This, of course, requires deliberate planning and self-awareness. You and your teams can’t grow and flourish unless they know their shortcomings well enough such that they can grow out of these shortcomings with smart development and growth.

That’s where a personal development plan can come in incredibly useful. Often referred to as a PDP for short, it’s a roadmap for professionals to not only set goals, but identify the right targets and provide the means to achieve them.

Here’s everything you want to know about a PDP, and we even have a template ready for your use to ensure the holistic development of any professional – not just yourself.

Related: Employee development and the Peter Principle

What is a PDP?

A Personal Development Plan (PDP) is a vital tool that encourages self-awareness, continuous growth, and progression in a professional setting. Not only does it pave the way for skill enhancement, but it also aids in setting clear career objectives.

By having a visual guide and regular check-ins, professionals stay on track, motivated, and accountable.

How is this specific PDP template designed?

This particular template caters to both the professional and the personal side of an employee. It combines both past and present evaluations for a holistic development experience and, more importantly, has a detailed action plan.

That action plan breaks goals down into measurable objectives and then into actionable steps – making an overall development plan more achievable. This ensures clarity, focus, and a tangible sense of accomplishment.

Who should use this PDP?

HR professionals, employers, team leaders, and managers can introduce this PDP template to their teams, irrespective of the scale of the organization.

Honestly, anyone can use this template. It’s ideal for any professional looking to organize, monitor, and accelerate their career trajectory so they can succeed in the areas that they want to grow in.

When should a PDP be used?

Consider the PDP, especially this version, to be dynamic and perpetually evolving. It should be used continuously throughout a professional’s journey, and adapted according to that professional’s progress towards their objectives and goals.

Regular reviews are a must – for example, establish quarterly updates and check-ins to ensure that goals stay relevant and timely, and that accomplishments are celebrated as deserved.

Where can the PDP be implemented?

This PDP can be incorporated into an employee’s annual reviews, onboarding processes, or even as a self-initiated tool by employees looking to optimize their growth and development.

What’s the difference between a PDP and a PIP?

This is important: don’t confuse the PDP with the much-feared PIP. The PDP is a proactive, forward-looking document that outlines an individual’s goals, skills they want to acquire, and steps they plan to take for personal and professional development.

In contrast, a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is a reactive tool used by employers to address specific areas where an employee is underperforming, detailing the corrective actions required to meet the expected standards within a set timeframe.

In short: PDPs focus on growth and potential, while PIPs address existing performance deficiencies.

How do I make the most of this PDP?

1. Take time to reflect: The past and present sections encourage a balanced reflection, allowing individuals to understand their roots and celebrate their growth.

2. Set clear goals: Setting 3-5 goals ensures focus without being overwhelmed. By aligning them with professional aspirations and development areas, the goals are both ambitious and relevant. The SMART goals framework can be followed here.

3. Tackle step by step: By breaking down objectives into specific actions and setting deadlines, the path to achieving each goal becomes clear.

4. Review regularly: Scheduled reviews keep the momentum going. They provide an opportunity to celebrate milestones, reassess objectives, or adjust action steps.

Your template for growth

This PDP template isn’t just a tool – it’s a roadmap. It’s your path to personal and professional growth.

Don’t leave professional development to luck or happenstance – you and your colleagues can proactively pursue goals using this deliberate endeavor. The future you will thank you for working the PDP into your regular work habits.

The post Your PDP template: a tool for your team to shine appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Top 3 takeaways

1. Seven out of 10 are now working full time, compared with 60.1% two years earlier
2. The percentage of those working part-time or for themselves is down
3. Those not working are due to health or government benefits

In 2023, nearly seven out of every 10 respondents (68.8%) report working full time, a significant growth from the 60.1% recorded in 2021. This shouldn’t come as a surprise – the data in 2021 was fresh off the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which saw considerable job loss across numerous sectors. And of course, Brexit made for further complications in the system.

The percentages of those in part-time and self-employed work are also down in 2023.

This ultimately means we’re seeing relative stabilization of the UK job market after those two horsemen set foot on British soil – more full-time workers means greater security, after all.

Big differences between UK and US

The percentage of those who aren’t working hasn’t changed at all – it’s 10.4% in both 2021 and 2023 – this is interesting because in the same survey in the United States, that percentage is half of what it was two years earlier (9.9% now, down from 20.8%).

Meanwhile, those actively looking for new work also didn’t change much, from 29.5% in 2021 to 29.1% now – again, markedly different from US-based respondents (22.6% now vs. 33.4% two years earlier).

What did change in the UK job market over the two-year time period is the reason why those not working aren’t actively working: it’s more due to health and government benefits now. A full third (33.3%) cited “health priorities” as the reason they’re not working, up from 26.9% two years earlier – and “government benefits” also grew in importance fro 15.4% to 22.2%.

What can you do?

Retain your employees by supporting their health

The increase in employed workers means employers should focus on enhancing retention strategies. And the emphasis on health as a reason to not work highlights the need for that kind of support in the workplace.

Allow your teams to be flexible

As personal reasons, i.e. health priorities, are leading factors for not working, employers need to consider flexible work policies that can accommodate personal needs. This might include offering remote work options, flexible hours, ease of commute, accessibility, or increased family and health support.

Market yourself as a great place to work

The higher rate of employment combined with the increased emphasis on government benefits points to the latter as being potentially by choice rather than by necessity. If you market yourself as a great place to work via more generous compensation, supportive environments, flexibility, etc., you may inspire those not working to reenter the workforce.

The post Full-time’s up in the UK – but not much else is changing appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Every employee plays a pivotal role in the success of an organization. When employees are absent, especially unexpectedly, it can disrupt the workflow, leading to decreased productivity and potential financial losses.

This is where absence management comes into play. It’s a little different from time-off management, which covers pre-approved and pre-planned time off.

What is absence management?

Absence management is a program designed to control absences due to various reasons such as illness, injury, or other emergencies. It encompasses policies and action plans tailored to monitor and reduce unplanned leaves, which are absences not scheduled in advance or those that employers cannot predict or control.

Examples include short-term sick leave, long-term medical leaves, lateness, unauthorized leaves, and more.

Why is absence management important?

Absence management is crucial for several reasons.

The importance of effective absence management cannot be overstated. From a financial perspective, unplanned absences can be a significant drain on resources.

Since 2019, organizations believing in underreported absences rose from 36% to 55% by 2023, post-COVID.

Average absence days per employee annually increased by 2.6 days since pre-COVID times.

The direct cost of absence per employee surged from $3,395 to $4,025. Four out of five (80%) surveyed companies attributed increased absences to COVID restrictions.

Beyond the monetary implications, absenteeism directly affects the productivity of an organization.

Tasks might face delays, or the overall quality of work could see a decline.

Furthermore, when some employees are absent, others might have to shoulder additional responsibilities, leading to increased stress and potential burnout.

This can have a cascading effect, where the increased workload on present employees might lead to further absences.

Moreover, in sectors where customer or client interaction is frequent, inconsistent staffing can lead to a decline in the quality of service provided.

Benefits of absence management

The benefits of a well-implemented absence management system are manifold. For starters, it leads to improved productivity.

By proactively addressing and reducing the root causes of absenteeism, companies can maintain a consistent and productive workforce. This, in turn, translates to cost savings.

Fewer unplanned absences mean fewer disruptions and a more streamlined operation.

Additionally, by fostering a supportive work environment where absenteeism is addressed, companies can boost employee morale and job satisfaction.

Lastly, in customer-facing roles, consistent staffing ensures that clients and customers receive a uniform and high standard of service.

How to track absence?

To get a grip on absence management, it’s imperative for organizations to have a robust system in place to track all instances of absenteeism.

Modern tools, such as self-service HRIS systems, can be invaluable in recording and analyzing this data.

Regular reviews of this data can help organizations identify any emerging trends or patterns related to absenteeism.

Open communication is another cornerstone of effective absence management.

By ensuring that there are open channels of communication between employees and management, organizations can gain insights into the reasons behind absences and address any underlying issues.

The post What is absence management? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Fortunately. we’ve done the heavy lifting for you, analyzing various companies and plans across multiple categories such as general features, additional features, third-party reviews, and popularity.

We have created an easy-to-read list for you to identify which features work for you and the needs of your company.

First things first, do you know what features you need to look out for before making your choice?

Let’s delve into the best features to assist you with it.

Features of a good onboarding software

A good onboarding software should offer more than just digital documentation and automation.

It should include the following general features:

• onboarding checklists
• compliance tools
• mobile apps for on-the-go onboarding
• time and attendance tracking and peer reviews

Some unique features you may consider include the following:

• shift scheduling
• engagement tools
• integrations with other HR software
• tax functionality
• live customer support

Additionally, a good onboarding software should offer a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for HR professionals and new hires to navigate. It should also be customizable to fit the specific needs and branding of your organization.

Moreover, a good onboarding software should offer robust analytics and reporting features. This allows HR teams to track the effectiveness of their onboarding process and make data-driven improvements.

Top employee onboarding software

Here is our list of the top 7 employee onboarding software.

1. Workable

Long story short, you are reading this article from Workable’s resources center, so we think you are in the right place to choose a top onboarding software.

By using Workable, you can not only onboard and manage your new hires, but you can also source talent using AI technology, create your own workflows while hiring, and manage your employees through the same software.

Workable is considered a top Human Resources Information System (HRIS) due to its comprehensive suite of features. It provides a centralized, structured source of truth for employee information, making it easy to find and update details about employees.

The system also securely stores company documents, ensuring easy access and safety.

Additionally, Workable’s HRIS enables teams to visualize the company structure and plan for hiring needs, aiding in strategic planning. It manages paid time off, ensuring accurate tracking of employee leave.

Lastly, the software automates the onboarding process, allowing new hires to get to work faster.

These combined features make Workable a robust and efficient solution for HR teams.

2. BambooHR

BambooHR is a comprehensive HR platform that includes a dedicated onboarding solution. The software allows HR teams to automate many of the administrative tasks associated with onboarding, such as filling out paperwork and setting up benefits.

BambooHR’s onboarding solution also includes a customizable onboarding checklist, ensuring that all necessary tasks are completed in a timely manner. The software allows HR teams to track the progress of each new hire through the onboarding process, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

3. Zavvy

Zavvy is a complete HR onboarding software that ties all onboarding processes together while creating a standout and personalized onboarding experience. It helps businesses and organizations carefully manage the growth path of their employees.

Zavvy’s automated employee onboarding process turns complex, repetitive processes into beautiful and rich experiences. It offers features like preboarding, automated workflow management, event scheduling, buddy programs, and rich content among others.

4. Rippling

Rippling‘s onboarding software automates the manual work involved in onboarding a new hire. From sending offer letters to setting up payroll and benefits,

Rippling makes it easy to onboard new employees. It also helps with IT tasks like ordering new equipment and setting up apps for the new hire, ensuring they have everything they need to start work on day one.

5. Zenefits

Zenefits offers a comprehensive onboarding system that allows HR teams to turn a candidate into an employee with just a few clicks. It automates many of the administrative tasks involved in onboarding, such as filling out paperwork and enrolling in benefits.

Zenefits also offers a mobile app, making it easy for employees to complete their onboarding tasks on the go.

6. UKG

UKG provides a powerful onboarding solution that helps organizations engage new hires from the start. It allows HR teams to create personalized onboarding experiences that align with the company’s culture and values.

UKG Pro also offers interactive onboarding checklists and the ability to track progress, ensuring new hires complete all necessary tasks.

7. ADP Workforce Now

ADP Workforce Now includes an onboarding module that automates many of the tasks involved in bringing a new hire onboard. It allows HR teams to create a step-by-step onboarding plan, complete with tasks and deadlines. ADP Workforce Now also integrates with other HR functions, allowing for seamless data transfer and reducing the need for manual data entry.

By considering the features of various software options, you can find the solution that best fits your organization’s needs.

Remember, a good onboarding software should be user-friendly, customizable, integrable, analytical, and scalable.

It’s not just about automating the process, but enhancing the experience for both the HR team and the new hires.

The post Employee onboarding software – check our top list appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What are floating holidays?

Floating holidays are typically paid days off that employees can use at their discretion. Unlike fixed holidays, such as Christmas or Independence Day, floating holidays can be used on any day that the employee chooses.

They were introduced to accommodate the diverse cultural and personal needs of employees, offering a more inclusive approach to time off.

Can you use a floating holiday anytime?

In most cases, yes. The beauty of floating holidays is their flexibility. However, company policies may dictate certain restrictions, such as requiring advance notice or prohibiting use during peak business periods. It’s important to clearly communicate these policies to avoid confusion.

For example, an employee might use a floating holiday to observe a religious event, celebrate a personal milestone, or simply enjoy a long weekend.

Are floating holidays paid out?

Typically, floating holidays are paid days off. However, whether unused days get paid out at the end of the year or upon termination varies by company. Some organizations may allow a carryover to the next year, while others may have a “use-it-or-lose-it” policy. It’s crucial to clarify these details in your company’s time off policy to ensure transparency.

Floating hours: What does it mean?

While floating holidays are entire days off, floating hours refer to flexible hours that an employee can add to their workday.

For instance, an employee might start work early one day and leave early another day.

This flexibility can boost employee satisfaction and work-life balance. However, like floating holidays, clear policies are needed to prevent misuse and ensure fair application.

How many companies offer floating holidays?

While exact numbers fluctuate, various HR surveys indicate that a significant number of companies – particularly those with diverse workforces – offer floating holidays.

This trend is growing as organizations recognize the benefits of flexible time off in attracting and retaining talent. As an HR professional or SMB employer, it’s worth considering if this approach aligns with your company culture and operational needs.

Floating days around the world

Floating days vary from country to country. In this section, we will discuss the most common cases worldwide.

Floating days in the US

Floating holidays in the US can be used for any day the employee chooses, but they are often used for observances like Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, or personal events like birthdays if these days are not already recognized by the employer.

Some companies also allow employees to use a floating holiday for New Year’s Eve if it falls on a weekend.

Floating days in Europe

In Europe, the practice of floating holidays is becoming increasingly common as companies recognize the need for more flexible time-off policies.

These holidays are often provided as additional paid leave, allowing employees to observe personal, national, religious, or cultural events not recognized as public holidays.

For instance, Spotify, a Swedish company, has implemented a policy where employees can work on a public holiday and then exchange it for a day off at another time that holds more personal significance.

Similarly, in Italy, an employee might choose to work on Christmas Day, a recognized public holiday, and then use that day off at a later time that is more personally meaningful.

In the UK, this concept is less common, but it’s gaining traction. Employees might use a floating holiday to observe a cultural event, religious holiday, or personal occasion that isn’t recognized as a public holiday. The specifics would depend on the company’s policy.

Floating days in Australia

In Australia, some companies offer a “floating” public holiday per year, which allows employees to “swap out” an Australian public holiday for another day during the year to celebrate a religious or cultural holiday such as Chinese New Year or Diwali.

This approach is part of a broader effort to promote inclusivity and accommodate the diverse cultural backgrounds of employees.

Floating days in Asia

In Asia, this concept varies due to the region’s cultural diversity and differing labor laws.

For example, in China, employees might use a floating holiday for cultural events like the Lantern Festival, which aren’t recognized as public holidays.

Similarly, in India, a floating holiday could be used to observe widely celebrated festivals such as Diwali, which isn’t a public holiday in all areas.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, floating holidays could be used for cultural celebrations like Seollal, the Korean New Year, or Chuseok, the harvest festival, if these aren’t already recognized as public holidays by the employer.

How to implement floating holidays in your company

Implementing floating holidays requires careful planning.

Start by reviewing your current time off policies and considering how they could fit in. Consult with legal counsel to ensure compliance with labor laws.

Communicate the changes clearly to your team, explaining the benefits and any restrictions. Be prepared to handle questions and possibly adjust the policy based on feedback.

Floating holidays offer a modern, flexible approach to time off that can enhance employee satisfaction and inclusivity.

By understanding and implementing these policies effectively, you can position your organization as a forward-thinking employer that values its employees’ diverse needs.

As with any HR initiative, clear communication and thoughtful planning are key to success. So, why not float the idea in your next team meeting?

The post What is a floating holiday? Is it considered PTO? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

He arrived at the office only to find his workstation was not set up. His computer was still in its box, and there was no sign of any office supplies. He was handed a stack of paperwork to fill out, with no guidance or context provided.

His manager was tied up in meetings all day, leaving him with no one to answer his questions or provide direction. He felt like an afterthought, rather than a valued new team member.

By the end of the day, John felt overwhelmed and unsure about his decision to join Alpha Corp.

What was missing? A concrete employee orientation plan – also referred to as an onboarding plan.

What is employee orientation?

Employee orientation is a process that introduces new employees to their job, the organization, and its culture.

It is typically conducted by the human resources department or a designated orientation team and is designed to help new employees feel welcome, informed, and prepared for their new role.

During employee orientation, new hires are typically provided with information about the company’s policies, procedures, and benefits, as well as any necessary training or paperwork.

The orientation process may also include introductions to key personnel, tours of the workplace, and opportunities to ask questions and clarify expectations.

The goal of employee orientation is to facilitate a smooth transition for new employees and set them up for success in their new position.

Benefits of employee orientation

It was that day when John believed that this bad onboarding experience would make him search for another job very soon. “How can I work for someone who doesn’t respect me from day one?” he thought. He wished his employee orientation process was better.

Indeed, the benefits of a well-structured orientation program are numerous and backed by compelling data. According to a 2023 report by Octanner, 43% of employees said that their onboarding was completed after only one day, affecting retention rates.

Furthermore, according to research by Brandon Hall Group, there is a strong correlation between company culture metrics and the onboarding process. A significant 88% of organizations consider it crucial for employees to have faith in the organization’s values and principles during onboarding.

Employee orientation offers concise and accurate information that helps the new employee feel more comfortable in their new role. By providing them with a clear understanding of their job responsibilities, expectations, and company policies, orientation encourages employee confidence and helps them adapt faster to their new job. This, in turn, contributes to a more effective and productive workforce.

Lastly, orientation promotes communication between the supervisor and the new employee, fostering a positive working relationship and setting the foundation for ongoing feedback and development.

Now that we have knowledge of all these, we can structure better strategies for onboarding new hires.

Best practices for employee orientation

Working on HR today means staying abreast of current trends. One significant trend is the shift towards hybrid onboarding, accommodating both in-person and remote employees.

This approach has become increasingly important in the wake of the global shift towards remote work.

Another trend is the increased focus on integrating company culture and values into the orientation process. This helps new hires feel connected to the company’s mission from day one.

These trends can help you build an employee orientation strategy that will create a positive environment for your new hires.

Let’s delve into these best practices to assist you further:

• Preboard before day one: Send new hires necessary information and paperwork before their first day. This allows them to hit the ground running
• Create an orientation schedule: A clear, comprehensive schedule helps new hires understand what to expect and reduces first-day jitters
• Automate paperwork: Use digital tools to streamline administrative tasks, freeing up time for more valuable orientation activities
• Introduce managers and colleagues: Personal introductions help new hires feel welcomed and part of the team
• Be mindful of information overload: Break down information into manageable chunks to avoid overwhelming new hires

To help you implement this strategy we built an employee orientation checklist for you.

Checklist for a successful employee orientation

• Prepare for the new hire: Set up their workspace, provide necessary tools, and complete any administrative tasks
• Hold a formal company orientation: Discuss the company’s history, values, and culture
• Define job responsibilities clearly: Ensure the new hire understands their role and expectations
• Provide ongoing support: Check in regularly with the new hire, provide feedback, and address any questions or concerns

Related: New employee orientation program checklist

In conclusion, effective employee orientation is more than a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic necessity. By implementing these best practices and staying abreast of evolving trends, you can create orientation programs that not only welcome new hires but also set them up for long-term success. Remember, as HR professionals and SMB employers, our role in a new hire’s journey is pivotal. Let’s make it count.

John would be happy too.

The post Employee orientation: checklist, benefits, and best practices appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is garden leave?

Garden leave definition describes a designated duration wherein an employee is mandated to refrain from attending work, usually following their resignation or termination. Throughout this period, the employee maintains their employment status within the company but is not expected to carry out any work duties.

The pros and cons of garden leave

Just like any other HR policy, garden leave comes with its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Let’s take a closer look at some of the main advantages and disadvantages of garden leave.

Benefits of garden leave

One of the biggest benefits of garden leave is that it can help companies protect their interests. By requiring employees to stay away from work for a period of time, companies can keep them from working with competitors or taking sensitive information with them.

Garden leave can also be used to ease the transition of an employee leaving the company, allowing them time to wrap up their work and prepare for their next role.

Disadvantages of garden leave

While garden leave can be an effective tool for companies, it also has some potential drawbacks.

For example, garden leave can be costly for companies, as they are required to continue paying the employee during their garden leave period.

Additionally, employees may feel frustrated or undervalued by being kept away from work, and may even decide to challenge the practice in court if they feel that it’s unfair.

Garden leave around the world

The concept of garden leave originated in the UK. However, the practice is not confined to the UK. It’s prevalent in many countries, albeit with varying regulations and norms.

For instance, garden leave in the US is less common due to different employment laws and practices. Garden leave in Australia is often seen in the financial sector, while in Singapore, it’s a standard clause in employment contracts especially for senior roles.

For more information on garden leave, you can refer to these resources:

• UK Government’s guide on garden leave
• US Legal perspective on garden leave
• Australian Fair Work Ombudsman’s take on garden leave

The difference between garden leave and a non-compete clause

While garden leave and non-compete clauses are similar in that they both aim to prevent employees from working with competitors, there are some key differences.

Non-compete clauses are contractual agreements that prohibit an employee from working in a certain industry or role for a specified period of time after leaving their current employer. There may be legal restrictions to non-compete clauses – double-check with your local authorities to verify.

Garden leave, on the other hand, is not a contractual agreement, but rather a period of time during which the employee is required to stay away from work.

Garden leave period

The length of a garden leave period can vary depending on the company and the circumstances.

It can range from a few weeks to several months, and in some extreme cases, even up to a year or more.

Is garden leave legal?

Yes, garden leave is legal in most countries and is becoming increasingly common in many industries. However, there are certain legal requirements that companies must adhere to when implementing garden leave policies, such as providing adequate notice and continuing to pay the employee during the garden leave period.

Can an employee work elsewhere during garden leave?

The employee is technically still employed by the company during their garden leave period, so they are typically not allowed to work for another employer during that time. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, such as if the employee finds temporary work that does not conflict with their existing employment agreement.

How to manage garden leave with HRIS

By creating a healthy work environment and providing a great employee experience, from onboarding to talent retention, you can avoid managing garden leave situations and focus more on boosting productivity and achieving your higher corporate goals.

You can start today by using an HRIS software to accomplish this. Explore how Workable can help you.

While garden leave may not be right for every company or situation, it can be an effective way to protect company interests and ease the transition of an employee leaving the organization. With the right tools and resources in place, managing garden leave policies can be streamlined and stress-free.

The post Garden leave: what it is and how it works appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

With a focus on providing valuable insights and practical advice, this article will break down what preboarding is, when it occurs, best practices, and when to include it in your HR work – all within a concise 600-word limit.

When does preboarding occur?

Preboarding starts right after a successful job offer is accepted by the candidate, continuing until their first day at work. This interactive phase acts as a bridge between recruitment and actual onboarding, enhancing employee engagement and preparing new hires for their roles.

Best practices for preboarding

Implementing effective preboarding practices engages new hires from the start, laying a foundation for a positive work experience. Here are some best practices you can apply to your preboarding process:

Send a welcome message

A simple yet crucial step, sending a welcoming email or personalized video can make new hires feel appreciated and excited to join your organization.

Provide company information

Offer comprehensive company information, including values, culture, and mission statement, to help familiarize the new hires with the organization. This can be done through an employee handbook, a series of videos, or easy-to-digest infographics.

Begin paperwork early

Send essential documentation like contracts, tax forms, and policy acknowledgments in advance. Utilizing e-signature services or onboarding software can speed up the process and simplify record-keeping.

Introduce new hires to the team

Connecting new employees to their colleagues before they start can foster a sense of belonging. Organize a virtual meet-and-greet or encourage team members to send greeting emails to set a positive tone.

Assign a mentor

Pairing new hires with dedicated mentors can further facilitate their integration into the team and provide them with valuable support from day one.

Outline expectations and goals

Clearly explain job responsibilities, expectations, and initial goals to help new hires feel more prepared. Provide details on their work schedule, reporting structure, and key performance indicators.

Facilitate IT setup

Coordinate with your IT department to set up necessary tools, access, and equipment ahead of time, ensuring a smooth start on their first day.

Offer training materials

Provide access to relevant training resources like videos, articles, or e-learning courses, fostering professional growth from the beginning.

Including preboarding in your HR work

Incorporating preboarding into your HR strategy is essential, regardless of company size or industry. It enables new hires to hit the ground running and feel genuinely welcomed, thus reducing turnover rates and increasing overall job satisfaction. Consider adopting preboarding in your HR work in the following scenarios:

• New hires: Preboarding is vital for every new employee, regardless of their position or experience level.
• Internal transfers: When an employee is transitioning to a new department or role within the company, preboarding can ease the shift.
• Reboarding: Preboarding practices can be adapted for employees returning from an extended leave of absence or rejoining after a temporary departure.
• Seasonal or temporary hires: Even short-term hires can benefit from preboarding, improving overall productivity and engagement.

Ultimately, a well-planned and effective preboarding process is a valuable addition to your HR work and lays the foundation for new hire success. By following the best practices outlined above, you can create a tailored preboarding experience that benefits both your employees and your organization.

The post What is preboarding? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

This article will guide you through crafting an effective follow-up email that leaves a positive impression on your candidates.

Why send a follow-up email?

Sending a follow-up email to a candidate after an interview has several benefits. 

Firstly, it demonstrates your organization’s professionalism and respect for the candidate’s time, which can significantly enhance their perception of your company. 

Secondly, it provides an opportunity to keep the lines of communication open, ensuring that the candidate is informed about the status of their application and what they can expect next. This can alleviate anxiety and uncertainty on the candidate’s part, improving their overall experience. Uncertainty and lack of communications is one of the biggest complaints on Reddit about the recruitment process for candidates – you don’t want to contribute to that.

Employer brand at risk

Follow-up emails can help to reinforce the positive aspects of your company culture and values, leaving a lasting impression on the candidate, regardless of the outcome of their application. In a competitive job market, these details can make a significant difference in attracting and retaining top talent.

Consider a scenario in which, during the recruitment process for a position at your organization, a qualified candidate named John experiences poor communication in terms of emails.

After being rejected without clear feedback, John shares his negative experience on social media and job review sites, criticizing the process and discouraging others from applying. This negative publicity tarnishes your organization’s reputation and deters potential candidates, making recruitment more challenging.

Related: Boost your employer branding & retention using AI

When to send a follow-up email

The ideal time to send a follow-up email is within 24 hours after the interview. This timing shows that your organization values the candidate’s time and is proactive in its communication. 

The best practice is to send the follow-up email to the candidate before they reach out to you. 

Components of an effective follow-up email

An effective follow-up email consists of several key components:

Subject Line: Keep your subject line clear and concise. For instance, “Following up on [Job Title] Interview”.

Greeting: Address the candidate by their name to make the email more personal.

Expression of gratitude: Start your email by thanking the candidate for their time and the opportunity to learn more about their qualifications and experience.

Interview recap: Briefly recap the interview, highlighting any particularly memorable or impressive moments.

Status update: Provide an update about the recruitment process. If a decision hasn’t been made yet, let the candidate know when they can expect to hear back.

Closing and signature: Close the email in a professional or friendly manner, depending on the tone of voice of your organization. Use phrases such as “Best regards” or “Sincerely” for a formal tone, or expressions such as “Best” and “Regards” for a more friendly tone. In any case, remember to provide your full name and contact information.

Here is an example of a follow-up email:

Dear John,

I hope this email finds you well. I’m Alex Rooks from InTech’s recruitment team, and I wanted to take a moment to thank you for taking the time to speak with us yesterday regarding the Front-End Engineer position.

Our team was impressed with your skills and experience, particularly your proficiency in modern JavaScript frameworks and your approach to problem-solving. We appreciated your thoughtful responses to our questions and your enthusiasm for front-end development.

We understand that waiting for feedback can be nerve-wracking, so I wanted to provide you with a quick update. We are currently in the process of reviewing all the interviews, and we expect to have an update for you by 6th of July.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to reach out. We value open communication and want to ensure you have all the information you need as we move forward in the selection process.

Thank you once again for your interest in InTech and for the effort you’ve put into the interview process. We’ll be in touch soon.

Best regards,

Alex Rooks

Recruitment Team

InTech

Check Workable’s email templates that win candidates for more ideas.

What to do if a candidate follows up

If a candidate sends a follow-up email before you’ve had a chance to get back to them, respond as soon as possible. Even if you don’t have an update, let them know that their email was received and that you’ll provide an update as soon as one is available.

Let’s follow the same example and see how it differs now.

Dear John,

I hope this message finds you well. Thank you for reaching out and showing continued interest in the Front-End Engineer position at InTech.

I understand that you are eager to know the status of your application. We appreciate your patience as we continue to review the interviews. Our team was impressed with your skills and the thoughtful insights you brought to our conversation, and we are carefully considering all candidates to ensure we make the best decision.

We expect to have a more concrete update for you by [expected date]. Rest assured, we will reach out to you as soon as we have more information.

In the meantime, if you have any other questions or need further information, please don’t hesitate to ask. We value open communication and want to ensure you have all the information you need.

Thank you once again for your patience and for your interest in InTech. We’ll be in touch soon.

Best regards,

Alex Rooks

Recruitment Team

InTech

Common mistakes to avoid

Avoid common mistakes in follow-up emails such as:

• Delaying your response
• Not providing clear updates
• Sending a generic email
• Sending an impersonal email

Remember, clear and timely communication is key in providing a positive candidate experience.

Sending a follow-up email after an interview is a crucial step in the recruitment process. It shows your organization’s professionalism, respect for the candidate’s time, and commitment to clear communication. By using these tips and templates, you can craft an effective follow-up email that leaves a positive impression on your candidates.

The post Craft follow-up emails after an interview (with templates) appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There are numerous employee management software systems available. When you look for one in your business, here are things you want to consider.

1. Does it integrate with your existing tech stack?

Of course, you can choose employee management software software that does it all, but you can also pick and choose different software for different tasks. Software that can track employee performance goals and the time clock can make for easier reporting.

2. Is it easy to use?

Some software systems are intuitive; others are difficult. Some are plug-and-play, others will need some customization and coaching so you can get the most out of it. Remember, not everyone can be an expert in this software, yet you’ll still want them to use it regularly.

3. Can you manage access?

If you’re using employee management software to build career plans and track progress, you’ll want your employees to be involved, and allowing them to see and update their own records takes work off your plate.

4. What reporting options are there?

If you have to customize reports or download data into Excel and build your own reports, it’s not as valuable as having solid reporting characteristics.

5. Can it handle multi-state options?

Employment law is largely state-based. If all your employees are in one state, this isn’t an issue, but with today’s mobile workforce and an increasing number of people working from home, you may end up being multistate before you know it. What capabilities does your software have?

6. Can it keep up with the organizational structure?

Will it display reporting relationships and allow for easy maintenance of these structures? Can you quickly update the org chart when someone leaves, when a new hire enters, when there’s restructuring, or when there’s cross-company migration? Some softwares even have a drag-and-drop tool that allows you to do all of that.

7. Can it handle leave management, including multi-state and multi-country rules?

Legally protected leaves of absence vary from state to state and from country to country. Staying on top of this is crucial when maintaining compliance.

8. What is their customer service record?

You will need help from time to time because we’re not all so tech-savvy. Is the company known to be responsive and helpful? Can they work with you in a pinch?

Of course, there are company-specific questions you’ll have to ask to make sure your software works for you, but these should be a good start.

Sound employee management is key to retention

If you’re looking to improve your employee management, going through these steps can help get you on the right path towards happier employees and a stronger culture.

Four out of five employees will leave their jobs because of bad management according to a 2022 GoodHire study. Because management practices are so important to employees, improving your employee management methods can make a huge difference.

Your KPIs as an employer likely include employee retention, engagement and turnover. You’ll see a difference there when you have a solid employee management strategy and a software to strengthen that strategy.

Related: What is employee management?

The post Choose the right employee management software: 8 top tips appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

That’s why a structured employee onboarding framework is so critical – it’s more important than onboarding itself.

That’s the 30-60-90 day onboarding framework for you – it’s to provide a consistent, uniform and thorough onboarding experience. It clearly outlines the activities, resources, and expectations for those first three months of an employee’s journey, setting them up for success in their role.

The benefits for the employee are clear – they reach higher productivity in a shorter time (in other words, their ‘time to ramp’ is shorter).

They’re more vividly engaged, they understand what’s expected of them, and they know how to do the work.

For the organization, this results in greater average revenue per employee, lower turnover, and a stronger reputation as an employer that believes in developing their people.

This 30-60-90 day onboarding blueprint is structured in three phases with end goals for each: at the 30-day mark, you’ve set a foundation for that employee.

By the 60-day mark, you’re establishing a clear momentum for the employee to thrive.

And, finally, at the 90-day mark, you’re ensuring that this fully onboarded employee is ready to work autonomously and independently because they’ve learned what they need to know to succeed in their role.

Let’s go into these three stages in depth.

30-day plan: the foundation

We’ll start the 30-60-90 onboarding plan with this famous adage: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

It’s a given that you’ll be spending a fair bit of time during the first 30 days giving job-specific training to your new starters. But equally, a key focus should be on embedding them into the company culture and helping them build connections.

Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Designate a work ‘buddy’

This should be someone from the team who isn’t their manager. They can be the go-to person who shows them the ropes and gives advice. As this person will be a peer, rather than a manager, they’ll probably have gone through the same experience themselves so can empathize.

Link up new starters who are in a similar boat to each other. For example, you could set up a dedicated Slack or Teams channel which joiners are part of for their first few weeks.

2. Organize a team lunch

Ideally this can be done together in the same place, but if it’s not possible, you can still do it virtually. Why not send the new starter a voucher for them to order the meal of their choice?

Regardless, you should send them a small reward and note of appreciation after their first week – it’s a nice gesture which will put a smile on their face!

3. Set up casual meetings

Arrange “get to know” meetings with people the new starter will be working closely with. This is not a work-related induction, but more of a social meeting to break the ice and find out about each other. These meetings should be quite casual and don’t need any sort of agenda beforehand.

You can group people together – for example, instead of meeting all the web developers individually, they can be part of the same meeting. At the same time, try to keep the number of people in these chats quite small, perhaps to a maximum of four or five. Any more can make them feel daunting, which is the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve!

Basically, it should feel more like a coffee date, and less like you’re being grilled on a reality show!

4. Set up daily syncs

At this stage, managers should have a quick 10-minute catch-up with the employee at the end of each day, just to see how they’re getting on. Meeting lots of different people can be a little overwhelming, so having a regular chat with the same person each day adds a sense of routine.

5. Keep a finger on their pulse

One constant throughout the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan (and beyond) is wellbeing, so ensure managers are still checking in regularly. Pay particular attention to signs of burnout – it’s not uncommon for employees to push themselves extra hard during these opening few weeks.

6. Ensure a solid training plan

As mentioned earlier, training is very important during this stage of the 90 days plan. If you aren’t giving people the tools they need to be successful, it won’t work out for you or them. Things which should be included within the training plan are:

• Company strategy
• Sales positioning
• Department objectives
• Individual KPIs
• Best practice methods
• Systems and ways of working

7. … and be clear about those KPIs

A quick word on those individual KPIs: ensure you are completely clear on what these are – the employee needs to know three things, exactly:

• what’s expected of them
• how that links into the wider organization goals
• what metrics you’ll be using for their work

Setting expectations properly reduces the chances of confusion later on down the line.

8. Make it a two-way street

When it comes to training, try to make this as interactive as possible. People should be able to ask questions and even make suggestions. When training them for the tasks they’ll be doing, incorporate a mix of different learning methods. There may be some things which they can study and practice in their own time, whereas others may require them to learn on the job or be shown step by step.

If you have an online L&D program in place, select the courses which you think will be most relevant to their job. This tailors their training and saves them from having to scroll through lots of different ones.

9. Keep it fun and engaging!

As for the actual work your new starter will be doing, this can vary based on the role and level of seniority. Try to make it engaging though – enthusiasm levels are normally super high at this stage, so you want to tap into this as much as possible. Perhaps you could set them a list of things to do each week and turn it into a fun challenge with points and prizes?

60-day plan: the momentum

Now you’re at one month in the onboarding plan. Your employee should be mostly familiarized with their work and the company’s processes, but that’s just the first step to success. Here’s what you need to think about in the second month of the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan.

1. Maintain a feedback loop

Feedback is crucial, and it’s a very important way to keep the new starter engaged and focused. Managers should give this on each piece of work. Remember it’s still early days, so don’t expect perfection.

At the same time, employees appreciate honesty so give them constructive feedback, and ask for theirs as well. Is there anything they think should have been done differently in the opening weeks?

2. Check on goal progression

It’s also a good time for managers and employees to have an honest discussion about the goals that were set early on. Does anything need to change? Does the employee feel like there are more things they could take on? Either way, do what you did the first time and communicate clearly.

3. Celebrate the small ‘wins’

It’s also important that people feel appreciated. Make sure you celebrate the small successes. If they work in Customer Service, make a big deal of the first ticket they resolve. If they’re in Marketing, recognise them for that first blog they wrote.

This could be a formal shoutout on the recognition platform you use, or even just a round of applause during your end of week wrap-up.

Try and link these recognitions to your company values – this is a great way to remind the employee what you stand for. Try to back the recognitions up with a reward as well. By getting a reward for displaying the right behaviors or for good work, it gives them a morale boost and a sense of gratitude.

You’re now building on the learning

Remember, learning doesn’t just stop after day 30 – but now it continues with the act of building. This is where you trust them to do more independent work and go deeper into their responsibilities. Normally, there are two routes you can take.

If there’s a specific project that was earmarked for them before they joined, allow them to run with this.

If the type of work they do is naturally quite repetitive – perhaps they work on the tills at a shop – ask them to come up with ideas to improve some aspect of what you do. This is a great way to keep them engaged and shows that you see them as a valuable part of the business. It also usually involves them needing to collaborate with other departments, which brings its own benefits in terms of relationship building.

Whichever one of the two routes you choose, ask them to follow the Plan, Develop, Implement model. Here’s a quick breakdown.

Plan

This is where the employee does their research, asks the questions they think are relevant, and puts together a strategy for what they think needs to be done. Give them the time, space and tools to do this.

Develop

Once the plan has been put together, the employee uses it to develop a solution. For example, if they’re in Business Development, maybe they have a better way to reach out to prospects. They can get these new ideas together and test them internally.

Implement

Now the employee takes the results from their tests and puts them into practice. This is where they’ll feel like they’re doing what they were brought in to do, and managers will be able to judge how far along they are.

At all times, managers should ensure help is available if needed – but allow the employee to take control.

Now, we mentioned how this type of task allows employees to build relationships with others in the company. But there’s other ways to do this as well, for example organizing social events. For example, Perkbox has monthly ‘Meet ‘n’ Greet’ events which are an opportunity for new starters to meet with people in social settings.

90-day plan: the independence

This last phase of the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan should help employees feel like they’re a fully-fledged part of the business. All being well, by the end of this period, they should have less of a ‘new starter’ feeling.

The employee should by now be nicely bedded in from a cultural point of view. This doesn’t necessarily mean they run to the karaoke machine on nights out – but they should feel comfortable with their colleagues. If they still seem a little uncomfortable, it’s the manager’s job to get to the bottom of this.

1. Assign full ownership and independence

A core measure of success at the 90-day stage is whether or not you’re able to grant full ownership to the employee. You should be able to confidently assign them projects without walking them through the steps of how to see it through to completion.

