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    Using Data-driven Hiring to Edge out the Competition

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    When times are good, and business is booming, companies can afford to make a few mistakes and sweep a few imperfections “under the rug.” And that’s okay. No process is perfect. However, when business slows down and it’s time for spring cleaning, what was swept under the rug comes to light.
    In other words, during periods of quick growth, companies tend to sacrifice quality of hire for speed. The effects of these decisions surface most clearly when the pace slows down. That can be a sobering moment for companies that stop and take stock of the decisions that worked for them and the ones that worked against them. Recruiting efficiency is an area that is quickly and clearly exposed when this happens. The inefficiencies and the lack — or absence — of sound hiring practices can be seen in cost per hire, turnover, and retraining costs.
    To find improvements in any process, businesses look at data.
    Data, data, everywhere
    We’re not talking about boiling the ocean, but there is meaningful information that can be gathered and put to use everywhere in the recruiting process. Hiring leaders who do not operate with this mindset leave money on the table, which again, is easy to measure in terms of increased cost per hire, decreasing retention, or unsustainable retraining costs.
    Without data measurement, organizations cannot optimize for “all-weather” efficiency.
    Smashfly CMO Lori Sylvia goes all in on the importance of measuring talent data when she says, “If you can’t measure it, it didn’t happen.”
    This is not a call to recruiters to build sophisticated data models, but rather to critically think about how data can help determine who they should be hiring for and how they can best appeal to them.
    Knowing that data is all around us, the question needed to make use of it is: “What data points are the most meaningful to me for this process?” Here are a few tips for recruiters — of all levels — to make leveraging data easy, impactful, and second nature.
    Ask yourself who fits into the talent pool for your business
    The last part is important here. Someone may check all the boxes for the job description and still not succeed at your organization. It can come down to various factors, like culture, level of training, the ability to multitask, or teamwork. Whatever the reason is, hiring success depends on going a level deeper into the candidate profile than the resume.
    Let’s go over an example where the goal was to reduce the number of conversations and increase the quality of conversations with candidates. Brendan Browne, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at LinkedIn, was looking for candidates to fill an engineering role. They took a quality-affinity approach that measured the candidate’s qualifications (their quality) and how highly they thought of the company (their affinity). The criteria for affinity included asking three yes/no questions:

    Do they follow the company?
    Do they share relevant content on their profile?
    Do they have a meaningful first-degree connection?

    Upon reaching out to candidates who ranked higher in affinity, the team experienced a 57% increase in the response rate.
    There was nothing highly technical about the process. It just came down to the team figuring out what data points from each candidate were meaningful to collect. It’s an easy exercise that can be applied across companies and roles.
    Take a microscope to your outreach
    Keep track of your messages. Recruiters shouldn’t shy away from testing new copy, subject lines, and time of day for their candidate outreach. It’s the most obvious yet overlooked metric to gauge the effectiveness of your outreach. Doing this enough will give you a sense of what tone is resonating most with your candidate pool.
    To have reliable data, one cardinal rule is to test one thing at a time. For example, measure how two different groups react to a different subject line or call-to-action alone rather than changing both at the same time.
    If your message has reached a point where you feel it is well and truly optimized and it’s still not meeting your goals, shift your focus to identify weak spots in the candidate journey. There may be moments where engagement is dropping off for enough candidates, signaling a trend to address with an alternative approach — and then measure the success of.
    Think about who else is talking to your dream candidate
    Chances are, the competition is also talking to the same candidates as you. Keeping tabs on competitor hiring activity can help inform your hiring strategy. Think about what the hiring experience is like for the candidate when they talk to you, versus the competition. Check out competitors’ job descriptions and ask yourself:

    How do they communicate the employer value proposition to prospective candidates?
    How candid are they about the salary and benefits they’re offering?
    How much of the company culture and company values shine through in the description?
    How easy or intuitive is the application process?
    Do they show the prospect genuine gratitude for their consideration?
    What would I look to improve in this experience?

    Doing this, even once in a while, helps make sure you’re not falling behind the competition and gives you an opportunity to raise the bar by brainstorming and implementing improvements to your candidate experience.
    Being data-savvy is simply knowing how to answer your biggest questions
    For recruiters, useful information is everywhere. The easiest way to benefit from a data-driven mindset is not to overthink it. Simply start asking questions about any aspect of your recruiting process, and then take measurements to uncover answers.
    The more confident you are about the data you have on talent, their affinity for your company, and your competition’s practices, the better your process will be in finding and appealing to the best candidates.
    Shannon Pritchett is Head of Community at both hireEZ and Evry1 (which she co-founded in 2021). As a talent acquisition leader, she remains passionate about connecting companies with their most valuable asset — people.
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      Learning & Development, Soft Skills, Cybersecurity & More: Talk Talent to Me July ’23 Recap

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      Catch up on the July 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. 

