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Recruiting Pro Tip: How to Overcome Candidate Communication Barriers

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Talent selection is a delicate, multifaceted process. No two candidates are alike, and each presents the recruiter with a unique set of circumstances to navigate.

The selection process is entirely predicated on the quality of communication. With this in mind, recruiters need to do their best to become familiar with the candidates and understand what they do or don’t bring to the table. This depth of insight helps recruiters make the most informed decisions.

It’s important to realize that a number of variables determine the quality of candidate communication. For example, communication channels, the setting, the candidates’ cultural background, psychological makeup, and so on. All these variables can create specific communication challenges and difficulties. Notably, this communication noise prevents recruiters from forming a complete picture of the candidates.

What are the most common communication barriers in the recruitment process?

As the working reality becomes increasingly globalized, it provides unparalleled access to the talent pool. On the flip side, it also creates new challenges for recruiters. Surely, the work of a recruiter has never been more complex. For one thing, there are a growing number of factors to take into consideration during the selection process.

It is virtually impossible to capture the full extent of the complexity of the present-day recruitment landscape. Instead, we will cover some of the most common candidate communication barriers in the selection process. We will examine examples and provide suggestions for overcoming these barriers.

The most common kinds of communication barriers are:

  • Cultural barriers
  • Physical barriers
  • Personality barriers

Let’s take a closer look at each of these areas.

Cultural communication barriers

Indeed, the way we interpret the words and actions of others is greatly shaped by our own experiences. Moreover, recruiters have historically been faced with a high degree of differences among candidates. In earlier times those differences would manifest themselves within a certain cultural context. With technology-enabled access to the global workforce, that is no longer the case.

Approaching candidates from different cultures from a “western” perspective can easily create communication barriers. Let’s take a look at some of their more common manifestations.

False assumptions

Obviously, every culture has its own norms of expression. Something as simple as a head nod can indicate agreement in one culture and disagreement in another. Because of this, a lack of understanding of these differences can easily lead recruiters to false interpretations.

For instance, making eye contact during an interview is interpreted as confidence by western cultural norms. Some other cultures consider it rude and impolite (Chinese, for instance). The same can be said for talking loudly.

As another example, personal questions that we find acceptable in our culture can be too invasive in others. Westerners find name-dropping and referencing influential personal ties to be inappropriate. Conversely, it may be perfectly normal in societies with a strong community aspect.

While it may be true that certain cultures are more explicit, emotional, and passionate in their expression, others may be more restrained and subdued.

These are only several examples from a vast array of cultural differences.

Language barriers

The English language has become a ubiquitous means of international communication. However, recruiters should not assume that everyone uses it at a high level. To be safe, it is best advised to simplify the language and avoid metaphors and other more abstract manners of expression. Generally, this ensures a high degree of clarity and mutual understanding with non-native English speakers.

Stereotypes

Recruiters should be particularly careful to avoid the trap of stereotyping. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we all fall prey to stereotyping. Making assumptions about others based on their fundamental characteristics is part of our nature. Often, humans need to categorize the world around us to interact with it in an efficient manner.

Without a doubt, stereotypes can seep into the way we communicate with others. This creates difficulties stemming from false assumptions. Stereotypes lead us to believe that a person from a certain group will behave in a certain manner. Candidates can easily (and often correctly) interpret stereotyping as an offense.

How to overcome cultural communication barriers

It all starts with understanding and respect.

The more we are familiar with other cultures, the easier it becomes to navigate and interpret them properly. Recruiters should understand the candidate’s fundamental cultural norms and desirable patterns of behavior.

With language, it is all about finding common ground and adjusting our vocabulary to ensure that we are clearly understood.

Stereotypes are more difficult to overcome, as they are often deeply ingrained into our being. Recruiters should do their best to avoid making assumptions beforehand. They must approach all candidates as individuals, removed from any group context. It’s all about their qualifications, not any group labels.

Physical communication barriers

This category refers to the physical setting of the selection process and the candidate communication obstacles it may present.

Candidate interviews take place either in a shared physical space or online. Both come with their own sets of potential obstacles that warrant closer inspection.

In-person interview

The main physical obstacle in an in-person scenario is discomfort. Generally, interviewees always experience a certain degree of anxiety and it is up to the recruiter to make them feel more relaxed and comfortable.

Here are a number of steps recruiters can take to prepare the interview setting and make it more comfortable for the candidate.

  • Find a space that is free from interruptions and distractions such as background noises.
  • Show the candidate the restroom location and allow them to use it.
  • Offer the candidate a hot or cold beverage.
  • Have any other participants in the interview in place to avoid delays.
  • Give the candidate a tour of the office (walking can have a calming effect).
  • Have water and glasses available during the interview.

Online interview

Holding an interview in a virtual setting eliminates many challenges of in-person interviews. It also creates new ones. Basically, the formal goal is to eliminate distractions and allow both parties to focus on the conversation.

Certainly, technology can be unpredictable. The number of tools we use to communicate nowadays creates a situation where things can easily go wrong. However, solid preparation can minimize a lot of these risks. Here are some tried and tested practices for conducting online interviews:

  • Planning and scheduling: Clearly communicate the course of the process. Schedule the interview well in advance. In addition, inform the candidate about the communication platform and check whether they can use it. Inform them about any other participants. In short, make sure you cover every relevant detail in advance.
  • Technology: Test your equipment (camera, microphone, headphones, computer, Internet connection, etc.). Don’t forget software (interview platform, login data). Also, arrange a backup option (different platform or a phone call) in case something goes wrong.
  • Distractions: Ensure no interruptions. First, turn off ringtones and alarms. Minimize background noises. Prepare all necessary items to avoid getting up or shifting around.
  • Voice and gestures: Pay greater attention to your tone of voice and facial expressions. Also, show engagement with the conversation. Account for any streaming delays by making brief pauses after sentences. Try to look at the camera, not the screen.

Personality communication barriers

Candidate personality can create a variety of communication barriers. In this section, we will examine some of the most common situations.

The silent candidate

Some candidates are not very talkative. It can be a case of nerves, lack of proper answers, and many other reasons. Usually, recruiters can attempt to overcome the lack of input by:

  • Asking additional questions
  • Hinting at a longer answer (“Give me a more detailed overview of…” or “Take a few minutes to tell…”)
  • Allowing them to come back to the question at a later point
  • Being direct (“Can you be more specific about…”)

The chatty candidate

Some interviewees tend to give long and winded or generalized answers that often meander away from the question. Because of this, recruiters can choose to write it down as general chattiness. It can also be an indication of nerves or the lack of a proper answer. To keep the interview on track and get the answers they seek, recruiters should:

  • Ask specific questions
  • Summarize the key points of an answer
  • Hint at a preferred shorter answer (“Can you briefly clarify…”)

If none of this works, recruiters should embrace a more authoritative approach by:

  • Being direct and letting the candidate know that they’re not answering the question
  • Interrupting the answer to get back on track
  • Referring to time constraints and reminding the candidate of limited interview time

The nervy candidate

Sometimes, despite the recruiter’s best efforts to relax them, candidates cannot fully reign in their anxiety. Unfortunately, there is only so much a recruiter can do to alleviate the situation, and these are some of the steps they can attempt:

  • Display a relaxed state.
  • Acknowledge the candidate’s nerves without making a big deal about it. Letting them know that it is OK to be nervous can help.
  • Engage in small talk (weather, journey to the interview, etc.) to try to relax the candidate.
  • Offer refreshments.
  • Be patient, make eye contact, and utilize supportive and encouraging gestures and expressions.

Wrapping up

Attracting and managing a globalized talent pool is becoming more and more complex. Thus, recruiters must be more knowledgeable and adaptable than ever before when it comes to candidate communication. Also, communication barriers are multiplying in a fast-evolving world. However, recruiters can still overcome them with a fundamentally astute approach to their work. This includes being prepared, being respectful, and having an open mind.

Designing Hiring Infrastructure to Withstand Employment Litigation Threats

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In my experience, one of the biggest HR investments aside from payroll tends to be in performance management. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, a poorly performing employee can be a significant drain on a company’s productivity and resources.

It follows, then, that a significant amount of time and money would be spent ensuring underperformers improve. The alternative, after all, would be undergoing a lengthy process of disciplinary measures before letting employees go. Then restarting a costly and time-consuming hiring process.

This makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is that there is little investment in preventing poor hiring decisions in the first place. In cases where performance management investment is high, hiring is treated almost as an afterthought.

Instead of investing in scientifically designed and validated selection tools, some employers use older and less accurate hiring methods, like unstructured interviews and instinct. Beyond failing to guarantee a quality hire, this also puts companies at risk of litigation for discrimination. Despite this risk, many companies stick with what they know rather than invest in scientifically-backed hiring methods.

Why? In many cases, it comes down to cost. If employers are skeptical about the effectiveness of data-driven pre-employment tests, then they’re likely to balk at the added upfront costs that can accompany them. Instead, they’ll opt to continue with business as usual.

Another Way to Look at Hiring

This mindset fails to look at the big picture. In reality, smarter hiring practices pay for themselves many times over. Quality pre-employment assessments and other strategic hiring tools can cut costs associated with poor performance, reduce the amount of training necessary for new employees, increase a company’s overall productivity, and shield businesses against employment litigation.

This last point is worth emphasizing because a poorly structured hiring infrastructure leaves companies vulnerable to employment litigation threats. Both the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures and existing court precedents lay out a clear road map for employers to follow if they want to prevent discrimination and avoid employment litigation. But to do so, companies need to develop a validated hiring process that focuses on requirements directly relevant to the job. This is only possible through hiring methods based on in-depth job analyses and objective assessments.

Protecting Yourself From Employment Litigation Threats

Companies should implement test development and validation services that can stand up to scrutiny and inform quality, holistic, and equitable hiring. By doing so, they prioritize hiring for excellence and create a pre-employment process that can handle any potential employment litigation.

With that in mind, here are four strategies to help employers improve their hiring practices and ensure they stay firmly on the right side of employment law.

1. Base your selection on a job analysis.

To ensure you’re making objective hiring decisions, define the qualifications that are necessary for a candidate to perform a job well. This requires an in-depth job analysis.

An accurate job analysis combines job observations with the insights of subject matter experts to identify which tasks, knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are critical for a position. From there, you can create a pre-employment process that will stand up to scrutiny.

Don’t forget to document every step of the test development and validation process—especially that of job analysis. This will provide you with the receipts necessary to prove the objectivity of your hiring decisions.

2. Create a validation report.

When making hiring decisions, every aspect of your decision-making should be tied directly to a critical KSA. Even more importantly, you’ll need to be able to provide evidence of this connection.

Create a validation report documenting the entire pre-employment development process, including who was involved and the data that served as the foundation of your hiring decisions.

3. Perform regular analysis of your selection tools.

No pre-employment test is going to be bulletproof, nor will any test be immune to the passage of time. That’s why it’s so important to analyze your pre-employment assessments regularly. The goal should be to determine whether any aspect of the process results in group performance differences, specifically with regard to gender or ethnicity.

If you see a clear adverse impact for one particular group, dig deeper to determine why that is. You’ll also want to uncover how to reduce this impact without compromising the overall validity of your testing. In this way, you can remove any inadvertent bias into your test development and validation process.

4. Prioritize assessments over intuition.

Even with a validated, data-backed pre-employment process, there’s always a chance that the human element of hiring can throw a wrench in the works. Too often, I’ve seen hiring managers decide that personal intuition is more accurate than the high-quality assessments.

Overruling data-driven results is a good way to open yourself up to charges of favoritism or discrimination. While there is always some room for personal opinion—especially when deciding between equally qualified candidates—the best way to ensure the integrity of the process is to focus on data.

Hiring shouldn’t be a guessing game. Companies everywhere now have access to the data and technology necessary for making smart hiring decisions every time. These decisions will ensure a better hiring track record and help companies reduce (or eliminate) bias or subjectivity in the hiring process.

The Future of Recruiting

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Remember the olden days when potential candidates applied to a handful of jobs online and waited for a response? Remember in the stone ages when prospective hires mailed out paper copies of resumes and awaited a phone call or a letter? Well, according to an SHRM survey of over 1,500 talent acquisition professionals from 28 countries, COVID-19 accelerated a shift toward digital-first recruiting.

EBI has reported that the average corporate listing receives 100 to 250 resumes. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job seekers who received an interview only have a 36.89% chance of receiving an offer. They apply to jobs widely in a ‘spray and pray’ mentality. For recruiters, the challenge is no longer finding applicants but rather finding the right people in this barrage of resumes. And with virtual hiring likely being here to stay, perhaps it’s time recruiting adapted for today’s hiring culture.

Our Guest: Ben Green, Hirect

On the latest #WorkTrends podcast, I spoke with Ben Green, PR Manager for Hirect. With over a decade of experience in journalism, Ben now plays a key role for Hirect. A free, mobile chat-based hiring platform that instantly connects startups, founders, CEOs, and hiring managers with candidates interested in the growing startup sector.

When asked about virtual recruiting in the COVID era and the future of recruiting, Ben suggests that the virtual trend might be here to stay.

“With more remote work and work from home flexibility, they (recruiters) can attract talent from pretty much anywhere and connect with them instantly,” Ben says. “Everything can really be done online, uninterrupted, and I believe it’s the future of work and recruiting moving forward.”

For those with less time and resources to meet every candidate in person, virtual recruiting also makes the job much easier. But with so many different recruiting technologies out there, how can organizations choose the right one for them?

“There’s definitely several factors to consider,” Ben explains. “Tech versus non-tech, seniority, the position, scale, size of your team. All these things will determine what your budget is and what the tool ROI can be as well.”

