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    Too Many Inbound Job Applicants But Not Enough Qualified Ones? 8 Tactics to Solve It

    As a recruiter, talent acquisition specialist, or hiring manager, you may have experienced an overwhelming number of inbound job applicants. Sadly, with the ease of online job submissions, many of the candidates won’t meet the requirements but apply anyway. While a high number of job applicants could be described as a “good” problem, it creates new problems when the majority are poor matches. 

    This makes the recruitment and hiring process challenging and consumes valuable time, especially on lean teams or in startups without dedicated recruiters, to sift through resumes to find qualified candidates. Fortunately, there are a few strategies and tactics to handle too many inbound applicants to a job but not enough qualified ones.

    In this eBook, we’ll cover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle it when you have a flood of inbound candidates. But first, ask yourself…

    Do You Need to Post Jobs Online?

    There’s no rule that says you need to list your open roles on your site or within other channels, especially if you:

    Don’t have the capacity to handle an overwhelmed inbound pipeline

    Your company has had a reduction in force (RIF) or layoffs in the last six to 12 months. The optics of open roles, especially if they’re similar to eliminated ones, is bad for your employer brand and employee morale. 

    Only have a few roles to fill due to internal changes or attrition

    Outbound Candidates are 5x More Likely to Be Hired than Inbound

    According to a 2022 article, companies saw greater success in hiring outbound candidates versus inbound candidates. Why? As one SVP of Talent said about inbound, “It’s the lowest-quality and lowest-ROI channel you have because of the sheer volume and lack of strategy involved.” 

    Advice from LTK’s Global Head of Talent Sourcing and People Analytics on Too Many Inbound Job Applicants

    In a new episode of Talk Talent to Me, LTK’s Shally Steckerl reflects on the recent increase in candidate volume he sees on LinkedIn:

    “It’s more people clicking on jobs. But compared to the per capita click per job per person, it’s gone down. It used to be that a hundred people would be looking for jobs and fifty of them would be clicking on jobs a day. Now, it’s ten thousand people looking for jobs, but more like a thousand people clicking them. 

    There’s more indiscriminate clicking. We get the same person applying for dozens of jobs and [LinkedIn’s] Easy Apply doesn’t seem to really be a good idea anymore because we have too many applicants too quickly.” 

    Tools like this enable low-intent candidates and result in a “fire hose of candidates,” which usually means fewer fits for a role but more work for the recruiter. Seeing how much time and money this wastes, Shally encourages talent professionals to shift to a big-picture view. 

    Related: Connect with a curated pool of highly qualified tech candidates on Hired.

    The Big Picture Point of View of Too Many Inbound Job Applicants

    Shally’s solution includes reducing friction just the right amount so there’s a balance in how easy it is to apply for positions. He suggests strategies including improving job description readability, enhancing employer brand, and prioritizing outcomes over activity. 

    In fact, Shally emphasizes a focus on the quality of a hire over the activity (clicks and applies) numbers game.

    So, what exactly should you be doing to reach those quality candidates in a flood of applicants? Use this eBook to uncover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle an overwhelming amount of inbound candidates. More

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    How to Use AI in Recruitment: Insights from Activision Blizzard’s Talent Sourcing Director

    Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is taking every industry by storm and tech recruiting is no exception. In a new episode of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast, Activision Blizzard Director of Talent Sourcing Justin Ghio encourages talent professionals to view AI as a tool to enhance productivity and hiring processes. 

    Any recruiter or TA professional knows how precious time is… and how time-consuming the talent search can be. AI helps free up recruiters and TA teams to focus on what they do best: relationship-building and delivering exceptional candidate experiences.

    With Justin’s insights, let’s explore how AI empowers recruiters and TA professionals.

    AI meets Talent Acquisition & Human Resources

    While AI can feel overwhelming and even a bit scary in such people-centered roles, Justin assures talent professionals it’s not something to fear. 

    He says, “I feel the perception is ‘It’s going to take my job. It’s going to replace everything I’m doing.’ But currently, it’s more about how you can make it work for yourself and understanding its limitation. I think that’s something we’ve realized: it can’t do everything from start to finish for me.”

