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Why Portfolios Could Be a Game Changer for Recruiters

The hiring process has evolved significantly over the years, and recruiters are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to identify the best candidates for a given role. One tool that has become increasingly popular in recent years is the portfolio. A portfolio is a collection of a candidate’s work samples and accomplishments, and it can be a game changer for recruiters. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of portfolios in the hiring process, how they showcase skills and experience, and the impact they have on candidate selection.

The Importance of Portfolios in the Hiring Process

In today’s job market, it’s not enough to simply submit a resume and hope for the best. Recruiters receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications for each job opening, and they need a way to quickly identify the most qualified candidates. This is where portfolios come in. A portfolio is a curated collection of a candidate’s best work and accomplishments, and it can be a powerful tool for recruiters. Portfolios allow candidates to showcase their skills and experience in a way that is much more engaging and informative than a traditional resume.

Portfolios provide recruiters with a more comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s abilities and potential. They demonstrate a candidate’s creativity, initiative, and attention to detail. They also provide a glimpse into a candidate’s personality and work style, which can be invaluable in determining whether they are a good fit for a given role and company culture. In short, portfolios help recruiters make more informed decisions about which candidates to move forward in the hiring process.

Showcasing Skills and Experience

One of the biggest advantages of portfolios is that they provide candidates with a platform to showcase their skills and experience in a way that is much more compelling than a traditional resume. Portfolios allow candidates to demonstrate their abilities through tangible examples of their work. For example, a graphic designer could include samples of logos and website designs they have created, while a writer could include samples of articles they have published.

Portfolios also allow candidates to demonstrate their range of skills and experience. They can include samples from a variety of projects, highlighting different aspects of their expertise. This is especially valuable for candidates who have a diverse skill set or who have worked in a variety of industries.

The Impact on Candidate Selection

Portfolios can have a significant impact on the candidate selection process. They provide recruiters with a much more comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s skills and experience, which can help them identify the most qualified candidates for a given role. In some cases, portfolios can even be the deciding factor between two equally qualified candidates.

Portfolios also help recruiters identify candidates who are a good fit for a given role and company culture. They provide insight into a candidate’s personality and work style, which can be invaluable in determining whether they will thrive in a given work environment. This can lead to more successful hires and lower turnover rates.

Examples of Successful Usage in Hiring

The use of portfolios in hiring is not a new concept, and there are many examples of successful implementation. For example, Airbnb requires candidates for design roles to submit a portfolio as part of the application process. The portfolio is then reviewed by a team of designers, who evaluate the candidate’s skills and experience based on their work samples.

Another example is the hiring process at IDEO, a global design firm. IDEO requires candidates to submit a portfolio that showcases their design process, including sketches, mockups, and prototypes. This allows the hiring team to evaluate a candidate’s problem-solving skills and creativity, as well as their ability to work collaboratively with others.

The Role of Technology

Technology has made it easier than ever for job seekers to create and share their portfolios. There are many online platforms and tools available that make it easy to create a professional-looking portfolio, even for those with limited design skills. These tools also make it easy to share your portfolio with recruiters and potential employers, increasing your visibility and reach.

Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Behance also allow job seekers to showcase their portfolios to a wider audience. By sharing their work samples and accomplishments on these platforms, job seekers can attract the attention of recruiters and potential employers who may not have otherwise found them.

Incorporating Portfolios into Recruitment Strategies

Recruiters can also benefit from incorporating portfolios into their recruitment strategies. By requesting them as part of the application process, recruiters can gain a more comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s skills and experience, and identify the most qualified candidates for a given role. They can also be used as a screening tool, allowing recruiters to quickly identify candidates who are a good fit for a given role and company culture.

Recruiters can also use portfolios to build relationships with candidates. By reviewing a candidate’s portfolio and providing feedback, recruiters can demonstrate their expertise and build trust with candidates. This can lead to more successful hires and stronger relationships with candidates in the future.

Conclusion

Portfolios are a game changer for recruiters and job seekers alike. They provide a more comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s skills and experience, and allow candidates to showcase their creativity and personality in a way that is much more engaging than a traditional resume. By incorporating portfolios into the hiring process, recruiters can identify the most qualified candidates for a given role and build stronger relationships with candidates. Job seekers can use portfolios to stand out from the competition and demonstrate their value to potential employers. With the right approach, portfolios can be a powerful tool for both recruiters and job seekers in the hiring process.

Why Do Employees Need Reskilling?

To understand the importance of reskilling in today’s workforce, we asked professionals from various industries to share their insights. From managing staff changes effectively to meeting industry benchmarks, these CEOs, HR directors, and other experts reveal the top reasons employees need reskilling.

Navigate Changing Job Markets

One reason employees need reskilling is because of rapid advancements in technology and changes in the job market. Many jobs that were in high demand in the past are now becoming obsolete because of automation and other technological advances. This means that employees who have been in the same job for a long time may find that their skills are no longer relevant or in demand.

Reskilling can help employees stay competitive in the job market and adapt to changing industry trends. It can also provide opportunities for career advancement and higher earning potential.

By investing in reskilling programs for employees, organizations can ensure that their workforce has the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the rapidly changing job market. This can also help to retain talented employees and create a more engaged and productive workforce.

Brittney Simpson
HR Operations Manager, Walker Miller Energy Services

Manage Staff Changes Effectively

The best reason to create an employee reskilling program is because it’s a very effective way of handling staff changes and managing personnel. It’s easier and safer to invest in an employee that could fill a vacant role than to spend resources on finding a perfect candidate. That way, you know what you’re working with, and you can instead focus on replacing a less crucial vacancy.

Natalia Brzezinska
Marketing and Outreach Manager, ePassportPhoto

Become a Forever Student

The current version of yourself might work for today but not guarantee success for your tomorrow. Many businesses now have various different generations in the workplace. So what does this mean?

Various talent at different levels exist no matter what level you are at work. One should challenge oneself to always stay in the posture of a student. A forever student, as I like to call it. Willing, open, curious, and passionate about learning.

There is a development principle called p: 70.20.10. One should learn on the job, which equals 70%, and 20% is the coaching and feedback. The last is 10%, which is learning through courses or training and development.

A lack of knowledge is just too expensive. So reskilling, learning, and unlearning are a part of staying relevant. New skills open new doors and more opportunities. Your gifts and talents will make room for you! Don’t be afraid to learn and seek out a person who you know is good at what you need to get skilled in.

Tanya Turner, MBA, SHRM-CP, PHR
HR Director, SALTO Systems, Inc

Adapt to New Technologies

Employees can’t return to school every time a new technology comes out, so the responsibility is on leaders to retrain and reskill employees. Not only will leaders be able to retain valuable institutional knowledge, but employees who’ve experienced a career shift or reskilling are better prepared for the change inevitable in today’s workplace.

Vlad Dzhidzhiyeshvili
CEO, Ventive

Stay Employed, Enhance Skills

Employees need reskilling because of the emergence of new technologies. With the rise of automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, many jobs are becoming obsolete.

However, new jobs are also being created that require different skill sets. Reskilling can help employees to acquire these new skills and stay employed. Moreover, it can also help employees to enhance their existing skills and become more proficient in their current job.

With the relevant skills, reskilling can help employees to broaden their horizons and become more versatile. This can open up new job opportunities and increase their chances of getting hired. In addition, employees can negotiate for better salaries and benefits.

In the end, reskilling can help employees gain new skills, enhance their existing ones, and remain engaged and motivated at work. By investing in reskilling, they can increase their employability, negotiate better salaries and benefits, and enjoy a fulfilling career.

Joe Coletta
Founder and CEO, 180 Engineering

Boost Employee Retention Rates

Employees do not want to stagnate any more than a business owner does, and reskilling employees through a comprehensive succession plan is one of the best ways to maintain a high employee retention rate. Over 90% of managers feel their companies’ skill development programs are lacking in quality, and nearly half of all workers state this deficit played a major role in their decision to leave a position.

Having a reskilling program that includes mentoring, continuing education, and quarterly check-ins to monitor progress is essential to ensuring that your employees feel they are moving forward along with the business. By including a quality succession plan, you will satisfy your employees’ desire to reach their goals and better maintain high retention rates.

Matt Miller
CEO, Embroker

Increase Productivity and Teamwork

When employees learn new skills, they become better at their jobs, and the entire team works more efficiently. By providing opportunities for growth and learning, companies help their employees feel more motivated, engaged, and satisfied in their roles.

