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Fireside chat with William Tincup & Steve Lucas, CEO of iCIMS

Fireside chat with William Tincup & Steve Lucas, CEO of iCIMS

 

So I’ve known iCIMS for like 170 years. They are a solid firm with wonderful technology and great people behind the scenes. I have seen them innovate on the product side of things as well as how they market their solution. They’re active, well, super active within the HR and TA community. They’re at every tradeshow and they deeply care about the wonderful world of work.

Since I’ve known them, Colin Day has been at the wheel as Founder and CEO. Well, he still has his hand on the wheel of course, but now as Chairman. Colin recruited his replacement to take iCIMS to the next logical level. Intro, Steve Lucas. Steve took over the reins of iCIMS in late February.

Steve brings nearly 25 years of extensive leadership experience in enterprise software to iCIMS. Along with a proven track record of driving global expansion and innovation. Steve has held senior executive roles at global enterprise software organizations including Adobe, Marketo, SAP, Salesforce.com, and BusinessObjects.

During Steve’s tenure as CEO of Marketo, he led a multi-year product expansion and growth strategy. This has resulted in the acquisition of the company by Adobe in 2018, making it the largest acquisition in Adobe’s history. Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Colorado, is a published author and serves on multiple philanthropic and education boards.

I had the opportunity to chat with Steve recently as I wanted to get his take on the market and iCIMS in particular. He’s a compelling person and I hope you enjoy the interview.

 

Q1: Work-related, what’s keeping you up at night these days?

The predominant thing(s) on everyone’s mind is twofold:

  • How do we adapt to the massive impact of COVID-19?
  • When will everyday life return to some level of normalcy?

I can’t think of a similar global event in terms of scale and scope in my lifetime. This leads me to believe that the amount of change we will experience post-COVID-19 will directly correlate to the level of impact and disruption, which is incomparable in our generation.

I think a lot about “what will change” after all this and I believe it’s worth understanding how companies are currently adapting. Some organizations are rapidly recruiting to meet the current demands within their business in response to coronavirus. This includes delivery services, warehouse workers, healthcare positions, and manufacturing.

Others are adapting to virtually hiring in this new business climate. While the news headlines are dominated by notable layoffs or furloughs, the truth is that the impact of COVID-19 is highly varied by industry.

The one common element across all organizations is the need to make quality hires.

In today’s climate, having the right people in the right seats just got that much more important. As a result, virtual hiring and communication tools have become must-haves. If we’ve learned anything in the short time since the outbreak of this global health crisis, it’s this. In order to remain productive, businesses must operate well in a partial or “all-in” remote work model. For many companies like Amazon, Target, Walmart, Domino’s, 7-Eleven and Whole Foods, their productivity directly depends on their ability to hire anywhere, any time.

But like I said, change will come, rapidly. For many businesses, it will undoubtedly be in the thematic form of collaboration and virtual engagement.

 

Q2: What’s your short term (>3 years) vision for iCIMS?

We will continue to deliver an unmatched candidate experience and further enable organizations to make the perfect hire, every time. How? By enabling organizations to leverage our HR cloud platform for recruiting to accelerate digital transformation and the collaborative future of work.

In order to continue delivering and further expand on that, I see us deepening our relationships with our customers and bringing them even more value. We recognize that now more than ever before. Organizations need partners that they can lean on. With the right technology, support, and insights, they can make decisions today that will make for a better tomorrow.

Since joining iCIMS, I’ve focused on the ability to help our customers quickly address new demands. It illustrates the impact that a strong partnership can have in times of need. This will continue to be our focus as an organization.

 

Looking Forward

In terms of looking forward, we have a new initiative in place that I’m very excited about. I see this playing a big part in our journey over the next few years. We launched a Service and Advisor Partner Program. This program offers our customers access to the expertise and know-how that’s required to stay ahead of today’s dynamic recruitment landscape. To facilitate this program, we’re regularly expanding our partner ecosystem to include industry-recognized service providers who are equipped to support employers in all facets of their recruitment strategy. Our belief is that when top technology is paired with elite guidance like our iCIMS methodology and talent acquisition maturity models, the results are simply unprecedented. I look forward to seeing how we continue to support and grow our relationships with our customers through this new program.

 

Q3: What’s your long-term (<3 years) vision for iCIMS?

I know we’ll continue along our road of product innovation. We’ve seen firsthand just how important emerging technology is. Especially as we move further along into the digital age. Our focus going forward will be on integrating iCIMS much more deeply into a range of collaboration solutions in use today across businesses. We’ll also focus on inventing new ways to connect the perfect candidate with recruiters at the right time. Whether organizations need to hire one or 100,000 people.

Just this year, we made an exciting breakthrough in artificial intelligence by delivering an “ensemble” matching capability in job search and resume-matching. This will not only provide job seekers with a seamless and convenient experience, it will connect employers with more qualified candidates, faster. Bottom line. Companies will get to the perfect candidate dramatically faster.

Another large part of our story is expansion. We currently support 200+ countries and territories, and I see our presence in those areas growing. As the industry further embraces virtual recruiting and recognizes that it is the future of work, I envision iCIMS stepping in to provide global enterprises with localized experiences – from the moment a candidate lands on a job description to the time they’re preboarded – through one platform.

 

Q4: You’ll know iCIMS has reached its full potential when?

I am a firm believer that there’s no such thing as reaching “full potential.” There is always room for improvement and growth. I was drawn to iCIMS for a few reasons. One being the amazing growth in the customers we serve. Our cloud platform for recruiting currently supports 4,000 customers, including nearly 20% of Fortune 100 companies, hiring 4 million people each year. We have the potential to touch so many more lives, and we’ll do it – through our investments in technology, in our growing global presence and in the fantastic people that power our day-to-day operation.

 

Q5: What advice do you give TA leaders regarding evaluating TA technology?

When evaluating a new technology, first consider your talent strategy. How will you attract, hire, onboard and retain the best talent in the world? Then look for a company that can help you create or refine your strategy, who also has the cloud platform and solution to support you as you grow and scale. (Admittedly, that’s us!)

In this new world, we will all be asked to do more with less. We need solutions that free recruiters’ time through automation to focus on the things that matter. We’re hyper focused on creating the platform that gives recruiters the gifts of productivity and time, while providing candidates with something that they crave – a powerful candidate experience. Chatbots are a great example here, because they can answer basic questions, provide applicants with status updates and even schedule interviews. Our chatbot AI – “ARI” – answered hundreds of thousands of candidate questions in 2019, i.e. hundreds of thousands of questions HR teams did not have to answer, allowing them to place their efforts elsewhere. The best part is that with chatbots in place, candidates aren’t confined to general business hours. They are able to interact with the prospective employer anywhere, any time.

Simply put, look for tech that’s smart, addresses multiple needs and supports a mobile experience. Based on interactions within our platform, we’ve seen the number of applications completed on a mobile device increase by 309% from 2016 to 2019 – that’s a huge indication of what today’s job seekers want in terms of a candidate experience, and where we’ll continue to head as an industry.

Introduction to Technical Talent Sourcing: The What, Why and How

The What, Why and How of Technical Talent Sourcing

The unemployment rate for technical talent in the U.S. hit a 20-year low of 1.3 percent in 2019. According to a recent study by ManpowerGroup, IT roles are the second most hard-to-fill positions in the U.S. It is hardly surprising then that recruiters hiring for technical roles are having a tough time.

Thankfully, there is an upside for recruiters. A 2019 study by Stack Overflow that surveyed 90,000 developers from around the world found that while 16 percent of developers were actively looking for a job, a whopping 75 percent of developers were interested in hearing about new job opportunities.

This means the tech talent market has a high concentration of passive candidates. It also means that you are unlikely to come across tech talent on traditional job boards. So, as recruiters, how do you go about sourcing and hiring technical talent?

 

Technical Talent Sourcing: Getting the Basics Right

Whether you are a small 10 person organization looking for your next strategic hire or a large multinational hiring 30 developers for offices around the globe, the best practices for sourcing tech talent remain largely unchanged.