      Learning and development with Christina Pinheiro, VP of People at Sibros
      Soft skills with Stephane Rivard, CEO & Co-Founder of HiringBranch
      Why cybersecurity is so important for individuals and companies with Jane Frankland, Cybersecurity Expert and Founder of The Source
      The difference between talent attraction and talent acquisition with Victoria Myers, Global Lead for Talent Attraction at Amdocs

      1. Christina Pinheiro, VP of People at Sibros
      In this episode, Christina discusses what sparked her passion for helping people and creating a positive employee experience, which ultimately led to a career in HR. She shares her thoughts and views on the impact of learning and development, and what that looks like at Sibros through their Lunch and Learn sessions. She tells listeners about her favorite session on Interview Bias, and what she thinks about anonymizing parts of the interviewing process. 
      “I really emphasize on the benefits of continuous learning and [how] attending these sessions contributes to personal and professional growth.” 
      Listen to the full episode.

      2. Stephane Rivard, CEO & Co-Founder of HiringBranch
      Stephane shares how his company HiringBranch is revolutionizing hiring by creating a platform where candidates can showcase their abilities in real-time simulated scenarios. He highlights the importance of soft skills and explains how HiringBranch’s assessment works, breaking down the types of skills they assess in candidates. Plus, hear his insights into the AI recruitment revolution, which may just be paving the way for a more accurate and effective way of finding the right talent.
      Related: ChatGPT in Recruitment: How to Unlock its Power & Increase Efficiency
      “What [the HiringBranch platform] does, especially for high volume jobs, [is give] you a standardized way to evaluate everyone.”
      Listen to the full episode.
      3. Jane Frankland, Cybersecurity Expert and Founder of The Source
      Jane is a tech entrepreneur, author, speaker, advisor, and founder. She has identified several discrepancies in the hiring process and in this episode, she shares her advice for ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace from the get-go.
      “We have a real problem with wellbeing [in the cybersecurity industry]; with mental health, with brain health, with stress and burnout. It’s absolutely horrific. It’s at a higher level than healthcare workers at the moment.”
      Listen to the full episode.
      4. Victoria Myers, Global Lead for Talent Attraction at Amdocs
      In this episode, we dive into the fascinating field of segmented recruiting marketing. Victoria explains Amdocs’ forward-thinking, long-term approach to talent attraction and acquisition and how they are bringing it to life through their newly-developed AI-driven talent marketplace. After listening, you’ll understand the difference between talent attraction and talent acquisition, what a successful proactive sourcing model looks like, and why you should always try to do work you love!
      “At the end of the day, the best experience in the world is giving someone an offer and them saying, ‘Yes, I accept.’ That is rewarding work right there!”
      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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      Getting Ghosted by Talent? The Four Jobseeker Personas Recruiters Need to Know

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      In today’s competitive market, finding the best candidate for the role is no easy feat. While we generally find more available talent in the pool, ensuring a high-quality candidate with a strong fit for the position compounds the complexity of recruiting. Recruiters have to embark on candidate conversations while unsure what’s driving each candidate to seek a new position and how that motivation affects their outlook during the search process.
      Defining a persona framework can help recruiters get to the heart of what’s driving each applicant, what they’re looking for in a new opportunity, and which tactics will keep them the most engaged throughout the process.
      Recent data from Employ shows that today’s jobseekers can be divided into four groups based on a combination of two key traits:

      How consistently they search.
      The number of positions to which they apply.

