Change is something that everyone had to get used to overnight with the COVID-19 outbreak. It wasn’t something that even the most OCD organisers could plan for (I put myself in that category!).

The market very quickly become ‘candidate strong’ when many people found themselves unexpectedly out of work. This equalled overnight changes to many recruitment strategies. So, when there are many great candidates available, how can you deliver appropriate candidate care and bolster your recruitment strategy for the long term?

Here are 3 ways to take advantage of a strong candidate market, while giving candidates the support they need and deserve.

Honestly showcase of your culture through employer branding

You might think “why would I worry about employer branding now? I have too many candidates and don’t need to market to them”. But that is the wrong attitude to take. When you have so many candidates, you want to make sure you are attracting the RIGHT ones, even just from a pure efficiency of operation perspective.

Attracting the right people means that authentically showcasing your culture is now a must-do. I’m not talking about smoke and mirrors and trying to make out you are the perfect company. I am talking warts and all stuff. The good, the bad and the downright messy. The right candidates appreciate honesty and by knowing what they can expect when working for you, they will decide if you are a right for them also. This is a two-way relationship and should be focused on selecting the right people for your roles. After all, why hire a top candidate who leaves in a few months when they find out that the culture is not a right for them and that you deceived them throughout the hiring process? That doesn’t end well for you or them. I have been on the receiving end of this before and I can tell you the end was not pretty to the point, with me never acknowledging I ever worked for this company.

You have to be honest and keep it real. It’s in your best interests to be talking to the right people and promoting what your culture is really like through your employer branding will save you money in the long term.

Nurture unsuccessful applicants for future roles

The fastest way to lose unsuccessful candidates, who might have been a good fit but weren’t successful on this occasion, is through lack of communication. Too often recruiters use the “I am too busy to reply” excuse, which is not only rude but impacts your personal and business brand. I have refused to work with people who didn’t have the courtesy to respond to me previously (and I’m not alone).

Put a system in place to not only thank them and let them know the status of their application but to also add them to a nurture list for future roles. Nurturing potential clients is as basic in marketing as it should be in recruitment.

It doesn’t need to be a complicated process. A simple process is:

• Add them to targeted or niche list or database (don’t dump them all on one giant list)
• Set up a simple email marketing template to make it easy to share content regularly
• Send them regular emails about your organisation, changes, showcasing company culture and award wins (not just about current roles)
• Stay in touch – this might be every 2 or 3 months but make it regular.

This doesn’t require a lot of time but has huge benefits and means those candidates will talk positively about you and your company. This is about building relationships with people and being human. Anyone can do that with a little effort.

Add personality to your job ads

So many job ads follow a script or template and are quite honestly, boring as hell. Apply the marketing rules to your job ads and make them more engaging to attract top-quality candidates. Don’t be afraid to add personality to your job ads.

Now more than ever, standing out and being authentically you is so important. Remember that old adage of ‘people do business with people they like’? it is very true so why do you want to blend in and follow what everyone else is doing? Blah and boring!!!!

Anyone that has met me knows that I’m not backward in coming forward and I like to sparkle and stand out. I’m certainly not the shy type. For years I’ve refused to have a boring voicemail or out of office message and this is reflected in everything I do.

There are no rules that say you have to follow the same boring script as anyone else. Put some brand personality into them and give me a glimpse of who your organisation really is.

So take advantage of a strong candidate market and deliver appropriate care to your candidates. Now is the time to really be protecting your personal and employer brand. Ensuring you give candidates a great experience with your company will be the difference of not only winning the best talent but keeping them and having them become raving fans of your brand.

Tanya Williams is the pink-loving, sparkly Chief of Everything at Digital Conversations. She wears many hats; entrepreneur, best-selling author, digital trainer, and she is a Social Amplification Specialist with over 20 years’ marketing experience. She works with recruiters to uncover the hidden gold in their existing assets, find ways to leverage every moment of your digital marketing without increasing your marketing budget and amplify your internal champions to increase your visibility. Her goal is to make the hero in your industry sector.  She has a simple, no-tech-talk approach and thrives working with established recruitment companies to tap into the opportunities they might miss, using practical & relevant tactics to drive business outcomes.

The post 3 ways to take advantage of a strong candidate market appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Searches for remote work on Indeed have surged over the past week. With thousands of Australians forced into self-isolation, jobs that you can perform from the comfort of your own home have never been more appealing. 

Since 14 March, searches for remote work have surged and are now almost 150% higher than averages in January and February. Much of this increase has occurred over the past week as the government’s response to COVID-19 has escalated.

What recommendations does Indeed have for talent leaders who can offer remote work opportunities at this time?