The Big Benefits of Virtual Recruiting  

There’s a lot of talk about bias right now. How does virtual recruiting help recruiters and hiring managers eliminate this from the hiring process?

“Ideally, the focus should always be primarily on candidates’ skills and experience, but really the true way to eliminate bias is through blind resume screens,” Ben says. “AI can certainly help with reading or grading applicants without taking into consideration a lot of the personal details and information.”

Beyond helping to eliminate bias, Ben feels that integrating technology and AI in recruiting has vast potential. It benefits both recruiters and job seekers, particularly from a filtering, searching, and matching standpoint.

“With the AI matching algorithms that we have at Hirect, the candidate pool can be narrowed down almost instantaneously based on any number of factors,” Ben explains. “For candidates, AI can help them wade through a lot of the irrelevant posts… and find ones that match their specific or unique criteria.”

But Ben is quick to point out that you can’t rely on AI alone to find the right applicants. Making sure you have a really granular job description and an interview process that encompasses certain skills is also key. And these often require a human touch – something Ben believes there will always be a need for.

“There’s really an art to the close,” Ben says. “Trying to relay a founder or a CEO’s passion or vision to really inspire a candidate to join a young business or a startup… That just can’t be replicated through technology.”

I hope you enjoy this #WorkTrends podcast, sponsored by Hirect. In case you missed it, you can listen to the podcast here. You can learn more about the future of recruiting by reaching out to Ben Green on LinkedIn.

9 Tips to Improve Your Careers Page and Attract Talent

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In today’s competitive job market, it is more important than ever to stand out from the crowd. Your careers page is one of your most valuable marketing tools for attracting qualified candidates. This is crucial for finding the right people to work with you.

Research shows that a good careers page can have a dramatic impact on how many applicants apply for jobs.

In addition, it also affects what positions they apply for, and whether or not they accept offers when offered.

If you are currently dealing with a talent shortage and don’t have an optimized page, it’s time to change that.

Here are nine tips for making sure your career page stands up against the competition.

1. Add a video to your careers page.

A well-produced video is more memorable than any other type of content and can help you attract more applicants. You’ll also be able to increase conversion rates. So grab your camera and start shooting.

The video only needs to be a few minutes long, but it should highlight what makes your team unique. You can also opt for pre-recorded video content if you don’t have the resources to create new footage. This can include a video from an internal conference or event.

2. Include a testimonial from an employee who has been promoted in the past year.

Include a testimonial from someone who is currently in the role you’re hiring for, or has recently moved up into a new position.

You can also do this by sharing your company’s top-performers list and showing happy employees talking about their successes. You could even have them speaking about their experience at the company. This is a great way of demonstrating that your company is a great place to work at. And more importantly, you don’t even have to say it. Obviously, this makes a much more powerful statement.

Even if your company is totally remote, you could use video conferencing platforms to interview an employee. This is a great way to get him/her to share their experience working with your company.

3. Update your company’s mission statement with words that are relevant for today’s job market.

Your company’s mission statement may be short and sweet, but it can still have a huge impact on how your employees behave.

If you want to attract top talent, specify what kind of role would help them reach their goals and make sure the words you use are relevant for today’s job market. Words like “collaborative,” “growth,” “innovation,” and “team player” are important. They tend to get more clicks in applicant tracking systems than terms that aren’t as engaging or popular, like “responsible.”

You should also consider including values in your mission statement if they’re appropriate. For example, the value of teamwork comes to mind. Don’t stray away from being authentic to your company culture.

In a post-pandemic workplace, being clear on what your company is all about is important. It makes it easier to onboard new staff effectively and keep them at your company for longer.

4. Showcase the diversity of people at your company and how they work together to accomplish goals.

There’s been a lot of talks recently about diversity at work. How can you show the world that your company is inclusive and highlights different backgrounds coming together to achieve success?

This is a great way to attract applicants whose skills are outside the box. It also shows you as having experience in areas where you’re currently staffing gaps. You might also consider highlighting interns. They tend to be more active on social media than full-time employees and will help spread the word.

5. Create a career opportunities page with open positions, descriptions, qualifications, and application instructions.

If you have open job positions, make sure they are fully fleshed out on your careers page. Also, include a link to the full job description. Your career opportunities should also include application information. For example, include how many positions will be available and when the applications are due.

Applicants who feel like there aren’t enough options or their applications would not be considered might seek a job elsewhere. If you are just starting an online business being clear and setting the right expectations is key to success. This also applies if you have a physical business that’s been running for years.

6. Share content on social media channels.

Online platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to post your careers page content. This is a great way to spread the word and encourage maximum user engagement.

You can also use your social media channels to promote diversity at your company and attract a wider range of applicants. This can be done while being transparent about what the benefits are when working at your company.

7. List educational requirements with other hard skills on job descriptions.

There’s no need to hire an A+ developer if there aren’t any openings that require those skills.

Instead, list educational requirements with other “hard” skills under “requirements” or “job description” categories. This allows you to highlight what skills the best candidate would have. The opposite would be to show that all the requirements are checked off which isn’t always beneficial.

8. Include salary information on job descriptions and in the description section of the career opportunities page.

Don’t forget to include some compensation details. If you’re hiring for a specific position, there’s no need to list “competitive salary.” Neither is a link to benefits needed since those are already included. It is important to include information about salary ranges on your careers page. This allows candidates to get an idea of what they might make if they apply for your open positions.

9. Speak to potential employees about the company culture and current employees.

When applicants are looking for jobs, they want to know what it’s like to work at your company. However, it isn’t always easy to find out from a website.

Find out if there’s someone at your company who can speak about their experiences working there. Ask your existing staff to post on social media and share with others what makes them happy at work.

You might even consider creating an “About” page that includes specific information. This can include how long your team has been together. Moreover, you can speak about what people do outside of work. It’s also a great idea to include insights into the company culture. Finally, share information about the office or city they work in.

If you focus on recruiting your employees online, all of the above tips make it easier to humanize the digital hiring experience in this day and age.

Conclusion

If there is an opportunity to highlight the top reasons why someone would choose to work within your company, do it. For instance, inclusivity adds a great deal of value to the work culture and team spirit in general. That is worth spreading the word about. The more diverse your workforce is, the better your company will be.

On top of this, employees are likely to have a higher vested interest when specific conditions are met. These include working for companies that have shared what their core values are. It’s also important to try to make strides toward achieving them.

You can always pursue new avenues for improvement on your career page as well. These are just some suggestions we think would help attract candidates with unique skill sets.

3 Key Steps to Creating a Great Candidate Experience

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The world of recruitment has undergone a power shift in the last decade. With job openings at a record high and alarming talent shortages in some industries, candidates have more decision power than ever before. They can afford to be more selective. As a result, businesses are enhancing their hiring strategies to reach top talent, and candidate experience has become the buzzword of the hour in recruitment circles.

There are three steps you must follow to create a great candidate experience. But first, let’s get down to basics and define what candidate experience is.

What is candidate experience?

Candidate experience refers to the perception a job seeker has about a prospective employer. It encompasses all touchpoints between job seekers and organizations, from the initial point of contact all the way to the job offer acceptance. The goal is for candidates to feel appreciated and respected throughout the whole process.

Why is candidate experience important?

A negative experience in which the candidate feels unheard, uninformed, or upset can hurt your recruitment success and reflect badly on your company as a whole. A positive candidate experience, on the other hand, can be beneficial in many ways. It helps to:

  • Secure top talent
  • Shape your employer branding
  • Increase your brand awareness
  • Give you an edge over the competition
  • Attract more candidates
  • Draw in more customers
  • Improve the quality of hires

With all that in mind, here are three steps to a great candidate experience.

1. Make your employer brand shine online.

Have you ever heard the phrase: “Treat candidates as you would treat your customers?” This adage has never been truer. In today’s job market, it’s crucial for you to create a good reputation for your company, not only as a provider of goods or services but also as an excellent place to work. You want people who come across your online content to regard you as a great potential employer. To do this, consider the following.

Social media

Social media could be the first place a potential future employee finds out about your company. So use your social pages strategically. Find out which platforms are most used by your target audience and focus your effort on these platforms. Building an online presence on social media takes time and effort, but it can greatly enhance the way a candidate perceives you as an employer.

Careers page

Visitors coming to your career page want to know what your openings are and what it’s like to work for you. Don’t hesitate to include authentic pictures of your current employees with quotes about the company and its culture. You can also post fun pictures of recent team bonding activities, for example.

Advertisements

You already advertise specific jobs in your postings, but you can also run broader “brand awareness” ads for your hiring needs. These ads serve not to fill a certain spot but to showcase your employer brand and enhance your reputation as a place to work. Talent can be scarce nowadays, and you want to be a job seeker’s first choice. So don’t hesitate to be creative in your hiring methods, for example, by trying out a video ad!

2. Simplify your application process.

Today’s Internet users expect web pages to be user-friendly. They want to be able to find what they want quickly, with the least clicks possible. This applies to younger generations of users but also older ones. So, whoever your ideal candidate is, make sure your whole application process is as smooth as possible. To ensure that happens, consider the following:

Mobile

This is crucial in 2021. Numbers taken from international job platform Talent.com’s internal database show that over 70 percent of the site traffic comes from mobile devices. Since the mobile trend shows no sign of abating, it’s up to you to adapt your application process to modern job seekers’ desires and habits. This means making sure your job postings are accessible through mobile and even optimized for mobile.

Quick application

Put yourself in a job seeker’s shoes and review your current application process. Are there any bugs or malfunctions? Are there redundant steps that could be removed? If so, work on your application process to make it as user-friendly as possible. To achieve this, you could automate certain elements or work with a job platform that offers on-site quick applications.

Jobs postings

In the war for talent, you want to catch the best candidates before your competition. In this context, your job postings can’t be just a list of requirements. They must also encourage people to apply and join your team. Highlight what’s in it for them and why they should pick you. Present your company culture, benefits, and perks. You want to make your job postings as appealing as possible to attract talent.

3. Establish a constant, clear, and fluid communication process with candidates.

Communication is key. And during the applicant process, communication can take many forms. In order to create a great candidate experience, it’s important for recruiters to create functioning communication channels and to have great communication habits. Here’s how:

Honesty

Be honest and transparent before, during, and after interviews. You want to establish an environment of authenticity. When candidates see that you are honest with them, they are likely to be honest with you. This saves time, builds your credibility, and contributes to the development of authentic relationships.

Clarity

Candidates want to be kept in the loop. They want to know if they’ve made it to the next round of interviews, ideally quickly. Therefore, it’s important for you to be responsive and candidate journey map with your candidates. Make sure candidates know what to prepare, how long each step of the process will be, and when they can expect to hear from you.

Tact

Tactful rejection contributes to a positive candidate experience. Not every qualified applicant can be chosen, and it’s your job to communicate your selection in a respectful manner. You can find free rejection letter templates online and adapt them to your needs. You can even give rejected candidates constructive criticism, which could make them more likely to re-apply in the future.

Conclusion

Providing a great candidate experience means making your employer brand shine online, simplifying your application process, and establishing a constant, clear, and fluid communication process with candidates. To keep track of candidates, don’t hesitate to use an applicant tracking system (ATS) or utilize a candidate journey map. It can help you understand your candidates’ states of mind and the challenges they face at each stage of the journey.

How HR Professionals Can Provide Better Support to Single Parents

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A growing number of single parents make up today’s workforce. Besides the challenges of having adequate childcare, these employees are concerned with needs that impact their work time, including sick leave, unexpected school closures, and other emergencies. These pressures can distract them, affecting both productivity and work quality.

To address this issue, HR professionals should take measures to support these employees. Doing so will improve retention while boosting the reputation of your company.

Growing Numbers of Single Parents in The Workforce

According to a 2019 survey by Pew Research, 23 percent of children under age 18 are raised by a single parent. You likely have one or even several single parents in your firm.

HR professionals need to keep in mind that offering help to single parents does not just benefit the employees. It’s also a critical component of employee retention. In a 2020 survey of 1,500 working parents, 40 percent said they were considering resigning in order to better care for their children.

Providing adequate support for the needs of single parents is a must to ensure that your company remains competitive. Here are some options to consider.

Child Care Options

One option that some HR departments can consider is supporting the number one need of these workers—child care services. While some companies can provide child care on-premises, that is not a reality for most companies.

However, it may be possible to partner with a nearby child care facility and provide a discount if you have enough employees with this need. Another option is to subsidize some or all of your employees’ child care costs. However, this may impact the salaries you can offer.

Provide a Variety of Plans

Rather than paying for child care, consider offering your employees a flexible spending account. This allows employees to put aside funds before taxes to save money. Funds can be put towards child care or other needs they may have for their families.

Working parents also need to provide their families with quality health care. Be sure to offer a variety of options for families to help them choose a health plan that fits their needs and budget. HMOs, PPOs, and POSs are the most popular options depending on your budget.

Offer Flexible Work Options

A popular post-pandemic work trend today is continuing to offer remote work. While many employees are heading back to the office, others are opting to remain home. Remote workers may be more productive than those in the office. And that can eliminate the high cost of child care.

Flexible work options do not have to be fully remote. You can offer employees a variety of options:

  • Flexible start times
  • One day out of the office
  • Half days
  • Fully remote except for meetings and on-site required days
  • Job sharing

You must develop policies for remote work days or times. For example, set standard policies for video conferencing attendance, such as no outside noise, proper dress code, and professional-looking backgrounds.

Training in Budgeting and Finances

Another way to support employees who are single parents is to offer training in budgeting and finances. These workshops can benefit your entire staff since COVID-19 had a tremendous financial impact on many people.

Helping your team to become financially literate reduces their stress while improving their loyalty to the company. Additionally, financial wellness programs are attractive perks that improve the value of your company.