      These two traits interact in the following way to create four primary persona categories:

      When recruiting teams understand these four personas—and how to spot them—they are more prepared to understand candidates and empowered to customize the candidate experience in a way that resonates with each person they speak with. This often results in better placements, shorter time-to-fill, and more successful hires.
      All About Diligent/High-Volume Applicants
      Diligent/High-Volume applicants make up about 10% of the current market, and they are driven by economic and employment market conditions. These applicants are primarily triggered by job posting alerts and will apply to a wide range of positions with various responsibilities and job functions.
      Traits
      Diligent/High-Volume job seekers tend to be optimistic, believing it will take less than a month for them to find a job, and they apply for jobs with large salary ranges. Additionally, this type of job seeker tends to gravitate toward roles at companies with strong leadership, room to advance, and resources for career development.
      Approach
      Diligent/High-Volume job seekers will use social media and subscribe to job advertisements and will likely mention their research during the interview process. As frequent resume updaters, these candidates tend to begin their job search within their current organizations and will apply for jobs at other companies even if there isn’t an opening.
      Engagement tactics
      These workers tend to appreciate simple, straightforward interview processes. These candidates are likely to abandon opportunities if they find them too time-consuming, so streamlining the interview and scheduling process is likely to impress.
      All About Sporadic/High-Volume Applicants
      About 25% of applicants in the current labor market are considered Sporadic/High-Volume applicants. These are the people who turn to LinkedIn or other job boards after a particularly bad or frustrating day at their current position.
      Traits
      These applicants are usually satisfied in their current roles. They may be seeking out organizations that tout career advancement opportunities. As a result, they tend to apply to multiple jobs that they have no intention of accepting. They tend to be just beginning their career, have taken a new job in the past year, and apply for jobs with large salary ranges. Like their Diligent/High-Volume counterparts, these job seekers frequently update their resumes, and keep an eye on their current companies’ financial positions.
      Approach
      Recruiters can identify Sporadic/High-Volume job seekers by their application method. They regularly search job boards and appreciate easy scheduling. If the interview went well, an offer was made, but the job seeker sends an impersonal response or even goes dark, a Sporadic/High-Volume job seeker may have crossed your path.
      Engagement tactics
      To capture these applicants, stay away from hiring channels that require registration as a part of the hiring process. They’re likely to abandon applications that require any registration elements. Even though they are likely to be satisfied at their current role, recruiters that think a Sporadic/High-Volume applicant is a perfect fit may get their attention with an incredibly compelling offer but should be ready to negotiate and to respond to their current employer’s counter.
      All About Diligent/Selective Applicants
      Diligent/Selective job seekers are triggered by burnout, and about 40% of applicants fall into this category. Since burnout is a trigger, they are hesitant to apply for jobs they feel they are unlikely to get and prefer efficient processes. They are serious about their search and conduct it over a long timeline.
      Traits
      Diligent/Selective job seekers are not interested in applying for positions with wide salary ranges. They know what they are looking for and stick to those parameters. They are less inclined to search for new opportunities within their current organization and motivated by specific roles that excite them.
      Preferences
      Diligent/Selective job seekers tend to stick to a single application method: the company’s website. Additionally, they are highly prone to abandonment and prefer short and efficient recruitment processes.
      Engagement tactics
      These applicants tend to be targeting companies or roles that speak to them, so defining a company mission, vision, and value set is incredibly important when encountering Diligent/Selective job seekers. Make highlighting these aspects of the company a priority early in the interview process and try your best to keep initial applications brief, yet comprehensive.
      All About Sporadic/Selective Applicants
      Sporadic/Selective job seekers are triggered by boredom in their current situation and make up about 25% of today’s applicants. Like their Diligent/Selective counterparts, they are unlikely to submit applications to employers that they deem unlikely to hire them.
      Traits
      These applicants tend to be later in their career. They rarely apply for open roles at their current company, do not apply for jobs with large salary ranges, submit few applications for new roles, and do not use social media to find open roles.
      Preferences
      Sporadic/Selective job seekers’ applications tend to favor brevity and their resumes tend to possess stale skills as they have not likely invested time in their own learning and development. Since they’re motivated primarily by boredom and exploration, they’re also hesitant to spend time on additional application materials, preferring to let their experience speak for itself.
      Engagement tactics
      To engage these applicants, create highly personalized, effortless recruitment experiences. They’re applying to see what’s available to them as they currently are, so if you think a Sporadic/Selective applicant is the perfect fit, it’s best to keep extraneous tasks to a minimum. They also strongly believe that the modern hiring process is excessive, so it’s critical that recruiters communicate decisions or next steps and their reasoning throughout the process.
      Setting up for success
      In today’s market, recruiters need to go the extra mile to ensure success along each step of the recruiting process. Using the four personas as a baseline can help recruiters begin the process of tailoring their hiring strategies to a given candidate’s needs.
      Finding talent is tough, and recruiters need to arm themselves with tools to find quality candidates for open roles. Though each candidate is unique, keeping the four personas in mind throughout the process helps remind recruiters that hiring is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Understanding the four job-seeking personas and their associated triggers helps recruiters provide high-quality candidate experiences and fill skill gaps more quickly and successfully.
      By Corey Berkey, SVP of People, Employ Inc.
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      The Rise of Passive Candidate Recruitment

