Category: Candidate Attraction

Creating a Compelling Employment Offer

Posted on by edyson

Talent acquisition teams and hiring managers are always on the hunt for candidates who check all of the boxes: the five-star talent with all of the right skills and experience to excel in a role, but who also fits the culture of the employer. When these candidates are screened, interviewed and assessed, they pass each phase of the process with flying colors, leaving hiring managers eager to extend an offer of employment. However, there is one catch: will the candidate accept?

When you make an offer to a candidate, you hope they want the position as much as you want to hire them. But, sometimes, you nurture a great candidate through the entire recruitment process only for them have a change of heart. Candidates declining job offers can be disheartening for recruiting teams – and costly for organizations trying to fill vital open positions. In this article, we’ll cover candidate expectations and key points in the employment offer process, as well as explain how to connect with candidates on a more personal level.

Meeting Candidate Expectations: Then & Now

Candidates Expect an Inviting Company Culture

In the past, candidates applied for positions without knowing or expecting to know much about an organization’s inner workings or culture. As a result, when candidates were extended an offer, an organization’s culture played less of a role in whether they would accept the position.

But now, candidates want to know about the work environment and company culture so they can assess whether they think the organization is a good fit. Help candidates get that information by having a section on your careers page that provides cultural insights into your organization, and include videos and images that display what it’s like to work for you.

Candidates Expect Greater Transparency

It used to be that a candidate applied for a job, sent in their résumé and waited patiently for a response from the employer. All too often, candidates were left in the dark regarding timelines, with few ways to find out where they were in the hiring process.

Now, candidates expect rapid responses to their inquiries and greater transparency into a potential employer’s hiring process. Therefore, make sure that you inform the candidate about when they can expect an offer or rejection and deliver on it. This shows that the organization is respectful, responsible and disciplined. Plus, if you make transparency a core piece of your recruitment strategy, you can improve your offer acceptance rate.   

Candidates Expect More from Your Employer Value Proposition

Your employer value proposition (EVP) is the distillation of what you offer candidates and what you expect in return. In the past, organizations relied heavily on brand recognition and compensation as their primary EVP. But, more than ever, candidates expect flexible work options, formal succession planning, mentorship programs, open communication and real-time feedback to be part of an employer’s value.

Before candidates reach the offer phase, make sure you have clearly communicated what makes you different as an employer. When candidates understand your story and how you view your role as an employer, they can get a picture of what they can expect if they accept your offer.

Plan ahead to ensure that candidates have information about the team they’ll be working with and the types of projects they’ll work on. When appropriate, you can also create an opportunity for the candidates to meet their future coworkers during the recruiting process.

Compensation, Benefits & Perks

Presenting benefits and compensation begins with your job postings. According to a survey conducted by Glassdoor, more than half of the respondents listed salary (67%) and benefits (63%) as top factors they looked for in job ads. By listing the salary range, benefits and perks this early on, you are less likely to lose a candidate at the end of the process solely because the salary and benefits offered are less than they are willing to accept.

When making a job offer, begin with an in-depth discussion with the candidate to determine which benefits and perks they value the most; it may be possible to create an offer package that is personalized enough to meet their needs. Furthermore, it’s important to know the difference between a perk and a benefit, as they are two different categories of non-wage compensation items.

employment offer letter

Benefits: Benefits are best described as a form of non-wage compensation that complements salary. Health insurance, transit assistance, stock options and retirement contributions are some of the most popular benefits offered by organizations.

Perks: Perks are above-and-beyond offerings that may sway a candidate to value one organization over another. Think about these like the “icing on the cake.” Perks at work may include a company car; retail discounts; summer hours; gym memberships; standing desks and off-site, team-building activities. These perks can really sweeten an employment offer and increase the likelihood of acceptance.

Non-Traditional Perks & Benefits

A survey released by TriNet found that 91% of respondents at small- and medium-sized businesses view non-traditional benefits as an important aspect of their job satisfaction. According to the survey, non-traditional benefits include perks such as flexible work schedules, commuter benefits, unlimited paid time off, paid volunteer time, remote work options and more. 

If your organization offers non-traditional perks and benefits, leverage them to sweeten job offers. These days, candidates are becoming less concerned with salary alone and more concerned with overall compensation – including a better work-life balance and greater workplace flexibility. If your organization offers employees access to a gym, the option to work from home or other alluring perks, make sure to mention these when discussing benefits with candidates.

Entwining Benefits & Employer Branding

Fusing your benefits package with your employer brand gives your benefits program a distinct identity and purpose aligned with your core values. It’s something that candidates should be able to recognize in every aspect of your benefits presentation. In particular, your benefits mission statement should be clear and concise, but also unique to your organization. Strive to make it a natural extension of your broader organizational values. For instance, if excellent customer service is an area of focus at your company, craft your benefits mission statement to highlight how your benefits seek to anticipate and meet the needs of employees.

A financial services client of PeopleScout’s is one example of blending employer branding and benefits. Specifically, the client provided a comprehensive and generous maternity leave policy for expecting mothers. However, when communicating its maternity leave policy, the benefit wasn’t featured in a way that effectively highlighted the company’s commitment to supporting new parents. While informative and to the point, this approach to educating employees about the policy was misaligned with the client’s employer brand of empowerment.

PeopleScout worked with this client to craft new and more brand-aligned communications about the maternity leave policy. The new messaging shared in the excitement of expecting employees, while also highlighting the challenges expecting mothers face in the workplace. Employee communications about the maternity leave policy centered on the values of empowerment and support for employees – inside and outside of the organization’s walls.

Engaging & Communicating With Candidates During the Employment Offer Process

Initial Conversations

Once you’ve decided on a candidate, don’t waste time reaching out and sharing the good news. Otherwise, the candidate may accept a position elsewhere or develop a negative attitude about your organization if they are left waiting too long.

When you contact the candidate, discuss the details of the job offer. If the candidate is satisfied with your offer, ask for verbal acceptance and let them know a formal offer of employment will be sent shortly.

Follow Up & Keeping Candidates Warm

After verbal acceptance of your offer, stay in contact with the candidate to keep them engaged and interested in the role. When following up, don’t be overly eager or too pushy; instead, allow the candidate some time to think about your offer. While the candidate considers your job offer, stay in touch through the candidate’s preferred method of communication. The purpose of your follow-up correspondence should be to reinforce your enthusiasm about having the candidate join your team.

Follow-ups with new details about the offer, like “You will be working at X location” or “Would you prefer to work on a Mac or a PC?” allow you to stay connected while relaying information that is relevant to the candidate. What’s more, keeping in touch enables you to continue to build a positive relationship with candidates after the offer.

The Official Offer Letter

An offer letter represents the final stage in your recruiting process and is the legal document that defines the employment relationship between your organization and the candidate. For those reasons, it is critical to get it right.

Think of the offer letter as a formal invitation for the candidate to become an employee of your organization. Like any invitation, your offer letter should send a warm and positive message to the candidate. Articulate a friendly, welcoming tone and indicate your anticipation of the candidate’s future contributions to your organization. The offer letter should inform candidates of their compensation and benefits, as well as include a description of their role and responsibilities.

Consider creating multiple templates for offer letters, especially if you have distinct categories of employees. Then, personalize them to match the candidate and to ensure that each candidate receives the right information for their situation.

Organizations that want to fill open roles with qualified and talented employees need to approach recruitment in the same way that sales and marketing teams approach engaging and closing clients. Look for creative ways to show why your organization is a great place to work.

And, finally, solicit and provide feedback to candidates; this communicates that you value their input and that your organization – like the candidate – is using the exchange as a teachable moment meant to foster growth, which is an indicator of a positive workplace culture. By focusing on your brand, culture and benefits, as well as keeping in touch with candidates, you’ll maximize your ability to land – and keep – the best talent.