At the 90-day mark, that employee is equipped with the knowledge – and experience – to independently make decisions to move the project forward. They no longer will need to ‘check in’ with their manager or seek approval or validation before moving forward.

Of course, there’s always that question of making a mistake – can you trust your employee to do the right thing to ensure success? Well, that’s what onboarding is for in the first place – when you can trust your employees, you’ve onboarded them successfully.

2. Conduct a performance review

What else? Performance reviews. While you no longer require the employee to be checking in with you or other colleagues to get a job done, you do check in with them at the end in the performance review.

This is your opportunity to go through their performance, both in the first 90 days and in the long-term, and identify areas where they can do better and shine a light on areas where they’ve done well. In fact, it’s not simply a review – think of it as a refinement.

3. Ask them about their onboarding experience

A little different from the performance review is a simple check-in with HR. Ask the employee how they’ve found the onboarding process to date. Is there anything they feel should’ve been done differently?

Not only does this help you improve the process for the future, but it shows the employee you take their opinions seriously.

4. Identify their passions – and support them

Hopefully by now they can also let some of their other passions shine through. For example, do you have any Employee Resource Groups or social clubs that appeal to them? Send a reminder of these and encourage them to put themselves forward if they want.

Often, people who join up with these things early on in their time at a company, develop really strong connections with colleagues. This can only be a good thing from a retention point of view!

Those first three months are key for success

Those first 90 days of an employee’s journey within an organization, a new strategy, a different process, etc., sets the tone for their entire tenure going forward. A bad onboarding plan has obvious adverse effects – someone who isn’t properly familiarized with their roles won’t be able to rise to expectations. They get frustrated, demoralized, and worst of all, toxic. Cue ‘quiet quitting’, costly turnovers, and overall disenchantment.

Think of it as keeping a car properly maintained. When every part of the car is well-maintained, the engine is tuned regularly, the tires are leveled, the exterior is washed, the interior deep-cleaned, then the car lasts longer and performs better.

Your organization is your ‘car’ – keep it attuned, updated and optimized with a well-structured, 30-60-90 day onboarding plan for every step of the way, and it’ll pay dividends for you in the long run.

The post Your 30-60-90 day onboarding plan: set your people for success appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The typical employee lifecycle in a company often involves transitions, restructurings, developments, new product releases, changes in strategy, and many other aspects that impact one’s day-to-day work processes.

All of these require an ‘onboarding’ if they want to continue to succeed.

Let’s look at the various situations that can benefit from onboarding planning. Keep in mind that all of them can have the same goal at the end: to prepare an employee for something new.

1. New hires

This is the most common type of onboarding plan. It’s designed to introduce new employees to the company’s culture, policies, procedures, org charts, and ultimately their own role in the organization.

Typically, this plan includes orientation sessions, one-on-one meetings, job-specific training, training on tools and softwares, introductory lunches, and so on.

The objective is to help new employees feel welcome and integrated into the team, and shorten the ramp to full productivity.

2. New project launches

Often, a company will launch a new feature, product or service that will involve new campaigns, processes, strategies and so on to get that out into the marketplace, introduce it to existing/new customers, and bring in new revenue.

This involves onboarding the various teams and employees who will be a part of that launch – and this includes details such as project goals, timelines, roles and responsibilities, and even learning the new product or service itself.

3. New sales strategies

Whether it’s due to the launch of something new, a restructuring of the sales function, a new market penetration or a sales kickoff, sales teams will need to be updated on new strategies so they can be set for success.

This can involve trainings on new sales techniques, product/service knowledge, customer research and market trends – all of which can be conducted through classroom or virtual sessions, role-playing, or one-on-one coaching.

4. Training and development

Learning & development is fast becoming a staple of any human resource strategy. L&D can be focused on new hires and existing employees alike – with a focus on both intangible and tangible skills growth.

Examples include trainings on diversity, equity and inclusion, effective communications, compliance assurance, and any other form of employee growth and development that can be carried through with an effective onboarding plan.

5. Acquisitions and mergers

Often in business, you’ll see acquisitions of other companies or technologies, or mergers with the same. When two divergent groups of employees or technologies come together, this necessitates an onboarding plan to ensure that they work together without losing traction.

This can include training on how to use and integrate new technologies, how to work with others, what the “other” company’s focal product or service is, familiarization with new policies and procedures, and understanding new systems, processes and tools.

Keep the eye on the prize

Let’s tie all this back to the core concept of “onboarding”. It is, ultimately, familiarizing an employee with an area with the goal of setting them for success.

Whether that’s getting a hire acquainted with their new job and company or building up an existing employee’s repertoire of skills, the end result is the same: they are getting the knowledge and resources they need to do their job better.

And, of course, if your employees are better at their work, your bottom line benefits.

The post 5 types of onboarding plans: it’s not just for your new hires appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But one trend that remains constant is that companies are putting a strong emphasis on how they will improve their hiring process and employee retention during this time. As companies navigate a surge of inflation, a tight labor market and a looming recession, they need to find new ways to balance efficiency and engagement when it comes to the candidate experience.

Candidates’ expectations of the interview process have changed dramatically and companies are struggling to keep up. Candidates want to understand the overall strategy companies will take to ensure an inclusive interview process.

They want to know what to expect from the process and when they will hear back (i.e. not be ghosted). During the interview process they are asking more questions about work-life balance to understand the inner workings of the organization, to ensure that they connect with the company’s culture and mission on a deeper level.

If companies can improve their candidate experience, this will not only elevate and streamline their hiring processes but should mitigate some of the risk of attrition due to a misalignment of values.

While having a ‘white glove’ candidate experience can seem like a daunting task, there are a few pitfalls that talent acquisition and PeopleOps leaders should avoid when thinking about their candidate experience:

1. Not setting clear communication around the interview process

A long drawn-out interview process can be detrimental to hiring. We’ve all seen the posts by candidates talking about how slow a company’s hiring process can be or a candidate can think that the process is over but then they find out that there are more rounds of interviews the company wants them to go through.

If candidates do not know what to expect as the next steps throughout the entire interview process or if they experience delays or deviations from the original plan, they can start to wonder if their time will be as undervalued working for your company as you are treating them in the interview process.

Just like in sales, time kills all deals, so a slow recruiting process diminishes offer acceptance rates.

What you can do:

Keep hiring managers accountable. Track their process, advocate that this be one of their OKRs.

Set a clear plan in the recruiting kickoff meeting of what the plan is going to be. Set SLAs with interviewers that they will get back to you with feedback within X days.

Before and after an interview, let the candidate know what to expect next and when they should hear back. If there are going to be delays, let them know sooner. Then, if you get back to them by the time you originally said you would, they could be pleasantly surprised.

2. Overselling and underdelivering of pay and benefits

A growing number of states have passed legislation that requires companies to post their salary ranges in their job descriptions, however some companies are finding workarounds.

They’re posting unrealistic ranges, being cagey around their work-from-home policies and not talking about the benefits that they offer employees until the offer stage.

What you can do:

Post a realistic salary range on your roles

Be realistic with your ranges. A good salary range would be $100,000-$130,000. A bad salary range would be $50,000-$500,000.

You may lose some candidates upfront who are looking for more money but it is better to know in the beginning what they need than to find out at the end after you have invested time and energy into interviewing them.

Also, candidates may surprise you. If they are interested in the role, they may reach out at the beginning to see if you have any flexibility in the range or inquire about other things in the comp package that might sway them to take less money.

Be upfront about the benefits that you offer

Benefits are big factors in a candidate’s decision making process when looking for a new role.

For example: you cover 100% healthcare, you have unlimited PTO with a three-week minimum, and you have a learning & development stipend. Put those details in the job description, talk about them in the screening process and, better yet, share a video that talks about them in the interview process or on your site.

Let candidates know where you stand on remote work

If you require people to be in the office X days a week, let them know before they hit apply. If you offer the flexibility to work in another state/country for three months, put that in your job description under benefits.

You want to give candidates as much data as you can about your company, including culture, benefits and processes, so they can make an informed decision.

Be a human, not a ghost

Ghosting is a big concern for candidates this year. Candidates can feel like they are submitting their resume into a black hole. Or, if candidates do get an interview, the recruiter may disappear after the screening stage with no signal as to their status.

There are many things recruiters are juggling right now, but something that should be foundational is replying to every candidate, even if it’s a short one. Often, a candidate is just thankful that they got the standard rejection email instead of being left in hiring limbo.

3. Not having a structured interview process

Many candidates talk about how much time they spend preparing for an interview, learning the ins and outs of the company and practicing their interview responses, only to be met with an interviewer who is not prepared and “half asses” the interview.

It’s not the best experience interviewing with a company where you have each interviewer ask you the same question. As far as gathering data on if the candidate is a good fit or not, it doesn’t do the company any favors either.

What you can do:

Train hiring team members on how to conduct a great interview. Teach them how to talk in a welcoming manner, ask appropriate questions and interact in a respectful way with all candidates.

Have a clear understanding of what skills/competencies you are looking for in the role. Meet with each interviewer to align on the role and calibrate what a “good” vs. “great” response might look like.

Focus each interview around two to four competencies based on the details of the role. When each interviewer understands the competencies they are going to focus on, they can start to craft specific questions they will ask during the interview process.

4. Not having clear expectations for the role

Job descriptions are the first thing a candidate looks at to determine if the role is going to be the right fit for them. They will use this as a guide throughout the entire interview process.

In some cases, there can be a huge disconnect between what is written in the job description and what is said during an interview process. This can leave the candidate feeling confused as to what the day-to-day would really be in the role.

In addition to lacking details on the day-to-day responsibilities, more and more candidates are asking what the growth path looks like for the role they are applying for. Candidates are looking for opportunities to acquire new skills, take on new challenges and broaden the scope of their responsibilities within a company.

However, many companies struggle to plan for how they will use their new employee’s talents past the role that they are hired for, and this can have a big impact on a company’s ability to innovate.

What you can do:

Ensure that what is said in the posting is reflected in the words being said in the interview process. You can do this in the kickoff meeting with all of the interviewers by going over the specifics of the role, what a typical day looks like and what some potential growth paths might look like moving forward.

Candidates are most likely juggling more than just your opportunity so you should send follow-ups or prep videos with information to candidates about the day to day of the role. You can share these with them throughout the interview process.
If internal mobility is something that your company can support, provide examples of how others at the company have made internal moves.

You should meet with the hiring manager to talk about the growth of their team. That way, everyone in the interview process can set realistic expectations and not sell the candidate on a dream that will never come true.

5. Not investing in the employer brand

Job seekers look at review sites, your careers page and any other materials you put on social media as signals for what they can expect in the interview process and to help them understand what it is like to work at your company.

In fact, according to Glassdoor, 69% of candidates are more likely to apply to a company if the employer brand is actively managed. Even then, companies still struggle to tell an authentic story about what makes their company unique before candidates apply and throughout the interview process.

What you can do:

Have a compelling careers page with real photos & videos of employees. Include a clear mission, vision, and value statements and information on the benefits that the company offers.

Leverage video content with employee testimonials on social media and share with candidates during touchpoints throughout the entire interview process.

Actively manage your reputation on sites like Glassdoor and Comparably by checking company’s reviews and responding to questions and complaints.

Improve your candidates’ experience

There are a ton of amazing candidates out there who will apply to your roles, some of which you will be able to hire today and others who you will want to build a positive relationship with so that they are more likely to apply when another role becomes available.

Avoiding these common pitfalls will help you to create a positive candidate experience and a company applicants will want to refer their friends to.

The post 5 candidate experience pitfalls in 2023 – and how to fix them appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

And, of course, your hiring team is leaning on you to ensure the onboarding and orientation process goes absolutely perfectly.

But, there’s a but: Miriam is one of two dozen new hires starting that week because you’re scaling operations as a company. That puts you in a bit of a pickle. You just don’t have the bandwidth to ensure a smooth onboarding for Miriam and all her new colleagues – so you’re looking at potential problems in the future: Miriam gets thrown to the wolves in her first week on the job, gets disgruntled and frazzled, and starts tuning out pretty quickly afterwards.

Next? She turns to Glassdoor and starts looking again – and even gripes anonymously about the poor experience she had when she was initially pumped about her new job. And that goes for many of the other new hires as well.

Cue frustrated hiring managers, understaffed teams, and an overall stressful working environment for your existing employees who then hit burnout at a time when it could have been avoided.

How do you avoid all that? As an HR professional, you’re always searching for innovative ways to improve the onboarding process. With all the new technology out there, have you considered adding virtual reality to the mix?

Virtual onboarding

VR is no longer the stuff of science fiction and it hasn’t been for a long time. Also referred to as “immersion technology”, VR can be a real boon to your onboarding process. Think about it – rather than plunk Miriam in front of a laptop and telling her she needs to watch a series of videos, you’re putting her in a virtual working environment to get her familiarized with the job before she’s actually doing it.

Those interactive experiences help new hires like Miriam feel welcomed and better informed about the work they’re going to do for you.

The power of information retention

Those first few weeks for a new hire can be overwhelming. As a new hire, you can be bombarded with all kinds of information – you’re meeting new people, learning new systems and entering a new culture. You’ve having meetings one after the next, training with different teams, and reading up on numerous policies and best practices.

This can lead to information overload at a crucial time where you want to ensure new employees retain all that information if they’re going to succeed. That’s where VR can be useful. Immersive learning has been found to be more efficient in terms of memory retention – a University of Maryland study found that VR learners demonstrated an 8.8% higher recall accuracy compared to those using a two-dimensional platform.

Improved retention also means better job performance. A PwC study revealed that employees trained with VR were up to 275% more confident in applying learned skills, and were four times faster in completing training than those in the traditional classroom setting.

A holodeck for training purposes

Star Trek’s holodeck is a perfect example of how immersive technology can be used to train new hires – in Star Trek, it’s used as a safe environment for combat training and scientific simulation. The same thinking applies to VR’s capabilities to create realistic job simulations for your new employees.

And while Star Trek is science fiction, there are real-life examples of this. For instance, retail giant Walmart has embraced VR to train over one million employees across its stores.

Andy Trainor, Walmart’s Senior Director of Walmart U.S. Academies, is a fan of virtual onboarding. “The great thing about VR,” he says, “is its ability to make learning experiential. When you watch a module through the headset, your brain feels like you actually experienced a situation.”

You’ve probably heard about Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. It’s an intense time for customer support representatives, especially newer, inexperienced ones. To counter the challenge, Walmart has a VR training scenario simulating that environment to prep new and existing employees ahead of time.

That controlled and risk-free environment helps employees practice customer service, problem-solving and safety procedures without fear of consequence, ultimately making them better at the job when the time comes.

Likewise, Farmers Insurance developed a VR training program for their claims adjusters. The program immerses trainees in a virtual environment simulating real-world situations, such as inspecting damaged properties.

This approach to training has enabled Farmers Insurance to accelerate the learning process, improve knowledge retention, and better prepare their claims adjusters for the challenges they’ll face on the job. By leveraging the capabilities of immersive learning solutions, your organization can also unlock the full potential of VR technology in onboarding and orientation.

Being the ‘new kid’ isn’t easy

Working is often collaborative. Consequently, it’s a priority for many hiring teams to build strong working relationships from the get-go.

But for the new hire like Miriam, being introduced to all those unfamiliar names and faces (and roles) can become overwhelming during an already stressful first few weeks on the job. Couple that with the drive to make a strong impression, and it can be a highly anxious time.

VR can address that even before the first day on the job. Immersing the new hire in a virtual working environment which includes ‘introductions’ to their new colleagues helps a new hire familiarize themselves ahead of time. Ice is broken, new connections are built, and new relationships start forming even before they physically arrive for work on the first day.

It’s a virtual solution

As an HR professional, incorporating VR tech into your onboarding and orientation processes can boost the new employee experience.

By offering immersive learning, realistic job simulators and connectivity boosters, you’re priming your new hires such as Miriam to hit the ground running more quickly. That’s more valuable especially in sectors where you’re onboarding in large batches or hiring for higher-stress working environments.

There’s just one caveat – don’t let VR do all the work. There are two balances to bear in mind: first, as with all technologies, you still should maintain the all-important human touch as you scale your tech stack. Second, keep your tech evolution in tandem with your organization’s specific needs and objectives. Don’t let one get ahead of the other.

With the right approach, virtual reality can transform the way you welcome and integrate new employees into your team, creating a more engaged, connected and confident workforce. Newly hired prodigies like Miriam will realize their full potential quicker than before – and your company will reap the benefits.

The post Use VR in onboarding and set your new hires for success appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Since we’re a company specializing in recruiting, we were inspired by Halloween to ask around for odd occurrences during the hiring process – both from hiring professionals and job candidates. We got some juicy stuff, some funny stuff, and lots of weirdness. Here you go, 15 of the best interview horror stories we heard (and yes, we give out awards):

Recruiter/Interviewer horror story awards

The car-lock award

If you think interview no-shows are a nuisance, how about this?

I was interviewing a candidate when she told me she had forgotten to lock her car and asked for permission to go check on it. I said yes. She left and never came back or answered my calls.

— Neil B.

The attachment award

Too many irrelevant resumes means that you, at least, get resumes.

I’ve had people send me so many random things via our job application form – from cellphone bills to their entire university thesis.

— Angela V.

The chuckles award

Not all candidates take interview questions seriously.

I was interviewing a candidate and asked her the common question: “Why do you think we should hire you?” Her response was a laugh – a loud throaty laugh.

— Catherine C.

The family award

Speaking of work-life balance…

I was interviewing a 22- or 23-year-old student for an internship. He not only showed up with his mother, but also wanted to be accompanied by her during the interview.

— Stéphane V.

Interviewer stories are a warmup

We’ve heard these and many more interview horror stories from recruiters where candidates have done something odd or funny. But what surprised us was how many more stories came from the candidates’ side! It seems that when hiring teams are pressured to evaluate people and make good hires fast, they sometimes adopt downright bizarre practices or behaviors that put off candidates.

What’s the solution? Perhaps listening to the other side. Each hiring professional in the following stories has earned an award for odd behavior: If you’re a recruiter yourself, you don’t want to receive these awards. If you recognize yourself here, think of it as an opportunity to improve the process for everyone.

Candidate horror story awards

The zodiac award

Evaluating candidates is hard, but choosing dubious hiring criteria can put people off – go for a well-validated assessment instead.

I was asked what my star sign was. When I hesitantly replied, the interviewer commented that his son was the same one. Awkward silence followed.

— Lilian B.

The email confusion award

Communicating well with your hiring team is vital – mistakes happen occasionally, but candidates’ impression of your brand may be permanent.

I was interviewing with a manager for the role of flight attendant at an airline. Five minutes into the interview, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I checked it as soon as I left the interview – an hour later – and realized it was a rejection email from one of that company’s recruiters. I called them to see if it was a mistake – it wasn’t, they actually rejected me. I asked them why we had the interview in the first place. They couldn’t say.

— Anthony K.

The body image award

You expect candidates to be respectful and they expect the same from you. If something is irrelevant to their competency of doing the job, avoid asking about it.

I was once asked how much I weigh.

— Dimitris D.

I have been asked about my height.

— Sheila T.

The rampant sexism award

Sexism is an undeniable problem and everybody has the right to be treated with respect. Keep your questions strictly job-related and you’ll be more in line with proper protocol.

I was asked whether I believed in love at first sight. It’s a seemingly harmless question, but what does it have to do with the job? And would you ask a man that?

— Christina P.

I was once asked to sign an agreement that I wouldn’t have any children for at least three years. I had to agree as a condition to get hired. I didn’t, of course.

— Anonymous

I’ve had a really traumatic interview where they were asking me about my relationship status, when I plan to get married, when I plan to have kids (“…but you’re 30 so I imagine soon”), how I will manage work and home when this happens. It was awkward and terrible, especially coming from a woman interviewer who had a family of her own!

— Nikki D.

The K-Pop/Prada award

There is such a thing as a too-specific ‘ideal candidate’.

I was applying for an entertainment company and interviewed with the VP, a famous producer of K-pop. We were at his music studio – I was standing next to him in his ‘producing room’, listening to him talking about how great his music is and how he built the K-pop industry. At some point, he handed me the book “The Devil Wears Prada” and asked me if I could be exactly like the main character. I told him “no” because I find a lot of her actions unnecessary. Funny thing is I was hired and he ended up being a terrible boss – exactly like “the devil” in the book!

— Bora K.

The interrogation room award

Candidates are nervous enough as it is…

I interviewed at an embassy in Athens for an internship. They took me to a dark room with no windows where the only light came from a table lamp. I sat at a table while the interviewer was standing. When she learned I spent part of my childhood in Ukraine, she asked me whether I had any knowledge of Ukrainian child trafficking rings.

— Robert V.

The leopard heels award

Scammy companies dress their people in style – or do they?

I once applied to an ad from a dubiously named organization for a vaguely scripted job. They called me back the next day and a very attractive-sounding female said, “We’d like to have an interview with you and potentially offer you a job,” which sounded fishy to say the least. I Googled them and found they’re a scam that promises you huge bonuses and private plane rides, but essentially makes you sell door-to-door as a freelancer. Regardless, I decided to go to the interview for the experience and the giggles.

When I went to their office, I noticed that all the receptionists wore leopard heels and the interviewers wore laminated suits. The other interviewees were in no better shape: one of them had come to interview in sweatpants, with a take-away coffee in hand, and his girlfriend.

I was taken to the “Future Leaders Room” which, I swear to you, had a dingy old conference desk and posters of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie on the walls.

They called me a couple of hours after I left the interview. I never picked up the phone.

— Panos R.

The bathrobe award

Really now, shipowner?

A few years ago, I was looking for a job while I was still doing my degree. One of the interviews I was called to was a PA job for a famous shipowner. The interview was at his house because he had his office there too. I hadn’t completed my studies then and he could see that on my CV. Yet, he started asking me “Why are you still on your BSc?”, “Are you wasting my time?”, “You are not qualified for this job, you don’t have any other work experience.” I told him that he was the one to call me and that he should have looked at my resume before he did. I yelled at him that I don’t take insults from anybody and left. Did I tell you he was wearing just a bathrobe the whole time?

— Anonymous

The Louis Vuitton bag award

Offered salary shouldn’t depend on what candidates are currently making – or what you think they spend on things.

I had just graduated from college and I interviewed for the position of the CEO’s PA at a big pharmaceutical company. My first interview was with the existing PA, and my second interview was with the Marketing Director and another manager whose position I don’t recall.

When I went to the second interview, I carried a Louis Vuitton bag that my mom had given me as a graduation gift. The Marketing Director was asking common interview questions, when the other manager suddenly interrupted asking “Do you think it’s a good idea to bring that bag to an interview?” I realized he was referring to the fact that my bag was expensive and that we were in an economic crisis. I said that it was a gift and I didn’t think much about bringing it or not, it was just my bag. He then asked me, “So if we take your bag into account, what salary should we give you?”

Every answer that formed in my mind was very sarcastic but I settled with: “Whatever salary you think I deserve for the work I’ll do. You shouldn’t worry about what I do with it.”

A few more professional questions came from the Marketing Director, with the final question from the creep being: “What kind of car do you drive?” I replied “X car, it’s not expensive, is it?” “No, but it’s fancy,” he replied.

I didn’t get the job, but I wouldn’t have accepted to save my life.

— Eleni K.

The concept of reality award

The conversation might have been stimulating anyplace else.

Back when I was still an undergraduate student of informatics, I was looking for a part time job. I found an interesting job opening at a well-known insurance company for part-time assistant. I sent my CV and they called me a few days later, arranging an interview with Mr. K.

I arrived at the building and entered the main office – there was no reception room. They had an open space plan with boxed offices, but everyone was gone at that time except an old man in the back. There was complete silence.

The old man noticed me and stood up from his little cubicle. When he came closer, I noticed that his hair was standing on end, as if the man was experiencing great desperation or a mini-electrical shock. Half of his red tie was hanging behind his back.

He asked typical questions regarding studies and previous experience. He had a printed questionnaire full of checkboxes. He was writing down his notes as I answered. He wasn’t actually looking at me. But suddenly, he stopped, and looked at me straight in the eyes. The tie fell forward and he tossed it again behind his back. Then we had the weirdest exchange:

“Are you smart?”

“Yes, I consider myself smart.”

“If I considered you dumb, would you still be dumb or smart?”

“Everyone can have their opinion, that doesn’t mean every opinion is reality though.”

“But what is reality?”

After a few seconds of silence he continued ticking some checkboxes and rushed to say “Thank you Ms. T., bye!” Needless to say I was so relieved I left that building. I was sure I wouldn’t be offered the position and I was grateful for that.

— Gina T.

The really scammy scam award

Sometimes, you just know it won’t work… don’t let desperation get to you.

I was a 19-year-old college student and looking for a marketing internship. I applied and interviewed for many roles but didn’t land a job. Out of desperation, I sent out numerous applications in a single afternoon. Needless to say, I hadn’t done enough research on each position to know what I was getting myself into.

After a couple of days, I received an email to interview at a marketing company. At first, I was excited, but after looking closer at the position I spotted a few red flags. The company didn’t have a website, or any online reviews, and I couldn’t find any indication about what they actually did. The position wasn’t clear either, all I remember is they wanted someone with “a passion for marketing, high energy and an entrepreneurial spirit.” I should’ve trusted my gut, but I held out hope that this might be legit, so I went to the interview.

I drove and parked outside of the company offices which were in the basement of a small building on a busy road. I make my way down to the basement where about 15 other people around my age sat in a lobby. They were all there for interviews.

An overly cheery woman at the front desk checked me in on her long list of interviewees. She spent the next ten minutes hyping up our group, asking us about our hopes and dreams and praising us for having more drive than our peers for looking for an internship. There were uncomfortable smiles all around as we watched people be ushered in and out of interview rooms, each lasting no longer than five minutes.

Then, it was my turn. The creepily happy woman walked me into an office. A man behind the table shook my hand and spent the next five minutes asking me the most cliche interview questions: “Why are manhole covers round?” and “How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?” He explained this position was an opportunity to “be my own boss” and “work my own hours.” I’d be working off commission so I’d have to be a go-getter in order to make connections and sales (and there was no limit in how much money I could make). The role? I’d be going door to door selling phone plan contracts for big-name telecommunication companies. This was no marketing internship.

I got out of there and blocked the company’s number from my phone. I’ve learned since that this company holds creepy pep rallies every week where they teach bizarre sales acronyms that you have to repeat and chant as a group. It acts a bit like a cult as it works you to the bone and makes you depend on the community.

My advice to other desperate college students like me: trust your gut and don’t go to sketchy interviews like this. I accepted an amazing (and legitimate) marketing internship a few weeks later.

— Carolyn M.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably either laughing or shaking your head with all these hiring horror stories. Well, people are strange, what’s important is to learn from our experiences. Until next Halloween!

Bonus: How to be the worst interviewer – The worst interview questions

We’d love to hear your own stories! Tweet to us @Workable or share a post with us on Facebook or LinkedIn.

The post 15 job interview horror stories that you won’t believe appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Manage your recruiting brand, provide clear and frequent communication and help candidates feel at ease so they can do their best. Make those that get hired excited to start and those that don’t interested in coming back in the future.

Bonus: We’re totally mobile-friendly for every step of the candidate’s journey.

The candidate journey using Workable

Finding the job

Be where candidates are. Quickly post to all the most popular job boards, create social ad campaigns and tap in to coworkers’ networks with a referral portal. Plus, design a career page to your specific needs, creating not only a resource for prospective candidates, but keeping things up to date with your latest benefits, employee testimonials, photos, videos and more.

Applying

In a hot job market, candidates have many choices. Use Workable to design sensible application forms, making it easy for candidates to apply for your jobs. Workable parses resumes to eliminate the need for applicants to manually reenter details.

Communicating

Reduce candidates’ stress with clear communication. Take advantage of personalized templates and automations to always keep candidates in the loop through email and text message. Tools for self-scheduling put control in the candidate’s hand meaning time saved when it comes to nailing down a time to meet or rescheduling.

Evaluations

When it’s time to interview, Workable automatically builds landing pages where candidates can see the name, photo and title of everyone they’ll meet with, in addition to a map and directions to the office location or virtual meeting details. Native tools for video interviews and assessments are built with options to customize answer time, number of takes and practice modes. Candidates can get comfortable and do their best.

Document signing

Ready to lock in your next hire? Secure their commitment with a formal, custom offer letter. Upload templates with your own branding and design so that it’s easy to send once approved internally. Candidates can review the details and sign from desktop or mobile. When their signature’s submitted they copy of the document sent to them right away. You’re not just limited to offers. Send documents at any point in the hiring process – especially helpful when NDAs or other forms are required.

Surveying

Learn more about what your candidates think. Use surveys to gauge reactions and gather intel about your hiring process. Listen to candidates, create more equitable experiences, and better understand demographic information.

Not to mention…

Workable has features for anonymized screening, language options, background checks, integrations with your preferred HR tools, talent pool and nurturing options. We’re evolving and adding more tools all the time.

The post Maximize your candidates’ experience using Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here, in a nutshell, are the rulings on each case:

In Biden v Missouri, the Supreme Court held that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does have the authority to require all health care workers at institutions that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding to get COVID-19 vaccinations, unless they get medical or religious exemptions. If they fail to do either, then they could be fired.

Perhaps the more talked-about case, National Federation of Businesses et al v Department of Labor, Occupational, Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) et al, led to the opposite conclusion. The OSHA mandate required that employers with at least 100 employees had to require their employees to either receive COVID-19 vaccines or test weekly and wear masks.

Why such diametrically opposite rulings for such similar mandates? It all came down to whether the entity in question had the authority to mandate the vaccine. Regarding the OSHA mandate, the Court ruled OSHA did not have the authority, because, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (which created the OSH-Administration) “empowers the Secretary [of Labor] to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.”

The Court further reasoned that “Although COVID-19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most … COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases.”

Therefore, per the Court’s reasoning, the OSHA mandate would “significantly expand” OSHA’s authority beyond the limits set by Congress in the OSH-Act.

While multiple states argued that DHHS did not have the scope to issue such a mandate, the Court noted that “healthcare facilities that wish to participate in Medicare and Medicaid have always been obligated to satisfy a host of conditions that address the safe and effective provision of healthcare, not simply sound accounting.”

How then, does the US Department of Health and Human Services have the authority to issue and enforce a similar mandate? In this case, the Court cited funding requirements. The hospitals in question receive Medicare and/or Medicaid funding. The DHHS has always had authority to set conditions both for funding and for “the safe and effective provision of healthcare”.

So what do you do as an employer now?

What do these rulings mean for employers? Unless your business is a hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funding, the ruling in that case (Biden v Missouri) will have no impact.

Similarly, if your business has fewer than 100 employees, neither ruling impacts your business.

If you are an employer with more than 100 employees, then your business is no longer subject to the OSH-Admin mandate.

That does not mean that you do not have an obligation to take reasonable steps to protect your employees from COVID exposure. Vaccination or other safety protocols might well be necessary to achieve those ends, in which case you might still be obligated to take the same measures, but OSHA will have to jump through more hoops if it wants to take action against your company on that basis.

Need more support? Check out our mandatory vaccination and workplace safety policy template, which is free for you to use and customize for your own organization.

Janette S. Levey, ‘The Employer’s Lawyer’, has over 20 years of legal experience, more than 10 of which she has spent in Employment Law. She is licensed in NJ and NY and also works with employers anywhere in the country on any federal employment law issues to ensure that employers are in the best position possible to avoid litigation, audits, employee relations problems, and the attendant, often exorbitant costs. Feel free to visit Janette’s website or to contact Janette by email, janette@janetteleveylaw.com or phone, 732-902-0728. 

The post US Supreme Court’s mixed ruling on vaccine mandates: What do you do now? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The only real ‘surprise’, if there’s one, is that other studies show a growth in value placed on job attractors besides compensation – such as the willingness to take less salary in order to remain remote according to a TeamBlind survey, and the value of perks over salary as a motivator according to Staples.

Our dataset, however, clearly indicates that compensation remains the number-one driver in career opportunities across the board. As one respondent succinctly put it:

“Employees will go where the money is. And where they’re treated respectfully and valued. But, mostly, it’s the money.”

Take a look at the dataset and see for yourself.

Money above all

As stated above, a full seven out of 10 respondents are open to new opportunities, whether they’re passively open or actively looking.

When we asked those respondents to choose from a list of top reasons why they’re open to new opportunities, nearly two-thirds (63.4%) selected “I need to make more money”.

That’s more than double the next-most popular reason, which is “I need a fresh challenge” (24.6%).

Work flexibility (20.8%), meaningfulness in work (19.3%) and career advancement (also 19.3%) are other leading factors prompting the drive to explore new job opportunities. Still, those numbers pale in comparison to compensation.

We also asked respondents what would lure them from their present job to a new one, again choosing from a list of popular attractors. Again, compensation remains the top attractor, with 62.2% of respondents in the US citing that as a top factor in deciding to move to a new company.

Again, other major attractors here are similar to the previous question, with career opportunities (38.1%), work flexibility (37.5%) and job security (32.1%) being reasons why someone would jump to a new job.

Another respondent was frank about their emphasis on salary as the dealmaker:

“If someone pays me more than I make running my own company, I’ll do it!”

We know there are nuanced differences between what an individual might want in terms of a new job at a different company and what they might want to see improved in their current capacity. It’s the difference between being ready to leave and being satisfied, but not 100%, with one’s current workplace.

So we asked that question separately: what could be improved in your current job for a better employee experience?

The answers are still very much the same. Compensation, again, is the number-one area where their current employer can improve, with 57.4% picking that as a top area for improvement.

A third respondent noted the importance of keeping salaries proportionally balanced throughout a company – especially when a company is growing and accumulating wealth:

“As a business owner, I understand that you can not cave to every whim your employees have, but instead of prioritizing balloon money bombs for executive persons, make the wealth of the company available to the people that make it happen. Smaller executive bonuses in favor of increased bonuses / benefits / perks for the workers/moving parts of a successful company.”

Is salary important? Yes, it is, but there are other forms of compensation worth noting.

The different types of compensation

Now, compensation doesn’t necessarily mean only a base salary. It can also mean paid time off, paid vacations, bonuses, incentives, extra perks and benefits, company lunches, team outings, tuition or mortgage reimbursements, pre-tax benefits, and many other things.

Intangibles can include company-wide recognition, advancement potential, the ability to work remotely and on flexible schedules, mentorship, network building, and so on.

Even then, support from their employer – whether it’s in the actual day-to-day work or moral/emotional support – are at the bottom of both lists. The traditional core elements of having a job (compensation, career opportunities, job security) continue to be top of mind.

The motivators are clear – workers in the United States want and need to make more money. Salary is important. Full stop.

There is just one area of the intangibles that deserves a deeper dive: work flexibility, which ranks highly across all these lists. We’ll go deep into that area in the next chapter.

The post Is salary important to workers? Bet your bottom dollar it is appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Our own dataset, however, finds that compensation remains a leading motivator when looking at career opportunities. A US-based respondent from our other survey report on the same topic puts it perfectly:

“Employees will go where the money is. And where they’re treated respectfully and valued. But, mostly, it’s the money.”

Money above all

As stated above, a vast majority of respondents are open to new opportunities, whether they’re passively open or actively looking. When we asked those respondents to choose from a list of top reasons why they’re open to new opportunities, more than half (53.5%) selected “I need to make more money” as a major reason.

Closely following in second place is “I need a fresh challenge”, with 43.9% citing that as a reason.

The need for more meaning in work is a distant third, at 21.9%.

We also asked respondents what would lure them from their present job to a new one, again choosing from a list of popular attractors. Again, compensation tops the list, with 70.1% of UK respondents citing that as a leading motivator when deciding to move to a new company.

Work flexibility (43.5%) and job security (39.5%) are the second and third-most popular attractors in a new opportunity.

One UK respondent noted their disappointment at their current employer cutting corners on compensation:

“The company pays less as we are touted as ‘independent contractors’, they can seemingly bend the rules.”

We know there are nuanced differences between what someone might be hoping to get in terms of a new job at a different company, and what they might want to see improved in their current capacity. It’s the difference between being ready to leave and being satisfied – albeit not 100% with one’s current working situation.

So we asked that question separately: what could be improved in your current job for a better employee experience?

Again, compensation is the number-one area where their current employer can improve, with 60.7% picking that as a top area in need of improvement.

It’s worth noting another comment from the US, on the importance of keeping salaries proportionally balanced throughout a company – especially when a company is growing and accumulating wealth:

“As a business owner, I understand that you can not cave to every whim your employees have, but instead of prioritizing balloon money bombs for executive persons, make the wealth of the company available to the people that make it happen. Smaller executive bonuses in favor of increased bonuses / benefits / perks for the workers/moving parts of a successful company.”

The different types of compensation

Now, compensation doesn’t necessarily mean only a base salary. It can also mean paid time off, paid vacations, bonuses, incentives, extra perks and benefits, company lunches, team outings, tuition or mortgage reimbursements, pre-tax benefits, and many other things.

Intangibles can include company-wide recognition, advancement potential, the ability to work remotely and on flexible schedules, mentorship, network building, and so on.

Even those intangibles – while still valued – aren’t worth as much as raw compensation. Support from their employer, whether it’s in the actual day-to-day work or moral/emotional support are at the bottom of both lists. This suggests that the traditional core elements of having a job (i.e. compensation, career opportunities, job security) remain paramount for workers.

The motivators are clear – the working population in the UK want and need to make more money. Full stop.

There’s just one little intangible that deserves a much deeper dive: work flexibility, which ranks highly across all these lists. We’ll take a deep dive into that in the next chapter.

The post How valued is salary in the UK? Quite a bit, actually appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here’s what we learned:

Most of our respondents say they’re working full-time (60.1%), and another fifth (22.2%) working part time. Just one in 10 (10.4%) say they’re not working right now.

Another 7.4% of respondents say they’re working for themselves, whether that means they’re a contractor, freelancing, or running their own business.

One in 10 respondents (10.4%) say they’re not working right now.

But when we looked at the responses by gender, the numbers were more striking. Those identifying as females are far more likely to be not working (14.5% vs. 6.1%) or working part-time (31.3% vs. 13%) than males.

Females working for themselves also represented a much higher percentage than their male counterparts (10.8% vs. 4%).

On the flip side, more than three quarters of males (76.9%) are working full-time, compared with just 43.4% of females, a significant difference of 33.5 percentage points.

Of those not working, nearly two out of five (38.5%) have not worked in more than five years.

Three out of 10 (30.7%) say they last worked within the last year, with 19.2% saying they have not been working for less than six months.

And now, the important part for you, the employer: a vast majority (74.6%) say they are either actively (29.6%) or passively (45.1%) looking at new opportunities.

That’s three quarters of all respondents who might leave you at any time – meaning when you look at your current workforce, just one in four are pretty settled in their current working capacity.

And many are actually just starting to look for other opportunities right now. Of those actively looking or passively open to new work, 56.6% started looking within the last half year (26.7% just started now, 29.9% in the last half year).

Employers take note: this means a majority of your people are looking to leave or they’re open to that possibility. On the flip side, if you’re looking to hire or build teams, you have a wealth of available talent to tap into here.

This requires a deeper understanding of who these people are and why they’re looking so you can evolve your recruitment and people strategy, as Personio’s CEO recommends. Let’s dig in.

Minorities are looking

One of the demographic questions we asked in the survey was; “Do you identify as a member of a minority group (be it race, ethnicity, language, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, gender, or another characteristic)?”. Three out of 10 (30.9%) say they do, compared with 66.1% who say they don’t, and 3% prefer not to say.

So we looked at responses based on those answers. Those identifying as minorities are also much more likely to be actively looking (41.3% vs. 24.2%) than those not identifying as minorities. And nearly twice as many non-minorities say they’re not looking for new opportunities when compared with minorities (29% vs. 15.5%).

