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talent acquisition Archives - SourceMatch

Jan 07
1
Challenges that Companies face when Recruiting

How to Solve the top 5 Challenges that Companies face when Recruiting?

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Modern recruiters and HR managers find it essential to stay up to date with the changes in a candidate-driven market and they need to reevaluate their hiring techniques because of the challenges they are facing.

In order to get a clear picture of how to solve the top 5 challenges that companies face when recruiting, let’s first identify them:

1. The need for a new hire “Yesterday”

One of the biggest challenges that recruiters face nowadays is having to hire quickly. And we all know that vacant positions cost time and money. Hiring fast can have its advantages but it can also come with a cost. Hiring quickly to fill a role, can save a bit of money, but what if the candidate is not the correct fit? What if that candidate leaves, does not fit into the work culture, or does not match the skill set required? Candidates also prefer a quick application process. According to statistics, 60% of candidates have quit the application process because it took too long.

41% said automated decision-making would speed up their time to hire.

Solution: Build talent pools proactively. Having a nurtured talent pool can make all of the difference. It will come in handy when you need to fill a role fast. Using the right recruitment automation tools can ease up the HR workload, using time in an efficient way and improve the quality of results. In this process, don’t forget to be human. Candidates are people and they expect so see genuine care. Think about their plans, their aspirations, where they are in their career, as you would for yourself. This will have an impact in the long-term.

2. High Competition in the Market

The competition for talent at a global level is fierce. With outsourcing services and remote working, the entire workforce landscape has changed. A recruiter’s role (area of expertise) gets wider as challenges grow, and they need to go the extra mile to hire the best talent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that in September 2019, there were 7.0 million job openings and only 5.9 million hires.

Solution: With many offers on the table, candidates get picky and look for more than just a paycheck. Actually, the first interaction they have with the company could be with the product/ service it offers. Employer branding is no longer an option. It can cut the time to fill in half and a positive reputation can lead to 50% more qualified job applicants. As a result, 59% of recruiting leaders worldwide are investing more in employer brand (Source: LinkedIn).

3. Finding Skilled, Qualified Talent

92% of business leaders think American workers aren’t as skilled as they need to be.
There is a real skills gap in the workforce that keeps growing. Depending on the role, there could be barriers from lower levels to higher levels. Time constraints and the need for specific skills sets can cause a skills gap, that can impact your company.

Solution: Fill the knowledge gaps by upskilling the team. There are different ways to accomplish this: current employees should have the opportunity to attend conferences, workshops, in-house training. Another approach would be to consider “virtual mobility” (an alternative or complement to physical mobility programs) – a relatively new concept defined by elearningeuropa.info portal as: “The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to obtain the same benefits as one would have with physical mobility but without the need to travel”.
Bridge the skills gap by working with a recruiting company like SourceMatch.

4. Retaining Millennials
Millennials are the generation born between 1980 and 2000 and there are 75 million in just the US. It’s no secret that millennials want something else in the workplace. And by something else we talk about how they want their job to mean something, to have a purpose.

Solution: In an article published by Forbes, Nathan Peart argues that millennials are efficient, driven and focused and the Millennial workforce will show passion and dedication—giving workplaces the opportunity to offer Millennials a real trajectory and a chance to grow and stay. At SourceMatch we implement personal development sessions and each individual’s growth is very important to us. These sessions give us a clear understanding of where the person is, how they evolved, and the direction they’re heading.

5. Relationship with Hiring Managers

Is the relationship between the recruiter and the hiring manager a smooth and effective one? It should be, right? But the truth is that recruiting has a lot of expectations from various stakeholders and managers. From these expectations and the quality of candidates, you can sense the need for goal alignment and proper communication.

“51% of recruiters said hiring managers “should do a better job communicating what they are looking for in a candidate” and “provide relatable examples.” (iCIMS)

Solution: Effective recruiting starts with a healthy relationship between the recruiter and the hiring manager, that needs to be built on trust. A 20-minute meeting in which they look over the job description together, the new position to be filled, the mandatory requirements; can make a difference. In the hiring process, there are different perspectives but the same goals. Communication can change the perspective when you communicate about the goals required to meet those needs.