Hiring for Highly Skilled Workers and Hard to Fill Jobs

Posted on by edyson

When facing a tight and highly competitive talent market, employers find it even more difficult to hire for hard to fill jobs. What’s more, the dearth of highly skilled talent in critical industries can lower an organization’s productivity, which, if let unabated, could have a major effect on the global economy.

According to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report, vacancies for jobs requiring highly skilled workers or in-demand skills are among the most difficult to fill. The talent acquisition professionals surveyed in the report said the following job categories are most difficult to recruit:

In this article, we’ll cover how organizations can identify, source and hire highly skilled talent more effectively.

Creating Candidate Personas for Hard to Fill Jobs

Before you source, recruit and hire highly skilled talent, you must first outline the skills, attributes, experience and tendencies of your ideal candidate by creating a candidate persona. A candidate persona is a semi-fictional illustration of a candidate who exemplifies what you are looking for in a specific role. An accurate candidate persona will help your talent team tailor its strategies and approach to best suit the talent you are looking to hire. This is especially important when recruiting highly skilled candidates who have diverse and unique requirements, drivers and employment expectations.

Your candidate persona needs to answer key questions. Begin by answering these questions using existing data from your applicant tracking system (ATS) and customer relationship management (CRM) databases on candidates and employees. You can also interview current employees – especially those who align with your ideal candidate – for their feedback. Below is an example of a candidate persona template:

Hard to fill jobs

Make sure your personas are representative of actual human beings – rather than a portrait of an overly idealized, fictional candidate. Also, be cautious when creating candidate personas; giving your personas names and pictures to make them seem more realistic and multi-dimensional is great, but it may also lead to bias. Instead, keep personal identifiers to a minimum to avoid discrimination and maximize diversity. 

Sourcing Highly Skilled Candidates

Leveraging Social Media

LinkedIn is a favorite social media recruiting tool for talent professionals. However, oversaturation is the predominate reason that many hiring managers claim that recruiting on LinkedIn has become less effective. Despite being inundated with competitors, LinkedIn is still one of the most important tools in a recruiter’s toolbox. However, sourcing talent on other social media is also a vital part of a modern recruiting strategy.

  • Twitter: Use Twitter’s advanced search function to hunt for user profiles that use industry-related keywords and hashtags. Then, refine your search based on location and other important criteria. For example, if you’re looking to fill a developer position, search Twitter for specific software and developer-related keywords within your organization’s target market. This search can uncover developers in your area with the experience you’re looking for.
  • Facebook: Facebook’s targeted search capabilities enable you to find high-quality, skilled workers who align with specific criteria. For example, if you search “copywriters with packaging marketing experience,” Facebook will return a result with matching profiles. Reach out to these candidates to see if they would be interested in interviewing with your organization.

The power in using your social media accounts goes beyond sourcing candidates for hard to fill jobs; you can also showcase your organization’s employer brand and culture to entice and engage talent.

Employee Referrals

To gain a competitive edge, look to your employees. An employee referral program can help your organization expand its network with a ready-made talent pool. Employees have contacts with former classmates and co-workers, and their referrals are more likely to be qualified and a good fit with the company culture.

Additionally, consider posting open positions in office areas, announcing openings at company meetings and sharing them in company-wide communications to help employees keep referrals top of mind. Also, regularly remind employees about the rewards for referrals, such as financial compensation or other perks. Even if a referred candidate is not a good fit for a particular position, you can still consider them for different roles, which can help supplement a robust talent pipeline.

Leverage Recruiting Automation & AI Tools to Source Candidates

Innovations in talent technology have transformed every phase of the recruiting process. One phase that has seen enormous change due to technology is candidate sourcing. Candidate sourcing is the most important phase in recruiting highly skilled talent because the talent pool is more constricted.

Today, talent tools powered by artificial intelligence can locate passive candidates for hard to fill jobs much faster and more efficiently than ever before. AI technology crawls the internet to collect and analyze a wide variety of candidate data – from résumés to social media activity. Based on this data, AI-based tools can help make predictions about which candidates will be open to switching jobs, making it easier for recruiters to prioritize those candidates.

Selling Your Hard to Fill Jobs

When it comes time for the interview, you’re not just interviewing highly skilled candidates; they’re interviewing you, as well. To effectively “sell” your opportunities, outline and communicate the benefits of working for your organization. Effective communication on the front end can save your company significant time and effort.

Understand What It’s Like to Work for Your Organization

To properly sell the role, make sure that you have an accurate view of your organization from the perspective of your employees – both current and former. Consider deploying surveys to obtain feedback from current employees and make sure to conduct exit interviews with departing talent. Take the feedback you receive and craft an objective report of your employee experience. When you understand the day-to-day experiences of your current and former employees, you can better sell an accurate and positive depiction of what it’s like to work for your organization. 

Understand Your Employer Value Proposition

Your employer value proposition (EVP) is what you are selling to the candidate. Recruiters and hiring managers need to know – and be comfortable articulating – the value proposition of your organization. In other words, you need to answer the question, “Why would someone want to work for you in this position?” Your employer value proposition includes a range of tangible and intangible benefits of working at your organization, such as: work/life balance, flexibility, culture, values, compensation and benefits. Know the benefits of working for your company, and make sure that you effectively “sell” it to highly skilled candidates.

For instance, PeopleScout helps a client to maximize its employer brand to attract a healthy pipeline of top talent. The client, which has a global presence in the construction industry, works with PeopleScout to highlight its unique culture to potential employees. During the hiring process, hiring managers communicate the client’s mission of: minimizing environmental impact and maximizing sustainability; creating innovative approaches to complex industry problems; and promoting the well-being of its employees.

As an example, the client offers three days of “well-being” PTO that can be taken in addition to the traditional leave offered by the client. These days are seen as necessary for employees working in a physically and mentally taxing industry, and illustrate the client’s commitment to the well-being of its staff. What’s more, the client also offers multiple flexible work arrangements to increase work-life balance – a prudent, yet uncommon, benefit in the industry. By helping our client weave in its mission, culture and brand into the recruiting process, the team has been able to establish the company as an employer of choice for highly skilled talent. 

Be Careful Not to Oversell

In addition to the perks, it’s also important for candidates to have an objective understanding of the challenges that may come with working at your organization. You don’t have to paint an unflattering picture of your hard to fill jobs, but it is important to provide accurate information up front. Overselling or omitting information will start the employment relationship off on the wrong foot should they accept your offer, and could lead to higher turnover. It won’t take a new hire long to figure out that what they were told before they were hired is not the reality of the role. For example, if your role requires irregular or long hours, communicate that to the candidate. This allows the candidate to make a fully informed decision and mitigate the risk of immediate disengagement.

What Candidates Want to Know

Just like you want to know about a candidate’s background and experience, highly skilled candidates also want to know what they can expect from employment at your organization. In particular, during the recruiting process, they may be interested in: 

  • The candidate’s potential for growth: Highly skilled candidates want to know how leaping to a new organization is going to benefit them – especially in relation to the growth and overall well-being of their careers.
  • The role’s potential for growth: Candidates may want to go beyond the position in its current form and discuss what the position could be and how the role ties into the organization’s plans for the future. 
  • Your organization’s potential for growth: Highly skilled candidates want to be part of a winning team, so show them how your organization is driving success.
  • Your organization’s culture: Candidates want to know that the position is going to be a good fit, and that includes how they fit into your organization’s culture. 

The evolving landscape of talent acquisition requires a more proactive, multi-touch approach to attracting highly skilled talent and converting them into applicants and, ultimately, hires. As the global economy continues to grow and the demand and competition for highly skilled talent rises as a result, organizations need to stay abreast of the scope of talent available in the market.

