iCIMS Hire Expectations™

October rings in the start of many autumnal delights that we must prepare for each year.

1. Seasonal allergies:  Time to bust out the antihistamines…
2. Seasonal decorations:  Doesn’t everyone have an inflatable turkey on their lawn?
3. Seasonal brews:  Oktoberfest! Pumpkin ale! Lederhosen!
4. Seasonal shopping:  Christmas is only 76 days away. (Who’s counting…?)
5. Seasonal hiring:  Start bringing staff on now for the holiday rush.

Now, you might think it’s a bit early to be talking about seasonal hiring. After all, it’s only October 11. When we think of seasonal hiring, we think of the Black Friday shopping blitz and subsequent weeks that close out the year with holiday cheer. However, I’m personally a big fan of being prepared well in advance (I was so ready for Y2K…). CareerBuilder is backing me up with regard to early seasonal hiring, recommending that companies post their seasonal requisitions earlier than you might think. According to CareerBuilder, “While many companies target November to place their first openings, [they] really should start the recruitment process in September or October.” (full article here).

So what can you get a jumpstart on now before the hiring onslaught begins and the competition for talent ensues? Consider how the aforementioned autumnal delights can guide the way!

Gesundheit!  Your health is important, and you could be putting it at risk by not getting a jumpstart on your seasonal hiring. Overdramatic? Perhaps. But planning ahead can limit the amount of overtime you find yourself racking up as you scramble to fill open requisitions. And late hours at the office and the stress of last-minute hiring can cause even the healthiest of recruiters to become tired, run down, and more susceptible to the effects of allergies or the dreaded influenza bug. Plan out your holiday hiring in advance. Post your requisitions or schedule your job postings ahead of time. Then go home, get plenty of rest, and take your vitamins.

Deck your halls. Depending on your line of business, there are a variety of ways that you can display your seasonal jobs to build your pipeline. In the retail sector, consider how pretty a kiosk would look in your store alongside vampire bats or candy cane décor. Candidates are quite often also customers, and kiosks enable them to apply for jobs right in your store. Lacking a physical storefront? Dress up your corporate website and social media networks with content that pushes readers to your career site. Promote your seasonal job offerings online and watch as applications flood in. And with an applicant tracking system, you can automate sorting through the resumes and reporting on the best candidates.

Shop around. Some of the best deals on gifts and décor for the holidays can be found earlier in the season. The same can often be said for talent. By posting your job requisitions early and planning ahead for your seasonal needs, you can attract top talent to build your pipeline…giving you the opportunity to be selective in who you bring on for the busy season. Conversely, top talent will also be shopping around to choose the employer that will be the best fit for them, and many are looking to secure their seasonal jobs early on. With seasonal employment out of the way, both HR professionals and candidates alike can turn their focus to spending that hard earned cash.

Drink up! What makes seasonal brews so wonderful? Is it the hint of cloves? The blend of all-natural pumpkin puree with deep roasted malts? YES! But it is also a great study in how to market a product (i.e. company) while taking advantage of the season. Get your brand and your seasonal job offerings out there to the masses. Have fun with it – play up the season and have your jobs stand out from the rest. Candidates will recognize you in the crowd of job offerings out there, and they’ll also remember your organization in the future, as a candidate or as a consumer. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy a cup/mug/stein/five-gallon bucket of your favorite beverage as the holiday season gets underway.

Here at iCIMS, we like to practice what we preach. With a priority set on the candidate experience, we talk a lot about the importance of the application process and how talent management systems can facilitate successful recruitment.

But before you can get a candidate to apply for a job, you have to get their attention. And once you have their attention, you need to give them the info they’re looking for to get them to consider submitting their resume.

Take a step back and look at your career site. Does it represent your corporate mission as well as the fun aspects of your company? Is it organized in a way that candidates can easily find the information they are looking for? How does it reflect your overall brand?

The iCIMS team considered these questions and decided that it was time for a change.  While the basics were available for candidates to review, many of the things that make iCIMS a great place to work just weren’t showcased to their full potential.

Introducing….the Careers @ iCIMS Microsite!

Our new career site is designed to enhance the candidate experience and provide potential new hires with even more information right up front.  As we developed our microsite, we focused on a few core areas based on best practices to further boost reader engagement with an ultimate focus on building out our candidate pool.

