It’s no secret that a diverse and inclusive workforce brings with it a multitude of benefits. In fact, you could wager that the vast majority of common business challenges could be solved by simply having a more diverse team to offer different perspectives, ideas, and solutions.

Yet for too many organisations, diversity and inclusion remain little more than buzzwords – and those who most want organisations to genuinely change can feel that. New research from Indeed reveals that there’s a considerable disconnect between how Australians believe workplaces treat minority groups and the lived reality of these groups. Our research found that 57% of working Australians understand ‘diversity and inclusion’ in the workplace to mean a scenario where all staff can be their true selves at work. However, two thirds (62%) of them admit to concealing part of their identity all or some of the time from their colleagues. And, almost a quarter (23%) say they can’t speak openly in the workplace without fear of criticism.

The findings are alarming and reiterate the fact that many organisations still have a long way to go when it comes to workplace diversity and inclusion. So, what can leaders do to ensure these concepts are more than just meaningless slogans in the workplace?

There are a number of ways to foster authentic diversity and inclusion. Building these strategies into your recruitment process is arguably the most important place to start. After all, a diverse workforce begins with a diverse candidate pool.

So, for those looking for some assistance on where to begin, here are some simple, practical ways to successfully build a diverse and inclusive recruitment process.

Broaden your search

When it comes to increasing diversity in your organisation, you need to try something different. Relying on the same recruitment strategy that you’ve used in the past may be limiting your business’ ability to recruit from a larger and more varied group of candidates. In addition to recruitment agencies, consider partnering with organisations dedicated to enabling greater diversity and inclusion in the workforce. The Australian Network on Disability helps connect your organisation to job seekers with a disability. Also, organisations like CoAct and Shine People Solutions work to find employment for refugees, Indigenous Australians, and the long-term unemployed.

What’s more, thanks to the growth of remote work and talent distribution outside traditional hubs, you can look for candidates located just about anywhere. When geography no longer limits your talent pool, you have more opportunities to attract great candidates. You can also focus on finding people with the skills and experience that most align with your company’s mission, rather than the right person for your postcode. This is a much better use of a recruiter’s time and is more likely to result in a successful hire.

Make your job descriptions more inclusive

The language you use in job descriptions could be limiting your talent pool. In fact, a study conducted by Harvard University found that women were less likely to apply for a role when the job description used words predominantly associated with masculine stereotypes.

For example, words such as ‘tough’, ‘dominant’, and ‘competitive’ are often associated with masculinity. Conversely, words like ‘nurturing’ and ‘supportive’ are associated with femininity. These gender-coded words may impact the likelihood of job seekers applying for roles within your company. Thus, a lack of gender diversity continues. Instead, opt for gender-neutral words like ‘motivated’, ‘professional’, ‘responsible’, and ‘quality’. This increases your chances of attracting a wider range of candidates.

Also, potential applicants shouldn’t have to conduct extensive research to discover the perks and benefits your company offers its employees. Be sure to list any benefits in your job postings so that you’re not limiting your talent pool. Include benefits like paid parental leave, flexible work options, or on-site childcare. Similarly, if your organisation has fully equipped parents’ rooms, accessible or unisex restrooms, or a variety of different lunch options in the cafeteria (i.e., halal, kosher, vegan, etc), it’s worth highlighting these too.

Use inclusive interview panels

During the recruiting process, the employer’s focus is often solely on the candidate pool. After all, the goal is finding the right talent for the role. However, this often means little attention is paid to the people who sit on the other side of the table during the interview process. Are they able to make decisions free from bias and favouritism?

Traditionally, a candidate typically only deals with one or two members of staff from the potential employer. This limits the likelihood of them meeting someone they can identify with. The more a candidate can see themselves working at your company, the greater your chances of hiring diversely. This is why it’s worth considering who sits on your interview panels. A panel of interviewers from different genders, ages, races, and professional backgrounds paints a picture of authentic diversity and inclusion. Allowing the candidate to see themselves represented in the team well before they’ve started their first day.

Use interview techniques designed to reduce unconscious bias

Stereotypes can play out in ways you’re not even aware of. This is why a gut instinct isn’t always reliable, as it’s often influenced by unconscious biases.