Advertise your role on Indeed and other job boards. There are people looking for these opportunities every day. Before you post your job, be sure to review and refine your advertisement with three things in mind:

1. Keep it clear and concise – now is the time to be transparent and list the minimum requirements of the role in a succinct and simple to read manner
2. Remember “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me?) – why is this the right opportunity and company for the candidate? What will they get out of this?
3. Next steps – in the current climate, candidates may be applying for multiple positions with a range of employers. Be sure to list the next steps, even if it is simply when they can expect to hear from you, so that the candidate knows what to expect and is less likely to ghost you or move onto other applications.

In addition to job advertisements, now is the time for talent leaders to also be flexible. Be mindful that candidates may request different formats of interview (e.g. phone or video), or if you are requesting these formats, be aware that some candidates may not be comfortable with this new form of screening/recruitment. Provide information upfront and communicate effectively with candidates about expectations to reduce their anxiety and give them a chance to represent themselves in the best light. 

How can organisations without current remote work opportunities put measures in place so that they can offer this? 

Try to be open-minded. Yesterday’s fixed-premise job could be tomorrow’s most popular and productive remote working opportunity. Investigate the technologies you have at hand, and those available which will enable different types of roles to be performed remotely. 

But it’s not just about technology. This will be a different way of working for employees and managers, so it’s important that everyone involved is well-prepared. If this is the first time you’re going to be offering remote working opportunities, it may be a good idea to do your research first. Whether it be accessing information on sites like Indeed, that offer tips to both candidates and managers on how to get the most out of remote working, or speaking to industry colleagues who are already making strides in this area.  

The “ways of working” between employees and their managers is something that is best determined collaboratively, gaining active buy-in from both parties. Set expectations for check-ins, available hours when questions and contact is welcomed, and targets that need to be worked towards. Identify the support that each employee will need whilst working remotely, which may be more social or communicative, rather than tools and equipment.

And finally, employ behaviours that build trust. Be supportive that distractions will occur, ask for open and constructive feedback (both ways), and encourage creative ideas of how to be productive and meet goals in more innovative ways.

Callam Pickering is an Economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab with a focus on Australia. Previously he was an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia focusing on household spending and house prices. He also worked as the economic editor at online publications the Business Spectator and Eureka Report where he covered economic issues relating to Australia. Callam earned a Bachelor of Economics and Accounting from Monash University.

The post Job searches for remote work surge by 150%  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Her Majesty is looking for someone to help with the £369million ‘digital’ refurbishment of her palace, posting a job vacancy at Buckingham Palace on her LinkedIn account. The salary,  £38,000, (approximately $74 000 AUD).

According to Glassdoor UK, the average rates for similar roles sit around the £30,000 mark (up to £76,000 at the top end), making this role above average. 

The Daily Star reports, “Her Majesty has advertised for a planner on LinkedIn to join the palace’s major refurbishment programme as it undergoes a £369million facelift. The 10-year programme is the first overhaul of the ageing palace since the 1950s, with new electric cabling, plumbing and heating being installed throughout.”

Her Majesty is looking for a new member of staff to help with the refurbishment, and is seeking someone with “excellent written communication skills and a keen eye for detail”.

According to the recruitment advertisement, the desired candidate will have previous planning experience in construction, ideally with historic buildings, and be “looking to take the next step in you [their] career”.

So far, the advertisement has attracted hundreds of application. The permanent position is advertised with the salary “dependent on experience, plus benefits”. The role involves 37.5 hours’ work a week, Monday to Friday, and travel is required.

The advertisement reads: 

“Buckingham Palace is currently undergoing a ten-year programme of works to overhaul its infrastructure – including electrical cabling, plumbing and heating – for the first time since the 1950s.

“A dedicated in-house Programme Management Office (PMO) oversees delivery to ensure the building is fit for purpose for the next 50 years.

“With the early planning and preparation works complete, you’ll join an established controls function at a key stage of the programme.

“Supporting the Strategic Planner, you’ll act as the key interface between the PMO and the contractors and consultants to analyse and feed their programmes into the wider Reservicing programme.

“This is a large scale programme in terms of duration and complexity, so your analysis, challenge and reports will be essential. Monitoring interfaces and interdependencies, you’ll identify conflicts and variances in order to keep the programme on track.

“Digital programming software is integral to our activities. As an experienced user of Asta, you’ll be a key member of the team, reporting on milestone movements to ensure deliverables are achieved and operational hand backs maintained.

“In a role that is truly collaborative, you’ll work closely with colleagues across the cost, control and change disciplines. And you’ll use planning workshops to identify and manage risks; aligning them with the wider programme.

“No two days will be the same and the variety and pace will challenge you. But as you support others, you’ll have exceptional opportunities to grow your own career in a great team environment.

“And knowing you’re contributing to the future of an iconic building will inspire you to deliver every day.”

