A report by Gallup further substantiates this by stating how merely 15% of employees worldwide are engaged actively at their workplaces ^[2].

In this article, we will discuss the phenomena of Quiet Quitting, its causes, and how organizations can overcome it.

What is quiet quitting?

It is a unique phenomenon where an employee may be staying on at a job but is completely disconnected from it and the company mentally.

To be clear, it is a misnomer – the employee does not exactly quit the job; however, just does the bare minimum to get through. It’s also called silent quitting.

There are many quiet quitting examples that clearly demonstrate how employees are disengaged, with members of teams stretching beyond their limits to take care of the minimum requirements of their jobs for retaining their jobs.

They may stop volunteering for things, reject new assignments, only go for easy tasks, or feign a busy schedule to avoid helping their managers or colleagues.  They often go through the motions just to keep their jobs. They do not have the motivation to surpass the company’s expectations.

This can be seen as a form of rebellion against the lack of work-life balance.

What causes quiet quitting?

It is quite clear that silent quitting doesn’t happen in a day. There are numerous reasons driving quiet quitting trends in modern workplaces today. Here’s taking a closer look at some of the major ones:

Excessive workload

Employees bogged down with huge workload experience burnout, especially when they have to do the jobs of 2-3 people alone. Overwork may sometimes lead to silent quitting, especially if workers have no scope for negotiation or discussions.

Compensation issues

Many employees feel that they receive lower pay in comparison to their workloads. The actual issue is that they feel unrewarded for their efforts. Sometimes, more than money, they feel undervalued and non-recognized by the management. Compensation may mean flexible timelines, bonuses, perks, days off, and social recognition.

Not respecting boundaries

Quiet quitting is sometimes a response to bad work-life quotients and employers blurring boundaries between life and work, especially in this work-from-home era. Continual office calls, emails, meetings, and duties after working hours may lead to this happening.

Zero managerial support

Many employees feel that their managers do not support or guide them in times of need. When they feel that their leaders cannot or are not willing to help them, then they naturally disengage mentally from the company.

Vague expectations

Many employees cannot understand the expectations of their companies or managers. They feel that more responsibilities and vague statements only confuse them about the same.

Communication issues

Lack of communication on deep-rooted issues, not expressing one’s mind, or other communication gaps may lead to this phenomenon.

Signs of quiet quitting at the workplace

Now that you understand what Quiet Quitting is and why it occurs, here’s how to identify how severe it is in your office. Here are a few signs to look out for:

• Lower productivity/work output of employees
• Sudden argumentative or silent treatment towards colleagues and managers
• Employees stop taking the lead, volunteering for tasks, opening, and helping out others
• Employees bypass any potential conflicts, or job responsibilities, pretending to be busy
• No interest in collaborating with the team or group events
• Taking leaves and unannounced absences

The economics of quiet quitting

In the modern work culture, there is the model of the principal (boss) and the agent (employee). The former may not always know what the latter is undertaking in terms of productivity, timeliness, and other expectations. Hence, the principal should work out how to incentivize and track the agent.

Companies are now making an effort in order to track the productivity of workers, along with seeking to improve compensation at various levels.

Of course, in a scenario where employee productivity falls, teamwork comes down, and silent quitters increase on the rolls, companies are faced with alarming scenarios in terms of revenue drops, customer retention issues, and a magnitude of other problems that hit them economically.

What can businesses do about quiet quitting?

Once you recognize that there is quiet quitting happening in your organization, it is important to carefully assess the situation and take preventive measures to ensure it does not increase further.

Depending on your company culture and policies, you may also have to be open to making alterations and allowing flexibility to boost employee morale.

Re-examine tasks & KPIs

Companies would do well to relook at job duties, assignments, and KPIs, including core tasks. This will help managers periodically align more meaningful and only necessary work to their employees.

Increase workload only temporarily

Companies should make sure that workload increases are only for the short term in the case of their employees. Constant work beyond one’s capacity is not at all feasible in the long haul.

Compensate and celebrate work adequately

Organizations should be rewarding employees with recognition and rewards for work that is done well. They should look at proper compensation not just financially but also mentally.

Make volunteering at work optional

Volunteering for something should be strictly optional at the office. Additional opportunities may not be for everyone. Let someone who wants it come forward without piling it onto someone else.

Respect professional boundaries

Respecting professional boundaries, keeping employees work-free on holidays and vacations, helping them with the perks of life beyond the workplace, and other steps are necessary in this regard.

Discuss role growth periodically

Always discuss the job role and its growth upfront with each employee, explaining any changes that may arise.

Conclusion

Now that you have a comprehensive view of quiet quitting trends and how you can mitigate the same at your workplace, remember that nothing works better than communication.

Always try and listen as much as possible to your employees. Empathize with their needs and concerns.

Give them as much support as possible. Make them feel valued and rewarded for their hard work. These are a few basics that you should always follow.

Avoid piling on too much work for long durations, keep recalibrating employee tasks and job responsibilities, and make sure that additional tasks and initiatives are voluntary.

At the same time, be direct about growth opportunities and what you can and cannot do for your employees. This will always infuse a culture of transparency from the very beginning of the journey together and keep employees motivated to deliver.

FAQs

Is quiet quitting normal?

Experts feel that quiet quitting is normal for many people, where they feel undervalued, non-respected, and underpaid. There could be many other reasons behind the same as well.

Is quiet quitting passive-aggressive?

Quiet quitting may turn passive-aggressive, with employees turning hostile when given extra responsibilities. They may demonstrate aggressive behavior for bypassing responsibilities or venting their grievances.

Many can take a passive-aggressive approach by being busy, distant, unapproachable, and generally not available or non-cooperative.

What is the opposite of ‘quiet quitting’?

Ambition is usually regarded as the opposite of quiet quitting, where people volunteer for added responsibilities and work that goes beyond their current duties.

Who started quiet quitting?

There is no official evidence on who began this trend or used the term first. However, the term gained popularity throughout 2022 on TikTok.

What is ‘soft quitting’?

Soft Quitting is simply an alternative term for Quiet Quitting. Sometimes, Silent Quitting is also used to define the same phenomenon.

Resources

[1] https://teambuilding.com/blog/quiet-quitting-statistics

[2] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx

The post Quiet Quitting: How HR teams can re-engage employees for higher productivity appeared first on Leoforce.

Why should small businesses hire veterans?

