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The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a Global Pandemic: Part 4

sales lessons in a global pandemic part four

The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a Global Pandemic: Part 4

This is Part four of a series of five by Steve Guest. Read Part one: “If you don’t get your head straight, you’ve already LOST” and Part two: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Part three: “Go above and beyond, no time to REST.”

 

“You can’t SELL anything, if you can’t TELL anything”

Marketing should be at the forefront of what you do during times of downturn. If you aren’t focusing on building your personal brand inline with your company values then you need to get started. But you must get your message across in the right way.

Having your marketing and sales team collaborate in the current climate is vital. Your personal brand and marketing should be a priority, as you can promote yourself before you make the sales call. Your client will be aware of you before you even pick up the phone.

This makes the conversation easier, and if you’ve pitched your marketing efforts, the ice breaker is in place to help the initial discussion.

If your marketing plan does not help the sales staff in times of downturn, I firmly believe this will jeopardise the future potential of your business.

 

CONTENT IS KEY.

If you are sending across sales emails and marketing material you must ensure it’s clear and concise. Communication is key. What can you do? How can you help? What value do you bring?

Leverage the tools you have at your disposal; chat, virtual meetings, email, social media, blogs, vlogs, mailers, and phone.

How are you communicating your sales message? Who are you? What do you do? What makes you different?

 

sales lessons in a global pandemic part four

USE VIDEO.

Use this wherever possible and appropriate. Begin promoting video calls instead of phone calls. Research shows a video has a much higher attention rate than a phone call. The social media platforms – LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram are all promoting video, live video.

TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform and it’s purely focused on video. This should indicate where your marketing efforts should be headed. 

A good quality, consistent message of you and your brand will cut down the number of calls and meetings that you need to conduct massively. The ability to build a relationship with your market and client base before even having a conversation is hugely improved by utilising video into your daily and weekly set up.

The power and exposure of video should not be underestimated. Offering the right message, with well-managed personal branding will help you during an economic downturn. Especially now, where most companies and staffing are at home, online, on furlough and thus consistently interacting via social media and digital technology.

I sincerely believe that if you aren’t using video as part of your set up you will miss out on a huge shift in marketing and sales. In the last few months alone I have increased my levels of video online and the levels of inbound messages and contact from clients, candidates, and my overall market has seen unprecedented levels.

I am constantly appearing on my network’s timelines. My market feels like they know me even before an initial conversation. In times of market slowdown, you need inbound interaction as much as you need to concentrate on outbound sales. Having a combination of the two is incredibly powerful.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA.

Building a network and strong following on social media is where I made the biggest strides through the last recession and I see this downturn as no different. Become a community builder, a thought leader, and a key person of influence in your market.

Show true value and invest time in building bridges between your supply chain, make things happen, and bring people together. 

 

Connect and communicate.

Be the visible party within your network. Set up monthly meetings, discuss the hard times, discuss what you are facing as a business and as a market, and start sharing ideas and thoughts, best practice. and collaborations.

I used to grab a beer on a Friday night, stick a film on the TV, and build lists of specialist people within my market on LinkedIn.

Then I would simply go on a connection spree – inviting and introducing myself. No one could hide, no one was safe.

It was about building a network that was far-reaching. I didn’t know who I could help, or who I could assist but I knew at some point in my journey and theirs, I would be able to add value.

Between 2008 and 2012 my LinkedIn grew by about 10,000 connections, which was down to my insatiable desire to have a strong network of people that I could help, add value and place. Simple as that. 

 

Seven touchpoints.

Facebook and LinkedIn have made it easy for any salesperson to create a global, strong personal brand, by reaching new prospects, reinforcing existing relationships and adding value.

The aim of your social network and social media marketing is to get businesses and clients to become involved with you. That way, they feel like they know you as they live through your wins, troubles, pains, and desires.

They become a part of the journey. However, don’t ever pitch through social media. These platforms are to build social networks, build relationships, communities, and areas of value. Being on view to most of your market allows you to best understand what is happening with a particular business and find ways you can assist and add value.

It takes seven touchpoints to build a new working relationship (and five phone calls). If you are also adding good content, quality marketing, and value-added videos three to five times per week to your network and market, it makes it 20 times easier to make the call.

Your clients might even interact with your content – it’s easy. Conversations start to become predominantly inbound as opposed to outbound! You become someone of significance – you are elevated to higher levels, and you become the ‘go-to’ person in your network.

Now, they will naturally think of you when they are looking for a new role or need to recruit.

 

Where can you add the most value?

The workforce gap in construction from 2008 – 2012 and the subsequent skill-shortage equated to the creation of a candidate-led market. This created a scarce resource which meant that every contractor was short of staff and there wasn’t enough to go round.

Premium prices and ‘difficult to fill’ roles meant that the market was, for me, the best place to add the most value. 

I had a captive client audience in a market that screamed out for more Quantity Surveyors, Estimators, and Planners. And I simply couldn’t find enough individuals to fill the roles available. I could work exclusively, market, and build effective relationships with both clients and candidates.

I grew with my market and I stress the importance of communication. Working proactively with the individuals and companies you represent, you become the extension of the brand; the proactive recruiter that adds real value to your client’s business.

Isn’t this the very reason you got into recruitment (besides the money of course!)?

 

How do you use social media to contact your market? I have a simple solution – it’s about helping others and delivering on service – that’s it. Simple. 

sales lessons in a global pandemic part four

Do not Direct Message or InMail people to pitch a new vacancy or the best candidate you have ever represented. Simply ask for help. 

 

Offer your help and service to benefit the market. Don’t pitch the role to someone you don’t know – your message should allow the individual to engage.  

Most sales pitches via InMail or Direct Message go unanswered because they all look the same, follow the same path and are too ‘pitchy’, too direct, and take no consideration for the need or ‘pain point’ of the recipient.

Above all else, recruiting is about adding value, service deliverables, and facilitating a process between clients filling vacancies and candidates looking for their next job opportunity.

Allow your network the opportunity to help you find those ideal people.

–Steve

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post with Part Five: “Be so good, THEY can’t ignore YOU”

Shally Steckerl joins Newton Talent

Newton Talent Partners with Sourcing Thought Leader Shally Steckerl to Launch Unique Service Concept

PITTSBURGH, PA—November 16 —Newton Talent, a leading provider of recruitment process outsource (RPO) solutions, is pleased to announce the appointment of industry thought leader and sourcing expert Shally Steckerl to lead its new PowerSourcing service division as Vice President of Talent Strategy and Sourcing Innovation.

One of the pioneers of the sourcing discipline, Shally is the Founder and former President of The Sourcing Institute, where he has helped numerous F500 and mid-market organizations train and develop their talent sourcing capabilities for nearly 20 years.

When it comes to innovative approaches to candidate search, Shally literally wrote the book. He is the author of the industry standard textbook “The Talent Sourcing and Recruitment Handbook” as well as “The Sourcing Method: Tactics to Find Unfindable Talent.”

The Sourcing Institute and its content will continue to be provided by Newton Talent as a strong complement to its existing offerings.

 

“We began collaborating with Shally several years ago when we sent our recruiting staff through training at The Sourcing Institute, said Patty Silbert, President of Newton Talent. “We found our clients shared many of the same experiences and knew how much they would benefit if we could make the very best sourcing practices easily accessible and scalable.”
“We’re extremely proud to have Shally onboard to help promote and implement the powerful solution that we’ve worked so hard to develop,” she added. 

 

PowerSourcing is a suite of integrated sourcing solutions that provides companies higher quality candidates in less time. It combines unique profile identification and pipeline-building components to fill and nurture the top end of the recruitment funnel, building a community of talent the recruiting team can tap to meet the needs of the business now and in the future. 

 

“HR leaders know that that, for recruitment to evolve beyond a simple administrative function and make a contribution to leadership’s strategic goals, there are a lot of ‘gaps’ that will need to be filled around sourcing skills, techniques, tools, and processes,” said Shally. “Those gaps can put the value of a company’s recruiting efforts at risk. 

