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9 Effective E-Recruiting Tools to Manage Your Hybrid Workforce

A survey by Upwork reveals that by the year 2025—22% of Americans will be working remotely. The COVID regulations have influenced how organizations operate and carry out their routine practices and recruitment is also one of them. Recruiting has become incredibly challenging in the post-Covid world and digital onboarding has become a reality. The traditional process of recruitment now seems to become more time-taking, engaging and less efficient due to changing needs of the time. Whereas, the need for a hybrid workforce has become a reality.

The traditional recruitment process doesn’t seem to suffice anymore. Between 2020 and 2021, 66% of recruiters confessed that hiring has become more challenging in the post-Covid world.

The good part is that recruiting can get the advantage of creative uses of artificial intelligence and the digital world as well as ground-breaking methods to unearth new talent. Recruiting becomes easier when you do it using artificial intelligence.

There are many advanced e-recruitment tools to ease the recruitment process and make it completely flawless rather than more efficient. E-recruitment tools— including digital assistants, applicant tracking tools, chatbots and more— are proven to be a competitive advantage when you reduce hiring costs and improve employee retention rates.

Tools For Your Hybrid Workforce

Following are the nine best and most highly-efficient outcomes of artificial intelligence as e-recruitment tools for a flawless e-recruitment process and management of a hybrid workforce.

Cammio — Candidate Assessments

The recruiting of employees includes a huge cost and it becomes sunk cost if the hiring proves to be unproductive for the company. It is estimated that losing a highly efficient employee can cost up to $5,000—making the bad hires highly expensive. This makes the screening of candidates even more critical.

In this case, pre-employment testing is one way of reducing the vulnerability of falling prey to a bad hire. Sandra Rios, director of client services at Buzz Agency recommends, “Cammio is an efficient tool to screen job applications as it comes with the facility to test the work skills, emotional intelligence and personality of the candidates. It allows the companies to screen out the candidates who don’t live up to the criteria of the job while extracting the most potential pool of candidates to compete for a position.”

Mya — My Recruiting Assistant

Mya—stands for “My Recruiting Assistant” is an intelligent e-recruitment tool that facilitates human resource managers in the hiring process. It is basically a chatbot assistant that communicates with the candidates using text, email or Skype. Mya is a customizable e-recruitment tool that offers initial screening of the pool of candidates.

It shortlists the most relevant candidates’ profiles that go well with the recruitment criteria. It also analyzes the candidates’ profiles and ranks them according to their potential. Mya will also reject and pass on a candidate’s profile if the recruiter wants it. It is a private beta, for now, however, you can give it a try to decide on utilizing it for e-recruitment later on.

Pomato

Pomato is an e-recruitment tool to find IT talent only. Its revolutionary technology examines a resume based on how well a candidate matches your job requirements based on skillsets, roles and level of expertise. It then ranks the pool of candidates as per the degree of efficiency and relevance.

Pomato converts a resume into a visual profile—offering you a 360-degree view – instantly. Mark Valderrama, CEO & founder of Aquarium Store Depot says, “If you want to hire IT, professionals, for your team—Pomato is the best tool for your company.”

All you need to do is to enter your job requirements to engage the Pomato matching engine. It scans all the resumes, scores the profiles based on skills and generates at-a-glance reports of the candidates to help you choose the most desired ones.

CVViZ

CVViZ is a highly-intuitive and efficient e-recruitment tool that is simple and user-friendly. It offers an AI-powered applicant tracking system that simply streamlines your recruiting process by smartly automating most of your hiring tasks. CVViZ completely transforms the hiring process and helps you hire the most productive talent.

It contextually comprehends the resumes and matches them to the job descriptions to take out the rightest candidate for the job using machine learning. CVViZ is integrated with the most popular recruiting websites across the world—allowing e-recruiters to post jobs on the paid or free job posting websites with just a click.

Textio

Creating an effective job listing is highly crucial in gathering a diverse pool of candidates. A job listing must be written in an engaging way to attract more candidates from diverse experiences, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds.

Joe Troyer, CEO & head of growth at Digital Triggers says, “Textio is a smart tool for writing unbiased job listings that helps your listings to be more winning.” It offers advanced language insights into your listing content that works well in pushing the passive candidates to apply. It also ensures that your job listings are inclusive and equally inviting for the genders.

GoCo.io

The story didn’t end with bringing the most efficient employees onboard. Therefore, the simplification and efficiency of a hybrid workforce are highly crucial for the prosperity of any business today. The streamlining of HR processes allows organizations to focus on bigger things together.

Derek Bruce, operations director at Manchester First Aid Courses says, “GoCo is a vital investment for companies that are to hire a huge workforce to run their business operations. It digitalizes the HR processes that save up much time and resources and put things on the go. 

GoCo is a tool to streamline your HR workflow by bringing employee documents, records, time off and everything else into one place. It has a user-friendly interface that brings flexibility to perform HR tasks. It also allows you to send digitally signed offer letters to the selected candidates. You can also gather tax withholding information in a couple of minutes. It also has exciting features of a digital onboarding checklist and new hire packets for orientation that make the first day of your employees smooth and hassle-free.

TinyPulse

The success of a recruitment process is nowhere if a company fails to retain and manage an employee well. Therefore, focusing on how your employees feel about the culture and experience of working in your company is highly inevitable.

“TinyPulse is a tool kit that has two tools allowing companies to survey employee engagement and performance. It reads how your employees feel about working in your company,” says Ellie Shippey e-commerce growth specialist, EZContacts.

It also looks after the privacy of employees and keeps their feedback highly confidential and completely anonymous. It makes the companies give due consideration to the experiences of the hybrid workforce that may include employees from diverse experiences, backgrounds and environments.

Interviewer.ai

The role of psychology is perceived to be undermined during digital onboarding. There are many e-recruiting tools that remove this misconception. Interviewer.Ai is a cost-efficient AI recruitment software solution that utilizes psychology and machine learning to screen out and find top candidates based on the criteria of recruiting company.

It provides an unbiased assessment by observing the candidates’ complete body language and expressions during the video interviews. It also evaluates the soft skills and level of competence of the applicants to select the best candidates that the company must interview.

Interviewer.AI is a state-of-the-art video recruiting software that utilizes AI (Artificial Intelligence) to screen and shortlist candidates that meet the criteria set by the recruiter. Today, the HR teams rely on software to make the recruitment process more effective and shorten the hiring cycle. 

Toggl Hire

This e-recruiting tool works best for hiring employees for any department of a company.  It pre-screens candidates for the posts of engineers, managers, developers, marketers, sales, customer service agents or more says Myles Robinson, digital marketing expert at LoanCorp.

First of all, it seems the customized tests the potential candidates automatically evaluate them to assign them grades on the basis of what they are ranked. It takes out the most potential candidates for further screening and interviewing to reduce the hiring time and make hiring more effective.

Bottom Line

Digital onboarding and management of a hybrid workforce become more flawless and effective with the use of artificial intelligence. The e-recruitment tools can potentially eliminate the recruiting obstacles in today’s business environment. It helps in streamlining the hiring process and gathering a pool of qualified potential candidates.

It avoids talent leaks by reducing employee turnover. E-recruitment tools also make the hiring process speedier and less tiring. It offers visual reports to represent data in a more digestible way that helps the recruiters in making the right decisions.

How to Choose a Talent Intelligence Solution: A Buyer’s Guide

As the labor market recovers, businesses are ramping up hiring. But finding good talent is always challenging, especially amidst a tight labor market and struggling recruiting teams.

According to a study by Aptitude Research, 40% of companies are increasing their headcount this year. The study also found that 42% of recruiters lack adequate resources to succeed.  In a welcome change, 43% of companies are investing in AI to support talent acquisition. The global talent management software market was valued at $7.09 billion in 2021. From $7.93 billion this year, the market is estimated to grow at a 12.1 CAGR and reach $17.66 billion by 2029. 

When to Invest in a Talent Intelligence Solution 

While there is no wrong time to transform your talent acquisition and business, here are some red flags to consider: 

    • Increasing turnover rates
    • Declining employee engagement and commitment
    • Longer hiring times
    • Higher cost of recruitment 

These factors indicate that your traditional methods are quickly becoming obsolete and it’s time to update them. A data-driven approach with talent intelligence allows you to:

    • Source talent proactively 
    • Stay ahead of the labor market trends
    • Perform strategic workforce and succession planning
    • Support internal talent mobility
    • Overcome skills gap

Once you assess your business needs and plan to invest in a solution, consider the following features and questions. 

Essential Features in a Talent Intelligence Solution

Talent Intelligence solutions have skyrocketed in popularity.  But, with so many options in the market, how do you decide which one is the best for you? 

System Capabilities 

Ease of Implementation and Integration

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) are the core features of any TI solution. Data from these sources generate talent insights to achieve hiring and business goals. 

