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What Is a Recruitment SWOT Analysis?

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The Great Resignation, skills gap and increasing recruitment costs may have you wondering how you can improve your talent acquisition strategy.

The evolving economic and labor landscapes mean that what worked in hiring prior to the pandemic doesn’t work now. How can you systematically assess your approach to recruitment against these changing circumstances?

An old business standby, the SWOT Analysis, can be adapted to help you develop a recruitment strategy that uses your strengths to harness opportunities while reducing your vulnerability to those circumstances that make recruiting so challenging.

SWOT Analysis in HR

SWOT, meaning an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, was developed in the 1960s and is widely used today. A SWOT Analysis takes stock of all four factors in a business endeavor to create a strategy to ensure the endeavor’s success. Individuals and businesses can use a SWOT analysis to aid in planning and goal setting.

SWOT Analyses are effective when making decisions in business planning. Business leaders who use a SWOT analysis benefit from the balanced perspective it provides. Leaders can make decisions that build upon existing strengths without falling victim to uncalculated risks.

When performing a SWOT analysis, decision makers typically start by drawing a quadrant with four boxes. They then label each box beginning with the top left with one of the four factors: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In a business setting, it’s best if the quadrant is drawn on a large presentation pad or whiteboard for maximum participation from all stakeholders.

The best SWOT Analyses have the following characteristics.

  • Focus on the business activity in question.
  • Avoid complexity that hinders decision-making.
  • Prioritize specificity and honesty over vagueness and evasion.
  • Include input from several stakeholders to overcome the subjective nature of the analysis.
  • Perform the analysis in relation to top competitors in the business activity in question.

There are many benefits of a SWOT analysis in recruitment. It offers the organization an opportunity to reframe their recruitment challenges using a range of considerations not normally examined. Using this fresh perspective, hiring teams may see patterns previously missed. You may find it helpful to also perform an onboarding SWOT analysis and employee engagement SWOT analysis to gain further insight into your recruiting process.

Recruitment SWOT Analysis

Performing your own recruitment SWOT analysis can help you devise a talent acquisition strategy that will leverage your company’s unique strengths to overcome its particular challenges. It will help you identify the employers competing for the same talent and consider the recruitment process from the candidate’s perspective.

Before embarking on a SWOT analysis for the hiring process, gather relevant data and identify the people whose input will help make the analysis as objective and productive as possible. Recruitment areas to examine for SWOT analysis include things such as distributing an anonymous employee survey or performing a job search and researching your company from the candidate’s perspective.

When deciding how to do a SWOT analysis of recruitment for your own company, follow these tips.

  • Clearly identify your recruitment goals, including unofficial goals that the hiring team may not have expressed yet.
  • Identify organizations competing for the same talent, even if they are not a competitor within your industry.
  • Consider candidates’ perspectives when reviewing opportunities and threats.
  • Gather information from outside sources, such as employee reviews on Glassdoor and anonymous surveys from employees and previous candidates.
  • In addition to considering the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, take stock of those factors specific to the HR department.  
  • Consider only those factors which are relevant in the present or the very near future.
  • Think about aspects of your organization that are unrelated to HR but still relevant to the recruiting process, such as company brand and core competencies.

Recruitment Strengths and Weaknesses

The recruitment strengths and weaknesses you list on your SWOT analysis are factors within your organization. These are the factors you have the most control over, but they are also the items about which you’re least likely to be objective. Again, having multiple stakeholders contribute to the SWOT analysis for recruitment will produce the best results.

Recruiting strengths are those items that positively impact your candidate search or make your company appealing to job seekers.

Common strengths of the best recruitment process include:

  • Pay scale above industry norms
  • Tuition reimbursement program
  • Executive buy-in for the importance of recruitment in relation to the company’s goals.
  • A strong team in which members feel valued and cared for
  • An applicant tracking system for talent recruitment that ensures the most qualified applicants are at the top of the interview list
  • A mobile-friendly job application

Recruiting weaknesses are those internal factors that make your candidate search more difficult or cause applicants to view your company as less desirable than your competitors.

Common weaknesses in the recruiting process include:

  • A benefits package that is more costly and less comprehensive than your competitors
  • Lack of insight about which job sites for recruiting job seekers reliably produce the best applicants for your company
  • An online application that takes longer than 15 minutes to fill out
  • A physically demanding or uncomfortable work environment
  • Lack of advancement opportunities

Recruitment Opportunities and Threats

Recruitment opportunities and threats are external factors over which you have little or no control. They may include an influx of recent graduates, lack of candidates with the necessary skills or widespread crises such as the pandemic.

You may have difficulty deciding which quadrant to use as you’re finding opportunities to recruit better. Some factors, like your employer brand, begin as an internal element, but then become an external factor subject to independent opinion. Rather than getting caught up in placing a factor in the “right” box, focus on the insights arising from the discussion about your SWOT analysis for recruitment.  

Examples of opportunities include:

  • The city in which your company is headquartered just appeared on a list of best places to live.
  • You can recruit from almost any geographical region for newly remote positions.
  • A competitor is downsizing and laying off employees.
  • The local university offers educational programs in line with your industry needs.
  • Your brand enjoys a good reputation in your community.

Examples of recruitment threats include:

  • A recent court case just increased personal liability for employees in key positions.
  • There aren’t enough graduates in your field to fill the open positions across your industry.
  • Your recruiting competition has switched to a fully remote workforce.
  • When performing internet research from a candidate’s perspective, you find that your organization has a poor employer brand.
  • The big job sites don’t work well for your highly specialized open positions.

Overcome Recruiting Challenges with SWOT Analysis

When you’ve finished your SWOT analysis, you should have around five, but no more than 10, factors in each quadrant. Your aim is to develop a “strategic fit.” Internal factors should complement external factors. And strengths and opportunities should effectively overcome weaknesses and threats.

