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SCG Trendwatch: Recruitment Industry News & Insights – July 2019

TrendwatchWelcome to your monthly round-up for busy HR professionals. Each month, we share the latest news, strategies, tools and trends affecting the recruitment landscape. Check in each month for the latest updates from all over the web.  

Indeed announces acquisition of automated recruitment technology platform ClickIQ.

Indeed, the world’s #1 job site, announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire ClickIQ, an automated job advertising technology platform, based in the UK.  Read more…

Tech startup Appcast sold for $79 million.

A 5½-year-old Upper Valley digital startup that has become a major player in helping national employers find job candidates has sold a majority stake in the company to a German media giant for $79 million.  Read more…

2019 Study reveals new trends in trucking recruitment.

The trucking and logistics industries are the backbone of the U.S. economy. Naturally, as the economy flourishes, the need for trucks, and drivers, skyrockets. However, the high-volume, high-turnover nature of the industry makes recruiting truck drivers difficult. Research from a 2017 study shows that driver turnover is exceptionally high, reaching as high as 98 percent in 2017 with 70 percent of that turnover occurring in the first year of employment; this rate of turnover places an added layer of difficulty on driver recruitment.  Read more…

iCIMS acquires Jibe to expand engagement, recruitment marketing capabilities.

iCIMS acquired recruiting technology platform Jibe with an eye toward strengthening its offerings in employer branding, candidate engagement and tracking the return on recruiting investments.

Jibe will power iCIMS’ new recruitment marketing solution, Attract, which is available as either part of its core platform or as the front end of other, integrated ATS or HCM solutions.  Read more…

Disability Equality Index shows steady growth of inclusion.

A total of 156 out of the 180 organizations included in the Disability Equality Index received top scores for their inclusion of people with disabilities. The index is a collaboration between the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and Disability:IN, a nonprofit organization focused on disability inclusion in business.  Read more…

Oregon passes nation’s most generous paid family leave law.

Oregon lawmakers recently enacted the nation’s most generous paid leave program. Gov. Kate Brown signed a law into effect on July 1 that will provide 12 weeks of paid leave to just about every employee in the state (yes, even if you only have one employee), to be funded by a new payroll tax paid by both workers and employers with 25 or more employees. While the law doesn’t kick in until 2023, it’s never too early to learn about what’s around the corner and start to prepare.  Read more…

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SCG Trendwatch: Recruitment Industry News & Insights – June 2019

TrendwatchWelcome to your monthly recruitment advertising round-up for busy HR professionals. Each month, we share the latest news, strategies, tools and trends affecting the recruitment landscape. Check in each month for the latest updates from all over the web.

Tech’s jobless rate dips to 1.3%, lowest since Q1 2000

Although job gains were lackluster across most industries, including normally strong sectors like construction, tech jobs continue to show growth in an uncertain economy, partly because nearly every industry has a need for tech-minded personnel.  Read more…

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Monster turns job ads into videos

Video in the recruiting process isn’t a new concept, but employers and vendors alike are finding new ways to use the tech to improve transparency and stand out to applicants during the job hunt.  Read more…

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With ZipRecruiter’s New Product, Job Seekers “Get Recruited” by Top Companies

Employment marketplace ZipRecruiter announced today a first-of-its-kind solution which lets job seekers opt in to get recruited by employers across every industry and experience level.  Read more… 

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Three new HR roles to expect in the future

The future of work is here, and the future of HR is data-driven. We’ve all heard this before. But what new roles will emerge to handle data-driven HR?  Read more…

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AllyO raises $45 million for its AI-driven platform

AllyO, a Mountain View, California-based company developing AI-powered job recruitment products, today announced that it’s completed a series B financing round with $45 million in venture capital, contributed largely by Sapphire Ventures and Scale Venture Partners, as well as existing investors Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), Randstad Innovation Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, and Cervin Ventures.  Read more…

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Vogue launches Fashion Talent Recruitment platform

Condé Nast International revealed the launch of its Vogue Business Talent platform with selected opportunities in London, New York, Paris, Milan, and Hong Kong. Read more…

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SCG Trendwatch: Recruitment Industry News & Insights – April 2019

Trendwatch

Welcome to your monthly round-up for busy Human Resource professionals. Each month, we share the latest news, strategies, tools and recruitment trends affecting the recruitment landscape. Check in each month for the latest updates from all over the web.

