“Cost per hire” refers, of course, to the cost of hiring new employees. You might not think hiring new team members is an expensive process, but it can be. Some of the associated costs are obvious, while others aren’t quite so clear. 

Your organization is smart to consider and calculate the average cost of hiring a person at the outset. It can affect your decisions about where and how much to invest in recruiting efforts, and it gives you an estimation of what it will cost to fill key positions.

How to calculate cost per hire

According to a recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost per hire is just over $4,000. 

Of course, various factors can skew that number, such as your hiring volume. The more people you hire, the lower your cost per hire will be. You can spread your fixed hiring costs over a larger number of people. 

Also, upper-level or niche positions can take more time to fill, so the accrued costs of that extended process may result in a higher cost per hire.

Depending on your company size and the positions you’re looking to fill, a good cost-per-hire range is somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

Here’s how to calculate the standard cost-per-hire:

Cost Per Hire= (Internal Recruiting Costs+External Recruiting Costs)Number of Hires

In other words, if you take the sum of your internal and external recruiting costs and divide that number by the number of hires you make in a year (for example), you’ll get your annual cost per hire.

Of course, you can also look at the numbers over the course of several years to determine your average and see whether that number is going up or down.

Internal Vs. External recruiting costs

Internal costs

Internal costs are organizational costs and internal expenses related to recruitment and staffing activities. These include:

• Cost of recruiting/sourcing staff: Salary, performance bonuses, and benefits for your sourcing/recruitment staff
• Compliance costs: Expenses associated with monitoring and processing the legal documents, procedural documents, etc. needed for compliance 
• Non-labor office costs: Expenses associated with supporting the recruitment effort, including office equipment, rent, etc. 
• Learning and development: Expenses associated with training and onboarding new hires
• Secondary management costs: Any time your hiring manager spends away from their regular duties to conduct interviews and other hiring tasks is a drain on normal office productivity.

External costs

External costs are the expenses paid to external vendors or individuals in support of the recruiting process. These include:

• Background checks: Criminal and educational checks, references, credit checks, eligibility to work, immigration status, etc.
• Pre-screening expenses: Costs related to ascertaining whether the candidate meets organizational recruitment criteria (e.g., assessments, tests, automated interviews)
• Sourcing expenses: Purchase of information databases, professional association memberships, and other third-party tools (such as a presence at job fairs) that provide you with sources or candidates 
• Technological expenses: Costs associated with recruitment technology (applicant tracking systems, application processing systems, systems maintenance, etc.)
• Travel expenses: Flights, hotel costs, etc. for both candidates and recruiters where travel is required
• Marketing costs: Costs associated with things like social networks, SEO, website updates, and job board postings
• Referral expenses: Monetary incentive programs that encourage employee referrals
• Signing bonuses: A sum of money paid to an employee for joining the company

Replacing cost per hire

Calculating cost per hire is a key step in allocating a recruitment budget. It’s one of the many measures that can keep you from facing an unwelcome surprise when you’re going over your numbers at the end of every year. 

While the numerous recruitment procedures and associated costs may be daunting at first glance, if you think about these figures and do the math, you’ll realize that spending what’s necessary to put together a strong team is worth the investment:

• A job vacancy costs, on average, about $98 per day
• It takes an average of 39 days to fill a position in the United States (and even more for high-level, C-suite positions)

If a role vacancy costs your company $98 per day, and it takes an average of 39 days to fill that position, you lose $3,822 over the course of those 39 days. 

Some positions can take significantly more time to fill. So, although it may cost up to $4,000 to fill a position, you’ll easily replace that cost per hire if the employee stays with you for at least 39 days. These days, most employees stay with a company for around four years, and even longer if you’ve established a great company culture.

The pitfalls of cost per hire

With all this talk about cost per hire, you might be wondering what the cost for a bad hire is, especially if you spent $4,000 to make it happen. Unfortunately, the cost of a bad hire is $15,000 on average. For upper-level positions, it’s considerably higher. 

You can make the most of your recruitment budget by avoiding the following hiring pitfalls:

• Moving too fast – don’t be in such a hurry to fill a position that you take the first person that comes along
• Passing overactive candidates in favor of passive candidates
• Discarding broadly skilled candidates in favor of specific experience
• Not hiring for culture fit
• Skipping the pre-screening step
• Not checking references
• Hiring a less-qualified candidate just to save money

Going through all the necessary steps to ensure you make a good hire keeps your cost per hire expenses down.

Want to reduce your costs of hiring new employees?

Finding the right AI technology to keep hiring costs down is essential to building a workforce that stays with you for the long run.

At Leoforce, we recognize the need for your organizations to make data-backed hiring decisions and limit the costs of recruiting. Our AI recruiting platform, Leoforce, continues to get smarter over time.

Request a personal demo of Leoforce Quantum to optimize your hiring cost efficiency with data-driven AI.

The post What does It really cost to recruit and hire a new employee? appeared first on Leoforce.

Remote work has quickly gained traction, with more employees and job seekers demanding the ability to work from home. In 2022, the Netherlands even became the first country to declare remote work a legal right for workers who could perform their jobs from home. 

With the new normal of remote work in full swing, you could soon be left to find ways to meet this future hybrid work culture. If you haven’t already, that is.

Onboarding is the first step an employee has when starting their new job, and it often sets the tone for their entire experience with your company. Onboarding remote employees into a hybrid work environment can be difficult, especially if you’re accustomed to onboarding in person.

The old way of handling new hires

Outdated onboarding tactics can cause new employees to quickly lose excitement about starting their new job. Onboarding a new employee in-person can be considered old-fashioned.

Most onboarding doesn’t take a full day. And a dull, in-person onboarding may show the employee that your company isn’t up with the times, which isn’t exactly motivating. Other old onboarding practices include not using technology and approaching onboarding with a one-size-fits-all method.

Shifting work environments

Since 2020, work culture has shifted toward remote and hybrid work environments. The dramatic change resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic when millions of people who’d never worked from home found themselves setting up their at-home offices. The result? Many enjoyed the freedom. 

A study by the Pew Research Center found that 60% of workers said they’d continue working from home if given the choice. People also reported that working from didn’t affect their ability to do their job. If anything, it made them more productive. 

And it doesn’t seem like remote work is going away soon. While some people report feeling less connected to their coworkers, most Americans still want to be able to work from home at least part of the time. 

The labor shortage and Great Resignation could cause you to beef up your job offers. Adding the possibility of remote work is something to seriously consider if you want to recruit top talent.

Challenges of onboarding remote employees

Allowing employees to work from home is an excellent strategy for retaining highly qualified workers. 

Still, the remote world isn’t easy to navigate. Attempting to onboard employees in a hybrid workplace presents many challenges, especially when you’re accustomed to doing everything in person. 

These are just some of the obstacles you might face when onboarding remote employees: 

• Meeting and building relationships with colleagues
• Training
• Sending equipment for and setting up an at-home office
• Building a positive company culture with employees who work remotely
• Acclimating managers who are used to face-to-face supervision to the new normal of remote work

Tips for onboarding remote employees

Remote or hybrid onboarding doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, this new form of welcoming employees to your company opens the door to creative solutions to cultivate a positive hybrid work environment. 

Here are some of the newest trends in fostering a seamless remote onboarding process.

Assign onboarding “buddies”

An onboarding buddy is a peer who partners with a new employee during their first months on the job. They help by offering support, explaining work culture or expectations not covered during orientation, and providing a personal connection. 

Assigning an onboarding buddy to your new remote or hybrid employee will help them acclimate to the new job. 