Younger people are looking

Those in the “actively looking” category are more significantly represented by younger cohorts. More than two out of five (41.7%) of those aged 21-29 say they’re outright looking for new opportunities, with that number skewing sharply downwards when looking at higher age groups.

When combined, the numbers are striking: a staggering 79.8% of those aged 21-29 and a significantly higher 85.1% of those aged 31-39 are either actively looking for or passively open to new work right now. This means just one in five of those aged 21 to 29 and less than 15% of those aged 30 to 39 can be seen as quite settled in their current roles.

Interestingly, the top age group passively open to new opportunities is 50-59 (54.1%).

We know that tenures are usually shorter for younger people. Also younger people tend to be more in rank-and-file positions than managerial/upper-crust positions, and those roles tend to see higher turnover.

But it also indicates younger generations in the UK expect more from their employers and are less willing to put up with the current reality in the workplace.

All in all, people are looking

Again, the message is clear: three quarters of your employees at your company have one foot out of the door at any given time. Your talent is ready to jump ship as soon as they find something better. That’s particularly if they’re younger or if they identify as a minority.

But looking at it from another perspective, this also means a huge talent market that you can tap into when hiring. That raises a new question – how do you attract them to your company?

We’ll cover this in detail in the next few articles, but if you want to read more right now, jump right into our comprehensive Great Discontent worker survey report right here.

The post 74.6% of UK workers open to new work, survey finds appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here’s what we learned:

Most of our US respondents say they’re working full-time (55.3%), with an additional 13.5% working part-time.

One in 10 respondents (10.4%) say they’re working for themselves, whether that means they’re a contractor, freelancing, or running their own business.

One fifth of respondents (20.8%) say they’re not working right now.

Those identifying as females are far more likely to be not working (26% vs. 15.3%) or working part-time (17.7% vs. 8.6%) than males.

We also found an equally striking gender imbalance in those who are working. Those identifying as male are resoundingly more likely to be working full-time (68.4% vs. 46.3%, a difference of 22.1 in percentage points).

And for part-time workers, the opposite is true – 17.7% of those identifying as female are working part-time compared with 8.6% of males.

Of those not working, more than a third (34.4%) have not worked in more than five years.

More than a fifth (21.9%) say their current status not working began just in the last six months, with an additional 13.8% saying it’s been half a year to one year since they had been working.

And now, the important part for you, the employer: seven out of 10 (70.7%) say they are either actively (33.4%) or passively (37.3%) looking for work.

This means that when you look at your existing workforce, just three out of every 10 aren’t potentially looking for work at this time.

And many are actually just starting to look at other opportunities. Of those either actively looking or passively open to other work, 54% started within the last half year (28.1% just started now, 25.7% in the last half year).

Employers take note: this means a majority of your people are looking to leave or they’re open to that possibility. On the flip side, if you’re looking to hire or build teams, you have a wealth of available talent to tap into here.

This merits a deeper understanding of who these people are and why they’re looking, so you can evolve your recruitment and people strategy. Let’s dig in.

Minorities are looking

One of the demographic questions we asked in the survey was; “Do you identify as a member of a minority group (be it race, ethnicity, language, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, gender, or another characteristic)?”. A full third (33%) say they do, compared with 61.6% who say they don’t, and 5.3% prefer not to say.

So we looked at responses based on those answers. Those identifying as minorities are much more likely to be actively looking (42.9% vs. 29.3%) than those not identifying as minorities.

Younger people are looking

While the “passively looking” category is equally represented across age groups from 21 to 49 years of age, it’s the “actively looking” category that is significantly represented by younger cohorts, with 42.8% of those aged 21-29 saying they’re outright looking for new opportunities.

And when combined, the numbers are striking: a staggering 80% of those aged 21-29, 74.9% of those aged 31-39, and 75% of those aged 40-49 are either actively looking for or passively open to work right now.

We know that tenures are usually shorter for younger people. Also younger people tend to be more in rank-and-file positions than managerial/upper-crust positions, and those tend to see higher turnover.

But it also means younger generations in the United States expect more from their employers and are less willing to put up with the current reality in the workplace.

All in all, people are looking

Again, this points to a clear message: seven out of 10 employees at your company have one foot out of the door at any given time. Your talent is ready to leave as soon as they find something better. That’s particularly if they’re younger or if they identify as a minority.

But again, this is a huge talent market right here that you can tap into when hiring. Which raises a new question – how do you attract them to your company?

We’ll cover this in detail in the next few articles, but if you want to read more right now, jump right into our comprehensive Great Discontent US worker survey report right here.

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He said he was incarcerated. I didn’t know what to say, so I said something like, “Oh, that’s nice,” and continued to ask him about his previous work history. Talk about awkward!

Here’s what I should have done. I should have taken a pause and collected my thoughts. In this situation, you had to have a clean record to work in the department he was applying for. If you were in my shoes, you could say, “I’m sorry, but the position you’re applying for requires passing a background check. We have other positions where this isn’t a requirement. Would you be interested in learning more about these opportunities?”

NOTE: Check out these tips for background check best practices. 

Conversations about compensation

There are also those uncomfortable conversations around compensation, especially if you work for an employer who pays less than market rates. As a hiring manager, you’re not quite sure when to bring this up, and as a candidate, you’re unsure if you should ask questions regarding pay.

Wasting people’s time is no good, which is why I encourage my clients to discuss pay when they’re screening candidates, especially if the person they’re speaking to appears to have significantly more responsibility than the job requires or if they’re coming from a major city and my client is based in a small town.

Hiring managers can start the conversation about pay by asking, “What are you looking for in terms of compensation?” Let’s say a candidate’s salary expectations are slightly higher than what you’ve budgeted for. Probe further to see if there is something else you can offer them, such as a signing bonus, or additional benefits.

Suppose a candidate’s expectations far exceed your salary range. In situations like this, honesty is the best policy. Tell the candidate that it appears you are too far apart in terms of compensation. Ask them if they have any flexibility regarding pay. If they say no, it’s best to thank them for their time and end the interview.

NOTE: Sometimes you do have to navigate other tough questions – check out these other tips to handle tough questions from candidates like a pro.

Conversations about pandemic policy

A new awkward conversation has recently moved into the mainstream for hiring managers, courtesy of the pandemic. The need to address company policies concerning vaccination requirements and back-to-office decisions is unsettling for many.

To avoid legal problems, hiring managers are well-advised to check with their HR departments regarding how to best handle this topic. My suggestion is to state your company policy, including details about whether the role is remote, hybrid, or in person. You can also share information on vaccination policy, masks in the office, and other considerations around COVID-19 workplace safety. Follow this up by asking, “Will this present a problem for you?”

If a candidate takes issue, and your policy is firm, then you’ve reached a standstill. Let the candidate know that your company’s position is firm, and that you’re unable to proceed.

Awkwardness during onboarding

Early in my career, I was being onboarded by a company that walked me around their large facility and failed to mention where the restrooms were. It wasn’t until I absolutely had to go that I mustered up the courage to ask my boss where the bathrooms were located! A checklist, in terms of what should be covered for new hires on an employee’s first day, will prevent you from making the same mistake.

Another avoidable uncomfortable conversation that occurs during the onboarding process is when the employee discovers the job they’ve been hired to do is vastly different from the job described to them during the interview. In my experience, most employees won’t say anything when this first occurs. They’re thinking, “Surely things will get better.” Usually, this is not the case.

How to get ‘unawkward’

In my newest book, Can We Talk? Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work, I write that you have to have the courage of your talent. Make an appointment with your boss. This small step will propel you into action. Then, think about what you’d ultimately like to see happen as a result of your conversation. Knowing this will help you stay on track during the conversation.

Another challenging work conversation that occurs during onboarding happens when one of the parties quickly realizes a hiring mistake has been made. Let’s say you’re the hiring manager, and you promptly conclude you hired the wrong person. If you’ve noticed this, there’s a good chance the employee is feeling the same way.

Honestly, honesty is the best policy. If you’re the manager, pull together examples of why you think this person is a mismatch for the job. When speaking with the employee, allow them to resign, as there is no point in taking this person’s ego down a few notches while taking away their job.

Awkward conversations in the workplace aren’t disappearing any time soon. The sooner you get better at managing these awkward conversations when hiring, the better it will be for those candidates you move through the recruitment process and ultimately, into your workforce.

For more than 25 years, Roberta Matuson, president of Matuson Consulting, has helped leaders in highly regarded companies, including General Motors, New Balance, and Microsoft, and small to medium-size businesses, achieve dramatic growth and market leadership through the maximization of talent.

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Quit rates are through the roof, and weirdly enough, it’s not translating into a larger and more active candidate pool for employers – rather, it’s the opposite. Workers appear to be dropping out of the system, and they’re not all ready to move to a new job. Data from the Workable network confirms this as well.

Employers are taking a hit from all this. At best, they’re making do with leaner teams; at worst, they’re shutting down entirely because of this unique talent shortage.

It’s becoming more challenging to retain talent, and harder to attract candidates to new roles. As leaders in the hiring space, we’re very cognizant of this, and we want to help you overcome these challenges. So, instead of theorizing and speculating and predicting and analyzing, we decided to ask 1,250 workers in the US and UK to find out what they want and value in a job.

Out of the many insights in the Great Discontent survey, we have four main takeaways for you:

Money still talks

Despite all the new workplace developments, salary, perks and benefits are still top of mind. People want – and need – more of it when working.

Flexy is sexy

Flexible work arrangements are important to many workers – and much more for women than men – but it’s not as high of a priority for their employers.

The power of connectivity

No matter the kind of work involved, people are at the heart of it all. When people feel connected to their colleagues and leadership, they’ll stay and they’ll thrive.

There’s no place like home

Integrating personal and professional lives is very important for people – it’s the top reason why those not working aren’t working and the top benefit of flexible work. Again, this is especially so for women.

Our survey also finds that three quarters of workers may be ready to bolt at any given time. This signals a potential disconnect in the system. It’s a tough situation for employers, and this may require a fresh look at your talent attraction and retention strategy.

These are strange, historic, exciting times, and it’s clear the rules of the game are changing for employers. We don’t have all the answers – those will come later in hindsight. But the conversation is always worth adding to. We think you’ll find useful insights here as we venture into the new world of work and post-pandemic environment.

Without further ado, check out our reports:

• The Great Discontent: 2021 Worker Survey (US)
• The Great Discontent: 2021 Worker Survey (UK)

Have insights, concerns, criticisms, swear words, accolades, or anything else? We’d love to hear them. Please send them to our content team at content@workable.com and we’ll be sure to address each and every one of them.

Yours in sustainability,

Nikos Moraitakis
CEO, Workable

The post Announcing the Great Discontent: 2021 Worker Survey appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But even for the most abstract tests, there are still best practices that can ensure you can learn what you need to know about a candidate.

Enter science and technology. Since you’re digitally transforming your entire recruitment process, it makes sense that you can and should digitize your assessments as well. Plus, you want to have a standardized process like in every other stage in the recruitment process.

Workable’s cognitive and personality assessments are specifically designed to fit in seamlessly within that environment to ensure you make the right hire for your business. There are five areas where you can test candidates:

1. Workplace personality
2. Abstract reasoning
3. Verbal comprehension
4. Numerical comprehension
5. Attention & Focus

The first of these, of course, is the personality assessment, while the other four are for assessing cognitive abilities.

These tests weren’t designed on a whim. A great deal of background and research – including input from international psychology experts – have gone into the design and development of these tests.

We know you want to ensure these assessments are valid and rooted in science before using them in your recruitment process, so we’ll give you some quick highlights to save you the time of researching the deeper material. Once you understand the science, you can then think about how you might include them in your process – please see our resources at the end that can help you with that.

Personality test science and methodology

Workable’s personality assessment is deeply rooted in scientific methods, and is built on the Five Factor model of personality testing accepted in psychology circles worldwide as the de facto model of personality.

The five factors come from statistical analysis of the adjectives used to describe people across five dimensions – and have been translated to many languages and cultures. They are:

1. Agreeableness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Openness To Experience
5. Emotional Stability (or Neuroticism)

These factors are sometimes referred to as the acronyms OCEAN or CANOE. They’re not based on an either-or measurement, but rather, on where a test-taker places on a scale or continuum. It’s been scientifically linked to predictors around health, education and on-the-job behaviors, which makes it a valuable test to evaluate candidates for a role.

Workable’s version of the Five Factor model goes deeper, analyzing 16 additional areas that are selected and modified to be most relevant in the selection process. Workable’s personality assessments have also been analyzed for consistency using Cronbach’s alpha testing and other indexes. For some quick context, this is a common statistical analysis designed to ensure the validity of Likert scale surveys (i.e. sliding-scale or continuum surveys).

Many questions have been adopted from the public domain International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), which have contributed to questionnaires in more than 850 published studies. The IPIP scales have demonstrated high internal consistency metrics along with strong correlations with the scales of many established personality questionnaires. (You can examine the comparisons here.) This further validates many of the scales we measure in our personality assessments.

Cognitive test science and methodology

Professionally designed by testing experts at Psycholate, Workable’s cognitive assessments are likewise modeled after common cognitive tests in the industry.

The verbal and numerical comprehension question sets have been professionally designed by testing experts, and cross-checked by psychologists with a background in psychometrics to ensure validity and accuracy. Other tests were also performed including the above-mentioned IRT testing and parameter estimation, and items that met the criteria were added to the abstract reasoning and attention & focus question banks.

Meanwhile, for the abstract reasoning and attention & focus assessment tests, multiple prototypes were created and tested, contributing to the final version that a candidate sees when they take these tests. Again, these tests were professionally tested and reviewed by psychology experts to ensure each test meets psychometric and industry standards of quality.

Cronbach’s alpha testing was also applied during design and pilot stages.

Real-time scoring, adaptability and length

These tests are not simply scored via ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ answers. Rather, they utilize the universally recognized Item Response Theory (IRT) framework. It uses complex statistical algorithms with each question having a measured level of difficulty and quality metric based on historical data.

Scoring for all four cognitive assessment tests is conducted using the Expected A Posteriori (EAP), which allows for real-time scoring of the candidate with each question answered, and updating upcoming questions based on that scoring. This means the next question is presented based on previous answers.

An adaptive test will estimate the candidate’s ability after every new response based on answers up to that point. It will then adjust and display the most suitable or relevant question to match that just-estimated ability level. As a result, an adaptive test is shorter because it only asks the questions that are needed, without burdening the candidate with potentially irrelevant questions.

Also, unlike preconfigured tests with a set number of questions, an adaptive test decides when to stop based on answers received up to that point. IRT scoring offers not only a score for the ability of a candidate; our assessments can also calculate the positive or negative quality of this score via the Standard Error of measurement (SEm).

Obviously, a score based on more items is more reliable. So Workable’s adaptive tests will stop once a candidate’s score reaches a satisfactory and measurable level (i.e. a low enough SEm) or when a maximum number of questions (for example, 20) has been reached in order to protect the test content.

This all ultimately means that each individual candidate will experience a different and unique set of questions. Along with other measures, this ultimately assures test security: It’s practically impossible to replicate the exact same test or create a cheat sheet to assist in ‘passing’ a test.

There are safeguards in place to ensure that the same question isn’t asked twice in the same assessment.

Want to learn more?

This is, of course, just a summarization of the main science and methodology that have provided the foundation on which Workable Assessments is built. Now that you have a high-level understanding of the science behind the tests and what they’re testing for, it’s now time to think about how you might incorporate that as an essential tool in your hiring toolbox.

If you’re interested in learning more about our assessments feature – or even taking it for a test drive – don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Finally, if you’d like to learn more about some of the concerns around assessments from a candidate’s perspective and why you needn’t worry, we cover that in this article. Meanwhile, here’s a tutorial on how to conduct a post-personality assessment interview.

The post Workable Assessments: The science behind it all appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

With automated actions, our newest efficiency-boosting tool, make recruiters’ jobs easier and speed up time to hire by automating repetitive tasks and emails. Automate and personalize bulk candidate communication to increase productivity, allow candidates to self-schedule meeting times to streamline interview scheduling, and ensure every applicant gets a customized and personalized response to improve both the candidate experience and your employer brand.

Workable helps companies in 100+ countries efficiently scale up their hiring processes with tools like hiring plan, interview self-scheduling, native video interviews, and top-notch customer support.

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For instance:

• When hiring and onboarding employees remotely, how can employers be sure that they’re hiring who they think they’re hiring?
• Is the person participating in the interview the same person whose credentials were outlined in the resume/application that was submitted?
• Is the person taking pre-hire tests or assessments the actual applicant?

These risks associated with candidate identity are not outside the realm of possibility. Some companies are already taking steps to help ensure that their new hires are who they say they are – with some utilizing technology and others applying innovative non-tech-related tricks to help weed out the tricksters.

Eight steps to verify candidate identity

Here are eight real-life strategies companies are taking to ensure candidate identity:

1. Include detail-oriented follow-up questions
2. Pay attention to assessments
3. Check IDs during video interviews
4. Use e-signatures
5. Introduce identification scoring
6. Ask verification questions
7. Monitor your candidates
8. Take advantage of third-party resources

1. Include detail-oriented follow-up questions

One way to verify that the candidate is the same person you’ve been evaluating throughout is to include follow-up questions on earlier stages in the recruitment process.

For example, Hosea Chang, COO of clothing retailer Hayden Girls, says employers, recruiters, HR pros and hiring managers can “make sure their hires are acting in good faith by embedding small nonsensical phrases in email communication, assessments, and other correspondence and then quizzing them on it when speaking directly.”

Hosea shares an example of some of the strategies being used to verify candidate identity.

“If someone is taking an accounting exam and they come across the phrase ‘big blue elephants smoking cigars’ randomly in the text, they will probably have some sort of recollection of it when you ask them about it later.”

The point, Hosea says, “is to give little nuggets that your candidates will take note of that won’t make sense in any context until you bring it up.”

Michael Hammelburger, CEO of The Bottom Line Group, uses a similar approach.

“During the post-assessment interview, we ask them about the test and further explain their answers,” Michael says. “We try to test how well they understood the task and dig deeper into their opinions. This helps verify the credibility of their answers.”

2. Pay attention to assessments

Employers are also getting creative, and detailed, in the types of assessments they use to evaluate candidate competencies. This can also help verify candidate identity.

For instance, Davis Nguyen, founder of My Consulting Offer, share the process he used recently when hiring a remote marketing manager. Candidates were asked to do a data analysis and to record a presentation of their findings. If the presentation doesn’t look natural – or looks like the candidate is reading from a script – they’re not considered for the position.

Those that make it to this point in the recruitment process are then invited to a one-on-one interview with the hiring manager, says Davis. The hiring manager then probes into more detail about the assessment, asking questions that can reasonably be answered only by someone who did that assessment.

“For example, we would ask why they set up the pivot tables a certain way or what data they could segment further with the data they had,” Davis says. “If someone had asked or paid someone else to take the assessment, it would have been clear that they wouldn’t know the answers.”

My Consulting Offer has operated fully remotely since its inception in 2017, and Davis adds that this method of verifying candidate identity is used for all hires.

3. Check IDs during video interviews

Methods of verifying the identity of job applicants and interviews don’t necessarily have to be this complex.
There are other, simpler tactics that interviewers can do to verify candidate identity, such as asking to see a candidate’s identification on camera – such as a driver’s license or another form of ID – during a video interview, without giving them advance notice prior to the interview process.

Tech can help verify candidate identity

Follow-up questions, post-assessment meetings, and on-camera verification can be seamlessly worked into the recruitment process to ensure candidate identity.

Technology can also help you ensure that candidates are who they say they are throughout the process – and there are numerous tools out there that can help you.

4. Use e-signatures

Jessica Robinson is a senior content manager at The Speaking Polymath, a content resource center. She recommends verifying candidate identity through e-signatures.

“To ensure that the candidate who appeared in the video interview is the one whose application was received, employers and managers can [use] e-signatures,” she says.

“For example, they can let the candidates know that they have to send e-signatures with their resumes. Then, during the video interview, the interviewers can verify the e-signatures of the candidates on the spot.”

Jessica points to platforms like signNow as a means of doing this.

5. Introduce identification scoring

Identification scoring is another method of verifying identity that relies on technology. Identification scoring is a method used to detect fraud in business settings – a practice used in the mortgage industry, says Charles McMillan, founder of Stand With Main Street, a company that helps clients formally register their new businesses.

He suggests this is a method that employers might also use to verify the identity of applicants.

“An identity-score system can use the internet to check the legitimacy of someone’s public identity,” says McMillan. “Credit records, corporate and web data, personal identifiers, and other information are included in identity scores.”

6. Ask verification questions

Identity verification services like the type used in the financial services industry that ask loan applicants a series of very specific questions only they would know the answers to, are another option to confirm candidate identity. This is a suggestion from Jordan Lowry, COO of resume-writing service Resumoo.

“Utilizing a secure identity verification service offers an extra buffer of protection beyond a standard W4,” says Jordan. “Once logged in, potential employees will be asked three to five questions regarding their history in order to verify their identity.”

7. Monitor your candidates

Technology can also be an aid in monitoring candidates as they take assessments. For example, you want to ensure they aren’t looking up answers online while completing the assessment.

It’s the same type of technology that is becoming more commonly used in educational settings where schools and instructors may be concerned about remote students using external sources on exams. Software like TestGorilla has been designed specifically to address potential issues with candidates “cheating” during assessments. The software provides automatic snapshots of candidates as they’re being tested and generates alerts if candidates exit the full-screen mode which might suggest they’re on other sites.

Take care when carrying out this method of verifying candidate identity, however, as this could indicate a lack of trust on your part as a potential employer. To circumvent this, ensure that you have the right messaging in place so the candidate fully understands why you’re doing this and that it isn’t representative of how you would treat them as an employee.

8. Take advantage of third-party resources

In addition to all of these options, in some cases, employers can leave the task of verifying identity to others.

With the rise in the gig economy, many employers are opting to hire temporary, contract or freelance staff to help with specific projects. A number of online platforms have emerged as resources for those looking for a wide range of talent. Platforms like Virtual Vocations, Upwork, Skyword, Contently, and many others, offer access to candidates – and have also taken their own steps to vet candidates providing added confidence to employers.

You can also utilize third-party background check services, including Checkr.

Remote hiring, at least to some capacity, will continue to be widely used by employers even after pandemic concerns have subsided. While remote hiring offers many benefits for both employers and employees, it does come with risks.

As we’ve seen, though, employers have a wide array of options for taking steps to ensure that the candidates they interview are who they say they are, and have the skills and competencies they purport to have.

No one wants to make a bad hire – the costs of replacing an employee can be significant. Having strategies in place to verify candidate identity can be crucial in hiring the best candidates, especially in competitive sectors.

The post Verifying candidate identity: 8 real-life strategies that work appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But how can you choose who to move to the next phase based solely on those criteria? Even though you have some evidence, it’s easy to get lost in translation, especially when you have numerous applicants to screen.

That’s where Workable Assessments can step in and do the trick.

First, you’ll get a better overview of each candidate’s skills on different cognitive areas that you define as important to thrive. Second, you’ll learn more about their workplace personality and behavior to see if they’re a good fit for your current team and workplace.

Certified by psychometric experts and designed within the Workable platform, the Workable Assessments feature is not only credible, but also a handy solution for hiring teams. With easy access to performance insights and a user-friendly interface that enables collaboration, it’s an asset for organizations who want to introduce pre-employment testing into their screening process.

Inside Workable Assessments: Understanding different test types

Here’s a brief breakdown of Workable Assessments: the cognitive part consists of four tests measuring different types of mental skills – abstract reasoning, numerical comprehension, verbal comprehension, and attention & focus.

1. Cognitive Assessments

Abstract reasoning: This looks at the ability to logically analyze multiple information that are presented in a more abstract form – usually not numbers or words. For example, software engineers and researchers often need to think abstractly and out-of-the-box to recognize patterns and resolve problems in a resourceful way.

Numerical comprehension: This assesses how candidates handle and analyze numerical data in order to reach appropriate decisions. For example, an accounting candidate should have a high degree of this skill in order to perform their daily responsibilities. Overall, positions in Finance, Banking and Audit require a high numerical comprehension level.

Verbal comprehension: This measures the ability to understand and analyze verbal information, such as arguments and written statements, e.g. reports. For instance, it’s a critical skill for lawyers and journalists, among others.

Attention & focus: This assesses abilities that require observation and acute working memory. This is vital for roles that require a high attention span or switch often between tasks, such as content editors and data entry agents.

The jobs mentioned in the examples above are indicative. Every company shapes their roles based on its business needs and for similar job titles, requirements may vary. Once you define the mandatory skill set needed, you can hand over the related assessments to candidates.

2. Workplace Personality Assessment

Workable’s personality assessment is based on the Big 5 Model and unveils how people behave in a professional setting. More specifically, they measure the degree of the personality traits below – and 23 related factors, that define their workplace personality:

• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional Stability
• Openness to Experience

Before you administer the assessment, determine what traits the ideal candidate should have based on the role, responsibilities, and current team dynamics. For example, if you’re looking for a salesperson, then a high extraversion level would be an asset, but it’s not the same if you’re looking for a content marketer.

Even though Workable’s cognitive assessments are targeted to white-collar professionals, the personality assessments benefit all types of companies and roles. And remember, you don’t have to provide all tests in bulk; it’s up to you to decide what’s best for your hiring process.

About candidate experience

As with every other Workable product, this is designed with candidates and hiring teams in mind. We understand that pre-employment assessments could be stressful for candidates, so we made sure to provide an easy-to-navigate experience in an intuitive interface.

Before the assessment starts, candidates learn how the tool works. They have time to warm up, get comfortable with the instructions and answer a few practice questions.

In addition, we’ve introduced adaptive technology, which means that the difficulty of the provided questions varies and adjusts to the candidate’s ability. This minimizes the time needed to complete each test and makes candidates feel more confident throughout the process with their performance.

So, these are Workable Assessments, everyone. We’re thrilled to offer you this hiring solution – we hope you are, too.

The post Introducing Workable Assessments: Make data-driven hiring decisions appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Before we go into detail on assessment concerns, let’s take a look at the types of assessments. There are five core assessments:

1. abstract reasoning
2. numerical analysis
3. verbal communication
4. attention & focus
5. personality

Each of them have their distinct best practices for specific job roles – for instance, verbal communication skills are desired for those working in public-facing roles such as customer service or sales. Numerical analysis can be applied to those working in finance. And so on.

Now, let’s look at the concerns about these assessments.

Why you should use cognitive assessments

Let’s first look at cognitive assessment concerns, with reasons why you should include them anyway.

Concern #1: They reduce the candidate to a number

The concern: A standardized recruitment process – especially for larger organizations who have built a scalable hiring model – can make candidates feel like they’re on a conveyor belt. When you add assessments, candidates will feel like you’re just adding another statistic to them.

The reality: A standardized process is also more susceptible to bias – despite the sincere intent for the opposite. Likewise, AI screening of resumes can lead to a new problem, as seen in the example of Amazon. Even if you take AI out of the picture, humans can still be influenced by the reputation of the school the candidate went to, or their charisma in a face-to-face interview.

When you add assessments to the process, you can analyze cognitive abilities and potentials in an isolated environment without being influenced by these other factors.

Concern #2: There’s plenty to learn in other stages of the process

The concern: In between the resume, cover letter, interview, and even the reference check, you already have plenty of information to help you make a good decision on the candidate. Adding assessments just further complicates things.

The reality: Each of the stages in the evaluation are designed to understand specific parts of a candidate’s eligibility for a role. But gaps remain: for instance, it’s hard to discern how much of a candidate’s success actually comes from their own contribution or just from the environment they worked in. Plus, exaggerating one’s accomplishments in a resume isn’t entirely uncommon.

With assessments, you’re future-proofing your company against those potential bad or misleading hires by directly analyzing what they can actually bring to your company.

Concern #3: Assessments prolong an already lengthy process

The concern: Adding assessments just adds time to an already lengthy recruitment process – a common gripe among many candidates.

The reality: Yes, they’re right – if those other stages are clumsily managed with slow turnaround at the recruiter’s side due to an excess of work. But optimization tools, such as automated emailing, self-scheduling options, and one-way video interviews, can shorten those stages. This gives you the luxury to seamlessly add assessments to the mix – also in a semi-automated way – without prolonging the process. In effect, you’re getting more for less.

Now that we’ve covered three main concerns around cognitive assessments, let’s look at the more charged topic of personality assessments.

Why you should use personality assessments

While cognitive assessments are already a widely accepted element of the recruitment process, the value of personality assessments isn’t as universally acknowledged. The controversy around Myers Brigg and DiSC profile testing is widespread, and there’s little consensus on their usefulness.

Concern #1: Personality assessments promote biased hiring

The concern: Testing for personality promotes biased hiring. For instance, if you find that someone’s not a so-called “team player” or a good “cultural fit”, you may opt not to move forward with them. It also unfairly favors extroverted “go-getters” and “problem solvers” over equally qualified introverts who prefer to focus on the work at hand.

The reality: Personality assessments should not be dealmakers or dealbreakers in a hiring decision. They only help provide stronger insights into a candidate that may not be found in other stages. Perhaps a candidate seemed quiet and unmotivated during an interview – a personality assessment may find them to be introverted yet still just as qualified as a louder, friendlier candidate who made a stronger impression in the interview stage.

Concern #2: Candidates will try for the “right” answer rather than being honest

The concern: When jobseekers take a personality test, they’re going to be naturally inclined to try and give the ‘right’ answers to further their candidacy for the role. They may not be wholly honest.

The reality: It’s not a test. It’s an assessment. You’re trying to get a deeper understanding of their personality and traits. The result can help you learn how they’re likely to behave in the role, how they like to be managed, the job environment in which they most thrive, and their preferred communication style, among other things that help you understand who the candidate is and what motivates them.

Concern #3: Personalities have nothing to do with the job

The concern: Many see personality assessments as irrelevant and even as an invasion of privacy. What do they really have to do with candidacy for a role?

The reality: As stated above, having a good understanding of how a candidate might act or behave in the workplace will help you build better teams and a work environment in which they can thrive. This can create a better all-around employee experience with more engaged and productive employees.

Assess your own team first

That being said, personality assessments have their limits. To use them to their fullest benefit, have the existing employees in your company take an assessment as well.

Not only can you identify opportunities to build stronger teams, more motivational environments, and better management structures, you can also set up mentorship programs specifically tailored to specific personalities that can bring the best out of a new hire.

This means a much stronger onboarding and a shorter time to maximum productivity.

It’s not a dealmaker or dealbreaker

Boston-based management consultant Laura Crandall seconds that. Personality assessments shouldn’t be the defining factor in making a decision – nor should they even influence a decision.

Laura adds: “The name is a bit misleading, as, at their core, these tests aim to identify how personality traits, be they assertiveness, optimism, extroversion or introversion, and the like, will manifest in workplace behavior.”

And she adds succinctly: “They’re just lenses.”

In the end, while they are great tools to overcome the “one size fits all” solution, cognitive and personality assessments need to be utilized properly for them to be effective. You also want to communicate their intent and benefits to the candidate as clearly as you can to maintain that all-important candidate experience.

Think of it as adding another tool to your HR toolkit that focuses on bringing the best people to your company, and bringing the best out of them while they’re there.

The post 6 major assessment concerns and why you shouldn’t worry appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

How to scale up your hiring: 13 features for rapidly growing companies

1. Hiring Plan
2. Department Hierarchy
3. Access rights and permissions
4. Integrations
5. Compliance
6. Interview self-scheduling
7. Automated actions
8. Bulk actions
9. One-way video interviews
10. Mobile app
11. Customer support
12. AI Recruiter
13. People Search

Maintain transparency, accountability and control

When you scale up your hiring in a company that’s growing aggressively, that hiring process no longer involves just the recruiter or hiring manager. There are other stakeholders involved, including those at the executive level, department heads, finance managers, and others. Plus, the recruitment process grows in complexity as you’re no longer hiring just to fill a seat.

For that, you need to have a recruitment system that maintains transparency to all interested parties, holds them accountable to their respective roles in the hiring process, and is controllable all in one place. The following features will enable you to have such a system in place.

1. Hiring Plan

Rapid growth requires a strategic hiring plan that’s as dynamic as your company. You might be able to manage requisition approvals manually for one or two employees, but certainly not two hundred at a time. When you’re hiring at high volume, you need an organized approach so you can prioritize requisitions properly, budget them accurately and maintain visibility at all times.

With Workable’s Hiring Plan, you can track requisitions, manage approvals and review budgeting data, all in real time. Hiring managers create requisitions when they need to hire, and follow standard or custom approval workflows. As roles are opened and filled, your Hiring Performance report updates automatically, so you can track changes, make adjustments and forecast your hiring budget for the year.

2. Department Hierarchy

As your organization evolves, so does your organizational structure. As teams change and expand, you need a system that makes it easy to adapt.

Enter Department Hierarchy. This centralized department management makes it for you to manage custom departments and hierarchical structure — meaning, as your company grows your hiring structure does, too.

Filter your careers page, dashboards and reports based on the departments you’ve set up and organize key features of the hiring process by department and location. Super admins control every aspect of department management and setup, so you can maintain strict control and organization as you scale up your hiring process.

3. Access rights and permissions

When you grow from five to 500, the number of people involved in the hiring process expands exponentially. With more users and varying degrees of seniority, it becomes more difficult – and more essential – to protect sensitive data. Control who sees what, when with Workable’s roles and permissions.

User roles define which hiring tasks team members should (and can) perform, and user permissions ensure they get just the right amount of access to get the job done.

4. Integrations

Growing companies usually don’t depend on just one system to get their hiring done. From SSO to background checks to HRIS and onboarding Workable connects with the tools you rely on.

With Workable you can transfer candidate data seamlessly and safely or connect to your business intelligence suite to access robust analytics and measure custom KPIs. Need to go custom? With Workable’s open API and world-class Tech Solutions team, nothing is out of reach.

Check out Workable’s extensive list of integrations.

5. Compliance

Managing compliance can get more complicated as your business grows. As you expand across countries and continents, so does the list of regulations and laws you must comply with.

Workable helps you navigate local, national and internal regulation – no matter where you’re operating. Our suite of automated compliance features make it easy to manage and demonstrate compliance. Whether it’s GDPR, CCPA or EEO – Workable has you covered with features like automated data deletion, candidate opt-out links, and anonymized candidate surveys and reports.

Save time, automate admin and hire at scale

When you’re processing hundreds of applications for a single job opening, that’s a lot to manage. That number grows exponentially when you’re filling multiple positions at once and on a regular basis. The following features will help optimize the process in a scalable way, and avoid lengthy delays in the recruitment process.

6. Interview self-scheduling

It can take days to coordinate scheduling for just one candidate — imagine trying to do it for one hundred! At a rapidly scaling company it’s downright impossible to schedule interviews the old-fashioned way — 100% admin and 0% value added.

With Workable’s self-scheduling option, you can eliminate the back-and-forth and book timely, convenient interviews with just a few clicks. In your initial outreach template, simply include the self-schedule link. The candidate can view the available slots on your calendar and book on the spot. All you have to do is show up!

7. Automated actions

Stuck doing the same old boring hiring tasks over and over again? They’re not just tedious, they can also cost you serious time and effort when multiplied over hundreds of open positions. What seems like just two minutes can easily turn into two hours of admin work per day as candidates and open roles pile up.

With Workable’s automated actions you can increase productivity and speed up time to hire by automating repetitive tasks, emails and invites. Develop custom email templates and create automations by job, department or hiring stage.

Whether you’re sending an assessment test, self-schedule interview links or disqualification emails – Workable makes it easy to set up, cancel and edit automations.

8. Bulk actions

At a rapidly scaling company, you’re likely dealing with hundreds or thousands of candidates. Taking basic actions like sending emails or disqualifying applicants, can take ages if you’re forced to do it one-by-one.

Luckily, Workable’s bulk actions make it easy to take action with just a few simple clicks. In Workable, you can use templates with bulk emails to email sourced candidates or send mass rejection emails to disqualified applicants.

Simply open the hiring stage, select the candidates you’d like to email and click ‘send bulk emails’ from the bulk actions menu. Workable even has built-in duplicate detection to prevent candidates from receiving emails twice.

9. One-way video interviews

When you’re scaling up, you need your time-to-hire to go way down. You need tools that will help you screen at scale, and more easily identify qualified candidates. Enter, Video Interviews. Video Interviews reduce the time you need to spend communicating, scheduling and carrying out the screening process.

Workable’s one-way video interviews are built with the candidate in mind – there’s no messy tech, no downloads and no leaving the application form. It’s all built into the Workable platform, which also makes it easier for the hiring team to collaborate and compare feedback. And since hiring teams can review responses and provide feedback at any time, from any device, you’ll identify your best candidates faster, too.

Engage the entire hiring team

Hiring may be in your day job, but it’s not always in the day job of the hiring manager or executive. Nevertheless, to do your job well, you need their active participation. The following two features will help you make their part in the process easier – which in turn makes it easy to do your own job even at scale.

10. Mobile app

The hardest part of hiring at scale can be getting hiring managers on board and engaged. The mobile app makes it easy for hiring managers to stay connected, no matter where they are.

The mobile app acts as your personal assistant giving you an overview of upcoming events, overdue tasks and all the helpful context you need. You can screen, communicate, evaluate and even hire, all from your phone.

Learn how a Workable sales executive hired 20 salespeople in three months using her smartphone, despite a packed schedule.

11. Customer support

When you’re at a high growth company, you can’t get hung up on a tech question. You need real answers from real people, real fast. Workable’s global support team has you covered, no matter what timezone you’re in.

An agent is never more than a simple call, chat or email away. And, with a 95% customer satisfaction rating, you could say we specialize in solving problems.

Fill your (rapidly growing!) talent pipeline

Finally – talent shortages and niche roles often pose a challenge to recruiters who need to attract the best and brightest candidates to your company. This feature will help you.

12. AI Recruiter

When you’ve been tapped to help your company double in size by scaling up your hiring, the best place to start is with a healthy talent pipeline. But instantly filling your pipeline with a host of diverse, qualified applicants is easier said than done.

Until now. With Workable’s unique sourcing toolkit you won’t need external recruiters or additional sourcing software to get a leg up in the talent market. With AI Recruiter you can take sourcing into your own hands. Get a list of the top 50 passive candidates for every job in your account, instantly. Add them all into the sourced stage with one click.

13. People Search

Already know what skills you’re looking for? Leverage the power of the internet in an instant. Be as specific or as general as you like while running a full boolean search based on experience, keywords, location, education, etc. You’ll get matching passive candidates with their best contact info.

Learn how an insurance startup tripled their employee base in 2.5 years, hiring for difficult-to-fill niche roles using People Search.

The post How to scale up your hiring process: 13 features for rapidly growing companies appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Personality assessments, in particular, should be conducted with care. To ensure a fair and equitable analysis, follow up with a post-personality assessment interview.

The challenge here is that such an interview cannot follow the traditional structure of an interview, with a preset series of questions. Additionally, many post-personality test questions are customized based on individual test results and will differ from one candidate to the next. So, you’ll need to allow for flexibility here to gain a better understanding of the more intangible aspects of a candidate’s eligibility for a role.

With all those factors in play, here’s how you can use post-personality test questions to conduct a fair and equitable interview process.

Why should we care?

Often, interviews include questions like “What is your biggest flaw?” or “Where do you see yourself in five years?”. Research shows that questions such as these are most prone to interviewer bias.

Nevertheless, this approach may work when evaluating a handful of candidates. But when the number of candidates grows and each candidate needs to be assessed, a traditional interview with typical questions becomes more difficult when so many variables and intangibles are involved in an analysis.

