Blog

Who Am I? A Recruiter Brand Story

 

recruiting brand

 

A funny thing happened sometime in the last ten years. You can blame the Internet, Millennials or whoever you want, but the facts don’t lie: brand, branding or whatever you want to call it has become a big deal. And we’re not talking about some lame corporate re-brand, a new logo is not the point. Heck, we’re not even talking about employer brand. What we’re interested in is personal, well, actually it’s professional. See, recruiter brand isn’t a new concept per se, but like the state of the industry, it is evolving and with it, so must we.

Now, for the sake of transparency, let’s state the obvious: I am not a recruiter, at least not anymore.  As a business owner, I have and continue to recruit partners, funding, employees, writers, and contractors. I was once upon a time full time, full cycle in healthcare, and you’re welcome to read all about my expertise and accomplishments in that role. So now that we’ve established that, here’s who I am: a person who has learned a lot about recruiting, a lot about brand and a lot of about what it takes to be successful in today’s world. And based on that experience, here’s what I know about creating a recruiter brand:

  • The average candidate might not know what a recruiter is or what they do. Seriously. As insiders, we sometimes overestimate how much people understand about getting a job. Don’t expect people to understand who you are or why you’re calling them about their application. Translations vary but borrowing from Hippocrates, this means “either help or do not harm the (candidate).”
  • There are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there about recruiters. It’s your job to debunk them. That’s right. For the sake of recruiters everywhere, you need to do this work. Because like it or not, recruiters are often, as Adam Karpiak puts it, “candidate therapists.” Being truthful and honest at every turn will help create a reputation that precedes you.
  • Look to the legends. Did you know there are recruiting legends? Icons, even. And no, I’m not talking about those influencer lists that laud people with significant social followings. I mean people who have been in the trenches for decades. The people who remember recruiting before the ATS even existed. Find them and learn about their work.
  • But you also need to know who you are and what you bring to the table. This one sounds obvious but trust me when I say that introspection challenges even the most self-aware person. Assess yourself as you would a candidate. Get to know who you are before introducing yourself to the world as any one thing.
  • At the same time, figure out who you want to be. Ever hear of an archetype? Without giving too much of a history lesson, the idea is that there are only so many personalities and stories to tell. You could be a LinkedIn Sage or a Hiring Hero. It doesn’t have to sound that trite; it just needs to be well-defined and easily understood.
  • Choose your own adventure. Sure, these books went out of print in 1998, but the idea of determining actions and understanding outcomes still holds up — voice, tone, style, marketing, packing and positioning, etc. Ultimately, your brand is what you make it, and you’re the only one who can decide what’s right for you.
  • Balance what’s self-serving with what pays the bills. Yes, brand is valuable, but more so are placements. You can’t have one without the other, and you certainly won’t get anywhere without making at least a few happy hires. While you’re promoting yourself, make sure your work reflects your brand, your capabilities and the position you’re looking to fill.

Look, there’s a lot more to say about recruiter brand, and frankly, I’m not a specialist (apparently those are a thing). The point is, recruiting as a profession doesn’t always come naturally and if you’re looking to make it in this world, you need to overcome that. The best way to do that is to stand out from the crowd and be a resource, an authority, a guide or something equally useful. Parallel to that, you need to curate the hell of your online persona and make sure people can find you.

As for me…like I said, I’m not a physician and healthcare recruiter anymore. Not in the textbook sense of the term. Back when I was, my brand emphasized my healthcare specialties.  I was known to surgeons, neurosurgeons, cardiologists and orthopods. I found that niche and stuck with it, connecting medical professionals with hospitals and practices across the country. Now I’m a different type of recruiter, connecting a community of recruiting professionals with like-minded individuals and the tools that help them do their work. Applications may have turned to articles, but in my case, the story remains about the same.  

 

Key 2019 developer hiring trends: an analysis of 112,654 coding tests

 

Hiring for tech roles is a tall task. It helps to know how companies globally recruit developers, what they’re looking for, and where they look for tech talent. Knowing industry benchmarks including real-life global data can help you make the right hiring decisions and match the right developer for the right role.

Most of the technical hiring data available online is based on surveys, which after all require self-reporting. That said, real customer data can be treated as an equally strong, if not stronger, source of information about the real state of technical hiring. We’ve looked atDevskiller customer data from all around the globe and aggregated it in the form of the Devskiller Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019. The report is based on analyzing 112,654 coding tests from candidates from 120+ countries over a 1-year period.

Here’s what we’ve found.

70% of companies globally are looking for a JavaScript developer

 

Source: Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019

 

Despite all the talk about the growing popularity of Kotlin or Golang, JavaScript skills are still very much in demand. As it turns out, a staggering 70% of businesses worldwide are looking for a JavaScript developer.

Our findings are in agreement with other industry research. They support the 2018 Stack Overflow Developer Survey findings which show that for the sixth time in a row, JavaScript is the most commonly used language. Interestingly, you can see the same top 4 technologies from our study advertised on the job board of Hacker News.

 

Java is the most popular language developers are tested in (37%)

Source: Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019

 

37% of all tests sent out to developers assess Java skills. SQL and JavaScript come second and third, respectively with 34% and 29%.

Although Java is the most tested language, it’s not the #1 technical skill sought after. As mentioned above, that title goes to JavaScript.

Interestingly though, JavaScript comes third on the list of languages tested on Devskiller (29%). The data analyzed in the study indicates that JavaScript is useful for both smaller companies and large enterprises. At the same time, Java is more useful across large teams at a smaller number of businesses. Variation can typically be observed within tech stacks and not between them and innovation happens in particular frameworks or libraries, like React, Vue, Angular, or Node.js. It’s these in-stack skills that are tested extensively by companies.

Coding tests sent on Tuesdays get the fastest response

On average, software developer candidates wait 2.88 days (69.23 hours) to take a coding test. Tests sent on Tuesdays typically take the least amount of time to be taken by the candidates (2 days 13.91 hours). Those sent on Wednesdays typically take the longest (3 days 6.44 hours).

This likely means that developers prefer to take the test during the week and save the weekend for leisure or other projects.

