Much has been said about the role of AI in recruitment. In the Infographic below we present the implications of AI for recruiters and organizations and for the second part, the benefits of AI for candidates in order to have a clear representation on how AI can positively affect your hiring strategy.
So, what do recruiters think about the implications of AI and how does it affect a recruiter’s work?
Statistics say that 56% of recruiters around the world say interviewing innovations due to AI are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important to the future of hiring. These can make a recruiter’s job easier by saving time and making its work more effectively. 39% of companies already use data to predict candidate success, while 60% of companies are planning on investing in AI-powered recruitment software, according to Harver’s report.
According to the same report, AI is most helpful in saving time (57%), removing human bias (43%), delivering best candidate matches (31%), saving money (30%).
According to a Yale University study, researchers asked 127 scientists to review a job application of identically qualified male and female students and found that the faculty members – both men and women – consistently scored a male candidate higher on a number of criteria such as competency and were more likely to hire the male. When it comes to the hiring bias, AI has proven to be a real success. For instance, tools can mask candidate gender from hiring managers and eliminate the bias. Bias can affect recruitment in your organization a lot. Dr. Pragya Agarwal mentions in a Forbes article that “Unconscious Bias can be a huge setback in creating a truly diverse and inclusive workplace”.
AI comes in hand in many ways and shapes, and we must be open to the change it brings and customize it to our needs in order to get the best out of it and hire right.
We present 4 key points about how your organization and recruiters can stand out with candidates:
1. Feedback. Offering constant feedback. Once you have received an application, as a recruiter there is only one thing candidates expect, and sometimes keeps them waiting forever. There are at least two scenarios: When candidates are not a good fit and recruiters forget about their resumes. From thousands of applications on the table or desktop software, the recruiter’s job is to find the perfect match for the position. But what about all the other candidates? Those who don’t make the cut and thus don’t move forward, also deserve an answer. When you’ve already had an interview with a candidate, they will be waiting for an answer. If you tell them that they should hear from you, and to wait for your call or email, but won’t give them a specific date but rather a vague timeframe (i.e. “in the next few weeks”). When nothing happens weeks later and the position might have been filled, the other candidate’s know nothing. They might be in the process for more than the job with your company, so that leaves them with uncertainty, especially when they have hopes! In both situations, the recruiter’s feedback and response are what shows your candidates that you treat them as people, and not as pieces of paper.
We encourage candidates to pay attention to those hiring companies that keep them posted even when they have to give bad news. That is a result of a good culture that focuses on people and the importance of long-term impact within and outside the organization.
2. Being a good listener. It will bring many benefits both to the job seeker and the client. When a recruiter listens to what the other parties have to say, he will understand what their needs are. It is said that good communication starts with listening. Communication is not just about how much we talk and what we say. When a recruiter starts working with a new hiring manager, she must not advise, diagnose, or assume anything before having understood their context, plans, and expectations. Use probing questions, quantify expectations as much as possible, verbalize objectives and ask for confirmation of the same understanding. A good listener will be able to reflect on what is being said and restate the message using the same or very similar words. For instance, this is especially useful to discuss the meaning of terms that might have slightly different definition in a client’s organization (i.e. sourced candidate as in prospective – “we have their resumes and they contain the basic qualifications”, or as in “we have their resumes, they qualify on paper, and we’ve talked to the candidates and they’ve already confirmed interest”). Be ready to invite the hiring manager to speak as much as they can about the position beyond the words of the job description by asking open-ended questions, listening, and asking additional probing questions when needed.
3. Marketing and sales skills. A professional recruiter will always know how to market and promote the services, knowledge, job opportunities and expertise in an effective way so that both clients and candidates are entirely satisfied with the process and outcome. Hence why understanding the key mechanism of marketing and sales is important: match a need with a solution where everyone has something to win. Recruiters must sharpen their selling skills if they hope to have any relevant results. A recruiter will stand out if she manages to develop a partnership with the client rather than just being a simple vendor.
Most recruiters will approach the recruiting process as merely transactional. They are provided with a job requisition, they post the job ad on known job boards, they search the database for matches and so on and so forth. In other words a simple equation with a few variables and a result. Instead of this shallow approach, recruiters can first start by asking one simple question: “what makes an employee successful in the client’s organization?” In other words: what are those traits that helped new hires to be productive, to grow int he role, to be fully committed and engaged? Same goes for vetting candidates. Recruiters should never settle for a resume or vague interview questions and answer. Validate their skills and experience through probing questions, assessments and add the depth of information that hiring managers need for sounds hiring decisions.
