hiring strategy

Subterms

    Latest story

    163 Shares179 Views

    How to Manage Inbound Applications & Rethink Talent Sourcing Analytics: Tips for Recruiters

    by

    Experiencing an overwhelming volume of inbound applications? In a new episode of Talk Talent to Me, LTK’s Global Head of Talent and People Analytics Shally Steckerl shares the importance of balancing application friction and how to optimize the applications coming in (especially when it’s become so easy to apply). 

    With Shally’s insights, let’s explore how to think about talent sourcing analytics in a new way and manage a flood of applications. 

    Handling too many inbound applications

    Shally has noticed a recent increase in candidate volume on LinkedIn. Reflecting on this, he says:

    “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, [and] 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.

    Evaluate your hiring tools

    Shally points out teams may be spending a lot of money on a tool “where only a quarter of one percent of the people is getting hired.” Can you relate?

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

    “There are other tools where I’m spending less and getting more hires per capita. I need to think about that and try to improve the conversion of quality from LinkedIn by essentially decreasing the volume.

    All the different aspects of recruiting start to come under the microscope and into question. Are they a good return on investment? As a recruiter, you want all the money to spend on all the tools because you don’t know what’s going to work. But when it’s your budget, you really start to look at what you’re spending your money on in a different way.”

    Related: Get Internal Approval for Recruiting Tools: A Step-by-Step Playbook

    4 Ways to better balance the hiring process

    Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of talk about how important it is to reduce friction in the application process. That might include:

    Removing the cover letter 

    Not asking applicants for information already on their resume

    Making the job application process mobile-friendly

    But then the floodgates open.

    Shally believes there needs to be a balance when it comes to reducing friction. “You want to reduce friction so you’re not making it inordinately awkward and difficult to apply. [At the same time,] you don’t want to reduce friction to the point where people can indiscriminately apply.”

    So what can you do to achieve a balance? He suggests the following strategies.

    1. Advertise jobs more selectively

    “You could use, for example, programmatic advertising. This would spend your advertising dollars on destinations producing the outcome you want. Rather than looking for the outcome to be an indiscriminate number of applications, now we need to measure the source based on the percentage of interviews it generates.

    Let’s say Source A has a hundred applicants but produced five interviews. Source B has ten applicants but also produced five interviews. Source B is producing higher quality per capita so I need to look at that.”

    2. Prioritize outcomes over activity

    “Activity refers to clicks and applies, which are really not relevant anymore. The outcome would be an interview or other results downstream. At the very least, you should be looking at which ones are making it to the interview because that’s a good indicator.” 

    More on this later… 

    3. Improve job description readability

    A few tips to keep in mind:

    Make job descriptions more gender-neutral. 

    Make job descriptions interesting and appealing. 

    Structure the order of information and how much information is present. 

    Make job descriptions shorter (without removing the interesting parts).

    Keep your company brand, mission, and vision apparent without excess text and long lists of bullet points.

    Shally says you might say, “‘If you’re interested in this kind of job, you landed in the right place.’ or ‘This is the kind of job for people like this. If this is you or you are someone who does this, then this is the job.’ 

    Then you have a little bit about what’s exciting about a job, the requirements to qualify the candidates, and the nice parts. Somebody will read that and know they’re in the right place and check those boxes. All the details need to be succinctly visible on the page.” 

    You’ll also have people looking at the job and realizing it’s not a fit for them. They might actually opt out after looking at the minimum qualifications or because they don’t align with the mission. This provides an effective filter to reach the right people. 

    4. Enhance employer brand

    It’s also possible you have a high volume of applicants because people are just looking at the job and have no idea what your company does. Address this by creating an employer branding campaign to make more people aware of what your company does. 

    “That way, they don’t have to determine that from the job posting itself. Candidates instead focus on reading the job requirements to see if they’re a fit.”

    Related: 8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

    Rethink your hiring metrics

    In this episode, Shally emphasizes a focus on the quality of a hire over the activity numbers game. When evaluating the best sources, he likes to compare which source led to the most amount of interviews. 

    So, why the interview? Why not go further back or ahead? 

    Once you get a candidate and a hiring manager to agree to meet with each other (whether they actually do or not), consider it a win. This is still a positive indicator of quality according to Shally. Where things tend to no longer depend on a recruiter’s ability to attract people is beyond the interview. 

    “Before the interview, we can’t measure quality because all we know is they applied – unless you want to look at every resume.

