Posts

How to Write a Job Description Optimized for Job Boards and Internet Search, Tip 5

in /by

Location, location, location! No, I’m not talking about prime land real estate; however, the same old catchphrase can apply to your job listings and job board real estate depending on how well your company’s geographic location aligns with the location of your targeted applicant pool. In this fifth installment of the “How to Write a Job Description Optimized for Job Boards & Internet Search” series, I’ll discuss how strategically using features available within your applicant tracking system can remedy an organization’s ailing efforts to get listings in front of out-of-town applicants.

Skills Gap: Qualified Applicants Don’t Live in Your Neighborhood

Awhile back I was chatting with one of our clients. She works for a company within the automotive industry and frequently needs to hire individuals skilled in trades, such as mechanics and technicians capable of working on large diesel engines. She usually has a number of similar positions open across multiple facilities, but the facilities are not in really large metropolitan areas…rather bigger towns scattered across the Midwest. In particular, one of those larger towns happens to be about thirty minutes from Indianapolis via interstate.

She has found that if she can get the word out, sometimes skilled individuals who reside on the edge of Indianapolis are willing to drive to her facility for work…after all, it is in the opposite direction of most rush hour traffic. However, it is much more challenging for her to engage qualified applicants that are closer and, perhaps at times, more aware of her job openings. She is definitely experiencing a skills gap in her town when it comes to technical positions.

So naturally, having had some success reaching Indianapolis residents and engaging them to come to her town for work, she wants to continue to get the word out and expand the geographic scope of her applicant pool. However, with so many postings skimmed by job seekers, she needs to do it in such a way that it is still clear that the opportunity is based in her town…and not in the city thirty minutes away. After all, she doesn’t want to waste her time, or even the time of her hiring managers, if a few applicants that don’t realize the position is really in the smaller town (and therefore do NOT want to make the commute) get through the cracks.

Strategic Job Locations & Setting Expectations Clearly

The key to this obstacle is to use your job description to make it clear that your opportunity is based in the town, but also ensure that it appears in the search results for applicants who may not be specifically looking for jobs in that town…but rather in the nearby city. Check with your applicant tracking system provider to see if alternate job locations can be enabled for the job boards to which you push your job ads.

For example, it is important to be upfront about the fact that your position is based in your town on your careers page. You may go so far as to also say as much in the first two sentences of your job listing to be sure that the town name appears in snippets of your posting in search engine and job board results pages.
Setting Location Expectations - Job Listings
Then, when pushing certain job listings to free and paid external job boards, designate the larger nearby metropolitan area as the “job board city” since applicants often do geographic searches on external job boards. After all, many more searches are likely to be done on the city than on the smaller town. And, while some of those applicants will dismiss the small town job opportunity when they note in the first few sentences that it is based in the town a half hour away; others will check it out–as they might reside in an area of the city that is relatively close to the town. Plus, they never would have thought to search for opportunities in that town, specifically. This can be especially compelling when you consider that a city like Indianapolis is so spread out that it can take nearly an hour to go from a suburb on one side to another on the opposite end of the city.
Specify Job Board City | ExactHire

Big City Skills Can Meet Small Town Opportunities

If you ever find yourself in a similar scenario scrambling to entice applicants to come to your quaint out of the way town, consider the approach I’ve outlined here. However, bear in mind the importance of still making it clear to applicants that do view your job description that the position is indeed located in your town…and not the big city. This technique isn’t about bamboozling applicants with the location bait and switch, it’s about harnessing the power of job board geographic searches to put your listing in front of applicants when it might not otherwise have been seen. Then, it is still up to the applicant to consider the merits of the scenic drive.

Skills Gap Highlights Need for Hiring Software in Manufacturing Industry

in /by

If you are in the manufacturing industry then you’ve likely had to make some critical changes to your applicant selection process over the past few years. As a whole, the industry has been surviving rather than thriving, with a skills gap caused by fewer new graduates in technical fields available to meet the needs of positions requiring technical skills. And we all know that technology isn’t going away when it comes to most anything in life…particularly in the manufacturing and production of goods.