The issue of veteran unemployment in the United States is one that modern businesses should work to address. Even though the veteran unemployment rate has been steadily falling (it was 4.4% in August 2021) thanks to efforts by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, veterans still have a larger chance of being unemployed or living in poverty than the general population. Here are the top reasons to incorporate veteran hiring into your recruiting strategy.

Transferrable skills

Veterans can provide problem-solving, teamwork, and pressure tolerance, as well as the ability to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds.

Adaptability

Like other exceptional candidates, veterans possess the mental and physical capabilities necessary to thrive in an ever-changing professional environment.

Practical tips for veteran hiring

Salute the military clan

As a first step, consider opening your hiring to military veterans. In today’s economy, families often need both parents to earn an income. As a result of the specific problems faced by military families transitioning to civilian employment, military-friendly job boards can aid both military families and companies in maximizing their candidate pool potential.

Leverage social media

Social media marketing might yield a larger return than career fairs.
Like other job seekers, veterans use social media. Find vets. Traditional veteran employment fairs can be successful, but they’re expensive. Social media job ads reach a big number of potential candidates without cost.

Engage prospects on military jobsites

Veterans, like other job searchers, search online. A company that wants to hire veterans should post positions on military job boards. Connect with vets.

Military-friendly language on job descriptions

When posting jobs, utilize military-friendly phrasing or target veterans. Employers who speak with veteran candidates in their native language express respect for their service. It draws more experienced applicants who are better qualified for the job because they know what’s needed.

Create a network for veteran talent

A talent network alerts members to job openings. Passive candidates are subtler. Veteran candidates on the fence are generally reaching the conclusion of their service and weighing their alternatives. As they near the end of their military service, they may be ready to move. Veteran talent communities can help veterans transition. The earlier a veteran starts their job hunt, the more time they have to find the ideal position, so it’s important to collect and communicate with passive veteran applications. They won’t take the first job offer, even if it’s a terrific fit.

Accommodate the transition

Veterans who qualify for protected veteran status are shielded from discrimination on the basis of their military service and are entitled to reasonable accommodations for any disabilities related to their time in the armed forces. Many veterans say choosing a career is the hardest part of job hunting. Speaking with someone who has been through the same situation can help a veteran get a job.

Create a candidate sourcing method to rank military recruits

Businesses’ veteran hiring methods differ by aim. Organizations can screen for veterans by asking on applications if they are veterans. The company can then prioritize such possibilities. After internal applicants but before foreign prospects, veterans may be given preference. Businesses might also choose to publish their preference ranking. Publicity can boost military uses.

The post Veteran hiring: How small enterprises can benefit and employ veterans appeared first on Leoforce.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems can be divided into two distinct categories. The term “automation” refers to the process of exchanging human workers with machines equipped with artificial intelligence so that regular tasks or decisions can be completed more quickly. The term “augmentation” refers to the process of assisting humans in making decisions or completing tasks, as opposed to completely replacing them.

When contemplating the idea of AI systems taking over tasks previously performed by humans, it is important to keep in mind that human cognition and input cannot be replaced. Recruiters and talent acquisition teams are crucial to the success of any hiring effort. As an example, recruiters can execute the following.

• Compare a candidate to a job description rather than a CV’s keywords
• Determine whether applicants are culturally fit
• Convince the hiring manager of the qualifications of the candidate
• Manage relationships with both candidates and clients
• Negotiate with hiring managers

Over the course of the last decade, technological advancements have made great strides in having a meaningful impact on the recruitment process. The recruiter, the employer, and the recruitment strategy that organizations use all have a role in determining whether its influence and utilization are beneficial or counterproductive. However, utilizing data-driven people intelligence will create a huge competitive advantage if embraced.

There is no denying that recruiting technology that is driven by AI has the potential to enhance activity and improve recruiting performance. Even the most labor-intensive processes, such as email interaction with applicants, are adaptable to automation, and this holds true for both large corporations and smaller agencies. It is helpful for talent acquisition teams to have a commitment to learning new recruitment AI technologies and embracing their possibilities.

It was already a challenge for organizations to boost productivity while keeping employees engaged in the “overwhelmed” atmosphere before the Covid pandemic added other levels of difficulty. As a result, the need for organizations to analyze how we accomplish more with our resources, adapt quickly to the changing environment and motivate diverse teams have been amplified. Technology has rapidly filled in the gaps in order to manage these challenges of conducting business in a variety of situations, and further shifts are on the horizon.

Augmented recruiting

As stated previously, augmenting talent acquisition techniques is intended to support, rather than replace recruiting activities. Making decisions based on data-driven people intelligence in a more streamlined and timely way is made possible and accelerated by augmented recruiting technologies.

Other benefits of augmented recruitment 

• Predictive analytics
• Machine learning
• Increased recruiter productivity

Find out what RentOne’s impressions are on the talent landscape feature that Leoforce offers.

The vice president of culture and strategy was able to quickly collect information, present it to leadership, and make choices appropriate for executive-level positions.” The fact that we quickly conducted a report and discovered that we had incorrectly devalued that function was a great development and clearly a success story.

 

Automated recruiting

Companies who want to get an advantage over their competitors in the hiring process will use recruiting automation technologies. These companies try to complete their goals in a shorter amount of time and with a lower cost of resources, all the while producing better results.

It takes an average of 42 days to fill a post in the United States, according to the findings of the SHRM’s 2017 Human Capital Benchmarking, Report 2. Automating the recruiting process can cut down on hiring times by anywhere from 7 to 15%, which equates to an average of 4.5 days per post.

In addition, traditional methods of hiring have the risk of resulting in hiring bias. Recruiting automation has the ability to assist companies in reducing or eliminating bias in the hiring process. This is accomplished by integrating functions like candidate masking throughout the recruiting process.

Other benefits of automated recruiting

• Interview scheduling
• Applicant tracking systems (ATS)
• Candidate ranking and rediscovery
• Faster time-to-hire
• Enhanced overall efficiency

Whether your team is failing to hit targets or expand the recruiting processes you’ve established, it’s still a promising idea to develop a recruiting automation or augmentation strategy.

You can identify the most effective AI recruiting methods for your team to implement by doing a self-evaluation of existing support, as well as analyzing the number of open job opportunities, the amount of time it takes to acquire new employees, and other constraints.

Frequently asked questions

What is automated recruitment exactly?

Recruiting automation uses AI to automate recruiting operations and workflows to boost recruiter efficiency, reduce time-to-fill, lower cost-per-hire, and improve talent profiles.