“PowerSourcing is designed to fill the gaps that might be keeping those efforts from being more strategic and effective,” he added, “I’m excited about the resources PowerSourcing can provide hiring organizations, no matter their stage in this evolution.”

 

Often referred to as “the father of Sourcing,” over the past two decades, Shally has helped build sourcing organizations for companies like Fiserv, Microsoft, Google, Coca Cola, Cisco, Motorola, and more, and has helped hundreds of recruiting leaders successfully launch sourcing initiatives, improve the performance of their existing sourcing teams, and establish new sourcing functions from the ground-up.

He serves as Director for The Sourcing Institute Foundation, non-profit organization dedicated to providing recruiting industry education and opportunities to underserved communities.

According to Rick Newton, Founder/Owner of the Newton Family of Companies, Shally’s appointment is a natural result of the Company’s strategic vision. “We’re excited and honored to have sourcing’s premier thought leader as part of our PowerSourcing team.

Having an industry expert like Shally helps us to continue aligning with the needs of our customers; bring the best solutions forward; and illustrates our commitment to providing the most unique, innovative, and best-in-class customer and candidate experience in the RPO industry.”

PowerSourcing provides support and training solutions tailor-made for every organization. To learn more, view our case study or visit powersourcing.com.

 

ABOUT NEWTON TALENT

Newton Talent provides recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) solutions that are tailored to help companies streamline recruitment processes, enhance candidate experience, and improve quality of hire. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA and part of the Newton Family of Companies, Newton Talent services are employed by organizations of all sizes and industries across North America. www.newtontalent.com

 

ABOUT THE NEWTON FAMILY OF COMPANIES

The Newton Family of Companies is comprised of three companies dedicated to realizing a company’s vision through innovation-driven management consulting (Aspirant), best-practice talent sourcing and recruiting (Newton Talent), and design-driven identity, leadership, and culture solutions (The Newton Institute).

 

MEDIA CONTACT Kathie Sandlin, Marketing Manager, Newton Talent

o: 877.611.6148.   m: 440.212.4349.     [email protected] 

“Pay to Play” – Why Owning Your Audience is Greater than Renting It

permission marketing

Four Reasons to Get Back to the Basics of Permission Marketing

Shifting your focus from rented audiences on social media to owned audiences through permission marketing will level up your recruitment marketing. 

Over the past several months, I’ve had many conversations with recruitment marketing and employer brand folks. One consistent thread has been how reliant they are on social media and how little they focus on permission and email marketing.

This is top-of-mind because of a recent Tweet from Phil Nottingham, Brand and Marketing Strategist at Wistia: 

 


I replied that it was time to focus on permission marketing and owning your audience instead of renting it, and he agreed.

 

Here are four reasons why you shouldn’t put all of your employer brand and recruitment marketing eggs in one basket with social media. 

 

Algorithms Change

Social networks are constantly evolving, testing, and changing their algorithms to ensure you engage more and stay on their platform longer. 

Most don’t share these changes with their users, so it’s a guessing game about what you can do to increase your content’s reach and engagement. 

LinkedIn is the exception, and you can find a wealth of information by reading their engineering blog. 

They recently published an article on the importance of ‘dwell time’ as a key measure of engagement. Given this, dwell time may be the most important measure determining whether your content gains traction among your network or simply finds the relaxing but frustrating chirp of crickets. 

If you manage your brand’s social media and haven’t read this yet, I’d highly recommend it.

You’ll realize that if you’re still operating under the assumption that clicks, likes, and shares are the most important thing, you may also be wondering why those things have dropped off over time.

What does this mean? It means less control of when your message lands and who sees it. You’re at the mercy of a machine determining the relevancy and importance of your content and message. 

 

Targeting and Segmentation

When it comes to social media, anyone can follow you. You could argue that anyone could also subscribe to your email list from your website, and you wouldn’t be wrong. The difference is you have control of how you segment your subscribers on the backend. Just because they subscribed doesn’t mean you only have one list and email the same message to everyone. 

Segmentation is a huge advantage of email marketing. You can also invite people to subscribe, essentially ‘hand-picking’ the people you want to receive your messages. 

With social media, you could have 1,000 followers, and maybe only half of them are ones you want to engage with and stay top of mind. Because organic social reach is so low (more on that later), your message will only be seen by a small percentage at any given time, so the likelihood of it getting in front of the ones you want to see it are slim.

This isn’t much different from the engagement you would get by placing a display ad (aka banner ad) on websites through Google Ads or another platform. At least engagement as it relates to a display ad means clicks through to your website. That’s usually not the case with social network engagement. More on that later, as well.

 

Low Organic Reach (aka “Pay to Play”)

This is the big one. Organic reach on social media platforms has been decreasing, little by little, each year since around 2012.

The most recent stats I’ve seen on organic Facebook reach was about 5.2%. That means, if you have 1,000 followers, only 50 will ever see your organic post at any given time.  5-0. That’s it.

With email, even if people delete your email without opening it, they’ve seen your brand. The average open rate for email marketing campaigns is close to 18%, and the average CTR (click-through rate) is about 2.6%. You’d be lucky to get that from a paid social campaign.

I’ve also seen a disturbing trend pointing to an inverse relationship between your number of followers and organic reach. 

According to a Hootsuite study of Facebook, there was an inverse relationship between the number of fans your page has and the engagement rate. The average engagement rate for pages with less than 10,000 fans was 0.52% compared to 0.28% for pages with between 10,000 and 100,000 fans and 0.10% for pages with more than 100,000 fans. 

Essentially, what this means is even if you want to reach the people who have opted-in and want to hear from you, you’re going to have to pay. Social media is just another form of paid advertising.

 

Competing Priorities

Often, your goal of using social platforms as a distribution channel to drive traffic to your website directly competes with the platform’s goal of keeping you within its walls. 

As I mentioned, driving traffic to your website through organic reach is wishful thinking. Most social media platforms want your eyeballs to stay right where they are – on their platform. They want you to scroll, pause, scroll, pause. If you leave, it’s because you clicked on a paid post, and they got paid. 

As I previously mentioned, part of LinkedIn’s algorithm measures the amount of time you pause (aka dwell time). They want to reward the people who can help them lengthen the time people stay engaged on their platform.

If you’ve watched the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, you saw how these platforms are engineered around our psychology. They’re essentially hijacking our minds and bodies for their benefit, not that of ourselves or our businesses. 

 

What Else Should You Be Doing?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying to stop using social media. I’m saying that if you’re mostly focusing on social media, you should reconsider your strategy.

Modern marketing is omnichannel marketing- meaning the way people consume and gather information contains multiple touchpoints.

Viewing social as one of many touchpoints is a good way of looking at it. Still, the most underrated and underappreciated marketing strategy is permission marketing. 

By building lists that can be segmented and targeted based on your business objectives, you will be taking advantage of your owned audience. 

When you rent your audience on social, you’re mostly hoping for a positive outcome. Stop hoping. 

Continue to leverage organic social, carve out a budget for paid social campaigns, and focus on ways to increase your reach and targeting through permission marketing. Ultimately, having segmented lists that you own not only will ensure your messages get in front of the right people, but it also offers a substantial competitive advantage. 

 

The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a Global Pandemic: Part 3

sales lessons in a global pandemic part three

The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a Global Pandemic: Part 3

This is Part three of a series of five by Steve Guest. Read Part one: “If you don’t get your head straight, you’ve already LOST” and Part two: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” 

 

Go above and beyond, no time to REST.

How are you going to spend your time communicating with your clients? A hardened sales pitch? Go straight in and let them know what you’ve got? If this is your thought process, you won’t last long and you won’t get very far. Remember your business development is about your CLIENT and not about YOU.

Communicate and understand where and how you can add value to your clients. Your business development calls should be investigatory. Let your client know that you are also trying your best to adapt to the new environment; that these are unprecedented times, and that the recruitment industry has also been rocked by COVID19. Be upfront about the impact that coronavirus is having on the businesses that you support and whom you work with. Show empathy towards your market and make the point that you are here to help and add value where you can. Show that you understand the knock-on effect of the pandemic on their business, their family, and their finances. 