Retail Recruiters: Creating a Winning Retail Recruiting Strategy

Posted on by edyson

There is no doubt that the internet has forever changed the way customers shop. Despite this, in-store sales continue to trend upward. In fact, in-store sales revenue growth has outpaced e-commerce sales steadily over the last decade. To support in-store demand and continue growth, retail employers need top-performing talent in the right positions.

Unfortunately, with a tight labor market and various retail recruiting challenges, it is now harder than ever for retail recruiters to find the right candidates. In this article, we cover the best hiring practices for retail recruiters to help you source, attract and hire the best retail talent.

Defining Your Hiring Goals as Retail Recruiters

Regardless of industry, the first step in the recruiting journey begins with outlining how many hires you need to make, what positions you are looking to fill and the timeline you need to hire by. By outlining these goals early on in the recruitment process, you develop a clear strategy that helps you meet your organization’s talent needs.

As a retail recruiter, your organization’s hiring goals may fluctuate or change depending on seasonality and store openings, so in addition to your current hiring needs, also anticipate future needs when creating your hiring goals.

Do not be afraid to change your goals as you go. Outside factors, such as new competitors, a change in demand or opening of a new store, might influence the goals you established. If you need to make a shift to your strategy, remain agile enough to do so.

Sourcing Retail Candidates

For a retail organization to thrive, it takes a diverse range of individuals working together towards a common goal. So, it should come as no surprise that when searching for top retail talent, retail recruiters need to cast a wide net.

While some companies may focus on hiring high school or college students looking for part-time or seasonal jobs, others may want experienced full-time candidates in search of careers. If you’re hiring low wage, low skill labor, community sites like Craigslist or standard job boards can help you attract students or young individuals looking to gain some experience. If you’re looking for more experienced retail workers, try more targeted job boards like iHireRetail or LinkedIn.

It is essential to know where your potential candidates are active and advertise your open jobs strategically. Use location-specific job boards, local papers or blogs, or other targeted strategies to help pinpoint your area for the best candidates.

When sourcing for seasonal positions, using digital and social media ads along with email as a way to find and attract talent can pay huge dividends. Just make sure you create a specific careers site to send seasonal candidates too. This way it will be easier for them to find information on the opportunity without having to navigate your full careers website.  

Finally, you can also look at your customers as potential candidates when recruiting new employees. When your employees are passionate about your brand and products, like loyal customers often are, they can help increase sales and educate new shoppers about what you offer.

Retail Recruiters Need to Go Online

Retailers of today are operating in a competitive space that requires forward-thinking as well as online and social savviness. If you want to attract applicants who have those traits, you should take your recruitment efforts beyond traditional channels such as job boards. Social media is known to be an effective recruitment tool. LinkedIn, for instance, has a number of talent solutions that enable you to find, vet and contact candidates.

Social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, while not specifically made for recruiting, can also help you find new hires. Use Twitter to spread the word about your openings and put a special careers tab on your Facebook page where your fans can browse and apply for jobs.

Even Instagram has proven to be a good platform, particularly for companies looking for young and fresh talent. As Software Advice cited in this piece on Instagram recruiting, a study by the Pew Research Center found that the largest group using Instagram is adults between 18-29 years of age with some college education. This makes it an ideal platform to attract a new generation of applicants.

So, make it a point to spruce up your employer profile on social media. A good way to do this is to share fun team photos on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. And if you are actively recruiting, spread the word by posting “we’re hiring” images on your accounts and running targeted social media campaigns to attract the right candidates. You can also show your company culture and promote things such as the flexibility in the workplace you provide, your commitment to diversity and inclusion and more.

For Retail Recruiters, Attitude is the New Experience  

When hiring in retail, which is a bigger predictor of a candidate’s success: attitude or experience? In the case of industries like retail, an employee’s attitude is often more important than their experience. What’s more, The Future of Work: The Augmented Workforce study conducted by Deloitte found that “skills such as empathy, communication, persuasion, personal service, problem-solving, and strategic decision-making are more valuable than ever.”

Retail Recruiters

Whether it’s assisting customers at a department store or managing an automotive supply store, each role within the retail industry requires the right attitude. So, how can retail recruiters ensure they hire candidates who have the right attitude? You can start by assessing candidates’ soft skills in the workplace.

Key soft skills to look for in retail candidates

  • Willing and eager to learn
  • Patient
  • Inquisitive
  • Competitive
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Responsible
  • Good communicator
  • Strong listener
  • Team-oriented
  • Emphatic
  • Can-do attitudes
  • High emotional intelligence

The good news is that many of these soft skills go hand-in-hand, so finding retail candidates who exhibit these qualities and attitudes will not be as difficult as it may seem.

Group Interviews and Assessing Soft Skills

A great ways to find candidates with the right soft skills is to conduct group interviews. Candidates at Disney’s retail Store go through a group interview process where they are quizzed on Disney trivia and are asked to sell a product to the rest of the team.

Conducting group interviews provides you an opportunity to glean insights into someone’s soft skills by observing how they conduct themselves around other people, how they handle a stressful situation and you get to understanding of how they will fit with your team.

The Gist

Retail recruiters and the industry as a whole face a unique set of challenges when attracting top talent with the right skills. With the majority of the retail workforce comprised of hourly, part-time and seasonal employees, recruiting quality workers quickly is a tall order.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy or tactic to retail recruiters. However, armed with the tips we have shared you can develop a retail recruiting strategy that fits your organization’s unique issues, needs and culture. Remember, get to know your candidate pool, create a robust employer brand, utilize the internet and talent technology tools. If you cover all of these bases, you can improve your recruitment process and make smarter hiring decisions.

Talking Talent: Recruiting and Retaining the Next-Gen Workforce with Kathryn Minshew of The Muse

Posted on by nfuqua

In this episode of Talking Talent, we’re talking about the next generation workforce. For years, this conversation has been about millennials, but now the oldest millennials are in their late-30s and the youngest, their mid-20s. Now, most recent graduates are members of Generation Z.

How do employers attract and retain this new generation of workers? As they enter the workforce and start their careers, what sets them apart? And what are they looking for in an employer?

Joining us to talk about this is Kathryn Minshew, the CEO & Founder of The Muse, a career platform used by more than 75 million people to research companies and careers. In 2018, The Muse was named one of Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World.

Kathryn is also the author of “The New Rules of Work,” a Wall Street Journal national bestseller. She has spoken at MIT and Harvard, contributed to the WSJ and HBR, and appeared on TODAY and CNN. She has also been named to SmartCEO’s Future50 Visionary CEOs and Inc.’s 35 Under 35. Kathryn worked on HPV vaccine introduction in Rwanda with the Clinton Health Access Initiative before founding The Muse and was previously at McKinsey & Company.

Additionally, Kathryn is the host of a new podcast from The Muse called “The New Rules of Work,” which interviews experts and leaders to explore the changing landscape of work. The New Rules of Work launched in November.

Increasing Retention: Through the First 90 Days & Beyond

Posted on by skatz

If you’re only focused on recruitment but not retention, you’re throwing away money.

According to Forbes, the cost of replacing an employee can range anywhere from 50% of the salary of an entry-level employee to more than 200% of the salary of a senior executive. Increasing retention – even by just a couple of percentage points – can save millions of dollars each year.

I think “engagement” and “retention” are just different words for the same thing. If you want to retain people, you need to engage them, and you should start as early as possible. Recent surveys have found that about 30% of job-seekers have left a job within the first 90 days of hiring. Despite this, most onboarding programs are too short. According to SHRM, nearly 40% of onboarding programs last one week or less.

This is important across the talent spectrum. In extreme-burnout, high-volume roles, culture counts. Rather than just dealing with unwanted turnover, you need to onboard employees to your culture early. You need them to be invested with you so they have a reason to stay.

On the other end of the spectrum, I consistently see specialized, rock-star candidates deflate when they become new employees. During the recruitment process, they are engaged and excited for a new role. But, when there is no onboarding process, they are left on their own – unengaged and more likely to respond to the next recruiter that pops into their inbox.

