Eliana Willis

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    Recruiting Technology is the Lynchpin to Solving Talent Shortages

    Recruiting has a long reputation for being a tedious process: posting jobs individually to multiple job boards, sifting through LinkedIn profiles, sorting through stacks of resumes, and reaching out to candidates one by one to schedule interviews. But it doesn’t have to be.
    Recruiting technology can help companies find higher-quality talent faster and with less upfront investment. But many recruiters are too overwhelmed keeping up with the onslaught of hiring to take steps to get ahead.
    How We Got Here
    Companies are in a hiring crisis—but they didn’t get there overnight. Many corporate recruiting teams were first on the chopping block when economic uncertainty loomed at the start of the pandemic. With those layoffs, conversations with talent already in the recruiting pipeline went dark.
    Flash forward nine months: Business is booming in many industries, turnover is reaching record highs as the Great Resignation takes hold, and what recruiting resources do remain are stretched thin with redundant and manual tasks. That unsustainable balance has held true ever since.
    But what if the economic tides turn and the rumored recession comes to fruition? Employment experts say that high-skill fields like tech and healthcare will continue to face labor shortages, even if demand in other fields tapers off.
    Efficiency is the Answer
    Businesses won’t be the same in a post-pandemic world—and neither will recruiting. The solution is to use the current inflection point to revamp outdated recruiting processes and be better stewards of the time and resources that your organization does have.
    Investments in recruiting technology are about hiring efficiency. Nothing will ever replace a human voice extending congratulations and a verbal job offer to a selected candidate. But what recruiting technology can do is apply data intelligence to repetitive tasks—like job posting and candidate filtering—so that recruiters can focus their time and effort on connecting with high-quality candidates.
    On average, Robert Walters – the largest global staffing company – states that recruiting technology has enabled its consultants to be 68% faster at managing candidate applications. That’s a huge windfall as recruiting teams struggle to keep up with the torrid pace of hiring in today’s business environment.
    Find Better Candidates Faster With Refined Filtering
    Speed is critical to winning high-quality candidates in a tight labor market. Delays in the hiring process can mean missing out on talent that has secured other job offers in the meantime.
    Instead of manually filtering through applications—and introducing human bias into the process—recruiting technology can automatically sort candidates based on customized criteria using machine learning and data intelligence. That means that an all-star application can be at the top of the digital pile from the moment it’s submitted, and recruiters can follow up on the lead before it grows cold.
    Get More From the Data You Already Have
    Data is the modern business’s most valuable asset—and that adage applies to recruiting data, too. Yet 46% of recruiters say that they don’t have enough data to make smarter hiring decisions.
    With recruiting software solutions, recruiters aren’t left guessing if broadly focused job boards like Indeed attract higher quality candidates than association-based or industry-specific job boards. Rather than relying on self-reported data from job candidates (did they see that post on LinkedIn or was it on Monster.com?), recruiting technology can automatically pull in that data and correlate it with the applicant quality score.
    Recruiting technology can also offer real-time insights into which job postings are attracting top-quality candidates. This kind of actionable data lets recruiters adjust course in the middle of recruiting efforts and direct time and resources away from job boards that aren’t yielding results before a failed search occurs.
    Better yet, gathering and analyzing recruiting and hiring data doesn’t require adding yet another dashboard to your organization’s fleet of measurement tools. By integrating into existing business dashboards (e.g., Tableau) recruiters can not only show their value in terms of return on investment for their hiring budget, but also how recruiting efforts can ultimately contribute to the business’s bottom line.
    Redesigning the Candidate Experience
    Recruiting software doesn’t just benefit HR professionals; it can also improve the candidate experience. By automating simple tasks like follow-up communication, candidates aren’t left wondering if their applications went into a digital black hole. Moreover, accelerating the hiring process means candidates can make informed decisions when accepting offers and aren’t left wondering about what could have been.
    Tackling today’s talent shortage will require multifaceted solutions—but recruiting technology is the lynchpin. By automating administrative tasks, focusing resources on the job boards that are attracting high-quality candidates, and accelerating hiring processes, everyone wins.
    By Alex Fourlis, President at Broadbean. 
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    5 Tips for Managers to Maximize Interviews and Secure the Best Talent 

