Imagine … you applied for a job ten days ago. You know that you invested a lot of time to write a tailor-made cover letter, you customised your CV for a certain position and two weeks went by and nothing happened. You wonder whether you will ever get a phone call, a letter in the mailbox or an email from the company’s HR department. Does this sound familiar? How would you feel as a candidate?
"},"body":{"body":"Imagine … you applied for a job ten days ago. You know that you invested a lot of time to write a tailor-made cover letter, you customised your CV for a certain position and two weeks went by and nothing happened. You wonder whether you will ever get a phone call, a letter in the mailbox or an email from the company’s HR department. Does this sound familiar? How would you feel as a candidate?
Now imagine … that you are the recruiter. You are working for a company who claims on their website that they have brilliant credentials and provide consistently a high level of customer service. The job ad you published DID NOT mention a clause at the bottom that stated
“We regret that due to the high volume of applications we are unable to acknowledge every application. Please bear in mind that if you are selected for an interview we will contact you within the next 7 days. However, if we think that your skills and qualifications may be suitable for other similar positions we may hold your details on our database and contact you in the future.”
How do you think will your company be perceived by potential new hires if they don’t get any response? Whenever this happened to me I felt: this company is not credible, people working there don’t care about their own company’s image and reputation, they do not respect my time that I invested in applying for the position and they don’t value my interest in their company.
Possible reasons that companies do not reply to job candidates could be:
However, HR Managers need to reconsider whether they can really afford to not reply to potential job candidates. In today’s day and age (I’m talking about the social media world in particular) this would mean that theoretically any disgruntled candidate can harm a company’s reputation in a few seconds, from all over the world, just with a click from any device, fully free of charge - if that would be their intention! And imagine…. there is only one job and one lucky person who will land the job. How many other disappointed jobseekers might feel like voicing their opinion online in their own words? Think about it, not once, but twice!
When I was writing my MBA dissertation about “Recommendation Marketing” I learnt an important lesson: a negative experience is being passed on to more friends, relatives and acquaintances than actually a positive experience. What can we learn from this?
Remember that a good rejection letter still gives your company the opportunity to build good will and leave a professional impression in the candidates’ eyes, while ignoring them might lead to increased negative word-of-mouth. People do talk and share their experiences with people they love, live and deal with. Nowadays in an unprecedented way!
"},"publishedOn":"2014-09-08T09:14:05.280Z"}},{"node":{"url":"top-6-lessons-i-learnt-as-a-recruiter","title":"Top 6 Lessons I learnt as a Recruiter","description":{"description":"When people create their CVs they usually list a series of tasks that they performed in their jobs. Smart jobseekers also know about the power of including their main achievements in their CV. Would it not be great if there would be also a section in which candidates would actually share the lessons that they learned at various stages in their career? In this blog post I would like to share my personal lessons I learnt as a Recruiter some years ago.
"},"body":{"body":"When people create their CVs they usually list a series of tasks that they performed in their jobs. Smart jobseekers also know about the power of including their main achievements in their CV. Would it not be great if there would be also a section in which candidates would actually share the lessons that they learned at various stages in their career? In this blog post I would like to share my personal lessons I learnt as a Recruiter some years ago.
# 1 - You will never be able to satisfy everyone.
Whether you are working as an agency recruiter or in-house corporate recruiter you will always have a higher number of jobseekers and much smaller number of job offers. As a consultant you will first focus on “placing people” for companies and then “finding jobs” for people, no matter how many great candidates you have lined up.
# 2 - You need to be quick.
Recruitment is a fast paced industry and neither companies nor candidates just rely on one source when they are looking for a candidate or a job. If you come across a good candidate for an open vacancy don’t wait too long to forward or invite the person for an interview and make a job offer. If you hear about a company’s hiring needs don’t waste any time and present your best candidates as soon as possible. There are plenty of other job applicants and agencies who are waiting for the same great opportunity. If you don’t act quickly, someone else will do it, remember! Nowadays competition is tough.