    Justin encourages TA professionals to focus on “how to use it to speed up processes and ideation without replacing what we do best.”

    Reflecting on AI in HR tech, Justin explains it’s being “sold as something so much broader and bigger in our industry versus the incremental steps. AI is never going to close a candidate… or talk to an international candidate about types of credit cards to open while they’re abroad to build credit in the US. Those are human conversations. Those are things we still have to broker. We use the technology to get us to those conversations, but not impede them.”

    So, how exactly can AI help you? 

    Justin shares a few ways AI supports talent activities: 

    Enhance candidate sourcing

    Uplevel candidate communications

    Let’s review some examples of how talent professionals and AI might join forces. 

    1. Enhance candidate sourcing with AI

    Justin finds the underlying AI’s natural language processing technology to be quite useful. Gone are the days of having to write developer and programmer and engineer. AI knows those are the same. 

    Simply write “software developer” and anyone with the title “programmer” or “engineer” will surface too. “You’re saving time that scales out infinitely across your user base and second to second for recruiters.” 

    Related: Hired Releases 2023 State of Software Engineers Report

    The same goes for sending a message, then clicking “Contact Attempt One.” You probably don’t need to do both of those actions so rely on a machine that knows If the user sends an email, it moves the candidate to “Contact Attempt One” If they reply, it moves it to “Bonded.” Ditch the notepad and tally list on your desk. Justin encourages you to “lean on the AI to manage a lot of that minutia.”

    Activision leans largely on AI for skill adjacency to target mid and entry-level candidates. “We’re able to see a match score based on someone’s skill rating. AI is looking at peers of individuals at organizations and based on skills they have, helps me understand the questions I need to ask. 

    AI will verify the individual has a particular skill or that we need to confirm it because someone who worked there has this skill, but they don’t have it on their resume. The days of someone forgetting something on their resume will hopefully be forgotten as we move and the technology matures.”

    While Justin believes Boolean search will still be a differentiating skill set, he does think: 

    “Those who don’t use AI technology to speed up the iteration process will be left behind. I think the people who will continue to be the best Boolean searchers are the ones who can use AI to get 60-80% of the way there. 

    Add the special sauce

    Then, they put their special sauce on top and allow it to become uniquely their version of that boolean. This will continue to allow people to be great at those sub-skills in the world of sourcing.”

    And by “special sauce,” Justin is referring to the human touch. 

    After all, he says “Nobody’s excited about being the best phone screen scheduler. People are excited about being really memorable on the phone. They’re excited about being really punctual with getting things on the books with candidates and having meaningful conversations where candidates feel like they’re being respected, heard, and being given opportunities in the organization.”

    2. Uplevel candidate communications 

    Those human moments are what make working in recruiting or talent acquisition special.  “At Activision, we look at how to leverage technology to help us do more of what we’re best at…You’re better at a lot more dynamic parts. You work with candidates very well.” 

    Related: Find your next opportunity in TA with Hired’s Tech Recruitment Collective

    When it comes to making the case for this technology internally, Justin says the key is “understanding where that point of finality is – where that stopping point of what the technology is or isn’t.”

    You want to capture how to leverage it to a certain point. “Our philosophy isn’t to use it to send all emails. It’s used to write ten rough copies. Then, take two or three of them and customize them.” Use AI to deliver something in five minutes which typically takes an hour.

    When evaluating AI tools, how can talent professionals ensure they are being fair and equitable to candidates?

    Justin advises you to consider these three questions: 

    How does this work? 

    Why does it work this way? 

    What happens if I want to change it?

    It’s essential to grasp the underpinnings and leverage them in a use case applicable to your environment. “There should be an underlying human element. Being able to author rules over top of the machine is really what I would have people ask vendors about,” Justin says.

    Embrace collaborative intelligence

    Justin views AI as “an invaluable tool to help us accelerate the ideation already happening in TA.” Recognize that AI is not a replacement for human expertise but a powerful tool to augment and accelerate recruitment processes. Think of AI as your strategic ally. It works best in collaboration with human expertise. 

    Unlock its potential to drive efficiency, increase productivity, and attract top talent quickly. With the right approach, it can revolutionize recruitment while preserving the invaluable human touch that defines successful hiring. 