Here’s the breakdown of days of the week and time to take the test:

Source: Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019

 

Interestingly, despite the backlash coding tests and technical interviews typically receive, 91.9% of developers finish a coding test they’ve started on our platform. This suggests that with the right methodology imitating the real work to be done, developers are willing to devote time to completing the coding test when considering a job move. The coding test finish rate is the highest for Europe (93%), Oceania (92%), Africa (91%), and North America (91%).

These results show that task familiarity is of utmost importance and the closer it resembles tasks work typically handled by the developer, the better.

Developers from New Zealand scored the highest on coding tests (54.66%)

New Zealand comes first on the list of countries with the highest coding test score. The Netherlands (53.58%) and Russia (50.14%) come second and third, respectively.

One of the reasons for this state of affairs could be that many developers relocate to New Zealand. They are either actively “lured” by companies or look for jobs there based on their own initiative. “New Zealand has long wanted to be a tech hub, but distance was an issue. Now, at a moment of political upheaval around the globe, that isolation has become a selling point.”, claim Jacqueline Williams and David Streitfeld in their New York Times article As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw).

It is possible that all the new arrivals could be affecting the score. It could also be down to the educational style.

Source: Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019

The US hires the most overseas developers and is the second largest pool of overseas candidates

While 31.23% of overseas candidates were assessed by US companies, 40% of all developers tested by US companies were from overseas.

 

 

Source: Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019

 

The dominance of the US comes as no surprise given the size and prominence of the tech industry there and the famously high software developer wages.

Interestingly, US comes second on the list of countries producing the most software developer candidates.  This puts the US in an interesting position of being both the largest recruiter country and largest candidate country.

When looking at the countries providing the largest number of candidates, India comes first with over a quarter of all candidates tested on the platform.

 

Looking for more developer hiring insights?

According to a Jobvite study, 67% of recruiters believe the lack of skilled and high-quality candidates is the biggest challenge in hiring. This is definitely the case when you consider hiring for tech roles. Most developers are passive candidates which makes them hard to attract. Tech recruiters need to be on top of their game to hire tech talent before they’re snatched by the competitors.

Understanding how companies worldwide hire software developers can give you a head start.  If you’re hiring for tech roles, you might benefit from discovering all the findings of the Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019.

Chrome Extension: Scroll to Bottom

Many common recruiting tools and applications work from sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, where scrolling to the bottom of the page can easily waste away your precious time. However, there is a tool out there that take this tedious process and makes it simple, painless, and fast.

Scroll to Bottom is a simple Chrome Extension that does exactly that—it scrolls to the bottom of the page with one simple click.

Saves you time, second by second

  • Instead of manually scrolling, and waiting, and scrolling, and waiting, you can simply click the extension’s icon a few times and load hundreds and hundreds of profiles.
  • Your other tools, such as scraping tools, can then be used to save all of these profiles, and find you the information you need.

This may not seem like something worth having a tool for. However, if you think about how long you spend scrolling, and can easily add up. Each click may only save you a few seconds, but those few seconds can add up to hours and hours you could have spent in more productive ways.

Scroll to Bottom was created by Single Click Apps, which has a number of other simple tools that can save you time and brainpower. This great tool and others are definitely worth testing out.

~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa

Talroo’s New Audience Network is Swashbuckling

 

 

In the most interesting news of the day, Talroo announced that they are expanding their audience network reach to include the high-volume Piratesvertical. Talroo’s talent attraction tech has long helped recruiters and talent acquisition pros in a variety of industries, such as Healthcare, Restaurant, Retail, Financial Services, and more. But with the economy on fire, Talroo has seen another opportunity on the horizon: Pirates and pirate crews.

It seems the good economy has taken its toll on the pirate business with crew of all ranks abandoning ship for more respectable industries. As a result, ships are heading out to sea short-staffed and listing, lacking deck hands, parrot trainers, and even poop deck swabbers.

So captains, commanders, and commodores have struck an accord with Talroo to help them starrrt hiring better. Talroo’s billion-plus searches each month and ability to mine unique audiences and segments makes them a perfect match for fleets in need of crew.

According to Thad Price, CEO of Talroo, the company is taking this alliance very seriously. They are inviting pirate ship captains to visit their Austin headquarters and meet with their sales and service teams to really drive their piratology knowledge. “We’ve also developed a full training program including hiring pirate experts and dialect coaches to help us really wear the boots of our audience,” said Price.  “We are obsessive with customer service so it only be makin’ sense.” 

Recruiting pirates poses unique challenges, since candidates often have questionable morals, poor hygiene, and no fixed address.

Pirate norms are also shifting away from often-dangerous quests for gold booty and rum caches, opting instead for more nurturing workplaces offering 401Ks and kombucha on tap.Talroo knew that with their unique audience reach and data-driven approach to attracting talent, they would be able to find the truly committed pirate candidates who would be the just right match for the positions in demand.

Already, Talroo’s ability to attract quality applicants is starting to pay off for Bart McBowman, first mate of the galleon Queen’s Quest: “Talroo be staffing me with the highest caliber pirates. And I mean crew that be ready to sail, not some landlubber who be uploading his resume years ago!”

You can see more of Talroo’s swashbuckling efforts, including their training videos, advertising, and program summary, at Talroo.com/pirates.

Hiring Gen Z: Who Are They and What Do They Want?

 

 

With more and more Generation Z’ers aging into the workforce, we begin to question how to go about recruiting them and how they will stand out in the workplace compared to previous generations.

This generation also places importance on individuality, being able to customize products, experiences, and everything else to their individual preferences and needs.

Although sources mildly differ, for the most part it is agreed that Generation Z refers to the group of people born between 1995 – 2010. Having been born well into the internet age and never knowing the struggles of having to write letters, use a payphone, or waiting for the loud screeching of a dial-up loading screen to end, that Generation Z brings unique values into the workforce than the previous generations.

However, it is surprising that Generation Z tends to stick to older methods of job hunting and communication, preferring personal references and email. In other words, sliding into social media DMs (direct messaging) should be left to the dating scene. According to Millennial and Generation Z speaker and generations expert Ryan Jenkins, companies are still encouraged to keep a strong presence on the top recruiting sites such as Indeed and LinkedIn, maintaining that “Seventy percent of candidates look to [company] reviews before they make career decisions and 69 percent are likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand.” 