# 3 - Not everyone is reliable.
Being a matchmaker (connecting jobseekers with companies) will make you realise that once in a while one of them will let you down in the last minute. Companies might tell you that they already found a candidate. Occasionally it also happens that candidates will inform you that they already found a job, or they are not interested in the job anymore or simply don’t turn up to their interview. If this happens then it also reflects negative on your company. Clients might not approach you next time when they are looking for new hires due to this episode. You might feel like having wasted a lot of time for nothing. Being resilient and efficient is therefore particularly important in this job.
# 4 - Not just the first impression matters.
Don’t be blended too much by peoples’ first brilliant interview performance. If you really want to judge someone try to meet this person at least three times in different environments (office, restaurant, park etc.). You might be surprised to see that very few people would be consistent at all times in the way they present themselves.
# 5 - It teaches you important things about life.
Dealing with people can teach you a lot about life too. The recruitment business is a people business, therefore you get to know quite a lot about peoples’ situations and lives. Sometimes you will get to know the problems they are facing and tough times that they are going through.
One episode that is still fresh in my mind was a candidate that we found for one of our clients. He was a carpenter, coming from Poland and trying to get some work in Italy. I knew that Polish people are considered ad hardworking and reliable. I never imagined that one day we would have a candidate who - due to his poor financial situation - had to ask us for a cash advance prior to his first working day. That experience made me really feel happier about my own life and the job I had at that time. I learnt to be more considerate of other peoples personal circumstances.
Another episode was were we hired two twin brothers to work in the same company. They made both initially a brilliant impression when we hired them but after one month we were quite shocked when one day we had to learn from the newspaper that one of them got arrested because of sexual harassment.
# 6 - It’s a target driven environment.
Another memorable experience was when a Manager from the Head Office in Milan came to visit our agency. I still remember the very first question that our team got asked. It was not the one you would expect, such as “How are you doing?” but “How many candidates were you able to find last week?” It made us all one more time aware that we are in the target-oriented peoples’ business in which figures (and thus revenues) matter first.
Last but not least, I would like to say that there are two moments that I found always highly rewarding and satisfying in this job: 1) when you find a company who wants you to find great talent for their vacancies and 2) a job candidate who gets a job offer due to your coaching and recommendation. It is definitely worth a try and earnings can be great if targets are being met or even exceeded!
"},"publishedOn":"2014-09-01T19:14:24.767Z"}},{"node":{"url":"job-candidate-how-stress-resistant-are-you","title":"Job Candidate, how stress resistant are you?","description":{"description":"There are many jobs that require a candidate to be able to work under pressure and who is able to cope with different levels of stress. Some people will be able to cope well while others might be struggling a lot. I’m thinking of jobs which require to finish certain tasks within certain deadlines with a certain outcome, such as: journalists, recruitment consultants, translators, builders, architects, software developers etc.
"},"body":{"body":"There are many jobs that require a candidate to be able to work under pressure and who is able to cope with different levels of stress. Some people will be able to cope well while others might be struggling a lot. I’m thinking of jobs which require to finish certain tasks within certain deadlines with a certain outcome, such as: journalists, recruitment consultants, translators, builders, architects, software developers etc. But also jobs in Finance, in which you need to keep a constant eye on how financial markets on a global scale are developing, can be very stressful. When there is a lot of money at stake and you can’t really have full control over external circumstances you need to be able to cope accordingly. Also running your own business, no matter in what industry, will put a different level of stress on yourself and not everyone is suitable for that challenge. But we need to realise that pressure and stress nowadays are normal aspects of life. They are unavoidable and at some point in life everyone has to deal with it, the question is how well we are able to do it.
It is a fact that in the UK for example stress-related sickness absences cost companies an estimated 4 billion Pounds annually. A survey conducted among 270 line managers stated that 88 % felt to be under a moderate or high level of stress at their job. 39 % of them claimed that this had got worse over the past year. Stress-related illnesses can include depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, headaches, migraines, diabetes and obesity.
If you need to find out how stress resistant a candidate is there are two strategies you can apply.
A) You can ask specific questions, such as:
B) You can apply various stress interviewing techniques to get a real insight.
Bear in mind that the purpose of it is to stress the candidate and in the process to find out how well a candidate can handle certain situations under pressure. It has nothing to do how you as the interviewer perceive the candidate as a person. Unfortunately the candidate not always realises that in the process. However, your task as a recruiter is to shatter the interviewee’s self esteem in order to find out if that could affect his performance or attitude during the interview. Now some examples in more detail:
# 1 - Planning for a panel interview in which two or three interviewers ask more than one question in a row. Find out how well the candidate can handle these questions fired at him. Was he able to finish the answer to each question? Did he remember all of the questions without asking to get it repeated one more time?
