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Virtual Virtuosos and the Masters of Virtual Work

For 25 years I have been finding top-performing, niche talent. Most of that time has been supporting global financial institutions along with several visionaries in fintech. I have sourced professionals in just about all functions and professional levels-from high revenue sales leaders, to the most technically innovative Imagineers.

Coming from “old school” retained search has given me what I think is an advantage over my peers even a few years younger than me, and taught me that still even with all this tech, nothing beats talking to people and forming relationships.

I got good at sourcing passive, hard to move candidates, and bringing them to the table. After several wins of bringing 8 figure revenue producers to a few of my banking clients, I started to be called “The Hired Gun.” Because I was reliably on target, expensive and always got the job done. Always.

Despite my sterling track record and 20 or so recommendations on LinkedIn, I found it disheartening that even many HR and recruiting peers found it hard to believe that I worked from home for almost all of my career. And yet was the “Hired gun.”

Until recently, employers had a general reluctance to hire virtually. Fearful that there would be many distractions affecting productivity, or believing that we would abuse the “freedom” and “screw around all day.”

I even had a few of my bosses that held daily 7:30 AM team meetings on my account to make sure the guy working at home was at least awake if she had to be on her way to work. Yet when asked in interviews with prospective clients what the key reason was for my success, I would always answer: Working virtually.

A Sudden Leap of Faith

COVID suddenly forced companies to take a leap of faith, and I would lie if I said there were not challenges. Of course, there are always going to be those employees that are not the most productive of the bunch. And in those cases, their fears were realized. But to their surprise, the overwhelming majority have done okay.

As a matter of fact, they are doing pretty good, and in many instances productivity has blown the roof off.

The Harvard Business Review published an article just this past May amidst the COVD Crisis entitled, “The Pandemic Has Exposed the Fallacy of the “Ideal Worker.” Curiosity got them to take a look at the new virtual worker, citing a 2013 article on the topic. When employers were starting to grasp the concept, but still having problems with that leap of faith.

And what did they find? Now that we all work from home, almost all our productivity is up!  Some may say that it’s because we have been quarantined and have nothing else to do. However, further survey questions revealed we spend more time learning and researching topics of interest. While at the same time taking more initiative (not less as old school management has long held true) in completing our work and checking the quality of work.

And that need for an office to drive productivity and keep people on task? Evidently, that was a fallacy too.

Work-Life Integration

As team-oriented and exciting as an office environment can be, it is often the home of distraction, cliquish behavior, and unnecessary rivalry. All of which inhibit performance, morale and productivity. With the introduction of particular technologies and software such as project and team management apps, managers are becoming more comfortable with the fact that they don’t have to have an eye on each of their team members every moment of every day.

I am most productive when my day is a mix of work-related responsibilities and personal commitments. Soon, they are going to realize what I have been living for over 20 years:  The work-life balance is becoming work-life integration.

I have learned to schedule my personal affairs as part of my day. I understand that it is always my responsibility to be there when my customers (internal or external) need me to be. It is also my responsibility to be available whenever my team members, subordinates or superiors, require my input.

It is expected that I’ll be productive and get my work done, and before the deadline. I will be 100% transparent and ask for help if I need it. It doesn’t matter, therefore, if I had a personal appointment during the business day. Or, if I have to take my kid to the doctor. Or if I get distracted for 20 minutes taking care of a little family drama that each of us has from time to time.

Employers are learning that it’s better to allow folks to handle personal matters as they come up during the day and get done with them so that they can get back to work. Better yet: if one knows these are coming, we can schedule them around our urgent work tasks and meetings so that we don’t miss a beat for our customers.

Most people find they can handle personal matters and duties quickly and effectively when a productive home office is available. Think about how many times have you had to take half a day off work because the cable guy can only give you an appointment that’s a four-hour window. Or the repair person for the washing machine can only promise they’ll be out sometime on Thursday. And then they cancel and ask to reschedule!

These are huge holes in our work schedule that when we are not set up to work from home, our productivity is disrupted. That 20-minute conference with the school teacher can take up most of the morning of work.

Measuring Productivity, Not Time

Thanks to COVID, Work/Life balance has sped up Work/Life integration. That means employers accepting that we all have personal lives and responsibilities that need to be addressed. It also means believing that capable and committed employees are going to make sure that their commitment to their employer and customers is complete. No matter how late they have to work. The notion that they can be kept entirely separate is unrealistic. It always has been. But now that our office is right down the hall to our bedroom, it’s impossible.

We as Talent Acquisition professionals need to be strong voices of this new paradigm and take the time to educate our anxious Hiring Managers and executive leadership of how this is going to affect what we consider to be a typical workday.

Productivity is going be measured by tasks achieved, the quality of work, projects completed and most importantly, customer satisfaction. Instead of how many hours and which hours we sat behind a desk, on the telephone or behind our computer.

Most of us know we are at our best when trusted and left to do our work with pride. And most of us ask for help when we get in over our heads. Hiring managers roles shift to the support, the coach, the life raft when deadlines must get met.

This is the new paradigm shift that we as talent acquisition professionals face, in helping our hiring managers feel comfortable with hiring the “right” people onto their teams who they’ve never had an opportunity to meet face-to-face. It is also our responsibility to help our new employees adjust to this new normal of integrating their daily lives with their work life.

Tapping Into Hidden Skills and Wisdom

Companies had already been moving to help employees manage and grow their skills so that they can have more agile contributions. We are going to find that as we learn more about our employees as people and not just task doers, that they are a store of all sorts of hidden skills, experiences and wisdom, that we were never able to tap in the typical office environment.

This will allow companies to embrace that more agile approach and find ways to truly capitalize on employee strengths and abilities while creating solid career paths and never before realized job satisfaction. All this trickles down to happier customers, which translates into more business!

Add to that the savings of not spending millions on expensive office space and companies are going to be kicking themselves in the pants that they didn’t embrace the idea of the virtual virtuosos years ago.

4 Easy Ways Staffing Firms Can Prepare for Post COVID-19

4 Easy Ways Staffing Firms Can Prepare for Post COVID-19

In the next month, my workforce will start transitioning back to the office. The operations team is observing every one of the CDC’s guidelines to ensure every employee feels safe. And yet, as we take these precautions, the message is clear: the era of “after COVID” has begun. 

What this means for business is unclear. Stocks performed well throughout the summer, but experts are now predicting the “real recession” is underway. Hiring is less than half of what we thought it would be by now, and there aren’t clear signs that things will improve. 

Faced with this outlook, it’s difficult to know how businesses can prepare for our new “after COVID” era. What will cutting costs look like? How can such an overcrowded industry compete for so few job reqs? But if I had to take a guess, I’d suggest: 

1. Use your ATS as a business management tool. Every staffing firm has an ATS, and most also have business management platforms as well. Well, an easy way to cut costs is to use your ATS as a business management tool. With such advanced tech, ATS’s can easily be repurposed like this. Most include built-in CRMs and SMS integrations. Now is the right time to take advantage of these advancements and consolidate resources. 

2. Take advantage of remote work. Remote work was an option before COVID hit, but it certainly wasn’t mainstream. Most companies still insisted that their employees report to an office, which meant potential candidates were limited by geography. But now, 82% of business leaders are planning to continue remote work, even after the pandemic. That means businesses can access the best talent literally anywhere. Geography is no longer a barrier.

3. Leverage your current workforce. When recruiters had to adapt to new work environments overnight, some responded well and some didn’t. Talk to your managers and see which recruiters and which sales reps excelled in this period of transition. Then, give those employees the resources they need for success. Data from TechServe Alliance shows that high performing recruiters & salespeople yield a 6x higher profit than their low performing counterparts. That means identifying these performers, and letting them work, is key to your profitability.

4. Minimize your basic costs. Every company has two basic expenses: its employees’ salaries and its software. Most firms have already made cuts to their workforce. But another option may be re-evaluating your ATS. A recent third-party industry survey ranked the current ATS marketplace, pointing out which systems were best for cost savings (and which weren’t). In such uncertain times, it’s always best to be conservative, and cutting back on ATS subscription fees is a good place to start.

