Look Behind the Credentials: Find Candidates with Multiple Skillsets

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by Julie Long | BLR

Thoughts of IT, engineering, and computer science don’t normally conjure up images of people who are the life of the party. Or even those who enjoy exchanging pleasantries. But, these unicorns of the tech world—those that have technical talent and people skills—do actually exist. You just have to know how and where to find them.

What’s in a name?

The first instinct of any recruiter or HR professional is to look at the title. This can be a grave misstep because titles are often misleading. Titles like Field Engineer or Systems Administrator may not imply the full extent of the candidate’s experience working with others. While technical-sounding, candidates with these titles actually have to work alongside staff and clients on a consistent basis. What’s a good way to make sure that you fully understand someone’s communication ability through his or her resume?

See if they have any consulting experience. The word “consultant” doesn’t have to be in the title, either. For example, an applicant with experience in website coding design probably has had to communicate with clients and staff to deliver the desired result. Producing designs that are aligned with a company’s brand requires a high-level understanding of what a company’s culture is all about. Awareness of company culture is usually an indicator of someone who can appreciate the value of a company’s people.

So they can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk?

Once you’ve found someone who appears to have all the skills on paper, how do you know if they can walk the walk? A technical skills screen is probably the first thing that comes to mind, but it isn’t the only thing you should be doing.

It’s crucial to make the most out of group interviews and phone screens. Seeing how people interact with others is a good way to gauge overall social skills, so is asking questions about what they do and don’t like about their current or previous positions. And then there’s the all-important question: would I enjoy going to dinner with this person? If they seem like someone you’d enjoy spending time with outside of the office, it’s likely they’ll be just as interesting to work with.

Hold the phone, social media is important too?

The phone screen doesn’t have to be brutally difficult. It can actually be quite the opposite. In addition to observing how easy they are to communicate with over the phone, asking people simple, casual questions—such as what they like to do outside of work or what they’re truly passionate about—can give insight into their like or dislike of social interaction.

You can tell a lot from a phone call, but you can tell a whole lot more about an applicant by their presence on social media and in their professional networks. People who have robust, but appropriate, social media profiles and who regularly attend networking events are usually people who enjoy the company of others.

However, even the most people-oriented of tech talent may not be on LinkedIn. The reason is simple—tech talent is in high demand and many of the people with those skillsets don’t want to be bombarded by recruiters. If you do find a qualified applicant through LinkedIn with a strong profile and a few solid recommendations, chances are you’ve got someone with potential.

You may have found the perfect candidate, now what?

So you’ve found the illusory candidate with a mix of tech talent and people skills online. How do you woo them? By being personal. All too often, recruiters search strictly by title without doing any research about the individual before reaching out. Even though you may be searching for people with hard technical skills, they probably are driven by more than just a paycheck.

Take time to figure out what someone’s previous work experience is and allude to it in your initial email. Be sincere when you ask them about what they want their job to look like, or what their passions are. A smart recruiter and HR professional shouldn’t just be looking for a technical skills fit—they should also be looking for potential employees who are looking to advance their careers over the long run.

Searching for candidates with both the right technical skills and a big personality may seem like a lost cause. However, the more effort that’s put in to get to know the person behind the credentials, the more satisfied the person—and the company—is going to be with the job fit.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/152-look-behind-the-credentials-find-candidates-with-multiple-skillsets

The Cutting Edge of Employment Branding

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employee performance, Employment Branding, high-performing, internal branding, job search, recruiting and retention strategy, staffing agency dfw, TPS, trend personnel dallas

by Stephen Bruce & John Sullivan  | BLR

During a recent webinar, BLR® asked Dr. John Sullivan, professor, author, corporate speaker, and advisor, a number of questions about employment branding. Today we present a portion of that interview.

Q: Would you help us understand the importance and impact of employment branding in today’s business environment?

A: Employment branding is the only long-term recruiting and retention strategy, so you [should] use it to build what employees … and others say about you. Seventy-five percent of people in the U.S. would not take a job with a company with a bad employment brand even if they were unemployed, and 87 percent would consider leaving their current job if they were offered a job at a company with a strong brand.