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TextRecruit launches Virtual Career Fairs.

https://www.ere.net/textrecruit-virtual-job-fairs/

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IBM’s recent job posting mistake holds an important lesson for employers on diversity recruiting.

https://www.hrmorning.com/ibms-job-application-gaffe-holds-an-important-lesson-for-all-employers/

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Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas lets candidate introduce themselves, improving the candidate experience and resulting in over 200 candidates in the first 18 months.

https://recruitingheadlines.com/this-company-lets-candidates-introduce-themselves/

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HR departments turn to AI-enabled recruiting in race for talent.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hr-departments-turn-to-ai-enabled-recruiting-in-race-for-talent-11552600459

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Talroo announces new pirate audience vertical for this year’s April Fool’s Day campaign.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/04/01/1790498/0/en/The-Tight-Labor-Market-Impacts-All-Talroo-Adds-New-Pirate-Audience-Network.html

Employee Retention

Employee Communication Beyond the Welcome Letter

Employee communicationYou’ve nurtured the candidate relationship and made the offer. They accept. Yay!

Now the real work begins. How do you keep employees, in a highly competitive labor market? As in most relationships, communication is key. Start early and communicate often.

Consider touchpoints through the critical first two years:

  • Welcome the New Hire
  • One month
  • 6 months
  • 1 year
  • 18 months
  • 2 years

The pace and sequence of information will vary based on your specific culture and team structure, but the effort will pay off.  Here are some ideas of things you can do:

  • In larger organizations, give new hires a Newbie Badge, so that employees can welcome them warmly and provide direction if they seem lost.
  • Use a variety of communication methods. Many ATS/CRM tools have built-in onboarding communication modules. Take advantage, but email, text, postcards, flyers, multi-page brochures, custom screen savers, dedicated intranet pages, branded promo items or apparel with a campaign theme are all valid.  In most cases the appropriate method will align with the message easily.
  • Be sure to market an employee referral program early, while they are still in the honeymoon phase. Good recruiters will ask references about their own career aspirations and openness to opportunities. You want to take full advantage of this opportunity to brand the organization and fill open roles.
  • Invite new hires to lunch and learn more about how the reality of the environment matched their expectations.
  • Remind new hires of available benefits. This is often glossed over in orientation and paper information packets. I can’t tell you how many focus groups I’ve facilitated where employees gripe about lack of a benefit that is actually available, but not communicated effectively.
  • If you offer retirement savings make sure they are taking full advantage. An employer match is free money (or at least part of the total compensation package).
  • Remind new hires of your Performance Evaluation process and timing. If you follow the generational archetypes, millennial workers crave constant feedback. Older workers may be fine with annual touchpoints but don’t ignore those who need feedback more frequently.
  • Make sure any Employee Service Program (ESP) is shared and promoted as a benefit to employees. Make it easy for employees to deal with any life hassles that could become a distraction so that they are highly efficient at work.
  • A good onboarding/internal communication strategy will not only keep new hires engaged but will also get them talking about the organizational culture and benefits.
  • If you do happen to lose a star employee, give them a Return Ticket that allows them to return within 30 days if they change their mind. Most people know their value but providing tangible proof of your commitment could take any ego out of it and make it easier to admit that the grass wasn’t greener.

What’s your favorite employee/onboarding communication tip? If you’d like to talk about any of these strategies, we’d love to hear from you.

 

 

 

Recruitment Advertising

Some Things Old Are New Again in Recruitment Advertising

Recruitment Advertising

Recruitment advertising continues to change.  Just a few decades ago, the main way of recruiting was an ad in the local newspaper, maybe a few radio spots or a billboard.  Flyers on car windshields or a small ad in the town’s church bulletin worked well.

 

Then, new technology entered the world of recruitment advertising.  The newspaper was now online, radio spots were almost non-existent and billboards were priced out of the market.  And flyers?  Hmmm … just not the way to go.  Social media job postings became the new kids on the block … a way to get candidates to apply NOW … not with a mailed resume … but by email or apply online.  Email blasts to a candidate database were a good way to reach that special demographic.

 

And now, recruitment advertising seems to be changing again.  While newspapers still don’t have the huge recruitment section they had before, more and more ads are being placed.  Radio is working well and billboards, now much more reasonable in price, are back again.  And those car windshield flyers or church bulletin ads?  They’re working!  Email blasts are still out there, but direct mail is growing in demand (yes, it seems people still like to get mail).

 

I handle clients who love print advertisements and receive great results.  Others swear by radio spots and/or billboards.  It’s up to me to know the old school way of thinking, as well as the new school of thinking, and what works best for my clients.

 

And one thing I do know … don’t always sell clients on the new way of thinking when the old way of thinking just might be the way to go.  Mix them together … see what works for each client.  Each of my clients is different and diverse; like their media plan should be.

 

Old just might be new again.

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SCG Trendwatch: Recruitment Industry News & Insights

TrendwatchWelcome to your monthly round-up for busy HR professionals.  Each month, we share the latest news, strategies, tools and trends affecting the recruitment landscape. Check in each month for the latest updates from all over the web.

 

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Rally Recruitment Marketing announced that they have reached the first-year milestone of attracting 10,000 professionals to its community, becoming the largest community for the rapidly growing discipline of Recruitment Marketing.