So, let’s look at some of the preliminary steps involved in your quest for top tech talent:

 

1.    Develop a Hiring Roadmap

Recruitment may be one of the more creative processes in HR. But, organization and planning also play a crucial role. Particularly when hiring for hard-to-fill roles like IT and product engineering. Mapping your existing talent with your future talent needs can provide you with a better understanding of what you are looking for and where you’ll find talent.

Project management or productivity analytics tools can help you understand how your current employees are performing. You also get a better sense of who’s doing what. Tools like Asana, Basecamp, Trello, or Google Sheets should ideally help you identify key skills and expertise gaps within your organization. A central repository of employee job roles and functions will provide you with a much better view of your current talent capabilities.

Now, once you have all of this data, you should be in a better position to predict your future talent needs.

Most organizations perform a strategy-planning exercise as a part of their annual budgeting every year. Unfortunately, talent acquisition leaders or HR teams are seldom a part of this discussion. HR teams are usually handed a fixed budget every year that rarely reflect market realities. Getting a seat in the annual budgeting discussion is key to building a successful hiring roadmap for tech talent. HR leaders looking to become a strategy insider within their organizations must be able to demonstrate the value talent brings to the organization. It here that you can lay down your goals, initiatives, and investments needed to rope in top technical talent.

 

2.    Determine the Scope of a Role

Once you have built a hiring roadmap, you have a better understanding of your tech talent needs for the year. You know what positions you’re looking to fill and timelines for each hire. The next step is to define what these roles look like and the value these hires will bring to your organization.

 

Job descriptions

A job description is your first opportunity to make a good impression on potential hires. Most organizations take a one-size-fits-all approach to creating job descriptions. Unfortunately, this practice is not effective when looking to attract top technical talent. Technical candidates often have very different job search criteria than their non-technical counterparts. Additionally, you may have roles that are completely new to your organization or unique to your line of business. Tailoring descriptions adapted to the context of your organization is crucial to ensuring the right match. You must define core tasks that the job entails and highlight any ancillary skills needed for product creation or special projects.

Most technical positions require some level of familiarity with the latest tools and technologies. It is important to keep in mind that while keywords are recommended, using too many buzzwords or jargon can distort clarity. Try to emphasize the specific tools and technologies that will be used in your organization and also mention in-demand technologies that are being used in your industry. Technical candidates tend to pay a lot of attention to the marketability of their skills when choosing employers, so, being offered the opportunity to learn new skills at your organization is bound to pique their interest.

Finally, cultural fit is essential for technical teams to succeed. Factors like diversity, inclusion, and equal career advancement opportunities are key considerations for potential employees. Highlight how technology teams collaborate to solve problems in your organization and be sure to mention core values such as innovation, learning, and transparency.

 

Identify your challenges

Get hiring managers and functional heads onboard the recruitment process and ask them to outline their biggest challenges and how they expect potential employees to solve them. Refer to your hiring roadmap and chart out what your short-term and long-term goals are. By understanding the gaps in your organization’s existing skills and expertise, you’ll be able to find candidates who can help you overcome them.

 

Design a competitive compensation plan

As much as we’d like to think otherwise, compensation is one of the most important factors that influence candidates’ decisions when it comes to accepting a job. Perform compensation due-diligence. Platforms like Glassdoor can provide you with the industry standard for technical roles. Use bonuses and stock-options strategically. It is common practice for technology companies to have arbitrary vesting periods in order to improve retention. This strategy often backfires as employees who are held hostage to their equity, will not be productive and will not put your organization’s interests first. Provide flexible compensation plans that inspire responsibility and compel employees to do their best every day.

 

3.    Speak the Same Language

A big part of technical recruitment is being able to speak the same language as your candidates. Your candidates have spent a significant time training and learning and they are passionate about their work. As a recruiter, it is crucial that you are able to speak the industry language you are hiring for. If your candidates sense that you have little idea about the job role and what it entails, chances are they won’t trust you with their careers. While you don’t need an advanced science degree or be a coding pro, you do need to be able to connect with them. A basic idea of programming technologies, team hierarchies, certifications, and tools will lead to much more meaningful conversations during initial screening and interviews.

Get familiar with platforms like GitHub and StackOverflow and join the conversation in online forums, community groups, and social media.
A rudimentary understanding of technical skills will also help you sidestep common pitfalls of tech recruitment such as prestige hires. You’ll be able to make more objective decisions based on your independent assessment of candidates.

 

4.    Use the Right Sourcing Channels

The low unemployment rate in the tech industry means that a majority of your candidates are passive candidates. So, traditional job boards may not prove to be effective for sourcing technical talent. To reach them requires a more strategic course of action and most importantly, the right channels. Let’s take a look at some of the best sourcing channels for technical talent.

 

GitHub

GitHub is one of the largest code repositories on the web. Developers around the world store their code and projects they are working on. This makes GitHub one of the best databases for developers and tech recruiters. Developers categorize their codes under programming languages they’ve used. You can search GitHub for repositories (projects that a person has hosted on GitHub or copied/forked) using up to three qualifiers: language, location, and followers. For reference, followers on GitHub are indicators of social proof. So, the more the number of followers a user has, the better their credibility. You can then filter the results by choosing Users from the menu and reorder as shown below:

Image of GitHub's advanced search console
Image 1: Using GitHub’s Advanced Search Console

A lot of users list their email addresses on their profiles, making it easier for you to reach out.

 

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is the world’s largest community for programmers, particularly coders and developers. Members on Stack Overflow typically use the platform to ask and answer technical questions and share their knowledge in the community. Users are awarded badges (gold, silver, and bronze) based on the number of answers they’ve contributed to the site. By performing a user search you’ll be able to view their language specializations, reputation, and answers. Stack Overflow also features a paid option for recruiters that allows you to post listings, search candidates, and create a company page to showcase your brand.

A screenshot of Stack Overflow's user search console
Image 2: Stack Overflow for User Search

 

AngelList

AngelList is the world’s largest marketplace for startup jobs, particularly technical roles. The platform was launched in 2010 to connect angel investors with startup founders. AngelList has since diversified into a startup resource directory that also matches talent with employers. The platform offers early-stage startups the opportunity to connect with interested candidates and reduce time-to-hire. AngelList allows you to only contact candidates that have expressed interest in your organization which makes the hiring process a lot more faster. Recruiters can create a company profile and pitch their brand to candidates. AngelList remains a largely untapped sourcing channel for most organizations which makes it an even more compelling proposition for startup recruiters.

 

LinkedIn

While LinkedIn is one of the most popular sourcing channels for recruiters, driving meaningful engagement with tech talent is challenging due to the sheer number of candidates and recruiters on the platform. LinkedIn groups are a great way to break through the clutter and engage with talent. Industry groups on LinkedIn typically feature an active community of candidates and thought leaders eager to share their ideas and expertise. You can easily request to join relevant industry groups to gain a better sense of tech talent available on the platform. Additionally, LinkedIn serves a great branding platform for both employees and employers.

Joining conversations about your company or industry will help you position yourself as an employer of choice.
LinkedIn Recruiter is yet another helpful tool that allows you to access LinkedIn’s entire network of active and passive candidates. You can filter results based on location, job titles, and industries. LinkedIn’s powerful algorithm-based recommendations match you with your ideal candidates instantly. By combining the prowess of LinkedIn groups and recruiting tools on the site, you can narrow your search to the best-fit tech talent for your organization.

 

Tech Recruiting Events

While digital platforms and channels might help you connect with a larger talent pool, nothing beats in-person interactions when it comes to recruitment. Events for your local tech community such as hackathons, meetups, and career days can be very effective for establishing strong relationships with candidates and learn more about their career aspirations and capabilities. You can use this as a launchpad to build your employer brand and stand out as a thought leader in the industry. The best thing? You don’t need to spend a fortune hosting these events at a hotel or resort, instead, invite candidates to your office and give them a glimpse into what it is like working with your organization.

 

Referral Programs

Referral programs are one of the most popular and effective channels for hiring tech talent. Employee referrals can dramatically reduce your cost-per-hire and improve new hire performance. Referrers usually look out for their referrals and help onboarding them. However, it is essential to keep a few best-practices in mind when designing an employee referral program. New hires through referrals are more valuable when their referrers are around to familiarize them with the organization, which is why it makes sense to pay referral bonuses over a few months after a person is hired. So, start building your referral program to hire the best in technology.