For example, perhaps an external threat to your recruiting efforts is that your local area lacks enough candidates with necessary skills. Ideally, a strength or opportunity would exist to mitigate this threat. Your organization could develop an opportunity by partnering with local schools to develop a curriculum to teach students the in-demand skills. Or you could bolster your recruiting strengths by offering an in-house apprenticeship program.

A recruitment SWOT analysis can help you analyze the factors that lead to both your recruiting challenges and success. It’s an effective way to gain insights into the circumstances that affect your recruiting efforts. Whether you’re addressing the changing landscape of talent acquisition in general or looking for solutions to challenges unique to your locale or industry, a recruitment SWOT analysis can offer much-needed perspective.

 

Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash

Why Should Companies Hire New Graduates?

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Read any article on hiring recent graduates, and you’ll find a litany of ageist aphorisms. Some pigeonhole Millennials as lazy and entitled. Others sing their praises for their ability to be adaptable or ambitious, as opposed to (we’re led to assume) their aged coworkers set in their ways and coasting along until retirement.

Then there are fresh takes on Zoomers–the most recent college graduates.  According to some, they are driven more by salary than a good opportunity to learn new skills, and so at the drop of a dime will job hop for a slightly better salary.

In truth, you don’t have to pay Millennials in trophies or lure Zoomers with hefty sign-on bonuses–any more than you had to endorse flannel as business casual attire when you hired Generation X.

Moreover, hiring new graduates makes sense even if these stereotypes are true. The skill shortage is real, and all the data points to the power of a diverse workforce. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to recruit new graduates, regardless of their generational traits.

Hiring Fresh Graduates

There are many benefits of hiring college graduates. They’re understandably excited to have graduated college and start their careers. As candidates without experience, they often will accept a lower job salary in exchange for upskilling opportunities. There are other great reasons to hire new grads that far outweigh the disadvantages of hiring fresh graduates.

Reach your diversity goals. When companies hire fresh graduates, they’re more likely to attain their diversity goals. Pew Research Center reports that recent graduates are more diverse than ever. A diverse workforce is good for your business. According to McKinsey, companies succeeding at diversity are 35 percent more likely to enjoy profit margins above the median for their industry.

Access a passive talent pool. Most hiring managers would agree a currently employed candidate is more appealing than a jobless candidate. Turns out 41 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed, with at least 10 percent earning less than $25,000. Chances are that these hard-working employees would prefer a role with a promising future at your company.

Hire digitally proficient employees. One trope about today’s fresh graduates is mostly true: they pickup new technology quicker than older generations, an unsurprising fact since Millennials were the first generation to grow up with the internet–and  Zoomers may not remember a time without smart phones. New graduates can likely help the company quickly improve its online presence or make more efficient use of existing software.

Challenges of Hiring New Graduates

These numerous benefits aside, there are problems faced by employers in hiring new graduates.

And while one article ungraciously claims “Millennials’ Work Ethic Is In The Eye Of The Beholder,” you’ve been a hiring manager long enough to know the same could be said of many people, regardless of age. The weakness of a new graduate employee has less to do with tired stereotypes.

Simply put, new graduates have different expectations than their older counterparts.

  • Recent graduates want to work for companies that “care about their individual well-being,” according to Gallup. While that may seem like a nebulous requirement for an employer, it’s clear your company needs to develop a culture that humanizes your employees in order to attract new graduates.
  •  The internet is integral to the way younger generations connect with the world. Companies need to engage in mobile recruiting coupled with a strong online presence to attract fresh graduates. You need more than one or two ads on job sites to appeal to fresh graduates. Your company needs to have a strong, authentic social media and online presence, including a branded careers site.
  • Lastly, lack of experience for fresh graduates is a legitimate concern for hiring managers. To successfully hire and onboard Millennials and Zoomers, your company needs to help them quickly acquire the knowledge you might expect from more experienced employees.

Campus Recruiting

The best place to find your newly graduated new hire is—you guessed it—on campus. The following tips will help you recruit graduates on campus.

  • Make sure your job ads are listed on the university’s job board as well their social media pages. One of the advantages of campus recruiting is that you can target your audience when you use university’s niche job board.
  • Have a strong LinkedIn presence. As graduation approaches, many students will strengthen their LinkedIn profile. You can search for recent graduates and reach out through InMail.
  • Make sure your branded careers site is appealing to recent graduates. Your careers site should include information about your company culture as well as “behind-the-scenes” videos.
  • Host an on-campus job fair complete with free company swag. Your campus recruiting strategy isn’t complete without an onsite job fair. Make sure you advertise the job fair both on campus and online. Have several employees at the booth with plenty of literature about your company and its open positions.
  • Build relationships with college organizations and the university’s career department. Your business isn’t the only one competing for new graduates. You want to make sure your company is top-of-mind when career advisors are counseling students.

Job Offer for New Graduates

Gallup surveyed new graduates and published the findings in their report “How Millennials Want to Work and Live.” When Gallup asked Millennials what they look for in a job offer for after graduation, pay and benefits did not make the top five. When making a job offer for new graduates, you need to highlight the job quality most important to them.

Opportunity to Learn and Grow

Continuous learning and opportunities to grow are important to 59 percent of new graduates. These candidates understand their inexperience is a disadvantage. The see ongoing upskilling as a way to career stability. Tuition reimbursement and certifications are important to fresh graduates.

Quality of Executive Leadership

Your executive team makes important decisions about the company’s culture and direction. For this reason, strong executive leadership is important to 58 percent of Millennials. New graduates will be more likely to accept your job offer if you’ve explained the company’s vision well.

Quality of Direct Manager

Over half of Millennials agree with 60 percent of Baby Boomers on at least one thing: quality of manager is extremely important. Throughout the interview process, give candidates the opportunity to meet their potential manager.

