It sounds like a science fiction dream come true – and it is. Artificial intelligence in the workplace is breathing new life into those visions right now.

Now evidently more than ever, employers everywhere are reaping the benefits of embracing AI technologies – including ChatGPT and its many relatives and enemies – to enhance productivity and solve modern business challenges.

Is this the end of times? Have the machines arrived. Hardly. Rather, the age of AI is paving the way for countless opportunities rather than simply replacing human tasks.

In fact, let’s explore how AI in the workplace could be your formula to evolve your business and its many workflows.

1. Boost collaboration with sharper insights

Imagine a scenario where a team is brainstorming ideas for a new marketing campaign or a sales strategy. You might even be looking for gaps in your workflows and trying to figure out a way to fill that gap with a new hire. An AI system analyzes each team member’s input, packages it all up, and suggests data-driven insights to optimize their campaign, making the process more efficient and effective.

Is this a threat to human employment or creativity? No – rather, it complements your natural skill sets. You’re synergizing (yes, that word) AI capabilities with human intuition and emotional understanding – which is crucial when managing staff and building new strategies that incorporate a lot of both in the planning and execution.

Related: How AI can enhance human skills and collaboration at work

For instance, Workable helps recruiters identify top talent by analyzing applicants’ job experiences and behavioral traits against company requirements on the fly. You can also use ChatGPT itself to build an ideal candidate profile with the input of information packages including the profiles of team members, the job description itself, and the company’s “About Us” page – all of which, incidentally, are already built by humans.

In short: incorporating artificial intelligence into your daily management style allows your team members to free up headspace and sharpen their focus on critical thinking exercises.

2. Speed up work with automation

Envision a scenario where employees no longer have to spend hours organizing their inbox. Instead, your AI-charged email client sorts and prioritizes messages every morning before you even open your laptop, so you can focus on the important stuff.

That’s just one example. Let’s say you deal with countless tickets and requests every day that require your attention – or rather, your “green light” before they can be moved down the line to the next team. Those still need your eyes, of course, but it’s a time suck to open up each ticket, look through it, click “OK”, click a couple of items in a drop-down menu, drag-and-drop to another field, and then send to the next person.

Automation means you just look through it and click “OK”, and the rest of it is automated. That’s how artificial intelligence workplace solutions can open up avenues for increased productivity across teams.

Another example of AI application is in sophisticated language translation software. With increasing workplace globalization, this kind of tool breaks down language barriers that can hamper international teams. Let’s say Bob in New York needs to talk quickly with Keiko in Japan, but Bob’s Japanese isn’t that great, and neither is Keiko’s English.

But they don’t need to worry about that because everything Bob says or types is automatically translated to Keiko and vice versa, so they can move more quickly on urgent tasks.

3. Grow team skills through custom L&D

Picture an employee struggling with a new software tool. Instead of attending a one-size-fits-all training session, they receive a personalized learning path designed by an AI-powered learning platform, accelerating their mastery of the tool.

With the sheer volume of softwares out there, it almost becomes a necessity to have learning modules customized to the specific needs of individual team members – not just newly hired employees, but also long-time tenured workers.

Artificial intelligence in the workplace isn’t just about refining human-generated output; it’s also designed to tap into each individual’s unique potential by creating custom educational experiences. That’s especially pertinent considering the sheer volume of new tech and software launched on a regular basis. The “standardized” toolbox and tech stack may be a thing of the past – especially during times of great change such as in this new age of AI.

For instance, online learning platform Degreed connects team members with personalized skills training programs fueled by AI recommendations source. And Rallyware streamlines orientation processes via chatbots and automation technology – a ground-breaking approach that increases employee engagement rates during onboarding phases.

Investing in your workforce with these tools can inspire, motivate and grow your teams – which makes for more bang at the bottom line.

4. Make smarter decisions armed with data

There are times where your company may be evaluating the potential of entering a new market. An AI-powered business intelligence system can sift through vast amounts of data and provide valuable insights on market trends, customer preferences, and the competitive landscape – and package all that up into a pretty dashboard to support your decision-making process.

AI in the workplace allows for more informed decision making by analyzing large datasets and turning those into actionable insights. By leveraging AI-driven analytics, businesses can quickly identify patterns, trends, and opportunities that would be overly time-consuming for humans to discern on their own.

For example, tools like ThoughtSpot enable users to ask natural language questions and receive instant, data-driven answers based on what you’re feeding into it – whether its logistics in the manufacturing sector or consumer habits in banking.

Meanwhile, predictive analytics platforms like DataRobot enable organizations to forecast future outcomes based on historical data, such as evolving reporting models to meet new regulatory requirements, identifying patterns to make more accurate diagnoses, and monitoring competitor developments to maintain competitiveness in the marketplace.

5. Detect fraud before it causes damage

In a world where cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, an AI-powered cybersecurity system can detect and neutralize a potential attack on your company’s network before it causes costly damage.

AI-powered security solutions are increasingly playing an indispensable role in protecting businesses from cyberattacks and fraud. These systems can analyze vast amounts of data in real time, identifying suspicious activities and potential threats that might go unnoticed by human analysts – and flagging those threats for immediate human intervention as needed.

For instance, cybersecurity platform Darktrace uses AI-driven algorithms to detect and respond to cyber threats, while Fraud.net leverages AI and machine learning to analyze customer data to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions for e-commerce businesses.

6. ID and preempt supply chain risks

This may be familiar for a lot of businesses these days especially in the wake of COVID-19: your supply chain gets disrupted due to “unforeseen circumstances”. It’s very much speculation but one wonders if the global supply chain challenges triggered by the pandemic might have been eased for companies that already had an AI-enabled supply chain management system in place.

For instance – an AI-driven software can quickly identify alternative suppliers and adjust logistics plans even during minute disruptions, ensuring minimal impact on your overall operations. This improves demand forecasting, optimizes logistics, and automates routine tasks.

And as above, historical data and real-time information is regularly analyzed to make accurate predictions, helping businesses adapt to changing market conditions and minimize any potential disruptions.

For example, Project44 leverages AI to enhance end-to-end visibility and predictability in global logistics operations.

Evolve with artificial intelligence workplace solutions

If you’re feeling apprehensive or skeptical about AI in the workplace, you likely don’t need to be. Every little challenge has its AI solution – be it in recruitment, supply chain, or market volatility.

You’ve heard of the quote: “improvise, adapt, and overcome”. Commonly credited to Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge, that mentality applies here as well. These are times that demand increased business agility (in other words, improvisation and adaptability) so that you can overcome challenges that come your way, be they old or new.

Some may see AI as a challenge to our society. That is fair. But in pure business terms, it can become an invaluable asset and a great empowerer. And it’ll only grow going forward as we move into this new frontier of technology.

The post The workplace of the future: How AI is evolving the working world appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. Write job descriptions

This may seem ridiculous to use a bot for – after all, you want to describe the job you need to be done, not just a generic job! But the reality is most job descriptions are terrible at describing the actual job.

Why? The people who write them (managers and recruiters) don’t actually do that actual job!

ChatGPT shouldn’t be copied as is, but it can give you a starting point. It may include some important things that you wouldn’t normally think to include. For instance, I asked ChatGPT to write a job description for an entry-level accounts receivable clerk and got this:

Job Title: Entry Level Accounts Payable Clerk

Job Summary: We are seeking an entry level accounts payable clerk to join our accounting department. The ideal candidate will be responsible for the timely and accurate processing of invoices and payments, ensuring compliance with company policies and procedures. This position will report directly to the Accounts Payable Supervisor and will work closely with other members of the accounting team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Receive and process invoices from vendors, ensuring accuracy and completeness of information
• Code and enter invoices into the accounting system
• Ensure timely and accurate processing of payments to vendors
• Resolve any invoice discrepancies or issues with vendors in a timely manner
• Reconcile vendor statements and resolve any outstanding balances or discrepancies
• Communicate with other departments to ensure accurate recording of expenses and proper authorization for payments
• Assist with month-end close activities, including preparing accruals and reconciling accounts
• Maintain accurate and complete records of all accounts payable transactions

Requirements:

• High school diploma or equivalent; some college coursework in accounting preferred
• Prior experience in accounts payable preferred but not required
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy
• Excellent organizational and time management skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and other accounting software
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced environment
• Willingness to learn and take on new responsibilities as needed

This is an entry level position with opportunities for growth and advancement within the accounting department. If you are a highly motivated individual with a passion for accounting and a desire to learn, we encourage you to apply.

Takeaway: ChatGPT is a starting point, not an ending point. It will not write everything perfectly for you, and you still must edit.

2. Help to summarize complex documents.

When you are trying to understand a document from the EEOC or a court case, ChatGPT can give you a good summary. For instance, I asked for an overview of the EEOC’s Draft Strategic Enforcement Plan as it relates to talent acquisition. It gave an excellent summary:

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed new guidelines, outlined in the Draft Strategic Enforcement Plan, could impact talent acquisition in several ways.

First, the plan prioritizes addressing issues such as systemic barriers to equal employment opportunities and discriminatory practices in the hiring process. This could lead to increased scrutiny of hiring practices and a focus on ensuring that they are non-discriminatory and fair.

Second, the plan emphasizes the protection of workers in industries that are rapidly changing or expanding, such as technology. Talent acquisition practices in these industries may need to be re-evaluated to ensure they are not discriminatory.

Finally, the plan also highlights the need to address emerging and developing issues in equal employment, such as discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Talent acquisition practices may need to be adapted to comply with these new protections and avoid potential legal action.

In summary, the EEOC’s proposed guidelines could impact talent acquisition by promoting non-discriminatory practices, protecting workers in rapidly changing industries, and addressing emerging issues in equal employment.

Great, right? But be careful. ChatGPT just makes stuff up if it doesn’t know.

For example, I asked it to give me a summary of this recent court case on employees’ reproductive rights. Here’s the response:

Certainly! Here is a brief summary of the court decision in question:

The court upheld a lower court ruling that the New York State law prohibiting the possession and sale of stun guns violates the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. The court found that stun guns are “bearable arms” that are commonly used for self-defense, and therefore are entitled to Second Amendment protection. The court also rejected the argument that stun guns are “unusual” weapons that fall outside the scope of the Second Amendment.

The decision has implications for New York State, as it may require the state to change its laws related to stun guns. However, the decision may also have broader implications for other states that have similar laws prohibiting the possession or sale of stun guns, as they too

You’ll notice it ends without a complete sentence. That’s because I stopped it because this has absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand. The case actually involves an employer who argued they could take adverse actions against an employee for their reproductive rights decisions. Not a thing to do with guns.

So, while it can be good to summarize things, much like a high school senior, it will just make stuff up if it doesn’t know. An AI bot needs to learn things, and a brand new court case hasn’t been around long enough for it to learn.

Takeaway: You can use ChatGPT to summarize things, but be careful and double-check! If it’s something you know nothing about, this is probably not the best place to start.

3. Helps neurodivergent people

Brenda Neckvatal, Human Resource Professional and e-Commerce Entrepreneur, has dyslexia. That hasn’t stopped her career one bit, and she’s even become a bestselling author. She’s found ChatGPT to be super helpful.

“As a dyslexic person, I find it difficult to accurately compose written text. AI can help me write more effectively by providing me with tools that can check my grammar, spelling, and syntax,” Brenda says.

“AI can also suggest words, phrases, and sentence structures that I may not have thought of, which can help me create clearer, more concise writing. Additionally, AI can help me find more appropriate resources for research, allowing for more accurate and informed writing. With AI, I can write more effectively and efficiently and with much more confidence.”

That’s not the only way someone who is neurodivergent can use this AI tool.

Members of Reddit’s /r/autism group discussed the benefits of ChatGPT for people with autism.

Here are some excerpts from that discussion:

“Being a learning language model, the software can help with just about anything, and I know many people have found it great with assignments for high school/college, myself included.”

“But I have been using it more recently like it is a small neurotypical brain in my phone. Not only can I run social scenarios through ChatGPT, but it’ll talk with [me] about my special interests for hours without getting bored.”

“The software has continually provided great advice on tricky social situations, reminders, and positive reinforcement in my day-to-day activities. It can even give you encouragement/motivational messages.”

“Maybe it’s the technology nerd in me, but I love ChatGPT, it’s free and I don’t think it’s being discussed how helpful this software is for people on the spectrum.”

That’s a massive benefit for HR and employees alike.

Takeaway: Think of it as a translator. ChatGPT can help you write out things you’re uncomfortable with.

4. Personal assistants

Every HR person would love a personal assistant, but what company has the budget for that?

Director of People Support Robert Jumalon said he uses ChatGPT as a personal assistant. The tool figured out how to set up e-signatures and gave instructions for his existing systems, gave step-by-step instructions for filing a legal complaint, and other things. Jumalon is just starting to use it and is excited about it.

But could there be more? Combining ChatGPT with a bit of Python programming can take over a wide variety of tasks that a personal assistant would originally be able to do.

According to Artificial Intelligence in Plain English contributor “Ordinary Programmer”, here are a few of things it could do for you.

• Scheduling appointments and setting reminders
• Answering questions and providing information on a wide range of topics
• Finding and booking travel arrangements
• Making recommendations on books, movies, and other forms of entertainment
• Helping manage finances, such as tracking expenses and budgeting

You say that’s all fine and good, but you don’t know Python, and again, there’s no budget. Well, he also gives the instructions.

Think of the benefits of a recruiter using AI to schedule appointments! That alone could save hours of tedious work, putting the recruiter’s skills to better uses.

Takeaway: Don’t limit yourself. See what ChatGPT can do for you!

5. Helps you be more creative

Creativity is hard work. Anybody who tells you otherwise is probably not very creative, and HR people are often called on to find creative solutions to problems. Brainstorming, list making, and figuring out how to handle a problem employee are all things ChatGPT can help you with. I asked it about icebreakers for HR people and got this response:

Sure, here are a few icebreakers that HR professionals might find useful:

• Two Truths and a Lie: Have each person share two true statements about themselves and one false statement. The others in the group must guess which statement is false.
• Name Game: Have everyone introduce themselves and share one interesting fact about themselves that begins with the same letter as their first name.
• Group Juggle: Have everyone stand in a circle and toss a ball or object to each other. Each time someone catches the object, they must say the name of the person they are throwing it to. After everyone has caught the object once, add a second object and repeat the process.
• Personal Scavenger Hunt: Create a list of characteristics or experiences, such as “Has traveled to more than five countries” or “Has a pet.” Have everyone circulate and try to find someone who matches each characteristic.
• Speed Networking: Set up a series of two-minute conversations where each person has the opportunity to introduce themselves and share their professional interests.

Remember, the goal of an icebreaker is to help people get to know each other and feel more comfortable, so be sure to choose activities that are appropriate for the group and the setting.

If you’re stuck and out of ideas, ask it a question:

What are five ways to help a new employee who doesn’t seem to fit in?

It can be challenging for a new employee who doesn’t seem to fit in, but here are five ways to help them feel more comfortable and welcome:

• Assign a Buddy or Mentor: Pair the new employee with a buddy or mentor who can show them the ropes, answer questions, and introduce them to other colleagues. This can help the new employee feel less isolated and more connected to the team.
• Set Clear Expectations: Make sure the new employee knows what is expected of them in terms of their job duties, goals, and company culture. This can help them feel more confident and less uncertain about their role.
• Provide Feedback: Regularly check in with the new employee to provide feedback on their performance, progress, and any areas for improvement. This can help them feel supported and motivated to succeed.
• Encourage Social Interaction: Create opportunities for the new employee to interact with other team members, such as group lunches or team-building activities. This can help them form relationships and feel more included.
• Be Patient and Understanding: Recognize that it can take time for a new employee to adjust to a new job and workplace. Be patient and understanding, and offer support and encouragement as they navigate the transition.

Overall, the key is to be proactive in helping the new employee feel welcome and supported, and to create a positive and inclusive work environment for all team members.

This type of brainstorming can help you get started when you’re stuck. And it can make things fun as well.

Obviously, this is far more exciting than a regular company picnic invitation. (Note to Workable employees – I just made this up. It’s not an actual event!).

I entered this as a prompt: “Please write a poem in the style of Dr. Seuss inviting the employees at Workable to a summer picnic. It will be held at 12 p.m. on June 7, 2023 at Boston Common. Partners and children are invited. No pets, though.”

This was the result:

Oh, Workable team, listen up, do!

We have a picnic planned just for you!

On June 7th, at noon on the dot,

We’ll gather at Boston Commons, a perfect spot!

Bring your partners and bring your kids,

We want everyone to come and have some fun, we insist!

But leave your pets at home, oh please,

For safety’s sake and everyone’s ease.

We’ll have food and games galore,

And plenty of chances to chat and explore.

So mark your calendars, don’t delay,

And let us know if you’ll be joining us that day!

We can’t wait to see you there,

With your picnic blankets and your flair!

We’ll make some memories that’ll last,

And have a blast, blast, blast!

So come one, come all, and let’s unite,

For a Workable picnic that’ll be just right!

Takeaway: Let ChatGPT help you get those creative juices flowing! It can make a huge difference.

There are a million other things that it can do, and we’re just learning the beginnings. Just remember, ChatGPT is not perfect, and it is biased. (You are too, but it has a problem recognizing its own bias.) It’s a tool, not the solution to everything. It definitely doesn’t replace humans, and it sometimes lacks good sense. But give it a try!

The post What can ChatGPT do for HR? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge

The solution

• Opening and hiring for a new international office
• Finding and hiring employees who have a passion for solving vision impairment
• Identifying candidates with experience in eye care
• Lack of standardized hiring process, leading to costly inefficiencies and redundancies

• Hire in Pakistan using localized job boards
• Use Workable Referrals to encourage employees to refer like-minded talent
• Source candidates via AI Recruiter that have the exact expertise IrisVision is looking for
• Establish a single-truth system for all recruiters and hiring managers
• Implement a cost-effective hiring solution

According to the WHO, visual impairment is reported as a serious eye health hazard prevalent across the globe. As of 2012, 285 million people were visually impaired worldwide, with 12 million in the United States alone.

For some folks, poor sight may just be a slight inconvenience that is easily catered to with prescription glasses. However, most people who suffer from low vision barely see enough to make it through the day on their own. IrisVision built a team of medical experts and tech workers who together helped materialize the idea of an all-in-one low-vision solution, the IrisVision Electronic Glasses.

This was a challenging feat – not only did this call for employees who share IrisVision’s values of creating a more inclusive world for the visually challenged and legally blind, it also called for a skill set that met the company’s operational and growth needs.

Coupled with plans to expand to international markets, the need for reliable and scalable hiring software became crucial to the success of the company. An unstructured talent acquisition method and time-consuming hiring procedures required a powerful solution.

Instead of manually searching for qualified individuals across several networking sites, IrisVision needed a tool that would help streamline the entire hiring process, from attracting top-tier talent to onboarding the selected few – minus the hassle of maintaining the candidate pipeline or manually looking for candidates who fit the job role.

IrisVision’s vision now in sight

When IrisVision signed up with Workable, it gradually overcame the above talent acquisition challenges. First off, Workable’s automated hiring process simplified the tracking of the candidates’ pipeline – including those who had applied for multiple positions.

“The referral feature on Workable was a game-changer for us. It really helped us make the most of our company’s existing resources as more people poured in!”, said Khayyam Jafri, IrisVision’s Content Marketing Manager.

Workable’s AI sourcing tool was also valuable for IrisVision’s users, enabling members of the hiring team to look up suitable candidates and find those who best fit the job description. This helped IrisVision get the best hires possible, ensuring better employee performance and greater job success in the long run.

Optimization is the way

Another core value of IrisVision is customer satisfaction, which it believes to be at the very heart of the company’s success. Its ultimate goal is to help visually impaired people regain their vision and their independence in daily life.

Because of this, the company requires capable and highly skilled low-vision coaches who can help customers get acquainted with IrisVision glasses, personally guiding and training them to make the best use of IrisVision’s breakthrough technology.

Again, Workable’s software proved to be invaluable, with IrisVision onboarding a number of key low-vision coaches and ensuring a top-quality user experience for customers.

“Workable deserves the credit for equipping us with comprehensive recruitment features that smoothed out the process of searching, identifying, and onboarding new talent,” said Khayyam. “Alongside many others, Workable helped us onboard one of our most talented team players in Brian Murphey, who was appointed as the Director of Sales with 18 years of experience in the eye care and ophthalmic products space.”

And it has a great ROI

Workable became IrisVision’s preferred choice because it offered a cost-effective solution to their recruitment needs. AI-powered sourcing, along with other popular recruiting and HR tools, was a one-of-a-kind package in its price range that turned out to be crucial in making IrisVision’s HR processes even more efficient.

IrisVision is set out to build a team of visionaries to improve eye healthcare and transform thousands of lives, and Workable is supporting IrisVision in achieving this every day.

The post IrisVision grows a team of visionaries with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is an ATS integration?

ATS integrations allow you to connect your applicant tracking system (ATS) to other apps in order to create a seamless expansion of the tools, features, and functionality that help streamline the workflow associated with talent acquisition and onboarding.

What are the benefits of adding ATS integrations?

Applicant tracking systems allow you to manage the hiring process from start to finish — reducing time-to-hire and improving the experience for everyone involved. ATS integrations take all of the benefits automation has to offer to the next level, resulting in a software solution that can do the following:

Speed up the candidate application process

From automatically publishing job postings to providing tools that allow your team to quickly review resumes and provide feedback, the right ATS integrations add more efficiency to the application phase of the hiring process.

Promote better candidate engagement

Using automation for data entry, interview scheduling, updating social media, and to set up triggers for actionable next-step tasks improves accuracy and enhances communication with potential job seekers.

Increase hiring credibility among candidates

ATS integrations can help enrich the profiles of applicants, making it easier for stakeholders to review and share information to identify the most qualified candidates quickly.

Accelerate the onboarding process

Integrating a human resource management system (HRIS) to your ATS adds efficiency to the onboarding process by streamlining steps like background checks and drug screening processes.

Help the newly hired get started faster

ATS integrations help empower your new hire by providing the access, tools, and permissions to support success on their first day and beyond.

Maximize productivity and reduce time-to-hire

Using an integrated solution to handle time-consuming administrative tasks supports hiring managers by allowing them to focus their efforts and experience on more important aspects of the recruiting process, like identifying and engaging with top talent to improve the candidate experience.

Common ATS integration examples

The most helpful ATS integrations for your team are largely dependent on your workflow, but consider the following possibilities:

Business communication platforms

Integrating your ATS with a business communication platform like Slack creates one central conversational hub that makes it easier for members of the hiring team to review and discuss resumes, share feedback about candidate interviews, and offer updates on the timeline and decision-making aspects of hiring.

eSignature platforms

Expedite the act of signing on the dotted line with an eSignature integration like Docusign. Automate the action of generating an offer letter and collecting signatures to execute contracts with more ease and efficiency for everyone involved.

Background check platforms

Complete the hiring process with confidence by integrating a background check platform like Checkr to automatically conduct background checks on your new hire.

An ATS integration makes it easier to automate this part of the process; just set up a workflow that initiates a background check once a signed offer letter is received.

ITSM tools

Integrating your ATS with an ITSM tool like ServiceNow helps transform the many steps of the onboarding process into a seamless experience. Create a workflow that initiates actions to set your new hire up with the software and equipment necessary for their workday.

Need integration ideas?

ATS integrations enhance your recruitment software, which ultimately optimizes your entire hiring process. Maximize productivity, attract and attain top talent, and eliminate the challenges associated with talent acquisition by finding the perfect tools for your team.

Workable partners with the most popular companies in HR and can help make your hiring process as smooth as possible. Click now to try our free trial.

The post ATS integrations: the benefits and examples appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Consequently, to stay relevant and apace with increased competition for new hires, recruiters and hiring managers need to possess sharp talent acquisition skills and have a robust recruitment tech stack to capture the best talent for the position. Recruitment guru Josh Bersin emphasizes the evolution of recruitment and how this is an opportunity for recruiters to really step up their game.

One big step in the right direction is purchasing an ATS and other technologies to support that. If it’s your first time investing in recruitment software, ensure you have the following capabilities in your recruitment tech stack:

1. Employee referral program
2. Chatbots
3. Candidate texting
4. Email automation
5. Social media automation
6. Talent network
7. Virtual recruiting events
8. Job postings
9. Content management system
10. Candidate relationship management

1. Employee referral program

An automated employee referral program helps in creating a solid company culture by building high-performing teams. It reduces the hiring process and costs and, at the same time, getting more high-value future employees.

Most recruitment marketing softwares have built-in employee referral programs. Job openings are automatically sent to the employees’ email addresses with the job description and the ‘refer’ button to submit the referred candidate.

Some of the automation rules or processes you can create with your referral program include:

• Monitoring where the referred candidate is in the hiring cycle and send updates to the referrer.
• Linking your ATS to your payroll system, so referral fees go straight into your employee’s salary.
• Measuring the success of your employee referral program – i.e. number of shares via email or social, number of referred candidates, number of successful hires and the quality of those hires.

Check out our complete guide to employee referrals.

2. Chatbots

Chatbots are a form of AI used in messaging applications. They are automated programs that interact with web visitors like a human would do.

In recruitment, chatbots can help increase your engagement with candidates, hasten the recruitment process, reach out to more candidates, and provide quick answers to their questions.

Chatbots can be the first point of contact after the candidate submits his resume. They can be tasked to contact candidates to explain the overall application procedure.

Chatbots can also gather contact information, answer applicants’ initial questions and schedule interviews. More advanced capabilities include ranking and scoring candidates, enabling recruiters to remove unsuitable candidates for the specific role.

Incorporating chatbots eliminates the HR team’s repetitive tasks so they can focus on more critical activities. In addition, chatbots are easy to scale and can keep the hiring process progressing fast, even when you are inundated with candidates for an open role.

3. Candidate texting

With candidate texting technology, recruiters can send job openings right to candidate’s phones. It is a big help for recruiters, especially during seasonal or bulk hiring or in sectors with a large component of deskless workers and high turnover such as in hospitality or food services.

Plus, with a 98% open rate for SMS and text messages, it’s a great communication tool with assurance that your message will get through.

Recruiters can reach thousands of job seekers quickly with customized text messages. Textbots can automate screening, so the process continues. Since these texts are integrated into the recruiting software, data is collected automatically so interviewers and hiring managers can evaluate whether to pursue a candidate or not.

Another feature is automated intelligent interview scheduling. Texting makes it easier for candidates to reply and confirm interview schedules. Scheduling changes or unexpected cancellations can be communicated instantly.

The automated messages help answer common application questions quickly on the candidate’s side, empowering them to screen and move ahead or out of the recruiting process quickly.

If they’re hired, automated text-based communications will help facilitate the candidate’s onboarding process and provide a seamless candidate experience.

Read more on candidate texting best practices and texting strategies for different scenarios.

4. Email automation

Automated email sendouts allow personalization at scale and can recommend ideal content for every candidate.

Despite being around for some time, HR teams can still capitalize on this marketing strategy to communicate with targeted candidates regularly and stay on top of their minds.

Email marketing automation comes with templates and sequences to save time and resources when reaching out to candidates to introduce the company, announce current job openings, send follow-ups, send alerts for future vacancies, etc.

Once the candidate is hired, you can send an email on the first day of work explaining the onboarding process and setting expectations. The hiring manager can then send a follow-up in six weeks to check how things are going and maybe schedule a call or a lunch.

And then again, if they’re on a fixed contract, emails can be scheduled at a determined later time if they’re reaching the end of their contract and looking for their next opportunity.

5. Social media automation

Social media automation enables recruiters to distribute jobs across Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels. They can set logic-based rules around which vacancies should be sent to which social networks, the date they should be posted and taken down, based on the performance of specific jobs.

Social job distribution can also broaden the demographics of the target job seekers – a must for any DEI-minded employer – enabling recruiters to broaden the candidate pool by reaching out to media-savvy social applicants.

Recruiters can also compose and edit new content via mobile devices while on the go. This ability to work remotely provides flexibility to deliver other content like blogs, industry updates, company news, etc.

The benefit of using social automation tools ensures that recruitment messaging is consistent across Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and other social channels. It also helps you find qualified candidates easily, and add them to your list of potential hires in the future.