This is why a structured way of conducting and recording a candidate’s post-personality assessment interview is crucial during the hiring process for a specific job. To maintain structure, follow these five steps in mind to ensure you’re set for success:

1. Prepare beforehand
2. Invite every candidate
3. Set up the interview
4. Perform the interview itself
5. Report immediately afterwards

1. Prepare beforehand

The first step is to prepare ahead of the interview. Review a map of all available personality factors and facets. Consider the relevance of each for the job, and focus on eight to 10 core facets that you want to evaluate.

If you’re unsure whether or not to include specific personality traits or characteristics in this list, consult with someone already in that function or team to get a better understanding of what traits are beneficial to the role.

Once you have the list of traits and characteristics you want to look at, it’s time to start collecting insights via the interview.

Now that you know what you are looking for, it is time to start collecting data and invite candidates to interview.

2. Invite every candidate

To ensure a fair and equitable process, make sure every candidate gets an interview. Remember, you’re looking at specific behaviors and characteristics that are better analyzed via assessments and interviews than via candidate profiles.

Another factor is that candidates’ own biases can factor into the assessment results – for instance, they may be naturally inclined to give the “right” answer to further their candidacy for a role even if there’s no actual right or wrong answer. There will also be those who don’t seem to match what you’re looking for in an ideal candidate.

A post-personality assessment interview gives you the opportunity to hear them out. You may find candidates who use uncommon tactics to turn disadvantages into advantages. Some may have different approaches to handling dissatisfied customers, for example.

3. Setting up the interview

Now it’s time to set a standard for the pre-interview period. Your goal here is to make sure each candidate feels welcome, comfortable and respected. That also means creating a comfortable environment and allowing enough time for candidates to respond in depth – and for you to really listen without distractions.

This is especially important when conducting a post-personality assessment interview because you want the candidate to feel at ease.

Meanwhile, make sure you’ve done your homework on the suggested interview questions – which are customized as well. These questions, via Workable’s personality assessment feature, can come up in cases where greater clarity is needed in specific areas.

For example, a candidate may show significant “friendly” or “distant” traits, which would trigger questions via the feature (which are, again, customized) to help understand those elements at a deeper level. These questions will be available via Workable’s personality assessment feature in cases where the candidate has scored below or above average in specific personality characteristics.

Some of these questions may not correspond to characteristics included in your list you made in Step 1. In that case, you may skip them.

4. Conducting the interview

During the interview, you should always go back to the priorities you’ve outlined in your initial preparation. Ask yourself:

• “Why is this characteristic important?”
• “How will a candidate with this characteristic perform better in this job?”

There will be a corresponding question or statement for each characteristic. Follow-up questions are available if you want to explore further. Once you’re satisfied that you’ve learned what you need to know about the candidate, move on to the next question(s).

It’s important to pay close attention to the candidate’s responses. Your goal is to understand how the candidate will perform in the job in terms of personality traits.

5. Report immediately afterwards

After the interview is over, record your assessment of the candidate’s qualities. It’s best to do this immediately after the interview, and in a standardized format that allows you to compare results with other candidates.

Post-assessment interview best practices

When interviewing, follow these best practices:

• Be actively engaged in the interview, and pay attention to the candidate’s responses. These questions are as much for your benefit as they are for the candidate’s – don’t treat this as an afterthought.
• Ensure a stress-free environment that allows the candidate to bring their best self to the interview. Even if you want to see how a candidate responds in a stressful situation, there’s a time and place for that; don’t deliberately create that atmosphere in this particular interview.
• Be intensely aware of the most important personality characteristics for the specific job position that you’re interviewing for.
• End the interview in a professional and respectful manner, and be sure to note your impressions of the candidate immediately afterwards, as to not miss any important details.

Consider a training program or consultation with fellow HR professionals to ensure an ideal outcome for yourself and other members of the hiring team.

You may also find the following tutorials and templates to be helpful in ensuring best results:

• Personality interview questions
• How to read candidate body language in an interview
• How to assess soft skills in an interview
• 12 behavioral interview questions
• Emotional intelligence (EQ) interview questions

The post How to conduct a post-personality assessment interview appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In the end, though, hiring internally has significant benefits of its own. Internal candidates bring institutional knowledge to their new role, and promoting them allows them to broaden and deepen their skills. Training existing employees also makes for a stronger, more reliable resource, not to mention keeping employees engaged and invested in the success of the company at large and motivating them to work hard to earn promotion.

And don’t underestimate the value of retaining highly-skilled and valuable employees who might otherwise be tempted to accept a promotion elsewhere.

If you’re going to hire internally, you’ll need to master the delicate art of the internal interview.

10 good internal interview questions

1. What sets you apart from other applicants for this role?
2. How do you think this role will be different than your current role? How will you adapt to these differences?
3. Describe your leadership style, and give an example of a time when you displayed leadership.
4. What skills have you developed in your career over the last three years?
5. How would your mentor or supervisor describe your work?
6. How have you contributed to the success of your current team?
7. What challenges do you anticipate in this new role and how do you plan to overcome them?
8. How do you handle feedback and criticism in your current role?
9. What do you believe are the most important qualities for this new position?
10. How do you envision your growth in the company over the next few years?

Here are 10 essential interview questions and sample answers to help identify the best candidates for this role.

1. What sets you apart from other applicants for this role?

This question allows the candidate to highlight their unique strengths and experiences within the company, showcasing their value proposition for the new role.

Sample answer:

I have a deep understanding of our company’s processes and culture, having worked here for five years. My experience in both sales and marketing departments gives me a holistic view, making me uniquely positioned for this cross-functional role.

2. How do you think this role will be different than your current role? How will you adapt to these differences?

This question assesses the candidate’s understanding of the new role and their adaptability to potential changes.

Sample answer:

The new role involves more strategic planning and cross-departmental collaboration. I plan to undertake additional training and foster relationships with key stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition.

3. Describe your leadership style, and give an example of a time when you displayed leadership.

This question evaluates the candidate’s leadership qualities and their ability to reflect on their experiences.

Sample answer:

My leadership style is collaborative. I believe in empowering team members. An instance was when I led a project, and instead of dictating tasks, I involved everyone in the decision-making process, leading to a successful project completion.

4. What skills have you developed in your career over the last three years?

Understanding the candidate’s recent professional growth can provide insights into their commitment to self-improvement.

Sample answer:

Over the last three years, I’ve honed my data analytics skills, learned advanced project management techniques, and developed stronger interpersonal communication abilities.

5. How would your mentor or supervisor describe your work?

This question offers insights into the candidate’s self-awareness and their relationship with superiors.

Sample answer:

My supervisor would describe my work as thorough and detail-oriented. She often commends my ability to handle complex projects and my proactive approach to problem-solving.

6. How have you contributed to the success of your current team?

Understanding the candidate’s contributions can highlight their value and potential impact in the new role.

Sample answer:

I introduced a new project management tool that streamlined our processes, leading to a 20% increase in team efficiency. I also mentored junior team members, helping them integrate faster into the team.

7. What challenges do you anticipate in this new role and how do you plan to overcome them?

This question assesses foresight and problem-solving skills.

Sample answer:

I anticipate challenges in aligning multiple teams towards a common goal. I plan to overcome this by facilitating regular inter-departmental meetings and setting clear, measurable objectives.

8. How do you handle feedback and criticism in your current role?

Feedback is crucial for growth. This question evaluates the candidate’s receptiveness to feedback.

Sample answer:

I view feedback as an opportunity for growth. Whenever I receive criticism, I take time to reflect, understand the perspective, and work on areas of improvement.

9. What do you believe are the most important qualities for this new position?

This question assesses the candidate’s understanding of the new role’s requirements.

Sample answer:

For this position, strategic thinking, excellent communication skills, and the ability to manage and lead diverse teams are crucial.

10. How do you envision your growth in the company over the next few years?

Understanding the candidate’s long-term vision can provide insights into their commitment and aspirations.

Sample answer:

I see myself taking on larger strategic roles, contributing to the company’s growth. I also aim to mentor and develop future leaders within the organization.

What to look for during the internal interview process

Before we get to the internal interview questions themselves, you want to first outline what you’re looking for when carrying out the internal evaluation process. When you and your hiring team are aligned on this, you will be better able to identify the ideal candidate for the role.

1. Success in current position

If you’re considering giving someone more authority, you first need to look at whether they are excelling in their current role.

Speak with your candidate’s current supervisor and discuss their performance, attitude, and abilities.

Do they have a growth mindset? Are they capable of managing a team, or do they work best alone? Is the candidate confident that they can handle the extra responsibility they’re looking to take on?

2. Skills that suit the position they are applying for

This can be difficult to puzzle out, as some candidates may be a good fit for a new position because of skills they already possess, but that they are unable to use in their current role. Careful questioning and an assessment of strengths should offer a clearer picture of these skills.

Generally, if someone is looking to move up into a new role, they should display soft skills like hard work, persistence, curiosity, collaboration, and leadership. You can also assess their hard skills at a more advanced, big-picture level, especially if they’re moving into a managerial role in their team or department.

3. Motivation in applying for the new role

It can be difficult to discern someone’s motivations for interviewing for a given position. Are they applying because they feel like they ‘should’, without any real interest in the role? Is there dysfunction on their current team? Do they clash frequently with their current supervisor?

Identifying motivation is key because ideally you want to find someone who will go into a new role with a clear head and a deep understanding of what will be expected of them. If their reasoning for taking on more responsibility is muddled, they won’t have a reliable framework to fall back on when challenges arise.

4. Strengths in comparison to external candidates

In order to find the best possible candidate for a role, it’s important to be as objective as possible when evaluating internal candidates. This means looking at their technical, hard, and soft skills and evaluating whether there are external candidates who are more qualified.

5. Focus on self-improvement and growth

Having a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset is an excellent predictor of success and a person’s ability to rise to meet challenges. Humility, hard work, and a growth mindset are vital to adapting to the challenges of a new position.

These traits also generally go along with being open to thoughtful feedback, another vital characteristic for anyone looking to succeed long-term in an organization. Use questions to evaluate whether your candidate can recognize their growth potential.

6. Flexibility and adaptability

If you’re going to remove a person from their current position, you want to be confident that they possess the skills to adapt to the challenges of the new role. That means evaluating their technical abilities and how they match up with the expectations of the new position.

It also means ensuring that they are a fundamentally flexible person, able to adapt to new challenges while maintaining a high level of professionalism and decorum. Without this adaptability, even the most qualified candidate can fail to thrive in their new environment.

How to assess skills during an internal interview

1. Ask questions about specific experiences

Generally, your best chance at getting accurate information about your candidate’s skills is to be specific in your questions. Ask for concrete examples. If they describe something in vague terms, ask a follow-up question about the skills they used or the context of that experience. It’s a great way to assess the depth of their direct involvement in the examples they’re sharing.

2. Know what you’re looking for

Review the expectations with the hiring team for the position you’re assessing candidates for. You have to understand what you’re looking for yourself in order to gauge another person’s expertise and consequently make the right decisions.

3. Talk to their supervisor beforehand

Ask your candidate’s supervisor how they would assess their skills. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they meet the technical requirements of the new position? Hearing their supervisor’s opinion first can give valuable context for the candidate’s answers.

4. Technical assessment

When assessing hard skills rather than soft ones, there’s always the option of a technical assessment. You or another technically qualified person can ask questions about specific skills, or you can use a technical assessment tool to evaluate aptitude.

Often, an internal promotion or transfer can bring more reward than an externally sourced hire. With these internal interview questions, you’re now ready to evaluate internal candidates for that open role. Best of luck in your search!

Olivia Jones is a freelance writer and marketing consultant. She helps companies create compelling content. Learn more about what she does on her website or connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post 10 internal interview questions – and best practices for each appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

So, why learn how to use video in hiring? As Elena Valentine of Skillscout.com says in a conversation with Workable at LinkedIn Live, “It’s how we learn. We are visual learners, and that’s from a biological standpoint. There really is an art and science to why video works. We retain 65% of what we see and hear versus what we read. 80% of our brains are dedicated to processing visuals.”

Not only are we visual animals – we also live in a world where video is king.

“This is a YouTube generation. And if you think that we’re going to YouTube to learn how to braid our hair and get tours of the White House and everything else, we are absolutely going to YouTube [to learn] about jobs, plain and simple.”

Elena points to the pandemic as forcing us “to start to think differently about how we’re showcasing jobs, people, environments. [We’ve] really had to flip it into high gear when it comes to the value of video.”

You can ‘see’ employee testimonial videos

Using video in your hiring process also helps candidates visualize the day-to-day of a job more than a job description ever could.

That’s especially the case with specific roles, Elena says. She recounts SAC Wireless, a client who wanted to show the day-to-day work of their cellphone tower workers – who often operate hundreds of feet up in the air. They were struggling with employees leaving soon after starting.

“[New employees] go up for the first time, realize just how frighteningly scared they were of heights and then quit,“ Elena says, adding that this would happen even after recruiters were clear about that part of the work in interviews.

This meant producing a video depicting exactly what the work would entail, involving the POV of workers from the top of towers in a series of employee testimonial videos.

“This is going to be your world,” Elena says in describing the intended message in the video. “Rest assured we keep it safe. We have a culture of safety and a team that really supports you, but this is the work.”

The result?

“They significantly reduced their turnover because of an entire brand campaign and their video went viral.”

The connectivity of video

While video can’t ever replace the full hiring process, says Elena, it can help enrich the applicant pool you have for a job opening. You’ll have a more invested group of candidates who are actively interested in the specific position and not just slinging resumes at every job opportunity.

This can lessen the time and work involved in sifting through the applications you get for a role, Elena adds.

“Rather than the 500 candidates that you got, a lot of them who may not be a good fit or on the cusp, you’re getting candidates who are saying, ‘I’ve watched this video, I see the challenge, and I’m still willing to apply.’”

How to use video in the hiring process

Great, you’re on board. You’re ready to get crackin’. But making employer branding videos can get complex at times.

So we picked up some lessons from Elena, who’s been doing this for a long time as the CEO of Skillscout. Here are six best practices on how to use video in the hiring process, from her LinkedIn Live session with Workable.

1. Don’t overthink it

First, don’t overthink it. “There’s no wrong or immediate right way to do video. … That’s the thing that people have to get over,” Elena says, quipping about the unrealistic expectations that a recruiter or hiring manager must have a Hollywood-sized budget or possess filmmaking skills to rival Martin Scorsese.

On the contrary, it’s more about finding that important balance between authenticity and brand, Elena says.

“You can actually do this in a way that still is quality, still as authentic, but also reaches a level of consistency that marketing and others would be okay with sharing publicly.”

2. Think about quality over quantity

Although it’s nice to have numerous candidates applying for a job so you have the luxury to choose, that’s the wrong approach, suggests Elena.

“The question should be, ‘Are we getting the right eyeballs on these videos?’” she says. “It has less to do with the metrics of; ‘We’ve had 50,000 people [see this video].’”

Instead, ask yourself: “Did the right 10 people in our application process who are kick-ass engineers see this video? And did they understand exactly what we could offer them?” Elena suggests. That’s where the key differentiator is.

3. Think about the ‘recruitment funnel’

A core tenet of sales and marketing strategy is the “funnel” It’s described in so many different ways. Ultimately, you can think about it in three stages. First is“top of funnel”, the moment where your audience becomes aware of you. Further down is “middle of funnel”; where your audience now knows you and wants to get a little deeper into the specifics. Finally, there’s “bottom of funnel”; in other words, the stage where your audience makes a decision based on what they’ve learned.

Workable’s EMEA VP Rob Long describes it as a “pragmatic recruitment framework”, in which he takes a page from the pragmatic marketing framework.

Elena speaks a lot about that in understanding how to use video in the hiring process. “You can build a series of videos to engage the varying levels of interests that a candidate has in the role or in your company. At the very top of the funnel is that introductory video.”

She explains: “We are just here to create a level of brand awareness and interest. Maybe this is a company that does really great stuff, but no one’s ever heard of them before.”

Once the candidate is interested, you can get right into the details of the job itself.

“When we’re on the job post, which is, ‘All right, I’m a shoe designer, and at this point I’m looking to understand, do I want to be a shoe designer at Nike or do I want to be a shoe designer at Adidas?’”

That’s where employee testimonial videos can come in incredibly useful, she adds.

“There’s some pretty specific stories of, ‘All right, now that I’m getting an understanding of the culture, what is it really like to work in these specific roles at these specific companies?’”

4. Be specific – and keep it short

No one likes a long, rambling video that doesn’t properly inform the candidate on what they want or need to know. This especially holds true when you’re looking to engage busy candidates applying for several jobs in a single day.

That’s why, when understanding how to use video in the hiring process, you must keep your videos concrete and tight.

“[You] want to think about the role itself,” says Elena. “Who are the folks that they might be working with or that department? The second is going to be show, not tell, which clearly the medium of video allows us to do that.”

Elena reminds us that it’s important to keep it contained.

“About 90 seconds is typically the sweet spot, especially given social media and the ways people are able to peruse.”

5. Be honest – warts and all

There’s a reality about work that can’t be ignored – sometimes, it does suck.

“We cannot put lipstick on a pig,” says Elena. “This has to be a balance both of what the opportunity is and also what the challenges are going to be, because candidates are going to smell a stock video, a stock photo, a stock feeling and emotion from a mile away.”

It’s tempting to gloss over the negatives, but candidates will appreciate honesty.

“They recognize that our jobs aren’t perfect, and if you could be the first one to tell that to them and they don’t have to find that out on the first day of the job or the first 90 days on the job, even better. They will respect you more for it.”

Elena explains that this is top of mind for her and Skillscout, especially when it comes to younger candidates.

“This isn’t just about showing the sunshines and rainbows of a role. We all know that there are sucky parts of all jobs and we need to be about as upfront about that as possible when it comes to this.”

There’s a practical aspect to it too – enriching the talent pool with candidates who really do want the role.

“We want to give candidates an opportunity to self-screen in or self-screen out. And it’s perfectly okay if a candidate is going to self screen out as result of this, because we’re not here to waste their time. We’re also not here to waste ours.”

Workable’s CEO Nikos Moraitakis himself follows this code on describing life at Workable: “It involves doing a lot of things that you would rather not be doing, but down the line, there may be something in it that may improve the way a lot of people work.”

Read more about why it pays to be authentic in your recruitment marketing strategy.

6. Good questions mean great answers

Your videos will ultimately feature your current employees, and you want them to share some of the more interesting aspects of their work. That means you’re interviewing them – and when you do that, don’t just ask them to describe their day at work. Throw some interesting questions at your employees that they will be excited to answer.

For instance, ask them to describe the surprises they had when they first started at the job, says Elena.

Elena suggests a few other questions you can ask:

• “What is it about your work that you’re most proud of?”
• “What is it about your work that people would be surprised to know about?”
• “What makes you stay? What makes you come back every day?”

And her personal favorite: “What makes your heart sing?”

“It really gets fascinating from a layperson’s point of view to say, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize that this much effort, et cetera, goes into creating this one piece of cereal,’” says Elena.

Video attracts the real-life stars

Video really is another tool in your recruitment marketing playbook. Learning how to use video in the hiring process – including in the careers page, the video interview, and even outright employer brand promotion – can really show off the job and the work environment in action in ways that static words on a screen or paper can never do.

And it’s about keeping up with the times, adds Elena.

“In today’s day and age, the way that we communicate our culture, our brand, the way that we get people interested in our role and the right people interested in our company is through video.”

The post How to use video in the hiring process: 6 tips from an expert appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Topgrading interviewing allows you a lot more insight into a candidate, and (importantly) it will enable the candidate better insight into the company.

Here’s what you need to know.

• What is topgrading interviewing?
• Why your company should utilize topgrading
• Example topgrading interview questions
• Incorporating topgrading into your interview process

What is topgrading interviewing?

The term topgrading comes from a 1997 article by Bradford D. Smart and his son, Geoffrey, called Topgrading the organization. Their definition is:

“Topgrading simply means proactively seeking out and employing the most talented people available, while redeploying (internally or externally) those of lesser ability or performance. More specifically, we view topgrading as employing only A players.”

But, it’s more than just seeking A players; it’s about structuring interviews and making sure the process is rigorously targeting the right people. The Smarts talk a lot about talent rather than skill or experience, theorizing that the most talented people will bring the most value to your organization.

And to do that, it’s not just about the interview questions; it requires a well-written job description that reflects the company culture and goals and the individual job responsibilities. Without this critical information, you can’t attract the right people for the job.

Typically, when you use topgrading, the candidates face multiple interviewers to find the best people who fill these critical core competencies: Intelligence, vision, leadership, drive, resourcefulness, customer focus, hiring, team-building, track record/experience, integrity, and communication.

This all comes together as part of a 12-step process in hiring.

These twelve steps are:

1. Measure and improve the current hiring process: You need to look at your current methods before making changes. What works and what does not?
2. Create a job scorecard: This is a rigorous process to determine what you need for the position. You do this before you begin recruiting, so the scorecard reflects the company’s needs rather than allowing candidates to sway hiring managers with charm.
3. Recruit candidates: Make sure you have a detailed job description.
4. Screen candidates with work history forms: These forms include detailed questions for all candidates that include compensation history (illegal now in some states and jurisdictions), “boss ratings, reasons for leaving jobs, likes and dislikes in job, self-appraisal, and more.”
5. Conduct telephone or video interviews: This should be an in-depth screening that lasts about 45 minutes. This narrows down your field.
6. Do competency interviews: These focus on proficiency and behavior.
7. Conduct a topgrading interview: Topgrading interviewing is intense and focuses on the candidate’s entire career history, with questions about every position.
8. Provide feedback and coaching to interviewers: This helps you improve your process by giving each other feedback.
9. Write a summary: Each interviewer writes up a summary of each candidate, used for comparing.
10. Have the candidate arrange reference calls: Topgrading theorizes that good performers have good relationships with former bosses and will enjoy this process. You then conduct the calls and categories the candidates according to their perceived potential.
11. Coach the new hire: The process doesn’t end on the candidate’s first day. You have to make sure to make this a good environment and an excellent place to grow.
12. Measure hiring success annually: When you establish a baseline and regular tracking of recruitment metrics, you can identify opportunities to finetune and improve your hiring process.

Why your company should utilize topgrading

Topgrading interviewing isn’t the best idea for every company and every position. It’s an intense process that doesn’t make sense for call center employees but makes sense for CEOs and senior vice presidents.

When you hire someone into a leadership position, you need to be absolutely sure of their skills and abilities. After all, you are entrusting your business to their decision-making skills. This can help weed through multiple candidates to find the best of the best.

However, there is a caution: you will find great candidates who aren’t willing to jump through your hoops. This is a risk you have to take when you dedicate your process to topgrading.

Example topgrading interview questions

Topgrading interviews are broken into four parts: Early influences, work history, plans and goals, and self-evaluation.

For example:

• Early influences: “Tell me about the high school teacher who influenced you the most? How did that impact your future?”
• Work history: “What is a problem you had to overcome in [specific position]? How did you solve it?”
• Plans and goals: “What are your career aspirations? What do you hope to achieve in this role?”
• Self-evaluation: “What are the things you struggle with? What are your strongest talents and skills?”

Candidates can answer none of these questions with a quick yes or no. They involve thought and require the interviewer to listen carefully.

Incorporating topgrading into your interview process

You don’t have to switch to a complete topgrading process to use some of its best aspects. Using job scorecards for all positions can help ensure that your interview process is fair and as unbiased as possible. Having multiple interviewers meet with each candidate also gives the possibility to tease out different skill sets. If the job has technical aspects, but the hiring manager isn’t a technical person, you want someone who understands those aspects to be part of the team. Otherwise, you may not get accurate answers.

As noted above, some aspects, like a compensation history, are illegal in some states and jurisdictions and should be avoided altogether, as it helps promulgate earlier discrimination problems. Look instead for growth in positions, regardless of salary.

Having candidates reach out to former bosses can make reference checks much easier, but keep in mind, just as there are bad employees, there are bad bosses. If someone has a bad relationship with a former boss, it doesn’t always mean that the candidate was the problem.

The best aspects of topgrading are careful, detailed planning, and consistent candidate evaluation. It really can help you get the people you need into the position.

The post What is topgrading interviewing? Our favorite tips appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Let’s go back to the beginning:

Video interviews are booming

Video interviews – even pre-recorded video interviews – are now a standard element in the overall recruitment process, and will continue to be so post-pandemic. According to Workable’s New World of Work study, 56.5% of businesses plan to make remote permanent for at least some of their workforce going forward. Only 6.2% of businesses plan to do nothing in general.

This means even more digitization of the recruitment process, and one aspect of that is video interview technology.

Even before COVID-19 introduced itself to our world, video interviews were used by 70% of the employers in the list of Talent Board’s Candidate Experience award winners. Time to hire is now shorter as a result of pre-recorded video interviews, and it’s cheaper too in terms of travel and time commitments both for the candidate and the recruiter.

The benefits of pre-recorded video interviews

The benefits of pre-recorded video interviews for employers and candidates are multifold. It’s a fantastic tool for evaluating candidates at a deeper level, especially for remote jobs in roles that directly engage with customers and prospects.

Recruiters can now enjoy the following benefits of video interviews:

1. Gain better insight into soft skills and “personality” of the candidate
2. Assess ability to work remotely – as video is a core component of remote work
3. Save time by not having to coordinate interviews or screening calls – especially across different time zones
4. Establish a more uniform process – making for a more equitable experience
5. Share pre-recorded interviews with your team –  in a traditional interview, only those physically present would be able to provide feedback

There are benefits for the candidate experience as well:

1. Candidates have the opportunity to present themselves more naturally than in a stressful 30-minute live interview – depending on the role, of course
2. Candidates can prepare for and complete video interviews at their convenience
3. Candidates are no longer expected to travel or commute for that first interaction with the company
4. Candidates can pause their interviews and pick up where they left off

To convince the budget holders in your team of the value of pre-recorded video interview tech, there are significant benefits to the bottom line as well:

1. Shorten your time to hire by eliminating a step in the selection process and combining the screening and interview stages. When 66% of candidates move on after two weeks of not hearing from an employer, shortening the time to hire becomes crucial in reducing the risk of losing top candidates – especially in high-volume hiring periods.
2. Reduce the hours invested in the hiring process. The number of work hours invested in communicating, scheduling, and carrying out the screening process can be costly, so reducing that means you can do more recruiting with less resource commitment. And with self-scheduling options, you’re eliminating time-consuming back-and-forth communication to find a time that’s right for both of you.
3. Lower your cost per hire by improving the quality of your hires, saving your money in the future through lower employee turnover and higher engagement. Also, with fewer work hours invested by the hiring team, the recruitment process becomes more optimized and you’re doing more with less.

Budget holders aren’t as interested in the day-to-day process – they’re more impressed with risk reduction and lower costs. So emphasize the above when presenting your case to those stakeholders.

There’s another impact, a negative one if you don’t implement it properly: your employer brand. Candidates have often griped that pre-recorded video interviews are just further automation of the recruitment process and can hurt the candidate experience. It sends a signal to candidates that they’re no longer humans – they’re just nuts and bolts in a larger machine. Not a good look for you or your brand.

However, it doesn’t need to be this way. Here are four tried-and-true ways that you can use pre-recorded video interviews to their greatest benefit and make a strong, positive impression on candidates.

Pre-recorded video interview best practices

Simply plugging video interviews into your current workflow won’t be enough. If you do, that’s where your employer brand will take a hit, because you are automating the process in the wrong way. To get around that, you want to personalize it as much as you can while at the same time utilizing video interviews to their fullest benefit as outlined above.

Here are four ways in which you can utilize video interviews to really boost your cred as an awesome employer:

1. Add an introductory video

Include a recording of yourself at the very beginning to help the candidate understand and appreciate the context in which you’re conducting video interviews. In this recording, you can:

• Introduce yourself as the recruiter or hiring manager
• Talk about the role a little bit – and what you’re looking for
• Explain why you’re doing video interviews instead of a live phone screening
• Talk about how a candidate can best prepare for this step
• Thank the candidate for taking part in this very important part of the process
• Set expectations – for example, turnaround time, next steps, etc.
• Use a friendly tone to put the candidate at ease

2. Tutor the candidate

Some candidates will not be 100% well-versed on pre-recorded video interviews. For some, it may be their very first time doing so. You can share a tutorial – such as this one – to help candidates prepare. You can share these tips as well:

• Equipment that they’ll need, and supported browsers
• A demonstration or practice question if available
• Find a quiet place free from distractions with a professional background

3. Include video questions

Instead of simply adding boilerplate questions to the video interview in writing and sending those on to the candidate, have the hiring manager record themselves asking the questions one by one.

This more personalized approach reassures candidates when they can see who they’re responding to, and helps them prepare a solid, thoughtful answer. All the better for you to gain more insight into candidates.

4. Incorporate other elements via links

Pre-recorded video interviews do not necessarily have to be in a basic Q&A format. You can liven things up by adding elements in different formats, customizing fonts and styles, etc. Examples also include:

• Embedding a YouTube video and asking the candidate to record their honest reaction to it
• Including a PDF (i.e. a sales sheet, a product page, a piece of marketing collateral) and asking the candidate what they would do to improve on it

It’s not about what you use – it’s how you present it

When you think about Nike, it’s not about the shoes. It’s about Michael Jordan, “Just Do It”, and other powerful messaging and positioning. Red Bull’s similar – they’re not just an energy drink company. They’re about extreme sports and healthy, fun living.

If Nike just said, “Here’s a pair of shoes”, and if Red Bull said, “Folks, here’s an energy drink”, would you be so interested? Probably not.

Think about it in the same way when adding pre-recorded video interviews to your recruitment workflow. Candidates won’t respond well if you just said, “Here’s a video interview, get ‘er done and get back to me!” But they’ll respond if you add the extra stuff.

Personalize the video interview experience with introductory videos and pre-recorded questions, include tutorials to help the candidate present their best selves, and make it an all-around interesting and immersive experience for the candidate.

That’s a part of recruitment marketing, and the resulting positive candidate experience can be great for your employer brand – and help you hire the very best talent for your team.

Want to learn more? Check out our other content on video interviews:

• The video interview: top tips for employers
• Zinger Property enhances their inclusive hiring process with Workable Video Interviews
• Video Interviews: Designing for and with end users in mind

The post Pre-recorded video interviews: 4 best practices for success appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You’re also surfing online, consuming interesting stuff, and at one point, you’re looking at a company’s website and thinking, “These folks look pretty cool. I like what they’re doing. I wonder if they’re in the market for someone like me.”

So that’s when you gravitate to their careers page. It’s one thing to want to work at a company because you like their product or service, or they specialize in your area of expertise, but it’s another thing to want to work at a company because they seem like an amazing place to work and they feel like an amazing fit for you.

Careers page best practices for your employer brand

As an HR professional and employer, that’s why you need to double down on your careers page best practices. Here are seven core elements you need to think about when building a careers page that will attract the attention of even the most seasoned (and jaded) jobseekers:

1. Add employee testimonials

When you shop online, do you look at the reviews before making a purchasing decision? Have you ever bought something or watched a movie/TV show because a friend or family recommended it? The answer to both is likely “yes”.

The same thinking applies for your careers page. Candidates often read up on company reviews on Glassdoor or Indeed when thinking about applying for a job. If you include a few friendly employee testimonials in your careers page, it’ll make an impact on their impression of you.

Workable’s own careers page has several high-quality testimonials from employees who have worked at Workable for years. They’re outlined nicely in our first example of careers page best practices.

Screenshot: https://apply.workable.com/careers/

2. Put your “About Us” at the very top

You want candidates who want to work for you. One way of motivating them is telling them up front who you are and what you’re all about. An aspiring programmer looking to play a role in disrupting the existing framework of their industry won’t necessarily apply for a developer job at a traditional financial institution, but will jump through hoops for an opportunity in a cool fintech startup.

Likewise, a seasoned programmer looking for more stability and predictability in their working environment will be more interested in a role at a legacy organization with tried-and-true workflow systems.

Don’t make your candidates look for that information. Put it right in front of them, right on the page itself, and right at the very top.

GetResponse does exactly this, with two short, punchy paragraphs above the fold detailing who they are and what they do, in just 65 words. Sixty-five words! That gives the candidate all they need to know to make a quick decision on whether to apply for a role with this marketing SaaS company.

Screenshot: https://apply.workable.com/getresponse/

3. Add your company’s mission, vision and values

A widely-publicized Glassdoor survey in 2019 found that a company’s mission and culture are valued more than compensation for many candidates. Plus, the vast majority of jobseekers take mission and culture into account when applying for a job.

As the lines between work and home continue to blur after the paradigm-shifting events of 2020, it’s become more important than ever for candidates that their prospective employer’s vision and values align with their own. So, including your company’s mission, vision and values in your careers page will not only help candidates decide if you’re the right fit for them, but also attract candidates who are personally motivated to play an active role in your overall mission.

That can be a powerful differentiator beyond the elements of candidate attraction such as salary, benefits, work flexibility, and other standard perks.

Soho House & Co.’s careers page includes their mission and values with special emphasis on what they describe as the “guiding principles” that drive them. By listing five simple, yet powerful, values – curiosity, inclusivity, connection, passion, respect – they make it clear who they are, the kind of team that they are, and what they’re committed to as an organization.

Screenshot: https://careers.sohohouse.com/

4. Include details about benefits and perks

Yes, benefits and perks are powerful attractors for candidates when applying for a job. Candidates want to know what they’re getting out of the job on top of the standard salary. There are numerous kinds of benefits, including insurance, paid time off, work flexibility and location, bonuses and awards, training programs, and even company getaways and free lunches.

Be sure to include a breakdown of the important benefits and perks your company offers that set you apart from the next employer. Again, Workable does this in its own careers page.

Screenshot: http://careers.workable.com

5. Add photo and video elements

Candidates can be skeptical about what you’re telling them – and they have every right to be. You’re marketing to them, after all. To get around that initial skepticism, add a touch of authenticity with photos and videos in your page.

These can be straight-up employee testimonials, a statement from the CEO, a day in the life of one team in your company, or a demonstration of your product or service in action. Anything that can give the candidate a visual dive into what it would be like to work for you.

Every company is comprised of individuals working together – photos, videos and any other visual element can be powerful tools to convey that personality to your candidates.

TrueLayer does this masterfully. The fintech organization balances out the very professional photos with organic images. Scrolling down, you run across themes important to candidates – in this case, how the company operates in this COVID-19 environment, and images of teams not only working, but interacting socially.

They’ve also supplemented that with links to design and engineering principles as written by their own employees – offering added insight into what kind of people work there and how they approach the work. Check out the fifth of our seven careers page best practices in action:

Screenshot: https://apply.workable.com/truelayer/

Meanwhile, investment software startup Stockbit embeds this video on their careers page near the bottom, which makes for a more immersive experience.

6. Keep a consistent brand and message

You’ve heard of marketing. How about recruitment marketing? A core element of that is maintaining a consistent brand and message anywhere your audience interacts with your company – in this case, your candidates. That includes your application setup, your interview and scheduling processes, and of course, your careers page.

In fact, your careers page is a core element of candidate attraction. It’s one of the first things a candidate looks at when they come to your site. If your careers page is clunky, has conflicting messages or is inconsistent overall, you need to fix that.

Your brand and message is not just in the language. It’s also in the visual elements – are you using brand colors in your careers page? Is your logo prominently featured? Are the headlines short and snappy and, again, in your company’s official font and colors? Is the text itself tight and concise and informative?

All of those are important. You are marketing yourself as an employer to candidates.

Again, Soho House & Co. presents a great example of a careers page that’s consistent in brand and tone throughout.

7. Ensure a high-quality, eye-catching design

Take two companies’ careers pages, both with all of the above information neatly laid out in front of you. Both companies are also exactly the same in every other way – in their product and service, their location, their benefits and perks, and so on.

The only difference? One company has listed all their information in dry sans-serif font, heavy on the text which makes candidates’ eyes dry out as they read. The other company has eye-catching design that will make an impression even on tired jobseekers, and is designed to guide attention to the important parts in a way that feels natural to the candidate.

Stockbit’s careers page is eye-catching and very scrollable. They’ve taken all of the above careers page best practices and assembled it all into an appealing layout that’s easy on the eye and gives the candidate a quick overview of the company they’re about to apply to.

Careers page best practices for the win

Having an advanced careers page with thoughtful design, digestible information, visual elements, employee testimonials and mission, vision & values is a core element of your overall recruitment marketing strategy. It’s not just about putting your best brand forward – you’re also doing your candidates a favor by making it easier for them to learn about who you are. That level of candidate attraction speaks volumes for your employer brand.

Want to see more great examples? Check out these 10 great careers page examples, and why we love them.

The post 7 careers page best practices to boost your employer brand appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why you should ask candidates unique interview questions
• Examples of unique interview questions
• How to incorporate unique questions during your interview

Why you should ask candidates unique interview questions

Usually, by the time people get to the interview stage, you know that –at least on paper – they meet the qualifications for the job. But, resumes and cover letters can be deceiving. When someone writes “developed new system for X,” the truth might be; “I was in the same room as the people who developed the new system for X.” That’s the type of stuff you want to tease out. That’s what you can do in the face-to-face interview.

If you simply keep to the same template for all positions, you won’t find the answers you need. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t ask similar questions to candidates for the same position – you should, in fact, to ensure a standardized process – but questions need to be uniquely tailored to the individual candidate.

This requires a bit more work from the hiring manager – you have to pay closer attention to the resume and cover letter – but it can pay off handsomely when you now know the candidate you’re hiring is the perfect fit for the job. Increased engagement, lower turnover, better productivity – there are numerous payoffs in a higher-quality hire.

Examples of unique interview questions

1. Tell me about the moment you came up with the idea for X.

When someone lists their accomplishments on their resumes, asking this question helps tease out if they really did what they said they did. Were they the ‘idea’ person or simply someone who implemented someone else’s idea? (It’s not bad to be an implementation person! It’s just a different skill set.)

Someone who developed the idea will almost always have a moment they can describe. “I was in my car on the way home, listening to a podcast, when the person said, ‘plastics.’ I was like, ‘Woah, plastics. That’s what I need to do.’”

When you ask a candidate about an accomplishment on their resume, you find out their level of involvement with the achievement, and you find out how their mind works. It’s a great question for anyone in a leadership or creative role.

2. Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them.

This question is stolen from Elon Musk, so you may argue that it’s not unique. What makes this a unique interview question is that you get to find out strengths and weaknesses that directly pertain to the job.

If you ask, “What is your biggest weakness?” you’ll get some drivel that won’t help you find the right candidate. If you ask this, the candidate can give you a tailored answer.

3. What made you go into this field of work?

This unique interview question helps you ascertain a cultural fit. You need to know what you are looking for in the answer to this. Is the candidate excited about their field of work? It gets you the background information you want and (often) insight into where they want to go in the future? Is this a stepping stone? A stop-gap measure? Or a job the person really wants?

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” is one of the more popular questions to get that information, but it’s reviled in these times of uncertainty and shorter tenures. The above question will give you better insight into the candidate’s longer-term objectives.

4. Here’s a description of a problem we’re working on. Can you give me a five-minute idea of where and how you’d begin solving this?

This puts your candidate uniquely into the job and not on general principles around the role. Note: this isn’t an assignment to create a three-hour presentation, and it’s not an attempt to get free consulting out of a candidate. It’s a five-minute look at where they would start.

From this, you learn their background, problem-solving approach, and ability to comprehend the situations they will face in the job.

How to incorporate unique questions during your interview

The point of these unique interview questions is to target them specifically to the job and the company. By the time you conduct an interview, all the candidates have already been determined that they can likely do the job. Through these questions, you get to learn a lot more about the individual and how they would fit into your department and team.

So many canned interview questions have the candidate thinking, “What does the hiring manager want to hear?” rather than “Here is what I have to offer.” These questions directly engage the candidate’s unique experiences and the unique struggles of the business. You’ll have a better understanding of the candidate with this type of questioning.