Challenging, Meaningful Work

While no one wants to be bored at work, new graduates are more likely to decline an offer for a job that isn’t interesting. But that doesn’t mean you need to rewrite your job description to make it more entertaining for your new hire. Creating a culture of innovation can make even a receptionist role more interesting if it means you’re open to creative solutions that extend beyond the usual scope of the role.

Advancement Opportunities

Gallup’s survey indicates that half of new graduates consider advancement opportunities an important factor for a graduating senior’s job offer. Keep in mind, fresh graduates are just starting their careers and are looking forward to achieving goals. The best job offer for new graduates will include clear guidelines about advancement decisions as well as career pathing for the new hire.

Pay and Benefits

Compensation may not have made the top five. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t an important factor for new graduate job offers. Pay and benefits are a close sixth in importance at 48 percent.

Hiring New Graduates

New graduates grew up with the internet and smartphones. They witnessed several historical events before entering the job market. But they still have the same sense of excitement about their future as previous generations. And the outlook and preferences of Generation Z  are still evolving. Don’t fall into the trap of dismissing new graduates as fussy job hoppers, and don’t broadly characterize them as upgrades of your older employees.

The key to recruiting new graduates is to humanize the candidate experience and see them as individuals. If you think about it, that’s what all your prospective new hires want.

Do you need help analyzing your recruitment process? Download our free scorecard to evaluate whether your recruitment process is helping or hindering your job offer acceptance rate.

 

HyoSun Rosy Ko on Unsplash

 

 

 

Do Niche Job Boards Really Work?

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Online Job boards are a mixed blessing. They promise access to thousands of great candidates. And while they certainly deliver oodles of resumes, they sometimes fall short on “great.” If you’re like many hiring managers, you may wonder if you want to continue casting such a wide net when results are so disappointing.

Before you give up on your list of job boards entirely, give niche job boards a chance. Niche job boards in 2022 offer a way to target candidates with the specialized background you’re looking for, without luring the duds. Niche job boards do work, as long as you’re using the right one for your hard-to-fill positions.

Types of Job Boards

Everyone knows about the behemoths. Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor and other big sites usually top the list of places to search for jobs. But Indeed has 16 million job postings, with almost ten new jobs added each second. With job seekers and job postings numbering in the millions, making a connection on the big sites can be tough.

Just like you, candidates are frustrated with top job boards. Their keyword searches net junk job ads. And just like you, they’re left sifting through the mess to find the right match.

Niche job boards offer a solution to the grievances on both sides of the interview table. They do the work of narrowing the talent pool to only candidates who share a particular quality. Because niche job boards cater to a smaller audience of job seekers, your job ad has a better chance of attracting more qualified resumes.

The candidates may all be members of the same industry organization or graduates of the same university. When you advertise on a niche job board, you can be reasonably assured that nearly every job seeker has at least some of the qualities you’re looking for. You can also write a more targeted job description using jargon or industry certifications.

How to Choose the Best Niche Job Board Software

Many hiring managers steer clear of niche job boards simply because there are so many. With thousands of niche job board software sites, it may feel safer to stick with routine job sites. But you can post to smaller job boards confidently when you follow these tips.

  • Assess your top employees and find out which associations they’re likely to belong to.
  • Look for niche job boards that offer a sense of community and industry-related news and information. The best niche job sites offer more than job ads.
  • Try the job board from the candidate’s perspective. Applicants won’t waste their time with shoddy sites. Search for jobs using common keywords, scan the job ads to make sure they’re current and click the apply buttons to make sure the niche job site is usable.
  • Look for niche job boards that rank well in a Google search using terms your candidates will likely use.
  • Look for niche job boards that reach beyond their IP addresses. With thousands of job sites, niche job boards need to actively market themselves and extend their reach beyond chance encounters with candidates. Look for a site that hosts virtual job fairs, advertises on larger sites or has a strong social media presence.
  • Look to local organizations to advertise your job openings. Your local chamber of commerce or small business association may have a jobs site to target local applicants.
  • Post your job openings on university or college websites for both current students and alumni. Graduates often keep in touch with their university’s news. Posting to university websites can help you find quality passive candidates.

Niche Jobs vs Niche Job Boards

Most companies hire for a variety of positions, and what works for one job ad may not work when a different job opening comes along. So how do you determine where to spend your recruiting dollars for your targeted job posts?

It’s still worthwhile to post your open roles to free job board software sites. You can save time and ditch your little black password book when you use an applicant tracking system. ExactHire’s ATS allows you to post your job openings to multiple sites with a single click.

Your openings for niche jobs in demand, such as IT professionals, work well for smaller niche job boards. These specialized postings are easily lost on the mega sites when applicants perform a job search by industry niche. When looking for a particular skill set, look for job boards for specific industries.

Sometimes you’re looking for qualities beyond the typical niche jobs meaning. Proactively hiring veterans is one niche jobs example that works well with targeted job boards. There are also job boards that can help you reach your diversity goals by targeting marginalized groups.

Some types of positions work well for the larger job sites. Entry-level positions or positions that have crossover appeal will attract more candidates on the bigger job sites. You can avoid too many junk resumes by writing a job description that appeals to your ideal candidate.

No matter where you advertise your job openings, an ATS can help you zero-in on the best job boards that work well for your needs. ExactHire’s ATS includes analytical insights on job board performance. You can see on one screen how each job posting performs across multiple sites. As you gather performance data over time, you can avoid spending your limited recruiting budget on sites that don’t work.

Niche Job Boards Do Work

As job openings increase, so do recruiters’ options for advertising their open positions. There simply isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to finding the best applicants. But you also don’t have to resort to haphazardly posting your job ads and simply hoping for the best.

ExactHire’s applicant tracking system can help you decipher the best job posting strategy for your company. You can quickly post to multiple sites, including niche job boards. Then you can track how each site performs.

You can finally uncover which niche job boards and large job sites provide the best return on your recruiting investment. Schedule a demo today.

 

 

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

Job Posting Struggles? 40 Tips to Streamline Your Job Posting Efforts

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What’s the trouble with job posting?