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to set up an onboarding program that builds engagement from day one. Then, I’ll share strategies on how you can continue to measure that engagement and build it further.

The 90-Day Onboarding Program

A well-developed onboarding program for the first 90 days makes all the difference in the world when it comes to engagement and retention. When new employees start on day one, they have a lot of expectations, and they’re excited. However, many employers forget how critical the first impression is to a new hire.

For many organizations, the onboarding program starts and ends an employee’s first day with HR basics. Employees fill out paperwork, get a badge, find their desks, complete a training and often receive some sort of handbook. That’s it. Employees are left without any idea of what their first 90 days will look like. In some cases, employees go home from that first day not even knowing what’s in store for day two. These programs are set up by default. They’re easy, and they’ve often been in place for a long time.

I recommend a 90-day program that is designed to give the employee control over their onboarding experience. When a person owns their career experience and expectations are clear from the beginning, they are more likely to stay. They will be set up for success in those first 90 days and beyond.

The Background

I like to think of a new employee’s first 90 days in three phases.

Phase 1: Shadowing

Phase one is often the first 30 days a new employee is at an organization. They are integrating themselves into your organization and absorbing your company culture, structure and processes. They’re learning what their own role entails and what’s expected of them.

Phase 2: Reflecting Back

Phase two takes place during days 30 through 60. The new employee is taking the information they learned in the first 30 days to start developing and sharing their own ideas. However, they are doing this cautiously, looking for feedback and checking to see how their role fits in the organization.

Phase 3: Starting to Soar

In phase three, or days 60 through 90, the employee is taking more freedom and action on their own, but still checking in with some regularity. As they transition out of this phase, they have a base where they know who to go to and how the organization operates, but they are taking control over their own career.

Building the Program

As employers build an onboarding program, I encourage them to think of it as a 360, where they introduce the employee to everything they will touch and be touched by at an organization. To do this, employers need to ask two questions:

What tools, technology and equipment does the new hire need to do their job?

Most organizations have some sort of onboarding program to get a new employee acquainted with the tools they need, but they fall short on the second question:

What processes and people does the new hire need to know to do their job?

We can break this question down into more pieces. Who is the new employee going to interact with? Who are they going to learn from? Will they have a mentor? Who will they go to for what kinds of information or resources? What is the operating philosophy at this organization and in different departments? What are the fastest and most efficient ways to navigate this organization?

Your onboarding program should provide a new hire with the answers to both of these questions and empower them to take control of their role.

A Program That Empowers

In many organizations, it’s unusual for companies to give a new hire control of their onboarding process, but I recommend creating an onboarding plan and handing it over. With that plan and the right guidance, employees will be engaged in their own career success from day one.

However, that doesn’t mean they are on their own. There’s a lot of hand-to-hand or shoulder-to-shoulder work that has to take place. If you have people working virtually, video is important. You can gauge someone’s total emotional responses. You can see if they’re learning and absorbing. Make sure you can see each other more than once or twice in the first 90 days. It makes new virtual employees feel like part of the team.

As a best practice, I encourage one-on-one, short meetings with key team members. This can be as short as 15 minutes. Managers should provide a new hire with a guide to what their first 90 days will look like – who they are going to meet with, where they are going to get the things they are going to need, and access to people’s calendars. In these meetings, the new hire can learn team members’ responsibilities, processes and philosophies, and can also share information about themselves. These conversations help facilitate better working relationships.

Instead of relying on traditional trainings for critical material, I encourage different interactive teaching styles so the new hire can absorb and apply the knowledge. This could be training on technology, best practices for outward-facing roles, or company culture – things that are tempting to stick in a guidebook or slide deck. However, because people often don’t retain information well from passive, instructor-led training, challenge the status quo and explore better ways to deliver training.

Transitioning Out

The transition out of the formal onboarding period should also be included in the onboarding plan you provide new employees. When you empower them to take control of the process, it should be simple. In the last 30 days, the new employee should already be starting to soar in their role, and check-ins will be less frequent. However, for some strategic roles, the process may take longer than 90 days. 

What About New Promotions?

I also recommend using this same approach with people who are promoted from within. While most employers typically have at least a very basic onboarding program, newly promoted employees are rarely given any onboarding support. You can use the same strategies, but I recommend – at the very minimum – an abbreviated version.

How to Measure Engagement & What to Do With the Numbers

We know what engagement feels like. When you walk into a workplace with an engaged workforce, you can feel the positive energy. When you walk into a workplace with a disengaged workforce, you want to turn around and walk back out the door.

Your battle for engagement may start with the onboarding process, but it doesn’t end there. Once, I took over a company for a founder and morale was really low. We measured it, and it was a three out of 10. Within six months, we scored it again and we were at a seven out of 10. When engagement is low, you need to measure and then act.

Measuring Engagement Effectively

There are so many engagement tools out there, but I say: just keep it simple. Measure engagement consistently, do it on a frequency that makes sense for your organization, share the results, and share what you’re willing to do about the results.

Most companies have some form of employee survey, and tons will do these surveys once a year like clockwork, but they don’t do anything with the results. If you’re going to survey people and do nothing with it, don’t survey at all. You actually do more harm to yourself and to your employees because you’re demonstrating that their wants, needs and engagement don’t matter.

First, ask for the right information. There are three areas I always recommend:

  1. Do you know what is expected of you at work?
  2. Do you have the tools that you need to do your work?
  3. Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best at work?

From there, you can ask more specific questions related to your organization or changes you are considering making, but only ask about areas where you are willing to make changes. You can ask more simple questions to make early wins. For instance, you could ask about upward mobility, career pathing or development – if you’re prepared to put something in place to address it.

Then, publish your results. You don’t have to share every detail, but you do have to publish the themes, and you do have to be authentic. If the results aren’t great, people already know that. However, it gives you an opportunity to demonstrate that you hear your employees and are willing to make changes to address their concerns.

Building a Pulse Team

I also like to create what is called a pulse team – the culture team for your company. The team should be a cross-functional group of key stakeholders – not executives. The group can pulse what’s going on, how people are feeling, if they are supported, if they are happy and if they are productive.

The pulse team reports up and out to the executive team on a frequent basis – many do it quarterly, but some companies even have it monthly. This gives everybody a pulse on what’s happening on the ground, especially if an organization is virtual or global. Then, leaders have a chance to understand when something isn’t going well and address it.

Organizational Influences

When you take time to follow these steps – building an onboarding program, measuring for engagement and responding, your people are more likely to become invested in your organization. They can see their career path. They can see that your organization cares. There’s depth and predictability. All of that increases engagement, which increases retention.

Recall what I said at the start of this article: engagement and retention are just different words for the same thing. To increase both, you need to start with the first 90days, and you can’t stop.

About the Expert

Dana Look-Arimoto is a mentor, speaker and change agent. Dana has more than 20 years of experience in the talent ecosystem. She’s created Phoenix5 to evangelize a new mindset: Stop Settling™. She coaches executives and leaders of all kinds to become their all in every part of their life: work, home, community and giving back. Dana also recently released the book, “Stop Settling, Settle Smart: Rethinking Work-life Balance, Redesign Your Busy Life.”

Digital Recruitment Marketing: It’s All About the Online Candidate Experience

Posted on by skatz

Recruitment marketing in the world of talent attraction, a brand’s presence online can lead candidates to discover new opportunities. And, employers and brands are taking the hint – maximizing the online candidate experience through personalization and optimization.

This brings us to the importance of digital recruitment marketing. Digital recruitment marketing is a way for employers to source and attract potential candidates; it can include social media, email marketing, display advertising and more.

Through this article, we’ll share some important aspects of digital recruitment marketing, including building personas, trending digital marketing strategies and channels, and website optimization.

