Spotlight on Hiring Automation

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

Did you know that over 98.8% of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking systems to ensure their hiring processes run smoothly? Hiring automation is the buzzword in talent acquisition that every business needs to know about.

Have you ever heard the saying, ‘work smarter and not harder’? Well, this is the processes that embodies that motto by giving companies the tools that they need to secure talent in competitive markets. Once upon a time, HR teams spent as long as 28 days hiring a new employee. That is a length of time that simply wont work in today’s markets, with top talent being snatched up in record time thanks to intelligent hiring systems.

So, what is hiring automation and how can it benefit your business? Keep reading to find out more.

 

What is Hiring Automation?

Hiring automation is just one of the many methods that companies can adopt to streamline the employment process and bring in talent much quicker than ever before. This is a technique that at least 75% of hiring managers have adopted as it allows for efficient candidate processing, with money and time saving benefits amongst the many merits that are on offer.

The practice involves adding digital tracking and procedures into every element hiring, with the end goal being to fill positions quicker. Hiring can be a lengthy and manual process which takes up a lot of time and energy. By automating the following elements, you can benefit from being matched with the right candidates as soon as their applications are submitted.

Hiring automation aids recruitment in the following areas:

Job Advertising This is the first experience that a candidate has of your company, so the advertisement must be just right to grab attention and stand out.

Automation of the advertising process consists of creating digitally optimised adverts that are place directly where your ideal candidates will see them. Take job-listing website, Indeed for example. As the number one source of online job advertising, there are more than 3 million companies you use the service! When you harness the power of automated recruitment, this competition doesn’t need to intimidate you as a balance of skilled copywriting, algorithm know-how and keyword harnessing means you will still receive high results to your advertisements.

Candidates want to know about a role, understand the company, and have their questions answered within a job description which the elevated features of automated hiring can ensure.

Applicant Sorting and Monitoring Once you have secured the applications from top talent, automation software can fairly sort your responses so that top candidates stand out.

When processed manually, hiring managers only spend around six seconds looking at a CV which means there is a high chance of quality people slipping through the net. By automating the process, you can see your suitable applicants and start the process for interviewing before they are snapped up by anyone else.

No more lost opportunities. Hiring automation shows you who is best for your open vacancies based on criteria which is unique to a business.

Candidate Assessments Using tests to assess the suitability of a candidate is a common way to further vet them before interviews take place.

With automation software, you can incorporate these tests seamlessly and have a clear view of all results. This data can then be stored on the candidates HR file, if they are successfully chosen, and be used to form their own training records which lends itself to automation of wellbeing and development objectives. This highlights just one of the many examples of how digital transformation which departments can align.

Interview Management and Follow Ups When you are happy with the candidates that you want to take the next stage, automation software can manage the interview admin process.

Removing the need for HR professionals and hiring managers to spend lots of time manually setting up meetings, automation can ensure a time is booked in when most suitable for everyone involved.

This also enhances communication and in turn employee experience which ensures that the candidate is given a good impression of what the hiring company are about.

Pre-hiring Checks and Onboarding Once candidates are selected, pre-hire checks and company onboarding can be managed seamlessly with automation software. The data-safe process means that all information is already obtained, taking away the lengthy process of gathering candidate information.

What is Recruitment Automation Software?

Automated recruitment software is a digital tool that can elevate hiring procedures from advert outreach through to candidate onboarding. By automating tasks and workflows, companies can accelerate candidate placement and derive the screening information needed to make quick yet informed decisions.

 

Hiring automation is a great tool to incorporate within high-volume hiring as it allows large numbers of candidates to be dealt with rapidly. It also provides a brand-introducing process which allows candidates to get a better idea of what a company is about. This is essential to bringing individuals on board as 89% of people assess a brand or business before accepting a new role.

 

Automation, therefore, allows you to not only run streamlined hiring but also share all relevant information required so that candidates have everything they need to decide about whether they want to work for a company. This eliminates any timely question/answer period and ensures a higher rate of successful hires.

 

Within high-volume industries, such as security, hospitality, and warehousing, the other benefits of using hiring automation including the following:

 

• Increase the quality of hire as candidates are likely to be more closely matched to your values and skill needs thanks to the automated screening process.
• Enhanced candidate experience which not only improves your chances of securing top talent, but also makes for a happier workforce which is essential for achieving a productive company culture.
• Efficient hiring which is based on skills and suitability. The automation allows for non-biased candidate placements and ensures that teams will be able to work together more cohesively.
• Quicker onboarding to ensure that seasonal hikes are properly staffed.

 

How does Hiring Automation Improve Employee Experience?

78% of candidates believe that the experience they receive during the recruitment process is indicative of how a company treats is employees. This highlight just how important it is to get the hiring process right if you want to secure top talent.

Automated hiring allows employee experience to be placed at the centre of everything, with the main purpose being to provide a streamlined and elevated hiring practice that represents the efficiency of the company.

Automated recruitment helps companies achieve a positive candidate experience in the following ways:

• Simple to use application software which is catered to all skill levels and different devices.
• Automated responses and updates to keep candidates informed. These can be adapted to the tone of voice which best suits your brand to ensure continuity from the very first stages of communication.
• Workflow processing which allows screening, interview requests, and feedback to be shared in a timely manner.
• Integrated information sharing to ensure candidates are given information about the company.
• Data storage to allow for simple onboarding and to eliminate the need of asking for the same piece of information more than once. This makes companies look more professional and means the candidate has a stress-free experience.

