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How Hiring Managers Can Avoid Dangerous Misuses of Generative AI

With the blockbuster debut of ChatGPT and the recent revelations about Microsoft’s new Bing chatbot (that it generates responses that seem neurotic, threatening, and emotionally coercive), the benefits and perils of generative AI have been filling the headlines. This has led to a flurry of questions about how increasingly powerful AI tools will affect a broad array of industries, including HR. For example, hiring professionals are considering how generative AI could be used to help them source and evaluate talent – an issue that’s even more salient at a time when companies are in urgent need of a competitive edge in hiring.

At this time, it’s important to balance hype with caution. While the temptation to embrace tools of this nature will be strong, using generative AI in recruitment is not something that can be recommended right now. There’s no doubt that the versions of generative AI tools we’re seeing today will improve. But as it stands today, these platforms often provide inaccurate information, the process by which they produce output is opaque (which can make a company vulnerable to legal and regulatory challenges), and they’re prone to making biased judgments.

However, this doesn’t mean HR teams should dismiss AI altogether. By using the technology with rigorous controls and oversight in place – in conjunction with other proven inputs – they will be able to develop more efficient and data-driven hiring processes.

Efficient, Sure… but Worth the Risk?

The efficiency capabilities of generative AI make it tempting to use in the hiring process. One way to think about generative AI is that it saves you the trouble of consulting the Internet and instead produces a neat summary of what the internet says, or is likely to say, for you. The information provided by Generative AI tools can sometimes be used directly, or as inspiration for your own content. However at this time, there are several issues that could arise when using these tools to create content for HR purposes.

Let’s start with a less risky use case and see how it stacks up. Generative AI can be used to generate content such as job advertisements. This use case poses less concern, mostly because the internet is awash in job ads and this means that there’s lots of content for the model to draw on. Writing jobs ads can be pretty tedious for humans, so it seems like a great use case for generative AI. Even in this case, though, it’s not without risk. If existing jobs ads use language that is biased according to age, race, or gender, then these biases will also be present in jobs ads produced by the tool. It could produce content that misrepresents your job or which is factually incorrect. And you could inadvertently breach another party’s copyright if the tool reproduces existing text exactly.

Another use case is using Generative AI to create a formal job description. This is riskier because a document such as a job description can have important legal consequences in the event that a selection decision is disputed – the job description, and what’s in it – is often relied upon as the source of truth for job duties and required knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics.

Using a Generative AI tool to help develop a job description means that the content of that description is based in part on information about the job (i.e., the prompt that was supplied to the tool) as well as information that effectively boils down to “words that tended to co-occur with the prompt text on the internet”. Using Generative AI in the process of creating documents like this could seriously undermine the utility and legal defensibility of those documents.

Similar issues apply when using Generative AI to develop interview questions. Interview questions need to be relevant to the job to be legally defensible. There is always the risk that interview questions generated through Generative AI will be related to typical descriptions of the job that were part of the training dataset but that do not match the actual specific job being recruited for.

A Lack of Guard Rails

Experience with Generative AI to date suggests that there are few guard rails that prevent the language model from producing content that is nonsensical or incorrect. If the training data does not provide sufficient information for a meaningful response, the Generative AI tool will rely on the probabilistic nature of the language model to produce a response that is “likely” given its data. This may especially be a risk when generating interview questions for jobs that are highly specific and unusual.

A language model is purely based on the likelihood of text appearing in the context of other text. While the nature of AI chatbots can lead users to believe that the tool understands issues of intent and applicability or is guided by some kind of knowledge-based process, the systems have no understanding of what the user is trying to achieve, or how the produced content may be used. This can result in content, in interview questions for example, that may be illegal or discriminatory in some jurisdictions.

Consistency (And Lack of Bias) Not Guaranteed

There is a much higher level of risk when Generative AI is used to process or draw conclusions from applicant data. For example, using a Generative AI tool to summarize a candidate’s resume, or using the tool to compare two candidate’s resumes. Doing this may violate a host of data privacy and data processing regulations, depending on your legal jurisdiction. Additionally, when used in their off-the-shelf on-line services, Generative AI tools do not guarantee that the same input data will result in the same response. A baseline requirement for using AI and automation to evaluate candidates is that identical input should produce identical output. The probabilistic nature of the language models used means that this will not occur without special modifications or settings being applied. Tools such as ChatGPT have not been validated for use in employee selection contexts – there’s no evidence that they produce judgements which aid in the selection of high performing employees. The results that they produce can reflect the same kinds of biases that are seen in online text that was used in their training data, including bias based on protected classes such as race, gender and age.

Given that the Generative AI tools are trained on the basis of internet text, perhaps a good analogy is whether it would be reasonable to post a summary of an applicant’s resume on Reddit and ask users to comment on how suited the applicant would be to the job. If that strikes you as inappropriate, then using a Generative AI language model to do the work is essentially the same.

Developing a Reliable and Holistic Hiring Process

Considering the growing interest in developing AI-powered hiring processes, HR professionals need to figure out how these processes can be implemented productively and with minimal risk. SHRM’s 2022 survey found that 85 percent of HR professionals who use automation and AI for hiring do so to save time and increase efficiency. But just 18 percent believe these technologies improve their “ability to identify more diverse candidates,” while 46 percent want resources that will help them “identify potential bias when utilizing automation or AI tools.”

These findings indicate that HR professionals are rightly circumspect about using AI for hiring, and should extend this caution to the question of Chat GPT. There are many ways employers can address concerns about inaccuracy and bias – for example, they can develop a hiring process that incorporates multiple inputs to generate a strong talent signal and filter out information that isn’t job-relevant. Trained hiring professionals can use AI to retrieve basic information about candidates, but they should also use objective assessments, structured interviews, and other resources to fairly evaluate potential hires.

There’s no doubt that generative AI is an extremely powerful tool that will only become more useful in the coming years. But we’re also learning more about the limitations of these models every day, as well as the difficult task of improving them. This is why HR professionals should use AI with care and remember that there are many other ways to make the hiring process as fair and predictive as possible.

Five Myths About Structured Interviews

As HR professionals focus on building more predictive hiring processes, they will need to reevaluate certain conventional hiring methods. For example, a large body of evidence demonstrates that unstructured interviews are poor predictors of performance, yet they remain integral to many companies’ talent acquisition strategies. Research has shown, for example, that almost 30% of interviewers make up their mind on a candidate within the first five minutes, based largely on superficial criteria that are unrelated to job success, such as appearance, social habits, dress, and other factors. Despite the fact that many traditional hiring techniques increase the risk of bias, fail to provide the information hiring managers need to make good decisions, and waste employers’ and candidates’ time, companies persist in using them. Why is this the case, and what can be done to address it?

HR teams should be looking into methods that have a better record of securing solid hires, such as structured interviews, which create a fairer and more systematic hiring process by measuring candidate responses to a consistent series of questions that are directly related to the roles in question. This filters out irrelevant information, minimizes the biases that can creep into interviews, and ultimately helps hiring managers determine which candidates will perform best on the job. It’s no surprise that a recent study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that “structured interviews emerged as the top-ranked selection procedure.”

As the benefits of structured interviews become increasingly clear, many HR professionals are still hesitant to adopt them. This is largely due to a cloud of myths that surround structured interviews, which obscure the benefits they offer. These myths stem from several fundamental misconceptions about how structured interviews operate, as well as antiquated notions about what the hiring process should look like.

1. Structured Interviews Aren’t Worth the Effort

For decades, researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that structured interviews are highly effective at predicting candidate success and avoiding the errors that plague other hiring methods. A study in the journal Judgment and Decision Making examined why hiring managers insist on using unstructured interviews, and found that interviewers form confident conclusions about candidates even when their answers are randomly generated nonsense. The researchers also discuss the process of “dilution,” whereby valuable information is concealed amid all the irrelevant information that’s being provided. The authors’ conclusion about unstructured interviews is blunt: “Our simple recommendation for those making screening decisions is not to use them.”

Considering the well-documented benefits of structured interviews and the liabilities of their unstructured counterparts, HR teams have many compelling reasons for using the former and avoiding the latter.

2. HR Teams Lack the Expertise

According to Criteria’s 2022 Hiring Benchmark Report, two-thirds of hiring professionals believe structured interviews lead to better hiring decisions, but less than a quarter say they use “highly structured interviews, with standardized questions and defined rating scales.” One of the reasons HR teams have been slow to adopt fully structured interviews is their misplaced conviction that doing so is too difficult. It’s true that structured interviews require more effort than unstructured interviews – questions have to be crafted in a way that will illuminate role-specific knowledge and skills, adaptability, and any other characteristics the company wants to measure. Then questions and answers have to be properly weighted on the basis of their relevance and predictive value.

However, there are many digital resources and guides that will help HR teams build structured interviews. Once teams have a firm grasp on the concept of structured interviewing, they will be able to develop questions and approaches that suit their hiring needs.

3. Structured Interviews are Robotic and Impersonal

Perhaps the most common complaint about structured interviews is that they’re cold and inhuman, but this is a caricature. There are many ways for hiring managers to make the structured interview process welcoming and less intimidating. First, they can have a normal discussion about the company’s values and culture, as well as the role. Second, they can explain why structured interviews are valuable for the company and the candidate: they give job seekers an opportunity to showcase their abilities on an even playing field. And third, hiring managers can encourage candidates to answer questions naturally and honestly, just as they would in any other interview.

The argument that structured interviews are too mechanical doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Aside from all the ways hiring managers can make the process more organic and comfortable, structured interviews already have an extensive record of success.

4. Candidates Dislike Structured Interviews

The quality of the candidate experience has never been more important. Criteria’s 2022 Candidate Experience Report found that many complaints about the hiring process will cause job seekers to abandon it altogether: almost one-third said they would exit the process if it was taking too long, while 53 percent would do the same if they received poor communication from the company or recruiter. While some hiring managers believe structured interviews will drive candidates away, they’re mistaken. When Google started conducting structured interviews, its hiring team reported an “uptick in candidate satisfaction in feedback scores for structured interview candidates.” Other research has found that candidates regard structured interviews as a fair method of evaluation.

