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Must-Have Characteristics of a Good Recruiting Video

characteristics of a great recruiting video

Must-Have Characteristics of a Good Recruiting Video

The world has evolved so much over the past years and modernized so swiftly that it is hard to believe the progress. The internet boom, the advent of social media, the use of Artificial intelligence, and significant technological advancements have made life so much easier. 

In between the changes, the corporate world and organizations have also progressed in recruiting top candidates. Out of the many tactics present for recruitment, the use of recruiting videos has gained popularity. Videos are a great way to deliver the message you want in the ways you want. 

But what does it take to make a good video that will attract talented candidates for the organization? Let us delve in and make the perfect video that will be both engaging and appealing. 

 

Why the use of video content?

34% of the application rate for a job comes from a recruitment video. Considering the number, that showcases how effective videos have become for recruiters. 

Be it a small company or a big organization, using a recruitment video is not limited and can increase employer brand, attract more candidates, and showcase company culture. Depending on how the management makes the best use of their knowledge and applies it to make a good recruiting video. 

 

Characteristics of a Perfect Recruitment Video

Make it fun

One of the sure-fire ways to make your recruitment video entertaining and engaging is to incorporate the element of fun. Try not to use those boring corporate language and buzzwords. Instead, go for some cool animations and resort to humor if possible so that your target audience finds it amusing. 

Keep it short

You might have seen various recruitment videos; some might be of intermediate length while some are of significant length. It can turn out to be detrimental if a video has a long runtime. In order to achieve a higher success rate of your recruitment video, keep it under 3 minutes or even shorter if possible. The longer a video gets, the more chances that a candidate will lose interest in it. 

Conversational Delivery

You can come up with the best script in hand for your recruitment video; however, it becomes monotonous if there is no conversational element. Make the video so that the target audience feels like they are having a one-on-one conversation with the recruiter itself. It makes the video engaging as well as appealing to your candidate.

Portray Company Culture

The main motive of a recruitment video is to attract top-notch candidates for the organization. And showcasing your company culture helps the purpose of the video. You can show them the workplace and the work environment of the organization. Give them a glimpse of how things are done daily and how their everyday life will be once they join the company.

Answer the Questions

At the end of your video, include a few seconds where the recruiter will be answering the frequently asked questions by a candidate. This will add another dimension to your video as it will attract the interest of your audience. It will also help clear your candidates’ doubts and portray that you value your candidates even before joining the company.

Don’t forget your target audience

Before working on a recruitment video, have a clear understanding of what you want from it and who will be your target audience. Without a definite audience, it will lose its identity with no clear vision, which will not bring any results. Make sure to make it informative and include all the bits that your target audience wants.  

 

Some tips towards making a better video

Equipment

Using the right types of equipment to start on a video is vital. It can include the hardware tools and the software you will be using to work on the final product. Do make sure that the essential availability of equipment comes under your budget. 

Try to use whatever you have got and make the most out of it. Just remember the basic tools you will need to help you curate your video, and everything will turn out to be fair. 

Audio Quality

Audio quality matters! The terrible audio quality will turn out to be a let down than a terrible video. Make sure you have a superb audio quality where every conversation is free of disturbances and appropriate. The best way you can achieve it is by recording your video in a quiet area or a soundproof room (If the organization has availability of it).

Lighting

The use of lights is another essential factor to keep in mind when recording a video. Make sure that the light is on the objects that you want your target audience to focus on. Without proper lighting, your video will be full of silhouettes and lose the vibrancy of colors resulting in a dull effort.

Script

For any video to gain popularity, the script plays a significant role in it. Without strong writing and the right turn of events, it will lose its motive, and the audience will not find it appealing. Brainstorm with your content and marketing team to develop a powerful story that will be engaging and interesting.

Animation

If you have decided on a video that will include animation, try to go for minimalistic ones. They are simple, catchy, and suits best for recruiting videos. Do not resort to flashy animations as they consume enormous amounts of time, and it might not give the right impression in front of your target audience. To avoid any mistakes during the process, try to take some expert advice and look out for any significant loopholes.

 

Promoting your recruitment video for greater reach

Social media

Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are perfect for promoting your recruitment video. Make the best use of them and try to run some ad campaigns if possible. An important part of the strategy should also be video marketing optimization. Also, do not forget about Youtube when it comes to sharing your recruitment video. It is one of the first platforms that a candidate will search for videos related to the company.

Employee advocacy

Having an employee advocacy program also helps promote and advertise your recruitment video as the employees will be sharing it on their social network. This will increase the video’s reach, and more potential candidates will know about the organization’s job openings.

Company’s career page

Another great way of promoting your video is by adding it to the start of the company’s career page. As the career page is visited frequently by the candidates, having an attractive video will make it appealing and engaging.

Use of Newsletter and Recruitment Events

Send the video to your talent pool through newsletters to keep them up to date with various job opportunities and recent developments of the company. You can also promote the video during campus recruitment events to showcase the culture and the numerous benefits of working in the organization.

Summing it Up

It is not hard as you think when you have the right team, adequate tools, the right approach, and the will to develop the perfect recruitment video. Just make sure that you and the team are in sync to support each other and provide help whenever necessary. With the ideal blend of all the components, you will acquire top talents for the organization in the long run. 

 

Closing a Candidate Before the Interview

Closing a Candidate Before the Interview

Closing a Candidate Before the Interview

Depending on the role, industry, or individual, some candidates will always remain in-demand, no matter the state of the job market. Tech is an obvious example, with growing gaps in areas like cybersecurity where limited supply means that qualified professionals pretty much have their choice of where they want to work. That puts recruiters in a tough spot, especially when looking to hire for these hard-to-fill positions. 

Historically, much of the conversation around this type of recruiting focuses on improving sourcing and “casting a wider net” to ensure there are enough candidates in the talent pool. That might work to some extent but isn’t a fail-safe, especially as you move down the funnel.

Instead, what if we used each moment to our advantage and get to the offer faster? Let’s consider sealing the deal sooner: 

Reorder the Process

Are resumes the most effective way of applying for a job at this point? Doubtful. Many companies claim they want to focus on culture or fit but remain wedded to these antiquated hiring modalities. We’re past due for a new approach to recruiting in-demand talent, one that looks beyond a checklist of requirements. 

Some of the best employees you hire probably won’t know the industry or have the requisite number of years’ experience. They’ll be the ones who learn and adapt quickly, and to get to that talent faster, we need to deprioritize everything out of date.

Maybe the resume enters into the process after the application, becoming part of the second, third, or fourth step instead of the first. Either way, no one ever got the job because they had the best one-page summary of their very best accomplishments. You need to get to the human quicker. 

Get More Human 

Likewise, is the formal interview the best way to judge a candidate’s qualifications? Debatable. What can you find out from a big production in the conference room that you can’t learn during a phone or video screen? Not much, to be honest.

It’s more about the spectacle of parading candidates in front of different team members and putting them on the spot. Not exactly a great experience for anyone, especially those job seekers without other options. But to put less emphasis on the front end, save for any necessary certifications and background, and leverage screening as a way to interview candidates, you also need to rethink what you’re asking. 

In the wake of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, questions like “Where do you see yourself in five years?” feel short-sighted and graceless. Whereas the Wedge client with the highest completion rate on their screens asks candidates, “What’s your favorite joke?”

Now, is this a meaty, in-depth assessment or research-backed question? Probably not. Instead, it’s a chance for them to show off a bit of their personality and how they think. 

Stand for Something 

What’s the point of all of this tradition? Spoiler alert: there isn’t one. It’s just that we fall back on the “we’ve always done it this way” thinking even when all the other variables have changed. You can’t expect top talent types to fall in love with open roles just because they exist. As such, recruiters need to stand for something and build a brand of talent attraction to match. 

Many of today’s in-demand candidates wince every time they receive another generic InMail telling them there’s an exciting opportunity available for them. Nothing is exciting about that line. Especially not when you’re planning to follow it up with, “shoot me over your resume!” As the recruiter, put yourself in the candidate’s proverbial shoes.