The chosen candidate will also be rewarded with a winning benefits package including a 15% employer contribution pension scheme and access to a range of catering and recreational facilities.

The renovations, which are already underway, involve 200 specialist staff tackling the work, wing by wing, over ten years.

The planner’s role will be to support the team preserving the palace for years to come and keep the ten-year refurbishment programme on track.

The advertisement speaks to the prestige of the position, in “working with a shared and unique purpose”, and that “contributing to the future of an iconic building will inspire you to deliver every day,” distinguishes what makes working for the Royal Household different. 

“The Queen will move out of her private rooms to elsewhere in the palace during the 10-year phased renovations, but her apartments will be tackled last so as to minimise disruption for the monarch.” 

“Much of the palace, including the wiring and plumbing, has not been updated since the 1940s and 1950s, leaving it at severe risk of fire or flooding.” 

The Queen has recently advertised a number of other roles, including a social media director and personal assistant. 

Would an ad like this encourage you to apply? Why, why not? Tell us in the comments. 

Source 

Queen posts £38,000 job vacancy at Buckingham Palace on her LinkedIn account

Daily Star UK 

The post How to write a recruitment advertisement fit for a Queen: literally   appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

“Brand is so much more than people understand. I looked at my team members and even the most junior members were acting at the level of that brand,” says Watts. “How are you writing your recruitment ads? How do you run your campaigns in a way that reflects your story?”

Watts shares why your brand needs to be incorporated throughout the entire recruitment lifecycle, from the way you advertise, interview, onboard, even until your people become alumni and are no longer working for your organisation. (This lifecycle even includes how your employment contract has been written and how you conduct your performance reviews!)

Without integrated communication between your marketing and HR department, your marketing team may publish promises that are disconnected from peoples’ experiences when they make contact with your brand.

Watts even recommends HR and marketing teams work together to amend phone scripts so your brand presence rings true from the get-go when people first speak to you.

If your teams aren’t integrated, all the hard work you have done articulating your brand message may become redundant in a few months. The HR element is a crucial part of your brand.  

“Collaboration is about how two skills can come together to achieve a clients’ ultimate purpose.”

We love this philosophy! Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

Source

Why marketing and HR need to work together

Sel Watts

The post Why your HR and marketing teams need to work together appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

It’s that time of year where smart recruiters are teeing up to net top student talent at careers fairs. Careers fairs are an excellent opportunity to secure qualified candidates, so it’s important to have an effective strategy in place.

What’s your goal?

Before investing time, money, and energy into planning and assigning resources for a careers fair, determine the best events to suit your hiring requirements and the best candidates that will be worth your investment.

Industry-specific careers fairs are excellent opportunities to boost your employer brand (for example, if you are in the tech or hospitality industries). Offer entry-level, vacation, and internship opportunities to interested potential candidates.

Choose your best brand ambassadors

We’ve stressed the importance of choosing only your most qualified and enthusiastic brand ambassadors to represent you, as they are the ones who will be making an impression on lots of people. In particular, choose people with recruiters and hiring managers who are invested in finding the right people and are aligned with your overall brand.

Recruiters are the best people to converse with candidates, obtain contact details and resumes, and know how to coordinate interviews. In fact, hiring managers can potentially screen candidates onsite, describe the types of roles and responsibilities available, and answer questions.

Also consider bringing employees who are alumni from the same educational institution–a great way to initiate conversation and form an instant connection. Students can also relate to these employees more easily and visualise themselves in the organisation.

Coordinate and book

Contact event organisers, pay relevant fees and provide information about your organisation. (Be prepared with marketing materials, such as your logo for booths, and information about position openings.)

Prepare materials

Don’t come to a careers fair empty handed! Order marketing materials and work with designers to create an attractive booth with:

• banners
• pictures of your company
• brochures
• electronic media to play on screen (if this is available to you)
• memorable, useful, branded promotional giveaways (e.g. USBs, branded goodie bags)
• name tags for your brand ambassador attendees
• business cards.  

Ensure your website and promotional materials are up to date. The last thing you want is to direct great talent to an outdated, hard-to-navigate website!

If you choose to giveaway promotional materials, instead of pens and stickers, think outside the box and make it memorable and useful. What’s something that represents your brand or company culture?

Prepare to engage

It’s important to prepare questions to engage candidates in advance. You only have a short amount of time with each candidate, so ask questions to determine quickly if they have minimum requirements for the roles you are looking to recruit for.

Engage them by asking about their interests and determine if they have experience with or recognise your brand.

Here are some example questions:

• What do you know about [our organisation]?
• Do you have experience with [software]?  
• What’s your area of expertise/interest?
• What would you like to learn more about?