Also, solutions that integrate with your existing tech stack are easy to implement and sustain. Ask your vendor: 

    • Does the solution support integration with existing ATS and CRM tools?
    • How does the implementation process work? Can you share a sample plan?
    • What resources will be required from our team to complete implementation?
    • What’s the estimated timeframe for implementation?
    • What type of customer support is available during and after implementation? 
Flexibility and Scalability 

Your goals and needs change with time and it’s not always possible to find a new solution to match them. Sustainable solutions are agile and suitable for quick change management over time, especially when you decide to scale up.  

    • Is the solution scalable? What does that look like in action?
    • Does it align with the cloud model e.g. SaaS? If not, how are product changes deployed?
    • How do software updates communicated to customers? 
    • Is your solution regularly updated with new features?
Reporting 

A comprehensive solution is essential to provide an overview of all talent data to drive data-driven decision making. In addition, having robust reporting  helps you find relevant information in one place, instead of navigating multiple systems.

    • Does the solution have built-in business friendly reports?
    • Do the analytics provided in reporting  create a 360 degree view of operational and business performance? 
    • Is it possible to  get insight into the competition?

Accuracy and Reliability 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significantly improved hiring, but it is important to assess for accuracy and reliability of the solution. Since the ultimate goal is to hire candidates who will stay on, it’s crucial to ensure that your tech solutions are producing reliable results. Here’s how you can check that with the vendor: 

    • Is your AI model transparent and validated?
    • Do your AI solutions get smarter with human inputs? 
    • How does your AI solution help augment human decision-making instead of automating decisions?

Talent Management 

A talent intelligence platform allows you to recruit qualified candidates and empower them throughout their employee lifecycle. Assess a potential solution for its ability to boost recruitment, perform strategic workforce planning and enable internal mobility for current employees. Here’s what to ask: 

Recruitment 

    • How does the system automate and enhance candidate engagement? 
    • How do you eliminate recruitment bias? 
    • Does the system “clone” your best performers?
    • How does it target candidates for hard to fill roles? Does it have advanced filters?

Strategic Workforce Planning 

    • Does your solution paint a robust picture of the total addressable labor market?
    • Does it provide insights about talent trends within the organization? 
    • What kind of reports does the solution generate? 

Internal Talent Mobility

    • Does the solution provide an overview of current employees? 
    • Can it uncover patterns and gaps across the internal organization?
    • Does the solution match current candidates with relevant transfer and promotion opportunities? 

Diversity Hiring 

Diversity continues to be a priority for organization hiring this year. While AI is ‘technically’ free from human bias, it requires active steps to ensure that it remains inclusive. You must ask service providers how they address bias: 

    • How is the data sourced and stored? 
    • Do they use bias-reducing techniques i.e., removing identifiable information?
    • Does the system evaluate candidates based on job-relevant information? 
    • Does it support souring for underrepresented candidates
    • Can it provide insights regarding diversity representation within the organization?

Security Measures

Growing data privacy concerns have prompted the government and service providers alike to enforce security measures to protect data. Before you finalize your AI solution, ensure that it complies with and remains updated with the local data privacy laws.

An ethical service provider will readily answer these questions and will have established data management systems. Some questions to consider:

    • How do they ensure data security? How do you protect the data obtained from potential candidates?
    • What security and compliance certification do they have?
    • Is your solution GDPR compliant? Or with the local and national legal standards?
    • How do you handle a data breach/security attack? 
    • Can you share your privacy policy, security statement and service level agreements?
    • Where and for how long is the data stored for your solution?

Assessing Business Outcomes and Return on Investment (ROI) 

The primary goal of using talent intelligence is to use talent insights to drive business outcomes. Asking about ROI will help you assess the efficacy of the solution. Some questions you can ask: 

    • Can you share case studies or success stories from other clients?
    • How does the solution help achieve talent acquisition targets i.e. decreased time to hire, sourcing technical candidates?
    • How can the solution create better alignment with TA teams and hiring managers?

Are You Ready to Invest in a Talent Intelligence Solution? 

Make sure that you are doing your research. Yes, businesses are using insights from talent intelligence solutions to inform their talent acquisition, retention and management strategies. But, it can be tricky to choose the right solution that meets your goals and needs.

Companies like Seekout (with more than twice the amount of reviews than the next competitor), Ripplematch, Entelo and about a dozen more can help you dig deep into the numbers.

Here’s a ranking on G2 to help navigate the course.

3 Trends Changing Frontline Hiring

Line cooks, home health aides, customer support and truck drivers are just a few of the millions of frontline jobs in high demand today. These frontline workers make up 55% of the U.S. workforce, and even with recent inflation and recession fears, demand for hiring them remains incredibly strong. 

Frontline workers are different from the rest of the workforce in that they’re typically paid by the hour, work outside a 9-to-5 schedule, and work as individual contributors. This means that TA leaders who are looking to ramp up frontline hiring are quickly realizing that the same processes and tech they use for general hiring doesn’t work.

Here are three trends that are changing frontline hiring today.

Mobile-First Job Search

The percent of job searches done from a mobile device is up to 68%, yet mobile application rates have decreased to 4.8%. That’s because employers are struggling to convert frontline job seekers using job applications designed for desk workers.

Standard job applications require job seekers to import resumes, create profiles and enter their job history which is nearly impossible to do from a mobile device. TA leaders looking to scale frontline hiring should focus on creating job applications that are easy, conversational and mobile-first to increase application rates.

Fast and Frequent Engagement

Frontline job seekers prioritize speed, with 37% saying that getting hired quickly was their most important factor in taking a job. Instant engagement of candidates that have applied in the past or previously shown interest gives employers a distinct advantage.

Most candidate engagement means someone from your recruiting team has to filter through your talent community, CRM & ATS to build a list of people, create an email or text campaign and reply to candidates. It’s too slow and many candidates never hear from employers they’ve shown interest in.

Successfully engaging frontline workers requires lightning-quick automation that gets new jobs in front of the right prospective candidates, preferably on their phones via text, as soon as they’re posted. A few days’ difference in engagement can mean a few weeks’ difference in a hire.

Career Sites That Convert

Many frontline job seekers are consumers of the brands they work for. That’s one reason almost 30% of them find jobs by searching a company’s website. More frontline workers search on career sites than job boards, social media posts or by walking into a storefront location.

Career sites are another major point of job seeker dropoff when they are too hard to navigate. For example, many frontline job titles can have different names like custodian, janitor, maintenance and handyman. If a frontline job seeker searches “custodian” but your job search isn’t built to bring up every related role, you’re probably missing out on qualified candidates.

Since over 95% of job seekers leave career sites without applying, it’s critical to give them an easy option to stay connected before they leave. Many employers have Talent Networks in place to help with this, but most job seekers never sign up because the call to action is buried and rarely available on job pages (where most job seekers visit). There are many highly qualified candidates visiting career sites but not applying, so giving them an easy alternative way to connect is critical.  

Remote Externships: The Future of Student Recruitment

Corporate America is leveraging a new form of experiential learning called the remote externship to attract, engage and assess Gen Z talent in more scalable ways – and talent acquisition professionals are taking notice.  

Entry-level positions often expect student applicants to have prior professional experience.  Yet most competitive internship opportunities at large organizations miss out on students who are still genuinely exploring their career interests, and therefore whose resumes are not fully polished. 

When recruiters and talent acquisition professionals fail to cast a wide net in attracting, engaging and assessing young talent, it misses out on underrepresented student communities that are critical for building a diverse talent pipeline.  

Enter the Remote Externship: a project-based educational experience that companies like PwC, HSBC, National Geographic and Meta can use to reach and engage large cohorts of underrepresented student talent in alignment with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals and without deploying significant resources. 

Why Internships and Career Fairs Often Miss Great Underrepresented Talent

It all goes back to the significant resources talent acquisition professionals must deploy with traditional internship programs – HR and employee-supported interviews, onboarding, training, project assignments and evaluations – and the correspondingly high ROI (“Return on Internship”) that is expected as a result. 

Intern conversion rates to full time hire of 80% – 90% are not uncommon, which puts enormous pressure on students needing to look buttoned up and ready to hire during their junior year of university.  This, in turn, means that talent acquisitions professionals miss out on large swaths of talented students around the country who don’t get picked up through traditional resume screenings.  

The reality is that taking a bet on “unproven” students with 3-month in-person employment can be a major perceived risk for talent acquisition professionals whose resources – particularly its human capital with core responsibilities to the organization – are limited and constrained. 

On-campus career fairs and informational sessions have been the standard ways companies engage with students earlier in their career discovery process, shaking hands over the usual ho-hum conversations before directing students to a company’s jobs page.  Engagement is low and superficial at these events.  

Talent Acquisition professionals need a solution that is fully remote and globally accessible to students wherever they are so that they can attract, engage and assess talent during the 9-month “off cycle” when students are in school.

Let’s dive deeper into some of the benefits of remote externships as a potential solution. 