What would it take for you to respond? What would you want to see from the recruiter, hiring manager, and potential employer? You would probably run for the hills if that stale message were their best shot. 

Get creative with messaging, employer branding, and recruitment marketing.

Take a page from Kentucky Fried Chicken and Lifetime:

https://twitter.com/lifetimetv/status/1335947170281885699

Try something different. Tell candidates what you want from them and why, making it easy for them to respond and proceed accordingly. 

Look, we all know that better communication and a streamlined process support a better hiring experience. That’s table stakes.

If recruiters want to close a candidate before the interview (and the competition!), close them. It’s time to shake off the traditional line of thinking and embrace a more progressive approach. 

 

Your ATS Contains Gold – How to Easily Uncover a Hidden Competitive Advantage

Your ATS Contains Gold - How to Easily Uncover a Hidden Competitive Advantage

Your ATS Contains Gold – How to Easily Uncover a Hidden Competitive Advantage

Dams have been built all over the world as a source of energy for local communities. Washington state, where I live, is home to 3rd deepest lake in the United States, thanks to a dam. Lake Chelan has a depth of 1,486 feet, or 453 meters, deeper than even the Great Lakes, including Lake Superior.

That’s one deep lake!

Why am I talking about dams and lakes? Because that’s the best analogy I’ve been able to come up with as a comparison for what most companies’ applicant tracking systems have become. A deep, dark reservoir, where finding the prized fish is nearly impossible.

It’s time to blow up that dam and get the river of candidates flowing again. 

I’m not talking about turning your ATS into a CRM. Most aren’t built for messaging and that kind of engagement and follow up at scale. They’re pretty awful for nearly everything except being a database.

So, let’s stop trying to turn applicant tracking systems into what they’re not. 

Instead, what I’m suggesting is taking advantage of the data and contact information they contain to revitalize your recruitment marketing funnel and obtain a return on the time and investment initially made to attract those applicants in the first place. 

You’re sitting atop a gold mine of passive candidates, and you don’t even realize it. 

Or maybe you do but the project needed to organize and revitalize it seems really difficult and time-consuming.

So, before you start thinking to yourself, “my team doesn’t have the time to mess with these old resumes,” I’d like you to at least hear me out on the recommendations I have and why I think this is such an essential and untapped resource.

 

Data Decay

I’m not naïve enough to think that there’s not a lot of garbage in your ATS. That’s a huge problem with most applicant tracking systems; they definitely meet the “garbage in, garbage out” criteria of a database.

Even the quality data – the candidates that made it through to the final interview stages or the ones who accepted a competing offer – has decayed over time.

A person can gain a heck of a lot of experience in just two years. So, if you have resumes that are two years old or older, that data isn’t going to be super helpful toward the open reqs you’re working on now or the ones you plan to open throughout the year.

 

Create a System

This is precisely the reason to create a system for regularly engaging with past applicants, asking for an updated resume. I would even suggest asking the ones who may not have had the relevant experience at the time.

The reason for this is if they were seeking these kinds of roles back then, they might have found someone willing to give them a chance and have since acquired the necessary skills and experience to be considered.

You never know, so stop creating your own internal stories for other people’s situations.

Developing a well-thought-out system for outreach and engagement of these past candidates will allow you to create efficiencies, especially when introducing automation.

 

Start Small

There’s no question this will be a challenging project, but it’s not impossible.

Because it’s difficult, just doing it at any level will put you in the top percentile of companies tapping into these resources. That’s a huge competitive advantage right out of the gate.

You also don’t have to reach out to everyone who has applied for every single role that you’ve posted.

Instead, you should be strategic about the skills and roles most critical to your company right now and over the next year.

If that happens to be software engineers, then that’s a great place to start.

The initial spin-up of a project like this will take considerable effort, and it may make sense to outsource some of the heavy lifting needed to get it off the ground.

Contracting a highly-skilled sourcing professional with excellent email communication skills would be ideal. Don’t skimp on this role. It’s worth paying for someone experienced and probably a little above market value because, remember, “garbage in is garbage out.”

Also, having managed numerous projects over the past several years, there’s a simple calculation that is true most of the time. If you budget 3 months for a project, it will likely take 6 months to complete; if you budget 6 months for a project, it will probably take a year to complete.

You’re good at math and can see what I’m getting at here.

 

Filter and Batch

Once you’ve decided on the role or skillset, it’s time to put on your headlamp and start mining the data.

Again, it will pay to be strategic in your approach to this. Start with the best odds, which will be people who made it through to the interview phase.

Go through past roles that are at least two years old and older. Pull out all of the candidates who were interviewed but weren’t hired.

Don’t waste your time reviewing their resumes because they’re irrelevant due to data decay.

The next level will depend on your company’s size and the number of job postings you’ve had for these roles over the years. If you’re a large, Fortune 500 company, hiring people all over the world, the number of applicants could be unwieldy. Sticking to the candidates you pull out from the previous step will likely be more than enough.

If you’re a smaller company that only hires regionally or locally, you’ll likely want to pull in your entire candidate pool.

Regardless of your size, the candidate pool you’re able to extract from this exercise will likely be large, so you’ll probably want to work in batches.

What I mean by this is breaking your list into smaller, more manageable lists. Sure, you could use an email marketing platform or a free CRM like Hubspot to email all of them at once, but you’ll quickly be inundated by the replies. This will make it difficult to review the incoming resumes fast enough, and the candidate experience will suffer.

These candidates have been at the bottom of your ATS reservoir, hibernating for years. You don’t need to bring them all to the surface at the same time.

 

Leverage Tools

As I mentioned earlier, your ATS is likely not built for effective messaging and outreach. Some are better at this than others, but it might be easier to use a separate tool that’s built specifically for this kind of outreach.

There are numerous email tracking and automation platforms such as HubSpot Sales Hub, GMass, and MixMax, that are designed for cold sales outreach but work just fine for a project like this. I’ve used GMass and MixMax in the past, and both work great.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of options available, using G2’s Grid can be extremely valuable.

The benefit of these tools is they allow you to build personalized messaging and email sequences to automate your follow up. This is priceless given it’s been proven over and over again that it takes more than one email to get a decent response rate.

Woodpecker, another email tracking and automation platform, analyzed the results of 20 million emails sent from their platform and discovered that an email sequence containing between 1-3 emails typically saw a 9% reply rate. This statistic shot up nearly 200% to a 27% reply rate when an email sequence contained 4-7 emails.

Follow up is critical, and who has the time to do this at scale manually?

Most of these platforms are also very reasonably priced. Typically the cost is directly correlated to the number of contacts you have.

However, if you’re an enterprise, Fortune 500 organization, or larger, it might be worthwhile to invest in a more robust marketing automation platform. There are even some that have been built specifically for recruitment applications, like Candidate.ID.

 

In Conclusion

You’re sitting atop a gold mine of candidates that could become a valuable competitive advantage. Most companies won’t leverage this resource. Not because it’s impossible, but because it’s difficult.

But, it doesn’t have to be overly complicated or expensive. Like everything else in business, if you invest the time upfront in developing a strategic, well-thought-out program, the cost will decrease over time, and the return will increase.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and test things. You could uncover other competitive advantages through your creativity.

The bottom line, it’s time to blow up the dam that is your ATS and release the river of the possibility that exists right under your nose.

Want to Improve the Candidate Experience? Start with Communication

Improve the Candidate Experience Start with Communication

Want to Improve the Candidate Experience? Start with Communication

Employers have a lot on their plates, to say the least, as companies continue to deal with the fallout from COVID-19. From addressing employee health and safety concerns to navigating remote work, and ensuring business survival. Nevertheless, hiring goes on. 

Amidst the chaos, however, it’s easy to let recruiting best practices slip.

Maybe you downsized your HR staff earlier this year, and you don’t have the resources to devote to strategic hiring. Or maybe you desperately need to get people in the door to keep your business afloat after reopening. Regardless of whether candidates check all the boxes. 