Check out our FAQ guide on social media recruitment strategies.

6. Talent network management

You can automate your talent network by adding a form to provide an alternative for candidates to opt in if they don’t complete the application. Having CTAs scattered across your site and content can capture those all-important passive candidates.

Once the candidate opts in, you can set up rules in your recruitment marketing platform to segment talent based on preferences, interests, and skills. You can send preference emails asking the types of content they want to receive and the types of roles they are interested in, and record email opens and links clicked.

To set up your automation, you need to understand and build your target candidate personas and the type of information they are searching for. Then, create a messaging sequence for their journey.

The more targeted your messaging, content, and job you send to your talent network, the better candidate experience you can deliver and possibly, outbid your competitors for those star candidates.

7. Virtual recruiting events

Virtual recruiting events allow HR to expand and diversify the talent pipeline by reaching to them anytime, anywhere. It can also improve your diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

With this software, you can build your events page that allows you to handle interviews and registrations. For career expos, as an example, candidates undergo a screening process set with pre-qualifying questions. They are scored and matched directly towards jobs and recruiters for engagement.

VRE software provides a better candidate experience and avoids wasting each other’s time if they do not match.

Other features include the ability to promote events across social media, manage on-site attendees, capture leads and resumes, and build employer brand by emailing invitations, post-event surveys, and other campaigns for ongoing candidate engagement.

Some virtual events you can adapt to suit your staffing objectives: career expos, professional development events, educational workshops, info sessions, hackathons and creative challenges, theme-based panels or presentations, virtual presentations, and much more.

8. Job postings

A good recruitment marketing platform allows you to automate the process of writing (with pre-defined job description templates) and posting jobs on various free and paid job boards and social media networks within a single platform.

You can also manage your media budget and inventory and even facilitate the use of programmatic job advertising to optimize advertising spend.

Check out our Ultimate Guide to Job Posting.

9. Content management system

Today’s candidates search employers the same way consumers find products and services.

To stand out in the crowd, organizations must build unique candidate experiences through employer brand content and recruitment marketing strategies to attract the right talent. This is called inbound recruiting, as emphasized by Hubspot:To perform inbound recruitment, you need a CMS.

With a CMS (Content Management System), you can quickly and easily create and update content, optimize your job listing and share vacancies on social media, to name a few. You can also integrate your applicant tracking system (ATS) and configure your content to be searchable on search engines.

10. Candidate relationship management

CRM (Candidate Relationship Management) helps you nurture relationships with passive candidates.
With the right CRM, you can:

• Track candidate’s journey during the application process
• Easily build and segment talent pools and cascade targeted communication to the right job seeker at the right time
• Update all your ATS information so you can target the best applicants for open roles
• Automatically track and measure your campaigns’ performance and results to improve future marketing strategies

Your hiring tech stack matters

Talent acquisition is poised to evolve post-pandemic and beyond as recruitment platforms become savvier and more sophisticated, largely due to AI and emerging technologies.

Hence, it would be best to keep abreast of the latest developments in recruitment automation software to stay ahead of competitors in the high-stakes talent game.

Gem Siocon is a digital marketer and freelance content writer at Recruiter Copywriter. She specializes in recruitment marketing and employer branding, helping staffing agencies and recruiters for over 10 years. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post Your recruitment automation tech stack: 10 must-haves appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The post Zinger Property enhances their inclusive hiring process with Workable Video Interviews appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

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. 

The post 11 efficiency-boosting releases from Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The hardest thing you’ve not been told

The Series A crunch may be tough but the talent crunch is brutal. We talk to high-growth startups every day and we keep hearing versions of “compared to recruiting, fundraising was easy”. Just like fundraising, it’s very competitive. It takes time, preparation and selling, and getting it wrong can slow down or kill your startup. It’s the hardest thing to get right. It doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

You need to be a hiring obsessive

Whether it’s two founders talking to an angel investor, a team of 10 making something from nothing, or a high-growth company with 50 staff, team quality is the single best predictor of success. If you can get great people then everything else becomes so much easier.

Growth hacks versus talent hacks

Silicon Valley has figured out how to build great products and turn them into successful business models. Methodologies have emerged like Lean Startup, agile product development and growth hacking. They function as roadmaps for the non-experts and inspire conversation and innovation in those fields. In comparison hiring practices have remained in the dark ages.

Getting from 5 to 50 and beyond

Your first five hires pretty much picked themselves but in getting from 5 to 50 you will need the best tools and analytics, and you will need to be systematic. It’s about more than ping pong tables and bicycle racks. We’ve spent the time to curate the best thinking on everything from employer branding and headhunting to every step in the interview process, whether you’re building a distributed team or you’ve got an office. We’ve thrown in ideas, tricks, talent hacks and real life examples from great companies. The result is this startup hiring guide that offers some structure when hiring for rapid growth from 5 to 50. It’s a starting point. And my aim is to get all of us to talk about hiring.

1. Building an attractive company: Employer branding
2. Always be hiring: developing a hiring process
3. How to write job descriptions
4. What to look for: Hiring for a startup
5. Sourcing 101: Passive candidates
6. Creating an interview process
7. Workplace benefits and compensation
8. Recruiting software and tools
9. Where to post your jobs

1. Building an attractive company: employer branding

Smart companies typically operate in competitive talent markets. This means that the people you’re looking for are likely to be juggling several job offers. Competing for outstanding candidates with the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter might seem like a losing proposition but it’s not.

It can be done but, first, you have to realize that hiring is marketing. We live in what’s called the “age of transparency”. It has never been easier for employees to be able to tell who you are or what working with you would be like. Digital platforms mean that even the youngest companies can affordably showcase why they’re an exciting place to work. There’s more to social media hiring than just tweeting your jobs. Everything you do or say on social media is building your brand.

PRO TIP: Intercom’s blog is a great example of doing marketing and employer branding at the same time.

You’re speaking to two audiences: Customers & talent

In the early days, the way you market your product and the way you think about the problems you’re solving, says a lot about the kind of company that you’re about to build. If you become known for doing interesting things for your customers, you will attract talented and ambitious people. Smart people want to solve interesting problems. They’re not looking for a job, they’re looking for a mission. Smart people want to work with smart people.

Your presence in communities, your reputation, your contribution and ideas represent you. Use blogging, social media and public conversations to keep speaking to your ideal future hires. Signpost your involvement in events and your own content to make it easy for people to find out what you stand for and why you matter.

PRO TIP: Buffer’s focus on transparency led to their Open Salaries initiative which has created huge buzz and awareness of them.

Who the hell are you?

In the beginning were the founders. The early hires in startups don’t have a company reputation to buy into, so usually they’re taking a gamble on joining the founders in their big initiative. When you’re in the early phase, it’s the personal brand of the founders that’s going to be the strongest component. Simple steps like having an engaging personal blog can project why you’re worth working for and what you’re trying to do. Let prospective candidates get to know you.

Even in the early days of a company your employees become your brand and signal what kind of people work there. Chances are you’ve hired people who reflect your company’s brand and values well. Showcase your employees on your website and empower them to talk confidently about your business. Employees attending meetups and events, sharing a video of their home working environment, or just speaking with genuine passion about their jobs are a powerful marketing tool.

Hire people who can build teams

Good people know good people. Hire people who are already networked and know much of the talent you’ll be needing. When you can, go for people with a personal brand. This is also a signal to future hires. Remember, some of your best people will be high-potential junior hires who will grow with the startup. So, always look for those who can nurture and grow your young talent.

PRO TIP: FullContact’s paid-paid vacation initiative offers holiday bonuses to staff who go completely off the grid. Everyone needs to from time to time.

Live in the real world

Don’t just be digital. You’re going to be employing people after all and they congregate at events and around offline communities too. Be an active participant in these ecosystems. An event sponsorship or even a few beers can go a long way. Even as remote work becomes more of a standard in 2020 and beyond, human interaction is highly valued and appreciated.

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2. Always be hiring: developing a hiring process

Networks are king

Ask any startup where most of their hires came from or ask bigger companies where their best people came from and the answer is usually the same: friends, friends of friends or ex-colleagues. It’s all about networks for one simple reason: good people know good people. Part of being a good CEO is building a great network with quality and reach. There are no shortcuts here, it’s real work. The better your network is, the easier your next hire is going to be.

If you don’t know the right person you will at least know someone who does. Remember quality as well as quantity. It’s not just about having thousands of LinkedIn connections (although it can’t hurt). Are you working hard enough to be an authentic member of the community where your talent pool is? If your tech is built with Ruby are you taking part in the relevant meetups and hackathons? Are your developers known for their thought leadership and contribution in your sphere?

Hiring is everyone’s job, especially sourcing

Just as you look for candidates through networks, the best candidates are looking for their next job in the same way. Word of mouth matters. The best recommendation you’re going to get will be when someone you’d like to hire is told by a friend of theirs who is already on your team that your startup is great place to work. If your team is proud of where they work they’ll tell their friends.

What happens when your own network runs out? Keep trying. There will always be someone you haven’t told that you’re hiring. You can go further, take the time to sit with your employees one by one and go through their online networks (LinkedIn is a good example). You’ll find good people and you can get your colleagues to message them then and there. This is a time-consuming process but worth it.

There’s tremendous value in referred employees in the form of greater job satisfaction, higher retention rates, quicker applicant-to-hire conversion – all metrics that ultimately reduce the cost of recruitment, especially when hiring for rapid growth.

PRO TIP: Set up a formal employee referral program in your company, with incentives for your current colleagues. You can even gamify the process to further motivate employees to refer people in their networks.

Get out of your bubble

Your own network can only extend so far and the chances are your colleagues’ networks have a lot of overlap with yours. Plus, there’s the potential for bias – as the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. If you’re hiring friends of friends or former colleagues of existing employees, that’s a potential trap in homogenizing your workforce. Get out of that bubble and speak to new people, ask for introductions from your own network so you can start tapping into adjacent ones.

Learn how a tech sales VP established gender balance in her team in a male-dominated field, by looking outside of the usual candidate resources.

PRO TIP: Sending your developers to the best conferences is a sure fire way to grow your network, as well as encouraging them to spread the word through their online networks where they live and play.

How to do social the right way

If you’ve done most things right so far you’ll start with an audience. This means you have something to bootstrap your social media recruiting effort to. Using social for hiring isn’t just about tweeting jobs and getting your colleagues to retweet. The companies who are most successful at social hiring have built up a relevant audience and target their tweets to influential people in their community. Not all retweets were born equal — you want to be talked about in context. You want influential people in your field talking you up as an authority.

PRO TIP: Netflix put their culture presentation online:

[slideshare id=36216034&doc=netflixorganizationalculture-131001173045-phpapp02-140623172442-phpapp01]

That open presentation promoting Netflix’s Culture of Excellence went viral – clearly boosting their employer brand and reputation.

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3. How to write job descriptions

Don’t go with the flow

Job descriptions could and should sweep candidates off their feet. But all too often, we’re content to lean on the old-fashioned and generic with the result that most job ads are mediocre. We’re guessing you don’t want to be average. You’re not one of those guys looking for superheroes who is too lazy to craft a job description that might actually attract them.

PRO TIP: The first time we came across Medium’s careers page was in Lou Hoffman’s article: The best job descriptions on the planet. Enough said.

Love at first sight

We all know that applicants like to scan. They want to look at an opening and be able to recognize in the blink of an eye if it’s their dream job. Like all busy people they have a thousand things competing for their attention; especially the passive candidates for whom you’re trawling. Make every job description seductive. Start with the job title, keeping in mind that most job boards work like search engines, therefore candidates use keywords to search for jobs.

The about-the-company part

This is your chance to make a good first impression, so start thinking about the distinctive characteristics that make your company special. The type of job description you publish is closely related to who you are as an employer. Give them a glimpse of your company that will charm them into coming to working for you.

PRO TIP: Check out some of our favorite job ads from the Workable job board – each of which can fit different needs in your business.

Candidates need to be able to relate to job descriptions on a personal level. Tell them a story about your company that will make them sit back and picture themselves working with you. Start with an educated guess, with something simple, ask for feedback and then optimize. Ask employees why they enjoy working for your startup. If you have a marketing department lean on them for some content marketing advice. Hiring for rapid growth should not to be done in isolation – it’s a team effort. You’ll need to put in some extra effort but it will pay off.

The about-the-job part

You know that if you go with the flow then your job descriptions will be deathly dull but you’re tempted to do so anyway. Because that’s the way everybody is doing it. But it won’t help your company stand out, it will just add to the mountain of identical job descriptions that grows larger every day.

How are job seekers (let alone the precious, passive ones) supposed to spot that you’re offering a dream gig when it looks like a machine wrote your job description? It’s not necessarily because they’re not well-written, it’s because they’re presented as if they were not written by or for a human being. Do everyone a favor and stick to the important stuff. There are tons of job descriptions out there listing every tiny little task a future employee might perform. That’s not the point.

It’s all about clarity

Start writing job descriptions that build businesses. They will attract the best talent and convert prospects into candidates. How?

• Sell your company and their future in it in an engaging fashion
• Get rid of the boring corporate tone
• Keep it chatty and friendly
• Use words that evoke feelings
• Make them aspire and then act on that desire
• Use “you” or “we’; drop the passive voice

To up the ante you can also add a list of people the future hire will get to work with on a regular basis.

The about-the-requirements part

We’ve covered the basics in our “There’s a difference between what you want and what you need” blog post. If you’ve used Workable, you may have noticed the must-haves and nice-to-haves requirements. Why did we add this feature? To make sure that candidates won’t get excluded from the hiring process just because they clicked “NO” on a secondary skill that is unlikely to be pivotal. Think about what skills would make sense, adding to the equation the fact that they are individuals and not miracle workers. Must-have requirements are the bare minimum: the can’t-live-without list. Nice-to-have requirements are the extras: they belong on the we-can-live-without list.

Jobseekers also have a hierarchy of needs that you need to keep in mind as you craft the perfect job ad. In fact, if Maslow were alive today, here’s what he might think about your job ads.

PRO TIP: Worth looking at KinHR. They might not have a careers page at the moment but this sales job description rocks.

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4. What to look for: Hiring for rapid-growth startups

Punch above your weight

A startup literally is its team in the beginning. These are the people who will signal your ambition and set your limits. So, go for the people you think you can’t get. You’ll be surprised and once you’ve got the first few heroes it will become a lot easier to attract more of them. This is not a luxury. It seems obvious to punch above your weight but a successful startup will continually shift up the weight categories. If you don’t get these people you’ll get stuck.

Hire deliberately

You’re not hiring to fill a job, you’re building a company. Make the first 20 hires deliberately with the future in mind. Don’t hire people just because they’re good in general and available. These kinds of opportunistic or bad hires early on in a startup’s life can sink you. The cost of a pointless hire can be astronomical. That’s money that most startups cannot afford to waste. Beyond the cost of getting it wrong, your first few hires will set the tone for the future. Getting it right will make something that’s intrinsically hard a lot easier.

PRO TIP: Avoid hiring a candidate who badmouths their previous employers and coworkers.

Hire for potential

A successful startup will quickly outgrow everyone’s current skills and roles. If things work out as intended it’s going to grow and morph unpredictably. So will the demands on your employees. One of the most exhausting aspects of startups is this constant evolution, or as some founders call it “keeping up with their own company”. While it can be fairly simple to assess a candidate’s current skills rating their potential is less so.

Look for people coming into their professional prime. The past is a good guide, so take into account lifetime achievements whether they’re jobs, schools or hobbies. With few exceptions, smart, decisive and hard working people usually manage to go to a great school and do well in exams they care about. Look for high achievers.

PRO TIP: Include pre-interview assignments in the hiring process. Those who bother to go the extra mile will prevail.

The culture fit

This can be hard to pin down but it’s almost always important. It has its roots in the unfashionable word “congruence” — the fit between personality and organization. It means that you need to assess people on their behavior, mentality and match to the values of your organization.

PRO TIP: Valve’s Employee Handbook (the production quality, akin to what you would expect from their best marketing material) tells you a lot about who they are and how important this is for them.

But there’s one simple rule: never hire people with a bad attitude. It only takes one to poison an otherwise stellar team. That little problem you noticed in an interview will be magnified one-hundred fold by six months of hard work in a small team. Don’t overlook it. Go for people with an opinion, people who can honestly explain what they like and dislike. The kind of people who believe in missions, values and visions. They care. Those are the people who will be telling the truth when they assure you that they believe in your startup’s vision.

Hire for attitude, train for skills

You have to like a candidate before you hire them. This sounds highly subjective and unfair to them, especially when the context is strictly professional. However, someone’s ability to blend into your team, get along with you on a daily basis and build up some emotional reserves for tough times will ultimately determine their performance.

Malcolm Gladwell and Tim Ferriss can argue all they want about what and how fast a human being can learn but the truth is that certain human traits can’t be acquired beyond a certain stage in life. Focus on the fundamentals: intelligence, personality, diligence. Instead of testing for specific knowledge, check how a prospect reacts when you ask them to do something they haven’t worked on before.

PRO TIP: Carry out behavioral interviews, in addition to the standard ones. Always have a good store of questions.

Look for things you can’t train

You can teach financial management or how to interpret Google Analytics reports, but it’s probably too late to instil manners, ethics or numeracy. Skills and experience are worthless when not put to use. Knowledge is useless when not shared with others. The smaller your business, the more likely you are to be an expert in your field, so transferring those skills to new employees is relatively easy. But you can’t train enthusiasm or a solid work ethic.

According to a LeadershipIQ study, only 11% of the new hires that failed in the first 18 months did so because of deficiencies in technical skills. The majority failed due to lack of motivation, an unwillingness to be coached, or problems with temperament and emotional intelligence.

PRO TIP: Always ask for references. Poor players struggle to provide solid and believable references.

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5. Sourcing 101: Passive candidates

Build a profile

Most people don’t know how to fish for talent that’s not looking for a hook. These elusive prospects are known as passive candidates. Sourcing is the process of finding people who are not overtly looking for a job. Your starting point is to know what you’re pursuing and as much as possible about where you’re likely to find it. Think about what the ideal person looks like. What experience do they need to have? What kind of job are they doing now? Which companies must have good people doing this job? Start building a profile. The key to sourcing is figuring out what you’re pursuing and where it lives.

What is sourcing?

Mature companies: You’re looking for established companies doing a great job at what you’re looking for (eg. selling to SMEs, content marketing). You’re looking for people trained by the best, whose options have vested, who are ready to move on to a new exciting gig.

Vulnerable companies: Startups are volatile. When a company experiences a shakeup, there’s a window of opportunity. Signs to look for include the departure of a leadership figure; ventures which have gone 18 months with no follow-up funding or rumors of layoffs. You’re looking for drift and discontent where the talent works so mine the industry reports (Crunchbase, Mattermark, CBInsights, Owler) and listen to the gossip.

Events: Where do the best people on your shortlist hang out? Think about what kind of events they attend and make sure you’re there – be they virtual gatherings or in person. These settings give you the chance to meet people who you may want to approach in the future. When the time comes you will have less cold calling to do.

Universities: The very best talent are only truly unemployed once in their life: right out of college. Universities have structures that help you identify this top echelon. They’re at careers fairs, on internship programmes, or even doing work experience that contributes course credits.

PRO TIP: Look for companies 6-12 months after a seed funding without followup.

Make a shortlist and lean in

Now that we know what to search for, all these sourcing tools (LinkedIn, TalentBin, GitHub, Sourcing.io, and of course, Workable) actually become useful. Start browsing profiles and make a long-list of prospects. Prioritize people who you can reach out to through your extended network. If you can’t get an intro, then see if you can engage them on social media (Twitter) or engineer a chance meeting.

PRO TIP: Attend startup community meetups, design conventions or hackathons.

A courtship doesn’t begin with leaning in, it starts with people getting to know each other. If you do this well the prospect will have already gotten to know you before the conversation turns to a job offer. These are people you may not hire today, or even one year from now. They may also be the key to introducing you to your best hires in the future.

External recruiters

This is where you turn when you’re short on time or confidence to follow the steps above. They can be a fantastic shortcut. It might look simple but there are a couple of things to bear in mind. Look out for recruiters who have hired for small companies before and have a track record of placement in the role you’re looking for. Most startups use contingent recruiters whom you pay only when they deliver someone you hire (typically one-third of the hire’s annual salary).

The upside is that you only pay for what you get. The downside is that your aim and the recruiter’s aim are not the same. You want to hire great people. They want you to hire someone. This subtle difference can lose you time dealing with uninspiring candidates.

PRO TIP: Pay your recruiter more than they ask for. They’ll think twice before referring the next high-quality candidate to another competitor or well-funded company.

A nod to ethics

You need to be competitive but you also live in a community. Employee poaching can backfire on you, especially when you’re just starting out. Getting the balance right can be as simple as being mindful of basic good manners.

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6. Creating an interview process

One of the biggest mistakes made when hiring for rapid growth in a startup is to think that just because you’re small you don’t need a process. If you think “process” means doing things slowly, think again. Get the right tools, remember to hire as a team and you will stay on track. The selection process is a funnel – you get a lot of applicants, you speak with some of them, you meet a few of them, you hire the one you like best. An efficient filtering process will save you and your candidates time.

Pre-interview questions

This all starts with the pre-interview questions, the questions you ask a candidate when they apply that will help you decide whether to progress with an applicant. Make sure candidates can sensibly weigh themselves against the requirements. Do you know anyone who will say “no” to the requirement “must be hard working”? Neither do we.

PRO TIP: Get candidates to do an assignment or task related to the job as part of the pre-interview.

Pre-interview questions can only get you so far. They weed out the most inappropriate candidates and give you an insight beyond a basic resume. However, a major factor in your hiring decision will be how well a candidate will fit in with your business. It’s personal and you need to get to know the candidates.

Screening assignments / testing

Ever walked in to an interview and known within 30 seconds that the candidate you’re meeting is never going to work out? Sure, most people have been there. The worst thing is that it wastes your time. You can’t just stop the interview after half a minute so you go through the routine and waste an hour of your time. It doesn’t have to be that way. An initial phone call, Skype screening conversation, or asynchronous video interviews will prevent that scenario nine times out of 10. Resumes, pre-screening questions, screens, interviews – we use these techniques to use past performance as an indicator of future success.

But what if you want to better understand how candidates will actually perform in the job you’re hiring them for? One way of finding out is to get candidates to do an assignment or task related to the job – in other words, a skills assessment. Hiring for a customer support associate? Test candidates by getting them to answer some hypothetical customer queries. If you are hiring developers, there are online tools like Codility which can put developers through their paces so you can see exactly how they code.

Interviews

Have a plan. Don’t just ask the same questions over and over. Take the time to know who you are meeting before you walk in. Not just their name and not just the job title of the role they’re interviewing for. Get to know them a little, check their resume and note some questions in advance.

Interviews shouldn’t slavishly follow a script. There are probably some standard questions you want to ask all candidates, such as whether they’re eligible to work in your territory. But these are just hygiene questions – you have to go further. Ask open questions that encourage a discussion, engage with the candidates’ responses and consider follow up questions you want to ask. If it’s boring, it’s not working. There’s nothing worse than the candidate feeling like the interviewer hasn’t read their resume and is just going through the motions: “Tell me about this job, now this job, and now this job…” No one gets much out of this kind of interview.

Interviews work both ways

When you leave an interview you should have a much better understanding of the candidate’s credentials and suitability. Equally, they should leave knowing a lot more about the role and the company. If you’ve screened your shortlist properly then everyone you interview should be a real contender – which means it’s worth selling to candidates in interviews. Chances are you’re going to offer them below market rate if you’re an early stage startup. Generally people don’t like getting paid less so you’d better give them a good reason to be excited.

PRO TIP: Note down personalized questions for candidates before the interview but don’t stick slavishly to the script.

Take a deep breath

If you have a nagging feeling that something isn’t right when you’re making an offer, don’t rush. Take your time to identify where that uneasiness comes from. Talk it through with a colleague. Don’t be afraid to ask a candidate to come for another meeting. Chances are if you have a concern, the candidate will be feeling the same and a quick conversation will iron out any problems. In the long term a bit of caution will pay off.

When you’re hiring for a function where you have little or no personal experience, it can be very hard to assess resumes or know what to ask during interviews. You might want to consider bringing in some outside help. This doesn’t need to be paid help, it could just be a friend or ex-colleague who can help you out with the skills-based aspects of the hiring process.

Keep it challenging

This is where you set the bar and show your rigour and ambition. A challenging interview process is a signal to candidates that your company doesn’t do average. This doesn’t have to mean a drawn-out 15-phase interview – even Google is moving away from the huge number of interviews they put candidates through – but you absolutely should establish a thoughtful pipeline that gives the candidate an opportunity to prove their mettle.

PRO TIP: Level the playing field by posing customer support queries for a tool most people are familiar with or can access easily e.g. Facebook.

Taking references

Not everyone believes references from previous employers are useful way in determining future performance. Candidates are unlikely to provide a reference whom they expect to say negative things about them. And many people don’t want to talk badly about someone so even if your candidate was terrible in a past job their reference won’t tell you.

This is not a reason to ignore references. It’s a reason to work harder at getting them right. Get more references. Successful entrepreneur-turned-VC Mark Suster recommends getting at least five, including people the candidate didn’t propose. If we assume people are smart enough to gather good references, ask yourself: “Are they glowing?” If not, why not? Ask candidates why they chose the referees they did.

PRO TIP: Get at least 5 references and make sure some of them come from people the candidate hasn’t put forward. Read this.

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7. Workplace benefits and compensation

You can’t pay for groceries with equity

You’re not going to compete on salary with Google and Facebook but you need to get survival out of mind. Even your earliest hires ‐ and that includes you, the founder ‐ will need to pay bills. Some startups go to extremes, trying to make their runway last longer. Don’t build your runway on the backs of an exhausted and underpaid team. You objective is not to delay the next round but to get to it in the best possible shape. Here’s a few things you can do to achieve the right balance.

The power of perks

You’re not going to have the swankiest offices but you can make them reflect why people came to work for you. You don’t need a big budget to create a friendly, informal and energetic work space. Our environment helps to shape our mindset and reminds us who we are. Spend the time to make it attractive to your team, even if you can’t initially spend much money. There are many ways to make your company an attractive place to work – even if you’re in an “unsexy” location.

PRO TIP: Buffer’s emphasis on transparency led to their Open Salaries initiative, which has created huge buzz and awareness of them.

Perks are powerful and cost effective. When you take into account tax and deductions a $10 lunch is worth more to your employee than $10 on their salary. But it’s about more than a free lunch. Taking care of peoples’ needs makes them feel taken care of. This pays off handsomely in productivity and morale.

That shouldn’t mean that you neglect traditional benefits. Before you start on the ping pong tables and games consoles make sure everyone has access to health insurance. When people know the basics like health are covered they’re more prepared to live leaner when it comes to salaries.

Compensating risk

Equity compensates risk. It is a form of deferred reward. When deciding whether to join your startup a prospect is looking at what they could earn at market rates for their skills over the same time period and balancing it against a potential future return that should be several multiples of the income they lost out on. It’s mathematics.

All early employees should have a significant amount of equity. This ensures their sense of ownership and mission. A properly structured stock option is also a commitment on the part of the employee. Equity grants usually vest over a period of three to four years and there’s a “cliff period” (typically one year) before a new employee earns their first tranche of shares.

This way, you’re not giving your company away. Instead, you’re binding the core team to your mission for long enough to make meaningful progress. With that in mind, don’t wait till the best people are restless. The best companies also give retention equity packages to fully vested employees. You need to think about this, before your star performers do.

How to research market rates, equity standards

Knowing the going rate for salaries and equity is notoriously difficult. A good place to get a benchmark is AngelList (for startup equity and salaries) or Glassdoor (for market rates). Make sure to compare yourself to similar companies. For each hire, check what’s on offer for jobs they could take so you know what their other options look like.

Especially when it comes to equity, it’s always better to err on the generous side. Rather than being hung up over a 0.1% more or less, think about whether this employee will improve your chance of success by that amount. A good hire will make it worth your while.

PRO TIP: Wealthfront’s Startup Compensation Tool is one of many benchmarks you can use.

