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Want to Keep Women Working? Support Them

The latest rounds of jobs reports, and a recent cover story in Time, have reinforced the devastating impact the pandemic has had on women at work, showing an enormous step-back in the fight for pay parity and equity across the board.

If we’re serious about supporting women as business leaders, it’s going to take more than heartfelt editorials on company message boards to make it happen. We must build awareness of the real issues that keep women out of the workforce and create programs to support, promote, and empower them at work. 

A recent Monster survey showed that 74% of women don’t think they make the same salary as their male counterparts, while 73% of men believe that men and women are paid equally. This extraordinary awareness gap really stood out to me, as it made a very clear statement that the battle for pay equity is not only a financial one but also a battle of perception.

It’s going to take transparency and education to ensure company leaders realize there’s a problem, to begin with, and that’s going to be a bit uncomfortable for some people.

Gender equity isn’t just about promoting and compensating people equally. It’s about supporting women on a day-to-day basis through policies, manager training, and tangible goal setting. Here are some things your organization can do today to support women. 

Parenting as a policy

2.2 million women have left the U.S. labor market since the beginning of the pandemic. The plight of working parents, mothers especially, deserves immediate attention beyond cover stories and social media threads. It requires policy changes to truly make an impact on the damage that has been done in the past year. 

Back in September, we rolled out our One Monster, One Family program. It featured several new benefits for our global employee-base, including flexible work hours, enhanced caregiver benefits, and meeting-free Fridays.

In allowing working parents the chance to tell us what schedule best suits their family’s unique needs, we’ve been able to focus on building a culture of understanding and empathy at Monster. We’ve successfully shifted to a people-centric approach rather than worker-centric policies.

Diversity as a KPI

If your company’s conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion don’t end with a clear KPI attached to them, it’s just lip service. KPIs keep us honest.

They also allow organizations to regularly report on progress in ways that everyone can follow along, prompt discussions about why your company may be coming up short or carve a clear path to follow when the strategy you set out to execute is working. 

This approach should be an easy sell within your organization, as a 2018 McKinsey report showed that companies in the top-quartile for workforce diversity are 33% more likely to financially outperform their less diverse counterparts.

With results that clear, a data-driven approach to diversity should be a no-brainer in your next leadership meeting.

Train and support managers

As company policies adapt and grow, managers need tools and support to evolve alongside them. Be sure your leadership team has plans in place to train managers to be better, more supportive bosses and leaders—especially as it relates to marginalized groups.

Every employee should feel like their career growth is top of mind for their manager. Studies show that’s especially true when men mentor women. Create a culture that doesn’t just encourage this positive behavior but also trains its leaders for it. 

Be an authentic leader

Whether caring for a child or parent, feeling lonely in quarantine, or just being tired of living at work, we’re all struggling right now. As company leaders, we must share our daily challenges as much as we celebrate the wins, showing our employees our humanity and building trust along the way. 

Take a vacation

We learned in our recent poll that one-third of respondents were afraid to ask their bosses for much-needed time off. That datapoint signifies a big issue with a simple solution — lead by example.

Taking the vacation time you have (and truly turning off when you do) gives your employees permission to do the same. 

Those of us with a seat at the table must advocate for every employee at our organization. We’ve lost so much in the past year, but continually having conversations about supporting women with company leaders today will help get women back to work—and keep them there in the months and years to come.

Importantly, they will also ensure your company is a place where women want to work. 

Searching for a New Recruiter job? Here are some Useful Job Hunting Tools

Are you in the market for a new Recruiter or Sourcer job? Something that you may have not considered is that you can use some sourcing and productivity extension tools to help with your job search.

Within the Google Chrome store, they actually have a list of top-ranked Job Hunting extensions. These suggested extensions help you stay organized, manage applications, track notes, and do much more.

It takes a ton of effort and time to network and find a new Recruiter gig. Use these tools suggestions to your advantage to land your next recruiter job. Below are some useful Extension Tools:

 

Email Tracker for Gmail – Mailtrack

This is a simple and free extension to track all your email analytics. Anytime you send out an email this tool tracks opens and click tracks. This is a quick way to see if your message it’s read by a Recruiter or someone in HR.

 

Todoist for Chrome

This tool helps keep you focused throughout your job hunting day. You can add websites as tasks: Add a blog post to your reading list. Save an item to your wishlist. Add work tasks to follow up on.

Easily plan your day organizing your tasks for the day right from the extension.

 

StayFocused

This tool increases your productivity by limiting the amount of time that you can spend on time-wasting websites. It’s hard paying attention when you are actively job searching. There’s so many distractions online from Facebook to Reddit. Use this extension to stay focused while job hunting.

 

LinkedIn Extension

This extension lights up with a new notification count whenever you have new activity waiting for you at LinkedIn. Clicking on the extension’s icon is also an easy way to take you directly to the LinkedIn website to view your new activity.

Anytime you get a message over LinkedIn you’ll get notified.

 

Huntr: Job Search Tracker

Collect, track and manage your job applications from across the web. Huntr’s chrome widget helps job seekers keep track of every detail about their job search and their opportunities, regardless of where they are found.

Track notes, dates, tasks, job descriptions, salaries, locations, company data, and more.

 

Visualping

Visualping is a simple service for monitoring websites for changes. You’ll receive an email notification when it detects any change in the content of the page. Track career pages and get notifications on any page updates.

 

Signal by Drafted

Signal finds intros & referrals to your favorite companies as you browse their jobs. Made by Drafted. More at signal.drafted.us. Signal helps you get intros to companies you are interested in.

Signal helps you send the perfect referral request to a friend who can help you right as you’re browsing the job that you’re interested in, without having to separately search on LinkedIn or Indeed, or having to spend 30 minutes composing the perfect email.

 

Indeed for Chrome

Whether you’re browsing jobs, submitting resumes, or interviewing for a job with employers, Indeed for Chrome keeps your job search organized. Save jobs from sites such as Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Monster. I’ve used this extension in the past to help me keep organized on applications.

You can update what process you are in each stage at each company. Overall, it was quite useful.

 

Evernote Web Clipper

Use the Evernote extension to save things you see on the web into your Evernote account. With the web clipper, you can save and track notes on any web page or LinkedIn profile. I love adding notes on different profiles.

This helps me to stay organized and helps me to remember who I connected with each individual.

 

RecruiterWand (Bonus Suggestion)

This Chrome extension helps auto-populate someone’s public LinkedIn profile – job title, company, location, and education. It then lets you choose a template and then auto-populates that template with that user’s information. There are 25 customizable recruiter templates to choose from.

Overall, it’s a great tool to use when you are trying to network with other Recruiters quickly. I created and developed this tool for Recruiters but you can totally use this for job hunting as well.

 

A Look Into the Future of HR and Recruiting Post-COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed life as we know it. At work, digital transformation is happening faster than ever. When the “new normal” fully settles in, human resources teams will need to adapt to a changing landscape.

As an HR professional, staying a step ahead of the trends will help you build a stronger workforce. In these coming years, attracting and keeping top talent will depend on your understanding of what technology you need to implement and what job seekers value most.

Let’s take a look into the future of HR and recruiting post-COVID.

Remote Work on the Rise

Across all industries, remote work has undoubtedly increased due to the pandemic. But even when it’s safe for everyone to return to the office, a large amount of workers won’t be doing so. Of the many workers that went remote solely because of COVID-19, at least 16% will continue working from home two or more days per week.

As a result, the majority of talent professionals agree that virtual recruiting will be the new normal. Though HR teams may blend virtual and in-person hiring processes, the early stages of recruiting will likely remain virtual for many businesses. This flexibility will make it easier to recruit talent from across the country, and even around the world.

Remote recruiting will come with its own challenges. Distributed HR teams may find it more difficult to collaborate and create a smooth hiring experience. As we move into a new era of remote work, HR teams should err on the side of over-communicating and setting expectations. Communication tools like Zoom, Asana, and Google Suite can help.

Digital Transformation in HR

As remote recruiting and flexible work options increase, new technologies will shape the field of HR. In addition to using more communication tools, HR teams will use more automation tools post-COVID.