In these cases, you might be able to get away with writing a shorter job ad, skipping the second round of interviews, or calling every reference an applicant provides. But there is no excuse to overlook delivering a positive candidate experience.

If anything, the candidate experience is more important now than it ever has been. 

Pre-COVID, employers were already falling short on their candidate experience efforts. Applicants frequently complained about the “resume black hole” – they applied or interviewed for a job and never heard back from the employer.

Now that millions of unemployed job seekers are looking for work and applying in masses, it has become even more taxing for employers to keep up with applications, much less communicating with each and every candidate.

It’s not the time to cut corners on the candidate experience. Put yourself in the job seeker’s shoes: You’ve been laid off, have spent the last six months collecting unemployment, and have applied to every seemingly relevant job you can find with no callbacks. You’re emotional and frustrated. And, when you’ve put in the effort to complete an application, customize your resume, create a compelling cover letter, and more, getting ignored by the employer only amplifies the sting of the situation.

A lack of candidate communication can come back to bite you, your reputation, and your brand.

What do disgruntled job seekers do? They tell their friends and family about their experience, they post on social media, and they certainly won’t hesitate to leave a negative review online that could potentially deter qualified candidates from applying for your jobs in the future. 

 

3 Simple Ways to Improve Candidate Communication

Providing a positive candidate experience doesn’t mean sending applicants a fancy gift basket or offering generous sign-on bonuses. Candidate experience centers around communication. At the very least, that involves informing applicants when they are no longer in the running for the position, keeping them out of the resume black hole. 

As you communicate with candidates, consider these three simple ways to ensure a positive experience throughout the recruiting process. 

 

Be honest.

As mentioned, it’s vital to inform your candidates if they are no longer in the running for a position – even you do so in an automated email sent through your ATS. But be transparent with your candidates.

For example, don’t promise that you’ll keep their resume on file (pipeline them) unless you truly mean it. Similarly, if you’re advertising for a role with the intent to pipeline talent rather than hire right away, tell applicants that, too. Let them know your short- and long-term hiring plans for that position. 

It’s also a good idea to provide applicants with insights into the next steps in the hiring process, especially toward the top of the funnel. Tell them when they should expect to hear back from you to schedule an interview. Share your hiring timeline and stick to it. Don’t leave them guessing or waiting by the phone for your call.  

 

Be helpful.

For candidates further in your funnel, (such as those you invite to an interview), augment their experience with your employer brand by being helpful. For instance, don’t just send them a calendar invite for their interview – give them details.

With whom will they be meeting? If it’s an in-person interview, where should they park? What should they bring? You may also provide additional information about your company and what it’s like to work there. Remember, job seekers are interviewing you, too, so ensure they have enough information to decide whether or not they will be a good fit with your organization. 

You can also provide some words of encouragement to those you disqualify for the role. Let the candidate know that they impressed you with their interviewing skills or with their work experience. Leave them with the assurance that the right job is out there for them (because it is).  

 

Be human.

Lastly, be human in your interactions with candidates. It’s been a trying and uncertain year, and everyone is experiencing their own set of challenges. Behind every job application is a real person.

Be kind and courteous in your communication, and don’t be afraid to cut them some slack. The candidate’s internet goes out during a video interview? Reschedule it. They don’t have the exact educational background, but possess real-world work experience in their field? Relax your requirements a bit.

They miss your phone call to help their children with their virtual schooling? Don’t immediately disqualify them from the race. 

It’s easy to forget about the candidate experience right now, but it’s also a time for brands to shine.

Treating your applicants well, communicating with them throughout the hiring process, and putting a little more “human” into your human resources, will go a long way in establishing your organization as an employer of choice.

With a new year ahead of us, commit to honest, helpful, and human communication, and the candidate experience will follow.  

 

Ruminating on 2020 Sourcing

ruminating on 2020 sourcing

 

Ruminating on 2020 Sourcing

I took it upon myself to conduct an unofficial and unscientific talent acquisition survey.  I wanted to talk to various Sourcers from around the nation and get their take on the candidate of 2020. Did we learn anything this year that will help us prepare for 2021?

The Sourcing ruminations I gathered are mostly anecdotal, but they are from the horse’s mouth and should be given credence.  Sourcers are the first point of contact with a potential prospect and have been privy to unfiltered candidate emotions.  Everyone’s opinion or empirical observations have at least a smidge of truth and are worth reflecting upon.

The hope would be that we’ve learned something from 2020 with the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the struggles and successes that will help position us better in 2021.  Even though this year showed us that any good plan can be whittled to dust within 24 hours, we must make an attempt to understand.  Covid-19 dismantled economies in literal days.

In 2020, talent acquisition teams had furloughs and reassignment we never dreamt possible, but here we are.  I surveyed about 30 Sourcers from coast to coast, from Maine to California.

Most of the Sourcers were in healthcare, keep that in mind, but from all types of organization sizes, strength, and profit level.

Here are their thoughts on 2020:

  • More candidates responded in 2020, still declining, but the responses are kinder and swifter.
  • There is an increase in texting responses from prospects, they seem to like texts as a first form of contact.
  • Moderate to large increase in candidate negotiations for increased salaries.
  • Moderate to large increase in counteroffers.
  • Moderate to significant increase in internal transfers.
  • There are organizations that sped up their hiring process to meet Covid needs – they fared better than those who kept it business as usual.
  • Candidates are off the market fast. Sometimes within days.
  • The majority of candidates are asking to work remotely.
  • “Good candidates are very picky”. Sourcers note skilled staff know their value and expect more in a new position.
  • People are sharing a lot more personal information with us, they want to share their real needs, their human side (less formality).
  • Loss of entry level worker roles to remote positions.
  • Pay and bonus structures are hot right now. Rates need to be competitive.
  • Phenomenal candidates are pushy and are very high touch. Without high touch, they walk away. Serious attention needs to be given to a “white glove” treatment.
  • Due to furloughs, the quality of candidates in 2020 was high.
  • Candidates seem uncertain – to stay or take a leap of faith and relocate for a new role – requiring more assistance, documents, selling collateral to convince.
  • Reprioritization of family. Candidates are asking for input from spouses, consideration of children, and family issues in a way we haven’t seen before.
  • Candidates appear burnt out and anxious.
  • People are asking about Retention – Turnover Stats. Candidates are challenging culture claims. They want proof that they are moving to a great company.

 

In Closing

I hope talent acquisition leaders read this.  This is not the time to take our foot off the gas.  We need shorter processes, revamped compensation plans, a renewed emphasis on community resources for relocation purposes, hiring manager involvement, and recruitment marketing and engagement plans that have dollar signs behind them.

We are not at the end of this yet. The candidate of today will take some time to recover.  And they are getting smarter.

2021 will continue to bring challenges that must be addressed with fresh eyes and focus.

Happy hunting everyone.

The One Recruitment Tech Solution I Would Buy Right Now

The One Recruitment Tech Solution I Would Buy Right Now

The One Recruitment Tech Solution I Would Buy Right Now

It’s the end of 2020 and there is good news about a vaccine. Hopefully this will be distributed from early 2021 on and during 2021 we can go back to normal as we knew it. Although I expect many things to never go back to the old normal, like everybody going back to the office all the time, but that’s an entire different subject.

The one thing all organizations need to do now is be ready for the great rehire and in the words of Winston Churchill: never waste a good crisis. So be better prepared for what will come than how you handled your recruitment in the past years.

 

What will come

So here’s what I consider to be the most likely scenario of what is to come. Although unemployment has been falling some in the USA, I expect there will be a lot more people looking for jobs. Many companies will fail in January after not being able to make the normal Christmas boom sales.

In Europe I fear 2021 will be a year of bankruptcies. Many governments have done everything they can to ease the pain and in the Netherlands for example we’ve actually seen less bankruptcies in 2020 than in any normal year because of the government help. We do see unemployment increasing and I expect we’ll see it increase a lot more in the first half of 2021.

