The people responsible for delivering that service? Call center agents, and they’re the foundation for a positive relationship with your customers. As shopping patterns continue to shift away from physical storefronts to virtual options, friendly and efficient customer service is more important than ever. 

Here, we’ll explain what you need to know about the modern call center landscape and the most critical things to keep in mind when hiring for this essential business function. 

The Importance of Hiring the Right Talent for Call Center Success

The call center talent you hire impacts your business in a number of ways. 

1. Customer service quality

Customer service agents not only resolve problems but also make customers feel heard. High-quality agents empower your company to deliver fast, efficient service that makes the customer feel like they matter to the organization. This aids in customer retention and boosts customer lifetime value. 

2. Brand reputation

It’s a piece of business wisdom you’ve probably heard repeated many times before: a happy customer keeps it to themself, but an unhappy one will tell anyone who will listen about their negative experience. If you want to preserve a positive brand reputation, you must keep negative interactions to a minimum. This starts with hiring empathetic and resourceful agents. 

3. Turnover

Turnover is a huge challenge in the call center industry, with average annual turnover rates ranging from 30 to 45% (a turnover rate of 10% is considered ideal). Hiring candidates who are a strong fit for the job can minimize resignations, which reduces the cost of hiring and training new agents. 

4. Data collection

Call centers are a massive source of data on customer trends, product issues, and opportunities for innovation–powerful information that can transform your business. Better agents can yield better data, which can be used to produce desirable business outcomes. 

The Breakdown of the call center environment

Call centers are offices dedicated to handling inbound and outbound customer service. Some call centers are owned by or contracted with a particular company, while others provide service to numerous firms. 

Inbound vs outbound call centers

There are two types of call centers: inbound and outbound. Some call centers function as both inbound and outbound service providers. 

Agents at inbound call centers receive hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of calls every day from customers. Issues range from questions about accounts, billing matters, and order placement to technical support inquiries. Representatives assist customers, record calls, and document key information. 

Team members perform marketing activities at outbound call centers by calling customers about promotions and other services. They might try acquiring new customers, upsell existing customers on additional products, collect overdue accounts, conduct feedback surveys, or provide proactive customer notifications. 

Both types of call centers feature a built-in system to track the number of daily calls received, the duration of these calls, and other metrics.

Though there are online schools that provide call center training programs, most call center positions do not require a college degree or previous experience in the field. Many companies offer on-the-job training.

Call center environment

The typical call center is a large space with workers stationed in cubicles, each with a computer and headset. Traditionally, call centers have been known as less-than-appealing workspaces, with little natural light, unexciting decor, and an abundance of screens. The work is fast-paced, and the environment can often be loud and hectic. Thus, it’s no surprise that the physical space itself is an obstacle to attracting and retaining workers. We’ll talk more about overcoming these obstacles a little later on. 

The Outlook of the Call Center Industry

The global call center industry is massive and growing, projected to reach a value of $494.7 billion by the year 2030. It’s growing at a rate of about 6%, which is a bit higher than the average for all industries. With this strong projected growth outlook, companies will need to maintain steady call center hiring in order to keep pace. This means overcoming the staffing challenges that plague the industry. 

Thankfully, technology and other market factors have sparked a transformation in the call center industry in recent years. For example, COVID-19 forced many organizations to adopt remote and hybrid work arrangements that workers found favorable. Artificial intelligence and machine learning increasingly allow agents to offload more tedious support inquiries, which can help reduce burnout. 

Companies looking to keep pace with the call center industry’s continued growth will need to adopt forward-thinking strategies to onboard and retain superior agents. 

The Impact of Technology on the Call Center Industry

Technology is shaking up the call center industry in numerous ways, many beneficial to businesses and employees. 

Remote work

The pandemic forced companies to adopt novel strategies to minimize service disruptions, and one of those strategies was to facilitate working from home. Agents can provide secure, high-quality support remotely with the help of technology like VPNs and cloud-based call center software. 

Remote work opportunities not only promote a greater work-life balance that makes agents happy but also reduce the infrastructure costs associated with maintaining large facilities. Additionally, they can help companies maintain a more diverse team of agents and cover all time zones. 

AI

Artificial intelligence helps agents do their jobs faster and more effectively. Intelligent call routing systems, for example, can route calls to the most appropriate agent on the first attempt, reducing frustration and resulting in better service. AI can also tackle tedious agent tasks, like answering frequently asked questions, and aid in information gathering ahead of a live call to help agents work more efficiently. 

Key Skills and Attributes for Call Center Staff

Here are the top skills and attributes to look for when hiring call center staff.

• Communication. Call center agents communicate daily, both verbally and in writing, making strong communication skills a must. 
• Emotional intelligence. Good agents empathize with a customer’s situation and can tactfully navigate challenging conversations.  
• Problem solving. Agents often encounter complex, frustrating issues. They must be able to quickly assess those issues and determine the most appropriate course of action. 
• Conflict resolution. An effective agent must be able to maintain professionalism even when dealing with difficult customers and should de-escalate the situation when possible. 
• Product knowledge. Strong knowledge of the product or service helps agents answer questions and troubleshoot customer issues more effectively. 
• Adaptability. The topic of conversation can vary dramatically from one support call to the next. The best agents can easily transition from a billing issue to a tech support question. 
• Tech-savvy. Call center agents must navigate various systems and pieces of software to retrieve customer information, resolve issues, and keep records. Being amenable to new technology is essential. 
• Time management. Agents often handle multiple inquiries simultaneously, so strong time management skills are necessary to prioritize tasks and meet performance targets. 
• Attention to detail. Customer service agents must be detail-oriented to keep accurate records of their interactions and comply with the specific rules and regulations that are pertinent to their industry. 
• Resilience. Call center work can be mentally and emotionally draining. Agents who are equipped with healthy coping strategies will be better positioned to succeed. 

Are Virtual Call Centers the Future?

Companies use call centers to manage customer orders, questions, and complaints.  While traditional call centers are housed in central brick-and-mortar locations, a call center trend over recent years has seen many companies implementing virtual agent teams.

According to Liveops, more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are either currently using or planning to use home-based agents. These companies are discovering that the virtual agent business model reduces costs, improves customer service efficiency, and decreases employee turnover.

The virtual agent model is appealing to the business and employees alike.  For the company, it allows them to reduce overhead expenses by eliminating costly office space  while hiring from a greatly expanded candidate pool. For the employees, it allows for s the opportunity to work from home, and the elimination of  commute time and costs, while providing better work-life balance due to flexible working hours.

Today’s work-at-home call center agent model has also grown with expanded training capabilities and improved cloud-based software options. This strategy provides almost no geographic limitations as long as employees can access high-speed Internet at home. Complete virtual call center firms like Arise, Sykes Home, and Working Solutions pioneered this model and have seen great success. Corporate titans like HSN, Enterprise, and Amazon have leveraged the virtual model to coordinate their growth effectively.

The call center industry trend of hiring work-from-home employees is accompanied by a shift in focus from cost containment to a pleasant customer experience. Because of the improved technology, more companies are shifting their call center roles from foreign countries back to the United States. Understandably, consumers tend to get a better customer experience when call centers are staffed by people with whom they can communicate clearly. Keeping technology infrastructure in the United States is more cost-effective.

Retention Challenges and Strategies to Consider

Stressful work 

The stressful nature of call center work is arguably the biggest challenge recruiters face. You can always offer higher pay but can’t make customers any less frustrated. You can, however, alleviate the stress by providing adequate training and empowering agents with cutting-edge technology that makes their work more seamless. 

Recognize agent accomplishments and incentivize high performance. Invest in culture initiatives so workers don’t feel as though they’re disposable. Most importantly, prioritize accurate hiring so that you’re onboarding people who are a strong fit for the unique demands of call center work. 

Nonstandard hours

Some call centers require staffing around the clock, which means agents work nights, weekends, holidays, and every other undesirable time. You can make the nonstandard hours less unpleasant by ensuring there are enough experienced agents on every shift to respond to challenging inquiries and scheduling new agents on shifts that typically have lower volume. Employ transparent scheduling practices and give agents greater control, like using technology that simplifies shift changes and time off requests. 

Unappealing environment 

We talked a lot about the negative aspects of the call center workspace already–cramped cubicles, a bland office, and so on. Adopting remote and hybrid work arrangements can minimize the downsides of working onsite and give agents the increased flexibility they desire. 

Let Us Help You Hire the Best Customer Service Staff

4 Corner Resources (4CR) is an experienced and innovative leader who helps companies like yours find skilled and qualified team members for their vacant positions.

We offer call center staffing solutions for businesses of all sizes – from startups to SMBs and large corporations throughout the United States. Our knowledge and passion for what we do, and our flexible terms and conditions, set us apart in the world of headhunting and recruiting.

We welcome the opportunity to connect if you need help identifying the right candidates for your vacancies! We’re on standby to help you transform your workforce and find the ideal candidate today!

The Tech Hiring Trends Recruiters Should Expect This Year

Job openings grow

Though global economic uncertainties persist, experts forecast strong job growth in the tech industry in 2024. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the IT sector is expected to grow much faster than average, adding around 377,000 jobs a year over the next decade. 

With concerns over a recession waning, companies feel more confident and ramp up hiring, at least slightly. A quarter of recruiters say they’ll have more money to hire tech talent this year than they did in 2023. The outlook for startups is also a bit rosier after a few rough years, with experts favoring the growth of smaller, early-stage startups.

Shifting dynamic between candidates and employers

For nearly a decade, it was an overwhelming candidate market. It was the norm for recruiters to feel like filling technical roles was insurmountable. In 2023, however, layoffs from the likes of Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta sent shockwaves through the field and put hundreds of thousands of people out of work. The result has been a pendulum swing in the other direction, with companies seeing a volume of applicants for tech roles that they haven’t experienced in years. 

While it’s good news for organizations looking to scoop up talented team members, this shift in the candidate-employer dynamic also presents a level of risk. Companies must be careful not to get too comfortable and put employee engagement initiatives on the back burner. Even if a candidate jumps to accept a job today, it won’t be long before they search again if your company culture and employee experience are subpar. 

Technical skills see continuously high demand

If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in the last few years, it’s the demand for technical skills. They drive expansion and innovation, and because of that, recruiters are hunting for them in 2024. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Technology Industry Growth Outlook, companies focused on growth prioritize cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity–and they’re willing to pay for workers with those skills.  

Unfortunately, the skills gap that has plagued the tech industry for years isn’t shrinking. If anything, it’s growing as new technology disrupts the global economy and unprecedentedly changes job requirements. Experts cite lagging education, ineffective hiring methods, and unnecessary barriers to entry as primary reasons for the persistent skills gap. 

One way to overcome these challenges and hire for the necessary skills is to incorporate pre-employment assessments into your tech hiring process rather than relying on resumes and interviews alone. 

Soft skills play a bigger role 

While technical skills are the bread and butter of the IT field, soft skills play an increasingly important role as the lines between traditional industries blur, and every company, in some shape or form, takes on characteristics of a tech company.  

Soft skills are critical for building teams, motivating employees, and forming mutually beneficial external partnerships. In a survey of business executives, 44% said soft skills—not technical skills—were lacking the most in the contemporary workforce. 

Some of the biggest soft skills tech recruiters should be on the hunt for in 2024 are:

• Communication—Technology teams constantly struggle to convey complex topics to customers, colleagues, and the general public. Companies need capable communicators who can convey the message clearly without losing meaning. 
• Problem-solving—The industry’s core value proposition is using technology to solve problems. Employers need creative, results-oriented workers who can discover new avenues to solutions and profits. 
• Critical thinking—As more and more companies move away from top-down management in favor of a more collaborative work style, teams with strong critical thinking skills become even more essential to innovation. 
• Adaptability – In this era of rapid technology adoption, change is one of the only constants. Flexible workers who can adapt in a dynamic landscape will help position organizations for longevity. 

When screening candidates for soft skills, use a mix of behavioral and situational interview questions can help you probe for what you’re looking for. 

AI joins the workforce

There’s a new team member who has shaken up the industry more than any other in the last 24 months, and it does not require a cubicle or health insurance: artificial intelligence. Sixty-seven percent of tech professionals say they use AI to do their jobs (with ChatGPT being a leading tool), and this number is likely to grow in the months ahead. 

What’s noteworthy is that a large portion of workers are optimistic rather than doubtful or fearful of AI’s impact. However, many employers don’t share the same sentiment. Twenty-eight percent of developers, for example, say their company is opposed to employees using AI to assist with their work. 

Forward-thinking companies must look ahead to see how AI will reshape rather than merely replace roles. Successful firms will embrace AI as a tool to help workers do their jobs faster and with greater accuracy and will promote these aspects as selling points when recruiting.

Hybrid roles offer a win-win

Aside from salary, which is always a strong motivator, work-life balance and the ability to work remotely are the top priorities tech candidates consider when looking for a job in 2024. Yet the volume of fully remote roles has declined considerably since its peak in 2022, with more companies requiring workers to be in the office. 

Hybrid roles are an effective compromise, offering employees more of the flexibility they crave while giving companies oversight and the ability to build cohesive teams. Expanding your hybrid job offerings (or offering fully remote roles when you can) can help you reach a wider, more skilled talent pool. Including the option to work from anywhere, some or all of the time, as part of your job listings helps you reach candidates who may not have previously considered a position because of the onsite constraints. 

Rise in upskilling

Modern workplaces critically lack the infrastructure and support systems needed to keep the skills of existing employees on the cutting edge. This is not just a threat to innovation but also puts retention at risk. As many as three-quarters of millennial and Gen Z workers say they will likely quit their jobs next year due to a lack of skill development opportunities. 

Upskilling can help companies keep pace with operational demands while providing important engagement opportunities to workers. 

Upskilling uses structured training programs to arm employees with new skills that will aid them in their work, help the organization stay competitive, and comply with business best practices. PwC, for example, committed $3 billion to its ‘New World, New Skills’ program that gives all 276,000 of the firm’s employees digital skills training and incentivizes the creation of digital tools or time-saving processes. Lincoln Financial is taking a similar approach, offering hundreds of the company’s actuarial employees access to ‘future of work’ training that will improve their mastery of emerging trends like big data and predictive analytics. 

Declining emphasis on college degrees

It no longer takes an engineering degree to break into the tech field—far from it, in fact. Employers increasingly say they’re moving away from using four-year degrees as a be-all, end-all requirement for job seekers. Most recruiters now say they hire tech talent with non-academic backgrounds, which doubled between 2021 and 2022 alone. 

This is on par with trends for the workforce as a whole, as student debt continues to skyrocket and public opinion leans away from higher education as the gold standard for future success. In a Gallup poll of 2,000 Americans, only half said they view having a college degree as ‘very important.’ 

Reducing the emphasis on traditional degrees and focusing instead on skills-based hiring for technical roles can help employers broaden their talent pool and foster more diverse teams. 

Adapt a Hiring Strategy for the Future with Help from 4 Corner Resources 

From evolving technology to new post-pandemic norms, the current recruiting landscape is tough to navigate. With help from the IT hiring experts at 4 Corner Resources, you can stay competitive and show candidates you’re prepared for the new normal. 

Our headhunting professionals will help you attract, screen, and hire the best candidates for your open technology jobs, from developers to engineers to project managers and beyond. Our deep expertise in the industry ensures you’ll find the technical skills you need faster and hire the right candidate the first time, eliminating future headaches and facilitating smoother onboarding. 

Schedule a free consultation with our team today, and let’s discuss how we can help you meet your tech hiring needs for the year ahead.

However, the state of the workforce is rapidly changing. Recruiting in low unemployment continues to be a challenge for companies while finding candidates who are a good “culture fit” is an increasingly important component of hiring processes. This means that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for companies to find employees who meet the criteria they’re looking for — and, most importantly, are actually seeking to make a career move.

The ability to hire employees who align with your needs will become even more critical as senior talent is predicted to become scarcer in the future. In fact, a Boston Consulting Group survey found that 56% of executives foresee “critical gaps” in their ability to fill senior management roles in the coming years.

So, how can your business overcome these modern hiring hurdles to build a workforce that isn’t just aligned with your current needs but also has the ability to scale and adapt to achieve your future goals? We have an idea: hiring for potential, not experience.

What Does Hiring for Potential Mean?

Let’s say you need to hire a graphic designer for a fashion brand. You come across a candidate with an impressive portfolio, but they don’t have any prior experience in fashion or apparel. You have two options: 1) move on to a candidate with more relevant experience, or 2) give them a shot based on the strength of their portfolio and other desirable qualities like drive and creativity. If you choose option 2, you’re hiring for potential. 

Hiring for potential means selecting a candidate based on their aptitude and likely ability to develop the required skills rather than on their proven track record. It may mean hiring a candidate who meets your education requirements but lacks experience, hiring a candidate from a different field with transferable skills, or hiring someone who’s missing a technical requirement but is enthusiastic about learning. 

The Benefits of Hiring for Potential

Hiring for potential can offer several benefits to organizations. 

Expand your talent pool

At a time of persistently low unemployment, hiring for potential can broaden your talent pool. Making an exception to rigid degree requirements, for example, can open the application process to candidates who are capable of doing the job but lack a formal degree. 

Embrace diverse perspectives

Hiring strictly for skills can confine your search to a homogenous pool of applicants–people with the same general career path or professional record. On the other hand, hiring for potential allows you to consider applicants who don’t fit the traditional mold and, therefore, offer unique backgrounds and perspectives. Diverse teams tend to achieve superior performance, which can benefit your productivity and innovation. 

Build a cohesive culture

When you hire for potential, a candidate’s personality, work style, and values play a greater role in your decision than their technical qualifications. Coincidentally, these elements also influence company culture more than skills alone. So, by prioritizing more personal characteristics, you can assemble a team that more closely aligns with your vision for the company’s culture. 

Invest in employees

Today’s top candidates want to work for companies that are invested in their success. Hiring for potential is the ultimate display of that investment. You’re assuming a certain level of risk when you hire for potential, going off your faith that the applicant will wind up fulfilling the vision you have for them. This is a valuable way to show your belief in a candidate and can help you seal the deal with future high performers. 

When You Should Hire for Potential vs. Experience

When you’re growing quickly

Sometimes, the most important thing is getting more hands on deck ASAP. If you’re growing rapidly as a company and the employees you hire will have lots of room to grow as well, hiring for potential is a good way to fulfill your immediate headcount needs while adding great people to your talent base. 

When you already have a strong depth chart

If your bookkeeping is a mess and you’re in desperate need of an accountant to sort things out, hiring for potential is only going to make your problems worse. However, if your books are in good shape and you’ve got a senior accountant who’s already running things smoothly, hiring a more junior team member based on potential who can be trained to support their senior colleagues could be a practical decision. 

When you have the bandwidth for training

This is imperative to understand: when you hire for potential, your new employee’s performance rests heavily on your shoulders. Since they’re not coming in with extensive experience, you’ll be largely responsible for giving them the tools they need to succeed. This means you must have the time and resources to commit to employee development to make your new hire a success. 

When soft skills are paramount

Some skills, like software programming or Microsoft Excel, can be taught. Others, like creativity and adaptability, are less easy to learn from a course or a book. In roles where soft skills are more important than experience, hiring for potential is often the way to go.

Related: How to Assess Soft Skills

How You Can Evaluate Potential 

‘Potential’ isn’t a quality that can be objectively scored. However, there are strategies you can use to identify it. Here are a few ways to tell when a candidate has strong potential. 

Assess preparedness

Even without years of experience, a good candidate will still put in the work to show you that they care about the job. Pay attention to whether they’ve done the basics to get ready for the interview, like researching the company and preparing to answer standard interview questions like ‘What are your strengths?’

Reflect on their background

Instead of focusing on prior jobs and professional achievements, spend the bulk of your time considering the candidate’s background. How might the skills they have be transferable to your position? Are there parallels between jobs they’ve held before and the duties they’d be performing? For example, someone who’s been a nanny might have great organizational skills that would make them a valuable office administrator. 

Ask situational interview questions

Situational questions are open-ended questions that prompt a candidate to describe how they’d react when faced with a scenario. These questions can give you useful insight into a candidate’s character and critical thinking skills. Here are some examples:

• What would you do if one of our customers called to complain?
• How would you handle a mistake in a delivery?
• What if you found out one of your coworkers was stealing?
• How would you react if your boss gave you negative feedback?

Use assessments

Pre-employment assessments aren’t just for technical skills. Modern assessments can gauge diverse aspects of a candidate, from personality to leadership capabilities to teamwork. Assessments have been proven to be a strong predictor of future success, so they’re a great tool when a candidate doesn’t have a long list of experience. 

Ask for their sales pitch

What better way to discover a candidate’s potential than to ask them directly? Prompt them with a question like ‘Why should I hire you?’ and let them make the case. You can ask follow-up questions like ‘How would you overcome your lack of experience?’ or ‘How do you advance your skills?’ to see whether they align with your thoughts on ongoing development. 

Advantages of Hiring for Potential, Not Experience

Here are a few of the primary upsides of hiring for potential over experience.

Ability to shape and mold employees

Workers with more professional experience will naturally have developed their own ways of doing things. They may have preferences about the type of technology they use to do their jobs, for example, or about protocols for interacting with customers. These preexisting preferences can present challenges, especially if they’re quite different from the culture or processes that exist in your organization. 

When you hire for potential, these pre-existing preferences don’t exist. You have more ability to shape and mold employees to your preferred work style and systems. 

Stronger succession planning

Hiring for potential puts you in a great position to develop future company leaders, which is an important aspect of effective succession planning. Companies that practice succession planning experience fewer negative impacts from turnover and are better positioned for longevity than those who don’t actively groom the next generation of leadership.

Supports an adaptable workforce

When you feel that someone has strong potential, one reason is probably that you recognize they’re adaptable. This indicates a willingness to learn and to take a different approach when faced with obstacles. Adaptability is one of the most important qualities for a resilient workforce, so hiring for potential can improve your staff in this key area. 

Is Hiring for Potential Better?

Hiring for potential is a long-term approach. It requires the ability to look strategically at the company’s future and how an individual might bring value to that future picture. It also requires you to take a more holistic view of each candidate, considering the type of person you want to be part of the team rather than focusing solely on the role you need to fill right now. 