    Businesses are currently battling a candidate-driven jobs market when searching for talent. There are more jobs than job seekers, so it’s more important than ever for managers and HR professionals to ensure they’re maximizing interviews to secure the best talent.  And with unemployment rates lowering to 3.7% in Q1 2022, the lowest rate since 1974, but a recession on the horizon now, is the time for businesses to ensure they’re streamlining their hiring processes to ensure they secure the best talent going into unfavorable economic conditions. Below, we outline five top tips for businesses to make the most out of the hiring process.
    1. Don’t get stuck on the must-haves
    It is highly unlikely jobseekers will have every skill and level of experience desired for a job role, so it’s important to remain flexible when reviewing candidates. Having two different lists of candidate requirements on the job advert, one for ‘essential skills’ and another for ‘desirable skills’, ensures the best talent isn’t intimidated out of applying due to a lengthy job requirement list where they may not meet every criterion. It’s important to remember although a professional may not have the level of experience desired, their key skills may be useful within their role and will allow them to be trained to the level required – so keep an open mind.
    2. Take time to prepare
    As much as the candidate needs to prepare for an interview, it’s also important when hiring to go into the conversation with all the facts. Ensure before the interview you have reviewed the candidate’s CV and any other documentation they may have provided to get a well-rounded view of their experience before you meet them in person. It’s also a good idea to look at their LinkedIn profile to see if they have been active in any recent discussions that you may wish to bring up in the interview. This will allow you to really get a feel for their personality and how they will integrate into the culture of your business.
    3. Plan out the interview
    It’s a good idea to plan questions prior to the interview. This ensures the right questions are being asked, allowing you to find out everything essential you need to know about the candidate. To make things fair, it’s important you use the same questions for each person you interview.
    Additionally, planning the interview in advance will help get the information you need quickly, saving time and resources, and reducing the need for second interviews and follow-up calls. Being as efficient as possible and cutting out unnecessary stages in the recruitment process can be a make or break when securing talent in the current market. It’s also important to factor in a relevant task that a professional may be required to complete to ensure the interview process gets a well-rounded view of the candidate and their suitability for the role – this may need to be done at a second interview, and similarly to the questions, to keep things fair the same task should be given to all candidates. Also, think about your interview panel – having a diverse panel can help to ensure you are limiting unconscious biases from the process.
    4. Allow time for questions
    Once you’ve asked all the questions you want to be answered, it may feel as though the interview is now complete. However, not allowing the interviewee to ask questions can mean essential pieces of information slip through the cracks. Not only will the questions asked by the interviewee give you a feel for their level of interest in the role and business, but it will also allow you to gain an understanding from the candidate’s point of view, meaning you can streamline your hiring process by providing the correct information and asking the right questions in the future.
    5. Don’t hang around
    Because of the candidate-driven market, it’s important to act quickly if you are interested in a candidate! While you need to take the time and consider if someone is the best match for your business, as the market is moving so quickly, talent is being snapped up fast, so consider if there are ways your hiring process can be streamlined to reduce the time taken to offer a job. If you’re taking the time to discuss a potential hire with every member of your team, the candidate may have already taken another offer, so always communicate your interest in a timely fashion. This could involve setting a transparent timeframe that you will give the candidate feedback, as this may make them more likely to wait before accepting another offer.
    By Claire Harvey, Managing Director of UK Network, Reed.
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    How to Effectively Respond to Candidates’ Final Interview Questions

