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Make 2020 the Year of Total Talent

Talent Management

 

“44 percent of those surveyed say that the pursuit of Total Talent is anywhere from extremely to very practical”

Seeing the headline, you might be wondering why 2020 will be the year for Total Talent. That’s a fair question, given the concept’s historical trajectory in the HR and recruiting space. In fact, one of the primary papers on the topic, “Total Talent Management, Toward an Integrated Strategy for the Employed and Non-Employed Workforce,” came out in May 2015. At that time, the research showed that while enthusiasm for Total Talent remained high, there hadn’t been much forward movement on the trend.

Fast forward to 2019, and a new look at Total Talent discovered that while companies are making positive strides and continuing to move the needle, progress remains slow. But more importantly, these findings also show that while Total Talent was once seen as a nice to have, it has since become a necessity for those employers seeking to source and hire in-demand candidates and carve out a competitive advantage. Citing an increased sense of urgency, Total Talent is primed to gain forward momentum as teams eager to get started to incorporate these practices in the coming months and years.

Unpacking the Latest Research

Digging into our newly released report, titled “Toward a Total Talent Future: A Competitive Business Advantage,” it’s clear that what employers want from their talent strategies and what they have are two very different things. There are more than a few factors contributing to this sentiment, and chief among them is talent mix. Right now, most organizations do not believe they have the optimal talent mix to produce the desired business results.

Yet, some 44 percent of those surveyed say that the pursuit of Total Talent is anywhere from extremely to very practical, and the majority intend to implement Total Talent Acquisition (54 percent) or Total Talent Management (58 percent) within the next two years. So what’s standing in their way?

For one, a lack of direction from corporate leadership leaves the responding organizations struggling to find the right blend of employees, temporary agency workers, freelancers, and independent contractors. Other barriers to adoption include organizational silos (75 percent of responding organizations), lack of data (46 percent), and the lack of a compelling business case (39 percent). But interestingly, it’s not so much about technology, with the two technology-related responses ranked the least critical. Left without an overarching talent strategy, companies find themselves unable to take the steps needed to achieve Total Talent – until now.

Trending Toward Total Talent

Luckily for those organizations planning their move toward Total Talent, it’s not 2015 anymore. Nearly five years later, there are plenty of companies helping lead the way, and in the process, creating a guide to success.

Looking specifically at “Total Talent Trendsetters,” this report identifies their best practices and quantifies the impact these activities have on business. “Trendsetters” represent the 24 percent of responding organizations most likely to display Total Talent capabilities, with the 46 percent likely to use some categorized as “Followers” and the remaining 30 percent showcasing few or none being “Laggards.” The capabilities in question include:

  • Reporting on the effectiveness of talent acquisition strategies or programs in a meaningful way
  • Having optimized their talent mix to produce maximum output at minimum cost
  • Using reliable data to measure the talent mix for the entire organization
  • Sourcing workers under a unified management group or program
  • And maximizing their company brand to source employed and non-employer workers, to name a few.

It’s here that business performance enters into the picture, highlighting just how vast the distinction is between Trendsetters and Laggards. Trendsetters are more likely to see their entire workforce (employed and non-employed) as a source of competitive advantage, while also more likely to believe their organization has the talent it needs to achieve its objectives. Part of that comes from the Trendsetters’ ability to source and hire workers, using their corporate brand to attract the right combination of skills and talent. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Bringing It All Together

Knowing all of this prompts the question: how do organizations make 2020 the year of Total Talent? To start, companies need to identify a partner who can help them define what Total Talent success looks like and build a compelling business case from there.

As the research found, Total Talent works when executive leadership gets on board to support the vision. Have conversations with critical stakeholders to begin soliciting feedback, developing and adjusting plans, and promoting the idea within the organization. At the same time, collect data that highlights any existing discrepancies within the workforce and reinforces the value of the Total Talent approach. Consider how leveraging a Direct Sourcing solution might come into play, recognizing that some 50 percent of workers are projected to fall into the non-employee category by 2030. Doing so will enable the organization to build pilot programs and test efficacy before scaling across the entire workforce. And finally, recognize that though Total Talent doesn’t necessarily happen overnight, it can happen over the course of a year, and as our research shows, there’s no time like the present.

What Traits Are Red Flags To Look For In a Candidate?

Candidate Red Flags in Recruitment

 

“70% of employers believe personality is a key area to focus on when assessing a candidate.”

A bad hire can come at a great cost to your company. Not only will they fail to get results, but they’ll also bring team morale down while they struggle to settle in. But how can you ensure you hire the right person for your company?

While it partly comes down to luck, there are some red flags you should keep an eye on. In fact, a recent study by Resume-Library and TopInterview reveals that 70% of employers believe personality is a key area to focus on when assessing a candidate.

Indeed, while skills are an important area to focus on when hiring, you also want to employ someone who’s going to fit in with the culture of your company. And our study reveals a number of personality traits to be wary of.

So, if your candidate shows any of these five personality traits, then chances are they’re not going to make a good hire!

Arrogance

Arrogance is an instant red flag in candidates. The last thing you want is for a new hire to come in and ruffle some feathers because they immediately think they’re better than everyone else.

The truth is that nobody’s perfect. An employee who believes they don’t need to improve won’t take opportunities to learn and develop and therefore won’t reach their full potential.

Of course, in some industries like sales, you’ll want outgoing and assured people who are confident in their abilities; but there’s a fine line between being confident and being arrogant.

To test candidates for arrogance during the interview process, ask them what their biggest weakness is. If they reply with ‘nothing’, or ‘my positives speak louder than my negatives’, then you have your answer. You should want an employee who’s always willing to learn and improve their skillset!

Dishonesty

A dishonest candidate is one your company should stay well away from. If you can’t trust your candidates at this early stage of the hiring process, how can you trust them when they work for your company?