Well-branded firms can improve applicant quality by 54 percent, quality of hire by 9 percent and, in some cases, the firms with a strong employment brand [see] their stock prices increase as much as 10 times more than the standard employer. You get higher offer acceptance rates, so when people know positive things about your company, they just say “Yes” to your offers more.

If you have a negative internal brand, it turns out your employees talk to your customers, and they don’t say nice things. Therefore, having a negative internal brand costs you money. In a highly competitive marketplace with so many firms competing for the same talent, your image is everything.

Without an image, or without managing that image, you’re certainly not going to have great results. Especially in recruiting, we target fully employed people—people that are doing really well—innovators. Well, those people are not attracted to job postings. The only way to get them is to write a branding message, or [to] have your company written up., Amazon [learned] how important a brand is. Well, they just went through a lot of turmoil because some employees said some negative things—[that’s] a current example of the impact on sales, on recruiting, [and] on retention.

Q: Maybe you could share some thoughts on what actions can help companies be successful with their internal branding?

A: Well, the first thing you have to realize is that we’re in a very connected world. So when you have an employee who is unhappy, not only will they know, but every other employee will know—whether through mobile phone or text. They’ll also post it externally. So if you want to improve retention and certainly as I mentioned earlier, sales, if your customers are unhappy, and someone says, “Oh, tell me about that,” [your employees are] going to say negative things, and it’s going to hurt your sales.

The first thing you want to do is measure your…internal brand strength. What [things] do your employees say about you, both positive and negative? You want that ratio, obviously, to have more positives than negatives. Anonymous employee websites or surveys allow employees to have complaints [and] to say things without their name[s] coming up. That helps them vent, which means that they won’t say bad things to others and customers if they get a chance to vent—especially if someone answers their question or gives them information.

Spreading stories is one of the best ways to get referrals, but it also impacts retention. So, if you have what we call a “story inventory” of all the great things and practices your firm does and employees see it when they are in the process of making a referral, they build their pride, they build their knowledge, they build their understanding and say, “Hey, our firm is pretty good.”

Getting on lists of best places to work—LinkedIn, Fortune, those kinds of things—also builds image because everyone asks them “What’s it like to work there?” And, you know, people at Apple, for example, get hundreds of people asking, “What’s it like to work there?” Where, at a less-desirable firm, you wouldn’t get that.

The last thing you need to realize is that only 20 percent of the information that people get about a firm comes from the firm. The other 80 percent comes from some other place, and that other place is not owned or controlled by you. You can have an employee newsletter where you can say all these things that are great, but it’s getting 80 percent of its information from some other place, which might cite something [contrary].

Q: To what extent do you recommend gearing programs toward high-performing employees, or do you recommend it at all?

A: I definitely do—it’s critical. When you look at all employees, you know, Homer Simpson just doesn’t produce as much as a top performer. Apple found … that top performers produce between 10 and 25 times, not percent, but times more [than average employees]. So obviously, you want to focus your internal and external brand message on your top-performing employees.

It turns out that most of the people you want to attract are currently treated well [and] are currently employed. So an employer brand can bring people who work at another firm and get them to consider your firm. But top performers have different requirements, so they might want to create work, or they might want to innovate where Homer might want donuts or something. If you want to attract top performers it turns out there’s data that show they will bring 3 to 5 other people with them [to your firm]. When you count the ROI of branding [not only do] you get a top performer [and] an innovator but also 3 to 5 people.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/151-the-cutting-edge-of-employment-branding

Why Conduct Background Checks on Potential Employees?

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applicant, applicants needed, apply now dallas, Background Checks, dfw jobs, hiring process, Potential Employees, recruiting tips, rockwall jobs, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

by Bridget Miller | BLR

Does your organization conduct background checks as part of the hiring process? Many organizations do, but the type of background check—and the extent of it—varies considerably. Let’s take a look at some of the most pertinent reasons so many businesses opt to perform some type of background check on any potential new employee.