    The seismic shift during the last two years has turned the labor market on its head. Today, there is a near record of ~11.2 million jobs available, with almost two job openings for every unemployed American. And with the constantly shifting landscape, companies continue to face high employee turnover and difficulty acquiring quality talent to fill open roles. Sixty-nine percent of recruiters believe attracting and hiring talent will be difficult for the remainder of the year, per the latest data from Employ Inc.’s latest Quarterly Insights Report.
    To overcome this challenge, it’s key to determine whether the role aligns with the expectations and preferences of job seekers. One of the best ways to find out is during the interview process. By opening the interview floor to questions from a job candidate, you have the opportunity to better understand what is important to them and make authentic connections in a highly competitive hiring environment. In the past six months, 72% of recruiters have encountered candidates who have, at one time, received multiple offers at the same time.
    “What motivates you [Recruiter or Hiring Manager] to stay on the team at your organization?”
    Job seekers know what they are looking for in their next position and want to be satisfied with their future employment. In fact, new research shows that 32% of workers would quit a job without having another one lined up if they don’t feel content or fulfilled with their job. Answering this question truthfully will help the candidate determine whether or not your organization is a good culture fit. Especially since 21% of job seekers cited poor company culture as the top reason for leaving a job in the last 12 months. Another thing to consider is welcoming the candidate to ask that same question to others. The different perspectives of your hiring team can help the candidate really understand the organization and how it might align with their values.
    “What has the company implemented to help drive improvement in the organization?”
    While this question is broad, your answer can help your organization stand out. Tie this answer to the initiatives implemented to build your company culture or improve the well-being of employees, such as mental health benefits, strong work-life balance, and flexible work arrangements, among others. Per Employ data, poor company culture is one of the top reasons employers switch jobs. You might also pull an example from how the organization was faced with a challenge, made a change, and was ultimately able to overcome that obstacle. In addition to a strong culture, reinforcing how your team solves problems collaboratively can really help improve the candidate’s understanding of why they would want to join your team.
    “How has the organization been performing against goals this year?”
    Job seekers want to know whether an organization is setting and achieving its goals. This is especially important for roles where reaching individual goals correlates with salaries, as compensation continues to be a driving factor in today’s hiring climate. Per Employ’s latest data, 42% of recruiters found making adjustments to compensation and total rewards to be the most helpful strategy in overcoming the tight labor market. That’s why it’s crucial to leave interviewees with a clear understanding of compensation, how attainable the goals are, and whether the organization has successfully achieved them.
    “What is [Hiring Manager’s] leadership style?”
    Misalignment on leadership styles can cause significant workplace issues and future career paths. That’s why job seekers need to understand their potential manager’s leadership style and for you to know how candidates like to receive direction and feedback. Answering this question with transparency is critical. Otherwise, you risk hiring a new employee who may not mesh well with the team. Employ data found that nearly one-third of workers who left their job after 90 days claim unsatisfactory company leadership as the primary rationale for departing.
    “Do you have any concerns about recommending me for this position?”
    If you have concerns about gaps in skills or experience, take the time to explain why those are important to the position and allow them to respond. The candidate’s response to the feedback can also signal how well they handle critical feedback and if they’re willing to grow in the areas they’re lacking. Pay attention to what experiences they highlight to help reduce your potential concerns. The conversation surrounding this question could ultimately make, or break, your decision to move forward with a candidate or their decision to accept the job.
    Overcome Hiring Challenges with the Right Technology
    Before an interview even takes place, sourcing the right talent for open roles is crucial. However, our data reveals the biggest challenge for over half of recruiters is finding and hiring quality candidates, while 62% said improving quality-of-hire is their top priority. In today’s tight labor market, recruiters must adapt their tactics and processes to identify the best possible candidates, which can be accomplished by investing in intelligent talent acquisition technologies to meet hiring goals.
    When determining the best solution for the needs of your talent acquisition (TA) team, ensure the technology has extensive experience in delivering recruiting results within your specific industry and business size. Identify solutions that go beyond applicant tracking and integrate a wide range of capabilities to support your hiring goals, including recruiting AI and automation, employee referral tools, analytics, and more. With these solutions, organizations will have everything needed to identify the best candidates for every job opening and the opportunity to dig even deeper during the interview process.
    Corey Berkey serves as Senior Vice President, People & Talent, at Employ Inc. 
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    5 Automation Habits of Highly Effective Recruiting Teams 

