With insights from our own real-life hiring guide, you are determined to find the best candidate who fits your company’s needs.

Don’t forget to customize it depending on your organization’s standards and read the instructions to craft the best possible version for your company.

Let’s begin.

Hiring guide template

The front page

In the front page:

• Put your logo at the top
• Mention the title (i.e. Guidelines for hiring managers)
• Don’t forget to align the colors according to your brand’s identity colors

Introduction

[This is the introduction of the guide. Feel free to customize it depending on your organization needs and standards. Here is a sample you can use]

If you’re reading this then it’s likely you are growing your team or someone on your team has recently resigned and you’re looking to hire a backfill. The People Team can’t wait to get the ball rolling!

This document will walk you through all the steps required to get your new job approved and live.

Also, it will provide you with lots of useful information and advice for making each step of the hiring process enjoyable and effective which will lead to the best new hires for your team.

And remember, the culture [Link of your culture at your company webpage. Check an example here] and ability of [your company name] to become a large global market leader all starts from recruiting.

• Every role in the organization matters
• Do not compromise on hiring
• Do not compromise, even under pressure
• Personality and motivation matter a lot
• Look what they have done, not what they say

The process

[Here, you should describe the steps involved in the hiring process for the recruiter. If the recruiter needs to prepare a job requisition, contact the HR manager to agree on terms, or secure approvals from the hiring team and other stakeholders, it should be mentioned here.

Additionally, this is the appropriate place to describe the hiring process, screening procedures, and interview stages]

Step 1: Create a requisition in a hiring plan

[If you have a requisition demand, you must provide guidance regarding the file path, the type of form, and the required fields that your recruiter needs to fill out]. 

Approvals

[Is there an approval process in place within your company? If so, please provide the contact information of the person or department that the recruiter should contact in order to obtain approval before proceeding to the next steps].

Step 2: A meeting between the hiring manager/team and the recruiter – Posting of the job

[This step may include a meeting with the hiring manager and the job posting terms. You can find below a sample].

The new role will be discussed here. Things that need to be covered in this meeting:

• The process (steps)
• The job description
• The ideal candidate profile
• Assessments (if there is the option to choose some of them)
• What the prescreening call should cover
• Important timelines (updates to candidates)
• Important timelines: when the successful candidate should be in place by, and why, then working back from that, to understand when interviews should be taking place
• Setting expectations – for example, no candidate should wait longer than X days for an update or feedback.
• The scorecards (different members of the hiring team shouldn’t ask the same questions in separate interviews)
• The assignment (the assignment should assess the specific skills required for the role)
• The assignment feedback format
• Offer letter details for when the time comes
• The candidate experience surveys and actions in [your company name]

The candidate experience survey

[Using a candidate survey is always a good idea. If you choose to use one, it is important to explain how it works, including when it should be administered, whether it is an automated process or if the recruiter needs to send it out, and whether there is a template available for use.

It is also important to identify the questions that are most relevant to the hiring process and provide guidance on how to use the survey effectively. Below you can find a sample survey with relevant questions that could be helpful in this regard].

• Were you well-prepared for the interview?
• Did the information provided by the hiring team give you a good understanding of the role and the team at [your company name]?
• Did you have the chance to highlight your skills and experience during the interview?
• Are you satisfied with the overall interview experience with [your company name]?
• Would you recommend a friend to apply to [your company name]?

Step 3: The screening call or the one-way video interview

[In this step, you need to describe the stages of the process. Who is responsible for shortlisting candidates? How should they handle incoming CVs? How are screening calls scheduled? What should be the key outcome of the screening call? How is a potential one-way video interview organized, and what are the desirable results?] 

• Prescreening: [Your instructions here]
• The screening call: [Your instructions here]
• Video Interview: [Your instructions here]

[If everything goes well and the candidate meets the expectations, they proceed to the next step, which may involve an assessment or assignment. In this step, you should describe the process clearly. Will it be an email with an attachment, a link to your site, or a document? Be clear about this with your recruiter].

Step 4: The cognitive assessment & the assignment

[If you decide to proceed with the cognitive assessment and the assignment, this is a sample you can use for your recruiter. In any other case, feel free to customize this step according to your hiring procedure]

The cognitive assessment

The online assessment consists of five parts: 

1. Abstract Reasoning 
2. Numerical Comprehension 
3. Verbal Comprehension 
4. Attention & focus
5. Workplace personality

Those are some tests that aim at evaluating candidates’ cognitive ability and should be sent before the assignment since the threshold is an overall rating of X. If the candidate do not pass the assessment we can’t proceed to the assignment. If they pass, the recruiter can send the assignment.

The assignment

The promising candidates typically proceed to the second step of the process which is the assignment and assessments. The assignment is up to the hiring manager to create and decide how long the candidates will have to complete it.

The assignment is meant to emulate the sort of work the candidate would be asked to  do in their job. The goal is to explore the way the candidate approaches a problem, test basic skills for the job and reveal the candidate’s ability to present their work and thought process clearly.

The assignment is the best chance to examine the candidate’s technical skills. The best advice before drafting an assignment is to leave some leeway for more in depth questions during the interview.

Also, remember that many candidates are extremely good communicators. They can sell themselves and we can buy them even after hours of interviewing, so the assignment combined with interviews, helps protect us from making poor hiring decisions.

When the candidate sends their assignment back you need to evaluate it within a couple of days. You should include detailed feedback in [your company name] using the [you decide the procedure], including where the candidate has done well and areas they could have done better.

If you don’t want the candidate to proceed further, the recruiter needs to send a disqualification email with feedback X days after the candidate’s submission. The hiring manager’s feedback is encouraged to be written as if you were talking to the candidate, in the second singular pronoun (you).

We really appreciate the effort you have put into your application so we’d like to give you some detailed feedback on your candidacy, hoping that it might prove useful to you in the future.

Let’s start with what we think are the good points of your solution:
(Hiring managers input)

Things that you could have done better:
(Hiring managers input)

The Recruiter is the person who will move or disqualify candidates. 

[This is the time to send a survey to the candidate for their feedback. If you choose to do so, please explain the procedure here].

Step 5: The first Interview with the hiring manager

[In this step, you need to be more thorough about the essence of the interview and the rapport building between the interviewer and the interviewee. Depending on your patterns, you can share your guidelines and points of attention during the interviews. Here is a sample].

Interviews are less formulaic than other parts of the process. There are still some guidelines that you ought to observe:

Review the scorecard

Make sure you are prepared for this and you know how to evaluate the candidate. Spend some time to prepare a scorecard and discuss with the recruiter which questions  can be asked. Scorecards help us ensure that all candidates are evaluated equally allowing us to make the best hiring decisions.

Respect the candidate

The candidate is making an important life decision. They probably prepared extensively, went through several calls and tests and maybe took time off their job to meet us. Whether you like the candidate or not you should respect the effort they are putting into this.

We have all interviewed for a job we wanted so we can all relate to the candidate’s situation. Treat them as you would like to be treated yourself.

1. You should be on time. A few minutes earlier is ideal. This will help you make sure that everything is working properly (In case of a virtual meeting check mic, headphones, or your background image). If you’re late by 5 minutes, apologize. If they are late but sent a message to notify us something happened to them, put them at ease and tell them it’s not going to affect their chances. If they are late without good reason, make a mental note, but don’t antagonize the candidate about this.
   
2. You  should  be  prepared,  meaning  you  must  read  the  Resume/CV  and  all comments/evaluations/scorecards about the candidate at a minimum. Sometimes it’s useful to have a quick chat with the recruiter or whoever has been evaluating the candidate before you.
   
3. You should be able to describe what the role is about in a few sentences, more on this further down.
   
4. You should demonstrate your preparation by not asking candidates about things that have already been addressed, or you should explain that you are asking a clarifying question when you do. E.g. “I know you discussed the reasons you are  looking for a job with X, I’d love to hear more about your objective to be in a  more X-facing role.
   
5. You should be polite and show appreciation for the candidate as a person and as a professional regardless of their suitability for the job in question. It’s a good idea to congratulate the candidate for their education and career so far and thank them for considering working with us.
   
6. The candidate is here to discuss a job opportunity. It’s fine, and often a good idea, to make a bit of small talk or pick up a tangent in the conversation. But make sure that most of the discussion is about the role in question.
   
7. Pay attention to the conversation and be engaged. You should look at the screen all of the time in case of an online interview but make sure you aren’t always typing or taking notes. You can do this after the interview.

Prepare for a substantial discussion

It’s a good idea to have a few specific questions you want to ask. What are the main things you want to learn about the candidate? It is often a good idea to tell the candidate from the beginning that you’re hoping to learn more about X, Y and Z in this interview.

Here are a few areas that are often explored in interviews and some ideas on how to think about them:

1. Ice breakers

A useful question that shows respect and opens up the conversation like if we have been prompt and informative in the process so far. Or ask them what they thought about the assignment. If the interview is onsite offer to show them around the office if they wish so they can see where they would be sitting and what amenities we offer.

2. Describe the role and the company

It’s good to establish early on that the interview is a two-way street and it’s your job to answer any questions the candidate has. Offer to describe the role if the candidate wants to hear it again from you. You should be able to explain what the company is about, what this team does for the company and what the role is expected to do.

The candidate needs to know what the main duties are, who they’ll be working with, who they report to, why the team’s role is important/interesting and what success looks like.

[Here, you can include an example of a dialogue that the Hiring Manager can ideally use to explain your product or service in a more engaging manner and put the candidate in the employee’s shoes.] 

You should be prepared to answer specific questions about the job and the company, about the team’s remote work status – always give a straight answer to the best of your knowledge. If you don’t know how to answer a question you can always say that you’ll get back to them via email or that this is a discussion they can have at the next interview.

Make sure you note these questions down so they can be followed up on.

3. Understanding the nature of the candidate’s most relevant work experience

This does not mean walking through the CV together. Simply asking them to describe their current company and the scope of their role tells you a lot about their ability to make sense of what they do. Asking them what they don’t do is also important. 

For example, a product manager does different things in different organizations. By asking them questions like “who develops the pricing?” or “who provides product explainers to marketing?” you can determine whether this is a technical or commercial type of product manager. 

Similarly, for managerial positions, you can find out whether a person is hands-on or not. Asking who decides or approves this or that can tell you whether their “director” role is really what it sounds or merely the result of title inflation

4. Exploring specific skills

You should ask about their familiarity with specific tasks or methodologies relevant to the role. You can start by asking things like “are you familiar with Monte Carlo simulations?” and then dive deeper asking if they have used it, asking to describe a problem they used it for, what it’s good for, or what its limitations are, etc. 

Sometimes this sort of discussion can start from something about the assignment – so you have a common example to work with. You want to understand what the candidate knows, but also how they think and hopefully open up a discussion that reveals their level of expertise about a few topics that matter to you.

Sometimes, the same goal can be accomplished by presenting a hypothetical (but realistic) problem and asking the candidate to think how they would tackle it.

How would you deal with a customer who’s upset about X? What would we need to do to upgrade our security infrastructure? How would you measure the quality of our onboarding process? How would you decide how to prioritize these two projects?

5. Understanding what they are like

Instead of the dreadful “tell me about your weaknesses”, you can have a meaningful discussion about the things they like more or less about the job. Why do they like or dislike X? 

If the candidate takes the job what would help them be successful? What should you avoid as a manager with them? This type of questioning is often more productive than lists of strengths and weaknesses.

Sometimes it’s more interesting to understand if the candidate has good knowledge of themselves. People who know their strengths and weaknesses can show others how to work best with them.

6. Understanding how they work with others

This is perhaps the hardest area to explore in an interview. An indirect approach is usually easier here. Who is someone they enjoyed working with in the past and why? Who is someone they found difficult to work with and why? Can they explain an argument/conflict they had and fairly represent the other side’s argument? If this is a leadership/managerial position, what kind of team would they build? What would they look out for in people?

7. Getting problems and objections out in the open

Chances are that you have some potential objections or issues about any candidate at this point. That’s really your last chance to address them. If you can’t think of a better  way, you can ask point-blank. E.g. “You seem to be a good fit in many ways but I have a small concern that you have no experience in a technology company. How do you think this will affect you?”

The recruiting process reveals a lot about a candidate and almost everyone will have some weak/questionable aspects.

Make sure you address them and get to the bottom of them – otherwise you won’t be able to make a fair decision.

8. Management role questions

For leadership positions – especially people with a long experience in managerial roles – there are a few topics that will reveal a lot and can easily start a good discussion: how  they would organize their team, how they would hire people, how they decide to let go of people, what was great about their best people, what they disliked about the ones who didn’t work out, etc. 

Ideally, you want to get into a discussion about a difficult situation and see if they can articulate how they thought about a problem, how they thought about the people involved, their motivations, their skills and possible solutions and their implications. People who can’t sound interesting or thoughtful in a discussion like this one are probably managers in title only.

9. Compensation

This is usually dealt with by the Recruiting team in their screening call or Video Interview. Unless told otherwise by the Recruiting team or your manager, don’t ask about compensation. 

It’s actually illegal in some jurisdictions, so it’s not just our preference but a legal issue. If asked, it’s OK to say that it’s not your role to discuss or negotiate salaries but the Recruiter will be happy to answer any questions they have.

10. Encourage the candidate to ask questions

Their questions often reveal as much as yours. Plus, it’s your duty to make sure that the candidate is making an informed decision. Answer questions truthfully and directly, to  the best of your knowledge. 

If unsure, say so and offer to get back to them via email or defer to your Manager or the Recruiter.

Here are a few common topics that candidates ask about and how to address them:

1. Questions about life at the company, office culture, etc.

Usually, the candidate will want to know what it’s like to work here. Tell them what it’s been like for you or for others in the role the candidate has applied for. Maybe you don’t know everything about the company but you know your own experience and it’s probably close to what they would experience here. Don’t take anything for granted. 

[You can mention here benefits and amenities of your company.]

You want to sell the role to the candidate but also don’t sugarcoat it. If they are bothered by something, it’s better if they know about it before accepting the job. 

For example, you can say things like, “People are friendly and helpful and there’s hardly any politics in the workplace – it’s very meritocratic” but also things like, “This is a very ambitious company with smart competitors so everyone is expected to be performing at the top of their profession to advance their career here – it is not an easy job”.

2. Questions about funding, financing, revenues, investors, etc.

[Customize this text according to your company funding and investors.]

There’s a public record for funding and it’s fair to say that we are backed by venture capital firms [if this is the case]. 

You should decline to share revenue or other financial metrics. Tell the candidate that your department leader is a better person to tackle those questions in the next interview.

3. Questions about career development

You can tell candidates that the company has a systematic approach to track and encourage career development. You can say a few things about the internal grades system and how performance reviews work. You probably have examples of people in the same job or team that got promoted or moved to a different role and those are often the best way to show a candidate what’s possible.

4. Questions about compensation and benefits

For compensation, it’s best to defer to the Recruiting team.

[For benefits such as healthcare, maternity leave, etc., you may have documents that can also be shared in the first email to the candidate. These documents may have been discussed with the recruiter and may also be available on your career site.]

5. Questions about the way we work

The smartest candidates will have a few specific questions about the tools and technologies we use, the processes we have, how responsibilities are allocated, how decisions are made, etc. This is the area that you know best, so here’s your chance to demonstrate your knowledge. 

We probably have some weaknesses too, things we want to improve or hope to do in the future. Talking about them in a thoughtful manner shows that we are not a stagnant organization so don’t be afraid to touch this discussion.

6. Family and work-life balance questions

Some candidates are concerned about how a job can interfere with their family obligations. If the job requires shift work make sure you clarify what it’s like and how much.

Remember, it’s OK to say you don’t know something, or “I can’t speak for the company about this, but here’s how I understand it”. Good candidates appreciate honest and forthcoming interviewers. 

Things to avoid

Interviews are sensitive. You’re in front of a stranger and you are both trying to make an important decision, so you each want to learn more about the other. But there’s an asymmetry of power. Even if we don’t see it that way, many people will see you as the gatekeeper for a job that may be very important to them.

They feel obliged to go where you want to go and act as if it’s totally OK, even if it makes them uncomfortable. 

It is your responsibility to stay within the boundaries of acceptable conversation. Here are a few common mistakes and topics to avoid:

1. Discussions about other people or previous employers

It’s OK to discuss what they didn’t like about their previous job or why they were let go. Some candidates will badmouth employers or trash talk this or that. Don’t participate in it and gently bring back the conversation to what’s strictly professional.

For example, if  they lost faith in the success of their current employer, that’s something useful to know and it may suggest that this is something important to them.

If they want to go on for 20 minutes about why their boss was a terrible person to work with, we don’t want to hear this and it doesn’t make the candidate look very good either.

2. Personal matters

This is not the time to discuss their family, health or other personal matters. If it’s offered by the candidate and relevant to their resume/CV, it’s OK. E.g. “I quit my job a year ago to look after my baby and now I want to go back to work” or “My wife is a doctor who works 80-hour weeks so I need a job that allows me to pick up my children from school in the evenings”. 

A simple rule of thumb here is if you wouldn’t talk about something in a professional meeting with people you don’t know (e.g. a customer) then you probably shouldn’t do it in an interview either.

3. Politics, religion and any controversial non-work topic.

These have no place in interviews.

4. Too casual

The meeting should focus on professional matters and be conducted in the same manner as any other professional meeting with strangers. It’s OK to spend some time building rapport, talking about some common interests or making small talk but remember that this is not a social occasion and the candidate expects you to discuss substantial work-related matters. 

Personable and confident people may appear pleased to have casual conversation and both of you may be enjoying this, but it’s your job to make this a discussion about the role in question.

5. Arguments in general

If you do enough interviews you’ll get to meet someone who’s rude, late, aggressive, trash talking this or that, etc. Don’t let them drag you into an argument, don’t be judgemental, always stay polite and steer the conversation on topic even if they infuriate you and you are 100% right. 

If we don’t like someone we don’t have to hire them but we must behave professionally even if they don’t.

Evaluation

Now you need to write down your opinion about the candidate. Here are a few tips on writing evaluations:

1. Use a scorecard. This way the entire hiring team knows what has been covered in the previous step.
   
2. Your role is to form an opinion, not just to write a transcript of what happened in the interview. Use notes and facts from the interview to document your opinion, don’t just list them.
   
3. Your opinion should have a specific bearing on things we care about: Can the candidate do the job? Do they bring skills we don’t have? Will we learn something from the candidate? Are they missing skills you wish they had? Will they work well with our team? Will they function well in our processes and style of work? Will they be happy with the job?
   
4. Use facts from the CV and the interview to support your opinion. Past achievements demonstrate skills, intelligence or work ethic. Specific statements in the interview suggest motivations or interests. Personality and demeanor suggest how the candidate would fit in a team.
   
5. There’s always room for “gut” or undocumented reactions. If you really liked or disliked someone you should mention it in the evaluation. But do take the effort to inquire why. E.g. “I had a hard time making good conversation because the candidate was dominating air time and interrupting all the time – it will be tough to deal with customers without better conversational skills.” Don’t just say, “I didn’t like him.”
   
6. Write the evaluation right after the interview. A Pro Tip: block 15 minutes after each interview for overruns or completing your scorecard right away. A day later you will forget important points and you’ll only remember your impressions not the facts. Also, if you see other candidates in-between the interview and the evaluation then it becomes a comparison game. If you find yourself writing things like “John is great, but not as good as Liz” then you’re doing it wrong. We’ll get to do this thinking later when we have an individual evaluation for everyone. 

Also, people tend to like people who are similar to them. We tend to be biased towards someone who has the same hobby as us, or went to the same university or has the same age or in general has something similar. If we know it before an interview we eliminate the chances of liking someone regardless of the actual technical skills or interview performance.

Please avoid using subjective assumptions for candidates’ personalities or attitudes and be based on those to make a final decision. Eg: Sophia, was communicative, smiley but seems an introvert and too arrogant so, I believe she won’t fit in our culture. 

Try to give data from the interview and before using those words to back them up. So why couldn’t a non-smiley, introvert and arrogant person add value to the team? Back up your opinion in a correct way. 

Also, the term “culture fit” can lead to several misconceptions. A lack of diversity is the biggest drawback of hiring for cultural fit. If like-minded people are hiring folks who are similar to them, it’s not likely the organization is diversifying its workforce. We prefer to use the term “culture add” instead.

A culture add is someone who brings diverse experiences, perspectives, and ideas to the workplace. A culture add is someone who enhances the company culture, a missing piece that changes the picture. A culture add models desired behaviors and values while empowering growth.

Experienced interviewers know what they want to learn about a candidate before the interview and they make sure they use the interview to provide them with the facts they need to write a comprehensive evaluation. Thinking about the evaluation before the interview is the best way to figure out what you want to discuss in the interview itself.

Step 6: The executive interview

This is the last interview of the process. The department Head will make the final call for the candidate. If you’ve done a good job selecting and evaluating candidates, the executive interviewer should know what areas are unclear or potentially problematic so they can focus more of their attention there and make a decision.

Step 7: Reference calls

The reference call is done by the Recruiter to two cases. The first is for roles that are [grade X] and above. The second is to anyone for whom we have slight doubts personality wise.

1. We only make reference calls for people we intend to hire as a last step before the offer letter. A reference call reveals that the candidate is looking for a job to a third person so we should never do this earlier in the process. The guiding principle here is that you should be prepared to make an offer tomorrow if the reference turns out positive.
2. Ask the candidate to provide contact information for their suggested references. Make a note of the candidate’s relationship to their reference. Were they reporting to this person? Were they peers? Is it some other senior member of their previous organization?
3. References will rarely be negative about the candidate. The way to get to the truth is by asking indirect but specific questions. Instead of “which are the candidate’s weaknesses”, ask “how can I get the most about this person?”, “how do you advise me to manage this person?” or “what should I know or avoid?”. This line of questioning is usually more revealing.
4. Sometimes the best references are ones the candidate didn’t offer. If you know someone you trust who knows the candidate this is the best way to learn about them. There is nothing unethical about back-references if done correctly. As with normal references we only do them at the end of the process when we know we want to hire that person. We don’t do back-references with the candidate’s current employer under any circumstances. We do them only with people we know and trust to be discreet. The general principle here is that we don’t want to reveal the fact that the candidate is looking for a job to anyone we can’t trust to keep it confidential.

Step 8: The Offer Letter

[Customize this to meet the standards and flow of approvals of your organization]

When the Hiring Team agrees on the ideal candidate and decides to move on to an offer, the following steps should be followed.

The VP mails to the Recruiter and SVP or C-level Executive the offer details, which include:

1. Candidate Name:
2. Position title:
3. Grade:
4. Salary:
5. Bonus:
6. Starting Date:
7. Team:
8. Reports to:

Process

1. The SVP or C-level Executive approves by replying back.
2. The Recruiter prepares the approved offer letter and shares it with their manager for final approval.
3. The Recruiter sends the email with the offer letter to the candidate while on phone with them and cc’s the Hiring Manager/VP.

As soon as the candidate accepts then HR takes over for the pre-boarding process.

Happy Hiring!

The post Hiring guide template: guidelines for hiring managers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The following table of contents contains the topics and suggested rules of using Slack. Feel free to modify it based on your needs and your guidelines.

Slack guide introduction

Slack is a great communication tool, especially for a hybrid or distributed company. But it is not always the best mode of communication. Sometimes an email, call, meeting may be better suited. Consider what you are sending or discussing to decide whether Slack is your best option.

If someone sends you a Slack message and you believe it is not the right place to be discussing the matter at hand, you should let the sender know and suggest an alternative. You are encouraged to do that. “Hi! It sounds like this would be better discussed on a call, I’m free now if you are?”

Some teams also have established norms, these should be explained to you when you’re onboarded but if anything is unclear it is always OK to ask. It’s important you’re not missing out on important information because you didn’t know to join a certain channel or understand a team norm about using Slack.

Slack DMs should not be used for getting formal approvals (e.g. promotions) or anything that requires an audit trail. For approvals use email instead.

Slack channel naming conventions

Here are some common naming conventions [we suggest you use] that should help you search for the channel you’re looking for.

Be mindful of channel bloat. When creating a channel ask yourself whether a DM group would be more appropriate? Channels tend to live for a long time with people leaving/joining, if your need is more temporary a DM group may be more suitable.

Setting up Slack

Complete your profile

Complete your profile with your full name, job title, email, phone (where appropriate).

Setup your notifications preferences

You can click on your profile name on the top right corner of the slack app and go to preferences.
There you can choose when to get notifications on your phone or PC/MacBook.

If people see you active in Slack they will assume you are able to talk. You can also set your notification schedule so you don’t receive notifications outside your working hours:

Integrate Google Calendar

Integrating GCal will automatically update your status in Slack so people know, for example, when you’re in a meeting.

Day-to-day use

If you want time to focus; turn off notifications

You can set a time period for your update, it’s a pro move to use that so you don’t accidentally turn off notifications for the rest of your day.

You can see when someone has paused their notifications:

If something is important and urgent you can choose to “Notify anyway?” to override their paused notifications:

Turn notifications off for channels where you don’t need real time notifications

This is particularly useful in very busy channels especially if you are more of an observer than an active participant. (If you only ever observe, consider whether leaving the channel would be better for you). You can also choose to mute a channel to further reduce its presence.

Leave channels you are not engaging with

Over time it’s easy to join 10s of channels. On their own each one probably doesn’t distract you much. But overtime the combined distraction of those 10s will make a difference. If you don’t need to be in it, leave; there are plenty of other ways for someone to contact you and you can always re-join.

Slack will periodically notify you of channels you rarely use. It’s a good practise to review the suggestions and leave those you’re not engaging with:

Keep your status up to date

If you have integrated your Google Calendar with Slack your status will automatically be updated when you’re in a meeting so people know you’re busy. But there may be times you want to manually update your status.

It is often helpful to add context to your status, for example when going on PTO you can add the date you will return:

Sections keep DMs organized

Sections make it quick and easy to get to the DM you use the most, often your team

Become a Slack Pro

Using keyboard shortcuts to navigate in Slack will save you a lot of time. For example jumping to a specific conversation or going back/forward are great examples.

Messaging Guidelines

[Feel free to modify or add messaging rules and guidelines for your personnel here].

Use @channel and @here with extreme caution

They should only be used for important, urgent messages. If you use @channel or @here make sure your message contains enough information that someone knows if they should respond or if they can ignore it. For example, “@channel please look at the message above” is not helpful.

When you put @here in your message, all users that are members of the channel you are posting and are active will get a notification.

When you put @channel in your message, all users that are members of the channel you are posting will get a notification no matter if they set up do-not-disturb or even mute the channel. People that are asleep will wake up, people will check your message during their meetings.

Don’t expect a response straight away

Slack is a great way to talk directly to people in a more direct way but people might be doing something that can not be left in the middle or have another very important talk.

If you need to communicate with someone urgently you can send them a message explaining exactly that but if you don’t see a response right away there is no point in sending more messages. There are other ways to communicate with a coworker if something is urgent.

Use threads on Channels and group conversations

Threads help keep track of conversations and most importantly replies in threads do not notify all the channel members at all.

Only the parent post creator will be notified and after that only the people who have posted on the thread will get notifications by default.

Don’t just say “Hello”

Do not send someone a DM saying “Hello” and leave it there. Ask the question you would like answered right away.

Acknowledge messages with reactions

Instead of sending a one word answer like “OK”, “Cool” or “thank you” consider using an emoji like a thumbs up. That will help reduce the disruption (no notification or unread notice for the recipient) but at the same time maintains the courtesy. Using keyboard shortcuts for emojis can also save time

Avoid sending multiple short messages that should be one message. The individual notifications are a nuisance for the recipient and it’s difficult to read.

Respect someone’s status

If they say Do Not Disturb, leave them be if you can. Consider sending an email instead. If it’s urgent and important, go ahead and click “Notify anyway?” so they receive a notification.

Consider scheduling your message to send later

Whilst most people will have notifications paused outside their working hours, you can also help by using Slack’s option to schedule your message to send later. Slack will show you the local time for the person you are messaging;

Commonly used emojis for statuses & reactions

If you are ever uncertain about the intended meaning of someone’s reaction to your message, ask for clarification.
Hovering over someone’s status emoji may provide some additional context:

Common Statuses	Meaning
	I’m on PTO
and	I’m busy, please don’t disturb (or on PTO with Google Calendar / Slack integration)
	I’m in a meeting
	I’m in the office
	I’m having lunch
	I’m out sick

Common Reaction Emojis	Meaning
	I’m looking into your message/question
	Thank you
	Go ahead / agreed/ approved

Some channels you might be interested in

[Here, you can add your public channels, specify the topics, and provide useful information].

This is the end of our Slack guide template. You can easily download it by clicking on the link in the right sidebar.

Workable offers thousands of templates to help you hire faster. Check them out here.

The post Company’s slack guide policy template appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) can mitigate the difficulties of HR and finance collaboration. Thanks to technology, you can unite HR and finance strategies to drive better collaborations, processes, and solutions.

Common challenges of HR and finance collaborations

HR and finance are two departments that, historically, don’t see eye-to-eye.

HR recognizes employees as valuable business investments. Strategies focus on improving intangible assets like skills and experiences. Finance, on the other hand, tends to see employees as an expense and is laser-focused on the value of quantifiable assets.

These differing ideologies push the two teams into departmental silos, where their strategies, solutions, systems, and sources all exist in isolation. This can result in conflict, data inaccuracies, and a host of other issues when the two teams need to collaborate.

But collaborate they must.

Whether it’s to optimize your recruitment budget or streamline your payroll, HR and finance need to come together. Modern businesses are quickly learning that collaboration between the two enhances strategic decision-making across both departments.

But to achieve this harmony, you need AI.

How AI can facilitate better HR-finance collaboration

AI can improve the collaborative capabilities of HR and finance in three key ways.

1. Data integration and analysis

Siloed HR and finance data is vulnerable to data inconsistency, duplication, and human error. These risks slow down productivity, increase the risk of oversights, and cause teams to miss out on valuable opportunities.

An AI-powered enterprise resource planning (ERP) system captures and unifies HR and finance data in real-time alongside all your other department-specific information. With enhanced visibility, dispersed teams can access consistent data and analyze it to make collaborative and mutually-beneficial decisions.

So, for example, finance will always know when a new worker is added to the payroll or if an employee’s benefits change. This ensures the accuracy of financial budgeting and planning.

2. Automated reporting and forecasting

Your business needs to do more than keep up with the latest trends – it must anticipate them. Automated reporting and forecasting deliver swift access to data and analytics that can be used to power critical financial decisions.

Finance teams need employee data to make these decisions. This is where AI comes in. Automated reporting and forecasting tools use artificial intelligence to pull disparate data. This is then consolidated into customizable financial reports, which consist of easy-to-interpret visualizations, charts, etc.

Essentially, this enables finance teams to generate forecasts on demand. And, thanks to ongoing data streams, finance teams can quickly and confidently update forecasts in response to any changes.

3. Streamlined compliance and risk management

Both HR and finance handle sensitive company and employee data that needs to be protected under data protection laws and regulations. Inefficient data-sharing processes between HR and finance can result in costly repercussions.

Additionally, teams need to abide by labor laws and tax regulations, whether this be in the UK or state labor laws in the US. For businesses with employees in different cities or countries, this can get complicated very quickly.

With so many rules and regulations to adhere to, companies are turning to AI. The best cloud-based AI technologies have compliance built into their core and utilize a stack of security features that strengthen risk management.

AI applications in HR-finance collaboration

So, what does the application of AI in HR-finance collaboration look like? Here are a few examples.

1. Payroll and benefits management

HR needs to pay employees their wages and benefits accurately, on time, and in alignment with tax and employment laws. Without AI, it can be difficult to achieve the financial visibility and operational reliability needed to eliminate human error.

Any discrepancies that arise from human error, duplication, or the like can have serious consequences. This is why payroll software has become the standard for streamlining payroll and benefits management.

HR and payroll software automates payroll and benefits operations. As well as producing accurate, on-time payslips for employees, it also stores historical and current payroll data for quick analysis. This means HR and finance can make data-informed financial decisions regarding future salary and benefits offerings.

Plus, if you do business in the UK, you can even utilize natively HMRC-compliant payroll software to make sure compliance with the latest tax legislation.

2. Budgeting and financial planning

Employees are your most vital asset, which naturally means they’re one of your most costly expenses. It’s essential HR and finance teams work together to balance employee recruitment, salaries, and benefits with sustainable business profitability.

As recruitment costs climb, budgeting and financial planning need to be a joint effort right from day one of recruiting.

Luckily, recruitment software can optimize the hiring process to meet the goals of both HR and finance. This creates better candidate experiences, speeds up the hiring process, and secures the best talent in the right places. By doing so, HR can drive down cost-per-hire.

Salaries and benefits are also a common point of contention. Currently, benefits cost employers 32.9% of total employee compensation. HR teams who offer extravagant benefits like tuition reimbursement or cash bonuses without comprehensive financial budgeting and planning can land themselves in hot water.

But AI-powered accounting software can unite HR and finance. Thanks to features like detailed financial reporting and cash flow visualizations, the two can collaborate to make informed recruitment, salary, and benefits decisions.

3. Fraud detection and prevention

Every department needs to be able to defend against fraud attempts, but because HR and finance teams are privileged users with access to secure systems and sensitive data, insider threats are a bigger risk.

Not convinced it will happen to you? Well, 60% of businesses have experienced at least one insider attack in the last year according to a Gurucul study. Whether they occur due to maliciousness or negligence, insider threats are a pressing concern.

Fortunately, accounting, HR, and payroll systems all come with in-built security features that, when fortified by ERP, harden your fraud defense. This includes things like audit tracking, user access restrictions, and real-time alerts.

As well as deterring and quickly identifying malicious insider attacks, AI can prevent negligence from causing catastrophic data breaches that lead to external fraud.

Align your teams – and tech – for success

When HR and finance work together, they can achieve their aligned goal to maximize capital. But to do this effectively, they need the right resources.

AI-powered technologies unite disparate systems and facilitate cross-department communications. HR and finance can use them to automate and streamline data integration and analysis, ultimately powering better hiring, payroll, budgeting, and forecasting strategies.

Want to connect HR and finance? Use AI today.

The post Can AI help HR and finance collaborate more smoothly? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There is no dilemma regarding whether to fire employees or hire new ones in the AI era. It simply requires a fresh perspective on the workforce of your company.

Workforce planning has become more important than ever, and both companies and employees must demonstrate flexibility in this regard.

Workable’s CHRO, Rob Long, says: “Right now people are still really trying to understand how this will impact the workforce. Some of the impacts and benefits are clear at a high level but much less certain when it comes to knowing exactly the extent to which it will impact certain functions or roles.”

“Right now people are still really trying to understand how this will impact the workforce. Some of the impacts and benefits are clear at a high level but much less certain when it comes to knowing exactly the extent to which it will impact certain functions or roles.”

By customizing your hiring strategy and identifying areas that humans can collaborate using AI tools, you can reach new heights in terms of performance and efficiency.

Let’s dive into the creation of a successful workforce planning strategy.

Human workers and AI can collaborate

There are several ways to describe the practice of collaboration between human workers and AI. It can be found online under names such as Combining Intelligence, Collaborative Intelligence, Integrated Intelligence, or Augmented Intelligence. All these terms are based on one specific notion: AI is not here to replace human workers, but to augment their capabilities.

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

As an HR professional, you need to identify the areas where your human workers and AI can collaborate. This first requires a deep understanding of the tasks that your employees perform and the tasks that AI can perform better – and the difference between each.

According to a Harvard Business Review, humans require both cooperative and competitive skills to effectively work with AI systems. Cooperative skills include data-centric skills, AI literacy, and algorithmic communication, while competitive skills encompass emotional intelligence, holistic thinking, creativity, and critical thinking.

On the other hand, AI systems need to develop cooperative skills like natural language processing, explainability, adaptability, and context awareness, while their competitive advantages lie in analytical capacities, generativity, and performance at scale.

Organizations are advised to strike a balance between investing in human skills and technological capabilities to foster a symbiotic relationship between humans and AI.

Current employees will be affected by AI

It’s essential to understand how AI will affect your current employees before shaping a solid workforce planning strategy. Some of your employees may have concerns about their job security or their ability to adapt to new technology.

It’s your job as an HR professional to address these concerns and provide training and support to help your employees adapt to the changing workplace.

According to a survey by Qualtrics, employees see the potential positive impact of AI in the workplace primarily in terms of increased productivity. This includes automating repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on more complex work, and enabling faster and advanced data analysis.

The main concerns expressed by workers regarding AI’s impact are the loss of the human element in work (highlighted by 55% of respondents) and the potential erosion of critical thinking skills (selected by 52% of employees).

One of the greatest worries among employees is the possibility of AI replacing jobs altogether. About 68% of respondents believe that some jobs are at risk due to AI, and 23% feel that their own jobs are in jeopardy. There is also confusion and concern regarding policies related to AI in the workplace.

Nearly 60% of employees either state that their company lacks an AI policy or they are unaware of such a policy, leaving them uncertain about what is allowed or not in relation to AI usage.

Perhaps some jobs will be lost or incorporated into larger disciplines. To alleviate employees’ fears of AI taking their jobs, it is crucial to provide them with clear communication and transparency about the role of AI in the workplace.

This can involve comprehensive and ongoing training programs that focus on upskilling and reskilling employees to adapt to the changing work landscape and take advantage of the opportunities presented by AI.

Additionally, creating a culture that values and rewards human skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving, can reinforce the importance of these unique abilities alongside AI technologies.

New employees will be affected too

As an HR professional, you need to understand how potential new employees will be affected by AI. This means looking at the skills and knowledge required for jobs in the future and adjusting your hiring strategy accordingly.

An astonishing new survey conducted by Intelligent finds that 86% of hiring managers believe that having ChatGPT can be more valuable than a college degree for entry-level jobs.

Skills related to data analysis, AI literacy, and the ability to work effectively in collaboration with AI systems are highly sought after in the AI era.

Soft skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving are more important now than ever. These are skills that are difficult to automate and are likely to become more valuable as AI becomes more prevalent in the workplace.

You can adjust your workforce planning strategy according to the latest developments and the real needs of your company, keeping in mind that AI is still a tool and not an enemy of humans.

Change your strategy for hiring people

According to a report by Accenture, 84% of business executives believe they need to use AI to achieve their growth objectives. You are probably among that group.

As an HR professional, you need to adapt your hiring strategy accordingly. You must begin searching for employees who possess the skills and knowledge required to work alongside AI. Additionally, if you are a team manager, you can offer guidance and assist your employees in upskilling and preparing to incorporate AI into their workdays.

To implement changes in your workforce planning strategy, you need to build a business case for change. This means using data to show the potential benefits of integrating AI into your workforce. You also need to consider the budget required to implement these changes.

However, there is no need to panic. Actually, we are presently living in a transitional period where we need to stay vigilant while also dedicating time to prepare for what the future holds.

Implementing new workforce planning should only happen when we have a clear understanding of our company’s needs and feel prepared to take action.

Hiring, firings, reorganizations and outsourcing

Once you have built a business case for change, you need to create a timeline for implementation. You can reassess the existing team structure, make new hires, or outsource based on this agreed timeline. It is essential to communicate it clearly to your employees and provide training and support to help them adapt to the changes.

If you know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, you can make an informed decision about using AI in the workplace.

Does it mean investing in new hires who are more familiar with new technologies? Does it mean providing reskilling opportunities to your existing employees?

Any decision must be made based on an organized plan and with careful consideration. In some cases, reorganization may be the best option for your company, while in others, outsourcing may be necessary due to time constraints. Consider AI tools as a way to enhance your employees’ abilities and continue investing in both new technologies and personnel.

There is only one word that accurately describes effective workforce planning for both employees and HR professionals, and that is adaptability.

“People are very aware that for many roles times are changing, so hiring people who are adaptable and comfortable with change is more important than ever.”

“People are very aware that for many roles times are changing, so hiring people who are adaptable and comfortable with change is more important than ever. The impact on productivity for certain roles will certainly be on people’s minds. Do they need to hire 10 or could they hire six now and get the same results?” Rob Long comments.

“But I don’t think many people have worked it out just yet. One clear change is the increase in roles related to creating AI technology, those are increasing rapidly and you can see companies investing more heavily here.”

The post Workforce planning strategy in the AI-driven economy appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The one thing you need to know: HR and hiring managers are playing for the same team. To win the war for talent, both parties must work in tandem with one another.

Here are four ways to improve the working relationship between HR and hiring managers.

1. Clearly define roles, responsibilities, and expectations

Imagine playing on a sports team where there were no rules, no assigned positions, and no expectations. The result would be chaos and probably a lot of injuries!

Yet, when it comes to recruitment, many companies lack clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and expectations for their hiring team, which hurts their ability to find the right players for their company.

Decide who will be responsible for each step of the recruitment process. For example, will HR develop the job description, or will this be done by the hiring manager? Is it okay for a hiring manager to interview candidates prior to HR or must they wait? How long does the recruiter anticipate it will take to fill a particular position and have they communicated this to the hiring manager?