Benefits for Talent Acquisition Professionals

Talent Acquisition professionals need solutions that drive employer branding with young talents while also providing robust and predictive soft & hard skill assessment on projects that are tied to actual work their teams perform.  

Remote Externships require less time, money and resources than internships, making them an ideal early talent identification program for companies that want to invest in large scale talent identification, engagement and assessment.  They can also be ideal as a scalable student innovation program, DEI impact program or even as a way to engage recently hired – but not yet onboarded – students to reduce reneged acceptances.  

Driven by Software

Utilizing a software-enabled platform that hosts the remote externship experience is key in making the program more streamlined and successful for recruiters and talent acquisition professionals.  The ideal platform should work cohesively with companies in compiling what the projects entail and can develop training, tasks, webinars and networking opportunities from there. 

Once the program is deployed, the service continues to do the heavy lifting by onboarding the externs and allowing them to login and work remotely at their convenience – tracking their progress and evaluating them along the way.  

An Interactive Learn-Work Classroom Experience that Engages and Assesses Students

An effective remote externship program leverages two important elements: (1) skill-based curriculum development to ensure effective training and employer branding with students, and (2) Program Managers who act like TAs (teaching assistants) in a class by providing mentorship, support, feedback and assessment for students. 

This not only gives back a significant amount of time to talent acquisition professionals and their employees, but also allows them to engage dozens of externs on a single project, providing access to a wide range of early talent. Additionally, as companies work to improve their DEI initiatives, the flexibility and remote nature of an externship allows them to access more students from diverse backgrounds across the globe that may not have had the opportunity to participate in a typical internship due to time or financial constraints.

Well-known companies that have hosted successful remote externship programs include Meta, Pfizer, The National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, PwC, HP Tech Ventures and more. 

Making Organizational Compliance Seamless

When structured in the right way, remote externships can give talent acquisition leaders control and insight throughout the organization. Traditional internship programs tend to be centralized and constrained to the summer which creates friction for teams looking to tap student talent flexibly and year round. 

By effectively leveraging technology, remote externships can be pre-approved by senior execs, compliance, legal and HR to enable on-demand creation of projects and on-demand access to pools of students.  Remote externships can break through corporate bureaucracy by empowering employees to activate student candidates directly while giving talent acquisition leaders the compliance control, branding control, data insights on student performance and feedback from students on their experience needed to effectively manage a modern educational program and thriving candidate network.

As talent acquisition specialists work to find talent aligned with a company’s long term goals and specific skill sets, remote externships grant them insight into the success of the students at an early stage by tracking and evaluating their work, as well as learning more about them through networking opportunities. 

Cohort-based Models are Familiar to Students and Scalable for Companies

Fortune 1000, their talent acquisition leaders and employees are in need of a custom & scalable early-career educational experience to engage students.  Remote externships act like a bridge, or training wheels if you will, between the world of education and the workplace. 

Since externships are cohort-based, companies can train, engage and assess students on case studies or work projects relevant to teams without utilizing as much human capital needed with traditional internships. 

Talent Acquisition professionals and employees can also engage students on projects during the 9 months outside of summer by reaching them wherever they may be.  And compared with on-campus career fairs, remote externships allow organizations to build an employer brand that engages its employees in skill-based volunteering, thus increasing the employer’s relevance to the Gen Y & Z workforce.  

In an age when Gen Z is expecting more from the corporate world, remote externships strengthen a company’s candidate-facing brand by aligning with student values.  Externships also cultivate innovative strategies from Gen Z that lead to real business impact in areas like Web3, product innovation, market research and more.  

Efficiency and Flexibility for Everyone Involved

Over the past few years, cohort-based remote externships have been created to mutually benefit students and companies for the optimal project-based work experience.  Similar to a classroom-based case study or capstone project, but with a bit more real world applicability, a remote externship is a learning opportunity designed for students to gain hands-on experience within an industry of their choice, at the guidance of a host company. 

The programs require less of the students’ and host companies’ time, offering more flexibility for company employees to take part in skill-based volunteering.  As externs are typically less active in their host companies’ day-to-day operations, they have more time to gain a greater understanding of their industry while working on projects that are catered to big picture ideas and practices. 

Most remote externships are project-based, allowing students the flexibility to integrate with their busy schedules which means that companies can engage student talent year round as opposed to just during a summer internship. 

Unlike semester-long co-op programs run between some universities and corporations, most remote externships are designed to run for just a few weeks with the optimal time commitment for a student being about 10 hours per week – work done on their own time.  

Remote Externships Aren’t For Every Organization

As a talent acquisition leader or executive in charge of DEI initiatives, ask yourself these questions when determining whether a remote externship is worth exploring for your organization:

    1. Does the C-Suite consider Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as a priority (beyond just PR initiatives)?
    2. Does my organization encourage innovation and change?
    3. Is my organization’s culture supportive of student mentorship and corporate social responsibility?
    4. Will my organization embrace the idea of creating a corporate-branded experiential education program for students?
    5. Do I have the right internal tech and product capabilities, or should I find a tech partner that can streamline the process?  Making sure that the right technical capabilities and processes are in place will ensure a streamlined and smooth program delivery.

The Big Takeaway

Companies might consider adding remote externships to their company initiatives for several reasons: (1) to accelerate their DEI initiatives by extending more opportunities to assess underrepresented talent on real or simulated work; (2) to expand their early talent employer branding by leveraging students’ proclivity for remote experiences and career discovery; and (3) to simplify the cost, administrative overhead, and employee time needed to support large-scale student professional experiences as an alternative to internships. 

As students become more aware of remote externships within their field, they will most likely begin to seek out these programs over an internship, favoring the flexibility, project-based learning style and networking opportunities. 

Retaining Talent In an Economic Crisis

Economic crises can be trying times for recruitment and talent acquisition professionals in any industry. Markets going in the wrong direction can lead to downsizing, layoffs and other changes within your business. Some organizations start restructuring from the bottom to the top. These shake-ups can lead to top talent leaving your company to pursue other ventures. That’s why recruiters use these strategies to acquire and retain talent during a crisis.

Emphasizing Remote Work

Telework increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and research has shown it’s here to stay. Remote work will constitute about 25% of all professional jobs in North America by the end of 2022. 

The pandemic has shifted people’s priorities — they want a better work-life balance and can achieve that with remote work. Employees across many industries can do their job from home.

About 61% of people who have worked remotely since 2020 prefer to stay that way rather than return to the office. Remote work is popular with Millennial and Gen Z adults, so telework is an essential factor if you’re a recruiter wanting to attract and retain young talent.

Being Honest With Employees

Your word is your bond — this phrase goes back to the days of Shakespeare and beyond and it holds true for businesses. The best thing you and your company can do during an economic crisis is to stay honest with its employees and new hires.

This notion applies during hard times and brighter times. Being candid and telling staff what’s happening is better than hiding information and lying about the current state of affairs.

Honesty sets the tone for the workplace culture, which is a big deal for potential employees. If talented prospects hear rave reviews about your company’s culture, they might be more likely to jump on board and stick around for a long time.

Pushing Ongoing Learning

The initial training sessions a manager or HR representative gives a new hire are vital because they set the tone for the job. Equally important is the opportunity to continue learning and growing in their field.

Workers want to learn and develop marketable skills in their careers that will elevate them up the chain. Ongoing training benefits your company as much as it does the employees.

Some companies may offer a discount or a stipend for online college courses. Others may have in-house training sessions targeted to whatever industries the business has. Providing workers with opportunities for these classes is critical because they’ll gain skills and become more marketable, which will help them feel valued during a crisis.

Touting Compensation Packages

The pandemic has changed the world’s economy and shifted what workers need from a job. When they look for a new position, they want to set themselves up for success by monetarily taking care of themselves and their families. A benefits package is a crucial way to acquire the best talent, yet only 22% of companies promote it during recruitment.

A compensation package is critical because it’s one of the first things job hunters look for in the description you post online. When prospective hires see the pay and benefits, they’ll get an impression of your company based on that alone.

A robust package with benefits for the employees and their families will show your business truly cares about them. Stressing excellent coverage is essential because it will help retain employees long-term. About 43% of workers who quit a job say poor benefits were a reason for their departure — a whopping 63% cited low compensation.

Showing Care for Mental Health

Mental wellness has become an increasingly important topic inside and outside the workplace. Young people especially show concern and take action when they feel their mental health is suboptimal. About 68% of Millennials and 81% of Gen Zers say they have left a job for mental health reasons.

To recruit a younger workforce and retain these talents, you as a recruiter need to show how your company prioritizes mental health. One way the HR department can achieve this is through an investment in mental health training.

When you show you care about the employees’ mental health, it helps workers in the short and long term by reducing turnover and keeping everyone content. Mental health training can help increase productivity, mitigate stigmas and minimize the risk of substance abuse disorders.