Some of the topics you can cover include:

  • Budgeting 101
  • Homebuying tips
  • Boosting your credit score
  • Training on retirement benefits that match what you offer them

It’s important that your department lays out the details of any plans and options you choose to offer, both in the employee handbook and to attract new talent. Discuss these with the legal department and IT to avoid any concerns that may come up, such as data security.

Preventing Employee Burnout

Employee burnout is a real issue, particularly for single parents who work full time. Fully remote staffers can suffer fatigue from too many Zoom calls or working from home. Some parents prefer to go into the office so they can better appreciate their families.

How can you help your remote employees to avoid these issues? First of all, avoid scheduling wall-to-wall zoom meetings. Limit the number you have per day, making sure to invite only those who need to be there for meetings of lesser importance.

Support your employees by checking in with them from time to time. Use emails, surveys, and even phone calls. You can also create remote co-working sessions so employees at home don’t feel isolated the whole day.

Finally, edify your remote employees. Create online team-building activities, offer virtual mentorship programs, and consider providing professional development options that can be accessed online.

Addressing the needs of working parents is the responsibility of every HR professional. Offer the right mix of options to help them to thrive in the workplace. This will help your company stand out as a superior employment choice for single-parent professionals.

 

How Recruitment Marketing Strategy Can Improve Candidate Experience

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How vital is candidate experience to a company’s recruitment marketing strategy? Look no further than a Talent Board study that listed the top three reasons candidates end the application process: disrespect of time (37 percent), poor recruiter rapport (32 percent), and length of the hiring process (29 percent).

Those numbers point to how pivotal creating a positive candidate experience is in attracting qualified, top-tier applicants. Candidates these days can be highly selective, exiting the talent funnel at the first sign of trouble. A customized, memorable experience keeps companies competitive and their talent pipelines brimming. Candidate experience should be a critical element of marketing your company and strengthening brand perception.

The candidate experience in recruiting should provide a picture of not only the duties and responsibilities of a role but also the culture, mission, and values of an organization. It should answer common questions: “What happens after I apply?” “When will I hear back?” “How many steps are involved in the hiring process?” It should set expectations and provide a realistic preview of how candidates move from one phase to the next in the hiring process.

A thoughtful, transparent, and candidate-friendly application experience can be a valuable part of any company’s marketing strategy. Finding the tools and tactics to round that approach into form is essential.

Creating a Positive Candidate Experience With Marketing

Even when you think you’ve perfected your candidate experience, perception doesn’t always match reality. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that 49 percent of candidates in high-demand fields turn down job offers due to a poor experience as an applicant.

Employing the right recruitment marketing strategies ensures everyone knows what to expect from the start. These tactics reduce any uncertainty or confusion during the critical stages of the candidate journey where talent can easily be lost. The right candidate marketing strategies also allow you to showcase why someone should choose your organization over other options.

You always want to build a foundation of trust with candidates. That’s what happens when you focus your marketing efforts on candidate experience. You develop a bond with those “right fit” candidates as they learn who you are as a business and why your company is the right fit for them.

How to Improve the Candidate Experience During Recruitment

Given all of this information, it’s natural to wonder how you can go about creating a positive candidate experience that will resonate with top-notch talent. Here are six places to start.

1. Spotlight the process in a variety of ways.

Not everyone consumes information the same way. And with that comes the need to vary the delivery format of essential information during the hiring process.

Besides telling candidates what to expect—both in the recruitment process and while on the job—consider incorporating educational content such as blog posts, infographics, and videos into your recruitment marketing strategy. A human-interest piece from an applicant’s perspective can also help pique the interest of potential hires and create a more marketable candidate experience.

Our company regularly features this type of content in our digital ads and on social media, educating while driving talent to our website.

2. Keep communication consistent during the process.

Clear and regular communication is essential to creating a positive candidate experience. As often as possible, keep talent informed on all subsequent steps and provide a rough estimate of the timing.

Let candidates currently in the queue know when to expect a response and consider communicating all pertinent information across different mediums. Email is an obvious choice, but you might also employ automated messaging, chatbots, and text messaging to be even more responsive while supporting the variety of communication preferences modern candidates have.

Many companies now use automated communication platforms, 24/7 live chat support, and help desk ticketing systems to meet the urgency people often feel during the application process.

3. Humanize the experience.

As the world gets more automated, it’s easy to lose that human element in our day-to-day interactions. Even when talent prefers to handle everything digitally, there are still opportunities for warmth and humanity within the candidate experience during recruitment.

Automation and other recruitment technology shouldn’t be reserved for only rare occasions, though. You can’t beat the speed and immediacy it affords your candidate engagement activities. But you still must ensure all messaging and visuals support your brand and effectively convey the culture candidates will be joining while building a relationship with your candidates. Each touchpoint is an opportunity to strengthen the foundation.

4. Leverage testimonials.

People trust people more than brands. If employee testimonials aren’t already part of your recruitment marketing strategy, you’re missing an opportunity to connect with job seekers on a more impactful level.

Share employee experiences with candidates, connect them with people on the floor, and never forget to capture feedback on the entire recruitment process to improve your candidate engagement strategies continually. You’ll never be able to spot any gaps if you fail to ask for this valuable feedback.

5. Customize the candidate journey.

Candidates are consumers. And like consumers, they want customized experiences during the recruitment process.

Make sure you have a solid candidate engagement platform. This allows you to tailor the experience to suit each person’s preferences. At the very least, choose recruitment technology that offers candidates a choice in the type and frequency of communication on job applications as well as career opportunities that fit specific criteria. The move will help in personalizing interactions and creating a positive candidate experience.

6. Align the candidate and employee experience.

The candidate experience should be a window into the employee experience. If one falls short, you’re doing a disservice to all parties involved—including your business.

Make sure talent truly experiences what it would be like to be an employee. We go as far as providing virtual reality job previews for many of our positions. This ensures candidates feel confident they know what to expect on day one. Conversely, make sure the employee experience matches all the pomp and circumstance of the candidate experience in the recruitment process.

Otherwise, people won’t stay. They’ll likely also spread the word, damaging your reputation with other potential recruits. Own all facets of your business and see it through from start to finish.

The importance of candidate engagement can’t be overstated. It requires time and attention to get it right. Even then, you might miss the mark a time or two. As long as you set clear expectations early in the process, stay in regular contact with candidates, and never lose the human side of your organization, you’re moving in the right direction.

A Recruiting Must-Know: How to Write a Candidate Follow-Up Email

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Writing the right follow-up email is an art. A good follow-up email to your candidates after an interview can do wonders for your recruiting efforts, and even for the candidate you end up hiring.

Maintaining good communication with your candidates ensures they remain engaged and gives them the respect and appreciation they deserve after setting aside time to sit with you. However, not all recruiters have the time to sit down and spend time deciding what to write in a candidate follow-up email.

It’s important to know the anatomy of a good candidate follow-up email so you can write your own follow-up templates. Below you’ll find pre-written examples.

Why Should You Care About Candidate Follow-Up Emails?

Although many recruiters tend to think about candidate follow-up emails as an optional matter, the reality is rather different.

Candidate follow-up emails allow you to establish an open channel of communication with your candidates. It lets them know that your company appreciates their time.

Job interviews are pretty stressful to many, so follow-up emails, even just to let them know you appreciated their time, can go a long way. They allow you to begin on the right foot with whoever you end up hiring and help you leave doors open in the future for the candidates that don’t make it.

According to Glassdoor, 74 percent of candidates read employee reviews from companies before giving their opinion. Candidate follow-up emails help you capture good talent from the beginning, attracting talent instead of hunting for it.

Plus, since over 50 percent of companies expect the candidate to follow up after an interview, taking a proactive approach can help you land better talent.

In essence, follow-up emails help you and the candidate communicate openly, and establish a professional relationship.

Anatomy of an Ideal Candidate Follow-Up Email After an Interview

Here’s what the ideal candidate follow-up email looks like:

Subject Line

The subject line gives your readers a reason to open your email. Although your candidates will likely be eager to open any email coming from you, the subject line helps you establish the tone and gives them a preview of what’s to come.

Here are some examples:

  • Thank you!
  • Thank you for your time this morning/afternoon
  • Follow-up on your [DATE] interview
  • About the [position title] interview
  • Great talk yesterday!

To avoid confusing your reader, tell in the subject line the purpose of the email whenever possible.

You can, for instance, write “Thank you!” in the subject line if you’re not expecting anything of them. Like when you’re thanking them for taking the chance to speak with you or when the job has been given to someone else.

Whatever you end up writing, keep it formal and concise.

Intro

We rarely go immediately to the point in the business world. Instead, you can use the intro to thank them for their time or follow up with something that came up during the interview.

It’s always best to mention your candidates by name and mention the job position they interviewed for.

Body

Now, you can finally deliver on your subject line.

When writing the body of the article, it’s always better to keep it short. Write a body of about 100 words, and break down sentences to make it easier to read. Instead of offering as much information as possible, give them only the information they need to know and go to the point.

However, you can still make it personal by adding a few extra lines on top of your template. This works incredibly well when you’re especially keen on a particular candidate, and want to keep them engaged.

To make your emails even more effective, look through your past email exchanges with other candidates in your email provider or HR software tool and write down the main asking points. Then, you can organically weave the answers into the body of your email and make sure you’re giving the candidate the information they need.

Finally, check on your interview notes before sending an email to make sure the candidate didn’t ask for a file or a piece of information beforehand.

Closing

Now, it’s time to end the email on a positive note. You’ll, again, want to keep it simple, professional, and friendly.

Here are a few ideas:

  • Thanks again,
  • Best,
  • You’ll be hearing from me soon!
  • Let’s stay in touch!
  • Let me know if you have any other questions.

You may also want to take this chance to encourage them to contact you if their circumstances change, to let them know more about the onboarding process, or to soften a rejection with the candidates who weren’t chosen.

After adding your signature, you can use a “P.S.” to quickly add onto a ready-made template some extra information without worrying about fitting it into the body and flow of the email. You can even add a personalized signature to your closing to make it more personal.

Great Examples of Candidate Follow-Up Emails After an Interview

Here are a few examples of follow-up emails to get you started:

Simple Post-Interview Follow Up Email

Here’s a simple template to thank the candidate right after the interview and before you’ve made any final choices:

Hi [CANDIDATE NAME],

I just wanted to thank you for giving us a chance earlier today/yesterday to get to know you better and talk about the [JOB TITLE] opening.

I was impressed with your experience and, although we haven’t made any decisions yet, I was glad to see that [COMPANY] and you share some of the same values. We’re still conducting interviews until [DATE]. After that, you can expect to hear back from us before the [DATE].

Thanks again, it was great meeting you.

[SIGNATURE]

This simple follow-up email is an excellent template for your immediate follow-ups. In less than 100 words, the email gets to the point while keeping the tone friendly and professional.

You can even use this template to automate responses and add a simple “P.S.” at the bottom when you need to add something else in any of them.

Job Rejection Template

Here’s a simple template to let your candidates know you won’t be considered for the job position:

Hi [CANDIDATE NAME],

Thank you for giving us a chance earlier today/yesterday to get to know you better and talk about the [JOB TITLE] opening.

Unfortunately, the hiring team will be moving forward with other candidates.

At the moment, we’re looking to hire someone with a different business profile. However, I would love to keep your resume on our records to let you know as soon as we have a job opening that fits your profile.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any doubts or feedback for me or [COMPANY NAME].

Thank you again for your time. I enjoyed getting to know you and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

[SIGNATURE]

This template lets you inform your candidate about your decision of not hiring them in a tactful and streamlined way. The rejection is softened by talking about the candidate’s profile instead of them, and the open invitation for feedback and questions may give you valuable data on your hiring process.

Finally, the closing lets you end on a positive note, wishing them well and leaving the doors open if you reencounter them.

Job Offer Template

Here’s a simple template to offer the candidate a job:

Hi [CANDIDATE NAME],

I want to thank you for giving us a chance earlier today/yesterday to get to know you better and talk about the [JOB TITLE] opening.

The team enjoyed meeting you and, after finishing our interviews, we’d like to offer you the role of [JOB TITLE] at [COMPANY]. This is a [TEMP/FULL-TIME/PART-TIME] position in the [DEPARTMENT] at [COMPANY], with a [MONTHLY/ANNUAL/YEARLY] salary of [$X] and [BENEFITS].

I’m sure you’ll fit right in with the rest of the team, and we’re excited to have you with us if you decide to accept the offer. Please find the list of documents attached to this email to finalize your hiring process.

We need your documents and signatures by [DATE], with [DATE] as your expected start date.

We’re excited to introduce you to the team and start working together.

Best,

[NAME]

When you’re offering someone a job, even if it’s something as obscure as an online job for a college student, it’s okay to flesh out more ideas and write a longer email. After all, the email should include all the information your candidate needs to decide whether or not to start working with your company.

Give your candidate clear timeframes, and make it clear when you expect to hear back from them to follow through with their application. Since you’re welcoming them into your team, you can start to transition to a less formal tone and more into the tone you have when dealing with your teammates.

Make sure you let them know you’re looking forward to working with them, and don’t forget to add any attachments before sending your email.

Conclusion

Not all of us can send a personalized note to every single one of our candidates. However, we can still show how much we appreciated their time with easily modifiable templates, cutting time, and establishing a clear channel of communication.

Streamline your follow-up process through the right recruiter tools, and automate your responses to keep up with all your prospects easily.

HR Strategy: How to Recruit and Retain Top Talent

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Hiring and keeping top talent is a challenge for many companies.

The problem is that not enough companies are taking the necessary steps to recruit and retain top talent. If your company wants to grow, you need to take action now.

Why is culture important?

Studies show that company culture makes a big difference when you want to recruit and retain top talent.