This is why whether talking about the client organization or candidates, there’s no one size fits all. Rather, recruiters need to craft their recruiting strategy and approach to candidates in a way that validates and compares both a role’s requirements and candidates’ complex profiles. Give context to each role by emphasizing the story that goes with it, including aspects such as vision, culture, challenges, opportunities, professional and personal development, etc.. Inspire people and bring emotion. That will help candidates you are interacting with, to think about all the facets of the position you are presenting to them, so the can decide whether they are a fit or not.
4. Relationship building. We must not forget that recruiting at its foundation is about being able to connect with others. Recruiters should be natural connectors of people. That is why a recruiter must be active on social media and in real life. They interact with many people and should easily connect with everyone. The easiest way to connect with people is by building trust, which only comes with speaking the truth and being straight forward, and non-confrontational. Don’t oversell your ability to recruit to your clients, and don’t oversell a job to your candidate’s. Keeping that balance helps to develop the right relationship on both ends of an outstanding recruitment process: a consultant for both clients and candidates.
In the end, it comes down to an organization’s not-so-hidden agenda when hiring people: “How do we develop the right recruiting strategy so that both candidates and ourselves win?” At SourceMatch, we take joy and satisfaction in assisting our clients with this process that creates value long term, not just short term!
Our new Infographic reveals recruiting performance statistics based on a 2018 report by Zogby Analytics (commissioned by Jobvite) in which over 850 hiring professionals were surveyed. What are the most important success metrics for recruiters, or the biggest bottlenecks in the recruitment processes? How about the biggest challenges they face, or the top investments recruiters believe are essential for growing an employer brand?
Top success metrics 31% of the recruiters surveyed argued that the quality of hire is the most important metric for success to be achieved, while retention rate has a 23% rate, time-to-hire – 21% and cost per hire – 7%. The quality of hire (candidates are a great match for the role they are recommended for) remains the most important, and that is why at SourceMatch, we have the right processes and work with the most effective solution for every situation to make sure we deliver an added value to your company, which is greater than the cost of recruiting.
Biggest bottleneck to recruiting The relationship between recruiters and hiring managers can still be improved, as recruiters (50%) admit that working with hiring managers – waiting for them to move candidates through the hiring process or (44%) to review resumes, is the biggest obstacle when it comes to a smooth and sailing recruiting process. Candidates don’t know what’s going on and will many times consider responsiveness through the hiring process as an indication of how they will be treated as employees.
Biggest challenges in hiring Again, the most important factor in hiring is the quality of new hires. And the biggest challenges recruiters face is the lack of skilled and candidates, voted by 67% of surveyed recruiters, followed by 52% that claim it’s the intense competition, and 36% believe it’s the lack of budget. It’s crucial to understand the market before assuming that the requirements of positions are realistic. When talent is scarce, either you pay the price for that or factor that in and adjust requirements and build in the rest of the requirements into training and development.
Top investments for growing an employer brand What are the areas that you need to refocus your attention on in order to grow your employer brand? 47% of votes highlighted Social Media, followed by Company Career Website and only 12% – Advertising. When it comes to Social Media, the most-used channel for recruitment efforts is LinkedIn when trying to reach candidates, with 77%, followed by Facebook – with 63%.
Eventually, no one single measure will have a dramatic immediate effect. However, if you choose a few of them and consistently focus on doing what your brand says you do, then the market will see you walk the talk!
What are the most important success metrics for you? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
Talent, what a tricky little thing! It is hard to find, hard to manage, let alone to retain, but truth be told, a company can’t thrive without it. Companies that are capable to hire talented people are more likely to achieve high success rates that in turn translate into financial gains. In other words, talent is money. Therefore, in the world of HR, talent is put on a pedestal and is viewed as a diamond. Chiseled or in the rough, diamonds are a precious sign of prosperity. It is exactly the same with talent and recruiters know it: if they place talent in the company, that company will prosper beyond its means. And this is why at SourceMatch we refined the ways we search for talent because we understand the impact and value it can have for our clients.