Advertise and promote

In the weeks leading up to your event, promote your current opportunities and your participation in the event on your website and through your social media channels. If you’re participating in a closed event, you might not be able to invite people, but you can still let attendees know where to look for you!

Post pictures while you’re at the event on your social channels to let people know you’re there.

On the day

Arrive early to set up your booth with pictures, materials and any visual multimedia or laptops you will be using.

Engage with as many people as possible using the questions you prepared earlier. (You might find many excellent potential candidates!) Try to keep conversations brief, structured and engaging; exchange important information quickly and effectively. Long queues are great to show you are desirable, but it may make you lose out on connecting with valuable talent.

Take notes and record important information! A great way to do this is by having a well-thought-out expression of interest form (electronic is best if you have the resources). That way you can quickly capture the most important information.

Ask people how they heard about your presence at the fair, or if they came across you by chance. This can help you direct your promotional strategy for future careers fairs.

It can be difficult to remember great potential candidates unless you take notes when speaking with them. In particular, have a way to capture CVs and contact details.

If you have suitable positions advertised on your careers page, encourage desirable candidates to apply. When asked to answer the question “where did you hear about this opportunity?” Prompt them to select “careers fair” from the drop-down menu.

Let interested students know what will happen next and when they can expect to hear back.

You must be able to answer candidates’ questions; so be armed with important and interesting information about your organisation, teams, culture, people, benefits, future plans, and what positions are currently available.

After the event

The work doesn’t stop when the event is over! Get in touch with people you connected with. The sooner the better, as the more likely it will be that they’ll remember you.

Make sure you reply promptly to people who asked questions you couldn’t answer on the day.

Take the next steps. Add interested applicants to your talent pool emailing list. Thank applicants who aren’t suitable for their interest, and let them know you will reach out to them. Or, provide them with a way to stay up to date and keep an eye out with your upcoming opportunities.

Reach out to great candidates if they are suitable for one of your current roles and invite them to start the screening and interview process. Assess their skills and start interviewing.

Have a debrief with your team who attended to gain a general overview, successes, and areas to improve next time.

Lastly, measure your ROI. How many people expressed interest? Out of this number, how many qualified people did you engage with? How many did you bring in for interviews, and hire? Measure your overall time to hire. Compare this with your other recruitment strategies.

Careers fairs are an excellent opportunity to both discover and engage with sought-after talent, and build your brand! While these events are a cost and time investment, with the proper planning, materials, and brand ambassadors, you’ll receive great ROI.

Have you achieved success at a careers fair? What kind of interesting materials did you bring and how did you engage candidates? How did it compare to your other recruiting methods? Let us know in the comments.

The post Participating in this year’s careers fair season? Here’s your strategy for success appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Development is both the tool and the fix for what Millennials want.

Train people well enough so they can leave.

Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.

 

― Richard Branson

Millennials have gotten a bad rap.

They have been described as narcissistic, unengaged job hoppers and worse.

If the generations who raised these Gen Ys aren’t willing to take some responsibility for the alleged trophy-kid syndrome, then they can’t take credit for producing the “generation me” that are confident, adaptable, resourceful, educated, tech-savvy multitaskers that think – and do – outside of the box.

Do Millennials Job Hop?

They do – but no more than Gen Xer’s. Why do some hop? Millennials are looking for quick career mobility, but the gig economy of agile talent and today’s flat organisations constrain their opportunities for growth and advancement. This is largely why nearly 70 per cent of Millennials are not engaged and why we have an entrepreneurism epidemic.

Given that Millennials will comprise 75 per cent of the workforce in a few years, instead of maligning these high-achievers, we should learn how to incentivise them and create the opportunities they seek.

What Do Millennials Want?

Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, said Millennials:

• don’t just work for a pay cheque – they want purposeful and meaningful work
• don’t just pursue job satisfaction – they pursue development
• don’t want bosses – they want coaches
• don’t want annual reviews – they want ongoing communication and feedback
• don’t want to fix their weaknesses – they want to develop their strengths.

Why Millennials want and need development

Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I learn.

 

― Benjamin Franklin

Many Millennials missed out on essential life skills with both parents working. Tired from work and frequently riddled with guilt, parents compensated for their daily absence by praising, serving and waiting on their children rather than showing them how to cook, organise, balance finances, or change tires.

The shift to a service-based economy (for those who can afford it) hasn’t helped. Lawns are mowed, oil is changed, toilets are unclogged with the click of Craigslist or Airtasker.

Living in the digital-lane, Millennials spend less time interacting with their parents because their minds are in the “cloud” and their faces are tethered to iPhones – which their parents bought and paid for.

On another front, school curriculum transformed from practical hands-on survival of Design & Technology and Home Economics to a more abstract mental skill development. In addition to being shielded from life skills, Millennials live at home longer because of steep housing costs, HECs debt, and scarcity of living-wage jobs.