    In a talent-short market, having a consistently engaged talent pool sets recruitment firms apart from their competitors. Thankfully, cutting-edge automation tools are helping recruiters to engage, nurture, and, ultimately, place top-level talent into new roles at the pace and scale demanded by their clients. In fact, according to Bullhorn’s aggregated data, agencies that use automation have a 64% higher fill rate and submit 33% more candidates per recruiter than those completing tasks manually. How are firms making the most of automation to see these incredible results?
    Here are five habits of Bullhorn customers who leverage automation to create an engaged talent community that is excited to work with them in the short and long term.
    1. Engage regularly with talent
    According to our recent survey of 2,000 candidates, the number one reason talent becomes frustrated with recruiters is poor communication. Automation enables recruiters to manage communications more effectively and to keep candidates informed at every stage of the process.
    Many firms already use automated emails, surveys, and text messaging in the recruitment process. However, recruiters need a tightly integrated tech stack to guarantee that they’re able to gather handy information across every channel, as this is essential for personalization and for generating reliable talent insights.
    Recruiters can send occasional feedback requests through automated messages to new hires, those nearing the end of their contracts, or people that have been in a job for a while. These timely interactions will ensure recruiters stay top of mind and will pay dividends once candidates start looking for new jobs – without the burden of conducting manual ‘busywork’.
    Furthermore, AI-based automation can significantly improve the matching process by intelligently recommending candidates for jobs and jobs for candidates. This is particularly useful for temp or contingent workers, whom recruiters can quickly redeploy into newly available positions as soon as their contracts end.
    It’s also important to note that most recruitment firms have numerous candidates in their databases with whom they don’t engage regularly. Using AI, you can stay in touch with them over time and give them content by suggesting jobs, articles, and tips. It’s also a way to notify them that you want to keep their personal data in your database. However, under GDPR, you need to delete their data if they request it since candidates have the “right to be forgotten”.
    2. Improve data health
    Recruitment teams will always have to collect, store, and analyze data in order to succeed – and it’s something to avoid doing manually, especially on a large scale, as siloed, error-filled data can create just as many problems as unified, clean data can solve.
    With the right automation, recruiters can streamline data management and compliance tasks. These include anonymizing candidate records and updating job, company, and contract status for all the records within the applicant tracking system (ATS).
    Declutter your ATS by using automation to identify outdated records, people with no contact information, or records without activity to speed up searches. To make sure you are GDPR-compliant, your ATS must have all its processing activities governed by a contract under EU legislation.
    Don’t forget that internal reminders are an integral part of data collection – remind recruitment teams to send an early message to new contract starters to get feedback on their well-being and work conditions. Unlike traditional recruitment methods, automation simplifies mass communication with candidates.
    3. Stay organized
    Automating simple tasks within the ATS like notes and alerts gives recruiters back valuable time to spend on building candidate and client relationships. With so many candidates competing for so many vacancies, this solution is invaluable for staying organized.
    It also helps recruiters to set interview reminders and let applicants know whether they’ve been accepted or rejected. Importantly, if a candidate has been offered a position and it falls through for whatever reason, you can contact other suitable job seekers and fill the job quickly if your database is up to date.
    4. Streamline onboarding
    The ability to automate paperwork eases the process of onboarding talent. This is especially relevant for recruitment firms working across different locations and industries, where there might be different laws on taxes and compliance. Companies also have different policies on harassment, pay, benefits, company culture, and other aspects they want extra documentation on.
    A well-defined, automated onboarding system tailors processes to different types of hires and mitigates hiring risks. Back-office mistakes not only distract from an employee’s productivity, but mistakes like worker misclassification also carry the potential risk of fines and penalties.
    5. Scale up marketing
    Automating marketing campaigns to candidates and clients across channels like web, mobile, email, and social media is extremely helpful. Equally helpful is the ability to automatically personalize your content to better communicate with specific groups and ensure everyone receives relevant and interesting offers.
    Determine the segmentations you want to use in your marketing workflows and create lists. This will help to target specific contacts with relevant content. The workflow doesn’t just engage prospects initially but is critical to establishing a sustained interaction with them. As a result, you can expect better engagement scores (and closing ratios) from clients or candidates who are actively being nurtured, instead of those who aren’t.
    Nurturing sales prospects with valuable content enables a recruitment agency’s sales team to focus on engaged leads while automatically engaging with not-ready-to-buy prospects. Some of the metrics to track include engagement score (points are added to prospective candidates’ profiles on the database each time they engage with content), pipeline revenue (income generated through lead conversions), and new lead close rate (the percentage of leads that turn into conversions).
    By Jason Heilman, Senior Vice President, Automation, AI, and Talent Experience, Bullhorn.
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    How to Recruit in a Recession — From Someone Who Knows