In most severe cases, a dishonest candidate that you end up employing could fabricate important information to clients, customers or members of staff.

Not only is this gross negligence of their contract, it also reflects poorly on your company; so be especially cautious when it comes to this red flag.

While it’s normal for candidates to exaggerate their past skills, it isn’t acceptable to lie about more important matters like employment history. If your candidate dodges questions and seems concerned about references, then they could be lying.

Lack of Versatility

Versatility is an essential skill, especially within start-ups. It’s crucial for any business to fill their workplace with creative and multi-skilled employees, as it can help to grow your company’s potential.

You won’t want a candidate that is one-dimensional with their skillset and isn’t willing to learn new skills that come with the role.

While not a major red flag, you should prioritize candidates that have a desire to learn and develop in their role, meaning they can perform well across a range of tasks, rather than just a few.

If your candidate appears disinterested with any potential extra training or courses they can take, you may want to look elsewhere.

Unreliability

This trait can be pretty easy to spot. An unreliable candidate will be one that lets you down time and again. Maybe they cancel an interview at the last minute, or turn up late.

This won’t be acceptable once they join your company. What happens if they’re late to client meetings? Or you can’t trust them to work individually to a tight deadline. You don’t want an unreliable employee.

Being late is a red flag on its own, but if they don’t have a justifiable excuse, then you’re interviewing an unreliable candidate.

Short-tempered

An angry employee will unsettle the company culture and cause friction amongst your team. If your candidate is quick to anger or gets frustrated easily, then this is a huge red flag.

The last thing you want is an employee who routinely argues with either clients or colleagues. This is potentially the most toxic trait and one that could land you in serious trouble.

An angry employee will ruin team morale and put your business’ reputation in danger if you can’t trust them to keep their cool in front of clients and customers.

While difficult to spot, there are certainly some warning signs to watch out for. An interview task is a good place to start. The pressure of a surprise task can rattle even the calmest of candidates, let alone one that struggles to keep their temper in check. So, it will quickly weed out a hot-headed candidate.

You’ll want to see how your staff react under the pressure of deadlines. Ones that react badly under pressure should not be advanced to the next stage.

How to Make the Best Hire

It’s important to keep a watch out for these red flags throughout your hiring process. As well as good luck, your preparation, attitude and ability to evaluate and interview candidates well will play a part in making the best hire. If you’re not confident in running the interview alone, bring in another trusted party to help you throughout the process.

An extra pair of eyes and ears could make all the difference in spotting these red flags, as well as preventing unconscious bias. It’s a big decision to make; but have faith in your hiring abilities and set yourself up for success!

 

Use this SourceSort trick to Find Developer Candidates

SourceSort

 

Use this trick to find developer candidates through SourceSort

 

If you aren’t already familiar with SourceSort, it’s a GitHub front-ended tool that helps people find open projects they would like to contribute to. We have a neat little hack that will also allow you to use this source as a way to find developers to target for recruiting purposes! This can be especially useful when you have needs for someone skilled in a particular programming language, or if you’re looking for someone with prior experience working on a specific type of project like blockchain or mobile applications.

Here are the steps to turn this into a sourcing tool!

  • Specify which programming language (as well as any other specifics)
    • Can include keyword, number of contributors on the project, or even the working hours needed
  • Select a project from your results that looks relevant.
  • Go into the .github section of the project
  • From here you can see all the contributors that have worked on the project
  • Under Insights, you can see all the Commits that have been done,
  • Open up one of those commit files
  • In the address bar, add .patch to the end of the displayed URL

There we have it, the second line has the person’s email. Works every time! It’s an alternate way of searching GitHub, and it’s simple and easy!

~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

Nurture Recruitment, Don’t Micromanage It

“Recognizing where funnel management goes wrong, offers the opportunity to figure out where things go right”

Nurture Recruitment, Don’t Micromanage It

The science behind recruitment funnels feels a bit like meteorology. We talk about them regularly, almost ad nauseam, despite not always understanding how they operate. At the same time, recruitment funnels, like the weather forecast, feel highly personal, unique to every organization, and subject to change at any time. Preparing to build one takes data and analytics to model the possibilities, only to see the entire thing fall apart the second a variable enters into the picture. Even so, there’s something about recruitment funnels, like those beloved television weather personalities (shout out, Al Roker), that the industry just can’t quit. 

Understand the Problem

None of this is to say that funnels can’t work, when in fact, most of the time, they do. The problem is a collective obsession with somehow perfecting recruitment through the funnel. The same goes for recruitment technology point solutions. That’s entirely too much pressure to put on any one strategy or program. Relying on one funnel to do all of the heavy lifting will cause it to collapse in on itself (which isn’t that crazy when you think about the shape in question – basic geometry). 

Recruitment funnels are one way to approach recruiting, not the only way. Recognizing where funnel management goes wrong, offers the opportunity to figure out where things go right. And having analyzed thousands over the years, the answer is: in the visualization. That’s right. Recruitment funnels are best used to visualize the process, from end to end, and looking at them as a tool, organizations benefit from a clear cut understanding of priorities, responsibilities, timelines, and deliverables. Trying to rely on funnel building to micromanage recruiting, is where hiring teams get themselves into trouble. Because at its core, recruitment remains a human function and like any living organism, needs fuel and care to optimize performance.

Conduct New Research

By backing off the recruitment funnel and taking a moment to see the bigger picture, it’s possible to redirect that extra energy into lead nurturing. Let the funnel run on autopilot, serving more like a support system while spending some time engaging your target audience. Chances are, the models and personas used to create the funnel are evolving, and now is the perfect opportunity to get reacquainted with today’s candidates. Who they are and what they want changes almost every day, and by focusing too much on the internal and not enough on the external, you risk losing touch – a factor that’s become increasingly important in the current market. 

