Tag: talent acquisition

For Job Seekers, the Black Hole Persists

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, New Job
By LAUREN WEBER

Why am I not getting calls back for my application? What’s the deal…am I not good enough? These are the thoughts of job applicants these days. They are being treated like a piece of paper and not an actual person.
People invest time in their career. Isn’t it fair to treat them like humans, not paper? Referring back to my Optimization page (Gail and Richie) depicts the life of a recruiter and how hiring managers think of applicants, “where’s my resumes?”. 
People, we need to open our eyes as this article shows, recruiters are acting as if these real people are merely a piece of paper and it is okay if we don’t call them back. I’m here to tell you, it is not. These people want to work for you and they should not have to put their lives on hold until (if ever) they hear from you. 
Thank you, Lauren, for this great article below. ~The Organic Recruiter
Most of today’s online job applications still enter a black hole.

Frank N. Stein had a stellar resume—he was an Ivy League graduate, with stints as a corporate recruiter at Johnson & Johnson and Russell Reynolds, and his CV was loaded with the keywords needed to float to the top of today’s automated job-applicant software.

He was also not a real person, a fact noted at the bottom of his one-page resume.

Even so, recruiters at only two of the 100 companies where he applied for jobs read far enough to discover that Stein was a fiction designed to “mystery shop” the job-seeker experience. The ruse was created by recruiting consulting firm CareerXroads, according to a report released Monday.

What does that tell Mark Mehler, a founder of CareerXroads?

“Recruiters read the first three paragraphs of a resume,” he said. “That’s all the job seeker is going to get.” And that only counts those whose resumes pass through the automated keyword screening that winnows a set of applications from hundreds to a few dozen.

Every year, Kendall Park, N.J.-based CareerXroads submits a fake resume through the career websites of the companies on Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work Forlist, to assess the recruiting practices of some of the most well-respected employers in the country, including Google Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Deloitte LLP.

The results are generally dismal, as they were again this year. Job seekers’ main complaint—that they shoot their applications into a black hole—was confirmed.

Out of the 100 companies, 64 never sent Stein any notification that he was not being considered for the job for which he had applied. Months after submitting his resume, he “was left hanging in the breeze,” said Mehler. Overwhelmingly in job seeker surveys, candidates tell CareerXroads “they just want to know, ‘am I in or out?’ They don’t want to keep chasing and wondering.”

Six of the employers followed up with Stein wanting to schedule interviews, two uncovered the ruse, and 28 eventually notified him that the position had been filled, or at least that he wasn’t in the running.

Worst of all, 28 is the highest number of companies extending that courtesy in the twelve years CareerXroads has conducted the Mystery Job Seeker survey.

There’s no excuse for those oversights, Mehler said, given that those communications can be automated easily in today’s applicant tracking systems, the software that stores job applications.

Most systems have the capacity to do this, but major corporations don’t use those features because they’re scared that opening the lines of communication will lead to lawsuits, too many phone calls to recruiters, and too many questions they can’t answer, he said.

There were bits of good news from Frank N. Stein’s experience. Nearly all employers now send an email acknowledging receipt of a job application. In addition, career websites are easier to navigate than in previous years, and employers have gotten better at streamlining the application so that it takes less time to complete – in most cases, 10 minutes or less.

Another pleasant surprise, according to Mehler: Stein had been unemployed by choice for a year (he had rejected six job offers as poor fits for him, then took a 6-month sabbatical to bicycle across the country), and still received interest from six of the 98 employers who thought he was a real person. “That’s huge,” said Mehler. “It shows that if you write a good resume and have great experience behind you, you can still find a job.”

Lauren Weber

Reporter, The Wall Street Journal.
Lauren Weber writes about workplace issues and careers for the Wall Street Journal.

WHAT ATTRACTS THE BEST EMPLOYEES TO A COMPANY?

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Retention, Employment Value Proposition, Latest News and Articles

by Brandon Rigoni and Bailey Nelson | February 16th 2016

With the creation of such sites as Indeed’s Forums and Glassdoor, employees have had vehicles to share the good the bad and the ugly about the companies they work for.  This has become damaging to companies as they have now lost control of their Employment Value Proposition or their Why People Want to Work Here statements.  This can cost a lot of money for employee retention, attraction and in many cases loss in revenue.  But you do not have to leave this in the hands of the forums and blog sites. We can help you here. What are you doing today to keep a good employment brand? ~The Organic Recruiter

 Highlights of this article:

  • First, companies need to study their best performers
  • A strong employee value proposition attracts talent
  • An effective EVP sets a company apart

When leaders see their best performers achieve business outcomes, they no doubt wish they could get more similarly talented people to apply to and join their company.