We can only hope that the economy will recover quickly from this pandemic—that hiring will go up and our industry will resume its normal pace. But in the meantime, staffing firms have to face the reality that things may be difficult for the foreseeable future. And they have to prepare accordingly.

Find IT candidates with CandyJar Chrome Extension

We have another tool available for candidate sourcing, and this one has been developed specifically for finding IT candidates. The tool is available as a free Chrome extension, offered by candyjar.io. This tool helps you search for developers by source code assessment on GitHub and integrates into LinkedIn.

 

How to use CandyJar

Install the Chrome Extension and then create an account. It’s free to sign up and you get unlimited access for 7 days before reverting to the free account. After installation, you can either use their search through the tool’s site or launch the app dashboard from the extension menu:

Within the tool find developer and technical candidates through a location search, filtered by skillsets. Candidate search results will include links to other social profiles, as well as contact information where available. Save to your ATS or print/download a PDF of their profile.

While browsing or searching on LinkedIn, you will find a CandyJar button on profile pages as well as during search. Click the Similar Candidates button from a candidate’s profile as well to search for individuals with a similar profile and skill set. The extension will do this with GitHub profiles as well.

 

candyjar linkedin

 

This tool is in the process of new feature development. CandyJar is something to check out, especially with their offer of free all access for 7 days. Learn more on their website or their help center.

Librarians Make Great Sourcers

Librarians Make Great Sourcers

At an increasing rate, leaders connect with me to ask about the characteristics and skills that make up a great Sourcer. We are at a point in Sourcing maturity, especially in healthcare, where leaders are recognizing that the Recruiters they tried to train as Sourcers, are struggling to succeed.

There are exceptions of course.  Some Recruiters have really taken to the Sourcing role, using the same communication and marketing skills they learned as recruiters in a new Sourcing role. But the majority of new Sourcers are learning all too late of the prerequisites required to be successful in the job.

What then, does it take to be a savvy Sourcer? I confess this is arguable based upon the industry and leadership mentoring style. I can only tell you what life was like for me as a sourcing practitioner, and what life is like for my clients fraught with setting up thriving sourcing teams. The following list of traits is not all-inclusive, but a guide to help leaders understand the role requirements more thoroughly.

 

Curiosity

I note this characteristic first.  A Sourcer must have the inquisitiveness of a three-year-old to question, why, why, why? The Sourcing role is an independent position. A recruiter has structured workflows and boxes to check off in the ATS.  The Sourcer doesn’t have such a prescribed plan.

The Sourcer must be able to ask their own questions and follow up on their own hunches. Think about a bill collector skip tracer.  Their job is to find where a debtor lives and works so they can collect a debt.  They scour the internet, search for clues, and follow up on those clues without instruction.  The same could be said of police detectives.

This identical sort of prying interest is what solves a case. The Sourcer behaves in much the same way as the detective or skip tracer. Following sets of clues without instruction, but with initiative, is imperative to finding the right candidate fit.

 

Organization

I always tell people that I am a better curator of research than I am at sourcing.  An English major, librarian, or another individual with a background in custodian data will do well in a sourcing role. Sourcers are stewards of information.

No matter what position you are sourcing for, I can tap into my sourcing catalog and find the right inventory needed for the hunt. Individuals who don’t excel in this area will constantly be asking you the same questions repeatedly because they fail to keep this array of inventory at the ready.

I can not stress enough the frustration of a Sourcer who regularly forgets their tools.

 

Love for Repetition

The sourcing role is doing the same thing over and over again and loving every minute of it. Sure, there are different resources and candidates to talk to that help to break the day up.  But have you ever tried performing research for eight straight hours? It is exhausting. It takes time to train your eyes to the strain and your brain to the deluge of information.

The individual that masters this level of activity does well navigating the echo in the role of a Sourcer.

 

Advisor

A common hesitation from Recruiters turned Sourcers is that they will miss the personal relationships with their candidates. I honestly do not know how this could be possible.  I am way more engaged in candidates’ lives, and for a much longer time frame as a Sourcer than I ever was as a Recruiter.

The wooing period for a Sourcer can last for months, and sometimes years. In that time frame, I have had countless calls and touchbases with a candidate on their needs for a new role and dream position. I have become passionate about their wants; I generally find out more about their family and background during this time as well.

It once took me twelve years to find one candidate their ideal new position.  I realize that is an exception.  But more ofttimes than not, when a Sourcer connects with a passive candidate, they have a checklist of items they need to be met before a job change can be made.

The Sourcer guides that checklist and advises on the best ways to achieve their goals faster. The Sourcer role remains intimate with the candidate and heightens the role of the counselor. At least it does if you are doing it right.

I realize this is all just empirical and anecdotal evidence and not at all scientific. I am sure there is a strength finder guide out there that will tally up all the desirable traits of a Sourcer on a more academically acceptable scale.  In the meantime, I hope this helps in choosing the right candidate for the role.  It truly is an inspiring and rewarding career. Happy Hunting.

Who Is Struggling the Most at Work?

Who Is Struggling the Most at Work?

Hibob Study Reveals Which Employee Groups Have Experienced Significant Mental Health and Job Satisfaction Declines

The survey reveals that men and employees in management positions are grappling less with mental health and job satisfaction issues than women and individual contributors.

 

NEW YORK – October 8, 2020 – People management platform Hibob unveils the results of its latest workplace study, showing that a majority of U.S. employees have been suffering from a mental health decline since the start of the pandemic.

While the decline is apparent across the board, data indicates that individual experiences are shaped by gender, age, personal environment, and role at work. These factors impact productivity levels and rates of mental health decline and feelings of job satisfaction and security.

“As companies continue to power through the pandemic, they cannot ignore their role in supporting employees who are struggling, and must take action to address them,” said Ronni Zehavi, CEO at Hibob. “With the unpredictability of the future, it’s important for leaders to support its people.

Transparency up and down the organization is paramount to creating a strong culture, and HR teams must strive to maintain genuine ongoing engagement and communication with employees. Without open communication, the struggles employees are facing maygo unrecognized, which could impact their productivity and job satisfaction, and therefore, the organization overall.”

 

The Disproportionate Decline of Mental Health and Wellness

A vast majority of employees (93%) have seen a direct impact from COVID – either from personal or family illness, or changes to their financial situation due to the economic environment. When experiencing these external changes, employee satisfaction dropped by 27%, and mental health and wellbeing dropped a staggering 33%.

While both economic and physical health played a role in influencing employees’ mental health, Hibob’s survey reveals that changes to someone’s financial situation – such as a layoff or change in employment status – weigh the most heavily on Americans, decreasing mental health in 11% of workers.

On the other hand, less than three percent of those who contracted COVID-19 or had a family member fall ill saw a decline in their mental health.

Hibob’s study also looked into discrepancies between mental health and wellbeing among employees in management positions versus employees who are not managers (individual contributors). This revealed a 22% decline in mental health for individual contributors; 65% of individual contributors ranked their mental health as good or great before the pandemic, compared to just 43% now.

Alternately, those in management positions only saw a 12% decline in mental health since the onset of the pandemic. Additionally, 57% of those in management positions felt confident in the ability of their firm’s HR teams to address employee wellbeing and mental health, as compared to only 40% of individual contributors.

Data suggests that managers have more trust in HR than employees. Especially in today’s environment, companies must promote transparency to establish trust. By communicating more openly and creating more evident initiatives to support employees at all levels, company leaders and HR teams can fortify confidence regardless of the tumultuous times.

Statistics also show that the mental health of older employees and women has been impacted and is hurting their job satisfaction. Around one-quarter of people 55 and older saw their mental health decline (26%) and became less satisfied with their jobs (24%), whereas only 10% of those aged 18-24 experienced mental health declines.

While analyzing the differences in mental health ratings between men and women, the survey revealed that 10% fewer women rated their mental health at work 4 or 5 as compared to men, which can likely be attributed to the fact that women have been tasked with balancing work while actively caring for children and elderly parents or other circumstances. Additionally, more women (41%) admitted to feeling guilty taking PTO during the pandemic, compared to only 32% of men.

