The Biggest Recruiting Challenge and 3 Effective Ways to Tackle It

Learn how to successfully tackle the biggest recruitment challenge – talent shortage! 

What is the biggest recruitment challenge?

Recently, we did an extensive audit to find out what is the biggest recruiting challenges HR professionals struggle with. To find out, we talked with our customers, reached out to the talent acquisition community and consulted global talent acquisition studies and research.

What we found out is that talent shortage is the No. 1 hiring challenge today. A study by the National Federation of Independent Business has found that 87% of HR professionals reported “few or no qualified applicants” for the positions they were trying to fill.

Unfortunately, this problem will only get worse. According to the McKinsey Global Institute study, in 2020 companies in Europe and North America will need 16 to 18 million more educated employees that are going to be available.

So what can you do to successfully tackle this common recruiting challenge?

Top 3 strategies to tackle the talent shortage

Here are the top 3 strategies guaranteed to help you tackle the biggest recruiting challenge – talent shortage:

1. Attracting passive candidates

According to LinkedIn’s research, 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive talent who aren’t actively job searching. If you want to attract these passive candidates, you need to define and implement an effective employer branding strategy. You need to tell a compelling story about your company, showcase your company culture and get candidates excited to join your team.Create an attractive, responsive and branded career site and career blog, where you can present your employer brand and show candidates why your company is a great place to work. You’ll do that by presenting photos of your employees and your office, sharing employee testimonials and writing about the interesting projects and new technologies your teams are working with. 

2. Sourcing candidates

Unfortunately, building and presenting an attractive employer brand isn’t enough. Passive job candidates aren’t actively looking for a job, so they won’t be checking your career site – unless you give them a reason. In order to get their attention, you need to proactively reach out to your perfect candidates.

But first, you need to find them. Luckily, with modern recruitment tools such as TalentLyft, you easily scour the web and find great candidates with just a single click. Once you find them, make sure that you send them effective, personalized cold recruiting emails. 

3. Building talent pools

Finally, you need to build your talent pool and fill it with candidates eager to join your company. That way, you will have a pool of interested, qualified candidates you can tap into when you have a job opening. 

There are many ways to build your talent pool. You can invite potential candidates to join your talent network, fill your talent pool with attendees of your local events, workshops and meetups, organize online webinars, open career days and job fairs, etc. 

ATS vs Recruitment Marketing Software: What is the Difference and Why do You Need Both?

What is the difference between Recruitment Marketing Software and ATS? And why do you need both of these tools to gain advantage in today’s ultra-competitive market?

What is ATS and how does it enhance hiring process?

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software designed to help HR teams track and manage applications, as its name suggests. An ATS appeared in the nineties, when HR teams’ biggest struggle was managing numerous applications and selecting the best among them. 

In other words, an ATS is designed to help HR teams improve their hiring process after they receive applications. As such, it doesn’t help HR teams to tackle the greatest challenge of modern time recruiting – attracting passive candidates. 

An overwhelming majority of today’s candidates are passive candidates, who aren’t looking for a job. According to a recent Glassdoor research, 76% of hiring managers admit attracting top talent is their greatest challenge. This is why a new tool called Recruitment Marketing Software has appeared – to help ambitious HR teams improve their hiring process prior to receiving applications.

What is a Recruitment Marketing Software and how does it enhance hiring process?

A Recruitment Marketing Software is an innovative software program designed to help HR professionals attract great potential candidates and turn them into applicants.

Using a Recruitment Marketing Software will enable you to build awareness about your employer brand, get potential candidates interested in working at your company and to drive them to apply for the open positions your company has available.

With a Recruitment Marketing Software, you can showcase your employer brand through different channels, such as your company’s career site, social media, job boards, recruiting events, etc.

Want to try out a powerful ATS & Recruitment Marketing Software?

Take TalentLyft for a test ride! 

Try our ATS and Recruitment Marketing Software for free. Yep, completely free for  14 days, no credit card is required to sign up and you can cancel anytime.

Summer Slump at Work? Read this!

Feeling the summer slump at work? Here is how to get back into your hardworking, productive mode!

Are you struggling with summer slump at work?

If you’re stuck in office while all your friends are sending you beach photos, it’s no surprise that you feel a bit demotivated at work. 

Summer is a time for relaxing in the sun on the beach, not for working. It’s completely normal that you mind is wandering to wandering to thoughts of flip flops, beaches and mojitos. According to a recent study, workplace productivity is estimated to drop 20 percent during the summer.

However, this doesn’t mean that you have to give into this unproductive mode!

Get inspired and stay productive!

