operation has to stop for processes to improve.

Something needs to hit the big red STOP button, and to think of a new strategy. How? Human intervention — aka, the “Operations Manager(s)”

Now that the Operations Manager has identified a fault within one of the robots, said robot will need to be fixed and tested. How? Human intervention., aka, “Maintenance Engineer(s)”

Should the robot be beyond repair, a new robot will have to be built and installed in its place. This, in turn, enables the supply chain, and in turn, generates a requirement for candidates for such jobs, aka, “Installation Engineer(s),” “Robot Design & Developer(s),” “Robot Production Line Engineer(s).”

There are so many layers when creating a service or a product, if one layer has had a robotic invasion of the workforce, another layer, either within the organization itself, or within the supply chain has prospered. Why have they prospered? They’ve identified and anticipated the future requirements for certain automation, and have implemented processes in which they’re easily able to obtain the relevant talent in order to provide such a change.

4 steps to prepare for the automation talent shift

Now, you may be asking, how do we prepare for the apparent apocalyptic (it’s not that bad, is it?) talent shift? For such a large-scale, technological topic, the answer is surprisingly simple!

  • Step 1 — Liaise with your R&D/Tech team to distinguish whether or not your organization will be rolling out or engaging with any form of Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics or AI. This’ll give you an understanding of the future required talent shift within your company.
  • Step 2 — Understand the guidelines required in order to support the AI, Robotics or Automation process, and gather information through numerous channels of what your future candidate will be tasked with, when engaging with, and maintaining the autonomous process your company has implemented. From this, create your candidate profile.
  • Step 3 — Discover and partner with numerous local education bodies, universities and colleges to place your employer brand in front of the people with the freshest, most recent knowledge within the topic; Graduates. It’s no secret that technology moves at a rate of knots. Due to this, you’ll risk talent becoming outdated should training not be provided, or you’ll simply be looking for candidates that may have obsolete skills. Graduates will have the most recent knowledge of up to date technologies surrounding AI, Automation & Robotics, and the chances are, can offer a significant injection of knowledge within your organization.

Once the partnership is in place, and you’re the center of attention as an employer of choice for recent graduates, you can enjoy a steady flow of applications from candidates with direct knowledge in line with the most recent technologies you’ll be using as a company.

So, next time you hurt the feelings of a robot and assume it’s “taken a load of our jobs,” thank him/her instead.

The robot has created a few other jobs for humans too. They’re not all that bad, are they?

Blind Recruitment Starts You on the Right Path to Equal Opportunity Hiring

It’s no great secret that diversity and inclusion have never been more central to business as uncertainty dominates headlines and continues to make waves globally.

What IS emerging, however, is a shift towards the ways businesses view their talent pools as a source for hitting these targets.

More and more businesses are vying for attention in ever-crowded marketplaces, and in turn, boardrooms are determined to attract candidates from the widest pool possible to continue to be competitive, and, to ensure the very best way to serve their clients.

Used properly, blind recruitment can help ensure demonstrable insights that show differences as a strength. But, the software that shows this is only the first step to success.

It’s crucial to keep in mind that while blind recruitment limits the impact that unconscious bias may have by removing information that has nothing to do with past success or experiences  — such as one’s name, nationality or area of residence – it cannot end cultural bias alone. A degree of personal responsibility is still required.

Demonstrating a fair and inclusive hiring environment

Yes, blind recruiting does allow businesses to visibly demonstrate a commitment to how they work hard to ensure a fair and inclusive environment for all, where the unique insights, perspectives and backgrounds of individuals are valued. But, the company must still physically show this and prove their worth.

The recognition of such a need is clearly out there.

In its most recent Global CEO Survey, 77 percent of CEOs told PriceWaterhouseCoopers they already have a diversity and inclusion strategy or plan to adopt one in the next 12 months. And the talent they want to recruit supports this view: other PwC research shows that 86 percent of female and 74 percent of male Millennials consider employers’ policies on diversity, equality and inclusion when deciding which company to work for.