2. Turn your entire team into a recruiting machine

Many managers are given hiring responsibility without much direction. They mistakenly believe it’s HR’s job to deliver suitable candidates to them on a silver platter. That’s not how things work in the real world.

According to SHRM, the national averages across all industries and employer sizes tend to fluctuate between 40-60 open requisitions per recruiter at any one time. That’s an unmanageable workload for even a top recruiter, which is why hiring managers must step up and partner with HR on their hiring needs.

Companies must train all managers on how to attract and hire employees and give them the power to do so. Managers will be prepared to take the lead and relieve some of the pressure recruiters are experiencing.

3. Double down on communication between HR and hiring managers

When it’s been a while since you’ve heard from someone you tend to think you’re no longer a priority. This happens a lot in the world of recruiting.

Take the case of a hiring manager who turns in a requisition and waits patiently for a response. The recruiter may be working diligently on filling this role; however, the manager has no idea this is happening. Or the recruiter, who sends a batch of resumes to the hiring manager, who takes weeks to respond.

Companies should have systems in place that require both parties to check in with one another every step of the way. The recruiter should keep the hiring manager informed of obstacles that may be preventing them from delivering candidates and the hiring manager should be providing timely feedback so the recruiter can fine-tune their search.

4. Be direct and honest with each other

Why is it that so many people have a difficult time being truthful with one another? Rather than begin what may be an uncomfortable conversation, they choose to remain silent. Their silence quickly turns into resentment.

It’s best to be clear and direct with one another. If you feel a recruiter is treating you like a second-class citizen, let them know. You might say something like, “I’m feeling like my requisitions aren’t getting the attention they deserve. What can I do to help you fill these positions faster?”

HR professionals feeling frustrated by a hiring manager’s lack of urgency could say, “We’ve found that there’s a greater chance of filling a job when we’re able to move a candidate through the process in under two weeks. How can I better serve you? When sending resumes, if I don’t hear from you prior, do you want me to follow up with you within 48 hours?”

It’s easy to forget that you are both working together towards the same goal. Remember that by following these four tips – and repair that disconnect.

Roberta Matuson, The Talent Maximizer® and President of Matuson Consulting, helps world-class organizations like General Motors, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Microsoft hire and retain world-class talent. Roberta is the author of six books on talent and leadership, including the newly released, Can We Talk? Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work, and Evergreen Talent. Sign up to receive her free newsletter, The Talent Maximizer®. Follow her on Twitter.

The post The big disconnect: 4 ways HR can best partner with hiring managers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But what does that mean for your organization? Why does it matter? And what can you do to change that?

Let’s walk through the challenges of disjointed collaboration tools and what you stand to gain from a single, unified communication platform.

Challenges of disjointed systems

Workforces, customers and clients today are more distributed than ever before. According to Gallup, only two in 10 full-time U.S. employees are completely on site. Over the long term, most organizations plan for their workforce to lean hybrid, with 55% working both in-office and remotely, 22% fully remote, and 23% fully in office.

More importantly, that’s what the workforce wants. A recent Buffer report indicates that 97% of employees want to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their careers. Communication platforms are essential in keeping team members connected across the hybrid workplace.

Here’s the problem: During the pandemic, companies rushed to accommodate the suddenly remote workforce, often adopting multiple collaboration tools to meet varying needs. Research reveals 72% of businesses now use between three and nine collaboration tools, while one in five reports using more than 10. For companies that generate more than $10 billion in revenue, that figure more than doubles to 42%.

Relying on multiple collaboration tools can create a fractured communication environment, particularly if your solutions don’t work well together. Even worse, it opens a Pandora’s box of other challenges:Increased administrative work: Managing a few different communication platforms is hard enough, let alone half a dozen. Typically, each system is managed through its own dashboard, furthering the burden IT teams bear when overseeing their company-wide use.

Let’s look at some of the challenges of a disjointed tech stack:

1. Greater IT costs

Multiple vendors, multiple contracts, multiple bills. Together, these create higher costs that can impact your capital and operating expenses.

2. Heightened security risks

Each platform is an entry point into your infrastructure. A larger attack surface means your proprietary information and private data are at greater risk. Worse yet, the more systems you have, the more difficult it is to regularly update, patch, and protect them.

3. Decreased productivity

Team members need to stay aligned on priorities to meet deadlines efficiently. Fragmented systems create communication silos that make it difficult for employees to collaborate, connect, share ideas, and remain on the same page.

4. Frustrating, disjointed user experience

Nobody enjoys jumping between dashboards and disparate interfaces, especially when they’re juggling high-priority projects. Moreover, each platform works differently, which means multiple onboarding processes and workflows.

Connecting the dots

Recent data shows 86% of organizations plan to consolidate their collaboration solutions in the next year. One way to do it is by leveraging a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform.

UCaaS refers to the integration of multiple enterprise communication tools into a single, comprehensive platform. Rather than jumping between different systems or juggling various devices, everything is accessible through one comprehensive suite of capabilities. But UCaaS isn’t merely how you bridge the gaps between your technologies, it’s also how you keep employees connected and customers close.

The benefits of using one unified platform include:

1. Improved efficiency

With access to all the necessary tools, employees spend less time troubleshooting issues or switching between platforms and more time on core business operations.

2. Enhanced collaboration

UCaaS platforms break down information silos, empowering you to share files, present ideas, and enable asynchronous communication through messages, videos, and more. Plus, it makes data more accessible for both administrators and team members to use to their advantage.

3. Better employee engagement

There’s only one system to learn, so you don’t need to waste resources training employees on various tools. This goes a long way toward keeping people engaged at work, as it’s both more intuitive and can make their jobs easier in the long run.

4. Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)

Replacing multiple solutions with a single, vendor-agnostic provider can reduce TCO by as much as 56%.

5. Easier administration and management

UCaaS platforms provide a single dashboard for the management of users, apps, and even devices. They make it easy for IT to provision users, troubleshoot issues, and gain powerful insights and analytics – all while controlling end-to-end security.

UCaaS must-haves

What does a fully unified communication solution really look like? Along with a robust array of features, the best vendors should cover a few key capabilities:

Calling: Cloud calling allows you to replace a costly Public Branch Exchange (PBX) infrastructure with a fully cloud-based Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) solution. This enables you to call from anywhere on virtually any device, including a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or softphone.

Messaging: Always-on messaging can be used synchronously or asynchronously to keep people in the loop no matter where they are. With one messaging system across the entire business, you can easily share files and reach out to team members at the click of a button.

Meetings: Video conferencing is a hybrid work staple. But, with innovations aimed at real-time engagement, like digital white boarding, polling and Q&A features, video conferencing goes beyond a mere staple to something vital your teams will look forward to. Plus, accessibility tools such as live translation and closed captions ensure everyone can participate in collaborative settings.

Devices: Collaboration devices are a great addition to any UCaaS solution. They bring an added layer of high-quality video and audio, innovative features like background noise removal, and, most importantly, the ability to get the full native experience on leading meeting platforms – all with a single touch to join.

Power up your hybrid future

As organizations continue to embrace hybrid flexibility, the challenges of disparate communication systems will only become more difficult.

The optimal way forward is to consolidate those technologies into a single, unified communication and collaboration suite with the capabilities necessary to empower a distributed workforce and make your IT ecosystem simpler to manage.

Reilly Nolan is a writer with more than 10 years of experience across the technology, healthcare, interior design, consumer goods, and fashion industries. Unpacking the human aspect of the product experience is what informs his writing most. In his spare time, Reilly has published and shortlisted fiction in a variety of national literary magazines.

The post UCaaS: Why companies need to consolidate collaboration tools appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

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

Recruiter/Interviewer horror story awards

The car-lock award

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

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

— Neil B.

The attachment award

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

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

— Angela V.

The chuckles award

Not all candidates take interview questions seriously.

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

— Catherine C.

The family award

Speaking of work-life balance…

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

— Stéphane V.

Interviewer stories are a warmup

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

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

Candidate horror story awards

The zodiac award

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

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

— Lilian B.

The email confusion award

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

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

— Anthony K.

The body image award

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

I was once asked how much I weigh.

— Dimitris D.

I have been asked about my height.

— Sheila T.

The rampant sexism award

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

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

— Christina P.

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

— Anonymous

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

— Nikki D.

The K-Pop/Prada award

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

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

— Bora K.

The interrogation room award

Candidates are nervous enough as it is…

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

— Robert V.

The leopard heels award

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

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

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

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

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

— Panos R.

The bathrobe award

Really now, shipowner?

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

— Anonymous

The Louis Vuitton bag award

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Eleni K.

The concept of reality award

The conversation might have been stimulating anyplace else.

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

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

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

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

“Are you smart?”

“Yes, I consider myself smart.”

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

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

“But what is reality?”

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

— Gina T.

The really scammy scam award

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Carolyn M.

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

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

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

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

1. Introduction to Applicant Tracking Systems
2. Overview of Applicant Tracking Systems
3. Is an ATS the Right Choice for your Growing Business?
4. Benefits of Applicant Tracking Systems
5. Choosing an Applicant Tracking System
6. Keys to Recruiting
7. Managing the Hiring Process
8. Optimizing Your Company’s Career Page
9. Managing the Interview Process
10. Assessing Your Requirements
11. Checklist of Applicant Tracking System Features

1. Introduction to Applicant tracking systems

The first applicant tracking systems (ATS) evolved to help employers take that old standby, the paper resume, and scan it into a database. Like most technologies that emerged to replicate analogue ways of doing things, they left a lot of room for improvement.

The processes were bureaucratic, unwieldy and complicated. The aim was to mirror old world paper and filing processes in a custom database. The word “clunky” was often overheard. In its formative years the ATS was similar to basic customer relationship management systems (CRMs), that sought to offer very basic resume screening and trace an applicant’s path through the hiring process.

Just like the CRMs, which began life as digital rolodexes and turned into the current cloud-based powerhouses, the ATS has evolved. Today, there are a wide range of ATS software options, some that concentrate on automating as much as possible of the hiring process and others that help the hiring manager to make their own decisions.

The ATS has become an integral part of every aspect of hiring from building an employer brand and smarter application forms, to resume parsing, automatic retrieval of candidates’ public profiles, and scheduling interviews. Recruiting analytics and reporting tools can now help companies get a clearer understanding of the hiring process and make improvements that have a real impact on the business.

The purpose of this applicant tracking system guide is to help you understand your needs as clearly as possible in order to make an informed choice of recruiting software.

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2. Overview of applicant tracking systems

The quality of a company’s hires are the single best predictor of its future success. Even though this is widely understood, hiring is still seen as frustrating and messy by many business owners, HR Directors, hiring managers and recruiters who grapple with it. But now, better software is righting this wrong.

Human Resources has been poorly served by technology for too long, when compared with the pioneers in sales, but we are seeing a renaissance in HR software, thanks in large part to the potential unleashed by cloud-based computing. At the heart of all of this is the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

What is an ATS?

What is an applicant tracking system (ATS)? In its simplest form, it offers relief to these commonly acknowledged pain points in recruitment:

Pain: Submitting the same job ad to multiple job boards costs time and money.
Relief: An ATS integrated with these listings sites can post to a wide range of free and paid job boards with a single submission.

Pain: Building and maintaining a careers page takes up valuable developer time.
Relief: An ATS can make managing a careers page as simple as changing your background image and bio on Twitter.

Pain: Recruiting triggers an avalanche of PDFs and emails.
Relief: ATS recruiting means you collect, organize and show job candidates in the same way LinkedIn or Facebook show your contacts or friends.

Pain: Resume styles are nearly as various as the people sending them.
Relief: Recruiting software can parse these resumes, break them down and present the data they contain in a standardized format where it can be quickly reviewed.

Pain: The absence of standardized information like “how many years of work experience has she got?” add to the time burden.
Relief: Applicant tracking software mines the resumes you receive and presents candidate data in a way that makes comparisons fast and simple.

Pain: Precious time is routinely wasted on irrelevant applications.
Relief: ATS recruiting offers the facility to automatically filter dud applications from job candidates or highlight 3-4 priorities on the application form that enable human judgement to be swifter.

Pain: Using email and spreadsheets to track candidates with a hiring team quickly becomes overwhelming.
Relief: An ATS can enable you to add notes to candidates just like you put comments on Facebook.

Pain: External recruiters remain a great resource for high value hires, but they shouldn’t be a necessity for businesses.
Relief: An ATS can provide recruiting tools that let you fill a talent pool and save your recruiting dollars for the tougher hires.

This kind of pain relief is only part of an applicant tracking system definition but it points to what you can achieve with ATS recruiting. The right applicant tracking software is a major step towards creating a repeatable, systematic hiring process, from posting a job to having an offer letter accepted.

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3. Is an ATS the Right Choice for your Growing Business?

Whether you are looking for your first applicant tracking system (ATS) or considering investing in an upgrade, the best starting point is a clear understanding of your needs. The first step to achieving this is to map your existing hiring process.

Questions to get started with evaluating applicant tracking software:

• How do you do your hiring planning and budget costs?
• How are your job ads written?
• How and where do you post your jobs?
• How do you currently collect applications?
• How do you progress candidates through from applied to hired?
• Do you use pre-screening questions or job-related assignments?
• Do you work with external recruiters?
• Who is on your hiring team (this may differ from one position to another).
• How many steps does a candidate go through prior to a final interview?
• Do you conduct background checks prior to a final offer?
• What kind of data and reporting do you use to improve your hiring process?

Now step back and think about how this could be improved. What are the pain points? How do you cope with the volume of applications, how are communications between your team during hiring, how well does your interview and call scheduling work?

The point of this exercise is to identify the gap between how things are done now and what your ideal recruiting process would look like. If you sailed through the 11 questions and liked your own answers you’re in a happy minority. Most companies, of all sizes, find recruiting challenging, in one way or another.

The vast majority of small and medium-sized businesses are still using email and spreadsheets to run their recruitment. Less than one in five SMBs has switched to applicant tracking software, according to most estimates. But the big switch has begun.

Larger companies have long since adopted software for their ATS needs but many of the enterprise solutions adopted by Fortune 500 firms have inherited the same bureaucratic dysfunction they were meant to cure. It might seem sensible to cram in features for all eventualities but feature-heavy applicant tracking software can be both expensive and unwieldy.

Hiring processes are not the same at an organization with 2,000+ employees as they are at a firm with 250 employees, or one with 25. By being clear from the outset over your real hiring needs you can eliminate the prospect of paying for features you don’t need and concentrate your investment on an ATS that does the best possible job on the features that you do need.

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4. Benefits of Applicant Tracking Systems

Most recruiters report that at least 50% of job hunters don’t possess the basic qualifications for the jobs they are pursuing. Applicant tracking systems came about when employers needed a way to deal with this flood of irrelevant resumes.

Today’s ATS systems are developed to scan for keywords, employment history and college records to identify viable candidates. The best ATS now available will take the data entry out of your hiring and leave you time to concentrate on the chewy human question of who you should hire and work with.

Using recruiting software means you don’t have to stitch together spreadsheets, email and elaborate filing systems. The advantage of an applicant tracking system is that it provides seamless and customizable collaboration features so that you’re always in the loop.

Applicant tracking systems help employers by providing a business process to follow during recruiting:

• Save time recruiting by automating job board posting, resume submission, and pre-screening
• Open the way to better candidates with standardized metrics and access to a pipeline of previous successful applicants
• Standardize your hiring so you don’t have to reinvent the process each time
• Keep you compliant with hiring laws
• Give you a headstart on employee retention with better screened and qualified candidates
• Ensure a striking and personalized candidate experience

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5. Choosing an Applicant Tracking System

One of the first questions you need to answer when making the ATS comparison is whether you want an applicant tracking software solution installed on your own server or hosted by your software vendor. The old way of purchasing was to get “on-premise” software but in recent years this has been overtaken by software as a service providers (SaaS), companies who host the software on the cloud and offer it as a service online.

What are the benefits of SaaS:

• Accessible anywhere where you have an internet connection, with some SaaS applicant tracking systems offering mobile functionality for recruiting on the move
• No fixed server costs
• Updates to the software are the responsibility of the vendor
• Removes the need for an IT department

The nightmare scenario for any growing business that invests in the best applicant tracking system for their needs, is for the vendor to then close down for its own business reasons. Yes, this has happened: there are numerous businesses who have seen their ATS shut down. Due diligence in this case means asking the right questions about vendor viability.

Another route altogether is an open source applicant tracking system. The advantage of this option is clear: it’s free, and you can modify the software as you please. Where’s the catch? Do you want to manage your hiring or to rewrite software? Unless you’re more than tech savvy or have an IT team that can afford to spend the time, you will run into issues installing, running and integrating one of these systems. And when you run into those problems there is no dedicated support to turn to.

The sensible ATS buyers’ checklist:

• Does your ATS match your company profile? The three main categories are enterprise, staffing agencies and SMBs. There are good solutions for each of these categories but these are big tents — think clearly about which one you belong in.
• Does the ATS provide real ease of use? There’s no point in investing in software that no one can or will use, or that is stuffed with features that you will not need or use. Look for an intuitive design that your hiring team will buy into. There are systems that require no installation, training or manuals.
• Does your ATS enable you to post to multiple job sites? Overwhelmingly the most important feature for smaller companies. Check which jobs boards and social networks the ATS is integrated with.
• What kind of search capability does the ATS have? Make sure that it boasts a fast, accurate search with results organized in a logical and intuitive way.
• Does your ATS offer strong customer support? This can quickly turn what looks like the best applicant tracking software into an expensive farrago. Be clear over response times and availability in your time zone. Check to see how well organized and detailed the support section of the ATS website is.
• What kind of reporting does the ATS offer? Be clear about your own reporting needs to track your recruiting efforts. Make sure they are matched and covered before making a choice.
• Does the ATS enable employee referrals? Referrals are the oldest and still the best method of finding employees. The best applicants tracking system will provide you with a clear way to attract and reward referrals from your team.
• What kind of candidate experience does the ATS offer? Your team is not the only user of the applicant tracking system, there’s also the candidate to consider. You will lose valuable prospects if its application process is clunky and off-putting.
• Check your applicant tracking system vendor’s viability. You want a solution that will last, make sure the same applies to your vendor’s financials.
• Get references for an ATS like you would for a hire. There are tons of applicant tracking system reviews online, take them into account. From Trust Pilot to Capterra and Software Advice to Getapp, check what other users are saying on third-party review sites.
• It has become standard practice to work on the move. Smartphones and better software allows us to work when and where we want to. Your ATS should not be the exception. The whole of your hiring team should be able to review candidates, schedule interviews, leave feedback and check the pipeline via your ATS on the device of their choice.
• The best ATS options have useful integrations. Check for integrations with leading and niche job boards and for sourcing tools that help you source and attract passive candidates. Your ATS should help you get more candidates by getting your job in front of prospects you can’t reach when you’re manually posting jobs to job boards. Does the ATS offer easy integrations for background checks and with a modern HRIS, like Namely and BambooHR?

If you’re tight on time, this list of the 12 best applicant tracking systems in the market can help guide your decision.

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6. Keys to Recruiting

If you’re not new to the hiring process or you’ve been working without any recruitment software you have most likely trekked through forests of resumes and descended bottomless email threads. This is not to mention giant spreadsheets, and a constant wrestling match to coordinate interviews and feedback.

If you’ve been getting the job done with an older generation applicant tracking system or candidate management system you will have faced different problems: poor or no customization options, usability problems, no buy in from your hiring team, insufficient integration.

Simplifying recruiting means the ability to post to multiple job boards and source candidates from all over the web, making it as easy to browse candidates as it is to follow friends on social networks. It means beautiful career sites that update themselves and good-looking job ads.

For candidates it means one-click applications. For hiring managers it means candidate timelines that show the ‘when and why’ of who made the shortlist. Hiring software should enable you to message candidates and keep track of comments in context.

Social recruiting is still more talked about than practiced but a first step that an ATS can help with is to bring resumes to life by automatically combining them with public social media profiles. Social media integration is a useful first step to getting your whole team involved in hiring. It’s everyone’s job to share open positions with their networks.

The best applicant tracking software enables you to track and reward referrals. The oldest and still the best source of high quality candidates, an employee referral program, relies on having a simple method for employees to recommend prospects and to record the initial source of job candidates (who recommended who). Companies of all sizes are beginning to recognize and reward referrals systematically.

Candidate management

The full value of an ATS becomes immediately obvious once candidates begin to flow into it. With the proliferation of job boards and the facility to apply with one click, many companies have been overwhelmed with applications.

This is where proper resume parsing technology comes into its own. A resume parser takes the weight of candidate data flooding your way, breaks it down and presents it to you in individual candidate profiles with comparable, standardized fields, like years of work experience and education.

The best ATS will enable customizable application forms with pre-screening questions that will quickly eliminate unqualified or irrelevant applications. Applicant tracking software enables you to standardize the information you’re receiving for each candidate, making it possible to be quick and decisive.

Candidate management then becomes paramount. A single profile for each candidate that keeps all comments, notes and documents (resumes, cover letters, work samples) in one place, revolutionizes hiring teams. No more searching inboxes for hiring managers looking for that all-important piece of feedback on a candidate.

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7. Managing the Hiring Process

There has never been a better time for businesses of all sizes to get strategic with their hiring. The tools needed to attract the right candidates and get from application to hire are both more affordable and more effective than ever before. What the best of them deliver is a hiring process that works.

The right recruitment process is streamlined enough not to waste your time, but inclusive enough to enable you to hire ambitiously. Process is not a word to light fires in the imagination but there’s nothing duller than trying to work without one. Having a series of standardized steps in the hiring process that have been chosen because they maximize the likelihood of a good outcome makes sense.

The most effective way to think of the steps of the recruiting process borrows from sales orthodoxy, with a hiring pipeline. Try this simple exercise. Jot down the current basic steps of your recruiting process. It may vary a bit but it probably looks something like this:

• Applied
• Promising
• Phone screen
• On-site interview
• Executive interview
• Offer

The hiring 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.

Rather than floundering with an inbox full of resumes and a thicket of spreadsheets tracking candidates’ progress, the recruiting pipeline tracks and manages multiple candidates offering simple workflow management.

The recruiting pipeline enables hiring teams to work together collecting all comments, feedback, notes, social media profiles or assignment results on the same page. It removes the need for endless email threads and avoids the possibility of misplacing vital feedback or conversations with candidates.

The efficiency offered by an applicant tracking system takes on added importance when hiring at scale or across multiple locations, as is the case for multinationals or the increasing number of SMBs working across borders.

When your business is spread across regions and/or divisions some form of territory management is typically called for. Territory management can apply to any system which groups candidates according to predefined sets of criteria. It enables hiring teams to co-operate on the basis of location, division or function.

This can become even more important when it comes to assessing and improving your recruitment efforts. It can deliver clearer insight into the recruitment results in each territory, as well as generate reports based on locations and divisions to measure relative progress on hiring.

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8. Optimizing your Company’s Careers Page

The clearest way to think about your company careers page is to see it as a shop window. The careers page is not the only means at your disposal to market the job opportunities you offer but it should be the starting point for all these efforts.

Whether candidates note that you’re hiring after seeing your open position on a job board, or hear about it through social media or even a word-of-mouth referral, they will typically head to your careers page to find out more about the vacancy, your company and the application process. In other words, there needs to be something worth visiting when they get there.

Far from replacing careers pages, the proliferation of job boards that began in the 1990s has made a fully-optimized careers page a necessity. Placing the right applicant tracking software at the heart of your recruitment efforts removes much of the hassle associated with creating, hosting and maintaining an attractive and up-to-date careers page.

For companies without the IT resources to develop a careers page in house, the best ATS options offer simple tools to build a good-looking and professional site that’s connected to your applicant tracking system. An ATS offers automated job posting to ensure that all open positions that you post to job boards, social media or any other platform will also appear on your careers page.

But a careers page is about more than getting your jobs seen. It’s also the anchor for your employer brand, a broader concept of your company’s reputation in the digital age. The main difference with reputation is that it’s easier than ever for prospective hires to get an advanced idea of what it’s like to work for your company.

Wherever you, your colleagues or employees appear online whether it’s your company Facebook page, a Twitter conversation, or a Linkedin profile, you’re talking to two audiences: customers and talent. While this makes some businesses nervous, it’s actually a considerable opportunity for companies of all sizes.

It’s become popular to say that “hiring is marketing” because it’s increasingly true. Happily it doesn’t have to be done on prime time television to be effective. Digital platforms offer an affordable and potentially enormous reach. In many ways the traditional strengths of small and mid-sized businesses like personal relationships, approachability and tight-knit teams are ideally suited to the social media age, where authenticity is rewarded.

Feeling unsure what your employer brand is? Give yourself one minute to describe it on a piece of paper or a whiteboard. Stuck? Get some of your core team together and brainstorm on what is unique or special about working for your company as opposed to other similar companies? Is it the people, the mission?

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 9. Managing the interview process

Interviewing is the most interesting and least automated part of the hiring process. This also means it’s the hardest and frequently the most poorly executed part as well. Unstructured interviews are no more likely to end with the right candidate than choosing a name from your shortlist at random.

An ATS can’t teach a hiring manager how to interview, but it can help them create an interview process that assists them in making an informed decision. Interviews don’t begin on the day someone walks into your office. Done properly the hiring process has worked like a funnel, you spoke to some candidates, you met a handful, now you want to work out which is the best of them to hire.

The support that the best applicant tracking software can deliver at this key phase is to streamline the scheduling of interviews and provide a rounded view of the candidate from sourcing or application, through screening and any assignment to the actual interview. It enables hiring managers to approach interviews in a structured and prepared manner.

Scheduling and communications with candidates goes from tangled to straightforward when your ATS integrates with your company email (typically with Gmail or Outlook) and calendar. Proper mail and calendar integrations ensure the right people are informed in a timely manner whether it’s the candidate who needs the time and location of an interview or phone screen, or if it’s the hiring team who need to know when an action is required.

The same is true for feedback that will inform the interviewer’s approach to each candidate. When all comments, notes, documents and communications are in one place a hiring manager can get up to speed in a fraction of the time an old-style briefing or a review of an email thread would otherwise take.

As well as time saving and automation, the benefit that the right ATS can deliver is a better candidate experience. As the hiring process has become more sophisticated it has begun to take longer. The “time to hire” means that in every hiring cycle you are losing qualified candidates because the interview process is taking too long.

The best candidates are fielding multiple offers, or recent research suggests, losing interest in your company because they assume that the lack of response. The response times are critical for the candidate experience, which is where the streamlining, team tools and scheduling capabilities of an ATS can make the difference.

The hiring pipeline offered by an ATS enables hiring managers to keep track of how many candidates are in each stage and where bottlenecks may be developing. Advanced applicant tracking software can also warn you when a candidate has been left hanging for a certain number of days.

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10. Assessing Your Requirements

At the core of the performance of any applicant tracking system (ATS) are its integrations. A full suite would include not just job board integrations that enable a single submission to a host of free and paid job boards, it would also extend to:

• Social media integration with LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
• Full integration with a trusted background check provider
• Integration with popular office productivity tools such as Slack 
• Give you a headstart on employee retention with better screened and qualified candidates

Since LinkedIn remains the venue for most recruiters’ working lives, an ATS should offer deep integration with the world’s favorite resume repository. Things to look out for include the ability to:

• Use your personal LinkedIn account to sign in to your ATS and post jobs to your own professional network
• Connect to your LinkedIn Recruiter account to post jobs ads
• Buy a LinkedIn job ad directly from your ATS (without the need for a LinkedIn recruiter account)
• Access to LinkedIn Cross System Awareness that enables your hiring team to view full LinkedIn profiles inside their ATS, as well as make candidate information stored on your ATS available in your LinkedIn Recruiter account

Analytics

Recruitment analytics offer a high level view of your whole recruiting effort. Recruiting without the right tools is a disposable experience. To extract full value from any recruitment process the steps taken need to remain visible and repeatable. Recruiting metrics are not just about measuring things, they exist to answer questions about your business and to help you improve your hiring. Which recruiting metrics to use remains contentious with some organizations overly focused on Cost Per Hire (which is open to widely differing interpretations). Some effective recruiting Key Performance Indicators worth tracking are:

• 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

Most effective recruiting organizations favor a flexible suite of analytics in their ATS that allow for custom reports and a variety of high-level visualizations. Look for an ATS that has the ability to break down reporting areas like candidate flow and candidate source into data that can be exported to Excel.

Complying with the thicket of US equal opportunities employment laws can consume your time and fray your nerves. This process cries out for automation so opt for an ATS with an EEO Reporting feature.

Performance

As we pointed out previously when discussing vendor viability, the right balance of features is ineffective without a viable product and business supporting it. It’s worth checking independent review sites such as TrustPilot, Getapp, Capterra and Software Advice to see how actual customers rate each ATS on its efforts at avoiding downtime.

A minimum should be an up-to-date status page that details all scheduled downtime. But it’s worth spending some time on your chosen ATS vendor’s Twitter timeline to see whether their ATS performance is drawing complaints.

Similar research should quickly establish what levels of support customers can expect from specific vendors. Look out for tiered support tied to the value of your account (with subscription-based SaaS applicant tracking software). At the one extreme you should expect 24/7 support globally but most vendors offer business hours support concentrated on the region where they’re based.

Security

When choosing a cloud-based ATS over an on-premise solution it’s logical to ask some questions about the security of your data. Here is what to ask an ATS vendor regarding security:

• Does the ATS have an ongoing or regularly scheduled process of security and penetration testing of their infrastructure by a reputable third party?
• Does the ATS offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which includes uptime guarantees?
• What is the historical uptime percentage of the ATS?
• Does it have a DDoS mitigation infrastructure in place?

Data ownership

Due diligence in choosing the best applicant tracking software would include a clear agreement on ATS data. Check the vendor’s privacy policy and terms and conditions to make sure that you retain exclusive ownership of all your data (if there are exceptions, make sure that they are clear and justifiable), and make sure that you will be able to export your data if you decide to move to a different vendor.

Search functionality

Without a powerful search facility the full promise of an ATS as a candidate database is seriously undermined. Find out whether the ATS search includes natural language processing, semantic search and any extras.

If this sounds confusing ensure that it enables candidate search by name, headline, tag, education/work experience/skills. Does the search draw data from resumes, cover letters and summaries?

A final feature to look out for is what kind of search is offered on the support section of the ATS. Does it offer prompts and auto-completes to offer help documents relevant to your questions? If not, keep looking.

Customization

When choosing a SaaS ATS one of the theoretical cons is the comparative lack of customization. An on-premise solution can be customized, in theory, to meet any hiring needs. In reality this is only an option for businesses with a large in-house developer capacity. If that doesn’t describe your business (or is not what you want your developers working on), look for an ATS that allows significant personalized settings. Look out for customization options for:

• Application forms
  
• Letter templates to candidates
  
• Custom hiring pipeline stages
  
• Custom reports in recruitment metrics

Take time to understand how your ATS vendor deals with managing classified hiring information. The best ATS options enable clear, customizable hierarchies within hiring teams governing which comments are private between the hiring team and the candidates, as well as notes that are not visible to everyone on the hiring team.

Users should be able to invite hiring team members with different status, i.e. admin, hiring manager, team member that govern their viewing and editing permissions, as well as dictating which communications they’re copied into during the hiring process.

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11. Checklist of applicant tracking system

Even the most affordable business software is an investment. The time taken to conduct a proper evaluation and applicant tracking system comparison will pay for itself many times over. Going with the wrong choice now will mean future disruption for your team and more work down the line. To help you make the right decision for your business as you compare applicant tracking systems, here is an evaluation chart to score your top choices.

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The post Applicant tracking system guide: From A to Z appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Now I report to the HR Director. It’s been a terrible experience, and they have run off two more of my coworkers. I’m overworked, and our HR disrespects TA for some reason. When I bring up my concerns, it’s ignored or gaslighted. I have a meeting with my interim leader next week to discuss this. I’ve always had strong performance reviews and respect from my managers.

I recently shared those performance reviews with them. I’m at a loss here and extremely frustrated. We are supposed to be getting a new TA leader at some point, but in the meantime, it’s such a toxic situation. I’ve updated my resume and will do my best to make things turn out ok where I’m at. I know I’m needed here by the business with the req loads. My hiring managers are great and respect me. Thank you for letting me vent!

There is often conflict between Talent Acquisition and HR. Are they two sides of the same coin or two distinctly different organizations?

Katrina Collier, author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, asks, “Do you see talent acquisition on the agenda of HR events? Rarely.” If HR doesn’t focus on talent acquisition, can you expect a good synergy in your current reporting relationship? Probably not, but there should be.

Katrina recognizes the need for a close relationship, but there is conflict: “TA should partner closely with HR but, if they’re to be the strategic department they’re evolving into, then they also need to partner closely with the business; marketing, sales, finance and more.”

She’s right, of course. To be successful at your job, you need to work closely with all departments, not just HR. But, for HR to be successful, they need to work closely with all departments as well. They can’t sit in a silo, creating policies and conducting investigations.

And, Katrina continues, “Fact is one lot bring in the people, the other lot look after them. So, no matter the structure, they should focus on recruitment and retention. Together. In partnership.”

Right now, you don’t have a partnership – you have tension and conflict.

This may be because of a fundamental difference in how you, an expert in Talent Acquisition, look at recruiting and how your boss, the HR Director, looks at recruiting. That may be creating the toxic environment that you sit in now.

What can you do about this?

I don’t look through the world with rose-colored glasses, so I agree with your decision to start looking for a new job. If you can find something non-toxic, run and never look back.

But, as a recruiter, you know that job hunting can take considerable time. In the meantime, what do you do?

Likely, the HR Director has always been awful, and your previous great boss just ran interference and protected his staff. But it’s no wonder he moved on. Now, with no protection, you’re seeing the conflict.

If the HR Director is a rational person and perhaps just clueless about TA, you can work with this. If they are just a horrible person, keep your head down and send out resumes.

The rest of this answer assumes some rationality on the part of the HR Director.

It’s time to have a sit-down conversation about the problems and the conflicts. Use your TA skills and work on “recruiting” the HR Director to your side.

A proposed solution: People Operations

What is the difference between People Operations and HR? In some companies, nothing. It’s just window dressing. But there should be a difference.

Related: What’s the difference: People operations vs. HR management

Glenn Martin, Founder & Director of the podcast Never Mind The Job Spec, says that People Operations should have a “blend of expertise across TA, HR, Culture, and really have a progressive people-first mindset.”

That’s what you need. And you need to propose it to the HR Director. How can you work together to help everyone accomplish their goals?

This may mean asking the HR Director what you can do to help them. Your goal is to show the director how working together can be a benefit.

Yes, this method sucks. Your boss should look for ways to make your job easier, not the other way around, but sometimes you have to get creative.

Focus on how good recruitment supports retention and engagement – which are probably high priorities for your boss. Helping to relieve their burden may alleviate some of your burdens. Helping build a people operations team instead of joining an HR team may be the trick.

If that doesn’t work, it may be time to step over the HR Director’s head. If that’s the CEO, so be it. If it’s another layer of HR, then don’t wait so long to go there. The TA team has already lost several people. They can’t afford to lose you too. (Don’t let this make you feel guilty if you go – you go if you find something better.) You may have more leverage than you think.

Speaking up about your needs and how it affects the business as a whole, combined with your efforts with the HR Director, can be beneficial to your career and may solve your problem. Or at least alleviate it enough to make it tolerable.

Have an HR or workplace-related question for the Evil HR Lady? Email contact@workable.com with “Evil HR Lady” in the subject heading and it may be featured in an upcoming article!

The post Ask the Evil HR Lady: How to resolve your TA vs. HR conflict appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Even experienced hiring managers can benefit from interview skills training. Here’s how to build an effective interview training plan for hiring teams:

Persuade managers that they need training

Experienced hiring managers probably know how to build rapport with candidates and discern candidate potential. But, more complex interviewing techniques like combating biases, using structured interviews and avoiding cliche questions don’t always come with hiring experience.

Related: Structured interview questions: Tips and examples for hiring

Schedule a meeting with hiring managers and discuss the status of the hiring process, as well as how they approach interviewing. Give them some pointers on what they can improve. Research can give more weight to your recommendations. For example, if you want to convince a hiring manager to try structured interviews, you can present them with research that shows that structured interviews are better hiring tools.

Give hiring managers an interview preparation checklist

Create different interviewing checklists for hiring managers:

1. Can I talk about the company’s strategy, mission and structure?
2. Can I answer questions about perks and benefits?
3. Do I know what the job description involves?
4. Have I coordinated with my team?
5. Have I read candidates’ resumes?
6. Do I know what interview questions I’ll ask?
7. Are my interview questions reviewed by HR for legality?

Train interviewers

Train hiring managers to combat biases

The best way to combat biases during interviews is to be aware of them. This can’t be achieved overnight – it takes time and effort. A good start would be to help interviewers discover their hidden biases:

• Encourage them to take Harvard’s Implicit Association Test
• Show them educational videos like this one by the Royal Society, the UK national academy of science:

• Re-enact ‘bias experiments’ during a training session. For example, see how this YouTube video presents a version of an experiment that English psychologist Peter Cathcart Wason used in his study of confirmation bias:

• The New York Times also published that experiment as a puzzle game, giving you a detailed explanation after you’ve played.

Train hiring managers to understand structured interviews

Structured interviews are more objective and legally defensible than unstructured interviews. Interviewers who use this interview format should learn how to prepare behavioral questions, understand rating scales and score candidates consistently.

Here are some ideas to help interviewers understand structured interviews:

• Self-study. This structured interview guide has all the information hiring managers need to structure their interview process.

• Experiments. Advise interviewers to familiarize themselves with the interview scorecard format your company uses. If you use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), encourage interviewers to login and create their own scorecards.

• Practice. Mock interviews can help inexperienced hiring managers familiarize themselves with an interview setting. For example, hiring managers can practice brief note-taking to avoid being distracted by their notes during actual interviews.

Teach hiring managers about body language

Being more aware of candidates’ nonverbal cues can help interviewers refine their interviewing skills. For example, if candidates’ body language suggests they’re anxious, interviewers can make a conscious effort to put candidates at ease. It’s a good idea to train interviewers to control their own body language too. Even if hiring managers think candidates are unqualified, they shouldn’t let their body language negatively affect candidate experience.

Get professional interviewing help

Several companies offer training courses and seminars that can help your interviewers:

• InterviewEdge specializes in behavioral interviewing training
• Recruiting Toolbox offers custom-built interviewing workshops
• Select International helps interviewers improve their structured interview skills
• The Lou Adler Group provides workshops inspired by its performance-based hiring principles

Investing time and effort into interviewing skills training for managers will be worth it. As a result, your team will make better hires, promote your employer brand and improve your candidate experience.

The post How to conduct interview training for hiring managers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Unfortunately, there is rarely one individual who checks every single box the company prefers. In addition, spending hours upon hours interviewing many candidates is a waste of time. In fact, it’s an added burden on one’s work obligations. “Managers typically have their own job, and when they have an open position, technically may have two jobs,” says a senior advisor at SHRM.

“Managers typically have their own job, and when they have an open position, technically may have two jobs.” – SHRM senior advisor

By scheduling interview after interview in search of the one candidate that fits 100% of the criteria, companies are wasting time and money. Instead of waiting around hoping for that one perfect unicorn to apply, many companies are adopting the 70% Rule for hiring talented employees quickly and efficiently.

Based on the Marine Corps teachings, the 70% Rule says that: “You take action on any decision when you have 70% confidence in the success of the decision”. By using the 70% Rule, hiring managers can cut the time they spend evaluating candidates in half.

In addition, it gives room for talented trainers to bring those 70% employees up to the 100% level they need to be to achieve greatness in that role.

Here are the top benefits of using the 70% Rule of hiring when interviewing and recruiting new employees – we’ve done the research, so you don’t have to:

1. Grow your employees to their full potential

No matter what level of candidate you onboard, everyone needs some sort of training to acclimate to the new work environment – and more so in recent years. In fact, the 2020 Training Industry Report finds that the average number of training hours per employee increased from 42.2 hours to 102.6 hours between 2017 and 2020 for large companies. While training expenditures took a dip during the early part of the pandemic, it’s since bounced back – showing its value.

So, hiring managers might as well onboard professionals who meet 70%+ of their criteria and spend a little extra time training those new hires for company needs. Why not save the time you would spend interviewing hundreds of candidates and just bring on talented employees who will be perfect with a little bit of training?

Think about it. Would you prefer to waste hours of valuable company time sitting in interviews? Or would you rather hire candidates who meet 70% of your requirements and spend that saved time giving them valuable knowledge and experience in the actual job?

2. Motivate your employees to strive for excellence

When employees know that their hiring manager and company took a chance by hiring them, they are more likely to strive for excellence. Hiring someone who may not be immediately qualified, but could soon get there, is one of the best ways a company can develop employee loyalty. This is widely documented, including in a recent Deloitte report on what they title as “unleashing workforce potential.”