Hiring for potential isn’t always better. As we discussed earlier, for example, if you urgently need to cover a highly specific skills gap, hiring for experience is a much more suitable approach.  However, if you can commit the necessary resources to training and development, hiring for potential can be an excellent way to build a strong culture of high performers who are engaged with their work and excited about continuous growth. 

Identify Your Hiring Needs — and Fulfill Them — By Partnering with the Right Staffing Agency

Do you need assistance identifying your immediate or long-term hiring needs? Do you need help weighing the pros and cons of hiring experienced vs inexperienced employees? Have you decided that you’re looking to hire for potential, not experience, but have been struggling to source the best candidates?

There’s no need to figure it all out independently — turning to the right staffing agency or headhunter can help. This is where we will come in to help you figure out these unknowns and develop a strategic hiring strategy that brings you the talent you need.

At 4CR, we’re a professional staffing agency dedicated to recruiting only the best candidates for our clients. We’re here to help you uncover your deeper hiring needs and then apply our years of experience and access to extensive resources and candidates to help you achieve them. Let us connect you with the talent your company is looking for — whether that means a fresh graduate or seasoned candidate.

Ready to get started? Contact one of our professional recruiters today to learn how we can recruit and screen the candidates most aligned with your business needs.

Are you considering poaching talent from a competitor? Maybe you are wondering if it’ll get you in trouble, legal or otherwise? Read on as we explore the ins and outs of employee poaching. 

What is Employee Poaching?

Employee poaching is the term for hiring talent away from a competitor. By some estimates, it accounts for as much as 30% of movement in the labor market. 

Poaching activity is closely tied to the economy; when unemployment is low, like it is now and has been for some time, poaching is more common as recruiters feel an increasing sense of urgency to fill open positions. 

Some industries are more susceptible to poaching than others. In the tech field, for example, it’s not uncommon for a skilled IT employee to be lured away from a company by one of its market rivals who’s willing to pay a premium for their talent. Food and beverage and customer service workers are also more likely to be poached. 

Is Employee Poaching Legal?

First things first: let’s tackle the question that could put your company’s livelihood at risk. Is it legal to poach employees from your competitors? While this is not legal advice, and you should consult an attorney for guidance in your specific situation, the answer in most cases in the United States is that poaching is legal. 

The justice system has taken steps to outlaw arrangements that stop poaching. For example, companies typically break U.S. antitrust laws if they enter into “no-poach” agreements with competitors. Under such an agreement, two or more companies would commit not to solicit or hire the other companies’ employees. This violates antitrust laws designed to ensure healthy competition in the marketplace. 

There are a few cases where the legality of poaching becomes murky, namely non-compete agreements. A non-compete agreement is a contract between a company and an employee that prohibits the employee from working for one of the company’s rivals for a specified time. These non-compete agreements are often unenforceable, but it could take months and legal fees to sort out in court. The risk of legal action alone might make pursuing a candidate with a non-compete agreement impractical. 

Another scenario that could get you into legal trouble is if you’re poaching an employee who’s under contract with their firm. This could result in the company suing the employee or the firm that lured them away for breach of contract. It’s another scenario where the potential upside probably isn’t worth the liability. 

Is Employee Poaching Ethical?

Now for a more nuanced question: is employee poaching ethical? The answer to this question isn’t clear cut and, in most cases, will be, ‘It depends.’ 

Employee poaching that’s conducted above board to fill a legitimate skills need generally does not violate any professional ethics. In the United States (and in most developed nations), employees are free to choose their place of employment. They can base that decision on any factors they deem to be important, from pay to flexibility to enjoyment. Thus, if an employee decides a competitor’s employment offer is more alluring than their current job, it’s well within professional convention for them to accept the better offer. 

Of course, there are cases where poaching is unethical. This is true when poaching is done with unscrupulous intent. For example, it would be highly unethical if a company wanted to hire someone from the competition to gain access to trade secrets or uncover sensitive information about other firm employees. 

A good way to “gut check” whether poaching is ethical is to assess whether you feel the need to hide it beyond the discretion that generally exists in the hiring process. If company leaders, customers, or the general public would find the intent behind your poaching problematic, it’s a good sign that what you’re doing raises ethical concerns. 

Pros and Cons of Employee Poaching

The pros

On the positive side, poaching employees can help:

Access specialized skills

If you need to hire for a niche set of duties, there’s no faster way to do it than to look for someone who’s already performing those duties for another firm. Poaching enables you to hire a professional who has direct experience with the precise job function you’re looking to fill, which can all but guarantee a high level of performance. 

Minimize time to productivity

Someone who’s already worked for one of your competitors will have a good idea of “how the sausage gets made.” This means you won’t need to spend as much time on training, and your new hire can reach full productivity faster than someone who’s being introduced to the field or the role for the first time. 

Entice additional prospects

If you poach a competitor’s employee and word gets around how much they love their new job, some of their former coworkers may be compelled to follow them to your organization. This increases your talent pool and contributes positively to your employer brand. 

Put workers at an advantage

One viewpoint is that the real winners in employee poaching scenarios are employees. Poaching typically involves offering higher salaries, better benefits, or some other captivating perk better than the employee currently has. Additionally, the threat of poaching forces employers to be on top of their game to retain top talent in terms of pay and value, which can lift the tide for all workers. 

Encourage innovation

Some of the most talented business leaders have honed their skills by making moves among a laundry list of top companies. This wouldn’t be possible without some poaching. Poaching encourages knowledge transfer within industries and pushes firms to compete to be “the best,” which drives innovation.  

The cons

In addition to the possible legal downsides we already covered, here are some of the other cons of poaching to consider. 

It could backfire

Getting a poaching candidate to the offer stage doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll accept. There’s always the chance an employee has no intention of actually leaving their job but instead wants to use a competing offer for leverage in their quest for a raise or promotion. If this happens, your efforts (and the risk you’ve taken to engage in poaching) will have been wasted. 

Damage to reputation, relationships

There are benefits to maintaining positive relations with the other companies in your field, even those you consider to be competitors. Becoming known as a habitual poacher could damage your reputation and put those relationships at risk. 

Tips for Employee Poaching

1. Recruit for skills, not secrets

You can ensure your poaching activities remain in good faith by focusing your efforts on skills rather than secrets–trade secrets, sensitive business information, or intellectual property, to be precise. For example, if you’re poaching a talented developer, you can expect them to bring their A-game to code your new app but should NOT expect them to share previously written code already used by their current employer.

Related: How to Conduct a Skill Gap Analysis

2. Keep it positive

Talking badly about others is never a good look, which extends to recruiting. Take the ethical high ground by centering your recruiting message around the value your company can offer candidates rather than pointing out your competitor’s shortcomings. 

3. Don’t be aggressive

Knowing when to back off is one of the most important things in poaching. If a candidate has not responded to your initial outreach or follow-up message, it’s a good sign they’re not interested. Likewise, if they express discomfort with being contacted, it’s time to make a graceful exit from the conversation. 

A Final Word On Poaching

The bottom line is that you can only poach an employee who wants to be poached. Unlike the term suggests, the candidate is not some helpless creature at the mercy of a relentless hunter. Instead, they’re a competent professional capable of assessing all opportunities available to them and making the best decision for their career. Treat them as such, communicating your interest in their skills and the unique value you can offer as an employer, and you’ll experience success with or without poaching. 

As a recruiting and staffing firm for large and small businesses, we’ve come to realize that many of these hiring concerns can be remedied by implementing these small business hiring tips.

Small Business Recruiting Trends

Demand for remote jobs continues to rise

Thanks to the pandemic-driven explosion of remote work, millions of professionals experienced the convenience, flexibility, and comfort of working from home for the first time. Now, many of them never want to go back. Smaller companies find themselves at a unique advantage as large employers call their workers back to the office en masse. By tailoring more open job positions to be partially or entirely remote, SMBs can attract a wider pool of interested applicants and compete against enterprise organizations with more rigid in-office policies. 

While companies of all sizes report significant decreases in operating costs thanks to the remote working trend, it can be especially beneficial to small-to-midsize businesses. These businesses tend to have less space and resources to work with — and having fewer employees physically in the office means less desk space, equipment, and utilities are necessary.

If you decide to include more remote positions in your hiring strategy, be sure you’re also aware of the latest digital recruiting trends. This will enable you to effectively reach potential workers where they actually spend time and look for new jobs on their mobile devices.

Utilizing freelancers and contractors 

Modern employees are increasingly moving away from full-time jobs to pursue more flexible options, like freelance or contract work. Upwork predicts that half of all workers will be freelancers by 2027.

By hiring an independent contractors, you can look beyond your local market and tap into talent that wouldn’t be willing to relocate for a job or isn’t available to take a full-time, in-office position. This can also save small businesses on both up-front and long-term recruiting costs. With freelancers and contractors, you aren’t committing to paying a full-time salary and typically won’t have to pay for benefits or match retirement savings contributions. Additionally, suppose you use a professional staffing agency to fill freelance or contractor positions. In that case, those hires typically stay on the staffing agency’s payroll for the duration of their contract, not yours.

Employer branding is gaining momentum

In a competitive market, you aren’t just choosing candidates — they’re choosing you, too. It can be hard to set yourself apart from other small businesses in your area or attract top talent over industry giants. According to LinkedIn, 75% of job seekers consider a company’s brand before applying for a job, making it crucial to develop a strong brand as an employer.

There are many simple, cost-effective ways for small businesses to build their brand and attract top candidates. For example, regularly engaging with your customers through blogs or social media, clearly showcasing your culture and values through videos or online posts, or sharing information about the causes and philanthropic organizations you support.

Being transparent and consistent in all of your communications creates a strong brand image, which can lead to candidates who are aligned with your goals and values discovering your company. If you’re leveraging a professional staffing agency for your recruitment initiatives, make sure they have taken the time to research and familiarize themselves with your employer brand so they can source candidates who align with it on your behalf.

Heavier focus on recruiting candidates based on culture fit

For small businesses especially, company culture is incredibly important. Many small businesses feel like a tight-knit family, and when you have fewer people on your staff, each one directly impacts the overall environment. Bringing in a new hire that doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the team can make the working atmosphere uncomfortable or lower morale for everyone — and in a smaller office, this will quickly become noticeable.

Unfortunately, assessing a candidate’s culture fit isn’t an exact science. However, you can gain insight into an employee’s personality in many ways before committing to giving them a salary and spending further time and resources on hiring and onboarding. Many pre-employment assessment tools on the market fit all needs and budgets, which can uncover a candidate’s deeper motivations, preferences, and personality traits. Additionally, something as simple and cost-effective as chatting with a candidate over lunch or coffee (or, in current times, a Zoom call) can help you get to know them in a more informal setting.

Related: Reasons Why Culture Fit is Important for Your Hiring Strategy

AI offers assistance–but is underused by SMBs

Artificial intelligence is no longer some obscure technology accessible only by big firms with huge budgets. Today, AI is integrated directly into ordinary recruiting technology, some of which you might already use. Modern ATSs, for example, use AI to screen candidates and intelligently predict job success. AI can also be used to craft compelling candidate messaging and even assist with your social media strategy. 

Despite its huge potential to help offload manual tasks and optimize recruiting, the majority of small businesses still aren’t using AI. While 93% of small business owners agree that AI tools can help drive savings and improve profitability, slightly less than a third of SMBs surveyed used AI tools in the last one to two years. 

Younger workers crave stability

By 2030, Gen Z employees will account for nearly a third of the workforce. This makes recruiting them increasingly important to SMBs who wish to remain competitive in the decade ahead, and understanding their preferences is paramount. 

While Millennials have gotten a bad rap as the job-hopping generation, Gen Z workers place a much heavier value on stability. In a survey of soon-to-be college grads, stability was the number one factor students said would make them apply for a job. This should be no surprise, given the economic instability that has plagued the past few years. Small- to medium-sized businesses can capitalize on this demand by highlighting job security and promoting the importance of employee longevity in their recruitment materials. 

Key Small Business Hiring Tips

Now that you have a grasp on some of the top hiring trends let’s talk about how to go about hiring. 

Knowing how to attract top talent to your company (and away from the industry giants) is all about making your company attractive to potential applicants. You must focus on selling your unique value — highlighting what you offer that larger companies don’t.

Offer attractive compensation and benefits

One of the most effective ways to attract the best employees is to offer compensation that is commensurate with their skills, knowledge, and experience. Understanding what motivates different age groups and generations is vital for any business that wants to hire the best talent. For example, baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) have different motivations and expectations than employees who fall within Generation Y (also known as millennials).

If offering competitive salaries or other employee-related benefits isn’t an option financially for your business, there are other things you can do to help make your company stand out from larger businesses. Some employees value non-monetary rewards, such as having mentorship opportunities, skills training, and greater autonomy.

Develop a strong employer brand

In previous articles, we’ve discussed the importance of developing and showcasing a strong employer brand — the values and image your company conveys to the public and prospective employees as an employer. This could involve showcasing the organization’s culture, family-oriented workplace, or its contributions to the community.

At 4 Corner Resources, for example, our employer brand conveys that we are an organization that combines performance and effectiveness to serve our clients while also providing our employees the best training in the industry. We value the 4R Principles: Relationships, Resources, Responsiveness, and Results.

Related: How to Elevate Your Employer Branding to Attract Top Talent

Offer opportunities for advancement

Growth opportunities are crucial for attracting and retaining talented employees at small companies. Small businesses may have more advancement opportunities than their larger counterparts, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

If your organization offers relevant experiences, challenges, training, and hands-on learning opportunities, you can help employees stand out in their professional development. This differs from larger enterprises, where candidates may feel they need help in the crowd of employees.

Offer flexible or remote work opportunities

As we mentioned in our discussion of hiring trends, flexible hours and remote work opportunities are often viewed as major selling points by prospective candidates. A significant advantage of being a small business is that you can offer these types of opportunities as hiring incentives.

Furthermore, remote work opportunities provide you with a chance to attract and hire the best candidates who may not live within a commutable distance from your company office.

Streamline the hiring process

An advantage of your small size is that your approach can be more streamlined. Every hiring decision doesn’t have to go through a long, drawn-out process involving many hands in the pot.

Considering ERE Media reports that the top candidates are often hired within 10 days, it’s vital to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Use your organization’s small size to your advantage to ensure the hiring process moves quickly and efficiently.

Write detailed and effective job descriptions 

Writing a good job description is essential for finding good employees who will be the right fit for a position. After all, if your job description is ineffective, how do you expect the right people to find your job, let alone want to apply for it? 

The best way to find employees is to write job descriptions that attract the talent you need and also clearly state your expectations of those who will fill those roles.

Hold out for the right employees

Don’t jump to onboard a candidate who’s just “okay” just to get someone in the role. Hiring employees who aren’t truly suitable for a specific job means that in addition to the cost of hiring and training them, you’ll also have the additional costs of replacing them and training new candidates. This is particularly worrisome, considering that nearly 75% of surveyed employers hired the wrong person for a position and that companies lost an average of nearly $15,000 on every bad hire they made.

These costs are a significant investment for small businesses — underscoring the importance of hiring good employees the first time around. Don’t settle for anything less than employees who always bring their A-game, passion, talent, and energy to your business. 

Leverage referrals

Referrals are undoubtedly the most reliable sourcing channel for identifying skilled, dependable candidates. One of the best ways to source new talent for your business is to ask your existing employees for referrals. Because they already work for you, your employees are a recruiting goldmine for your company. They can likely make an educated recommendation because they already know what it is like to work at your company and understand what expectations its employees need to meet. They can also tell if someone in their circle will fit in on your team.

To help motivate employees to provide recommendations, you can offer them incentives — such as a cash bonus, time off, or another benefit — for each referral you end up hiring.

Additionally, getting recommendations or referrals from people you know isn’t limited to your existing employee pool. Ask around within your professional network to find out if you “know someone who knows someone” who may be a good fit. 

This can be as simple as reaching out to your contacts on LinkedIn or grabbing coffee with another business leader with whom you have a good relationship. You may be surprised to discover they know a few strong candidates who can fill your staffing needs when you are hiring employees for your small business.

Be selective where you list positions for applicants

Some small businesses will make the mistake of listing positions all over the internet on websites like Craigslist, Monster, Indeed, Zip Recruiter, and Glassdoor (to name a few). However, taking the “shotgun” approach by listing information about your job openings everywhere can hurt rather than help your recruiting efforts.

One of the small business hiring tips we recommend is to take a focused approach when posting positions. If you post your positions everywhere, you’ll get a wider net of applicants, but the overwhelming majority will not be qualified candidates. This process creates extra resume review work for you or your HR team without providing additional benefits.

Use social media to recruit, research, and qualify candidates

Should social media matter when it comes to hiring employees for your small business? For many employers, it does. According to a study by the Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM), social media is used by 84% of employers as part of their recruiting efforts, and 43% of employers use search engines and social networks to screen job candidates. The study indicates that:

• 71% believe social media recruiting helps to reduce time-to-fill for non-management, salaried positions;
• 67% believe it is beneficial to hiring management positions and
• 59% believe it is effective for hiring C-level suite employees.

Although staffing experts often have different opinions about whether businesses should use social media to review candidates, reviewing social networking platforms can be an effective way to learn more about each candidate. This publicly accessible information can tell you a lot about a candidate’s personality, values, and skills—as well as any behaviors of concern.

Promote sustainability

We’ve talked a bit about the desires of Gen Z and Millennial job seekers already, but one area we haven’t yet covered is sustainability. A 2023 Deloitte survey of these two youngest workforce age groups revealed some surprising findings about how they weigh sustainability when deciding where to work.

More than half of the survey’s respondents said they research a prospective employer’s environmental impact and policies before accepting a job, and one in six say they’ve already changed jobs or industries due to climate concerns. Approximately a quarter of them plan to make such a move in the future.

For SMBs focusing on sustainability, these preferences can be an asset. Spotlight your environmentally friendly policies and initiatives in your hiring materials. If you don’t have such initiatives in place already, now would be a great time to prioritize launching them. 

Cross-train and promote from within

Pay attention to your existing workforce when looking to fill a pressing skills need. Before hiring externally, consider whether a suitable candidate already exists within your ranks or whether one could be developed with proper training. Not only does hiring from within help you fill open roles quickly and at a lower cost, but it also promotes retention and contributes to strong employee engagement. 

Partner with a staffing agency to recruit reputable talent

Partnering with a staffing and recruiting agency is the last of our small business hiring tips. In addition to a wealth of resources and a significant network of candidates, the right agency will know your specific industry and regularly work with small to midsize businesses like yours. As such, they will bring you the best candidate for any of your job openings.

Partner With 4 Corner Resources For Your Small Business Hiring Needs

Our team of experts who are proficient in small business hiring tips has been helping attract, qualify, and screen candidates for more than 18 years. We are client-driven and have an adaptive, flexible, and personal style that makes us easy to work with. If you don’t know how to recruit employees for your small business, our recruiting and hiring experts are here to answer questions and provide guidance throughout the process. If needed, we can take the burden off your shoulders and handle the process from start to finish to match the perfect candidates with your business.

If you have questions about how to recruit good employees for a small business, we invite you to reach out. Contact us to get in touch with our staffing experts today and explore how we can help you hire for success.

Even before the pandemic struck, though, remote work was well on its way to becoming the norm rather than the exception. A pre-pandemic survey by Upwork and Freelancers Union estimated that nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce would consist of remote freelancers by 2027, and we’re on our way to hitting that benchmark; currently, around 39% of the American workforce performs some time of freelance work, while around a quarter of U.S. adults work remotely at least some of the time. 

Another survey by the Pew Research Center found that employees are embracing the remote work trend. It reported that 64% of teleworkers say location flexibility has made it easier to balance work-life and professional life. In comparison, 44% say completing their work and meeting deadlines is easier.

With so many potential upsides, switching to a remote workforce is a valid consideration that could save your business money, improve productivity, and boost employee satisfaction. But is it the right move for your business? Let’s take a closer look.

Is a Permanent Switch to Remote Work Right For Your Business?

A growing number of major corporations, including Facebook, Twitter, and Slack, have started offering the option to work remotely, and more SMBs are considering it, too. It’s a situation that can have numerous advantages and potential concerns for employers. 

We’re breaking down some of the biggest pros and cons to consider. 

The advantages of being a part of a remote workforce as an employee are pretty obvious: flexible scheduling, access to employers outside of a commuting distance, greater independence, higher job satisfaction, cost and time savings (gas, wear and tear on vehicles, commute time, etc.), and the potential for greater productivity. 

But what are the advantages of telecommuting for employers? Here are 10 of the biggest ones.

Related: The Great Debate on In-Person vs. Remote Employees

10 Advantages of Employing a Remote Working for Employers

1. Cost savings

A virtual workforce is more cost-effective than providing physical space and office supplies and covering other costs for an onsite team. According to Global Workplace Analytics³, which studies trends and forecasts surrounding work in America, a typical employer can save an average of $11,000 per employee per year by going remote for just 50% of workdays. The average employee would save between $2,000 and $7,000. 

2. Bigger talent pool

Making virtual positions available increases your access to a more talented pool of candidates who live outside of commuting distance (or even internationally, for that matter). This can be a great advantage if you’re looking to compete at the global level or if you need to fill niche positions. 

3. Ability to collaborate

Collaboration among team members undoubtedly breeds greater creativity, inclusion, and innovation. However, collaboration can still be accomplished virtually, thanks to the plethora of widely available video and audio conferencing services. Teleconferencing may even expand your ability to collaborate, like with team members from other locations across the country who wouldn’t normally be included in in-person meetings. 

4. Higher morale

If you want happier employees, let them work from home. When asked to rate their happiness level on a scale of 1 to 10, 42% of remote workers rated themselves at 8 or above. That contrasts sharply with just 21% of in-office workers who answered similarly. 

5. Lower turnover

Offering remote work opportunities leads to reduced employee turnover and attrition. Improving your stats in this area can also contribute to significant cost savings for your organization. 

6. Fewer meetings

Employees who work remotely have fewer unnecessary meetings. According to Doodle’s State of Meetings report, poorly organized meetings cost U.S. companies nearly $400 billion annually in lost time and productivity.

7. Increased productivity

Believe it or not, many companies find that employees get more done working from home. A whopping 91% of employees who work a hybrid model say they feel as productive or more productive than they did when they worked full-time in the office. With 79% saying their teams are more effective when working remotely or hybrid, managers tend to agree. 