In addition to job seekers, talk to people in similar roles at different organizations to learn what’s working in their world, go on social media and join the ongoing conversations taking place via #RecruiterTwitter and related hashtags, there’s a whole big world out there beyond the edge of your funnel. Explore it. Meet with other members of your team, whether that’s sourcers, other recruiters, or even hiring managers. Reflect on conversations, with candidates and colleagues, to determine their engagement level. Apply the findings in different scenarios to see which tactics keep them interested.  

Find a Solution

Going back to the weather, it’s important to note that recruiters don’t have the luxury of making the wrong hire over and over again. Even if the forecast isn’t 100 percent on the nose, it needs to be passable. That’s why it’s near impossible for the funnel to manage the process from start to finish. A lack of human involvement, reviewing and rewriting the narrative as candidates move from stage to stage, outcomes derail, and progress falls entirely off course. Intervention, early and often, ensures that friendly face appears from time to time, making sure that everyone involved has what they need when they need it. 

There’s ample research to back all of this up, from the Talent Board Candidate Experience Awards program to the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Benchmarks Report. Candidates demand communication from potential employers – automated or not. Sure, some funnels accomplish this, but whether or not those rank highly among the applicants they interact with remains to be seen. By taking that part of the process out of the funnel and putting it back into the hands of hiring teams, organizations regain control of recruitment management. Free from the constraints of the framework mentioned above, recruiters become better able to pivot and adjust as needs dictate, supporting improved outcomes along the way. 

This article is, of course, just scratching the surface on what it takes to move away from aggressive funnel rule to a more freeform, nurture-based recruitment strategy. Remember that right now, folks are cursing their weather person and wondering why it’s raining when the forecast predicted sunshine. But seriously, as we scurry toward 2020, take stock of those 2019 accomplishments, and think long and hard about what success might look like next year – funnel or not. 

Check out our upcoming webinar on this topic featuring Shally Steckerl:

Funnel & Lead Management For Sourcers, Recruiters, and Hiring Managers

Reduce Clutter with Temporary Bookmarks

Increase productivity and reduce browser clutter with temporary bookmarks

Take a moment and look at your bookmarks folder. Is it full of old links that you didn’t need to keep, but you saved anyhow since you were in the middle of a search and didn’t want to lose those pages? Do all your bookmarks spark joy? Kidding. Sort of.

In this video, Dean takes us through a few different free Chrome extensions that allow you to save your bookmarks temporarily, rather than actually save them into your bookmarks folder. This allows you to keep your primary bookmarks nice and neat, without a lot of clutter from random saved searches.

First, we have a Chrome extension called Temporary Bookmarks. This simple extension allows you to save pages for up to 2 weeks. Choose the number of days between 1 and 14, and you’re ready to create your list. If you want to save a page, use either right-click and add that way, or by using the extension icon in your browser by clicking the plus sign. When you view your list the tool will display a trash can with the number of days remaining before they expire. It’s simple, direct and to the point.

The second extension is also called Temporary Bookmarks. This extension works similarly but is one you would use if you want to keep your links for more than 14 days. The settings for these bookmarks allow you to keep links for up to 365 days instead, and you can set expiration notifications, in case you change your mind and want to save them for longer. You can also delete using the trash icon before it expires if you want. This extension is also simple to use, and the notification flag option is nice.

Third, we have the Chrome extension Temporary Bookmarks. (I know, everyone is very clever with these extension names!) This extension works a bit differently with custom options for the temporary folder. Add links through a right-click menu or through the extension icon in your browser. You can have the link auto-delete once you click on it, or choose to delete one by one. Trash them line by line with or without deletion confirmations. This is nice if you use it for recurring projects but still wish to keep everything separate from your main bookmarks.

Finally, you can choose to utilize one or all of these extensions for your bookmarking needs. If you do use more than one, just keep track of the different extension icons so you know which temporary spot you’re choosing! It’s a great way to keep yourself organized, which as you know saves time and effort in the long run.

 

~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

How Do You Purchase An Enterprise ATS?  

How Do you purchase an ATS?

Take the survey, and we’ll share the results.  

It’s not a stretch to claim that while each organization has its nuances and individual processes when taking the Enterprise ATS dive, there are also commonalities along the way.  

Ever heard of “The Hundredth Monkey” phenomenon?  It states that if one group of primates learn that sweet potatoes are a lot easier to down after they’re clean, another group of monkeys nearby will figure it out, too.  Then this progressive behavior will work its way across the globe until every forward-thinking monkey on the planet is scrubbing their potatoes before they chow down.  

This is hypothetical, and while I am in no way (hypothetically) comparing humans to monkeys, it lends a pretty good concept: if we learn together, we teach together and improve as a whole.

We are applying this “theory” to the purchase of enterprise ATS.  

Okay, so the jump from monkey potato scrubbing to buying your Applicant Tracking System is somewhat of a stretch — I get it.  But it does convert (sort of); we want to understand the “mass consciousness” of this process.  

Have you thanked someone lately for the fact that we don’t have to rely on natural evolution to learn from one another anymore?  We have the interwebs. Go us, homosapiens.

 

RecruitingDaily wants to know how you purchase your Enterprise ATS.  

What are the steps you choose to take before you commit to this crucial component of an HR foundation?  

  • What critical questions do you ask?
  • How much does chemistry with the vendor play into the sale?
  • Does it matter if the vendor has clients in your industry?

I’m willing to bet my kids’ bikes you already have answers to those questions.

 

So, what’s the catch?

We are asking you to take this five-minute survey:  How Do You Purchase An Enterprise ATS?

Sharing your insight and experience will help us understand what works, what doesn’t work, and the leftover grey areas of the process.  