What is augmented recruiting exactly?

The term “augmentation” refers to the process of assisting humans in making decisions or completing tasks, as opposed to completely replacing them.

What is the difference between artificial intelligence, augmentation, and automation?

The use of AI in recruiting includes both augmentation and automation of a hiring process. Automation and augmentation do similar things, but the main difference is that augmentation helps with recruitment while automation takes over jobs that take a lot of time.

What is machine learning in recruitment?

Machine learning is a component of AI recruiting that helps with candidate sourcing as well as scoring and ranking. Machine learning may assist businesses in acquiring a better knowledge of who has applied for their vacant positions and in uncovering qualified people who may already be in their applicant tracking system.

What are applicant tracking systems?

Applicant tracking systems manage the interview process for candidates among enhancing other recruiting tasks.

The post Augmentation vs. Automation: Which AI recruiting strategy is better? appeared first on Leoforce.

Email communication fundamentals

Craft a compelling subject line

It’s imperative that you craft a compelling subject line for your email. More than half of all email recipients evaluate the message solely based on the subject line. You want to make sure that your subject line is clear, honest, direct, and tailored to the recipient. It’s possible that you won’t find the perfect solution until you try a few other things.

Use a two-line “hook-line” to introduce the purpose of your email. This teaser provided context for the candidate and enticed them to keep reading the email.

An outstanding email for prospects will include the company name, details about the job or function, and the reference or source of this hiring.

Your email’s main body should still contain a lot of useful details. Reduce the candidate’s concerns while maintaining clarity. Link to relevant resources and make short references to save space.

In addition, the dialogue should gradually lead up to the primary purpose of the exchange.

Strategically structure your email

A call to action should be included in the final paragraph of the email. Say “thank you,” “show your excitement,” and “urge them to take proper actions” such as completing a form, replying to emails, setting up interviews, and submitting further documentation.

If you want to avoid confusing your potential customer, avoid using a muddled closing. Sets forth the specifics of what, how, and when the candidate’s response is expected to be made.

Keep it brief

Writing lengthy emails with a lot of fluff is a bad way to get your point across. Make a mental list of bullet points to help you write a clear and concise email.

If you feel the need to provide more detail in your email than is strictly necessary, you may always include relevant links or file attachments. Typically, this is data that is easily accessible elsewhere or of little significance.

To save the other person the trouble of digging through an email chain, copy and paste relevant information from previous exchanges into the current email.

Make generic email templates for use, as necessary. You may adjust them to fit your needs and save time. With practice, you may learn to strike a happy medium in your interactions with others. Get feedback from a few trusted team members on these sample documents.

Get personal

Unfortunately, over 70% of today’s email communication with candidates is canned and impersonal. Research shows that the open rate for personalized emails increases by a factor of six.

Instead of using shorthand phrases like “candidate” or “aspirant,” start by using their full name. Recall a conversation you had with them or highlight the qualifications that make them an ideal candidate. You may go even further by picking out specific accomplishments or events that stood out to you on their LinkedIn page.

Staring at your screen while composing an email might make you forget that real people are on the other end of the line. Someone with emotions, worries, and responsibilities of their own. Remember this and write emails that are soothing and kind. As a result, people will like you more and think of you in a positive light, as you will be seen as fair and approachable.

Automated servers that flood leads’ inboxes with spam benefit from the added credibility provided by personalization. In time, this helps others feel comfortable opening to you in conversations. This tone of the conversation is helpful when advertising for senior-level or niche positions.

Stick to the context

The context of an email’s writing is also quite important, and it’s important to keep the same context all throughout the email.

If you’re an HR professional, you know how crucial it is to impress a candidate via email for you to stay connected with them. Keep track of the emails that come in and make mental notes on the topics that interest you.

A professional email should not provide too many clues. It should outline the singular purpose of the meeting, from a relevant topic line through a clear call to action. You want your emails to stand out from the pile of spam that fills up job boards and inboxes of competitive firms.

Learn how to follow up effectively

Writing follow-up emails is a common task for recruiters. Increasing customization in this case would help build trust. Follow up with the applicant, letting them know why you haven’t heard back from them, and asking if there’s anything else you can do for them.

Many human resource managers are swamped with work and pressed for time, so it might be tempting to communicate with them via email. However, it’s easy to come out as harsh or indifferent as a human resources manager because of the variety of sensitive topics they may have to deal with. The average company sends and receives hundreds of emails every day, and it’s easy for important messages to get lost in the shuffle. The good news is that there are eight simple ways that HR may boost their email communication.

Get support

Human resource managers often have a wide range of skills, although writing might not be one of them. Moreover, time is not always on your side when sifting through a huge pool of applicants. You need a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) recruiting tools and specific applicant engagement solutions to help you manage your email correspondence with applicants.

Know when to avoid emailing

There are situations when an email, no matter how quick and easy it is, is simply not acceptable. Especially when breaking bad news and needing to show empathy, which is impossible to do by email.

Finally, remember the basics, including using legible fonts, colors, and sizes, and creating an email signature that reflects the personality of your firm. Add appropriate branding to your emails to reflect your firm’s values.

Writing quality emails has become an unsaid rule of people management. It’s not a quality that we look out for, but it sure helps to have the right skills and create an impression.

An unclear email can lead to a domino effect of errors, misinformation, and confusion. Especially as an HR professional, your emails become a representation of your virtual personality. A potential candidate can decipher the tone and voice of an establishment merely based on this first impression.

Frequently asked questions

The post 8 ways HR can improve email communication for candidates appeared first on Leoforce.

There are many factors that impact turnovers, such as employee satisfaction, company culture, and pay and benefits. But 80% of all employee turnover is a result of poor hiring decisions.

Finding the right fit for a role isn’t always easy. As recruiters navigate through stacks of resumes, only to find one or two candidates that fit the base requirements, hiring managers struggle to move the hiring process along. Those candidates may end up at other companies. 

The process is a vicious cycle that can be hard to break. But with the right candidate sourcing tools, you can alleviate pressure on your recruiting team, find the right candidates with ease, and move the hiring process along quickly. 

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

Today, candidate sourcing technology is more popular than ever, yet it can be difficult to find a full-stack, out-of-the-box tool that covers all the bases… until now.

What is a Candidate Sourcing Tool?