Planning your business development ahead of time is vital to ensure that your interaction: calls, emails, social media, business development is as effective as possible. If you don’t ask the question upfront how do you know which solution to sell?

You must understand your client’s business. Ask them how you can help them to grow, build, improve, and to continue to recruit. What can you do to add value?

Do you ask the BIG question?

“How has your business been impacted by the lockdown and subsequent economic decline?” 

YES, you ask the big question!

You must ask; whether the answer is negative or not. As a recruiter, you must understand their business environment. What are you looking to sell into? How can you offer a solution? You must have tough conversations to know what problems to solve. 

Start with your current, longer, and well-established clients. Ask how they have been affected and ask what you can do to help. Identify how you can benefit them with your service, how you can minimise the cost, improve the revenue, and establish a better working relationship.

Remember – whilst you may not be using the downturn to grab market share, your competitors might be! This goes for you too, your business, and your clients.

Ultimately market downturns, economic dips, recessions don’t last. Relationships, however, do. 

sales lessons in a global pandemic part three

What do you want your business to look like once this is all over?

Are you prepared to do what it takes? Here’s some inspiration, and zero doom and gloom!!

Did you know:

  • For professional and technical recruiting, an industry downturn can create a wealth of opportunity.  Workforce reductions produce a pool of available talent. Certain companies will still look to strengthen particular functions and in the current market, you can start to find ideal candidates more easily than before.
  • Market downturns create an ideal environment for recruiting senior-level professionals and executives at competing firms. The economic turmoil and market uncertainty with redundancies, layoffs, financial insecurities, and all the pressures that coincide create further opportunities to attract new talent. 
  • Companies that are in a good place despite the lockdown, the financial and economic pressures, can steal a march on their competitors. This provides a vital opportunity to grab market share and build, whilst recruiting top talent that they perhaps couldn’t attract previously. This is where you fit in!
  • You may find businesses that ‘trim’ their overheads in one area to focus on key strengths in another which means they could potentially be looking to grow a new division off the back of the downturn. Therein lies another opportunity. New paths forward, new talent required. A shortage of existing talent or teams will mean you can add value and help your clients as they pursue other lines of enquires.

Work hard to find better solutions to offer to your existing customers. Think about what you can do differently to help.

Help your clients streamline their business and find active candidates that you can market to their competitors. If a client is letting people go, then how can you help share the burden? Perhaps work from your client’s offices, register the candidates, and help remove some of the pain & guilt from your client.

When the downturn ends you will have a more loyal client base. Your clients become more in tune with your business as you now offer a more rounded service for their requirements. 

Remember: If you don’t ask; the answer will always be NO. (And if you don’t ask, I will! ) 

–Steve

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post with Part Four: “You can’t sell anything, if you can’t tell anything”

Is There a Place for “Lean” in Recruitment?

is there a place for Lean in Recruitment

Is there a place for “Lean” in Recruitment?

We are all striving to keep it lean or cut the fat in life as well as in business. There are many to choose from when it comes to recruitment styles, and every recruiter will have a different spin on the process.  The one key element that does not differ from recruiter to recruiter is that we all want to get the job done in as little time as possible and with just as little spend. The same can be said for the customer needing the services of a recruiter. And, so we ask the question, “Is there a place for “Lean” in Recruitment?”

Simply put, ‘Lean’ means creating more value for customers with fewer resources.  The core idea is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. A lean recruitment agency understands customer value and focuses its key processes on continuously increasing it. The ultimate goal?  To provide value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste. 

 

How does one achieve lean recruitment without reducing real engagement?

To accomplish a lean recruitment process, lean thinking is required. This means changing the management’s focus from optimizing separate technologies, assets, and vertical departments to optimizing the flow of products and services. 

They must do this through entire value streams that flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and departments straight to customers. Now, that was a mouthful, but very palatable and very possible.

 

Do away with traditional business systems

Eliminating waste along entire value streams, instead of at isolated points, creates processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time at far fewer costs and with much fewer defects, compared with traditional business systems.

Recruiters can respond to changing customer desires with high variety, high quality, low cost, and speedy output times. As a result, information management becomes much simpler and more accurate. 

 

So, how could a Recruiter be more ‘Lean’?

Think like a lean manufacturing plant.

Think about the ‘lean’ recruitment process, much like you would a manufacturing plant. Lean manufacturing is a methodology focused on reducing waste without sacrificing productivity. A lean process is defined by the customer and what they deem to be valuable, and then what isn’t valuable is removed. 

The phrase “as efficient as a conveyor belt” comes to mind, whereby the item being manufactured goes down a road/belt to land up on the other side in its completion with as little human intervention as possible and with minimal costs involved.

 

Eliminate non-automated processes.

A large number of recruiter’s processes can be templated and automated. 

I have gone through the process of using an applicant tracking system, to a tailored easy-to-use database, to an in-house job board, and full circle, to the belief that I only needed to extract data when I needed it.  Yes, it’s a journey to discovery.

 

Look at your entire talent acquisition strategy.

What are the different processes involved in filling an open position? How are those processes tracked or measured? It is not enough to build your system and let it run as-is. Your recruitment methods need to be analyzed, adapted, and at times, changed entirely to remain cost-effective and successful. 

Is one of your job boards expensive but consistently returning sub-par candidates? Does your team spend too much time analyzing every data point? Are managers kept waiting too long before they can interview quality candidates? These are just a few examples of the waste that can arise. Taking a serious look at your processes will help you eliminate inefficiencies and adapt to changing trends. 

 

Know that it takes time, but is very worth it.

So, you have established your recruitment strategy and the metrics you will use to measure its success. You have reviewed the whole system and found some genuine room for improvement. But how do you move forward? Perhaps your team has spent a lot of time building up a talent pipeline, but when an opening actually arises, most of those candidates have already found other jobs, or they’re content where they are. Was it worth your time to develop the talent pipeline?

Change is tough for any business; however, if you can accept that not everything will work perfectly the first time around, you will end up with a much more flexible talent acquisition strategy. 

Understand what is working.  Socialize with the rest of your team. Communicate constantly. Review processes and systems often. Test. Retest. And, know that this consistency and focused attention will lead to higher productivity, efficiency and will increase service levels to both your clients and candidates.

The road to a “lean” recruitment process is very possible.

The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a Global Pandemic: Part 2

sales lessons in a global pandemic part two

The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a Global Pandemic: Part 2

This is Part two of a series of five by Steve Guest. Read Part one: “If you don’t get your head straight, you’ve already LOST” 

 

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

In 2008, I specialised solely in permanent placements within the construction industry. Overnight, the perm market stopped. Vacancies, offers were withdrawn, the markets slowed, and clients stopped taking my calls.

My whole recruitment business was now being generated from cold calls / cold clients and businesses that I had no prior relationship or history with (as I was working through my restrictive covenants). So what did I do? Simply put, I found the problems that my clients were facing, and I solved them.

I found out what was stopping them from recruiting. Asked what they needed, asked about their worries and concerns, and what kept them up at night.

I asked how I could solve their issues.

My clients didn’t need to recruit for permanent staff. That was obvious. But by diversifying my sales message and changing my approach, I found ways I could help and still add value.

A strong option was to provide freelance, temporary, interim, and fixed-term staffing to cover specific projects, events, or requirements.

So I adapted to the market situation that presented itself. This time in history is the perfect time to do the same, learn to adapt.

 

Think Creatively

Cashflow or Capital could be the very reason the sales process stops. We can adapt here, and perhaps define the way you charge differently.

You could offer payment plans, share the burden, change the script, increase your guarantees, improve peace of mind. You need to focus on the problems in the market, the ‘pain points’, and address these issues with solutions.

Add value and ultimately solve the problem, even if it’s just short-term changes for longer-term gains.

Could you offer more attractive credit terms, more attractive payment terms? Could you help the client’s cash flow, which will enable them to expand, so that you can keep selling your solutions?  