After that, we will wrap all of the collective answers into a neat package and send you the relevant results.  The goal is to help you in your future Enterprise ATS purchases.  

We’ll also create a few avenues to discuss our findings along the way, and you are definitely invited.

 

THANK YOU.

Your time is valuable.  We understand and respect that one-hundred fold.  This research is valuable, as well, and will mend the seams of an imperfect process — at the very least, we will better understand the purchase of Enterprise ATS, helping all of us “get smarter.”

Your contact information is confidential and will only be used to share the results of this study (we won’t send you invites or newsletters).  This is truly us just asking you for a favor.

We appreciate your time here.  If you have any questions about this survey, feel free to contact [email protected].

I look forward to sharing with you.

Survey Link

— William Tincup

The Reach has a Desktop Version

 

The Reach Desktop Version gives you so much more

 

Today we are going to talk about a connection to a tool that we already have: The Reach has a new desktop version. We have already discussed what the Chrome Extension tool does, so let’s get into what features are offered in the standalone desktop version!

Here we go! First, you get process profiles. You supply the profile, and the Reach can process it automatically. You can do one or more at a time. Just grab your profile URLs from your X-Ray into LinkedIn, whichever you are using. (ZapInfo, Data Miner, etc) and it will find all the contact information for you. Names, titles, where they’re at: everything you’d want to know but you’re afraid to ask! That’s a good tool! And, it keeps you out of trouble with LinkedIn.

Next, we can process search results. What this does, is you can do a search on LinkedIn and then grab the entire URL of those search results. Copy/paste that long URL string into this feature, and it will run that search and grab you all of the contact information from that search. All the contacts and everything you need on them. Again, this is within an environment that keeps you safe from LinkedIn. That’s the key here.

Finally, we have custom queries. You can create your own query for the tool to run, and then it will bring in all the information you need. You can also access the web browser extension from here, and if you’d like to see what it does, you can check out our video if you haven’t already!

The Reach is a new contact tool on the market, and it does a pretty darn good job, but the desktop version gives you so much more!

~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

It’s Time to Widen the Top of Your Recruiting Funnel

Recruitment Funnel

“I’m suggesting that you widen the top of your recruiting funnel”

Are you still chasing your “purple squirrel” – that one candidate who meets every requirement and qualification listed in your job ad? I hate to break it to you, but like a purple squirrel, the perfect candidate doesn’t exist… well, at least in the way you have envisioned.

That’s not to say there aren’t highly skilled and experienced applicants out there, aptly qualified for your role. However, holding out for the picture-perfect hire isn’t bringing you any closer to winning the talent war, especially in a labor market where open positions outnumber people to fill them. Not only might you overlook a great potential employee, but you’ll also incur costs for every day a position remains vacant.

I’m not suggesting rushing your hiring decision or tossing prerequisites out the window. Rather, I’m suggesting that you widen the top of your recruiting funnel just enough to increase your chances of finding the right talent in a timely, cost-effective manner. The first step involves shifting your focus from hiring solely based on qualifications to hiring for attributes.

Qualifications vs. Attributes

“There aren’t enough qualified applicants in my talent pool. Everyone who applies for my job is underqualified!” Sound familiar? Without a doubt, finding qualified talent is one of today’s top recruiting challenges, but are hiring professionals being overly picky?

If your job ad contains all “must-haves” – nonnegotiable skillsets, certifications, years of experience, and more – you’re in trouble. Instead of automatically disqualifying anyone who doesn’t meet every single one of your prerequisites, stop for a moment and think about attributes. Which qualities and characteristics does your candidate have that would make them an excellent fit for the role? Perhaps the applicant has transferable skills that lend themselves well to the position, filling in gaps.

A few months ago, we were hiring a client relationship manager. While our job ad specified that the ideal candidate should have five years of experience in sales or account management, we ended up hiring a former school principal. Although she had no direct sales experience, her attributes lined up perfectly with what we were looking for in this role: exceptional relationship building and communication skills, outstanding attention to detail, and a strong work ethic (to name a few).

While our hire was not necessarily our “ideal candidate” on paper, we recognized the characteristics and transferable skills that would make her our ideal employee. Everything else – the day-to-day workflows, tools, and technologies – can be taught quickly when you have the right person with the right attributes aboard.

What about overqualification?

Given the battle for qualified talent, rejecting overqualified talent seems counterintuitive. Yet overqualification has become a common reason for eliminating applicants from talent pools, especially as older adults delay retirement and experienced individuals return to work after a career hiatus.

While some employers argue that a seasoned employee comes at a higher price point, claim that an older worker wouldn’t mesh well with their “hip” young, startup-like culture, or worry that the employee will work for a few years then retire, let me ask you this: what’s the cost of not filling that open position?

If you are hesitant to hire an “overqualified” candidate, consider how you can leverage their experience to help younger employees grow and learn. Or, if they’ve been out of the workforce for a while, train or “reskill” them (have you heard of “returnships?”). In such situations, gauge their appetite for learning. If they have a desire to continually learn and improve, then you may have found a home run of a hire. In short, don’t let overqualification prevent you from hiring the best possible candidate.

Rethink Culture Fit

My final suggestion for widening your recruiting funnel entails hiring for culture fit. Even the most experienced, qualified candidate can be the wrong hire if they don’t blend well with your company’s culture and align with your values. But too often, employers equate hiring for culture fit as hiring people who are just like everyone else. For example, I’ve heard employers say, “We all have such bubbly personalities here, this candidate will fit right in!” That’s not hiring for culture fit.

For a thriving workplace, you need individuals with different personalities and points of view; a workforce that acts, thinks, and talks alike don’t make for a strong company culture, nor does it help with innovation and growth. Yes, you should still hire for culture fit (you want your new employee to be happy and avoid costly turnover), but rethink what you mean by “culture fit” before you disqualify an otherwise viable candidate from your pool.