How to Acquire and Retain Talent

Recruiting and keeping great talents can be a tall task for talent acquisition professionals, especially in an economic crisis. Since the pandemic, workers have new priorities regarding the workplace and are more choosy when selecting a new job. They prioritize themselves, their mental health and their families.

With remote work becoming the norm, increasing telework options has become necessary. Prioritizing mental health training, touting benefits packages, including ongoing learning and demonstrating honesty are a few things you can do to keep the best talent.

Video Interviewing and Messaging: A New Recruiting Holy Grail?

Today’s recruits expect companies to offer an authentic look into the workplace culture and specific job roles. There is also a strong desire for many potential employees to find an organization that aligns with their own values. Therefore, recruiters and business owners are encouraged to think differently about how jobs, people and environments are showcased to prospective employees. In a tight labor market, recruiters may consider adopting video interviewing and messaging to attract today’s modern candidates.

Organizations considering video to elevate their brand and improve candidate quality by incorporating video interviewing and messaging into the recruiting and hiring processes should consider the following three key elements.

Number One: The Message

Although technology has made it easier and less expensive to record and post videos, business leaders must understand the critical aspects of a quality video, which engages job seekers and encourages the next steps. To create a captivating video, employers must tell a story that captures the essence of their culture.

    • Short and creative scripts – developing concise scripts, no more than three minutes in length, to help grab and maintain applicants’ attention when addressing the company, culture and job roles.
    • Valuable information – providing job seekers the necessary information on a specific role, its impact and what a company does can attract more top candidates, saving time and energy for all parties.
    • Real people – incorporating actual employees instead of professional actors or senior leaders/managers in videos displays authenticity and can build trust among job seekers.
    • Exclusive benefits – using audio or visuals to emphasize unique attributes such as office perks and benefits will reinforce the employee value proposition and resonate with candidates.

Number Two: The Content

The video content created must resonate with prospective candidates to build a powerful and appealing story. Therefore, employers are encouraged to determine their objectives and identify types of content for recruiting videos, namely the following.

    • Task specific – create “a day in the life” videos of employees to showcase the responsibilities of the job, work environment and the skill set required to make a greater impact than a text version.
    • Core values – develop videos that demonstrate employee, client and community interactions to showcase the company’s values and attract like-minded job seekers.
    • Workplace culture – capture videos that highlight a vibrant culture of team-building activities, events, corporate functions and community involvement to gain a competitive advantage.
    • Testimonials or Awards – draft videos with clips of employees giving genuine insight into the company or feature corporate awards that underscore the culture.

Number Three: Use of Content

Organizations can leverage video for recruiting by identifying avenues to engage candidates. Recruiters or hiring managers can seamlessly incorporate videos into these communication channels.

    • Career sites – showcase videos on career sites, job postings or the company website so interested candidates can learn more about employment opportunities and increase company SEO.
    • Social channels – share videos across company social channels and expand recruiting reach across multiple user networks and talent pools.
    • Confirmation emails – include videos in candidate communication like job search or application emails to give applicants an exclusive preview into the company.
    • Job fairs – use videos at job fair booths to drive traffic to the booth and connect with ideal candidates one-on-one.

With labor shortages, record resignations and a job seeker’s market, storytelling through video interviewing and messaging in recruiting and hiring can help humanize a company, deliver a personalized experience and create emotions of enthusiasm and desire among applicants.

Additionally, video interviewing and messaging may convince candidates to choose your company over the competition. By considering the above three key elements to video recruiting, companies can tip the scales in their favor.

RecruitingDaily Welcomes Industry Expert Martin Burns to the Team

SHELTON, Conn. Sept. 12, 2021 – RecruitingDaily, the leading media resource for recruiting and talent acquisition, hired talent expert Martin Burns to be managing editor and analyst.

In this role, Burns will use his experience and expertise in staffing, consulting and content management to leverage content for RecruitingDaily’s network of websites an online courses.

Prior to RecruitingDaily, Burns served as strategic consulting advisor at HireClix as well as editor in chief of its subsidiary, Recruiting News Network (RNN). He brings with him a deep expertise in talent acquisition, recruiting and sourcing, in addition to the ability to produce and manage content as part of RecruitingDaily’ editorial efforts.

“We’re thrilled to bring Martin onto our team,” said RecruitingDaily Founder and CEO Noel Cocca. “Martin brings a wealth of industry experience, analytical skills and the ability to turn that into easily consumable content for our readers. As an industry expert, he has the knowledge necessary to help further our goal of being the number one source in the industry for recruiters and talent executives alike. Moreover, this aligns with our growth plans to develop our content strategy growth plans for both RecruitingDaily and the HCM Technology Report.”

From his side, Burns sees this as an opportunity to partner with a number of respected old friends. “For my entire career, I’ve always had writing in the background – it’s been a key part of my toolkit,” he said. “At RNN, I got my hands into editorial production for the first time as a writer and editor, as we built a news bureau from the ground up. That role gave me the skill-set and knowledge to move into the position of managing editor at RecruitingDaily. Now, I’m eager to collaborate with like minds and work closely with content and news.”

Burns will be joining the RecruitingDaily team at HR Tech this week in Las Vegas.

About RecruitingDaily
Founded in 2010, RecruitingDaily is the leading online media resource for today’s recruiting world, offering a signature mix of content, news, webinars, podcasts, video, and the signature #HRTX events that develop professional best practices. RecruitingDaily and its network of sites reach a global audience that ranges from entry-level sourcers to strategy-level executives in the Human Resources, talent acquisition, recruitment marketing, compliance and diversity and inclusion professions worldwide.

Unf*cking the Fire Hose, a.k.a. Making Recruiting Data Usable

Picture it: the recruiting industry, 2012. There are now 5 billion people with internet access. Instagram finally releases its Android app, giving at least half of those folks a new distraction for the sake of “social recruiting.” LinkedIn suffers a massive hack exposing the passwords of nearly 6.5 million user accounts. There’s a debate raging around “mobile-friendly” versus “mobile-first.” Talent Board announces the first winners of the Candidate Experience Awards. And everyone’s looking at “Big Data” to solve the ongoing issues of time to hire, cost per hire, quality of hire and the like.

We read countless articles, sat through webinars and attended endless events about how the availability of Big Data would be like “drinking from a fire hose,” giving us more than enough information to improve outcomes and capture more accurate metrics. 

Fast forward: the recruiting industry, 2022. There are now six billion people with internet access. Instagram changes its feed with such frequency that it’s become one long stream of ads, rendering it useless for social recruiting (if that was ever really a thing).

Today’s LinkedIn hacks are about hacking the algorithm to increase visibility amid career experts, resume writers and influencers espousing their latest thoughts about “quiet quitting” and other buzzwords. The mobile debate is moot, with smartphone usage outranking other devices. The Candidate Experience Awards are still trucking. And everyone’s trying to figure out how to be “data-driven” and make all the information they’re capturing usable without the help of a full-time analyst. 

It’s striking how much the more things change, the more they stay the same, particularly in recruiting data. Hiring trends come and go (look at you, Great Resignation-cession). Recruiters get laid off and hired back en masse. Told to do more with less. And keep coming back for more. With that said, there *is* a lot of data available these days, and some of it is actually helpful – if you know what to do with it. Here are a few things to note: 

If You Don’t Know What It Means, Don’t Try and Measure It

Some metrics are relatively straightforward. Time to fill = how many days it took, from the req getting approved and posted to the day you received an accepted offer. Time to hire = how many days it took from when the candidate entered your pipeline to the day you received an accepted offer.

On the other hand, quality of hire is a bit more nebulous. How can one determine the value a new hire brings to a company? How long do you give that person to demonstrate value? How does your probably subpar onboarding experience impact their ability to show value? Define your metrics before you start to measure. 

You Don’t Need to Measure Everything

If it were up to most executive teams, every aspect of recruiting would be quantifiable, but it’s not. We’re talking about a human-based function – far too many variables are at play. Rather than measure everything, determine what matters to your organization and stick with a few key metrics.

Are you involved in high-volume hiring? Seasonal? College recruiting? Executive search? You wouldn’t try the same recruiting strategy to fill these different types of positions. Likewise, you cannot, nor should you, try to fit all of these into the same boxes. Pick a few metrics to focus on. 

You Don’t Have to Be an Analyst to Analyze

Seems obvious, right? But not everyone in recruiting is comfortable with numbers. If you were, you might have picked another profession. Luckily in today’s world, there are technologies that can do most of the recruiting data computations for you without needing to build out a complicated formula in excel or stand around like the confused math lady meme.

You don’t even need a huge budget; you just need to know how to make your solutions work for you – and trust me, most of what you’ve got already does more than you realize. So, call up your friendly customer success rep and ask them to walk you through your analytics functions. I’m sure they will love to hear from you. 