Recruiting automation technology—which may include screening tools, chatbots, and more—will help HR professionals screen far more applicants in far less time. This type of tech will be especially important for fast-growing teams.

Information technology (IT) will also be important in the digital HR transformation. IT solutions will help HR teams manage payroll, track job applications, and uptrain employees with greater ease.

 

Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion

Coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic was a wave of racial justice movements. People are now aware of the inequities that minority groups face in healthcare, at work, and beyond. As a result, diversity and inclusion are more actively valued in our society than ever.

In 2021, HR teams will focus on recruiting diverse employees and building inclusive workplace cultures. With 76% of job seekers taking diversity into consideration, these initiatives are key to getting and keeping the best talent on your team.

According to Terri Wallman of DeVry University, a great first step that recruiters can take is writing inclusive job descriptions. Using language that’s welcoming to underrepresented groups can help you get a diverse candidate pool.

As you start building a diverse team, your culture should reflect your commitment to inclusion. Give diverse employees the support they need to thrive. You may do so by providing professional workshops, a mentor, and even diversity training for your whole organization—not just your HR team.

 

Making Decisions With Data

Companies have already been using data to learn about their clients for years. As work continues to shift online, using data on employees and potential hires will grow more common, too. This is called people analytics.

In recruiting, HR teams will use data to identify the strongest talent. Data will also help recruiters further their diversity and inclusion initiatives, as it helps remove unconscious biases from the hiring process. HR teams can even use people analytics to understand trends in turnover and improve work culture.

According to Joss Leufrancois, CEO of candidate sourcing platform Visage, another trend to look out for in the coming years is the increased hiring of people analytics experts. Not all HR teams are already equipped to make data-driven decisions. To make the best use of the data you collect, you may need to bring specialized experts into your department.

 

Humanity Still Matters

The increased use of technology and data can lead to employees being treated more like workers than like human beings. According to Gartner, the pandemic has, in this sense, created a “humanitarian crisis” for workers.

Post-COVID, HR teams will lead workplace efforts to challenge the negative impacts of tech. Job seekers will flock to the companies that prioritize empathy in the workplace and in the recruiting process.

One way you can balance humanity and tech is by being mindful about where you automate. Technology can make things easier, but it should ultimately help employees excel in their job, not replace team members. Similarly, automation shouldn’t erase personalization when recruiting, as top talent will want to work with the team that shows they care.

 

Embrace the Future

Remote work and digitization are two major trends in HR, as well as workplaces in general, that will continue for years post-COVID. Implementing new tech—including automation and communication tools—can help you recruit more effectively and efficiently.

But as you embrace tech, don’t forget that your staff and candidates are people, too. Make diversity, inclusion, and empathy a priority while you’re shifting to modern HR processes.

Internal Mobility – The Top 3 Barriers

During 2020, internal mobility became the focal point of hiring for many companies and this trend has continued into 2021. We carried out research to establish what the main barriers to internal mobility success were.

The top 3 were very revealing:

Engaging employees to view jobs

It may sound simple to ensure all employees see the internal opportunities, but the reality is that, whilst lots of time and money has gone into the external candidate experience, very little has gone into providing a great employee experience when searching for internal roles.

This poor user experience leads to limited employee engagement and ultimately means a company risks losing talent simply by not meeting the employee’s expectations of being able to pursue a career path at a time and place that suits them.

 

Knowing what roles in what locations an employee is interested in

Unless managers have a very good grasp of where their team is in their careers and what opportunities for growth they are interested in and what are available, there’s a good chance that employees will leave to grow their careers elsewhere.

Even if employees are seeing all internal job roles, they’re often not seeing every opportunity a company may have across multiple locations, limiting choice.

Does anyone, other than the employee themselves, really know what role they are willing to look at and what location they would be willing to move to advance their career?

 

Employers keeping up to date with employee’s skillset

Regularly mentioned as one of the biggest challenges, how do you match employee skills with internal roles, when you have incomplete information about those skills? The answer lies with the employee.

They know if they’ve completed an external online course that may help their career or enhance their leadership skills through a community-based project etc. This again comes down in part to providing the right employee experience.

Through engagement and empowering the employee, they will add new skills or competencies to their profile, helping companies match the latest skills with internal job opportunities.

As established during the research, resumes, employee information in an HR system, or LinkedIn profiles are instantly old data, but regular engagement can encourage employee participation in quarterly updates of their skill set, making job matching far more accurate.

 

Final thoughts

Millions are being spent by vendors and companies alike in developing sophisticated ways of measuring employee soft skills and competencies and matching them with internal job opportunities, but in some ways that miss the fundamentals.

Employees will seek internal mobility if they have good visibility of the types of roles they are looking for and an engaging and simple process to apply for those roles. That simplicity of process will also encourage them to keep their skills profile up to date.

Great internal mobility is achievable, but it requires companies to think more deeply about the most important person in the process, the employee.

Tools to Automate Your Sourcing Funnel

As a recruiter, you know there are many responsibilities to juggle, and the old adage “work smarter, not harder” couldn’t be more applicable. Let’s talk about automation in sourcing.

The use of artificial intelligence is no stranger to any of us and fortunately, its time-saving capabilities have expanded into the recruiting industry.

Whether you’ve been struggling with finding top-notch candidates from the beginning or are finding it difficult to keep their attention long enough to hire them, AI can help. 

The following is a list of sourcing automation tools that will help you optimize your hiring funnel at every touchpoint.

 

DNNae

Although DNNae might be the “new kid on the block,” it can be an invaluable sourcing automation tool for recruiters. It works in conjunction with LinkedIn and has the ability to review thousands of job descriptions in record time.

Its advanced technology can read and comprehend job descriptions and candidate profiles, as well as rank title matches, and score all aspects including skills, education, and experience.

The software can also be programmed to automatically send connection requests to the most qualified candidates on LinkedIn. Creating customized messages is fairly simple and can be personalized and include a CTA in a way that entices candidates to connect with you, the recruiter.

The premium plan offers unlimited score prospects along with other features which include unlimited messaging, scheduled meetings, and more robust reporting.  

However, the free version of DNNae allows you to send up to 10 messages daily and score as many as 1000 prospects each month, thus growing your prospect list, increasing productivity, and growing your sourcing funnel.

 

Hireflow

Launched in 2019, hireflow.ai makes finding potential leads simpler than ever. This all-in-one sourcing automation tool not only locates qualified candidates quickly; it will create an outreach email as well.

The Chrome Extension easily integrates with LinkedIn and various other CRM platforms and applicant tracking systems. The AI technology continually improves, which translates to you finding top talent that is often difficult with traditional search modes.

Additionally, the reporting features include critical data analysis that gives you a clear picture of candidate response rates, the most responsive hours of the day, and shows you which outreach strategies work best.

With Hireflow, your daily sourcing task can be completed within 10 minutes, giving you more time to focus on other assignments.

There are currently 3 plans available, including a free version that allows a maximum of 50 outreach emails each month with 1 automated follow-up and three active campaigns.

 

Seamless

Seamless.ai focuses on finding and generating leads based on a specific audience. While many features are geared towards sales prospects, these tools are just as useful in the recruiting industry.

For instance, the Chrome Extension makes it possible to build your lists, find B2B contacts, and expand your lead pipeline endlessly. Further, the “real-time search AI” produces results with up to 95% accuracy.

In summary, with Seamless, you can procure thousands of relevant contact information for other businesses, as well as candidates without ever needing to actively search websites again.

Once you set up your preferences, the AI technology does the rest whether you want to focus on a specific talent pool or centralize your search to particular platforms including Slack, Salesforce, or LinkedIn. Many of the most prestigious companies use Seamless to fill their pipelines.

Don’t let budget deter you from checking it out, as they offer both a free and paid version.  

 

Eightfold

Although eightfold.ai is designed for larger companies with 1,000 or more employees, its features make it a worthwhile consideration. Since its establishment in 2016, it has become a popular talent intelligence platform for well-known companies such as Micron, Nutanix, Hulu, and Conagra.

