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Purpose Personalization: How Social Responsibility Builds Trust

Social responsibility and community-centric initiatives can no longer be considered separate from normal business operations: they need to be enmeshed within it, marrying the more practical aspects of everyday business with more impactful aspirations. This isn’t just industry gatekeeping at work.

According to Price WaterhouseCooper, 75% of inventors believe that companies should address environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, even if doing so reduces short-term profitability. ESG consciousness is the baseline for corporations operating in the post-pandemic marketplace.

While it’s apparent there’s an appetite for corporate social responsibility, how can you be sure your initiatives won’t leave an inauthentic taste in the mouths of your stakeholders?

Unfortunately, there’s no operational prescription that guarantees engagement with your ESG initiatives. But one surefire way to garner the right kind of stakeholder attention is by leveraging your social impact to build on and further personalize your brand. This way, your efforts won’t look like isolated acts of altruism to outside observers; rather, they will be a natural extension of your brand’s presence, a reflection of your purpose-infused efforts.

How can a brand get to this point? To start, we’ll need to discuss our two primary audiences.

Setting the Stakes with Your Stakeholders

Every company is beholden to two sets of stakeholders: internal and external.

    • Internal stakeholders include individuals with a direct relationship with your company, such as employees, executives and investors.
    • External stakeholders are individuals not in a direct relationship with your corporation, but still benefit from your positive business outcomes, such as customers and suppliers.

Insofar as you define your brand’s identity, your stakeholders will be the ones validating it  based on your actions and outcomes: internal stakeholders can align business practices with purpose through improvements to standard operations, while external stakeholders can substantiate your brand’s identity by purchasing your products and bringing awareness to your cause.

Recognize that ESG efforts aren’t simply a way to manage your stakeholders’ expectations or lend your corporate gifts a slightly more altruistic bend. Instead, they redefine your brand’s identity in the minds of these stakeholders.

You’re not tricking customers into thinking that your brand is more altruistic than it is; you’re letting your brand’s actions amplify the ways that it positively affects your stakeholders’ environment. But how do you turn your purpose-driven goals into an opportunity to redefine your brand’s image?

Just as we did with our stakeholders, we need to differentiate between the two types of purpose personalization opportunities.

    • Leverage your impact internally by improving your brand’s relationship to its employees.
    • Realize your impact externally by improving your brand’s relationship with its customers.

In practice, these opportunities come in all shapes and sizes. Let’s look at a few now.

Put Purpose into Practice, Inside and Out

For internal relationship-building opportunities, start by looking for ways to improve your employees’ environment and quality of life using any levers available. As a starting point, consider the following ideas:

    • Respect your workers’ time by reassessing your company’s long-standing policies. As the pandemic has taught us, remote work allows for increased flexibility without the hassle of the morning and evening commute (and the carbon emissions that follow). Companies both stateside and overseas are also experimenting with four-day work weeks, which give employees more time to decompress and refresh before taking on the next work week.
    • Empower your employees to expand on your ESG agenda. Connect your workforce to resources that can expedite their impact potential, from charities and food drives to volunteer opportunities. You can even reward employees for engaging with your brand’s mission by matching their donations or handing out an hour of PTO for every hour spent volunteering. Purposeful giving goes a long way, whether you’re providing the gift or facilitating its delivery.

External relationships with customers and vendors can be trickier to apply with purpose, but pay dividends once your brand is associated with the positive impact your relationship will bring.

    • Footwear behemoth Toms has pioneered several socially-conscious approaches to engaging customers and building trust with its brand, from well-documented sustainable materials in its shoes to itemized breakdowns of its ESG donations and partners (including 95 million pairs of shoes donated in 2019). Toms has undergone a dramatic rebranding in recent years — it’s no mistake that the company’s ESG efforts are front and center.
    • Matching customer purchases with donations is a tried and true engagement method, but why not think outside the box? In Sony’s recently released video game Horizon: Forbidden West, players who earn a specific in-game trophy will have a tree planted as part of an effort to reforest landscapes across the U.S. Rewarding its customers with a real-world impact gives Sony customers an incentive for engaging with its product. Conservation through convenience never looked better.
    • Electronics manufacturer NVIDIA has taken significant steps to increase its ESG impact, from aiming to source 65% of its global electricity use from renewable energy by 2025 to forming a more equitable executive governance structure through a board that is 38% gender, racially or ethnically diverse. Through transparency and accountability, NVIDIA is sending a very deliberate message to stakeholders: Trust us to provide an environmentally-conscious product and governance that reflects the diversity in our community.

Keep your internal and external stakeholders engaged and enthused by making them an active participant in your ESG aspirations. It’s that simple.

Make it Count

However you choose to maximize your impact, you’ll need to access the more conventional levers of internal corporate governance and digital marketing to confirm that you’ve made the desired impact. Talk to your marketing team to dive into your key performance indicators (KPIs) like clickthrough rates, ROI, etc. Be prepared to adopt a flexible, iterative approach that can react to unpredictable shifts in public opinion and interest.

The harder it is to separate your business from its purpose, the better. Do your best to avoid typical ESG gaffes with the following best practices:

    • Don’t be inauthentic or incongruent. Make your initiatives or corporate gifts a natural extension of your brand, not a limited-time offer.
    • Don’t be afraid to start small. Under-promising and over-delivering is preferable to the alternative, so don’t bite off more than you can chew when starting your next ESG project.
    • Don’t make your ESG initiative a one-off project or a surprise to your stakeholders. The groundwork for your next project should already be laid as your company goes about its usual business.
    • Look for partners that share your vision and work together to turn goals into actions. B-Corp and small businesses can help spread your impact around communities.

Building stakeholder trust is a matter of showing, not telling. Show your employees and customers that their time and money is well spent by highlighting your brand’s impact on communities large and small.

Check Your Hiring Tech Bias: New York City to Regulate Talent Search AI

Effective January 2, 2023, a new law prohibits employers from using artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools to make hiring decisions about New York City residents unless the tools have undergone an independent bias audit.

The law is aimed at preventing employers from discriminating against job applicants through the use of algorithms before a recruiter or hiring manager reviews their applications. Fortunately, there are tech companies that are already ahead of the curve with solutions that improve diversity by using AI to source, rather than screen, candidates, ensuring compliance with the new law. 

New York City’s Law

The New York City law makes it unlawful for an employer in New York City to use “automated employment decision tools” to screen applicants for employment or promotion unless two prerequisites are met: (1) the tool has been the subject of an independent, third-party, bias audit no more than one year prior to its use; and (2) the employer makes a summary of the results of the audit and the distribution date of the tool publicly available on its website.

An automated employment decision tool is defined by the new law as “any computational process, derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence, that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to substantially assist or replace discretionary decision making for making employment decisions that impact natural persons.”

The New York City law also imposes notice requirements on employers using automated employment decision tools. Specifically, the employer must notify each applicant or employee who resides in New York City, at least ten business days before the use of the tool, that: (1) an automated employment decision tool will be used to evaluate and/or screen New York City residents’ applications and allow the applicant to request or accommodation or alternative screening process; and (2) the job qualifications and characteristics that the tool will use to assess the applicant.

Additionally, if it is not already stated on the employer’s website, the employer must provide information about the type of data collected for the tool, the source of the data and the employer’s data retention policy.

An employer’s failure to comply with the law will be subject to monetary penalties of $500 per violation on the first day of violation and $1,500 per violation for each subsequent violation. Each day an automated employment decision making tool in violation of the law, and the failure to provide each required notice that is not given to an application is counted as a separation violation.

AI Regulation is on the Rise

New York City’s law is the latest in a growing trend to investigate and regulate the use of AI by employers and other business. In 2019, Illinois passed a law requiring employers to disclose the use of AI in video interviews for job applicants. In 2020, Maryland also passed a law prohibiting employers from using facial recognition technology during the job interview process without the applicant’s consent.

