Category: Hiring

Five Things to Help Recruit Veterans to Your Business

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, Military, Monster, New Job

So you have a military initiative, but you do not know what your goals are.  I hope it’s not to check a box, but rather it is to hire rock stars from the military.  There are huge advantages to hiring veterans outside of the credits the government offers.

Traits I look for that most veterans already possess:

1. Camaraderie
2. Communication
3. Professionalism and Respect
4. Ability to Perform in Stressful Situations
5. Problem-Solving Skills:
6. Leadership 

If you are having a hard time seeing this in these candidates, please let’s talk so I can share more best practices and shed some light on how to make it easier. ~ The Organic Recruiter

Nearly 250,000 service-members transition out of the armed services every year. And, this talented pool of job seekers looks for military-friendly companies that will put their hard-earned skills to good use.

Veterans have much to offer the civilian workforce — many are educated, disciplined, professional, self-starters, detail oriented and have a very strong work ethic. It only makes sense for companies to tout themselves as military friendly to attract these highly qualified people.

Many large corporations — such as Halliburton, Wal-Mart, and Best-Buy, to name few — compete to attract veterans, but the ones that promote themselves as military friendly are the ones that veterans gravitate towards. So how do you make your company stand out against all the other military-friendly companies?

Here are five recruiting practices that will help your company draw in veterans:

  1. Develop a winning military recruiting strategy. This recruitment strategy can include attending job fairs on military installations, or posting open positions on military job boards, such as Military.com’s Careers Channel. American Electric Power, a provider of electricity to more than 5 million customers, improved their veteran recruitment practices by attending Military.com-sponsored Career fairs, in addition to posting AEP jobs on the website. Since listing AEP’s job openings on Military.com’s job board, the company garnered more veteran job candidates and solidified its reputation as a military-friendly employer.
  2. Leverage networks and your existing team members. Ask your workforce, especially those that are former military, if they can refer any unit buddies or other veterans for open positions in your company. Additionally, Military.com’s Veterans Career Network is a great resource to find qualified future employees.
  3. Market your organization as an employer of choice. In order to do this you must build your company’s brand in the military community. You can highlight veterans that work in your organization and talk about all of the good work they do. In addition, you can create military-specific collateral — brochures, hats, buttons — for your company.
  4. Utilize existing government and private initiatives. Websites such as Military.com, HireVetsFirst.gov, TurboTap.org, HelmetstoHardhats.org and USAJobs.gov, are great resources for recruiting top veteran applicants. What’s more, most of these resources will let you post open position free of charge.
  5. Know how to translate military jargon into civilian skills. Use veterans in your organization as mentors for new recruits. The mentors can help prospective employees translate military skills into skills that civilian employers will understand. Military.com offers a skills translator that can translate these military skills.

originally published at Military.com – http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/how-to-recruit-veterans-for-your-business.html

 

ARE YOU EVER TOO OLD FOR AN INTERNSHIP?

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Hiring, Interviewing, Military, Uncategorized

In the new film “The Intern,” Robert De Niro goes back to the first rung on the ladder to re-energize his career. But what’s great for the movies isn’t always the best move in real life.

by Vicki Salemi, Monster career expert | September 25, 2015

Albeit, this article only mentions the military once, I find this to be a very appropriate way to step back into civilian life for our Veterans.  I met with a very dynamic recruitment manager this week who works for a recognizable social media company who expressed his thirst for great veterans as they have a fellowship (6 months to a year) where the candidates work in different departments based on their MOS (military occupational specialty) or interest with the hopes of bringing them on at the end of the fellowship.

It’s really hard to hire military these days because it is intimidating for the recruiter and hiring manager to understand how they fit based on their profile.  With a little discipline and change of mindset, you can hire the best talent from a great pool of candidates transitioning out.  ~ The Organic Recruiter

Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro share the big screen in The Intern, out today. In this role-reversal comedy, Hathaway’s character, Jules Ostin, runs an online fashion website, while De Niro’s character, a 70-something widower, re-enters the workforce as her intern after he realizes retirement isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

When we think of interns we typically think of college students or recent college grads—ready to roll up their sleeves and learn the ropes.

But older interns are trending, at least in Hollywood. A Tina Fey comedy recently picked up by NBC is a similar play on the theme: An overly involved mom from New Jersey gets an internship at her daughter’s workplace, a cable news network. And in the 2013 movie, The Internship, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn played down-on-their-luck career salesmen starting over as interns at Google, where all of their peers are 30 years their junior.

Suffice to say, that the silver screen doesn’t always accurately portray life off screen. So, in reality, would taking an internship have been the right move for the late-career De Niro?