# 2 - Telling the candidate very straight forward that you don’t like him/her. This is to test the person’s reaction. (Not everyone might be able to take this question in an impersonal way!)
# 3 - Using provocative words and questions. By talking in a provocative or even aggressive tone (no matter how well or poorly the candidate answered the questions) you will make the candidate feel awful and horrible. Interviewers in the past used to say things like “THIS is your answer?”, “Are you serious?”, “Is there nothing else you can think of?”.
# 4 Asking wild card questions. These are questions that come fully unexpected to the candidate and might also be completely unrelated to the job. Example: “If you were a tie, what pattern would you be?”
# 5 - Continuously interrupting the candidate when speaking. That makes the person feel as if he would have given a very poor answer and they were not able to finish their thought.
# 6 - Asking to hold an impromptu presentation. In this case you don’t give the candidate a lot of time to prepare for it. Who would not be stressed in that case?
# 7 - Using negative body language. Rolling your eyes, continuously looking at your watch, and acting impatiently is never a good sign and should make the interviewee feel as if you would be annoyed by the job candidate.
Some recruiters consider stress interviews to be effective, while others consider them as not always appropriate. Whatever the case is, recruiters should bear in mind that an interview is always a two way process. Also candidates can assess the company and ask themselves whether they would want to work for someone who makes them feel uncomfortable, inferior, embarrassed or insecure.
"},"publishedOn":"2014-08-28T09:07:46.847Z"}},{"node":{"url":"hiring-a-social-media-manager-questions-you-must-ask","title":"Hiring a Social Media Manager: Questions you must ask","description":{"description":"There are many people out there who call themselves “Social Media Experts” and the names you come across for this relatively new job title can vary. You might come across names such as: Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media Manager, Content Producer, Digital Content Manager, Social Media Strategist, Content Marketer, SEO Manager etc.
"},"body":{"body":"There are many people out there who call themselves “Social Media Experts” and the names you come across for this relatively new job title can vary. You might come across names such as: Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media Manager, Content Producer, Digital Content Manager, Social Media Strategist, Content Marketer, Online Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Executive, Online Community Manager, Social Media Coordinator, SEO Manager etc. The increasing demand for this particular career cannot be overlooked. According to the New York Times careers in the social media industry will add $1.3 trillion to the economy in the near future.
What does a Social Media Manager actually do? The person has the challenging task to drive visibility and engagement of a corporate brand by using different social media channels. The ideal candidate should first of all be knowledgeable about various Social Media platforms, but also have a deep understanding of the company’s goals and strategy. Furthermore, he needs to be passionate about the company’s brand, be an excellent communicator/listener/writer, be naturally curious, highly motivated, able to act quickly, proactive, analytical, customer-focused, respect confidentiality, able to deal with negativity and keep up to date with daily events and industry news. It is important to be aware that this profession is not a “Monday to Friday from 9 to 5 job” only.
Now imagine that you need to hire a Social Media Manager, either in-house or for another client. Do you know what the most effective questions are in order to find the most suitable talent for your needs? These are some of my suggestions:
# 1 - What’s the most important thing a Social Media manager should be doing? Apart from creating interesting, high quality content in various forms, the answer should possibly mention “monitoring and listening on various Social Media Channels what the audience has to say”.
# 2 - How accomplished are you on various social media websites? Do you have a proven track record of continuous professional presence in the Social Media world?What were your personal experiences so far?
# 3 - What are the most suitable Social Media platforms for this business? Ask why he has chosen the ones he mentioned. Ask if he can describe the personality of the company’s brand. This will give you an understanding of how thoroughly the candidate did his research.
# 4 - What would be your first goals? If the candidate tries to impress you by telling you how many more Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers he will be able to get, ask them straight away what his strategy would be to engage with the audience. (Having a smaller number of loyal fans who are highly engaged might be more valuable to the company than thousands of fans where there is no interaction at all.)
