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JUNE 2022 • Vol.10 • No.06 (ISSN 2564-1964)

“INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE REQUIRED” IS A MINDSET WE NEED TO GET OUT OF - Ron Thomas, Managing Director, Strategy Focused Group

The State of Hourly and High-volume Hiring 2022 Sponsored by

Page 29 - 72

INDEX

Talent Acquisition Excellence JUNE 2022

Vol.10

No.06

(ISSN 2564-1964)

“Industry Experience Required” Is A Mindset We Need To Get Out Of Experience side or the skillset side, what side are you on?

On the Cover

- Ron Thomas,

Managing Director, Strategy Focused Group

Articles Sponsored

How To Prepare For A Future Of Work In Flux Your talent strategy is already outdated. Ethical, intelligent data deployment, innovative corporate structures and a sense of empathy can help. - Ryan Batty, Indeed

Potential Over Credentials: A Call To Action For HR Departments Apprenticeship is the new pipeline - Ximena Hartsock, Co-Founder, BuildWithin

Onboarding Excellence For Executives: 5 Ways To Empower Your Power Players Effective onboarding can be a critical factor in driving senior level retention and job satisfaction - Craig Rubino, Head, Global

Straight talk with HR.com

‘HR leaders Must Be Willing to Expand Beyond Their Average Hiring Pool to Build a Diverse Workforce’ Exclusive interview with Ashley Perryman,

Learning and Development, Morgan Stanley

VP, Global HR, and Head, People, Spiceworks Ziff Davis

Recruitment Strategy Shift: Time To Consider Association Job Boards And Career Centers Dive into an untapped resource for your application pool - Scott Conley,

Vice President, Recruitment & Staffing Solutions, Naylor Association Solutions

The State of Hourly and High-volume Hiring 2022 Page 29 - 72

Top Picks

INDEX

Gen Z: The Next Generation Of Talent Technology Gen Z needs a different level of recruiting and onboarding support - Jess Elmquist, Phenom

The Business Of People: How To Take A More Human Approach To Hiring Two cliches in the darkness - Alec Rahman-Jones, Managing

Director, Phaidon International

How To Beat The Competition At High Volume Hiring 3 ways to leverage technology and overcome today’s talent crunch - Dave Kenney, GM and CEO, Efficient Hire

Predictive Talent Models: What They Are And Why They’re Beneficial What right hire looks like - Anna Wang, Co-Founder and CTO, Searchlight

Editorial Purpose Our mission is to promote personal and professional development based on

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constructive values, sound ethics, and timeless principles.

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Talent acquisition has always been, in aggregate, at least, something of an elitist profession. We concentrate an inordinate amount of time, energy and effort around a fractional number of hires, namely, experienced professionals who are often frequently well educated, well paid and with an often esoteric set of niche skills and functional expertise that are in short supply, and high demand. These are the so-called “purple squirrels” for whom we’ve created entire departments, and the commensurate technologies, dedicated solely to attracting, sourcing and developing the finite pool of qualified candidates, who meet the often onerous list of prerequisites and preferred qualifications our companies (often arbitrarily) require for the reqs on which we spend the overwhelming majority of our finite resources and attention. High volume and hourly recruitment, on the other hand, tends to be overlooked or dismissed by many of the practitioners and pundits in the talent acquisition industry. The long-held assumption around high-volume hiring has been that it sits somewhere between a supply chain and a consumer marketing function, with the human capital required being treated more like widgets “butts in seats,” to use a favorite recruiting phrase. The relatively low skill, high turnover nature of these positions puts process over personalization, speed over quality, and standardization over innovation. Worst of all, it has led to widespread hourly hiring hubris, the misconception that anyone, essentially, can perform these jobs, and therefore, anyone can find and hire them. In short, it’s one people function where those people have long been seen as subservient to process standardization, and, when possible, automation. Then, everything changed. The pandemic shuttered industries like hospitality and retail, which are primarily reliant on hourly and seasonal workers, disrupting millions of lives and livelihoods; of course, it’s somewhat telling that in the height of the Covid-19 crisis, we divided workers not as “white collar” or “blue collar,” not as “exempt” or “non-exempt” or the traditional terminology used to delineate knowledge workers from front line talent.

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EDITOR’S NOTE over the past few years; while Silicon Valley software engineers were sort of the archetype of what competitive recruitment looked like, today, headlines are filled with stories of mass layoffs and hiring freezes throughout tech, even at more venerable brands like Meta or Uber (to say nothing of the Crypto apocalypse).

Instead, the workers we’ve long ignored became “essential,” and everyone else, particularly the same subset of workers that’s the focus for most corporate TA programs and budget, became “non-essential.” And it’s those essential workers who are now greatly responsible for the estimated 10 million or so open jobs in the U.S. alone that remain unfilled.

Today’s biggest talent acquisition challenge is not recruiting a developer to a startup, nor even retaining highly skilled employees; rather, it is competing for the finite amount of frontline, essential workers that are required to ensure continued viability and growth at many of the best known brands and biggest companies in the world.

It’s a perfect demographic storm of decreased workforce participation, full employment (staying well under 4% for the last 12 months) and increased consumer demand (not to mention confidence and spending) for the types of goods and services where high volume workers are, well, essential. Going on vacation. Going out to dinner. Buying new clothes.

That’s why this issue of Talent Acquisition Excellence will explore some of the ways that companies are expanding their talent acquisition strategies to rethink, reinvent and revolutionize how high-volume hiring happens. We’ve assembled some of the leading experts and TA leaders in the world to provide insight and information into what companies need to do today to ensure that they’re ready to compete against - and overcome - the growing shortage of available hourly talent.

All of these are reliant on high-volume workers - even e-commerce is dependent on warehouse workers and drivers as the backbone of their business model - and relatively few of these workers remain in these sectors (or rather, returned to them) after losing their jobs during the pandemic. This is not a drop in the bucket, or an industry outlier - in fact, fully 73 million American workers are hourly or high volume (and that’s not including freelance or gig workers), representing around 55.5% of all US workers across sectors or industries. These workers are not only high in demand, but companies are struggling to hire them fast enough (hence the service and supply chain slowdowns that have made news over the past few months) - even as a recession looms menacingly on the horizon.

It’s essentially essential reading about essential workers. Because when it comes to hourly hiring, time is always of the essence - which is why we’re excited you’re taking the time to check out this month’s issue of Talent Acquisition Excellence. Write to the Editor at ePubEditors@hr.com

Contrast that to the tech sector, probably the central focus point and biggest industry in terms of TA spend

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COVER ARTICLE

“Industry Experience Required” Is A Mindset We Need To Get Out Of Experience side or the skillset side, what side are you on? By Ron Thomas, Strategy Focused Group “Industry experience required. Industry experience preferred.”

A Sign that You just Don’t Get the “Talent Thing”

I recently saw a blog post the other day in Dubai that said, 20 years’ experience for an engineer position, 15 years for another type of engineering job family. Meanwhile, the other descriptors are innovative mindset, out-of-the-box thinking, etc. When I see these types of requirements listed in a job ad, they cause my eyes to glaze over. How does an innovative approach work for someone that has been doing the same job for 15-20 years? Are we hiring from more of the same and hoping that the bubble will wake up and provide a game-changing approach? If that is the approach you should consider a change in mindset. As a hiring manager, you fall either on the Industry Experience side or the Skillset side. However, there is a SMART recruiter out there who will ignore that ridiculous screening requirement and instead look for talented people from other industries.

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In searching for talent, we all have our own views on how to evaluate. What I may see you may not see, and vice versa. I believe in the concept of leaving no stone unturned in the constant search for talented people. And that may mean that we are not locked into that strict mindset. However, when we put restrictions on who we are interested in or will only look at someone who is or has been in our industry, we are showing just how we really do not get the talent thing. Every time you allow your company to throw up that talent filter, you are saying that you are not innovative and that you simply do not want new ideas. You cant have it both ways. What data have you used to make the assumption that if you were in a certain industry, you would be successful in this job? Can you prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the only people who will be successful in this role are people coming from there?

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“Industry Experience Required” Is A Mindset We Need To Get Out Of

However, smart companies today should look for transferable skills and not get too concerned about the industry experience. That is so Recruiting 1.0.

Innovation Comes from a New Mindset My background was in publishing, media and the entertainment business. My next industry was military aircraft maintenance. My next role was CEO and that transitioned into organizational consulting. All that experience would not qualify me for a current CHRO role. Now, tell me the connection between these industries. In the end, it is still HR through multiple lenses. This past week I came across an old article at MAD [MediaPost Agency Daily], titled Agencies Need to Tap a Broader Talent Pool which was written by Will Campbell, CEO of Quantasy. His article spoke about the “seismic shift” the agency world has gone through. He went on to describe how successful firms are rethinking their approach to talent by “reimagining their positions.”

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Using their non-conventional staffing model, Quantasy went outside of the industry and hired successful people who had NO previous ad agency experience — an award-winning music executive, a web entrepreneur, a screenwriter, and even a blogger, to work on their many projects. This article is a must-read if you are locked into looking down the same rabbit hole.

Changing the Narrative of Your Personal Brand Talent is scarce today and it will continue getting scarcer. Just opening your talent requirements to various skill sets, and not just specific industry experience, expands an organization’s talent capabilities. In a lot of cases, hiring managers are the hard-liners when it comes to this outdated concept. They feel that the only ones that can do their business are someone who has already been in their business.

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“Industry Experience Required” Is A Mindset We Need To Get Out Of

development. Are we only reading HR bloggers and HR websites? If so, you are caught up in a loop like the old vinyl records that keep skipping and repeating the same songs repeatedly.

Going Beyond Our Own Sphere Stretch your development by reading about other professions. I found this article in Quantasy because I’m a big fan of marketing and advertising periodicals, their blogs, etc. My reading list also includes articles from Psychology Today, CFO.com, CEO.com, CMO. com and Advertising Age, to name a few. I want to stay abreast of all the thinking within the organization, not just in my own profession. I want to know what all the others are doing to deal with disruption in their respective professions.

I worked for a lot of years in publishing, where editors had strategic roles within. That may still be the case for some that are holding on, but the new big thing is to look past industry experience for digital professionals wherever they may be. As a matter of fact, I often tell my former publishing colleagues to change the narrative of their personal brand from “publishing experience” and instead express a varied background with digital leading the charge and publishing coming up in the rear. In our role of being innovative HR practitioners, this same concept can be applied to us in our own

Our thinking must go beyond our own sphere. We can not allow our organization to get stuck in the one-industry corral. If we want to be the captain of our organization’s human capital, we need to move beyond a locked-in mindset. We can not afford to focus just on our own industry, whether it is hiring or our own self-development. Read about it from a different vantage point and you just may learn something and gain some new ideas. Hire from a different vantage point and the sunrise of innovation just may come up over your horizon.

Ron Thomas is the Managing Director of Strategy Focused Group an international consulting firm based in Dubai and Singapore. Ron has been most recently named in leadersHum Power List of the Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership list to watch for in 2022. His podcast, “The CEO Series”, is named one among the ‘Top 9 HR Podcasts You Need To Follow In 2022’. He is a visiting executive faculty member at the Global Human Resources Leadership Institute at Howard University School of Business in Washington, DC.

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he headlines are disconcerting: “Work from Home Is Here to Stay.” “Employees Say ‘I Quit.’” “Employers Struggle to Find Workers.” “A.I. Bias in Hiring Is Rampant.” A combination of a global viral pandemic and rapidly advancing digital technologies have transformed how work gets done and who wants to do it in the first place. These twin factors have also thrown the job market into disarray and potentially injected it with systemic bias civil rights leaders have worked for decades to dismantle. What’s a talent leader to do?

Data Will Make Hiring Even Faster and Easier No surprise, an explosion of innovation across industries is being driven in part by the ability to collect, understand and apply a vast amount of data to complex problems and processes. The future of work and hiring will be built on data, too. Over time, this will inform advanced analytics that make the hiring process exponentially faster and easier. Here at Indeed, we have 250 million global unique visitors per month1 who read employer reviews, upload resumes, apply to jobs, respond to employers’ screening questions, take assessments and even

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interview directly with employers on our platform. To date, we’ve hosted over 315 million assessments2 (as per March 2022 data) and over 2.5 million job seekers have completed employer screener questions and scheduled interviews on Indeed Hiring Platform.3 “This perpetual activity provides a deep understanding of both job seeker and employer preferences across our global job site and hiring platform,” says Maggie Hulce, Senior VP and GM of Enterprise at Indeed. “By intelligently harnessing this data, we’re able to continuously improve the recommendations we make to job seekers for jobs that align with their skills and preferences and automate more than 70 percent of recruiting steps to help employers interview screened candidates faster.4” Intelligently harnessing data also means being good stewards of data. At Indeed, a dedicated A.I. Ethics team collaborates across the company to advance data science applications that promote fair and inclusive hiring so we can help all people get jobs. Collecting data responsibly and auditing processes to remove bias from the very beginning is a crucial part of ethical and accurate technology development, especially as A.I. continues to permeate the business and hiring landscape.

2 3 4

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How To Prepare For A Future Of Work In Flux

To Hire Gen Z, Look to A.I. Industries from automotive to accounting are already applying artificial intelligence (A.I.) and automation across business operations. And as these systems become more advanced and intelligent, the scale and scope of adoption will grow rapidly. Nancy Giordano, strategic futurist and author of “Leadering: The Ways Visionary Leaders Play Bigger,” expects that “A.I. will be as ubiquitous and integrated into the twenty-first century as electricity was in the twentieth century.” The impact of A.I. and automation on hiring is already underway. A 2021 Indeed survey found that at least 40 percent of global employers had invested in automation tools and technology for screening, sourcing and scheduling interviews with candidates before the pandemic.5 Driven by data insights and robust A.I. ethics guidelines, hiring-automation technology has the potential to help recruiting practices become more efficient, accurate and personalized in the future — and meet the expectations of Gen Zers, who are willing to provide information about their preferences in order to have more personalized experiences.6 That’s today — but Indeed’s Hulce envisions a future where advanced hiring tools combine with technologies like blockchain, biometrics, virtual reality and the internet of everything. “As you’re getting ready in the morning, your mirror might scroll through a list of jobs or projects based on your selected preferences and biometric sensors,” she says. “If you don’t like your job, there’s no hiding the Monday morning blues from your own mirror! While the hiring world isn’t there yet, it’s exciting to think about how today’s nascent technologies might transform how we find meaningful work and hire in the future.”

The Evolution of Work As hiring evolves to further empower employees and employers alike, work itself will also evolve.

