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The Bear Market is Coming. So, what comes next for recruiting?

Bear Market You Ready Recruiting?

The impending bear market is not an excuse to do the bare minimum when it comes to recruitment marketing

Today, it’s never been a better time to be a working American. The U.S. economy has been booming as of late. In 2018, unemployment hit new lows as stocks soared to never-before-seen highs. This record bull market run has been great for workers, but when it comes to recruiting — there has never been a more challenging time.

Eventually, any economist will tell you that all bull runs must come to an end, and depending on who you ask — 2019 is the year. With recent stock losses stemming from anxiety around global trade, the long-term bull market is clearly in jeopardy heading into 2019.

For those of us who’ve been in the recruiting space for longer than this ten-year run, we’ve experienced how recruitment marketing and hiring are different when economic growth is slow (and there’s a deeper talent pool). Not every run is the same though, so how do recruiters prepare for the next phase of talent acquisition? Let’s look at the trends set to guide recruiting when the bull market inevitably comes to an end in 2019.

Power shifts from candidates to companies

While STEM jobs will continue to remain in high demand (as evidenced by soaring Tech IPOs) for the rest of us, when the economy sours, so goes our ability as job seekers to dictate the terms of the recruiter-candidate relationship. This means recruiters will wield more power in every step of the hiring process from attracting talent and first interactions all the way to onboarding.

You might have heard that recruiters are not in the hiring business, but rather, in the rejection business. During an economic downturn, this is even truer. Instead of having to work your butt off to get candidates, recruiting becomes less about the sourcing and more about screening. With an increased number of candidates per requisition, recruiters must find ways to screen more efficiently to cut through the noise and identify the ideal worker.

Each hire becomes more critical

Employer brand is crucial, no matter what state the economy might be in. While organizations today are more likely to use recruitment marketing tactics that “woo” candidates and get them in the door, that may change in an economic downturn.

When the economy shifts gears and enters a bear market, every hire becomes more important. Economic uncertainty often leads to longer tenures and less job-hopping amongst workers, so you can’t afford to make a bad hire. You need to treat headcount as precious, which makes authentic employer branding all the more necessary. Think about it, when your hiring decreases significantly, you don’t want to paint a picture of your organization that deceives candidates.

The good news? Even during a slowdown, recruitment marketing is still paramount. Tactics like  Instagram, text recruiting, and especially, brand ambassadors will persist in the battle for skilled workers. Just make sure your efforts map back to an authentic portrait of your company culture in order to attract talent that will be actually interested in what it’s really like to work at your company.

Talent, loyalty, or industry knowledge?

Let’s face it, sometimes you can’t have all three. So, what should you focus on? At a high level, it’s a mixture of those industry skills, as well as the soft skills they’ll need to perform well in your company culture (since they’re going to be around longer).

In this fast-moving market right now, many companies are trying to hire folks as quickly as they can. In places such as Silicon Valley, these organizations path their trajectory as a rocket ship, churning through capital (and people) on the path to IPO in the next three to five years. Not every employee wants that though, and that’s where you really need to put in the time to understand who you are as a company. Employer brand needs to parallel your mission statement and map back to the company values because when economic uncertainty is thrown in the mix, the impact of a poor fit becomes amplified.

You need to be assessing candidates on exactly what the business needs, and that starts with being crystal clear on the job description. It’s critical to have a vision for sample (or real) candidates in mind when putting it together. Everything from the job description, to the interview, to the hiring process, should map back to that criteria and mesh with your company culture and attitude. That way, when you get to the onboarding stage, everything you told them aligns with their experience.

While most economists have yet to call it quits on this historic bull run, it will inevitably end at some point. Although it may seem a bit Debbie Downer to go about planning for a potential economic slowdown, it never hurts to be prepared. Especially when your company is betting their own economic well-being on your ability to find their future workforce.

4 Strategies for Delivering a Great Candidate Experience

 

Record-low unemployment makes it difficult to compete for talented professionals. With fewer job seekers in the pool, employers must work harder to attract and win candidates. Your company is up against not only other employers, but also the jobs candidates already have.

That’s why candidate engagement — how well candidates feel they are treated during the recruiting process, and how responsive they are as a result — matters more than ever today.

Another reason engagement matters: 72% of job seekers will “definitely” share a positive experience with friends and family, according to a recent Indeed survey of 1,000 professionals who searched for a job within the last year. Their upbeat feedback can help you more easily attract top talent.

But how can recruiters and employers engage candidates in a more affirming way?

To find out, Indeed asked job seekers what makes for a great recruiting or interview experience, as well as what turns them off. Their answers provide a valuable roadmap for successful recruiting in today’s high-stakes talent game.

1. Engage job seekers in enjoyable conversation

Online interactions, such as personalized email inquiries, can help you get on a candidate’s radar and communicate more efficiently. However, quality in-person engagement is still crucial. When asked what makes an interview or recruiting experience positive, “enjoyable conversation” is the top reason survey respondents cite, at 43%.

During interviews, you probably focus on questions that will help you assess the candidate. But remember that a conversation should be a give-and-take dialogue, not an interrogation.

To create an “enjoyable conversation,” put the candidate at ease as much as possible. Pay attention to personal interests they express, and connect over common ground. This can break the tension of the interview environment, making both you and your company more relatable.

Communicate in a friendly, authentic manner — but always within the context of a professional meeting. And avoid asking questions that may seem harmless but can trigger a negative reaction from candidates.

2. Respect the job seeker’s time

Respecting a candidate’s time is the third-biggest contributor to a positive interview or recruiting experience (cited by 40% of job seekers). On the flip side, not respecting their time is the number-one cause of a negative experience (45%), and it’s the second-most common reason a candidate drops out of an employer’s interview process (16%).

In practice, being respectful of time means keeping scheduled appointments and showing up before they start. It also means doing your homework for the interview. Showing an understanding of, and interest in, a candidate’s background and skills can keep things moving forward while demonstrating that you’re invested in them.

Keep in mind that the interview process is extremely time-consuming and often anxiety-producing for applicants. With unemployment so low, candidates may be taking time off from their current jobs to interview with you — and they have plenty of other options to consider if you don’t respect their schedule.

3. Keep job descriptions consistent

A thorough and accurate job description is the fourth-leading contributor to a great candidate experience (cited by 35% of respondents). On the other hand, a disconnect between the job description provided online and the one discussed during the interview is the top reason (21%) candidates drop out of the interview process. It’s also the second-biggest cause of negative candidate experience (42%).

Consistency in job descriptions is important for several reasons. As mentioned, the interview process is already time-consuming. If candidates believe the position being discussed doesn’t match the one they applied for, they may conclude it’s not the right fit — and that they wasted their time. It can also make your company appear unclear about the job’s responsibilities and scope. Any of these can cause attractive candidates to consider alternatives, which they have plenty of in this tight labor market.

Of course, recruiters and hiring managers often have more than one job to fill at a time, so disconnects can happen. Stay on point by always reviewing the given job description before an interview. If there’s been a change in the responsibilities for a position — even a minor one — update the information and alert candidates right away.

4. Respond clearly and within one week

Candidates put a lot of time and effort into their job searches. It’s easy to understand why they loathe the “black hole” that results when they don’t get a response from a potential employer.

To this end, “adequate communication and feedback” is the fifth-most important contributor to positive candidate engagement (chosen by 35% of respondents). Meanwhile, “inadequate communication” is the third-biggest factor in a negative experience (41%).

