The Circle Back Initiative, founded by Steve Gard of Talentrich, is a commitment by employers to respond to every applicant that applies. The purpose of this initiative is to improve the experience candidates receive after submitting a job application.

After being in talent acquisition for a number of years, Gard established Talentrich to assist talent acquisition functions in corporates around the world. He also supported provided training to recruiters to help them improve their capabilities. Unfortunately, during COVID-19, this work became scarce, as it was difficult to get onsite.

“With this spare time, I volunteered for Jobs for Australia, doing jobseeker coaching over Zoom,” said Gard. “I saw their hope and anxiety –in the amount of effort they put it in to get their CVs right and preparing for interviews–and saw so many of them not hearing back about their applications. I thought, ‘what can we do to change this?’”

Many of us will be familiar with the job ad statement: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Gard was determined to change this negative terminology into something positive. This lead to the Circle Back Initiative.

The five employer standards

As part of the Circle Back Initiative, employers commit to the following five standards:

• Every applicant receives an “application received” email
• Every unsuccessful application receives an outcome email
• Every candidate online assessed or phone interviewed receives an outcome email
• Every candidate interviewed receives an outcome/feedback call
• Job adverts do not include statements such as: “only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.”

“Employers sign up and commit to the initiative. Hopefully, with a collective of employers making this commitment, it will become the norm for every candidate to receive feedback.”

In positioning the initiative, it’s tempting to promote benefits for the employers. For example, positive employer branding and customer retention (as applicants are often customers). Interestingly, however, Gard steers clear of this.

“My priority is the welfare of jobseekers during this time. Being ghosted is massively impactful.”

“Every article I read about candidate care talks about the benefits for employers. Right now, many people are involuntary jobseekers. As employers, we’re asking them to apply. The very least we can do is respond. Of course, there are benefits for employers. But my priority is the welfare of job seekers during this time. Being ghosted is massively impactful. Employers should have the tech and processes to respond.”

Owning the outcome

While many HR teams are experiencing pressure right now, there are tools and strategies that make delivering communication to candidates not only possible, but easy.

“It’s a communication strategy and a mindset,” says Gard. “Employers shouldn’t just think about how to fill the role, but how they’re going to create a great experience for all candidates who apply.”

For Gard, it’s about managing applications in a “human” way and treating everyone with the respect their application deserves.

“Employers need to have this mindset when they’re going to market. For example, you know you’ll receive hundreds of applications. Yes, you have to fill the role, but we have to own both sides of the outcome, not just the one that suits.”

Gard suggests assessing your attraction strategy, selecting your sourcing channels strategically and being more targeted in response.  Be clear on job ads and create desire for the role, but allow candidates to make the decision about whether it will be right for them before applying.

“There’s no excuse not to respond to and handle applications. There are so many tools and tech out there that does all this for you in a few clicks. Even if you’re a small business or recruitment team, there are many low-cost and even free options available.”

Complete a regular review of your candidate experience (even going through it yourself as a test). Assess opportunities for improvement.

Reviews and employer branding

Reviews have a massive impact on recruitment strategy.

“We’re seeing consumers and candidates relying on recommendations more than ever before. It’s paramount your candidate experience strategy is well-designed, even extending to third-party review sites. Are you responding to reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed? They’re not going away, so any feedback you receive on these sites should be used to improve your overall processes.”

Check out the article: You’re never too small for employer branding

What candidates say about the Circle Back Initiative

The Circle Back Initiative has already garnered positive feedback from candidates.

“A candidate applied for a position with one of our registered employers. During their interview with the employer, they said they saw the Circle Back Initiative badge on their job ad and investigated. They said that was what made them apply for the role; because they knew the employer took the ‘people’ factor seriously. Having this mindset means thinking about the people behind the applications.”

The current candidate market

Gard states there’s nothing worse than looking for opportunities and getting ignored. It certainly doesn’t contribute to positive mental health during what has been, for many, a challenging year.

Issues surrounding candidate feedback are compounded by the number of involuntary job seekers in the market. With more competition, comes more anxiety and stress.

“It was challenging for me too, as I was looking for roles – and I understand how recruitment works. If I’m being treated this way, it’s even harder for other candidates not receiving responses and not knowing why.”