This, in turn, contributes to a positive work environment where employees can reach their full potential. As a result, organizations benefit from increased productivity, enhanced teamwork, and reduced turnover rates.

Furthermore, a workforce that continuously develops new skills and expertise can better adapt to change, fostering a culture of innovation and resilience that benefits the company in the long run.

Corrie Duffy
CEO and Founder, Corrie Cooks

Evolve Your Problem-Solving Skills

One of the biggest reasons employees need reskilling is to make sure their working tactics and problem-solving skills sharpen and evolve. Employees in this remote, digital workplace tend to go through countless tasks and projects a week, and their already developed skills and prior knowledge may not always be the key to success as time goes on.

If your employees stay stagnant and do not expand upon their work knowledge, then they won’t have the skills and tools needed to succeed in times of change in your business. It’s important for every employee, including upper management, to keep learning new things in their workspace so they can utilize their new knowledge for uncertainty or when some projects need a different approach to them!

Chris Hunter
Director of Customer Relations, ServiceTitan

Advance Your Career

Learning new skills means you won’t have to look over your shoulder and worry about new employees who are familiar with new technologies taking your job or moving past you up the ladder.

Embrace the learning. Understand that learning new skills and familiarizing yourself with new technologies will be good for you. It will be good for your standing at the company you work for and will be good for your professional career, even if you decide to go elsewhere

Marcus Hutsen
Business Development Manager, Patriot Coolers

Show Value and Potential

To show them you value them and recognize their potential to positively impact your business. Upskilling programs are only effective if they lead to employee growth. Investing in training and development programs gives employees opportunities within the existing business but also helps them see their future career potential.

I’ve worked for several organizations that had strong learning and development programs and successful internal career advancement numbers. They were great places to work because they prepared employees for future career opportunities.

Showing employees you care about them as individuals and want to see them succeed long term and not just day to day in the hours they’re giving to your business leaves a lasting impression. And, while it doesn’t guarantee an employee will stay with the organization for years and years, it typically equates to that person being an ongoing advocate for your business, both as a career opportunity and as a customer.

Amy Jenkins
Director of Client Strategy and Success, theEMPLOYEEapp

Grow and Seize Opportunities

A growing company needs a team that can rise to the occasion when opportunity calls. It’s natural for some companies to turn down bigger projects when their employees aren’t prepared for them.

And this is why reskilling is so important. It allows employees to excel at their current role while preparing for something bigger to come. This enables the company to grab an opportunity when it comes and is crucial for growth.

Adam Wright
CEO, Human Tonik

Save Costs, Foster Loyalty

Reskilling is cheaper than hiring new talent every time there is an industry change in tools, technology, and methodology. Keeping staff around and continuing to improve their skill set also creates a team that feels positive and loyal to the company.

Lindsay Duston, CPRW
Chief Human Resources Officer, Find My Profession

Enhance Adaptability, Achieve Success

Through reskilling, employees can enhance their adaptability, increase their value within the organization, and ultimately contribute to the company’s overall success.

Besides fostering personal growth, reskilling also equips employees with the tools to tackle new challenges and seize emerging opportunities, thereby ensuring their career longevity and professional progress.

Michael Lazar
Executive, ReadyCloud

Maintain Relevance in Industry

Industries change, businesses change, and employees need to learn to roll with those changes, which is where the art of reskilling comes in.

The skills that an employee once brought to your business may not be entirely applicable anymore, and reskilling might be required in order to maintain both efficacy and efficiency. You want to keep your business relevant without having to overhaul your team every time trends change, and reskilling is the most productive way to achieve that.

Erin Banta
Co-Founder and CEO, Pepper Home

Meet Industry Benchmarks

Like everything else, our skills too come with a shelf life. The average shelf life of our skills ranges between 1-2 years. Simply put, the skills that were relevant in 2015 might differ largely from those relevant in today’s day and age.

In the information age, skills require faster upgrades than ever before. Most millennials joining the workforce consider continuous professional development as a key feature to staying longer in an organization. When employees realize their learning has become stagnant, they feel the need to transition out.

Changing times demand upgraded skills for most professionals to stay relevant. Therefore, companies must take active steps to enable their employees to acquire new skills and stay relevant to the industry benchmarks. This enables companies to nurture talent, retain top performers, and also bring employees closer to achieving the company’s goals and objectives.

Tanisha Guin
Deputy Manager, Social Impact Consultant, and Career Coach, ICICI Foundation

How Employer Branding Can Grow Your Business

In today’s candidate-centric job market, it is crucial for companies to stand out in every aspect possible. This includes not only their products and services but also their employer brand. Companies need to build their reputation in a way that it establishes their organization as the best employer and helps them attract top talent. This process of building your brand as an employer is collectively termed as employer branding.

Employer branding refers to the reputation a company has as an employer, as perceived by its current and potential employees. It is the way in which a company presents itself to the job market and how it differentiates itself from other employers.

According to a study conducted by Universum Global, 97% of the employers around the world admitted that employer branding is their topmost priority. With recruitment becoming more like marketing, it is crucial for employers to invest in employer branding for acquiring and retaining top talent.

What is Employer Branding?

Employer branding is the process of creating a unique identity for a company that sets it apart as an employer of choice. It helps you promote your company to the job seekers and your existing employees thereby helping you attract and retain the best talent.

This identity is built through a combination of factors, including company culture, employee value proposition, recruitment, and hiring process, employee benefits and perks, and social media presence. By showcasing your company’s unique offerings, you can portray yourself as  the best place to work. Remember a strong employer brand is one that is able to attract and retain top talent, foster employee engagement and loyalty, and enhance the company’s reputation and brand image.

Importance of Employer Branding for Businesses

Employer branding is important for businesses for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it helps attract top talent. In a job market where the best candidates have their pick of job opportunities, a strong employer brand can be the deciding factor for candidates choosing between multiple offers.

Furthermore, a strong employer brand helps retain employees by creating a positive work environment that fosters engagement, loyalty, and job satisfaction. This, in turn, can lead to increased productivity, lower turnover, and a positive impact on company culture.

Finally, a strong employer brand enhances the company’s reputation and brand image. In today’s world where customers are increasingly concerned about the social and environmental impact of the companies they do business with, a strong employer brand can differentiate a company from its competitors and help build trust and loyalty with customers, says Mike Miller, Research Director at AQUTE

Top 5 Benefits of Employer Branding

Let us now understand how employer branding can help companies in growing their businesses.

Attraction of Top Talent

One of the primary benefits of a strong employer brand is the ability to attract top talent. In a job market where the best candidates have their pick of job opportunities, a strong employer brand can be the deciding factor for candidates choosing between multiple offers, says Bruce Mohr, Vice-President at Fair Credit By creating a positive and engaging work environment that aligns with the values and goals of potential candidates, a strong employer brand can attract the best and brightest talent in the industry.

Improved Employee Retention

A solid employer brand can also help retain employees by creating a positive work environment that fosters engagement, loyalty, and job satisfaction. By clearly communicating the company’s values and goals, providing competitive compensation and benefits packages, and fostering a culture of open communication and feedback, a strong employer brand can help employees feel valued and invested in the success of the company.

Increased Employee Engagement

A strong employer brand can also lead to increased employee engagement. When employees feel that they are part of a company that values their contributions and supports their professional growth, they are more likely to be engaged in their work and committed to the company’s success. This, in turn, can lead to increased productivity, improved job performance, and a positive impact on company culture.

Positive Impact on Company Culture

According to Hamza G. Digital Marketing Expert at Outreaching.io “Employer branding can have a significant impact on company culture. By clearly communicating the company’s values and goals, and fostering a culture of openness and feedback, a strong employer brand can help create a positive and supportive work environment. This can lead to increased collaboration, innovation, and employee satisfaction, all of which contribute to a positive company culture.”

Enhanced Reputation and Brand Image

Finally, a strong employer brand can enhance the company’s reputation and brand image. By presenting the company as an employer of choice that values its employees, fosters a positive work environment, and supports professional growth, a strong employer brand can differentiate the company from its competitors and build trust and loyalty with customers.

5 Ways to Build Your Employer Brand

There are a number of strategies that companies can use to build their employer brand, including the following.

Define Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

Your employee value proposition is the unique set of benefits and perks that your company offers to employees in exchange for their time and talent. Defining your EVP is a critical first step in building your employer brand, as it helps communicate the value proposition of your company to potential and current employees. Some of the elements that can make up an EVP include work-life balance, career development opportunities, a supportive and inclusive work environment, competitive compensation and benefits, and a clear mission and purpose.