Recruitment Marketing Begins with Understanding & Creating Candidate Personas

Understanding the key characteristics of the candidates your organization wants to hire provides context to who they are, which is why organizations create candidate personas. Personas are profiles that represent different types of candidates, focusing on individual characteristics. They create alignment across your recruitment and sourcing strategies.

Personas are organized, analyzed and assembled by gathering internal data that reflects candidates’ behaviors, interests, goals and challenges. Let’s dive into how to build your personas.

How to Build Your Personas:

1.Gather Your Data: Focus your data on successful hires and placements within your organization. Interview professionals who currently work in the type of role you’re seeking to fill to understand what qualities make them successful. Prioritize data points such as:

  • demographic information
  • background
  • personal attributes
  • qualifications
  • goals
  • objections
  • web activity

Also, try to gather anecdotal evidence or commentary by consulting other recruiters and hiring managers who have hired for that role in the past.

Quick Tip: Aim to gather as much information as possible regarding each position or job opening. The more data you have to work with, the more detailed your personas will be.

2. Identify Trends: Once you’ve gathered your data, it’s time to analyze the information and identify shared trends and traits. This is where your personas will really start to take shape. How do you do this? Start by asking some important questions:

  • Which characteristics or traits do ideal candidates share?
  • What motivates the ideal candidate?
  • Where does the ideal candidate search for jobs?
  • What are the ideal candidate’s goals and aspirations?

These questions – and those similar – will lead you to draw conclusions about the candidate who will best meet your needs for any given role or job opening.

3. Assemble Your Personas: After collecting and analyzing your data, the next step is to assemble your candidate persona profiles. At this stage, you will use the insights you’ve discovered to create a profile of your hypothetical candidate. Some organizations create personas and associate them to profiles with names and pictures to seem more realistic and multi-dimensional; however, be aware of unconscious bias. A good way to avoid bias is to create personas that are based on research and surveys done within your organization, and to focus only on the specific needs and challenges of potential candidates.

What’s Your Digital Recruitment Marketing Strategy?

Content Marketing 

Before you post on your digital marketing channels, focus on the importance of strategically crafting your content. The content you post should be more about your audience, or potential candidate, than it is about your brand. It’s a conversation that says, “We would be lucky to have you as an employee,” versus, “You would be lucky to work for us.”

To have this conversation, your content needs to adhere to your candidate persona’s desires and interests. Your content also has to create a narrative and capture your audience’s attention, while driving home your selling points in a concise way. For example, social media is one trending digital marketing platform. It is a very distracting environment, and you have very limited time to connect with candidates. So, it’s vital to know what you need to say to them via posts, tweets and images, and truly connect the right candidate, or persona, with your open jobs.

Social Media Recruitment Marketing

I recently hosted a Talking Talent Webinar, “Digital Recruitment Marketing: A Guide for Employers.” During the webinar, I asked attendees to answer the question, “Which recruitment marketing strategies would you like to implement at your organization?” What was one of the top answers? Social media marketing, of course, with 36.4%.

  • Conversion rate optimization – 45.5%
  • Social media marketing – 36.4%
  • Email marketing/marketing automation – 36.4%
  • Pay-per-click advertising – 9.1%
  • Display advertising – 9.1%
  • Search engine optimization (SEO) – 18.2%
  • Viral digital marketing – 36.4%
  • None of the above – 0%
  • Don’t know – 27.3%

Although proven to be effective, not all social media channels are created the same. Each platform has its own particular set of users with their own quirks as to how they interact with content. Candidate personas can help you identify your target candidates and shape your social strategy to fit each candidate’s specific preferences. You can utilize them to prioritize the platforms you use, to personalize your messaging, and to share content that engages your ideal candidates.

Digital Recruitment Marketing

A helpful tip when approaching social media marketing is to start by researching all of your top competitors. Check each of their social media pages and see:

  • what content they are posting
  • how often they are doing so
  • how many users are engaging with that content
  • what platforms they’re using

Once you conclude which social media platform is yielding the greatest results – whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc. – focus your personalized content on that particular site.

Quick Facts:

  • 80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates
  • 70% of hiring managers say they have successfully hired through social media
  • 91% of employers are using social media to hire talent today

Career Sites Matter – A Lot

If your targeted candidates engage with you on digital recruitment marketing channels, often they then arrive at your website. Your website is the backbone to your digital footprint and communications. Not only should an immense amount of effort go into creating a site that has engaging content and is aesthetically pleasing, but it must also be user-friendly for potential candidates.

It’s vital that your website or career site is optimized for job-seekers. Optimizing keywords in job descriptions, and ensuring your links are working properly and that your site is mobile-friendly can help candidates find your organization and apply to your jobs, and is a

When building a career site, the process, structure and flow of the site must be deliberate. Site flow is a major contributing factor to increasing the number of candidates that move through the funnel and make it through the application process; It’s all about user experience.

What’s Important in the End

Ultimately, an effective digital marketing campaign takes time, patience, planning and teamwork. It’s important to build customized campaigns that cater to candidate personas, be clear on your branding efforts, really push your employer brand’s unique selling points, and optimize your careers site for search engines and conversions. Put together, each aspect creates a strategy that is focused on personas and will be beneficial as you move forward in searching for candidates in the digital recruitment space.

Talking Talent: Field Test: How to Attract Top-Performing Field Talent

Posted on by nfuqua

Attracting candidates with the right cultural fit is difficult at any organization. The issue is compounded when employees are not working in an office environment but instead out in the field, working face-to-face with your customers. For organizations with field service employees, the workers that spend the least amount of time in your office are often the face of the organization.

So how do you attract and hire the best field service workers? 

Joining us to talk about this is Chris Gera, the Managing Director, Executive Vice President for Service Council™. In his role, Chris is defining and executing the Service Council’s Research & Insights™ product portfolio.

As the Senior Analyst on Service, Chris is directly connected to Senior Service Leaders and Solution Providers to drive the Service Council’s Smarter Services™ agenda. This provides service executives and organizations the ability to benchmark their operations and also provide guided insight to target how to improve their service organization performance and deliver the full potential of their change management initiatives.

Chris also leads new member acquisition, member engagement, community expansion and the development of their annual Symposium. Chris plays a key role in building out Service Council’s community platform which is focused on becoming the single source of information and networking for service and customer support executives globally.

Prior to his role at Service Council, Chris held service leadership positions at Vivint SmartHome, where he managed 1,200+ field professionals supporting more than one million customers across North America. While at Nielsen, he led global strategic field initiatives, specifically digitization and technology and process improvement implementations of a $1B profit and loss service business supporting greater than 15,000 field professionals in over 100 countries around the globe.

Also joining for this episode are Mike Yinger and Janice Weiner. Mike is our global leader of growth and strategy here at PeopleScout, and he is responsible for global sales results and organizational strategy. Janice leads cross-selling and total talent initiatives for PeopleScout. Total talent includes all the ways a company can “get its work done.” Getting the work done from a company’s field service perspective is what we focus on in this episode.

Manufacturing Recruiters: Retooling Industrial Recruiting for the Modern Age

Posted on by edyson

For many industrial and manufacturing recruiters, navigating the skills gap remains a persistent challenge. A study conducted by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute revealed that the manufacturing skills gap may leave an estimated 2.4 million positions unfilled between 2018 and 2028, the result of which may cause 2.5 trillion dollars in lost revenue.

Those numbers represent missing out on major contracts for manufacturers without the skilled talent to fulfill them. They mean extending or missing deadlines with longtime clients. They are the difference between expanding into new markets or experiencing stagnation.

In the past, as long as a candidate possessed a strong work ethic and commitment to getting the job done, few other skills were required. However, over the years, manufacturing has become more complex and depends on sharp minds and an agile mix of technical skills.