However in the eyes of some, current recruiting processes are imperfect, elitist, and exclusionary. These concerns make it important that recruiters consider new ways to attract people from all backgrounds.

To do this, we must ensure that nothing in the recruitment process puts up barriers that prevent the best talent from joining a firm. Blind recruitment can be a platform to achieving this.

Candidate information that gets screened out

Good applicant tracking systems can help recruiters to work in this way. Under blind recruitment, the personal information that will be concealed, during the screening phase, are:

  • Age;
  • Title;
  • First name;
  • Last name;
  • Preferred first name;
  • Employee number;
  • Candidate email address;
  • Address details;
  • Telephone number;
  • Nationality;
  • Immigration details.

By removing the candidate’s name and other personal information, such as their nationality or the university they attended, an employer can ensure that people will be judged on merit and not on their background, race, or gender.

Robust recruitment technology can do part of the job. It enables the application process to be fully anonymous up to the interview stage, only allowing recruiters and managers to see information relevant to the task at hand. For instance, in cases where screening is based on competency questions, recruiters can only access candidates’ answers to these questions, and nothing else, focusing selection only on merit.

Such blind selection and screening is important to eliminate the chance of disparate treatment or intentional discrimination against a candidate or applicant, motivated by at least in part, by some protected category (e.g. race, national origin, age, gender, disability, etc.)

The first step to true inclusion

Recent studies from Royal Holloway University of London and the University of Birmingham suggests managers often select candidates for client-facing jobs who fit the “traditional” image of the role, with many placing as much importance on an individual’s speech, accent, dress and behavior as on their skills and qualifications.

Technology works because algorithms can replicate your collective decision making, reducing the influence of bias by individuals or process. The Confederation of British Industry agrees, describing “name-blind” recruitment as one way to remove “criteria that could unintentionally bias managers and give under-represented groups confidence that their application will be fairly considered.”

Fair consideration is the first step to true inclusion. How a company then promotes its values to demonstrate this is the next step.

Once applications are blind filtered, the recruiter must consider if they can fairly handle interviews alone and keep the momentum going. Panel interviewing may help to avoid doubt and showcase a more transparent commitment to equal opportunity.

The power really does lie in the recruiter’s hands to see these values through. The question is — are you ready?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Contract Recruiting

Recently I was at the best recruiter conference for tech recruiters on the planet — Talent42. This topic came up; the head of a major tech firm said it was harder to find a good tech recruiter than an engineer in Silicon Valley.

I had to really bite my tongue on that one. Then the topic of retention came up as well. At that moment I had to bite my tongue again, but the inner angst and anger found its way to my vocal cords and could not be suppressed, so I spoke out.

Why is contract recruiting the predominant road for senior roles rather than entry level? Why are you complaining that there is not enough talent, then turn around and say that you will not invest in the talent that you have? Only one panelist answered, and the answer was the typical smoke and mirrors BS that EVERY company resorts to.

Let me explain my take on the subject.

Too many companies treat recruiting as just overhead

There is a bottom line that many companies must have from a financial standpoint, and it’s a bottom line of profitability that will please the shareholders they are beholden to. The C-Suite is going to jump on any moves that the firm can make to increase profitability. This is especially true when it comes to overhead, the bane of any corporate existence, and human resources falls under this category.

It’s a necessary evil for too many in the C-Suite since they have little understanding of what is being accomplished by the HR group, but they control multiple functions that help the company not get sued for various infractions that the government and society sling at them.

I prefer to call them “the gatekeepers of lawsuits,” but they don’t seem to like that terminology.

Yes, it could be concluded that HR is actually overhead and that it helps the corporation from incurring lawsuits from employees that, in the minds of the C-Suite, are an acceptable operating cost. Recruiting, however, is an albatross that is often maligned and misunderstood, an easy projectile to deter and misdirect said C-Suite.