Though they use a variety, the top five methods Gen Z is using to job hunt are:

  • Searching within the company website
  • Word of mouth
  • Career services office
  • Job Fairs
  • Local recruiting websites

Having been raised in an age highly consumed by the virtual world, one would think that they would prefer communication through similar, more up-to-date methods, but this is not the case. While they do make use of their everyday social media apps, it seems they largely prefer email and face-to-face networking over any other type of recruitment. Relying heavily on personal contacts, networking events, and even (in a shocking turn of events) printed publications/newspapers, this digital centered generation seems remarkably old school.

 

Speaking to Generation Z

Growing up with instantaneous communication has led to a shorter attention span. While using abbreviated texting lingo or gifs will come off as unprofessional and fictitious, being concise in communication with Gen Z’ers and highlighting positive aspects that interest them will serve well to spark their interests.

 

What is Generation Z Looking For?

Generation Z has different values and views on life, and it is beneficial in understanding how to recruit them and integrate them into your workspace to understand who they are and what those values are.  By doing so, recruiters can not only hire them but maintain their employment while making better use of their skills as well.

 

Who is Generation Z?

Besides being the generation following Millennials, an article called “GENERATION Z: CHALLENGES FOR MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP”, written by Sergiu Bălan and Lucia Ovidia Vreja, describes Generation Z as:

  • Phigital
  • Hyper-Customizers
  • Realistic
  • Webeconomists
  • Driven
  • Independent

Generation Z’s lives exist not only in the physical world, but the digital as well. The overlapping “phigital” aspects of their lives have left them with high expectations when it comes to technology. This generation also places importance on individuality, being able to customize products, experiences, and everything else to their individual preferences and needs.

Although they may enjoy individuality, Generation Z tends to favor a collective view when it comes to the values of a company and organization. Being apart of a team where their ideas are heard is of high importance in their careers. They want to make a social impact and be an active part of the discussion to find solutions. Growing up in a web centered world and being apart of its social aspects has had a large influence in the formation of this “webeconomist” view.

Since Gen Z’ers have spent their entire lives with next-to-constant access to rapidly evolving technology and web centered content, they have become independent in the way they work and are driven to find solutions themselves.

 

What does Generation Z value in the Work Place?

  • Access to sophisticated technology
  • Individuality
  • Multifaceted job roles
  • Inclusion in decision making processes
  • Competition

Generation Z places a high importance on success, but surprisingly they do not solely link this to their salary. While money is still high on the list, they also place a large amount of importance on social recognition and being able to have the type of job role flexibility that will allow them opportunities to grow in multiple directions. Gen Z’ers are often highly skilled in multi-tasking and tend to work best in roles that allow them to wear multiple hats.

Because they are still young, Generation Z is less concerned with retirement plans.  Instead, they’re more interested in the possibility for growth. While this will not always be the case, integrating their current concerns into recruitment publications and communications will give recruiters an advantage in the years to come.

 

Keep Your Company Weird: Use New Talent to Build on a Unique Brand

Stay WeirdIf you’ve been to Austin, Texas, in the past couple of decades, you may have seen this message on T-shirts and bumper stickers: keep Austin weird. The slogan arose when a caller to a local radio station was asked why he was donating money. “I don’t know,” he replied. “It helps keep Austin weird.” The phrase went viral, and the Austin Independent Business Alliance adopted it to drive a buy-local initiative. It worked. It worked because it added a singular element to the city’s brand: pride in being different.

We can do something similar with every new hire we make. Every person who lends their expertise to our workforce also lends it a bit of personality to its culture. It is this living group image that not only creates a one-of-a-kind work environment but forms our brand. And for any business to get ahead, it must differentiate itself from the pack. Capitalizing on our uniqueness is one effective way to do that.

You can work on uniqueness as you source and select job candidates for open positions. Here’s how.

By Talent Channel

If you usually hire only full-time employees or only contractors, change it up. Explore new ways to associate with workers to add a new element to your organization. Try tapping craft collectives, consultancies, or online freelance platforms. Reach out to interns or volunteers. Borrow employees from companies you’ve worked with in the past. Automate low-skilled work with the use of algorithm software or robots.

Each new channel you source from will slightly shift the demographic and interpersonal dynamic in your company. You might find that part-time or unpaid workers are superior choices to achieve certain objectives. You might become known as the company that bots freed from paperwork, or write another chapter in your business history. Every new step you take adds a unique aspect to your culture and brand.

By Individual Traits

Some companies use personality tests and demographic data to learn which type of people form the core of their workforce. Metrics can also show where we are deficient. Adding different types of people—from different backgrounds, with different thinking or management styles, etc.—changes the team dynamic. And each person adds another biographical “page” to our company story.

We can reinforce our brand by hiring more “like” people, or we can change or expand our image by hiring more “unlike” people. Get personal in your first contacts with job candidates. Find out what they love to do, what they have done, what they dream about. Like supporting a community radio station, you can use these idiosyncrasies to stay weird.

By Team Spirit

Suppose you feel your company is already weird enough. Then, build on it! Maybe you’ve tracked the coincidence that a number of employees coach kids’ sports, or bungee jump, or do Medieval reenacting. Whatever forms the nucleus of a unique feature can become a focus for your brand.

Use your interview process or ask your talent acquisition partners to help you vet candidates to fit with the overarching personality of your company. All things among applicants being equal, you can prefer that person who helps out with school gymnastics or loves to jump off bridges or wields a broadsword in their off-hours. Like the folks in Austin, identify what it is that sets you apart from the competition. Take pride in being weird.

 

3 Tips for Building a More Inclusive Candidate Pipeline

Gummy Diversity

Attracting and hiring a diverse workforce has become important for recruiters and job seekers alike. Not only is it essential in our role as recruiters to attract top talent, but candidates today expect employers to make their companies inclusive for all. According to an Indeed study of 1,000 job seekers, 52% agree that a company’s culture of inclusivity has a significant impact on their decision to accept a job there.

My team at Indeed plays an active part in finding talent from a wide variety of communities, sources, and locations to ensure diversity and inclusion are embedded throughout our recruiting strategy. Like many companies today, we’re learning as we go — exploring and testing new ways to recruit job seekers from a number of underrepresented groups across the globe.

