Friday, May 29, 2020
6 Tips to Building an Active Candidate Sourcing Strategy
6 Tips to Building an Active Candidate Sourcing Strategy When it comes to candidate sourcing, the conversation of passive vs active candidates feels like itâs been done to death. As Greg Savage pointed out in his blog post âThereâs no such thing as a passive candidateâ, there are no passive or active candidatesâ¦there are just candidates. Most people, if offered a great job would be open to listening to what you have to say. The question should really be; does your business have a passive or an active sourcing strategy? Don Charlton, the CEO and Founder of The Resumator, outlined some great tips and tricks in a recent webinar about building active sourcing strategies. How do you know if your sourcing strategy is passive? Well ask yourself some of these question: Do you post jobs as standard on job boards or LinkedIn and just wait for candidates to apply? Are you or your recruiters spending their days trawling through hundreds of average CVâs with no time to actively source candidates and/or build talent pipelines and communities? Do you tweet a job once and then if thereâs no response, decide that it doesnt really work? Do the candidates in your recruitment database just sit there whilst more and more are added? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then yes you have a passive sourcing strategy! Being a passive organisation when it comes to sourcing great talent, is never going to provide you with the best outcome or hit the mark at hiring the best in the business. Youâll always be hiring the best candidates out the talent that saw your ad but not the best talent in the market. Here are 6 ways to ensure that your sourcing strategy is ACTIVE and that people⦠namely candidates, are talking about you, your business and your jobs! 1) Sell yourself! A company that is proactive understands that itâs about promoting the organisation. Show what youâre about and get candidates that approach you, either passive or active to really want to work there because itâs the right place for them to be. They can see why you do what you do (thanks Simon Sinek), they think that itâs the right environment for them through whichever multimedia youve shared and now they want to find a way to get into your company! I call these candidates âthe identifiersâ â" they identify with your goals, environment, culture and vision and now they want a piece of the action. 2) People donât work for jobs they work for companies If this is true, then why do we just promote the job 95% of the time? Promote whatâs great about the company, the manager, the opportunity. When I was a recruiter, one of the first things I learnt was âtell them whatâs in it for them in the first lineâ. Itâs very rare to click into any job board or website ad today (trust me I just looked!) and see the any unique candidate benefits outlined. Itâs still full of bullet pointed must have skills and thatâs about it. 3) Make your employees fanatical referrers of your jobs within their networks. Iâve written before about empowering your employees to be brand advocates for you here and here. Find out about what they think of your business; is it somewhere they would recommend to their friends? If itâs not, then why not, and if it is, then how can you sell those opportunities more internally in order to tap into those vast networks and communities? Always rememberâ¦top talent, know other top talent, itâs an oldie but a goodie. 4) Be social Entertain and educate your talent pools and communities. Give them a reason to come back to your website, blog, and social platforms so that you can not only communicate on topics of interest, but you can tell them about your business and the roles that you have available. If youâre not interesting then how will you attract the best people? 5) Be creative Companies that are using infographics, jobgrams, social sites, photography, video, gamification, etc, theyâre the ones being proactive with their sourcing strategies and making an effort to stand out from the crowd. Give something new a try. I loved the line in a recent article about Starbucks that stated: If you wait for innovation to be perfect youâll never try. 6) Socialize Social networking is nothing without socializing. You can be on every platform out there, but if youâre not engaging, meeting, talking to, questioning and answering people then your sourcing strategy will have little impact in meeting your hiring needs. A community manager once told me: everything you post online should have a link. My immediate thought was, if everything I post online has a link (i.e. Iâm sharing something) then when do I just talk to people, respond to their questions or be part of their conversation? Remember that itâs not all about you! These are just a few tips on how to build an active, creative and attractive sourcing strategy. Donât just be complaisant in communicating with those who are external to your business. Build a sourcing strategy with energy, creativity, passion and purpose and who knows, you may attract people with similar qualities!
