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    Daemon Cultivates a Culture of Feedback & Collaboration for Successful Hiring

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    Sixth in the Tech Employers Leading the Way Series

    Editor’s Note: Tech Employers Leading the Way recognises companies that innovate and work to improve the hiring experience for both their hiring managers and the tech candidates they seek. In this series, we’ll dive into what works for them, and what they’ve learned, and share it with our readers. Sharing these stories and learnings supports our company vision to make hiring more equitable, efficient, and transparent.

    Hired’s List of 2023 Top Employers Winning Tech Talent highlighted companies across a variety of segments and industries creating tech hiring processes and experiences embracing principles such as equity, efficiency, and transparency. 

    Among those leading the way is Daemon, a people-first tech consultancy seeking to better the world through digital transformation. 

    Resourcing Manager Wayne Taylor shares how Daemon values feedback to improve the hiring process and uses Hired to maximise the impact of its Talent Team. 

    About Daemon

    Both internally and externally, our vision and North Star ambitions at Daemon are clear to see. We want to use technology to make the world a better place.

    Now these aren’t just words on our website, these are built into our ways of working, engaging with our employees, and communicating with candidates.

    As a value-led business, we hire by our values, as well as partner with clients based on shared values. Your technology skills are secondary to your values and cultural fit for us as we can support you in your technical journey.

    “What I love about Daemon is they hire for future potential. Daemon sees beyond what is written on your CV…they see potential and invest in that potential. That was one of the best things I noticed in the interview stages.”
    Daemon Software Engineering

    See what else our Daemonites have to say about the Daemon culture. 

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    Tell us about a process you implemented to improve candidate experience and the hiring process.

    At Daemon, we have a heavy feedback culture internally and with our clients to enable continuous improvement and progression for all parties. Our interview process is no different.

    Around 12 months ago, we introduced a document to the process. This allows our interviewer community to have a one-stop place for all the tools required to interview. 

    Editor’s note: standardising the interview process is a good DEI hiring practice as well.

    It contains interview questions (prompting responses highlighting each of our values), feedback on the candidates from previous interviews, and any “flags” to look out for, as well as space for them to record the candidates’ answers to their questions and the overall feedback.

    Introducing this to the process allowed us to capture feedback almost instantly. This reduces the need for the hiring manager/talent team to have a further catch-up meeting with the interviewers to gain feedback, as everything is shared on the doc. 

    This has improved our candidate experience and decreased the time it takes for candidates to get through our process too. It took our time to hire to under 20 days in most cases. 

    Related: 3 Ways You Should Use C-Suite to Recruit Tech Talent (+ Free Templates), Want to Run Better Interviews? You Need a Pre-Interview Meeting (Free Template)

    What are some of Daemon’s strategies for maintaining a strong employer brand?

    There are a few strategies we use to build and maintain our strong employer brand.

    We make sure we’re on the right channels, like Hired, where the top talent is, and keeping Daemon at the forefront of our target candidates.

    Being very responsive, timely, and engaged ensures their experience on these channels is better than our competitors. Efficient hiring is very important to us. 

    We have a very vibrant and energetic brand and we want to make sure this is clearly visible to those interested in Daemon. 

    Making sure we have a strong LinkedIn presence, which not only focuses on client-related content but also our culture. We do this through blogs, videos, podcasts, charity initiatives, events, etc. 

    Sharing our People stories is very important to us as we are a people-focused business. It’s natural for us to tell Daemon stories.

    How has collaboration between hiring managers and TA teams improved efficiency?

    Collaboration and teamwork are at the heart of all things we do at Daemon, whether it’s client and internal projects or improving internal processes.

    As a Talent Team we have regular meetings with our interviewer community to discuss what went well the previous month and any iterations to the questions. These are upvoted and chosen by the interviewers themselves to ensure consistency, even with different interviewers conducting the interviews.