The Attorney General of Washington, D.C., recently proposed broad legislation aimed at requiring businesses to prevent biases in their automated decision-making algorithms, and to report and correct any biases that are detected.

Federal legislation aimed at addressing bias and discrimination in AI is on the horizon as well.  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has announced an initiative to ensure that AI and other emerging tools used in hiring and other employment decisions comply with federal civil rights laws.

AI Tool Improves Diversity

Although the New York City law imposes a new burden on employers, there are already companies that specialize in AI recruiting tools aimed at increasing diversity. 

Rather than using AI to screen candidates and run the risk of screening out diverse candidates, as is prohibited by New York City’s law, companies can use AI to source potential candidates and invite more diverse candidates that fit the job requirements to apply. 

AI uses a variety of strategies to boost diversity in the pipeline. It uses algorithms to predict and add skills that may be missing from diverse candidates’ profiles, suggest changes to job requirements that are likely to increase diverse talent participation and remove photographs and names from profiles reviewed by recruiters so that the focus is on the merits of the candidate instead of perceived gender or ethnicity. 

AI can automatically select and engage with potential candidates, eliminating any chance for bias from recruiters. If designed properly, AI can eliminate any diversity related parameters from its job/candidate matching algorithms.

Diverse candidates are simply given a more equitable opportunity to be considered by recruiters. However, they are not given any preferential treatment. This strategy gives employers the ability to create a larger pipeline of diverse applicants, while removing any chance for bias.

Conclusion

Although the New York City law imposes new requirements on employers, it also provides the opportunity for employers to consider new AI tools and ensure that they are engaging in hiring practices that reduce bias and provide a broader more diverse applicant pool. 

Three Ways to Retain Top Recruiters

Recruiters are in higher demand than ever before with the Great Resignation continuously roiling today’s talent market. Along with all the job openings and talent shortages, recent research shows that recruiters are 115% more likely than average employees to change careers. LinkedIn has more positions open now for recruiters than for software engineers.

Why are recruiters looking to make a move? Because they know firsthand how in-demand their skillsets are right now. It’s become easier than ever for recruiters to get a new job for more money, or to hang out a shingle as independent consultants. Others might be quitting their jobs and leaving the workforce to take a break after two stressful years of pandemic and upheaval.

How can your company compete in this moment of uncertainty and sky-high demand for top recruiting talent? Let’s look at three key strategies to keep your recruiters happy and retain your top HR talent.

Provide True Flexibility

People have come to expect remote-first and “work from anywhere” as the new normal of the knowledge worker lifestyle. Don’t force people to return to the office. Make sure your company is set up to continue supporting people working from home, if they choose.

Work From Home/Work from Anywhere is one of the most valued employee perks, and it’s become the new table stakes for recruiting and retaining top talent. Even some of the biggest brands in corporate America have seen complaints and resignations when they’ve tried to make everyone return to the office.

Along with a remote-first approach, give your recruiters the autonomy to work independently at their own pace. Don’t expect people to always be plugged in to work and replying to emails. Giving recruiters flexibility and space to be productive on their own terms will help keep them engaged and ensure their loyalty.

Build a Culture That Supports Employee Wellness

Along with giving people flexibility and space to do their work, it’s also crucial for your company to have a culture that supports mental and physical wellness outside of work. People have lived through two years of stress, grief and uncertainty during the pandemic. Recruiters are especially vulnerable to these feelings, as their jobs have been especially stressful.

Give valued talent genuine support for their mental, emotional and physical wellness. Offer meeting-free days or “no emails allowed after 6 p.m.” policies. Give people time to run errands, go to appointments, and care for their loved ones outside of work. Make sure people are able to unplug and decompress so they can deal with life and take care of themselves, and they will be more likely to keep working for your company.

Reward Entrepreneurial Energy

Many recruiters are taking advantage of the opportunities of remote work and online collaboration tools to start their own businesses. Why should talented recruiters keep working for your company if they can build their own firm on the side?

Make sure your company has a culture that genuinely rewards entrepreneurial energy. Are you paying recruiters for performance? Are you listening to recruiters’ creative ideas? Are you rewarding initiative?

If your recruiters are really getting rewarded for the value they deliver, if they feel valued and heard, if they feel like the sky’s the limit for what kind of future they can create within your organization. They’ll be more likely to stay. Give people the best of both worlds: entrepreneurial upside, with the stability and resources of working within your company.

Beyond the challenge of retaining top talent, this moment is also a strategic opportunity for HR leaders to reimagine work. Your recruiters can help you with this – not only by sourcing and signing great talent, but by helping chart a course to become even more of an employer of choice.

Show recruiters you value their professional expertise as strategic partners within the organization. Give them a chance to help shape the future of the company, not just their own role.

You don’t have to lose your top recruiters.

Now is the time to rethink your organization’s approach to how you work with top recruiters: give them flexibility, a supportive culture and entrepreneurial upside as strategic leaders within the company.

Don’t take your recruiters for granted. Show them that you value their unique contributions, give them what they need to thrive as people and as professionals. Together, you can build a stronger culture that retains your top talent for years to come.

Gen Z Recruiting Trends: How to Effectively Engage and Hire the Next Generation of Workers

With 61 million people from Gen Z now entering the workforce, recruiting this demographic is requiring employers to reexamine the tactics they’ve been relying on for decades, including creating digital-first experiences for a digitally-native generation. 

Gen-Zers have very different values, preferences and priorities when looking for a job. Below are five key characteristics of this generation of workers and the top three digital recruiting trends for attracting this next wave of job candidates entering the workforce.

Five Key Characteristics of Gen Z Workers:

Stable and Secure

In contrast to many Millennials, whose cravings for unique experiences led to a generation-wide reputation for excessive job-hopping, Gen-Zers plan on sticking with an employer for longer periods of time.

In fact, one study found that nearly half of new graduates name security and stability in their job as a top career goal. This contrasts sharply with compensation and work-life balance concerns of new job seekers just half a decade ago.

And who can blame them? As younger children, many watched their parents and older siblings experience one financial setback after another while struggling through The Great Recession in 2007, then record-high unemployment rates in 2020.

Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive

Gen-Zers themselves are the most diverse generation in the U.S. yet. According to Pew Research, 52% of post-Millennials are non-Hispanic whites. In regard to workplace priorities, Gen-Zers view employer values as almost as important as salary when it comes to a potential position and this includes diversity. 

Demonstrating a company culture that is committed to inclusivity, upfront during the hiring process, provides candidates a window into their future of working for that company and creates a sense of belonging and buy-in from the onset.

Politically Engaged

Gen-Zers are politically motiviated, voting in higher numbers than the previous generation (55%  vs. 46.1%). And the values driving the youngest generation to the polls are overwhelmingly more progressive than those of previous generations.

Gen-Zers expect both their elected officials and employers to embrace policies with a progressive stance toward issues of race, gender and sexual orientation. To attract these workers, companies must demonstrate their commitment to hiring a diverse and inclusive workforce starting with the hiring process. 

Digital-First

Gen Z is the first generation considered to be “digital natives.” They grew up on social media and blend the digital and physical worlds like never before. In fact, 58% say they have a hard time going four hours or more without Internet access.

As a result, Gen-Zers now expect more and more advanced uses of technology from the organizations they build relationships with: especially their employer. Those that will succeed will master digital experiences. 

Flexible About When & Where Work Gets Done

At the end of 2019, 51% of college graduates rated geographic location as a “very important” part of their job search; today, that number has dropped to 39%.

Even before the start of the pandemic, many planned to embrace remote work regardless of where they lived. With so many Gen-Zers treating geography as more or less irrelevant in regard to their employment, employers should do the same. 

Top 3 Digital Recruiting Trends to Attract Gen Z Workers:

Companies implementing a forward-thinking approach to technology, coupled with a continued prioritization of diversity and belonging, are having greater success with hiring and retention.