Combine this with many companies that will have either full remote or partial remote policies that companies have in place and all of a sudden location will become less important. So the physical range to the office to apply will increase as well, as the long trips are acceptable one or two days a week.

 

Tech you want because of this

In September I’ve already wrote about why you need digital pre-selection tools because of this and I hope you have that installed by now. Right now I would like you to think about another piece that will help you move your recruitment strategy forward: Candidate Relationship & Tracking software.

You will be getting in a lot more applicants and I would even argue you want to start advertising in these times, even if you might not be looking for the candidates right now. You want to start building a talent pool. Oh how that word has been around for ages, but we now have the technology to actually build one.

 

Talent pool strategy

So make sure you have the right technology for this. I personally love Candidate.ID for this as it’s both really easy to use and it tracks candidates’ interactions so you know who has done what and looked at what so you can personalize the next automated actions and when you are looking for a candidate you know who has been most active and who for examples recently looked at your vacancy. But I’ve also seen a great in house tool build for this and if you never reach out to candidates anyway and you wait for candidates to apply, you can use any CRM system.

When the technology is in place, build a content strategy. Basically you need to find the balance between free content that’s out there for all to see combined with some special content as you want people to register. They need to tell you who they are before you can build a talentpool. This is a delicate balance, you need enough free content to win trust, but you need enough added value content behind the registration to get them to register. As this balance is different for every type of job and sector, you’ll need to experiment with this.

Then you set up the automated content strategy and start advertising to get people to sign up. As unemployment is higher than it has been for ages and people are more and more willing to work from further away, this should be relatively easy.

 

One example: Specsavers

Let’s share an example of what a great content strategy can look like. Optician chain Specsavers made their internal training content available for everybody who wants to upgrade their skills as an optician. Of course, they left out the company-specific things, but it’s still very valuable content. And it’s all free for those that register. They now have their competitor’s employees in their database. They can actually see how good they are when they do exams at the end of the training and they know how ‘hire ready’ they are because you see if they looked at a vacancy. Specsavers managed to increase the number of hires per recruiter by 50% in 2019.

 

Be ready for post-pandemic hiring

So make sure you are ready for post-pandemic hiring. Of course, you need pre-selection tools if the volumes increase significantly. But you also want to build a talent pool of all those excellent candidates that you don’t have a job for right now. And of course, if more and more people are willing to travel further as they don’t have to do it every day, this is probably a group that needs a little more persuasion. They will take longer to convince that it really is remote most of the time.

Make sure you are ready for 2021.

Mentoring – The Most Valuable Gift You Can Offer During a Pandemic: Yourself

The Most Valuable Gift You Can Offer During a Pandemic: Yourself

I believe there’s no higher value than sharing your knowledge and touching a person’s life. And now, more than ever, that value is in dire need. Our younger work colleagues and young adults are witnessing a wildly and quickly changing world, and most of us cannot point to anything we’ve gone through that is remotely similar.

Meanwhile, the most impacted age groups are those who are new to their jobs or about to start their careers. They were the first to go when COVID began to impact corporate bottom lines. They were the first to have offers rescinded. They are the ones sitting on sidelines now, wondering whether their previous job aspirations are even reasonable anymore, and how they can just pay their bills in the interim.

Of course, we hear daily how Congress may help; we hear about vaccines that show promise. But truth be told, it’s going to be a long time before the job market rebounds and careers are back on track. Many predict far more pain, bankruptcies, and unemployment will come first.

If you aren’t one of those who has had to scramble to find a new job, you may be wondering how you or your company can help some of those who are currently sidelined. How can you as a professional–or how can your company as a whole–step up during these times?

How can you capitalize on the vast experiences of your colleagues? 

I will share with you what I have learned in my decades of experience: consider mentoring.

It will change lives, yours included. And it will set your company on a trajectory that is truly beneficial to all: your employees will benefit from sharing their wealth of knowledge; your corporate culture will benefit by having your team players do something helpful at a crucial time; your community will benefit by being the recipient of your positive impacts, and your corporate image will benefit as the community identifies your company with positive goodwill. 

 

Employee Benefit

First, let’s imagine what mentoring can do for your employees. By sharing their knowledge with young adults or those early in their careers, your employee/mentors will feel empowered, they will take on teaching roles (which happens to be one of the best ways of fine-tuning your own knowledge), and they will take on leadership roles as they listen, convey knowledge, and help others build their own career dreams. 

Mentoring will also boost employee morale, and what company couldn’t use more of that right now? Employee/mentors will find themselves gratified by helping others, and quite often, the employee/mentors share stories amongst themselves, bringing a greater sense of camaraderie to the workplace.

Some companies pair employees together in mentorship roles, and those pairings will often lead to deeper connections. And not to be missed are the skillsets that the employees themselves will sharpen in the process.

Confidence is gained; new skills are learned; leaders are born. 

 

Community Benefit

Third, your surrounding community will benefit when your mentors give of their time and knowledge, and I assure you that won’t be forgotten. What skills could your employees teach at a local college or university? What projects could your employees and future graduates work on together?

Or in the alternative, what hopes can your company instill in young adults at your local high schools? I can tell you from my decades of experience that a technical or advanced degree is not required. Listening, allowing the young adult or potential future employee to lead on a project, and providing guidance and wisdom when asked is what matters most. 

And trust me when I say your team of volunteers will not go unnoticed. People remember companies that reach out to help in their communities. Millennials, more than any prior generation, have stressed the importance of employers and companies that “care.” And still-younger generations are following suit.

What does your company say to the community when your employees are reaching out during one of our greatest times of need? If given a choice, what future employee would pick an uninvested company over one that has shown up and invested its employees when investments were most needed?

 

Beneficial to all

Indeed, in the dozens of interviews and years of research I conducted when writing my book, Teach to Work, there were some consistent messages from corporations: mentorship programs were beneficial for all. Employees flourished and grew; applicant pipelines grew; community goodwill grew, and lives changed on both ends. Mentors shared that they had some of the most positive experiences in their lives.

Mentees often found their career trajectories were more inspired, and they became more confident in themselves and in their pursuits.

Not bad for a few hours of a volunteer’s time, huh?

For more ideas on how you or your company can explore mentoring in your community – virtually and eventually in-person – check out www.teachtowork.com

 

Why Remote Work is the Best Opportunity for Diversity & Inclusion Yet

work from home diversity

Why Remote Work is the Best Opportunity for Diversity & Inclusion Yet

As someone who loves the comradery of office life, I almost hate to admit that I’ve learned a lot by working remotely. No doubt my employees would say the same. Together, we’ve learned that productivity doesn’t have to suffer with distance. We’ve learned to be accepting of interruptions during calls. We’ve learned that turning your camera on for team meetings boosts morale. 

But, even beyond such obvious and practical considerations, I’ve learned something bigger: remote work opens the door to new and transformative opportunities.  In fact, more specifically, it creates new opportunities for achieving diversity & inclusion goals—a top priority for nearly all companies today

 

How Remote Work Helps Diversity & Inclusion

According to Global Diversity Practice, “diversity” is “the mix and inclusion within your workforce,” while “inclusion” is “getting the mix to work well together.” 

In effect, diversity in your workforce is a matter of meeting quotas. That’s something any company can achieve without remote work; it’s just a matter of hiring the candidates who fit your desired profile. Inclusion, however, is where things get tricky.

It’s one thing to hire a certain candidate. It’s another to hire a candidate who works well with your team and propels your business forward. 

So how does remote work help companies meet the challenges of both diversity and inclusion? Here are a few things I’ve learned in these past few months: 

 

Remote work helps defeat location bias.

Most Fortune 500 companies are located in areas that have the highest cost of living. Therefore, many candidates who cannot afford to relocate are disqualified for certain positions before they even apply. This problem is known as “location bias.

Remote work, by eliminating location as a factor, works against this problem. People can choose to stay with their families without limiting their own career advancement.

 

Remote work opens doors for working mothers.

In a webinar hosted by my company, CEIPAL, earlier this year, an all-female panel discussed how women leaders were responding to the COVID-19 crisis. All panelists agreed that remote work was generally a good thing for women, especially mothers.