So, talent is important for growth. But the acquisition of high performers takes significant effort and expertise. Imagine you hire a very talented professional and you find yourself in a scenario resembling that joke with the gamer arriving in hell: after he wreaks havoc and destroys everything, he keeps asking where the next level is. Talent combined with pride will not lead to growth, it will create chaos. Or think about how important it is to hire people that do not only have potential but also have a sense of loyalty. You most definitely want to hire people who strive to grow in the environment you offer them. These professionals are not only great team players but when they outgrow their role, they ensure continuity by coaching others on their own development. Identifying personality traits that lead to growth-generating behavior isn’t easy. The recruiting process needs to be tweaked in such a manner that it will generate the best fit for your company. Therefore, many companies after encountering all sorts of hurdles in the recruiting process choose to either outsource it or bring in a partner to assist and advise them. Whether they specialize in recruiting consulting or head-hunting, these partners work with a diverse number of client organizations, using and improving their best practices. Unless they do, they become irrelevant for the purpose of their business existence.
Having said that, we should all agree: companies can have significant benefits by working with recruiting companies. We are talking about the experts of the field who are hacking growth through recruiting. Efficient recruiting companies will help you scale up the recruiting process to generate the same level of quality candidates as before despite the increasing number of positions to fill. They will shed light on how to best show candidates what your organization’s values are. They can help you define aspects of HR you didn’t even know existed. For instance, let’s say that you embark on a hiring initiative and three months later you find yourself desperate to find a fit for a crucial position in your company. You are in the midst of organizational growth and you’re not able to move forward because you don’t have the right people in the right positions. And then you come up with the brilliant idea to bring in a partner to assist with the recruiting efforts. The recruiting company has inbuilt HR automation technology used to process information about the labor market faster. Its recruiters are able to build a list of prospective candidates in a fraction of the time you would on your own. Moreover, they create pipelines that allow them to swift through candidates ending up with those that are suitable for you. The right recruiting partner will act as an extension of your team, expanding your efforts and amplifying what has worked, improving what has not and so on.
There are many skills and there are multiple personalities. And to understand how these intertwine with each other is part of a recruiter’s role. When you identify a candidate for your company and give them a job, you expect them to grow with you. But if their personality and skills are not a match then it can be in your detriment. Our team is trained to recognize what matches your requirements beyond just the job description. But these requirements aren’t just related to candidates’ technical experience and need to also encompass behavioral traits and cultural fit. This is why we’ve developed what we call a “360-degrees look at who the candidates are”. At SourceMatch, we use this approach to assist clients with their hiring needs, so that their decision making is based on reliable information. When you want to grow in the right direction you want to have the depth of knowledge to make the right decisions. SourceMatch has developed its recruiting process so that we focus on what truly matters to our clients, which will be different from organization to organization. That means that we reach the best candidates at the right time within the shortest timeframe while making the client’s job significantly more effective. For instance, one of our clients was looking to fill two positions for a Project Manager role. After several months after we placed the candidates, they came back. They said they would like to continue our collaboration, as the candidates we placed were top performers. We knew how to look for those ingredients that would make someone great not only from a hard skills perspective but more importantly, from a soft skills standpoint.
Someone once had a thought: “Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.” It was Steve Jobs, the creator of the mighty Apple. He was on to something and we believe that it applies to all organizations. Engaging with a recruiting company such as SourceMatch is useful because it provides your business and talent acquisition team with a partner. When companies decide to partner with SourceMatch, they instantly have access to a team that’s committed to their growth by identifying the right talent. Searching and hiring talent isn’t about a transaction but about a relationship. Our purpose is to identify the professionals that you need in order to advance your development strategy. As of that moment, it all comes down to integrating them into your organization, vision and especially making it crystal clear how their work contributes to it.
In today’s market, having access to resources can make a difference in a company’s ability to compete. But more than any other, human resources are crucial in the development of those companies that have a clear strategy for growth, innovation, and impact in their market segments.
Reach out to us to help you do what we know best: recruiting.
In the Infographic below, we’re highlighting 4 hiring trends that you should consider when making a hire in 2019.
Let’s talk about the first one: Artificial Intelligence. AI, as we already noticed, has an impact on the recruiting processes, making them easier to handle. According to studies, 52% of talent acquisition leaders say the hardest part of recruitment is identifying the right candidates from a large applicant pool. Katrina Kibben, Randstad argues that “Any area of recruiting where distinct inputs and outputs occur – like screening, sourcing, and assessments – will largely become automated”.
However, AI requires abilities from a recruiter in order to use the new technologies, so the question remains: are the HR/ talent acquisition department/ recruiters ready for it?