Over three-quarters of employees and job seekers say a diverse workforce is an important factor in deciding where to work. When companies use structured interviews, they will show candidates that they’re taking active steps to minimize bias and discrimination – a key element of a healthy candidate experience.

5. Hiring Managers Will Resist

Criteria’s 2022 Hiring Benchmark Report found that a significant obstacle to conducting structured interviews is “getting hiring managers to comply” (cited by 40 percent of respondents). This expectation is understandable, as hiring managers are often the first to contend that structured interviews are awkward and unnatural. Company leaders and other members of the HR team can address their colleagues’ hesitation by pointing out that structured interviews will help hiring managers make better decisions. Hiring managers should also be involved in the development of rubrics and questions, which will give them a stake in the process.

The top three hurdles to implementing structured interviews are: defining the rubric for evaluating responses (47 percent), creating the interview questions (44 percent), and finding time to develop the process (44 percent). There’s no question that structured interviews require more preparation and analysis than casual conversations, but that’s why they’re far more objective and predictive than those conversations could ever be.

Surefire Employer Branding Strategies for Talent Attraction

Did you know 82% of job seekers research a company’s reputation before applying? In today’s tight labor market, employers must develop solid employer brand strategies to attract and retain the best employees.

According to a survey by LinkedIn, companies with a strong employer brand receive 50% more qualified applicants and are 1.5 times more likely to retain their employees. But how do you develop a strong employer brand?

In this article, we’ll discuss surefire employer branding strategies that have been proven to attract top talent. The following strategies will help you build a compelling employer brand and distinguish yourself from competitors. You can also integrate this software with HR software.

So let’s dive in and discover how you can unlock the power of employer branding for talent attraction.

What are Employer Branding Strategies?

If you’re like most people right now, you’re probably wondering whether it matters to you or your company.

A Big Yes! Employer branding is vital to the sustainability of your organization. It can help you save money by decreasing your turnover rate and increasing your efficiency per hire by as much as 50%. 

In addition, if an organization takes the time to maintain its employer brand, it will attract a higher quality pool of applicants from engaged job seekers.

Positive brand image ∝ Acquisition and retention of talent

Even if you don’t put much effort into it, you will already have an employer brand, so why not pursue one you like?

7 Tried & Tested Employer Branding Strategies to Use

Now that we have a shared understanding of the terminology, let’s review some measures to improve employer branding.

1. Showcase Company Culture

Maintaining a healthy organizational culture begins with attracting and selecting the right employees. Take into account the kind of atmosphere you hope to establish. 

A research study indicates that 83% of millennials prefer working for a company that emphasises inclusion. Recruitment teams can adopt several strategies to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

A strong employer brand is not something that can be dictated; instead, it is a reflection of the company’s culture. As such, it is evident that fostering a positive culture is crucial to developing a solid reputation.

Don’t limit your commitment to diversity to hiring and recruiting.

2. Highlight Employee Experiences

Positive employee experiences are essential for marketing your company as an employer of choice. Your website, social media page, and brochure are the best places to include employee endorsements in online and offline marketing materials.

Prospective employees will get a sense of what it’s like to work for your organization and what they might be expected to do if hired.

3. Leverage Social Media

Put yourself in the vicinity of the people you hope to hire. Focus your efforts where they will have the greatest impact, whether that’s on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. 

For instance, McDonald’s employs Snapchat to recruit young people, whereas Microsoft uses Twitter to promote #MicrosoftLife.

This strategy is particularly advantageous for companies entering new markets or sectors, such as banks seeking fintech talent or expanding retailers.

4. Encourage Employee Advocacy

A significant change has occurred in how brands are perceived since the advent of technology and social media. Study results show that 84% of people trust peer-to-peer recommendations more than any other type of advertising. 

The trend also extends to recruiting, which makes it crucial to involve everyone who can amplify your recruitment branding.

So, whether it’s through personal referrals or social media recommendations, every individual can shape your company’s perception as an employer. Getting everyone on board can create a more compelling and authentic employer brand that attracts and retains top talent.

5. Improve Candidate Experience

First impressions are irreplaceable. This is especially true for new employees who may be encouraged to search for new opportunities after a bad onboarding experience.

It’s beneficial for employers to go the extra mile in order to instil a sense of excitement in new workers about their position.  To do so, you may help them make the right connections, provide them with the necessary resources, and explain how their efforts will further the company’s goals.

6. Offer Employee Development Opportunities

‘ A happy workforce is a loyal workforce and vice versa.’

A Gallup survey revealed that 87% of millennials value career development and growth opportunities in their jobs. According to the same study, only 39% of employees feel that their current job provides ample opportunities for professional development.

Development possibilities can come in various forms, such as training, workshops, mentorship, and even financial aid for higher education. 

In addition to helping employees develop new skills, these initiatives demonstrate the company’s commitment to growth and success. In turn, this can boost job satisfaction and increase loyalty.

7. Bringing Cutting-edge Technology to the Workplace

Personalized communications using AI can enhance your employer brand and attract top talent. 

For instance, AI-powered email marketing solutions can evaluate data about target audiences, such as their interests, job titles, etc. Utilizing this data will allow you to tailor the email content and make it more engaging.

You can improve your employer brand and attract top talent by generating customized emails that speak directly to their needs.

How to Develop An Employer Branding Strategy?

Constructing, implementing, and managing employer branding strategies for improving employer attractiveness is not easy.

In the realm of recruitment branding, there are no instant wins. Instead, an organization’s employer brand is a moving target that requires constant attention.

Let’s examine critical components of employer branding so you can create a plan that attracts and retains the best talent.

1. Define Your Brand Identity

You can think of your company’s values, goals, and culture as the building blocks of your employer brand. Its identity must be defined and consistent with the company’s overarching brand. As a starting point, consider the following ideas:

  • Find out how your business differs from the competition.
  • Establish the company’s guiding principles and goals.
  • Ensure your company’s and brand’s identities are consistent.

Example: In an organization whose brand identity emphazises creativity and innovation, the actions should demonstrate how these traits are nurtured and promoted.

2. Develop a Strong EVP

What makes your organization stand out from the competition is the employee value proposition (EVP) you provide. An effective unique selling proposition (USP) is crucial for attracting potential hires. 

  • Find out what qualities your ideal employees are looking for in a company by conducting research.
  • Recognize the special perks your company provides its workers (such as flexible work hours, professional development opportunities, etc.)
  • Verify that your EVP is genuine and consistent with your brand.

An exemplary employee value proposition should lay out rewards— both monetary and non-monetary. The employer offers in exchange for an employee’s skills, experience, and efforts.

Example: Consider including flexible work hours or remote working options in your EVP if your target audience values work-life balance.

3. Conduct an Audit

By performing an audit, you may assess your present employer brand and find ways to enhance it. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

  • Getting feedback from current team members is an excellent way to learn how they rate your business.
  • Examine the feedback given about your business on online job boards (e.g., Glassdoor).
  • Check out how your competitors market their employer branding for talent acquisition.

Example: If your employer brand suffers due to a low rating on job review sites, you may need to address specific concerns such as management style.

4. Create a Communication Plan

Decide who you want to reach and how you plan to reach them before you develop a communication plan.

  • Locate the platforms (such as social media, career fairs, and job boards) where your ideal candidates actively seek employment.
  • Write ad copy that features your brand’s USP and identifies its unique selling points.
  • Consistency in your communication strategy across platforms is essential.

Using interesting anecdotes about real people increases the likelihood that you’ll get applications from those who can picture themselves in the lead role. Thus, there is a greater chance that qualified applicants will enter the top of the recruitment pipeline.

Example: If your audience is active on LinkedIn, share employee testimonials and other content about your company’s culture and values.

5. Monitor and Measure Success

Your return on investment is directly related to the amount of effort you put into establishing your brand. A successful employer branding plan requires constant evaluation and analysis of its performance metrics. 

  • Keep tabs on data like the application volume and the time it takes to fill open positions.
  • Find out from your new employees where they heard about your organization by asking them for comments.
  • Your plan should evolve in response to the data you collect.

Conducting a before-and-after analysis of your employer’s branding efforts will help you assess its effectiveness.

Example: If you’re putting a lot of time and effort into building your brand as an employer on social media but still not getting any takers, it might be time to rethink your approach.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, creating a strong employer brand is an essential step for organizations that want to attract and retain top talent. However, this should not be done on a whim, as it requires careful planning, execution, and consistency. 

With the help of HR professionals and recruitment marketing teams, companies can build a reputation as a welcome employer that prioritizes employee and candidate experiences. 

Remember, a successful employer brand is fundamentally rooted in providing a great employee experience. By focusing on this, organizations can gain a competitive advantage and secure a bright future for their workforce.

Get Out There; Effectively Networking With Talent

“Get out there!” That’s what I often tell my fellow recruiters and peers when discussing new ways to get to know people in their line of business in which they are recruiting.  You are a recruiter, so network in your field at every opportunity! It will help establish your credibility not only with your stakeholders but in the industry itself.  

Learn about Your Industry, and Network With Talent in the Process!

A few years back I decided to join associations such as ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) and WTS (Women’s Transportation Seminar) where I was able to meet with a wide array of professionals. I learned more about the industry I recruited for while learning about new projects and business-related items.  I would attend events free and paid. It helped build my personal brand as well as get my company’s name out there.  Going to these events was extremely valuable to learn more about the industry for which I recruited.