Summary

In this article, we pointed out the top 5 challenges faced by recruiters and how they can overcome each of them. Whether we talk about the need to hire fast, the competition when looking for talent, finding the right one with all the skills required, retaining the biggest generation active on the market, or the relationship between the recruiters and the hiring managers, one thing is certain: these challenges helped us grow and save precious time and money.

How can we further assist you in developing your organization’s competitive advantage? By finding the right people. The SourceMatch team works in a close partnership with our clients and makes sure that by the end of every project everyone in the recruiting process has won: the hiring manager, the candidate, and the recruiter. Get in touch with us to discuss your recruiting priorities as you take your business to the next level.

Oct 07
0
talent engagement

Talent Engagement in 2019

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Is the talent acquisition organization’s mindset shifting? Yes, it is!
A recent report from Beamery reveals that 90% of respondents state that talent engagement is a priority of their organization in 2019; and recruiters are relying more on building and nurturing relationships with talent, as opposed to reacting to explicit needs.

Along with the rise of candidates’ expectations, teams became more specialized and 86% of them already have or planned to build out at least one new specialized unit this year. 39% of them use a CRM, a recruitment marketing tool, or a talent engagement platform. This is up from 26% in 2018. This, in turn, helps nurture and build relationships with candidates.
“Innovation in Talent is becoming a core strategic priority for companies looking to create and retain a competitive advantage. The talent acquisition function has been maturing to become more proactive, with businesses seeking to build meaningful relationships with potential candidates and treat them like valued customers,” agrees Abakar Saidov, the Co-Founder and CEO of Beamery.

Why does your company prioritize talent engagement?
72% of respondents from the same report said that it creates a pipeline of high-quality talent
50% believe that it helps improve the employer brand
49% of respondents say that it enables the talent acquisition team to be more strategic
46% – It improves the candidate experience
25% – It’s part of a board-level or business-wide initiative

Candidates now have higher expectations: 72% of candidates who have had a bad experience have shared it (Workplace Trends), and 85% of candidates say they won’t consider a company again after a bad experience (Jobvite). Therefore, the recruiting function of organizations and talent teams’ responsibilities changed: 73% of recruiters state that the Talent Acquisition organization has gained a place in business executive decisions in the past 5 years.

The proactive approach to recruiting
This year, 84% of talent acquisition teams source proactively, only slightly higher compared to 83% last year. And for good reason: 94% of recruiters are convinced that engaged candidates are more likely to apply, and 80% of them see that the quality of their hires has increased as a result of having pipelines in place.
The first step in this new era of recruiting is to have a deeper understanding of what talent engagement is and find ways to create a solid and meaningful relationship with the candidate.

Let us help you do what we know best!

Oct 02
0
Social media in recruitment

Social Media in Recruitment

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Social media in recruitment – a game-changer

A study from Jobvite, with 800 recruiters as participants, revealed that the majority of respondents (67 percent) said their biggest challenge in hiring is the lack of skilled, high-quality candidates.

“With more open jobs than people to fill them and the market at near full employment, recruiters are finding new ways to reach candidates where they are—whether that’s on Instagram or via text. They’re re-evaluating what success looks like, with quality hires and retention rates becoming a higher priority than time- and cost-per-hire.”, according to the same study.

This is when recruiters get creative using social media to reach out to candidates rather than traditional websites like job boards.
The most used channel for recruitment efforts is LinkedIn— with 77% taking advantage — followed by Facebook with (63%). However, the number decreased in the last few years: for example in 2017, 92% of recruiters have used LinkedIn, compared to this year.

What about Instagram? Its popularity with job seekers has caused an increased use among recruiters — now, a quarter of recruiters are investing in recruiting efforts on Instagram, especially millennial recruiters (35%) and those working at technology companies (63%) — double the number than in 2017.
Social media recruiting can save time and money by targeting people who are qualified for the position. Using social media when hiring, creates a better position to accommodate clients’ urgent requests.

Different generation needs

While the number of smartphones grows, mobile-optimized job adverts and career pages matter even more and become a factor when job seekers pursue an active search. Companies respond with digital marketing strategies, create content that is mobile-friendly, work with streamlined user experience, and shorten application processes, which all translates into extensive mobile-recruiting efforts.
A study from the Aberdeen Group showed that 73 percent of millennials (18-34 age group) found their last position through a social media platform.