I had to develop my communication skills and plan for a variety of customer reactions.

How would they react to the conversation or the call? How did I set out my introduction and the reason for the call? Ultimately you must understand that your sales calls aren’t about YOU – they are about your client. Remember this during every sales call.  

My offering for the clients and market I was dealing with varied, and so I opened up opportunities to support my clients in other areas. My specialism was ‘commercial permanent vacancies for contractors’ (i.e. quantity surveyors, estimators, buyers, planners, BID, BDM, and design), but the market wasn’t supporting these roles.

There was still some movement in preconstruction, however, so I varied my offering with the same clients. I started working on operational roles (engineers, site managers, project, and contract managers) which then supported the Trades and Labour consultant that I was working with.

This variance then expanded to support staff within the business (accounts, HR, reception, admin, PA). Due to this variance, the clients remained constant. Effectively I became the number one point of contact for each contractor, regardless of the requirement within their business.

I would get the call for their specific need, whether that be freelance, temporary, interim, and permanent. Whatever the job title, I could do it. The recruitment process remained constant, the company sell remained constant, and the ability to promote and continue to be an extension of the company brand remained constant.

All I had to do was understand the job brief and manage the process. Effectively, I started to build my recruitment and sales relationship with the client and brand.

I built relationships based on trust, empathy, and the simple dialog of; 

“We are all in this together, let’s make sure we both come out the other end.”

Followed by;

“Simply let me know any requirements and I will go away and deal with it. You don’t need to spend any more time on it, other than the initial phone call/meeting with me to discuss your need and the specifics. The rest I will handle and continue to add value.”

 

sales lessons in a global pandemic part two

You must show patience, empathy, and sensitivity towards your client, their business, the staff. And the knock-on effect it may or may not have had on their family and friends or the person you are speaking to. 

I strongly believe that 2008 and 2009 defined who I am as a recruiter. It defined how I approach people and instill confidence, trust, and my core values into my business development.

This approach facilitated us to build a solid foundation for the office, the region, the brand, and the business. It’s times like this that define, build, and reinforce relationships with your clients and prospects.

Demonstrating sensitivity and respect for your client’s position, whilst continuing to add value. Trust is key.

Be consistent in showing the benefits of the mutual working relationship. That will help you get through this current crisis.

–Steve

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post with Part Three: “Go Above and Beyond, No Time to Rest” 

Why is it a recruiter’s fault when a client makes a bad hire?

bad hire

Why is it a recruiter’s fault when a client makes a bad hire?

You and your team have scoured through your contacts, your network, your social feeds, and all of your other resources. You’ve sent your client a few select job candidates because they check off all of the company’s wants for the position. 

Your client selects one of your candidates and makes an offer. Happy clients, happy new hire – mission accomplished. Now it’s time to move onto the next order.

Except, soon enough, your client tells you, that hire didn’t work out. Then they blame you for the bad hire. Even though they made the final decision to hire this person.

It’s frustrating, isn’t it? How can we be held accountable for things that we can’t control? After all, we as recruiters have zero control over a job candidate’s behaviour. All we can do is stack the odds in our client’s favour, but there are never any guarantees.

After working in the recruiting field for over two decades, I can say from experience, that these scenarios are actually great learning opportunities for both the client and for us, as recruiters. Moreover, it is never worth it to take that kind of finger-pointing to heart.

Here are a few tips I’ve gathered over the years to help turn the scenario above from a negative experience into a positive one:

 

Educate clients from your first touchpoint with them

It helps to establish expectations from the very beginning of the process with new clients. Let them know that if by chance, a new hire should not work out, which can happen from time to time (since we have no control over another person’s behaviour), as one client-agency team, we’ll work together with them to rectify the situation.

Together, we can treat the experience as a learning opportunity, and leverage insights we glean to better understand what worked and what didn’t, for next time.

 

Beyond skills, search for a great personality-fit

It took me years to figure out for my own staff, what kind of personality-fit worked best with me. I noticed after several unsuccessful internal hires, that when I hired people with a certain profile, they just understood me better and they quickly and easily caught on to my approach and line of thinking, This didn’t happen because I was psychic.

Rather, over time, I was able to identify key personality traits in people who just clicked with my working style. We need to always watch out for the same patterns with our clients.

 

Ask your clients the right questions to learn what personality types work well with them

When we don’t know, we always need to just ask. Consider questions like: Can you tell me more about the personality of the hiring manager? For example, are they hands-on or hands-off in their working style? Tell me about the last person in the position, who was successful and what kind of work background did they have? Can I have a 5-minute call directly with the hiring manager?

If clients can’t give you 5-minutes for a call, that can be a red flag.  To set you up for success, clients need to invest their time in the process too.

 

Look for clues on personality-fit based on what did NOT work in the past

When you ask a question like: “What didn’t work before?” the responses you get can often hold a lot of intel. For example, was the past hire a clock-watcher? Did they work in big, bureaucratic sectors where they may have been great at navigating processes, but are not used to making quick, on-the-spot decisions? 

 

Establish formalized processes to track these insights

At our agency, we track every conversation we have with both clients and candidates, in order to better understand them and their needs. This helps us cultivate better, more trusting relationships with the people that matter to us most in this business.

I’ve heard some people say they think this is “painful” – as in, cumbersome to do, or that they feel there’s a negative connotation to keeping notes. But to us, this is an authentic effort on our part to demonstrate that we are interested in what they are saying. 

When I re-connect with a client a few months after we last spoke, and ask how her daughter is doing to follow-up from our last conversation, they can feel that I genuinely care about them. I don’t have to have a super-human, computer-like memory that never forgets.

I have to simply care enough to remind myself of our last conversation. This kind of effort builds trust and it helps us better serve our clients in the end. I can say from experience, it makes a BIG difference.

A lot of job seekers have been reluctant to change jobs right now, in the midst of this current COVID-19 global pandemic. But my prediction is that, as our society overcomes this current health crisis, once the uncertainly is over, movement will resume quickly.

We as recruiters need to watch the market, because many people will start changing jobs, and we’ll need to be ready and prepared to serve our clients well.

The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a Global Pandemic: PART 1

sales lessons in a global pandemic part one: get your head straight

The 5 Key SALES Lessons YOU MUST Implement in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC

Introduction

For many recruiters today who have been on furlough, almost certainly within the UK, making a business development or sales call will most likely seem like a distant memory. Returning to the office having spent three months or so in the wilderness, unable to conduct any work-related tasks must spin some into utter disorientation. 

“Where do I start? What do I do? What do I say? Where was my desk again? How do I convince my clients to even answer the phone when we are dealing with a global pandemic, an economic downturn; an environment that the world as far as we know it, has not seen before?”

Just thinking about these questions induce worry, dread, and panic, rising through every pore in your body.

Self-limiting beliefs become stronger and slowly you convince yourself that no one will want to talk to you. You believe that there is no market, and there are no clients who are looking to recruit. You look outside, and you look around you – the whole world is on pause! 

Why would anyone want to speak to me?

Yet, in traditional sales and recruiter style, the recruitment management mentality kicks in, and they duly order their sales staff to work and sell even harder!

“Increase your call levels, speak to everyone – leave no stone unturned. You must find that client that is still recruiting so we can still assess you against your KPIs, your fee targets, and your ROI.”

“Stop reading this article, you don’t have time! Get back on the phone, start dialling and make us some money!!”  They babble in panicked tones, as the scary global downturn plays out to the averted gaze of the managers. 

 Meanwhile, on another planet, you, the recruiter, is sat there thinking;

“But I don’t want to – I don’t want to face call after call of rejection, only to get a barrage of abuse from my manager for not hitting my targets (again!). What do I do – how am I going to survive this onslaught?”

So is a recession, an economic downturn or global pandemic a huge sales problem, or does it in fact offer a potential strategic business opportunity? There will be businesses out there that see what is happening around us as an opportunity to emerge at the other end with growth, more loyal customers, stronger sales and a more unified workforce.