Does your high-volume hiring strategy need to be elevated? Find out more about hiring automation in our e-book which can be exclusively downloaded here.

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Challenges of High-Volume Hiring in the Current Climate

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

 

The past few years have shaped our current reality and future irrevocably. 2019 saw the UK follow through with Brexit and leave the EU. 2020 followed with a global pandemic, stringent lockdowns and job losses that left entire industries devastated. Now, the cost-of-living crisis followed by war in Europe adds further strain to an already strained economy, leaving the workforce in a precarious position.

 

Though the pandemic brought about some changes for the better, such as remote and hybrid work schemes, the impact on industries where that simply isn’t possible, has been felt. In a bid to attempt to re-attract workers to full time office work, some companies have begun to cut down salaries for full time workers, or at least threaten to do so. But this has failed to deter workers, who now have the upper hand in the current climate and have since prioritised a work-life balance after the introspection the pandemic allowed.

 

One of the reasons current workers are able to be more demanding now compared to the past, is that we’re now facing a shortage of qualified candidates in the UK. Whether it’s workers who were made redundant and furloughed (leaving entire industries in tatters), early retirements, or migrating abroad, these factors combined mean that nearly 1.5 million active job vacancies have been left unfilled, the highest on record. That leaves employers and businesses facing a growing staff shortage, struggling to replace experienced workers that have left the workforce.

The past few years have shaped our current reality and future irrevocably. 2019 saw the UK follow through with Brexit and leave the EU. 2020 followed with a global pandemic, stringent lockdowns and job losses that left entire industries devastated. Now, the cost-of-living crisis followed by war in Europe adds further strain to an already strained economy, leaving the workforce in a precarious position.

 

Though the pandemic brought about some changes for the better, such as remote and hybrid work schemes, the impact on industries where that simply isn’t possible, has been felt. In a bid to attempt to re-attract workers to full time office work, some companies have begun to cut down salaries for full time workers, or at least threaten to do so. But this has failed to deter workers, who now have the upper hand in the current climate and have since prioritised a work-life balance after the introspection the pandemic allowed.

 

One of the reasons current workers are able to be more demanding now compared to the past, is that we’re now facing a shortage of qualified candidates in the UK. Whether it’s workers who were made redundant and furloughed (leaving entire industries in tatters), early retirements, or migrating abroad, these factors combined mean that nearly 1.5 million active job vacancies have been left unfilled, the highest on record. That leaves employers and businesses facing a growing staff shortage, struggling to replace experienced workers that have left the workforce.

 

 

So what can be done? How can businesses replace those experienced candidates that have left without spending significant amounts of money and time to train new and under qualified candidates? They may choose to focus on offering competent and above market salaries, or increasing employee benefits, such as holiday days, pension schemes, bonuses, gym membership as well as a focus on the employee’s well being (such as policies in place for bereavement or pregnancy) for example. These things are great and may well work for companies that need to hire occasionally once or twice a year, but what if your business requires high volume hiring at a constant rate? If you need to hire ten people one week, five the next, always for the same job or a handful of the same. What do you do then?

 

Many of the high-volume hiring industries, such as Care, Security, Warehousing & Logistics, require exactly just that. On top of that, most (if not all) the jobs in the above sectors are impossible to do remote or hybrid, and nearly all struggle to retain new employees. In the UK care sector for example, one in four new recruits leave within their first year of joining.

 

Although a complete change to government policy and its points-based immigration system is necessary in the long run to alleviate the pressures on all these industries, (whose workforce is made up of predominantly foreign workers) there are things that can be done to help overcome the challenges of the current climate.

 

Post Your Openings in the Right Places

If you’re looking to hire back-end developers, you may have to advertise in a different place than if you were looking for lorry drivers. To overcome the challenge of attracting the right applicants for the high-volume hiring industries, you need to know where to look for them and how to target them. Combined with data and analytics, a recruitment tool can help identify what are the most successful job boards, you can track how your job posts are interacted with on social media and more. By doing this, you not only save money and time, but you’re able to reach a larger network that will be more likely to become applicants.

 

 

Speed up the Application Process 

Almost ¾ of applicants drop off in the application stage if the application process is too long. Anything between 30-45 minutes application time will see reduced applicant numbers and higher drop off rates. It’s important that the time to offer is quick, mobile-friendly (to account for a large proportion of applicants who are likely to apply from their phone). This is even more important when dealing with High-Volume work, which tends to focus on a few select industries, such as Logistics, Warehousing, Care and Security for example. To work in these industries, lengthier recruitment processes are unnecessary. Rather, a recruitment automated system that can mine out CV’s, pick up relevant experiences, process background checks should be in place so that you can progress candidates faster and have them do a skills test instead, such as HGV driving test for logistics, or operating a forklift truck in a warehouse etc.

 

Automate the Process

It’s even more important for hiring managers working in high volume industries to automate as much of the process as they can. With constant recruitment cycles and high levels of applicants each time, it’s impossible for a hiring team to dedicate themselves to anything other than reading CV’s all day. That leaves them outsourcing much of their hiring, but that comes with other consequences, often financial, putting strain on a companies already tight spending budget and in many cases putting the hirers own job at risk. That’s why a recruitment software, that helps your job ads by posting them on the right platforms, optimising them for keywords, and then automating much of the process for you, will help you save time, money, all the while helping you reach more people.