The report quotes: “In the 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey, executives identified ‘the ability of their people to adapt, reskill, and assume new roles’ as the top-ranked item to navigate future disruptions.”

Likewise, a joint survey by Workable, TalentLMS and Training Journal found that 75% of hiring managers, C-suiters and decision makers saw a benefit to company productivity when upskilling and reskilling their workers.

The emphasis on adapting and reskilling can also be an emphasis on providing new employees with a dedicated training mentor, which will foster a positive work climate while ensuring your new hires are adequately trained. In addition, it is proven that employees who receive attention from an advocating mentor are more likely to feel valued within the workplace.

Creating a sense of inclusion and support within your workplace culture is the perfect recipe to develop happy employees. As stated by the University of Oxford, “Happy workers are 13% more productive.”

Developing employees who are already 70% what your company is looking for will accelerate your efforts to develop a positive atmosphere.

3. Develop your employees to your specifications

Employees who are overqualified or fit 100% of your criteria likely have years of experience in their chosen field. Oftentimes, they come with a college degree and have been exposed to the training programs of a few companies.

As such, they are less likely to develop long-term company loyalty as they are more comfortable leaving workplaces after just a couple of years. Plus, as David Silverberg writes for BBC Worklife: “overqualified workers can develop negative attitudes, such as a sense of entitlement about their skills or resentment through boredom, that can ripple out to every cubicle in an office.”

Another potential scenario is that those “perfect fit” employees are potentially creatures of habit, in that they have succeeded for so long in their way of doing things – which makes it more challenging to onboard and adapt them to your company’s existing work processes.

There’s another possible challenge for employers and hiring managers – the “perfect” hire may inadvertently set high expectations for their managers who may think they don’t need to be managed since they already know how to do the job from day one.

While these aren’t necessarily the case for every overqualified employee, it still makes sense that with onboarding and training being natural experiences for a new employee, employers can take advantage of developing employees to be a stronger fit in their work processes to benefit everyone involved.

4. Save money and retain talent

Plus, there is quite a bit of research that suggests training fresh new hires with less experience may be less costly to the company overall. Statistically, employees who are in-house trained and given ample professional development opportunities are more likely to stay with that company.

Notably, employees value working for a company that invests in their education – there’s a clear link between professional development and job satisfaction. Again, 58% of respondents in the above-mentioned survey saw greater retention when upskilling/reskilling.

Budget-conscious companies also have the option of offering learning & development – which is growing in popularity with candidates – in place of a higher salary.

Hiring employees using the 70% Rule of hiring and providing them with professional development creates a win-win for employers and employees.

Put in 70% and reap the benefits

Today, we are currently living in an era referred to as the Great Resignation. That is, millions of employees are fleeing workplaces in demand of better working conditions. Shockingly, around four million Americans left their places of employment just about every month in the second half of 2022.

That number is projected to continue throughout 2022 as well. Employees are seeking job opportunities that align with the lifestyle they want to live. This includes holding a job that brings them a sense of connectedness and fulfillment.

Hiring employees who meet 70% of the requirements to perform the role of the job is a surefire way to save time and money. This method can have both a long-term and short-term positive impact on the company.

The short-term impact is that the hiring manager will save time by reducing the number of interviews they conduct while holding out for that 100% employee. On a related note, the long-term impact is that those 70% employees are more likely to stay, thrive, and excel as they receive professional development.

Ron Sharon is an IT executive and cybersecurity leader leveraging 17+ years of experience translating business requirements to deliver innovative solutions and mitigating risk. Sharon was named Vice President of Information Security for Mercer Advisors in 2021 and is happily married with one wonderful daughter.

The post The 70% rule of hiring: When ‘hired’ is better than ‘perfect’ appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Your recruiters are telling you they can’t handle any more job requisitions.

Your head of talent just gave notice.

Sound familiar?

Could you possibly be responsible for burning out your hiring team?

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the national average across all industries and employer sizes is somewhere between 30-40 open requisitions per recruiter at any one time. Sounds like a reasonable number, right?

Before you agree, it’s essential to understand that this data point doesn’t tell the whole story of what may contribute to recruiter burnout.

The following are other factors to consider when determining what a reasonable workload is for your recruitment team and the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts.

1. Unemployment rates

When the unemployment rate is high, more applicants will lead to a more robust applicant pipeline and an increased offer-acceptance rate. The time to fill rates, affording a recruiter time to manage a greater number of job openings, will also decline.

However, the opposite is true as well. When we have low unemployment rates, which we’re experiencing right now, employers are seeing significantly fewer qualified applicants, which means it’s taking considerably more time and effort to fill positions. So, in essence, we’re asking those responsible for recruiting to produce the same results with no additional support.

2. Absence of a dedicated recruiting team

Many organizations don’t have dedicated recruiting teams, which means that many HR folks are under enormous pressure to fill jobs while balancing the rest of their responsibilities. At the same time, those who work for companies with limited budgets are told they cannot pay recruitment fees. If this is what’s happening in your business, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

If you continue to ask your HR team to do more with less, you’ll soon be in the unenviable position of recruiting a new HR department. You want people to feel good about their work. For many, that means having the necessary resources to do their jobs well, such as a budget for recruitment fees and approval to hire a contract recruiter.

3. Lack of resources available

We briefly touched upon resources available (i.e., budget for recruitment fees, headcount for contract recruiters, etc.) However, there are more factors to examine to ensure you’re up for the hiring challenges that 2022 will bring.

Have you updated your talent strategy? If you haven’t, then no wonder why your people are frustrated. Working off a talent plan established pre-pandemic is the equivalent of reading the user manual for your old Sony Trinitron when trying to figure out how to operate your smart TV. Throw that plan (and that manual) into the trash and establish a relevant strategy, given the times we are in.

Do you have an effective employee referral program? The key word here is effective. Many of you have programs in place that your employees aren’t aware of. Now’s the time to rebrand those programs to ensure they are top of mind in your organization. Do you have a robust social media recruiting program? If not, your recruiting team may be working way harder than they should be.

4. High employee turnover

Most people don’t understand the full impact of high levels of employee turnover on attracting candidates and filling jobs. It’s no secret which companies churn employees, which means that your people must work twice as hard to land a candidate as a competitor with low turnover.

You can’t go back and change history. However, you can take immediate steps to stop the churn. First, you can find out the real reason why people are leaving. Many people on the way out the door say they are leaving for a “better opportunity.” But what you really want to know is why they considered a better opportunity in the first place.

Next, you want to have your managers meet with their teams and ask the following questions:

• What were your hopes and dreams when you took this job?
• Are you advancing towards your dreams?
• What can I do to help you get there?

Remind managers to listen for those areas where they can support their team member’s wish to achieve a desired state of being.

5. Underutilized resources

The quickest way to help your recruiters fill jobs is to turn your entire team into a hiring machine. Every person in your organization should be responsible for recruiting talent. To make this happen, you must train your people to recruit and select for success.

These are some of the ways to reduce the burnout and stress recruiters are feeling these days and suggestions on how your organization can better fill jobs rapidly with suitable candidates. The next step is up to you. Do something now to ensure your hiring team is refreshed and ready to face the challenges 2022 will bring.

Roberta Matuson, The Talent Maximizer® and President of Matuson Consulting, helps world-class organizations like General Motors, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Microsoft hire and retain world-class talent. Roberta is the author of six books on talent and leadership, including the newly released, Can We Talk? Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work, and Evergreen Talent. Sign up to receive her free newsletter, The Talent Maximizer®. Follow her on Twitter.

The post Recruiter burnout: Why it’s happening and what you can do appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

When you plan to grow, make sure to set down some basic hiring patterns. Once you start growing – and scaling your hiring process – you can just customize and adapt. A shedload of those patterns is directly linked to HR and hiring managers’ cooperation. (In startups, hiring managers are usually executive team members, C-level representatives, and team leaders.)

It may seem clear-cut, as a lot has already been said and written about successful hiring – but it becomes a much more complicated business when it’s a high-growth environment.

Here, I want to share five simple and clear steps that can significantly impact your hiring and allow you to scale the team successfully in high-demand conditions.

1. Establish a hiring plan

The growth phase is one of the most challenging moments for your company. People and teams are at the center of this growth and, even if there is a slim chance of being accurate in estimating your hiring needs, it is uber-crucial to keep HR in the loop about them.

You need to know where your company is going, at least in the near term. Your estimate might encompass one quarter or half a year – either way, it will create a place for proper planning and taking care of the essential positions by the HR team.

This all requires a clear, well-thought-out hiring plan when scaling your hiring process. It should, ideally, include the following information:

• the domain of the most-wanted specialists
• specific areas of expertise within the said domain (ideally)
• the level of knowledge and background you are looking for
• the desired timeline of hiring (this one is all-important for HR)

Once your hiring needs are estimated and documented, the future success of your hyper-growth will have a strong foundation. Both HR and hiring managers will be on the same page with the same vision and context of the company’s needs.

This is the moment when we jump into role definitions.

2. Define brand-new positions clearly

Once the company starts scaling rapidly, you will have less and less time. Once the hiring plan is established and you’re ready to start scaling your hiring, there comes a point when you should redefine existing positions and define new ones. By that, I mean writing down the whole package of vital information you will use in the upcoming recruitment process or adapting to future ones.

One good practice that still remains is to have a pre-prepared kick-off template to make the brand-new position definition as easy as it is possible for both the HR practitioner and hiring manager. At this point, I want to share with you a very brief kick-off template that could be extended or, in any possible way, modified accordingly to your specific needs.

You should define every position clearly and narrowly by asking more clarifying questions, not fewer. This will bring numerous assets for HR and the hiring manager. These include:

• The kick-off meeting is the opportunity to build a common understanding between HR and the hiring manager (kick-off meeting template provided by Infermedica).
• Two-way street communication never hurts. It will create a space for cooperative and respectful relationships.
• Once you define the position clearly and diligently, compile the information which can be re-used for job description publishing, promoting, sourcing, or redefining the initial assumptions in a future situation.
• The job description should be shared later on with people interviewing for the role (everyone involved in the process – including the jobseeker – will then be aware of the experience and background you are looking for).
• Both kick-off meeting notes and job descriptions will direct HR into clear boundaries of future sourcing.

3. Refine your sourcing strategy

Let’s be honest, there is no way to hire for some roles without properly sourcing or directly messaging people who you think would be a great fit for the company.

The talent market is getting more and more competitive and, along with the rapid growth (which is no doubt very exciting), it rushes a tremendous amount of hiring. This is the moment when you should really try to dedicate time to preparing your sourcing strategy.

No matter what stage your company is in at the moment when scaling your hiring process, you should never forget that you represent the company in the eyes of the candidate. You advertise it, sell it and create a candidate experience that will be shared with other people in the market sooner or later. You are the face of the company’s employer brand during the sourcing process, and it should be planned wisely.

There are two things you should be focusing on here:

• Reaching out to candidates who fit the job description.
• Reaching out to candidates with the best possible message.

This is where HR and hiring manager collaboration comes into the picture. It doesn’t mean your hiring manager should jump into HR shoes and learn how to create a Boolean string in LinkedIn, nor does it mean you can tell the hiring manager what they need exactly for the role.

What might work great for pinning down the sourcing strategy is:

• Create and share a direct message template that you are planning to use with the hiring manager (this might take some time, but the input HR might get here is gigantic)
• Share a few ideal candidate profiles, ideally four to seven, which will ensure that both HR and the hiring manager are on the same page. It’ll also establish a good marker role for further sourcing.

4. Interview Prep Kit is a timesaver

Adam Robinson, author of The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring, says that 90% of companies lack a structured hiring process. I am unsure if this number reflects the current reality, but an unstructured process can be excruciating for the company.

Structuring the hiring process is an enormously broad topic, so I will focus on one of the things that might drive a better outcome and better experience (both for the candidates and the hiring team) as they pertain to scaling your hiring process.

When you are interviewing the candidate and there are numerous people involved, you should establish a structure with interview questions. I will be honest, this is very time-consuming, but only at the beginning.

The main problem we are solving here is:

• Clarifying the areas that should be evaluated during the interview.
• Matching questions to make this evaluation more efficient.

Preparing an all-purpose interview prep kit will benefit hiring managers during both the ongoing and future interviews. Prepared once, it could be tailored, extended, or modified to specific needs later on.

5. A scorecard might be a good idea

We can all agree that being on the same page regarding professional areas that should be evaluated is a key to the successful recruitment process.

What might escape us is that we are working with different people trained in varying approaches to interviewing. But, sometimes, this is not even the main challenge. High-growth environments can force employees to fast-track the art of recruiting, and this is where HR teams should step in with something more clear, shorter, and concrete than an interview prep kit.

Interview scorecards might be a great alternative. The list of qualifications, traits, and skills will:

• Help you zero in on your ideal candidate characteristics.
• Guide the hiring team through the most important areas of the person you want to hire.
• Create a very simple and clear evaluating process (and also structure the whole hiring process).
• Simplify the process of sharing opinions about the candidate with all interested parties.

Simply put: remember that there’s no one general hiring structure that will work for every high-growth company. Learn from companies that are or were, a while ago, exactly where you are now. Take into account their best practices, but remember to build your hiring strategy and processes based on your specific environment dependents.

We wish you the best of luck in scaling your hiring needs!

Oleksandra Chernyak is a Recruitment Manager at Infermedica, which creates AI-powered healthcare solutions that support patients and physicians in making the best clinical decisions.

The post 5 tips when scaling your hiring in a rapid-growth company appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

For instance:

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

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

Eight steps to verify candidate identity

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

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

1. Include detail-oriented follow-up questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Pay attention to assessments

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

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

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

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

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

3. Check IDs during video interviews

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

Tech can help verify candidate identity

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

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

4. Use e-signatures

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

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

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

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

5. Introduce identification scoring

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

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

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

6. Ask verification questions

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

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

7. Monitor your candidates

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

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

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

8. Take advantage of third-party resources

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why should we care?

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

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

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

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

1. Prepare beforehand

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

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

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

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

2. Invite every candidate

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

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

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

3. Setting up the interview

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

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

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

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

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

4. Conducting the interview

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

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

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

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

5. Report immediately afterwards

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

Post-assessment interview best practices

When interviewing, follow these best practices:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 good internal interview questions

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

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

This question assesses foresight and problem-solving skills.

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

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

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

Sample answer:

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

What to look for during the internal interview process

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

1. Success in current position

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

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

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

2. Skills that suit the position they are applying for

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

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

3. Motivation in applying for the new role

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

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

4. Strengths in comparison to external candidates

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

5. Focus on self-improvement and growth

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

These traits also generally go along with being open to thoughtful feedback, another vital characteristic for anyone looking to succeed long-term in an organization. Use questions to evaluate whether your candidate can recognize their growth potential.

6. Flexibility and adaptability

If you’re going to remove a person from their current position, you want to be confident that they possess the skills to adapt to the challenges of the new role. That means evaluating their technical abilities and how they match up with the expectations of the new position.

It also means ensuring that they are a fundamentally flexible person, able to adapt to new challenges while maintaining a high level of professionalism and decorum. Without this adaptability, even the most qualified candidate can fail to thrive in their new environment.

How to assess skills during an internal interview

1. Ask questions about specific experiences

Generally, your best chance at getting accurate information about your candidate’s skills is to be specific in your questions. Ask for concrete examples. If they describe something in vague terms, ask a follow-up question about the skills they used or the context of that experience. It’s a great way to assess the depth of their direct involvement in the examples they’re sharing.

2. Know what you’re looking for

Review the expectations with the hiring team for the position you’re assessing candidates for. You have to understand what you’re looking for yourself in order to gauge another person’s expertise and consequently make the right decisions.

3. Talk to their supervisor beforehand

Ask your candidate’s supervisor how they would assess their skills. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they meet the technical requirements of the new position? Hearing their supervisor’s opinion first can give valuable context for the candidate’s answers.

4. Technical assessment

When assessing hard skills rather than soft ones, there’s always the option of a technical assessment. You or another technically qualified person can ask questions about specific skills, or you can use a technical assessment tool to evaluate aptitude.

Often, an internal promotion or transfer can bring more reward than an externally sourced hire. With these internal interview questions, you’re now ready to evaluate internal candidates for that open role. Best of luck in your search!

Olivia Jones is a freelance writer and marketing consultant. She helps companies create compelling content. Learn more about what she does on her website or connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post 10 internal interview questions – and best practices for each appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Topgrading interviewing allows you a lot more insight into a candidate, and (importantly) it will enable the candidate better insight into the company.

Here’s what you need to know.

• What is topgrading interviewing?
• Why your company should utilize topgrading
• Example topgrading interview questions
• Incorporating topgrading into your interview process

What is topgrading interviewing?

The term topgrading comes from a 1997 article by Bradford D. Smart and his son, Geoffrey, called Topgrading the organization. Their definition is:

“Topgrading simply means proactively seeking out and employing the most talented people available, while redeploying (internally or externally) those of lesser ability or performance. More specifically, we view topgrading as employing only A players.”

But, it’s more than just seeking A players; it’s about structuring interviews and making sure the process is rigorously targeting the right people. The Smarts talk a lot about talent rather than skill or experience, theorizing that the most talented people will bring the most value to your organization.

And to do that, it’s not just about the interview questions; it requires a well-written job description that reflects the company culture and goals and the individual job responsibilities. Without this critical information, you can’t attract the right people for the job.

Typically, when you use topgrading, the candidates face multiple interviewers to find the best people who fill these critical core competencies: Intelligence, vision, leadership, drive, resourcefulness, customer focus, hiring, team-building, track record/experience, integrity, and communication.

This all comes together as part of a 12-step process in hiring.

These twelve steps are:

1. Measure and improve the current hiring process: You need to look at your current methods before making changes. What works and what does not?
2. Create a job scorecard: This is a rigorous process to determine what you need for the position. You do this before you begin recruiting, so the scorecard reflects the company’s needs rather than allowing candidates to sway hiring managers with charm.
3. Recruit candidates: Make sure you have a detailed job description.
4. Screen candidates with work history forms: These forms include detailed questions for all candidates that include compensation history (illegal now in some states and jurisdictions), “boss ratings, reasons for leaving jobs, likes and dislikes in job, self-appraisal, and more.”
5. Conduct telephone or video interviews: This should be an in-depth screening that lasts about 45 minutes. This narrows down your field.
6. Do competency interviews: These focus on proficiency and behavior.
7. Conduct a topgrading interview: Topgrading interviewing is intense and focuses on the candidate’s entire career history, with questions about every position.
8. Provide feedback and coaching to interviewers: This helps you improve your process by giving each other feedback.
9. Write a summary: Each interviewer writes up a summary of each candidate, used for comparing.
10. Have the candidate arrange reference calls: Topgrading theorizes that good performers have good relationships with former bosses and will enjoy this process. You then conduct the calls and categories the candidates according to their perceived potential.
11. Coach the new hire: The process doesn’t end on the candidate’s first day. You have to make sure to make this a good environment and an excellent place to grow.
12. Measure hiring success annually: When you establish a baseline and regular tracking of recruitment metrics, you can identify opportunities to finetune and improve your hiring process.

Why your company should utilize topgrading

Topgrading interviewing isn’t the best idea for every company and every position. It’s an intense process that doesn’t make sense for call center employees but makes sense for CEOs and senior vice presidents.

When you hire someone into a leadership position, you need to be absolutely sure of their skills and abilities. After all, you are entrusting your business to their decision-making skills. This can help weed through multiple candidates to find the best of the best.

However, there is a caution: you will find great candidates who aren’t willing to jump through your hoops. This is a risk you have to take when you dedicate your process to topgrading.

Example topgrading interview questions

Topgrading interviews are broken into four parts: Early influences, work history, plans and goals, and self-evaluation.

For example:

• Early influences: “Tell me about the high school teacher who influenced you the most? How did that impact your future?”
• Work history: “What is a problem you had to overcome in [specific position]? How did you solve it?”
• Plans and goals: “What are your career aspirations? What do you hope to achieve in this role?”
• Self-evaluation: “What are the things you struggle with? What are your strongest talents and skills?”

Candidates can answer none of these questions with a quick yes or no. They involve thought and require the interviewer to listen carefully.

Incorporating topgrading into your interview process

You don’t have to switch to a complete topgrading process to use some of its best aspects. Using job scorecards for all positions can help ensure that your interview process is fair and as unbiased as possible. Having multiple interviewers meet with each candidate also gives the possibility to tease out different skill sets. If the job has technical aspects, but the hiring manager isn’t a technical person, you want someone who understands those aspects to be part of the team. Otherwise, you may not get accurate answers.

As noted above, some aspects, like a compensation history, are illegal in some states and jurisdictions and should be avoided altogether, as it helps promulgate earlier discrimination problems. Look instead for growth in positions, regardless of salary.

Having candidates reach out to former bosses can make reference checks much easier, but keep in mind, just as there are bad employees, there are bad bosses. If someone has a bad relationship with a former boss, it doesn’t always mean that the candidate was the problem.

The best aspects of topgrading are careful, detailed planning, and consistent candidate evaluation. It really can help you get the people you need into the position.

The post What is topgrading interviewing? Our favorite tips appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Let’s go back to the beginning:

Video interviews are booming

Video interviews – even pre-recorded video interviews – are now a standard element in the overall recruitment process, and will continue to be so post-pandemic. According to Workable’s New World of Work study, 56.5% of businesses plan to make remote permanent for at least some of their workforce going forward. Only 6.2% of businesses plan to do nothing in general.

This means even more digitization of the recruitment process, and one aspect of that is video interview technology.

Even before COVID-19 introduced itself to our world, video interviews were used by 70% of the employers in the list of Talent Board’s Candidate Experience award winners. Time to hire is now shorter as a result of pre-recorded video interviews, and it’s cheaper too in terms of travel and time commitments both for the candidate and the recruiter.

The benefits of pre-recorded video interviews

The benefits of pre-recorded video interviews for employers and candidates are multifold. It’s a fantastic tool for evaluating candidates at a deeper level, especially for remote jobs in roles that directly engage with customers and prospects.

Recruiters can now enjoy the following benefits of video interviews:

1. Gain better insight into soft skills and “personality” of the candidate
2. Assess ability to work remotely – as video is a core component of remote work
3. Save time by not having to coordinate interviews or screening calls – especially across different time zones
4. Establish a more uniform process – making for a more equitable experience
5. Share pre-recorded interviews with your team –  in a traditional interview, only those physically present would be able to provide feedback

There are benefits for the candidate experience as well:

1. Candidates have the opportunity to present themselves more naturally than in a stressful 30-minute live interview – depending on the role, of course
2. Candidates can prepare for and complete video interviews at their convenience
3. Candidates are no longer expected to travel or commute for that first interaction with the company
4. Candidates can pause their interviews and pick up where they left off

To convince the budget holders in your team of the value of pre-recorded video interview tech, there are significant benefits to the bottom line as well:

1. Shorten your time to hire by eliminating a step in the selection process and combining the screening and interview stages. When 66% of candidates move on after two weeks of not hearing from an employer, shortening the time to hire becomes crucial in reducing the risk of losing top candidates – especially in high-volume hiring periods.
2. Reduce the hours invested in the hiring process. The number of work hours invested in communicating, scheduling, and carrying out the screening process can be costly, so reducing that means you can do more recruiting with less resource commitment. And with self-scheduling options, you’re eliminating time-consuming back-and-forth communication to find a time that’s right for both of you.
3. Lower your cost per hire by improving the quality of your hires, saving your money in the future through lower employee turnover and higher engagement. Also, with fewer work hours invested by the hiring team, the recruitment process becomes more optimized and you’re doing more with less.

Budget holders aren’t as interested in the day-to-day process – they’re more impressed with risk reduction and lower costs. So emphasize the above when presenting your case to those stakeholders.

There’s another impact, a negative one if you don’t implement it properly: your employer brand. Candidates have often griped that pre-recorded video interviews are just further automation of the recruitment process and can hurt the candidate experience. It sends a signal to candidates that they’re no longer humans – they’re just nuts and bolts in a larger machine. Not a good look for you or your brand.

However, it doesn’t need to be this way. Here are four tried-and-true ways that you can use pre-recorded video interviews to their greatest benefit and make a strong, positive impression on candidates.

Pre-recorded video interview best practices

Simply plugging video interviews into your current workflow won’t be enough. If you do, that’s where your employer brand will take a hit, because you are automating the process in the wrong way. To get around that, you want to personalize it as much as you can while at the same time utilizing video interviews to their fullest benefit as outlined above.

Here are four ways in which you can utilize video interviews to really boost your cred as an awesome employer:

1. Add an introductory video

Include a recording of yourself at the very beginning to help the candidate understand and appreciate the context in which you’re conducting video interviews. In this recording, you can:

• Introduce yourself as the recruiter or hiring manager
• Talk about the role a little bit – and what you’re looking for
• Explain why you’re doing video interviews instead of a live phone screening
• Talk about how a candidate can best prepare for this step
• Thank the candidate for taking part in this very important part of the process
• Set expectations – for example, turnaround time, next steps, etc.
• Use a friendly tone to put the candidate at ease

2. Tutor the candidate

Some candidates will not be 100% well-versed on pre-recorded video interviews. For some, it may be their very first time doing so. You can share a tutorial – such as this one – to help candidates prepare. You can share these tips as well:

• Equipment that they’ll need, and supported browsers
• A demonstration or practice question if available
• Find a quiet place free from distractions with a professional background

3. Include video questions

Instead of simply adding boilerplate questions to the video interview in writing and sending those on to the candidate, have the hiring manager record themselves asking the questions one by one.

This more personalized approach reassures candidates when they can see who they’re responding to, and helps them prepare a solid, thoughtful answer. All the better for you to gain more insight into candidates.

4. Incorporate other elements via links

Pre-recorded video interviews do not necessarily have to be in a basic Q&A format. You can liven things up by adding elements in different formats, customizing fonts and styles, etc. Examples also include:

• Embedding a YouTube video and asking the candidate to record their honest reaction to it
• Including a PDF (i.e. a sales sheet, a product page, a piece of marketing collateral) and asking the candidate what they would do to improve on it

It’s not about what you use – it’s how you present it

When you think about Nike, it’s not about the shoes. It’s about Michael Jordan, “Just Do It”, and other powerful messaging and positioning. Red Bull’s similar – they’re not just an energy drink company. They’re about extreme sports and healthy, fun living.

If Nike just said, “Here’s a pair of shoes”, and if Red Bull said, “Folks, here’s an energy drink”, would you be so interested? Probably not.

Think about it in the same way when adding pre-recorded video interviews to your recruitment workflow. Candidates won’t respond well if you just said, “Here’s a video interview, get ‘er done and get back to me!” But they’ll respond if you add the extra stuff.

Personalize the video interview experience with introductory videos and pre-recorded questions, include tutorials to help the candidate present their best selves, and make it an all-around interesting and immersive experience for the candidate.

That’s a part of recruitment marketing, and the resulting positive candidate experience can be great for your employer brand – and help you hire the very best talent for your team.

Want to learn more? Check out our other content on video interviews:

• The video interview: top tips for employers
• Zinger Property enhances their inclusive hiring process with Workable Video Interviews
• Video Interviews: Designing for and with end users in mind

The post Pre-recorded video interviews: 4 best practices for success appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Table of Contents

1. Candidate experience

• On sidestepping “Where do you see yourself in X years?”
• On recruiting passive candidates

2. Lean recruiting

• On start-up recruiting without benefits and perks
• On sourcing diverse talent on a tight budget

3. DEI in the recruitment process

• On supporting DEI in hiring
• On the efficacy of Workable’s anonymized screening tool
• On hiring diverse candidates for a school district

4. Competing for talent

• On compensation in different markets
• On finding top talent when you’re not the ideal

5. And one more for the road… on hiring after COVID

Following are some exchanges from that Q&A session (with names of guests removed to preserve privacy):

1. Candidate experience

On sidestepping “Where do you see yourself in X years?”

Guest:
What is the best question to ask potential employees about retention in the office?

Melissa:
Hi, thank you for your question! To clarify, are you asking how to respond about retention at your company if the answer is not positive?

Guest:
Yes, we have a lot of longevity in our office. I have worked there for over 20 years. It takes about a year just to learn the job. I wanted to think beyond the “where do you see yourself in 5 years”. I know there are some gray areas to avoid, but any advice would be great!

Melissa: 
Assessing staying power can be hard to navigate, I would focus on sharing your company’s lengthy ramp time and the need for time commitment that employees need to invest in order to make an impact. For the right candidates, this transparency and approach will resonate.

However, we also have to recognize that workforce behaviors have evolved when it comes to tenure and the average time in a role is around 4.5 years and those aged between 24-34, it’s around 3 years, so employers have to adjust in order to maximize the impact employees can make in that timeframe.

Guest:
Great advice!! thank you so much!!!!

Melissa:
My pleasure!

On recruiting passive candidates

Guest:
Could you provide advice on best practices when it comes to sourcing passive candidates?

Melissa:
Hi again, of course! RESILIENCE. Candidates are cautious to leave jobs right now so don’t get offended if you don’t get responses to your reach out.

Personalization is key, show that you have a good understanding of their background and why you think making a move into your organization would be worthwhile. Projecting warmth and enthusiasm goes a long way and sharing as much about your company and why it’s a stellar place to work.

It’s difficult but you also have to do this as succinctly as possible. And don’t be afraid to use multiple methods of reaching out, direct email, LinkedIn or even a call.

Keith:
Think of it in terms of recruitment marketing. You are marketing yourself as an employer. You want to show your value as an employer to the candidate. Usually, it’s the other way around, in that candidates are trying to market themselves to you.

Show your value as an employer, in terms of what that candidate can gain from making such a move. As Melissa says, passive candidates aren’t just going to jump ship. You’re asking them to take a risk. You want to show them that you’re worth that risk.

Guest:
Thank you so much you two! I really appreciate it! I often do get discouraged when I don’t get a reply back. I will consider trying different approaches and watching which one works and have really been looking into recruitment marketing.

2. Lean recruiting

On start-up recruiting without benefits and perks

Guest:
What is the best way to recruit people into a start up that currently has no formal benefits and very few perks. It’s hard in the world of free lunch and a games room!

Keith:
Oh yeah, that is always tough. You’re in a very competitive space already. Workable CEO Nikos Moraitakis offered some great insights around that theme in an interview a few years ago:

To your point about free lunches and games rooms, he offered this: “No one ever came to work because of the ping pong tables. Even less so, stayed for them.”

He does have a point. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about benefits and perks – you can communicate the value of the work itself, which can be unique and interesting in so many ways compared with other startups.

You may also find this to be a good resource.

Melissa:
Hi! You have to capitalize on the things a startup does offer – a chance to be part of building and shaping structure, tech tools, teams and culture! Post your jobs in places that might draw in candidates that are inspired by that type of opportunity – AngelList, VentureFizz and Built In to name a few. At this stage of your growth, count on referrals too, they’ll have a better sense of what they’re walking into.

On sourcing diverse talent on a tight budget

Guest:
What are some strategies for sourcing diverse candidates when the organization doesn’t have the budget to invest in diverse platforms?

Melissa:
Hi … thanks for your question! To me, it’s about posting in multiple places to source from as many diverse job boards/candidate pools as possible. There are organizations who also focus and partner with companies to support diverse hiring. Also, using technology like anonymized screening will help.

Training hiring managers to identify biases is a crucial starting point when interviewing in order to to avoid unintentionally disqualifying candidates. Getting commitment from the hiring team will sometimes take longer than you wish, so patience is required.

Just so I can try to help further, what are the diverse platforms you’re referring to?

If you’d like to do some reading on the topic, here’s a great resource for you (and definitely, watch the video!).

Guest:
Melissa, thank you for the advice. This is very helpful. Currently we have looked in areas like Dice or POCIT. And I have been told we do not have a budget to post on paid platforms at the moment. Current postings are those provided via our current ATS. Thank you again for sharing this resource.

3. DEI in the recruitment process

On supporting DEI in hiring

Guest:
There are some new recruitment products, touting support of DE&I with this process, that is championing for even more increased “blind” selection criteria to go beyond hiding names, home addresses, school names, etc. which have been known to elicit hidden biases to not utilizing Zoom or video interviews to further cut down on unconscious biases from creeping into this process – ie. voice, dialect, dress, hairstyle, etc.

So these products are focused on the employer asking work-based questions for the candidate to submit in writing. Would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this new burgeoning recruitment strategy to further support DE&I efforts?

Melissa:
Hi … thank you for your question! This is a tough one, but definitely a good one. While there is research available that shows the positive impact of anonymized screening, it needs to be part of a wider DEI initiative to have an impact.

For example: According to a study completed by Harvard Business Review, “Before any anonymization, men outperformed women by about 5%. After just the removal of the names, that number dropped to less than 3%. When the applications were fully anonymized, women outperformed men by 1%.”

However, even if this method does improve your diverse hiring metrics, it does not guarantee the organization’s culture is inclusive. Anonymized screening is one piece of the puzzle – it’s a tool companies can utilize to meet their goals – but so much more needs to happen as well.

On the efficacy of Workable’s anonymized screening tool

Guest:
I also noted that you have anonymized the Workable ATS, could you please let me know to what extent this has reduced unconscious bias and how, in cases where the content of the CV or application either countries where one has worked, college or university can give an indication of nationality

Melissa:
Hi, great question! This article has a few screenshots that can help you visualize what our Anonymized Screening tool does. As you can see, college & country are considered identifying information, so these would be blocked out.

According to a study completed by Harvard Business Review, “Before any anonymization, men outperformed women by about 5%. After just the removal of the names, that number dropped to less than 3%. When the applications were fully anonymized, women outperformed men by 1%.”

Guest:
Great feedback, that’s good analytics. I noted that some panel members try as much as possible to have women in the shortlist and sometimes this can be at the expense of men.

This happened last time, I pointed this out to the team and they thought, it’s good to have an all-women shortlist. The results were anything but; we did go back to the longlist and selected the next group which was a mix and the second round was much better and men did better compared to the first group.

On hiring diverse candidates for a school district

Guest:
Hi! As a recruiter for a school district, my biggest challenge is to recruit diverse candidates for all positions. What suggestions or ideas do you have on how to do this?

Keith:
Hi – great question. We talk a lot about this in Workable’s own content. First things first, you want to diversify that initial candidate pool. In that, you’ll need to think about where you’re actually posting your job ads and where you’re announcing opportunities at your school district. The more diverse your outreach, the wider range of candidates you’ll attract, so to speak.

Another thing to think about is the overall messaging of your school district. An overt statement that shows you value diversity, equity and inclusion can do a lot in terms of candidate attraction.

If you’d like to do some reading on the topic, here’s a great resource for you.

If the challenge is about making a case for it with stakeholders, then this may be helpful.

Melissa:
Hi, thanks for your question!

I agree with Keith, you want to increase posting in multiple places to source from as many diverse job boards/candidate pools as possible. There are also many organizations focusing and partnering with companies in support of diverse hiring. Also, you’ll find using technology like anonymized screening will be helpful.

On the hiring manager side, training them to identify biases when interviewing to avoid unintentionally disqualifying candidates will get the ball rolling. When it comes to commitment from the hiring team, it will sometimes take longer than you wish, so patience is required.

4. Competing for talent

On compensation in different markets

Guest:
I recently joined a fully distributed company with employees all over the country. When it comes to hiring cross-country and compensation, what philosophy do you think makes the most sense? Different compensation for different markets? Same compensation regardless of market, which can mean you’re priced out of the most expensive markets?

What’s your advice when coming up with compensation recommendations knowing how much markets can vary?

Keith:
Hi! This is obviously a tough one, because there’s no “right” answer. It’s been debated widely, especially as more companies move to remote-first operations during the pandemic. There’s a great discussion from Forbes on it – highlighting Reddit and Zillow as companies that opted to pay the same regardless of location, and Facebook at the other end, preferring to pay based on location.

And if you wanted to go down the rabbit hole on the topic of distributed teams, we do have some great reading for you. First, an interview with SmartBug CEO Ryan Malone, whose company was fully remote way back before it was cool.

And another, on the topic of hiring in different countries.

Melissa:
Hi, thanks for your question. Definitely a hot topic right now. But really, it comes down to your company’s compensation philosophy. Do you want to lead the pack on comp or stay conservative or middle of the road?

It’s unrealistic to expect a company of a certain size and revenue located in one geography to compete with the likes of large enterprises in NY and San Fran.

So the best advice I can give is, make a fair and realistic budget for roles based on comparative comp data, budget approval and cast your net far and wide in your candidate search. You’ll soon get a pretty good picture from candidate feedback if any comp adjustments need to be reconsidered from there.

And sometimes, you have to accept, this is how much a role is going to cost to fill, and you gotta pay if that’s the position your company needs.

Guest:
Yeah, it’s interesting. We’re a small 30-person series A company so our resources are very different than many of the companies frequently mentioned in regards to this topic. I think the biggest challenge has been helping my hiring managers realize that our budget for a role is X.

We might find someone great in an expensive market, but there’s only so much flexibility we have in regards to compensation.

I think they are struggling to understand that there’s always going to be great talent out there that we simply can’t afford–and I know that’s not unique to just my company.

Melissa:
The way I look at it is, if budget is non-negotiable, then time and patience is required to advertise and source for this needle in a haystack. The other, less ideal option, a re-assessment of the job might be required and understand that you might have to get someone who checks 70% of the boxes or a more junior profile.

As much as we’d like to move mountains for our hiring teams, we’re also not miracle workers.

On finding top talent when you’re not the ideal

Guest:
Melissa, thank you for your time and expertise. I am at a small, regional, rural public university in the PNW and we are challenged finding qualified IT faculty to hire. Suggestions?

Our comp structure is “average”, benefits are very good, and livability is superb (if you don’t need a city to live in). Thanks again.

Melissa:
Hi, thanks for your question! Happy to help as best I can. IT / tech talent can notoriously be difficult to find. Do you find you’re not getting enough quality candidates to fill the pipeline? Or, are you getting candidates, but they fall off during the hiring process?

Guest:
Unfortunately – both. Lean applicant pool and quick bailouts when offers to our best candidates come in ahead of us. We cannot sponsor H1B visas and that portion of the labor market appears to be the applicants most available.

Melissa:
This is a tough one. Advertising and promoting those stellar benefits is key and the livability, it will help make your position stand out. Thank you for clarifying, if it’s a lack of qualified candidates, focusing your sourcing efforts on passive candidates at other educational institutions would be where I’d start first.

Keith:
Hi! Seconding Melissa’s comment that IT/tech talent is tough to find. We have written a lot about that in our website. You’ll probably find these articles particularly helpful, especially if you’re finding that talent attraction is a challenge:

• Office in an ‘unsexy’ area? Use these 5 talent attraction strategies
• Hiring tech workers when you’re not on their A-list

Guest:
Super! Thanks for the tips and online resources. We will move ahead optimistically!

Keith:
De nada! If you search “tech talent” in our site, you’ll find plenty of other helpful stuff as well.

Guest:
Thank you again. Your online availability is just great…

Melissa:
Our pleasure!

5. And one more for the road…

On hiring after COVID

Guest:
Any recruiting recommendations for hiring pre & post COVID?

Melissa:
Hi, thanks for your question!

In the past year, we opened our scope to other states offering greater flexibility on location, resulting in a larger pool of candidates. We’ve also focused on a higher utilization of video interviews. As we’re working remotely and will likely continue for the foreseeable future, that comfort with technology and video communication is key.

We’ve also been looking at our scorecards and how we assess candidates to evaluate autonomy and greater emphasis on communication skills. We’ve found by doing these activities, we’ve had greater success in securing hires that do well under our new ways of working.

Keith:
Melissa basically answered it… but thought you’d be interested to know that we surveyed our employees on the kinds of skills that are needed in a remote work world, with some great results.

We also sat down with a CEO of a company that has been fully remote for nearly a decade. He had some great tips on how to identify ideal candidates for that kind of environment.

Have more questions for us?

We are always here to support recruiters and HR professionals in doing what they do best. If you have any more questions that you wish you had the answer to, don’t hesitate to email us at content@workable.com with “Recruiting Q&A” in the subject headline. We’ll assemble your questions and have Melissa answer them for you in a future article!

The post Recruiting Q&As from Bamboo HR’s Employee Experience Week appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Check out our biggest product updates this quarter in a quick, 5-minute video. 

Product releases

Candidate surveys: Measure your brand reputation or gain a better understanding of candidate demographics with candidate surveys. Tailor questions to meet your company’s needs, help teams identify areas of improvement and report on results. Candidate surveys will be gradually rolled out to all Core, Growth and Premier plans over the next few weeks.

Branded careers pages: Updated formatting and branding options make it even easier for you to create a beautifully branded careers page.

• Customize your favicon
• Rich text formatting
• Background image placement
• Logo size configuration

Video Interviews: Workable now supports the option to include your own welcome video and video questions to help you personalize the candidate experience.