Most candidates (65%) both want and receive a response within one week after an interview. However, many of them are forced to wait longer. And the longer you wait to communicate with a candidate post-interview, the bigger the risk of losing them — especially in this job seeker’s market. Nearly half of respondents (49%) who haven’t heard back from an employer within two weeks believe they didn’t get the job.

So how can you become more competitive? Make your application and interview processes as painless as possible, and ensure candidates feel valued. For example, you might create a policy wherein every single applicant gets a response, as Enterprise has done. At a minimum, set realistic expectations during the recruiting and interview process as to when a candidate is likely to hear back — and follow through within the stated time frame.

Room for improvement remains

Overall, 70% of respondents say they’ve had “mostly” or “only” positive experiences as job seekers; this shows that many recruiters and employers are on the right track. However, 30% describe their candidate experiences as negative — which means there’s plenty of room for improvement.

How can your company make positive changes? Respect candidates’ time. Be consistent with job descriptions. And communicate with them clearly and expeditiously.

Above all, remember job-seekers themselves say these are the top contributors to positive candidate engagement. If they don’t have a good experience with you, they’ll waste no time looking elsewhere. Make sure your company is memorable for all the right reasons.

 

Dare You To Try This: Interview Yourself

 

The Dutch Child protection board wants to innovate their recruitment process. So they started by innovating the way they recruited the new recruiter that is going to be in the lead of this innovation. Instead of sending in a resume and hoping you will get invited to an interview, the candidate decides if he or she is fit and just books a 30-minute interview at a specific date and time. 

Dutch labor market

For American readers, that might be used to phone screenings, you need to know a thing or two about the Netherlands and the Dutch labor market.

First thing you need to know is that the Netherlands is a small country. From the center of the country, Utrecht, where the pitches (as the interviews are called) are held, you can drive anywhere in the country in 2 hours. Hence phone interviews are uncommon here and we don’t usually pay travel expenses to candidates either.

Another important fact is that recruiters are in high demand. Maybe not as hot as IT developers, but still very hard to recruit. So it’s hard to find good applicants, especially for a government branch that doesn’t have a great reputation.

Requirements and process

So how did we come up with this idea?

The first thing was the premise of wanting to innovate the process. And in order to innovate, you need someone that has a different view than the existing staff. But we know from past experience in resume selection people do tend to always select the same type of people. So even if nontraditional applicants, probably the people we are looking for, would apply, they would most likely not be invited for the interview.

The second part was the tight labor market for recruiters. Will there be applicants? And since many people fear rejection, the probably won’t apply if they think they will not be selected.

So the first idea was a ‘walk-in information afternoon’. Candidates would be able to just come to the office at a certain afternoon and ask everything they wanted to ask. But in a tight labor market, that didn’t seem to be a great idea. So we said: instead of giving information about the job, why not give the candidates the opportunity to present themselves? Lower the risk of rejection to zero. You can just book a 30-minute spot in the agenda en pitch yourself.

Can anyone book a spot? Yes, they can. And no person will be Googled or has his or her Linkedin profile checked before the pitch. Of course, we did write down job requirements in the job ad, Formulated vaguely on purpose. The job requirements are things like:

  • Thinking from a candidate perspective
  • You know how to approach important target groups
  • You have great cooperation skills
  • You’re a leader when it comes to new ways of working

And experience with recruitment is a bonus, as well as experience within the childcare or judicial system.

The results

A day after the job opened, all spots for pitches have been claimed. So the next day the decision to extend the possible number of pitches. Currently, 22 people have registered for a pitch and 17 more have submitted a resume since they are unable to attend at the specific pitch date. That’s 39 applications for a job in a really tight labor market.

Of course, we do need to wait and see what the quality of the pitches are, but I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of well suited, and potentially unsuspected, talents in there. And I think many very well suited people might not apply, because of the fear of rejection, but would invite themselves to an interview.

 

 

Bring the Magic to the Masses by Branding your Team

Sometimes you are recruiting for a group that’s magic.

 

 

 

Candidates walk into an in-person interview undecided and walk out trying to close you.

With team story content, you bring your ace-in-the-hole to the start of the process. The team can cast their spell on a wider audience, not just the candidates who’ve advanced to a final step.

Shavonne Thomas, North America Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing Business Partner at AstraZeneca, knew a magical team (they literally cure diseases). They were a team of scientists who were also engaged, excited, and photoshopping their selfies onto a mock career site to see what their own branding content would look like.

Shavonne knew to capture the Biopharmaceutical Division’s culture, she needed to understand the team value proposition, support with stories and create content that resonated with candidates. But, it all starts with team buy-in. Shavonne took these steps to further engage the Biopharmaceutical Division as they brought their employee experiences to candidates.

 

First: She showed what’s possible

The team approached Shavonne about creating a culture video. Sure, she said. She could help with that. And, what if they hired a storytelling expert to uncover the team’s most compelling experiences to inform the content? What if they were captured their natural team energy and cohesion on camera, working together in the lab and during a team meeting? How about a landing page featuring their team, in addition to their paragraph on the careers site? And what about social media content, like quote cards and a story short cut from the longer video?

Showing the team what’s possible further involves them in the process and expands the scope of creation and promotion. It’s not one video, it’s a marketing campaign that captures and communicates their team experience on multiple channels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second: She injected the project with purpose

Teams that aren’t in talent acquisition and recruitment marketing might not know the cold hard truth: candidates want to hear from employees more than anyone else. Your employee storytellers are the experts on your culture. Their experiences make the most persuasive and insightful content.

The stories they tell directly influences who joins their team. This is an important project that will impact their team dynamic and experience in the future.

Shavonne made the team feel like stars by treating their stories as critical to the content (because it is!). It was so important, experts were coming in to help them best tell their story and capture compelling images. It was so important, they needed an entire day for the project. It was so important, we’re having a call beforehand so we’re best prepared to make the most of the day.

 

Third: She encouraged ideas and feedback

The team couldn’t wait for the interview day. They had a few ideas for questions that might prompt good responses from their teammates. Could they submit them to the employer branding story experts?

‘Definitely!’ Shavonne said.

After seeing the landing page, the team wanted to share with the world. They were attending an industry conference. They thought, “How do we bring our team culture to our industry peers?’ They asked if they could hand out cards with the landing page on the back. Shavonne’s team designed and printed them.

When you create team content the group is connected to and proud of, they’ll share widely with their networks.

 

Deliverables and Results from the Team Branding Project

Shavonne and her partner Stories Inc. were able to uncover differentiating themes within the BPD team: good examples of collaboration within the team, their love of science, and camaraderie. The BPD team told Shavonne they love having their story defined with creative assets that bring them to life, and they’re currently in talks for a phase 2 that include team members in the UK. From one interview day, the team received

    • Recruitment Landing Page for BPD, to bring to life the team
      • Video stories of key employees sharing their perspective, tidbits and experiences while in BPD at MedImmune
      • Insights from the storytellers during their interviews – Shavonne used their quotes for internal recruitment campaigns as well
      • Real photos and b-roll video of employees in the labs
      • Organic social media  content about BPD on already established recruitment channels (Twitter, FB, LI)

*Utilized the assets in recruitment campaigns for the team (LI Pipeline Builder) – 90 responses, 16 pipelined, 2 in progress w/in 2 months  

When you have a team that sells itself well during the interview process, think like Shavonne: bring the experience to a wider population of candidates by branding the team. Capturing that magic is possible, especially when you’re deliberate about engaging the team throughout the process. Show them what’s possible, inject the project with purpose, and encourage their feedback for content they’ll be proud to share with their network and industry peers.