 

5.    Measure, Optimize and Repeat

No two organizations are the same. Your workplace culture, practices, and values are unique to your organization. So, what works for some might not work for you. When developing your talent sourcing strategy for technical positions, it is important to measure the impact of every decision or process in your hiring roadmap. Find out what sourcing channels are most effective for your organization and double down on them. Your hiring roadmap and ATS solutions should provide you with the requisite data on the efficacy of your hiring practices. Next, optimize and tweak your sourcing strategy when required. Finally, repeat the steps that brought you the most success.

Talent is the biggest driver of competitive advantage today. How you go about acquiring, nurturing, and developing talent will determine your success as an organization. Put these strategies to use and hire the best in tech.

3 Things Top Companies Can Do To Hire More Women in 2020

hire women diversity inclusion

 

3 Things Top Companies Can Do To Hire More Women in 2020

 

“Women overtake men as a majority of the US workforce,” announced a headline in The Wall Street Journal recently. Workplace demographics are shifting rapidly. While this may be true, many of the processes that we follow in the workplace are still not adapted to suit the needs and behavior of women.

Daisy Auger-Dominguez, the Founder and CEO of Auger-Dominguez Ventures, said it best at Galvanize 2019, a two-day annual gender diversity summit, hosted by Fairygodboss. “We have employees who are walking into organizations that weren’t created with them in mind. We need to ask whose voices are missing and redefine what diversity and inclusion mean today.”

Further, study after study shows that greater gender diversity drives better business results. Gender diversity drives better decision-making, more innovation, and, most importantly, increased shareholder value. A recent report from Morgan Stanley demonstrated this data.

More than ever, companies realize that they must implement focused gender diversity strategies so that they can win in this changing landscape, and create a workforce in which diversity is a part of the competitive landscape.

Here are three critical things companies should be doing to hire more women in 2020:

 

1. Get the story straight

According to data from PwC, women approach the job search process differently from men. When evaluating potential opportunities, men mainly research data about expected compensation. Meanwhile, women search for answers to their questions. For example, “What kind of experiences do female employees have here?” They also search, “What kind of programs or resources are in place to support women at this company?”

Top companies for women anticipate these questions and dedicate extensive real estate on their careers website to gender diversity & inclusion initiatives.

Johnson & Johnson, for example, has an entire hub dedicated to Women in STEM. The site goes beyond a simple career page and instead features how they are working to support female youth, scholars, and professionals across these fields. They also feature stories and industry trends, highlighting how women in STEM are advancing. Plus, a robust career center for those interested in joining their team.

Salesforce is another excellent example of a company showcasing its commitment to gender diversity. They use their blog to share engaging stories. Including how returning-to-work mothers can find success in their careers, plus how women can benefit from the company’s gender equality programs and inclusive benefits.

 

2. Showcase female role models

While most companies state a commitment to diversity, the ultimate litmus test for many female job seekers is if they can genuinely envision herself working there. Meaning that your female leaders across all levels and departments need to be front and center.

American Century Investments, an investment management firm, does a great job of showcasing female role models through content marketing and storytelling. One article, for example, Career Inspiration from Six Women at American Century, features advice from their Director of Product Management, VP of Client Marketing, and more. By sharing the names, titles, and faces of female employees, they are helping candidates picture what it’s like to work there and be part of the team.

The more you can share stories about different kinds of women at your company, the better you will communicate a sense of support and inclusivity.

 

3. Repair the broken rung

At the heart of gender diversity in the workplace is your company’s ability to hire and promote great female talent. This includes women of all backgrounds, religions, ages, sexual orientations, and identities.

According to research conducted by McKinsey, career advancement for women is still stagnant. Additionally, there’s been little progress in the past year.

McKinsey’s report summarized one of their most substantial findings. A broken rung at the beginning of a career journey prevents women from reaching the C-suite. Although men and women enter the corporate pipeline at similar rates, they advance at drastically different paces. Women of color, in particular, face the steepest drop off from the corporate ladder.

To clarify, this broken rung is where companies must focus their attention. It’s a central obstacle that prevents women from moving forward at work. The fastest way to address this deficit is to focus on hiring more women into mid- and senior-level corporate roles where the imbalance is most pronounced.  Only with deliberate pipeline development can we help shore up the leaks that cause such inequity in the organizational hierarchy.

 

Conclusion

If gender diversity is not a priority for your leadership team, ask these questions. Is profitability a priority? Is your stock performance a priority?

The obvious answers to these questions link directly to the diversity present at your company.

The bottom line is this. If your company is not focused on gender diversity and making a real effort to attract female talent, you will lose out. Especially when it comes to growth, innovation, and performance.

To increase gender diversity in your workplace, check out the latest report from Fairygodboss. How to Attract Qualified Female Candidates Through Your Employer Brand, for tips to build an employer brand that attracts experienced and diverse female job seekers.

HCM Talent Technology Roundup – April 10, 2020

talent technology april 10

Talent Technology Roundup – April 10, 2020

 

More Providers Dive into Virtual Career Fairs

Since California issued its shelter-in-place order on March 19, recruiting technology providers have been quick to offer free services and new digital options to employers. Often, without worrying whether users were customers or not.

Not only has the use of video recruiting tools skyrocketed over the last three weeks, but a steady stream of vendors have begun adding virtual career fairs to their suites as well.

This week, social media platform Jobcase unveiled a virtual event capability that allows employers and candidates to communicate directly. The company said the tool provides employers with a “scalable and repeatable” way to continue hiring, even when employers can’t hold in-person events. The platform also offers tools to manage event promotion, online registration, video and webinar-style presentations, and chat tools.

Jobcase’s announcement came just a week after Paradox and Eightfold.ai launched similar products, within hours of each other. Paradox’s Virtual Hiring Events uses the company’s AI-based assistant to help employers create online career fairs and connect with candidates via a chat-style interface. Eightfold.ai’s Virtual Event Recruiting offers similar features, though the firm highlights its ability to scale.

Travel restrictions and social distancing measures took hold. Paradox saw an opportunity to “reimagine” the virtual event experience, according to Chief Product Officer Adam Godson. While many companies have frozen hiring, others continue to seek new workers. Plus, those who’ve suspended hiring want to keep candidates engaged, he said.

These products are sure to find a ready market. They’re rolling out at the same time of year that businesses embark on recruiting excursions to college campuses around the world. Forbes reports that college recruiters without a virtual event solution are using Skype or Zoom to meet with candidates, and spreadsheets or email to keep records.

 

Dynamic 2020 for Healthcare Jobs

The competition for healthcare talent was fierce enough in 2019. COVID-19 will make it more ferocious during 2020, a report by Recruitics said. Indeed, industry employers will continue to feel pressure in hiring even as the immediate crisis fades.

Many trends in healthcare’s labor market were already in place before the coronavirus appeared. They have gained intensity as hospitals, researchers, and others in the space put all hands on deck to treat patients and search for a vaccine.

In the coming months, Recruitics expects to see:

  •  A growing talent gap, especially for nurses. Even before the virus hit, “registered nurse” was the most frequently searched job title on Indeed. Six of the top 10 were healthcare-related.
  • Increased focus on employer brand as healthcare organizations compete for scarce talent.
  • More use of virtual recruiting and onboarding tools: Besides keeping people safe, Recruitics noted, these products offer the added value of speeding up the hiring process.
  • A series of revised laws and regulations meant to streamline the hiring and onboarding of healthcare workers.
  • Employers looking for qualified candidates in new communities, including retirees and the military.
  • A renewed focus on employee well-being. Driven by the stress healthcare workers experience working on the pandemic’s front lines.
  • Improved training and development programs that focus on recognizing the virus and caring for infected patients.

“Healthcare employers will need all the help they can get to attract, support and retain quality talent as we move forward in this ‘new normal,’” Recruitics said.

 

Doing Business

Dice introduced a private email option to its platform. Allowing both candidates and employers to remain anonymous during the initial steps of their conversation. Going forward, the platform will automatically hide a candidates’ personal email address when they make their profile visible. Candidates themselves will decide when to share their identity.