Another benefit of going to events is that it shows your hiring team and other stakeholders that you are deeply interested in what they do.  For example, I recently went to a Geotechnical event in Washington D.C. and learned more about slope stability.  Prior to attending this event, I informed one of the Senior Principal Engineers of my plan to attend, and he was thrilled that I would take the time to learn more about his industry.  Doing something like this can really help when talking to prospective candidates, as you are speaking their “language.”

It is important that you do NOT recruit at these events.  Your name tag will mostly likely include your company name, but not your title. If anyone asks, be truthful and tell them that you are a recruiter for XYZ company.  Sometimes the person who you are talking with might take a step back, but assure them that you’re not there for recruiting purposes.  However, more often than not they will give me a business card (I have stacks of them) or send me a LinkedIn connection request shortly after.  Hence, it just continues to build my pipeline.

Socializing is the Spice of Life

As a recruiter, it’s important to socialize with professionals that you consistently communicate with.  It shouldn’t matter what line of business you are recruiting for. Each industry has some type of professional organization, association or society that you can be a part of. Sometime these cost money, but your company might be willing to cover the cost if it means engaging with passive talent.

So, if you are a recruiter and want to separate yourself from the pack, look around and find out what groups or associations you can join. It will help increase your knowledge of the industry, while building your network and future pipeline.  Many organizations have happy hours, lunch and learns, community events, and more. So, “get out there!” It’s important to be seen and heard not only within your own company, but within the industry as a whole.  

Source Developer Emails with a Simple GitHub Xray Search

We all want to do cold outreach easier. Nobody wants to spend hours hunting down the perfect candidate when you can just cold blast 1000 developers some outreach and see who nibbles. That’s where this dirty trick comes into play. Mastering the tools of the trade is vital for any career, and when it comes to Xray, sourcing is no different. So, what’s this big mysterious technique to source developer emails?

It’s nothing too crazy. However, we are combining it with an interesting Chrome extension.  The gist of it is to create a fairly simple Google Xray string phrased like this:

site:github.com language:java AND “@gmail.com”

Like we said, nothing too crazy.

The fun part is when you add in this pretty neat Chrome Extension called Email Extractor. If you’re trying to speed up your headhunting, this puppy is a great tool to have in your belt. It will automatically comb through whatever page you are on and return all of the email addresses on screen. Neat, right?

A little nuance with Google is that it usually doesn’t show everything all at once, it drip feeds search results in small batches. Annoying. But, we have technology. To display all of the content on a Google page faster, you can take an extra step and add uAutoPagerize to your Chrome browser. That will automatically display all “unloaded” content. Now, when you click on Email Extractor it should have way more results. Booya.

Take this more as a building block than a step by step guide.  Be creative with your Boolean strings so you can get results that are different from other people. The more refined your search, the more likely you’re going to source developer emails that haven’t been bothered into oblivion.

Happy hunting!

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!

Building an Employer Brand That Attracts Gen Z

Just with one visit to a search engine, potential workers can look up a company’s brand and learn everything about it based on their website, social media, and reviews on job posting sites. As a result, more information is democratized — meaning more people can easily research a company, its history, and its values. From growing up in this environment, members of Gen Z are far more likely to turn down a job from a brand they don’t align with.

Building an employer brand that attracts Gen Z talent is critical for companies, especially in the constantly evolving business world of today. Generation Z — the generation born between 1997 and 2012 — is a significant part of the current workforce, and their expectations, values, and needs are different from baby boomers, Generation X, or even millennials. Therefore, if you want to attract the best talent for your clients, you must understand the unique preferences and the most important standards of this generation.

What is Important to Gen Z Workers?

What is Gen Z talent looking for in a potential employer? Here are a few things that are important:

  • Equitable pay as well as benefits;
  • Honesty and transparency regarding the potential salary and benefits;
  • A brand that participates in social justice;
  • A good work/life balance;
  • The ability to learn, grow, and develop — particularly for the long term.

Although most other generations desire these working conditions, Generation Z is becoming unique in that they won’t tolerate a job without these equitable working conditions.

Create and Highlight Your Strong Company Culture

One of the most critical aspects of building a strong employer brand is company culture. Generation Z wants to be employed by companies that share their beliefs and values. Therefore, businesses have to showcase their culture on their website, social media, and also other channels used to recruit new employees,

One way to help a candidate learn more about company culture is to share employee stories, testimonials, and also experiences. This can be extremely helpful when it comes to candidates having a better understanding of company culture.

It’s also important for companies to emphasize their dedication to employee well-being as well as work-life balance. Offering perks like flexible work hours, remote or hybrid work options, and health and wellness programs can illustrate how committed a company is to its employees.

Use Social Media Effectively

In this day and age, social media is an important part of our lives. Generation Z, especially, is extremely active on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. It is, therefore, a good idea for organizations to leverage social media to promote their employer brand.

Utilizing social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok can help a brand reach a broader audience and show its culture and values. Businesses should also encourage employees to share the work experiences they have had on social media. They can also increase visibility by using relevant hashtags.

Recruiters can also use social media marketing to participate in the trends that will allow them to attract new talent. Some of these trends can include ephemeral content, live streaming, and avatars.

Encourage Social Justice

When compared to previous generations, Generation Z is much more socially aware. They need to work for companies that are dedicated to social responsibility. This is why it’s a good idea for businesses to highlight their efforts to give back to the community.

Promoting sustainability initiatives, taking part in volunteering opportunities, and also donating to nonprofits and charities that are doing socially responsible work are a few ways organizations can demonstrate their commitment to social justice. Additionally, companies can show examples of their social responsibility efforts on their social media and website.

Equitable Pay and Transparency Related to Salary

No matter what generation you are a part of, salary and benefits are typically the most important considerations when seeking a new job. Generation Z is not different in this way. However, they do value fairness as well as transparency regarding compensation.

For this reason, a business should be upfront about the pay structure and benefits package that accompanies an available position. Organizations should also make sure their salaries and benefits are fair for all employees. Providing benefits like paid time off, healthcare, and also retirement plans can do a lot to attract and retain talent.

Efforts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Generation Z is also very much concerned with DEI. They want to be employed by an organization dedicated to ensuring an inclusive and diverse workplace.

This is why companies need to display their DEI efforts. A few ways this can be done are to hire candidates that are diverse, implement DEI training programs, and encourage an inclusive company culture. It’s also a good idea for a business to include a DEI statement on its website or social media.

Emphasize the Availability of Development Opportunities

Another thing that is extremely important to Gen Z is having opportunities to grow and develop in their careers. They want to work for organizations that offer these sorts of opportunities so that they are encouraged to grow personally and professionally.

It’s, therefore, a good idea to highlight your learning and development programs. You can demonstrate your company’s commitment to employee growth by offering training/development opportunities as well as mentoring programs.

How Do You Recruit New Graduates?

We’re inching closer to graduation day for another class of incoming job seekers, who will be looking for new positions to start their carreers. But how can you recruit them? From tailoring your benefits to what graduates prefer to letting your company culture shine, here are tips and tricks from executives on the best ways to attract and recruit new graduates.

Reconsider Your Benefits

Your normal benefits package is likely less exciting to new graduates than to your more seasoned employees. If you want to successfully recruit fresh graduates, rethink the benefits you’re offering.

They’re often more interested in flexibility, values and giving back than they are in salaries or great health insurance. It doesn’t take much, but a few benefits specific to the younger generation will go a long way.

Logan Mallory
Vice President of Marketing, Motivosity

Make Relationships With Universities

Recruiters interested in recruiting recent graduates should create relationships with universities. Many universities have career departments that can help connect companies with recent graduates.

Partnering with universities can help recruiters reach a pool of qualified candidates. The relationships that recruiters build with universities can lead to participating in on-campus recruiting events, such as career fairs.

Bryor Mosley
Career Coach, Southern New Hampshire University

Emphasize Mentorship, Advancement and Development

Fresh graduates understand they’re going to be entering the workforce at the entry-level, but they don’t want to stay there forever. If you make it known that you’re a company where they can learn new skills, take on more responsibility and grow their career, you’re not only going to attract more recent graduates for your team, but you’ll also better target the top talent among them.

The graduates who will find advancement, mentorship and other ongoing development most enticing are the exact people you want to hire: those who are passionate about their careers and invested in ongoing learning and growth.

In many cases, these kinds of benefits will be more enticing for recent graduates than a role with a slightly higher salary or other workplace perks, because smart job seekers see how mentorship and skill building will lead to roles with a higher salary range in the future.

Matt Erhard
Managing Partner, Summit Search Group

Don’t Be Exploitive

Businesses have a bad habit of preying on those new to the field. We’ve all heard stories of terrible internships, paid or unpaid, and entry-level jobs that count on a person’s desperation to begin work in their field. Do not be a source of these practices.

New graduates, especially in current times, don’t have nearly as much luxury for gaining experience versus necessary compensation. Expecting someone to take a mediocre job with terrible benefits because they’re fresh to the field will be viewed poorly by graduates.

Even if they do take your job, you can be certain that they will split their attention due to needing to find other methods to make ends meet. If you want to attract recent graduates, offer opportunities that any worker would be interested in taking. When graduates are treated with respect rather than as opportunities for companies, they’ll be much more receptive to recruiting efforts.

Max Ade
CEO, Pickleheads

Use the Academic Calendar

Most senior college students are not likely to be job-hunting during midterms‌! To maximize the effectiveness of your recruitment campaigns, you must time them well.

Using firm funds to recruit recent graduates during test time is probably not a wise investment. Consider starting your recruitment campaign as the school year nears its conclusion. Not too late that all the other major businesses have beaten you to the top fresh graduates, and not too early that students have not yet considered their post-university employment options.

Strive for the sweet spot that will provide you access to recent graduates at the optimal time. If you are unsure of when to target recent graduates, your network of university and college career services departments can be helpful.

Alexandru Contes
Co-Founder, ReviewGrower

Participate in Career Fairs and Campus Events

Participate in career fairs and campus events to connect with potential candidates and build relationships with universities. This could include discussing the company culture and values, offering internships or entry-level positions and highlighting opportunities for growth and development within the company.