Once you’ve put diversity and inclusion at the forefront of your hiring process, you need to ensure your candidate pipeline reflects your diversity goals. Regardless of whether you’re a ten-person startup or a multinational conglomerate, here are three tips for building a more inclusive candidate pipeline.

Tip #1: Start outbound recruiting with a focus on underrepresented groups


Recruiting for diversity at your organization may mean rethinking your sourcing strategies — or at least their order.

  1. Outbound: The end goal is to always find the best candidate for the job, and that includes doing your absolute best to identify that person. With a focused outbound sourcing strategy that prioritizes underrepresented groups, you can build relationships with diverse talent pools and expand your span of control over your recruiting pipeline from the start.
  2. Inbound: Drive traffic to your job posts and build awareness. Boost your inbound recruiting efforts by optimizing your job descriptions to be more gender neutral or removing words and phrases that act as barriers to underrepresented groups. For example, to attract more female candidates, avoid words associated with male stereotypes, such as “decisive,” “competitive” and “dominant.” Similarly, avoiding words traditionally associated with female stereotypes, such as “support,” “understand” and “interpersonal” can attract more men to jobs.
  3. Referrals: Employee referrals are a great source of talent. In 2018, employee referrals were our top source of hires. While recommendations from employees grow your pool of talent, you have to carefully monitor your pipeline. The majority of employees refer people from their own networks, which could mean adding employees whose demographics are very similar to your existing team — creating a homogenous inbound channel. Instead, try proactively sourcing referrals from underrepresented groups, which sends a powerful message and taps into a successful recruiting source.

Tip #2: Be intentional with your outreach

Diversifying your outreach means hearing voices from different communities. According to Barbara O’Malley, of Exec Advance LLC, “Companies need to be intentional to make sure that each and every search has a diverse candidate pool. If they do not see a diverse pool responding to a posting, it is their responsibility to reach out one-by-one to diverse candidates and ask them for participation.”

As you build your outbound sourcing strategy, you should identify the groups and communities you’ll want to source from. Finding candidates where they already are may require some investigative work, but this research will help drive what sources you prioritize.

Networking groups, alumni networks, and on-campus events are great places to start. When outbound sourcing, look at who you want to hire in your area. I tend to focus on a few common channels, including Meetup (e.g., Women Who Code Austin), Facebook groups, conferences/events that promote inclusion (e.g., Grace Hopper) and specific organizations that promote the advancement of underrepresented groups.  

Tip #3: Screen in vs. screen out

What does your checklist for sourcing candidates look like? Are you focusing on a specific list of requirements? If so, you could be narrowing your talent pool too much. Instead of focusing on the skills candidates don’t have, screen in and focus on what they do have.

At Indeed, we value potential as much as past performance— and you can’t assess potential in the thirty-second review of a candidate’s resume. Your initial phone call with a candidate is a great opportunity to screen in and evaluate interests, timelines, needs and basic qualifications for a job. Remind yourself that the goal of the call isn’t to make a hiring decision; instead, it’s to gather as much data as possible so you can make an informed decision on whether or not they should move forward in the interview process.

With a screen-in mindset, you’ll not only find more reasons to say yes, but you’ll uncover attributes about the candidate that weren’t visible on their resume. Plus, you’ll be surprised by the success you’ll have (yes, I mean more hires) and the impact it can have on meeting your diversity recruiting goals.

So how do you assess whether candidates have these skills? Structured assessments can be incredibly helpful in evaluating potential and providing constructive feedback to support your decision to move forward with the interview or not. Additionally, you can implement online assessments such as Indeed Assessments to improve the objectivity in how you screen candidates and minimize the potential for implicit bias to creep into your evaluation process.

Conclusion

Diverse and inclusive companies aren’t built overnight. Like many companies today, we’re continuing to learn as we go. Building an inclusive recruiting and selection process takes time, leadership commitment and the mobilization of your entire recruiting team. But every step forward is a step in the right direction. I hope these tips will help you get started on your path to building a more inclusive company.

 

 

Use SalesQL For Email Searches

“Find Linkedin contact info for free”

 

SalesQL is a tool that works as a Chrome Extension to find contact info on LinkedIn. The extension works in tandem with an application/site that allows you to store and sort your found contacts.

From the LinkedIn site, the SalesQL extension works on the side of the screen, displaying the people you are currently viewing.

  • You have to option to “Add” each person to your SalesQL. This displays the relevant email addresses.
  • SalesQL find both personal and professional email addresses.
  • You can also add each contact to specific projects, which are created and viewed from the SalesQL site.
  • SalesQL provides 100 free credits per month, meaning you can easily build up a large assortment of talent at no cost.

SalesQL has a very simple user interface, making it easy to use and keeping to focus on the profiles you have found.

From the SalesQL site, you can easily view—and download—the information you have collected. The information can then be imported into other projects, making this a great tool to use in any workflow.

With such a simple user experience, and so many free credits, there’s no reason not to try out SalesQL. ~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

 

HR Tools: Is Automation and Tracking Really Saving You Time?

Image credit: Pixabay

Whatever you’re trying to do online, you can invariably automate it in some way: that’s the promise of today’s internet landscape. We look ahead to a wonderful near-magical future in which most of our daily tasks will be handled for us, leaving us hours to while away in pursuit of our personal passions.

But the reality isn’t even close to that yet, and those of us in the digital world have developed the bad habit of simply and generically recommending “automation” and “tracking” without adequately explaining how these options should be used.

Look at it this way: the more powerful the tool, the harder it is to use well. If you’re currently automating some of your processes and tracking your time mainly because you were advised to, it’s worth stopping to think about what exactly you’re getting from the enhancements — used correctly, they’re incredibly useful, but when used poorly they tend to be costly and ineffective.

Let’s take a look at why the use of HR tools isn’t always justified, and consider how you can tweak your approach to make sure you’re using these resources correctly.

Automation isn’t quick or easy to implement

In principle, anything can be automated. If I had unlimited time and patience, I could spend thousands of years painstakingly mapping everything I do each day: how I react to things, how I respond, and what I exactly I achieve. But that’s clearly counterproductive. Not only would I automate myself out of work, but I’d waste an astonishing amount of time achieving it.