To help you and your team get back on track, we gathered a few great motivational quotes:

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”

– Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, actor

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. “

– Pele, Brazilian footballer

“I never viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working. “

– Will Smith, actor

If you’re looking for more inspiring and motivational workplace quotes, check out our collection of:

• 10 Favorite Team Motivational Quotes
• Top 10 Inspirational HR and Recruiting Quotes
• 21 Inspiring Workplace Quotes
• Top HR and Recruiting Quotes from Technology Leaders.

Don’t forget to share these inspirational quotes on social media! Spread the love and inspiration. 🙂

 

Are You Making the Most Out of HR Analytics?

How mature is your HR analytics strategy?

How advanced is your HR analytics strategy?

Today, most companies are collecting vast amounts of detailed data about their people. However, only a small percentage actually conducts a deeper analysis of this data and uses gathered insights to take action. 

Companies that act on the gathered data and analytics to solve critical business issues will surely be able to out-hire, out-manage and out-perform their competitors. Are you among them?

How mature is your company’s HR analytics strategy? Are you just getting started with some basic level of HR analytics? Or you’ve mastered even the advanced HR analytics best practices?

4 levels of HR analytics 

We distinguish four levels of people analytics, from basic to most advanced: 

1. Descriptive analytics
   Descriptive people analytics provides an answer to the following question:
   “What has happened?”
   This type of people analytics is defined by using data to understand and reflect on what has already happened in the past.

2. Strategic analytics
   Strategic people analytics provides an answer to the following question:
   “Why did this happen?”
   This type of data analytics is defined by developing causal models and searching for the reasons behind a certain occurrence.

3. Predictive analytics
   Predictive people analytics provides an answer to the following question:
   “What could happen?”
   This type of data analytics is defined by using statistical models and forecasts techniques that can predict the future based on the past.
4. Prescriptive analytics
   Prescriptive people analytics provides an answer to the following question:
   “What should we do?”
   This type of data analytics is defined by using simulation algorithms to analyze a number of different possible solutions in order to choose the one most likely to provide the desired outcome.

Learn more about the reasons why HR analytics is a new HR imperative!

How to Hire for Diversity?

Learn the best practices and tips for hiring more diverse candidates!

If you want to improve diversity and inclusion at your workplace, you should start by hiring more diverse candidates. 

In this article, you will learn how to incorporate best practices for hiring more diverse candidates at every stage of your recruiting process. Read on to learn:

• How to attract more diverse candidates?
• How to incorporate diversity values in your selection stage?
• How to ensure greater job acceptance rate among diverse candidates?

Attraction stage: How to find more diverse candidates?

Here are some great, actionable strategies for attracting diverse candidates:

1. Source for diversity
   Add terms like “employee resource group” and “ERG” to your Boolean search strings, along with phrases related to different types of diversity focused networks (such as “black,” “Latino,” “disabilities,” “women in IT,” or “LGBTQ”).
2. Post your jobs on job boards specialized in diversity
   Job boards dedicated focused on minorities and diversity are also becoming more common these days. Did you know that you can find a diversity jobs section on Indeed? Make sure you also post your job on Diversity Working, the largest online diversity job board.

3. Encourage diverse employee referrals
   Encourage your employees to recommend diverse candidates by offering additional bonuses and prizes. For example, Intel awards double referral bonuses for diverse hires.

4. Highlight diversity on your career site
   Highlight your company’s dedication to diversity and inclusion. Check out Schneider Electric’s career page focused on promoting their company’s inclusion and diversity initiatives. 

Selection stage: How to select more diverse candidates?

There are 2 proven strategies for incorporating diversity and inclusion at the selection stage of your hiring process:

1. Organize diversity training for recruiters
   Help your recruiters and HR managers learn more about their unconscious biases we all have. Luckily, with a little bit of education and training, everyone can learn how to avoid bias in recruitment.

2. Implement a blind hiring practice
   Blind hiring is the practice of obscuring job candidates’ personal information such as a photo, age, gender and name. That way, recruiters and hiring managers make their decision solely based on qualifications, experience, education, references and the quality of the person’s resume.

Offer stage: How to improve job acceptance rate among diverse candidates?

67% of job seekers said a diverse workforce is important when considering job offers, according to Glassdoor research

Thus, make sure that you highlight your company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Proudly present all of your company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. As well as your diverse employees’ testimonials. Show your diverse candidates that you have cultivated a welcoming company culture that accepts and celebrates differences.  

Benefits of Using Humor in the Workplace

How can you benefit by making your everyday office life more fun?