People tend to work harder in a positive environment with coworkers they enjoy working with. Additionally, a friendly office culture will make employees feel comfortable enough to approach management when there are problems. That’s why it’s so important that companies looking to grow focus on creating an enjoyable atmosphere for workers.

How do you build an enviable culture?

Think about all of the things you can do to market your company and promote a positive culture. This can take many forms, whether it’s having an excellent social media presence or offering contests for the community to participate in.

You also want to make sure that your company is open about its practices, including things like how you treat employees and what your benefits package entails.

Let’s go deeper into some of the factors that will allow you to recruit and retain top talent.

1. Organize job fairs/recruiting events.

The best way to attract talented employees is by attending job fairs and recruiting events hosted by local organizations. Make sure your staff knows about these upcoming events and that they have ample time to prepare.

By being present in all the right places, you also start building up your personal brand in the area you want to be best known for, which makes candidates think of you when they are on the lookout for a new job.

2. Provide interview feedback.

Different candidates have different strengths, and you must know how to leverage their talents. You want to make sure candidates feel welcome when they interview with your company, whether or not they receive an offer.

If a candidate is turned down for employment, then having feedback will help the candidate improve their interviewing skills in case there are future opportunities at your company. This should be included on job applications so you can better keep track of what weaknesses need improvement. If you do provide this information, make sure it is kept confidential.

3. Use online applications.

Believe it or not, many are still using paper applications when asking people to apply for a job. The fact is that most people don’t fill out applications anymore. They’re too busy to take the time to fill out paper applications on top of submitting their resume online. If you still use paper applications, then you are missing out on qualified applicants.

Make sure that hiring managers have the option to review resumes electronically instead of handling stacks of paper application packets every day.

How can you turn applicants into employees?

1. Offer competitive compensation packages.

If there’s one thing people look for when looking for jobs, it’s competitive compensation packages. We all want to know that we’re getting paid fairly for our work, which is why money and benefits are so important during the hiring process. Make sure you’re offering a competitive salary when hiring new employees and promoting current employees if you want to recruit and retain top talent.

2. Offer employee benefits.

If your company offers impressive employee benefits, then you’ll have an easier time recruiting quality candidates.

Some of the top benefits include health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, retirement plans, tuition reimbursement, remote work, and even other employee benefits.

3. Create targeted job ads.

Typically job ads attract people who are currently searching for jobs due to unemployment or underemployment–sometimes even through the help of a recruitment agency.

If you want to attract employees with a higher chance of staying on for the long term, target your hiring efforts by posting ads in places where your ideal prospects gather. For example, if you’re looking for programmers or engineers to work at your company, find out where they hang out online.

Maybe there’s a forum full of them discussing new trends in their fields, which makes it easy for you to post an ad there and get higher-quality applicants interested in what you’re offering.

How can you improve employee retention?

1. Invest in management training.

If your top management team is not properly qualified, then that could lead to an entirely new set of problems when it comes time to manage employees. Consider outsourcing management training so supervisors and directors have the tools they need to work with their teams effectively.

2. Support employee engagement.

If your employees feel engaged with the company, then they will be more likely to stay through difficult times and continue producing quality work. Consider making attendance at company-sponsored events a requirement when it comes to employee evaluations.

Alternatively, you can also incentivize your employees to attend and participate in these events by offering perks to those that do.

3. Address issues quickly and proactively.

It’s important to deal with issues quickly before they become a larger problem affecting everyone involved.

As soon as you notice an issue (and before it becomes white noise in your head), address it so that your team feels like they have someone on their side looking out for them.

4. Foster professional growth.

One of the best ways to improve employee retention is by fostering professional growth for your employees. Make sure you’re empowering them to learn new skills and that they have time to add unique value to the company.

Whether it’s giving them a chance to work on project management, promoting their business ideas, or pursue educational opportunities, you’ll find that these specific opportunities will keep your employees engaged and loyal for many years to come.

5. Create a sustainable mix of employees.

If you have a large number of unmotivated workers, then that could decrease productivity in those who are motivated.

If you have too small of a team where everyone has extensive experience working together, this could also cause morale issues in the future. When hiring, look for the right balance of passionate yet green people mixed with more senior and experienced people to make sure everyone is happy in their jobs.

This also provides opportunities to give mentorship roles to those that are more senior in their positions.

6. Be a role model.

Do you want your employees to be motivated? The best managers know that setting an example can help improve morale across the company.

If you lead by example, then your team will be more likely to follow suit and stay on board with your vision for the future.

Conclusion

It’s important to realize that employee retention starts with hiring the right people for each role. To retain and recruit top talent, you need to start by finding the right people for the job and creating an engaging work environment where they can succeed.

By following these tips, you’ll have a much better chance at improving employee retention and building an even stronger foundation for your company.

Four Ways to Overcome the Frontline Labor Shortage

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A record 10.9 million jobs went unfilled in July. Meanwhile, 8.4 million people remained unemployed in August. If there are more jobs available in the U.S than people who need them, why is there a frontline labor shortage that’s causing restaurants to close dining rooms, retailers to reduce hours, and delivery operations to run short on drivers? Why didn’t the decision to cut off additional federal unemployment payments get people back to work?

The Great Resignation is hitting the frontline hard as businesses struggle to regain their footing after a year of shutdowns. Unfortunately, there’s no end in sight. New data from Arlington Research and Axonify shows that 45 percent of frontline workers have already decided to leave their jobs. Retailers, grocers, and restaurants that are already struggling to keep up will find themselves even more understaffed and overwhelmed when the holiday season arrives.

Why can’t we retain frontline workers?

Almost 50 percent of frontline employees were furloughed or laid off last year. Essential workers have dealt with non-stop safety concerns, operational changes, and frustrated customers. Frontline jobs have always been physically and mentally exhausting. The pandemic represents a tipping point for this part of the workforce. As executives determine the way forward for their businesses, frontline workers are making decisions about their own futures.

Many employers have improved their compensation packages as a way to attract and retain workers. Amazon hiked its average U.S. starting pay to $18. Target launched a debt-free education assistance program for its 340,000 frontline team members. Disney offered $,1500 hiring bonuses for culinary roles in its theme parks. These are great improvements, but they’re just first steps because they don’t address the main reason people are quitting: the work experience.

Compensation ranks fourth on frontline employees’ list of reasons for leaving. Burnout is number one. You can’t pay people to stop feeling exhausted. And compensation only goes so far, especially as more employers offer competitive wages. Beyond band-aid solutions, organizations must meaningfully improve the day-to-day work experience to attract the best people—and keep them. With that in mind, here are four things you can do to overcome the labor shortage and become a frontline employer of choice.

Show employees that you care.

Burnout is the biggest reason frontline workers are walking away. Number two: lack of appreciation. The pandemic has made us all reflect on how we work and live, and the subsequent economic rebound has opened new opportunities. Staying in a stressful job where you’re not appreciated just isn’t worth it.

Fix this by making “thank you” the two most commonly used words in your workplace. Next, prioritize mental health by making related benefits and training widely available to full-time and part-time staff. Show new and experienced employees you prioritize their wellbeing by reducing common job stressors. This includes offering flexible scheduling and monitoring employee workloads. Foster a sense of community through social events and recognition programs. Even better, leverage employee-led committees to organize these activities.

Foster an inclusive and equitable workplace.

Frontline employees work in stores, branches, and warehouses. Their time is heavily scheduled, often to the minute. They’re unable to work remotely or adjust their schedules to accommodate personal responsibilities. This inflexibility has a direct impact on their job satisfaction, as 64.2 percent of store-based employees expressed happiness with their everyday work as compared to 81.4 percent of office-based workers.

This workplace inequity extends to factors like career development and pandemic support. In every case, employees who work on-location are less happy with their workplace experience as compared to those who work in an office. Furthermore, part-time employees are significantly less satisfied than full-timers when it comes to compensation, communication, technology, and manager support.

Become an employer of choice by demonstrating that everyone–regardless of role, location, or status–gets an equitable opportunity to succeed. Explore flexible working practices, such as adjustable shift times and hybrid roles. Conduct regular equity assessments to identify and close gaps between location and office-based work.

Empower frontline managers to create positive experiences.

One in two employees have quit a job to get away from a manager. Frontline employees who intend to leave are less happy with their direct managers (66 percent) as compared to those who plan to stay (80.9 percent). On the frontline, the manager is the face of the company, and they play the most important role in preventing turnover.

But managers walk a challenging tightrope between short-term performance goals and long-term relationship building. To avoid the frontline labor shortage, provide employees with the support they need to prioritize their teams. Reduce administrative workloads so they have the time to be present in the operation. Make sure new managers receive training and support immediately instead of waiting for the next program to come around. Provide on-demand resources and microlearning to help them prepare for their new roles.

Build your talent pipeline before you need it.

Many of the frontline workers who left were your best people. They were your future supervisors and managers. Hiring challenges make it unlikely that you’ll fill these gaps with external candidates. Instead, you need to build your talent bench internally ASAP. However, 35.8 percent of frontline employees only receive training during big job changes while 20.3 percent rarely or never receive it.

Frontline workers have always been difficult to reach with traditional classroom-based training. Pulling them out of the operation hurts the business, so their development opportunities have been limited. On the flip side, a reimagined training program is one of your best lines of defense in the war for frontline talent.

Apply new talent strategies, such as mobile and microlearning, that make development opportunities more accessible on the frontline. Design reskilling and upskilling activities that can be completed in just three to five minutes per day, thereby not disrupting the operation.

Employee experience can end the exodus.

The frontline labor shortage isn’t just about pay. It’s about the work itself. If you want to attract and retain the right people, give them an experience that helps them be their best, feel included and supported, and develop their careers. For even more insights on how to reimagine your frontline work experience, check out Axonify’s full report on The State of the Frontline Work Experience in 2021.

5 Unconventional Strategies to Use When Hiring for Diversity

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If the last year taught us anything, it’s that we must re-examine any foregone conclusions we have about the workforce. The global pandemic, focus on racial inequity, and a looming “great resignation” are affecting every organization. As a result, organizations must now navigate talent strategies that will still advance their diversity agendas.

We are now collectively writing a new playbook for work. One of the most critical chapters will address how organizations can sustainably ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion—starting with recruiting. To drive change, we will need to break the mold of the way we recruit.

Certainly, unconventional times call for unconventional measures. The truth is that the systems in place led us to today’s lack of representation in the workforce. We need to reimagine our hiring strategies.

During the past couple of years, I worked with my team at Mathison to study the equitable hiring strategies of hundreds of employers and featured findings in my book, Hiring for Diversity. Mathison’s 2021 Diversity Hiring Study revealed that 62 percent of underrepresented job seekers observe bias in the hiring process. Twelve job-seekers communities –from people with disabilities to those formerly incarcerated—are all underrepresented in the workforce.

Here are five unconventional strategies for mobilizing your diversity recruiting. Each of these strategies is not only possible for any organization, but they also require no monetary investment.

1. Clarify what you mean by diversity—and be inclusive.

Research repeatedly shows that leaders have vastly different definitions of diversity. Many only acknowledge physical, visible aspects of diversity, which leave entire communities out. I recommend shifting your emphasis to underrepresented job-seeking communities and building awareness of each group across your organization. These groups include people you may not think of such as older and experienced workers, refugees, and immigrants. You may also include the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, veterans, and formerly incarcerated individuals. Don’t forget to solicit the Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Indigenous, and Native American communities. In addition, women, the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and working parents also merit inclusion.

2. Empower your people to be aware and reach to underrepresented communities.

Your organization’s awareness of and advocacy for different communities really depends on each team member. Explore a more holistic definition of diversity as an organization. Then, prompt each team member to reflect on their personal awareness and have them reach out to each community. Mathison designed a free assessment that your team can leverage to visualize their reach and awareness of each community mentioned.

3. Institute an alignment meeting for every new role.

Much of the bias and inequity in hiring rests on existing job requirements and processes that everyone agrees to upfront. To ensure everyone concurs about the most accessible requirements, host a 15-minute alignment meeting with all hiring stakeholders. In this meeting, ensure that the job role is aligned with the most essential requirements. Also, secure the agreement of everyone as to the hiring process, and the role each will play. Doing so helps drive accessibility and consistency in the process and enables to get buy-in from everyone involved.

4. Send interview questions to job seekers in advance.

This idea might come as a surprise! But the purpose of interviews isn’t to catch job seekers off guard or to test their improvisation abilities. It is to see if they have the skills and experience needed to be successful on the job. Sending questions ahead lets job seekers come prepared, present their best selves, and feel empowered by and confident in the process.

5. Ask job seekers for their feedback on how to make the process more inclusive.

It doesn’t matter whether you extend an offer to a candidate or not, or if they accept or decline. This is the time to ask for feedback—to see where you can make your process more accessible and inclusive. Mathison’s research revealed that 67 percent of applicants reported completing an interview and never receiving feedback. This is a simple step that most employers never think to take. It is the best time to learn from job seekers what is missing—in the job description, hiring process, and more. Not to mention, the nature of asking this question signals that you are listening.

To sum up, these are just a fraction of the creative and unconventional ideas that make hiring for diversity more equitable and inclusive. In the new playbook for inclusive hiring, it requires us to stray from the norm and lead with empathy. There is so much more to discover. I, for one, am excited to see the growth of this new, human-centered list of ideas.

Future Workplace Mindset: People, Technology, and Business Intersection

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As we all know, flexibility is the lifeblood of HR, especially when it comes to adopting new technologies for attracting candidates. While many are resistant to change in the working world, a willingness to adapt to whatever comes strengthens both HR and business strategies. By understanding that nothing will stay the same, and thus adopting a future workplace mindset, organizations can accept change and also thrive in it.