For example, if you have a good feeling about a candidate, it may be because they’re similar to you. Perhaps you live in a similar area or they did the same course at university. Ultimately, what may seem like a great personal connection doesn’t always translate to high job performance though.

Work to reduce unconscious biases in the recruitment process by conducting structured interviews with predetermined questions and a rubric for how to evaluate a good response. This way, you have the tools to objectively evaluate future job performance.

To make sure your structured interview runs smoothly, follow this best practice approach for diverse and inclusive recruitment:

1. Prepare a list of open-ended questions to ask candidates, considering both the hard and soft
   skills you’re looking for.
2. Provide interviewers with the questions and evaluative criteria before the interview so they can
   ask clarifying questions of the hiring manager ahead of time.
3. Ask candidates the same questions in the same order.
4. Evaluate candidates using standardised evaluative criteria, such as a rating scale or rubric (what
   a “poor,” “acceptable” or “great” response to each question looks like).

Consider supplementing structured interviews with blind reviews of resumes or cover letters. In blind reviews, the candidate’s personal information (including their name) isn’t revealed until near the end of the selection process. Withholding this information helps reduce the influence of unconscious bias from the hiring manager, which can lead to more diverse and inclusive recruitment practices.

Prioritising and actively cultivating diversity, inclusion, and belonging isn’t just good for your staff and employer brand. It can also help your business succeed. Companies with a diverse workforce are more likely to excel in productivity, performance, innovation, and even revenue. Put these tips into practice the next time your company is hiring and you’ll be on track to cultivating a truly diverse and inclusive workforce.

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, 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 How to create a diverse and inclusive recruitment process appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

2020 has been a challenging year for people around the world, regardless of age, background or geography. HR professionals have had it even harder, supporting teams in times of crisis, while also working through these challenges themselves.

But hope springs from adversity, and this year HR has truly stepped up as a leader in the new world of work. Talent management has become everyone’s business, and talent teams are getting the attention they deserve from C-suite leaders that now fully appreciate their worth.

Old, outdated systems have been digitised, processes streamlined and centralised, virtual hiring and remote work practices accelerated overnight. Armed with the business buy-in and technology solutions to make it work, HR is ready to take a seat at the table as we forge ahead into the new decade.

As we look back at the year that was, we can see how closely HR trends and challenges mirror our society. From a global pandemic and economic downturn, to racial upheaval across the globe, HR is the first responder and the first line of defence organisations have to help their teams make sense of the world around them.

2020 will be remembered as a turbulent, tumultuous year. Let’s not forget how HR responded:

1. Employee communication and care

When the first wave of lockdowns rolled out around the world, many organisations were forced into remote working arrangements overnight. HR teams had to figure out how to make it work, developing policies on the fly and ensuring teams were supported during this tough transition. With so much uncertainty in the air, HR stepped up and showed real leadership, reminding us what the ‘human’ aspect of human resources stands for. Talent teams used different strategies to shift to remote work and support their teams in times of change.

2. Mastering remote hiring and onboarding

As organisations got into the groove of remote work, some hiring teams found themselves faced with a dilemma: how to provide a great, fully virtual recruitment experience. Even the most progressive organisations had probably met candidates in-person at one stage of the hiring process. Now, recruitment teams had to ensure a streamlined, fully tech-enabled experience that left applicants and candidates wanting more. No problem, right? There were 3 key considerations for organisations looking to find great talent in the time of COVID; these included understanding your video interviewing needs, adjusting your approach to screening and prioritising onboarding.

3. Addressing COVID-19 challenges

Our Head of Customer Insights and Market Research Rebecca Skilbeck and SVP Global Talent Deborah Mason tackled how HR could address COVID-19 challenges. They discussed supporting employees, encouraging engagement, redeploying staff, managing remote workers and shared their thoughts for the future.

4. Supporting internal mobility

With the pandemic ramping up and an economic recession looming, many organisations put a freeze on hiring. But that didn’t mean skills gaps went away. Roles still needed to be filled by skilled workers, and organisations started to look within to find this talent. Many organisations are leveraging internal mobility to meet their hiring needs, while also keeping employees engaged and developing in their careers.