Given these existing challenges in the hiring process for manufacturers, its even more important to hire individuals with the right behavioral traits, cognitive abilities and job skills to ensure job fit across your organization. Tools such as applicant tracking systems and pre-employment testing solutions can help to overcome these challenges while also freeing up the time that your human resources department spends on processing paperwork.

Use Tools of the Hiring Trade: Applicant Tracking Software & Employee Assessments

Applicant Tracking Software

Effective applicant tracking software will enable the following activities…

  • Automating the more basic aspects of the candidate screening process:
    • facilitating external job board posting;
    • hosting paperless employment application;
    • automatically scoring and/or flagging candidates based on answers to certain critical job requirement-related questions); and,
  • Moving candidates through the hiring process and reporting on results:
    • allowing easy disposition of applicants’ status in the process;
    • and, robust reporting tools to examine source traffic, time to fill, applicant flow logs, etc.

Employee Assessments

Employee assessments and job skills tests are great solutions for applying a purely objective component to the selection process. However, they should only be used as a complement to the process rather than as the hard and fast rule on whether applicants are considered. In fact, no
cognitive/behavioral assessment tool should account for more than about 25-30% of your hiring decision. Nonetheless, when used properly, these assessments empower hiring managers to sneak a peak at how an individual may be hard-wired in terms of his/her behavior and motivation, as well as assess his/her skills set and cognitive abilities. That’s critical information going into different stages of the interviewing process…as any potential flags or areas of interest can be explored through further questioning.

Build a Qualified Applicant Channel

Of course acquiring the tools to maximize the reach and impact of your hiring process is only part of the equation. You still need to attract top talent and engage them by maintaining a positive employment brand. A great way to reach passive applicants is by utilizing social networks. The right ATS can automate the process of posting new jobs as status updates on your company’s various social media pages. Here are some other suggestions for engaging applicants and honing your recruitment brand:

  1. Be responsive to candidates: Above all, be accountable to what you say you are going to do in terms of getting back with people…i.e. under promise and over deliver.
  2. Make your branded careers page a destination: Don’t just feature a list of jobs on your portal, include other pages with information about company culture, benefits, frequently asked questions about the hiring process, etc.
  3. Incorporate video into your application process: For manufacturers, safety concerns are paramount. Weed out less than serious applicants by embedding a required safety video/quiz into your application process. Then, ask questions on the application that only someone who viewed the video would be able to answer. This will reduce the number of applicants you receive who aren’t serious about your organization.
  4. Take advantage of reporting and analytics information: Identify which of your external ad sources refers the most candidates who actually end up being hired. This exercise helps you to better plan future expenditures of both your time and money to maximize the return on your recruiting budget investment.

This active just-in-time candidate pipeline you’ve now created requires your attention to ensure it’s useful the next time you’re trying to fill positions for your organization. Regularly create and share content that is relevant to your various subsets of applicant groups. Examples of content might include recent news at your company, compensation trends for your industry, recent awards earned by employees or departments and potential hiring plans.

Being attentive to how the evolving manufacturing landscape requires your business to fine tune its recruiting and onboarding efforts will pay dividends in the long run – it is quality assurance for your future placement and succession planning activities.

For more tips on how to improve your recruitment and onboarding processes, please contact ExactHire today or visit our Resources Section.

[VIDEO] Job Requisition Approval Process

in /by

Is your organization struggling to get job openings approved by relevant managers across multiple locations in a timely fashion? Do delays in the job requisition approval process cost your company money, time and lost applicants?

If so, then consider incorporating an automated job approval tool into your hiring workflow. In this video, learn how the optional requisition management feature within the HireCentric applicant tracking system can help organizations to better control the time frame and costs involved with the recruiting process.

Schedule a live demonstration to see the job requisition management feature in action.

Transcript:

An easy-to-use job approval process is key to a consistent, controlled approach to managing your hiring efforts and staying within budget.

ExactHire’s applicant tracking software has an optional requisition management feature that allows small and mid-sized companies to digitize the job approval process.

With the flexibility to allow both hiring managers and HR administrators to start new requisitions, companies can customize the approval process by business unit or even by job listing.

It’s easy for hiring managers to access the Requisitions tab and click the green plus icon to start a new request.

Configure user logins to give managers access only to templates within their department.