    As some industries make headlines for layoffs or hiring freezes over fears of a slowing economy (and potential recession), talent acquisition teams feeling market shifts firsthand may think their only option is to slow down with it.
    Many may even be looking positively at the opportunity for rest after the frenzied, white-knuckle pace of hiring over the last year has had recruiters burning the candle at both ends. While the space to take a momentary breather is much deserved, waiting out macroeconomic trends is not a safe strategy — for business or for job security as a TA pro.
    Hiring teams that have become too comfortable with a reactive, offer-letter-after-one-interview environment should be wary of waiting for the next shoe to drop. If you drift for too long, you risk being too far behind to catch up when it does.
    In short: The threat of a recession is not a reason to pause executing your talent strategy. Instead, think of it as permission to reset it, by resetting your mindset — from one that is reactive to one that is proactive.
    First, take that long weekend or vacation you’ve been putting off. When you’re back and refreshed, let’s look at what a proactive recruiting mindset can look like.
    10,000-foot view
    There are two important truths that come with a recession and its impact on hiring. Those of us who were here in 2008 can attest:

    No matter what, some companies will panic and eliminate headcount — this is normal.
    Because the market is more vulnerable, candidates will be more hesitant to switch jobs.

    By embracing these two truths, we can determine how a strategy may need to shift. For example, If your organization has removed all job posts, it’s time to refocus energy on bolstering your talent pipeline.
    And knowing that talent is going to be less laissez-faire about making a job switch, recruiters must prioritize creating and nurturing relationships — with confidence and trust — over dangling shiny objects.
    At a high level, this means recruiters will need to kick the habit of endless sourcing and get outside of their comfort zone to stay relevant with candidates. That’s a big change for at least 55% of recruiters, who say they spend the majority of their time sourcing, according to the recent State of Outbound Recruiting in 2022 report by hireEZ.
    3,000-foot view
    Change is tough, and easier said than done. As a former recruiter, I know how busy each day is. When you’re busy, you tend to stick to what you know: LinkedIn, job boards, copying and pasting the same email outreach that worked that one time. It’s hard to be productive when you’re buried under requisitions.
    Fortunately, a slowdown in hiring will provide the opportunity to make some changes — to become more proactive. To make it easier, here are a few ways to get started:
    Be more selective
    You likely now have more time to identify the best candidate — so take it. It will be key to look for opportunities to maximize the value brought to the job level as well as to broader business goals.
    At the job level, work with hiring managers to become familiar with the minutiae of any given role. What are the skills within the skills that are required? What kinds of tasks will the individual need to complete each day, each week, each month, each quarter? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current team dynamic? What capabilities or traits are desired outside of skills and knowledge? Are there any organizational changes coming that would impact whoever is in the role?
    At the business level, understanding how the best candidate fits can forward strategic objectives. Is the company focused on creating more leaders? Are there goals to improve company diversity by hiring more talent from underrepresented communities? Is the company interested in expanding its global footprint? What benefits or perks do you see competitors offering for similar roles?
    When you are ingrained in the needs for the role, beyond the job description, you can bring a much more nuanced set of requirements to the table when looking for the perfect match. And when you understand how the role will impact the business strategy deeply, you can ensure that the match will help drive the company forward.
    These proactive steps will help you choose candidates with such an increased level of detail that you’ll naturally improve engagement and retention for every hire.
    Nurture with more meaning
    In a recession, recruiters need to keep all candidates engaged so that they are always thinking about their company. Now is the time to get creative with how you nurture.
    Take the time to work on your craft and research your talent: Test new message styles, their length, and timing, and work at making your outreach personal. Ask yourself, what are they into? How do they like to communicate? Try to develop a message that is so customized for that individual that it wouldn’t work for anyone else. Think about how you can stand out from the other recruiters blowing them up.
    Consider adopting new technology that can help you maximize your existing databases. For example, test recruiting software that can clean up and enrich profiles in your ATS, so you can regain attention and interest from previous candidates and build a pipeline that’s prepared for the next busy season.
    Look for recruiting platforms that have engagement features built in, such as email sequencing and scheduling, so that you can reach highly qualified candidates directly, and plan your hyper-personalized outreach in advance.
    Scientists test hypotheses so that they can proactively set up an experiment to succeed. Be a scientist — test and experiment to set yourself up for success.
    Understand what works
    Sometimes data tells a very different story than what we tell ourselves. But it can be hard to find the time to take a look back at the information we have. Now’s the time for recruiters to look at what worked, what didn’t, and what questions you don’t have good answers for.
    Take a deep database dive to review past hires; see what trends surface that can help you reevaluate candidates for the future, and reassess KPIs. Did time to hire improve with candidates who had to go through fewer interviews? What changes to the hiring process impacted retention? Do you have an easier time getting responses when recruiting for more senior roles? What commonalities can you find about candidates who ghosted you?
    A solid talent strategy should also take into account what broader industry and competitive trends can reveal. Certain recruiting platforms now provide the ability to compare your company’s performance against competitors. Having insight into data like average salaries by functional area, popular geos for specific roles, or at what time talent might be more willing to make a change, can help you proactively optimize your approach for the future.
    1,000-foot view
    Breaking habits can be hard, but what better time to make changes in your approach to recruiting — to improve your game — than when the market is changing.
    When it comes to adopting a proactive mindset, the worst-case scenario is you increase your expertise and expand your capabilities. The best-case scenario is you have people ready to join your organization even before you’ve even sent out offer letters. Take it from someone who recruited in the last recession.
    Shannon Pritchett is Head of Community at both hireEZ and Evry1 (which she co-founded in 2021). Prior to joining hireEZ, she served in a variety of recruiting roles and later leveraged her industry experience and expertise to hold leadership positions at Moxy, SourceCon, CareerXroads, and beyond. As a talent acquisition leader, she remains passionate about connecting companies with their most valuable asset — people.
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    Mind the Gap: How Recruiters Can Help to Close the Gender Pay Divide

