Author Archives: QuickFoxTalent

Rate and review . . . two words have permeated most of our interactions. From Google, to Uber, to Glassdoor and beyond, we live in an economy of feedback. People seem to inherently understand the impact of a bad review for a good or service. If you’re researching the best stroller to buy for your newborn, you’re probably going to steer clear of a product with a low star rating. If you’re picking a vacation destination, you probably won’t go to the place with terrible reviews. What about if you’re looking for a new job, though? People are doing their research ahead of submitting an application. They have more information on potential employers than ever before. A thoughtful candidate is probably not going to apply to a company with a 2.9 rating on Indeed.

Tangibly, how are those bad reviews costing your company? Harvard Business Review conducted a study on that very topic, finding that the three factors contributing to a bad workplace reputation revolve around job security, dysfunctional teams, and poor leadership. Their study also yielded some other staggering results such as: large companies (10,000 employees) may spend as much as $7.6 million in increased wages to offset reputation and convince people to join their organization. That’s around $4,723 per hire. However, about half the people surveyed in the study wouldn’t even take a job with a negative brand reputation, no matter what money they were offered. So, those pay increases that you think are going to solve all your problems? Not the case.

What does it take to improve those ratings and garner more positive reviews? Well, you have to start by being realistic about your current reputation. Monitor your Indeed, Glassdoor, and Google ratings. Dig into historical trends and aggregate common complaints. You can’t tackle your issues if you don’t thoroughly understand them. Don’t forget about your current employees. If you aren’t regularly taking the “pulse” of your organization, it’s time to start. And, maybe ditch the long and draining annual employee survey in favor of shorter, more frequent surveys that provide you with more accurate, real-time data. Regularly polling your employees will help your organization understand its opportunities for improvement, but it will also help you understand your strengths. Once you understand your strengths and your brand voice, you can interact with the public and potential candidates in a more confident way. You may even be able to respond to your detractors and make a positive impact doing so.

Ultimately, you can’t allow your company to ignore the negative noise from sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and Google. Ignoring the issues will only make it grow. Take time to understand external views and interact with them, which will show that you care about improving. Invest time into understanding the opinions of your workforce. Make a real effort to listen to your employees and make tangible change based on their feedback. They, in turn, will be your best ambassadors.

Today, we’re going to talk about some best practices! This list is hardly comprehensive, but it should help to elevate your recruiting team’s performance.

Recruitment Strategy

• Clear targets inform strategy. Establish measurable goals for your recruitment team (ie. Time-to-fill, time-to-hire, time-to-first contact with candidate).

Preparation

• Set clear expectations with hiring managers and interviewers prior to posting a role. If necessary, have leaders block time for interviews on their calendars so there’s no delay in scheduling candidates.
• If you have technology that can help with the recruitment process, (applicant tracking system, job posting portals, scheduling assistance like Calendly), thoroughly train users in that technology and allow it to automate the more tedious parts of the recruitment process.

Posting

• The quality of your job ads DOES matter. Use simple, clear, and precise language when marketing your positions, and use job titles that will be more commonly searched by the general public.
• Since most applicants will begin searching for jobs on their phones, make sure your advertisements are optimized for smartphones.
• Don’t forget that not every job will bring the same audience. Consider the appropriate messaging for each job opening and make sure you are crafting communications for your target audience. Sometimes posting to niche job boards will be necessary to hit the target market.
• Get your current employees to help you market your jobs! If hiring managers are active on LinkedIn or other social media platforms, ask them to share openings with their networks.

Application Process and Resume Screen

• Your team should test the application process. If a reasonably prepared candidate can’t complete your application within 5-10 minutes, you are likely to lose their interest. If possible, compare the number of “clicks” on your jobs to the number of actual applicants to evaluate if a long application process is hurting your conversion rates.

Candidate and Employee Engagement

• Your best candidates are likely to apply within the first three days of a posting. For entry level or junior roles, aim to contact qualified applicants within 24 hours of their application.
• Reward your current employees. In the battle for talent, current employees may feel lost in the shuffle. Focus on initiatives that improve retention and develop a positive employee culture. It will be hard to recruit and retain talent if your organization isn’t healthy, and your current employees are your best ambassadors.