    There are two interviewers on each culture interview. The purpose is to reduce the risk of unconscious bias, offer collaboration for the interviewers to agree on the outcome, and give an opportunity for feedback on the candidates interviewing.

    For our technical interviews, our Principal Consultants have a monthly Town Hall. This is a platform to talk openly with the executive board and collaborate on interviewing techniques. Again, this offers a repeatable and consistent process.

    Related: Technical Assessments for Recruiting & Hiring Tech Talent 

    Overall, we are really dedicated to having speedy recruitment processes, from the first conversation to onboarding.

    Hired is certainly one of those tools. It makes the first conversation much easier, enabling us to move faster.

    We recently introduced a new HRIS (Bamboo) which works as an Applicant Tracking System. It also allows a consistent and efficient onboarding experience for everyone who is offered a role at Daemon. 

    This includes everything from clear offer letters to a welcome note with the relevant onboarding forms for completion online. This removes our paper footprint and ensures candidates and colleagues have accessible documents from day one and throughout their time at Daemon.

    How has Hired supported your hiring strategy?

    Hired has been instrumental in us making tech hires over the last 24 months we’ve been working with them.

    We have access to high calibre candidates who we might not have been aware of if we hired through other means.

    The efficiency of the platform and ease of use are so helpful. That includes the information you receive upfront on the candidates to the ability to conduct very specific searches based on a range of demographics. With the number of hires we’ve made through the platform, we as a Talent Team really trust the quality of the candidates on Hired. 

    Lastly, but by no means least, is the support from the Hired team through the assigned Account Manager and Account Directors. All of them provide great feedback and updates on industry trends. 

    Check out all the featured tech employers in the series so far: 

    Firstup Puts People First to Help Companies Speed Up

    One Medical Focuses on Authenticity in the Candidate Experience

    Veho’s Multi-Faceted and Candidate-Centric Interview Process for Better Alignment

    Cisco Turns Talent Acquisition Professionals into Talent Advisors 

    AutoFi Showcases Culture & Employee Development to Strengthen Employer Branding More

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

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

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      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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      Navigating Layoffs, Leveraging Strengths, & More: Talk Talent to Me January ’23 Recap

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      Catch up on the January 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. 

      Layoffs and the importance of networking with Jason Walker & Rey Ramirez, Co-Founders of Thrive HR Consulting 

      Individuals’ greatest strengths with Dr. Scott Whiteford, Director of Leadership Analytics at Talent Plus 

      The value of talent acquisition with Rahul Yodh, VP of TA at New Western

      1. Jason Walker & Rey Ramirez, Co-Founders of Thrive HR Consulting 

      Given the current economic climate, employers and employees around the world are becoming better acquainted with the reality of layoffs each day. Guests discuss the ins and outs of layoffs, including the factors affecting them, the typical process, who’s most at risk, and how to mitigate that risk. They also provide insight into the current hiring (and firing) landscape and the push and pull of navigating remote work post-pandemic. 

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

      “You’ve got to treat employees respectfully because the same people you’re laying off today are the ones you’re going to be trying to re-recruit in nine months.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      2. Dr. Scott Whiteford, Director of Leadership Analytics at Talent Plus 

      Dr. Whiteford delves into what it means to focus on strengths over weaknesses, the importance of self-reflection, and how to become increasingly specialized throughout your career. He also shares advice for young people on how to discover their strengths, the importance of looking at the whole person when you want to hire successfully, and how to form a constructive partnership with a hiring manager.

      “Understand what parts of your job you like, what parts you don’t like, where you’re good, where you’re not so good. The better prepared you are to have that conversation with your leader, the more likely you’re going to see a strong outcome.” 

      Listen to the full episode.

      3. Rahul Yodh, VP of TA at New Western

      Without a specific revenue amount associated with it, talent acquisition is often viewed as a cost center. However, Rahul explains there is a direct positive revenue impact to each hire a business makes and how important it is for TA leaders to make others aware of this. He also shares advice on how to change the way talent acquisition is viewed in organizations, his philosophy on interviews, and the importance of building cross-departmental relationships.