Then, managers complete the quick and easy form, customized for your company, to capture whatever job info you require…for example, number of openings, salary grade, job board preferences, and budgetary considerations.

The management approval chain can vary by user or job. With HireCentric, HR Admins may pre-configure approval layers for groups of users; or, allow them to choose the appropriate requisition approval layers for themselves.

Once a request is launched, the first recipient logs in to view details and then may simply approve or deny it. Leaving comments is optional.

If declined, the requesting manager receives a notification and may make edits. Once approved by all layers, an HR Administrator receives notice.

Then, with just a few clicks, the HR Admin can push the job to external job boards and social media sites.

Having a paperless job approval process allows your business to streamline hiring…getting jobs posted and applicants sourced more quickly. Forget the pains of paper pushing and waiting for wet signatures – ask ExactHire about requisition management and our applicant tracking system.

To see the HireCentric requisition approval feature in action, please schedule a live demonstration or request a free 14-day trial.

[VIDEO] Social Recruiting Tools

in /by

Considering the ever-increasing number of social media users, savvy recruiting and human resources professionals are now, more than ever, pushing job postings to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media sites in order to generate a larger potential pool of applicants for career opportunities with their organizations. With the right applicant tracking software, reaping the benefits of social recruiting tools can be fast and easy.

In this video, see how ExactHire’s applicant tracking system integrates with social media networks and simplifies the task of promoting your job openings.

Transcript:

Using word of mouth in the recruiting process is one of the most effective and long-standing ways to attract talent. Imagine its power amplified through the use of social media networks.

ExactHire’s applicant tracking software offers many different social recruiting features. There are hundreds of millions of users on Twitter and LinkedIn each month – even over a billion on Facebook. Therefore, leveraging social media in today’s talent acquisition landscape is a must!

Your careers site visitors can easily share your jobs with friends on many different social networks. Encourage your own recruiting staff and employees to regularly visit your Jobs page and share openings, too.

While HireCentric ATS engages your active job seekers with a branded careers portal and job postings optimized for search, passive applicants can also interact with your employment brand over time by subscribing to automated job alerts via email.

Use our Facebook app to install a Jobs tab right on your company page. That way, your Facebook visitors can see all your current openings without leaving Facebook. The fewer clicks applicants must make to get to job info, the more employment applications you will receive.

If you’re spending too much time announcing new jobs on company social media sites, you’ll want to use an integration that automatically posts status updates to your company Facebook wall or Twitter page each time you create a new job listing. Post to personal LinkedIn pages, too.
Choose how often the posts occur and include hashtags to make it easy for job seekers to find your updates.

Social recruiting allows your company to exponentially increase its talent pool with little effort. With the power of social sharing, attract the best talent by improving your odds of reaching people with the right opportunity at the right time.

To see our recruiting software’s social media tools in action, we encourage you to schedule a live demonstration or do a free 14-day trial.

Hiring Technology In Layman’s Terms

in /by

When I hired on at ExactHire, I honestly had NO idea what this company did. I had never dealt with applicant tracking systems and onboarding before. These were words that might as well have been foreign! To make it more interesting, my family and friends wanted to hear all about my new job and what services we provided…. I had a hard time explaining, at first.

I am an accounting person, a number geek if you will. I have some sales and marketing background but overall, I have always preferred the role as a “bean counter.” Business school had taught me some basic HR ideas and terms. Being at ExactHire has certainly broadened that scope. Interestingly enough, I had just been out on the job search… applying to jobs online, talking to recruiters and searching all the job posting sites out there. I got pretty good at filling out all the online applications. Ironically, I now work for a company that has web-based options for making hiring easier for any company.

Basically ExactHire has three different products:

Employee Assessments Explained

Assessments are pretty self-explanatory; you answer a bunch of questions about yourself and get a report back on your cognitive skills and/or behavioral traits, depending on the assessment type. An understanding of how you are “wired” will help both you and your employer ensure that you have the best possible chance of job fit with your intended position. Every new employee at ExactHire takes one of these, and the version I took reminded me of the tests you take as a junior in high school when you are deciding what to do for the rest of your life (because 17 year olds are good at big decisions!)!