5. Scaling up recruiting to meet COVID-19 demands

Not all organisations were halting their hiring. Some were ramping up recruitment to meet demand: many retailers providing essential products were inundated with customer demand as lockdowns dragged on across the globe. Some PageUp customers processed as many as 55,000 applications in one recruitment campaign. To quickly hire the staff they needed at-scale, organisations turned to technology to automate candidate care and process bulk applications. Talent teams needed to establish processes to set up and run effective recruitment campaigns at scale, while remaining agile enough to respond rapidly to change.

6. Proactively rebuilding recruitment strategies after COVID-19

As we adjusted to the new COVID normal, organisations started to look to the future and wonder how they would rebuild. A crucial component of this was their recruitment strategy: what would it look like going forward? As the business landscape shifted, what new skills should they be recruiting for? And what new roles would emerge? Many organisations began rebuilding, starting with their recruitment strategy. This required a step by step approach, examining how COVID has affected the business landscape, identifying emerging skills gaps, and targeting the crucial behavioural traits you should be looking for in a top candidate.

7. Virtual recruiting tools

HR processes have been accelerated years into the future thanks to the overnight shift to remote working. We shared 17 must-know tools to support online recruiting; from voice-based and text-based AI-interviewing and online testing, to online assessments, video interviews and reference checking.

8. Workplace diversity, equity and inclusion

This year will be remembered not just for COVID-19, but also as the year the world stood up, spoke up and took action on racial inclusivity, diversity and demanded equal opportunity for people of all backgrounds. With organisations around the world turning a spotlight to their own DE&I strategies, many began prioritising and establishing the building blocks of a successful DE&I strategy.

9. Data-based recruitment strategies

What recruitment metrics should savvy hiring teams be tracking in 2020 and into the future? A lot has changed in the past year, and many talent teams have started to review and revise the recruitment metrics they track in line with their organisational goals. The best recruitment metrics to track in now, in 2021 and beyond include offer acceptance rate, applicant-to-hire rate, candidate-to-hire rate, sourcing channel effectiveness, and mobile application and time-to-apply rates.

Marion Robinson is responsible for spearheading global growth for PageUp in all its forms. She provides strategic direction across PageUp’s client advocacy, partner alliance, marketing and brand-building programs, ensuring total alignment between them so as to deliver on the PageUp growth strategy. Leveraging a wealth of experience in client management roles across a range of industries including Banking, Human Resources and IT, Marion understands the daily people challenges of our clients first-hand. Her experience ranges from sales and marketing, change management, consulting and people development.

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COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the business landscape and forced many organisations to put their hiring on hold. But that doesn’t mean recruitment marketing strategies should go on hold too.

This is a critical time to nurture talent to ensure that when your organisation is ready to hire, you have a pipeline of suitable talent so you can make quicker and more effective hiring decisions. Recruitment marketing tactics, like nurturing talent pools, help keep star candidates engaged so that when you’re ready to start recruiting again, you have a rich talent pipeline to draw from.

In this article, I’ll discuss how to utilise your recruitment marketing strategy to its fullest potential, including:

• Leveraging expression of interest forms to identify top talent
• Creating nurture campaigns to establish relationships with top talent
• Curating personalised and relevant content to send to candidates.

1. Expression of Interest forms

A great career site is one thing – but does it convert visitors into applicants? And where can people go if there are no roles currently being advertised?

If your website doesn’t have a strong CTA, people will click away. It doesn’t matter if you have great content, a strong employer brand story and engaging videos: if people have nowhere to input their details and express interest in your organisation, you’ll lose them.

Expression of Interest (EOI) capture forms placed prominently on your career site encourages visitors to take the next step. They allow you to capture the details of people interested in working for your company – even if you have no open roles for them to apply for. EOI forms are an invaluable tool to capture those people who are engaged with your organisation and willing to self-select in to be considered for future opportunities.

2. Nurture campaigns

Recruitment marketing allows you to proactively tap into talent and build robust talent pipelines, even when you’re not hiring. Nurture campaigns are a great way to keep interested talent and ‘silver medalist’ candidates (people who weren’t quite right for a role – but may be suited for other upcoming openings, or after a time when they gain more skills and experience), engaged.