It’s important to be authentic and genuine in your interactions to build trust and a positive impression of the company. Additionally, utilizing social media and online job boards can help reach a wider pool of candidates.

Sam Chan
Founder, PiPiADS

Take a Holistic Look at Each Candidate

No matter the role, it is important to take a holistic look at each candidate to find out if they have the drive to excel and the soft skills to fit within the culture.

Recruiters should consider a few elements key to their strategy:

Identify opportunities to engage. Many campuses organize job fairs or on-campus recruiting. These events are great opportunities to connect with many candidates at once before they graduate.

Consider an internship program. A robust internship program is an ideal avenue to pre-train candidates, plus interns learn if the company culture is the right fit before they become a full-time hire.

Prioritize candidates who want to learn. New grads need to be brought up to speed quickly, and enthusiasm for learning helps them succeed.

Understand core competencies. The necessary skills for a new hire depend on a business’s talent needs. In some industries, candidates may need to have completed specific courses to succeed. In others, soft skills may be more important.

Jill Chapman
Director, Early Talent Programs, Insperity

Showcase Your Company Culture and Values

Recent graduates are often looking for a company that aligns with their values and offers opportunities for growth and development. By showcasing your company culture and values, you can attract fresh graduates who are looking for a company that aligns with their own beliefs and aspirations.

Brendan Bray
Team Manager at EC1 Partners

Understanding the Cost of Hiring a New Employee

Behind every successful business is a talented team, but employers often hesitate to hire new employees because of the cost. However, this cost goes beyond paying workers a salary. Businesses also have to consider recruiting, training, benefits, and workplace integration costs.

Many of these costs add up over time, so they often go unnoticed by employers.

The Variables That Impact Employee Cost

If you’re looking for a strict number regarding how much hiring an employee costs, you’re going to be disappointed. There are far too many factors that impact employee hiring costs, but you can use these variables to come up with an estimate.

These hiring variables include:

  • Industry: Industry norms affect compensation, among other things. For instance, if it’s normal to offer paid health insurance in your industry, you’ll have to provide that to stay competitive.
  • Location: Government-mandated minimum wage, state and local taxes, market supply, cost of living, and worker’s laws will greatly impact the cost of hiring workers.
  • Role: A senior or high-level role will be more expensive to fill than a junior-level role, and it goes beyond salary. It takes longer to find a quality employee for a senior-level role.
  • Turnover Rate: It costs 30% to 400% of an employee’s annual salary to replace them. If your turnover rate is high, you pay more to recruit employees overall.
  • Market Conditions: If a skill is rare or we’re currently in a candidate’s market, you’ll need to improve your compensation package to attract the best local talent.
  • Company Size: It’s cheaper for larger companies to hire new employees because a single employee in a larger company will perform more duties or oversee more people.
  • Remote Work: An in-office employee is more expensive to hire because you need to factor in building-based overhead costs, such as rent, utilities, and office supplies.

While these variables are more difficult to account for, you can more easily determine these costs if you keep track of your hiring data. This data will eventually lower your hiring costs.

The Factors That Play Into Employee Cost

Now that you have an idea of what other variables could potentially impact employee costs, you can look at factors that always play a role. Here are the factors that play into employee costs.

Base Compensation

The most obvious cost of a new employee is their salary. Base compensation is a person’s base salary or hourly wage. It typically makes up the largest part of an employee’s cost, but it’s far from being the only cost. A worker that acquires a lot of overtime will cost significantly more.

Payroll Taxes

Business owners are responsible for paying different types of payroll taxes if they hire employees. These payroll taxes include FICA, FUTA, state, local, and unemployment taxes.

  • Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA): FICA covers Social Security and Medicare taxes for employees. As of 2023, the FICA rate for employees is 6.2% of taxable wages for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, for a total of 7.65%.
  • Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA): FUTA helps pay for benefits for unemployed workers. Employers pay 6.0% on the first $7,000 of taxable wages per employee if an employee is paid more than $1,500 in a year. Some employers qualify for 5.4%.
  • State and Local Taxes: Employers are taxed differently depending on the city, state, or jurisdiction they live in. (If you’re curious, North Carolina has the lowest corporate tax rate in the country, which is a flat rate of 2.5%. They’re also looking to phase out this tax.)
  • State Unemployment: State unemployment rates also vary by state. (North Carolina also has the lowest tax rate in this bracket. Massachusetts has one of the highest.)

Worker’s compensation is a non-negotiable tax you pay to protect your workers. Riskier jobs will incur higher worker’s compensation costs (i.e., landscaping, painters, medical employees).

Benefits

Benefits do a lot to attract and retain employees, but there’s no denying they come at a cost. Health insurance is the biggest cost in this area, but it depends on what health plan you choose. On average, employers pay $6,440 to $16,253 per year per employee in premiums.

Additional insurance, such as dental, life, and disability insurance, comes at a lower cost than health insurance but can get expensive quickly if you’re insuring more than 50 employees.

Employers who match retirement plan savings may spend an extra $2,000 to $5,000 per year, depending on that employee’s salary. Paid vacation time andc sick days are other expenses. But in the end, paying for these benefits costs less than replacing employees.

Hiring and Training

Hiring and training include several employee-based costs, and many of them can’t be left on the table. If you phone in the hiring and training process, you’re increasing your chance of turnover. This cost will range depending on if you’re hiring internally or through an agency.

Either way, businesses will have to pay for the following:

  • Recruitment Software and ATS Software
  • Salaries for Your HR Department
  • Fees for Job Postings
  • Background Checks
  • Onboarding Costs
  • Training and Cross-Training

As mentioned, smaller companies will pay more to hire and train employees. The hiring and training process is only successful if you can train the new employee to be 100% productive.

Workplace Integration

Workplace integration is one of the most overlooked costs of hiring. However, if a new employee doesn’t get along with their peers, it could drive them to quit. A toxic culture pushes people out, but an inclusive, communicative, and inspiring culture will keep quality employees around.

Integration expenditures may change depending on the employee’s needs. For instance, if an employee develops carpal tunnel syndrome, they’ll need physical adjustments to their work desk. If an employee recently lost a family member, they will need time off and a reduced workload.

In Conclusion…

No matter your industry, location, or company size, hiring a new employee is going to be expensive. But answering the question “how expensive” requires a lot of research on the business’s part. Once you know the true cost of hiring, you can work it into your budget.

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Recruiting

Studies state that 40% of the recruitment specialist’s time is spent browsing resumes or entering all acquired data into ATS. The conventional recruitment process was typically time-consuming due to the many phases that hiring professionals focused on. These include stages like application verification, background checks, and interviews, which all complicate the process.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, the recruitment process has become simpler and more efficient. Now, applicants can send their resumes online; the software scans all details, and interviews are set automatically.

The increasing use of AI in various industries, including recruiting, is constantly expanding in the current commercial ecosystem.

While AI technology cannot fully replace the natural human cognitive ability, new solutions that have similar functions to some extent are available. These software types include machine learning technology, allowing them to learn, make decisions, and process information without manual input.

Companies in various business sectors enjoy the flexibility of AI integration in devices, tools, and programs. As a result, they are adopting these solutions to automate and enhance their normal processes.

For example, ChatGPT is trained for large-scale human-generated text analysis and generates similarly styled responses. In recruitment processes, this is useful for automating the initial interview process.

The Benefits of AI in Recruiting

Businesses adopting AI-based solutions for the recruitment process have seen many advantages. In this regard, you can also expect some benefits of AI in recruitment in your industry.

Time-saving and Efficiency

AI-based recruitment solutions are increasingly used by businesses, primarily to shorten the duration of the hiring process overall.

According to reports, talent acquisition experts typically spend around 13 hours (or one-third of their estimated workweek schedule) sourcing applicants for just one open position. This is only the first stage of the process—the overall hiring process involves many more steps.

Therefore, recruiters have started to prefer AI-powered software as it can streamline their talent acquisition process. The algorithms scan the applicants based on specific criteria, assign interview dates, and even provide assessment results—all in a shorter period of time.

Reducing Bias in the Recruitment Process

With an AI-based intelligent scanning system, you can screen all applicants faster per your set regulations, like specialization type, employment experience, and educational background.

To note, the AI-based software only relies on the recruitment-related criteria points regarding attributes, skills, and knowledge to hire team members. This helps in reducing bias during the recruitment process.

Enhancing the Quality of Hires

On average, companies in European countries take around 30 days to hire staff, while American companies take approximately 23.8 days. However, the more prominent companies acquire top-level candidates with the best-of-the-best credentials within the first few days. Thus, you need to conduct a fast and smooth recruitment process.

With AI-powered software for recruitment, it is faster to shift through the applications and target the most suitable candidates for the work. Additionally, these solutions can automate the overall workflow, leaving the recruiters free to focus on a complete analysis of the top candidates or the open position.

So, avoid spending time shifting through applications and conducting the interview processes early.

Case Studies: Examples of AI Use in Recruiting

For a better understanding of the impact of artificial intelligence in recruiting, here are some real-world AI recruitment examples for reference.

1.   IBM’s Watson Recruitment Tool

This application for Talent Suite works with the cognitive mechanisms within the ATS (Application Tracking System) of clients. It helps deliver a high-quality recruitment experience.

With this tool, recruiters can match the candidates’ skills with the company’s requirements, prioritize requisitions, recognize that applicants have the highest growth potential via predictive hiring, etc.

2.   Unilever’s AI-based Video Interviewing Tool

Incorporating video interviewing functionality for recruitment is highly useful to avoid issues like candidate ghosting. This initiative’s primary focus is to save time with the interview process by allowing recruiters to interact with applicants directly via video conference.