Use these questions as part of your general process. Depending on the role, you may want technical questions, hypothetical situations, and questions about their career progression. But, with everyone, you want to know how well they’d do in the job. These questions help.

The post 4 unique interview questions to help you find the best employees appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Described as a digital challenger bank in the United Kingdom, Starling Bank operates out of four locations in the UK and Ireland with headquarters in London. They take a more customer-centric approach to banking, and continue to grow rapidly as a disrupter in the financial industry. They have amassed £363M in total funding and more than two million customers to date, plus they have been voted as Best British Bank for three consecutive years from 2018 to 2020.

Starling Bank’s incredible growth requires a highly efficient recruitment solution that can handle the volume of candidates and hiring managers while maintaining seamless, easy to use functionality. Workable’s ATS gives Starling Bank what it needs to confidently maintain its recruitment process. 

Says Marc Douch, Talent Acquisition Manager at Starling Bank:

“It’s a simple platform to use from a recruiter and a hiring manager point of view… Training new hiring managers is almost non-existent because I just set them up with an account. It’s fairly self-explanatory.”

To meet the skyrocketing demand of its services in the market, Starling Bank has consistently hired at a high volume in two major areas: engineering and customer support.

“We hired just under 600 people last year and, I think so far [as of November 2020], we’ve hired about 450,” says Marc. “So, it’s been a bit of a busy past couple of years from a hiring perspective, that’s for sure.”

The Video Interviews feature, which eliminates resource-heavy communications between the recruiter and job applicant to set up screening calls, has been particularly helpful, says Marc. 

Marc adds that recruiting continued at its torrid pace even as Starling Bank shifted to a remote working environment, making Video Interviews an even more useful tool in the company’s recruiting toolbox. In fact, he says business has moved even more smoothly than it did when everyone was in the same working space.

“We’ve gone from a company that was five days a week in the office to no one’s in the office five days a week,” Marc says. “We’ve ended up doing some stuff in quicker time than we probably would have done in the office.”

Marc also highlights Workable’s award-winning customer support team as a huge bonus to using the recruitment solution – when operating in such a busy recruiting environment, recruiters like Marc rely on solving problems as quickly as they arise. 

“The support that you get is more responsive, more thoughtful, more on the ball than any other ATS I’ve ever worked with,” says Marc.

Starling Bank’s choice to use Workable’s recruitment solution enabled it to continue to grow its workforce rapidly to meet booming business demands. Moreover, it ensured a seamless shift to a fully online recruitment process throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – making possible a highly efficient operating system beyond the crisis as the business continues to scale rapidly in future.

The post Starling Bank scales from 50 to 1,100 employees in five years, staying efficient with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

With candidate surveys, our latest DEI feature, assess DEI performance in your hiring strategies and evaluate ways to improve. Collect anonymized data post-application to understand candidate demographics, identify sources that generate more diverse candidates, and monitor pipeline performance by demographic to improve inclusion within your company.  

Workable helps companies in 100+ countries create a more inclusive hiring practice with diverse candidate sourcing, anonymized screening, candidate surveys, structured interviewing, and enhanced reporting.

Read more on this topic:

• How to measure diversity using candidate surveys
• Candidate survey template

The post Introducing candidate surveys: Improve inclusive hiring practices appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Check out our biggest product updates this quarter in a quick, 5-minute video. 

Product releases

Candidate surveys: Measure your brand reputation or gain a better understanding of candidate demographics with candidate surveys. Tailor questions to meet your company’s needs, help teams identify areas of improvement and report on results. Candidate surveys will be gradually rolled out to all Core, Growth and Premier plans over the next few weeks.

Branded careers pages: Updated formatting and branding options make it even easier for you to create a beautifully branded careers page.

• Customize your favicon
• Rich text formatting
• Background image placement
• Logo size configuration

Video Interviews: Workable now supports the option to include your own welcome video and video questions to help you personalize the candidate experience.

Advanced referrals: More customizable options are now available for advanced referrals. 

• Notifications: adjust default email settings for referral users 
• Limit jobs in the portal to internal applications or referrals only
• Add custom questions for referral submission

Hiring plan: You can now edit and update custom requisition fields, add new options, and disable existing options in your hiring plan.

Mobile app: We’ve made it even easier for you to track jobs and candidates, right on your phone. Our newly redesigned home screen helps you find the info you need, fast. Download through the App Store or on Google Play.

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If you aren’t collecting that information regularly, it’s time to reconsider that choice – you cannot see the bigger picture without your candidates’ point of view. They experience your hiring process first-hand and can readily share your strategy’s pros and cons. Plus, candidates will often share their experiences via public forums such as Glassdoor and Indeed, as well as throughout their professional networks. That’s why it’s critical to take their feedback into serious consideration, before your reputation as an employer is harmed via a poor candidate experience.

Candidate surveys: what can you track – and how?

In this section, you’ll find some key hiring areas you can monitor and improve using candidate surveys. You can tailor these aspects and survey questions according to your business goals and needs. Keep those surveys anonymous, so that job applicants feel more secure and willing to share their honest opinions with you.

1. Candidate experience

We’re starting with the broader category which includes the majority of the aforementioned: Candidate experience. With candidate experience surveys, you can retrieve information regarding each recruiting phase, such as the application process, interviews, and assessment stage. You can combine close-ended with open-ended questions, or ask candidates to evaluate procedures using a Likert scale.

Here’s a small sample of questions you can include:

• What would you recommend to make our hiring process better in the future?
• On a scale from 1 to 5, how hard was the assessment you completed?
• How clear were the job responsibilities to you before and after the interview?

It’s critical to have a standardized hiring process with clear goals and guidelines for both interviewers and hiring managers. The results will enable you to spot the flaws and adjust them accordingly. For example, if the majority of candidates for a specific role reported that the required assessment was hard and time-consuming, consider replacing it with another tool that takes less time to complete and measures skills more accurately.

2. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Companies are increasingly understanding the significance of diverse hiring and inclusivity in the workplace. According to a recent Workable survey on DEI at work, 56.1% of respondents said that they actively aim to improve diverse recruiting in the future, compared to 20% who said they don’t.

In the same survey, 64.8% of the recipients reported they want to achieve diversity throughout the entire company. To succeed in this, understanding the demographics of your candidates is a crucial factor. Here are some data you could collect from your applicants, suggested by Multiverse’s Inclusion and Diversity Lead, Siobhan Randell:

• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Neurodiversity
• Disability
• Education
• Socio-economic background
• Dependents and caring responsibilities

If you find out that you attract applicants from similar backgrounds and with identical traits based on those data, try to figure out why this happens. Maybe you need to tweak the messages – e.g. your vision and mission statements – you share with potential candidates, or post your ads on more diverse job boards.

3. Employer brand

Candidates inform themselves about a company’s culture through numerous channels. They can reach out to your current employees, scroll through Glassdoor or Indeed, search your social media, or talk to others in their professional network. How can you ensure that the perception candidates form about your business is accurate and valid – and remains positive?

Again, candidate surveys can help you know your brand positioning in the competitive market. You can analyze what applicants and candidates think about your company culture and brand and examine how you could boost positive awareness in the future. Here are some questions you could ask:

• Did you know about our company before you applied?
• Was our company culture clear to you during the hiring process?
• Name any benefits/perks that are missing from our scheme that you find valuable.

Overall, this information will enable you to revisit your employer brand and clarify the grey-zone areas that can confuse candidates. For example, let’s imagine that you’ve recently been through a company culture shift. Even though you’ve introduced remote work in your benefit plan, you may learn that candidates were not informed properly about this change.

So, how can you act upon it, with the minimum possible cost? You can consider adding this detail in the job description or your careers page. This way, you’ll attract more suitable candidates next time.

Prevention is better than cure

Overall, collecting feedback from candidates can be game-changing. You’ll be able to spot the flaws in your hiring process before word-of-mouth affects you in a negative way. When candidates understand that their experience and feedback matters to you as an employer and that you want to keep growing in this area, they think better of you.

Finally, avoid using these data just to resolve short-term crises as they occur – instead, utilize them to actively reform your long-term recruitment strategy. For instance, if you see negative comments about your interviewing process online, on Twitter or Glassdoor, responding with an empathetic manner to people who’ve complained is one short-term solution to regain trust. However, if you neglect revisiting the interviewing process, then you’re neglecting the long-term benefits of a fully standardized – and fully tracked – recruitment process.

The post How to level up your hiring strategy through anonymous candidate surveys appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• Children’s moment of glory
• Other unexpected visitors
• Workable’s takeaways for virtual backgrounds
• Yhprum’s law

Children’s moment of glory

Parenting and working at the same time is a fairly new and stressful challenge for many employees. It might become even more stressful when children interrupt an important video call such as a live video interview with a candidate; but it doesn’t have to be that way.

First of all you need to accept and embrace the fact that since you work from home, you’re constantly caught in the middle ground between professional and personal life. If you’re already there, you can use this fact as an icebreaker during the first minutes of your conversation with the candidate.

For instance, share a story about when your children videobombed another business call. By doing this, you leave room for the candidates to share a similar work from home bloopers and at the same time you make them feel more at ease and therefore improve candidate experience. This practice also prepares the candidate for a potential invasion and helps you communicate an inclusive culture where having children and working is OK.

Now, in case your children do walk in, invite them to say a brief “Hello”. However, if the situation isn’t that easy to resolve, it’s better to reschedule the interview and ask for the candidate’s understanding. Make sure to prioritize the interview and send an email in which you highlight that you value their time and you want them to have your full attention.

Keep in mind that the same might happen to the candidate as well, and your response will be crucial. Before starting the interviews, prepare a case scenario and give some thought to your response. Remember to show your wholehearted understanding and offer the option to reschedule the interview. Unexpected things do happen, but the way we handle them matters the most.

Other unexpected visitors

The golden rule to avoid other unexpected visitors is to think and act proactively. You can communicate with others in the home that you don’t want to be disturbed during certain periods of the day. Try to note down your busy hours each day and help them keep track of your schedule and your needs. This way, you’ll more likely avoid unwanted disruptions such as the following:

However, with Murphy’s law in mind, sometimes things don’t go as planned, even though you’ve done your best to avoid any situation. Open communication with the candidate and a sense of humor on the spot are the most important ingredients to handle the situation successfully. For example, if your doorbell rings and that long-awaited package you’ve been expecting is finally here, it can be OK to pause the interview to pick it up, but make sure that you make up for the time lost.

And what about pets?

Most of my colleagues have already met my cat Fluffy — or at least seen his tail waving around the webcam at some point. You can ask your vet or find some practices online to help your paw-worker stay calm, especially during a busy day. Pets reduce stress and increase levels of oxytocin, also known as the love hormone. So, next time your pet walks through an interview take some time to introduce them to the candidate as it is likely that both of you will feel more comfortable and relaxed.

Workable’s takeaways for virtual backgrounds

It all started on Dec. 9, 2020, when Spyros Magiatis, Workable’s CTO, announced in the company’s Slack channel “wfh-watercooler” the first day’s prompt of a “12 Days of Holiday Spirit” series; a holiday photo from when we were kids. Many of us shared our moment of glory either along with Santa Claus, during a Christmas play.

The next day, Melissa Escobar-Franco, our Head of Talent, asked for our favorite holiday ornaments or decorations. The first one to answer — and claim our giggles — was Rob Long, our VP of Sales (EMEA). Behold:

Over the following days, we shared lots of present ideas, crafts, pictures of our pets, our favorite holiday movies – and even created a holiday adventure about a little troll who loved to bake cookies. And then, Panos Korros, our SVP of Engineering, asked us to change our meeting background to a special holiday scene. Guess what background Spyros chose? Yes, it was a hilarious reference to Rob Long’s toilet decoration.

The days passed and as we approached New Year’s Eve. Fewer Slack notifications came in, as people enjoyed their time off. And Spyros did the same. But one day, as he opened his computer and joined the video conference to interview a candidate, he realized that something didn’t feel right with the candidate as he was utterly surprised.

Here’s what the candidate saw:

Spyros, of course, laughed it off and this made for a more memorable video interview experience for the candidate. If something like this happens to you, take a note from Spyros’ book: don’t be afraid to laugh. Sharing personal moments makes you more human and brings you closer to the candidate and at the end of the day, connects you to another human being.

Yhprum’s law

Yhprum’s law — which is Murphy spelled backwards — says that “Anything that can go right, will go right”. And it will. Everything’s a matter of perspective and handling. If you panic and start blaming you or others while you experience work from home bloopers or any other difficult situation, you’ll only see Murphy’s law; but take a deep breath and handle those situations in a humorous way, and always try to find the best in it. You’ll see that not only your professional, but also your personal life will be vastly improved for the better.

The post How to handle work from home bloopers during an interview appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Zinger Property is a property management group that owns 16 buildings across the US Midwest with 4,000 apartment units. Based in Chicago, their mission is to blend technology and the traditional human touch in property management. With Workable, they’ve found a recruitment technology partner that aligns with their mission to ensure a personalized touch in the hiring process. Alongside their main Zinger brand, they also hire for their subsidiary company, RuMe. Their multi-tenancy account with Workable allows them to hire in one place, keeping senior leadership aligned on their robust hiring plan.

Says Kate Blake, Assistant Director of Operations at Zinger: “Workable has completely streamlined our entire recruiting process. Furthermore, our staff working in the field is able to utilize the mobile app, which has been a game-changer.”

Prior to COVID, Zinger had been vetting video interview solutions to reduce the administrative time required to screen candidates. When Workable offered their new solution, they went with it because it was a fully native platform keeping all the elements of candidate evaluation in one place.

Says Kate: “Every member of our hiring team reviews the video interviews. Early in the process, our direct hiring manager will review. As candidates progress, our corporate staff utilize video interviews prior to approval.”

Inclusivity increased with the introduction of video interviews as senior leaders who approve hires were able to gain a better overall impression of candidates. The enhanced inclusivity of the video interview feature aligned naturally with Zinger’s vision of a fully inclusive company culture. This was an added benefit to the original value proposition of Workable Video Interviews, which was to eliminate the time-consuming nature of phone screens in the hiring process.

Says Kate: “I would say that video interviews have cut our recruiting time practically in half.”

Video interviews are sometimes stigmatized among candidates as being impersonal. Zinger combatted that by keeping branded video interviews and ensuring increased flexibility for the candidate – so much that a newly hired employee spoke out about their positive experience.

Says Jim Oates, Associate Analyst at RuMe: “It was definitely easier to schedule than a phone screen because you can do it on your own time. I found this online interview to be a great process that was very time-flexible and very much in favor of the applicant.”

Zinger Property Group’s choice to use both Workable’s ATS and Video Interview products enhanced inclusivity, decreased admin screening time and solidified a branded, personalized candidate experience.

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In 2020, talent teams were looking for ways to diversify their sourcing channels and methods. With AI Recruiter, we helped customers immediately source 50 passive candidates from outside their existing network for every job.

Many companies faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 crisis. Unfortunately, with the pandemic came layoffs and furloughs at many companies. For customers trying to help former employees find a new job, we built Bridge, a tool that connects former employees with employers actively looking for candidates. 

The move to remote work made it harder for candidates to get a feel for company culture, meaning employer branding and careers pages became increasingly important in showcasing your company. With Branded Careers Pages, we help you put your best brand forward: flexible templates and customizable sections are included right in the Workable platform. 

As remote work opportunities increased, companies continued to attract talent globally. With language options, we made it easy for you to localize the entire candidate experience in the languages of your choice, available in English, French, German, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

Many HR leaders looked to advance diversity, equity and inclusion as their organizations continued to navigate the new world of work. To address customer requests and needs, Workable released anonymized screening: the ability to anonymize your screening process by hiding details like candidate name, background, and gender. Anonymizing this data in applications can help companies decrease inherent bias and increase inclusivity in their hiring practices.

To help customers connect with candidates more easily, we introduced two premium features: Video Interviews and Texting. Video Interviews streamlines remote screening efforts, helping candidates record responses to interview questions at their convenience. Personalize the experience with a welcome video or pre-record videos with prompts. It’s a flexible process proven to help you screen more candidates, faster. Texting encourages recruiters to message candidates directly from the Workable platform or app and track responses in real time on the candidate timeline, just like with email.

With updates to our hiring plan, you now have the ability to filter by hiring manager, requisition owner and status for more granular reporting. To make company growth simple, we introduced Department Hierarchy. Department Hierarchy offers centralized department management with hierarchical structure, meaning as your company grows, your hiring structure does too. 

Speed up executive sign-off and get candidate signatures faster with updated offer letter templates, approval workflows, e-signatures and more, right within the platform. We take compliance very seriously and make it easy for your teams to stay compliant, adding CCPA to our existing suite of EEO/OFFCP and GDPR features. 

What’s coming in 2021

We’re building out our product roadmap based on customer feedback, market research, and our overall product vision. With that in mind, we wanted to give a sneak peek at what’s to come in 2021.

We will continue our focus on DEI with the release of a native Assessments feature and customizable surveys for candidate experience and diversity metrics. We’ll introduce automation to current communications, meaning you’ll be able to automate emails and text messages based on hiring stages. We’re bringing a slew of enhancements to our current candidate database, and we’ll focus on developing a number of additional features based on your feedback. We’re thrilled for what’s coming in 2021 to Workable, and we hope you are too.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us. 

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With Texting, Workable’s latest premium feature, you can now message candidates directly from the platform or app. Reaching out about a new opportunity, or scheduling an interview? Texting makes it easy for you to reach candidates quickly, wherever they are. Track responses in real time on the candidate timeline, just like you would with email.

Texts have a 98% open rate and a 60x faster response time than email, and 95% of all text messages are read within 90 seconds. Communication templates help you personalize with ease and seamlessly switch from email to text at any stage of the recruiting pipeline. By getting in front of candidates faster with Texting, you can focus on what actually matters: hiring great candidates.

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The response from candidates and customers alike was overwhelmingly positive but we also heard from customers who wanted more customizable careers pages and options, like: 

1. More branding: Branding options were still limited in the 2019 release. Having only one branding color was challenging for organizations that featured two or three colors in their brand; moreover, typography configuration was a common request, to make the marketing and careers sites more consistent.
2. More content: The available content options were limited: you could add text, images, and videos. Hiring teams found it difficult to compete with custom careers sites’ content-rich sections with testimonials, maps, benefits, and more. 
3. Tracking performance: Τo improve your careers site, you must be able to track how it performs – ideally with your existing web analytics tools. Customers with dedicated recruitment marketing teams were missing a way to measure, analyze, and improve their careers site.
4. Customized URL hosting: For many customers, hosting the careers site under their own custom domain, like jobs.acme.com, instead of the generic apply.workable.com, was a common request to ensure a more consistent candidate experience. 

These challenges led some customers to look for other options to build the careers pages they envisioned. This meant either outsourcing the project to agencies – a long and expensive process – or requesting help from their own engineering and design resources, teams who usually have other high-priority projects to deliver.

Advanced careers pages

Understanding these needs, we designed the next version of our careers pages, enabling recruiting teams to build, update, and improve their careers site without breaking the bank. While maintaining a seamless candidate experience, we shifted our focus to the recruitment marketing team – enabling them to build advanced careers pages within Workable.

Through an intuitive user interface the user can set up the branding (colors and typography) of the careers site, add content components, such as testimonials, office locations on a map, and benefits, and publish with a single click; it is essentially a full-blown website builder tailored to fit a recruitment marketer’s needs.

In terms of product research at Workable, we’re lucky to be able to use our own product as a customer – thus, customer feedback is readily available. Our creative and recruiting teams user tested the product while building our own careers site. This way we had solid qualitative evidence to identify and prioritize the features and the usability improvements, instead of relying on our biases and assumptions. We then continued in short cycles of feedback and development with an open beta program: a group of engaged customers tried our new site builder and elaborated on their experience. Each piece of feedback was evaluated to guide our product development efforts in the way that is most meaningful to our customers.

As of December 10, 2020, advanced careers pages are available on Workable’s Core, Growth and Premier annual plans and the first customers’ careers sites are already live. According to our early product metrics, hiring teams now need less than a week to design, build and publish their careers site for the first time! And, on average, they create a first draft to iterate on in less than an hour. These times are just a fraction of what a custom careers site project (outsourced or internal) usually takes, and a positive sign of what’s to come. We’re excited to see what our customers accomplish with these enhanced employer branding tools. If you’d like to use our advanced careers page builder to efficiently – and cost effectively – reach more and better candidates, get in touch.

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The modern jobseeker could be spending up to 15 hours a week looking and is just as likely to be using their smartphone as their laptop while doing so. More than half the traffic on Glassdoor, one of the world’s most popular job boards, comes from mobile with the group of 35-44 leading the way. And this is why employers who accept mobile applications are twice as likely to get high quality candidates as those that don’t.

This guide was created so as to give you a quick overview of job posting and help you bring those talented jobseekers to your doorstep. If you know the basics, you can navigate and jump into the topics you want:

1. Choosing the right job title for your open role
2. How to write a job description
3. How to post a job listing
4. Where to post a job for free
5. The best places to post jobs free and paid
6. Specialist job boards
7. How to post to multiple job boards for maximum impact
8. Tips for successful job candidate management

What are the different ways to attract candidates?

There is no magic bullet in recruiting. Instead there’s an exciting variety of channels and the challenge is to get the mix right. The starting point should be a great careers page that showcases what’s good about your company and the roles you’re hiring for. The next step is to take advantage of social media to spread the word that you’re hiring. Get everyone you work with involved with the help of a referral program. Then turn to job boards where there are a host of free options for job posting, as well as premium job boards, which if used right, are worth the money.

How do people collect and review applicants?

Even now some of the smartest companies are still hobbling their recruiting effort by using accounting tools to get it done. Spreadsheets are great for a lot of things. They suck as a hiring tool. Likewise email – which you can’t work without – becomes overwhelming when you’re hiring. The answer can be found in some of the great hiring software solutions that an increasing number of employers are turning to. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), like Workable, are bringing the advantages larger organisations have long enjoyed when hiring and delivering them to smart companies of all sizes.

Do I need to hire a recruiter?

Hiring a recruiter isn’t always necessary but it can be a great shortcut. Here are some important points to bear in mind:

• Look for recruiters who have hired for businesses like your own.
• Look for recruiters who have hired for roles like the one you’re hiring for.

Contingent recruiters, who get paid when they deliver results, have become increasingly popular. The upside is that you only pay for what you get (typically one third of the hire’s annual salary). The downside is the cost and a possible conflict of interest. You want to hire great people. The recruiter gets paid when you hire someone. Bear this in mind.

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1. Choosing the right job title for your open role

Whichever job title you choose for your job advertisement, remember that it will be displayed in job listings, on your own website and in search results. While you might think of a job title one way, your candidates could be busy searching for something else. The answer is to do some research to make sure your title is something a jobseeker would look for on Google or Bing. While a designer might reasonably expect to search using the term “designer”, this won’t help them to find your posting if you’ve used the job title, “graphical ninja”. Clarity of writing comes from clarity of thought.

Tech tricks to inform your choice:

• Go to the job board Indeed to check out the most searched job trends.
• Use the Google Keyword Planner, or if you don’t have an Adwords account one of these free keyword tools.

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2. How to write a job description

First impressions count. For many jobseekers, the job description is where the relationship between employee and employer begins. Should this step turn into a stumble it’s all over very quickly. Job descriptions can alienate, demoralize and intimidate. They can also engage, motivate and inspire. To achieve the latter we need to revolutionize the way we think about this relationship.

We’re starting with a list of tips and tricks on how to write a job description, then we’ll break it down to provide specific guidelines for your company profile, requirements and benefits.

How to write a job description in 10 steps

1. Discuss the role with someone who already does this job, or its nearest equivalent within your organization, and get them to describe their average day.
2. Describe the role using words that feel inviting and evoke an emotional response. Resist the temptation to use jargon, buzzwords or a flat corporate tone.
3. Keep it short (but not too short) or it can become confusing. As a general rule, don’t use more than a half-dozen bullet points and don’t exceed 700 words.
4. Be specific. Vague meaningless prose won’t cut it here. Know your industry and where your company stands. Make sure you’re familiar with the role and what it consists of and spell it out. Add a start date to create a sense of urgency.
5. Think like an applicant. What would make you apply for the job? Is it just perks and benefits or the chance to work with a smart group of people? Perhaps it’s the clear career path, the opportunities to learn and add to your skills, the company’s vision or the way you do things.
6. Help applicants to picture themselves in the role. Share details of the team they could be working with on a regular basis; include quotes or links to social media accounts.
7. Leave out trivial tasks or minor details. It’s all about what’s important in the role.
8. Offer value. It’s not all about how great your company and the job you’re offering is. This is about the potential candidates. Share content that interests and attracts them, talk about knowledge, ideas, and working methods.
9. Don’t write job descriptions in isolation. Talk to other departments to gain their expertise, content writers for wordsmithing, marketing for promotional ideas, designers for smart-looking visuals.
10. Spell-check and proofread. And once you’re done, do it again.

Looking for more? Check out our ultimate and most updated list of how to write a good job description.

Your company versus all the companies out there

To stand out in a crowded market you need to show some personality in your company profile. Your company is a unique combination of people, culture and knowledge, and your target is to attract candidates who share your approach and values. Make a pitch. Tell them the story of where you are, how you got there and where you’re going. Invite your candidates to join you in getting there.

Make it visual; an image of your workplace, a video or a quote from one of your employees offers an inside look at your company. Two-thirds of jobseekers admit to being influenced by the presentation of a job ad. Make yours memorable.

But don’t be self-absorbed. Many ads brag about how special their company is, how they only employ the best. This can come across as boastful, which is a turnoff for some candidates and will make others suspicious or fearful of applying. Brevity is your friend, keep this part to no more than 200 words and focus on your candidate; what’s likely to capture their attention.

This job versus every other job out there

The two most common approaches when writing a job description are to present a detailed list of daily tasks or a vague run-through of responsibilities. Neither will make the role compelling. Focus instead on deliverables and explain how these will contribute to the success of the business.

Here you can use bullet points (not a laundry list) that describe the nature of the work and how the role functions within the broader team. Rather than describing tasks, focus on the type of decisions they’ll be making, who they will be working with and reporting to.

The requirements list

You get what you ask for, so it’s tempting to go all out with a wish list. What you actually need is someone who can do the job and has the potential to grow. Candidates aren’t sitting on a shelf waiting to be picked. Distinguish between what you “want” and what you “need”. Come up with a list of 15 requirements. Read, rethink and cut the list in half.

A good approach is to rank skills by importance and frequency and be clear about it. Treating all skills as equal will demoralize jobseekers. The wrong emphasis could cost you good candidates who are concerned that they lack some skills which could really be picked up with a few hours basic training. Likewise don’t dwell too much on experience. Keep in mind that skills can be learned, people can be trained.

Benefits & perks

Here you can knock yourself out with as many bullet points as your actual benefits deserve. Still, you would be wise to focus on what’s special about your company. Keep in mind that attracting people through perks isn’t the best recruiting strategy. You’re looking for someone to meet the challenge and buy into the company as a whole, not a benefits shopper.

Make it easy to apply

We’ve all come across job ads that require a lot of patience to apply. Sending resumes to email addresses, filling out a bunch of fields with basic personal details or even worse rewriting your entire resume in individual form fields. Don’t be that guy. The candidates’ application experience is important.

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that automatically fills in required fields and offers a simple resume upload is all you need. Screening questions are useful and can weed out poor candidates to save you valuable time. A simple question like “What attracted you to this job?” can say volumes about the candidate. But go easy on open-ended questions that require candidates to write an essay. Multiple choice questions to check on skills and knowledge should be the default.

Worried about starting with a blank page? Try our job description templates, or jump right in and post your job to the best job boards today.

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3. How to post a job listing

You need to create some buzz around the job you’ve just published on your careers page. To do this you want to get your listing noticed by the communities where the passive candidates hang out. Linkedin has scores of groups you can join, mention jobs in or initiate general discussions around the role, your company or the industry.

First things first. Does everyone on staff know you have just listed a new job? Share it across your company. If you don’t have a referral system in place we’d strongly advise you to set one up. Include a social sharing feature and give incentives to your staff to start sharing from their own social accounts.

An alternative is to create your own communities. Smart companies make sure they have created Facebook groups or a Facebook Jobs tab, or even run a Facebook ad campaign, with the sole purpose of attracting potential candidates. Promote your employer brand through these pages and when you post a job you’ll have a talent pool of existing fans. Add as many touch points as possible between you and prospective candidates.

The top job boards

Posting your job on your careers page and social media is not enough. You need job boards. The leading premium job boards in terms of ROI (return on investment) are LinkedIn, Craigslist, Indeed and Monster.

Some job boards, like Indeed, also offer a free option as well as a paid. SimplyHired and Glassdoor offer free postings when you access them through an ATS like Workable. For the most effective places to post your jobs, check out our job board directory, which enables you to choose job boards based on industry, location, and cost (paid versus unpaid).

The best day to post a job

Don’t post your jobs on Friday evening, by Monday they’ll be last week’s news! Instead, wait until Sunday evening or Monday morning and advertise your roles when the candidates are most active.

Most job sites use freshness as a factor in ranking job search results. Plus, the new jobs of the day usually land in email updates and job board front pages, so getting there when the action is happening can get you up to double the candidates you’d receive on a slow day.

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4. Where to post a job for free

To keep costs low, share your job on social media – with a well-thought-out strategy – and harness the power of your best brand advocates: your employees. Wondering where to post jobs for free? Get word-of-mouth referrals for free by having your team share your job descriptions far and wide on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

• Twitter
  Twitter is the most open and transparent of these three social networks. In other words, you don’t have to be a Twitter user to read tweets. Putting your job listing on Twitter is a great way to connect with audiences you don’t already know. Help jobseekers find your listing by using relevant hashtags, such as #jobopening or #joblisting. You can even use industry-specific hashtags, such as #greenjobs, or location-specific hashtags, such as #bostonjobs. This list of hashtags is written for jobseekers but equally useful for recruiters
• Facebook
  Facebook has more users than LinkedIn and Twitter and is by far the most popular social network. It’s designed for personal sharing and the best channel for employer branding. To get the most traction from Facebook, intersperse job listings with photos and videos that feature your corporate culture. If you’re planning to do a lot of recruiting on Facebook, try adding a Jobs Tab to your page. This is a free, effective way to enable your audience to browse all your open jobs on Facebook.
• LinkedIn
  LinkedIn is purely a professional network and a natural fit for recruiters. LinkedIn profiles are formatted much like a resume, with most of the same candidate data—education, work history, technical skills, and some extras, like recommendations and endorsements. This is what makes LinkedIn so effective for sourcing highly specific types of candidates. Although LinkedIn has paid job listings, you can also post an open job as a status update on your company page for free.

Talent pools and the power of referrals

IMPORTANT NOTE: Choose your social media channel based on where your target talent pool is likely to be. Communications professionals in fields like advertising, marketing, and PR, are likely to be active on Twitter. If you’re hiring for construction jobs, Twitter won’t be an effective recruiting channel for you. You’re not limited to these social networks either. For example, if you’re a lifestyle or fashion brand and primarily communicate with your audience through images, Instagram may be your best bet.

Try pairing social media with an employee referral program. This is a warm, efficient way to reach your colleagues’ trusted contacts and make higher quality hires. Referrals are the number one source for hires, and social media provides employees with an easier, more personal way to share open jobs. Increase participation in the referral program with incentives. Gift cards, gadgets, and bonuses are popular, but feel free to get creative.

For example, APAC Customer Services had offered concert tickets as a reward for referrals. It was fun, but also smart, with the concert date functioning as a kind of countdown. When creating a referral program, think about the way your colleagues like to communicate, such as Slack.

Where to collect your candidates

One efficient way to post to job boards is through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). In addition to posting to multiple job boards and social networks with one submission, any applicants from those job boards will automatically be imported into your ATS. Hiring teams can work smarter, not harder, by cutting email and spreadsheets out of the process and storing all their candidate profiles and resumes in a searchable database.

The best ATS options, including Workable, offer you a simple hiring pipeline that makes sense of your recruiting tasks.

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5. The best places to post jobs free and paid

Get more eyes on your job listing today. With one click, post your listing to free job boards like Indeed, SimplyHired and Glassdoor. Workable integrates with numerous top job boards around the world. All you need to do is select the ones you want and we’ll do the rest.

Premium Job Boards

• Indeed
  Indeed is a leader among job boards and is visited by nearly three-quarters of all jobseekers. The site also boasts substantial reach with over 4 million jobs posted directly to Indeed.com. Indeed is also a job search engine that anyone can use for free. It takes jobseekers’ input, such as skills and location and then aggregates all matching jobs from thousands of other websites.
• LinkedIn
  LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social network, a powerful sourcing tool and a job board. LinkedIn enables recruiters to create narrow searches for candidates by parameters such as location, job title, industry and more. With more than 722 million users in total, LinkedIn has the largest user base. And they’re growing fast with 172,800 added per day. The site is also visited by a whopping 310m active users a month.
• CareerBuilder
  CareerBuilder is both a job board and a destination for career advice. It operates in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia and is visited by more than 24 million unique visitors a month. It has 3,200 partner sites in 60 countries. CareerBuilder is used by 80 million job applicants and each month it has 3 million job postings.
• SimplyHired
  SimplyHired, like Indeed, is a job search engine at its core. It is a highly-targeted pay per click job board that gets around 30 million unique visitors per month. SimplyHired is used by 3 million employers. When jobseekers search on SimplyHired, they’re able to discover jobs on the SimplyHired site, mobile app and numerous partner sites.
• ZipRecruiter
  ZipRecruiter is used by over 1 million employers and 7 million active job seekers each month. They offer a speedy way to get candidates by enabling recruiters to post to more than 100 job boards with one click, in addition to having a job board of their own.
• Monster
  Monster enables recruiters to target jobseekers in other countries, as well as through niche sites like Military.com, thousands of newspaper sites and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s a recognized name in job boards, having been around for 25 years. Monster also gets a ton of traffic with more than 926 million monthly unique visitors.
• Portfolium
  Portfolium is a job board and a portfolio site that enables approximately five million students and recent graduates to get their work samples, video clips and skills in front of employers. Hiring college talent is not easy for recruiters but it is especially challenging for small businesses. Portfolium enables any company to look beyond resume keywords and effectively reach and hire college talent with verified skills.
• StackOverflowCareers
  StackOverflowCareers is the careers platform of StackOverflow. It’s used by more than 100 million developers and technologists and is the trusted first destination of tech recruiters. Both employer profiles and developer profiles on this network are designed with the interests of developers in mind. In addition, there’s more for employers and recruiters to look at besides resumes. Recruiters look at code samples and interaction with other users to build a high quality pipeline of talent.

Free Job Boards

• Glassdoor
  Glassdoor offers jobseekers free access to more than 70 million company reviews, interview questions, salary reports and more, all posted anonymously by employees. It allows hiring managers to post jobs free, and is quickly rising in popularity as a job board and recruiting site. Glassdoor enables employers to update their company info, see who is viewing their company profile and respond to reviews. Glassdoor gets 50 million visits monthly
• Trovit
  Trovit is the leading classifieds search engine in Europe and Latin America. They have a presence in 57 countries and are available in more than a dozen languages. Jobs are one of their five major verticals and they partner with thousands of job boards and newspapers to help jobseekers be more efficient in their search. Trovit listings are highly visible as they are visited by 11 million unique users a month.
• JobRapido
  JobRapido is a global job search engine similar to SimplyHired and Indeed. They conduct business in 58 countries with more than a thousand companies, have 85 million registered users and are visited by 35 million monthly users. They’re a frontrunner as far as job aggregators go and continue to expand in Europe and the rest of the world.
• JobInventory
  JobInventory is a job search engine that eschews pay-per-click campaigns for a contributor program. This means that the search results provided to jobseekers are 100% organic. They offer a wide selection as they post jobs from all sources: employers, job boards and classified sites.
• CareerJet
  CareerJet is a job search engine with a worldwide presence. They’re available in 28 languages and source job ads from nearly 60,000 websites around the world. They own and operate two other brands, Opcionempleo for Spanish language markets and Optioncarriere for French language markets.
• Recruit.net
  Recruit.net is the leading search engine for jobs in the Asia Pacific region. Their search technology pulls jobs from corporate web sites, job boards, recruitment agencies, classifieds and more enabling jobseekers to quickly find millions of jobs. They also offer pay-per-click advertising, detailed analytics, and tracking for employers and recruiters. Recruit.net operates 18 localized websites in 6 major languages.

Looking for more? Check out our ultimate and most updated list with the best job boards.

Why you would pay for a job board versus free job boards?

Which job board is right for you and whether you should spend the extra on a paid job boards depends on a few factors:

1. The urgency of the hire – if you need to hire quickly you’re likely to find them faster by putting some money behind a paid or sponsored ad.
2. The type of role – some roles are simply harder to find candidates for. Take for example technology roles and often more senior hires. For this type of role you’ll often need to use a specialist/niche paid job board. The cost of the board will be justified by the quality of candidate it can attract.
3. Your location – if you are based in an area where there is high competition for candidates, a paid job ad can help you stand out from the crowd and make sure you’re speaking to the best people.
4. Ongoing hiring – as free job ads get old they fall down the rankings on job boards as newer jobs take the top spots. Simply reposting the same job on the same job board won’t get it listed back at the top. So if you’re hiring for a particular type of role over a long period of time you’ll keep your job ad fresh and the candidates flowing by paying for a job ad to keep it high on job board search results.
5. Cost control – how much you pay for job ads is completely customizable, especially with pay-per-click (PPC) options. Many job boards have PPC campaigns that you can use to target a highly specific audience. This means that you only pay when interested and suitable candidates view your job listing.

Never forget that a badly written job ad will never attract the best candidates whether you pay for an ad or not. So be sure that your job ad is up to scratch before you start.

So a paid ad is always better?

Not necessarily. There are many jobs where the free job boards can perform very well. Indeed for example is the biggest job board in the world, its free version has a huge amount of candidate traffic and can provide great candidates.

You’ll need to decide which job boards are best for you on a role by role basis and whether paying for a job ad will work out better in the long run.

Try Workable free for 15 days, and see which job boards work for you. Post your job to multiple free job posting sites with one submission, and get discounts on premium listings.

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6. Specialist job boards

Specialist Job Boards, also referred to as niche job boards, trade on quality of candidates over quantity. Many have grown out of successful community sites or evolved into community hubs as well as listings sites. This is an introduction to some of the top job boards in their respective fields — or head straight to our job board directory for the full breakdown.

Industry-specific job boards

TECH AND PROGRAMMING

• StackOverflowCareers
  StackOverflowCareers is the place to go if you’re looking for developers. Some 100 million devs and technologists use it every month.
• Dice
  Dice the other tech job board giant with a database of more than 9 million tech resumes in the US. Has a cross-posting network and minimizes unqualified clutter due to its niche nature.
• Github
  GitHub is a community of 50 million developers but it also has its own small job board. More often used to trawl for passive candidates.

DESIGN

• Dribbble
  Dribbble is a community that gives you access to designers’ portfolios and profiles. Plus you can post your jobs and connect with top talent.
• Behance
  Behance is where some of the top brands post their creative jobs. It’s also the place where 10 million professionals showcase their works enabling you to take a peek before you decide.

HEALTHCARE

• Doximity
  Doximity has attracted almost 75% of US doctors. It’s a professional network and a job board. You could call it a niche version of Linkedin.
• HealthECareers
  HealthEcareers with 6,500 employers and more than 11,000 medical & healthcare jobs posted, this job board is guaranteed to provide you with qualified applicants.

SALES

• Rainmakers
  Rainmakers attracts top performing salespeople, making it a leading sales career site and sales talent community.