This negative correlation of women’s wellbeing and PTO calls attention to the urgency of addressing mental health on the individual or circumstantial level.

 

The Inequalities of Job Satisfaction and Productivity, Influenced by HR

Since the start of the pandemic, individual contributors have reported lower job satisfaction levels than those who were in management roles. Directly influencing job satisfaction and work from home productivity was HR’s ability to set WFH expectations and address COVID-19 WFH concerns.

While only 54% of individual contributors felt their HR teams have supported and adapted to the pandemic’s effects on the company, a majority (71%) of those in management positions felt HR had done an excellent job communicating and being helpful.

This confidence directly corresponds to job satisfaction, where 18% of individual contributors reported a decline since March, while 10% of managers were similarly impacted. Lastly, a surprising 61% of managers felt very productive while working remotely, whereas less than half (44%) of individual contributors felt productive at home.

Although managers may be under more pressure by company executives, these results indicate a serious need for U.S. companies to audit and reevaluate how they’re setting up individual contributors for success and satisfaction.

When comparing job satisfaction from pre-pandemic to now, 25% of women reported decreased job satisfaction, while 15% of men reported this. Today, roughly half of women (51%) respondents answered they were satisfied with their jobs, and only 11% of women felt their HR teams had set the standard for work from home productivity, compared to 18% of men.

These findings prove that HR must evaluate how to increase job satisfaction for women separately from men, and provide solutions for different groups with different needs, i.e. childcare for women.

 

How can HR teams solve these issues and improve the employee experience?

Data reveals that creating a hybrid work environment can be a successful way for HR to improve job dissatisfaction due to the pandemic. Regardless of gender, age, or role, those whose offices had implemented hybrid work from home/work from office policies reported higher job satisfaction (68% and 65% job satisfaction of 4 or 5 vs. only 45% for employees that do not have a hybrid work policy available).

“As employees continue to work from home and in hybrid models, these findings have proven just how important it is for companies to check in with their staff regarding their mental health. Tools such as Hibob’s survey feature allow companies to gauge how people are doing, feeling, and how HR can provide solutions that address the real needs of employees,” comments Zehavi.

“During this time, many people are distracted in the day-to-day; they forget how disproportionately some are being affected. It is the responsibility of HR and leaders to tackle these issues head-on.”

The national survey was conducted online by Pollfish on behalf of Hibob on August 25, 2020. It includes responses from 1,000 full-time employees, ages 18 and up in the United States.

 

About Hibob

Hibob, the company behind the transformative platform bob, which brings together employees and managers to help them communicate and collaborate more effectively, is dedicated to helping businesses grow their people. Founded in 2015, Hibob understands that as younger generations begin to dominate the workforce, they are creating demand for a new way to manage people for the future of the workplace. bob enables fast-growing companies to attract, excite, retain, and develop their most valuable asset, their people, through data-driven tools. With offices in New York, London, and Tel Aviv, Hibob helps hundreds of businesses worldwide grow their people. www.hibob.com

Potential Biases in Recruitment – A Cheat Sheet

Potential Biases in Recruitment – A Cheat Sheet

To be human is to be biased. It’s impossible to be unbiased. The best you can hope for is to be aware of (many) of your biases so you can mitigate them. 

The reason we have biases is because of how our brain works. We need to make shortcuts. Like seeing a big metal thing coming to us, we have seconds to understand it’s a car and if it hits us, that’s bad. Our automated recognition system in our brain also quickly recognizes an animal as being a cat or a lion and realizing a friend from foe. The problem is with humans it’s not so black and white. It’s used to be when we lived in caves and our tribe had the only people we could genuinely trust, but we’ve evolved. Unfortunately, the algorithm in our brains hasn’t kept up. 

In recruitment, our biases can be a big problem. And not just the stereotyping bias we focus most on when we talk about bias. Stereotyping is the bias where we attribute traits to a person based, well any stereotype. Like women are worse programmers than men. 

 

Other biases

But there are so many. One of the most important in recruitment might just be the just-world hypothesis. This is the reason we believe that a stretch of unemployment is a reason for rejection since if the person was any good, someone would have hired him, right? Or what about the anchoring bias, where the first candidate that applies sets the bar for all others? Or the decoy effect? When you have two different, but equally qualified candidates and a third one applies. That’s similar to one candidate in all aspects but one. All of a sudden the superior candidate to the decoy looks better than the one that was previously considered equal. 

And let’s not forget the Dunning Kruger effect. The incompetent are too incompetent to know they are incompetent and hence speak with much confidence. And as we also see confidence as a sign of competence, this could very well interfere with our ability to hire competent people. 

But what about the in-group favoritism and the out-group homogeneity bias you ask? Yes, very important as well and potential risks in recruitment, as we tend to favor those that are in our in-group, like those that play the same sports or even have kids the same age. And we tend to see all of the out-group as one because, let’s be honest, all developers are socially inept and all bankers are money-grabbing parasites, right? 

 

The list

The list of potential biases goes on and on and on. So I decided, with the help of Dirk Hulsberg to put them all in one place and make cards of all of them. The most important biases that might interfere with your recruitment and a simple example of how they work.  

With this bias cheat sheet, I hope we can all gain a little more insight into our own brain and be more aware of the biases we might have. You can download the entire sheet here. 

 

bias in recruitment

 

Best Practices for Virtual Career Fairs

Best Practices for Virtual Career Fairs

It took a global pandemic to motivate many employers to adopt virtual recruiting strategies and now virtual career fairs are more common than ever. Hosting online recruiting events doesn’t just help keep your recruiters and candidates safe. Virtual career fairs also allow organizations to save tons of time and resources since they are easy to set up, don’t require travel, and can be hosted by just a few team members.

Online recruiting events also tend to attract more serious candidates, giving employers a long list of good reasons to keep using virtual career fairs long into the future.

By following a few best practices, talent acquisition leaders can maximize the many benefits virtual career fairs have to offer, while simultaneously attracting and connecting with more (and better) candidates.

 

Prepare in advance

Preparing for a virtual career fair is quite different than getting ready for an in-person recruiting event, but there are some similarities. What we know about the most successful online recruiting events is that they are the result of careful planning.

Because virtual career fairs are by nature a fast-moving event, it’s ideal for recruiters to prepare answers to the most frequently asked questions from candidates. Many recruiters actually type out responses ahead of time, making it easier to copy and paste replies during chats with curious candidates.

This time-saving strategy helps virtual career fairs move quickly, and shows candidates you’re just as serious about the recruiting process as they are. What kinds of questions should you be prepared to answer? Candidates often want to know about benefits and company culture when they are deciding which potential employers to pursue, so be sure to prepare responses on those topics in addition to questions about the specific job requirements.

Another consideration for prepared responses: keep them as succinct as possible. Many candidates will be joining your virtual career fairs from mobile devices, on which shorter messages are easier to read and respond to. Anything you can do to keep the candidate’s experience a top priority will help your event be more successful.

 

Invite the right candidates

Hosting a virtual career fair for one job title or a group of related job titles is another effective strategy. Build an event that is specific to a unique candidate persona, and use that persona to create custom invitation lists from your candidate database. When you invite candidates, be sure to include enough information for them to come prepared.

Personalize your invitation emails with their name whenever possible, and include information about the format of the event as well as specific tips for preparing. You don’t need to share interview questions in advance, but the more context you give candidates for the conversations they’ll have during a virtual career fair, the better those conversations will be.

 

Use video wherever it makes sense

Job seekers love video, and video is a perfect match for virtual career fairs so be sure to use this valuable medium at appropriate times throughout your virtual career fair process. From the invitation email to welcome videos to one-on-one video interviews, video is the next best thing to meeting in person when it comes to fostering genuine conversations and connections between recruiters and candidates.

As you plan your virtual career fairs, put yourself in the candidate’s seat, and think about how video can help bring the experience to life. And remember, you don’t have to invest in professionally produced videos if that’s not in your budget. Even simple self-recorded videos made with a smartphone can be very effective if the content addresses candidates’ concerns and preferences.