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8. Recruiting software and tools

You need tools

We consider an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to be the centerpiece of any effective toolkit – especially when hiring for rapid growth. This is why we built one from scratch and obviously consider it to be the best of its kind. When choosing an ATS, ask yourself how well it integrates with other tools that you’ll need. A good one will integrate or at least play nicely with most of the software we recommend below.

Even then, it helps to know which ones are tops in the market. We’ve compiled for you the 12 best applicant tracking systems to help inform your decision on purchasing an ATS.

Sourcing and referral platforms

TalentBin, Sourcing.io, 3Sourcing and Gild are people aggregators with searchable, often pre-evaluated or classified profiles of people. Professional networks or communities like LinkedIn, GitHub, Dribble, AngelList are good places to do manual sourcing. Zao is one of the best referral platforms we came across. It’s made based on best practices, optimizes matches across all companies’ open jobs, has a gamification layer making it fun to participate and allows extended referrals. Another one to consider is RolePoint.

Online interview systems

Interviewing has gone video and this lets you record video questions, invite candidates to submit their responses so you can review them. Set time limits for responses, pause to take notes, tick the ones that are a perfect match, share if you’re not sure to take a second opinion. Workable’s Video Interviews can set you up for success here – particularly if you’re hiring for rapid growth in a short period of time and need to establish a standardized screening process with minimal breakdown.

Assessment tools

Codility is a niche, engineers-only, database. These guys are loaded with millions of engineers — active and passive. Considering the gap between demand and supply then this app is a treasure trove of prospects and a pretty straightforward tool to use if tech job boards aren’t cutting it. You can browse and filter data, collaborate with your team and do social recruiting too.

Smarterer have revolutionized skills assessment. Just give them 10 questions, 2 minutes and voila! you get a quantified skill. It’s basically a skills testing app but different. All of its test content is crowdsourced from the individuals who take the tests.

SHL has ability and personality tests if you need to test for critical qualities. They only offer science-based assessments and benchmark data.

Weirdly has your cultural fit riddle all figured out. It’s a four-step culture assessing recruitment tool. Define your desired cultural profile, publish the vacancy, watch candidates complete the quiz and select the right kind of weird.

Onboarding & talent management

KinHR is probably the best when it comes to onboarding new hires in a comprehensive and thoughtful way. The new employee signs in and reads about the company and the team they’re going to work with and what tasks they should start working on.

Zenefits is good for payroll and benefits management.

The shift to remote work also means onboarding remotely – such that you’re bringing people on board without them having met anyone on the team in person. Learn some tips and tricks of successful remote onboarding for you and your company.

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9. Where to post your jobs

You know exactly what you’re looking for so what’s your next step? Plaster your ad over every job board out there, right? Wrong. It pays off in time and money to do a little homework. Consider these questions:

• Where does the rest of your industry (in your city or country) post jobs?
• Did you get enough qualified candidates the last time you hit publish on XYZ job board? Did you get any candidates at all?
• Did you get too many candidates, maybe?
• Ask people who already have this type of job, where they first saw it?
• Visit alexa.com to see how popular the job board you are considering is.
• Find out where the audience you want to reach hangs out online
• Study the other job postings on that XYZ job board where you’re thinking of publishing your opening

The job board forest

To facilitate the job board selection process, we brought together a handy list of the top ones (below).

Horizontal

LinkedIn is the leader due to its three-way nature; professional social network/headhunting tool/job board – the biggest of its kind with 760 million members. It enables you to search profiles, pay to post jobs and more besides. With LinkedIn InMail, you can even contact candidates directly.

Indeed is the premier job site globally with 250 million regular visitors. You can post all types of jobs, sponsor the ones from your careers page, pay per click and search resumes.

Craigslist is the site for classifieds. Doesn’t match the traditional job board criteria, is famous for its no-frills user interface but beats everyone for inbound traffic.

Monster is one of the oldest job boards that keeps expanding worldwide. It’s a bit expensive in some countries (unless you post through Workable), has a lot of traffic and loads of resumes and free content.

Careerbuilder operates in the US, Europe, Canada and Asia. CareerBuilder is used by 80 million job applicants and has three million job postings per month.

Stepstone is one of the most successful job boards in Europe.

Beyond automatically distributes postings to niche sites and talent communities based on specific criteria. What’s in it for you? Targeted exposure and more relevant applications.

Tech

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. If you’re looking for developers, it’s the place to go.

Dice is also a leader in the tech job boards industry. It has a cross-posting network and minimizes unqualified clutter due to its niche nature, with a database of more than nine million members.

Github Jobs taps into developers and engineers by being the place they hang out. Good place to trawl for passive candidates – especially with 50 million developers checking in regularly.

Creative

Behance is where some of the top brands post their creative jobs. It’s also the place where professionals showcase their work enabling you to take a sneak peek before you decide.

Dribbble gives you access to designers’ portfolios and profiles. Workable’s designers are really fond of it. Plus you can post your jobs and connect with top talent.

Authentic Jobs introduces recruiters to creative professionals. Simple and efficient.

Remote & flexible jobs

We Work Remotely is the job board without borders allowing you to narrow down talent without it having to be in the same location as you.

Upwork is free and for freelancers only. If you’re looking for one, check out their well-rounded freelancers’ database.

Flexjobs is free and effective when it comes to flexible jobs job posting. Only applies if you’re in search of part-time, telecommute or freelance employees.

Startups

AngelList ‐ you probably already know it if you’re a startup. 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. On top of that, it’s free!

Startuply is a free job listing site aimed mainly at small startups, which find it rather difficult to attract engineering talent. Startups can create a detailed company profile to give prospect candidates a sense of what it’d be like working for them. You should definitely give it a shot.

StartUpHire lists hundreds of jobs, but only for venture capital backed companies. It also comes at zero cost and has a widget that enables you to automatically add your open positions to your website

The Muse lets job seekers look behind the curtains of great companies. You can “showcase the heart and soul of your company” in 500 words, videos and photos and then display your job openings.

The post The Startup Hiring Guide: Hiring for rapid growth from 5 to 50 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.

As you’re managing through one of the most stressful years for HR & talent teams, we know the last headache you want is to deal with is switching your ATS. But, with Workable, there’s a way to switch quickly and easily.

In this webinar, we’ll show how you’ll still have the same great Google integrations, and can do even more with us than you could before. And if you decide to switch, we’re offering free data migration for Google Hire users, plus you’ll also get our new remote screening tool, Video Interviews, free to use for 3 months.

If you’d prefer a personalized demo, request one here.

In just 60-minutes, this webinar will help you:

• Discover everything you can do with the Workable hiring software, and how it compares to Google Hire
• Gain insight into why hundreds of Google Hire users made the switch to Workable
• Get answers to all of your Google Hire & Workable related questions (we’ll leave plenty of time for you to ask)

The post Why companies move from Google Hire to Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Headquartered in Dubai, GCC operates in countries ranging from Iraq to Indonesia to Australia. Over the past two decades, they’ve established a strong reputation for excellence in their facilities management, providing top-caliber service in kitchen and dining solutions including staffing, facilities, maintenance, and much more. In response to COVID-19, in partnership with Workable, GCC transitioned onsite interviews to virtual interviews when hiring for their global workforce. 

As Roda Collado, Recruitment & HR Operations Lead emphasized, they were already familiar with some video interview technologies when candidates were overseas, but in-country interviews needed to be quickly reestablished virtually.

“What changed is that even the in-country interviews are done either through internet web conferencing or over the phone.”

As the company responded to urgent employee needs and abrupt changes in work-life balance, the corporate team worked to figure out how they’d continue to hire and meet the expectations of their partner companies in these uncertain times. As this was happening, Workable launched their native one-way video interviewing product and GCC jumped at the opportunity to try it out. During this difficult time, GCC started using video interviews right away without expending valuable time and resources learning how to use it. 

“I’ve received good feedback from our hiring managers – even the candidates themselves. I feel that it’s easy to use and that, [on] the recruiter’s side, it’s integrated into their profiles.” 

By eliminating the time-consuming and restrictive phone screen process, everyone on the hiring team could review the candidate profile in their own time, in a previously unachievable way. Instead of the recruiter conducting the phone screen on their own and sharing feedback with the rest of the hiring team, hiring managers got involved earlier and could more actively step in and provide insight on who they wanted to move forward.

There’s the consistency in terms of questions being asked, so the hiring manager, or the hiring team are able to compare one candidate [with another], based on a consistent set of questions.

Candidates were so pleased with the process that they went out of their way to tell the GCC team. Asynchronous video interviews made it easier to schedule (eliminating the need for back-and-forth email communication) and put candidates at ease, enabling them to conduct the interview on their own time and in their own space. This proved especially crucial in that first screening round, before either party had developed a relationship, and increased candidate interest. It also spoke to GCC’s ongoing emphasis on an inclusive hiring process. When Roda compared video interviews with phone screens, she felt that video interviews were less subjective and less prone to bias. 

Speed up your hiring process like GCC

GCC quickly implemented Video Interviews, and in turn actually sped up the hiring process, allowing hiring team members and other company people to focus more on working through this very unusual time while maintaining a high-quality hiring process across all locations.

The post GCC Services fosters a more inclusive hiring process with Workable Video Interviews 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.

Founded in 2014, Cytora tripled in size over the past 2.5 years, going from 20 employees to 60. Projecting rapid growth, their old ATS didn’t meet their needs. Struggling to get everyone on the same page and collaborate effectively, they started looking at other options. In Workable, Cytora found a partner who understands the importance of having the whole team on the same page. Cytora’s CFO Tom Coward discusses how Cytora keeps hiring data in one system with Workable Hiring Plan, doing away with disconnected spreadsheets.

“One of the things Workable does really well is that we have the requisition system in operation, so before any role gets started on, the requisition has to be approved.”

Achieving their hiring goals means they need everyone in sync, each with the same information at their disposal. Workable gives Cytora the ability to view a snapshot of what’s happening across the board, from the beginning in candidate sourcing through to scheduling interviews with self-scheduling options, to seeing where job offers stand and what obstacles could be holding up an offer. 

Additionally, Cytora wants and needs to look at their recruitment history and build on their learnings.  They want to see where everything currently stands and investigate reports in order to troubleshoot and improve their future hiring process. 

Says Ben O’Mahony, Director of Operations: “All the way through to working with hiring managers and the leadership team to really coordinate everyone’s feedback, comments and thoughts – Workable provides the reports that show really clearly which stages are holding things up.”

They’re looking at one of the UK’s fiercest talent markets, that of engineers in London. With Workable, they’re able to see who’s out there with auto-suggested candidates and their own queries with our People Search product. Also understanding the importance of referrals in the market, they take advantage of leveraging their employees’ networks by actively leveraging Workable’s Referrals feature.

Says Cytora’s Chief Product Officer Thomas Soulez: “It’s really difficult to find, not just engineers, but engineering roles like product, designers who have domain experience in insurance, but as well are invested to working at the kind of pace we’re working at.”

There’s no room to room to play around. When communicating with top candidates in London, those who are available get snapped up quickly. Cytora’s team understands that, and they’ve engaged the whole hiring team, keeping communication clear with two-way calendar sync allowing the team to access information no matter where they are. 

Courtney Wood, Talent Acquisition Manager, responds to that competition with a powerful toolkit to stay aligned with growth targets:

“We put such importance on moving quickly because we know how competitive it is out there. For good candidates, they have so many options. Being able to move quickly through the process, having the tools that enable us to do that is really important.”

With Workable, Cytora now has all hiring information in one centralized location. As the company grows and hires the best candidates in the UK, they’re moving forward with an inclusive hiring process and stellar candidate experience.

The post Cytora scales by 3X in 2.5 years, securing top talent for niche roles with Workable 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.

Almost overnight video has become essential to the way we work and hire. And while video interviewing is nothing new, asynchronous interviews, also called one-way video interviews, are becoming a key tool for hiring. More than just a short-term solution for a temporarily remote workforce, many talent & people teams are embracing video screening as the new normal.

In just sixty minutes, this webinar will help you:

• Develop a process to screen candidates at scale on your own time, from anywhere and any device
• Learn how structure effective one-way video interviews, from question input all the way to hiring manager collaboration
• Empower candidates to show their best self with a guided, thoughtful process (no download required!)

The post One-way video interviews: The new normal 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.

Salad and Go is a fast-growing, healthy fast food chain that’s been featured in Business Insider and Fast Company. Based in Arizona, their mission is to make healthy food accessible to everyone. As COVID-19 hit the United States, Salad and Go adopted Workable’s Video Interviews platform to screen candidates for 2 new restaurants in addition to the 16 they already have.

“We’re using the new 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,” says Brandi Hale, Salad and Go’s Head of People and Culture. 

“This [in-person interview] process is not possible for us right now due to the [COVID-19] crisis. This tool has helped us be more efficient during this time and get our jobs done. Thank you!”

The pivot to remote hiring was a seamless experience for Salad and Go. They quickly adopted Workable’s Video Interviews feature and the results were nearly immediate – they screened 50 candidates within two weeks. That works out to at least five screens per business day. 

Says Brandi: “Video Interviews helped us retain that personal contact we want to have always with anyone who’s applying to our organization.”

When the world goes back to normal, they’ll continue to use Video Interviews as it’s made their hiring process more efficient.

The post Salad and Go – now expanding – screens candidates remotely with Video Interviews appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Last month, over 4,500 people registered for the webinar “Going Remote: Best Practices for HR and Recruitment”. Hundreds of live audience questions poured in to be answered by leaders at fully remote working companies like InVision and Stack Overflow.

There wasn’t enough time to answer them all during the webinar, so the experts met again to tackle the most common ones. Watch this video to hear tactical advice from talent leaders and founders who have learned best practices through years of remote working.

Sample Questions:

• How do I prepare candidates for virtual interviews?
• How should I engage candidates during a hiring freeze?
• How can I empower managers to onboard and train new hires remotely?

You can also get answers to common questions around remote work in our FAQ guides:

• Remote Working FAQs
• Remote Hiring FAQs
• Remote Onboarding FAQs

The post Going Remote: FAQ Video appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

For many of us, working remotely is a whole new ballgame and hiring and on-boarding remotely feels straight out of left-field.

That’s why we turned to People Operations & Talent leaders from Stack Overflow, InVision and Smartbug Media. They explained everything we need to know about remote working, from hiring and on-boarding to managing your day-to-day tasks. With over 2,200 attendees and 250 questions from the audience, the panel was kind enough to meet again and answer your FAQs.

This webinar and FAQ session will help you:

• Adopt a virtual hiring process, without sacrificing candidate experience
• Onboard and welcome new employees in a fully remote setup
• Communicate and collaborate effectively and keep business moving with a newly remote workforce

You can also read the key takeaways of the webinar and our FAQ guides on remote work:

• Remote Working FAQs
• Remote Hiring FAQs
• Remote Onboarding FAQs

The post Going Remote: Best Practices for HR & Recruitment 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.

Getting ready for the video interview

From setting up your equipment to choosing the clothes you’ll be wearing, good preparation will let you focus on the most important part of your video interview; the candidate.

1. Get familiar with your video software

Maybe you’re already using a tool like Skype or Google Hangouts for quick video calls with your colleagues, or maybe this is all new to you. Perhaps, if your team is transitioning to fully or semi-remote work mode, you want to start using a tool with more functionality. Whatever the case is, spend some time exploring the software you’ll be using to interview candidates remotely. Learn how to add a link to the video interview invitation you’re sending to candidates and include some simple guidelines to help them join the call.

2. Prepare your “meeting room”

Whether you’re in the office, at a coworking space or your home, find a quiet and well-lit place to have your video interviews. Noises like phone rings and chats in the background can distract you and the candidates. It’s best to turn off notifications (e.g. Slack, email, your mobile) so that candidates have your full attention.

3. Test your equipment

Before every interview, have a soundcheck, microphone check and camera check. It’s useful to record a test video to ensure everything is working well. Use a headset, instead of your computer’s speakers and microphone, to avoid echoing and poor sound quality. Try to place the camera at eye level to have better contact with candidates. If needed, use a desk lamp behind the camera to lighten your face.

4. Stay alert for technical hiccups

Even if you’ve had video calls earlier in the day and have already checked your camera and mic, unexpected issues could arise at any moment. The same goes for your internet connection. If on a wifi network, move close to the router and check that other wifi users aren’t using too much bandwidth. It’s useful to have the candidate’s contact details handy in case you need to inform them about a delay. You should also have downloaded the software you’re using (e.g. Skype, Google Hangouts or Zoom) on your mobile, so that you’re able to quickly switch devices if needed.

5. Choose appropriate attire

A video interview is not any less important than an in-person interview. Dress as you would if you were having a candidate meet you in the office. Pick an outfit that won’t clash with, or blend into, the background of the video. Normally, white clothing is perceived as clean and polished. That definitely works for in-person interviews, but on camera, white is not a wise choice. It’ll appear brighter and may overpower your face. Instead, choose darker colors like navy and avoid bright colors and busy patterns, as they might not translate well on camera.

Conducting a video interview

Both interviewers and candidates might be less familiar with live video interviews, so here are some tips to conduct a successful interview when you don’t meet in-person:

1. Get candidates ready, too

Let’s face it: not every candidate will feel comfortable or even have prior experience with video interviews. And you don’t want them to drop out of the process because they feel intimidated by this part. Along with the technical guidelines, send some tips so that they know how to prepare themselves and what to expect. Even pointing them to resources that talk about video interview best practices will boost the candidate experience you’re offering.

2. Be more personable

While it sounds difficult – considering there’s a screen between you and the candidate – you can still add a human touch to your video interview. Start with some icebreaking and easy-to-answer questions and leave the toughest ones for later. Remember to look at the camera, smile and don’t hesitate to repeat something if you think the candidate hasn’t heard you. Interviews are often stressful for job seekers, let alone if they have to “speak” to a screen. The more relaxed you are, the smoother the process will go for them, as well.

3. Stick to the interview schedule

It’s easier to fall behind schedule when you conduct video interviews, especially when you’re at your home as opposed to a busy office. Create and test a timeline that will help you cover all the important topics within your scheduled time. Track how the interview is going but avoid checking your hand watch; use your computer’s timer that’s conveniently placed next to the camera. You could also schedule for a 10-minute Q&A session towards the end of the interview and suggest an email follow-up in case candidates have additional questions but you’re running out of time.

4. Coordinate with multiple interviewers

Often, for the sake of speeding things up, you’ll want different interviewers to meet with the same candidate in one day. When doing that virtually, make sure you’re all aligned. Create one event (e.g. on Hangouts), so that the candidate and all interviewers can join by following the same link. Everyone involved (including the candidate) should be aware of the timeline in advance, e.g. “9:00-9:20 meeting with the recruiter / 9:30-10:00 meeting with the Head of Design / 10:10-10:40 meeting with the Marketing Director”. This way, each interviewer will know exactly when to sign in and the previous one will know when it’s time to wrap things up and have a pleasant handoff. It’s best to schedule some breaks in between meetings so that candidates have time to get some water, use the restroom, etc.

Evaluating candidates

Ultimately, video interviews can speed up your hiring process, so long as you screen and assess candidates effectively. Here’s how:

1. Treat video interviews as regular, in-person interviews

In other words, don’t rush the process. Video interviews shouldn’t be done on the go; it’s your chance to ask questions that’ll get you closer to a hiring decision. Prepare your questions in advance and ask all candidates the same questions so you can compare their answers objectively.

2. Write down your feedback right away

When you meet candidates in person, you might enjoy an informal chat while you welcome them or walk them out of your offices, or you might interview them in different meeting rooms – these small things could make your interview more memorable. But with video interviews, it’s easier to mix candidates up particularly if you have back-to-back video interviews with different candidates. If possible, have two screens in front of you or practice switching quickly between different apps; this way, you’ll be able to see the candidate while also taking notes or checking their resume.

3. Don’t be harsh on candidates

Remember that not all candidates are familiar with video interviews. While a cluttered background or a poor lighting can be distracting, focus on what really matters. Take into account that some candidates might have roommates or live with family and don’t necessarily have a spare room where they can interview quietly. Also, when candidates are currently employed, they might take the interview in a parking lot or another seemingly unusual place. As long as they come prepared for the interview and show genuine interest in the role, let it pass. Those aren’t dealbreakers.

4. Help candidates shine

While it’s a non-traditional interviewing practice, consider sharing your questions with candidates beforehand. It’ll save you a lot of time because you won’t have to repeat questions for clarity. Also, you’ll ensure there’s no miscommunication and misevaluation if, for example, candidates give a poor answer because they didn’t hear the question properly. If you don’t want to share the exact questions, you can still describe the context of the interview, e.g. “We’ll talk about your assignment and your thought process around it” or “We’d like to discuss the role in detail and learn why you’d be a good fit”.

As with all kinds of interviews, the success of two-way video interviews rests in good preparation. Make sure all interviewers are equipped with proper resources, have some mock interviews if needed, and consider recording some of those tests to create your own video interview best practices. But don’t forget about candidates, too. Gather their feedback after a video interview and find out whether there’s anything you can improve next time.

The post Live video interviews: best practices for interviewers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge

The solution

• No reporting mechanisms to measure recruitment initiatives
• Time consuming candidate experience required to reflect their employer brand
• Hiring managers are full-time managers or chefs
• Fast-moving, competitive hiring market with a highly perishable candidate market
• High annual employee turnover

• Hiring managers who can recruit in one central location, with the option to use on- the-go mobile-optimized tech
• Analytics allowed for more strategic talent marketing spend, yielding higher volumes of candidates
• An increase in candidate volume opened up new ways of interviewing, including the introduction of group interviews, reducing the hours spent in one-on-one interviews
• Better candidate experience achieved through efficient screening and timely comms
• Data-driven hiring strategy resulting in a reduction in agency use and more accountability of job boards

The challenge: A competitive hiring market and precarious recruitment process

JOEY Restaurants brings casual, fine-dining to customers in Canada and the US. It’s a family-founded business with a reputation for providing iconic hospitality to its guests, and for unleashing the potential of its Partners (its 5000+ employees). But a high churn rate is a known challenge of the hospitality industry, with every year bringing almost 100% employee turnover. And JOEY was no exception.

On the back of its strong employer brand, JOEY’s regularly attracts high volumes of candidates to open roles. But its slow, impersonal candidate experience fell short of the company’s world class reputation for service and risked losing them the best talent. Talent they needed to keep delivering for their guests at the highest level.

“In our industry great candidates get snapped up quickly,” says JOEY’s Manager of Recruiting & Employment Brand, Kelsey Bleakney. “If you’re a good server, bartender or chef, you’ve got options. We know that.”

Recruitment across the group’s 39 restaurants is driven by hiring managers who are first and foremost: full-time managers or chefs, running multi-million dollar restaurants. Without a strategy or disposable time and resources, hiring was impromptu and often in a panic.

When it came to job posting, “there was a lot of posting and praying,” says Kelsey. “Our hiring managers couldn’t track where quality candidates were coming from and struggled to keep candidates organized, and ensure they were contacted in time. This ate up sponsorship dollars, lost us some good hires, and reflected badly on the business.”

The solution: Easy to use software, optimized for mobile

With her background in recruitment technology, Kelsey knew that the right hiring software was the answer. A web development company working with JOEY, recommended Workable for its fast deployment and easy integration. Another endorsement came from one of JOEY’s internal recruiters.

“We needed a system that wasn’t going to be a thorn in the side of our operators,” says Kelsey. “Someone on our team had used Workable before at a previous company and loved its user-friendly interface. We tried it out and immediately saw how easy it was to use.’

To provide a seamless, high-quality candidate experience, JOEY’s hiring managers needed the resources to hire on the go, in-store. Optimized for mobile, Workable had the solution.

“Most of our computers are deep down in a basement office next to the kitchen,” says Kelsey. “Using Workable’s mobile app, our restaurateurs can look at their phone as they’re checking sections. They can contact candidates with one click, pop the phone back in their pocket and continue on their floor.”

As well as streamlining day-to-day hiring, JOEY needed software to plan for the future.

“We had to be more strategic in our approach, informed by greater insights,” says Kelsey. “I wanted to maximize the right type of candidates into our process and convert them to hires. Workable has comprehensive and easy reporting capabilities, which were perfect for us.”

The outcome: More applications, faster screening and a new approach to interviews

Since moving to Workable, JOEY’s application volume has grown, and its approach to interviewing has changed as a result.

“We are moving in the direction from several one-on-one interviews scattered across the week, to one group interview,” says Kelsey. “Group interviews are efficient and a great way for people to shine in a crowd. But first, we needed the crowd. We weren’t getting the numbers before, but through Workable’s job boards we now are.”

With faster screening and more responsive, high-touch communication, candidate experience now matches brand expectations. Using Workable they can efficiently manage their growing “crowd” of candidates and book interviews at speed.

“Previously a candidate may not have been looked at in a week. Now, we’re checking every 24-48 hours with the goal of meeting all qualified applicants within 7 days.”

They’re also making labor (and cost) savings along the way, condensing interview hours into a more efficient block of time.

“Even a single tool like the email templates makes a big difference. It means we can rapid-fire invite people to next steps. Over a year, we will see incredible savings in terms of labor costs; so that’s time saved arranging interviews and on manual recruiting efforts.”

The future: Cost savings and data-driven hiring

Looking ahead, more efficiencies and savings are planned—using Workable.

“With the insights we can gather using Workable, we’re able to reduce our dependence on external recruitment agencies to just one or two specialty roles a year,” says Kelsey.

Better reporting and accountability of job boards means money is spent only where needed.

“From my dashboard I get a snapshot of each pipeline and can quickly see where we have enough applicants and where we don’t,” says Kelsey. “I can refocus resources where they most matter, improve our ROI and build better hiring strategies for the future.”

The post JOEY Restaurants reduces time to interview by 60% with Workable 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?

If you’re using video interviews later in the process, as well, make sure to include role-specific questions and questions that will help you determine whether candidates would be a good fit for your company culture.

For more video interview tips, have a look at these online interview questions and Skype interview questions. Here are also some sample video interview questions and answers specifically for remote employees.

2. How do I prepare myself for a video interview?

Besides having the proper video equipment (camera, mic, software, etc.), interviewers need to ensure that video calls go as smoothly as possible. Here are some tips to prepare yourself before a video interview with candidates:

For one-way video interviews:

• Test the recording and submission of videos yourself before sending invitations to candidates. Learn what kind of functionality you have (e.g. Is there an option to have a time frame within candidates can answer a question? Can candidates record as many takes as they want before their final submission?) and craft your questions accordingly.
• Decide how you’ll send your questions to candidates. Do you want to have them in writing so they can better prepare themselves? Do you want them to learn the questions as soon as they log in to the platform so that you can test their creativity and quick thinking? Or, do you want to send a video so that they get to “meet” you, too?
• Send candidates an email with detailed, yet simple, instructions. Or, consider calling them to explain the process. In any case, make sure that candidates know what’s expected of them and where to reach out in case they need some sort of assistance with the video platform. This way, you’ll add a human touch in the candidate experience.

For two-way video interviews:

• Right before each call, test your camera, microphone, and speakers. Even if you’ve used them before, unexpected issues could arise at any moment. It’s useful to have the candidate’s contact details handy in case you need to inform them about a delay.
• Pick a room that’s free of distractions. Good lighting, privacy and a de-cluttered background are also essential. Make sure to mute any notifications you have on your computer (e.g. email, Slack) so that you stay focused on your interview.
• Keep in mind that video interviews can be stressful for candidates considering they’re basically talking to a screen. Help them feel more comfortable by maintaining eye contact and showing that they have your full attention. For example, if you’re making video calls with your phone, it might seem you’re in a rush. Plus, the fact that when you’re holding your phone, the screen is not stable and could distract candidates.

3. What are some disadvantages of video interviews – and what can I do about them?

While video interviews can benefit your hiring process, you should also consider the following potential risks:

Poor evaluation due to technical difficulties

No matter how well-prepared you and the candidate are, something could always go wrong (e.g. poor connection or a temporary malfunction of the camera.) These technical issues can hinder the flow of conversation and may be stressful for candidates.

Tip: if you face technical difficulties during an interview, don’t be too harsh on candidates. Also, consider having a quick follow-up if you didn’t have the chance to discuss everything during your call.