Hiring for potential. Although experience is not to be neglected, it does not equal performance. So why focus your attention on hiring for potential instead of experience? Besides the reduced costs, there are many benefits to what a less experienced but driven candidate might bring to the table, such as adaptability, creative thinking, communication skills, or flexibility. Let’s keep in mind the fact that what used to work in the past, might not work in the future, and hence why adaptability is a key trait.
Work flexibility Why offer flexible hours? Because you want happy and productive employees. Let’s put it this way: If an employee has problems in their personal life, it affects their professional one, and vice-versa. Work-life balance is a direct result of employees’ ability to have a say in how they use their time for work. Needless to say that with flexibility comes great responsibility and openness to staying accountable.
Candidate experience Why is the candidate experience important, you may ask? Monster’s CandE report found that of the candidates who had a positive hiring experience: 1. 62% will increase their relationship with brands products and networks; 2. 78% would refer someone in the future; 3. 62% would apply again.
These trends help us understand how to best adapt to the future of work. They impact the way companies relate to the labor market, what candidates expect from new jobs, and how organizations can create an environment that encourages professionals to attain their full potential. Despite a heavy emphasis on autonomous technology, at SourceMatch we believe that human interaction is by far the one that candidates will remember best from the whole hiring process. So what are you doing to make sure that whether they are selected or not for a job, candidates will have a lasting positive impression of your organization, brand, and employees?
This data provides a better understanding of the potential of new technologies. Adopting them will not only create disruption in the jobs market but will have the role to improve the quality of the existing work of human employees. By 2022, the enhancement of existing jobs through technology may free up workers from the majority of data processing and information gathering tasks.
At the same time, technology adoption might also affect more complex tasks such as reasoning and decision-making as augmentation becomes common over the years as a way to supplement and complement human labor. New technology, more importantly, can enable increased productivity across multiple industries. The way companies compete will be affected too, with more weight given to those able to leverage technologies as tools to complement and enhance human work, rather than competitive advantages focused on operations or the ability to attract talent.
There are three aspects you should focus on. These following infographics will show you how new technology adoption influences Financial Services and Investors Industry. Even more, these will show you the existing barriers created by new technology, and also portray the expected impact on the workforce.
Let’s start with a look at how technology adoption affects Financial Services & Investors Industry. A huge share of analysis of the respondents from the industry indicated that, by 2022, their company was “likely” or “very likely” (on a 5-point scale) to have adopted new technology as part of its growth strategy.
Secondly, when we check out the barriers to adoption of new technologies, the five biggest perceived barriers to the implementation of new technologies across the industry become very clear, as ranked by the share of survey respondents.
Thirdly, here’s the expected impact of new technology adoption on the workforce. In this last chart, you can see the percentages representing the opinion of survey respondents from the industry who expect their company to have adopted the stated measure(s) over the 2018–2022 period as part of their current growth strategy.
Technological progress presents a real challenge to existing business models and practices. Despite their disruptive potential, these dynamic changes will act as a pivot towards growth for those organizations that will dedicate resources to overcome them.
How does the independent workforce change the game in America’s economy nowadays? This powerful workforce is adding $715 billion annually to the economy through their freelance work, according to Freelancers Union.
The traditional 9-to-5 schedule has become a less common job schedule. Professionals have new opportunities, whether these concern work-life balance, flexibility, diversified project-based openings, access to an independent life, financial benefits and so on. Businesses in return, can access talent at the right time for the necessary time frame, and with the right skill sets.
The Infographic below reveals the 56.7 million freelancers in America, divided into 5 categories:
This type of work causes economic changes: where there’s demand, there should be more work. However, there’s a cultural and social shift as well. “With effects on social structures around civil rights, workforce participation, and even democracy itself, so too will this shift to a more independent workforce have major impacts on how Americans conceive of and organize their lives, their communities, and their economic power.” – says the independent study commissioned by Freelancers Union & Upwork.
The US labor market is changing fast. Talent platforms are reducing the costs of finding talent, and they’re not only providing more work to freelancers but also growing economies. By 2025, these online talent platforms could boost global GDP by $2.7 trillion annually, according to a report released by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)
Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force that are driven by flexibility when it comes to when and where to work, and freelancing offers both. That is something we should take in consideration when looking for new talent.
This study from 2018, surveyed more than 6,000 U.S. workers and revealed new findings each year (starting in 2014) that showed us how much Americans spend on freelancing.
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