A recent global hiring trends report found that the companies meeting hiring demands more successfully, and more quickly, are the ones that have introduced job-matching technologies (57%), moved to a combination of both in-person and virtual interviews (37%) and have implemented technologies such as AI, chatbots and skills assessments (24%) in the last year.

As the workforce continues to be more digitally inclined, talent teams that innovate will be much more equipped to meet the demands of the moment. Here are three current recruiting trends to more effectively engage and hire Gen Z workers. 

Incorporate AI and Texting Automation to Keep Them Engaged

Gen Z grew up with technology– computers, the internet, social media, and texting. According to the Financial Services Job Seeker Trends Survey 2021, 79.4% of candidates prefer scheduling an interview via text over email or a phone call.

Not to mention, texts have a 98% open rate versus 20% with email. In order to engage this generation, employers need to incorporate text and chat tools into their hiring approach.

Candidates can quickly reply to texts no matter where they are and recruiters can engage 4x more candidates 5x faster than email. Plus, text-powered chatbots pre-screen candidates and allow them to schedule and reschedule interviews from the ease of their phones.  

Promote Flexibility with On-Demand Video Interviewing

Did you know that most video interviews completed in 2021 were done outside normal business hours? The hiring experience is a reflection of the employee experience.

In fact, 78% say the overall candidate experience is an indicator of how a company values its people, making an elevated one a powerful competitive advantage for employers. 

Offering on-demand video interviewing allows candidates to put their best foot forward–which may not be 9-5 when there are school and work demands. 

Use Automation to Promote DEI Goals and Mitigate Unconscious Bias

According to Intel, diversity “will be a workplace deal-breaker for Gen Z.” Over a third of Gen-Zers say if given two similar offers, they would undoubtedly choose the company they perceived as more diverse and inclusive.

Gen Z candidates are seeking companies that align with their values, and they’re 204% more likely to engage with that employer when candidates perceive the hiring process as fair.

Technology solutions like HireVue Builder, which is validated by data scientists and IO psychologists to actively combat bias, allows hiring managers to build and structure interviews with validated questions to provide the same experience for all candidates ensuring consistency and fairness. 

Key Takeaways

In today’s hiring world, experience and engagement are what really matter to job seekers and that is especially true of the youngest generation of workers. Tech tools like conversational AI-powered recruiting assistants can engage job seekers wherever they are, whenever they want — and guide them through a set of easy next steps. 

Tech hiring tools are being widely embraced by employers. Not only do they provide a better experience for candidates, companies who automate more of their hiring process also reported a significantly shorter time-to-hire, experience greater flexibility and have an easier time identifying the best candidates.

Recruiting for Power Skills

The Great Resignation should be called the Great Labor Churn because this employment scramble is a serious challenge for hiring managers. However, the silver lining is that it also represents a significant opportunity for recruiters who know how to identify the “power skills” their available positions need most and a chance to hire new talent and ideas.

Another 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in February a pace that hasn’t slowed much since the quit rate hit a record 4.5 million in November 2021 according to the most recent jobs data released earlier this month.

It’s critical that recruiters, even while challenged by a limited talent pool, are discerning to evaluate potential candidates. Unfortunately, no matter how carefully (or creatively) a resume may be written, a rote list of past employers often highlights task-driven hard skills.

This information is easily verified, e.g., where a candidate went to school and previously worked. But how can recruiters evaluate not just what they did, but how they did it, to understand their process and approach to problem solving and team building? It is among these types of skills, including analytical, communication and work ethic, that employers can find the “power skills” to drive their businesses long into the future, such as:

    • The ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing;
    • The ability to work on a team, both within the immediate department and across internal organizations; and
    • A motivated work ethic – someone who is reliable, dedicated, productive, cooperative and self-disciplined

These power skills are critical to identify during the recruitment process, as you turn the challenge of the great resignation into the opportunity to upgrade your workforce’s quality.

Communication

Miscommunication can be common in the workplace. For example, an email too quickly written (or read), incompletely identifying a problem or simply poor personal communication habits learned over a lifetime could disrupt everything from a team meeting to negotiations key to a business’s success.

If you are looking for someone who will be effective in deploying what they know from their area of expertise such that the whole team benefits – then you should find someone who:

    • Knows how to communicate well;
    • Understands the essential things to share;
    • Understands that communication must always be timely; and
    • Considers and anticipates the informational needs of others.

Here is a simple test of a prospect’s orientation towards communication with co-workers and superiors: Do they practice permanently closing the loop with those expecting something from them? In the workplace, silence is not golden.

Teamwork

There are few things more potent in business than a group of people set to a common task – who share the same understanding and vision for what must be accomplished and lean in with confidence on each other, and genuinely enjoy working together.

Work is fun for those fortunate enough to find themselves in a group of collaborative people. Therefore, put potential candidates through at least one group interview. In tandem with the hiring manager’s sentiments, it can be incredibly valuable to heed the group wisdom of your team.

Internally Motivated

The most critical power skill of all is an internal definition of excellence. Employees who know what is needed and care deeply about the quality of their work are the employees who “just get it handled.”

Incentives can stimulate work ethic, but an employee who constantly needs external motivation could exhaust both managers and fellow team members. Hiring managers also run the risk of underperformance or even resignation when no outside incentive is offered.

However, when you combine an open, collaborative communication style with an internal sense of excellence, the work of your entire team can be elevated.

But what about leadership, problem solving, flexibility, time management and patience? These are essential power skills too.

Suppose you rigorously focus on finding self-motivated candidates that fit the job description, share your values, and truly know the importance of communication. In that case, you will likely discover they also have the other mature skills to drive business forward.

How to Best Support Older Workers

Age should be considered during the hiring process, but it shouldn’t ever be why someone is disqualified from a job opportunity, mistreated at work or unsupported. Unfortunately, many hiring managers and companies fail to offer their older workers the help and guidance to continue being productive and happy in the workplace.

Despite being counted out because of their age and expected to thrive despite the lack of specialized support, older employees are steadily increasing in the workforce. Recruiters and human resource teams play an integral role in ensuring older workers are valued, treated fairly and equipped with everything they need to thrive in their roles and well after they’ve retired.  

Learn the Needs of the Older Workforce 

Ageism isn’t talked about nearly enough in companies. This could be because company leaders honestly believe it isn’t happening in their workplaces, they can’t prove that it isn’t, or they aren’t in tune with their older workers. 

Many older individuals in the workplace are transparent about their experiences with being looked over for a role or getting demoted because of their age. Or how horrible it was working for a company that didn’t have any empathy or resources tailored to their unique needs.  

The last thing you want to do is deter older employees from your company because of an age-based bias. Instead, learn the needs of your older workforce and ensure they’re accommodated. 

For example, older-aged employees may be living with a disability like a hearing impairment. If you learn how this affects them, you can provide the equipment and assistance they need to feel good and thrive at work. 

Older employees might also prefer a hybrid work environment to be more satisfied and productive in the workforce. If you can find out about their lives, values, and needs, you can offer them a role and schedule that fit all of them.  

Take time to converse and connect with older workers so that you can understand their needs and offer what’s necessary to accommodate them. 

Provide a Comprehensive Benefits Package 

Your younger workers want excellent pay and solid benefits, and your older workers are no different. A considerable amount of older individuals aren’t ready for retirement. This can be attributed to low pay, a lack of retirement options and a hollow benefits package at the companies they work for.  

To ensure your older workers don’t have to stay in the workforce longer than they want to, pay them well. Consider their experience, work history, skillset and everything else they’ve picked up over their years of life that can add value to your company. 

Also, offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes solid retirement options and resources. 

For instance, offer health insurance options that are mindful of their age and supportive of their mental health. If you can’t provide the best health insurance plans, walk them through how to sign up for or switch to Medicare to have enough health and wellness support. 

