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Why HR Needs a Compensation Operations Role in 2022

With pay surfacing as a significant contributor to attrition, and eventually, business performance, is it time for organizations to have a compensation operations role?

Over the past two years, there has been a marked shift in the way employees view their relationship with employers. More recently, the Great Resignation has shed light on employees’ evolving expectations from their employers when it comes to wages, pay equity and the need for a total rewards strategy centered around health (mental & physical) and financial wellness. 

What is Compensation Operations?

It is an HR workstream that aligns an organization’s compensation strategy with business goals to reward employees and improve profitability. Traditionally, compensation operations were carried out by HR and payroll in the absence of a dedicated operations team. 

However, over the past few years organizations have developed dedicated teams to leverage compensation more effectively. In the current economic climate, compensation operations are vital to productivity and profitability.

As more organizations begin to establish the link between compensation and the business bottomline, having a compensation operations professional is no longer optional. 

Why Do You Need a Compensation Operations Professional in Your Team in 2022?

A number of factors have made it imperative for organizations to modernize their compensation team – skills shortage, attrition, budgetary constraints and intense competition. Taking a data-driven approach to compensation benchmarking will help organizations to improve operating costs and reduce turnover. 

A compensation operations professional communicates business priorities to the workforce using the total rewards model. For instance, when hiring for in-demand roles, it may be necessary for organizations to pay above the industry standard.

They can also help analyze pay structures for similar roles at different organizations and determine key cost drivers that will be positively impacted (lower recruitment costs through reduced turnover or improved productivity).

Also, with new pay transparency requirements coming into effect, a dedicated compensation operations professional will be crucial to navigating the talent market.

What Does the Role Look Like? 

For organizations considering creating a new compensation operations position, an analyst or associate-level hire is the best way to start. On the other hand, organizations with a more mature capability may be on the lookout for senior executives to bolster their compensation leadership bench. 

Let’s look at some of the key responsibilities by position: 

  • Compensation Operations Analyst

A compensation operations analyst will work with HR business partners and finance teams to develop compensation programs. A key part of the role also involves developing and maintaining compensation data and processes. They will typically own the organization’s compensation management platform to assist with compensation benchmarking and pay structure development and administration. 

  • Compensation Operations Manager

At this level, the professional will be expected to provide strategic direction to the organization’s compensation initiatives. They will play a crucial role in creating and implementing compensation programs that are scalable. Key areas of responsibilities may include: market benchmarking via surveys, ensuring pay competitiveness, delivering compensation education to other stakeholders, lead compensation reporting and drive compliance.

  • Compensation Operations Executive

A senior operations executive will provide leadership and direction to the team and oversee annual processes such as bonuses, core pay revisions, etc. The leader will also be expected to incentivize behavior alignment with business strategy by launching new compensation initiatives and strategies. They will also lead the development of compensation communication and collaborate with the C-suite on resourcing and investment decisions. 

Succeeding with Compensation Operations

Starting your compensation operations journey with the right talent is crucial. However, in addition to the talent, you will also need the right tools to succeed. A unified compensation management platform eliminates the guesswork in compensation operations and offers a robust, data-driven approach that leads to significant cost-savings and higher accuracy. 

Solutions like Compose make it easier for compensation operations leaders to navigate complex processes with configurable rule-based automation and remain compliant. More importantly, smart tools provide valuable insights on key compensation initiatives such as DEI through intuitive dashboards and visualization.   

To meet the needs of the changing nature of work and productivity in 2022, such as personalized benefits packages and incentive programs, linking compensation to measurable performance and digitizing the compensation process end-to-end, organizations will require the right balance of talent and technology. 

Search All Social Media Accounts at Once and Look Cool While Doing it

Social Searcher is an advanced tool that can scour the internet for all of someone’s social media accounts. Power and convenience all in one.

It’s baffling, but as the internet gets bigger information seemingly becomes easier to find. Remember the days of finding a friend on Myspace? Search tools weren’t that sophisticated back in the day, and the internet felt like a wild horse that we’d never learn to tame. Back to the future, we now have the technology to search ALL social media accounts in just one place.

This is where the power of Social Searcher comes out to play. There’s searching based on title, name, email, or even keyword.  Since this video’s recording, your profile options have greatly expanded. This powerful tool can scour Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Youtube, Reddit, Instagram, and a whole lot more. It does these searches all at once, saving you precious time and energy.

I have honestly not came across a more powerful social media search engine…and it’s free.

The power and convenience of searching all of someone’s social media accounts is unparalleled. There’s even a unique feature dubbed “Sentiments” that I have never seen anywhere else.  Search by positive or negative reputation and find out exactly how they represent themselves on the internet. This is huge if you’re digging for the moral compass of a prospective client.

Advanced Search Techniques

Dean Da Costa also digs a little bit into his procedure for URL editing. He shows how you can manipulate URLS to circumvent a website’s weak search features. There are two notable techniques he performs that allow him to manually modify Social Searcher’s query, discussed below.

Google Search a Website

In the address bar, replacing “www.” with “site:” will perform a Google search of that URL. This is useful because sometimes a site’s entire database has already been catalogued by Google, and if that’s the case why use the website’s potentially crummy built-in search engine when you could use the strongest one on the planet?

Also, this filters google results to only that website. His exploration didn’t bear too much fruit in this particular case, but it’s a very useful technique for a myriad of situations.

manual query modification

The other advanced technique that I really dig, is changing the query by directly editing the URL. It’s important to pay attention to how the URL is composed, so you can change it without breaking something. For instance, if the URL is “site:whatever.com/search/Dean+Da+Costa” make sure to keep those plus signs between each word.

Yeah these are cool and all, but whats the use of these silly modifications, and more importantly how will it save me time?

Yeah but…Recruiting and Sourcing?

The latter technique is useful if you’re adamant on using this website frequently. You might not want to wait through that troublesome “searching” delay for EVERY single source. Would you rather wait 10 seconds 15 times or just once? Lucky for you I have a workaround. Open Multiple URLs Chrome Extension

There are multiple Chrome extensions that can do the same thing, but basically you can paste a bunch of URLS into the chrome extension, modify as you wish, and click the magic button. This opens ALL the links you type in at once, so be careful your computer can handle it. Examples of some edited URLS below:

URL Editing Breakdown

You can search by Mentions, Users, or Trends. Each search type has their own unique URL format, so if you plan on doing batch searches keep that in mind.

Too Good to be True, What’s the Catch?

Social Searcher, while an amazing tool, is not the end-all-be-all. As far as the premium side to this engine, you cannot do more than 100 free searches a day. If you’re really doing more than that, you could consider looking at their subscription model.

If you’re concerned about the free account creation process, it just asks for email and password with a quick confirmation. No name, credit card, or subscription BS required.

Dean Da Costa makes video showcases of sourcing and recruiting technology all the time, you can check out his library of content on our site here.

We’re lucky enough to have Dean at #HRTX this March 23rd and 24th as one of our many amazing presenters! It’s going to be a wild experience you won’t want to miss, so make sure to register today.

 

 

How to Use AI Responsibly in Hiring

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in HR technology is growing. From applicant tracking systems to recruiting and background screening solutions, AI can streamline workflows, speed hiring and save HR teams time and effort. But if not used carefully, AI also poses risks of unintentional discrimination.

Both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have announced they will focus on ethical use of AI in employment. What do employers need to know when incorporating AI into hiring decisions?

AI in Hiring: Trends & Uses

AI technology performs tasks once done only by humans and learns from experience so that it continually improves. According to a 2021 study reported by Human Resource Executive, 60% of companies currently use AI for talent management and over 80% plan to increase their use of AI in the next five years.

There are solutions incorporating AI for a variety of HR tasks. Some of the most common uses include:

    • Scanning and filtering resumes

    • Curating background check results

    • Analyzing job candidates’ social media presence

    • Evaluating candidates’ skills to identify top candidates

    • Scheduling interviews

    • Answering candidates’ questions via chatbots

    • Assessing candidates’ body language, speech, and behavior during video interviews

Benefits & Risks of AI in Hiring

When used correctly, AI-based hiring tools can deliver many benefits for employers. They can save time by automating formerly manual tasks. This improves efficiency for recruiting teams and hiring managers, giving them more time to spend on higher-value tasks and potentially decreasing time-to-hire.

By automatically guiding candidates through the steps of the hiring process and responding more quickly to candidates’ questions, AI can greatly improve the candidate experience. Finally, AI can remove biases that human hiring managers may unintentionally bring to the hiring process, helping employers build a more diverse workforce.

But poorly implemented AI-based solutions can pose serious risks employers should be aware of. A report from Harvard Business School found that applicant tracking systems using AI often remove qualified candidates from consideration simply because they’re missing one skill or fail to meet one minor requirement.

At a time when employers are already struggling to find qualified employees, this unnecessarily restricts your candidate pool.

By limiting potential candidates to those who fit a predetermined mold or have certain characteristics, AI technology can also result in a less diverse workforce. This robs companies of the benefits they enjoy when employees bring diverse experiences, skills and insights to work.

