Category: Employment Value Proposition

Five Things to Help Recruit Veterans to Your Business

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, Military, Monster, New Job

So you have a military initiative, but you do not know what your goals are.  I hope it’s not to check a box, but rather it is to hire rock stars from the military.  There are huge advantages to hiring veterans outside of the credits the government offers.

Traits I look for that most veterans already possess:

1. Camaraderie
2. Communication
3. Professionalism and Respect
4. Ability to Perform in Stressful Situations
5. Problem-Solving Skills:
6. Leadership 

If you are having a hard time seeing this in these candidates, please let’s talk so I can share more best practices and shed some light on how to make it easier. ~ The Organic Recruiter

Nearly 250,000 service-members transition out of the armed services every year. And, this talented pool of job seekers looks for military-friendly companies that will put their hard-earned skills to good use.

Veterans have much to offer the civilian workforce — many are educated, disciplined, professional, self-starters, detail oriented and have a very strong work ethic. It only makes sense for companies to tout themselves as military friendly to attract these highly qualified people.

Many large corporations — such as Halliburton, Wal-Mart, and Best-Buy, to name few — compete to attract veterans, but the ones that promote themselves as military friendly are the ones that veterans gravitate towards. So how do you make your company stand out against all the other military-friendly companies?

Here are five recruiting practices that will help your company draw in veterans:

  1. Develop a winning military recruiting strategy. This recruitment strategy can include attending job fairs on military installations, or posting open positions on military job boards, such as Military.com’s Careers Channel. American Electric Power, a provider of electricity to more than 5 million customers, improved their veteran recruitment practices by attending Military.com-sponsored Career fairs, in addition to posting AEP jobs on the website. Since listing AEP’s job openings on Military.com’s job board, the company garnered more veteran job candidates and solidified its reputation as a military-friendly employer.
  2. Leverage networks and your existing team members. Ask your workforce, especially those that are former military, if they can refer any unit buddies or other veterans for open positions in your company. Additionally, Military.com’s Veterans Career Network is a great resource to find qualified future employees.
  3. Market your organization as an employer of choice. In order to do this you must build your company’s brand in the military community. You can highlight veterans that work in your organization and talk about all of the good work they do. In addition, you can create military-specific collateral — brochures, hats, buttons — for your company.
  4. Utilize existing government and private initiatives. Websites such as Military.com, HireVetsFirst.gov, TurboTap.org, HelmetstoHardhats.org and USAJobs.gov, are great resources for recruiting top veteran applicants. What’s more, most of these resources will let you post open position free of charge.
  5. Know how to translate military jargon into civilian skills. Use veterans in your organization as mentors for new recruits. The mentors can help prospective employees translate military skills into skills that civilian employers will understand. Military.com offers a skills translator that can translate these military skills.

originally published at Military.com – http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/how-to-recruit-veterans-for-your-business.html

 

May 2016’s Newsletter

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Employment Retention, Employment Value Proposition, Latest News and Articles

It would be very remiss of me to not dedicate this edition to my favorite musical artist of all time, Prince and the passing of a genius this past month. A man full of controversy throughout the last 4 decades was one who did it his way.  For this there was always speculation of who he was and what he stood for.  One thing for sure, he will be missed for the amazing talent he was and the influence he left.

For this I will use as the platform and theme if you will for this edition around diversity and inclusion as his song Controversy is what it is all about.  The words as they rang out from this song, “am I straight or gay? Am I black or white…” is indeed what we look at in diversity and inclusion on the mere surface.

And in the spirit of Prince, I also suggest reading a book on his biography around the Purple Rain era…or rather the time when everyone new every word to every song.  The book itself is controversial, but always remember he did it his way while overcoming the “conventional way”, the “right way” or even “the way it’s always been done”.

There is no perfect way.  Nor does right come in a color or a gender.  Believe in you.  You may be controversial, but at the end of the day, you get to smile…Let’s go crazy!

Mahalo!

This Month’s articles:

10 TIPS TO MANAGING INTERVIEW CANCELLATIONS AND NO SHOWS

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job

by Katie Calhoun | February 16th 2016

Ever wonder why your candidates are cancelling or gosh darn it, no showing?  Don’t just blame them, let’s take some accountability and in return take action.  Below are some causes.  What kind of effects are you willing to create?  ~The Organic Recruiter

As the war for talent has once again heated up, candidates are no longer willing to wait long for interviews. Before you pull your hair out, take a moment to consider the candidate’s point of view. On the other hand, young candidates may be fearful and intimidated.