Foster a Positive Company Culture

A positive company culture is essential for building a strong employer brand. This includes fostering an environment of open communication, collaboration, and feedback, as well as promoting work-life balance, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to personal and professional development. Alison Lancaster, CEO of Pressat.co.uk says “By prioritizing employee satisfaction and well-being, companies can create a culture that attracts and retains top talent and fosters employee engagement and loyalty.”

Invest in Employee Development

Investing in employee development is another key strategy for building a strong employer brand. This includes providing opportunities for training, professional development, and career advancement, as well as supporting employees in achieving their personal and professional goals. By prioritizing employee growth and development, companies can create a culture that fosters continuous learning and improvement, and helps employees feel invested in the success of the company.

Leverage Social Media and Online Platforms

Social media and online platforms are powerful tools for building employer brand. By creating engaging and informative content that showcases the culture, values, and mission of your company, you can build a strong online presence that attracts and retains top talent. This includes creating a company page on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as sharing employee stories, company news, and industry insights through blog posts, videos, and other content

Engage With Employees and Candidates

Tom Miller, Director of Marketing at Fitness Volt says, “Engaging with employees and candidates is essential for building a strong employer brand. This includes soliciting feedback from employees through regular surveys and focus groups, as well as providing opportunities for open communication and dialogue. Additionally, companies can create opportunities for candidates to engage with the company through events like job fairs, campus recruiting events, and informational interviews.

Building a strong employer brand requires a combination of strategies that prioritize employee satisfaction and well-being, promote a positive company culture, invest in employee development, leverage social media and online platforms, and engage with employees and candidates. By prioritizing these strategies, companies can create a unique identity that sets them apart as an employer of choice, and attracts and retains top talent in their industry.

Wrapping Up

Employer branding is a critical aspect of any successful business strategy, as it helps companies attract and retain top talent, improve employee engagement, and enhance their reputation and brand image. By defining their employee value proposition, fostering a positive company culture, investing in employee development, leveraging social media and online platforms, and engaging with employees and candidates, companies can create a strong employer brand that sets them apart as an employer of choice.

Build a talented and engaged workforce and position yourself for long-term success in your industry with employer branding.

How to Attract Employees in A ‘Free Agent’ Labor Market

New research reveals that employees today are willing to go to even more drastic lengths to find the best career fit for them. According to the 2023 Career Optimism Index® study—an annual survey of 5,000 employees and 500 employers across America conducted by the University of Phoenix Career Institute®—30% of Americans would quit their job today without having another lined up and 46% would leave if their current employer offered them a severance package of 3-months pay.

This is great news for employers looking to recruit top talent. However, employers should know employees are seeking more – they want real support in their professional development and are eager to be challenged. Many employers are not meeting this desire for growth, leading to a “free agent labor market” where employees feel empowered to leave their current positions in search of something better. Employers have been challenged to offer more benefits than ever before – but empty workplace perks like free snacks and Happy Hours aren’t cutting it when it comes to attracting employees seeking a long-term fit.

Employees are facing fundamental holes in their connections with work; sentiments of dissatisfaction, stagnation, and a lack of fulfillment are prevalent. To turn the tide, employers must be more intentional in their approaches to integrating and communicating career development opportunities and support. If employers can tap into the workforce’s desire for growth and spotlight meaningful pathways to advancement available internally, they have a real shot at attracting the market’s “free agents.”

Specifically, here are three critical areas where job seekers are looking for their future employers to act.

Investment in Employee Skilling

According to the Career Optimism Index, most employers (46%) cite a lack of well-qualified applicants as the greatest challenge their organization faced when finding talent. Simultaneously, 70% of American workers say if their company gave them more opportunities to apply new skills, they would be more likely to stay throughout their career. This points to an immense mutual benefit to be had through investment in continuous learning opportunities.

By tapping into workers’ desire to be challenged, learn new skills, and take on new roles, employers can create opportunities to fulfill talent needs. Additionally, in providing ongoing, flexible, formal and informal skilling programs, employers foster the development of more knowledgeable, agile talent pipelines. Concurrently, they increase employee investment in their organization by paving clear paths for career growth; when employees can envision their future at a company and know the precise steps they need to take to get there, they are more likely to stay long-term. This is why any existing work in this space or intended further expansions of offerings should be highlighted within job listings and throughout a candidate’s interview process. Potential employees want their professional development to be expressed as a priority before they even reach day one.

Making Mentorship Mandatory

The proliferation of remote and hybrid work brought new productivity and flexibility benefits to the workforce, but a lack of in-person connection has posed real threats to professional development opportunities – particularly mentorship.

Mentorship is necessary for ensuring employees are aware of career paths available within an organization and that they have the one-on-one support needed to get there. Mentors provide valuable guidance in terms of setting goals, career mapping, networking within a company to gain new perspectives and are a great sound-boarding for ideas.

Critically, the Career Optimism Index finds that 56% of American workers say they do not have a mentor, and 42% of Americans say they do not even have an advocate at work. This lack of support does not go unnoticed by employees, and unfortunately, a third of Americans say lack of mentorship/advocacy/support from a professional network has held them back in their careers (34%). Importantly, American workers with mentors are more likely to say they feel confident (93% vs. 86%), fulfilled (89% vs. 75%), and enthusiastic (90% vs 77%) about their career or job than those without a mentor.

When these sentiments are fostered in the workplace, employee interest and engagement is bound to increase. Employers must take action to meet the workforce’s drive for connection and career pathing through formal mentorship programming, which can include activities like speed-dating to connect mentees and mentors, internal lunch and learns and collaborative goal-setting sessions. Explaining such offerings during the recruitment process is critical to job seekers’ understanding of how they will be individually supported once they join an organization.

Nurturing Workplace Wellness

Employees are experiencing burnout and stress at all-time highs. Employee engagement is decreasing while mental health challenges mount – existing employer tactics to curb these barriers are not cutting it. Per the Career Optimism Index, 47% of workers are experiencing burnout at work, and 50% of those experiencing burnout say it has gotten worse in the past year. Job seekers desire future workplaces that are actively working to buck this trend.

With 39% of Americans looking for mental health resources to help manage their work-related stress, it’s essential for employers to showcase how they nurture employee wellness for the whole employee, reinforcing the importance of mental health and workplace wellness hand-in-hand with offering concrete mental health and wellness-related benefits.

Companies need to embrace top-down communication to ensure the prioritization of mental health is baked into company culture, ensuring benefits and options for additional support are known and embraced, empowering employees to voice their wellness needs and find appropriate solutions. In turn, interviewees should be able to see how these values proliferate a company throughout their recruitment process, whether it be through explicit benefits included in the job listing or in context of interview conversations. This is important because when workers feel seen for their whole selves, they are more likely to envision a long-term fit and leave their “free agency” days behind them.

Improvements in SeekOut’s Smart Search Capability

Hey there, folks! Are you tired of spending hours scrolling through endless job candidate profiles? Well, SeekOut has got you covered with their new and improved Smart Search Capability. SeekOut has made significant improvements to its smart search capability, and let me tell you, this AI assistant is smarter than your average bear!

Gone are the days of struggling with Boolean search terms. Now, all you have to do is copy and paste the job description into the search box, and voila! The SeekOut smart search assistant creates a search string that can be modified as needed. You can add or remove requirements and preferred qualifications like it’s nobody’s business.

How the SeekOut Smart Search Assistant Works

To use the SeekOut Assistant, users can simply paste the job description into the designated search box. The AI assistant will then create a search based on the requirements. Users can add or remove requirements as needed. Once the search is complete, the results will be displayed in a list. SeekOut’s smart search can match job descriptions with candidates who have the required skills and experience.

And let’s not forget about the perks, people! SeekOut’s AI matching capability ensures that the search results are on point. Plus, you get insights into the candidate’s experience, which is always a plus. And if that’s not enough, SeekOut has other amazing features like messaging templates and AI connections. Who needs human connections when you’ve got AI connections, am I right?

Additional Features of SeekOut

In addition to the smart search capability, SeekOut has a variety of other useful features. Users can create templates and messages for outreach to job candidates. SeekOut’s AI connection can even create emails for users. SeekOut also has GitHub integration, team connections, and a healthcare part. Users can search multiple networks simultaneously to find the best job candidates.