Sometimes, life can only be understood through an 80’s cult classic. Remember Gremlins? All those fiendish little imps devolved from a single sweet and cuddly creature.

The role of HR is much like the movie…stay with me. An HR professional’s responsibilities once centered around advocating for employees in a corporate climate bent on profits. Luckily, many companies came around to the idea that their human capital is their most valuable asset. But with that realization, the HR department’s roles multiplied.

Take job posting, for example. From navigating legions of job sites to promoting your employer brand, even posting entry-level job ads can be a pain in the neck. We’ve got you covered with the following 40 tips to streamline your job posting efforts.

How to Write an Optimized Job Posting

Your job posting has to accomplish quite a bit. It needs to be clear, yet appealing. Optimized for search engines, yet written for humans. Your job description must also communicate your culture and employer brand. As powerful tools for your diversity goals, job postings must reflect your company’s awareness of marginalized groups and inclusion efforts.

Preparation Is Key to Writing a Job Ad

Before you set pen to paper, use these following tips:

  1. Meet with team leaders to update the job description.
  2. Identify the core characteristics of your ideal applicant. Note, focus on values rather than experience or educational requirements, e.g., independent worker or team player, etc.
  3. Now identify the minimum experience and educational requirements for the role. Puffing up your requirements just to avoid sifting through too many applications often has the unintended effect of discouraging marginalized groups from applying. Below, we have tips to help candidates self-qualify to prevent an influx of junk resumes.

How to Write a Job Ad to Attract the Best Candidates

  1. Write a job description that appeals to the qualities you identified in your ideal candidate in step 2. Check out this job ad from Taco Bell that appeals to their ideal employee, while also encouraging others to just keep scrolling.
  2. Include the salary range. The transparency reflects well on your employer brand. You’ll help candidates self-qualify. And including salary ranges helps fight the wage gap for women and minorities.
  3. Purge these terms from your vocabulary: superstar, rock star, anything ninja. These terms are dated and really do nothing to help you connect with the right candidate.
  4. Highlight the benefits of working at your company, from actual benefits to work environment.
  5. Use gender-neutral words.

How to Write a Job Posting Optimized for the Search Engines

  1. Use a clear job title. Don’t create a job title that reads “Receptionist/Administrative Assistant.” Doing so confuses the Google job search engine. Instead use one and sprinkle the other one in the job description.
  2. Search for the job title on the top job sites, such as a Glassdoor job posting. Count how many times the keyword is used in the job description for the top results, not counting the sponsored ads that appear first. Aim to use the keyword at least that many times.
  3. Include the location in both the location field and within the job description.
  4. Pro tip: ExactHire ATS optimizes job postings for you in many way.

Tips for Posting to a Job Board

With countless niche job boards, paid job boards and options for sponsored job postings, keeping it all organized can be a chore. These tips will help tame the digital clutter.

  1. Create a secured document or spreadsheet with links to job sites and your company’s login. You’ll have a quick reference for yourself and also a means to delegate the posting of some jobs.
  2. Group your list of the job sites you use with all open positions at the top. Then create separate groups according to job type, such as paid sites for management positions or niche sites for welding positions.

Creative Job Ad Examples

If you’re still itching to post a job ad for a superstar, we have some tips to help you get creative using the best job posting examples.

  1. Focus on how the role improves the world, even in a seemingly small role. For an online job board example, everyone has experienced a rude or incompetent customer service representative. Turn that experience into a job ad in which the candidate can “be the change he or she wants to see in the world” by speaking to that universal experience.
  2. Take a picture of your team having fun. Then post it and your job ad to your social channel–consider looking at your competitors for other social job posting examples.
  3. Create a humorous compilation of the non-awesome qualities you typically see, and write a job ad that calls out the slackers. Just one of the many job board examples using this technique, a job ad for a server read, “Please do not apply if you need nights off because your band has a gig.”
  4. You can flip the humor around and write creative job ad examples that are really, really honest about why your place of work is awesome. Another server ad read, “looking for someone well-versed in the subtle art of sarcasm.”
  5. Create a video on your branded careers page, but don’t be generic to avoid being the butt of the joke in this recruitment video by Fiverr.

Job Board Posting Software

Don’t have a branded careers site? Oh… yikes. That’s too bad because a branded careers site can do some heavy lifting in your recruiting efforts. It can be the place all the job sites send your candidates, where they can fill out an application or view other open positions at your company. Your branded careers sites can also showcase your company’s culture and highlight your employer brand.

A branded careers site is just one advantage of using applicant tracking software (ATS). An ATS is job board posting software that can help you streamline your job posting efforts and help in other ways too, like:

  1. Post to multiple job boards and social media with just one click. An ATS will remember all your favorite job sites and their passwords.
  2. Access a dashboard that analyzes job ad performance across sites on a single screen. Stop wasting time and money on job sites that don’t perform for your company.
  3. Receive recommendations, tailored to your company, for sponsored job posting and programmatic job advertising. Take the expensive guesswork out of paying for job ads.
  4. Increase candidate conversion with mobile everything. Text messaging, QR codes, or even applying with a phone number, going mobile will streamline your recruiting efforts.
  5. Organize your job candidates. An ATS will sort applicants and push the best to the top of the list.
  6. Master compliance reporting. An ATS will also track all the applicant details and create reports to help you stay compliant.
  7. Use an online employment application linked from your branded careers site (hey, it’s worth repeating).

Tips for Top Job Posting Sites

Most applicants go to top job posting sites Indeed, LinkedIn or Google for Jobs. These tips will help you reach them.

  1. Claim your company page on Indeed, perhaps the best job posting site for employers. This is where former employees and interviewees can leave reviews for your company.
  2. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s premium membership to scout out the best passive candidates and send them an Inmail.
  3. Stagger your job postings across sites to remain on page one of Google for Jobs Search. Google’s job post schema is a search engine that pulls together listings across job sites.
  4. Make sure your company’s LinkedIn page is updated.
  5. Make sure the personal profile of whomever is named as the contact in your job ad is updated in LinkedIn.
  6. Join LinkedIn groups where your ideal candidates are.