Some of the Reasons for Conducting a Background Check

Probably the biggest reason employers choose to perform background checks on potential employees is safety and security. Employers have an obligation under OSHA to provide a safe workplace—one that is free of known hazards. It can be easily argued that hiring an individual with violent tendencies—tendencies that could  have been discovered with due diligence—would represent a disregard for that obligation. As such, many employers opt to perform at least a criminal background check on potential employees before finalizing any offer of employment.

Similarly, if an individual causes harm to anyone—such as a customer or vendor—the employer may be liable if there was an opportunity to learn about this tendency, such as the existence of a public criminal record.

Security is another concern, especially for jobs in which an individual is responsible for cash or for making decisions that affect the company’s profitability or reputation. For any individual in these roles, employers often consider doing a background check that confirms the individual does not have a history of fraud, negligence, or theft, for example.

Background checks can also be done on a more limited scale. Technically, even calling references is a form of background screening. In these situations, an employer is trying to gauge what the potential employee is like to work with, to better ensure it will be a good fit. These can also be done as a means to try to uncover any fabrications or exaggerations on the application, résumé, or during the interview.

Conducting Background Checks: Some Caveats

Despite these very good reasons to conduct an employee background check, there are limits to what an employer can discover and use. For example:

• Employers should be careful not to make decisions based solely on arrest records. An arrest is not the same as a conviction, and some protected groups may be disproportionately affected by a policy that disallows a perspective employee due to any arrest—thus making such a policy discriminatory.
• Credit checks and other background checks require employee consent. Without consent, such checks can be illegal, depending on what type of check is conducted. Consult legal counsel and get advance permission before conducting background screenings. Additionally, if you use an employee’s credit rating as part of the background screening process, first be sure there is a legitimate business purpose for doing so. Otherwise, this alone can be a form of discrimination if potential employees are excluded based on credit. This is because lower credit scores disproportionately affect some protected groups, and eliminating on this basis alone would create a disparate impact on these groups. Even with a legitimate business purpose for checking a credit score, the employer must also be sure to follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) rules.
• Background checks can inadvertently turn up information that discloses an employee’s inclusion in a protected class. Even if this information is not used in the hiring process, it is risky for an employer to have such information at this stage because it raises the possibility of a discrimination claim. For this reason, many employers use third-party services to conduct background checks—and those service providers only turn over information that is relevant to the hiring process, insulating the employer from knowledge about protected class inclusion and other information that should not be used in hiring decisions.
• There are many federal, state, and local laws that limit the type of information that an employer can seek out—be sure to consult local laws and understand the limitations.
• Be sure any background screening is relevant to the job. For example, there is probably no need to get a driving record for someone who will not be driving for the company in any capacity.
• Be consistent in conducting background checks. Do not conduct background checks only for certain applicants but not others who are up for the same job. It’s OK to only conduct background screening after you’ve made a short list, but it’s not OK to only conduct background checks on individuals of specific groups, such as minorities or immigrants. Be consistent in the hiring process for each job opening.
• When something is uncovered during a background screening, consider giving the applicant the opportunity to share more information about the situation. While you still need to be consistent in how the situation is handled, it’s always possible that there’s a mistake that can be rectified or there are extenuating circumstances that change the view of the situation. Of course, if you’re going to give the opportunity for explanations, be consistent and offer this opportunity every time the situation arises.

Does your company conduct employee background checks? What advice would you provide based on your experience?

*This article does not constitute legal advice. Always consult legal counsel with specific questions.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/150-why-conduct-background-checks-on-potential-employees

First Contact with the Candidate: Tips for Success

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apply now dallas, attract candidate, dallas jobs, dallas temporary staffing, potential candidate, recruiting company, searching for jobs, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

by Stephen Bruce | BLR

Your technique may vary, but you should have a basic process to follow when getting ready to call your candidate. First, prepare what you need to make the call. Next, rehearse what you have prepared so your words sound natural when you say them. Now you are ready to make the call. Regardless of what happens when you call, don’t forget the crucial step that many ignore—following up.