So, if you’re looking for the perfect candidate, SeekOut’s Smart Search Capability is a no-brainer. It’s fast, efficient, and more accurate than a sharpshooter in the wild west. SeekOut’s smart search capability is a highly recommended tool for anyone searching for job candidates…But don’t give us the final say. Try it out yourself and see what you think!

Other Dean Da Costa Content:

Dean has a free page of sourcing tools, links, and other recruiting resources that we highly recommend you check out! That page has an overwhelming amount of stuff, so you gotta really love sourcing to appreciate the infinite hours of work Dean has put into it. For all of the Dean Da Costa resources on RecruitingDaily, click here!

Pre-Interview Survey Questions to Enhance Job Fit and Reduce Employee Turnover

Recruiting is challenging at the best of times, but in a time of high uncertainty it can be even harder for employers to ensure that their candidate of choice is the right fit for the organization. Pre-interview surveys can not only save time during the recruitment phase, but they can help you to determine critical information that will allow you to make an informed choice about the talent that is the best fit now, as well as in the future.

Why Invest in Pre-Interview Surveys?

When it comes to filling tech jobs, a pre-interview questionnaire is a useful tool for clarifying the employer’s and candidates’ expectations and motivations, and helps to increase staff retention by determining how likely a candidate is to stay with the organization in the longer term. But a pre-interview survey can do far more than that. It can help you to:

  • Determine a candidate’s broader fit within the organization
  • Ascertain greater detail about their skills and experience, beyond that given in their resume
  • Gain an understanding of their challenges, expectations and frustrations in and beyond the workplace

One of the biggest advantages of the pre-interview survey is that it allows you to determine vital information before an interview. This not only allows you to utilize your interview time for more organic questions, and getting to know the candidate, but it enables you to filter out candidates that don’t fit your essential criteria, but whose lack of suitability was not picked up during initial long-listing.

When considering which questions to ask within your pre-interview survey, it is useful to divide your questions into categories: candidate skills, company culture, and practicalities.

Candidate Skills Questions

  1. Based on the job that you have applied for, do you have any skills or knowledge that may be useful but which are not on  your resume?
  2. What elements of the role would you most enjoy undertaking, and which would you find less appealing, and more challenging?
  3. If you had to name one area where you require development, what would it be?
  4. Rate your confidence in X skill from 1-5, with 1 being less confident and 5 being 100% confident.

Company Culture

  1. Please describe your ideal work environment.
  2. How would you describe your working style?
  3. What motivates you to be productive at work?
  4. What management styles do you find most difficult to work with?
  5. Please describe a time that you have experienced conflict in the workplace, and if and how it was resolved.
  6. What are your career goals?
  7. Do you feel that the position you have applied for, and the organization, are aligned with your career goals?

Practicalities

  1. How soon would you be available for interview?
  2. When would you be able to start the job if successful?
  3. What baseline package would you require in order to accept the job (salary expectations, leave, office based, hybrid or remote, etc)

When To Use Pre-Interview Surveys

Surveys are not infallible. In the rare event that you are an employer struggling to attract applicants to a .Net job, you may make the decision to dispense with the pre-interview survey on the off chance that they will eliminate potentially suitable candidate. However, if you have a relatively large shortlist (or a long list), and you are not in the position to interview every candidate on that list, a pre-survey questionnaire is an excellent way of helping you to review candidates with minimal drain on resources.

Other Ways To Streamline Improve Staff Retention

Surveys aren’t just useful pre-interview to determine whether a candidate’s work ethos and skills are aligned with the post and organization in question, they can help you to ascertain staff satisfaction and aid retention of existing staff, too. Surveying a department at a time can help you to understand how effective management are, how happy employees are with their jobs, whether they feel valued, and what you can do to improve their working life.

Optimizing Your Recruitment Processes

Whilst it is important that recruitment processes are effective and robust, they don’t have to be arduous. A combination of online recruiting, and making use of the resources available, such as social media networks, company website and professional forums, can help organizations to attract the right candidates. By implementing a virtual recruitment strategy, you can pre-screen candidates before investing a significant amount of resources.

If your organization is struggling to employ or retain staff, a pre-interview survey is undoubtedly a useful tool. However, it can also help to engage a professional tech recruiter, who will be able to apply their wealth of industry-specific experience to help find talent that is the best fit for the position in hand. Investing in recruitment may seem like a luxury when it is possible for recruitment to be led entirely in-house, however with the rising costs of recruiting and onboarding, for organizations looking to find, hire and keep the best staff, outsourcing the task to a recruitment agency may be a luxury that you can’t afford not to have.

Is Pay Day Going Away? What The Rise In Earned Wage Access Means For Recruiters

Payroll is one of those vital business tasks that’s easy to take for granted. Many assume it’s like breathing and happens almost without thinking. In reality, it’s incredibly nuanced and requires considerable thinking and skill.

In fact, the work of payroll teams is becoming increasingly more complex and critical to attracting and retaining talent, which begs the question, “Should they have a more strategic seat at the table”? A recent Everest Group report reveals programs such as earned wage access and financial wellness solutions have the greatest impact on a positive employee experience.

The traditional bi-weekly or monthly pay cycles just do not cut it anymore. Employees crave something different. They want more control, and they’re choosing jobs that offer it. This means payroll and pay benefits can no longer remain in the shadows. It’s now front and center in the war for talent.

What Is Earned Wage Access?

Earned wage access (EWA) is another term for on-demand pay and it’s offered as a low-cost, high-value benefit from employers to employees that works seamlessly with a company’s existing payroll system. It allows employees to access a portion of their accrued income ahead of payday using a mobile app.

EWA allows employees to choose their payday. Instead of receiving pay at fixed intervals, like every two weeks, they can draw down wages as they earn them.

The benefit can be employer-sponsored, meaning there are no fees to the employee, it can be a split cost between employer and employee, or employees pay a transaction fee every time they withdraw wages.

Why is Demand Growing?

The pandemic ushered in a tidal wave of changing employee expectations. Employees now demand flexibility in the hours they work and the location they work in, along with flexibility in how and when they get paid.

Younger generations, especially Gen Z, are more motivated by financial security, used to instant everything, and believe it’s only fair they have access to wages they’ve earned. As digital natives, millennials and Gen Zers have on-demand access to nearly everything else in life and want the same for their pay.

But it’s not just a matter of preference, financial worries play a role too. Research finds 51% of employees are more stressed about finances today than they were during the height of the pandemic and spend 25% of their workweek dealing with financial issues. EWA can provide a financial safety net and reduce the stress associated with unexpected costs.

Additionally, the overall talent mix has shifted to include more freelancers, contractors, and gig workers. Payroll operations that are hassle-free or more frequent are often better suited for these segments of the workforce.

How It Benefits Employees

Plain and simple, EWA puts employees in control of their pay. They have the freedom and ability to align pay dates with their financial commitments.

EWA is expected to eventually replace costly cash-advance or payday loan services. These services often exploit workers during difficult times and leave them worse off. On-demand pay can also help prevent unnecessary debt by offering an alternative to credit cards.

There’s a psychological benefit to EWA too. When employees can see the impact of a day’s work in numbers, it motivates them. They actually want to come to work because they understand how it impacts their bank account.

EWA As A Recruiting Tool

The talent shortage in the U.S. and around the world is real. Unemployment remains low and there are still nearly two job openings for every unemployed person. As a result, employers are paying close attention to changing talent expectations and looking for ways to provide an improved experience.

Offering EWA or other financial wellness benefits can help recruiters gain a definite edge in drawing talent in. It’s another valuable tool in their toolbox. Just as remote work, flexible hours, and hybrid options attract employees, so do pay-related benefits. It can be included in job postings as a differentiator.

Right now, there is still only a small percentage of employers who offer EWA, and an even smaller percentage offer it internationally across their entire workforce. By offering EWA as a benefit to all employees, irrespective of geography, organizations brand themselves as fair-opportunity workplaces that provide instant access to earned wages on a global scale. As an employer, this benefit will set you apart from competitors, help you stand out to talent, and put you ahead of the curve.

The adoption of flexible payment methods can not only improve your chances of recruiting new employees but also make it easier to motivate and retain your existing workforce. When employees don’t feel financial pressure in their personal lives, they feel happier, less stressed, and more valued by their employer. This motivates them to stay and can contribute to higher rates of productivity and lower levels of absenteeism.

Fast, Flexible Payroll Will Define The Modern Pay Experience

A staggering 63 percent of U.S. workers are living paycheck to paycheck. For those individuals, EWA wouldn’t just be a nice-to-have, it could change their life for the better.

