How to market your (often forgotten) EVPs when recruiting

/in , , /by

Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is crucial to your recruitment marketing process. In fact, it’s more important than anything else when it comes to talent attraction and engagement! Here’s how to market your EVPs. 

Do you know how to build and promote your EVPs when recruiting? Here are some tips to keep in mind.

What are the benefits you’d like to promote? Start by articulating all your standard benefits, such as competitive remuneration (base, or retainer, commissions, bonuses, on-target earnings), leave, flexibility, work-life integration, and your organisational culture.

Don’t forget about your “sometimes forgotten” benefits, such as:

  • learning and higher education opportunities
  • opportunities for career progression
  • work-related social events
  • complimentary coffee and food
  • proactive leadership and mentoring
  • autonomy and trust
  • democratic decision making
  • clear organisational goals and purpose
  • feedback opportunities for progress and improvement
  • reward and recognition
  • modern technology and good resourcing
  • clear communication
  • health and wellness initiatives

…the list goes on.

If you’re still wondering how to market your EVPs, use these benefits as a foundation, market the heck out of your beautiful, unique organisation! What achievements or awards has your organisation recently received? We all know storytelling is king – so use storytelling as a marketing strategy.

Do you participate in organisational philanthropy? Do you run social activities? Publish stories about these as well to connect with potential candidates.

Human interest stories work best of all, so unashamedly market your heroes. Sell them like they’re on Tinder! (No need to tell them you’re doing this, but then again… maybe they can re-purpose their profile?)You have heroes at every level in your organisation and your talent pool will want to work with them. What stories about your people are dying to be told? Publish stories about interesting and successful people who are currently in the roles you need to fill. Have they won awards or achieved anything that they are proud of?

Think about your executives, founders and directors. Everyone has a story to share, so find story angles that resonate with your talent pool and will make them want to work with you. These stories are, essentially, your value propositions.

Publish feature stories about people in your organisation who have progressed their careers, including where they started, what areas of the business they have experienced, and how they achieved promotions and risen through the ranks.

Build a catalogue of “people stories” and “organisational stories” that you can mix and match with different positions you need to fill.

Check out these EVP taglines from some of the World’s Most Attractive Employers (WMAEs) about how to market EVPs.

In building your EVPs, don’t sit at your desk racking your brain – chat with your colleagues. Ask them for ideas and what benefits they enjoy as part of their role (including the less obvious ones). Request good news stories to understand who might be a hero that candidates would love to learn more about.

Ideally, engage an Employer Branding Specialist to identify what your EVPs truly are. The beauty of external specialists is that they can be objective, and your people might be more willing to be open and honest with them. The best employer branding specialists will undertake a significant discovery exercise where they engage with people in different areas of your organisation across a range of roles, tenure and levels of seniority.

When it comes to marketing your EVPs to potential candidates, ruthless authenticity is worth its weight in gold. In the sales and marketing process of recruitment, the last thing you can afford is buyer’s remorse from candidates whose experience doesn’t match their expectations.

Should you recruit for experience or education in healthcare?

/in , , , , /by

Healthcare recruiters will always have the dilemma of choosing between hiring for education or experience. Should you hire a candidate who recently graduated and only has one year of experience, but has a master’s degree from the number one ranked program in the country? Or do you take the candidate who has a degree from a less-known institution, but has 12 years of experience?

Deciding between the two can slow down your recruitment processes. So what’s the solution? There’s no one right answer, because both talent demographics are important to the long-term success of your organisation.

Get the best of both worlds by attracting a good mixture of young, academically-inclined employees and those with on-the-job experience. Design a recruitment strategy to target and hire both types of candidates. These demographics have different needs and therefore, require different attraction and engagement methods. Here’s how.

Attracting new healthcare graduates

While hiring graduations is a cost-effective strategy that can invigorate your existing workforce, they’re in high demand, especially in healthcare.

Understand what this talent demographic is looking for in an employer. 87% of millennials state development opportunities are important in their desired roles. Healthcare providers need to provide opportunities for their younger employees to remain competitive both in their own role and in their industry. Can you use this as part of your recruitment advertising or employer branding strategy?

When it comes to shortlisting and selection, this talent pool can be snapped up quickly. Use powerful closing strategies to seal the deal, such as speeding up the process and using the power of influence. Impressing them with an efficient process and unique offer if a great way to win candidates over your talent competitors.

Also, many graduates choose to work with healthcare providers where they completed their internship programs. Do you have a strong internship strategy, and are you connecting it effectively with your recruitment initiatives? (Internships can be a game-changer for your talent pipeline but they come with risks and time commitments, as you will need to structure their program thoughtfully and get buy-in from your people who will be guiding them through their learning goals.)

Establish partnerships with local universities and programs to reach students before they graduate and stay competitive.

Attracting experienced healthcare professionals

Baby Boomers are starting to leave the workforce at a rapid rate. By some estimates, 10,000 retire each day. This has a big impact on healthcare organisations whose workforce consists of a large number of employees in their sixties.

Experienced nurses and healthcare professionals retiring creates knowledge gaps where graduates aren’t up to specialist level by the time the older workforce retires. While there’s no way to prevent boomers from retiring, healthcare organisations must establish workforce planning and proactive recruitment strategies to prepare for these departures. This will ease the burden associated with having to continually hire new individuals to fill vacant positions that are left behind by senior level employees.