Advanced referrals: More customizable options are now available for advanced referrals. 

• Notifications: adjust default email settings for referral users 
• Limit jobs in the portal to internal applications or referrals only
• Add custom questions for referral submission

Hiring plan: You can now edit and update custom requisition fields, add new options, and disable existing options in your hiring plan.

Mobile app: We’ve made it even easier for you to track jobs and candidates, right on your phone. Our newly redesigned home screen helps you find the info you need, fast. Download through the App Store or on Google Play.

The post 6 Workable product releases to boost your brand 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.

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.

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The answer: it’s because your candidate’s experience in the recruitment process is important. Candidate experience is one of the most important factors that not only determine each candidate’s final decision, but also reflect your company culture. It’s important to always remember that, as a recruiter or hiring manager, you are the conveyer of that culture and you want to reflect it the best way possible.

To help you deliver your mission, we gathered weird interview questions that make your ideal candidates feel uncomfortable and – thankfully for you – some alternatives so as not to scare away those candidates – unless you actually want to trick or treat instead of filling that much-needed job position.

Weird interview questions list:

1. Why should I hire you?
2. Why should I not hire you?
3. You have 10 minutes to impress me.
4. Prove to me that you’re smart.
5. What was your relationship like with your previous employer?

1. Why should I hire you?

Apart from being a very stressful question by itself, it also signals a mentality of dominance of the interviewer over the candidate. Even though recruiters and hiring managers have the skills and knowledge to identify skills, there is something that’s sometimes missing:

Candidates are potential colleagues willing to offer their services over compensation and therefore should be treated as equals, not as convicts being forced to testify for their skills.

Alternative: If you are determined to ask this question, consider rephrasing it as: “What could you offer to our company?”. This way, you’re giving the interviewee the opportunity to elaborate on their skills and ideas, and give them the chance to showcase their value to your company.

2. Why should I not hire you?

At first glance, the intent of this question is actually brilliant. Understandably, candidates want to present themselves as flawless and perfect, but the reality is that nobody’s perfect and that’s OK. However, you should carefully consider the words you choose when looking to identify those imperfections. At the end of the day, you want the candidate to feel comfortable. Right?

Alternative: Think about it for a second. Imagine yourself in the shoes of the candidate, waiting anxiously for the next question which ultimately is about calling attention to your flaws. Would you rather get a blunt question like the above, or something more like this: ‘What is something about you that you’d like to change/improve and how would you do that?”

Bet you prefer the second phrasing. But why?

Well, one could say that the first one reasserts that dominance we talked about earlier and gives indirectly the interviewer a reason to skip to the next candidate – at least that’s what you instinctively think as a candidate. So why don’t you polish this question a little bit before using it?

3. You have 10 minutes to impress me.

Now that’s one of the most-cited weird interview questions generating a lot of buzz on Quora. Some candidates reported that they walked away from the interview considering this question a red flag about the company culture, while others saw this as their opportunity to shine.

In any case, making even one of your candidates feel like a jester could lead to a negative review and harm your employer brand.

Alternative: So, what’s the alternative? Instead of asking questions that are difficult to evaluate, try creating a structured interview process. Focus on the specific role – skills needed – and a set of questions that identify whether a candidate is a perfect fit for the role. You can also grab ideas from our interview questions templates here.

Pro tip: Did you know that structured interviews reduce hiring biases?

4. Prove to me that you’re smart.

“Smartness is situational”, wrote a Quora user in the discussion about this question. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences has gained more and more ground over the past few years, especially in education. In short – smartness happens in many different forms. So what can you expect as an answer to this question? And most importantly, how will you evaluate the response?

Alternative: Instead of being driven by how much the answer impressed you (or not), you can add to your list a set of situational and emotional intelligence (EQ) interview questions. This way, you can tighten the focus of candidates’ responses and better compare their answers .

And if you want to evaluate logical-mathematical or linguistic intelligence, you can add an assessment to your hiring process.

5. What was your relationship like with your previous manager?

Remember those times when you were playing ‘truth or dare’ with your friends in college and awkward questions came up when you chose ‘truth’? Well, asking these kinds of questions creates the same feeling in candidates, but with one major difference; if the relationship was not that pleasant, they will never tell.

Alternative: Maybe what you’re actually looking for here is how the interviewee handles difficult situations or which style of management they thrive under. In any case, what you can do is present a scenario which requires interpersonal and collaboration skills to resolve and ask outright about the style of management. Bringing up questions about other companies doesn’t just make candidates feel uncomfortable, it can also be illegal. So, be mindful of that.

Avoiding ghosts

Nobody wants bad reviews haunting your company’s page. By building a structured interview process and taking into consideration the candidate experience, you will avoid unnecessary grudges and bring more ideal talent to your doorstep. And if you’re not sure what weird interview questions give candidates goosebumps, well, why don’t you simply ask them right after the interview with a candidate experience survey?

Related:

6 illegal interview questions not to ask — and legal alternatives

6 best interview questions for employers: alternatives to cliched questions

The post Weird interview questions: How to give your candidates goosebumps appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

On the flip side, there are still unconscious traps you could stumble on. Image and sound are powerful, after all. When you see a candidate for the first time and get cues from how they behave, talk, look and dress like you might get unconsciously triggered. No matter how trained or aware you are, biases will always surface and may sidetrack your attention away from what matters.

Video interview biases: most common risks

So, imagine this scenario: you’re about to evaluate 20 video interviews for an open role in marketing. You’ve handed over four interview questions to candidates, one generic (e.g. “Describe yourself and your career goals in two minutes”) and three job-related (e.g. “What metrics would you use to measure our social media’s performance?”). Each item has unlimited preparation time and the answer is set to a maximum of two minutes.

Despite those given constraints, there is variability in interview answers you receive. Some candidates took the whole two minutes to answer the questions while others spent less than 60 seconds on their responses. The actual responses varied, as well, and of course, you can still see and hear each candidate.

In brief, here are some tricky parts that could trigger video interview biases in this case:

1. Protected characteristics are now evident

What you controlled for during the blind hiring stage will be now visible. You need to be careful with this information and how they might unconsciously impact your evaluation. The umbrella of protected characteristics is huge.

It’s not always the obvious traits that trigger us, such as someone’s skin color or dress code. It could also be that a candidate’s accent might sound funny to your ears, or you might take for granted that a 50-year-old candidate won’t be a perfect fit for a senior position at a dynamic start-up environment. All those elements could be misleading.

2. Non-verbal cues can affect your judgment

Sitting in front of a camera presenting yourself to someone you cannot see is not always that easy for interviewees. Some candidates will feel confident and some won’t. However, this is not necessarily an indicator of how they’ll perform their day-to-day tasks – unless the role entails presenting at a high level or communicating in a similar setup as part of their work (e.g. call centers, telemarketing).

Beware of these no-verbal characteristics and how they impact you. There are some common video interview red flags that might mess you up during evaluation – a noisy background or a multicolored top could sway your judgment in ways you aren’t initially aware of.

3. Evaluating video interviews is a rather new thing

Since one-way video-interviews are relatively new to the recruitment landscape, there’s still a lot to discover going forward. We’re still learning and there are likely more biases that we haven’t identified right away.

Picture this in the above-mentioned scenario: you have two final qualified candidates – one answered their job-related question in 30 seconds while the other’s answer took up the full two minutes. If you don’t pay that much attention to each response, you may prefer the one with the longer answer as they had “more to say”.

But the reality could be that the first candidate had a more accurate answer and cut down the fluff. They were more direct and to the point. For certain roles – let’s say, for editors or public speakers– that would be a good skill to have.

Tips to reduce one-way video interview biases

So, as any other recruiting solution that you use to improve diversity in your business, if you don’t use video interviews the right way, there will still be some stumbling blocks.

No tool and feature will enable you to you to directly succeed in ensuring diversity – rather, it will be your mindset towards diversity that will do the job and your persistent attempts to establish diversity in the core of your business…
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To build a strong approach from beginning to end, track all biases that could surface along the way – whether that’s judging a candidate for a facial piercing for “being unprofessional” to ruling out a single mother at the decision stage, taking for granted that she is not going to be as efficient at the job, with so many personal responsibilities at hand.

Here are some first steps you could follow to structure the screening process in a way that improves your diversity efforts before and during the video-interviewing stage:

Plan your early-stage screening

If you post your job ad to several job boards you broaden your sources for candidates – and in turn, the opportunity to diversify your candidate pool. You can also share the job ad through multiple social networks and find candidates where they usually hang out.

Use a blind hiring software at an early screening stage to eliminate unconscious biases from resumes and social media profiles, such as photo, age, nationality, etc. Later on, when you review a video interview, remember that content and attitude matters more than non-verbal cues and other physical traits or elements.

Conduct pre-employment assessments

Implementing pre-employment assessments is also crucial when screening applicants. They produce a mostly accurate result on job-related competencies and help spot what matters the most for a specific role.

Whether that’s an external assessment or an assignment you built yourself, it’s better to evaluate them before or coupled with video interviews to make sure that what you saw and heard during the video assessment doesn’t impact your judgment and your full attention is concentrated on those important job-related factors.

Structure questions wisely

What you really want to learn about a candidate from their one-way video is if they have the right skills for the role. To spot them, make sure to address the top must-have skills in the questions.

To achieve that, design interview questions that don’t require further explanation. For example:

• Describe a time when you faced a problem in project management and how you dealt with it.
• What is your biggest achievement in content marketing strategy?

It would be unfortunate to lose out on a great candidate because of an unclear or vague question that needs further explanation. You also must use the same job-related questions for every interview to make sure that you evaluate all candidates equally.

Share video-interview tips

It would be also helpful, both for candidates and you as an evaluator, to share some video interview tips with candidates so that they have clear expectations and useful resources to prepare the right way. For example, share some tech and troubleshooting tips with candidates to set up their gear.

Remember to try and ignore the background noise or distractions that could trigger unconscious biases, whether that’s the wall behind them or poor audio/video quality. Focus on answers and attitude.

Here, you can find top video interview tips for candidates that will help you unify the process even more, and prepare all interviewees equally for success.

Train recruiters and hiring managers

All hiring managers and recruiters should be well aware of the video interview diversity risks and biases they could come across with. Apart from not discriminating based on protected characteristics, they should learn how to evaluate answers properly, based on related competency and other screening assessments (e.g. resume, pre-employment assessments, etc.).

It’s important to be aware of some of the common video interview red flags mentioned above, such as poor body language, that are not necessarily valid. Once assessors become aware of those mental traps and how to detect them early, your road to diversity will be on a safe track.

You could also design a D&I training to help your employees understand their personal triggering factors that could enforce biases.

Remember – biases are everywhere

Dear George, as you understand, one-way video interviews will help you improve your company’s diversity, but you have to utilize them carefully and combine them with other features and practices. Tech and tools are not going to be the single factor in this effort; there needs to be a strong diversity strategy in place, in every step of the recruiting funnel – and one-way video interviews can only help you get closer to making your D&I vision a reality.

The post One-way video interview biases: potential risks for diversity appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Our goal with the Workable settings pages was to examine and improve them in terms of information architecture. It is a fact that the settings pages had grown vastly over the last few years as more and more features were added to the product and they introduced more settings respectively. Good information architecture helps users understand where they are, what they’ve found, what’s related, and what to expect.

Testing the current structure

First things first: research! We ran a tree test on the current settings pages to understand which areas were in need of improvement. Most participants easily found basic settings such as where to change their profile photo or manage their email templates. However, most participants had difficulty finding where they would complete tasks such as: “You want to enable the Talent Pool option so candidates can send applications to your account mailbox” and “You want to change the brand color of your career pages”.

As seen in the pie tree below, participants were looking to enable the talent pool option in almost all areas of settings (they navigated to the blue and red circles). Just 10% found the right answer right away, 24% found it eventually and 66% did not find it at all (they nominated the orange circles). It took 36 seconds on average to complete this task, compared to just 10 seconds that it took them to complete some of the easier tasks.

We also ran a card sorting activity to see into what categories participants would group the settings content. The dendrogram below shows that participants created roughly eight groups of items with 70% agreement. There was no strong consensus for some cards like Interview locations, Access token and Talent pool visibility. The latter is an interesting finding because it shows that participants not only could not find this easily, based on the tree test discussed above, but also are not sure what group to place it in either, according to the card sorting test.

Designing the new experience

Equipped with the results discussed above and insights about what areas need improvement, we hit the drawing board. We ran a physical card sorting workshop with four Product Designers and myself, a UX Researcher. Our card sorting activity, however, had a fun twist: instead of using cards with content labels, we used cards with UI images. As seen in the photo below, we printed screenshots of each section of the settings and cut them up into individual cards. 

The reason we introduced the UI, which is normally not a focus for information architecture, is that we only had the “development budget” to move and rename sections without making any more changes to the system. In other words it was a given factor that we had to work with so we wanted it to be prominent for our decision making regarding the structure and order of the pages. 

The new grouping looked fresh and exciting, even though it was not easy to let go of the existing structure that was carved into everyone’s brain until now. We had to consider changes that were planned to come to the product soon, as well as differences in the settings pages that depend on the feature availability per customer. In a nutshell:

• Top-level groups were introduced to shape and deepen the structure: Recruiting, Company and Personal settings 
• A new dedicated page called Career Page was introduced, since these settings were previously under Company Profile
• A new page called Privacy was introduced, which gathered previously scattered privacy settings
• The Recruiting Preferences section became obsolete since all items have been moved to more appropriate sections
• Personal user settings that apply globally across the different Workable tools (ATS, Referrals, Bridge) have been placed into a new page called Your profile outside of the Workable settings 

Validating the new design

We were pretty excited with the new top-level groups (Recruiting, Company and Personal) and got positive feedback from our teammates and management team about the new design. We prepared mockups and a prototype to preview the experience in Figma, as seen below. 

As a final sanity check we ran another tree test with the new structure. To our disappointment but also expectation the new structure did not perform flawlessly. Most participants easily found basic settings such as where to change their company logo or manage their custom recruiting pipeline, but some advanced settings are so unique that there is no obvious group to place them in.

For example, a lot of participants had difficulty finding where they would complete tasks like: “Allow candidates to only see the 1st level of the departments structure in your job postings (e.g. Product instead of QA testing)” and “Change your time zone so you can accurately schedule events”.

Nevertheless, testing the new structure helped us identify potential problem areas and allowed us to make final improvements before launch. For example, users seemed to confuse the two pages in the Personal Group, Your Settings and Your Profile. We realized that these labels might seem a bit generic and interchangeable so we renamed Your settings to Your preferences, to be more specific.

We believe that the new settings pages will improve our customers’ experience by helping them easily find what they are looking for, discover options and manage powerful settings. Our goal is to make things easier now and in the future, as new features and more options are introduced in Workable.

Korina Loumidi is Workable’s Principal UX Researcher. She was part of the team that revamped Workable’s settings.

The post The art & science of organizing and labeling Workable settings 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.

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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.

Let’s see what the most common candidate video interview red flags are and why you should take them with a pinch of salt:

1. Less than perfect environment / background

There are lots of online guides that help both candidates and interviewers get ready for a video interview. They usually advise to have a background free of clutter, pick a well-lit room and mute notifications. Does this mean that a candidate who doesn’t adhere to all these tips is inexcusable? Hardly.

Elements like poor lighting, background noises or interruptions from pets and roommates can indeed be distracting. But let’s face it: we can’t replicate the office environment. We’re asking too much from candidates when we expect them to have the perfect setting for their video interview.

Think about these scenarios:

• Corinne is living with three roommates and the only quiet place in the apartment where she can have the video interview without any distractions is her small bedroom with just her bed and no desk.
• Benjamin has some issues with his internet connection these days so he chose to have his video interview at a quiet but outdoors cafe instead.
• Damian is currently employed and has a video interview with another company, but the only mutually convenient time was during his lunch break, so he takes the call in the parking lot inside his car.
• Anastasia was invited to a video interview but has only a desktop PC without a webcam, therefore she connects through her smartphone that she has to hold as stable as possible during the entire call.

Or, have a look at this real video interview that went viral a while ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ktsl6_Rpg&feature=youtu.be

There are many reasons why candidates might not have this perfect, distraction-free environment for your video interview, so don’t be so quick to judge them – or, especially, reject them.

But…

If it’s essential for candidates to have good video skills (e.g. let’s say you’re hiring for a video editor role or a customer education position), you want them to proactively think about details, such as the quality of lighting and sound. Those candidates will likely stand out. Make sure, though, that you take into account the actual work conditions: if they’re going to be working from your office, then an unexpected interruption from a pet during the video interview should not be a dealbreaker, because it’s not something they could have easily prevented – or something likely to happen at your office.

2. Poor body language

Do you know this trick where you put a post-it next to your webcam to remind yourself to look through the camera when you’re on a video call? Not everyone does. And even if they use this trick, it doesn’t mean that it’s always effective. Job interviews are stressful anyway, more so when you have to speak to a computer as opposed to a human. It’s normal that candidates forget to maintain “eye contact” during a video interview.

Besides lack of eye contact, other signs of “poor” body language, often stated as red flags during job interviews, could be:

• fidgeting
• not smiling
• having a bad posture
• playing with their hair
• biting their nails

Although those behaviors indicate nervousness, don’t be quick to raise a red flag. Video interviews put candidates in the spotlight, and particularly their face, meaning that it’s easier for you to focus on a tic they might have or a nervous movement they make.

We could argue that candidates could practice and fix those non-verbal cues that don’t read well on camera. For example, in one-way video interviews, they do have the chance to pre-record themselves and check how they look and sound – but this doesn’t necessarily make the process easier for them.

People usually don’t like how they look on camera or how their voice sounds, especially when they’re not familiar with this process. That could make them come across as uncomfortable or anxious. To help candidates ease their nerves, you could:

• Share some tips beforehand to help them prepare for the video interview
• Have a member of the hiring team record themselves welcoming candidates to the hiring process in order to set the tone
• Send a video example to show them how to best present themselves

If the role has nothing to do with speaking in front of a camera (whether recording yourself or live), then you shouldn’t be harsh on people who might struggle with that. And don’t assume that they lack self-confidence; for example, note how the tone of their voice changes when they speak about something they know very well. This is a better indicator of whether they feel confident about their skills and knowledge.

But…

If the video interview is a simulation of the job (i.e. if the role involves speaking to clients through video or giving online presentations), then candidates’ performance can give you a hint of how well they’ll do at the actual job. Also, poor body language could be a red flag if we’re talking about over-the-top behaviors, such as excessive nervousness that doesn’t let the discussion flow or an extremely relaxed attitude (e.g. lying on the couch during the job interview while wearing pajamas).

3. Technical difficulties

One common reason why candidates struggle with – or are cautious about – video interviews is that they’re not familiar with the tech requirements. Examples include internet connection hiccups, video interview software they haven’t used before, or hardware (e.g. camera and microphone) setup.

While candidates don’t need to be IT experts to attend a video interview, there are certain tech issues they might not be aware of in advance. For example, their internet connection could be OK for regular web surfing, but video calls usually require more capacity. Therefore, they might realize that the connection is less stable only during the interview itself.

Unless the video interview is a testament to candidates’ technical skills, consider sending some simple guidelines ahead of your call to prevent such issues when possible. Mention how candidates can:

• Join the call (e.g. whether they need to download specific software)
• Check the quality of their camera, microphone and speakers
• Practice recording themselves before submitting their final answers (in case of one-way video interviews)
• Troubleshoot common technical issues

However, keep in mind that no matter how well prepared you are, things don’t always go as planned. Don’t jump to the conclusion that a candidate is unprofessional or less interested in the role if they show up a few minutes late; tech hiccups could happen at any time. Perhaps they had checked before the call and everything was working, but as they tried to join the meeting, they noticed that their camera or microphone disconnected, so they needed to restart their computer which cost valuable minutes. (“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”)

It’s best to help them overcome those technical difficulties – or even reschedule if there’s no other solution – rather than judge them over things they can’t necessarily control.

But…

When hiring for tech roles, poor troubleshooting skills might be a red flag. Again, though, don’t focus on the problem itself, focus on how candidates handle those technical issues as they arise. For example, candidates who panic because they can’t connect to your video interview software or because they fail to make their microphone work might not be the best fits for an IT role where they’ll have to support others and regularly solve tech issues.

4. Inauthentic answers

The purpose of video interviews, just like any type of job interview and assessment, is to gauge candidates’ skills and decide whether they would be a good fit for your company. So, when candidates give canned answers, when they sound “robotic” without letting their skills shine, or when they fail to answer a question by giving vague or one-word answers, you can’t truly understand their potential.

This doesn’t mean you should instantly disqualify them, though. First, try to identify and address the reasons behind their interview performance.

• Canned answers are usually the result of common, overly-used interview questions – such as “What are your biggest strengths?” or “Why are you a good fit for this role?”. Your candidates likely have heard those questions many times over and learned to answer in a specific way. Instead, differentiate your questions to prompt candidates to share their unique experiences. For example, you can ask them to describe specific examples where they showed empathy at work or to walk you through one of their past projects. You could also give them a fictional scenario and see how they’d approach it.
• Lack of experience talking to a camera makes candidates sound robotic and less engaged. It’s not necessarily an indicator of their communication skills. Help them get more comfortable by setting the right tone yourself. When we speak to other people, we tend to mirror their behaviors, so the more you smile and the more confident and relaxed you look, the easier it’ll be for candidates to show their true self. If you’re conducting one-way video interviews, you can send an email to candidates prior to their recording to introduce yourself so they’re feeling they’re addressing you even if there’s no live interaction.
• Technical difficulties might cause candidates to give poor answers or even to miss a question. When they give a vague or very short answer, there are chances that they might haven’t heard the question properly. Consider asking a follow-up question if you’re not satisfied with their answer. For one-way video interviews, make sure that you give candidates clear guidelines on how to submit their answers and that your video interviewing software is intuitive and easy-to use. It’s helpful if candidates can record multiple takes and pick the one that best captures what they want to express. Also, if you have a time limit, make sure that candidates are aware of that in advance and that the timer is in a prominent position.

But…

When candidates clearly don’t put an effort in showcasing their skills, even if you’re asking the right questions and helping them feel comfortable with the process, this could indeed be a video interview red flag. Inevitably, those who do their research, come prepared and can explain whether and how they’d add value to your team will stand out, unlike candidates who stick to socially desirable answers or seem they want to get it over with.

5. No-shows

“They didn’t show up at the interview, so they probably aren’t interested in the role.”

“It’s unprofessional to not notify the interviewer when you can’t make it to the interview.”

These are valid concerns when candidates miss a (video) interview. Particularly for one-way video interviews, where candidates can record their answers at their own convenience, it’s odd to miss the deadline.

But, have you thought that maybe it’s you, not them? Besides serious, last-minute emergencies or lack of professionalism, interview no-shows indicate that candidates changed their mind and don’t wish to invest time in your hiring process. If you dig deeper, you might find that you’re “pushing” them to that decision.

For video interviews, specifically, no-shows could mean that:

• Candidates might feel that the process is cold and impersonal. Picture this: they applied for a role at your company and are looking forward to hearing back from you. Instead, they get a generic message to log into a platform and record their answers. Try to add a human touch to your outreach to candidates during every step of the process. Introduce yourself, share a quick custom video from a member of the hiring team or offer some useful tips to candidates so that they don’t feel their only interaction with your company is through a screen.
• Candidates may not understand why you interview them online. Unless you’re hiring for a remote position, video interviewing might seem an odd choice to local candidates or even an indicator that you don’t want to invest time in them. To avoid that perception, be open about the structure of your hiring process. You can send shortlisted applicants an overview of the next steps or describe the process on your careers page. When candidates know what to expect, they’re more likely to be engaged.
• Candidates might struggle with setup or technical requirements. Imagine not being able to download the video software, struggling to find how to record or re-play your answers or having questions pop up at your screen without you knowing that the time is on. This is not the kind of experience you want to offer to candidates – and it could explain why some of them don’t complete the interview. Make sure that the process is user-friendly; try it out yourself, test it with your colleagues, gather and use feedback to improve it before inviting candidates. Also, share step-by-step guidelines and be available for questions candidates may have.

But…

You can’t know for sure why a candidate didn’t attend a job interview – whether in-person or remote – unless they tell you. And while it’s difficult to get this information from candidates themselves, you can see if there are any patterns. For example, if most no-shows are during the video interview stage for a specific role, you might want to check whether this position attracts less tech-savvy candidates, so you need to present the process in more detail. If numbers tell you that, in general, candidates drop out from the video interview stage, reach out to your most recent hires to understand what challenges they faced when they were in that stage. No-shows are not something you can easily control, but you can try to offer a great candidate experience to prevent as many as possible.

Video interviews help you find out which candidates will make better hires. Don’t rely on quick shortcuts, though. Making assumptions about candidates may speed up the process, but puts the quality of your hiring at risk. To avoid biases when interviewing candidates online, think about what you’re looking for in potential hires beforehand. Then keep an eye out for those qualifiers in candidates’ answers, as opposed to focusing on apparent video interview red flags.

The post Video interview red flags: Why they’re not all valid appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

High-volume hiring – also known as mass recruitment – refers to filling positions on a larger scale than normal, in a shorter time frame. A business usually needs to hire employees en masse due to rapid growth, new opportunities, and expansion to new markets or regions. Seasonality is also a factor, e.g. in hospitality where demand for new workforce can fluctuate wildly depending on time of year.

For recruiters and hiring teams, managing high-volume hiring can be hard, especially if you’re new to it. To overcome some of the common high-volume recruiting challenges, such as finding top talent promptly with the minimum possible cost, you need to calibrate a well-coordinated hiring process from job posting to onboarding new hires. This is not always a piece of cake, especially when hiring many employees at once for different departments and roles.

In this guide you’ll find bulk hiring techniques and tips for each phase of the recruiting funnel. Pick those that complete your current recruiting practices best to reach your goals without compromising quality and candidate experience.

Plan carefully and make technology your friend

Firstly, whether you are creating a high-volume hiring strategy for future use (see seasonality example mentioned above) or you’re facing urgent hiring needs due to unexpected forces (as happened in healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic) there’s one thing you certainly need to have: A good plan. If you’ve recruited in bulk with your team in the past, get together and comb through all your hiring methods and procedures that succeeded.

A kind reminder; automation and tech will prove to be life-saving – perhaps more now than ever. Use your ATS and other tools to automate time-consuming tasks such as scheduling or communicating with candidates and teammates (e.g. follow-up communication email) to free up time for other more valuable tasks.

With these two handy tips in mind, let’s now move to the core guidelines.

1. Define skills and evaluation process

With urgent hiring needs and lots of applications to choose from for multiple roles, it’s important to understand the value each new employee can bring to your business. That’s why you should thoroughly discuss with hiring managers and team what background and must-have skills the ideal candidates should have before moving to the job posting.

Name the top three role responsibilities and what abilities are necessary to nail them. Ask yourselves; What will the new employee’s KPIs be? What values and strengths are essential to thrive in each job position? After you spot these factors, recall them during the next steps to make sure you attract candidates that fulfill all the essential criteria.

Next, create a plan of how you’ll evaluate applications and candidates, and divide roles among colleagues. Who will conduct the interviews and who will provide feedback for assignments? This will save you lots of time you would otherwise spend communicating back and forth with your colleagues or important details getting lost in translation. With so many activities loading at the same time, it’s easy to lose track of who decides what.

Remember, the more detailed your plan, the more benefits you’ll reap along the way. Try to picture the obstacles you are likely to hit going forward and potential solutions for each, to avoid nasty ‘surprises’.

2. Optimize candidate-facing content

When advertising high-volume hiring jobs, develop your content strategically to attract as many skilled candidates as you can within a set time frame. You can start by optimizing your content: Firstly, make sure to mention job responsibilities and requirements in job ads as thoroughly as you can. Avoid leaving space for loose interpretation; with high-volume hiring jobs, time is precious – you don’t want to waste time trying to explain or re-explain aspects of the job to hopeful candidates.

Plus, describe the company values and culture in the brief so that potential candidates not only have a clear idea of the role, but also of the company, before they apply. Dare to be creative; share interviews of employees describing daily work-life and habits. Finally, include perks and benefits and photos of your latest get-together or event to show what your company is really made of.

If you hire often at scale, optimize your careers page and job descriptions based on Search Engine Optimization rules and design pages that convert. This way, you increase the probability of candidates landing in front of your job openings while searching the web or even individual job boards. You could also make these pages easy to navigate by dividing the distinct roles into categories.

3. Mark your sourcing strategy

Now that you’ve created the ideal candidate profile and you’ve described it in the job ad, and with a polished careers page ready to shine, it’s officially sourcing time. Let’s face it; it’s not easy to find hundreds of suitable applicants through just one platform. You need to scout through different channels and make it easy for candidates to apply in simple steps, with easy-apply and mobile-friendly solutions.

Post on job boards and social media

First off, post job ads on multiple job boards to expand your outreach. Find also niche job boards based on industry to attract targeted candidates (e.g. TeachingJobs for teaching positions in the US). A bonus: diversifying the job boards you’re posting to also leads to a more diverse range of candidates.

Don’t stick to the same ol’s; search candidates through social media like Facebook, Instagram, and more. You can also run high-level social media campaigns targeting suitable candidates based on detailed requirements you’ve set and share this job opportunity with them.

Boost employee referrals

Good people tend to know good people; all you need is to convince your employees to introduce and refer skilled professionals for your roles. This is even more helpful with high-volume hiring when you need to reach out to more candidates in less time. Your employees know your brand and culture and have a stronger idea of who would be a good fit for a role, with the required skills and work ethics that would fit in nicely. Systemize the referring process as much as you can and offer participation incentives to make it more attractive to employees.

Keep your talent pool updated

If high-volume hiring is common for your business, keep your talent pool filled to the brim with potentially good candidates anytime you spot them and you’ll thank yourself later. They could even be candidates you’ve rejected in the past as they did not meet all the criteria at that time – but perhaps they’re a great fit now. You can also use AI-powered solutions to source passive candidates and add them in your talent pool for future (or current) reference.

4. Screen en masse (and efficiently)

To save time when screening tons of applications, use a resume parsing solution to find the relevant applications for you and disqualify the unsuitable ones based on criteria you have set. In this way, you’ll more quickly filter in those applicants who tick all the boxes.

But if you follow the ideal candidate profile method mentioned above, you might trip over your unconscious biases and miss out on great candidates from diverse backgrounds. To avoid this trap, stay open-minded; don’t put overly strict requirements for the application selection phase, but instead focus on finding the silver lining. Sometimes learning capability is a stronger asset compared to experience.

Following up, structure your next screening steps so that they are equal for everyone; ask the same questions and hand out an assignment and/or a pre-employment assessment tool (e.g. a GAT) that will reveal the candidates’ real abilities. Data will always show you a clearer image if you treat them wisely, especially when things are moving fast and you need to hire people as quickly as you can.

Utilize video interviews

When you have many applicants to review in a minimum time frame it’s difficult to organize interviews at your company’s premises or when you’re hiring remotely. That’s precisely when you can make the most of one-way video interviews. Ask candidates to self-record themselves answering the interview questions you’ll submit to them. You can then evaluate them at your own convenience and sync with your colleagues – who likewise are working in their own schedules – to share feedback online later.

Be mindful of the questions you ask; if you’re using an assessment tool and an assignment avoid asking the same questions twice. You’ll not only save time but also learn as much as you can for the candidates before you qualify them for the last round, the interview with the hiring manager/executive.

Secure candidate experience

One of the biggest challenges in high-volume recruiting is maintaining a good candidate experience. When you have to screen people quickly, after rejecting a candidate during the assessment phase you might forget to follow up with them and move on to other more urgent tasks. This can potentially hurt your brand reputation as these candidates may share their opinion, both online in sites like Glassdoor and offline with friends and peers.

It’s important to remember that even rejected candidates are potential strong assets in your talent pool in the future. Don’t get lost in the noise; follow your hiring process steps and candidate experience strategy diligently and reap the benefits in the long run.

5. Automate documentation and onboarding processes

New hire experience is equally valuable to candidate experience. When hiring and onboarding people in bulk, many nuisances will appear; you’ll have many documents to file, lots of questions to answer and many people to train – and each of them should be treated uniquely. Tech automation can help massively with this.

For example, an HRIS system such as BambooHR will help you obtain and organize all hiring documents. Onboarding software such as Click Boarding can help you keep the planning of onboarding activities and trainings in one place and prepare new candidates for success (both tools are integrated to Workable’s own recruiting solution).

Train wisely

When training new hires en masse, don’t forget to make the sessions as personable as possible. Each of them will have their own learning style and pace; apart from organizing skill training sessions, build guides that explain key aspects of the tasks and include Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to help them figure out the basics. You could also create buddy or mentoring systems to boost their confidence while they learn how to perform their tasks successfully.

6. Analyze recruiting metrics and repeat

Now that the hard part is over and you’ve finally onboarded new employees, it’s time to reflect and report. Analyze key high-volume recruiting metrics such as source of hire, time to hire, and conversion rate to understand what worked well and what should be improved in the future.

What source did you get the most candidates from? How successful were your pre-screening methods based on candidate drop-out? Understanding these metrics thoroughly will not only benefit your mass recruiting efforts but your hiring as a whole.

Happy hiring!

Yes, happy indeed; as already explained there’s no need to overly stress about high-volume hiring – just make sure you have a rock-solid plan to tackle all challenges. Again, sit down with your teammates, discuss openly and plan your strategy step-by-step. And most importantly, don’t forget to reflect back on your wins and drawbacks when hiring is over – it will definitely contribute to your future high-volume hiring success.

The post High-volume hiring: How you can make it work appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The survey of 150+ software developers shows that the majority of respondents are very comfortable interviewing and beginning a new job entirely remotely, especially if they are actively looking.

Further, 39% of software developers in our survey reported feeling more productive since shifting to work remotely, compared to 30% feeling that they have become less productive (31% estimated no change). So not only is there available and eager talent, but many software developers may be operating at peak productivity. Of course, this is going to vary depending on each individual’s situation and experience, but perhaps it is one bright spot in a truly unfortunate environment.

“Development work doesn’t need to be centered on a physical location. With how wide-spread technology is and how responsive it can be, there’s no need to shackle people to cubicles and corporate offices.”

– Full-stack software developer with 5+ years of experience

Employers in growing industries need to quickly reinvent themselves to attract and onboard the best talent in this new work-from-home reality. Here is how you can rapidly implement a remote tech hiring process:

Set expectations internally and externally

It’s dangerous to assume that you can continue running the same exact interview process you’ve always had with the only difference being a Zoom or Google Hangouts link in the calendar invitation. Several things could easily go wrong:

• Employees may get too relaxed with attire, body language, and overall presentation.
• Internet connectivity, background noise, or other distractions could interfere.
• Sensitive or private Slack notifications and text messages could show up on screen shares.
• Interviews that typically include whiteboarding technical scenarios may lack the necessary tools to assess and qualify candidates.

To avoid these pitfalls, set expectations with the candidate and interviews accordingly:

• Emphasize to the employees conducting the interview that it is important to maintain professionalism despite the circumstances.
• Provide both the candidate and interviewer’s phone numbers in case there are internet issues.
• Remind employees to turn on do-not-disturb notifications before interviews.
• Do role play on a quick dry run with the interviewers and candidate beforehand to make sure all the necessary systems and tools are working.

Further, remember that your candidate (and interviewers) may have been severely impacted by the pandemic in ways you are unaware. Candidates may have recently lost their job or have a family member who is sick. Remind your team members to be sensitive, considerate, and patient.

Revisit your company culture and how to emphasize it

Does your engineering interview process typically contain bells and whistles to impress candidates? For example, do you often introduce a company executive or give an office tour? Do you take the candidate to a fancy lunch with their prospective coworkers? Here are a handful of ways you can rethink how to emphasize your company culture it during a remote tech hiring process:

• Develop an engineering culture packet that includes:
  • a note or link to a video from your VP of Engineering or CEO introducing themselves and how the company is continuing to operate given the circumstances
  • a demo video of your product and services
  • links to relevant Glassdoor, Built in NY, or AngelList pages and articles.
• Reimburse the candidate and interviewers for a coffee and lunch delivery from their favorite restaurants to enjoy during the interview (and support the local economy).
• Let the candidate sit in on an engineering standup (or another meeting where there won’t be sensitive information shared) so that they can see how the team is continuing to collaborate while quarantined.
• Share a snippet of a recent company email or All Hands video with the candidate that highlights the upbeat mood and tempo your company is maintaining during these trying times.
• Emphasize how you’ve transitioned your benefits packages to better accommodate and facilitate wellness during social distancing.

Even if your company culture has temporarily – or perhaps, permanently – changed during the pandemic, you still have the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage and impress prospective candidates. Going out of your way to deliberately and thoughtfully rethink your culture puts you ahead of the pack.

Update your recruiting technology stack

You may have to rethink sourcing efforts as meetups and events get postponed. Resumé review could become less relevant as rapid introductions from previous employers take precedence over an updated job history.

For sourcing, you need a new strategy for increasing visibility of your job postings. There are a number of aggregators online to post your remote job or list your company as hiring:

• https://candor.co/hiring-freezes/
• https://www.getsilverlining.com/
• https://www.layoffs.tech/
• https://www.wfhbuthiring.com/

Now is also a good time to monitor LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and trackers for layoffs and for potential candidates who have recently started looking for new roles.

To complement traditional resumé reviews, consider using a code screening platform. Overall, it’s less biased and more scalable due to being virtually automated once integrated with your ATS.

• Medium: The Best Technical Assessment & Code Screening Platforms of 2020
• G2: Best Technical Skills Screening Software
• Capterra: Pre-employment Testing Software

For live interviews where you need to assess coding, architectural, or critical thinking skills, check out Mural and Coderpad.

And, of course, you’ll want to be using a flexible and candidate-centric recruitment solution like Workable to seamlessly manage the entire hiring experience in a remote environment.

These are trying times but you are fortunate to still be hiring! Good luck getting your team aligned and reinventing your technical hiring process. I’ll continue sharing the latest proprietary employment and interview data for software development on Medium.

The post How to reinvent your tech hiring in a remote-first world 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.

Once you’ve answered all questions, check your total score to see how you’ve done. We’ll provide you with feedback for each question and give you alternatives for the risky ones. Note that we won’t share your answers with anyone (we’re not collecting the data).

Below the quiz, you can also find some useful tips and resources that’ll help you improve your interview process.

Good luck!

Disclaimer
To create this quiz, we took into account the labor legislation of the majority of countries around the globe (for example, Equal Employment Opportunity laws in the US, EU directive, etc.) The examples that we use in the quiz may not be illegal per se, but they could raise legal risks for your organization. When interviewing candidates, we recommend checking local labor regulations and even consult a lawyer to ensure you ask questions that are fair and don’t discriminate against candidates’ protected characteristics.

If you have 0-4 correct answers:

Uh oh! In between looking for the perfect candidate and trying to understand complex labor laws, it’s easy to fall in the trap of unintentionally asking illegal interview questions. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get into legal trouble. You could, though, lose qualified candidates who might get offended by what you or your team asked. And even if that doesn’t happen, many of these questions indicate that interviewers’ criteria are not entirely job-related and objective. Check below for some useful tips that’ll help you be compliant and free of biases when you interview candidates.

If you have 5-8 correct answers:

Good job! You managed to identify many of the potentially illegal questions. There are still some tricky ones, though; at first glimpse, some interview questions seem innocent but could raise legal risks. Or, they could hurt your company’s reputation if candidates suspect that you evaluate them based on subjective criteria (e.g. whether they live close by) as opposed to job-related requirements. Scroll down for some useful tips and resources that’ll help you build a bias-free (and legal!) hiring process.

If you have 9-10 correct answers:

Congrats! Looks like you’re an expert interviewer – or have studied labor legislation really hard! Keep up the good work and make sure to avoid interview questions that despite seeming innocent, have nothing to do with evaluating candidates’ skills. Also, remember that hiring is not a one-person job. Your communication with candidates should be professional and compliant with local regulations throughout the hiring process; from a simple email or quick phone call that a recruiter makes them to the final interview that they have with one of the company’s executives. Sync with everyone who’s involved with hiring to ensure you build a positive candidate experience. Have a look at the interviewing tips and resources below.

Making sure you don’t ask illegal interview questions

Here are a few quick ways that will help avoid asking illegal interview questions that – even subconsciously – discriminate against candidates:

• Write down and review your questions before going into the interviews. Are all questions strictly job-related or should you skip some of them?
• Include specific requirements (e.g. availability to work during weekends or physical abilities) in your job ads. This way, you’ll minimize the number of non-qualified applicants. During interviews, confirm that candidates are aware of and can handle these requirements.
• Limit small talk with candidates to safe topics; interviews are your way to learn whether candidates have the skills to perform their job duties and not to discuss their personal background, family status, religious beliefs, political views or any other irrelevant to the job matters.
• Background checks, references from previous employers and drug tests are legal ways to get useful information about candidates that can help you decide whether to extend a job offer or not.