So why aren’t you thinking the same? 

Companies who invest in a recession can take advantage of the competition. Go on the journey with your client!

Recessions create great uncertainty and the fear mentality can take over, but they are also wonderful opportunities to outclass competitors and create inroads in a world where everybody else is cutting back. So what are you waiting for?

Go make it happen!

 

PART ONE: If you don’t get your head straight, you’ve already LOST

sales lessons in a global pandemic part one

The first place to start is your way of thinking. 

Yes, we are in the middle of a global pandemic, a time that none of us have lived or worked through before BUT with every downturn there arrives an opportunity – and you must see it and believe it. 

Stop seeing this global pandemic as simply a time where sales are more difficult. Instead, change your mindset and see this as the perfect window of opportunity to master your market and become the key person of influence. 

Don’t get me wrong, I do get your concerns! You are likely reading this thinking; 

“Its ok for you Steve, you’ve recruited the same market for the last 14 years. Everyone in your market knows you already! All your calls are nice, warm and friendly!” (I did tell you I recruit in construction, didn’t I? Warm and friendly – haha! )

Cast your mind back to 2008 – a recession in the UK.

The construction market was one of the hardest-hit industries. I had just moved from a global PLC recruitment brand to set up a new construction recruitment region, brand and office in the West Midlands. All whilst navigating a six months restrictive covenants and a market that had stopped recruiting overnight. 

So, I hear you ask,

“What did you do to build a regional business to £7million sales revenue off the back of the 2008 recession.” 

Well, here, in this series, you have it all – the strategies that I spent building, tailoring, and tweaking over the last 12 years or so. Ultimately, however, it all started with my mindset and the unwavering belief that I would make it work.

I believed I would be successful and was relentless in my pursuit of high achievement. It was not easy but at no point did I ever doubt that it was going to work. 

Every no, every rejection, every call, email, meeting, and dead-end propelled me further to the point of knowing that the next call was the one. That the next call was going to be my next big client.

That’s all it takes, one call! (If you still need convincing, make sure you read the book ‘Go for No!: Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There’ by Andrea Waltz & Richard Fenton) 

Always keep in mind the big picture. In any downturn, in any market, the fact still remains; you as a recruiter and as a salesperson are there to solve your client’s and your market’s problems.

So, what and how can you provide the required solutions?

 

Mindset and Self-Limiting beliefs

Us humans are stuck in safe mode for the majority of the time. We prioritise survival and self-preservation and don’t like to face the idea of ridicule or rejection.

However, I must ask – what’s the worst that can happen? For me, there are two types of recruiters with polar opposite mindsets:

sales lessons in a global pandemic part one get your head straight

 

So, which recruiter are you? Have you already made up your mind before even making a single call?

–Steve

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post with Part Two: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

 

 

Our Internal TA team is sh&t!

internal recruitment team

Our Internal TA team is sh*&t!

Talent Acquisition, the heart of any organization, the function that determines whether you live or die, at least from a revenue, delivery, and productivity perspective anyway, is more often than not poorly designed.  

Why is that?

It is interesting to see that organizations (not all by the way, there are some beasts out there) set these teams up to fail by getting the basics wrong.  Time and time again I see the decision makers design an operating model that resembles a payroll shared services or contact center or heck a nursery school for all that it matters, because it worked really well, at some point in their career or in fact, their current payroll division,  and so they copy and paste that, hoping it sticks…. And yup, you guessed it, it does not….

Recruiting is so incredibly diverse with so many varying sets of skills called upon depending on where you play, from niched specialized sourcing to high volume, from tech to pharmaceutical, from agency to internal, there just isn’t a one size fits all model. 

You must understand your business model and then ensure you design a machine that delivers against its business objectives.  You must understand the technology and tools available to support this machine and ensure it is fit for purpose. 

There is so much tech available in the market, more so now than ever before, that will cause more confusion than a lightbulb ‘ahaaaaaa’ moment if you do not understand what makes your machine tick.

If you wanted to enter Miss Physique at the Worlds Body Building championship, would you train by following a long-distance marathon runner program? Ummmm you could, but the only prize you would win is Miss Skeleton. 

Internal recruitment has gained massive traction over the years with companies waking up to the idea that hiring their own talent acquisition teams, who partner with them directly, at a fixed cost, will most likely be the most cost-effective recruitment model, and it is, yet I see internal salaries becoming less and less competitive and workloads becoming more unrealistic. (

Have you ever seen the donkey on the side of the road? So overloaded that he can barely put one foot in front of the other? That’s your TA team my friend) 

Common workplace is having (for example) one tech recruiter sourcing specialized, scarce skills sitting with over 60 open requisitions at a time, none of which are actually even remotely similar and they have to deliver against this, on their own with little or no support.  Completely unrealistic. (bet you just saw the donkey again, didn’t you?)

There isn’t funding to provide them sourcing resources, support, or tools they need to automate their process and deliver or WORSE they have the wrong tools because someone (probably someone who is not in recruiting) implemented a solution that is not fit for purpose.

 

What does this mean?

This means they take longer to fill these roles, likely with B, C possibly Z level candidates and guess what? Your business LOSES MONEY! Every day that resource is not hands on deck delivering against a project, your business LOSES MONEY!  Every day you spend 3 hours (or more) interviewing less than ideal candidates, your business LOSES MONEY! I am sure you get my drift here. 

Hiring subpar candidates, will cost you money and you would be forced to extend your reach by calling on Rock Star agencies (who probably have a well-oiled machine in place), which completely defeats the purpose of having your own TA team. (#insanitymuch?) 

So why not invest wisely upfront and set your teams up properly to SAVE YOU MONEY, set you apart and ensure you have a healthy heart = healthy body? 

Get the basics right. 

 

Do’s 

✔ Employ a strong leader IN RECRUITMENT or someone who is exceptionally entrepreneurial-minded or the very least in human capital.  You cannot have someone take your function to where it needs to go, if they themselves, are not in tune with the heartbeat of recruiting. (If she is in tech and she thinks Github and StackOverflow is the name of your internal CRM system, I suggest you back away slowly.) 

✔ Have a clear strategy in place and align your operating model accordingly. Without this, it is as ludicrous as climbing into your car and driving to an unknown destination without your Sat nav –How can you go anywhere if you do not know where you are going?

✔ Quantify your problem (cost of poor hires, delayed hiring, poor performance, interviews, agency spend etc.) and cost it against your solution.

✔ Hire for optimal delivery based on expected output over both an immediate and extended period of time.

✔ Ensure tools and tech are fit for purpose.

✔ Adopt an Agile culture because we know this landscape changes frequently in our current time.

 

Do not…

❌ Leave recruitment undefined.

❌ Hire lean for the sake of applying a buzz word on budgets. That cannot afford you the right talent who will actually save you money, grow your brand awareness, and actually deliver top talent.

❌ Squeeze your assets for all they are worth in the name of saving money. This does nothing but decrease engagement and productivity, increase stress, increase anxiety, increase frustration, and decrease delivery because guess what? This COSTS YOU MONEY.

Irrespective of the current economic climate or any excuse that there may be, if your recruitment function is not set up correctly, it will fail and that will impact the business second to none.  A body without a healthy heart …… well………is dead.

flatline

Everything Old in Recruiting is New Again

Everything old in Recruiting is New Again

Everything Old in Recruiting is New Again

What a time to be alive!  Artificial intelligence for candidate matching. Advanced site Boolean strings. Free sites for phone numbers and email addresses. Plus, data lists and scrapers are making candidates easy to find these days. Non-exempt as well as high-level exempt candidates can be identified swiftly via the internet today.

The REAL struggle begins when attempts are made to woo a passive candidate to respond to our messaging for interest. Now, we certainly must train talent acquisition professionals to use modern technology for sourcing candidates. But, make no mistake, the technology exists. Almost anyone can be trained to use it.

However, today’s Recruiters and Sourcers that have not received recruitment marketing engagement training are at a deep disadvantage for recruiting in today’s market. Spending several hours sourcing the most qualified candidate is wasted when the messaging sent isn’t transparent, genuine, and worth the candidates read.