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“There’s a real possibility that we’ll move away from the ‘one person, one job’ hiring model,” says Hulce. “Task-based work, job sharing and multiple income streams could become the norm — which means the role of talent leaders may become even more complex and fast-paced.” Giordano points to a study by Bloomberg and New America called “Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers and Technology”7 for an extensive review on this topic. The authors outlined four possible scenarios based on whether technological changes result in more or less work to go around and whether work continues to be structured as “jobs” or fragmented into “tasks” (including what we recognize today as the “gig economy”). Giordano envisions a future in which employers build fluid talent ecosystems and communities rather than distinguishing rigidly between internal and external sources. Which scenario is the most likely? Impossible to say yet. “We’ll have to make peace with paradox,” she says.

Now What? In “Leadering,”8 Giordano outlines ways employers can play the long game by embracing the systems and culture that support innovation. Flatter organizational structures and shared metrics, along with cultures that foster empathy, respect and psychological safety, can help break down silos and facilitate fast-paced collaboration, communication and decision-making. Giordano also points to the importance of reskilling to stay relevant. Workers at every level will need to prioritize making space and time to learn new technologies, adapt to shifting roles and responsibilities, and develop the hard and soft skills needed to navigate what’s next. Reskilling is good for retention, as Unilever discovered through its Future of Work initiative, a plan to prepare its global workforce for automation in a purposeful, inclusive and empathetic way.

7 8 JUNE 2022

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And for employers that must hire quickly to meet the demands of rapid change, investing in hiring-automation technology can help get to the hire faster. This saves time and provides a better candidate experience by allowing recruiters to focus on what they do best: making human connections with candidates. Planning for the future can feel equally exciting and unnerving. While it’s difficult to navigate constant change and ambiguity, talent leaders can influence the trajectory of their organizations by staying informed about technologies shaping their industries, investing in tools that improve the hiring process and building the systems and culture that support innovation — and the people behind it. Footnotes: 1. Google Analytics, Unique Visitors, February 2020

A Harvard Business School case study9 reports that Unilever included employees in planning and development, ultimately putting forth a reskilling effort that included lifelong learning programs and flexible work practices. In some countries, the company facilitated job swaps or even invited workers’ family members to participate in training programs. The people-centered pledge to “leave no one behind” resulted in strong retention rates and a boost to Unilever’s employer brand.

Indeed data (worldwide)

Indeed data (US)

Indeed survey, n=3,662 (worldwide)

6. AList, 41 Percent of Gen Z Will Provide Their Data for a Personalized Experience, July 9, 2020 7. Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers and Technology Report of Findings, 2016 8.

eadering: The Ways Visionary Leaders Play Bigger by Nancy Giordano, 2021

Unilever’s Response to the Future of Work, Harvard Business

Publishing, April 7, 2020

Ryan Batty is Vice President of Global Enterprise Marketing at Indeed. Ryan has spent the last eight years in the human resources (HR) and recruiting industry and previously served in various global and international leadership positions with LinkedIn. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ryan graduated from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and is committed to helping advance the role of women in leadership positions and compensation equity.

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TOP PICK

Gen Z: The Next Generation Of Talent Technology Gen Z needs a different level of recruiting and onboarding support By Jess Elmquist, Phenom

wo million college students are graduating this spring into a candidate’s market like nothing we have seen before. Gen Z candidates have more options than graduating classes preceding them: 11.3 million job openings today compared to 7.4 million in 2021. However, they are also entering the workforce with a complicated college experience, punctuated by virtual coursework, shelter-in-place mandates and a lack of social opportunities. They are well versed in digital communications, however, they have had little pre-pandemic work experience and they are approaching a sense of fatigue and burnout not felt by previous graduating classes. They need and deserve a different level of recruiting and onboarding support to help them transition into their working lives.

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Gen Z has joined Millennials as two generations driving the Great Resignation. Not only that: 80% of Gen Z employees, who planned to leave a job soon, are looking for better alignment with their values, while 3 in 4 graduates want opportunities to practice new skills. Along with a career approach led by values and growth, these graduating candidates expect transparency, consistent communication and self-serve personalization in every aspect of their lives. Since they already experience these qualities in their consumer interactions, they will expect recruiting efforts that offer a dynamic experience. Even if an organization shares a candidate’s values and offers learning opportunities, recruiters

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still have to make a quick impression: Companies have an average of 14 seconds to get a job seeker’s attention. So when is the best time to reevaluate recruiting strategies? Now, before those potential employees graduate.

Ensuring Your Talent Tech Stack Stacks Up for Gen Z Workers While effective recruiting strategies vary depending on the type and volume of employees you need, the right technology will optimize your efforts. A platform that offers automation and personalization eases the burden on recruiters by making quick work of tedious, time-consuming tasks, leaving more time for recruiting teams to build a storyline that connects candidates with their company in a more robust way.

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Gen Z: The Next Generation Of Talent Technology

The line between “before” and “after” hiring is gone: Candidates want to know how your company will support their continued growth with meaningful onboarding, mentoring and skills development before they have signed on. With open jobs far exceeding available workers, providing robust candidate experiences for both hourly employees and knowledge workers can mean the difference in attracting the talent you need before someone else does. Try one of these approaches to recruit the right Gen Z candidate.

Hourly Employees We see many more roles for hourly employees across industries than at the same time in winter 2021. Leisure and hospitality openings have grown by more than 70%. Retail, manufacturing and construction and utilities also show gains. That is a lot of openings to fill quickly. While these roles are not always the first choice for college grads, in my experience, it is common for recent grads to follow their passions first, even if they do not line up perfectly with their degree. From there, aspects of a retail or service role can pique their interests and lead to full-time opportunities. During my experience with high-volume hiring as EVP of HR at fitness company Life Time, I learned the importance of speed.

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I also realized how innovation can transform talent acquisition processes. I led a team that hired more than 21,000 people annually, and automation streamlined that work considerably, engaging candidates and involving recruiters and hiring managers in the process at just the right time. Time matters, especially in this current labor market. With the right technology, recruiting — from interest to offer — can happen in as few as 24 hours. Here is an example: KinderCare Education is the largest childcare education provider in the U.S., with nearly 40,000 employees at more than 2,000 locations. As pandemic-related restrictions eased across the country, KinderCare’s individual hiring managers and recruiters couldn’t keep pace with hiring needs. Incorporating automation early in the recruiting process equipped KinderCare with the speed and reach to maintain consistent communication with job seekers and, ultimately, fill critical positions. KinderCare’s two-person recruiting team used automation as part of a talent experience platform to optimize hiring events. First, they added a hiring event template to the company’s career website. Job seekers, who interacted with the event, received automated, branded email and text communications. Two different drip campaigns targeted candidates based on whether they had registered for the hiring event.

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Unregistered job seekers saw more frequent messages with a focus on registering. Registered job seekers received less frequent communication, providing a look at KinderCare culture and employee experience. Hiring managers joined the process a day before the event to offer candidates a personal connection. Using automation to maximize efforts through a single event, KinderCare received 160 applicants, conducted 70 interviews and hired more than 40 people for critical positions. It took a week and a half, and they spent less than $50 on advertising. A powerful platform that measures job fit and connects candidates with opportunities accurately and quickly fuels better high-volume hiring that will make your company stand out from the crowd and support your recruitment goals. Automation and AI equip businesses with a balance of speed and personalization, so recruiters like the team at KinderCare can focus on providing a meaningful onboarding experience to give new employees a strong start.

Knowledge Workers The U.S. is reporting a half-million more business and professional services openings than at this time last year. Information services openings have nearly doubled, and other knowledge worker opportunities show a similar trend.

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Gen Z: The Next Generation Of Talent Technology

The past year’s “Great Resignation” or “Great Reprioritization” might feel like a challenge for organizations, but it also represents an unprecedented opportunity to meet the expectations of job seekers. The organizations most poised to evolve with the labor market are those willing to ask hard questions about the candidate and employee experiences they offer. They are placing more emphasis on showcasing company values, learning and growth opportunities and internal mobility paths that go far beyond an entry-level role.

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These organizations are inviting candidates to partner with them to chart a career path, not simply a job. Personalization is crucial to that endeavor. An AI-powered platform uses a candidate’s interest and background to create a unique story to lead candidates through their job search. It is the same kind of hyper-personalization offered by their favorite consumer experiences — suggestions that take into account their behavior and preferences and make it easy to find what they like. A complimentary referral program taps into the trust Gen Z has

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in its peers in everything from where they shop to what they eat. This curated approach offers the support graduates need with a comprehensive, interactive experience. Southwest Airlines has used this hyper-personalized talent acquisition strategy with great success, employing an intelligent chatbot and a strong referral program. Both tactics offer candidates the curated, Netflix-like experience they have grown accustomed to: a unique journey informed by past behavior and preferences, offered quickly and accurately to keep them engaged.

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Gen Z: The Next Generation Of Talent Technology

personal touch. The sessions, held several times weekly, offer insight into Southwest’s culture and interviewing processes to move candidates closer to conversion. These strategies have fueled a 700% increase in employee referrals, averaging 1,000 per week, with half of those candidates completing talent profiles, closing the gap between referral and applicant. By asking a handful of simple questions, a chatbot uses candidate answers to surface personalized job recommendations and relevant company content, such as blog posts and video testimonials. Southwest’s chatbot use has saved time while preserving candidates’ engagement with career opportunities and highlighting the company’s people and purpose. In one year, Southwest recorded 1 million chatbot interactions that: ●● Provided 24/7 personalization. ●● Captured leads. ●● Answered FAQs, saving recruiters 92,000 hours. In tandem with an intelligent chatbot, Southwest uses an

incentivized referral program to build its talent community and foster engagement. Employees who serve as trusted sources to friends and former colleagues refer candidates for positions they think could be a good fit. Southwest also automates its referrals, folding them into a talent experience management platform that invites referred candidates to complete talent profiles. From there, candidates receive automated emails and texts about relevant job opportunities and online “referral information sessions.” This strategy saves recruiters time and empowers them to reach more candidates at once while still providing a

Better Recruiting for Today’s Graduates The current job market presents a challenge for organizations competing against each other to recruit from the same pool of graduating talent. Conversely, graduating students have a potentially overwhelming task before them as they narrow their search to job opportunities that actually interest them. Automation and AI rise to meet these dual challenges, empowering recruiters with the bandwidth to be more human and creating a smooth, personalized job journey for candidates. Those efforts converge to support an organization’s hiring goals and match the right job seekers with the right opportunities.

As CHRO, Jess Elmquist is leading Phenom’s global HR team as the company continues to rapidly hire, train and inspire new employees around the world. Previously, Elmquist has held multiple senior roles, including Chief Learning Officer & EVP of HR, Talent Acquisition at LifeTime, Inc.

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JUNE 2022

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Straight Talk with HR.com

‘HR leaders Must Be Willing to Expand Beyond Their Average Hiring Pool to Build a Diverse Workforce’ Q&A with Ashley Perryman,

VP, Global HR, and Head, People, Spiceworks Ziff Davis

Excerpts from the interview: “For companies to support, engage, and build a diverse workforce, HR leaders need to be willing to expand beyond their average hiring pool. This does not mean hiring people who may not have the appropriate qualifications but learning more about their experience where it may fit the mold of the role you are looking to hire,” said Ashley Perryman, Vice President of Global Human Resources and Head of People at Spiceworks Ziff Davis.

How can companies build a sustainable DEI strategy?

Ashley: As companies build out their diversity and inclusion strategy, HR leaders need first to make sure they know their identity and find what is not matching their company’s values. Part of your DEI strategy should be influenced by what is taking place behind the scenes and across the ranks of your organization, across your candidate pool, and so on. Transparency is critical, and sometimes that means acknowledging your flaws and listening to how you can do better. To be successful, a DEI strategy must be an initiative everyone believes in and supports from the ground up. It is critical for HR leaders to be the ones to establish this identity while educating leadership on its importance.

In an exclusive interview with HR.com, Ashley, touches upon how companies can build a sustainable diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy, challenges to DEI, role of technology in aiding DEI, and more.

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

JUNE 2022

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Straight Talk with HR.com

What changes does a company need to bring to support, engage and build a diverse workforce? Ashley: For companies to support, engage, and

build a diverse workforce, HR leaders need to be willing to expand beyond their average hiring pool. This does not mean hiring people who may not have the appropriate qualifications but learning more about their experience where it may fit the mold of the role you are looking to hire. Companies need to take the time to evaluate how different experiences or backgrounds can make someone an asset to the team. This will also cause HR leaders to question the historical ways of the company’s traditional processes in seeking out candidates. This will prompt HR to examine old practices and embrace new hiring methods with a DEI lens.

What are some of the biggest challenges in prolonging sustainable DEI? How can organizations overcome these? Ashley: The most common myth associated with

creating a diversity and inclusion strategy is that it is the sole responsibility of the human resources team. Organizations implementing DEI initiatives and taking a proactive approach toward DEI efforts can face challenges with change management and sustaining the support of those programs if everyone is not committed - from executives to management to individual contributors. Beyond our recruiting, hiring, and culture-building efforts, we take measures to ensure our workplace is a safe environment, where employees feel comfortable. For example, we have mandatory training to help employees identify and understand when discrimination is taking place and how to take action depending on the situation. It is also essential to assess and be transparent with where your organization stands, even if there is still work to be done to improve. This level of accountability continues to bring awareness to how

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JUNE 2022

existing protocols and initiatives are performing to allow for refinements and course corrections as needed.

How important and challenging is it to look at DEI not just as a hiring strategy and as a mere data point?

Ashley: DEI is an essential component of a successful business in today’s society. High-performing teams result from a psychologically safe work environment with diverse members that are seen, heard, and valued. Why would a company not push for a diverse workforce? Many DEI practitioners are exhausted trying to share that these efforts are not just a moral responsibility but good for the business’s health.

How do you foresee inclusion becoming a reality?

Ashley: DEI cannot just be an HR effort for inclusion

to become a reality. It is the responsibility of the client success specialist, the marketing manager, the engineer, the product manager, etc. It is up to everyone to embody the company’s values, and it is either ‘get on or off the bus.’ When the company says DEI is important, everyone needs to believe, practice, support, and encourage those behaviors and cultivate that type of community. In a place where it is just a reasonable effort, it will be driven a hundred percent by HR. In a place where it is a great effort, it will be something that everyone believes in and practices.

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Straight Talk with HR.com investment. This is where areas of opportunities can be identified, including potential programs, sponsoring courses or training programs, accelerated promotion processes, new growth programs, and more. I am also excited to see how technology can help source diverse, niche, or mobile populations.

What has been your experience with building DEI culture? What have been the challenges? What are the learnings? Ashley: It is crucial to acknowledge that not

How can organizations pave the way for equitable workplace culture?

Ashley: If companies and organizations are looking for new ways to create an equitable workplace, the following tactics should be considered: 1. Pilot new initiatives 2. Surveying team members of all levels to provide further context 3. Partner with the people that you are trying to attract and retain (e.g., professional organizations, universities, target job boards, etc.), and co-construct the environment of the business with their experience at the center 4. Measure your hiring, promoting, and rewarding practices, along with involuntary terminations and RIF data to be your guide 5. And lastly, do not be afraid to scrap something and start again.