    Start plugging in those prompts and questions keeping in mind you now “have a jumping-off point. It’s really for that starting block, not the ending.” 

    Interested in unlocking the power of AI in recruitment?

    Learn to use game-changing sourcing and recruiting practices with AI. Join the Talk Talent to Me workshop on Wednesday, May 24 at 6 pm PT at the Minna Gallery in SoMa. Top talent leaders in San Francisco will explore what AI means for the talent world and how you can use it to create powerful candidate experiences. More

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    Investing in Early Talent, Relearning, & More: Talk Talent to Me April ’23 Recap

    Catch up on the April 2023 episodes of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leadership who share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. 

    Putting people first with Kelly Minella, Head of Recruiting at Calendly

    Investing in early talent with Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Quintrix 

    Relearning and eliminating biases with Jenny Cotie Kangas, Director of Employer Branding and Awareness at PandoLogic

    Creating a thriving company culture with Maryjo Charbonnier, CHRO at Kyndryl 

    1. Kelly Minella, Head of Recruiting at Calendly

    Put people first. You’ll be more likely to make quality hires and maintain a cohesive work environment, according to Kelly. In this episode, she shares how she knew her CEO cared about prioritizing people and the importance of a talent team having a shared understanding. Plus, Kelly tells how the introduction of interview training has made Calendly better and why you should always be asking for and reviewing candidate feedback.

    “I applied [to Calendly], and my first conversation was with our CEO, Tope Awotona, and it was fabulous. I remember calling my mom afterward and being like, ‘Mom, that was special’. And the reason why, and why it has remained special, is how much priority he puts on people.”

    Listen to the full episode.

    2. Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Quintrix 

    Investing in early talent is becoming more popular. Krishna discusses why businesses need to think more about this talent in the long term and how companies can better support their new recruits. He also dives into his game-changing post-deployment framework and why many candidates are falling short of the mark. 

    “Career development, or lack thereof, is the number one reason for people to leave their jobs and explore other opportunities. So, you want to make sure that the candidates are constantly receiving the support, feedback, and career development to be successful.” 

    Listen to the full episode.

    3. Jenny Cotie Kangas, Director of Employer Branding and Awareness at PandoLogic

    Sometimes the best approach to a challenge is to start from scratch. When Jenny lost most of her memories as a result of a head injury, she underwent a process of extreme relearning. Though the experience came with hardships and frustrations, it was hugely beneficial to her professional life. In this inspiring episode, Jenny shares how learning to explain things in their simplest form, eliminating biases and blindspots, and employing reverse engineering strategies leads to true organizational change.

    “When you storytell something in a way that makes sense to a 10-year-old – all of a sudden everybody can understand it. Not just the top 10% or the most experienced in your organization, but everybody can. And when you’re trying to actually make change happen, your goal is to hit everybody, not just the top 10%.”

    Listen to the full episode.

    4. Maryjo Charbonnier, CHRO at Kyndryl 

    Maryjo isn’t afraid of a challenge. In fact, she has sought out difficult problems to be part of a solution. Her passion for change-making led her to be Chief HR Officer at the world’s largest startup with over 90,000 employees and $19 billion in revenue. As an expert on cultural processes, Maryjo explains what it takes to cultivate and maintain a thriving company culture. 

    “One of the most important things HR people do is listen to what isn’t said.” 

    Listen to the full episode. 

    Want more insights into recruiting tips and trends?

    Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry—straight from top experts themselves. More

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    How Many Candidates Should You Interview for a Job? Hiring Best Practices

    A lot of hiring managers want to know, “How many candidates should you interview for a job?” It’s a common conundrum faced by many decision-makers during the recruitment process. In the challenging and ever-evolving world of business, one of the most important decisions a hiring manager, recruiter, startup founder, or CEO will make is who to bring on board their team. As the backbone of every organization, a quality workforce can shape the success or downfall of a company. With such high stakes involved, it’s crucial to be equipped with an optimal strategy when conducting interviews.

    While there is no universal answer, this blog post will explore some key factors to consider when determining the number of candidates to interview for a specific role.