Honestly, I think some talent professionals forget to think like the candidate.

 

Back to the Basics

Thirty years ago, the employees in a Personnel department sat around waiting for candidates to funnel in from the two-thousand-dollar Sunday newspaper advertisements.  When the candidates didn’t arrive to fill-out paper applications, we hit the phones using the Rolodex.

God love agency recruiters, they never moved away from cold calling. But many corporate recruiters have lost the skill.

There is a magic that happens when a Recruiter goes back to the basics of leveraging referrals and picking up the phone (or text or however people like to be talked to today).

There is already a recruitment marketing philosophy that subscribes to the idea of candidates as consumers.

Consumers desire relationships.  The wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am type of recruiting gives our industry a bad name.  Anyone reading this has probably received a spam email about a job they are over or underqualified for.  That type of unsolicited connection rubs a consumer the wrong way.  The consumer wants to know who they are dealing with.

Think about your own life. A consumer likes to use the same mechanic, hairstylist or barber, auto dealership, HVAC tech, pool guy, personal lawyer, accountant, etc.…  The consumer wants to do business with someone who knows their preferences.  There is no reason why a candidate can’t see a talent acquisition professional as “their recruiter”.

 

Revive Candidate Relationship Building

Reviving traditional standard operating procedures that center around relationships with candidates and peers is how tough positions will be filled through the pandemic and beyond. Asking for references and referrals, knowing your candidate’s preferences, leveraging your own network, gathering allies, asking for help, sharing and networking are old-school techniques that are not only free, but take little time to complete.

Our tendency is to run to the internet or post a position when up against the wall on a role is a new problem. There was a reason we used to just hit the phones when we struggled on a position years ago. Because it was free, fast, and it works!

Humans have a tendency to respond for help, so let’s use who we know to our advantage and ask for help. Modern-day crowdsourcing is really just an updated telephone tree.

So, what is the best-case scenario?

I am not advocating that we ONLY use old-school methods to identify and connect with candidates.  There are talent acquisition professionals that take a mix of traditional recruiting methods and combine them with the technology of today. This is ideal, and a healthy way to stay engrossed in our occupation.

The most important thing to think about when recruiting and sourcing today, whether you use technology or not, is to think like the candidate. Refrain from getting caught up in protocol and hype. Speak to your candidate using transparent words.

Try to break the HR Lawyer speak. There are plenty of ways to be truthful without getting sued. And, just listen.

Listen to the candidate, that is the best Sourcing tool available.

Happy Hunting!

Why is personalized candidate nurturing a compelling long-term strategy?

personalized candidate nurturing

Why is personalized candidate nurturing a compelling long-term strategy?

If there is one must-have skill for a recruiter, it is long-term candidate nurturing. Candidate nurturing should be a recruiter’s routine operation. 

It is a set of techniques that keeps the candidate engaged throughout the recruitment and, subsequently, a more personalized communication process. A nudge here, a wink there – just to keep yourself around on their mind.

In addition to that, candidate nurturing helps to stay in touch with the candidates who passed on the pitch or didn’t receive the offer. 

After all, that wasn’t the only position you are working on. There are more opportunities to come, and it is better to have a couple of viable candidates warmed up just in case.

 

Benefits of long-term candidate nurturing

Here’s why long-term candidate nurturing is beneficial for recruiters:

  • The candidate comes back and applies for another position. That’s the direct aftermath of long-term nurturing. 
  • You can consult with the passive candidate regarding various topics – ranging from technical advice to discussing the new Deftones album.
  • A passive candidate can refer to other job seekers who might be interested in the position.

But how to do it, right? One word: personalization.

 

Why Personalization is the key

At this point, the term “personalization” in recruitment almost seems like a cliche. Everyone talks about it. But mass sendings of template messages persist. Recruiters still keep on “misremembering” the candidates’ names when copypasting the “nurturing” messages. 

However, when you act like a human being and genuinely interested in the person beyond being a candidate – in one way or another, it actually pays off. 

Here’s why:

  • You build a trustworthy relationship with the candidate;
  • You can have interesting conversations on common topics;
  • You can consult the candidate in a variety of ways. In return, the candidate may help you out.

For example, by referring to a viable specialist or straightening overly complicated position requirements without making them too general.

 

How to personalize candidate communication?

1. Explore candidates interests, needs, and requirements

Just like building a stable social relationship, you need to get to know a person. In the context of recruiting, that’s like a reconnaissance – gather as much information as possible to understand what is engaging for the person. 

How to do it? We live in a digital age, and there is a lot of available information. Take a close look at social networks, what the candidate is posting or commenting on, what kind of thing they like or agree with. This kind of stuff. Such things as expressed interest or visiting events are also telling.

Also, take a look at the candidate’s portfolio, GitHub, or Behance. Even such little things as dropping interesting links “for inspiration” can mean the world for the person.

Gradually, you will be able to determine the requirements the candidate has for the position. You will understand what drives him to achieve and grow, what aspects can motivate him to consider switching jobs and applying for a position.

 

2. Keep consistent communication.

No one likes it when they are treated as a commodity. That’s the big problem with candidate nurturing. Recruiters are writing to potential candidates only when they want something from them and never just ask how they are doing. This approach isn’t going to get you far.

Instead, it is better to keep casual conversations that are just that – casual conversations.  Yes, it is time-consuming, but writing a message once in a while regarding something of common interest is the right way of keeping things warm.

And then, when the opportunity knocks, you can slip in a position pitch and gets things moving. 

When the pitch is endorsed by a person who the candidate knows and trusts, there are more chances that they will apply than when it is a cold pitch.

 

3. Assist and ask for assistance

You know, “scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” Casual conversations are the informal side of the coin. There is also a formal one. After all, recruitment is not the only thing you can do with the candidates. 

Some viable specialists won’t apply for one reason or another but can assist you in your job by consulting or referring to other candidates. The latter is networking in action. People appreciate this kind of help, and ultimately it may pay off.

However, to get there, you need to do the groundwork with casual conversations and building trust – otherwise, you won’t be taken seriously;

Asking for a professional opinion further develops a social relationship built on respect and help;

However, in this case, giving is more important than taking. Thus, it is always a good idea to consult a potential candidate regarding any professional topics.  

I often consult candidates past and present regarding soft skills, especially during an interview, and showcase the stronger sides and mitigate the weaker ones. 

 

Conclusion

So that’s my take on personalization in candidate nurturing. While it’s not rocket science, it takes an effort to get it right and make genuine connections with candidates that pay in various ways.

Veterans Day 2020: How to Improve Your Veteran Recruiting Efforts

veterans day 2020

How to Improve Your Veteran Recruiting Efforts

Believe it or not, we’re well into Q4 2020. What a year this has been. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these (dare I say it?) unprecedented times. From this point forward, this will be a COVID-free zone. I know we can all use a little break from that topic! Today, November 11th is Veterans Day.

In addition to honoring your Veteran employees, now is a great time to analyze your current Veteran recruiting efforts and start planning for next year. If you’re not an Affirmative Action employer, you may be unfamiliar with the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), a federal law that prohibits discrimination in employment against Veterans.

VEVRAA does the math for us every year – what a beautiful thing – and establishes a hiring benchmark goal based on the Veterans in the civilian labor force. The most recently established hiring benchmark goal set for Veterans was 5.7%. If you were unsure of what you should be aiming for with Veteran hiring, now you have your answer!

If you are an Affirmative Action employer, it’s important to remember that this is a GOAL, not a quota. You will not be monetarily penalized for not meeting this goal. Of course, everyone is more than welcome to shoot for the stars if you’re an overachiever like me!

 

How do you find Veteran Applicants?

Now that we know what we should be aiming for, how do we generate more Veteran applicants? Great question. There are plenty of vendors and sourcing options, but I won’t get into that here.

If you haven’t made local connections with Local Veterans’ Employment Representatives (LVERs) and Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program (DVOPs), that’s a great place to start. These individuals are specialists who have dedicated their careers to supporting Veterans transitioning into and growing within the workforce after their service.