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Jobiak, a provider of the AI-based recruitment marketing platform specifically for Google for Jobs, launched its flagship platform for recruiters and talent acquisition teams to directly publish their jobs to Google for Jobs.

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LinkedIn announces its own applicant tracking system, named Talent Hub, which will launch in 2019.

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SeekOut’s co-founder and CEO Anoop Gupta, explains how this candidate sourcing platform is changing the game in candidate engagement.

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Tesla tops the list of ‘hot companies’ among Indeed applicants.

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SCG Trendwatch: Recruitment Industry News & Insights – Sept 2018

Welcome to your monthly round-up for busy HR professionals. Each month, we share the latest news, strategies, tools and trends affecting the recruitment landscape. Check in each month for the latest updates from all over the web.

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Yello, who recently hosted #HRTX Chicago 2018 on Sept 6, shares their top takeaways from the event. HRTX takes place in 8 cities across the U.S. each year, bringing Talent Acquisition and Recruitment leaders together in a half day open environment workshop.

https://recruitingdaily.com/yellos-observations-from-hrtx-chicago-2018/

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ZipRecruiter was announced as the presenting sponsor of Season 3 of Serial, the popular investigative journalism podcast. As part of the sponsorship, ZipRecruiter will launch a series called “Road to Hire”, which travels across America sharing stories of how business find and hire people.  

https://www.ere.net/ziprecruiter-serial-sponsor/

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Human Resource Executive announces their picks for the 2018 Top HR Products awards, spotlighting the most innovative new solutions on the market for HR leaders. This year’s winners include products in the areas of employee financial wellbeing to talent analysis to employee screening and AI technology.

http://hrexecutive.com/leading-the-pack/

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Merlin, a new jobs platform exclusively for connecting hourly workers with employers, launches in New York metro area.

https://www.alleywatch.com/2018/09/merlin-prioritizes-this-aspect-in-its-job-recruitment-app-for-hourly-workers/

 

 

labor day

Do you know the history of Labor Day?

labor dayDo you know why Labor Day is a national holiday, recognized nationwide? If your answer is no – you will now be informed. If your answer is yes – keep reading anyway!

 

During America’s Industrial Revolution (latter half of the 1800’s) the unbearable working conditions eventually led to an uproar – between employers and employees. Worker unions were created and served as the primary catalyst for establishing a political backbone. They organized rallies and strikes that were essential in trying to establish a positive outcome for laborers. Some of these rallies and strikes turned violent, unfortunately leaving casualties. Yet, a trailblazing event took place on September 5, 1882 (which is nationally recognized as the first Labor Day parade). On this day, thousands of activists marched in New York City – from City Hall through Union Square, all knowing they were not going to be paid for this time off. Concerts, picnics and speeches occurred on this day as well.

 

During this time two members of different unions received credited for coining this idea/day. The two men have closely structured last names, but are not related. Matthew Maguire (Secretary of the Central Labor Union) and Peter McGuire (American Federation of Labor co-founder). 

 

Matthew Maguire initiated the type of strikes aimed toward exposing unsafe factory conditions and employee hours in the 1870’s. Matthew’s outspoken political views were deemed outstretched for the time frame and therefore were responsible for his demotion as Labor Day’s founding father.

 

 

Peter McGuire is depicted as advocating this idea/day/parade concept in front of New York Central Labor Union, on May 12, 1882. Peter’s initiated strikes brought change and evolution to work hours – the standard eight hour workday, still withstanding today!

 

The year of 1894 manifested approval by congress and thereby President Grover Cleveland announced a national holiday to occur every first Monday of September, now known as Labor Day.

 

So now that you’re informed about history of this day, do not come in to work on Monday! Enjoy your day off!

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Check Out These Cool Networking Tools

Shapr app
Shapr Interface

Many traditional business practices over the past few decades have evolved into having some sort of digital or mobile alternative. Technology is continuously creating new ways to do just about everything, including networking. What used to consist of simply shaking hands and in-person conversation has also hit the digital world with the emergence of social sites such as LinkedIn and some cool networking tools.

 

Although they can provide a way to foster a professional connection that would be otherwise difficult to attain, the way people use social platforms in general can take away the true intention which is to develop a personal relationship that is mutually beneficial.  If you are trying to connect with someone for a specific reason, they may accept your request, but they could have also accepted any number of people that day and now you’re just another connection they may or may not interact with.

 

The good news is, there are many tools out there in addition to LinkedIn that can be used for meeting people and networking, and they take a different approach compared to traditional social and networking platforms. They aim to create an experience that encourages people to go beyond the platforms to actually meet with people for lunch, coffee or at an event to form a genuine professional relationship.