Dice Private Email also lets users unsubscribe from messages they deem irrelevant. Over time, the system uses this opt-out information to provide candidates with the most pertinent opportunities. It also helps employers measure the effectiveness of their candidate communications.

CareerBuilder introduced a new tagline; We’re Building For You. The company said the motto is a “brand promise” that its solutions are developed with the goals and success of seekers and employers in mind.

Talent Acquisition in Trying Times

talent acquisition trying times

Talent Acquisition in Trying Times

 

The hiring landscape has changed entirely over the last several weeks, going from an extended period of low unemployment to unparalleled levels of job loss in response to the global pandemic. While there were some early warning signs, there’s really nothing that could have prepared talent acquisition for the rapid devolution of the economy. And though there is no clear precedent for this particular situation, there are things that talent acquisition professionals can do while the world starts to heal.

 

Don’t Panic

The word Zen gets thrown around a lot, sometimes without context. The truth is that Zen comes from Buddhism and has to do with achieving enlightenment. That might not sound especially corporate, given that talent acquisition has everything to do with strategic intent and little to do with intuition. But it is feasible for the two to meet in the middle and now is the perfect opportunity for those involved in talent acquisition to strive for Zen. Things are moving quickly, and no one knows what’s going to happen next. Stay calm by staying attentive instead of merely internalizing.

 

Maintain Connection

Before making any sudden moves, take the time to talk to others and find out what they’re seeing. Stand back and try to see the larger picture. How are similar organizations or industries responding? Are there any economic indicators that might offer guidance? Use your network for support in understanding the broader implications. In trying times, it can be tough to see beyond the end of the day, which is why it helps to ask for outside perspectives. Don’t get bogged down by feelings of immediacy.

 

Start Planning

Once you have a sense of what’s happening, start planning. Adjust any existing forecasts. Model a few scenarios based on the available data. Account for the impact of layoffs, furloughs, lowered budgets, postponed or canceled initiatives and more. Develop a conservative, moderate and aggressive approach to people, process and products. Ask yourself what’s most important? Figure out what you can reduce and how in order to limit the blow to the business. Look at all potential options and get buy-in from key stakeholders. Seek to deliver value to the organization at every turn.

 

Prioritize People  

In planning, prioritize your people whenever possible. Just last year, Matt Charney wrote, “If we’ve learned one long term lesson from the [Great] Recession, it’s that job recovery was much more complex than economic recovery; even after the markets had rebounded, hiring remained a relative laggard for two to three years.” During the Recession of 2008, so many people were let go that teams all but disappeared, making it nearly impossible to pick up where organizations left off. And if there’s one lesson that’s abundantly clear right now, it’s that people are essential, not only to the economy but also to humanity.

 

Brace Yourself

While trying to maintain your workforce, this piece from 2008 reminds us that when unemployment rises, so do the number of candidates applying for open positions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that in July of 2009, there were 6.4 unemployed persons per job opening but talk to recruiters from that era, and they’ll tell you they received countless applicants per posting. Some reporting back then that it was normal to receive more than 100 resumes for a given opening. If and when that starts to happen, have a protocol in place for reviewing and responding to job seekers. Don’t reopen the black hole of the candidate experience.

 

Optimize Everything

Talent acquisition technology today looks vastly different than it 12 years ago, and the Recession didn’t stem from a global pandemic. Use the slowdown to examine solutions and strategies. Is your ATS up to speed? What steps can you take to reduce redundancies? Are there extra systems that you can eliminate? Be methodical in evaluating each step in your process and the associated technology. Review the output of each as it relates to your overall recruiting metrics. Adjust accordingly.

Even during periods of uncertainty, talent acquisition and talent acquisition technology work together. The most in-demand jobs will change, as evidenced by recent LinkedIn job posting data, sounding the call for positions in healthcare, construction, transportation, education and retail. But fear not, the need for programmers and data scientists will return. In the meantime, keep focused. Reach out to those around you for help. Get some plans in place as things change, knowing you may need to alter as you go. Use technology to your advantage. And remember that people are the heart of what you do and why you do it.

 

Webinar: Zen and The Art of Talent Aquisition Technology

talent acquisition technology

April 21, 2020 2:00 pm EST

We’ll give actionable advice on all four fronts. You’ll leave the webinar inspired to invest in yourself, your TA team, your TA processes, and your TA technology.

Please join us if you can. Register here!

How to Ace Candidate Interviews in a Socially Distant World

candidate interviews

How to Ace Candidate Interviews in a Socially Distant World

While some companies rarely require onsite interviews due to security concerns, or because they are recruiting for remote positions, most recruiters are accustomed to bringing candidates into the office for interviews. That’s not currently possible, and recruiters are now dealing with yet another new norm: virtual candidate interviews.

This break-in process may at first feel like a disadvantage. You can have the same − or even better − access to candidates with video interviews and still make successful job offers.  In fact, virtual interviews have advantages well beyond helping us mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Not only do they make interviews easier to schedule and more budget-friendly for both job seekers and employers, but a recent survey also reports that virtual screening can reduce the time required for effective screening by 80% and time-to-fill by 57%. Virtual interviews can also make the hiring process more collaborative as multiple stakeholders can take part by joining the interview itself or reviewing the recordings.

As your team adapts to more virtual operations, you will quickly see that most of the practices you use for in-person interviews also work for conducting video interviews. Regardless of whether it is an initial interview or later in the hiring process. But, virtual interviews come with their own particular challenges. Especially when it comes to technology and the environment. Whether you are new to virtual interviewing or looking for ways to improve, here are some tips to set your team and your candidates up for success.

 

Keep candidates at ease

These are uncertain times. Don’t worry about overcommunicating when it comes to providing guidance to candidates in advance of the interview.

See our list below for some suggestions to share:

  • Tell family members that you are interviewing, and ensure pets are taken care of so there are no embarrassing interruptions.
  • Make sure the camera is at roughly the same level as your face, and look into the camera when you speak, not at the interviewer. Otherwise, it will appear like you are looking away, up, or down.
  • Find a location free of people and clutter, and make sure the lighting is appropriate for the time of day the interview will take place.
  • Dress the same way that you would if you were meeting the interviewer face-to-face. Default to appropriate business attire, unless the recruiting team tells you otherwise. Since you, the recruiter, will probably also be at home the same goes for you.

 

Get the technology together and do multiple test runs  

While Zoom is our primary video conferencing platform, many of the most popular tools are now being made available for free trials. Including Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Meet, and Cisco Webex.  Other reliable videoconferencing apps that work well on both ends include Skype and Workplace by Facebook’s BlueJeans.  As you ramp-up to go virtual, here are some things that both recruiters and candidates need to keep in mind:

  • Make sure your camera and microphone work, and you are comfortable using the video conferencing platform. Do a trial run at the same time of day that you’re going to be doing the interview so that you know exactly what the lighting is going to look like.
  • Check your Internet speed. For a clear HD video connection, you’ll need to ensure you have the required bandwidth. Do a trial run in advance, and you can test your Internet speed at SpeedTest.net. Switching from Wi-Fi to a wired connection may improve speed.
  • Manage noises like sirens and construction that may interrupt your video interview. Apologize for any interruptions and ask for a few moments until the noise has subsided. You may want to mute the microphone if the noise is severe.
  • When considering platforms, keep in mind that those that are managed by your company may have restrictions for external personnel/non-employees based on IT settings and company network policies.  Google, too, may require the candidate to have a Google or G-Suite Account.

 

Create a virtual tour of your company

Since candidates will not be able to experience your company culture firsthand, consider other ways to illustrate your day-to-day workplace environment. Such as employee video testimonials, photos from memorable company events, or a video of the company workplace.  While it may require some extra resourcefulness and investment of time up front, these kinds of visuals can help candidates feel more comfortable about making a decision to accept a job from a video interview.