Widen Your Funnel

If you’re struggling to find qualified talent, it’s an opportune time to experiment with a wider recruiting funnel. Take a step back and define what you mean by “qualified” – is there room for you to loosen your requirements and focus on candidate attributes? Do applicants in your talent pool have transferable skills that make up for any shortcomings? Also, rethink your sentiments about overqualified applicants and reconsider how you hire for culture fit.

If you’re concerned about making your funnel too wide (no hiring manager has time to sift through hundreds and hundreds of irrelevant applicants), consider quality over quantity approach to talent acquisition. For example, leverage referrals from current employees or try an industry-focused job board (and, if the candidate doesn’t have the precise skillset you seek, their knowledge of a specific industry is a “plus”).

Even if your purple squirrel doesn’t exist, your next great hire is out there somewhere. You just need to best position yourself to find them – before your competitor does.

 

Master Your Domain: Tech for Tech Recruiters

Mater of Your Domain recruiting Tech

 

 

“take the opportunity to dig into your stack and learn how your technologies fit together”

When it comes to recruiting, no two hires look the same. From an organization’s hiring needs to candidate personas, sourcing strategies to pre-employment assessments, the path almost always varies. That’s why when we talk about recruiting, we do so within a given framework: internal, external, corporate, campus, military, the list goes on and on. Doing so allows us to understand the difference between experiences, the nuance behind each outreach, and find common ground. Often, this leads us back to technology, those we use, and those we don’t, exchanging what’s worked and why. 

Technology buttresses the recruiting process, providing the infrastructure needed to navigate murky waters and find a clear path to the right hire. We see this thinking play out repeatedly, particularly in tech recruiting, a space that’s marred by horror stories about those impossible to fill positions and the headaches that come from doing the work. Technology empowers these recruiters, aiding them in their search and overcoming the obstacles mentioned above – when done correctly. Learning what the looks like is the first step. 

Know the Demo

Despite the professional descriptor, tech recruiting doesn’t necessarily require technical prowess beyond an average computer skill set. You might be looking for candidates with specific programming languages, but your abilities aren’t really up for question. Instead, you need to know the technology side of recruiting more than anything else. That means familiarizing yourself with your software stack, from top to bottom and everywhere in between, because chances are, you’re inheriting a lot of what you use. 

If that’s the case, take the opportunity to dig into your stack and learn how your technologies fit together. You want to deliver a seamless experience for candidates, one that recognizes their talent and makes it easy for them to engage. Consider working your way through the funnel step by step, to get a feel for how things operate on the candidate side. Take notes and identify which part of the stack links with which stage, and then, rate and review. 

At the same time, conduct research on the folks you’re looking to hire. There’s ample research available, like the 2019 HackerRank Developed Skills Report, which indicates that when comparing the languages that developers were learning year over year, JavaScript came in first – and at the most rapid rate. 

Search and Source 

No doubt you’ve heard the oft-cited purple squirrel analogy before, and while your next opening might not be quite so exacting, you will be on the look for some highly specialized capabilities. And sure, employee referrals remain a top source of hire (check the receipts). But that’s another one we’ve all heard before, and tech recruiting doesn’t always work out that way, now does it? 

So once you’re comfortable with your technology stack, get out there and find the other tools that support your efforts. Think about browser extensions, apps, and add-ons, and other platforms designed for the express purpose of extending your sourcing reach. We’re talking contact finding, Boolean string building, profile completing, workflow automating and more. Look for solutions that solve for any weak spots in your stack, while reinforcing your natural searching style. Even the so-called experts can use a little help in this department, especially when it comes to distinguishing between senior-level engineers with similar backgrounds and experience. Get the help you need on your terms, and let your tech stack handle the rest. Complement all this searching with the right sourcing to ensure your outreach doesn’t fall on uninterested, unattainable ears. 

Tech and Engage 

Tech recruiting success might look different for different people and different roles, but one thing is for sure: sticking to the same old isn’t going to move the needle, or get results. So while you could spend hours trolling the same site in hopes of finding a new candidate to connect with, you’ll likely end up frustrated and disappointed. Because at some point, you need to step away from the computer and try the phone instead. 

Let’s be real here, it’s 2019, and using the phone doesn’t mean dialing the day away, especially not when you have the option to text. Says one case study, this approach yields results in about three minutes, with an 87 percent response rate (that’s more than five times the average open for email). Of course, that doesn’t mean pulling out your smartphone, at least not when there are technologies at your disposal (cough: go back to the stack). Look, tech recruiting doesn’t require you learn to program, but you do need to know your technologies. Engaging these niche candidates requires a delicate balance, complete with high touch experiences that feel individualized without crossing over into stalker territory. Tech in hand, you got this. 

Want to deep dive this?  Join us for our free webinar October 22nd where we will Optimize Your Recruiting Tech Stack:  Click HERE

Using ContactOut and ZapInfo

Extract contacts from any search engine database, even ContactOut

 

ContactOut is a great tool with a database that contains over a billion email addresses and other contact data for recruiters. It’s a fantastic tool, but can be pretty expensive to use. We are going to show you a way to use a workaround with a tool called ZapInfo! ZapInfo is a tool that has gotten better and better with some recent updates, and we want to show you some important stuff it can do.

First, I’m going to do an X-Ray search into ContactOut. Open a Google search page and create a search, restricting results to ContactOut. We are using the term “developer” for this example and that search will look like this: “Site:contactout.com developer” It’s a pretty wide-open search but this is just an example for you.