8. More independent workers

Since remote workers don’t have a manager constantly looking over their shoulder, they’re forced to be more independent in their work. This can be a plus since micromanaging tends to hurt morale. 

9. Reduced absenteeism

Unscheduled absences are a significant expense for employers, costing companies about $1,800 per employee, per year. For the whole country, that adds up to about $300 billion. The Global Workforce Analytics study we mentioned earlier found that telecommuting programs reduce unscheduled absences by 63%.

10. Environmental benefits

Employing a virtual workforce that doesn’t have to drive to work contributes to making a company more eco-friendly. In fact, it’s one of the most effective things a company can do to reduce its carbon footprint. If workers in America with a remote-work compatible job worked from home just half the time, the reduction in emissions would be the equivalent of taking New York State’s entire workforce off the road.

5 Disadvantages of Employing a Remote Workforce

Although having a partial or full-fledged remote workforce has numerous benefits for employers, it also has some potential drawbacks to consider.

1. Loss of oversight

In a move to remote work, management may worry about a lack of accountability because employees are not as “visible” (although technology offers plenty of ways to track worker activity).

2. Lack of human element

There’s definitely something to be said about the energy of being in a room full of like-minded people working toward a common goal, and that’s an element you can’t quite replicate over a video call. Management may have concerns about reduced collaboration or creativity due to staff not being able to meet face-to-face regularly. 

3. Not suitable for all employees

Some employees simply work better in a physical workplace. To manage the switch to remote work successfully, you’ll need to invest in giving employees the tools, coaching, and resources they need to succeed when they’re not a few cubicles away from their colleagues or boss. 

4. Perceived unfairness/favoritism

Another factor of remote work we haven’t touched on yet is that not all jobs can be done offsite. If you move to a partially remote workforce, there are risks of jealousy or perceived favoritism among the employees who have to remain onsite out of necessity. 

5. Infrastructure costs

While remote work comes with long-term cost savings, there is an upfront investment. You may need to make potentially expensive updates to your IT infrastructure, security, and technology to support virtual work opportunities.

An Example of a Successful Virtual Workforce Integration

As a recruiting and staffing agency for small, medium, and large businesses, 4 Corner Resources (4CR) has worked with clients across various industries around the United States. As such, we have been privileged to participate in many successful remote workforce integrations. Here is one such example:

One client, a public e-learning school that serves K-12 students throughout Florida (and elsewhere) through online content, decided to develop their own Learning Management System (LMS) in 2017. This multi-million dollar project required additional employees to plan, design, and execute company-wide. The skill sets the school sought in employees for the project were part of a small niche — which placed the organization in a position of having a limited candidate pool to select from in the immediate area.

By embracing a remote workforce, the educational company expanded its candidate pool. It gained access to a more extensive network of candidates who lived outside a daily commute distance. The company enjoyed great success finding the talent they needed to complete a successful project and has since followed a remote working module.

As the preference for working remotely continues to gain traction among candidates, allowing offsite work some or all of the time for some or all of your employees can be a useful way to differentiate yourself from other employers and better compete for the best talent.

Related: Tips for Building a High-Performing Remote Team

The Future of Remote Work for Employers

In the months ahead, employers will continue to capitalize on remote work thanks to its potential to reduce costs, broaden the talent pool, and, perhaps most significantly, offer top candidates the flexibility they demand. 

Hybrid work arrangements will become more common as employers seek ways to find a practical middle ground that gives employees greater work-life balance while allowing face-to-face collaboration. The most popular hybrid model is three days in the office and two days remote. 

Maintaining alignment with candidate desires will be key for employers who want to stay on the cutting edge. These desires are shifting, and candidates are making major career decisions based on them. 

One noteworthy trend is the need for more clarity between what employers and employees want regarding work location. About two-thirds of workers must be in the office full-time, but only 22% say this is their preferred arrangement (compared to a remote or hybrid model). When such misalignment occurs, employers suffer; one in three workers say they would start looking for a new job if forced to return to the office full-time, while 6% say they’d quit immediately. 

Looking ahead to the future of remote work, technology will also be a critical component in employers; success. Unfortunately, many companies are still lacking in giving workers the tools they need to do their jobs as effectively as possible when working out of the office. It’s also important to utilize technology to facilitate remote hiring and virtual onboarding, creating a more seamless candidate and new hire experience when building a remote workforce. 

Hire Accountable, Independent Remote Employees with 4 Corner Resources

It takes the right type of employee to work from home successfully. It requires diligence, organization, accountability, and a strong work ethic. Let 4 Corner Resources identify these qualities in candidates for your open role by choosing us as your staffing partner. 

We help employers of all sizes fill their remote staffing needs with talented employees with the right mix of technical skills and real-world experience. From full-time to part-time, permanent to temporary, we can help you source, screen, and hire the type of employees that will help your company thrive while working remotely. Start the conversation with our team of staffing experts by scheduling your free consultation now. 

There’s one word that describes the labor market as we head into 2024: slowdown. It’s a slow slowdown, but a slowdown nonetheless, as employment numbers ease back toward pre-pandemic levels and economic growth decelerates. Unemployment remains persistently low–under 4%–but it’s a number economic experts expect will tick upward throughout the year ahead. 

It’s a wacky job market to analyze, even for the professionals whose job it is to study it. So, how can recruiters prepare and ensure their hiring needs are met in 2024? Here are some 2024 recruiting trends and changes we can expect. 

Recruiting Trends For 2024 to Expect and Prepare For

1. ‘Great Resigners’ reenter the workforce

After multiple years of record-high quit numbers, resignations returned to pre-pandemic levels in mid-2023, marking the official end of the Great Resignation. The uncertain economic conditions that have plagued most of this past year have made many quitters reconsider their decision and prompted employees who were on the fence about quitting to remain at work. 

We can likely expect several pandemic-era quitters to begin job searching in the year ahead, which means employers should prepare recruitment strategies to attract them. Some ideas include offering workforce reentry programs to help quitters come back and recruitment campaigns with messaging specifically targeting people who are having buyer’s remorse about their decision to leave the workforce. 

2. Remote work causes a disconnect

The Pandora’s box of remote work has long since been opened, and many employees never want to return to working in an office full-time. An overwhelming 98% of people who currently work remotely say they want that to be the case for the rest of their careers. 

At the same time, companies have realized the limitations of letting everyone work from home and are calling workers back to the office, much to employees’ displeasure. This has created a stark disconnect between what candidates want and what employers say they need. 

Companies can gain the upper hand amongst in-demand candidates by making positions flexible, allowing for remote work at least some of the time. Making hard-to-fill roles fully remote can ease some of the hiring difficulties. Organizations that are unable or unwilling to offer any location flexibility will be at a recruiting disadvantage. 

3. Talent strategies adapt around freelance labor

Freelance labor has become a standard–and valuable–part of a strong staffing strategy. Some companies have moved to fully depend on freelance workers to fulfill certain roles, while others initially onboard new team members under a freelance agreement before making an offer for full-time employment. 

The freelance market will likely experience continued growth in the decade ahead as more workers move to self-employment or supplement their W-2 income with side hustles. Companies can adapt by crafting talent acquisition strategies that cater to freelance, contract, and gig workers. 

4. Sustainable hiring grows in prominence

Sustainable hiring is the practice of recruiting employees in a manner that’s aligned with broader social, ethical, and environmental principles. It’s becoming an important factor for a growing number of candidates. 

Employers can create an attractive value proposition to such candidates by employing sustainable initiatives such as:

• Providing a fair hiring process that’s free from bias
• Offering equitable, transparent wages
• Participating in community development 
• Adopting environmentally friendly business practices
• Prioritizing employee well-being

5. Healthcare and leisure see strong demand

Though job openings have contracted in certain fields, growth in some sectors, particularly healthcare and leisure, remains strong. Healthcare alone accounted for over a third of overall employment growth in the second quarter of 2023. By 2031, healthcare positions in individual and family services are projected to grow by 31%, while leisure industry jobs in settings like amusement parks will grow by 38% and accommodation by 23%.

Unfortunately, it’s unwelcome news for employers in these fields, who have already faced disproportionate hiring challenges for several years. Recruiters in these sectors must be diligent about leveraging cutting-edge recruiting technology, prioritizing candidate engagement, and offering a benefits package that’s tailored to the candidates they want to attract. 

6. Family priorities take a front seat

Parents, primarily mothers, left their jobs by the millions during the pandemic. Those workers are returning to the workforce, but they have demands, mainly flexibility, that allow them to balance the requirements of personal and professional life. 

Many candidates now say flexibility is more important to them than pay when weighing job opportunities. Companies looking to attract top talent must ensure their policies reflect these post-pandemic preferences. 

7. Remote recruiting will remain popular

Though employers may have cooled a bit on workers being completely remote, recruiters have fully embraced the conveniences of recruiting remotely. 

Seventy-seven percent of recruiters believe in-person interviews are the most effective way to qualify a candidate, but 61% say they believe video interviews will be the default interview mode moving forward. Between 25 and 50% of positions can be onboarded without the employee ever visiting the company’s physical headquarters. Sometimes, this will be a make-or-break factor in a candidate choosing whether to accept a role. 

Related: Virtual Job Interview Tips for Hiring Managers

8. Quality of candidate is paramount

Fifty-two percent of recruiters say improving the quality of their hires is one of their most important goals.

So, how does that differ from previous years? While recruiters are interested in growing their talent pipelines, they’re more interested in ensuring their talent is quality. This contributes to higher retention rates, which aids companies in their widespread efforts to reduce costs. 

9. Mental health benefits go mainstream

One of the most troubling implications of the pandemic is its effect on our collective mental health–implications we probably won’t fully grasp the scope of for some time. And yet, it’s become commonplace for candidates to weigh companies’ approach to mental well-being into their decision whether to accept a job. Almost half of the recruiters say job seekers are asking about mental health benefits more frequently since the onset of Covid-19. 

It’s worth pointing out, too, that candidates aren’t the only ones grappling with increased demands and the resulting stress; 61% of recruiters say their stress has increased by some level since the pandemic began, while nearly 20% say the amount of stress they’re under has increased drastically. 

Related: Ways to Improve Employee Mental Health and Why It Matters

10.  AI offers assistance

The use of artificial intelligence in recruiting has been on the rise for several years now, and the trend continues heading into 2024. Hiring managers’ top uses for AI include job candidate matching, screening, and engagement, as well as getting assistance with writing materials like job descriptions and outreach messages. 

AI-powered tools, like smart applicant tracking systems, are increasingly being used to offload repetitive tasks like sending automated communications to candidates and scheduling interviews. Smart chatbots offer a way for candidates to engage around the clock. AI and machine learning have the potential to save recruiters time and cut down on tedious tasks while helping companies tighten their belts and reduce recruiting costs.

11. Retention, retention, and retention

While the Great Resignation may be behind us, one goal should be a top priority regardless of what happens with hiring: holding onto the workers you’ve already invested in. 

Prioritizing retention eliminates many of the struggles that come with vacancies, like attracting qualified candidates and the heavy resource drain of conducting interviews.  

Companies can’t drop the ball when a candidate accepts an offer. Instead, that should be when a new strategy comes into play, creating an excellent employee experience that keeps strong workers around. 

Related: Highly Effective Strategies for Employee Retention

12. More organizations adopt diversity hiring goals

More companies are working toward specific goals for diversity in hiring concerning race/ethnicity and gender, with 22% of employers naming it as their top objective. 

It’s a topic of growing interest for candidates, too. A third of recruiters say more applicants are asking about diversity and inclusion initiatives than they did in the previous year. 

More diverse organizations tend to be more creative and have stronger bottom lines than their more homogenous counterparts, but that’s not the only upside to setting and working toward diversity hiring goals. Prioritizing diversity hiring can help you stay competitive, especially in fields like tech, where the struggle to win top talent has become ultra-fierce in recent months. 

Related: How to Hire for Diversity

13. Reaching passive candidates is more important than ever

The fierce competition for the best workers will continue into 2024, so recruiters must spend more time reaching passive candidates. This is especially important for highly niche roles and positions that are in high demand, like developers and social media strategists. Recruiters should work to build a pipeline of passive candidates who are open to hearing about new opportunities.

Related: How to Attract Passive Candidates

Achieve Staffing Success in 2024 With Help From the Recruiting Experts

From new technology to shifting social trends, the staffing landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever before. Do you have the infrastructure in place to keep up with the recruiting trends for 2024? Stay ahead of the hiring curve by enlisting our team of dedicated professionals for your 2024 staffing needs. 

We can help you hire the right person for the job the first time around, saving you time and money. But our services don’t end there; when you work with our team of pros, you’ll get expert recommendations for improving your hiring efficiency and prioritizing the roles that will impact your organization. 

Start the conversation by scheduling your complimentary consultation today.

Here, we’ll talk about some of the biggest ways technology is already shaping the future of recruiting in the medical field, from time-saving tools to artificial intelligence, and what to expect in the years ahead. But first, to fully understand the implications of emerging technologies, we must address another persistent issue in the healthcare field.

The Healthcare Staffing Crisis

Though the healthcare staffing crisis has subsided slightly since its peak during the pandemic, demand for qualified clinicians is still expected to outweigh supply by a sizable margin for years to come. 

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. could see a shortage of as many as 124,000 physicians by 2024, with shortfalls in both primary and specialty care. Nursing turnover is a particularly challenging area; 31% of respondents in a recent survey of nurses said they were likely to leave their jobs in patient care in the near future. 

To put it plainly, the staffing shortage in the medical field isn’t likely to be resolved any time soon. Add to that a faster-than-average growth in demand for physician assistants, pharmacy techs, physical therapists, and administrative support staff. You’ve got one of the hottest candidate job markets in the nation.

All of this means that your healthcare recruitment efforts must be sharper than ever. Investing in recruiting technology will help you keep pace with the industry’s massive growth, win top talent in a highly crowded landscape, and save time, which seems to be a more valuable resource than ever.

Ways Technology Will Impact the Future of Healthcare Recruiting

From sourcing candidates to retaining top performers, here are seven ways healthcare recruitment technology can strengthen your approach to staffing.

1. Widens the candidate pool more than ever before

Tech tools have removed geographical barriers in sourcing and screening talent for clinical and technical healthcare jobs.

VoIP services and video conferencing make it possible to conduct interviews from opposite sides of the country or anywhere around the world, with quality rivaling (and sometimes exceeding) that of an ordinary phone call. We’re fans of Skype for international calls and Join.me for video conferencing that does not require a software download.

Digital applications for screen recording and playback are helpful when reviewing and narrowing down candidates after the fact. These tools can also be useful for sharing interviews with multiple parties in the decision-making process, and most video conferencing platforms have the feature built-in.

Employing these and other virtual interviewing applications can trim recruiting travel budgets, allocating to both your hiring team and the candidates you’re considering.

2. Use search engines to your advantage

We talk about a wide variety of recruiting strategies, both traditional and contemporary, but one of the most underutilized strategies is search engine optimization. You can post on social media and recruit at job fairs until you’re blue in the face, but if you’re not taking advantage of SEO, you’re missing out on a slew of candidates who are searching for the exact roles you’re trying to fill. It’s low-cost, too.

Healthcare recruitment technology can help us create optimized, more engaging job descriptions that will place higher in search results and capture more active job seekers. Crazy Egg, for example, is one such tool that will help you optimize your individual job listings, craft a search-friendly careers page, improve your website URLs for search engines, and gain backlinks from the right job listing sites.

Try a free tool like Yoast to optimize job listing components like titles and descriptions. When you enter your job listing content, it’ll provide real-time recommendations for making it stand out in search results.

3. Predict which candidates are best for the job

Artificial intelligence is one of the most promising technology sectors for healthcare recruiting and business in general. According to McKinsey, 55% of companies have now implemented some form of AI, and 40% of firms plan to increase their investment in the technology. 

Through machine learning, applicant tracking systems can match candidates’ skills to the job requirements with a high degree of accuracy, saving time, especially in roles with a high volume of applicants. This can free up hiring staff for more meaningful tasks like conducting interviews, building relationships, and having conversations with references

Now, emerging platforms can also draw upon unprecedented data points to predict culture fit, which has long been the X factor differentiating a good candidate from a fantastic one. Intelligent chatbots can answer candidate questions instantly, while AI can also be used to remove unintentional bias from the hiring process. It opens a whole new world of healthcare recruiting possibilities.

4. Save time by automating repetitive processes

No matter how much you optimize your hiring funnel, certain parts of the process are repetitive and mundane. Still, they must be done. Technology can help us automate recurring tasks like scheduling interviews, coordinating skills assessments, sending status update letters, and gathering candidate feedback.

5. Improve the overall candidate experience

These days, there’s no excuse for a poor application process, yet we still see companies with clunky, redundant, and buggy online application systems. Technology can improve your application process on the user end while streamlining data collection and hiring processes on the back end.

A smooth application process contributes to a positive candidate experience, which is good for attracting and retaining the best workers. In a Career Builder survey, 78% of candidates said their experience when interviewing with a company indicates how the company treats its people.

Still, your candidate experience probably isn’t as strong as you think it is. Only 47% of candidates said employers did a good job of setting expectations and communication during the hiring process. Technology—for example, automation of hiring status updates like we mentioned above—can help improve on this.

Your candidate experience is an important component of your employer brand, which, in a competitive healthcare recruiting market, can make or break your chances of winning an in-demand candidate.

6. Enhance analytics and reporting

Another area where AI has far-reaching implications is in analytics. 

By leveraging automation, recruiters can now gather and aggregate vast amounts of data on candidates, job openings, and market trends in a fraction of the time it would take to compile the data manually. Then, using artificial intelligence, they can use that data to forecast future staffing needs, predict candidate availability, and anticipate market trends before they happen. Visualization increases usability by turning complex data into easy-to-understand visual models.

Imagine how much easier your job would be if you knew that in six months, a change in the market would cause ten team members in your pediatrics unit to resign for jobs elsewhere. Instead of being blindsided by the turnover, you could step up retention efforts by making your salaries more lucrative, get a head start on backfilling those roles, or take other proactive measures to keep staffing challenges from hindering your operations. Enhanced analytics make it possible. 

7. Optimize your existing workforce

Until now, we’ve been discussing technology as a tool for attracting and winning new talent. Still, in a market with a staffing shortage, retaining and maximizing the talent you already have is equally important. Technology can help you analyze the efficiency of your existing workforce and identify resource leaks. This will reduce the impact of staffing gaps until vacant positions can be filled.

For example, a healthcare analytics application like Tableau can help you analyze how much time your staff members spend on various tasks and how those tasks translate into revenue. This can uncover opportunities to maximize staffing efficiency while also improving cash flow.

Optimizing your existing workforce also includes ensuring your employees are satisfied so that the best ones will stick around for the long haul. Take advantage of technology that breeds employee satisfaction, like collaborative apps, employee appreciation programs, and continued education resources.

Best Healthcare Recruitment Technology to Make Hiring More Efficient 

Applicant tracking systems

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help manage and automate the entire recruiting process, from job posting to new hire onboarding. They also aid in candidate relationship management, which is an essential differentiator in a ruthlessly competitive market. 

Look for an ATS system with a healthcare-specific suite of tools (Bullhorn is one such option), which will give you access to features for verifying clinician credentials, managing licenses, and maintaining compliance with healthcare industry regulations. 

ChatGPT

You probably know ChatGPT can write articles and complete research, but did you know it can also help you develop stronger recruiting materials? The natural language processing tool allows healthcare recruiters to input a series of criteria and receive a highly tailored output that might include candidate outreach emails, recruiter phone scripts, lists of interview questions, and more. 

Here are just a few examples of prompts you could use for a ChatGPT query:

• Develop a set of five interview questions to ask a nursing assistant candidate
• Create a 100-word email a recruiter can use to reconnect with a candidate who applied for a job two or more years ago
• Draft a short phone script a recruiter can use when screening applicants for a pharmacy technician role

ChatGPT isn’t limited to creating recruiting materials. You can also use the tool to help you brainstorm new and creative recruiting ideas, asking about topics like how to use social media to connect with new graduates or ideas to generate more applications in rural areas. 

Related: How to Create a Job Description With ChatGPT

Chatbots

At a time when we’re all striving to do more with less, chatbots are a cost-effective way to offer round-the-clock candidate engagement. They can complete time-consuming pre-screening activities by asking candidates a series of questions before passing them through to complete an application, saving recruiters valuable time. And they can expedite other pre-hire tasks like scheduling interviews and following up with candidates with incomplete applications. 

Another feature of chatbots that’s particularly interesting for the competitive healthcare market is their ability to facilitate multilingual recruiting. If your application materials are available in one language, but you’re looking for bilingual candidates, you can use a smart chatbot that offers support in the language the candidate is most comfortable in. 

Analytics tools

Analytics technology is a powerful healthcare recruitment technology for saving time, enhancing efficiency, and boosting hiring accuracy. A platform like HireEZ allows you to track your candidate outreach in real-time and easily analyze the results of your efforts. This gives you a comprehensive understanding of which recruiting channels and methods yield the most success so you can best determine where to target future efforts. 

Analytics technology can also help with candidate selection. Advanced analytics tools can leverage data from candidates’ resumes to determine which characteristics are most closely tied to strong performance and then help you screen for those traits. 

Credentialing and compliance tools

In healthcare, verifying candidates’ professional credentials is a legal and ethical necessity, adding complexity to this already challenging recruiting area. A tool like Checkr can automate the process of confirming applicants’ licenses and maintaining compliance with all regulatory mandates. This not only saves you time but ensures patient safety. 

Harness The Healthcare Recruitment Technology With 4 Corner Resources

While adopting new healthcare recruitment technology can be daunting, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to assemble the best medical staff in the business. Why not let an expert lead the charge? 4 Corner Resources works tirelessly to stay on the cutting edge of staffing technology, giving companies like yours access to proprietary applications that will help you locate, attract, and hire top professionals in the healthcare field.

We specialize in healthcare recruiting, filling positions like claims specialists, customer care representatives, medical coders, pharmacy technicians, and more. Our network of thousands of healthcare professionals spans the nation and ranges from entry-level to the C-suite. Whether you’re looking for direct hire recruiting for a hard-to-fill role, contract-to-hire services for periods of rapid growth, or temporary staffing services to cover seasonal gaps, we have a solution to fit your needs. We also offer convenient payrolling services to help you streamline your payroll and benefits operations.