Set Up early

Get your employee prepared for their first day by getting ahead of it. Planning to ship them equipment to set up their home office? Send it out a week or two in advance so they can hit the ground running. 

You might also want to include a care package in your shipment to show your new employee how excited you are for them to start.

Reintroduce your company

Even though a new employee might already know all about your company, it’s still a good idea to reorient them. 

During their first week, host a series of orientation meetings for your remote employees to explain your work culture, the business’s mission, and how they fit into the bigger picture. Doing this will reassure new employees that they’re being valued from day one.

Set expectations

Because remote and hybrid work is still new, there isn’t a widely accepted set of standards or expectations. 

Throughout your onboarding process, clearly establish your company’s remote and hybrid work expectations. These may include setting dedicated working hours, explaining the flexible work policy, and detailing all methods of virtual communications.

Foster relationships

Good relationships lead to more productive, happier employees. While many people prefer to draw a line when it comes to making friends at work, new employees need a chance to meet the entire team and build positive working relationships. 

Set up a series of one-on-one virtual meetings between the new employee and team members from different departments to help them get acquainted quicker.

Don’t Stop After Day One

Onboarding isn’t completed at the end of a new employee’s first day. It’s an ongoing process that should be maintained until the employee comfortably settles into their new role. By continuing to orient, you’re showing them that their success is a top priority.

Ready to find Remote talent?

Recruiting remote talent is no longer optional – it’s a must for companies of all sizes.

At Leoforce, we recognize the need for your organization to make data-backed hiring decisions, whether talent is remote or not.

Request a personal demo of Leoforce Quantum to unlock the universe of remote talent and optimize your recruiting efficiency with data-driven AI.

The post Onboarding remote employees: The new normal appeared first on Leoforce.

Consequently, businesses were faced with a difficult decision: should they rehire previous employees or hire new talent to meet demands? Here’s how boomerang hiring can be an effective recruiting strategy for your small business. 

What is boomerang hiring?

Rehiring former employees, also known as boomerang hiring, is not a new concept. However, it is a method that is not commonly utilized, until recently. The pandemic has triggered this recruiting strategy for many hiring managers because it saves time, lowers recruitment training and costs, and is more convenient than finding new candidates. So how do you know if you should implement boomerang hiring for your small business, and why would you rehire employees that left in the first place?  

Why should I rehire employees that left in the first place? 

The reasons employees leave companies vary, and not all employees leave due to dissatisfaction with the organization itself. Some employees leave because of personal life-changing circumstances such as divorce, family death, or welcoming a new baby. Depending on the company’s offerings, PTO, parental leave, or bereavement may not have been a viable option. This makes rehiring these individuals once they are ready to return to the workforce less challenging.  

Factors that lead to high employee turnover

On the other hand, employees who did leave dissatisfied may still consider returning with a few incentives. To rehire former high-performing employees, you need to understand why an employee would leave in the first place. Common reasons an employee may leave a company are due to:

• work culture
• challenging relationships with coworkers
• lack of recognition
• boredom from being unchallenged at work

While every factor may not be in your control, there are a few elements that are, and adapting and accommodating rehires is crucial to get the results you desire with limited resources. The good news is the pandemic has restructured the way we work and former employees who may have left due to poor work-life balance may be more convinced to return with a more flexible schedule or opportunities to work remotely.

The big elephant in the room when it comes to an employee leaving is compensation. Perhaps they didn’t feel recognized at work and left for better pastures and more greenbacks. However, a former high-potential employee may boomerang back because the company they transitioned to went out of business, experienced a layoff, or even because they recognized they liked the work culture more than they realized.

Due to economic uncertainty, people are also considering former companies to stay afloat. As a recruiter or hiring manager, it is essential to offer solutions for employee satisfaction, and providing more compensation for their skills or a promotion plan within a reasonable timeframe may be the solution to your rehiring process.  

A reasonable solution for accommodating former employees

If an employee has left due to not feeling challenged at work, offer more rewarding responsibilities that might improve employee engagement and help you reach company goals.

Whatever the reason for an employee initially leaving a company, it is not always bad, nor is it irreparable. Understanding your employee’s motivations and needs is the key to maintaining employee satisfaction. 

How boomerang hiring can help grow your business

Financial instability, lack of sales revenue and growth, and high turnover may indicate a need to change your recruiting strategy. Although hiring new talent may seem like a better alternative, you may want to reconsider if your firm is resource-constrained.

The average cost of hiring a new employee is $4,129. Whereas, the cost of rehiring a former employee can be much less. Former employees know what to expect in terms of corporate culture, processes, and tools. As a result, returning employees frequently adjust faster than new ones, making the hiring process more convenient.

Aside from the financial benefits, rehiring a former employee enhances organizational loyalty, engagement, and commitment. These individuals are often more appreciative of the company they work for and the colleagues with whom they collaborate. They also bring with them a distinct perspective that could result in positive organizational changes. 

Recruiting methods to use for rehiring former employees

Rehiring former employees can be as easy as browsing your contacts or going through your business files. That’s the perfect place to start. 

But when you need to search for new talent, the easiest recruiting method is utilizing an on-demand AI recruiting tool. While you may know an employee’s background, skills, and performance, AI recruiting solutions go beyond fundamental criteria. Recruiting tools like Leoforce use predictive analytics to help you identify the career trajectory of a candidate or employee, beyond education level, experience, and current skills. This can help you get a better understanding of each candidate for optimal results (and fewer bad hires).

Adapting to the expectations of employees and applicants is critical in today’s candidate-driven economy. As a small business, you may have limited resources and time. Therefore, recruiting services and tools like Leoforce Pulse should be used to help you be more efficient and hire new employees while saving the cost of paying agency fees. That can give you peace of mind and more leverage during today’s economic upheavals and tight labor market. 

The post How boomerang hiring can grow your small business appeared first on Leoforce.

In July of 2021 alone, over four million Americans quit their jobs, with a large portion represented by mid-career workers aged 30-45. This demographic is showing an increase in resignations of about 20% compared to 2020. These numbers tell a story about cultural changes taking place in employee and employer relationships. The propensity to leave a job has created a labor shortage, posing new concerns for employers looking to build out their workforce.

What follows are the implications of the labor shortage, the main drivers behind this trend, and new ways for you to adapt to new recruiting methods such as turning to recruiting software for better candidates. Leave those archaic recruiting procedures behind.

Why are people leaving their jobs en masses?

It’s possible that the uncertainty that swept over society at the beginning of the pandemic caused workers to stay in their jobs longer than they intended. Some postponed their plans to seek new work. The Harvard Business review recognizes that part of what we’re seeing could be two years’ worth of resignations. 

But the story seems to be deeper than just logistics. Workers have reported: 

• Extreme burnout with the onset of remote work
• Expanding working hours
• Additional pressure from adapting to new conditions
• Higher workloads
• Existential reflecting that the pandemic forced upon all of us, 

What does this mean for recruiters and employers?

Because of the global labor shortage (particularly in hospitality and healthcare), workers applying for new jobs are aware of the leverage they have as many employers are desperate to hire. With the high inflation rates and dissatisfaction with the unfair conditions that have faced workers in the past, candidates are looking to have their standards met when it comes to lifestyle and pay. Due to this bargaining power, workers don’t plan to accept the years of stagnant pay that they saw for most of their careers. 

Recruitment traditions that we’re leaving behind

To adapt to the changing demands of jobseekers, you may have to revolutionize your recruiting processes and expectations. Here are some patterns that are being left behind in today’s hiring landscape:

Strict experience requirements

Rather than seeking to find the perfect candidate who already knows the ins and outs of the job, hiring managers should have looser expectations when it comes to candidate experience. Open your mind to more transferable skills, signs of raw potential, and the option to become educated and up-skilled on the job.