As a recruiter, your job is easier—and frankly more fun—when you have the tools to give talent the life and the career they want. The more diversified and meaningful benefits recruiters have to work with, the better their chances of capturing the attention of talent.

The modern pay experience has arrived. Employers that want an engaged and motivated workforce must adopt fast, flexible, and certain pay practices that enhance the employee experience.

It’s time to rethink payroll and see it as a recruitment asset and not an afterthought. EWA solutions could prove to be the next big step in recruiting the workforce of today and tomorrow.

Silicon Valley Has a Hiring Problem, Here are Four Best Practices to Fix It

There’s a heavy atmosphere at the moment in Silicon Valley. Some of the industry’s biggest names, including Meta, Google, and Salesforce have been making significant layoffs and acknowledging the fact that they over-hired during the most recent growth period.

Nevertheless, the fact remains: the tech sector still has more job openings than candidates to fill them. For both hiring managers and job seekers, the current job market can seem like a Rubik’s Cube. How can fast-growing companies find the employees they need to fill their open positions? What do candidates need to do to get noticed if they don’t have the credentials and CV that leads to interviews? Traditional networks and biases continue to elevate some candidates over others while also preventing organizations from recognizing exceptional talent hiding outside their field of view. There are good people out there, but does the tech sector know how to find them?

Having spent more than a decade building high-performing teams in Silicon Valley, including for more than a decade at Google Cloud, I have developed a series of best practices for hiring — during both boom periods and downturns. Here are four suggestions for fast-growth organizations on how to scale on the right timeline without losing their soul.

Don’t Waste Resources on Those Who Won’t Roll Up Their Sleeves

Many tech founders come to a point in their growth when they feel they need to hire specific people to reach the next level — someone who has done the exact job before. This mindset can lead companies to hire someone who might have the right experience, but isn’t the right person for their company. Someone who has already done the hard work once may or may not not be willing to roll up their sleeves and start again from scratch. Or they may not be able to pivot to the changing needs of the company. Hiring isn’t a matter of finding what great looks like, it’s a matter of finding what great looks like for your company.

Learn to recognize not just what great looks like but what great looks like for your company. This can mean hiring someone who might not have done the exact job before but has the right mindset and intrinsic capabilities for your team, which may be of greater value in the long run.

Avoid Boxing Yourself in With Hyper-Specific Resumes

Silicon Valley’s quest for the perfect hire is the wrong mindset for the current situation. We know there are more available jobs than there are people to fill them, so we need to avoid adopting processes that are going to filter out potential candidates. Is a master’s degree in computer science really necessary to fill an engineering position, especially when today’s tech sector is filled with self-taught coders? Is your requirement for five years of experience turning off highly talented people who’ve only just recently made a career change? I have learned when hiring for sales leadership positions that oftentimes the most qualified resume may not necessarily be the best candidate. Some of the strongest sales leaders I have hired have not had the exact experience I was looking for but the grit and tenacity to drive impact and the humility and openness to be coached — great leaders can, in fact, be made. Hiring managers should be looking to cast a wider net and then narrowing from there.

Expand Your Candidate Pool

A company that is trying to move quickly is going to fall back into bad hiring habits, relying on networks and recommendations that reinforce existing biases. It’s worth taking the time to be thoughtful and creative in evaluating new candidates. Instead of relying on resumes and referrals, organizations should look to diversify in terms of work experience, life experience, age, and background. Furthermore, many candidates with minor criminal records are automatically filtered out of hiring pools, despite the fact that their offenses may have occurred years ago or been completely unrelated to the position at hand. These candidates could fill open positions and bring in fresh perspectives, providing you the ability to hire quickly and give you a long-term advantage.

Recognize When It’s Time to Uplevel Your Best People

You don’t always have to look far to find the right person for the job. It’s a hard balance to know when you need to bring in external talent to uplevel a team and when you promote from within. I have gotten this wrong both ways – being too slow to uplevel and not realizing what great really could look like – and on the flip side, I have also made the mistake of being too quick to hire externally and layer talent. Challenge yourself not to put your employees in boxes, and give them the opportunity to test out assignments that may be beyond the scope of their current role. The proudest moments of my career have been when I have put someone in a stretch role and they excelled far beyond what I thought possible. And I get to see their careers soar. Once you’re able to recognize exceptional employees at every level and deploy a growth mindset, you’ll be able to more easily and effectively cultivate and grow talent within your organization.

An organization succeeds or fails as a result of its people. With smart, progressive hiring practices, growing companies can ensure they’re finding the best possible candidates for every position.

Source Architects Fast by Leveraging Archinect

If you’re looking for a platform that connects architects from around the world, Archinect might be what you need. Since 1997, the website has been offering a community for architects to showcase their work, find job opportunities, and connect with like-minded professionals. In this article, we’ll explore how to navigate the website to find architects and other professionals in your field.

Exploring Archinect and Its Features

When you first arrive on the website, you’ll notice that there are several options to choose from, including tutorials, job opportunities, and a community forum. However, if you’re interested in finding architects specifically, it’s best to head to the “People” section of the website.

One way to find architects on Archinect is by using specific keywords related to the profession you’re looking for. For example, if you’re interested in finding civil engineers, simply enter “civil engineer” in the search bar.

Using Common Names

Another strategy for finding architects on Archinect is by using common names in the search bar. According to the speaker in the original transcript, “John” is a common name used on the website, so you could try entering “John” to see what results come up.

However, keep in mind that using common names may result in a lot of search results that are not relevant to your needs. It’s important to filter through the results to find individuals who match your criteria.

Overall, Archinect can be a useful resource for architects and other professionals in the field. By using specific keywords or common names, you can find individuals who match your criteria and potentially connect with them for job opportunities or networking. Just remember to filter through the results to find the best matches for your needs.

Other Dean Da Costa Content:

Dean has a free page of sourcing tools, links, and other recruiting resources that we highly recommend you check out! That page has an overwhelming amount of stuff, so you gotta really love sourcing to appreciate the infinite hours of work Dean has put into it. For all of the Dean Da Costa resources on RecruitingDaily, click here!

Inclusive Recruitment Marketing: 5 Best Practices for Hiring Diverse Talent

We live in an era where the need for diverse hiring practices is more imperative than ever. Organizations with diverse workforces are far more likely to stick out from their competitors and retain the most talented professionals. That’s the reason inclusive recruitment marketing has become the ultimate tool for reaching the best candidates out there and offering them a strong employee value proposition. But let’s see what exactly inclusive recruitment is and the benefits it brings to the table.

What Is Inclusive Recruitment?

Inclusive recruitment is every process and practice a company employs to attract and appoint diverse talent to vacant positions. By opting for inclusive hiring processes, you get access to different perspectives and experiences. Also, you embrace varied qualities, which in its turn, boosts productivity among employees and results in business profit. Diversity of employees, especially in upper management roles, is a synonym for business innovation, enhanced creativity, and long-term growth.

Most recruiters mistakenly think that inclusive recruitment stops at hiring people with disabilities or candidates from minority groups and underrepresented backgrounds. But the truth is you shouldn’t treat diversity as another box to check. The quest for diverse teams is about bringing different backgrounds and perspectives together. This type of recruiting provides your organization with a wide range of viewpoints and ideas, which can eventually translate into optimizing your products and services.

5 Inclusive Recruitment Marketing Best Practices

Hiring the right people from diverse backgrounds won’t happen overnight. Inclusive recruitment marketing requires that you set up the appropriate procedures to attract qualified candidates from a diverse talent pool. The practices listed below will serve as a starting point for your brand to dive into inclusive recruitment marketing and match diverse talent to their dream job.

Leverage an Omnichannel Recruitment Approach

Diversity in your target audience isn’t limited to job advertisements or LinkedIn posts. Instead, it should include diverse outreach methods. When you leverage one channel to access talented individuals, you end up narrowing down your recruiting options. On the contrary, different channels help you reach diverse demographics, thus expanding your candidate pool.

Social media have proven to be effective in reaching out to broader demographics. It goes without saying that you should focus on LinkedIn job postings since it’s the go-to place for every individual looking for professional growth opportunities. Ensure you target diverse talent through inclusive language and benefit from the platform’s advanced analytics to optimize your posts. Social media don’t end with LinkedIn, though. Other platforms like Instagram or Facebook could be equally effective in targeting diverse audiences, resulting in expanding the reach of your offerings.