The changing of the guard and what it means to recruitment

changing of the guard

 

In March, Acadian Advisory, an independent workplace technology research and consulting firm, showed that old-line tech companies ⎯  Oracle Taleo and IBM Kenexa, which once dominated the recruiting technology market ⎯ have been in steady decline for years. In fact, the report showed our company, iCIMS, and Workday, the eponymous financial and human resources software provider, are gaining the biggest market share.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve watched the pendulum swing from dedicated talent acquisition providers to HCM providers and back again. With the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years and the pressure of rising salaries, candidates now have the power. Recruiting technology evolved, with the emergence of providers who leverage cloud infrastructure. Employers need their recruiting platforms to do more than just process applicants. They must be global marketing platforms that engage candidates in every geography to find new teams and the talent pipelines that support them. They must enable companies to manage complex and ever-changing global data privacy rules.

Employers’ migration to the nimble and faster SaaS solution providers emphasizes how recruiters can find and engage talent, the lifeblood of every organization. Here’s how:  

  1. Deliver differentiated candidate experience: In an era when people spontaneously buy anything with just a couple of clicks from their devices, looking for a job is far too convoluted and frustrating by comparison. Simplify your application process and cut the time that it takes a candidate to apply. Ensure candidates can apply using a cellphone, and use text messaging over email to engage them.  Over the last 16 months, our client, Esurance ⎯ one of the nation’s most innovative insurance companies ⎯ slashed its application time from 45 to 15 minutes, which also helped to cut their cost-to-hire by more than 40%.
  2. Find candidates cost-effectively:  Recruiters’ biggest spend is not on the technology solution, but rather on recruitment marketing to find qualified talent. To find talent, ensure your career site is effectively linked to Google, so that your jobs appear in their search results immediately and candidates are taken directly to your career site, at no cost. From January 2017 to 2018, our clients experienced a 134% jump in candidates originating directly from Google. Employees are your absolute best advocates and often a leading source of new talent. Go beyond rewarding employees for referrals by celebrating when they post jobs on their social platforms.
  3. Drive ROI through analytics: Today, most employers are not able to link their recruiting marketing spend ⎯ how they find candidates ⎯ right through the hiring process. By linking your recruitment spend directly to key metrics, such as cost-per-hire and time-to-hire, you will be able to switch from under-performing to high-performing channels and activities to improve your cost-effectiveness. That will make recruitment more accountable to your CFO in dollars and cents, as well as enabling future growth by finding and hiring talent.
  4. Treat your candidate data as if it was your own personal info:  Today, third-party middlemen scrape your job postings and use them to solicit your candidates’ data. As employers, we cannot allow this to continue. Instead, we have to embrace the spirit of laws like GDPR, requiring us to secure consent and purge candidate data upon request. Consider creating and publishing your own candidate privacy rights commitment and get ready for the California Consumer Privacy Act, which goes into effect next year. It provides people with the right to know what personal information a business has collected about them, the ability to opt-out of having their information sold, and the right to have their information deleted.   
  5. Embrace new technology solutions: In 2018, four billion dollars were invested in HR technology ⎯ nearly four times what was invested in 2017. This influx of investment will accelerate new tech solutions in the coming years. There has never been a more exciting time to be in talent acquisition because of the coming innovation in every facet of the recruiting process. But you need an open-platform, a technology solution that will enable you to plug in any recruiting application that you need to differentiate your brand. Another one of our clients, Hard Rock International, is a master at connecting solutions, whether screening or assessments, allowing it to nearly double in size around the world in the last decade.  

 

It’s humbling and inspiring to see iCIMS overtake Oracle Taleo as the leading recruiting platform. Talent acquisition technology has been treated as a stepchild of HRIS solutions by too many companies. Far too many recruiters have had to make do with bolt-on modules from platforms expressly built to manage and process employee data. To win talent, recruiting needs its own candidate platform-of-record, which is linked dynamically with their company’s employee platform. Recruiting is its own discipline, requiring technology solutions to help you find, engage and inspire people.  

 

What’s Going On: The Current Reality of Recruitment Marketing

Recruitment marketing is one of those concepts that existed long before anyone called it that. If you were to hop in a time machine and head back to 2000, you’d be hard pressed to find a reference to it anywhere.

And yet now, in 2019, there are all these experts running around claiming to have a lifetime of experience in a field. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s just the nature of recruiting – an ever-evolving, ever-advancing industry that’s continuously tasked with proving its worth.

…with all roads leading back to the promise of increased engagement. Our learning here? Content sits at the center of recruitment marketing.

The truth is, recruitment marketing as we know it today, started in earnest sometime around 2009. Born of necessity, recruiting looked to marketing at a time when the older model of recruitment advertising went under the knife and emerged with a new programmatic look and feel.

The days of traditional advertising were over, and recruiters needed a way to connect with an increasingly online talent pool that spent hours a day surfing Facebook and Twitter (Instagram didn’t enter the picture until a little later). Fast forward to now, ten years in and all the wiser – or are we?

Reviewing the Literature

As you might imagine, there are thousands of articles about recruitment marketing scattered far and wide across the internet. For the sake of figuring out where the practice stands, I went back and looked at about 20 of them, spanning the archives of RecruitingDaily and a few other sites.

Some patterns emerged, but the content remains the focal point throughout. At first, we (and by “we” I mean the recruiting industry) talked about the benefits of “interactive” content. Then, we switched gears and emphasized “quality” content. In between, we threw around words like “refreshing” and “employee-driven.”

Most recently, it was “better.” Whatever any of that means, with all roads leading back to the promise of increased engagement. Our learning here? Content sits at the center of recruitment marketing.

Candidate Considerations

And while we were arguing about semantics, some other conversations were happening slightly outside of – though still related to – recruitment marketing. The most apparent being candidate experience, which popped up roughly the same time (see The CandE Awards – launched in 2011).

Another one that gained popularity in recent years, falling hand in hand with recruitment marketing, was employer brand (not to be confused with employee value proposition). Both fold in nicely and unsurprisingly, we started to see new vendors enter the space boasting solutions designed to optimize and maximize recruitment marketing efforts to improve candidate experiences and promote an enhanced employer brand.

As if it were ever that simple. Even so, there’s an apparent connection between these hot topics and the need to communicate with candidates clearly and consistently.

Networks and Communities

You might be wondering – why hasn’t he mentioned talent networks or communities? Surely he knows that’s recruitment marketing! Don’t worry. I’m getting there. Because earlier this year, one of the larger recruitment marketing solutions released a Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report, looking at what’s happening inside Fortune 500 talent acquisition departments – and it’s not much.

The primary takeaway is that while the use of talent networks has doubled since 2016, some 45 percent of companies never send a single message out after the initial confirmation. More than that, 95 percent only share job postings – and I’d venture a guess that more often than not, these are a generic stream rather than qualified opportunities.

Not exactly going to do much to elevate that employer brand, though it does serve as a potent reminder that we need to nurture candidates – something we see throughout talent acquisition.

The 2019 Edition

No shock, but after all that, recruitment marketing in 2019 remains many things to many people. What used to be a nice to do exploded into a dedicated space – and it shows. Seriously, there are enterprise organizations that hire separate recruitment marketing folks within talent acquisition in addition to their teams covering EVP and other comms.

Because there’s more than enough work to go around, ranging from anywhere from personalization, automation and endless streams of data to referral programs, reputation management, and separate careers channels. Is your head spinning yet?

So here’s what you need to know at this exact moment: recruitment marketing is a series of strategies and tactics that when combined, help you attract and cultivate candidate relationships. Duh.