When used incorrectly, AI may even lead to unintentional discrimination. In 2015, Amazon discovered its recruiting software was weeding out female candidates. The AI was trained to look for candidates similar to Amazon’s top employees. Since most of those employees were men, the AI gradually began penalizing resumes that included the word “women’s,” such as “women’s volleyball team.”

New FTC Guidance & EEOC Initiative

Both the FTC and the EEOC have been studying the issue of AI in HR since 2016. With the use of HR technology leveraging AI on the rise, both agencies have recently stepped up their attention to the topic.

In April 2020, the FTC released new guidance, “Using Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms.” This guidance states that AI tools should be transparent, explainable, fair, and empirically sound and that employers should hold themselves accountable for compliance, ethics, fairness and nondiscrimination.

While the FTC’s guidance is not legally binding, employers should be aware that this is an area of growing concern for the agency.

In October 2021, the EEOC announced an initiative to ensure AI HR tools comply with the federal civil rights laws it enforces. “These tools may mask and perpetuate bias or create new discriminatory barriers to jobs,” the EEOC stated. “We must work to ensure that these new technologies do not become a high-tech pathway to discrimination.”

Best Practices for Employers Using AI in Hiring

Automated decisioning in itself is not the issue. The problem arises when AI has an adverse impact on a particular group of people. HR teams should be proactive by following best practices for using AI in hiring and employment decisions. How can you do this? Take the FTC’s guidance as your roadmap.

    • Be transparent: Communicate to candidates what data you use, how you use it and how they can control your use of their data.

    • Be explainable: When decisions are made using AI, be able to explain the reason for the decisions to candidates.

    • Be empirically sound: Is the data your background screening provider uses accurate?

    • Be fair: Above all, be mindful not to unintentionally discriminate against candidates in protected classes via the use of automated decisions or AI.

Conduct an audit at least once a year to assess the impact that your AI, automated decisioning and other rules using algorithms have on human beings. This audit should be both qualitative and quantitative.

    • Qualitative: Look around you and survey your employees. Are the identities reflected in alignment with the culture you hoped to create when you started using AI in your screening and hiring process? If not, what is wrong with it?

    • Quantitative: Use your internal data and analytics, as well as that provided by your ATS, Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and background screener, to evaluate the impact of automated decisioning on your candidate and employee population. If a certain population is negatively affected and they are in a protected class, you could be violating EEOC regulations.

Even if the affected population is not in a protected class, consider the ethical implications. Is the impact on this group fair? Also consider how your business is affected. Are you squashing diversity or missing out on qualified candidates? The way you use AI can impact your corporate reputation.

Based on your audits, you can adjust the data input and decision rules you set to improve outcomes. AI learns from experience, but it needs good guidance to make good decisions.

Put the results of your audit in writing. This creates documented evidence that you’re making a good-faith effort to follow FTC guidance, comply with equal employment opportunity laws, understand the impact of AI and work to continually improve.

Questions to Ask Your Background Screening Provider

Consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) may develop the AI and algorithms used to automate the delivery of background screening results, but as an employer, you are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make using a background screening solution.

Protect yourself by taking steps to ensure your background screening provider is using AI in a way consistent with fairness. Ask these questions:

    • How does the CRA gather and use data? How do they use AI? The more you know, the more transparent you can be with candidates. Talk to your CRA to learn as much as you can about their methods. While certain specifics will be proprietary back-end technology, your CRA should be happy to share with you whatever they can.

    • What opportunities does the screener offer to enhance fairness and transparency?Look for a CRA that makes it easy to communicate with candidates and allows them to tell their side of the story. For example, GoodHire’s built-in Comments for Context feature helps candidates provide a fuller picture of background check results that contain criminal records, making it easier for employers to conduct the individual assessments fair hiring laws require.

    • How granular are the adjudication matrices the CRA offers? Some screening providers let you automate the process of adjudicating background check results. Unfortunately, very broad adjudication rules have more potential to adversely affect more people, and many background screening providers offer only limited options. An automated adjudication solution that lets you set more nuanced parameters allows for more individualized decision-making. Keep in mind, however, that your screening solution can only be as good as your internal rules and policies around decision-making.

    • How robust are the solution’s filtering capabilities? Not all CRAs offer filtering. If yours doesn’t, you can remove information from a background check report manually, but seeing it may still create unconscious bias. Robust filtering can ensure that you never see records that aren’t relevant to the job duties and may negatively impact your opinion of a candidate. Look for a solution that lets you customize filters to suit your company’s needs, follow state and local laws and comply with industry regulations.

    • How does the screener enhance accuracy? Making hiring decisions based on accurate data can reduce risk, so it’s important to choose a background screening provider that strives for accuracy. Take steps to report only data you know is accurate. For example, the current trend toward date of birth (DOB) redaction in court records has made it more difficult to verify identities. To help mitigate this issue, some companies have developed proprietary data processes that help enhance accuracy even when DOB is more difficult to tie to individual records.

What Does the Future Hold for AI in Hiring?

The EEOC has indicated they’ll be producing best practices and guidance for what they consider ethical and appropriate frameworks for using automated decision making. The FTC will likely produce more guidance during the next few years as well.

In developing this guidance, regulators are likely to look to Europe, which has stricter data privacy regulations than the US, as a model. Monitoring privacy trends in Europe as well as EEOC and FTC announcements can help you stay current on the latest developments.

The increased focus the FTC and EEOC are placing on AI in hiring creates an opportunity for employers to develop clearer data policies they can share with candidates and employees for greater transparency.

This is already the standard in Europe, and US companies that embrace it now can get ahead of the curve, reduce the risk of enforcement action and enhance both corporate reputation and candidate experience.

How to Not Get Ghosted by Top Talent

The hiring experience can feel like a no-win situation for candidates and recruiters alike. Sifting through piles of resumes, multiple rounds of interviews, indecisive hiring teams, flighty prospects, getting ghosted by top talent and an increasingly competitive job market is an emotional rollercoaster.

A friend of mine (we’ll call her Marin), a recent graduate job hunting in the tech industry, could relate. After five interviews over three months (plus a skills test and dozens of back-and-forth emails), she got an unwelcome message from HR: Would she be interested in a sixth and final interview?

She didn’t have a job yet, but she felt burned out, angry and embarrassed. In the end, Marin decided to not do anything: “I just ghosted them.”  

Marin’s experience echoes a growing trend of candidates ghosting recruiters — one thrown into starker relief and greater urgency by the ongoing labor shortage. It’s important for recruiters to understand what tensions are primarily fueling the problem:

Employees Are Re-evaluating Their Professional Priorities

Professionals between the ages of 30 and 45 had the highest increase in resignation rates in 2021. The desire for people to refocus on human connection is a major theme driving shifts in priorities for talent.

While some companies have moved to prioritize employee wellness, more conservative organizations are struggling to adapt to changing employee expectations.

It’s a Candidate’s Market

Companies and recruiters are presently operating in a context where jobs outnumber viable applicants. Candidates are empowered to demand differential treatment from employers and recruiters.

A fast hiring process, minimum interviews, compensation transparency and clear communication are increasingly expected. Good is no longer good enough when people can walk out the door (or the Zoom lobby) for something better.

Recruiters Are Overtasked

Talent acquisition pros are managing these changes while also stumbling through an increasingly decentralized and disconnected world, with more unpredictable hiring outcomes.

Forging human connections, maintaining lines of communication and qualifying talent looks different now. As hiring remains an utmost priority for scaling companies, recruiters are challenged to carry out a big mandate without being overwhelmed or getting stuck playing messenger between overwhelmed hiring teams and impatient candidates.  

If candidates are increasingly seeking authentic employee-employer relationships, and employers are anxious to demonstrate those relationships then it’s up to recruiters to establish those connections. 

Redistributing Work

No matter how on their game a recruiter may be, they can’t do it all. When they do try to do it all — sift through hundreds of applications, screen dozens of prospects and finally shepherd five or so candidates through a long and emotionally charged hiring process only to have talent run to a competitor — it’s defeating. There’s not enough interpersonal bandwidth and candidates who don’t feel valued will walk.

The reality is that candidates are just giving employers the same treatment they’ve been used to receiving — vague expectations, slow responses and ghosting without a proper explanation (aka the average hiring process). That passive, lazy approach to recruiting isn’t enough to stay competitive today.

No hiring strategy is perfect, but making a couple of key changes to streamline processes and maximize meaningful interaction can make a huge difference and lower the odds of getting ghosted by top talent.

A Better Interview Process

If the way you plan, coordinate, communicate, or facilitate interviews hasn’t changed recently, you’re going to lose a lot of candidates at the door. Rethink what interviews are necessary and how to change the interview process to be less intimidating or repetitive for candidates and less of a coordination nightmare for your team. 

Recruiters today don’t have time to send a dozen emails to schedule each interview. Candidates can’t make time for a painful experience (and like Marin, they won’t). One-way asynchronous interviews can help simplify logistics early in the hiring process and make qualifying talent more efficient.