    Current headlines are littered with debates on pay in a post-pandemic hybrid world. Strikes in the UK amongst barristers are gaining momentum, professional services sectors are fighting a salary war and eye-watering C-suite bonuses are coming into question. Yet, there is still an audible silence surrounding the UK’s ever-widening gender pay gap.
    According to Major, Lindsey & Africa’s latest In-House Compensation Survey, the UK is falling behind internationally when it comes to remunerating its General Counsel equitably, with a staggering $81,610 difference between base rate salaries for men and women.
    This is just one example of the pay discrepancies that still exist amongst the top talent, but these findings exemplify that there is still a long way to go to bridge the divide. A major overhaul and culture of change in the workplace seems daunting, but small changes at the very start of the hiring process would make a world of difference.
    The affordability gap
    With a talent war raging, hiring women can no longer be seen as a diversity initiative if they are not being paid fairly. Female candidates are increasingly being hired because they are equally good for the job as their male counterparts. At the same time, they are often still considered the more affordable option. Masked by the guise of a diversity initiative, this conversely widens the pay gap. Progress will be limited if we only succeed in having more women in the boardroom but do not equitably remunerate them.
    Lessons from across the pond
    A clear-cut difference in culture is also emerging between the UK and the US when it comes to transparency surrounding pay. It is still true that In American businesses, candidates and employers alike are more willing to talk about money. This more transparent approach in the states has a huge influence on power dynamics, making conversations about salaries and bonuses more of an open discussion than a taboo to shy away from. For instance, we found that last year the difference between male and female GCs and CLOs’ bonuses in the UK stood at $179,825.
    How can candidates expect to negotiate a pay lift if they are not willing to discuss it? Fostering a culture of transparency within a company will not only bring to the fore any glaring inequalities but also encourage women to speak up about their current packages or ask for more money when joining a new company. If we dance around the matter of pay, the stigma will only continue to propagate the pay gap.
    Reversing expectations
    A simple change recruiters and HR departments alike can make when hiring new talent, is to ask a candidate what their salary expectations are, rather than their current package. Valuing the position to be filled rather than the individual conversely may result in more than the standard 10-15% uplift when moving role, but this is exactly what is necessary to close the gap. If women are to truly stand shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts in the workplace, they must first be considered as such and we need to be ambitious about expectations. When hiring a new candidate, the discussion on salary should focus on the expertise, experience, and skills they can offer.
    If the UK is to truly champion women’s equality in the workplace, systemic and deep-rooted bias and taboo will need to be broken down. The best way to do this? Start from the beginning. Recruiters’ negotiations for a candidate’s new role are the first step to breaking a cycle that has allowed the gender pay gap to become so entrenched and in opening up conversation, the stigma reinforcing the glass ceiling will start to be broken down.
    By Tanja Albers, Partner, In House Counsel Group, Major, Lindsey & Africa.
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    “Buckle Up and Ride the Economic Storm” Says Veteran Recruiter 