Apple’s brilliantly defined employment brand not only speaks to people with a strong desire to learn and grow, but also says a lot about the company’s culture and what it values.

Gallup meta-analysis results suggest that when companies select the top 20% most talented candidates for a role, they frequently realize a 10% increase in productivity, a 20% increase in sales, a 30% increase in profitability, a 10% decrease in turnover and a 25% decrease in unscheduled absences.

Best Practices From Companies With Strong EVPs The right talent selection and management practices offer a powerful approach to human capital that should be central to any leader’s business strategy.

Companies with the very best EVPs apply the following best practices:

  • They understand their best performers
  • They connect their applicant messages to their culture
  • They differentiate themselves from the competition

Companies can use an evidence-based approach to develop a definitive guide for attracting applicants with the most potential to thrive.

Just because a candidate has the talent to be a top performer in a role doesn’t mean he or she is a good fit for a company’s organizational culture.

A company’s applicant attraction message should help it stand out from its competitors and provide potential hires with compelling reasons to choose the company as a workplace.

To ensure companies are differentiating themselves, they need to analyze their employment brand’s effectiveness and authenticity and then compare their brand with competitors’ to capitalize on differentiators.

When a company’s EVP highlights the company’s unique qualities, it can set the business apart, win the attention of desirable applicants and promote the company’s brand.

The company discovered that candidates who were more likely to have successful careers after they were hired were the ones most excited during their interviews about future-oriented aspects of the job, such as opportunities to learn and grow and to advance in their careers.

Even though the company pays very well, its job ads don’t mention compensation because it would attract the wrong kind of applicant.

Companies spend a lot of time and money on marketing campaigns to attract loyal customers.

Studying top performers is a necessary first step; leaders then need to craft an EVP that accurately reflects their company’s culture and sets it apart from the competition.

With the right type of applicant knocking at a company’s door, leaders can be more selective about whom they hire, and they can fill every position with someone who is the right fit. When leaders focus on attracting a large quantity of applicants rather than on attracting high-quality applicants, however, they miss the mark significantly.

With the right type of applicant knocking at a company’s door, leaders can be more selective about whom they hire, and they can fill every position with someone who is the right fit. ~full article

For case-studies, please call or email me today

HOW TO MANAGE CANDIDATE DATA FOR MAXIMUM INSIGHTS

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Big Data, Latest News and Articles

by Charlene Li, Founder and CEO, Altimeter Group | February 2016

Data, data, data – The talent industry has been talking about this for the last 5 years and unfortunately it gets more confusing each year. The biggest problem is that we buy systems that collect data, but rare is the company that knows how to use this data well when they get it.  For more information on how to manage your data, please ask me about Eightfold.ai. ~The Organic Recruiter

In this excerpt from our new e-book The Digital Transformation of Recruitment, author Charlene Li discusses how the ability to get good data—and act on it—is critical for today’s recruiter.

At the center of the digital transformation is the unified management of candidate data, which gives you the ability to develop and act on deep candidate insights. Many organizations have some type of applicant tracking system (ATS), which is a good starting point.

Layer in data from identity platforms like Gigya and Janrain that link to social media profiles on channels like Facebook and Twitter. And then add on behavior and engagement data from platforms like Adobe, HubSpot, Marketo, Oracle, or Salesforce.

Comcast invested in the development of a candidate relationship management platform that went beyond tracking applicants’ progress through a hiring process, to capturing all interactions, even using social listening tools to integrate unstructured social data. And early in their digital transformation process, staffing firm Kforce realized the importance of deep, unified candidate data. Glen Cathey, senior vice president of talent and innovation at Kforce, explains, “I know that there is predictive value to information and I want to be the company that can best leverage this data in the war for talent.”

Kforce takes a “Moneyball” approach, searching through resumes, interview notes, and even social media profiles and behavior data to identify the traits of a good fit or a high performer among those who are already employees. Kforce then looks for those traits in candidates’ profiles and behavior data.

“You can find information, chats, interview notes, that give you a more complete picture,” he says. “I’m looking for patterns to more quickly identify people who are more likely to be the right match.”

If you are at the start of your digital transformation process, start small. A simple step is to use social login as your registration tool because it can link profiles across an organization (ATS, customer service, transactions, etc). The goal isn’t to build a complete 360-degree view of the candidate. Instead, identify the key pieces of data that will allow you to create a better candidate experience immediately, given that the people, processes, and organization are evolving as well. Knowledge may be power but it’s useless unless you can act on it.