      “As a TA leader, you’ve got to think like a revenue org leader, like a COO, like a chief marketing officer, chief sales officer. You’ve got to really sharpen your business IQ and be able to demonstrate quantifiable terms that your team is providing.”

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

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      What You’ll Learn

      Why it’s not about hyper-growth anymore

      How to be creative and considerate when structuring and communicating benefits

      Why emphasizing flexibility is key

      About this eBook

      At the beginning of 2022, a common recruitment message to candidates was how rapidly a company was growing, or about the latest round of funding. 

      After companies of all sizes laid off workers in mid through late 2022, those messages needed revisions. Now, there is an unprecedented volume of high-quality, seasoned talent looking for their next role. 

      To make the most of this opportunity to reach previously passive candidates and slingshot your teams forward, use this eBook to proactively address jobseeker priorities or concerns. More

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      How to Onboard Successfully & More: Talk Talent to Me December ’22 Recap

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      Catch up on the December 2022 episodes of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leaders who share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. 

      Respecting history, protecting the future, and maintaining healthy office culture with Hadley Haut, Executive Director at The Atlantic 

      Diversity on a leadership level, career path building, and successful onboarding with Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, CHRO at Cohesity

      Educational standards, the importance of soft skills, and India as a source of talent with Aditya Singh, Director of Talent Acquisition at Informatica

      Working for an agency versus in-house, initiating urgency and speed, and the responsibilities of a TA leader with Jodi Cohen, Director of Talent Acquisition at Tombras

      HR personnel versus recruiters, turning a bad interview into a valuable one, and personal branding with The HR Twins Carla Patton & Camille Tate

      Unconventional career journeys, the pressure to specialize, and why sourcing is often oversimplified with Wesley Gilbert, Global Head of TA at On

      A white glove approach to recruiting, reframing job descriptions, and flexibility in the resume process with Alia Poonawala & Emma O’Rourke-Powell, Recruiting Directors at Johns Hopkins University 

      1. Hadley Haut, Executive Director at The Atlantic

      Candidates should approach the company they want to work for with deliberate ambition, adequate research, and the will to uphold company values. Hadley did exactly that on her way to becoming Executive Director of Talent and Culture at The Atlantic. She shares how, despite the difficulties of the pandemic, her company successfully maintained its office culture. Hadley also explains why working in-office is still extremely valuable for all employees. 

      “When you’re ready for a new job, the best thing you can do is reach out to a company where you really want to work, because that’s the first thing anyone who is hiring you will notice.” 

      Listen to the full episode.

      2. Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, CHRO at Cohesity

      The workplace is rapidly changing and there is an increasing focus on the mental health, wellness, goals, and happiness of employees. Amy discusses her interesting HR philosophies and shares how to find the right way to help onboarding employees integrate successfully. Amy also suggests how to lead onboarding to secure employee retention and engage employees in their work. She even offers an example of how to plan an employee’s onboarding process!

      “There’s a ton of studies that if you don’t get onboarding, right within the first month to 60 days, retention drops drastically after the first year of employment. It’s not only the right thing to do for your employees, but there’s real business value in doing that.” 

      Listen to the full episode.

      3. Aditya Singh, Director of Talent Acquisition at Informatica 

      As educational standards constantly change, is it still necessary to hire talent based solely on the educational background? Or, should recruiters look for something else? Aditya helps answer this and emphasizes the importance of soft skills. He also discusses India as a major source of talent for companies based outside of the country, explaining why India is unique in the talent it produces. Learn about the country’s current surge in technical skills development and why startups remain the focus of many Indian investors.