The outcome? A disadvantaged generation that is disparaged because they have been deprived of adulting.

Holly Swyers, a professor of anthropology and Racheal Weinstein, psychotherapist, identified and addresses these gaps and disadvantages by teaching adulting. “Adulting School” helps Millennials “navigate from dependence to independence,” developing skills in business, finance, and professional networking, through mentor assisted live webinars and private social media groups.

Whatever the reasons for Millennials’ deep-seated growth needs, relentless pursuit of knowledge and hard-core drive for personal and professional development, it’s a positive. Organisations can benefit by creating learning environments that satisfy Millennial wants and fill the “skills” gap among this surging workforce.

Creating agile learning environments

Coaching and mentoring are optimal methods for development, ongoing communication, designing meaningful work, and building on strengths and life skills. Mentoring further helps Millennials mature into “adulting” and offers insights about your organisation, mission, and operations, allowing them to see how their role contributes to the bigger picture. All of which makes work more meaningful.

Unlike the traditional “boss” focused on tactical job descriptions, mentors learn about their mentee’s strengths and ambitions, and then set goals to guide them on the behaviours, skills, and connections needed to reach their objectives, and increase their business acumen and strategic relationships.

Let’s not forget, this digital cohort’s prowess and proclivity for social media and the Internet of Things. E-learning, LMS, and learning mobile apps complement coaching and mentoring.

Millennials not only rely on platforms such as these but e-learning LMS keeps them engaged because it supplements ongoing communication through immersive learning communities and message boards. E-learning delivers the bitesize training that Millennials can digest over time so they can reflect on and then practice newly acquired learnings and knowledge until they have honed the skills.

LMS tools also provide quantifiable results that reveal progress for both the employee and organisation. The combination of e-learning LMS, mentoring, and coaching confers constant feedback to employees, and transfers what they have learned into something that matters ― practical skills aligned with their goals to contribute, impact and advance.

Strengths development

Another priority that organisations face is Millennials’ pivotal focus on developing their strengths.

Gallup recommends companies transition to a “strengths-based culture”; otherwise, “they won’t attract and keep their stars.” In this regard, a useful tool like CliftonStrengths online assessment, (a.k.a. StrengthsFinder 2.0) can be tapped. In fact, 85% of Fortune 500 companies use it to help develop their workforce.

Interpreting strengths-assessment results can be illuminating, but the process itself may be even more beneficial. After employees complete the assessments, managers should have them share their results at the next team meeting. The process itself is engaging because they learn about each other, realise common strengths and build trust. Armed with these insights, managers can better coach to employee strengths and design individual and team projects.

Whenever there are training costs there is usually resistance. When proposing tools such as LMS and CliftonStrengths to finance, remember what the CFO asked, “What happens if we invest in developing our people and they leave us?” Then remember what the CEO said, “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

A development program that doesn’t break the budget or resources

With scarce resources and tight budgets, many organisations are challenged to offer purpose, meaning and continuous development to employees. Nevertheless, it can be accomplished through the pairing of individuals. Peer-to-peer pairing began nearly two decades ago when Alan Cooper, the father of Visual Basic, founded pair design. But pairing is no longer just a programmer’s panacea. It has evolved into paired work partners, also called paired research, where pairs meet for a few hours weekly, dividing time to work together on projects in their field of expertise.

Leading corporations got the memo. They know that continuous growth and development is a goal in itself, but it’s also part of a larger goal to perform work that matters. While they interlace several methods, including Corporate Social Responsibility and philanthropy, to fulfill altruistic values, paired work and job rotation are used to satisfy Millennials’ pursuit of meaning and sense of progress through development and career mobility.

Pairing as a mutual mentorship

Job rotation has been around for decades but it can be disruptive because it usually requires long-term assignments in different locations. Pairing resembles facets of job rotation, but it functions as a mutual mentorship where peers learn from one another. And it is less costly because pairing is typically based on short-term assignments internal to the location or within local departments.

Although peer-to-peer pairing rotations typically occur more frequently, it can still offer benefits similar to job rotation, including exposure to various roles, business segments, functional areas and experts.

Pairing exposes employees to hands-on, experiential challenges that expand perspectives, knowledge, networks, and skills. Pairing mentorships can be utilised as a horizontal career lattice opening up opportunities to advance to a new level.

Multinationals such as Boeing, Siemens, Vanguard, Amazon, and Deloitte have implemented different flavors of job rotation and mentoring programs. These enterprises make personal and professional development part of their core strategy because they know that ongoing development not only attracts top talent but keeps them engaged, and thus they stay longer.