Charlene Li is founder and CEO of Altimeter Group, a research and consulting firm that helps companies understand—and act on—digital disruption. She is also the author of the bestselling books Open Leadership, Groundswell, and The Engaged Leader. Recently, she has been working with Monster to help recruiters understand how they can respond to changes in the industry. This article is excerpted from a new e-book she’s written called The Digital Transformation of Recruitment that offers recruiters advice on how to develop their talent brand, scale with employee advocacy, and build digital operational excellence. download your free copy here.

YOU CAN’T KEEP FAKING IT! 3 WAYS TO FULLY COMMIT TO MAKING SUCCESSFUL CHANGE

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Retention, Employment Value Proposition, Latest News and Articles

By Scott Span | February 5, 2016

Often, we talk to customers about their EVP (Employment Value Proposition) or rather why does someone want to work for you and they say…well we are working on that.  I find that when I hear that, they really aren’t working on that and telling stakeholders they’re getting to it. I believe its more paralysis by analysis, therefore perpetuating the problem of why it’s so hard to retain or recruit great talent.  If we keep faking it, we’ll only be fake and employees and job seekers can smell it a mile away ~The Organic Recruiter

Stop faking change! Stop paying it lip service and not taking supporting actions. Commit to change or don’t even bother. Change is hard. I write about it a lot because how you navigate change impacts whether you will succeed or fail.

It doesn’t need to be costly or painful

Because change is hard, all too often organizations fake change. That means this: They expect change to happen in an environment where they are unwilling to commit to the support needed to make the change a success – unwilling to change processes, culture, strategy and the way they work.

Sounds counter-intuitive, right?

It is. And it’s costing your organization productivity, performance and profit.

Organizational problems are linked together, and change in one area often impacts other areas. New business initiatives, new technology, new processes and procedures, leadership changes – all require new behaviors and ways of doing things.

Organizational change is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean it has to be painful or costly. So how do you stop faking change?  First you need to acknowledge how you’re faking change before you can fix it.

You really gotta walk the walk

Communication is a key part of managing change. Are you really providing supporting processes, structures, and culture for open and honest communication? Are you sending the right messages to the right audiences at the right time?

And is everyone inside the organization – from the executives down to the interns – aware of the changes, how it will impact them, and can contribute towards making the change a success?

If not, then you’re faking change. Stakeholders can tell when they’re getting lip service and it does have a negative impact on commitment. Walk the walk and lead the change effort by example.

But, it’s how we’ve always done it

Culture is the way work gets done around here.  One of the hardest parts about causing positive change is changing the status quo – how things have always been done. But you have to change if you want to be successful. You’ve got to commit to the new way – fully.

If the leaders aren’t willing to change their behaviors, or work to change the behaviors of others to support the change, then how do you expect the change effort to be successful? Your job as the leader is to lead.

You MUST make the time to be the face of the change and prioritize engaging with stakeholders. That includes leading in changing the culture if needed to support a new way of doing things.

Fix broken processes

Change in one area often impacts other areas. This requires revamping or doing away with old processes or creating new processes to support the change. You can’t keep trying to use old processes designed to support the old way of doing things and expect a new result. You should do a detailed process inventory and analysis so you have an accounting of your processes, identify which processes need attention, which may need to be created, and then communicate the changes to the team – and train them how to follow them.

The moral of the story is this: You can fake change all you want, but if you really want positive change to be a success, lip service won’t cut it. You must commit to a new way of doing things.

HOW GOOD INTERVIEWS BECOME BAD HIRES

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Retention, Interviewing

By Scott Wintrip | December 3, 2015

Just like a few good dates with an attractive person of interest can lead to a bad relationship, a good series of interviews with a talented job candidate can lead to a bad hire.

Why do our business leaders make poor hiring choices? Common culprits include: Weak interviewing skills; Inaccurate hiring criteria; Poor cultural fit; Dishonest candidates; Hasty hiring decisions; All of these factors can cause hiring mistakes.

Your Hiring Style ultimately affects your particular flavor of perceptual blindness, so understand what your Hiring Style is.

When you understand your Hiring Style, you can remove the blinders from your eyes and avoid making bad hires.

  • Tacklers tend to hire candidates they think will condense timelines and hit targets fast.

  • Tailors tend to hire candidates they think are capable of cultivating strong workplace relationships.

  • Testers tend to hire candidates who offer quantitative evidence that they’re right for the job.

~ for complete article click here: http://www.eremedia.com/ere/how-good-interviews-become-bad-hires/