Here’s the thing: whether it’s big data or regular data, it’s only useful if you can use it. If it’s just there, with no one looking, or too messy to navigate, it’s not helping your cause. Few organizations outside the enterprise have the option to bring on analysts, which means the vast majority of employers have a slew of numbers collecting dust in the recesses of their tech stack.

Stop trying to do everything, start trying to do something and slow down the fire hose. No one asked for that terrible idiom, anyway.  

5 Ways to Recruit New Graduates

For hiring companies, the rules of engagement have changed. Compensation and benefits are not the only or most important cornerstones to successfully recruit new graduates. Potential employers are now being asked questions around learning and development opportunities, career progression, wellbeing programs, diversity and company values.

Given today’s competition for talent, candidates often find themselves in a position to choose from multiple job offers. Deciding which opportunity to pursue is often a complex decision, especially for new graduates who are looking to launch their careers with companies that will help them grow personally and professionally, as well as empower them to be their true selves.

For recruiters looking to attract top talent, positioning the business as a landing place of choice for university graduates is not an easy task. It takes time, effort, well-structured policies, constant re-evaluation of their offering, as well as programs that speak to the needs and demands of graduates today. Whether it’s a multi-national enterprise or a rapidly expanding startup, a prestigious brand name is not always a guarantee that you will attract the top candidates.

The following five approaches to positioning a company as an employer of choice for new graduates:

Career Pathways That Reward Professional Growth Over Tenure

The opportunity to gain an inside track on advancing skills is critical for new graduates embarking on their first full-time role. However, developing career advancement paths as part of recruitment and retention strategies cannot be a cookie cutter approach. When interviewing a candidate, focus on highlighting growth opportunities in an open-ended way.

Share details on what they will learn, training tools and how the onboarding process is tailored to help start them on a path to success. Words that resonate with today’s candidates include growth opportunities, autonomy, decision-making and initiative. Be inspiring: share how people can contribute to the goals of the company and its vision.

Two-Way Dialogue in Interviews

Soft skills are an integral part of any employee’s success within an organization. During interviews, find ways to gauge qualities beyond the technical qualifications for a position – such as eagerness, ambition, curiosity and drive.

Open-ended questions around handling challenges, their perspective on previous work experiences, what-if scenarios or their thoughts on what collaboration or creativity means to them, can help provide some valuable context. It can also open opportunities to generate a two-way dialogue while showcasing your initiatives in those areas.

Corporate Social Responsibility Front and Center

New graduates are increasingly interested in topics such as the environment, diversity and equity, wellbeing and mental health and social justice. A growing number of candidates want details around corporate social responsibility programs, commitments to sustainability, inclusion and other societal issues.

Candidates expect more than a “yes we are committed to those things” response. You must be authentic and be able to detail the actual initiatives in place, how they are managed and maintained (e.g., are they employee-led?) and where employees can play a part in supporting them.

Competitive Compensation

Studies have shown that compensation and benefits packages remain a top priority for university graduates seeking employment. Evaluate and analyze your own offerings on an annual basis and adjust them accordingly based on market conditions, competition and demand.

Flexibility in All Things

The pandemic has taught all of us the importance of a flexible workplace model. This has long since evolved from a stopgap measure to an ongoing expectation on the part of new hires, who want to have a say in where, when and how they want to work.

The demand for flexibility extends well beyond work hours and location. One thing you can offer, for example, is a wellbeing allowance program that enables your team to choose the wellbeing options that work best for them (up to $1,000 per employee per year). This has been very well-received by employees, and popular discussion point when it comes to recruiting new graduates.

Enhancing the recruitment and employee experience is not a project with an end date. Having the right elements in place to be a top recruitment choice is a collective and continued effort from everyone.

Sweet Reinvention in Talent Acquisition – Lessons Learned

By the time this article graces the Recruiting Daily platform I will be a changed man after an unprecedented summer that changed many aspects of how I approach the world – that’s a good thing.  

The reality is EVERY recruiter has been changed by events beyond our control these past few years and that has required reinvention. A few years ago my first ERE article was on this very topic.  You can read that here: https://www.ere.net/this-is-the-year-of-reinvention-in-staffing-recruitment/

When this was written 4 years ago in 2018 would I have foreseen the following?

    • Covid 19
    • The Great Resignation
    • Inflation
    • An unprecedented election season
    • Gas Prices at near record highs
    • Diversity and Inclusion issues in the spotlight

The resounding reality is reinvention is not only required to thrive, but also to succeed in talent acquisition. Day after day, year after year one thing stands out – we MUST reinvent not only out of necessity but out of a deeper vision of the most human intensive discipline in the world: recruiting and talent acquisition. From technology to relationships, to recruiting processes, to attracting and retaining the right talent, to how we source, reinvention will keep being the key to our success.

There are so many things I could say on this reinvention topic, but when you are on the front line working from home or across the table from a leader, your authenticity and raw humanity matter. We’ve all been there at some point. The moment when you were required to give up the “old way” and reinvent and rethink the way you approached your craft.  

There are days in this profession where you are on the phone with that tough hiring manager, you are working in the trenches with a desperate leader, where you are striving to see through to the real issues while negotiating the full inbox and the myriad of tasks that need “one more follow-up.”  But through all these very “human” interactions NEVER lose sight of your “why,” your “purpose” and what got you to focus on the recruiting profession in the first place. 

Remember those times at recruiting conferences that you felt the renewal of your “why” when you talked about new staffing ideas, and caught the glimpse of new ideas that got you excited to try them. This is reinvention at its best. Or maybe it was the way you approached your staffing desk process flow, you made just a tweak to get the talent direction moving again.

Now, a personal note, my mother passed away in June. This completely hit me with the raw emotion and humanity that losing a loved one brings. It’s just something you have to move through. While one is trying to perform well, make placements, guide talent acquisition outcomes, it is vitally important to remember how absolutely interconnected our lives are. 

You can’t compartmentalize things, it just doesn’t work. So, traveling with my family and seeing all my nephews and nieces and other extended family was a good thing.  It brought me back to how vitally human talent acquisition is.  Now, I briefly mention this to add to the realization that we are truly vested every day in this human world of ours. Harness this realization and you will start to close more candidates, move more placements and drive outcomes that work. Use your own human experiences to work with candidates to get to their career goals and you will benefit your organization tenfold.

It’s been nearly a year since I moved from ADP to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After 9 years in one place and reaching year one at my new employer, I came to realize that reinvention and letting go of the “old” way I used to recruit is absolutely vital to build more value in a new environment. It’s almost like you have to think like you are in a start-up. You are within a new environment going to run into the reality of your clients thinking that “this is the way it’s always been done.”  

To change the paradigm, you almost have to start modeling the reinvention. From intake meeting, to the way candidates are screened, to the way you attract and find, to the way you close a candidate, every part needs reinvention in an environment that has been unleashed upon us in a time of great change.  The entrepreneurial and reinvention mindset are like shining a light on the bottlenecks and then uncovering how to fix them. 

Your clients may not even realize this is happening, but when a recruiter changes to a proactive from a reactive state and starts to build the staffing funnels creatively the vision starts to catch, and fire of success builds and things just snowball.

This has been my experience in 2022, albeit had to also see through the challenges of such things as a new system and new processes. Reinvention is going to be the “glue” that makes it all start to work once you start seeing where the pain is. How can you reinvent things and keep things going such that you have enough time to brainstorm and turn things to maximum success? That’s going to be reinvention that sees you through every time.  

How do you harness this?  How do you accelerate reinvention when you may be facing a maelstrom of herculean challenges? You must purposefully be driving this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  That’s the lion’s share of it. 

Below are some tips to think about as you strive to harness this reinvention and entrepreneurial mindset of incredible continuous improvement or “Kaizen.” These are 5 principles that guided me through this summer when I needed to reinvent, re-energize and rekindle a proactive talent acquisition funnel strategy – the reinvention blueprint if you will:

  1. Anticipate Change and Act as if You Must ALWAYS BE CHANGING & ADAPTING

Quite literally you will have to keep changing and finding new ways to get ahead of your staffing desk. Don’t let things happen by chance. You have to go get it, and drive ahead. You must take a moment at least monthly to anticipate the challenges and then find solutions. What systems are working, try that A-B test in contacting candidates, drive outcomes swiftly and keep things moving. NEVER be so busy you can’t innovate, recalibrate and grow.  

  1. Start Seeing Where Your Boss Needs Help and Align With Them for Reinvention

Your leader is going to have a better vantage point of what’s happening at large in your organization. Start anticipating where your leader is going to go and share ideas about change, and reinvention before your leader thinks of the need. I guarantee they will be grateful as you start to sense their challenges, and start offering solutions to them to help them move the needle. 

We can’t change every single aspect of our process all at once, but start identifying the bottlenecks in process that your leader might not think about and offer creative solutions to help solve those problems.  Over time taking this approach WILL help you add value.

