Millennials, Myths, and Making Money
Millennials aren't the new workforce, they are the workforce, according to Pew Research Center. According to Forbes, millennials today have over $200 billion in annual purchasing power, which makes them major players in the economic future of the country at both ends of the buyer-seller spectrum. Now that this highly connected, technology-infused generation accounts for the majority of...
Read More
7 Big Recruiter Mistakes
This Week's Question: Nobody's perfect -- but at least we can learn something from our mistakes. What's the biggest mistake you've ever seen a recruiter make (even if that recruiter were you!), and what did you learn from it? "I believe the biggest mistake a recruiter can make is putting the candidate ill at ease. Interviewing is already stressful for most people, so if you add to that...
Read More
Is Your Company's Outdated Workspace Deterring Talent?
Innovative, employee-centered workspaces have until recently been associated with frivolous spending, pampered big-city executives, and/or the IT geniuses at Google H.Q. and other trendy corporate campuses in Silicon Valley. The rest of us have had to look on with envy, settling with the simple, conservative post-industrial office layout that has prevailed for decades. However, our...
Read More
Do You Consider Yourself an Ethical Recruiter?
It's a question as old as the industry: are you an ethical recruiter? Are there things you do that might be considered less than honest as you pursue your goals? Josh Anderson, the director of people at Ello, addresses this very issue in an interview on Entelo's blog. Anderson says that a lot of the problems in recruiting are driven by what he calls a "get the hire"...
Read More
Generation Y: Not the Monolith You Thought It Was
Last summer, the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute (EMI), the HEAD Foundation, and employer branding firm Universum teamed up to conduct what these groups call "the largest independent study ever conducted on millennials." Surveying more than 16,000 millennials from across the globe, the study delves into a variety of topics, including millennials' fears, hopes, beliefs, and...
Read More
4 Ways to Make the Most of a Trending Topic
From light and fun (team #WhiteandGold) to hard-hitting news stories (#PrayforNepal), trending topics on social media keep us both entertained and informed. In fact, a 2014 survey of 1,064 adults nationwide by the Media Insight Project revealed that 88 percent of millennials regularly get their news from Facebook, followed by YouTube (83 percent), Instagram (50 percent), and places of active...
Read More
Empathy and Baseball: the Surprising Connection Between Personality Traits and Success
I would not consider baseball to be a game of empathy; I'm sure I'm not alone in this. Sports, in general, are seen by many to be the realm of physical and technical prowess. Successful players, it follows, are those who can run, hit, and throw with great skill. Except, well, that's not really the truth (and maybe I'd know that if I followed baseball more closely, or at least...
Read More
Recruiting Across Cultures: One Size Does Not Fit All
When scaling out a talent management program such as a wide-screening selection initiative, ensuring accurate interpretation of candidates' assessment results across a team of recruiters is challenging in and of itself. That challenge is immeasurably amplified when these candidates hail from different regions and cultures, where the expectations of an employee can vary wildly from those of...
Read More
Bring Recruiting Back to Its Social Roots
Let's start by imagining a hypothetical recruiter. We'll name him Rich, so that we can tell a story about him without constantly referring to him as "the hypothetical recruiter." And now, story time: Rich is an in-house corporate recruiter looking to fill a sales role. Sorting through resumes one day, Rich comes across a person who looks, on paper, to be a very qualified candidate. We'll...
Read More
4 Things Candidates Look for on a Job Application Page
Candidates often find themselves in the twilight zone when viewing job application pages during the search for new employment. They vigorously churn through numerous job descriptions and applications, often to find themselves questioning if any of the jobs were a good fit for them to begin with. Because finding the right job can be a lengthy process, candidates must look to quickly identify...
Read More
8 Outdated Hiring Myths That Are Jeopardizing Recruiting in 2015 (Part 2)
In part one of this article, I outlined four hiring myths that were jeopardizing recruiting in 2015 (and probably costing your firm money). I now present four more outdated hiring myths you should be aware of this year: 1. References Are Reliable Indicators of a Candidate's Future Performance Two pieces of research shows that references are the least reliable assessments of all,...
Read More
4 Reasons to Hire a Millennial This Year
There are currently three generations in the workforce: millennials, 40 percent of whom are still "school-age," meaning that more will enter the workforce with each college graduation cycle; baby boomers, 1,000 of whom are retiring each day; and Gen. X-ers, who make up 20 percent of the current workplace. As of this year, millennials are the largest generation in the workforce. That means...