A Matter of Perspective

When you pore over résumé after résumé , especially if you work for a recruiting company, the candidates can seem like just a bunch of files or a set of numbers. But remember, on the other end are living, breathing people who have no idea you exist. Furthermore, if they are searching for jobs, it’s possible that more than a few less-reputable companies have tried to take advantage of them already. They could be on guard. They could be suspicious. Or they could be a delight. The point is, you won’t know until you call—and putting the wrong foot forward could cost you a perfectly good employee. Perspective counts, and taking a moment to remember that really helps.

Prepare and Prevail!

Again and again, experts underline the absolute need for preparation before you make a call. Calling without preparation makes you sound unsure and might cause a potential candidate to leave the recruitment process before you have a chance to assess his or her potential or attract him or her to your organization.

Here are some good ways to make sure you’ll be ready for whatever happens when you call your candidate. A little bit of homework can make all the difference.

1. Know what you are going to ask. Even spending a short time jotting down some general questions you want to ask is better than no preparation at all. If you have the time, a complete list of questions works best.
2. Keep it concise. Summarize who you are and what you want with a few sentences and have it on hand. This way, if someone other than the candidate picks up, or, more likely, the call goes to voicemail, you’ll have a quick, to-the-point response ready to go.
3. What do you already know? Construct a fairly detailed list of everything you already know about the candidate. This serves two purposes: first, you can tailor your conversation around those points; second, simply confirming these points with the candidate is a decent good way to organize an interview.

Rehearse First

You’ve done your preparation. So you’re ready to pick up the phone right away, right? Well, if you want to sound natural (and unlike a telemarketer), you might want to take a few moments to read what you wrote down. A few quick things to consider at this point.

• Make absolutely certain you can pronounce the candidate’s name. It’s amazing how well a call can go when the candidate’s name smoothly rolls off your tongue. It’s equally amazing how defensive candidates can become if you botch their name.

• Be ready to go off-topic. While you may have an agenda for the conversation, sometimes you can learn a lot about a candidate based on how they direct the conversation. Don’t become annoyed if they wander; instead, take notes. However, try to stick to business and the job at hand, as casual conversation can lead to finding out things you don’t want to know, for example, race, religion, or disability.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/148-first-contact-with-the-candidate-tips-for-success

Great Questions to Ask During Interviews!

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decide to hire, dfw careers, dfw staffing, hiring decision, hiring today, ideal manager, interview tips, interviews, management style, Questions to Ask During Interviews, temporary dallas jobs, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

Of course we all are looking for the best fit for the job, right? But how often do you think about their ability to handle your particular management style? This is often an area that managers overlook when asking the candidates questions during an interview.

Here are some questions that you should consider asking in your interviews to help assess the candidate’s adaptability to different management styles:

1. Describe the perfect manager.
2. Based on your past employment, who would you choose as the best manager you’ve had the opportunity to work for? Why were they good?
3. Based on your past employment, who would you choose as your least favorite manager? Why were they your least favorite? How did you adapt?
4. How do you handle conflict with your managers? Disagreements? How do you resolve issues?

By asking questions similar to the ones listed above, you’ll find a greater understanding of how the candidate feels about different management styles. If you find that you’re for the most part the ideal manager described by the candidate then you can have confidence that you’ll work great together should you decide to hire them for the position. On the other hand, if you really like the candidate but worry about being similar to the manager that was their least favorite then you can consider ways to adapt to ensure a smooth and successful relationship if you decide to hire them on.

You shouldn’t base your hiring decision on whether or not they can or cannot handle your management style but rather use these questions to help prepare yourself for building and maintaining successful relationships with new hires.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/145-great-questions-to-ask-during-interviews

Job Interview Best Practices

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apply now dallas, ask questions, attract candidate, dallas temp jobs, discrimination, experience requirements, hiring team, HR Best Practices, Interview preparation, interview questions, interviewing a candidate, interviewing and hiring, Job Interview Best Practices, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

by Bridget Miller | BLR

Many of the items on this list are meant to keep the hiring team on the right side of the law and avoid situations in which an applicant could assume any type of discrimination or bias. Other tips are meant to ensure the hiring team is effective and consistent in order to find the best applicant for the role. Here are the tips:

• Be sure that anyone involved in the hiring process is trained in and fully understands the laws that relate to hiring and the implications for each step of the process.
• Avoid behaviors that could imply a discriminatory bias. For example:
  • Do not ask about disabilities. Focus on the ability to do the job.
  • Treat all applicants the same. in other words, don’t require some groups to meet higher criteria than others for consideration.
  • Don’t ask about medical issues or other personal information.
  • Don’t ask any questions that could serve to gather information about:
    • Marital status;
    • Whether the applicant has children; 
    • Race;
    • National origin;
    • Age (besides confirming the applicant is over 18, if necessary);
    • Religion;
    • Sexual orientation (in many states it is illegal to discriminate on this basis); or
    • Protected activities, such as past filings of workers’ compensation claims. 
  • Don’t imply there is any type of problem or bias related to the applicant (e.g., “Our customers may react negatively to a woman in charge”).
• Be consistent in how applicants are assessed. For example: 
  • If an applicant must prove his or her ability to perform the job (such as via a performance test), this should be required of all applicants, not just a few. Requiring it of some but not others can appear discriminatory.
  • Stick to enforcing minimum education and experience requirements that are truly consistent with job needs, and do not vary this assessment for certain individuals. If the minimums are realistic, it won’t be necessary to make exceptions.
  • Be consistent with the questions you ask to avoid the appearance of biases. It can seem biased if some interviewees are required to pass a higher threshold than others.
• Be well-prepared.Before interviewing a candidate, you should:
  • Have questions ready, and know what you’re trying to learn from each of the questions you choose to ask. The questions should be related to the job or the person’s ability to perform the job. 
  • Know what the next steps in the hiring process are and advise the applicant of such either during or at the conclusion of the interview.
  • Review all of the information available about the applicant, including the details of how previous interviews went (if applicable). 
  • Plan to be in a space that is appropriate for the interview, free from distractions, noise, and interruptions. 
• Be aware of subconscious biases. We all have biases that cloud our judgment, but it can help to simply be aware of this in order to take steps to ensure it doesn’t affect the interview process. For example, how an individual dresses or styles his or her hair may create an instant assumption, but it does not necessarily mean that person is not a good job candidate. 
• Allow silences. Sometimes interviewees need time to formulate an answer. By filling in silences too quickly, you may lose the opportunity to hear what the applicant has to say. Always give the applicant time to talk—in fact, he or she should do the majority of the talking—so that you can get a clear understanding about the applicant and how he or she will fit with the organization. 
• Ensure everyone involved in interviewing and hiring knows the next steps, knows who is authorized to make an offer to an applicant, and what processes must be completed before an offer is made (such as conducting background checks, reference checks, and so on). Know what applicable conditions the offer is subject to, such as passing drug screening. 
• Remain objective in your assessments.
• Remember to assess soft skills as well as specific skills required to perform the job tasks. The issue of cultural fit is often just as (or even more) important as skills that can be trained. 
• Be sure that the interviewing team, especially the person making the offer, knows to avoid making any kind of reference to a contract in terms that could be construed as an implied employment contract. (Unless, of course, you’re offering an actual employment contract, but this is the exception rather than the norm in the United States.) This might mean avoiding phrases like “permanent position” or “long-term role” or anything that implies that the applicant cannot be fired without cause. 
• Give the applicant the opportunity to ask questions.

What would you add to this list?

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/143-job-interview-best-practices

10 Tips to Help You Hire Right

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applying for a job, carrollton jobs, Good candidates, interview process, locating professionals, recruiting tips, recruitment process, rockwall jobs, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

by Vanessa Merit Nornberg | Inc.

Hiring is the Achilles heel of all small companies. Good candidates are hard to find, and the recruiting process always seems to take more time than planned.