“Some employers are reluctant to deliver bad news. But if we’re are asking people to be resilient and keep applying, we need to support them by letting them know where they stand. This matters to candidates absolutely.”

So far, employers of various sizes across a range of industries have committed to the Initiative.

“We’re happy we have such a broad mix of employers because it proves it’s possible to get back to everyone. Some of these employers are going above and beyond the five minimum standards, for example, by giving more detailed feedback earlier in the process. Their processes are so much more transparent, and not as ‘transactional’, It’s about relationship building.”

For more information and to sign up, visit the Circle Back Initiative website.  

What is your organisation’s approach to candidate care? What tools and strategies do you use? Share a comment below.

The post The Circle Back Initiative: Raising employer standards for candidate feedback appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Published during World Mental Health Month, the survey demonstrates that age, proximity to job loss, tenure, and whether individuals have continued working outside the home or not, all play a significant role in determining how well people feel they’ve coped.

Younger workers are feeling more pressure

The survey indicates 50-65-year-old workers feel least affected by the pandemic, with 72% stating they don’t feel their motivation levels have changed and only 26% concerned they might lose their job.

Meanwhile, younger workers are feeling the most pressure, with almost 4 in 10 (37%) respondents aged 18-29 years saying they feel less motivated to complete work tasks compared to pre-COVID-19. And nearly half (47%) of under 40s are concerned they will lose their job in the future.

64% of the 18-29-year-old group reported personally knowing someone who has lost their job – a significantly higher percentage than the 43% of the 50-65 age cohort who knew someone.

The impact of knowing someone who has lost their job is significant

Knowing someone who has lost their job is shown to have a marked impact on a person’s psyche. Those who personally know someone who has lost their job are considerably more likely to feel increased stress/anxiety levels (60%), to feel more isolated working from home (67%), and to be more concerned about job security (51%).

Nearly half (49%) of those in close proximity to job loss simultaneously feel they need to over-deliver in order to stay employed, and 45% also cite finding it harder to concentrate.

Length of tenure has a positive impact on how employees feel

The survey found that the longer people have been employed in their job, the less likely they were to feel negatively impacted by the pandemic. Close to three quarters (71%) of those who have been in their job for more than five years reported that their ability to deliver work has not changed. Only a third (33%) of the 5+ year tenure group said they are concerned about losing their job looking forward.

In contrast, two thirds (67%) of those who had been in their job for less than 5 years were concerned about future job loss.

People who have continued to work from have been less negatively impacted

Individuals who have continued working full time in an office or other out-of-home work environment (e.g. store, restaurant, etc.) overwhelmingly said their confidence in their ability to deliver work has not changed (71%), nor had their ability to concentrate on work tasks (59%). In contrast, for people working full time from home, only 53% said their ability to deliver work hadn’t changed and 39% said their ability to concentrate hadn’t changed.

Looking forward, only a third (36%) of Australians who have continued to work full time out of the home are concerned about losing their job, compared to nearly half (49%) of people working from home.

There are many unseen effects from changes to employment

Of employees who had their hours reduced, 62% said they were more stressed now compared to before COVID-19, and 50% reported finding it more difficult to concentrate on tasks.

Similarly, 50% of people working in environments where staff had been laid off said they found it more difficult to concentrate on work tasks. And over a third (35%) of those exposed to staff cutbacks around them said they felt less confident in their ability to deliver work.

Australian employers have largely ‘got it right’ when it comes to navigating workplace pressures

In positive news for businesses, 70% of workers overall said they felt their employer had taken every step possible to avoid layoffs. More than 6 in 10 (65%) of workers said they felt that their employer took the emotional wellbeing of staff seriously, and 59% thought they had made every effort to support their emotional wellbeing.

This was more positive among those working in large organisations (72% and 65% for taking the emotional wellbeing of staff seriously and making every effort to support that emotional wellbeing, respectively), compared to small to medium organisations (61% and 55%).

While COVID-19 has undoubtedly had a significant impact on Australians’ mental health at large, there has often been an assumption that those employed are less adversely affected than those who are out of work.

However, our research has shown that employed Australians are also feeling the toll of the pandemic when it comes to their relationship with work.