Why pairing is a win/win for employees and companies

Working pairs increase:

• intrinsic motivation, meaningful relationships and productivity
• knowledge and skills that are transferrable across the organisation
• leadership opportunities and accelerated advancement
• learning of clients and customers, and transfer of domain knowledge.

Working pairs decrease:

• costly turnover and absenteeism
• poor decision-making, mistakes & unethical shortcuts
• silos of knowledge and information within the organisation
• personal internet usage and social media distractions.

Pairs also reduce unhealthy competitive cultures as it involves shared ownership of the goal. In addition, it brings a sense of accountability because people in pairs typically don’t want to let their partner down.

Coaching, e-learning LMS, and the interaction and interdependency that occurs between pairs can confer the relationships and dynamics that fulfill the values Millennials desire and create sustainable value for the organisation such as employee attraction, engagement, loyalty and commitment.

How does your company invest in growth and development? Let us know in the comments.

Christine Alexy is a professional writer focused on motivational psychology and leadership development. After 15 years of  IT network engineering, Christine re-invented her career when she graduated with honours from Penn State University with a BS in Business Leadership and IT/Security and Risk Analysis.

Dovetailing her professional leadership experience, she is a ghostwriter and researcher for top business leaders and a popular blogger. Christine has supplied extensive research and writing for Steve Van Valin, CEO of Culturology, helping him author a manuscript on purpose and meaning at work. She also ghostwrites high-level content for the HR industry related to ethics and organisational culture. A staunch proponent for meaningful and innovative leadership for today’s multi-generational workforce, Christine regularly shares her insights through her Thought Leadership Thursday blog posts on LinkedIn, @Serve2LeadLyceum on Twitter, and Leadership Lyceum on Google+.

The post Professional development: the gravitational pull that attracts, engages & retains Millennials appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Two of the most common questions I get asked during this time of year are; “Are candidates looking for jobs over the Christmas period?” and “Should we be recruiting during this time?”.

And the answer to both is a resounding “yes!” Why, you ask?

Less competition = better chance for success

Have you noticed how much competition there is on job boards these days? Job advertisements that used to sit on page one of a search for anywhere up to two weeks are now dropping off into oblivion in a much shorter time frame. In particularly busy categories and locations, this can happen in one day!

The plus side of advertising over the Christmas period is that there are, more often than not, fewer companies recruiting at this time, meaning your advertisement will stay at the top of search results longer. More visibility, better ROI, and less competition? Tick!

Tis the season…to find a new job!
Did you know that more people change jobs in January than any other time of year? However –  nine times out of ten they have already started thinking about the move before the festive season starts.

If you’re holding off starting your recruitment advertising until the end of January, you’re running the risk of losing visibility with this active and engaged talent pool. Instead, why not schedule your advertising to run for you while you’re on leave? That way, while you’re relaxing poolside with a cocktail in hand, candidates can still be applying for your positions and their applications will be ready and waiting for you on your return to the office.

Feeling overwhelmed about how you’re going to achieve all of your recruitment goals in the next couple of weeks? I love nothing more than to help organisations attract the best people and see them hit their targets for the Christmas and New Year period. Get in touch with me and mention this article to access a free consultation and assessment, and learn more about our Christmas special on shortlisting services.

Is your organisation interested in being featured in Recruitment Marketing Magazine? Contact the editor to discuss opportunities to feature your story.

Andrea Davey is COO at Employment Office, a recruitment marketing organisation with 80 employees across Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Vancouver. She is passionate about helping organisations attract and recruit the best talent through specialist services such as advertising, shortlisting and selection, employer branding and recruitment software. Andrea also manages Scout Talent, an innovative software company with products that streamline clients’ recruitment processes to ensure they see the best people first. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post Holding off recruiting over the Christmas break? You shouldn’t be! Here’s why. appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

You know the importance of improving your candidate experience and why it’s important to make it easy for candidates to apply online. Because of this, you may be reluctant to add an extra layer to your recruitment process. However, screening questions are an absolute must.

We recently shared the top six reasons to include screening questions in your recruitment advertisements, from distinguishing serious applicants from tire kickers and reducing the time required to create a great shortlist, to having a consistent format to analyse. But did you know screening questions can effectively act as a cover letter and give you the opportunity to ask candidates more relevant questions?

While you, of course, want to have a structured list of screening questions for your phone, video and in-person interviews, the following list includes the best questions to use specifically in your recruitment advertisements.

1. “Do you have the unrestricted legal right to live and work in Australia?” (Yes/no)

Overseas applicants will always apply for roles. However, this simple yes/no question allows you to eliminate candidates applying from overseas (from the “no” responses). If your organisation is not accepting overseas applicants, include a statement to this effect in your advertisement and target the advertisement in your specified location.