Hospitals, clinics, aged care and other healthcare providers need to revamp their approach to hiring by putting together an attractive benefits package to make their positions more attractive.

A strong employer brand goes miles in attracting the best healthcare talent. Highlight the benefits your organisation offers outside of salary. For example, career progression, flexibility, workplace wellness programs and employee social events.

Danila Dilba Health Service strengthened their employer brand through a careers video, written and video employee profile stories, their careers website and more.

“[This] helped us strengthen our employer brand and market our unique employee value proposition across Australia. Along with the branding project we revamped our website and careers pages which helped us attract quality applicants.

“Our employer branding initiatives have been very successful in ensuring we receive our fair share of quality talent. It’s helped us in both recruitment and retention. We’ve retained a greater number of employees as we’ve opened more leadership positions,” – Sulal Mathai, HR Manager, Danila Dilba Health Service.

Promote your unique differences from your talent competitors, sharing this message across your careers website, recruitment advertisements and social channels. Talent pooling is another effective, proactive recruitment strategy to inspire and educate your audience about your offering. Being proactive, strengthening your employer brand and building a talent pipeline will ensure your success in healthcare recruitment.

Nurture your pipeline and keep them engaged through emailing marketing and your social media channels. This way, you’ll have a warm and qualified group of potential candidates to market new roles to and fill your positions more quickly.

Instead of choosing between experience or education, design a recruitment strategy to target and attract both talent demographics. With a bit of thoughtful planning, finding the right mix and creating a balance will set you up for long-term success.

Looking for advice about recruitment advertising or employer branding to attract the best candidates to your healthcare vacancy? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Specialists, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Recruiting for retail sales skills

/in , , , /by

Hiring for retail sales skills may be one of the many challenges you face as a retail employer. Talented salespeople take your business to the next level, but finding the best salespeople for the role can feel like a never-ending pursuit. The right tools and processes, however, will make finding those ideal candidates quicker and easier. Here are the best strategies to hire for retail sales skills.

Make your recruitment advertisement stand out

Many recruitment advertisements in retail look the same, except for the brand name. You recognise these. They usually look something like this:

“[Retail business name] is seeking motivated salespeople to work for us in a fast-paced, challenging work environment. The ideal candidate will have strong interpersonal skills and work as part of a team. You will be expected to: 

Generic task description 1

Generic task description 2…”

Going to market is expensive and you don’t want to waste time wading through irrelevant applications.

Make yours stand out!

Don’t copy and paste your job description. Instead, use it to bring your advertisement to life and inject the personality of your brand. Refer to the primary duties in the role, and tweak and refine the copy to attract the best retail salespeople. Talk about the benefits you offer, what’s in it for them. Use attractive brand imagery and embed videos if you can.

Use behavioural testing for retail sales skills

There’s no hiding the fact that salespeople need sales personalities. This might seem obvious, but you may be surprised by the number of employers who don’t use tools to quantify and assess these vital attributes to ensure they make the right choice.

While, of course, some skills can be taught, others are innate. Likability and enthusiasm, while attractive in a candidate, doesn’t necessarily translate to strong sales skills.

Behavioural testing is a great way to identify candidates with retail sales skills. Some tools, such as the McQuaig Word Survey behavioural tool our Shortlisting Specialists use at Employment Offices, even provide you with a complete sales profile of your top candidates.

Use the right screening and interview questions

Use screening questions in your recruitment advertisement and probe deeper during secondary interviews. This gives candidates the chance to demonstrate their skills, experience and personality.

You may ask a direct question about their previous sales experience, or a behavioural question with the attributes your business needs in its salespeople, such as grit, persistence, great listening skills or customer focus.

For example, “Describe a time in a previous role where you demonstrated [XYZ].”

While it may seem like a never-ending priority to find great retail sales skills and the right salespeople for your roles, the right tools and processes will ensure you make the best hires.

Do you need a recruitment campaign to attract the best candidates to your vacancy? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Advertising Specialists here, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.

7 ways to hire and retain safety-conscious employees

/in , , , , , /by

Creating a safe workplace is something that everyone should strive towards. For employers in construction and manufacturing, building a strong workplace culture of safety is critical to the long-term sustainability of your business. Creating safe workplaces lowers worker’s compensation claims, reduces risks and potential accidents and is part of employers’ legal obligations.

Not to mention, potential candidates are more likely to choose employers who emphasise and promote safe workplaces. But how do you find the best team members with the right mindset and attitudes toward safety?

Here are seven ways to hire safety-conscious employees and create a safe workplace.

1. Make a culture of safety and creating a safe workplace part of your employer brand

If safety is one of your core values, it should naturally be expressed as part of your employer brand and Employee Value Proposition. Establishing strong brand messaging enables you to attract like-minded team members with shared values, allowing you to build a strong workplace culture of safety.

Regularly reinforce and amplify this value through your various channels, for example, through employee profile stories and social posts.

2. Include brand messaging around safety in your recruitment advertisements

A strong employer brand will be reflected in your recruitment advertisements. Make a safe workplace a key focus in your ad copy and showcase it as part of your Employee Value Proposition.

