How Talent Acquisition Can Solve its Most Costly Problem, Now!

Your New Weekly HR Tech Ritual

It’s 3 pm on Wednesday. On your calendar is the block of time you set aside to review the information you collected from at least a dozen HR Tech companies who want to “help” modernize your processes or solve a specific problem. Since part of your role includes staying current on market trends, below are three questions to ask yourself while reviewing your latest batch of HR Tech-related emails:

1. What tools do I invest in now, and do they help me accomplish my goals?
2. How often do I revisit my budgets and consider using the money differently?
3. What am I doing to solve my most costly problems?

I was inspired to suggest the first question after interviewing Aaron Karljev from Wells-Fargo who stated his concern very simply, “Job descriptions are a necessary evil for compliance reasons, but we all know these don’t help attract qualified passive candidates. The bigger question is, what would it take to make them jump?”

Believe it or not, we are past the end of Q1 of 2019. After reading dozens of emails, and all the content you collected from conferences in February, no viable solutions that solve your most costly problem seem to emerge—how is that possible?

Sourcing solutions can help search for qualified candidates (i.e. LinkedIn was mentioned most followed by bots, AI solutions, job boards, and career sites). They will continue to evolve with artificial intelligence, yet don’t address talent acquisitions most costly problem.

Let’s face it—confusion over which HR Tech Solutions solve which problems will not go away any time soon though recent research can help direct our efforts.  

RecruitingBrief recently published a study which included 5 Common Sourcing Mistakes in 2018. The most common mistake with talent acquisition is “Failure to effectively engage candidates.” The mistake can be partially solved if recruiting had a better grasp of marketing and sales skills combined with engaging content about the job. Content with a human element can also help increase your quantity of qualified candidates.

Tips for Advertising Jobs–Marketing and Sales Skill Development.

If you haven’t done this already, add sales/marketing skill development to your team goals.

• Focus messaging on the needs and interests attracts high-quality passive candidates
• Develop a multi-pronged digital strategy
• Leverage former leaders as part of your job distribution network.

Example: Aaron Karljev from Wells-Fargo, began to add a human element to expand his reach organically, by distributing open jobs to alums/brand ambassadors of Wells-Fargo who referred high-quality candidates. Aaron also began to incorporate a more organic approach to employer-generated video which was very successful!  

As Aaron Karljev mentioned during our conversation, “getting recruiting, talent acquisition and employer branding on the on the same page for branding helps the team get known as a resource for managers and leaders.”

Now, Aaron asks himself the second question based on this recent development with employer-generated video. “How often do I revisit my budgets and consider using the money differently?”

The answer to that question is still unclear, though adding more video is on everyone’s radar.  

A good initial involves training recruiters to develop a marketing and sales mindset combined with change management. These two steps can definitely enhance the human element and attract a higher quantity of qualified candidates.

Now for the toughest question, “What are you doing to solve Talent Acquisitions most costly problem?”

You may not like this but it needs to be said. . .convincing qualified, perfectly happy candidates to join your company takes more engagement and creativity than a great job description and candidate-focused outreach. Search engine technology solutions help some, but the next step is still a struggle—motivating the candidate to “press the apply” button.

Adding the Hiring Manager to your Employer-Generated Video Team

Including hiring managers as part of the recruiting team offers Talent Acquisition a great opportunity to demonstrate value and an easy, scalable way to elevate credibility for the job and the company. Leaders who used employer-generated video reported that hiring managers who generate employer-generated videos attract a higher percentage of quality candidates

Employer-Generated Video Scales Collaboration in Recruiting

Recruiters who use employer-generated videos experience results that far exceed results from professionally produced longer videos. Here are a few comments:

“Using informal video technology makes it easier to generate interest from a younger audience.”

“When hiring managers and colleagues create an informal video, they are more likely to share jobs over social media with friends, colleagues and professional groups.”

“Videos made by the hiring manager improves the quality of hire when combined with search engines, career sites and more.”

“Videos bring the job description candidates never read, to life.”

Candidates “Press the Apply” Button with Employer-Generated Video

Employer branding and talent acquisition leaders agree that convincing qualified, perfectly happy candidates to join your company takes more engagement and creativity than a great job description. Search engine technology solutions help some, but the next step is still a struggle—motivating the candidate to press the “apply” button.

During our conversation about video solutions, Aaron mentioned, “The less formal the video, the more qualified candidates we attracted—it’s kind of counter-intuitive but it works!”

Short and Sweet (Meet your Future Boss) Increases Candidate Engagement

Talent Acquisition leaders agree that less formal video is more effective, specifically when advertising a job–these videos last no longer than 30 seconds and are designed to motivate candidates to “press the apply” button.

On-site workshops for employer-generated video help speed up adoption and add a collaborative component when recruiters, hiring managers and co-workers work together to spark interest from qualified candidates.

Final Thoughts and Actions to Take

1. No one can relate to words–they relate to human beings–add a scalable human-centric solution to your social media/marketing toolbox.
2. Candidates are hungry to meet their future boss for jobs that are advertised using videos from hiring managers.

“Short and Sweet” 30-second videos motivate candidates to “press the apply” button for the job.

3. Provide “hands-on” training for recruiters that includes templates
4. Don’t wait and become one of those FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Recruiting Leaders. Team up with your hiring managers and jump on the employer-generated video train!

Authors

Lynn Miller

Lynn Miller is a community leader, coach, educator, and freelance blog writer. Her articles range from sourcing to outplacement and everything in between. With a passion for continuous learning, Lynn educates leaders on the most important small problems they want to solve in a rapidly changing business climate. After shedding light on these problems, Lynn provides actionable next steps leaders can apply immediately. Lynn lives in the Chicago area as a freelance writer and works in private and public education as a facilitator and coach. Her articles can be found on Medium, LinkedIn, and on RecruitingDaily.com.