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      The global talent shortage is a major challenge for businesses of all sizes. In the United States alone, there are currently 11 million open jobs. This means that there are more job openings than people are looking for work.
      One way that businesses are addressing this challenge is by targeting passive candidates. Passive candidates are people who are not actively looking for a new job, but who might be open to a new opportunity if the right one comes along.
      There are several reasons why businesses are targeting passive candidates. First, the pool of passive candidates is much larger than the pool of active candidates. This means that businesses have a better chance of finding the right talent by targeting passive candidates.
      Second, passive candidates are often more experienced and qualified than active candidates. This is because passive candidates are typically already employed and have been successful in their current roles.
      Third, passive candidates are more likely to be a good fit for the company culture. This is because passive candidates are not actively looking for a new job, so they are more likely to be happy with their current situation.
      Atlas World Group’s Approach to Passive Candidate Recruitment
      Atlas World Group is a global logistics company that has been struggling to fill key positions in IT and technology. In order to address this challenge, they have shifted their focus to primarily targeting passive candidates.
      Atlas’s approach to passive candidate recruitment is two-fold. First, they use LinkedIn Recruiter to target passive candidates who have the skills and experience they are looking for. Second, they leverage the social media of their current team members to share job openings with their networks.
      The Benefits of Targeting Passive Candidates
      There are several benefits to targeting passive candidates. First, it allows businesses to reach a wider pool of potential talent. Second, it gives businesses the opportunity to build relationships with passive candidates before they are actively looking for a new job. Third, it allows businesses to target passive candidates who are a good fit for their company culture.

      Start by building a strong employer brand. Passive candidates are more likely to be interested in your company if they have a positive impression of your brand.
      Make it easy for passive candidates to learn about your open positions. Your job postings should be clear and concise, and you should make it easy for candidates to apply online.
      Personalize your outreach. When you reach out to passive candidates, take the time to personalize your message. This will show that you are genuinely interested in their skills and experience.
      Highlight your company culture. Passive candidates are more likely to be interested in a company that has a strong culture. Be sure to highlight your company culture in your outreach materials.
      Offer opportunities for growth. Passive candidates are often looking for opportunities to grow their careers. Be sure to highlight the opportunities for growth that your company offers.

      Conclusion
      The global talent shortage is a major challenge for businesses of all sizes. However, by targeting passive candidates, businesses can increase their chances of finding the right talent. Atlas World Group is a great example of a company that has successfully implemented a passive candidate recruitment strategy. By following Atlas’s example, businesses can overcome the challenges of the global talent shortage and find the right talent to help them achieve their goals.

      To follow Kelly Cruse’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help identifying the values and culture you want to create in your company, get in touch.
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      Getting Ahead in the War for Talent