Why would you care if they don’t show up? You’ll just move on to the next person on your list, right? Whether experienced professionals or college grads, job candidates today are focused on one thing: finding the company that gives them the best feeling and makes getting hired easy.

It’s important to note that the best way to prevent cancellations and no shows is to truly invest time in building rapport with a candidate, selling the job opportunity to the candidate, and gaining a firm buy-in from them regarding their interest in working at the company.

By building rapport with a candidate, you can earn their trust, learn about their career goals and how those goals align with the current opportunity.

It’s equally as important to be able to articulate what the career path is in the company, so you can provide candidates with a bigger picture of where this current position might lead them.

Another thing that makes a difference is to truly understand what the candidate’s salary requirements are and how that relates to the position being offered.

If the candidate’s request is too far out of range, do they still want to interview for a job that offers less money? If so, it needs to be vetted with the candidate, otherwise you risk having them decide at the last minute that the pay cut won’t work.

Are they truly willing to relocate? How committed are they to that decision? Learn as much as you can about what are deal-breakers for candidates to ensure that only candidates who are truly willing to work the job, where it’s located, for the salary offered, are the ones who interview.In addition to that, here are 10 practical tips to help reduce candidate cancellations and no shows:

    1. Reduce interview lag time – Work with hiring managers to schedule interviews as soon as possible. Try not to go beyond two weeks. Don’t let someone else be faster than you.
    2. Coach hiring managers on the importance of not rescheduling interviews – Rescheduling gives candidates the impression that their time is not valued. They will interview where they are clearly wanted.
    3. Set expectations up front with candidates – Find out if they are interviewing elsewhere. Open a dialogue to gauge their true interest level in your company and what factors they weigh as priorities when considering and accepting offers. Ask them to notify you if they need to cancel or withdraw from consideration and provide contact information to do so.
    4. Provide flexible, upcoming interviewing schedules – The best candidates receive many interview offers and often have tight schedules to work around. How can you make the process easier? Can you interview over Skype? Phone? Offer after-hours or weekends? Offer flexible, pre-determined interview options to get on their calendar right away.
    5. Keep communicating with candidates – Schedule an email or text message campaign so that candidates hear from your company with interesting information every few days before the interview. Also, provide candidates with answers to questions, interview prep, what to expect at the interview, etc. And reinforce why your culture is a great place to spend their careers.
    6. Confirm interviews more than once – Email and phone candidates to confirm their intention to attend the interview. But don’t just confirm. Welcome them as you would a guest. Let them know how much you appreciate their time and interest.
    7. Text candidates – Millennials especially communicate by text message. This is an effective way to confirm and also to solicit feedback if they do not show.
    8. Build a stronger bench – If you normally present three candidates and find that you are experiencing a high rate of cancellations or no-shows, consider presenting five candidates to make up for it.
    9. Find out why candidates are dropping out – It may be hard to do, but if you can survey those who cancelled or failed to show, you’ll gain valuable insight into what factors are playing into this phenomenon. Was a recruiter rude? Did the timing just not work? Were they treated better somewhere else? Did they feel unprepared? Ask questions and report on it on a regular basis.
  • See the silver lining – Ultimately, candidates who fail to show or call may not be the most considerate or dependable employees. Be thankful that their behavior showed up early and prevented you from a potential bad hire.

THE 10 BEST INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO ASK

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job

by Dona DeZube, President at DeZube Publications Corp.

No one wants to be told they sound like a broken record, so I won’t say that to you. I will however share with you why these questions will streamline your interview process and allow the best to be identified faster.  Remember, your candidates have been to this rodeo before.

If you are new to recruiter or a recruitment Jedi, I am here to tell you there is no perfect way to interview, but asking the wrong questions make your Time-to-Fill longer and you frustrate the hiring managers with not-so-good candidates.  My hope is you can pepper in a few, if not all, of these questions in your game. ~The Organic Recruiter

The best interview questions tell you about the person behind the resume, revealing the job candidate’s personality, strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, skills and abilities. The best interview questions also benefit job seekers by giving them an opportunity to speak to details that don’t fit on a resume.

While a savvy interviewer always includes questions tailored to the position, our list of the 10 best questions works across a variety of industries and job descriptions:

  1. From everything you’ve learned about this role, me and our company, tell me how you feel you’d make a contribution.

This interview question sorts people into two categories: contenders and also-rans.

