How to Keep Control of the Recruitment Process

How to Keep Control of the Recruitment Process Something that doesn’t get enough attention when thinking about recruitment, is that for the majority of people who attend an interview with your business it will be their only direct interaction with your company. How they are treated throughout that process, good or bad, will form not only their view of your business but indirectly your ability to attract good people in the future. The most common complaints candidates make about a recruitment process are: They didn’t receive any feedback from the interview; The process dragged on; If they had known more about the role they wouldn’t have attended the interview and the interview was a waste of time; All of which are  very avoidable if you take some time to effectively plan the recruitment process. The key areas you need to think about when planning your recruitment include: Time Frame; Recruitment Strategy; Job Description; Interview Process Feedback; Offer, Contracts and Induction Period; Time Frame Setting a time frame is important because it gives everyone a deadline to work towards and it will help you: Differentiate between what is desirable criteria and what is essential criteria; Determine what kind of process you need to run; and Create a sense of urgency; A simple start point is: State date â€" X; Offer accepted, and resignation â€" Allow for 28 days (in most cases for permanent positions); Offer made and contract out to candidate â€" Allow for 2 days; Final Interview â€" Allow for 1 day; Each interview prior to that â€" Allow for up to a week; Short list â€" Allow for up to a week between short list and first interview; Search stage â€" Allow for 2 weeks; Brief agency / internal recruitment team; As you can see, assuming a 2 interview process and not allowing for any adjustments in the search parameters or testing, you are looking at 8 weeks between when you brief an agency to when the new hire starts. Some easy ways to reduce this time is: Agree interview times for each interview stage â€" If you do this the recruiter will prepare each candidate that they need to keep times free to attend future interviews; Use a specialist recruiter â€" Most specialist recruiters will have short lists of 3 ready to go for positions they regularly recruit. Meaning you can ask to meet there best 3 while they undertake a search specific for your role; If there is a risk that you will need to adjust the search criteria, you can run 2 processes at once, that is meet candidates that fit the ideal candidate profile and those that fit just the essential criteria of the role; Making the above adjustment to run an efficient process will reduce the time it takes for you to fill a given position and creates a real sense of urgency which candidates and recruiter alike respond well to. Recruitment Strategy Assuming you decide to use a recruiter there are, broadly speaking, 3 ways of engaging with an agency: Contingent search; Exclusive search; Retained search; Contingent Search: A contingent search is when you agree with a recruitment agency that a fee will only be paid should said agency introduce a candidate you hire. Contingent recruitment is by far the most widely used method because it allows businesses the advantage of using the network of multiple agencies without any initial financial commitment. Beware though, there are a few problems with using multiple agencies, including: Lack of consistency. By that I mean you are less likely to see change or continuous improvement in candidates presented if 5 first round interviews are through 5 different recruiters, than if they are through the 1 recruiter, because you can only provide feedback on an individual rather than the group; Time lost giving feedback to multiple agencies, less likely to give constructive feedback leading to lower satisfaction of those who participated in the process; Candidates are often approached by multiple agencies for the same role, leading to confusion and often lower levels of engagement; Low level of engagement from recruiters, a recruiter is far less likely to invest time because they will have other jobs that are more likely to see a return on that investment. Exclusive search: An exclusive search is, as far as a client’s financial commitment is concerned, a contingent search. The main difference being the client agrees to give an agency X amount of time to fill a position before they will accept applications from anyone else. The most important thing from a recruiter’s point of view is that there is a high level of engagement from the client, which usually means: Meeting with the hiring manager and HR where applicable; Commitment from the business to meet X amount of candidates through them before making a hiring decision; Agreed interview times and days; Exclusive agreements are a good strategy for the majority of positions, including high volume positions  because: High level of engagement and accountability â€" The recruiter will feel as though they are a very realistic chance of filling the position so will prioritise exclusive positions over contingent. Continuous improvement â€" Feedback on CV’s and interviews are going through the one person, so you are more likely to get continuous improvement rather than repetition of mistakes as you might when dealing with multiple agencies; Candidate engagement â€" You will you be more likely to give useful feedback to everyone who participates in the process. In addition to this candidates actually respond better if they believe a position is exclusive to an agency because it creates a sense of scarcity, by that I mean better to be 1 of 5 on a short list than 1 of 5 of 5 shortlists; Time efficient â€" Using a single agency will mean fewer interviews, fewer phone calls and as a consequence of this a quicker turn around; Retained Search: A retained agreement is when you agree to pay an agency part of the fee up front, part on deliver of short list and part on placement of candidates. The more specialised the role, or the fewer candidates that exist who could do the job, the better off you are using a retained search because: Specialised positions require a significant investment of time from a recruiter and, as a recruiter; if I can’t place this person somewhere else then it becomes a question of whether this is a worthwhile investment of time; Retainers carry more initial financial risk than contingent and exclusive searches, however will deliver better results for the same reasons as an exclusive search with the additional benefit: The recruiter knows they will get paid, they will prioritise filling a retained search over every other job they are recruiting for that reason; If you have used a recruiter before and trust that they will be able to fill a job, retained search is without a doubt the most effective recruitment strategy. Job Description Despite having the ability to add a significant amount of value to the recruitment process, job descriptions are often at worst neglected and at best generic. While it is probably the last thing you want to allocate time to, especially if someone has just resigned, taking the time to prepare a detailed job description will allow you to effectively: Evaluate what is absolutely essential criteria for a position and what is desirable; Help differentiate your job from the 100’s of similar positions on the market; Minimise the risk someone will either interview for, or worse, accept a position with your business that they otherwise wouldnt have had they known more; Give candidates and the recruiter reference material to work off when preparing for an interview or submitting candidates on a short list; As part of the process of putting together a job description, if you do decide to use a recruiter, it is a good idea to sit down with them to get a feel for: What talent is currently available in the market and how realistic your expectations are with respect to time frame and salary; What compromises on the job description and desirable experience you can make to make to secure someone in a shorter amount of time or for lower salary; Options regarding temporary and contract staff to afford you more time to find the perfect candidate; Interview Process Feedback Regardless of if you want 1 interview or 10 interviews the key points you need to address to run a successful interview process include: Setting clear expectations of exactly what each candidate will need to complete prior to receiving an offer and in what order, i.e. X amount of interviews, technical test, references offer etc; When and where each stage will take place; What information you want to get out of each candidate at each stage, as well as what information you want to give each candidate and at each stage; When feedback will be given to candidates either directly, via a recruiter or HR; Candidates set aside a considerable amount of time to both prepare for and attend an interview, not to mention often arranging time off work to do so.   For that reason it is no surprise that the most common complaint recruiters will get from candidates who attend an interview is that they didn’t receive feedback. Providing constructive feedback to candidates (as well as recruiters) will ensure: Regardless of the outcome candidates will, including unsuccessful ones, exit the process with a positive impression of the business; Candidates that are progressing are able to address any areas of concern in future interviews, giving you more information to make a decision; Provide the recruiter with valuable feedback on the candidates they have presented to the business improving their performance on the current and future roles they recruit for you; Offer, Contracts and Induction Period The most common mistakes that lead to candidates turning down an offer: Salary is less than what they wanted; Candidate’s personal situation changes including being offered a job they are more interested in; Business takes too long to either offer the position or get a contract out to the candidate; If you confirm a candidate’s salary expectations and interest in a position, either directly or through the recruiter, at each stage of the recruitment process the first two mistakes are easily avoidable. If you are in a situation where circumstances have changed and you are simply unable to offer the salary a candidate wants, they are going to feel short changed. Some options to help in this situation include: Agreeing to a salary review after 6 months; Bringing forward participation in bonus pool to first year of employment; Signing bonus; Once you have got the candidate’s verbal acceptance on the offer, you really need to get the contract out to them as quickly as possible. There are a couple of reasons for this: A candidate will not resign until they have received a written contract, delaying the start date; Until a candidate has a written contract, the offer is just a promise and you leave the door open for other businesses to swoop in; Every day that passes candidates will start questioning if the offer is actually coming; I’ve recruited for some of Australia’s largest businesses, some of which, as crazy as it sounds, will never have a contract out in under a week. Candidates can do funny things at offer if they don’t receive a contract quickly, so if you know it is going to take longer than 24 hours you need to organise to contact the candidate directly and explain the situation. It is one thing to hear it from a recruiter it is another to hear it from a hiring manager. Once the offer is accepted, the candidate has resigned the only other tasks remaining to be done are: Call the candidate, let them know you are excited that they are going to be starting with the business; Make sure they have a computer, logins etc ready for day one; Set clear expectations for the probation period; Provide feedback throughout the probation period, even if it is as simple as, “I think you are doing a good job, we will catch up in more detail at the end of the month” I’ll be going into more detail on each stage of the process in future posts so if there is anything that you want further clarification on or have specific examples worth addressing please feel free to get in contact and I’ll do my best to cover them in those posts. Image Credit: Shutterstock