    As the UK heads towards yet another recession, the common mistakes business leaders make are the knee-jerk reactions of lowering headcount, freezing hiring, and sticking our heads in the sand when it comes to finances. All of which are a sure way to hinder future business growth and undermine overarching business goals. Of course, human beings’ fight or flight mode exists for survival reasons, but these tactics are a very temporary fix to a very long-term problem.
    While we are all guilty of receding to our safe place in times of trouble, business leaders should be buckling up to ride the economic storm to the best of their abilities, with the ultimate aim of coming out the other side ahead of competitors.
    Protect your assets
    While it may be tempting to knee-jerk into headcount reduction during tough economic times – especially with inflation hitting a 40-year high at 9.1 percent – this may end up being more damaging to businesses in the long run.
    Now more than ever, employers should be doing all they can to protect their most valuable assets – their staff. History has taught us time and time again that those who recognize this will be the ones who benefit later down the line. As the market recovered from the 2008 crash, reports showed employees felt their employers had ‘lost sight’ of the support they needed and subsequently, left en masse once things improved.
    Don’t let your talent pipelines dry out
    Staff retention should be a priority during rocky times but hiring managers should be seizing the opportunity to look for talent while the rest of the competition’s heads are down. Ensure that your job adverts are appealing to the correct audience, put some money behind LinkedIn advertising or use the services of a recruitment partner.
    Anything that you can do to raise the profile of your business, communicate your messages with your networks and demonstrate yourselves as an attractive employment prospect, will be crucial to future-proofing your business. It may seem counterintuitive now, but when your competitors are clutching at straws on the rebound, you’ll be thriving.
    Mind out for salary inflation
    The cost-of-living crisis’ grip is tightening, and as such, it may be tempting to raise pay for your staff to offset costs. Triggering a ‘wage-price spiral’ should be approached with caution, as inflationary pay rises are inflationary in itself – and companies will only raise consumer prices further – becoming a vicious cycle we may never venture out of.
    The recent news of management consultant giant PwC announcing a 9 percent pay rise for thousands of staff to offset the costs of living is setting a dangerous precedent. A popular move with staff, of course, but once other businesses follow suit there’s no sight at the end of the tunnel. PwC may well have the best intentions at heart (although remember they are also fighting in the war for talent), but it is a major player, and where it leads, others are sure to follow.
    Understand your finances
    Ensuring that you fully understand your income and expenditure is crucial to remaining in control. In a recession, remember that cash is king. Watch costs like a hawk and ensure that your business has sufficient liquidity to operate for longer than you would expect in normal times.
    The challenge during a recession is always to balance your costs and revenue to ensure that you can still generate profit as well as nurture and protect your valued clients and staff. This may require looking at different outlets for your products or services or mining existing relationships more intelligently (more likely a combination of both).
    What’s next?
    While it’s difficult to predict what the next six months have in store for us, especially with the ever-unstable government, there are already signs in the US that inflationary pressures are beginning to ease. One might expect a leveling off or even the beginning of a decline in inflation in the last quarter of this year.
    Of course, nothing about this economy and the job market is easy. The financial challenges are completely new to some, and ‘yet another hurdle’ for others, but the strategy remains the same. Be cautious but buckle up for the long term. The last thing you want is to emerge from your bunker in six months’ time to find your business landscape decimated.
    If the last two years have taught us anything it’s that we can be agile in the face of uncertainty but also that risks may be well worth taking. After all, it should be a walk in the park compared to navigating through the uncertainties of the pandemic.
    By: Dominic Wade, co-founder of specialist HR and Finance & Accountancy recruitment firm, Wade Macdonald. He founded the firm in the early 90s and since has weathered three financial crises and a pandemic. 
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    in Talent Acquisition

    What Should Your Facebook Budget Be When Targeting Your Next Candidate?