Personality bias

While video interviews help you structure your hiring process, and therefore be more objective, they can also introduce new biases. Think of how interviewers can be influenced by a nice-sounding voice or a confident attitude. These characteristics may be job-related if we’re talking about a sales role or customer-facing position, but they could subconsciously (and wrongfully) be used as criteria for other roles, too.

Tip: Keep your evaluation strictly job-related. For each question you’re asking, be sure you know what you want to learn from candidates. Document your post-interview feedback to avoid being biased by non-important factors.

Lack of human interaction

This applies particularly to recorded interviews. Many people are stressed talking to other people, particularly if they don’t know them, let alone talking into a machine. One-way interviews could feel less humane, as candidates might never have the chance to actually speak to someone from your company (if they don’t pass this first hiring stage) and hiring managers don’t get to answer candidate questions and promote the company.

Tip: While recorded video interviews are a way to screen candidates effectively and quickly, don’t let this be your only interaction with them. Send thoughtful and personal emails to rejected candidates from an actual member of the hiring team, rather than from a generic ‘noreply@company.com’ address. This way, candidates will know that their application was actually evaluated by a human being and not through an automated system.

For more one-way video interview tips, read our blog on the pros and cons of on-demand video interviews.

Video interviews are by no means a hiring solution for every role and every industry. If you choose to implement them in your hiring, you need to think of how you’ll evaluate candidates and how you’ll overcome obstacles and biases.

In spite of that, though, video interviewing is part of an overall trend toward digital recruitment – and for good reason too. Upgraded HR tech stacks and new tools are here to optimize the hiring process, and make it more objective and more efficient. And video interviews, if integrated strategically and successfully into your existing hiring matrix, can help you build better, more motivated teams by making the right hires from the start.

The post The video interview: top tips for employers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

HackerRank makes evaluating and interviewing developers easier, faster and fairer. And it does this on a global scale. It has 1,500 customers, has assessed over 20% of the developer population and shared over 21 million coding challenges. Combine that with Workable’s own set of stats—20,000 customers across 100+ countries, 75 million candidates, 1 million hires–and you’ve got one powerful hiring machine.

“This was a natural partnership for us to make,” says Rob Long, Workable’s VP of Partnerships. “Like us, HackerRank serves companies looking for the best tech talent around the world, from smaller startups to enterprise companies. And, like Workable, it also supports the tech community by making it easier for top developers to find the right jobs. Working together, we’re vastly improving the interviewing experience, not just for recruiters but for candidates too.”

Supporting recruiters and the developing community

When it comes to evaluation, what you assess is important but how you do it matters too. Providing a positive candidate experience is more likely to turn your favorite candidate into your next great hire. The good news? Integrating HackerRank with Workable makes technical hiring seamless for everyone. Recruiters can source, assess and track candidates on a single platform, while candidates experience a clear, consistent and considered end-to-end experience.

“We’re on a mission to match every developer to the right role, and improving the actual recruiting workflow is central to our goal,” says Josh Zaroor, HackerRank’s Head of Business Development.

Our customers have long loved Workable and the data it provides them. With this integration, we’re meeting widespread customer demand, simplifying the hiring funnel for everyone involved and bringing HackerRank’s powerful tech hiring solutions to Workable customers everywhere.

Three major wins for Workable customers

What’s in it for you? Integrating your Workable account with HackerRank delivers three game-changing benefits:

1. Seamless evaluation: From viewing, selecting and sending tests to managing assessments, results and feedback recruiters can do everything without leaving Workable’s ATS.
2. Data confidence: Centralizing all candidate information into one single source of truth, recruiters have fast and easy access to the latest data and can see at a glance the status of each application.
3. Faster, fairer hiring: Objective skills assessments eliminate bias, while also efficiently filtering out unqualified candidates. Time saved interviewing weak candidates can be reinvested into product development.

Ready to integrate with HackerRank?

It only takes a few minutes to set up and use HackerRank with Workable. Once activated you can add any of your HackerRank assessments to relevant pipeline stages and send the test from a candidate’s profile. When a candidate completes an assessment the results will appear on their Timeline and you’ll be notified. Got a question? We’re here to provide more info whenever you need it—just get in touch.

The post Grow stronger engineering teams with HackerRank and Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge

The solution

• 200+ applicants per job
• 64 hiring managers using different hiring tools
• An informal, manual process (email + paper)
• Impossible to track or manage process

• Deploy Workable across all 24 locations
• Enable teams to use Workable on desktop or mobile
• Provide access to Workable’s 24/7, global support
• Streamlined process, specifically:
  • Faster candidate screening
  • Improved, trackable evaluation and collaboration
  • Automatic reporting

The challenge: Small budget, big hiring expectations

Every year, Lethbridge School District hires approximately 300 support staff and 140 teachers. A popular local employer with a strong employer brand, it attracts hundreds of applications for every post. Despite this, its hiring budget is low with no dedicated recruiters on the team. It’s the principals and vice principals, already busy with other commitments, who tackle the task of candidate screening.

Rik Jesse was appointed Associate Superintendent of Lethbridge in March 2017. His first mandate was to modernize the department, using technology to make things more efficient.

“We were managing our recruitment by email and on paper,” says Rik. “Although everyone tried to stick to a process, it was kind of like the Wild West. Everyone was doing something different.”

Without a defined process it was impossible for HR Director, Rhonda Aos, to have a clear overview of hiring across the organization.

“Our principals aren’t HR professionals,” says Rhonda. “Hiring is just one of many things they have to do throughout the day. But it was becoming all-consuming. So everyone looked for their own shortcuts. This made it impossible for me to track where we were in the process.”

The volume of applications and siloed approach to recruiting workflow added even more pressure.

“We get on average 200 applications for each post,” says Rhonda. “Our hiring managers had to wait for all of these to come in before sifting. This was so disruptive in terms of workflow.”

The solution: A flexible hiring process that works for everyone

Lethbridge needed to find the right HR tech to tame its wild approach to hiring. Rik and Rhonda looked at almost every ATS available. Only Workable met their brief.

“We wanted a platform that was easy to deploy with fast, personalized customer care and support. It also had to be user-friendly—something our hiring managers and principals could pick up and use quickly. Workable met all of these requirements. And more.”

The “more” included a tool with built-in checks and reminders, and the right pricing options.

“We have 64 hiring managers spread across 24 different sites. Some vendors charge per user. This didn’t work for us. Having flexible pricing plans was another reason for choosing Workable.”

The outcome: Integrated workflow, faster hiring

Since using Workable, Lethbridge has centralized its hiring process.

“Workable gave us the opportunity to revisit the importance of process with our hiring managers,” says Rhonda. “The Workable pipeline is now at the heart of our process.”

Sifting applications used to be an overwhelming, disruptive task for hiring managers. Now it fits seamlessly into their daily workflow.

“With 200+ applications for each post, the process from screening to offer used to take at least two weeks,” says Rhonda. “Now, it’s all done within a week.”

And Workable’s mobile app helps to engage the hiring teams.

“Our principals and hiring managers now screen applications as soon as they come in; whether that’s in the office on their desktop or out and about on their mobile,” says Rhonda.

The future: More sourcing and a richer hiring toolkit

The hiring market Lethbridge operates in is becoming more competitive.

“We’ve never had a problem recruiting people,” says Rik. “Applicants tend to come to us. But it is getting more and more difficult to attract qualified applicants.”

Using Workable, the team is making the shift towards more passive outreach, using product integrations to stand out from the competition and provide a richer experience for candidates.

“We’re very impressed with Workable’s integrations, particularly the video interviewing platforms,” says Rik.”We plan to start using Spark Hire very soon. And we’re excited about how People Search can help us identify and reach out to prospects for specialized roles. We can build a more proactive hiring strategy all from within Workable.”

The post Lethbridge School District reduces time to hire by 50% using Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge

The solution

• Chaotic approach to hiring leading to slow candidate-response time and sluggish pipelines
• No dedicated HR function or formal recruitment process in place
• Disconnected workflow with external agencies
• Emails and phone calls used to share feedback, interview details and hiring decisions resulting in a lack of transparency and poor tracking of information

• Streamline workflow with agency recruiters using external recruiter portal
• Engage all internal and external stakeholders through intuitive hiring software
• Pool talent for specialist roles using built-in candidate sourcing tools
• Use interview scheduling functionality to set up phone calls and interviews at speed
• Respond quickly to candidates and colleagues using mobile app
• Better organize hiring by using custom pipelines for different roles
• Communicate feedback faster and build a better candidate experience through comments functionality and collaborative tools

The challenge: No HR team and sluggish pipelines

InnoWell runs Project Synergy, a digital platform reforming access and availability of mental health care across Australia. It’s a joint venture, which means recruitment for the project is split. The University of Sydney hires research assistants and clinicians. InnoWell recruits for all other positions.

When the project launched, the Uni’s research team was already well-established. So, the pressure was InnoWell to hire the tech talent and business support required to develop the digital platform. But, without any recruitment process in place or a dedicated HR team, they were unable to move quickly to engage candidates.

“Our time to hire was too slow,” says Business Support Manager, Jenny McMaster. “I needed to streamline the process. I kept missing things because my inbox was full up with emails.”

The solution: Recruiting software with built-in candidate sourcing

They needed a digital solution that would enable them to get up and running quickly and start hiring, fast. A recommendation from their CTO lead them to demo Workable.

“Our initial contact at Workable did a great job with the demo,” says Jenny. “She took an interest in us and what we were doing. That gave us a really good feeling about our future working relationship with Workable.”

Fast implementation and migration of data meant they could start hiring almost immediately.

“The whole onboarding process was easy and quick,” says Jenny. “There was very little back and forth between ourselves and the implementation officer.”

Another big win for InnoWell was Workable’s built-in candidate sourcing functionality.

“With our remit for hiring specialized, tech talent, the other thing that impressed us about Workable was the fact that we could tap into a rich talent pool using built-in sourcing tools like People Search,” says Jenny. “So, essentially, we get an ATS and a far-reaching and targeted online candidate search engine rolled into one.”

They also needed a platform that would engage their active community of agency recruiters.

“Because of the type of technology roles we’re recruiting for we don’t use many job boards,” says Jenny. “Instead we rely on recruiters. We could quickly see how Workable’s external recruiter portal (with its intuitive design) and fine-grained access rights could support this.”

The outcome: A 15% reduction in time to hire

Since moving over to Workable, InnoWell’s reduced its time to hire by 15%. Time savings have been made in a number of different areas:

• Workflow with external recruiters is integrated and more streamlined.

“I’ve linked our recruiters up with Workable. And we’ve had incredible buy-in from all of them. They upload candidates straight into the system, which really has cut down on my time in terms of returning phone calls and emails.”

• They’ve also had positive buy-in within the company.

“Everyone can see Workable makes things more efficient,” says Jenny. “It reduces emails and phone calls and tracks everything too. Our tech team loves that it’s accessible on mobile.”

• Interview scheduling functionality has eliminated bottlenecks.

“I use the scheduling tools (calendar integrations and interview link) to set up initial phone calls and on-site interviews,” says Jenny. “We’re now progressing along the pipeline faster.”

• Using custom pipelines they can better organize hiring.

“We recruit for different roles; developers, designers, project officers and accountants,” says Jenny. “Using Workable, we can compartmentalize by creating pipelines for each of those jobs and having different people coming in as hiring managers at the different stages.”

• With the mobile app they can respond quickly to candidates and colleagues.

“I’m out and about a lot,” says Jenny. “So I love the mobile app, especially the Inbox function because I can reply quickly to comments and keep things moving along.”

• And they can collaborate more effectively on feedback and evaluation.

“Workable has empowered us to have really quick communication about candidates,” says Jenny. “Before, we’d have to hop on a call and send emails back and forth. Now it’s super quick to add and view comments and share post-interview feedback with candidates.”

The future: Reduced cost per hire through more sourcing and referrals

Using Workable and the power of its own company growth, InnoWell aims to reduce agency fees and increase employee referrals. Both of which will reduce its cost per hire.

“Bringing in more talent opens up our employee network,” says Jenny. “I’m excited to see how Workable can help us manage referrals. We want to make more use of the candidate sourcing tools too, instead of using agencies, because we know it will save us money.”

The post InnoWell reduces time to hire by 15% using Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge

The solution

• 150+ hiring managers using different hiring tools
• 50% of recruitment done using a manual process (emails + spreadsheets)
• An organization that’s hiring constantly
• Poor communication with external recruiters and candidates

• Deploy Workable across all 10 locations
• Provide access to Workable’s 24/7 global support
• Use structured workflows, pipelines, scorecards and templates to streamline and standardize process
• Collaborate and track communication using templates, 2-way email sync, candidate profiles and timeline
• Introduce integrations to enrich candidate experience
• All UK agency recruiters to submit and track candidates using Workable

The challenge: Different offices, different systems

IQPC is a sales-driven organisation—and hiring constantly. At any one time, they have approximately 80 open roles. But lacking the company-wide adoption of a single, effective recruiting tool, their approach to hiring was inconsistent. While 50% of offices used a legacy applicant tracking system (ATS), the rest struggled with separate hiring spreadsheets.

When Esther Smith became IQPC’s Global Head of People in 2017 her first goal was to centralize and standardize recruitment strategy. This meant switching from their current ATS, which had poor take-up and engagement, to a platform everyone would want to use.

“Our recruiters were using different functionality in different offices but no-one was using it as an end-to-end system”, she says. “This was usually because they found it too difficult, too complex. Everything we wanted to do required back-end intervention.”

The solution: Find a platform everyone wants to use

Most of IQPC’s hiring is done at line manager level. To make this work they needed a platform their 150+ hiring managers could use with little or no training. They looked at a range of systems, from basic packages to fully integrated Human Resource Management Systems (HRIS). Workable’s reputation for helping fast-growing, mid-sized businesses to scale up quickly led them to sign up for a free trial.

“The free trial allowed me to see how easy it was going to be for us to use,” says Esther.

With a planned roll-out to every office, and management-level users who are notoriously short on time, ease of use was vital.

“I wanted something that with just a few pointers and maybe a 20-minute demo people could just jump in and get on with,” says Esther.

“Our teams use LinkedIn and Facebook a lot. Workable’s interface was close to those social media sites in its positioning and I knew it would feel very natural to them.”

To meet IQPC’s full brief, the new system needed to balance manageable customization with tools that promoted consistency.

“I needed a platform that would standardize our disjointed approach to hiring. Workable made this easy through structured workflows and pipelines, scorecards, in-product best practice guides and templates.”

“With Workable you’ve got the option to customize when you choose but, unlike our legacy system, it’s not required to make the product work.”

The outcome: A better hiring experience for everyone

One year on, 446 new hires made, and everyone with a stake in recruitment at IQPC is using Workable. The dip-in dip-out approach that was so typical before has gone.

“Using Workable we’re getting value for money and a well-designed, quality product that people like and want to use,” says Esther.

Another big win was having access to integrations to build a smoother hiring experience.

“With Workable we can grow our HR technology footprint in an efficient, cost-effective way,” says Esther. “All of the partners we’re evaluating or using come through Workable. We’re currently rolling out Sapling for onboarding, and in the US we’re using Spark Hire for video interviewing. I’m also in the process of reviewing a trial with Drafted to boost referrals.”

Keeping track of communication with candidates was impossible using their old system. Now, everyone is up to speed and their candidate experience has been transformed.

“Before, I didn’t know if we were closing out candidates properly or if our communication chain with them was strong,” says Esther. “With the automated templates, 2-way email sync, candidate profiles and the timeline, we’ve been able to improve that experience a lot.”

That improved user experience also extends to IQPC’s network of external recruiters.

“Workable’s Agency tool offers external recruiters far more visibility than other ATS platforms,” says Esther. “It’s working so well that in the UK we only deal with agencies through Workable.”

The future: Building best practice

Day-to-day hiring aside, IQPC now also uses Workable to future-proof recruitment.

“Workable is constantly evolving the product to reflect new approaches to recruitment,” says Esther. ”Their GDPR support has given us a process to follow. It automates a lot of the GDPR requirements and saves time.

“With Workable we know we’ve got a platform we can grow with.”

The post IQPC switches to Workable and streamlines hiring across its global network appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge

The solution

• Globally dispersed teams of hiring managers
• Paper-based and telephone-heavy approach to recruitment
• Interviews taking place across different time zones
• Hiring admin stored in different places making it hard to find resumes
• Difficult to manage company-wide data protection compliance
• No record of candidate feedback—instant messenger used to share evaluation
• Top talent lost due to no applicant tracking

• Reduce screening time and keep candidates engaged with integrated assessments
• Reinforce ethos of brand using digital hiring technology to reduce environmental footprint
• Contact candidates at speed using bulk email function
• Use integrated calendar to arrange interviews across time zones
• Create a seamless candidate experience by linking to Workable-hosted careers page
• Maximize built-in sourcing tools to target talent for hard-to-fill roles
• Build convincing business cases using rich reporting data
• Free up team resources by giving hiring managers their own shortlisting tools

The challenge: Globally dispersed organization with no centralized system for hiring

Built on an open source philosophy, 140+ million educators use Moodle’s e-learning management system. Inspired by its mission to empower educators, it’s supported by a community of over 2 million. And there are 300+ developers who regularly contribute code. Buoyed by this, its core workforce has remained small. Until investment prompted change.

“Moodle was started in 2002 here in Perth and has generally operated on a small scale in terms of people,” says Holly Barnes, Head of People and Culture at Moodle. “But, with investment in place and the business growing, it was time to start hiring again. Over the past year Moodle has almost doubled in size.”

Recruitment focused on developing its support functions as well as its core development team. But, without a centralized system for managing hiring, it was losing out on talent.

“We were doing everything through email and the mix of different ATSs we had. We didn’t have one consistent place where our candidate info was stored,” says Holly. “Everything was all over the place. We missed things all the time. This lost us some great people.”

Scheduling interviews was also clunky.

“We’re a globally dispersed organization with team members—and candidates—dotted around the world,” says Holly. “Booking interviews across time zones took so much time.”

And, without an effective tool for collaboration, candidate feedback was often lost.

“We used an instant messaging tool to communicate across hiring teams, creating chat rooms for each role,” says Holly. “It was such an inconsistent system. Nothing was tracked, there was no record of what was said in an interview with notes written on hardcopy CVs, and it was also hard to refer to documents like CVs or assessments.”

The solution: More than applicant tracking

Innovative tech underpins Moodle’s business. So it knew that innovative tech was also the answer to its hiring challenges. But, with so many providers to choose from, why Workable?

“We researched lots of systems,” says Holly. “Workable stood out as the most intuitive platform. It also offered more than applicant tracking. We loved its built-in candidate sourcing tool, People Search; it meant we didn’t need to rely on LinkedIn Recruiter. The BambooHR integration and GDPR compliance tools were competitive features that helped win us over.”

The outcome: A hiring process that supports the company’s tech-focused brand

Increased digitization through Workable means Moodle’s hiring better reflects its brand.

“Recruitment’s progressed from being paper-based and telephone-heavy to almost entirely online. This matches our ethos as a digital, e-learning platform.”

Before Workable, progress through the hiring pipeline was not tracked. Which meant talent often slipped through the net. Now, it’s using integrated assessment tools to reduce screening time. They’re also able to keep great candidates engaged throughout the process.

“It’s much easier now to make quick, informed decisions about candidates,’ says Holly. “Interview scorecards, the thumbs up / thumbs down feature and the dashboard view mean we can evaluate with pace. We can push our best candidates along the funnel quickly. And use the bulk email tool to contact unsuccessful candidates in a timely and sensitive way.”

The interview process is faster.

“The Google calendar integration has saved us so much time arranging interviews across different time zones,” says Holly.

And applying for jobs more straightforward.

“We link to our Workable-hosted careers page when we’re advertising jobs on our social media accounts,” says Holly. “This reduces the steps it takes to apply for jobs. And it means our candidate experience is boosted from the outset.”

The future: New integrations, more sourcing and data-driven strategic planning

With greater transparency across its global hiring operation, there’s less pressure on the People and Culture team. Which means more scope for strategic planning and training.

“Hiring managers now do their own shortlisting. This frees us up to add value elsewhere,” says Holly. “We can focus more time on candidate sourcing, using Workable’s built-in tools to target hard-to-fill roles. And explore new integrations (like Zapier) to enrich our toolkit.”

Workable’s also helping them define targets around candidate care.

“By using Workable, we plan to set internal, service level agreements,” says Holly. “Our aim is to have a charter which commits us to getting back to candidates within a certain time.”

Presenting evidence-based proposals for talent-related projects is also easier.

“Having access to built-in reporting tools has helped us articulate a narrative for other business cases” says Holly. “This gives us greater power and credibility moving forward.”

The post Moodle makes more time for strategy and sourcing using Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge

The solution

• A small HR team
• Meet high employee retention targets by finding and hiring best-fit candidates
• Limited transparency across hiring teams; information shared by forwarding emails
• High candidate volume, but slow response to applications

• Easy-to-use software that requires little or no training
• Centralized dashboard offering a clear, quick overview of every pipeline
• One-click job board posting for faster hiring and greater exposure
• Built-in reports to guide strategy and reduce dependency on external agencies
• Customer support providing customized solutions to individual hiring challenges
• Webinars and resources to enrich in-house recruitment training
• GDPR features which make it easy to manage compliance

The challenge: Small HR team, big hiring expectations

One of the 10 fastest growing companies in the UK in 2017, digital brand Swoon makes design-led furniture affordable for everyone. With recruitment driving its business success, it works hard to retain talent once hired. Internships, entrepreneur programs, coaching and career mobility keep employees engaged, challenged and loyal. So, finding the right person in the first place is key.

“For us, it’s not only about employing people with the right skill set,” says HR Manager, Ruth Massey. “Attitude, personality and the right culture fit are also important. Each new hire has to be right for Swoon, but we also have to be right for them. We want to be sure we can support their unique ambitions and interests and keep them engaged and developed.”

A strong brand meant it had no trouble attracting high volumes of candidates. But, with a small HR team and no applicant tracking software, candidate experience suffered.

“We struggled to manage the applications,” says Ruth. “Responding to each candidate in a timely way was difficult. Transparency was also hard to achieve. Forwarding emails was our only real option. All of this added to the workload of our already busy hiring managers.”

The solution: Intuitive software that works for hiring managers as well as recruiters

The bulk of Swoon’s hands-on hiring is done by hiring managers.

“The big thing for Swoon was to find software that was user-friendly,”says Ruth. “The HR team here is small, so there isn’t the time to train each new hiring manager on how to use it.”

A free trial convinced them Workable was the right platform. Early feedback reinforced this.

“Since moving to Workable we’ve taken on a number of new hiring managers,” says Ruth. “It can be daunting if you’re new and have to hire immediately. But Workable takes the stress away. All of our hiring managers have fed back very positively. Everyone finds it really easy.”

The outcome: More efficient, cost-effective hiring

Before Workable, tracking recruitment across devolved hiring teams was a struggle. Now, the status of each open role can be assessed in seconds.

“I love the dashboard and pipeline view,” says Ruth. “I can see at a glance how recruitment’s going through all of the different roles. If I see that the applied number’s starting to get high for some positions, I can nudge the hiring manager to start reviewing applications.”

This transparency has also impacted time to hire.

“Having a full and clear overview of all applications means we can review them quicker, pushing candidates through to the different stages at pace,” says Ruth.

One-click job board posting’s made a difference to this too.

“As soon as I publish a job, I can post it to over 14 free job boards in seconds, as well as our own website,” says Ruth. “This speeds up hiring and boosts exposure.”

The momentum they’ve gained through Workable has improved candidate experience and, in turn, kept its employer brand strong.

“We get a lot of young, excited graduates applying,” says Ruth. “So it’s really important that we can get back to people in a timely manner. Workable’s bulk email tool is perfect for this.”

And, because they’re less reliant on agencies, there are also savings on cost-per-hire.

“Our use of external recruiters has reduced thanks to Workable. We now do much more of it in-house, because we can pull reports on where applicants are coming from and plan and implement our own hiring strategy. If we do use agencies, Workable’s access features are great for limiting what information they need to see.”

The future: Build a rich hiring toolkit to future-proof hiring

With day-to-day hiring admin automated and processes in place, Swoon’s better placed to work on its future strategy. With support from Workable.

“We were getting ready for GDPR and had a lot of archived roles,” says Ruth. “Without going into each one, I couldn’t see if there was any candidate data on there. So I reached out to my account manager on chat. In 2 days, they sent me a CSV file with job descriptions and candidate numbers. I kept the job descriptions, then did a mass delete of the data.”

It’s also building a richer recruiting toolkit.

“We join Workable’s webinars whenever we can,” says Ruth. “They give an insight into best practice; how to build an effective careers page, for example. It’s a great way of tapping into industry trends. We’ve even incorporated them into our online recruitment training. With Workable we’ve got more than just hiring tech, we’ve got a strategic resource.”

The post Swoon reduces agency use with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The post Setting a Hiring Strategy for High Growth appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Assessments

Indeed Assessments offers both ready-to-go and custom candidate assessments to help you see which candidates have the skills you need. Choose from an extensive library of over 50 expert-designed, pre-built assessments or build your own to suit your particular hiring goals.
Set up a free account.

Geektastic helps you quickly identify the top candidates for your development roles. Candidates’ coding challenges are reviewed by highly talented reviewers to identify the top 10-20% of your applicants.
Start your free trial.

Interview Mocha makes it easy to assess multiple skills. Its enterprise-ready assessment platform includes 1000+ skill and aptitude tests that help you verify if your candidate is a good fit for the role. Trusted by leading brands worldwide.
Schedule a demo.

MindX identifies candidates likely to be high performers at your organization. It joins gamification with data science and organizational psychology to deliver an engaging, scientific assessment of work-relevant cognitive traits.
Schedule a demo.

Qualified offers pre-made tests or the option to customize your own. Its coding assessments provide a wide range of software testing, ranging from CS algorithms to specific technologies and frameworks like Node.JS and Ruby on Rails.
Request a free trial.

RightHire‘s high-quality, free pre-hire assessment platform enables employers to assess the job-specific cognitive abilities and work personality characteristics of their job applicants.
Try it for free.

ThriveMap is a culture fit assessment that enables better hiring decisions by measuring how your candidates like to work and comparing it to your team culture. The best teams are diverse, so they measure the work environments people thrive in and not personality.
Try it free for 2 weeks.

Background checks

Trusted Employees makes background checks smart, safe and easy. For 20+ years, its FCRA-compliant background checks have helped businesses hire the right talent with the latest technology and rigorous data quality standards.
Get started now.

Job boards & candidate sourcing

co-hire offers a simple way for start-ups and technology companies to initiate meaningful conversations with active candidates for hard-to-fill roles.
Get started.

Coroflot is the largest and most active site specifically targeted for the hiring needs of design-led organizations. Companies already hiring through Coroflot range from local operations to multi-national industry leaders.
Find your next designer.

Google for Jobs, the job search aggregator, is available in more countries (including the US and the UK). Which means that jobs in supported regions can show on Google’s listings.
Get tips on increasing visibility.

Indeed Sponsored Jobs offers further metrics making it easier for customers with this integration to measure and share campaign ROI. Get the performance data you need to optimize your hiring.
Sponsor a job.

Jobbatical helps you reach an exclusive database of talent ready to relocate to your company. A solution for cross-border hiring, it provides access to an exclusive database of business, tech and creative professionals.
Schedule a demo.

Jobbio enables companies to attract best-fit talent to its roles through smart advertising and content placement across an extensive partner network and careers marketplace.
Register now.

Jobsite is an award-winning UK job board and jobs-by-email service. Specializing in matching skilled professionals with high-level roles, it connects 7 million candidates to over 120,000 jobs across 35 industries every month.
Connect your account.

Jobs on Facebook provides a centralized jobs dashboard, which harnesses the power of Facebook’s vast and loyal social network. Post jobs to up to 2 billion potential candidates in one click.
Try the job board.

Referrals

Drafted helps you hire through referrals—the best source of talent for your company. It matches your open positions in Workable to talent in your company network and makes personalized suggestions about who to refer.
Schedule a demo.