      “I think we need to get away from role-based positions. The guardrails of education are slowly moving out. I think that we find the person who’s able to deliver, focus on the result and what the individual brings to the table, and then the background of the individual.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      4. Jodi Cohen, Director Talent Acquisition at Tombras

      Jodi dives into her journey as a recruiter and how she ended up working in-house, which she compares to working for an agency. She also dives into how she brought urgency and speed to Tombras, and moves quickly while putting processes in place. Jodi tells us her thoughts on the roles and responsibilities of a Director of Talent Acquisition, and why being hands-on is essential. 

      “I am still very reluctant to pass on any responsibilities through the hiring process. Anything that’s communication with the candidate, I’m still going to take on, because that ensures that the relationship with the candidate is going to be maintained throughout the process.” 

      Listen to the full episode.

      5. Camille Tate & Carla Patton, Head of Talent at Strava and VP of HR at RAPP

      For departments that should work in tandem, many find that HR personnel and recruiters often devalue each other’s roles. This episode’s guest duo rectified this common situation and reveal exactly how HR and TA should join forces. In fact, these two guests are twins and work side-by-side to deliver the hit podcast, The Career Saloon. Carla and Camille offer takes on their least favorite aspects of the opposite department too. As for advice, they tell us how to turn a bad interview into a valuable one, why it’s vital to be self-aware, and why personal branding is inherent in each of us. 

      Related: What Happens When TA & Hiring Managers Unite? Best Practices from One Medical, NBCUniversal & More

      “People are always watching you. It doesn’t matter if you think they aren’t; they are always watching you. If you don’t think you have a personal brand, you do.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      6. Wesley Gilbert, Global Head of TA at On

      Not everyone follows a linear career path, and pursuing a non-traditional route can equip you with useful skills you wouldn’t otherwise have acquired. With a varied and eventful career journey, Wesley is living proof that there’s no correct way to approach your career. He offers a refreshing perspective, sharing how a fortuitous encounter facilitated his first recruitment job and how he realized the inflexibility of a larger organization wasn’t for him. He also discusses the pressure to become more specialized (and the benefits of being a generalist). 

      “It doesn’t matter how senior you are when you come into a company. We’re going to give you some autonomy, we’re going to give you some scope. And we’re going to give you the trust to go and do that. And that means that you just attract a completely different caliber of people.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      7. Alia Poonawala & Emma O’Rourke-Powell, Recruiting Directors at Johns Hopkins University 

      In another episode featuring double the insights, Alia and Emma from Hire Hopkins, the recruiting arm of Johns Hopkins University, discuss university recruitment. They shed light on their white glove approach featuring one-on-one and data-driven work, and share how building an infrastructure streamlines the recruitment process. Alia and Emma also explain how to reframe job descriptions to generate interest from the target market, why flexibility is vital in the resume process, and why you should consider international talent. 

      “The companies that do well are the ones that are teachable and willing to experiment.” 

      Related: Raise the Bar in 2023: Strategies from Top Employers Winning Tech Talent (VIDEO)

      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 to Nurture Innovation, Strengthen Retention (Use Professional Development)

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      If you want to foster employee professional development and growth, it’s essential to begin with a positive and supportive work environment. By providing opportunities for learning, as well as a culture of collaboration and open communication, companies encourage their employees to reach their full potential and become valuable assets to the organization. 

      In this blog, we explore laying the foundation for employee professional development beginning with the hiring process, and ways to create a nurturing environment. To help provide real-world examples and insights, we’ll lean on excerpts from episodes of Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, featuring these experts: 

      Consider growth potential from day one

      Riffat Jaffer shares, “There are so many jobs everyone does. But what are they going to grow into six months or three years from now and how will they add value to your company in the future?”

      Hiring for potential means looking beyond a candidate’s current skills and experience. It’s considering their ability to learn and grow in the role. The specific role you’re hiring for shouldn’t be the bottom line, but rather a starting point to build upon.

      This approach is particularly valuable for businesses ready to invest in their employees and support their professional development. Companies then bring on employees who may not have all the required skills at the time of hire. However, they have the aptitude and willingness to learn and grow.