Recruitment email marketing is another surefire way to inspire qualified candidates to apply for your vacant positions and nurture them along the interview process. Emails help recruiters establish one-on-one conversations and build trust with potential employees. Robust ESPs like Substack and popular Substack alternatives allow companies to personalize email content based on data like the candidate’s aspirations, seniority level, former employment types, and more. That way, you are able to address their unique needs and improve their candidate experience.

Create Inclusive Job Descriptions

After figuring out which platforms fit your inclusive recruitment marketing, it’s time to create the copy for your job vacancies. Unfortunately, many recruiting professionals don’t realize that their job descriptions make a last percentage of their candidate pool feel excluded. So, how can you avoid falling into this common trap?

If you want to broaden the reach of your job advertisement, you need to remove gender-based language and criteria. Language hurts, so ensure yours is clear of stereotypes to avoid making applicants feel uncomfortable. Eliminate any masculine or feminine words or even gender-related hints – and that goes for the job title, too. You should opt for gender-neutral phrasing instead.

Also, stay away from industry jargon that could frustrate people who aren’t familiar with your sector’s terms. The criteria you set for the position must be clear and focus on the responsibilities rather than the requirements. To facilitate dyslectic or visually-impaired readers, divide your copy into short sentences, use bold to highlight specific details, and leverage large fonts and precise wording.

Add Inclusion to Your Employer Brand

Potential candidates need to be aware of the ways in which your brand celebrates diversity. Publicize your inclusion efforts so that diverse talent notices your company. Be transparent about your progress in supporting diversity, even if you aren’t where you’d like to be. Communicate how you commit to inclusive recruitment to different audiences and channels. Let them know why you prioritize diversity and the initiatives you take to succeed.

Your employer branding combined with inclusive recruitment practices shows how your company values diverse skill sets. You could start promoting your employer brand with the career page on your website. Think of this page as a window into your company’s values. As such, it should feature content that showcases your commitment to diversity and inclusion. To showcase authenticity, share real videos, photos, and testimonials of diverse employees at work instead of using stock imagery.

Also, consider creating social media content or blog posts to show how people from diverse backgrounds are able to grow within your business. And don’t forget to mention benefits and perks that resonate with different candidate groups to motivate them further.

Create Diverse Interview Teams

The most efficient way to show you put theory into practice is by having a diverse team conducting the interviews. Inclusive hiring teams validate that your company truly honors diversity. Candidates who go through the hiring process highly appreciate engaging with people from diverse backgrounds. When your interview panels are made up of diverse talents, it provides your organization with several benefits.

First, you create an inclusive environment for candidates where they feel comfortable knowing you are accustomed to employing people like them. Also, such a team brings new perspectives to the process, asking the right questions and staying away from inappropriate ones. With a diverse interview panel, you can rest assured that your interviews are free of unconscious biases. After all, we’re all vulnerable to this type of prejudice. A diverse interview panel is the first step toward avoiding a similar situation.

To stand out from your competitors, consider going beyond your recruitment team and having people from different departments within the company join the interviews. You should always look for ways to bring new team members into your recruitment cycle and use their unique experiences and viewpoints to further refine the process.

Build an Accessible and Inclusive Career Website

We already discussed the content you should put on your career page. But one player can’t save the entire team, right? The future of web design goes hand in hand with accessibility standards, and your website should embrace them no matter what. If your career website isn’t accessible to all users, every thought of inclusive recruitment marketing goes down the drain.

Your website is the ideal place to demonstrate your commitment to inclusivity guidelines. To promote your efforts toward an inclusive workplace, here are the most crucial web accessibility standards to implement on your website:

  • Use bulleted lists, headers, and visual components to support visitors with reading or vision disabilities. These elements facilitate screen readers to navigate through your content.
  • Opt for real images of your diverse team instead of stock photos that tend to enhance homogeneity and sabotage your inclusion efforts. And whatever you do, add alternative texts for your images for users with screen readers to access them.
  • Don’t limit yourself to text but utilize different content types like videos and audio files. Also, include captions and transcripts for this type of content so that users with hearing difficulties can consume it.
  • Ensure you leverage proper color contrast between your content and its background to help visitors with visual impairments grasp different design elements
  • Add components like accordions to hide content that could distract users from your call-to-action and the core content you want them to focus on

Final Words

As a recruiter, you need to review your hiring process to make sure you don’t exclude diverse talent. Inclusive recruitment marketing can make an actual difference in embracing and promoting diversity within your business. Even if you don’t have the luxury of building everything from scratch, you can start by tweaking some basic elements.

The inclusive recruitment marketing practices listed in this guide can serve as your starting point to work your way toward hiring diverse talent. However, every organization requires a unique inclusive recruitment marketing strategy. So, you should check what works best for your candidate pool. More importantly, use your applicants’ feedback to refine your hiring process and create the most inclusive candidate experience possible.

Is Pay Transparency Beneficial?

From a possible morale decrease to a sense of trust and reassurance, here are insights from recruiters, HR leaders, and executives on the pros and cons of pay transparency.

Can Decrease Morale

In my opinion, this is a perilous gamble, and it is easy to have a disaster when introducing salary transparency.

Of course, the grounds for which many people demand them are understandable. But for the organization itself, it is a very difficult thing, primarily because of the possibility of negative attitudes among employees. This can definitely shake morale in the company and lower overall performance.

Bartek Boniecki
Head of People, US Passport Photo

Allows for Better Decisions for Organizations and Candidates

Pay transparency has benefits for candidates, employees, and companies. Salary transparency in job postings improves the efficiency of the recruiting process because it reduces the likelihood of losing candidates because of salary expectation discrepancies when they know what you’re offering before they apply. If that salary is competitive, you’re also likely to get more high-quality candidates, who may not bother applying to a position they aren’t sure will pay what they’re worth.

In a broader sense, pay transparency builds trust between employees and leadership, and also makes it easier to identify and correct unfair or biased salary decisions. Employees are better able to spot and address these discrepancies when they occur, for one thing.

It also encourages leadership to interrogate how they determine salaries since they know they may be asked to justify why one employee earns more than another, ensuring these decisions are based on facts and merit.

Jon Hill
Chairman and CEO, The Energists

Helps Increase Engagement and Reduces Discrimination

I am very publicly a proponent of pay transparency. At Compt, we are very clear about our total compensation strategy and structure, including how we offer fair-market pay with annual benchmarking audits to ensure there are no pay gaps within our organization.

When employees understand how their pay is determined, it can help to promote a sense of fairness and equity, leading to greater job satisfaction, improved employee morale, and reduced turnover. Open communication about pay can help to build trust between employees and management. When employees feel that they are being treated fairly and that management is being transparent, everyone is more likely to feel satisfied and engaged at work.

When your organization practices pay equity and transparency, you’re also making a commitment to actively address pay gaps and reduce the potential for bias and discrimination. For this reason, I strongly recommend using available benchmarking data instead of tying compensation to performance.

Amy Spurling
CEO and Founder, Compt

Provides Accurate Expectations for All Parties

Pay transparency overall is a good thing because it sets accurate expectations. One of the most frustrating parts of the job searching process is that it’s hard to ascertain the level of the position just from the name, as this can differ between organizations and a position that reads like a more senior, well-compensated role at one company might actually be a more junior and modestly paid role at another.

Listing the salary helps candidates make informed decisions about whether to apply and often saves recruiters from having to restart the hiring process after a candidate is blindsided by a lower-than-anticipated offer in late stages.

It also gives job searchers more accurate expectations for compensation across the industry, as they can see the actual average. However, some companies misuse this by posting too-broad ranges. Note that transparency means posting your actual range and perhaps sharing insight into how compensation is determined therein.

Grace He
People and Culture Director, TeamBuilding

Enhances Fairness and Accountability

I think it’s a good thing. Here are my reasons:

1) Fairness: Pay transparency can promote fairness and equity in the workplace by ensuring that employees are paid based on their skills and experience rather than factors such as gender, race, or personal connections.

2) Accountability: Making salary information public can help hold employers accountable for their pay practices and encourage them to ensure that they are compensating employees fairly.

3) Recruitment and retention: Pay transparency can help attract and retain top talent by demonstrating that the organization values transparency and fairness in its pay practices.

Diana Royanto
Writer, Milkwhale

Offers Knowledge 

Knowledge is power, and how you use that power is where we can argue if it was good or bad. I think in the realm of pay, increasing transparency becomes a net positive for almost everyone.

Candidates have a better sense of whether roles are suited to their experience level and financial needs. Internal employees have clearer benchmarks on how they compare with similarly skilled or titled employees.