HR tools don’t take years to configured, of course since they automate fairly simple routines — but they aren’t always easy to understand. Not only do you have to learn how they work before you can use them effectively (how triggers work, how you establish integrations with your systems, etc.) but you also need to fully understand the process you’re trying to automate.

Knowing what you’re trying to automate sounds fine — after all, you know what you’re doing — but there’s a difference between being able to do something and being able to explain or codify it. Some things we learn by rote, and others we figure out intuitively.

There’s also the risk of losing the information that fed the initial implementation to think about. Even if you own your business and intend to run it indefinitely, it won’t be in your possession forever, nor will you always be responsible for the regular procedures.

When the day comes that you sell your business, or simply delegate your responsibilities, will the next person tasked with the job know what to do if the automation goes wrong? In anticipation of this event, you must painstakingly document every part of your daily process, taking up yet more time.

Consequently, what if the amount of time it would take you to set up an automation routine would exceed the amount of time you’d save through the modest efficiency improvement? Consider trawling through resumes, for instance. An applicant tracking system can do various things, but its in-depth analysis will be significantly limited, and creating that kind of setup would take far longer than it would take you to use your knowledge to conduct manual reviews.

There is such a thing as excessive tracking

Tracking time and applicants alike is incredibly valuable because it provides accountability and clarity. It’s easy to get lost in tasks and lose your working structure, then find it difficult to determine how long you spent on any specific matter or which applicant came from where — something that proves dangerous when you’re trying to invoice clients and spend time wisely. Like it or not, you need to treat your business as a brand, and that means ensuring that your client-facing operations are as smooth as possible.

To that end, keeping every minute element of an application process within a tracking system allows you to easily review the process and weigh the time spent on it against the value it generated: how much you were paid to do it and what you ultimately received from it. If that was too much time, you can revise your approach.

However, getting too obsessed with tracking will rapidly start to erode the flexibility, creativity, and experimentation that are so important to high-level recruitment. Fix your recruitment process to immutable milestones and your time commitment to a certain figure and you might start to overlook certain things that would have affected how you viewed particular applicants.

Tracking is something you should do, absolutely, but it shouldn’t provide a rigid binding for any given application. It should be advisory information, there to help nudge you in the right direction and ensure that you don’t get too lax with your operational structure, but sufficiently accommodating to allow you to go in a different direction if you want to.

How you should approach HR tools

So with automation not being easy to configure (and not always being applicable) and tracking having the potential to go too far, how you should be approaching HR tools if you want to make them optimally effective? Well, here are some broad suggestions:

  • Choose tools with a lot of support behind them. The software is often complex and must be updated over time. Since the time you spend using an HR tool is an investment in using it more effectively in future, try to choose tools that have enough developer and community support to make them safe bets for the future. This will also ensure that you can get your pressing configuration queries answered.
  • Define a limited and company-wide selection. Not only do your automation and tracking systems need to be able to export data to your main systems, but you also want everyone in your company to be using the same tools. That way, you don’t need numerous training sessions, and you won’t run up against bugs and misunderstandings. Take a look through this selection to see what will fit your operation.
  • Use automation for basic and repetitive tasks. Automation in HR is fantastic for the really time-consuming top-level tasks: anything involving checking basic forms, gathering applications, or requesting feedback is ripe for automation. Anything that isn’t fundamentally and straightforwardly repetitive is going to be a bad fit. Even if you could, it wouldn’t be a good idea to automate everything (as noted).
  • Prioritize manual judgment in the end. Great recruiters bring a lot of experience to bear when assessing candidates, and they’re able to look beyond the technical requirements of a position to identify good candidates. A position on the sales team for an e-commerce company might ostensibly require 5 years of experience working for a comparable company, but a recruiter could spot a self-starter with no formal experience but an impressive entrepreneurial record and immediately recognize their suitability.
  • Focus on broad tracking and allow some leeway. By all means, try to improve efficiency by cutting down on bloat, but pay attention to the averages instead of specific cases. Not every tiny element needs to be tracked, and as far as time goes, spending five times longer than the average on an application will occasionally be justified. You’re an expert in your field, so it’s your call to make in the end.

Follow these suggestions and you should be able to use high-quality HR tools to achieve efficiency improvements without letting them interfere with your work.

Are you getting the balance right?

In light of everything we’ve looked at, what do you think? Are your current efforts in automation and tracking really saving you time, or are you falling into some of the traps we’ve looked at? The potential to save you time and money is always there — you might simply need a nudge in the right direction in order to begin using these resources correctly. Good luck!

 

Fireside Chat with William Tincup and Shane Bernstein, Founder at Rolebot

We recently sat down to learn more about Rolebot and hear Shane’s insights into a craft he’s been honing for many years.  He identifies as a lifelong student of the recruitment industry, developing new ways to leverage AI and enhance the business of employment utilizing technology.

Over 15 years ago Shane entered the staffing industry. Today he’s helping to revolutionize it. Shane’s experience at his previous company set the foundation for what was to come. Before Rolebot, Shane was already pushing boundaries in the staffing industry launching Q, an outbound oriented staffing company focused 100% on passive talent. The company had unheard-of success with this model and Shane realized that it could be more powerful. With the resurgence of Big Data and AI, Shane realized the tools needed to scale the effective outreach approach were finally available. He realized his C-level customers were continuously frustrated with no viable and consistent solution, and unable to build the teams they needed in order to have the global impact each of their businesses required. So Shane founded Rolebot. Utilizing the power of AI, he and his team have developed software enabling companies and staffing firms to reach their goals and measure ROI.  As a result, Rolebot eliminates the way in which we traditionally pre-qualify talent, from days/weeks to seconds, and increases recruitment output and engagement results by 10x. Some of Rolebot’s customers out of the gates include Verizon and Fandango.

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

Having a startup is like having a new-born that is always asking for more……my role is to nurture ideas stemming from customer feedback and trending ideologies in the industry, as well as ensuring our incredible team is set up for success always in all ways, supporting their efforts through every step along the journey.  Our company is only as good as our team, and we’ve put together a wonderful and talented group of people.

Q2: How has the recruitment business evolved over the last decade?