See why the top names in healthcare have trusted 4 Corner Resources with their staffing needs for 15 years. Get in touch with a healthcare staffing specialist by contacting us now.

All the way back in 1908, the Boy Scouts began gamifying skills like first aid and carpentry by rewarding scouts with merit badges. In the 1960s, multi-colored stamp books swept the nation as retail chains gamified grocery shopping.

Though the idea has been around for centuries (or longer), the gamification of business operations is picking up steam in an exciting way, and nowhere are the implications more promising than in the recruiting field.

We’ll explore the pros and cons of gamification in recruiting and explain some ways to incorporate it into your hiring process to engage candidates better and improve the quality of your hires. 

What is Gamification?

In a business setting, gamification refers to incorporating game elements, such as competition and achievement, into non-gaming processes like marketing, hiring, or talent management. This method is not merely about adding a touch of entertainment. At its heart, gamification aims to foster engagement, a crucial factor in everything from customer loyalty to employee retention and can serve as a pivotal business strategy.

This concept of instilling game elements into business operations gained traction around 2009, notably with the advent of Foursquare. This platform introduced gaming components into local search behavior, sparking excitement among users as they vied for titles like “mayor” of their favored locales. Since then, gamification has found applications across diverse fields. From employee training to revolutionizing how companies evaluate candidates, manage job applications, and drive the selection process.

Gamification has been a tool to introduce healthy competition among job seekers, motivate people in a training environment, and facilitate a smoother job application experience.

What are the Benefits of Gamification in Recruitment?

1. Assess candidates

Interviews are the richest source of information a hiring manager has when assessing a candidate. Still, they have one fatal flaw: most of what the candidate says in an interview has been rehearsed beforehand. While that is often just the nature of interviews, it also completely neglects to assess how a candidate acts and reacts in the moment, which is a major determining factor of job success. Gamification can instantly gauge how candidates would react in situations they’d likely face in their new role.

Rolls Royce took advantage of this capability by gamifying a situational judgment test. Via a simulated inbox, the company assessed how its interns and apprentices would manage the incoming message load of a fictitious manager. The result was a robust picture of the individual’s social, organizational, and decision-making skills.

2. Gamification can screen for specific skills

Any good hiring manager or recruiter knows that candidates aren’t the best assessors of their own skills. Underqualified candidates may overestimate their aptitude in certain areas, while completely qualified candidates may struggle to communicate their skills in a 30-second answer to an interview question. Gamification addresses both of these problems by allowing candidates to demonstrate their skills actively.

UK business services provider KPMG used gamification to attract and screen new college graduates for internships. Candidates were tasked with racing a virtual hot air balloon worldwide, stopping along the way to “refuel” by completing relevant challenges. The candidate who completed the journey in the shortest amount of time successfully won the internship.

Companies seeking to hire can use similar gamification channels to test a candidate’s skills, from hard skills like programming or data entry to soft skills like communication.

3. Reduce hiring bias

One of the biggest selling points of artificial intelligence in staffing and recruiting is its ability to remove human bias—intentional or unintentional—that can creep into the hiring process. But, believe it or not, AI can develop its own biases. In one fascinating example, Amazon documented how its AI recruiting tool had developed a bias against female applicants, assigning lower scores to candidates whose resume used the word ‘women’s,’ as in ‘women’s college’ or ‘women’s chess club.’

Recruitment games have an exciting amount of potential to take some of the onus for removing bias off of humans and artificial intelligence. Hacker Rank demonstrated this with its platform for taking a neutral assessment of a candidate’s coding skills.

As Hacker Rank CEO Vivek Ravisankar explained, recruiting in the coding world is particularly susceptible to machine learning bias because many of the best candidates didn’t go to college and haven’t worked for big-name companies—something AI tools often “learn” to look for. So, Ravisankar and his team built a gamification platform through which companies can evaluate applicants’ coding skills with assessments, challenges, hackathons, and more. This results in a truly blind assessment of a candidate’s coding capabilities, apart from what’s on their resume or what they look like.

4. Improve the candidate experience

A positive candidate experience correlates with better quality talent, more seamless onboarding, and a strong employer brand, all of which are good for business.

Gamification can enhance this in several important ways. It creates an all-important engagement between a candidate and a company lacking in your standard website ‘careers’ page experience. It can also help a candidate learn more about the company and the role during the application process, which is valuable in helping them make an informed decision about joining your organization.

The key to creating a great candidate experience (and not one that’s viewed as overly juvenile) is to know your market and tap into your company culture. Suppose you aim to reach upper-level financial professionals who will succeed in a buttoned-up corporate culture. A quiz might be a better gamification option than the hot air balloon ride simulation we mentioned earlier. Conversely, suppose you’re looking for creatives who will thrive in a quirky, progressive environment. In that case, a Farmville-style assessment game might be the differentiating factor you need to put your company on its shortlist.

Example of success

Accounting and consulting firm PwC introduced gamification to engage job applicants more fully (the average candidate spent 10 minutes or less on the company’s website). They devised a game called Multipoly that placed prospective candidates on teams and presented them with scenarios similar to those they’d face on the job.

After introducing the game, candidates spent as much as 90 minutes on the platform. The firm reported that its candidate pool grew by 190%, and users reporting interest in learning more about working at PwC increased by 78%.

Candidates, for their part, seem to enjoy—or at least not be deterred by—gamification in the recruiting process. Assessment solution provider AON cites one applicant feedback study that asked candidates to compare a new gamified assessment with a previous, non-gamified version. 91% reported that it gave the same or better impression of the company, while 94% said it was the same or better at engaging them.

5. More engaging onboarding and training process

New hire onboarding doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being a thrilling event. This is particularly unfortunate since an employee’s first few days on the job are so crucial for delivering a positive new hire experience.

Gamification can help organizations make the onboarding process more engaging, providing memorable and enjoyable interactions that also communicate important new hire details. 

The same goes for training. Research has shown that people learn more when they’re involved in active learning (like taking part in an activity) versus passive learning (like viewing a PowerPoint or listening to a lecture). Gamification can provide the active component of training that helps employees retain and internalize more of the material. 

Cons of Using Gamification in Your Hiring Process

• Requires More Hands-On Time: Gamification isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It takes time to get right, especially in the early stages when changes may need to be completed on the fly. It also requires an ongoing commitment to activities like analyzing results and monitoring for new biases algorithms.  
• Branding Mismatches: It offers many benefits, but it’s not a fit for every brand or every stage of growth. Some situations, for example, may call for a more hands-on approach with a heavy emphasis on personal interactions. If you choose to deploy gamification in recruitment, you must first consider how it works with other components of your employer brand. If you fail to do so, it can cause confusion and even distrust among prospective candidates. 
• Accessibility Challenges: Some types of gamification aren’t accessible to all candidates, like those who are hearing or visually impaired or have difficulty processing information presented in a certain format.
• Technical Difficulties: Like any digital application, it is susceptible to technical difficulties. Nothing will turn a candidate away faster than a recruitment interaction that’s billed as ‘fun!’ and ‘engaging!’ that fails to work as expected. 

How to Implement Gamification in Your Recruitment Process

1. Choose the right games for your objective

Just as different recruiting channels can help you reach different types of candidates, different games are best suited to certain results. Here are a few examples of different games and what they can help you assess:

• Quizzes – subject matter knowledge
• Challenges – technical aptitude, creativity 
• Puzzles – problem-solving skills
• Races – speed, efficiency  
• Maze – problem-solving, critical thinking
• Avatar-based – situational behavior (i.e., dealing with a difficult customer)
• Team-based – communication, the ability to interact with others 

2. Choose reliable games

When used correctly in recruitment, gamification can significantly enhance candidate engagement and deliver deeper insights into their skills, abilities, and behavioral traits. However, the success of this strategy largely hinges on the choice of games used. Here’s a guide to help you choose the right ones:

• Research-Backed: As you pointed out, robust research should ideally underpin any game you choose to incorporate. It ensures the accuracy and validity of the results and interpretations derived from the game.
• Reputable Vendors: Partnering with a reliable vendor cannot be stressed enough. These vendors should have a track record of success and be able to provide case studies or testimonials that showcase the efficacy of their games in the recruitment process.
• Relevance to Role: Not all games will be suitable for every role. Choose games that are relevant to the job in question. For instance, a game measuring numerical agility might be more pertinent for a financial analyst role than for a graphic designer.
• Engaging & Immersive Experience: The game should captivate the candidates, ensuring they remain engaged throughout the process. An immersive experience will also ensure more accurate results as candidates will likely put in their best efforts.
• Cost-Effectiveness: While investing in reliable games is essential, it’s equally crucial to ensure that they are cost-effective. Analyze the return on investment by weighing the costs against the benefits received in terms of improved recruitment outcomes.

3. Keep it simple

Gamification’s primary goal in recruitment is to heighten engagement and enhance the assessment process, not introduce unnecessary complexities. Candidates should immediately understand a game’s objective and mechanics. Any confusion might deter potential hires and give a misguided impression of the organization’s operations. It’s essential to center the games around evaluating core competencies, ensuring precision without needless distractions. Furthermore, a straightforward game design minimizes technical issues and fosters a smoother user experience. Ultimately, simplicity in gamified recruitment ensures a seamless, efficient, and genuinely engaging process for candidates.

4. Be transparent

Incorporating gamification into recruitment offers a fresh approach to evaluating potential hires. Yet, it’s essential that candidates don’t feel they’re merely partaking in a frivolous activity. Transparency is paramount. Clearly conveying the purpose behind these games builds trust and ensures candidates engage more earnestly. By explaining the game’s objectives and the skills being assessed, you respect the candidate’s investment of time and effort.

Furthermore, this candid approach not only allays any potential apprehensions but also strengthens your reputation in the job market. While gamified processes intrigue, their purpose should never be obscured; clarity amplifies their effectiveness and enriches the recruitment experience.

5. Evolve continuously

While innovative and engaging, gamification in recruitment isn’t a static strategy. As with any tool or process in the dynamic talent acquisition landscape, it demands continuous evolution.

The benefits of gamification can only be sustained when there’s a commitment to regular assessment and refinement. Regularly measuring outcomes is not just about keeping track of successful hires but also about understanding the nuances of candidate engagement, the effectiveness of skill assessment, and the overall candidate experience.

By paying attention to feedback, both from hired candidates and those who didn’t make the cut, you gather invaluable insights. These insights can spotlight aspects of the games that might be outdated, too complex, or not adequately aligned with the job roles.

Moreover, as technology progresses and newer game mechanics become available, there’s an opportunity to integrate these advancements to ensure your recruitment games remain state-of-the-art. This consistent evolution ensures that you’re attracting top talent and providing them with an experience that resonates with current trends and preferences.

Do Games Really Work in Recruitment?

Absolutely! Games have proven to be quite effective in the recruitment process, introducing a dynamic approach that benefits both employers and candidates alike. Gamification in recruitment, or “Recruitainment,” offers a unique blend of assessment and engagement, providing insights into a candidate’s skills, personality, and decision-making process in a more interactive manner. It facilitates a deeper understanding of candidates beyond their resumes, allowing recruiters to identify those who are not only qualified but also culturally aligned with the company’s values and goals.

Using games also enhances the candidate experience, making the process enjoyable and engaging rather than stressful and tedious. Games designed for recruitment purposes are structured to be objective and unbiased, reducing the likelihood of unconscious bias affecting hiring decisions. Additionally, it enables candidates to demonstrate their abilities and potential in real-world scenarios, which traditional recruitment methods might not accurately capture. With these advantages, gamification in recruitment is not just a fleeting trend but a transformative approach that’s reshaping talent acquisition practices for the better.

How to Set Goals for Gamification in Recruiting

While gamification in recruiting has many merits, the concept isn’t without its potential pitfalls. To employ recruitment games that are actually effective and not just a novelty, begin by setting goals.

What are you hoping to achieve by adding gamification to your recruiting strategy? Is it more eyes on your careers page (check out the MyMarriottHotel case study for a great success story in this area)? A wider pool of applicants? To weed out unqualified candidates? Once you’ve established your goals, it will be much easier to identify what kind of gamification suits your purpose.

As with any new recruitment tool, tracking your progress consistently and analyzing the results regularly is paramount. Set key performance indicators that you’ll use to assess the effectiveness of your recruitment games. Some of these might include:

• Your overall number of applicants
• Time spent on your website, repeat visits to career page
• Percentage of candidates that pass the screening phase
• Percentage of candidates offered an interview
• Offer rate, offer acceptance rate
  

Additionally, compare these metrics to those of your other recruiting channels to get an idea of how this fits into your overall hiring picture and how it stacks up against other means of attracting, qualifying, and hiring candidates.

Fine-Tune Your Recruiting Process With 4 Corner Resources

From recruitainment ideas to cutting-edge recruiting technology, 4 Corner Resources has the strategies you need to develop the most effective hiring funnel in your field. By combining our proprietary sourcing tools with our deep talent network from coast to coast, we’ll give you access to the top candidates your industry has to offer.

We attract, screen, and place candidates for various positions, from technology to customer service and beyond. Our staffing solutions include direct hire staffing, contract hiring, temporary recruiting, and payrolling services to streamline your onboarding process.

FAQs

When choosing between hiring experienced vs inexperienced employees, what are the differences in each type of professional? And, what are the advantages or drawbacks of hiring one over the other?

Benefits of Hiring Experienced Employees

Greater expertise

The most obvious benefit of hiring experienced employees is that they know their stuff. They’ve had time to hone their skills and learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ that enable them to work more efficiently and produce better results. Experienced employees can innovate based on the solid foundation of knowledge they possess. 

Higher productivity

Seasoned employees take less time to reach their full potential in a role. Rather than learning a job from scratch, they’re more likely to build upon an existing skill set or bring their expertise to a new setting. They can also complete tasks in less time because they’ve had years of practice. 

Less training

Experienced employees already know how to use the tools and software required to do a job or at least have experience with similar ones. This contributes to lower training costs and less time invested in education. 

Knowledge of professional norms

A seasoned workforce member has experience in their skill area and in a professional environment in general. They understand expectations in a business setting, know how to interact with clients and possess professional etiquette that can be lacking in new employees. 

Broader perspective

A certain point of view comes with experience–it’s only gained by putting in the years, and there’s no shortcut. Since they’ve been in the field longer, experienced employees have had time to witness trends and observe customer behavior, which can bring a valuable level of insight to an employer. 

Resilience

Experienced employees have been through the challenges the job can pose. They know that one setback doesn’t equal failure, which can make them more resilient in the face of future difficulties. 

Disadvantages of Hiring Experienced Employees 

• Cost: Experienced employees are more costly to hire than their less experienced peers. If you’re on a tight budget, you’ll need to carefully weigh your skill needs against your financial constraints when deciding whether to hire experienced vs inexperienced employees.
• Competition: In addition to being more expensive to hire, seasoned employees are also more difficult to land. Their skill set gives them more leverage when negotiating with prospective employers, which means experienced candidates may have a lower offer acceptance rate than entry-level ones. 
• Not ‘moldable’: Because experienced workers have already achieved some level of success, they’re more likely to be set in their ways than someone who’s just starting. This could lead to challenges with coaching and the adoption of new technology. 
• Disillusionment: Unfortunately, the longer a person is in the workforce, the longer they’ve had to become jaded by the tedious aspects of their profession. It can be harder to engage more tenured workers who no longer feel the same ‘spark’ as when the job was fresh and new.

Benefits of Hiring Inexperienced Employees

Coachability

One of the primary benefits of hiring inexperienced employees is that they don’t come with the baggage or bad habits of their more experienced colleagues. Because you’re starting with a blank slate, you can train them in your systems and processes so the job is done exactly to your company’s standards. 

Fresh Perspective

Employees who are new to the workforce offer fresh perspectives and creative ideas that can contribute to a company’s performance. Since many inexperienced workers will be fresh out of college, they may also have experience with cutting-edge technology that the company has yet to adopt. 

Affordability

Entry-level employees are cheaper to hire than more experienced ones. This can be an asset, especially in positions where the number of workers makes a greater impact than their knowledge level.

Engagement

Inexperienced workers are enthusiastic and eager to please. They’re often willing to take on additional responsibilities to gain experience and prove themselves in the company.  

Disadvantages of Hiring Inexperienced Employees 

• Longer time-to-productivity: Inexperienced employees naturally require more training and take longer to accomplish tasks until they fully learn the ropes. This also means more mistakes and more hand-holding required, which can burden managers more. 
• Lack of workplace knowledge: Training for an inexperienced employee isn’t limited to position-specific skills. There’s also a learning curve when it comes to workplace behavior. It can take some practice for new employees to be able to work on a team successfully, communicate with clients, and understand office culture.
• Increased demands: Generally speaking, the youngest segment of the workforce comes with more demands than their older peers did at the same phase of their careers. They emphasize flexibility, diversity, and social responsibility and will expect their employer to prioritize these things. 
• Turnover risk: Less experienced workers tend to be younger, and younger workers are less worried about job-hopping than their more tenured peers. They’re also looking for ways to climb the ladder quickly. Both of these things contribute to a higher risk of turnover among inexperienced employees. 

Impact of Experienced vs Inexperienced Employees on Company Culture

Choosing between hiring with little to no experience or vast experience is a big decision that can ultimately impact the culture within your organization. Are you looking for employees who will bring change or adapt to your culture?

Inexperienced employees may bring exciting energy and curiosity that challenge your more experienced workers. New employees can either mold themselves to your company culture or bring about change. With some more experienced workers, they may be used to operating a certain way and be resistant to adapting to your corporate culture.

Either way, it’s imperative when reviewing job applications to ensure that each employee is either a good cultural fit or has ideas for improving your existing culture.

So Should You Hire Experienced or Inexperienced Employees?

Here are some aspects to consider when hiring experienced vs. inexperienced employees.

Budget

Assess how your recruiting budget aligns with your talent needs. 

Sometimes, saving money and going with an inexperienced worker might make sense. An example would be if you’re supplementing a large team with a solid knowledge base, and more experienced workers can provide coaching. In other cases, like when you’re looking to fulfill a critical business need, paying for someone with prior experience is an excellent investment.  

Skill Needs

If you need more specialized skills, you’ll also need more experienced workers. Conducting a skill gap analysis can help you decide where your hiring budget would be best spent to ensure operational needs are met.  

Training Capacity

This goes beyond budget. Do team members have the bandwidth and resources to provide adequate training? Are systems in place to support workers with little experience? Without these things, hiring inexperienced workers will create more problems than it solves. 

Culture

Finally, consider how both types of workers will mesh with (or change) your company culture. Are you traditional or disruptive? Creative or conventional? Serious or laid-back? These core elements of your culture will affect your ability to successfully attract and retain experienced versus inexperienced workers. 

Get the Best Candidates By Partnering with the Right Staffing Agency

There are many benefits of hiring experienced employees; there also are advantages for those who choose to hire and train new employees. What it ultimately boils down to, when choosing between hiring experienced vs inexperienced employees, is determining which option is the best for your business and its needs. This means having access to the right candidates and applicants, which requires a strategic plan in this candidate’s job market.

4 Corner Resources (4CR) is a professional staffing agency dedicated to recruiting the best candidates for our clients. With years of experience and access to extensive resources and candidates, we are here to connect you with the experienced or new talent your company needs.

If you’re still scratching your head over what blockchain is and how it’s used, don’t worry. We’ll break it down in simple terms and share some use cases where blockchain can be applied directly to the recruitment process to increase security, efficiency, and transparency. 

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger, which is a fancy word for a record-keeping system. It stores the records of many transactions across a decentralized network of computers. 

Blockchain records are the ‘blocks,’ and the blocks are linked together in a chronological ‘chain.’ You can’t change one piece of data without also changing every piece of data that comes after it in the chain, making blockchain records incredibly difficult to tamper with. 

Key Features of Blockchain 

Decentralization

Unique traditional, centralized systems where records are stored in one physical location, blockchain operates on a decentralized network of computers known as nodes. Each node has a copy of the entire blockchain, meaning that a single failure point will not compromise the entire system. 

Also, blockchain does not have a central authority (like when a company controls ownership of its entire database). Instead, control is distributed among the system’s users. 

It’s important to note that there are private blockchains, like those used by employers. To participate in a private blockchain, users must receive an invitation or comply with a rule-set created by a system administrator. 

Security

Blockchain records are unique in that they’re very difficult to alter. To edit a blockchain database, all subsequent records must also be altered, and the network must agree on the changes. 

Think of it like keeping score in a tennis game. If only one person were watching and keeping score, it would be very easy for that person to alter the records for malicious purposes like influencing sports bets. 

But imagine a tennis game where everyone in the stands was also watching and keeping score, then comparing those records against one another. If one person tried to create a false record, it would very obviously stand out. 

This characteristic makes blockchain a highly secure and fraud-resistant system of recording data.

Transparency

All participants can see all transactions on a blockchain in the network. This means that every transaction can be tracked and verified by anyone. 

Additionally, each transaction contains a precise date and time stamp, which allows participants to see how events occurred in chronological order and adds another level of transparency.

Blockchain in the real world

All of the features above sound great in theory, but it can be hard to wrap your head around how this technology would be useful in a real-world setting. To help illustrate, here are a few examples. 

Jewelry trade

In the diamond industry, sustainability and traceability are important values. The De Beers Group deployed Blockchain to create an immutable and secure digital trail for high-value stones from the diamond mine to the cutter and polisher and eventually into the hands of jewelers. This use case can help minimize the trade of conflict diamonds and increase trust in the provenance of valuable stones.  

Logistics

Grocery giant Walmart moves massive perishable goods across international borders, time zones, and climates. Every load shipped requires hundreds of data tracking points, including stop locations, fuel levels, truck temperature, etc. If any one of these data points is incorrectly logged or recorded, it can result in a time-consuming reconciliation process and an extended payment delay for the supplier.  

Walmart and its partners created a Blockchain network that automatically and consistently gathers information at every step in the distribution process, from the farm where the produce is harvested to the delivery and approval for payment. Before using this system, an estimated 70% of supplier invoices were disputed over possible discrepancies. Today, fewer than 1% of invoices have discrepancies, and those that occur are easily flagged and resolved. 