This isn’t a new idea, but the shift to remote work has people more accepting — if not more preferable — of talking on camera. At the least, it’s a more flexible, less cumbersome way for talent to formally introduce themselves to decision-makers.

Companies must understand that candidates today have options, so they need more options to engage with employers on their terms. Plus, asynchronous interviews allow talent to think longer about their responses.

It gives hiring teams better insight into their skills, communication style, personality, interests and needs, which can help save everyone time by determining if a candidate is a great fit earlier in the process.

There’s no reason scheduling interviews should be a hassle, either. Using modern recruiting tools to sync with candidate calendars and share real-time availability is essential to prevent booking time from being an obstacle, and turning talent away.

Smarter Sourcing

Inefficient sourcing eats up valuable time where recruiters should be building relationships. If half your day is spent flipping through faces on job sites, you’re doing it wrong.

There are not enough hours in the day to manually review profiles across multiple functions and locations — and that should be OK.

By leveraging AI-powered sourcing technology, recruiters can save valuable time searching for, evaluating and identifying top candidates who meet evolving company needs and organizational culture, providing much-needed support for harried hiring teams.

For one, it accelerates the qualification process by more rapidly screening applications and profiles, and identifying fits for company needs and culture, with less cost and without sacrificing rigor.

For another, AI can manage greater volumes of applicants, and can assist hiring teams to handle more candidates while surfacing more diverse and qualified candidate pools.

For example, the ability to source by specific skills, or by using keywords, helps to mitigate issues with more traditional sourcing methods — such as searching by job title or role — which can differ from company to company and not always match the qualifications a recruiter is looking for.

Saying More With Less

Top candidates cringe at impersonal, shot-in-the-dark messages. When competing for their attention, recruiters have to be more thoughtful. Rather than praying for responses to an elevator pitch on the first message, proactively think about the value provided with a follow-up, or a follow-up’s follow-up.

Consider asking questions, take interest in learning about what the candidate finds important about a job opportunity and keep messages brief.

To scale a more proactive, nurturing approach, look for candidate engagement tools that connect directly to sourcing platforms and provide the ability to create custom campaigns for outreach to all of your targets.

The best tools today can equip recruiters to increase the quality of candidate conversations — while saving time — by sending bulk emails, cataloging templates or setting outreach reminders.

Lastly, talent acquisition teams need to get comfortable with measuring engagement. There’s a reason sales and marketing pros live and die by metrics.

Tracking email opens and response rates when engaging or sourcing gives recruiters an understanding of where and when to refine outreach, what send times work best, which messages are most likely to get candidates’ attention and at what point talent typically drops off — or ghosts — when being nurtured.

It seems obvious that waiting for talent to apply to job postings, sending canned messages to applicants and asking candidates to jump through hoops to be interviewed are bad practices. Unfortunately, those negative experiences are still prevalent, as evidenced by great candidates like Marin.

But that truth creates opportunity for hiring teams willing to take a more proactive, outbound recruiting approach and embrace change to create a better candidate experience. For every recruiter who gets ghosted by top talent, another gets closer to making a great hire.

5 Benefits of Workplace Mentoring Programs

As the race for talent continues, business leaders are considering ways to enhance their offerings to attract and retain top talent. Workplace mentoring programs not only provide employers with a competitive advantage, but they can also have a significant impact on an organization and its employees.

Below are 5 benefits for organizations that implement a workplace mentoring program, which should position them as a preferred employer that attracts and retains quality candidates.

Encourages Professional Development

Professional development programs are critical to many job seekers and existing employees. Mentors play an important role in the process by offering guidance on how to advance and climb the corporate ladder. When employees have an advocate who points them in the right direction, touts their accomplishments and introduces them to key personnel, they are more likely to flourish and grow in their career. 

With a mentor by their side, employees also gain more confidence in their abilities to pursue new responsibilities or a promotion. When employers recognize their commitment and dedication to growing within the company, their name will most likely be on the short list for advancement opportunities. When employers encourage professional development, there should always be qualified employees ready to fill positions.   

Increases Employee Engagement/Satisfaction

Employees who participate in a mentoring experience are typically more engaged and satisfied with their jobs. They are more engaged because they have a mentor to bounce ideas off, ask questions, seek advice and cheer them on. When employees are engaged, they make more contributions to the team and company, resulting in increased job satisfaction and improved retention.

According to a CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Survey, 91 percent of workers who have a career mentor say they are happy in their jobs. Workers with a mentor are more likely than those without to say they’re well paid (79 percent vs. 69 percent) and believe that their contributions are valued by their colleagues (89 percent vs. 75 percent). More than 40 percent of workers who don’t have a mentor say they’ve considered quitting their job in the past three months. 

Reduces Employee Turnover

One of the main benefits of mentoring programs is reduced employee turnover, which can be a significant expense for employers related to recruiting, hiring, onboarding and training efforts.  Mentors can help reduce stress, anxiety and frustrations for employees who may feel overwhelmed or have concerns about certain situations.

Employees rely on mentors to help them build their skills and excel in their current role, preparing them for future growth with the company and reducing employee turnover.  

Without a mentor to turn to for advice, employees might decide that it is easier to leave the company rather than work through any perceived limitations.

Mentors can be an organization’s biggest advocate regarding employee retention by serving as a confidante, offering encouragement, de-escalating situations and explaining the benefits of remaining with the company. 

Facilitates Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge transfer is vital at all levels of an organization and mentorship programs can help facilitate the process. When mentors are involved, knowledge transfer can be escalated, which reduces the learning curve and helps employees become highly engaged quicker.

Decreasing the time it takes to ramp up employees can make a big difference in the performance and productivity of a company.

Transferring knowledge within a company, rather than holding it close to the vest, can lead to building employee trust, more cohesive workplace practices and retention of institutional information that is passed along to new employees.

The more efficient a company is in conveying knowledge through mentorship programs, the less time is needed to figure out processes and procedures or to track down historical information. 

Creates ‘Pay it Forward’ Mentality

When employees form relationships with mentors it can make a significant impression causing them to pay it forward by serving as mentors themselves.

Formal mentoring programs that encourage professional development, foster career advancement and boost employee engagement can make a difference for employees, so much so, that they want others to experience the same benefits.

As organizations search for ways to attract and retain top talent, along with creating meaningful connections between employees, implementing workplace mentoring programs can be a win-win-win scenario.

Mentors and mentees receive the tools to grow and flourish, leading to more engaged and satisfied employees exhibiting discretionary efforts, which impact the bottom line and company success.   

How to Maintain Corporate Culture During Periods of Rapid Growth

Research has long identified corporate culture as one of the key determinants of employee engagement and retention. Since the onset of the pandemic, with many teams shifting to remote and the “Great Resignation” causing intense labor competition in some industries, corporate culture matters more than ever before. Today, corporate culture is an important factor for 46 percent of job seekers, with millennials prioritizing “people and culture fit” above everything else. 

Ironically, even amid the Great Resignation, many companies are still scaling and growing at unprecedented rates. Rapid growth can result in both organizational and task-related change, which can affect corporate culture in a myriad of ways.

 

The Connection Between Corporate Culture and Employee Satisfaction

Corporate culture, also known as company culture and organizational culture, encompasses a company’s values, behaviors, and habits. A mentor once told me corporate culture is not what is hanging on the walls, but what happens and how it happens inside the walls.

It is built over time through shared and similar experiences that help in determining what works and what doesn’t at the organizational level. In other words, from an employee perspective, whether written down or an unspoken understanding and agreement, it is the personality and heartbeat of an organization. 

It’s not surprising that statistics show corporate culture has a direct impact on employee satisfaction and turnover. According to a Columbia University study, the likelihood of job turnover at an organization with high company culture is only 13.9 percent, whereas the probability of job turnover in low company cultures is 48.4 percent.

The reasons are simple: happy employees tend to have higher productivity rates and do more than the bare minimum. And leaders who foster a strong corporate culture show a deeper appreciation for their employees. It’s a win-win scenario.

 

What Are the Challenges Associated With Rapid Growth?

Rapid growth can be spurred by investments in a company, hiring of additional team members and the launch of new products and services. With rapid growth, new tasks, goals, and objectives form, and this often changes what an employee’s typical work day looks like.

Without proper planning, organizations can experience increased turnover, decreased productivity, talent gaps and resistance to change.

When corporate culture is established, rapid growth periods will test the current corporate culture and will help to evolve it further. These periods may also identify areas in the corporate culture that can improve and grow as well.

By retaining a focus on employees during rapid growth spurts, positive culture can remain intact and actually flourish.  Open communication, proper change management and a true commitment to employee wellness can empower organizations to grow, adapt and unite.

 

Maintaining Corporate Culture as an Organization Grows

No matter what period of growth a company might be experiencing, as leaders it’s important to remember what we do, why we do it, and who we are. With rapid growth, it can be easy to focus on the newest objective and lose sight of the original purpose of the company.

Keeping the original mission in mind while also being open to and flexible about growing will help to maintain the corporate culture.