 

Make communication and engagement a priority

Considering the environment, candidates are very concerned about the job market and their ability to actually get a job interview, as well as the post-interview process. Send your candidates a thank you email the same day as the interview. Follow with a very detailed email containing information on next steps in the hiring process. Be clear that in many cases, delays are due to travel restrictions, not a hiring or need issue. This message may help build a stronger connection with qualified candidates and keep them engaged during the process.

In typical times, we want to meet candidates in person before making hiring decisions. But today it’s all about getting ourselves comfortable hiring someone we’ve only met virtually. Or, risk disrupting the hiring process even more.

Covid-19 has changed our personal and professional lives in ways that were unimaginable only a month ago. As those of us in talent management know, social and economic crises hit the workforce hard.  While it may take a while for us to comfortably navigate this new norm, we’ve adapted before. With togetherness and perseverance, we will emerge from this crisis a little wiser and more resourceful than we were before.

Interseller: Strategies for Recruiting Outreach during COVID-19

Interseller

 

Interseller: Strategies for Recruiting Outreach During COVID-19

 

Times are hard for everyone. Internal and external recruiting teams are feeling the pressure now more than ever. Whether your organization is impacted by a hiring freeze, a drastic change in the hiring process, or a hiring boom – now is NOT the time to shut down outbound operations. It is, however, a good time to make connections and build relationships with talent and potential clients.

One of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind and one we’ve been asked by many recruiting leaders lately is the following.

“How do we successfully communicate with our current and prospective clients and candidates with COVID-19 looming in the forefront of everyone’s minds?”

We’ve spoken to countless recruiters who are in the same boat. At Interseller, we also have had to adapt our own messaging across all of our outbound channels. Through these conversations and our own tests, we’ve compiled some helpful tactics to help you maintain your pipeline. Meanwhile, the majority of your competitors are closing up shop. Here are some general principles to follow as well as some templates from our messaging revamp you can take and easily apply to your business.

 

General Principles

This is a great time to rethink and revamp your messaging strategy to candidates, clients, and prospects alike. Here are some things to keep in mind as you redefine things moving forward.

Relationships Matter

Focus on relationship building and stay away from the hard push of a sale or job opening, because your target may not necessarily be in the market to buy or make a move during this time. Assume that everyone is impacted and keep an empathetic tone.

Free Offers

Offer something useful for free. This could be as simple as reviewing and giving feedback on a candidate’s resume. Or, it could be pointing prospects to resources (i.e. information on the state of the recruiting market, free tools, favorite blog posts, etc.). Side note: try to refrain from using the word “free” in your messaging because that still is a top spam filter trigger.

Acknowledge Current Times

Don’t make COVID-19 a focal point of your message, but don’t completely graze over it as if nothing is happening right now. Take the time to infuse it into your language to make your messaging current. Say things like “hope you’re staying healthy and safe” or “be well” as a sign-off. Focus on empathy and vulnerability.

Call-to-Actions

Make your call-to-action a friendly invitation for a phone call (not necessarily tied to your services). People are much more willing to hop on the phone in this current state than during normal working conditions. Ask them for their feedback on how they see the market.

Now that we’ve got some guiding principles, you may be asking, “How do we apply these effectively to different target groups?” Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Below you’ll find some messaging that’s working well for us right now focusing on new business development, recruiting new candidates, and communicating with existing clients or stakeholders. Hopefully, this provides some inspiration for your own messaging!

 

Business Development Template

It’s important to continue to build relationships, but also change up your language to offer value to your prospects in a different way than you normally would right now. Your initial outreach could look something like this…

Hi {{ first_name }},

This is where I would typically put a funny sentence in that would grab your attention and engage you in conversation around Interseller. The thing is, no one’s attention is focused on buying new recruiting software right now. People are focused on their health and their loved ones, as they should be.

Some companies are doing very well right now (Zoom, Amazon, Charmin etc.) but most are doing everything in their power to weather this storm. That said, I’m not going to try and sell you on Interseller right now. It’s just not the time or place.

Instead, I have compiled a few articles that you might be interested in. You can check them out here:

If you have a few minutes to chat about the current recruiting climate this week I’d really like to hear your perspective. Even if it’s just a quick 5-10 minute call to introduce ourselves and share knowledge.

Wishing you and yours good health and peace of mind. Hope to chat soon!

 

Cold Recruiting Template

This is an initial email our team at Interseller helped revise for one of our customers who asked for assistance in rewriting her cold recruiting email sequence to acknowledge the current climate.

Hi {{ first_name }},

I hope that you’re staying safe and have been able to adjust to the changes this recent crisis has thrust upon you. I’m reaching out to you from my new home workspace on behalf of XYZ Company.

I’m reaching out to you because we’re seeking a Data Analyst or Scientist to join our growing team. In this role, you would be the second member of the Data Team, and an integral part of every aspect of the company—not just the algorithms that drive our product, but also the company culture.

I understand that there must be a lot on your mind outside of the working environment and that’s completely fair. I do too! But, I also have faith that we all will be able to weather the storm. When all of this has settled, I want to be assured that I’ve set up the people I work with to succeed in their transition back to normal life.

Based on your experience at {{ company }}, I think that you could be a tremendous fit here at Summer and I would be remiss if we didn’t get the chance to at least chat about it.

If you are interested in learning more about the opportunity, please feel free to send me some times that work for you and I’ll do my best to make it happen. Given my new work from home schedule, I can be a little more flexible than usual 🙂

Looking forward to it!

Sincerely,

 

Existing Clients or Stakeholders Template

It’s important to keep your current clients or internal stakeholders warm during this time, so be sure to continue to communicate with them. Remember, you can still add value in different ways right now. Here’s a look at what we are using internally at our company.

Hey {{ first_name }},

Greetings from my childhood home in Jersey! Wanted to take a minute to share what myself and Interseller are doing for our partners in these interesting times.

We’ve been in nearly constant contact with a number of our customers and have been carefully monitoring how our industry has been responding to the ever-changing nature of the crisis. Every day, we’re doing our best to keep our finger on the pulse of what’s going on so that we can better support you!

So, that being said, please do let me know if you’d like to set up a call with me to help:

  • Provide our perspective on the current situation from both a human and business level
  • Brainstorm ideas to keep your business going with a shrinking target audience
  • Put together messaging for both BD and candidate sourcing during this time
  • Talk through anything else that might be on your mind

Ultimately, I’m here to be your partner and make sure that I’m doing everything in my power to help you succeed. So, please do not hesitate to use me as a resource however that may manifest itself.

Stay safe and I’m looking forward to speaking soon!

 

In Summary

These are just a few examples of ways to engage with people during this time. And remember, there’s no magic message that’s going to please everyone. You’ve got to remain authentic, vulnerable, and empathetic in your language – but you can’t win them all. But when we all rebound from this (and we will), you’ll have a head start on relationships and pipeline you wouldn’t have if you did nothing during this time.

Talk The Talk, Walk The Walk

walk the walk

 

Talk The Talk, Walk The Walk

 

If you’ve won “Employer of Choice” award(s) and used said award(s) in your PR, marketing, recruiting, sales, and/or employer branding efforts, NOW is the time to back that shit up. It’s time to walk the walk.

Side note: I’m super jaded about these awards after winning three of them (Best Places to Work in Dallas) by gaming the stupid survey system they used to grant said awards. We did good things for our employees, no doubt about it, but we gamed the system. I’m honest if nothing else.

For clarity sake, I’m talking about fancy awards like:

  • “100 Best Companies to Work For”
  • “A Top Work Place”
  • “Great Place to Work”
  • “America’s Best Employers”
  • “World’s Top Companies”
  • “Great Workplace”
  • “Most Admired Companies”
  • “Top 100 Brilliant Companies”
  • “Top Employers”
  • “Employer of Choice”
  • “Best Workplaces”
  • “Best Places to Work”
  • “Most Attractive Employers”
  • “Top Company Cultures”
  • “100 Best Corporate Citizens”
  • “Most Promising Companies”

Not meant to be a comprehensive list of “Employer of Choice” awards rather an example of the types of words these awards use. Best, top, great. These aren’t average words, these words represent exemplary.  So, if you are truly exemplary, then NOW is the time to show it…err prove it.

Or maybe these awards are just bullshit and it’s every person for themselves. Time will tell of course.