3.   Hilton’s Use of AI for Talent Acquisition

Hilton integrated AI mechanisms in their hiring model for optimized talent acquisition. The software evaluated the candidates and their information, increasing hiring rates by forty percent and reducing vacant position fill-up time by 90%.

Future of AI in Recruiting

The role of artificial intelligence in recruitment is expected to improve in the coming years, as evidenced by its current expansion in varying industries. The main issues that need to be addressed in this regard are as follows.  

Advancements in AI technology

These solutions are operational in diverse fields, like manufacturing, telecommunications, financial services, retail, and professional services. Not to mention, all sectors have noticed growth with AI-powered automation tools and solutions.

There can be several benefits of AI in recruitment, including:

  • Personalized application and recruitment experience for candidates
  • Automatic hiring processes
  • Predictive hiring support based on critical parameters, like knowledge base, experience, etc.
  • More inclusion and diversity in the team

Ethical Concerns and the Need for Regulation

AI-based software for recruitment purposes includes various novel assessment and talent acquisition tools. For example, they assess different application information based on voice inflections, personal data, and other details to decide who is the right candidate for a job.

However, it is difficult to deduce what precisely the software judges to draw insights, so guaranteeing an entirely ethical recruitment process is impossible. These tools’ machine learning ability analyzes data and adapts to what they learn. These systems are susceptible to learned biases too.

Developers of these solutions prioritize properly balancing all data used for AI model training to cover details for all demographic groups to avoid biased hiring.

The Role of HR professionals in the Changing Landscape of Recruitment

The HR department in most companies today is shifting towards technological solutions to streamline its workflow. More of these professionals are adopting collaborative tools for workforce management, including automated hiring models for the company.

They depend on these tools more since they allow them to focus on other, more stringent processes requiring focused manual attention. So, using automated recruitment systems will decrease human intervention here and digitize the process more.

Wrapping Up

There are many AI recruitment examples for judging job applicants and choosing the right talent for the company. Now, job opening emails can be sent with attractive subject lines to attract applicants due to the emerging role of artificial intelligence in recruitment. More companies will adopt these solutions over time to save money and time while streamlining the recruitment process.

However, while the benefits are high, HR professionals need to note the potential ethical implications of AI in their recruiting practices.

Optimize Your Recruiting Emails with the ChatGPT Chrome Extension

The impact AI has had in the recruiting industry is getting ridiculous. With AI curating lists of potential hires and recruiting emails being crafted by AI, you have to ask…was this article written by a computer? Who even knows anymore. But one of the fantastic things about technologies like these: they can get even better. Now, spoken word queries can be saved, reused, and easily modified with the official ChatGPT Chrome Extension.

If you’re having trouble generating email copy for your recruiting sends, then look no further. This extension adds a zillion different pre-built options for generating content, but luckily it has some email options in there as well. Furthermore, you can customize and tailor exactly what you want the AI to produce if whatever template you’re using isn’t exactly to your liking.

the ChatGPT Chrome extension has a few other neat features. You can tailor the list to your liking with the favorites section, so you can at-a-glance get access to your most frequently used options. However, there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to generating content. It uses tags and other features to allow you to make sure it generates unique content every time. There’s forums, FAQ’s, and all sorts of resources so you can fully take advantage of these features.

Give it a try! If you put a little effort into making your own curated prompts you could save yourself countless hours of work.

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!

Spotlight: Succeeding with Recruiting Solutions in 2023

We’ve curated a list of the top recruiting tools to help you deliver a better candidate experience while rationalizing your investment.

I’ve seen a bunch of cool updates to recruiting and TA tech the last few weeks. In light of this, I’ve been motivated to curate a list with some of the highlights in recruiting tools for 2023 to help you deliver a better candidate experience while rationalizing your HR tech investment.

The past twelve months have been volatile for the labor market. From the COVID hiring boom to the gradual rationalization of labor demand across industries, you wouldn’t be wrong to assume that we’re amid a recession.

However, the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data paints a vastly different picture. The US economy added a whopping 517,000 jobs in January 2023, beating market estimates. The unemployment rate fell to the lowest level since May 1969.

While we witnessed massive layoffs across tech, industries like hospitality and leisure, government, business services, and healthcare, amongst others, added a significant number of jobs.

At a time when organizations are exploring new ways to unlock growth, talent acquisition (TA) can play a pivotal role in enabling businesses to navigate an increasingly unpredictable economic environment.

Focusing on the strategic side of talent acquisition brings enormous benefits to businesses, especially when talent teams are not consumed with tactical hiring activities. With the new talent available for hire, organizations can access a larger pool of qualified candidates. In addition, prioritizing TA during this time can help organizations develop their competitive advantage when it comes to improving the hiring experience – for both candidates and recruiters.

As TA takes on a more strategic role within organizations, it’s a great time to assess your recruiting technology stack to determine if your technology, processes, and people are ready to meet your organization’s near-future and longer-term talent needs.

From the technology demos and success stories that have been shared with me, here are my takeaways on some of the solutions making an impact in 2023.

The Modern Recruitment Technology Ecosystem

Today’s recruiting technology ecosystem is much more diverse, and with good reason. A decade back, it wouldn’t be surprising to see an organization relying on a single-suite solution to orchestrate its entire hiring process. Your typical HRIS or HCM would tackle everything from sourcing to offer management, albeit with limited functionalities and customizability.

Fast forward a few years, and we see an explosion of best-of-breed solutions designed to address specific needs at different stages of the recruitment funnel. There has been a massive shift in how organizations think about leveraging and managing such solutions.

So, top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) activities go beyond the capabilities of a traditional ATS. For instance, there’s programmatic job advertising, with players like Joveo bringing data science and behavioral advertising to enable organizations to reach a much larger pool of qualified candidates. Similarly, we see players like Qualifi, GoodTime, and Metaview delivering better interview experiences (mid-funnel) for both candidates and recruiters.

recruiting tools

The thought of developing a future-proof recruitment stack can be daunting but it doesn’t have to be. Despite the large vendor ecosystem out there, identifying a good fit comes down to clarity in what you seek to achieve with your point solutions.

We’ve deconstructed the hiring funnel to examine how some vendors in 2023 are addressing a number of the biggest challenges in talent acquisition.

Top-of-the-Funnel (TOFU)

As the skills landscape continues to evolve, sourcing and recruitment marketing remain key priorities for organizations. A new study by Mercer found that 98% of companies still report significant skills gaps. While HR and TA look at new ways to address the growing skills divide, a large section (37%)  believe skills acquisition through hiring is the best way forward.

Here are some of the companies you should have on your radar if you’re looking to bolster your TOFU capabilities:

  • PitchMe: The solution offers a great way to supercharge your candidate database, automatically updating candidate profiles in your existing database, allowing you to operationalize your candidate data like never before. Pitchme scans over 35 digital sources to update work experience, contact information, and enrich candidate profiles with verified skills missing from their resumes. It also suggests new candidates from outside of your current database.
    Why consider it? Save on valuable time by automating database enrichment and saving the hiring budget purchasing new candidates.
  • Fetcher: A platform that addresses both – top and mid funnel recruiting needs by delivering candidates right to recruiters’ inboxes and offering a host of candidate relationship management (CRM) features to help you improve engagement with sourced candidates. Fetcher takes a unique approach to identifying great-fit candidates by steering away from traditional databases and using talent intelligence and matching to curate batches of qualified candidates based on requisition criteria. You can also use it to automate email follow-ups and interview scheduling.
    Why consider it? A fresh approach to sourcing and focus on DEI metrics makes it a powerful tool for organizations looking to match with candidates in high-competition industries.
  • Datapeople: Simplifies job posting by automating compliance requirements for pay transparency by location and offering real time recommendations for job descriptions using language analytics. Datapeople also features an intuitive recruiting dashboard that offers insight into your job description language and content. The solution “humanizes” candidate outreach and supports your DEI efforts right from the start, i.e., job descriptions.
    Why consider it? The easiest way to audit recruiting content for job descriptions and outreach for better DEI and conversions. Also offers integrations with all major ATS.
  • Brazen: A virtual career events platform for organizations hiring from both college and non-college alternatives. Brazen also offers a host of candidate engagement features and microsites designed to provide experiential/interactive communication to drive candidates down the recruiting funnel.
    Why consider it? Brazen provides a seamless engagement experience – allowing recruiters to transition from text-based chat to voice and video, all in a branded environment. The platform also offers comprehensive event tools – covering everything from event promotions to an analytics dashboard for measuring event performance.
  • Retrain: Match the right people to the right roles with Retain’s intelligent candidate profiling. The solution helps you discover candidates’ skills and aptitudes and connect them to suitable roles in your organization while reducing bias. Retrain’s responsible AI supports your DEI goals by breaking down candidate profiles into skills while masking titles, degrees, or other factors that can introduce potential bias.
    Why consider it? Leverage talent intelligence to bridge your skills gap and support your DEI efforts.
  • Paradox: A mobile-first, conversational recruiting platform that automates screening and scheduling. Paradox’s AI assistant, Olivia, is an intuitive conversational interface that reduces application drop-off rates by making applications as easy as texting.
    Why consider it? Job application flow has remained virtually unchanged since the early job boards. Olivia makes applying to jobs a lot more engaging and easy.
  • JobSync: A platform for recruitment marketing that automates the integration of ATS’s and job sites. The solution helps connect all parts of a TA tech stack. It also removes friction by simplifying the application process to create a better candidate experience.
    Why consider it? Integrate the application process from the job site to ATS to save time and increase ROI.
  • PandoLogic: A recruiting marketing and conversational AI platform that does everything from job advertising to candidate experience and analysis. It simplifies the hiring process by automatically posting jobs to recruitment sites, search engines, and social media. Its AI-enabled talent acquisition platform helps get job postings in front of more qualified candidates.
    Why consider it? Save time leveraging candidate data while reducing bias, and continuously redefine hiring strategy based on your needs

Mid-Funnel (MOFU)

Candidate engagement and interviews typically dominate mid-funnel recruitment efforts. Over the past two years, this segment has witnessed a massive transformation in the way MOFU activities are carried out. The pandemic accelerated the shift to a digital-first interviewing experience and the rise of communication automation. Vendors have been adding intelligent layers to their candidate engagement and CRM platforms to drive personalized messaging. However, CX as a whole is still evolving and many organizations are yet to begin thinking about engagement as a strategic candidate acquisition enabler. A 2022 report found that nearly 53% of candidates abandoned the recruiting process because of poor communication from the employer.