You’re never too old

I believe that there are some instances that pursuing an internship mid-career can make sense. In particular, if you’re looking to start a new career, rebooting an old one (like De Niro’s retired Whittaker or a stay-at-home mom re-entering the workforce) or returning to civilian life after the military an internship is OK.

And in fact, in such cases, an internship can help you open the door to reposition your future.

But you’ll face hurdles

Although you’re never too old for an internship, you’ll have to overcome the stigma of hiring managers to get one. Recruiters are often looking for fresh young talent that they can mold into tomorrow’s leaders—while paying them little to nothing.

That may be the biggest challenge. Once you’ve hit mid-career, your financial obligations have likely blossomed, and many people don’t have the resources to quit their jobs to work for free.

So you might consider the alternatives

Remember that an internship is not  your only option as you re-route your career goals. For instance, you can temp. This way, the company can try you on for size while you get a hang of the industry and company culture and take home a paycheck.

Another option: part-time employment in the field, if you can find a department that is expanding or going through a busy season. This route works well when there’s at least one key transferable skill that’s integral to the job. Try to connect the dots from your former role to your aspirational one. By being strategic about where you apply, working to prove yourself once you’re brought on and continuing to network internally you’ll hopefully be able to make your mark as their next best hire.

Finally, you might consider volunteering on the side of your day job with a relevant non-profit that would help you build the skills you need to make a shift. That way you can keep the paycheck coming while you’re getting the experience you need.

And if you do go the intern route…

Be sure to set your tasks and goals for a fixed period of time. Going into an unpaid internship with an indefinite, unlimited timeframe is not ideal if you’re older. Don’t forget: You’re arriving on Day 1 with a plethora of skills and years of experience, just not within that particular industry.

Act like De Niro’s Whittaker and recognize that you’re likely the low person on the totem pole, having to pay your dues all over again as you learn new skills. Be clear with new colleagues and indicate that you’re not above doing anything assigned to you.

People may feel guilty giving you “busy” or “trivial” work since you’re older, so you should specifically mention you’re there to work on whatever they need accomplished. It’s likely you’ll get higher-level responsibilities quickly.

Impress with your work, and that will help you gain valuable contacts.

Who knows, you may find yourself informally mentoring your younger peers—maybe even your boss—which is a tremendous path toward a fulfilling new job or career

New LinkedIn Recruiter – Is It Worth The Big Bucks?

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Hiring, Latest News and Articles, Monster, Tools

Without sounding like I am speaking ill of my competition, I want to preface this that I use LinkedIn everyday and I admit I pay $25 a month because I am grandfathered in on the top level-account for dirt cheap so it makes for a great business expense.

This all being said, I agree a ton with the article below as I find hundreds of prospects a week without paying much (my $25 for LinkedIn gives me merely a few contacts), but remember Linkedin is a brag sheet and does not give you the whole story of the candidate / prospect you are looking for.  Also, it takes a ton of work to validate the information.  Coupled with LinkedIn, I use a ton of Chrome extensions as well as Monster (I work here), TalentBin (phenomenal tool, owned by Monster) and gosh darn it, awesome boolean skills.

To the writer’s point, here is a google string I used to use for Java Developers in LA.  And if that isn’t enough, here is one using a backdoor to LinkedIn, albeit gives me 3,800 to my google 223. Now you do your own math of efficiency for time to fill and cost of a recruiter.  Do you want to wait for 3,800 potential developers to open your inmail when it takes upwards of 50 days to get them to respond and half of them go into their social box if they have gmail.

Even if I didn’t work for Monster, I would still say TalentBin, pound for pound is the best choice if you were to pay for anything.  it gives you access to over 400M profiles and 70% of them have either personal emails and phone numbers or both as well as all their social footprints and why they are perfect for your job.

~The Organic Recruiter

By  | SourceCon

It’s safe to say that while some recruiters would argue LinkedIn Recruiter is worth big bucks, there are many others who would say that LinkedIn Recruiter is not worth the time of day as most of the data can be found by anyone for free online these days. So why pay the big bucks?

There was an ambivalence within me when I attended a LinkedIn event two weeks ago where they showcased their next generation LinkedIn Recruiter product. I wasn’t sure if the product was as good as they say and I wanted to find out what all the hype was. By the end of the product demo, I must say I was not convinced.

So according to the LinkedIn, the new product is much simpler, faster, and more intuitive to use. LinkedIn Recruiter essentially is an advanced search engine that finds profiles using parameters such as job titles, skills, and company names. It will show you other terms you can add to your search and provide you a list of potential profiles, helping you quickly review the matches for your open job.