3. Include a screening question around safety

Attraction is the first part of the process; when it comes to screening, the fastest way for you to identify the top applicants in your pool who share a safety-focus is by including screening questions. Including a question around candidates’ safety focus allows them to demonstrate how they prioritise safety in their work.

4. Ask questions around safety priorities during second-stage interviews

After assessing candidates’ screening-question answers, second-stage interviews are an excellent opportunity to delve deeper into their experience and understand their values and priorities.

Here are some examples of questions you can use during second-stage interviews to explore candidate’s safety-focus more deeply.

Example 1: “Safety is of the utmost importance in this role and our organisation. How do you always ensure safety within your work?”

Example 2: “How do you promote health and safety practices among co-workers?

5. Offer consistent training

Structured training is vital to prevent accidents and serious injuries, so it’s likely your organisation has OHS training as part of your new hires’ induction. Leading with this safety focus is a great way to create a safe workplace, establish expectations for your new team members and make them feel comfortable and motivated about their new role.

While onboarding training is a great place to start, consistent training is an effective long-term strategy to reinforce your organisational and brand values.

If you experience challenges with participation and engagement, adjust your delivery. Some people may need to learn how to operate a piece of machinery, others will learn how to fix it. But everyone need to understand how to deal with an electrical fire. Your team members will be more willing to engage with and accept training when they understand its direct impact on their lives and how it serves their benefit.

6. Use incentives and rewards

Gain better results and establish a workplace culture of safety by offering rewards and incentives for using safety procedures properly. One way is to report and share information about decreased injuries and accidents. (But use this strategically so it doesn’t make employees reluctant to report workplace incidents.)

7. Provide the right support and equipment

While training is useful and effective, it must be reinforced with support and good equipment. While Australia has many mandatory rules and regulations, go above and beyond safety laws to provide support and good equipment in ways that are unique to your business. Regularly talk about first aid kits, helmets, fire safety, vehicle and machine-specific protocols, and other elements relevant to your business.

Demonstrating your commitment to create a safe workplace communicates to your current and future talent that you care about their health, safety and wellbeing. Including a safety-focus as part of your employer brand, screening and training processes, will empower you to build a strong culture of workplace safety.

Do you need a recruitment campaign to attract the best candidates to your vacancy? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Advertising Specialists.

Are you recruiting purple squirrels? (How to rethink your selection criteria)

/in , , /by

This guide will help you overcome the hurdles preventing you from finding the ideal person to fill your vacancy, instead of endlessly searching for “purple squirrels”, the perfect candidate who may or may not exist. Who knows, by using these strategies, you might discover your new hire was the one you were looking for all along!

What is a purple squirrel?

In recruitment and HR, a purple squirrel is the perfect candidate for your role. They have all your ideal qualifications and experience, and are the ultimate choice for your vacancy! However, the difficulty in finding these candidates has given a second meaning to the term. Purple squirrel has come to mean the unobtainable. Just as they are impossible to find in nature, in real life, they are also almost a fantasy.

Let’s face it, the perfect candidate (or a purple squirrel) that perfectly fits every want and need your organisation has for a role is incredibly rare. Seldom do we come across a purple squirrel in the recruitment world who is actively searching for a new position. So, stop trying to catch the idyllic mythical creatures and start searching for the ideal candidate.

High-quality candidates don’t have trouble proving their worth and as such, tend to be snapped up by employers very quickly. So keep them engaging from recruitment marketing and advertising, during the application process and throughout the recruitment process. If they’re excited by your opportunity and engaged with the process, it’s less likely they’ll take up a role with a competitor.

High-quality candidates also tend to be pretty switched on, and won’t waste their time applying for roles if they deem the application process unnecessarily long or complex. Instead, they’ll move on to the next role they see and you’ll lose them. So it’s important you design your process with your ideal candidate in mind.

You can also use the right technology to speed up your shortlisting process. For example, use your Candidate Management System to set up automatic filters to exclude ineligible candidates immediately. For example, if your role requires someone to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, add a filter that automatically marks an application as ineligible.

This guide will help you overcome the hurdles preventing you from finding the ideal person to fill your vacancy, so you don’t waste time hunting purple squirrels who may not exist. Perhaps you’ll discover that they were just the squirrel you have been looking for!

Review your selection criteria

Finding your ideal candidate begins by understanding the requirements of your role. Conduct a critical assessment of which skills and experience are vital for your role, and which you can compromise on.

After establishing your selection criteria, use your requirements in a compelling way. At Employment Office, our clients typically ask for advice about how to display their selection criteria and use it in their screening process. We always recommend online screening questions as the first-round application process.

Use screening questions effectively

There are a number of common mistakes we see when it comes to online screening questions. We recommend using online screening questions as your first round of screening to save you time reading long cover letters and resumes. However, there is a bit of an art and science to it.

One of our clients wanted to ask one screening question to address every piece of selection criteria. As you can imagine, this would have been a long and tedious application process for candidates! This impacted the number of applications they obtained. In fact, our Specialists were able to report on strong click-through rates, but high drop-out rates

Ideally, choose between three to eight screening questions, and find efficiencies where you can. For example, if your goal is to assess communication skills, instead of asking a question about communication, you could instead use the screening questions as a whole to assess this skill. You’ll very easily be able to judge a candidates’ spelling, grammar and tone from reading their answers to other long answer questions.