That said, there’s no hard and fast way to play the game at such an early stage in the funnel – your goal is to drive awareness and increase conversions. How you choose to accomplish that is up to your organization – and something you’ll want to revisit faster than you can say “content.”

 

Competition for Talent is Fierce – But the Hiring Rush is One-Sided

Crowded Talent

 

The answer to “How hard is finding a job?” depends on who you ask

Everything about 2019 has pointed back to a booming economy, from the fact that there are more job openings than workers to fill them to the recent round of IPO announcements in Silicon Valley. Last year, Jobvite found that recruiting had hit it’s tipping point, forcing recruiters into unknown territories like the depths of social media and text messaging to find new talent and reach the candidates where they are. Candidates are in the driver’s seat, giving them the power to change jobs at will, ghost offer letters, and become hyper-selective about new opportunities.

However, after a decade of studying the job market, in this year’s Job Seeker Nation, we’ve found that some people are being left behind. Who? While the media and job reports share positive notions on the future of work, those afforded with fewer opportunities are finding it even harder to secure full-time work, and to upskill and grow their careers in today’s labor market. Meaning an entire section of the talent pool is being overlooked, leaving some job seekers to fend for themselves in the pending “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Low Unemployment Rates Don’t Paint The Full Picture

While employment numbers look good from where many workers stand, when we look deeper into the demographics that make up our working population, a stark contrast arises. For example, of survey respondents who currently work part-time, 59 percent aren’t satisfied with part-time work and are looking for a full-time job.

Rural workers are 10 percent more likely than city dwellers to believe that finding a job is much harder and those without a college degree also agree that finding a job is harder when compared with job seekers who do (21% vs. 16%).

Unemployment stats aren’t painting the full picture of the labor market, and even though more jobs are available than workers – something still keeps a large proportion of workers discouraged about job prospects.

Career Growth Opportunities Are Unequal

On the other hand, employed workers are emboldened to take risks when it comes to looking for jobs and career growth. When compared to those without a job, employed workers are more likely (48% vs. 34%) to apply for positions where they do not meet the skill requirements and are also 20 percent more likely to have and use professional networks in order to find new opportunities than those who are unemployed.

Comparatively, when we think about internal career growth opportunities, such as learning a new skill through continued education, the college-educated (62%), city workers (53%), and those already employed (53%) are the most likely to build onto their skill set.

In contrast, those without a college degree (62%), hail from rural areas (54%) or who are unemployed (51%) are unlikely to take more courses.

Overall, the benefits and opportunities we see when slotting these demographics side by side are staggering, as it shows that many job seekers don’t feel emboldened – whether internally or externally – to take risks and expand their skill sets, leaving them behind their peers.

What Workers Consider To Be The “Best Option”

For the first time, career growth opportunities rank number one at 61 percent on the list of most important factors job seekers consider when looking for new opportunities — toppling the long-standing winners in compensation and healthcare/retirement (now 57% and 58%).

In fact, only 17 percent of those who left jobs in the last 12 months were leaving due to a more competitive salary, and it is especially prevalent among younger workers (65%).

However, men are more likely than women to consider career growth most important when looking at new opportunities, placing more value in flexible hours and remote work. And even though salary has lost its place at the top, 60 percent of job seekers responded that they feel at least somewhat comfortable negotiating a higher salary.

And if you look at our Recruiter Nation Survey, recruiters point out that only a little over half of the women negotiated for a higher salary, despite 75 percent of recruiters seeing an increase in negotiation.

It’s easy to squint your eyes when looking at unemployment numbers and see a perfect job market accessible to every job seeker. But our numbers show that this just isn’t the case. Almost half of the talent pool is feeling left behind, excluded, and powerless when it comes to getting what they need to advance. As recruiters, it’s your responsibility to be conscious about how to approach the hiring rush and to consider the methods used for developing talent pools in 2019 and beyond.

 

I Was Hired by a Robot

 

Far from the common refrain that AI will replace your job with a robot, artificial intelligence is actually transforming the employment landscape for the better.  Here’s how…

The potential of an artificially intelligent robot stealing your job is one of the most commonly cited fears around AI.  From finance and manufacturing to bartending and blogging, examples abound of concern over machines replacing human labor in the name of efficiency and innovation.  Yet, what’s really happening isn’t an impending doomsday, rather, it’s the clarion call of evolution.

Yes, the workplace will never be the same again but this is a good thing.

With the power of next level computing harnessing massive data sets and the discovery of previously hidden, unknowable insights we are actually experiencing the birth of a new era in labor.   AI and automation create new jobs, open up new pathways to employment and, in many ways, make work more “human”.  This is particularly evident when examining how AI and automation are altering day-to-day work effectiveness in measurable ways in the field of HR.

AI, by its very nature, will eliminate certain tasks and jobs – like all new technologies.

It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that some HR recruiters, agencies and technical sourcers view the advent of AI and automation with some skepticism.   One particular study showed that only 6% of HR leaders expressed a readiness to work with AI.   Yet, while certain jobs may be automated out of existence, new jobs will necessarily be automated into existence, as well. AI is expected to create a net of 58 million new jobs by 2022.  Software developers, data analysts, and designers are already transforming the hiring landscape and what it means to work in HR.  It’s estimated that 13% of HR managers are already seeing evidence of AI in their day to day operations with a further 55% seeing evidence that AI will be a fixture in HR within five years.  Significantly, 35% of HR managers also say that not fully automating manual processes has already led to higher costs.  Yet, while AI has increasingly become a presence in HR, there will always be the need for the “human element” in hiring that AI simply cannot automate.

It’s hard, for example, to replicate those elements of human intelligence that are needed to assess a candidate’s skills, to sell a given company to a candidate or to personalize a pitch based on a candidate’s profile. That kind of depth of understanding is extremely difficult to automate and comprehend – at least for now…and maybe forever. Nor does AI replace outside the box thinking in the business of hiring or anywhere else. It’s the time between decision and execution where AI really excels. It enables people to do more critical thinking by spending less time on repetitive tasks.  The elimination of one element or task in a job allows for an emphasis on other higher level functions whether its in HR or construction or retail.

In this sense, AI will change the very nature of work by making it more “human.”

Much of the day to day work in HR is tied to menial and repetitive tasks, particularly at the top of the hiring funnel or HR stack.  Some estimates suggest these tasks occupy roughly 35% of an HR professional’s time.   AI’s greatest benefit may be in automating away these repetitive tasks, transforming the nature of work by creating more opportunities for workers to invest at a higher level, higher impact thinking and acting.

AI also has the power to automate away bias.

There is a school of thought that suggests AI does the opposite by perpetuating inherent biases at a massive scale.    Yet, despite some initial missteps with AI and hiring, the fault lay not with the AI but with inadequate data and a failure to plan (or imagine) properly.   AI is only as good as the data fed to it by human intelligence and careful planning and massive, novel data sets are needed to move past inherent biases.   This is particularly true with respect to HR where sophisticated AI programs now enable solutions to go beyond simple resume screening and actually make more objective, predictive decisions.

Ultimately, AI should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a threat – whether it’s about jobs, employment or the quality of work.

After all, AI is already changing the nature of work (for the better), creating new avenues to employment and helping people move beyond traditional prejudices with new insights.  When it comes to hiring, it’s easier to change algorithms than it is humans. AI is transforming HR by reconceiving jobs and workplaces while helping build a fair, diverse and equitable universe of work.