Read More
8 Outdated Hiring Myths That Are Jeopardizing Recruiting in 2015 (Part 1)
It's easy to think that with all our training and reading, we modern recruiters might know pretty much all there is to know about recruiting. However, among all the great hires that we have made, there likely lurk a few sobering mistakes that help us keep our feet on the ground and remind us that our hiring practices can always be improved upon. In fact, there are many myths...
Read More
Twitter Is Great for Sourcing — Just Don't Treat It Like a Job Board
According to a new report from Software Advice, 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies have Twitter handles dedicated to recruiting. To my my mind, that seems like a fairly small number, especially when you consider that the same report found that 58 percent of job seekers use Twitter to hunt for job opportunities. Plus, more job seekers are on Twitter than on LinkedIn, which is generally seen as...
Read More
How to Handle the Question, 'Is Flexibility an Option With This Job?'
As the economy improves, a company's hiring is bound to pick up. As the hiring manager, it's up to you to find top-tier talent for the new positions that open up. And then, during one interview, a promising job candidate asks you the question, "Is flexibility an option with this job?" As flexible work options continue to become more and more common, more and more job seekers are...
Read More
10 Ways We Could Improve the Hiring Process
This Week's Question: Is the hiring process in need of some tweaking? Is it keeping up with the times? Are there ways to make it better? Let us know what you think needs to change about the hiring process! "Here's something I'd like to see change in the hiring process: helping people gain experience versus only hiring people who have experience! "I tend to seek out college...
Read More
4 Big Brand Stunts — Should They Inspire You?
Publicity stunts get people talking. With enough money to throw at a good idea, brands and recruiters can make a name for themselves by catching people's attention, then quickly guiding them to the name behind that stunt to get them thinking about buying or applying. On this front, recruiters could learn a lot of from marketers: get candidates talking about your company by pulling off something...
Read More
Millennials: a Wildly Diverse Bunch
Last summer, the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute (EMI), the HEAD Foundation, and employer branding firm Universum teamed up to conduct what these groups call "the largest independent study ever conducted on millennials." Surveying more than 16,000 millennials from across the globe, the study delves into a variety of topics, including millennials' fears, hopes, beliefs, and desires....
Read More
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Good Cop/Bad Cop Interviews
If you work in the world of recruiting, you're most likely familiar with an interview technique known as "Good Cop/Bad Cop." The Good Cop explains the benefits of the job and focuses on the more expected, less intimidating questions: Tell me about yourself; what are your strengths? The Bad Cop asks the tough questions: Do you think you'll be challenged in this role? This job has a lot of...
Read More
What Can the Advertising Industry Teach Employers About Hiring Millennials?
With the millennials now in their biological primes (18-35 years old) and steadily gaining more corporate, financial, and political power, marketers have begun investing increasingly large amounts of money in efforts to engage and ultimately win over this enigmatic generation. Of course, we recruiters, too, must now focus on attracting millennials, albeit in a slightly different...
Read More
How to Make Your Business Interesting to Millennials
Enterprise Rent-A-Car hires more than 8,000 college graduates every year. That's an impressive total for a traditional, non-technology company. As many companies struggle to attract the attention of millennial workers -- those in their twenties and early thirties -- Enterprise has succeeded with a multi-pronged approach to getting young job seekers engaged with the company. An important piece...
Read More
Rejecting Candidates: How to Do It and Why It Matters
The candidate pipeline starts as a wide funnel. Slowly but surely, the pool narrows until, eventually, you reach the final point: your next hire. Notifying that one lucky applicant can be exciting, but how you treat the candidates who did not make the cut matters more than you might think. The way in which you notify candidates, the time it takes, and the medium you use can have rippling effects...
Read More
The Horror and the Glory of the Millennial
Depending on whom you talk to, millennials are either the shining beacons leading us to the next iteration of the American Dream or the telltale signs of a world going under; they're either more creative than previous generations, able to find fresh solutions to longstanding problems in their industries, or they are entitled narcissists who care only about themselves and will create further...
Read More
Boomer Talent: 4 Ways to Retain Them Longer
Recruiting, managing and retaining millennial employees (a.k.a.: Gen. Y) is all the rage nowadays, but smart companies are also putting effort into retaining their baby boomer talent. Research reveals that one boomer now hits retirement age every eight seconds in the United States. And although not all of them can retire due to their financial circumstances, enough of them can. Plus, a lot of...