Reduce the number of long-answer questions required for applications to increase the likelihood of great candidates applying for your role.

Interestingly, we recently conducted a survey with a large sample group of our candidates – that is, people who have applied for positions through our online application process – and the results were really interesting. It might surprise you to know that 76% of candidates enjoy answering screening questions.

“76% of candidates enjoy answering screening questions.”

So, don’t eliminate screening from your application process, but ensure you’re asking the right number of questions and the right kinds of questions.

Tailor screening questions for each role

It’s really important that you don’t use blanket questions for all your career opportunities.

Of course, there are common screening questions that may be necessary, such as working rights, and these questions tend to be easy check box answers that don’t impact the time it takes for candidates to apply. However, when it comes to long-answer questions, try to be specific in what you’re asking.

Tailor your questions to the position you are trying to fill and ask questions that will give you a clear indication right away if someone is suitable or not.

Don’t use too many screening questions

Asking too many questions is one of the most common mistakes employers make.

Numerous studies have discovered that as you increase the number of questions in your application process, the number of completed applications decreases.

Stick to approximately five questions where possible, and include a mix of check box, short text, and long text questions. Once you add more than six questions, you reduce your candidate by almost by half. If you go beyond 10 questions your dropout rate will increase exponentially.

Use written-answer screening question when necessary

Although you want to keep the application process brief, it’s important to ask a couple of long-answer or written-answer questions. This gives candidates the opportunity to share how their experience, knowledge or skillset applies to the role and why you should consider them over other candidates.

It also gives you the opportunity to learn information about your candidates that you may not have learned from their CV.

It’s a fantastic chance to assess their communication skills which, depending on the position, could be imperative. Personally, if we’re hiring for a team member who will be delivering copywriting services for our clients, written-answer questions are the most valuable source of assessing grammar, writing ability and attention to detail.

Depending on the position you are recruiting for and who your ideal candidate is, written-answer questions also act as a good indication of whether the candidates are invested in your opportunity and putting in effort, as opposed to copying and pasting short or irrelevant answers.

Don’t make screening questions too complicated

Although long answer questions are important and useful when utilised correctly, it’s important to make sure they are clearly worded. You want candidates to be able to understand exactly what you want to know about them so they are able to provide you with the most relevant and straight forward answer as possible.

Don’t use irrelevant questions

Stick to the questions you absolutely need to give you a first indication of whether someone should be considered further or whether they should be eliminated right away from your recruitment efforts.

Use screening question best practices

Many clients ask us about the best way to set up screening questions. We recommend not requiring cover letters, assessing for cultural fit and using behavioural testing.

Cover letters are quickly becoming extinct within the progressive recruitment space. They tend to be blanket statements that don’t do the best job of telling you what you need to hear to make a decision.

Include one screening question to understand candidates’ personal and behaviour characteristics. For example, ask them about what they’re are looking for in their next workplace, or what they like to do in their spare time, outside of work. Your goal is to attract candidates who will be the right organisational fit, (not purple squirrels!) and this helps you do just that.

Pair screening questions with behavioural testing. The best way to assess personal characteristics is by pairing screening questions with behavioural testing. Testing is a great way to gain deeper insights about developmental considerations and interview questions if you decide to progress candidates to face-to-face interviews.

“Remember, the right screening questions attract top talent.”

In addition to increasing your volume of applications, using these screening techniques will help you attract the right candidates to your position.

Overcome unconscious bias

Whether you know it or not, it’s almost certain you have either been the victim or perpetrator of unconscious bias.

By definition, unconscious biases are social stereotypes that one forms unknowingly about certain groups of people. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups which stem from a tendency to organise social worlds by categorisation.

Essentially, we all have and experience unconscious bias, it’s natural, but when it comes to finding your ideal candidate, it’s important to challenge yourself and your recruitment process to be as free as possible from unconscious bias.

If you let these biases creep into your process, it’s more likely you’ll have wider organisational issues such as lack of diversity within your workforce, and hiring the wrong people which we all know costs a lot of time and money! It can also lead to you recruiting for a purple squirrel, instead of your ideal candidate.

We’ve certainly experienced some uncomfortable situations where hiring managers are set on hiring a candidate of a certain gender, age or background. This is the wrong way to approach finding your actual best fit. Step back and re-think who the ideal person is for the role.

In resisting recruiting purple squirrels, think about your ideal candidate and avoid the “perfect”, or you’ll always be disappointed. Determine the essential requirements of the person for your role and determine what you can compromise.

Use this guide to work with your hiring managers and avoid looking for those elusive purple squirrels in favour of your ideal candidates.

Use screening questions specific to each opportunity you advertise, and use them to reduce your time shortlisting and identify strong candidates from the start, beyond qualification or experience matches.  Don’t let unconscious bias affect your perception of a person’s ability – or inability – to do the job. Shift your thinking from the type of candidate you tend to hire to what a different type of candidate could bring to the position or team. Avoid using pronouns when talking about your ideal candidate, and consider hiding information (i.e. hide names, gender, age) until you’ve completed the initial filtering process.

By designing a great screening process, you’ll reduce the frustration of trying to find those elusive purple squirrels, and instead attract more applications to find your ideal candidate more easily.

Interested in optimising your hiring process to avoid purple squirrels? Schedule a discussion with our Recruitment Advertising Specialists.