Large companies have an ebb and flow, with profits sometimes soaring while at other times tanking so fast that it’s as though they were the Hindenburg crashing in flames. When the bad happens, the layoffs come and the people that are most susceptible are not the high dollar players, the ones making the big decisions. No, the perceived overhead staff are usually the ones targeted for layoffs — the receptionist, the janitor, the recruiter.

You are either with them or against them

Yes, it seems CEO’s love to go to a TED Talk or other motivational conferences and spout out how great their companies are and how hiring is the most important thing to them. That is, until they get back to their business and determine the bottom line is to cut spending.

I have personally gone through this multiple times. After four years with Booz Allen Hamilton, a government contractor in Washington, D.C., 19 of my peers and I were told on a Wednesday that the coming Friday was our last day. It was sort of a “so long and thanks for all the fish” moment.

A few months later my old boss hit me up and asked me not to poach people from the company as managers because there were employees complaining about me. You are either with me or against me, it seems.

They never asked me back — shocker!

But I promised, in the title of this missive, that I would break down the good, the bad, and the ugly of working as a contract recruiter, so here is my take:

The Good

  • Some roles are virtual when contracting. If you have a home office and good discipline, this is a viable option and one many can take advantage of. I personally did this with multiple companies. Also, you can write off your home office on your income taxes.
  • The money is usually better than a permanent position. Since the overhead factor for a company is that you are not actually an employee, but a vendor, most good companies will pay top dollar for a contractor, especially in the IT field. If they offer less or the same that you would make as permanent employee, walk away.
  • There is less pressure and fewer metrics. You don’t have to actually justify your salary as you are there to perform a task and then move on.
  • You know when it is going to be over. There is a limit, usually six months, but I have worked stop gap projects as well. You know when it is time to move on with no fuss.
  • There is less, and usually no, office politics. You are not going to be there long enough for that. However, I have seen some contractors make stupid choices by deciding to get into the fray.

The Bad

  • Only certain companies offer health insurance. And, it can be pricey unless you are working for a company that has lots of contractors in their stable.
  • You are never really part of the “team” — you are always an outsider. Many companies will not even allow you to come to the company Christmas party! I know this one first hand. Thanks, Booz Allen —  again — for nothing.
  • Even though you are not an employee, most companies will expect you to act like one. They will treat you as such when it comes to hours, when you are scheduled to leave, etc. It’s total bullshit to call a person a vendor when it is convenient for you then demand that you behave like an FTE.
  • I tried to sugarcoat the real deal above, but your numbers DO mean something. Usually, they mean that you are more than likely pissing on an FTE in the company, especially if you are killing it. And the FTE will find a way to get you canned, believe me.
  • When the order comes down that you have to come to the office to work, or that is what is required in the initial contract, you will get:
    1. The crappiest computer that they can offer;
    2. A workspace more fitted for a coat than a human; and,
    3. Limited access to applications, company information, websites, etc.

The Ugly

  • You pay for everything that you use. Although there are some little work arounds, they are not money saving. If you are independent, this means all the insurance is covered by you.
  • If you go the 1099 route to make more money, you are sort of being screwed with. The IRS will tax you quarterly, AND you will need to cover the employer’s share of the taxes. In short, you are going to be paying out lots of money.
  • You get reimbursed for nothing at all. Some companies will give a contractor a stipend, but since you are not technically an employee, they really don’t need to.
  • They don’t care about you. You are brought on to solve a problem, and once that problem is solved, or at least managed, you become expendable. It does not matter if it is a right to work state or not, you are a vendor, remember?
  • As I mentioned at the beginning of this missive, they can kick your ass out as fast as they want, because they can, no matter how long you have been there and no matter how good you are. Period.

They are always getting something from you

It’s time to get real, and I mean REAL. Contracting, for some, is a great benefit to the lifestyle the person wants but it comes with real caveats and pitfalls. So, the more you know, the smarter you are.

As Matt Charney says, there are no free applications out there. They are getting something from you even if you don’t know that you are giving it to them. Play on player!

#zellerout