You can find plenty of free resources for developing your Veteran recruiting strategy along with ways to find LVERs and DVOPs in your area here.

 

Achieve your Diversity Goals

Outside of obvious reasons to hire Veterans, improving your Veteran hiring can actually improve your diversity hiring. Say what?! If you want to do a little light reading (that’s sarcasm – it’s 110 pages), you can check out this Minority Veterans Report. I’ve pulled some highlights from the report for you to save you some time.

If you need to build a business case for additional Veteran hiring resources, bringing attention to the intersectionality of Veteran goals + Diversity goals should ring clear to your executive team.

To emphasize, diversity extends beyond race and gender. Hiring Veterans can also help achieve your diversity goals related to age, disability status, and more.

  • 5 million Veterans in the United States and Puerto Rico were minorities. Minorities represented about 22.6 percent of the total Veteran population in 2014.
  • In 2014, 52.0 percent of minority Veterans were Black non-Hispanic, compared with 32.0 percent of non-Veteran minorities.
  • The median age of minority Veterans in 2014 was 55, compared with 39 for non-Veteran minorities.
  • In August 2019, 4.7 million Veterans (25% of the total) had a service-connected disability.

 

Translate Skillset

One of the biggest sticking points for a recruiter or hiring manager can be trying to translate military experience to the experience we’re looking for in an applicant. There’s no need to get into the weeds trying to determine what type of military experience equates to a 3-5 year requirement on a specific job description. Instead, I’ve found it helpful to focus more on the soft skills that a Veteran developed during their service.

If you reflect upon the challenges our Veterans face during their time in service and the different types of skills they had to learn and develop to overcome those challenges, it’s easy to recognize how skills like adaptability, dependability, problem-solving, leadership, and more translate to almost any civilian career.

With this in mind, here’s a great (short) Youtube video if you need a little more inspiration!

 

Closing

Finally, I’ll leave you with this. Regardless of your views on the military, hiring Vets is the right thing to do.

They put their lives on the line for our country. We need to support them to succeed in their next chapter of life. I’m sure you’ve all seen a ton of your friends on social media participating in the 22 Pushup Challenge to raise awareness about Veteran suicide rates.

In fact, providing stable employment opportunities to our Veterans is a great way to bring some stability to their lives after their service. The Unemployment Rate for Veterans has been on a downward trend, so we’re all headed in the right direction.

Happy Recruiting!

 

 

Focus on the Workplace

return to a traditional office workspace

Focus on the Workplace: Returning to a Traditional Office

Although many jobs may remain remote, certain jobs will eventually return to a traditional office workspace environment. How will this affect the many employees that will be returning to the workforce? According to the American Psychological Association, returning to work will be challenging for both businesses and employees.

It would be conceivable to assume that many of the workers would enjoy returning to the workforce and being surrounded by colleagues. Regaining social interaction and a sense of familiar surroundings may improve the employee’s psychological health.

Some employees will be apprehensive. The “traditional” workplace will most likely not be organized in the same manner. This alone can cause stress on the individual since they may not adjust to change well.

Employees that have been accustomed to working their own schedule may also have difficulty adapting to a structured work routine. Additionally, there will be new rules and regulations put in place that the employee will be expected to follow. Other concerns may surface, such as how the changes can affect the employee’s health and well-being, getting back to a routine, or personal issues outside the workplace due to the pandemic.

 

Advance Preparation

Organizations should prepare in advance for these concerns and provide guidance, coaching, and special programs to allow employees to adjust to returning to the workplace. Even with a structured plan of action in place, some businesses may need assistance in implementing the measures.

One consideration would be to bring in an outside party that is skilled in solving complex problems in the workplace. Industrial-Organizational Psychologists, also known as I-O Psychologists, are trained professionals that study the science of human behavior in the workplace and develop methods to assist in organizational and employee improvement.

I-O Psychologists assist leaders in developing effective management skills and methods to strengthen employee engagement. They can assist in helping employees adjust to new work protocols and mediate issues with work-life balance.

Some large companies have an in-house I-O Psychologist to assist in developing ongoing organizational development processes and training programs for the organization. They work with human resources and are familiar with the specific needs of the organization.

In this situation, the I-O psychologist can work directly with HR, managers, and the employees in developing these training plans. The training program may assist in formulating a process for a well-organized transition into the “new work environment.”

If it is a smaller company or large organization that is seeking to improve a single department, it may be best for the organization to hire an outside I/O Consultant to assist in the organizational development process.

I-O Psychologists have several methods of assessing employees and leaders to determine the needs of the organization.

 

Formulate a Transition Plan

The first step in formulating a plan to transition employees into the new workspace would be to learn about the organization and its workers. Each workplace is unique and is a mixture of different personalities and cultures. One method of approaching the situation is to perform assessments that would provide the organization with the current situation in the workplace.

Several assessments are available to the consultant. Many are proprietary, while others can be created by an experienced I-O psychologist depending on the particular needs of the department. The assessments can measure constructs such as personality, job satisfaction, employee engagement, and emotional intelligence.

Once the analysis is performed, an intervention can be designed to develop a strategy in dealing with the employees’ post-pandemic adjustment.

Interventions can be in the form of coaching, consulting, or specific training for the employees and leaders. The I-O professional can approach the situation through a coaching process.  Through interviews, devise a plan to bring the organization closer together and try to resolve issues that occur throughout the transition.

In this sense, the employees will be able to work as a team together in adjusting to the workplace and working toward congruency among the employees.

Job satisfaction has been shown to have a significant relationship with other powerful outcomes in the workplace for both the employee and the organization.

 

Summary

In summary, transitioning workers to the workplace after COVID-19 will be a challenge to businesses. An I-O psychologist can assess the workplace to develop a plan that can ensure that is aligned with the specific needs of the organization. The hopeful result is a healthy work environment that encourages job satisfaction, emotional intelligence, and employee engagement.

This can assist with a smoother transition back to the office environment. An I-O psychologist is also effective for other situations that affect the workplace.

Many organizations are not aware of the benefits associated with the process of Industrial-Organizational Psychology and how it can be used to help in enhancing the workforce.

Virtual Engagement Best Practices

virtual engagement best practices

Virtual Engagement Best Practices

Before COVID-19, there were several companies already leading the way with their virtual recruitment strategies. But now, more and more companies are being required to actively recruit, hire, and onboard without ever meeting candidates face to face. Recruitment resources are decreasing for many due to the economic impacts of the pandemic. So, many are turning to virtual recruiting as a way to fill their talent pipelines and to hire top-quality candidates. All without attending in-person events.

There is good news. Thanks to technology, making the shift to virtual recruitment strategies is easier than you might think. When meeting with candidates physically isn’t possible, using technology is a great way to build those relationships using virtual candidate engagement.

You will be able to expand your talent pool with virtual candidate engagement. You’ll also cut costs, save time, and hire quality candidates faster. Filling vacancies with quality talent as fast as possible is the end goal for everyone.

When looking to build relationships with candidates without meeting them physically, it’s important to keep in mind these virtual candidate engagement best practices. They will help engage a wider candidate pool. Here are several tips to ensure you’re building successful candidate relationships virtually, without being physically present.

 

  1. Know your candidates’ communication preferences.

Meeting your audience where they are is a critical part of building a virtual candidate engagement strategy.

In Yello’s 2019 Recruiting Study, they learned that each generation has specific communication preferences. As an example, Gen Z’s preferred communication method is email (like most generations). But, they’re also more likely than other generations to prefer video calls.  

It is recommended to keep in mind industry benchmarks as well as your own company’s recruiting KPIs. They can help you determine which virtual channels are the most engaging for your candidate pool. Using data to tell the story is always a great idea.

Knowing open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement rates will help determine which communication channels are best for your target audience.