To improve the end-to-end candidate experience, you can use candidate sourcing tools that streamline the process. These tools have many different features, but at a high level, they assist with: 

• Actively sourcing candidates
• Reviewing resumes
• Using artificial intelligence (AI) recruiting techniques to narrow down the applicant pool
• Finalizing a list of potential candidates to pursue

The sheer volume of resumes, candidates, and data that you must sift through is too much for any one person. With candidate sourcing tools, much of the process can be automated or assisted by technology, making hiring more efficient and more likely to last.

Suggested resource for candidate hiring: https://leoforce.com/webinars/recruiting-strategies-to-attract-a-more-diverse-candidate-pipeline/

Why are Candidate Sourcing Tools Important?

Before any interviews can start, the right candidates must be identified, contacted, and convinced to apply. Through traditional hiring methods such as job boards, temp agencies, and staffing companies, hiring managers seem to be finding fewer top-tier candidates. 

Since 70% of potential hires are considered “passive talent” – meaning they’re not actively looking for a job – traditional candidate sourcing techniques won’t reach them, missing a substantial portion of the applicant pool.

Technology will change how you think about your candidate sourcing strategy. Today, finding internal and external candidates that fit specific parameters can be completely automated with smart technology. 

Once these tools find a list of potential candidates, they can review candidate information to identify people with the highest chances of success in the role. Cushioning the candidate sourcing process with technology allows recruiters to focus on candidate engagement, interview coordination, and effective follow-up.

5 Factors That Make a Candidate Sourcing Tool Perfect

There are a lot of candidate sourcing tools on the market today, but not all are created equal. It’s better to invest in a tool that costs a bit more but can deliver what’s needed, as opposed to piecemealing together multiple tools that all do different things. 

The right candidate sourcing tool will feature the following:

Access to Multiple Job Boards

You know there are countless job boards and sifting through them all by hand is impossible. The best candidate sourcing tool can access all the top job boards, as well as smaller, niche boards, sifting through thousands of candidates in minutes. 

Easy Integration with ATS and CRM Systems

Most established organizations have applicant tracking systems or customer relationship management systems. A candidate sourcing tool such as Leoforce Quantum that offers seamless integration with existing tools makes it easier to adopt this new technology. Knowing that it won’t require massive changes and lift to implement makes using a new tool much more accessible.

Built-In Diversity Inclusion

With traditional hiring methods, implicit bias is often present, negatively impacting your ability to bring in diverse candidates at all levels. One of the biggest perks of AI is that it can put diversity and inclusion at the forefront of your hiring process, removing the possibility that unintended bias will lead to a lack of diversity in your organization.

Customizable Details

Every hiring process is different, and every organization is different. With the ability to customize the candidate sourcing process, you can be certain that the tools you use to source candidates will fit your needs.

Smart Shortlisting

Finding a list of potential candidates is one thing. Narrowing it down to quality candidates is another. Smart shortlisting is a feature of some candidate sourcing tools that takes the screening process one step further, sifting through candidate details to find a small list of the candidates most likely to succeed in the hiring process.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Candidate Sourcing Techniques?

Traditional candidate sourcing techniques can range from scouring job boards, posting advertisements, attending job fairs, and more. Often, traditional methods require a lot of time and energy, without guaranteeing success. By switching to AI recruiting methods and candidate sourcing tools, you can spend more time curating the hiring experience for each candidate.

What’s the Difference Between Candidate Sourcing and Screening?

Candidate sourcing is the process of actively searching for and qualifying job candidates who haven’t applied to an open role. You might do this by collecting names and contact information, asking for resumes, and building relationships with potential hires.

Candidate screening happens after candidate sourcing. Once a list of candidates has been made through sourcing efforts, screening narrows down the applicant pool by taking a closer look at the candidate’s resume and other details.

Why Leoforce Quantum is the Tool You Need

Leoforce Quantum is the answer to your candidate sourcing woes. With best-in-class technology and a thoughtful design, it adds to the sourcing process without requiring too much lift. Seamlessly integrating with the systems you already have, Leoforce Quantum uses AI recruiting technologies to consider hiring attributes that similar tools often ignore. 

The tool offers more than artificial intelligence. With artificial intuition, Leoforce Quantum does the following:

• Sifts through internal and external job boards
• Sources highly qualified candidates
• Considers diversity goals throughout the process
• Makes communicating with candidates easier than ever

Want to Make Candidate Sourcing a Breeze?

Candidate sourcing doesn’t have to be a long, painful process. As a recruiter, you have so much value to offer your organization, but your value is lost when you spend days sifting through resumes – many of which are often unqualified. 

By intelligently automating candidate sourcing, your team can focus on creating a seamless hiring experience, reducing turnover, and understanding what employees are truly seeking when they join your organization.

References:

• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/247391/fixable-problem-costs-businesses-trillion.aspx
• https://builtin.com/employee-turnover-statistics

The post Candidate Sourcing Tools That Suit Your Organization appeared first on Leoforce.

Over the past few years, robotics has become increasingly prevalent in every industry from manufacturing to agriculture, to healthcare, to recruiting. Although respected economists such as Dr. Erik Brynjolfsson and David Autor have professed that robots are creating jobs rather than eliminating them, about 75 percent of Americans still believe that robots will do the majority of jobs currently done by humans in 50 years.

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

So, before we get into the benefits of Automated Recruiting — that too, typically, powered by AI – let’s first understand what is it.

What is AI in recruitment automation?

Recruitment automation represents innovative technologies that set up workflows automatically for diverse tasks linked to recruitment. These include sourcing candidates, updating spreadsheets, communications, scheduling, and more. It also streamlines assessments which take up a great deal of time. Artificial intelligence is what enables recruitment automation, backed up by scalable machine learning and insights.

AI helps nurture and engage with candidates, while taking care of candidate sourcing, screening, and scheduling. It represents a flexible and personalized option for companies and recruiters. At the same time, it is not a replacement for actual recruiters. In contrast, the goal of automated recruiting software is actually not to cut down on costs by replacing human recruiters. Rather, its purpose is to empower recruiters and enhance the whole recruiting process, for both recruiters and candidates. As is the case in so many other instances, technology in the recruiting industry is only as good as the people who use it.

Suggested Read – Four things to look for in an AI recruiting tool

Now, here are a few of the many benefits of automated recruiting:

Recruitment Automation Benefits

Huge time savings

The most obvious benefit of automated recruiting software is the time recruiters save by automating parts of their process. The average recruiter spends anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of their workday searching for new candidates. By automating the sourcing and initial screening processes, recruiters gain 3 to 5 hours back each day that can be spent engaging with candidates, interviewing applicants, and performing other tasks that require human intelligence. As HR guru Sharlyn Lauby said, “when you automate the right tasks, then it frees up time to do the in-person ones better.”