      Leverage potential to build diversity

      One benefit of hiring for potential is helping companies build diverse and dynamic teams. By considering a candidate’s potential rather than just their existing credentials, businesses bring on employees with a range of backgrounds and perspectives. This contributes to creating a more vibrant and creative work environment and allows for more innovative solutions.

      In a past panel discussion, “An Insider’s Guide to Hiring in Tech,” Nathalie Grandy, formerly with Gem, now Head of Tech Recruiting at Mutiny, shared her insights. She says, “It starts with changing the mindset of what you’re looking for and potentially being open to those nontraditional backgrounds. For us, it’s encouraging hiring managers to think about the 80/20 rule. So 80% existing skill set and 20% coachability.”

      Impact down the line: employee retention

      Another advantage of hiring for potential is helping companies retain top talent. By providing opportunities for learning and growth, businesses support their employees in achieving their career goals and help them feel fulfilled in their roles. This leads to increased job satisfaction and a lower employee turnover rate.

      Riffat explains, “Candidates come in and maybe they’ve not done the job exactly like you want them to do. But they know you trusted them and hired them to do it. They’re willing to give it their all and more than somebody who has done it three times over now.” 

      Take a leap of faith

      Of course, hiring for potential does come with its challenges. For example, it is difficult to accurately assess a candidate’s potential. There is always a certain level of risk involved in bringing on employees who may not have all the required skills at the time of hire. 

      However, with careful consideration and a robust onboarding process, companies can successfully hire for potential and reap the many benefits of supporting employee professional development and growth.

      Riffat says, “Maybe they’re not where we want them to be today but our onboarding and training come in to get candidates where they want to go. Typically, you end up hiring the best candidates when you take a leap of faith.”

      According to Riffat, hiring for potential is all about “being able to partner with the hiring managers and make sure they see potential in a candidate. It also depends a lot on product maturity and if we can afford to give a candidate six months to become what we want.” 

      Build an inclusive environment to foster employee growth

      An inclusive workplace values and respects diversity, and is where all employees feel welcome and supported. By fostering an inclusive workplace, businesses create an environment to support employee development and growth. Here are a few ways to do this:

      1. Establish guiding values to support professional development and growth

      These values must emphasize the importance of providing opportunities for employees to learn and grow in their roles, and support their professional development. By adopting such values, companies create an environment that encourages employees to learn new skills and take on new challenges.

      Anabel Morales echoes this saying, “The key to scaling our culture successfully is equipping our leaders with tools to scale trust, transparency, and inclusion. When we hire managers or promote somebody into a management role, we’re introducing them to our leadership principles and educating them on how to live up those values.”

      2. Encourage open communication and feedback

      Create an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas and providing feedback to one another. This helps identify and address any challenges or barriers employees may be facing, and can support their growth and development.

      To Anabel, this means “facilitating inclusion and teaching people how to build trust. Leading without micromanaging, asking for feedback, and being a good listener are basic things managers sometimes forget to do.” 

      “The psychological safety piece is also very important. It is something you need in a team to ensure innovation. The last thing you want as a manager is to have a team where everybody just agrees with you. Create an environment where people feel open to speak.”

      3. Explore personal drive and growth

      Provide employees with support and guidance as they explore their personal drive for growth. This might include offering advice and mentorship to help guide their self-reflection as they define their purpose and future goals.

      Sacha Luthi says, “If you look at what success means, it’s very broad. I can make things very complicated as an HR person. Or, I can try to build an environment in which people want to work with you. I don’t want people to work with me because they have to. The true reason is finding the ‘Why are you here?’”

      4. Measure the impact of deficiencies

      There are endless avenues to take when it comes to professional development and growth. So many possibilities might become overwhelming, causing employees to struggle in picking their starting point. As a leader, aid employees in identifying personal development needs to plot their course.