On the interviews and assessment front, there have been interesting developments since the move to digital. Overall, organizations reported a 44% increase in the number of interviews from 2018 to 2021. A part of this spike could be attributed to the fact that organizations added custom interview stages to their recruitment processes (for technical and leadership positions). On the other hand, the total time spent with prospective hires in the interview process fell 14% during the same time period. While organizations are able to operationalize their interview feedback faster, the candidate journey is a lot more non-linear. This signals an ongoing evolution in the way talent teams interact with candidates through the hiring funnel.

Vendors making moves in 2023 include (but are not limited to):

  • Shine Interview: The platform offers one-way and live interviewing capabilities in addition to video introductions. It can facilitate candidate attraction and interview scheduling as well. Shine Interview helps you seamlessly add highlights and notes to interviews, making cross-team and cross-organizational collaboration seamless.
    Why consider it? Create a single unified view of the candidate from the initial attraction phase to interviewing in a shareable digital profile.
  • Pillar: An interview intelligence platform, Pillar helps you speed up the hiring process by transcribing interviews for easy collaboration. The platform also offers interviewer coaching and question recommendations based on job profiles. However, the standout feature is the platform’s ability to let interviewers curate highlights, post-interview recaps to responses, cutting the failure rate in half. In addition, the offering allows for side-by-side candidate comparison to combat regency bias.
    Why consider it? Pillar’s AI-generated skills based highlight reels make hiring more objective and the question guidance feature helps you weed out any bias from the interviewing process to improve your DEI outcomes.
  • Fama: The company takes a novel approach to helping organizations build a more productive and tolerant workforce by helping them identify problematic behavior before it becomes a problem. Fama offers background screening focused on uncovering intolerant behavior on social media. Its compliant and consent-based screening empowers organizations and hiring teams to make a more informed decision when hiring. With a marked increase in the use of social media post COVID-19, and an associated increase in participation online on topics such as racial justice, politics, and gender equity, Fama can help you mitigate risks associated with incivility, ostracism, bullying, and harassment in the workplace. The product also takes out the possibility of introducing bias that comes with manual screening.
    Why consider it? Discrimination is expensive. In addition to potential legal costs, the cost to replace employees can be anywhere from one-half to two times their salary. For organizations looking to build a healthy and productive culture, identifying and addressing intolerance at the hiring stage could save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Glider: The skills intelligence platform helps organizations assess talent quality across multiple stages – screening, assessments, and interviews, via AI chatbots and proctoring. It offers both technical and non-technical skill assessment features making it a potent tool for businesses across industries.
    Why consider it? Save valuable SME time by automating phone screening with Glider’s AI-guided phone conversations.
  • SourceWhale: A solution that brings consumer-grade personalization to talent acquisition, SourceWhale offers hyper-personalization to engage and drive candidates down the recruiting funnel. Its handy chrome extension allows you to pull in personalized content mid-sequence and edit variables on the fly, allowing recruiters to create a white-glove experience for candidates. SourceWhale also features reporting and automation along with ATS integrations, making it one of the easiest “bolt-on” candidate experience solutions out there.
    Why consider it? Drive personalization at scale with content. Leverage A/B testing, gamification, and DEI analytics to improve your recruiting outcomes.
  • Calendly: A scheduling automation tool that helps reduce time to hire and improve employee productivity. The solution can help teams coordinate multi-step interviews with various formats in a singular location. It also manages interviewer workload, attributes and time-zone to build balanced schedules.
    Why consider it? Increase your candidate pipeline while reducing the time it takes to fill a position. Also decreases interviewer burnout by managing the work across an entire team.
  • Metaview: Makes interviewing more engaging for both interviewers and candidates. Metaview automates notetaking so interviewers can focus on high-quality conversations with candidates. It also offers AI-generated summaries of interviews. Solutions like these put the spotlight back on human interactions in an increasingly automated world. It enriches itself from other data sources like ATS to synthesize the highlights of the interview – making life easier for recruiters and hiring managers.
    Why consider it? Improve the quality and speed of your hiring process by uncovering insights into the rigor and consistency of your interviews.
  • GoodTime: Simplify interview scheduling and bring down your time to hire with smart automation. GoodTime’s meeting optimization engine ensures candidates get matching times on their interviewers’ calendars as soon as they give their availability. It addresses common scheduling problems like manual emails and panel interview slot matching. It’s a great solution for companies with high-volume hiring needs as well as organizations with multiple interview stages for white-collar roles.
    Why consider it? Scale your interviewer pool with shadow training and develop new subject matter experts within your organization.
  • Qualifi: Reduce candidate ghosting and scheduling conflicts with on-demand interviewing. Qualifi allows you to pre-record your interview questions that candidates can respond to and complete within 20 hours, making phone screening a breeze. In addition, a transcript is created which identifies keywords that match the role requirements. Pre-recorded interviews significantly bring down your time-to-hire.
    Why consider it? Qualifi’s interviewing platform allows you to bulk-send interviews to candidates, avoiding the back-and-forth burden of scheduling. Interviews are just a link or QR code away and can be reviewed like a podcast in 1.5 or 2x speed.
  • HireMojo: A new product category within CRM, MojoHire offers a wide range of functionalities, from sourcing to hiring. The platform features a database of job descriptions and interview questions that are further matched to your requisition via AI to help you find the top candidates. MojoHire also identifies the best job posting channels for your open roles using predictive analytics and real-time behavioral data. Finally, automated screening allows recruiters to focus on high-value tasks rather than resume screening.
    Why consider it? Achieve more with your ATS by tapping into intelligent layers and talent rediscovery.

Bottom-of-the-Funnel (BOFU)

As the organizations continue to scrutinize their quality-of-hire, skill assessment platforms have become a staple in the selection stage for organizations. Post pandemic, technical assessments have become more immersive thanks to interactive experiences via problem-solving simulations and conversational intelligence. Vendors in this space are now expanding their capabilities to support more of the recruitment process from sourcing to selection, similar to what we’ve observed over the last two years in the video interviewing segment.

In addition to skills, behavioral assessment and psychological profiling remain relevant today despite scepticism from a scientific validation standpoint. However, we’ve observed a marked departure from game-based psychometric assessments to more holistic job simulation assessments that measure both behavioral and domain skills.

Some assessment solutions to watch out for in 2023:

  • Filtered: A unique approach to technical assessments that does not rely on coding tests or screening. You can instead evaluate candidates with short, comprehensive job simulations that objectively assess the skills you are hiring for. Filtered can help you create real-world simulations tailored to a role and seniority level, while empowering candidates to explain their work.
    Why consider it? Make assessments more impactful and objective to predict candidate performance on the job.
  • Highmatch: Mobile-first assessments that measure the success factors for on-the-job performance. Highmatch offers domain, personality, cognitive aptitude, and situational judgment assessments, making it a 360-degree assessment platform for organizations in all industries and of all sizes.
    Why consider it? Personalize assessment to the candidate and their experiences to get a complete view of their ability to succeed in a role.

Conclusion

Slowing growth and a highly competitive labor market make for an interesting paradox. And the recruiting technology ecosystem is rising to the occasion by developing solutions based on deep-domain expertise and leaning on talent intelligence. With more recruiting tools becoming ATS and HCM agnostic, TA teams have an opportunity to tap into a much larger solutions ecosystem with bespoke capabilities for each stage of the hiring funnel.

Going forward, TA teams will need even more education, support, and consulting expertise to navigate candidate expectations and achieve business goals in 2023. As all these challenges take form, we will be here to guide you.

We hope this resource helps you get started re-envisioning how you address your most pressing challenges with technology.

10 Ways Transcription Services Can Be Beneficial When Recruiting Employees 

Transcription services are becoming a must for businesses, regardless of if the business is large or small. Some companies even require video and audio files and consider audio transcription a requirement, not a choice. 

The need for records and notes is becoming an increasing demand for legal, ethical, and references. Specific documents used in HR departments include:

  • Performance reviews
  • KPI developments 
  • Proofreading of existing contract templates 
  • On and off-boarding documentation 
  • Video recording interviews
  • Also, documentations you may prefer for outsourcing and securing transcription to avoid in-house work 

Keep in mind that there are laws associated with video recording an interview. Some states are two-party consent states, meaning that both parties must consider it lawful to conduct the video recording. Alternatively, a state like Texas offers a one-party consent state. This means that you can conduct interviews without the interviewee’s consent. 

There’s much to learn about transcription services in the hiring process, so let’s dive deeper into this article to learn more! 

Benefits to Your Recruiting Process

Makes Content Easily Consumable and Searchable 

Once the content is transcribed, people will find it easier to reference and review the content. Job-seekers might visit your website and want to learn more about your business, so they might start listening to webinars. Having a transcript will make it easier to find you on Google, so your audience will expand. 

Watching a video with transcription is easier to understand since it promotes hearing and sight rather than digesting information in only one way. Roughly 70% of viewers watch videos without sound in public areas. Consider that most people are somewhere, so they might only sometimes be available to watch videos with sound. Moreover, job seekers might want to consume more of your content but can’t do so if they aren’t free to do so both in hearing and sight. 

Let’s not forget that most job seekers will read about your company before applying. For example, did you know that 86% of users who use Glassdoor will read reviews and ratings before they apply? 