Whether your organization is planning to grow its operation, preparing for retirements in your workforce or upskilling in response to automation and productivity improvements, closing the skills gap relies on finding the right talent.

In this article, we will cover how manufacturing recruiters can better find the right talent to create a workforce with the right mix of competencies and skills for success in the modern industrial workforce.  

Dissecting the Manufacturing Talent Landscape and Recruiting Challenges

Manufacturing has experienced an ebb and flow in job loss and growth over the past few decades. However, industrial activity monitored by the ISM manufacturing index hit a six-year high in August 2017, indicating a growing trend in overall manufacturing output. What’s more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), manufacturing output in the first quarter of 2017 was 80% higher than its level 30 years ago.

The increases in productivity in manufacturing is in part thanks to technological advances and improvements made in industrial production. To keep pace with technology-driven innovations, manufacturing organizations require a more technically skilled workforce.

Before optimizing your manufacturing recruitment strategy, it is crucial to understand the challenges that the manufacturing industry faces with reputation, the generational workforce divide and the changing nature of skilled work.

The Manufacturing Industry Has a Reputation Problem

A Kronos survey found that only 37% of those surveyed would encourage their children to pursue a career in the manufacturing industry. The survey also found that less than a quarter of respondents know that the manufacturing industry offers well-paying jobs.

To attract the next generation of manufacturing talent, you must address this perception and the bias many younger skilled workers may have regarding the industry. While campaigns to such as “Manufacturing Day” are helping improve the industry’s image, manufacturing recruiters must also be proactive in their efforts to communicate the new and exciting opportunities their organizations can provide to candidates.

The Retiring Manufacturing Workforce

The mass departure of the Baby Boomer generation continues to impact organizations across all industries. The Pew Research Center estimated that 10,000 baby boomers will retire every day for the next 19 years.

The results of this are being felt throughout the manufacturing industry – and is only predicted to get worse. When Deloitte calculated the impact of retiring Baby Boomers on the manufacturing industry, they estimated that approximately 2.7 million workers would retire from manufacturing between 2015 and 2025 – a figure that represents 22% of the manufacturing workforce.

Recruiting Engineers: The Changing Nature of Work Requires New Skill Sets

Recruiting Engineers

Automated processes like computer-aided design, 3D printing, robotics and computer numerical control (CNC) machining have replaced much of the manual workforce in manufacturing. Consequently, today’s manufacturers need talent with technical skills who are confident decision-makers, critical thinkers and quick learners.

Given today’s tight candidate market and widening skills gaps, finding candidates with the right mix of experience and technical skills within the manufacturing industry proves to be a consistent challenge. Organizations now have to carefully prioritize the “must-have” skills while hiring talent to fill these roles and consider which additional skills can be taught on the job.

What’s more, the specialization of manufacturing roles requires employers to be well-versed in technical and engineering recruitment to hire the talent needed for product design and production. RPO providers with experienced teams of technical and engineering recruiters can help supplement internal manufacturing talent acquisition teams by sourcing candidates with experience in product design, robotics, assembly engineering, automation, machine programming and control engineers. 

What is a Technical Recruiter?: The Benefits of Technical Recruiters in Manufacturing

Technical recruiters specialize in sourcing candidates for technical roles in the technology and engineering fields. While traditional recruiters and technical recruiters share similar responsibilities, there are additional benefits when engaging a technical recruiter:

  • Identifying the right experience and skills: An expert technical recruiter can identify work experiences that are transferable between industries, ultimately, increasing the odds that candidates will be successful in the new role.
  • Greater pool of talent: Technical recruiters have large networks of candidates they can reach out to since they are constantly communicating with individuals who are open to work. This means they already have access to top engineering, manufacturing and technical talent.
  • Understanding industry terminology: Technical fields such as engineering, robotics and automation are often jargon-heavy. So, the ability to understand and use the correct vocabulary is essential. Technical recruiters speak the language of candidates and can clearly communicate skills and requirements. They can also answer and ask in-depth questions.

Lack of Traditional Manufacturing Talent

While there are many new skills sets needed in manufacturing that require recruiting engineers and technical talent, there is still a need for traditional skills. However, just like technical roles, finding candidates to fill traditional manufacturing occupations is challenging.

According to the BLS, an additional 44,000 machine operator roles will be needed by 2026. Current trends indicate this number will be a hard order to fill for manufacturers. If left unchecked, manufacturers are facing a talent crisis that could leave up to 2 million roles vacant.

Retooling Your Manufacturing Recruitment Strategy

The time and resource investment needed for manufacturing recruiters to source, interview and hire the right talent is considerable. On average, it takes 94 days to recruit employees in the engineering and research fields and 70 days to recruit skilled production workers for manufacturing positions.

Manufacturing Recruiters

To improve manufacturing recruiting outcomes, organizations should stop reacting to talent shortages with a single-minded focus on specific skill sets or certifications, and take a big-picture, strategic approach to recruitment.

In this section, we will outline how to analyze weak points in your manufacturing recruitment processes, help you refine your approach to fill your most urgent talent needs with top talent and how to get this talent interested in your organization.

Rethink Job Descriptions

It can be easy to provide a laundry list of skills, experience and “musts haves” when writing a job description. However, this practice can scare top talent away from applying to positions within your organization, even if they are qualified.

Candidates who might be a perfect fit for a role may self-select out of the application process because they do not meet every single qualification. Worse, candidates who are not qualified end up applying because they recognize one or two items on the list and think, “Sure, I can do that.”

Instead of making a long list of qualifications, describe what the candidate’s onsite responsibilities will be like should they be hired for the role. Not only will you attract better candidates from the start, but you will also stand a higher chance of retaining employees because they understand what they signed on for.

Along with describing responsibilities, also be honest about working conditions in job descriptions. You will need to describe those conditions accurately to clarify any misconceptions and adequately prepare your candidates for their potential work environment.

Manufacturing Recruitment Ideas: Master Employer Branding

Manufacturing Recruitment

Top candidates want to work for dynamic, growing organizations. If you are trying to recruit talent from outside the manufacturing industry, these candidates need to believe that they will have autonomy and opportunities to ascend the ranks of your organization. Your team of manufacturing recruiters and your HR department should work together to create a plan to communicate your organization’s employer value proposition to candidates.

When engaging candidates, your recruiters should act as “culture carriers” and highlight what makes your organization an employer of choice. When pitching top talent, your manufacturing recruiters should research what will get candidates excited about your organization, whether it is your unique company culture, the opportunity for driving change or the potential to build a lasting and rewarding career.

Also, make sure to highlight the benefits of working at your organization. Do you currently offer insurance, profit sharing or a retirement plan? Are there discounts on the goods you produce for employees and their families? The extras you provide will help differentiate your organization and make it more appealing to candidates.

Manufacturing recruitment ideas to improve your employer brand include:

  • Promote onboarding and training: Your organization should put considerable thought into promoting your onboarding, training and continuing education programs (e.g., mentorships). Promoting your commitment to your employee’s early success, you can bolster a candidate’s confidence in applying to your organization. 
  • Tailor your manufacturing recruitment to target recently displaced workers: Unfortunately, many manufacturing workers were displaced during the COVID-19 pandemic. To attract these candidates, market benefits like increased job stability, new PTO policies, wage increases and improved workplace flexibility.
  • Communication is key: Provide consistent and regular feedback to candidates and encourage them to engage with your organization during the application process. Recruiting automation technology can help send texts and emails to candidates to keep them in the loop during each stage of the manufacturing recruitment process.

Work with Local Academic Institutions 

Most universities, community colleges and technical schools have a wide range of programs and courses in manufacturing processes, fabrication, welding, automation and machining. So it makes sense to target students at these institutions as part of your manufacturing recruiting program.

Create a list of local schools your manufacturing recruiters should reach out to and have them contact campus career centers at each school. Once they have established contact, ask them to inquire about chances to share internships and employment opportunities with students. It is important to establish a relationship with the career centers at your target schools, as each school has specific guidelines, events and timelines associated with its recruiting process.