A lot has changed over the last few years.  People would have laughed at you, if you asked them to get in a stranger’s car (Uber), or sleep at a stranger’s house (Airbnb), but looking at the recruitment vertical, very little has changed.  In fact, the resume was coined in 1482 by Leonardo da Vinci, and since then, the only impactful upgrade to the traditional resume gave us the ability to digitize and share so all could see (LinkedIn),  aside from that, it’s hasn’t really changed. The business has always been very disjointed, similar to a game of pick-up-stix, not cohesive in the least, and it’s very difficult to paint an accurate picture of how to effectively navigate through the many-segmented channels often creating quite a dysfunctional workflow between people and process.   Despite some consolidation across different platforms, the resume which by definition is a self-proclaimed document hasn’t changed, and given that fact, we see a lot of room for positive disruption. Our mission at Rolebot speaks to this idea, and we aim to provide a suite of tools for HR, professional recruiters, hiring managers and companies to change the way they perceive talent and hire the right talent more effectively and seamlessly.

Q3: What are the top problems in the recruitment business today?  

Discovery and verification.  At the foundation, the biggest obstacle in our industry revolves around the resume.  As discussed, it’s a self-proclaimed document based on key-words describing soft skills and hard skills, but none of it on paper can be proven in this medium of delivery.  Any person can write anything they want and over 50% of resumes do not paint an accurate or completely truthful summary of a person’s experience and accomplishments. That’s also the case with job descriptions, typically JDs have the information required for the job, but also include a lot of noise that is not required for the role, nor helps the process of finding the right talent. Most JDs include everything but the kitchen sink, and no one person ever matches to a tee.  So if we take a look at the output (Job Descriptions) and the input (resumes) and all of the tools/filters that try and match keywords to each other to come up with a fit, we’re making a very strong assumption and heavily relying on the notion that both documents are 99.9% accurate, which will never be the case, not even close.

Q4: How does technology play a part in recruitment moving forward?

On the talent side it becomes seamless – Never look for a job again. No more applying to jobs, I like to call that ‘false hope’ – involves a lot of time & effort, but the ROI is rarely afforded.  On the B2B side, it’s an enhancement to create that seamless experience for the talent pool; It’s no longer a one-sided notion, all tools, technologies, and platforms should be viewed as a win-win on both sides.  Technology is at the core of every industry and at the current state, AI and proper data structure enable us to enhance discovery and verification based on factual data vs self-proclaimed data. We’re championing the notion ‘actions speak louder than words’. This innovation enables us to avoid some of the pitfalls we encounter today like endless piles of resumes or lack there-of, ability to game the system, inconsistencies in approach, and the list goes on.  Recruitment should be an invisible process, like a series of underground tunnels moving continuously and without interruption. Fewer touchpoints (or opportunities to mess up) and more connection; The goal is to move talent closer to the hiring manager, remove the friction and process in between that seems to triple the time and effort to make a hiring decision;

Q5: You seem to have a strong view on resumes in general, what does that stem from?

Some of the most brilliant and high-performing talents have the worst resumes; They aren’t good marketers, they’re good doers, they’re makers, movers, and shakers;  I’ve been in the technology recruitment business for many years, and I can write a damn good software engineering resume, and most likely get asked to participate in initial interviews for every role I’m up for, but I will miserably fail all interviews because I’m a recruiter by trade, not a software engineer;   Hoping that gives you context around my disdain for ‘the resume’.

Q6: where do you see Rolebot in 5 years?

In the tech world, every year is calculated in dog years, so 5 years for us is an eternity; Where we see this company over the next few years – we’ve already had some early success onboarding some of the top brands including Verizon, Fandango, and Experian, as well as some popular regional staffing firms across the US; We are intimately engaged with hiring managers and recruitment teams, and when someone leaves a company and moves on to their next opportunity, they take Rolebot with them;  That’s a validation that we provide a Necessity (aspirin) and not a Luxury (vitamins)…

 

Student Outreach and Social Media: Staying Connected

Student Recruiting

 

Looking back, it’s easy to associate the most recent generations with significant advancements in media and technology. Gen X sometimes gets called the “MTV Generation,” while Gen Y and the Internet practically grew up together, from AOL to iPhones. But today’s students, members of Gen Z, are digital natives, with little to no recollection of life before Facebook. This unique experience directly influences how they look for jobs and engage with employers, especially when it comes to preferred platforms and their understanding of how recruiting works. And as more of this population graduates and enters the workforce over the next several years, organizations need to understand and adapt their student outreach efforts accordingly.

With hiring initiatives in mind, recruiting these students can become complicated quickly, with multiple channels, messages and candidate considerations to account for at any given time. But fear not, once you take the time to get to know the population, there is a clear path forward.

Setting expectations

Truth be told, Gen Z is just starting to come of age, so while it’s easy to hypothesize about what they want from employers, it’s even easier to ask them. Looking at insights from a diverse sample of 20,000 business students from across the U.S., a few things are immediately evident. What most students want to do after graduation is to work for either an international or privately-owned national company (67 percent total) – and nothing else comes remotely close. At the same time, their top career goals include realizing work-life balance (that’s number one); followed by finding job security or stability; becoming a leader or manager; feeling competitively or intellectually challenged; and is dedicated to a cause or serving the greater good. That’s a lot to tackle right out of college – and a lot for recruiters to process.

The good news is that we know how these students search, and (no surprise) it’s overwhelmingly online (40 percent) at employer career sites and careers services pages, with on-campus events and career fairs coming in second at 25 percent. Interesting. Apparently, even the digital natives still look for a human connection.

Layer your approach

Knowing what students are looking for and how they’re looking offers the first step in a hiring approach. But putting this into action is a different story – there are layers. Reaching today’s student population requires a comprehensive approach that factors in their career goals, communication style, and online behaviors. And as you think about that, it starts to make sense. This is a generation of people growing up in a world where the internet is part of their everyday routine – and with that comes the countless digital channels on at all times, a slew of social media accounts to keep up with and a steady stream of marketing messages. So to make an impact, employers need a multi-tiered communication strategy that embraces a variety of platforms, moving students from general awareness about their brand to consideration, to desire, and finally to an application.