This is because eightfold’s features focus not only on finding the best talent out there but its platform also makes it easy to create employee development plans, assess competency and performance, customize advancement planning, and track longevity.

All of which are important for reducing turnover and keeping staff members engaged and motivated.

 

Loxo

Loxo.co is recognized as a “talent intelligence platform” and in 2020 was recognized as a top performer around the world. This is due to its exceptional programming and array of features.

Such features include CRM, job postings, appointment scheduling, automated resume parsing, candidate sourcing across multiple platforms, and is compatible in 22+ languages. The Loxo platform gives you the ability to centralize all recruiting tasks in one place.

Gain access to a database of over 530 million people worldwide, all with current contact info and talent details. Create campaigns and schedule automated follow-up responses through LinkedIn, email, SMS or via phone promos.

You can request a demo and opt for either the free or paid version depending on your recruiting needs. In regards to an all-in-one solution, Loxo features can’t be beaten.

Top Digital HR Tech Trends for 2021

The year 2020 transformed the world as we knew it in a blink of an eye. It proved to be an intense catalyst of change for professionals and companies alike. Remote working, which was on the rise before the outbreak, became the “new normal,” and many businesses went online.

Even brick-and-mortar companies underwent an evolution of sorts. Retail giant Walmart, for instance, tripled its online revenue in 2020 Q3. At the same time, Home Depot Mexico gained 70% of new online customers, topping its US parent. Businesses have pivoted and thrived.

Thanks to multiple Coronavirus vaccination drives across the world, we might finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yet, companies at large still follow an inconsistent and unpredictable recovery path even in 2021.

More emphasis is given to ensuring that digital job evaluations and other strategic workforce planning tools are used to re-align the company structures with the new business realities in the post-COVID-19 world. That is where HR technology solutions come in.

What has changed for 2021?

As we navigate our way in 2021, HR leaders particularly are expected to use a plethora of tools to deliver a better employee experience and offer tech-driven solutions to address both new and persistent problems in the workplace.

Standard HR tools are used to store company and employee data, automate daily and repetitive processes and leverage analytic capabilities in order to drive strategic decision-making.

Depending on the platform, they manage many functions. From recruitment to onboarding, as well as payroll, performance management, and internal communication.

Let’s explore six digital HR tech trends that are set to rock the New Year:

 

1. HRMS finds users on a massive-scale

As of 2019, an increasing number of large companies (47% globally) possess a licensed or on-premise HR management system or HRMS.

Moreover, ever since the pandemic swept the world by its feet — not in a good way — and forced professionals worldwide to go remote, many companies are less than thrilled by the lack of control they have over their employees.

Naturally, the Coronavirus outbreak has caused a significant surge in the online interest in remote working policies — and the importance of using HRMS.

On the platform, companies can monitor KPIs to measure employee performance, share files and resources, automate repetitive tasks, and support employees who are pursuing training and development programs.

The latter can feed data via their hand-held tool, consume company-related news or professional development content, and request leaves and track approvals. Employees can ensure transparent communication with their managers and team members

The HR department, on the other hand, can swiftly convey employee-specific vigilance and off-the-record policy updates amongst the now-distributed and remote teams.

 

2. Gig workers become an integral part of the workforce

For many years, people viewed freelance and contract jobs as supplementary options to full-time employment. However, that is not true anymore. According to a 2019 report, only 8% of companies have established processes to manage and develop alternative workforce sources.

On the other hand, 65% of them already see freelancers and contractors as an essential part of their day-to-day operations. Although HR was involved in sourcing, interviewing, and hiring freelancers only about half the time or less, it is predicted that it will change in 2021.

The good news is 75% of HR departments support sourcing gig workers today, and 66% of them negotiate work arrangements.

HR tools such as Zoho People, Breezy HR, and ADP can be used to manage payout and tenures and necessary activities like tracking attendance and leaves.

Similarly, talent marketplaces like Kaggle help them generate tangible returns for the company regarding the potential and value offered by freelancers and contractors. Full-time employees and freelancers can collaborate to achieve goals.

 

3. Recruitment leverages Artificial Intelligence

In 2021, we will see HR leveraging data, intelligent algorithms, and social listening tools to make their recruitment drives more effective. Although we have seen application tracking systems capturing the online resume and managing the end-to-end recruiting process before, we have a long way to go.

IBM, for example, uses AI to analyze a potential hire’s social media shares, including their facial expressions and sentences to see if they will be a good fit.

This includes using tools that handle multiple tasks such as posting a job on the careers portal and sourcing applications from different platforms or channels to scheduling interviews and carrying out the post-hiring process — in a bid to increase the strategic value generated from the otherwise dull and long hiring process.

 

4. Increased support for employees with disabilities

For differently-abled people, finding work is a major challenge. However, that is set to change as an increasing number of companies are recognizing the value of a diverse workforce — especially during the pandemic.

To facilitate these hires, companies can adopt web accessibility solutions to ensure everyone can comfortably access business websites that are ADA-compliant, use project management tools, and leverage cloud storage facilities.

 

5. Employee wellness takes center stage

During times of social isolation and sickness, it is more important than ever for companies to focus on employee wellbeing. Implementing an online wellness program is one step in this process, made more manageable through an HRMS system.

Companies can use the technology to send auto-reminders regarding general health and wellbeing practices. These can be reminders on drinking water, exercising, or merely doing yoga or meditation amidst the hectic schedule. This could inspire employees to remain in good health and help them be more engaged at work.

Many employee wellness software such as Wellable and Sprout gives employees quick access to holistic health information, personalized workout and diet recommendations, health risk surveys, and online communities.

Not only that — these platforms enable companies to track the progress of employees to identify and reward healthy behaviors at work. Talk about taking employee wellness to the next level!

 

6. Digital learning and L&D gain emphasis

The remote working culture has created a sense of insecurity and uneasiness among employees due to limited managerial visibility and increased pressure to perform their best. Suddenly, measuring workforce productivity has taken precedence across all departments.

Thankfully, most HR tools allow employees to log in the number of hours against each task undertaken during the day. Combine that with project management capabilities, and employers can track business outcomes and KPIs in real-time and ensure transparent collaboration.

Moreover, annual performance reviews are quickly falling out of style. Managers are keener to make quarterly or monthly reviews with sometimes even more granular weekly check-ins. That makes the employees aware of their performance and goals and gives managers a chance to be more specific in their expectations.

 

Over to you

Without a doubt — HR technology in 2020 developed at supersonic speed to meet the challenging needs of businesses, making it even more integral in daily operations than ever before. There was no choice!

HR tech tools help streamline and simplify organizational tasks, attract talent that has the liberty to work from anywhere and anyhow they want, and enable stakeholders to make data-driven decisions. That is the need of the hour across sectors and business.

Research shows that companies that do not use any HR software fall behind those that do. The choice is clear — implement HR-related tech solutions now to keep up with the changing world of work and continue to transform in the years to come.

AI Technology is Putting More People Back to Work

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” ~Arthur C. Clark

AI Technology is replacing the “humans” for sourcing and engaging candidates.

…and that’s a good thing. Technology frees up a recruiter to do what they do best:

Learning more about candidates, talking to the clients who want to hire them, and reading between the lines on what would be the best fit for both.

77% of CEOs say their company’s digital transformation was significantly accelerated during the economic crisis.

The rise of the alternative workforce (non-permanent) is prompting businesses to radically rethink how people work and how they are deployed, and in what capacity (perm, contract, freelancer, crowdsourced).

Post-Covid, there are an unprecedented number of new startup businesses. Most of them are sole proprietors or Independent Consultants.

This means some of your best talent will only be in talent communities and sources of talent supply outside of the traditional permanent recruitment model.

Sourcing and matching technology is your tour guide to finding and engaging this talent. It can work faster, cheaper, and better than humans to comb social media, job boards, and ATS databases.

AI matching and Machine Learning help find right-fit workers and connect them to the businesses who want to hire them, in whatever capacity they want to work, and in whatever role is needed.

Even the best recruiters only have so much bandwidth to do these kinds of tasks. And it’s not the best use of their time.