    6 Things to Consider When Determining How Many Candidates to Interview for a Job

    1. The Complexity of the Job or Role

    The complexity of the job position plays a significant role in determining the number of candidates you should interview. For roles that require advanced skills or specific experience, you might need to interview more candidates to find the ideal match. On the contrary, for positions with less complex requirements, a smaller pool might suffice. Evaluating the complexity of the role will aid in approximating the breadth of your interview pool.

    2. Candidate Availability

    An equally significant consideration is the availability of qualified candidates. If you are in a field or location with a limited number of qualified candidates, you may need to cast a wider net and interview more individuals. Conversely, in areas with a high concentration of professionals in your required field, you might have a larger pool of qualified applicants, allowing you to be more selective.

    Hired has a career marketplace pool of high-quality, high-intent candidates for tech and sales roles. Get a live demo and see how it changes your hiring process for the better.

    3. The Interview-to-Hire Ratio

    Another useful method to estimate the number of candidates to interview is the ‘Interview-to-Hire Ratio.’ This ratio represents the number of candidates you need to interview before making a hire. According to research, this ratio can range from 4:1 to 20:1 depending on the industry and the role complexity. Thus, the ratio can help you figure out the potential number of interviews to conduct.

    4. Quality over Quantity

    While the number of interviews you conduct is crucial, it’s equally important to stress the quality of candidates over the quantity. Interviewing too many candidates can be overwhelming and time-consuming, and may not necessarily yield better results. Moreover, it can be detrimental to your employer brand if candidates feel they are merely a number in a long line of interviews. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain a balanced approach and ensure each candidate receives the attention they deserve during the interview process.

    5. The ‘Rule of Three’

    A good rule of thumb to follow is the ‘Rule of Three,’ which suggests interviewing at least three candidates for every job opening. This allows you to compare and contrast candidates effectively, ensuring a fair hiring process. However, remember that the ‘Rule of Three’ is a guideline, not a strict policy. It should be adjusted according to the role, industry, and the quality of the candidates applying.

    Too many inbound candidates, but not enough qualified ones? Learn how to manage and even prevent this recruiting challenge.

    6. Adaptability is Key

    Lastly, remember that flexibility and adaptability are essential in the hiring process. If you haven’t found the right candidate after interviewing a significant number, it might be a signal to revisit the job description, requirements, or your recruitment strategies. A successful recruitment process should be fluid and responsive to the market conditions, candidate availability, and company needs.

    Insights from Talent Leader Trent Krupp

    When asked, ‘how many candidates should you interview for a job,’ Trent says

    “Short answer: As many as it takes. Long answer: Typically you should expect to talk to 7-10 candidates, make 2 formal offers, and receive one acceptance. Having a recruiting culture that’s focused on speed and efficiency makes a massive impact on your success.

    If you’re able to go from meeting someone to presenting them with a firm offer within 7 business days, you’re going to be better than 90% of companies out there. [MAANG companies] may be able to pay higher salaries than you, but they can’t possibly compete against a 7-day end-to-end hiring cycle.

    Being slow & indecisive, creating artificial scarcity (rejecting someone because they don’t have experience with THE particular JavaScript framework that you happen to use), or trying to hire people for significantly below market rates are all enemies of success.

    In my personal opinion, the first one or two engineers you hire should probably be the most experienced you can find. They will be making critical architectural decisions likely to be incredibly complex and expensive to unravel in the future. You need to get it right, and being penny-wise and pound-foolish does not make sense.

    Finally, these guidelines are for typical individual contributor positions. VP or Director-level hires, or positions requiring very specialized knowledge will be different.”

    Let Hired Help You Cut Down on How Many Candidates You Need to Interview for a Job

    In conclusion, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how many candidates you should interview for a job. It’s a decision that requires a clear understanding of the role, the job market, your company’s needs, and the potential talent pool. Always remember that each interview is an investment in your company’s future, so take the time to make strategic and informed decisions. Happy hiring!

    Learn more about how Hired helps employers of all sizes find the right talent, right away! More

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    8 Ways Talent Professionals Can Drive Business Impact Despite a Hiring Freeze

    Pausing hiring efforts may be necessary for a variety of reasons but talent professionals can still drive business impact. Whether due to missed projections, shifts in funding or shareholder priorities, or even a global pandemic, a hiring freeze sometimes means cuts to recruiting and TA teams.