If you have a potential employee in mind (assuming they are on LinkedIn) simply enter their name and LinkedIn Recruiter will guide you in building your search. For example, if you were to search for Java Developers, LinkedIn Recruiter will automatically generate a list based on top skills, companies, location and more. If you can’t find who you’re looking for, you can narrow the search by adding sections based on elements within the profile (e.g. school, current company, years of experience, etc.).

I guess many of you reading this are thinking – If the next generation of LinkedIn Recruiter is so intuitive and is able to do all these by itself, then it must be pretty cool and really is worth the big bucks!

However, it’s not all conquering as they make us recruiters believe.

The Challenge

As a recruiter, you must have realized by now that candidates are an innovative bunch and they express themselves in many different ways on LinkedIn. Have a read of this blog I had written and you will know what I mean.

Think of all the available LinkedIn data produced by these candidates as the haystack, keeping in mind LinkedIn today has 450 million profiles globally, and all the targeted profiles in your search as the needles. The haystack is getting bigger by the minute, therefore, the needles are getting buried deeper and deeper. Even now, some of these needles are making themselves “ghosts” so you and I can’t find them, hence, your targeted profiles are becoming harder to spot by the minute.

Even if you had gone through the haystack, how can you be sure that have you found all the needles? With all the variation in the data, are you certain you haven’t missed any potential needles (or profiles) during your search?

Can you rely on LinkedIn Recruiter to do this for you? I don’t think so, well not to the level you need.

Let’s forget about LinkedIn Recruiter for a moment.

Remember that the process of candidate searching is all about data retrieval and pattern recognition.

It’s a systematic approach to:

  1. Gather your requirements (what you need to search for)
  2. Run your search
  3. Review your results
  4. Identify the patterns and false positives (e.g. exclude terms you don’t want)
  5. Modify and re-run your search
  6. Continue the above 5 steps until you get it right and are confident you haven’t missed anything

It’s about the Execution

You can have the fastest car in the race, but if you don’t have the skill to steer it around the track without crashing, then having the best car is not a guarantee you will always win the race.

Now apply this analogy onto LinkedIn Recruiter. Sourcing is more about how you execute your search by following an iterative/systemic approach rather than just keying parameters into a search field. I know that practicing iterative/systemic approach in my search whether using LinkedIn Recruiters or my free LinkedIn account will enable me to uncover the profiles most can’t.

For me, I will always trust my search capability and don’t see the need to pay LinkedIn the big bucks, even if they have a much simpler, faster, and more intuitive search function. It’s free all the way for me.

What about you?

This post originally appeared on the ATC Blog.

10 TIPS TO MANAGING INTERVIEW CANCELLATIONS AND NO SHOWS

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job

by Katie Calhoun | February 16th 2016

Ever wonder why your candidates are cancelling or gosh darn it, no showing?  Don’t just blame them, let’s take some accountability and in return take action.  Below are some causes.  What kind of effects are you willing to create?  ~The Organic Recruiter

As the war for talent has once again heated up, candidates are no longer willing to wait long for interviews. Before you pull your hair out, take a moment to consider the candidate’s point of view. On the other hand, young candidates may be fearful and intimidated.

Why would you care if they don’t show up? You’ll just move on to the next person on your list, right? Whether experienced professionals or college grads, job candidates today are focused on one thing: finding the company that gives them the best feeling and makes getting hired easy.

It’s important to note that the best way to prevent cancellations and no shows is to truly invest time in building rapport with a candidate, selling the job opportunity to the candidate, and gaining a firm buy-in from them regarding their interest in working at the company.

By building rapport with a candidate, you can earn their trust, learn about their career goals and how those goals align with the current opportunity.

It’s equally as important to be able to articulate what the career path is in the company, so you can provide candidates with a bigger picture of where this current position might lead them.

Another thing that makes a difference is to truly understand what the candidate’s salary requirements are and how that relates to the position being offered.

If the candidate’s request is too far out of range, do they still want to interview for a job that offers less money? If so, it needs to be vetted with the candidate, otherwise you risk having them decide at the last minute that the pay cut won’t work.

Are they truly willing to relocate? How committed are they to that decision? Learn as much as you can about what are deal-breakers for candidates to ensure that only candidates who are truly willing to work the job, where it’s located, for the salary offered, are the ones who interview.In addition to that, here are 10 practical tips to help reduce candidate cancellations and no shows:

    1. Reduce interview lag time – Work with hiring managers to schedule interviews as soon as possible. Try not to go beyond two weeks. Don’t let someone else be faster than you.
    2. Coach hiring managers on the importance of not rescheduling interviews – Rescheduling gives candidates the impression that their time is not valued. They will interview where they are clearly wanted.
    3. Set expectations up front with candidates – Find out if they are interviewing elsewhere. Open a dialogue to gauge their true interest level in your company and what factors they weigh as priorities when considering and accepting offers. Ask them to notify you if they need to cancel or withdraw from consideration and provide contact information to do so.
    4. Provide flexible, upcoming interviewing schedules – The best candidates receive many interview offers and often have tight schedules to work around. How can you make the process easier? Can you interview over Skype? Phone? Offer after-hours or weekends? Offer flexible, pre-determined interview options to get on their calendar right away.
    5. Keep communicating with candidates – Schedule an email or text message campaign so that candidates hear from your company with interesting information every few days before the interview. Also, provide candidates with answers to questions, interview prep, what to expect at the interview, etc. And reinforce why your culture is a great place to spend their careers.
    6. Confirm interviews more than once – Email and phone candidates to confirm their intention to attend the interview. But don’t just confirm. Welcome them as you would a guest. Let them know how much you appreciate their time and interest.
    7. Text candidates – Millennials especially communicate by text message. This is an effective way to confirm and also to solicit feedback if they do not show.
    8. Build a stronger bench – If you normally present three candidates and find that you are experiencing a high rate of cancellations or no-shows, consider presenting five candidates to make up for it.
    9. Find out why candidates are dropping out – It may be hard to do, but if you can survey those who cancelled or failed to show, you’ll gain valuable insight into what factors are playing into this phenomenon. Was a recruiter rude? Did the timing just not work? Were they treated better somewhere else? Did they feel unprepared? Ask questions and report on it on a regular basis.
  • See the silver lining – Ultimately, candidates who fail to show or call may not be the most considerate or dependable employees. Be thankful that their behavior showed up early and prevented you from a potential bad hire.

THE 10 BEST INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO ASK

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job

by Dona DeZube, President at DeZube Publications Corp.

No one wants to be told they sound like a broken record, so I won’t say that to you. I will however share with you why these questions will streamline your interview process and allow the best to be identified faster.  Remember, your candidates have been to this rodeo before.

If you are new to recruiter or a recruitment Jedi, I am here to tell you there is no perfect way to interview, but asking the wrong questions make your Time-to-Fill longer and you frustrate the hiring managers with not-so-good candidates.  My hope is you can pepper in a few, if not all, of these questions in your game. ~The Organic Recruiter

The best interview questions tell you about the person behind the resume, revealing the job candidate’s personality, strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, skills and abilities. The best interview questions also benefit job seekers by giving them an opportunity to speak to details that don’t fit on a resume.

While a savvy interviewer always includes questions tailored to the position, our list of the 10 best questions works across a variety of industries and job descriptions:

  1. From everything you’ve learned about this role, me and our company, tell me how you feel you’d make a contribution.

This interview question sorts people into two categories: contenders and also-rans.

  1. Why should we hire you?

This sets them apart from the intense competition in today’s job market.

Faced with a big stack of resumes telling a similar story, this question helps you determine the best candidate.

An interviewee who does a great job explaining how her unique experience, education, industry credentials, and personal interests will power your business will do the same thing for your company once hired. 

If you could start your career over again, what would you do differently?

Asking a candidate to explain the major decisions he has made, highlighting the positive and negative, reveals the person’s ability to make calculated decisions based on past professional and personal experiences.

It also lets candidates share their vision for the future and their ambitions.

  1. When I contact your last supervisor and ask which area of your work needs the most improvement, what will I learn?

“No amount of finesse will influence this answer because when the supervisor is brought into the conversation, the candidate knows the truth will come out anyway. Essentially, it’s the same question as ‘what is your biggest weakness,’ phrased in an unexpected way.”

  1. Describe the best boss you ever reported to.

This is a great interview question because it tells you about past relationships.

 Tell me about what motivates you. 

If what drives the interviewee matches the position and your corporate culture, you have a winner.

  1. What frustrates you?

When the candidate then talks about past frustrations, he reveals details about his personality, diplomacy skills and ability to work on teams.

  1. Tell me about the toughest negotiation you’ve ever been in.

The best negotiators answer this question by laying out both sides of the problem and then explaining how they aligned the issues or followed a process to a mutually-agreeable solution.

  1. How do you involve your staff when an important company strategy decision needed to be made? 

The candidate’s answer tells you whether a manager is secure enough to involve others in strategic decision-making, says Jayne Mattson, senior vice president, Keystone Associates, Boston, a career management firm.

  1. Where do you see yourself in five years?

With this question, it’s not what the candidate says but how she says it that’s important, says Joey V. Price, CEO of Jumpstart HR, a managed HR services firm in Washington, D.C.

“If you see someone’s eyes light up at the thought of the future, then you can tell this is a very ambitious person who knows where they want to go and will do everything in their power to help ensure your organization gets them there.”

For the complete article – http://bit.ly/10bestInterviewquestions