Recruitment marketing technology takes the manual ‘busy work’ out of nurture campaigns, allowing hiring teams to pre-set and automate personalised nurture flows that can be customised to each job category or target talent segment. Targeted nurture campaigns can perform actions based on real-time triggers – for example sending out relevant job alerts, recruiter outreach emails, interesting content and more to maintain candidate regular candidate touchpoints.

Keeping talent pools warm with relevant content is especially important when you’re not actively hiring – think of it as ‘what to say when you have nothing new to say.’ Taking the time to nurture these people now will pay-off when you’re ready to start hiring again: you’ll have access to a pool of pre-vetted, engaged talent that is ready to work for you.

3. Curated content

 When it comes to candidate engagement, content is king. If you regularly deliver personalised, relevant content to candidates, they’ll keep coming back for more. This is where recruiters should ‘think like a marketer’ and take a magnifying glass to their current career site content to find out what is resonating with visitors, then find ways to optimise their approach to drive ROI.

Here are three things to consider when developing a content strategy that keeps people engaged when you’re not hiring:

• Content and collateral needs to be relevant and timely – and you need to have an understanding of what converts. Identify your target audiences and craft personalised content to these audiences. Have you segmented your key talent personas and delivered content specifically targeted to each segment? Different segments may consume different types of content, and on different platforms. Some may prefer emails and blog posts, while others like to watch videos and interact on social platforms.
• Create videos: Video is the #1 consumed resource on the Internet and allows companies to easily highlight their unique selling points: social responsibility, career development opportunities, and culture. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend thousands on videos for your career site. In fact, the most authentic videos are often shot on a smartphone by recruiters or employees. This kind of off the cuff, informal content is valuable to jobseekers because it captures what it’s really like to work at your organisation.
• Don’t be afraid of Social Media: encouraging employees to share photos and stories of their work day on social media is an invaluable source of authentic employer branding. Candidates trust a company’s employees three times more than the company itself to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there. For example, Salesforce has the #SalesforceOhana hashtag, (which translates to ‘Salesforce family) where employees can share snapshots of their daily roles at the company.

The time to start thinking about your post-COVID recruiting strategy is now. The organisations that are making the most of this opportunity to re-evaluate and optimise their recruitment marketing strategy are the ones that will come out the other side stronger than ever.

Marion Robinson is responsible for spearheading global growth for PageUp in all its forms. She provides strategic direction across PageUp’s client advocacy, partner alliance, marketing and brand-building programs, ensuring total alignment between them so as to deliver on the PageUp growth strategy. Leveraging a wealth of experience in client management roles across a range of industries including Banking, Human Resources and IT, Marion understands the daily people challenges of our clients first-hand. Her experience ranges from sales and marketing, change management, consulting and people development.

The post 3 ways to get the most from your recruitment marketing strategy (even if you’re not hiring!) appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

The big question is – should you pause or pivot your recruitment marketing?

What do I mean by pivot? Pivoting means keeping one foot in contact with the ground and using your other foot to move around to find a new angle or gain an advantage over your defender. 

While you might have seen good examples of recruitment advertising and marketing messages, you will no doubt have seen some bad ones from brands that have ignored the current situation completely.

There have also been brands putting a stop to recruitment, marketing and sales altogether because they don’t want to be seen as opportunistic. But, your messaging should be about selling responsibly. Don’t risk putting your brand reputation in jeopardy by being tone-deaf to internal and external factors. Equally, don’t pause on your activities at the risk of losing out on significant opportunities.

There have been a number of studies going back to the Great Depression that prove the advantages of maintaining or increasing advertising and marketing budgets during a weaker economy. Employers and advertisers that maintained or grew their marketing increased their sales and market share during the recession and afterwards.

Review your recruitment marketing strategy

If you are recruiting, are you using the same templates, or have you added tailored messaging specific to the current situation? What’s changed in your organisation? (Are you onboarding people virtually, do you have delayed start dates?) What is still relevant and what needs to change?