Music industry

With the prevalence of streaming services, distributing royalties to musicians for the music they’ve created has become incredibly complex. Blockchain allows artists to bypass many of the intermediaries in the traditional music ecosystem and collect royalties directly, in real time, using smart contracts that anyone can scrutinize and review. With widespread use, this system could prevent another Taylor Swift music rights fiasco from ever happening again. 

Blockchain recruitment use cases

Now, on to our main concern: blockchain for recruitment. 

You’re here because you’re looking to utilize every tool available to make hiring easier, faster, and more cost-effective, so let’s look at some ways blockchain can be applied in a recruiting setting.

Resume verification

One of the biggest problems in recruiting is that candidates can put whatever they want on their resume. Sure, we have ways to identify discrepancies by checking references and verifying educational credentials, but that’s a labor-intensive process. 

Blockchain can be used to securely store and verify a candidate’s professional and educational credentials, like their degrees, technical certifications, and work history, reducing the incidence of falsified resumes and increasing our ability to hire with confidence. 

Identity verification

Gathering identification documents is a tedious step in the new-hire process. Blockchain-based identity verification offers a tamper-proof way to confirm candidates’ identities and automate background checks, which can take days off your hiring timeline. 

Privacy

The volume of personal data turns off some candidates they’re asked to provide during the job search. How can we help guarantee that their sensitive data is in good hands? With Blockchain. 

Using Blockchain to store candidate data can greatly enhance privacy and security, giving candidates greater control over who can access their information and for what purpose. 

Feedback

Feedback is invaluable in creating a good candidate experience. Still, it’s difficult to get candidates to speak freely amid concerns that it will hurt their chances of a job in the future or reflect negatively on them as a professional. 

Blockchain-based review systems can give candidates a reliable and secure way to leave feedback after the recruitment process, which can aid in providing a more enjoyable and transparent candidate experience. 

Gig workers

One aspect of Blockchain that we haven’t covered yet is smart contracts. These digital contracts stored on a Blockchain are automatically fulfilled once certain conditions are met. All participants in the contract can be immediately certain of the outcome (like the terms and payment) without the need for any intermediary or third party. 

This feature can be applied to streamline hiring and paying contract workers, which can be an asset to your workforce. 

Onboarding

The benefits of Blockchain don’t end with hiring. The principles can be used to streamline and accelerate new hire onboarding. Blockchain enables employers to have necessary new hire information, like an applicant’s driver’s license, banking details, and tax forms, available instantly.  

This cuts down on administrative work and maintains strong momentum between the offer and the new hire’s first day on the job. 

Blockchain holds incredible promise for enhancing and transforming the recruiting world, which could be key in solving some of the biggest hiring challenges we face. Suppose you’re not ready to dive into applying Blockchain right this minute. In that case, that’s okay–simply arming yourself with an understanding of the technology and staying open to the possibilities puts you at a great advantage in the competitive talent landscape we’re living in. 

Recruiting Assumes a Greater Operational Role

Recruiters already play a growing part in driving business evolution, advocating for initiatives like diversity hiring and salary transparency. In the future, we’ll only see this role expand. 

Instead of just reporting to the C-suite, recruiting leaders will work hand in hand with company execs to make key business decisions, craft the employer brand and influence compensation packages, using their firsthand knowledge of what candidates want to drive the vision for the company’s future.

Skills-Based Hiring Becomes the Gold Standard

Skills-based hiring is an approach that prioritizes a candidate’s skills over things like their education, background, or professional connections. It’s based on the idea that a candidate’s success is defined by their abilities and potential rather than their degree or the previous job titles they’ve held. It’s a strong method to make highly accurate hires. 

However, it’s easier to talk about skills-based hiring than to adopt it on an organizational level. To shift the paradigm, forward-thinking recruiters will evolve to screening in candidates whose skills position them for success rather than screening out candidates who don’t check an arbitrary set of boxes. 

Salaries Define Workforce Stability

Despite a growing focus on location flexibility and advancement opportunities, salary remains the number one factor for most job seekers weighing their options. 

Employees are more comfortable leaving their jobs for better opportunities than ever before. That, coupled with the fact that pay transparency makes it easier than ever to compare salaries, means that employers offering below-market compensation are at enormous risk. 

Fair- and above-market salaries are no longer just a component of retaining top talent. They’re a non-negotiable for ensuring workforce stability and company longevity. 

Novel Compensation Models Promote Wage Equity

The growth of remote work has sparked interesting conversations on pay equity as employers grapple with equalizing pay for candidates distributed across high, medium, and low-cost-of-living areas. Two emerging compensation models will continue to gain traction: geo-based and value-based pay. 

Geo-based pay determines a candidate’s salary based partially on their physical location. This model helps companies compete on pay while offering candidates location flexibility. It’s a complex compensation model and will require employers to establish a solid methodology for weighing a position’s market rate and the cost of living in various geographic locations to determine an offer. 

The second model is value-based pay, where employees are compensated based on their work’s value to the organization. When executed properly, it’s an ideal way to attract and reward candidates with more experience or unique expertise.

Succession Planning, Employee Development of Growing Importance

Among the highest priorities for job seekers, development opportunities fall just behind salary and flexibility. Organizations can accomplish the dual goals of retaining high performers and attracting new ones by taking a more long-term view of each employee’s life span with the company. 

Recruiters will work more closely with employee development teams to establish initiatives designed to increase employees’ longevity, which requires finding strategic alignment between the employee’s career goals and the company’s objectives. Internal hiring, upskilling, and succession planning will be more important as they drive retention and employee satisfaction. 

Related: Strategies for Upskilling and Reskilling Your Workforce

New Use Cases for AI Emerge

It’s become the norm to leverage technology to tackle routine recruitment tasks like scheduling appointments and automating candidate follow-up. AI will continue to be an asset for duties like writing job descriptions, drafting social media posts, and communicating with job prospects. 

But its role will also emerge in new ways, like using machine learning to match candidates with best-fitting roles faster and predict job success based on their qualifications. AI may even assist in interviews, helping us incorporate strategies like facial screening and sentiment analysis into candidate scoring.

Related: Everything You Need to Know About AI Recruiting Techniques

Humans Still Drive Core Recruiting Work

Most of the talk about robots taking our jobs is overblown, at least within the recruiting world. While it’s entirely possible that by 2030 a machine will be completely responsible for candidate screening, intelligent technology won’t replace the meaningful human connections candidates prioritize when searching for their dream job. 

Rather, technology will free up an increasing portion of recruiters’ time and resources to focus on uniquely human endeavors like creative sourcing, employer brand-building, relationship management, and thought leadership.  

Contract Talent Increases Resilience

Being able to adapt to economic conditions and market trends will be key to organizational survival in the decade ahead. The companies that can move fast in the face of change will be the ones that thrive. 

Contract labor will be a staple in recruiters’ arsenal, supplementing and often replacing full-time positions. Contract talent like freelancers will enable agility, specialization, and speed while insulating against business risks like turnover and economic slowdowns.

Related: Direct Hire vs Contract Hire: Which is Better for You?

Gen Z Demands Take Center Stage

The oldest members of Gen Z, the population group born after 1996, are beginning to enter the workforce. Over the next ten years, Gen Z-ers will become an increasingly important talent pool, especially since Baby Boomers will have almost completely departed the workforce by then. 

As such, employers will need to consider this group’s values and demands heavier. Heads up–they’re very different from the generational groups preceding them.  

Gen Z-ers are more racially and ethnically diverse than any prior generation and also better educated. They prioritize social issues and desire jobs where they can make an impact rather than just earning a paycheck. They’re also looking for environmentally conscious employers, invested in their continued development and supportive of collaborative work, whether in-person, remote, or hybrid.

Related: What to Expect as Gen Z Enters the Workplace

Reputation Management Sets Smaller Brands Apart

The candidates of the next decade will value transparency, authenticity, and respect. Coincidentally, these are the same components that make a winning employer brand. 

Careful, proactive reputation management can help recruiters with smaller budgets compete against big-name brands in the race for the strongest workforce. Recruiters of the future must keep a mindful eye on the evolution of what candidates want and tailor their reputation management strategy accordingly. 

While no one can predict the future, we’re excited about the many prospects and eager to find out what new advances will shape the future of recruiting in the years ahead.

What is Mobile Recruiting?

First and foremost, mobile recruiting is the umbrella term for recruitment strategies that aim to attract, engage, and convert candidates via mobile devices. If you’re one of the 85% of Americans who own a smartphone, you’re probably already well-versed in some of the most common mobile recruiting channels like job-posting sites and social media.

Traditionally, recruiters have relied on phone calls and emails to engage candidates, but those mediums have limitations. With 90% of job seekers using their smartphones to hunt for their dream job (and 79% using social media), mobile recruiting represents a significant and growing opportunity for staffing professionals to connect with candidates.

What’s even more noteworthy is that candidates expect to be able to use their smartphones to find and apply for a job easily. One in five candidates drops off if the mobile application process requires them to click through more than two to three screens.

Yet even though almost all candidates use their mobile devices to look for jobs, many employers still haven’t embraced a mobile recruiting experience.

We use our phones for everything, from researching to ordering products to looking up the nearest pizza place. Can you imagine if you were looking to book a hotel and they didn’t have a website? Most of us would immediately look elsewhere, concerned about the legitimacy or turned off by the inconvenience or both. So why would we expect candidates to act any differently?

If your recruiting process isn’t mobile-friendly—and not only that but engaging on mobile—don’t expect top prospects to stick around hunting for another way to apply.

Benefits of Mobile Recruiting

Now that we’ve established why mobile recruiting is necessary, let’s take a closer look at all the great things it can do for you.

It demonstrates that you’re up to date with technology

Having a clunky, outdated process for submitting applications can turn off candidates and hurt your image. A convenient and mobile-friendly application process contributes to a positive candidate experience.

Related: Trending Recruiting Technology: Must-Have Tools

Access is available from any location

If a great application hits your inbox, you don’t want to have to wait until you’re back in the office to take action on it. With tools like a mobile-friendly ATS, you can approve or reject candidates with the tap of a finger, triggering the next steps like an email response to keep things moving along efficiently.

Shortens your response time and overall hiring timeline

Regarding moving things along, 69% percent of candidates think employers can improve their response times. Anything you can do to greenlight a top candidate more quickly increases your chance of making the hire.

Gives you more ways to keep candidates engaged

Inboxes get cluttered, and phone calls often go to voicemail. Mobile recruiting allows you to engage with candidates through text messaging, social media, and even app-based alerts. You’ll create a great candidate experience by simplifying and using the technology. 

Makes it easier to keep your team on the same page

Mobile recruiting apps are particularly useful when many hands are involved in hiring. An app allows all parties to easily check in on a candidate’s progression through the hiring funnel in real time, closing gaps that can sometimes occur among staffing teams.

Six Steps to Effective Mobile Recruiting 

Sure, you post your job openings on LinkedIn, but there’s far more to mobile recruiting. To use it effectively, follow these six steps.

1. Audit yourself

The first step is to analyze exactly where you stand in the mobile recruiting game. Begin with your application process.

Using a smartphone, navigate to your website and act as a candidate would act when looking to apply. Is it easy to find where your open positions are listed? Can the candidate take the next step, like applying their smartphone? If so, how long/complex is the process?

It’s a great idea to have several people (or, better yet, a focus group) undertake this exercise and share their feedback.

2. Analyze your competitors

Next, take a look at what your competitors are doing. While you don’t necessarily want to mimic their mobile recruitment strategy, assessing how you stack up against the companies you’re going head-to-head with when hiring is helpful.

Your competitors are also a good source of inspiration for creative recruiting methods. For example, suppose you’re not yet using an app for mobile applications. In that case, looking at examples used by similar firms in your field can help you get an idea of the mobile application experience you’re looking for.

3. Develop specifically for mobile 

This is the best practice for your recruitment efforts and your entire business in general.

The application process Is tedious enough as it is, with candidates often forced to click through multiple screens and enter the same information several times. Add in a website that’s not mobile-optimized, and it’s enough to make even the most motivated applicant abandon ship.

Instead of trying to finagle your desktop website into a mobile-friendly version, develop a version specifically for users on mobile devices. Alternatively, consider using an app that enables easy mobile applications. Job listing site Indeed has its own mobile app for this purpose, as do many applicant tracking systems.

4. Don’t make assumptions about your mobile audience 

Some employers resist a mobile-first approach to recruiting because it’s only useful for reaching candidates under a certain age. While millennials and their successors, Gen Z, make up the largest segment of mobile users, adults over 40 represent an ever-growing portion of mobile users.

Between 2014 and 2020, for example, the number of smartphone users aged 45 to 54 grew by 40%. During that same time frame, the number of users over 54 grew by 85%.

5. Integrate with your ATS

As mentioned above, choosing an ATS with a corresponding mobile app can be useful. As we all know, applications come in 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On the other hand, the amount of time you’re at your desk with a dedicated window to review applications is much smaller. Using an applicant tracking system with a mobile component enables a seamless transition between when you’re at your desk and when you’re pretty much anywhere else.

6. Consider all the options

Are you making use of text message recruiting? It has the potential to raise your response rates dramatically. One talent acquisition manager reported a consistent response rate near 90% since adding text messaging to its recruiting strategy.

Gamification is another creative option. Brainstorm which elements of your hiring process—screening tests or behavioral assessments, for example—lend themselves to mobile gamification.

Related: How Can Gamification Be Used for More Effective Recruiting?

Mobile Recruiting Limitations

Remember that not every step of your hiring process needs to be accessible by phone. While it comes with many upsides, mobile recruiting does have its limitations.

When posting new job openings, for example, you want the listings to look as good as possible (have you ever sent an email via phone and then been surprised to see some funky formatting when you viewed it later on a desktop?). To put your best foot forward with job openings, the safest bet is usually to post them from a desktop.

Sensitive conversations like discussions about pay are best-done face-to-face or via phone rather than text or an app. The same goes for the most important conversation of all: making an offer.

Remember, mobile is not the be-all, end-all of recruiting. Rather, it’s one more tool in a diligent recruiter’s toolbox that, combined with other elements of a strong recruiting strategy, can position you for success in the competitive talent marketplace.

Top Mobile Recruiting Apps

There are various mobile recruiting tools available in the marketplace. Some have specific functions, and others cover the entire recruiting and onboarding process. We’ve compiled a list of a few of the top mobile recruiting apps for your organization.

LinkedIn Recruiter

This app allows recruiters to utilize the information on LinkedIn and filter potential candidates by keywords and specific criteria. It works directly with the LinkedIn platform, so you can reach out and connect with people directly through the app. You can share profiles with others on your recruiting team and use the easy messaging service.  

HireVue

If your organization hopes to screen and interview potential candidates using video, HireVue is a great tool. It’s an app that allows users to create interview questionnaires and send them to candidates. They can respond at their convenience and record video answers to send back to the employer. The responses are easy to share with other hiring managers.

Jobscience

Track mobile applicants on your phone using Jobscience. The app can search through resume submissions for specific keywords. It’s simple for applicants to submit their information digitally through SMS or email and track the status. It helps recruiters organize large quantities of resumes to find the top candidates for an opening. 

ApplicantStack Onboard

Mobile recruiting should transition into the hiring and onboarding process. ApplicantStack Onboard is a fantastic application to partner with your recruiting tools. It offers everything new hires need to maintain an easy flow. If you aren’t doing an all-in-one platform, make sure to consider your onboarding tools in addition to mobile recruiting.

Workable

The Workable platform can assist in all areas of recruitment. It allows employers to post jobs, reach the top talent, and manage the funnel of applicants with automation. It integrates with social media platforms to make mobile recruiting easier. Many users also appreciate the amount of reporting and analytics available on the platform. 

Jobvite

Jobvite provides an entire talent acquisition suite. It utilizes AI-backed automation and helps showcase your organization’s brand. Attract top talent and use data insights to build a fantastic and strong recruiting funnel and get the best candidates quickly. 

Mobile Recruiting Trends in 2023

Artificial intelligence

AI technology is on the top of trend lists for all kinds of functionality. In mobile recruiting, you can utilize AI tools to send personalized messages, set follow-up tasks, schedule interviews, and screen candidates. Take the tedious tasks off your recruiting team and allow them to focus on the critical steps. Make sure to verify all the information the AI tool has and keep it simple. 

Related: Everything You Need to Know About AI Recruiting Techniques

Video recruitment and interviews

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for video conferencing became top of mind for most employers, but even as things reopen, it’s still proving to be a helpful tool. Minimize the need for travel and delays by setting up video interviews instead of in-person. This can help you easily connect with candidates from other locations and save recruitment costs. Broaden your search and utilize the video tools to complete the necessary tasks. People are often more comfortable at home, so you’ll also cut through some of the nerves of an in-person interview.

Related: How to Use Video as an Innovative Recruitment Strategy

Mobile-first recruitment

Instead of traditional job boards and desktop scrolling, many applicants use their mobile devices to search for job openings. This means that recruiters need to put some focus on the mobile interfaces to meet applicants where they are. Create mobile-friendly job postings and submissions for applications and resumes. Utilize texting to connect and communicate with potential candidates quickly.

Social media

90% of recruiters and HR professionals are active on social media, but many aren’t using the tool to its fullest potential yet. This will continue to be a growing trend in recruitment as apps make their products useful in all areas of life. Use social media to connect with potential candidates and promote your company’s culture. Ensure that all of your links and forms are optimized for mobile use. 

Profiles are like resumes

As we mentioned above, social media is becoming one of the most comprehensive summaries of candidates. Set up your applications to invite applicants to link their social profiles. LinkedIn shows endorsements, resumes, and experiences in one easy-to-skim profile. In addition to your standard application and resume submission, you’ll be able to gain access to the candidate’s public social activity and get a better idea of how they interact with others.

Hire More Effectively with 4 Corner Resources

Amplify your recruiting efforts with our expert recruiters, a nationally recognized professional staffing firm. We have over a decade of experience helping small and large companies recruit for success today and sustained growth tomorrow.

We offer a full-service menu of staffing options to suit your needs, including direct-hire recruiting, temporary staffing, and contract-to-hire. From entry-level positions all the way up to the C-suite, we’ll help you attract, engage and hire the perfect candidate to join your team. Ready to take the next step and meet qualified candidates in your field?

Contact us today to get started!

FAQs

In two decades as a staffing company owner, I’ve come to learn two indisputable job description facts:

Indisputable fact #1: Every recruiting and talent acquisition professional understands the importance of creating high-quality job descriptions. 

Indisputable fact #2: No recruiting and talent acquisition professional enjoys creating job descriptions. 

Embracing the Power and Convenience of AI

Artificial Intelligence has been revolutionizing various aspects of human resources, particularly recruitment. Among the new, rapidly expanding group of transformative AI tools, OpenAI’s ChatGPT stands out. Its capabilities include generating custom job descriptions based on specified prompts, which allows for increased efficiency and consistency. 

While the advent of tools like GPT represents an exciting development, especially for professionals in staffing and recruiting, it might be intimidating initially, given the significant changes it brings. But as anyone who has invested time to harness this new power will agree, one cannot deny that its impact on the job market is both imminent and profound.

For HR professionals, hiring managers, and independent recruiters, the key to leveraging ChatGPT lies in mastering the art of creating effective prompts. A well-crafted prompt can stimulate the AI model to generate a comprehensive and fitting job description. Although it may involve a learning curve, the payoff in terms of time saved and quality improvement is substantial.

How to Generate a Job Description with ChatGPT

A successful GPT output is tied directly to the quality of the prompt. Prompt engineering is the process of creating a focused and specific prompt that can be used to generate text or content. It involves considering the purpose of the prompt, the target audience, and the desired outcome. A well-crafted prompt can guide the generation of high-quality content and improve the efficiency of content creation.

For our initial job description, we’ll combine the unique and essential components provided by the user that are (things ChatGPT couldn’t know) with AI-generated content filling in the blanks. 

I’ll describe the completed prompt in sections before putting it back together at the end. 

1. Start with basic instructions

We’ll begin by giving the AI some basic instructions and an objective. Within this prompt, we are establishing several areas for the AI to consider when generating the content, including its perspective (or area of expertise), writing voice, tone, style, and a few other details typically associated with a professionally written job description. It looks like this: 

Please act as a talent acquisition expert with knowledge of every title. The goal is to generate a comprehensive job description. This prompt will consist of two parts. 

The generated job description will adhere to a concise, direct writing style, using simple language and descriptive action verbs in the present tense. It will avoid abbreviations, acronyms, ambiguous terms, gender-specific language, and references to other employees’ names. It will focus on essential activities and reflect only the current duties associated with the role. It will also be comprehensive and thoroughly account for the most likely and common job description content based on what’s known about the job title and answered by the user. 

2. Share information about the job

The next part of the prompt will allow the AI to gather basic information about the job, which is done by asking the user to answer specific questions. The user’s responses will provide the basis for generating a complete job description. The AI-generated content will consist of relevant words and phrases commonly found on job descriptions for a similar title. 

While the potential for sophisticated, lengthy job descriptions is unlimited, starting slowly and building as you go makes sense. As such, we’ll create a simple job description that follows a traditional format. Here’s the prompt and questions to be answered:

First, begin by asking the user to answer the following questions (please number the questions): 

1. Job Title: What is the title of the job you’re describing? 

2. Company Name: What is the name of the company hiring for this position? 

3. Hours: Is the job full-time, part-time, or another arrangement? 

4. Location: What is the job location? Is it remote, in-office, or a hybrid model? 

5. Compensation: What is the compensation range for this job? 

6. Job Purpose: What is this job’s primary purpose or objective?

These questions generally represent the least amount of information needed to create a job description and, fortunately, are the easy part of the process.  

It’s worth noting that the details above can be written directly into the prompt instead of being asked and answered in a second step, but our goal is to create a reusable, static prompt that won’t require editing from one job description to the next. Conversely, for a single-use prompt, by all means, include all known information when creating it. 

3. Give formatting instructions

The next section of the prompt is where we’ll provide the AI with instructions for formatting. I’m a complete noob when it comes to HTML, but a little trial and error (and a ChatGPT search or two) helped determine how to generate my desired layout: 

Following the responses, please draft a job description adhering to the format and headers below for a web page. Please display the headers in Markdown, and answers in regular text. 