 

Understand Your Software

Some companies already use an ATS or a recruitment automation system, or sometimes a few different technological tools, but by having metrics and data spread across various platforms, you leave a hiring team confused and frustrated. Often new members of a hiring team may start a position having taken over from their predecessor and find their organisation is already using a particular software which they then have to scramble to understand. By understanding your software and keeping as much of the recruitment process as you can on one platform, you make it easier to collaborate with your team and you create a simpler hiring process. That way, you can access all your metrics in one place and see what your cost per hire is, the time it takes, the drop-off rate, and other metrics, allowing you as a team to improve on the areas that require improvement.

 

High Volume Hiring is always going to demand a lot from any hiring team, but here at SmartRecruitOnline, we’ve helped many Hiring Managers save thousands of pounds and hours of time with our all-in-one recruitment software and built in ATS, some of which you can see here.

 

To find out more about how we can help you with your High-Volume Hiring needs, click here, and don’t forget to subscribe for all our latest content!

 

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Solving your UK Talent Shortage

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

The UK job market has drastically changed in the past few years and employers are facing a talent shortage as a result. But how can your business overcome this, and start hiring top talent?

 

Finding the right candidates for the right roles is a huge challenge right now. In fact, 45% of employers say they can’t find workers with the skills they need.

 

This ultimately impacts the quality of hires eventually made, which can have devastating effects on your business’ performance. But what exactly do we mean by a talent shortage?

What is a talent shortage?

A talent shortage refers to a lack of suitable people available for a job vacancy. When employers or whole sectors have issues finding quality applicants for roles, this suggests that there is a talent shortage.

 

 

This doesn’t just relate to candidates having the right qualifications for the roles. It can also include finding candidates that meet the criteria on skills, education, geographic location, and so on.

 

Why is there a shortage of talent?

There are now record levels of job advertising, yet candidate availability is the lowest it’s been since 1997 (KMPG). Interestingly, there has been a shift from struggling to fill niche roles, to issues with mainstream recruitment in sectors like retail, hospitality, and care – although the impact can be seen across all sectors.

 

Reasons for this vary from more people retiring, to a lack of European workers due to Brexit. Fewer people are also actively looking for new jobs, possibly due to the global pandemic creating concerns over job security.

 

This lack of active candidates means that the marketplace is now largely candidate-driven, and employers need to go the extra mile to appeal to talent. Marketing your business to attract the right type of candidates, engaging with them adequately, and outdoing your competition is now essential.

 

Why hiring top talent is important

It goes without saying that you want to hire the best people for your business, as not doing so can greatly impact your overall performance.

 

 

An underperforming employee can create financial strain, particularly if you’re a small to medium-size business. And when this underperformer eventually leaves, souring and hiring a replacement has its own cost.

 

Other company-wide impacts include other employees needing to pick up the slack of a poor hire, meaning other work gets delayed, and the business is affected.

 

How to overcome your talent shortage

You can’t change the situation, but you can start recruiting smarter and winning an unfair share of applicants. By making a few changes throughout your recruitment process, you can convince talent to hit the apply button and retain them up until hired.

 

Get better value for money

Going directly to job boards to advertise your roles can become expensive. Instead, spending the same amount with an aggregator, media brokerage, or using a job multi-poster helps you get better value for money, and appear on 5 times more advertising channels for the same cost.

 

Increasing your recruiting budget at this stage is actually a very effective tactic for attracting more talented candidates. This may sound counterproductive, but if you’re competing with other businesses that are increasing their budget, your exposure naturally goes down.

 

When your advertising budget doesn’t match or exceed your competition’s, you’re more likely to end up with lower quality, desperate candidates who are trawling the job boards for a new role. This often means you end up using agencies to recruit instead, costing more in the long run.

 

It’s also important to accurately track your KPIs around job advertising. Which channels are you getting better value from? Can you place ads with better job boards to increase your reach and scale? These are all questions that will help you use your budget smartly, and beat competitors for top talent.

 

Increase advertising exposure

Closely linked to getting better value for money, increasing your advertising exposure means getting your roles on more channels that are highly relevant to where the candidates you want are going.

 

This naturally increases the probability of people finding your job, including top talent online.

 

Optimise the visibility of jobs within each channel

Each job board has its own algorithm for what ends up on page one of the results for a search. Research has shown that 75% of internet users never scroll past the first page of results, so appearing on this page is essential for click-throughs onto your job.

 

 

All channels work slightly differently, and understanding these nuances and tailoring your ads for different channels ensures you win an unfair share of great candidates. It also means you’re able to get more applications for less money.

 

Optimise performance and conversion of views into applications

A mistake many recruiters make is writing job advert copy as though applying is a logical and rational decision for the candidate. However, in today’s job market candidates are likely to already have a job and are passively searching online with little commitment to moving roles.

 

To appeal to these candidates, they need to be engaged on an emotional level, with the right language, tone, and structure. It’s more about selling the opportunity in a way that sounds better than your competitors and their current role.

 

 

Improve efficiency and minimise the loss of applicants through drop off

With today’s candidates being so selective, if your recruitment process isn’t efficient, you increase the risk of drop-offs and falling behind your competitors.

 

For example, if a candidate applies to a role and a hiring manager contacts them a week later, they’re unlikely to be as interested. This is because once their CV is on the system, numerous recruiters are able to get in contact with other opportunities.

 

Using automation tools is a great way to improve your efficiencies. In the above example, using automated communication tools at vital points in the process is invaluable; this could include sending an email or text message thanking them for their application, sending screening requests, and insightful resources about what it’s like to work with you to keep them engaged and excited about the role.

 

Other ways to improve your efficiency are during the initial application process. When candidates hit the apply button and are redirected to a careers page where they are forced to begin the application process again, this creates a significant drop-off. You want to avoid this, so keeping your initial application phase on the same platform is essential.