Don’t we all wish there were more hours in a day? Automated recruiting software grants recruiters this wish.

Smarter process

Lou Adler, CEO of the Adler Group, contends that recruiting technology is about finding the best, rather than weeding out the weak—he calls it the “smartification” of recruiting. Automated recruiting software can be equipped with predictive analytics to understand candidates better and predict which will be successful in a role. In fact, a recent study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that algorithms are capable of making better hiring decisions than humans.

The study observed over 300,000 hires made across 15 companies. The study required the companies to implement hiring assessments created by PeopleMatter that asked candidates a variety of questions about their technical skills, personality, cognitive skills, and fit for the job. In some cases, hiring managers were removed from the process, and hiring decisions were made by an algorithm that based the decision on the test results. In other cases, hiring managers used their discretion to override the algorithm’s suggestion for the position. The result? Retention rates increased by 15 percent when the algorithm made the decision.

Why does it matter? Obviously, higher retention rates are better for the growth and prosperity of your company. But also, it’s estimated that replacing a single employee costs companies an average of six to nine months’ salary, between recruitment efforts, training costs and productivity losses. It looks like the “smartification” of the recruiting process might be well worth investing in.

Knowledge retention

You have one star recruiter at your company. She’s been there for years, understands your company’s unique needs and knows all the best tactics for attracting great candidates. So, what do you do when she leaves your company?

With automated recruiting software, you won’t have to worry. Highly intelligent automated recruiting software utilizes machine learning to recognize your recruiters’ best practices, retain the information and replicate their actions—even if they leave your company. The knowledge retention aspect of automated recruiting software enables all of your recruiters to be as effective as your best recruiter, decreasing the training and ramp-up time required by new recruiters.

Automated recruiting software allows you to retain a goldmine of valuable data. Think about how your recruiting process could be enhanced if you had access to this mine!

Enhanced candidate experience

In our candidate-driven job market, one of the recruiters’ biggest priorities is to provide a stellar candidate experience. But how can recruiters accomplish this, when there are an average 250 resumes submitted for each job opening? The answer, of course, is with automated recruiting software.

Automated recruiting solutions create easy, one-click applications in order to encourage more candidates to apply. The software also has the capability to stay in constant contact with applicants, giving candidates timely updates on their status in the recruiting process. Additionally, automated recruiting software leads to a reduced time-to-hire, another factor that improves overall candidate experience. Providing a VIP candidate experience doesn’t require a ton of effort from the recruiter—try enlisting the help of automated recruiting software to get the job done.

Greater diversity

Using automated recruiting software can lead to greater diversity in your workplace. Because automated recruiting software relies on data, conscious and subconscious human biases are largely eliminated from the recruiting process.

“Every company vets its own way, by schools or companies on résumés,” said Sheeroy Desai, co-founder and CEO of Gild, a recruiting software company. In fact, a recent international survey conducted by Cubiks Consultancy revealed that 80 percent of hiring managers strongly value likeness between the interviewee and themselves. “It can be predictive, but the problem is it is biased. They’re dismissing tons and tons of qualified people,” said Desai.

Suggested resource on diverse workforce: Recruiting Strategies to attract a more diverse candidate pipeline

Hiring people based on their likeness to you will not only create a homogenous workforce but might also diminish your company’s productivity. According to Katherine Phillips, an associate professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, diversity actually enhances group work. “The mere presence of diversity in a group creates awkwardness, and the need to diffuse this tension leads to better group problem solving,” Phillips says. Meanwhile, in groups lacking diversity, members are more likely to blindly agree on everything rather than cause any disturbance in the group dynamic. Diverse groups have been found to complete tasks better than non-diverse groups.

Aiming to achieve diversity in your organization is the ethically right thing to do, and it also enhances your overall company efforts. Diversify your workplace with automated recruiting software.

With all of the great benefits that automated recruiting software and other recruiting technologies have to offer, it is a mistake to ignore their growing popularity. Stay ahead of your competition and land the best talent with the help of automated recruiting software.

Additional benefits of recruitment automation

There are many additional benefits of automated recruiting solutions. These include the following:

• Wider sourcing network – The wider the talent pool to choose from, the better the chance of finding the right candidate. However, sifting through hundreds of aspirants can be tediously time-consuming for any HR manager. Fortunately, you can rely on an AI recruiting tool to do the same — at a much higher speed and scale. It can source quality candidates from among millions across various online job boards and communities.
• Talent pipeline management – With your ATS/CRM integrated with AI-driven recruitment solutions, you get total visibility of the entire candidate pipeline at all times – both internal and external.
• Flexible recruitment drives – With automation, you can either scale up your hiring process as per requirements or squeeze it in case of changing scenarios or requirements. This does not require a disruptive shift as in regular cases.
• Reliable compliance – You can expect proper adherence to all regulatory guidelines and compliance with other protocols with automated solutions for recruitment. This is especially critical for companies or agencies that offer sensitive services like healthcare recruitment.
• Insightful Analytics– Automating the recruitment procedure with an effective AI recruiting tool, for instance, will give you trackable insights, data on candidates, campaign data, and more. You can leverage them to stay a step ahead in building even effective recruitment processes with time.

How to identify recruitment automation opportunities?

You have the tool for recruitment automation and understand its benefits as well, but the process of implementation should always start with identifying which task needs to be automated in the first place. List down all the steps or activities your recruitment team does, then ask yourself the following question for each of them:

• Is repetitive and involves a high amount of manual effort?
• Is prone to human or manual errors?
• Is there a set of defined rules and mechanisms behind it?
• Is it a stable task that will not change immediately in the near future?
• Is there a simple safety valve in place to tackle mistakes?

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

What are the recruitment tasks that can be automated?

Once you have an idea about which task needs to be automated (and which should be better managed by HR managers), you can make your call of automation basis your access and features of your AI recruiting software.

Some of the common tasks that many HR managers prefer to automate include:

• Pre-screening and segregation of candidates into buckets based on various parameters
• Automating questionnaires and candidate assessments
• Automating candidate communication through emails/messages at various stages
• Automating reminders and follow-ups
• Automating scheduling, rescheduling, and follow-ups for interviews and meetings

As you might have noticed, while tasks of communication, file sorting, and similar can be achieved with regular automated recruiting software but when it comes to tasks that involve decision-making, especially candidate screening, it’s more in the court of AI to handle it.