H2 Company Name <Company Name> 

H2 Job Title <Job Title> 

H2 Hours <Hours> 

H2 Location <Location> 

H2 Compensation <Compensation> 

H2 Job Purpose <Job Purpose> 

H2 Job Duties H2 Required Qualifications 

H3 Education 

H3 Experience 

H3 Knowledge and Skills 

H3 Preferred Qualifications 

H2 Working Conditions 

4. Write a more detailed list of considerations (if applicable)

Finally, we’ll provide instructions for AI-generated content generation. As with all components of prompt engineering, there’s plenty of opportunity to write a more detailed list of considerations – we’re keeping it super simple here:

After you have the answers to the questions, please use it to generate the most likely job description content for Job Duties, Required Qualifications, Education, Experience, Knowledge and Skills, Preferred Qualifications, and Working Conditions. 

Now, please begin with the questions.

We’re now ready to run the prompt! Simply copy this text into a new ChatGPT window, answer the six job-specific questions, and watch the magic unfold: 

The Resulting Job Description

You’ll get a clean, basic job description that adheres to the language and style you’ve provided. While largely generic, it accounts for the most likely and common content based on what’s known about the job title and answered by the user. 

It is not, however, to be confused with a work of art or the next great American novel. In fact, I don’t recommend publishing this as a final product. Instead, I think of it as a primer or a basis for improving and customing the text to put your job and organization in the best possible light. 

Final Thoughts

Adapting to AI tools like ChatGPT for tasks such as writing job descriptions can streamline the recruitment process significantly. It is an opportunity that HR professionals should embrace sooner rather than later, but remember, the power of AI lies in its ability to learn and adapt.

The more effectively you craft your prompts, the better the results will be. It’s a continuous learning process – the journey is as important as the destination.

So, start experimenting with ChatGPT. Feel free to play!

We’ve picked our team of recruiting experts’ brains for the top technology they’re leveraging now and plan to use in the months ahead to simplify, streamline and speed up their hiring efforts. 

Recruiting Technology That Will Improve Your Hiring Process

1. Video interviewing

With conferencing tools like Zoom becoming commonplace, most hiring managers have embraced video interviewing in one form or another. But conducting interviews via video call becomes much simpler with apps like SparkHire and VidCruiter, which are designed specifically for remote hiring.

Video interviewing platforms have convenient candidate evaluation and note-taking tools built right into the conference interface, making it easier to complete post-interview tasks before you even close out of the chat window. This saves time and ensures that interview follow-up, which is a critical step in keeping the hiring funnel moving, actually gets done. 

Video interviewing apps integrate with the most popular scheduling programs like Google and Apple Calendar, which streamlines the process of finding and setting a time to connect with candidates. It’s easy to loop in multiple interviewers remotely or record the session and share it with as many stakeholders as you want to involve in the decision-making process. 

Remote hiring platforms also facilitate one-way interviews, which are useful for reaching many candidates while preserving hiring managers’ time. In a one-way interview, candidates are asked a series of questions and are given a set amount of time to answer them on camera. You can also record your employer-branded video messages and distribute them to candidates to help with things like pre-interview preparation. 

2. Candidate listening

Today’s top candidates are paying more attention to the candidate experience–a set of factors influencing how an applicant feels when moving through your hiring funnel. For in-demand talent, it can make or break their decision to work for you. Some candidates, for example, will drop out of the running completely if they feel an employer has “ghosted” them.

For this reason, it’s more important than ever to have specialized tools for gathering information on the candidate experience. There are the old standbys like SurveyMonkey for creating and sending candidate feedback surveys, then there are newer, feature-packed platforms like Trustcruit that automate and optimize the process of gathering feedback at every stage of the candidate journey. 

Pre-built Q&A templates can help you gauge candidates’ feelings after the application, interview, rejection/hire and onboarding process, offering customization capabilities to fit your employer brand. Analytics tools allow you to benchmark your performance by department, city, or individual recruiter and even compare your performance to that of your competition. 

Related: Sample Candidate Experience Survey Questions

3. Competitor intelligence

Keeping an eye on what other top employers in your field are up to is important to stay competitive in the hiring market. Sure, you can do this manually (and probably already do) by following your competitors on social media and keeping tabs on staff moves on LinkedIn. What you may not yet be leveraging, however, is the power of technology to monitor and assess industry rivals. 

First up is media monitoring, which is a service that follows media like television, print, and blogs for mentions of your competitors. A tool like Meltwater lets you sift through thousands of brand mentions and sort out the most relevant ones for recruiting purposes, like news of mergers, acquisitions, and layoffs. 

Next up is social listening, which turns you into a private investigator of sorts using competitors’ social channels. You can assess their brand posts and interactions with others to learn when new jobs are being promoted and how they engage with candidates and employees online. SproutSocial and Brandwatch are two good options to check out for social listening. 

Finally, one of the biggest sources of competitor intelligence is publicly available for all to see: your competition’s website. Thanks to technology, you don’t need to keep clicking a bookmark and refreshing the site to try and spot changes. A tool like Visualping automatically tracks entire websites or just the most important parts–like a company’s careers page–then alerts you when noteworthy changes are made.

4. Candidate assessments

Most recruiters recognize the usefulness of assessments, which can help verify a candidate’s technical skills and culture fit with a high degree of accuracy. Yet most organizations aren’t deploying the available assessment technology to its full potential. Modern assessment tools go way beyond a basic multiple-choice test. 

Virtual job tryouts let you see a candidate in action performing job-specific tasks or interacting with their prospective colleagues in real-time. This can give you a highly realistic sense of what they might be like to work with and how they react when confronted with certain situations. 

Visual scorecards make it easy to compare candidates’ assessment performance side by side, apples to apples. This not only helps you choose the most technically qualified candidate but helps eliminate personal bias that can influence hiring decisions. 

Modern assessment tools are built with a mobile-first approach, empowering candidates to complete pre-hire testing on their time from anywhere. Native features like live chat boosts engagement, enhancing the candidate experience. 

Related: How to Use Pre-Employment Assessments to Make Better Hires

5. Automation 

Automation can do more of the heavy lifting of recruiting than ever before. Candidate follow-up, for example, can be almost fully automated with a tool that integrates your calendar, email marketing platform and video interview app. The same is true for post-interview tasks like scheduling reference checks and conducting background checks. 

The more you can automate manual tasks, the more time you’ll free up to focus on innovative, big-picture thinking to improve your recruiting. 

Related: What is Recruitment Automation and How Can You Use it to Hire Smarter?

6. Artificial intelligence

AI takes automation one step further, adding a layer of human-like intelligence to the simple completion of tasks. 

AI tools can screen candidates, rank them and prioritize them for human outreach. Chatbots equipped with natural language processing can have entire conversations with candidates, helping move them along the hiring funnel. Machine learning tools can assess candidates based on their skills and background to identify the best-fitting job, which is useful when recruiting passive talent or dealing with applicants who have applied for multiple positions. 

We’ve only scratched the surface of what AI can do for recruiting, and it’s one of the most exciting areas we’ll be watching in the 12 to 18 months ahead. 

Related: Everything You Need to Know About AI Recruiting Techniques

7. Employee engagement

Stellar recruiting is just one side of the staffing coin; employee retention is the other. The great news is that there have never been so many tech tools available to help us manage and engage existing employees. 

Onboarding software like Workday and BambooHR set employees up for success and create a positive employee experience starting from day one. Coworking tools like Slack and Teams bring staff “together” and instill a sense of camaraderie even when workers aren’t physically in the same place. Powerful employee analytics apps allow you to assess productivity, performance, and engagement with a high degree of nuance, helping you continually improve candidate success and satisfaction. 

We may be in uncharted waters in the world of recruiting right now, but we also have an unprecedented number of tools at our disposal to help us navigate them. The right technology will be key to weathering the storm and coming out stronger, faster, and more accurate on the other side. 

Related: Highly Effective Strategies for Employee Retention

Tech was facing a skills shortage long before the global pandemic, and COVID-19 only exacerbated the challenge. In a recent Gartner survey, businesses said the number one obstacle standing between them and the technology they want to adopt is a dearth of capable workers. Bureau of Labor Statistics data supports these sentiments, with more than 600,000 projected job openings in the computer and information technology sector between now and 2030. 

Despite the popular saying that “every company is now a technology company,” every company is most certainly not a technology recruiting company. IT recruiting presents a unique challenge in that the folks doing the sourcing and interviewing often aren’t equipped with the very technical skills they’re looking to attract, which makes assessing candidates difficult. Combine that with record low unemployment and you’ve got a market that requires you to seriously step up your IT recruitment skills.

We asked our IT recruiting team of experts to identify the biggest shifts in the market in 2023, with the pandemic receding from crisis levels and its long-term impacts to the industry becoming apparent. Here’s what they said competitive employers need to do to win the best tech professionals now and in the decade ahead.

How to Attract Top IT Candidates in 2023

Step up your investment in tech

All the major players are doing it.

According to the Gartner survey we mentioned a moment ago, 58% of business leaders across all six major technology domains (computer infrastructure and platform services, network, security, digital workplace, IT automation and storage and database) said they planned to increase their spending on emerging technology in the year ahead. That’s double the number from just a year earlier. 

Competitive organizations are also moving faster, shaving down the amount of time they spend analyzing prospective investments and acting more quickly to deploy technology that will accelerate growth. If you want to attract the workers that will drive your business forward, you need to be enthusiastic and prompt with technology investment.

Go remote

The ability to work from home some or all of the time is a non-negotiable for top tech candidates. If a job can be done from anywhere with an internet connection, the best workers don’t just request, but demand the ability to take advantage of it. 

For positions where being onsite is essential, like server maintenance and engineering, adopt changes that facilitate greater flexibility, like non-rigid scheduling and additional PTO. 

Expand your borders

The unprecedented adoption of remote work means time zones are increasingly irrelevant. That’s a good thing for hiring managers and recruiters, who can cast a wider net outside of domestic borders. Broaden your candidate pool by opening applications to international candidates, many of whom are open to working non-traditional hours to stay in sync with US-based teams. 

In addition to a wider pool of applicants, hiring international candidates can benefit you by bringing a more global perspective to your teams. 

Avoid job descriptions that box candidates in

We see it repeatedly in IT job descriptions: lists of requirements that go on longer than a bad Nicholas Cage movie. Of course, you want to be clear about the requirements of the role, and there are no doubt a few programming languages or pieces of software that will be essential to the job, but listing too many skills can severely shrink your candidate pool.

If a candidate who’s otherwise extremely qualified sees one or more skills they don’t have on your list of requirements, it’s likely to deter them from applying.  Additionally, if the recruiter who is screening resumes doesn’t have a sufficient level of technical knowledge about the role, they may inadvertently rule out great and capable candidates whose resumes don’t exactly match what’s listed as a requirement.   Take a critical eye to what’s included in your job description to make sure you’re distinguishing between skills that are nice-to-haves and those that are actual must-haves.

Recruit beyond hard technical skills 

Whether it’s building technical infrastructure, defending the company against hackers, or finding ways to better anticipate customers’ needs, IT candidates do more than just work behind computers: they create solutions to problems. Thus, you need to screen for more than just a set of checked boxes on a technical skills assessment.

Staying competitive—no matter which field you’re in—means recruiting IT candidates who can innovate. You need leaders, thinkers, and creatives who can help you find new ways to harness technology to get things done in the context of your business.

You can identify these types of innovators by asking interview questions like:

• Tell me about a time you had to use technology to solve a problem in your last job.
• How do you motivate a group of people to get things done?
• What projects do you enjoy working on outside of your job?
• How do you think advances in technology will affect our industry in the next 5 years?

The goal is to identify candidates who are not only using their skills to solve problems now, but who have an innate interest in how those skills will advance your industry in the years ahead.

Craft a value proposition that matters to the candidate

In such a low-unemployment market, using the same generic value proposition for every candidate you’re looking to recruit isn’t effective, especially in the perk-happy tech world. If a candidate already works for a company with a ton of fringe benefits, your onsite gym and break room stocked with snacks aren’t going to be reason enough for them to consider jumping ship. Instead, shrewd recruiters will craft their value proposition to match the individual candidate, much like a candidate is expected to craft his or her resume to match the job they’re applying for.

To do this, turn to platforms like LinkedIn or the candidate’s personal website to see what kinds of things candidates list as their major accomplishments. This will give you a sense of what’s important to them. For example, if a candidate lists ‘promoted from Network Architect to Senior Network Architect within one year,’ in their LinkedIn bio, it’s a good indication that they see opportunities for career advancement as being valuable. If you’re recruiting this candidate, you might lead with your organization’s commitment to promoting upward and open a conversation about some of your many employee development initiatives.

Related: The Challenges of IT Recruiting & How to Overcome Them

Shift your perspective on recruiting “norms”

If you want to recruit modern candidates, you need to adopt modern IT recruitment skills. This may mean shifting your perspective on what’s “acceptable” during the hiring process.

Job hopping, for example, has become more common, earning millennials the title of the generation most likely to switch jobs. 21% of millennials, which Gallup defines as people born between 1980 and 1996, have changed jobs within the past year—more than three times the number of job changes among non-millennials. Job hopping is perhaps, even more, the norm in the IT field as candidates work to gain diverse skills and stay employed in the boom-or-bust startup landscape.

Once frowned upon (or at least not openly encouraged), poaching employees from competitors has also become par for the course in the competitive IT world. There is, however, a right and wrong way to go about it. If you find yourself in a position to poach, do it by coming from a place of education. Share information about your open position and the opportunity it presents—again, with a specific value proposition that caters to the candidate. If the candidate is interested in continuing the conversation, great. If not, no harm no foul.

Accelerate your hiring timeline

Think about the biggest factors that impact your ability to hire. What comes to mind? Speed might not even make it onto your list, but it’s the factor with the second-largest impact on hiring results (number one being referrals).

Average time-to-hire numbers have increased by 50% since 2010, which means many employers have gotten all too comfortable with hiring at a snail’s pace. But slow hiring means more top candidates drop out of the running, are lost to competitors, and are less likely to accept offers than if your hiring process moved more quickly.

Case studies have shown just how valuable accelerating your hiring process can be to your recruiting efforts. In one such example, Nestle Purina implemented a talent pipeline strategy that resulted in 43% of positions being filled before they even became vacant. Taking a similar approach and hiring in advance of need—or at least working to make meaningful improvements to your average time-to-fill—can serve you well in landing top IT talent.

Related: How to Streamline Your Hiring Process

Find creative new sourcing channels

LinkedIn is a recruiter’s best friend, but some of the most promising IT candidates don’t even have a profile there. In light of this, you’ll need to expand your sourcing channels to include platforms where top tech talent is more likely to be found.

Take app marketplaces, for example. The iPhone App Store is a gold mine of application developers, UX designers, and UI strategists just waiting to be discovered. Similarly, there are dozens of other app marketplaces for different operating systems and devices out there, and likewise for platforms that catalog software, cloud services, and even electronics. 

If you’re looking to recruit recent grads and young professionals, having a presence on TikTok might make sense. Consider adding influencer marketing as a line item alongside spending on more traditional recruiting marketing channels. 

Related: How to use LinkedIn to source top candidates

Stay in touch

Did you know that 16% of Microsoft employees have more than one stint at the company on their resume? In the dynamic IT world, it’s not uncommon for employees to start their career at one company, leave for a few years to spread their wings, then return to where they started, bringing with them new knowledge, skills, and perspective.

Take a proactive approach to capture these so-called “boomerang candidates” by staying in touch in the years after an employee’s departure from your company. Send periodic emails to check in and maintain rapport by sending birthday or holiday cards.

Additionally, work to understand why candidates are leaving in the first place. Is your pay failing to keep pace with the rest of the market? Do you lack advancement opportunities? Is poor management pushing people out? Institute a structured exit interview process for gathering feedback and analyzing it regularly to identify trends that could point to a larger organizational problem.

Enlist an IT Recruiting Expert

Recruiting the best IT talent is no easy feat, especially if you’re not particularly tech-savvy yourself or you need to fill a niche role quickly. Choosing the wrong candidate can not only delay your operation’s progress, but can lead to unnecessary turnover and increase hiring costs.

Instead of going it alone, enlist the IT hiring professionals at 4 Corner Resources for your technology recruiting needs. We’ll take the lead on sourcing and screening top professionals for roles like systems administrators, network administrators, data architects, DevOps engineers, software developers, and more to fit your needs and budget. We’ll help you stay abreast of industry trends and position yourself for success in the competitive IT market.

Ready to get started? Contact us to speak with one of our technology staffing experts today.

Resources and sources

1. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-09-13-gartner-survey-reveals-talent-shortages-as-biggest-barrier-to-emerging-technologies-adoption
2. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/home.htm
3. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/231587/millennials-job-hopping-generation.aspx
4. https://www.ere.net/slow-hiring-is-damaging-your-firm-and-here-are-20-reasons-why/
5. https://www.ere.net/talent-pipeline-case-study-nestle-purinas-reaches-an-amazing-43-percent-of-hires/
6. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/more-boomerang-employees-return-to-microsoft-as-corporate-culture-shifts/

That legislation didn’t pass, but the idea has persisted. It’s been gaining momentum again in recent years, especially in the wake of the global pandemic, which flipped our traditional notion of what work looks like. 

Cutting back from five to four days of work (and gaining an additional day off) each week might sound like a dream, and it can benefit employers and employees alike. But, the four-day workweek also comes with downsides. We’ll lay out the pros and cons here. 

4-Day Workweek Background

At its core, the four-day workweek centers around productivity. 

Countless studies have shown that productivity has a dropoff point–a point at which no additional meaningful output is achieved even if more hours are worked. If you’ve ever spent a Friday afternoon in the office trying to look busy until 5 o’clock rolls around, then you’ve experienced this phenomenon firsthand. 

A four-day workweek, proponents reasoned, would give employees more time to rest and recharge without costing the company any substantial loss in productivity. For most companies that instate it, this means working four ten-hour days (known as a 4/10 schedule) instead of five eight-hour ones.

Organizations around the world have tested out a four-day workweek with mixed results. 

In 2008, the state of Utah instituted a four-day workweek for all state employees. After just three years, it reverted back to a five-day week, citing a negative impact on public services and negligible cost savings. 

In 2019, Microsoft launched a pilot four-day workweek program at one of its subsidiaries in Japan. They reported happy workers and an impressive 40% jump in productivity.

While the jury’s still out on the perfect workweek length for keeping workers engaged and productive, switching from five to four days may be a viable and effective option for some organizations. 

Pros of a 4-Day Workweek

Greater flexibility for employees

Flexibility and work-life balance are two of the biggest demands among top candidates. A shorter workweek is one way to offer these benefits, especially if your line of work isn’t suited to other flexible scheduling options like remote work or unlimited PTO. 

An additional day off each week gives employees more time to spend with family, pursue hobbies, complete personal errands, and mentally recharge, all of which can contribute to greater satisfaction when they’re on the clock. 

Related: The Importance of Flexibility in the Workplace

Reduced burnout

Many companies have responded to the call for more flexibility by moving to remote work. While working from home can promote work-life balance, it doesn’t solve the issue of burnout. In fact, it can exacerbate the problem by eliminating the boundary between work and home life. 

Giving employees an additional full day off each week can significantly reduce the incidence of work-related exhaustion that leads to unproductive employees and contributes to turnover. 

Related: Warning Signs of Employee Burnout & How to Prevent it

Improved productivity

Earlier, we touched on the productivity ‘dropoff point’–the fact that more hours at work don’t necessarily mean more is accomplished. It turns out there might actually be an inverse relationship between productivity and hours worked. For some companies, there’s a sweet spot where employees actually get more done when working fewer days.  

In a British study, 73 companies moved to a four-day workweek to analyze the impacts. More than half of the study participants said productivity was the same or had improved. Six of them said productivity had significantly improved. 

Related: Employee Incentive Programs to Motivate and Engage Your Staff

Emphasizes results

Employees who come to work simply to punch a clock aren’t very engaged with their work. With the right action from company leaders, a four-day workweek can help shift the focus from the number of hours worked to the results an employee accomplishes. This is a much more effective way to drive engagement and achieve business KPIs. 

Lower overhead costs

If the four days worked are the same for all employees–for example, a company-wide Monday through Thursday schedule–it can reduce how much the company spends on things like utilities and other infrastructure (keeping all the lights in the building on for four days costs less than five, and so on). 

A four-day workweek is also being touted as a way for companies to reduce their carbon footprint, which is an increasingly important initiative for many organizations. 

Recruiting advantages

The most competitive candidates weigh companies closely against one another when deciding where they want to work. A four-day workweek can give you a significant edge in the tight race to stand out. 

Cons of a 4-Day Workweek

Requires a major mindset shift

Moving from five working days per week to four requires a bigger mental shift than you might expect. For example, high-performing employees may feel compelled to respond to emails and take meetings even on their additional “off” day, negating reduced burnout benefits. 

For a four-day workweek to be effective, buy-in must be at every level, from the C-suite down. This can prove to be a challenging hurdle to overcome. 

Not a universal solution

Some industries are better suited to a four-day workweek than others. Those who trade in physical output (i.e., construction work) rather than mental output (i.e., content creation) may not experience the same productivity benefits of moving to fewer work days per week.

Additionally, an alternate work schedule may not be viewed as a positive thing by all employees. For example, those with children in school may feel that life moves more smoothly on a standard schedule of five eight-hour days. Others may feel increased pressure at having to get the same amount of work done in fewer shifts. 

Scheduling challenges

Depending on the industry, companies may still need to provide customers with five (or more) days of business hours. This could mean employees’ third days off are staggered, complicating scheduling. 

Having a four-day schedule that’s non-consistent across the company can also make it harder to collaborate among different teams, hold meetings and complete other activities that require coordinating schedules. 

Operational challenges

In addition to internal scheduling challenges, a four-day workweek can complicate the process of working with outside vendors and clients. If a vendor sends a request on a Thursday evening and all employees have Friday off, they’ll have to wait until Monday–more than 72 hours later–to receive a response. Without proper planning, this could quickly hurt operations. 

Overtime costs

While a four-day workweek can reduce costs in some areas, it may increase expenditures in others. For example, some states mandate overtime pay for hourly employees working more than eight hours in a shift. If you move to a 4/10 system, this means all hourly employees on this schedule will accrue two hours of overtime pay per day. It’s something managers will need to be mindful of when scheduling to avoid excessive overtime costs. 