RETAIL

• AllRetailJobs
  AllRetailJobs board adds 4,000 resumes per month on their database and has more than 19,000 employers and recruiters using the platform.

HOSPITALITY

• HCareers
  HCareers is the premier job board that covers all hospitality jobs (hotels, restaurants, travel etc).

MEDIA

• Mashable
  Mashable has emerged as a global media company with 45 million monthly visitors and its job board is a go-to for digital talent.

FINANCE & BANKING

• eFinancialCareers
  eFinancial Careers includes jobs in finance, accounting, banking and insurance and has an audience of more than 1m finance professionals.

Job boards for different types of work

FREELANCE/FLEX

• UpWork
  UpWork (previously oDesk) is free and is for freelancers only. If you’re looking for one, check out their well-rounded database of 18 million freelancers.
• FlexJobs
  FlexJobs is free and effective when it comes to flexible jobs. But only if you’re in search of part-time, telecommute or freelance employees.
• WeWorkRemotely
  WeWorkRemotely is the job board without borders allowing you to narrow down talent that doesn’t have to be in the same location as you.

SEASONAL

• Snagajob
  Snagajob is the largest resource for hourly employees. Has 100 million registered job seekers and 700,000 employer locations in the US and Canada.

INTERNSHIP/RECENT GRADS

• Internships.com
  Internships.com is used by more than 80,000 employers that can post and manage their internship jobs for free.
• Looksharp
  Looksharp is made for entry-level jobs and internships.

STARTUPS

• AngelList
  AngelList will be familiar to most startups. More than 100,000 of them use it. Candidates get to apply privately and see salary and equity up front and startups get to access a huge list of developers and designers actively looking for a job. All for free!

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7. How to post to multiple job boards for maximum impact

Recruiting software (like an Applicant Tracking System, or ATS) takes the hassle out of hiring by automating repetitive tasks and enabling you to keep everything you need to do your hiring in one place. Posting your job to multiple job boards and social media sites used to take hours. Now, it can be done in a click. Your recruiting software may even offer discounted or free job listings with specific partner sites.

Get candidates in one place

As candidates apply through job boards, their application data flows directly back into your recruiting software, or Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Your ATS will organize each applicant’s resume and application materials, track how many candidates are applying to each listing and enable you to see how many candidates you’re moving forward in the hiring process. You’ll also be able to discuss candidates with colleagues and keep all their communication on the candidate’s timeline.

How to post jobs that will be seen everywhere

Maximize your reach by using the job board integrations offered by your ATS. Posting to several job boards at once is a great way to get more exposure, and more exposure means more applicants. Automating this task with an ATS saves time but also increases productivity. With an ATS, your hiring team can save hundreds of work hours you’d otherwise lose to filtering a large pool of applicants. This helps you identify top talent faster and focus on the more important work of choosing the best candidate for your job.

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8. Tips for successful job candidate management

You’ve posted your job and applications are rolling in. Now, it’s time to start building a shortlist. Hiring processes vary from company to company, but generally your next steps for job candidates are one-way video interviews, phone screening, assessments, in-person interviews and at the very end, offer and onboarding, or rejection letters.

In the United States the average cost per hire (including direct and indirect costs) is $4,129. (Source: SHRM)

How to collaborate with your hiring team

Close collaboration with your hiring team will result in more efficient processes for candidate management and a hire who fits better. Whether you are an in-house or agency recruiter, it’s a good idea to send regular updates to your clients or hiring team. Using recruiting software means you don’t have to stitch together spreadsheets, email and elaborate filing systems. Some tools provide seamless and customizable collaboration features so that you’re always in the loop.

Methods used to score candidates

Time to rank your candidates. There are different approaches that can be taken here. One way is to simply rank candidates between 1-5 stars based on a few key elements. Some useful things to look for are:

1. Initiative and drive
2. Trend of performance over time
3. Past accomplishments
4. Comparable experience and education
5. Problem-solving and analytical skills

How to move candidates through the process

It can be hard to pick up where you left off while managing multiple hiring pipelines. Use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to easily identify next steps and efficiently move candidates through the different stages of hiring.

The typical stages of the hiring process include “sourced”, “applied”, “phone/video screen” and “in-person/live interview”. The right system will enable you to disqualify candidates from the process or even move a candidate from one hiring pipeline to another for a different job.

Chances are you know this scenario:

You write a job ad then post it to every job board one at a time. Your inbox gets jammed with randomly formatted resumes. You forward the ones you’ve had time to read to colleagues. It gets messy so you try to track it on a spreadsheet. We like spreadsheets, they’re great for all sorts of things like metrics and accounting but they’re useless for hiring.

That’s why we made Workable. A simple and powerful tool designed to help you hire better. Workable helps thousands of SMBs and Enterprises hire better candidates faster. Post to all the best free job boards with one click, share your jobs on social media and get discounts on premium listings. When the applications roll in, Workable keeps them all in one place, where you can browse and decide painlessly. Hiring made simple.

The post The ultimate guide to job posting appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In this webinar, we’re sitting down with Lissa Khan, Recruitment Manager at Weetabix. She’ll break down how to use your careers page to attract talent and put your brand into the spotlight. You’ll also get an early sneak peek into Workable’s new Advanced Careers Pages.

In just 45-minutes, you’ll learn:
– The most important elements of a careers page
– Creative ways to engage and attract talent on your site
– Top features in Workable’s Advanced Careers Pages

The post Advanced Careers Pages: Talent Attraction Made Easy appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Workable’s own data finds that in 2020 to date, there was an average of 94 total candidates for every single job – with 26 of those being moved to the “promising” stage. That’s 26 candidates who need to be screened – 26 for each job opportunity that opens at your organization, which can become a lot of work, especially if you’re scaling rapidly with multiple hires as a result of a new funding round or a new market penetration.

Great for your organization, but for you and the hiring team, that is a lot of work. You’re spending many hours communicating with each and every candidate, lining them up against your ever-busy calendar for screening calls, dealing with delayed responses, back-and-forth communication, and ultimately the actual call with them.

This whole process is clunky and expensive in terms of hours taken from other duties. So how do you try and solve that? Technology and automation, of course. And there’s one piece of technology out there that’s growing in popularity: the asynchronous video interview – or AVI for short. You prepare the questions beforehand, send them out en masse to candidates, and within days, your inbox is filled with a clean set of responses that you and your hiring team can review on your own time. It’s a match made in heaven, right?

The upside of asynchronous video interviews

First, let’s look at the upside of AVIs. There are clear benefits, according to HR consultant Laura Handrick in New York City – they make it easier to identify the soft skills that can’t otherwise be discovered via a standard screening process in a large candidate pool.

“For popular jobs, like COVID Compliance Officer in TV/Film, the number of applicants who believed they were qualified was overwhelming,” says Laura, who currently works with Choosing Therapy, an online mental health therapy resource website. “To pare down the group of qualified applicants, it was important to discern their professionalism, demeanor and experience working with celebrities in a way that gave each candidate a fair shot at selling themselves for the job.”

Jennifer Roquemore, co-founder of Resume Writing Services, was also looking for a solution to the cumbersome screening process.

“As a growing resume service, we are constantly trying to hire new resume writers to join our team,” says Jennifer. “One of the main challenges we faced was finding a quick and efficient way of adequately screening all the applications we were getting from the various online job sites we were posting our openings on. In particular, we felt like we were doing a poor job at screening candidates because we were unable to evaluate their speaking ability and interview skills, which are quintessential assets to have as a resume writer.”

She found that asynchronous video interviews helped hugely.

“To resolve this issue, we turned to one-way video interviewing which allowed us to see first hand the communication skills and general soft skills of the applicants who were applying to us. Using this method, we were able to make a far more informed decision as to whether the applicant was up to par with our standards and expectations, which made the hiring process a whole lot easier.”

Ed Spicer, the CEO of Pest Strategies, a resource website for information and services on pest control, found AVI tech to be immensely useful as well, even from the candidate’s perspective.

“While one-way video interviews aren’t every applicant’s cup of tea, people who are currently working at another job or have a busy schedule tend to love the freedom of being able to record at any time. […] If an applicant prefers to wait for a one-on-one phone or live video interview instead, we’re happy to schedule for the next available time. This way, we can accommodate everyone.”

Ed also finds more benefits down the road.

“Once the one-way video applicants get squared away, it becomes easier to schedule the reduced slate of remaining applicants who want a live interview. It’s an efficient system and works well for us.”

And now… the downside

What makes your work easier isn’t necessarily easier for the candidate. Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes for a moment: After many months of bleak job hunting during the economic downturn in the midst of a stay-at-home order by your local authorities, you get an email in your inbox! The people at XYZ company would like to learn more about you.

Excited, you click the link in the email, expecting to set up a call with a recruiter or hiring manager. Instead, the link takes you to a webpage asking you to record yourself responding to various questions.

That can be a tad discouraging. Check out these choice comments from a comment thread on Indeed:

“If you ever encounter the digital interview, you are going to laugh. Someone on the other end has a remote in hand and can ‘interview surf’ much like you channel surf the TV stations at home. Hope you are devilishly good looking and have an engaging personality or click … on to the next one. LOL!”

“I just want them to scan our foreheads now and get this over with. It reminds me of the old sci fi movie Gattaca where 100 years in the future, your station in life will be determined by a drop of blood.”

Leading HR guru Liz Ryan offered her own perspective in a scathing tweet:

Q. I was scheduled for a video interview. I expected a Skype interview but no – it was a one-way video interview. I signed off. I don’t want the job. What new insult is this?

A. Companies that use one-way video interviews don’t deserve your talents. That’s an easy goodbye!

— Liz Ryan (@humanworkplace) January 7, 2019

You may even lose out on top candidates in the process, as one person wrote to Liz:

“I declined to take the interview. I don’t want to work for a company that would stick me in front of a piece of software and ask me to talk into my microphone. If they don’t have time to talk with me live, they can hire somebody else.”

In short, you’re losing out on the best candidates in the market if you take what’s sometimes viewed as an assembly-line approach to recruitment.

Daniel Carter has taken on AVIs to optimize the recruitment process for Zippy Electric, an all-in-one resource for electric riders. He, however, empathizes with candidates in the process.

“With the new VI technology, although it is much faster, there is also the problem of it being rather impersonal and rushed,” Daniel says. “I guess I’m siding with the candidates here. The unwanted feeling of corporate slavery feels more prominent than ever especially when you take away the human aspect of things, especially from something as preliminary as a job interview.”

The human disconnect

A study from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Ontario found a significant disconnect in video interviews that wasn’t there in face-to-face interviews. Study author Willi Wiesner puts it aptly:

“Video conferencing places technological barriers between applicants and interviewers. Employers and applicants should work to reduce the barriers that arise through video conferencing and improve the interpersonal aspects of the interview process.”

But if the big kids on the block (i.e. Google, Twitter, Apple, CVS, etc.) are using it, it may well be something you need to incorporate into your hiring process, and somehow overcome the challenges inherent.

5 tips to overcome the AVI stigma

So we picked up five valuable tips that can help you ensure a top-notch candidate experience – and preserve your employer brand and reputation in the process.

1. Show them you’re on their side

First of all, your candidates are human. Simply throwing a video interview invitation into their inbox won’t reassure them. You need to maintain a two-way communication stream in other ways, and explain how AVIs can benefit the candidate as much as it does you.

In Smooth Waters CEO and Founder Jacob Pinkham, whose company focuses on water sports and safety, thinks video technology in recruitment gives candidates a huge opportunity to present their best selves – and it never hurts to tell them that.

“A resume is often boring and personalities are difficult to shine through. Now, it is very easy for someone to record a short video to showcase not only their experience and skills, but their personality.”

Daniel at Zippy Electrics takes the time to help candidates warm up with a few friendly set-up questions.

“What I’ve been doing is I’ve been trying to ask candidates casual and mundane questions before beginning the interview,” Daniel says. “Usually, it’s something about a specific show I’m watching or something about current events. Anything to let them know that I’m there with them.”

It helps to include pre-recorded questions of your own in the interview, especially as the person who ultimately makes the hiring decision, says Jonathan Frey, the CMO of Cincinnati-headquartered Urban Bikes Direct, an online retailer for electric bikes, scooters and skateboards.

“To make the process as respectful and inviting as possible, I record my own video to introduce myself and ask my questions.”

You can also share a quick tutorial for candidates on how they can excel in this part of the process.

This will show the candidate that you value them as people, and will go a long way in establishing your reputation as an employer.

2. Clarify the process

One of the big pushbacks against AVIs is that candidates feel they’re just being thrown onto the assembly line without any insight into why this is happening or where they stand in the process. Help them feel more comfortable by walking them through this part of the evaluation – including details on what candidates can expect before, during, and after.

Jacob likes to explain to the candidate why he’s turning to asynchronous video interviews in the hiring process in the first place.

*In the application process, I clearly define how the video is only to understand the candidate better, to give them the opportunity to truly represent themselves,” says Jacob. “It doesn’t end either with the video. I only request videos of those who I am planning to interview. In fact, it enables the interview to run smoother because I, in the interview, am able to adapt the flow of conversation to suit the candidate.”

Laura at Choosing Therapy highlights the importance of clarifying the process as part of establishing a diverse, equitable and inclusive experience for the candidate:

“To give everyone a fair shot, it’s crucial to provide instructions that are crystal-clear and leave no room for interpretation. That means we provide the job description. We provide the timeframe and expectations and we explain the criteria required to move to the next phase in the interview process. We try to prevent any confusion as we hope to recruit as diverse a work-team as possible and don’t want to make our recruiting process a barrier to an otherwise top-notch candidate.”

Candidates will be more motivated to participate in asynchronous video interviews when they know how it fits within the bigger picture.

3. Put your own work in

Sometimes asynchronous video interviews can be a boon in that they eliminate those irrelevant nuances that fuel hiring biases – for example, hitting it off because you like the same restaurants – and establish a more uniform screening process with a preset series of questions.

However, it can be a double-edged sword in that you can’t clarify an answer or question with a follow-up comment. That means you have to put thought into creating a series of questions that will help the candidate feel motivated to share a thoughtful and inspiring answer.

Jennifer at Resume Writing Services learned this the hard way:

“One of the reasons we were initially getting awkward responses was because we were asking poorly worded questions. Once we were fully onboard with one-way video interviewing, we came up with more appropriate questions and laid out an interview process that was more accommodating and natural for the interviewer.”

Think of it this way; the time you save in the screening process using one-way video interview technology can be invested in creating a stronger set of questions.

4. Make it a two-way street

As above, a common gripe about asynchronous video interviews is that it is a one-way experience. Candidates don’t get to ask questions of the interviewer and they don’t get an opportunity to inject some extracurricular aspects of themselves into it.

Jerry Han, the Chief Marketing Executive of PrizeRebel has a solution for that, suggesting that the interview can close out with an open-ended section to benefit the candidate:

“Add an optional section where candidates can express themselves and ask questions freely. In this set-up, one-way interviews become a two-way form of communication,” says Jerry.

“Candidates can say things that are not limited to the given questions. Candidates can choose to add vital details they didn’t get to answer because of the question selection. Consequently, they can also ask recruiters questions that show their keen interest in getting hired.”

5. Customize the experience

While a standardized process is crucial to identifying top candidates for a position, that doesn’t mean you can’t customize the experience based on a set of criteria.

In fact, personalizing the experience goes a long way in making a more positive candidate experience, says Jonathan at Urban Bikes Direct. He likes to individually tailor his asynchronous video interviews based on a pre-interview.

“Whenever possible, I record multiple video introductions for different kinds of applicants. Then I ask applicants to take a fun, Buzzfeed-style quiz – something like ‘Which Golden Girl Are You?’ That way, I can serve up a custom one-way video interview designed just for the Betty Whites or Bea Arthurs out there, as the case may be.”

Jonathan, who manages a fully distributed team out of his NYC office, also likes to have a little fun with the technology to help loosen up the candidate and get better responses:

“I recommend injecting the applicant’s name into the video interview in an unexpected way. A tongue-in-cheek approach often gets a good response. For example, you can poke fun at the very nature of one-way video interviewing by leaving silent spots in your pre-recorded video where the applicant’s name can be dubbed in by a robotic voice.”

You’re all in this together

One-way video interviews really aren’t to blame for a candidate’s negative perspective or experience. The responsibility falls on you, the recruiter and the hiring manager, in establishing a smooth, thoughtful process that shows value, empathy and appreciation for a candidate’s own position in the world of job hunting. Put in the good work, and the good workers will follow.

The post Candidates don’t like asynchronous video interviews: How can you fix that? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

First off, Eftychia stresses that a careers page is a critical part of the overall recruiting marketing strategy of a company. The vast majority of candidates will end up in your careers page during their job application journey.

“The second thing after seeing an open role in a board or another platform is to click to go to the company’s website and look for all the details of the company,” Eftychia says. “After this, they might go to Glassdoor, but overall, the most common step is to visit the careers page.”

Candidates don’t only apply to jobs but to companies, too. They want to know what a company’s values, vision and culture are before expressing their interest for a role. They want to visualize themselves working for you and imagine what their daily work life would be like.

That’s why Eftychia recommends making your careers page as inclusive and transparent as you can, sharing details on the company and the hiring process in an engaging way.

“You want to make the candidates excited,” Eftychia says. “You want them to really like the company.”

What should a careers page include to stand out?

As Eftychia reminds us, a careers page has a huge influence on a candidate’s motivation to apply for a job at your company. Think of it as prime real estate when promoting your company as a potential employer. So, you need to think carefully about what you need to include in a careers page that makes it unique and memorable for a prospective job applicant.

Eftychia recommends three main elements of a careers page that can make it really shine:

1. Share video testimonials

Posting videos with employee testimonials help you interact with prospects indirectly and show them who you really are:

”I would include in the careers page videos from employees talking about what they are doing, talking about their teams and why they like being in this company,” Eftychia says.

Eftychia is a strong believer that videos from executives in a careers page can make a good impression on candidates. No one can describe the company’s vision better than the company’s own leaders. It also makes the company feel more accessible on a personal level. She explains:

“I really like watching CEOs or CTOs being so close to the candidate and letting them know why it’s nice to work in their company or what their vision was when they started this company. It’s not so regular to see videos from executives as they are typically very busy for this, but I would like to see them on the careers page.”

2. Highlight company culture

Eftychia suggested introducing elements of fun activities that take place in the company to highlight the full workplace spirit to potential candidates:

“I would make it [the careers page] colorful and vivid and I would try to transfer the spirit of the company. I would also include activities from employees, even outside work. Like playing soccer, doing a team bonding activity or just having fun.”

For companies that have recently transitioned from shared physical workplaces to remote, Eftychia highlights that it’s worth sharing why they did so and what the future holds for the business to avoid confusion from the candidates’ side.

3. Describe perks and benefits

Efychia also adds that providing clear information about your company in your careers page, like details on the hiring process or company benefits, can also reduce pre-screening time; this could improve your time to hire metrics.

Do you need to share any additional or specific information when your company operates remotely? Eftychia suggests tailoring the careers pages’ content accordingly:

“You can have videos from employees while they are working from home or talking about the experience of remote working – [and] maybe even videos from the People team explaining the policies and benefits that the company has when it comes to remote working.”

How can Workable help? Workable Advanced Careers Pages

People teams usually collaborate with marketing and design departments to put this page together and deliver the best result. The People team often has to update the careers page quickly, like when a team member has retired or departed and needs to be removed from the careers page or details on benefits need to be updated.

But how efficient is this? Syncing with other departments is both time-consuming and inconvenient in those cases – and this doesn’t come without a cost:

“We need to inform the candidates accordingly because, when we start hiring, people may think that we are kind of imbalanced in what we say in the careers page and what we actually do. So it’s good to change everything really quickly.”

Advanced Careers Pages, Workable’s upcoming product release, solves this very issue. It enables recruiters and People Ops specialists to build and edit the company’s careers page easily without needing to bring in tech or design expertise.

Eftychia, who has used Advanced Career Pagers herself to build Workable’s own careers page, confirms:

“It’s very user-friendly. You can add everything you want and you can easily and quickly modify the careers page as needed. It’s pretty clear and it can be very transparent. Candidates may be able to see all the information they would like, in order to proceed to the next step and to be enthusiastic and motivated to join this company.”

With an enhanced careers page editor and templated sections, you can present all the information and content you want in a meaningful way. Add benefits, photos, videos, social media updates and other interactive elements that will help the candidates get to know you – in addition to your current openings, of course.

This doesn’t mean that collaboration with other teams will be completely off the table – that’s up to you to decide.

“You may need some advice from content or from marketing if you need to have some branded photos,” Eftychia explains. “But if there are design rules in the company about what photos to use or which writing style to prefer, then you can work quite independently.”

Plus, if you normally assign your careers page design to an external partner or agency, Advanced Careers Page will prove to be a cost-effective solution for your business in the long run.

How can you track performance with Workable Advanced Careers Pages?

In order to understand how your careers page performs, you have to analyze page visitors’ behavior and how they convert to candidates. With Advanced Careers Pages, you can have access to Google Analytics and Pixel tracking and understand those patterns in depth.

More specifically, you can track the number of visitors to the careers page and compare that with the number of actual applicants, as well as how they’ve interacted with the page – including which videos they’ve watched and what they clicked on. Those can be strong indicators of which elements are working and which elements need improvement.

But according to Eftychia, low visits and conversion rates do not automatically point to an ineffective careers page – maybe something else is missing.

“It [the analytics tool] can help you see how many candidates are applying but the careers page is not to be blamed if candidates are not applying. [It could be] something bigger. [It could be] the employer branding, or a specific situation. It has to do with many things,” Eftychia explains, adding that there can be numerous other factors affecting a candidate’s motivation to apply.”

To sum up, Eftychia believes that a careers page with creative elements and striking storytelling can bring the right candidates to you. With Workable Advanced Careers Pages, you can build a branded careers page and update it as needed without waiting for marketing updates or external resources to do the job – you can manage and master this project yourself within your People team.

The post Tell your brand story using Workable Advanced Career Pages appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In this webinar, we’ll show you how this year’s product releases can help you elevate your employer brand, improve your candidate experience, and allow your team to hire remotely in this new world of work.

The post Tackle 2021 with Workable’s latest product releases appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The answer: it’s because your candidate’s experience in the recruitment process is important. Candidate experience is one of the most important factors that not only determine each candidate’s final decision, but also reflect your company culture. It’s important to always remember that, as a recruiter or hiring manager, you are the conveyer of that culture and you want to reflect it the best way possible.

To help you deliver your mission, we gathered weird interview questions that make your ideal candidates feel uncomfortable and – thankfully for you – some alternatives so as not to scare away those candidates – unless you actually want to trick or treat instead of filling that much-needed job position.

Weird interview questions list:

1. Why should I hire you?
2. Why should I not hire you?
3. You have 10 minutes to impress me.
4. Prove to me that you’re smart.
5. What was your relationship like with your previous employer?

1. Why should I hire you?

Apart from being a very stressful question by itself, it also signals a mentality of dominance of the interviewer over the candidate. Even though recruiters and hiring managers have the skills and knowledge to identify skills, there is something that’s sometimes missing:

Candidates are potential colleagues willing to offer their services over compensation and therefore should be treated as equals, not as convicts being forced to testify for their skills.

Alternative: If you are determined to ask this question, consider rephrasing it as: “What could you offer to our company?”. This way, you’re giving the interviewee the opportunity to elaborate on their skills and ideas, and give them the chance to showcase their value to your company.

2. Why should I not hire you?

At first glance, the intent of this question is actually brilliant. Understandably, candidates want to present themselves as flawless and perfect, but the reality is that nobody’s perfect and that’s OK. However, you should carefully consider the words you choose when looking to identify those imperfections. At the end of the day, you want the candidate to feel comfortable. Right?

Alternative: Think about it for a second. Imagine yourself in the shoes of the candidate, waiting anxiously for the next question which ultimately is about calling attention to your flaws. Would you rather get a blunt question like the above, or something more like this: ‘What is something about you that you’d like to change/improve and how would you do that?”

Bet you prefer the second phrasing. But why?

Well, one could say that the first one reasserts that dominance we talked about earlier and gives indirectly the interviewer a reason to skip to the next candidate – at least that’s what you instinctively think as a candidate. So why don’t you polish this question a little bit before using it?

3. You have 10 minutes to impress me.

Now that’s one of the most-cited weird interview questions generating a lot of buzz on Quora. Some candidates reported that they walked away from the interview considering this question a red flag about the company culture, while others saw this as their opportunity to shine.

In any case, making even one of your candidates feel like a jester could lead to a negative review and harm your employer brand.

Alternative: So, what’s the alternative? Instead of asking questions that are difficult to evaluate, try creating a structured interview process. Focus on the specific role – skills needed – and a set of questions that identify whether a candidate is a perfect fit for the role. You can also grab ideas from our interview questions templates here.

Pro tip: Did you know that structured interviews reduce hiring biases?

4. Prove to me that you’re smart.

“Smartness is situational”, wrote a Quora user in the discussion about this question. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences has gained more and more ground over the past few years, especially in education. In short – smartness happens in many different forms. So what can you expect as an answer to this question? And most importantly, how will you evaluate the response?

Alternative: Instead of being driven by how much the answer impressed you (or not), you can add to your list a set of situational and emotional intelligence (EQ) interview questions. This way, you can tighten the focus of candidates’ responses and better compare their answers .

And if you want to evaluate logical-mathematical or linguistic intelligence, you can add an assessment to your hiring process.

5. What was your relationship like with your previous manager?

Remember those times when you were playing ‘truth or dare’ with your friends in college and awkward questions came up when you chose ‘truth’? Well, asking these kinds of questions creates the same feeling in candidates, but with one major difference; if the relationship was not that pleasant, they will never tell.

Alternative: Maybe what you’re actually looking for here is how the interviewee handles difficult situations or which style of management they thrive under. In any case, what you can do is present a scenario which requires interpersonal and collaboration skills to resolve and ask outright about the style of management. Bringing up questions about other companies doesn’t just make candidates feel uncomfortable, it can also be illegal. So, be mindful of that.

Avoiding ghosts

Nobody wants bad reviews haunting your company’s page. By building a structured interview process and taking into consideration the candidate experience, you will avoid unnecessary grudges and bring more ideal talent to your doorstep. And if you’re not sure what weird interview questions give candidates goosebumps, well, why don’t you simply ask them right after the interview with a candidate experience survey?

Related:

6 illegal interview questions not to ask — and legal alternatives

6 best interview questions for employers: alternatives to cliched questions

The post Weird interview questions: How to give your candidates goosebumps appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• Is remote permanent or temporary for this role?
• Are you planning to reopen the office?
• How do teammates socialize working from distributed areas?

And this is not an uncommon scenario these days. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, loads of businesses have experienced a culture shift. Transition to remote operations, forced layoffs, new health regulations and company policies – all these events have caused changes in company culture in a flash.

As a result, uncertainty levels rose both for candidates and in many cases employees, too. This frustration can be costly on both sides – increased time to hire, less suitable talent, and reduced candidate engagement are among the big risks you may stumble over.

So what can you do to avoid scaring off stellar candidates and bring great talent to your company’s threshold? First step: update your recruitment marketing efforts – how you promote yourself as an employer to attract future candidates. This way, you’ll secure top talent that fits your new work culture.

Top recruitment marketing tips for company culture changes

It may be difficult to get a head start on this; there’s a lot to take into account when revising your recruitment marketing strategy, especially when the rest of your hiring tasks, such as screening and onboarding are still going strong, and the surrounding environment seems to be in eternal flux. Below, we’ve gathered some recruitment marketing ideas to make things easier for you.

1. Revisit your employer brand

What makes you stand out from other companies in the same industry? How has this changed post-pandemic? How do you think the changes in your business will impact your reputation as an employer?

Once you’ve answered these questions, take steps to ensure your employer branding reflects any changes to your culture. Revisiting your candidate-facing content is your first step to success.

Here are some areas you could focus on:

• Mission and vision: If your company has recently changed the way you work, how has that impacted your mission and vision? Do you need to emphasize aspects of your mission more? Have your goals shifted? Candidates should be aware of what your business goals are and how you’ll try to reach them through your new operations and processes.
• Company policies: Whether that’s updating your employee handbook in-depth or adding a remote work policy to your existing library, make sure you have company policies that reflect the current work environment so that everyone is on the same page.
• Benefits: What types of benefits will fit employee needs in the new work environment? Maybe some of your existing perks aren’t useful anymore and you’ll need to revisit them. For example, instead of free lunches, you could offer restaurant coupons or gift cards to employees who work remotely.

How will you communicate all these changes in company culture through your vision and mission with candidates and employees? Start with your storytelling around your brand. Share new values openly and honestly. How? Through your content, of course.

Related: In this article, you’ll find different ways recruiters interacted with candidates during the pandemic based on their company’s hiring status.

2. Update your job ads

Will job requirements for your open roles be the same going forward? Going back to the remote work example, it’s useful to include previous experience or familiarity with telecommuting in the job specification. Plus, adaptability and problem-solving are ideal skills for remote workers that you want to call attention to.

You could also share other valuable information in the job descriptions to put emphasis on specific matters, as Accenture Greece, a management and technology consulting company, did during the COVID-19 crisis:

“The safety and well-being of our candidates and employees remain our priority. Please note tha the recruitment process for opportunities in Accenture Greece will be conducted only via online formatting during the current period” – From Accenture Greece

With this note, not only did they inform candidates about what to expect regarding the interview format but also made clear that employee wellbeing is a top business priority for them.

3. Increase social media presence

Use your social media platforms to showcase your company culture to potential candidates in a more vivid way. If you’ve recently switched to a virtual workplace, encourage your employees to share bits from their remote workstations and post images from team virtual meetings and activities. You could run internal contests to make it more engaging and fun. For instance, you could arrange small prizes to reward employees with highly engaging posts.

Remember to be creative and transparent. There is no need to oversell, just proudly show who you are. You could also show other initiatives that exhibit your culture and values as Salesforce, a CRM software service, did via Twitter:

Now is the time to act – to reimagine the business of business and to ensure that global economic recovery creates a new normal that betters the planet for all.@SuzanneDiBianca shares lessons learned from COVID-19 on fighting the climate crisis: https://t.co/7B3Nw7vQrY pic.twitter.com/ll5O3vsj9z

— Salesforce (@salesforce) August 26, 2020

4. Invest in your careers page

In the talent attraction war, your careers page is your strongest weapon. A neat and clearly structured career site will help you convert ideal candidates into new teammates.

Apart from including your values, open roles and benefits in text, post interactive content to help people understand what your workplace looks like in a more engaging way. Use video testimonials, images or quotes from employees describing a typical working day. Showcase initiatives that reflect your culture and company priorities as Tech will save us, a learning technology start-up, does in their career site:

Plus, if you’ve recently rearranged your benefits scheme, don’t forget to update your careers page with the new perks and clarify what value they can bring to employees’ professional development and wellbeing.

5. Inform your candidates during screening

When interviewing candidates the majority of them want to know what type of company they’re joining first-hand. First tip for interviewers: Share everything you’re proud of – company initiatives, team activities, positive brand stories, but never promise something you can’t offer. When your new hires realize that you described everyday work-life glossier than it really is, turnover will be around the corner – and this will be a real deal-breaker for your company’s productivity and hiring budget.

Also, if you’ve recently moved to remote this also means that you may need to hire people with different or additional skills than you did before. You may need to evaluate roles differently and consider new interview questions like:

• What do you think will be your biggest challenge working as a remote employee?
• How comfortable will you be working with a distributed team?
• Do you like to work autonomously with limited supervision?
• How easily do you adapt to ambiguity in the workplace?

Listen to their answers carefully; if you spot a red flag – for example, a candidate has never worked remotely before and they seem hesitant about it – be as clear as possible to them and set the right expectations.

6. Monitor Glassdoor reviews

Typically, candidates visit Glassdoor to check employee reviews for a possible future employer. In this platform, employees can anonymously share their full experience working for your business, what your culture is all about and be raw about it. Plus, candidates can freely post how satisfied they were during the screening process and their impressions from interviews. And to put it briefly, Glassdoor could become every company’s biggest enemy or foe.

If you’ve recently been through company culture changes that have affected both candidates and employees, monitor the latest Glassdoor reviews and analyze both positive and negative comments. Based on those data points, you can decide what your next moves should be to boost your employer branding and recruitment marketing (e.g. pick a different assessment tool for future candidates).

This isn’t limited to Glassdoor. You will also want to monitor other employer review sites, such as Indeed and Comparably.

A final wise thought

All the above practices seem tangible and easy to apply, but how often should employers and HR leaders run a “culture test” to see where they stand? In a recent webinar, Codility’s CEO Natalia Panowicz shared her insightful take on the matter:

Company culture changes happen organically and at a faster pace than we think. They do not always take place after big events but rather occur dynamically. That’s why we should pay attention to how it evolves over time. If you inspect it methodically and adjust your recruitment marketing in an appropriate way, you’ll communicate it more effectively with talented professionals and make your employer brand accountable to them.

So now you’re one step closer to finding the right talent for your business. Good for you!

The post How to communicate company culture changes: Recruitment marketing tips appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We asked employers about that and got pretty good responses. For instance, Agneiszka Kasperek has a lot to offer on the topic as the CMO of Estonia-based Taskeo.co, a software supporting companies moving to cloud management. She recommends deliberately hiring people who would be a good fit for remote work.

“That is,” she explains, “people who aren’t intimidated by software or learning how to use it, self-starters, motivated and independent. In remotely working companies, certain character traits are more important than the skills that the new person comes with. The skills can be learned. Character traits – not so much.”

In other words, different people thrive in different environments. When you’re screening applicants for remote jobs, you may need to update your hiring criteria. So what ‘character traits’ can you look for when evaluating candidates?

Let’s start with four common worker archetypes. They are Jennifer, Pam, Lukas, and Esther.

Jennifer

Jennifer is an extrovert who thrives off interaction with others. For her, ideas happen between people, not inside one person’s head. Not only does she inspire others through her contributions to the team; she also is inspired by working closely with others towards common goals.

As such, she excels in a driven office environment where she can walk into a room and take over that room’s energy, and comes up with her best work through meetings and presentations. She can rapid-fire her way through a brainstorming session and thrives in spontaneity. She’s the talkative one at lunch who breaks the ice immediately.

If you had a project that needed multiple team members dynamically working together for it to succeed, Jennifer would be the first person you’d recruit to ensure a successful project.

Pam

Pam, on the other hand, is much quieter. She’s an immensely creative and productive employee, but in a different way than Jennifer. In a busy and noisy office environment, she struggles with all the distractions when she’s trying to get work done. As such, she’ll come early in the morning when few people are in the office to hunker down and do some deep work for a couple of hours. She’ll also find a spot away from others – whether it’s a vacant meeting room, a cafe, or in a quiet corner of the workplace – and work diligently with headphones on.

Those who know Pam know not to bother her when she’s got that game face on. They know they’ll get what they need from her at lunch hour, on a coffee break, or during a pre-scheduled meeting. With all that, you know that if you give Pam a project to complete by a certain date, she absolutely will deliver on time.

Lukas

Then there’s Lukas. Like Pam, he likes to have control over his schedule, because he works better in a predictable and structured work environment. He doesn’t like surprises – he likes to know what he’s in for. He likes to know that the weekly team meeting happens at 10 on Mondays, and that his project is expected on his manager’s desk by EOD on Wednesday – provided it’s been discussed ahead of time.

He doesn’t like to have extra work thrown at him with a “Lukas – I’m really needing to get this done by mid-afternoon today, can you clear your calendar and give this a quick look?”. Likewise, he doesn’t like seeing a meeting on his calendar bumped on 30 minutes’ notice. But if there’s a clear structure and a well-thought-out plan already in place, and if he knows exactly what needs to be done, Lukas will absolutely crush his part of the project.

Esther

And finally, there’s Esther. Like Lukas, she prefers structure and predictability in her work world. And, like Jennifer, she thrives off interacting with people. But she also understands that things pop up and priorities get moved around on a regular basis. She gets frustrated at first, but she’ll take it as it comes and adapt accordingly, knowing it’s better to adapt.

And there’s also a lot of Pam in her – she will absolutely revel in a setup where she can block off a few hours a day to do some deep work and churn out a day’s worth of productivity in those hours. But she knows that she needs to make herself available at any given time in the day, and that she’ll need to adapt accordingly.

And also – if you had a half-baked but novel idea and needed someone to take a deeper look and even bring it to fruition without needing a lot of guidance, Esther’s your go-to person. Likewise, if you had a last-minute project that needed immediate attention and you needed someone to say “Don’t worry, I got this!”, Esther would excel there too.

Evaluating candidates for soft skills

Now, imagine you’re a hiring manager evaluating candidates for a remote position. These four are your finalists. They all tick the same boxes – work experience, education, qualifications, skills. But you’re looking for someone to specifically excel remotely. First, let’s look at the soft skills needed for that.

In the aforementioned survey, adaptability and resilience (67.4%) and self-motivated/self-starter (54.2%) led the way as sought-after traits in the new remote world of work.

Also, a recent survey of Workable’s own employees found that time management, effective communication, and adaptability were the three most common new skills developed when they went fully remote at a moment’s notice in March. While the first two can be good soft skills in any work environment, the third one – adaptability – can be more important when evaluating candidates for a fully remote company.

Does it work in practice?

The signs point to ‘yes’. SmartBug Media CEO Ryan Malone – who has run a fully remote company since launching in the late 2000s – looks at two specific properties when evaluating candidates for their ability to work in a distributed team:

Social energy: Ryan will ask a simple question: “When’s the best time for you to work?” The answer may help him see whether a candidate gains a “freedom” in setting their own hours and removing all the distractions typical of an office environment, as opposed to losing the social aspect of office life (i.e. a lunch with colleagues).

In other words, he’s looking for where they get their social energy from – and that helps him determine if they can thrive in remote work.

Resiliency: Ryan is also looking for people who can adapt and pivot quickly in a less structured work environment, where there are very few windows for employees to walk to a colleague and vent after a hiccup in the workflow.

“So,” Ryan says, “we have to find people that have handled some adversity, and our resilient people can understand [that] maybe a client emergency comes up that you need to move stuff around.”

Alison Bernstein, the president of New York-based real estate firm Suburban Jungle Realty, is also pragmatic about remote work. The ability to be self-organized is high up on her list of highly valued skills when evaluating candidates.

“Having an organized schedule with space, time and childcare (if need be) to take calls, attend video chats, and simply execute daily activities is a great start,” she says. “One must begin to set their own goals and timelines and make sure those goals and deadlines are met.”

Sheena Ponnappan, the Chief People Officer of Singapore-based business outsourcing/offshoring agency Everise, also likes to look for those special signs that a person can thrive in a home environment.

“We have built a high-touch model through the recruitment process where we strategically interview for work-at-home propensity and demonstration of abilities to be successful without face-to-face contact.”

Sheena will go as far as to look for specific regions and population groups with high retention rates when evaluating candidates. Additionally, like Alison, she’s looking for “the ability to self-support home technologies and [candidates] who are committed to remote work as a life choice.”

The same goes for Inna Shevchenko, the CMO at iGMS, a short-term rental management SaaS company headquartered in North Vancouver, Canada. For Inna, determining a candidate’s potential to succeed within the existing remote structure at iGMS is a core focus of her candidate evaluation process.

“I believe that if you hire the right person, getting buy-in, user adoption, and the desired level of learning become less challenging,” says Inna. “This way, we ensure that the new hire will adapt easily and fit into the culture.”

So, who is that ‘right person’?

Let’s go back to evaluating our candidates in the final-four list – Jennifer, Pam, Lukas, and Esther, paying attention to their ability to thrive in a remote work environment.

Jennifer

Jennifer’s productivity might falter without being able to organically interact with her deskmates and colleagues on a regular basis. Unless her calendar was booked with meetings back-to-back or if her manager was connecting with her every day, the hours on end in an isolated home office might negatively impact her energy and motivation.