One company that’s putting all of these pieces together and doing it well (according to those U.S. students surveyed) is EY. Maybe that’s because the company’s purpose is “Building a better working world.” But maybe it’s because, as of 2016, EY made 12,000 campus hires in the Americas, and approximately 65 to 70 percent of the company’s 5,500 full-time hires were former interns. Supporting this effort is a combination of engaging social media, impactful campus recruitment activities and events and EY’s career site, which walks students through the entire process. Oh, and did we mention they’ve ranked number one for diversity and inclusion more than once, something EY defines in broad terms? No wonder they’re a student favorite.

Find the balance

For organizations looking to expand student outreach and increase applicant follow-through, here are a few takeaways. The focus is the first – because, with a clear approach, employers can create communications that resonate with their target audience. At the same time, knowing full well that today’s students expect employers to recruit online, in person and everywhere in between, it’s important to bring that focus into the messaging. Delivering relevant content at every engagement, including events, will support sourcing efforts. From there, using the right technology, one that measures skills, cultural fit, offer acceptance probability and probable retention, the process can accelerate and screen higher numbers of candidates. That frees up more hours in the day to spend posting employer messaging to social media, career sites, job boards and the like – it’s vital to cover as many bases as possible, which in turn will bring recruiters further down that proverbial path to hiring success.

For more on maximizing the on-campus events tier in your student outreach, visit https://info.oleeo.com/recruiting-event-software-diversity-free-trial.

 

Ramping up a Summer College Recruiting Program? Here’s What You Need to Know About Micro-Internships

 

If you think recruiting is difficult, college recruiting is even harder. Finding candidates and ultimately convincing them to take the job is challenging, but the truly hard work is determining whether they have the right skills for the role and are a fit with your organization. With all the discussion around algorithms, AI, video interviews, and other predictive hiring tools, as recruiters you know that the best way to assess skills and cultural fit is through a discussion about prior experiences. What skills were demonstrated? What made the individual successful in the role? What is the reason that the candidate is considering a change?

While this works when hiring experienced professionals, it’s not an option when recruiting early career professionals. GPA or major doesn’t convey if someone has the right skills, especially around some of the most valued core skills such as grit, communication, problem-solving, and teamwork. And even those fortunate enough to have an internship or two don’t have the context to understand if your industry, company, or role is the right fit for them, thereby driving over 55% attrition of new hires within the first year.

Oh wait, it gets worse. With all your efforts, your campus recruiting program likely has you competing with similar companies at the same schools for the same candidates and likely missing out on prime candidates who don’t make it through your initial screen. This includes minority students, those working while in school or who have majors that don’t sound like job titles, and competitive student-athletes who can’t make time for traditional summer internships. Where does that leave you?

Enter the micro-internship, a simple solution to a macro-level problem

Fortunately, whether you are launching a summer recruiting program or improving your ongoing process, the increasing acceptance of the gig economy has provided a solution: micro-internships, or professional, paid, short-term assignments commonly completed remotely. No, this is not about replacing entry-level professionals. Instead, it involves recognition by your hiring managers that they have plenty of straightforward yet time-consuming tasks that can be completed by someone outside of the company without a ton of onboarding. Think “We should…” and “I shouldn’t….” tasks such as list-crunching, content creation, and competitive research that are time intensive and don’t require sharing any confidential information. The kind of assignments that would be perfect for an intern if it happened to be summer.

In fact, you probably already have some of these on your plate: standardizing job descriptions, process mapping for campus recruiting, developing content to support recruiting, and researching competitors’ diversity and inclusion best practices.

How micro internships work

The micro-internship model is compelling to many because of its ease-of-use. HR doesn’t have to change existing processes, replace internship or new hire programs, acquire new technology, or even have difficult conversations with other departments. Leveraging freelancers as part of the recruiting process can be done immediately, and executed without additional costs or commitments.

Generally speaking, a hiring manager simply posts a project description and sets the price. Then, she reviews applicants, selects who she wants, and provides guidance while the intern does the work. If she ultimately wants to hire the applicant, she works directly with HR to refer the vetted candidate into the existing process.

While hiring managers are thrilled to get on-demand support from highly motivated college students and recent grads, HR leaders are quickly recognizing the many other benefits of micro-internships, including:

  • Early access to candidates
  • Enhanced diversity and inclusion
  • Improved branding
  • Better retention

Hiring managers appreciate that micro-internships can take place year-round, and don’t require the upfront interview time or the ongoing commitment of a 10-week internship. And, when it comes to cost, the amount paid to the student for the average micro-internship is about $350, far less than the cost of even a single interview.

Some hiring managers are proactively using micro-internships to recruit for their entry level roles (if you’re recruiting for sales roles, projects such as lead generation, data cleansing, and list crunching are great ways to assess for the skills required). Some companies are even allocating budget from diversity and inclusion as they recognize that micro-internships provide effective pathways into their companies, and do so with a more sustainable impact as hiring managers see the benefits of hiring outside of target schools firsthand.

For students, micro-internships democratize an often exclusive process, offering a broader range of students – from diverse backgrounds, a broader range of majors and GPAs, and a wider selection of universities – a chance to demonstrate their skills and grit, explore careers, and develop their networks, providing effective pathways from career exploration to internships and full-time roles.

A much-needed addition to your recruiting toolkit

With over $500 billion spent on gigs across the U.S., hiring managers at your company are likely already using freelancers (and if they’re not, they want to). As opposed to at best allowing it and at worst ignoring it, why not harness it? Through the increasing acceptance of micro-internships by colleges and students alike, recruiters at companies from start-ups to major players like Microsoft have found that using micro-internships as a tool to build and refine their talent pipelines delivers a competitive advantage.

As more college graduates look to gigs to gain meaningful experience, we’ll see more companies adding micro-internships to their recruiting arsenal.

Student Outreach and Gender: Closing the Gap

 

In talking about recruiting today’s students, the issue of diversity inevitably enters into the conversation. So much that we already went over the state of the state, calling out the fact that students (specifically those in Gen Z) sometimes see a bigger picture than corporations do. Still, at a time when more women are running for office and entering boardrooms than ever before, we also need to address the gender gap – what’s left of it at least. And what that means for employers recruiting and hiring younger workers.

it’s clear that students want support for their development, professional training, leadership opportunities, respect for people and a clear path for advancement

But before we get into it, let’s establish where we’re at, drawing on the 3.2 million student applications that Oleeo analyzed for the 2018 campus recruiting season. Covering organizations in the financial and professional services industries, this research found that there’s undoubtedly still a hiring gender gap, but compared to the year before, it’s getting smaller. Specifically, in 2017, the split was 59 percent male to 41 percent female, while in 2018, that shrunk to 54 percent male and 46 percent female. Definitely a step in the right direction, though there’s still plenty of work to do – and here’s what that means moving forward.