In case you’re not sure whether you have the legitimate right to ask something during an interview, it’s best to consult a lawyer first. Also, coordinate with the entire hiring team to ensure you all understand what’s acceptable to ask during an interview and what’s not. Start by sharing with them this quiz so they can see where they stand!

Useful resources:

• Alternatives to illegal interview questions
• 5 common myths when interviewing candidates
• How to be the worst interviewer
• A guide to structured interviews
• How to follow EEOC regulations
• How to ensure EEO-compliance with Workable
• Legal interview questions to break the ice with candidates
• Real interview horror stories from candidates
• Diversity in the workplace: why it matters
• How to boost D&I with Workable

The post Which interview questions are illegal? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But not all of them (or you) are cool Silicon Valley startups. Developers don’t think about construction, or banking, or makeup when they’re looking to grow their career in their area of specialty. They also tend to gravitate towards IT-first companies because that’s where they feel most comfortable. So when you’re not on the tech worker’s A-list of awesome places to work, how do you reel in that hard-to-lure talent?

The problem mounts

Matt Buckland has a lot to say on hiring tech workers in general, and especially in that specific challenge. He’s worked in recruitment and team-building for online fashion service Lyst, tech trader Getco, Facebook, Bloomberg, among others. In a recent video chat, he says to ignore the temptation of trying to take the “non-sexy thing” and making that tech. That’s a common pitfall, he reminds us.

Instead, put that non-sexy part of your business aside – it’s not your concern right now. You have to promote your tech opportunities in a way that specifically caters to the motivations of tech talent.

He highlights three crucial attractors that’ll have tech applicants more likely to beat down your door:

Scale

How many people are you impacting through your work? How many channels are you influencing? What is the reach of the job?

In a company like Facebook, Matt says, you could mention that your contribution will impact significant numbers of people.

“If you make a change and it goes live to 1.9 billion people, that’s exciting for a techie.”

Scope

How comprehensive is your work inside the organization? Matt highlights the immense appeal factor in talking about the scope of the job you’re hiring for and other jobs throughout the organization.

“Are you a dev or just a cog in the wheel? Or are you exposed to requirements that capture all the way through to testing, delivery, deployment?”

Complexity

How challenging is the day-to-day? Just as the challenges of team-building can make your own job more interesting, highlighting the complexities of a dev job is crucial in successfully hiring tech workers.

“Are you a dev just working on boring front-end stuff? Imagine just moving a widget around, or a big old enterprise app where you’re just moving a tech box. Or on the other hand, you can be a dev working in AI at the top end of this sort of stuff.”

He elaborates by saying every company – whether tech-first or not – has exciting tech complexities that you can sell to the candidate. (More on this below.)

Don’t conflate your brands

A lot of it is about how you brand yourself to different people, Matt says. In the same way that your language is different when speaking to young fathers aged 25-44 than when speaking to teenaged Twilight fans, your outreach should be different when you market your jobs to tech talent than when you’re marketing to front-facing retail or finance candidates.

“Attract [tech candidates] using a technical brand, which is a subset of your employer brand. Your technical brand are things like what tools you’re using, what technology you’re using, what tech stack you’re using.”

Also, remember to keep that separate from your company brand. In other words:

Your candidates are not necessarily your customers – they are two entirely different markets.
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Matt talks about the example of a London-based banking service that caters to high-salaried clientele.

“I bet you the people working there aren’t customers of that bank. No candidate has experienced being a customer of them because they’re not billionaires themselves.”

The same goes for fashion, makeup, and other non-tech markets, Matt says. “I wouldn’t say in the job ad that you’re a great place to buy. I would say a lot of developers aren’t interested in fashion or retail and certainly not high fashion [like Valentino handbags]. I’ll also get rid of all the ‘most prestigious’ content. That’s not the stuff a dev gets up for in the morning.”

Show off your numbers

Instead, when building a tech team, Matt will go straight to the company’s CTO for a sit-down, and ask them for the exciting numbers.

“For example, I’ve worked in trading before and through our trading systems, we’ve processed billions of transactions per second. We talk about latency where if we shave off one-half of a microsecond equates to $10 million for us. That’s insane. That’s what excites techies.”

He noted how he showed off another subset of numbers at Lyst in his job ads.

“[At Lyst], there were over a million different lines of products from something like 50,000 different vendors – when you get those numbers, people will build up the complexity,” Matt says. “It was the number of products and the number of retailers and the infinite possibilities – both good and bad – within that. We had one shopping cart at Lyst that could potentially hold a hundred different products from a hundred different retailers at a time. How do you manage all the different payments of that? Developers are essentially interested in solving that specific problem.”

It’s also about knowing which numbers to highlight when hiring tech workers. Matt did some work with a gambling company recently. “The company was saying, ‘We’re a big gambling company and we make millions of pounds.’ And I said, I bet techies don’t care. They do not care that you personally make millions of pounds. But they might care about how many transactions per second go across your system.”

The gambling company then asked him why the second stat was more important.

“It’s because it tells techies something about the technical solutions you’ve got; the scale, the scope, the complexity. They were doing something like 1.6 billion transactions per day. It’s crazy that they have so many transactions.”

That kind of number will make developers sit up and take notice.

“When you talk to devs about this, they’ll try and envisage what the problems might be and then they’ll start to think about how they can solve those problems. So once you get your hook into them about that, that’s what they’ll jump on.”

“That always goes back to scale, scope, and complexity. If you can get two out of three of those, you’re probably going to get them entranced.”

So, go ahead and invest in tech. Just don’t forget to invest in that technical brand that’ll attract the people you need to exercise the tech.

The post Hiring tech workers when you’re not on their A-list appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Well, not yet. Lots of questions will occur down the line. How experienced is this candidate in this must-have skill? How can we interview this applicant who lives two hours away? And ultimately, how do we know who the best candidate is?

In this step-by-step guide, you will find useful screening techniques and tips to follow. Before we go into details though, take a step back for a moment to make sure you’ve:

1. Identified all must-have and nice-to-have skills: You may already know the highly important skills applicants should have, but, if you dig a bit deeper, there might be others you had not thought of.
2. Become aware of unconscious bias: We all tend to favor similarities. We are more likely to get on well with people who have the same interests or backgrounds with us. During screening this and other biases can be harmful.
3. Sharpened your candidate experience practices: It’s important to make a good impression as a company to applicants. Be clear and transparent, send follow-up emails and give feedback when possible. Regardless if a candidate will be hired or not, they might fit future openings or be able to refer other candidates.

Once you’ve done all these, let’s get down to business with screening applicants.

Application phase: Hitting the road

1. Screening resumes

Resumes are the most traditional way of showcasing skills and experience to potential employers. Scan candidates’ resumes to find out about the candidate’s educational background, work history, and most related certifications. Recruiting platforms like Workable can make this process much easier by automatically parsing resumes and organizing information under unique candidate profiles.

So, if a candidate seems to have the essential skills, does that mean they should move to the next phase? Maybe. Look at these two factors first:

• The resume format: In most cases, messy resumes with typos and weird wording may indicate lack of attention when writing the text. This may be concerning, especially for roles that require attention to detail, such as software testers or copywriters. However, if the candidate seems like a good fit for the role based on other characteristics, you can evaluate these skills with the use of different methods, for example, assessment tools.
• Unexplained job gaps: These may be alarming, but it’s not a reason to disqualify a candidate. It’s just something to explore during the interview. Find out what they did during this time. For example, they may have used their time off work to acquire a certification that’s useful for the current position.

2. Screening cover letters

Most candidates include cover letters in their applications. If you consider cover letters an essential part of your evaluation process, it’s good practice to ask candidates to submit a cover letter in the application guidelines. Here is what you can figure out about the candidate through cover letters:

1. Motivation for the role and attitude
2. Strengths and weaknesses
3. Future career goals
4. Consistency between resume and cover letter
5. Clear structure

Many candidates will use a template for their cover letter, or they won’t provide much useful information for fear of saying something wrong (especially if they’re junior). That’s why it’s useful to have other sources of information. For example, you can design open-ended application questions, such as:

• Why did you apply for this position?
• What do you want to achieve in this role?
• How do your strengths and weaknesses match the demands of the role?

3. Screening video applications

A video application is an addition or replacement of cover letters. It’s a one- or two-minute video in which applicants can explain why they are a good fit for the position. Ask them to briefly introduce themselves and why they applied for the role. You can also ask candidates to showcase a certain skill during the video application that is relevant to the job (e.g. sell a product in fifteen seconds). If you want to introduce video applications in your screening process, it’s best to use relevant software, so that candidates can easily record their answers.

Phone screen: Making the first move

Now that you’ve narrowed down the most suitable candidates based on resumes and cover letters, you can schedule a phone screen with them. What should you ask in a phone screening interview? First, you can cross-check the applicants’ work and educational background. You can also ask basic information, such as their current location, salary expectations or availability. During the call, focus on how well they are able to communicate and note down their answers.

Create and send calendar invitations to candidates so that they are available and well prepared. Here are some potential red flags for phone-screening:

1. The candidate doesn’t answer the call. It’s called ghosting and is not a good sign of the candidate’s professionalism. Give them the chance to explain what happened and consider giving them another opportunity if their explanation makes sense, and their profile otherwise looks like a great fit the role.
2. The candidate has a rude or indifferent attitude. Nervousness during interviews is normal. However, you can spot a lack of interest and arrogance through certain words and phrases. For example, ‘I don’t care’ or ‘whatever’ are unsuitable in interviewing contexts. Also, the absence of questions from their end may show that the candidate might not be as interested as you’d like them to be.
3. The candidate has provided inconsistent information. From your conversation with the interviewee, you understand that some of the details in their resume are not correct. This means that they either try to hide something or they did not pay much attention when applying.

Assessments: Checking the essentials

After the phone interview, it’s wise to check applicant skills with the use of assessment tools. There is a plethora of tests out there – from measuring coding skills to identifying if the candidate is a cultural fit. Find the ones that will give you a good view of their future job performance. The most common types of tests are:

• Aptitude tests: Use them to measure job-relevant abilities. For example, if you require an employee with a sharp command of English, the English Quiz can help you gauge the candidates’ language capabilities.
• Personality tests: Personality tests can show a candidate’s character strengths and whether they have behavioral traits that are necessary for the role, e.g. be a self-starter.

On-site interviews: Bringing it (them) home

Next stop: the on-site interview. Interviews can be stressful for both candidates and interviewers. Both parties are being evaluated and want to make a good impression. For this reason, a good interviewer will choose the right interview questions and get prepared to answer all types of questions about the company and the role.

During the interview, create a positive environment for the candidate and engage in authentic conversation with them as much as you can. Taking notes during an interview is essential, but it’s also important to focus on the conversation to understand the candidate’s personality and mindset.

Types of questions to ask:

• Situational and behavioral questions to understand how the person reacts in certain contexts.
• Skill-based questions that reveal the candidates’ job-relevant abilities. For example, if you are hiring for an editor, you should assess their attention to detail.
• Values-based questions to examine if they are good cultural and team fit.

What else you should evaluate:

• Effective communication: Are the candidate’s answers on point? Do they appear to be attentive listeners? A good communicator also provides examples to help you understand their point of view.
• Attitude: The candidate is down-to-earth and positive during the interview. They talk about their achievements with pride and not arrogance.
• Consistency: Again, consistency with previous answers and resumes matters. If a candidate’s resume states that they have experience in Java and it turns out they don’t, it’s a red flag.

Video interviews: Shortening the distance

What happens if the candidates need to commute a long distance for the interview? Or if you need to quickly assess job applicants due to rapid scaling and it’s difficult to arrange on-site interviews? Then, you can easily invite them for a video interview. Video interviews have become widely popular these days as they are cost-effective and convenient both for candidates and interviewers.

Live video interviews: You log into a video call with the candidate in real-time and follow the same screening process as in the on-site interview. Make sure to give clear instructions to the candidates regarding the video call and what to expect to avoid confusion.

The same red flags that you’d look for in a face-to-face interview apply here, too. An extra red flag would be if the candidate was indifferent or seemed to do other things at the same time.

Recorded (or asynchronous) video interview: In this type of interview, the interviewer provides candidates a series of questions and asks them to record their answers. The interview doesn’t take place in real time and you can assess candidates’ answers along with your teammates at your convenience. Make sure that the questions you ask are clear enough and do not require explanation (although, it’d be good to give candidates details of a contact person they can reach out for questions, should they have any).

Also consider that candidates know the questions beforehand, so they shouldn’t seem unprepared or give unclear answers.

Background checks: Searching for more

You’re closer to making up your mind about your next hire, but wait: it’s time to look deeper into their background. Even though they have demonstrated consistent behavior and ability throughout the candidate screening process, it’s wise to conduct a background check to uncover issues that haven’t come up until now. Make sure to follow all the legal aspects of this process, respecting the candidates’ privacy and integrity. It’ll be wise to have a clear company policy in place to ensure compliance during this potentially sensitive stage.

You can order background checks for:

• Criminal history
• Driving records
• Credit reports
• Verification reports (e.g. identity, educational certifications)

Depending on the position, you can also examine other aspects, such as drug use history, during the selection process. In any case, inform the candidate about these checks and why you conduct them. Here’s a guide on choosing background check providers and how to spot red flags.

Another way to check the candidate’s background is through referrals. Typically, companies ask candidates to provide the names and contact details of two references. These references are usually past managers or supervisors. Ask questions to learn more about candidates’ previous job responsibilities that relate to the position you’re hiring for, how they dealt with complex and stressful situations and how well they work in a team.

Job trials: Challenging the finalists

During the job trials, the employer invites the candidates in-house to assess their skills on the spot for a few hours, or even a full working day (with payment). The finalists are challenged to complete certain tasks that represent key responsibilities of the role. Job trials are also a good way to assess how the candidate coordinates with the rest of the team and how they match the company culture. After the job trial, ask yourself these questions:

• Did they manage to complete the tasks? Did they face any difficulties and if yes, how did they react to them?
• How well did they collaborate with the rest of the team?
• Is the candidate the best fit for the role?

Remember: always value the candidate’s time during job trials and don’t take their availability for granted. Design the assignments in a way that does not wear them off or overly stresses them. Make them feel welcome and at ease and you will have higher chances to see the best version of themselves.

And the best candidate has shined through!

You have officially completed the selection process – good job! It’s definitely a long and challenging process but with good planning, it’s worthwhile.

In general, a good applicant tracking system (ATS) can help you manage these steps better, with automated resume screening tools, evaluation cards, etc. For example, Workable enables easier interview scheduling, effective communication with team members, and better evaluation through scorecards, among others.

Last but not least; now that you have finished screening applicants, it’s time to assess your own process. Go through each of the screening techniques you used and identify opportunities for improvement in your hiring process going forward.

The post Screening applicants: best methods and handy tips appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

That’s where I found myself this past March. I was assigned with a task that would be simple for many but challenging for me: to hire three people for my team. This was the first time I’d be a supervisor, so I was excited for this opportunity and was looking forward to working with them. But first, I had to interview candidates to find the best among them. And that was new to me.

I still remember going into the first interview with the first candidate. Being a first-time hiring manager, I was probably more stressed than them and ended up doing most of the talking, trying to sell the role rather than getting to know the candidate. I left the interview even more stressed, since I hadn’t made up my mind whether this candidate would be a good fit or not.

A few interviews later and a few more “maybes” later, I realized that I needed to step up my interviewing game if I wanted to hire the best candidates for the role – and quickly, too.

Here’s what helped me run a successful hiring process – plus some things I wish I knew beforehand as a first-time hiring manager:

1. Ask for help early in the process

The more information you get before interviews begin, the smoother the process will go. If other people involved in the process are more experienced in interviewing, they might take some things for granted. So, don’t be afraid to ask questions no matter how basic they seem.

• Understand the scope of the role. First, talk to your boss. Understand what you want to achieve by hiring this person and this will give you a clearer idea of what you’re looking for in candidates.
• Understand the structure of the hiring process. Then, talk to your recruiter about how long the process will (ideally) take, what steps will be involved, and what your role will be throughout the process. You can also ask for tips on how to write your job description, how to screen resumes faster and how to communicate with candidates.

At Workable, we’ve created a hiring guide with useful tips and guidelines that our hiring managers can access at any time. Here’s a sample recruitment policy you can use to create your own guide.

2. Don’t wait till the interview to evaluate candidates

An in-person interview is your chance to learn more about a candidate, talk about their skills and ambitions, and determine if they’re a good culture fit for your team. But interviews take up a lot of resources, and as a hiring manager, recruiting is not a full-time job for you. You must interview candidates on top of your day-to-day tasks, so you need to ensure you only meet with the most promising ones.

• Identify your dealbreakers. Those could be expected salary, lack of knowledge of a required skill or tool and availability. Find out whether candidates meet those minimum requirements before you invite them to an interview at your office by including disqualification questions in the application form or during a quick call.
• Evaluate candidates on job-related skills. You can add steps between the resume screening and the onsite interview. For example, schedule a video interview or send candidates an assessment. This way, you’ll be able to watch for candidates who may look good on paper but lack the necessary skills.

3. Make the most out of your interviews

At first, I was further stressed out because after an interview I still couldn’t determine whether this person was a good fit for the role or not. And I realized that this ambiguity was because I wasn’t asking the right questions. When preparing your interview questions, make sure that each question gives you insights about the candidate that you don’t already have.

• Interview questions should get you closer to the hiring decision. If the question doesn’t add any value, don’t ask it. Make it your goal that at the end of the interview you have to have a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’. A clear ‘yes’ means that you would hire this person, not that you will hire this person.
• Avoid the most common interview questions. Everyone will claim that they’re self-motivated, independent, analytical and methodical, that they work too hard and are perfectionists. I had more success when I started asking open-ended questions that required original thinking from the candidate. For example, I went from:
  • “What are your pros and cons?” to “What skills do you want to develop?”
  • “What did you do during your previous role?” to “What did you like or dislike about your previous role?”

As an inexperienced interviewer, these questions felt quite uncomfortable to ask. But I got responses that were way more honest and opened opportunities for further discussion on pros and cons in practice, rather than what they thought their pros and cons were.

4. Get organized

It’s important to be prepared even before the hiring process begins (e.g. have your questions ready so that you ask all candidates the same things). You need to be organized ahead of time to ensure a low-stress, seamless hiring process because you will undoubtedly devote large chunks of your busy days to interviewing candidates.

• Schedule interviews so they don’t interrupt your flow of the day. For example, if you have a team meeting every Monday morning to plan your week, it’s best to avoid booking interviews around that time so that you don’t get scattered. You can use a self-scheduling feature to eliminate a lot of the back-and-forth communication between you, the recruiter and the candidate, but make sure your available slots are convenient for you.
• Leave feedback right after interviews. I don’t love taking notes during the meeting unless it’s something very specific. What has worked for me is to block time after each interview to debrief and write my evaluation, when my impressions are still fresh. When you have multiple interviews in one day, it’s easy to get confused about which candidate said what. That’s why documenting your feedback right after the interview is essential to prevent a mix-up.

5. Be prepared to answer candidates’ questions, too

During interviews, it’s not only you, the hiring manager, who has questions. Candidates are also interested in learning more about the job and the company, other than what they can already find online.

• Think about the bigger picture. Questions about salary, starting date, responsibilities and working hours are probably the easiest ones. But a good candidate will likely have more questions. For example, they might want to learn about:
  • the culture of the company
  • the strategy and goals of your department
  • how they will be evaluated
  • what skills they will develop
  • what you like about the company

Not having concise answers will make you come across as unprepared and, worse, it may look like you’re trying to hide something.

• Sync with the entire hiring team. You’re probably not the only one interviewing candidates for the role. At the beginning of the hiring process, candidates will probably interview with a recruiter and later, they might meet with a more senior executive. Ensure that you’re consistent with the information you give to candidates. For example, if your recruiter tells candidates that there’s flexibility in the starting date but you tell them that they need to start ASAP, candidates will get the impression that there’s a lack of communication between the two of you.

While I was lucky enough to hire competent people the first time around, I felt more confident in making the right choices the next time I had to interview and hire candidates. And this time, my nerves stayed calm throughout the process.

You can use a cheat sheet like this during your part in the recruitment process, whether you’re a first-time hiring manager yourself or you want to share with a colleague in that situation. You, of course, want to play a role in your company’s growth strategy for the upcoming year, and every little bit can help.

The post Tips for first-time hiring managers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

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.

The robot takeover is not happening yet

While we’re already seeing tech replacing or improving parts of the jobs that we (humans) used to be doing, full automation is not a very likely scenario. David D’Souza, Membership Director at CIPD and HR expert, shares a macroeconomics point of view about the future of work:

“If you were to automate an entire workforce, no one is taking home money, and that money isn’t flowing into the economy. That money is not creating demand for other goods and services. So, [automation] may benefit that one organization but there’s a cost elsewhere.”

But even if we choose to rely more heavily on technology, could we actually automate everything? And do we want to do that? David gives an example of how we risk turning our brains off in being so tech-reliant:

“Tom Chatfield, British author and tech philosopher, talks about how you’ll occasionally read in papers that someone has driven into a river because their navigation system told them to, or they’ve driven into a bridge in a lorry because their navigation system told them to go that way.”

The same could happen into organizations if we don’t use our critical thinking and remain unaware of the consequences of our actions. We could replace humans with technology and do more in less time. For example, we could hire and fire people automatically. But this raises some ethical concerns, too.

It’s an efficient use of technology, but I’m not sure it’s a kind or a humane use of technology.

But tech is changing the workplace

We can’t be blindfolded, though, when it comes to tech advancements. And we shouldn’t. Inevitably, technology is changing how people work; certain tasks are being automated, new jobs are created and others are lost, while entire industries are also being disrupted.

Imagine a recruiter working in the transportation industry. Ten years ago, their job was probably very different compared with now, with new business models (see Uber and Lyft) re-shaping the industry. Or, think about an in-house recruiter for a news organization that has evolved from traditional print media to a digital news platform. The ideal skills that those recruiters are looking for in candidates are different than they were a decade ago. The places where they search for candidates have also changed. Recruiters need to introduce new assessment methods or even move to entirely new sectors, if those recruiters want to keep up with changes in their industry.

Tech is also changing the recruiter’s job internally. In fact, David notices that “recruitment is one of the areas that has really adopted technology quite rapidly, certainly more rapidly than other bits of the employee lifecycle.” For example, think of automated emails to candidates or chatbots that respond to employees’ HR queries.

These are solutions that boost productivity and reduce time spent on manual tasks. But we can go further than that with AI, says David:

“What I’m seeing increasingly, which is brilliant, is conversations about how technology can help solve either problems in terms of candidate experience or problems in terms of diversity and inclusion. And that’s where I think there’s an opportunity for technology to solve some of the inherent problems that we’ve had, rather than just create new ones.”

An opportunity to build a better workplace

Let’s take the example of using technology in recruiting to increase diversity. We often fail to assess candidates fairly, because, as human beings, we are biased. So, if we can build systems that’ll remove those biases, then we can make great progress in creating an equal hiring process.

What happens in reality, though, is that often systems embed our biases. David explains why we shouldn’t use that an argument against AI:

“It doesn’t mean the technology is wrong; I’ve seen people use the same tech and get completely different outcomes. What we need to do is start asking questions before we implement the technology.”

David adds an important caveat as a rule of thumb:

It’s tempting to use something simply because it exists; but if you don’t use it mindfully, you just repeat the mistakes of the past.

In other words, we need to stop seeing technology as something that helps organizations simply save costs. Instead, as David puts it:

“We should start using technology to augment people’s capabilities, to give them better experiences, to help them be more productive, to help them develop more effectively, to help them find opportunities that are better suited to their talents.

“For example, in recruitment, whether it’s the speed of candidate contact, the quality of candidate contact or whether it’s simply ensuring that people have an equal opportunity to go for a role, there’s a really positive role technology can play.”

The role of recruiters in the future of HR

To seize that opportunity, recruiters themselves need to develop tech awareness and be on the alert for industry and market changes, as David explains: “if people remain isolated experts in one field, then it becomes very challenging to drop their skills into another space.”

He adds a piece of advice for those worried about their careers in the future of HR: “Stay connected enough with what’s happening outside your organization. As long as you remain flexible enough to shift to different opportunities, you’re actually really well positioned to catch the upsurge rather than be challenged by the diminishing of one sector.”

This means that, as a recruiter, you should be ready to learn and relearn different skills throughout your career. And you can do this if you keep a broader mindset – instead of asking “Am I going to lose my job from a robot?”, ask what is it that you can bring in the table that no system can achieve – no matter how intelligent it is.

Instead of focusing on questions such as “How do I get the people that I need in the door now?”, start thinking about how you can use technology in recruitment, not just to cut costs or save time, but also to increase equality and help people feel happy and fulfilled at work.

And finally, instead of looking to fill immediate needs in a piecemeal sort of process, think long-term and identify the needs of your organization in three, six, or 12 months from now – you can do this through regular consultations with executives, aligning your hiring plan with upcoming product releases or expansion plans for instance. That’s something robots can’t do (yet).

As David puts it, “If we turn to technology to help solve those problems, there’s an absolutely chance that businesses can win, but individuals that work within businesses can win, too.”

Want to read more from David D’Souza? Check out his blog for interesting HR-related articles.

The post The future of HR: what does it hold for recruiters? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Although it’s common to use communication platforms like Skype or Hangouts for these reasons, video interview platforms have emerged recently as a reliable tool. They are used specifically by companies that want to interview job candidates remotely.

Let’s see the benefits of video interviewing and some key features that employers should be looking for when considering a video interview platform for their hiring process.

What are the benefits of video interview software?

When you evaluate candidates through video interviews, you can:

• Connect with top talent from all over the world: You don’t have to limit yourself to local candidates.
• Reduce hiring costs and time to hire: You will save money and time when you schedule onsite interviews only with the candidates who’ve successfully passed the video interview round.
• Evaluate communication and language skills: For roles where these skills are essential, it’s useful to see how candidates communicate and how fluent they’re in a certain language, instead of just relying on their resume.

Learn more about how you can use video interviews in your hiring process.

Which are the most important features of video interview software?

In other words, what’s the difference between video interviewing software and regular communication tools or phone calls?

• Asynchronous interviews. When using video interview software, you don’t have to meet every candidate in real time; you can record questions (once for all candidates) and they can send you their answers at their own convenience. Learn more about the benefits of one-way interviews.
• Structured interviews. By pre-selecting and recording your interview questions by role, you reduce bias, since you ask all candidates the same questions. You can then focus on candidates’ answers and you won’t be influenced by unrelated factors, e.g. small talk as you walk into the interview.
• Hiring team sync. Hiring is not a one-person job. All members of the hiring team can view candidates’ recordings on the video interview platform and make well-rounded hiring decisions.
• ATS integration. When video interviews live inside your recruitment software, it’s easier to organize your entire hiring process. You can review candidates’ skills, schedule video and in-person interviews, and leave feedback without having to switch between platforms.

Useful resources:

• How can you invite candidates in a video interview?
• What kind of questions are asked in a video interview?
• How can you conduct video interviews with Workable?

Want more definitions? See our complete library of HR Terms.

The post Video interview software: definition and key features appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. The boss Ethan was going to report to is let go or has moved on just before Ethan’s first day. Suddenly, he’ll be reporting to someone different than the hiring manager they originally interviewed with.
2. A restructuring takes place, a round of layoffs happens, or the company has been bought outright by another company, and this shifts Ethan’s working environment or office culture. Or he now reports to a different boss or new team.

Not palatable situations, but recruiting through change does happen, especially in today’s dynamic economy of agile startups and enterprise takeovers. Zoe Morin, Workable’s one-time VP of Product Marketing and thereafter SVP of Marketing, has been through it as a manager who ultimately took on a new hire, and also in Ethan’s shoes as a candidate herself.

She recounts a time where she was assigned a new hire. That person was hired by someone who was no longer at the company by the time the new hire started.

”I wasn’t part of that hiring process, so I wasn’t even sure what their strengths were, or why they were interested in the role, or why we even chose them for that job because I wasn’t part of their evaluation process at all.”

She also recalls another time where, as a candidate, she found out shortly before her first day that things had changed drastically at the company she’d be working at:

“By the time I started, the company had been acquired by a different company. And so then, you know, things, even down to the name of the company, had changed. I remember my new boss saying to me, ‘Well, you know, you interviewed with us as [old company name] and now you’re starting your first day as [new company name].’.”

Suffice to say, Zoe has learned a lot about recruiting through change in her own career, and shares four things she says you can do to succeed when everything around you seems to be turning on its head:

1. Turn the unpredictability to your advantage

Startups can be volatile. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, Zoe notes that some candidates actually thrive in that environment.

“If you are the type of company that is a living, breathing thing [and changes] at a faster rate than a more corporate or more established organization, then you’ve got to make that part of your search criteria.”

In fact, you can be blunt, Zoe says, in telling people like Ethan during the interview process: “‘We’re constantly changing, we’re constantly iterating, we’re in that phase of growth where we’re deciding what the best organization is, and how we should be structured and that might change. In fact, I can almost promise that that will change.’”

And it’s OK if some candidates aren’t cool with that, preferring more structure and clearer career trajectories. The key is to help candidates self-select into or out of the process by being clear from the get-go.

“If someone thinks that they’re interviewing for one thing and there are changes coming and they’re not quite comfortable with that, it’s only fair to them to let them pursue another opportunity that might be a better fit.”

Key takeaway:

Get ahead of the curve. If your company is rapidly evolving and subject to change, make it part of your messaging. You want candidates who can adapt at every turn without compromising their performance.

2. Be proactive and supportive

As a hiring manager, you can take action to ensure a top-tiered candidate experience even when recruiting through change, by helping the candidate feel comfortable wherever they are in the process.

Zoe recounts her experience of a new hire being moved to her team just days before starting. She opened up the channels of communication right away:

“We had that conversation of, ‘What were your expectations so that I can make sure that I’m fully aware of the role you were promised and how can I help to fulfill that? Or how can I help if that’s not where my mind is at?’ So that again we can have that open and honest conversation about, ‘Is this what you were expecting and are you still comfortable with it?’”

What if it was a one-off change and not emblematic of the organization at large? Zoe suggests exploring the nuances in the candidate’s motivation to work there. For example, find out if the new hire is OK with reporting to a different person – after all, they may have made their decision based more on the person they’d report to than the company itself.

What if it was indeed a large-scale restructuring? Zoe shares from her experience joining a company that had been through an acquisition: “I could sense that new candidates coming in could feel the energy around them as a result of changes that were kind of happening and ongoing. And I felt awful for those folks coming in thinking that it’s not fair to them. They don’t understand the baggage.”

Zoe says you need to communicate to them that your company is still a pretty good place to work and that they’ll be happy there, and acknowledge the fact that this may just be a temporary challenging period that’ll blow over at some point.

While there’s no perfect workaround, one strategy is to emphasize what hasn’t changed ahead of what has changed. That helps shed perspective, and makes it seem not as fully blown as originally perceived. As Zoe explains:

“You can reassure them, ‘Your role hasn’t changed, the reasons that we wanted you for this role have not changed. The only thing that’s changed is the name of the person that you’ll be reporting to.’”

Key takeaway:

Be open about what happened and be empathetic to their situation. Candidates like Ethan are human beings too, and they’re making a pretty big decision. “Ultimately.” says Zoe, “what anybody wants is for the candidate and the new employee to be happy, and for the company to be happy as well.” Assure them that they still made the right decision in working at your company.

3. Maintain a constant in the process

Consistency is absolutely key – not just in the messaging and communications, but also at every touchpoint in the process. That’s challenging in the midst of a reorg, but you can still find a constant, Zoe reminds us:

“The person to break that news shouldn’t be the new hiring manager or the new team, but the recruiter or one of the peer interviewers that the candidate built a relationship with. Give [your new hire] something that they recognize to help have that conversation, before ever throwing them in front of their new team, their new manager, their new peers.”

That kind of familiarity can be incredibly reassuring, Zoe notes.

“Make sure that new hires still have contact with those people that they formed that initial connection with. It’s important to remember that if that person accepted the offer, it’s probably in some part to the relationships that they started to develop around the interview process.”

“Have some continuity so that it doesn’t feel like everything has changed drastically.”

Zoe, in fact, saw this first-hand in her experience as the suddenly new manager to an incoming employee. Zoe’s own boss – an executive who was one of the decision-makers in the restructuring at the company and one of the interviewers during the process – was the one who broke the news to the new hire, and reassured them by answering questions to the new hire’s satisfaction.

Key takeaway:

It’s easier to hear unexpected news from someone you know already rather than some stranger you’ve never met. Maintain that constant point of contact throughout the process so the new hire can feel comfortable and reassured that not everything has changed.

4. Give the candidate control

Remember that candidates like Ethan are making a career move, and they’re coming in for their first day with a multitude of expectations – their lunch buddies, their desk environment, their day-to-day work, and the team members they’ll work most closely with. A shift in any of this can have a marked impact on how a new employee feels about the job, especially in those crucial first few weeks.

You must help the candidate know that you totally get it, and that you understand if they’re feeling weird about it. Zoe suggests: “Ask them, ‘Hey, you know, you signed up for this and now this has changed. The goalposts have moved. Are you still comfortable with it?’”

This gives Ethan permission to feel OK about making a different decision based on what’s just happened. As she explains:

“As the hiring manager, you have to be prepared for the fact that if that person is not comfortable with that change, then you have to give them the freedom to walk away.”

Key takeaway:

You are contributing to the overall culture of your company in helping the candidate narrow down what they want to do and where they want to be – even if not with you. Not only is that powerful, it’s the right thing to do, says Zoe, and it can have benefits later down the road – set them free and should they decide to stay or apply again in the future, you know they’re in it to win it with you.

The times they are a-changin’

Companies, like people, can be unpredictable. And in today’s world of work, it’s almost expected that many companies are different now than they were five years ago. It’s a tough place to be sometimes when you’re a recruiter, hiring manager, or candidate, but, as Zoe says:

“That’s kind of the one thing you can’t control because the company can change in a myriad of ways day-to-day. You just have to learn how to put your candidate in a position where they don’t feel like the world is crumbling around them.”

The way you’re recruiting through change also means your employer brand may actually be at stake; after all, people do talk.

“The care you take to make a good candidate experience, the care that company takes to make a candidate feel valued, or a new employee feel comfortable with a tremendous amount of change, that says a lot about the culture of your company.”

Ultimately it boils down to a solid work environment where everyone can thrive because of – or rather, in spite of – changes. The Ethans of the world will thank you.

The post Recruiting through change: A marketing VP shares her insights appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

If you’re lucky, the star candidate has shined through and they’re an obvious fit for the role. In that case, you just need to prepare an offer to welcome them to your team. But often, you’ll have two or three or more amazing candidates in front of you, each with different merits. Surprise, surprise: this is a ‘good’ problem because it means your talent attraction strategies are working well.

But the challenge remains – who do you decide to hire? Well, the hiring decision process starts far before the moment you extend the job offer, with multiple people involved at each step of the hiring pipeline.

How much say does the hiring manager have?

As the hiring manager, you’re the ultimate decision-maker. You’re usually the person new hires report to or the leader of the department new hires belong in. So, it only makes sense that you make the final hiring decision.

Of course, good hiring managers seldom make decisions in isolation. It’s useful to consult your own manager to make sure you know the wider requirements of the department. Depending on the way the hiring process is structured, your own manager might also get to interview the finalists. Involving your team members is also helpful; they’re often aware of the requirements of the position you’re hiring for and will work with new hires closely. Your company’s recruiters play a part, too, since they’re experts in hiring and can give you pointers throughout the process.

So, to make informed hiring decisions, you need a collaborative mindset. Apart from that, here are four tips that will help you in making the right hiring decision:

1. Know what you’re looking for

As the hiring manager, you know the basics of the role you’re hiring for, but you may or may not be familiar with all the specific requirements. For example, if you’re a principal software engineer, you probably know what duties and skills are involved in a role for software engineer. But, if you’re a marketing manager hiring for a designer role, you might not have the same depth of understanding for the role. In this case, consult someone who actually does this job full-time or use a job description sample to get started.

Now, ask yourself:

• Which are the duties of this role?
• What educational requirements are there?
• What experience is required?
• Which soft skills should a person in this position have?
• What’s my ideal candidate like?

The answer to the last question will be very useful when you have to make the final hiring decision – you’ll get to choose the one candidate who most closely fits your ideal candidate. But, there’s a caveat; if you build an expectation that’s unattainable, you risk turning down great candidates because they aren’t as “perfect” as you’ve imagined them to be. So, keep your expectations realistic and look for a candidate who can do the job at a high level and possesses important qualities of an employee. If you’re not sure whether you’re expecting too much, bounce your ideal candidate by a colleague who is familiar with the job you’re hiring for.

2. Work against your biases

Halo effect, anchor bias, confirmation bias… and many more cognitive biases that most of us share can influence your hiring decision. This means you risk favoring a candidate for the wrong reasons and that can easily lead to a bad hire that’ll eventually cost a lot of money. The problem with all these biases is that they’re usually unconscious, so it takes some real effort to combat them.

First, you can take Harvard’s Implicit Association test. It’s useful to start there because the test can reveal biases you didn’t know you had. It also helps to educate yourself on bias and how to combat it. For example, take a look at this TEDx talk by author and CEO Valerie Alexander on “outsmarting” our biases:

Keep potential biases in mind before you reject a candidate. Ask yourself: do I have tangible, job-related reasons to reject them? And if that person didn’t have a specific characteristic, would I have made the same decision? Remember that some characteristics are protected by law, so you need to be sure they’re not at all involved in your hiring decision making.

3. Use objective hiring methods

Objective hiring methods minimize the effect of biases – and they’re also very effective on their own merit. To make sure you have all the right information on a candidate to facilitate the hiring decision process, consider these methods:

• Structured interviews. Structured interviews are good predictors of job performance. Their main characteristic is the preparation that goes into the interview questions you’ll ask. Find a set of effective questions that assess the qualities you’re looking for (the first step will come in handy here) and ask them in the same order to all candidates. This method ensures all candidates will have the same chances to impress you and will help keep the interview job-related.
• Interview scorecards. With scorecards, you get to evaluate candidates’ answers by assigning a grade. This helps you think about the candidate’s answer instead of immediately dismissing it or accepting it. You can also easily compare candidates. Workable’s built-in scorecards use a “Yes/No/Definitely” system to make the process easier.
• Assessments. It’s becoming increasingly rare to get hired without some kind of work sample or test. And a good thing it is, too – seeing a candidate in action helps you evaluate their ability to do the job. If your company doesn’t already have standardized tests, ask if you can include a step where candidates complete a job-related assignment. Alternatively, you can give candidates a problem during the interview (but make sure this problem is simple enough to be solved in a limited time). When evaluating assignments, pay attention to the way candidates think as well as giving the correct answers.
• Taking notes. Without notes on candidates’ answers, you may come out of the interview with only your general feelings about a candidate. A few days later you may not remember their actual answers or you may confuse them with somebody else’s. This is natural when you have to interview a lot of people, but it will impact your decision making. So, dedicate some time to practicing note-taking and try out different techniques. Don’t overdo it during interviews (eye contact with candidates helps build trust) but do right down the principal point of each answer. Avoid writing your impressions on candidates as you won’t later be able to check if your initial impression was correct, without remembering the actual answer.

In short, any method that encourages you to think before you form an impression, and helps you standardize the way you evaluate candidates, will eventually lead to more informed hiring decisions. So, if you suspect you or your team make hiring decisions on the fly or based on gut feeling, sit together to discuss about using these methods to document interview feedback more objectively.

4. Make the final hiring decision…

If you’ve taken all the steps outlined above, you’re probably in a good place to decide on the finalists without the risk of making a bad hire; any one of the finalists is a good fit since you’ve only moved forward with qualified people. Your final challenge will be to decide which one of those finalists to hire (although, if you have the budget and your company’s policy allows it, you could hire more than one people).

To choose the single best candidate, here are some steps you can take:

• Review your scorecards and notes. Check each and every note or grade you’ve assigned to a candidate. Average your scores if appropriate. Generally, make sure you have a holistic view of each candidates’ strengths and weaknesses. Through this process, keep in mind the gravity of each skill or attribute. For example, good communication skills are important for a salesperson, but it may not be as important to be an extrovert.

• Make a list. At one point in the popular TV sitcom Friends, Ross gets in trouble when he makes a list to compare Rachel to his girlfriend. While such lists may not be acceptable in personal relationships, they can prove useful when deciding between job candidates. Write down three things you liked and three things you disliked about each candidate. Look at them side by side. And, gather your team to get their insight on your lists. Sometimes, you’ll know which one you prefer, but make sure you also know why – and remember to be aware of your biases.

• Check references. Ask your finalists to provide you with a couple of names so you can ask for references. Usually, candidates will direct you to people they know will give them a positive recommendation, so make sure you know what reference questions to ask to get useful answers. Collaborate with your company’s HR department to determine what you want to know. And here’s an email template to request references that’ll help speed up the process.