 

Engage in genuine conversations

Just like in-person interviews, candidates who participate in virtual career fairs want to feel valued as individuals. Of course, recruiters should start with standardized questions for consistent candidate experience and to reduce the influence of implicit bias. But it’s also important to be yourself and allow yourself to be curious about candidates.

You want them to feel important and interesting but there are no tricks or shortcuts for getting there. During a virtual career fair, most conversations will begin as a text-based chat so it can be challenging to convey authenticity and genuine interest. However, you’ll have a clear idea after a few messages whether you want to continue the conversation and, if you do, you can invite the candidate to progress to a one-on-one video interview, where you’ll have the benefit of facial expressions and body language to enhance the quality of your conversation and, if all goes well, your relationship too.

 

Communicate after the event

When a virtual career fair ends, candidates should already have a sense of where they stand and what will happen next. Perhaps you already scheduled a phone or video interview with them. Or you’ve let them know you’ll reach out within 7 days if they are selected to advance.

Regardless of what you communicated during an online recruiting event, it’s important to stay in touch after the event has ended. Follow up via email or text (based on candidate preferences) with the next steps. Especially if you’ve scheduled an interview or would like the candidate to take a certain action.

Asking for feedback is another crucial post-event step that many employers overlook. Ideally, you’ll host your virtual career fairs on a platform that automatically sends a feedback questionnaire to participants after each event. Allowing you to collect valuable insights that will help you plan future events.

Don’t forget to communicate with rejected candidates as well. Being ‘ghosted’ is often worse than hearing ‘thanks but no thanks.’ Plus, if you want to keep in touch with a rejected candidate for future job opportunities, sending a quick note after a virtual career fair is an easy way to let them know where they stand.

 

The perfect virtual career fair

In the world of virtual recruiting, there’s no such thing as perfect. You should be continuously improving your strategies and honing your approaches based on what works and what doesn’t. But you can work toward the idea of a perfect virtual career fair by taking all the necessary steps to improve your events. And by prioritizing the candidate experience and making sure that virtual events encourage a real relationship between candidates and recruiters.

We all know that trust is a huge component of each candidate’s decision about their next employer. These best practices help organizations create virtual career fair environments conducive to building trust. Through these strategies, employers can host virtual career fairs that are just as effective (if not more so) than the in-person recruiting events you used to rely on.

 

The Checklist: 6 Ways to Prepare for a Virtual Hiring Event

  1. Prep for the event
    1. VCFs are fast-moving. Have FAQs and questions prepared in advance.
    2. What is your culture like?
  2. Invite the right candidates
    1. Host virtual career fairs that are specific to a unique candidate persona — one job title or group of related job titles, etc. Build custom invitation lists from your candidate database. Tips on what to include in invitation emails (personalization, tips for preparing, the format of the event, etc)
  3. Use video as much as possible [at appropriate times]
    1. Why video is important and what types of video to include (recorded video vs live video)
  4. Engage in genuine conversations
    1. Start with standardized questions for a consistent candidate experience; also be yourself and allow yourself to be curious about candidates. You want them to feel important and interesting but there are no tricks or shortcuts for getting there. Mention how conversations can move from chat to video.
  5. Ensure virtual career fairs are mobile-friendly
    1. Keep chat messages succinct so mobile users can engage easier
  6. Communicate after the event
    1. Follow up with the next steps
    2. Ask for feedback (use a VCF platform that automatically sends a feedback questionnaire)
    3. Don’t forget to communicate with rejected candidates as well

 

The Irrationality of Rational Recruiting

The Irrationality of Rational Recruiting

As the pandemic took hold, many people thought that higher unemployment rates would lead to a deluge of candidates vying for only a few openings. Others recalled the Great Recession when there were hundreds of applicants for every job posted, expecting that 2020 would look and feel almost the same. But it so far it hasn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Many companies are reporting that application numbers are actually down year over year. Or consider the nearly 17,000 Southwest Airlines employees who seemed to surprise leadership when they signed up for leaves of absence or early retirement, rather than wait things out. What gives? 

Many of our theories about the talent market are based on our understanding of supply and demand. Using it, we typically do a pretty good job of anticipating what will happen in the job market because the forces at play are usually constant. After all, everyone wants a job. Until they don’t.

This is an easy trap for people to fall into. Trying to create a narrative based on top-down analysis using general principles and the same sets of assumptions we normally use. But when we don’t recognize that these assumptions have changed, we end up surprised by the results and lead to believe the market is behaving irrationally. 

In ‘uncharted waters,’ it is important to revisit our beliefs and see if they still hold. A good way to do this is to take a bottom-up approach to interpret the job market. Start by looking at what individual people are doing and why they’re doing it. When you extrapolate those specific cases into a trend, we’re more likely to arrive at a valid insight.

But that’s just the beginning. Figuring out the way forward is the tricky part. Especially when it comes to recruiting. But maybe, just maybe, this is the time to go against conventional wisdom and track down the point of destabilization and fix it. 

 

The Heart of the Problem

Back in March of 2020, clinical psychologist Steven Taylor wrote, “The more I read about pandemics, the more I realized that pandemics were essentially psychological phenomena. The more I researched the psychology of pandemics, the more I realized that psychology is important in how society reacts to pandemics. It became apparent that psychology was extremely important in understanding how people cope or react to the threat of pandemic infection.” 

The problem is, few, if any of us, alive today have direct experience living through a pandemic. As a result, we have no idea how to act or what to do under these circumstances. When the human brain doesn’t know how to process what’s happening, people act irrationally. But even within illogical behavior, there’s logic. It’s up to us to identify the underlying actions and organize around what’s happening now. Why is it that during a pandemic, some of the people who wanted jobs before no longer do? 

 

Where Irrational Meets Rational

With uncertainty in mind, we have the opportunity to re-imagine recruiting for pandemic times and beyond.

Starting with how we interpret metrics. For years, we have looked to employment metrics as a bellwether, but there’s usually more hidden below the surface. There are factors at play that aren’t as obvious as, say, a global pandemic. 

Take the “quits rate,” which, according to Reuters, is “viewed by policymakers and economists as a measure of job market confidence.” That figure actually increased to 2.1% in July, up from 1.9% in June. Lydia Boussour, a senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, posits, “More quits during the pandemic are probably a reflection of virus fear and challenges related to childcare given the current weak state of the labor market.”

Note Boussour’s use of the word “probably,” telling us that even her assessment backed by a professional understanding of the numbers isn’t a sure bet.  

 

Getting to the Root

Nothing is guaranteed anymore. And so, while some of the issues are out in the open, we need to acknowledge that applying our old assumptions while trying to rationalize peoples’ behavior won’t necessarily yield the expected results. It’s time to rethink our toolset and how we use it.

This is when metrics become indicators rather than anchors. Particularly that cost per applicant holy grail. Yes, it’s important to know what’s happening and how much we’re spending. But numbers can’t be the end-all, be-all of our recruiting strategy. We need to make space for insecurity. Space for what’s in between the data. 

Of course, this is not to say that we throw out the idea of data-driven recruiting altogether. Instead, we amend our understanding of what this information provides. Data provides critical insights into the health and viability of our efforts. But when there is no rhyme or reason for what’s happening in the world, that can only take us so far.

We need to look at the cost per applicant in today’s context and factor in new variables. If the number of applicants doesn’t correspond with unemployment rates, there’s something else going on. Something else we need to incorporate into our outreach.

At this moment, we need to approach recruiting with flexibility and agility. Evolve with the markets rather than fight to make the pieces fit. 

How to build diversity and avoid bias when hiring remotely

How to build diversity and avoid bias when hiring remotely

2020 has been a turning point for the future of employment. As the coronavirus and shelter-in-place orders swept the globe, companies quickly shifted their stance toward flexible work and adapted recruitment processes to be entirely digital. Yet recruiting diverse candidates from different backgrounds and reducing bias in the hiring process remains a major challenge for HR departments and prospective job seekers.