Essential recruitment metrics to track now  

/in , , , /by

Busy recruiters experience a slew of time pressures, which is why recruitment metrics often fall by the wayside. But recruitment metrics are a critical way to determine return on investment and assess the success of your initiatives. Here are recommendations to get you started, how to measure each metric, and which metrics you should focus on.  

As a critical organisational function, recruitment requires set metrics and KPIs to track return on investment and the effectiveness of your initiatives.

Here are the important metrics to get savvy recruiters focus on. But as we explain, while there are many different metrics you can track, choose the metrics in line with your recruitment and organisational goals.

Average daily revenue per employee

Start by calculating the average daily revenue per employee. This metric reveals the average revenue each of your team members contributes to the bottom line. We can use the final figure to plug into other calculations to determine averages.

Calculate your annual revenue, divided by your total number of employees, divided by 365 days in a year. This gives you the average daily income per employee. You can then use this metric in calculations such as time to hire and cost per hire.

Annual revenue / total number of employees / 365 = average daily income per employee.

Time to hire

Lengthy hiring processes can be frustrating for both candidates and hiring managers. If this is a challenge in your organisation, measuring time to hire at regular intervals will enable you to make more informed decisions and measure the effectiveness of your initiatives.

Calculate time to hire from the day you launch your recruitment advertisements, to the day you receive an acceptance.

Average daily income per employee x time to hire (days) = $ dollar value

Improving this metric means you are bringing key skills into your organisation sooner to produce results. Not to mention, increased satisfaction from hiring managers and candidates alike.

Annual employee turnover

Annual employee turnover is a useful metric to measure retention. However, this metric can be challenging! As not all turnover is necessarily bad for your organisation. (You may like to measure total employee turnover vs. regretted losses.)

Total number of employees left position / total number of employees = percentage %

Total number of regretted loss / total number of employees = percentage %

If you are challenged by retention, track annual employee turnover at different intervals.

Average number of applications per role  

Do you know how many applications you are receiving per role? The right Candidate Management System makes this process easy, as you can obtain the number of roles you have advertised during the year, and calculate the number of applications you received for those roles.

Number of applications received / number of roles advertised = average number of applications per role

Organisations with strong employer branding tend to see a higher volume of quality applications.

Quality of applications 

This metric is also known as “qualified applications”. If you want to attract high-quality candidates, you must assess performance by measuring quality of applications. Calculate this metric by assessing the number of candidates shortlisted for each position

Total (shortlisted) candidates per vacancy who move past initial screening screen stage = quality of applications

Total number of shortlisted candidates per year / number of roles advertised = quality of applications

Cost per hire

How much is recruitment costing your organisation, from preparing your recruitment advertisement, to receiving an acceptance?

In the following recruitment metric, internal costs represent time investments from internal recruiters and hiring managers (using the average hourly income calculation we shared previously).  External costs represent your recruitment advertising costs and any recruitment outsourcing costs.

Internal costs + external costs / total number of hires = $ cost per hire

You can also use the ISO standard for cost per hire. ISO is the International Organization for Standardization [sic], an international standard-setting body to calculate cost per hire, which offers another level of complexity.

Employee engagement and satisfaction

How many members of your organisation are psychologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making a positive contribution or showing up with the enthusiasm and motivation to be highly productive?

A staggering 76% of the Australian workforce self-nominates as disengaged or actively disengaged, lacking almost anything resembling commitment (Gallup, State of the Global Workforce, 2017).

There are a number of different tools and providers you can use to measure employee engagement and satisfaction. Determine which measurement tool is right for your organisation’s goals, budget and needs, and conduct 6-month or 12-month benchmarking to measure the impact of your initiatives.

Conduct an annual employee engagement survey.

Employee Net Promoter Score

You may be familiar with a Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS is a quantitative measure that provides an index ranging from -100 to 100 that reflects the likelihood of people to recommend an organisation’s products or services to others. NPS helps organisations gain an understanding of overall satisfaction, advocacy and loyalty.

In your Employee Engagement Survey, include a question around eNPS, that is, Employee Net Promoter Score. This asks people about their likelihood to recommend your organisation as a place to work to others.

Respondents are asked, “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is extremely unlikely and 10 is extremely likely, how likely are you to recommended [company/product/service] to other people?”

From their answer, they are classified into three categories: detractors, passives and promoters.

This is a useful metrics to take a “temperature check” of the overall satisfaction and engagement of your workforce.

Quality of hire 

According to LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 39% of talent leaders agree that quality of hire is the single most valuable metric to track performance. 60% of talent leaders report identifying quality hires as their top challenge of 2019, yet only 2% have a framework to measure quality. Often, the discussion of quality of hire is confused with selection practices and not an employee’s performance once onboard.

Start by determining the characteristics of a great employee first, using post-hire data. Then, look at how to predict those characteristics among candidates. There are a number of ways to measure quality of hire. Here is on that we recommend.

A quality hire is, essentially, a great team member. But what makes a great team member? Measure:

  • Inspiration – can they inspire others and their team?
  • Experience – are they fulfilled in their role and do they want to stay? (Retention)
  • Fit – do they fit or add to your organisation’s culture?
  • Results – are they producing results expected of the role?*
  • Integrity – are they trustworthy act on their words

*When assessing their ability to produce results, take “ramp-up time” into account, allowing your new hires to learn, develop and get up to speed (potentially, over the course of their probationary period).