Why? Because the work-from-home model enabled them to maximize time with their children without sacrificing their careers. When over 14 million Americans spend +1 hour commuting to work, working mothers are forced to choose between family and career.

Remote work allows these mothers to pursue careers in line with their interests and remain in the workforce, while maintaining fulfilling personal lives. 

 

Remote work helps ensure accessibility.

On average, almost 30% of our workforce today has one or more disabilities. These disabilities can prove real inhibitors to career advancement. Even something as simple as an in-person interview can be a deterrent for someone physically disabled. Whereas for someone physically able, it’s no barrier at all generally speaking.

And that’s not even taking into account non-visible disabilities, which account for about 40% of all disabled workers. While remote work does not magically fix any of these problems, it provides a basic step in the right direction.

There are many stories of disabled employees who see remote work as a major advantage. 

 

The benefits of putting diversity and inclusivity at the center of your business are well documented. Racially and ethnically diverse companies are 36% more likely to outperform their competitors. Gender diverse companies are 25% more likely to have above-average financial returns.

Further, organizations with diverse boards have 95% higher returns on equity than less diverse counterparts

If remote work helps us achieve the diversity and inclusion balance we’ve been searching for, then I’m all for it. Even if it does make coffee breaks and trips to the proverbial water cooler a little bit lonelier. 

Perhaps I’ve reluctantly stumbled onto another one of the very few silver linings of this ongoing pandemic.  

 

Virtual Conferences are a Bummer and I’m Done Pretending Otherwise

Eight months ago, our world was turned upside-down as a pandemic caused a major disruption in how nearly everything is done. Several weeks before large-scale events started getting canceled, my team and I were preparing to fly to Seattle for a sourcing conference and it would have been the first time for all of them.

I excitedly counted down the days because I remembered how life-changing my first conference was and I wanted the same experience for my team.  As the date grew closer, the situation quickly escalated as Covid-19 cases continued to rise in Seattle. I started to accept the fact that the conference would likely go virtual, and of course, it did. 

I give conference organizers a lot of credit for everything they have done over the last year.

They had to pivot quickly for the safety of everyone involved, and they have navigated through a lot of uncharted territories. They have also put in countless hours above and beyond what they normally would to make the best out of a tragic situation.

One silver lining to all of this is that virtual conferences are more accessible to those that couldn’t previously attend due to the high cost of admission and travel. The first conference of 2020 that I attended virtually, I was hopeful and did my best to make the best of it.

I even organized some virtual happy hours to try and mimic the look and feel of the social part of the conferences. It might be the defensive pessimist in me, but it didn’t take long for my enthusiasm to dissipate.

In the months following, I spoke at and attended countless conferences and each one seemed to gradually wear me down more and more. 

As much as I wanted to ignore it, I had a sobering realization that virtual conferences will never be the same as in-person. Not even close.

It’s undeniable that an on-site immersive experience offers benefits we took for granted before. There is something to be said for committing to take time away from your day to day work to recharge and reinvigorate your passion for sourcing. 

At an in-person conference, I’m fully present during the sessions, and my sole purpose is to learn. If I’m traveling for an event, everyone at work knows I’m “away” and there’s a respect for it. When attending a virtual conference, it’s tough to justify not taking any meetings that week when all sessions are recorded anyway.

Sure, I always say I’m going to go back and watch any presentations I had to miss, but if I’m being truly honest, I never do. 

Many of the most valuable skills I learned happened not during the scheduled sessions, but after hours in the hotel lobby over drinks while nerding out and sharing sourcing hacks with fellow attendees. During a virtual happy hour, it was nice to see old friends on screen. But there were glaring reminders that it wasn’t the same.

Because of the pandemic, many had important concerns that made them unable to attend, like helping their kids with school work. Understandably, socializing online with fellow attendees wasn’t a high priority, especially if they were first-timers and didn’t already know some of the long-time community members. 

On top of missing everything we love about in-person events, we’re just burnt out. Attendees are burnt out from using zoom every day while working from home and then also attending full conferences online. There are so many events to choose from, it’s overwhelming.

We try to take advantage of the content from all of them, but we can’t do it all. The speakers are exhausted. They are doing more presentations than ever before due to the increased accessibility from not having to travel, but at what cost?

As a speaker, I didn’t anticipate how much extra work it would be to create new and original content for several months straight, and most of it was strictly on a volunteer basis. I felt like I couldn’t say no when asked because I knew the conference organizers needed as much help as possible.

Ultimately, I ended up stretching myself thin and reached a breaking point. At times I’m left to wonder if my content that I dedicate countless hours to create will make the impact I intended, or if it gets lost in the shuffle because of everyone’s fatigue and divided attention.

I really believe that everyone is doing the best they can under some difficult circumstances, from the speakers, to the organizers, to the attendees. Can improvements be made to the virtual conference format?

I believe they can, but I think they will always have limitations. They won’t ever come close to being as impactful as in-person events. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with acknowledging that.

Covid-19 has taken a lot of things from all of us, whether it was a job, a canceled vacation, a postponed wedding, or most devastatingly, a loved one. What I think a lot of us don’t realize is that we’ve collectively experienced a lot of losses in the last year both major and minor.

Maybe it doesn’t occur to us that it is completely valid to grieve those things that meant a lot to us. I’m sad for the members of my sourcing team that have not been able to have the full experience of the wonderful community that has given me so much.

As for myself, I’m tired, I’m overwhelmed, and miss being reunited every few months with my chosen family.

Meeting Workers Where They Are

Thanks in large part to technology, the idea of meeting workers where they are has evolved over time or so goes the theory behind the Industrial Revolutions. Years ago, these meetings took place mainly on job sites or in office settings, while more recently, it’s started to include email, texting, and chatbots. 

In 2020, with in-person interactions all but off the table for weeks and months on end, technology became increasingly important and not just for transactional communications but relational ones, too – to the extent that the 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey ranked “increasing communications” as the second of three areas of HR focus during the pandemic. 

Perhaps nowhere has this been more apparent than in recruiting, in which large-scale employers needed to continue hiring to fix broken supply chains, meet consumer demands, and encourage global economic recovery. The value of service industry, production facilities, distribution and transportation, and other operational workers became indispensable almost overnight. Further opening up the conversation around how companies attract and engage this segment of the overall workforce.

That’s because, as a function, recruiting is all about communication and how effectively we connect with candidates. Job seekers, including those in the industries listed above, want to know where they stand and feel respected throughout the process, and doing so consistently requires the following: 

A focus on relationship building 

One of the foundational aspects of recruiting is relationship building. So much so that it has been a central tenet of the hiring narrative for upwards of 20 years, back when Dr. John Sullivan wrote, “The goal of relationship recruiting is to build up mutual respect to the point where the candidate is convinced that they will ‘someday work for our firm.'”

That said, recruiting for some roles necessitates a high-volume approach, which often overrides the possibility of building relationships. Or at least that was the case before automation made it possible to eliminate repetitive administrivia. 

Though seemingly disparate on the surface, automation works to support relationship building by making recruiters more available to candidates. It streamlines workflows in an omnichannel process, introducing transparency, speeding up timelines, and allowing recruiters to stay in frequent contact.

In turn, interactions move from perfunctory to personal faster, giving both sides more time to get to know one another. 

An understanding of individual needs

Part of getting to know one another is understanding the individual candidate and what they want from a potential employer. That can be challenging in industries where time is of the essence, and filling requisite needs is a top priority for both the job seekers and the hiring organization. 

Still, confusion, frustration, and distrust happen when messages don’t match or meet candidates’ expectations. As such, there is the opportunity for recruiters to tailor each and every candidate engagement by making simple asks from the outset.

These might include “How do you prefer to be contacted?” or “When is the best time to reach you?” In some instances, candidates might not have unlimited data or text messaging available and instead want to talk over the phone. In others, a current commitment might leave them unavailable during regular business hours.