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      Navigating a world in the throes of rapid change as we are in today is a challenging feat. The war in Ukraine, energy price spikes, higher borrowing rates, and chronic inflation affect consumer and business confidence domestically and internationally. The impact on organisations – employers and employees alike – is enormous, and we must adapt to survive.
      Recruiters have long grappled with the ever-shifting tides of uncertainty as the employment sector often resembles a wild rollercoaster ride. From the disruptive onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic to the subsequent post-pandemic boom, the rise of the ‘Great Resignation,’ and the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, recruiters have weathered these storms with varying degrees of confidence.
      The UK recruitment sector is optimistic
      Against this backdrop, including concerns about a possible recession, a recent survey of 2,500 industry professionals by independent research firm Dynata on behalf of recruitment firm Monster shows that UK recruiters are optimistic about the future, with 87% looking to hire in 2023.
      Also, on the positive side, 92% of recruiters are confident (45%) or very confident (47%) of finding the right candidate. This sounds high, but UK recruiters are less confident than their compatriots across Europe or the USA. Why is this? It’s because The UK is facing a unique set of circumstances, including Brexit, that have created significant economic uncertainty.
      Nevertheless, recruiters across all sectors still believe that they can scope out the terrain of roles, define them with precision and assess candidates through the interview process, according to our survey. However, addressing the talent shortage is still the number one task facing industry professionals across the UK, Europe and the USA, and a constant challenge persists: the need to identify, interview and secure candidates faster than the competition.
      UK recruiters struggle to access talent as the skills gap widens
      The same survey highlights how amidst this battle for talent, 51% of UK recruiters claim that finding candidates with the necessary skills is the most significant challenge they will face in the next three years. The report reveals that finding candidates with the right skills is the biggest obstacle to recruiting in 2023, with 29% of recruiters indicating that the skills gap has widened compared to a year ago. 86% of recruiters “sometimes” or “very often” struggle to fill vacancies due to this. Of the 87% of recruiters looking to fill vacancies, 44% are replacing or backfilling roles, while 43% are hiring for net new job requirements. Only 13% of recruiters anticipate hiring freezes.
      The UK’s battle for talent is intensifying
      Across all sectors, accessing quality candidates is getting harder and is especially difficult in automotive (57%), leisure & hospitality (46%), education (45%), and insurance (45%) sectors. The survey also found that recruiters are searching for radically different soft skills from candidates from different generations. For instance, 13% of Gen Z recruiters are searching for dependability, compared to 57% of Boomers. In contrast, 40% of Gen Z recruiters seek managerial skills, compared to 17% of Boomers.
      To survive in 2023, recruiters must develop new strategies for success
      To thrive in this challenging environment, recruiters must forge new strategies for success. The reliance on traditional approaches is no longer sufficient; embracing innovative technologies and solutions becomes imperative to match talent with opportunities effectively. Casting a wider (digital) net offers recruiters many opportunities to engage with potential applicants.
      The battle for benefits
      To help them secure top talent, recruiters may need to engage in a “battle for benefits” to attract the top talent.
      The demand for flexibility takes centre stage in 2023, with 53% of candidates expecting more flexibility in where they work and 39% expecting more flexibility when they work. However, the survey reveals a disheartening reality: only 25% of businesses offer genuine flexibility to new hires.
      To succeed, recruiters must balance the demands of employees and employers and address candidates’ extended benefits wish list. As flexible options, including increasingly a four-day week, become standard in many industries; salary is no longer the primary determining factor.
      The top five benefits employees are seeking in 2023 are remote flexibility (50%); flexible work schedules (49%); skills training/learning and development (45%); salary protection/fair compensation (44%); and healthcare benefits (41%) according to the survey.
      Improving search techniques
      In addition to honing the quality and range of benefits they offer, firms need to improve their candidate search techniques. Our survey found that only 24% of UK recruiters leverage online recruitment sites, tools, and new technologies to engage talent – far lower than recruiters in the USA and Europe – and are less confident of finding suitable candidates. This means that 76% of recruiters should improve their search methods or face being left behind in the battle for top talent.
      Matching your benefits offerings to your candidate’s requirements and improving search techniques will go a long way to helping businesses find and recruit the individuals that will ensure the business survives and prospers in a challenging economic environment.
      By Rod McMillan, Marketing Manager, Monster UK.
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      4 Ways to Use Today’s Global Mobility Trends to Recruit Top Talent 

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      Are you searching far and wide for new talent? Is that search feeling farther and farther afield? There is roughly a one in four chance (27%) that your company is struggling to find qualified employees locally or feels that the Great Resignation significantly impacted relocations in 2022. This comes despite relocation volumes and budgets increasing by 7% from 2021 to 2022 and is expected to increase in 2023 for 58% of companies of various sizes across industries.
      As pressures from the pandemic continue to ease, employees considering relocations also have evolving needs. Below are a few ways organizations can keep up with them:
      Continuously review benefits.
      When was the last time your organization conducted an in-depth review of its benefits? If it was a year ago or more, it is time to review them again. Simply put, organizations must continuously review their job offerings and relocation benefits to ensure they remain competitive and attractive in a dramatically changing environment.
      According to Gartner, just 32% of workers feel that they are being paid fairly due to inflation and recession concerns. Further, Jobvite shares that 52% of American workers across industries believe they could simply make more money by switching jobs. If the grass looks greener everywhere an employee looks, your organization must be equally appealing. Important questions to ask during your benefits review include:

      Does your organization’s compensation meet cost-of-living demands where you are located?
      How do relocation benefits impact general workplace benefits?
      What are our competitors in the region touting?
      Do you have a trusted House-hold Goods Moving provider that can support you and your potential new hire with the relocation process itself?