    Anything beyond the interview is out of the control of the recruiter because the hiring manager is the one conducting the interviews to determine the actual hiring of a candidate.” 

    Let’s consider the end of the funnel – the number of job offers. Here, you’re “looking at the quality of the entire process. That’s not just the source of the applicants. It’s the source of the interview experience, compensation, employment brand, hiring manager competencies as an interviewer, background check, and market conditions. These things don’t need to be tied to that source.

    You would be crediting a source for an offer when, in reality, there’s more to the offer than the source. However, there’s not much more to the interview than the source.” 

    Level up your talent sourcing  

    Want more insight into reaching high-quality candidates in a flood of applicants? Download this eBook to uncover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle an overwhelming amount of inbound applications.

    If your team needs some temporary or long-term help sourcing candidates for tech or sales roles, Hired can help! As an extension of your team, Hired Sourcers shortlist, screen, and manage communications to keep the process moving. Learn more about Hired Technical Sourcing services.

    Want more insights just for recruiters?

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

    More stories

    • 175 Shares159 Views

      in Employer

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

      by

      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

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Employer

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

      by

      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

    • 138 Shares149 Views

      in Employer

      How to Use Coding Challenge Events to Build Tech Talent Pipeline

      by

      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

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Employer

      Re-engineering Your 2023 Tech Hiring Strategy (Watch VIDEO on Demand)

      by

      If you are in the market to hire qualified software engineers, you need to modify your 2023 hiring strategy. But how exactly do your recruitment and hiring strategies need to evolve? Watch this on-demand webinar to hear experts discuss key findings and data from Hired’s 2023 State of Software Engineers report. They share advice for re-engineering your strategy and getting top tech positions filled quickly with skilled, high-value talent. 

      Moderated by Founder of Marketing by Maya, Maya Avitan, hear from:

      CTO, Hired, Dave Walters

      VP of Engineering, Greenhouse, Andy Lister

      CEO & Co-Founder, SheTO, Nidhi Gupta

      Read an excerpt of the conversation and access the full webinar video on demand. 

      Maya Avitan, Founder, Marketing by Maya

      Though Hired’s culture is remote-first, there are still major companies placing a heavy focus on bringing talent back into physical locations. However, based on the findings of the report there is a higher demand for remote work options from talent in all major cities including New York, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. 

      There is a disconnect between organizations that are searching for location-specific top tech talent that is seeking remote-first roles.

      What do you think about this disconnect and how are companies managing this demand from a hiring perspective?

      Dave Walters, CTO, Hired

      We are seeing a growing percentage of employers pushing for return to office, although the demand for remote engineering talent still remains very high. Remote roles command higher salaries than local roles especially in smaller markets. Enterprise companies are shifting fast in their demand for in-office employees, although a majority of the total positions do remain open to remote. 

      Meanwhile, we’ve continued to see the proportion of jobseekers only seeking remote roles versus in-person or hybrid grow. This shouldn’t be surprising as this demand for remote work started well before the pandemic and the pandemic only further fueled that in recent years. As a tech leader, I know the challenge we’ve all been facing in finding top talent with the right skill sets in past years. That challenge isn’t going to go away anytime soon. 

      Ultimately, despite the high-profile layoffs we’ve heard about in the news, unemployment for tech talent remains low. You have to cast a wider net in your search to be as competitive as possible and an opportune way to do that is by remaining flexible for remote talent around the country. 

      The bottom line is that remote work and flexibility continue to be some of the highest priorities for jobseekers. Promoting remote policies or benefits that allow for flexibility are going to be key strategies for attracting qualified, top tech talent.

      Watch the full collaborative panel discussion to discover: 

      More on how companies are managing the demand for remote-first work 

      Why talent leaders should take candidates from non-traditional educational backgrounds seriously

      The most in-demand software engineering skills are and how they’ve impacted the job market More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Employer

      Why a Sustainable Talent Acquisition Strategy is Critical for Employers Now

      by

      In recent years, the labor market has been increasingly candidate driven and focused on skill-based hiring. But with rising inflation, HR and talent leaders are under pressure to reduce hiring costs while maintaining efficiency. 

      There’s no doubt it’s a complicated space to be in – candidates are demanding higher wages, re-hire costs are significant, and upskilling investments are inevitable. So, how can you survive the transition without losing touch with your candidates? By adopting a sustainable approach to talent acquisition. 