  1. Help Hiring Managers Cope With Change By Helping Them Reinvent

Scenario – your hiring leader is seeing shifting changes in their department which affect their day to day. Chances are they are stressed, overworked and reactive. Anticipate cause and effect relationships that are causing them pain and offer solutions that start to address their core issues. 

Help them become more proactive instead of reactive. Help them understand how their interview process affects candidate engagement and candidate experience. Help them harness referrals, think of new ways of getting their team to help with the recruiting process.  

Get them thinking about diversity. If your hiring manager hasn’t discussed diversity for a while get them talking about it. Get them talking about their best performer and what it takes to “clone” that person. Who do they know? Get that manager speaking at conferences, getting out to events and help think more broadly from the “oh I have a seat to fill now” mentality to a “always be recruiting” reinvention mode.  

This confidence builder will build your brand over time. It WILL NOT be an overnight venture but you can help them start to find their maximum success. Get on a human level with your managers and level set with them. Reset deadlines if needed. Make sure the entire process from beginning to end is buttoned up. Chances are managers have not thought about making the hiring process better for sometime and they will need greater insights to tackle that.

  1. Brainstorm With Colleagues and Offer Timely Solutions to the Discussion

There is high likelihood your team has been thinking about the same issues you have been facing: competitive marketplace, challenging leaders, remote work, shortage of qualified talent, req volumes at all time highs and more.  Why not take a SWAT team approach and start brainstorming solutions real time?  This is incredibly powerful to get your entire team thinking in a entrepreneurial way. Get your hiring managers across the organization to discuss collectively ideas at every level of the staffing process, from intake to close. Take the time to keep doing this frequently and your entire organization will start to change from a grassroots effort.

  1. USE SOURCING as a Market Driving Reinvention Vehicle

Sourcing is well known as a proactive function. It operates best when it is entrepreneurial in nature and driving outcomes and finding talent real time. It’s the engine that keeps the talent acquisition function moving forward. It is an absolutely incredible vehicle to gain candidate insight, closing strategy, market intelligence, reinvention moves faster when sourcing is funneling insights forward. 

A proactive talent acquisition function does incredible things: diversity, job description reinvention, informs benefits/compensation, improves processes and harnesses new technology and new ways of attracting talent just to name a few. Get your sourcers in a room and let them talk shop. Remarkable things start accelerating when this happens. Get your Recruiters to help each other frequently and let their ideas fuel innovation, as well.  

While these are just a few ideas, I can’t stress how powerful these principles are when you are operating at peak efficiency. When all parts are working in tandem and you’ve identified the bottlenecks and are uncovering new approaches to doing things, talent acquisition starts to become more fluid, human and even referrals will start flowing. 

Let your contributions fuel your staffing engine. Reinvent often. Don’t let the month end before you put pen to paper and start writing down challenges. Look at your staffing funnel, where is the pain? Where are the challenges? Don’t EVER be so busy you aren’t thinking strategically. 

Once you turn the paradigm around to an entrepreneurial and focused reinvention mindset THAT’S where the magic starts to happen. I look forward writing about this a bit more in another article on staffing reinvention again soon. Almost a case study of sorts as I experiment with more reinvention and Kaizen principles. 

I look forward to sharing with Recruiting Daily another focused staffing article on Lean Six Sigma principles mixed with a bit of continuous improvement focus. When that becomes your standard you only elevate everything around you. That’s definitely worth the effort, and lately that’s been driving my recruiting desk to a new place of human discovery. I look forward to continuing to reinvent, innovate and grow.

How to Leverage International Opportunities as a Talent Retention Strategy

As COVID restrictions eased around the world, many business and HR leaders assumed interest in international mobility would remain low. But in fact, the opposite seems to be true—global mobility is more alive than ever. Perhaps because we’ve been “grounded” for so long, it’s created a boomerang effect of pent-up demand among workers who are eager to explore. Not only has business travel skyrocketed some 875%, but travelers are also staying longer, taking advantage of remote work to extend business trips for a few extra days to explore their destinations. 

In fact, global mobility isn’t just a nice perk for today’s workforce; it’s becoming an in-demand benefit that’s central to the employee experience. That means companies who don’t offer international opportunities could be at risk of losing great talent who will go elsewhere to get what they want. 

Even if your company doesn’t have international locations or customers, offering your employees the opportunity to work abroad can be a powerful talent retention strategy for several key reasons:

  • It meets their demand for flexibility. Work flexibility is now the number one driver of an exceptional employee experience, and 94% of employees think they should be able to work wherever they want, as long as they get their work done. Whether it’s working from home or a beach house in Aruba, employees overwhelmingly have proven they don’t need to be in the office to be productive and effective. Fortunately, HR managers are on the same page with over eight in ten agreeing that flexible and remote work is now a key part of their talent strategy. 
  • It supports their desire for career growth. Employees know that international experiences can contribute significantly to professional development with two out of three agreeing that it’s critical for career growth. Because of that, over 75% say they would consider moving abroad for an overseas assignment. The cultural exposure, diverse experiences and adaptation skills gained are important qualities for leadership and advancement.
  • It satisfies their desire for experiences. After enduring more than two years of loss, restriction and confinement, many people have reconsidered their careers, priorities and goals. That “bucket list” that many save for retirement has suddenly become much more urgent.  And today’s travelers are looking for more than just the typical tourist experience — they want experiential opportunities where they can truly become immersed in and learn about different cultures. That’s a large driver behind the rise of digital nomad visas — countries are inviting people to come and live for six or 12 months to really get a flavor and feel for a place.

Because global mobility checks all the boxes when it comes to work flexibility, growth, experiences and work/life balance, it’s become a powerful tool for companies to attract and retain talent even during the Great Resignation. But many still either aren’t thinking about international assignments as part of their retention strategy, or  they’re inclined to just say no to the whole idea given the compliance risk. Both positions put organizations at a severe disadvantage, leaving them behind in a highly competitive race to attract and retain employees.

If you’re incredibly fearful of the compliance implications or simply unsure where to begin, the key to effective implementation is to balance the benefits of international opportunities with the right technology to simplify management and streamline the process. Here are some essential strategies:

  1. You need to know where employees are at all times. Keeping close tabs on employee whereabouts will help minimize the risks associated with remote work and international placements – including tax and immigration issues, as well as health and safety concerns. Unfortunately, because they lack effective solutions to track employee locations, HR’s confidence in this area is waning.

Last year 60% said they knew where most of their employees were working, but by this year, that number had plummeted to just 46%. Worse yet, nearly 40% discovered employees working where they shouldn’t be, increasing the compliance risk for both the organization and the employee.  

HR needs to be able to monitor staff work locations in real time to minimize risk to the organization. Fortunately, there’s a relatively easy solution: The vast majority of employees (well over 90%) are happy to have their employer track their locations at the country, state and city level. Plus, implementing automated tracking technology on company-owned devices alleviates the employees’ burden of having to report their location. 

  1. Implement a system for managing requests. With 85% of HR professionals expecting remote work requests to increase this year, even in small- to mid-size organizations, managing the process for requesting, reviewing and making decisions could become untenable. You’ll want to set up a system for employees to submit their requests and have them routed to and reviewed by the appropriate decision-makers to keep the process moving along.
  1. Set clear policies. Even with the most advanced technology in place, it may not be feasible to give employees carte blanche to work from wherever they choose. Business nexus, tax and immigration issues and even time zones may make some locations off-limits. Be clear about the parameters and limitations, as well as your expectations and employees’ responsibilities. Outline criteria for who qualifies and how, making sure your policy provides equitable access and opportunities for every employee who qualifies and that certain groups aren’t excluded due to unconscious biases. 
  1. Deploy tech to make it easy for the organization and the employee. Employees increasingly expect modern technology to simplify tasks at work, and half say they prefer digitized HR tasks over face-to-face transactions. Implementing global mobility solutions like automated location tracking, tax and immigration management and on-demand reporting and compliance verification can not only make the entire process more efficient for HR and reduce risk for the organization, but also make employees’ lives much easier.

As companies face increasing pressure to retain talent, it’s essential to offer creative benefits that foster ongoing engagement, loyalty and professional growth. Offering international opportunities — even if you don’t have international locations — can be a powerful way to give your employees the flexibility, unique experiences and work/life balance they are looking for.   

9 Must-Have Features in a Modern Talent Acquisition Solution

Talent acquisition (TA) in 2022 is facing a unique set of challenges. The great resignation and economic uncertainty have made hiring and retaining top talent difficult. These challenges demand organizations to rethink their talent acquisition solutions and how technology can fit the picture.

There are plenty of software applications in the market that cater to individual aspects of TA. However, relying on these fragmented products does exactly the opposite of what technology is supposed to do, i.e., streamline operations and improve productivity.

To avoid this technology bloat, it helps to invest in a rock-solid talent acquisition solution that enables you to streamline key activities of TA, viz., attract, screen and hire top talent.