Use insights from your new hire, hiring managers and team members.

Measure: inspiration (20), experience (20), fit (20), results (20) and integrity (20) = % of 100

The best ways to asses quality of hire include:

  • work sample tests
  • structured interviews
  • general mental ability tests
  • peer ratings.

Indicator metrics 

As mentioned, there are many metrics you could choose to measure. Some organisations track:

  • applicant source
  • first-year hire retention rate
  • offer acceptance rates
  • recruitment advertisement views
  • recruitment advertisement conversion rates (views to applications)
  • social media engagement
  • and/or other metrics.

These metrics can act as a “trigger” or alarm and provide deeper insights into your strengths and areas for improvement. From these metrics, you may need to investigate other metrics further, secure external expertise, and/or adjust your strategy.

For example, low advertisement view rates can result in a low volume of applications; which would indicate you need to adjust your recruitment advertising strategy. Or, low social media engagement overall could indicate your employer branding and recruitment marketing strategy could need some work.

It is essential to track recruitment metrics to identify areas you are performing well and areas for improvement. You do not need to measure all these metrics, only the ones that suit your recruitment and organisational goals.

Decide what the most important recruitment metrics are based on your organisational goals. (For example, do your goals focus on revenue, applicant conversions, retention or brand awareness?)

Great recruitment marketing equates to a strong return on investment through high-quality applicants, better hires, reduced time to hire and cost per hire, increased acceptance rates and improved retention. So choose the right metrics in line with your recruitment goals, and start measuring them today!

For assistance with reporting or measuring recruitment metrics, speak to our knowledgable Employer Branding Specialists, email us at info@employmentoffice.com.au, or call us on 1300 366 573.

Making a hire in 2020? Top tips for holiday recruitment

/in , /by

The latest job board data reveals a surge in candidate activity over the holiday break, making it the perfect time to advertise, even if you don’t need to fill a position until later in the New Year. Here’s why you need to get ahead of the curve, and ways to tailor your strategy according to your resources and timelines.

Generally, when we think about holiday recruitment we think about the manic casual hiring period that typically occurs between October and January. But what if your organisation happens to be looking for full-time, permanent employees during this time? Many people stop recruiting over the end-of-year break for a variety of reasons, but, in fact, it can be a golden opportunity to attract top talent.

The latest data reveals there are fewer recruitment advertisements being posts, and active candidate searches double!

According to Indeed, candidate activity almost doubles between 23 December and 7 January.

That’s an average increase of more than 2.8 million daily searches. 

But why the surge in candidate activity?

There’s a number of reasons that the holiday period sees a rise in the number of job searches, across all industries. Two of the more common explanations are that candidates simply have more time to look for new opportunities, with time off for the holidays providing the perfect opportunity to research a potential change.

Candidates are also often inspired by the New Year period to make a change in their lives, and are more open to considering opportunities as part of “new year, new career” resolutions.

So what does all of this mean for you?

The benefits of recruiting over the holiday break include:

  • Preparation and organisation – organising your recruitment advertisement/s in December means you won’t be scrambling to create a campaign during the surge in January.
  • Less competition – Fewer advertisements means you’ll have less competition from other organisations vying for the same candidates. Starting your recruitment process before the mid to late January rush means that you will be able to capture candidate’s interest from the moment they start looking.
  • Better ROI – You’ll also have better return on investment for each advertisement, with your ads staying higher in search results for longer, giving you better visibility to potential applicants;
  • More convenience – imagine returning from your holiday break and having a talent pool ready for you and your hiring manager to commence interviewing, while the rest of your competitors are only just starting to launch their recruitment advertisements in saturated market. Even if you don’t require a candidate to commence until January, or even February, capturing their interest early could mean that you are conducting interviews by the time other organisations are even posting their first ads.

We know one reason organisations choose not to advertise over Christmas is often due to a lack of resources. So, if you don’t have time to write and run an advertisement or conduct interviews, but you want to capitalise on the increased candidate activity between 23 December and 7 January, there are strategies you can put in place.

Adjust your recruitment advertising copy

Create copy that resonates with your target candidate market. The old adage, “New Year, New Career” still rings true today!

Maybe you want to remind a nurse your opportunity is a chance to move away from the hospital environment; or you want to appeal to individuals or couples looking to make a coastal move from the city; or maybe an engineer who is wanting to work on some exciting new projects that kick off in the new year. Candidates seeking new opportunities during this time are often driven to do so because they’re wanting something more, so incorporate language that speaks to this desire.

Be clear about next steps

It’s not uncommon for offices to close mid-December, or for panel members to be involved in the interview process to take leave. So communicate to the candidate in your recruitment advertisement when candidates will hear from you if being considered.

For example, you might like to include a line such as, “We will be reviewing applications in the second week of January, with the aim to commence interviews in the last week of January.”

If you have an eRecruitment system that responds to candidate applications, it’s a great idea to tailor your automated response emails to include this for this time period.

Confirm candidates’ availability

If you know what dates you and your team will be conducting interviews in the New Year, you can ask candidates about their availability as part of the application process. This makes it easier for you to book candidates in when you return, and encourages those candidates to be available on those dates.

Interview early (if possible!)