I’ll illustrate two examples, not to piss folks off. Rather, to highlight the hypocrisy of awards versus words & actions.

 

Example A

ZipRecruiter is listed as Great Place to Work and has written three articles about Great Places to Work via their blog. The articles are titled “3 Ways to Show You’re a Great Place to Work” and “5 Exceptional Companies to Work For” and “How Your Company Can Be A “Best Workplace” Contender” so they clearly understand what a Great Company is and isn’t.

Pre-COVID-19, ZipRecruiter had roughly 1,200 full-time employees.

They fired 492 employees or 39 percent of staff on March 29th. They notified hundreds of employees via Zoom calls, as many of those affected were working remotely, about pending layoffs.

That’s roughly 500 people. People with families, mortgages, and lives to live.

My question for ZipRecruiter is simple, is this how a “Great Place to Work” behaves or is it simply profit before people? And being fired via Zoom is an extra nice touch. Way to go.

Here’s the Glassdoor profile for ZipRecruiter.

 

Example B

Paychex has listed literally hundreds of “employer of choice” awards that they’ve earned in the over 4 decades of being in business. I’ve personally worked with Paychex in the past. The employees I collaborated with were absolutely fantastic.

That said, the founder and chairman, Tom Golisano, told Bloomberg “Hurting the economy could be worse than losing a few more people.” Let that sink in for a moment.

Tom started this company and has been selling to and working with HR leaders for 40+ years. A few more people. Wonderful. Note to self, billionaires should never talk to reporters. Never.

They’ve since tried to walk the quote back or “mansplain” the context but the quote is the quote. And underneath that quote is how you feel: Profit over people. Sorry, not sorry.

Here’s the Glassdoor profile for Paychex.

 

In closing, I’m not mad at ZipRecruiter or Paychex, I just don’t understand why their actions and words are in conflict with the awards they’ve touted.

Do we believe our eyes and ears or these fancy awards? NOW is the time to walk the walk.

The BIG Recovery

questions

 

The BIG Recovery

 

At some point in the (hopefully near) future, we’re going to think about what all we learned from our time during the global crisis that is COVID-19. Right now we don’t have the answers, hell, we might not even have the time to think about the answers much less the questions. That said, some of us need to think about the silver lining and/or what good can come from something so catastrophic. 

I posted this on LinkedIn and Facebook last week as a simple exercise and a ton of really smart people added questions.

 

Here are 25 questions we should ask ourselves once the storm passes. 

Candidates

  • How did you leverage the downtime of COVID-19?

 

C-Suite/Board of Directors

  • Did you act responsibly, doing all you could to temporarily transfer workers into like-for-like jobs in sectors requiring surge capacity? 
  • How did you leverage HR/TA during COVID-19? Did you use this opportunity to invest or divest? 
  • Was HR part of your business continuity planning preparation? If not, will HR be a part of your future business continuity planning process?

 

Human Resources

  • Have you reevaluated your remote work or flex time policy based on the results of the work at home mandate?
  • How did you maximize the value of your workforce during COVID-19? 
  • Which employees derailed when going remote? What could we have done to prevent said derailment?
  • You more than likely dispensed with (or streamlined) your regular, and overly complex, performance review process. Will performance reviews be conducted differently because of what you learned during COVID-19?

 

HR/Communications

  • How did you partner together to ensure employees, customers and partners were well informed during COVID-19?

 

Human Resources/C-Suite

  • During COVID-19, what did you do to ensure that diversity and inclusion are attended to?
  • From the COVID-19 experience, what did you learn about succession planning?
  • How did you reinforce your values/culture during COVID-19?
  • Pre-COVID-19, what was your business continuity plan and how did you have to change based on what you learned during COVID-19? 
  • What did you learn about your organization regarding speed? Meaning, how fast could you mobilize and/or your agility to pivot quickly?  
  • What was the biggest business continuity challenge that you faced? And, how did you overcome said challenge?
  • Will you evaluate your pay philosophy or internal compensation structure (including bonuses) as a result of COVID-19? Why or why not?

 

Human Resources/Talent Acquisition

  • Did you use internal mobility effectively during COVID-19?
  • How do you reinvent the way you work and/or collaborate with your vendors, peers, executives and employees during COVID-19?
  • How have you changed or begun opening your views towards HR open source and leveraging your HR community peers in new ways?
  • What broken or failed processes did you fix during COVID-19?
  • What did you do to make yourself better (training, upskilling, learning) during COVID-19?
  • What technology issues/misalignments did you resolve during COVID-19? 

 

HR/TA/C-Suite/Board of Directors

  • Do you feel like you had the right people data and at the right time to make people-related business decisions?

 

Talent Aquisition

  • Pre-COVID-19 candidates were faster than most TA teams, how did you make your team faster during COVID-19? Meaning, can you hire (from sourcing to onboarding) within two weeks? If not, why? 

 

Talent Acquisition/EB

  • How well did you live your EVP and values during and after, how did your decisions map to what you state you believe?

 

Summary

This is clearly not a comprehensive list of talent-related questions one would ask after a crisis.

What would you add? Please do so in the comments section so we all have a better understanding. We’ll add those comments to the list so you have a great resource when you and your team start the process of recovery and look back at what you learned during COVID-19. 

Special thanks to Lexy Martin, Dr. Scott Davies, Robin Schooling, Pamela Seplow Silberstein, John Vlastelica, Bianca E. McCann, Jacqueline Walocha Kuhn, Jayashree Venkataraman, Michelle Morettini, Grantley Morgan, and Theodore Albanidis for spending time and lending their intellect to this exercise. I appreciate you all. 

Btw, I titled the post “The BIG Recovery” as that’s what I hope happens from this crisis. Turns out, optimism is a choice. Who knew?

3 Steps to Developing a Successful Retail Hiring Strategy in 2020

Image of a shopping basket in a superstore

 

3 Steps to Developing a Successful Retail Hiring Strategy in 2020

 

With Covid-19 cases growing exponentially in the US, retailers are scrambling to deal with multiple challenges. From plummeting sales and stalling supply chains to keeping employees safe and healthy to ensure they can continue working.

Malls and non-essential retail companies might have temporarily closed their doors until the pandemic is under control. However, grocers, supermarkets, and drugstores are looking for frontline workers to manage increasing demand and fill shortages created due to workers taking leaves for family or health reasons.

Companies like CVS, 7-Eleven, Kroger and many more are looking to hire tens of thousands of employees across their stores.

A recent survey by Renaissance Macro Research found that major retailers plan to hire over 750,000 full-time and part-time workers collectively to meet market demand.

A chart representing open positions at major retailers during the Covid-19 outbreak.

It’s no secret that American retailers have been struggling since even before the coronavirus epidemic. In 2019, store closures in the US reached an all-time high of 9,302. While e-commerce platforms have played a crucial role in changing retail consumer habits, talent or rather, the lack of it in retail has also had a significant impact on the industry. Staff shortages and reducing service levels have become symptomatic of the dying brick-and-mortar retailers. For an industry that employs one in every four people in America, retail is in dire need of a facelift its approach to hiring and retaining talent.

 

People, not products, are the competitive advantage

We live in a time when customers can buy everything from groceries to car parts online. It’s people, not products that drive retailers’ competitive advantage. The best retail experiences in the digital age are centered on customer service and customer knowledge. That is why retail hiring practices can make or break your business.

Retail is an industry plagued with high employee turnover, cut-throat competition, and volatility. Therefore, developing a successful recruitment strategy is key to profitability. Fortunately, building an effective retail hiring strategy does not have to be expensive or complicated. Here’s a look at some of the essential steps for you to get started.

 

Target Retail Talent with the Right Job Descriptions

Retail jobs can be very diverse. From sales to customer service and stocking associates, skills required for each of these vary significantly. In detail, outlining the skills needed for performing these roles within your job descriptions are crucial to increasing qualified applicants.

Mention the success factors essential of every role. For instance, a sales associate should ideally possess good product knowledge, have strong interpersonal skills, and have prior sales experience. Similarly, if you are hiring for hourly workers, values and personality traits should be prioritized over experience.