With an increase in online courses and countless online platforms to learn vital skills, you can train and tailor your organization’s workforce with more ease than ever before. Plus, by having such tight guidelines for prior work history, you lose out in the end, eliminating the possibility for more diversity and creativity. 

Searching in the wrong places

For many employers, especially small and local businesses, outdated ways of recruiting still dominate the industry. Whether it’s posting physical job advertisements in local newspapers, relying on word of mouth, or depending on internal promotions, limiting yourself to these methods makes hiring more difficult. 

Leveraging the wide reach of various online platforms is essential to reach today’s generation of workers. There are numerous recruiting software and recruiting tools for employers with the most diverse pool of talent to explore. 

4 ways for employers to adapt and thrive in the current labor market

The labor shortage that’s begun as a result of The Great Resignation has outlined an intimidating and potentially discouraging picture for hiring managers. Here are four key methods and concepts that you can use to attract job seekers and survive in this challenging hiring climate.

Take a data-driven approach

Have a retention or hiring problem? Assess the causes and factors at play. Look at key metrics including compensation, promotion duration, pay raise increments, and training or growth opportunities provided for employees. Which areas are unfulfilling? Do employees see better pay and situations elsewhere? Come up with ways to overcome these hurdles. 

Use a mix of recruitment strategies

Instead of sticking with the same sources and methods that you’ve always used, consider changing it up. Create an employee referral program, work with staffing firms, streamline processes with digital platforms, and make the interview process faster with quicker decisions and fewer steps.

Cast a wider net to candidates outside the norm

Instead of looking for individuals who exactly match the needs of the job, open the position up to workers of different backgrounds to widen your applicant pool on recruiting software. Offering the position to a candidate who might consider this role a step-up will satisfy the reason that person left their job in the first place. Lower the skills requirements and provide ways for candidates to make up for any lacking skills through training and education tools. 

Offer incentives

Low-wage jobs offering sign-on bonuses is a trend that’s been making headlines, but if workers are leaving their jobs for lifestyle reasons and insufficient pay, it might be time to re-think your employee compensation and benefits scheme. Sure, offering higher pay is always an option, but for many companies suffering from the same economic pressures as everyone else, this may not be possible. Other benefits can take the place of wages such as professional training options, company events, overtime pay, and office perks. Plus, offering an increased level of flexibility makes your company more competitive in the hiring space. By providing options for flexible work schedules where there’s a variety in shift times, personal lives, or job types, you’ll tap into a larger, more diverse pool of talent. Don’t you want to welcome workers who are tired of the traditional job schedule?

Ready to discover great talent in a tough market? 

Stop wasting hours on job boards and social channels sifting through bad resumes and unqualified applicants. Increase your candidate pool via the Leoforce platform, a recruiting tool for employers which provides you with a consolidated list of qualified candidates from more than 70 professional channels. 

Leoforce can even reach out and qualify candidates, so you can quickly start the interview process. Request a free demo to discover how Leoforce identifies, analyzes, and sources candidates who are the right fit.

The post Employers are re-thinking experience requirements amid the labor shortage appeared first on Leoforce.

Lawmakers in several states – especially Nevada, Montana, New Jersey, New York, and Montana – have created new policies that limit an employer’s ability to pre-screen applicants. However, understanding the changing laws and practices can take some time.

Current changes and implications for employees with cannabis

The legal landscape surrounding cannabis and the workplace are evolving. As an employer, you need to navigate a maze of federal and state statutes and court decisions when developing substance abuse policies and drug-testing practices for cannabis.

Currently, 18 states and D.C. have legalized recreational cannabis use. In addition, New York City, Philadelphia, and Nevada have outright prohibited pre-employment cannabis testing in most industries. Despite these laws, employers can still test for cannabis and aren’t restricted from complying with federal testing requirements.

However, some state laws provide medical or recreational cannabis users with some level of employment protection against adverse actions, like a failure to hire or termination for a positive test result. On August 19th, 2021, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission issued initial rules implementing the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act, which Governor Phil Murphy signed.

The act legalized the use of recreational cannabis for adults aged 21 and older, creating hurdles for employers seeking to maintain a drug-free workplace. The new agreements almost entirely regulate the recreational cannabis sector, leaving many questions unsolved.

Another hurdle is determining whether keeping cannabis on drug-testing panels (pre-or post-hire) continues to make sense if employers act merely on a positive test result. And if you stop testing for cannabis, how do you ensure employees are not coming to work under the influence?

These complications prove that an employee “under the influence” has become a critical component to these new changes now that a positive test result is not enough under many state laws.

Proving that someone is under the influence isn’t as easy as it seems. Cannabis remains detectable in the human system for long periods, and that detectability varies with the type of testing performed.

Current testing methods are accurate but won’t establish whether an employee was under the influence of cannabis during work hours. Until employers can spot-test for intoxication, these challenges will continue as more states decriminalize and legalize cannabis.

What job seekers should know

Just because cannabis might be legal in your state, that doesn’t mean that job seekers can’t be penalized for its use. Under the federal scheduling system, the government classifies cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, meaning that it’s perceived to have no medical value and has the potential for abuse.

Job seekers should familiarize themselves with their state laws and the policies of the hiring organization during their application process.

It’s essential for job seekers to know the products they’re consuming. Even legal products derived from (or modeled after) cannabis can cause a positive drug test result.

Where do employers & recruiters go from here?

Is pre-employment cannabis testing deterring candidates from applying to your job listings? Are you eliminating otherwise-qualified applicants? How do you ensure the safety of your employees if you decide to steer away from testing altogether?

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation on May 18, 2021, that will provide protections for off-duty use of cannabis that began on Jan. 1, 2022. Citizens of Montana voted to legalize recreational cannabis in November 2020.

However, this ballot initiative didn’t protect employment-related practices. The newly-signed recreational cannabis law still permits you as an employer to take action based on the use of cannabis while working.

The key to determining the right approach to best serve your business is implementing universal policies and practices. Consider if your company has a “business approach,” requiring that pre-employment cannabis testing is based on a business need. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. What would work for a manufacturing facility may not be what works for a marketing agency.

Safety & well-being of employees

The bottom line with any approach should be the safety and well-being of your employees. Ensuring people aren’t working under the influence of drugs is a crucial component of keeping the workplace safe.

One of the best ways to do this is by creating a robust reasonable suspicion testing program, putting policies and processes in place that focus on monitoring employees who are under the influence.

This testing requires training your fellow HR professionals and management. Your organization will need to administer the program on signs of impairment, proper documentation of those signs, testing procedures, and clear communication of the program to employees for awareness and transparency.

While a reasonable suspicion testing program should be an integral component of a substance abuse policy for any employer, it’s especially critical where pre-employment cannabis testing has been eliminated or where there are limitations on the use of a positive result.

The future of cannabis use testing

As employers and recruiters ponder on the future of pre-employment cannabis testing, one thing is clear – you can no longer take the stance of “it’s how we’ve always done it.”

In the search for new talent and in light of the ever-expanding web of cannabis laws across the nation, consider making some tough decisions. Decide what approach to pre-employment cannabis testing would work best for your workplace.

The post States and companies are changing the way they test for cannabis use appeared first on Leoforce.