Here’s what they are:

1. Allow six months for the recruitment process. Hiring when you have a start date in mind that is just around the corner causes you to accept candidates you would have otherwise passed over. Give yourself three months to search for and screen applicants, one month so a new hire can give notice to her current employer, and at least two months to train a new person.
2. Write a job post that accurately describes your company. Believe it or not, you don’t want to emphasize the qualities you need in a candidate in a job description. You want to tell a prospective candidate about what makes your company a different or special place to work, to insure you get interest from people who are the right cultural fit. It’s far less expensive to teach skills than attitude to a new recruit.
3. Make the interview process several steps. Candidates who want any job–and not necessarily the job you are hiring for–rarely take the time to apply if they know they have to go above and beyond a one-click submisssion just to get looked at.
4. Handle at least one part of the recruiting process yourself. Whether it be screening resumes, doing phone interviews, or conducting the first interview. The earlier you get involved in the recruiting the better the chances you have of finding the right candidate (and weeding out the others!). No one knows your company’s needs better than you.
5. Identify the five most important qualities for the positiong you’re filling. Create interview questions that measure these five qualities to allow you to determine if a candidate possesses them or not.
6. Do more than ask questions when you interview. Set up opportunities to observe how an applicant handles herself in situations similar to the ones she will be asked to handle if she’s hired. For example, if she will be organizing data for your company, give her data to classify, and pay attention to the way she does it. Does her approach match how you do things at your company? Does she follow a logic you can understand?
7. Bring others in on your recruiting process. Make sure strong candidates are evaluated by at least two members of your team in addition to you. Instincts are important in picking the right candidate, but sometimes you end up on the fence. Having someone to talk about the candidate with can help you get clarity when it matters.
8. Create a training program. Make sure your training program truly reflects the tasks a hire will be called upon to do. And then formalize it so the new hire can understand where she is at in the training process at all times.
9. Reevaluate both what you teach a new hire and what he retains on a regular basis. Never be afraid to slow down the training process, teach a concept again, shift gears, or add new modules as you go. The idea is not to train fast, but to train right. Taking the time to do it once and thoroughly will shield your customers from errors, and your company from lost loyalty.
10. Be honest with yourself throughout the training process. If you make a hiring mistake, don’t waste precious time and money hoping it will eventually turn out okay. It won’t. Let the candidate go immediately. It is better to have no help at all than to have the wrong help.

Recruiting the right team can seem daunting, but it is also extremely exciting. Taking the time to make the best hire rather than just any hire is a chance to expand your team’s competencies, grow your customer base, and take your company to a new level. Hopefully these 10 tricks will help you.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/138-10-tips-to-help-you-hire-right

Recruiting for Those Critical, Hard-to-Fill Jobs

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application tips, applying for jobs in dallas, attract candidate, carrollton staffing, dallas staffing, Recruiting, rockwall jobs, staffing agency dallas, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

by Stephen Bruce| BLR

The issue of unfilled positions is a major problem that affects the entire economy.  It makes it difficult for small businesses to grow if they cannot adequately and quickly staff key positions. But what can employers do? Some of the solutions that organizations have turned to include:

• Evaluate your pay and benefits for positions that are hard to fill. Are you leading or lagging in the market? You may have to bite the bullet and offer more, especially if you have been relatively stagnant with your annual increases in rate ranges.
• Offer training programs to existing employees or candidates. Many employers are finding success by instituting their own training programs in order to get the skills they need when candidates don’t already have them. Pay will be lower than for fully trained individuals, and you get to train people in your specific systems and to your specific standards.
• Work with local education and/or training institutions. Perhaps they will be able to offer the type of training you need candidates to have.
• Send employees to school. Similarly, some employers are opting to pay for the education that their existing employees need in order to advance into new positions.
• Widen the recruiting parameters. Maybe you need to recruit from an expanded geographical area and commit to paying relocation expenses.
• Consider telecommuting. Many employers don’t like telecommuting but have found that that’s the only way they can attract the candidates they want.
• Change too-specific experience requirements to be broader. Sometimes industry-specific experience is a nice-to-have but not a must-have requirement to find a well-qualified candidate, and some employers have recognized this and revised their requirements accordingly.
• Provide customized assistance. When you run into a situation like a dual-career couple, or someone whose home is “underwater,” figure out what sort of package you can put together to solve the candidate’s problem—and yours.
• Consider outsourcing the function. Is this a task that can be performed by contracting it out?
• Work on building your employment brand. Employers that have a reputation as a “great place to work” have an easier time with recruiting.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/137-recruiting-for-those-critical-hard-to-fill-jobs

5 Tips for Recruiting Great People

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application tips, applying for jobs in dallas, career opportunities, dallas staffing, recruiting employees, recruiting tips, rockwall jobs, talented employees, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

by Steve Anderson | LinkedIn

Finding, recruiting, hiring, training, and then keeping new staff is perhaps one of the biggest issues facing businesses.