Employee turnover is one of the biggest issues in retail talent management. You can reduce turnover and increase the applications by providing a brief view of the unique opportunities available to employees at your organization. Include information around succession planning or training and development opportunities to attract the best and brightest in retail.

While most retail jobs are entry-level, they don’t have to be dead ends. Telling candidates how they can grow and have a fulfilling career at your company will help you build a high-performance culture and ultimately improve your bottom line.

 

Build an Attractive Employer Brand

Employer branding is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about retail hiring. After all, hourly workers make up a huge chunk of all retail employees and wages would determine their choice of employer, right? Wrong!

While the retail sector is wage sensitive, money is not the only thing that drives candidates to your organization. Flexibility, culture, benefits, and learning opportunities are essential considerations for candidates. Horror stories about bad working conditions and discrimination spread faster among retail employees than in other sectors.

Firstly, start by building your employer brand narrative aligned to your values, culture, career opportunities, and additional perks that come as a part of the job. Remember, your employees are your biggest brand ambassadors. Companies like Target, IKEA, and Walmart invested in creating a strong employer brand to position themselves as employers of choice in an industry dominated by minimum-wage jobs.

Social media, career sites, and job descriptions are powerful channels to showcase your employer brand to prospective employees. Inspirational employee stories, learning opportunities, diverse hiring practices are all virtual gold for attracting top retail talent.

For example, check out how Walmart uses Twitter to promote their employer brand across the globe:

 

 

Leverage Data and Technology to Hire Better

Retailers often receive a high volume of applicants. Thanks to high turnovers, this process is ongoing. Here is where recruiting solutions can become your most valuable ally. Retail-focused applicant tracking systems (ATS) or integrated talent management suites can help you streamline and improve your hiring process. Right from creating candidate personas to advertising and job posting, recruiting solutions help you automate the hiring process.

Solutions that offer artificial intelligence and advanced analytical capabilities also help you drive personalization at scale. Thus, improving your employer brand while broadening your talent pool. Use these solutions to understand where your candidates are coming from. As well as how they are interacting with your recruiting process to optimize your strategy and improve quality-of-hire.

Next, creating and implementing a step-by-step onboarding roadmap is vital to unlocking the potential of new hires. Recruitment solutions can help you bring your new hires up to speed by delivering information, resources, and training courses tailored to specific job roles.

 

In Closing

In brief, the future of retail is already here. Covid-19 has accelerated the pace of change.

To succeed with retail hiring in 2020, you will need to marry creativity with technology. These three steps will help you get started on your hiring journey and drive business growth in and beyond these trying times.

If you need a distraction…

podcast list

 

Last week I sent this email out to a group of industry friends. It was a lighthearted way to help folks cope with the stress of COVID-19. Since I sent the email out I’ve decided to make the Google doc a list here and thus more publicly available to folks. 

____

 

Friends, colleagues & random people I know from Twitter:

Turns out, we all cope with stress, anxiety, fear, and grief differently. I tend to use humor to deflect painful things. It works for me but not for others. After suffering (and surviving) 3 near-death experiences over 20 months, I’ve learned not to judge folks so quickly or cruelly.

Essentially, I learned to let humans be humans.

Today, I offer you a distraction, if you’d like one, in the form of All Things Talent Podcasts. This is a Google doc that lists 70ish HR/TA podcasts that you can, in some form or fashion, get distracted whilst learning and/or being entertained.

 

It’s published to the web as a Google doc and I’ll try my best to keep it fresh (podcasts come and go frequently). If I’ve missed your favorite podcast, please let me know and I’ll add it to the list asap. So, you can simply click podcasts that seem interesting and listen to a show or three. Viola.

Most of you know that I hosted an HR podcast (DriveThruHR) for 5 years (about 1,000 shows). It was a wonderful way to talk with folks, listen to stories and connect with people in our industry. It was a fantastic experience for me. That’s why I wanted to put something together for you all. Building a list is something I do to cope with chaos.

Some of you might not love a “distraction” email at this particular time. If so, please email me and I’ll not bother you again. I need more enemies like a desert needs more sand. No harm, no foul. Just let me know and I’ll remove you from my email list.

 

Lastly, if you want to talk, cry, yell, listen, grieve, etc., I’m here for you. My cell is 469-371-7050 and my personal email is [email protected] – I’m not traveling for a few months (duh) so I have more time than I normally would. I’d love to talk if you’d like to talk. My calendar is https://calendly.com/tincup – feel free to book time and we don’t have to talk about business.

 

You’re not alone. We’re not alone. If so inclined, I hope you enjoy the podcasts.

With love, William

 

HR/TA Podcast List

So here’s the list of HR/TA podcasts, enjoy and please let me know which ones I’ve missed. Yes, I missed a bunch I know.

Sorry if I missed yours, it wasn’t out of spite, sadly it was pure incompetence. Let’s fix that by adding comments and I’ll update the list here.

In alpha order:

Please comment on podcasts that I’ve missed and/or links that need to be changed, etc. Thank you.

New and Improved ZapInfo

The ZapInfo update makes it even better!

 

ZapInfo has added some new features to their tool we’d like to show you! As we’ve discussed before, ZapInfo makes scraping data easy, and you should be using it.

Let’s run through what it looks like. We’re starting on a page in LinkedIn, and we use ZapInfo to grab someone’s profile. It does its thing, and then we go view the record.

The first change you’re going to notice is here. The contact record now allows you to expand each section, so you can view them separately, or hide the ones you don’t want to see. There are also lookup sections where you can have ZapInfo look up contact information from selected search engines. Use these to have ZapInfo try and find other social profiles, such as their Twitter, Facebook, GitHub, and Instagram. This can help you flesh out your candidate profile. When you’ve found them, extract from the page and combine the records.

Also, use their email finder to generate email addresses and then validate them. You can legitimately find anything you want using this.

When you have all the information you want, you can Zap Out what you’ve found into the clipboard, spreadsheet, a web link, or a PDF resume. Or if you are layering your sourcing tools (like you should be!) pop this into SeekOut or Swordfish and let it do its thing.

Overall, this tool has grown quite a bit. It just continues to get better and better, and it’s also reasonably priced. ZapInfo is a scraping tool, but can also enhance the data it finds, which makes it more than “just a simple scraper.” It’s Dean’s go-to, if that helps or hurts, we won’t know!

~ Noel Cocca

HCM Talent Technology Roundup – April 3, 2020

talent technology

 

Job Boards Feel COVID-19’s Impact; New Recruiting Tech Gets a Boost 

 

When 3.3 million workers file unemployment claims in a week, you know the recruiting world’s going to change.

As the COVID-19 pandemic gathered steam, blogs, and trade media filled with stories about how the move toward remote work increased demand for virtual-interviewing technology. Yet at the same time, employers in most sectors have suspended their hiring plans—if they’re not letting people go.

 

Job Boards Under Stress 

Not surprisingly, job boards are getting hit. Last week, ZipRecruiter laid off roughly one-third of its staff, 492 employees out of about 1,200. While executives said the company has plenty of cash on hand, the site’s job postings plummeted during March. CEO Ian Siegel said “we regretfully have to do what is necessary to make sure we are there for the great American comeback story to come,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

The question remains, though: When America comes back, will job boards come back with it?

Maybe, said Jeff-Dickey-Chasins, who consults with a number of job boards through his company, Job Board Doctor, LLC. “If the [economic] freeze is a couple of months or less, I suspect most job boards will survive,” he said. “If it’s longer, I expect to see some significant attrition.” His reasoning’s simple: Most Job boards make money when employers pay for their services. When employers pull back, the boards’ revenue goes down.

Chad Sowash, co-host of the industry podcast Chad & Cheese – HR’s Most Dangerous Podcast, said the survivors would be those that build their databases, gain more relevant data around candidate profiles and forge strong partnerships. Lesser-known sites and those with clunky products will suffer, he predicted, “while the ones who try and weather the storm alone will most likely die.”

 

Duration is a Factor

Certainly, the length of the crisis will be a factor, too. “This ‘full stop’ has the potential to put a lot of businesses out of business. It’s like we’ve put the economy into a controlled coma,” said Dickey-Chasins. “As long as the coma can be controlled, the likelihood that things can come back is good. But the chances of the coma becoming uncontrolled are significant … and [that would be] very bad news for any business, like job boards, that’s tied to hiring.”