Transparency also helps to improve equity, so that the unconscious (or conscious!) bias is less at play, and those skilled negotiators might be a tide that lifts all boats.

Pat Fligge
Director of Temple Professional Network, Temple University

Depends on the Implementation

Pay transparency can be a good thing if it is implemented properly. It can promote fairness and prevent wage discrimination, especially for marginalized groups.

However, it can also create tension and resentment among employees if not handled carefully. It is important to balance transparency with confidentiality and to ensure that employees understand the factors that contribute to pay discrepancies.

Additionally, revealing individual salaries publicly can be risky and may invite unwanted scrutiny. Ultimately, pay transparency can be effective as long as it is accompanied by clear guidelines and a commitment to equitable treatment for all employees.

Jefferson McCall
Co-Founder and HR Head, TechBullish

Creates a Cohesive Workplace Culture

Yes, pay transparency is a good thing. First, it can foster trust and credibility between employers and employees. For example, when compensation details are publicly shared or known among staff members, they can understand their worth relative to others in the same position or the company.

Additionally, by creating an environment of fairness and equity regarding wages and salaries—regardless of gender or race—pay transparency creates a cohesive workplace culture where everyone feels respected and valued for their contributions. This could play an essential part in boosting morale, which can impact productivity levels over time.

Finally, if we consider the long-term impacts…pay transparency makes it easier for companies to recognize high achievers and encourage collective efforts toward improving performance throughout all departments or teams within an organization.

Stewart Dunlop
Founder and Chief Strategist, LinkBuilder.io

Saves Time in the Recruiting Process

Absolutely. The good greatly outweighs the bad when being transparent about pay.

The recruiting process is more efficient because applicants will know if the compensation for the open position falls within the range that they are willing to accept. Without pay transparency in a job posting, you often find yourself investing time interviewing candidates just to find out that their anticipated salary is way over the range you have budgeted for the open position.

Thomas Hughes
Human Resources Consultant, Red Clover

Can Be a Source of Unnecessary Friction

Pay transparency is often seen as a noble strategy designed to enhance pay equity and fairness. In fact, many organizations that implement this, including our start-up, do it to help bolster employee trust and build openness.

However, we realized that such a policy could often be a source of unnecessary tension and friction in the organization. As a matter of fact, when we implemented our pay transparency policy, we found that most employees scrutinized the payment structure, who gets what, what they do, and such things.

The scrutiny created a toxic environment since some employees felt they were earning less for more work. Besides, we also realized that the payment issue is very sensitive, and not many employees wanted to discuss it with each other directly. This affected morale, and we had to reverse course a few months later.

Young Pham
Founder and Project Manager, Biz Report

Keeps Employees Happy and Closes Wage Gaps

Pay transparency is a great thing, as it leads to a culture of openness and conveys more than just the salary itself. Companies that will publish pay transparency are more likely to compensate their workers fairly, manage performance well, and communicate well on other issues. In addition, it is something that top candidates look for. It can help keep employees happy, closing pay gaps, and allow companies to control the narrative on the issue.

In addition, it can help increase diversity within tech and leadership and highlight behaviors and outcomes that are rewarded within the company.

Brandon Aversano
Founder and CEO, The Alloy Market

Needs a Clear Policy 

Pay transparency is extremely important, but one of the key things that is needed is a clear policy regarding this within your company, as salary is a highly emotional topic for many people and a lack of policy can cause chaos.

One of the difficulties with salary transparency is that a big company can be very complex; there are different roles, qualifications, requirements, and experience needed within positions. It is extremely important for managers to be completely open about how they have reached compensation decisions, rather than just discussing numbers. People should know how their salary is determined, instead of just telling them how much everyone is earning.

Matt Bieber
CEO, Queries AI

Promotes a Positive and Fair Work Culture

Pay transparency is a great thing when implemented thoughtfully. It helps build trust between employers and employees, increases employee motivation and engagement, reduces disparities and discrimination, and promotes a positive and fair workplace culture.

By sharing pay information openly, employees can have better insight into their worth, which in turn can lead to increased job satisfaction and loyalty. Meanwhile, employers can benefit from valuable feedback and insights from employees on pay and benefits, and gain a competitive edge in attracting and retaining top talent.

Overall, pay transparency is essential for organizations that want to foster a more productive, equitable, and happy workforce.

Tarun Saha
Co-founder and CEO, StallionZo

Instills Trust and Psychological Assurance

A highly controversial topic in today’s business world has opinions divided on both sides. As someone who values personal privacy, I believe pay is a personal matter that shouldn’t be made transparent.

When salaries are made public, it can create an environment of judgment and comparison where individuals may be labeled or stereotyped based on their pay instead of the value they bring to the table. This leads to resentment, jealousy, and discrimination ultimately affecting employees’ productivity.

Instead, organizations can instill trust and assurance in the minds of employees that there is comparative fairness while evaluating them. This would not hurt their sentiments, but rather create psychological assurance. There will always be pay differences as everyone cannot be treated equally.

However, a reasonable justification can ensure employees feel equitable about their pay. Therefore, one must focus on building an environment of trust, respect, and fairness, instead of competitiveness.

Sudhir Kulkarni
Senior Advisor, Naman HR

Candidate Experience Surveys: An Untapped Source of Recruiting Data

Data analysis has played a role in recruiting for years, and recently, it’s felt like we’ve exhausted all new sources and uses of data. At times, it’s even seemed like there was too much data to even begin to understand or use it all. From time to hire, time to fill, source of hire all the way to quality of hire and so much more.

However, there is one seemingly untapped source of data that companies and recruiters are newly discovering, one that we’ve really been missing out on – candidate experience data. This struck me recently, when I had the opportunity to watch a demo from Starred, the candidate experience analytics platform. The company collects feedback from candidate surveys throughout the hiring process to provide talent teams with actionable insights for improving the hiring process.

The Role of Surveys

In the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of what some are calling candidate resentment – job seekers poorly rating their experience with the application and hiring processes. According to research from Talent Board, this is the second year in a row where candidate resentment has risen globally. In addition, the company found that 48% of job seekers have had at least one negative experience in the hiring process in the past 12 months, and 49% of job seekers had declined a job offer due to poor experience.

One way to better understand candidates’ experience and lessen this resentment is through the implementation of candidate experience surveys.

These surveys open the line of communication for candidates, making it easier for them to make comments or voice their opinions to the hiring team. In addition, getting feedback from candidates will give insight into the bottlenecks and pain points that cause talent to ghost or reject offers. As such, surveys can aid in the attraction and retention of talent by allowing talent acquisition to respond to and make adjustment based on candidate issues in real time.

It’s also another way to nurture candidate relationships at a time when candidates can be giving and receiving less communication.

Other Benefits of Survey Data Analysis

Obviously, candidate experience is the top priority, and survey data can give an indication of that. But let’s dig deeper. More than just understanding, analyzing candidate feedback in the form of survey data can help hiring teams and recruiters make more informed decisions.

This method of data collection provides answers straight from the source, without having to interpret or guess the cause. Candidates can tell you what you’re doing well and exactly where you’re going wrong. With that in mind, HR teams can refine the hiring process to keep candidates engaged, address recruiting and candidate issues before they become worse, and save time and reduce costs associated with losing out on qualified talent.

For recruiters especially survey data can be immensely helpful as a check-in. Sometimes it’s hard to spot issues when we’re too close to them. Survey data can be an objective third party of sorts to point out problem areas in the hiring process that might otherwise be overlooked.

In addition, knowing what candidates are thinking can be an indicator for where employer brand stands. A bad hiring experience can reflect poorly on a company, especially if a candidate shares that sentiment by word of mouth or on the internet. Also, allowing them to give feedback directly gives companies a chance to rectify the situation privately.

Use Boolean Filetype Search Techniques to Find People and Resumes

Using Filetype Search Commands to Find People

Finding someone online can be a challenge if you can’t remember their full name or where to look. However, using a simple boolean filetype search string can help you locate people. You’ll be using specific file types to filter through search results, vastly narrowing down your search. In this article, we’ll explore how you can use boolean filetype commands to find people and information online.

Finding Resumes with Standard File Types

When searching for resumes, standard file types like PDF, DOC, and RTF are often used. However, if you’re looking for someone specific and can’t seem to find them using these standard file types, you can try using a boolean filetype command to expand your search. For example, you can use “filetype:PDF resume ‘John Doe'” to find PDF resumes of people named John Doe.