AI can process a 90 data point candidate profile and make recommendations on a large list of candidates in seconds vs. days with compelling results and accuracy.

The tradeoff is conversing with even the savviest bot isn’t as much fun as talking to a human. (Nobody is that perky 24/7!)

But that bot is the difference in a candidate getting notified of a job or put into the hiring process, that otherwise might not have happened due to maxed out bandwidth of an overworked recruiter.  

 

Technology is now the connector to engage a  dispersed workforce across multiple talent supply channels.

Technology has shifted from a “Talent Management” focus to enabling a workforce ecosystem of the right balance of machines and people.

Candidate engagement and the candidate “journey” has become more important than ever. Your best candidates may now sit on freelancer or on-demand workforce platforms as well as filling out applications on your career sites and job boards.

Technology can find these workers using AI, attraction strategies (scraping social media, inviting candidates to join talent pools with other like-minded candidates), and funnel these candidates to the permanent or non-permanent roles open in your company.

Its key is to engage that candidate and make them feel special from beginning to end. Being spammed within an inch of your life then left in a CRM candidate dead pool works for no one.  

Set and Service Resources, one of the top retail staffing companies in the country, is in the midst of its own digital transformation. Focusing on the candidate experience is priority one in order to position their company as the go-to for all retail hiring needs. Per their CEO Erik Hanvey,

“We want to deliver outstanding service for each candidate in all parts of our process. We are automating each aspect of their journey so they can find what they need with the least amount of effort. If they want to talk with someone, one of our Talent Agents is available.

Making them wait for a response at any step may lose them. 

We are trying to replicate what you see in the restaurant mobile order apps. I get food from the same restaurant because the process is simple and the food is pretty good. They remember who I am, my last orders, and notify me when I have rewards I can use. 

That’s the experience we want to create for our applicants – lead me to what I want as quickly as possible and if you don’t have it, notify me when you do.”

There are over 2500 different talent tech providers that help companies source, engage, select, and hire workers.

This number continues to grow exponentially. Especially as workers disperse across different platforms, are working more remotely, and traditional sourcing and recruitment tasks are cannibalized by tech that can do it better, faster, and cheaper.

 

The Permanent Workforce will be the minority in 5 years as a New Talent Landscape Emerges.

Since 2005, there was a 173% increase in the percentage of people in the U.S. who regularly work from home, per Global Workforce Analytics. Office space is being repurposed for more open meeting and collaboration spaces for teams to connect once a week.

Companies are upgrading technology to enable an effective remote workforce. The 9:00-5:00 day in a brick-and-mortar building is going the way of flip phones.

Airbnb came back from the brink of disaster, after record cancellations and losses due to Covid restrictions, with a resurgence of their “work anywhere” marketing campaign.

Their workers can embrace the new remote workforce and live and work in as many cities and countries as they want. This trend has been enthusiastically embraced. Airbnb opened their IPO in December 2020 at $146.00 per share, nearly double the anticipated price predicted.

As workers disperse across multiple countries, cities, and sourcing channels, it is important to rethink how and where work gets done and by whom.

We need to break down the walls between perm, contractor, independent consultant. It’s now all just one big talent marketplace.  

Technology is the connector, the searcher, the explorer to find that talent where they are, engage them, and connect them to the people who want to hire them.  

In the end, it’s about putting more people to work as quickly as possible. So they can find purpose, feed their families, build, and create.

There is nothing more human than that.

IWD 2021 #ChooseToChallenge: Supporting Women in the Workplace

March 8 is International Women’s Day (IWD), and every year, this day is both a celebration of women’s achievements and a call to action. Acknowledging that much has changed in the last 12 months, the theme for 2021 is #ChooseToChallenge, because “a challenged world is an alert world.”

In support of this, I asked women from across the HR and recruiting space to offer advice or “challenges” to their fellow business leaders.

Challenges that will help keep women in the workforce, or alternatively, work to bring them back following the ongoing exodus. Here are their responses (alphabetically, by last name):

 

Rocki Howard, Chief Diversity Officer at SmartRecruiters, says,

 “Assess opportunities and embrace flexibility. Does your role actually require a full-time person, one person, or a person to work “regular” hours?

Does it matter if someone submits the P&L at 9:00 am or 9:00 pm, assuming it is submitted on time? Challenge your organization to find ways to create outcome-based opportunities, the ability to work during non-traditional hours, or job share.

These options could open opportunities for a diverse set of talented women while adding value to the company.”

 

Jeanette Leeds, Managing Director and Head of Americas at Oleeo, offers,

“Seriously focus on opening up the pathway back for women who have opted out of the workforce.

There is an amazing untapped talent pool that is just waiting to be accessed – you have to keep in mind there may be a need for flexible or part-time roles – which is even more doable than ever from a business perspective with the world of work now changed by COVID-19.

Even before COVID, I hired incredibly talented women on my team – from marketing to finance to HR – they were ready to return to the workforce, and all were rock stars. Complete win/win situation for everyone.” 

 

 

Caitlin MacGregor, CEO of Plum, thinks, 

“To help people and businesses meet the challenges of our new working reality, we have to put people in jobs that align with their unique talents. 

People thrive at work when they are in roles that play to their natural strengths, and this is key for keeping women in the workforce.

Working in a role that drains you becomes nearly impossible when you’re facing the demands of caregiving, especially in this pandemic.”

 

 

Monique Mendoza, Recruiting Lead at Humanly, explains, 

“To help hire more women at an organization, hiring managers can start by cutting out nonessential qualifications off of job descriptions.

Studies show that women tend to only apply to roles where they meet all of the qualifications, while men are likely to apply to roles even if they only meet a fraction of the listed qualifications.

Shortening the list to just the crucial requirements for the role will likely attract more female applicants.”

 

 

Talent acquisition consultant and founder of How to Level Up Rhona Pierce believes,

“One of the main things leaders can do to keep women in the workplace is to be intentional about advocating for us.

Don’t just leave this up to HR and DE&I practitioners. Most of the initiatives around advocating for women in the workplace teach women to advocate for themselves, and that’s great, but what we really need is a culture where everyone is empowered to call out unfair treatment, lack of opportunities, pay inequality, etc.”

 

 

Jay Polaki, founder and CEO of HR Geckos, comments,

“Women have consistently shown up during this crisis and led with grit and determination, pivoting when and where needed with great dexterity, proving they are better leaders in a crisis.

To keep women from leaving the workplace, leaders should reciprocate and advocate for their female workforce while ensuring that such advocacy aligns with the person’s abilities and offerings during these unpredictable times. Meeting women where they are and providing resources to help them remain engaged and motivated in the work they are doing is key.”

Polaki continues, “Scheduling and flexibility have always been a challenge for women in the workplace who have myriad responsibilities outside of work. Working with women’s schedules, especially with women of color who have suffered the highest job losses and will be slower to recover, is paramount.

By addressing the “why?” and the “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) for women in a workplace with competing priorities, leaders can begin to ensure women employees are getting meaning out of their work and thus remain engaged and active.

For instance, if you are in the healthcare industry, ask your women workforce to think about how their work impacts not just the patients they serve but the community they live in. Helping them derive meaning from their work will galvanize the women in your workforce to stay engaged and remain with your organization.”

 

HR consultant Tamara M Rasberry, SHRM-CP, PHR, of Rasberry Consulting, writes,

“FLEXIBILITY IS KEY. Working women have so many competing needs and responsibilities, from self-care to childcare to elder care and everything in between.

Leaders wanting to attract and/or retain women employees need to understand the importance of allowing them the flexibility to be successful in all aspects of their life, not just work.

That includes generous PTO as well as remote work and other flexible work options.”  

 

Jennifer Ravalli, Vice President, Marketing at PandoLogic, presents two challenges.

The first for when women return to work after having a child, “Prepare for this just like you would a new hire. Give her a mentor that has been through it to talk to openly, make sure all of her systems work, orient her to what has changed, stayed the same, and where you need her to focus.

Work together on an achievable 90-day plan, so she feels confident re-entering and taking back her responsibilities.”