      While organizations are moving toward more sustainable talent strategies during the economic slowdown, they can often confuse talent acquisition with recruitment. This lack of knowledge can hamper your process and disrupt progress. 

      Related: Hired Releases 2023 State of Software Engineers Report

      Recruitment vs. Talent Acquisition 

      Talent acquisition (TA) is an ongoing process to identify suitable candidates aligned with the company’s values, mission, and business goals. It is an ever-evolving process with a focus on current market trends, workforce makeup, and recruitment predictions. 

      Developing and maintaining a talent acquisition strategy allows you to stay ahead of the competition, empower your bottom line, and acquire top talent. 

      While talent acquisition and recruitment are often used interchangeably, they are two distinct processes. Although both deal with talent, recruiting is the process of sourcing, assessing, and hiring candidates in the short term. Recruitment often happens when there are open positions in the organization. 

      So, it includes the process of attracting quality job applicants, analyzing their qualities and skills, and hiring them for vacant roles. The recruitment process is time-bound, pre-defined, and standard compared to talent acquisition. 

      On the other hand, talent acquisition is a more insightful process based on long-term business and talent goals. The purpose of a TA strategy is to seek candidates who are the right fit and have the potential to contribute meaningfully to the future of the organization. TA experts and specialists are more concerned with laying the appropriate groundwork to hire the best talent long-term.

      What is a “sustainable TA strategy”?

      Talent sustainability is defined as an organization’s ability to continuously attract, develop, and retain candidates with the skills and qualities required for current or future roles. In a swiftly changing labor market, organizational needs and goals also change respectively. A one-time recruitment plan would be inept at meeting the evolving demands of the company.

      A sustainable talent acquisition strategy also encourages you to maintain a balance between acquiring external and promoting internal talent. Lack of career advancement opportunities is one of the main reasons people quit their jobs. 

      Although hiring new talent is important, doing so at the cost of current employees is detrimental to organizational growth. Moreover, if you are delegating all resources and money towards recruitment, there’s none left to invest in your existing employees.

      Hence, a sustainable strategy is a win for all – companies can divide time and resources between current employees and new hiring with proper planning and implementation. 

      Getting started

      While recruiting is essential for gaining employees, it can become a time-intensive and expensive endeavor without a proper TA strategy. Amidst a dynamic labor market, many organizations are exploring talent acquisition avenues to prepare for hiring surges and talent management. 

      If you are one of those companies looking to foray into the TA field, ask yourself the following questions before jumping to strategy:

      What are your long-term vision and goals for your organization?

      What type of talent do you need to achieve the company’s vision and goals? 

      How can you integrate your organizational values into the talent acquisition process? 

      How do you create a program framework to support your talent acquisition strategy? 

      How will you assess the progress of your talent acquisition strategy? 

      Your answers will help you define and align your business goals to the talent strategy. 

      Why you need it

      Finding the right talent in the tech industry is a struggle for organizations worldwide. This year, a long-standing skills gap and a lack of professionals in the market have put things in perspective. 

      In simple terms, a talent acquisition strategy saves time and money, boosts productivity, and prepares you for the market’s dips and surges. Time-specific recruitment periods force you to hire and onboard candidates quickly. It’s an expensive affair, and can also cause disruptions in workflow and productivity.

      As some organizations prepare for the possibility of a recession, many are also reducing their hiring budgets and rolling back their hiring plans. However, not having a comprehensive long-term strategy will make organizations vulnerable when they do need to start hiring again. 

      Moving away from the mindset of recruiting being a one-and-done deal, and creating a more sustainable hiring framework is crucial.

      Sustainability is key

      Hiring new candidates is often time-consuming and costly, especially if done repeatedly. This is where sustainable talent acquisition comes in. 

      A solid talent acquisition strategy allows you to future-proof your organization by investing in nurturing, hiring, upskilling, and retaining highly qualified tech talent. 

      Amidst some new (and old) challenges, one thing remains constant – data-driven and long-term talent acquisition and management frameworks are here to stay. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Employer

      Top 3 Strategies to Nurture Your Tech & Sales Candidate Pipeline

      by

      In the wake of the economic downturn and slow labor market, companies are focusing on talent engagement and outreach by developing talent pipelines and employer branding. According to Gem’s survey, anticipating the challenge of ‘uncompetitive offers,’ 71% of talent leaders plan to invest in employer brands. A strong brand can make up for a less competitive compensation or benefits package. 