Desperately Seeking Confident Job Seeker - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Desperately Seeking Confident Job Seeker - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Can you believe it’s the last Monday of 2010? Whether you’re working or job searching (which is a full-time job in itself), today marks the beginning of the last workweek of 2010. My challenge to each job seeker out there is to create a confident personal brand statement before January 1, 2011. Change things up To get creative may take a change of pace, setting, or scenery. Each year I head to FL for at least three weeks to regroup, define new business goals, and connect with my inner self. Within those three weeks the transformation in my work, writing, and clients is amazing. What do you need to get creative? Is it a new room? Different café? Weekend trip? What’s affecting you? Do you find yourself at odds with your current brand statement? Are you comfortable presenting your personal brand when you’re a job fairs or networking? Have you noticed your confidence years past missing? Underneath the surface Below my city girl exterior lays a bohemian country gal that loves to feel the earth against my bare feet. What’s beneath your lost confidence? Has your job search replaced the confident professional in you with a desperate job seeker? Is the tone of desperation seeping through when you attempt to convey your personal brand? The dating desperation correlation Picture the most amazing first date you’ve ever from the best restaurant to stimulating conversation and ending with a passion filled kiss. Now, picture the exact opposite date from the slow as molasses conversation to the tragic service and bad food to the well you’re just thankful it didn’t end in a kiss. The kicker is that date #2, bad restaurant and molasses conversation, has sent you two text messages, called three times, and asked you out twice. Great date #1, that was only two days ago so time will tell. Date #1 is the confident personal branded job seeker and, you guessed it, date #2 is the desperate job seeker. As a prospective employer, whom would you call back? This is the desperately seeking job situation simply depicted in a dating scenario. Author: Adriana Llames is a veteran career coach and acclaimed author of Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game, released with top book seller Amazon.com. She is creator of   “HR In-A-Box,” a Human Resources software product helping small businesses across America and a professional keynote speaker motivating and inspiring audiences with her focused programs on “9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game”, “Confessions of a Career Coach” and “Nice Girls End Up on Welfare.” For more information, visit www.adrianallames.com

2016 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl - Classy Career Girl

2016 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl A year to remember. A little bit of a startup rollercoaster with plenty of ups and downs but we had fun so thats all that matters, right? This was a pretty big transitional year for us since we completely changed our business model. We are pretty glad to get a fresh start and move forward with a consistent business model that we absolutely love in 2017! 2016 Year in Review At Classy Career Girl January: We officially launched our self-study  online bootcamps. February: Anna stopped taking new individual clients in order to focus on taking on additional CEO responsibilities to create a more scalable company by the end of 2016. March: Classy Career Girl’s SIX Year Anniversary and 1,700 posts published. We attended Infusionsofts ICON event in Arizona where we hired a consultant to help us with our Infusionsoft marketing and email system. This really helped our company grow and scale this year and it was one of our best decisions of the year. [RELATED: The Best Business Decisions I Made in 2016] April: We launched our brand on Snapchat (follow us @classycareer). We also hosted an entire month of Instagram giveaways with Day Designer and The Productivity Journal! May: We officially launched our core offerings as membership sites, Corporate Rescue Plan and Love Your Career Formula. We also partnered with Hilton Garden Inn for a very fun giveaway! June: We re-launched the Classy Career Girl Podcast as a weekly show after taking a 2-year break. We did our first Facebook Live and continued to do a weekly show on our Facebook page each week. We also launched the Halfway Hustle challenge. July: We hit 100 members in our membership sites and we hired an amazing web developer and overcame a website hack.  What a relief! August: We launched the second annual Fall in Love With our Work and Life Challenge. We hired our social media intern, Aida Diaz, as our new Community Manager for our membership sites. We also hired 4 amazing interns. Rachell supports our Facebook group. Natalie supports our Instagram growth and content. Elaine supports our Pinterest growth and Ivey supports our editorial content team. We also promoted Lor Mancera to Project Manager!! September: We launched  Love Your Career Formula 2.0 again and launched the mastermind and accountability groups in our membership sites. We also invested in  Stu Mclarens Tribe course to help us grow our membership sites. Thanks Stu! Also in September, Anna was nominated as one of San Diego Magazines Women of The Year. October: We reached 3,000,000 unique visitors to this site since we started and 5,000 Instagram Followers! We also hit 4,000 members in the Classy Career Girl Network. November: We hit our goal of helping 500 women launch their dream careers and businesses since 2010 and we also welcomed a total of 300 members into our membership sites. We had a ton of fun hosting a Black Friday Sale with the team and landed on a top podcast list with  some of our favorite podcasters! Also, in November we landed the #6 spot in the top list of 100 websites every job searcher should follow.   December:  We celebrated  500,000 page views per month and launched our brand new free 90-day planner. We also launched the Freedom Workshop that is going on through January 6th, 2017 and hit 19,000 followers on Pinterest! We are  beyond excited for what’s coming next in 2017. Thank you so much for all of your support. Classy Career Girl would not be here without you all! Anna Runyan + TEAM Classy Career Girl