With everyone facing inflation, infection, and a host of stressors, the effects of anxiety can spill over to places of employment. A survey conducted by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) revealed the following about American employees: 

• 72% of people who have daily stress and anxiety say it interferes with their lives at least  moderately 
• 40% experience persistent stress or excessive anxiety in their daily lives 
• 30% with daily stress have taken prescription medication to manage stress, nervousness, emotional problems, or lack of sleep 
• 28% have had an anxiety or panic attack 

Many businesses once viewed this reality as a personal matter, unrelated to the task at hand. Today’s leaders, however, must realize that workplace anxiety affects both the company and the individual.

Supporting employees by effectively managing work-related anxiety allows businesses to thrive, find and retain talent, and prevent turnover. 

Anxiety’s Purpose and Potential in the Workplace 

Biologically, anxiety serves us well. The shot of adrenaline from our nervous system functions as nature’s “performance drug,” allowing us to meet a challenge or perceived threat. 

Therefore, hiring candidates with anxiety isn’t necessarily a drawback. These candidates can be conscientious and committed to meeting expectations. They’re achievers, with their nervous tendencies motivating them to take action. Research also indicates that anxiety is positively correlated to intelligence. 

By itself, anxiety is an indicator of neither a candidate’s exceptional potential nor inferior job performance.

Suggested reading on workplace productivity: Unlocking the Hidden Talent Pool

Rather, it’s one among many influencing factors. And the Leoforce platform helps recruiters evaluate the entire picture of a potential employee.  

Symptoms of Anxiety in Candidates for Employment 

Recruiters are most likely to notice indications of anxiety among candidates during an interview. These indicators may include verbal cues such as fast speech or a slight tremor in the voice. Or physical manifestations like repetitive yawning, nervous gestures, or tapping (foot, pencil, etc.).  

Support During the Job-Seeking Process

If you notice symptoms of anxiety in a candidate, don’t draw attention to them. Besides making the situation more uncomfortable, drawing attention could violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The diagnosis of an anxiety disorder falls under this protected status, and candidates are not required to disclose or discuss their condition. 

Instead, consider the following to put a candidate at ease: 

• Greet the candidate by name, offering a handshake and a smile. Stand and approach them to welcome them.  
• Avoid circumstances that create intimidation such as excessive distance from the applicant or physical barriers like a desk or podium. Position the room so that the candidate is on an equal level. 
• Introduce yourself first, allowing the applicant to relax and relate to something you have in common. Avoid emphasizing your accomplishments or superior position. 
• Mention something relevant about the candidate from their resume that shows you’re interested in their potential fit. 

• Listen attentively and minimize note-taking. Smile and nod periodically. Make eye contact. 
• Facilitate the interview as a conversation rather than an inquisition. 
• Close the interview by communicating the next steps. A prolonged wait for interview results is difficult for most candidates, and it can be excruciating for those with anxiety. 

Symptoms of Anxiety in Employees 

Employers are well situated to notice signs of anxiety in their people. Besides physical mannerisms, these symptoms can include difficulty concentrating, indecisiveness, restlessness, or edginess. Those prone to anxiety may also suffer from chronic headaches or stomach issues. 

Employees aren’t required to come forward about their anxiety issues. However, an environment that transparently supports and advocates for mental health will encourage people to speak openly. This culture results in a best-case scenario where staff and management work together to accommodate this condition. 

Solutions to Balancing Work-Related Anxiety

Keeping employees with anxiety motivated to perform shouldn’t be an issue. Their near-constant adrenaline can propel them forward.

Suggested reading on talent acquisition: How to stand out in a candidate-driven market

However, extreme anxiety can either cause debilitating panic attacks or excessive worry that leads to inaction. The key to avoiding these extremes is to create a culture that minimizes work-related anxiety and champions mental health. 

Minimizing Work-Related Anxiety  

According to the ADAA Survey cited at the beginning of this article, the main sources of employee anxiety are: 

• Deadlines (55%) 
• Interpersonal relationships (53%) 
• Staff management (50%) 
• Dealing with issues/problems that arise (49%) 

These triggers can’t be eliminated, but they can be controlled by communication. For instance, managers should give advance notice about deadlines and clearly communicate expectations. Breaking assignments down into smaller steps can also be helpful. 

Regarding interpersonal stressors, a company culture that respects and supports all employees and implements a no-recrimination policy when things go wrong also gives personnel a solid foundation. Anxiety levels are much more manageable with an underlying foundation of trust in management. 

Certain accommodations can also be helpful for people who are chronically anxious: 

• Access to a workspace with a level of quiet and privacy whenever possible 
• Flexible work hours as long as deadlines and expectations are met 
• Unscheduled breaks as needed for employees to practice coping mechanisms – a walk, some sunshine, or breathing exercises can provide a crucial reset 

Championing Mental Health  

Is your organization committed to a culture that validates mental health? This validation can look like frequent focus groups, breakout sessions, and presentations. It could also include Q&A sessions with therapists, meetings with wellbeing coaches, and access to other professional resources. 

However, none of these strategies replace one-on-one interaction. Cathleen Swody, organizational psychologist and founder of Thrive Leadership, notes:  

“The most important request I hear is for managers to demonstrate empathy and understanding to employees. Your employees are not robots. Ask them how they are doing and listen.” 

Want to Give Candidates a Positive Experience?

Meet anxious candidates where they are on a stress-free platform, through talk, text, email, or chatbot. Our AI recruiting platform, Leoforce, empowers you to manage all your candidate communications through one easy-to-use dashboard.

Suggested reading on AI recruitment: Discover how AI is being leveraged for the recruiting industry

Candidates want their experiences to be personalized. Not only does Leoforce automatically engage with candidates on your behalf, but the platform will send personal follow-ups, answer questions, and schedule interviews behind the scenes in real-time.

Get a free demo to discover how Leoforce identifies, analyzes, and sources candidates who are the right fit. 

Resources

• https://adaa.org/workplace-stress-anxiety-disorders-survey
• https://hbr.org/1985/03/whos-liable-for-stress-on-the-job
• https://hiring.monster.com/resources/workforce-management/company-culture/work-related-anxiety/

The post How to effectively support employees coping with anxiety appeared first on Leoforce.

Another layer of responsibility recruiters have is adapting to candidates from all backgrounds, including neurodiverse. However, it may come with a few restrictions bearing legal and ethical limitations in mind.

 Hiring the most qualified, diverse, and best-fit candidates may come with a few differences along the way and neurodiverse candidates are no exception! So, what is neurodiversity, and how can you accommodate candidates with ADHD throughout the hiring process? 

What is neurodiversity? 

Before you can accommodate candidates and employees with neurodiverse attributes, understanding neurodiversity is the first step. Neurodiversity is defined as having a range of differences in individual brain function and behavioral traits, regarded as part of normal variation in the human population.

This can especially be used in the context of autism; however, attention deficit disorders can also be considered within the neurodiverse range. You may not notice a stark difference during the hiring process of those with neurodiverse attributes, as opposed to others, but being aware and offering the right tools in accommodating can create a more seamless and note-worthy recruiting process.  

Challenges and legal limitations 

Of course, hiring candidates, whether neurodiverse or otherwise, will come with legal ramifications to consider. Throughout the application process, candidates are asked questions regarding their experience, capabilities, veteran status, disabilities, and more. But what if a candidate comes with a set of characteristics that aren’t necessarily an obvious disability but require a different way of conducting interviews, work style, and collaborative efforts? Is it legal to ask candidates if they have limitations or divergent work styles that may not explicitly be stated in the application? And if so, how do you go about this?

As a recruiter, you cannot legally ask a candidate for their medical and psychiatric history. ADHD is a protected disability, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. This means candidates may be eligible for work accommodations and protection from discrimination. However, there are a few exceptions. If the candidate asks for reasonable accommodations for a condition that is not obvious, you are legally inclined to ask for reasonable documentation about his or her disability.  