When the news broke that some companies were demanding Facebook login information from job applicants, people everywhere were horrified. Those who were employed, those who weren’t employed – even employers themselves – were antsy at the thought of corporate America demanding passwords to personal accounts.

This example simply highlights how expectations of job applicants as well as employers have changed. Competition will become fierce for talented employees, making it more important than ever that you not scare away a great future employee by allowing preconceived notions to cloud your hiring judgment.

Following are five tips to help you find and attract the very best and brightest to your organization:

1. Don’t make unreasonable demands. 
Most of today’s job seekers will find your demanding personal account passwords unreasonable. Just as you wouldn’t want existing employees to provide passwords to work accounts to those outside the workplace, you shouldn’t demand that your employees hand over passwords to personal accounts either. In fact, it’s illegal in six states. I’m certain more will follow.
2. Don’t make snap judgments. 
For several years employers have been searching social platforms for information on potential new employees. Job seekers were warned not to post wild party pictures or other inappropriate personal data publicly. Why? Because employers were making snap judgments about employees who might otherwise be dedicated, hard-working, career-minded individuals. But one bachelor party or a few old college pictures ruined it. Think about the hiring decisions you make and ensure they are based on all information and not some assumption you’ve made based on past experience.
3. Give them a chance. 
Over the past few years, many great employees have become unemployed. Don’t assume they are not good candidate material. In any job market, good employees are subject to layoffs, sudden termination, and even voluntary termination. Don’t assume if a candidate is not currently employed they are not a good fit for the organization.
4. Don’t judge a book by its cover. 
So your last job ad received 100 resumes and you’re limited on time. It’s easy to immediately delete any resume that doesn’t have the font you like or comes via snail mail instead of email. At least glance over those resumes, and make sure you aren’t missing out on a great potential hire who simply hasn’t quite mastered the art of job hunting. Not everyone is great at searching for employment. Besides, young, eager people can bring fresh energy to your agency.
5. Do background checks. 
While it’s important to avoid generalizations, every employee should be subjected to a thorough background check. This includes checking references and doing criminal background checks. Be sure to require proof of education. Anyone can say they have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Make this a part of your pre-employment process to avoid unpleasant surprises down the line.

You likely know how crucial good employees are to an agency’s success. If you’re seeking qualified candidates, keep in mind that you need good employees as much as they need a great career opportunity. By approaching the employment process with a positive attitude and open mind, you’ll find the best employee for your organization.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/135-5-tips-for-recruiting-great-people

Recruiting the Best Candidates

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The best candidates out there are the ones that not only allow you to interview them, but they in turn interview you. They typically reached out to you first regardless of current job openings or not. They have great follow up and don’t just send a resume for review. They go the extra step and call HR or travel to the office and come in to speak with someone. They have initiative.

They don’t want to just choose a job with a company because they have values and understand what it takes to be successful. They want to make sure that your company will help support them in achieving the goals they have in mind both personally and professionally.

When having an interview with a candidate, don’t sugar coat the challenges your organization faces. Be open and honest. Describe what the issues and problems and how it could be a challenge for the candidate. Ask him or her how they feel about those challenges.

Make sure to take note of their reaction(s) and what they say. This will indicate whether they are up for the challenge, feel they can contribute or maybe that they’re about concerned.

If the candidates answers are broad and rehearsed then they didn’t research the company,  the industry or maybe even the position. Look for the real answers and reactions. 

 

http://trendpersonnel.com/index.php/en/news/item/106-recruiting-the-best-candidates