 

The most effective recruitment tech providers now include CV parsing and AI ranking software for this phase too. This automatically scans CVs you receive and ranks them for relevance to the role advertised. This greatly speeds up the recruitment process, and fast tracks you to the best candidates.

 

What’s next?

Improving a small percentage in each of these areas is a great step towards having more quality candidates to choose from, and overcoming your talent shortage.

 

This article just scratches the surface on each point, so if you’d like to know more about how recruitment technology can help you overcome your candidate shortage, get in touch with us today.

 

The Smart Recruit Online platform is built to overcome this challenge, with over 10 years of experience testing and optimising job adverts and performance using the latest recruitment tech.

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HR Academy Live – Event Key Takeaways

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

Last week, Smart Recruit Online hosted our first free HR Academy Live event.

 

This is the first of a series of live online events bringing HR & Recruitment thought leaders and specialists together to share insights around the biggest topics impacting the industry, and giving attendees the chance to have their questions answered with a live Q&A.

 

This week’s session covered three trending topics affecting the recruitment and HR space: Talent Attraction Strategy, HR & Recruitment Technology, and Diversity, Equality & Inclusion.

 

Talent Attraction Strategy

So many businesses struggle to attract quality and a high enough quantity of applicants, even for mainstream unskilled roles. Our first session covered the art behind a truly effective talent attraction strategy.

 

Measuring how effective your current talent attraction strategy is, is the key to improving it. This all depends on your business goals, measuring meaningful metrics around these goals, and then highlighting where improvements can be made – for example, is recruiting at any cost more important than keeping costs down?

 

Here are just some of the meaningful metrics highlighted:

• Cost per application
• Time to offer
• Cost per hire
• Applicant drop off
• First-time fill rate
• Attrition levels

 

Based on their own experiences, our panellists also discussed the most counterproductive pitfalls in talent attraction. Common ones included advertising your roles on the wrong channels, poor job advert copy, and redirecting applicants away from a job board onto a careers page, causing drop-offs to soar.

 

Top tips on what to implement into your talent attraction strategy included:

• Choosing the correct job title using keyword research tools
• Avoiding job titles exclusively used internally
• Adding ‘work from home’ after the job title if you offer it
• Ensuring to include a salary banding
• Use of automation to fast track you to the best applicants e.g. CV parsing, AI ranking, bulk candidate communication tools
• Using email and SMS communications in conjunction to create a seamless candidate journey
• Regularly re-engaging with your talent pool with creative forms of communication

 

Poll Results

 

HR & Recruitment Technology Selection

The second session covered vendor selection strategies for HR & Recruitment technology. Choosing the right technology for your business is challenging, but anyone who takes talent recruitment seriously knows it’s essential.

 

Our panel looked into the reasons vendor selection has become harder, including the volume of solutions now available in the market, and the need to select a solution that works for your business.

 

A simple Google search won’t work, and recruiters need to do their homework to find the technology that solves their issues.

 

Other key frustrations of recruiters include:

• Lack of platform flexibility
• Lack of configuration options
• Expensive development costs
• Lack of ongoing support from vendors
• The cost of add-ons like additional reporting tools or email templates

 

Selecting a recruitment technology can be broken down into several steps:

1. Map out every part of your candidate journey and the touchpoints e.g. what communication tools you’ll need, who is responsible for each part, the impact on the candidate experience
2. Define your technology must-haves and nice-to-haves
3. Stick to your list throughout the vendor selection process. Don’t get side-tracked!
4. Look at the core products the system offers, what’s included in the initial package, and any add-ons
5. Look at the ongoing customer support, training and implementation plan offered. How will your hiring managers be supported? What are the cost implications of training? Would your team work well with the vendor on a regular basis?
6. Ensure it will be a smooth adoption process for your whole team. Are managers happy with the system? Does it add or improve upon what they’re already doing? Will they actually use the system?

 

Poll Results

 

Diversity, Equality & Inclusion

The final session covered DE&I in the workplace. Diversity and inclusion are more than just making tick box hire and filling a quota – no candidate wants to feel like a token hire, and will likely be able to tell if they aren’t being hired on merit.

 

The benefits of hiring a diverse workforce are numerous. People want to work with good people, but they also want to work with different people; showing how diverse your company is will attract more talent.

 

It also enables your team to think more innovatively, and has been shown to improve employee retention. These all point towards a much more profitable business that reflects the kind of customers you’re serving.

 

Some top tips to improve your workplace diversity include:

• Training staff to accurately understand what diversity and inclusion is, and how to avoid bias
• Don’t rely on referral recruitment, as you may end up with all the same types of people
• Ensure your job descriptions are inclusive
• Reflect any values around having a diverse and inclusive workplace in your culture
• Don’t make assumptions that candidates don’t have a protected characteristic – some disabilities are invisible!
• CV anonymisation tools are useful for removing bias in the initial stages, but education needs to take place with your recruiters on diversity

 

Poll Results

 

If you didn’t get a chance to attend HR Academy Live this time around, you can watch the recording here.

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Corporate Recruitment is in Crisis

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

Thomas International conducted some very interesting research in Q3 2021, with over 500 Senior HR and Talent Management professionals completing an in-depth survey as part of their annual ‘Mind the Trust Gap’ annual research report.

 

Here is the summary of their findings along with our own insights, highlighting how a more sophisticated approach to recruitment, that combines technology with psychology, will address and solve many of the challenges that the industry faces.