Onboarding Software and Going Paperless

Onboarding software is also pretty easy to explain… we make hiring a new employee easy and paperless!! Yes, being GREEN is important (and trendy). The client tells us what forms they need their new employees to fill out (from I-9’s to tax and direct deposit forms just to name a few), and we provide those for them – paperlessly (is that a word?!).

Understanding Applicant Tracking Systems

Finally, the big mystery – what is an applicant tracking system? Basically, ExactHire provides a web site to each of our clients to help with their hiring needs. The client can post jobs, track applicants that apply and manage any resumes that are submitted. It’s actually quite brilliant! There are tons of benefits to this technology as well. The company can reach more potential candidates by pushing listings to external job boards, too. The recruitment process is more efficient and consistent. This allows each company to enhance its employment “brand” and customize its priorities for applicants. The hiring team can search through their database of applicants to find those that fit certain requirements while saving info of others, who may be a good fit down the road. Overall, this is perfect for making good hiring decisions so that each of our clients can build their best team.

At ExactHire, we strongly believe in the importance of job fit. Using all three of these products can make the hiring process much more pleasant for the applicant as well – which means good “word of mouth” advertising for your company. FREE positive advertising…who doesn’t need that!? Now next time you hear “ATS” or “onboarding” in a conversation (because that could happen!) you will know exactly what those terms mean!

Image credit: finding balance by woodleywonderworks (contact)

Applicant Tracking Software for Blue Collar Employers

in /by

In my dealings with organizations around the country, I occasionally (though not as often as in the past) hear concerns about moving the hiring process online for positions that are entry-level or blue collar in nature.  I especially run across this objection when speaking with individuals from manufacturing companies. When digging a bit deeper with these organizations, the concerns typically boil down to two things:

  • Do their applicants have internet access readily available?
  • Are their applicants tech-savvy enough to complete employment applications online?

The first question is probably a bit easier to evaluate than the second.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent publication on the topic, “Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2018,” around 85% of American households had internet access in 2018.  That means three out of every four applicants (on average) have internet in their home.  Beyond that, we also have to consider how many people have access to the internet through their smartphone or tablet device?  While there may not be any solid statistics to bring clarity to that question yet, I’m a believer that some reasonable percentage of the 25% population without home internet access do have access through one of these alternate devices.

Strategies for Applicants Without Internet Access

However, let’s look at this from a more pessimistic perspective.  To be fair, if I’m recruiting for positions that are more entry level or blue collar, I don’t want to potentially miss 15% of my applicant pool because they don’t have internet access.  If you subscribe to that theory, below are some things our clients have done to make our applicant tracking software more accessible for those who may not have regular access to the internet:

  • Set up kiosks so applicants may apply on-site.  Going this route doesn’t mean you have to purchase new laptops or desktops (or even tablets).  Instead, simply have your IT staff (or an outside group for very few dollars) repurpose older computers so that they may be used in a lobby or office for just this purpose.
    • If applicants do not have a current email address, then make sure your web-based employment application includes a link to a free email provider within its instructions – so that the applicant may create a new email account on the spot and then use it to complete the required email field on the application.
  • Suggest to applicants that they may access your career portal for free from most libraries.  All they need is a library card (also free), and they may apply like any other applicant.
  • Partner with your local Workforce Development office.  Given that its mission is to help create and/or fill jobs for local organizations, the staff there may be happy to allow applicants to complete your online application from their office.
  • As a last resort (if none of the above work), suggest to applicants that they use the computer of a friend or family member.  While I don’t anticipate it would come to this often, it does virtually guarantee that they’ll know someone with internet access.

Applicants Who Are Not Tech-Savvy

Now, on to the second question from above — are the applicants tech-savvy enough to complete online employment applications available through your applicant tracking software?  The reason this is more difficult to answer is because there are a handful of things that can influence the answer.  Chief among them are:

  • How user-friendly is the paperless application you’re using?  If designed properly, a good ATS should walk applicants through the process of finding and applying for the right job in a very simple, intuitive way.
  • What is the typical demographic you’re hiring for these positions?  There are some groups of people where access to internet and overall computer usage is lower than the national average.  Again, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s data, examples include households where the median age is above 65, and households located in rural areas with limited availability to purchase/use internet services.  If you happen to target these demographics, you may need to have manual options available on very limited stand-by for cases where accessing a web-based application doesn’t work for applicants.