When it comes down to it, the purpose of using a boolean filetype search is to pull up resume information. If you really want to get the bread and butter information about a particular person, this might be the quickest way to do it.  You’ll be filtering through all the overlapping name information, social media profiles, and other less targeted info to get to the good stuff.

Let us know if you have any other uses for the boolean filetype: command in the context of sourcing and recruiting. Its uses are many and varied, and we’d love to hear about alternative ways to take advantage of Boolean strings. We’re all nerds here, for better or for worse.

Other Dean Da Costa Content:

Dean has a free page of sourcing tools, links, and other recruiting resources that we highly recommend you check out! That page has an overwhelming amount of stuff, so you gotta really love sourcing to appreciate the infinite hours of work Dean has put into it. For all of the Dean Da Costa resources on RecruitingDaily, click here!

Why Data is the Missing Piece of a Successful Human Resource Strategy

In today’s business landscape, the phrase “the only constant is change” has never been more true. In fact, constantly changing market and business dynamics have made it increasingly difficult for business leaders to drive consistent and successful strategy. And as the importance of HR in driving business success continues to grow, more HR professionals are turning to data to inform their decision making. In fact, Oracle’s recent Decision Dilemma report found that 94% of business leaders believe the right data and insights can help them make better HR decisions. But with the overwhelming amount of data available, it can be difficult for leaders to determine what data to trust, how to use it, or what will be the most helpful in supporting their business.

We know the role of data in decision making is critical, and an overwhelming 97% of business leaders report that they want help from data to make better, faster, and more successful decisions. And when it comes to people strategies, HR leaders can – and should – be using data to gain necessary insights into employee performance and engagement while identifying trends and patterns that could impact the overall success of the organization. This allows them to develop and implement strategies that are tailored to the unique needs of their workforce, leading to more effective talent management and improved business outcomes.

Business leaders know that without data their decisions would be less accurate (45%), less successful (29%), and more prone to error (41%). So, HR leaders must know how to leverage the right data in the most efficient ways to avoid becoming inundated. With the right HR metrics and insights, practitioners can use data to help identify retention risks, forecast talent needs, evaluate performance management strategies, and enhance the employee experience. Here are a few ways the right data can make a meaningful impact on HR:

Identifying and Addressing Retention Risk

On the heels of the Great Resignation, business leaders know that retaining top talent is a critical factor in driving business success. And amid that, identifying employees who are at risk of leaving is becoming increasingly challenging. But this offers a huge opportunity for data support. In fact, according to our study, 33% of business leaders believe that the right data and insights help them retain and engage employees. With the right data and insights, HR professionals can better identify and monitor things like retention risk, turnover rate, and employee engagement. In recognizing employees who are at risk of leaving, HR professionals can develop effective retention strategies, such as targeted training and development opportunities, or more personalized approaches to their development and support.

Predicting Future Talent Needs

Planning for future hiring and recruitment needs requires thoughtful and careful forecasting and nearly 30% of business leaders believe the right data and insights can help HR professionals decide who to hire. But, predicting the needs of these workers can be challenging, especially in a constantly evolving labor market with economic uncertainty. With the 360 ° view the right kind of data provides, HR professionals can forecast future talent needs by analyzing historical data and trends. Through predictive analytics, HR professionals can predict future hiring needs based on factors such as employee turnover, business growth, and retirement trends. Using this information, HR professionals can develop effective recruitment strategies to ensure the organization has the talent it needs to succeed.

Determining Effective Performance Management Strategies

Effective performance management is key to driving employee engagement and productivity. But evaluating the effectiveness of current strategies requires visibility that only the right data can provide. We found that 40% of business leaders believe the right data and insights can help them improve performance and efficiency across teams. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as assessing the effectiveness of current performance management strategies with HR metrics like employee feedback and performance reviews. By understanding which strategies are driving an impact and which are not, HR professionals can better identify areas for improvement and develop more effective strategies that drive engagement and productivity to move the needle on larger business goals.

Enhancing the Employee Experience

The importance of the employee experience cannot be underrated. Understanding employee needs and preferences is a necessity for business survival, meaning HR professionals need to develop initiatives that enhance the experience, drive engagement, and retain top talent. Data analytics can help HR professionals understand employee needs and preferences by analyzing HR metrics gathered from employee satisfaction surveys, engagement surveys, and exit interviews. HR professionals can then develop initiatives aligned with both employee preferences and business needs, whether it’s flexible work arrangements, personalized training and development opportunities, or improved employee benefits.

By incorporating data into decision-making processes, HR professionals can drive employee engagement, increase retention, improve productivity, and ultimately contribute to business success. HR professionals need to embrace data and explore the many ways in which analytics can revolutionize HR practices. The key is to be strategic and intentional in your use of data. With clear goals and a systematic approach, leaders can make the most of the data they have and can use it to make informed decisions. For HR leaders, this will ensure that their organization has the talent it needs to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.

As businesses continue to evolve and the workforce becomes more diverse, the importance of data-driven HR practices will only continue to grow.

Reinventing Recruitment and Retention

Talent wars. The pandemic. Great resignation. Quiet quitting. Hiring, retaining and inspiring employees to be their best is no small feat these days. As we emerge on the other side of that three-year battle, we are seeing just how much the labor market has changed amid ever-evolving complexities and workforce shifts. And as these changes take place, organizations must bring their recruitment and retention strategies up to speed to mirror the workforce of today.

Employees are now seeking out companies that share their values and afford them the same flexibility that fully remote work did. On the flipside, organizations are rethinking their talent acquisition processes to fill open roles with the right skills while balancing the expectations and availability of today’s workforce. HR leaders are deploying new strategies to attract the right talent for their needs while also ensuring they are matching new talent with the values of their organization. Many employers are:

  • Doubling down on placing their organization’s mission at the heart of recruitment practices
  • Directly addressing changes in work-life balance head on
  • Restructuring job openings to more accurately reflect education requirements

Retaining the Right Talent Starts With Recruiting the Right People

To retain the right talent, an organization needs to reassess how and who they are attracting during the recruitment process. Deliberate and transparent communication with potential candidates sets great hiring practices apart from legacy systems that have been in place for years with little-to-no updates. And with the growing popularity of platforms like Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn, transparency is key to the recruiting process.

Transparently communicating your organization’s mission within your recruitment messaging is an effective way to establish the values and qualities you are seeking out in potential talent. By attracting mission-oriented candidates who are passionate about the work your organization is doing from the onset, you are creating a more robust pipeline of passionate talent that add the greatest amount of potential and value to fulfilling your organization’s mission.

A Human-Centered Employee Value Proposition

Pre-pandemic, most employees were striving to achieve the perfect work-life balance. In 2023, we are seeing that creating boundaries between work and life has become murkier as many employees continue to perform their jobs primarily remotely. We must recognize that attempts to create a divide between the professional and personal are no longer effective to retain talent in this environment.

The professional’s mindset regarding work-life balance has shifted and employees are looking for companies that offer them the same level of autonomy with their schedules that was present during the height of remote work. Employee value propositions must evolve to address this change in sentiment. According to Gartner’s Human Deal Framework, we should no longer strive for balance but rather integration between work and life, which empowers employees to feel like they are at the center of the decision-making process. An excellent example of this concept is our volunteer time off policy at DeVry University. As a higher education institution with a clear mission of doing great work for the greatest number of people, our employees are motivated to bring this mission to life in their personal and professional lives. This policy provides talent with the ability to take days off throughout the year to give back and volunteer within their own communities.

A New Candidate for a New Workforce

In a complicated labor market, plagued by both labor and skills shortages, stringent job requirements can create unnecessary barriers to filling these roles. Overhauling previously agreed-upon notions about what the “perfect candidate” looks like allows us to reset hiring practices to be more inclusive of nontraditional candidates equally as capable of the job.

Organizations must assess their open roles through the lens of what criteria is truly relevant and necessary. More and more, companies recognize that non-traditional forms of education can equip candidates with needed job credentials. Companies like IBM, Apple, Google and Tesla have done away with strict academic requirements for many of their roles in recent years. Ability, relevant job skills, and learning potential are proving to be just as important indicators as a traditional education for many companies looking to fill vacancies.

Talent acquisition teams should ground their recruitment and retention strategies in today’s evolving employee expectations and changes in the labor market. Organizations will find greater success when they begin to reimagine recruitment and retention processes that put employees at the heart of an organization’s mission, create healthy integration between work and life, and attract a new wave of talent to meet your skills needs by removing unnecessary boundaries.