 

Most companies do not apply an evidence-based approach to recruiting and do not understand why or where their talent attraction and hiring process is broken.

 

We have reviewed the findings from this survey and outlined where we believe the answers are, to solving these industry-wide challenges.

 

The Thomas report headlined as 10 shocking statistics that reveal recruitment is in crisis.

 

We don’t disagree, there is a nationwide crisis, and this was reflected in the post-Covid/Brexit period where companies struggled to recruit talent, even for mainstream unskilled roles, where previously high volumes of candidates had presented a completely different set of challenges.

 

Confidence in recruitment is low

1. 50:50 chance for new hires

A survey of 500 businesses revealed that over half (57%) of hires are not working out, according to the people who made the hire. This alarming statistic indicates that recruitment is broken.

 

Our response: This is a problem caused by 3 key factors. Companies need to invest in technology and tools that better assess candidates, there needs to be better due diligence during candidate selection, and recruiters need better training on how to adapt and deliver more effective screening solutions that reflect the nuances of each role.

 

2. It’s the door for one in four

A quarter of these bad hires have left the business or are not working out, while a further third (32%) are struggling with some elements of their role.

 

Our response: Until companies address this issue from the top down, there is unlikely to be a change amongst the coalface recruiters responsible for sourcing and recruiting the best talent. ‘Getting jobs filled’ tends to be the mantra amongst most recruitment teams, in contrast to company stakeholders who more intrinsically understand the importance of always hiring the best talent they can at every opportunity.

 

3. Risk is ramping up

After a slow year, 64% of businesses are increasing their recruitment activity again. Making the right hires is vital, yet as recruitment activity increases, so does the risk of making a poor hire. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that direct and indirect costs of a bad hire range from between 50% and 150% of the employee’s annual salary.

 

 

Our response: Rewarding recruiters for recruiting people that stay in their role for longer than 12 months could be a very simple yet effective solution to this problem. Having a 12-month reward pipeline for your recruitment team will also help to address the high attrition rates in HR-related roles too, killing two birds with one stone.

 

4. Remote working remains

Whilst 44% of recruiters still cite remote working as the biggest driver of transformation in the sector, it is less influential for most. This suggests that a level of adaptation to remote working may already have been achieved.

 

Our response: Remote working for recruitment and interview teams is particularly challenging, especially when the majority of online active talent is not committed to moving jobs, and will use the application and interview process as means to make judgement on the company and opportunity.

 

This means that recruiters need to work even harder and smarter to influence prospective employees. Technology needs to be efficient and effective, processes need to be slick and engaging, and people need to be well trained to execute and manage this entire process, and that is often 100% remotely.

 

5. Buffeted by Brexit

Four in ten recruiters are concerned about the impact of Brexit and say that the disruption caused continues to be a major influence on their hiring and skills acquisition activity.

 

Our response: Taking over 1 million unskilled workers out of the national workforce after a year where there were 5 times more retirements than normal and within a marketplace that has been advertising over 1 million jobs for the last few months, should and does scare many recruiters. However, so many companies do recruitment badly, that those who are willing to up their game and refine their tactics can win an unfair share of the applicants that are still out there looking.

 

6. Differentiation difficulties

Despite the disruption, the primary challenge recruiters say they face is distinguishing between candidates (88%). Just 21% of hiring managers think that CVs are a strong indicator of the future performance of a hire.

 

Our response: Lack of due diligence and low levels of sophistication in screening applicants means there is a high risk of making bad hires. It’s usually not that difficult to work out why your staff are leaving in the first year of employment and then addressing this.

 

Candidates that leave in the first year do so because they are either a poor cultural fit, you didn’t onboard, train or support them properly, they don’t get on with their manager, the job isn’t challenging enough, they feel under-valued, they have been offered more money somewhere else, or they feel that you are underpaying them.

 

Once you understand the problem, you need to address it. Some of these are not a quick and easy fix however, and authenticity is a crucial element in building a company culture that people want to remain part of.

 

7. Quality is the priority

Recruiters’ top priority over the next 12 months is improving the quality of hires. 38% of survey respondents say they prioritise hire quality over any other consideration in the hiring process, including speed, cost, and candidate experience.

 

Our response: If ever there was an obvious outcome from this survey, this is the one that I would have backed, because generating more quality applications against your vacancy overcomes a multitude of problems.

 

Generating more high-quality direct applications is the holy grail of talent attraction. It is achievable, by addressing the following aspects:

• Get your job advertised on more of the online channels where the best and most appropriate applicants go.
• Optimise your job adverts to get found and to convert more views into actual applications.
• Offer more competitive rates and attract through opportunity.
• Use technology and tools to avoid applicant drop-off and to improve the applicant experience.

 

A New World of Recruitment

8. Culprits: complexity and culture fit

According to recruiters, the root cause of frequently failed hires is a combination of complicated, drawn-out processes (31%), poor candidate experience (31%), and an inability to test culture fit (31%).

 

Our response: We can’t disagree with this. An efficient and effective recruitment process requires the right tools, technology, processes, and people to execute successfully.

 

9. Evolve or die

99% of recruiters think that improving the quality of recruitment systems and processes is important in the current environment. This highlights an overwhelming need for recruitment systems to evolve in order to bridge the trust gap that is currently undermining them.

 

 

Our response: We recommend selecting a technology provider that combines talent attraction and ATS functionality as a single-point solution. Most ATS only do tracking, and that’s like having a shop without customers.