So, if you hire entry-level or blue collar staff regularly, please take a look at your hiring landscape.  Feel free to use the guidelines above to help determine whether the advantages of applicant tracking software may be realized for your company, despite any initial concerns regarding affecting your applicant flow.

Image credit: Perfection is our Direction by Nick Harris1 (contact)

Make a Business Case for Paperless HR Software – How to Talk Your Boss’s Language

in /by

A challenge for many Human Resource professionals has always been getting a seat at the proverbial table. In other words, how can HR and the workforce, in general, be viewed less as an expense and more as an asset? After all, that’s what we all want, right?

Speak the Same Business Language

One of the primary reasons this remains a difficult task is because the language and analytics traditionally used by human resources professionals may not be as meaningful to others in leadership roles. For instance, while turnover percentage and time-to-fill are reliable indicators to many in the human resources arena, these HR metrics don’t necessarily translate well to CFOs, COOs, or presidents.

In many of my conversations with prospective clients, I hear this same scenario played out again and again. However lately, I’m seeing more frequent instances where changing how HR folks think to more closely align with other organizational leaders can turn this tide. Let’s take human capital, for instance. In particular, let’s focus on applicants and new hires, as that’s where our solutions work for most companies.

When adding applicant tracking software or employee onboarding software, many HR leaders focus primarily on justifying these web-based software applications by focusing on efficiencies gained and/or staff time saved. While these points certainly have merit, they also fall outside the common terminology of most finance and operations leaders. Because efficiency and staff time saved in HR are difficult to quantify and not directly attributable to the bottom line, these savings are usually discounted or dismissed entirely.

However, focusing on what direct impact those efficiencies can have on the revenue growth or profitability of the organization changes that conversation completely. Here’s what I mean – instead of focusing on time saved, work with metrics that are meaningful to your boss.

Metrics That Are Meaningful to the Bottom Line

Revenue per employee and profit per employee are very common ways to look at your workforce as an asset. Fewer employees with more revenue equals more profit — nothing too complicated about that. Thinking this way allows the human resources department to make a true business case for recruiting automation that will resonate with other leaders. Logically, here’s the case:

  • Automating job board postings and using social media recruiting tools drives more applicant traffic to the organization
  • Allowing applicants to apply online (vs. paper applications or emailed resumes) converts more applicant traffic to actual applications
  • Leveraging job screening questions allows the recruiting team to focus on the higher quality applicants more quickly — even with a potentially higher volume of applicants
  • Focusing more effort and spending more time with those quality applicants leads to hiring better people — this will be even more pronounced if you choose to utilize employee assessments to increase your potential for optimal job fit across your workforce
  • Good employees ramp up more quickly, stay longer and perform better than average employees
  • This drives more revenue, improves customer satisfaction, reduces operating costs, improves output, and the list of positive benefits goes on…

Now you’re making a business case for using solutions, instead of asking for something under the appearance that it will simply make life easier for you and your staff.

This may not happen overnight in your organization, but continuing to think more like your boss and communicating in his or her terms will improve your perceived value to the organization. Oh yeah…it will also help you get more of what you want and need for you and your team.

For help with making a business case for paperless HR software in your organization, please contact ExactHire.

How to Use Applicant Tracking Software to Source Internship Candidates

in /by

It’s that time of the year…the grass is green, the birds are chirping, and many new faces are popping up as potential employees (and perhaps as new LinkedIn followers) for your organization as students dive full throttle into the internship search process.

Let’s say you are pretty satisfied with the questions asked on your employment application, and it helps you capture appropriate, job-relevant information from experienced job seekers and recent college graduates. But is the same application appropriate for your potential internship applicants? Will these interns-to-be take the time to complete the whole application thoughtfully? What will they think when they get to questions like “please list all applicable licenses and certifications,” etc.? They probably don’t yet possess such credentials and might abandon the effort to complete the application thinking it won’t result in any employment fruits for their labor.