Until companies can identify and solve the problems with their internal processes, exceptional candidates might be passed over or even discouraged from applying. Here are some areas to consider when reviewing your hiring process:

 

Start with first impressions

Job descriptions, company websites, and employee reviews are the first things prospective candidates read. These first impressions can easily reveal a company’s bias as well as its stance on diversity.

For job posts, this occurs through gendered language with overly “masculine” words. Consider “aggressive, dominant, and competition” versus “feminine” words like “sensitive, intimately, and compassionate” that can reveal a gender bias.

A lack of female, minority groups, LGBT+ employees, especially among senior leadership positions, quickly signifies a lack of advancement opportunities or barriers to promotion. Candidates should see diversity in the company’s representation of itself on an About Us page and on social media.

In addition, current and past employees usually provide in-depth insights into a company’s treatment of unrepresented workers and unveil critical problems. Businesses without proactive diversity and inclusivity policies (and employees who vouch for them) send-up glaring red flags for job seekers. 

Companies can resolve these issues and create more positive impressions by recognizing the problem and following through with real changes. Replace gendered language with gender-neutral words and position titles for an easy yet effective way to appeal to people of all genders.

Remove obstacles to senior positions by having a team of executive leadership that includes female, minority, and LGBT+ leaders. Publicizing diversity in leadership shows action and commitment to diversity as opposed to empty words. Employees who see themselves reflected in leadership are more likely to pursue excellence than those who feel unheard or undervalued.

Finally, and most importantly, spend time and effort to create a more inclusive workplace culture. From leadership down, a strong culture that actively pursues diversity goals is essential. Top candidates can tell when companies genuinely want to do better and when companies only talk about diversity for recruiting purposes.

 

Hire independently of location and time zones

Although remote work and hiring has not solved the problems of bias in recruiting, it has empowered companies to hire talent around the world.

As businesses become efficient in working remotely, a survey found that a majority of tech companies now believe the best person for the job is the right person regardless of location. Respondents in the same survey agreed that people should be entitled to a great career regardless of where they live.

Restricting recruitment based on location in a remote-first era will cost companies the opportunity to access a growing global talent pool and the creative benefits of a diverse workforce. 

While time differences may sound challenging, savvy companies know how to manage — and the benefits are more than worth the effort. One solution is to adopt asynchronous workflows, an approach in which employees work independently and prioritize documentation to improve collaboration.

Instead of having employees chase offline coworkers or schedule unnecessary meetings, asynchronous workflows have employees work uninterrupted, document everything, and pass it to their teammates before moving on to the next task.

Using this strategy overcomes the challenges of time differences, reduces conflict, and builds better teamwork between employees. This flexible style of working can be especially helpful for parents who juggle work and childcare responsibilities as students attend school online. By helping parents create a better work-life balance, companies can improve morale, productivity, and workplace appeal simultaneously.

Asynchronous workflows also help companies embrace diversity and build variety in communication by providing opportunities for workers to express their ideas and passions through various internal and shared channels.

 

Partner with diversity initiatives and non-profit organizations

The technology industry has been notoriously slow to lead diversity in recruiting, but many organizations have continued to push change to great success. One report from the National Center for Women & Information Technology found that while 57% of the U.S. workforce is made up of women, only 26% of professional computing positions are held by women.

A mere 4% of roles in technology are occupied by women of color, despite accounting for approximately 16% of the population. A survey of over 40,000 software developers found that only 7.9% identified themselves as bisexual, gay or lesbian, and queer.

Organizations like Women in Technology, Black Girls Code, and Girls Who Code have made strides in reducing the gender imbalance. While non-profits such as Start Out, Out in Tech, American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISE), and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) strive to close the diversity gap in tech companies.

These organizations are always looking for companies to partner with and provide opportunities for internships or open positions. Having an active involvement with these programs can not only help build a positive reputation but can also shape workplace cultures to be more welcoming and inclusive. 

Diversity is an incredible benefit to any business, both for the bottom line and as a catalyst for a more welcoming, more innovative company culture. By recognizing and combating bias in the recruitment process, businesses can leverage the untapped potential of a diverse and global talent pool to foster a thriving remote work culture.

Recruiters Weigh In: Are We Ready for In-person Hiring Events?

Recruiters Weigh In: Are We Ready for In-person Hiring Events?

As businesses attempt to return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, one question that continues to be asked in nearly every industry is whether we’re ready to resume in-person gatherings. 

During the initial full shutdown period of Covid-19, it was much easier to decide whether to organize or attend an in-person hiring event. Local stay-at-home mandates kicked in loud and clear, and we quickly pivoted to virtual events.  Now, seven months later, more companies are starting to look for ways to safely host face-to-face gatherings as they learn to adapt to changing local guidelines and other safety precautions. 

 

What We Learned From Our In-person Hiring Conference Survey

As a business that relies heavily on in-person events, we wanted to gain more insight into what our clients were thinking. What would keep them from attending events? What would make them feel comfortable? Were they limited by state restrictions, company restrictions, or personal comfort levels?

With unchartered territory ahead and no roadmap to follow, we dug deeper and surveyed recruiters, HR and Talent Acquisition leaders, and hiring managers from companies of varying sizes and geographic regions to help guide our planning for in-person hiring events. Here’s what we learned based on feedback from 125 respondents:

  • While many factors can influence the decision to attend an in-person hiring conference, 24% of respondents stated they are ready to attend an event now. 12% preferred to wait for another 1 to 3 months; 15% of respondents wanted to wait for another 3 to 6 months; 27% planned to wait for 6 to 12 months; 11.3% projected they would want to wait over a year, and 10.5% were unsure.  
  • When asked what would positively influence them to attend an in-person conference, over 50% of respondents said mask requirements, availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE),  and modifications to ensure social distancing. Slightly less than 50% mentioned health screenings for attendees and the lifting of work-imposed travel restrictions. Other responses included assurances of a low number of attendees and the use of plexiglass table shields for candidate interviews. 
  • 53.4% of respondents stated they would be most comfortable in a private interview setting,    while 44.9% felt that a more open setting, such as a hotel ballroom, would make them more likely to attend.
  • Almost half of respondents (49.6%) said they would feel comfortable in groups of less than 24 attendees; 26.3% said that 25-50 people would be acceptable, and less than 20% would be comfortable in groups of 50 people or larger. 

 

Prioritizing Safety, Maintaining Candidate Quality

According to survey respondents, event organizers need to focus on the following areas to safeguard the well-being of their attendees.  

Venue Setting

Suite or ballroom? The choice of venue was top-of-mind for potential attendees. A private interview setting such as a hotel suite was acceptable to some respondents provided that the number of people in the room is closely monitored, 6-foot social distancing and mask requirements are maintained, and cleaning supplies are made available to wipe down areas between interviews.  Other respondents preferred a hotel ballroom setting for interviews with 8-10 foot tables set at least 12-ft apart, and defined traffic flow. It was also noted that indoor locations must have the proper environmental HVAC control equipment such as HEPA filters and UVC Emitters to manage airborne viral loads. 

Other respondents stated that they would only attend venues that can accommodate outdoor events with patios or open areas for tents. 

Safety Compliance

It’s no surprise that the predominant concern of respondents was the transmission of Covid-19 within groups in confined spaces. Respondents were also worried about asymptomatic applicants traveling to and from various states, and attendees not following safety guidelines.  

What might allay some of these fears?

Even though it might slow down the pace of an event agenda, respondents open to in-person events wanted to see strict monitoring of social distancing, use of masks, temperature checks, and the availability of hand sanitizers. Other safety precautions mentioned:   

  • Event size limited to less than 25 people, and monitoring of those numbers
  • Large tables and plexiglass barriers with follow-up meetings in more private settings 
  • Limited group interaction activities and interactions
  • Smaller groups for presentations and discussions, even if that means having more sessions 
  • Individual meal options, rather than large group dining
  • Robust contact tracing to alert attendees if someone at the event tested positive for Covid-19 within 14 days of the event
  • Spaces sanitized between interviews

Another consideration is to communicate safety protocols to potential attendees.  These days most of us want to know ahead of time the kinds of safety guidelines that will be followed and how they will be enforced. 