That being said, your organisation might be willing to offer relocation assistance fees, whether that be within Australia or from overseas. But even so, include this question in your advertisement as it’s useful to be informed about a candidate’s current location and residential status.

If your organisation is open to accepting candidates from overseas, you can include optional additional questions. For example, a recruiter advertising for temporary roles such as fruit pickers might not require candidates to be Australian citizens. If a candidate selects the “yes” response, the recruiter can also include a question asking candidates to specify the terms of their visa (if applicable).

2. “If you hold any relevant qualifications, please detail them here.”

If the role you are advertising for requires specific qualifications, this is a great question to ask in your recruitment advertisement instead of sifting through resumes or waiting for the interview stage.

Even if you do not require specific qualifications, this is still a useful optional question to include as “highly regarded” with the note “if applicable”, so you can quickly rank top candidates.

Qualifications should include all certifications and licenses, not just education. For example, first aid certificates.

Ask candidates to list their qualifications with institution names and dates obtained.

3. “Please outline your relevant experience in [skill/s relevant to the role].”

Depending on your role, you may prefer to merge the above questions 2 and 3. If your roles typically receive hundreds of applications, including these questions will drastically reduce your time to shortlist. Those candidates with relevant qualifications, experience and skills can be ranked higher on your shortlist.

As stated above, even if you do not require previous experience, it’s still a useful optional question to include as “highly regarded” with the note “if applicable”, so you can rank top candidates faster.

4. “If you were to be successful, what date could you commence?”

Many organisations require their employees to provide a four week notice period. If you have two equally great candidates that you are struggling to distinguish between, one may be able to start next week, and the other in a month or two. Which one will you choose? This is a really helpful question to give you a better idea about your candidates’ commitments and requirements.

Additional questions  

What kind of culture and employer brand does your organisation have? It can be useful to include a fun or behavioural question that reflects your culture. While it may not be appropriate for a construction role, it can work for a role that is more creative, or if you have a social office where cultural and behavioural fit is important. For example, an organisation hiring for a creative marketing role asked candidates, “if you could be any animal, which would you be, and why?”. These type of questions allow candidates to showcase their personality and creativity. It’s a great way to find those hidden gems!

Another screening question that is not as common is asking candidates to outline their salary expectations. Sometimes organisations advertise for roles, receive few responses and are unsure if this is to do with the salary range they have specified. Other times, they’re just not sure what they should be paying! While a good recruitment specialist will conduct market research and provide a sound recommendation, asking this screening question in your recruitment advertisement is an extra way to gauge candidate expectations.

Important final tips

Research reveals if you have more than five screening questions, the number of applications submitted drops by 50%, with significant drop-off rates every additional question asked.  

Specialists typically advise against including any more than six or seven screening questions in your recruitment advertisement, as it increases the difficulty of the application process for candidates. Three to four questions is the sweet spot!

Identify the key behaviours and skills required for your role, and use your best judgement to determine if there are any additional questions to the ones listed above that will help make your shortlisting process easier.

For example, for a finance manager role that requires leadership skills and management of a monthly accounting cycle, you may like to include questions such as: “what is your approach to leadership in an organisation that….”, and/or “have you managed a monthly accounting cycle? List your experience.” This gives you a great way to assess candidates beyond two-dimensional resumes.  

Screening questions in recruitment advertisements are designed to make your shortlisting process easier. Without them, you are more likely to receive an excessive amount of low-quality applications.

Use your best judgement or seek the advice of a recruitment advertisement specialist. If you include sound screening questions, you should not need to ask for cover letters! Combined with resumes, they should supply you with all the information you require.

Trends reveal more organisations are now starting to use this smart recruitment marketing strategy. So, if you’re receiving a large quantity of candidates but not the quality you are looking for, or are struggling to create a great shortlist in a timely manner, screening questions might just be the key you need.

Do you use screening questions in your recruitment ads? How have they helped? Share a comment below.

The post The 4 most important screening questions to include in your recruitment advertisements   appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Whether you’re recruiting for five people or fifty, sorting through resumes to find great candidates can be an arduous process. It’s all the more difficult if you don’t have the right resources and strategies in place.

We know you understand the importance of effective recruitment advertising in attracting the best candidates and how to write a great recruitment advertisement. But there’s another layer you can add to this.

This one simple strategy is something that anyone can include in your job application process: screening questions. However, you have to do it the right way to reap the benefits!

Screening questions give you an extra information to help you distinguish the best candidates quickly. Miranda Nicholson reporting for Formstack shares the top reasons you should include screening questions.

1. Distinguish serious applicants from casual applicants

Casual applicants applying for any old job won’t bother to take the extra time to complete screening questions. Applicants who aren’t interested in anything more time-consuming than quickly uploading their resume will pass your advertisement by – and this is a good thing, as they aren’t truly invested in the role or your organisation.