  • To use social media when hiring, in an effective way, you can do the following:
  • Use industry-specific hashtags to help identify top talent in the field.
  • Involve employees in the recruitment process but make sure you have a corporate social media policy beforehand.
  • Use video content. Video content on social media gets 1200% more shares than text and image content, and 87% of mobile traffic will be video by 2021
  • Connect with the Right People. Keep your profiles industry-specific and establish connections with industry leaders, experts in the field and people who have a niche specialization. This requires personalized messages and a lot of time and effort; however, chances grow to connect with potentially employable, experienced professionals.

There is a better way to recruiting. Reach out to us to learn more!

Sep 25
0
diversity in hiring

Diversity in Hiring

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A recent report from Google on diversity in hiring states that hiring has increased among workforce segments such as women, Black+ and Latinx+ groups (The report uses the “plus system” because multiracial people are “plus-ed in” to each racial category they identify with).
The hiring of women rose to 33.2% globally and to 34.9% in the U.S., Black+ and Latinx+ hires increased to 4.8% and 6.8%, respectively, in the U.S.

In 2018, global hires of women in the tech sector increased to 25.7%, continuing the positive trend we’ve seen since 2015. In this four-year period, the hiring of women in tech has increased from 22.1% to 25.7%. In the United States, hiring of women increased to 51.6%—”the single biggest year-over-year shift for any underrepresented group within this data set”.
The proportion of women leadership hires decreased, according to the same report. In the United States, women leadership hires decreased to 26.0% and to 25.9% globally. Latinx+ leadership hires increased to 5.1%, while Black+ leadership hires decreased to 3.6%.

The first report from Google of its kind was released in 2014 and an updated version has been published every year since. Although there is a lot of progress to be made, Google’s commitment is to increase diversity in the tech industry. Many other tech companies are following its example: Ada Developers Academy (an intensive software developer training school for anyone who identifies as female; the program is tuition-free and targeted at those who have a strong passion for technology but no formal programming training), Other Machine Co. (its tech staff is split 50-50 between men and women), ZestFinance (two of the company’s 10 principles center on diversity).
Senior Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer at Google argues that diversity is a business solution.

Statistics say that 57% of recruiters have strategies to attract diverse candidates.

Diversity in hiring can make a difference in the long-term vision of a company, and among the benefits, we can name: multicultural employees bring a unique perspective to the workplace, competitive and healthy environment, learning opportunities and improved customer service.

What is YOUR approach towards diversity in hiring? Reach out to us to learn more!

Sep 09
0
skills gap

Skills gap is here. How to Address it?

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What is the “Skills Gap”?

The ‘skills gap’ is the phrase used to describe the difference between the skills that employers want, as shown by their job advertisements, and those that are available from professionals looking for a job. According to Glassdoor, the high needs jobs include: project manager, physician assistant, software engineer, marketing manager, nurse practitioner, business analyst, operations manager, occupational therapist, electrical engineer, and product manager.

The top reasons for the skills gap include: competition from other employers, candidates who do not have the needed experience, candidates who do not have the correct technical skills, low number of applicants, non-competitive benefits or salaries, and candidates who do not have the right soft skills (shrm.org).

To address the skills gap, companies will need both short and long term goals. There are many ways to help support business growth, while also addressing the skills gap seen within some sectors. To do this, businesses need to be prepared. SourceMatch helps businesses prepare for both the long and short term employee skills gap.

Long Term

Provide Career and Professional Growth

Companies can better prepare for the skills gap by providing career and professional growth options; to employees. Managers can set up discussions about opportunities for more education in high need areas, and learn from consulting companies such as SourceMatch, about the current skills trends. By doing this, you invest in your workforce and create career ladders for employees. SourceMatch stays up to date on the current high need skills, as well as how to educate your workforce in those areas.

Invest in Future Employees

Investing in future employees can mean a few things. Employers can reach out to high school students as well as college students, and share knowledge about your organization, industry and how they can best prepare to be a valuable professional. This will create an interest for students to possibly invest in the skills needed for your company. To do this, SourceMatch can help, by offering our consulting and recruiting services. Sharing knowledge of your company’s needs and wants, better prepares the future employees, as well as your company. Your company can get a better grasp of the future workforce as well.

Provide the Cost of Education

Companies are also offering to cover some or all of the cost of education for their employees. According to Forbes, Many companies like Starbucks, Walmart, Chipotle, and Disney offer tuition assistance for employees. This boosts employee retention and morale, as employees can “grow” with their company.