Embedded in retaining company culture is effective change management and communication.  Employees who are given the opportunity to feel connected to the growth, development and success of the organization feel a significantly higher sense of accomplishment and engagement than those who do not. 

By encouraging employees to understand, engage and contribute to the evolution of the organization they feel more connected to its success. This solidifies positive culture and drives strategic initiatives by connecting everyone in the organization to the core mission.

In addition, it’s important to encourage veteran employees to become corporate culture leaders. Because corporate culture forms over time through those shared and common experiences, employees that have been with the company through different growth phases need to incorporate the corporate culture into the onboarding and training of new team members and serve as “culture champions” of the organization. 

Change Management guru John Kotter explains that a guiding coalition of employees with strong leadership skills, credibility and top-notch communications skills are essential to bringing organizations through rapid change. 

The right culture leaders can help to define what the future looks like, connect people to that vision and inspire them to make it happen, together. 

International Women’s Day 2022: Ways to #BreakTheBias in Recruiting and Retention

Today marks the 111th celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD). Every year, March 8 reminds us to honor the achievements of women and lobby for accelerated gender parity. Bittersweet by nature, this year’s IWD coincides with the two-year anniversary of the initial calls for social distancing and shelter in place. 

For 2022, the theme of International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias, and though we’re only beginning to understand the full impact of the pandemic on the workforce, research indicates that women bore the brunt. With that in mind, I asked women from across the HR and recruiting space to offer thoughts on what employers can do to #BreakTheBias in their recruiting and retention efforts. 

 

Christine TaoChristine Tao, co-founder and CEO of Sounding Board, on sharing personal experiences: “When I was fundraising, an investor I had gotten pretty far in the process with told one of my existing investors he didn’t think I was aggressive enough.

My natural style is not overly aggressive, but I am highly competitive and ambitious. I was lucky that my existing investor immediately shared some stats about how I had established more than 70% market share in my previous job in a hugely competitive market with lots of competitors.

But not everyone is so lucky to have someone defend them or call out bias on their behalf. Stories like these happen to women and POC every day. While it’s the overt prejudice or stereotyping that gets called out, the everyday, hidden biases are what continue to hold us back.

The more we can bring these to the surface and name them, the more likely it is that we can start to break these biases and create a more even playing field for us all.”

 

Lorna HagenLorna Hagen, chief people officer at Guild Education, offered thoughts on the role leaders play: “Breaking the bias starts with your executive team understanding and believing why this is important. It’s important and impactful to your company. It’s also the right thing to do.

Only then can you clearly define what inclusive hiring practices are. Beyond the signed offer letters, companies need programs and training in place to combat bias and build a sense of community, belonging, and inclusion. Through parity, clarity and, most importantly, listening, the people function can shape a workforce representative of the diverse stakeholders it serves, and create space for culture additions who feel they truly belong.”

 

Deborrah AshleyDeborrah Ashley, founder of Thrivoo Marketing, suggested ways to get more women to apply: “The first thing to consider when hiring is your job posting. The language you use in your job postings can influence the candidates who apply for your role.

It’s really important to make sure you’re using language that encourages a diverse applicant pool. Instead of saying you value diversity and inclusivity in the job description, describe the company culture on your LinkedIn company page. By describing your company as a place that values diversity, you’ll attract applicants who share those core values.

Once you have your job listed on LinkedIn, share the position in a LinkedIn post and encourage your women employees (having an employee advocacy program makes this seamless) to share it with their networks. This way, you’re getting beyond the existing recommendations on your page, which are likely influenced by unconscious bias as well.”

 

jill-stutzman-deanerJill Stutzman-Deaner, vice president of customer success at HiringSolved, proposed this rethink: “A recent Nature: Human Behavior study found that a slightly extended shortlist of six candidates, rather than three, resulted in a 33% increase in the addition of women. This is an incredibly simple way to increase gender equity in hiring without a massive change to resources or budget.

I love this suggestion because it allows the recruiters to remain in control of the efforts toward gender equity. It can feel like, as a recruiter, you don’t have a ton of power because you’re ultimately trying to please an outside hiring manager. But you can take the step yourself to break the bias by giving yourself the power to be a champion for women candidates.”

 

Christy SpilkaChristy Spilka, vice president of talent acquisition, iCIMS, dug into the overall process: “When it’s time for the interviews, build a diverse slate of interviewers to strategically include a broader base of perspectives. Provide each interviewer with focus areas and standardize the feedback process. Gather feedback from each interviewer individually prior to team debrief conversations to reduce groupthink. ATS feedback forms can be a great way to do this.

Analyze your hiring data to continually optimize your processes. Do you have a lack of female applicants for certain roles? You may need to re-visit those job postings and/or evaluate your talent attraction and sourcing strategy.

Consider showcasing videos from employees across multiple dimensions of diversity sharing how your company supports work/life balance, an engaging and inclusive culture and day in the life. Continuously check your performance and pivot as needed.”

 

Adriana HerreraAdriana Herrera, founder of PayDestiny, emphasized the importance of systems that promote equity and belonging: “Feeling overlooked for career growth opportunities and under-compensated results in unhappy employees that voluntarily turn over.

Every year U.S. businesses lose over a trillion dollars due to turnover, (approximately half of which is voluntary). During the pandemic, men were promoted three times more than their women counterparts. 

To recruit and retain women workers, companies need to recognize the economic value of women workers who voluntarily turn over and build their systemic organizational capacity to compensate and promote women fairly.

An easy way to make women workers feel appreciated is to establish transparent data-driven pay matrices and promotion processes. When every team member knows that their value to the company and their team is based on market data and an equal assessment of their performance rather than a perception of their value (based on who they are), their level of work satisfaction and happiness increases. This is because compensation and career growth opportunities are standardized, creating a level playing field for all employees.”

 

Addie SwartzAddie Swartz, CEO of reacHIRE, underscored how employers can support women workers, no matter where they are in their journey: “For decades women who have taken breaks have faced significant challenges returning to work, including unrealistic job requirements, unconscious bias toward career breaks or older workers.

And now, given a record number of job openings, forward-thinking employers are seeking alternative talent pools – including hiring women returning from career breaks through returnship programs. Employers can #BreaktheBias surrounding career breaks by seeing candidates’ skills and experience, not their resume gap.

Likewise, given the shift to hybrid work, recent data shows that employees who choose to continue working remotely – as is the case for many women – face bias when it comes to advancement opportunities.

To #BreaktheBias and drive retention among women, companies need to be more intentional about offering all women – not just high-potential employees – virtual tools and resources to build meaningful relationships, gain expert, in-the-moment career advice and develop their skills. Such resources empower women to have a supportive community focused on career growth, leadership, sharing stories and working together to seize opportunities and overcome challenges.

 

Tracey ParsonsTracey Parsons, CEO of WORQDRIVE, summed up the obstacles left to overcome: “Right now, we really need to be doing more to keep our current employees engaged and frankly, we need to let go. Letting go, for me, is the best way to #BreaktheBias.

We need to let go of our preconceived notions of the people on our teams, their skills and what they are capable of. I’ve seen this firsthand. While I may be known as a recruitment marketing professional, I am also a software developer. How many of these hidden skills are in your own company?

When we #BreaktheBias, when we let go, we can start to see our people as multifaceted, multidimensional people. And when we let go and see this, we can start elevating people based on their skills, not their facetime, favorability or ability to talk louder.”

Reflecting on where we were a year ago, it’s clear that changes are taking place— some good, some bad, some still to be determined. But we can’t #BreakTheBias this International Women’s Day without action. So how will you help?  

How to Build and Execute a Global HR Strategy

The barriers to working with people, no matter where they live, have been lifted. Which means that working with talent is no longer a local HR task––it’s part of a bigger, global HR strategy. However, many HR teams aren’t ready for global HR. They’ve grown accustomed to hiring and managing people in the same city, and they’re totally unprepared for hiring on the global stage.

In this article, you’ll learn how to build and execute a global HR strategy that lets you work with great people, no matter where they live.

Set Specific Standards

Before you begin to hire the best people in the world, you need systems in place for a good global HR system. These systems will help you maintain a great environment for your employees. This is especially important when you have employees spread out all over the globe. Following the four steps below will help set up your global HR strategy for success:

    1. Have a standardized onboarding process. Onboarding should be equitable and shouldn’t vary depending on someone’s location. Make sure everyone goes through the same steps, reads the same documentation and talks to the same people as everyone else on their team. 
    2. Give everyone the same amount of vacation days. Every country has different rules on how many vacation days companies are required to give to employees. But instead of creating specific vacation policies for individual countries, create a PTO policy that covers everyone. This approach helps avoid location-based inequality among employees.  For example, someone in the U.S. may be given far fewer vacation days than someone in Europe. Many companies opt for unlimited PTO to fix this.
    3. Create a documentation-first culture. If you’re running a global team, you’re going to be wading into the world of asynchronous communication. Instead of having people try to coordinate calls and check-ins at random hours, create a culture that relies on written documentation. The goal? People should be able to answer the majority of their questions without even having to talk to someone.
    4. Use the right task management tools. Global teams should be working in tools that make asynchronous work easy. ClickUp, Donut and Monday are popular task management tools.