What would be the role of new technologies in aiding DEI?

Ashley: Technologies can quickly automate

workflow, but we always build checks and balances into workflows to ensure that specific steps are followed. For example, filters in recruiting funnels or identifying consistently high performers (through reviewing performance management ratings over multiple periods) can help identify new types of

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

JUNE 2022

every DEI initiative you take will succeed, but it is also important not to let your failures stop your efforts. At SWZD, we have tested out different initiatives and expanded several programs, including ‘returnship’ efforts, campus hiring as a global effort during different days/seasons throughout the year, community partnerships (e.g., Latinx in Tech, National Society of Black Engineers, Womenhack, Mom Project, Techqueria, etc.) to post on their job boards and attend their events, and more. The key is to be transparent and accountable for how initiatives are performing and then determine if you need to refine, expand, or completely pivot in a different direction.

What changes do you plan to bring into your strategy to build a sustainable DEI culture?

Ashley: A one-size-fits-all approach does not work for our company. We have people in the U.S., across the EU, in India, and regions across the Asia Pacific. We plan to refine our global strategy with more region-specific pilot programs that acknowledge and lean into the global nuances in the different areas in order to meet the diverse needs of our employees. Would you like to comment?

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The Future of Talent Acquisition

Are you looking for strategies for hiring and sourcing for today’s work world with all of the challenges caused by the pandemic? This 2-day virtual event will feature expert sessions examining what is currently driving and hindering recruitment, what factors are keeping organizations from developing top-notch strategic recruitment systems and attaining top talent acquisition goals, and the effective and up-and-coming recruitment technologies for today’s organizations.

sales@hr.com | 877-472-6648

Virtual Event • August 24-25, 2022

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Join us on August 24th and 25th to prepare your organization for talent acquisition success as we face the expected “Great Resignation.”

TOP PICK

The Business Of People: How To Take A More Human Approach To Hiring Two cliches in the darkness By Alec Rahman-Jones, Phaidon International

ith record numbers of jobs being posted, companies are scrambling to find people to fill roles, and competition for talent is rife. However, with this scramble, many companies appear to prioritize hitting quotas as quickly as possible instead of focusing on the right thing: finding the perfect candidate. There is a lot more to hiring than just filling a seat and a numbersdriven, almost robotic approach, has led to many recruitment processes losing their human touch. In order to start solving this problem, an easy way to think about hiring is to think about the recruitment process as a coin – one side representing the company searching for candidates, and the other representing the candidate.

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

Recruitment consultants must communicate their expertise with both companies and candidates, coaching each of them to the fullest extent so they can successfully navigate the hiring process.

Companies, aided by their recruitment partners, must first identify what each candidate’s most important requirements are, and then make sure that these requirements are in line with their own expectations and policies.

What Clients Want from Recruiters

Candidates may care about work-from-home flexibility, paid time off, parental leave and 401k match. If these dealbreakers are not identified and addressed early on, companies end up wasting a lot of time on candidates who either do not accept an offer of employment from them or take the job but move on quickly – fueling the ever-increasing retention problem.

Securing top talent is not a onesize-fits-all approach – a company cannot hire someone just because they check the boxes with the technical skills for the role. A human approach is required to understand the specific needs of each company in order to assess cultural fit as well. Although most companies have an overarching culture, there are usually nuances and dynamics that differ based on factors, such as location, department and even sub-teams.

JUNE 2022

Taking this further, candidates must feel special and recognized as individuals. Interview processes are a two-way street and it is no longer just up to internal talent acquisition teams to secure talent.

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The Business Of People: How To Take A More Human Approach To Hiring

overwhelmed by the sea of options. As their applications inevitably get lost in thousands of electronic submissions, it is not unusual for them to feel disillusioned by the process either. Candidates see hundreds of job opportunities being advertised online which match their skillset but do not hear anything after applying.

Line managers should take an active role in the process to avoid making it feel mechanical or disconnected. Managers need to express interest in the candidate and have real, open conversations with them. After all, when the recruitment process is over, the relationship between the line manager and employee will be the key thing that matters. Recruitment consultants will often encourage a one-on-one conversation towards the end of the process to help forge the start of that relationship. This is a good time for the line manager to express their desire to not only secure the candidate, but also reiterate what they can learn and how they can grow if they are to join the team. Of course, all hiring managers want candidates to slot in and do the job that is required of them. However, it is important to remember that candidates join

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

businesses because they want to do work that is interesting, intellectually challenging and has the opportunity for professional growth as well as upward mobility. It is not to say that automation and technology can not be used. However, companies are better off using it in the initial phases of the applicant screening process to strategically funnel administration items. The further down the line the process gets, the more personal it should feel.

Recruitment consultants are there to help the candidate understand the landscape better. They simplify the process, help find companies that match their values and give them a sense of what their worth is in the job market. While being helpful and encouraging, it is imperative that recruitment consultants manage expectations for candidates. As it’s currently a candidate-friendly market, many candidates want the world – expecting to get unrealistic benefits packages, perks or remote working options. Candidates must determine which of those are make-or-break so they are poised to negotiate.

What Candidates Want from Recruiters

Hiring Is a Marathon, Not Sprint

When it comes to candidate expectations, the goal is to empower them throughout the process and help them navigate the field. When a candidate does not work directly with a recruitment consultant, it is common for them to feel

In tandem with coaching and consulting with both primary recruiting stakeholders, it is also critical that recruiters establish a relationship with candidates early in their careers. Finding them on the backend will not cut it – it is like a never-ending game of catch-up.

JUNE 2022

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The Business Of People: How To Take A More Human Approach To Hiring

Talent acquisition is all about building relationships from the start and understanding both skillsets and aspirations. Accomplishing this early on leads to a seasoned database and extensive network so when companies are looking to fill a role, recruiters will have access to a sea of qualified and interested candidates. It is particularly important in new, innovative areas, such as crypto or gene therapy. Obviously, it is impossible to find someone who has decades of experience in such young fields. Pinpointing cross-industry skills to fill positions like these has never been more important and candidates in more traditional sectors like tech, supply chain and finance – which are also seeing rapid growth and turnover – have many applicable skillsets that

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

transfer. It is up to the recruitment consultant to help them realize this. Candidates have less of an understanding of their opportunities and it is a recruiter’s role to put the pieces together by reaching out and explaining to them how they can earn higher compensation, better benefits/ perks, and switch to a stimulating role. This can only be achieved through understanding the personalized needs of both the hiring company and the candidate.

The Future of Talent Starts Today It is time to change the hiring process and take a more thoughtful, humanized approach to talent. Instead of looking at how quickly they can fill a role,

JUNE 2022

companies should prioritize their relationship with the candidate. Companies need to hire for the long-term and show employees that they are valued. Taking a human approach is the only way they will win in the war for talent.

Alec Rahman-Jones is Managing Director of Phaidon International. organizations find HR technology that suits their business needs.

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Potential Over Credentials: A Call To Action For HR Departments Apprenticeship is the new pipeline By Ximena Hartsock, BuildWithin

ith technology startups announcing layoffs and hiring freezes, now might seem like odd timing to discuss the shortage of digital talent. I beg to differ. As HR professionals know, finding and retaining tech workers in the United States will be difficult whether we go into an economic contraction or not. The main pipelines for tech talent— universities, immigration, and to some extent, coding camps—do not even come close to meeting domestic demand. Unless our country develops more pipelines for digital talent, there will be consequences. The organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry estimates that the global technology sector will suffer $449.7 billion in unrealized output by 2030 due to a shortage of 4.3 million workers. The U.S. alone will account for $162.2 billion—36% of that total—if business continues as usual.

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

An overhaul of our university system and immigration policies seems extremely unlikely. That is why I believe apprenticeship programs are coming to your HR department. The emerging roles and skills needed in this country, changing cultural attitudes towards college, and the scale of untapped potential make it almost inevitable. Employers are ready to put potential over credentials.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) Future of Jobs 2020 report argues that the most in-demand emerging roles in America are digital. The WEF identified AI and machine learning specialists, data analysts and scientists, and big data specialists as the three most in-demand jobs. Data entry clerks, accounting/booking/payroll clerks, and secretaries were seen as the most “redundant.”

The Eight-Year Window

The top three “emerging skills” are quite broad: analytical thinking and innovation, active learning and learning strategies, and complex problem-solving. These strike me as skills that do not cater to university instruction.

Part of the problem for digital employers—and the solution—is that too many Americans are stuck in jobs without a future. According to consulting firm McKinsey, which analyzed 800 professions in eight major economies, 1 in 10 Americans will need to change jobs by 2030 because their role will no longer exist. About half will need more advanced skills to make this transition.

JUNE 2022

Learning “innovation” in a classroom would be like reading a cookbook but never preparing any meals. To learn how to cook, you must cook. Likewise, to learn innovation, you must innovate something. The same applies to complex problem-solving.

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Potential Over Credentials: A Call To Action For HR Departments

Although college courses can contrive scenarios in which students innovate or solve complex problems, simulations will not compare favorably to the on-job experience. Plus, why pay a college $10,000 or more per year to practice something that employers would pay you to do? Employers are beginning to ask that same question.

Discounting College Whether university training is relevant to a job or not, most tech roles still require at least a bachelor’s degree. Perhaps not for long. Research from the nonprofit Burning Glass Institute suggests that employers require more credentials when they have leverage in the job market (e.g., just after the Great Recession) but

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

drop requirements when they are short on talent. For example, as talent demand intensified leading up to Covid-19, “skill-based hiring” gained momentum. According to Burning Glass, “Some 46% of middle-skill and 31% of high-skill occupations experienced material degree resets between 2017 and 2019.” The researchers call this a “structural reset,” meaning that it is likely permanent. Differently, they believe Covid-19 caused a “cyclical reset” that temporarily lowered requirements for certain roles (notably in healthcare). The WEF Future of Jobs report is describing structural changes in employment from roles that require manual

JUNE 2022

work and repetition to jobs that favor human guidance of automated systems. That change poses a long-term reset in requirements and at a scale perhaps not seen since the first Industrial Revolution. Accenture and IBM seem to be ahead of the curve in recognizing this structural reset. According to Burning Glass’s analysis, Accenture requires a degree for only 26% of its quality assurance (QA) engineering roles, and IBM for just 29%. By comparison, 84% of QA roles at Google require a degree, as do 90% at Apple, 94% at Intel, and 100% at Oracle. Even Facebook, founded by a college dropout, demands a degree for most IT roles.

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Potential Over Credentials: A Call To Action For HR Departments

Degree requirements are supposed to select top candidates, but in practice, they exclude more than 81 million workers without bachelor’s degrees, or about 56% of the civilian workforce over the age of 25. Black, Hispanic, and Native American workers are overrepresented among non-degree holders, posing a diversity and inclusion issue on top of a limiting talent strategy.

Apprenticeships Are the New Pipeline In my prior role as CEO and co-founder of Phone2Action (now Capitol Canary), a digital advocacy platform, I ran apprenticeship programs for over eight years and found them essential to our talent strategy. Rather than compete with Silicon Valley for the same degree holders, visa applicants, and coding camp graduates, we developed our own talent pool. Well-known tech companies, including Google, Accenture, Pinterest, ServiceNow, and Uber have done the same with “registered” apprenticeships.

“Information,” a broad category that includes information technology, media, and more. Meanwhile, 188,452 apprenticed in skilled trades related to construction (good news for the housing shortage). The same characteristics that make a construction apprenticeship so effective—hands-on learning under the supervision of a professional—suit digital roles. The barrier for tech companies, I believe, is designing and administering these apprenticeship programs. Whereas the construction trades have always depended on apprenticeships, the tech industry does not have this tradition. The process of turning someone into a skilled digital worker is not well understood within corporations and is even less understood in higher education. Thus, DOL-approved intermediaries are increasingly behind these tech apprenticeships, redesigning what preparation for a technology career looks like in this century. The effort to develop a winning formula for tech apprenticeships is likely to have beneficial ripple effects. Perhaps it will lead to a healthier distinction between education and career preparation, which are too often conflated.

Different from an internship in which companies can do whatever they want, apprenticeships registered with the Department of Labor (DOL) have to meet standards for on-the-job training, classroom instruction, and wages. That way, after the apprenticeship period, the apprentice is equipped to work professionally in the field.

Director of Apprenticeships

In 2020, there were over 275,000 apprentices in programs registered with the DOL, but just 2,951 of them worked in

There is room for a massive expansion of technology apprenticeships. Given the talent shortage in tech, the discounting of college, and the need for more

Talent Acquisition Excellence presented by HR.com

JUNE 2022

talent pipelines, apprenticeship programs are probably coming to your HR department. Soon enough, we will see HR departments hiring a Director of Apprenticeships. Competing on the open market for tech talent will be seen as inefficient. Perhaps the tech companies that move early on apprenticeships will not become a Korn Ferry statistic about unrealized output. Amidst economic uncertainty, apprenticeships tap a new talent pool that is eager to learn. Whether an employer’s aim is to reduce recruiting costs, increase diversity and inclusion, or simply find the talent they need to exist, the outcome is that millions of Americans may have an opportunity to advance out of stagnant work and join the digital economy. This is the time to value potential over credentials.

Ximena Hartsock is Co-Founder of BuildWithin.

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Special Research Supplement June 2022

The State of Hourly and High-volume Hiring 2022

Optimize recruiting strategies for high-volume hiring success

INTERACTIVE

JUNE 2022

Sponsored by:

ourly workers account for a whopping 73.3

organizations engage in high-volume recruiting, do

million workers, ages 16 or over, in the United

they outsource any part of high-volume recruitment

States. The recruitment of these hourly

to other entities, and more.

earners— along with seasonal hires, tipped labor and contingent workers—represents a talent-acquisition

Top findings from the survey:

category that can often be collectively categorized as “high-volume recruiting.” Although hourly employees represent 56% of all wage and salary workers in the U.S, this topic is often neglected in studies about talent acquisition (TA).

Finding #1: The majority of organizations engage in multiple types of recruitment activities Roughly three-quarters of respondents say their organizations are engaged in these recruitment activities:

HR Research Institute, in its latest survey, “State of High-volume and Hourly Hiring 2022”, attempts to learn the various types of recruitment activities

●● internal recruitment ●● employee referrals

organizations engage in, how much they plan

●● recruitment of hourly workers

to invest in high-volume recruiting, how often

●● high-volume recruitment

RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Survey Question: What types of recruitment activities does your organization engage in?