Quality of candidates 

While safety was the top priority, survey respondents also raised concerns about the criticality of meeting and interviewing quality candidates. To address this, some respondents suggested virtually pre-screening candidates so recruiters could use their conference time more efficiently by doing in-person meetings with pre-qualified candidates.  Also suggested was viewing company presentations in a virtual format with candidates having a window of time to review the session prior to their interviews. These ideas decrease time spent in direct contact with others and can be another new best practice to emerge as we navigate our new reality.

Pandemic or not, companies need to keep hiring.  While the acceptance of new norms such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and venue sanitization may make in-person events more feasible, varying comfort levels and safety guidelines also necessitate the continued availability of virtual options. 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer for when the time is right to resume in-person hiring events. The best solution we have is to keep in close touch with the changing needs of our customers and stay informed, flexible, and patient as we work to keep ourselves and our current and future employees comfortable and safe. 

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of respondents to a survey conducted in July 2020, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Orion Talent. We recommend that conference organizers and attendees continue to assess, based on current guidelines from the Center for Disease Control for official event guidelines. 

Don’t Forget About Career Changers in Post-COVID Recruiting

Don’t Forget About Career Changers in Post-COVID Recruiting

As we start to speculate on what recruiting will look like post-COVID, a largely unfamiliar job seeker persona is emerging: career changers. 

I’m not talking about “job hoppers” or those simply looking for a better position with a higher salary. I’m referring to job seekers who are pursuing an entirely new career path requiring a new set of skills – often in a brand-new industry.

By now, we’ve all seen COVID-19’s impact on employment. From layoffs to business closures. Now that the job market appears to be on the upswing, recruiters should prepare for the millions of unemployed professionals returning to the workforce. While some people may be lucky enough to get their old jobs back, others will seek a complete career change. 

But it’s not just unemployment propelling job seekers to change career paths. Candidates in industries hit the hardest by COVID restrictions (such as hospitality, food service, culinary, and travel) don’t want to return to a sector with a hazy future. Searching for work in a dwindling or highly disrupted industry is anything but appealing. 

On the other hand, people who’ve been working tirelessly through COVID in essential industries (like healthcare or retail) are stressed, burnt out, and in need of something new. They, too, are eyeing career changes. Additional reasons for changing careers include an inability to adapt to remote work or fear of going back to an “in-person” setting. It’s also likely that today’s climate has made many people truly think about life goals and priorities. 

 

Recruiting Career Changers

According to a survey conducted by iHire in September, 61.8% of job seekers said they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to make a major career change in the coming year. That means recruiters will start to see job applicants who are unqualified (on paper, at least) making their way into their funnels. In a time when 77.1% of organizations struggle to attract qualified, relevant candidates, I can see how the thought of an even more diluted talent pool is frustrating. However, I encourage you to embrace career changers in this new age of recruiting.

Here’s the why – and the how.

First, making a career change is not easy. It’s risky, it’s scary, and it’s rarely a smooth process. Candidates who clearly have put in the time and effort to market themselves to find jobs in a new industry, by highlighting relevant skills and experience in their resumes. Plus investing in professional and personal development. They are demonstrating a strong work ethic. Those are qualities that you cannot teach!

Second, career changers haven’t learned the “wrong way” to do a job. Have you ever had an employee with years of experience who could not grasp your processes and insisted on doing things differently? If so, you know that it’s sometimes harder to change a seasoned pro’s behavior than it is to train someone new and eager to learn.

Third, career changers have transferable skills. While someone may not possess a specific certification or a certain number of years in a field, they have likely acquired valuable skills that apply to just about any role or industry. These skills could include communication (written and verbal), management, organization, attention to detail, leadership, among many more. As with work ethic, these skills are not easily taught. 

Conversely, hard skills and on-the-job proficiencies (such as using a specific type of software, operating machinery, writing a proposal, or managing a database) can be taught. So, even if a candidate does not have the exact skill set, they could be trained in certain areas.

 

Re-examining Your “Must-Haves”

Now, let’s talk about how you can bring career changers into your talent pool. For trainable positions, consider loosening your requirements listed in your job ads. Evaluate “must-haves” for a role, versus “nice-to-haves.”  Identify what is absolutely necessary for someone to hold that job and what would serve as icing on the cake? Listing too many must-haves deters great talent from applying. Talent you could train to succeed in that role. 

To gain an idea of what types of skills, characteristics, and experiences are must-haves or nice-to-haves, assess your current staff’s previous work experience. Do their backgrounds align with their present roles? Which transferrable skills did they carry over from past jobs? What are some common traits that have made your team thrive?

Lastly, if you do encounter a career changer during your sourcing efforts, but ultimately offer the job to someone more qualified, add them to your talent pipeline and keep in touch. You may end up with an open position that is more geared toward that candidate’s transferable skills and relevant experience. By pipelining them, you’ll be able to fill the future role quickly. 

In closing, I’m not saying that you need to hire an unlicensed physician, for example. Or go out of your way to recruit a career changer over the candidate that checks all the boxes. Rather, I encourage you to be aware that career changers make great hires. If you’re willing to consider their transferable skills, loosen your “must-haves,” and train them to fill in the gaps. 

Fireside chat with William Tincup & Dimitri Boylan of Avature

Fireside chat with William Tincup & Dimitri Boylan of Avature

What I love about Dimitri Boylan is that out of the hundreds of times that I’ve talked to him over the years of covering TA technology and Avature in particular, he’s never once tried to impress me by boasting about new features or innovations that they’ve made, etc. He’s the very definition of a calm yet confident leader. A leader that doesn’t speak much but when he does, you should probably listen carefully. 

Fireside Chat Dmitri BoylanAvature, the firm he’s built from the ground up was when it started and continues to be the market maker. Avature singlehandedly created the CRM category. And they didn’t stop just because they created a category of software which is what most tech companies do, they continued to push the market. 

For the history buff,  before Avature, Dimitri co-founded HotJobs.com. That was in 1997 when the internet was a curiosity to some. Dimitri took HotJobs.com public in 1999 and grew the company to over 100MM in revenue before it was acquired by Yahoo! in 2002.

When purchased, HotJobs.com was the 49th most visited site on the Internet and you could apply to a job by cutting and pasting your resume into a box on the screen. It took 30 seconds or less and you could use your online profile to apply to other jobs with a click. Sounds trivial today but the idea of an online profile was actually new at that time.

From 2002 to 2009, Dimitri served on the Board of Zhaopin.com. Headquartered in Beijing, Zhaopin (ZPIN/SEEK) became the second-largest employment website in China, went public, and then was taken private. Over the course of his career, Dimitri has appeared on CNN, Fox News, The Cavuto Report, and Power Lunch, etc. He has been keeping a lower profile over the past few years while unlocking the enterprise recruiting software space.

Dimitri is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and did postgrad research at the University of Illinois using Cray supercomputers. His graduate research has been cited in over 30 scientific publications, including Nature. And somehow, he ended up in HR technology.

Dimitri’s one of the more interesting folks in our industry, I hope you enjoy our chat.

 

Work-related, what’s keeping you up at night these days?

Other than COVID – like everyone, I would say not too much.  The hardest part of my job was the travel – we’re small but global.  I don’t miss the overnight flights – and the jet lag. But I have some concerns about our workforce in general. People are overworking because there is nothing else to do. It’s not healthy.  We are struggling to find a new rhythm.

 

What’s your short term (>3 years) vision for Avature?

Mostly product-focused.  Breadth and depth in our existing customer base. Naturally, we want new customers, but right now our customer base is super high quality. We could live with them. We know each other. So it’s about serving all things recruiting. Which is a good bit broader than some people think, but also creating new solutions, like learning and HR case management.

 

What’s your long-term (<3 years) vision for Avature?

Total Talent Management – the full spectrum.  It’s essential.  Recruiting is always using something different than the rest of HR – so they are always fighting with HR and IT to keep their own system – trying to justify their tech choices.  The answer is to get everyone onto something that works for recruiting and everything else related to talent. The generic ERP solution isn’t fit for recruiting.