For the second, Ravalli speaks to workload and achievement, “According to the 2018 Hive Gender Study, women are assigned more of the work (54.9%) and complete 10% more than men.

I challenge leaders to make sure that the work being assigned to women is equally as promotable as the work being assigned to men.”

 

Amy Roy, Chief People Officer at Namely, shares, 

“The challenge for leaders, is to find compelling reasons for keeping women in the workplace.

What programs do you offer that appeal to the needs of women? Do you offer specific coaching or mentoring opportunities? A safe space to discuss the needs of women in the workplace. Benefits, perks, and/or flexible scheduling?”

Roy continues, “Talk to the employees who associate as female and see what they value and if what you are offering matches what’s valued.

Do your company values and culture support the needs of women in the workplace? For example, if you value the employee experience, what do you offer that support working women who are often the primary caregiver in their homes?”

 

In Closing

It’s evident in reading these thoughts, that we’re overdue for meaningful change in the workplace. Change that recognizes the work women do and the value they provide. Change that promotes flexibility and destigmatizes having responsibilities that extend outside office hours.

In closing, one more challenge, after today, and after the end of Women’s History Month, what will do you to change work for good?

 

Can Ageism and AI Coexist

I recently read an article about ageism, and how companies are struggling to effectively manage it. A short time later I read about Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how it will make Talent Acquisition (TA) more efficient. So, I started thinking…how will AI and ageism coexist?

Bias is practiced every day by everyone, starting with personal preference for morning coffee and what goes in it, to our taste in cars (Tesla), to what to buy on Amazon, and more.

We also have strong biases in technology preference: Mac or PC, iPhone or Galaxy, Samsung, or LG?

When it comes to talent selection practices, however, we are trained to actively ignore bias. This is often easier said than done, particularly for those downstream of TA. Try as they might, hiring managers often hold preconceived ideas of what their ideal candidate will look, walk, talk, and act like, technical qualifications aside.

Our job as TA professionals is to mentor and reinforce proper bias management through continual, sometimes intense, coaching of hiring managers and their team members.

Recent trends are strongly focused on diversity, but the other big elephant in the room is age, and everyone knows it. I was once told by my manager as I was preparing a manpower plan, to reduce the headcount of “some of the older, more experienced engineers.”

Because, he noted, “do you realize that we can hire two new college graduates for what we pay for one of the older, more expensive engineers?”

Nice. That less-than-casual advice had to come from somewhere.

So how do we un-train behavior when it’s part of corporate culture or strategy? While it is difficult to purge this way of thinking, we can do several things to help mitigate it.

One way is through continual training and cultural reinforcement. Another way is through technology. Let’s take a look at both.            

Training

Start with your company’s employee handbook and discrimination policy. The EEOC can assist with guidance on federal laws, like the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which forbids age discrimination against people who are age 40 or older, and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), which is an amendment to ADEA.

There are also a host of state and local laws and ordinances too. For example, in California, older workers are protected under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which strictly prohibits discrimination based on age.

Then measure compliance and develop strategies to address deficiencies using information held within your Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This is standard demographic information collected from candidates during the application process. This will not only help ensure that your organization can accurately measure and report compliance information, but also identify potential demographic areas to target for Recruitment Marketing outreach or other TA-related initiatives.

Use this information to regularly remind, reiterate, and reinforce at the management level. This will act to remind them of your company’s compliance and diversity goals on an ongoing basis.

Talk about them at related training or general informational sessions at every given opportunity. Management is more compelled to reinforce positive downstream behavior when this information is promoted regularly and institutionalized into company culture.      

 

Technology

While training can help reinforce or realign corporate culture, technology is playing an ever-increasing role in reducing ageism and other biases. Tools like Textio help “de-bias” job descriptions to make postings more inclusive.

Textio uses AI not only to help reduce gender and other biases, but also now has ‘age-inclusive guidance’ that takes bias interruption beyond gender by raising writers’ awareness of the unintended bias that may be excluding people across different age groups, including over-40 applicants.

Additionally, there should be a strong technology alliance between your Recruitment Marketing team and Talent Acquisition. Recruitment Marketing’s use of Brand-Lead/ Relationship-Based methods can tell your company’s story and help connect you with specific talent pools.

In conjunction with TA, RM can articulate your company’s brand, culture, and diversity story to build strong relationships over time, and can focus specifically on the over-40 demographic not only for general branding purposes but in conjunction with specific recruitment campaigns.

RM uses general posting, employee blogging, push notifications, and more to reach the company’s followers and through brand reinforcement and promotion, and can lead to a more predictive, robust, and automated candidate pipeline.

Symphony Talent employs automated programmatic media for company brand, recruitment, and talent pools. Resulting in the ability to promote across demographics, or to specific demographics.

It also can present ‘blind’ automated matches to postings for the recruiter to review, which tends to mitigate initial resume review bias.

These are just a couple of the many ways to help combat ageism in the hiring process. We still have a long way to go, and the technology also still needs plenty of work. People are either optimistic or worried about current or upcoming forms of AI in conjunction with recruitment efforts.

Sometimes they are successful, whereas other well-intentioned efforts have failed. For example, Amazon famously had to scrap its AI recruiting bot when the company discovered it was biased against women. Apparently, the bot had studied previous hiring trends, saw that most hires were men, and concluded that was the norm.

It proceeded on that premise until Amazon noticed its numbers headed in the opposite direction of its intended plan. Lessons are learned from such mistakes, and the tools will get smarter.

 

Some parting thoughts:

First, if you institutionalize an aggressive blend of both training and technology, you will diminish discrimination and bolster diversity across all fronts.

Second, don’t ‘burn the library’ by abandoning the wealth of knowledge that ‘seasoned talent’ brings to the table. If you think it is wise to “hire two college grad engineers for the price of one senior engineer” go ahead, but kiss your company’s tribal knowledge goodbye. While parting with company practices and knowledge may be desirable in limited cases, most often it is not.

Third, perhaps it’s too early to call what we’re using in our industry artificial intelligence. Perhaps ‘automated intelligence’ is closer to what we have at present?

And finally, Diversity and Inclusion should cut across all spectrums, including and especially, the over-40 crowd. Hopefully current, then newer platforms will get us there. And soon.

Top 4 Marketing Automation Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Work smarter, not harder. This new productivity mantra has become increasingly popular among marketers, especially since they can streamline a great portion of their work using some widely available marketing automation tools.

The truth is that marketing consists of a number of repetitive, tedious tasks that play an important part in every effective campaign.

What’s even worse, all these seemingly low-level tasks are time-consuming, which means that marketers can’t properly focus on the more creative aspect of their work.

Therefore, email marketing automation tools, social media management tools, CRM platforms, as well as lead generation and nurturing tools successfully pick up the slack and take over all these tasks, thus freeing up marketers’ time.

But, it would only be fair to admit that marketing automation comes with a set of challenges. Here’s what they are and how to overcome them.

 

1. Failure to Effectively Utilize Automation

This is one of the biggest challenges that marketers face when it comes to automation.

It’s not easy to pick the right tool or platform, implement it properly, and train your team to use it. This entire process can be complex, especially if a vendor doesn’t offer free onboarding. Small businesses, which usually need marketing automation the most and can greatly benefit from it, in many cases don’t have the right expertise to implement and start using these helpful tools.

When marketers aren’t properly onboarded, they will need more time to set up and manage their new automation tool, not to mention that this lack of mastery can lead to disappointing results for their campaigns.

While it’s true that the purpose of marketing automation is to simplify and streamline marketing tasks, this initial step requires a significant effort. That’s why marketing teams should be committed to learning how to use a marketing automation tool in-depth, as only advanced users can expect to effectively utilize it and gain a competitive edge.

To overcome this challenge, opt for a solution that provides great customer support and care, as this way, you’ll make sure that your marketing team will get the best onboarding experience and be trained to take full advantage of marketing automation.

2. Lack of Engaging Content

Engaging content is the core part of every marketing strategy, and yet 65% of marketers struggle to create it.