      Reflecting on his own experience, Sacha says, “it took good leaders to see things I was not able to see in myself. You need people along the way who believe in you and build confidence.”

      Encourage self-reflection to measure the impact of deficiencies in order to identify growth opportunities. Sach poses a few questions for individuals to consider: “How do I find out what I’m really good at? What gives me energy? Where is the space for it to be used?”

      “If you are not good at something you should also look at it from a collective perspective. There are other people around you who may jump in or cover the gap, so look at performance and career. We still value and recognize individuals but how do we put those strengths together so the collective output is better?” 

      5. Provide opportunities for learning and development

      The opportunity to continuously learn and tackle new challenges continues to be the number one reason software engineers enter a career in the field. Employers should offer compelling career development opportunities to attract and retain software engineers and ensure they feel adequately challenged in their roles. 

      Based on our survey of software engineers, more than half said it’s important to them their employer provides professional development opportunities. 72.2% reported new challenges and continuous learning most attracted them to a career in software engineering.

      Set the tone for personal growth & professional development in your organization

      If you want to create an environment to encourage employees to develop new skills, cultivate new strengths, and continue the evolution of their careers, build an inclusive workplace and keep growth in mind from the hiring process on. 

      Tune into Hired.com’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me. Hear what top experts have to share about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry today.

      Want to listen to the full episodes featured in this article?

      Editor’s note: at the time of the podcast recording, Anabel was VP of Talent Acquisition, in August of 2022, she became VP, People and Culture. Congrats, Anabel!  More

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      in Employer

      How to Build a Sustainable Tech Talent Acquisition Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide

      by

      About this eBook

      Do you know anyone who’s used “talent acquisition” and “recruiting” interchangeably? Maybe you’ve done it, yourself! While organizations are moving towards a more sustainable talent acquisition strategy, they often confuse talent acquisition with recruitment. This misunderstanding may hamper your process and disrupt progress.

      A sustainable talent acquisition strategy encourages you to maintain a balance between acquiring external and promoting internal talent. A lack of career advancement opportunities is one of the main reasons people quit their jobs. Sometimes, current employees even feel neglected when companies enter the hiring phase.

      Although hiring new talent is important, doing so at the cost of current employees is detrimental to organizational growth and morale. Moreover, if you delegate all resources and money towards recruitment, there’s none left to invest in and retain your 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. While recruiting is essential for gaining employees, it can become a time-intensive and expensive endeavor without a TA strategy.

      Amidst a dynamic labor market, many organizations are exploring talent acquisition avenues to prepare for hiring surges and talent management. To help, we created an eBook to demystify talent sustainability and help organizations incorporate it into talent acquisition strategy.

      What You’ll Learn

      What constitutes a sustainable talent acquisition strategy in both candidate and employer-driven markets

      Actionable steps to take on the daunting task of building a robust talent pipeline, including 5 questions to answer before making a plan

      Strategies to nurture and engage candidates in the talent pipeline

      A look into the future of tech talent acquisition

      Plus, Why Core Values are Important to Talent Acquisition Strategies

      By integrating your organization’s core values into your talent acquisition strategy, it strengthens your employer brand. This pays dividends in multiple areas including candidate and employee experience. If you need help in this area, we’ve also created resources for both startups and larger enterprise companies. More

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      in Employer

      8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

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      What You’ll Learn

      How to fill positions more efficiently through tools, templates, and moreThe partnership making hires an average of 11 days fasterThe strategy that took an offer acceptance rate from 60% to 88%

      About this eBook, 8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

      In a panel discussion led by Hired CTO Dave Walters, talent leaders from Gem, Tanium, NBCUniversal, and One Medical shared their thoughts on trends and best practices for optimizing the candidate experience.

      They reviewed how to improve the hiring process by strengthening the experience and by extension, the employer brand. Now, we are covering eight of their strategies to consistently help their teams fill tech and sales jobs efficiently. Use them to take action with your recruiting goals! More