Knowing how and when to connect with a candidate helps personalize and humanize their experience, even when they aren’t always talking to an actual recruiter. 

Tools to facilitate connection

Successful candidate communication relies on the frequency and consistency of messaging, which has been proven repeatedly. From screening to scheduling, job seekers are looking for updates from recruiters, preferring two-way communication whenever and wherever possible. Recognizing that recruiters don’t typically have the bandwidth to stay in constant contact, technology is once again the great facilitator to meet candidates where they are – in life and the process.

Early on, that might look like an on-demand resource such as a friendly chatbot or text support, ready, willing, and able to step job seekers through the application. While later, that might be access to automatic status updates, available to all candidates, helping nurture relationships and even, re-engage past applicants.

To get to frequency and consistency, recruiters need to provide candidates with guideposts that light the path and reinforce that feeling of connection.   

Pre-pandemic, meeting candidates – and workers – where they are might have meant in-person interviews and career fairs. Today, we’re in a whole new world, one that’s more connected and farther apart at the same time, with technology tying us all together.

For recruiters looking to get on the operational candidates’ level, do it. Make space to dig deeper. Get to the heart of what they’re looking for and use tools to enable practical and purposeful communication. 

Learn how Emi Labs can help you leverage AI to meet workers where they are.

De-Mystifying Quality of Hire

Recruiters and business leaders have the same goal. Find the ideal person who will be able to perform the job and make valuable contributions to the future of the company. While making high quality hires is the ultimate goal, the concept of what it means to hire quality employees and confusion about how to measure it has continued to plague talent acquisition teams

To realize the full benefits of this metric, we should start by de-mystifying the definition and measurement of ‘quality of hire’ and clarifying steps recruiting teams can take to demonstrate this important outcome.

 

Quality is in the eye of the beholder

At a basic level, the quality of new hires indicates a new employee is contributing to and adding value to the organization. Quality of hire is often defined as how well a new hire performs on the job, fits with the corporate or team culture, and/or whether they stay with the company.

Let’s look at each of these starting with the retention of new hires.    

If a new hire leaves the organization or is terminated, especially in the first six to twelve months, it is often seen as an indicator of a poor hiring decision.  Turnover within the first year can imply that the new hire was not a good cultural fit for the role, or did not have the ability to reach a productive level in the expected time. 

As a result, new hire turnover has often become the proxy for ‘quality of hire’, reflecting both fit and performance. Especially in the absence of more specific information. New hire retention is not a bad definition of quality of hire, but it is a lagging indicator and doesn’t really give you insight into what went wrong unless you dig deeper.

A more targeted definition of quality of hire focuses on whether the new employee is performing the job well. The first step, however, is to clarify with managers what level of performance is expected of a new employee and how long it takes to demonstrate that performance. 

In some roles where performance is more quantitatively measured, this may be simpler. For example, a new salesperson may be expected to meet a specific revenue target in 9-12 months. In other roles, the definition of ‘good’ performance and the expected ramp time to reach that level is more subjective. 

Having a clear definition of performance expectations is essential if this is how your organization defines quality of hire.

It can be even more challenging to define what it means for someone to be a good cultural fit to your organization, and therefore a ‘quality’ hire. 

A well-known example is how Zappos defines ‘quality’ as to whether the new hire is a good fit for the role and company. 

Zappos takes action early in that person’s tenure if it doesn’t seem like the right match.  It is important to clearly define what it means to be a good cultural fit, and determine if it is an indicator of a need for more short-term adjustment or a true long term mismatch.

Quality can also be defined as a combination of these 3 factors or even other indicators. It can also vary by department or job. 

These complexities simply mean it is essential to decide what definition is important for your organization and will resonate with business leaders, who want to know how effectively the talent acquisition process results in hires who add value to the team and the company.  

 

Realistic measurement is key

Once you decide on what a quality hire truly means in your organization, it is now time to measure it.  Let’s go back to our three definitions – retention, performance, and fit.  

A good place to start is new hire turnover. But not all turnover is created equal, so choose your data wisely. Typically, turnover within 90 days of hire – voluntary and involuntary – indicates a bad hire. For many jobs, this is the point in time when a person is expected to be settled into a job, complete initial training and on-boarding, and perform independently.  

The timeframe for when a new hire is expected to be performing well in a job varies widely, so talk to your managers about what they consider a reasonable milestone. However, turnover within the first 90 days is a good place to start.

Collecting performance data as the indicator of quality of hire is the most frequent measure for quality of hire, but can have its challenges. Manager ratings are not standardized and some organizations have abandoned numerical ratings altogether. 

Other more objective measures of performance such as sales revenue or call center metrics are ideal.  They may be difficult to access regularly, but certainly worth the effort especially for critical roles.  

An alternative to obtaining performance measures directly is to ask the hiring managers. Post-hire surveys can provide feedback from managers of their satisfaction with the hiring process and quality of candidates, as well as with the performance and cultural fit of the new hire. 

The downside of a hiring manager survey is that it can be cumbersome if a manager has many hires, and response rates may be low. The benefits are that you are consistently collecting data from your clients directly related to the insights you need to continuously measure the quality of hire and improve the hiring process.  

 

Create meaningful insights

With the input of business leaders and managers on how to define quality of hire and how to realistically measure it, it is important to decide upfront how the information will be used. Determine in advance how the data will be reported and set expectations for interpreting the results. 

For example, if it is reported that “70% of employees hired within the last 6 months achieved a performance rating of ‘meets expectations’ or above”, what does that actually mean to a business leader? Is it good? Bad? Managers can assist with establishing expectations and targets for what quality really means.

Most importantly, analysis of the talent acquisition process using quality of hire data as a key outcome can provide insights into variables such as source effectiveness, recruiter competency, alignment of job requirements, the accuracy of screening and selection tools, interview effectiveness, and hiring manager decisions.  

Note that these definitions and measures of quality of hire are lagging indicators. Over time the analysis can reveal factors that are key predictors of quality of hire, and it is possible to create leading indicators by identifying quality candidates who are more likely to stay, perform, and fit in the organization. 

This approach allows you to make adjustments to the hiring process in a more timely manner and minimize the likelihood of a bad hire. 

 

Measure what matters

Quality of hire is likely the metric that matters most to business leaders. Therefore the definition and approach for measurement of quality should be decided in partnership with business leaders. Demonstrating that the recruiting and hiring process results in new employees who are productive, a good match with the corporate culture, and who are likely to contribute to the success of the organization over time is a critical step towards demonstrating the business impact of your talent team.

 

My Daily Sourcing Toolkit

As a sourcer, I find myself always looking for the next big “tool” to make my workflow run smoother. However, over the past year, I’ve noticed that I’ve developed a daily toolkit that I am constantly relying on.

As a part of the Wayne Technologies team, I’ve had the privilege of working with more recruitment tooling than any other recruiting team in the world, so I figured I would share my viewpoint on what works (for me!).

 

Seekout

I’m a perfectionist, and as a result, I like to have as much control over my boolean as I possibly can. Seekout allows me to do exactly that. If you are confident with your boolean abilities, give a Seekout Demo a go! 

Not only does Seekout allow the user to mold their own boolean strings, but it also has filters (i.e. years of experience, years at company, degree, etc.) to help you quickly narrow down your search. Even further, if you’re looking for a mixed AI and manual search, Seekout allows you to add in AI power filters. 

You also gain access to a search engine specifically for Github, for your tech roles. Lastly, Seekout has an AI function. Seekout is a search platform that has a little bit of something for every type of sourcer.

 

Swordfish

Once I’ve landed on a solid list of candidates that I want to reach out to, I always lean towards Swordfish as my first email finding tool. Swordfish not only has a bulk upload feature, but they also have a chrome extension to quickly find emails for one-off candidates. 

Over the past few months, I have noticed Swordfish’s process speed up significantly. Usually, I will get results for a list of 100 candidates in just a few seconds. Furthermore, I’ve noticed that Swordfish tends to find more accurate personal emails than other email finding tools I work with. That’s why it tends to be my first stop for email finding.