Tips to Find Free Job Posting Sites

Recruiting isn’t cheap. SHRM estimates it takes six to nine months of a position’s salary to recruit and onboard a new hire. Save some money using these tips for finding free job posting sites.

  1. Start with LinkedIn and Indeed, both are top job search sites and have options to post jobs for free.
  2. Edit the HTML of your job posting on your website to integrate with Google for Jobs API. Hint: Your ATS provider will do this for you.
  3. Handshake is a free platform to help employers connect with college students at hundreds of schools.
  4. If you’re one of the thousands of companies going remote, check out Hubstaff Talent, a free job board for remote job listings.
  5. Check out local institutions and niche job boards. Universities, high schools, and state employment sites often offer options to post a job for free online.
  6. Post jobs for free on Craigslist.
  7. Use Monster for free job posting.

Final Tip

Posting job ads can be a bit chaotic. And if you don’t do it right, you risk keeping that chair empty longer than necessary. These tips will help you tame the chaos and organize your job posting efforts. We have one tip that cut the work in half. You ready?

  1. Use an ATS.

Really. It’s the best way to organize and track your job posting efforts. When you use an ATS, you do more than tame the job posting gremlin. You elevate your efforts by harnessing the data that will shorten the time it takes to fill your empty positions.

Ready to learn more? Sign up for a demo of ExactHire today.

 

 

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

Avoid HR Headaches with these 25 Tips

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The expectations business leaders place upon their human resource departments are increasing. Years ago, the role of HR centered around filing employee paperwork, navigating benefits, and a range of activities meant to avoid compliance fines and lawsuits. Of course, human resource professionals came into their roles with a higher calling: cultivating the company’s human capital, its employees.

The times have caught up with the nobler side of human resources. Even the most profit-focused executive understands the high cost of low retention. And much of the business sector embraces concepts like culture and employer brand after witnessing the tech industry wield them successfully. As a result, business leaders expect much more from their human resource professionals.

Throw in COVID and the ever-increasing labyrinth of laws and regulations, and any HR professional may start measuring their dedication in aspirin. But you needn’t suffer migraines to chase your HR calling. We’ve identified 5 common causes of HR headaches and compiled a list of 25 HR tips to avoid these issues.

Eliminate Workplace Discrimination, Promote Diversity

  1. Elevate your training beyond a blurb in the handbook. Create a comprehensive anti-discrimination training plan using how-to videos and assessments to ensure understanding.
  2. Create additional, in-depth training programs for managers. When a potential HR discrimination issue arises, it will likely be brought to the attention of one of your managers first. Make sure they know how to handle discrimination situations to avoid making the company vulnerable to further legal action.
  3. Address the anti-discrimination HR issues unique to remote workers. Virtual meetings are a fact of work life, whether employees are in the office or at home. Likewise, in the absence of physical proximity, employees rely on email and other forms of communications more often than ever. Make sure your anti-discrimination policies take into consideration the increasingly virtual nature of work.
  4. Avoid claims of hiring discrimination by using applicant tracking software (ATS) to thoroughly log hiring decisions. Keeping an electronic record of interviews, impressions and the reasons behind your hiring decision will protect you in the event of legal action resulting from a hiring decision.
  5. Create a diversity plan in your hiring process. Remove excessive educational or other onerous job requirements. Advertise your job openings to marginalized groups.

Avoid Wage and Hour HR Issues

  1. Take advantage of the training modules in your onboarding software to educate workers about expectations regarding working during off hours. Clarify that they are not allowed to work beyond their scheduled hours without approval, and tell them to approach HR if they feel their manager is pressuring them to perform unpaid work during their off-hours.
  2. Know the wage and hour laws in each state where remote workers or contractors reside. For example, California updated its employment laws regarding the classification of independent contractors. Even one remote worker in a state may make your company liable for franchise taxes or a different standard of workers’ compensation insurance.
  3. Require employees to sign-off on any changes to their time worked or their paycheck. Sometimes payroll mistakes will happen. When they do, provide documentation explaining the error and require the employee to sign it before corrections are implemented.
  4. When hiring, the role should be clearly designated as being exempt or nonexempt. Be consistent with your job descriptions and training for jobs. Utilize your ATS and onboarding software to help keep track of the details. Don’t recreate the wheel every time the chair is empty.
  5. Classify bonuses correctly for nonexempt employees. The overtime rate for your nonexempt employees is “one and one-half times the regular rate at which they are employed.” When you give nonexempt employees bonuses, that bonus amount most likely needs to be calculated into their “regular rate” for overtime calculation.

Avoid HR issues and Turnover by being Proactive

  1. Use your onboarding software to create employee training plans for each position. Rather than relying on the same onboarding process for every new hire, tailor your onboarding plan for each position. Include training modules as well as peer training.
  2. Create a career development plan for employees. 65% of employees expect their employers to provide resources for continued learning. You can increase engagement and reduce turnover by supporting your employees’ career development goals.
  3. Create a mentorship program. Pair current leaders with your star employees to form a mentorship program. Upskilling your current workforce is less costly and more effective than hiring new employees. Current employees who show potential but lack training already understand the company, its culture and its mission.
  4. Consider sponsoring employees for paid certifications and workshops.
  5. Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach by conducting a performance analysis to pinpoint the source of performance issues. Employee surveys, accident reports, customer feedback and other tools can help you determine if the problem is specific to an employee, a manager or the entire team. They can also help you uncover company-wide inefficiencies that contribute to performance issues.