Set the right pieces in place before you start hiring and keep them in place as you bring in global talent. Getting this right will make your life a lot easier, and your team will perform much better.

Stay Diligent About Compliance

There are plenty of things you can do internally to prepare for a smooth-running global team. I’ve covered many of them in the section above. But when it comes to executing––hiring and managing your global employees––there are a few important points you should consider:

    1. Hire a competent recruiter. Finding talent in international markets is different than walking out your front door and hiring someone down the street. Either hire an international recruiter or find a local recruiter in a specific market where you want to hire. Look for a local recruiter that has some quality references and has worked with a successful international company.
    1. Stay compliant with local laws wherever you hire. This is, far and away, the biggest obstacle that HR leaders face when they want to hire across borders. Laws about employment change by country, and legally hiring usually means establishing a subsidiary and spending months (or years) filling out paperwork. To get around this, hire through an Employer of Record. These are companies that take care of the compliance for you by serving as the legal employer in the countries you hire in.
    1. Don’t discriminate by geography. It may sound obvious to treat everyone the same, but many global teams often suffer from uneven opportunities for advance. If you want a global team, don’t give unfair opportunities to your “home country’s” team. Keep people included across the board.

We’re living in a different world of work. And if HR teams figure out how to execute good global HR strategies, we’re living in a world where there’s more access to great talent than ever before.

How to Nail Personalization of the Candidate Experience as a Recruiter

We live in an era when we are being bombarded with information. The same is true for the recruiting section where potential candidates are overloaded with job offerings and career opportunities. This is the perfect time for the recruiting world to learn how to nail personalization of the candidate experience from the marketing industry since employees tend to expect consumer-like experiences in the workplace.

This certainly includes personalization. Many companies are already customizing their recruiting interactions based on behavioral data to enhance their employees’ experience. Improving your ability to personalize HR services effectively leads to people noticing what your firm has to offer. 

Be Positive About the Data Acquired

It goes without saying that before contacting a person for an open position, you have thoroughly explored their professional and personal background via all sources available.

Thanks to extended social media use, HR specialists today have access to great candidate intel and profit a lot from digging into it. 

Nonetheless, you will hear numerous stories where prospective employees were addressed with the wrong name or were interviewed for skills that weren’t in their resumes.

That is to say, there is no use in personalizing your hiring process if you can’t handle relevant data. Take advantage of all information provided to you through every channel, then go ahead and organize them properly.

Personalization 101

We are long past the time of bulk messaging. Batch emails to your entire list will be ignored or deleted, or, even worse, will lead to unsubscribes. Building an email list for this very reason is a wise course of action. You must be mindful of who you’re sending your communications to, ensuring they will find it relevant.

Remember that candidates should be treated like customers, that is exactly how you will win them over. Use their social media profiles to gather data regarding their preferences.

Check their connections, university data, as well as former employment types. Then, you will be halfway through getting to know them and creating a personalized message that will maximize their engagement.

Prospects who know you have invested effort in reading their profiles will be more likely to accept a position with your firm. This level of personalization carries the promise that their career can flourish the minute they decide to join your team. 

Create the Perfect Job for the Perfect Candidate

For certain jobs, you need certain talent. But top talents demand to feel like you have done your homework. Don’t think about how you can fit an employee into the job while you should be figuring out the exact opposite.

It is your hiring team that must discover what is it they can offer them for your brand to stand out compared to your competitors.

If, for instance, you are in the culinary tourism industry, looking for the perfect travel guide, why focus only on employees with relevant experience or studies?

Narrow it even further to people who show interest in culinary experiences or that have cooking listed among their hobbies in their social media accounts.

You can also benefit from relevant email content and dynamic elements like images, videos, or forms to catch their eye. Right after that, you can go ahead and further tailor their recruiting experience with certain benefits that match the candidates’ preferences. 

Last but not least, keep in mind that not all job offers are destined for all cultural groups. Thus, recruiters must come up with actions that promote inclusivity, such as designing ads with gender and ethnicity-neutral images and diversity initiatives. There is no personalization without diversity.

Use Custom Fields

Custom fields enable you to modify the candidate profile so that you can collect and organize all information available. Fields might be added to offer approval forms for candidates to fill in or be used internally by the hiring team.

Candidate-provided fields will appear when you create the application form and you can set them to required, optional, or off. 

Common custom fields include expected salary range, candidate interests, start date, common connections, preference to work remotely or on-site.

Each field can be added to every candidate or be applied for certain job openings, while it can be adjusted to keep the details confidential.

Match the Benefits to the Person

Once you have researched your candidate’s background, you will be able to figure out what matters most to them. Do they have a family? Are they in need of a remote or flexible job? Do they appreciate the extra knowledge and training?

Some organizations provide for better health insurance, wellness programs, childcare or pet care, all transformed into remuneration packages based on each employee’s lifestyle. 

You could even offer your employees the option to buy shares in your company. This might prove to be a powerful incentive since they will be aware that their contribution is somehow going into their pocket. Moreover, financial advice is highly appreciated as an additional benefit.

Think of them as people whose specific desires you should address. Invest in methods that will help your hiring team identify the ideal benefits for each prospecting employee and use them to create environments for a changing workforce.

Should you invest in bigger or pet-friendly office spaces? According to Toptal, the remote work revolution has taken over. So, maybe you should be going after a remote work policy instead.

By adapting to your workforce’s preferences, you will not only attract new hires but also give your current employees extra motivation not to leave your business. Never forget: satisfied employees are devoted employees.

Avoid Segmenting Your Talent Pool

Personalization comes down to showing candidates why you are contacting them. “You are a perfect fit for the job” is the same line they have heard coming from several recruiters.

Explaining why they are a perfect fit and how they match your company profile is far more effective. It means you value their time and you have already determined how they align with a particular position.

Treating employees as individuals and not as segment members is really important in the long term. The way organizations deal with employees is far behind the way organizations deal with clients. So, HR still has to learn a lot from marketing in terms of hyper-personalization.

Most businesses segment in simple ways. Men versus women, managers and non-managers, young versus old, etc. This results in using untested assumptions to design policies.

With big data analysis and sophisticated algorithms, it is easier to detect and predict individual preferences and organizations can act on the findings.

Never Ignore the Human Factor

And while the usage of certain systems to offer your employees customized benefits is of utmost importance, the human factor must never be ignored.

HR has massively benefited from the advancement of technology but it has invested too much in mass-outreach templates. This approach may work for prospects who are eager to leave their current job no matter what.

However, the same doesn’t apply to people with specialized skills. This doesn’t mean every email must be crafted from scratch, you certainly need at least one element of personalization to enhance your conversion rates, though.

While in the process of offering employees digital experiences, recruiters tend to leave out important human interactions. It is vital to determine which employees would prefer person-to-person contacts and when to do so.

For instance, if employees must engage with HR due to events like a death in the family or a potential burnout, they would rather speak with actual HR personnel than use digitalized systems.

Personalization Doesn’t End With a Hire

Onboarding and performance reviews benefit a lot from personalization too. Some new employees might have previous experience in the industry. Some learn best by listening to instructions or watching visual guides, while others learn in practice.

Your brand can save money through tailored onboarding, while also improving the employee experience.

Focusing on people analytics for the employees’ reviews requires a different approach, though. Some people are eager to learn more about their behavior and how they can use personal data to enhance their performance.

You could focus on this group by monitoring these data, helping them analyze information and using the outcomes to become better.

Think about rewarding performance with privileges that match employees’ aspirations. Are they motivated by money? Do they prefer a great work-life balance? Needs differ for someone who just graduated from university compared to someone who is about to start a family.

As an employer, you’ll need to create engaging experiences for all your team. Get to know them. Understand what drives each one of them and use this intel to create unique experiences.

Key Takeaway

Finding the right talent has never been easier, as long as your HR team cuts through the noise and keeps track of the metrics that make a difference.

The increasing demand and ability to deliver content tailored to the candidates’ characteristics means you need to be ready to customize the recruiting experience and accept the differences within your workforce.

HR leaders can leverage technology to determine whether a human or a digital interaction is best suited for different employees. Job offerings should be going beyond the hiring process, while HR departments have to regularly collect data about how employees are using corresponding services and how their needs might be shifting.

How to Hack Glassdoor in 2022

Glassdoor can be a daunting prospect for many people and talent leaders. One bad review can quickly tarnish a prospective candidate’s perception of your brand and deter them from applying for or accepting a role at your business altogether.

Unsuccessful candidates can sometimes become bitter and review your organization in a negative light. Past employees might do the same if they left on bad terms. 

But businesses often become too preoccupied with what can go wrong on Glassdoor, rather than thinking about what can go right.

With research finding that Glassdoor has 67 million unique visitors every month, can your business really afford to shy away from the opportunities that Glassdoor has to offer?