Preferhired is referral software that makes it easy to fill those hard-to-fill positions. Leverage your company’s internal network and improve your stats, from retention rate and job performance to cost per hire and time per hire.
Try for free.

Video interviews

Human deciphers facial expressions for candidate analysis, using artificial intelligence. Focus on who the candidate is and minimize human bias and discrimination during the screening process. Increase time efficiency by 3x and cost efficiency by 5x.
Schedule a demo.

myInterview puts the candidate back into the recruitment process. Simple to use, quick to complete, with deep data insights, are just some of the reasons to give the free trial a go.
Sign up for a trial.

SkillHeart is the power behind candidate video interviews, which help you meet your job applicants earlier in the recruitment process. Save time and make objective evaluations with your team.
Create your account.

Onboarding

Click Boarding creates successful onboarding and transition experiences that engage employees, give them access to the information they need, and bring them into new cultures from day one — with any new company, department or team.
Schedule a demo.

Namely is powerful, easy-to-use HR software that enables mid-sized companies to manage their HR, payroll, benefits and talent management in one place. Its robust integration with Workable means that you can export data directly into their onboarding and HRIS tools.
Schedule a demo.

Personably helps you build productive teams by creating amazing onboarding experiences for new hires. It enables you to collaborate with people across the company to build the ideal process for different teams and levels. Schedule everything with a single click to make sure the right people are involved at the right time.
Learn more.

More integrations coming soon

You shouldn’t have to be a systems implementation expert to have a great experience across all of your hiring tools. We’re always working on new integrations so that everyone’s hiring tech stack works together. If you’re a Workable user and have a tool you’d love to see integrated with Workable, let us know! If you’re a software provider, why not find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved?

The post Check out the 24 Workable integrations in 2018 appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The missing link in the hiring chain

Companies can spend thousands on recruitment marketing, employer branding, job advertising and more, to find, attract and hire the best talent. Costs are even higher for hard-to-fill positions. Most also invest resources into providing an engaging, motivating and rewarding experience for their employees. But often, there’s a gap in between the two; a gap a lot of people (maybe you?) have experienced.

The time between accepting an offer and the first day is part of the candidate experience which is often overlooked. Why? Recruitment teams tend to move quickly onto making their next hire, while HR’s focus is on first day admin. Waiting in limbo, this broken link can lead to candidates feeling disengaged and unconnected.

Delivering a poor recruiting and onboarding experience risks your new hire becoming a no hire or a very short hire. The answer? Use software to standardize, automate and engage.

Creating successful onboarding experiences

Click Boarding’s onboarding software streamlines the administrative process for HR and the employee. From forms and checklists to tips and tools for engaging new hires, the result is a smooth and enriched onboarding and transition experience.

Sharing company information ahead of day one is a great way of reinforcing your brand and making an early, meaningful connection with new hires. Click Boarding actively engages employees by providing on demand access to everything they need. And the results speak for themselves, with companies seeing:

• 50% increase in employee retention and company loyalty
• 77% of new hires more likely to hit the first performance milestone
• 18% improved new hire productivity and performance

So, it’s not only saving on the high cost of a hire that doesn’t work out, it’s making every new hire more successful.

Why Workable and Click Boarding?

With Workable and Click Boarding working together, you have an end-to-end Talent Acquisition solution; from new candidate to successful new hire. Set-up is quick and straightforward. And, once activated, candidates moved to the ‘Hired’ stage of your pipeline will be automatically exported and created as new hires in Click Boarding.

More integrations coming soon

You shouldn’t have to be a systems implementation expert to have a great experience across all of your hiring tools. We’re always working on new integrations so that everyone’s hiring tech stack works together. If you’re a Workable user and have a tool you’d love to see integrated with Workable, let us know! If you’re a software provider, why not find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved?

The post Great onboarding starts with our new Click Boarding integration appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Smart advertising

Brilliant candidates seek careers in companies with clear missions, defined values and the right culture fit. With Jobbio, you can promote your employer brand to attract best-fit talent to your roles. Use your job posts and company channel to showcase everything that makes your company great. And connect with candidates who love what you do and how you do it.

Talent marketing

Using Jobbio, candidates can create beautiful online bios. They can go behind the scenes to find out more about a company. And follow favorite companies and channels to find out about new roles. When the right position and the right company sync up they can apply quickly and privately with a click of a button. No surprise then that over 100M professionals use Jobbio’s search platform every month. With such a rich audience, more and more companies (over 6000 to-date) are using Jobbio to attract higher calibre applications from more relevant and qualified candidates. And, ultimately, hire the right talent.

Manage your Jobbio applications in Workable

We know that hiring’s easier when all the tools you use work seamlessly together. So we’ve made it super easy to connect your Jobbio account with Workable. To get started, log into your Jobbio account and visit the ‘Integrations’ section. Grant Jobbio access to your Workable account and you’re set!

Once enabled, Jobbio will automatically pull jobs from your Workable dashboard and distribute them across its exclusive network. And every candidate who applies will be delivered directly into Workable, so all their information is in one place. It’s seamless and hassle-free.

Want a new integration added to Workable?

You shouldn’t have to be a systems implementation expert to have a great experience across all of your hiring tools. If you’re a Workable user and have a tool you’d love to see integrated with Workable, let us know! If you’re a software provider, why not find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved?

The post Attract the right talent faster with our new Jobbio integration appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You’ve created a shortlist and interviewed the most promising candidates. And now you’re ready to make your hire. Your best candidate appears well-qualified and a great fit. But are they who they say they are?

Background checks remove chance from the equation. They reinforce your hiring decision and make sure your next employee is someone you can trust. But they can take time to process. Which could mean your preferred hire gets snapped up by someone else. Trusted Employees runs customized and compliant background checks at speed. It takes 60 seconds to find out the most pertinent facts, and 1-3 days for a complete set of reports. Which means you can move quickly, and with conviction, to secure your preferred hire.

Trusted Employees helps businesses hire the right talent using the latest technology and rigorous data quality standards. It offers a range of solutions to suit the diverse screening needs of small, medium and large-scale organizations, in the US and Canada. Its comprehensive employment background screening services include: criminal records searches, drug testing, identity checks, and more. The checks are accurate and always 100% FCRA-compliant.

Manage the background checking process within Workable

We know that life is easier when all the tools you use for hiring work together seamlessly. Our integration with Trusted Employees empowers you to manage the background check process within Workable. Once you’ve set up the integration, you can select the applicants you want to background check, choose the background check report type, and let Trusted Employees take care of the rest!

More integrations coming soon

We’re always working on new integration partnerships so that everyone’s hiring tech stack syncs together (you shouldn’t have to be a systems implementation expert to have a great experience across all of your hiring tools). If you’re a Workable user and have a tool you’d love to see integrated with Workable, let us know! If you’re a software provider, why not find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved?

The post Speed up background checks with our Trusted Employees integration appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Demand for developers, designers and data scientists often outstrips supply in competitive talent markets like London. It’s why we’ve developed built-in sourcing tools like People Search and Auto-Suggest. We wanted to give our customers a head start sourcing software engineers and other hard-to-fill roles.

Working alongside our own built-in sourcing tools, our integration with co-hire enriches your talent search engine. It offers a simple way for start-ups and technology companies to initiate meaningful conversations with people they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. On average, 30% of messages sent to candidates on co-hire result in an interview; a powerful return which puts you one step closer to your perfect hire.

From profile to pipeline

“co-hire is the best platform we’ve come across for finding high-quality candidates for tech roles. The filtering ability is powerful and enables us to quickly target suitable candidates and filter out inactive ones too. We received a strong response from candidates actively looking for their next role.”
co-hire customer, Sam Hyams (co-founder at Springpod)

So, how does co-hire’s technical sourcing tool work? There are three simple steps:

1. Post a company profile
   This empowers you to share your story, mission, vision and values with prospective candidates. Include photos of your team to further promote your brand and add details of all relevant team members so job seekers know who they’re talking to.
2. Fill your pipeline
   co-hire uses a combination of community data and human intelligence to instantly suggest prospects who match your requirements and are most likely to respond to your interest. Use advanced filters to find and speak to the most relevant people for your company.
3. Reach out with meaningful comms
   Personalize each message and make more meaningful connections using tools provided through co-hire.

All your recruiting in one place

co-hire’s integration with Workable can be set up in minutes. Once in place, details of candidates you’ve sourced on co-hire feed straight into Workable, so all your recruiting is in one place. All you need to do is click the Workable icon next to a candidate’s name in co-hire. A list of Published or Internal jobs in Workable will appear. Select the relevant job and the candidate’s details will be exported to the Sourced stage in Workable along with their experience, education, skills, email address and resume.

More integrations coming soon

Yes! We’ve got even more integrations coming soon. Watch this space as we launch a series of new partnerships. If you’re a Workable user and have a tool you’d love to see integrated with Workable, let us know! If you’re a software provider, why not find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved?

The post Use Workable’s integration with co-hire for sourcing tech talent appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Identify high performers and make better hires

Recruiting software’s about more than managing workflows and process. It’s about building a pipeline full of quality candidates. And then using the right assessments to hire the best. With MindX you can identify candidates likely to be high performers at your organization. So, how does it work?

MindX joins gamification with data science and organizational psychology. The end result is a scientific assessment of work-relevant, cognitive traits, presented as a single score.

Using this score, you can determine at a glance (and with reduced unconscious bias) if a candidate is a good fit for your company.

Automate candidate workflow

MindX’s integration with Workable automates the entire candidate workflow; from sending tests to providing easy-to-interpret assessment outputs. Attach assessments to specific stages in the recruiting pipeline and review results directly from each candidate’s Timeline.

More integrations coming soon

Yes! We’ve got even more integrations coming soon. Watch this space through to the end of the year, as we launch a series of new partnerships. If you’re a Workable user and have a tool you’d love to see integrated with Workable, let us know! If you’re a software provider, why not find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved?

Bonus: 10 of the best recruiting assessment tools

The post Workable integrates with predictive assessment tool, MindX appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

A vast, untapped candidate pool

New to the market, Jobs on Facebook provides a centralized jobs dashboard which harnesses the power of Facebook’s vast and loyal social network. It makes it easier for businesses to reach and hire the right applicants by connecting companies to high volumes of potential employees who visit the site every day.

Candidates can bookmark the dashboard and search by job type or industry to find nearby roles that match. Job posts are also boosted to relevant audiences through targeted ads, which appear automatically in Marketplace and News Feeds.

With its extensive, targeted reach, the Jobs on Facebook job board is ideal for high volume hiring. And particularly good news for small or medium-sized businesses with multiple new roles to fill. Most Facebook users aren’t active job seekers. And, yet, a 2017 Economic Impact Report shows that 1 in 4 people in the US searched or found a job through the site. Jobs on Facebook puts businesses directly in touch with an untapped, rich and regular pool of active and passive talent. And it enables companies to connect with this talent directly from an environment that’s familiar and accessible.

Post jobs to up to 2 billion potential candidates in one click

With our one-time setup, there’s no need to log in and out to access Facebook’s vast network of users. You can post to Facebook’s free job board (and our other integrated job boards) directly from Workable, in one click. Simply fill in a few small details on the integrations settings page of your Workable account, and that’s it. With that in place, every time you publish a new role it automatically appears on Facebook’s free jobs dashboard (although it’s easy to opt out on a per job basis if you want to). Any applications submitted through Facebook feed automatically back into your Workable account, where you can view and track them. No fiddly exports or downloads needed.

A seamless experience for candidates

The process is equally as seamless and straightforward for candidates. Optimized for mobile, users can search and apply for jobs on-the-go, while they’re browsing the site. Applications are submitted directly from Facebook via a simple, clear ‘Apply’ button. Much of the information is pre-filled, but it’s easy to add or remove data before it’s sent.

By making it so easy for candidates to apply, businesses stand a better chance of attracting a bigger pool of qualified candidates. And a better chance of hiring successfully at scale.

Ready to integrate?

It only takes a few minutes to set up and use Facebook Jobs with Workable. All you need to provide is a company address. If you’ve got a Facebook Business page then it helps to add that too, but it’s not essential. For more details on this, and other pointers, check out our Jobs on Facebook support article. And remember, we’re here to answer any questions or provide more info whenever you need it—just get in touch.

The post Workable integrates with Jobs on Facebook for easier, high-volume hiring appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What triggers this change? In my experience, there’s a point when organizations realize they’re not recruiting as well as they thought or they’re spending money in the wrong places. They’re not getting enough people or people aren’t staying long enough. That’s when they usually bring in someone like me – a Head of Talent who can dig in and see what’s happening.

What are some symptoms that you need recruiting software?

As a Head of Talent, when I came into a new organization, I looked at everything in the recruitment structure and process, where and how we advertised, where information was kept and what we did with it. I asked questions like “why did we fill only 20 percent of our open roles last year?”

I often found the same challenges repeated:

• There was no talent pool or centralized process. Some organizations were relying on Excel or finance software that had basic HR functions. But, they had no way to properly document recruiting information in a place where hiring teams could access it. Hiring managers were doing everything themselves in the way they thought was best without collaborating with other team members or keeping track of their steps. There was no standard way to hire or to document recruitment spend. In some cases, hiring managers ended up reaching out to agencies only to find candidates who were already known to the organization through past hiring processes. That’s because there wasn’t an in-house candidate database to look into.
• There was no way to track hiring progress. As a recruiter, you’ll be reporting back on a weekly or monthly basis. Your manager or even CEO might ask how long it’s taken to hire and what problems appeared. That reporting element is absolutely vital, because you would then be able to talk about what is going well and what needs to be improved. If you knew something wasn’t going well and you wanted to implement changes, you needed hiring reports to support your case (for example, you could see how much time hiring teams take to hire or exchange feedback to advocate for more training for them). And it was very difficult to do all this without actual data from a system.
• Money wasn’t invested properly (or there was no way to be sure it was). Without software, there wasn’t a way to know which sources candidates were coming from or how our job ads were performing. Was it worth advertising on Indeed or Linkedin? What sort of applicant volume were we getting? Advertising jobs might have been costing more than it should: when I joined the Red Cross as Head of Talent, we were advertising jobs using a marketing agency. We were paying them to post each job on multiple sites when we could have had a job posting system at a lower cost.

So, after auditing the recruitment process, I saw that all those wonderful things we could be doing with a recruitment software solution weren’t happening. It became clear that we could solve our pain points easily with recruiting software.

How can you build a business case for recruiting software?

When building a business case, I’d connect the challenges I found to the organization’s growth strategy. I’d look at the organization’s future, what we hoped to achieve in two or three years – and how a lack of a reliable system could slow us down.

I’d also look at how many people in the organization it took to fill a role. Purchasing an ATS helps you reduce the overhead cost of people who are involved in recruitment.

And of course, it’s beneficial to explain all the opportunities that applicant tracking system opens up. For example, when explaining the value of an ATS to board members, I’d talk about the power of social media and how our branding efforts could be driven by an ATS. I’d share the value of time-saving—which is priceless. Why should our team go to separate sites to post separate adverts, when they could go into an ATS and post to multiple job sites with only a few clicks?

All this would contribute to my business case.

We know we need recruiting software, but which one is right for us?

Finding the right ATS is the next step to building a business case. When doing research and attending demos, it’s useful to have specific criteria in mind:

• Think of your company’s unique requirements. For example, if you have recruiting teams around the world, you’ll need a system that works internationally with global support.
• Look for integrations. You probably already have an HR system on board (or you will have some time soon). If your ATS integrates with that system and also other software you might be using (like video interview platforms), it’ll be a huge advantage.
• Pay attention to ease of use. As recruiters, we want to make it easy for hiring teams to go online, see their open jobs, review their candidates, shortlist, interview and check progress.
• Opt for a mobile-optimized ATS app. Hiring managers won’t always be at their desks, they’re often working on-the-go. They need a system that’s mobile-friendly so that they can recruit from wherever they are; on the way to meetings, on the train or on the bus.
• Look for an easy application process for candidates. At the Red Cross, people were telling me it took them two hours to fill out an application form. Many people lost interest half-way through, especially if they were in a senior role; if you’re a regional finance director, the last thing you want to do is spend two hours of your evening filling out forms. A good ATS could help you build applications that make it easy for candidates to apply, even from their mobile phone.

So a system that’s savvy and understands your pain points is going to make things fast and easy for the hiring manager, the recruiter and the candidate.

Get the most value out of your new Applicant Tracking System

A system is only as good as the information that has been put in. And even if you have the best recruitment software, it won’t help you if you don’t use it correctly. For example, organizations often settle for using their ATS as a talent pool. And that’s a wasted opportunity.

I think people are now starting to realize they need to up their game. There are so many things you can do with recruiting software that are worthwhile – like improving candidate experience. Especially when you see that candidates are happy to criticize your company on sites like Glassdoor and their comments matter for your employer brand.

As a Head of Recruitment, I would first ensure that I had a team of people who could understand what an ATS is and how to get the best out of it. And as the leader of that team, I would ensure that hiring managers were adhering to their part. Were they conducting good interviews? Did they know what a good interview was? And how were they responding to candidates? Recruiters should help hiring managers understand and embrace their role – and show them how an ATS can change their lives when hiring.

How do you demonstrate the value of an ATS you implemented?

After you implement an ATS, you can show the return on investment. Use reports from the system itself showing that you filled most of the roles or that the hiring teams were productive.

Where possible, I would also demonstrate new hire retention. Show that your team isn’t just filling roles. You should be able to say that the system allowed you to screen properly, and the person you found stayed with your company for years. That’s very important because having people leave after you’ve trained them and having to repeat a recruitment process is a massive loss for an organization. The value of an ATS is not just to help you get people on board, but to help you select the right people who’ll be with you for a long time.

Sandy Grewal is currently Head Of Resourcing at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. She is an executive level mentor on all things “talent” and has managed large-scale talent acquisition change programs at a global scale. She holds a Masters Degree in Personnel and Development from the University of Greenwich.

The post How do you know it’s time to purchase recruitment software and what are your tips for success? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

These asynchronous video interviews are useful because:

• Both sides can participate in interviews in their own time (this is especially useful with candidates who live in different time zones to your hiring team).
• You’ll only need to record or write down your questions once and send them to candidates, instead of having to schedule and conduct separate calls with each one.
• Candidates will showcase their skills without any hindrance from stress as they can record their answer multiple times until they’re satisfied with their performance.
• You’ll add structure to your hiring process by asking every candidate the same questions in the same order, which will help you make more objective decisions.

Why conduct video interviews in Workable

If you decide to incorporate video interviews during your hiring process, it’s efficient to do it directly from your Applicant Tracking System (ATS). That’s because, by being able to send, receive and review a one-way video interview right from a candidate’s profile in your ATS, you can:

• Save time, as you won’t have to log in and out of other platforms and migrate candidate data from one system to another.
• Streamline your workflow by accessing video interviews from the same place you keep resumes, comments and evaluations on candidates.
• Engage hiring managers early on in the process, because it’ll be easier for them to watch videos of shortlisted candidates than to read notes, comments and application forms.
• Keep video interviews on candidate profiles and review them at a later time if another job seems like a better fit.

Note: Because of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you need to inform European candidates that you’re keeping their data in your database for future roles.

Workable makes all this easy for you by seamlessly integrating with video interview providers. If you’re in a Workable PRO plan, you can send video interviews with the click of a button and review each video in your own time, by going straight to each candidate’s timeline. The rest of your hiring team can also watch the video and comment on the candidate, increasing visibility of everyone’s evaluations and facilitating collaboration.

Currently, you can use video interviews in Workable if you have an account with any of these providers:

• Astronaut
• Hireflix
• Human
• Jobma
• myInterview
• Skillheart
• Spark Hire
• VidCruiter
• Videoscreening

Here’s how our integration works:

How to conduct video interviews with Workable’s integrations

If you’re in a Workable PRO plan and an account with one of our integrated providers, first set up the integration between the two accounts. This can be done quickly, inside Workable.

Let’s say you have an account with Spark Hire. To activate the integration between Workable and Spark Hire, you’ll need an API key from your Spark Hire account – Workable will give you clear instructions on how to get it in the integrations section:

Then all you need to do is paste the API key and click on “Update Settings”. Your integration is ready quickly and easily.

Start using video interviews

Once you’ve set up the integration, enable video interviews for particular jobs and hiring stages (phone screens, assessments and interview stages). You can easily do this when setting up or editing a job.

Now you can begin sending video interviews to candidates who reach a particular stage by clicking on the “play” button inside their candidate profile:

When candidates send back their replies to your video interview provider, you’ll see a link under the candidate’s timeline in Workable (and you’ll receive a notification via email). Click the link to review the video. Once you do, you can leave your comments and evaluations on a candidate’s Workable profile and see your team’s evaluations too. This way, you can make an objective and well-informed decision.

If you want more insight on how companies use video interviews with Workable to screen candidates effectively and improve candidate experience, see our interview with Neil Bruinsma, Talent Manager at IT Cloud service provider, Xcentric.

One-way video interviews can save you time and help you automate a greater part of your hiring process. And to make sure you’re using them effectively, be in constant communication with candidates to preserve the human touch in your recruiting efforts.

The post Why and how to conduct video interviews with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

While all your jobs posted via Workable are searchable on Indeed, as other companies advertise similar positions, older postings naturally slip back in search results, losing visibility over time.

To boost your jobs’ visibility on Indeed, you can pay to promote them as ‘Sponsored Jobs’. These are the first jobs people see in Indeed’s search results, typically receiving up to 5X more clicks* than free job postings.

Track and analyze your Indeed sponsored jobs campaigns

Some of you have asked for additional data and analytics to evaluate your Indeed Sponsored Jobs campaigns. This new integration gives you all that and more.
Now when you sponsor a job on Indeed, it’s via your company-specific Indeed account. This gives you access to Indeed’s Employer Dashboard, where you can see the clicks, applies, and other metrics associated with a sponsored campaign.

Easily measure and share campaign ROI

Your Indeed Employer Dashboard gives you the data you need to assess campaign performance.

See at a glance how many times your sponsored jobs have been viewed and clicked on, and your average cost per click. Confidently report on current performance and use that data to help plan your sponsored campaigns in the future.

Get started

Ready to sponsor a job on Indeed? Our help center has the details you need to set up premium job postings.

More: Everything about job posting on Indeed

The post Boost job visibility and analytics with our latest Indeed Sponsored Jobs integration appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

As an organization hiring up to 50 new employees per year, we needed to find ways to be more efficient with our time. To make things easier, we decided to try Jobma, one of the video interviewing platforms already integrated with Workable, our recruiting software. While this added another step to our hiring process, it actually helps us to hire faster by ensuring that we’re bringing in the right people for an interview.

How do video interviews work? It’s easy. Once we’ve reviewed the applications, we send three questions via email to the most promising candidates. These questions are relevant to both the role and the company and help us screen applicants. Candidates can record and submit their answers via the video platform. Those who qualify will move forward to a phone screen. Those who don’t, will be notified by our team.

Using video interviews when it makes sense

One-way video interviews are helpful during the early hiring stages. Often, candidates seem good on paper, but lack the necessary skills for the job. Video interviews give us a better understanding of candidates’ potential, particularly when it comes to skills we can’t judge based on a resume alone, like communication or presentation skills.

Also, for entry-level roles, we often hire recent graduates with little or no job experience. Video interviews help us to learn more about their abilities and career interests.

What questions to ask during video interviews

The information included on resumes and application forms is usually quite general. Video interviews help us delve into candidates’ skills to understand if they’re a good fit. Since we’re hiring for customer-centric roles, we get to see how candidates carry themselves. If they’re good communicators, we want to meet them in-person, too.

One-way video interviews also help us to spot dealbreakers early in the recruitment process. For example, we ask candidates about their career goals. This helps us to identify potential hires who’ll find the position interesting and have the skills to contribute to our business objectives. We ask targeted questions like:

• Why did you apply for this role?
• Which of your skills do you think will help you thrive in this position?
• What are your short-term and long-term professional goals?

How video interviews speed up the hiring process

Adding one-way video interviews in the beginning of our hiring process helps us make better use of our time and hire faster because we:

• Reduce the number of phone screens: Video interviews are good indicators of who’s qualified for the next hiring steps and who’s not.
• Save time during phone screens: Having already covered some points at the video interview stage, we can now ask fewer questions during the phone call.
• Get ideas for useful, follow-up questions: During video interviews, we learn things about each candidate that we didn’t know based on their resume. These can be useful talking points for the interviews that follow.

But, what do candidates think about video interviews?

So far, candidates have given us positive feedback. They think that video interviews add a unique, more modern touch to the hiring process. The secret is to keep the process as human as possible.

We start by proactively emailing instructions on the way candidates can record their answers and share tips on how to improve their performance. We also include answers to common questions a candidate might have and make sure we’re available to answer any questions with a personal reply.

The goal is to have candidates who are well-prepared and feel relaxed, so that they can bring out their best selves when recording their answers. That’s how you’ll shape more complete candidate profiles and decide who you’ll invite to a live interview.

Neil Bruinsma is the Talent Manager at Xcentric, an IT cloud service provider, where he develops and scales their talent management strategy. He has also built talent systems from the ground up for both nonprofit and for-profit companies that have increased employee engagement and reduced company turnover. Neil is an SHRM-certified professional and holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Calvin College, USA.

The post Ask a Recruiter: How do you include video interviews in the hiring process? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

This is a quick rundown of what we’ve released, so you can integrate the services you’re already using, or get some ideas about specialist systems that can add something extra to your process.

Job boards & candidate sourcing

Coroflot  is the largest and most active site specifically targeted for the hiring needs of design-led organizations. Companies already hiring through Coroflot range from local operations to multi-national industry leaders, including Fuseproject, Frog Design, Microsoft, Nokia, Landor, Nike, Intel, and Sony.
Find your next designer.

Jobbatical  helps you reach an exclusive database of talent ready to relocate to your company. A solution for cross-border hiring, it provides access to an exclusive database of business, tech, and creative professionals.
Schedule a demo.

Refferals

Drafted helps you hire through referrals – the best source of talent for your company. It matches your open positions in Workable to talent in your company network and makes personalized suggestions about who to refer.
Schedule a demo.

Preferhired is referral software that makes it easy to fill those hard-to-fill positions. Leverage your company’s internal network and improve your stats, from retention rate and job performance to cost per hire and time per hire.
Try for free.

Assessments

Indeed Assessments offers both ready-to-go and custom candidate assessments to help you see which candidates have the skills you need. Choose from an extensive library of over 50 expert designed, pre-built assessments or build your own to suit your particular hiring goals.
Set up a free account.

Interview Mocha makes it easy to assess multiple skills. Their enterprise-ready assessment platform includes 1000+ skill and aptitude tests that help you verify if your candidate is a good fit for the role. Trusted by leading brands worldwide.
Schedule a demo.

Qualified offer pre-made tests or the option to customize your own. Their coding assessments provide a wide range of software testing, ranging from CS algorithms to specific technologies and frameworks like Node.JS and Ruby on Rails. Use real testing frameworks for evaluating results to objectively screen candidates. Get your two-week free trial.

ThriveMap is a culture fit assessment that enables better hiring decisions by measuring how your candidates like to work and comparing it to your team culture. The best teams are diverse, so they measure the work environments people thrive in and not personality.
Try it free for 2 weeks.

Video Interviews

Human deciphers facial expressions for candidate analysis, using artificial intelligence. Focus on who the candidate is and minimise human bias and discrimination during the screening process. Increase time efficiency by 3x, and cost efficiency by 5x. Schedule a demo.

SkillHeart is the power behind candidate video interviews, which help you meet your job applicants earlier in the recruitment process. Save time and make objective evaluations with your team.
Create your account.

Onboarding

Namely is powerful, easy-to-use HR software that enables mid-sized companies to manage their HR, payroll, benefits, and talent management in one place. Their robust integration with Workable means that you can export data directly into their onboarding and HRIS tools.
Schedule a demo.

Personably helps you build productive teams by creating amazing onboarding experiences for new hires. It lets you collaborate with people across the company to build the ideal process for different teams and levels. Schedule everything with a single click, to make sure the right people are involved at the right time. Learn more.

There’s more to come!

Interested in sharing your own product or service with Workable customers? Take a look at our Developer Partner Program.