76%

Internal recruitment

Nearly threequarters of large organizations engage in highvolume recruiting

Employee referrals

74%

Recruitment of hourly workers

73%

High-volume recruitment

73% 69%

Entry-level recruitment

61%

Executive recruitment

59%

Agency recruitment

46%

Campus recruitment

34%

Gig worker recruitment

30%

Alumni recruitment 0

Finding #2: About two-thirds use a staffing agency for high-volume recruiting

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

staffing agency for this purpose. One interesting development is that 57% rely on online talent platforms, making them more frequently cited than

Of the organizations that outsource some or all of

the more traditional methods of RPOs (54%), BPOs

the high-volume recruitment process, 63% use a

(44%) and temp agencies (40%).

RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Survey Question: What external agencies, services or partners do you use for high-volume recruiting? (select all that apply)

63%

Staffing agency

Fifty-four percent partner with an RPO organization for their highvolume recruiting needs

Online talent platform (e.g., Fiverr, Upwork, etc.)

57%

Recruitment process outsourcing organization

54%

Business process outsourcer/partner

43%

40%

Temp agency

Finding #3: Nearly all respondents say their organization will continue to engage in high-volume recruiting over the next two years Virtually all (97%) will continue to engage in high-

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

volume recruiting in some capacity over the next two years. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the respondents will do so by relying primarily on their in-house recruiting team and 35% said they will outsource at least part of the task.

To learn more about The State of Hourly and High-volume

Hiring 2022 survey and to get strategic outcomes and 10 key takeaways from this exclusive HR.com Research Institute research, please read the complete report here:

Read the Research Report

RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

It’s Not Just About Recruiting Faster, it’s Recruiting Faster and Better Dr. Rachel Stewart Johnson, Paradox

n human resources (HR) technology, we are often

maximum value if you think about how you will

focused on delivering streamlined solutions. We

move people through the bins, rather than focusing

are going for speed. However, speed alone does

solely on loading up one bin as quickly as possible.

not always translate into time savings.

Talent acquisition should not just be faster. It

Think of your hiring process as moving talent from

should be faster and better. The goal is to create

one bin into the next, with the “finish line” being

efficient processes that bring in candidates, who

an employee’s 90-day anniversary. You will get

have the best odds of doing well in the job.

ARTICLE

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Why Faster Can End Up Being Slower

Know Who You’re Looking for

To understand how “speed” and “time savings”

When you are hiring at or near the entry level, it

do not always go hand-in-hand, think about the

can be difficult to distinguish among candidates

difference between what you put in versus what you

based on work history or technical expertise —

are getting out. Start with some simple math.

nearly half of America’s minimum wage workers

Let us say you are a franchise group that focuses

are just 16-24 years old. Often, the predictors of

on achieving a high volume of candidates for

success will instead come from “soft skills,” or

entry-level hourly roles. You know the ripple effects

the ways an individual’s personality shapes how

of being understaffed, so you are eager to get

they approach the workday. Think of the rookie in

those numbers as high as possible. You meet with

customer service, who stays calm and thinks on

success on that metric, with 100 applications a

their feet. The sales representative, who is a fierce

week. You might think: that is not bad, eh?

competitor. The crew member, who loves fastpaced repetition.

What happens next? If you require candidates to create a login or you add in other complexities, 60% are likely to disappear. You are down to 40 interview slots booked. These days, easily 50% of a standard pool of candidates will be no-shows for those interviews, so that leaves you with about 20 candidates who show up (and 20 wasted

Competitive? Fast? It’s a simple question. What makes a person a top performer in a job? Alternatively, what are the red flags? This type of analysis is an underused

bookings).

resource. A LeadershipIQ study found that only

So the pool of 100 potential hires shrunk pretty

make their highest performers successful, and 34%

15% of companies have defined what attitudes

quickly, with the likely need for additional spending to convince those who get an offer to sign on. From there, more obstacles: getting the “yeses” to show up on day one, and then navigating those early hires through the critical first 90 days. Generating a high volume of candidates can be fraught with inefficiency. You can think of the result as “candidate churn.” As you probably know all too well, that means you are wasting time and money.

So, ask yourself: What are we looking for? Calm?

ARTICLE

haven’t addressed the issue at all. An effective HR tech stack equips you with a twopronged approach. 1. Prevent mismatches: Data services should first help you understand each of your positions, so you can answer the “What are we looking for?” question and recruit those candidates. 2. Find the best matches: Your tech stack should then include an assessment tool to measure how well a candidate matches that ideal.

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

As you look into solutions for high-volume hiring,

When you get more information out there to help

make sure they help you every step of the way.

everyone understand the job, you will attract

That’s how you do faster, better.

candidates who are more likely to be “stickier”

Prevent Mismatches Before They Happen At Paradox, we have a team of behavioral scientists dedicated to helping you understand your open positions and how to predict success on the job. We investigate everyday tasks, expectations, organizational structure, and the rhythms of the typical workday. Then we leverage insights from organizational psychology to understand how these realities align with personality. For example, does the job require up-front training? You are looking for someone with high “openness” who readily accepts updates to their knowledge and approaches. If you understand who is a good bet to succeed, you can tailor your “pitch” to those individuals. Your goal is to attract candidates who enter the process with more buy-in. Educate the talent pool well enough that the best-fit candidates will self-select

through the hiring process. These candidates know what an ordinary workweek looks like, and they want it. Instead of a pool of 100 low-information candidates that reduces down by 80% before you can send out offers, you will have a leaner corps of candidates with accurate expectations of the job. That will likely help reduce candidate churn. Why? Survey data demonstrate the power of expectations: 48% of workers report leaving a job because it didn’t align with their expectations, including 73% of Gen Z respondents. Given this, why squander resources recruiting a creative “big ideas” kind of person to apply for your “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” role? Mismatches fuel turnover, and there is no reason why you can not stave them off before you invest those resources.

into your candidate stream.

So, let us recap. Use behavioral science and data

One way to do this is to utilize informative job

individuals with the best odds of succeeding in a

descriptions that preview what the job is really like. Consider creating a video that depicts a “day in the life.” When you send out that “Now Hiring” alert to your passive talent pool, think less about general

analytics to identify the personality profiles of job role. Then, tailor your focus to attract people who will thrive in the role. That is preventing mismatches.

job perks and more about the characteristics that

Find the Best Matches

people who love the job tend to have.

What is the second major step? Deploying fast data capture to turn the soft skills of your candidates

●● Friendly but competitive people who love performance incentives.

into an objective metric. That is detecting the best matches.

●● Opportunity to cultivate community. ●● Get a “workout” while you work.

ARTICLE

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

What if hiring was fast and simple? Meet Olivia, the conversational AI assistant creating better hiring experiences for everyone. › Fast text-to-apply experiences so candidates can apply in just a few minutes › Automated screening to immediately identify qualified workers › Instant interview scheduling to get top candidates scheduled the same day they apply › Simple mobile app features that make opening jobs, sending offers, and completing paperwork a breeze Learn more at paradox.ai

Olivia is saving the world’s biggest companies millions of hours of manual work, every day. And, she’s supporting over 740 organizations — and counting.

The key is a solution that tells you about fit without

That makes it easier to distinguish one candidate

slowing things down.

from another out of that entry-level pool. And remember — people who fit poorly with the job are less likely to enjoy the job, and, therefore, have a higher potential to leave in the early days. Receiving an early warning signal of this likelihood benefits everyone.

You Can Have it All Together, we will take a data-driven approach to who you recruit, and give your job descriptions a productive refresh. Then we will unlock the power of data with the folks who click “Apply,” so you have got a metric that helps you find your best fits. It is not just faster, it is faster and better. Our hospitality client saw a 54% decline in involuntary turnover. Your organization too deserves to employ people who are happy to be there. There are goodThere is science that can help out here too. You can

fit employees out there for every job. We will help

leverage what we have learned about how humans

you find yours.

brains take in information. For example, an MITled research team found that people can detect

This article first appeared here.

and remember information about a never-beforeseen visual image after exposure as brief as 13 milliseconds. With that in mind, you can recognize the fastest way to gather data from people: use images. Today’s assessment technology from Paradox does just that. It is now possible to gain personality data with little lift from the candidate, in either time or effort. That moves soft skills data from far down the funnel

Dr. Rachel Stewart Johnson is a Psychologist at Paradox. Dr. Rachel came to HR technology in 2018 from a background in human development. At Paradox, she focuses on research and development as part of the Psychology team for Traitify by Paradox. She has a particular interest in developing tools that enhance employee engagement. Prior to diving into behavioral science in enterprise software, Rachel spent many years in the classroom, teaching at the University of California, San Diego, and earning her doctoral degree in experimental psychology from Stanford University.

to the top of it. When you compare an individual candidate’s profile to an ideal profile for a job role, you have got an easy-to-use match score that gives you a bird’s eye view of everyone, including how applicants compare to each other. 38

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Not Just the Quitters: How the Great Resignation Impacts Everyone Alex Reilly, Infor

f you follow any news outlets related to human

To understand how to navigate these uncharted

resources, it is inevitable you have seen two or

waters we must first understand the types of

more articles a day around the Great Resignation (or Great Reshuffle, or Great Retirement).

people being impacted by this historical event.

Workers: Candidates and Employees

Often, we see statistics like “4.3M people quit or

There is no argument that candidates are

changed jobs in August 2021” or “employers are

experiencing the largest benefits of the Great

seeing 3% voluntary quit rates in 2022,” however,

Resignation. Record turnover, coupled with

we are just now starting to see articles about the

record low candidate volumes, has created a

impacts on the people experiencing the full brunt of

perfect opportunity for candidates to seek out

the Great Resignation (Washington Post).

new jobs with minimal competition and bigger

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payouts (salary, signing bonus, benefits, etc.)

Within industries, healthcare and banking/financial

from employers willing to foot the bill and avoid

services tied for the highest percentage of this

prolonged job openings.

response at 67%. Retail had the lowest percentage of any industry at 52% for the same response.

Interestingly, those low candidate volumes are even more strange when you take into consideration

Pay is regularly reported to be a significant

that the U.S. economy is seeing the lowest weekly

motivating factor for those seeking new roles

jobless claims in 52 years (Reuters).

in the Great Resignation, however, our survey results found that only 21% of respondents were

Fortunately, we are able to directly measure

seeking new employment because of a dislike

candidates’ preferences for new roles and their

of their current pay or compensation. Retail had

motivating factors for looking for new employment

the highest percentage of responses naming

opportunities. Our own survey of 10K+ candidates

pay/compensation dissatisfaction (24%), while

during the months of March and April 2022 yielded

healthcare had the lowest (15%).

some interesting results. One surprise was the landslide representation of the primary reason for considering a new role. Across industries, 58% of respondents said they are considering a new role because they do not see opportunities for advancement or growth in their current roles (Graph 1).

Other factors widely credited with driving the great resignation in the press were not supported by our survey results. Of the 10K+ respondents, only 15% stated they were looking for new work because they dislike the work/tasks of their current job, 5% stated they dislike their team or supervisors, and only 0.5% stated they were leaving due to disliking interactions with their customers or patients.

Graph 1:

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These insights highlight a path forward for how to address the needs of employees so you can avoid any additional casualties to the Great Resignation. Our candidate survey reinforced a common statistic that about 45% of people looking for new jobs are currently employed. More people than ever are considering if they should leave your organization, so it is critical you give them a reason to stay. More pay is perceived as a common problemsolver, however, it is not the most important thing for everyone. Employees want purpose in their work, to be appreciated, and to feel their employer is invested in them. They want tools to understand where their skills, experience, and uniqueness are the best fit within your organization and where they may be lacking in any of those areas when it comes to their ability to transition internally. Ultimately, supervisor and interpersonal relationships at work are not driving away your employees, it is the lack of fit and belonging felt by your employees.

Employers: Managers and Human Resources Professionals Hiring managers are one of the most overlooked (and overworked) groups being impacted by the Great Resignation. Recent research has begun to point to the burnout being experienced by hiring managers who struggle to fill openings on their team and either have to pick up the extra work for themselves or support their short-staffed teams and fear that overworking them will lead to more turnover. A recent Greenhouse Hiring Manager Report, published in Recruiting News Network shared that 75% of the 1,500 hiring manager respondents expect hiring to become more difficult through the end of 2022 (Recruiting News Network). Even more worrisome, 84% of the respondents reported they are experiencing burnout due to the difficulties they face as they navigate through the current labor market. HR Professionals are no strangers to the challenges of attracting and retaining talent for their organizations. Some of the new data on the mental state of HR professionals is extremely

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

concerning. Forbes, with the help of Workvivo,

into your organization. People who are most

reported that 98% of the 520 HR professionals

likely to succeed/stay longer, and you can

surveyed are burned out. Almost as concerning,

ensure they are placed in the right roles they

94% said they felt overwhelmed in the past six

are most likely to enjoy. You can also help

months, while 88% of respondents said they

employees chart realistic career paths within

dreaded work (Forbes). These sentiments are

the organization and identify the specific

accompanied by only a meager 29% of HR

developmental steps they need to take to

professionals feeling that their work is valued in

prepare them for the next level. Ironically,

their organization.

using these technologies can help add a more

What You Can Do HR professionals now know they must prioritize making advancement and development opportunities more transparent within their organization or they risk leading employees to seek opportunities elsewhere. Others within the organization who stand to be impacted by organizational turnover still have some things they can do to avoid becoming victims of the Great Resignation fallout: ●● Show job seekers how they can make an

personalized touch to your discussions with candidates and employees. ●● Tell someone you work with they are doing a good job. Use any internal review/shoutout/ kudos/rockstar programs and go give someone positive feedback today. Be the catalyst within your team that celebrates the achievements of your teammates and team members. You may just save yourself from losing an employee or co-worker that would lead to you inheriting their additional tasks in your future.

impact within your organization through your application process. Hiring managers often say they want their candidate experience to be fun, which is a lot to ask when considering how fun it is to provide one’s employment history or contact information for several references, who will never be called. Worry less about a fun application and focus more on giving candidates an opportunity to put their best foot forward and make their case as your best option to select. Showing that

Alex Reilly has over 10 years of experience working with Talent Science and currently leads Product. Alex brings his knowledge and passion for Talent Science to the product vision and strategy to ensure insightful and predictive tools are being created for everyone from tactical end users to strategic executive stakeholders for years to come.

you care about wanting to get to know them as candidates signals that you will also care about them as employees. ●● Use responsible technology to hire, promote,

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and develop talent. By leveraging data-driven assessments to understand people, you can confidently identify the right people to bring 42

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How to Deliver a Great Candidate Experience for Hourly Workers Strategies to optimize high-volume hiring in 2022 Mateo Cavasotto, Emi Labs

n 2020, nearly 75 million people in the U.S.—

In today’s competitive, candidate-driven labor

representing over 55 percent of the total

market, delivering a great candidate experience is

workforce—were paid hourly. Frontline and hourly

critical to attracting, engaging, and retaining front-

employees are essential to operations across many

line employees. However, in a high-volume hiring

industries. However, amid growing labor shortages,

environment, how do you create a personal experi-

businesses across the country now find themselves

ence at scale?

seeking innovative ways to stand out and attract the best workers.