AI, in this sense, is all about the candidate experience, the personalization of work and the human connections it affords, which, after all, is why people get into HR in the first place.  They love building relationships with people, not scouring the web for talent.  AI will help them get back to the uniquely human elements of HR and recruiting, allowing them to spend more time talking to candidates and less time pulling together lists and managing email outreach.

 

Recruiters Preparing for the Recession of 2020

Recession 2020

 

Yes, you read that right. It’s been over 10 years since the Great Recession of 2008 and most U.S. economists are now predicting a recession by the end of 2020. Reports are starting to show downtrends in CEO confidence and slowdowns in manufacturing, energy, and high tech.  There are signs in the field, too, with less “high volume” job openings and a rising threshold on candidate qualifications.

In 2008 over 8.7 million people lost their jobs, flooding the market with job seekers.  Nearly every industry was hammered and some recruiting sectors got hurt badly: firms reliant on contingent hires topped the list, followed by staffing agencies without IT or healthcare verticals, and firms with considerable exposure to local and state government budgets. For the impending downturn, taking specific steps now can help reduce some of the pain that we all felt ten years ago.

Recruiters: Be Part of the Solution, Not the Problem  

During a recession, the demand for talent becomes unpredictable as budget cutting, layoffs, canceled initiatives, and elimination of redundancies become more commonplace. You’ll probably start getting mixed signals as hiring managers start yelling for help and CEOs call for caution.

Whether you’re on the enterprise side or have external clients, a downturn almost always necessitates painful workforce decisions. Recruiters can be part of the solution by proactively preparing for the uncertainties ahead while staying competitive. Although every industry is different, I’m hopeful that some of the lessons I learned during the 2008 recession can help us all minimize some of the pain.

Four Things You Can Do Now to Prepare for the Next Recession

1. Create a plan to lessen the blow for your business:

As the economic outlook becomes more uncertain, there will be competition for internal shares of the budget – whether your own company’s or your client’s. If you are expected to achieve certain hiring goals and are concerned about whether there’s a large enough budget to pull it off, make sure you know your costs and the forecasted hiring needs of your clients or risk getting left out in the cold.  Additional ideas include:

  • Land a wider array of customers. Over-investment in too few clients can really hurt if one of them goes dark.
  • Work with verticals outside of cyclical industries like manufacturing, construction, and energy. Industries least affected by recession typically include discount retail, pharma and healthcare services.
  • Firms with deeper customer entrenchment were hurt less in 2008, so consider moving up the recruiting food chain to more contractual staffing engagements or RPO. These kinds of relationships can delay lost revenue and provide more time to ride out a recession storm.
  • Collect accounts receivable as quickly as possible; you can be profitable and still go out of business without enough cash on hand.
  • Fix any disconnects you may have with HR or hiring managers now. As more difficult decisions need to be made, ongoing miscommunications are going to become magnified.

2. Optimize TA processes:

Use this time to sharpen your team and internal best practices. In the event of a budget cut, you are going to be asked to make difficult choices, so start asking tough questions now: Do you have redundant or low-performing employees? Do you know any outstanding recruiters who have been laid off elsewhere who may be a better fit for your team? Can your group afford to make any vendor, personnel, or other budget cuts and still deliver the same value?

Is your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) up to speed? During a downturn, there will be plenty of applicants to choose from, so having the right ATS will make it easier to quickly identify the most qualified candidates. A good ATS can also help compensate if your own team is operating lean.

You may also want to consider cheaper sources of labor.  Technology and automation can help here, but consider offshoring certain parts of the ATS process such as sourcing, administration/recording, and initial contact with candidates to lower labor costs. Parts of onboarding can also be offshored such as making sure forms are done, backgrounds and frequent contact to ensure the process is going smoothly.

3. Think beyond the recession; don’t let your best people evaporate:

Although it’s easy to get overly focused on budget cuts once you’re in the middle of a recession, managers need to watch for when the recession reaches its bottom, and shape employee headcount accordingly. Avoid laying off your best recruiters and salespeople so when the market bounces back, your firm will be better positioned to capture emerging new business. When the economy rebounded in 2010 and 2011, many companies had cut headcount so severely that their recruiting teams had evaporated and HR departments were drastically reduced. Desperate to hire, they turned to agencies of all types to fill openings, often failing to get their best recruiters back.

Remember, once the streamlining starts, your best-performing people will be taking up the slack.  Prioritize keeping them productive and happy, even if financial options are restrained.  Allowing remote workers can help keep costs low as well as improve flexibility to address hiring bursts as the rebound kicks in.

4. Build your own case as an indispensable recruiter for the day a layoff looms in your firm:

Many companies build their teams to compete for talent. Once a recession kicks in and the need for new hires thins out, we can expect HR and TA teams to get lean again. Recruiters should use this pre-recession time wisely:

  • Work on your recruiting skills; become very adept at your profession, particularly at hunting passive candidates.
  • Create very strong relationships with your customers and know them inside and out. The trust you build with them will keep whatever openings are available coming to you rather than someone else.
  • Gain skills in IT or healthcare to help keep you employed since these verticals are less likely to be impacted by a recession.
  • Show off your business acumen. Tracking your performance metrics and documenting your skills and certifications now can build your case if a layoff looms.

Stay Focused on Delivering Business Value

The Y2K scare, dot.com bust and 9/11 attack played key roles in the 2001 recession. In 2008-09, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the housing and lending markets caused severe economic contraction.

This time? It’s been 10+ years since the last recession – a relatively long cycle of prosperity.  I’m not an economist, but I think it will take a significant geopolitical, social or cultural event to upend the economy. Regardless of the cause, it can take years to return to the growth we’ve experienced over the last few years.

But one thing is certain: as recession talk gets louder, CEOs will be closely managing budgets and headcount. Recruiters are well-served to start thinking about how to deal with the worries ahead while maintaining their ability to predictably deliver business value today.

 

Extend the Candidate’s Experience to Drive Employee Engagement & Retention

Onboarding RecruitingDaily

 

Imagine you are out to dinner at a great restaurant, the service is fantastic, and the food is tasty. After finishing your meal, the waitress stops by to see if you’d like dessert. “Yes, please,” you say. But, instead of being handed a menu the waitress leads you into the kitchen to make it yourself.

Unacceptable, right? But this happens A LOT in the recruiting world.

Employers work tirelessly to win candidates — ensuring career sites are just right, the application is easy, the interview process goes smoothly — but, many times the ball gets dropped when the offer letter is signed.

According to a recent survey from iCIMS, more than a quarter of workers (26%) have quit a job specifically because they didn’t feel they were onboarded or trained properly — and nearly half (44%) of new hires have considered it!

After investing so much time and money finding and winning over the perfect hire, to then lose them after they walk in is the talent acquisition equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot.

In contrast, Messer’s — a leading industrial gas company with over 70 production facilities and 5,400 employees across North and South America — creative approach has dramatically improved assimilation, employee engagement and productivity.

After a candidate accepts a written offer, they are transitioned to a special team for preboarding. This team bridges the critical time between acceptance and the first day by assisting with paperwork and administrative tasks. But, their real purpose is to build a relationship with their new hire and reinforce Messer’s excitement to have them on board. When the employee’s first day arrives, they are fully prepared to focus on the new job at hand.

That’s only the beginning. Messer also supports all their new hires with a six-month immersive onboarding program, encompassing:

  • Spending the first day with a deep dive into the business’s strategy and organization’s culture;
  • Learning and development checkpoints, designed specifically to accommodate different roles and learning styles; and
  • New hire and manager surveys to ensure the burgeoning relationship is progressing successfully, as well as feedback to improve the program going forward.