 

ZeroBounce

In order to determine the accuracy of the emails I pull, I then turn to ZeroBounce. ZeroBounce, much like Swordfish, has a quick and easy bulk upload function to see whether or not the emails you pulled are accurate. It goes a step further, and tells you whether sending an email to a certain address will hurt your email health. 

ZeroBounce also has an individual email validator to allow you to quickly check an email that you may have replaced due to an invalid or abusive email for one of your candidates.

 

Interseller

Once I am ready to email my candidates, I then tend to prefer Interseller as my daily bulk email sending tool. Firstly, Interseller’s UI is highly intuitive. It only took me one or two tries to fully figure out the functionality. Interseller also has a ton of modifiers that you can add to your messaging. 

I have noticed that I feel much more confident working with interseller than other messaging platforms that I have used. I tend to have anxiety around bulk email sending, for fear of accidentally messaging someone with a modifier that did not fill, or accidentally misaligning my candidate information. Interseller’s UI makes me confident that my messaging is going out to the right person, with their name correctly filled in rather than sending a message starting off with “Hi {first_name},”– what could be more of a turn off for a candidate?

Once you’ve written a message you’re proud of, you can run an A/B test with your messaging string to perfect your email sending strategy. Interseller allows you to schedule out your messaging launch if you’re a bit ahead of schedule (or wanting to hold off on sending on a holiday).

Overall, I have access to a wealth of really awesome tools that I rely on weekly. However, the use of these four tools has made my sourcing routine more seamless than it was a year ago. Even when I try out new tools, I find myself coming back to these tools.

While my toolkit is not perfect for everyone, it has helped me grow as a sourcer and has allowed me to take on more work than I previously could.

 

How to Source Talent in Japan

If you are an absolute beginner to step foot in the Japanese market for recruiting, it helps to understand some basic things about Japanese culture. Japan is one of the toughest markets to find, attract, and hire talent. Both hiring and firing are difficult in Japan. Let’s see some of the reasons:

Lifetime employment: Japanese prefer a high degree of job security, that’s why many Japanese prefer ‘‘lifetime employment” where they get employed right after their graduation. 

Job Change decision: In Japan, sometimes a job change decision is not just an individual one. They discuss with family members, extended family members, and friends before making a job change. Many are not active job seekers.

Privacy: Privacy is very important in Japan. 

English: Japanese English level is low compared to other nations. Japanese study the English language for several years in school, however, many still do not have fluent English conversation skills.

 

Ways to find and attract talent in Japan

  • Recruitment Agencies: If you are a non- Japanese company and going to make your first hire in Japan, it is the most recommended way of hiring. But, recruitment agencies’ fees are relatively very high compared to other nations. 
  • Job Posting
  • Direct Sourcing Channels: We can use the following Social media channels to source passive candidates

 

Facebook

Use the Facebook Search bar to source candidates. We can just use simple sentences to run a search on Facebook, no need for constructing a Boolean search. The following is the best guide to learn more on  Sourcing on Facebook

Some useful tips to find great talents on Facebook:There are some useful professional public groups(Japanese) where you can join and post jobs. Following are some examples of professional groups you can try to post jobs, follow the people who are very active and engage with them and build trust. 

Some groups for example:

  1. International Japan Jobs
  2. Software Developers and Programmers in Japan (IT jobs in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya)
  3. Japan Jobs
  4. IT jobs in Japan

 X-Ray Search 

site:facebook.com inurl:people (“UX designer” OR “User experience designer” OR “User experience *”) “lives in Japan” (Japanese OR “日本” OR Japan OR “日本人” OR 東京)

 

Twitter

We can search for candidates on Twitter using the Advanced search feature. You can filter your search results by location, Hashtags, languages, keywords etc. Read the following article to learn more about Sourcing on Twitter

Most effective way to source on Twitter is searching using Hashtags. Find Tech/Non tech or any other industry specific conferences in the particular locations and find tags related to the conferences. Search on Twitter using the Hashtags related to those events and search for people who are following or commenting related to those events/ conferences. Make sure to look at the followers of those event organizers as well.

X-Ray search strings

site:twitter.com tweets “Java developer” (“japan”|”japanese”|”日本”|”日本人”) -job -jobs -hiring -career

Once you find a great candidate, Like or Retweet some of their interesting tweets for a while and then send a message regarding the opportunity. Draft the message very interesting -Short, simple and intriguing. Make sure to cross reference their profile in other social media sites as well.

 

LinkedIn

Japanese professionals are less active on LinkedIn. Try to connect with those candidates and grow your network to source from a wider network. 

Use LinkedIn Search Bar and search candidates using filters like Location, Current company, people, groups etc. Use the following guide to learn more about recruiting on LinkedIn.

X-Ray search Examples:

  1. site:jp.linkedin.com (inurl:in OR inurl:pub) -inurl:dir (developer OR programmer OR Engineer) python
  2. site:jp.linkedin.com/in (Developer OR programmer OR engineer) python

Note: Make sure to change the country code for better results. For example, site:jp.linkedin.com ( which is specific for Japan) Refer the following article to find Country codes on LinkedIn.

 

Meetup Groups

Meetup Groups are created by Organizers. There are many groups that focus on specific topics that professionals want to learn. 

Run a Google search to find tech/non-tech meetup groups or you can use your meetup account to find groups near any locations.

Some Meetup groups will be private and some you can just click and join. You can look at the members, Organizers, etc, and cross-reference them across other social media sites to get more details and connect with them on LinkedIn / follow them on Twitter / GitHub, etc. In most of the Meetup groups, you cannot advertise roles. 

X-ray search example

site:meetup.com “Open Source” (Tokyo OR “東京”)

Read the following article to learn more about sourcing on Meetup.

 

GitHub

It is a Code sharing platform for Developers. They can share Open -Source Development projects they are working on. Read the following article to learn more about using GitHub to find super talented Developers.

We can use the search bar as shown below:

sourcing Japan

Click on the profile and you can get the details related to their projects. Most of them might have added their email addresses just below their profile which will help you to reach out to the candidates. Some might have added their personal websites and as well as their CV.

X-Ray Search:

site:github.com “joined Github” Javascript (Tokyo OR 東京)

 

StackOverflow

StackOverflow is a Q&A site for Developers. To find the best Developers, find the top Tags associated with that user. This will help you to find out what languages/ Tech stack he is an expert at. 

X-Ray search 

This is the most recommended way to search for candidates on Stack Overflow. Use the following search strings to start the search.

  1. site:stackoverflow.com inurl:users Javascript AND python (“* japan” OR japanese OR “日本” OR “日本人” OR Tokyo OR “東京”)
  2. site:stackoverflow.com/users Javascript AND python (“* japan” OR japanese OR “日本” OR “日本人” OR Tokyo OR “東京”)

Just click on the profile you want to view. Many developers might have added a personal website link, link to social media sites, location, Last seen (It helps to understand if they are active on Stack Overflow) and many more details under the ‘bio’ section. Down the page, we can see “Top Tags”, which will help you to assess what language he is an expert at.

Reach out to them through their Social media sites or Personal website ( find out their email address and reach out). The following article explains more about sourcing on StackOverflow.

 

In Conclusion:

We have learned some of the useful strategies to find and attract top Japanese talent. The most important thing to do after, is to draft a stunning message that will intrigue them (Remember to use simple English sentences to contact them). It will yield great results if done with the right techniques. Have a look at this article to learn more about Recruiting Cold Email templates that yield the best results.

Happy Sourcing!

Make Recruitment Great Again – 2020

(This text was inspired by a real inauguration speech)

We, the recruiters of the world, are now joined in a great worldwide effort to rebuild our industry and to restore its promise for all of our people. Together, we will determine the course of recruitment for years to come.

We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.

Every now and then, we gather to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to our predecessors for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Thank you.

Today, however, has a very special meaning. Because today, we are not transferring power from one group to another – but we are creating consciousness and power and giving it back to you, the recruiters of the world.