Let us explore talent acquisition best practices in

And one of the most effective ways to achieve this

ment technology can help you deliver a candidate

is by delivering an engaging candidate experience

experience that appeals to hourly workers.

the high-volume hiring landscape and how recruit-

that is personalized to the needs and preferences of hourly candidates.

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4 Ways to Craft a Better Candidate Experience Recruitment automation and talent acquisition (TA)

so than pay. That is why using recruitment automation to speed up the hiring process is an excellent way to improve the hourly candidate experience.

platforms can play a vital role in delivering a personalized, high-touch candidate experience—while also maintaining recruitment efficiency. Here are four ways leading organizations are leveraging technology to deliver a great candidate experience for hourly workers:

1. Make the application process fast, simple, and convenient One way to ensure hourly candidates have a positive experience is to make the application process as fast and easy as possible. This means having a simple, mobile-friendly application that can be completed online in a few minutes—anywhere, any time, and from any device. In addition, you should allow candidates to apply via text or chatbots. This will make it easier for them to apply on the go. Using a chat application can ensure you can meet candidates where they are—on their phones— and when they are most likely to respond. It is also important to consider how you can simplify the application process for walk-in candidates. Allowing an applicant to scan a QR code and chat with a bot that guides them through the application process— without needing to have a resume or even fill out a job application—is now a reality in high-volume recruitment.

2. Accelerate hiring with chat-based recruitment tools Thirty-seven percent of hourly workers say that hiring speed is the most important factor when determining where to work—even more

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Using an applicant tracking system (ATS) can help automate repetitive tasks, like posting jobs and screening candidates. However, sending frontline candidates to your ATS is a fast way to lose them. Instead, enhance your ATS by leveraging technology that seamlessly integrates with your ATS to create a more candidate-friendly recruiting process. Now candidates can instantly engage in a conversation over chat, reducing candidate churn and delivering a better candidate experience. And because the technology integrates with your ATS, all your recruitment data is still synced and centrally managed.

3. Automate communication for an efficient hiring process From scheduling interviews to keeping candidates informed on the status of their application, recruiting is a high-touch activity. However, it is challenging for a recruitment team—no matter how large—to quickly and personally respond to all applicants in a high-volume situation. And by the time they do get around to replying, the candidate may be long gone. Instead, use technology to automate candidate communication. This includes interview scheduling, document collection, responding to candidates’ questions, and sending reminders. This will help keep them informed and reduce the likelihood of becoming frustrated with the process. It also

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

ensures that no candidate falls through the cracks or is accidentally overlooked. Automating communication can ensure a high-touch candidate experience, so applicants do not just feel like a number in your ATS. You can connect with candidates 24/7 (on their time), eliminating the need to stick to office hours to engage with candidates and get them through the application process at lightning speed.

4. Leverage social platforms where hourly candidates spend time In addition to rethinking your organization’s recruitment technology, it is also worth considering what external platforms you use to attract potential candidates. To resonate with hourly and frontline candidates, you need to meet them where they already are, on the channels they are most comfortable with. And that is precisely why any high-volume hiring strategy should include a social media recruitment element. While salaried employees may turn to LinkedIn or Indeed when job searching, hourly candidates are apt to turn to social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. Look to the social media platforms potential candidates are on—and figure out how you can appeal to them there. Chipotle, Shopify, and Target, for example, are just a few of the companies that have experimented with TikTok Resumes—a pilot program that lets job candidates submit video resumes on the social platform. Using a recruitment automation solution can help you identify where candidates are coming from, like specific social media

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platforms. With these insights in hand, you can optimize and double down on efforts in the places that net the best results.

Hiring Hourly Workers with Speed, Scale and Success Employers in all sectors are struggling to hire and retain hourly workers. Today’s candidates have multiple options in front of them—and delivering a fast, seamless, engaging hiring process will help your company stay competitive in the eyes of applicants. Recruitment automation tools can help you deliver a great hourly candidate experience at scale. Leveraging technology can help you engage with candidates 24/7—when and where they are most receptive to hearing from you—while also improving key recruitment metrics like time to fill. With the four strategies we have outlined above, you will be able to give every hourly applicant an exceptional candidate experience, create a more efficient high-volume hiring process, and position your brand as an employer of choice.

Mateo Cavasotto is Co-Founder & CEO of Emi Labs, where he and the team are creating solutions to transform the way we engage with and hire frontline workers globally. Before founding Emi, Mateo worked at Quasar Ventures, where he helped entrepreneurs develop their ideas, business models, and capital raising processes. He was also Country Manager at Trocafone, where he oversaw launching operations in the Argentinian market.

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Hire high-volume roles, faster A complete recruiting automation solution designed for high-volume hiring teams.

Grow your candidate pool by meeting candidates where they are and reduce friction in the application process.

Instantly engage candidates from the moment they show interest in a position until they’re hired, and beyond. Increase team efficiency by automating time consuming tasks like interview scheduling and document collection.

Learn more at www.emilabs.ai

What Is Outbound Recruiting And Why Is it Here to Stay? hireEZ

he business world was shaken hard by

pandemic, recruiters’ jobs play a significant role in

the pandemic followed by economic

restoring the labor force during this recovery.

circumstances like the Great Resignation, talent

shortages, and so forth. The demand and supply

Recruiting has always been a challenge, and on

forces in the labor market were out of equilibrium

top of having more jobs now than people, we are

which made a recruiter’s job more complicated

reshaping the traditional way of recruitment from

and challenging in the past year. While the world

inbound to outbound recruiting to solve talent

is slowly picking up from the impacts of the global

acquisition professionals’ shared challenges.

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Inbound Recruiting vs. Outbound Recruiting

Technology to Support Outbound Recruiting

In the past, recruiters solely relied on inbound

hireEZ, previously Hiretual, is a recruiter-centric

recruiting by posting jobs, sorting through applica-

platform that allows recruiters to take complete

tions, and having an abundance of candidates to

control of their recruitment efforts and help jobs

choose from in a diverse talent pool.

find people. Rather than making it easy for people

But the world has changed. Recruiters now face numerous challenges. Candidates drop off during the recruiting process, and oftentimes recruiters are faced with no qualified candidate applications. We see the potential and positive impacts of outbound recruiting to bring more people to jobs with these inbound recruitment roadblocks. So, what is outbound recruiting? It is a proactive approach where recruiters actively search for and contact candidates for a new position. Instead of wasting time waiting for candidates to look for your job, you are proactively offering jobs to the right people. Learn more about our brand evolution from Hiretual to hireEZ and find out why we are so passionate about outbound recruiting.

to find jobs, we are putting the power back into the hands of recruiters and helping teams find, attract, and engage candidates to help organizations build a scalable and sustainable business.

The Predictable Outcomes of Outbound Recruiting While executing a recruiting strategy varies, we are confident that outbound recruiting will make recruiters’ jobs easier and overcome recruiting challenges in the future. Recruiters’ jobs today play a massive part in the labor force recovery. It is time to change the current outdated and overused inbound recruitment strategies to take control. Leverage the power of outbound recruitment and be part of this transformational change. To learn more about hireEZ, click here.

Why Is Outbound Recruiting Here to Stay? For companies to remain successful in today’s tight and candidate-driven market, recruiters must shift

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from inbound to outbound recruiting to avoid being left behind. Outbound recruiting gives recruiters the opportunity to take control of their recruiting strategy and build a scalable action plan. It is a methodology that needs to be implemented to steer clear of all the recruiting challenges brought by the current economic climate. Outbound recruiting is here to stay and it is a new era for change in the recruitment industry.

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Screening Seasonal Hires: 5 Questions to Help Your Prepare Clare Horvik, Verified Credentials

ost organizations face a “busy season.” That

Here are five questions to help prepare for screen-

often begins with a high-volume hiring period.

ing seasonal employees.

While the time of year may vary by industry, the rush to get staff in the door is more familiar. For HR professionals, that also means ordering and reviewing background checks for those hires. And potentially a lot of them in a short amount of time. Avoid feeling like you are in a crunch. Start planning now by evaluating and aligning background checks with company goals before the hiring wave hits.

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1. How can we find time to screen seasonal employees without a large, dedicated HR team? As business increases, HR professionals face limits on both time and resources to get everything done. That means finding ways to work smarter, not harder. Partnering with a background check provid-

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

er with the technology to streamline the screening process can be the first step.

manage those orders from one easy-to-use location. A cohesive system could save time switching between platforms and can potentially provide efficiency to help stay on track.

For example, Verified Credentials offers a self-service Candidate Verification Center (CVC). The CVC allows candidates to submit background check information themselves. This could save HR teams time on manual data entry from resumes or transferring data from other systems.

There are several options that could potentially help accelerate the screening process. ●● Report scoring and adjudication tools may be able to lower the time to review background check records dramatically.

Background check management hubs like Verified Credentials Employee create a central location for your organization’s screening process. This tool allows hiring managers to order background checks with a single click. They can then monitor and

● Integration with an applicant tracking system. This could help maintain candidate records, including checks, in one place. ●● Use rapid drug tests. This could provide results in a matter of minutes.

The National Retail Federation estimated that hiring during the 2021 holiday season was up nearly 40% from 2020.

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2. As a large company, how can we screen so many candidates in such little time?

and submit a templated list of candidate informa-

A mom-and-pop ice cream stand may only hire

fast.

a dozen or so workers over a summer. However, theme parks, hotel chains, and other large employers often hire hundreds, if not thousands of seasonal workers. Similarly, retail stores of all sizes can feel the pressure before the holiday frenzy. With little time to attract, interview, screen,

tion. Access a user-friendly dashboard for status updates, review records, and even get a consolidated, filterable report to identify important records

Bulk screening projects can cut off an average of about ten minutes per order. The time saved could allow employers to reach target staffing levels in time for the busy season.

hire, and train employees, time is of the essence. HR professionals may need to complete checks quickly without having to add seasonal staff of their own.

3. How will we treat returning employees? Some seasonal employees come back year after year for that perfect job. This can be great for

Bulk screening projects could offer employers a

morale, continuity of operations, and your company

chance to screen large volumes of candidates

culture. However, it also raises an important ques-

quickly and efficiently. HR professionals compile

tion for hiring managers: Do these candidates or

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employees require a different set of checks than completely new hires?

4. Do our background checks match the roles we’re hiring for?

Depending on your company's busy season, it may

Building up to the busy season, HR teams can not

have been several months since screening past staff. That leaves a lot of time for new records to appear. In fact, according to our research, nearly 5% of employee rechecks locate a new record obtained after their initial hire date. Who and how you decide to screen will ultimately depend on your company’s unique goals and policies. But it may be worth considering current business needs, types of background checks conducted in the past, and how priorities might have changed since then. From there, you can craft a screening strategy that aligns with your strategic hiring goals.

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afford to waste time reviewing records that have no relevance to the job. It may be valuable to ask yourself whether the background checks you are ordering actually match the roles. For example, lifeguard positions may require CPR certification. Likewise, summer school educators may need a teaching license. Here, professional license verification may be of greater relevance than a driving record check. For positions that commonly attract young candidates with little to no work experience, an extensive dive into job history may not be as pertinent as a social media screening.

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

experience can potentially help keep tech-savvy candidates more engaged in the process. Improving the candidate experience may not happen overnight. However, taking time to think through the applicant experience can help you identify ways to strengthen your employer brand. Construction employers may find hiring for the 2022 summer season an additional challenge – particularly in trades that may require specialized

Take on High-volume Hiring with Thoughtful Planning

licenses. The National Association of Home Builders

Hiring seasonal employees always brings new risks

estimates that there are 300,000 to 400,000 open

to an organization. However, you can mitigate that

construction positions each month.

risk with a background check program that genuinely aligns with your company’s goals. Take time

Deciding what is relevant to a particular position can be tricky. For example, some companies value

now to evaluate your background screening and identify steps to optimize the process.

running driving record checks for non-driving posi-

Need help screening your seasonal team members?

tions. Other organizations want to cast as wide a

We can help you design and implement background

net as possible. However, if efficiency is the goal, it

checks that align with your most important hiring

may be helpful to evaluate what you are ordering.

goals. Reach out to schedule a consultation.

Asking yourself how important those types of potential records are to a candidate’s future role may be helpful as you craft your screening strategy.

5. Does our applicant experience align with our candidate pool? HR professionals know how difficult it can be to hire these days. Anything you can do to give your company an edge can be valuable. To that end, it may be worth considering how well your candidate experience aligns with the expectations of the people you are trying to attract.

Clare Horvik is Senior Contributor & Vice President of Marketing at Verified Credentials, LLC. With over 15 years in background screening, Clare Horvik fuels the content development engine of Verified Credentials with strategic insights, unique research and analytics, and target-driven campaigns and events. Clare is a published author of Verified Credentials’ blog, experienced speaker at educational events, and knowledgeable content leader – shaping the conversation about background screening and highlighting its business impact.

High school or college students fill many seasonal employment positions. They may prefer to use an online portal to submit information and view status updates. In that same vein, providing a mobile

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WE GUIDE JOB CANDIDATES STEP-BY-STEP LIKE A GPS Verified Credentials' mobile-friendly portal meets candidates on the go. Our background screening process keeps candidates engaged with seamless steps and hassle-free guidance.

Qualify Candidates Faster with a Mobile Candidate Portal verifiedcredentials.com/why-verified 800.473.4934

Mobile-first interface

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Helpful text and email alerts Estimated delivery dates No password required!

Recruiting Industry Insight:

Navigating Hiring Trends to Keep Your Organization Competitive. ANDREW ERNST HEAD OF ENTERPRISE SALES, NORTH AMERICA LHH RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS

Many organizations feel the squeeze of a low unemployment rate and fierce competition for top talent following the pandemic. We’re here to tell you: This is not the time to panic. Sure, there is a frenzy in the recruitment world right now. Top talent is leaving to test the open market in unprecedented numbers. They are being lured away from existing jobs with the promise of salaries that are double or even triple what they’re making, and gaudy signing bonuses are more the rule now than the exception. But by taking a look at subtle shifts and the successes of other organizations, we see a strategic path forward. It would be easy to throw caution to the wind and join in the competition to win talent. After all, this isn’t the first time many industries and organizations have suffered through a shortage of skilled workers. For a company that has struggled to fill all its key roles, the consensus may be that, notwithstanding the huge cost, they cannot afford to be left out of the war for talent. However there are a number of ways to meet new expectations of employees and retain your talent without putting your organization at risk of outspending. Employee expectations have changed. There’s no doubt the pandemic forced a lot of changes in the workplace - including the expectations employees have of their employers. Those companies who don’t evolve to meet these new expectations will be left behind. This is no longer a debate, we see it in the stats. The ‘Great Resignation’ has been followed by a number of iterations - the ‘Great Rehire’, the ‘Great Realization’, the ‘Great Reevaluation’. All point to a trend of employees and companies alike pausing and evaluating the current state of work. If you want high performing, quality employees on your team, there needs to be a reckoning between pre-covid policies and today’s expectations. Even Elon Musk recently found himself in hot water for requiring 40+ hours of in-office presence in an email sent to employees, when there’s a clear demand across the board for flexibility in regards to schedule and location. Organizations should take two lessons from this: employees want remote or hybrid flexibility, and they want more consideration in operational decisions.