Also, provide your older employees with excellent retirement plan options. Be sure they understand all the details about each plan and how to stay on track with their savings goals. You could even offer a phased retirement option where they can reduce their hours and workload until they transition into full retirement. 

Ultimately, your older workers will feel better about being at and producing for your company if they’re paid well and receive a fantastic benefits package. 

Ensure Your Older Workforce is Represented in Leadership 

One of the best things you can do to support older workers in your company is to hire them as leaders and leaders who understand them. Of course, there are companies with older leaders stuck in their ways, unsupportive and blind to the needs of their entire workforce. 

However, there are also older-aged employees in leadership roles who understand, empathize with and genuinely listen to those who work under them. Get these leaders into your workforce. 

Hiring the right leaders who know how to inspire, connect and get the best out of both older and younger staff members only benefits your company. They’ll be able to create those deep personal relationships with your more senior employees that are necessary to facilitate helpful solutions for them in and outside the workplace. They can also inspire younger workers into believing that they can do anything at any age, including leading workforces.

Conclusion 

HR can ensure an extensive support system at their companies for the increasing older workforce with a bit of effort, intention and willingness to learn. Start by talking with your older employees to discover their needs, paying them well and providing them with an exceptional benefits package.  

Also, be sure your older workforce is represented in various leadership roles and has an inclusive company culture to lean on to continue achieving personal and professional goals. 

Seekout’s Candidate Database Has Surpassed 700 Million Professionals

No matter your talent level, repetitively using the same technologies over and over again in the Sourcing world will bite you in the ass. You’ll inevitably reach a point where you’ve sieved out all the shiny golden candidates and keep coming back with kitty nuggets.

Diversifying your searching toolkit is gonna keep that “conveyor belt buffet” of professional pools circulating. One great Pu Pu Platter to add to your utility belt is a sourcing search platform. While you can certainly get by without subscribing to one of these platforms, you’d be playing the game on “hardcore” difficulty.

[Full Transparency: I have not received any money to review this tool]

Seekout has carved out a huge stake in the sourcing industry, growing along with the community into the behemoth we all now know. Their database of over 700 million juicy Seekout candidates is impressive, and so is their commitment to continued growth.

Believe it or not, Seekout started with a humble 100 million contacts back in 2018. They’ve come a long way with their search-ability, UI improvements, and advanced filtering since then. The rapid growth is encouraging, especially since Seekout’s candidate database just keeps on growing. It’s reassuring to know the money I’d be spending on Seekout will be reinvested back into making it even better.

Seekout Candidates by the Millions

Seekout’s candidate list has been updated, which presents a glowing opportunity! We have ourselves some fresh leads to work with! There’s 60 million organic, wild-caught, grass fed professionals to reach out to! Get on their good side before these contacts cool off and mentally check out to anything that even remotely looks like a job offer.

Dean Da Costa also hints at upcoming features to the platform in a future update. Keep an eye on Seekout if you’ve been seriously considering a sourcing platform for your workflow. We’re interested to see what new features they bring to the table; luckily Dean loves news like this.  If you’re a big fan of videos like these, check out all of his work here.

The Sauce

If you dig Seekout and would like to request a Demo of their product, here’s the sauce.

Sourcing was a big part of our recent #HRTX event, so if you’d like to learn from the industry’s top talents then tune-in to the 40+ hours of learning here.

Emphasizing Transparency in the Recruiting Process

After the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down in 2020 and things began to return to something resembling normalcy in the spring of 2021, the job market faced enormous changes. Suddenly, it wasn’t employees competing for a small number of open jobs, but employers competing for candidates with several opportunities to choose from.

Because of this, companies must take a very different approach to their recruiting and onboarding processes, or else run the risk of losing that candidate.

The most important thing an employer should do in their recruiting and onboarding is to emphasize transparency and honesty.

In this environment, candidates have plenty of options that they can go with for their job. If your recruiting process makes a potential employee feel uncomfortable or uncertain about something in your company, they may pursue other opportunities. But, perhaps even worse, if they accept your job offer and find that you haven’t been fully transparent, they could decide to leave and put you in an even worse situation than before.

The Importance of Transparency

Solving many of these issues comes down to streamlining your recruitment process. The more streamlined you are when recruiting new candidates, the less you have to worry about negotiations breaking down. If you are putting everything out on the table out front and the candidate knows what to expect, you are less likely to have retention issues going forward.

The transparency needs to start with the job description on your listing. You need to be clear about what you expect from potential employees and a candidate should know precisely what they are expected to do if hired. Once an employee is hired, if they find that the job isn’t what they expected, they likely aren’t going to be happy and will try to find another opportunity elsewhere.

Virtual Hiring Fairs

One of the easiest ways to streamline the recruiting process is to go virtual. The old way of hiring with several in-office interviews is in the past with virtual hiring fairs and online interviews becoming the norm. This may have been a change brought about as a result of the pandemic and the unique constraints this put on companies, but it should be here to stay. It gives the candidate added flexibility and allows companies to open their hiring pool to a much wider reach geographically.

Knowing What Candidates Are Looking For

When talking about critical factors for employees when making career decisions, consistently ranked near the top is pay. With the sheer amount of options qualified candidates currently have, competitive pay can be a make-or-break point for your company.

It is also essential to be upfront about salary in all steps of the recruiting process. You’re wasting each other’s time if there is a disparity between what a candidate expects and what an employer can offer. There is no use in leading an employee on if you can’t pay them what they are willing to work for.

While money isn’t the only factor for potential employees, benefits can also determine which workplace is the best fit for them. Candidates may be willing to take a reduced pay if the benefits offered to them are irresistible.

Workers want companies that will take care of them and their needs, including the need for a healthy work-life balance. Paid leave and insurance are absolute musts, and other benefits like stock options and 401k matching will help your company stand out amongst the competition to potential candidates. 

Employees are also looking for more flexibility in the workplace than ever before. The pandemic forced many businesses to shift to a work from home model, which revealed the positive impacts this can have on employees.

Offering options such as continuing work from home abilities or hybrid work options will attract some great talent to your company that otherwise may not have been interested in working for you.

Onboarding and Retaining Employees

Once you have brought an employee into your organization, it is vital to ensure that you are taking steps to keep them comfortable within your company. The first thing you can do to make sure that employees are satisfied is to reinforce their value within the company.

Make sure they know that they are a welcome addition to the team and an integral part of it, making contributions directly relevant to the company’s success.

Another step you can take to ensure employee comfort is to welcome feedback and input. Although it is crucial to value input from your employees at all stages, it is particularly vital when they are first onboarding with the company.

It would help if you asked them what you can do to make their transition smoother, as well as how you can help them succeed and feel more comfortable. This feedback will help you make that employee feel more welcome into your company and help make the process better for any future new hires.

Those first few weeks with a new employee are paramount in determining their long-term success within your company. If you get off on the wrong foot, especially with so many companies looking to hire qualified talent, you may alienate those employees and cause them to stay on the hunt for a job.

With increased transparency upfront and a focus on the employee experience starting with the recruiting process, you can find suitable candidates that will stay with your company for a long time.

Ghosting: What Goes Around Comes Around

When it comes to recruiting, there’s nothing new about ghosting. In fact, in the era before the internet, it was nearly impossible to respond to every paper resume received, so ghosting was a common practice in the application process. But in our hyperconnected world, there’s no reason to ghost anyone – whether you’re a candidate or a recruiter. 

Nowadays, it’s easy to fire off a quick text or email informing the candidate or recruiter of a decision, no matter where you are in the talent acquisition lifecycle. And yet, ghosting continues, particularly in and around the interview stage, frustrating recruiters and infuriating candidates.