So, as you evaluate various talent acquisition solutions in the market, make sure to keep in mind the following nine features.

1. Talent Pipeline

While hiring for a job vacancy, recruiters connect with previous applicants (or get in touch with passive candidates) and screen new applications. The TA solution should cater to both of these requirements.

When it comes to connecting with past applicants, the application should enable recruiters to import data from the ATS to find the right fit.

With hundreds or thousands of applications coming for a job posting, the software should screen candidates automatically based on their experience, skills and other relevant criteria. This allows hiring managers to review and consider only well-qualified candidates while building a trusted talent pipeline.

2. Powerful Talent Search

With a healthy talent pipeline in place, the TA platform should enable recruiters to leverage it through a powerful candidate search feature. The platform should build a composite view of candidates by compiling relevant information such as their education, work experience and skills from their online presence.

For instance, when screening for technical vacancies, the TA product should display candidates along with their LinkedIn profile and GitHub repositories and contributions.

Other desired search features that can help hire hard-to-find talent:

    1. Screen candidates using keyword and boolean searches and advanced filtering features.
    2. Built-in AI/ML algorithm that finds candidates based on your requirement. It should refine the candidate suggestions based on your selection or rejection patterns.
    3. Develop ideal candidate templates based on top performers/employees and search for talent that meets the skills and experience of those templates.

3. Diversity Hiring

As organizations focus on improving their diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives, they must consider how the contemporary TA solutions are tackling hiring biases. A forward-thinking TA application should have the following diversity hiring features:

    1. Provide insights into the present diverse workforce and set diversity objectives.
    2. Assist in writing inclusive job descriptions. This AI-powered feature helps hiring managers omit gender-coded and racially exclusive language.
    3. Set diversity filters to source qualified candidates from underrepresented groups.
    4. Hide candidates’ information such as name, photo, gender and salary history to prevent hiring biases from creeping in.

4. Candidate Experience

According to Talentegy’s Candidate Experience report, 63% of applicants are unhappy with the overwhelming lack of communication from the company. On the other hand, great candidate experience leads to positive employer branding, improved time-to-hire, and access to top talent. 

The TA solution should have the following features to keep the candidates engaged during the hiring process:

    1. Access to vetted and compliant contact information providers to source accurate candidate contact details.
    2. AI-powered email personalization tools that enable recruiters to customize the sender name, email subject lines and messages. They should also recommend the best time to send to each candidate.
    3. Multi-step email campaigns that keep candidates engaged and informed at each stage of the hiring journey.

5. Third-party Integrations

The ATS, candidate relationship management (CRM) tools, and HRIS are key components of talent acquisition. The TA platform should offer bidirectional integration capabilities with your ATS and CRM software. This allows you to exchange applicant records from the TA platform to the ATS and vice versa.

The integration capabilities should allow you to perform the following activities:

    1. Push candidate data from the TA platform into the ATS as a qualified candidate for the relevant job.
    2. When searching for candidate profiles in the TA platform, you should be able to verify their record in the ATS along with their application status.
    3. Combine TA platform and ATS data to perform powerful search operations.

6. Internal Hiring

Internal hiring enables employees to upskill and cross-skill and allows the organization to speed up hiring. The TA application should help the organization and employees with internal hiring as follows:

    1. For TA professionals, the solution should provide a holistic picture of your employees for better workforce planning, internal hiring/promotion and get better insights.
    2. For employees, the solution should offer an internal career portal to view future opportunities and the necessary skills required to make the leap. It should also allow them to connect with other team members to learn about future roles.

7. Talent Analytics

With data-driven talent acquisition taking center stage, the analytics feature should be as robust as it can get. The TA platform should give you in-depth insights into your talent acquisition process.

You should be able to analyze hiring data to spot patterns, trends, and outliers on various hiring factors. The software should help you derive insights based on aggregated location data, skills, industry experience, salary bands, etc.

Considering how number-heavy the analytics part can get, the TA solution should allow you to break this data down with the help of filters and visualize it for better comprehension.

8. Talent Intelligence

Talent intelligence builds on top of talent analytics. By integrating the data accumulated by the talent acquisition platform with other HR applications, you can develop even more granular insights about your workplace.

Here are a few ideas you can leverage to make the best of talent intelligence:

    1. Use salary data to see how much competitors are paying. Use this data to develop better compensation and benefits packages.
    2. Review skills and experience data to understand where applicants stand in the market. Also, run this data internally to assess the skill set of your employees. Plan learning and development initiatives accordingly.
    3. Combine salary, diversity and skill data to hypothesize why employees quit and what you can do to reduce attrition. 

9. Compliance

Since the TA tool would handle sensitive data such as salary information, contact details, etc., it should comply with the laws and regulations of the geography it serves.  For instance, if the application is used by organizations from the EU, it must adhere to the GDPR laws.

While working with third-party vendors to source data, the solution provider must ensure that vendors follow compliance and collect data ethically.

Along with compliance, the TA platform should implement the right processes and measures to ensure data privacy and security.

Taming Analysis Paralysis

Having the right talent acquisition solution in your HR tool stack defines the efficiency and success of your hiring efforts.

A simple Google search on talent acquisition platforms returns hundreds of solutions in the market, and choosing one from the list can get overwhelming. Considering that investing in a TA solution is a long-term game, we would recommend you shortlist a few alternatives in the market and evaluate them against this checklist.

What challenges are you struggling with in talent acquisition? Let us know in the comments below! 

How to Improve Low Recruitment Effectiveness With a Learning Management System

New hires go through a sort of funnel when they enter a company. Each stage of this funnel affects a number of important outcomes: whether a person stays in the company, whether their work performance is satisfactory, how long it took them to get there, etc.

The more filters your recruitment funnel has, and the better you organize each stage of recruitment, the better outcome you will get in the end – best-fitting candidates who intend to stay long term and start investing in the company right away. That’s where a learning management system (LMS) comes into play. It’s an online training platform that helps you improve your current recruitment stages, like entering tests and onboarding programs and also adds some more stages for greater precision.

Business executives measure recruiters’ productivity by the two most essential values: the number of new hires and the quality of recruitment. Even if you check  “fine” for one of them, your rates might be mediocre or worse. The reason for that lies not in your professional skills – otherwise, you could just develop them – but in things beyond them, such as business processes, company recruitment strategies and even the knowledge and skills of your colleagues. In short, it involves everything that affects the hiring process.

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Let’s dive deeper into the most popular reasons for low recruitment effectiveness and efficiency, and exactly how an LMS helps to fix them.

Chaos In Your Company

According to the PwS Future of Recruiting survey, 49% of candidates decline a job offer because of a poor recruitment experience. This experience includes many factors, but most of them are connected with how organized the hiring process is.

For example, one of the most discouraging things for a new hire is a lack of help and guidance. In many companies, a department manager supervises and onboards new employees by themselves. However, since they’re busy with their essential tasks and duties, prospective employees are often left on their own and don’t know what they’re supposed to do, who to contact, etc.

How to Fix This With a Learning Management System

A training platform lets you streamline the onboarding process without involving other employees. All you need to do is collect all useful resources for the new workforce, upload them to your LMS and set the needed parameters. Then, your platform will automatically assign these courses to new hires and provide you with reports on their progress.

Of course, employees will still need to get in touch with their supervisors from time to time, but only for truly important issues. New hires will see from the very first days that it is a well-organized company where they won’t have to waste time and energy on basic issues – and so, they’ll be reluctant to leave your organization for some other place that could turn out to be chaotic.

New Hires Aren’t Prepared to Complete Needed Tasks Right Away

When a person starts a new job, they expect and are expected to get to their duties as soon as possible. However, in reality, the adaptation period takes quite a while. For instance, employees spend lots of time learning about the company’s mission, culture and other essentials – not to mention how long it takes them to get on their feet in their new role.

As a result, new hires may think they don’t quite fit in at the company, and supervisors seeing them struggling with the simplest tasks don’t tell them otherwise. While this may seem like an issue not directly related to the work of recruiters, the consequences will actually tarnish their record.

Lattice Research shows that 52% of new hires are actively looking for a new job within the first six months in their new position and this percentage only grows as the months progress. For a recruiter, it means that they’ll have to look for new candidates (which is expensive) and report to executives on why they hired people who left the company so quickly.

A learning management system lets you train new employees on the essentials before they start working in the company. You can tell them about the company culture and mission, their role in the company, etc. And you can even assess their qualifications and soft skills and use the results to filter out candidates. Just assign them the needed training programs and track their progress.

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An LMS will show you who completed their assignments and how well. So, if a person missed all the deadlines of the basic courses about the company and the workplace, this might be a wake-up call for you to go your separate ways, as this candidate might be problematic later down the line. On the other hand, if a person completed everything on time and got high scores on tests, you can clearly see this will be an employee worth investing in.

Meanwhile, new hires appreciate such an approach, as it lets them get to their duties right away and get used to their new role. And when they see how fast they grow in their career in your company, they’re unlikely to look for a different organization. Why would they?