 

Some of them are specific to certain kinds of meetings or interactions like Extendee and Let’s Lunch, while others, like Shapr, are a tool simply for networking with people in the area.  One of the more specific-use platforms, Extendee, is used to meet people that are attending the same conferences, festivals, marathons or any other type of event. You can then begin a conversation with like-minded people before even getting to the event, or even share a ride from the airport to the venue. The most important element that the Extendee boasts is maximizing ROI. When you have invested time and money into traveling to and attending an event, you want to get the most out of it, and Extendee helps you do that.

 

Another one is called Let’s Lunch, which has a mission to empower people to get more out of their lunch time in a unique way. Let’s Lunch connects you to companies that you could go have lunch with and experience the company culture and even discover job opportunities. Forbes said, “while there are a lot of incredible tools and resources that make it easier to network with people from all over the world, there’s still nothing quite like Let’s Lunch.”

 

The platform that I have interacted with the most is the Shapr app. The easiest way to describe it is to say it is similar to Tinder or Bumble, but for professional networking. It has a very similar interface and you swipe left for “no” and right for “yes” on the people you come across.  The app shows you approximately 15 people per day based on your location, but there is more to it. You can log in using LinkedIn, and the algorithm also uses your professional experience and tagged interests. So, if you are interested in entrepreneurship, technology and marketing, you can make that a part of your profile and Shapr shows you people that are also interested in those topics.

 

According to the app’s founder, Ludovic Huraux, the limit of 15 is important to the central idea of Shapr which is to “make networking a habit.” The limit forces people to come back daily and people don’t have the ability to swipe through tons of people every day, which would diminish the impact and effect of the app.

 

In the Shapr app, you swipe anonymously and get notified when both people swipe yes, and then a conversation can be started. Unlike some other platforms, it is less focused on sales or jobs and instead intended to cultivate relationships and get people to meet up offline.  The app has been used by all sorts of people, from company executives to entrepreneurs, recruiters, and students looking for some guidance or mentorship.  Shapr is great for finding people and simply starting a conversation.  If you are not looking for a specific type of meeting or for people going to a certain event, you might use Extendee or Let’s Lunch instead.

 

I stumbled upon Shapr from a social media post and thought it sounded very interesting so I downloaded it right away. I began using it and swiping through people without much of an expectation. I was interested in talking to people working in the marketing field who could offer some career advice. I was able to speak with people in the industry who were more than willing to provide some insight on their own career path.  That is why the Shapr app is an excellent tool for more personal (but still professional) networking. Instead of a pool of thousands at your fingertips, Shapr shows you a limited amount everyday based on what your profile says you are interested in.

 

These tools put a spin on networking on bigger platforms which gives you a pool of thousands at your fingertips. They are more focused, and most users are looking for some insight just as much as they are willing to share knowledge and guidance, which is what makes them powerful.  Most users are looking for help just as much as they are willing to share knowledge and guidance, which is what makes these tools so great.

 

recruiters marketers

In 2018, recruiters need to act like marketers. Oh, really?

recruitment marketingAt the beginning of each year the recruitment pundits make their predictions as to the trends that will take place in the coming year. They are hoping to give recruiters a head-start in preparing and implementing new strategies. For the most part they are all interesting and informative.

Of course, in a recruitment marketplace that is showing great job growth (January-March had the strongest average monthly job growth since 1997) and extremely low unemployment (January-March holding at 4.1%), successful talent acquisition becomes a much more daunting task. Recruiters are looking for anything that will provide the edge they need. (For more information on why the market is tightening click here.)

In trying to digest all of the suggestions, I noticed that a great number of them were saying that in 2018 recruiters need to be marketers. Hmm. Good and very pertinent suggestion; but shouldn’t talent acquisition professionals always act like marketers?

The objective of a professional talent acquisition team is to identify, attract and onboard talent that will enable the company to meet and even exceed their goals. They strive to put together strategies that will bring the best and brightest to their team. That requires constantly selling the company and continually building the employer brand by consistently repeating the employee value proposition (EVP) – what the employee receives in return for the expertise brought to the table. That is certainly no different than a marketer approaches building their brand.

Below are some things that as a recruitment marketer you can be concentrating on:

Build a consistent employer brand
This will make the candidates predisposed to applying.

Gather market intelligence
This will help you to know your competition and where you can find your next superstar.

Put your advantages front and center in copy
This will help to attract more individuals from which to choose.

Choose your media wisely
There are so many channels out there they can be confusing or the perfect targeting tools.  But it takes homework.

Don’t stop
No matter the job market’s supply and demand, always think like a marketer.

Of course, it would help to have a partner in your recruitment efforts with experience in recruitment and marketing such as an agency full of talent like SCG.  At SCG, in our daily practice we use the Peso model (Paid, earned, shared and owned media) specifically designed for HR, shown below, as the center of our strategic planning to help you achieve your goals.  Contact the SCG location nearest to you.

HR Peso Model

recruitment Peso model