My own company follows a similar 90-day ramp up program featuring multiple learning checkpoints with key teams and stakeholders throughout our business.

Here are our top tips to get started on the path to onboarding success:

  1. Secure leadership support. Candidates have the power in this job market, and you don’t want your hard-won new hire looking elsewhere within the first few months. Demonstrate why onboarding is important by pointing to the financial cost — in dollars and cents — with your leadership team. According to Work Institute’s 2017 Retention Report, replacement costs are estimated to be as much as 33% a worker’s annual salary.

 

  1. Extend the onboarding experience beyond day one. Your new hire’s first day is the tip of the iceberg. It’s been estimated that a new hire can take anywhere from eight months to two years to ramp up and reach full productivity. Messer, for instance, uses a six-month approach, but you should consider building out a 30-60-90 day program to keep new employees engaged and progressing as expected. Parsing out trainings over time also helps with knowledge retention and an easy transition to continuing professional development.

 

  1. Partner with hiring managers to build knowledge and community. Create partnerships with the key stakeholders — hiring managers, department leads, and IT — to align on a curriculum that will support successful outcomes, such as increased commitment and organizational performance. By deploying various departments and teams to share their strategies and company’s products, you will increase new hires’ assimilation to their roles. At iCIMS, this means a twice-monthly new-hire class lead by department representatives at varying levels to help new hires build a diverse network of peers, as well as learn about the business and function.

 

  1. Solicit critical feedback to improve: New employee and hiring manager surveys and anecdotal feedback will identify gaps as well as positive experiences. By collecting candid feedback throughout the process, you can make pivots as you go, along with future iterations of your program.

 

A strong onboarding program makes a big impact on your business. Various studies have found that new employees who go through a structured onboarding program are more likely to stay with your organization. But retention isn’t the only positive result you’ll see. Not only are your employees more successful and invested after strong training but you’ll also boost your bottom line — a report from Gallup found companies with engaged workforces result in 21% higher profitability.

 

For more information on delivering a stellar candidate experience, please read The Candidate Experience Report.

Top 5 Texting Tips for More Effective Recruiting

A study by Asurian found that Americans check their phones about every 12 minutes, an average of 80 times a day. In stark contrast, most people only check email every few hours.

That’s why Allan Myers ⎯ the largest heavy civil construction company and materials provider in the Mid-Atlantic  ⎯ uses text messaging to hire candidates out working on job sites. The talent acquisition team texts to remind candidates to complete applications, schedule interviews and provide orientation information with previously ‘unreachable’ candidates. Texting provides a more effective way to communicate with deskless candidates and job seekers on the road.

In the same vein, chatbots provide 24/7 invaluable help to candidates in a timely manner, and their use is growing rapidly.  In fact, according to Gartner, the average person will have more conversations with chatbots than with their spouse by 2020!

In the early 2000s, the U.S. Army implemented a chatbot, Sgt. Star, to help with recruiting Soldiers into the U.S. Army and the Army Reserve. Sgt. Star helps answer key questions about the Army 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. While it’s been said “he” does the work of 55 recruiters, Sgt. Star does not take the place of a human, but rather assists with administrative tasks and gathers information that is provided to Army recruiters for follow-up.

To use texting and chatbots effectively, you need to apply the rules of engagement:

  1. Be real. Text messages have a 99% open rate, but it is imperative you don’t come across as spam. By being engaging and including relevant information about the job, as well as yourself, the candidate will know there is a real person behind the text message.
  2. Keep it simple. Don’t over communicate via text message. Shorter messages with an actionable request are more impactful, such as reminders to finish an application or requests to schedule an interview. Include the pertinent details, but when you need to share extensive information send a text message letting your candidate know that they have an email.
  3. Stay on brand and be professional. It is so easy to fall into a casual, conversation-style via text messaging. However, remember to adhere to business standards as you are representing your company. Avoid using text message jargon, abbreviations and emojis, and proofread before hitting send. You may also want to set expectations that text messages will be sent and responded to during business hours, helping maintain a mutual respect for you and your candidate’s time.
  4. Avoid compliance risk. Communications between a recruiter and candidate need to be trackable. Do not use a personal device for text message conversations. Use your recruiting software texting and communications solution to ensure your messages are secure and compliant.  Plus, it prevents you from having to share your personal cell phone number!
  5. Don’t assume texting works for everyone. While the majority of people (86%) agree that it would be beneficial to receive text messages during the job application process according to iCIMS, there are still a handful of candidates who are not comfortable with text communications. Always ask your candidate’s communication preferences.

Texting and chatbots help engage candidates throughout the hiring process in real-time, while enabling recruiters to be more efficient and productive. The timing and convenience cannot be beat. Just make sure to follow best practices to keep your communication and candidate experience on track.

For more information on delivering a stellar candidate experience, please read The Candidate Experience Report.

 

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in an exclusive series from iCIMS on how to enhance your candidate experience strategy. When iCIMS received the news from Talent Board that their candidate engagement hit the mark based on industry standards, they decided to team up with fellow award-winning customers to share key insights on how they’re getting the work done. The series will break down how to improve each aspect of the candidate experience, from practitioner to practitioner.  

Turn Your Career Site into a Recruitment Engine

Recruitment Marketing

 

According to Talent Board’s 2018 Candidate Experience Research Report, 60% of candidates find that employer career sites are the most valuable channel when researching career opportunities. Employers agree. For the fifth year in a row, employers say that career sites are their number one channel for engaging candidates – with 77% citing them as critical for recruiting success.

However, despite their importance, career sites continue to be a low priority.  In fact, Talent Board reports less than half of employers to state that they will prioritize career site development.

The world’s leading authority in holistic child development sponsorships, Compassion International, states that their success hinges on their transparent, relevant career site. Sam Askew, senior manager of talent acquisition, explains, “Career sites are pivotal in our recruitment success because they are the first touchpoint we have with our candidates. It is vital that we communicate our story to our advocates and potential employees because we have a focused mission, and an important job to do. For us, we’ve found success in focusing our site on relevant content, honest communications, seamless experiences, and adaptive technology.”

Together Sam and I believe the following are fundamental building blocks to the future of career sites:

  1. Drive candidates directly to your career site with Google and Facebook Your career site is the absolute best resource for candidates to obtain the information they need and to quickly complete and submit a job application. The problem is that before job seekers reach your career site, they’re taken on a detour through staffing agencies and third-party job boards filling out duplicative forms and profiles along the way. It tends to be a frustrating experience for candidates. Google for Jobs and Facebook’s Jobs Tool provides candidates with a streamlined way to find your job listings and be taken directly to your career site, bypassing the middlemen. This simplifies the candidate’s experience applying for a job, without giving up their personal data, while you get qualified candidates, faster. Now that the first full year of Google for Jobs results are in for iCIMS’ clients — January 2018 to January 2019 — the number of candidates that came directly to the career sites of our 4,000+ clients from Google for Jobs increased by 134%. And employers get more relevant applicants. In this same time, the number of completed applications from candidates who originated directly from Google increased by a whopping 350%. By establishing a direct and immediate link between your career site and Google, your job postings will be displayed right in the ubiquitous search window and tailored to the candidate’s specific interests, location, salary, responsibilities, experience, industry, etc.
  2. Engage candidates with compelling and relevant content Google revolutionized how companies market their products. To build consumer engagement, the best marketers publish short, visual, shareable and clickable content, ensuring their brand is distinct and memorable.  Great candidate recruitment works the same way. Employers’ career site content must be compelling, and speak directly to the candidate. Share authentic content about your purpose, diversity and inclusion, culture, training, social responsibility, and industry-specific conversations (think women in tech) on your career and social sites to inform your candidates and Google.  NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) career site features videos, photos and detailed profiles of recent and upcoming space missions that illustrate their purpose to attract “explorers and bold, pioneering spirits.”  Broadcasting content like this demonstrates your commitment to your candidates’ success. Compassion International uses “what’s next” videos to be transparent in the recruitment process. Candidates generally don’t know how the hiring process works, so Compassion International uses a series of ‘what’s next’ videos to guide candidates in the job search experience. These educational videos explain where to go, where to check-in, what to bring, and what they’ll see via virtual tours, which makes candidates comfortable. Compassion wants their candidates to envision their life circa six months from now when they are thriving in their new role.
  3. Create a consumer-like experience In a world where people stream live sports games, shows and movies on their phones, and where companies provide one-click purchases and same-day shipping, candidates expect the same convenience when applying for jobs. Career sites need to enable candidates to submit a resume through cloud upload, parse their resume – including the skills section – from their mobile phone, and receive an immediate follow-up email – just like when they get their order confirmation and shipment notification after they buy online.
  4. Make your site self-service and intuitive Go beyond a traditional keyword search so your candidates will find a greater variety of relevant job opportunities during their career site exploration. By applying the latest search technology, which is based on machine learning from Google, you will provide candidates with a more intuitive way to explore your career site.  Unlike traditional search which only returns a “what you type is what you get” result, the new search algorithms recognize abbreviations and acronyms, apply spelling forgiveness, broaden geo-location options and return results based on contextual connections. This exposes more relevant job postings and better interprets candidates’ interests and skills. What happens when candidates have a burning question for you after hours? Or they’re uncomfortable asking a recruiter directly? Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots fill this need by responding to frequent inquiries.  They also help candidates efficiently through the entire recruiting process including applying. Talent Board reports a 69% increase in employers using chatbots on career sites.

Talent Board notes that winning employers understand that a competitive differentiator is communicating earlier with candidates, even before they apply. Use your career site to your advantage by building credibility as a leader in your field and provide potential hires with information that demonstrates your commitment to their success.

For more information on delivering a stellar candidate experience, please read The Candidate Experience Report

 

Editor’s Note: This is the third in an exclusive series from iCIMS on how to enhance your candidate experience strategy. When iCIMS received the news from Talent Board that their candidate engagement hit the mark based on industry standards, they decided to team up with fellow award-winning customers to share key insights on how they’re getting the work done. The series will break down how to improve each aspect of the candidate experience, from practitioner to practitioner.  

SeekOut Announces $6 Million in Series-A Funding to Accelerate AI-Powered Recruiting for Technical Talent and Diversity

SeekOut

 

With 75+ Enterprise Customers, SeekOut Empowers Companies to Find Untapped Talent and Rapidly Deliver on Hiring Goals.

Seattle, WA – May 14, 2019 – SeekOut today announced Series A funding of $6 million led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from existing investor Mayfield Fund. 

As the world becomes increasingly digital, companies in every industry have an urgent need to find tech talent to thrive. SeekOut offers companies a competitive edge in hiring tech talent and to support their diversity goals. Launched in early 2018, the company has quickly gained ground with more than 75 enterprise customers spanning multiple industries, including technology, defense, finance, pharma, consumer packaged goods, food & beverage.

Tech talent is hard to find because developers, engineers, and scientists don’t bother to keep an updated profile on sites like LinkedIn. Even worse, these sites provide a very narrow view of a candidate’s skills and abilities. Recruiters who limit themselves to traditional talent pools miss out on millions of quality, untapped candidates. SeekOut significantly expands the talent pool available by scouring public data and using natural-language (NLP) and machine-learning (ML) technologies to understand the expertise of each candidate and build a complete 360-degree view of each potential employee.

SeekOut’s AI-powered search engine gives recruiters the tools to find the diamonds in the talent pool. By automating the candidate search and understanding past hiring patterns, SeekOut makes every recruiter a search expert and simplifies the task of zeroing in on the right candidate.

“As a VC, every day I see the challenges teams face in hiring the best talent to realize their vision. Among the numerous investments being made in HR Tech, the SeekOut solution stood out for us as serving a critical need faced by every company, across industries,” said S. Somasegar, managing director, Madrona Venture Group.  “As every company goes through the digital transformation, the need for technical talent is growing leaps and bounds.  The SeekOut team deeply understands these challenges and has the expertise and drive to address them. I’ve been following the company for several years and am so impressed with their customer focus, innovative technology, and growth.” As part of the funding. S. Somasegar will join the SeekOut board. 

Leading corporations understand diverse teams drive the greatest business value. Beyond finding candidates based on specific job requirements, SeekOut enables corporations to fill their talent funnel with highly qualified diverse candidates using best-in-class diversity filters and solutions to reduce unconscious bias

“At ExtraHop, we believe that the best products, services, and companies are built by strong teams that include a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, ideas, and experiences. To support our diversity hiring goals, we took an early bet on SeekOut and decided to do a pilot. Within the first 30 days, SeekOut helped my team source and hire a woman engineering manager in the extremely competitive Seattle market. It was a home run and we have now deployed SeekOut across our team,” said Beth Kester-Warner, Recruiting Manager, ExtraHop.

SeekOut was founded by Anoop Gupta, CEO and former Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft, and Aravind Bala, CTO and former engineering leader for Bing search engine.  As engineering leaders, both acutely faced the problem of hiring tech-talent in building their own teams.

The competition for talent has never been more intense. The companies who will win know they need to use the most advanced solutions to find the best candidates. We’re delighted by the feedback we receive from our customers daily who tell us they find more qualified candidates faster with SeekOut,” commented Anoop Gupta, co-founder and CEO.  “This funding will help us further develop our solution to help companies find the best talent to meet their vision and goals.”

“SeekOut has been a highly effective tool for us, especially as we seek hard-to-find cleared engineering talent in an extremely competitive market. SeekOut’s customer support team has been delightful and knowledgeable, always there to lend a helping hand for any difficult sourcing task.” Jody Simon, Senior Talent Sourcer, Defense customer.

About Madrona

Madrona has been investing in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest for nearly 25 years and has been privileged to play a role in some of the region’s most successful technology ventures. The firm invests predominately in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum, including cloud infrastructure, intelligent applications, digital media and advertising, ecommerce and consumer software. Madrona manages nearly $1.7 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon.com, Apptio, Smartsheet, Rover.com, and Redfin. www.madrona.com  

Media Contact: Erika Shaffer [email protected], 206-972-5514

About SeekOut

SeekOut empowers companies to go beyond LinkedIn in recruiting hard-to-find and diverse talent. SeekOut’s comprehensive database of whole person profiles, intuitive AI search, and personalized messaging gives companies the ability to find and engage in-demand professionals. SeekOut is founded by top executives and engineers from Microsoft and is used today at major enterprises across multiple industries. www.seekout.io

Media Contact: Bala Vishwanath [email protected]

To Attract the Ideal Candidate, Start by Creating a Genuine Value Proposition with Employees

Value Proposition

 

Your company’s employee value proposition (EVP) is more than what makes people apply to your company, it is what makes them stay.

According to Gartner, when there is a gap between an employer’s promise to candidates and the reality of working at the company, employee commitment falls. In fact, FastCompany recently reported that one in four employees will leave in their first 90 days, with 43% explaining that their day-to-day role wasn’t what they expected.