To learn about more integrations, check out our partners page.

The post Evolving the recruiting ecosystem appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The automated workflow for creating the candidate longlist involves, among other steps, deep analysis of both the job description and candidate information. This is something our team has been working on for some time. In this blog post, I describe the data science techniques we use at each step in the process and how they combine to make Auto-Suggest such a powerful automated talent sourcing tool.

Understanding keyword extraction

The keyword or keyphrase extraction service is responsible for generating the summary of a job posting. It does this by capturing the most descriptive words or phrases within the job posting text fields (for example, title, description and requirement summary).

Usual descriptive elements of a job posting are the skills or certifications a position requires; the sanitized version of the job title, key tasks of the position and so on.

We attack the problem of keyword extraction using a supervised learning approach. More specifically, we train a binary classifier (currently an Extreme Gradient Boosting classifier) to evaluate whether a specific word or phrase is a candidate keyword or keyphrase. That means we evaluate the “keywordness” of the phrase. Having trained this classifier, we extract keywords by evaluating all words/phrases from the job posting and choosing the ones with the highest “keywordness” score.

In order to decide whether a phrase or word is relevant, the classifier makes use of the following information, among others:

• The term and document frequency of the word or phrase
• The appearance of the word or phrase in a gazetteer of known skills, job titles, education fields
• The appearance of the word or phrase within a specific HTML element
• Tendency for the word or phrase to appear in a specific domain (domain-descriptive phrases)
• The morphology of the word or phrase (for example, capitalized)

Query Terms (QuTe) and the semantic interpretation of data

The purpose of the Query Terms (QuTe) module is to provide a semantic interpretation of the data ‘living’ in our database. Following the paradigm of well-known embedding techniques [1][2], we represent each term with a real-valued vector and we train these vectors to attain meaningful values.

Our basic assumption is that data bound to a single entity (candidate or job) are relevant to one another and thus their representations should be similar. Starting with random initial vectors we iteratively optimize these representations seeking to maximize the co-occurrence probability of relevant terms. Clusters of semantically similar terms begin to appear after only a few passes over the training data (epochs).

The four semantic categories we focus on are job titles, fields of study, candidate skills and job keywords. We support multi-word embeddings which expose relationships analogous to the original Word2Vec paper [1]. For example, the skill ‘scikit-learn’ is clustered with other similar Python libraries such as ‘scipy’ and ‘matplotlib’. Similarly, the job title ‘machine learning engineer’ is placed close to semantically relevant job titles such as ‘data science engineer’, ‘data scientist’ or ‘machine learning scientist’.

Crafting complex Boolean queries with Query Builder (QuBe)

Using information from previous components in the pipeline, the Query Builder (QuBe) module generates an appropriate Boolean search query. This query is used to retrieve candidates directly from the web. In short, to increase recall we expand the original job description (title and keywords) using QuTe’s similar terms list. Then we use QuBe to search for candidate profiles among a large number of data providers and search engines. This component handles the tradeoff between the size of the response (number of returned profiles) and their quality in terms of relevance to the job.

Identifying relevant candidates with Matcher

Behind Auto-Suggest is a multi-step process which accumulates noise from all the individual components. To mitigate this we’ve built the Matcher—a classification mechanism which kicks in at the final step of the pipeline. The Matcher’s responsibility is to predict whether a candidate is a good fit for a job. Using signals from candidate profiles and job descriptions the Matcher identifies relevant candidates for a position.

At first, we transform the job / candidate pair into their corresponding vector representations. For each candidate we keep only their skills, work experience and education entries. The vector representation is the concatenation of the corresponding elements:

• A candidate skills vector is computed from the embeddings of the candidate’s skills.
• A candidate work experience vector results from the embeddings of the job titles, taking into account job duration and recency.
• A candidate education vector is derived from the embeddings of candidate’s field of studies.

Similarly, to compute a job description’s vector we combine the embedding of the job title and the keywords’ embeddings. Both the job and candidate vectors are then fed as input to the matcher.

We view the matching process as a binary classification problem and we employ negative sampling [1][3] techniques to build our training / evaluation datasets. A job / candidate pair is considered positive if a candidate applied for the job and recruiters marked the application as acceptable inside Workable. On the other hand, negative samples are built artificially by randomly selecting candidate profiles from the database. Our current implementation follows a stacking classifier architecture where the base estimators are a collection of neural networks and Gradient Boosted Decision Trees.

This blog post was written by Vasilis Vassalos and the Data Science team.

Vasilis is the Chief Data Scientist at Workable. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University and is a Professor of Informatics at the Athens University of Economics and Business.

References

[1] ‘Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space’ Tomas Mikolov, Kai Chen, Greg Corrado, Jeffrey Dean. https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.3781

[2] Pennington, J., Socher, R. & Manning, C. D. (2014). Glove: Global Vectors for Word Representation.. EMNLP (p./pp. 1532–1543),

[3] Goldberg, Y. & Levy, O. (2014). word2vec Explained: deriving Mikolov et al.’s negative-sampling word-embedding method.. CoRR, abs/1402.3722.

The post How we developed Auto-Suggest: the data science behind our new automated talent sourcing tool appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Instead of struggling to schedule interviews at a time that works for everyone, both sides can participate in an interview that works with their own schedule. Hiring teams can evaluate candidates at a time of their choosing, and those candidates already in employment don’t need to struggle to schedule interview time into their working day.

Here’s how to benefit from pre-recorded video interviews and how to overcome their limitations:

What are the benefits of one-way video interviews?

Pre-recorded video interviews are usually scheduled at the early stages of the hiring pipeline and help you screen candidates faster and more objectively. When you conduct one-way video interviews, you’re able to:

Connect with remote candidates. Distance is no longer an issue when using video interviews. You don’t have to rely only on local talent or worry about bringing remote candidates in for interviews. And one-way interviews specifically resolve any problems created by time zone differences. Asynchronous communication enables interviewers and candidates to ‘speak’ to each other without having to join the interview at unsociable hours (like late at night.) This helps busy hiring managers, who can view all candidates’ recordings at a convenient time, and recruiters, who might be hiring for various open roles and struggle coordinating different time zones.

Speed up the hiring process. Imagine you want to screen twenty candidates for one position. If you’re doing this over the phone, you need to make twenty separate calls. But, if you’re using one-way video interview software, you only need to write or record your questions once and send them to candidates. To evaluate candidates’ answers, you’ll watch twenty videos, which is faster than scheduling and conducting the same number of live interviews. Plus, you can replay the recordings as many times as you want to ensure you don’t miss anything.

Screen candidates more effectively. During the initial phases of the hiring process, you usually want to address any deal breakers. In some cases, it’s easy to do that with a simple application form. (For example: ‘Do you own a valid driver’s license?’) Other times, a pre-recorded video interview will help you dig into your candidates’ skillset. For example, if you want someone to be fluent in French, ask them to answer your questions in French. Or, if you’re hiring salespeople, you’re able to test their communication and presentation skills.

De-stress the interview process for candidates. Job interviews can be stressful even for the best-prepared candidate. And stress hinders interview performance, running the risk of making candidates appear less qualified. With one-way video interviews, you can create a better candidate experience to aid your decision-making. Explain to candidates that they can record as many takes as they want and that you’ll only view the final one that they choose to submit. This way, they can rehearse until they’re satisfied with their answers and feel more confident that they’ve presented their best self.

Evaluate candidates using structured interviews. Structured interviews, where you interview candidates asking the same questions in the same order, lead to more objective hiring decisions. But they often appear cold and rigid as they don’t allow for spontaneity among participants. One-way video interviews are a good turnaround in this case. Candidates know the questions beforehand and have time to prepare their answers, bringing up specific examples that describe their skills and past experiences. And interviewers can compare candidates more objectively as they don’t get influenced from small talk that could happen before or after a live interview.

Work better as a hiring team. Hiring usually requires collaboration between multiple interviewers. One-way video interviews facilitate this collaboration as they help engage all hiring team members early on in the process. They’ll all view the same interview, share their feedback and decide to move forward or reject a candidate as a team. This way, candidates won’t have to go through multiple interview rounds until the last interviewer notices a potential dealbreaker.

The risks of one-way video interviews

Pre-recorded video interviews are useful, but not perfect. When you use this type of interview to evaluate candidates, consider the following limitations:

Candidates might struggle speaking to a ‘machine’. Not all candidates will feel comfortable recording themselves. This could negatively affect their performance. That’s why one-way interviews shouldn’t be your only criterion when rejecting or moving candidates forward. Take their entire profile into consideration. If you’re unsure whether they’re qualified or not after watching their video, it’s best to schedule a call or move them to the next hiring stage. Give them another chance to speak about their skills and then decide whether they’re qualified.

You don’t have the chance to answer questions or promote your company. Interviews don’t just help companies evaluate candidates; they also help candidates learn more about the company and the role. And this is best done through real-time conversations. If you use recorded video interviews during your hiring process, ask candidates to pose their own questions at the end of the video and answer them later. Also, opt for a live (either video or in-person) interview in the final hiring stages to sell your company and open role to your most qualified candidates.

You miss on creating real relationships with candidates. Asynchronous communication shouldn’t be your only contact with candidates, even the ones you reject. You risk giving the impression that you’ve dehumanized the hiring process and that could hurt your employer brand. It’s best to make a quick call or email rejected candidates, share interview feedback and thank them for their time. This way, you reassure candidates that you watched their video and keep communication lines open, in case there’s another, more suitable job opportunity in the future.

Interested in conducting one-way video interviews with candidates? Learn how Workable Video Interviews, our new remote screening tool, can help you keep your hiring on track. Find out more and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

The post Pros and cons of one-way video interviews with candidates appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But what if you already have a website with an established careers page? How do you keep that updated, and direct the applications straight to your Workable recruiting pipeline? And how can you extract information about jobs and candidates in a different format for your organization’s specific needs?

Good questions! This is where the Workable API comes in.

What is the Workable API?

Put simply, Workable’s API enables the software applications used by your organization to interact with data from your Workable account. If you’re on a PRO plan, you can use the API to:

• Extract information about:
  • Your account
  • Your hiring members and recruiters
  • The pipeline stages for each position
  • Jobs and screening questions
  • Scheduled events
  • Activities/status of each job or candidate
• Manage your candidates:
  • See candidates for a specific job
  • Extract detailed candidate information
  • Update candidate information
  • Add comments or ratings
  • Copy, disqualify or move candidates
• Enter data in Workable
  • Create candidate profiles inside Workable
  • Migrate existing candidates from other places (like spreadsheets)
• Integrate with other systems
  • Any system that holds personal profiles can use the API to transfer these profiles in Workable.

Here’s a basic scenario: You have an existing website with an established careers page that already conforms to your brand guidelines. You’d like to keep this updated, but ideally, every candidate that applies should be gathered inside your Workable ATS account. That way, you can keep profiles organized in a single location, which makes it easier to work with your hiring teams. In this case, the Workable API helps your developers to transfer all the applications you receive from your careers page straight to Workable.

Similarly, you can ask the API to give you access to information from your Workable account. For example, use the API to extract a list of open jobs and the details of each role and add them to your careers page. Every time you create a new position in Workable, your own website will update with the latest details.

How to start using the API for integrations

The first thing you need to start using the API is an access token, or key. You can get this easily through the ‘Integrations’ settings from your Workable dashboard. At the bottom of the integrations settings page, you will see the option to “generate a new token.” When you click on this button, your API key will appear at the bottom:

Once you have the token, you, or your developer, can start using the API. (You will need some programming experience.) Workable’s API documentation is available with more detailed information.

Workable’s API gives you full control over your recruiting data. You’ll be able to set up your unique careers page, integrate your existing software with Workable and extract useful information on your hiring process.

If you’re looking for ways to analyze your recruiting data, Workable also provides a suite of recruiting reports including time to hire, hiring velocity and source of hire. If you’re looking to create custom recruiting reports based on your own KPIs, talk to us to find out more.

The post Why and how to use the Workable API for integrations appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Hiring assessments provide a data-driven approach to recruitment. They can help to remove hiring bias by creating a level playing field for every candidate.

“Resumes are not enough—they offer just one dimension of a candidate’s experience and are time consuming for hiring managers and recruiters to sift through,” said Raj Mukherjee, SVP of Product at Indeed. “Assessments also help to democratize hiring by giving job seekers an equal opportunity to showcase their qualifications when applying for jobs, so that they are able to find the right opportunities faster and easier.”

Empowering employers to assess candidates more easily

Indeed’s long term mission is ‘to help people get jobs’. In August 2017, they acquired Interviewed, the San Francisco-based candidate assessment specialists. At that time, Interviewed had helped companies to assess over 2.4 million candidates. Now with the combined power of Indeed job boards, companies can not only connect with, but assess candidates more easily.

A wide variety of candidate assessment tools for flexible screening

Indeed Assessments offers the flexibility to screen for the skills most relevant to your hiring needs. They provide 50+ ready-to-go candidate assessments covering cognitive and psychometric tests, computer, language and job skills.

Within these categories the candidate assessment tests span a wide range of job levels and industries, including technology, sales and customer service. Many of the tests feature interactive simulations of real life scenarios and are mobile friendly, making it easy for candidates regardless of their location.

A powerful recommendation engine

Through their recommendation engine, Indeed Assessments will suggest the most appropriate test for your role. As an employer you can choose from over 50 pre-built candidate assessments or custom build your own to fit your individual hiring needs.

Assigning tests and reviewing scores

Assessments help to provide a consistent candidate experience. Select the number of tests you want each candidate to receive (there’s no limit) and at which stage in the hiring pipeline. Send the tests directly via Workable and see the results on the Workable candidate profile, to objectively compare candidate performance.

The post Workable partners with Indeed Assessments to offer free candidate screening tools appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

As a member of LinkedIn’s Preferred Partner Program, Workable provides the option to enable the LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect integration and gain access to enhancements across both platforms.

What is the LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect integration?

This integration allows Workable and LinkedIn Recruiter to ‘speak’ to each other. The communication you’ve had with a candidate via InMail is viewable inside Workable. The application status and latest comments on a candidate inside Workable are now viewable within LinkedIn Recruiter. No matter how you like to start a candidate relationship, you can make the communication and details available to everyone on your hiring team.

Note that to enable the LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect integration, you need to have a LinkedIn Recruiter license and the Workable Advanced plan.

Here are the features you’ll unlock when you set up the Recruiter System Connect integration in Workable:

When you’re browsing in LinkedIn Recruiter, you can:

Export candidate profiles to Workable with one click. When you find a great candidate in LinkedIn Recruiter, click ‘Export to Workable’. Select the appropriate job you’re hiring for and a new candidate profile will be created automatically in your Workable account. This profile will contain basic information from the candidate’s public LinkedIn profile such as name, headline, and current company. Once the profile information is in Workable, it’s easy to share with your team to request and gather feedback. If you send an InMail to a LinkedIn member, they will have the option to share their contact information with the recruiter. If they choose to, the LinkedIn member’s contact information will also be sent into Workable.

Identify past applicants. When candidates are already in Workable, LinkedIn Recruiter will display these candidates within the “Past Applicant” spotlight. When you see ‘In Workable’ on a candidate’s profile, within the LinkedIn Recruiter search page, simply roll over the link to see the latest feedback from interviewers, or to open their profile in Workable.

Here’s an example from a Project Manager search on LinkedIn Recruiter:

Knowing which candidates are already in your recruiting pipelines or your candidate database means you:

• Avoid creating duplicate candidate profiles.
• Don’t contact current applicants twice.
• Personalize your outreach to past applicants.

Not using Workable yet? Request a demo to learn how you can optimize your hiring efforts with our all-in-one recruitment software.

When you’re in Workable, you can:

Access communication and notes from LinkedIn Recruiter on the candidate’s profile. During the hiring process, you’ll likely send InMails to candidates and leave notes on LinkedIn Recruiter profiles. But this information isn’t accessible to everyone on your hiring team.

To keep the complete candidate communication history in one place, InMails and notes from LinkedIn Recruiter will be synced to your Workable account. This means, your entire hiring team is up-to-date on the last recruiter interaction.

View up-to-date LinkedIn candidate profiles. While you’re still in Workable, you have the option to view profiles as they appear on LinkedIn Recruiter. If, however, you do want to visit a candidate’s LinkedIn profile, a link in Workable will route you to the member’s profile on your LinkedIn Recruiter account.

In addition, when a candidate updates their profile on LinkedIn, changes will be reflected immediately inside Workable. This means that you’ll always have the latest candidate information in hand, without having to switch between systems.

As a LinkedIn Preferred Partner, we also offer another feature that aims to improve candidate experience and bring you more applicants:

Apply with LinkedIn

Improve applicant conversion: Candidates can complete an application faster, by using their LinkedIn profile data. If you have a full LinkedIn Recruiter account, you can enable ‘Apply Starters’ and activate the ‘Apply with LinkedIn’ button. Once a candidate clicks this button on any open job on your careers page, all relevant information will be entered in their application form automatically. They can add or edit information and upload files before they submit their final application.

Note that if you’re a staffing agency, you must indicate, when you turn on Apply with LinkedIn inside your Workable integrations tab, that you recruit for multiple companies. Doing so will replace the consent text above the Apply with LinkedIn button with: “We’ll share your full profile. The job poster may use it for jobs with other companies.”

Improve InMail response rates: Reach out to warm leads. Anyone who begins the application process using Apply with LinkedIn will be surfaced as ‘Apply Starters’ in both LinkedIn Recruiter and a weekly email digest. Apply Starters are four times more likely to respond to an InMail.

The post Using LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

A range of coding assessments

Coding assessment tests from Qualified cover a broad spectrum, from CS algorithms to specific technologies and frameworks like Node.js and Ruby on Rails. They use real testing frameworks—frameworks developers are familiar with—for evaluating results. Choose between their pre-made assessments or customize them to meet your specific needs.

Improve hiring workflow

Process candidates faster and without bias using Qualified’s automated assessment workflows. Their software weeds through the applicant pool at your assigned stage in the interview pipeline, objectively comparing test scores to eliminate weak candidates. This leaves you free to focus time and energy on your most promising candidates.

Insight into cracking the code

How candidates approach coding assessments can be just as revealing as the end result. By integrating Qualified with Workable you can identify engineers who have the skillset and thought processes that align with your intended goals. Using their code playback feature you can see how a candidate approaches a problem and the steps they take towards a final solution.

Get integrated

If you’re already using Workable and Qualified, see how to activate the integration and make Qualified an embedded part of your recruitment process.

Once you’ve activated your Qualified integration, you’ll be able to send an assessment from the candidate’s profile. When the results of the assessment are available, you’ll receive notification via email and your Workable Inbox, along with a link to log in to Qualified and view the results.

If you’ve yet to try Qualified, find out more with a free trial.

Interested in sharing your product or service with Workable customers? Take a look at our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable partners with coding assessment provider, Qualified appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Measuring culture fit

ThriveMap is a tool that measures the culture fit between people and teams. It enables better hiring decisions by objectively assessing how your candidates like to work, and comparing that to your team culture. The culture fit measurement is based on the work environments in which people thrive—not on personalities.

Each assessment is bespoke, based directly on what your teams do day-to-day. Even better, it only takes only five minutes to complete.

Providing actionable data

Having assessed culture fit, ThriveMap’s software outputs easy-to-use analytics. This data goes directly into the hands of your hiring managers; the people who are most impacted by hiring decisions.

Armed with relevant, actionable data and insight, your managers can use ThriveMap analytics to improve their team’s performance.

Improving performance

ThriveMap helps managers understand how their teams like to work. This gives managers the opportunity to improve culture, and in turn, raise performance. It does this by providing insights on how a team would like to work compared to their manager’s management style. This encourages higher productivity in a team’s current state and when new members are hired.

Evidence shows that ThiveMap helps improve hiring accuracy, reduce employee turnover, increase team harmony, enhance candidate experience and minimize hiring bias.

Integrating ThriveMap with Workable

By integrating ThriveMap with Workable you can identify the candidates who would thrive in your team.

Once you’ve activated the integration, you’ll be able to send a ThriveMap assessment from the candidate’s profile. When the results of the assessment are available, you’ll receive notification via email, and your Workable inbox, along with a link to log in to ThriveMap and view the results.

If you’re already using Workable and ThriveMap, see how to activate the integration and make ThriveMap an embedded part of your recruitment process.

If you’ve yet to try ThriveMap, find out more.

Interested in sharing your product or service with Workable customers? Take a look at our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable partners with culture fit assessment tool, ThriveMap appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Many companies struggle to develop an easy to use process that empowers employees to refer from within their network. Drafted looks to change that by proactively engaging employees in the referral process. This increases employee engagement and boosts quality referrals. Today we’re excited to announce that Drafted now integrates with Workable!

Drafted automates the referral process by making personalized referral suggestions directly related to open roles. Through machine learning powered smart suggestions, companies decrease their time to hire, at the same time as they increase the volume, quality, and diversity of referrals. It reaches into employees’ networks such as their LinkedIn and Google accounts to forge connections. After proactively discovering new sources of talent, Drafted personalizes outreach with pre-set email templates – but ultimately the decision to further these relationships is left in employees’ hands.

Drafted diversifies your hiring strategy, and can help increase referrals by 2x in 90 days, improve time to hire by 30%, and reduce cost per hire by $3,000.

Where Drafted and Workable meet

Drafted automatically imports new public jobs from Workable, and exports referrals straight to your Workable hiring pipeline. No more double-posting or copy-pasting. Even better, if you’re using Workable and Slack, your employees can make referrals in Slack and you can review them in Workable, with Drafted handling intelligence seamlessly in between.

Get integrated

If you’re already using Workable and Drafted, find out more about activating the integration. If you’ve yet to try Drafted, find out more.

If you’re interested in sharing your product or service with Workable customers, take a look at our Developer Partner Program.

Not using an applicant tracking system yet – or (perhaps worse) using one that your team just refuse to engage with? Get a demo to see how Workable’s intuitive interface and mobile app encourage teams to take action.

The post Workable integrates with referral system, Drafted appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

An exclusive database of global talent ready to relocate, Jobbatical helps companies hire beyond borders for top business, tech, and creative professionals. As many job skills are becoming global, Jobbatical addresses how and who to hire for strong global teams. They propose that hiring internationally casts a wider candidate net, finds the best fit candidate, gains fresh perspectives from international talent, and cracks new markets.

With 100,000+ people in their database, they offer a rich and skilled candidate pool for cross-border hiring.

A global hiring plan

Jobbatical offers employer branded solutions, opening the gateway to smart creatives across the globe.

Dedicated copywriters first draft and broadcast a bespoke job ad across their 100,000+ global talent pool. A 60-day campaign then follows, which includes:

• sharing the add on social media channels
• sourcing qualified leads from Jobbatical’s own candidate database
• filtering applications
• ongoing customer support.

Once you’ve sourced your dream hire, they’ll also provide an immigration service to help relocate them. 

Get integrated

If you’re already using Workable and Jobbatical, find out more about activating the integration. If you’ve yet to try Jobbatical, why not find out more.

If you’re interested in sharing your product or service with Workable customers, take a look at our Developer Partner Program.

Not using Workable yet? Track and hire candidates from around the world within the Workable dashboard. Sign up for a demo and see how it will work for your organization.

The post Workable partners with Jobbatical, a global job board and candidate database appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• Simulation tests (e.g. selling a pen, answering a call, giving mock presentations.)
• Work assignments (e.g. coding exercises, writing samples.)
• Skills assessments (e.g. typing tests, MS Office tests.)
• Cognitive ability tests (e.g. General Aptitude Test.)
• Personality and integrity tests.
• Job knowledge tests.

Any of these candidate assessments can be useful in your hiring process in different ways (e.g. break the tie between candidates who did equally well during interviews.) But, their greatest benefit is that they help you disqualify candidates who don’t perform at an acceptable standard, thus reducing the number of candidates you will interview. Depending on the assessment, you can evaluate whether:

• Candidates can actually do a job. In fact, the work sample is the most effective way to predict job performance.
• Candidates have an acceptable level of cognitive ability that’s needed for a particular job.
• Candidates possess skills to do the job in the most effective and efficient way possible. For example, typing tests are good options when hiring administrative assistants.
• Candidates are a good fit for your team. Though personality tests aren’t good predictors of job performance, they give you some insight on whether a candidate would work well with your team members.

So, pre-employment assessments are a helpful addition to the typical hiring process. You can build exercises on your own based on actual problems each role faces or use effective templates. But, to save time and make sure that your tests are well-validated and reliable, consider using a trustworthy test provider instead.

How Workable helps you manage assessments

Workable lets you manage candidate assessments from the same place you manage the rest of your hiring. The “assessment stage” is one of the possible hiring stages that you can add in your recruiting pipeline inside Workable, but you can add assessments at other stages too (e.g. phone screen.) Workable provides you with a full view of who:

• Enters the assessment stage and should be sent an assessment.
• Has already been sent an assessment by your hiring team.
• Has completed the assessment (their results can be viewed directly or via a link.)
• Has passed this stage or was disqualified because of their assessment performance.

Keeping track of all these is possible by using Workable in combination with integrated test providers that offer effective and job-related assessments. Via these integrations, you can send assessments to candidates within seconds. Most importantly, you can keep track of the whole process inside Workable without having to log in and out of multiple systems or switch windows.

Currently, Workable integrates with:

• Codility and Geektastic, for coding challenges and exercises.
• Criteria, for personality, aptitude and skills tests.
• Objective Management Group (OMG), for sales-specific skills assessment tests.
• Saberr, for tests that assess candidate values and cultural fit.
• ThriveMap, for high volume work simulation assessments.
• Qualified, for assessing engineers.

We keep adding new integrations regularly, so you might find even more assessment providers in our system.

How to administer candidate assessments via Workable

If you have created a candidate assessment test on your own, you can upload it in Workable and send it to candidates via email. When candidates send back their answers via email, you can see these answers under that candidate’s Workable profile (“candidate timeline.”)

If you opt to take advantage of Workable’s integrations, select a provider when setting up your job ad to add tests at a specific stage. When candidates reach that stage, a button will appear on their Workable timeline and you can easily send the test merely by clicking this button.

All you need to do afterwards is to wait for the candidate to complete the test. When they do, and your test provider processes the results, Workable will:

• Send you an email notification, with a link to view the results.
• Display a link on the candidate’s timeline to view the results on the external provider’s site.
• Show the results directly on the candidate’s timeline in Workable:

This way, you can see how each candidate did on the test and decide whether to advance them to the next stage or disqualify them. The test results remain on your candidates’ timelines, so you can come back to them any time. This works well for busy hiring teams, as team members can view test results collectively or individually at a time that suits their schedule.

When candidates do well in their assessments, move them to the interview stage of your hiring pipeline. From there, Workable provides tools to evaluate candidates by offering interview scorecards and a structured interview process.

The post How to use candidate assessment options and integrations with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

When you’ve decided on the person you’d like to hire, an employment background check will provide extra reassurance that your candidate is qualified for the position and will pose no legal threat to your business. Companies that do not run a background check risk potential liabilities from issues that may arise when a candidate has been untruthful, or omitted details of their employment or criminal history.

Background checks can take many forms. The most common examples are checks of:

• Criminal records
• Credit reports
• Driving records
• Verification reports (e.g. identity, education, work history, SSN).

When you perform a candidate background check as a pre-condition of employment, you are legally obliged to work in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA.) The FCRA is a federal law that governs the production and use of consumer reports for employment. The law is there to protect you as an employer, from claims of negligent hiring, and your candidate from privacy breaches or discrimination.

Using these types of checks help you uphold your decision to hire your best candidate or avoid hiring someone who proves unsuitable.

Why conduct a background check through Workable?

Workable integrates with Checkr – an online platform that specializes in background checks for employment in the U.S. This partnership helps make your employment background check process:

• Efficient: Workable is a platform to manage your entire recruiting process. Through the integration with Checkr, you can request and run a background check without having to switch windows or log in and out of multiple systems. That way, you can keep track of candidates and background reports in one place.
• Legally compliant: Background checks are regulated by federal and state laws (e.g. the Fair Credit Reporting Act.) Companies are mainly obliged to:
  • Ask for candidates’ consent before they perform checks.
  • Avoid discriminatory background checks (e.g. genetic information.)
  • Keep candidates informed about adverse hiring decisions (denying employment based on the check’s results.)
  • Give candidates information about their rights regarding background checks.
  • Give candidates the time and the means to dispute false reports.