      Engaging candidates in your talent pipeline must be strategic. Nurturing candidates in your talent pool is the litmus test of your overall talent acquisition strategy. Because candidates’ chances of dropping out are high at this stage, organizations must develop reliable methods to engage and nurture their candidates.

      How to engage and nurture your talent pipeline

      Remember the strategies should be relevant to the present market and the candidate’s wants and needs. While talking to candidates, take time to understand their expectations and needs, so you can incorporate those into your strategy. Also, talent acquisition is sometimes a long process, so identifying sustainable, adaptable, and efficient methods will go a long way. 

      1. Optimize your employer brand 

      It’s the candidate’s market, and how they perceive you impacts your overall employer brand and brand awareness profoundly. Despite that, there’s still a lot you can do to boost your employer brand. 

      Companies across the globe use employer branding to highlight their vision, values, company culture, and benefits. By highlighting in-demand policies and perks, companies place themselves as employers of choice, in turn attracting quality talent. It also helps convey authenticity and purpose, creating shared meaning and promoting employee engagement. So, how should you promote your employer brand?

      Tell a story 

      At the heart of great employer branding is the simplistic and authentic way of conveying your organizational story to your target audience. Keep it simple – with an influx of information from all channels, complicated messaging will leave your audience confused. Use your values as the north star to guide you in your storytelling journey. 

      Personalize your message

      Employer branding borrows its concepts from the world of marketing. Marketing campaigns use audience segmentation to personalize content and identify and segment target groups. Customize your messaging and content based on each group to deliver quality content that resonates. 

      Highlight your leaders 

      In organizations, change often trickles down from the top. For your messaging to be truly effective, it has to be owned and shared from the top. Having company leaders convey important messages is a great exercise in cultivating accountability and trust. 

      Related: 3 Ways You Should Use C-Suite to Recruit Tech Talent (+ Free Templates)

      Update your website

      The candidate experience begins at the first interaction, usually through your website. Emphasize creating a meaningful and easy-to-navigate website and careers page to tell the story about your organization. 

      Related: Learn what talent leaders have to say about strengthening the employer brand: 8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand.

      2. Upgrade your tech stack

      It is impossible to imagine recruitment and talent acquisition without technology or data insights. With the emergence of recruiting tools, talent management platforms, and communication software, talent acquisition has become extremely data-driven.

      This is a welcome change, as the data-driven approach tackles bias, keeps the process objective, and predicts returns in advance. Simultaneously, tools like ATS, CRM, and more can automate administrative tasks, customize candidate communication, and provide real-time insights. 

      If you are planning your talent acquisition strategy, don’t forget to upgrade your tech stack. Here are some essential technologies you should include in your talent acquisition ecosystem. 

      AI-powered and Machine Learning tools 

      Artificial intelligence and machine learning are a powerful part of talent acquisition technology. Tools supported by AI and machine learning undertake a variety of functions including:

      Screening and shortlisting candidates

      Parsing through resumes

      Matching candidates to roles based on skills and keywords

      Removing identifying information to ensure fair screenings

      Evaluating candidate assessments

      Simulating conversations through chatbots

      Providing analytics, metrics, and trends about the recruiting process

      AI-powered tools perform manually cumbersome tasks like resume screenings and candidate assessments within a fraction of time, helping to reduce time-to-hire. 

      ATS or CRM tools

      An Applicant Tracking System allows you to monitor a candidate throughout the hiring process from a centralized application. It also provides information about candidate dropouts and problems in the hiring process. An ATS can perform additional tasks like resume screening or assessments, interviewing, scheduling, and shortlisting candidates.

      Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) tools allow you to navigate candidate relationships by automating personalization and scheduling content. 

      Candidate assessments 

      For tech candidates, technical skills assessments are central to the hiring process, but they are also time-consuming as engineers have to design, conduct, and evaluate them. With technical assessment tools, AI will create, distribute, and even score the evaluation as well as shortlist candidates to move them ahead in the pipeline. 

      You can also conduct screening measures to identify relevant candidates from within the pipeline. 

      3. Ramp up remote hiring 

      According to Hired, 93% of candidates indicated a preference for remote work. In another survey, Gartner found 52% of employees said flexible work policies will affect their decision to stay at their organizations in 2023.