Once on campus, it is important to establish a strong employer brand presence. Partnering with marketing can be invaluable in this instance, as a company’s marketing team can create materials that specifically appeal to the campus audience.

Invest in Building a Superior Candidate Experience

Identifying roadblocks and issues that can make it difficult for candidates to move through in your current hiring process is important in creating a better candidate experience. A lengthy hiring process or unrealistic job offers could be causing your organization to miss out on top prospects.

Your recruiting teams should ask for feedback about your hiring process from current employees and even candidates who turned down your offer. This can bring you insights from candidates who pass on your job offers and determine whether these roadblocks are culturally entrenched or can be changed.

For example, do candidates frequently complain about a lengthy interview process? If so, there may be a way to streamline the interviews to accelerate the decision-making timetable, such as video interviews.

Building a better candidate experience begins and ends with your manufacturing recruiters communicating expectations upfront with candidates, so they know exactly how long the process will take, how they should prepare and what each step of the process entails.

Conclusion

Organizations willing to rethink their manufacturing recruitment strategy now will gain a critical first-mover advantage. Rather than fighting for talent with antiquated tools and tactics, they will be leading the charge forward. If you establish a reputation for being an employer of choice in the manufacturing industry, top talent will seek you out, and be excited to be part of your dynamic, innovative organization.

Assessing for Passion, Purpose and a Growth Mindset: The Whole Person Model in Practice

Posted on by nfuqua

The whole person model is a highly bespoke assessment process. We have found that the model functions best in two contexts: high-volume hiring and highly specialized leadership hiring.

If an organization needs to hire a large number of candidates for a specific role or type of role, the whole person model can produce stronger, more diverse candidates and can result in longer-tenured employees. The process of building out the tailored assessments is time- and cost-effective for high-volume hiring.

The whole person model can also be valuable when searching for the right candidate for a leadership role. For organizations in times of transition, it can be especially difficult to identify candidates with the ability to lead through change.

In this article, we will explain how we at PeopleScout apply the model practically to both hiring examples.

Whole Person Model Use Case: High-Volume Hiring

whole person model infographic

This infographic is one example of the whole person model in practice for high-volume hiring. It includes three stages and each stage measures different aspects of a candidate’s background, or gears of the whole person model:

  1. A realistic job and culture preview
  2. The One Experience online assessment
  3. The final stage of online assessments, which we call the Assessment Center

During the realistic job and culture preview, a candidate gets a practical look at what it would be like to work for your organization and in this particular role. This section will include media like a video job description, shaped by your EVP and employer brand and customized to a job’s responsibilities.

Showcasing the job and the employer brand of the organization is critical during the realistic job and culture preview because it assesses the passion and purpose of the candidate. If the candidate identifies with and is enthusiastic about your organization, they will continue through the process. If a candidate does not feel as though their passion and purpose align, they will not continue in the process.

The One Experience assessment is an online holistic tool that assesses each part of the whole person model. Candidates answer questions in a variety of formats that allow them to demonstrate their different strengths Each of the six factors is weighted differently based upon their ability to predict candidate success and the requirements and expectations in a role.

In the One Experience tool, the scores for each type of assessment will be combined and weighted, and candidates who meet a certain threshold will be moved along to the next step. Because there are a variety of ways to earn a passing score on these assessments, there will be a more cognitively diverse group of candidates that make it through this part of the process.

At this stage, the assessments include automated feedback reports so that candidates have a better understanding of why they do or do not move forward. This improves the candidate experience because candidates who do not get the position are not left in the dark. It gives them an opportunity to see why they may not have been the best fit.

The final step is the last set of online assessments, which we call the assessment center, to further narrow the candidate pool. In this example, it measures mindset, passion, capability and behavior. However, it can be adapted to focus on the categories that show the strongest predictive ability for a specific position. This stage also includes automated feedback reports.

Using this model, we see fewer candidates making it past the realistic job and culture preview to complete the One Experience tool, but 50 percent of those who do complete that step go on to pass and move to the assessment center. Those who make it to the assessment center have a pass rate of 75 percent, which is higher than the traditional process. In the old process, clients viewed a pass rate of 50 percent at this stage as high.

Assessments in High Volume Hiring: Healthcare Case Study The Problem: A PeopleScout healthcare client wanted to improve quality-of-hire and decrease turnover for their nearly 2,000 annual call center hires. The Solution: PeopleScout partnered with the organization to deploy an online assessment that identified the key behaviors and personality traits that correlated with success at their organization. The assessments also identified candidates who are aligned to the organization’s mission and who have a growth mindset, and those who could be successful in leadership roles. The Results: After two-and-a-half years, the client has seen an increase in the quality of candidates and is expanding the use of the assessment to all external positions. They may also deploy the assessments for internal positions as well.

Whole Person Model Use Case: Leadership Hiring

In the case of leadership hiring, rather than using the One Experience tool, the whole person model uses a deep-dive interview in which the questions are designed to assess the candidate’s passion, purpose and mindset, as well as their capability, behavior and results – the six factors included in the model. By assessing top candidates for these factors, organizations can better identify leaders who fit well with their organization and goals.

To understand how this works, let’s look at how we applied the whole person model to help the Scottish Police Authority appoint the next Chief Constable for Police Scotland.

Title: Using the Whole Person Model to hire the Chief Constable for Police Scotland The Job: Chief Constable The Chief Constable is one of the most influential, rewarding and impactful law enforcement jobs in the country. It is also a critical and high-profile position. Challenges: • High public and political scrutiny • History of leadership challenges • History of extensive change • Need for the Chief Constable to live and breathe the values, culture and purpose of Police Scotland • Nearly impossible to find a candidate with experience in an equivalent role Needs: The Chief Constable needs to be able to restore credibility and public trust, as well as continue to work toward the 2026 strategy. The Solution: The Whole Person Model PeopleScout built a customized assessment process designed to identify candidates’ alignment with the passion, purpose and mindset necessary to fit with the Scottish Police Authority culture and values because no candidate had the work experience to demonstrate the results needed. Step One: Online Psychometrics and a Deep-Dive Interview Techniques used: • Storytelling questions • Push/Pull dichotomies • Blueprint questions Does the candidate have the passion, purpose and mindset to align with the needs of the position? (Sidebar question) What are Psychometrics? The measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes and personality traits. Results: An in-depth report was compiled and shared with the Scottish Police Authority identifying which candidates have the factors necessary for success. Step Two: All-Day Immersive Assessment Center The top candidates are assessed in two immersive exercises: 1. A media briefing with professional journalists 2. A stakeholder engagement exercise with 12 senior-level leaders from a range of public sector organizations Can the candidates succeed with the public pressure and leadership scrutiny of the role? Results: Another report for the Scottish Police Authority to take into its own final interview stage exploring strengths, development areas and specific questions to probe further. A benefit for candidates: A 90-minute verbal feedback call and detailed developmental reports are provided at the end of this stage. End Result The Scottish Police Authority had the information to make an objective, fair and well-informed appointment decision.

How did this impact the onboarding process?

The new Chief Constable continued the developmental work they invested in during the assessments process and received a series of coaching sessions throughout the transition.

All candidates reported a positive experience that provided ample opportunity to demonstrate their capability and suitability for the role.

Applying the Whole Person Model to Your Hiring

In the current economic climate, employers who hire and retain candidates with a growth mindset and who align with the passion and purpose of the organization will be at an advantage. By assessing for these factors and looking at the whole person, employers can better identify those candidates and set themselves up for success.

When employers face the challenge of hiring a large volume of employees, the model can be customized to efficiently identify the best candidates with a passion for the work and the organization. When an organization is looking to make a leadership hire but is struggling to find candidates with relevant experience, the model can be customized to identify those who can learn, lead and grow with the organization.