No wonder this is so when there’s so much existing content on every possible topic you can think of, meaning that you need to offer a unique perspective if you want to attract potential readers and provide value to them. That’s why it’s important to learn how to start blogging and why this activity is essential for the success of your digital marketing strategy.

However, it’s not enough to simply automate and streamline your emails and social media posts – they need to be fueled by exceptional content tailored to the needs and preferences of your audience. Think about conducting a content audit that will tell you what you need to improve in order to drive traffic.

Also, don’t fall into the trap of churning out several blog posts a week only for the sake of it. It’s better to have fewer but well-researched blog posts and send out fewer but personalized and targeted emails.

Another problem with content lies in the fact that even if you produce high-quality content, it’s not enough if you don’t promote it and make it more visible. In other words, all your blog posts, videos, and other content pieces will be practically useless if you don’t promote them and boost their Google rankings.

 

3. Relying on Subpar Data

In order for your marketing automation efforts to be successful, your data has to be clean, relevant, and verified.

Sending an email campaign to a list that you purchased on the internet can result in more than poor deliverability and open rates. Such lists are packed with obsolete and outdated information, which means that many of these email addresses are now defunct.

Email service providers leverage these dormant addresses and use them to plant spam traps, so when you send an email to any of them, it raises red flags. If this happens more than once, you’ll be marked as a spammer, and your email messages will be automatically sent to the spam folders of your recipients.

Another dangerous practice is sending unsolicited emails. With GDPR and similar regulations that require companies to follow strict personal data protection protocols and guidelines, you should only send electronic messages to recipients who have given you their consent.

All this means that your list should be regularly scrubbed because if you reach out to somebody who unsubscribed from your newsletter, you risk being fined.

Similarly, if a recipient never opens or responds to your email message, you should remove them from your list. The same applies to hard bounces, that is, emails that can’t be delivered.

It’s true that cleaning your data will make your list much shorter, but on the other hand, you’ll be left only with recipients who are clearly interested in receiving your messages and updates.

 

4. Automating Tasks That Shouldn’t Be Automated

Marketing automation is great because it helps you do more with less, but not every task can and should be automated.

Take social media as an example. While you can automate and schedule the publication of your content-based posts in advance, you can’t do the same when it comes to responding to your followers’ comments. It’s something that requires a human touch and a real-time reaction.

Similarly, content creation, although resource-intensive, shouldn’t be automated. Although there are some tools that can help you put at least a certain part of your content creation process on autopilot, it’s important that you do it yourself.

Pre-defined, customizable email templates seem like an excellent way to create your campaigns, but without adding your unique perspective and communicating your brand values, such messages can miss the mark, fall flat, and disappoint your recipients.

Despite these challenges, marketing automation is worth your time and resources as it will give a huge boost to your marketing strategy and efforts. Persistence is key, so make sure to give it time until it starts yielding results.

 

Why Flexibility is the Secret to Recruiting Success in 2021

If there’s one lesson we all learned in 2020, it’s the importance of flexibility. When the COVID lockdowns began, I remember how jarring it was to go from working in our beloved office – full of camaraderie and a newly renovated communal kitchen – to my home. Overnight.

I never really worked from home before, so I had to quickly piece together a makeshift desk out of a pantry door and eight five-gallon buckets just in time for my 8:30 a.m. meeting the next day. Although this was not an ideal setup, I quickly adapted and continued working in my new setting without a hitch.

Reflecting on this experience, I’m reminded of how flexibility and adaptability apply to recruiting, now more than ever.

What was once a standard part of the recruitment process – like holding formal in-person interviews – has changed in light of COVID-19.

In 2021, recruiters should consider how flexibility can simplify their talent acquisition efforts. While being flexible doesn’t mean you have to disregard long-standing best practices (like asking each applicant the same set of prescreening questions), it does mean that you’ll have an easier time attracting, onboarding, and retaining great talent, no matter what this year has in store.

Here are five ways to infuse more flexibility for a more modern, yet effective, recruiting process:

 

1. Embrace virtual interviewing.

Virtual interviewing was probably awkward for you (and your candidates) at first, but by now, you’ve likely become a video-conferencing pro. Even if you’re experiencing “Zoom” fatigue, think about the benefits of conducting virtual or video interviews long after COVID.

Virtual interviews are easier to schedule for both you and your candidates (no conference room reservations required).

You might also find that candidates interview better when in a relaxed, home environment. Just remember to be understanding if their internet goes out or their dog makes a guest appearance – it’s all part of this new recruiting reality.

2. Expand your remote workforce.

If you’ve proven that your organization can operate on all cylinders with a remote workforce, you might consider hiring full-time remote employees in other parts of the country (or even the world).

You won’t be limited to candidates within a certain geographic location, which allows you to tap into a more diverse pool of qualified talent. If you’re struggling to find candidates near your location, try expanding your job posting’s reach.

Specify that “remote work is available,” and see what type of talent you attract.

 

3. Think beyond traditional full-time positions.

Ask yourself, does your open position absolutely require a full-time employee? Can you hire two part-time employees instead? Or, is it appropriate to hire a temporary worker or consultant?

Job seekers are in so many unique situations right now – some are caring for children at home, while others may be testing the waters of a new industry after a COVID-related layoff. As with offering remote work, hiring for a variety of employment types can attract top-notch talent that would have never come across your job posting.

 

4. Relax your requirements.

As I’ve discussed before, finding qualified talent doesn’t necessarily mean you should immediately disqualify candidates who don’t check every single box. For example, if a candidate doesn’t possess a college degree, but has 10 solid years of experience, don’t rule them out.

Take into consideration applicants’ soft skills (proficiencies you can’t easily teach) and determine if they can be trained in other areas to fill in gaps. Loosen your “must-haves” and focus on “nice-to-haves” to bring in great applicants you may have otherwise overlooked.  

 

5. Revisit your total compensation package.

If budgets are tight, you may struggle to offer a salary competitive enough to get top talent in the door. In the spirit of flexibility, revisit the total compensation package you offer – what benefits and incentives can you introduce to sweeten the deal without breaking the bank?

Flexibility is the Secret to Recruiting SuccessYou might provide flexible scheduling options (for example, employees could work four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days), or offer a stipend to offset the costs of home internet service for remote staff. If your office is open for business, you could promote a hybrid work environment, allowing employees to plug-in from home when feasible.

It’s also helpful to recruit people who share your organization’s values and support its mission. This is another way to get great talent aboard if you can’t offer the highest salary – working for a company with a purpose offers intrinsic satisfaction.

The infamous year that was 2020 brought plenty of challenges, but with challenges come opportunities. Moving forward, I encourage you to embrace opportunities for infusing more flexibility into your recruiting processes.

You will find that you will attract a more qualified, diverse, and unique talent pool – ready and eager to work.

 

Rapid Healthcare Staffing: When Time is of the Essence

Healthcare staffing organizations have been on overdrive to meet the spike in demand for clinicians due to COVID-19 surges across the country. When pandemic cases increase, the laborious process of onboarding clinicians, which includes reference checks, employment verification and licensure verification, intensifies.

rapidly deploying pharmacy workersThis credentialing process takes weeks to complete. Now, more than ever, healthcare staffing organizations must streamline the administrative process without compromising compliance. 

Moreover, resources are needed for vaccine delivery, testing, and contact tracing, further straining not only clinical roles but also non-clinical roles such as pharmacy technicians, traffic controllers, security, greeters, contact center agents, schedulers, and environmental services personnel.

Healthcare staffing firms can implement several key best practices including pre-credentialing travel nurses that are needed at a moment’s notice.

And, they can leverage technology to automate sourcing and screening of talent, thus speeding up the recruiting process and deploying workers as quickly as possible where they are needed most. 

 

Pre-Credentialing for Rapid Response Clinicians

When a crush of COVID-19 patients strained the U.S. healthcare system in late 2020 and early 2021, hospitals struggled to meet the needs of the most serious cases, with some counties coming precariously close to exceeding ICU capacity.

Healthcare systems needed more clinicians to do the specialized work of managing COVID-19 patients. And, while frontline healthcare workers increasingly became vaccinated, healthcare systems still found themselves short-staffed as they dealt with fallout from those who were exposed to the virus and forced into quarantine.