ANDREW ERNST HEAD OF ENTERPRISE SALES, NORTH AMERICA LHH RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS

Andrew Ernst leads LHH’s Recruitment Solution’s Enterprise Sales division within North America. He and his team are responsible for providing large companies with their greatest asset, people. Solutions that we offer include flex staffing, permanent placement, interim management and retained search. In his previous role with LHH, he served as the North America Practice Leader where he was the strategic leader for their staffing vertical, using big data to create new revenue streams and maximize revenue opportunities based on current market trends. Prior to rejoining LHH in 2016, Andrew spent 2.5 years with Blue Yonder, a billion dollar supply chain software company, as Sr. Director of Talent Acquisition, leading their talent acquisition efforts directly for North and South America and globally on strategic initiatives. This experience working in house brings a unique perspective of what keeps leadership up at night. Andrew holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Fordham University and resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

So how do you navigate this new job market and stay competitive in your hiring practices? Whatever you do, don't abandon the best practices painstakingly built into your hiring processes. It would be a mistake to hire rashly and overpay without properly vetting candidates, despite the perceived scarcity of talent right now. If you need to match the market rate for a particular kind of skilled worker, you need to make sure they will bring value to your organization. Overpaying for unproven talent is particularly risky in this kind of market. However, if you stick to your hiring process and do all the requisite assessments, you may be able to justify a higher salary and bonus structure. Remember, be agile but don’t be rash in your hiring decisions. Is there something other than money that could be used to attract top talent? Prior to the pandemic and the current hiring frenzy, surveys consistently showed that money on its own was not the most important issue for top talent in choosing an employer. It’s worth remembering that whenever salaries go up and new benchmarks are established, they almost never go back down again. That makes it extremely important for all employers to take a thoughtful approach to talent recruitment that is not only effective at luring skilled workers, but also affordable for the long-term. A reasonable salary is an expectation, but highly skilled workers also want to go to organizations with strong leadership cultures and a psychologically safe working environment. They want to work for employers who share their values and invest in future career development. Prior to the pandemic, we were already seeing a trend toward hybrid work schedules, non-traditional benefits and enhanced PTO. There are many ways to incentivize talent beyond cash remuneration. Tie higher pay to performance. Some of the world’s biggest companies are offering higher overall compensation packages but tying increased salary and bonuses to performance. A deferred pay or bonus system can ensure that an employer is getting top value when paying top dollar. You can offer new hires the opportunity to review pay and performance in three to six months, as opposed to annually. Create a culture where new hires are encouraged to prove their value and earn their way to higher pay and bonuses. Have a plan in place to make new hires successful after they’re on board. In previous hiring frenzies, many organizations made the mistake of taking new and unproven hires and throwing them directly into the

deep end with an expectation they would start producing right away. At the best of times, new hires need onboarding support to fully integrate into their new companies. There needs to be regular check-ins and dialogue to ensure they are getting everything they need to succeed. If you’ve been forced to match market rates and overpay for talent, making a commensurate investment in onboarding and integration will not only get people up to speed quicker, but it will also ensure you don’t lose some of these hires in the first six months. Keep one eye on your existing talent. In 2022, 1Password, a Toronto-based password manager firm, announced it was offering a 7.5-percent cost-of-living adjustment to its existing employees as well as a restructured PTO program. The message from the company was clear: it does not want to lose people to the Great Resignation even as it competes in an overheated talent market to hire new people. It’s a cautionary note that all employers should heed. Forgetting about your current workforce to focus all your time and resources on acquiring new talent is a recipe for disaster. And as is the case with recruiting new talent, taking care of the people you already employ does not necessarily involve huge bumps in salary and bonuses. Offering additional non-compensatory incentives resonate in today’s talent marketplace, particularly with individuals who are looking for a longer-term gig. Evaluate your Hiring Practices One thing is very clear: organizations need to move quickly through the hiring process, while still maintaining the integrity of their search. Make sure you’ve identified the qualities of the talent you’re looking for, but be open candidates who aren’t a complete match on paper. Have a process in place for quickly moving through interviews and offer negotiations. And lastly, partner with a recruitment firm to help find the most qualified candidates for your positions and streamline the process.

What do long-term hiring trends look like? Current trends—many accelerated by pandemic forces beyond our control—have changed the rules of recruiting and hiring, requiring organizations to adapt and embrace new practices to compete and triumph in the future war for talent. Competition for top talent and the best jobs remains fierce. It’s become clear that the dynamic employment market that exists has done nothing to change some of the basic rules of the talent management game. In fact, top talent and good jobs remain in high demand. Top candidates who are on the open talent market will likely have to sort through multiple job offers, putting pressure on employers to quickly identify preferred candidates and get them offers. Employers who hesitate will find they are too late to land the best candidates.

Organizations will need to leverage data-driven recruiting resources. Increasingly, organizations that need to hire—and in some cases hire huge numbers of people—are going to need tools to dig much deeper into the available pool of talent and, relying on hundreds of data points customized for an employer’s needs, quickly and accurately identify the right people for the right jobs. Inbound methods of recruiting typically fail to generate relevant candidates—with 80% to 90% not qualified for the advertised role. If employers are using LinkedIn to source talent, a lot of time is spent combing through profiles and contacting people who may not be interested. Getting to the right candidate can take as long as 45 days, a lack of efficiency that wastes time and money. This is where utilization of a digital talent broker to help organizations make the best hiring decisions faster is imperative.

Looking toward the future of hiring and recruiting. Organizations focused on the future should consider looking beyond present challenges and prepare now for what’s ahead. There are, right now, more efficient and accurate ways of sourcing candidates that allow recruiting teams to continue to fill roles quickly. We recently conducted a Compensation & Workforce Trends Report, polling over 1,400 hiring decision makers nationwide on how they are adjusting their hiring, workforce size, and compensation plans for 2022. A few key trends we found: ● 69% of survey takers say their company will offer bonuses this year, up from 60.9% in 2020. ● 37% of decision makers anticipate salaries will be higher post-pandemic as compared to someone who was hired pre-pandemic for the same position and with the same qualifications.

● More than half of respondents from larger (500+ employees) organizations say their company is making diversity, equity and inclusion a priority (53%). ● More than half of respondents (54%) say they are upskilling current employees within their organization. ● 59% of survey takers say their organization has shortened its interview and offer process to meet the current demand and competition for skilled workers. Although employment numbers may soon return to a pre-pandemic level, we can be sure our way of working will not. However, feedback from our clients, trends we see in the evolution of hiring practices, and our Compensation & Workforce Trends Report all show that employers are making significant adjustments to embrace new ways of attracting, retaining and managing a more resilient, well-rounded workforce.

About LHH At LHH, we exist to help people, teams and organizations find and prepare for what’s next. Our end-to-end HR solutions future-proof organizations and careers all over the world. Through Advisory, Career Transition & Mobility, Insights, Learning & Development and Recruitment Solutions, we enable transformation, and our job is never done because there’s always another tomorrow to prepare for. We make a difference to everyone we work with, and we do it with local expertise, backed by a global infrastructure and industry-leading technology. LHH’s over 8,000 colleagues and coaches span 66 countries worldwide, working with more than 15,000 organizations, a majority of Fortune Global 500, and nearly 500,000 candidates each year. Together we address needs across the entire talent journey, helping organizations build their capabilities and individuals build brighter futures. There is a world of opportunity out there. Let’s get to work. LHH is a part of the Adecco Group, the world’s leading talent advisory and solutions company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Use our findings and our experience to accelerate the transformation of your workforce. Contact us today. lhh.com

7 Ways to Develop Effective Pre-Employment Assessments in Volume Recruitment Ben Porr, Ph.D., Harver

ompanies in the volume hiring space that are beginning to digitalize their recruitment process often use a combination of manual

and digital operations. For example, a company might use digital assessments, but then interpret

assessments (e.g., situational judgment tests, personality questionnaires, language skills tests, and cognitive ability tests). They can be tailor-made to assess the specific work-related characteristics

the results manually.

needed to be successful in a role and company, and

The problem is this introduces human

hiring decisions.

interpretation which can lead to bias or at least inconsistent application to the hiring process. It also makes it challenging to maintain consistent standards on selection criteria. This influences the predictability of the hiring process because organizations are not able to tell how effective their pre-employment assessments are in their relationship to organizational outcomes. It is, therefore, critical for companies in the volume hiring space to develop a standard and objective way of measuring the effectiveness of their candidate screening and selection methods. Enter pre-employment assessments. Preemployment assessments are tools organizations can use to compare critical competencies of candidates and find the best match for a particular role.

There are many different pre-employment

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to support recruitment teams in making objective

Below are seven ways organizations can develop effective pre-employment assessments in volume recruitment.

1. Understanding the Goals The first step in measuring the effectiveness of a pre-employment assessment is to understand the company’s goals, and what they need to fix. Assessments can help improve several areas, including recruitment process efficiency, quality of hire, candidate experience, and fairness. Is a company more concerned with employees hitting targets, or are they trying to build a stronger team and company culture? Are skills more critical, or are motivation and a strong work ethic more valuable?

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Organizations get the most value from

than where their limitations lie. This helps make the

assessments if they understand the challenges

most of a candidate pool which is crucial in volume

they are currently facing and what they want to

hiring in today’s tight labor market.

improve.

2. Determining What to Measure within Pre-hire Assessments

4. Setting a Golden Standard for Hires To hire the best candidates, organizations need to define what a quality candidate looks like. Chances

The next step is to decide whether a pre-hire

are that a quality candidate is someone who

assessment is right for what they want to measure.

continues to become a top-performing employee.

Not everything a company wants to track is suitably measured with a pre-employment assessment.

To pinpoint the next top performer, identify the common skills and behaviors of current employees,

For example, if an organization is hiring for an

who shine the brightest.

entry-level retail role and they want to determine if this person had strong communications skills,

Although this will vary depending on the recruited

they may want to use a personality questionnaire

position, there will inevitably be crossover skills and

to determine if the person is extroverted and

competencies that are important to look for in new

agreeable, but then use the interview to confirm the

entry-level, hourly employees.

specific aspects of communication skills they are looking for in the role.

Harver allows organizations to develop a custom assessment based on those skills and behaviors

3. Using Assessments to Match Candidates. Assessments should be seen as a way to match, rather than filter, candidates. If an organization uses the right combination of screening methods and pre-employment assessments, it should end up with candidates who are a good match for open roles and company culture. Harver uses matching technology to assess candidate skills and identify which roles they would best fit, based on their unique skills and characteristics. This makes it simple for organizations to know what skills to select if they want to fill certain positions and improve their retention rates. The technology enables companies to assess a wide range of skills and determine where a candidate would be best placed, rather 62

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rather than use an out-of-the-box assessment. The best part is that the recruitment team sees a score, not a cover letter or CV, so they can make a fair, objective hiring decision.

5. Analyzing the Right Assessments Using Metrics The effectiveness of pre-employment assessments is based on the specific assessments someone will choose. Once the skills and behaviors have been determined, a company can select assessments to test them. Organizations will know the chosen assessments are the right ones when their recruitment metrics, from operational metrics to candidate satisfaction scores, are improving across locations and vacancies.

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Harver’s clients have access to a series of

are effective. Along with these, quarterly business

dashboards to help them keep track of important

reviews look at what can be optimized, to help

metrics and ensure their chosen assessments

organizations adjust their strategy when needed.

6. Relying on Assessments to Produce Consistent Results

is no one way to be a top performer because

For chosen pre-employment assessments to truly help achieve goals, they need to be relied on to produce the same output consistently. Do assessments act as intelligent predictors to help reliably hire candidates, who go on to become top performers in an organization? Once an organization is clear on the KPIs of top performers, they will be able to identify the skills their candidates should possess and demonstrate through the hiring process. The ultimate goal is to have assessments yield the same output, which means an organization is standardizing the hiring

performance is multi-faceted. Therefore, organizations can index the perfect employee, however, know that most individuals will have gaps in different areas, but all are still able to be top performers.

7. Catering to Candidate Experience Most standard assessments do not cater to candidate experience, making them ineffective. Do they provide recruiters with some answers? Yes. Do they provide candidates with insight? No. This is one of the key contributing factors to high application abandonment because the candidate

process.

is not engaged in the process, ultimately driving

In high-volume hiring, in particular, organizations

expectations.

high attrition because there’s a mismatch in

can still hire a diverse applicant pool. There 63

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Job simulations create an interactive experience

By providing a realistic job preview, organizations

and give candidates a richer understanding of

set expectations of what the roles and

what the role will be like day-to-day. It is equally

responsibilities are so the candidate can make

important to allow candidates to opt out of

an informed decision and is more to stay longer

the hiring process if they decide the position is

because they are not missed expectations when

unsuitable.

starting the job.

Effective pre-employment assessments are achieved by setting clear goals, identifying what a top-performing candidate looks like for each of an organization’s roles, and using a volume recruitment software that helps create tailored assessments and deliver a digital experience that both the TA team and candidates love.

Ben Porr, Ph.D., is Global Vice President, People Science, at Harver. Dr. Ben is an Industrial-Organizational practitioner with expertise across the full employee lifecycle. His technical expertise includes talent assessment, organizational development and people analytics to support workforce planning, selection, training, and succession management. He volunteers on multiple committees and presents his work at local and national conferences.