Next, pull ZapInfo up from the right side of your browser window, and we can Zap those people! What does that mean? What it does is takes your search engine results and then extracts contacts from it, or any social network, job board, or website with contact information. What’s really cool about that is that it will also open each contact result and grab their ContactOut profile. This gives you their name, location, work history, education, and a partial email address. Syncing the contact with ZapInfo will then enrich the data you have by locating related social profiles and pulling contact information from it. If anything is still missing, you can still cross-reference the data with any number of other tools to pull in the rest!

This helps to solve the ContactOut problem where it can be a little expensive to get an account! Just XRay in, and then use ZapInfo to grab all the contact info. It does take a bit of time for the contact profiles to download and sync, but it is worth the wait. It’s also simple and easy, which we like! You can sign up for a free account, which comes with 25 active contacts. If you want more, it is still pretty affordable.

~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

Our Top 5 HR Tech Startups From HR Tech 2019

Talent Acquisition HR Tools and Tech

“HR is now the secondary audience – employees are the primary audience. And that’s shifted the market,” said Bersin.

The 2019 HR Technology Conference was an action-packed four days of ideas, thoughts, and dialogue on technology in HR. The mega-event concluded on Friday with attendees taking home some valuable lessons. The opening keynote by industry analyst, Josh Bersin titled, “Untangling the HR Technology Market” set the tone for the event that attracted over 500 exhibitors from the HR tech community in Nevada.

The world of HR technology is undergoing a massive transformation not only in terms of technological advancement but also in the way organizations view and perceive their human capital. While technology has certainly made HR more efficient and we’ve seen vast improvements in productivity, today, HR technology is much more about the employees than the organization. “HR is now the secondary audience – employees are the primary audience. And that’s shifted the market,” said Bersin.

Employee experience is taking center stage across industry conversations around HR. And honestly, it’s about time. The consumerization of the workplace has led to employees increasingly expecting the same level of technological sophistication from their work lives as they have become accustomed to in their personal lives. HR practices of the future will need to strike a fine balance between employee needs and organizational goals. Hopefully, technology should help us get there. That said, let’s look at some of the most promising startups we came across at the 2019 HR Technology Conference:

Promising Startup at the 2019 HR Technology Conference:

JobAdX:

JobAdX is a programmatic recruitment exchange for SMBs looking to get more bang for their buck. The company helps employers target the right candidates based on relevance across a wide network of over 150 job sites and talent networks. It also uses video job descriptions to attract talent by showcasing company culture across its publisher network, ultimately, boosting the candidate experience and helping employers make better hires quickly. “We’re solely a programmatic exchange, not a platform, which means we apply programmatic ad buying to help optimize your spend but our focus is the targeting and delivery of your ads to the right candidates,” says Amit Chauhan, CEO at JobAdX.

Alight Solutions:

A cloud-based benefits administration and HR solutions vendor, Alight Solutions, launched a new virtual assistant to help employers prevent and predict payroll errors. Eloise, an AI-powered virtual assistant, helps HR teams detect anomalies at the pay-input level and payee level by referring to historical payment patterns. The algorithm covers the entire employee population as well as every earning, deduction, and tax code. Alight has positioned Eloise as the Alexa or Siri equivalent for accounts teams. To get payroll right, every single time is a big win for employee experience. It would be interesting to see how the deployment of intelligent assistants across HR departments play out over the next few years.

PILOT:

The winner of the 2019 HR Tech Conference’s Pitchfest, PILOT is an employee coaching platform designed to impart high-impact coaching at scale with built-in analytics capabilities. At a time when organizations are faced with a talent shortage for key roles, platforms like PILOT coaching make a compelling case for talent development. It’s low per-employee cost helps organizations even with limited budgets to tap into emergent talent. What’s more? strong professional development opportunities also make a solid employer branding proposition.

Beamery:

Beamery is an enterprise-grade cloud CRM company that allows HR professionals, especially recruiters to attract, engage, and retain top talent. Beamery’s talent operating system delivers a seamless candidate experience by helping recruiters build lasting relationships with candidates. Beamery features several innovative features such as data enrichment to help make recruiting data actionable, design personalized candidate experiences, and engage pipelines of qualified talent.

WorkHere:

WorkHere is a unique recruitment technology company that uses geofencing to attract hyperlocal candidates for employers. The idea behind the solution is that long commutes make for bad employee experience, leading to stress and a lack of work-life balance for employees. WorkHere helps HR teams target geo zones at competitor locations, malls and retail spaces, billboards, homes and neighborhoods, schools, and mass transit systems. It also helps organizations reduce their turnover rates through hyperlocal recruiting and boost candidate conversion rates through effective engagement.

It is an exciting time for HR tech as employers buy into the value it delivers. As work evolves into a personalized productivity experience, employers must place their tech bets carefully. And while these technology solutions may be very impressive, what will really make a difference is how organizations deploy these technologies to maximize business impact.

 

Meet Scout by LeadIQ

 

“Scout” can fetch emails from any company

 

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Technically, this is a new dog with a new trick, but who’s really keeping track? Are you looking to recruit from a specific company, and need an email address to contact them? We have a Chrome extension for you to use! Just visit that company website and launch Scout by LeadIQ. The tool will then analyze the company website you are on, and then quickly bring up a list of top employees. You can then search within those results for titles, names, departments, or any other keyword.

Then, you can choose one of those people and it will display a contact card with their name, title, location, and their work email! These people may or may not be on LinkedIn, but that doesn’t matter since Scout leverages the LeadIQ database of over 100 million professional profiles! Easily compose a message to them with a single click from the email button on their contact card. It’s a simple way to find people when sourcing from a specific company.

Scout by LeadIQ is simple and easy, and the best part is that it’s FREE. Find it in the Chrome Web Store here!