Avoid Employee Conflict

  1. Encourage inter-departmental communication early. During your onboarding process, assign new hires to work in different departments for a day. They’ll learn how their role affects the company, and they’ll form working relationships with their colleagues.
  2. Respect personality differences and adjust for employee strengths. Often, a perceived weakness is masking a corresponding strength. An introvert struggling in a team setting may excel if given the opportunity to work independently. Use personality tests and strength-based assessments to ensure everyone can thrive in their role.
  3. Foster team relationships with company-sponsored events. Whether it’s a company-wide baseball game or a smaller outing to a comedy club with the team, give employees a chance to get to know their colleagues beyond their work role.
  4. Incorporate relationship-building and social needs into your onboarding process. Get new hires off to a great start by encouraging workplace friendships. Ask your new hire to write a short biography, including information such as hobbies or pets. Post this biography in a prominent place on the company intranet. Assign a peer buddy to each new hire to help them learn the company’s culture and unwritten rules, and schedule lunches with team members.
  5. Reexamine your incentive and rewards program. Make sure to revise employee incentives that may encourage too much competition and create conflict.

Improve Your HR Recruitment Results

  1. Use an ATS to automate repetitive tasks such as posting to multiple job sites, texting candidates and tracking progress. By doing so, you’ll have more time for creating a strategy that improves your hiring process.
  2. Harness the power of data. Your ATS can tell you important information, such as your time-to-hire ratio, drop off rate, how long it takes applicants to complete an application and more. You can use your ATS to find out where you can make improvements in your process.
  3. Implement an employee referral program. Employee referrals result in more new hires than any other method. And they tend to stay with the company longer.
  4. Use a team approach to make better hiring decisions and avoid unconscious bias.
  5. Make it easy to attract top talent by developing your employer brand.

Take the Headache Out of Human Resources

The causes behind the most common HR issues are increasingly complex. Discrimination, once confined to the office, can now happen across great distances. And greater social awareness is bringing a wider range of claims to the courts. Wage and hour laws, always notoriously complex, can be downright perplexing when it comes to remote workers.

Training has become a key expectation from top talent. Employee conflict, which affects your productivity and culture, is even more damaging in the tight post-Covid labor market. There are a lot of factors that support the current labor shortage and the Great Resignation phenomenon we are experiencing. Unfortunately, neither are going to change in the near term.

Without a doubt, a career in human resources can be a wild ride. On the one hand, you’ve got a pile of new laws and regulations to decipher and an executive team demanding more metrics. On the other hand, you get to help people reach their potential and assist them when they need support along their work journey. If you want to reclaim part of your workday and throw away your aspirin bottle, I suggest you work with companies that are truly interested in partnering with you and your success versus just selling you software.

If you are ready for real help from real people, check out our applicant tracking system and onboarding software. Contact us today to find out more.

Photo by Vinicius “amnx” Amano on Unsplash

Hiring with QR Codes

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If you’ve been dining out or picking up food to go, it’s likely you have seen or used a QR code to access your menu or even pay a bill. Want to share feedback on an experience? Often, the participant will access a QR code to provide input on a topic. What are QR codes you might ask?

What is a QR Code?

Invented in 1994, QR (Quick Response) codes are matrix barcode readable optic labels…or more simply, those black line patterned squares we see on receipts, papers, billboards and a multitude of other areas. (Even Super Bowl commercials for that matter!) Upon scanning a QR code with a mobile device, a designated webpage will open in the viewer’s browser.

QR codes are not new, but they are a bit newer to mainstream use. They provide contactless convenience to communicate essential information to the reader via a mobile device.  Those nifty square shapes of lines are rising in popularity due to our increasing need for mobile communication, especially since the onset of the pandemic.

No matter the industry, there are ways to incorporate the use of QR codes. Let’s talk about the area where we, HR Professionals, may need extra support now–recruiting and hiring.

Hiring with QR Codes

Companies are short staffed and desperately seeking interested, qualified applicants to fill their job openings. How can a company promote its brand and fantastic job opportunities with limited time and space? By hiring with QR codes!

Hiring with QR codes–or using them in your recruitment process–can be the catalyst that amplifies your applicant volume. An employer using QR codes can quickly disseminate valuable content to job seekers, reaching audiences that it might not have connected with otherwise. Plus, they present your organization as modern and tech savvy–which helps your employer brand.

How and Where to Use QR Codes for Hiring

Not sure how or where to use a QR code for hiring? Here are some helpful strategies and tips to incorporate QR codes into your recruiting and hiring processes.

  • Print Media – Printing flyers for distribution or posting in high-traffic areas? If so, then add a QR code so viewers can scan to learn more about your job listings. Motivate job seekers to apply by providing instant information!
  • Signage – Look around, and you’ll see a large number of signs exclaiming “Now Hiring!” Competition is fierce, so include a QR code on your signage to standout and compete with other companies that are vying for the same job seekers. Interested job seekers who are not ready to walk inside and apply can scan the QR code to access your company’s job info. They then can choose to apply immediately or at their convenience.
  • Business Cards – While networking face to face has been altered due to COVID-19, it still exists. Employees with personal business cards can add QR codes. If your organization prints general recruitment cards, add a QR code linked to your company’s “Career Opportunities” webpage.
  • Workroom posters and flyers – Just like using print media for an external audience, workroom flyers are a great way to target an often overlooked talent pool–current employees. Current employees offer knowledge of company culture and goals–and can often jump the “new hire learning curve”. Post flyers with QR codes in break rooms to promote vacancies and show your company’s commitment to internal growth.
  • Transportation – Take your message wherever you go by adding a QR code to your company vehicle via car wraps. It’s company mobility with a mobile message.
  • Receipts – Hospitality, service, and retail industry leaders, in particular, take note. The next time a receipt is provided to your customers, make sure a QR code to your job openings is included at the bottom. Your loyal customers might become your best employees!

Better Hiring with QR Codes

QR codes provide a tremendous amount of data with a quick, simple scan. This helps employers track the effectiveness of recruitment marketing strategies, like print and other display content. And it simplifies the application process by giving job seekers the power to conveniently apply on mobile devices, giving them a way to “apply on the fly”.