Review your existing plan and take time to consider what needs to change. Do you need to look at new channels? Do you need to amp up your social media marketing to stay visible and communicate updates to your current and future talent? How do your current recruitment marketing messages need to be adjusted to suit the new online environment?

Has your ideal candidate changed?

With a number of new candidates entering the talent market with a variety of skillsets, have you thought about who you’re targeting? Do you need to look at targeting candidates from other industries? Is your core industry struggling, meaning you may face heavy competition in the future when stability returns? And if so, what is the balance between reaching out to candidates in your industry specifically and other industries generally?

For the benefit of our world economy, we need businesses to survive and people to have opportunity. Don’t feel guilty about continuing growing your talent pipeline, especially if you have the potential to support candidates looking for employment. There’s no reason why you can’t reach out to talent in your industry and expand your search to the industries too.  

Also, considering the short-term situation is changing so quickly, being able to pivot is essential. 

Messaging and content

When tailoring your messaging, consider the current “normal”. People are working from home, homeschooling their kids, unable to visit family members. Offices are working remotely, normal socialising is out, and people are bored and looking for entertainment. Combine that with current stressors, there’s a lot of uncertainty. 

So take this into consideration and understand your messaging needs to reflect that. Reassess your content, tone, and positioning. 

Are there any opportunities for you to become a thought leader in your niche or distinguish yourself as an employer of choice when everyone else is pausing? 

Your homework is to action the above points and I’ll return next week to share Part 2 with you. I’ll share more information about deciding if you need to take an acquisition vs retention strategy with your marketing. 

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 It’s time to pivot not pause your recruitment marketing appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Doing the right thing by your employees, customers and stakeholders can be a tough balancing act but your people make your brand and organisations can’t run without them. 

Your employer brand is your brand 

Internal and external communications are becoming public, your employer brand is now your brand, and it plays out for all your customers to see. So ensure you’re carefully considering what you value and acting accordingly. 

As Universum’s Director of Employer Branding James Ellis states, “We’re seeing companies praised for pledging to not lay anyone off, for leaders taking deep pay cuts, for companies giving away its own resources to support a common good. (We’re also seeing companies being called out for lip-service-level of commitment to helping others). If a company demanded that its workers to go back to the office in Wall Street the afternoon of 9/11, it wouldn’t be a company anymore. No one would work there and no one would want to be a client. 

“We are absolutely, in fits and starts and occasional pandemic-driven lurches, moving to a place where the employer brand isn’t a junior partner in the marketing and branding conversation. This means [Employer Branding] has GOT to step up its game. In a lot of ways, we’ve existed in a recruiting/TA ghetto, where mediocre work (no strategy, follow-the-leader-thinking, no experimentation or innovation, etc) was acceptable. If the business is looking to us to help navigate the crisis and thrive beyond it, we all have to set the bar higher and be better.” 

Protect your people 

Billionaire Mark Cuban recently stated that how a company treated its workers would define the company for decades. He warned companies against sending employees back to work too soon during the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Not only is it a safety issue, it’s a business issue,” Cuban said on CNBC’s “Markets in Turmoil” special. How companies respond to that very question is going to define their brand for decades. If you rushed in and somebody got sick, you were that company. If you didn’t take care of your employees or stakeholders and put them first, you were that company,” he added.

Use vulnerable transparency

With an uncertain future at our doorstep, markets and people are anxious for someone to demonstrate decisive leadership, grounded in reality. Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson shared an emotional video to employees, starting the current financial situation was worse than the worst ever quarter for the company, which saw about a 25 percent fall in revenue. 

“In terms of our business, COVID-19 is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he said. Given the brand is nearly one hundred years old, had survived the Great Depression, World War 2, and countless economic downturns, the statement was significant. 

The empathy Sorenson feels is clear to see. When he says this is the most challenging message he’s ever delivered, there is no doubt. He says, “As a leader, I have never had a more difficult moment than this one. There’s simply nothing worse than telling highly-valued associates – people who are the very heart of this company, that their roles are being impacted by events completely outside of their control.” 

Without actions, layoffs and continuity plans, it’s important to consider the long-term immpacts of these changes and clearly articulate your plan for the future. 