Read More
Ask Away: What Do Recruiters Need to Know About Social Media?
Welcome to Ask Away! Every Monday, we pose an employment-related question to a group of experts and share their answers. Have a question you'd like to ask the experts? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in next week's Ask Away! This Week's Question: Social recruiting is all the rage -- but what do recruiters really need to know about social media in order to be...
Read More
5 Tips for Attracting Millennial Talent to Your Sales Team
Looking to bring some millennial blood to your sales team -- or keep your current roster of millennial salespeople engaged and productive? Then Carmela Krantz, vice president of talent and human resources at sales engagement platform ClearSlide, has some valuable information for you. Krantz was kind enough to share with us her top five tips for attracting and retaining millennial talent on...
Read More
5 Qualities to Look for in a Remote Employee
These days, more and more companies are warming up to the idea of remote work. It's no longer a given that companies have central offices -- in fact, some teams operate 100 percent remotely. The company I work for, FormAssembly, employs talented people from all over the world. While some employees choose to work in our main office, others prefer working from home. But we're all able to...
Read More
Connect With Millennials by Giving Them 'Something More'
Last summer, the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute (EMI), the HEAD Foundation, and employer branding firm Universum teamed up to conduct what these groups call "the largest independent study ever conducted on millennials." Surveying more than 16,000 millennials from across the globe, the study delves into a variety of topics, including millennials' fears, hopes, beliefs, and desires. Over...
Read More
Is Persistence an Underrated Quality in Sales Hires?
When hiring for salespeople, employers often overemphasize the "sexier" side of things when it comes to screening criteria, both literally and metaphorically speaking. Presentation, personal grooming, and attractiveness all play their part -- rightly or wrongly -- in determining the perceived credibility and likely effectiveness of a sales candidates. There will undoubtedly be a strong...
Read More
How Your Employer Brand Speaks to Candidates
Most of us aspire to social acceptance -- so much so that we tailor our personalities in order to be seen as 'likeable' by select audiences. We wear certain styles of clothing, speak a particular vernacular, and act in specific ways to fit in where we'd like to fit. Job seekers take similar approaches to their job opportunities: they want to be employed by companies where they fit,...
Read More
What Can HR Do About the Drug Culture in Silicon Valley?
A key underlying trend in Silicon Valley workplaces -- one not usually displayed on the glossy front pages of industry magazines -- is the drug culture that permeates the ecosystem. According to an article on Inc., today's tech entrepreneurs and coders are using legal "brain enhancing" drugs with the goal of optimizing their bodies and minds to work 90-hour weeks. Known as nootropics, these...
Read More
How to Get Millennials' Attention
Workers who grew up in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s -- commonly known as "millennials" or "Generation Y" -- have different expectations for work and their employers than previous generations had. For instance, according to the Deloitte Millennial Survey, 92 percent of Millennials believe that business success should be measured by more than profit, and 70 percent plan to work independently at some...
Read More
Want to Attract Millennial Talent? First, Make Sure They Know Who You Are
As millennials rapidly file into the workforce -- they're already the largest generation in the U.S. labor pool, and more are on the way -- employers have to adjust. Millennials have a lot in common with their forebears, but, as Elizabeth James, regional vice president of sales at TempWorks points out, "They are a different generation." "If you're not appealing to them -- especially from...
Read More
Ask Away: What Is the Most Important Quality of a Great Recruiter?
Welcome to Ask Away! Every Monday, we pose an employment-related question to a group of experts and share their answers. Have a question you'd like to ask the experts? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in next week's Ask Away! This Week's Question: What makes a great recruiter? What kind of skills, personality traits, and abilities do they have? Let us know...
Read More
Attracting Top Talent in a World of Short Attention Spans
Is it possible to quantify the information overload we live with in today's world? Here's a number that comes close: a study from USC's Marshall School of Business projects that this year, the average American will consume 15.5 hours of media each day. That's enough data delivered via T.V. viewing, video gaming, social media use, Internet surfing, and mobile messaging to fill nine DVDs....
Read More
5 Tips on Cultivating Your Talent Pipeline
"People are a company's most valuable asset," as the saying goes. So, why don't companies invest more time in creating pools of quality, experienced candidates? Businesses can be incredibly reactive when it comes to finding the right talent. They'll often wait until there is an immediate hiring need before beginning the search for a replacement, instead of being proactive and creating a...