In fact, Glassdoor can be a really useful tool once you learn how to use it. Here are some top tips on how to succeed using Glassdoor in 2022: 

Deliver an Exceptional Hiring Experience

The first tip is an obvious one. It goes without saying that if you want exceptional feedback from candidates on Glassdoor, you’re going to have to earn it. This means focusing on delivering an enjoyable hiring experience for candidates that goes above and beyond their expectations. 

Unfortunately, it’s common for many businesses to invest the bare minimum into recruitment when it comes to interviewing and communicating with candidates.

The feedback provided post-rejection is usually generic and the time candidates have set aside for the process often goes unappreciated. 

These trends should be reversed. For a start, ensure that your job descriptions are engaging, informative and primed for inclusivity.The interview processes and questions should be shaped by your values, setting candidates up for success, not tricking them into failure.

Even if a candidate is unsuccessful, dedicate time to providing actionable and insightful feedback for them to understand exactly why they didn’t make it and how they can improve next time.

Ensure your candidates feel respected, have a clear understanding of what to expect and find value in the experience regardless of how it turns out.

We know from experience that these small details don’t go unnoticed by candidates and they’re often mentioned in the feedback received both privately and through Glassdoor. 

Pay Attention to What Your Employees Are Telling You

Another common reason why hiring teams often fear Glassdoor is because they’re concerned about what their past and present employees are going to say about what it’s like to work at the company. After all, Glassdoor wasn’t created to share only positive reviews, it was created to share honest ones. 

However, if you find yourself fearful of using Glassdoor because of what might be shared by individuals, this highlights a more deeply-rooted problem with the processes and environment being experienced by your team, not the platform itself.

If you’re predicting certain negative comments or responses to surface in Glassdoor reviews, then you’re likely already aware of these issues and your energy would be better spent facing them head-on. 

On the other hand, if you can’t anticipate what your team will say in their reviews, then that’s a clear sign you’re not listening to your employees enough.

Implementing regular feedback cycles such as engagement surveys and welcoming honest feedback will provide employees with the opportunity to voice their concerns and recommendations privately, allowing you to have these conversations before they’re shared with the world online. 

Bake Glassdoor Reviews Into Your Onboarding Plan

One of the biggest challenges of using Glassdoor as a small business is acquiring enough reviews to build trust around your employer brand. 

Most candidates won’t go out of their way to leave feedback on a site like Glassdoor, despite the incentives the platform provides to do so. Even if your new employees have had their most positive hiring experience to date, the likelihood of them going straight to Glassdoor to share the news is low. 

But that isn’t to say they aren’t willing to share their experiences. Most of the time they just need prompting, and this is an opportunity commonly missed by hiring teams. 

Prompt new employees to leave their honest review of your hiring process on Glassdoor as part of their detailed onboarding plan. This means that you can nudge them to discuss their experiences at just the right time when their hiring experience is still fresh in their minds.  

Set Up Routine Touchpoints 

But it isn’t only the hiring process you want people to review. You want prospective candidates to find out what it’s like to actually work at your business too. This is achieved by encouraging existing employees to leave a review of their experience at the company. 

There are two mistakes that can be made when doing this, though.

Foremost, some hiring managers will dive straight in and ask new employees to do this too early, at which point they probably won’t have as much genuine feedback to offer. Also, some hiring teams will be too forceful with their request, which can result in employees leaving inauthentic reviews. 

Of course, leaving a Glassdoor review about an employer should be a choice, not an obligation. But, there’s no harm in encouraging your team to do it. 

This can be accomplished by setting up touchpoints for employees who have worked at the business for certain periods of time. Encourage them to leave their feedback about their experience to date.

Communicate the Value of Leaving Reviews 

Another challenge is that time-pressed employees and candidates often won’t recognize the value of leaving a Glassdoor review about your company. To them, it might seem like a mundane task, and one with no strategic value. 

However, this isn’t true. Recruiting the best talent is essential to driving growth and results within your organization and Glassdoor reviews help companies resonate with this talent. According to a Glassdoor survey in 2019, 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand.

Building a strong portfolio of Glassdoor reviews is an effective way to build this employer brand and attract these candidates. 

It’s valuable to communicate this with your team and prospective hires. For instance, when requesting  employees review the company, communicate the value in hiring this talent and how it can aid the company in achieving its ambitious objectives.

When asking candidates, it might be worth explaining how their feedback can help other candidates when deciding whether to apply for certain roles and how to prepare for interviews. 

Takeaways

Glassdoor, whilst daunting, is an opportunity growing businesses can’t afford to neglect. With millions of job seekers resorting to the platform for insights into what it’s like to work for certain companies, ignoring Glassdoor could be costing you exceptional candidates. 

But if you want to capitalize on the value Glassdoor can bring for your employer brand, you’ll need to put in the work. This means delivering an exceptional candidate experience, building a fantastic working environment and finding the most effective and appropriate ways to encourage feedback. 

Like most employer brand projects, it won’t be easy. But it will be worthwhile. 

Rethinking Staffing by Hiring Freelancers

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hiring practices has been tremendous, to say the least. The hiring process, onboarding, upskilling, re-skilling, etc. have all been disrupted. Many organizations are re-evaluating their traditional hiring methods in this increasingly volatile and uncertain landscape. In addition, the rise in online collaboration tools and talent being dispersed worldwide has shown hiring freelancers as a great alternative. 

Hiring Freelancers is not just for technology startups, either. At least 30% of fortune 500 companies have embraced the gig economy and rely on freelancing talent. 

At least 30% of fortune 500 companies have embraced the gig economy and rely on freelancing talent.

Why Hire Freelancers Instead of Full-Time Employees

In an SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) study, 75% of HR Teams reported difficulty in recruiting in the past 12 months. But that’s not all. Additionally, 3 in 4 employers were reportedly affected by bad hires.

There are numerous benefits for companies opting for freelancers instead of employees. 

Cost Benefits

Employee Hiring is expensive. More so, when you factor in the cost of a bad hire. Specifically, studies have shown that companies can expect to save at least 20% annually with a freelancer instead of hiring full-time. Most freelancers are paid on a project basis or a flat hourly rate. Since no benefits are included in freelancer payments, organizations can save on pension costs, food expenses, insurance and other benefits. 

Time To Hire

In most cases, employee hiring is slow. Employees need to serve a notice period. There have been multiple cases when a candidate signs the offer letter but backtrack on the joining date. As a result, new employee onboarding gets delayed and the amount of time and effort goes to waste. 

With freelancer portals offering 500+ skills, you can reduce your time to fill and find even the most unique worker to meet your needs. Once you find the gig workers with the skills you need and agree to terms, they start working ASAP.

Quality

Freelancers need to constantly prove the quality of their work. Additionally, they must communicate well and upskill themselves to stay ahead of the curve. An employee’s performance may often be subject to bias. On the contrary, freelancers know the contract is always subject to renewal. It does not depend on the level of input or the amount of hard work. A freelancer is purely judged on the output and the impact of the work. 

Remote

Developers from India, Architects for Eastern Europe, Virtual Assistants from the Philippines or designers from Canada. Talent is available in all parts of the world. Organizations can now look to work with the best freelancers instead of limiting themselves to a particular city or country.

Risk

Freelancers are paid an hourly rate or project-based. The payout cycles are typically twice every month. Since most freelancers work with a minimum 1-month commitment, it’s not difficult to terminate if things don’t seem to work out. There are no legal risks to terminating a freelancer’s gig.

Job Roles Best Suited for Freelancers Instead of Full-Time Employees

The gig economy is irreversibly changing the landscape of the workplace. Hiring a freelancer may seem prudent for short-term projects to creative tasks. However, any activity that is not core to the business and need not be performed onsite is ripe to be outsourced to freelancers.

Here is a list of top 10 job roles where you can opt for freelancers instead of hiring employees:

    • Virtual Assistant
    • Customer & Chat Support
    • Bookkeeping and Financial Analysis
    • Video Production and Editing 
    • Graphic Design
    • Fundraiser Consultant
    • Content and Copy Writer
    • Website Designer
    • SEO Analyst
    • Transformation Delivery Manager

What Are the Top Websites to Hire Freelancers?

Post the COVID-19 pandemic, stats have proved that many organizations have experimented with remote working. 