# 5 - What are the most important things that you need to remember with regard to content creation? You can ask further questions such as: “Are you blogging?”, “On what platforms can I find your content?” Have a look at the blog and pay attention to what extent it has been updated on a regular basis.
# 6 - Can you tell me a compelling story? A candidate who is able to provide great episodes can be very beneficial on all levels of Social Media activities later on.
# 7 - What marketing strategies would you use in order to generate leads? Bear in mind that Social Media should give you something quantifiable for your investment. Ask the question “How do you measure your social ROI?”
# 8 - What are the most important Social marketing metrics you need to monitor on a regular basis? The candidate should hopefully talk about “engagement” and “leads”.
# 9 - How would you allocate the budget for Social Media advertising? Ask the person what plan he would implement, how he would spend the money and how he can make sure that it is done successfully.
# 10 - In what ways did you use Social Media in your career so far? For marketing, customer service, recruitment purposes or something else?
# 11 - Tell me about the different social media campaigns that you started and managed. What went well, what didn’t go well?
# 12 - What is your knowledge and experience with SEO?
# 13 - Did you ever have to solve a Social Media disaster? You can ask them further questions, such as “What steps did you take to solve the problem?, “What was the outcome of it?” “Did you ever have to approach an Online Reputation Manager or were you able to sort out the issue by yourself?”
# 14 - What are your favourite online blogs and why? This can really be a very revealing question.
# 15 - What do you think of Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Ann Handley, Mari Smith, Sean Gardner? This will tell you to what extent the candidate is familiar with various insiders from the social media world.
Every company is unique and the requirements for a Social Media Manager will be different from company to company. Bear in mind that it makes a difference whether you are a big multinational company or whether you start your business from scratch, whether you focus on lead generation and fan acquisition or on client development and client retention. Whatever your case is, remember that the position of a Social Media Manager should not be considered as an entry-level job. The person has the responsibility to maintain a company’s image in a genuine, knowledgeable and responsible way. The person will act like an ambassador whose audience will consist of old, current and new customers. Let’s not forget that reputation - now also online! - matters more than ever before.
"},"publishedOn":"2014-08-18T07:40:42.387Z"}},{"node":{"url":"creative-ideas-on-how-to-spot-detail-oriented-candidate","title":"Creative Ideas on how to spot a detail-oriented candidate","description":{"description":"“Attention to detail” is a crucial requirement for many jobs, such as: accountants, software developers, translators, surgeons, lawyers, newspaper editors and many more. Each of these professions might require job-specific technical tests in order to assess a candidate’s competency. However, there are still some additional general sample questions you might want to ask as a recruiter in order to get a better idea about the candidate’s focus on details.
"},"body":{"body":"“Attention to detail” is a crucial requirement for many jobs, such as: accountants, software developers, translators, surgeons, lawyers, newspaper editors and many more. Each of these professions might require job-specific technical tests in order to assess a candidate’s competency.
However, there are still some additional general sample questions you might want to ask as a recruiter in order to get a better idea about the candidate’s focus on details. For example:
Now I would like to tell you on what things I focused on when assessing my candidates’ degree of detail-orientation:
I remember once I had to hire an accountant and I knew that I will have to test the candidates on their detail-orientation. While I was faced with four good candidates at the end I’ve chosen the male candidate who after the final interview sent me a Thank You Note. It was not the note that impressed me but the picture that the person attached to it. It showed how in his drawer at home he keeps his 11 ties: each of them rolled up and in small separate compartments. He used this picture to prove that he doesn’t just pay attention to detail in his job but also in his personal life. I thought “what a brilliant idea” to make you stand out from other job applicants! As you can see from this personal episode you need to be creative in today’s competitive job market, no matter whether creative thinking skills are required for the job you are trying to apply or not!
"},"publishedOn":"2014-08-11T20:13:16.887Z"}},{"node":{"url":"13-ways-how-to-gain-new-business-as-a-recruitment-consultant","title":"13 Ways how to gain new business as a Recruitment Consultant","description":{"description":"If I would be a Recruitment Consultant this would be my personal strategy as to how I would try to gain new business. Cold calling seems to be the approach that many companies apply but I would not just rely on that option. In today’s competitive recruitment market you need to be creative, quick and professional.