      Prioritize balance.
      There is far more an employee must consider today when weighing a relocation opportunity than in the past. Develop workplace management policies that take remote work, work/life balance, voluntary relocation, and flexibility into consideration. While many employers want to see their employees back in the office, in January 2023, almost 30% of all work happened at home. This is six times greater than the remote work rate in 2019. How and where we work has changed.
      How does your organization accommodate working from home, and what does that mean for relocating talent? You must have an answer to this question because even if an employee is willing to relocate, it does not necessarily mean they only want to work in the office. What flexibility options are you offering to entice in-office work with the desire to relocate your employee to your headquarters’ hometown?
      Consider family.
      For many families in the U.S., remaining close to home is both practical and personal. Data from the Pew Research Center shows that about three in 10 U.S. citizens live within an hour’s drive of some or all extended family. More adults today are also living in multigenerational households than ever before. One in five adults now lives with parents or grandparents – a rate that has quadrupled since 1971.
      This closeness to family is a preference and value for social and economic benefits, as family members are often available to help working parents, especially in sharing home labor such as childcare. Ensuring your organization’s relocation policies include resources to support the relocation of spouses, children, and residences is vital for prospective employees considering moving away from extended family.
      Offer guidance.
      Moving to a new city or state can be intimidating. New residents want to know where the best schools are located, where the best restaurants are, and what the best commute to take is. These are just a few of the barriers holding back prospective residents without someone on the ground to guide them.
      Workplaces that offer robust resources or partners to help guide employees through the relocation process can help. This can be a go-to individual who can share insider information on the most popular suburbs and best nightlife – complete with parking tips – or it can be through lump sums or flexible policies that allow employees to spend time seeking these answers on their own. Allowing time to tour houses while also paying for temporary housing can make a difference in an employee’s willingness to relocate and their happiness once they do.
      The war for talent is in full swing. When many companies are touting remote-first work policies, enticing new employees to physically relocate to a new city, state, or country can be difficult. Of all the stressors related to starting a new job or relocating to a new area, moving there should be the easiest part.
      Mary Beth Johnson is Vice President of Business Development for Atlas Van Lines. 
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      How to Manage Inbound Applications & Rethink Talent Sourcing Analytics: Tips for Recruiters

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      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

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      AI in Talent Acquisition, Talent Sourcing Analytics, & More: Talk Talent to Me May ’23 Recap

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      Catch up on the May 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. 

      AI in talent acquisition with Justin Ghio, Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard

      Talent sourcing and people analytics with Shally Steckerl, Global Head of Talent Sourcing and People Analytics at LTK 

      Hiring and building a successful team with Erica Maureen Carder, Head of Talent Lifecycle at Wellthy

      1. Justin Ghio, Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard

      AI is taking every industry by storm and tech recruiting is no exception. Justin encourages talent professionals to view AI in recruitment as a tool to enhance productivity and hiring processes. He explains everything he knows about AI in the talent sphere, why it is misunderstood, and how to make it work for you. Read this blog to dive deeper into the episode.

      “AI can’t do everything from start to finish for me. What it can do is give me 10 options to look at faster than I can think through one option.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      2. Shally Steckerl, Global Head of Talent Sourcing and People Analytics at LTK 

      Shally shares why we need to find talent-sourcing tools other than LinkedIn, the importance of balancing application friction, and how to optimize the applications coming in (especially when it’s free to apply). He tells us why he considers the interview set-up to be the first marker of recruitment success – and why recruitment success should not only be based on the number of hires.

      “You want to reduce friction so that you’re not making it inordinately awkward and difficult to apply but you also don’t want to reduce friction to a point where people can indiscriminately apply. There’s that fine balance.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      3. Erica Maureen Carder, Head of Talent Lifecycle at Wellthy

      For Erica, finding the right kind of employees – ones prone to growth and seeking out challenges – is fundamental to success. She talks about why this individual attitude is the number one thing she looks for in prospective hires. She also shares what makes for capable employees and why there are no perfect candidates out there.

      “If you have employees that are stagnant, guess what? They are not going to be engaged.”

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

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

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

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

      AI meets Talent Acquisition & Human Resources

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

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

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

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

      So, how exactly can AI help you? 

      Justin shares a few ways AI supports talent activities: 

      Enhance candidate sourcing

      Uplevel candidate communications

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

      1. Enhance candidate sourcing with AI

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

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

      Related: Hired Releases 2023 State of Software Engineers Report

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

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

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

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

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

      Add the special sauce

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

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

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

      2. Uplevel candidate communications 

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

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

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

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

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

      Justin advises you to consider these three questions: 

      How does this work? 

      Why does it work this way? 

      What happens if I want to change it?

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

      Embrace collaborative intelligence

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

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

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

      Interested in unlocking the power of AI in recruitment?

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