This group’s experience has been a varied one, with some very interesting influences at play. Age, tenure and work environment have played a role in determining their experience, with proximity to job loss also emerging as a very important determinant of one’s mindset in the workplace.

Australian employers have cause to be proud about their navigation of COVID-19. It was really encouraging to see that the majority of Australian workers feel their employer has done everything they could to avoid layoffs and has taken their emotional wellbeing seriously. The fact that employees are confident their employers have acted ethically and in staff’s best interests will put businesses in good stead to rebuild and recover.

With more than 15 years of experience in the recruitment industry, Jay Munro has worked in a variety of roles in agencies and job boards, from consulting and recruiting, through to leading the product development of new sourcing technologies. As an Employer Insights Strategist with the Indeed Employer Insights Team, Jay pairs platform data with industry trend analysis to share Indeed’s story and bring the value of the company’s programs and solutions to life.

The post The impact of COVID-19 on the mindset of Australian employees appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Lately, employer branding may have dropped off your radar. It’s understandable, especially if you’ve been struggling with hundreds of competing priorities (maintaining operations, serving clients and stakeholders and retaining people). Things have also shifted to a candidate-rich market, so you may be struggling with more applications than you can handle. But candidates are looking at employer brands more closely now, more so than before, and if you’re receiving huge volumes of applications, it’s important to continue to build a valuable employer brand for sustainable long-term recovery.

One of the ultimate goals of employer branding is to attract the right candidates and allow the wrong candidates to opt-out early in your recruitment process. While we’ve experienced plenty of change in 2020, this will remain fundamentally the same; especially in a candidate-rich market when you’re being overwhelmed with applications. 

How organisations treat their people during the Covid-19 crisis will be the acid test for candidates considering whether to join and will be a major factor in overall employer branding strategy.

 In considering the principles of how to build valuable brands in uncertain times, let’s first consider what’s valuable. Many people have been re-evaluating what is valuable in their lives and what’s not. With talk about recessions, employers need to consider how they’re going to remain valuable to those who are most important in their future (both their people and customers). 

The past offers brands important and timely insights that can help take the edge off of the uncertainty. During the last recession, brands adopted a variety of tactics to respond to changing consumer attitudes and behaviours. A JWT study from 2009 found that most approaches fit into six buckets: optimism, humour, nationalism, nostalgia, empowerment and value/price. Here’s how these approaches can be tailored to apply to employer branding now.

1. Empower people

Making your current team members feel like they have greater control will help strengthen your employer brand in challenging times and throughout recovery. Look to be the leading provider of choice in new initiatives will give them back control and increase your value to them.  

2. Sharpen up your recruitment advertisements

Traditionally, you may have written your job ads to attract as many candidates as possible. Now, you can afford to get more specific to attract people with the skills, experience and behavioural attributes you’re after. Sharpen and focus your recruitment advertisement to attract top talent, and allow unsuitable applicants to opt-out early.

3. Add value

While you can strategically roll out price promotions, savings and discounts for customers, what about candidates? While more great talent is available in a candidate-rich market, A-players can still be hard to find. If you can still provide a great candidate experience and good communications (Candidate Management Systems, branded email templates will most certainly come in handy), you will distinguish yourself and bolster your long-term strategy. 

4. Communicate with optimism 

During times of uncertainty and recovery, people learn to live with losses, making them more sensitive to what really matters. Inspire your current and future talent with optimism. Being a beacon for optimism in a world of dim circumstances can prove a powerful differentiator.

When used appropriately, a touch of humour in your social media posts and employer brand messaging can create a memorable experience for your people and brand. 

4. Reference the bigger picture 

If you are recruiting now, make a point of emphasising the positive impact that joining your organisation will have on Australia’s road to economic and social recovery. Address the new economy in people’s world, and share how people’s work will stimulate it.

On a similar note, reflecting on the past can help in referencing the bigger picture. Anxiety and nostalgia go hand in hand—when times are tough, it’s only natural to seek comfort in memories of what seems like a simpler era. Think about how you can remind your current talent (as well as customers) that you’ve been with them in good times and bad. For future candidates too, give them a lens to the better world you shared together and the bigger future you will create with them.