 

~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

Talent Acquisition Movers, Shakers, & News Breakers – October 2019, Part 1

Talent Acquisition News

 

As expected, in time with all of the recent industry events, October is undoubtedly announcement-heavy, so let’s skip the pleasantries and get down to business:

The employer branding experts at Universum revealed its annual World’s Most Attractive Employers rankings. The research, which surveys students from the 12 biggest economies, cites Google, EY, PwC, Deloitte, and Apple as the most in-demand employers for the business portion of its respondents. On the engineer/IT side, results included Google, Microsoft, Apple, BMW Group, and IBM. Even amid some recent backlash against the tech giants, brand familiarity continues to lure in even the youngest workforce entrants.

On a similar note, hiring platform Upwork and the nonprofit Freelancers Union released the latest Freelancing in America study, which indicates that 50 percent of respondents view working independently as a long-term career choice versus a temporary side hustle. Specific to the younger generation mentioned above, more than half of U.S. workers ages 18-22 freelanced at some point in the last time year, marking an all-time high for any participating age group since the research started in 2014.

Meanwhile, Cornerstone OnDemand put out a workforce trends report titled, Building an Adaptive Workforce: The Demand for Transparency and Skills Development. And when it comes to how Americans feel about employers who want to train today’s workforce: 53 percent aren’t sure they have the skills to withstand a layoff, while 83 percent believe it’s essential to improve professional skills — additional findings breakdown the sentiment in terms of baby boomers, Gen X, and millennials.

So it’s no surprise that a new survey from talent intelligence platform, Eightfold, with Harris Interactive, found that 78 percent of CEOs and CHROs report having specific roles that remain hard to fill. Other highlights show 75 percent recognize that internal mobility is a key focus, though job-hopping is up. Might that be because 64 percent of U.S. HR teams aren’t capitalizing on available technologies?

Capital Investments, Mergers, & Acquisitions

Employment verification company HireRight expanded its global presence taking on J-Screen and PeopleCheck, background screening providers based in Japan and Australia, respectively. The company continues to strengthen its position in APAC.

TMP Worldwide made the strategic acquisition of Maximum, a Netherlands-based recruitment marketing tech firm, reinforcing the company’s recent expansion. The news comes just a few months after TMP procured Perengo, a programmatic recruitment platform.

Human capital and workforce management solutions leader Kronos Incorporated acquired Optimum Solutions, a national provider of HCM services. Says the press release, Optimum customers will benefit from access to Kronos offerings and a dedicated support team.

New Jersey and Israel-based Talenya, a recruitment technology company, completed a $6.5 Million funding round. A developer of bots, powered by AI, the investment funds will go toward Talenya’s future research and development as well as sales operations.

Expense management platform, Fyle, brought in an additional $4.5 M, bringing its equity funding up to $10.5 M total. The startup makes it easier to report business expenses, using proprietary technology to automate reporting directly from employee email.

Upcoming Events & Conferences

Plus, there’s a new show to add to your agenda for 2020 – Select HR Tech. The three-day event will take on Las Vegas June 9-11, offering up an “immersive experience” for “those folks in the trenches who have ownership of HR-tech projects in organizations and who are being measured by their ability to optimize the HR investment.”

Other recent highlights:

Got news to share with us for our next update? Contact [email protected].

RockStar Finder revisited for a closer look

 

RockStar Finder can do wonders for your sourcing needs

 

Today, we are talking about RockStar Finder again. I know we’ve already done a video on it, but we really want to go more in-depth, since there is way more to it than meets the eye.

Candidate Search

First, head over to the Candidate Search area. You’re going to create a search for a candidate using some standard search items, ie Country, City and Job Title. What’s neat here is that once a job title is entered, RockStarFinder will populate a list of suggested and related skills to use as keywords, which can be used to refine your search. Extra parameters also include Education, Industry, Employer, and any keywords you wish to exclude. The cool part about their candidate search, is that your searches can be saved to be run again later! This is helpful as well as a time saver if you are sourcing a number of different positions, and you don’t have to keep repopulating searches over and over.

Within your search results list, candidates can be added to your ATS (Applicant Tracking System). Candidates can be added to ATS individually, or you can add a whole search result page at a time. Each Job Order you create has it’s own ATS folder, for ease of tracking and sorting. Job orders can even be whitelisted and then posted to RockStarFinder, Google Jobs, Facebook, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter straight from this application.

Saved Profiles

Next, under the Candidates menu, take a look at your saved profiles. Their LinkedIn profiles can be viewed straight from the ATS list, and you don’t have to sign in to see their entire LinkedIn profile either, which is very cool. Also within the contact card, there’s an email address, pulled from the X-Ray search RockStarFinder has done. If contact information doesn’t show, the SEEK button can be pressed to activate syncing to the database to check again. Work emails, as well as personal email addresses, are shown when they are available. Pretty great, right? You can add candidates to ATS manually. If you have profile URLs, add candidates through Social add. Supported platforms are currently Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Add candidates through Resume parsing with a file upload of a PDF, DOC or DOCX format.

Overall Result

Finally, on the first look at this tool, we liked it and liked what it could do. Taking a closer look made us realize just how much more it could do, besides just X-Ray searching, and the benefits extend past simple sourcing. The usefulness of RockStarFinder is not limited to the recruiting world; salespeople could even use this to source new clients! You can keep track of your clients. Post and keep track of your job orders. This program is basically a mini ATS/CRM application combined with a recruiting tool. The ability to save searches is especially useful. This is a cool little tool, and it is well designed. Prior glitches appear to have been addressed, and everything runs smoothly and as expected. We feel that it can do wonders for your sourcing needs!

Definitely one to add to your toolbelt!