Read More
5 Tips to Prepare for the Looming Leadership Brain Drain
Around 4 million baby boomers retire in the U.S. every year, and this is starting to leave a gap in the management layers at the top of organizations, largely because there is an insufficient amount of talent rising through the ranks to replace the boomers who leave the workforce. H.R. and recruiting teams are now beginning to feel the effects of this retirement-induced leadership talent...
Read More
What Do Millennials Fear?
Last summer, the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute (EMI), the HEAD Foundation, and employer branding firm Universum teamed up to conduct what these groups call "the largest independent study ever conducted on millennials." Surveying more than 16,000 millennials from across the globe, the study delves into a variety of topics, including millennials' fears, hopes, beliefs, and...
Read More
Beware the 'Baby Boomer Brain Drain' [Infographic]
In most instances, "brain drain" refers to when highly skilled and talented workers emigrate from their home countries to work in other nations. However, according to an infographic created by MBA@UNC, an online MBA program from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, the U.S. economy is facing a slightly different form of brain drain today: baby boomers aren't...
Read More
It Seems We've All Misunderstood the Millennials [Infographic]
Last summer, the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute (EMI), the HEAD Foundation, and employer branding firm Universum teamed up to conduct what these groups call "the largest independent study ever conducted on millennials." Surveying more than 16,000 millennials from across the globe, the study delves into a variety of topics, including millennials' fears, hopes, beliefs, and desires. Over...
Read More
Why Hiring for a Cultural Fit Is Important
As a recruiter, you have plenty of things to take into consideration when looking for a hire. Previous employment, leadership positions, skills, and extracurricular activities are important. But ... how do you know if a potential hire can be a good fit within the company? Hiring for a cultural fit is extremely hard to do off a couple of interviews. Although it may be time-consuming, taking...
Read More
Is Skill or Motivation the Biggest Predictor of Job Success?
One of the most common hiring quandaries in which recruiters may find themselves is whether to choose raw, outright talent or motivation. Rather than being able to neatly choose between two candidates with similar levels of talent and motivation, recruiters often have to decide between a candidate with higher skill and lower motivation and a candidate with lower skill but incredibly high...
Read More
Text Messaging Comes to the World of Job Boards
We don't normally write about company partnerships, because they're rarely newsworthy for anyone but the companies involved and their clients. Here's one, however, that I think merits some discussion because it brings with it a vision of what recruiting communications may look like in the near future. Centralized texting platform TextRecruit and job board Beyond.com have announced a...
Read More
How to 'Consciously Uncouple' From Bad Hires
There is no such thing as a perfect new hire: nearly all new hires are unfinished products that need some degree of grooming and refining. However, some new hires may simply be irredeemable; these new hires should probably be dismissed. This can create huge problems for employers, because in many countries, it can be very complicated and expensive to dismiss employees. There is also...
Read More
4 Employer Branding Strategies With Amazing Benefits
Employer branding is a hot topic. As the economy continues to rebound, job seekers have access to a wider range of opportunities in the employment market. It's much less of a "buyer's market" for employers, and there is an increasing need to actually compete for talent. The effort to highlight desirable qualities of a job and company does more than simply attract attention...
Read More
Millennial Falcon: Why Gen. Y is the Han Solo of the Workforce
"You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon? She's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?" - Han Solo, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Harrison Ford's Han Solo will forever be frozen in cinema's carbonite hall of fame as one of the greatest movie characters this galaxy has ever known. With his walking carpet of a...
Read More
The Gap Between What Managers Want and What Candidates Have [Infographic]
Let's kick this off on a cynical note: are you a job seeker looking for entry-level employment? Then you should know that there's a good chance you don't have the skills and competencies that your potential managers want you to have. This is according to new research from software company Instructure, the maker of popular learning management system (LMS) Canvas. The company surveyed 781...
Read More
The Position Description: a Poor Starting Point in Defining the Ideal Candidate
As with most of us, I've been on both sides of the table when it comes to the recruitment process. I've searched for and interviewed for positions myself, and I've been responsible for recruiting the right candidate as a hiring manager. It seems that this "flip-side" experience should provide us with important insights into how we ultimately direct and improve our efforts in recruiting new...
Read More