Why it’s important to accommodate neurodiverse candidates during the hiring process?

Being unaware of the unique differences in your pool of candidates and using a one-size-fits-all glove for the sake of convenience in your recruiting approach, may hinder your recruiting efforts more than help. This could prolong the hiring process; making it more difficult to communicate for yourself and prospects, and even overwhelm candidates, causing a potential loss of interest in the role.

Suggested reading on inclusive hiring: Combatting Bias in Machine Learning Algorithms: For Recruiting

Recruiters and HR managers are the first line of contact for candidates in getting a glimpse of a company’s culture. Although it may not blatantly be stated in one’s daily recruiting task list, learning how to adapt and accommodate your candidates is one of the most important skills to cultivate. So how do you accommodate neurodiverse candidates with ADHD during the process? 

How to accommodate candidates with ADHD 

The innovation of scheduling and project management tools that have been launched in recent years have played a significant role in the hiring process. The good news is that digital tools can help with all of the tedious aspects of the recruiting process like communication, interview setting, sharing and signing legal documents, and much more.

Suggested resource on neurodiverse hiring: Neurodivergent talent: the new frontier in diversity hiring

When it comes to accommodating neurodiverse candidates with ADHD, digital scheduling tools give you a head start and your candidate a seamless onboarding experience without forgetting a few steps along the way. The bad news is, not all recruiters are taking advantage of these tools, or using the right tools throughout the process. Recruiting tools are your friend and a must-have if you want to accommodate your candidates in a more efficient way. 

Ask and understand their limitations

In addition to incorporating the right tools to assist you in the hiring process, you should be asking questions and understanding your candidate’s limitations. How do they prefer to work? Are they more of a collaborative person, or are they more efficient when working alone in a quiet environment? Do they like to work with music? What gets them in the zone? Coffee? A good workout before work? Brainstorming sessions with co-workers? Getting a feel for a candidate’s work style, their stressors and motivators can help in accommodating them not just through the hiring process, but even after onboarding. This could be helpful information for other managers as they begin to work with neurodiverse new hires. 

Explain the hiring process clearly 

As a recruiter, you may already know the recruiting process, but does your candidate know? Of course, prospects will have questions along the way, but being clear in explaining the next steps required of them can be useful information. Though this may seem like an obvious step, it is quite often missed by recruiters. This can prevent a lot of mishaps, forgetfulness, and setbacks when the hiring steps are clearly explained and expected along the way. A checklist in writing on the next steps for your candidates creates a more seamless undertaking. 

Offer diverse interview option

With the presence of COVID-19, video conferencing has now become the first and main option for interviewing candidates. Apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and more have been game-changers in the way we communicate. The good news is this interview-style can assist many neurodiverse candidates because it allows them to be in control of their environment. 

For some candidates, the process of driving to the location of the interview site, finding parking, check-in for a physical first interview, may be daunting and anxiety-inducing. Help your candidates by conducting a virtual interview first. This allows them to prepare, get a feel for the hiring managers, and connect with them in an environment they are in control of, before moving on to a second round if need be. 

Provide additional resources

As a recruiter, you want to ensure your candidates excel in the roles you place them in. While aiding these candidates according to their wishes may be expected, providing additional resources can put them at an even greater advantage. Once expectations and accommodations have been discussed, you can offer a buddy system or workplace mentor to optimize work performance; send helpful reading materials in managing ADHD at work; provide referrals for counselors who specialize in helping adults with ADHD reach their career goals. Of course, these are all optional choices and up to the candidate or employee to decide. Nonetheless, as a recruiter, you should keep in mind that individuals with ADHD and other neurodiverse traits have many possibilities. 

Conclusion

Recruiting is hard but rewarding work! Finding the best candidates can take up a lot of time and even the best fit for the role can come with a few unique challenges. Becoming more aware of these challenges, learning to adapt and accommodate, and utilizing the right recruiting tools will aid in conducting a more efficient hiring process for candidates.

Leoforce is designed to fit your recruiting needs, especially when it comes to finding diverse talent. Save time & automate your entire hiring process from emails to self-scheduling, with Leoforce Quantum. We make it easier by giving you diverse, quality candidates so you can focus on what matters. 

Resources

• https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-law-americans-with-disabilities-act/
• https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/now-hiring-what-autistic-people-need-to-succeed-in-the-workplace/  

The post How to accomodate candidates with ADHD during the hiring process appeared first on Leoforce.

Neurodiversity (ND) is an umbrella term that includes any individuals whose minds are “wired” atypically.

Neurodiversity can manifest in aspects of sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions. It encompasses conditions such as: 

• Autism
• ADHD
• Dyslexia
• Tourette’s syndrome

The Neurodiversity hiring gap

Historically, people with neurodiversity have suffered under traditional recruiting and hiring practices. Their skills and abilities have therefore been underrepresented and underutilized in the workplace, a big problem today when hiring companies are desperate for skilled workers.

In fact, according to the University of Connecticut’s Center for Neurodiversity and Employment Innovation, the unemployment rate for neurodivergent adults is as high as 30-40%, which is eight times higher than the employment rate for non-disabled persons.

The good news is that companies are learning how much the neurodiverse population has to offer. Robust diversity and inclusion programs are being developed and implemented to make recruitment, interviewing, hiring, and retention processes ND-friendly.

Suggested reading on diversity hiring: Blueprint to drive DEI hiring in the workplace

While neurodiverse conditions are considered disabilities, Aiyana Bailin, an autism care professional and disability rights advocate, asserts in a Scientific American article: 

“Autism and other neurological variations may be disabilities, but they are not flaws. People with neurological differences are not broken or incomplete versions of normal people.” 

Disabilities, Bailin continues, are a result of society not accommodating the needs of people with differences. 
Here’s how recruiters can better meet the needs of neurodiverse candidates.  

Legal Considerations of Neurodiversity

Because neurodiversity falls under the disability blanket, it’s protected by the American Disabilities Act (ADA). The most important considerations for ADA compliance in regard to hiring neurodiverse candidates are:

• You may NOT inquire about a candidate’s medical information during the recruitment or interview process.
• You MAY make medical inquiries only AFTER making the candidate a conditional offer of employment, so long as you make the same inquiry of every candidate in the same job category.
• Candidates MAY self-disclose their neurodiverse status at their own discretion. 
• Focus on the candidate’s ability to do the job – not on their potential limitations.
• Do NOT steer employees to jobs they didn’t apply for based on what you presume their skill set would be in light of their neurodiversity.
• You may NOT reveal the candidate’s neurological condition to any other employees or individuals.

Where Neurodiverse Employees Excel

Employers have many reasons to recruit and hire neurodiverse employees. Danielle Pavliv, manager of diversity and inclusion for analytics software company SAS, tells us:

“Nearly 62.6% of autistic individuals have some exceptional talent or ability—not always, but often technical skills.” 

Of course, every rule has exceptions. Companies have found that employees on the autism spectrum often excel at detail-driven jobs that require handling data like cyber-security, coding, and debugging. And people with ADHD often excel at jobs that require energy, creativity, and innovation.

In fact, JP Morgan Chase has an Autism at Work program designed specifically for the purpose of hiring and training employees with autism. Their metrics are fascinating. They report that employees hired through this program into certain tech roles are 90 to 140% more productive than other employees, they finish tasks with far fewer errors, and they can perform the work of two people.

Susanne Marie Bruyere, a professor of disability studies at Cornell University, cautions us not to misunderstand these kinds of statistics, however. It’s not that neurodiverse employees have superpowers. These individuals are usually placed in jobs that are tailored to their specific strengths.