Supervisors May Not Know Anything About Recruiting

Another common reason for low recruitment effectiveness is supervisors’ incompetence in HR. They may be highly qualified professionals in their fields, but when it comes to selecting candidates during a job interview, they may not pay attention to people’s soft skills and other important nuances. They mainly focus on hard skills, but it’s rarely the hard skills that damage the team.

To identify potential risks, they need to know human psychology, what questions to ask, what to pay attention to and more. Again, if a supervisor selects a bad candidate, it will most likely not be considered their fault, but a recruiter’s.

Recruiters have the expertise to identify perfect candidates: they select them not only based on solid professional skills but also on a number of other criteria. Some LMSs have a built-in authoring tool that lets you create short eLearning courses explaining all vital aspects of “seeing through people.” You can assign them to supervisors and see whether they completed their assignments and are thus prepared for the interview. The more competent they get in HR, the higher your KPI grows.

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Learning Management Systems are Not a Panacea

A training platform is a valuable asset for recruiters but, of course, it’s only an asset. Just as a million-dollar car will break if its driver has poor driving skills, so a learning management system may be ineffective if used poorly. If your KPI is currently low because your performance is less than ideal, you might want to fix this issue first.

But if you’re a solid specialist and need to resolve factors affecting your rates that don’t really depend on you (like business processes and your colleagues’ incompetence), an LMS can be of great help and value.

Recruiting During a Recession

Many business owners remember the Great Recession of 2008 and the resulting hiring freeze that contributed to the loss of over 8.7 million jobs in the United States. Recessions happen for various reasons. Generally, the government prints way too much money, inflation happens, the news says that everything is super expensive, so you don’t buy anything, resulting in merchants increasing prices to make things expensive, and everything just spirals out of control. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in a crazy recession, but recruiting during a recession is quite possible. 

Now, even though recessions are manufactured, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect people. Quite the opposite, recessions put people out of jobs, drain people’s bank accounts and make businesses lose profits.

After the recession of 2008, it took the country nearly five years to get back the jobs that were lost. This is why recruiting strategies are important, so you can still have the manpower for your business during a recession.  

When faced with a recession, businesses may feel pressure to put their hiring practices on hold. But talent acquisition experts encourage businesses to carry on with steadfast recruiting of new employees. Here’s a list of important things to remember when recruiting during a recession. 

Have a Plan

An economic recession is not a matter of if but when. Experts believe the world is likely to face its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, with the global economy contracting by 3% this year. Statistically speaking, the United States has been at full employment (with the exception of the COVID pandemic) since 2018. To be done well and save both time and money, recruitment needs to be planned with great research and insight involved. 

When uncertain times hit, it’s vital to create a plan that can give you some guidance. Think about your business objectives and what your priorities should be, even if a recession does hit. This will help you to outline the roles you need, and which areas of your business could benefit from additional support. Taking a proactive rather than reactive approach will put you one step ahead of your competition.

Do Not Freeze Hiring

For many businesses, the initial instinct, when faced with a financial crisis, is to stop hiring altogether. The logic here is that if you aren’t hiring new people, you can save money and focus on taking care of your existing staff both financially and in a caring capacity. This idea is actually flawed and will end up working against you. While it will save money in the short term, stopping new hires also means putting a stop to business progression. 

Companies that stop hiring completely are at risk of loss of income, existing employees facing burnout, reduced quality of service or product, and high recruitment costs to replace existing (and overworked) staff. By freezing hiring across all areas of your business, you negatively impact your rapid growth and stop departments that could thrive in a changing world. You also risk missing out on potentially great talent that could revolutionize your business forever.

Prioritize and Hire Freelancers

To make sure that the core of your business doesn’t start crumbling, identify the positions you must fill. Prioritize the ones that impact your revenue the most. Focus your hiring activities on the core of your needs. For the less critical positions, consider giving your current employees more duties with a promised incentive. You can also temporarily use freelancers and independent contractors. 

When it comes to recruiting during a recession, you may have to pivot from hiring one full-time worker to fill a role to hiring multiple freelancers or independent contractors for the same job as a cost-saving measure. Re-evaluate your hiring criteria, adjust the level of necessary qualifications, and redesign your interview questions to make it easier to hire people. In essence, do anything in your power to make sure your business does not run out of employees, and if it does, those people can be quickly replaced by freelancers.  

Listen Closely

Listening to what your candidates are looking for is important, especially when facing a recession. Make sure you find out why your candidates are changing jobs beyond the size of their paycheck. If they have been unemployed for a while, don’t forget to ask why. Candidates will be changing jobs for a whole host of reasons: They may want greater stability in job function or compensation. They may have been laid off from another job, or they may have realized they needed to make a change to achieve their goals. 

This helps you better understand what your candidates want, leaving you with better ways to tailor your recruitment efforts and hire successfully. Quality candidates generally have multiple offers and will work with the firm that best aligns with their personal reasons for changing jobs.

Save Costs Elsewhere 

For many businesses, when a recession hits, one of the first things they do is lay people off and stop new hires to save money. Once again, a business cannot run if there aren’t enough employees. People are key, so rather than slashing your recruitment budget during a recession, find other opportunities to streamline, drive efficiencies and save costs. An all-in-one recruitment system may make it faster and more efficient to sort and vet a flood of resumes, so your HR team doesn’t have to. 

Explore digital solutions that can help drive up efficiencies and drive down costs, cut back on advertising, or any of the dozens of other ways you can save money that doesn’t involve minimizing your pool of employees. 

Supporting Your Employee Journey With Talent Insights

We are in the midst of what could be considered the great reset, a reset in employee expectations, their values and beliefs. A part of this reshuffle can be attributed to the pandemic and the resulting changes in work arrangements that led employees to re-evaluate their priorities and expectations from their jobs.

However, this shift has been in the works for a while. Employees have become accustomed to sophisticated interactions with brands in their consumer lives (think smart assistants, predictive texts, instant deliveries and more) and this has accelerated over the last two years and transformed their approach to jobs.

Now, as organizations look to build on the economic momentum of the past few months, they are dealing with a whole new set of challenges. Fortunately, enterprise technology has evolved to provide HR leaders with the data and tools they need to support their employees’ journey.  

How Talent Insights Power the Employee Journey in 2022

With the powerful combination of people science and technology, HR leaders now have the ability to match consumer-grade expectations, create more personalized and inclusive workplace experiences. Using talent insights from employee and enterprise data, organizations have begun diagnosing and managing inefficiencies in their talent management strategies.

A recent survey found that 90% of HR leaders believe having more relevant talent insights could transform their talent management approach. As the world of work continues to evolve, talent insights will be critical for leaders to design bespoke experiences for their employees and drive continuous improvement. 

For employees, a job is much more than a way to make money. It is about the culture, fulfillment and career growth. Forward-thinking talent leaders understand that they need to measure data that support these expectations and offer insights into employees’ individual journeys within the organization.

Many organizations already have these processes in place for measuring this type of information on their people, but a common challenge is connecting this data to business strategy. Talent leaders must have clarity on what they want to achieve. 

Talent insights shed light on how new talent policies and existing processes impact employee motivations and performance. They also reveal how human connections and networks operate in the organizational context to build resilience, agility and adaptability, all crucial concepts to thriving in the current environment. 

To understand how talent insights influence the employee journey, let’s look at how organizations typically deliver their talent strategy.

Understanding Talent Architecture and Key Touch Points

Organizations need talent architecture to define the structures, frameworks, systems and processes that support employee journeys. Talent architecture operates on three levels:

Define at Organizational Level Define at Job-role Level Define at Process Level
Values Job Families Promotion Processes
Structure Critical Roles Hiring Criteria
Competencies Career Pathways Talent Mobility Processes
Culture Role Profiles Learning and Development (L&D) Processes
Employer Brand Pay and Reward Structures Solutions that Power these Processes

Solutions like SeekOut help HR leaders gather talent insights to create relevant interventions across these factors that make up an organization’s talent architecture and impact employee journeys. 

Talent strategies connect to many other organizational processes and need a unifying foundation, which in this case, is provided by talent insights, common systems and analytics. 

Some of the key sources for talent intelligence include:

    • Employer branding activities
    • Talent acquisition
    • L&D
    • Succession planning
    • Internal mobility
    • Retention initiatives

Talent insights also reveal the importance of the cultural, value-driven measures that can determine job-fit, employees’ likely career path and success within the organization.

The Future of Talent Insights and the Employee Journey

As more HR leaders discover the potential of talent insights and their impact on employee journeys, they will be able to establish relationships between factors like personality and motivation, and identify areas of analytics that will enable them to understand their people and performance drivers better.

Talent insights are also foundational to enabling leaders to predict future talent needs rather than just focusing on the current state of affairs, leading to a more data-driven strategy and a seat at the table.