Promotes Accuracy and Efficiency 

Some business owners might find it challenging to hire an in-house transcriptionist and will try to delegate tasks to colleagues who type fast but need to gain experience in transcription services. However, highly-skilled transcriptionists ensure that accurate work is carried out and is produced in the shortest time possible. Therefore, transcription services allow you to focus on time efficiency and delivering an error-free file. 

Also, let’s not forget that hiring professional transcription services will save you time by not managing work independently and allowing you to streamline your business processes. 

Simplifies the Data Collection Process During Academic Research

More than ever, businesses conduct transcription services for academic research (interviews, focus groups, seminars). Academic research is used in all industries, and the HR industry needs it a lot because of the recruiting interviews conducted. Research provides you with enough alternatives for identifying new improvements you can make to your hiring strategies. 

It’s essential to record and analyze your discussion with the target audience you want to hire. In this case, transcribing audio to text is helpful and simplifies the process. It takes much less time to re-listen to conversations and to scan written pages for necessary information. Overall, you’ll easily search for crucial information across several sessions and save enough time while accumulating the data. Then, after you gather all the data, you can report it to higher powers in the hierarchy. 

Saves You Time and Money 

Especially during the hiring process, you need to save as much money and time as possible. Outsourcing transcription services give you a chance to do so. However, let’s not forget that an in-house team for transcription with the right tools allows you to conduct the hiring process effectively. 

Transcription services might be an issue since it takes time to produce high-quality files. However, hiring a professional transcriptionist allows you to get accurate transcripts and eliminate unnecessary costs. Another advantage is that professional transcribers might have years of experience transcribing files, so this is a win-win situation for you. 

The hiring process requires you to save as much time and money as possible. However, the long-term costs might add up to two times the employee’s salary, especially when the turnover rate is high. Therefore, it’s important to consider using transcription services to save time and money. 

Increases the Ways You Can Provide Information to Job Seekers 

The way we deliver and receive information has changed due to technological advancements. Almost everyone has internet now, which gives them more opportunities to access wealth details. 

Business transcription services have many technical improvements and have adjusted how we live our lives and how businesses conduct themselves offline and online. However, while picture and video content are popular and exciting, audio doesn’t offer the same enthusiasm. 

Speeds Turnover Time 

Time is money and delays can cost you a lot in the long term. Therefore, the faster you can speed up your documents, the better it’ll be for you and offer you a higher level of competitiveness. If you don’t have enough time to conduct transcription services, you can hire a transcription company that’ll do the work for you. 

Eliminates Repetition 

Much time and effort are invested in ensuring all readers have the same level of information available. But unfortunately, repetition can get quite annoying; the worst part is that it’s time-consuming and tiresome. 

Taking accurate notes during an interview, meeting, or conference will take time and effort. After all, whether you are conducting an interview with candidates online or in real life, you still have to take notes. However, transcription services are recorded and transcribed to help acquire information the job seeker needs, saving you from speaking too much and becoming repetitive. 

You can share your transcripts in a view-only or edit mode form with anyone, regardless of where they are. Comparatively, human-made transcription services help relieve the stress you put on yourself. This will free up enough resources for the organization to focus entirely on primary business activities. In addition, no matter how many files you need to transcribe, transcription software allows you to streamline the transcription process. 

However, manual transcription software is best if you are considering transcribing a highly critical file. 

Grants the Freedom to Focus on Other Business Activities 

Transcription services save you enough time to focus on other activities while hiring new candidates. Time-to-hire is an important factor, especially when hiring top business talent. In other words, employees won’t need to spend many hours listening to audio files to transcribe, leaving their most important job responsibilities. 

Without interruptions in the flow of responsibilities, your company can effectively operate and save time while hiring new candidates. The best option is to consider delegating this work to a professional transcription service. This is primarily for saving time and money while keeping your daily responsibilities on track simultaneously and providing enough flexibility for everyone at the company. 

Increases the Time Spent on Your Site 

There’s no guarantee of how long users might stay on your site. You can make tons of videos, but nobody guarantees the time users will take to watch your videos. Sometimes, the reason might be a lack of interest or onboarding issues. 

Job seekers will visit your website when they want to learn more about you, so when introducing your company, make sure to make it a good one. Transcription services make your life easier in this part and engage visitors. This is precisely what you need when you are trying to hire candidates. 

Keeps You Organized 

While you run a business, the last thing you want to happen is not to be organized enough. This helps you stay concentrated throughout the hiring process, increases productivity levels, and saves enough time. Being organized becomes a simple process when using transcription services since your files and folders are customized, allowing you to drag and drop by moving folders and files around. Nevertheless, you can print, store, or even display them publicly. 

However, keep in mind to always keep them in a private or public e-folder. You can do this by either saving them on a Word or PDF file, restricting unauthorized access. Being organized with transcription is easy because it allows you to keep files and folders anywhere you want. After all, the last thing you want when hiring someone is to not know where your folders and files are located. 

The Final Cutdown 

Transcription services have come a long way and are making our lives much easier, giving most of the work to AI and reducing time consumption. However, it can be challenging to hire someone and transcription services immensely help us in this part. 

Therefore, whether you are using manual or automatic transcription services, it’s important to use them to your advantage. 

Stop Coaching for Women and Start Developing a Gender-Neutral Leadership Pipeline

Before beginning my journey at Sounding Board, I spent over 25 years building leadership capabilities in Fortune 500 CEOs and other key executive positions. As a result, I’ve seen first-hand how successful organizations approach leadership development, and I have opinions on what works and what doesn’t. 

When it comes to developing women leaders, I often wonder why companies have specific programs for women, especially ones that only include women. There is a perception that women need something different than men — help with “imposter syndrome,” or how to present powerfully, and that somehow only networking with other women is the winning strategy. Of course, some women might need this, but some men might need this as well. Women do not have an inherent lack of confidence or ability to organize and present ideas. All potential leaders have strengths and areas for development. 

Developing Todays Leaders, Regardless of Gender

Developing leaders with a personalized approach makes sense. Leadership coaching is a fantastic way to do this. But not all women have the same needs, and it’s strange to think they do when we don’t have the same frame of reference for men. Do companies have men-only programs for how to tame aggressiveness or how to collaborate and not compete? Of course not! Because all men don’t have the same developmental needs — neither do women. 

Early in my career, employers kept trying to sign me up for imposter syndrome classes. At that time, these classes were called “assertiveness,” and I never needed or wanted them. I’m not shy and have been told my entire life that I need to employ some restraint and not overshadow others. Me in an assertiveness class? It was a disaster. I ended up leading it, and guess what? There were a number of men in the class too. Yet this was the curriculum for women. 

Creating separate programs for women implies that women are different from men and perpetuates existing biases. The reality is that women should get developed, just like men, from day one with a company. To anyone thinking, “but men and women are different!” Of course, they are, and personalized development through coaching handles this because men are also different from each other, just as women are. From a leadership perspective, the most significant difference between men and women is that women leaders often deal with a majority of men and may need help with that. The reverse is not typically true. 

Analyzing the state of global entrepreneurship, World Bank noted, “The gender gap in entrepreneurship reflects recurring underlying disparities and tends to signal strong inequalities in access to institutions.” You will notice they did not say anything about capabilities and skills. That’s because leaders, regardless of biological sex or gender identity, need the same capabilities and skills.

Build Equality Programs

So, what can we do instead of creating programs isolated to women? For starters, companies should build programs rooted in equality. Coaching is a development accelerator. If the goal is to have a balanced pipeline of leaders, you can’t have 80 percent of men being promoted and think that adding a development program for women will change this ratio. The results will always be unbalanced, and parity will be impossible. If an organization needs to catch up because they don’t have gender balance in the leadership ranks now, this is the opportunity to promote more women; there is no need to create another program to do that. Use what is in place for the male employees. 

With regard to possible pushback, my stance remains that naysayers and skeptics are simply feeding into an existing bias against women. We do not need special development programs. We need the same development and promotional opportunities that men receive, starting at the same point in career trajectory as men, with the same championing and support that men receive. 

Given that women are not compromised when it comes to business, a unified approach to leader development can open up new avenues for employers and enable them to rethink how and when development programs start. Even the perceived challenges, such as imposter syndrome, dismissive attitudes from counterparts, interruptions in meetings, and skepticism of decisions, all go back to coachable capabilities like confidence and presence. I have coached a lot of women and have never once worked on imposter syndrome. But I have worked to develop self-confidence, decision-making confidence, and how to generate confidence in others with each and every coachee and anecdotally, for the first 15 years of my career as an executive coach, I only worked with men. Why? Men were — and still are — the dominant cohort at the senior leadership level in many organizations and industries.

Capabilities for Coaching

Capabilities are at the core of successful leadership coaching. Companies need to focus on fostering those capabilities throughout the employee lifecycle. That means developing leaders earlier to be available when the need arises. To accomplish this, employers need to recognize abilities and potential as part of the talent acquisition process and offer coaching immediately post-hire. That way, everyone is equally prepared. Likewise, by starting earlier, employees also have the ability to build out new networks, and networks have been proven to impact professional advancement. Supporting access for women to professional networks traditionally enjoyed by men can also make a big difference. 

A piece published by Harvard Business Review indicated that high centrality, a key measurement in social network analysis, tends to drive placement more than other factors. The author wrote, “Centrality, in this context, is less a function of how many people you know but who those people are. Identifying and connecting with people who are connected to multiple networks is a key strategy.” By sequestering women into gender-specific programs, companies limit their networks and, ultimately, their career development.

Final Thoughts

From what I’ve seen and what the research indicates, if organizations want to create a balanced pipeline, that starts the moment all employees are hired. That is why I advocate for the term gender neutral. Gender is no longer a factor in the decision of who is promotable. Skills and capabilities are, and leadership coaching is a proven way to develop them. The sooner companies realize the value coaching offers employees from the outset, the less likely women and other underrepresented populations are to fall behind.