All these can be burdensome for companies to do on their own. Workable and Checkr work together to ensure there’s a legally compliant process already in place whenever you decide to run background checks. Your only responsibility toward compliance will be to apply the same fair standards to all candidates when requesting background checks and using the results to make hiring decisions.

Not using Workable yet? Request a demo to learn how you can improve your hiring process with our all-in-one recruitment software.

What does the background check process look like with Workable and Checkr?

Before you start the background checking process, we advise that you explain to candidates that a successful background check is a pre-condition of their employment. You must:

• State that any information found will be considered when making the final hiring decision
• Make the candidate aware that the process will not go ahead without their written consent; and,
• Explain that they will be receiving an email from Workable to which they must respond.

To remain compliant, the first time you request a candidate background check using Workable, you will be asked to sign an agreement with Checkr. This is to confirm that the check is for employment purposes only. From then on, you can initiate background checks directly from the candidate’s profile in Workable:

There are currently two types of background checks available via Checkr (with more planned for the future.) The Professional option differs from the Standard option by offering an unlimited number of county criminal searches that retrieve candidates’ possible criminal records (e.g. convictions, charges) from county courts.

After making your selection, Workable will contact your candidate via email asking for their consent. This email will also:

• Include the necessary documents that are needed for compliance with the FCRA.
• Explain that the results of this background check will contribute to hiring decisions and passing the check is a pre-condition of employment.
• Provide information about Checkr as the screening company (name, address, contact details.)

When the candidate replies confirming their consent, leave the entire process to Checkr. Checkr’s experts will:

1. Gather the necessary information from the candidate (current address, date of birth, SSN, driver’s license number & issuing state.)
2. Conduct their investigation.
3. Produce a report for you.

How to run a background check report

When Checkr’s report is ready, you will receive a notification in your Workable inbox and on the candidate’s profile:

The report will be marked as “clear” or “consider”:

What does ‘clear’ mean on a background check?

“Clear” means that nothing of concern was found and you can continue your hiring process with this candidate.

What does ‘consider’ mean on a background check?

“Consider” means that the investigation has found something that you may wish to consider before proceeding with the hiring process. Items marked “consider” are there to facilitate your hiring decision—not the make the decision on your behalf.

Initiating adverse action after a background check

In this context, “adverse action” means denying employment to a candidate because of information found in their background check. Should this happen, Workable and Checkr guide you through this process in accordance with the FCRA.

To begin the disqualification process, initiate adverse action directly from the candidate’s profile in Workable. (Note: the candidate isn’t immediately disqualified once you do this, as they have the right to respond):

At this request, Checkr will email the following to the candidate on your behalf:

• A copy of their background report.
• Written notification of pre-adverse action (your intent to deny employment.)
• The document “A Summary of Your Rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”

Candidates can dispute the report within a set period of time. If they do, Checkr will perform further investigation free of charge. At the end of this process, Checkr will let you know if the report is updated with new information or remains the same. Then, you can decide whether to proceed or to deny the candidate employment.

By using Workable and Checkr combined, you will remain fully compliant and you’ll have saved your hiring team time and effort. Use the information from your background check reports to make more informed hiring decisions.

Not using Workable yet? Request a demo to learn how you can improve your hiring process with our all-in-one recruitment software.

Related reading:

Employer essentials for employment background checks
How to address background check red flags
Setting up an Employee Background Check Policy 

The post How to run a background check with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Scan any up-to-date infographic on referral programs and you’ll see in seconds that they offer a very strong ROI. With such a powerful pedigree, more companies are moving towards using third party software to manage their referral programs and better compete for top talent.

Recognising this shift and knowing how powerful and cost-effective referrals are, we’ve recently further expanded our suite of system integrations to partner up with online referral marketplace, Preferhired. This means that whatever the size of your company you can maximize the benefits of this powerful sourcing strategy without impacting resources or workflow. And without leaving Workable.

So, how does it work?

Automating rewards and referrals

Preferhired provides a fully automated approach to managing referrals and rewards. Their digital platform leverages referrals made by internal employees and external contacts.

Referrals are tracked across three stages of the hiring process: applied, interviewed and hired. At each stage, wherever there’s a successful outcome, rewards are made in real-time according to a customizable, pre-defined budget.

With a flexible framework and a customized approach, it’s easy to scale up or down to meet current hiring needs, lowering your risk of unwarranted spend.

Ongoing, two-way communication with referers at every stage of the process and timely, immediate rewards, wipe out the biggest threat to a successful referral program; disengagement and a subsequent reluctance to refer again.

Streamlined, simple and symbiotic

Having connected your Workable and Preferhired accounts, you can pull all of your Workable jobs into Preferhired and then share them across your internal and external networks. Your only manual task is to add in salary details and set a referral budget for each of the three key stages.

As soon as you activate the ‘Interview’ step in Preferhired, the complete candidate profile automatically filters back into Workable at the ‘Sourced’ stage. The hiring process continues as normal from there.

The two-way flow of data carries on throughout the process as and when changes occur. Any updates made to job descriptions in Workable automatically feed back into Preferhired. Similarly, as soon as a candidate is moved to the ‘Hired’ stage in Workable, they’re automatically marked as ‘Hired’ in Preferhired.

Candidates arriving via Preferhired will have ‘Preferhired’ listed as their ‘Source’ in Workable, making reporting easy and accurate.

Super social: mobilizing your existing network

The average employee has approximately 150 contacts on social media. Multiply this by the number of people in your organization – as well as the external contacts you’ve built up – and you’ve got a powerful sourcing network.

Preferhired’s social share functionality makes it easy and quick for referrers to broadcast and share openings with their wider network; a network of like-minded, similarly high-calibre candidates. And because there’s already a connection, there’s likely to be a better cultural fit.

Preferhired works on any handheld device, which means it’s easy to reach those 68% of job seekers who habitually use their mobile device to search for jobs. Another quick win.

Get integrated

If you’re already using Workable and Preferhired, find out more about setting the integration. If you’ve yet to try Preferhired, find out more.

If you’re interested in sharing your product or service with Workable customers, take a look at our Developer Partner Program.

Not using Workable yet? Sign up for a demo and see how it will work for your organization.

The post Workable integrates with online referral marketplace, Preferhired appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

An easier way to post jobs

To make life easier for hiring teams, one of our first releases of 2017 was an improved job editor. This included a number of features, from auto-suggested job titles and locations to a library of over 400 editable job descriptions. With an expanding range of free and premium job boards to choose from, these updates helped to get faster job board approval and better attract the right talent. If you’re still not taking advantage of the full scope of job boards available, it’s worth finding out more about the benefits of posting to free job boards.

Later in the year we announced new question types for our customizable job application forms. Following that theme, we also introduced custom fields on the candidate profile, useful for professions where specific information (eg. pilot license number) must be kept on record. Customized per account, this is a premium feature available to organizations on a Workable Pro Plan.

In July, Workable become one of the first ATSs to optimize job postings for ‘Google for Jobs’.

More integrations with recruiting tools

In April we launched our Developer Partner Program, which helped set the pace for our partnerships team. As all-in-one recruiting software, our aim is to streamline the hiring process. The Partner Program helps gather the many different specialist recruiting services available, and to make them accessible via Workable. This year alone, we’ve launched integrations with HRIS, onboarding platforms, sourcing tools, assessment tests, video interviewing platforms and more.

At the beginning of December we also announced news of deeper integrations with LinkedIn, as a LinkedIn Preferred Partner. But we’re not done yet! Look out for more integrations in 2018.

Improved interview scheduling

Interview scheduling is known to be a huge headache, so this is something we were eager to address.

After a beta testing with a fantastic group of Workable customers, our full integration with Google Calendar and Office 365 went live in the Autumn. You can now check team availability, send invites and book rooms via Workable. It’s easy to preview your calendar directly inside Workable – remove weekends, if you’re lucky enough not to work them – and focus on what matters. The feedback for this release made us even more sure that this was a good problem to solve. That said, we’re not done yet – again, there is more planned for 2018.

Find the right candidates faster

This year we further developed People Search, our candidate sourcing tool. Previously a Chrome extension, it’s now available directly from Workable. The search has been upgraded, so it’s faster to find candidates based on skills, location, key words and more. If that’s not enough, it also supports Boolean Search.

A single platform for recruiting, these latest updates make Workable faster than ever for posting a job, sourcing and evaluating candidates.

In October we launched the Talent Pool. This is a place for storing candidates who are under consideration for future positions. When you know a job is coming up, and you want to start building a relationship with potential candidates, save their profiles to the Talent Pool and reach out with a personalized email using data gathered from People Search.

A fully featured mobile ATS

Of all the recruiting software on the market, Workable is one of the few ATSs available as a native iOS and Android app. Development has continued at pace this year on both platforms, making Workable more effective than ever.

The difference between desktop and mobile in terms of features is narrowing all the time; it’s easy to review profiles, schedule interviews with your hiring teams, communicate with candidates and complete an interview scorecard – all from your mobile device. In the spirit of ‘eating our own dogfood‘ we interviewed Rachel, our VP Sales about how she built a team using Workable on her mobile. If you’re trying to engage reluctant or busy hiring managers, we suggest mobile as an effective option. It’s easy to use up ‘dead time’ between meetings or travelling and avoids the obligation to stay late in the office.

We’ll be writing more about mobile in the new year, so stay tuned.

Recruiting templates and resources

Outside of the development work on the product itself, our team of specialist writers have been adding to our vast library of recruiting resources. Regular updates on our popular recruiting blog cover everything from workplace culture, recruiting best practices, tech, trends and more.

If you’re curious, from over 400+ job description templates available, these five job descriptions were most used in 2017:

• Sales associate
• Cashier
• Admin assistant 
• Customer service representative 
• Chief operating Officer (COO)

Catching up in 2018

Whether it was the Workable World Tour, SourceCon, HR Tech or one of the many other events we attended this year, we’ve enjoyed getting to you know you in person. If you missed us in 2017, sign up to the newsletter in the box below to find out where we’ll be next. We’re always happy to demonstrate the latest features in person to ensure you’re getting the most from your account. Thanks to everyone for all your support this year – here’s to happy holidays and a successful 2018!

As always, if you’re not using Workable yet, but think 2018 could be the year for a new ATS, we’re only too happy to schedule a demo.

The post Workable’s 2017 in review: all the feature updates you need to know appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Our latest integration is with video interviewing platform, Jobma. Using this integration, you or members of your hiring team can request video interviews and evaluate candidates right from the candidate’s profile in Workable.

Video interviews are becoming increasingly popular as the demand for top talent rises. Not only do video interviews speed up the screening process, they also afford additional flexibility for candidates, removing the expense and time of travel early on in the process.

By sharing a list of interview questions with your best candidates, you can request that they respond via video in their own time. This enables your hiring team to review the results as a group, or individually, depending on their own work schedules and location. When top candidates are already employed, this additional flexibility shows your commitment to building the best experience for your candidates and reflects well on you as a potential employer.

Jobma streamlines the hiring process by eliminating the stress, guesswork, and error as you file through multiple resumes. It helps create a better company fit by allowing you to meet your candidates virtually before you proceed to a formal interview.

If you’re already using Workable, learn more about activating your integration with Jobma. If you’re interested in sharing your product or service with Workable customers, find out more about our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable integrates with Jobma to enable candidate evaluations via video interview appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Helping companies to streamline their recruiting is what we do at Workable. We like to help solve the harder recruiting tasks, wrapping them up into an affective, flexible workflow. Partnering with specialist services helps make this a reality, which is why we’re pleased to announce our latest partnership with JamieAi, a service that helps connect employers with data service professionals across the UK, France, Netherlands, and Germany.

As you’d expect from company in the data science and AI space, there’s some smart technology behind the scenes. JamieAi makes recruiting quicker and cost-effective, while ensuring a match with candidates on a range of technical, cultural and personal attributes.

Combining human and AI expertise, JamieAi ensures only qualified applicants with the right skills and interests hear about your role. Providing an unbiased and effective way to hire, the integration ensures that you and your hiring team retain full control of the hiring process.

Setting up the integration with JamieAi is simple. Once authenticated, you’ll be able to link up JamieAi postings with jobs from your Workable dashboard. Once the jobs are linked, candidates matched through JamieAi will be visible directly in your Workable hiring pipeline. From here, you can gather feedback, plan interviews and assessments, exactly as you would with candidates for any other role advertised via Workable.

Find out more about setting up the JamieAi integration.

The post Workable integrates with Jamie AI for a smarter way to find data science professionals appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We’ll talk through each integration here, but as always, if you’re already using Workable, let us know if you need help.

1) LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect (RSC)

As part of LinkedIn’s Preferred Partner Program, this integration brings a host of advantages to Workable:

Accurate, up-to-date candidate data
If a candidate or prospect updates their profile on LinkedIn, it’s now reflected immediately inside Workable. See when the situation has changed for prospects in your Talent Pool or recruiting pipelines and reach out with a timely email.

Effortless collaboration
Your entire hiring team now has more access to candidate information – regardless of which tools they use.

Inside Workable, you’ll be able to:

• Import limited LinkedIn profile data to create and refresh records
• See your InMail conversations and notes from LinkedIn Recruiter
• View applicant’s LinkedIn profile via live LinkedIn profile widget, which appears next to your candidate data

Inside LinkedIn Recruiter, you’ll be able to:

• Identify previous applicants and the disposition reasons
• Filter and prioritize past candidates who applied and were uploaded to Workable

An improved candidate experience
With everyone on the hiring team up-to-date, communication with candidates improves. Nothing is lost just because someone is out of the office or on vacation. Everyone remains up to speed, and can communicate from the place that suits them best, whether that’s LinkedIn or Workable on the desktop or mobile.

2) Apply with LinkedIn

Apply with LinkedIn makes it fast and easy for candidates to apply to open positions on your careers site. It improves applicant conversion by enabling candidates to start an application using their LinkedIn profile data.

When complete, their details are gathered as a candidate profile in Workable. Should the application remain incomplete, the potential candidate will be surfaced as an ‘Apply Starter’ in Recruiter.

LinkedIn Apply Starters
75% of people abandon job applications for all sorts of reasons. LinkedIn Apply Starters makes it simple for a candidate to share their LinkedIn profile before completing the application – just in case something comes up. What’s more, you can build your candidate database with candidates who have shown that they are interested in your company.

It’s known that reaching out to these candidates is 2x more likely get a response than the average candidate.

3) Easy Apply

Finally, in the spirit of improving candidate experience we’ve also integrated with LinkedIn Easy Apply. This enables the increasing number of mobile job seekers to search for jobs and complete their application using their LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn Easy Apply adds an apply button directly to your job ad on LinkedIn. The key benefits are:

• 2x more applicants per job
• A reduction in the number of candidates that drop off on mobile

Preparing for the new year

Consider this an early gift for the holidays. We’re excited about launching this, especially now. New year provides a fresh new start for many, and chance to rethink their situation. People search for jobs, switch jobs, and are more open to new opportunities. Take some time to explore these features and get ready for a very busy new year!

…And if you’re not using Workable yet, schedule a demo to see these features in action.

The post Workable launches three new integrations through the LinkedIn Preferred Partner Program appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We designed Workable to be an all-in-one recruiting platform, which is why we are excited to announce our integration with BountyJobs, for our customers in the USA.

Traditionally only available to large enterprise organizations, BountyJobs is the largest third-party recruitment marketplace in the world. Through this integration, you’re now able to pay a flat fee to post a job in the marketplace. Recruiters will review it, indicating their interest in working with your company to source candidates. You’ll choose your preferred recruiters and they’ll deliver viable candidates which you can move directly into your Workable hiring pipeline.

When you’ve found the right match, the successful recruiter is paid the pre-agreed recruitment fee, which is a percentage of the candidate’s annual salary.

BountyJobs streamlines and simplifies the recruiter engagement and management process. It’s easy to connect with a verified recruiter on a per-job basis.

Most importantly, the integration makes finding and engaging with recruiters a seamless part of your process inside Workable.

Key features include:

• Access: instant access to over 10,000 highly-qualified, pre-vetted agencies
• Efficiency: manage all your recruiting agencies with a single contract
• Visibility: track investment and measure return to refine your hiring processes
• Compliance: set your standard and confirm your agencies are taking candidates through your prescribed screening process

If you’re ready to get started, you’ll find BountyJobs in the ‘Find Recruiters’ tab, at the Advertise step for a job. Find out more.

The post Workable launches Recruiter Marketplace in partnership with BountyJobs appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

As anyone that reads our Recruiting Blog will know, we’ve recently expanded our sales team at Workable. Rachel, our VP of Sales explains how having a mobile ATS she could use on the move made this possible. As you can imagine, finding the right way to assess candidates for sales focussed roles is close to our hearts. This is another reason why we’re excited to announce our latest partnership today: Workable now integrates with Objective Management Group (OMG).

No matter the position, identifying the candidates with right set of skills can be a challenge for any organization. Strong candidates for sales roles can be even more difficult because, let’s face it, most will already know how to present themselves in the best possible light. Using OMG’s sales assessments, Workable customers can eliminate 96% of the mistakes made when hiring salespeople (and sales managers, too) and take a more objective view when it comes to an individual’s charming personality, perfect track record or resume.

If you already have an account with OMG, activating the integration is simple. Once complete, you’ll be able to specify at which stage in the pipeline you’d like to send the test and the type of test that you send, for the different jobs in your Workable account. The process is seamless – everything can be done from inside Workable, including reviewing the test results.

If you’re hiring people in sales positions in your organization and looking for a better way to assess their technical skills, find out more about OMG and sign up for a free trial.

More integrations coming soon

OK – we’ve said this before, but we have a lot more exciting releases in the coming weeks to close out 2017 with a bang! Stay tuned for coming announcements with new partners in video interviewing, sourcing tools, and more. If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable adds sales assessments in partnership with Objective Management Group appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Saberr is a people analytics company. Through technology, they aim to improve collaboration and help companies create happy, high performing teams. Saberr Base is specifically focussed on measuring candidate cultural fit as part of the hiring process.

Resumes and profiles are good for helping hiring managers identify candidates with the right set of skills. Pre-employment assessments can measure the strength of those skills and provide a strong indication of candidates who should progress to the next stage in your hiring pipeline. But long-term success in a company is often as dependent on building a cohesive team whose personalities work well together, as it is on hiring for a specific skillset.

A structured interview process can provide clues on how a candidate might match the culture of the organization, but interviews are a very short window and it’s rare that the whole team will take part in the interview process. We’ve all heard of, or experienced, the new employee who looked great on paper and interviewed like a rock star, but just never managed to bond with their team after starting in the role. Why? Because they weren’t a fit for the culture of the team. Saberr Base provides the solution to this hiring problem.

How to assess candidate cultural fit

Saberr Base’s process starts with a short 15 minute survey of your existing employees. This creates individual reports which, when aggregated indicate team values, motivations, positive influences – and where conflict in the team is most likely to happen.

The candidate report, usually completed before the interview stage, indicates candidates’ values alignment with your team and how well they will work with specific team members. It also shows personality fit against your role requirements. Finally, an interview guide based on Saberr data helps teams undertake robust culture interviews. Combined, Saberr’s predictive analytics can help you determine the likelihood that a candidate will fit the role, the team and your organization.

If you already have an account with Saberr and are currently using Base, activating the integration with Workable is simple. Once complete, you’ll be able to specify at which stage in the pipeline you’d like to send the Saberr Base survey. The process is seamless – everything can be done from the candidate’s profile in Workable, including reviewing the value alignment results.

Interested in making better hires for stronger teams? Saberr are happy to walk you through a demo to explain in detail how this could work for your organization.

More integrations coming soon

Yes! We have even more integrations coming soon. Watch this space through the end of the year, as we’re set to launch a series of new partnerships. If you’re a software provider, get involved; find out more about our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable partners with Saberr for cultural fit candidate assessments appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Candidate profiles emerge as the key points of reference throughout the hiring process. They keep track of how far along the pipeline the candidate has progressed, they store the resume, and they keep a full record of all the team feedback.

In short, Workable’s candidate profiles free hiring teams from the tyranny of the email inbox. Trying to remember who was really positive about a candidate and who had a few more questions? It’s a comment on the candidate’s profile. Not sure when the candidate said they could start? It’s on the job application form – available on the candidate’s profile. Need a link to their portfolio? Yep. Candidate profile.

And yet… email and calendars are still vital tools for hiring managers and recruiters. Why? Because the primary communication with a candidate usually takes place via email. And because your time is contested – you’re not just scheduling interviews with candidates, but meetings with your boss, calls with your team, clients and more.

Our latest updates tackle this brutal truth: you still need your external email and calendar when you’re recruiting. These apps are not dead yet.

Workable offers Google Apps integration

Our integration with Gmail has been online and live for a long time. If you’ve not used it yet, it enables you to reply to candidates from the place that suits you best – Workable, or Gmail. The two are synced, so that every email with a candidate is automatically tracked on the candidate’s timeline. You’ll also remain up-to-date whether you’re sending or receiving on desktop or Workable’s mobile app for iOS or Android.

A few months ago we launched an enhanced integration with Google Calendar. Now, when you’re inside Workable getting things done, you can check team availability (and your own), book a room, and schedule an interview time that works for everyone using your Google Calendar directly inside Workable. No need to switch apps and waste valuable time.

We also provide the option to customize your Google Calendar view inside Workable. If you’re not working weekends, and you have preferred office hours, customize your calendar to weekdays and your specified hours only. Reduce the clutter and focus on what matters.

We’re a busy team, you’re busy people – we don’t always shout loudly about every new feature. However, you could call our Google Calendar integration the big sleeper hit of the summer. With little promotion from us, it didn’t take long for the Microsoft Office 365 users among you to say, ‘Hey! We’ve heard these Google integrations with Workable really work! What about us?!’

Workable now offers Microsoft Office 365 integration

We take your feedback to heart, so we’re pleased to announce that Workable now offers a Microsoft Office 365 integration too.

The release includes two parts: Office 365 Outlook and Office 365 Calendar.

As with Gmail, the Office 365 Outlook integration allows for seamless communication with candidates via Workable, using your company Outlook email account. Activated by an administrator for your Office 365 account, again, this integration also includes the automatic 2-way sync between Workable and your Outlook inbox. This means that you can send an email from Outlook or Workable, but a full record is kept automatically on the candidate’s timeline in Workable and in your Outlook Inbox. Your hiring team stays up to speed, and everyone can see the information they need. You can work from Outlook or Workable and rest assured that you have all the information you need.

The Office 365 Calendar integration enables faster interview scheduling. Check up on your own calendar, see the availability of your hiring team and schedule interviews faster inside Workable. And just like with email, we offer calendar sync so that events created in Workable are also synced back to your external Office 365 Calendar.

We’re really excited about these updates. The feedback we’ve had so far about our Google Calendar integration has been fantastic. Scheduling interviews and calls is one of the main headaches for hiring managers and recruiters, so anything that can help numb the pain has to be good!

Let us know if you need any help, and how it’s working out for you and your teams.

The post Email and calendars for hiring: not dead yet appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Today we’re excited to announce the launch of our first video interview integration with our latest partner, Spark Hire.

Spark Hire is an easy-to-use video interviewing platform with 3,000+ customers in over 100 countries. It’s used by organizations to make better hires, faster than ever before.

Why use video interviews?

If you’re new to video interviews, these are some of the reasons why their uptake is gaining momentum:

More efficient candidate screening
With a full candidate pipeline and a busy hiring team, interviews can take not just time, but resources. Juggling interview schedules with multiple candidates and a busy hiring team is tough. The higher the volume of qualified candidates, the more complex this becomes. Video interviews with a tool like Spark Hire help you screen and evaluate candidates at a time that works for everyone.

After receiving your interview request, candidates can answer your questions on their own time. When they’re ready, you can review the completed video interviews at your convenience. This makes it easy to screen candidates prior to an on-site interview, and to compare candidates early in the hiring process.

For candidates who are applying remotely, video interviews can also save on budget by avoiding costly travel expenses for early round interviewing.

Better collaboration with the hiring team
It’s important to get feedback from hiring managers early on in the process. Workable already makes collaboration easier, with trackable communication on the candidate profile. Now with Spark Hire, Workable also keeps a record of the interviews sent and received. Share the candidate profile with your hiring team, and they can review everything from the resume and application form to the pre-recorded video in just a few clicks.

If your team is busy at certain times, or even out of the office, Spark Hire eliminates the issue. Hiring Teams can log in from anywhere to review the videos and leave their feedback.

A fairer, more consistent process
It’s well known that a structured interview is almost twice as effective as the common unstructured interview. Workable already provides interview kits and scorecards to help structure your process, and Spark Hire follows the same principles. By pre-setting your interview questions, every candidate has the same opportunity to succeed, by answering the same questions, in the same order. This makes it easy to compare interviews – and unlike a regular conversation, the recordings are available to re-watch when you need them.

Making the connection

Connecting your Spark Hire and Workable accounts will enable you to send one-way video interviews to candidates as they move through your hiring pipeline. When a candidate arrives at an assessment stage, you can send the video request directly through Workable. After the candidate completes the interview, you’ll receive a notification and you and your team can view the video directly from the candidate’s profile in Workable.

Wondering what questions you should ask? Our Guide to Structured Interview Questions could help.

More integrations coming soon

We have many more exciting integrations to announce in the coming months. Watch this space to learn more! If you’re a software provider and would like to integrate with Workable, find out more about our Developer Partner Program and apply to be a partner today.

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Today we’re excited to announce our latest integration partner for our customers in the UK and Israel. bob, is an all-in-one HR, employee engagement and benefits platform.

We know how often valuable time is lost to manual data entry – especially when it comes to moving employee data through different, but related systems. This integration helps bring that to an end. Connect your bob account to Workable and an employee profile is created automatically in bob, as soon as a candidate is moved to the ‘Hired’ stage in Workable. The information transferred includes:

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Phone
• Candidate source
• Resume
• Avatar/Photo (depending on your preferences)
• Job title
• Job department

Find out more about setting up the bob integration.

Stay tuned for many exciting new partnership announcements over the coming weeks! If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved.

The post Workable integrates with HR and benefits platform, bob appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But making the hire is just the first step in the journey of a new employee. What happens between the offer acceptance and the new employee’s first day on the job can be the difference between an engaged new team member or the one in five who quit their job within 45 days.

Onboarding is more than paperwork

To create a successful onboarding experience, it’s important for companies to start showcasing their culture before day one. That’s why today we are excited to announce the launch of our latest partner, Sapling, who empower companies to solve and automate the onboarding challenge.

Sapling create structured and repeatable onboarding programs that promote new hire success. From introductions to fellow team members to the distribution of important documentation, and setting up the new hire’s environment.

Data entry? Done!

If you’re already using Workable for applicant tracking and Sapling for onboarding, you’ll know that with the joy of every new hire comes the drag of data entry. This new integration fixes that.

Connect your Sapling account to Workable and an employee profile is created automatically in Sapling as soon as a candidate is moved to the ‘Hired’ stage in Workable.

The data transferred into Sapling includes:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Job Title
• Department
• Personal email address
• Personal phone number

Once the information is transferred, you can start making your new employee feel right at home.

More integrations coming soon

It might be summer, but our work is not yet done. We have more exciting announcements coming up! Stay tuned here and in the newsletter for details of our expanding ecosystem. If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved.

The post From new hire to engaged employee: our integration with Sapling is live appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In our last post, we announced the launch of our first aptitude assessments partner and continuing with that theme, today we announce our first integration to assess the skills of tech candidates via our partnership with Codility.

Recruiting and identifying the best talent for your open roles can be difficult, no matter what the position. However, that challenge is even greater when you’re trying to find talent for hard-to-fill tech roles such as software developers and engineers. In the past, often the only way to evaluate a candidate’s coding proficiency was to have existing programming staff on hand, to sit with each candidate individually and assess their fit for the role.  This is not just  time-consuming, but difficult to standardize, causing some of the best talent to slip through the cracks. With Codility, Workable customers can automate this process early on in the hiring pipeline, and ensure that each candidate is being assessed against the same criteria. This means that your already busy hiring team see only the most viable candidates at interview stage.