Act in line with your values 

It’s worth revisiting your values and ensuring the measures you’re putting in place align with those values. (Don’t just pay lip service to caring about people.) Are your new policies in line the messages you’ve been promoting? 

Consider the impact of changes in communication methods 

With a large portion of the workforce shifting to remote work, consider the impact of changes in communication methods. It can be difficult to convey tone and meaning through emails and chat functions. Video conferencing, while retaining some elements of face-to-face communication, still create a somewhat impersonal barrier. 

Earlier this week, Sephora laid off over 3,000 employees. A Sephora employee describes the devastating moment she and others in her district were suddenly laid off via a conference call.

“You could hear everyone absolutely sobbing,” said one former employee. “I hung up as soon as I heard the first person cry at the end. I couldn’t take it. I was in tears myself.”

According to a statement by Sephora, “All have been offered severance and provided with support resources, including coordination with companies that provide essential services and may be hiring at this time. It is our sincerest hope that we are able to bring these employees back on staff in the near future.”

With online communication detracting from things such as nonverbal cues and tone, carefully consider the impact: be mindful of tone, personalisation and make a conscious effort to increase empathy. 

Communicate changes to corporate policy 

Share any changes to corporate policies, such as leave of absenses or changes to shift work. You also may be eliminating non-essential travel, be implementing hiring freezes, making role and resposibility changs, or starting virtual recruitment and onboarding. 

If your leadership team are making sacrifices, communicate this clearly to show solidarity with your team members. 

Maintain a sense of optimism 

Amidst stress and uncertainty, there’s still hope for the future and that businesses will be restored. Your team members look to leaders to gauge how to feel and act, so maintaining a sense of optimism is a must. 

People need clarity, transparency, empathy and hope right now. It’s time for business leaders to step up and take their employer brand seriously during this time. 

The post Protecting your employer brand during a crisis  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

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Elena and I have the awesome privilege of traveling around to groups of leaders in HR and Talent Acquisition, sharing stories of how video can transform hiring.
​
Recently, I was in a talk where the question came up — I love what you’re doing with video, but how do we capture a beautiful, spirited video with, say, a boring office job? An Accountant? An Actuary?

First, there’s no such thing as a boring job.

​Every job has meaning. Elena shares a great story that goes something like this: John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA in 1962. He takes a wrong turn down a corridor and runs into a janitor. He says:

“Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?”

​The janitor replied: “Well, Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

Yes, we believe every job has meaning. As workplace storytellers, it’s our job to uncover that meaning and share it in a way that evokes emotion. Sometimes it’s about the company’s mission. Other times it’s about fulfilling a personal passion or legacy. Maybe it’s about opportunities to make a small corner of the world a better place. One story that is often overlooked is: what does this job allow me to do outside of work? Who does it allow me to be?
​
Great storytelling requires empathy, curiosity and a little digging. Capturing these stories on camera will take you outside of the office and into wherever the meaning lies.

Here are a few examples of jobs that take place in an office, but are anything but boring. ​

Why is the work personally meaningful?

Find people who are passionate about what they’re doing. Chances are, they have a personal story for why their job means so much to them. Candidates with the same passion will see this come through and relate. ​

How does the role allow the company to thrive?

Even though the finance team doesn’t build vacuums at Dyson, they play a key role in the company’s success and longevity. For the right candidate, working on the finance team is a way to scratch an entrepreneurial itch and they’ll be geeked about doing this through the line item reviews that might bore someone else.

What does the job allow people to do in their life outside of work?

In this story, Karima lost her husband recently after being hired at Thermo Fisher. The company supported her through her loss, and continues to provide a work environment that supports her to be the mother she wants to be for her son.

​When candidates are looking for a job, they’re trying to picture what their life will look like if they work with your company. An accountant knows the basics of what’s expected of a staff accountant. Perhaps a more important story to share is how their life will look outside of the office? Who does your job allow them to be at home? How can they show up?

​How does the job allow people to impact the world?

Everybody has been informed by the work of Pew Research, even if you don’t know their name. They did a great job showing their impact in news headlines and the flow of global information in this video (clips contributed by their team, shot on a phone!).