What are the benefits of automated candidate screening?

There salient advantages of automated candidate screening are:

• Better recruitment workload organization
• Enhanced recruitment productivity
• Avoiding biases and adhering to DEI goals
• Scaling up recruitment as per requirements

The biggest contribution of automated candidate screening is that it lowers the team’s time on various procedures that are otherwise repetitive and time-consuming while ensuring lower scope for human errors.

Conclusion

AI-based recruitment solves several issues for HR managers at every stage of the recruitment process. It ensures a wider sourcing pool for candidates, along with automated communication and engagement. At the same time, it is customizable to reflect DEI goals and other organizational objectives. Simultaneously, it also covers candidate nurturing and scheduling of appointments/interviews, thereby saving time and costs greatly. AI recruitment tools are witnessing rapid adoption worldwide and should play a pivotal role in helping companies find the best talent while enjoying time and cost savings alongside.

FAQs

Can recruitment be automated?

Yes, recruiting can be automated with the right solutions and tools. You can streamline and manage the entire procedure of sourcing, communicating with, scheduling, and assessing candidates. This saves time and money for companies.

How many companies use AI recruiting?

Several studies have indicated that 99% of Fortune 500 companies use AI recruiting tools. The figure will only be bound to increase in the future.

Which company uses AI in recruitment?

Several companies are using AI in the recruitment procedure, including PwC, Vodafone, Unilever, Oracle, Starbucks, Audible, Hilton, and L’Oreal, to name a few.

Will AI replace recruiters?

AI is not a replacement for recruiters. It helps automate particular tasks which are repetitive and time-consuming, freeing up recruiters to focus on more crucial activities. AI helps recruiters enhance candidate experience while making the entire recruitment process more efficient at the same time.

What is AI screening?

AI-based screening revolves around the automated screening of resumes and profiles through artificial intelligence on the databases of recruiters/organizations. The software intelligently screens and filters candidates on the basis of specific parameters.

Resources

• https://www.inc.com/adam-vaccaro/the-future-of-recruiting-automation.html
• https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/humans-robots-future/472749/
• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/robots-jobs-economist-erik-brynjolfsson-video_us_56f954cbe4b0143a9b48af6b
• https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/02/25/be-calm-robots-arent-about-to-take-your-job-mit-economist-says/
• https://mashable.com/2016/03/10/robots-are-coming-to-take-our-jobs-just-not-my-job/#SB_qxlabmqqz

The post Top 5 Benefits of Recruitment Automation and How AI Makes it Even Better! appeared first on Leoforce.

“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.

In fact, it is estimated that as many as 80 percent of individuals on the autism spectrum do not have a job.
Neurological status is more difficult to track in the workplace than other forms of diversity, such as race and gender.

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

Although the value of having neurodivergent employees on board is undisputed, you need to recognize the obstacles the neurodivergent has when trying to enter the workplace. So, what are the common obstacles these applicants face and how can recruiters help break barriers for the neurodivergent?

Common barriers for the neurodivergent

Inefficient recruiting methods

One of the more obvious culprits that create obstacles for neurodiverse applicants is inefficient recruiting and screening methods. Many recruiters typically follow a one size fits all approach to finding candidates for roles.

The top one-size-fits-all approach consists of:

Resume keyword matching based on

• Education level
• Years of experience
• Skills

Keyword matching isn’t entirely ineffective. Including specific keywords that are closely related to a job can fare reliable results. However, a resume showcasing specific skills, education level, or even years of experience doesn’t automatically mean the person behind the resume is the best fit. Not only does solely hiring candidates based on a technicality create risk, but it also blocks out an entire pool of candidates that could potentially be better-suited and more likely to succeed in a role.

Biased AI systems

Humans, in general, are biased by nature. Therefore, the outcomes of the processes we build are inherently biased. Because it’s so difficult for us to recognize and understand our own conscious and unconscious biases, it’s even more difficult not to feed them into technologies. When that happens, they are then deeply embedded, relearned, and reinforced in a tool’s decision-making.

There are two distinct types of bias: systematic and statistical. Systematic bias can be broadly defined as “AI and machine learning models feeding datasets that produce erroneous or inefficient results due to inherent biases or insufficient data diversity.” Statistical bias produces mistaken or inefficient results due to incorrect calculations.

For example:
Humans have repeatedly chosen to hire white males at a company or in a department when there are a plethora of competing candidates of varying backgrounds and demographics with equal or greater aptitude. When this historical data is fed to an AI recruiting tool, it predicts that white males are the best candidates. There is zero statistical bias influencing those predictions because the machine is using the data correctly. The bias is systematic. It is a result of the machine accurately processing inherently biased data. In this example, the AI has interpreted the data about hiring success correctly but has generated biased results because of the information that humans have provided it.

Therefore, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of the algorithms and methods you are working with; along with the information you are gathering.

Corporate structure

Another factor that impedes neurodiverse applicants from breaking through is the corporate structure. It is more common for employers to hire generalists rather than specialists who excel in a certain area. Neurodiverse people’s “spiky profiles” are not considered in job descriptions. Individuals with a spiky profile succeed in some areas and struggle in others.

They have a wide range of abilities, although they are not all developed at the same time. Neurodivergent individuals, such as autistics and hyperlexic people, are known to have a mountain range of high peaks and valleys, which can be seen on a graph.

As a result, the companies that prefer generalists over specialists tend to block out a large pool of candidates that are typically neurodiverse.

How Leoforce helps break barriers for a more diverse candidate pool

Breaking workforce barriers for the neurodivergent doesn’t always have to be tedious. Using recruiting platforms like Leoforce helps diversify your candidate pool. Leoforce is a non-biased AI technology recruiting platform that selects and finds the best available candidates from various reputable sources across the globe. Unlike the typical keyword search that is commonly used in the recruiting process, Leoforce goes much deeper by:

• Incorporating deep machine learning with each new form of information
• Creating in-house search algorithms to source top talent based on recruiting criteria
• Producing behavioral pattern analytics from user interactions and candidate placing success
• Using predictive analytics to decide the best performing hires
• Including chatbot technology to automate and optimize candidate engagement, screening, and interview scheduling

Integrating better AI tools that combat biases within the recruiting process, opens a candidate pool of diverse candidates that are suitable and more likely to succeed, regardless of their status.