Monday, May 25, 2020
Three Lessons I Learned From An Accidental Entrepreneur -
Three Lessons I Learned From An Accidental Entrepreneur - Some people know they want to start their own company someday; itâs simply in their DNA. Others never consider being an entrepreneur an option and happily build successful careers working for others. For over twenty years, I was in the latter group, happily working as a B2B marketing professional for a variety of technology companies both big and small. I never had any interest in the myriad of headaches, hassles and financial risks of starting my own company. Besides, start a company doing what or offering what? No thanks, not me. However, things changed. Lesson 1: Never say never. What happens when you have that sudden: âah-haâ, brain-child moment and create something for yourself to solve a constant nagging problem. Even better, your crazy, handmade little contraption is actually pretty damn clever, works like a champ, and your sonâs friend says sincerely and emphatically âConnor, your mom is a genius!â Then, like a lightning strike, you realize that millions of other people have that exact same problem and need your solution. Thatâs when I made the decision to go for it, leave behind my career, and start my own company and brand. It was as if someone flipped a switch in me and totally changed the trajectory of my career path⦠and my entire life. As an âaccidental inventor,â I quickly and passionately became and accidental entrepreneur. I was and continue to be both excited and scared at the same time as I embrace the ups and downs of this unplanned, unexpected journey. Lesson 2: Start with what you know and learn as you go. I knew there was (and still is) so much I donât know about starting and running by own company, so I began with what I knew. Since I knew marketing, I began in my comfort-zone of the various marketing disciplines. I created a catchy company name, found an available URL, designed a great logo, wrote the messaging about what my product does, set up my social media accounts, etc. By starting with what I knew, it allowed me to get my mind in order and secure some incremental successes under my belt. After, I was able to move forward and research the other aspects of building my company. Lesson 3: Leverage the web. Yes, itâs obvious and sounds silly, but the Internet is a phenomenal and indispensable resource. At each step, from searching for the name of my company and finding a patent attorney, to finding the right US-based manufacturer and various suppliers for product components, the Internet continues to be my most invaluable, go-to resource. Surely, cross-check information by utilizing Google, but all in all, let the web be your BFF in walking you through the process. So if youre thinking about starting your own company, why not take some action today? This guest post was authored by Allison Santini Allison Santini is the founder and creator of MyPhonePouch, a solution for wearing your phone when you donât have pants pockets or purse. . Main image via flickr.
Friday, May 22, 2020
The 6 Most Common Hiring Mistakes
The 6 Most Common Hiring Mistakes A bad hire can result in a number of negative implications for a business and therefore its important to get it right. Though there may often be a sense of urgency to fill a position, employers should avoid rushing the hiring process or skipping important steps in order to get somebodys feet under the desk as soon as possible. Here are some of the most commonly made hiring mistakes that should be avoided, to prevent problems further down the line. 1) Rushing your hire If youre man down, you may feel the pressure to act quickly to fill the position; but this doesnt mean you should settle for the first person who comes along. Some times it takes time to find the best candidate for the role, so be patient. It will be worth it to spend a bit longer looking for a star employee whos likely to stay with the company, rather than a mediocre one who may look elsewhere after just a short stint. 2) Not hiring for cultural fit Although you do need to look for the right skills and experience from a candidate, their resume is not the be all and end all. You also want to think about how they may fit in at your organisation and whether or not they would suit the company culture. The way that an employee is likely to interact with other colleagues, clients and customers could be crucial to the running of your business, so its important to consider their personality, as well as qualifications. 3) Skipping reference checks To build a thorough understanding about how a candidate is going to perform, its important to check their references to see what their previous employers have to say about them. If you are serious about specific candidate you may even want to perform a background check to make sure that their work history is accurate. 4) Vague job descriptions By keeping your job description very vague or general, you are inviting a huge number of candidates to apply who may only loosely fit the brief. Be specific about what you want, in order to find someone who possesses those attributes. Mention the qualities youre looking for in an employee, the details and responsibilities of the role and the level of performance expected of the individual. 5) Relying on job ads If you post a job ad and just sit back and wait for people to come to you, then you are missing out on a huge number of potential employees who could be perfect for the role. Your ideal candidate may not be looking for a role at the time, so passive candidates should never be ruled out and may actually be more valuable to you than active job seekers. 6) Hiring someone for all the wrong reasons Whether youre doing someone a favour or youve been wowed into hiring an individual when there isnt actually a role for them, hiring for the wrong reason can be damaging to a business. Creating a role when its not required can be costly; whereas hiring as a favour can cause a number of problems from poor cultural fit, to a lack of the required skills. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]
Monday, May 18, 2020
Lose ten pounds in two weeks by changing how you work