Finally, don’t give in to self-doubt. When it’s time to make an offer to the candidate, some hiring managers start second-guessing themselves. Have I made the right choice? The other candidate was Ivy League, and perhaps I should have hired them instead. The more you ponder, the more you’ll doubt. That kind of thinking will get you nowhere.

At the end of the day, it’s best not to overthink it; if you have been careful throughout the hiring process, it’s very likely you have made the right choice. Instead, invest your time in effective onboarding and training sessions so that your new hire will get to maximum productivity soon.

The post 4 tips to make the right hiring decision appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here, we put together a list of the best human resources interview questions for candidates, plus sample answers.

10 good HR interview questions

1. Why did you decide to apply to this role?
2. What experience do you have that would be relevant to this role?
3. Tell me about your experience in …
4. What did you like most about the job description?
5. Why are you leaving your current job? / Why did you leave your previous job?
6. What do you know about our company’s product/services?
7. Tell me about this gap in your resume.
8. Describe the workplace where you’ll be most happy and productive.
9. What are your salary expectations?
10. Do you have any questions?

1. Why did you decide to apply to this role?

This question aims to evaluate the candidate’s interest in the role. Are they really motivated to get hired for this specific job or do they just mass-apply to every job ad under the sun? Candidates should show that this application was a conscious decision on their part.

Sample answer:

I have been following your company’s successes for some time now and I know you have a great software development team. I was thinking that this would be the best environment for me to apply the skills I acquired during my internship and Master’s degree. So, I checked your careers page regularly and when I saw this job ad, I thought it was finally time to try my hand. I have experience in web development and I’m really interested in the projects you’re mentioning in the job ad – in fact, one of them was the subject of my thesis. I really think I’m a good fit for the job and can grow even more in your workplace.

2. What experience do you have that would be relevant to this role?

With this question, recruiters can assess whether candidates have truly understood the role’s requirements and whether they think they can do the job. The best candidates will readily explain how their previous experience relates to the job ad.

Sample answer:

In your job ad, you mention you want someone with talent in inbound sales. I was actually a sales associate at a local store in my area for about three years. During this time, I learned how to approach customers and ask them the right questions to understand what they need. I learned to handle difficult customers and solve crises. I can also be persistent without being pushy, which I think is a great asset for any salesperson.

3. Tell me about your experience in …

While similar to the previous question, this question proactively asks about the most important aspects of the role. For example, if a company is hiring for a copywriter, they’ll certainly ask about the candidate’s experience in different types of writing or editing.

Sample answer:

During my time as a marketing specialist in Acme Inc., I got to write a lot of marketing copy. I was solely responsible for writing emails we sent to prospects and customers, including newsletters. I also wrote short copy for social media and, occasionally, articles for our blog.

4. What did you like most about the job description?

This is one of the best HR interview questions to ask to start a conversation on requirements and responsibilities. And, it’s useful to assess how much the candidate has understood the role.

Sample answer:

First, the job description itself was very well-written and gave me a good idea of what the role was about. Second, I really liked the fact that this accounting role involves collaboration with others. I love accounting, but I don’t want to sit at my desk to look at numbers all day – I want to have the chance to work as part of a team where we can exchange opinions and knowledge of new accounting methods and organize the company accounting department in the best way possible.

5. Why are you leaving your current job? / Why did you leave your previous job?

The best candidates will cite good reasons for moving on from their previous role. Being negative or badmouthing their employer is a red flag. Of course, there’s a balance – honest candidates will often give an honest answer, and sometimes, their previous employer really is at fault for the end of their employment relationship. Attitude is what matters in these HR interview questions. For example, it’d be reasonable if a candidate mentioned they left their previous job because their employer wasn’t paying their workers the fair market rate. But, it’d be a red flag if they launched a tirade on what a fraud their previous employer was.

Sample answer:

I really liked my previous job and team. I started as a junior and worked my way up to a team lead in marketing. However, I think that my time in this company has come full circle – I’m actually the one who coaches others while I don’t learn anything myself anymore. Learning is important to me, so I want a new job that will challenge me and help me develop further.

6. What do you know about our company’s product/services?

The purpose of these types of HR questions is clear: the HR professional wants to ensure that the candidate has researched the company and understands what they’re applying to. Candidates don’t need to show deep knowledge of the company and its products, but they should certainly know everything that can be discovered via a simple online search – of course, if they have already used the company’s products/services or they know someone who works there, that’s a plus.

Sample answer:

I know that your company manufactures machinery and factory equipment. Actually, I used your brand when I was working at Acme SA a couple of years ago. I was really impressed with how high-quality and durable that equipment was. I also saw your company has recently opened a new manufacturing branch, a good sign for your company’s success.

7. Tell me about this gap in your resume.

This is one of several very common HR interview questions that may refer to anything “out of the ordinary” or interesting in a candidate’s resume, such as a job that lasted for only a few months or that was seemingly unrelated to the candidate’s background, or an outright gap in the candidate’s employment history. The purpose of these HR interview questions is to clarify these points and make sure there aren’t any red flags.

Sample answer:

After I finished my master’s degree, I started working non-stop for six years. That’s why I decided to take a break from work and travel to other countries to volunteer. This helped me clear my mind and help other people, while acquiring new skills (like communication and organizational ability).

8. Describe the workplace where you’ll be most happy and productive.

This can take other forms, too, such as “What can we do to keep you happy if you were hired?” or “What do you like about your current job that you’d like to find here as well?” These are examples of culture fit interview questions that aim to assess the candidate’s suitability as an employee of the company. Usually, there’s no right or wrong answer. It all depends on whether each candidate is a fit for each individual company.

Sample answer:

I like workplaces that emphasize both autonomy and teamwork. I like collaborating with others and exchanging ideas, but I also want to have flexibility to work uninterrupted for some time. Also, I value the absence of restrictions, such as a casual dress code unless I’m meeting with customers or partners.

9. What are your salary expectations?

Similar HR questions to this have to do with various “technical” aspects of the job, such as willingness to travel or relocate, or ability to follow a shift schedule. HR professionals use this question to ensure they’re not speaking to a candidate who has excessively high salary expectations (or who is generally unable to meet the demands of the job). Candidates shouldn’t be asked to divulge their salary history or current salary – in fact, it’s downright illegal to do so in some jurisdictions – but expectations are a good way to make sure both parties are in sync.

Sample answer:

I’ve done some research on the average salaries for this type of role in my area and I think I would expect this role to pay between X and Y. But I think we can discuss this further at a later time if you think I’d be a good fit for the role. Could you tell me the salary range you have in mind?

10. Do you have any questions?

Regardless of the stage in the hiring process, candidates should always have the opportunity to ask questions themselves so they can decide if the job is a good fit for them. The other reason that HR uses this question is to find out if candidates are truly interested in knowing more. They should ask smart questions about the company, and preferably, questions related to the role, too.

Sample answer:

Could you tell me what the next steps in the hiring process are? Also, I read an online interview where your CEO said that your company wants to work with voice recognition technology. I’m fascinated by that. Will this role involve work on these types of projects?

We hope you liked these HR interview questions and answers. In addition to these typical HR interview questions, you can see many more common or advanced questions in our complete interview questions library. It includes hundreds of questions about the HR interview and the next phases of the hiring process, by role and type.

The post HR interview questions: The top 10 questions asked in the HR interview appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Contents:

• What is HR in simple words?
• What does the Human Resources department do?
• What are the Human Resources functions?
• What are the types of Human Resources roles?

What is HR in simple words? 

Based on the Human Resources definition, the HR department takes care of the organization’s most valuable asset; its employees. HR professionals make sure that employees have everything they need to perform their day-to-day tasks and they’re also responsible for creating a healthy work environment that attracts and retains qualified people.

What does the Human Resources department do?

Human Resources professionals perform a plethora of tasks, including recruiting, managing employee relations, and creating company policies. In small companies, HR Generalists perform all relevant tasks, whereas in larger companies HR professionals could specialize in certain areas, e.g. sourcing and hiring, compensation and benefits, HR operations.   

What are the Human Resources functions?

HR teams undertake various responsibilities in an organization. They:

• Recognize current and future hiring needs
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and governmental labor rules and regulations 
• Attract, recruit, and retain talent
• Manage compensation and employee benefits
• Ensure effective employee relations 
• Manage onboarding, training, and learning and development processes to boost performance
• Apply health and safety measures
• Handle administrative tasks, such as payroll and taxes 
• Organize and oversee quarterly or annual performance reviews 

Human Resources also implement important company policies and regulations, for example, they ensure compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and GDPR regulations. They need to stay up-to-date with changes in labor legislation and research new HR trends that will keep the organization running smoothly.

What are the types of Human Resources roles?

In most cases, especially in large companies, different functions are managed by different HR professionals, who report to the HR Director or the HR Manager. Here is a list of common HR job titles:

• Senior HR Manager
• HR Executive
• Payroll Manager
• HR Analyst 
• HR Assistant
• Recruitment Manager
• Talent Acquisition Manager
• HR Advisor
• HR Recruiter
• HR Generalist
• HR Specialist
• HR Administrator
• HR Administrative Assistant

New specializations such as Diversity and Inclusion Manager, HR Onboarding Specialist, and Compensation and Benefits Specialist have also emerged. If you want more HR job descriptions visit our extensive job descriptions library with more than 700 ready to use templates.

The complex duties of Human Resources have gradually led to creating more distinct HR roles and departments. In some cases, the name “HR” has even been removed from the job title and replaced with “talent management”, “talent acquisition” and “people operations”. This is the result of a shift from the administrative role that HR departments used to have to a more holistic, strategic approach.

Click here to learn the differences between talent management vs. talent acquisition, people operations vs. HR management and what exactly a people team does.

Want more definitions? See our complete library of HR Terms.

Related resources include:

• The most important HR skills and how to master them
• How to assess human resource skills
• How to build a strong talent acquisition team

The post What is Human Resources (HR)? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is people operations?

People operations, often termed “People Ops,” is a modern approach to managing employees within an organization. It adopts a proactive and strategic mindset, focusing on creating a robust and healthy workplace environment. People operations prioritize the overall employee experience, from onboarding to offboarding, ensuring that staff are resourced, supported, and empowered in their roles. The goal is to align human resources with the company’s mission and vision, fostering a culture of transparency, collaboration, and continuous growth.

What is HR management?

Human Resource (HR) Management is a traditional function responsible for handling various administrative and operational tasks related to employees. This includes recruitment, payroll processing, performance appraisals, and addressing employee grievances. HR management often operates reactively, addressing issues as they arise and ensuring compliance with labor laws and company policies. While it plays a crucial role in the day-to-day functioning of an organization, HR management is often perceived as being more transactional and less strategic compared to people operations.

Differences between People Ops and HR management

Here are the main differences between people operations and HR management:

Reactive vs. Proactive
Historically, HR has been seen as a reactive function, stepping in to address issues as they arise. For instance, when an employee resigns, HR’s immediate response is to initiate the recruitment process for a replacement. This approach is often about damage control and immediate solutions.

In contrast, people operations adopt a forward-thinking mindset. They not only address the present but also anticipate future challenges. By focusing on creating a robust and healthy workplace environment, they devise strategic hiring plans that align with long-term business goals, ensuring continuity and growth.

Execution vs. Strategy
HR has traditionally been viewed as a checklist of tasks. From recruiting and onboarding new employees to managing payroll and conducting performance reviews, HR’s role has been largely transactional.

While these tasks are essential, they often lack a strategic perspective. People operations, however, take a broader view. Instead of just ticking off tasks, they start by understanding the overarching business objectives. They then strategize on how to motivate, train, and lead employees to achieve these goals, ensuring that human resources align with the company’s mission and vision.

Siloed teams vs. Multi-discipline teams
There’s a prevailing notion, whether accurate or not, that HR teams operate in isolation, often withholding information and making decisions behind closed doors. This perception can sometimes lead to a lack of trust between employees and the HR department.

People operations challenge this model by promoting transparency and open communication. Recognizing the value of diverse perspectives, people operations teams are often multidisciplinary.

They might include a tech expert ensuring that employees have the necessary tools and training, while another member might focus on fostering collaboration by designing efficient meeting structures. These meetings often bring together representatives from various departments, encouraging cross-functional collaboration and working towards shared objectives.

Want more definitions? See our complete library of HR Terms.

The post People operations vs. HR management appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Let’s look at the main responsibilities of people operations in more detail. They are:

• Modernize and digitalize outdated, bureaucratic HR systems, including payroll and applicant tracking software.
• Treat employees as internal customers and increase their satisfaction.
• Support employees on a day-to-day basis and answer questions about benefits and company policies.
• Keep track of and analyze HR metrics (e.g. turnover rates, time to hire).
• Onboard new employees and ensure they have access to necessary resources and tech.

Overall, the role of people operations is to empower employees and facilitate the day-to-day work life. Depending on the company’s size and objectives, there could be one or multiple employees responsible for the people operations. For example, one company might choose to hire a people operations specialist who’ll take care of new employees as they join the company and for their first six months until they’re fully productive. Or, another company might create an entire people team that’ll redesign the entire HR department and will be responsible for the entire employee lifecycle inside the organization.

The structure of people operations teams

The structure of People Operations teams varies based on the size and needs of an organization. In smaller companies, a single individual might handle the responsibilities of People Operations, Human Resources, and Talent Acquisition. However, as organizations grow, the People Operations team often expands, with roles dedicated to specific aspects of the employee experience.

For instance, larger companies might have a Learning & Development Specialist to oversee employee training programs or a Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) to ensure an inclusive workplace culture.

The primary goal of these specialized roles is to craft programs and initiatives that shape the work experience of current employees, ensuring they are resourced, supported, and empowered.

In the modern business landscape, People Operations is more than just a rebranded HR department. It’s a strategic function that puts employees at the center, treating them as internal customers.

This approach is evident in the range of responsibilities that fall under People Operations, from onboarding and internal communications to engagement, manager empowerment, and performance management. As the workplace dynamics continue to evolve, with factors like remote work and changing employee expectations, the role of People Operations becomes even more critical.

It’s not just about administrative tasks but about creating an environment where employees can thrive and contribute to the organization’s success2.

Want more definitions? See our complete library of HR Terms.

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

Businesses have recently introduced the term “people team” along with new roles such as “People Manager”, “SVP People” or “People Operations Specialist”. These seemingly non-traditional job titles are actually alternate names for human resources or personnel professionals.

What those job titles have in common is the word “people”. Companies build people teams to shift the focus of HR from simply performing administrative tasks to taking care of what matters the most: their employees.

“The people team is responsible for creating a healthy and productive workplace that attracts, retains, supports, engages and develops top talent.”

This team maintains a holistic approach: it’s not only about hiring procedures, HR paperwork or office management; it’s all of these together, along with many more functions such as training and development, succession plans, diversity and inclusion, and employer branding. Read more about how people teams differ from HR teams.

Who is in a people team?

The structure of a people team differs across companies. For smaller companies, it could be a team of one to three recruiters and HR professionals who coordinate hiring, onboarding, training, and development, along with an office manager who handles the day-to-day life at work.

As companies scale, the people teams could grow, too, and create an entire people operations function. For example, they might add an employee with a marketing background to manage employer branding initiatives, such as gathering employee testimonials and building online content for the company’s careers page. The people team could also include an event organizer, to schedule training and team bonding activities for employees as well as recruitment events for potential candidates. Even someone with a background in IT can join a people team to manage all HR systems that are needed to ensure a smooth employee onboarding and management.

Depending on each company’s business goals, it might make sense to create specialized roles inside the people team. For example, an employee could be responsible for all diversity and inclusion efforts across the organization, e.g. in terms of hiring and payroll. Or, another one could be focused on employee satisfaction, e.g. by analyzing internal surveys and implementing new perks and benefits.

What does a people team do?

A people team handles all of the regular HR tasks, from recruiting to employee management, keeping the focus on employee satisfaction and well-being. Here are the main responsibilities of a people team:

• Handle employee data (e.g. new hire information and employment contracts) in an efficient way, using secure systems, applying automation when possible and reducing bureaucracy.
• Understand labor law and deal with complex issues (e.g. remote or multinational teams).
• Overview employee performance appraisals, coordinate trainings and lead employee development initiatives.
• Manage the workplace in a way that employees are happy, motivated and productive. (e.g. by applying fair company policies)
• Organize business events, team activities and trips.
• Coordinate hiring managers so that the recruiting process is cohesive and objective.
• Build a strong employer brand and ensure all candidates have a positive experience.
• Implement meaningful compensation and benefits packages that incentivize and retain employees.
• Track HR metrics, identify areas of improvement in hiring and management and allocate budgets efficiently.
• Provide necessary resources to all employees so that they’re able to perform their tasks successfully.

Want more definitions? See our complete library of HR Terms.

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

True story. Years ago, when I was interviewing for a different role, I heard that I was lucky enough to be considered for the job since I celebrate my birthday on the same day as the hiring manager’s son. That’s a weird thing to hear during an interview, but it’s not the only time a hiring manager has said something that made the candidate’s eyes roll.

In my case, a superficial thing got me a shot at an interview. In other cases, though, similar things could be reasons for rejection. It could be the “wrong” star sign, too much facial hair or a degree from anywhere but an Ivy League school.

I get it. Sometimes, recruiters and hiring managers are trying to find ways to speed up the candidate screening process, and in some cases, be “original”. Picture this: You’ve opened a new role and you want to decide which applicants are worth interviewing. If you’ve received 20 applications, it’s easy to go through each one of them and see who’s qualified and who’s not. But, what if you’ve received 100? And what if you have five more open jobs at the same time? Plus, what if you can’t screen candidates based on tangibles (e.g. whether they hold a relevant degree), but you have to evaluate intangibles, such as creativity or ability to think quickly?

Same can happen to the next stage – the interview. If you need to make a hiring decision fast (and more often than not, you do have a tight deadline), you have to come up with dealbreakers that will help you quickly sort candidates in qualified and unqualified.

Arbitrary interview red flags = Risky hiring decisions

The problem begins when these dealbreakers are unrelated to the job, even if they seem totally professional at first glance. You might have heard things such as:

• “I automatically reject candidates who don’t offer or attempt to take the empty coffee cup back to the kitchen at the end of the interview.” The reasoning behind this? This simple test reveals candidates’ level of ownership. People who are willing to “wash their own cup” are more likely to apply this attitude on the job, as well.
• “If someone doesn’t send a thank-you email, don’t hire them.” The reasoning? Candidates who send a thank-you email are well-mannered, organized and want the job. Those who don’t, aren’t interested enough.
• “We will only hire people with the ESTP personality type for our sales team.” The reasoning? According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, these people are energetic, analytical and efficient. Those who are introverted couldn’t possibly be good salespeople.

A quick online search will give you tons of examples like these. And when you’re in a place where you have to choose between two (or more) good candidates, it’s natural to turn to these criteria. But are they really valid? Or, do they just serve as unfair shortcuts to a faster – but not necessarily better – recruiting?

Let’s see which are the most common interview red flags for employees and why they should have no place in your hiring process and decision-making:

1. Awkward eye contact

You’re interviewing Diego for a developer role and you notice right away his sweaty, weak handshake and his seeming inability to hold your gaze. It’s clear that he’s very nervous. But, considering this is a job interview, can you blame him?

The way we interpret body language differs among cultures. In Asia, for example, avoiding eye contact is a polite gesture, whereas for Europeans, eye contact is a way to show they’re interested in what the other person is saying. Even beyond cultural differences, lack of eye contact could have various, and not so obvious, interpretations. For example, people on the autism spectrum are more likely to feel uncomfortable with eye contact. And while we usually think that someone who avoids looking us into the eyes might be lying, it’s turned out that liars tend to maintain eye contact for longer.

Psychologists and sociologists may have the right background to understand body language. But, those of us who are not trained in that area, could easily jump to conclusions driven by our personal biases. Back to the previous example, if you’re used to making eye contact with people, you might instantly think that Diego has something to hide and that’s why he avoids looking directly at you. But that’s your interpretation. It might as well be that he comes from a different culture with different habits, or that looking away helps him concentrate, or simply that his eye contacts are drying out.

The only way to be sure you’re evaluating candidates properly and objectively, is through job-related questions and assignments. Body language can give you hints about whether candidates are feeling nervous, aggressive or reserved during the interview, but take those signs with a pinch of salt.

The counterstatement

Let’s not dismiss body language completely, though. There are some non-verbal cues you can pick up during interviews that could, in some cases, play a part in your decision-making. If you’re looking for an event organizer, you want to hire someone who is comfortable speaking with strangers, builds rapport quickly and is pleasant. A candidate who’s nervous throughout the interview struggling to keep the conversation going might not be a good fit.

Still, you can’t rely your decision solely on the candidate’s hand-wringing habit or their trembling voice. You should count in all factors that affect an employee’s job performance to make well-rounded hiring decisions.

2. Unprofessional dress code

First impressions count. And seeing a candidate walking into the interview in ripped jeans, graphic t-shirt or really sweaty shirt might not leave the best impression. But appearance should never be a reason to reject – or hire – someone. Because when you scratch beyond the surface, that’s when you can really discover the candidate’s strengths. Something like what happened to Will Smith in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness:

There’s a ton of advice online about what to wear to an interview. Yet, those dress code guidelines are often open to interpretation. Depending on their age group, gender, culture or even socio-economic class, people could have different opinions as to what kind of attire is, for example, ‘business casual’. So, there’s a level of unconscious bias when you’re judging candidates based on their clothes. It’s worth making the effort to go past those biases and evaluate candidates using strictly job-related, objective criteria, and not whether they wore a shirt and a tie or not.

The counterstatement

There are some roles that require more formal clothing. For example, employees who regularly meet with clients and senior managers might need to avoid casual wear. In these cases, it’s best to ask candidates directly how they feel about it. Just because they came underdressed at the interview, it doesn’t mean that they can’t follow your company’s dress code policy.

3. Lack of passion

These are common requirements in job ads: to be passionate about Python, to live and breathe email marketing, to be completely obsessed with creating UI design mockups. When you’re hiring a new employee, you want them to be interested in the job, the field and your company. Fair enough. But, passionate? Maybe that’s a lot to ask.

The biggest issue with passion is that it’s not really tangible. Particularly in a job interview setting where candidates want to impress and stand out. They might claim they’re passionate about the job, but is this true or are they simply saying what you (might) want to hear? And, on the other side, if you can’t spot their enthusiasm, is this a sign of lack of passion or are they just keeping their emotions in check?

There’s a cultural issue here, too. Some people have learned – whether through cultural influences or personal upbringings – that it’s best to keep emotions out of the workplace and, therefore, refrain from showing their passion. It doesn’t mean that they’re less excited about the job than a more extroverted candidate. It’s just a matter of how each expresses their passion.

The bottom line is that passion doesn’t necessarily speak for a candidate’s interest in the job. More importantly, it doesn’t say anything about the candidate’s ability to do the job. Interest is a different thing. Interested candidates – and, therefore, candidates you should keep an eye out for – are those who come to the interview prepared, who’ve checked your website, know your competitors and are familiar with your brand. They’re not the ones who “absolutely love” your company and shout about it.

The counterstatement

For some roles, it makes sense to look for candidates who’re truly engaged with your industry or cause. Think of a brand ambassador who influences people to buy your products. It’s important that they’re as genuine as possible when talking to potential customers. This means that it’s best to hire employees who’ve already tried your products and services and are happy to share their experiences.

Or, imagine you have a tobacco company. Would you want to hire an anti-smoker? Even if they’re not directly working on manufacturing or promoting tobacco products (e.g. they’re working as developers or office managers), it’s likely they won’t stay for long in a company if they’re opposed to its mission.

4. Early – or late – arrival at the interview

A candidate who shows up late for their interview is not a good sign. Likewise, another candidate who arrives super early might put you in an uncomfortable position of finding a waiting space and ensuring there’s someone around to cater for them. But don’t be so quick to raise a red flag.

Things don’t always go as planned. It’s normal to underestimate or to overestimate traffic volume, or even to get lost, particularly when you’re going to an area you’re not familiar with. This is not necessarily associated with the candidate’s time management skills or their level of interest for the job. In fact, as this ad from NRMA, the Australian organization that offers roadside assistance, illustrates, sometimes being late means that you know how to prioritize:

The counterstatement

When a candidate is really late for the interview, without giving some notice beforehand or without apologizing, that’s something you might want to further explore. Ask how they’ve managed time-sensitive projects in the past, learn about their job-related scheduling habits (e.g. if they use a calendar app and a task management tool) and consider their overall behavior during the hiring process. For example, if you notice that they usually don’t respond promptly on emails, they might indeed struggle with time management.

5. Long commute

There’s a lot of controversy around home address and whether job seekers should include it in their resume or not. Some career counselors say no, as it could lead to discrimination. But, some HR professionals dislike secretiveness; they automatically think that candidates might have something to hide when they don’t disclose where they live.

No matter how you find out you where a candidate lives (it could be on their resume or you can learn about it during small talk at the interview), it shouldn’t really matter. It sounds reasonable that an employee who lives in the same block as your company’s offices is more likely to be on time every day compared to another employee who has to take two trains and walk for 20 minutes to get there. It also sounds reasonable that employees with a quick 15-minute subway commute will have a better mood in the morning, as opposed to their colleague who has to drive every day for 45 minutes in heavy traffic.

Yes, these may sound reasonable statements, but deep down they’re all assumptions. What if that candidate with the long commute is planning to move to a new house soon? Or what if the employee who has to bear the traffic is perfectly happy to have landed their dream job while also enjoying a quiet family life in the suburbs?

Assumptions could be costing you great candidates – and hinder diversity. If your workplace is in a hip neighborhood and you only hire people who live close by, you’re weeding out those who have a tighter budget, newer immigrants or new residents in the city who may be not as likely able to afford a home in that area.

The counterstatement

If you have serious reasons to believe that an employee’s location could affect their work performance, then address those concerns before making a decision. In other words, be open about the expectations you have and discuss with candidates whether they’re able and willing to meet them. In the long run, employees stay at jobs they like, not at jobs with a convenient commute.

Here are some example interview questions you can ask:

• The store opens at 9 am so we need you to be here at 8:30 am to get ready for customers. Will you be able to be at the store on time every day?
• We work in shifts so we need to re-arrange the schedule in case a coworker is sick. Are you available to occasionally take evening shifts?
• Are you willing to travel X% of time?

Debunking the myths. And then, what?

What all these interview red flags have in common is that they’re based on assumptions. Yes, a candidate who arrives late to the interview might have time management issues, but you don’t know that for sure.

To hire the best, you need to be objective. And you can be objective if you evaluate candidates using tangible criteria, not arbitrary reasons or shortcuts. More importantly, you need to make sure that you’re a great interviewer, giving all candidates the opportunity to shine.

The post Interview red flags for employers: 5 common myths about candidates appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

This was recently reported in news media: ex-employees are running into obstacles in their job hunt. Many companies are disqualifying these candidates due to their closeness to Holmes’ alleged deceptions.

You can’t blame employers for trying to ensure they won’t make the wrong hire. But when it comes to what to look for in a resume, these criteria are too arbitrary to be effective. And they aren’t just about scandals; in fact, prompted by the plight of Theranos employees, we present five things you shouldn’t look at when screening resumes (and why):

1. Association with scandals

Tainted by association – it has happened before. Workable’s one-time VP of Customer Advocacy and veteran recruiting expert, Matt Buckland, reminisces his recruiting days amidst the Enron scandal:

When the Enron scandal hit, [executives in my company] said that we should disregard all candidates from Enron. One of the reasons they gave was that the scale and scope of the scandal meant you must have known about it and you must be complicit somehow.

This reasoning seems flawed from the get-go. You can’t be sure what someone knew or not, especially if they were low-level employees. “If you were the janitor or the receptionist, you weren’t fixing prices, were you?” says Matt.

But even for higher level executives, their position and function in the hierarchy matter. Can we be sure that a VP of operations or a sales director knows what financial scams their company is involved in? “It’s very easy to disqualify these people. Everyone says there’s a war for talent, but there’s loads of people. There’s always another one,” says Matt. “Yet, by rejecting someone so easily, you could be saying ‘no’ to your best future employee.”

Matt adds that we should consider whether we’re punishing the individual for the criminality or wrongdoing of a company, when deciding on what to look for in a resume when hiring. “Think about what scope that person had,” Matt explains. “Nick Leeson’s case at Barings Bank is a good example. He destroyed the whole of Barings Bank and triggered a global financial crisis. Are you going to hire Nick Leeson? No. Should you not hire anyone who worked at Barings Bank? Well, no, you’d still hire them.”

Also, there’s the element of empathy. We need to empathize with people who didn’t do anything wrong but still found themselves tied to a scandal. This could potentially happen to some of us, too.

Beyond the madness and the media hype is a very mundane story of an everyday guy coming in and doing a job, says Matt.

2. Employment gaps

Easier and less morally charged: “employment gaps,” those periods of time in a candidate’s resume where it appears they weren’t doing much. This often matters when thinking about what to look for in a resume as an employer and recruiter. Some studies indicate that long-term unemployed workers may be up to 45% less likely to be called to interviews than “newly unemployed or currently employed people who look just like them.”

This might be an attempt to avoid a costly hiring process for someone who will be rejected at the end. In this case, periods of unemployment are used as proxies for the ability to work diligently and effectively. This may originate from an unspoken rule many of us follow unconsciously: you need to always be working to be considered talented and motivated, and employed workers (or passive talent) are definitely better professionals.

Yet, there are a lot of perfectly acceptable reasons why someone chose not to work, or took time off to study or volunteer for some time. Maybe they were sick, or caring for a loved one who was sick; but they wouldn’t – or haven’t – put that in their resume or cover letter. Perhaps they wanted to spend time with their families and decided to take a break from the world of work. Maybe they just wanted time to travel and read, or they were laid off and couldn’t find work right away due to a tough economy. As Rob Long, Workable’s VP of Partnerships and former recruiter, says, “Good people look for jobs, too.”

Employment gaps don’t say anything about a candidate’s skills or suitability for the job. You can ask about those gaps during a screening call, but don’t treat them as major criteria during your hiring process. If the subject is sensitive, candidates might not want to reveal their reasons during a screening call; be prepared to accept “I wasn’t working for personal reasons” as an answer. Even the most talented professionals among us may have been unemployed at some point, but they might not feel comfortable explaining why to a potential employer.

3. Prestigious schools

Favoring job candidates who went to specific schools is one of the most arbitrary and ineffective hiring criteria. In the wake of bribery scandals regarding admissions to Ivy League colleges in the U.S., we may have more cause to distrust the value of educational backgrounds. In fact, according to an article in the Washington Post, the game of admission to elite schools has always been rigged in favor of the wealthier kids — not the smartest or hardest working.

That’s not to say that an Ivy League school graduate can’t be the most qualified candidate for the job. But, there’s an equal chance they might not be. Looking into those candidates seriously limits your applicant pool and makes it less likely you’ll find the best possible candidate.

So consider not paying attention to where a candidate studied. Look at more specific elements of their educational background, like what courses they took, the study groups they may have been part of, or the topic of their dissertation or graduate thesis.

Depending on the job, you may not have to look much at education credentials at all. You probably need someone to have a degree in biology or chemistry if you’re hiring for a lab scientist, but is it equally important for a salesperson to have a degree in business or even an MBA? Probably not. There’s value in hiring non-traditional candidates. We find similar insight in Stack Overflow’s 2018 developer survey where about 20% of professional developers who responded don’t have a college degree. So, be open-minded and focus on the actual skills the candidate brings to the table.

4. Controversial industries

To clarify, we’re not talking about anything extreme. If you’re hiring for an accounting role, and you passed on a candidate who handled the finances of a drug trafficking ring, I wouldn’t blame you. But, in other cases, the (legal) industries featured in a candidate’s resume shouldn’t be a reason to reject them.

For example, think about someone who was the sales manager at a marijuana company. There’s no real reason to disqualify them based on this. A job in the legal cannabis industry is a job like any other. This sales manager may even have an advantage against other candidates because they have a successful track record of selling products that are heavily stigmatized or regulated by law.

Same goes for a developer who worked at PornHub, the popular adult pornography site. There’s nothing wrong with having a legal job at a legal online platform – the experience you gain is the same as in every company (or even greater, when you’re trying to maintain a site flooding with users during Facebook down times and at the end of marquee sports matchups). In fact, there’s an oldie-but-goodie joke about what a PHP developer at PornHub should be truly embarrassed of:

PornHub is looking for #PHP developers… #joke #sotrue pic.twitter.com/KraFcZ62zu

— Jakub Jirutka (@JakubJirutka) June 29, 2017

5. Criminal background

Admittedly, this is a tough one. Out of all the candidates you’re afraid to take a risk on, convicted criminals are the most worrisome. You know they’re capable of ‘bad’ behavior. And having them on staff can potentially tarnish your company’s reputation. Matt clarifies: “If you hire someone who was fixing Libor at Barclays, what message does that send to the rest of the market and your investors?”

But, there’s something to be said for the necessity of rehabilitating convicted criminals who have paid their dues. “In UK law,” says Matt, “you have the notion of spent and unspent convictions. If I was a drunk driver and I had gone five years with no further incidents, this conviction is spent.” Also, laws in countries like the U.S. may have legal restrictions on how much you can use criminal records to make employment decisions.

Some companies do hire convicted criminals, and they may have good reasons to do so. You might hear it’s because it’s a great pool of untapped talent, or because of altruism, which would be to a company’s credit. Of course, ulterior motives may also be at play:

When the candidate has a niche skill set the company wants, people can disregard loads of stuff this person is personally guilty of. For example, I know of a trader who was convicted of fraud – and the company knew that – but was hired anyway. Did they hire him out of some altruistic motive, because he deserves a second chance? Or did they hire him because he’s a great trader and he’s gonna make them big money? I’d like to think it was the first, but it was probably the second.

Also, the concept of corporate social responsibility may have something to do with these hiring decisions. “Ex-offenders become like an archetype for the company’s virtue signaling,” says Matt. “‘We hire felons’ is often the same as ‘Here’s my CEO planting a tree, we love the environment.’”

The reality is, sometimes, a convicted criminal actually has the skills you need and they do deserve a second chance. If you talk to them and you’re satisfied they can be valuable employees, you can take a risk. Although, Matt warns, don’t forget to take risks in other ways, too. Combating unconscious bias is a difficult process that will demand attention and, maybe, getting out of your comfort zone.

You might be tempted to take a risk on a convicted trader because they could make you a billion dollars. Well, taking a so-called ‘risk’ on someone who’s in an underrepresented group, like a black woman or a first-generation immigrant, can also make you money by helping you take advantage of diverse perspectives.

Be as objective as possible when determining what to look for in a resume and discuss with the candidate. It helps if they’re upfront about their convictions and how their crime came about. In the end, if you’re not confident about the candidate’s repentance, you could reject them.

Recruiters, be brave

The main problem with all these arbitrary criteria, though, is that they usually come from hiring managers or executives. Recruiters are often unable to navigate these perceptions.

“The recruiter is a tool used by a hiring manager – certainly they are in their early career,” explains Matt. “Hiring managers tell you things they wouldn’t say publicly like; ‘Don’t hire anyone from this company’, or; ‘They went to X University, that’s terrible.’ And you would have to deal with that.”

Even when hiring managers don’t tell you directly what to look for in a resume, they might introduce bias in the process through their reactions. “If, for example, you give a hiring manager a resume of a great candidate who worked at Enron, you might see the hiring manager go ‘ugh, Enron.’ Then, you’re probably not going to show them any more of these candidates,” observes Matt.

So, hiring managers should also be careful not to subtly introduce such biases into the hiring process. But, it’s also a wake-up call for recruiters who should learn to push back to these reactions and, occasionally, to blatant orders.

Matt emphasizes the importance of giving candidates the benefit of the doubt before considering their candidacy based on potential bias-triggering elements in their CV or resume.

Open communication with the candidate during the process is absolutely key here.

“If one of these controversial candidates comes along, ask them about their experience with a scandal, their employment gaps or their educational background during the interview,” he says. “‘Oh my god, Theranos – what was that like?’ Just ask them.”

The post Wondering what to look for in a resume? Not these 5 things appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Brushing off interests as simple intangibles risks reducing the candidate to a flat piece of paper. There is a lot you can learn from looking at their interests – and if you know how to approach them, it can bring a list of checkboxes to life. Here’s a five-step method for how to assess hobbies and interests in a resume.

1. Look at the intent and deeper meaning

Resume writing is a practice in self-reflection. Often, a candidate first writes everything they can about all of their accomplishments over several pages. After substantial editing, in many cases, a candidate will then condense that to just a single page.

A smart-thinking candidate caters a resume to the job they’re applying for, and their interests fit into that formula as well. In the same way that their past job descriptions should have relevant statements for the job they’re applying for, a candidate should include interests that they can speak to. If they can’t market their interests effectively to you, that’s when those interests shouldn’t be included.

As the interviewer, it’s your job to ask pointed questions that get at the underlying value of the words on the resume. According to Harvard Business Review, the resume is a selective piece, and writing it well, whether professionally edited or not, is like “working with a personal trainer.” Someone who knows how to write a resume purposely includes interests.

Resumes are the first touchpoint a company has with an applicant, and interests give candidates the chance to set themselves as individuals apart from the crowd. Some interests may initially seem irrelevant, but can indicate something deeper about the candidate that you otherwise wouldn’t learn by looking at the standard categories. In short: when interests are included, consider the deeper reasons for what’s been included and why.

2. Consider it a helpful differentiator

Hobbies and interests alone probably won’t be what gets someone in the door for the interview. But if you, the interviewer, know how to ask or to read about interests, this might help you determine what makes a candidate stand out and makes them memorable. Former President of Harvard College Drew Gilpin Faust said in 2014: “We could fill our class twice over with valedictorians,” highlighting the importance of intangibles to set yourself apart.

So, in order to differentiate themselves, candidates need to focus on what makes them interesting. Those initial checkmarks – the requisite number of years of experience, a degree, etc. – are great and on point, but oftentimes lack the opportunity to show spark. Interests’ main purpose is spark, and that spark means diverse personalities and diverse thoughts; those highlights in a new hire can make a company shine.

Assessing candidates isn’t just about looking at formal qualifications. Looking at hobbies and interests in a resume also gives you purview into the relationship between the outside self and the work self by bringing personality into the mix. When you’re looking for a good culture fit in your candidates, or hiring for potential, it can be a huge differentiator when candidates include hobbies in a resume.

3. Assume they’re deliberately included

What a candidate chooses to include as interests isn’t necessarily a random act. Every part of a well-crafted resume should count, and if asked about it, the candidate should be able to speak to why they do X thing, what they’ve learned/achieved, and the relationship between that and the job they’re interviewing for.

It doesn’t necessarily matter what the specific hobby or interest is, and the candidate doesn’t have to be a champion at it. Don’t look for or expect a marathon runner, a world traveler or a chess star – although those can indicate very strong relevant traits that candidate can bring to the position you’re hiring for.

The candidate, likewise, doesn’t have to have an obscure interest like horology (the study of time). Interests could read as simply as running, traveling and chess – but the applicant needs to be able to speak to each one with insight and relevance to the position they’re applying for. Your job will be to give them that opportunity when interviewing them.

4. Consider their direct relevance to the job

Each interest should connect to a skill you’re looking for, and with that skill the candidate should be able to tell you how it’d help in the job they’re interviewing for. Interests demonstrate their ability to tell a story. For instance, just because someone lists ‘running’ as a hobby doesn’t necessarily mean they simply like to run. It can give you some great insights into the kind of person they might be (planner because they set courses, determined because they set goals) and how they might contribute to the position you’re trying to fill. Then it’s on them to build that into a relevant narrative.

For example, when you’re interviewing someone and asking them about a specific interest on their resume, look for them to frame their answer in an equation like this one:

“I’m interested in X thing; I’ve achieved Y accomplishment; and it’s taught me Z skill. That skill would help me at the potential job because…”

For example, I’m interested in hiking; I’ve achieved winter hiking and it’s taught me that substantial planning makes me comfortable when I’m forced to think quickly on my feet in a stressful situation. I could continue with this general theme and say that it would help me at product marketing because I work across business disciplines and need to be ready to field a whole host of questions, that may be out of left field even with lots of prep beforehand.

I could go deeper in my answer and explain that my hobby of winter hiking has taught me four skills: scheduling, meal preparation, delayering and basic first aid. These four skills translate to my candidacy for the product marketing role as: I need to plan well with room for change; understand different variables that roll into the final product and the environment it’s in; sometimes you start with a big project and realize that to be most effective you need to cut back; and that in order to do a good job I need to make sure my team and I have the tools to thrive.

This is the story you’re looking for when you ask an applicant about their interests, because those seemingly intangible skills then become tangible and relevant to the position you’re looking to fill.