Interview + Offer

• Limit interview rounds, especially for entry level roles. With each additional interview, you risk losing candidates.
• Provide an interview timeline to candidates during first contact.
• Stay flexible. Your candidates probably have jobs. They will not always be able to schedule during tight and rigid windows.
• Lead the conversation on pay, benefits, and other selling points of the job. Candidates should have a clear picture of pay and benefits before their hiring manager interview, and all members of your interview team should be able to answer basic questions about pay and benefits.

The average human attention span is 8.25 seconds – less than a goldfish! In a saturated job market with an unlikelihood that candidates will read your entire job advertisement, many employers have failed to improve the language and structure of their ads. Candidates are probably just skimming, so what’s it matter? 

While it’s true that people are likely not reading word for word, that means the eye-catching quality and accuracy of your ads means more than ever. If candidates are only going to pick up on a bit of information, make sure it’s the best information.

First, it’s critical to get the title of your job right. Internally, you may use some very specific titles that are unique to your organization, which may mean that they won’t translate into the greater job market. Use job titles in your postings that are the most accurate representation of the job and are general enough to be searched by the public at large.

After getting the job title right, you’ll want to use the right language in the body of your ad. It shouldn’t look like ChatGPT wrote it – there should certainly be some “personality” that evokes an understanding of the ideal candidate for the position and a distinctive organizational voice. However, you should include enough relevant keywords to increase your ad’s position in search results. For instance, if you are recruiting for a teacher, your job ad could includes phrases like the level of education (elementary, secondary, or special education), interactive learning, curriculum development, cooperative learning, distance learning, lesson planning, educational assessment, classroom instruction – anything that may be relevant to a search engine or a candidate.

Once you improve the body of your ad, you should focus on adding salary, benefits, and perks. This added information will likely influence someone to apply or move along. Salary transparency, in particular, is a growing trend. In some states like Colorado and California, salary transparency is law. In a recent study by Adobe, they found that 85% of college senior or recent grads are less likely to apply for a job if the salary range isn’t disclosed. Just like you want to know that a candidate is being honest and truthful with you, candidates want to know what they are getting themselves in to. Disclosing salary, benefits, and perks in the job ad will attract and keep the right candidates.

In the end, it’s all about balance and knowing your audience. It takes more work up front to create an attractive job ad, but that ad will work harder for you if you get it right.

When the labor market is tight, do you hold out for the candidate with the perfect experience or do you embrace the power of potential?

Learning to hire for potential opens up the candidate pool significantly. Additionally, just because someone has relevant experience does not mean they will be successful in your organization. It comes down to cultural fit and the ability to succeed with your individual team.

So, what does it mean to hire for potential? Hiring for potential doesn’t mean a candidate is completely lacking skills and qualifications required for your position, but it does mean that the candidate has a surplus of people skills and emotional intelligence. It also means that your team is able to see transferrable skill sets from other industries.

Hiring for potential may allow you to hire people who have more opportunity to progress in your organization. If someone is highly motivated, has the ability to learn and adapt, and is excited about taking on new challenges, chances are that that type of person has more propensity for success than if you hire someone with direct experience but no intangible assets. The right attitude and approach go a long way.

Looking at potential can also improve your organization’s diversity. If you are consistently hiring people based on a strict experience profile, you are likely missing out on infusing your organization with new ideas and different backgrounds.

To hire for potential, your managers and leaders will have to shift their mindsets. It’s important to reiterate that looking at potential rather than experience does not mean your team is lowering standards. It means your team is focusing on hiring based on skills that cannot be taught. Your team should take the time to think critically about the role at hand, and the skills that are absolutely necessary to fulfill that role successfully. Shape questions that assess people skills and emotional intelligence, along with a person’s ability to learn. Ask each candidate a consistent set of questions to provide a fair interview experience.

The power of potential will not only improve the talent on your team, but it will also help you save time and resources in your hiring process. A win-win!