How to Find and Hire Neurodiverse Talent

If you’re seeking to expand neurodiversity in your organization, the law doesn’t forbid you from reaching out to people with specific conditions.

However, since you’re not allowed to inquire about medical information in the recruiting or interviewing process, the best practice is to approach advocacy groups for people with disabilities, let them know the positions for which you’re hiring, and have them put you in touch with viable candidate pools.

Suggested resource on neurodiverse hiring: Neurodivergent talent: the new frontier in diversity hiring

How to Accommodate Neurodiverse Candidates

When it comes to diverse recruiting, especially in regard to neurodiversity, certain accommodations can ensure that you provide an optimal environment for interviewing, hiring, and training employees on the spectrum. 

RoboKind, an education technology company that builds social-emotional curriculum for autistic students, offers seven tips:

1. Remove barriers such as generic blanket statements, excessive and superfluous job requirements, and unclear descriptions of the application process.
2. Clearly state that you welcome neurodiverse applicants at the top of your job ad or in the job description.
3. Understand what to expect from these job applicants. In particular, remove the following behaviors from your list of deal-breakers when you assess autistic candidates:

• Inconsistent eye contact
• Lack of ability to make small talk
• Repetitive movements
• Confusing body language
• Uncertainty or uneasiness

1. Let the candidate know what to expect in terms of where, how, and with whom they’ll be interviewing.
2. Offer alternative interview formats such as phone, instant messaging, or email. You could also arrange for a skill demonstration in lieu of an interview.
3. Be direct and literal in your communication. Don’t use “what if” scenarios or ask questions like, “If you were an animal, which one would you be and why?” 
4. Give the candidate breaks (hours or days) between interview sessions.

Ready to Diversify Your Candidate Search?

Diversity initiatives are no longer a “nice to have” – they’re a must for companies of all sizes. 

At Leoforce, we recognize your need to make data-backed hiring decisions and limit biases in your recruiting processes. Our AI recruiting platform, Leoforce, continues to get smarter over time, minimizing human bias and gut-feel reactions while accelerating diversity initiatives.

Get a free demo to discover how Leoforce identifies, analyzes, and sources candidates who are the right fit.

Resources

• https://entrepreneurship.uconn.edu/neurodiversitycenter/
• https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/clearing-up-some-misconceptions-about-neurodiversity/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertamatuson/2019/10/30/hidden-talent-the-case-for-hiring-neurodiverse-candidates/
• https://www.yahoo.com/now/neurodiverse-applicants-revolutionizing-hiring-process-110049606.html
• https://www.robokind.com/recess/how-to-be-welcoming-to-neurodiverse-candidates

The post What recruiters need to know about engaging neurodiverse applicants appeared first on Leoforce.

Unfortunately, most have not been able to successfully live this out. So, what’s the problem? What hinders us from being able to balance work and life? How can you foster more balance not just for employees, but for yourself as a recruiter? There may not be a one-size-fits-all, but we have a few suggestions to help you better balance life and work. 

Is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’s view that work-life balance is a “debilitating” idea realistic for most Americans, who must care for families, enjoy the company of friends, and have interests other than work? When resources and time are limited, most people who can’t afford nannies, assistants, and maids do need to strike a balance for practical and wellness reasons. 

Attainable ways to cultivate better work-life balance as a recruiter

Get organized

Getting organized in your workflow seems like a basic first step, right? Just get a planner, set more reminders on your calendar, buy a few sticky notes, and you should be good to go right? The problem is, it’s not as simple as it sounds and it’s a skill to organize. 

While all those things are helpful, it’s easy to fall off and slump back into old recruiting habits, especially when unpredictable things happen. The method you’re using, or lack thereof, in organizing your workflow may be hindering you more than helping you. That roadblock can be eliminated with better project management and digital recruiting tools. 

Instead of frantically trying to complete everything in a day due to mishaps, late calendar reminders, and misplaced notes to yourself, dedicate a few free hours out of your week to get it together by finding better tools and really getting organized. This will reduce the amount of self-induced stress you may be dealing with and make your workflow feel easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. By the time you get home, you’ll feel like you’ve conquered the workday, as opposed to feeling beat up by it.  

Learn how to delegate

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it for you!” Doesn’t it feel good to see those words? Maybe even hear them? Being able to delegate recruiting tasks is your best bet for improving your workflow and even work-life balance. However, many people struggle in this area. In American culture, the saying is, “if you want something done, do it yourself.”

The problem is, you can’t always do it all without dropping the ball. The good news is, we live in a technologically advanced culture that allows us the opportunity to delegate certain tedious tasks, making our life easier, and more convenient. Take advantage of this! As a recruiter, technology is your friend, not your enemy. Trying to find diverse candidates, virtually chase them down via email, and schedule interviews for multiple people at once can be daunting. Just reading this makes you tired.

Let technology help you. The more you continue to take on, the more burned out you will be, and that’s a fact, Jack. Or Jane. Or whoever you are reading this. 

Set boundaries

If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Set boundaries for yourself on what you intend to do for the day and stick to it. You will notice your mood lifting as you check those items from your to-do list. The sweet visual of a checkmark can do wonders for you by setting boundaries and completing high-priority items on your list.  
 

Realistic ways to foster work-life balance for candidates and employees

In your own role as a talent acquisition professional, take a hard look at the KPIs you’re expected to meet, and the long-term success of new hires. The language isn’t exactly right here, but if recruiters are driven to work too fast, they may not have time to build relationships with candidates and hiring managers that, overall, add more value to the company. 

Perhaps the culture in your talent acquisition team could shift away from a race to make the numbers to a more people-centered approach to recruiting, one that delivers new hires that contribute faster and stay around longer. 

Communicate employee expectations to hiring managers early

Asking new hires questions like, “what does your ideal work environment look like” is a great start. However, the answers aren’t always communicated to hiring managers and taken into consideration after the onboarding is done. Communicating those expectations to hiring managers early is key in fostering work-life balance for employees. 

If the new hire and manager aren’t in sync, this can lead to employee burnout, disappointed managers, and higher turnover. If an employee expects a certain amount of PTO or a certain work schedule, let the hiring managers know early on to prevent a conflict from arising later.  

Review your job ad language

Sometimes your job description language is a turn-off for potential candidates. Candidates know that if they want to get paid, they must work and meet base requirements. Adding words to your description like, “must be hard-working” and “must be flexible with work-hours,” sounds like you’re looking for a workhorse. Not only does this detract people from wanting to work with the company, but it scares them into believing there’s no hope for balance either. 

Review what you write in your job ads and ask yourself, “would I want to work there?” If not, it’s because you may have been a little spicy in your approach.  

Use your influence on improving company culture

Poor company culture can be detrimental to the company’s efficiency and growth. If the employees aren’t happy – if recruiters aren’t happy – the company isn’t likely to thrive. As a recruiter, there’s only so much you can do. But what can you do?  

If you find company culture – whether real or perceived – is hurting recruiting efforts, that needs to be flagged to management. Be specific about what you’re hearing from candidates. Do they balk when the PTO policy is shared? Do you get lots of requests for remote work? Are they telling you the on-call hours are burdensome? What might they have heard about your culture from others? 

Some things can’t be changed, but management needs to clearly understand why great candidates aren’t taking jobs with you. 

Conclusion

Whether you’re trying to strike a balance between work and your personal life or trying to influence balance for candidates and employees, it’s always good to start small and be realistic. Making small changes by setting boundaries or communicating your candidates’ needs with hiring managers are effective ways in doing this. In addition, implementing effective digital tools in your workday can streamline your recruiting process with ease.