    This doesn’t have to be the case. This hiring freeze may be a golden opportunity for TA and recruiting teams to pivot to other projects, assist other internal teams, or focus on new initiatives.

    Related: How to Improve Job Security During an Economic Downturn: Career Advice for Recruiters

    There are ways to use this time to start strategic projects that positively impact business with your insight and skill set, even when you are not hiring. Here are the top 8 things you can do to drive business impact and set yourself up for success after a hiring freeze is lifted.

    1. Keep your existing pipeline warm

    If a hiring freeze was unexpected, you might have candidates in your interviewing pipeline you need to notify. Sharing your hiring status (and the status of their application and candidacy) will require a balance of transparency and empathy. Let candidates in your pipeline know a hiring freeze is taking place. Offer a tentative timeline of when your team foresees hiring to pick up again. Assure them that you or your team will follow up with updates. Those are the best ways to retain your candidate pipeline while keeping the conversation and their interest warm.

    2. Engage internal employees

    During a hiring freeze, recruiters can work closely with the People Team to engage internal employees. Turnover is an aspect of people management that HR teams work to estimate, prevent, or lower. HR partners with talent acquisition teams to incorporate turnover into recruiting goals. Despite a hiring pause, turnover typically continues as expected or might even increase depending on the state of the business and company morale.

    By partnering with the larger People Ops Team, recruiting can support at-risk employees the team identifies and engage different populations to help retain and re-spark their passion for the company. In addition, working closely with company executives to be transparent about business strategy moving forward is especially crucial during this time as a means of supporting your team.

    3. Get involved with other business initiatives

    Lend your time and expertise to more teams and get creative with how to advocate for the company in new ways. Need some inspo?

    Hired’s Senior Internal Recruiter, Jules Grondin, pivoted to immerse herself in launching new initiatives. To support fellow recruiters and individuals in Talent Acquisition, Jules helped establish Hired’s Tech Recruitment Collective. Recognizing that Talent Acquisition is at the heart of building great teams, the collective connects these professionals with Hired’s extensive network of companies actively hiring TA talent.

    Another recent initiative is Hired’s Candidate Credit Program. To address a candidate supply and demand imbalance, Hired offered companies the opportunity to refer candidates in their ATS to Hired in exchange for credits to use on future Hired services and solutions.

    Brainstorm new ways to involve yourself in other aspects of the business. Reach out to other teams or colleagues to collaborate!

    4. Focus on employer branding

    A hiring freeze might create a negative perception of how the business is doing. To remain proactive, consider refreshing your employer brand strategy as a lever toward getting ahead of any negative misconceptions and attracting top talent when you open roles and resume interviewing. A company’s brand can be aspirational. Positioning your employer brand through thought leadership, company initiatives, and values helps build a relatable narrative that your company should be known for.

    Despite a hiring freeze, don’t hit the brakes on sharing your company’s forward momentum. For distributed teams, a great example would be to amplify ways your team creatively adapted to remote work, approached collaboration, and remained diligent about fostering company culture to maintain a healthy work-life balance.  

    Also, consider encouraging happy and engaged employees on your team to become promoters of the business. This supports a spirit of pride, ownership, and advocacy for the great work your company is doing! Aligning your employees with company and employer branding can turn your team into brand ambassadors to their network. This offers interested candidates a view of your company that goes beyond corporate branding and marketing but a more personal look into the employee experience from a peer.

    5. Optimize recruiting process

    Taking a step back from the ins and outs of your recruiting process will help you see areas to revise and make more efficient. Recruiting teams can take the time to evaluate many areas of their process from application to offer acceptance. This goes not just for efficiency but to assure the process promotes an excellent candidate experience. For instance, going through the application for an open role from a candidate’s perspective could flag hurdles in the process that candidates would experience. This includes complications with your ATS, resume upload issues, or LinkedIn profile integration errors.