Focus on Your People: We spend about a third of our lives at work surrounded by the same people day in and day out. Top candidates will be selective about which jobs they apply to, and who they will be working with may factor into their decision. Don’t be afraid to feature your teams and individuals throughout your organization. Gather testimonials and photos from around the company, and use them to tell the story of what your teams are all about.

Focus on Your Workplace: Every workplace has features that make it unique. Instead of waiting until the interview to share these details, highlight the perks of the job from the start. Adding sections to your career site that call attention to your robust benefits programs or how your office is situated in a prime location not only entices candidates but also eliminates a lot of preliminary questions from applicants during the interview process.

Focus on the Future: While some candidates are looking for a job, many are looking for a career. Applicants with a variety of backgrounds will be visiting your site, and you’ll want to be sure that all of them can easily discover how they can develop their careers with your company. Consider creating a section of your career site for students and recent graduates to learn more about internships and entry-level positions. You can also promote your programs designed for more seasoned employees such as leadership trainings.

Focus on Your Jobs: The ultimate goal of a career site is to motivate candidates to apply for jobs that best fit their skills. Be sure to keep your job search accessible from every page with dedicated links to your career portals in your content as well as your primary navigation. You never know what page will be the trigger for a candidate to decide to apply to your company. Why not give them the option to do so from anywhere in your career site?

Hopefully this will inspire you to take a look at your own career site and identify the ways that you can make it even more engaging for candidates. You know all the differentiators that make your company a great place to work. Use your career site to tell the World Wide Web all about it, and watch your candidate pipeline grow.

It's that time of year.  In the dead of summer, we're busy barbecuing every weekend, eating copious amounts of water ice to stay cool, working on our tans (or hoarding SPF 70 sunscreen), wrapping presents, and putting up the tree, stockings, and tinsel.

Wait...what?!

Yes, it's finally here! We've waited six months, and at long last the time has come for...Christmas in July!

Okay, while I may be in the minority of people who are excited about this quasi-holiday fast approaching on July 25, I invite you to conjure up a holiday scene, sip some eggnog, spray your office or car windows with fake snow, and get started on your wish list for Santa. You can even make two lists to keep things organize: one for personal and one for professional use (that way you can ask for an iPod and an ergonomic desk chair at the same time).

Need help deciding on some work related requests?  How about asking for one of these?

More Friends: Social networking is a way to bolster the number of people who have access to your life, but by now many recruiters are leveraging it to expand their pipelines as well as their personal popularity. The joy of reeling in qualified candidates via social networks can be sweeter than a holiday sugar plum! You know they’re out there, and being able to leverage tools that enable branded microsites and mass job postings across the web can get you and your brand in front of the masses.

Fewer Delays: If the elves don’t make all the toys in time, then there will be some disappointed children (and bloggers) out there without any gifts under the tree. Likewise, if there are numerous delays throughout the pre-hire process, then there will be some disappointed hiring managers when the talent they need isn’t in place. Ask Santa (or your CEO) for an applicant tracking system equipped with scheduling and electronic workflow that will ensure the right people sign off on new hires at the right times.

Extra Insight: Think of all the frustration you could avoid if you didn’t have to spend all that time figuring out reports and looking up how to run formulas in the help menus for Excel. There are tools out there that can run all those real-time reports for you, giving you easy, quick insight into your metrics…and also freeing you up to look into other aspects of your work (or to look into ways to make sure your gingerbread house doesn’t collapse like it did last time).

So, maybe Santa won't be delivering goodies next week.  Everyone deserves a vacation, and from what I gather on TV, he’s most likely soaking in the sun in his Bermuda shorts and downing carbonated beverages. But look on the bright side, you're ahead of the game with decorating for December, and Ol' Saint Nick can get a jump start on your wish list once he gets off the beach!

Let’s face it. Even if you’re not a fan (a.k.a. Little Monster), by this point you have probably heard of the pop singer Lady Gaga. Over the last few years, she has managed to not only have a successful music career but also evolve herself into a multi-million dollar brand. Most recently, Lady Gaga was named the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes, beating out Oprah for the top spot. Due to her recent rise in the news and the release of her latest album, I thought it would be interesting to see what we could glean from Gaga and apply to talent management. While the notion is admittedly a little farfetched, there are some core tactics that fit in the HR space.