Public perception

Some consumers may view a four-day workweek as a bad thing, worrying (perhaps rightfully so) that it’ll negatively impact the availability and quality of their service. This may require additional work on your part to manage negative feedback and educate customers on what you’re doing to ensure consistent service. 

The number of companies using a four-day workweek is growing yearly, and more employees are beginning to push for it. With the right execution and investment from all levels of leadership, it can be an effective way to offer more flexibility while maintaining consistent performance levels. 

If you do decide to test out a 4/10 schedule, begin with a trial program (summers are often a good time for this) or test it first on a select group of employees before instituting it company-wide. 

What Are Freelance Marketplaces?

Freelance marketplaces are membership websites that connect contract workers with companies and clients looking to hire them. Some are geared toward a specific niche, like web developers or copywriters, while others are for general use. 

Freelance websites can be used to find workers for one-off projects, long-term contracts, and everything in between. 

How Do Freelance Marketplaces Work?

A freelance marketplace lets you browse freelancers based on their skills or post a job and invite candidates to apply. 

Most freelance websites require registering for a free account to begin interacting with freelancers. Some charge companies a per-listing fee to post jobs, while others take a flat percentage of any contracts resulting from the posting. 

Freelance marketplaces have evolved by leaps and bounds from their early message-board-style days. Now, most offer protections for clients and freelancers, like escrow-based payments and mutual rating systems to offer as much security and transparency as possible. 

Benefits of Hiring via A Freelance Website

Flexibility

Flexibility is perhaps the greatest advantage of using a freelance website to hire. You can access talent for the specific work you need, when you need it, without the commitment of providing benefits and other offerings that full-time employees require. 

The nature of freelance work makes it easy to ‘test the waters’ with an introductory project before entrusting a contractor with more critical assignments. 

Affordability

When it comes to cost, freelance labor runs the gamut. You can pay top dollar for the best talent in the business or hire a newbie for a low-stakes assignment on a dime. The beauty is that there’s a freelancer for every price range, which can be incredibly valuable when you’re growing a team on a limited budget. 

Speed

When you post an opening on an online job board or your own website, you have to wait for candidates to apply, review their applications, conduct interviews, and the whole nine yards. Talent marketplaces allow you to hire with incredible speed, oftentimes in under 24 hours.

They’re a great option for rush jobs when something comes up at the last minute that your in-house team can’t tackle. 

Skill

When you run a business you wear many hats, but there are some hats you just shouldn’t try on. If you’re not a numbers person, you need someone with strong accounting skills to keep an eye on your balance sheet. If you’re not SEO savvy, you should hand your website over to a specialist who can ensure you appear in Google’s search results. 

Freelance websites let you access skilled labor as needed, tapping expert knowledge at a fraction of the cost of hiring for it full-time. 

Related: The Benefits of Hiring Freelancers

The Best Freelance Websites to Find Top Talent

Toptal

Best for: High quality

First up is Toptal, which is derived from the words ‘Top talent.’ It bills itself as the platform of choice for the top 3% of freelancers worldwide. 

Toptal specializes in business, design, and technology jobs, and it’s the place to go when your project requires a true expert, like a critical legal document or a complex website build. Toptal is exclusive, working only with highly vetted contractors who have made it through a rigorous selection process and demonstrated their skills through a series of assessments. 

Unlike other platforms, where you’re pretty much on your own to find and hire the right freelancer, Toptal does a lot of the work for you, matching you with best-fit candidates and checking in along the way to ensure the relationship is developing smoothly. 

It trends more expensive than other platforms, with rates that can be set on an hourly, weekly, or contract basis. It also requires an initial deposit of $500, which will be applied to your first project once you make a hire. 

Toptal clients rave about the one-on-one service and say they’re happier to pay more for a more hands-on experience with the platform’s subject-matter specialists.

Upwork

Best for: Versatility

Upwork is a versatile platform that offers a solid blend of expertise and affordability. It functions as both a freelancer database and a job board. 

When you create a client account, you can browse thousands of freelancer profiles using several filters, including skills, job success rating, location, and even proficiency in English. You can also post a job and open it for interested freelancers to apply, setting customized questions candidates must answer with their application. 

If you need a job completed quickly, you can use Upwork’s Project Catalog to browse predefined projects with a set fee, like having a logo designed or a blog post drafted. Or, if your project is more nuanced, you can define the parameters yourself and communicate with your selected freelancer to define a scope of work. 

Upwork doesn’t cost money to join. Instead, clients pay a flat 5% ‘marketplace fee’ on all transactions, and freelancers pay a fee dependent on the contract’s price and the lifetime earnings with a particular client. 

Upwork has many parameters in place to protect both clients and freelancers, like screen tracking that verifies a freelancer is actually working the hours they say they’re working. Despite this, you’re ultimately responsible for providing clear direction and keeping your selected freelancer on track, so you’ll need to allocate proper time for communicating and giving feedback. 

If you’re looking for more dedicated help from the right freelancer and managing the relationship with them, the platform offers a paid Talent Scout service that works more like a client-recruiter partnership. 

Fiverr

Best for: Simplicity

If you’re hiring a freelancer for the first time or don’t want to deal with staying on top of an hourly contract, Fiverr is a straightforward option. Its process for setting up jobs is the simplest of all the freelancing websites, and all projects are charged flatly, so you always know how much you will pay upfront. 

Fiverr prides itself on convenience, so most of its freelancers are used to turning around work quickly. Many projects can be delivered within a few days, some in as little as 24 hours. 

As one of the first online talent marketplaces, Fiverr has been around for a long time. This means it has a huge database of freelancers that will allow you to source talent for almost any type of project under the sun, even work that’s not business related, like tutoring and personal training. 

Codeable

Best for: WordPress development

If you’ve ever typed in your company’s URL and gotten an error message, you know the frantic and helpless feeling of your website going down. When you’re not tech-savvy yourself, it’s an even scarier scenario. If your website is one of the 455 million that runs on WordPress, Codeable is here to help. 

Codeable is a talent marketplace for finding freelancers who are experts in WordPress, from designing and developing new sites to creating custom eCommerce apps to urgent troubleshooting. Like other jobs, you’ll create a project brief and put it out for bids, but Codeable greatly simplifies the selection process. Instead of combing through dozens of proposals, you’ll only be presented with the top one to five options. 

One of the coolest things about Codeable is its pricing structure. It uses an algorithm to create a fee based on all of the bids your project receives, and that’s the price you’ll pay. This helps prevent the ‘race to the bottom’ that’s rampant on other less stringent coding marketplaces. 

Freelancer.com

Best for: Hiring fast

If you’re used to posting jobs on platforms like Indeed and Monster, you’ll feel right at home on Freelancer.com. It has the most traditional look and feels of freelance websites, with a user-friendly freelancer catalog and easy-to-understand graphics that indicate a freelancer’s rating score and experience level. 

Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelance marketplace, which means it has other platforms beat in terms of sheer volume. When you post a job, you’ll have no shortage of applicants to choose from. Many jobs receive bids in a matter of minutes. 

The platform offers secure payments and a live chat interface so you can communicate with your freelancer in real-time, no matter where they are in the world. You can pay using nearly any type of payment method, which is ideal when you’re working across international borders. 

Choosing the right freelance website comes down to what you’re looking for– a simple user experience, a thorough vetting process, a quick turnaround, or some combination of factors. It’ll probably take a bit of trial and error to find the platform that works best for you. Once you do, however, it can be a highly effective way to meet your business needs while staying on budget and on time. 

Related: How to Find a Freelancer That’s Right For Your Business

Learn the difference between people operations and human resources and get a better grasp on the situations where you might leverage one or the other in this post.

What is HR?

HR stands for human resources. It’s the department that manages a company’s activities related to its employees, like hiring, onboarding, training, resolving conflicts, and so on. 

HR is responsible for many logistics that arise from employing people, like administering company benefits packages and ensuring staffers are paid for the time they’ve worked. HR also has an important compliance duty, ensuring that the company provides a safe and equitable work environment and follows all applicable labor laws. 

Human resources as a business function have been around for more than 100 years. Its origins date back to the early 20th century when business magnates like Andrew Carnegie began to recognize the value of strategic workforce management in helping an organization accomplish its goals. 

What are People Operations?

People operations fall under the umbrella of HR, but its duties have a more defined scope. A company’s people operations department is focused on optimizing the employee experience, which may include employee engagement, development, and retention initiatives. 

People operations think about employees the way marketing thinks of customers, looking for ways to improve their experience with the organization and increase satisfaction. People operations also concentrate on the way HR operates, working to modernize systems to make them more user-friendly. 

The idea of people operations as a formalized corporate department is a newer development within the last decade. The concept was pioneered by Laszlo Bock, who spearheaded Google’s famous People Ops department. Bock advocates for focusing on purpose rather than processes, which is also a great way to define what people operations does. 

People Operations Vs. HR: What’s The Difference?

The differences between HR and people operations are subtle; it’s one of those things where you know it when you see it, but it can be tricky to define. To help illustrate their distinct roles, here are some key ways in which HR and people operations differ. 

Approach 

HR takes a practical approach, carrying out the day-to-day employee-related activities necessary for a company to function. People ops take a more conceptual approach, thinking strategically about the relationship a company is building with its employees and the culture that’s being created. 

Systems

HR operates within well-defined systems, which are essential to make sure work gets done efficiently. Payroll, for example, is administered the same way each week to ensure employees get their checks on time. People operations have more leeway in its processes, often experimenting with new ideas and looking for creative ways to get things done. 

Legal function

HR makes sure the company dots its i’s and crosses its t’s, legally speaking. HR specialists are responsible for knowing the law as it pertains to employers and helping the company operate within its bounds while accomplishing business objectives. HR is also the first line of defense if the possibility of a lawsuit arises. While people operations must work within these legal boundaries, PO specialists don’t typically focus on legal matters. 

Reactive vs. proactive

HR is traditionally reactive, dealing with employee-related issues as they arise. An HR representative might step in to act as a mediator in a disagreement between two employees, for example. 

People ops are proactive, seeking to establish practices that prevent issues from arising in the first place. In the case of managing workplace conflict mentioned above, people operations might host a conflict-resolution simulation to arm employees with the tools they need to effectively navigate workplace disputes on their own. 

Shared goals

Despite some nuanced distinctions, HR and people operations share many of the same goals, though their roles in achieving them may differ. Here are a few of their common objectives.

Hiring

HR handles the candidate life cycle, overseeing the systems used to attract talent, collect applications, track candidates, administer interviews, and make job offers. People operations focuses more on the candidate experience, optimizing communications with applicants and working to provide a more seamless experience during the hiring process. 

Related: Candidate Experience Best Practices and Why You Should Follow Them

Employee retention

Retaining employees helps control recruiting costs and contributes to a more skilled workforce, so it’s in the best interest of both HR and people operations to focus on keeping good workers around. HR may do so by providing effective onboarding, coordinating an attractive benefits package, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion initiatives. People ops can aid in retention with strategies like employee development opportunities, employee recognition/rewards programs and creative perks. 

Related: Highly Effective Strategies for Employee Retention

Company culture

People operations play a major role in defining a company’s vision and creating a culture that supports it. HR helps execute the initiatives that bring that vision to life. For example, people operations might decide that greater employee autonomy is an important element in building the desired culture. HR might then implement a policy of unlimited PTO to empower employees with more control over their schedules. 

Technology

HR and people operations rely on technology to do their jobs and make those jobs easier. HR and PO leverage technology to streamline workflows, reduce costs, save time, and automate processes. People operations pay particular attention to employee use of technology, looking for ways to deploy it that will make workers’ lives easiest (i.e. digitizing old systems, using convenient apps instead of desktop software, etc.)

Do I Need an HR Department?

There’s no rule about whether a company must have a human resources department. Many small businesses with only a handful of employees find the duties can be managed by a leadership team member or shared among several team members. 

The Society for Human Resource Management advises that it’s a good idea to begin hiring dedicated HR personnel once the business grows past 10 employees. At this point, the duties have typically grown to warrant a full-time manager so company leaders’ time can be spent on business-centric activities. 

Do I Need a People Operations Department?

While people operations departments are usually found at enterprise-level organizations, adopting a people ops approach is never a bad idea. To revisit Laszlo Bock’s words, means instituting a ‘purpose over process’ mentality and viewing employees as the company’s best advocates. 

If you’re not ready to commit to a full-time HR or people operations staff or need more help deciding which is the right fit for you, bringing in an outside expert can help. Outsourced HR is incredibly common and offers a way for businesses of any size to reap the benefits of a more strategic approach to employer-employee relations. 

Related: Ways to Improve Your Employee Relations

Firing a team member is one of the toughest parts of being a manager. It’s unpleasant for everyone involved, it doesn’t feel good to do, and depending on the employee you’re firing, it’s a situation that could turn into a powder keg. 

That’s why some managers are taking a more passive-aggressive approach in a workplace trend deemed ‘quiet firing.’ We’ll lay out the details of this method of firing and explain why it’s a less-than-ideal way to get rid of an ineffective staff member. 

What is Quiet Firing?

Instead of being straightforward about performance issues with an employee, quiet firing is a practice in which a boss simply ceases to manage them in the hopes they’ll quit on their own, sometimes treating the employee poorly in the process. 

The term ‘quiet firing’ plays off of another workplace trend known as ‘quiet quitting’, a movement where disengaged employees do the bare minimum that’s required of them at their jobs rather than seeking out opportunities to contribute more. 

While quiet quitting and subsequently, quiet firing have recently come into the spotlight, the practices themselves are nothing new. However, they feel particularly relevant at a time when burnout rates are at an all-time high across professions and workers are leaving their jobs in unprecedented numbers. 

Why Companies are Quiet Firing Workers

At its core, quiet firing is driven by a lack of leadership skills. 

Managers either don’t want to have the tough conversations that come with letting an employee go, or they’re not equipped or dedicated enough to deal with the situation. Doing nothing is a lot less work than providing the feedback, coaching, and training that are required to bring a struggling employee up to acceptable performance standards. 

Quiet firing has been around as long as the modern workplace, but it’s become more prevalent in the age of remote and hybrid work. It’s much easier to ignore a team member when you don’t have to see them face to face every day. 

Sometimes, quiet firing isn’t done with malicious intent. If a manager is stretched thin, they may naturally focus more on employees who are easier to work with and more pleasant to manage, leaving other, more challenging reports out to dry. 

Whatever the motivations behind it, quiet firing is an undesirable practice for managers, who do nothing to improve upon unproductive leadership tactics, and employees, who miss out on the chance to improve their skills. It can also have negative consequences for the company as a whole. 

How Quiet Firing Can Hurt Your Business

It’s detrimental to workers

In an age where quiet quitting is condoned and even glorified on social media, it’s easy to feel like quiet firing is acceptable and maybe even justified. Perhaps you feel like quiet firing is the “kind” thing to do, giving employees a chance to bow out on their own accord rather than being forced out. 

But let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment. 

What if a bad employee doesn’t know they’re bad? What if they’re oblivious to the fact that they have a poor attitude or are handing in subpar work–or worse, they’re aware they’re struggling but are afraid to ask for help for fear of negative repercussions? If any of these are the case, quiet firing is doing them a major disservice and could have a long-term impact on their confidence and ability to advance professionally.

The best managers also want what’s best for their employees, whether that means constructive coaching to improve their skills or a direct, tactful dismissal if the situation calls for it. 

It doesn’t always work

As appealing as a “slow fade” might seem, quiet firing is far from a guaranteed way to get an employee to leave. If they choose to stick it out, you might be left with an isolated, disengaged staffer who brings down productivity and drains resources. 

Perhaps the worker is engaged in quiet quitting themself and is more than happy to skate by while collecting a paycheck. In this case, the result is an endless loop of mediocre management rewarded by mediocre work. It’s an ineffective way to exist in the workplace and a drag on morale for other team members. 

It can damage your reputation

A company with a strong employer brand is known for treating its employees with respect. Icing out a worker is never the respectable thing to do even if their behavior justifies being fired. 

Once your reputation as an employer is tarnished, it’s ten times harder to recover than it is to simply do the right thing in the first place. Plus, if it devolves into a situation where a staffer is intentionally being mistreated, like being given undesirable assignments or ostracized by coworkers, it can escalate into an HR or legal issue. 

Related: How to Elevate Your Employer Branding

It can make it difficult to hire

Recruiting is challenging enough even for companies with a squeaky-clean reputation. If even one employee who’s been quiet fired takes to social media to air their grievances, it can make attracting new candidates all but impossible. 

Related: How to Avoid Quiet Quitting

Best Practices For Firing an Employee

Instead of resorting to quiet firing, your best bet is to rely on these tried-and-true best practices for letting employees go. 

1. Offer the opportunity to improve

Firing should be a method of last resort after you’ve exhausted all other options. As soon as the thought crosses your mind, assess the situation and create a clear action plan that gives the employee the chance to improve. 

Have a conversation where you give direct feedback on what’s lacking, gather more information, communicate what needs to change, and give consequences if change doesn’t occur. Here’s an example: 

“I’ve noticed you’re missing deadlines frequently lately. Is there something going on that’s affecting your work?” 

[Give the employee a chance to respond, i.e. they’re overwhelmed by a heavy workload]

“I understand that you’re struggling to keep up with the current workload, but you can’t let deadlines pass without flagging it for anyone. In the future, if you’re behind on a project, let me know as soon as possible so we can adjust the timeline accordingly. If you continue to miss deadlines, your job will be in jeopardy.”

2. Compile documentation

As you work to address performance or behavioral issues, document the process. Keep a log of your conversations with the employee on the topic and get things in writing as much as possible. 

Consider using a formal performance improvement plan, or PIP, which is a contract-like document that a manager and employee agree to. It outlines what will be done to address employee shortfalls and the consequences that will occur if the conditions of the plan aren’t met. 

3. Be swift

As soon as you’ve come to the conclusion that an employee must be let go, take action. Meet with the employee and have a frank conversation laying out the facts, and make sure they’re the first to know rather than hearing about it through the grapevine. 

4. Involve HR

A firing can be a fraught conversation, so it’s a good idea to have an HR representative with you in the room when it takes place. 

5. Prevent future firings

The best way to deal with firings is to prevent them from happening in the first place. 

Equip managers with the tools and training they need to lead effectively. Hold regular check-ins to learn about team members who are struggling and what’s being done to address it. 

Related: When to Fire an Employee

Learn more about what recruitment marketing is, why it’s so important in today’s competitive labor market, and examples of how to use it to attract stellar candidates. 

Recruitment Marketing Background

There was a time when job seekers would eagerly await the arrival of the local Sunday newspaper so they could study the open positions in the classified ads and promptly submit their cover letters and resumes. Those days, however, are long gone. 

Technology has transformed the way employees make career moves, and today they act more like shoppers purchasing a product. They research potential employers with the same depth that they do while looking for a home, an automobile, and any other significant purchase. Whether they use a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, or a desktop, prospects are on a mission to find companies they deem an ideal fit.  They have a plethora of resources available to learn everything they can about your company before they apply.

Candidates have access to tools like Indeed.com and Glassdoor, which offer insight into a company’s typical compensation and benefits, interview process, and culture. Social media forums like LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Facebook are outlets job seekers peruse when determining whether or not to pursue a position. 

This means recruiters and employers have to think like marketers, leveraging a variety of strategies and channels to “sell” not just their open positions, but their employer brand. The way to do this is through recruitment marketing that defines who you are as an organization and why a candidate should want to work for you.

What is Recruitment Marketing?

Recruitment marketing is a strategy employers use to publicize job openings, build brand awareness, and persuade candidates to apply for positions.

A company’s recruiting and marketing departments once worked separately from one another. Now, because the battle to attract and retain talent is more challenging than ever, professional recruiters and internal human resources departments alike are implementing recruitment marketing strategies.

Just as it is a seller’s market in the real estate industry because the inventory of homes for sale is less than the volume of prospective buyers, the job market favors prospective talent since there are millions of positions employers are looking to fill. Considering this, it makes sense that employers have to work harder to reach quality prospects.

Recruitment marketing provides a blueprint for employers to build and showcase their employer brand and enhance brand awareness. Just as it is important for businesses to elevate brand awareness for consumers, it is equally vital to promote the brand to prospective team members. This is why recruitment marketing strategies are created to reach and interest individuals who are actively searching for opportunities, as well as experienced talent who is currently employed.

Related: How to Elevate Your Employer Branding to Attract Top Talent

Why Does Recruitment Marketing Matter?

Traditional recruiting tactics alone are no longer effective. Today’s job seekers are just as interested in the culture and mission of the organization they will join–if not more so–than what’s offered for compensation and benefits. Salaries and benefits are relevant, of course, but in a competitive marketplace, it is becoming more important for organizations to implement and communicate a meaningful purpose. Simply put, candidates want to know why a company is in business beyond the purpose of making money.

Recruitment marketing also has practical purposes, helping you maximize the visibility of your job listings and get the most out of every dollar you’ve allocated to talent acquisition. Here are a few key benefits of recruitment marketing.

Reach more candidates

If you want to get your listing in front of as many qualified candidates as possible, you can’t rely on simply posting the position to your website and some job boards. You need to actively promote your openings where the right candidates spend time, like on select social media channels. Recruitment marketing can help you determine what those platforms are and where to spend money to expand your reach when it makes sense. 

Establish trust in your organization

Today’s top candidates are highly selective. They consider more than just money when making the decision about where to work, weighing things like an organization’s culture and values heavily. Recruitment marketing helps you convey these important aspects of your company to candidates so that when it’s time to accept an offer, working for you is a no-brainer.  

Convert candidates into applicants

Earlier we touched on how modern candidates think more like shoppers making a purchase. It’s a well-known principle of commerce that it takes multiple touchpoints with a customer before they make a decision to buy. Recruitment marketing helps you make these all-important touchpoints with candidates, inching them closer to buying–or in this case, applying–with each new interaction. 

Developing a Recruitment Marketing Strategy

When determining a recruitment marketing strategy, think about your own preferences as a consumer. The internet is an integral part of nearly everyone’s lives, and there is stiff competition for your attention and time. What happens when you visit a site and it does not captivate your interest? Chances are, you venture to another site. Perhaps you peruse Facebook, check your favorite sports blog, or click on a YouTube video. Job seekers have the same mentality. If your recruitment marketing is subpar, you will likely lose visitors’ interest, and an ideal candidate for your open position may end up on another company’s team. This is why it is essential to not only invest in surface-level recruitment marketing, but to also implement an exhilarating recruitment marketing strategy that keeps prospects interested throughout every stage.