While ZipRecruiter was perhaps particularly vulnerable to economic turbulence—Sowash believes the company was already in need of restructuring when the pandemic “quickly forced their hand”—many other boards aren’t in positions of strength. For example, Monster and CareerBuilder “aren’t knocking the cover off the ball already,” he said.

As the pandemic continues, many of ZipRecruiter’s competitors have imposed hiring freezes. According to a list compiled by Candor, they include Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn.

 

Virtual Hiring Events

Virtual-interview technology companies aren’t the only tech vendors seeing a spike in interest from potential customers. Businesses that help employers stage virtual recruiting events report an increase in queries, as well.

One of them is Turazo, a virtual campus-recruiting platform headquartered in San Francisco. Since early March, the company’s sales pipeline has picked up speed as employers struggle to connect with new talent even as college campuses shut down, said CEO Peter Cipollone. “They have no way to really match well and have a good, engaged conversation with those types of prospects,” he said.

Other companies have come to the same conclusion. This week alone, Paradox and Eightfold.ai announced virtual hiring solutions, and Eightfold’s seems to target the same campus population as Turazo’s.

All of this may be a sign of things to come. Employers are looking at remote technology in a fundamentally different way, Cipollone said. “I believe it’s a structural change, especially at the early talent stage … where so much of the early interaction involves companies sending people out to campuses to interact with students physically.”

On a broader scale, the coronavirus will prove the value of remote recruiting technologies. “People will have to rely on them, they’ll see the value and then there’s no reason to turn them off after the crisis is over,” added Ethan Garr, Turazo’s head of communications.

 

Doing Business 

Elsewhere in the world of recruiting tech… 

HireRight and Fama Technologies announced an integration that offers automated social-media background screening. Fama’s technology scans and analyzes publicly available data to identify candidate risks such as bigotry, sexism, and harassment.

Leoforce is offering complimentary access to its recruiting platform, Arya, for companies identified as essential businesses by local, state, or federal authorities. The company said the platform would be available to organizations that have urgent hiring needs related to the pandemic.

The Consumer-Driven Candidate

consumer candidate

 

The Consumer-Driven Candidate

 

Recruiting in 2008 was heartbreaking.

I can remember receiving resumes from just about everyone in the home-building or mortgage-lending business. The housing market came to a literal standstill.

Candidates applied to jobs outside of their scope just to feed their families. Of course, finding work in other fields was challenging as well.

In that recession year, there were over two million laid off from their jobs. For those of us in talent acquisition, we realized we had the upper hand and became discerning in our callbacks.

Overall, it was an employer’s market, and we sat high on our perch. Of course, time changes all things. We have enjoyed times of plenty since then, times that are now over. It is deja-vu all over again in the form of a COVID-19.

 

The 2020 Market

In 2020 the employer market was replaced with a candidate-driven market. Unemployment is the lowest it has been in fifty years. Or was, before COVID-19 appeared. Now, a record 3.5 million people have filed for unemployment due to the pandemic.

Despite this recent turn of events, the highly skilled candidate population still expects a certain level of treatment.  Think of a Respiratory Therapist.  They can have any job on the planet right now. Even if you don’t have highly specialized skills that can be used in a pandemic, the highly qualified individual in any field holds the cards.

Technology has driven up the need for specialized talent.  The top 25% of candidates in any market, any industry, still have choices when it comes to job opportunities, and they know it.

Along with this candidate-driven market comes a change in the candidate state of mind.  Candidates still expect the white glove treatment, even if they are casually looking, experiencing layoff, or under-qualified.

Candidates expect to be listened to and responded to promptly. They will read our company reviews. They will check out company social media sites. And then they will make determinations in brand choices just as they would purchasing a product.

 

The Candidate Life-cycle

As talent acquisition professionals, we need to adapt to this new outlook.  The consumer-driven candidate state of mind is here, and we need to change our mental workflow processes to meet this consumerism ideal.

There is a reason we return to the same mechanic, car dealership, salon, or barber. We like how it feels to be remembered and known by name. We value that someone knows our preferences.

Candidates feel the same way. They want to be known and for their talent professional to remember their dream job and salary. Consumer-driven candidates will follow a life-cycle just like a consumer does.

This lifecycle begins with an awareness of your brand, building opinions about your company, consideration as a preference to apply online, and ends with a purchase or, as we call it, a hire. Recognizing the lifecycle and focusing on candidate delight is the key in all future pipeline hires.

Product marketers don’t expect to sell a consumer on the first pitch, and neither should we as talent pros. Devotion to a brand happens over time.

Working with consumer-driven candidates requires a small investment of understanding.  Although technology and tools are a great addition to a talent acquisition toolbox, the real value is in understanding the consumer life cycle and mindset.

Characteristics of a consumer-driven candidate are noted below with best practices in meeting the high consumer expectations.

 

Traits of a Consumer-Driven candidate:

First, they value research.

Accept that the candidate will probably view your Glassdoor page.  Have a few key points already prepared to address, even if the candidate doesn’t bring it up.  It is an offensive approach and requires talent acquisition to accept that we are no longer in charge of our own stories. If our stories are skewed, we need to acknowledge the scars as the consumer-driven candidate also values transparency.

 

Second, they expect treatment like a customer.

When I am window shopping, I expect a shopkeeper to treat me with respect and dignity. Even if I clearly can’t afford their wares.

Similarly, an under-qualified new graduate-level candidate today is an experienced hire in four years. It’s a long game. Surprisingly, the most extended time frame I had between communications with a candidate was twelve years. Above all, they remembered how I made them feel, and they keep coming back for more.

In agency work, it isn’t unusual for a candidate to stay with the same recruiter over the life of their career.  Corporate recruiters and sourcers can learn from this. The only difference is how each party viewed the relationship.

 

Third, once they choose a brand, it’s hard to change their mind.  

If you don’t believe me, try to get an Apple iPhone user to change to Android.  Yeah, good luck with that.

In closing, we may only get one chance as talent professionals to impress a consumer-driven candidate. Don’t blow it.

 

 

Appcast: Grant Program to Help Address COVID-19 Pandemic Hiring Needs

Grant Program to Help Address COVID-19 Pandemic Hiring Needs

LEBANON, N.H., April 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In response to the dire need for increased staff to treat patients and slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Appcast recently launched a no-cost recruitment advertising grant program worth $100,000. The program rapidly grew to $368,000 following the participation of like-minded recruiting industry leaders including Adzuna, Careerbliss, CareerBuilder, Directly Apply, Get.it, iHire, Lensa, LinkUp, MyJobHelper, Results Generation, StaffAttract and Upward.

Eligible organizations must be based in the U.S. or Canada and currently hiring workers to combat the impact of the pandemic.

To date, 26 grants have been awarded to a variety of organizations including healthcare systems, senior living communities, facilities management companies, pharmaceutical research and development firms, and other health services companies.

Chris Forman, CEO of Appcast, said, “Public health experts have identified significant shortages of front-line workers, and the situation is escalating daily. Given our expertise in helping to recruit qualified and often highly specialized talent, we knew Appcast could support positive change during the most challenging of times. We’re receiving a steady stream of applications and look forward to granting awards on a daily basis.” Forman continued, “It’s gratifying to see our job site partners and recruiting colleagues supporting this initiative. We’re proud to partner with organizations that stand with us to support this cause.”

To learn more, please visit Appcast’s COVID-19 Recruitment Grant site. Job sites interested in joining in support of this initiative can contact Matt Molinari of Appcast by emailing [email protected].

About Appcast
Using real-time data and programmatic technology, Appcast is advancing the recruitment advertising industry, enabling employers, agencies, recruitment firms, and job boards to improve recruitment outcomes, ROI, and attract high-quality job seekers. To learn more, visit https://www.appcast.io.

Note to editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein remain the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Heather Salerno
SVP Marketing, Appcast
[email protected]

https://info.appcast.io/appcast-covid-19-recruitment-grant