Branding, Branding, BRANDING!
While she has a different “outfit” every time she makes an appearance, Lady Gaga has portrayed herself as a dependably out of the box brand. Whether in live appearances, video recordings, or marketing promotion materials, the Haus of Gaga produces a variety of materials with an undercurrent of consistency that resonates with her fan base. While I’m not suggesting you dress up in outrageous costumes and over the top wigs, there is value in underscoring your brand through your recruiting. By syncing up your candidate management with your career sites, email communications, and web-based forms, you can facilitate brand awareness while building stronger ties with your applicant pool. Of course, the wigs are optional.

Stay In Touch with Your Fans (Candidates)
One of the keys to Lady Gaga’s continued success is her high level of engagement with her fan base. She fosters a sense of camaraderie by using social media, blogs, and videos to stay in touch with her followers. By remaining in communication with her fan base, Lady Gaga retains a receptive audience for her products and promotional offerings. On the recruitment side, striving to maintain an engaged candidate pipeline can be viewed similarly, as the ultimate goal is to sell top candidates on the idea of working for your organization. With a CRM tool built into your talent management system, you can schedule and send a steady stream of updates to candidates with customized content. Keep them engaged, and when you have a requisition that matches their talent, you candidates will be looking for it.

Showcase What Makes You Unique
Clearly Lady Gaga is not afraid to be herself (or a caricature of herself). She is open to the media and her fans about her beliefs and doesn’t hold back when it comes to expressing herself artistically. Lady Gaga has achieved astronomical success by finding ways to stand out in a crowded pop music scene. With all the competition for top talent in our economy, do what you can to stand out from the crowd. Showcase what makes your organization unique compared to your competition. Do you have interesting programs that would appeal to your candidates? Highlight them on your career site to emphasize how and why your organization is a great place to work so candidates will gravitate toward what you have to offer.

We are all guilty of it at some point. You hit that point in your day – the wall.  And the cure for the wall?  A snack!  (I know you are getting hungrier and hungrier as you read this.)  While you consider what you will have for your mid-morning, mid-day, or mid-afternoon snack (or what you’ll have for all three…), take a moment and compare your talent pipeline to soup.

Yes, I said SOUP.

If you take a moment (or two) to think about it, the talent management process does, at least loosely, resemble the culinary arts. Both great cooks and skilled HR professionals take a mixture of elements and use a variety of supplies and resources to create a five-star result. So exactly how is assembling a strong team of employees for your company or clients similar to making soup?

Choose durable tools:  Every top cook has a set of high-end cutlery as well as long-lasting cookware and storage containers to hold the leftovers. What’s in your HR cabinet? To create a top-notch talent soup, assemble tools to help you slice, dice, prepare, and store your talent pool data. By choosing tools that work well together or are part of a set, you can be sure that your data will be displayed consistently and accurately.

Cook up top ingredients: One of the many differences between a five-star restaurant hamburger and a Whopper Jr. is the ingredients. Don’t just make candidate chowder from leftovers...Create your sensational talent soup from the finest selection of candidates. A searchable talent management system can help you sort through talent to determine which candidates need to simmer longer and which are ready to be served.

Select ripe produce(rs):  Is the talent in your pipeline ready to be picked?  Keeping in contact with your candidates and building relationships will help ensure that prospective employees will turn to you when they are ready to start producing in the workforce.  By using a web-based system to track your dialogue, you will have a record of your communication with the candidate along with their qualifications so you can decide if they can be a top producer for you.

By choosing the right tools and ingredients, you can be well on your way to concocting the talent soup you need to make your HR practices successful. 

Now who’s hungry?

Amusement parks, whether on the grand scale of the Disney resorts or a smaller scale local boardwalk or country fair, hold a special place in our hearts. At an amusement park, everyone can set aside the worries and cares of daily living, and adults and kids alike can enjoy spending time fun and fancy free. That is, until a vertically-challenged (either too tall or too short) thrill seeker spends three hours in line for the latest and greatest park attraction only to find out that they do not qualify to participate. And depending on the individual’s personality, an array of anger, disappointment, sadness, and belligerence can ensue.

The prospective rider’s reaction spreads beyond the spurned park guest. The others in the group who can board the attraction spend time debating whether to stand by their rejected friend or to go on and experience the ride anyway. Often the rest of the line is held up as the disgruntled guest debates his or her qualifications, standing on tip-toe or struggling to force the safety bar in place. Park staff members are faced with the challenge of diffusing the situation with the upset guest to set things right for the throng of waiting guests.