5. Leave room for the ‘flair’

Interests give the candidate the time to show off their flair. Take a few minutes in an interview and see where the conversation takes you.

You could look at a resume and find they have interests that may initially seem irrelevant. For example, “movie watching”. You can ask them specifically about this: “I see here that you list movie watching as a hobby of yours. Tell me more about how that relates to the position you’ve applied for.”

A disappointing answer would be something like; “Uh… it’s just that, I saw Avengers last week and it was awesome!” That wouldn’t necessarily disqualify the candidate, but the fact they’ve missed on a very special opportunity to impress you with a thoughtful answer can indicate something about them. On the flip side, the candidate might tell you about a weekly film club that they’ve been running for the last two years focusing on locally made films – a huge indicator of their intangible attributes.

Remember, you’re not looking for the candidate to squirm, but rather, you want to see what kind of amazing answer they can come up with. It’s an opportunity for them to show their creativity and ability to carry an interesting conversation about things outside of work.

Don’t dismiss those hobbies and interests

For employers, this flair is what creates a great company – a company full of individuals who come together to solve a problem with unique perspectives and multi-faceted personalities. This diversity in thought is what sets your company apart from your competitors. When candidates include hobbies in a resume, you have a huge opportunity to get to know candidates at a deeper level. Don’t overlook it.

Postnote: My own resume’s hobbies and interests section includes Hiking, Knitting, Pie Baking, Expressionist Oil Painting, Broadway Music, and Vinyasa Yoga.

The post There’s much to learn when candidates include hobbies in a resume appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

So here Chloe is (screaming internally) without her star employee. The rest of the team members are pretty good – pretty awesome, actually – but Chloe needs to fill that hole, and quickly.

Two months later, Chloe has her replacement, and his name is Dimitri. He’s OK, but it’s hard work getting him up to speed, and it turns out – far too late in the process – that he doesn’t quite have the specific skills needed for those big projects in Q3 and Q4.

So, Chloe storms into HR and yells at Ellen. “What the hell?!” Ellen is great, but she really should have done a better job finding a good replacement for Zeke.

Ellen then says something that leaves Chloe feeling just a bit sheepish: “Chloe, listen,” she says. “If you had sat down with me right away as soon as you knew Zeke was leaving, this wouldn’t have happened. I found Dimitri based on my limited knowledge of the role, but I don’t know what you want. I don’t know sweet-all about your code. You never sat down with me first…”

And so on.

Do you see a bit of yourself in Chloe? Then listen up: Ellen was right. It wasn’t HR’s fault Dimitri wasn’t the right hire. As far as her team was concerned, Dimitri was a great fit. Chloe, the hiring manager interviewed him, pushed him through the process and ultimately made the call to offer him a role.

So what went wrong? Well, first off, to avoid Chloe’s predicament, you need to understand each other’s roles and responsibilities in the whole hiring process.

Recruiting involves special skills

Even the best process in the world doesn’t guarantee results every time. There’s only a finite number of people who can do the job well and would like to work with you when you want them to work with you. People can accept an offer, and then email a recruiter one day before suddenly saying, “Sorry, I took another job. Lolz.”

Let’s face it – it’s hard work being a recruiter. One thing is certain though; if you, as a hiring manager, believe your only responsibility in recruiting is to interview the candidates HR put in front of you, then let’s face the difficult fact: you’re a bad hiring manager. Simple as that.

Now, let’s dig in a little deeper. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you feel rushed with every hire you make?
• Are you frustrated with HR sending you unsuitable candidates?
• Does it feel like all the candidates you like drop out of the process or take other offers?

And have you ever:

• Just emailed HR to say, “I need to hire a new coder; can you put the old ad back up?”
• Cancelled an interview on the day because something more important came up… then forced HR to apologize to the candidate for you?
• Taken a week to give interview feedback to your HR team because you’re too busy?

Do you see what’s happening here? If your answer is “Yes” to any or many of these questions, then you need to improve as a hiring manager, because you want a really good team stacked with star performers like Zeke. If you’re actively involved in the process from the get-go, you’ll get that really good team you need.

The good news? It’s not as painful as you might initially fear. Here are the six things you can do as a hiring manager in working with recruiters, and building (or even repairing) that trust you have with them:

Six tips for hiring managers to work with recruiters

1) Get involved from day one

Being prepared is the key to everything here. If you know you’ll need to hire someone in three months, don’t wait two months to tell HR. Let them know as soon as you do. Better still, have regular meetings with HR to keep everyone on the same page about what might be coming up.

Many of us have experienced that “oh no” moment when someone great in our team leaves or that painful realization halfway through a project that we don’t have the resources to complete it on time. It feels bad. But you know what, this has happened to almost every manager ever. It may not give you that ideal three-month window that’ll serve you and the company so well, but the advice still applies: get started early with regular interactions with HR.

In short: Talk to Ellen in HR, right away. Get that conversation started. And meet with her regularly.

2) Help the recruiter understand the role

It’s important to be as concrete as you can in expressing your needs to the recruitment team. “I need to hire a Software Engineer” is not good enough. Before you talk to your recruitment team, give the role some thought. You don’t need every detail nailed down but you should know the job title, key responsibilities of the role and, crucially, why you need to hire someone.

Spend time with the recruiter discussing your team. You should be able to address the following questions:

• What work does each member of your team do?
• Where will the new hire fit into that team?
• What work will the new hire do?
• What impact will this role have?
• What will the first 6-12 months look like?
• What projects will this person work on?
• What will a good first year look like?
• How will this person be judged or measured by colleagues and managers?
• What would happen if you don’t hire for this role?

Getting all of this right will save you and your recruiter multiple headaches later.

3) Clearly define your ideal candidate

You also want to have a clear idea of the type of person you would want in this role – and why – and you want to make that idea clear to the recruiter. Perhaps you’ve worked with people in the past that you think of highly that you can show your recruiter via LinkedIn to help this discussion. You could also be thinking about a current colleague that you feel is very strong, telling the recruiter that you’d like another like them.

These “examples” don’t necessarily have to be the best fit for the role, but if you explain to the recruiter why you rate them highly, using real-life examples of qualities and skills you value, they’ll understand what you’re looking for. This will help the two of you get better aligned with each other.

4) Participate in the candidate sourcing process

You probably know more about where your candidates look for jobs than your recruiter does. Regardless of whether they’re spending time on job boards or online meetups, a social network, or a local professional group, you’re the senior version of these candidates. You’re looking for someone like you five years earlier, before you climbed up the ladder. So, you can help your recruiters with inside information on where people with your background and skills hang out.

You can also reach out to former colleagues – not necessarily for them to apply for the role, but perhaps they’ve also interviewed people or know people in their own respective networks. Any help you can give your recruiter to make sure they’re advertising in the right places and sourcing in the right talent pools will help you find good candidates faster.

When doing this, bear in mind the perils of unconscious bias – in a society that values diversity and inclusion, you want to be sure your employee base is well-balanced. It’s been determined that sourcing from one’s own network or from “traditional” candidate pools can lead to a less diverse team, so work with your recruiter to “widen the net”. You can pick up some tips and tricks from Workable’s SVP of Sales & Marketing, Rachel Bates, on how she balanced out her tech sales team in a male-dominated field.

5) Be on time, every time

This is one of the most important tips for hiring managers. Whether you’re screening resumes yourself or receiving screened resumes from a recruiter, provide feedback quickly and clearly. The faster you do this, the more likely you are to hire from your A-pool of resumes, because those candidates are looking in a multitude of places. Also, a quick turnaround with feedback on what you liked and what you didn’t like after the resume screening process will help your recruiter know which applications to move to the next step and which ones to disqualify.

You also want to get your feedback notes and scorecards filled in as soon after the interview as possible. This is crucial for two reasons: First, it’s surprisingly easy to forget the minute details of the interview you just had with the candidate, even later the same day. Giving fast feedback allows you to get down the concrete information that will help optimize the application process both for the candidate and for the recruiter.

Another reason is that, like in the resume screening process, a quick turnaround time on interview feedback means moving your ideal candidate to the next stage more quickly, making it more likely to get them on your team before another organization snaps them up.

This also applies for candidates who didn’t progress to the next stage. Not only does giving fast feedback improve the candidate experience by not making candidates feel “ghosted” or ignored, it helps the recruiter better understand what good and bad candidates look like in your eyes, so they can put more relevant candidates in front of you.

In short: don’t be the bottleneck in the recruitment pipeline. Make yourself available. Keep parts of your calendar clear for holding interviews with candidates and touching base with the recruiter and rest of the hiring team.

6) Don’t fall at the final hurdle

It’s best to let the experts deal with job offer management (that’s your recruitment team, by the way). But you should be willing to get involved, whether that’s delivering the offer itself or being on hand to answer questions for a candidate once they have received an offer. Show the candidate that you, the person they will report to and work with, are excited and engaged about offering them the job. This can have a real impact especially if that candidate is courting multiple offers from multiple firms. If anything, it’ll show that you care, as emphasized by Matt Buckland – Workable’s VP of Customer Advocacy for two years – in a recent webinar about the candidate experience.

Follow these six simple steps with HR and recruitment, and you’ll be in a far better place than you were before. You’ll no longer be a bad hiring manager. Not only will you have the actual team you need, you’ll be more trusted and respected both by those in your team and your colleagues in recruitment and HR.

Let’s circle back to the start: You’re in Chloe’s position, and you’ve still lost Zeke. But instead of doing what she did, you simply go into Sally’s office right away and say, “Hey, can we talk? Zeke just gave his notice. We gotta work together to build a recruitment plan and find a new star for the team in time for that big project.”

Remember: It’s not just about “How can I help you in the process?”. Nor is it just about “How can you help me in the process?” Rather, it’s a combination of both: “How can we work together to build a dream team in our company?”

The post 6 tips for hiring managers in working with recruiters appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

This might be a future many of us have envisioned – one where artificial intelligence makes our lives easier and better. Then there’s the possibility many dread: that Joe won’t actually be your assistant, but rather, your replacement, coming straight out of an Isaac Asimov universe.

How possible are these scenarios and what can we do to ensure technology works to our benefit? And how can we embrace the future of AI?

I recently discussed AI in recruitment with Matt Alder, a reputable British HR thought leader and host of the Recruiting Future podcast. He gave intriguing insights into how businesses currently implement AI in hiring and what the future holds for recruiting professionals. We discuss these insights here.

The first eye-opening fact Matt mentioned is that, despite all the talk about AI recruiting software and their pitfalls and successes, we don’t actually have any genuine artificial intelligence in recruiting.

The term ‘artificial intelligence’ is greatly exaggerated

According to Techopedia, an accurate definition of AI is “the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans.” This means they might understand speech, learn and plan, and solve problems on their own. If you’ve ever watched the acclaimed show Person of Interest, you’ll be pretty hyped up about what’s probably the highest potential form of AI.

But that’s not what the HR and recruiting world seems to be calling AI most of the time.

Matt Alder addresses this confusion: “It’s kind of easy to get caught up in the definition of AI in recruitment. There are many vendors and suppliers to the recruitment marketplace that will claim they have AI and everything they make is based on AI.

“But, you can be pedantic,” quips Matt, “and say we haven’t got any genuine AI in the recruitment space as yet.”

Matt clarifies that the term “AI” usually refers to is relevant technology that’s used in the hiring process. As he mentions:

We’ve got algorithms to match the right people to the right jobs; we’ve got some aspect of machine learning and forecasting, and we’ve also got elements of smart automation creeping in.

Chatbots that increase candidate engagement, automated sourcing, algorithms that show jobs to targeted audiences and other tools are indeed progress towards a world of AI in recruitment, but they’re not quite there yet. “It’s still really early days for all of those too,” says Matt.

The triad of tech models

There are three types of analytics and AI: descriptive, predictive and prescriptive. Descriptive gives us information about what’s happening, predictive shows us an image of the future, and prescriptive technology tells us what we should do based on these findings.

It seems that AI in hiring is still in the descriptive phase with a bit of predictive flair. Matt emphasizes: “We can see development in matching algorithms, helping recruiters to find good candidates that may have been hidden to them, but how do we actually predict which of these candidates are going to perform better in the job?”

For example, Workable’s own AI-powered feature, AI Recruiter, searches thousands of public online profiles in seconds to find candidates who match the skills and requirements listed in your job descriptions. This type of AI recruiting software is certainly useful to help you build a strong talent pipeline, but it can’t actually predict job performance. You still have to shortlist and evaluate candidates yourself.

“We’re probably still at the descriptive stage in terms of trying to understand what’s actually happening before we can unleash a recruiting AI to make our decisions for us,” says Matt.

“The next stage is, obviously, technology starting to accurately predict the performance of candidates and say, ‘Here are 10 candidates that match the criteria you have in mind and these three are going to perform the best.’”

And while that sounds great, what will happen if technology becomes even smarter?

AI in recruitment will take your job (or some part of it)

The fear that AI will take over our jobs and we’ll all be unemployed is frequently mentioned, both in everyday society and in pop culture. And the possibility is very real: we’ve already seen it happen with driverless trains, robot miners and more.

In recruitment, being replaced by AI is also possible, though that possibility is usually considered unimaginable. “I think there’s a lot of denial in the space,” says Matt. “People think, ‘I couldn’t possibly be replaced by a machine so I’m just going to ignore the threat, and not do anything about it.’ And that’s a mistake.”

Fair enough; I, myself, can be accused of falling into that same bucket that Matt refers to. As a content writer, I can’t imagine a machine being able to conjure up stories or compose pieces like I do. But then again, an AI recently wrote Harry Potter fanfiction. It might have been terrible (contrary to what The Verge might think), but machines can learn to improve faster than humans (*cough*).

In the recruiting space, artificial intelligence can learn many of the tasks recruiters already do on a regular basis – and maybe better too. Matt comments:

“Certainly, a lot of the automated and repetitive tasks that recruiters do will be able to be removed. [Many] recruiters think they can’t be replaced by a machine because they have gut instinct and super powers and experience and that means they’re better. But what we’re seeing is that humans are very biased when recruiting.”

“Also, the way many companies recruit isn’t necessarily the best way,” says Matt. “Lots of them are still hiring on CVs and interviews and cover letters and assessment techniques from decades ago. There’s a huge step forward that technology can make to improve those things.”

This doesn’t have to be a dystopian future

There are several arguments against the possibility of a dystopian future brought by machines. One of those arguments begs the question: if AI takes over our current jobs, does that mean there’ll be no jobs left for us humans?

Recent research predicts that 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t yet been invented. So even if technology takes over our current jobs, that could actually lead to other kinds of employment. Imagine a world where the most repetitive, dangerous or administrative tasks will be done by machines, leaving humans free to learn and educate themselves in more challenging, innovative, or exciting work.

While that may still be too far ahead into the future of AI for the recruiting world, it’s possible technology will replace people in certain tasks in the next few years. For example, scheduling interviews or screening resumes. And that will open the way for you to focus more at what humans truly own: relationship building. This includes employer branding, recruitment marketing, candidate experience, proactive sourcing during events or social media.

So while “AI Joe” busily exchanges routine information with candidates, predicts the performance of your shortlisted applicants or analyzes their facial expressions, you’re free to attend a popular tech conference speaking to ultra-qualified candidates.

Still, we must prepare

The ideal scenario of a harmonious relationship between humans and machines won’t come on its own. From their part, organizations must plan ahead. When strong AI comes, they may need to rebuild their recruiting process from scratch and rethink their strategies. (Friendly reminder: Workable’s People Search feature, including AI Recruiter, can help you in your recruiting efforts). They might need to render some positions or tasks as redundant or hire based on different specialties and skill sets.

“That’s a massive issue for businesses as a whole,” says Matt, “in terms of how they adjust the skill base of their employees to match the realities of the business.” Training programs that account for not current, but future skill gaps – think predictive analytics! – could be part of the solution.

From a recruiter perspective, it’s about thinking which of their skills are more likely to be needed and valuable, even if AI in recruitment becomes the norm, Matt says. That could be about relationships and about persuasion. Understanding data and being able to turn data into engaging stories from within the business.

“So how do you build relationships with the people you want to hire for your company? How do you persuade them that your company is the right place for them to work? And obviously, how does that reflect back internally?” Matt asks. “How do you work with your stakeholders within the business, and give them good advice and build relationships with them, and persuade them that a certain person might be right for them?”

So in the future, recruiters may focus on anything that involves networking with people and influencing their decisions. That makes sense. Machines are able to process information faster and more accurately than humans, but the ability to connect with others and plan strategically will, for the time being, remain primarily human. As stated in an article published in Harvard Business Review, the future might not see people competing with machines for jobs, but rather, humans will be freer to unleash their imagination, creativity and strategic abilities.

There are good reasons to be optimistic about the advent of AI in recruitment. We just need to be aware of the changes that are coming and hone our skills in areas that artificial intelligence can’t easily take over.

The post AI in recruitment: What the future holds for businesses and recruiters appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Why?

I was part of the development team lucky enough to work on it, so here’s my take on the two key ingredients behind its success…

Take time to understand the problem

Love for a feature happens when you design something people simply can’t live without. They use it so much, they almost can’t remember what work was like before it arrived. But how do you get to that point?

The first step is by taking time to understand the problem.

In this instance, the pain point seemed specific and straightforward; recruiters spend too much time emailing candidates back and forth trying to lock in a time for an interview. But, before rushing to decode the problem in my brain, I needed to make sure I’d got it exactly right. I needed to empathise with our users. Which meant taking a step back to examine the challenge from different angles.

I started off by looping into the experience of our own in-house recruiters. They’re users of our product and only too familiar with the pain points of scheduling interviews. In the past year, they’ve:

• sifted over 8000 candidates (moving over half of those candidates forward)
• sent 3800+ emails to candidates, and
• arranged 300+ face-to-face interviews and 900 phone screens.

They had lots to share! So, after gathering their insights, we widened our research out to examine the physical environment. To gain a deeper personal understanding of the issues involved, we had to answer three key questions:

#1. Who’s going to use the feature?

From hiring managers to recruiters and admins, we know for sure that we have three to four different user types accessing Workable.

#2. When are they going to use it, and in what context?

Different user types perform different actions. We needed to establish at what point the problem arose for each user.

#3. What’s the optimal experience these people expect to have?

The effort it takes to complete the task determines the solution. Our task was to identify the feedback the platform should provide back to the user.

I want to stick to the last sub-point a bit: “What’s the feedback the platform should provide back?” This is a big checkpoint to tick. In general, we’re talking about scheduling interviews. But, for a recruiter, this is more than a task; it’s the first interaction you have with candidates. This is a biggie. You need to make sure that whatever button you press, you know what will happen next for you and your prospect. That the candidate experience, as well as your user experience, is 100% spot-on.

Don’t overdesign—put the user first

So, we had the problem specified. And we had a clear picture of the challenge. Then came the ideation phase. As a new designer on a team, it can be tempting to “obey your thirst to make an impact”. But, with Workable, product design is all about doing what’s right for the customer. We don’t design features just to design features. We design powerful new features that, governed by logic and function, make the process of hiring easier for our users.

Besides, Workable is an established platform, loved by customers all over the world for its intuitive design. All the component pieces were already there. My remit was to use my skill to design a feature informed by ease of use and a seamless, uncomplicated user experience. And that’s what I did.

What followed, was a big round of internal revisions to refine and perfect the experience. I had all the time I wanted to think about every last detail.

And it shows. Our self-scheduling link is truly loved. It’s loved because it solves one of hiring’s biggest pain points. And it does it without fuss.

Watch this space for news of more features to fall in love with.

This post was written by Andrew Chraniotis, Senior Product Designer at Workable.

The post Why it was love at first sight for our interview scheduling link appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

And that’s what we’ve been doing at OpenSignal, where I’ve been the Director of People and Talent for almost a year now. We’re a company of 60 people globally with about 45 of those based in London while the rest are located outside of the UK.

We’re proud to be a diverse organisation: we have 26 nationalities in our team. Almost every other Opensignaler (as we like to call ourselves!) you meet is from a different country, and that’s just counting what’s on their passports, not how they might identify themselves.

Because of our overall diversity, and global nature of our business, Brexit will affect us. We’ve had two London-based Opensignalers decide they did not want to live in the UK anymore in the last year (but they continue to work for OpenSignal remotely). Then, in the last three months, we’ve had two employees relocate to the UK from mainland Europe specifically to work for us.

So we need to prepare to help all our Opensignalers feel secure, supported and more informed about their legal status and their options under Brexit. Here’s how to prepare your business for Brexit:

First things first: Right to work

Our CEO stood in front of the company and said, “We know that change is coming and whilst I can’t tell you exactly how Brexit will work out, I will offer you our commitment: OpenSignal is committed to to ensure we can continue to employ our Opensignalers irrespective of their nationality. We have worked incredibly hard to build this amazing team and we will do whatever we can to avoid any repercussion from Brexit getting in the way of that.”

So we put a plan in place and we shared it with the board.

The first step for me was to verify our team members’ right to work. And that involves having a valid passport but also, if they’re EU/EEA citizens, whether they’ve considered applying for a British passport. Also, I identified if they have a residency card and what additional steps they’ve taken to secure their residency in the UK.

I spoke with everyone in the company who does not have a British passport, which is over 50% of our UK workforce.

Seek legal expertise and let employees in on it

There’s only so much information I can share when I’m not a legal expert myself, so we engaged an external expert to provide additional support. We would not want to have any risk in terms of giving information that isn’t valid. This is about people’s lives, not just about their employment status with us.

We found an immigration and visa specialist who now completely manages any visa sponsorship applications with the Home Office. They understand all the different steps to make sure the process isn’t delayed and they share up-to-date information and any government changes on immigration statuses. I’ve already learnt a lot having them onboard!

We then offered our team the ability to seek confidential advice with this external expert. We put him in touch with Opensignalers who are looking to understand, for example, the new settlement scheme and get information about applying.

And it’s on the house

The company decided to pay for this advice. Whether employees wanted advice on their application process, making sure they had all the right documents or whether it’s just asking some questions, we pay for that. We also pay any home office fees for their applications.

We want to give them unrestrained access to that advice and information, so that hopefully they can feel a little less concerned about their situation. We want to make sure they have all the knowledge and understanding they can to make an informed choice, whether they decide to stay in the UK or not.

People are still coming to the UK

The stats show there’s been a decline in the number of people from the EU/EEA moving to the UK since the referendum in June 2016. I’d say we haven’t seen less CVs from candidates outside of the UK in general, but we have seen slightly fewer CVs from candidates residing in mainland Europe. We continue to receive as many applications from the US, India, Turkey, Israel, and countries across South America. In a previous company, we had two European candidates pull out of the final stages of the hiring process just after the referendum.

However, we definitely still see people moving to London, even from the EU/EEA. Software engineers, especially, are still motivated to work and live here. I think that’s because they’re so in demand; when you have lots of opportunities available, you’re probably less likely to be concerned as you know you can always move to another buzzing tech hub, especially if you’re an EU/EEA citizen. Also, for those who are not looking to move to the UK as a long-term commitment, such as buying a house or raising a family here, there’s still very much incentive to move to London – for now!

So we’re still hiring people from outside of the UK and many of them are relocating here in London.

…but they need support

Benefits are an important part of the equation and are key in attracting and retaining the best people regardless of the social and political climate.

One of the first big benefits we put in place when I joined was private healthcare. Given that over 50% of our employees are not from the UK, they understand the concept of the NHS (as the majority of EU/EEA countries have variants of public health services) but ultimately they were telling us “we want private healthcare and we want to be able to add our families to it.” This was feedback we got from engagement surveys we send out every two months, and we listened.

For the people who relocate to work in our London office, we offer relocation support. There is a financial budget they receive and we also share guides on how to set up a bank account, how to look for housing, how to get a national insurance card, what is the NHS, and all kinds of things we take for granted as people who’ve lived here for a very long time.

We try to be flexible and accommodate as much as possible for those coming from abroad, and the changes they experience.

Remote work matters

We’ve been starting to think about what we’ll do in a worst case scenario Brexit – where there might be a big dip in terms of the workforce and the economy – and plans we might need to put in place to support our Opensignalers to continue working for us, wherever that might be. These plans are in their infancy though, while there’s still so much uncertainty.

However, we feel confident that hiring people from outside of the UK will be a lesser challenge because of our remote work practices. If the number of Opensignalers we hire outside of our London office increases, they’ll experience the same ways of working and behaviors that we already have in place. About 25% of our workforce aren’t based in HQ anyway.

This is also what has enabled us to retain the two employees who decided to leave the UK – they’re no longer in our London-office, but they remain Opensignalers.

How we make remote working work

First, we have local HR services within the countries where our remote workers are employed, to support them from a local employment law, payroll and benefits perspective.

But these employees are still very much part of Opensignal and its culture. Everyone uses Zoom and Slack, we have screens everywhere in the office where it’s very easy for people to log in and work with each other remotely. We also try to make sure the sessions we run coincide with most people’s time zones and if that’s not possible, we record everything. Whether it’s an all-company meeting or team meeting, we document everything so it’s available for people if they miss it.

We also have pretty flexible working patterns. People have flexibility in terms of when they start and finish – whatever works for our Opensignalers, the teams they work with and the projects they commit to, we trust our people to do their best work, however that might be.

Then we also have a policy in place to let our UK workforce work from abroad. We understand that, as over half of our workforce in London are from outside of the UK, they may want to go home and see their family for a longer period of time during special holidays such as Christmas, so we offer the ability to work from abroad. They have the opportunity to work from abroad for any kind of emergencies or extenuating circumstances too. This is part of a flexible culture that we’ve tried to create that pays attention to our Opensignalers’ needs.

I think, for sure, there are challenges with having remote workers but the feedback has always been that it’s working quite well. Every month we host town halls that people can join from HQ or Zoom, every quarter we get the whole company together for a company update followed by some social activity; and twice a year we take all our Opensignalers offsite for an away day. We believe that bringing our teams together regularly to solve problems, learn and laugh with one another is critical for our success.

Boost your attractiveness to candidates

We’re lucky because, as an organisation, we actually have more of a presence outside of the UK. For sure, there will always be people who decide to actively look for jobs in Amsterdam or Berlin rather than London, but currently, it hasn’t been a problem for us. We might just have to think even more outside of the box in terms of how we set our Opensignalers up for success, and how we we brand our company going forward, if it becomes more challenging with new Brexit developments.

Unfortunately, as one organisation, there’s not much you can do to change candidates’ perception of what they’re reading about the UK and the UK workforce. All we can do is promote our culture and show we have opportunities for them to work for us, even if it’s not specifically in London.

Communicate your culture

As part of the hiring process, I meet with everyone at final stage and I speak a lot about the culture of the company, how we work and what we expect of each other. It’s especially important to talk about how flexible we are, about having employees all over the globe, and about the processes and ways of working we’ve set up to support them.

We share the fact that we’re continuously scaling – with a workforce that’s not all in the same place. That’s always received really positively in the interview process.

Invest in relevant content

I’m currently the only full-time person who works in the people and talent function, but we’re investing further in the people team this year. Once the next person’s on board, we’ll build further on our employer brand.

We’ll get a few more day-in-the-life blogs out there. Maybe one of our remote engineers can share what a day looks like for them, and how they continue to work effectively with colleagues who are in different countries.

That’s definitely one of the strategies we would like to implement over the next 12 months. Creating more blog posts and building up our social media presence; sharing short videos on what people love about working in our organisation and openly share our stats, such as having a company of 60 people and more than 26 nationalities.

Build a team who truly understands diversity

It’s really important to have an internal recruitment team, and leadership team, that are open to different ways of thinking, see the benefits of a diverse workforce, and are aware of their unconscious biases. Brexit has already created a psychological barrier, so it’s important that hiring teams remain open to seeing candidates from all backgrounds, and continue to make the effort to find the right skilled person for the right role. Brexit isn’t specifically about diversity and inclusion, but I think it will definitely play a part in the choices UK companies make in their hiring strategies.

A good starting point is asking your internal recruiters and hiring managers to take the Harvard Implicit Bias test to help them identify their biases. Facebook’s ‘Managing Bias’ training is also really useful!

Employee retention made easier

In general, employees have really appreciated the additional advice and support we’re providing. What’s also important is the consistent message we keep driving internally, about how proud we are of the fact we’re a diverse company, and the positive impacts this has on our success. We’re continuing to be an inclusive environment in terms of how we hire, and it’s showing.

People are concerned, they’re not sure what’s going to happen, but ultimately they know that Opensignal is committed to continuing to employ them. They see we still hire people from abroad and they understand we value diversity and inclusion. They know there are possibilities for them, and we’ll continue to support them, no matter what happens with Brexit. We don’t have all the answers, but we always hear what our Opensignalers need; and ensure Opensignal remains a great place to work for everyone, whether they are in the office or at the end of a Zoom call.

Kat Bowles is a Business Psychologist and People and Talent Leader with over 8 years experience in large scale and high growth global tech companies. She’s passionate about creating engaging candidate and employee experiences, fostering inclusive environments, employee wellbeing, and how to create positive change as businesses rapidly scale and evolve.

Related:

• Don’t forget the ‘human’ in Brexit HR implications
• The impact of Brexit on employment: Insights from 3 experts

The post Ask a Recruiter: How to prepare your business for Brexit appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But first, job ads

Here, at Boojum, we aim to catch the attention of potential employees who are ambitious and have a real passion for the industry. We want to make it clear to candidates that if they want to develop a career in hospitality, then we will help them do it. “Our aim is to offer you a career, not just a job.”, the message that you will see throughout our job postings is a genuine reflection of the experience we offer.

This mindset is integral to our culture; we believe that some of our success lies in the fact that we promote from within and aim to put real value on the time that people spend here while working with us. Developing people through the company helps to keep our vision clear; it creates goals and lays ambitious foundations for all our employees. We want to reflect this culture of development and succession planning through our hiring procedures.

We also put a huge focus on diversity and try to ensure that our application process avoids any unconscious bias pitfalls; pictures, date of birth, personal information that is anything more than the bare bones need to apply for a job: name, contact details, previous experience and a few questions we pose for our initial screening phase.

Effective interviewing = successful hires

Interviews can be stressful for candidates, so if you’re able to relieve some of that stress, you’ll have more productive interviews and inspire candidates to really shine. They’ll feel more comfortable talking about their professional goals and aspirations, allowing you to understand whether those align with your business goals.

How can you do this?

• By giving candidates the information they need to know about the role
• By creating a relaxed environment in which to interview candidates
• By being welcoming and positive
• By using recruitment platforms, like Workable, that allow you to clearly schedule the date and time of the interview as well as link a map to the location of the job interview (getting to the right place at the right time, if you have never been there before can be just as stressful as the interview itself!)

When we interview potential hires, we aim to discuss job duties and expectations in detail. Disillusionment or lack of clarity around job roles can have a negative effect on turnover rates. To improve employee retention, it’s important that candidates fully understand what the position entails and what is expected of them and what they can expect from us, as their employer before they accept the job offer.

OK, they’re hired. What now?

The recruitment process is only the first part of our responsibility in retaining employees.

We have found that streamlined, candidate-focused recruitment and onboarding processes have had a really positive effect on employee retention.

In our job ads, we mention career development and promotions. When we have an open role for a manager, we look first and foremost at our current staff. Approximately 80% of our managers, area managers and central support team have worked their way up through a store-level career path. If you say you are going to offer career development, you have to do it, right?

During the hiring process, we also communicate that we want to build a knowledgeable, ambitious and engaged team. We work towards this goal by actively supporting our employees’ training and development. There is a specific training program for each restaurant position and training buddies in each location. Every time we open a new restaurant we bring in a ‘craic squad’ which is made up of top performers from established restaurants whose aim is to support the initial development of the new team and ensure our customers get the high standards of service and food quality they have come to expect from Boojum.

Three people in my team have just completed CIPD qualifications at the diploma level, fully financed by Boojum which is just a snapshot of the managers who have taken advantage of our study support scheme. We have elected Employee Representatives in each of our locations who help promote a focus on the Employee Voice. They have made some really significant, employee-led changes since the group’s inception last year and I’m really excited for the work we have planned together in 2019.

We try to make sure to offer benefits that tie in well with our company culture. From enhanced maternity and paternity pay to monthly employee rewards and activity-based days out, our benefits package reflects our values: we put family first and we always try to remember to have fun!

One final note

You can’t look at recruitment in isolation. It has to integrate with your image and brand as a whole.

For example, we send vouchers for burritos to all candidates who have reached the interview stage but are unsuccessful in making it to the next round. While they may not have qualified for one particular job, we still appreciate the time and effort they put into applying and interviewing and we’re more than happy to meet them again in one of our restaurants.

Likewise, we know that happy customers can easily become engaged employees. That’s why it’s crucial for us to offer a positive in-store experience. For someone who’s eating at our restaurant and also on the lookout for a new job, a great customer service experience might be the defining moment that prompts them to apply.

Employee retention doesn’t depend only on the job ads you write or the benefits you offer. You attract, hire and retain the best employees when you offer them a great overall experience, whether they’re customers, candidates or current employees. This will never not be a work in progress as the labor market, values and technology constantly change.

Fiona Tanham is the Head of HR at Boojum. With more than 10 years of experience in the restaurant industry in UK and Ireland, she aims to build successful, diverse and passionate teams.

The post Ask a Recruiter: How do you improve employee retention in an industry with high turnover rates? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We secure our product – you shield your data

We know you can’t focus on hiring unless you’re confident that your recruiting software handles all candidate information securely and maintains data privacy. Add to that Europe’s GDPR regulations, that were put into effect as of May 2018 and made us all rethink how we store and process personal details. Now you understand why data security was one of our top priorities.

Although we are always looking to implement the highest security standards in our product from the get-go and in every new feature we build, in 2018 we went one step further: we are now officially ISO 27001:2013 certified. This means that our customers can be reassured that our tech, our infrastructure and our employees operate safely and securely. And for our customers who use various apps and want to access their data across different systems, our single sign-on (SSO) feature provides an extra level of security and a smoother user experience.

Whether you’re in Europe or elsewhere, we’re sure that you’ve heard a lot about GDPR over the last year. And you’ve probably wondered what you need to do and what you need to change in your procedures to be compliant. In hiring, specifically, things can get complicated considering you manage a ton of candidate data, from people who apply for your open roles to the ones you source or you want to maintain in your databases for future job openings. Workable’s GDPR features, released this year, do all the back-office work for you, so that you can, without any stress, focus on what’s most important: the actual hiring.

But data privacy doesn’t refer only to using secure tech or being compliant with regulations. It’s about ensuring that the right people have access to the right information at the right time. That’s why we built advanced access rights that help you organize your hiring teams and share confidential data only with the team members who need full visibility. For example, you can limit access to external recruiters, if you don’t want them to see financial details or specific terms, and you can hide candidate evaluations from interviewers until they submit their own evaluation, ensuring an unbiased evaluation.

Get better candidates, faster

“Finding qualified candidates.” If we asked recruiters about their biggest pain points, this would be among the top 3 answers – if not the most popular one. As a company that builds recruiting software, we always think of new ways to ease this pain. In 2018, we introduced a new dashboard inside Workable: “Find Candidates”. In a single page, you can see all advertising options to help you maximize your outreach to potential candidates. Here’s what it looks like:

You may have noticed “Campaigns” and “Auto-Suggest” in the above screenshot. “What are these?” you ask? Well, these are two of the AI-based features that we released this year to help you find new candidates beyond your traditional, tried sources. Let’s take a look at them one by one:

• With “Campaigns” you automatically get qualified candidates from Facebook and Instagram straight to your hiring pipeline. Share with us your open role and, based on the job requirements (like experience level and location), we’ll deliver a branded ad to people who qualify for the job. Instead of casting a wide net, we target potential candidates who have the desired skills and are more likely to be interested in your open roles.
• “Auto-Suggest” works behind the scenes, analyzing your job description to automatically generate up to 200 matching candidate profiles. This means that you can diversify your talent pool, as we’re looking for potential candidates in various online sources that you haven’t thought of or don’t have the time to explore.

…and there’s more to come

Stay tuned in 2019 for “Workable Referrals” – an internal job portal that turns your workforce into a recruiting machine. Find, track and evaluate referrals faster all through one standalone platform that syncs with your hiring pipelines and reports.

Interview scheduling takes time?

Not anymore! In 2018, we added new features inside Workable to help you schedule interviews faster and more accurately. These features automate the administrative tasks around scheduling and help you focus on the actual interview:

• Give candidates the option to self-schedule interviews: Why waste time sending back-and-forth emails with candidates when you can do this with a single email? Instead of trying to find a time that works for everyone and calculating different time zones (when interviewing remotely), give candidates access to your calendar: by clicking on the self-scheduling link, they’ll be able to view your availability in real time and book a slot on the spot.

• Schedule multi-part interviews effortlessly: When you conduct complex interviews with multiple stages and interviewers on the same day, scheduling them can get just as complex. In 2018, we took care of this challenge for you. From one screen inside Workable, you can book different meetings with different interviewers in different rooms for the same candidate. This way, you will minimize mistakes when scheduling interviews and create a better overall hiring experience both for candidates and interviewers.

Hiring from A to Z

When we talk about hiring and how an ATS can help with that, we mostly refer to posting jobs, screening resumes and managing candidate profiles. But, here, at Workable, we know that it’s more than that. Hiring begins long before you publish a job ad; first, you need to open a requisition, get approval and agree on budget and timeline. Also, it’s not really hiring until you welcome a new employee on board. And to do that, you need to craft an offer letter, send it to your best candidate and get it back signed.

This year, we released two new features that help you manage the entire hiring process inside Workable, without having to transfer data to and from spreadsheets and other systems:

• Hiring Plan: Set a transparent workflow for job requisitions and approvals and keep stakeholders in the loop. With real-time updates, reports, plans and data all in one place, you can manage and optimize your current – and future – hiring strategy from one centralized workspace.
• Offer Letters and Offer Approvals: From building your own library of offer letter templates, to enabling e-signatures and getting real-time notifications when the status of an offer changes, you can fast-track the workflow. Note that candidates can view and sign their letter from any device (desktop or mobile) to speed up the process even more.

Hiring is not a one-person job

And we’re very well aware of this. That’s why we keep our eyes and ears open for new partners; every time we hear about this great video interview platform that helps screen candidates faster or that coding tool that helps evaluate tech candidates more objectively, we’re working to integrate with them. In 2018 we integrated with 24 (!) HR tools and partners, including Jobs on Facebook and Indeed Assessments. Read all about our integrations.

… and that’s a wrap everybody! We’re saying goodbye to 2018 with 35+ product releases, but already thinking, building and working on our roadmap for 2019. Whether you want to share some feedback on our product, ask questions about existing and upcoming features or book a demo with our sales team, we’re always happy to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy your holidays and have a great new year!

The post Workable’s year in review – best features of 2018 appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

If you’re a hiring manager, Joe’s story might ring a bell. If you’re in HR, you must have met a couple of Joe’s along the way. And as a candidate, you’ve been interviewed by a Joe at some point – whether you know it or not. Today, let’s pretend that you are Joe.

It’s Tuesday morning. You enter the office in a rush, coffee in hand. You’re taking a quick look at your calendar. There’s a booked meeting for 11:30 a.m.:

Onsite interview with Cassandra K. – Senior Web Designer position.

“Oh, well, I have another 1.5 hours until the candidate arrives”, you’re thinking. “Great, I’ll focus on work now and check their profile later.” Congrats, your worst interview is about to begin.

Fast forward to 11:30. You have Cassandra wait for at least 30 minutes – even though she was on time. Bonus points if no one reaches out to her while she’s waiting and if there are no signs as to whether your interview will start any time soon.

Eventually, you’re ready to meet Cassandra. Instead of apologizing for the delay, you try to break the ice. Awkwardly, too. “Wow, how tall are you?! It must be so hard to shop for jeans!” She seems slightly uncomfortable; “Hmm, that’s a bad sign”, you say to yourself.

As you walk into the meeting room, you realize that you forgot to prepare your interview questions. You make a quick decision on the fly: start by asking Cassandra to walk you through her work history. This should make up for the fact that you didn’t have the time to check her profile. “Hopefully, she’ll have something interesting to share and we’ll take it from there.” Worst-case scenario, you’ll just improvise.

Cassandra starts talking about her design experience, but your mind is already miles ahead; you want to understand whether she’s the best person for the job right away. A couple of seconds later, you’ve already interrupted her:

Joe: “When exactly did you graduate from college?”

Cassandra: “In 2013.”

Joe (mumbling): “So, you must be 29-30 years old now. Hmm, and still not working in a senior-level role…”

Cassandra: “As I was saying, in my previous job…”

Your phone rings in the middle of her response. You answer, not noticing Cassandra’s furled eyebrows. You keep talking on your phone when it’s obvious it’s a non-urgent, personal call. Ever since your previous designer left, you’ve lost any sense of work-life balance.

About five minutes later, you hang up and turn to Cassandra again. She’s lost her flow but it doesn’t really matter. You can read all about her professional background on her resume anyway; now it’s time to dig into details you can’t find elsewhere. You’re not sure how to start, though. You nervously blurt out the common “tell me about yourself” question – you’re sure you’ve seen that somewhere before. One personal question leads to another:

“Are you married?”