Short Term

Refer to Outsourcing

For immediate hiring needs, SourceMatch offers assistance to companies looking to fill their skills gap. We specialize in finding and retaining the right talent. Outsourcing recruiting, allows for an immediate request to be filled, as we do the legwork in regards to finding the right candidates for the open roles. Because we specialize in consulting and recruiting, your company is enabled to be efficient at using valuable resources and funds, as we use our validated Engaged Recruiting model to find and fill in those skill gaps.

Utilize Recruiting and Consulting Services

To utilize recruiting and consulting services, companies reach out for qualified support. SourceMatch specializes in filling the skills gap for companies. Using our services, companies save time and money training or retaining “high needs” positions. In the short term, companies who use our services, are able to fill in their skills gap. Recruiting and consulting companies can reach out to untapped sources of talent, that many companies are not even aware of.

The Evolution of Technology

How to Keep Up

The digital skills gap is costing the US economy roughly $1 trillion in lost productivity – Entrepreneur. To keep up in the new age of IT, companies can utilize recruiting organizations; to fill their skills gap. Because technology changes so quickly, the workforce can lag a bit behind. This makes it so valuable for companies to stay ahead of the gap. By planning and using SourceMatch’s consulting services, companies are better prepared for future IT skills gaps.

Training the Workforce to Evolve

Many companies also offer paid training and certificate courses, for employees to learn and grow. This is a faster-paced solution to that individual skill gap. By doing this, employers and employees can keep up with the current high needs skills.

Faster Learning Opportunities (Rather Than Traditional 4 Year Degrees)

Some of the top-paying certificates take less time to earn than a traditional 4-year degree. These certificates may need a certain level of experience or hours, though. Some top paying certificates include: Google Cloud Architect, PMP, ScrumMaster, AWS Architect and Developer, MCSE, ITIL, CISM, CRISC, CISSP, CEH, Citrix Associate, CompTIA, and Cisco (CCNP). By gaining a base level of knowledge and then gaining a certificate, employees and employers can bridge both blue-collar and white-collar skills gaps.

The Case for Creativity in the Workplace

To keep up with the skills gap, many companies are turning to creative time in the workplace. This allows employees to “think and plan” and develop solutions to current skills needs. By allowing creativity in the early years of employment, professionals gain a way to be “forward thinkers” allowing them to innovate and create solutions for the future. Some companies also rotate managers, to allow for new, fresh ideas in the workplace. By switching things up, companies can evolve and entertain the skills gap, rather than be forced into it.

By being prepared for both the long and short term, future and present skills gap, companies can save time and money. Using creativity, planning, outsourcing, and education, companies can overcome the skills gap and create a veritable, efficient workforce.

Reach out to us to see how we can bridge the skill gap together.

Aug 26
0

5 Best Practices for a Successful Onboarding

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Why is onboarding important in the hiring process? Because quoting Shane Metcalf – the Co-Founder and Chief Culture Officer of 15Five – “Onboarding is a process that helps new employees shift from being outsiders to insiders of an organization.”
Statistics say that the first 3 months are when new hires are particularly susceptible to turnover and the cost of employee turnover can cost up to ½ – 5x an employee’s salary.

How do we then make sure we’re on the right track?

1. Meet your employees beyond the resume
Within the first week, make sure you set up a one-on-one meeting, that could be the most important connection for the new employee.
Numbers say that employees who engage internally intend to stay at a rate that’s 8% higher on our intent-to-stay measure.

2. Show “how things work around” and give a team-led tour
Things like how to navigate in the building, where to get coffee from (or other resources), get familiar with the key areas of the surroundings, and very important – the workplace “language” can help them feel more acclimated. When the team is involved in a colleague’s onboarding, it brings them all together and chances are higher that you can create office friendships and influence your employees happier.
Statistics say that with friends at work, employees are 47 percent more likely to love their companies.

3. Offer continuous training and support
Helping new employees assimilate doesn’t stop after the 2 weeks of training. Make sure you check at key intervals how they stand, that they have everything sorted it out and that they fully understand what the business is about, its reason for being and values.
Don’t expect he rocks the show from the first month, statistics say that It typically takes eight months for a newly hired employee to reach full productivity.

4. Involve the leadership team
Break the ice with the superiors! New employees are curious to meet the executives, especially with those they will be interacting in their routine. It is a good practice, as numbers say that 77% of executive managers ensure they meet with new recruits.