From pure freelancer marketplace to vetted freelancers and function-specific websites, there are different freelancer portals to choose from. Here is a curated list of the top sites to hire freelancers :

    • Freelancer.com: Typically used by organizations to hire for gigs in translation, data entry and content writing.
    • TopTal: TopTal is a premium marketplace that offers screened and vetted freelancers. It claims to showcase only the top 3% of freelancers.
    • Upwork: Upwork runs on a bidding system. Businesses post their jobs and freelancers post their bids.
    • Marketerhire: As the name suggests, it is a freelance marketplace focussed on marketing-related gigs.
    • Fiverr: On Fiverr, freelancers post their price and businesses find the one that fits their budget
    • Kolabtree: A specialized freelance marketplace for scientific, academic and research freelancers
    • Guru.com: Guru lets organizations screen freelancers at their own pace. There is no vetting and manual matching
    • Ureed: Ureed is the largest freelance marketplace for the Middle-East and Gulf countries. 
    • Flexibees: Flexibees is a women-only freelance portal. Specifically catering to Marketing, Sales and Technology
    • PeoplePerHour: PeoplePerHour is a UK-based freelance marketplace. It provides protection for freelancer payments through an escrow system. 
    • PepperContent: PepperContent is a managed freelance vendor for content writing and design tasks. Companies deal directly with PepperContent instead of freelancers.
    • RICH: This is a south-east Asia-based freelancer portal focussing on translation service, design and tech gigs.
    • FlexJobs: FlexJobs offers companies an embedded Applicant tracking system to manage freelancers along with the ability to run virtual career fairs and email blasts.
    • Flexiple: Flexiple focuses on freelance developers. They offer vetted freelance developers along with a 1-week trial.
    • Arc.dev : Arc.dev has a strong focus on developer talent. Arc. dev sets the hourly rate for the freelancers and takes care of the payroll and any other compliance.
    • Hubstaff: Hubstaff is ideal for organizations open to both, freelancers and agencies. It uses its built-in software to match freelancers to their gigs.
    • Gun.io: Gun.io is a freelance portal for senior technology freelancers. Especially those with 15+ years of experience. It is invite-only for freelancers.
    • Gigster: Gigster only accepts projects above a certain $$. It is best suited for companies looking for an extension to their technical team.

How to Vet a Freelancer’s Skills Before Hiring

Now that you have posted your gig across various platforms, it’s time to sit back and watch the applications trickle in. It’s entirely possible that you may get swarmed by more than 60 applicants in just a few days. Freelancers typically apply with a cover letter detailing their skills and showcasing their past projects and impact.

When hiring a full-time employee, hiring managers know the experience level and typical salary commensurate with that experience level. Not in the case of freelancers.

Freelancers with varying experience and skill levels can compete for the same gig. They may be applying from different parts of the world through different freelancing portals. What’s more? They may additionally have a considerable divergence in their hourly rates. That is too many variables to manage in the hiring process.

So the real trouble is validating and verifying these freelancers. 

The best approach would be to screen freelancers using an industry-validated skills assessment. For example, a platform like Xobin comes with 800+ validated skills assessments to help organizations screen candidates based on their competency. These tests automatically benchmark and rank candidates, thus enabling hiring them to focus on top freelancers. 

The Future of Hiring Freelancers 

It’s difficult for companies to build their business by relying solely on freelancers. Remote or otherwise, full-time employees are highly critical for any business. 

However, we are at an inflection point today. 

The demand and supply for freelancers are at an all-time high. Companies would not want to miss out on a large pool of freelancers with the latest skills. Therefore, they  should consider incorporating freelancers into their hiring process. 

Digital HR Tools for Small Businesses

HR managers and recruiters want digital tools that make it easy to attract and source top job candidates. But finding the right digital HR tools for your small business can be challenging. And getting the best results from them can be difficult, too. 

It is paramount to consider the immediate and long-term value of digital HR tools. In doing so, HR managers and recruiters can identify tools that simplify talent recruitment and improve employee engagement. Plus, they can use these tools across their small business operations, without the risk of compromising any business data or systems. 

Get Started with Digital HR Tools

Before you start using digital HR tools, there are many factors to consider. These include:

1. Personal Branding

You need a personal brand that drives top candidates to roles with your company. That way, your business is well-equipped to attract quality job candidates now and in the future. 

Implement your personal brand into your hiring process. For instance, you can include details about your business’s mission, values and goals in your job descriptions. You can also capitalize on mobile recruiting. 

Examine your personal brand and keep it up to date. Perform market research to see how your brand ranks in its industry. With periodic reviews, you can find out how your brand stacks up against the competition and update it accordingly. 

2. Innovation

Look far and wide for digital HR tools you can use to drive innovation. These tools can transform your talent recruitment. They can help you bolster your hiring and onboarding processes as well. 

Consider a job candidate’s perspective as you search for innovative digital HR tools. It can be beneficial to view job candidates as consumers. For example, you can use digital HR tools to build recruiting roadmaps around job candidates. This can help you engage with candidates like never before.

Don’t forget to showcase your business innovations to job candidates, either. If your business offers innovations like career advancement programs or other unique perks to employees, you can highlight these benefits in your job postings. Additionally, you can highlight your company’s close-knit culture to candidates. These innovations put your business in a positive light. And they can help your company stand out to top candidates.  

3. Automation 

Explore digital HR tools you can use to automate your recruitment. These tools use artificial intelligence to help HR managers solve their hiring puzzle. 

You can integrate automation tools into different aspects of your recruitment. Some HR managers use these tools to promote job openings to candidates around the world. Others deploy these tools to source candidates via LinkedIn and other social networks. HR managers can even implement automation tools to quickly screen candidates. 

Evaluate a wide range of automation tools. This enables you to find an automation tool that complements your business operations. Next, you can deploy this tool across these operations. You can then manage the tool and use it to optimize your recruitment. 

4. Cybersecurity

Select digital HR tools that put security front and center. These tools ensure sensitive business information remains protected against cyberattacks. 

Use firewalls, email filters and other cybersecurity tools. Also, encrypt sensitive business data and verify company software and hardware are updated regularly. This helps limit the risk of costly and time-intensive data breaches. It helps you avoid lawsuits and other legal problems that can crop up due to data breaches, too.  

Implement a cybersecurity awareness training program. You can use this program to teach workers about cyberattacks and the dangers associated with them. The program enables workers to gain insights they can use to guard against cyberattacks and data breaches. Update the program regularly to ensure employees can use it to consistently protect your business.

5. HR Processes

Revamp your HR processes. Now represents a great time to review these processes and their respective strengths and weaknesses. Then, you can decide what processes work well and what ones don’t. You can next choose digital HR tools to eliminate or improve myriad processes. 

Every HR process should support your ability to connect with top job candidates and keep your employees happy. If a process is more trouble than it’s worth, brainstorm ways to improve it. If necessary, you can revise the process. Or, you can remove it altogether. 

Review your HR processes in conjunction with “bad recruiting” practices. Your HR processes should create opportunities for your company to engage with job candidates from any location, at any time. Conversely, if your processes cause problems, they can hamper the candidate experience. In these instances, candidates may shy away from roles at your company. Even worse, they may choose roles with your industry rivals. 

The Bottom Line 

Small businesses need help to compete with major corporations and other big brands. Fortunately, digital HR tools can level the playing field. 

Before you implement digital HR tools, consider your options closely. Seek out tools that support your small business operations and allow you to differentiate your brand from its competitors. As a result, you can find the best digital HR tools for your business. And you can get the most value out of these tools.  

Sourcing AI: Ending Recruiters’ Myopia

I like spending time with recruiters and sourcers, watching them do their work. As the CEO of a sourcing AI company that automates much of the process, it is important to me to understand how these professionals think. 

Recruiters have mastered the manual recruitment process, so AI will only streamline that process insofar as it speaks to the ways they already search for candidates.  To create an effective AI, we want to truly understand why recruiters select or pass over specific candidates.

After becoming very familiar with recruiters’ methods, I have noticed that despite their best efforts, they often miss many perfectly qualified candidates. Here is why:

Manual Searches Are a Time-Suck

The common strategy to source talent is to run a search on platforms such as LinkedIn. While the search may turn up hundreds or thousands of profiles, there is no way to immediately tell how many of them are actually qualified for a given role. This is because Boolean search capabilities are still limited.

Oftentimes, recruiters must sift through the listings of profiles and manually select the ones they like. They may select only one out of 10 profiles, then change the search and select more candidates from a new list, until they have enough candidates to contact.

Over the course of this long and tedious process, recruiters have only a few seconds to judge each individual profile. They simply do not have time to give every candidate a thorough look because of the sheer number of search results.

Recruiters’ brains are therefore trained to focus on profiles that look a certain way or with certain information, and more importantly, to skip everything else. Specifically, they are only interested in candidates who have enough information on their profiles to justify trying to reach them.

For example, if a recruiter searches for a specific skill, they want to see it not only in the skill section in LinkedIn but also in the candidate’s self-description or in the description of a specific job they’ve had.  When asked for the reason behind that approach, someone who bothers to mention a specific skill multiple times is more likely to have a significant knowledge of it. 

This is what they want to ensure after all. If recruiters take the time to contact, schedule with and interview a candidate who turns out not to be qualified, they’ve lost valuable time and energy without anything to show for it.

LinkedIn is Limited

This approach is perfectly logical, but it excludes more qualified candidates than recruiters realize. 

It’s true that even qualified candidates, for a number of reasons, do not always fill their LinkedIn profiles with the type of skills and content that recruiters wish to see. For example, engineers may enter more relevant information on sites such GitHub and Stack Overflow than on LinkedIn.