“On the other hand, serious candidates who are truly interested in the open position won’t hesitate to fill out the application, even if it is a bit involved. They might even appreciate the extra layer of screening as a way to further make their case for an interview (since it often seems like resume-only applications get buried in some deep, dark place never to be seen).”

2. Obtain consistent information to compare

Resumes come in all different shapes and sizes. Candidates format them with different designs and fonts, across one page, or multiple pages, showcasing their skills and experience by relevance or chronologically.

Not so with screening questions!

“Asking a few consistent questions on the job application can give you an apples-to-apples comparison that is hard to come by with resumes. Seeing how job applicants compare on a few points can help you eliminate or elevate resumes if you’re on the fence.”

3. Gain insights into candidates’ personality and cultural fit

If you have a positive, collaborative workforce, then you want people who are going to make a good cultural fit. Great hires whose values resonate with your organisational mission and purpose will contribute to your growth and success.

As Nicholson reports, this is particularly useful for organisations with remote working environments, for example, by asking if candidates can succeed with autonomy.

4. Prompt deeper discussion during the interview stage

Screening questions can be similar to those you ask in an interview to gather surface-level information about candidates’ skills and personality.

“Getting some of these questions out of the way ahead of time allows you to dig a little deeper when it comes time for the actual interview. Instead of using the interview to learn about a job applicant’s [favourite] web apps, you can hone in on more useful information—like how the applicant uses a specific app to manage tasks or projects.”

5. Reduce your time spent interviewing qualified candidates

This strategy allows you to spend less time interviewing, as you have already asked candidates a series of questions. Therefore, your interview can be more focused and to-the-point.

6. Disqualify ineligible applicants quickly

You may have non-negotiable requirements for the role, such as candidates who need working rights in Australia, or particular qualifications. This is particularly helpful if you are reviewing a large volume of applications and need to disqualify ineligible candidates quickly.

You can also cut down on the number of interviews you need to do by eliminating those who are clearly not a great fit. For example, poor grammar and punctuation do not reflect well for a role that requires strong communication skills!

A word of caution. Don’t turn off great candidates by requesting too much detail, making questions too personal, or including too many questions, or irrelevant questions.

Screening questions can drastically streamline your recruitment process if done in the right way. While one of your goals should be to filter out undesirable candidates, keep your candidates at the forefront of your mind and don’t put great candidates off by asking the wrong questions. Save time and streamline your recruitment process by using the information you obtain from screening questions to inform your shortlisting and interviews.

Do you include screening questions in your recruitment process? How have they helped you? Let us know in the comments.

Source

5 Reasons to Add Screener Questions to Your Job Application

Miranda Nicholson

Form Stack

The post Top 6 reasons to include screening questions in your recruitment process appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

In addition to an attractive careers page, Lion showcases lots of informative and engaging videos that guide candidates through their hiring process. The videos are informative and helpful to candidates, while at the same time giving Lion the opportunity to showcase their culture and values too.

The three-part video series, featured on their “How we hire” page, serves a different purpose to their careers video. The series is designed to develop candidate expectations around the hiring process – not only in what Lion expects from them, but what they can expect from Lion.

Their first video in the series, entitled “How we hire: Application”, introduces candidates to Lion’s work, culture, and values, and shapes their expectations. They use great local shots instead of stock footage, which gives their videos an authentic feel.

“At Lion, we’ve built a talent acquisition process that balances you, the candidate, and Lions interests at heart equally. Our purpose in the talent acquisition team is to create an experience that is insightful and gives everyone the information they need to make the right choice for them and their hiring leaders.”

The video showcases the company’s four guiding principles:

1. Keep our promises and act fast
2. Help you shine
3. Providing timely feedback that will help you along the way
4. Create a space where you can share your passion and have fun.

“We genuinely want you to feel well-prepared, and give you the best opportunity to show how you are the right person for the role in a fair an unbiased environment.”

“Every process will differ slightly, but we really want to be transparent and embody the Lion culture throughout the process. We’ve created an environment where you can really be yourself, because we really want to hear about your different experiences, backgrounds, and what’s important to you.”

This strategy is particularly effective in talent attraction, as it speaks directly to candidates.  

The video concludes by giving candidates useful advice about preparing to apply, encouraging candidates to learn about the role, the business, and Lion’s values, and to keep their application relevant and concise.

Keeping candidates at the forefront of your mind when designing your recruitment strategy is the best way to attract top talent. Lion’s video series is an effective, replicable strategy which your organisation can use to help guide candidates through your application process.

How does your organisation incorporate video into your recruitment process? Let us know in the comments!

Source

How we hire, part 1 of 3: Application

Lion Careers

The post This branded video series guides the candidate experience appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.