I hope these examples get you thinking about ways of framing stories for jobs that take place in a cube or a desk, but that have emotion for the right viewer. Not all heroes wear capes, some run payroll, play with data, or answer phones. It’s our job to uncover what keeps people inspired, passionate and curious in their jobs.

Learn more about bringing jobs and company culture to life on video, and insights from filmmakers Abby and Elena on the Skill Scout blog. 

How do you incorporate video into your recruitment process? Share a comment below.

Looking to incorporate video into your recruitment process but not sure where to start? Contact our editor.

The post How to film a “boring” office job appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Office managers and CEOs around the country are receiving increasing numbers of applications to allow pets into the workplace. And with the findings of the latest Job Seeker Study revealing that workplace culture is still very important to more than a third of employees, employers need to be taking notice of the growing body of research into the ways allowing dogs into the workplace can benefit productivity and healthy, positive office culture.

What skills can they bring to your workplace?

“I believe my non-verbal communication skills, friendly and approachable demeanour, and ability to really listen and empathise with people will make me an excellent asset to your team…”– Bella’s cover letter reads. 

Despite the wet tongue lolling out of her mouth, Bella’s profile image brings out her warm and intelligent eyes.

Although the trend of bringing pets to work seems may seem like a fad, dogs have been working side-by-side with humans for thousands of years. Canines have undeniable skills in outdoor occupations such as shepherding or hunting, and their instincts for detection have been utilised for uncovering drugs, explosives, cancer, epilepsy, and even forensic tracking. Dogs are capable of learning new skills, of conveying information, and like humans they possess individual personalities and temperaments. So how can these skills transfer to your workplace?

What other factors do you need to take into consideration?

Much like making any new hire, there are many factors to bear in mind when bringing a dog into the workplace.

Research conducted by the Animal Behaviour, Cognition and Welfare Group of the University of Lincoln, identified not only the size and breed of the dog as important factors to consider, but that the size and type of your organisation also play significant roles in the success of bringing a dog into your workplace.

But while not-for-profit organisations were more likely to have employees bringing their dogs to work than educational organisations, all employees who brought their dog to work often had higher rates of vigour, dedication and engagement at work than those who brought their dogs only sometimes or never.

“I have obtained training certificates in obedience, and hold myself to exemplary hygiene and behavioural standards for which the provided references below will attest.” – Bella’s cover letter continues. 

But there’s a glitch. As your eyes flick down to see the details for a puppy preschool completion certificate, you also note the lack of accreditation as an Assistance Animal.

Certain pets with Assistance Animal certifications are required by the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 to be reasonably considered within a workplace when requested by an employee with a physical or mental disability. However, even those of sound body and mind can reap the benefits from the unconditional love and companionship of an animal.

The Emotional Support Co is a team of specialists that advocate the physical and mental benefits of emotional support animals such as lower levels of stress, increased activity and reduced blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Further experimental studies detailed last year in the Journal of Human Relations found that the presence of dogs within a group has a positive effect on the positive emotions and prosocial behaviours of the group, even increasing creativity and the effectiveness of collaboration.

However, while their benefits are undeniable, emotional support animals are not recognised to be carrying out any specific tasks to assist their owners, and as such are not protected by Australian Law in the way an Assistance Animals are. This means the decision to allow Miss Bella into your organisation lays completely in the hands of your organisation’s leadership team.

While the possible health and safety implications of any employees with allergies or phobias need to be considered, so too must the potential improvements to employee engagement, productivity and retention.

Like any potential hire, there needs to be a consideration for not only workplace culture-fit, but culture-add, and Miss Bella may just be the good girl your organisation needs.

Jacynta Clayton puts her degrees in psychology and professional writing to good use at Lightbox Communications, Brisbane. As the Content & Projects Co-ordinator, she helps give organisations a resounding voice to their recruitment marketing and employer branding content.

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“Switching from transactional to emotional. From functional to experiential.”

As Accor states, “Over the past 6 years, Accor has carried out a major shift and achieved a tremendous transformation. In 2019, we wrote a new page in the Group’s history as we brought Augmented Hospitality to life through the guest-engaging promise ALL – Accor Live Limitless.”

This video is a powerful example of inspriring both current and future talent, and consumers alike.

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