 

  1. Use social media to virtually create your employer brand.

Building a virtual presence with candidates through social media is a great way to engage talent. Especially through networks like LinkedIn where job seekers are actively searching for opportunities. Knowing the social media channels most utilized by your target audience is additionally important when branding virtually. This is why it’s important to use multiple social networks.

To connect with candidates on social media, you’ll want to prioritize shareable and interesting content. Consider how you can use storytelling to strengthen your employer brand with photos and videos. Let your current employees share why they enjoy working for the company and the opportunities they have been provided.

 

  1. Obtain a balance between mass marketing campaigns and personalized messages.

Recruiters successful at building a powerful employer brand know when to use marketing campaigns to interact with talent. They know when to use one-to-one emails, phone calls, or other communication methods.

While every organization and candidate pool is unique, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a decent mix between both methods of communication. No one wants to receive mass email branding and personal messages from a recruiter daily so, coordination is key. Because you will be connecting with candidates virtually, you don’t want to overwhelm them with too many separate communications.

Getting creative with employer branding campaigns can make all the difference. The utilization of email and text messages throughout the process (and post-interview) can help candidates stay engaged and informed all along the way.

 

  1. Host virtual open houses and job fairs.

If “meet and greets” are a part of your recruitment strategy, you can still do them, just virtually. Many candidates consider it a “must” when considering a prospective employer so they can learn more about a company. Live video conferencing meetings where you invite prospective candidates to do virtual office tours, “meet” your hiring managers, and have Q&A sessions with various team members are all great ways to interact with talent. 

 

  1. Lean toward one-to-one communications to ensure you are effectively building relationships.

Candidates will likely be thrilled to hear from you in any format. With a larger virtual recruiting strategy, you should lead towards more personalized messages.

Even Gen Z candidates still prefer face-to-face communication over digital methods. So giving candidates virtual “face time” with as many personal conversations as possible can make all the difference. These face-to-face conversations can help candidates feel connected to your brand throughout the process, and help your recruiters build more effective candidate relationships.

 

  1. Start the process with phone interviews.

Screening candidates with promising resumes or who have shown interest in your company continues to be a significant step toward finding good candidate matches. Starting with a phone interview allows the recruiter to learn as much as they can about the individual and determine if it’s someone they want to pursue. At that point setting up a second more in-depth conversation via a webcam is a great next step.

 

  1. Become comfortable with video interviews.

While many companies are already used to doing video interviews, some still need to shift their views. Many times, you’re seeing people in their home environment rather than a conference room. As a result, it provides a unique opportunity to make the interview experience more personal. You can get to know the person before you even get to their competencies because video allows you to see parts of their life you otherwise wouldn’t have.

For example, you might notice something on their desk, an inspirational quote, or art hanging in the background that can spark a conversation related to the company’s values or culture. For many companies, this can be an uncomfortable way of interviewing. It is a strong suggestion that people practice conducting video interviews and hiring managers are trained in video interviewing if they haven’t done so before.

Virtual interviews also have the benefit of being recorded so other team members who are not in the meeting can review and share their feedback. This can help with any scheduling conflicts and can eliminate the need for too many interview rounds with various stakeholders.

 

  1. Keep in mind legal considerations.

In many ways, the same legal issues are raised with virtual interviews as with traditional recruitment methods. However, video interviews leave a digital footprint that can show up in courtrooms more easily. When it comes to maintaining a legal hiring process, interview questions must not violate EEOC guidelines.

As with traditional recruitment strategies, employers should work with human resource professionals and employment lawyers to ensure that interviewing techniques and questions are lawful and appropriate. It’s important to make sure the interviewers and decision-makers are trained in non-discrimination practices. An innocent mistake could still have dire consequences for your company.

 

  1. Be prepared for remote onboarding.

Onboarding in a virtual environment can absolutely work. Companies that hire and manage remote workers do it successfully all the time. If you haven’t done it before, the notion of a new person starting without ever coming into an office and meeting with a team in person might be uncomfortable.

Having a solid plan about what your new hire will do on their first day, during their first week, and during week two is important to ensure success. Make sure new hires have a thorough welcome email with details on where they can find important information, as well as everything they need from HR.

Setting up virtual meetings with team members and managers, and ensuring that all technology and tools are ready to go on day one allows for a smooth start.

 

  1. Keep your process consistent.

Just because the medium is changing doesn’t mean you should change your entire hiring process. It’s important to ask the same questions that you would ask in a traditional interview setting. While also allowing for a bit more personalization that may happen as a result of the intimate setting of the person’s home.

Virtual recruitment strategies are an important tool in the toolbox. The benefits are numerous to count. They include helping companies hire workers from all over the world without having to worry about flying people in for meetings (reducing costs). Minimizing exposure to potentially unsafe environments due to the pandemic. And allowing scheduling flexibility when multiple stakeholders are involved allowing for a quicker hiring process. 

 

Where is Social Media Going Next?

Is The Quartet of Candidate Research & Engagement “Dying”?

where is social going next

LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Most recruiters know this quartet well as places where we can go to “learn” about candidates or connect with them in their network(s) of choice. (Maybe you add Github, Stackoverflow, Behance, and Dribbble to the mix if you’re a technical recruiter). But, are there other social networks on the horizon that we should be looking at?

For a moment, just think about how many people have sworn off Facebook. Perhaps due to increasing and widely recognized reasons for leaving the platform. There are concerns with its echo chamber effects, avoiding time-wasting and procrastination, and the negative psychological effects of perpetual social comparison. You’d think that maybe the platform was shrinking. Instead, something else is happening.

Over time, a large share of users on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter stopped creating new content and updating profiles. Many of these users also gradually shifted their content consumption from immediate friends to professional authors.

Particularly, this may be caused by an increased “quality bar” for passing algorithmic feed filters and drives everyday users to find new places to create and share “low effort” content. Some of that content creation energy is going to chat communities on Slack and Discord. Plus, close friends-and-family chats on WhatsApp and Telegram.

 

Are “Tribe Chats” on the Rise?

Chats for families and other close-together small social groups are on the rise. As the first generations of digital natives get older, starting and growing families, they move everyday content creation and sharing from public feeds and direct messages to private family chats and other small groups, typically sized between 2 and 20 people.

This creates a safe space where you can be yourself and not fight for any vanity metrics. People who aren’t yet on any tribe chats are feeling left out and are actively looking to join or start one. Specialized platforms like Cocoon and new experiments from majors like Instagram Threads were recently launched to serve this use case.

 

Users Are on Their Own Journey

Many apps that started as social networks in a narrow sense (connecting friends) and messengers over time became media networks. At the start, most of their content and activity were created by friends. Now, the usage is driven more and more by high-effort individual creators (premium UGC) and brands.

This pattern can be seen in individual user journeys. And, as it happens, it has effects on where people, our candidates, are engaging and responding.

Early in life, our social life is based on proximity as we mostly consume content from people nearby. People in the same class, school, and community. As we grow and progress in our careers, those early life connections get weaker. People move to new places and develop specialized, narrowed interests.

As a result, the content of friends becomes less and less relevant. This leads to resetting the media diet from “friends-first” to “interests-first.” And to prioritizing quality of content over relationship with the author. YouTube and Reddit (hat tip to Erin Matthew) are well-established networks primarily serving interest-based consumption. Telepath is also a prominent new player in that space.

 

Preparing for the Decline

While the decline is sharper among younger users for the four major social networks, particularly Facebook, there’s never been a better time to invest in alternative social networks and messengers. Yes, Facebook usage is in decline, perhaps in a mid-life crisis of sorts that could benefit LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

A recent study from the research firm eMarketer says young adults are leaving Facebook faster than expected, with its user base among all user groups predicted to shrink by 3.4 percent – or nearly 14.5 million users.

The prediction marks the first time eMarketer has forecast a decline in Facebook usage for any age group. The firm also says they estimate usage among young adults “will grow more slowly than previously forecast.” Overall, the largest social media site saw a decline in usage, from 67 to 62 percent of its American audience. The decline puts the social media platform back to 2015 usage levels.

However, while the shrinkage is bad news for Facebook, it could be a boon for more networks and different messengers.