 

Find a technology provider that can help you execute a more evidence-based approach, support you throughout your contract, and work alongside you on a job-by-job basis, taking on accountability for performance and outcomes.

 

10. Tech for trust

The majority of recruiters (80%) believe that technology will play a key role in the evolution of recruitment processes. In contrast with ‘gut-feel’, tools like predictive hiring and psychometric testing are considered to offer accurate, objective information that can help to close the trust gap.

 

Our response: Recruitment technology should support variable workflows, and use AI and automation to improve efficiency and performance.

 

There should be a range of features to execute effective screening that can be adapted to the needs of each individual role that you are recruiting for.

 

Reporting tools should provide accurate insights and transparency to the recruiter, so that it is clear what is working and what isn’t so that improvements can be applied.

 

Our summary

The perfect storm has hit recruitment this year, combining the effects of Brexit and Covid, making recruiting staff much harder.

 

It is a wake-up call for all recruiters that they need to up their game. Those companies that do so, will reap the rewards now and for the long term. Companies upgrading their recruitment tools and processes will position themselves to recruit the best available talent, and make better hires that are more productive and stay in their jobs longer.

 

Looking to upgrade your recruitment technology or ATS? Get our Ultimate Applicant Tracking System Checklist

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Brits are searching for this job the most

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

Millions of people search for jobs online every year – but which jobs trump them all?

 

Smart Recruit Online researched and analysed 12 months’ worth of Google Search and Trends data to uncover the most Googled jobs in the world, and why this might be the case. Do they have the best hours? The best pay? Or could market changes be an influence? Read on to find out.

 

The United Kingdom

In the UK, Teaching Assistant jobs took the top spot. This spiked in May 2021, likely because this is the final month teachers can resign before the summer.

 

An Education Policy Institute report found the pandemic led to a surge of interest in the teaching profession – but the sector has serious retention problems, especially for early-career teachers. Both these factors could account for the volume of searches for Teaching Assistants and Teachers in the UK.

 

While Teaching Assistant remained most popular in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland told a different story, where Driver jobs were most prevalent.

 

Interestingly, in Wales, Moulder jobs came on top, with 10,350 searches.

 

Driver, Cleaner, and Receptionist jobs were in the top 5. There has been a significant candidate shortage in mainstream, lower-skilled roles like these, leading to salary inflations as the market competes for people. This can kickstart people mass moving jobs to take advantage of the market conditions and obtain a higher salary.

 

It was interesting to see Counsellor jobs appear in the top 10. Could this be a bi-product of isolation due to the pandemic? The demand for mental health support has increased, and with it Counsellor jobs, and more HR people looking for them as a career change.

 

 

Europe

How did the rest of Europe fare? Translator jobs took the lead, with the majority of searches coming from Italy and Portugal. The role is more relevant than ever, as the world becomes ever more interconnected, and businesses from all over the world need to communicate to make deals with each other.

 

Europe isn’t afraid to get creative though, with Graphic Designer job searches appearing frequently, namely in Serbia and Bulgaria. Graphic Designers working in Serbia can expect around 81,600 RSD per month, but this can vary drastically based on experience, skills, and demand for their work.

 

 

 

The World

Driver jobs took the leading spot Worldwide. The role had over 1.2 million searches, and was particularly popular in South Africa.

 

South Africa has experienced a driver shortage amid early retirements, and lockdown restrictions making it hard to become licensed. This, coupled with US and UK shortages causing companies to recruit from South Africa, means demand is high, and the pay being offered is attractive. Some companies in America are even offering salaries north of $100,000 a year, plus bonuses.

 

In the UK, HGV drivers could earn up to £3,400 a month, with one job with Cargo Express advertising paying between £800 and £850 a week.

 

Mechanical Engineer jobs came second, with 990,000 searches.

 

Civil Engineering was third, with India driving this up the list with 567,200 searches over the year.

 

Getting Creative

Countries all around the world are getting creative, with searches for roles in the Arts, Creative & Media sectors cropping up everywhere.

 

Those in Malaysia could be the most creative of all, with Graphic Designer jobs being sought after more than any other profession. Thailand is a little more outside the box, with Cartoonist jobs top of the list.

 

People in Sweden seem keen to take to the stage, with Actor jobs surpassing any other searched-for role there.

 

Engineering & Science

Engineering & Science roles took multiple spots in the top 10 jobs. The need and desire for professions in this field have remained strong, but which countries have the highest demand for them?

 

Civil Engineering is hugely popular in India, with 567,200 searches, and the most sought-after role there. Other countries especially interested in this role include Botswana and Swaziland.

 

Interestingly, Medical Assistant jobs were number one in the USA – could the pandemic have had some impact on this?

 

 

Languages

With Translator jobs taking the lead in Europe, perhaps unexpectedly, the highest demand for this role appears in other corners of the world.

 

Translator jobs were most popular in Brazil, and Mexico followed closely behind.

 

Turkey was also revealed to be interested in languages, with 2,790 searches over the year.

 

 

Methodology

1. We compiled a list of over 12,000 jobs
2. We analysed Google search data for the period between October 2020 and September 2021, as well as monthly search volumes to identify the most searched for job in every country in the world
3. We broke the data down further in the UK and Europe to draw comparisons between different locations
4. We consulted with our recruitment experts at Smart Recruit Online as to why certain roles were more popular than others

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In-House Recruitment Live London Roundup

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

 

This week, Smart Recruit Online attended the In-House Recruitment Live Event in London. It was great to see some familiar names in the recruitment space and speak to those of you looking to improve your direct hire strategy with a platform like ours.