~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

How Slack’s Diversity, Engagement and Belonging lead builds enduring ERGs with digital tools

 

For the past two years, I’ve been helping to grow Slack’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which have played an integral role in promoting our dynamic culture. Traditionally created to support communities with similar identities, such as gender, race and sexual orientation, ERGs, research shows, can also be good for business. They give employees the opportunity to share their voice and feel valued, as well as drive a sense of community among coworkers by providing support, professional development and a variety of engaging programs. At Slack, ERGs play an important role in boosting employee engagement, retention and promotion, both now and in the future, which is crucial to our success and that of our customers.

Our vision at Slack is a world in which organizational agility is easy to achieve, regardless of an organization’s size. And since the company launched five years ago, we’ve prioritized inclusivity, engagement and belonging in our hiring, practices and workplace culture. Our product—a collaboration hub that brings together people, applications and data—is built to help all employees feel heard. Teamwork in Slack happens online in channels: searchable conversations that keep work organized and teams better connected, with the right people included, relevant information in one place, and new team members able to get up to speed quickly.

If you want to build or maintain engaged ERGs that can help contribute to everything from employee engagement to talent management and improved business performance, here are five things to consider along the way—and the digital tools that can help you bring them to life.

Get buy-in from across the organization

-Conduct internal research with stakeholders to help you understand the needs and expectations of employees, sponsors, and executives. This year, we put more structure behind our ERGs, launching a charter and more clearly defining a feedback loop among ERGs, their executive sponsors and our leadership as a whole.

We’ve also defined formal processes to recognize the time commitment of ERG leads and volunteers. Members of the committee team who drive projects in ERGs must be in good standing and complete a thorough review process. Every month, the heads of ERGs, leaders of the People team and our liaison from the recruiting team meet to provide feedback on new company policies, share highs and lows, provide budget updates, and more. We’ve found that the benefits are mutual: Sponsors and leaders of our People team engage with communities they might not otherwise get direct access to, while the ERGs receive informal mentorship, information-sharing, and support from company leaders as well as visibility into company decisions.

Keep ERGs’ reach broad but their goals focused

-Not all ERGs or even all regions have the same priorities, so ERG leaders should regularly checking in with their members to keep themselves honest about their priorities. When they do this, they can better understand the goals and potential roadblocks that executive sponsors can help to remove. They can also better allocate funding and resources. At Slack, ERGs use Google Surveys to gather this feedback, which helps us determine what kind of support our ERGs need to be successful. We currently have five ERGs at Slack: Earthtones, Abilities, Veterans, Out and Women, and we recently launched Mahogany—a fledgling ERG for individuals from the African Diaspora. Each ERG fulfills a different purpose and has its own primary goals, which ultimately map back to Slack’s diversity, engagement, and belonging pillars.

For example, Earthtones, our ERG for those who identify as people of color, are focused on the professional development of its members, including the launch of a career development series with skill-building workshops. Our Out ERG, for LGBTQ employees, helps drive Slack’s presence at World Pride in New York and has monthly lunches focused on specific topics to surface the breadth of experiences in the LGBTQ community. Notably, through our public #hello channels—open channels that anyone at the company can join—our ERGs welcome not only people who identify as members of the community but also those who wish to stand as allies.

Equip leaders with the right tools

-Supplying people with the right tools can help employees focus on quality interaction instead of being bogged down by logistics and planning. Channels are at the heart of how we organize our ERGs, and in fact are the core of Slack itself. Channels are a way to organize communication and information by team, by project or by topic. For example, a “Women’s ERG ” channel allows conversations that are relevant to the whole team to occur in a logical place, and you can also organize by project, like “lunch and learn,” so that everyone involved in an initiative has a single place to share their work.

The benefits of channels are numerous: increased transparency, better alignment, information density, and a searchable archive. When team members have a collaborative space to ask questions, identify challenges and make decisions, progress can happen much faster. This kind of transparency is also an asset for executive sponsors in search of insights and information, so they can better support their ERGs.

We also use apps that integrate with Slack to bolster our ERG communities, like Polly poll to schedule meeting times or events, and Donut, which pairs team members who don’t know each other well to have coffee or lunch.

Sometimes in-person organizing meetings aren’t always feasible, so leaders drivein channel standups using Slackbot reminders. By only setting a reminder once, they can have an ask for status updates appear to the whole channel in whatever cadence they would like.

Creativity and consistency are key

-Establishing regular, engaging touchpoints for your ERG meetups is key to building community among members while not seeming like just another mandatory meeting.

Get creative with your meetups! Some of my favorite ideas from our ERGs include a monthly coffee break to enjoy cookies and fellowship in a relaxed setting. The Women’s ERG has held breakout AMAs (“Ask me Anything”) with leaders across the company and organized an event focused on family planning and women’s health, while the Earthtones ERG has hosted gatherings focused on professional development topics, like what managers look for in their direct reports. The Veteran’s ERG focuses on awareness and holds lunch and learns where veterans bring a teammate to lunches.

To further build inclusivity and belonging, some of our ERGs have their own logos and pins, and we’ve recently tapped our design and branding team to create logos for all of our ERGs.

Reward success

-Recognition is critical for acknowledging the efforts of employees who contribute to building a culture of belonging through ERGs. Every quarter, the Slack People team publishes a diversity, engagement, and belonging newsletter where we share updates on what ERGs have accomplished and who steered those efforts. Another way to share praise is through feedback platforms like Lattice. Lattice is an easy-to-use tool that allows you to publicly thank your colleagues, for their manager and even the entire organization to see. Everyone that drives events or programs in ERGs has their contributions documented through Lattice so their managers and the company at large are aware of their impact on Slack’s culture.

ERGs play an important role in fostering employee satisfaction and retention. They contribute to a culture of inclusion and community and help promote not only talent but also the business. Although they require time and effort, if you’re thoughtful about your approach, you will see deep rewards in engagement and satisfaction across your organization.