In that environment, the demand for travel nurses rose steadily.

This scenario is an extreme example of the sometimes high-stakes world of rapid-response nursing, in which lives are at stake and a cumbersome credentialing process is not an option. Moreover, combined with a lengthy application process to become a new traveler for a staffing organization, many travel nurses limit how many organizations they apply to because it takes so long for them to become active at a new staffing firm.

The only way to do true rapid response travel nursing – where nurses are sourced, recruited, and placed in 24-48 hours – is to have their credentials nearly complete, with only the few state and facility-specific documents remaining to be quickly completed.

This process of pre-credentialing is often handled by third-party partners that can cost-effectively handle surges in demand by cutting down the one to two-week credentialing process by up 30% or more.

Given the competition to add new travelers to their roster, staffing organizations are finding ways to make life easier for their travel nurses. One example is the use of credentialing software that allows firms to conduct almost all credentialing in advance, making it easy for travel nurses to upload their documents.

Many staffing organizations have set up the software via a virtual wallet that gives travelers access to their credentials for future placements – even with competing staffing firms. Such solutions give travel nurses easy and rapid access to the hospitals that need them most.

 

Streamlining Recruitment of Clinicians and Non-Clinicians for Testing, Vaccinations and Contact Tracing

Clinicians working in ICUs, ERs, and other parts of the hospital form a crucial part of the front line in battling the pandemic. So, too, do the clinicians and non-clinical staff who are needed to support testing, contact tracing, and vaccine delivery.

All three of these areas are critical in fighting COVID-19.

For example, mass vaccination locations in convention centers and other large facilities are being set up rapidly around the country. They can require several hundred hires, including:

  • staff to guide traffic
  • security guards, observers
  • contact center staff
  • clinical staff
  • nurses
  • nurse practitioners
  • EMTs
  • phlebotomists
  • MDs and more.  

And, now that pharmacies such as Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, and more will be involved in vaccine delivery, many states are enabling pharmacy technicians to conduct immunizations with pharmacist supervision.

This means there will likely be a shortage of pharmacy technicians in certain markets, especially densely populated areas that could see a sharp increase in vaccine demand as more doses become available.

rapidly deploying healthcare staffHow can healthcare staffing organizations fill this wide variety of roles in such a short period of time? Given the high volumes required, traditional passive recruiting tactics like job boards just won’t be sufficient.

Instead, organizations should actively market to drive inbound applicant flow. By aggressively leveraging recruiting marketing, they can turn up hiring quickly, and turn it down once they’ve met demand.

Healthcare staffing firms should consider recruitment marketing partners who leverage programmatic marketing, which uses technology to cost-effectively target candidates based on their browsing habits.

Technology platforms can automatically engage candidates via text and email, gauge their interest in the role, and schedule time for interviews. Then, recruiters can interview the applicant and go so far as to extend an offer on the call and start the onboarding process.

Automated candidate engagement solutions send offer letters, provide links to onboarding materials and remind employees about time and location of their first day of work.

 

Conclusion

When it comes to beating the global pandemic, healthcare staffing firms have to be armed and ready for surges in demand – whether they come in the form of clinicians or non-clinicians or hospitals, vaccine delivery sites, contact tracing, or testing facilities.

Now, more than ever, the right people at the right time will be key to saving lives and putting an end to this pandemic.

And, after it is over, those same firms will be prepared for increases in demand for maintenance healthcare that many have put off for over a year.

 

4 Details to Include in Your New Job Ads During COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the importance of workplace safety. Unfortunately, as cities and businesses begin to open up again after lockdown, fewer employees report confidence in workplace conditions.

According to a Gallup survey, only 65 percent of workers feel completely satisfied with their physical safety as of September 2020.

job ads covidAfter nearly a year of working from home, COVID anxiety lingers as many don’t feel ready to return to in-person settings. This may seem like bad news for companies actively recruiting.

If people are nervous about their current companies where they have an existing relationship, they may be even more reticent to explore new jobs. However, it can be an opportunity to highlight your organization’s policies and procedures, as well as the superior level of concern you have for your team.

Hiring during the pandemic doesn’t have to be another hurdle in an already challenging environment. Instead, leverage your new job ads to attract more candidates and diversify your hiring options.

To make your descriptions even more effective, include these four key details.

 

1. Share Your Sick Leave Policies

One of the significant changes that companies made during the COVID-19 pandemic was improving or creating a paid sick leave program. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 25 percent of organizations changed their sick leave policies because of the virus.

Of those organizations, 20 percent increased the paid leave by six to ten days, and 37 percent added more than ten days of paid sick leave.

Paid sick leave and PTO is a major feature to highlight within your business. It assures candidates they’ll be protected if they experience health issues (COVID or otherwise) or have to care for family members. If you have a generous policy, brag about it!

2. Describe Your Cleaning Practices

As you welcome employees and customers back to your physical locations, how are you updating your cleaning and sanitation practices to keep people safe? Have you set up plexiglass barriers or increased your cleaning schedule?

According to a survey by SERVPRO, 86 percent of companies are investing more in cleaning during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, only 14 percent plan to keep up with these sanitation levels indefinitely, compared to 46 percent that plan to increase cleaning practices for as long as COVID-19 is a threat.

If you’re part of the 14 percent, let your candidates know! Show what your company learned from the pandemic and how you plan to protect your workers in the future.

Within your job ads, go into greater detail to explain what you’ve done to prevent the spread of COVID-19. You could even share a link to your site with your cleaning policies, noting this will remain in effect post-pandemic. This piece of information is particularly valuable in overcoming COVID anxiety, especially if you’re a step above what’s required.

 

3. Highlight Any Remote Work Options

Throughout 2020 and into 2021, companies grappled with bringing employees back to the office, with some opting for permanent remote work options.

 

“The majority of managers are still imagining that the world is going back to the office when this is over,” says David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO and co-founder of Basecamp. “We get hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of applications for open positions at Basecamp. That hasn’t changed.”

 

Don’t make applicants guess about your procedures. Whether it’s temporary, permanent, hybrid, or TBD, be crystal clear about your remote work policy in your job ad. For example, the ability to partially WFH through the end of the year might make the difference for a working parent who’s still juggling child care.  

 

4. List New Office Procedures

When your team returns to the office, you’ll likely have different policies in place, i.e., social distanced workspaces, fewer/smaller meetings, staggered employee schedules, etc. Make note of this in your job ad.

Again, if it’s too long, then share a link to your site where they can learn more.

The best way to overcome an applicant’s anxiety and apprehension is with information. What’s more, time is a premium. If a job hunter isn’t sure what your organization’s guidelines for in-office work are, they might not waste their time applying to find out.

Attention to detail—even if that’s simply explaining changes you’ve made to keep your staff safe—will show your company respects your team.

A caring corporate culture is an attractive quality to publicize in our current climate.

 

Market Your Safe Working Practices

While you certainly want to include your safe hiring practices in your job descriptions, there are additional ways to talk about your improved working conditions to attract job hunters. Try these marketing tactics to increase the number of applicants for open positions:

  • Get social: Promote your sanitation practices on social media with images and videos showing how your workplace is safe.
  • Tap into employee testimonials: If your employees are willing, ask them to share their experiences on sites like Glassdoor or with Facebook and Google reviews.
  • Bolster PR: If you work with a public relations team, see if you can talk about your safe work practices to local journalists/news sites to showcase your excellent standards.

Even within your job applications, you may want to create videos or develop a boilerplate list to highlight the safety standards you uphold within your organization.

 

The Next Step: Reinforce Safety During the Interview

Employee safety and sanitation is something your entire team should practice as a core value of your business. Whether you plan to host in-person or virtual interviews, make sure to reinforce your latest policies.

Don’t forget to touch upon improvements and positive changes you’ve made post-COVID. Lastly, encourage your applicants to ask as many questions as they’d like about the conditions they can expect.

 

In our new virtual, post-pandemic landscape, a job ad can be a powerful tool. Make sure to create robust descriptions of your company procedures and publicize how you care for your team members!