So what makes your employer brand valuable? Now is a unique opportunity to adjust and bolster your employer brand and reach a wider audience. Empower people, recruit efficiently with the right processes and tools to continue to add value to candidates. Tailor your communication strategy to include optimism, and reference the bigger picture. 

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I know, I know, listicle. I hate them too, but they are easy to write, easy to read and well, easy to share. This one is all about easy. What are the easy things we can do today to boost the candidate experience? Now, there are a TONNE of hard things we could do like updating all of our job descriptions to be really honest about the job and who fits in at your organisation, but I am focused on stuff you might be able to actually implement within the week:

1) Tell them how long it’s going to take

The truth is that most candidate report hating the application. They really do. There are memes and tweets that show us exactly what people think about applications. But, what’s interesting in my recent silver medalist interviews is that they don’t remember the application at all. We’ve created something that they will simply endure. Their expectations are super low. It’s like my 14-hour flight home from New Zealand. I knew it was going to be terrible and since I didn’t die, it was fine. The best case (and the hardest thing to achieve) would be to change the application to make it easier and more memorable. While I advocate that, it doesn’t fit into “easy”. So instead…

What if we told people on the login or application page how long the process is going to take. I mean who doesn’t love that new feature on blogs that tell you how long it takes to read the post. I LOVE THAT. So, take a minute to have a set of people apply and time it. Average the time and ask your CMS provider to throw a simple sentence on the login page.

2) Tell them why they should apply

Same concept as above. People hate this application process, but if we could spend a little time crafting a few lines of copy and inserting it on that application or log in page, where we tend to lose them anyway, we may be able to keep their modest excitement they had from reading to job description to actually complete the transaction. Give them three reasons why they should apply to your organisation. This is perfect employer brand fodder and it would boost the experience.

“Give them three reasons why they should apply to your organisation.”

3) Update your interview invite templates

So, you’ve made it slightly less horrifying to apply for the job, which is a major moment of despair for people. But, when someone makes it through the machine to an interview, phone screen or in person, we should probably make these notifications less notification-y. What about telling them that they’re special. What about telling them how many people they beat out for the interview. What about telling them their skills stood out. What about telling them anything interesting. At all. This is a special communication. It’s like getting into Hogwarts for some people. But we miss an opportunity to make it feel like they got into Hogwarts.

“When someone makes it through the machine to an interview, phone screen or in person, we should probably make these notifications less notification-y.”

Now, there are a LOT of other things we could be doing to make the experience better for people. I’m thinking about dispositions (seriously, let the robots do it). Maybe better career site content. Better job descriptions. Better nurturing emails. The list goes on and on. But, some of those are harder than others. These are more hacks. I’d love to see your examples when you execute on these. Please send me a note with a link and you will make my day!

At every intersection of the talent revolution, Tracey seized opportunities to push innovation and be the change agent. Tracey is the President at Parsons Strategic Consulting, a consultancy at the intersection of employer brand, recruitment marketing and systems to create delight for talent and brands. Tracey has extensive experience in talent strategy, social recruiting and marketing, thought leadership, brand development and consulting at companies like SmashFly, TMP Worldwide, and her own startup, CredHive. She’s also been a contributing writer at SmashFly, her own blog, Work it Daily, and Social Media Explorer.

The post Three easy candidate care fixes  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Organisations often say they can’t find the right talent for their current vacancies, even when they receive hundreds of applicants for every position. But do they have the right candidate care practices in place? Every step in your Candidate Care program is important. Posting your recruitment advertisements, phone screening, video and in-person interviewing, making offers to on-boarding creates relationships and opportunities for your business.

If you don’t manage this experience well, you can easily damage your employer brand and relationships leaving people with a sour taste in their mouth when they hear your organisation’s name. Creating positive experiences for every candidate, even those who are unsuccessful, will enhance your reputation.

BDO Australia’s strategy to enhance their employer brand includes a video series that promotes candidate care by helping candidates prepare for video interviews. A recruitment advisor shares important tips for candidates, such as treating your video interviews just as you would an in-person interview, dressing the part, doing test runs, and informing the people in your setting not to disturb you during that time.

This win-win strategy not only helps candidates prepare, but also enables BDO Australia to strengthen the quality of the video assessments they conduct.

How does your organisation prioritise candidate care? Share a strategy below.

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