Each year since 2013, Enterprise Holdings, the world’s leading car and truck rental/sales and transportation services company, has consecutively received the prestigious North American CandE (candidate experience) Award for delivering an outstanding candidate experience. To hire 30,000 perfect-fit associates annually, Enterprise Holdings began by creating a compelling value proposition, namely ‘for values-driven individuals who want to be proud of their career decision, Enterprise Holdings is the employer that provides the things you need to feel secure and successful in a reputable, team-oriented culture.’ 

To successfully attract the most sought-after talent in Silicon Valley, Esurance began by asking current associates why they love working for the company. Esurance understands that all companies have a distinctive and compelling EVP. It is the embodiment of your employer brand. It defines how your company is viewed by employees and candidates. To articulate and then put your EVP to work to attract the best-fit candidates, follow these three steps:

  1. Begin by asking your employees and candidates what makes your company great: To resonate with candidates, your EVP needs to be 100% authentic. It needs to be true. When surveying their employee base, Esurance found that employees are driven by teamwork, leadership, collaboration and a passion for customer service and community. The Esurance employee value proposition is “Team. Culture. Community. – That’s Life at Esurance.” To walk the talk, Esurance supports associates in their charitable activities by providing paid time off to volunteer their time and matches their donations. As recruiters, you’re speaking with candidates every day. Use these interactions to ask what candidates think of your employer brand. Check out what your employees are sharing on third-party sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn, as well as polling new hires about the factors in their decision to join your company.
  1. Build awareness: Once created, the bigger challenge is to bring your EVP to life to engage candidates. Enterprise Holdings provides candidates with a genuine window into its culture by sharing career site content including employee spotlight stories, the ability to search by location, the opportunity to learn about specific teams and access to contact recruiters. Employees are your most trusted and best advocates. Enable and reward them to share their experiences and your EVP with their professional network through a referral reward program. Rewards do not need to be elaborate – a small bonus, team lunch, paid time off, or even work-from-home days are inexpensive and effective.
  1. Evolve your EVP as your business changes and grows: There are few if any, organizations not transforming their business today. Old-line car manufacturers are becoming leaders in software; drones, smart sensors, and spraying and welding robots are revolutionizing agriculture increasing yields, reducing costs and agrochemicals. AI, big data, connected devices (internet of things) and robotics are changing every industry from automotive to finance to healthcare. Candidates with new skills are the lifeblood of every company’s future. To attract new talent – often people with an entirely different skill set to your current workforce – reevaluate your EVP on a regular basis to ensure it is forward-looking.  Appeal directly to the new skills you want to attract, and not just the profile of your current workforce.

 

For more information on delivering a stellar candidate experience, please read The Candidate Experience Report

 

Editor’s Note: This is the second in an exclusive series from iCIMS on how to enhance your candidate experience strategy. When iCIMS received the news from Talent Board that their candidate engagement hit the mark based on industry standards, they decided to team up with fellow award-winning customers to share key insights on how they’re getting the work done. The series will break down how to improve each aspect of the candidate experience, from practitioner to practitioner.  

How to Win Candidates Through Every Stage of Their Journey. A Five-Part Series.

Engage Your People

 

Working with 4,000 organizations to hire more than four million people annually, we’ve found the employers who do it best follow a similar playbook.

My company was ranked as 2018’s leading firm at delivering an exceptional experience to candidates in North America by Talent Board. My colleagues and I teamed up with other employers ⎯ all recipients of Talent Board’s annual award for delivering outstanding candidate experience ⎯ to share the keys to success, beginning here with recruitment marketing.

Over the coming five days we will share details about how to create a powerful value proposition; create an effective career site; engage talent through text and chatbots, and setup new hires for long-term success through onboarding.

In this, our first installment, I’ve partnered with Lisa McKeon, talent acquisition project lead at Cumming Corporation, an international project management and cost consulting firm, and Kevin Grossman, president and board member of Talent Board, to discuss what it takes to give an award-winning, candidate experience, beginning by articulating an engaging vision.   

According to Grossman, who reviews hundreds of employers’ talent acquisition programs each year, “an award-winning candidate experience is one that begins during talent attraction and extends through new hire onboarding. The entirety of the candidate experience must be top notch to attract top talent to your organization.”

 

  • Attract candidates with a clear vision of your corporate culture  

We know candidates typically require three to ten touchpoints before they eventually apply to your organization. To keep candidates engaged, proactively communicate a compelling employer brand so when candidates are finally ready to make a move, your company is top of mind. Cumming Corporation attracts specialist talent by strategically getting in front of passive candidates to boast their business’ cultural differentiators. McKeon says, “My team goes out proactively and talks about our family-like company culture. Our team enjoys perks such as lunch and learns, trainings and other learning exercises. Everyone is trying to grow personally and professionally, and we want to share that passion with candidates.”   

 

  • Build candidate relationships with a personal touch

When marketers engage consumers, they make them feel like the center of their universe. From Coke printing people’s first name on their packaging to Netflix providing personalized recommendations, marketer’s personalize at mass. In contrast, most employers send generic emails to candidates that do little more than confirm receipt of their applications with no indication of the type of role, level, location, or even next step. Employers struggle with shifting from transactional recruiting to creating meaningful relationships with candidates.

The most effective recruiters’ respond to every applicant in a timely manner, proactively communicating even when there is no change in status, adapting to different hiring types by adjusting language, tone and even frequency, and remain available to answer questions throughout the process. These recruiters use texting because its high engagement rates mean less time waiting and more time building relationships.

Cumming Corporation fosters relationships with every single candidate by providing timely application responses including an accurate timeline on what to expect next, and a promise that a real recruiter will respond to the candidate application within five business days. Cumming also keeps candidates in mind for future openings if they aren’t a fit for a current spot. This builds a talent pool of highly qualified candidates to reduce time-to-fill in the future. Cumming, in effect, treats candidates like friends and family throughout the entire recruiting process.

 

  • Use nurture campaigns to attract top talent

The fact is most sought-after candidates are busier than ever, and they are most-likely already employed. In fact, LinkedIn reports, 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive talent who aren’t job searching. By creating pools of qualified candidates, you can stay connected until passive candidates are ready to apply. For example, one of the world’s leading pediatric research hospitals uses candidate relationship management software to track and stay-in-touch by sharing their latest research with targeted candidates ⎯ the world’s top clinical researchers ⎯ so the hospital is top-of-mind when their candidates are ready to apply.

 

  • Use analytics to improve recruitment marketing

By building an end-to-end process that clearly identifies sources and patterns of candidate applications as they move through your hiring funnel, you will create a way to measure and improve your recruitment process. By linking your recruitment marketing directly to key performance indicators (KPIs) like time and cost-to-fill and applicant conversion rate you will be able to adjust the spend to find the best candidates. Download The Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Recruitment Marketing, to learn more about recruitment marketing.

 

People expect to be engaged as candidates in the same way that they’re engaged as consumers. Over the next several days we will share practical advice about how to deliver a differentiated experience with an easy, mobile-friendly application process; sourcing talent on social platforms; and using AI and text to engage candidates.

For more information on delivering a stellar candidate experience, please read The Candidate Experience Report

 

 

Editor’s Note: This is the first in an exclusive series from iCIMS on how to enhance your candidate experience strategy. When iCIMS received the news from Talent Board that their candidate engagement hit the mark based on industry standards, they decided to team up with fellow award-winning customers to share key insights on how they’re getting the work done. The series will break down how to improve each aspect of the candidate experience, from practitioner to practitioner.