If you’re in a position to interview candidates prior to the holiday break, highlight those dates in your advertising or mention that there are immediate start dates available.

This is also an opportunity to invite high-quality candidates to events, such as Meet and Greets, or Christmas parties.

Get support

If you need additional support, considering engaging a recruitment partner like Employment Office to create your campaign, advertise and interview suitable candidates on your behalf.

You can then return in the New Year to a shortlist of candidates who have been pre-screened, engaged, and kept warm for your opportunity.

So, if you need to make hires in the New Year, don’t delay. Start in December to get ahead of the surge and tailor your strategy accordingly with the right messaging and support.

To discuss a recruitment solution tailored to your needs, contact Employment Office on 1300 366 573 or info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Struggling with lack of capacity? Top tips for Council to recruit top talent

/in , , /by

A range of industries in Australia need more skilled employees than the supply of talent that is available, and local government is no different. In fact, according to a 2018 report by the Australian Local Government Association, 69% of local governments are experiencing a skill shortage, with occupations like engineers, project managers, building surveyors and environment health officers most in demand.

The local government recruiting process is driven by the need for skilled employees, but does your organisation have the resources to source and retain top talent?

As budgets shrink and demand for services increases, many government HR departments have been stretched to the limit. You may only have one or two HR or Talent Professionals who are tasked with evaluating dozens or even hundreds of applications for a single job opening. This makes it more difficult for you to quickly identify quality candidates and efficiently progress them – particularly if you aren’t leveraging the right processes, including automation.

Here’s how Councils can deal with lack of capacity and streamline their processes by implementing strong processes, automation and technology.

Implement recruitment best practices 

Solving a lack of resource capacity in local government comes down to securing the right technology and implementing the best processes. Lacking best-practice processes and out-dated technology not only results in your team experiencing an increased workload, you may be unintentionally delaying your hiring process. Quality candidates may then pursue other opportunities or become uninterested in proceeding further with their application simply because of poor response times.

To structure your local government recruitment process well, it needs to be efficient, effective and economical. Probably the most crucial element of a successful recruitment campaign is the screening, shortlisting and selection process, which generally involves:

  1. Screening – rating and ranking candidates against suitability criteria.
  2. Skills testing and behavioural assessments – to determine a shortlist.
  3. Face-to-face-interviews – usually undertaken by a selection panel. In many local governments, this may also involve role-playing and/or work sampling, where candidates carry out tasks similar to what would be expected in the position.
  4. Reference and background checks – to ascertain your chosen candidates’ suitability. This can involve qualification verification, ID, financial probity and criminal history checks, and working with children clearance if required. Some government departments also often require candidates to undertake functional health assessments and other checks.

Implementing recruitment best practices and establishing set processes for all team members to follow provides a consistent candidate experience.

Use recorded two-way video interviews, or hosting Group Information and Interview Days, and outsource background checks, reference checks, skills testing and other checks wherever possible.

Use the right technology

Streamline your processes by using the right recruitment technology; ideally, a Candidate Management System (CMS). Having a CMS give you full control of all your recruitment campaigns from start to finish, as well as:

  • review and oversee your entire candidate pool
  • manage, track and shortlist candidates
  • create and send branded, personalised communications to candidates
  • communicate with many candidates with the click of a button
  • evaluate your campaigns with data-driven reporting.

A CMS has added benefits such as allowing multiple team members to review applications for roles, change applicant statuses and add notes; all while keeping candidate data secure. Technology also eliminates your reliance on paper, saving you valuable time (no more waiting around the printer for hard copy CVs and cover letters) and resources.

Use screening questions

Screening questions are also an incredibly helpful tool in saving time. Include screening questions in your recruitment advertisements for candidates to answer when they submit their application. Screening questions also provide candidates the opportunity to showcase their personality and skills. Designing the right screening questions can reduce the amount of time you need to review hundreds of CVs. You can also create automations to eliminate candidates who don’t meet your requirements. (Check out our top tips for designing effective screening questions.

The right technology gives you more capability and saves you valuable time and resources. Combining a CMS with recruitment best practices to streamline your processes is the best way for Council to manage lack of capacity, from posting your recruitment advertisements to sending employees contracts.

Interested in learning more about Candidate Management System (CMS) software? Contact an Employment Office Recruitment Specialist on info@employmentoffice.com.au or 1300 366 573.

3 ways to reach more people when hiring for mining and construction

/in , , /by

One of the biggest recruitment dilemmas many recruiters in the mining industry face is reaching the best people. Job boards like SEEK and Indeed are becoming a less effective way of recruiting for this industry. Why? Your ideal candidates are just not looking on the sites anymore… instead, the job offers are being delivered directly to them!

Similarly, for both construction and mining, the skills shortage is having a real impact, making it harder than ever to attract the best talent. So, if you’re recruiting for these industries, it’s crucial for you to understand the best way to attract and convert passive candidates. 

Passive candidates, or continuous candidates, are candidates who are not actively looking for a new role. This means that they are employed, enjoy their current work or lack the time to search for new opportunities. 

However, passive candidates may investigate the right opportunity if it arises, so it is important to create that opportunity and persuade the candidate to pursue it further.

Here are 3 passive recruitment techniques you can use to find the best people in mining and construction. 