      These trends point to the obvious: a digital hiring process is essential. The ability to publish jobs online, interview candidates remotely, and exchange digital documents safely will keep your organization and processes modernized. 

      When onboarding new talent, it is essential to provide a smooth experience. Ensuring you have the right technology to support employee onboarding should be a top priority when implementing a remote hiring process. 

      Related: How to Onboard Tech Engineers onto Your Team (Free 30/60/90 Template) 

      In addition, investing in technologies and programs to enable remote learning and training help to manage larger-scale remote teams. They’re also useful in aiding in the skill development process for your talent pipeline.

      Beyond hiring, your remote teams should be able to collaborate and work together regularly. You might consider teaming up with companies like Microsoft, Zoom, or Cisco to support video interviewing and remote teamwork. 

      Want to keep your talent pipeline engaged? 

      Overlooking your talent pipeline may lead to dropouts and a poor employer brand, while consistent engagement will improve hiring performance and help you meet your hiring goals. Highlight organizational values to tell your brand story, involve your leaders, and leverage social media to get your message out there. Lastly, updating your tech stack to promote efficiency and collaboration as well as focusing on remote hiring can help keep candidates engaged. 

      Hired’s range of features and services enables you to drive brand awareness and expand your talent pipeline. Get in touch with our team about hosting custom events to target relevant candidates. More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Employer

      Want High-Performing Pipelines & Sustainable Talent Acquisition? Here are 5 Steps

      by

      Talent acquisition isn’t easy in the current job market. Companies cannot afford to post a job and simply hope for the best. For companies with slowed hiring, it is even more imperative to mindfully establish a quality candidate pipeline if they want to hit the ground running when hiring picks up again. 

      A talent pipeline is a pool of qualified, suitable candidates who could fill the open roles within the organization, either now or in the future. Usually, talent pipelines include both internal and external candidates that companies intend to promote or hire, respectively. 

      Establishing a network of professionals:

      Allows for a steady flow of candidates even when the market is down

      Reduces time and hiring cost

      Minimizes workflow and productivity disruptions

      Increases interview success rates

      Helps match talent more effectively

      How to build a robust talent pipeline 

      However, developing a talent pipeline is easier said than done. Companies need to find candidates and consistently engage with them to keep talent pipelines warm. Employee referrals, social media, and engaging with past candidates are great ways to add more people into your pipeline. Forward-thinking talent acquisition leaders and teams may also collaborate with companies who are sourcing and training early-career talent. 

      So, how do you develop a high-performing tech and sales talent pipeline?

      1. Plan: Identify your hiring goals and needs

      Like any other business decision, your talent acquisition strategy must align with your needs and goals. In terms of recruitment, this is where many organizations fall short. Without adopting a strategy for hiring, you’ll have more costs than benefits. 

      Spend time developing a complete understanding of your talent needs, including current positions needing to be filled, future positions or growth, and changes that might impact hiring. 

      This is known as talent mapping. It is a proactive approach to bridging the gap between business strategy and hiring to predict long-term hiring needs and cultivate support for the new roles. 

      Since talent acquisition is a long-term strategy, talent mapping can be a crucial exercise and helps put your best foot forward. While it looks simple, talent mapping is an extensive process and involves brainstorming and collaboration across departments, stakeholders, and leaders. To get started, begin with these questions: 

      Are you planning to expand your organization within the next year, two, or even five years? 

      Is your company anticipating any potential mergers, acquisitions, or other major changes?

      Do you plan to change locations, add one or more offices, or go remote/hybrid? 

      Where do you think the company needs the most support?

      Are there any departments that lack skills, structure, or support the most? 

      Is there a specific department that you plan to expand or restructure?

      What skill sets do you need to meet business goals and objectives? How do you plan to achieve that?

      How do you see the company (or a department) changing/growing to support new roles? 

      2. Source: Find quality candidates

      After brainstorming the above questions, you will have a fair idea of the type of roles you are (or will be) hiring for. By understanding the type of talent and skills required for your company, you will be able to identify the right candidates to fill up your pipeline. 

      Candidate sourcing to fill your pipeline means actively searching for candidates instead of waiting for them to apply to your organization. Here are some of the most essential sourcing methods for attracting top candidates: 

      Employee Referrals

      Organizations often ask their current employees to refer candidates and offer a reward in return. These popular programs are often successful in finding qualified candidates who are the right fit for the organization.  