If you already have an account with Codility, activating the integration is simple. Once complete, you’ll be able to specify at which stage in the pipeline you’d like to send the test and the type of test that you send. Of course you can send specific tests for the different roles you’re hiring for. The process is seamless – everything can be done from the Workable platform, including reviewing the test results.

If you’re hiring people for tech positions in your organization and looking for a better way to assess their technical skills, find out more about Codility and sign up for a free trial.

More integrations coming soon

We have more exciting announcements coming up! Stay tuned for our upcoming integrations for video interviews, onboarding and new additions to our HRIS providers. If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program.

The post Announcing our new integration with Codility appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

If you already have an account with Criteria, activating the integration is simple. Once complete, you’ll be able to specify at which stage in the pipeline you’d like to send the test and the type of test that you send. The process is seamless – everything can be done from inside Workable, including reviewing the test results.

If you’re new to pre-employment testing, here’s a quick rundown of ways it can help:

Assess candidates more objectively

If your candidate has performed well at the phone screen stage, well designed assessment test from a specialist provider will help you to draw objective conclusions before you reach a structured interview.

Pre-set tests have the advantage of being standardized and administered in the same way to every candidate. By selecting a test according to job-related criteria, you’ll give everyone the same opportunity to succeed.

Save time on interviews

Interviews are stressful for candidates and take time for your hiring team to prepare and complete. Some of the basic requirements can be assessed through pre-employment screening before you get to the interview stage. Save time for both your candidate and the hiring team, and create a better candidate experience.

Make decisions based on quantifiable data

Companies are becoming more aware of the value of building diverse teams, and hiring methods that directly tackle unconscious bias will help improve your hiring process. Test results enable you to be specific about your reasons for rejecting or progressing a candidate. Rely less on ‘gut instinct’ and stay inline with EEOC regulations by using tests created by professionals, for the professionals that you want to hire.

If you’ve yet to use an assessment test provider, find out more about Criteria and sign up for a free trial.

More integrations coming soon

This is the first of many integrations that we have planned, so please keep an eye here and on the newsletter for our latest releases. If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable integrates with Criteria appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The Developers’ API

Today we are excited to announce the launch of our latest APIs for providers of Skills/Behavioral Assessments, Coding Challenges, Background Checks, and Video Interviews as well as multiple updates to our existing APIs that make it even easier for providers of HRIS/onboarding and Sourcing solutions to build integrations directly with Workable.

In conjunction with this API release, we’ve also created a new Developers site where customers and vendors can find the resources needed to build these integrations. Whether you’re a Workable customer who wants one of your external services to build a custom integration, or a provider who wants to enable your services for interested Workable customers, we invite you to review the documentation.

Launch partners

As excited as we are about announcing these updates, we are even more excited to announce our initial partners who will be releasing their integrations in Q2 2017.

Assessments

CriteriaCorp is a leading provider of online pre-employment aptitude, personality and skills tests. The partnership brings the power of their intuitive testing platform, HireSelect® , to Workable customers. The integrations allows customers to quickly identify top talent by deploying assessments directly through the Workable Platform, and viewing test results right in the Candidate Timeline.

Video interview

Conducting video interviews has become an essential tool for many employers and Workable customers who use Spark Hire or HarQen will now be able to coordinate these interviews and review the recorded sessions from inside their Workable account.

Coding challenges

Recruiting great technical talent can be one of the biggest challenges companies face. Codility makes assessing coders a breeze – even for those without a technical background. Their integration with Workable will enable recruiters and hiring managers to seamlessly use Codility assessments and interview tools within the Workable interface.

Sourcing

Without great candidates in the pipeline it’s impossible to make a great hire. With our updated and improved APIs for managing external candidates, Workable customers can now integrate with the sourcing tool of their choice including our latest partners: Hired and Yborder. Workshape already integrates with Workable, as recently announced.

HRIS/Onboarding

A new employee’s journey is just beginning when an offer is accepted. The critical activities that occur between accepting an offer and their first day can be the difference between an employee hitting the ground running or being left bogged down in paperwork in their first days. Workable customers can start the onboarding process and create a new employee record the moment a candidate has been hired via the Onboarding integrations with Sapling and Click Boarding and the HRIS integration with bob in the UK.

As you can see we’ve been very busy behind the scenes at Workable to create an ecosystem that brings all of your most valued tools recruiting tools into the our platform. Continue to watch this space for more partnership and integration announcements in the near future. Solutions providers who are interested in building an integration of their services for all Workable customers can apply to be an official Workable partner via our Developer site.

The post Announcing the Workable Developer Partner Program and developer APIs appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Employment background check basics

A background check for employment is a legal investigation into an individual’s past. It includes items such as identity and employment verifications as well as global watch list, sex offender, national criminal search and county search checks.

The key word here is legal. This is an industry that is heavily regulated, so you can’t just perform an online search and use public information to make your staffing decisions. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), employers must make sure that should they choose to perform a pre-employment screen on a candidate, they protect that candidate from breaches of privacy, falsely reported information and/or discrimination.

Criminal records fall into two categories: national and county records. Some employers rely solely on the national criminal records. National databases are aggregated by data brokers and consist of both county and state records. Unfortunately, there’s no legislation requiring counties to report their records up to the national database level, leaving the database incomplete.
Most criminal records are tried in county level courts, so that’s where the most accurate criminal records exist. It’s important to run county checks for each of the locations where an applicant has lived. Performing national checks will give an indication of which counties to search. But to perform a truly comprehensive criminal search, county criminal searches are a must.

The value of employment background checks

According to a study from the National Research Business Institute, 37% of employers said a bad hire negatively affected employee morale, 18% said the bad hire negatively impacted client relationships and 10% said the bad hire caused a decrease in sales. Avoiding becoming part of statistics like these is easier when you perform background checks on potential hires.

This is especially true if you’re a small business or your business is in a growth stage. It can be very tempting to fill a position quickly when you’re small or growing (or both). To continue that growth, you need people to work for you yesterday. There’s nothing quite like the urgency of needing to grow your staff because continued growth of the business hinges on that hiring. But the cost of plugging someone into a job that isn’t suited to them can set you back much further than if you’d taken the time to do a background check to help find the best individual for the position.

With that in mind, it’s important to understand that an employment background check should be used as an additional tool in your hiring arsenal and not as the foremost decision maker. While it’s important for employers to be FCRA compliant, a background check simply doesn’t give you the full view of a potential hire, nor does it tell you about someone’s personality or whether they will fit well into your company. The only way to do that is to meet each candidate in person, and learn more about his or her skills, experience, and personality fit to make a well-informed hiring decision.

A simple background check solution

Workable has partnered with Checkr, an online platform that provides modern, compliant employment background checks for all different types of businesses, global and local. If you’ve used Workable to manage your recruiting, you can now use it to perform pre-employment screenings on final-round candidates that you’re deciding between. Once you have narrowed down your list of potential hires, you can simply order a background check directly from the Workable platform – you don’t even have to open another browser tab. It’s all integrated within Workable, so you can save precious time, money and energy for continuing to build up your business.

If you would like to learn more about Checkr and background checks, watch our webinar:

See our Employee Background Check Policy Sample for a starting point in developing your company policies.

The post Demystifying employment background checks appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• Time to fill: The planning metric
• Time to hire: The efficiency metric
• Qualified candidates per hire: The sourcing metric
• Interviews per hire: The process metric

As well as the standard suite of reports, Workable also provides direct access to your raw recruiting data via Amazon Redshift. This allows you to create custom reports to track the metrics most relevant to your team, and combine data from different sources.

A partnership with Tableau

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve recently established a technical partnership with Tableau. This allows our common customers to utilize a Tableau dashboard template to visualise their Workable hiring data that lives in Redshift.

The dashboard has been designed by Workable and focuses on key hiring perspectives such as a geography, departments, hiring funnel and candidate movement across hiring stages.

Are you interested? If you’re already using Workable, find out more about how to visualize your hiring data with Tableau, or talk to us about custom reporting. Not using Workable yet? Find out more about reports, and how they can answer key questions about your recruiting process.

This post was written by Lefteris Mantelas, find him on twitter as @MantelasL.

The post Understand your Workable hiring data with Tableau appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve been named a Gold level Preferred Partner by Glassdoor.

Getting the right candidates is always the most effective route to making a great hire. Workable’s seamless integration with Glassdoor provides the option to distribute all your open jobs automatically from within the Workable platform. Log in once to Workable, and perform all your hiring tasks in one go; no links to copy and paste and no data entry. For those hard to fill roles, we also provide the option to sponsor your jobs on Glassdoor — again, straight from Workable.

A better candidate experience

Getting your open jobs in front of the right candidates is one of the missions of Workable. Getting those candidates to apply is the next biggest hurdle, and Workable has always strived to make the application process as pain free as possible.

We don’t believe that a candidate should be required to enter page after page of details just to let you know they’re interested in your job. So for us, integrating with Glassdoor’s Easy Apply functionality was a perfect fit. Now, candidates can review a job posting, submit their resume and profile, and answer your prescreening questions straight from the Glassdoor site. It’s a near frictionless process—and it works! Since launch, our integration with Glassdoor Easy Apply has increased the number of successful applies for jobs posted on Glassdoor by nearly 300%.

Better data, better decisions

It was once written that no man is an island – and neither is the recruitment process for most companies. We believe that meaningful analysis of past recruitment activity will help you make more informed decisions about the allocation of future resources.

We’re working with Glassdoor to bring those insights directly into the Workable platform. Our next launch with Glassdoor will provide access to real-time data on the Cost Per Applicant, Cost Per Hire, and additional advertising metrics. Make data driven decisions to improve your job advertising spend and increase your ROI.

The post Workable becomes a Glassdoor preferred partner appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Last week we released our Pay Per Applicant job advertising model for Workable customers in the US and now it’s time to show the love to Workable customers far and wide.

In the last month we’ve released integrations to help Workable customers attract new candidates on a variety of specialty and diversity sites including Mashable, SHRM, Dribbble, and HireAHero. We also partnered with Looksharp to allow customers to specifically target new grads and college interns.

This week we’re excited to announce that we’ve expanded our job posting options for our international customers. In partnership with Beyond, we’ve added 55 new job posting sites, providing even greater reach to target the right candidates in 130 countries.

From Bumeran in Central and South America to TotalJobs in the UK, Stepstone in Germany to Bayt in the Middle East, Naukri in India and Jobstreet in Singapore, our latest release spans the globe.

We’re committed to making the job posting process as smooth and effective as possible, so you can expect more partnerships over the next few months. However, if there’s a site that you’re using that you think could be off our radar, please do get in touch.

If you’re on the other side of that equation – a job board with services to offer – and would like to discuss partnership opportunities, we’d love to hear from you too!

The post Find your next great hire on our 55 new international job boards appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Today we’re excited to announce our latest integration partner, Namely, an all-in-one HR, payroll and benefits platform.

We know that valuable time is lost to manual data entry. This integration helps bring that to an end. Connect your Namely account to Workable and an employee profile is created automatically in Namely as soon as a candidate is moved to the ‘Hired’ stage in Workable.

The data transferred into Namely includes:

• Photo or avatar (depending on your account settings)
• First name
• Last name
• Personal email address
• Job title
• Start date
• Candidate resume
• LinkedIn url (depending on your social profile privacy settings)
• User status

Find out more about setting up the Namely integration. We hope you find this useful – look out for more integrations in the future.

The post New release: a partnership with Namely appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The information exported from Workable creates a new employee profile in BambooHR and includes the following details:

• Photo or avatar (depending on your account settings)
• First Name
• Last Name
• Job Title
• Department
• Personal Email address
• Personal phone number
• Gender (EEO enabled accounts only)
• Ethnicity (EEO enabled accounts only)
• Candidate resume

Setting up the BambooHR integration

Integrating your BambooHR account with Workable only takes 5 minutes. Depending on your company preferences, you can set up to auto-export data as soon as you move a candidate to the ‘Hired’ stage of your Workable recruiting pipeline, or you can allow members of your hiring team to export this data manually. Find out more about setting up the integration in our support center.

Not using BambooHR? We have other partnerships and integrations planned, so do watch this space and let us know if there is an integration you’d like us to consider.  In the meantime, the detailed candidate report allows you to export candidate data from Workable as a CSV, into the HRIS system of your choice.

The post New release: a partnership with BambooHR appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Hiring is one of the most complex and challenging aspects of running a business. It’s the inevitable partner of growth and success, and yet most companies struggle with it. There are a lot of moving parts, a lot of coordination, and a lot of very human elements. So you would think we would use specialist tools for recruiting? Well, not really. Not yet at least.

We use software for accounting, for sales, for messaging and marketing but all too often we think we can muddle through our hiring needs with a mess of email and spreadsheets. Applicant tracking systems (the wonkish name for hiring software) have been around since the early 1990s. They used to be known, and still are to some, as a candidate management system. While they were long thought of as systems for larger organizations, they’re increasingly being adopted successfully by smaller businesses looking to improve their hiring.

Here are ten signs that you need to try out an applicant tracking system or candidate management system:

1. You’re spending more time than ever submitting the same job ad to multiple job boards

Especially when hiring for tricky to fill positions you want to cast the widest net possible. This means getting your job ad on a variety of the best job posting sites. There are a host of excellent places to post jobs for free and a growing number of premium job boards and niche job boards, many of which can help you get the qualified candidates you need in a hurry. All of them have different posting mechanisms and even with a dash of copy paste this takes time. The better ATS and candidate management systems enable you to post to multiple job sites with a single submission. When you need a handful of job boards this is a cute time-saver but when you’re posting to 15+ job boards, it’s a lifesaver. In addition to saving time per hire, it can also save you money, as the best applicant tracking systems offer discounted job posting on some of the most popular job boards like Monster, Indeed and Career Builder.

2. Irrelevant applications from unqualified candidates are choking your inbox whenever you’re hiring

This is the number one headache in hiring. The advent of online job boards has been a boon in terms of getting the word out far and wide that you’re hiring. The problem is that the message is often received and misunderstood by people who aren’t even close to being qualified for the job you’re hiring for. This means precious recruiting time is lost sifting dozens of irrelevant resumes. An applicant tracking system, or candidate management system, can help in two ways. Firstly, the best applicant tracking system options have customizable application forms where you can include screening questions that focus on your core requirements. If you need a relevant degree and related work experience you can add a screener and avoid a large percentage of the unwanted applications. Secondly, a best-in-class ATS is built to deliver structured information about all applicants making it quick and simple to disqualify applicants who aren’t going to be considered.

3. You want a better careers site but you can’t find the resources to get one made or you’re not sure how to maintain it

Your careers site is the shop window through which prospects see your open jobs and get an idea what it’s like to work for your company. Two-thirds of all job seekers will go straight to your careers page when they’re interested in working for you. It makes good business sense to have an up-to-date and attractive careers page, it’s also the foundation of your employer brand. Building and maintaining an effective careers page in-house just isn’t an option for all companies. And it can be daunting to get the development resources. One huge applicant tracking system benefit is that it’s easy to create a branded careers page with no coding required. Hiring tools, like Workable, offer an online editor that gives you the tools you need to create a flexible design that’s always up to date with a list of your latest positions. PS… Attract the right candidates by providing a real sense of the environment they’ll be working in, as well as the team they’ll be working with. Don’t just stick your company logo on it, use photos of the office or a video of your team.

4. You were tracking your hiring efforts in a spreadsheet and using email to communicate with your team and the candidates but it’s starting to get overwhelming

Let’s get this out of the way now. Spreadsheets are great at so many things, they were life-changing when Dan Bricklin invented them. But spreadsheets suck as a hiring tool. If you’ve ever wrangled multiple Excel tabs, while mining down seemingly endless email threads trying you’re not alone. This is the most likely sign that you need an applicant tracking system. At its simplest and most powerful, an ATS brings together job posting and sharing in all forms with the ability to track candidates, build a shortlist, schedule interviews and make new hires. A best-in-class ATS should enable you to browse rich profiles of candidates, compare them easily and work effectively with your hiring team on a platform that keeps your notes, communications, feedback, schedules and analytics all in one place. No one who has used a good ATS goes back to spreadsheets and email.

5. You’re using external recruiters for mid-level hires to save time and admin hassle

External recruiters are — and in our opinion will remain — a vital resource for recruiting. But they should be a tool that gets used when you have a high-level or a super tough role to recruit for. If you find you’re reaching for your favorite recruiter every time you’re hiring, whether it’s for the C-suite or reception, it’s a sure-fire sign that you find hiring a headache. You do not need to spend the big bucks on low and mid-level hires. The tools needed to attract great candidates and get from job ad to job offer are more affordable and more effective than ever before. What you need is a process that works. One of the great benefits of a properly designed ATS is that it comes with that process built in. An applicant tracking system should deliver you an easy-to-use hiring pipeline. At Workable the default pipeline looks like this:

Source > Applied > Promising > Call > Assessment > Interview > Exec Interview > Offer

While this is customizable, you get the idea. A pipeline makes sense as it gives you the structure to keep moving qualified candidates along and disqualify those who don’t make the grade. For a fraction of the cost of a recruiter, you can expand your reach without overwhelming your capacity to run an organized hiring process.

It’s time to take control of your hiring process. Sign up for a 15-day free trial of Workable and start hiring better people, faster.

6. Your hiring team is having problems coordinating feedback on candidates and making decisions

This covers a little of the same ground as the email and spreadsheets previously. When you run a one-person hiring process it’s your inbox that tells you it’s not working. When you’re part of a hiring team working without an ATS, you get the message from all directions. Sharing notes, feedback and evaluations of candidates over email, forwarding PDF resumes and running multiple calendars, it’s an invitation for a headache. An ATS does all this in one place. Everyone’s notes, feedback and evaluations on the same candidate profile, together with their resume, application form answers and relevant history. With the right ATS, a new member of the hiring team can jump in and catchup on what’s happened so far in less than an hour. With no ATS forget about it.

7. You know you saw a potential star last time you were hiring but the position wasn’t right. Now you’re hiring again you can’t find them

We’re all guilty of being over-reliant on our email. For most of us the inbox is the heart of our working life but it relies on us being able to remember a name, an email or a date, in order to retrieve what we’re looking for. A well-run hiring process is not just about hiring for one open position, it’s about meeting prospects for future jobs — referred to by recruiters as a “candidate pool”. Don’t have a call or an interview with someone great only to lose track of them six months down the line when you’re hiring for a position that would suit them. An applicant tracking system keeps an entire record of everyone your hiring team has considered. Advanced ATS options, like Workable, also allow you to tag promising candidates, which makes them easier to pull up later when you have a more relevant position.

8. You’re about to go into an interview and you can’t find that all-important piece of feedback

This has happened to most people who conduct interviews, especially at a senior level. You know that others on your team have assessed the person you’re about to interview but you can’t find their feedback. You’re in a hurry so you head into the interview without vital preparation. There maybe little you can do about being busy but you can fix this. With a best-in-class ATS you get a mobile version, or a native app, which means that even when you’re on the move (or taking a laptop into an interview is not an option) you can pull up a record of every interaction with the interviewee. Nothing gets lost.

9. You want to take stock of your hiring efforts but you don’t have any real data to work with. You’d like to have some benchmarks to measure your efforts against

For many companies, especially SMBs, hiring comes in waves. The hiring needs come at you, crash over the bow and then everything you learned drains off the deck. The loss of all this hiring experience is one of the main reasons why hiring processes so often differ from one job to the next, even inside the same company.  A good applicant tracking system stores and then unlocks substantial data about your hiring process. The discussion around recruiting metrics has become really lively and the recruiting industry hasn’t settled on universal metrics yet. But a candidate management system can track the source of your most qualified candidates, and find out how long it takes to make the correct hire. It should deliver hiring reports that can be exported to CSV or Excel, and help you to make clearer, data-driven decisions with your team.

10. You’ve been asked to come up with a hiring plan but you don’t have solid data to base your budget of time and money

Recruiting metrics aren’t only there to optimize against. Hiring is affected by a host of external factors from the economy and labor market, to location and industry, as well as job function.  One of the main functions of proper recruiting is to give you a realistic measure of your hiring process. Key metrics such as “time to fill” (The number of days between the publication of a job and getting an offer accepted) exist to inform accurate business planning. You won’t always be able to reduce these numbers but you can use them to budget more effectively when you have the data a candidate management system or ATS provides.

Here is what Tim Sackett, one of the most respected recruitment experts in the world had to say when we asked him who should be using an applicant tracking system:

We moved into this space in our history where recruiting technology has never been so affordable, meaning organizations no longer have an excuse not to have it. Great tech is so cheap now that if you don’t have it, you’re making a personal choice to stay in the dark ages of recruiting! For SMBs this has never been more real. SMBs can now have even better recruiting technology than their enterprise peers. While enterprise folks get big, vanilla based recruiting technology, SMB shops can move faster to integrate the latest and greatest tech on the market. It’s such an exciting time to be in talent acquisition, the availability of world class technology is transforming how we all recruit on a daily basis.

The post 10 signs you need an applicant tracking system appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Tech companies like Basecamp, Buffer, Stack Exchange, and Trello have mostly taken the lead, but it’s not difficult to imagine other industries adopting this setup, as long as employees did not have to work on-site with specialized equipment (e.g. construction, healthcare, hospitality industries).

But can you really get away with no office? Automattic, Mozilla, and Soundcloud, the three massively distributed companies profiled below, have done so. They share key aspects that contribute to their longevity and continued growth. First, all three companies have defined shared values and make hiring decisions that help them keep that in their culture as they scale. Second, distributed teams must communicate, even over-communicate, in order to keep the gears of collaboration and productivity running smoothly. Finally, great tools are the bread and butter of any distributed team. If your team can’t meet in person, you should pick good options for face-to-face communication, getting quick feedback, recruitment, project management and more.

Case study: Automattic

The most fascinating thing about Automattic isn’t their size (400 people), their success (Automattic is valued at 1 billion dollars) or their staying power (10 years and going strong). It’s their organizational design—the backbone of the company, the idea that supports everything else.

The company is a champion of the open-source movement and a major contributor to WordPress, which now powers one in four websites. Open source advocates believe that software that anyone, anywhere can use for any purpose makes the internet a better place. According to their CEO, Matt Mullenweg, “This mirrors the meritocracy that makes Open Source great and treats people on the quality of their ideas and their work whether they’re in San Francisco or Argentina. (Or if they started in San Francisco and moved to Argentina.)”

Mullenweg considers the opportunity to work from anywhere to be the single greatest perk that Automattic provides. Being a distributed team enables them to compete with traditional tech giants like Facebook for the very best job candidates. At Automattic, a range of communication tools have replaced the traditional office. These include the P2 (a WordPress tool), Slack, Trello, and Github. Instead of paying rent for office space, Automatticians go on team hackathons and summits in far-flung places like Hawaii, Mexico and New Zealand

Case study: Mozilla

Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox browser, has 13 global offices and people working in more than 30 countries. Mozilla also supports any employee’s decision to work from home. Despite their decentralized structure, this company has succeeded tremendously in building an inclusive culture.

Here’s what that looks like in practice: Employees can join any meeting by calling in, and can talk to anyone at the company via video conferencing and IRC. Improved collaboration is a great byproduct of such a culture. “There are pretty low barriers to cross-pollination. If wandering down a rabbit hole leads you to a bug elsewhere in the code: fix it. Barriers to ‘hacking in other people’s turf’ are low,” writes Johnathan Nightingale, VP of Firefox, in his Quora response. This extends to hiring. “There’s little to no distinction between contributors who pop out of nowhere, contractors, and employees. Mozilla is the community,” says Brian Bondy, a software engineer at Mozilla.  People who want to work at Mozilla are encouraged to join their community and contribute as volunteers.

This is related to their other core value, transparency. It’s important to build trust with people you don’t see on a daily basis. At Mozilla, they build trust by taking information out of silos. “For example, if you want to know how you may get a raise, you can look up this information including data sheets, considerations, processes, and tools,” says Bondy.

Case study: SoundCloud

Like Automattic and Mozilla, Soundcloud stresses that the key to a productive distributed team is constant communication and transparency. “Communication at SoundCloud directly links to one of our core values: #open. We believe that being open creates better results, that information needs to flow like an undercurrent to enable velocity.”

SoundCloud, a leading audio platform, has over 300 employees in Berlin, London, New York, and San Francisco. That’s four time zones. To ensure that they don’t miss a beat, they hold weekly All Hands meetings. Having a theme for these meetings keeps conversation focused and productive. The inclusion of remote employees is especially prioritized with high-quality video streams. “IT is basically producing a full, hour-long TV show,” says David Noël, SoundCloud’s VP of Community. High production quality is a priority as it increases engagement among their employees.

SoundCloud has also built a world-class internal communications hub. Their intranet, Opus, prioritizes community-building features and is designed to look and feel like a SoundCloud product. In addition to purely functional company memos, it’s packed with engaging content, in such as Opus Questions, a “Reddit-like Q&A tool where questions can be voted up or down.” Despite being a distributed company, several employees report seeing messages multiple times–a strong indicator of their system’s efficacy.

The post How to scale your distributed team appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You can select a trigger (for instance “anytime you get a new candidate”) and an action (“send a personalized email through Gmail to each new applicant) to make a zap.

Here’s some simple zaps we’ve made:

1.   Gmail
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Gmail Sends Email
   Usecase: Send a personalized email to every candidate who applies for a position
2.   Slack
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Slack Sends Message
   Usecase: Receive a notification in Slack when a new candidate applies to a position in Workable
3.   Hipchat
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Hipchat Sends Message
   Usecase: Receive a notification in Hipchat when a new candidate applies to a position in Workable
4.   Google Sheets
   Trigger: Add New Row in Google Sheets
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Upload candidates from your Google Sheets into Workable
5.   Google Contacts
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Google Contacts Creates New Contact
   Usecase: Create a contact from new applications to your positions in Workable
6.   Typeform
   Trigger: Add New Submission in Typeform
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Create your own application forms in Typeform and have submission create a candidate in Workable
7.   Zapier
   Trigger: Forward New Email to Email Parser
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Create a new candidate in Workable by forwarding your conversation with them to Zapier Email Parser
8.   Mailchimp
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Mailchimp Adds Subscriber
   Usecase: Add a subscriber to your ‘New Job Alerts’ mailing list in Mailchimp each time a candidate applies to a position in Workable
9.   Gravity forms
   Trigger: New Submission
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Create your own application forms in Typeform and have submissions create a candidate in Workable
10.   Gmail
    Trigger: Gmail New Email
    Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
    Usecase: Create a candidate in Workable by tagging an email from a candidate

Zapier integrates with more than 400 different web apps, which means most recruiters or hiring managers are bound to be able to find at least a few ways to use it to work smarter, not harder. To get started on your own zap, check out the full list on Zapbook.

Now do it yourself

• Define a trigger: The first event that instigates another action. The trigger might be something like “Send a new email in Gmail” or “Create a new candidate in Workable.”
• Define an action: An action is what happens after the trigger. It might be something like “Create a Contact in Google Contacts” or “Get a message in Slack.”
• Ensure your Zap works and then you are set. Zapier will await the trigger and complete the actions you’ve set up.

Need a little help? Check out our support section on our most popular zaps.

The post New Workable-Zapier integration saves time with automation appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

“That is why we liked FbStart and why we were one of the first companies to support the program. It offers timely and sensible assistance to mobile startups in a very pragmatic way” said Workable’s CEO, Nikos Moraitakis moments after the announcement of the FbStart program today at f8 in San Francisco.

Recruiting is one of the biggest challenges startups face. In those small, often overworked teams, every hire is critical and tools like Workable can go a long way in getting it right.

All startups admitted in FbStart will have free access to the same technology used by hundreds of hyper-growth companies like Intercom, Vend, Declara, Invision and Transferwise, who rely on Workable to build great teams.

We can’t wait to see new and exciting companies flourish with the help of FbStart, and we’ll be all the more proud knowing that Workable is part of their success.

To find out more about FbStart

The post Workable teams up with Facebook to help mobile startups grow appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.