“Why not? Are you afraid of commitment?”

“But, would you like to have kids at some point?”

Cassandra obviously is not feeling at ease with these questions and tries to return the subject to the position she’s applying for. You were right to notice at the beginning of the interview that she’s not very confident. You mull over your report to the hiring team: “I doubt she’ll be able to handle the responsibilities of a senior role – let alone to manage her male team members. That’s OK, though. She might be better off in a more junior role. This way, it’ll be easier for everyone when she’ll have to take a maternity leave.”

You should be closing the interview soon. So you ask Cassandra about her current salary. Instead, she gives you her ideal salary.

Joe: “But, I asked how much you’re making now.”

Cassandra: “This is company information I’d rather not disclose. But, I’m happy to let you know that for this position at your company, I’d expect to get a salary of $X.”

Joe: “That’s not helpful. I want to know your current salary so that I don’t overcompensate you.”

Cassandra: “But don’t you already have a budget for this role? Don’t you pay employees based on the value they bring?”

Joe: “That’s not how businesses work – I don’t blame you, though, for thinking this way. That’s OK – you’re too young, you have a lot to learn.”

You note on your paper how much you think Cassandra is earning now. “She’ll be happy if we offer her the same amount; after all, we also offer free beers every first Friday of the month”, you think.

You stand up and go towards the door when you hear Cassandra behind you: ”Can I ask a few questions about the role?”

You stop and turn back to her: “I’m sorry, we don’t have time”, you reply. “These interviews help us understand if you’re a good fit. But, don’t worry; if you get hired you’ll have plenty of time to ask anything you’d like to know.”

You show Cassandra out. A quick handshake and a polite “Nice to meet you, we’ll let you know of our decision” later, and you close the door. “Interviews are exhausting”, you think, “And the coffee on my desk must have gone cold by now.”

~~The end~~

…but, not so fast. This interview might be over, but the hiring isn’t complete yet. What do you think will happen next?

1. Cassandra gets a job offer from “Fictional” but rejects it. She also describes her awful experience in public on Glassdoor.
2. Joe gets fired.
3. The CEO encourages HR to conduct interviews this way, so the company struggles to hire and retain good employees.
4. All of the above.

P.S. 1: The story, all names, characters and incidents portrayed in this article are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings and products is intended or should be inferred.

P.S. 2: While the story, all names, characters and incidents portrayed in this article are fictitious, they are quite realistic. If you’re an interviewer, take a look at these illegal interview questions and make sure every member of your hiring team is aware that these are questions you cannot ask during an interview. And if you’re a candidate, share your horrific interview stories with us; you’re not alone.

The post How to be the worst interviewer appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

These companies don’t have an applicant tracking system, nor do they have a full scoring system or standard way of making decisions. Hiring is pretty much done by the founder who’s meeting people and going on gut instinct – which is great and will get you through 10 or 15 hires pretty easily. But when you’re trying to go from 20 to 60 to 70 to 80 people, you’ll need some very careful planning.

Start with the goals

One of the biggest factors in talent acquisition roles is managing requirements; expectations versus reality. So, the first thing I do is understand what the plans are. I’m interested in what the company is trying to achieve, its business objectives, and how hiring fits into that.

By understanding those, you’ll be able to spend your efforts in the right places. If, for example, the business is focused on delivering product and it needs to hire numerous engineers in the next three months, your focus will be on ensuring the engineering hiring process is really slick. It’s about building the right process for the business you’re in. Some businesses have a slower recruitment process and they need to make sure it’s sustainable. But if you’re looking at a very high-growth business, they may want to reduce their time to hire or their overall hiring cycle.

When you’ve just joined a new business and you’re learning its objectives, you may find that you’re behind schedule. You’re spinning the wheels very, very quickly just to catch up and get yourself some breathing space. Once you have that, you can start to put a more strategic plan in place.

Build the hiring plan

I think this is one of the most exciting parts of the job. You get to see everything that you’ll have to deliver for the year. Hiring plans ought to be running about three months ahead, so you can be really structured about how you’ll do things.

That’s when you start to look at processes. You’ve got to immerse yourself within the organization and understand how people work, what the existing hiring process is and where the strengths and weaknesses lie. You could have people that aren’t particularly competent in interviewing and you might need to train them. One department could have increased hiring needs while another might want to make just a couple of key hires. You need to learn what’s going on and tailor your plan based on the strengths and weaknesses you find.

Hiring isn’t a one-person job

While you’re doing all this – learning about the business objectives, crafting a plan, identifying weaknesses – you should remember: you’re not alone. Your job will be so much easier, and much more effective, if you involve other people in the organization.

I always involve those who’re actually doing the hiring. It’s not just the founder anymore, many team leaders will need to increase the time they spend in evaluating and selecting candidates. And while we, as talent acquisition professionals, have overall hiring accountability, the ownership of the process should be placed with the hiring managers. That’s because:

• They’re the people who’ll be reaping the results of what we do.
• They’ll be more engaged in the process if you involve them in the planning phase.

So, you should be there to guide and support hiring managers and help them in designing an effective hiring process. And, you shouldn’t stop there. It’s just not scalable for one person to own every single hiring process on a global scale. If the hiring manager is the only one who does the final stage interviews, then you’ve created an instant bottleneck for yourself. The wider you can make the team, the easier it’ll be to scale and the better your hiring decisions will be.

Be sure to involve team members in candidate assignments. Their work is highly relevant to what the new hire will be doing. If you’ve got engineering teams, for example, they should be involved in deciding what your coding tests should be, or how you’ll mark the tests.

And then, you need to make sure everyone on your team can hold an effective interview.

Everyone interviews

I train teams on how to run interviews and how to learn as much as possible about candidates. Interviews are normally only an hour long and you need to use that time wisely.

So when I talk to people about interviewing, I’m always quite keen to teach them to break down the qualities they’re looking for, so that their hiring process covers each individual element of the role. Rather than saying someone’s nice, you want interviewers to say “I’m satisfied this person really knows about product management.” Then another interviewer might say that the candidate knows a lot about the sector we’re working in. That’s how the team can evaluate candidates based on the sum of the parts.

Interviews should be positive experiences

Some companies can be quite combative in their interview styles, asking candidates to prove themselves. I think that needs to change because candidates have many options now. Why not build your interviews to be positive and find where that person shines instead?

Be flexible. Often, interviews are transactional: asking a question, getting an answer. That should definitely be part of the interview, because that’s how you get information, but if you only do that, there are other things you’re missing. You need to find questions that are interesting for candidates. You’ll get candidates to relax and drop their guard – and bring out the best in them, which, I would argue, is actually who they are day to day. That’s the real skill to being a great interviewer.

Culture is important

Everyone’s talking about doing culture interviews, but I actually think that a candidate’s personality will come across while they’re answering other, job-related questions. Hiring teams should be able to recognize culture fit when they see it. That’s why we need to be specific about what culture fit is and what qualities we’re looking for before we start interviewing.

Of course, asking some culture-related questions is useful too: for example, I always ask people what they’re passionate about. That’s really interesting because I often work at companies where people are incredibly passionate about things outside of work. They love their job, but they have lots of other things going on. You could learn a lot about someone by what they’re interested in, how they go about learning a skill, and if you’re actually looking at someone who has achieved something in their own time.

Tailor your methods

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment. At SuperAwesome, my current company, we’re trying to make sure that we’ve done a thorough assessment of candidates. Our engineering hiring process has a specific number of steps that candidates go through. However, if we need to be more flexible around the more unique hires that we do, then we might have an additional stage or change a stage around.

I like to think about how are we going to see the best in candidates and if that means that we should change our interview process to understand them in more detail. Maybe we’ll decide to ask candidates to give us a presentation around a certain topic to assess their ability. Everyone is unique and, while we have a process that’s agreed upon from the start, if we need to change direction, we will.

Brace yourself for unforeseen change

If you work in recruitment and talent acquisition, you must be used to things changing on a daily basis. We should be the rock everyone else will depend on when they’re worried their plans have changed or their plans aren’t working.

That’s when you need to come up with solutions. And there are times when you’ll tell people that things can’t be done, but generally you need to look for ways that you can do something. And if fundamental things are changing, like the hiring plan, you should be in front of that and know that it’s going to change before it officially does.

Mingle and learn

You need to network through an organization and be really, really tuned into what’s going on. You should have a line of communication that says “listen, we can’t officially say this yet, but we think this might be happening.” Then, it’s your job to start making other plans. Because, normally, changes don’t happen overnight, they take weeks or months and you’ve plenty of time to catch up. But you won’t be able to do that if you sit in isolation.

What I do is actively speak to hiring managers in regular meetings. I also actively speak to our executive team. That’s how you have access to information that other people in the company might not have. There should be a high level of trust there.

Trust is key

Personally, I’ve already been a Head of Talent quite a few times. I’m standing from a point of experience and knowledge that I gathered over the years, so it’s easier for people to trust me in recruiting matters.

But when I first started, I found it was important to just give sensible advice. Listen and make sure you’re delivering what you’re promising. Make yourself a positive person to be around and showcase your competence by asking the right questions or making useful observations. You could say, for example, that you noticed the hiring plans tend to change halfway through the year so the company should anticipate that in the future. You’ll bring a lot of value, and earn trust, if you try to bring those conversations forward and get ahead of the curve.

Nick Yockney is currently the Head of Talent at SuperAwesome. He has lead the Recruiting and People function in tech startups for six years and has a 10-year background as an agency recruiter. He also runs DBR (the well-known community for In-house Recruiters and HR professionals).

The post How do you design the recruiting process at a company as its new Head of Talent? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

This is why our job, as recruiters, is to empower hiring managers. When we realize that we have a common goal and work as a team, that’s when we’re able to fill the seats with the right people.

How can you tell that the hiring process is broken?

I was once interviewed at a large firm and was asked the same thing three times, by three different people, during three different hiring stages. When I asked why this happened, I got the reply: “These are the things they told me to ask.” There was a clear disconnect within the hiring team – and I knew that without even working there.

Behaviours like this can tarnish the candidate experience and cost you good candidates. That’s because hiring managers who are not engaged in the process, slip into bad habits: they’re late to interviews, ask the wrong questions and don’t share their feedback on time. Or, they jump into chats with candidates, instead of having real interviews where they assess skills objectively.

Recruiters to the rescue

Unfortunately, recruiters can’t go back in time and fix things. It’s important to foster team spirit from the very beginning. By ‘beginning’, I mean long before you start interviewing candidates, and even before you publish a job ad. First, you need to figure out what’s needed to achieve what. And then, you can build a process to make this happen.

So, I start by asking hiring managers to write a short mission for the role. This way, the entire hiring team can understand what this role is going to accomplish. We don’t want to hire someone for the sake of hiring.

The next step, is to write down the desirable outcomes for the new hire’s first 12 months. And then we start thinking of the competencies and track records that will help employees reach these outcomes. When we have this in place, we can start building an interview process that will help us assess these skills in candidates. Then, we’re ready to release the role.

This prep work is exactly what engages hiring managers in the recruiting process and gives them a sense of responsibility. They’re actively involved in hiring and provide their input. And that’s helpful for recruiters, too. When I sit down with hiring managers to discuss a role, I learn things I didn’t know. For example, I find out what skills are absolutely necessary and why.

On their part, hiring managers learn to respect the recruiting process. You won’t have to ‘chase’ them to leave interview feedback; they’ll have already provided useful comments because they understand the reasoning behind it.

You won’t have to train hiring managers on interviewing techniques, either. Many of them don’t really like doing interviews (just like candidates don’t like going to interviews) – or don’t know how to do them. But, when you get hiring managers to buy in at the beginning of the process, interviews will flow easily. They’ll know what they’re looking for; they’ll know what they need to ask and how to get the information they want from candidates. And when interviews are done right, hiring managers tend to enjoy them more.

More: Recruiter vs hiring manager: Who is really responsible for hiring?

So, why are hiring managers disengaged?

Sometimes, hiring managers bring past processes that have worked in their previous jobs, thinking that they work universally. While some principles remain the same, there’s no one-stop-shop solution in hiring. You have to build the processes that work for your company and mission specifically.

When hiring managers are not willing to spend the time to build the process together, I try and show them the benefit of closing the right hires. I pay attention to the language I use. I don’t say “I need this”. I say, “We need this”, or even, “You need this”. It’s not about me. It’s about you (the hiring manager) achieving your goals. If you don’t hire the right people, we’ll have to repeat the process again and again. And that’s a huge waste of time for you, too.

Conversely, if we hire the right people, you’ll be able to reach your targets faster. So, let me help you achieve your goals with the right people. After all, that’s the ultimate purpose of hiring.

I think it is important that hiring managers and recruitment teams alike should be made accountable in the right areas of the process to further impact responsibility and execution. I believe the overall headcount goal should sit with the hiring managers, our job as a recruitment function is then to support those objectives being hit. I believe this also encourages a more collaborative approach to hiring rather than dumping things into the talent function and hoping something positive comes out at the other end.

To finish, I always tell hiring teams to value candidates’ time as they would value their own. Experience is incredibly important in the acquisition process and getting people to think like this will result in positive outcomes.

Tom Pyle is the Head of Talent at Pusher. He has more than 10 years of experience supporting the growth of technology companies, with a strong focus on hiring elite level talent and the process that supports this happening.

The post Ask a Recruiter: How do you fully engage hiring managers in the recruiting process? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

I use WhatsApp to get hold of candidates who are difficult to reach. I’ve actually placed six developers in the last three months using just WhatsApp. WhatsApp also has capabilities that help me engage candidates and build a network fast and easy.

WhatsApp brings you closer to hard-to-find candidates

I do a lot of hiring for developers who are in high demand especially in the UK. It’s very hard to get hold of them. On LinkedIn, they get bombarded by recruiting messages; they get about 20 or more messages per day on average. So, they don’t have time to respond. The last thing they want is to go through all their InMail. (I’ve even seen developers who have just deleted their LinkedIn account because they were being spammed with messages about job opportunities). The same situation arises in other platforms we use, like GitHub and Stack Overflow.

WhatsApp is different because:

• It’s instant. It’s on your phone, or computer if you’re using the desktop app, and the notification pops up quickly.
• It’s underutilized. Not many recruiters will try to reach candidates on WhatsApp, so you don’t risk getting buried in a long list of messages.
• It’s discreet. A line manager won’t be suspicious if team members respond to a message on WhatsApp. Being on LinkedIn or ducking out to take a phone raises alarm bells.
• Candidates use it constantly. They use WhatsApp to speak with family and friends, so they see and send messages in this app pretty much all the time.

And it works. I’ve noticed that candidates are quite responsive there much more than they are on other platforms. This is especially so in Europe and Latin America where WhatsApp is widely used, and also in North America and other parts of the world.

WhatsApp is global and stable

Because the roles I work with are spread across the globe, I have trouble calling people over the phone in different parts of the world. The connection isn’t always good and sometimes you get stuck with large international phone bills. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is a globally available VoIP service that allows you to make calls over data or WiFi connections.

Of the VoIP services, I’ve found that WhatsApp is the most stable. With other similar platforms (including Skype), the connection can be quite problematic and they also use up a lot of data. WhatsApp is better in that sense while still letting you take advantage of its other benefits.

WhatsApp is forever (if you want it to be)

WhatsApp backs up your contacts, conversations and groups. Your account is tied to your phone number so you’ll never lose it – there’s no fear of forgetting your password or being hacked.

This ensures that you’ll keep your contacts and you’ll be able to remember who you’ve reached out to. Of course, I use separate accounts for personal and business reasons (with the help of a double SIM card phone).

WhatsApp helps you evaluate candidates

When I have someone’s contact details (that I’ve found on a public platform or from a previous hiring process), I can add them on WhatsApp. In this platform, when you click on someone’s image or profile, you can see certain details about them. If they’re looking for a job, they might share that information in their profile, and if they’re passionate about what they do, they’d share that too. This might take you to sites like GitHub where they’ve built repositories, portfolios or personal websites. That information helps you define who is really good, who’s junior, or who’s mid-level.

This way, I can get to know them better, evaluate them as candidates, and ultimately fill roles faster. Otherwise, you might find yourself trying to reach someone for days at a time only to find they’re incompatible with the role you’re hiring for once they finally reply. So, WhatsApp makes you a lot more efficient in your job as a recruiter and helps you get hold of as many ideal candidates as needed for the role.

WhatsApp helps you build relationships

I usually start the conversation by sending a message about a job opportunity. Just like I can see their profile, my own profile and number are visible to everyone I message and they can also review my message before they reply. This helps build trust.

Using WhatsApp also lets me attach PDFs or docs so I can send people the full job description.

Now, our conversation could go either way: they could be interested in the opportunity or they could pass.

When candidates are interested, I can speak to them directly

This is one of the benefits of using an instant messaging app. If I had sent them an email, I’d be waiting for them to reply and then I’d have to schedule a call or exchange more emails with them.

With WhatsApp, communications go faster and, if they’re interested, I can ask to call them instantly over the app so we can talk. I can also use the video-call functionality, if we have an interview, to see how they carry themselves – and they can do the same with me. Also, we both have freedom to move around and chat anywhere instead of being confined to desks.

When candidates aren’t interested, I keep in touch via WhatsApp communities

First, if a candidate tells me they’re not interested or that they’re happy where they are, I ask some follow-up questions. For example, I ask what would motivate them to move away from their role or what their dream opportunity would look like. We also discuss salaries and, if they’re a contract employee, I ask them when their contract is up so I can follow up with a new opportunity when the time comes.

Also, it’s important to be GDPR-compliant, so I ask candidates if they want me to keep their details. If they say, “Thank you very much, I’d like you to remove my details from the database,” then I delete their information straight away. If they say they might be interested in opportunities in the future, I’ll let them know I can also add them to a group on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp groups are rich networks

These groups are a huge advantage. You can create as many as you want and name them. For example, I could name a group “Contract employees” or “Prospective candidates.” (Also, because I work with various companies, I make sure to put the name of the company I reached out to them about so I can keep track).

For example, I might tell a Python developer that I have a group on WhatsApp with other individuals like them, such as other Python developers. If they’re interested, I’ll invite them to the group.

Then, if I want to hire a Python developer at some point in the future, I can reach out to the group and text this message; “I’m looking for a Python dev with XYZ experience to come join us for perm role.” Anyone interested can say so, and you can instantly call them because their contact details are available. Their profiles might be available as well, allowing you to review to determine whether they match the requirements you’re looking for. Candidates can also share information about friends, colleagues or anyone who may be looking for a job as a Python developer.

Α WhatsApp recruitment group also enables everybody there to share industry news or developments inside organizations. For example, if people are in a Uber group, they could discuss the news that Uber wants to buy Deliveroo. People can talk about interesting topics like that. We’re basically creating a mini-network inside WhatsApp.

Candidates also appreciate those groups

Companies and candidates use them like a forum, similar to Reddit or LinkedIn groups. WhatsApp groups are more secure, because you can more easily moderate who is in there. You can see their number and profile and all people in those groups are professionals with similar interests.

So candidates can make connections and learn things, and they can also manage opportunities better, instead of being bombarded with messages on other platforms. That’s why they like these groups.

WhatsApp just makes recruitment a lot smarter

This ‘WhatsApp recruiting tool’ is very useful and it’s not utilized enough. If you want to stay ahead of the game and remain competitive in the recruiting market, start using different tools, even ones that don’t seem ‘normal.’ WhatsApp is fast, flexible, personable and can help you find those in-high-demand people you’re searching for, as well as build up your network and make you more efficient at your job.

Prince John is a Talent Acquisition Manager at Troi.io, a new cost-effective, end-to-end approach to hiring aimed at high growth business, an embedded onsite model. Via Troi, he helps companies grow with effective talent strategy and practices. He has over seven years of experience in talent identification and attraction as well as managing the full recruitment cycle. He also has a keen interest in technology, especially Intelligent Automation (RPA, machine learning, intelligent chatbots, data analytics and artificial intelligence). He enjoys thinking out of the box and applying creative hiring methods.

The post Ask a Recruiter: Why and how do you use WhatsApp for recruiting candidates? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The first answer that usually comes to mind is “the recruiter.” After all, it’s their job to recruit, so they must be responsible for hiring the right people. But there’s a fine line between being responsible for a process and being responsible for the outcome of that process.

So, what does it really mean to be “responsible for hiring”?

When talking about responsibility in hiring, we actually refer to the outcome (the person who gets hired), not the entire process (the journey up to the point when they get hired). And while the recruiter manages the process, it’s the hiring manager who actually closes the deal. So, hiring managers are the decision-makers; they have the final say as to who gets hired and who gets rejected. They own the outcome of the recruiting process. And when there’s a bad hire, the hiring manager is the one who should investigate what went wrong.

The role of the hiring manager in recruiting

Hiring managers have several duties throughout every recruiting stage, and those duties can only be tackled by hiring managers. Even if the recruiter has provided a shortlist of very promising candidates, it’s still up to hiring managers to dig into candidates’ abilities and identify who fits the bill. Only the hiring manager is able to:

• Evaluate candidates, uncover their potential and reject those who look good on paper but may lack the necessary job-related skills
• Inform recruiters that they need to continue looking at new candidates because no suitable candidate has been identified yet (instead of settling for a substandard option)
• Impact the winning candidate’s decision to accept the job offer

Related: How to fully engage hiring managers in the recruiting process?

The recruiter’s share of responsibility

While the hiring manager takes responsibility for the outcome, this by no means implies that the recruiter’s role is minor or simple. Recruiters lay the foundation for hiring the right people. That’s because they use their expertise to:

• Build a strong pool of candidates where hiring managers will look for their next hire
• Train hiring managers on interviewing techniques and keep them on track so that they get back to candidates in a timely manner
• Recommend and implement effective assessment methods that help evaluate candidates objectively

Think of this analogy: in a magazine, writers write the articles and editors sign them off. Without the writer, there would be no articles to start with. But it’s the editor who reviews the copy and approves to have the article published when they’re absolutely confident about its quality. When writers fulfill their tasks carefully, that makes the job of the editor easier. Still, editors are the gatekeepers of what gets published and what needs to go back to the writer for additional work.

Likewise, good recruiters will play a vital role in hiring. They’re dedicated to finding the best of the best candidates. They build a strong employer brand to consistently attract good applicants. And they speak up when they notice dealbreakers. That’s how they make the hiring manager’s job easier and support the hiring manager all the way. But, ultimately, it’s the hiring manager who makes the final decision on who gets hired and who doesn’t.

Responsibility doesn’t mean blame

Assigning responsibility to hiring managers is not about pointing the finger at someone (or letting someone else off the hook) when things don’t go as anticipated. It’s about understanding the level of commitment and the contribution that hiring managers are expected to make. Hiring managers who know they’re responsible for hiring the right people are actively involved in every step of the process. And they raise their hand to say “I need help to interview candidates better” or “I’m not happy with these candidates; let’s sit together and review our hiring criteria.”

That’s when both parties can build a strong recruiter and hiring manager relationship and ultimately be more effective at their job. When hiring managers and recruiters understand their roles and work well together, the recruiting process will shine. After all, they have a common goal: to bring the most talented and qualified people onto the team.

The post Recruiter vs hiring manager: Who is really responsible for hiring? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But these reactions, though justifiable, can have adverse results. First, you might lose potential star candidates who had very real reasons for not showing up. Second, you might unwittingly impact your company’s reputation by antagonizing the candidate. Lastly, it’s entirely possible your company is partially to blame for candidate no-shows. It’s often worth following up with no-show candidates to get feedback and apply fixes if needed.

Plus, by taking the high road and being polite to candidates who ghosted you, you show you’re flexible and considerate. That can only enhance your employer brand.

So, what can you do to handle this awkward situation (and maybe give it a positive spin)?

First, keep your cool

While the frustration you feel after an interview no show is understandable, avoid calling candidates to request an explanation or sending them a contentious email (a recruiter once told me they did both to rattle the candidate into realizing that ghosting people is wrong). But candidates, whether they’re interested in your company or not, might not take your censure well and go out of their way to badmouth your brand. Not only that, but you’ve also lost a potential candidate – never a good thing especially if they seem otherwise ideal for the advertised position.

Cut candidates some slack

We all make mistakes. This doesn’t necessarily make us mean people or bad at our jobs. Besides, a candidate might have had every intention of coming to your interview but was unable to at the last moment. Things happen; their bus was late, there was an accident on the highway, their mother called about a death in the family. Give them a day to get back to you – essentially, give them the benefit of the doubt – before disqualifying them. You might find that a candidate is still interested in your company but hadn’t had the chance to contact you in time. If they’re genuinely sorry and ask to be considered, you may decide to give them another chance.

Your relationship with the candidate matters

If a candidate doesn’t make their first screening call, it might be safe to assume they’re not interested. But if a candidate was already successful through multiple hiring stages, and had even met or spoken with your team, you’ve invested in them and they’ve invested in you. It’s worth reaching out to find out what happened.

Follow up

If it’s a candidate you were very interested in, consider sending them a short email message:

Hi Patricia,

We didn’t see you at our scheduled interview yesterday. Is everything ok? We’re moving on with our hiring process, but let me know if you’re still interested in the role.

Thanks,

With this email, you reassure people who were embarrassed to contact you despite having a good reason for missing their interview. Those people may think they’ve lost their chance, so, by staying in touch, you create a positive impression for your company.

If you get no reply to your email, or get an oblivious, inconsiderate reply, go ahead and disqualify. Your conscience is clear.

Send a polite rejection

Even if you’re no longer considering the candidate for the role, it’s always a good idea to send a rejection email. You can send automated bulk emails through your recruiting software, but in cases of interview no-shows, tweak your message:

Hi Mike,

We didn’t see you at our scheduled interview on Tuesday. I hope everything is ok. We were pressed for time, so we had to move on with our hiring process. If you agree, we’ll keep your resume on file for future opportunities.

Thanks,

Keep in mind that, for EU candidates, you need to follow the guidelines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to store their personal data.

Prevention is better than no-show

Interview no-shows are not only a recruiting nuisance; they’re also an administrative burden. Hiring teams have blocked out time in their calendars that they could have used more productively. Also, the reputation of recruiters (especially agency recruiters) could be severely affected if the candidates they recommend to hiring teams don’t show up for interviews.

Most of the time, we throw the candidate under the bus. However, there are instances when your company is also partly responsible for interview no-shows. For example, if candidates feel you haven’t respected them enough during the hiring process, they simply might not show up at their next interview. Granted, it’s rude, but we can all react badly if we feel mistreated.

So, how do you prevent interview no-shows within your means? Here are some ideas to ensure a good candidate experience:

• Be clear about the role and explore candidates’ motivations early on. Hiring teams may use initial screening calls to learn about candidates’ salary expectations or what attracted them in the job ad. Go one step further than that. Discuss the role in some detail. Ask them what they want in their job or company and see how enthusiastic they are when you describe your workplace. If you sense they’re not really interested, avoid scheduling an interview in the first place.
• Consider better scheduling options. If candidates are currently working, their available time is limited. Be flexible when scheduling interviews; try to accommodate the candidate’s work schedule and, if possible, provide them with alternatives so that they can choose the time slot most convenient to them. You could even send a self-scheduling link so they can book the interview on their own.
• Ensure your hiring team members maintain proper decorum. Often, hiring teams try to learn as much as possible about a candidate and end up being unduly invasive. For example, forcing a candidate to disclose how much they’re getting paid or whether they plan to have a family is indiscreet (and even illegal in some jurisdictions). Candidates could initially accept a subsequent interview invitation, and then back out because of unpleasant feelings. Ensure your hiring teams are trained to avoid illegal interview questions and provide them with sample questions beforehand.
• Communicate well with candidates. Candidates may feel that if companies don’t communicate properly with them, they aren’t obliged to communicate properly either. Always keep candidates abreast of the progress of your hiring process. When a candidate applies, send them a confirmation email that you’re processing their application. When a candidate is disqualified, let them know as soon as possible. And if you’ve scheduled an interview a while ago, consider confirming it the day before (via text or email).
• Ask candidates directly. It’s a good idea to send out candidate surveys, especially to candidates who didn’t show up for their interview. Not all of them will get back to you, but if just one does and tells you that they didn’t come to their interview because something bothered them about your hiring process, you’ll have extremely useful feedback on your hands. Include a friendly invitation to fill out a survey at the bottom of the email templates above.

Maintain your professionalism

If you notice a spike in the number of no-shows, there might be something you need to fix. But even if you’ve done everything you could to create a positive candidate experience, some people may still not show up for their interview. They’re not necessarily being callous or unprofessional, but you don’t have to let their actions impact your hiring process.

Explain to hiring teams that no-shows do happen occasionally, so they’ll be prepared to take it in stride. And remember, there are other qualified candidates out there who will show up to their interview. Make sure your evaluation processes are effective, and you’ll soon have a new star employee on board.

The post How to handle an interview no show 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.

It’s always been easy to apply access rights to hiring teams using Workable. But, with collaborative hiring on the rise, and data protection just as hot, we decided some enhancements were due.

Our new, upgraded Access Rights & Roles feature offers more detailed, fine-grained permission levels for a wider variety of users. Fully configurable, they support busier hiring pipelines. They’re also there to reinforce security and prepare you for an increasingly collaborative future.

Fine-grained access rights for growing hiring teams

As you scale up, or operate from different locations and across multiple departments, it becomes harder to control access to certain types of candidate data. Using custom pipelines or having recruiters with different responsibilities also adds a level of complication.

With our new access rights package, Pro customers can reflect and tame the growing complexity of their hiring teams. Providing hiring admins with more granular control, it ensures the right people get the right information at the right time. And that confidential information stays that way.

With more fine-grained levels of detail it’s now easier to:

• control who has access to your account level details
• organize your hiring teams and personalize access
• reinforce the security of confidential information, and
• minimize hiring bias.

So, what’s new?

Organize hiring teams faster and personalize access at scale

Every member of a hiring team has a unique role in the process. And this role should determine their access. Some members—HR heads, senior leaders—require access to everything; from account details to every job you’re hiring for. Others—interviewing peers, agency recruiters—need only limited access to candidates.

To make it easier to manage, we’ve added a range of new access rights options for customers with Pro accounts. Now, when you add a new member, you can assign both account-wide and role-specific details.

We’ve also included two new hiring roles—Reviewer and Hiring Admin. These are designed for colleagues who don’t need full access to a job to fulfil their part in the process—screening candidates for example, or posting a job.

How does it work?

When you invite a new member to Workable you now choose from 3 different levels of account access: All Access, Standard Access and Limited Access.

All Access is designed for senior people in your organization, often the Head of HR or an HR team lead. Users at this level have access to everything in Workable and their role on every hiring team is always Super Admin.

Limited Access is designed for peers of the role you’re hiring for. Users at this level have limited access to candidates, and no access to your Workable account details. Their role on every hiring team is always Reviewer, where they can evaluate candidates and share their feedback.

Standard Access captures the varied middle ground that applies to many members of your your account. Whereas those with ‘All Access’ can access everything, and those with ‘Limited Access’ will always have a restricted view, those with ‘Standard Access’ have their visibility set per job, department or location.

This means for example, that a member with Standard Access could be:

• a Hiring Manager for a job in your sales team in Europe, with access to confidential information, and
• a Reviewer for a sales jobs in the USA, where their opinion is valuable but access to everything isn’t required.

‘Standard Access’ is the most flexible option, and best suited for hiring team admins, hiring managers or relatively senior people in your organization. There are 4 hiring team roles available for those with Standard Access: Recruiting Admin, Hiring Manager, Standard Member or Reviewer.

Reinforce the security of confidential information

With our access rights package it’s easier to share confidential information with only the people who need it. This is because members can only view candidate information that matches their specific user permissions. So you can be confident that comments, financial details or specific terms of employment are only visible to those who need to have access.

We’ve also included a new feature that adds an extra level of protection to hiring pipelines. The ‘Confidential Zone’ option is available to all of our users. It enables admins to limit the visibility of emails and comments at certain stages of the hiring pipeline. Once set, emails and comments will only be visible to the person posting them and those with a similar or higher level of access.

Minimize hiring bias

Access controls can be a great tool for proactively challenging hiring bias. Which is why we’ve included a new Hidden Evaluations feature as part of this release. With this feature, people in your hiring team can only view other members’ evaluations after they’ve submitted their own. This removes any unconscious bias, and leads to a fairer and more objective assessment process.

Any questions?

We’ve packed a lot of new functionality into this launch, and we know there’s quite a bit to take in. If you want to find out more about how our Access Rights & Roles feature or our Pro package could work for you, get in touch!

The post Organize hiring teams faster with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Well, no more! Our new interview self-scheduling feature pares everything down to just one email.

Included in your initial outreach is a self-scheduling interview link. This empowers candidates to view, in real-time, the available slots in your calendar. After selecting a time that works they can book it on the spot.

With everything arranged that same day, you can cut your time-to-interview by 50% and use the other 50% on something other than admin.

A powerful interview self-scheduling tool for recruiters

With one small link you can now:

• book and confirm interviews faster and reduce your final time to hire
• minimize the possibility of errors through built-in checks and automated, real-time calendar sync
• engage and secure talent in your pipeline ahead of the competition
• provide a seamless, positive experience for candidates from day one.

So how does it work?

If you’re using the Gmail or Outlook Calendar integration with a Pro account, you’ll see a new ‘Self-Schedule Link’ option available in your email toolbar. This is the link you’ll send to candidates which provides them with a selection of viable timeslots.

Embedding the link in your email takes seconds. All you need to do is:

1. Click the ‘Self-Schedule Link’ in the email toolbar
2. Add details of the event to the short form that pops up
3. Select ‘Generate’.

That’s it. Just press ‘send’ and it’s job done. The integration between Workable and your external calendar will create a unique calendar for your candidate, showing only your available slots. Your candidate now has everything they need to progress their application to the next stage. And, with everything recorded on your timeline and automatic updates every step of the way, your end’s covered off too.

A seamless interview scheduling experience for candidates

Interview self-scheduling puts power back in the hands of candidates. It also adds pace to the hiring process. In one quick click, candidates can see at a glance available slots and event details—duration, name of interviewer, location and type of event—in real time.

When the appointment is confirmed, everything is summarized for the candidate in a personalized events page. This includes timezone information (for interviewer and interviewee), a map and directions.

With a fast turnaround and a smooth, seamless user experience, engagement levels are kept high. And, having delivered a strong candidate experience so early on, you get quality, fully engaged candidates secured in your funnel.

Advanced interview self-scheduling for high-volume hiring

Working hand-in-hand with our multi-part interview scheduling tool, we designed our self-scheduling feature with complex, high-volume hiring in mind. So it also comes with a package of supporting functions to reduce the additional admin involved in recruiting at scale. With these enhancements you can:

• Include the link in bulk emails
  Save time by sending the link to multiple candidates. With our automatic calendar sync you don’t have to worry about double-booking. As soon as one candidate selects a time slot, it’s removed from everyone else’s calendar.
• Arrange an event on behalf of someone else
  If you’re an in-house recruiter you can use the link to organize interviews for your hiring managers. Just select another user’s calendar when you fill in the details and they’ll receive all of the relevant notifications, invites and calendar events.
• Revoke the link
  Things change. We know. So we’ve made it easy and quick to withdraw your scheduling link if you have to. Just delete the action item from your candidate’s timeline.
• Set a clear timeframe
  Add pace to the hiring process and reduce overall time-to-hire by defining how long your self-scheduling link stays active.

Mobile-optimized interview self-scheduling coming soon!

Want to book interviews at speed, wherever you are? Well, here’s more good news. We optimize our interview self-scheduling feature for mobile so you can schedule on-the-go.

More resources:

• Interview scheduling email template

The post Cut scheduling time in half with our interview self-scheduling link for candidates 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.

There’s one in particular we’ve heard loud and clear: Admins need to manage their company’s account, but want a better way to follow the particular jobs that concern them. So I’m genuinely happy to tell you about customized dashboard views for Admins!

Previously, Workable Admin users were automatically members of the hiring team for every job in your account. For some customers, this makes complete sense. For others, this meant that the job dashboard wasn’t entirely relevant, it was harder to filter jobs in the Candidate Database and Reports, and your ‘new candidate’ emails let you know about every candidate for every role. We added notification preferences in your Personal Profile to give you a little more control over this (another common request!), but it didn’t solve this issue completely.

Now however, Admins can be added or removed from a job just like other users. You still have access to your Workable account details (like payment, and settings) but now you can focus on the jobs that need your attention. Your dashboard and email notifications will reflect only those jobs. Soon, you’ll be able to quickly select ‘my jobs’ for a filtered view in your reports and your Candidate Database.

Managing your role on the hiring team

If you’re an Admin, now you have some extra magic powers; you can add/remove yourself right from the dashboard (see image above), and still follow or view candidates even when you’re not on the hiring team for that job. In other words, you gain some organization without limiting your access to any information in your account.

If you’re looking for even more customization, don’t forget that you can still create a saved dashboard view or customize your notification preferences (push notifications on our mobile apps can be pretty handy to keep things moving quickly.)

With this update, you can be sure all users have the account access they require for their job, without worrying about how it affects their place on the hiring team. This ensures account security by reducing unnecessary noise and making it easier to identify top priorities.

We also have a few more updates planned that will build on this and provide even more control over your account access and user roles. Stay tuned for more information on that later this summer — and thanks as always, for your feedback.

The post An easier way to manage your hiring: a product update appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

With all these challenges, scheduling interviews becomes increasingly difficult as more interviewers and candidates get involved. Here are a few tips to make this process easier:

Minimize the number of interviews the hiring team conducts

Recruiters can’t influence the number of open roles, but they can ensure that hiring teams interview only the most qualified candidates. To determine whether to interview candidates, use:

• Assessments. Work samples, short exercises or skills and cognitive tests indicate whether candidates are qualified for the job. Send them to candidates and evaluate the results when they reply. Professional providers (like Criteria Corp. and Saberr) offer effective assessments. Alternatively, ask hiring managers, who are well acquainted with open roles they’re hiring for, to create their own exercises and assignments.
• Video interviews. Video interviews are useful for remote candidates, but they also serve as an additional qualifying stage before in-person interviews. Some video interview providers (like Jobma and Spark Hire) offer asynchronous interviews. This means that you can send questions to candidates, who can record their answers on their own time. Evaluate their answers to decide who to offer an interview.

Consider how many people should interview candidates

Often, hiring managers want to involve many people in the hiring process to get useful feedback and different perspectives. But, having too many people interview each candidate will make scheduling interviews more difficult and exhaust candidates.

Talk to the hiring manager ahead of time to ensure your interviewing team will have the appropriate number of people. Some hiring team members might prefer a short screening call instead of a full interview. If you expect interviewers to ask similar questions, create a panel so they can interview candidates together. This means you can schedule one interview instead of many. For example, you could group interviewers who would do a technical interview together. Panel interviews also work best when there are inexperienced interviewers on the hiring team who might not be ready to evaluate candidates on their own.

Keep in mind though that panel interviews are more stressful for candidates and can be less effective than multiple one-on-one interviews, if not done properly. Create panels only when they make sense and ensure each interviewer scores candidate performance separately. Also, avoid having too many people on the same panel, as finding a time that suits all of them is challenging (Google has had good results using four-people panels.)

Ask hiring teams what interview schedule works best for them

Some hiring managers prefer to dedicate one or two days per week to interviewing candidates. Others prefer to have interviews evenly distributed throughout the week. Ensure you’re on the same page with your hiring manager so you can choose appropriate times for interviews from the start and minimize back-and-forth emails. This information will also help you reschedule quickly if necessary.

Note that hiring teams often get exhausted the more interviews they conduct on the same day. This can affect the interviewers’ judgment and disadvantage candidates. Help hiring teams manage their time and reach more informed decisions by ensuring that interviews won’t be too close to each other. Consider setting a daily limit of interviews for one interviewer (for example, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.)

Automate the interview scheduling process

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) like Workable saves you a huge amount of time scheduling interviews. For example, you’ll be able to sync your calendar with your recruiting software. With Workable specifically, you’re able to:

• Arrange multiple interviews with the same candidate as one calendar event. Instead of scheduling every part of the interview as a new calendar event, split the same interview into different parts. Assign different attendees to each part and they will receive an invite only for the parts that include them. Meanwhile, candidates will get one invitation which includes all the details they need for each part of the interview.
• Schedule interviews faster. Instead of manually toggling between external calendars to find a time that suits everyone, see the availability of all your team members directly inside Workable. By integrating your external calendar apps, view your team’s availability and book meeting rooms as part of your regular recruiting workflow.

Workable takes care of the better part of your administrative interview scheduling tasks, saving you valuable time. This means you can dedicate more time to the human aspects of recruiting, like ensuring positive candidate experience and evaluating skills effectively.

The post Best way to schedule an interview time with multiple candidates and interviewers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.