    Beyond this, there are various areas of the recruiting process that teams can evaluate, including:

    Streamlining processes in your ATS to increase data cleanliness

    Evaluating your application to improve completion rates

    Updating the careers page and job descriptions to align with talent branding

    Evaluating the recruiting funnel for biases and exclusive language

    Diving into recruiting metrics, including outreach to lead conversion rates, rejection reasons, time to offer, time to hire, etc.

    Evaluating recruiting or sourcing tools

    Related: How to Secure Approval for New Tech Tools (Free Template)

    6. Invest in training hiring team members

    Having downtime from sourcing and interviewing offers the opportunity to evaluate your process and train your interviewers. For recruiting and talent acquisition team members, training or taking certification courses can advance the team’s recruiting strategy and overall professional development. In addition, training hiring managers (and other team members who participate in interviews) around efficiencies your team has made in your recruiting process aligns everyone to best represent the company when conducting interviews.

    7. Ensure your recruiting process is inclusive 

    Now more than ever, companies are being examined for their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion beyond public statements and surface-level efforts. The public and their workforce evaluate them based on their executive leadership team and how they conduct business day-to-day. As it relates to hiring, take the time to ensure your recruiting process is inclusive to all candidates who may apply and interview in the future. Consider everything from the verbiage in job descriptions to the logistics of how to best conduct an interview.

    This is also a great opportunity for teams to undergo unconscious bias training. This ensures recruiters and interviewers accurately represent company values during interviews and champion an inclusive hiring process.

    Related: Diversity features on Hired

    Unconscious biases may present themselves at any point, even with something as simple as seeing the full name of a candidate on their resume. For example, a person’s name can implicate their sex, ethnicity, and fluency and literacy in English. This can lead to a member of the interviewing team building stereotypes around the candidate without having met or spoken with them. Evaluate your recruitment and interview processes from beginning to end with potential biases in mind. It can help eliminate additional and unnecessary barriers to entry for qualified talent.

    8. Develop a recruiting plan

    As your team anticipates when a hiring freeze could lift, having a recruiting plan will ensure the team is ready to begin sourcing and interviewing again. Connect with your hiring managers to identify and prioritize roles that are an immediate need post-freeze. As the time gets closer, preliminary sourcing and pipelining quality candidates is a proactive way to get a preview into the active candidate market for these high-priority positions.

    In addition, you can begin to review organic applicants and put your feelers out to your existing pipeline to reignite that interest. Lastly, consider working closely with leadership. Establish a tentative timeline so the team can effectively plan their work and OKRs for the coming months. 

    Regardless of the hiring pace, skilled talent professionals drive impact throughout the organization

    Hiring freezes illicit thoughts of uncertainty for many people within a company and for those who are applying. Despite that, a freeze in hiring doesn’t mean that business strategy and talent teams are on a freeze too. Recruiting and talent acquisition teams offer value to the business beyond sourcing and interviewing. When times call for their main priorities to pause, it offers an opportunity to grow together and invest in team members. Talent professionals are incredible partners to drive impact while building a strong company. More

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    Building a Flexible Employer Brand for a Multinational Media Company