Headhunting and digital headhunting

Headhunting and its digital counterpart is a targeted search for talent who are currently employed. These passive candidates may not be actively looking for a new position, but would be happy to move if the right opportunity arose.  

Headhunting is a particularly successful method of sourcing prospective employees with a niche skill – which may be just what you need in mining and construction!  

Clever advertising & standing out from the crowd

Typical recruitment advertisements can be completely missed or ignored by the passive candidates you’re looking to target. Create exciting and relatable recruitment advertisements that really speak to your demographic to attract attention and promote click-throughs that convert applications. 

Use a careers video or employee profile story as a way to promote your organisation’s ethos and culture. Establish an attractive careers page on your website with images of your real employees, as research reveals candidates are highly likely to investigate your employer brand and their careers page before applying. 

Utilise social media to promote brand awareness

Using social media as an advertising tool, you can advertise your vacancy to the right demographic and tailor it to reach those who like relevant pages and capture or recapture their attention. Advertisements are more likely to capture attention if it is related to your target’s personal interests.

For example, using Facebook advertising, you can search for potential candidates in a specific location, within a specific industry, based on interests and more to really target your recruitment advertisement. 

Our recruitment advertising team are experts in passive candidate attraction, headhunting, writing effective recruitment advertisements and social media advertisement targeting. For the best chance to fill your mining or construction vacancy, call us on 1300 366 573 or email us at info@employmentoffice.com.au.

Pay transparency: Can it help you attract and retain sales and retail employees?

/in /by

Salaries have always been a confidential aspect of the corporate world, but the latest research from LinkedIn suggests that this is changing.

In recent years, there has been a push to ensure glass ceilings are broken when it comes to gender and racial wage gaps. Many major corporations are facing this by becoming more transparent about the salaries of their highest earners, listing their roles and their gender identifications. LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends report states that this trend has extended into more organisations; employees and candidates alike are now looking for better transparency when it comes to salaries.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean you need to publish exactly what your employees earn individually. It could be a matter of presenting titles or roles and giving a salary range. For example, ‘entry-level sales roles; base salary of $45-50,000 per annum with performance bonus’.

How salary transparency can benefit your organisation

In the Global Talent Trends report, Anil Dash (CEO of Glitch) is quoted: ‘Transparency isn’t the goal. The goal is paying everyone fairly, and transparency forces us to do that’. While this may  be a difficult subject to broach for current employees, there are some major benefits to being transparent within your organisation.

  1. Transparency builds trust, many may assume they are being underpaid for their efforts and become dissatisfied with their roles. You’ll not only retain employees by being clear about the salaries of their peers and senior employees, but you’ll earn their trust that you are paying them a fair salary.
  2. Employees that are on the lower end of the salary range will be encouraged to discuss ways in which they can improve and head towards the upper end of the salary range. These may be difficult discussions but encouraging employees to ‘prove their worth’ to achieve that pay rise will improve productivity.
  3. Being transparent addresses and avoids pay gaps within your business, especially where pay becomes more variable and negotiable. As Dash states, being transparent about salaries encourages the fair and equal pay. Your team can be sure that your company is a breaker of glass ceilings thanks to the open narrative regarding their pay.

While there are negatives to becoming more transparent about pay too, once you navigate the initial storm of pay discussions, disputes and upset; encouraging an open discourse in regard to pay will become more positive. It will both increase trust in your organisation and productivity in your employees.

Why pay transparency can help with candidate attraction for sales roles

According to a Glassdoor study, 67% of active job seekers look for salary in job adverts.  According to Julie Coucoules, Glassdoor’s Global Head of Talent Acquisition, ‘Job seekers crave transparency on pay, not only to make an initial judgment about whether to consider applying for a job, but also to assess if an employer holds long-term potential for them.’

It is important to be clear when it comes to pay too. We advise being clear as to the whole package. Instead of only advertising the on target earnings for that role, be clear on what the base pay is, plus their superannuation plus the possible OTE.

For example, ‘$90,000 OTE’ is going get you more ad views but will be less productive than ‘base pay of $45,000 per annum, plus $5,000 superannuation and a variable monthly performance bonus with possible OTE of $90,000’. Not only will the full package be clearer for candidates and weed out irrelevant talent; the trust that candidate has in your organisation will increase as they understand the full pay package before applying to your position.

Pay Transparency contributing to Employee Satisfaction and retention

Pay transparency is becoming more common across many organisations, in 2018, PayScale reported it’s ‘Heroes’ of pay transparency. Aldi came in at the top on the list of organisations identified as having a ‘highly transparent pay process by their own employees’. What’s more, in order to make the list ‘organizations had to have at least forty percent of their surveyed employees reporting high pay transparency’. Aldi came in with 85% of their employees being satisfied.

If an employee is satisfied with their role and pay, the theory is that they’ll remain in their role and continue to work hard for the organisation. Also, encouraging an open discourse in salary can increase trust in the organisation. If you haven’t got anything to hide, why keep it so secretive?

The level of pay transparency you give is completely up to you and what suits your organisation, but there is proof that being transparent can increase employee trust and retention and attract more appropriate talent to your job advertisement.

Need expert candidate attraction advice?

Speak to a member of our recruitment advertising team for expert advice on attracting the right people to your role. You can get in touch on 1300 366 573 or email info@employmentoffice.com.au.