There is another disadvantage to this strategy: small candidate pools. Because of the tedious work of finding perfectly qualified candidates, recruiters will typically only reach out to around 20-50 people per job.  Of those people, only a fraction will show interest in an interview and it may not even be possible to make a hire.

How Sourcing AI Can Help

AI provides a solution to both glaring problems. It quickly and efficiently finds hundreds of qualified candidates for each job by inferring skills from similar candidates’ background, experience and workplace. It then contacts each of these candidates simultaneously about the relevant opening.

Those who show interest are pushed back to the ATS for follow-up by recruiters. So, the time and effort taken by those long Boolean searches can now be put toward speaking with candidates and scheduling interviews.

 By eliminating the need to manually, time-consumingly sift through profiles and contact each individually, AI can put an end to recruiters’ Myopia. 

How To Master The STAR Method To Pass Your Next Job Interview In The Recruitment Industry

As 2022 kicks into gear, you may be searching for a new role in the recruitment industry. Or perhaps you’ve decided to make the transition into recruitment from elsewhere. Recruitment can be a lucrative, fast-paced and fulfilling industry to work within. If you have an upcoming interview, your interviewer will likely be looking for skills necessary in recruitment positions.

With a simple interview technique called the STAR method, you can give focused answers which demonstrate your skills and impress potential employers. Here is how to master the STAR method to get your next job in recruitment.

 

What is the STAR Method?

You’ve already achieved a lot by getting an interview. You’ve done the hard work to find the role and choose the right type of CV for your application. And you have impressed them enough to get a foot in the door.

There’s no doubt that interviews can be nerve-wracking, but remember that this is your chance to bring your personality and showcase the skills and knowledge that you have to offer. The STAR method provides a focused framework to ensure that you are answering the question and showcasing the best of you. So, what is the STAR method and where can you use it?

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result. It’s particularly useful when answering behavioral interview questions.

 

Putting the STAR Method Into Practice

One of the good things about the STAR method is that you’ll be able to deploy this technique expertly in interview settings with practice. First, look up some common behavioral questions online before your interview. Then, think about what skills people interviewing for the recruitment industry will want to see.

Using this information you can plan and rehearse some answers to questions that may come up. With practice, the STAR method will become second nature when you have to answer those questions that can feel tough when asked on the spot.

 

How to Apply the Technique

Negotiation is a key skill needed in recruitment. Your role is likely to involve negotiating with businesses and candidates to get a good deal for both of them where they walk away happy. This may involve negotiating specific job terms such as flexible working with a business or negotiating with candidates on salary.

Therefore, a behavioral question that may come up in your next recruitment interview is: Tell me about a time when you had a successful negotiation.

Below is a model answer showing how you could go about answering this with the STAR method:

Situation: Earlier this year my company was going out of contract with a provider we use for tech support across the business.

In one line this explains the situation. It is succinct, to the point and sets the scene clearly for the interviewer to follow along with.

Task: My boss asked me to talk directly to the provider and negotiate the contract terms. We wanted to keep them on as we were happy with their work, but we wanted to ensure we had the best deal possible moving forward into our new contract.

This explains what you were specifically responsible for. It also focuses squarely on negotiation skills, sticking to the theme of the question to ensure you’re answering what has been asked.

Action: I looked through our old contract and assessed what was working and where there was room for more favorable terms. I arranged a call with the provider and explained our contract was up for renewal. I told them that we had shopped around and found other providers offering the service for cheaper. I handled the negotiation by being upfront with what we wanted and why, and giving them reasons to lower their rates so that they did not lose our business.

This clearly outlines the direct action you took to deal with the situation. It highlights your thought processes and the skills you demonstrated in your handling of the situation. For example, it shows your analysis, the ability to talk confidently to someone outside of your organization and that you can negotiate better terms on a contract.

It demonstrates you know the steps and skills needed for productive negotiations. You’ve recognized your bargaining power, the value your company is bringing to them and leveraged it in the negotiations. It hones in on your actions making your knowledge the focus.

Result: From our discussions, the provider agreed to reduce our fees by 4.5%. This saved the business £1500 annually. We signed the contract for another two years locking in this discounted rate.

The result is potentially the most important part of the STAR method. Ensure that you don’t get distracted in your answer before you’ve clearly demonstrated the impact that your actions had. This answer states the result of your actions in a measurable way. Using numbers is an effective way of showing the impact you’ve had in real terms. Whether this is a saving you’ve made or an increase in social media followers, be specific so there is no doubt that it was your skills that led to the positive result.

You can use the above example to prepare for other potential questions that may come up in your next recruitment interview. Work your way through some other examples relating to your experiences so that you aren’t caught off guard and have examples to refer to.

Conclusion

In conclusion, STAR gives you the power of feeling prepared going into an interview. All it takes is a bit of thought and practice to master the STAR method. First, identify the skills needed in the recruitment industry. Then, select relevant examples from your life where you have demonstrated these skills.

Finally, deploy the STAR method to flesh out and formulate these scenarios. These steps will help you to feel more in control going into that interview. When you feel under pressure or anxious in your interview, you have a technique that you can use to ground yourself and make you focused. Which can help alleviate anxiety allowing you to give the best answer possible to showcase your talent.

Digital Tools for Small Businesses

HR managers want digital tools that make it easy to attract top job candidates. But finding the right digital tools for your small business can be challenging. And getting the best results from them can be difficult, too. 

It is paramount to consider the immediate and long-term value of digital HR tools. In doing so, HR managers can identify tools that simplify talent recruitment and improve employee engagement. Plus, they can use these tools across their small business operations, without the risk of compromising any business data or systems. 

Get Started with Digital HR Tools

Before you start using digital HR tools, there are many factors to consider. These include:

1. Personal Branding

You need a personal brand that drives top candidates to roles with your company. That way, your business is well-equipped to attract quality job candidates now and in the future. 

Implement your personal brand into your hiring process. For instance, you can include details about your business’s mission, values and goals in your job descriptions. You can also capitalize on mobile recruiting. 

Examine your personal brand and keep it up to date. Perform market research to see how your brand ranks in its industry. With periodic reviews, you can find out how your brand stacks up against the competition and update it accordingly. 

2. Innovation

Look far and wide for digital HR tools you can use to drive innovation. These tools can transform your talent recruitment. They can help you bolster your hiring and onboarding processes as well. 

Consider a job candidate’s perspective as you search for innovative digital HR tools. It can be beneficial to view job candidates as consumers. For example, you can use digital HR tools to build recruiting roadmaps around job candidates. This can help you engage with candidates like never before.

Don’t forget to showcase your business innovations to job candidates, either. If your business offers innovations like career advancement programs or other unique perks to employees, you can highlight these benefits in your job postings. Additionally, you can highlight your company’s close-knit culture to candidates. These innovations put your business in a positive light. And they can help your company stand out to top candidates.  

3. Automation 

Explore digital HR tools you can use to automate your recruitment. These tools use artificial intelligence to help HR managers solve their hiring puzzle. 

You can integrate automation tools into different aspects of your recruitment. Some HR managers use these tools to promote job openings to candidates around the world. Others deploy these tools to source candidates via LinkedIn and other social networks. HR managers can even implement automation tools to quickly screen candidates. 

Evaluate a wide range of automation tools. This enables you to find an automation tool that complements your business operations. Next, you can deploy this tool across these operations. You can then manage the tool and use it to optimize your recruitment. 

4. Cybersecurity

Select digital HR tools that put security front and center. These tools ensure sensitive business information remains protected against cyberattacks. 

Use firewalls, email filters and other cybersecurity tools. Also, encrypt sensitive business data and verify company software and hardware are updated regularly. This helps limit the risk of costly and time-intensive data breaches. It helps you avoid lawsuits and other legal problems that can crop up due to data breaches, too.  

Implement a cybersecurity awareness training program. You can use this program to teach workers about cyberattacks and the dangers associated with them. The program enables workers to gain insights they can use to guard against cyberattacks and data breaches. Update the program regularly to ensure employees can use it to consistently protect your business.

5. HR Processes

Revamp your HR processes. Now represents a great time to review these processes and their respective strengths and weaknesses. Then, you can decide what processes work well and what ones don’t. You can next choose digital HR tools to eliminate or improve myriad processes. 

Every HR process should support your ability to connect with top job candidates and keep your employees happy. If a process is more trouble than it’s worth, brainstorm ways to improve it. If necessary, you can revise the process. Or you can remove it altogether. 

Review your HR processes in conjunction with “bad recruiting” practices. Your HR processes should create opportunities for your company to engage with job candidates from any location, at any time. Conversely, if your processes cause problems, they can hamper the candidate experience. In these instances, candidates may shy away from roles at your company. Even worse, they may choose roles with your industry rivals. 

The Bottom Line

Small businesses need help to compete with major corporations and other big brands. Fortunately, digital HR tools can level the playing field. 

Before you implement digital HR tools, consider your options closely. Seek out tools that support your small business operations and allow you to differentiate your brand from its competitors. As a result, you can find the best digital HR tools for your business. And you can get the most value out of these tools.