Why should you use humor at the workplace?

Using humor in the workplace has many benefits. Office humor can come in many different forms – it can be an office joke, prank or funny employee awards event.

Any event, no matter how big or small, infused with humor can brighten up a regular, everyday life at the office and bring a smile to everyone’s face.

The benefits of using humor in the workplace

Besides making you and your colleagues feels good and less stressed, using humor at the workplace has many additional, proven benefits. Dr. David Abramis at Cal State Long Beach has studied fun at work for years.

He discovered that employees who have fun on the job are more creative, more productive, better decision-makers and get along better with co-workers. They also have fewer absentee, late, and sick days than people who aren’t having fun.

Therefore, the main benefits of using humor at the workplace are:

• Increased employee engagement
• Increased employee productivity
• Lower absenteeism
• Decreased turnover rates.

These are certainly some very good reasons to have some fun at the office. Aren’t they?

Rules for using humor at the workplace

A good office humor is the one that everyone can enjoy and laugh about. Be careful not to go overboard and hurt somebody’s feelings or embarrass or humiliate your coworkers.  

How to introduce humor at your workplace?

Here are 2 great ways to introduce humor to your workplace:

1. Funny employee awards
   
   Turn your old, boring “Employee of the month” award into something much more fun! Check out our list of ideas for funny employee awards!
2. Funny office pranks

   There is nothing that can bring out so much fun and laugh like a well thought office prank. When was the last time you enjoyed making a practical joke on your co-workers? If you’re looking for inspiration, check out our list of the top 20 office prank ideas!

How to Make Your Employee Awards More Engaging?

Check out our this simple idea to make your employee wards more engaging and fun!

The best way to make your employee awards more engaging

If your annual employee awards have become a bit stale and you want to make them more engaging, here is a simple, yet effective idea – add a bit of humor!

Funny employee awards should definitely be a part of your employee recognition program. Awarding your employees in a humorous, lighthearted manner will boost your office morale and keep your employees motivated and engaged.

4 ways to make your employee awards more engaging

1. Add a bit of humor

“Employee of the month” award is so…well, boring and way to common. Get creative and add a sense of humor to your awards! If you need some inspiration, check out our list of the 20 ideas for funny employee awards. Have fun with your awards, but make sure you don’t go overboard. Be thoughtful and careful not to embarrass your employees.

2. Include your employees

Ask your employees for their input on your employee awards. Ask them what type of employee awards they would like to see in your company. Make sure to implement all of their ideas! Also, find volunteers who are into the idea and let them help you plan and prepare the event.  

3. Get together and celebrate

Turn your employee awards ceremony into a party! You can geo fancy and set up a red carpet outside the meeting space and have one of your employees posing as a paparazzi photographer as the guests arrive. If your company culture is casual, host your employee award ceremony at the office, with a couple of snacks and drinks, one Friday afternoon.

4. Get creative with awards

Get creative with your awards! Certificates are so expected. Instead, do something surprising! Hand out interesting prizes or trophies. If you don’t have a budget for great prizes, don’t worry.

The prizes don’t have to be expensive. Go to a dollar store and pick out a variety of low-cost items related to the award itself. For example, a keychain flashlight can be a great award for your employee whose positive attitude shines even in the most darkest of times. 

Boolean Search: Something Every Recruiter in 2019 Should Know

Every recruiter who wants to find top talent in 2019 should know how to perform the advanced Boolean search.

What is a Boolean search and why is it important for recruiters?

In 2019, we’re dealing mostly with passive candidates. With low unemployment rates, only 12% of people are actively looking for a job.

This is why recruiters must use different methods to source great candidates.

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz around employee referrals and recruitment marketing. But there is another, very effective method you can use to proactively source candidates – Boolean search.

Boolean search is one of those recruitment tactics that everybody has heard of – but nobody really knows who to apply it. It seems complicated and hard to grasp.

Advanced Boolean search can seem a bit intimidating. Those loooong search queries look like math equations. Yuck!

But bear with me for a moment and let me show that learning at least some basic Boolean search tips and tricks is definitely worth a bit of your time and effort.

What are the advantages of using a Boolean search in sourcing candidates?

By using a Boolean search, you can find better candidates faster. You can effectively search through any online repository of potential candidates, such as:

• Search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing
• Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
• Search resume databases
• Applicant Tracking System.

Thus, using a Boolean search will make your life easier and save your time and money!

How to do a Boolean search?

It’s quite simple actually. You go to Google, type in your keywords and add a few additional words (called operators) and symbols (called modifiers) to get more relevant results.

There are 3 key operators: AND, OR and NOT.