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Train More, Train Smart and Lose Less! The cost of training vs. the cost of staff turnover Jigsaw

here have been significant and accelerated

with 48% saying that candidates lack the skills

overhauls of what we have considered

needed to fill open jobs.”

the norm in business, many of which were

prompted because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Regardless of virtual or in-office employees,

We have seen the change from mostly in-person

training is an investment in the individuals on your

work to most of our employees working remotely.

team. Training is the most valuable thing to an

We are seeing a record number of Americans

employee even more valuable than a pay raise.

quitting their jobs for new opportunities. Some

According to LinkedIn’s 2019 Workforce Learning

of this comes from a lack of training and growth

Report, the percentage of employees that say they

opportunities, the employer wanting them back in

would stay with a company if they invested in their

the office and the lack of a flexible work schedule.

employees’ learning was 94 percent, with younger

Training is incredibly important for the company and the employee. Employees want the opportunity to advance and grow. To grow with their current

employees expressing the most interest. This trend has been consistent in the American workforce for several years.

company means they need to be involved in professional development programs designed around promotion opportunities. Unfortunately, many employees must seek this growth outside of their current company. At a time when there is a severe skills gap for American workers, employee retention is critical. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CEO and President, Suzanne Clark, “The demand for skilled workers is greater than ever, but availability is in short supply. Our study finds that 74% of hiring managers agree that there is a skills gap in the current labor market,

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

The pandemic has led many workers to reevaluate

One of the most cited reasons is a lack of growth

the work they are doing and consider other

opportunities from a career and professional

employment opportunities. Some of the main

development standpoint. NerdWallet states, “If an

reasons are the ability to work virtually, the

employee has been doing the same job for years

opportunity for growth, a more flexible work

without any opportunity for growth and change,

environment and professional development/

they’re going to seek that growth and change at

training.

another organization.”

It’s being classified as the Great Resignation, with over 4 million people leaving their jobs in January of 2022, a staggering 44% of employees are “job seekers”, the majority in search of better pay or better working conditions. According to ShifteLearning “70% of employees report that they don’t have mastery of the skills needed to do their jobs.” This trend is supported by a 2018 Gartner report, which identifies that 40% of departing employees cite a lack of future development as a

Investing in employee training and professional development is vital to retaining valuable employees. It is far more cost-effective to cultivate your current employee base, and strengthen their knowledge and commitment through new opportunities within the company than it is to lose them and face hiring someone who does not have the same level of knowledge, experience and loyalty.

factor in their decision.

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Companies who choose to not invest in training

because there was no way to measure outcomes,

and professional development will lose the

the switch to virtual training makes sense for most

opportunity to develop some great employees, who

companies.

have a solid history with the company, experience in their position, and who have an immense amount

The Cost of Staff Turnover

of knowledge. By losing this critical workforce,

There are numerous costs to consider when looking

they will face replacing them with someone who will need even more training, will not have the same corporate commitment and may even leave within a few weeks of joining the company. As reported by CNBC, “…according to LinkedIn’s 2019 Workforce Learning Report, 94 percent of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it simply invested in helping them learn.” Meanwhile, employers have been complaining about a skill gap in the workforce. In 2016, according to Adecco, 44% of 500 United States senior executives said that the American workforce lacks soft skills, such as communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. Another key takeaway from this survey is that: “89% of respondents think that corporate apprenticeship or training programs could help alleviate the skills gap.”

at staff turnover. First is the cost of replacing a team member. These costs include recruiting fees, advertising, interviewing, screening, and onboarding. Then add the soft costs of the hiring team’s time, reference checking plus the company resources’ time to onboard. Onboarding means new employee training, time spent with the management team and other employees to learn about the company, policies, and procedures plus the skills training for the position itself. It takes time for an employee to get up to speed and become proficient enough to replace a previous employee. This task is especially challenging when you lose an employee, who has been a strong team member. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), “the average replacement cost of a salaried employee is six to nine months’ salary. For an employee earning

Among some of the things the pandemic has done is the solidification that companies need to look at virtual training to become the norm. Between the high costs of bringing everyone together, the difficulty of scheduling, downtime for the participants as they travel to training, and the

$60,000 per year, that totals approximately $30,000 to $45,000.” That cost is in addition to the new employee’s compensation package, the cost of recruiting and the cost of training.

fact that these programs rarely meet their goals

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Hiring a new employee does not come without

When evaluating the cost of training, adding

risks. How long will they stay, how productive and

things like the cost of the human resources (HR)

engaged will they be, how quickly can they get up to

or learning and development (L&D) teams as they

speed and what level of company loyalty will they

plan the training programs along the time needed

have?

from others to assist in training. So, time is another cost to consider, plus the loss of productivity by

BambooHR reported that, according to over 1,000

those who are assisting. This cost is defined by the

employees surveyed, “31% of people left a job

decrease in revenue.

within the first six months, with 68% of those departing within the first three months. For many

According to the 2021 Workplace Learning Trends

new employees, it seems the first three months at

Report from Udemy, the main obstacle cited by

an organization are the most precarious.” The first

respondents was a lack of time (61%).

three months are where employees learn what it is like to work for the company. They experience the

The trend in the corporate training world is that

culture and see the efforts spent on training and

the majority, if not all, training will be virtual for the

customer care. For companies that do not have

foreseeable future. It makes more sense from

good onboarding and ongoing training programs,

a timing and cost perspective. Virtual training, if

these new hires will most likely leave quickly. Then

using the right virtual training technology, increases

the process and costs start again.

participation, offers small group project activities, offers in-class assessments for evaluating learning

Another cost of staff turnover is the loss of

real-time, and provides measurable outcomes. The

knowledge, productivity, and engagement.

cost of the technology is a fraction of the cost of

Along with these additional costs is the loss of

bringing the team together in a live environment.

relationships between the departing employee and customers. Building client relationships takes time

With virtual corporate training, there is an

and losing a critical employee can result in losing

opportunity for companies to increase and improve

customers.

their training programs by offering more frequent

The Cost of Training In 2018, across all industries, organizations with 100-999 employees spent about $1,096 per employee, organizations with 1,000-9,999 employees spent about $941 per employee, and

training opportunities to their employees. Looking at the cost of $45,000+ to replace an employee and the “average cost to train - $1,046, there’s no question that increasing your investment in professional development and training programs would have exponential value to the company.

companies with 10,000 employees or more spent $1,046 per employee on training.

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH

Even if you increased your training cost to $5,000

Using the right technology is critical. Web

per employee, based on the cost of losing that

conferencing systems are not built for training and

employee, it is significantly less than losing

learning. Using a virtual solution that’s designed

valuable team members.

specifically for learning makes a difference in the level of engagement and outcomes of training.

Using a virtual training solution, you can train more in a very cost-effective manner so while training

Train more, train smart and lose less!

budgets need to be increased, you eliminate the travel and out-of-office expenses. The cost of virtual is significantly less, so your training budget can be used for training, not travel.

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Special Research Supplement

The State of Hourly and High-volume Hiring 2022 Talent Acquisition Excellence • June 2022

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The HR Research Institute tracks human resources trends and best practices. Learn more at hr.com/featuredresearch

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How To Beat The Competition At High Volume Hiring 3 ways to leverage technology and overcome today’s talent crunch By Dave Kenney, Efficient Hire

n today’s candidate-driven environment, employers seeking hourly employees are facing a new set of challenges. From manufacturing and construction to retail and food services, HR leaders in high-turnover industries are familiar with the need to enable faster and more efficient hiring and onboarding processes. Paired with pressure to keep hiring costs low – especially for historically thin-margin industries – while coordinating the entire process across disparate locations, talent acquisition today has become more difficult than ever. To stay competitive, HR departments seeking hourly workers could adopt technology-first solutions to help streamline the new hire process from initial job posting to onboarding workflow, while helping stay on top of the latest trends and demands of the job seekers currently in the driver’s seat.

Evaluate Strategies for Helping Drive Applicant Flow A labor market skewed in favor of job seekers has impacted everything from job board algorithms to applicant flow dynamics and employer expectations for applicant volume. Gone are the days in which a

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free online job posting or a “now hiring” sign results in success, and HR departments must adapt their strategies for driving applicant flow accordingly. This starts with shifting mentality to view job seekers as customers rather than future employees; then, figuring out how to generate customer demand. HR professionals should keep this approach top-of-mind when developing job postings, emphasizing key benefits of the position and working for the employer; ensuring job postings are clear and concise; and evaluating whether compensation, benefits, perks and bonuses are competitive for the position and geography. In today’s digital world, job seekers are overloaded with different options for consuming job postings, from job board ads to company-owned social websites and career pages. For already-overwhelmed HR departments trying to hire, determining which medium to use and when can be tedious, time-consuming and sometimes costly. And there are even more factors to consider, including the dynamics of job board advertising, whether a position requires advertising to ensure maximum visibility, how to stand out among similar job postings on free job boards and more – the list goes on.

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How To Beat The Competition At High Volume Hiring

Adopt Technology Solutions to Help Improve Outcomes Rather than rolling the dice with the job posting approach, hiring managers can benefit from adopting a recruiting platform that helps drive a greater reach for the employer by publicizing job positions to as many job seekers as possible. Working with a third party that enables job marketing to most candidate sources – and programmatically advertises jobs to help optimize spend – can help hourly employers get the most out of their recruiting strategy. Of course, delivering a compelling employment offer that attracts job seekers in a low-supply, high-competition labor market is only the beginning. Because job seekers today have so many choices, HR departments need to provide a simpler, more streamlined application process that helps match the

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digital experiences consumers increasingly demand. Otherwise, the candidate may abandon a complicated application and apply elsewhere. Leveraging an applicant tracking system can help enable hourly employers to engage quickly with applicants, so they can hire new candidates as early as the same day they first engaged. Further, a mobile-first solution – built for the way hourly job seekers apply – can not only help improve completion rates but also better support hiring managers, making it easier for them to automatically schedule interviews and more, right from their mobile device. And when hiring managers are not HR experts, applicant tracking systems can help HR teams make impactful changes to recruiting processes with automation and analytics, so managers can spend more time focused on running day-to-day operations.

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How To Beat The Competition At High Volume Hiring

Streamline Onboarding Workflow for a Better New Hire Experience After a new hire has accepted an offer, the onboarding workflow begins, creating a new set of tasks for the hiring employer. A smooth onboarding process helps set the tone for a more positive employee experience, while also helping to reduce the time it takes to put a new employee to work. On the other hand, a complicated, paper-driven onboarding process not only adds stress for location managers, but also for HR, as small mistakes in completing paperwork can result in inconsistencies, delays and failure to adhere to regulatory requirements. Because not every location manager is an expert in HR, by leveraging onboarding solutions that are simpler and more comprehensible – built specifically with the hiring manager in mind – hourly employers can rest better assured that onboarding is consistent across locations. Onboarding technology that enables a mobile-first experience helps deliver a smoother, simpler onboarding process for employees, while technology that helps safeguard against missing data – and helps ensure important forms can not be skipped – helps take the stress off hiring managers. And because costs in the form of penalties for failure to meet regulatory requirements can mount – especially for those employers hiring in multiple states that

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must adhere to varying state legislation – investing in onboarding solutions that help maintain requirements can help protect an organization’s bottom line too. Added to that, solutions that track work opportunity tax credits (WOTC), employee retention credits (ERC) and more can help HR departments identify revenue opportunities for their organization that may have otherwise been overlooked. Now more than ever, speed is of the essence to help get an hourly worker hired, onboarded and on the job, and this entire process needs to be as frictionless and comprehensible as possible for candidates and managers alike. With so many locations and people to manage, hourly employers have more room for error, but by adopting technology to help address those pain points – and help realize potential candidates more quickly – they can better stay ahead of the curve in today’s competitive job market.

Dave Kenney is GM and CEO at Efficient Hire, an Equifax company.

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know what you’re probably thinking. Executives, as far as workers go, are inherently the savviest, most sophisticated and seasoned employees in any organization; given their acumen and experience, not to mention their scope of work and functional responsibilities, it seems specious - if not a waste of time and bandwidth - to provide them with the same sort of onboarding experience as other hires, right? That is the conventional thinking anyways, the thing is, the prevailing wisdom is, in fact, dead wrong. Here’s the thing: onboarding provides future workers with an essential, and foundational, experience that sets the tone for their tenure, establishes employer expectations and equips them with the insights, information and tools they need to become successful, engaged and productive contributors to your organization’s business and bottom line results. And the thing is, while it is job level agnostic, given these outcomes, onboarding might actually be even more important for executives and senior leaders than most other employees. Yet at far too many

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companies, executive onboarding is overlooked, if not completely ignored. A recent study from executive consulting firm Bluesteps found that in the U.S., executives were 35% less likely to undergo a formal onboarding program than other workers. This is a missed opportunity. While a lot goes into an executive’s performance and staying power in an organization, effective onboarding not only significantly enhances their chances to succeed in their new roles, becoming more productive performers and more engaged employees, but it also can be a critical factor in driving senior level retention and job satisfaction, too. Any way you look at it, executive onboarding programs are a win-win for both new hires and the organizations they will be helping to lead. Here are some of the key ways your company can get the most out of executive onboarding, and what every people leader needs to know about maximizing the new hire experience for their new executive hires.

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Onboarding Excellence For Executives: 5 Ways To Empower Your Power Players

Mission Control Just as ground control guides interstellar expeditions, your onboarding program lays out the trajectory and the tools for new executives to stay on course. Onboarding is when new executives can learn about and align with your company’s mission, vision, and values, and dive into key business goals and metrics— not to mention, learning about their individual responsibilities and goals. While each organization is different, you will want to make sure to cover some basics—for example, you will want to introduce new leaders to key operations, the ins and outs of your company culture, and important details regarding how their equity compensation ties to any performance metrics. Onboarding works best when it is personalized to each role—but no matter what, your new executives will benefit if you include these core components: ●● Pre-boarding: Engage as many of your company’s current roster of leaders as you can to meet with the new executive. Hearing multiple perspectives from across business functions can give new leaders a deeper sense of your company’s culture, how teams collaborate, and critical areas of focus. It can also help set clear expectations on immediate goals once they join the team, as well as give them a leg-up on relationship building and aligning with stakeholders. They will need that connectivity to be effective. ●● 6-9 months roadmap: In the first week, fill a new executive’s calendar with purposeful one-on-ones and introductions so they can learn the lay of the land. Hand them a clear plan for their first three, six, or nine months (then coordinate with their department assistant to add education and regular check-ins to their schedule. Include systems training, transition tasks, and both digital and in-person learning. Consider leveraging technology like web-based or online collaboration tools to provide an innovative scorecard experience of required activities, including reminders for key actions. ●● Equity education: Our recent Equity Plan Management Report found that 80% of equity

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leaders believe equity compensation programs will grow in importance over the next five years.2. No matter an executive’s experience level, equity comp is a complex but central part of their employee experience. Help them out by codifying an education and communications program with targeted, personalized education modules, notifications of key dates, and clearly delineated resources for any additional questions they may have or specialized support they may need. Check in with your stock plan administrator regularly, and work with a financial advisor who really understands the ins and outs of equity compensation. The executive needs to understand how business metrics connect to their award payouts, as well as the when and why. You can go the extra mile by booking 1:1s for your new executives with benefits administrators, plan advisors, or HR as they approach key equity milestones. ●● Highlight additional support and advice: Executives are short on time, so offering them access to tax professionals, legal advisors, and financial advisors through your workplace benefits can make for a more seamless employee experience. For example, a financial coach or tax and legal advisor experienced in deferred compensation can help them navigate the potential tradeoffs as they make decisions around their tax deferrals and retirement. A good financial wellness program or advisors offered through your equity plan administrator can also add value and reduce any personal stress around finances, freeing up their energy for work. Clarify the connection between goals, metrics, and KPIs + compensation: If you set out to run a race but don’t know the route or the location of the finish line, how can you win? Similarly, if your new executives walk away from onboarding without knowing how their performance is measured and what to deliver, they will be running blind. Infuse your communications and benefits protocols with concrete data that link equity awards and dates to real-world company metrics and timetables to make sure your company and your new executives are on the same page.