Coming in with the tide

The men versus women debate stretches back further than any of us can even imagine, and frankly didn’t see much progress until the last 100 years. However, despite the big wins (like getting the vote, for instance) long-standing inequalities persist, holding women back while men advance. This is not conjecture or opinion, just simple, well-documented facts. And while this tide turns slowly, it’s coming. We’re at a place now where men and women don’t even cover the gender spectrum, and today’s students recognize and embrace a more fluid understanding.

But the problems you see, remain on the inside. Embedded deep in the infrastructure of organizations, where gender inequity continues to aggravate, particularly around pay rate and career development. While on the outside, knocking at the door, are students and younger workers, eager to see – and experience – equal opportunity employment.

From the results of Oleeo’s study with Universum, we know what this population finds attractive about employers. And in the top 10 attributes, it’s clear that students want support for their development, professional training, leadership opportunities, respect for people and a clear path for advancement. Leaving it up to employers to recognize their perspective as it relates to gender differences and recruit accordingly.

Seeing the difference

Though it’s important to note that this isn’t about prioritizing one group over another – it’s about leveling the so-called playing field. There are several ways to go about this, from emphasizing diversity hiring and development programs to increasing transparency and committing to close up any pay gaps. Companies can change their communication style, eliminating gendered pronouns and balancing out the wording contained in job descriptions and candidate materials. Companies might also consider their social media messaging and overall online presence, something Bank of America did to transform its campus recruiting strategy.

Knowing that current students are digital natives, Bank of America wanted to meet job seekers where they are virtually, as a complement to the company’s physical presence. To achieve this, Bank of America looked at its application process, candidate resources, interviewing and recruiting events including webinars. By creating consistency and centralizing its recruiting efforts, Bank of America was able to reach more students than ever before, delivering educational information about professional opportunities and the hiring process. This helped the company close up previously unseen gaps in its recruiting, eliminating unconscious bias and screening a 28 percent increase in the number of female candidates as a result.

Next steps

Of course, this is the approach that worked for one company. Gender gaps vary from organization to organization and industry to industry. Tech has long lamented a lack of qualified female candidates, but as Stanford researchers observed, these companies might be alienating female recruits, with sexist jokes and presentations displaying only men.

Reframing this narrative requires introspection and analysis of everything from employer brand and awareness efforts to candidate selection and onboarding. Somewhere in between lies events, online and in-person, a vital step in the campus recruiting process. Whether it’s varying presenters to include more gender diversity or spotlighting specific employment initiatives that support career pathing, recruiting teams need smarter solutions to empower their outreach. With the right platform, it becomes possible to track and analyze every interaction, giving recruiters the insights needed to improve outcomes for men, women and those non-conforming,

 

To learn more about improving gender diversity in student outreach, visit https://info.oleeo.com/recruiting-event-software-diversity-watch-mini-demo.

 

Wordtracker Scout Extension

Wordtracker Scout speeds up and refines your recruiting process

 

Wordtracker Scout is a Chrome Extension that pulls relevant words and phrases from the web and shows you a variety of data based on these terms.

When you open the tool, it scours the site you are on to find terms, and then allows you to view this information in a variety of formats.

  • The Page Summary tab displays the most common terms in a visual way, allowing you to draw some quick conclusions right off the bat. The most common terms appear larger and darker, and terms used less frequently are smaller and lighter.
  • The Insights tab breaks down the terms by relevance. You can also change the relevance settings, allow the tool to pull anywhere from almost all words to only the most relevant words.
  • The Keywords tab shows how the terms found on this page are used by others. You can see the number of searches these terms appear in, as well as the number of other profiles that use the term prominently. Wordtracker also determines the Opportunity the word provides, comparing the number of people searching the term with the number using the term. The higher the Opportunity number, the more effective using this term may be.
  • You can also narrow the Keywords tab by location, focusing specifically on your chosen area.

You can copy the information from any of these tabs, allow you to keep it for later reference. If you subscribe to the paid version of Wordtracker, you can also save information directly to the app.

Wordtracker is useful on any sort of online profiles. It can help determine whether a person is right for a position, and allow you to compare profiles to job description. It can also help you to determine which keywords to use in future searches for candidates, and even help you to create better job descriptions.

Wordtracker is simple, and low-resource, and works great with both online profiles and (especially) resumes.  ~ Noel Cocca

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

 

Using Your Firm’s Competitive Differentiation in your Employer Branding Program

Employer Branding

 

As you build out and continue to tweak your Employer Branding Program, you might want to incorporate and “bake in” your firm’s differentiators—(assuming, of course, you know what they are).

Each firm has differentiators (whether they know it or not). These differentiators will make all the difference to prospective new hire candidates. They can be “competitive hooks” to grab and re-attract candidates.

You need to (regularly) unearth and uncover these doing external opinion surveys and in-house opinion surveys and questionnaires. When I was at was at Monsanto, I used to go into new hire orientation and conduct a mini “focus group”; I asked the new hires why they joined?, what they thought of their new company? and etc.

Differentiators can be such things as salary, benefits, work schedule culture, work environment, company values, mission, company location, and etc. Furthermore, examine how your differentiators which we can now label as “competitive differentiators” can differentiated you from your peer competitors.

Also, do research to determine what your competitors “competitive differentiators are. Hopefully, your firm’s are better, if not set a plan to make them better. This market research is very important to keeping your EVP and Employer Brand as current as possible.

And incorporate them in your “Employer Brand Architecture” for your main Employer Brand and in your Divisional (level) sub-brands for unique internal departments like engineering and IT.

Remember, strong Employer Brands (and EVPs) use compelling differentiators to engage and inform their target audiences and promote the perception and reality of their firm as—the place to work and grow and stay.