It creates a bad experience for everyone involved and can even cause long-lasting damage to both your relationships and your employer brand. The real trouble is that ghosting is symbolic of larger issues in the process. So why does ghosting happen, and how can you prevent it? 

Finding the Cause 

No matter which side of the table you’re on, recruiting is emotional. For candidates, looking for a new job can be time-consuming and tied to feelings of self-worth, and getting an offer can literally change someone’s life overnight.

Similarly, looking for the right candidate is almost always time-consuming for hiring teams and requires making tough decisions. No one wants to disappoint the other, so sometimes, it feels easier to avoid the situation entirely. As if when we disappear, we don’t disappoint. 

Laura Mazzullo, founder and owner of East Side Staffing, explained the psychology behind this thinking to SHRM, saying, “The fear paralyzes them from even sending an email. The year is all about ‘How will the other person respond? What if they hang up on me? What if they yell at me? What if they’re disappointed in me? What if they give me a long, undesired sales pitch to try and change my mind?’” 

The what-ifs can affect anyone, especially when it comes time to interview. By acknowledging this, it becomes clear that today’s competitive job market exacerbates a long-standing issue and one you need to face head-on to solve. 

Facing Your Fears 

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Hurt people, hurt people.” But the truth is that emotional avoidance makes nearly every situation worse and ghosting perpetuates a cycle of bad behavior. Discussing how ghosting spreads in a recent webinar, John Leech, Director of Talent Acquisition, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, explains, “I think now we’re feeling the pain that, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this candidate ghosted me, and we’re going to put them on a shortlist of not being able to apply here again.”

To Leech’s point, this mentality is concerning for recruiters because the relationships they foster and develop directly correspond to hiring outcomes. Likewise, the more you ghost and the further into the process, the more candidates will avoid working with you and your organization. 

As the one setting up the interviews, it’s important to remember that dispositioning and disconnecting from candidates (even ones you really like) is part of your job. It’s not a fun part of your job, but it comes with the territory. The more proactive you can be in your communications, the better. 

Fixing the Process 

If you are the ghost, you are choosing to avoid your candidate. If you are being ghosted, your candidates are choosing to avoid you. As Mazzullo reminds, “We can only control our own behavior. We can choose not to ghost. We can choose to close a process out.” 

To her point, ghosting comes down to a conscious choice. By focusing on what you can control, you have the ability to fix your output before it impacts others. You can gently disconnect from candidates, rather than leave them hanging.

It can be a quick note, thanking them for their participation and the time they spent with you. Think about prioritizing kindness and making the message personal. How you let someone down directly reflects your process for talent acquisition: the when, where, why and how you hire. 

In the webinar with Leech, William Tincup shared that there are software engineers who outsource their first “three to four” interviews to stand-ins until they know the company is serious about them. Tincup points out that these candidates don’t want to go through a battery of tests to prove themselves.

For others, the mere idea of going through three to four rounds of interviews could be reason enough to ghost. Understanding where the ghosting occurs is an essential data point if you’re interested in improving your process.

From there, it’s possible to exert control and create an interview experience that caters to the hiring team and candidates, encouraging open dialogue between both sides. It might not scare away all the ghosts, but at the very least, you’ll know you’re practicing good vibes only.  

Playing the Long-Term Game of Measuring and Assessing Quality of Hires

Recruiters do what they can to get the best talent on board. HR departments and employers alike will often spare no effort to ensure their hiring strategy is structured and efficient. But while recruiters may be able to fill positions quickly and easily, the quality of hires is often lacking. 

What Does “Quality of Hire” Mean?

Quality of hire represents the value added by new employees to your organization over the long term. In this context, value is represented by how much an employee contributes to the success of a company. It can also be used to assess the effectiveness of a recruitment process.

Although quality of hire has always been a concern, the pandemic has shifted the job market in the employee’s favor. This is making quality talent harder to find and even harder to keep.

According to the experts at JobSage, employees judge employers and jobs based on inclusion, purpose, growth, feedback and flexibility. Quality hires won’t flock to your door unless you underscore the benefits of working for you, but a hire’s culture fit can’t be understated.

What Do You Need to Measure “Quality of Hire?”

No business can improve metrics they can’t measure. When you understand your quality of hire metric, you can pinpoint your shortcoming, which allows you to adjust your strategies and achieve the desired outcome. However, measuring the quality of hire can be complicated at best.

But once you develop a strategy, the results are worth it. Improved quality of hire scores can reduce recruitment overheads, drive revenue growth and assert the quality of your talent acquisition team. In the end, your company achieves a better overview of its hiring process.

To make sure the best candidates are on board, businesses must examine, track and measure the quality of hires over time. This includes data that isn’t directly tied to your hiring strategy.

How do you Measure “Quality of Hire?”

The quality of hire metric is made up of several other metrics in the pre-hire and post-hire stages. Here are the most important metrics that help you assess the quality of your hires.

Pre-Hire Metrics

    • Time to Hire: Evaluates the number of days since candidates entered the pipeline until their offer acceptance date. This locates inefficiencies in the recruitment process.
    • Source Yield Ratio: Evaluates a lead’s effectiveness. Measures return on investment.
    • Hiring Velocity: Evaluates how long it takes for an applicant to get to different parts of the hiring process. For example, how long it takes for a candidate to be interviewed.
    • Time to Fill: Evaluates how long it takes to fill a (usually urgent) open position.
    • Interview Scores: Evaluates a candidate’s performance in an interview. Recruiters typically make their own scoring system based on pre-selected criteria.
    • Cost Per Hire: Evaluates how much a company’s recruitment process costs.
    • Talent Assessment Score: Evaluates how well an employee may perform in their new role. You can use Applicant Tracking Systems to help you assess resumes.
    • Recruiting Experience: Evaluates the candidate’s experience throughout the process.
    • Offer Acceptance Rate: Evaluates hiring offers vs. acceptance rates. This can help recruiters address issues related to compensation, benefits, or work-life balance.

Post-Hire Metrics

    • End of Probation Review: Evaluates whether a candidate is comfortable in their new role. This metric can also evaluate how a new hire feels about your onboarding process.
    • Time to Productivity: Evaluates when a new hire achieved maximum productivity.
    • Job Compatibility: Evaluates how suitable a new hire is for a role. New hires should be asked how well the job aligns with their expectations and their career trajectory. 
    • Onboarding Survey: Evaluates if a new hire has gained the needed skills for their role.
    • Hiring Manager Satisfaction Survey: Evaluates if a hiring manager feels the new candidate is appropriate for their role. This helps determine improvement opportunities.
    • 360-Degree Feedback: Evaluates gaps in a person’s perception of themselves.
    • Rewards and Promotions: Evaluates a new hire’s career trajectory. A person who receives a lot of rewards and promotions is more likely to stay in the company.
    • Personality Assessments: Evaluates cultural fitment, performance, and trainability.

While you don’t need to apply all 17 metrics, it’s better to use as many as possible. The more you know about your hiring process, the easier it’ll be to improve, adjust or scrap altogether.

What Can Recruiters Do to Improve Their Quality of Hire Metrics?

Knowing what data to use is a great start, but your HR department also needs to simplify its workflow. Employers should equip their recruiters with tools that streamline the process.

Simplify Hiring Workflow With Assessment Software

Most HR staff have enough on their plates, so adding more steps to the hiring process could cause your talent acquisition strategy to suffer. You can streamline their workflow by expediting the screening process and analyzing job conversion rates. Be sure to reward your recruiters!

Re-Training HR Staff Using Education Tools

Hiring managers won’t be aligned with your quality of hire goals unless you train them. You can bulk train your HR staff by using collaborative learning tools like Teachfloor. In fact, learning in a group can help your employees retain information, especially if there’s a review process.

Initiate Cognitive Assessments With a Virtual Assessment Platform

A psychometric test can measure an individual’s aptitude, traits, intelligence, behavioral style and abilities. If the methodology is sound, businesses can use recruitment tests to match employees to roles. Cognitive assessment can also determine culture fit and behavior.