Pam

Next to a desert island, a remote job would be Pam’s dream job. She would love to stay at home and work 24/7 in her home office, where she’s able to maintain greater control over her own schedule and not “have” to talk or engage with others on a regular basis. She can muster up the needed energy for meetings, but the times in between are those golden solitary times where she can really crank out her best stuff.

Lukas

Like Pam, Lukas may see this remote job as a perfect setup for him. But a remote work environment is not necessarily absent of those unpredictable “pop-up” meetings – loved by Jennifer, Lukas not so much. He functions better when he knows precisely what everyone else is doing and what is expected of him each week. In a remote environment, there’s more of a need to fly by night. If he isn’t 100% informed of his expectations and deliverables early on, his productivity might falter.

Esther

Finally, Esther understands and appreciates the ambiguity of a remote work world and has the resilience that allows her to overcome the little trip-ups and changes throughout. Even if it’s not ideal, she can pivot as needed, whether it’s for a meeting being moved or a lack of clarity as to what’s needed for the client presentation on Friday. She also has the self-confidence to go forward without needing a greenlight or validation from her manager. She can take on a task or project with minimal supervision, and can be trusted to turn out a great product in the end.

Don’t put all soft skills in one basket

So, with all of that, who would you hire for a remote position? At first glance, it might come down to Pam or Esther, with the latter getting the job due to her ability to perform even in a volatile or ambiguous working environment. And in remote – you really do need that because it’s such a hands-off climate.

But take care when evaluating candidates for soft skills. Just because a Jennifer comes off as more outgoing does not necessarily mean that she cannot thrive in a remote work world. Maybe she’s an incredibly quick learner and can adapt to a new balance in her work and life.

Likewise, an Esther isn’t necessarily set for success remotely – maybe she rolls with the punches, but when direction is needed, she doesn’t handle that well or doesn’t know how to follow instructions step by step. You may even come across a Pam or Lukas who turns out to be the very best candidate for the position based on their amazing output and performance in spite of everything else – and that’s OK, too.

Not only that, soft skills are not always easy to gauge in those first few interactions in the candidate evaluation process. Jennifer’s demeanor may seem outright extroverted, but there may be some deeper aspects to her you might not initially perceive in an interview. Likewise, Pam and Lukas might be more adaptable to unpredictability than you – or even they – realize.

In the end, the ‘environment’ matters

Also, while you’re evaluating for skills and best cultural fit, it bears noting that if the rest of your system isn’t conducive to success and productivity, it doesn’t matter who you have in your team. You still need a quality recruitment process, a standardized onboarding, and a strategy to build connections with others.

But do you know what the trickier part really is? In the long haul, it’s still up to you to set them for long-term success regardless of the environment they’re in and their individual traits. That’s ultimately your job as an employer and manager – to bring the best out of your team whether remotely or in the physical workplace.

The post Evaluating candidates for remote work? Your hiring criteria matters appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

IMAGR, founded in 2017, has offices in Auckland, New Zealand and Osaka, Japan. Breaking into the $5.7 trillion dollar supermarket retail industry, they work with retailers to remove friction in the checkout experience. Say goodbye to those pesky queues with their SmartCart’s computer vision technology. When Jordyn Riley joined as IMAGR’s People and Culture Manager, IMAGR had 25 employees and were headed for a period of growth. However, they couldn’t visualize a clear candidate journey with their current ATS. They struggled to see a single source of hiring truth, and knew that their candidate experience could be enhanced for both direct applicants and referrals through external recruiters.

“We were looking for something that was really easy for us to use, something that would enhance the candidate experience. We wanted to know where things were at with every single candidate at all times.”

IMAGR needed a system with quick team adoption so that they could continue to meet their hiring goals. Implementation with Workable was complete within a week. Over the course of a year using Workable, IMAGR’s headcount surged to 41 employees with 14 new hires. With Workable, they were able to move away from multiple processes and streamline hiring in such a way that respects candidates and creates a deep active partnership with external recruiters. 

“Every single person that comes through is important,” says Jordyn. “Whether or not they’re going to be successful or not is a moot point. I want to make sure that we’re responding to everybody, and Workable makes that really easy.”

When hiring in Japan, IMAGR found that having feet on the ground in a place with a different market and a time difference has been helpful. The external recruiter portal in Workable makes it easy for IMAGR’s internal team to maintain privacy while allowing their agency partners in Japan to access the information they need to do their job well. In addition, IMAGR is posting to top job boards which have been their main candidate sources, including Seek, Glassdoor, LinkedIn and AngelList. 

Says Jordyn: “Workable links to all of the free jobs in the area.”

Candidate experience and employee experience are top of mind for IMAGR, so Workable’s integration with Bamboo – resulting in a seamless transfer of new hire data to HRIS – makes for a smoother onboarding experience and higher talent retention. During the early months of the COVID-19 crisis, IMAGR hired and onboarded three new employees remotely – and much to IMAGR’s pleasant surprise, one of those virtual hires actually beat their onsite record for time to hire. 

“We just kind of transitioned what we did onsite to virtual, and it’s worked fine,” says Jordyn.

Interest has consistently been strong since the early days, but as of late, their vision for a contactless SmartCart service came just in time for the COVID era. They’ve received additional media exposure, retailer interest, and even inquiries from the general public about investment and partnership. The unique nature of their product also maintains the user’s privacy – it scans what goes into the cart, not the shopper themselves, coinciding with the upsurge in data privacy concerns among people worldwide.

With a steady and healthy stream of new candidates, IMAGR has found a partnership with Workable that encourages both a best-in-class candidate experience and an inclusive hiring process with a diverse range of sources and hiring team collaboration. The trio of IMAGR, Workable and Bamboo means no more issues with multiple disconnected processes and welcomes a single candidate and employee truth. 

The post Workable’s seamless BambooHR integration helps IMAGR hire and retain great talent appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There are also many ways in how Video Interviews may be helpful to you and your company. Instead of going into detail about what those benefits are and why, we thought we’d make things more fun and interactive for you with a Video Interview Quiz. In this quiz, you’ll learn how one-way video interviews can be one of the most important tools in your recruiting toolbox.

There are no right answers or wrong answers here – every answer is actually “correct”, but you’ll get a different piece of information or an interesting fact or statistic with each answer. And the best part? You can take this quiz again and again and pick up something new every time.

Whether it’s for your own convincing or for someone else’s buy-in to get Workable Video Interviews to optimize your recruitment process, there’s a lot here for you. Ultimately, this is purely for your own educational entertainment.

Without further ado, here’s the Video Interview Quiz!

The post Take our Video Interview Quiz – and optimize your hiring appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Learning from the front lines

Workable’s early adopter program is one of the tools we use in Workable to make sure that what we provide is as useful and intuitive as we want it to be. We try to incorporate as much feedback as possible from our users, and the early adopter program is one of the most straightforward ways to get that information.

One of the first such programs that Workable ran was for the internationalization feature, a complex and intriguing feature looking to branch the product out to other markets with different languages. Our researcher and product team went into that beta with many questions, but with careful planning and methodology they carved out a much better and more intuitive end product.

Since the goal of the early adopter program is to validate our designs and assumptions from the design phase and make sure that we always serve our customers, choosing the right people to participate and “test” our new feature is key. We have fostered great relationships with a lot of our customers and that helps with ensuring that the feedback we get is as honest and open as possible.

It was a great opportunity for me, since it looked like one of the first things I would get to do with this new product would be to actually talk to our customers about it! So we started gathering feedback and talking with the beta users and improving the product as we went on.

And along came COVID-19

Then everything changed. The virus started spreading and lockdowns were ordered throughout the world. Suddenly everyone started to work from home and use virtual tools for everything. It looked like it would be very useful to have one for interviewing as well.

There are not a lot of opportunities in someone’s life to know that they truly made an impact when it was needed. For everyone on the team it was clear that the tool we had been working on could be helpful in a time when everything was unknown and unprecedented.

Workable’s vision practically shifted overnight to that of being even more socially responsible. We knew that unemployment was going to skyrocket and that, on the other extreme end, some industries needed to hire people really fast. We realized we could help people find new jobs. Teams got together and worked tirelessly to produce Workable Bridge to help out employees that were laid off.

Scaling ourselves to help others

As for Video Interviews, our team quickly decided to offer the tool to any Workable customer who could use it, for free. It was designed for anyone to use – no need to be tech savvy. Candidates could record themselves on their phone, no fancy or expensive equipment needed.

In a time where it was nearly impossible to find an open slot in someone’s schedule, interviews could happen in an asynchronous way and then hiring managers could rate them in their own time as well. Ultimately, a top-notch user experience was key.

All teams involved went into overdrive:

• The marketing team worked day and night to make sure that our messaging was clear: We are not trying to sell anything to anyone – we truly believe our product can be helpful to businesses in their time of need.
• The product team maintained the rhythm, making sure that no loose ends would be left.
• The legal team worked on finding a way to make sure that no bureaucracy would exist for the companies that wanted to use it, since the product was technically still in closed beta.
• Account managers started connecting with their customers to inform them about Video Interviews.

The interest spiked quickly and numerous companies started using the product. Within the first three months, 264 accounts adopted video interviews, with 462 candidates being hired using the tool with an answer rate of almost 50%, compared to the industry standard of 30%.

Like many things in a COVID world, our implementation and feedback loop was accelerated, bringing Workable Video Interviews to the present where we incorporated into the product all of the lessons learned from opening our doors to the public one month early.

We only know that this made us better and strengthened the relationship we have with our customers.

Valia Lekka is a Senior Product Manager at Workable. She was part of the team that developed Workable’s Video Interviews feature.

The post Early adopter program key to Video Interviews success appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Technical recruiting teams that can reinvent their employer brands, interview processes, and work from home cultures for developers while social distancing will find better and more available talent than they have in many years.

Hiring data from the code screening platform, Coderbyte, illustrates the dramatic drop in the number of technical interviews since February. But whatever the slope, a bounce in hiring is sure to return as jobs shift to different industries. It’s too early to say, but we may already be beginning to see it.

In the meantime, tech recruiters should familiarize themselves with all the available sourcing resources and strategies for finding top talent during this downturn. Doing so will enable their companies to emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever before.

Need some tips on tech recruitment? Check out Workable’s related content:

• Hiring tech workers when you’re not on their A-list
• Wooing top tech talent: Recruiting in the Boston tech scene
• Tech recruitment in London: Luring and sourcing top tech talent

Showcase your WFH engineering culture

Before even beginning to interview candidates, get started on the right foot by highlighting what makes your company a great place to work during these challenging times. Candidates who have been recently laid off may be particularly sensitive to the culture at a company working remotely for the first time. Here’s how to go above and beyond, and stand out in the process.

• Workable has a library of resources dedicated to helping your organization excel at remote work. Consider creating a ‘remote ops’ committee that is accountable for continuously improving your organization’s WFH culture and processes.
• If you don’t already have one, consider building a dedicated career section or page for your engineering department, especially if that’s the only area you’re currently hiring for. BuiltIn offers a guide with great examples of career pages.
• Now is also a good time to update or create a company profile on BuiltIn and TheMuse. You can even level up your employer brand by partnering with content creators there to feature your company in content. Also make sure to reach out to your city’s local newspapers, many of which have been featuring employers that are still hiring for essential and remote roles.
• Reframe WFH at your company to mean “Wellness From Home” by embracing and emphasizing to candidates how your company is adopting best practices from GitLab to Knowable. Consider introducing your people experience teams to individualized wellness solutions which will look great on your career page. Candidates will appreciate that your company is going beyond talk with real action.
• If your company’s current engineers are up for it, ask them about participating in mission-critical hackathons and technology projects. ProductHunt recently hosted a Makers Festival while MIT hosted COVID-19 challenges. Along with community volunteering activities like Code Against COVID-19, participating in these types of events help elevate your employer brand and boost team morale.

Of course, part of having a great WFH culture also means optimizing for candidates who already have experience or will excel at working remotely. NerdWallet offers a number of insights into the types of people and teams that will thrive, and how to structure your interview to assess such capabilities. SmartBug Media looks for resilience and the source of “social energy” in candidates to assess their remote-working capabilities. Coderbyte’s survey of 150+ software developers show that most are generally comfortable with entirely remote interviewing, onboarding, and working for a new company.

Nevertheless, some developers will struggle with the distractions of coding from home, but will benefit from learning pro tips and best practices.

Monitor tech layoffs and be present on critical job boards

Rapid shifts in the labor market are creating tailwinds for savvy technical recruiters that have their fingers on the pulse of the tech community. There are a number of bespoke job boards and opportunities to connect with top talent.

• Glassdoor has an entire page dedicated to COVID-19 resources, with best practices such as switching your job listings to ‘remote’, and even new features like posting a designated COVID-19 company update and listing your company as experiencing a hiring surge.

• Technology companies are combining their laid off employees into lists to make it easier for new employers to rapidly review résumés and hire. AngelList has also made it incredibly easy for employers to browse newly available tech talent. Parachute aggregates many smaller lists and makes it possible to import candidates directly into your Applicant Tracking System. In fact, your Applicant Tracking System may even be able to redirect qualified candidates your way, as Workable is doing with a new feature called Bridge.
• First Round Capital is compiling an updated list of COVID-19 resources for companies that are hiring, including user-generated spreadsheets of talent. Make sure to add your company to the Startups Actively Hiring During COVID-19 spreadsheet and the Companies Still Hiring coda.

Take advantage of tools built for COVID-19

Once you’ve repositioned your employer brand and added your job posting to high-traffic job boards, you’ll inevitably begin to see an influx of candidates. Combine those efforts with sourcing and interview tools that are offering limited-time discounts.

• Workable just released a new capability for remote video interviews that transforms the candidate experience during social distancing. It allows recruiters and candidates to bypass the hassle of scheduling and carrying out initial phone screenings by simply having candidates record their responses to set questions via video, at their own convenience.
• After the phone screen, you can make scheduling candidate interviews easier via Workable’s recruitment solution, where you can conduct live interviews with your provider of choice, including Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Skype.
• For the interview process, there are a number of companies offering discounted or free technical assessment services, including Harver, Coderbyte, and Devskiller.

These are trying times but you are fortunate to still be hiring! Some of the best technical talent in the world is suddenly available if you know where to look and how to attract them. I’ll continue sharing the latest proprietary employment and hiring data for software development on Medium.

Daniel Borowski is CEO and Founder at Coderbyte, a platform for developers and coders to build and refine their coding and interviewing skills.

The post How to source top software development candidates during and after COVID-19 appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. I’m concerned about hurting my candidate experience by taking a more automated approach. I don’t want to lose the human touch or turn off candidates. How have your customers tackled this concern?
2. Is there a possibility to send the video interview more than once? For instance, if a candidate misses the deadline or doesn’t have a great internet connection, will they be able to re-do it?
3. I’m not a tech expert. I’m still learning the ropes. Is this more for tech-savvy teams?
4. Is there a possibility not to give the candidate time to think?
5. Can multiple members of the hiring team leave evaluations with different scores?

One-way Video Interview FAQs – the answers

1. I’m concerned about hurting my candidate experience by taking a more automated approach. I don’t want to lose the human touch or turn off candidates. How have your customers tackled this concern?

If you’re using video interviews for the first time, it’s normal to wonder how they will impact your candidate experience. Will the candidates respond positively to this type of interview? Will you be able to keep this as personable as possible? The answer to both questions is yes; Workable’s Product Team has been through many trial-and-error phases to remove all kinds of frictions candidates may come across with:

“We’ve taken a lot of steps in order to make it more natural, more easy, not so awkward … for the candidate”, Michalis explained.

With Workable Video Interviews, candidates can test network connectivity and audio/video quality before they start recording. Candidates are also able to practice their answers before sending off the final videos. Be sure to give them more than one take so that they can present the answers they’re most proud of. As Michalis said:

“By taking all these sorts of precautions, we are trying to eventually offer the candidate a great experience and minimize the number of candidates who are going to have problems.”

But how do you personalize this process for each candidate? Michalis suggested explaining the video interview process to candidates step-by-step ahead of time so that they know what to expect and can prepare for success. You can also customize the email video interview invitation with interactive content to make it more engaging. For instance, you can upload a video presenting your hiring team and experiment with a more “laid-back approach to relax the candidates”, in Michalis’ own words.

Zoe also added her perspective on how to make video interviewing more personal:

However, if you sense that some candidates are still hesitant to conduct one-way interviews, perhaps there’s reasoning behind their concern. Address those concerns with curiosity: For example, they may be worried about using older tech which will produce a poor result or they may not have a quiet place to record their answers. As Michalis noted:

“If they [candidates] feel they really cannot do that, offer them an alternative and just use a different way of interviewing for that particular step of the process.”

In other words – video interviews don’t need to be dealmakers or dealbreakers for either you or the candidate. It’s there to optimize the process – not a test of the candidate’s capabilities in itself.

2. Is there a possibility to send the video interview more than once? For instance, if a candidate misses the deadline or doesn’t have a great internet connection, will they be able to re-do it?

Michalis briefly explained how you could respond to cases where candidates could not complete the interview before the deadline:

With Workable Video Interviews candidates can also split the work if they wish to or if a problem pops up. They can record individual interview parts on different days and different devices, at their convenience.

As for technical limitations (e.g. video quality, network issues, etc.), Michalis stated that they took all of them into consideration when building the product. Before candidates record their answers, potential frictions are tested and interviewees receive a headsup about technical problems they could meet down the road and possible solutions (see also question 1).

Whatever the reason, you will have the option of extending the deadline for submitting the video interview, or sending it again if the first one doesn’t come through as expected. Again, this highlights the importance of clear communication with the candidate to set the expectations either way.

3. I’m not a tech expert. I’m still learning the ropes. Is this more for tech-savvy teams?

Video interviews are not just for tech experts. Less tech-savvy hiring teams can also use this feature easily and set up video interviews seamlessly with just a few clicks. Michalis explains:

“We’re also about to launch a new functionality which will basically give them [hiring teams] the ability to have a pre-made, automatically prepared, interview question set based on the algorithms from machine learning and artificial intelligence on what are the the best questions you can have in an interview for a specific role, with specific skills, etc.”

The evaluation part is as handy, too; Hiring teams watch interview recordings on a simple-to-use video player and can leave comments and notes based on candidates’ performance, or even with thumbs up/down emojis. User experience was a priority going in for the Product Team – with particular emphasis on those new to video interviewing.

If you want to get a better, step-by-step understanding of how the Video Interviews tool works both for candidates and users, watch our webinar “One-way video interviews: The new normal”.

Zoe added that those simple tool functions have already allowed many customers from different sectors to succeed with Video Interviews.

Learn how healthy food restaurant chain Salad and Go screened candidates for two new restaurants in two weeks using Workable Video Interviews:

4. Is there a possibility not to give the candidate time to think?

Sometimes you want to assess how quickly a candidate can address a specific question or situation. To test that, you can give candidates a set amount of time to prepare for their answers. The hiring team can either select “unlimited time to think”, which means they can take as much time they need to practice their answer, or set a “time to think” frame which can be as short as one minute. Michalis clarified the reasoning behind these options:

5. Can multiple members of the hiring team leave evaluations with different scores?

Yes, multiple hiring team members can assess and score candidates independently when using Video Interviews. Each member can watch video answers at their own convenience and leave comments or notes as they see fit. Michalis explained:

“Each hiring team member can watch the video answer and can add their own comments, notes, and evaluations for the candidate. A new scorecard will be automatically created and completed for each member.”

Plus, all notes and scores for each candidate will be put together in a structured way inside the tool, making it easy for the whole hiring team to track them and make better hiring decisions.

The post One-way Video Interview FAQs for hiring teams appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Since I am fortunate enough to witness how these kind of products are made, how the teams are working on them and even work with some people that built them, I could not help myself – I wanted to find a similar problem to solve: To design an interface for human beings under stress, with a goal to reduce that stress.

Stress mode: on

On a bright morning at a recent Workable summit, we were told that a new team would be formed with one goal in mind: build a new product to allow candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers to perform asynchronous video interviews. The business case was solid; on the recruiter’s side, it saves time so they don’t have to schedule phone screens and carry them out with candidates.

On the candidate’s side, it provides a reliable platform to record answers and share them with the company they’re applying to. We wanted to examine a scenario: How would the candidates record their answers? To answer this, we held a design sprint. We talked with several real-life candidates – even those who had performed a video interview in the past.

You can see plenty of feedback about the whole video interview concept in public, such as in this subreddit post. Even the negative stuff is immensely helpful for us, because we want to solve those problems and challenges with our new feature.

The number-one problem we would have to solve, as far as the candidate was concerned, was pretty clear. It’s the stress. I know, it sounds rather generic and vague, but picture this: You are a candidate and you have to record and submit a set of five questions via a browser. It’s a terrifying scenario for many candidates. Questions abound:

• This is my first time doing this. How does this platform even work?
• What if my internet fails me halfway through this process?
• How can I possibly look and act normal when I’m talking into a computer?

Reviewing these concerns can take up a lot of time – and it did.

Design comes into play

Since that list of concerns is quite comprehensive, it was obvious that we had the problem outlined. Here’s our opportunity to jump into Sketch and solve that problem. Right? Wrong.

In fact, it was too early to do that. Instead, we gathered more feedback from candidates who had done video interviews in the past and grouped their responses into specific concerns. That feedback gave birth to a set of principles that would guide us when we built the application.

Here’s the set of principles we outlined – a quick and dirty three-point list:

1. Make feedback always visible

This was the first and toughest one. We needed to allocate valuable real estate on the screen to provide platform feedback to the candidate. This feedback isn’t just about error messages; it’s about guiding the user throughout the whole process. It’s more about providing a north star.

Of course, it plays well with error messages too. Assuming the person will get the concept that a message is always there showing what’s going on at any given time, this will be the spot the candidate will look to for feedback if anything comes up (such as a technical issue).

2. Be picky about the options

The interview process – and especially the video part of it – is a high-stress time for a candidate. So, what you choose to expose to the candidate is extremely important. Remember the Google Maps example at the beginning of this story? Google Maps has been doing an excellent job structuring map and navigation information in such a way that you’ll have your route in the spotlight at any step of your experience.

The image below is a great example on how we achieved this for Video Interviews. This is the scenario when the candidate has the maximum number of CTAs displayed in the interface.

3. Separate screen into logical groups (and group relevant actions)

Video interviews in general, is a fairly new concept. That means there’s is no known path to follow and no real precedence to build on. Moreover, it’s not the most widely known or understood interface – yet. Video interviews can be a steep learning curve for many.

So, what I wanted to do was separate the interface into logical groups, and then group those together. By doing this, we would make a more intuitive interface.

In the end, we added three major controls: Navigation, Questions, and Interview. Each one of these three groups represented a specific pool where similar and common actions could be pulled together.

Outcome

Stress is quite intangible – it’s difficult to measure. Business metrics, retention, or adoption is much easier. Because of its intangibility, the stress factor of video interviews was difficult to solve. We can’t outright eliminate it, but we can remove some of the elements that might contribute to it by providing an interface that’s easy to grasp and understand for candidates.

Moreover, we wanted to make the person behind the screen feel that they are in control of the interface. For instance, the recording will start only when they’re ready. The interview begins only when they’re ready. Their answers are sent only when they’re ready to be sent. This puts the whole experience within control of the user, without the need for a “smart” experience that would make decisions and choices for you.

This project has been a great success so far. The numbers prove it too: our data shows that the completion rate of our Video Interviews is much higher than the industry standard. Industry-wide, we found that one-third of candidates actually complete their video interview, whereas candidates using our Video Interview platform completed it two-thirds of the time.

In closing – we set out to craft an interface that was simple to use, to free candidates of the burden of learning the interface and allow them to simply present their best selves during the video interview. Talking into a machine is obviously a bit awkward – we didn’t want candidates to feel that awkwardness. So we set out to make it as comfortable of an experience as possible. While we’re continuing to assess feedback, we’re excited to see how the positive response grows as more and more companies adopt our Video Interviews interface.

The post How we approached (video) interviews appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Second, this guides us through iterations and improvements that can eliminate problems and frustration for the end user. Finally, this can actually decrease the risk of failure and improve profitability for the company, with reduced costs of customer support and happy customers who will spread a good word about our product to the world.

The Video Interviews feature first kicked off about a year ago, with our team gathering for a Design Sprint. The purpose of this week-long structured workshop is to map out and understand the problem, ideate, and agree on a target. We actually ran two separate design sprints:

• First, we did one focusing on the candidate’s experience (receiving a request to complete a video interview, recording answers and submitting the assignment).
• Once an MVP for the candidate experience was ready for implementation we did another, focusing on the recruiter and hiring manager’s experience (setting up a video interview for a job, sending a request to candidates and then viewing and evaluating the candidate submissions).

Defining personas and finding people to talk to

Leading up to the Design Sprint, we identified people who could share valuable insights with us on the topic at hand, which was oneway video interviews for recruiting purposes.

For the candidate persona we reached out to recently hired Workable employees who had experience with video interviews for their current role, or a previous one.

For the recruiter persona we reached out to select customers who had expressed interest in this feature to their account managers, as well as our amazing in-house recruiting team (who always contribute to our research and usability testing).

Understanding and empathizing with the end user

Hearing first hand from video interview applicants was an eye-opener, especially about how stressful this experience can be for them. Anything from a hardware issue to a distraction in their surroundings could cost them a good submission and jeopardize their progress in the interview process, which is critical for active job seekers.

At the same time we learned that candidates think highly of companies that use this type of “high tech and modern” method in their hiring process. These and other candidate insights guided us in designing a helpful and pleasant experience for them.

Recruiters talked to us about how bias can be a challenge for their hiring team while evaluating candidates. This is a challenge that video interviews could potentially augment if the evaluator focuses on the visual appearance of the person or the environment the video submission is recorded in.

At the same time they were very excited to get their hands on this tool that can help them screen candidates better and faster from an early pipeline stage.

Validating and testing our ideas

Equipped with a deep understanding about who we are designing for, what they need and want, the team got straight to work and designed the key parts of the candidate and recruiter experience respectively. We created working prototypes and invited a handful of Workable employees to test them out. This helped us validate the direction we had chosen and helped us identify some issues at an early stage, before spending effort on development.

Finding volunteers to test the candidate experience was easy, since we targeted any person who could potentially be asked to submit a video interview for a job application. to test the hiring manager experience, we targeted any manager who would potentially screen a candidate for their team with a video interview, even if they had never done this before.

Testing the product in the real world

As the development of the feature was reaching completion we engaged our own recruiting team and six key customers in an Early Adopter Program. We gathered their input as they used video interviews to screen and evaluate candidates over the course of a few weeks. Even though we had incorporated user input at multiple points since the beginning of the project and were confident in what we had built, there was still more for us to learn from its performance in real world circumstances.

We did not get much feedback from candidates besides some minor technical issues that were quickly fixed. This could mean that we indeed did a great job and delivered something that works perfectly, or perhaps that candidates were not willing to share their feedback during their application process with a company (and I don’t blame them).

Recruiters, however, shared great feedback with us, most of which has already been added to our roadmap. One of their key concerns was about creating a “good” video interview, in which they ask candidates enough questions to get the information they are looking for, but also does not require too much time to complete, which could lead to them dropping out and not completing the video interview.

Keep listening, keep learning, keep improving

Upon the completion of the Early Adopter Program video interviews became available to all Workable customers. You might have thought that our work was done, but it wasn’t! The world and people evolve and change and so should our product. We will keep monitoring the traffic and usage analytics of the feature to track performance and identify issues. We will also keep listening to all incoming feedback from our customers through different channels, such as customer support and the account management team, in order to react to it.

Salad & Go, for example, shared some great feedback on how they’ve been able to use video interviews to conduct remote hiring:

We will keep asking questions in order to understand what our users need and improve our product for them. This is essential to the quality and success of Video Interviews – and this is important to us as well.

Anything from a casual conversation where you ask a friend for their opinion on something, all the way to a formally structured research or test activity can help you learn something you did not know before. And this is the essence of user-centered design, so start talking to your users today!

The post Video Interviews: Designing for and with end users in mind appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Learn how Salad and Go screens candidates with Video Interviews:

The post Introducing Video Interviews: The next evolution in remote hiring technology appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Driven by a desire to help, our Product team banded together and built Bridge, a new outplacement solution that empowers customers to help displaced employees find new jobs, quickly, with other companies in the Workable network that are still hiring.

Normally, a product design and release of this scale takes many months to plan and execute. But, we knew time was of the essence and we consolidated our resources to make this available to our customers in just under two weeks.

We’re hoping Bridge offers an opportunity for customers to solidify their brand while helping laid-off workers hit the ground running in new positions as quickly as possible. Here’s how it works:

We, at Workable, are very much in the spirit of working together for the betterment of the community. And that’s especially strong in the midst of COVID-19. The Bridge project is our own contribution to that spirit. We can get through this – let’s make it happen together.

The post Announcing Bridge: Connecting laid-off workers with new employers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Table of contents:

1. How can a company adopt a virtual onboarding approach when it is not tech-savvy or/and doesn’t embody a learning culture?
2. Can you share a sample agenda for a new hire for the first week of onboarding remotely?
3. Do you conduct “culture trainings” to communicate what culture looks like at your organization? If so, what do these look like?
4. How can you replace the experience of a new hire meeting coworkers over lunch?
5. What is the most important thing we shouldn’t miss or the best learning/best practice you’d share with a company who is looking to onboard remote employees soon?
6. How do you complete I-9s & W-4s remotely?
7. What software do you recommend for remote onboarding?
8. Do you have experience with hiring independent contractors? If so, does the onboarding look the same for them as it does for a W-2 employee?
9. How can we execute drug tests that are required as part of onboarding?

1. How can a company adopt a virtual onboarding approach when it is not tech-savvy or/and doesn’t embody a learning culture?

If your company is not tech-savvy, you’ll need to invest some extra energy to lead the “tech way” – at least in the beginning. First off, do a thorough research to find what kind of software and tools you could use to onboard new hires successfully, and learn how they work. Opt for platforms that seem easy to use, match your business requirements, and integrate well with other platforms you’re planning to use. Use this list to find the tools you’ll need to communicate with remote employees virtually, such as a video-conferencing solution, and manage essential onboarding steps (e.g. completing HR paperwork).

But, how can you ensure that employees will learn how to handle these tools effectively, too? Melissa Bruno, VP Head of People at Stack Overflow, suggests organizing online class sessions where you can train new employees on how to effectively use these tools. This will boost their confidence in using tech gear, which according to Ryan Malone, CEO and Founder at SmartBug Media, is necessary, especially in a work culture that isn’t initially tech-savvy:

“What we found [at the company] is that if you mix mentorship and small videos and exercises, and give people small wins where they can create some momentum, then [onboarding is] not as daunting.”

In the absence of a learning culture, Melissa adds that even when there are not officially established onboarding trainings for new hires, there are always people who can voluntarily train or mentor their new colleagues on how to best utilize tech tools. She suggests identifying those employees and assigning them an active training role:

“In every single program in an organization, I look for my champions, the people who really care deeply about these things. I engage them, and then they go out. […] They share and spread the really great things that we’re trying to initiate in the organization. That’s how I would approach it.”

2. Can you share a sample agenda for a new hire for the first week of onboarding remotely?

When onboarding new remote employees, during the first week you can focus on:

• preparing gear and tools
• completing necessary HR paperwork
• explaining company culture
• connecting with team members

Use this remote employees onboarding checklist as a guide to schedule the first week’s events and tasks. But don’t forget that you’re still onboarding in general – this how to build a new onboarding process guide and this onboarding new hire checklist will help you succeed.

Hope Weatherford, Head of Talent Attraction at InVision, describes her company’s remote onboarding process and which areas they focus on during the first few days:

Successful onboarding, of course, at the core of it all – whether remotely or not. This step-by-step new employee onboarding process guide will help you refine your strategy.

3. Do you conduct ‘culture trainings’ to communicate what culture looks like at your organization? If so, what do these look like?

It’s to be expected that a remote workplace has different norms and culture as opposed to a typical in-office one. There’s more room for flexibility, which even though it is worth savoring, it can also impact the employers’ – and employees’ – ability to set clear expectations and boundaries. That’s why you should dedicate the first onboarding days to showing the culture and company norms to the new hires.

As in the video above, Hope Weatherford, Head of Talent Attraction at InVision, shared tips on delivering ‘cultural trainings’ virtually, through official or less structured calls and video meetings (you can also jump to the video in question 2):

“The ultimate goal is to really teach our InVision operating system, and how we work, what our culture’s like, what you can expect; [it’s about] really being able to bring your whole self to work, which a lot of times you’re not able to do in an office setting. We talked about kids walking around or maybe a new puppy that you just got, that is barking in the background and wants to jump up and see you all day. Those are things that we expect. Those are things that we appreciate.”

Ryan Malone, CEO and Founder at SmartBug Media, says cultural marketing plays a pivotal role in understanding what type of family employees are joining. Moving to an earlier stage, you can demonstrate your culture to candidates early on, for example, at the interview stage or through your careers page and prepare them beforehand. Share glimpses of your daily virtual work life through posting photos and videos, and allow new hires to get a sneak peek into what a working day looks like at your company.

4. How can you replace the experience of a new hire meeting coworkers over lunch?

There are many creative ways to integrate new hires to your existing teams and nurture a friendly atmosphere among colleagues. For instance, Hope Weatherford, Head of Talent Attraction at InVision, suggests scheduling a weekly video call with a loose agenda, where employees can jump in to socialize:

“We call it Friday fun day and we just come in and we just chat about anything and everything; sometimes related to work, sometimes not. And sometimes there’s an agenda and most of the time there’s not. Jump in if you want, you don’t have to join if you don’t have time. And that’s been helpful as well.”

She also encourages employees to use video-conferencing tools for chit chat, too, and not just for scheduled work meetings.

Ryan Malone, CEO and Founder at SmartBug Media, sets up 20-minute calls with team members for new remote hires, where they can discuss non-work-related interests and get to know each other better. Also, you could plan a large-scale event, such as a corporate retreat, for all teams to get together and bond:

5. What is the most important thing we shouldn’t miss or the best learning/best practice you’d share with a company who is looking to onboard remote employees soon?

In the first days of onboarding, it’s important to keep employees motivated to understand company culture and goals, connect with co-workers, and gain new skills. Ryan Malone, CEO and Founder of SmartBug Media, says this is the first practice he introduces to nurture healthy communication among co-workers:

“The first thing that you do when you come here, is you set up a get to know you call, which is a 20-minute call with everybody at the company. And the only rule is you can’t talk about work. And it’s a way for people to figure out who their crew is and what they have in common with people, so that they can quickly get integrated into teams that are like social teams.”

He also advises managers to avoid providing the new members with an extensive list of videos to watch as part of their training – and instead, putting the onus on on-the-job learning. They should support new team members to build core job-relevant skills and learn their role’s primary tasks, to build confidence and feel valuable.

6. How do you complete I-9s & W-4s remotely?

Normally, employers should examine and verify I-9 forms only in the physical presence of the new hires*. But when you hire and onboard a remote employee, this is not always a feasible step. In these cases, the employer can assign an authorized representative, a notary, or partner with a I-9 completion center to fill-out the I-9 form on their behalf, in the physical presence of the employee. You can also use a software, such as i9advantage, to help you out with this process.

As for W-4s and other HR paperwork that doesn’t typically require physical presence, you can ask the employee to complete and sign them digitally. You can easily manage this process with a digital onboarding tool, such as Rippling, and by enabling an e-signature solution such as HelloSign.

* The DHS recently announced that during the COVID-19 pandemic, completion of I-9 forms in businesses where physical distancing precautions are being applied, can be temporarily examined virtually by the employer within three days after the initial hiring date, as long as certain criteria are met.

7. What software do you recommend for remote onboarding?

Rippling and Click Boarding deliver digital onboarding solutions that enable you to streamline onboarding effectively (and both seamlessly integrated to our recruiting solution). Other useful tools are:

• An HRIS – e.g. BambooHR
• An online chat platform – e.g. Slack
• A video-conferencing tool – e.g. Zoom
• An e-signature solution – e.g. HelloSign

Find more tech tools, easy to implement in the virtual workplace, in this guide.

8. Do you have experience with hiring independent contractors? If so, does the onboarding look the same for them as it does for a W-2 employee?

Melissa Bruno, VP Head of People at Stack Overflow, advises employers to follow these two steps when hiring independent contractors:

1) Consider moving to a global provider employment organization (PEO) to ensure compliance with the legal requirements of each jurisdiction or country (e.g. local tax laws or statutory benefits), and

2) Follow the same onboarding agenda from day 1, as you would with other employees. In her own words:

9. How can we execute drug tests that are required as part of onboarding?

Employee drug testing is a sensitive matter. Considering that drug testing rules vary in different countries and jurisdictions, it’s easy to lose sight of local laws and regulations. That’s why you should always consult with your legal counsel to ensure compliance and transparency for each individual case before requesting or conducting pre-employment drug tests.

If you have a drug-testing policy, all candidates, both in-office and remote, should know what to expect beforehand. Hand over the drug testing policy to them, including all the recent updates and individual steps they should follow. Once you’ve ensured you’re fully legal and compliant, you can set an appointment for them at a state-certified lab that conducts the drug screening process.

The post 9 remote onboarding FAQs to level up your process appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• Current job opportunities
• Job ad templates and interview question kits
• Places where you can post your job ads or look for a new job

Note: We’ll be updating these resources regularly – check back often for additional content. 

1. Current job opportunities

Here are some of the companies that are currently hiring as found in the Workable job board. We’ve included their most recent job ads, but feel free to check the companies’ careers pages (you’ll find the links below) for new job opportunities.

If your company is currently scaling or has urgent hiring needs, reach out to us and we’ll include your company’s details in the following table to help you connect with job seekers.

We’ve also recently launched Bridge, an outplacement solution by Workable, that helps displaced employees find their next job quickly by connecting them with companies that are still hiring. Learn more about our initiative.

2. Templates: Job descriptions and interview questions

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies to hire for roles that didn’t previously exist – and they usually need to do that fast. We researched which jobs are in high demand right now by industry and gathered all our relevant job description templates so you can save time when advertising your open roles.

Below are interview questions to prepare yourself – whether you’re an interviewer or a candidate.

3. Job boards

The following pages aggregate current job opportunities – have a look if you’re in search of a new job or post your company’s open roles. If you’re advertising your jobs on traditional, popular job boards (e.g. Indeed and Monster), make sure to include key phrases such as “Hiring now” to attract job seekers.

The post Job-related resources in light of COVID-19 appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Video interviews are becoming a popular method among companies that want to evaluate candidates remotely. And there are benefits for you, as a candidate, too; you cut back on commute costs and time and you get the chance to interview at – and work for – a company that’s across the world. So you’d better rock this video interview.

While it’s not so different from the ol’ in-person interview, there are some nuances you need to keep in mind if you want to shine during a video interview. Let’s take it step-by-step and see how you can best showcase your skills when interacting with potential employers online:

Just (don’t) hit the “rec” button

First, make sure you have all the proper equipment in place. And what does that involve? Your computer, a webcam and a microphone. Your computer might already have an in-app camera and/or mic, which could work for you in this case. You might also want to use headphones to block noises. If you’re lacking any of this equipment, consider borrowing from a friend or going to a local library, community center or coworking space; they may offer some private offices along with equipment that you can use for your interview.

Then, you need the appropriate video software. Depending on how the company is conducting video interviews, you may or may not have to install a tool on your computer, e.g. Skype. Check the video interview invitation email they sent you; you’ll most likely find some information there, for example, a link that you can follow to join the video call. Click that to see how it works because if you need to download an app, it might take some time and you don’t want to do that a couple of minutes before the interview. If you’re in doubt, don’t hesitate to reach out to the recruiter or hiring manager you’re talking to and ask for clarification.