Key Takeaways:

  • The whole person model is a bespoke process and works best for high-volume and leadership hiring.
  • When used for high-volume hiring, the whole person model can produce stronger, more diverse candidates and can result in longer-tenured employees.
  • When used for leadership hiring, the model can identify leaders who fit well with an organization and its culture and goals.

This article is the third in a series, you can read the first article, Assessing for Passion, Purpose and a Growth Mindset: Drivers for Change, hereand the second, Assessing for Passion, Purpose and a Growth Mindset: The Current State of Assessments and a Better Way Forward, here.

Soft Skills in the Workplace: Why They Matter and How to Hire for Them

Posted on by edyson

In the era of skills gaps, soft skills matter. For hiring managers, an age-old dilemma persists. Two ostensibly qualified candidates interview for the same position, but only one can be hired. This may seem like an ideal situation a hiring manager. However, it’s still a dilemma, and dilemmas demand solutions.

When choosing between two seemingly equal candidates, organizations are now prioritizing “soft skills” as the key differentiator. In fact, in LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report, 92% of talent acquisition professionals reported that soft skills are equally or more important to hire for than hard skills. And, 89% said that when a new hire doesn’t work out, it’s because they lack critical soft skills.

In this article, we define and explain the importance of soft skills in the workplace and how organizations can best assess candidates for them during the hiring process.

What Are Soft Skills?

Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character or personality traits, attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence, and emotional intelligence quotients that enable employees to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills.

Key soft skills include:

  • Attitude
  • Communication (both listening and speaking skills)
  • Work ethic
  • Teamwork
  • Leadership qualities
  • Time management
  • Decision making
  • Conflict resolution
  • Critical thinking
  • Networking
  • Empathy
  • Problem-solving

Because soft skills are unquantifiable professional attributes, it can be difficult for hiring managers and others involved in the hiring process to assess them in potential hires, making them an important but elusive set of skills to look for.

Soft Skills in The Workplace Are in Demand

Soft skills in the workplace are becoming increasingly important as organizations look to add additional value to their business. A study conducted by Wonderlic found that 93% of hiring leaders stated that soft skills are an “essential” or “very important” element when making hiring decisions. What’s more, many employers reported that soft skills are more important than tech skills.

what are soft skills and why are they important

The Wall Street Journal reports, “Competition has heated up for workers with the right mix of soft skills, which vary by industry and across the pay spectrum—from making small talk with a customer at the checkout counter to coordinating a project across several departments on a tight deadline.”

According to a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, employers emphasized leadership and the ability to work in a team as the most desirable attributes when recruiting recent college graduates, ahead of analytical and quantitative skills.

Burning Glass analyzed millions of U.S. job postings and found that one in three skills requested in job postings is a “baseline” or soft skill. “Even in the most technical career areas (such as information technology, and healthcare) more than a quarter of all skill requirements are for baseline skills.”

Talent with the right soft skills is scarce whether you’re focused on hiring or internal mobility. In fact, LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report cited soft skills training as a top priority and 59% of U.S. hiring managers believe it’s difficult to find candidates with the right soft skills.

Soft Skills in The Workplace And Organizational Outcomes

soft skills in the workplace

Creative and Critical Thinking

Employing a workforce of creative and critical thinkers is essential for introducing fresh ideas, services and products. In fact, creative and critical thinking skills were ranked second and third on the World Economic Forum’s top skills employees will need to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution.

As artificial intelligence and automation in business evolve, creative and critical thinking skills will be increasingly needed to complement the capabilities of machines.

However, creative and critical thinking skills are in short supply. According to a
report from the Society for Human Resource Management, 84% of HR professionals stated they found a deficit of key soft skills including creative and critical thinking among job candidates.

Teamwork and Communication  

Teamwork and communication are weak points for many organizations, and it’s causing performance and productivity challenges. Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report found that the majority of employees “believe that their organization’s project performance would improve if their teams worked more collaboratively.”

What’s more, another Gallup report discovered that teamwork and good communication is a key soft skill for helping B2B organizations solve their top challenge of creating organic growth.

Successful collaboration is strongly related to good communication skills. Communication skills include actively listening to colleagues and willing engagement in conflict resolution to mitigate the effects of miscommunications as well as keeping projects and organizational initiatives on track.

Compassion in Leadership

Compassion is an important aspect of good leadership. Teams thrive when the members trust that their leader cares about them. Research
shows that organizations with more compassionate leaders excel at collaboration – already identified as a key soft skill in the modern workplace.

According to an article in the Harvard Business Review authored by Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter and Louise Chester, “Of the over 1,000 leaders we surveyed, 91% said compassion is very important for leadership, and 80% would like to enhance their compassion but do not know how.”

Compassion is a pre-requisite for effective communication and other soft skills in the workplace that enhance interpersonal relationships in the workplace, which are essential to maintaining workplace cohesion.  

Assessing Candidates

Soft Skills

Ask Behavior-Based Interview Questions

Interview questions that are behavior-based can help organizations more easily identify the soft skills possessed by the candidate, especially for technical roles where questions are more hard skill-based. They can provide a look into how they respond in certain situations or to various challenges.

Instead of questions starting out with, “do you” interviewers should try starting out with, “what are your thoughts on” or, “how would you?”

Examples of behavior-based questions to ask candidates applying for more technical positions:

  • Ask how they usually develop relationships with coworkers and supervisors
  • A problem they solved in a creative way or unique way
  • A time they had to deal with someone who was difficult
  • Ask them to describe their ideal work environment and method(s) of communication
  • Ask them to share a time they needed help or guidance on a project and how they went about asking for it
  • Ask them to share a time they had communication problems with their manager or coworkers. How did they handle the situation and their colleague’s responses?

Also, ask candidates how they think their soft skills will help them in the role they are interviewing for. Their answers can reveal how well they understand the nature of the position and its requirements.

Communication Skills

Good communication skills are a prime indicator of whether or not a candidate will make a good fit within an organization. A huge part of communication involves listening. During an interview, observe whether or not the candidate is listening and paying attention to the interviewer. Are they interrupting the interviewer? Are their eyes glazing over?

Verbal cues are also an important part of good communication. For example, when asking a candidate about a previous career challenge, did they use “I” or “we” more often? This will give you a chance to see if the candidate is a team player and whether or not they take or gives credit where it is deserved.

Also, be sure to observe whether or not the candidate asks you any questions about the company.

Check With References

Reference checks are essential in corroborating and verifying information about a candidate’s work history and experience. A candidate’s job references can also provide a candid window into the kind of person they are at work.

A SkillSurvey study found that, when asked, job candidates’ coworkers give feedback on soft skills for reference checks, while managers focus on tasks related hard skills. So, when checking references, it may be beneficial to assess a candidate’s soft and hard skills based on their relationship to the reference.

During the reference checking process, it may be helpful to ask a candidate’s coworkers questions about the soft skills of the potential hire including:

  • Did the candidate get along with their coworkers and management?
  • Tell me what it’s like to work with the job candidate.
  • What advice can you give me to successfully manage the job candidate?
  • What else do I need to know about the job candidate that I didn’t already ask?

Employees are unlikely to vouch for someone who would make an unpleasant coworker, so ask them for a thoughtful assessment.

skills based organization

Soft Skills in The Workplace Will Always Matter

Today’s business landscape is about communication, relationships and presenting your organization in a positive way to the public and potential employees. Soft skills in the workplace allow organizations to effectively and efficiently use their hard skills, like tech and digital skills, and knowledge without being hampered by interpersonal issues, infighting and poor public and market perceptions.

Recruiting for the right blend of soft skills takes a measured and strategic approach. It also requires an investment of time, patients and gut instinct. Make sure to think carefully about how you can learn more about your candidates as humans interacting with other people.