Create Non-Bias Technical Tests With Testing Automation

If you’re hiring for a skilled role, administering a paid skills test can help you find qualified hires immediately. Then, recruiters can issue another paid test to candidates that reach the interview stage. A second test can ensure that candidates stay honest when taking the first assessment. 

Conduct Social Listing With Social Media or Surveys

Listening to your candidates is the best way to deliver what they want. Your competition is already adjusting to current hiring trends and so should you. If you notice that you’re missing out on hires due to pay, benefits or culture, improve on these metrics to attract quality hires.

Maintain a Structured Interview Format With Interviewing Platforms

Interviewers should ask the same questions to all job candidates applying for the same role. That way, you can compare their answers fairly. An interviewing platform can also move interviews online by using collaboration tools, structure grading and digital record keeping.

Playing the Long Game is Worth It

Creating an incredible hiring process isn’t easy, but when it’s done right, employers will see a massive surge of quality applicants. However, measuring and assessing the quality of your hires is an ongoing process. To keep your employees engaged, show you care about their growth.

How Retailers Can Improve Their Interviewing Process to Avoid Losing Top Talent

The Current Hiring Process for C-Suite Roles in Retail

It’s clear that across the global economy, labor shortages are presenting a significant challenge for business. This is particularly true in sectors that were most affected by the pandemic and therefore need to make the most significant recovery. Retailers were one of the hardest hit, and the result has been employers struggling to find candidates within limited timeframes.

Employers are being advised to change their hiring processes to stay on their front foot. Currently, many experienced employees are being lost to the Great Resignation and Great Retirement, and they’re demanding more flexible working practices. Employees haven’t progressed as expected because they’ve missed out on in-person development opportunities. The result of all this is a labor market that’s tighter and more challenging than ever.

Reactive approaches increase time pressure on hiring, and it can be hard for retailers to quickly find workers with the right skills, particularly in digital and e-commerce. The dominance of e-commerce is here to stay — that’s the trend highlighted by successive lockdowns and the closure of High Street giant Debenhams — and this has changed recruitment needs in the retail sector.

Now, retailers want candidates for board-level and C-suite positions who have digital and e-commerce skillsets, along with an understanding of social media and younger Gen-Z audiences. The desirability of these skills and the recruitment challenges facing the sector mean proactive hiring practices are essential.

How Retailers Can Adapt Their Hiring Models to Find Top C-Suite Talent

Retail sector employers can identify individuals who will thrive in their company using psychometric testing. This testing highlights candidates who, for example, have leadership potential or are closely aligned to your business’s ethos. Psychometric tests streamline the hiring process, providing an extra measure that employers can use to determine which candidates are strongest.

It’s crucial that you also carve out space in your schedule for thorough interviews. Having face-to-face conversations with potential new recruits is essential, not just because it helps you decide if they’re the right fit, but also because it shows your deeper personal engagement and helps them to become more invested in the opportunity.

When you take time to really understand a candidate and answer all of their questions, they see your care and enthusiasm, and this positive impression can give you an edge over competitors with whom they’re also speaking to.

It’s important to establish what you want to find out about a candidate before meeting or interviewing them and to consider how you can best achieve this. Sometimes, traditional interview formats might not be the most effective. Sitting down for a more informal chat over a coffee can be a great way to spot the most promising talent. This can speed up the hiring process by providing a clearer insight into what a candidate would be like to work with.

The Importance of Retailers Adapting Their Current Hiring Models

One major impact of the pandemic has been a distinct shift in employees’ expectations and needs. Most people working in board-level and C-suite roles in the retail sector have spent extended periods of time working from home, and this has brought many of them benefits such as the ability to pick up their children from school. The changes have altered people’s feelings about their work-life balance.

In the past, when labor markets were squeezed, offering higher salaries could tempt the best candidates away from your competitors. Now, employees are demanding more than just financial incentives. Many top-quality candidates have noticed that remote working enables them to live further outside of city centers in attractive rural areas and to dedicate time previously spent commuting to family, all while maintaining their career progression.

To attract these candidates, retailers looking to recruit new CFOs, CIOs and other board and director-level executives must show that they can offer opportunities for hybrid and remote working.

It’s not just remote working arrangements that employees increasingly want to see from their employers. Many workers, especially from younger generations, are keen to join companies that show a social conscience, and this is undoubtedly motivating firms to change their policies.

For example, many major retail sector employers – such as H&M and Apple – pulled their Russian operations in a show of solidarity following the country’s recent invasion of Ukraine. Another key priority for candidates is opportunities for progression. Employers who present a clear professional development pathway are more likely to attract top talent.

How Retailers Can Reach the Right Candidates

It’s a great time to reimagine how you reach out to candidates.

Board and director-level retail executives in the post-pandemic era need to be flexible and open-minded. They must be able to manage their teams along with their own work in a hybrid or remote work environment. This will require a flexible style of leadership, which enables them to communicate just as effectively online as in person. Determining whether a candidate is the right kind of leader for this new era will be crucial.

As new working practices become consolidated, retailers cannot stick to previous hiring strategies when looking for C-suite and board-level candidates. Showing your commitment to responsible business practices and setting clear sustainability targets may be central to winning over the new generation of emerging retail leaders.

But whichever strategy you adopt, planning for the future is a must. Retailers who think ahead when developing their recruitment plans are those most likely to succeed in the post-Covid world.

Recruiting Tips for Global Employers

The employment game has changed considerably over the past few years. Today, global employers need to use a range of up-to-date techniques and recruiting tips to move their businesses forward and find the ideal candidates to fill open roles.

There’s been a definite shift towards the importance of inbound recruitment practices, employer branding, improved candidate experiences and using AI and big data to find candidates in 2022.

Here’s what you need to know to recruit successfully, this year and beyond:

Finding the Ideal Candidates

The technology that’s available to handle modern recruiting processes is becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible to businesses of all sizes and sectors. However, while tech-driven recruitment can certainly produce positive results, it’s important to use proven candidate hiring techniques alongside the latest technology.

The world is also experiencing a huge demographic shift in global workplaces. Recent data suggests that there are a few key trends to take note of while recruiting in 2022. They are:

    • Generation Z is starting to enter the workforce alongside Millennials.
    • More Baby Boomers are retiring from their positions, which creates experience and skill gaps in executive and management roles.
    • There are not enough Gen Z and Millennial workers to replace all the retiring Baby Boomers.
    • The gig economy is steadily rising. More people than ever are eager to work as freelancers on part-time and short term work contracts.
    • Industries are continuing to shift towards remote working and process automation to streamline their workflows.

These trends indicate that recruiters can expect increased competition for leading talent, along with a stronger focus on succession planning and talent management. Their recruitment efforts should reflect these trends in 2022 for best results.

The following are some top tips for this year:

Focus on Company Culture

One of the most important things you can do to improve your recruitment processes and results is to invest in creating an attractive company culture that skilled, diligent workers want to become a part of.

Spending resources to attract top talent won’t help much if your company culture does not meet the expectations or needs of your staff. Creating a strong company culture isn’t usually considered to be a recruitment-related practice. It does, however, go a long way in drawing candidates in and generating genuine interest in your available positions. If you already have a positive company culture, be sure to promote this through your business’s recruitment strategies.

Recruit and Nurture Talent from Within Your Organization

Most people think of recruitment as an external process. One of the best ways to find people that fit your available roles is to promote talent from within your business.

Hiring talent internally is an excellent strategy. It guarantees you’ll fill vacant positions with workers who already understand your business, company culture and expectations. Plus, recruiting internally shows your current employees that you’re dedicated to their professional growth.