  1. Why should we hire you?

This sets them apart from the intense competition in today’s job market.

Faced with a big stack of resumes telling a similar story, this question helps you determine the best candidate.

An interviewee who does a great job explaining how her unique experience, education, industry credentials, and personal interests will power your business will do the same thing for your company once hired. 

If you could start your career over again, what would you do differently?

Asking a candidate to explain the major decisions he has made, highlighting the positive and negative, reveals the person’s ability to make calculated decisions based on past professional and personal experiences.

It also lets candidates share their vision for the future and their ambitions.

  1. When I contact your last supervisor and ask which area of your work needs the most improvement, what will I learn?

“No amount of finesse will influence this answer because when the supervisor is brought into the conversation, the candidate knows the truth will come out anyway. Essentially, it’s the same question as ‘what is your biggest weakness,’ phrased in an unexpected way.”

  1. Describe the best boss you ever reported to.

This is a great interview question because it tells you about past relationships.

 Tell me about what motivates you. 

If what drives the interviewee matches the position and your corporate culture, you have a winner.

  1. What frustrates you?

When the candidate then talks about past frustrations, he reveals details about his personality, diplomacy skills and ability to work on teams.

  1. Tell me about the toughest negotiation you’ve ever been in.

The best negotiators answer this question by laying out both sides of the problem and then explaining how they aligned the issues or followed a process to a mutually-agreeable solution.

  1. How do you involve your staff when an important company strategy decision needed to be made? 

The candidate’s answer tells you whether a manager is secure enough to involve others in strategic decision-making, says Jayne Mattson, senior vice president, Keystone Associates, Boston, a career management firm.

  1. Where do you see yourself in five years?

With this question, it’s not what the candidate says but how she says it that’s important, says Joey V. Price, CEO of Jumpstart HR, a managed HR services firm in Washington, D.C.

“If you see someone’s eyes light up at the thought of the future, then you can tell this is a very ambitious person who knows where they want to go and will do everything in their power to help ensure your organization gets them there.”

For the complete article – http://bit.ly/10bestInterviewquestions

A BIG MISTAKE MANY HIRING MANAGERS MAKE IN INTERVIEWS

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job

By by Christian Schappel | March 30th, 2016

From my days in IT staffing to being your TA consultant today, I have always been both conflicted and even a bit annoyed with this topic.  Recruiters fight tooth and nail to get the “perfect” candidate in front of the hiring manager, only to get shot down immediately for punctuation, pepper in their teeth or whatever nonsensical reason.  “He didn’t work at ABC company” or “she doesn’t know our exact systems”. Of course she doesn’t…she’s never worked for you. Let’s interview better because the recruiters sure are helping you Find Better!  ~The Organic Recruiter

Research shows many of those involved in the hiring process are making a critical mistake when they meet with job candidates for the first time. What is it? Relying too heavily on first impressions. Chances are, some people in your organization are big believers in the sentiment: “There’s nothing like a good first impression.”

The problem is, a University of Toledo study found that first impressions may do more harm than good.

The study revealed that judgments of an applicant within the first 10 seconds of an interview can predict its outcome — and judgments that quick don’t lead to balanced assessments.

What can happen is interviewers can spend the rest of the interview looking for indicators that confirm their initial judgments about the applicant, as opposed to really assessing their abilities, the study found. So essentially, interviewers may have their minds made up about a candidate before an interview has barely begun, thanks to a series of pre-formed biases.

A better approach

Thankfully, there are ways to fight back against this natural inclination to prove your first impression of someone is correct.

Laszlo Bock, Google’s senior vice president of people operations, shared how he fights back against quick judgments in the hiring process in an article he penned recently for Wired.

In the article, entitled “Here’s Google’s Secret to Hiring the Best People,” Bock said he includes people from these two groups in interviews:

  • It’s common for candidates to meet with their potential boss, but why not also get the opinions of the people who will be working beneath them? After all, they’ve got to live with whoever you hire on a daily basis. Inviting one or two subordinates into the interview will help the company get an added, valuable perspective on the applicant.
  • “Cross-functional” workers.These employees have nothing to do with the department you’re hiring for, but they’ll still be interested in hiring high-quality candidates. And the viewpoint of someone from a different department, who’ll be less focused on dissecting the candidate’s technical abilities, can be valuable.