      Job Fairs and Networking Events

      What better way to approach candidates than in-person events? Compared to typical online outreach methods like emails, offline networking is an opportunity to develop strong and fruitful connections. This is also a great option for engaging with passive candidates. In addition, campus events are effective for fostering early-career talent. 

      Recruitment Databases

      Applications like an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), Candidate Relationship Management (CRM), or other tools provide relevant data for talent acquisition. Partner with a data provider or talent sourcing company if you don’t have a candidate database. But, if you are planning to incorporate a talent strategy into your upcoming plans, it is an ideal time to embrace a data-driven policy. 

      Related: Browse Hired’s ATS partners

      Sourcing from Social Channels

      Job boards and applicant portals allow you to identify candidates based on skills and keyword searches related to your needs. While LinkedIn is one of the most popular sources, people also use social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to attract candidates. You might also target niche sources like Hired for tech candidates like developers and engineers. 

      3. Connect: Build relationships

      Once you’ve identified the candidates, it’s time to reach out and connect with them. Now, this is where it can get tricky. At this point, you are not offering a job or asking them to apply for an open role. Instead, your intention is to develop an authentic relationship over time. If done right, these relationships will be beneficial. However, candidates may lose interest if you appear overbearing and irrelevant. 

      Focus the initial conversation on understanding their goals, interests, experiences, and future plans. This will help you cultivate trust and build better relationships with passive candidates. 

      Remember that honest and consistent communication is fundamental to a candidate relationship. Inform the candidates if there are no open roles and engage with them about other valuable and relevant topics. Let them know about new projects, developments, and suitable roles, as they arise. 

      Related: 7 Ways to Message UVPs to Tech Candidates Now: Recruitment Marketing in 2023

      4. Assess: Align skills and goals

      As you connect with your candidates, assess if their skills and goals are in alignment with your company’s needs and goals. Identify appropriate candidates from your talent pipeline based on the need for specific skill sets. You can also tweak your sourcing strategy to bring in more specific talent. For instance, if your goal is to have more diverse candidates, you might target diversity job boards that have proven successful based on your talent pool assessment. 

      Related: Hired platform diversity features

      Consider these questions while assessing your talent pool: 

      Does the candidate possess the skills necessary to fulfill your business needs? Is there scope to develop those (and other) skills within the organization?

      How is the candidate adding value to your organization?

      Are the candidates’ past experiences applicable to any roles at your company?

      How can you support the candidate in fulfilling their goals?

      What opportunities for learning and development do you plan to provide? 

      Are your diversity goals reflected in your talent pool? If not, how do you plan to achieve those? What initiatives do you have in place to support diverse candidates? 

      Tip: Use Hired Asessments to evaluate talent and get insight into how you can improve your talent pipeline. 

      5. Nurture: Keep your candidates engaged

      Congratulations, you successfully built a talent pipeline! But your work doesn’t end there. Nurturing candidates in your pipeline is vital to maintaining their interest. In addition, passive candidates who might not be looking to switch jobs might require more time and effort.

      Nurturing candidates requires a delicate balance between building a solid relationship and not overdoing it and driving them away. Sending them a barrage of irrelevant job listings will likely irritate them and give them a bad impression of you and your company. 

      Focus on sharing relevant and interesting content tailored to their needs. Leverage your previous interactions to deliver personalized content to them. 

      Another way to engage candidates is to invest in their training and development. Research suggests that 26% of jobseekers want learning and development opportunities at their current workplace. This is true not only for your talent pipeline but also those hired from your channel. While training and development initiatives seem expensive, they are investments in the candidate’s and the company’s future.

      Related: How to Nurture Innovation, Strengthen Retention (Use Professional Development) 

      Start building your tech and sales talent pipeline

      Organizations can focus on curating a network of talented candidates to develop a sustainable talent acquisition strategy. Aligning your business goals with hiring needs to source and nurture relevant candidates ensures you have plenty of interested candidates when you are ready to hire.

      Ready to build your talent pipeline? Book a demo with Hired to get instant access to a curated pool of responsive top tech and sales talent actively seeking their next role. More

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Employer

      First 3 Questions to Ask Tech Talent (& What to Listen For)

      by

      About this Infographic

      Make the most of technical phone screens by starting off strong with these 3 initial questions. Equally important to knowing what to ask is knowing what to listen for in answers (we share that too!). Use this infographic to make phone screens productive for both yourself and candidates. More