All of this can be avoided by setting clearly visible, clearly understandable directions and notices at the entrance of the ride. Of course, many amusement parks do have these notifications posted, but there are frequent cases where guests do not notice the warnings or do not take them seriously, thinking they will be a convincing exception to the rule. And unless the park employs someone as an official gate keeper, theme park goers will continue to press their luck with ride requirements with the hope of being a good fit.

The HR rollercoaster can bear similarities to extreme thrill rides as well as some more supposedly tame ones. There is almost always a long stream of applicants waiting for access to an interview with an organization. The process of applicant crowd control can become overwhelming as the talent pool begins to fill up, and dealing with persistent applicants who are not the best fit can be very unpleasant.

While it is impossible to completely avoid dealing with individuals who are not a good fit during the recruiting process, there are a few ways that you can help ensure that those who do line up for the position have a better chance of fitting in and producing a positive outcome for all involved.

1. Make the requirements clear. Determine what criteria are non-negotiable and include them right up front at the top of the listing. Choose concise language and easy-to-read formatting so that prospective candidates notice and understand the position’s scope up front. The idea is for them to realize they won’t fit before they get in line for the ride.
2. Stick to the requirements. Don’t make exceptions for applicants who are not a great fit. There is reasoning behind the chosen standards, and deviating will only cause problems later on and keep you from finding the best candidate for the job. An applicant can try to seem like a close fit, but if they don’t measure up from the start there could be repercussions to deal with later.
3. Screen based on requirements. Don’t put yourself in a position to even consider exceptions to the non-negotiable requirements. A candidate that is a 95% match to what you are looking for can be alluring, but they could be a poor choice if the other 5% fails in the critical requirements. You can use different processes and applicant tracking tools to automatically filter candidates based on the job criteria. This way, you can spend time and resources on more qualified prospects and keep your HR processes moving along seamlessly.

Every November, aspiring writers throughout the creative community participate in a mind-boggling writing frenzy known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The goal of NaNoWriMo is to inspire both new and veteran writers to each write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days or less. While NaNoWriMo’s leadership and support groups provide feedback, pep talks, news updates, and fun tools to motivate the writers, the real work is completely up to the author. In the end, the writer is responsible for concepting, creating, writing, editing, finishing, and submitting the novel.

As a NaNoWriMo participant, I can attest to the chaos of the entire creative writing process that becomes my November. While I find it invigorating to join in on the writing spree, I am nearly burned out by the end of the month. On top of my quest to complete a novel, I have a full-time job and several side projects that are writing focused. Keeping up with my usual responsibilities in addition to NaNoWriMo can become extremely overwhelming. I typically make it to the end with most goals achieved, but not without losing a ton of sleep in the process.

So what does NaNoWriMo have to do with human resource management? A lot, if you compare the hectic pace and influx of creative writing that is NaNoWriMo with the high demand for new hires that many HR professionals face each November. As the end of the year approaches, companies begin preparing for seasonal hiring to accommodate business surges or for talent sourcing to align with strategic plans for the new year.

What are the lessons you can take away from the NaNoWriMo experience?

Plan in Advance – For NaNoWriMo, creating detailed outlines can help a writer stay on track. I try to sketch out the key elements that I need to include and where I want them to appear in the story. In the HR space, planning ahead can save time down the line when your workload increases. Automated checklists can help you outline and prepare in advance for talent requests. Knowing when hiring surges will occur and scheduling job posts in advance can help you stay ahead of deadlines and remain on track.

Equip Yourself – With creating writing, there are a few tools that can help the process run smoothly – a distraction-free word processor, ambient music, and a searchable thesaurus, to name a few. HR professionals can reach for a variety of tools as well, and an applicant tracking system can consolidate the tools you need to move forward efficiently. Streamlining sourcing, CRM, and onboarding materials with one system brings together the information you need more efficiently. With the proper tools, you can focus on results rather than process.

Avoid Burn Out – Since the point of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (averaging more than 1600 words a day), creative burn out is almost inevitable. But human resource experts can avoid burn out by building a candidate pipeline to call upon when the need arises. Don’t wear yourself out managing your talent management needs in short-term sprints. Collect quality talent information along the way that you can store and come back to later when faced with a hiring surge.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I can recuperate and enjoy the upcoming holiday season…and give thoughtful consideration to whether I am up for the challenge of Script Frenzy next April.