 

TA Needs to Flex, and Recruiters Should Lead the Way

Today organizations must cope with new customer demands, increasingly digital business operations, and a heightened focus on cost savings. These factors are shaping the way companies are moving forward, both cautiously and optimistically.

While it may seem to be a slow march to pre-pandemic unemployment levels, BLS data shows that overall hiring continues to pick up each month. That said, it’s a workforce that no longer looks the same. 

To hire the workforce of now, companies need a flexible recruiting strategy that takes into account both current market dynamics and candidate trends. A company’s best defense against the challenges ahead? Recruiters.

Recruiters are your built-in subject matter experts, living day in and day out on the front line of market and candidate trends. However, fluctuating market conditions and company demands often leave recruiters and hiring managers on different pages.

All too often, the result is that recruiters are asked to deliver high-quality candidates based on moving targets. 

During this economic recovery, recruiters and hiring managers need to work together in order to get the right talent in the door – new talent that adds to your total workforce and creates exponential value.

Recruiters have an opportunity to shape their company’s talent acquisition strategy in real-time to build in the flexibility needed to both attract and hire the best candidates as well as respond to changing hiring manager demands. 

 

Three major trends, three ways for recruiters to stand out

There are many significant changes to recruiting in this COVID era of work, and recruiters are best equipped to help businesses – and hiring managers themselves – navigate through them. Here are three of the top ways recruiters can shape TA strategies that deliver results.

 

The biggest process change: Interviews

Video interviewing isn’t new. In fact, a 2019 Institute of Student Employers (ISE) survey found that 47% of employers were using it pre-pandemic. What has changed is that now companies are using video for the entire end-to-end hiring process, from sourcing through onboarding.

In the year ahead and beyond, this trend will persist. Investments have already been made in the technology needed to support remote hiring, and many offices won’t fully open back up this year. 

While recruiters are accustomed to video interviewing, many hiring managers are still learning the ropes. Here’s how recruiters can help them make the most out of it:

  • Provide training for hiring managers to help them adjust to digital hiring practices.
  • Track metrics like time-to-fill to show improvements.
  • Gather candidate and hiring manager experience feedback over time to refine the process.

 

The biggest talent change: Location

The remote work revolution is here, and all signs point to it staying for good. According to a PwC survey conducted in late 2020, 83% of companies were planning to continue on with some form of remote work environment, either full time or hybrid, or acknowledged that their workforce preferred it.

For hiring managers who are brand new to filling their roles with remote talent, there’s a bit of a learning curve. While managers know the role better than anyone, recruiters know where to find the candidates and the likelihood of top talent accepting the position.

Recruiters have two things at their disposal that no one else has. First is real-time data insights into the hiring market. Today’s technologies can tell them where qualified candidates live, their salary requirements, and what supply and demand looks like in different geographies.

Second, recruiters spend the majority of their time interacting with candidates. There is no better source on what candidates want and what would make them take a job with your company than recruiters.

To demonstrate this value and help hiring managers find the best remote talent faster, recruiters can:

  • Come armed with data when discussing new hiring needs with managers.
  • Provide relevant, real-time candidate feedback to improve the hiring outcome.
  • Share trends generally throughout the company to bolster their reputation as a partner to hiring managers.

 

The biggest social change: DEI

The social unrest of 2020 has landed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the top of the corporate agenda. Now more than ever, companies are being asked to communicate their DEI goals to internal and external stakeholders, and just as importantly, share progress on where they stand in reaching them.

Monster research found that 86% of candidates say DEI is important to them, and 62% would turn down a role if the company didn’t support diversity. 

This heightened focus on DEI also means that recruiters are being asked to help companies deliver on them from a hiring standpoint. But they aren’t alone. The demand for diverse talent is higher than ever, and recruiters who can successfully communicate a company’s sincerity and commitment will win out.

There are a few ways recruiters can help their employers move the needle. The best way to start is to:

  • Help stakeholders develop the right DEI messages for candidates.
  • Advise hiring managers on current access to diverse talent to set expectations properly
  • Help managers take advantage of remote work to tap into diverse talent pools.

Both candidates and hiring managers need to respect recruiters and feel as though they’re representing them and their interests well.

During this time of market uncertainty and change, recruiters have the chance to show real value and ensure each of them are successful in their search for their next role or their next great hire.

 

Mobile Optimization Goes Beyond the Job Application

In the 1980s, we were living in a material world, or at least that’s what Madonna told us. Today, we’re living in a mobile world, one where even people without a stable connection in their homes can dial into the internet through their cell phones.

Mobile optimization goes beyond the job application

Pew’s latest research conducted in mid-2019 indicated that 37 percent of U.S. adults mostly use their smartphones to go online, a figure that’s nearly doubled since 2013. Factor in a year of quarantine, lockdowns, and volatile job markets, and the percent is likely to have increased further.

Dig deeper into the numbers, and we start to see the impact of mobile on age groups, with 58 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds going online mostly through a smartphone and 47 percent of those ages 30 to 49.

That right there represents a large cross-section of the working population, including both early and mid-career candidates.

Still, even though Pew asserted “these trends are part of a broader shift towards mobile technology that has changed the way people do everything from getting news to applying for jobs,” many employers have yet to take note. 

Many employers remain reliant on a process designed for desktops, overlooking or even downright ignoring the mobile user experience. As the research shows, it’s no longer enough to be mobile-friendly. You need to be mobile-first. More than that, you need to be mobile-forward.

What is mobile recruiting?

Once upon a time, mobile recruiting meant a job application that rendered properly across devices. Not anymore. Now, mobile recruiting accounts for mobile career pages, job ads, job postings, mobile recruitment applications, communication tools, and so on.

If it’s part of recruiting, it’s part of mobile recruiting. Ideally, it should be feasible for a candidate to start and finish the entire recruiting process from their smartphone. That includes finding opportunities, applying, uploading documents, chatting with recruiters, scheduling, interviewing, taking assessments, and ultimately, signing the offer letter.

This is within the realm of possibility given technology. It’s up to talent acquisition teams to make it happen.

What’s the benefit?

There are a few benefits to mobile recruiting. The first is the obvious improvement to the candidate experience. Centralizing the process from end to end makes it easy to stay engaged, up-to-date, and connected with the potential employer.

Looking for a job is stressful enough; the least companies can do is ensure things are simple, streamlined, and on one device. Then, there’s equally important but often overlooked recruiter experience, which dovetails with the hiring manager experience.

A mobile flow creates just that, a flow, inspiring increased collaboration and faster turnaround. And finally, there are the technical perks. Intelligent solutions thrive on usage. The more we use these technologies, the smarter they become – by keeping candidates on their mobile devices and within the same systems, the better the data and insights.

What’s there to know?

For starters, mobile recruiting should mirror online recruiting, with the smaller device size in mind – the countless form fields and requests to input the same information listed on the resume again and again won’t fly.

Real estate is limited, so you need to collect what’s needed and move on. Chat functionality in the form of text messaging can help, asking candidates questions and populating the application with their responses.

That will also work to speed up screening, reducing the hiring cycles and filtering based on a role’s specific requirements. Through more effective communication, recruiters gain time back in their day. Time otherwise spent developing talent pools and building out stronger relationships.

Automation enables seamless transitions from step to step, keeping interactions secure and compliant along the way.  

Leading the way

Prioritizing mobile doesn’t mean creating a wholly separate approach to recruiting. The purpose of mobile recruiting is to reach a higher number of candidates across different devices, a mission that becomes increasingly challenging depending on the industry or geography involved.

It’s about translating your existing process onto those different devices through a series of APIs and integrations. You want to enhance your tech stack, not supplant it. Why? Because if and when a candidate wants to move off one device and onto another, you want to keep hiring as cohesive as possible.

Some candidates keep their entire lives on their phones. They rely on it to stay organized and know when they have an interview scheduled or if they have an assessment to complete.

Others might start in one spot and then move to another to finish. Maintaining the process with mobile in mind supports communication and collaboration between candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers – and the more everyone can work together, the better the overall experience, the better the outcomes.