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Words Can Never Hurt Me. A nursery rhyme from the 1800’s that most of us have heard and possibly even spoken out loud. I was thinking about this because with all the vitriolic in the news this month I recalled this rhyme and thought how it really isn’t true. Words can hurt! Our assessment provider, TTI Success Insights, has done a bunch of brain research into this that shows that there are certain words that stop communication from occurring. Words that, when used, cause our minds to close, our mouths to shut and our brains to mentally pack up shop. The pilot study suggests the way we communicate with one another and the words we choose are vitally important. In fact, what seems to be critical is avoiding the wrong words: words that seem to fit the discussion from our point of view, may actually result in negative reactions when interpreted by others. Thinking about the resistance we see to change.   Even while change maybe the most constant there is in business today. I love the quote from Joseph Heller, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.” So when you’re faced with change … Try using the word “inconvenient.” It will do marvels for your stress chemistry and allow you to face the pressures with new insights and an open mind, ready to take advantage of the opportunities. Rather than seeing the downsides of a change. How you manage your reaction to people who do things that make you crazy angry is also key to your life progress.   For years I have practiced being “peeved” as a standard response to any adversity. Look back at our September 9 blog where you find the article by Tony Robbins that expands on this concept in that we can change our lives by being careful about the words we use in our self-speak. You know… when you talk to yourself. If you have one of our assessments go back and read the words people should use when they want to resonate with you and the words not to use. Want to find out words to use or not use for someone in your social circle? Try our People Profiler tool.. 60 seconds to better communication.   Before you being, watch my video on the home page. Don’t have your assessment or need one email ldryburgh@balancedworklife.com   and well send you your old assessment report or a complimentary link to complete a new one.

