Working from home. Using MS Teams to hold meetings. Advising clients over Zoom. These are just a handful of actions that many of us would have felt a little uncomfortable with just a month ago – and yet millions of us are now adopting this as a standard way of working due to the Coronavirus lockdown that we find ourselves in.
Many, many organisations are continuing to hire – and indeed are facing huge pressures in this regard. Amongst the many that we work with, we have those in Healthcare (NHS Scotland and NHS Digital stand out); in Social Care; in Education; in Local Authorities; in Distribution – and some of our clients in industry, such as Allied Bakeries, are increasing capacity because the Government wants to ensure we all have enough bread to feed ourselves.
But in these times, are we shifting our thinking sufficiently to ensure we are attracting the right numbers of candidates when we need them most? In that sense I think we can look at this in 3 broad areas: How do we position the brand; how do we manage the process for candidates; and how do we consider where to advertise?
Let’s look at each of these in turn:
Managing your brand
In a time of crisis, there is a temptation that reviewing your ‘kerb appeal’ could be seen as akin to wondering whether you have the right shoes on when the Titanic is going down. However, this is not the right mindset. Making sure you are seen as an attractive employer has never been more important.
There is a real need for people in core sectors and with many people being ‘furloughed’ by their own employer has not helped the marketplace. Being furloughed means that you cannot work at all – and that means many candidates are simply placing their options on hold whilst they sit out the crisis.
But for those who are looking, then a shift in career into the health or care sectors, or home deliveries, or retail perhaps are all wondering how to go about it – and like most of us, that search starts on Google.
But when you land on an employer’s site, how easy is it to find the jobs you, as an employer, want to fill most urgently? Competition for space on the homepage frequently means ‘careers’ is literally a footnote at the very bottom of the site. If a would-be candidate finds the link and clicks, what is the next impression? Is it one that injects a frisson of excitement and anticipation about working in your organisation? Or is it a minefield of options, information overload, disclaimers and barriers? Or are you ‘selling’ the opportunities? The culture? The benefits? The future progression?
I am not a specialist in Employer Value Proposition (EVP), but I think we can all see what good looks like. All I would urge at this stage, is do not neglect your brand in these uncertain times – it could be the saviour for you.
Managing your recruitment process
This could be a huge area to explore, so I just wanted to bring the spotlight onto a couple of areas as serious food for thought.
The application process first
I know this is anecdotal, but my own son recently applied for one of the leading food retailers who had said they were ‘desperate’ for new staff. One of his friends went to their local supermarket, met a manager, completed a basic application in-store and received a call on the way home asking if he could start the next day. Brilliant! Pacey, expedient and driven by the company’s needs.
My son’s experience was that he was directed to go home and apply online. This he did and it took him well over an hour. He had to complete behavioural questionnaires; situational based scenarios; submit a full application, but couldn’t use a CV…and the list went on. Interestingly, that was on Monday and 4 days later he has heard nothing.
I am sure that the two retailers each have their own reasons, but all I would say is that if I was operating at Board level and I wanted the stores to fulfil customer demand, then I know which process I would want to see adopted. That is not to say that you should abandon all process – not at all!
We all know the price of churn and a bad hire. However, making things easy for a candidate does not necessarily mean compromising quality. Adopt a simple two-stage process to capture and engage candidates quickly; allow candidates to attach CVs – or even better, make sure you have a process that allows candidates to automatically populate their information straight from a job board into your application form.
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Video interviewing in Jobtrain |
Consider video interviews
This is not just about social distancing, but also about expediency.
Candidates can be set a limited number of questions and record their answers at home, in their own time. These can then be reviewed by the hiring manager at a time that suits them. Time limits can be set to keep pace in the process, but adopting such measures allows candidates to apply simply and be assessed with meaning and at pace. It just needs a will to change.
Where to advertise?
One striking change in behaviour we are seeing in this past month is the shift to social media. We are all using it more to communicate with colleagues; to get our news; to feel part of that wider society. But are we using it to attract candidates in the best way?
Facebook is the second most popular source of candidates across ALL of our client base. We handle 30m applicants per year – and Facebook is used by a huge amount. But do employers recognise this? Are you closely monitoring your source of candidates? Do you have that capability? So often we all follow tried and trusted methods without really pausing to ask why.
Ironically the pace of the job gets in the way of thinking at times. But now is a good time just to take a moment and look at the process of attracting candidates. Essentially there are two main routes: the first is to advertise and attract candidates who are actively seeking roles. The second is to share opportunities with active and passive candidates via multiple channels (we will talk about that in a minute).
Let’s look at the advertising first
If you were a candidate searching for work, I think most would start by searching for the type of job we are looking for into Google and reviewing the results. I wonder how many Resourcing Managers have tried that to see what the results are and how their own organisation fares?
Google for Jobs
What you are likely to see is that Google for Jobs shows the top-ranking results for that job with a link to apply alongside. But too often candidates are invited to apply via LinkedIn, or Glassdoor, or maybe CV Library.
What you rarely see is them being invited to apply via your own website/ATS. This can cut across your own branding efforts (see point 1 above!) and can be a very frustrating application process – just try following the links yourself and see how it works.
At Jobtrain, we have created an integration to allow candidates to apply directly from Google for Jobs but it is an endless task to make sure you keep ahead of the changes in this field and one that as a Recruiter/Head of Function you should be mindful of monitoring yourself.
Beyond Google, the world of social media is now coming in to its own in these troubled times. This should present a real opportunity to evaluate what you spend on advertising – and where.
Direct posting to the likes of Indeed, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are all free via Jobtrain. Sure, you may want to invest in sponsored adverts in some of these arenas, but don’t just buy advertising on these sites without exploring the free possibilities. I recently met a relatively small potential client who was toying with implementing an ATS yet was concerned about having to spend around £8,000 in doing so. In discussion it was revealed that they spend £45,000 a year on LinkedIn adverts! This would be free with Jobtrain – but still the habit was hard to break.
Employee referrals
The second option is to target passive as well as active candidates. Social sharing and referrals is an ever growing and incredibly effective way of attracting good candidates.
Each of us has around 400 contacts at any one point (on LinkedIn, Facebook etc) so with an organisation of 1,000 employees that gives you a reach of 400,000 and that’s before those people share amongst their group.
A structured (maybe rewards driven) referral scheme can be hugely advantageous. It will deliver people who are likely to already have a positive regard for the business as it has been recommended by someone they know, like and trust. Know, like, trust – the bedrock of any good relationship.
Explore with your own ATS provider whether they offer this or look at external offerings, but an ever-growing number of hires are from this route. This figure is much higher in other countries so it is something that is growing and can certainly help you hire the right people effectively. To put figures against this, a survey last year from LinkedIn revealed that:
| Just under a third of people said referral was responsible for them being hired (30.99%), either from a former co-worker or someone in the company who knew the individual such as friend or relative. This rose to 41.72% when referral as a result of networking was included. |
To conclude, we all know these are challenging times, but that is causing us all to examine the way that we work and how we operate. Don’t let recruitment fall behind at this time – explore the opportunities and embrace the changes and you will emerge far better and in a far stronger position than before the crisis began.