Lose ten pounds in two weeks by changing how you work The last time I wrote about losing weight was right after I had a baby and my agent told me that I would kill my career if I went on speaking engagements. You look terrible is what she told me. And I lost forty pounds in two months. This time, things were not so dramatic. If nothing else, I am tall enough that no one would notice ten pounds up or down on my body. But still, ten pounds is ten pounds. And I lost it by changing how I do my job. Here are three changes I made in how I work that, in turn, changed how much I weigh: 1. I stopped letting work slip until the last minute. I know people think they are creative under pressure. But in fact, time pressure stifles creativity. One of the joys of being creative is going up paths that surprise us. But when you are under a tight deadline, the risk of going down an unsure path is too risky because it might not work and then youll miss the deadline. I became acutely aware of this when I started blogging. The immediate feedback one gets from blog traffic made me understand that there was a direct relationship to how much pressure I felt while I was writing and how successful the post was. I also noticed that when I felt pressure to write quickly I ate to cope with the pressure. Once I stopped writing late at night under intense pressure I ate much less at night. 2. I stopped checking email when I was with my kids. For the most part, I maintain a schedule where I work seven days a week 8am to 2pm. Then I am with my kids from 2pm to 8pm. And I usually work after they go to bed. Almost everyone is very nice about respecting the schedule. But still, I was checking email all day. Sometimes because I really needed to, but mostly it was a way to take a break from being with the kids. The kids are hard. Email is easy. Please, dont send me emails about how I should take the kids to the park. Im not saying I dont love my kids. Im saying that its more fun to play email lottery to see if something great came in than to watch kids chasing each other up and down slides. The worst part about checking email when I am with the kids is that I feel bad ignoring them. But the second worst part is that I sort of check out when I check email and once I check out then my junk-food guard is down, and I find myself watching kids and checking email and eating Cheetos all at the same time. I instituted the no-checking email so that I could be more present with my kids. But the lucky side benefit was no more junk food. 3. I stopped working late at night. The first lunch meeting I had with my first publisher was all about book marketing. We talked about how sometimes my editor thinks of a title and then asks an agent to put together a book based on that title. Like what? I asked. She said, Like, Sleep Away the Pounds! How To Lose That Last Ten Pounds. In Your Sleep Ooooh, I said That is a good title. For the rest of the lunch the editor and the publicist and I all talked about that book. What it could be. The publicist pointed out that he stays up late working but he never really gets anything done except eating. He thought he should just go to bed. I thought that was probably true for me, too. And I pointed out all the research that says the people who do not get enough sleep are at risk of being fat. That conversation happened a year ago. And, ironically, I then proceeded to get less sleep than any year of my life because I stayed up all night doing stuff to promote my book. But recently I decided to make a rule for myself that I have to get the recommended six or seven hours of sleep a night. This means I had to get used to not working as much. I had to decide to simply not do some of the work I had. But the life benefits have been worth it including giving up that extra meal that slips in between dinner and bed. So thats how I lost the weight. And its been very easy to keep off because I did exactly what youre supposed to do to lose weight: I changed how I live my life rather than how I eat my meals. But heres what really gets me excited: I learned so much about self-discipline. There is great research about how if you add self-discipline to your life in one area, self-discipline seeps into other areas of your life as well. This is important because positive psychologists are always saying that self-discipline is a key factor to making ourselves happier. So I always want more self-discipline in my life. And I absolutely found that when I became more disciplined about how I deal with my sleep and eating, I became more disciplined about working out. For the last year I have had clear goals for regular episodes of running, weights and yoga. But I have generally failed at achieving these goals on a regular basis. Something always interferes. But over the past two weeks, when I have been very conscious of changing how I conduct myself during the day for work things, my exercise regimen has improved as well, as a sort of unintended side-effect. So heres my pitch to you to try something new. Try being just a little more conscious. If you become more conscious in one part of your life, you will be able to affect positive, conscious change in many parts of your life with relative ease.
Friday, May 15, 2020
Skills You Should Include On Your Resume When Changing Career
Skills You Should Include On Your Resume When Changing Career In light of recent technology development and cultural changes, more and more people decide to give up what theyâre doing, professionally, and make a U-turn in their career path.However, it is much easier said than done, with competition as high as ever. Many get stuck at the very beginning â" when working on a resume. Itâs clear that chances to get employed with a weak resume and cover letter are minimal, and yet what are you supposed to write in there to make it work for an entirely different industry?The commonly accepted truth is to include so-called transferable skills, i.e. those that are valuable no matter what industry you are working in.evalLetâs take a closer look at them.1. Research SkillsevalResearch is an indispensable part of the majority of jobs, from companies providing academic essay samples on demand to recruiters in Silicon Valley giants. The ability to dig for and extract valuable information from tons of fluff will always be in demand. Thatâs why you def initely should include this skill on your resume, no matter where you are going to work next. Research is taught in universities, for godâs sake, it could be a full-fledged profession!2. Computer SkillsYou would be surprised to know how many valuable computer skills you actually have, and itâs not about using office equipment or creating folders on a desktop.Any programs or applications that take at least a little time to master are worth mentioning â" Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Excel It might not matter what kind of work you were doing before changing the landscape, but it does matter if you could adapt fast to new work roles. Feel free to illustrate your flexibility 5. Leadership QualitiesItâs not by chance that recruiters are getting nervous whenever they are asked to find a team leader for a group of developers. A person responsible for leading the team and taking on blows whenever it fails is not so easy to find and keep. Quite often candidates that are perfect for leade rship and management positions lack technical skills and wouldnât be good in a technical role.The point is â" if you were good at leadership positions in the past, you will be of value for future employers no matter the field.6. Last but not Least â" Effective Time ManagementNeedless to say how important it is to be able to plan and schedule tasks in line with priorities. Be sure to mention it.evalThe rule of thumb is â" donât be abstract. Illustrate the skills you mention with real life examples or they will go unnoticed and leave no aftertaste in the recruiterâs head.And one more thing â" always, ALWAYS write a cover letter to accompany your career change resume. In it, you can explain in more detail what forced you to make the decision and why you will be able to fit in the new work role without difficulties.