There are also 3 key modifiers: asterisk (*), quotation marks (“”) and parentheses (()).

This 6 words and symbols are at the core of Boolean search.

How to use Boolean search operators and modifiers?

If I got you interested and you would like to know how to use these operators and modifiers, check out our comprehensive, but easy to understand Boolean Search Guide for Recruiters.

Don’t want to bother with learning Boolean search?

Luckily, you don’t have to. 😉
As I said, it’s 2019. These days, you can simply type your keywords into advanced sourcing tools and let them do their magic.

Ever heard about TalentLyft?

Our recruitment software TalentLyft has a powerful, machine learning powered sourcing solution as well as sourcing extension.

Check it out! 🙂

 

Top 5 Recruitment Software Statistics

Discover the proven research-based benefits of using a modern recruitment software!

Are you using a recruitment software?

Using a recruitment software has many benefits. Some of the most commonly cited are the following:

• Increased efficiency
• Time saving
• Cost saving
• Improved reporting
• Higher quality of hire
• Reduced IT department’s  involvement
• Reduced marketing department’s involvement.

In short, a recruitment software should help you find the best hires, in the shortest amount of time, for the least amount of money. It will also enable you to own the whole recruiting process, without depending on your marketing and IT department.

It sounds perfect, right? But is it really like that in practice? Let’s take a look at the data and find out!

Recruitment software statistics you need to know

Here is a list of the top 5 proven, research-based recruitment software statistics you need to know:

Statistic #1: A majority of companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS)

A research Capterra conducted has shown that:

• 75% of recruiters use a recruiting or applicant tracking software.

Statistic #2: Almost all best-in class companies use a recruitment software

According to finding from Jobscan’s research:

• Over 98% of fortune 500 companies use a recruitment software

Statistic #3: Using a recruitment software has positive impact on hiring

According to Capterra’s research:

• 94% of recruiters and hiring professionals say their using a recruitment software has positively impacted their hiring process.

Statistic #4: Recruitment software improves time to hire

GettApp’s research has found that:

• 86% of recruiting professionals say that using a recruitment software has helped them hire faster.

Statistic #5: Recruitment software improves the quality of hire

GettApp’s research findings show that:

• 78% of recruiters say that using an ATS has improved the quality of candidates they hire.

Looking for a better recruitment software?

A great recruitment software will help you achieve your recruitment goals and turn your everyday problems into opportunities. If your current recruitment software isn’t doing its job, you should think about finding the one that will.

In our guide “How to Evaluate and Choose the Best Recruiting Tool” you’ll learn exactly how to compare, evaluate and choose the best recruiting tool that will perfectly fit your hiring needs and your budget.

Employee Feedback: How Do Netflix and Pixar Deliver It?

Learn the exact methods Netflix and Pixar use for delivering feedback to their employees!

Employee feedback: A key to successful employee performance

Providing feedback to employees is an essential component of every successful and productive company culture. Delivering feedback regularly helps to make sure that employees are on the right track and achieving their goals as targeted.

Unfortunately, most companies don’t utilize this powerful management tool. The Globoforce study found that 65 percent of employees say they’d like to receive more feedback than they currently get.

Recent Gallup research finds that only about one in four employees “strongly agree” that their manager provides meaningful feedback to them – or that the feedback they receive helps them do better work.

So how can you ensure providing regular and useful feedback to employees in your company? Learn from the leading companies! Let’s examine the methods Netflix and Pixar use for delivering feedback to their employees.

Pixar’s method for delivering employee feedback

Plussing is Pixar’s magic formula for giving feedback. Plussing has played a game-changing role at the film company Pixar. The general guideline is that you may only criticize an idea if you also add a constructive suggestion. Hence the name plussing.

Here’s an example:

An animator working on “Toy Story 3” shares her rough sketches and ideas with the director. Instead of criticizing the sketch, the director will build on the starting point by saying something like: “I like Woody’s eyes, and what if his eyes rolled left?”

Netflix’s method for delivering employee feedback

Stop-Start-Continue is another employee feedback model that was popularized by Netflix. In this drill, each person tells a colleague one thing they should start doing, one thing they should stop doing, and one thing they’re doing really well and should keep doing.

Netflix also created a system for sending “Stop, Start, Continue” feedback to anyone at the company once a year. The company picked an annual feedback day and asked that everybody send their comments, in “Stop, Start, Continue” format to everyone they had feedback for.

For those who want to know more

If you’re looking for more great tips for managing employees, sign up for our FREE 7 days email course: Short Leaderships Tips for Managers!