 

 

What really stood out was the great panel of speakers, covering all things from upcoming trends in recruitment, to how the pandemic has impacted the recruitment industry.

 

Here are just some of the key takeaways from the event:

 

Appealing to passive candidates

It is arguably a well-known fact in the recruitment industry now that the strongest candidates tend to be those only passively searching for a new role. In fact, this portion of candidates are thought to account for around 70% of the candidate market, often already in employment with your competitors.

 

The focus is now turning to ways to attract these passive candidates, and convincing them to apply for your opportunity. As passive candidates likely have little commitment to finding a new role, recruiters have been questioning where they spend their time, and what we can do to grab their attention.

 

The good news is that research has shown 80% of passive candidates are open to finding a new role, so cracking the code and getting your jobs in front of them in an effective and appealing way is well worth the effort.

 

The rise of social recruiting

In line with ways to appeal to passive candidates is the rise of recruiting via social media channels, like Facebook and Instagram. Think about it – how much time a day do you spend on social media? Typically, people spend up to 2 hours on various social media platforms, and this includes potential candidates!

 

In a very insightful talk, Richard Swenman from Adway suggested that targeting passive candidates through tailored ad campaigns is something for recruiters to consider. Seeing the same advert 10 times isn’t very effective in any case, and the same goes for advertising your job roles.

 

You should try and ‘seduce’ potential candidates with a mix of sponsored job adverts and a journey of brand messaging to build excitement around your brand beyond a simple job ad.

 

The power of automation

It goes without saying that automating parts of your recruitment process is a must-have these days. Automation was an extremely common theme throughout the event, both during the various talks and on many neighbouring stands.

 

This comes as no surprise, as not only does it save on time and resources, but it can also contribute to a better candidate experience, and reduce the risk of candidate drop offs as a result of a lengthy recruitment process.

 

Access Screening’s talk on Candidate Screening in 2022, presented by Joshua Welch, revealed that automation has become especially popular throughout the candidate screening process. This includes areas like completing references automatically online, and processing high volumes of documentation and passport checks.

 

The return to the office

As restrictions from the pandemic continue to ease, and the call back to work in the office becomes more prominent, many employers are seeing a shift in employee attitudes. Many are now hoping for more flexibility around working hours and locations, and are reluctant to return to the office full time.

 

This impact can be seen in more recent job adverts, with the benefit of flexible working being listed growing in popularity. Some speakers even suggested doing a competitor analysis before advertising your new roles, and observing if this is a benefit being offered, as it could win over potential applicants.

 

Building candidate relationships

The notion of a “candidate-driven market” was mentioned on multiple occasions throughout the event. This is again related to the need to appeal to passive candidates, and impress and win them over. Building candidate relationships is a key part of this, and some speakers suggested a more personal approach to candidate communication.

 

The importance of maintaining relationships with unsuccessful candidates was also highlighted, including how to go about candidate rejections. Letting candidates know you’re ‘still interested’ in them for future opportunities is a great alternative to an outright rejection, or no communication at all! Some even suggested making a phone call was more appropriate once candidates were in the final stages of their interview process.

 

Company culture

With the pandemic widely affecting how teams interact with each other, maintaining a good company culture has brought new challenges. Again, the importance of building and maintaining relationships between people was seen as paramount, especially when welcoming new members.

 

 

Setting aside time in the working day to have an informal chat and catch up via video call could make all the difference – Unilever Global Talent Lead, Charlotte Johns, referred to this as the ‘coffee line’, mimicking those short, but morale-boosting conversations you might have in the coffee line at the office.

 

Improving the interview process

Attracting and retaining passive candidates is one thing, but improving the overall interview process also had its place throughout various talks at the event. Interestingly, making the journey to interview as short as possible was mentioned, which ties in with the popularity of automating lengthy parts of the recruitment process.

 

Additionally, it was suggested that for more junior roles, one interview is enough to decide if the candidate would be a good fit for your company. When it comes to more senior roles, this is where you may want to lengthen the process a bit more.

 

Summary

We were very pleased to be able to attend the In-House Recruitment Live event, and interact face-to-face with everyone after so long. If you didn’t get the chance to attend and speak with us, we’d love to hear from you about your in-house recruitment needs.

 

Book a demo and see how we can help you quickly find and hire the best talent online for less.

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Why are my Job Advert Application Numbers Down?

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

If you regularly recruit for the same jobs throughout the year and have noticed a significant reduction in application numbers recently, then you are not alone.

 

Hard to fill positions and recruitment for niche skills and sectors are posed with this challenge throughout the year, but recently the applicant shortage issue is being felt by recruiters across many more sectors and for roles that traditionally generate high volumes of applications.

 

Industry and skill sectors feeling this the most include, Hospitality, retail, warehousing and Logistics, Driving & Delivery, Care, customer support and many more

 

According to data provided by all the leading UK job boards and data analysis by Wavetrackr, job advertising numbers are up significantly across the online and job board networks.

 

In many cases new candidate registrations are down too and to compound the problem, applicants are applying for fewer jobs.

 

Why is this happening?

So why is this happening? Especially as we are recovering from a pandemic and unemployed numbers are significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels?

 

Firstly, when job advertising numbers go up, this will always adversely effect average application numbers, but when this is combined with a reduction in new candidates registering and fewer applications being made, there is a compound effect.

 

As the UK returns to work, individuals have less time to look for and apply for jobs. Sentiment drives behaviours too, so if more people are less motivated to find a new position, or become more selective, we can expect to see this dramatically impact application numbers.