Once you have your hardware and software ready, it’s time to run some tests. Here’s how to have a tech run-through:

• Have a sound, microphone and camera check. It’s useful to record something to see how you look and sound and whether you need to make some adjustments. (For example, if the microphone is too close to your mouth, it can cause audio spikes.)
• Place the camera at eye level. This way, you can maintain eye contact with your interviewers.
• Check your internet connection. Poor signal could cause interruptions and miscommunication. If you’re using a wifi connection, try moving your devices closer to the router and if there are other devices and users connected, ensure they don’t take up much bandwidth during your interview.
• Close unnecessary tabs and applications. They may slow down your connection – and also become a distraction – so it’s best to keep open only when you absolutely need, e.g. the video interview platform and your online portfolio.
• Charge up your devices. Before the interview, ensure your computer and the rest of equipment you’ll be using are fully charged or plugged in – keep in mind that video calls tend to drain computers’ batteries much faster compared with regular use.

Set the stage

When recording a video interview or having a live video call with your potential employer, be mindful of the background, be it visual or audial. If you choose, for example, to have the interview at a busy cafe, noises will distract you and your interviewers. Likewise, laying on your couch with your pajamas and your laptop on your knees doesn’t exactly project yourself as professional.

Here are some tips that will help interviewers focus on what you’re saying as opposed to what’s going on around you:

• Choose a quiet room. If you’re living with family or roommates, let them know about your interview and coordinate accordingly so that there are no interruptions or noises during that time.
• Find a well-lit place. Opt for natural lighting facing you; don’t have the light on your back. If that’s not possible, put a lamp behind your camera or use your mobile’s flashlight to lighten up your face.
• Pick the proper attire. This doesn’t just refer to business or business casual wear; it’s also about picking colors that read well on camera. Avoid busy patterns and the color white. Test what works with your background, too.
• Mute notifications. Before the interview, remember to put your phone on silent mode and turn off notifications on your computer. A message or pop-up could easily disrupt the flow of the interview.

It’s dress rehearsal time

Once you’ve tackled technical requirements and set up your space, prepare yourself for the video interview, just like you would if it was a traditional face-to-face interview. This means, researching the company, refreshing your memory about your skills and work experiences, and practicing your answers to common interview questions.

However, speaking in front of a screen could raise your stress levels. Here’s how to feel more comfortable:

• Practice, then practice some more. Record yourself talking or even have some video calls with friends who can give you feedback. As you get used to the idea of “speaking to your computer”, you’ll sound more confident and more natural.
• Don’t forget about body language. Just because interviewers can mostly see your face, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use body language to your benefit. Smile, nod, make hand gestures if that helps your flow and look away for a couple of seconds when you want to think.
• Think about potential interview questions. In one-way video interviews, you might know the questions beforehand. This means you have some time to prepare your answers or even record different takes and pick the best. If it’s a live video interview, you might have an idea of what you’ll discuss (depending on who you’re talking to) so you can write down a few key points that you want to mention.

Ready, set, action!

It’s time for the interview – a few minutes before the meeting and after you’ve tested your equipment, turn your notifications off, sit comfortably, take a deep breath and when you’re ready, click “Rec” or “Join”.

Since you’ve prepared adequately, all should go well. But some things can go wrong during a video interview – not all of it your fault. Because technology can be a fickle beast at times, be sure to have quick troubleshooting tips at the ready.

‘Can we reshoot that?’

For example, poor connection or poor audio quality could be distracting. And while you can’t predict everything, here’s what to do in case you face some technical or other hiccups:

• Restart the software or your computer. There’s a reason why “Have you tried turning this off and on again?” is a popular IT trick; it’s because it often works. If you face technical difficulties, try signing off for a few minutes and restarting your devices to see if that helps.
• Have an alternative solution in place. Be ready to switch to another device if needed, e.g. a tablet or your phone – smartphones usually have good cameras so quality shouldn’t be an issue. To do so, you’ll need to have the appropriate software (Skype, Google Hangouts, etc.) installed. If you use your phone, try to keep it in a stable position and in the landscape view.
• Keep the interviewers’ contact details handy. You might want to quickly let them know that you face some temporary technical difficulties or that you’d rather reschedule. Don’t leave them waiting, though – drop them a quick email or call them to coordinate.
• Ask for clarification. Don’t hesitate to ask interviewers to repeat something if you’re not sure. You don’t want to risk giving a poor answer because you didn’t hear the question properly.

Mostly, don’t be harsh on yourself. You might be stressed at first, feel weird seeing yourself on the screen or stumble over your words, but focus on why you’re doing that: it’s all about presenting your skills and finding out if this role is a good fit for you.

Good luck!

If you have a video interview through Workable, check these useful resources on how to prepare yourself and how to troubleshoot various tech issues.

The post Video interview tips for candidates appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Speakers in attendance were:

• Amy Miller, Senior Technical Recruiter at Amazon
• Sean Echevarria, Senior Product Manager at Walmart
  
• Blane Shields, Director of Customer Success at HackerRank

We’ve pulled together their most powerful points and practices they use to improve their candidate experience strategy. They are as follows:

Setting clear expectations from scratch

If you want to create an exceptional candidate experience, you must fulfill your candidate’s expectations. And this starts with ensuring the role and responsibilities are as clear as can be. Amy highlights how essential it is to partner with hiring teams in order to understand the skills expected of prospective candidates, what they can bring to the team, and ultimately what you’re trying to achieve by filling that position.

“We need to focus on and agree on what is the business problem that we’re trying to solve, and the talent we need to solve that problem.”

All these skills and qualifications should be outlined in the job ad itself. Sean explained the importance of crafting unique and clear job descriptions:

“You don’t want everything to be so standardized that a role doesn’t really make sense. There are unique aspects to each role, and so you want to make sure that those get defined ahead of time.”

Speaking of job ads, the speakers believe that including salaries in job descriptions can be tricky. When recruiters specify a range, says Amy, candidates usually look at the top end of the scale and might be disappointed with the real number when offered the position. However, employers don’t usually lose candidates because of salary miscommunications, as Amy highlighted:

“Usually, [candidates have] got three or four competing offers, so somebody’s got to lose. It’s going to be more based on job content, role satisfaction, team fit. It’s rarely about the money.”

Integrating tech into hiring

New technology, artificial intelligence, ATS platforms. They are in almost every recruiter’s toolkit and they are continually developing and evolving. But what do you need to know when you first incorporate tech into your recruitment efforts? According to Sean, it’s important to know every interaction the candidate goes through to help with troubleshooting when needed.

“It’s all about; how seamless can I make it? Is it a link once they go on there? Are you vetting how easy it is to use? Can you get internal employees to help vet certain technologies?”

Amy continues in the same mindset, while shifting attention to using tech specifically for assessments. For Amy, tech must be easy to use and relevant for the candidate.

“[And then] moving into the assessment piece, is it relevant? Are you going to learn something about me and my background that’s important, and that basically proves my fit for the job? Is it a personality assessment? I don’t like that. But is it a technically relevant exercise or test? Great.”

Is there a danger of recruiting becoming less personalized due to technology, and impacting candidate experience? Amy believes that the onus is on recruiters and managers to avoid that. Sean adds the importance of bringing specialized recruiters onboard, who know how to use the new technology while still maintaining that personal connection.

“As technology continues to expand, you’re now bringing in people who are coming in purely for machine learning, or purely for artificial intelligence, and you need to be able to talk their language, and make it personalized, otherwise you’re going to lose out on them.”

Evaluating data wisely

Email open rates, time to hire and participation rates are some of the candidate experience metrics recruiters track. But how do you analyze data effectively? Amy starts with the importance of benchmarking at every step of the process, from phone screen to on-site interviews. She also highlights the difference between data points and trends when figuring out what your data really means.

“I’m looking for trends, I’m looking for things that are coming up repeatedly over and over again with multiple people, not just one angry person.”

Now, if a recruiter identifies a small gap or bottleneck in their candidate experience strategy, for example low acceptance rates, how can they react? Sean emphasizes on the significance of doing things mindfully, without rushing:

“Focus on key areas that you know are an issue, versus trying to tackle the whole candidate experience. If it’s specifically for the onsite experience, then focus on the onsite experience, and don’t do anything else for a quarter.”

Catching up with hiring trends

Not all recruitment processes evolve equally. According to Blane, adapting to new trends is not a piece of cake for all companies. Small companies find it easier to adopt new agile processes while large companies might find it hard.

“Tech forward companies have been trying a lot of different strategies in terms of candidate engagement, whether that’s doing something really cool with a career fair, or they’re plugging in assessments, or they’re doing some sort of a panel interview onsite. They’re trying different things to see what sticks and what really resonates with candidates, because candidate experience is probably the most important thing that we hear from recruiters.”

However, according to Amy, there is no need to jump to the next “shiny thing”, like apps and platforms (e.g. recruiting via TikTok) all the time, as it can, in her own words, be “annoying to the audience”.

“There’s not a ‘one size fits all’. [For] your audience, especially if you are a larger [company] and you are hiring all kinds of people, there is not a single way to recruit, there is not a single platform, a single type of assessment, a single interview structure.”

Blane and Sean agree on the value good content brings to candidate experience. “I think content is super important”, Blane says, adding that customization of the content matters, especially for companies ‘that don’t have as big of a brand’.

Sean agreed, noting that it is meaningful to have a “toolkit” with the latest articles, videos and campaigns recruiters can use in order to better engage candidates.

Dealing with negative reviews

The importance of playing the long game also applies when reacting to negative reviews – in that you don’t want to react to every single one. Amy said:

“You could have one very frustrated job seeker, or a previous candidate who’s very angry, had a very bad experience and that may just be a single data point. That may not necessarily mean that your program is broken or that everything’s wrong. We don’t normally hear from people unless they’re upset.”

To thoroughly understand recruiting processes, a recruiter needs to have as much feedback from candidates as possible. Blane explained:

“We actually ask for candidate feedback immediately after they’ve taken that assessment. There’s no better point in time than to get that feedback right away.”

But what happens with negative Glassdoor reviews, or an excessive rant from candidates or former employees on Twitter and other social media? Amy said:

“I think the world has become smaller in many ways, just because of our connections with LinkedIn, and Twitter, and Facebook, and all the social media, and if you have a bad experience you’re very, very quick to go and post that somewhere that can easily go viral.”

In order to deal with this issue, Sean suggested to be open-minded and make yourself available to candidates for feedback.

“Having that feedback loop open, is needed when you have so many people coming through your front door. Create a conversation with them, and say OK, these were the parts of your experience that were bad. Whether or not you want to take culpability for it that’s fine, but we hear you and we’re going to continue to iterate off of our candidate experience.”

To sum up, improving your candidate experience techniques requires many small steps and it’s better to do them one at a time but without expecting a complete resolution each time. It’s an ongoing process. Make good use of your data, be smart with your tech implementation and keep tabs on trends. Also, be clear in your communications with the candidate, and don’t get disappointed with every single bad review you receive. All feedback is beneficial and you can learn from it.

See how Workable helps IMAGR deliver the best candidate experience and retain great talent:

Read also these candidate experience survey questions and gather useful feedback from candidates.

The post How to fix your candidate experience strategy appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You won’t see a list of diversity-specific features, though. And that’s on purpose. We believe that D&I is neither a couple of boxes that you just tick, nor a quota that you want to reach. It requires a holistic approach, re-thinking and updating your processes, and adopting practices that contribute to an inclusive workplace. We do offer features that will help you comply with anti-discriminatory laws (e.g. EEO/OFCCP regulations), but we’re mostly focused on delivering solutions that will help you interact with candidates and hire employees bias-free.

Let’s explore how you can increase diversity at each step of the hiring process using Workable.

1. Advertising your jobs: How to attract diverse candidates

When you want to increase diversity within your company, your first priority should be to diversify your outreach when you’re promoting your job openings. If you’re constantly posting jobs and looking for candidates in the same places, you’ll likely come across people with the same background. But researching and trying out new candidate sources can be time-consuming.

Here’s how Workable can automate and speed up your job advertising process to maximize your outreach:

Post to multiple sites and social networks

Instead of creating accounts and logging in to different sites in an effort to increase your candidate sources, you can do all that within the platform with just a few clicks. Pick the free and premium job boards where you want to advertise your open roles, add social media to your advertising mix, and we’ll automatically publish your job ads. This way, we help you get your job opportunities in front of a broader audience without wasting any valuable time.

Find potential candidates where they are

While job boards are the go-to place for job seekers, it’s worth casting a wider net. You can reach out to people with the right skills in the places where they spend a lot of their time daily: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn of course.

Customize one of our inclusive job descriptions

We may not always realize it, but even one word can make a difference in a job ad. Would a boomer apply for a job that highlights the company’s youthful environment? Or, what would a female candidate think if she saw a job ad for a salesman? We’ve built more than 700 job description templates for a wide range of industries and business functions, paying attention to using gender-neutral and inclusive language. You can directly upload and edit those templates when you create your job ad inside Workable:

2. Screening applicants: How to remove biases

Once you’ve advertised your jobs, you’ll start receiving applications. At this stage, it’s important to make sure you evaluate resumes, application forms and portfolios using strictly job-related criteria. It’s common to be influenced by non-relevant factors, so here are two ways that can help you stay on track:

Turn off social media profile pictures

While Workable gives you the option to gather information candidates have shared online in order to build a robust profile, you also have the option to disable their profile pictures. If you think that you or other hiring team members might get distracted by candidates’ pictures and miss out on important skills, you can turn this feature off.

Screen candidates consistently with video interviews

First impressions are powerful. You can instantly like or dislike a candidate as you walk them to the meeting room or during small talk before the interview. What if you could go straight to the interview, though? Picture this: you can send all candidates for the same role a set of questions, which they’ll answer by recording themselves. This way, you only receive their answers to job-related questions, you can avoid the potentially bias-inducing small talk, and can compare candidates without showing unduly favoring one over the other.

3. Making your hiring decision: How to evaluate candidates objectively

You’re now in a good place. You’ve enriched your candidate sources to ensure you reach a diverse audience, you’ve screened applicants with job-related criteria and you’re ready to interview and hire your next star. You have a good base, but the challenge is that they’re multiple people involved at this stage, for example, a hiring manager or senior executives. How can you tell if they are also free of biases?

You probably can’t. And maybe you don’t have the time – or even the power – to train them on D&I practices. What you can do instead, is build a hiring process that eliminates biases:

Ask all candidates the same interview questions

More or less, hiring managers will ask similar questions to learn whether candidates are qualified for a role. However, because interviewers are human and questions may go off in tangents at times, it’s easier to stay consistent when questions are prepared in advance. In Workable, you can build interview kits to evaluate skills and include as many questions as you want. The result is a structured interview process, where interviewers ask all candidates the same questions in the same order and use a scorecard to evaluate answers.

Share your interview feedback impartially

We all get influenced by other people’s opinions, but hiring decisions should be well-rounded, not biased. This means that interviewers should be able to openly call attention to any red flags they spotted in candidates, regardless of what others in the team think. To allow for objective evaluations when there are multiple interviewers in the same hiring stage, each interviewer will be able to see feedback and comments from the rest of the hiring team only after they’ve already submitted their own evaluation. This way, they’re encouraged to share their honest opinion without being subconsciously influenced by the reviews of other hiring team members.

Technology alone is not enough

Diversity and inclusion go beyond software, of course. Technology can help, but it’s the people who make the hiring decisions and it’s the people who are responsible for embracing different traits in the workplace. So, the onus is on people who are involved in hiring and team management to let go of biases or, at least, to be aware of them.

There’s no tool that can enforce diversity. Perhaps your recruiting software prompts you to justify your feedback after you interview a candidate, but it won’t stop you from commenting; “I really liked this candidate”. Likewise, you might get a shortlist of 49 candidates who come from underrepresented groups and still hire the one who looks and thinks most like you.

Technology is not a cure; it can only support your D&I efforts. If you rely only on tech to boost your company’s diversity, you risk being short-sighted or, worse, see the opposite results. For example, if a software helps you gather candidate data to uncover areas for improvement, you could raise legal issues. Candidates might be worried about how you’re going to use this information, even if your intentions are good.

If you are experimenting (or considering to experiment) with masking candidates’ personal details, such as their name, race and school, don’t rest assured that you will indeed pick diverse candidates. Research shows that this is not always the case. Likewise, an overreliance on technology can lead to adverse results in your hiring process. D&I practices should be addressed throughout all your procedures, not just at the beginning of your hiring process.

At the end of the day, diversity is not in the numbers. To build a truly diverse and inclusive work environment, you need to be an advocate for differences, you need to embrace people as they are and you need to actively look for a variety of skills inside your company. Diverse candidates will want to work with you, not because you claim to be an equal opportunity employer, but because you are one. And there’s no shortcut to becoming one.

The post Diversity in the workplace: how to use Workable to boost D&I appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

That’s where I found myself this past March. I was assigned with a task that would be simple for many but challenging for me: to hire three people for my team. This was the first time I’d be a supervisor, so I was excited for this opportunity and was looking forward to working with them. But first, I had to interview candidates to find the best among them. And that was new to me.

I still remember going into the first interview with the first candidate. Being a first-time hiring manager, I was probably more stressed than them and ended up doing most of the talking, trying to sell the role rather than getting to know the candidate. I left the interview even more stressed, since I hadn’t made up my mind whether this candidate would be a good fit or not.

A few interviews later and a few more “maybes” later, I realized that I needed to step up my interviewing game if I wanted to hire the best candidates for the role – and quickly, too.

Here’s what helped me run a successful hiring process – plus some things I wish I knew beforehand as a first-time hiring manager:

1. Ask for help early in the process

The more information you get before interviews begin, the smoother the process will go. If other people involved in the process are more experienced in interviewing, they might take some things for granted. So, don’t be afraid to ask questions no matter how basic they seem.

• Understand the scope of the role. First, talk to your boss. Understand what you want to achieve by hiring this person and this will give you a clearer idea of what you’re looking for in candidates.
• Understand the structure of the hiring process. Then, talk to your recruiter about how long the process will (ideally) take, what steps will be involved, and what your role will be throughout the process. You can also ask for tips on how to write your job description, how to screen resumes faster and how to communicate with candidates.

At Workable, we’ve created a hiring guide with useful tips and guidelines that our hiring managers can access at any time. Here’s a sample recruitment policy you can use to create your own guide.

2. Don’t wait till the interview to evaluate candidates

An in-person interview is your chance to learn more about a candidate, talk about their skills and ambitions, and determine if they’re a good culture fit for your team. But interviews take up a lot of resources, and as a hiring manager, recruiting is not a full-time job for you. You must interview candidates on top of your day-to-day tasks, so you need to ensure you only meet with the most promising ones.

• Identify your dealbreakers. Those could be expected salary, lack of knowledge of a required skill or tool and availability. Find out whether candidates meet those minimum requirements before you invite them to an interview at your office by including disqualification questions in the application form or during a quick call.
• Evaluate candidates on job-related skills. You can add steps between the resume screening and the onsite interview. For example, schedule a video interview or send candidates an assessment. This way, you’ll be able to watch for candidates who may look good on paper but lack the necessary skills.

3. Make the most out of your interviews

At first, I was further stressed out because after an interview I still couldn’t determine whether this person was a good fit for the role or not. And I realized that this ambiguity was because I wasn’t asking the right questions. When preparing your interview questions, make sure that each question gives you insights about the candidate that you don’t already have.

• Interview questions should get you closer to the hiring decision. If the question doesn’t add any value, don’t ask it. Make it your goal that at the end of the interview you have to have a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’. A clear ‘yes’ means that you would hire this person, not that you will hire this person.
• Avoid the most common interview questions. Everyone will claim that they’re self-motivated, independent, analytical and methodical, that they work too hard and are perfectionists. I had more success when I started asking open-ended questions that required original thinking from the candidate. For example, I went from:
  • “What are your pros and cons?” to “What skills do you want to develop?”
  • “What did you do during your previous role?” to “What did you like or dislike about your previous role?”

As an inexperienced interviewer, these questions felt quite uncomfortable to ask. But I got responses that were way more honest and opened opportunities for further discussion on pros and cons in practice, rather than what they thought their pros and cons were.

4. Get organized

It’s important to be prepared even before the hiring process begins (e.g. have your questions ready so that you ask all candidates the same things). You need to be organized ahead of time to ensure a low-stress, seamless hiring process because you will undoubtedly devote large chunks of your busy days to interviewing candidates.

• Schedule interviews so they don’t interrupt your flow of the day. For example, if you have a team meeting every Monday morning to plan your week, it’s best to avoid booking interviews around that time so that you don’t get scattered. You can use a self-scheduling feature to eliminate a lot of the back-and-forth communication between you, the recruiter and the candidate, but make sure your available slots are convenient for you.
• Leave feedback right after interviews. I don’t love taking notes during the meeting unless it’s something very specific. What has worked for me is to block time after each interview to debrief and write my evaluation, when my impressions are still fresh. When you have multiple interviews in one day, it’s easy to get confused about which candidate said what. That’s why documenting your feedback right after the interview is essential to prevent a mix-up.

5. Be prepared to answer candidates’ questions, too

During interviews, it’s not only you, the hiring manager, who has questions. Candidates are also interested in learning more about the job and the company, other than what they can already find online.

• Think about the bigger picture. Questions about salary, starting date, responsibilities and working hours are probably the easiest ones. But a good candidate will likely have more questions. For example, they might want to learn about:
  • the culture of the company
  • the strategy and goals of your department
  • how they will be evaluated
  • what skills they will develop
  • what you like about the company

Not having concise answers will make you come across as unprepared and, worse, it may look like you’re trying to hide something.

• Sync with the entire hiring team. You’re probably not the only one interviewing candidates for the role. At the beginning of the hiring process, candidates will probably interview with a recruiter and later, they might meet with a more senior executive. Ensure that you’re consistent with the information you give to candidates. For example, if your recruiter tells candidates that there’s flexibility in the starting date but you tell them that they need to start ASAP, candidates will get the impression that there’s a lack of communication between the two of you.

While I was lucky enough to hire competent people the first time around, I felt more confident in making the right choices the next time I had to interview and hire candidates. And this time, my nerves stayed calm throughout the process.

You can use a cheat sheet like this during your part in the recruitment process, whether you’re a first-time hiring manager yourself or you want to share with a colleague in that situation. You, of course, want to play a role in your company’s growth strategy for the upcoming year, and every little bit can help.

The post Tips for first-time hiring managers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There are many different red flags to look for when hiring a sales rep. But keep an eye out for these four in particular, and you’ll avoid many headaches down the road when looking for salespeople:

The “great interview” rep

The “great interview” rep is the candidate who absolutely crushes your recruitment process. They’re the ones who just ooze charisma. They answered the “sell me this pen” challenge with a well-executed response showing they had done their homework. During a role-playing activity where they pitched one of your products with you as an executive buyer, they dropped a great joke on you that fit perfectly with your brand narrative. You even laughed, when you normally don’t during that phase.

So, it’s a no-brainer for you. After walking them out of the office, you head straight to HR and tell them to take the job ad down. You’ve found what you’re looking for.

But not so fast…

You’re interested, of course – that’s your job – but it’s also your job as the interviewer to keep the interview on track by asking pointed questions and making sure those questions are answered. You might have been blinded by the glare of the hypothetical sales pitch, be it about the “pen” or one of your company’s products.

They’re good at pitching when it gets to that stage, but can they open and close? Can they generate something out of nothing with an uninterested audience? Can they stay on track, drive the conversation from cold call to lead to conversion, and meet quotas? Sales isn’t just about the pitch – it’s also about organization, lining up leads, picking up the phone and asking pointed questions, being on time, following up with additional requested information, identifying new opportunities… and of course, closing deals.

When evaluating sales reps, keep in mind that they are still here as a job candidate, and your mission is to hire the best sales rep. End of story. They can impress all day if they want, but will they bring business to your bottom line? It’s all about the results in the end.

The “wandering” rep

You’re looking through the applications, and you see a resume that has five, seven, or more entries, all for Sales Development Representative or Business Development Representative positions. Perhaps there’s an account executive or two in there. You’re interested – clearly, they’ve been around the block a couple of times. And nowadays, tours of duty are more normal than career-long jobs, especially in sales. Plus, many of the companies they’ve worked for are in your industry. Perfect, they look like a good fit.

But not so fast…

High turnover is one thing, but if you see in their resume an oddly consistent turnover around the 11th month of every job they’ve worked in, that’s a very telling red flag. The life cycle of a sales rep job involves two or three months of onboarding, plus a couple of quarters of selling and approaching or reaching sales quotas. The expectation is that they’re comfortable meeting quotas well before one year in the company. If they haven’t succeeded in bringing revenue to your company by the end of their first year, then hard decisions have to be made – including letting them go.

That’s what’s going on when you see a resume full of “11th-month stints”. You don’t want to spend all that time onboarding someone only to have them fizzle out in the 11th month. But before you take a pass on them, know that coincidences do happen and perhaps they just had a bad streak with companies who either didn’t succeed in the game or didn’t onboard them properly. Make sure you ask for their side of the story if you do see that 11-month trend.

The “big company” rep

You sift through your resumes and you stop at one: wow, this candidate’s worked at a couple of multinationals or startup unicorns, and their sales numbers are just off the charts. They’ve brought in amazing revenue for their company. They blow everyone else out of the water. Of course, you want star reps like that in your organization.

But not so fast…

These sales reps are potentially passengers on a ship much bigger than themselves. They don’t have to work as hard to land the sales – there’s a refined marketing machine working to bring in hardcore leads, and the company brand is powerful enough that all you have to do is produce the business card, and watch leads’ eyes light up when they see who you represent.

Take a deeper look at their sales numbers, and inquire as to how their numbers stack up against their peers in that same company. Also, ask about their numbers at other companies and see how those numbers line up. If they don’t, then you’re interviewing a passenger, not a pilot.

The “right place, right time” rep

Again, just like the “big company” rep, this candidate’s numbers are stellar. And they’re for a smaller company, or a more niche startup where it’s harder to sell. Their numbers look great, and they tell you in the interview that they actually doubled their required quota in the last quarter. Perfect, you think – it’s time for them to double down on quotas in your own sales team.

But not so fast…

Ever heard the saying, “a rising tide lifts all ships”? It’s possible this rep just happened to catch the wave as it was rising, and reaped the benefits. Perhaps the company they were working for just landed a massive funding round, opened an IPO, got some major exposure in the mainstream media because of a breakthrough in their product, or launched a new product to great acclaim – all things that inevitably lead to a spike in sales. And this sales rep just happened to be there when it happened, but it doesn’t make them great sales reps.

Again, look at it in context. Ask about their sales numbers in other quarters or with other companies. If those numbers are not impressive or, worse, if they insist on talking only about their aforementioned success, perhaps they’re a one-hit-wonder.

A convincing sales talent pool

Every good company has a well-oiled sales machine – after all, that’s what brings in revenue – and you need to make sure you have the right nuts and bolts to keep the engine running smoothly. It’s all about finding the right fit and the right talent in the end. You can’t afford to suffer with less when hiring a sales team.

There are always going to be exceptions to the rule, but remember, when hiring in sales, you’re also assessing candidates who can be very convincing about their capabilities. They’re skilled at selling – that doesn’t change when they’re selling themselves as a candidate. That’s fine, but be mindful of the associated pitfalls when hiring a sales team. Keep this cheat sheet at the ready so you don’t end up sending job offers to the wrong sales reps – your bottom line will thank you.

The post Hiring a sales team? Avoid these 4 candidates appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• Interviewing across different time zones or with hiring team members in different locations
• Screening numerous candidates within a short time frame during rapid upscale
• Looking at intangible skills that can’t be described in words or numbers
• Assessing candidates’ resumes who oversell themselves to grab your attention
• Interviewing remote candidates when you build or expand your distributed teams

Video interviews help you get past these challenges, and identify otherwise overlooked talent as well as candidates who seem good on paper but lack necessary skills.

What exactly are video interviews?

Video interviews are a way to evaluate candidates remotely. Instead of meeting in person or talking on the phone, recruiters and hiring managers can interview candidates virtually, using video interview software (e.g. SparkHire, Jobma) or communication tools (e.g. Zoom, Skype, Hangouts).

A video interview is usually preferred at early hiring stages as a method to screen a large number of candidates quickly and effectively. It can also be useful when candidates and interviewers are in different locations and can’t meet face to face. They’re a great solution, too, when you want to reach untapped talent, such as remote candidates or employees who prefer flexible work options.

Employers who wish to conduct video interviews during their hiring process need to have a type of video interview software and basic video interview equipment, your computer’s built-in microphone, camera and speakers will work fine in this case. It’s also useful to choose where to do video interviews; a quiet room with no distractions is appropriate in this case. Finally, consider creating a simple “how to set up a video interview” guide with basic technical instructions and video interview tips that you can share with candidates and/or interviewers.

What are the different types of video interviews?

There are two main categories: one-way and two-way video interviews. A sub-category also fits here; the video resume or application. Although technically not an interview, it’s still a type of video assessment.

Let’s see in greater detail the different video interview types:

1. Two-way video interview

This is the most common type of video interview, also called live video interview or synchronous video interview. Candidates and interviewers log into the same video call and have their interview in real time regardless of their location. Two-way video interviews are particularly useful when:

• Candidates and hiring managers are in different locations and want to save time by conducting the interview remotely.
• Interviewers want to screen a large number of candidates during early hiring stages without dealing with added logistics (welcoming candidates to the office, booking meeting rooms, etc.).
• Interviewers are in different offices, so it’s more convenient if they all connect with candidates through a video conference interview.
• The entire team is distributed, so there’s no physical office available for an in-person interview.

When you invite candidates to a video interview, be clear on how they’ll join the video call. It’s best to send them instructions in an email to avoid any confusion. Here are two sample invitations you can send: a video interview email template and a Skype interview invitation email template.

2. One-way video interview

You might have also heard it as “on-demand video interview” or “recorded video interview”. As opposed to the two-way interview, this one is asynchronous. The interviewer asks all candidates to answer a series of questions, and candidates record and submit their answers through the video interview platform.

For candidates, the main benefits of one-way video interviews are:

• They save time as they don’t have to come to your offices for an interview.
• They can get more comfortable having the interview from their space.
• If they know the questions beforehand, they have time to prepare their answers.
• Or, if they have multiple takes, they can choose the best recording.

Usually, candidates can record an answer, view the video and either submit it if they’re satisfied or give it another go. This can be reassuring for candidates who want to make a great first impression – and overall, makes for a better candidate experience.

For employers, recorded video interviews are time-saving. Instead of scheduling and conducting phone, video or in-person interviews on an individual basis, they can send the same set of questions and instructions to all candidates for a role and review answers at their own convenience. Real-time interviews can also be challenging in cases where:

• Candidates and interviewers are in different time zones.
• Candidates are already employed and have limited availability to attend an interview at your office.
• Interviewers are working on multiple open jobs or are busy with their regular job duties and have a hard time finding open slots on their calendars.

One-way video interviews are best suited early in the selection process, where recruiters and hiring managers want to identify dealbreakers or essential qualifiers. For example, imagine a sales position that requires excellent communication skills or a customer support role that requires fluency in a foreign language. Here are some common interview questions during video interviews at the first stages of the hiring process:

• Why did you apply for this job?
• What makes you a great candidate?
• Show us how you’d make a presentation for X product.

Keep in mind that some candidates might not be familiar or even comfortable with this type of interview, so consider including some video interview practice exercises. This way, candidates will have the chance to play around with the video interview platform and understand how it works before answering the real interview questions. Learn more about how you can benefit your hiring process with recorded video interviews.

Video application

In this type of video assessment, employers ask candidates to submit a video introduction of themselves and screen them based on that. Similar to recorded video interviews, employers ask candidates to answer one question or showcase their skills in a short one- or two-minute video.

For example, you can use video applications to create mini role-playing activities for candidates. Let’s say you want to hire someone to create support videos for your customers. You’re not necessarily looking for relevant experience since this is an entry-level role. So relying solely on their resume is not helpful in this case. What you could do, instead, is send them a script and ask them to read it as if this was a support video. You can then evaluate candidates based on how natural they sound, whether they were able to emphasize on the most important parts, etc.

Video applications are also useful in creative roles and help hiring managers identify outstanding candidates. Here’s an example of how – and why – you can ask candidates to submit video applications on YouTube.

Pedalheads, a skill-based teaching camp, uses Workable’s Video Interviews to evaluate candidates even in times where they can’t meet in person. “It is imperative that we see candidates practice their teaching skills. Workable Video Interviews allow us to assess the skills and teaching methods of our candidates. The interviews are user-friendly and candidates have no issues submitting their responses,”  says Tanya Viceer, Hiring Coordinator at Pedalheads.

Why do companies do video interviews?

We’ve already briefly mentioned some benefits of video interviewing, but let’s see in more detail how video interviews can help you improve your hiring process:

Reduce time to hire

Whether real-time or recorded, video interviews can be time-saving. Think of all the accumulated time invested in welcoming candidates to your offices, offering them coffee, walking them to the meeting room, conducting the interview itself, and then escorting them out. The time spent in that may seem minimal for a single interview, but consider how it adds up with every single candidate who looks good on paper.

Compare that with conducting all those interviews without having to leave your desk. Meeting candidates through video allows you to have multiple interviews within a short time and, as a result, speed up the hiring process. This is especially beneficial when hiring large-scale.

There are, also, cases where you can’t conduct face to face interviews (e.g. due to the COVID-19 health crisis). Video interviews can be a solution to help you keep hiring from anywhere. Brandi Hale, Head of People and Culture at Salad and Go explains: “We’re using the new Workable Video Interviews tool to pre-screen candidates and move quickly into the interview step. Normally, we have daily open interview sites, where any interested candidate can come by. This process is not possible for us right now due to the crisis. This tool has helped us be more efficient during this time and get our jobs done.”

Reduce hiring costs

When you speed up hiring, you also save money. How? A slow hiring process leaves the position open for a long period of time – which can be costly for your business when you absolutely need that new hire right away. On the other hand, when you screen candidates by reviewing their recorded interviews or when you interview multiple candidates per day simply by logging into a video platform, you can move to the next hiring stages faster and ultimately close the hire faster. Because time is money, this is money you’re saving down the funnel.

Read more about the cost of the hiring process.

Automate candidate screening

Automating part of the process is particularly useful if you have multiple open roles or if hiring is not your primary job. With video interview software, you can quickly identify dealbreakers through candidates’ recorded videos and you can automate manual tasks (e.g. sending emails one by one or scheduling separate phone calls with each candidate).

The real benefit of saving time and money during candidate screening is that you can allocate those freed-up resources to the more important later hiring stages such as meeting your most promising candidates in person.

Eliminate bias

Naturally, we’re all affected by first impressions. Consider this scenario: a candidate comes in for an interview. As you walk together to the meeting room, you start some small talk. You learn that they have two kids and one of them is going to the same school as your child. Or, that they hate your favorite movie. How confident are you that you won’t be biased either in favor or against this candidate?

Video interviews cannot completely remove biases, but they can help assess candidates more objectively. With one-way video interviews, for example, you ask all candidates the same questions – which are agreed on beforehand in the hiring team – and you can review their answers to these specific questions without being influenced by irrelevant small talk.

Standardize the hiring process

When you use recorded video interviews, not only can you eliminate bias, but you also make your hiring process more consistent. That’s because you create a set of questions that are repeated for every candidate in the same role – and in some cases for every candidate no matter their role (e.g. you might always want to find out what candidates know about your company, why they decided to apply, or what their availability is in the near future.)

This helps you ensure that you’re tackling important questions early on in the process every single time without fail. This adds value to your entire recruitment lifecycle, since it’s not always the same person who conducts the interview. A standard process means that you give hiring manager the tools to evaluate candidates properly even if it’s not a primary part of their job or if they’re less experienced interviewers.

Sync with the hiring team

On-demand interviews have the benefit that they’re accessible by the entire hiring team (often via that same video recruiting software you used to conduct the interviews). Recruiters and hiring managers or other team members can view the recordings, share feedback within the platform, and decide to reject or move a candidate forward. Instead of having multiple interview rounds, where the candidate experience suffers due to different interviewers asking the same questions or evaluating the same skills at different stages, members of the hiring team can all view the same recording and make better-informed hiring decisions.

Improve quality of hire

We could pose the argument that video interviewing adds an extra step to the hiring process. If this step, though, helps evaluate candidates more thoroughly, then it’s worth that added investment. Important dealbreakers and qualifiers can be identified early, reducing the possibility of a bad hire or a poor fit once candidates have been onboarded. The sometimes exorbitant costs of replacing an employee can be easily avoided if we make that crucial investment in the first stages of the hiring process – both in terms of time and money.

Interested to learn what the actual cost of replacing an employee is?

Recorded video interviews – that the entire hiring team can access – help identify candidate skills and red flags which are often overlooked if you rely solely on resumes and phone calls for your candidate screening.

Reach out to global talent

If you hire only locally, you risk missing out on great candidates. With video interviews, you can connect with remote employees and with people from different regions who are thinking to relocate. You can also overcome the barriers of different time zones, as one-way video interviews allow candidates and interviewers to answer questions and review recordings at their own convenience.

Build a better candidate experience

Interviews are often stressful for candidates. The candidate experience could be much more positive if candidates knew the questions beforehand so they can prepare properly. This is made possible via one-way video interviews. Candidates can rehearse and review their answers and submit their best ones. This process is stress-relieving and also helps hiring managers assess candidates more objectively, as nerves can often hinder a candidate’s performance in an interview. At Workable, we’ve built Video Interviews so that candidates can practice (from any device) before recording their answers to the actual questions. This gives candidates control over their submission and boosts their confidence.

Speed up future hiring decisions

Recordings from candidates could remain in your talent database (as long as this is GDPR compliant) for future reference. If there’s a more suitable job opening in the future or if there’s a more appropriate timing and you want to reconsider their candidacy, it’s easier to have one more resource available beyond their resume and any potential feedback you have noted.

This is also useful in case there’s a new hiring manager in the team (for example after company reorgs) or if you want to refer this candidate for a different role in a different department.

How to implement video interviews in your hiring process

First of all, you need to decide when and why you’ll use video interviews. Start by answering these questions:

• Do you have (or want to have) remote candidates? In this case, you can use video interviews, not as part of your regular hiring process, but as a way to evaluate outstanding candidates that you consider hiring remotely.
• Do you have (or want to open) remote positions? Unlike the previous case, you will evaluate all candidates for a remote role via video interview software.
• Do you want to use a more effective screening method? Then, video interviews (or video applications) should be the first hiring stage for all candidates and all roles, regardless of whether they’re remote or not.
• Do you want to evaluate specific skills, such as communication or fluency in a language? Video interviews might be suitable only for certain roles, e.g. in sales or marketing. So, you can tailor your recruitment process to add or remove hiring stages based on the role and the skill set you’re looking for.

Once you have clarified the purpose of video interviews, it’s easier to implement them. Now you have to decide on the questions you’ll ask in video interviews, how to prepare yourself before the interview and how to overcome some obstacles that may arise.

1. What questions are asked in a video interview?

Like in all kinds of interviews, questions are relevant to the job, the function and the seniority level. They also have to do with the hiring stage. For example, first-round interviews usually cover basic topics such as availability and salary expectations, while interviews at later stages might address career goals and projects that candidates will manage if hired.

The same guidelines apply in video interviews. If you’re conducting video calls early in the hiring process, as a screening method instead of phone screens, here are some common video interview questions you can ask:

• What attracted you to the job ad? Why did you decide to apply?
• Name two skills you have acquired through previous work experiences that you think will be useful in this role.
• What inspired you to pursue this career?
• What’s your experience with XYZ software?
• Describe briefly a challenge you’ve faced at work and how you overcame it.
• What’s the ideal work environment for you?
• Do you prefer to work in teams or individually? Why?