5. Get feedback
The direction of on-boarding new employees may require adjustments that are based on feedback from them.
In a survey conducted by BambooHR, 53 percent of respondents who quit jobs within the first six months said “review and feedback of early contributions” is one of the most important things a new employee needs to get up to speed and begin contributing quickly.

And one to conclude with, the last but the most important:
Company and team vision and values
If you want them to commit to your mission, vision and core values, show them what they are.
An estimated 50% of new employees don’t understand their company’s mission and values after 90 days.

What other successful onboarding practices are you using? Leave us a comment below.

Aug 21
0
outsourcing recruitment

Outsourcing Recruitment and its Benefits

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The Benefits of Outsourcing Recruitment

There are many benefits for companies that decide to outsource recruitment services. As companies have various talents and services, they may need support in areas that could be lacking. For example, an IT company may outsource their hiring needs to a Recruiting Company, such as SourceMatch. This allows the IT company to focus on its service, while Sourcematch, focuses on supporting the company’s needs to hire the right talent. Or a retail company new to online ordering may need to outsource delivery options, web support, and web design services. When it comes to outsourcing recruitment, there are many other benefits to it. These include: experience level in regards to services, saving time, reducing costs, employment branding, sourcing and retaining talent, and the various functions required as time and demands change. However, more than anything else, engaging in a recruitment partnership enables you to have access to processes, resources and validated best practices that have taken significant efforts to reach a level of expertise that is recognized in the market.

Experience Level

Outsourcing is one way for a company to access a veritable wealth of expertise in an unfamiliar subject area. Many established companies, startups, and even reorganized companies utilize the resources of outsourcing recruitment. They realize that allowing fellow professionals to assist in an unfamiliar area is vital to the growth of the company. The experience level of the company in regards to the level of need is a factor in deciding which recruiting company to use. SourceMatch has over 25 years of professional recruiting experience, and has coined the term “Engaged Recruiting”. We assist established companies, start-ups, or those in need of reorganization. SourceMatch utilizes state-of-the-art technologies, metrics, recruiting, consulting, holistic assessments, and especially a “stay human” approach to improve our clients’ organizations, coming in stark contrast to the traditional recruitment agencies or veritable “resume shops.”

Emphasis on Return-on-Investment (ROI)

Saving money is very important to our clients, and what is even more important is that we increase the effectiveness by treating each hiring decision as an investment decision. Businesses that save money can focus on expansion, employee raises, and boosting morale. SourceMatch saves its clients money, time, and energy that would otherwise be expended finding and reviewing hundreds of resumes, filling back position because a candidate didn’t make it through the first months of employment, or simply employees that should not have been hired in the first place.
It’s our observation that it costs a company between 2 to 6 times a particular job’s annual salary to replace employees due to turnover with factors such as: time invested in searching, interviewing, and onboarding a new hire (across all involved stakeholders), lack of productivity, or cost of lost opportunity. SourceMatch stays ahead of the market trends to avoid the risks that such a hiring decision can bring, allowing our clients to focus on their particular business, rather than spending more time and money learning a new skill.

Access Wisely Combined Recruiting Resources

At SourceMatch, we thrive at searching for and retaining the top talent for our clients. We have access to a plethora of recruiting tools and assessments that we carefully choose and combine into individual solutions for each organization’s needs. These assessments include behavior profiles, skills, and language knowledge. We adjust assessments based on historical data of successful hires and ineffective hiring decisions. 

Tap Into a Well of Validated Expertise

As companies decide to outsource recruitment services, they discover that using a specialist delivers what is needed to excel at hiring. Consulting or recruiting services offer organizations the benefit of having an outside approach to problem-solving. SourceMatch has years of experience in consulting and providing recruitment services with which to serve our clients. Their growth and confidence in the employees demonstrate how beneficial outsourcing recruitment can be. With a constant concern for improvement, a partner such as SourceMatch will persist in updating, upgrading and innovating on the client organization’s behalf. It’s part of our core DNA knowing that change is also constant across the global talent demand and availability.