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Onboarding Excellence For Executives: 5 Ways To Empower Your Power Players

Making it Happen There is a lot to cover as you bring new executives up to speed, so you may want to develop an “Onboarding Playbook” or a purpose-built internal site that walks new hires through their personal onboarding timeline and to-dos. Follow it up with a diagnostic plan or leadership stakeholder team and working group to keep tabs on the process, and partner with your stock plan provider along the way to make the most of any additional support or education they can offer for your new executives. The great news is that Gallup found that when employees strongly agree their “onboarding process was exceptional,” they are almost twice as likely to feel fully prepared to excel in their new role and 2.3 times more likely to say their job is as good or better than they expected it to be.3 So, onboarding isn’t just a blip on the calendar. Rather, think of transitioning a new executive onto your team as the first step in a long race—one in which their ultimate success and satisfaction will depend on your ongoing support, guidance, and help. Source: 1. Survey: New Executives Receive Little or No Onboarding HR Executive 2. Morgan Stanley at Work, Equity Plan Management: 2022 Report | Morgan Stanley at Work 3. Gallup, Essential Ingredients for an Effective Onboarding Program (gallup.com), 2019 Disclosure This article has been prepared for informational purposes only. The information and data in the article has been obtained from sources outside of Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley makes no representations or guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or data from sources outside of Morgan Stanley. It does not provide individually tailored investment advice and has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. The strategies and/or investments discussed in this article may not be appropriate for all investors. Morgan Stanley recommends that investors independently evaluate particular investments and strategies, and encourages investors to seek the advice of a Financial Advisor. The appropriateness of a particular investment or strategy will depend on an investor’s individual circumstances and objectives.

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By providing links to third-party websites or online publication(s)/ article(s), Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) is not implying an affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, approval, investigation, or verification with the third parties, or that any monitoring is being done by Morgan Stanley of any information contained within the articles or web sites. Morgan Stanley is not responsible for the information contained on the third-party websites or your use of or inability to use such sites. Nor do we guarantee their accuracy and completeness. The terms, conditions, and privacy policy of any third-party website may be different from those applicable to your use of any Morgan Stanley website. The information and data provided by the third-party websites or publications are as of the date when they were written and subject to change without notice. Morgan Stanley at Work, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, and its affiliates and employees do not provide legal or tax advice. You should always consult with and rely on your own legal and/or tax advisors. Morgan Stanley at Work services are provided by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, member SIPC, and its affiliates, all wholly-owned subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley.

Craig Rubino is Head of Global Learning and Development at Morgan Stanley at Work.

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Predictive Talent Models: What They Are And Why They’re Beneficial What right hire looks like By Anna Wang, Searchlight

inding talent that will stay, thrive, and help an organization meet its business objectives is a key priority for people leaders. That is why it is important to recognize the best talent quickly before the competition does. However, as we all know, it is a candidate’s market. In fact, recent research shows that 33% of employees leave within their first 90 days and 46% fail within 18 months. The question becomes, “How can heads of talent, heads of people and CEOs better understand what the right hire looks like? And how can organizations ensure that new talent contributes in meaningful ways if they do not have complete data on their company’s values, culture, and work environment?” As the human capital management (HCM) space has evolved over the last decade,

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organizations are more heavily relying on new data analytics technologies to answer these questions. One way of doing this is using predictive talent models to analyze an organization’s highly successful employees to tease out the attributes that make them most likely to stay and perform. The goal of these models is to produce a holistic picture of the most successful employees that includes their strengths, competencies, working styles and workplace behaviors, as well as traditional metrics like their experience, education, and background. This picture can then be used to attract, select and retain more candidates that are likely to excel, thus informing the company’s hiring and recruiting strategy. However, it is worth noting that every model will be unique

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since every organization is different. Universal traits for highly successful employees do not often exist – it is all about the bidirectional fit between the employee and the organization. And behavioral traits are what most commonly sets highly successful employees apart from others. For example, at one organization top-performers might be more intuitive and learn new things more quickly than average. Working styles are also important - high performers at another organization might value working quickly over perfectionism. These models can also help to identify common weaknesses or areas for growth among successful employees. Every employee has weaknesses, but a good predictive talent model can help HR understand which weaknesses can be managed and which ones may cause problems.

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Predictive Talent Models: What They Are And Why They’re Beneficial

What are some other benefits of predictive analytics? First, it can help create a virtuous cycle where knowing the profile of a successful employee equips the recruiting and hiring teams to attract more successful employees and build a culture of excellence. Second, it can reduce prestige and unconscious bias to help identify desired candidates more accurately and effectively (based on competencies and skill, rather than credentials). Third, it gets talent management, business leaders and hiring managers on the same page about the types of candidates they want to attract and retain. Fourth, it helps define that elusive metric of ‘quality of hire’, which can drive stronger business performance. And finally, it speeds the hiring process and allows organizations to set up

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new hires for success and talent growth. Behavior data plays a crucial role in creating predictive talent models – a model is only as good as the data that goes into it. Because a staggering 89% of mishires are due to a soft skills mismatch, the success metrics used in a predictive talent model must include more than just technical skills. Behavioral data describes the observed actions of candidates or employees and indicates how they will perform on the job (or how they act while they are at work). This might include the following. ●● Competencies. Can they do the job? Competencies are the skills, knowledge, and experience one needs to do the job well. This

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might include mastery of Python for a programmer or a CISSP cert for security. ●● Strengths and Gaps. These attributes together describe how someone works. Taking initiative, flexibility, creativity, and teaching others are examples of something that could be a strength or a gap. Employers need to know how they can best use a candidate’s strengths and how to manage their gaps. ●● Cultural Alignment. How will the candidate mesh with the core values, beliefs, and practices at a company? For example, preferences for collaboration versus individuality.

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Predictive Talent Models: What They Are And Why They’re Beneficial

●● Career Interest. What are the candidate’s ambitions, short and long-term goals, and motivations? For example, does the candidate want to be promoted in the next 2-3 years, or are they content with their role and more motivated by tackling new and interesting problems? Misalignment between what a candidate wants from a role and what it actually involves is a major factor in mishires. When building these models, it is tempting to focus on hard metrics of employee productivity, but in the long term, the behavioral aspects of candidates are a better indicator of their success. Ready to start building your model? If yes, here are some tips.

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Consider starting with a pilot program so that the team can become familiar with the process before rolling it out to other positions. It is also important to develop a method to measure competencies, strengths, and behaviors as well as background experience and education when assessing current employees. Figure out concrete ways that the knowledge gained from this analysis can be incorporated into the hiring process going forward. Finally, share the model with hiring and recruiting leads to get buy-in and then build interview scorecards to assess for the predictive attributes. Events of the past few years have transformed and accelerated the hiring space. Companies of all types and sizes are working to better understand and implement predictive talent models into

JUNE 2022

their HR and hiring processes. The good news is there are several tools and predictive talent platforms out there that help streamline and automate that process.

Anna Wang is Co-Founder and CTO at Searchlight.

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Talent Acquisition Epublication Best-in-class education for all your learning and training needs HR.com prepares HR leaders to be strategic business leaders by curating and delivering best-in-class products and services so you don’t have to waste time seeking out content on your own. We leverage technology and experience to provide you with customized solutions to best meet your professional development needs at every stage of your career. From on-demand to cohort-based offerings, below is a listing of virtual courses that will challenge and empower you by giving you the tools to drive innovation and success in your organization.

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At HR.com, we are committed to educating and inspiring HR professionals and helping them build meaningful and impactful careers. With products and resources rooted in education, research, and leveraging cutting-edge technology, we help at every career stage - and over 1.92 million HR pros agree! (How could that many people be wrong?) By delivering best-in-class learning products, 250+ annual webcasts and 30+ world-class events, and innovative and thought-provoking research through the HR Research Institute, HR.com strives to inspire and strengthen workforces to change the world. HR.com also offers the most comprehensive HR certification exam preparation and guarantees a passing score on all SHRM and HRCI certification exams. Technology and experience drive our customized solutions that will help you become the best and most successful version of yourself.

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Recruitment Strategy Shift: Time To Consider Association Job Boards And Career Centers Dive into an untapped resource for your application pool By Scott Conley, Naylor Association Solutions However, in today’s extremely competitive job market, companies must diversify their strategy for recruiting top talent and need to step away from the “post and pray” approach. Instead, taking a step back to consider a more intentional approach to recruitment is essential, and companies would do well to place their industry’s professional or trade association career centers at the core of your updated strategy.

Why Should You Include Association Job Boards in Your Strategy?

ike real estate, deciding where to spend your recruitment dollars is all about location, and not all locations are created equal. As an HR professional, chances are you have identified your company’s mix for where you post jobs, including LinkedIn, Indeed or ZipRecruiter, and your goal is to get your posting in front of as many potential recruits as possible.

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Often, association job boards and career centers are an untapped resource for organizations seeking qualified candidates to meet their growing needs. In an unprecedented employment market, there is no doubt that your current job postings are getting viewed and you are receiving applicants. However, are they the right applicants? If not, consider using associations to aid in your search. Association job boards offer some of the most qualified talent in a specific industry and offer unique benefits that other platforms and partners cannot deliver.

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Recruitment Strategy Shift: Time To Consider Association Job Boards And Career Centers

As the leaders in their industry, who often take advantage of an association’s continuing education, credentialing and networking benefits, candidates seeking employment through their association’s career center naturally elevate themselves over job seekers in the broader market. Additionally, associations offer more to employers than traditional online recruitment platforms since it benefits them when their members find gainful employment through an association-offered resource.

What Additional Benefits Do Associations Offer? 1. Virtual career fairs Many associations offer virtual career fairs as a benefit to employers and job seekers to attend. Virtual career fairs are doorways for employers to connect with qualified candidates, allowing for saved time and resources for both the employer and job seeker. Association virtual career fairs not only increase your opportunity to meet a targeted set of candidates quickly, but they also provide opportunities to build brand loyalty with job seekers. Aligning your brand with an association lends credibility to your company and allows you access to the association’s trusted relationship with its members.

or association. For example, this is why you see ads for items you were reviewing on Target’s website when you visit Instagram a few hours later. For associations, ad retargeting arms employers with the opportunity to get their jobs in front of an elite market of industry professionals, who are the ideal fit for their job postings. For example, employers can work with associations to serve targeted ads to visitors of a specific webpage or job posting that includes a reminder to return to the site and apply. An association’s career center and job board is often the second most-visited page after their homepage, therefore these campaigns are often highly successful for employers. Similarly, associations can help employers run ad retargeting campaigns that target specific member groups by using data that lives within their association management software. For example, an employer can work with an association to identify the attributes of their “perfect” candidate, including education and work experience, and build a retargeting campaign that targets individuals, who meet those specific requirements.

3. Geo-fencing

According to Brazen’s recruiter survey, 96% of talent acquisition professionals surveyed said they would continue using virtual recruitment as part of their overall strategy. Given their industry credibility, associations have a leg up in hosting virtual career fairs that will only increase with time as traditional recruitment continues to grow online.

Geo-fencing is location-based programming that sets virtual boundaries to a live venue using an attendee’s geographical location by tracking a mobile device or RFID tag. The targeted industry audience an association offers allows for tremendous value to employers when geo-fencing is leveraged at a live event.

Rather than seeking a virtual career fair hosted by a larger corporation, finding a niche market by aligning your company with your industry’s top associations, you are opening the doors to a targeted pool of talent and exposure.

With live events on the rise, geo-fencing an event allows an association to promote core offerings and benefits, such as their career center or credential program, to attendees while they are on-site. For employers, geo-fencing an event serves as an opportunity to get specific job postings in front of a highly engaged, industry-specific audience. With association events ranging from hundred to hundreds of thousands of attendees, partnering with an association to recruit via geo-fencing offers an incredible amount of concentrated, short-term exposure for any company.

2. Ad retargeting Unlike traditional advertising, ad retargeting is a form of targeted digital advertising that is served to people, who have previously visited a specific page on your website or are a known contact of a specific company

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Recruitment Strategy Shift: Time To Consider Association Job Boards And Career Centers

National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) or the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN). Through their job boards and other association career resources, recruiters can directly connect with top talent and ensure that initiatives related to DEI are being successfully achieved.

In Conclusion

4. RSS feeds At every association’s core is the need to effectively communicate value to its members. One avenue to engage members is via digital communications, including a members-only newsletter. Ranging from daily to monthly depending on an association’s need and its members’ preferences, association newsletters can include an RSS feed that will easily highlight the most recent, relevant jobs for readers. Employers can work with associations to secure a listing in their association’s RSS newsletter feed or request sponsored postings within the newsletter for additional exposure. Similarly, associations often include an RSS feed on their career center homepage, helping job seekers to identify roles that might be the best fit for them once they visit the site. Sponsored options are often available for employers to promote their most important roles to this targeted audience.

5. Diversity, equity, and inclusion Initiatives (DEI) Associations can also assist companies in connecting with diverse audiences. Many associations directly serve the interest of underserved or underrepresented populations in specific fields, such as the

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As industry leaders, associations bring a unique value proposition to employers, who are actively hiring and job seekers who are looking for their next opportunity. Associations tirelessly work to ensure that they have the best resources for their members as they advance in their careers. Engaging with HR departments to ensure their members are getting the exposure they need to be successful in the job market benefits both the employer seeking highly qualified candidates and the associations supporting their members’ career success. Furthermore, in a world where remote work offerings are a must and job applicants seek benefits like competitive paid time off, sick and parental leave, 401k match, supportive leadership, and streamlined onboarding and training practices, finding the right candidate by using all your available industry resources is vital. Partnering with your leading industry association will put your company on the path that delivers a continuous stream of top-notch talent in an extremely competitive job marketplace.

Scott Conley is Vice President, Recruitment & Staffing Solutions, at Naylor Association Solutions.

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n 2 2 o i 0 at r 2

a c d i bl alen

u C P l e oria

ed m e g th llence n i com Exce p u nd isition a new Acqu e h t t alent u o ck s in T e h C pic o t HR

t i d E

Candidate Engagement

Jan 2022

Recruitment Process Automation

Feb 2022

Recruitment Marketing

Mar 2022

Inclusion, Equity and Belonging

Apr 2022

Talent Acquisition Technology

May 2022

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Jun 2022

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