It’s also not fit for performance management by the way. The dividing line between performance, internal mobility, workforce planning, and recruiting is pretty thin – it’s artificial.  I’m biased, I think recruiting doesn’t need more HR, HR needs more recruiting  – not afraid to engage, willing to experiment, determined to win – and, if Avature, technically agile.

 

You’ll know Avature has reached its full potential when?

When you call it.

 

What advice do you give leaders regarding evaluating technology?

First, it’s not easy. We buy tech all the time in Avature. We just selected a vendor and technology to standardize our virtual machine layer. It took a year to hash out the strategy and the scope, and 6 months to evaluate providers. We selected a vendor that could not only align with our vision but improve it – or I should say help us clarify it.

The roadmap was super important – we have been with providers that don’t move forward or move in a different direction, and that wouldn’t work for us. In tech, standing still is suicide, and going the wrong way is torture. 

And for me, and this is a very personal thing, leadership that is technical or deep into the details of how the products work.  If the senior management is finance guys focusing on M&A or looking to cash out, that’s fine. But they can sell to someone else.    

Post-COVID – The Office and Workplace of the Future

Post-COVID – The Office and Workplace of the Future

As offices around the country begin re-opening, it seems the work-from-home era may finally be coming to a close for many. If you are one of the employees who are returning to work after being away for months, you will likely see some changes implemented at your office. Hand sanitizer stations or a perspex sneeze guard by the reception are just a few of the many additions in office spaces.

As lockdown restrictions are lifted, many are unsure about what the future holds. However, office owners still have an obligation to ensure their employees are kept safe from the virus. They can achieve this through a combination of safety practices and the addition of special protective equipment from office refurbishment contractors.

 

Safety challenges

Employers should acknowledge that COVID still poses a threat to their employees and operations. The risk is higher at workplaces that require physical interactions between co-workers and/or customers. However, as research shows, the virus can survive on different surfaces. Which may create many challenges for office owners. In order to keep workers safe from direct and indirect transmission of the coronavirus, here are some suggestions that might help:

 

Social distancing for the office

The practice of social distancing has played a key role in reducing the spread of COVID. For this reason, employers should encourage their workers to continue maintaining social distancing measures as they slowly integrate back into the office. In some offices, it may be that desks are too close to maintain the distance properly.

Therefore, it might be worth investing some time in rearranging to keep employees safe and keep them at least 1 meter away. 

In addition to this, workstations, where employees sit face to face with each other, will also need to be rearranged. Instead of having desks facing each other, rotate them so that each employee is not directly facing another individual when they are working. This will reduce the likelihood of COVID being directly transmitted between co-workers.

 

Rotation-based schedules 

In order to make social distancing easier for everyone, employers may ask fewer employees to come into the office on a given day. This may require some staff members to work from home or remotely and come in on a dedicated schedule to ensure social distancing measures can be followed. This should be effective at reducing contact between co-workers, as the number of staff visiting the premises on any given day will be limited.  

 

Remote collaboration tools

Many employers and employees became acquainted with remote collaboration tools back when the pandemic lockdown first went into effect. Collaboration software applications have enabled workers to carry out their duties without coming into direct contact with their co-workers.

As offices reopen, such tools will continue being used in various ways. A group of employees working on the same project may decide to split into smaller groups and collaborate with each other using online spreadsheets and document creation software such as Google Docs.

Similarly, co-workers can use screen-sharing features on apps such as Zoom to discuss and troubleshoot problems with IT and other departments without meeting them in-person. The fact that so many people are now familiar with these software applications should make the remote-collaboration process far easier.

 

Safety equipment

Face masks and gloves have proven to be invaluable when it comes to slowing down the virus’ spread. 

In addition to providing their employees with these items as per government requirements, it is recommended that employers also set up hand sanitizer stations at different points of the office. These can be especially important at entry/exit points as they will allow people to enter the premises to disinfect their hands.

Office owners can also set up social distancing stickers that remind employees to maintain a distance of at least one meter from one another. Special social distancing stickers can be placed on the ground to illustrate the minimum distance workers need to maintain to stay safe.

Many workplaces have begun setting up protective screens between worker desks. A sneeze guard is a clear glass panel that can act as a barrier against COVID. These can be used to create artificial partitions between desks and seats.

This arrangement can be especially useful for offices with limited space, where desks can’t be spread out and workers have to sit within close proximity to each other.

These sneeze guards can also be set up at reception desks to protect receptionists and security personnel who come into contact with people from outside regularly. These barriers are effective at shielding people from germs and bacteria transmitted via sneezes and coughs.

If you are interested in setting up sneeze guards at your workplace, you should get in touch with office refurbishment contractors in your area.

 

Regular cleanings

As mentioned earlier, the COVID virus can survive on different surfaces for a limited amount of time. Experts are not sure how many people have contracted the virus by touching infected items and objects so far, but they do recommend disinfecting frequently used surfaces regularly.

Once offices reopen, employers will need to perform disinfections on a regular basis. This can include disinfecting floors, desks, door handles, lunchroom tables and other surfaces employees come into contact with regularly.

 

Working at offices after COVID

As you can see, employers and employees will need to get used to some changes in the wake of COVID. Business owners can make this transition easier by purchasing protective equipment from reputable office refurbishment contractors.

Getting Candidate Experience Right in the Post-COVID World

Chivalry Might be Dead, But Candidate Experience is Not. Here is How to Get it Right in the Post-COVID World

After months of interviewing, a few weeks ago Jim Perry finally received an offer for his dream job. Jim, who asked to not disclose his real name, was asked to lead the risk management department for one of the largest new hedge funds established this year. “This is a chance to set up this function from scratch,” Jim noted. “I can hire my own team and influence the risk strategy of the fund before they’ve made a single investment. Such an opportunity doesn’t come along very often.” Yet, after thinking it over Jim declined the offer. 

With unemployment levels rising to historical highs, might tempt employers to believe that Candidate Experience has lost its relevance. But a closer look at the topic suggests that deprioritizing Candidate Experience might cost employers more than might appear on the surface. 

“My interview experience with the firm left me feeling that this role might not be as central to the organization as they had originally conveyed,” Jim Perry noted. The interview process had started post-COVID, so Jim had no expectations of a quick turnaround in a turbulent market. The more important point for him was that the hiring manager didn’t communicate with him for a 4-week period. 

Jim points to Maya Angelou’s classic words that “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” And Jim felt that the hiring manager might say that the risk strategy is critical to the organization’s success, but had left Jim feeling his boss could be distracted by other projects – and when that would eventually happen, Jim would lose the support of his main sponsor within the organization.    

Here are a few common facts that companies forget when deprioritizing Candidate Experience. 

 

Employers Are Still Trying to Fill Over 5 Million Vacant Roles

There are, of course, pockets of the economy that have been hit hard by COVID. A number of talented people in these industries will be looking for jobs. However, hiring managers who revert to the transactional hiring techniques of the Great Recession will more often than not face a rude awakening.

If you still find that hard to believe, remind yourself that employers are still trying to fill five million vacant roles – more positions than in 2014. So, pull up your emails and memos from 2014. Did any of those emails brag about how easy it was to hire candidates?

If you could go back in time would you tell yourself to fight less for any of the stars on your team if it meant that you could save a few thousand dollars by hiring an average performer instead?

 

Candidates Are Also Customers

Take Graeme Johnson, for example. A few years ago, the former Head of Resourcing at the British cable and mobile provider Virgin Media, made a discovery that opened the eyes of recruiters and Talent Acquisition professionals worldwide.

He realized that the company was losing a ridiculous amount of money due to poor Candidate Experience: $5.4 million per year, just in the UK! 

Naturally, upon this realization, Johnson put in a lot of effort to measure and improve Virgin Media’s Candidate Experience. But first, he needed resources for it – meaning, he had to convince the CFO. At first skeptical, Virgin Media’s Chief Financial Officer had his own finance team look into it. The results were dramatic enough to convince him to grant sufficient means to Johnson to proceed.