Top Talent Will only Respond to Top Recruitment Practices

Many companies provide a specific service: web design, software programming, and IT services are just a few examples. Finding and retaining top talent, not just any talent is a necessity for those businesses that want to thrive. Outsourcing recruitment allows companies to focus on their organization, while SourceMatch focuses on finding the best fit for their open positions. While most recruiting agencies rely on a “hit-and-run” approach, SourceMatch invests time with each of its clients to truly understand their vision, values, and objectives. By doing so, it allows the hiring managers to dive deep into what truly motivated them to create a job opening in the first place, which most often ties into the organizational culture and growth strategy. This approach is essential to attract top talent, who are especially interested in how they can personally contribute to a company’s innovation and long-term plans.

Retention Starts with Intelligent Recruiting

To retain talent, companies need to know the workforce. Many companies are skilled in certain areas but do not fully understand what is going on in the current workforce. At SourceMatch, we specifically study and utilize how data and trends affect the talent pool, so that our clients have actionable market intelligence. Although retention is the subject of many post-hire efforts, it is a key component to consider when searching for and interviewing candidates. Painting a clear picture of an organization’s culture, vision, mission, values and especially the unwritten expectations before prospective candidates is one of the best ways to avoid a misalignment of expectations once hired. That misalignment is what causes the first slips of motivation for new hires when the true faces of the manager, their new team and sometimes job responsibilities creep in after a few months on the job.

Flexibility is Key in an Ultra-Competitive Global Market

By consulting with SourceMatch, companies that have discovered new growth opportunities to learn can save costs during a restructure or reorganization. Having an outside view can also allow for new insights, new plans for areas of growth and effectiveness of investments. For example, department store retailers that used outside consultants were given plans and ideas for ways to change with the times. They successfully maneuvered through the online market, and have now expanded their profit margins. Other stores did not reach out for support, and we now see them closing their doors.

Candidates Can have an Amazing Recruiting Experience

That’s applicable whether you hire them or not. Allowing a recruiting partner to come up with a fresh perspective opens up more benefits for not only your organization but your prospective candidates as well. From an outsider’s perspective, companies can learn candidate experience analysis and improvement practices. Is your organization candidate-oriented and willing to change in a global market where the Skills Gap affects more and more companies?
Have you had a consultation with SourceMatch to check your candidate focus and areas for growth? We would be happy to assist in helping your company to reach higher profits and be ultra-competitive in a global economy driven by one key resource: the best talent.

The benefit of Outsourcing Recruiting Services

As you can see, there are many benefits for an organization that chooses to outsource recruiting. Experience, reduction in costs, access to resources, branding, sourcing and retaining top talent, reorganizing, and improving functions are just some of the benefits you can gain when SourceMatch provides your recruiting outsourcing services.

May 01
0
skills gap

Skills Gap in the US Part 1

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Business and HR leaders are concerned about this skills shortage (and here we are talking about the skills required by US businesses and the skills US workers have) and among HR professionals, 75% of recruiters deal with this skills gap among candidates who apply for job openings.
With implications and impact on the overall economy, the talent shortage is a serious challenge for organizations intensified by new technologies they use.

Let’s talk about numbers.
According to the 2019 State of the Workplace report, there were 7 million jobs open in December 2018, with only 6.3 million unemployed people looking for work.
“over 50% of respondents feel that skills shortages have worsened or greatly worsened in their organizations in the last two years.”

Missing skills.
The trade skills (Carpentry, plumbing, welding, machining, etc.) are the top technical skills missing, and among soft skills missing, we find problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation, and creativity.

“83% of respondents have had trouble recruiting suitable candidates in the past 12 months.” Why?
To make a point, in this following infographic we list the top reasons why organizations are struggling to hire the right candidate for the job: competition from other employees, candidates that do not have the needed work experience, nor technical skills, mismatched salary, benefits are not competitive for the market, and so on.

Although it is a burden for many employers and recruiters out there, it can create an opportunity for a company to identify the missing skill, figure how to obtain them, and get a sense of how to position their workforce for the future of work.

Fortunately, there are several ways in which the skills gap can be reduced.
How do you bridge the skills gap? Where there’s a problem, there’s a solution. Follow us and stay tuned for the second part of the graphic, where we look at what can be done.

 

Mar 26
1
stand out with candidates

How can your Organization and Recruiters Stand out with Candidates?

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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!

Mar 15
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recruiting

So you want to grow? Start with Recruiting.

By | Blog, Recruiting | No Comments

Recruiting is crucial for growth

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.