    NBCUniversal is a media company with more than twenty businesses in thirty countries, including theme parks, television stations, motion pictures, and premium streaming services. With so many diverse brands and localities, creating an EVP (Employer Value Proposition) that works for all of them is a significant challenge. Anne Hurley, Director of Talent Branding at NBCUniversal, discusses the process of executing an EVP refresh for one of the world’s largest multinational media companies and building the flexibility to activate it across a wide variety of brands and countries in an interview with the Employer Branding Podcast.
    Setting Objectives for Employer Brand
    To articulate an EVP that works for all the different brands, NBCUniversal started by laying out the Talent Acquisition organization’s goals as a whole. They decided on setting objectives around brand awareness and engagement, employee experience, DEI, and recruiting excellence. These objectives helped steer the process and defined what they were trying to get out of their new EVP and how they should measure success across all brands.
    EVP Built on Flexibility
    NBCUniversal is a decentralized company, with properties operating independently. Hurley says, “our job is to influence them at each point of the candidate lifecycle.” They needed to create an EVP that brought everything together and was flexible enough to work equally for NBC News and Peacock streaming.
    They began with a research phase by hosting employee roundtables, looking at internal data collection, and engaging with external vendors. They then took those findings and got together with other internal groups like Corporate Creative and Corporate Communications to distill everything into the tagline: “Here you can.”
    “It’s simple, right? But that’s why it works,” Hurley says, “it acts as a ‘fill in the blank’ where we can insert language at the end of the phrase based on personas, skillsets, or interests. It doesn’t need to compete with our consumer brands—it’s simply complimentary.” For example, for E! News, it might be articulated as “Here you can be Pop Cultured,” or if they wanted to speak to their DEI initiatives, it might become “Here you can be authentically you.” Their EVP is powerful because it can be articulated differently to different personas.
    Activating EVP Globally
    Hurley’s Talent Branding organization has been working to make localization a priority. “Our brand does not resonate with people in the UK or Germany or France in the way it resonates with people in the US,” Hurley says, so they set to work creating a global toolkit to bring everything together.
    Hurley and her team started with focus groups to more clearly identify needs in each global territory and used that information to create localized assets that would align with the organization’s EVP while sharing the same look and feel across all languages. They worked closely with local brand champions to develop these resources, which in turn gives them everything they needed to create their own localized, inclusive content.
    Connect with Other EB Pros
    Hurley advises you to be clear about your internal goals before starting the EVP refresh process, do the research to get a complete picture of your organization and make sure to bring everyone to the table when the time comes to take the following steps. Large organizations come with unique challenges, but best practices exist for developing and activating an EVP. Additionally, don’t hesitate to reach out to other professionals working in the employer branding space. “I’ve made a lot of connections by simply pinging the guests on this podcast,” Hurley says. This podcast includes a way to get in touch with all of the guests, so don’t be afraid to make a connection.

    To follow Anne Hurley’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. To identify the values and culture you want to create in your own company, get in touch.
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    How to Use Coding Challenge Events to Build Tech Talent Pipeline

    About this eBook

    Today’s recruiting and hiring teams face multiple challenges, from low brand recognition to the capacity to efficiently assess an influx of candidates. Use this eBook to discover how events, such as coding challenges, can help you build your pipeline, expand into new markets, progress on DEI goals, and free up your teams to focus on their biggest priorities.

    What You’ll Learn

    Common challenges for employers that events help solve

    How to promote and manage events

    Examples of virtual candidate events and coding challenges to reach goals More

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    Diversity & Inclusion Recruitment, Retaining Talent, & More: Talk Talent to Me March ’23 Recap

    Catch up on the March 2023 episodes of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leadership who share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. 

    Diversity and inclusion recruitment with Jacob Rivas, Sr Global Technical Talent Sourcer, Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) at WW/WeightWatchers

    Recruiting and retaining with Nancy Connery, Co-Founder of OpenComp

    1. Jacob Rivas, Sr Global Technical Talent Sourcer, Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) at WW/WeightWatchers

    Jacob shares his recruitment knowledge, including how he communicates with candidates and best practices for approaching subject lines. He also explains how he got into D&I and how things have changed for him since leaving Vox. Jacob wraps up the conversation by sharing the most impactful career advice he has ever received!

    “Diversity is really the new area to go and if you’re intentional, you can make a big impact.”

    Listen to the full episode.

    2. Nancy Connery, Co-Founder of OpenComp 

    Fun fact: Nancy was the very first VP of HR at Salesforce. She spearheaded strategic investments in human capital and fueled the company’s remarkable growth by building its industry-leading HR infrastructure. Her latest venture is co-founding the compensational intelligence company, OpenComp. Nancy also co-hosts the OpenComp podcast, High Growth Matters. In this episode, Nancy sheds light on her days at Salesforce and her critical role in recruiting (and retaining) the best talent as the company grew. She explains her decision to leave a comfortable position as VP to pursue her own path in the industry. You’ll also gain insight into her belief that talent retention and upskilling are as important as hiring.

    “You need to think about employees [in the same manner as customers] as you grow the company, not only recruiting them but also, how do you develop them? How do you retain them? Can they grow with the life cycles and stages of the company?”

    Listen to the full episode.

    Want more insights into recruiting tips and trends?

    Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry—straight from top experts themselves. More