Benefits of hiring the neurodivergent

Although neurotypical talent is considered and hired in much larger numbers, neurodiverse individuals can be just as effective in their roles.

• Bill Gates struggled in school due to dyslexia. But of course, he went on to co[1]found Microsoft, now one of the most valuable companies in the world.
• Richard Branson has been open about his difficulties in school and how he lives with not one but two neurological differences: Dyslexia, and ADHD. Branson went on to become one of the most successful business people in the world, launching brands such as Virgin Atlantic airlines.
• Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, announced on “Saturday Night Live” in 2020 that he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism.

The stigma and unconscious bias recruiters and AI tools have surrounding neurodiverse applicants, hinder those from entering the workforce to offer creative perspectives and innovative solutions for many companies. As a result, organizations are potentially missing the boat on reaching untapped success and overall growth.

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

Why recruiters must transform talent search methods

Although the economic climate has contributed to workforce changes and employee shortages, there are other controllable factors that have affected the talent shortage. Traditional recruiting methods like manual sourcing, not only assume a lot of time and reduce productivity, but it prevents neurodiverse applicants from breaking through. Leveraging recruiting tools and platforms with non-biased AI like Leoforce Quantum will allow recruiters to not only break barriers for the neurodivergent, but also the recruiting world.

Resource

• https://www.reuters.com/article/us-world-work-autismatwork-idUSKCN1SD0YB

The post Barriers that keep neurodiverse applicants out of the workforce appeared first on Leoforce.

 The good news is that there are resources and tools like Leoforce in place to help offset those limitations and attract more diverse talent. But before implementing and integrating new recruiting strategies, there are a few practical and less costly steps that need to be taken.

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

For employers, the first thing to do is let go of any notion that neurodiverse people somehow lack the skills to perform complex tasks. In fact, Drexel University’s National Autism Indicators Report says 51 percent of workers on the spectrum have skills higher than what their job requires.  

Beyond that, there are concrete steps an employer can take. 

Instill the right workplace culture

Moving towards a neurodiverse workplace first requires understanding. You need to be more accepting of neurodiversity and your entire company needs to be made aware of what it is, the benefits of hiring neurodiverse candidates, and how they can change their own thought processes to accept it. 

Use concise job descriptions

Show exactly what you expect of your candidates when you create a job listing. While many job positions list soft skills such as good teamwork and communication, you may want to leave those out if they aren’t vital to the job.

For example, there are many roles in which the focus is on creative thinking and paying attention to detail. If someone is not required to communicate or work as a team, then don’t make a big deal about it in the job description to attract neurodiverse talent. 

Adjust your hiring practices

Hiring managers need to reframe their idea of what makes a “good candidate.” Many superficial norms, such as a strong handshake or looking someone in the eye, are difficult for neurodiverse individuals to perform. 

Managers also need to ask the right questions to best draw out the individual’s skills and capabilities. For example, some companies take the surprise element out of their interview process – if the candidate is not applying for a job that requires them to think fast on their feet, then there’s no need to consider that in the interview. 

Also, it’s important to remember that resumes don’t tell the full story. Because so many neurodiverse individuals have struggled to find work that matches their abilities, they are often self-taught or possess transferable skills. 

Be patient

Building a neurodiverse candidate pool takes time. EY uses a two-week process that is focused on hiring people as team members rather than as individuals. 

Week one is virtual, relying on Skype video calls, virtual exercises, and assessments through mini-projects. Week two is called “Superweek” and is held on-site. This week includes team-based work simulations and interpersonal skills development. 

At the end of the two weeks, EY selects the highest performers and hires in cohorts. From there, all onboarding and training is done by managers who have taken formal training in autism. 

Organize expert-driven, two-way training

Soft-skills training is a critical part of building a neurodiverse workforce. It should be done by an expert with appropriate experience – something you can also look to the local community for. 

Note that this training isn’t just for neurodiverse talent, but for all employees and especially managers, who need to be educated about what it’s like to be on the spectrum, and how to best work together. 

Be ready and willing to accommodate your talent

Individuals with autism may be sensitive to things such as temperature, sound, and lighting. As such, you may need to provide accommodations such as noise-canceling headphones, privacy rooms, or flexible work schedules, so employees can be their most productive. 

Amplify the message

Individuals on the spectrum have often had negative experiences in the world. So, while they may feel understood at work, they may not feel as safe outside of the office. 

A strong neurodiversity program should push its message externally as well as internally, making it a more normal part of employment in general. 

EY is open-sourcing its work, along with other companies pursuing neurodiversity, through the Autism at Work Roundtable. 

“This is giving us a tremendous amount of reputational value,” said Hiren. “It’s good for our own employees, it’s good for the marketplace. Our clients want to do business with companies that do good. Candidates want to work with companies that do good.” 

How Leoforce helps attract neurodiverse talent

Adopting a candidate-centric mindset is the first step to connecting and attracting neurodiverse talent. Instilling a positive work culture, accommodating neurodiverse candidates, and being patient are also pragmatic and effective ways to recruit for the neurodivergent. But when it comes to optimizing your job adverts to attract more diverse candidates and communicate more efficiently, recruiting tools like Leoforce Quantum can help.

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

 Leoforce Quantum is the top AI recruiting tool designed for employers to discover more diverse talent and swiftly engage with quality candidates on a tight schedule. You shouldn’t have to pay extra to have diverse talent integrated into your candidate search. With Leoforce, you’ll get instant access to a neurodiverse talent pool, allowing you to recruit faster.

Resources

• https://www.ey.com/en_us/diversity-inclusiveness/how-neurodiversity-is-driving-innovation-from-unexpected-places
• https://disabilityin.org/what-we-do/committees/autism-at-work-roundtable/

The post Neurodiverse talent: Effective strategies to engage candidates appeared first on Leoforce.

• The brains of autistic people can be highly creative, with extraordinary focus, reasoning, imagination, and visual thinking abilities. They are also methodical, exacting, and meticulous. As a result of this collaboration, they are able to approach problems from different angles.
• On creativity tests, people with ADHD can fare better than their non-ADHD counterparts. It is possible for people with ADHD to hyperfocus, which implies that despite having an attention deficit, they are able to concentrate on a specific area of interest.
• 84 percent of dyslexic people are above average in reasoning, understanding patterns, evaluating possibilities, and making judgments, which is evidence that they can think outside the box. Their skills are priceless when it comes to seeing things from many angles and evaluating situations from several points of view. 

