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Skills Gap Highlights Need for Hiring Software in Manufacturing Industry

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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.

Improve Your Hiring Process: Cast Wide Net for Talent by Going Social

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Much of what I’ve addressed in my Improve Your Hiring Process blog series to this point has been about bringing efficiency and structure to your hiring process. Not to discount that by any means, as larger groups of unqualified applicants for open positions makes this more important than ever. But, ever think about why so many unqualified applicants end up in your pool?

Resume Blasting on Job Boards

The answer is job boards. Job boards have become the dominant tool for most companies to find applicants. For years, the lure has been getting the most applicants in the least amount of time. On the flip side, job boards present an excellent way for job seekers to have their resume available to thousands of companies, even allowing applicants to auto-apply for positions that match certain keyword criteria.

I’m not suggesting that job boards are bad — they are useful tools for most organizations. The primary issue is that technology isn’t advanced enough yet to determine that a candidate who manages a fast food restaurant shouldn’t be submitted for a “Manager of Global Logistics” position — even though that position has the keyword “manager” in it. So, most of us take the good with the bad…we can get lots of applicants, but we know a majority of them won’t meet our criteria.

The Elusive Passive Applicant

At the same time, the most coveted applicants are those we often refer to as “passive.” They’re employed, but not happy. Thinking about a change, but not yet to the point of acting on it. These folks aren’t trolling the job boards for openings, let alone visiting your career site. Everyone wants to reach these folks, but doing so is elusive for most companies. This is where social media is becoming a major factor.

Over the last few years, much ado has been made about the importance of human capital and intellectual capital. If you think about it, social media allows you to leverage both of those resources simultaneously. If you have good people in your organization today, they likely know lots of other good people, who know lots of other good people, etc. You get the idea. So, why not maximize those resources to find good talent?

Lay the Foundation for Social Recruiting

Making this an effective part of your strategy really relies on having the other elements I’ve discussed in place. You must:

Once those elements are in place, you now have a platform to leverage social media to find those passive applicants. From there, your next step is making it simple for you and your current employees to let others in the various social media circles know about your open positions. This is a step where using an applicant tracking software tool with a solid focus on social media can be invaluable.

The right applicant tracking system will make it very easy for your employees to quickly alert their social media contacts about open positions, including auto-generation of links for those contacts to click in order to learn more about the positions. It will also help track sources for applicants, including those sourced through social media channels. Ideally, it will allow those applicants (if they’re not at a point to proceed right now) to “follow” your company for future job openings. Finally, it will allow you to share open positions via your corporate social media tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Going social will ultimately allow you to reach passive applicants, reduce job board related expenses and hire more quality employees. Be sure to look for the next installment in this series…”Keep Your Applicants Informed”.

Image Credit: Paulo Batista (Flickr) CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

5 Ways to Use Video in Your Recruiting & Hiring Process

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Looking for ways to spice up your company’s recruiting brand? Check out this quick list of five ways to use videos in your recruiting and interviewing processes. Then, start converting more of your career site visitors into actual applicants, and eventually, new and engaged employees.

1 – Highlight Videos on Your Company’s Careers Portal

Use Video to Promote CityThis may be the most obvious and already widely used idea; however, it just might be one of the most effective for engaging your site visitors to stay on your pages longer. A wide variety of subject areas can be covered on the branded careers portal available through your applicant tracking system (ATS). Videos might focus on the following topics:

  • Testimonials given by current employees about why they enjoy working at the company
  • Highlights from various company events and charitable projects to demonstrate the company culture to potential applicants
  • Informational videos about the city or region in which your business resides – this is particularly helpful if you do a great deal of nationwide searches for candidates and relocate new employees to your area

2 – Make Your Confirmation Emails Memorable & Informational

These days it can be very difficult for even medium-sized businesses to personally respond to each individual that submits an employment application. As a result, its quite common for organizations to use their ATS to set up auto-generated email responses whenever a new application is received. These are critical as they confirm to the applicant that his/her submission was successful, and they can greatly reduce the number of phone calls received by applicants who want to check on the status of their application. However, even though personalization strings can be used in these email templates, how exciting is email text for the applicant who is anxious to learn more?
Use Video in Application Confirmations
In your email message, why not embed or link to a video that your company has created to explain the steps involved in the hiring process:

  • In the intro, thank the applicant for his/her interest in your company.
  • Explain how long it might take to process all applications for the position and when responses are generally sent to inform applicants of next steps.
  • Describe the different interview phases that are usually involved in the hiring process – including time intervals between each phase as well as who is generally involved from the company.

Not only will applicants be impressed that you have created a video for this step, but they will come away from the experience with more information about what to expect — without additional effort from your recruiting staff.