 

Reed reported in their monthly summary the following statistics:

• Over 275,000 vacancies posted on reed.co.uk – the highest monthly figure since February 2008, before the financial crash
• All sectors and regions saw a month-on-month increase in vacancies
• Transport & Logistics roles soared, up 206% month-on-month
• East Midlands saw the greatest month-on-month increase in vacancies, up 161%

 

Not all sectors appear to have been adversely effected though, with Legal, Administration and Sales application numbers going up significantly. However, that increase may still not have trickled through to everyone if vacancy numbers were up and those extra applications where shared out.

 

Data provided by Google suggests that we have topped 18 million unique job-related searches a month, but we know that there are not 18 million committed job seekers looking to move jobs at any one time. The majority of these searches are performed as a social activity and running some sort of job related search online has become an habitual behaviour. Increased unemployment and the unique set of circumstances experienced by workers in the last 12-18 months may well have driven job application numbers up, but eventually that behaviour will settle down again, and that appears to be part of the current trend.

 

What can you do about it?

So what can recruiters do to get application numbers back up to the levels they need to start filling jobs?

 

You can’t magic applications out of nowhere, but you can start to think about recruiting more strategically in order to optimise advertising performance and win your unfair share of the applicants that are still out there. You can also increase advertising budgets in order to increase and maximise visibility online, to help counter the current reduction in application numbers.

 

To help improve outcomes you will need to refine your talent attraction tactics and this is all about optimisation of results, at every stage of the talent acquisition process. To help, here is a useful article on how to improve quantity and quality  and another on mastering talent attraction that you might find quite useful.

 

How can we help?

If you don’t have the time and resources to address this yourselves, feel free to contact one of our customer success team on 01908 268368 to talk through how we can help to quickly get your application numbers and quality of applications back up and beyond pre-pandemic levels. We specialise in Talent Attraction and have access to over 5000 Online media channels and have already helped dozens of companies to quickly and effectively address this challenge.

 

Alternatively, book a demo of our talent acquisition platform and see how we work!

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Highlights from Business Live Health & Wellbeing

Danielle Meakin - 6 Comments - 29 Sep 2019

It’s a wrap! We had so much fun sponsoring Business Live’s Health & Wellbeing Event last week. Over 300 HR Managers, Wellbeing Experts and Hiring Managers signed up to share their experiences and learn some helpful wellbeing tips from our panel of expert speakers.

Couldn’t make it? We’ve put together some of the highlights for you here.

 

Emilie Barlow Martin

Our first speaker Emilie discussed her own experiences supporting mental health during lockdown. She described how setting time aside to purely focus on self-care is vital, whether that’s through fitness or just settling down with a good book.

Emilie works with Document Logistix to deliver centralised document management systems, which has proved hugely important to businesses during the lockdown period. You can find their website here.

Connect with Emilie – LinkedIn

 

Daryl Woodhouse

Daryl works closely with businesses to improve their performance through the life-work effect. This is achieved by forming daily habits in 4 key areas: Smart Action, Productivity Mastery, Work-Life Balance (or Life-Work Balance!), and Wellbeing. Daryl even gave some top tips on how to manage the return to the office, with the main takeaway to have more fun. Have a 5-minute huddle at the start of every working day with a short, fun team exercise, to help boost your employees’ mood and thus their productivity.

If you want some extra action points on how to improve your productivity, you can sign up for Daryl’s next free event here.

Connect with Daryl – LinkedIn

 

Navrita Atwal

With over 20 years in the industry, Navrita gave some excellent insights into Equality and Diversity in the workplace. Her top tips included ensuring your business is promoting equality of opportunity, so that all your employees’ needs are being met – for example, providing the right equipment for those who require extra support. Giving your employees the confidence to share their needs is also a must, through a supportive working environment with zero tolerance policies and staff support groups.

Connect with Navrita – LinkedIn

 

Michael Stephens

Talking through his own experiences, Michael gave us some deep insights into how burnout can unexpectedly happen to you. In a world where many employees put themselves under stress and pressure to succeed, self-care and wellbeing in a corporate environment is important. This drove Michael to launch Create Space, a global retreat and workshop service for businesses to support employee self-care, and equip them with tools for personal growth.

You can book yourself on one of Michael’s bespoke learning and development workshops here.

Connect with Michael – LinkedIn

 

Jon Manning

Jon operates one of the biggest mental health services in Milton Keynes, Arthur Ellis. Aptly using the imagery of bananas and donuts, Jon discussed how Banana Behaviours (Moving, Focusing Attention, Communicating, Learning, and Helping Others) all contribute positively towards health. When these behaviours are interrupted, or we indulge a bit too much in Donut Behaviours (wine, Netflix etc.), our overall health can decline. Making sure you have a good balance between these behaviours positively impacts your health.

You can find a wide range of useful mental health guides and support on the Arthur Ellis website here.

Connect with Jon – LinkedIn

 

Ravi Summan

Our final speaker, Ravi, shared how physical health can help lead to better mental health, and employee wellbeing. After great success in the business world, in 2019 Ravi turned his sights to helping corporate workers transform their physical health, and launched his wellness brand Ravi Summan Wellness. Ravi recommends encouraging your workers to exercise throughout the week, setting aside time to keep their physical and mental health strong.

You can find Ravi’s wellness podcast here on Apple and Spotify.

Connect with Ravi – LinkedIn

 

After a successful event, we are greatly looking forward to the next one and hope to see you there. More details to follow…

To watch the recording of the event, click here (passcode: F*1ZXkY#)

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