QR codes communicate directly to audiences–safely, quickly and thoroughly. As HR professionals, we seek to make the applicant experience impactful, timely, and accessible. Hiring with QR codes helps you achieve this and much more!

 

ExactHire ATS makes it easy for employers to deploy QR Codes in the hiring process, contact us today to learn more.

 

 

Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions for the HR Generalist

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The year 2022 has arrived at our door whether we are ready or not. Traditionally, at the culmination of the year, rumination over the year’s positive and negative experiences flood the mind while music like Auld Lang Syne resonates with the validity of its translation: “Days Gone By”.  Truly, those days have gone by quickly, yet at times, days are seemingly endless. Let us turn our energy to starting a new year with renewed focus and optimism.

As we reflect on days gone by and the challenge of starting a second year of business operations in a pandemic, it helps to focus on the core of a business’s success. And while customers are a driving force for profit and growth, the ultimate force that helps sustain and grow our organizations–the core of our success–is our employees.

Each day, statistics and articles are published focusing on “The Great Resignation”. No one can deny that people are leaving the workforce in record numbers for myriad reasons.  Executive leadership within organizations must be cognizant of the daily struggles of their employees at all levels. Eliminating the disconnect between managers and support staff is crucial to ensuring a productive and positive working environment.

HR Generalists – keep your superhero cape fastened.  Here are five goals for 2022 that will help keep the light bright within your organization.

  1. Reevaluate your current talent – Look internally at your talent. Are there current employees who would be ideal for your vacant roles?  Do you have a succession plan in line if your key talent and leadership leaves? Current employees are knowledgeable of the company culture and already meet a basic learning curve.
  2. Retrain and refocus – As technology evolves, are your employees staying up-to-speed? Do certain departments or employees need specific training offsite, or can outside trainers meet your needs onsite?  Many educational institutions offer group training designed after a thorough needs analysis which can be delivered onsite or virtually.
  3. Enhance the employee experience – Make physical and mental health for yourself and others a priority. Does the organization offer, and encourage, the use of physical and mental wellness plans? Many gyms have closed or are on modified schedules due to COVID. Some individuals do not feel comfortable going into public exercise facilities. Any option to provide paid time to work out for 30 minutes during the day at the company or at home?
  4. Lead by example – HR is the go-to for the majority of items. Often, HR receives complaints and concerns but not always positive feedback on the successes of others or wins across departments. Seek ways to generate positive feedback from employees and departments to improve struggling morale.
  5. Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility – HR has been stretched to the point of snapping, but HR is also flexible enough to bounce back after being pulled multiple ways at multiple times. Our working world will not be able to party like it is 2019 anytime soon. Having contingency plans for staffing, support and incentives for employees to pick up additional tasks and shifts will help ease the roller coaster of departures and quarantines. Find ways to bridge the gap between onsite and remote employees. Weekly or biweekly sessions offered via video conferencing software might help.

Human Resources professionals are human like each of us. HR Departments of one or many need support too. The last two years have proved that we must work together to succeed.

 

To start 2022 more efficiently and streamline your employment processes, contact ExactHire to learn more about our Applicant Tracking Software (ATS), employee onboarding and employee assessment solutions to help increase your organization’s productivity.

 

Photo by Tony Hand on Unsplash

Best Ways to Attract Applicants to Apply

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If you’re having trouble attracting talent to your workplace, you’re not alone. The U.S. has 11 million job openings, but only 7.7 million applicants to fill them. That means companies like yours have to work hard to attract applicants. The big fish like McDonald’s and Amazon are raising their wages to recruit candidates.

But small and medium-sized businesses, still reeling from the pandemic’s economic downturn, can’t write big paychecks to attract employees. Many small businesses are getting by on shortened hours and fewer employees. But these emergency measures can only work for so long before customers start taking their business elsewhere.

Fortunately, unemployment claims are finally inching downward. But that isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. The U.S. is still missing over 4 million workers who are sitting out the labor force because of COVID concerns, family obligations, and other reasons. Small and medium-sized businesses are still in a cut-throat competition with big chains to attract quality talent. Luckily, many of the best ways to attract applicants don’t require deep corporate pockets.

Get Job Applicants to Apply

Figuring out how to get job applicants to apply to your company begins with your employer brand and your employer value proposition. In other words, what are you doing to make your company a place where people want to work?

Start by checking your company’s reviews on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Indeed. These sites will give you valuable feedback about what employees really think about working for your company. They also influence candidates, who will forgo applying to your company if they read negative reviews.

But don’t wait for employees to voice their grievances online. Consider conducting an anonymous employee survey to uncover potential problems as well as those things that make you a great employer. Most importantly, after you’ve collected your feedback, act on it.

Consider also the obstacles job seekers are facing. Nearly 1.5 million of those missing from the workforce are mothers with school-aged children. Schools may be welcoming children back into the buildings, but parents still aren’t off the hook when it comes to COVID. As the virus sweeps through the classrooms, children are forced home to quarantine or recover. Revisit your policies and examine ways you can support working parents juggling jobs and children.

Many workers are also staying home due to COVID concerns. Vulnerable populations are still susceptible to serious illness, even with a vaccine. Unemployed workers caring for aging parents or unvaccinated children may be waiting until the virus is better controlled. You can encourage these employees to return to the workforce by maintaining your COVID precautions or implementing a remote work policy.

Best Place to Find Job Candidates

To know how to find good candidates for jobs, you need to know the best places to go. Most companies assume they’ll find the best candidates on Indeed and LinkedIn. But there are countless job sites out there, and your ideal applicants may be on smaller, niche job boards.

Are you tracking recruitment success rates across job sites? If you use an ATS that includes applicant source reports, you can know which sites are the best places to source employees for your industry. ExactHire ATS can filter source reporting by applicant status, so you’ll know which job sites are netting low quality talent and wasting your time.