If you’re ready to cultivate a better work-life balance, get started with Leoforce today.

Resource

• https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-work-life-balance-debilitating-phrase-career-circle-2021-7

The post The reality of work-life balance and how to better cultivate it appeared first on Leoforce.

Despite this general acceptance of new tools, there has been a reluctance to embrace the AI-powered technologies that help recruiters work more efficiently and streamline the hiring process.

Why does this technology rub those involved in sourcing, recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding talent the wrong way? Simply put, they’re afraid AI hiring tools might put them out of a job.

If AI software can mimic their thought processes, recruiters worry, those solutions will take over every aspect of recruiting and hiring. But no technology has (or will) replace human expertise and judgment in the hiring process.

While AI can undoubtedly help with hiring process optimization, it’s only designed to supplement human know-how.

AI can find candidates, connect with them, and keep the recruiting process on track, but it takes the creativity, imagination, and experience of humans to pinpoint the perfect candidate and craft a people-first recruitment strategy.

With people and AI on the same page, your hiring process is better off.

AI Hiring Tools: Recruitment Friends, Not Foes

Now that we’ve dispelled the “AI will take my job” rumor, let’s look at the reality. Your company has either already invested in hiring software or plans to do so. A Zippia study found that 80% of U.S. small businesses will use a recruiting solution in the next two years.

What does that mean for seasoned hiring professionals? Many benefits, including:

Fewer menial tasks 

The purpose of AI hiring tools is to assist humans rather than replace them. AI can automate and streamline some of the more repetitive manual tasks, as it has in the manufacturing industry. While recruiters face lengthy to-do lists daily, most of those professional recruitment duties require personal engagement and human intuition.

The right AI hiring system can reduce the need for recruiters to perform basic, formulaic tasks (e.g., résumé collection and review, data collection, candidate follow-up).

This frees them up to handle higher-level functions and make decisions. They’re able to engage in people-first recruitment thanks to AI-enhanced tech working seamlessly in the background.

Suggested reading on Candidate Engagement: Why candidate engagement is critical: How to measure & improve

More time for the big picture 

AI recruiting tools can come through in a pinch like any teammate. According to an Alorica case study, integrating chatbots into the hiring process over three months paid tremendous dividends. The solution enabled recruiters to interview more candidates while saving 1,200 hours of work.

Recruiters can upskill 

Between the pandemic, a tight labor market, and skilled professionals ready to change jobs, HR professionals need the time to learn new skills in developing and retaining their current workforce. Offloading low-value tasks frees up time to develop professionally and become more valuable to the organization.

They have more time for coaching, supervising, training, decision-making, and negotiating. With AI on their side, they can spend more effort developing and deploying creative recruitment and talent development strategies — and less time on mind-numbing activities.

The world will always need living, thinking recruiters to discover, cultivate, and inspire the brightest applicants.

Rather than worrying about AI, recruitment professionals should investigate how they can use it to their advantage.

Those who master the power of AI hiring tools will find those solutions to be exceptional allies rather than worrisome developments. 

The post Tech isn’t taking over: Here’s how AI hiring tools empower people appeared first on Leoforce.

Even with the best people intelligence platforms, your organization could miss out on the ideal candidate if you’re not the first to act. Because let’s face it – Recruitment is undoubtedly not easy. Far from it. Considering the time and energy required along with resources.

Leoforce Chief Revenue Officer Anthony Cassio recently hosted an online fireside chat, “Tech and Talent Acquisition: Avoiding the Points of Failure,” to discuss this subject with HR leaders across the US. We present the best insights into the conversation in this article.

But before we delve into what experts have to say about avoiding failure points of recruitment, let’s understand some of the common pitfalls of talent acquisition.

Common hiring challenges of HR Teams

Finding suitable talent

The challenge of landing a suitable candidate is like a minefield. You can be very cautious and methodical in sorting out one out of many, but once onboard, it may not be as expected. Despite rigorous screening and interview rounds, there seems to be no sure-shot way around it.

Engaging with aspirants

Engaging skilled and qualified aspirants is another issue faced by companies. It is vital to keep candidates in the loop of the process, answer their queries, and, in some cases, have filler interactions as well so as not to let them drop off the candidate pipeline. Doing so in a timely and personalized manner is critical but equally challenging.

Reducing hiring time

With regard to recruitment, most HR teams and recruiters are given a stipulated deadline for filling up vacant positions. However, delays only lead to operational losses, revenue losses, and more. Usually, owing to the difficulty of sourcing and shortlisting promising aspirants, hiring takes longer than one would want to allocate.

Enhancing employer brand

A strong and well-known brand naturally attracts high-profile candidates in large numbers. However, because of not prioritizing employer branding or needing more right tools, bandwidth, and expertise to engage with online communities come in as a challenge.

Streamlining hiring process

Efficiency in the recruitment process is something else that recruiters and hiring agencies struggle with. Each vacancy demands its strategy and arrangements for recruiting needs, but it should also align with company resources and culture. Hiccups in assessment, scheduling, and communication can lead to inefficiencies that overlap with bandwidth issues.

Fair Recruitment Procedure

A bias-free recruitment process is even more critical today, considering how companies are emphasizing DEI objectives. There is a need to be transparent and fair in the hiring process, going strictly by merit and available position requirements while eliminating all biases. This is a massive challenge for most recruiting teams because despite having a balanced outlook, everyone comes in with opinions, preferences, and experiences that can be indirect and even unconscious at times but impacts the fairness of the results nonetheless.

Data-based recruitment processes

Maintaining, compiling, and leveraging hiring data is overwhelming from a manual perspective, leading to incorrect insights and predictions of future recruitment drives.

With these hurdles in place, how do you stride while maintaining momentum? How can you bypass the barriers when integrating more innovative recruiting solutions into your hiring process? Let’s now jump to the big takeaways of the fireside chat with HR experts, as promised.

Practical hiring solutions by HR experts

Keep people at the top of the tech stack

Technology can certainly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the recruiting and hiring process, but only if recruiters use those solutions. To truly take a people-first recruitment approach, including the people who will use the AI hiring tools in the vendor evaluation and selection process.

Consider holding a tech parade where recruiters and HR team members can compare potential vendors. Then, sit an actual recruiter at the table to tell you whether a tech solution will work or add value to the recruitment process. Doing anything else just increases the chances that your next investment will gather dust in your tech stack.

Suggested reading on AI recruitment: Discover how AI is being leveraged for the recruiting industry

Choose technology that’s part of an open ecosystem

In today’s environment, you’re always going to run into vendors promising to solve your problems with new innovative recruiting solutions. Understand, however, that not all systems touting tons of features can innovate as fast as specialized AI hiring tools.

When evaluating platforms or single-point solutions, take a second look at the ones that can exist within open ecosystems. Even platforms with “legacy” functionalities can be viable if they can freely engage with other solutions and parties. Investing in those products lets you layer in the exact tools your HR team needs to streamline the recruiting and hiring process.

Stop searching for the perfect tool

Recruitment is moving at such a rapid pace that you need to consider what’s working and what’s not working with technology — and then solve for that. More importantly, look under the hood of your current tech stack to determine whether your team is using every resource to its fullest capabilities.

The functionality might already be available to your recruiters, and they just don’t know it. Always updating tech in search of the perfect tool can lead to a continual cycle of re-training and confusion, which takes time away from sourcing, nurturing candidate relationships, and interviewing.

Work toward standardization

Organizational silos go well beyond processes, applications, and data. It can easily bleed into talent and job information, challenging recruiters to move the hiring process along and fill certain roles.