As technology becomes more important for keeping employees happy and productive, it’s crucial that businesses understand tech’s role in business success. And more importantly, act on this understanding.

Our Guest: Michel Visser, Unit4’s VP of People Success and Enablement

On the latest #WorkTrends podcast, I spoke with Michel Visser, Unit4’s VP of People Success and Enablement. In 2018, he joined Unit4 with the aim of attracting the best global talent. He has over a decade of experience in HR, holding various senior leadership roles. Michel teaches HR at the VU University Amsterdam and has been instrumental in developing creative and innovative strategies for attracting candidates, strengthening employee development, and generating strong engagement strategies.

I wanted to know: how does a company develop a workplace mindset for building a global identity that supports its brand and culture? According to Michel, it’s all about communicating company values. Values not only determine how a business operates, but how people interact with each other. Making values apparent allows candidates to know upfront whether they’re a good match for your organization. Sharing values throughout an organization also takes the transactional aspect out of work, and has everyone working towards a common goal. It helps employees feel like they’re doing something more than just getting a paycheck every week.

“It is absolutely critical to communicate organizational values to candidates because, without clear values, employee experience becomes transactional,” says Michel. “If you make your business’s values very clear, then you give candidates a chance to relate to your mission. You can use values as an instrument to attract and retain talent.”

And HR is fundamental in crafting these values.

“HR is now front and center when it comes to being visible and showing how employees actually deliver value to the business. It’s HR who starts formulating answers to questions like what does the business stand for? What do we value?” Michel says.

Technology’s Role in Communicating Values

Technology can play a big role in communicating values. It’s HR’s responsibility to strengthen the workplace mindset that it’s good to adapt and harness tech to keep employees engaged. And it’s vital to continuously monitor and measure that engagement.

“How do you keep track of employee engagement? If you find a proper tool to do that, how do you start acting on the insights you’ve gathered?” Michel says. “In many cases, you can’t just stop by a coffee maker and ask employees how they feel anymore. You need technology to gauge this.” 

Once tech is adopted, it’s crucial that HR plans to make sure employees engage with the tech. They also need to dive into workforce planning and understand that a two-year workforce plan makes more sense than a five- or 10-year plan. Organizations need to look at the length of time that employees stick around in the modern workforce and adjust to that. They also need to understand what skill sets employees need to thrive, how to create more engagement, and how to stay true to the values that are communicated. In other words, companies can’t just be “all talk.” Businesses have to deliver on promises if they want happy people.

“Everybody will tell you on their website that they put people first. But at the end of the day, you have to deliver and make sure people feel that the company values are true. Every HR professional should focus on putting values into place,” Michel says.

I hope you enjoy this episode of #WorkTrends, sponsored by Unit4. You can learn more about workplace mindset and adopting new technologies by connecting with Michel on LinkedIn. Also, you can learn about how people management and technology can combine to give organizations a competitive advantage by downloading this Unit4 whitepaper.

 

Is Your Hiring Process Ineffective? Try These Helpful Methods

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What’s the typical order of your hiring process? The common order is usually something like this:

  • Resume screening
  • Interview
  • Assessment
  • Job offer

Your process may not look exactly like this, as some companies have several rounds of interviews and different types of assessments. But if your hiring process generally follows this type of structure, it’s not very effective.

Time Required for Each Hiring Step

Let’s look at a more expanded version of the list above. Consider how much time each step takes, and how much information about a candidate it gives you.

Step Time needed Information received
Resume screening 5 minutes Does the candidate meet the listed requirements?
Phone interview 30 minutes Learn a bit about the candidate and why they applied for the job.
Personality test 15 minutes Find out the candidate’s personality profile.
First interview 1 hour Meet the candidate and learn about their education and previous experience.
Skill and aptitude assessment 30 minutes In-depth info about a candidate’s abilities.
Second interview 2 hours Detailed info about a candidate’s experiences.
Job offer 10 minutes Will the candidate accept the terms?

The time each step takes may vary, of course, so this is just an example. In total, this hiring process takes four hours and 30 minutes of your time. The personality test and skill/aptitude assessments include the time it takes to administer the test and review the results.

Ineffective Hiring Steps

Reading a resume doesn’t take much time, but it also doesn’t give much useful information. You can see if the candidate fulfills the basic requirements, such as skills and experience, but not much else. Candidates will often list their hobbies or personal achievements on their resume, but these are useless unless they’re in some way related to the job. Why does it matter if a candidate loves sailing or is the world champion in arm-wrestling? It doesn’t help you make a hiring decision unless you’re hiring a sailor or an arm-wrestler.

A phone interview lets you ask why they applied for the job and what they expect from the role. It’s also a chance for you to provide more detail about the job and answer the candidate’s questions. It doesn’t take too long, but also doesn’t provide any crucial information.

Personality tests are a quick way to see if a candidate would fit the company culture and be a productive employee. Though there is a lack of evidence for their usefulness. It’s also easy for candidates to lie on personality tests, which they’ll likely do if getting the job depends on it. Therefore the information you get from personality tests is not useful. Considering how unreliable they are, personality tests have no place in the hiring process.

The first interview is usually a typical unstructured interview. You meet the candidate and talk about their experience and achievements. However, you need to filter through a lot of useless information as well. Unstructured interviews are also extremely susceptible to bias. Besides, since they are completely subjective, there is no standardized criteria by which you can accurately compare different candidates. According to one study, unstructured interviews are so inaccurate that they’re counterproductive to your hiring efforts and shouldn’t be used at all.

Effective Hiring Steps

Assessments for aptitude and skill often come after an interview. Skill tests let the candidate directly demonstrate their abilities in a way that you can easily compare to other candidates. Specifically, testing a candidate’s knowledge or skill gives you valuable information that’s critical in making a hiring decision, as job skills are the main criteria for hiring someone.

Aptitude tests are also known as reasoning tests, cognitive tests, or general mental ability tests. They can assess a range of abilities such as problem-solving, abstract thinking, logical reasoning, and others. As these abilities are used in many jobs, candidates who score highly on these tests are promising.

Assessments are relatively easy to administer and don’t require much of your time, at least compared to interviews. While they do take time to create, once you have them in place, the time it takes to administer and review them is relatively short. But, you don’t need to create them yourself. You can use any online pre-employment testing service to do that for you. Thus, saving even more time and making things easier for both you and your candidates.

The second interview round is the opportunity for a structured interview. A structured interview is a type of interview where the questions are prepared in advance. All candidates are asked the same questions, in the same order, and their answers are scored based on predefined criteria. This way you can objectively compare candidates to each other. This step lets candidates provide a lot of detailed information about their experiences, work ethic, professional achievements, and other important data that can help with making a hiring decision.

The Optimal Order of Hiring Methods

Not all methods give equally valuable information, and the time they take varies significantly. So which order should you use them in? To make your hiring process more efficient, you should prioritize the methods which give the most information for the least amount of time and order the hiring process based on these criteria.

To understand which order of hiring methods is optimal, we need to rank them based on how good they are. Fortunately, there is plenty of research that tells us how good each particular hiring method is. Sadly, some of the most common hiring methods, which are widely used, such as resume screening and unstructured interviews, don’t work well. The most effective hiring methods are work-sample tests, aptitude tests, and structured interviews.

Test First…

A work-sample test assesses a candidate’s ability with a sample of actual work. For example, if you’re hiring a programmer, you ask them to write some code. If you were to hire a chef, surely you’d like to know what their food tastes like before you hire them? All things considered, there is no reason not to use this approach with almost any profession.

Aptitude tests assess cognitive abilities such as problem-solving, logical or abstract reasoning, and similar talents. They don’t show if a candidate has the required job knowledge or skills but, according to research, candidates with higher cognitive ability learn more job knowledge, and learn it faster, than those with lower cognitive ability.

Research has consistently shown that work-sample tests and aptitude tests are far more accurate and effective at predicting job performance than almost any other hiring method. Therefore, you should use tests as early as possible in your hiring process, even as the very first step. You can set up your hiring process so that candidates apply by taking the test.

Most candidates will fail a short initial skill test. That may sound bad, but it’s not. Most candidates fail pre-employment skill tests because these tests are designed as elimination tests. By filtering out weaker candidates with a pre-interview skill test, you are narrowing down the selection right from the start of the hiring process. This means that candidates that come to the interview are more qualified than if you had screened them using resumes. In other words, it’s more efficient to test for skills and aptitude before interviewing because testing doesn’t take much of your time but the information you receive from this hiring step is extremely valuable.

… Then Interview

A structured interview requires some preparation in deciding which questions to ask and defining scoring criteria. Once you have it in place, you can see how it’s far more objective than typical unstructured interviews. It’s fair to all candidates since they are all given the same questions and scored based on the same rules. It’s also far better for you, because, since the questions are standardized, you can directly and transparently compare different candidates, which is crucial in making a hiring decision. This approach works for both hard and soft skills, and helps avoid bias.

As a result, structured interviews are almost as accurate and effective as work-sample and aptitude tests. However, they require more time, which is why they should take place after the testing round(s). Testing will filter out weaker candidates, leaving only better-qualified candidates for the interview. Therefore the average time of the interview itself will likely be a bit longer, since more qualified candidates are likely to give more detailed and knowledgeable answers to your questions. But ultimately you’ll need to interview fewer candidates so overall your whole hiring process will take less time.

Conclusion

How you organize your hiring process has a significant impact on how efficient and effective it is. The traditional hiring model has a lot of inefficiencies that can hurt your chances of finding the best candidates.

Ordering your hiring methods optimally, based on data provided by research into hiring methods, not only makes your hiring process more accurate, it also saves a lot of time.

Hiring for Startups: 6 Practices to Build a Winning Team

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Google consistently ranks as one of the top companies to work for. It offers attractive compensation packages and tons of perks, like free food and onsite gyms. The company even has a “20 percent time” policy, where employees can spend 20 percent of their time on side projects.

It’s no surprise that Google receives an astounding three million applications per year. Needless to say, Google and other major corporations have no problems attracting talent. But startups face significant challenges right off the bat when it comes to hiring.

Challenges of Hiring for Startups

Startups don’t have the same reputation as more established companies. This makes attracting talent difficult in the early stages.

Most startups also lack the funding to invest in HR. Without a department to handle recruitment, company founders often have to take on hiring duties on top of their workloads. Even if they do find qualified candidates, they might lack the skills to assess their abilities.

A lack of hiring experience and an inability to offer competitive compensation packages make hiring all the more challenging for startups. So how can you overcome these hiring challenges?

Top 6 Practices to Build a Winning Team

Hiring the right people is crucial for the success of any startup. A survey by CB Insights revealed that one of the top reasons startups fail is because they don’t have the right teams.

It’s not an understatement to say that your hiring decisions could make or break your company. Follow these best practices to build a winning team for your startup.

1. Hire slow, fire fast.

Bigger companies can afford to leave positions vacant until they find the right person. Startups don’t have that same luxury. A skills gap can hamper growth and put projects at stake. But rushing through the hiring process can result in poor decisions.

“Hire slow” means hiring with intention, and “fire fast” means parting ways with employees who don’t work out sooner rather than later. Evaluate what positions you need to fill and get clear on the qualifications that new hires need to succeed in their roles.

For any documents you and your employees will need to sign, consider using document signing software. This will help shorten the time to productivity for new hires.

2. Don’t hire based on hard skills and experience alone.

It makes sense to hire the most qualified candidates you can. But hiring solely on skills and experience can limit your talent pool. Don’t shy away from hiring qualified and passionate candidates when building your team.

Passionate employees are highly engaged. They’re enthusiastic about the work they do and have a vested interest in helping your startup succeed.

Deloitte defines three characteristics of passion:

Commitment to the domain: Employees are committed to the work they do.

Questing disposition: Employees are always seeking new challenges.

Connecting disposition: Employees seek deep interactions with others.

Look for employees who exhibit these characteristics. During the interview process, ask potential candidates why they chose this particular industry and what kind of challenges they’re looking for.

3. Decide when to hire generalists vs. specialists.

One important decision you’ll make when hiring for startups is whether to hire generalists or specialists. Hiring a combination of both is crucial to building a winning team.

A generalist is a “jack of all trades” individual with a wide range of skills. They could pitch prospective clients one day and contribute to a marketing campaign the next. Generalists are valuable hires, as they can draw from their vast experience to solve different problems.

Specialists, on the other hand, are experts in their respective fields. While specialists cost more to hire, they can contribute to key growth areas in ways that generalists can’t. For example, when choosing an appropriate business structure for your startup, you’ll want to work with a specialist to help you navigate this complex process.

4. Hire based on company culture fit.

Hiring candidates based on company culture fit is just as important as finding employees with the right skills. Employees whose values align with their employers are more likely to enjoy their jobs and perform better. This ultimately leads to a more productive workforce.

Define your company culture and identify the core values that your startup represents. Have these core values ready as you interview candidates and highlight them in your job postings. Consider using behavioral assessment tests to determine whether candidates will fit in with the company culture and the rest of the team.

5. Diversify your potential hires.

Hiring people from different backgrounds offers numerous benefits. Workplace diversity fosters creativity as each team member can share their own unique perspectives. This inclusiveness makes employees feel more valued and willing to contribute.

Employees who also speak different languages can contribute to the team from their diverse cultural backgrounds. While it’s best to speak business English if you’re based in the U.S., you should also encourage your bilingual and multilingual employees to enlighten other team members about their language and customs.

Ways to diversify your workforce include writing more inclusive job descriptions, advertising listings on different job boards, and turning to existing employees for diversity referrals.

6. Consider investing in a recruiter.

Taking on recruitment duties takes you away from other responsibilities like reaching out to investors, developing product roadmaps, researching new markets, etc.