Establish a Staff Referral Program

Staff referral programs are a popular form of recruitment that has the power to use your staff’s industry contacts to your advantage. These programs encourage your staff members to help fill vacant positions in your organization by recommending qualified talent whose experience and skills they can testify to.

Establishing an employee referral program can speed up and streamline the screening process. Additionally, it enables you to tap into candidate groups that you may not otherwise have access to. A successful program should offer employees recognition and incentives for their efforts.

Update the Interviewing Process

Interviews are a widely used recruitment tactic. Unfortunately, they are often poorly conducted. Many businesses simply conduct interviews by reading a list of predictable questions to potential hires. Yet this approach doesn’t give you a full picture of each candidate. It can also create an unpleasant experience for the candidates themselves.

Assess your interviewing process. Ask whether you’re spending the time needed to get to know your applicants, if you’re asking the right questions, and if you’re personalizing the interview questions for each vacant role.

If not, it may be time to give your interviewing process an update.

Hire a Recruitment Process Outsourcing Agency

Many businesses simply don’t have the time or resources to use recruitment best practices consistently over long periods of time. If you have a small business or your resources are limited, it might be time to consider hiring a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) specialist. They can help you find talent for your company. This is a cost-effective recruitment method that gives you long-standing access to talent pools you may otherwise miss out on.

Instead of splitting your resources between PEO vs EOR organizations, handing over your recruiting to an outsourcing agency will allow you to work with experts to use your existing channels to find the best available prospects. These agencies can typically be hired on a monthly or annual basis. They handle the full recruitment process, including drawing up job descriptions, screening candidates, working with hiring managers and optimizing your employer branding.

Use Data to Your Advantage

Data-driven recruitment has the power to help you manage applicant data, advertising platforms, screening protocols, talent management and on-boarding securely. This type of recruitment uses real data obtained from a vast range of recruiting methods and practices.

In 2022, businesses are encouraged to take a closer look at their recruitment data to gain insights into how they can best improve, adapt and optimize their strategies.

Turn to AI

Artificial intelligence recruitment is becoming increasingly popular in 2022. AI can identify weak spots and efficiencies in your recruitment processes by optimizing tedious and repetitive tasks.

For instance, you could use AI scanners to scan resumes and cover letters to highlight the candidates with the most potential, or you can use AI to assess past job descriptions to create even more effective ones in years to come. AI chatbots can also be used to approach candidates, schedule interviews and more.

Ensure That You Have Solid Employer Branding

Employer review websites like Glassdoor are on the rise. Many candidates who use these platforms will review a business’s culture and reputation before they even consider applying. This makes employer branding a crucial aspect of any strong recruitment strategy.

The idea behind this branding is to portray your business as a great, healthy and fulfilling place to work. You can do this by creating a custom career section, employee testimonials and profiles and active pages on sites like Instagram and Glassdoor that detail what it’s like to work for your company. This will show potential hires why they should want to work for you before they’ve even scheduled an interview.

The Takeaway

Creating a successful recruitment strategy in 2022 involves pairing a creative approach with recruitment best practices and the latest technologies. Don’t be afraid to update your recruitment methods to align with the times; this is vital to your success!

Look critically at your hiring processes and strategies and use tools like AI, big data, and online platforms to position yourself favorably as a great organization to work for.

Webbtree Free vs Paid: A Proper Sourcing Tool Review

Webbtree is quite a unique find. There seems to be a lot of sourcing platforms; so many that it would be hard to recommend a specific one. So, how does Webbtree free stack up to the competition?

Well, as most of these sourcing platforms work, you have to judge their usefulness based off what they provide for free vs what you shell out for. This is a completely different product when looking at it as a paid service, so I have to review both sides of this coin.

Webbtree’s Free features:

  • Advanced boolean building with a zillion options
  • Built-in X-ray searching across LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, Stack Overflow, etc.
  • Automatic Boolean string generation from a pasted job description
  • Boolean Search history so you can easily pick up where you left off
  • Diversity inclusion (LGBTQIA+, Gender, Race, Veteran status)
  • Group candidates into talent pools.

Hello, Sourcers on a budget! We can’t all be expected to shell out for every single tool that rolls our way…the goal is to MAKE MONEY not add to our taxable expenditures! So, let’s dig into how we can snag every last piece of low-hanging fruit from this WebbTree.

At Webbtree’s core, you have unlimited access to everything boolean. Boolean building, boolean X-ray, boolean diversity settings, and a whole bunch of other toggles to play with.  You can create quite an advanced boolean string with this technology.  Easy, simple, and best of all FAST.

The free auto-generated booleans from a job description works quite beautifully. Typically step one is breaking down your assigned job description into keywords, and this tool does a damn fine job of doing it for you. I highly recommend still reading the JD yourself, we can’t trust robots with everything ya know?

I could be an ignorant fool but as far as Webbtree’s free and unlimited options, those are the highlights. Feel free to comment if there are some vital feature I’m missing!

Webbtree’s Paid Features:

  • The Chrome Extension will quickly copy social profiles to your talent pools (on specific sites)
  • Uncover additional contact information using their unique “Webbtree Talent Source”
  • Bulk Export your collected contacts as CSV
  • Bulk Email your candidates

This platform creates a one-stop-shop for all of your sourcing needs. You hypothetically would not need to open any third party applications from the beginning of your process to the end. You have the option of finding contacts through a variety of platforms, or adding them manually.

The Talent Sourcing aspect of this paid service is actually quite handy. A candidate with less-than-adequate contact information could just be one click away from uncovering everything about them. Of the 3 times I attempted this witchcraft, 1 didn’t work, 1 kind-of worked, and 1 worked very well so your mileage may vary. This extra contact information cost a “credit,” of which their payment plans offered various tiers.

There is a certain “risk-free” aspect to this platform that I like.  If you’re knee deep in WebbTree and have collected a whole host of contacts, you don’t have to worry about those lists being held hostage. You can export your entire contact list to a CSV file quite easily, so if you ever get cold feet you can leave at any time.

Links, Current Events, and More Goodies

There’s lots of good stuff on this platform, but don’t take it from me! Feel free to check out WebbTree yourself! Their Chrome Extension page is here, and their subscription model page is here.

Dean Da Costa is quite the sourcing magician and does reviews like this all the time. If there’s a sourcing tool, he’s probably reviewed it. Don’t believe me? Check out Dean’s library of articles with us.

 

Below the Surface: Is That Your ‘Company Culture’ or Your ‘Hiring Culture?’

After two years of living and working through a global pandemic, companies are turning their attention back to culture, albeit with fresh eyes. Pre-COVID, leaders often saw culture in terms of shiny objects – kegs in the kitchen, ping pong in the break room – that they could offer employees to keep them engaged. But when there wasn’t a communal kitchen to go to, no break room to speak of, it became clear that culture is about more than what a company provides. Culture represents the systemic integrity of the organization, the sum of its parts – and in this case, those parts include your people.

For too long, culture seemed to exist in a vacuum, seemingly distinct from the workforce it is meant to support. That stems from the fact that there is more than one culture within an organization, there are two: your company culture and your hiring culture. Here’s what that means and how it impacts the role talent acquisition and human resources play in the process:

Company Culture

Nine times out of 10, when you sit down to read a book about becoming a better leader, it will tell you to build a better culture. That’s usually where the lesson ends because most of these resources are talking to CEOs and drawing on the work of management consultants, social scientists and industrial-organizational psychologists rather than HR and TA pros. Still, the basic premise of company culture hasn’t changed much since researchers coined the original definition.

Following Edgar Schein’s model, company (or in his context, organizational) culture involves behaviors and artifacts, values and basic assumptions. The interplay of these three factors forms the basis of company culture, influencing how employees interact and treat each other.

Some artifacts and behaviors are visible, such as those kegs in the kitchen or takeout Fridays, whereas values and basic assumptions are implicit, like open feedback and speaking up when you have a good idea.