10 advantages of being a Third Culture Kid at university - Debut

10 advantages of being a Third Culture Kid at university - Debut This post was written by a member of the Debut Contributor Network. Aayushi Sharma reveals how good life can be for Third Culture Kids at university. In the 1950s, American sociologist, Ruth Hill Useem, created the term ‘third culture kid’ (TCK) to describe children who had grown up in places outside of their parents’ native country. Over the years, I’ve come across many articles and blog posts about the struggles of being a TCK. Many people, including a few friends, have talked about the difficulties of feeling like an outsider in both, the countries they were brought up and their parents’ home countries. Yes, fitting into both worlds was a challenge, but I believe we all became accustomed to this lifestyle growing up. I may have also jumped the gun and hated most aspects of this lifestyle. It wasn’t until I came to university (actually to be completely honest, it wasn’t till I graduated) that I truly understood how lucky I was to have grown up as an international kid. Here are a few things I’ve realised as a TCK at university. When someone asks “where are you from”, you can make your life sound like an adventure Sometimes a ‘simple’ answer like “I was born in India, brought up in Hong Kong and then moved to the UK where I completed my undergraduate degree.” is just not enough. You will undoubtedly get a lot of interview practice as people incessantly question your background (lol) Being able to speak multiple languages allows you to make friends easily Being able to talk about TV shows and movies from different countries, sing all kinds of songs, discuss politics and have some understanding of the cultures that people come from, makes you so much more approachable than you think. In my experience, saying “Hello! How are you?” and a few more phrases in another language engages people to continue having conversation with you. One of your friends, somewhere in the world, is awake to text or call you back No matter how homesick you are, or how badly you want to share a meme, or just want to chit chat, there will always be someone awake, somewhere in the world, who will respond to you! Travel comes easily to you When university becomes tough, you can tell yourself that it doesn’t matter if you become an expert at anything else, at least you will have mastered the skills of travel. Guess it’s safe to say that you are basically a guru and no one can beat you at it. Budgeting? Check. Flight tickets? Check. Accommodation? Check. Itinerary? Check. Visas? Check. Money? Check. Packed bags? Check. Your passport is so full of stamps from the countries you’ve visited, you could probably sell it for a fortune You have travelled from one corner of the world to the other and have so many stories that you could probably write a best selling novel. Or maybe even a book series. One could say youre the real life Phileas Fogg. You are a walking, talking currency converter Honestly, who needs Google when your brain can convert currencies at the speed of light? Beating jet lag is as easy as 1-2-3 Those late night conversations where you and your friends complained about how awake you felt at 4:00am taught you exactly what to do when jet lag hits hard. Using remedies like “make sure the flight arrives early in the day and stays awake till late at night” to “Don’t drink any caffeine”, you have solutions that guarantee an early night in. Your friendship groups are extremely diverse Your friends may be a different race, gender, sexuality, or even religious belief, which is fantastic for almost any conversation about life, politics, religion etc. You can get varying perspectives from all kinds of people, which may sometimes lead to some really heated arguments, but it teaches you to be more accepting of everyone’s beliefs and opinions. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where they come from, what their preferences are, or what they believe in, you love each and everyone of them. And you can’t imagine how miserable your life wouldve been without them. You realise that ‘home’ means people rather than places Traveling around has taught you that, no matter where you go, you will always be more attached to the people than to the place. You will move and will discover new places, but it will be the people you meet that will make you feel comfortable and ‘at home’.   As cheesy as it sounds, home is where the heart is. Plus, you probably have a home in every part of the world, which is always a positive ?? You feel incredibly blessed to have made memories all over the world  You are aware that you will have to say goodbye eventually, so you are and will always be grateful for the people you have met, the things you have experienced and the chances you have taken in that place. I’m not going to lie and tell you that growing up a third culture kid was all rainbows and sunshine. It had its challenges (if you’re interested, turn to our one true God Google who will guide you to lots of articles which discuss the flip side of this topic). Having said that, over time I have come to realise that the number of positives outweighed the negatives and for that reason, I wouldn’t have it any other way! Connect with Debut on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more careers insights.

The Best Jobs that Only Require an Associate Degree - CareerAlley

The Best Jobs that Only Require an Associate Degree - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Source: DegreeQuery.com This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search.Joey Trebif

Mental Health Resume Writing Styles

Mental Health Resume Writing StylesThere are so many different styles of resume writing that the way to achieve the most success in your job search is to know what to avoid. In fact, the whole purpose of resume writing is to make the interview and any subsequent interview stand out from the rest of the other applicants in your area. It is not to create a sales pitch for your resume, although it is useful for that purpose.Resume writing styles can be categorized into specific topics. For example, people who are undergoing mental health challenges are the first to recognize this fact and want to have a large impact on their interview. Those who are looking for jobs in areas such as technology will look at education and the workplace as part of their resume, even if they are a master's degree candidate. The list goes on.What you are going to do is to determine which styles of resume writing styles to fit your unique situation. Not all styles are applicable to all jobs and not all resume writing styles will work for all job openings. As a general rule, the more stressful the situation, the more important your resume will be to help you achieve your goal of getting the job. Resume writing styles that are more reflective of your personality and values will certainly show those qualities to the employer, as well as make you more likely to be hired.Remember that it is up to you to find the best fit. If you do not choose the style you think is right for you, the first resume that comes back might not be the one that gets read. This could make your job search a bit more difficult.So, before you make a decision about what styles to use, you should examine your experience and goals. If you are looking for a job that requires computer experience, for example, you may not need to be so concerned with the relevance of education to the company. When you are ready to submit your resume, you should start by breaking it down into specific styles.Since there are so many resume sty les out there, it may be beneficial to enlist the help of a professional resume writer. There are some companies that will write a resume for you on a specific basis for the industry of choice, thus eliminating the need for you to do this on your own. However, unless you find someone who specializes in the particular skills that you have, you may be left to try to create a style yourself.In conclusion, remember that whether you are looking for a job in mental health care, resume writing styles are the backbone of any successful job search. If you use the right techniques, you will increase your chances of being hired. Remember that any resume written incorrectly will be rejected, no matter how much effort you put into it. Remember that you can become a leader in the field, if you simply know what to avoid.