3 – Embed Video in Job Descriptions in Your Applicant Tracking System

When adding a new job listing to your ATS, embed code from your video hosting website to feature relevant videos from right within your job description. In this scenario, videos focusing on your office or field environment, and/or interviews with other employees in the same position or department would be well received. ExactHire applicant tracking system even has a designated field allowing video embed code to be pasted in when adding a new job description.

R+L Truckload & Global Logistics in Fort Myers, Florida, is a big believer in incorporating video into the organization’s job listings. Many different employees have roles in the videos it has produced. Here’s how one of its videos appears within the ATS on a recent job description:
Use Video in Job Descriptions | ExactHire
And, check out their video:

4 – Insert Safety Videos Into Employment Application & Survey Applicants

Embed Safety Video on ApplicationsIf certain positions available in your organization require heeding important safety procedures or following certain protocols, then consider the benefits associated with embedding a video for applicants to watch during their employment application submission. This can be a powerful way of better qualifying your applicants for a position that normally attracts a high volume of application submissions – especially if many of the submissions have traditionally been from people who aren’t qualified or truly engaged in the role.

A short video might discuss certain steps that are followed as a regular part of the job. In the application, ask applicants to watch the video and then answer a series of short questions about the video. Serious applicants who want to work for your organization will watch the video and then answer the questions correctly. Candidates who are just applying for anything and everything will hit the video speed bump and think twice about taking the time to finish. For those candidates who do answer the questions, utilize scoring and/or disqualification filters in your ATS to rank applicants based on the number of questions they answered correctly.

5 – Video Resources for Long Distance Interviewing

There are times when it isn’t practical or cost-effective to interview candidates in person. Luckily, a number of affordable (and in some cases free) tools are available to enable organizations to video conference with applicants. Companies that conduct nationwide searches for specific positions can especially benefit from the modern convenience of interviewing applicants on-screen. Applications such as Skype, Google Hangouts, FaceTime, and GoToMeeting are just a few that can meet this need.

Take it a step further and record the video interview to make it available to other managers who are unable to participate in the interviewing process. Or, reference the recorded session to remind yourself of interviewee answers when you are comparing final candidates and near making an offer.

Image Credit: Indianapolis at Night by Rob Annis

 

Have You Thanked a Veteran Lately? Have You Hired a Veteran Lately?

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It’s no secret that I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for the men and women – past, present, and future – that make up our Military. You will see that every opportunity I have to pay back our military, I will do it without complaint. It boils down to this one sentence, “They risk their lives so that I may be free.” There are very few instances where I would willingly go into harm’s way to save those I do not know. These men and women do it every day.

As we approach Veterans Day, it is a good moment to stop and think about how you thank Veterans for what they have done, are doing, and will do in the days to come.

Have you ever considered hiring a Veteran? Yes, it is wonderful to personally thank any Veteran that you may see. And it is valuable to host charity collections for Veterans. But how about considering a Military person as an employee?

Maybe you are hesitant because of their experience level. In one of our recent Facebook shares, the article discusses hiring ‘under-qualified’ employees. Many military members have been taught skills that are transferable; however, some of them may seem underqualified at first glance because they may have used military-type language on their resumes that doesn’t necessarily translate well for hiring managers with civilian workplace experience. Keep this in mind when looking at their application. Do you need someone who is able to keep calm and think strategically when things are going haywire around them? Does this sound like any experience the military may have taught a potential employee? If you have ever thought about bidding for a government contract or need employees with government clearance (particularly if you are subject to affirmative action plan reporting), hiring veterans helps your company distinguish itself from others.

Did you also know that many applicants will not market themselves as having served in the military? Some find it an honor and part of their duty to serve America and therefore do not want to put it “front and center.” Others are worried about any negative connotation an employer may have about veterans. If you find that there is a break in employment history, you may want to ask if they served because military service is not always obvious. Many of our clients ask if an applicant has ever served in the military as part of their standard employment application in their applicant tracking software portal. This can help identify a veteran who has not made his/her service known in other parts of the application.

Forbes released an article November 9th titled, “5 Reasons Leaders Hire Veterans”. The author, Meghan Biro, did an excellent job at pinpointing and expanding on these skills: leadership, grace under pressure, performance and results-oriented, self-sacrifice, and communication and goal-setting.

A program that was started last year by JPMorgan Chase called the 100,000 Jobs Mission helps connect companies and Veterans. Their goal is to hire 100,000 veterans by 2020. You can sign up on their site to help with the mission. Your company’s logo will be displayed on their page and it will be linked to your career site.

Hiring a veteran can be a great opportunity to gain a loyal, dedicated, hard-working employee. But make sure you are hiring for optimal job fit first and foremost. It is not good for you or the veteran to hire the wrong person for the wrong job. Taking a second look at a veteran’s application is a good way to say thank you on this Veterans Day.