Schein also suggests  company culture isn’t built in a day, which gives those with a longer tenure an advantage over newer employees and leads to the debate between hiring for “culture fit” versus “culture add.”

Hiring Culture

Hiring culture is representative of your company culture, but extends beyond your employees to include candidates, too. It is the first thing candidates experience when they engage with your organization and should reflect everything your organization embodies, including the treatment of others, candidates and employees alike.

All stakeholders play a role in shaping hiring culture, from the candidates you choose to how employees engage and interact with them. Hiring culture demonstrates how both sides treat and perceive one another.

That is why it’s essential to secure alignment between TA and HR teams as you develop the strategies that bring your cultural entities together.

Jackye Clayton, Vice President of Talent Acquisition and DEI at Textio, described how to put this in action during a recent webinar, “As recruiters and talent acquisition folks, we get to bring the change. We have to be thoughtful in understanding that the people we bring in could potentially change the whole culture. We have to take the time to build the persona of what type of person is going to find this environment great. So that means a regular visit of what is our company culture? What are we looking for? What’s missing? What voices are missing that add to that culture? And we have to bring those things full circle when we’re looking at candidates.”

Striking a Balance

Building on what Clayton shared, if you can trace where the company culture comes from, structurally and institutionally, you can communicate it to candidates from your initial point of contact. That establishes a baseline of understanding between company and candidate that will evolve throughout the process.

If you start out of sync, it’s more likely a candidate will feel the company duped them when they walk in on day one and find the culture isn’t what they expected. That said, hiring and company culture will always be separate to some extent, both evolving over time. It’s up to TA and HR to team up and reflect company culture in hiring culture in a way that feels authentic.

The bottom line is that by only focusing on company culture and not hiring, employers run the risk of hindering organizational growth and development. For instance, you can be diverse, inclusive and equitable on the inside, but if your candidates don’t experience that during the recruiting process, they’re less likely to feel like they will belong as an employee.

Ultimately hiring culture is what brings those people into your company culture. It’s a chance to promote the values that are important to your organization alongside your artifacts (even the ping pong table) and assumptions – everything a candidate would need to know to join the team – and succeed.

Recruiting Intelligence: Using AI Recruitment Tools to Assess Human Talent and Capacity

Artificial intelligence (AI) recruitment tools are becoming the cornerstone of recruitment agencies and businesses that don’t have enough staff to support a manual hiring process. But that’s not all. AI also helps enterprises get through the massive amount of resumes they receive during a hiring initiative.

There’s no doubt that AI is helpful, but when misused, both the candidate and employer suffer the consequences. Employers must know how to use AI recruitment tools to attract talent, whereas candidates have to understand how specific keywords can get them noticed.

In this article, we’ll help both parties understand AI and how they can leverage its benefits to overcome recruitment challenges. We’ll also examine the best AI tools industries should use.

What is AI Recruitment?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a science that trains machines to perform tasks initially given to humans. What results is automation and accuracy, which saves businesses time and money.

Since AI can be used to solve complex, repeatable problems, it’s endlessly useful for finding quality employees. Screening resumes and scheduling interviews takes time, but AI tools can speed up the process. This allows employers and HR staff more time to focus on other matters.

AI recruitment tools won’t replace sections of your human resources department. Instead, it helps recruiters discover passive candidates and utilize data-driven insights that allow their teams to make better decisions. When used appropriately, AI can build stronger teams.

Why is AI Important for Recruitment?

AI recruitment tools do more than save you time and money. They also help startups stay competitive because it introduces a wider candidate pool full of diverse choices.

Here’s how:

Artificial Intelligence and Automation

Recruiters are often asked to do more for less, but without automation, that isn’t always easy. When faced with tedious tasks like looking through resumes, recruiters may become less patient with unconventional candidates, meaning quality hires get lost in the process.

According to Dice’s Recruitment Automation Report, recruiters can spend 30 hours a week sourcing resumes. Why do that when you can use AI recruitment tools to do the following:

    • Schedule interviews via chatbots and calendar integration
    • Screen candidates based on a score of 1-100
    • Source potential employers based on culture fit

Keep in mind that your recruitment process will only be as good as the person using it. It’s essential to look up a few great resume examples that work with AI tools before using them.

Artificial Intelligence and Personalization

AI recruitment tools aren’t just helpful in attracting hires; they can also be beneficial for every stage of the employee lifestyle. With AI tools, you can help employees reach their goals faster.

    • Candidates will have personalized experiences and job recommendations based on their search history, profile, location, similar persona and similar job openings.
    • Employees can be offered the same features as external candidates by supplying job referrals in the employer’s network based on previous employers and references.
    • Recruiters can create their own personalized pipeline that matches a candidate’s compatibility automatically, which also helps them rediscover past candidates.

A fully customizable recruitment tool can still inject personality into talent acquisition.

Artificial Intelligence and Analytics

When an employer doesn’t use AI tools for recruitment, they’re missing out on valuable data that they could use to improve their talent acquisition process. By analyzing data, businesses:

    • Can discover best-fit job seekers and qualified candidates
    • Tap into cloud-sourced suggestions in the platform
    • Will obtain data trends and view more dynamic talent pools
    • Start to understand what candidates want in the recruitment process

With data and analytics, recruiters can lower their time and cost per hire metrics.

What Challenges Come With AI Recruitment?

While AI recruitment can be helpful in many ways, there are things that hold it back. When implementing AI recruitment software, make a plan that overcomes the following shortcomings.

Replacement Fears

Your employees are afraid of being replaced by AI software, and that fear shouldn’t be understated or laughed off. It’s essential to explain how AI tools help the HR department, rather than letting that fear fester, as it may make employees unwilling to accept the new change.

Training Challenges

You must train your staff on how to use AI programs effectively, as it increases their usefulness. HR staff and recruiters should be aware of SEO keyword practices and what a good score looks like. They should also know how to spot keyword stuffers or candidates who can game the system.

Acquisition Difficulties

AI software isn’t perfect. Your candidates may use synonyms of keywords you’re looking for, which makes them appear less qualified than another candidate. While it’s a good idea to add synonyms to your AI software, it’s also important to manually review some resumes.

Lack of Bias Control

While AI recruitment software was initially created to remove bias from the hiring process, employers may input keywords that unintentionally cause bias. For example, geographic or academic keywords may cause HR to gloss over qualified applicants immediately.

Unusable Data

When implementing AI software, you have to make sure that the data flowing into it is fed by a network of candidates, employees, recruiters and job descriptions. Not all technology partners will share data across multiple businesses, but you need this to improve your hiring practices.

What AI Recruitment Tools are Available?

Recruitment software comes in many forms, but they typically come with the following core functionalities: search, personalization, insights and conversational/automatic chatbots.

Search Functionality

For career sites to deliver relevant, accurate results, they need a quality search tool. Any tool that provides inconclusive or irrelevant results will populate candidates that don’t fit the job description. However, semantic search seeks to understand human language and context.

Chatbot Functionality

Recruitment chatbots are able to understand a candidate’s personality, which helps employers match them with their company culture. Job sites get a lot of use out of chatbots that can direct candidates to the right jobs, but it also allows HR to talk to candidates using natural language.

Insight Functionality

With fit-based and engagement-based scoring, AI cloud-based tools can discover and rediscover job seekers. AI tools are able to put candidates into different categories and save resumes for a later date, which shortens the talent acquisition process the next time around.

Personalization Functionality

Tools that offer personalization can deliver tailored content for employees and candidates who are looking for specific job titles or careers. Not only that, but recruitment teams can match skills and compatibility with a hands-off approach, which makes their talent pool even larger.

Conclusion

AI recruitment tools aren’t complicated, but they can take a bit of time and energy to set up. Once you and your teams are well-versed in the software’s features, you’ll be able to expand your talent pool and spend less time on talent acquisition. This gives you more time to onboard candidates.