    As one of the ‘original’ social media platforms, Facebook broke the mold when it came to market in 2004. Initially, a place for friends and family to connect – while that’s still the case – many businesses are noticing how effective it can be when engaging a relevant audience.
    And for organizations and HR teams that are wanting to attract candidates and grow their teams, social media is proving to be a highly proactive, and cost-effective talent acquisition tool.
    While many employers might head straight to Indeed or LinkedIn to set their job ad live and wait for responses, that’s fine – and several brands will see success via this route – however, they also shouldn’t write off Facebook completely.
    Nearly two decades since the platform went live, today it’s the third most-visited website in the world. Millions of business owners still swear by it when raising their brand credibility and selling their products and services successfully. And many are doing it all extremely efficiently without bursting their marketing budget in the process.
    So, for the organizations that have a recruitment drive being managed from start to finish by the HR team – and there’s some cash to spend in order to engage and nurture the right candidate through to the application stage – how much should be set aside for promoted posts on social media that ensure their latest vacancy is being seen by the right person, at the right time?
    In truth, it comes back to how much the organization can afford. And while that might sound a bit, ‘how long is a piece of string?’, here’s the good part – brands can get a better message out via social media compared to using a costly third-party platform.
    Saying more via social media
    For example, an organization can roll out a Facebook Ads campaign that’s focused purely on recruitment – including ads that cover more detail about their company culture, information on what the vacancy entails, and Corporate Social Responsibility commitments that set the business apart from competitors, and exactly how a talented individual can positively impact their growth ambitions.
    And none of this has to cost a fortune.
    If HR teams are still unsure as to how much they should spend, firstly compare the rate that it’d cost to engage a recruitment firm and divide it by half. So say, for example, there’s $2,500 to spend in total – firstly, that’s a lot of money which will go very far with Facebook Ads.
    Of course, it’s dependent on the industry and also who is managing the engagement throughout the campaign roll-out.
    But, sticking with the example of a $2,500 budget to play with, HR teams can break this down even further. By putting in $550 per month, the daily spend can be around $40 to not only create a top-of-the-funnel ad to draw people in but also leave enough room to interact with candidates without worrying it’ll go over budget.
    For example, from the $40 a-day spend, $25 of it could be specifically used to target a relevant demographic of jobseekers. The remaining £15 may then be purely dedicated to nurturing those individuals who have engaged with the ad – perhaps asking them to input their details or upload their CV.
    Quick tips – dos and don’ts
    Do…
    Use image-led ads, as well as some other content formats such as:

    Videos: these could cover existing employees talking about the company culture or showcasing a ‘day in the life’ of a specific role.
    Carousels: maximizing as much content about the vacancy as possible in a digestible way – from testimonials to client logos showing who the employer works with, the employee perks, and salary. Different CTA links per slide should encourage applications – such as ‘Apply Now’, ‘See Job Description’, ‘Find Out About Our Culture’, and so on.

    If the company’s tone of voice is quite quirky or chatty, think about newsjacking opportunities – everyone’s seen the Lionel Richie (‘Hello, is it me you’re recruiting for?’) meme for example.
    Could this creative be in keeping with the brand as the main image and therefore be more engaging for the target audience?
    Finally, make sure the copy used is accessible and to the point:

    Join Our Team
    We’re Hiring
    Could This Be You?

    If employers are beginning their Facebook Ads journey and need something straightforward and quick – tap into the platform’s simple-to-use form.
    Don’t…
    Use a landing page. While that might be the first choice for many organizations when requesting candidate information, unfortunately when users are sent ‘away’ from Facebook, the platform can’t see the analytics and so it’s difficult for recruiters and HR teams to understand engagement rates.
    Another benefit of the Facebook form is that it’s pre-populated, so when a candidate clicks on an ad, that information is far quicker to retrieve than someone manually sending a CV or covering letter.
    And a quick note for recruiters when using Facebook Ads during talent acquisition too is to make the content relatable. Use real people who can tell a story to the audience, build brand credibility through testimonials, and create a sense of authenticity with the comms that are designed to make job seekers ‘stop the scroll’.
    Overall, the advice is to almost work out the budget by reverse engineering what the organization wants to achieve and where they want to be seen. Facebook has many benefits compared to third-party platforms and can often be a more cost-effective option, so don’t write it off when the next recruitment campaign is ready to be rolled out.
    By James Urquhart, Managing Director and Co-founder of Let’s Run Marketing
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