With this scenario in mind, how do you customize your applicant tracking software to engage potential interns to apply and capture the right type of information on the internship employment application? Here are some tips:

  1. Create a link dedicated to internship opportunities on your ATS site’s landing page. By specifically calling out your organization’s focus on internship opportunities, you are establishing credibility and making it easy for students to navigate your careers page.
  2. Establish a secondary employment application dedicated to internship applicants and/or recent college grads. This version will likely be shorter than your regular application (i.e. not as much room will be necessary for previous employers, certification listings, etc.), and you may use it to capture student-focused information such as: school and permanent home address, extracurricular activities, and expected graduation date.
  3. When posting job listings, make sure one of your available employment types is “internship.” When sorting through available jobs, students may quickly hone in on the positions relevant to them. NOTE: Take it a step further and give students a direct link to your job listings already filtered down to available internships only. This can easily by placing some strategic hyperlinks on your “Internship Opportunities” page (see tip #1 above).
  4. Be sure and include specific information about the compensation, benefits, hours and responsibilities associated with the internship when crafting the job listing within your applicant tracking system. It is important for employers to take care in determining whether an internship will be a paid position, stipend, or unpaid. There are very specific rules to follow in order for an internship to be eligible to be unpaid. For more information about internship pay guidelines, visit the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division site.
  5. Take advantage of Bookmark & Share Icon links to promote your internship opportunities on social media sites – especially Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Your applicant tracking software should allow you to promote links to your listings on your own social profile pages, as well as allow applicants to easily share interesting employment options with friends.
  6. Give students (and this goes for all of your other applicants, too) the ability to sign up for automated job alerts on your careers portal. They may not be in the market for your specific internship opportunity this semester, but if they receive an email alert with new open opportunities the next time you post, it will be easier for them to apply sooner in your selection process.

Build a Recruitment Brand, And They Will Come…(Part 2)

in /by

You may recall from “Part 1” of this story the emphasis I placed on creating and nurturing a recruitment brand for your organization. Because whether or not you address it, you have a brand…so make sure it is a recruitment brand you are proud to support!

In this post, we’ll take a quick look at how you may use applicant tracking software to help maintain the recruitment brand you worked so diligently to create. Specifically, we’ll look at an ATS as a launch pad to social networking platforms; as well as, a means by which you can easily use status codes to move candidates through the selection process–while keeping those candidates informed.

But first, after my last post I invited ExactHire client, Right On Interactive, to share how they create and maintain the Right On Interactive recruitment brand.

Here are Right On Interactive’s President Troy Burk’s thoughts on the subject:

  1. “We educate as much as we evaluate. We realize that throughout the entire recruiting process we must continue to show the value of the opportunity, the potential for personal growth, and future direction of our company. The candidates are interviewing us as much as we are interviewing them.
  2. Be honest with the candidates. We talk about the specifics of the position, the requirements, and what our expectations are for performance. False expectations on either end will end in disappointment (on either side).
  3. If a candidate is not a good fit for the position, we will try to help them network with others that might be a better fit. We have done this with several individuals and helped them find the right position (with another company).”

It is clear that Troy’s organization understands the importance of mutual respect in the selection process, as well as how to leverage networking to help candidates.

So how can you use an ATS to exponentially increase the size of the audience that has access to your job postings? With ExactHire’s applicant tracking software, you have the ability to allow candidates to “share” your job listing with friends and colleagues via the biggie’s like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but also over 285 other Internet sites! And, if you have been paying special attention to your recruitment brand and how it dictates that you treat your applicants, you are much more likely to have site visitors that want to share your openings with others. Your recruitment brand is creating fans for your organization.

Social Networking Links | ExactHire ATS

When you have the social networking under control, then it is time to keep applicants engaged by managing them through your selection process within the ATS. The administrative side of the ExactHire ATS allows you to use both applicant status codes and job status codes to assign a progress label to every applicant for each position to which he/she may have applied. Then, you may run a quick report that allows you to use status codes as search criteria to drill down to specific lists of applicants that deserve a follow-up email from your organization. Use the ATS to send emails to multiple candidates at once, and create a recruitment brand that embodies consistency in candid communication. Your applicants will note your efforts, trust me.

Image credit: Road Herd by Ed Thomes Photography (contact)