Various teams with different viewpoints are quite beneficial. In any project or product development process, neurodiverse teams help to ensure that all perspectives, angles, and methods have been considered.

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

In addition to boosting productivity and quality of service, the development of effective neurodiverse teams is also beneficial. 

Why neurodiversity creates opportunities

Employees with diverse backgrounds, disciplinary training, gender, culture, and other unique characteristics are well-known to most managers, who understand the benefits of such diversity. There are some similarities, but the benefits of neurodiversity are more immediate.

A company’s efforts to produce or recognize value may benefit from the viewpoints of neurodiverse people because they are wired differently than “neurotypical” people. And as a result, particular problems within an organization can potentially be solved with a different perspective and approach offered by the neurodivergent.

For example, according to Harvard Business Review, “a neurodiverse customer-support analyst spotted an opportunity to let customers help solve a common problem themselves; thousands of them subsequently used the resources he created.”  

So why aren’t companies employing neurodivergent candidates more? Here’s why. 

Why companies don’t tap neurodiverse talent

An issue that is especially prevalent in larger corporations is the assumption that processes need to be scalable and standardized. However, employees with neurodiverse attributes typically need to be allowed to deviate from standardized practices. Subsequently, this shift’s the manager’s focus away from ensuring compliance through standardization toward making individual adjustments.  

Another challenge is that although neurodiverse people may excel in other areas, they score lower in the first traditional approach to candidate suitability: interviewing. Neurodiverse people, in general, are unlikely to outperform less talented neurotypical candidates in interviews. People with autism frequently do not make good eye contact, are prone to conversational tangents, and can be overly honest about weaknesses. This is what drives an interview score down further than that of a neurotypical person. 

The good news is, there are other methods of determining a candidate’s suitability. 

Overall, managers must take on the challenge of piecing together a diverse array of jigsaw pieces, rather than treating individuals as containers of human resources that can be interchanged with each other.

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

Utilizing non-biased AI recruiting tools like Leoforce Quantum is the first step in tapping into neurodiverse talent. As an adoption of non-biased AI recruiting tools, the benefits to companies will be significant: more access to the talents and viewpoints of their employees, which may allow them to compete more successfully. 

Resources

• https://hbr.org/2017/05/neurodiversity-as-a-competitive-advantage

The post How building a neurodiverse workforce can give you a competitive edge appeared first on Leoforce.

What is a candidate-driven market?  

In a candidate-driven market, job seekers and candidates have the upper hand. While companies are competing for top talent to drive their businesses, candidates can control higher salaries, better benefits, and other negotiables. 

What is an employer-driven market?

An employer-driven market is led by employers who have the upper hand. When unemployment is high, jobs are scarce, and there is an abundance of qualified candidates to choose from, employers have the advantage of offering lower pay, stricter schedules, and can get great talent at a bargain. 

What is the current market?

The pandemic has inevitably sparked ‘The Great Resignation.’ Due to a mass exodus of employees, job vacancies have influenced companies to reconsider the way we work. As a result, the transition from an employer-driven market to a candidate-driven market has been a current, ongoing trend. 

Suggested resource on talent hunt: How you can uncover opportunities in the new talent landscape

How can you stand out?  

Revise job descriptions  

• Rule out years of experience: If you are still putting “must have 10-20 years of experience” in your job description, you’re going to have to reconsider. Now that Generation Z has entered the workforce, you will need to revise your job description expectations. Your idea of an ideal candidate will need adjustment if you want to score candidates with potential, the right skills, and the ability to adapt to fill those roles. 
• Make your descriptions gender-neutral: Not only will you need to revise your experience expectations, but you will need to comb through your description for any terms that are not gender-neutral. Including superlatives like an expert, or superior, typically discourage female candidates who are more collaborative than competitive in nature. Not to mention, there are still job titles with -man- in them that subconsciously dissuade female candidates as well. Instead of using job titles such as, “salesman” or “assemblyman,” revise it to salesperson or assembly member for better results. 
• Limit the number of requirements: Of course, you should outline the fundamental qualifications for a role, but be flexible. Instead of stating “must-haves,” transition them to “nice-to-haves.” Why is this change necessary? According to the Harvard Business Review, research shows that women don’t apply for jobs unless they are 100% qualified, while men will still apply after meeting 60% of the requirements. In other words, you could potentially miss a large pool of qualified candidates by avoiding this change. 
• Make diversity and values visible: Express your company’s values and commitment to equality and diversity. This allows you the opportunity to attract more diverse, qualified candidates, while also meeting your DE&I requirements. Candidates are not just concerned about the job itself. Equal pay and work culture inclusivity are also key factors in a candidate’s decision. 

Enlist expert help

For job roles that are hard to fill, sometimes you just need extra help. Enlisting professionals to assist in your recruiting takes the stress out of the process, while still allowing you to stand out from the crowd. Implementing recruiting services like Leoforce can help you get there. Leoforce helps recruiters get guaranteed quality candidates for jobs that are hard to fill fast. You’ll need this ai recruiting tool to promote a job, find top talent, and engage and qualify candidates for more demanding roles.

Personalize your recruiting  

• Be transparent early on: Informing candidates about the company, industry, expectations, and salary range upfront will save you wasted time and ignored messages. Remember, you are in a candidate-driven market. Candidates seeking the best roles in a short timeframe are going to need more information early in the process. When candidates feel like they need to pull information out of an employer, it’s a surefire way of getting them to quickly lose interest in the role. 
• Keep candidates informed: Notifying candidates that their talents might be better suited to a different role is helpful, even if the current role isn’t fit for all of them. Not only does this give them the opportunity to apply for better-suited roles, but you save time hunting for prospects. This is because you will already have talent for the next position that is perfectly up their alley. 

Be efficient

Juggling candidates and job-board hopping is not the most efficient way to get top talent. Moreover, you’re spending a significant amount of time with lackluster results. Integrating Leoforce Quantum into an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to consolidate your sources, makes recruiting more efficient and seamless. You will be able to see all your candidates in one list, with the ability to sort and filter and reach out on time. This is especially important for those urgent roles that need to be filled. Recruiters who communicate quickly and decisively often have an advantage over those who contact out days, or even weeks later. In other words, if you snooze, you lose!

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

As the current market continues to remain candidate-driven, recruiters must adapt and stand out now, more than ever. In a sea of competitive recruiters, revising job descriptions, personalizing your recruitment approach, using recruiting services, and deploying ATS can help you stand out. 
 

Resources

• https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified

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