Use social media to boost your online recruiting success. The people who follow you on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram already have a positive view of your company. Even if these users aren’t looking for a job themselves, chances are they know someone who is. Take advantage of your followers’ social connections to find job candidates.

Don’t rely solely on the internet to source talent. Take advantage of job fairs, universities, and your local employment office. Implement an employee referral bonus. According to Statista, referrals were a close second to LinkedIn as the most effective source for staffing firms. New hires are more likely to become successful long-term employees when they come from an existing employee’s network.

Create a talent pool of previous applicants to source your future hiring needs. Oftentimes, your hiring decision is a close call between two or more applicants. You can keep in touch with those who didn’t get the job. Of course, you need to implement a stellar candidate experience so rejected candidates will still want to work for your company.

Creative Ways to Attract Talent

These basics will go a long way in helping you attract and retain talent. But in the current labor shortage, you’ll need creative ways to attract candidates.

When you’ve ironed out your employer value proposition and you know the core benefits your company offers employees, create content to get the word out. Your branded careers site is the perfect place to showcase employees’ individual accomplishments. You can also create videos to give candidates a feel for what it’s like day-to-day in your workplace.

Create a lot of recruitment-related content and spread it around the internet. Think about all the things potential applicants want to know about your company. For example, on Medium.com, you’ll find articles about “How to Get a Job at Amazon” and the “5 Things You Need to Know Get a Job at Facebook.” You can post workplace photos on Instagram and links on Twitter. Or upload recruiting videos that highlight your culture to YouTube.

Consider joining a virtual job fair or hosting your own. If you haven’t seen job fairs in your local community, it could be that they’ve gone virtual. Search for virtual fairs locally as well as nationally to recruit candidates interested in moving. You can also create your own job fair. You can create a space in which job seekers can learn more and ask questions. Then, you can create meeting rooms where hiring managers can interview attendees.

Outside-the-Box Recruiting Strategies for Conversion

Up until now, we’ve focused on getting job seekers to want to work for your company. Now, it’s time to get them to want to complete your job application. The sad fact is most job seekers quit the application process. If you want to increase the number of completed applications you receive, think outside-the-box and consider your candidates’ perspective.

Your ideal candidate either already has a job or is so motivated to work that she’s made finding work her job. Either way, she’s too busy to fill out a long, complicated job application. And with so many jobs available, she doesn’t have to.

Make sure your application takes less than 15 minutes to complete. Your employer branding efforts may convince job seekers your workplace is amazing. But that doesn’t mean they’ll spend half a day filling out your job application.

Many candidates prefer the convenience of their mobile device when searching for jobs. Hourly workers may only have access to a smartphone. And many Millennials prefer using their smartphones to fill out job applications. In other words, regardless of the position for which you are hiring, you’ll attract more applicants if your careers page and application are mobile friendly.

Make sure your branded careers site contains an Applicant FAQs page. You can improve your candidate experience by providing an overabundance of information. Applicants will want to know how long the application will take, how to apply to multiple positions, and how to check on the status of their application, to name a few questions.

Your careers site and application form are your candidates’ first interaction with your company. Making these pages mobile-friendly and easy to use is your first step in creating an exceptional candidate experience. Your candidates’ experience continues during the interviewing and hiring phase.

HR Best Practices for Interviewing and Hiring

You can improve your candidates’ experience during the interviewing and hiring phase with these HR best practices.

  • Clearly communicate during each phase of the hiring process using the candidate’s preferred method. An ATS that incorporates text recruiting, message templates and interview scheduling can help.
  • Introduce interviewees to the team and take them on a tour of the workplace. You’ll demystify your workplace and allay candidates’ anxieties.
  • Provide a lot of information. Tell candidates whom they’ll meet with. Give them detailed instructions on where to park and what to wear. And tell them what to expect from your hiring process and your timeline.
  • Follow-up with candidates who didn’t get the job. Give them gentle feedback and ask them for feedback about their experience. And don’t forget to wish them well in their job search.

A massive labor shortage on the heels of a debilitating pandemic is pushing too many small and medium-sized businesses into survival mode. But you can get back to your regular business hours and get on with serving your customers with these best ways to attract talent.

Attract applicants to apply by developing your employer brand and make genuine efforts to be a great place to work. Remove obstacles that are holding back 1.4 billion Americans from searching for a job. Then get creative with your recruiting efforts. Finally, create an exceptional candidate experience and create a talent pool to invite past candidates to apply again.

You have to work harder to attract applicants to apply to your company. But an ATS can make your recruiting efforts more efficient and save you time. Using ATS data and reporting features will help you implement the best strategies for finding candidates and avoiding time-wasters.

Contact ExactHire today to find out how our ATS can help you find quality applicants.

 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Remove Friction from the Application Process

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In a challenging job market where job seekers have the leverage, employers need to ensure that their hiring process is “candidate-centric” —and that starts with a frictionless application process.

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRANSCRIPT

The biggest challenge that companies are facing today is talent. They can’t fill open positions, and it’s having a huge effect on their revenue, their profits, and their service.

  • We need to make the process more candidate-centric versus employer-centric.
  • We need to remove the friction from the process, make it easier, and we need to use applicant tracking systems to streamline the process both for the candidate and the company.
  • Trim the question fat–that’s in essence, what that means is just reduce the number of questions that you’re going to ask people–there’s way too many.
  • Change your approach to applications. There’s a lot of things here you can do, like first one is you could use two-stage apps, and that is just ask questions of people, get some information, figure out if that’s a good candidate for you, and then flip over to the second set of questions once you reduce that number to more manageable number.
  • You need to know what your candidate drop-off rate is.
  • You need to know how long it takes for your candidates to complete an application. If you haven’t taken your own application, you should do that to give you a baseline to know what that is.
  • Track and measure your success so you can see if you’re making any improvements, and how it’s working.

And with that, happy hiring!