To help with your hiring efforts and save a great deal of time, consider working with a recruiter. These individuals do a lot of the legwork to find qualified candidates. Alternatively, you can also work with a PEO company (Professional Employer Organization) to help with employee recruitment and retention. Hiring such an organization will provide the data and tools that you need to save time during this process.

What happens next?

Employees are perhaps the most valuable asset for any company. They carry out your vision and work directly with your customers. As you build your team, it’s important to exercise strong leadership and practice team building to encourage collaboration.

Provide opportunities for growth and ongoing education. This will motivate employees to work harder and increase retention rates.

Finally, continue to refine your hiring process. Even if you’re not hiring right now, you most certainly will be in the future. Solicit feedback from current employees and work on your content using content optimization software to make it easier for potential candidates to find you online.

Hiring can be a complex process for any organization, but hiring for startups comes with its own set of challenges. The people you hire now can mean the difference between growing your startup or seeing it stagnate. Implement the tips outlined here to build a winning team and hit the ground running.

How Digital Technology is Changing the Structure of HR

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The Human Resources department is one of the essential departments in any company. It is responsible for a number of activities. Some of them include managing the staff, hiring and training new employees, and dealing with employment-related disputes.

This department has evolved over the years due to digital technology. The transformation of HR’s structure has been greatly felt during this pandemic when many companies were forced to embrace remote working. There are several different ways that digital technology is changing HR’s structure.

Online recruitment

Before the Internet era, companies would post job openings in the newspapers or used posters that were placed at the main entrance of a building. The downside of this is that a small number of people would notice the job advertisements and the employers would take a long period of time to select a suitable candidate for the job.

Due to the advancement in technology, this process has changed. Companies have been posting job openings online and job seekers apply for the openings by sending an email or filling an online application form. This process is effective because many job seekers notice the advertisements and apply for the job within a short period of time. Additionally, online recruitment systems have a filtration tool that allows the companies to shortlist the most competent candidates.

During the COVID-19 pandemic when social distancing is encouraged, employers interview candidates on various platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. This system is here to stay since some companies have permanently adopted remote working.

Managing employees and employee performance

Managing employees, especially those who are working remotely, can be an uphill task. Supervising the activities that individuals carry out during working hours is not easy due to the lack of one-on-one interactions. As a result, some employees become lazy and fail to complete tasks on time. Obviously, this will have a negative impact on the company. So, what is the way out? What can the HR department do?

Well, digital technology has eased this process. Employers and supervisors can monitor employees’ performance wherever they are. There exists employee monitoring software that allows managers to monitor all work that is carried out by the employees every hour. Consequently, employees will continue working as efficiently as they did when working in the office. Another advantage of the employee monitoring software is that the HR department can monitor a large number of employees at the same time.

Due to digital technology, the HR department can also handle the benefits that employees enjoy using benefits administration software. If this is a new concept, there are online tutorials that will help supervisors to learn how to use it.

Communication systems

Proximity is no longer a concern when it comes to communication in the office. You can pass information from one individual to the other in a matter of seconds with digital technology. This can happen via phone calls, text messages, emails, and online forums like Skype and Slack. Meetings also take place on online platforms. This has encouraged the HR department to employ individuals from all over the world for remote work. As a result, the most skilled individuals can handle specific tasks.

Conclusion

The roles and responsibilities of the HR department have changed due to digital technology. The good thing is that many of these changes are positive. As such, it is easy to embrace them. We can thus conclude that digital technology has changed, is changing, and will continue to change HR’s structure in different ways.

Trends That Define the Post-Pandemic Workforce [Podcast]

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The pandemic taught us a lot about ourselves. Like how many of us don’t need to go into an office to be productive. That flexibility and benefits are more valuable to employees than a pay raise. How talent management doesn’t actually have to happen in person, but that HR can bridge the remote work management gap with technology.

While it can be difficult to predict what else we’ll learn in a post-pandemic world, facts like these require businesses to adjust and grow right now. As we watch a new work landscape unfold before our eyes, HR professionals are readying themselves to traverse it as best they can. They’re tracking post-pandemic workforce trends and supporting their organizations as they navigate changes and prepare for the future.

Our Guest: HR Analyst and Content Expert Brian Westfall

On the latest #WorkTrends podcast, I spoke with Brian Westfall, principal HR analyst at Capterra. He covers the latest trends in HR and recruiting software, supporting Capterra’s mission to help business clients find the right software for them. He is a thought-leader in his field, and his research has been published in Forbes, SHRM, TechRepublic, and TIME.

What have we ultimately learned from the pandemic? For one, Brian says, we’ve learned that work doesn’t have to look like it always has: wake up, get ready, drive to the office, come back home. Remote work can get the job done too–sometimes even better than in-office.

“This past year, a lot of businesses were thrown into the deep end with remote work. And I think they realized the water’s not so bad,” Brian says. “I think we’re going to look back at the pandemic as one of those moments where we reassessed all those sacred cows of talent management. Employees don’t have to be in the office to work effectively.”

With the understanding that employees can be productive while remote, there’s also been a surge in HR tech for managing remote workers–and recruiting them. In fact, HR technology has been a driving force in DEI efforts over the last year.

“When HR leaders were asked what they were doing to make their organizations more diverse and inclusive, DNI software tools came in as the second most cited program or initiative they were going to incorporate–only behind hiring quotas,” Brain says. “Organizations now have access to job description tools to remove biased language. They have candidate assessment tools that offer blind hiring modes. Tech is extremely useful for bringing in diverse candidates to create a more inclusive workforce.” 

Burnout and Skills Development: The Focus of Post-Pandemic Workplaces

Of course, while the pandemic showed that we can optimize tech and increase productivity, it didn’t eliminate other issues, like burnout.

“Seventy-seven percent of small business employees in the U.S. experienced at least some burnout last year. For those aged 18 to 25, that number jumps to 92 percent,” Brian says. “Worse, only seven percent of employees reached out to their manager or HR to let them know they were experiencing burnout. Because of this, I think we’ll see companies being more proactive about mental health resources.” 

While productivity among some employees increased while working from home during the pandemic, that doesn’t mean their skills increased too. In fact, according to Brian, 49 percent of small business employees have not developed any new skills during COVID. Fortunately, there are easy ways to implement development programs and manage these issues in a post-pandemic workforce.

“Workers are behind in skill development. And as roles get more complex, businesses are going to hunker down on skills development programs,” Brian says. “Because of tech, it has never been easier for businesses to set up formalized, complex learning and development programs. The tools are there. The content is there. I think it’s only going to make more sense over time.”

I hope you enjoy this episode of #WorkTrends. You can learn more about post-pandemic workforce trends and HR future predictions by connecting with Brian Westfall on LinkedIn.

5 Mistakes Companies Make with HR Tech Adoption

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The HR industry underwent massive shifts over the last year. The pandemic reframed the role of HR to focus more holistically on employee experience, and emerging tech has become mission critical.

As a result, HR teams’ tech stacks continue to grow. According to Sierra-Cedar, the average HR organization has 11 systems of record, with 10 for recruiting departments and almost 203 for L&D departments.

And demand is growing. Sapient Insights Group reports that 28 percent of organizations plan to increase investments in nontraditional HR technology areas like remote-working tools and infrastructure.

While the excitement and need for HR tech remain essential for supporting agile and resilient workforces, the influx of new tech and systems doesn’t come without pain points.

Here are five common mistakes companies make with HR tech adoption (and how to avoid them).

Purchasing Vertical Solutions for Each Pain Point

We get excited when we have the opportunity to buy a beautiful tool that gives us a laser-sharp focus on a pain point—be it improving employee engagement, payroll systems, recruitment, and more.

But here’s the rub: when you have several platforms and systems of record working at once, it’s nearly impossible to extract related data into a single view. Data becomes siloed, and we end up taping together each solution without the ability to look at the information in context.

I was once in this spot, and I had to ask my Excel-wizard colleague to help me each time I needed to look at data. This is not sustainable when you consider the complexity of data and how many work technology solutions we use in today’s business, not to mention how difficult it is to keep up with data in companies experiencing rapid growth or change.

Thinking the Technology Will Do the Work

Maintaining your tech stack takes time. Whether you use one tool or 100, your HR team must spend considerable time updating, maintaining, and correcting data.

To add another layer of complexity, insights are not always cut and dry. Say you’re in the middle of your compensation planning cycle. You’re prepared to reward your high performers and make recommendations to those who haven’t hit their targets. Sounds easy, right?

In reality, what constitutes high achievement is not always clear. For example, if a candidate achieves four out of five of their KPIs and really struggled on their fifth, you might be compelled to give them glowing remarks. But when you dig deeper, you find that this person’s fifth KPI was actually the most directly relevant to their roles and responsibilities. Beyond that, the person also received some pretty negative 360 reviews on their management style. What now?

Ultimately, it’s best to contextualize data within your org’s mission and goals. HR teams need to make sure they have the clarity to connect data points to real action and solutions.

Acting as Data Gatekeepers

To foster strategic decision-making throughout the org, HR needs to make data accessible. This doesn’t mean posting every team member’s personal files on your org’s intranet. It requires strategic thinking about what data people need to do their jobs and what data can be too distracting.

For example, 60 percent of employees spend five hours or more per week waiting for information. HR teams are often main sources for answers to questions like:

  • How many people are currently on the engineering team?
  • I just opened a new position for a marketing manager; what is our compensation range for that role?
  • Can you send me a copy of my last performance review?
  • And many more

Centralizing and increasing access to information can be a huge time-saver and productivity booster for your entire org.

Using Technology to Be Reactive vs. Proactive

Too often, we use data to respond reactively to isolated issues. That’s a problem.

Let’s say your company has a DEI issue. You look at the numbers and see that Black people make up only two percent of your workforce. You conclude there’s a need to direct attention solely to your applicant pipeline. After tapping into new applicant pools, you increase that percentage to 15 percent. Congrats!

Flash forward to a year later. You look at your numbers and find that you’re back down to two percent. What happened?

All those people you hired left.

That’s because your team doesn’t have a recruiting problem; it has a culture and retention problem. Improving workplace culture and inclusivity involves its own dedicated stream of data collection, programming, and initiatives.

Putting your data insights in context and strategically identifying the root causes of issues gives you the tools you need to plan proactively.

Failing to Train Key Users

When you get a new tool, you may be struck with a newfound zeal to get things up and running. You just made a significant investment, and you’re ready to prove your ROI.

Yet, even the most simple tools require time. Rather than immediately jumping in to configure your accounts, take a moment to learn:

  • Review tech onboarding files to understand everything that’s possible with your new software.
  • Tap into customer communities and reviews to see how others have leveraged the platform.
  • Make sure to connect potential outcomes with the original intent for purchasing the tool.

Then when you’re ready to use your new tech, you know exactly how to get the most bang for your buck.

Better Tech Adoption for Strategic Planning

If we’ve learned anything this last year, it’s that HR teams need the ability to anticipate, adapt to, and react decisively to change. To do so requires thoughtful investment in resources and tools that give teams the upper hand.

The challenge is that different tech means that data is often housed in multiple applications, obscuring the “real” truth and insights needed to make complex decisions.

But don’t let that overwhelm you! With patience and the right mindset, you can make sure that your team is effectively leveraging new tools and tech to support your org and its people.

Freshen Up Remote Culture for Work and Play [Podcast]

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Eighty percent of employees say they want to work from home at least part-time. And three in four consider remote work the “new normal.” In an attempt to stay competitive, organizations everywhere are offering totally remote and hybrid work options to current and potential employees.

While it’s great that companies are accommodating employee needs, a new issue is arising: How do we maintain a remote culture that keeps employees engaged, even from afar?

Our Guest: Creative Entrepreneur Jeremy Parker

On the latest #WorkTrends podcast, I chatted with Jeremy Parker. He’s an entrepreneur who was named to Crain’s Class of 2020 NY 40 under 40 list. Jeremy formed the Creative Promotional Product Division under MV Sport. He also helped start Vowch Commonwealth and is currently co-founder and CEO of Swag.com, a swag distribution company that supports a healthy remote culture.

Jeremy understands that who you work with is just as important as what you’re working on, especially in the case of startups. According to Jeremy, a great remote culture starts with the recruiting process and finding the right people for what your business needs right now.

“When onboarding new hires, it’s important to find the right culture fit, especially for startups. Different employees are required for different stages of a business life cycle,” Jeremy says. 

And of course, he adds, before offering someone a role, you have to consider the candidate as a person, and determine if they will be truly happy at the company and empowered by the work.

“I think the most important thing across the board is making sure the people you hire really care about what they’re doing. That they’re willing to work hard. They need to feel passionate about the work and feel ownership over it,” Jeremy says.

Bring Remote Workers Together with Pocket Offices and Swag

Once the right remote employees are hired, how do you make them feel connected even when they’re far away? One strategy: Offer them swag.

“If you see somebody wearing a shirt representing your favorite sports team or college, you have an instant connection. It’s the same thing within a company,” Jeremy says. “If you’re wearing the same things, it brings people together around a shared purpose and mission.” 

Also, getting creative with events for remote workers is crucial. While employees may be located all over the world, it’s still possible to offer in-person opportunities for bonding.

“Instead of having one central hub and making employees drive two hours each way, find little pocket offices in different locations. So even if remote employees can’t meet everybody at the company in person, people can get out of the house and collaborate with others,” Jeremy says. “Everyone’s feeling isolated (especially with COVID). So whatever you can do to bring people together and create unity is important.”

I hope you enjoy this episode of #WorkTrends. You can learn more about fostering employee connections in a remote culture by reaching out to Jeremy Parker on LinkedIn.