Recruitment marketing also allows companies to tap into the passive market; namely candidates who are not actively searching but are open-minded about new opportunities.

Today’s candidates prefer, and even expect recruiters to communicate with them in a personalized manner. Recruitment marketing allows companies to deliver a personalized experience that entices prospects at every stage of the hiring process.

How Can Recruitment Marketing Help Employers Connect With Qualified Candidates?

Recruitment marketing is important, but even a clever and engaging campaign will not have a significant impact without an effective employer brand, which includes an employer value proposition.

Attract candidates through employer branding

Your employer brand is your reputation with prospective, current, and even former employees. Employer branding impacts every aspect of your company. Outstanding employer branding helps attract and retain noteworthy talent.

Amid all the competition, prospects want to know why they should join your team over other companies. Multiple studies indicate that employees will not remain with an organization long-term if a healthy salary and benefits package is not accompanied by an inspiring mission and an inviting culture.

When you create a strong employer brand and introduce a creative recruitment marketing strategy, you will attract a high volume of attention from qualified candidates. At this point, it is critical to effectively assess the prospects and build relationships with them. Email drip campaigns are among the ideal ways to initiate relationships that allow you to convert interested job seekers into valuable team members.

Reach appropriate audiences

Recruitment marketing is also valuable because a cookie-cutter approach to finding qualified team members is not ideal. A recent college graduate with minimal professional experience is different than an executive who has climbed the corporate ladder and has extensive leadership skills. They are at different stages of their respective careers, and they do not speak the same language. A well-planned recruitment marketing strategy will pinpoint ways to reach all audiences at every level for your job openings; from an entry-level position all the way to a C-level executive.

Baby Boomers and Millennials have drastically different preferences for consuming information. The industry you are hiring for also determines your recruitment marketing strategy, such as inbound recruitment. Advertising agency professionals, for example, usually have different mindsets than engineers. In most cases, people in the legal field think differently than health care professionals. Recruitment marketing that directly targets your intended audience is more effective than a one-size-fits-all campaign.

Recruitment Marketing Examples

• Optimizing your job listings for the search terms candidates in your field are most likely to use, like ‘entry-level admin jobs’ or ‘sales manager jobs [your location]’
• Implementing a chatbot that prompts visitors to your Careers page to ask questions or fill out an application
• Using a sequence of emails to engage candidates by sharing positive information, like awards you’ve won or testimonials from some of your happy employees
• Using Facebook advertising to extend the reach of your posts to select audiences
• Managing your brand’s reputation by monitoring and updating sites like Glassdoor and Yelp
• Creating videos on YouTube that showcase what it’s like to work at your company

These are just a few of the many types of recruitment marketing strategies that can be used to attract candidates.

Key Takeaway

We are an experienced and innovative leader in helping companies like yours find skilled and qualified team members for your vacant positions.

We offer staffing solutions for businesses of all sizes – from startups to SMBs and large corporations throughout the United States. Our knowledge and passion for what we do, and our flexible terms and conditions, set us apart in the world of headhunting and recruiting.

If you need help identifying the right candidates for your vacancies, we welcome the opportunity to connect! We’re on standby to help you transform your workforce and find the ideal candidate today!

In today’s market, prospective employees should not be viewed as job seekers. Instead, like highly regarded free agents in professional sports, they are coveted consumers with abundant choices for their next career move. Recognizing this, many companies have shifted to an inbound recruitment strategy.

Considering that the current job market is talent-driven, inbound recruitment offers a long-term recruiting and hiring strategy designed to build your employer brand and consistently grow your talent base.

What is Inbound Recruitment?

Inbound recruitment involves attracting the interest of job seekers through insightful blog posts, effective search engine optimization (SEO), relevant social media outlets, and other types of content marketing. Think of inbound recruitment as a mix of employer branding and recruitment marketing that piques the interest of job seekers that are ideally suited for your company’s career opportunities.

While outbound marketing requires purchasing ads, building email lists and crossing your fingers for leads, inbound marketing emphasizes writing remarkable content that brings candidates to your company and explains to them how they can thrive as part of your team. If you align the content with the interests of job seekers, it increases the chances of turning initial interest into prospects who are hired and retained for the long term.

Companies that author and implement a thorough inbound recruitment strategy consistently hire extraordinary employees without incurring the prohibitive costs of traditional outbound recruitment. Organizations benefit from a healthy bottom line accompanied by a happy and productive team, and positive brand awareness.

The Difference Between Inbound And Outbound Recruiting

As their names suggest, inbound recruiting focuses on attracting candidates into your talent pipeline while outbound recruiting requires you to reach out and make the first contact with candidates.

Think of inbound recruiting like fishing on a lake. The company baits the hook and provides an attractive lure, but it’s up to the candidate (the fish, in this scenario) to swim over and bite. 

If we’re keeping with the fishing metaphor, outbound recruiting is like trawling, which uses a big net attached to a boat. There’s no lure and no waiting on the fish to approach. Instead, the company goes out, casts the net, and catches them. 

Both methods are effective ways to catch fish, and each has its own advantages. Likewise, both inbound and outbound recruiting can be useful strategies in a company’s overall approach to talent acquisition. 

Inbound recruiting pros

• Is a long-term strategy
• Requires an up-front investment of time/resources
• Can attract candidates for years to come after the initial investment is made

Outbound recruiting pros

• Is a short-term strategy
• Requires a continuous investment of resources/manpower to maintain
• Produces results in the moment 

If you want to be a company candidates aspire to work at–rather than one where filling openings is a struggle–your efforts should be heavily focused on inbound recruiting. 

Why is Inbound Recruitment Effective?

Job seekers perform in-depth research about potential employers, which is why recruiters must think like digital content marketers. Just as marketers capture and convert leads into sales with targeted content, creative recruiters can incorporate the same tactics to enhance their talent pool.

Inbound recruitment creates a phenomenal experience for prospective team members through employer branding, which is defined by how our company is perceived from the viewpoints of candidates and team members.

Job seekers become familiar with your business through their personal knowledge and experience of your products and/or services. Employer branding impacts every aspect of your company, including how you communicate as a business online, the comments your employees write on public sites, the content of your job postings, and the salaries, benefits, and perks you offer.

Outstanding employer branding helps attract and retain noteworthy talent.

Through strong employer branding, inbound recruitment:

• Cultivates a larger pool of accomplished and experienced applicants
• Requires less upfront, individual effort than outbound recruitment (which demands intensive scouting and tireless communication that yields a smaller number of ideal candidates)
• Creates extensive awareness of your company and your opportunities by producing content that is valuable to candidates
• Allows companies to closely target job seekers in a way that outbound recruitment cannot achieve
• Provides a residual effect for attracting talent over an indefinite time frame

Of course, even when you have the attention of ideal prospects, that does not guarantee they will apply. When you capture their attention, it’s vital to transform that awareness into action.

How Do You Implement an Inbound Recruitment Strategy?

Inspiring action through inbound recruitment is attained by developing content that showcases why your company is a sterling employer.

Examples of effective inbound recruitment strategies include employee spotlight articles, company blogs, social media posts, video interviews, infographics, and newsletters. These foster relationships with candidates so you will have top-of-mind awareness when they search for opportunities. Providing an inside glimpse of what it’s like to work at your company permits job seekers to consider how they align with your culture.

Inbound recruitment gives prospects the ability to envision themselves as part of your organization’s team.

Once a candidate is intrigued by the possibility of joining your staff, you are tasked with building that relationship. You can spearhead this with these tips:

Consider what you want to achieve

Before launching your inbound recruitment campaign, it is important to craft a clear and detailed plan that includes your objectives. What do you want to accomplish? What candidates do you want to attract and hire? Just as a real estate agent does not target first-time homebuyers with articles about downsizing for empty nesters, a company that is interested in filling entry-level positions should not focus on content that emphasizes management roles.

Are you striving to find spectacular and seasoned senior-level managers? That requires a different approach. Successful inbound recruitment strategies target candidates at all career stages. Again, think like a marketing professional who is developing a multi-pronged campaign to generate awareness for your product or service.

Understand your target market

To connect with prospects through targeted content, you must cultivate a deep understanding of your target audience. This is where candidate personas are appropriate.

A candidate persona is a profile of your ideal hire for a role. The profile features a list of essential skills, education, experience, career goals, key motivators, and personality traits.

Candidate personas impact your inbound recruiting strategy at every level, from the content you author to the platforms used for generating awareness.  Ready to build a candidate persona? Simply gather data from all available sources. Then identify common traits and data points that indicate a person is likely to be successful in a particular role. An ideal first source of data is top performers who are already in the position you are looking to fill. Identify and define the trends in skills, traits, characteristics, education, certifications, and experience that make these candidates successful.

Nurture your ideal candidates

You might be familiar with the concept of a sales funnel and the various objectives as you move candidates through it: attracting leads, nurturing them, and converting them to customers. Inbound recruiting is structured in a similar way, except instead of customers, we’re dealing with candidates. 

So, once you attract interest from a wide pool of job seekers, it is time to nurture them and further enhance their interest, eventually converting them into applicants. 

Encourage candidates to finish applications with automated emails that remind them to complete unfinished applications. Send articles, videos, and other company news to candidates. Share your company culture by showing the social side of your firm through photos, videos, and news of events like corporate retreats, conferences, holiday parties, and team-building exercises. Brainstorm targeted content to reach candidates. Follow up with the most recent job openings and invite job seekers to hiring fairs and training events directly related to their interests.

A candidate might not be the perfect fit at the moment, but they may be exactly who you need at some point soon. Keep in touch with exceptional prospects, even if you do not have an ideal opening right now.

Related: Ways To Hire Faster By Nurturing Candidates

Find out where your candidates reside online

Effective inbound recruitment attracts quality prospects, but that objective is not realistic if the candidates cannot find your content.

Determine where your candidates are likely to be online, and the platforms where they reside. Also, it helps to learn where they are not likely to live so you can avoid those forums.

SEO allows you to accomplish these goals. Complete a keyword analysis. Ask how popular are certain job titles, which keywords attract the most traffic to your job postings, and where does your company rank for job title keywords compared to competitors?

Use targeted keywords to optimize your job content. Include the job title, company name, location, and other relevant keywords. It is important to use easily understood language in job descriptions for search engines and job seekers. Another SEO tip is to feature engaging content on your careers page so prospects are interested from the moment they arrive. Your page will rank higher the longer candidates stay.

Quality content is king

When you determine your target market, where they likely live online, and what type of content interests them, start crafting captivating copy. Post intriguing ads on relevant job boards. Write blog posts that are interesting and relevant. Use SEO-friendly keywords so content is easily discovered. Author white papers, case studies, eBooks, and infographics that demonstrate who your company is and why it is an ideal place to not only get a job but most importantly to grow in a career.

Consistent messaging instills a warm feeling of familiarity when candidates connect with your company’s website, social media, hiring portal, or other content marketing avenues. Project a consistent and desired image through your words and tone of voice across all marketing channels.

Measure your inbound recruitment strategy success with analytics

You can discover what is working and what can benefit from improvement through web analytics and recruiting metrics. It is important to find out where the most qualified job seekers originate from, what job posts generate the most applicants, and what are the most effective marketing channels among other questions.

Paying attention to analytics also helps you find out how much time and money you spent on your campaigns. Inbound recruitment strategies evolve over time, just as new trends arise. Analyzing results allows you to study how you can improve.

In conclusion, inbound recruitment is an ongoing process that requires the same creativity and insight as a company’s marketing and branding strategy. Finding qualified candidates in today’s talent-driven job market is not a simple task, and it demands more engaging ways to reach job seekers than traditional outbound recruitment.

Companies that continue to optimize their inbound recruitment strategy are ideally positioned to attract exceptional candidates and fill open roles for the long term. Remember, you are recruiting premium talent. These prospects have a multitude of options, and organizations that understand outstanding inbound recruitment techniques have an advantage over competitors who focus on outbound recruitment of yesterday.

Related: How To Leverage Data To Improve Your Recruitment Process

Looking to Fill Your Vacant Positions? Partner with 4 Corner Resources Today!

We are equipped to source and attract qualified candidates for your vacant position(s). We utilize tactics such as inbound recruitment to connect with candidates that are a perfect fit for your company. Our staffing experts will assist with all your recruitment needs!

Learn more about the services we offer and contact us today!

The changes come into effect today, May 6^th, 2021.

What is the Independent Contractor Rule?

On January 7^th, 2021, the Independent Contractor rule[1] was established to clarify the standards for Independent Contractors vs. employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This rule meant an intense ‘economic reality’ test could be undertaken to determine whether a worker was classified as an employee or contractor under the FLSA.

The core factors of this test included:

•  The individual’s opportunity for profit and loss based on investment or initiative
• The degree and nature of the individual’s control over the work
• The permanence of the relationship between the employee and employer
• The level of skill required for the work
• Whether the work being undertaken is part of an integrated unit of protection

In March of this year, the U.S Department of Labor announced a proposal to rescind the Independent contractor rule.[2]

Before this ruling, many states adopted the ABC test to ascertain whether an individual is classified as an employee or independent contractor. The test considers a worker to be an employee unless the following three criteria are satisfied.

• The individual is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity
• The individual undertakes work outside of the entity’s typical course of business.
• The individual is customarily engaged in an independent occupation, trade, or business of the same nature as the work being performed for the hiring entity.

Why was the independent contractor rule introduced?

With the explosion in the gig economy, issues around employment classifications have been hotly contested. One of the most publicized staffing issues in 2020 unfolded during a legal battle over how Lyft and Uber drivers should be classified. There were concerns that companies would classify workers as Independent Contractors because it costs less money and serves as a lower-risk form of ‘employment’ compared to other types of hiring solutions. It also means people who are essentially (but not technically) employed by a business could miss out on the protection of a minimum wage, retirement benefits, overtime, workers compensation eligibility, and more.

Why was the Independent Contractor rule withdrawn?

Multiple reasons have been cited[3] behind the decision to withdraw the independent contractor rule.

Reason #1 The independent contractor rule was in tension with the Fair Labor Standards Act’s text and purpose and relevant judicial precedent.

Reason #2 The rule’s prioritization of two “core factors” for determining employee status under the Fair Labor Standards Act would have undermined the longstanding balancing approach of the economic realities test and court decisions requiring a review of the totality of the circumstances related to the employment relationship.

Reason #3 The rule would have narrowed the facts and considerations comprising the analysis of whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, resulting in workers losing FLSA protections.

Marty Walsh, the Independent Labor Secretary, states:

“By withdrawing the Independent Contractor Rule, we will help preserve essential worker rights and stop the erosion of worker protections that would have occurred had the rule gone into effect. Too often, workers lose important wage and related protections when employers misclassify them as independent contractors.”

Worker advocates believe the rule would have allowed employers to deny workers a protected minimum wage, overtime, and other benefits afforded to regular employees. However, lawyers representing those who are opposed to rescinding the rule argue that this will force employers to employers to bring on fewer workers, many of whom prefer to be freelancers in the current economy.

We are currently compiling a blog post about the new legislation that will replace the withdrawn Independent Contractor rule. It will also cover what the changes mean for contractors and hiring managers. As soon as this is published, a link will be added to this post. 

Are you a contractor? Or, do you hire independent contractors?

If so, we’d welcome your opinion on this news.

Resources and Sources

[1] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/2021-independent-contractor

[2] https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20210311

[3] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/05/06/2021-09518/independent-contractor-status-under-the-fair-labor-standards-act-flsa-withdrawal

In a recent survey of 500 staffing professionals, nearly 90% said they’ve made adjustments to their hiring strategy in the wake of the pandemic. The biggest changes have come in the form of hiring freezes, budget cuts, reductions to recruiting staff, and video interviewing. 

While some changes are less than ideal and will likely be temporary (i.e. hiring freezes), other practices have proven to be highly effective and will likely stick around even after the virus’s impact has eventually subsided.

Six Hiring Trends You Should Prepare For As We Head Into 2022

Remote interviews

In-person interviews were one of the first traditional hiring practices to go out the window with Covid-19, with recruiting teams quickly embracing interviews conducted via video conference. As early as April, 20% of hiring managers said they expected video interviewing to be a permanent shift in their recruiting strategy. 

Video interviews offer mostly upside for both candidates and organizations, saving candidates the time and risk associated with interviewing in person and helping companies reduce their cost to hire. Video conferencing platforms have jumped at the opportunity to expand their user bases, offering discounts and other incentives to win corporate business. Microsoft, for example, began offering a free six-month trial of Teams to business clients without a current license. 

Video interviews offer a reliable way for remote hiring managers to get a feel for a candidate’s personality beyond what’s apparent in a phone interview. Facial expressions, for example, have been shown to be a surprisingly reliable means of judging a person’s trustworthiness even absent of any contextual information about them. 

Flexible work arrangements

Massive, mandated shifts in working arrangements due to Covid-19 have changed the way business gets done, with almost no sectors immune to the pandemic’s impact. 

A recent Gartner poll found that 48% of employees plan to work remotely at least part of the time moving forward, an increase of 18 percentage points from before the pandemic. 74% of employers plan to make remote work a permanent arrangement for at least some of their workforce, with tech giants like Facebook and Twitter leading the charge. Even legacy industries like insurance have jumped onboard the remote work trend; in late April, for example, Nationwide Insurance announced plans to close five regional offices permanently while retaining those locations’ workers because the shift to working from home had gone so smoothly. 

In the context of hiring trends, remote work and other flexible work arrangements have gone from nice-to-haves to non-negotiables for a large segment of the workforce, namely parents who have been forced to take on the roles of childcare worker and educator with school districts still closed around the country. If flexibility isn’t an option in your organization, some applicants will have no choice but to look elsewhere. HR leaders who respond proactively, however, have a promising opportunity to stand out from the competition when pursuing top talent. 

Alternative staffing 

In addition to shifting more workers away from physical offices, hiring priorities have shifted in terms of the type of labor that’s in demand. A survey of more than 700 HR and finance leaders revealed that 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with contingent workers, like freelancers and temporary workers, in order to save on labor costs. 

Related: Contract To Hire Pros and Cons

Organizations are also exploring other alternative solutions to meet their staffing needs while reducing expenses. One such solution is talent sharing, where talent is outsourced either internally to a different department or externally to a third-party company to fill staffing gaps. Another is via sliding pay scales, where employees who volunteer for a reduced workload are paid a commensurate reduced salary (i.e. 75% of the pay for 75% of the work). 

Finally, 2021 will see a shift in organizational values that are at the forefront when hiring, with less of an emphasis on efficiency and more on resilience. In recent years, the priority has been on hiring employees who will help the company do things better, faster and cheaper. Moving forward, we expect to see a surge in recruiting strategies that focus more on longevity and on insulating the company from risk. 

In-demand skill sets

Not all roles will be equally affected in the post-pandemic hiring era. Roles that are more conducive to remote work, like office-based jobs, will be more insulated from dramatic hiring shifts than those that require an in-person component. We’re already seeing an increased demand for work-from-home-era skills like virtual collaboration and proficiency with digital project management tools. Soft skills like time management and adaptability are also on the rise on an employers’ lists of desired traits. 

To keep pace with the shifting workplace landscape, hiring managers will do well to focus less on specific job titles (i.e. sales manager) and more on the necessary skills that will drive innovation and protect critical workflows (i.e. critical thinking, problem-solving, and the ability to manage a team). The same goes for how you approach internal development; rather than grooming up-and-comers for a specific next role, focus on developing skills that will open a range of career paths that can contribute to your organization’s broader success.  

Related: 6 Characteristics to Look for in Remote Employees

Greater reliance on data collection

Even before the pandemic, organizations were moving toward new methods of employee data collection for information like performance metrics and feedback surveys. Now, two new factors have further catalyzed the push toward more data collection: the rise of remote workers and the need for personal health and safety information. In the Gartner survey we mentioned earlier, 16% of employers said they were using technology more frequently to monitor their employees with methods like virtual time tracking tools, computer activity tracking, and monitoring of internal communications. 

When collected correctly—for a specific purpose and within the proper legal bounds—employee data can be a valuable hiring asset for competitive organizations. For example, taking a holistic look at employee attendance records, commute time, promotion history and overall productivity can paint a telling picture of employee well-being and likelihood of attrition. Data on the company trajectory and effectiveness of new hires in their respective roles can shed light on potential recruiting issues with culture fit or adequate onboarding. 

Protecting employee data is of equal importance to collecting it. Many HR benefits platforms offer anonymization features that strip out sensitive personal details while retaining the information necessary to identify trends. Proper encryption and preventative measures against data breaches are also paramount. 

Crisis response and employer brands

If you asked a candidate a year ago about the top factors they considered when forming an opinion about a prospective employer, you’d likely hear them mention things like equitable pay, work-life balance, and benefits. How the employer reacts in times of crisis probably wasn’t at the top of many candidates’ minds. That has changed. 

The pandemic has revealed a stark contrast between companies with and without crisis response plans when it comes to the impact on their employer brand. Companies that acted quickly in closing offices, scaling up remote work, and taking preventative actions have fared much better in the public eye those that dragged their feet or flouted early advisories. 

Major League Baseball, for example, faced public blowback and is now in the middle of a lawsuit over its unclear policies on ticket refunds for canceled games in the early days of the virus. Carnival Cruise Lines took a beating in the headlines for failing to take decisive action with infected passengers, resulting in hundreds of additional cases. 

An organization’s employer brand has always played a big role in its ability to meet its staffing needs, and now crisis response is a key component of that brand. 

Staff Successfully in the Post-Pandemic Era with 4 Corner Resources

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the face of recruiting as we know it. If you want to not only survive, but thrive in a post-pandemic economy, you can’t rely on outdated methods for finding and attracting candidates. 4 Corner Resources can help you stay on course in the shifting tide, arming you with a staffing plan that will set you up for success in 2021 and beyond. 

We help companies of all sizes hire full-time employees, contract-to-hire workers, and temporary staffers to meet your needs in a budget-friendly way. We’ll prioritize the skills that are most valuable for the future of your organization, like technology, leadership, and problem-solving. We understand that culture fit plays a critical role in the success of every new hire; that’s why we take the time to get to know you as a company before diving into hiring. 

Contact us today to schedule your free staffing strategy call!