The impact on the revenue they estimated was likely to be worse by three or four times. In fact, candidates were probably sharing their terrible experiences with their network, which could include other Virgin Media customers. And Virgin Media is not alone to come to this realization, Vodafone has had a similar epiphany. 

Consumer-facing brands might be most at risk for poor Candidate Experience going viral and impacting their brand, but even in B2B firms, many candidates apply to them from within the industry. This means that they are currently working within the same circles as your firm, and the fact that they are applying for your firm means that they are aspiring to do so going forward as well. And these folks will talk about their experience of interviewing with you down the line.

 

Some Things Never Change

You might think that, due to the change in circumstances, Candidate Experience has now become less important – and you’d be wrong. The Vodafone case we mentioned earlier is proof that some things never change. 

The company’s efforts in the Netherlands led to their achievement of noticeable improvements, and the prevention of financial losses. 

From February to June 2020, they collected feedback from candidates throughout the Candidate Journey, reaching out to more than four thousand people. They involved hiring managers, too.

Before starting, their projected yearly revenue loss in the Netherlands was almost $380.000 due to subscription cancellations. Working on their Candidate Experience resulted in yearly revenue savings of $139.000 – a result achieved in just 3,5 months.

 

The Double-Edged Sword with More Applicants

You might find yourself receiving more applications for your vacancies due to higher unemployment rates. When dealing with a larger pool of applicants, it is easy for common processes to fall to the side.  

Candidates share negative experiences with their network more often than not: in fact, they do so in 72% of the cases. Research also shows that candidates are 38% more likely to accept a job offer after a good Candidate Experience, and are twice as likely to recommend the hiring organization to others, even if they didn’t get the job. Your brand equity is important, and it’s up to you to decide in which direction to take it.

 

What Are Some Easy Ways to Improve My Candidate Experience?

You guessed it, just as it was vital for Jim Perry, the way you communicate with your candidates is a big part of acing Candidate Experience, and it’s even more important to focus on this in difficult times. Keep them in the loop: at what stage of the application process are they, and what comes next? It could be a good practice to send them an email after each step and to jump on a quick call with them to get their perspective.  Often you can uncover potential problems this way before you get to the offer stage.

Reaching out often is not enough – make sure you’re clear in your outreach, too. Don’t waste your candidates’ time! Transparency was one of the 3 key pieces of advice that Candidate Experience Guru Gerry Crispin shared with the audience during a webinar interview, earlier this year. He advised recruiters to also be clear from the start when it comes to salary information. 

Giving your interactions a human touch is vital, especially in a period like the one we’re currently navigating.
Be prepared during interviews, don’t let the candidates feel like you’ve never seen their resume’ and cover letter before. Be professional and friendly when you talk with them, they’ve probably dedicated time to prep for this interview – asking inappropriate questions or being late, among other things, would denote a lack of respect for them.

Honesty is always the best policy.  Sometimes there are valid reasons for delays in the process and it is okay to share those with the candidate.  Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and think about how you would want to be treated.  The important thing is to keep an open dialogue.

 

How Do I Address the Root-Cause?

And as in many issues in life, if you want to fix a problem, it’s best to fix it once and for all. But how? The first step would be to implement a process to solicit feedback from candidates. Listening to what your candidates have to say about the quality of your hiring experience can help shine a light on some aspects of it that you might have never, otherwise, discovered.  Here are some questions you can ask:

  1. Are your vacancy descriptions clear and exhaustive?
  2. Do your candidates feel respected?
  3. How was the communication throughout the process?
  4. What could we have done better?

Ignoring Candidate Experience in today’s market might cost more than it helps your company save. This is your chance to show your candidates, customers, and potential vendors that all those statements in your marketing brochures about your caring about them were true. This is your chance to show your true colors. It’s the simple things that matter the most. Make candidates feel valuable and they will repay you many times over! 

The End of Coddling

The End of Coddling

I live in Melbourne, Australia. When I speak to customers overseas they all sympathize with the restrictions imposed on us as a result of COVID-19. We are the State that that just can’t seem to take our eyes off the numbers, being used as an invisible algorithm to drive decisions like when we can see our friends and families again, go to the footy, or have a drink at the pub. 

Scott Galloway talks of Covid-19 being an accelerant, not a change agent. Organisations who were already on the path of disrupting their own business models have surged ahead. Those with unfit practices might have been able to do a fun run, but what we have now is an ultra-marathon. 

Organizations need a new playbook. We humans need a new playbook.  COVID-19 is transformational for organizations, and it requires transformational thinking and responses. 

The lack of deep thinking on this is reflected in the exhaustion we are all feeling right now.  Many of us find ourselves spending 12 hours a day on back-to-back zoom calls. We are missing out on the key benefit of flexibility, which is unleashing productivity. Which means doing more in fewer hours, not doing more by working longer hours.

 

Asynchronous Work

Few of us have made the transformational changes required to accommodate true remote work. One of those changes has to be to embrace asynchronous working norms. 

Asynchronous work needs asynchronous communication. This simply means that work doesn’t happen at the same time for everyone. Productivity and flexibility for employees come when we don’t all have to get in a room, virtual or otherwise to do our work. This usually means communicating in writing, not video.

The other change that needs to happen is less vertical decision-making, less requiring decisions to ‘go up’ to be made – and more pushing them down to the individual level as much as possible. It’s time to really empower your people. Leaders need to set the vision and trust their people to solve how to get there. This means creating cultures of trust and leaving behind cultures of control.

The good news is that a by-product of remote work will be a natural increase in accountability for performance.  The reality is you can’t fake it or fudge it as easily when your actual work output, not your personality, is what is most visible to everyone. The talkers vs the doers are quickly exposed. The big ‘P’ personality types won’t survive as long as there is no place for them to entertain us with their stories and their charisma.

 

Our New Reality

This new reality won’t work for everyone and demands transparency around performance and expectations from both sides. For many, this may lead to a loss of confidence and validation that they would normally get from being part of a visible tribe in the office.  When you don’t have a team or a manager around you to mentor you, notice your good work, or your bad work, you need to do the noticing yourself. Self-awareness becomes crucial. As does self-motivation, the discipline to see a task through without much pushing or oversight.  

Organizations need to give way more attention to hiring and promoting these qualities that will enable individuals to be independently productive. It may even mean evolving your values to reflect those kinds of new survival traits.

What makes that shift especially tough for many organizations is that we have all been doing the opposite for years. To coin a phrase from Johnathan Haidt, we have been guilty of coddling our kids and our employees. Haidt, author of “The Coddling of the American Mind’ notes the impact of all that coddling and the resulting culture of ‘safetyism’, which stunts the development of that life skill- resilience, a trait critical for all of us right now.  

Simon Sinek, a speaker/writer on cooperation, trust, and change says developing better managers can help young people build better resilience.  This becomes harder in a world where you’re not spending time with your manager.  Rather, the individual needs to take on more responsibility for their own learning and for their own motivation and engagement. 

 

Creating Resilience

So how do you create more individual and organizational resilience? How do you hire for and build the skill of accountability?

It requires creating an expectation via explicit conversations about the need for you to own your own work, your own career. It demands hiring people who have heightened self-awareness,  to know what they need help with, to ask for what they need. 

Which jobs are better suited to me? What am I good at, not good at? How do others see me so I can better manage my relationships at work or at home? What part of me is helping me or hindering me in life?

The problem is that not every type of person will do that comfortably and this is where Covid-19 risks creating another privileged class of people who do better in that environment. This is where I advocate for technology as an essential co-pilot for employees to understand themselves better and help coach them to level the playing field. Technology that can draw out the best in people and help them find their strengths and agency.

The new playbook already has a few chapters written by some well-known disruptors. For example, Jeff Bezos banning PowerPoint from meetings, Google’s money-ball approach to hiring and promotion, virtually inventing people analytics. The text-only interviews of Automattic,  the company behind WordPress, with 1000+ remote workforce in 73 countries. 

In short, to leaders of all domains: move to the new playbook. Get on with experimenting with fundamentally new ways of working. And, recognize that technology will be your co-pilot in that change.