Turning Mistakes into a Business Model [Podcast]

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Most of us want to have a perfect business model out of the gate, but that’s a pie-in-the-sky attitude. As much as we all want to avoid mistakes in business, they’re pretty much inevitable. Everybody makes them, and many try to hide those mistakes because they’re worried they’ll be judged for them.

But what a lot of people don’t realize is that in business, there are often happy accidents that lead to a successful business model. In fact, one could argue that mistakes are the lifeblood of a strong business. And those who are willing to admit to their mistakes and pivot are the ones who can turn a blunder into a boon.

Our Guest: Executive Talent Acquisition Expert George McGehrin

On the #WorkTrends podcast, I got to chat with George McGehrin, a man who managed to turn a mistake into a national executive search/recruiting firm–one that has been successful for two decades. For years, people asked George for job search and recruiting assistance, and he said he couldn’t help. Then one day, he decided to try. Suddenly, there was a seven-figure business involving recruiting, coaching, and more. Since then, he has been widely featured on podcasts including Money Matters, Moving Up, and The Entrepreneur’s MBA.

I had to know: How can a mistake like that turn into a great business model? The secret to success, George says, is listening.

“You have to be open to listening to what people are asking you over and over, what their needs are,” George says. “The fifth time someone asks you for something, go ahead and say, ‘Yeah. This is what we charge.’ And you’ll be surprised at what comes of it.”

George says that in order to have a good business model, you have to be financially prepared for anything–even COVID-19. He says that business is a cyclical experience, so any business owner should expect to go through ups and downs.

“A lot of times it comes down to money. Do you have enough to withstand challenges?” George says. “If you’re a business owner, you can’t spend every dollar you make. Or if you work for somebody and you only have one source of income, you need to make sure that you allocate your money properly for a rainy day.”

To Succeed: Test, Fail, and Try Again

Once you’ve turned a mistake into a great business, there are ways to make sure your business model is successful. So what are the key actions to take?

First off: Test everything.

“If you’re going to send one email out to somebody or to a group of people, maybe send out two emails with different language,” George says. You should always be willing to adapt and try new things to get better results. 

Secondly, don’t be afraid to fail–and keep going.

“At the end of the day, the more times that you fail, you’re a little closer to winning, right?” George says. “First timers, when they’re starting a business, they say, ‘Oh, it didn’t work. I reached out to 30 people and no one got back to me.’ They need to expect to hear a lot of nos and keep going.”

And finally, while you should be willing to hear nos from potential customers or clients, you also should be ready to say no to opportunities. You shouldn’t expect to do everything by yourself as a business owner, but rather, give tasks to your employees and trust them to come through.

“You have to know what your strong points are. People who do well focus on one or two things that they’re really good at. And they delegate everything else,” George says.

I hope you enjoy this episode of #WorkTrends. You can learn more about how to push through challenges to create a successful business model by connecting with George McGehrin on LinkedIn.

Coping With Talent Shortages for On-Location Roles

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As healthcare workers administer more vaccines, many companies are pushing employees to return to in-person work. However, not everyone wants to go back to hour-long commutes and drab little cubicles. In fact, some people would rather quit their jobs than give up remote work. And thousands of Americans are doing just that.

While their decision to work from home (or not work at all) may improve their well-being and work-life balance, it’s caused severe talent shortages in on-location roles across the country. Subsequently, countless businesses are struggling to fill their offices and retain skilled employees.

How to Attract Talent

Many of today’s workers have spent more than a year earning a paycheck at home. These same employees will likely expect similar perks when they return to the office. Thus, if businesses want to retain their current workforce and attract new talent, they must make on-location roles more appealing.

Here are a few ways modern businesses might rethink their benefits package, workflow, and office design to accommodate and welcome back a post-pandemic workforce.

1. Encourage Open Dialogue

After businesses laid off millions of workers, those who were left began to experience mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. They didn’t know if they’d have to pick up the slack or if they’d be sent home next. These same employees are now returning to the office with survivor guilt. Their co-workers’ desks sit empty and, to make matters worse, many supervisors are completely oblivious to the widespread survivor guilt wracking the team.

To move forward in a healthy way, employers must become aware and accepting of their team’s worries and frustrations. Allowing them to openly voice their thoughts and opinions can also help workers release some steam and discuss their needs. Companies should implement an ongoing feedback loop. This will ensure both current and future employees are satisfied and will help them understand why furloughs and firings are necessary.

2. Provide Child Care

One-third of the U.S. workforce has a child under 14 in their home, and nearly 20 percent of them must reduce their work hours due to a lack of child care. Meanwhile, 26 percent of women had to quit their jobs to raise their kids. Only 30 percent of working parents had backup child care, highlighting the disparities between low- and high-income families.

As of December 2020, more than 25 percent of child care providers remain closed. However, more businesses are requiring employees to return to the office. Employers will have to provide free or at least discounted childcare to these workers if they’re to avoid talent shortages in the post-pandemic era. Whether it be on-location or a few blocks away, this employee benefit will help retain working parents and entice new ones to submit a job application.

3. Invest in Ongoing Training

The increasing demand for remote jobs has affected practically every business. However, industries like healthcare, hospitality, financial services, and construction are experiencing the most severe talent shortages.

These professions often require on-location workers that train under an apprentice if need be. Thus, employers can attract new talent by improving training programs and investing in ongoing learning. This arrangement also contributes to current employees’ engagement to improve retention.

4. Offer Better Benefits

Employers looking to develop a hybrid workplace environment might consider offering better benefits to on-location workers. Contrary to popular belief, this method is completely legal, as there are no federal laws requiring plans to provide the same benefit coverage to all employees.

Thus, providing childcare, learning opportunities, health insurance, 401(k) plans and other perks to on-location employees may entice more workers to stay and others to apply for such positions. Adding amenities like a fitness center, coffee shop, and even sleep pods could also bring more workers into the office and help with talent shortages.

5. Plan for Flexibility

Regardless of how many benefits you offer, some employees will still prefer to work from home. If most of the team feels similarly, supervisors might consider a flexible schedule rather than a complete company overhaul. This approach will help them save money and adapt to the ever-changing workplace environment. More importantly, it will help retain and attract cream-of-the-crop workers.

Employers should collaborate with employees to determine a schedule that works best for them. Maybe they’ll work from home every other day or only come into the office for meetings. Whatever system they choose, team members are bound to be less stressed and even more productive if they spend at least part of their workweek at home.

Finding and Retaining Talent

Ironically, finding on-location workers will require many human resource professionals and talent acquisition specialists to work remotely and use online resources. By utilizing digital job fairs, experiential events, and artificial intelligence, businesses can effectively search for and vet potential job candidates. Emerging recruitment tactics like jobcasting and gamified skill tests can also attract talented employees who don’t mind working in an office.

While this process may be incredibly stressful and expensive, it won’t go on forever. This is especially true if businesses alter their hiring and retainment strategies. As long as they incorporate the tactics above, they shouldn’t have to face a talent shortage for a long while—or at least until the next pandemic.

 

The Future of Work is Already Here: 4 Ways to Find and Keep Top Talent

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Across all sectors in the second half of 2021, corporate America is bullish on rapid growth. Offices and manufacturing plants are re-opening. Job recruitment is already ahead of pre-pandemic levels. The online job search website Indeed.com reported in early April that the number of available positions posted on its platform was 17.9 percent above its pre-pandemic baseline back in February 2020.

Large firms are not alone in seeking top talent in a resurgent economy. According to The Economist’s April 10, 2021 report on the future of work, 2020 was a record year for new company formation in the United States. In fact, more than 1.5 million new firms launched last year. Many of these startups are ramping up talent recruitment to help meet an expected surge of consumer and business demand. Adding fuel to the current competition for high-demand technical and management talent, a record-breaking $69 billion in venture investment flowed into both newly hatched and more mature startup firms in the first quarter of 2021.

Employer and Employee Expectations Out of Sync

Clearly, office doors are–or will be–wide open. Financial incentives are on the table. But will that be enough to bring top talent back to their former workday routines?

Based on recent workforce surveys and trend analysis, the answer is a resounding “No.” This is especially true for the technical and professional workers who are most in demand. It turns out that executive and investor views of the future of work are out of sync with employee expectations generated during the pandemic.

Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index outlines the findings from a study of more than 30,000 people in 31 countries. The study includes workers of all ages and experts in workforce engagement and recruiting. One of its blunt conclusions:

“Leaders are out of touch with employees and need a wake-up call.”

A striking data point:

“41 percent of the global workforce is likely to consider leaving their current employer within the next year. This number is even higher for Gen Z (54 percent). At the same time, 46 percent are planning to make a major pivot or career transition.”

A Defining Workforce Trend: YOLO

One explanation for such widespread workforce restlessness is the YOLO (You Only Live Once) spirit. In a recent New York Times article, the authors characterized YOLO as “the year’s defining workforce trend.”

With the future of work suddenly upon them, and close to half of their current employees at risk of decamping, corporate HR departments are not just competing with other established firms in finding and keeping top talent. They are up against an unprecedented combination of post-pandemic force fields. There’s the lure of startup unicorns, a deep determination among workers to live life to the fullest, and a growing sense that personal fulfillment is most attainable outside the confines of a traditional office.

How Should Employers Respond?

First, it’s time to acknowledge that hybrid work schedules are no longer innovative. Yes, this includes the flexibility to work from home on a regular basis.

Instead, they are intrinsic to the future of work. Even employees who miss face-to-face discussions with colleagues and other aspects of the physical workplace want remote work options to be available as part of their work-life going forward. Flexibility is no longer a differentiator in attracting talent–except as a strong disincentive to join a company that doesn’t provide that now must-have benefit.

Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Top Talent in 2021

If hybrid work isn’t enough, what is needed to retain and recruit top talent in 2021 successfully? Companies must embrace several innovative and interconnected strategies to create a workforce culture that matches the future-of-work reality. A forward-looking workforce recruitment strategy should start with the following four components:

1. Purpose and positive social impact as a corporate priority

Employees care deeply about the impact that their company has on the environment. They also care about their communities and social issues such as diversity, racial justice, and economic equality. Studies over the past decade report that companies prioritizing corporate social responsibility enjoy an advantage in attracting and retaining top talent of all ages. But high-minded mission statements and CEO declarations no longer suffice. In this age of critical scrutiny, results must measure up to stated social impact goals. Companies must lead with purpose; they must also prepare to follow up with transparency in reporting impact.

2. Opportunities for growth across the entire workforce

Opportunity for personal and professional growth is essential for recruiting and retaining talented workers. Traditional support for professional development needs to transcend the scope of narrow productivity goals. It must encompass learning and applying new skills in contexts that support all stakeholders. The future of work will demand that development and growth opportunities previously reserved for professional levels are available across the workforce.

3. Multi-directional mentoring

The long-standing tradition of workplace mentoring strongly correlates with increases in employee productivity, job satisfaction, and also retention. In addition to benefiting those who receive mentoring at work, studies show that the mentors report increased personal fulfillment and organizational commitment. And yet, today’s mentoring programs are too often limited in scope. They remain stuck in a seniority-based one-to-one framework. Intergenerational, peer-to-peer, and group mentoring programs can be a powerful force in overcoming workplace silos and building a culture of mutual learning and support.

4. Empowered teams

Employers must reinvent the omnipresent project team to function effectively in the world of hybrid work. They must empower team managers and members to redefine roles and balance both group and individual accountability. They must allow experimentation with different modes of collaboration and communication. After all, collaborative, empowered teams will remain an essential foundation for future workforce engagement.

The future of work is already here. And to find and keep top talent during what is already an ultra-competitive job market, companies must be ready. As they chart their course for the months ahead, companies must remember that YOLO also applies to them–and they may only have one shot at getting this right.

Image by Arturs Budkevics

Workforce Development: Using AR and VR to Strengthen Your Company

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The 21st Century has seen enterprises across all industries scramble for the latest technologies and team-building strategies to enhance workforce development. For a good reason: It’s no secret that efficiency begins with an efficient workforce.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have become popular powerhouses for employee training, recruitment, and several other HR processes. These new technology waves have made it easier to evaluate employees’ performance, test their knowledge, improve training and strengthen their teams.

What are AR and VR Technologies?

Simply, augmented reality is a highly interactive experience of a real-world environment. It enhances objects in the real world by computer-generated perceptual information. Think Snapchat filters, Pokemon Go, and even Waze.

Virtual reality, a similarly interactive experience, is a simulation of a completely different environment from the real world. The computer-generated simulation of a 3-D image or environment can be interacted with in a seemingly real way. For a truly immersive sensory experience, users must wear appropriate electronic equipment, such as a headset and gloves fitted with sensors.

Using AR and VR in Recruitment: A Two Way Street

Companies are deploying AR/VR technologies in their recruitment processes to maintain a competitive edge in the market. They need the best talent the labor market has to offer, and these technologies can help filter candidates by the most relevant skills. However, it works both ways; the best talent will look for the best and most inspiring work opportunities. And VR, in particular, helps candidates experience work environments remotely.

Recently, Lloyds Bank implemented VR into its assessment process for the Graduate Leadership Program. During the screening process, Lloyd’s asks candidates to solve puzzles in a simulated environment. Based on their results — which clearly demonstrated their strengths and weaknesses — the company more easily made recruitment decisions.

By providing a simulated view of the company, AR and VR can play another vital role in the recruiting process. After all, prospective employees can spend considerable time commuting to and from, as well as being in, a company’s workplace during the interview process. Virtual reality-based simulated environments can reduce that time and expense by providing candidates with a virtual yet holistic understanding of the working environment and team they could join. With AR and VR, a candidate can now be sitting in Shanghai as they gain a genuine feel for a company’s culture in Manhattan.

Gamification for Job Applicants

In today’s ultra-competitive job market, it’s never been more important to use innovative ways to engage with the best talent in a limited pool of qualified workers.