Why is Internal Hiring Important?

Internal hiring can be a good way to gain new skills without having to spend time and cost on looking for candidates externally. From limiting attrition to supporting your staff’s career progression, here are insights from recruiters, HR leaders, and executives on the importance of internal hiring.

Doesn’t Kill Employee Morale

It is extremely important for organizations to hire from within. This should be the foundation for developing talent and limiting attrition. There is nothing more demotivating for employees than being passed over for a leadership role by outside hires.

Organizations that continuously pass on internal candidates for leadership positions will kill their employee morale and force employee attrition. If your organization does not have an internal candidate that is equipped for the role, that is a direct failure by your company.

You should cultivate talent and train your people to move up in your organization. The goal should be to always have a long roster of talent that you can develop and move to strategic leadership roles.

These people know the company, know the culture and employees, and can seamlessly move into these roles with less downtime. Hiring new people should only be for entry-level and extremely specialized roles, not management.

Mark Smith
Program Chair, University of Advancing Technology

Develops a Committed Workforce

Internal hiring is important for several reasons, but one reason is that it can help to improve employee retention. When employees see opportunities for career advancement within their organization, they are more likely to stay with the company and invest in their work. This can lead to higher levels of employee engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity.

Internal hiring allows the organization to tap into the knowledge and skills of employees who are already familiar with the company culture and values, reducing the time and costs associated with onboarding new employees. The employer values their contributions and invests in their career development, which can help to create a more positive and committed workforce.

Salman Aslam
Managing Director, Omnicore Agency

Keeps Your Culture Strong

Hiring internally means keeping control over the culture you’re trying to create. New hires only stand to threaten that delicate butterfly that is culture unless you go to great lengths to verify their working style during the interview process.

Even if you’re careful, you don’t know how the new employee will be until they’re in the mix with the rest of your team. Hiring from within ensures you protect the culture you’ve built while proving to the rest of the team that you prioritize talent from within.

Jonathan Zacharias
Founder, GR0

Preserves Knowledge in the Company

Internal hiring and promotions are key to keeping hard-earned wisdom. While you can train new recruits with impeccable curricula and materials, nothing will replace the wisdom of a long-term employee who has weathered the storms and celebrated the triumphs alongside your company.

They simply have more context and can make decisions that take that context into account. They know the customers and have developed relationships, so keeping them around and rewarding their work with upward mobility or a change of scene can keep that knowledge with your organization. When someone leaves for a competitor, you can bet that hard-earned knowledge is going with them!

Gates Little
President and CEO, altLINE

Helps Your Team Progress

Internal hiring is crucial to show actively to your employees that you care about their progression, and that you can develop their skills to a point of career development through internal promotions.

Without internal progression, retention is likely to suffer as employees only see an “exit,” and no clear means of internal progression.

Tracey Beveridge
HR Director, Personnel Checks

Reduces External Recruitment Risks

Internal hiring is critical for companies as it helps reduce the risk associated with external recruitment, increases employee morale and engagement levels, and better fulfills managerial objectives.

An uncommon example of why internal hiring is beneficial is that it can help develop up-and-coming leaders and executives who have a deep understanding of the organization’s culture and values.

Hiring from within will allow those already familiar with the company to rise quickly in rank to positions of responsibility that many outside hires would need to be trained on before taking over. In addition, having a committed workforce from within fosters loyalty from team members, which further boosts overall productivity.

Grace He
People and Culture Director, Team Building

Eliminates Bad Calls for External Hires

Assessing cultural fit in advance is hard. And if you make the wrong call, culturally unfitting new hires will be gone within months. One advantage internal hires have is that you will already have a clear picture of their everyday behaviors.

Data you will not get in a one-off interview with externals. Don’t hire for skills; hire for attitude—and assessing attitude with internals is way easier.

Veronika Schäfer
Head of Learning Science, Zavvy

Spares HR From Drowning in Resumes

Resumes flood companies and we’ve all heard the stories of HR professionals who felt overwhelmed with the amount of information they have to process. So why not make their lives easier?

Internal recruitment can be a real game-changer for the recruiters’ workload, as it spares them the complex process of verifying new candidates’ qualifications. Cutting down recruitment stages is a perfect way of quickly covering emerging vacancies.

Not to mention reducing time-consuming onboarding processes. Sometimes the best solutions are hiding in plain sight, and managers overlook the fact that the most excellent candidate might be the one they work with every single day.

Martyna Szczesniak
Community Expert, MyPerfectResume

Bolsters Morale and Engagement

While there are many reasons to prioritize internal hiring, one of the most important is the message it communicates, being that the company values its employees and cares about their career progression.

When a workforce feels valued with a clear path to promotions and increased income, it boosts morale, engagement, and retention.

Hiring from existing talent sends a positive message and confirms the company’s commitment to rewarding talent and hard work. Internal hiring helps keep the highest performers by offering them tangible career progression within the organization.

Candace Barr
Owner, Executive Resume Writer, and Job Search Consultant, Strategic Resume

Without a Strong Employee Value Proposition, You Can Kiss Top Talent Goodbye

As businesses of all sizes continue to keep their eyes on a looming recession, the lasting impacts of the Great Resignation, and the aftermath of COVID’s forced workplace transformation, it is clear that talent acquisition leaders have been hit with a lot of challenges in the past few years. 

Despite the headlines about tech layoffs, the war for top talent is more competitive than we’ve experienced in decades. Job seekers have more power over when, where and how they work – including how they engage with prospective employers during the recruitment and hiring process. 

Companies are competing furiously for talent, and while some companies have adapted to this highly competitive landscape, others are falling behind in terms of competitive offerings and a new level of authenticity needed to attract the best talent. But, one thing remains blatantly clear: a strong employer brand is a deciding factor for prospective employees.

Now more than ever, companies need a well-defined employee value proposition (EVP) to showcase they’re a values-driven organization focused on more than just profits. Coupled with a strong engagement strategy to target this message to prospective employees and a commitment to a positive and smooth candidate experience, EVPs will be a key ingredient to winning the ongoing talent wars.

What is an EVP and Why is it Important?

Defining and building an employer brand is not a task that should be taken lightly – it’s a meaningful way to showcase what your brand stands for, and can impact many facets of the business. While it’s often mistaken for sentiment about company culture and employee engagement, it is far more about what the employer offers to its employees; much like a product value proposition is to the consumers who purchase said products.  

The EVP is how businesses market their value to new talent and retain current employees. It’s the benefit employers offer to employees about why they should come work for their company. Think about the standard interview question “Why should we hire you?” and turn it around: “Why should you choose us as your employer?”

Your EVP sends a consistent message to customers, partners, the community, etc., about who you are as a company and what you represent. Strong employer branding exercises will consider a combination of company identity, mission, values and workplace culture. However, a succinct, impactful EVP will be the differentiating factor to elevate the brand above countless other companies vying for the candidate’s attention. 

If you don’t have an explicit and authentic EVP you’re communicating strategically to prospective employees, you could be missing out on the right talent to drive your business. Surprisingly, even though most people recognize EVPs as critical to a healthy talent acquisition strategy, 41.4% of companies still don’t have one established. So, the problem is not necessarily that companies don’t realize the importance of EVPs. The disparity lies between knowing it’s important and actually investing in creating one, which leads us to believe establishing and implementing an EVP is the main barrier. For the organizations that may have an EVP, they are often slung together in a few slides and don’t have the foundational research needed to be in tune with reality.  

How to Create an EVP

First, an EVP is part of a much larger discussion around employer branding. It’s not just what you can offer to employees, it’s what your company stands for. Here are just a few steps you can take to establish and implement your own EVP: 

Introspection:

Ask yourself what your company has to offer an employee. Why would they want to work for you versus another company with similar pay and benefits? What can you do for them in the long run? If this proves to be challenging to answer, consider asking existing employees via surveys, focus groups and interviews what they find most valuable and rewarding about working for the company. This is also a great time to reflect on areas of company culture that can be improved upon to attract more talent in the future, while creating a better overall experience for existing employees in the process.

Boil it Down:

Boil the answers down into a few simple sentences or a short paragraph, explaining what you offer employees. It’s easy to just mention good company culture and competitive pay, but it’s more constructive to make it unique to your specific company. Does your company offer flexible work hours (appealing to parents) or unlimited PTO (appealing to millennials)? Is the company involved in any community or charitable organizations? How can you demonstrate the company is a people-first organization with a focus on employee well-being and development?

Establish and Market:

Once the EVP is finalized, establish it within your company first, leading by example and ensuring it’s aligned with current organizational goals and culture. Next, develop assets to market it externally as a part of your employer branding and awareness efforts, careful to strategically target key types of job seekers who can become the future employees you want. It is important to target candidates both on and off the job boards so you are not only targeting active job seekers but also trying to reach them during their daily lives. To stand out, it is important to be proactive about bringing your message to them versus completely relying on the job boards to deliver the best hires. Evaluate the results regularly and tweak as necessary to make sure it’s authentic and resonating with internal audiences and external candidates. To answer ‘why should someone want to work here,’ an EVP is not something that should remain static. Just as the dynamics of the job market continuously change, companies should be aware of the evolving work environment, their employee sentiment, and tweaks to their values as time progresses and cultures and priorities evolve. 

When you break it down, EVPs aren’t as daunting of a task as they might seem, and can make all the difference in your hiring practices. 

The job seekers of today have different priorities and it is still critical to understand this is an employee-dominated market.  It’s not enough to just skate by, you need to stand out. Today, millennials have changed the workplace and Gen Z candidates are rapidly entering the workforce  looking for more than just a paycheck and simple benefits. They want to work for a company that has a mission and purpose, but also puts them first. Strong, authentic EVPs build trust, transparency and excitement about an employer brand – and in the end, will encourage the strongest candidates to apply regardless of the type of workers you need to power your business.