For too long, a small group has reaped the rewards of recruiting while the juniors have borne the cost. Companies flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth. CEO’s prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed.

The establishment protected itself, but not the recruiters.

Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our hard work, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes – starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone reading this all across the Globe. This is your day. This is your celebration. 

What truly matters is that you are conscious that you have your destiny in your own hands.

Today will be remembered as the day the recruiters took their place back again. 

The forgotten men and women of our industry will be forgotten no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now.

As you read by the tens of millions (maybe I got carried away) you become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.

At the centre of this movement is a crucial conviction: Corporate social responsibility exists. 

Recruiters want great jobs for their candidates, a safe workplace for their colleagues, and good training for themselves.

These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.

 

 

But for too many, a different reality exists: junior recruiters are exploited in poverty.

Sourcing is degraded and looked down on; rusted-out jobs scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.

A training system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful recruiters deprived of knowledge. This has robbed our industry of so much unrealized potential.

This carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one industry – and their pain is our pain.

Their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Recruiters.

For many decades, we’ve enriched industries at the expense of our sweat; Subsidized other departments while allowing for the very sad depletion of our own;

We’ve defended other’s salary while refusing to defend our own; And wept blood and tears while our industry has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We’ve made other companies rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our industry has disappeared over the horizon.

One by one, they shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of workers left behind.

The wealth of our work has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.

But that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future.

 

 

We are here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power.

From this day forward, a new vision will govern our industry. From this moment on, it’s going to be only Recruiters First! Recruiters First!

Every decision on salary, intake, and retainer fee will be made to benefit recruiters and recruiter’s’ families.

We must protect our industry from the ravages of other companies making our products, stealing our value, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

I will fight for you with every breath in my body – and I will never, ever let you down. Recruiters will start winning again, winning like never before.

We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our image. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.

We will build new roads, and ATS, and scraping tools, and L&D, and Diversity & Inclusion policies, and crossroads all across our wonderful industry.

We will get our people off of welfare and back to work – rebuilding our industry with recruiter solidarity and labor.

We will follow two simple rules: Support Recruiters and Respect yourself.

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the industries of the world – but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all industries to put their own interests first.

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilised world against radical no cure no pay approach, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to our values, and through our loyalty to our brothers, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.

When you open your heart to diversity, there is no room for prejudice. 

We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.

When recruiters are united, we are totally unstoppable. There should be no fear – we are protected, and we will always be protected.

We will be protected by the great men and women of our industry and, most importantly, we will be protected by our love for our job.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. Recruiters, understand that industry is only living as long as it is striving.

We will no longer accept hiring managers who are all talk and no action – constantly complaining, but never doing anything about it. 

The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.

Do not let anyone tell you it cannot be done.

No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of Recruiters. We will not fail. Our industry will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free companies from the miseries of bad hires, and to harness the energies, industries, and technologies of tomorrow.

A new pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions. 

It is time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all wish well for others.

And whether a junior recruiter is hired in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of inspiration by the life the lead.

So to all Recruiters, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, and from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You will never be ignored again.

Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our industry’s destiny.

And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together, we will make Recruitment strong again. We will make Recruitment wealthy again. 

We will make Recruitment proud again. We will make Recruitment safe again.

And, yes, together, we will make Recruitment great again

The Six HR Trends That Will Matter Most in 2021

It’s no secret the business world went through a tremendous amount of change in 2020, from companies forced to work from home to unemployment numbers hitting a record low. This shift has made it necessary for HR professionals to quickly respond to important business priorities, use the latest available technology, and handle the fluctuations in the workforce. 

Since founding WorkSmart Systems in 1998, I have seen numerous trends happen over the years. One trend that has been around for several years is companies making employees their top priority.

Going into 2021, we will see a rise in employee wellness and collaboration opportunities. Due to hybrid workforces, companies need to ensure that they are making efforts to care for their employees despite the location of their teams. Virtual wellness programs and collaboration opportunities will see an increase as a result.

These can be executed through online workout programs, counseling sessions, and more flexibility for employees to take mental breaks during the day. As well as the incorporation of online ‘breakout rooms’ and collaboration meetings among remote employees. 

As we longingly look forward to the new year, I’ve tapped other industry experts on what they expect in 2021.

 

Employers will be under more pressure than ever to retain top talent

“The massive shift to widespread remote work this year not only impacted employees’ ability to connect with their teammates, but it also hindered how valued they felt by their employers.  As a result, employee satisfaction took a hit which is a red flag for employers invested.

Heading into 2021, employers will make a conscious effort to retain their talent by providing internal opportunities that rival the appeal of leaving the organization. They will place even greater emphasis on knowing what employees can do, and finding new ways to use their skills in different ways across the organization.”

  • Jarin Schmidt, Chief Experience Officer at Credly, the leader in digital credentials

 

Employees feel less loyalty to companies when working from home

“If the economy recovers, turnover will skyrocket because company culture is harder than ever, people were scared shitless in March/April and are less loyal now. People can take interviews, search, be approached, etc. much easier from home.

And the intangibles like ‘I will miss working with X person at my company’ are less obvious. It will be all about how can I maximize money while having an actual life with my family/friends.”

  • Brian Trautschold, COO of Ambition, the #1 Sales Gamification & Coaching Software

 

How HR teams can succeed in 2021

“Top of mind in 2021 for everyone will be recovery. This is going to demand that the C-Suite shift perspective on the way they view HR. No longer can HR teams be seen as a cost-center, they must be viewed as the true revenue drivers they are.

Companies are their people, first and foremost. So the better we enable HR to do their jobs through automation, selection, and retention, the faster our companies will recover, and the better our financial outcomes”  

  • Dan Sines, CEO of Traitify, the world’s fastest personality assessment

 

The fractional executive will be the norm

“Contingent labor increased with the economic downturn this year, including fractional leadership – where executives lend part of their time to a company. Fractional executives are beneficial for both sides.

The company gets the expertise of execs with less cost and helps prevent burnout for the executive grinding through the same problems daily. This trend that was accelerated by the pandemic will continue moving forward and begin trickling down throughout the company.”

  • Summer Crenshaw, CEO of TalentNow, intelligent recruitment software for smart staffing agencies

 

2021 Will Be the Rise of Short-Term Gig Work

The current state of affairs has significantly altered the talent landscape. As recruiters navigate new talent acquisition challenges, many companies are focusing on the development of employees. A positive experience now will incentivize employees to stay and grow with their current company. Even after the pandemic stops restricting the flow of external talent.

One crucial way to earn employee loyalty is to provide clear internal mobility opportunities. As a way to evolve workforces, we will see more managers encourage employees — and even external candidates who can’t be hired full-time just yet — to take on gig work.

By providing this hands-on experience, employers can hone their team’s current proficiencies and instill new ones. Short-term tasks and projects will be one of the primary strategies for upskilling and reskilling in 2021. 

  • Mahe Bayireddi, CEO of Phenom, a global talent experience management platform 

 

Leaders will be more focused on employee engagement

“Being intentional in finding moments to collaborate, engage in conversation, and provide opportunities for virtual activities. It’s more important than ever that we are deliberate in providing moments for inspiration, creativity, and some light-hearted fun into our workdays.

Whether that’s virtual gaming, bringing in experts to discuss relevant topics that we face today, or leveraging new software where collaboration is better, we need to continually evolve. We also need to ensure we are hearing our people, whether it’s through more pulse surveys, engagement surveys, or just honest 1:1 conversations.

This will ensure we are receiving regular feedback and able to adjust to what our people are yearning for -whether it’s from an engagement standpoint, communication or learning. It’s imperative that we provide space for everyone to be heard, to lead with empathy, and to show that our people are first.”

  • Jennifer Schwalb, CPO of Ceros, an industry-leading SaaS cloud-based creativity platform 

 

As we approach 2021, it provides HR teams a new opportunity to adapt to the changes in 2020, learn from our experiences, and make a fresh start.

Preparing for these trends will set successful companies apart in 2021.