Apply people intelligence across your organization and minimize confusion by standardizing terminology. That way, everyone from recruiters to executives talks about skills and job requirements in the same language. It prevents the hiring process from becoming a game of telephone where the original message gets lost somewhere along the line.

Suggested resource on hiring strategy: How to build HR flexibility and resilience post-COVID

Endnote

In this challenging climate, organizations must use tech to empower recruiters to do the human part of hiring: nurturing talent and growing the business intelligently. We need to inform and empower job seekers, too. Multiple offers for the same candidate are now the norm, so you need to give people a good experience from the first interaction onward. Relationships haven’t changed, but the means for strengthening them have — and that’s where the right recruitment technology solutions come in.

To see how AI recruiting solutions can supercharge your talent acquisition efforts, take a demo today.

FAQs

What is the main HR challenge?

Some of the biggest challenges for HR include dealing with change management and developing leadership. 48% of companies face issues with change management, while 35% have problems with leadership development. Another noteworthy one is the inaccurate measuring of the effectiveness of HR functions through proper metrics.

What are the challenges of talent acquisition?

One of the major challenges of talent acquisition is dependence on non-specific and overly saturated job listings/boards. Administrative tasks like communication, scheduling, and others take up a lot of time and energy as well.

Using an AI recruitment tool that can take care of manual tasks at speed and scale and can also help with making candidate sorting and selecting decisions.

Which tools are used in HR?

Most popular contemporary stand-alone HR tools include ATS (applicant tracking systems), job boards, and chatbots. With the advent of artificial intelligence in HR, comprehensive AI recruiting tools that can take care of various steps in the end-to-end recruitment drive is also being readily adopted by HR teams. making a splash.

How AI recruitment tools can help meet DEI goals?

With AI recruitment tools, you can set your DEI goals as a filter before you begin sourcing candidates. It then considers not just your candidate’s skill criteria but also the overall diversity of the workplace to select candidates from strategic talent pools for your review.

How to choose a good recruitment software?

Choosing a good software for recruitment means checking for aspects like ATS integration, and the ability to source qualified leads from diverse avenues. Other parameters include Chatbot-enabled communication, automated scheduling and workflow management, and screening abilities.

The final decision, of course, would be based on your precise requirements and budget, but you can check out the recruiting tools on a test-run basis to understand their fit.

The post Watch HR leaders discuss avoiding failure points in tech and talent acquisition appeared first on Leoforce.

 However, the multitude of responsibilities for recruiters is not just overwhelming but poses inevitable challenges, regardless of how seasoned one may be in the field. So, what are the biggest problems recruiters face and how do they overcome them? Here are the top 7 challenges and solutions.

Top recruiting problems

Inefficient technology and workflows 

For most people, not having enough time in the day is a common thing. Perhaps you did not get to finish everything on your to-do list for the day, but you can finish it tomorrow morning without major consequences. For recruiters, however, this is a challenge that cannot only be costly but change the trajectory of their week or even month.

Sourcing quality candidates is time-sensitive and recruiters and hiring managers are consistently fighting the clock. A missed phone call, a late reply to a potential candidate’s email, or even scheduling an interview a day later than expected can cost recruiters time, money, and often, a viable candidate. The challenge recruiters face is having a streamlined workflow. Hiring managers need a recruiting platform and a candidate engagement tool that allows them to send emails, make phone calls, and schedule interviews in a timely manner. 

Economic and societal disruption 

The global pandemic has affected everyone’s lives. Whether you are a boss, employee, freelancer, or retiree, the covid-19 epidemic created a huge economic disruption and changed the way we think about work. For many, the workplace had become a barren, ghost-town until the virus settled and we found a way to adapt to the “new normal”. However, as things have slowly begun to stabilize, people’s perceptions are forever changed.

Suggested resource on hiring strategy: How to build HR flexibility and resilience post-COVID

Many no longer accept that people need to be in the office to be more productive, or that it’s okay to be overworked and underpaid, or that one must risk catching the virus to return to work. These shifts in attitude have led to what’s called “the great resignation,” leading to a myriad of companies struggling to hire new employees. As a result, recruiters have been burdened with the task of finding talent that is willing to work, while accommodating a new requirement for many candidates: the opportunity to work remotely. 

Fierce competition for top talent

Sometimes, the challenge for many recruiters is not always in finding top talent, it is in attracting them. Hiring managers not only have to worry about beating the clock, and battling economic and societal disruption, but also going up against competitors for the same talent.

How can one manage to do all of this? Short answer, you can’t. It’s not humanly possible to successfully do all three, especially if you lack the necessary resources. But with the help of the right tools and software, you may be able to manage these recruiting problems a little better.  

Shortage of specially skilled talent

The pandemic has thrown a monkey wrench into most things that there seems to be a shortage of talent for certain positions overall. Some positions that need to be filled, can’t be filled for various reasons. However, recruiters have a tough time filling specific positions with specialized skills due to archaic sourcing methods: the Boolean keyword search. 

If you are a recruiter and trying to find talent by putting certain keywords in a search engine, job board, or on LinkedIn, you’re probably missing a lot of candidates. This can appear as if there is a shortage of talent, but often, it’s the method you are using, too. 

Smart recruiting software can look beyond just matching keywords and look at a candidate’s entire career journey, discovering more candidates who will be successful in a job. No matter how seasoned hiring managers are, the workforce is always evolving, and recruiters and the sourcing tools they use need to evolve with it.  

Slow hiring process

When it comes to recruiting, there are days where everything seems to be going right. Until it’s time to actually hire them. The hiring process can be so slow, that many candidates become anxious and take another offer elsewhere. Sometimes, candidates may even forget about a position in a sea of applications they’ve submitted months ago and are no longer interested in working with the company altogether. Whatever the reasons are, there goes all of your hard work down the drain because well, you took too long. 

Maybe it’s not entirely your fault. Maybe the hiring manager moves too slowly. Or maybe your current resources are putting a snag in your hiring flow and causing it to be longer than it needs to be. If your recruiting problems consistently include hiring the right people in a reasonable time, it may be time to diagnose the source of your recruiting woes and pivot. One small tweak in your process can make a world of a difference. 

Implicit Biases & lack of diversity

It’s not always pride, but prejudice that comes before the fall. Preconceived notions are a common human trait that we must learn to identify. We’ve all developed unconscious biases from life experiences that may keep us from seeing qualified candidates. You may have implicit biases about someone’s age, educational level, or ethnic background that could be preventing you from sourcing great, diverse talent. Not only does the lack of diversity in the workplace reduce morale, but it inhibits opportunities for company growth.

Suggested reading for DEI hiring: Blueprint to drive DEI hiring in the workplace

Maybe expanding your search when it comes to age, geography or ethnicity is the change you need in filling that position. With the right tools, diversifying your talent search can become less of a recruiting problem, and more of a rewarding process.
 

Lack of resources

Recruiting can be a demanding, yet rewarding career. But many hiring managers lack the resources for it to seem all that rewarding. This leads to recruiter burnout and is a common challenge in the HR world. With the right resources and enough assistance, this can be avoided. The energy that it takes to source candidates, screen them, beat competitors, and do it all in less time can be daunting. That’s why recruiting tools like Leoforce are necessary.

Leoforce is an AI-enabled software specifically developed to help recruiters source better candidates, faster. Have a low budget? No problem. Leoforce has multiple plans to fit your recruiting needs without breaking the bank. With the right resources, you no longer have to lose sleep or candidates. Get back to reaping the benefits of recruiting with the help of AI. 

Resources

• https://linkedin.com/business/talent

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