The use of gamification has proven to stand firm against the traditional application process since it offers something new, exciting, innovative, and — perhaps most importantly — efficient. Gamification significantly increases the interactivity of the recruitment process. Consider this, rather than gather essential candidate information through manual forms and resumes — such as qualifications, experience, and skills — a gamified approach can interactively reveal this information.

Innovative augmented reality platforms have grown to serve this growing application in recruitment screening. ActiView, for example, uses AR technology to help recruiters detect various behavioral habits and attributes required for the job.

AR and VR for General Training

Once employees are on board, training them can be costly, time-consuming, and ineffective. Virtual reality (VR) can help orient employees with all the technical skills related to their roles. By providing an immersive environment for new employee induction and training, new team members can familiarize themselves with new processes without wasting resources. Additionally, companies naturally expect employees to become more efficient in their roles with time. VR can help speed up these processes, and workforce development in general, as they get new employees more engaged and efficient faster.

For example, the hands-on training experiences opened up by VR allow employees to enter an immersive environment and gain experience using and navigating complex machinery and technical parts within a training room. By eliminating the boundaries between the real and virtual environments, employers take advantage of both realities in one setting — generating efficiencies and enabling faster learning.

 

corporate trading trade-off

 

As the graph above shows, the trade-off associated with traditional corporate training is offset by VR technology and immersive training. As illustrated, one-on-one expert mentor training is indeed an effective method. However, it’s time-consuming and expensive, which hinders a company’s ability to scale. On the other hand, reading a quick manual and watching a 2D video might be cost-effective. But precedent shows us this is the least effective training method.

AR and VR for Safety Training

Many industries, more than we initially imagine, operate to some degree in unsafe environments. This is particularly true within plants and facilities with heavy-duty machinery, chemicals, and life-threatening procedures. Virtual reality can play an essential role in facilities where safety is key.

For example, in the firefighting industry, VR-based training on new challenges has been massively beneficial. Specifically, it curbs training accidents and helps eliminate underperformance while demonstrating real-life scenarios. Trainees can apply the lessons learned anywhere an associated risk is part of the job spec.

Employers and organizations can provide a virtually created life-threatening or risky situation within an immersive environment to trainees. There, they can learn best practices and remedies and be better prepared to take on the challenge in real-life.

AR and VR for Team Building

Business managers, HR specialists, and young entrepreneurs have long since recognized the importance of building and maintaining company culture. Themes have shifted towards connectivity, embracing differences, inclusivity, and team-building strategies. Now, more than ever, they have turned to remote options to sustain a culture in a forced work-from-home environment.

When planning an in-person team-building event, of course, there are many options — from bars to restaurants to bowling alleys and pub quizzes. In these relaxed environments, team building can take many forms with different goals. Of course, these venues also come with their own sets of challenges — especially during a pandemic.

On the other hand, virtual reality is a notable and powerful team-building tool where anything is practically possible. Hang out with the team in virtual gathering rooms where everyone can join in playing games, get competitive and collaborate — from anywhere. The Rec Room is an excellent example of a multipurpose VR-based gaming resource. The platform provides companies with access to thousands of user-generated and custom gaming events that enable team building.

Workforce Development in a Nutshell

Ultimately, AR and VR eliminate the workforce development challenges faced — from recruiting to team-building — in a pre-technological world.

To strengthen your company, start leveraging the immense capabilities of AR and VR today.

 

Image by G-Stock Studios

How Small Companies Can Be Recruiting Contenders During COVID

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Hiring during the prolonged COVID-19 crisis hasn’t gotten any easier. This is especially true for smaller companies struggling to be recruiting contenders without necessarily having access to all the latest and greatest HR technology.

As many small business leaders have learned over the last year or so, the ability to attract top talent takes more than just a posting on a job board. They also know that old-school approaches like a sign in a storefront window go largely ignored. So how do small businesses compete with larger companies for talented recruits without the luxury of high-end recruiting platforms? And without internal recruiters or head-hunters to conduct searches and interview candidates?

There are some cost-effective ways for small-business owners to compete. For example, here are some areas to focus on:

  • Entice candidates by making it easy to apply (think mobile)
  • Recruit the best for your unique business
  • Introduce other team members into the interview process
  • Interview with a goal in mind
  • Make great offers and hire people who compliment your business

Here are some other areas to focus on to help your small business be a recruiting contender.

Try New Technology

You may not have a huge software budget for hiring. But there are affordable recruiting software options designed for small businesses. And they are a better solution than relying on an email inbox and a spreadsheet. The appropriate technology can help you vet candidates and become better organized. HR Tech can also expedite the hiring process, so you don’t lose good candidates by moving too slowly. 

Many of the most recent HR tech entries are built for the little guys as much as they are enterprise-level organizations. This includes recruiting software, which can help any smaller business become recruiting contenders. 

Showcase Local

You may not have the recruiting power of being a large conglomerate. But you, most likely, have greater flexibility that comes with being a local business. So your hiring pitch, especially as the pandemic continues to be an issue, should be based on staying local with no need to relocate. The pitch to candidates should emphasize the availability of remote work, a focus on family, and flexible hours. Talk also about direct access to management and mentorship. Also, discuss opportunities for advancement, continuous learning opportunities, and community involvement. 

Another option many small businesses overlook is altering their hiring strategies. So rather than putting all your recruiting eggs in one job board basket, think local. For example, visit colleges in your area to get to know the guidance counselors. Then ask them to pass along your information to promising young graduates. Social media can also be beneficial; it’s a great tool to leverage employment options that benefit you and the community.

Go Where New Talent Goes

Members of Gen Z are the first true “digital natives” in society. They grew up with all the latest innovations, including smartphones, the internet, social media, and mobile real-time connections. So they expect to have a digital relationship with any potential employer. As members of Generation Z move into the workforce, the hiring mindset of smaller companies wishing to be recruiting contenders must move with them.

What is one of the most significant issues with small businesses when attempting to attract young talent? Failing to hang out where new talent hangs out. As Liz Frazier once wrote at Forbes, “22% of recruiters surveyed have already invested in new recruitment advertising techniques like Snapchat, and text message-based recruiting.” So jump out of your comfort zone. And learn how Snapchat and TikTok can help you recruit and hire new talent.

Becoming Recruiting Contenders: Expand Your Thinking

Look beyond the hard skills and experience of the people you interview. In addition to them having the right degree or technical skills, think about how they will complement your business. Broaden your thinking to include people who are a culture add in addition to being a culture fit. 

Being a culture-add means bringing something different to the position, whether it’s a new experience, a new vision, a new approach, or just a fresh perspective. An employee who is a culture add accentuates what already exists in your workplace culture; they also bring a different dimension that is sorely needed. Who knows, you might even find someone really good at Snapchat or TikTok!

As a small-business owner, competition has always been fierce when it comes to hiring top talent.

Now, during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, every small company must be at the top of its recruiting game.

Phot by Constantin Stanciu

[#WorkTrends] Courageous Recruiting in the Age of Googlization

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Hiring is so very different today. The technology we so depend on is also our biggest challenge. To solve that challenge, we can’t hide behind “what we’ve always done.” We need more courageous recruiting!

The onset of the 2020 pandemic has escalated the need for all companies, regardless of size, to use technology to hire, onboard, and retain. But how do we leverage tomorrow’s reality when today’s technology, and hiring in general, are based on 1990s models?

Our Guest: Ira Wolfe, Author and HR Influencer

Ira Wolfe has been at the leading edge of pre-hire and leadership assessments, recruitment marketing, and workforce trends for 25 years. Thinkers360 ranks Ira as the number 1 Global Thought Leader and Influencer in the Future of Work category, and for a good reason: He is the author of six books, including Recruiting in the Age of Googlization. 

Of course, I had to start this episode of #WorkTrends by talking about how much recruiting has changed, and our now complete reliance on technology to hire and onboard — and how we’ll never go back to our “old” normal. Ira agreed: “Resilience was the buzzword of 2020. And the reality is, resilience is just bouncing back.” After pointing out that some aspects of “back” weren’t so great, Ira added: “We don’t want to bounce back! We want to help people grow stronger. As we think about going back to the workplace, we want to give people hope, confidence, and courage.”

Ira went on to say this applies to every aspect of our work right now, including how we use technology to hire:

“I’m suggesting we do things differently… we need to look at it differently. Instead of looking at how to find talent, we need to look at how we find the right talent.”

Key to Courageous Recruiting: Deliberately Improving Process

Ira and I went on to talk about many aspects of recruiting, gender and pay equity, the candidate experience, and HR technology — and there was a recurring theme: The need to improve the technology we all use to hire.

“Today, younger generations don’t just apply — they Googlize. They use technology to investigate; they find out what’s the company like, what opportunities are there, then what types of jobs are available. Then they may talk to people on LinkedIn and look at Glassdoor, Indeed, or Fairygodboss. Next, they look at what it’s like to work at that company; then, finally, they consider if it’s worth even applying. After they finally make a commitment, they can’t even navigate the employer’s career pages!” 

In other words: The job seeker has completely changed the way they find work. But employers haven’t changed how they find the right talent. 

“We must improve the way we hire people. We must rid the process of frustration, confusion, distraction, and disappointment. Employers must have the courage to care about people — and their experience.”

Ira is so right. Thankfully, we will never go back to the way it was. But as we move forward, we also must take a hard look at making the recruiting process better — and to that, perhaps we need to be more courageous.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the #WorkTrends podcast — and then I hope you find a way to fill your employees full of hope, confidence, and courage.

Find Ira on LinkedIn and learn more about his work at Success Performance Solutions.

Editor’s note: We’ve designed your FAQ page and #WorkTrends Podcast pages to be more fun and productive. Please take a look!

 

Photo: Vlada Parkovich

4 Proven Ways to Improve Recruiting and Remote Hiring

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To say COVID-19 has changed the recruiting and remote hiring would be an understatement. For a start, it’s likely you’re relying more heavily on the expertise of the rest of your HR team, your recruiter, or business leaders while navigating the interview and remote onboarding process. To help you improve the remote hiring process, we’ve put together our top four tips for interviewing virtually, including how to answer some tough questions from candidates.

1. Decide on the Remote Hiring Process 

Before you do anything else, decide on the steps involved in the remote hiring process. Make sure everyone understands the types of interviews and stages the candidates will have to go through. This also allows an opportunity to offer candidates an outline of what to expect. This will be an unfamiliar situation for most, so planning and preparation are key. For example: The free version of Zoom limits meetings to 40 minutes. So, ensure everyone understands the rigid time frame.

If you’re using an agency to help you? Be sure to allow for scheduled follow-up calls with the agency. This will help to keep the process you’ve decided on to move more efficiently.

2. Produce an Information Pack for Candidates 

A great employer branding tool, an information pack can be prepared by and sent to the candidates before the interview/s. The pack can include: 

  • Background information about the company
  • What they should expect from each stage of the interview process 
  • What you’re looking for in an ideal candidate 
  • The technology and login details required (for example: Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc.)
  • Point of contact details throughout the interview process 

Sending this information to the candidate will help them have a great candidate experience. It will also allay some of their anxiety while enabling them to prepare to the best of their ability.

3. Encourage Managers to Use a Scorecard

A job interview in person is hard enough. Throw in video technology, and the degree of difficulty increases. When it comes to video interviews, keep your job as simple as possible. That way, you can focus more on making a fair assessment of each candidate. One way to do this: Produce a scorecard unique to the position the candidates are interviewing for. By isolating the top skills or qualities and giving them each a score out of 5, 10 or 20 (depending on the weighting of each), it allows you to quantify where a candidate sits. The scorecard can also help eliminate unconscious biases. After all, managers will only score in relation to the candidates’ demonstrated skills.

4. Prepare for Tough Questions from Candidates 

During the remote hiring process, chances are there will be questions you and the hiring manager may not know how to answer. So prepare ahead of time for some of the most common candidate questions. Below are a few of these questions with tips on how to prepare for them. 

What’s the workplace culture like? 

As the majority of candidates going through the remote interview process won’t have been to your offices, you should explain what it’s like for a newcomer. Things to mention include virtual social activities, daily/weekly catch-ups and the technology you use to keep your staff connected. 

Once hired, what should I expect from the onboarding process? 

The minute details are not helpful here. Instead, provide a high-level overview of the virtual onboarding process. Mention any hardware that would be sent to the new starter’s home and give an outline of the first week of induction/training sessions. It may also be worth mentioning if your workplace organizes a work buddy for new starters and who would be responsible for leading the onboarding process, whether it’s someone from the HR team or the new starter’s line manager. 

How well is the company working remotely?

This question is a good opportunity to mention any wins or challenges the company has faced. Assure the interviewee a remote onboarding process exists. You can also mention how regularly the company meets online and the other ways everyone keeps in touch – whether by Slack, Zoom, emails or phone calls. 

What has your company learned from the transition to working from home? 

Similar to the above, think about any learning curves the company has faced while working from home, whether they have had to do with systems, communication or staff surveys. A candidate may also want to know if the company now recognizes the value in working from home if this wasn’t already in place.  

What types of measures are you looking at to return to the office safely?

While you’re probably still figuring out the details of the policy that will allow a safe return to the office, you should be able to mention the aspects you’re considering. These could include staggered start times, transport options, an increase in remote working or providing PPE. 

Tell me about your flexible working policies?

The answer to this question is likely something all candidates will want to know. If you aren’t already aware, talk to management to find out the company’s thoughts. In some cases, work practices aren’t affected or will not be reduced. In that case, then simply explain why the company has taken this stance. 

The remote hiring process is new for many of us. Which makes this is a great time to learn new hiring methods. Put these tips to work, and hire the best candidates!