Monday, May 11, 2020
Summary Sunday Land A New Job Faster
Summary Sunday Land A New Job Faster Landing a new job faster will take a better strategy and more effort! This weeks summary includes articles to help you overcome barriers so you can secure a new job faster. So whether you have gaps on your resume or dont know what to do after being laid off, these should help! Plus see over 70 ideas for better email subject lines when emailing your resume and why you cant disregard social media! JOB SEARCH No. 1 Reason Your Job Search Could Take Months (Maybe More Than a Year) by J.T. ODonnell | Forbes Spoiler! The number of jobs companies post is up AND so is the number of people looking! This means youll need to own your actions as ODonnell says and map out the specific habits youll need to succeed. You Need to Explain That Gap in Your Resume by Nick Douglas | Lifehacker Based on research from ResumeGo, If you leave a long gap between jobs in your resume, employers are less than half as likely to call you to talk further. While a one or two-year gap only slightly decreases your chance of getting a call, a three-year gap cuts your chances in half. See what you can do to improve your chances of getting looked at! Awesome Email Subject Lines Job Seekers Are Using For Results by Jacob Share | JobMob Do you ever wonder what to put in the subject line when you send your resume via email? Never wonder again. Check out the 70+ suggestions from recruiters. SOCIAL MEDIA Guide to Social Media and Job Search by Susan P. Joyce | Job-Hunt.org Stats and resources to help you tap into the power of social media for your job search. Because, yes, recruiters are using social media to share opportunities AND to search and vet candidates. LAY OFF Heal Your Layoff Wounds With A Higher Paying Job by Robin Ryan | Forbes Yes, companies are laying off people. Apply the information in this article to your situation and know that [c]urrent research shows that the average person who moves on to a new position is earning anywhere from 15 to 30% more than they were previously making. CAREER How to Start Your Workday Morning the Right Way [Infographic] by BusinessInsider | YouTern Incorporate a few of these sixteen tips into your morning routine, and intentionally create a much more positive outcome for each and every workday!
Friday, May 8, 2020
Buzzfeed Suggestions on Writing a Good Resume
Buzzfeed Suggestions on Writing a Good ResumeWriting a good resume is something that you should definitely spend some time on, because you only have a few minutes to impress your prospective employer. If you are one of those who want to write a great resume, then you will have to learn the dos and don'ts of how to write a good resume. You will be able to improve your chances of getting an interview for your current job position if you have the skills in writing a good resume. Below are some tips that can help you make it more appealing.Buzzfeed has a lot of examples on how to write a good resume and its own website contains a great deal of examples on how to write a well-written cover letter and CV. Another good tip to follow is to list your skills first rather than the basic skill. Skills like: communication, work experience, education, and so on can be listed in order of their importance. This way, it is easier to find what is important for your prospective employer to see.Make sur e that your cover letter and resume and CV do not come with unnecessary paragraphs. Try to be as concise as possible when writing a cover letter. You do not need to waste time explaining why you want the job. By listing your strengths and your specific skills in a positive manner, it is more likely that your prospective employer will notice these. Listing your specific skills in a positive manner will also encourage your prospective employer to look at your more.Buzzfeed recommends avoiding writing your resume in a hurry. Doing so will create a lazy effect in your resume and your written cover letter. Instead, writing a good resume takes some time, so take it slowly.While this may sound like a bad thing, Buzzfeed actually recommends writing a good resume slowly. They state that if you write your resume too quickly, it will sound choppy, as you might be trying to speak in front of someone.Buzzfeed states that it is important to be punctual when presenting yourself. Most employers car e about how long it took you to write your application. They also tend to frown on a resume that does not contain any contact information or any references to your qualifications. However, if you keep in mind that a resume is meant to be read and not read fast, then you will be in a good position to present yourself properly.As far as your academic qualifications, Buzzfeed advises writing a good resume before applying for a position. If you are applying for a job and your current school may not be updated, you should apply to a different school. With good academic credentials, you are automatically given a higher priority for consideration.Buzzfeed also suggests that you spend the required time on honing your skills so that you have them when your resume is due. In writing a good resume, it is best to focus on your skills rather than your specific qualifications. A lot of people find that this is the best way to ensure that they have all the skills necessary to fill the job opening.
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