"},"body":{"body":"If I would be a Recruitment Consultant this would be my personal strategy as to how I would try to gain new business. Cold calling seems to be the approach that many companies apply but I would not just rely on that option. In today’s competitive recruitment market you need to be creative, quick and professional. These are my ideas:
If after implementing these ideas I would still find it difficult to gain more business I would take more care of my existing clients by exceeding their expectations. This would not only help me to meet their hiring needs but also make them spread the word about my services to other people. Repeat business is great business, and as we all know, it is cheaper to take care of existing clients rather than chasing constantly new clients.
"},"publishedOn":"2014-08-07T18:32:30.740Z"}},{"node":{"url":"the-personal-interests-section-what-does-it-reveal","title":"The “Personal Interests” section in a CV: What does it reveal? ","description":{"description":"Is it really relevant to pay some attention to a candidate’s hobbies and personal interests when screening a candidate’s CV? Some Hiring Managers will say that it’s a waste of time, while others see it as an opportunity to get some more information about a candidate’s personality
"},"body":{"body":"Is it really relevant to pay some attention to a candidate’s hobbies and personal interests when screening a candidate’s CV? Some Hiring Managers will say that it’s a waste of time, while others see it as an opportunity to get some more information about a candidate’s personality. At Google, for example, they started with a bottom-up approach when looking at candidates’ CVs. They didn’t focus on academic achievements but on a candidate’s interests first.
A recruiter will face candidates who might try to impress them with their personal interests on paper but the real test comes at the interview stage. How knowledgeable is the candidate really about the hobbies and interests mentioned on his CV? Often candidates fake it in order to appear “more interesting”, without thinking that the recruiter might be an expert in the same subject too. Talking about hobbies might be a good conversational topic at the beginning of an interview and at the same time it tells you instantly something about the credibility and trustworthiness of a person. If the hobbies turn out to be lies, you might wonder what else on the CV might be fake.
Now let’s have a closer look as to how you can interpret the “Interest section” of other candidates’ CVs.
There are professionals who would think that a candidate who lists a range of different hobbies might have lots of skills, on the other hand it might tell someone that the person has so many hobbies and might therefore not be fully committed to the future job. Someone else could also think that this candidate could be a great mentor to a young person and whose interests could be transferred into an advisory role.
The person who adds few interests but provides more interesting details about it, shows that the person thinks creatively and knows how to sell themselves effectively. It also makes these interests/hobbies more credible to the reader.
Here we need to differentiate between those sports that are individual sports such as tennis, athletics, car or motorbike racing, swimming, golf, cycling, etc. and those that are team sports such as football, ice hockey, cricket, baseball, etc. If a candidate is participating in a team sport you assume that the person is used to play in a team and that that skill can easily be transferred to a corporate environment too. The demand for employees with team working skills are increasing in this competitive corporate world.
No matter whether it is an individual or a team sport that the candidate loves doing, all sports have something in common. It shows that a candidate keeps himself fit (which is good for his work-life balance), is ambitious by nature, focused, determined, energetic, disciplined, resilient and goal-oriented. In a sales environment this can be very helpful because the person is familiar with achieving targets.
If you notice a candidate who loves engaging in risky and adventurous sports be cautious. I remember my first job interview in 1992 when I applied for a job as a secretary. I mentioned in my CV that I do some off-road racing. I was highly surprised about the Hiring Manager’s reaction. While I thought the recruiter would be impressed about a lady engaging in racing, he was sceptical because he feared that if I get injured in competitions someone else would have to take over my job for certain periods. For his business this would have meant finding another person and paying an additional salary. Thus, mentioning my passion for off road-racing didn’t help me at all, on the contrary it actually backfired. I learnt an important lesson from this experience: If a hobby is not positively related to the job and adds value to my job performance it should not be mentioned.
Then there are those sports that are considered as “elite sport” such as golf, sailing, tennis etc. Here a recruiter can really find out whether the applicant is an insider or just wants to impress.
Someone who instead prefers coaching and training others in their sportive endeavours demonstrates to have leadership and motivational skills, a trait that would be welcomed for executive positions.
Someone who likes drama and acting proofs to have confidence, no stage fright and creativity. If a candidate is required to give public speeches or presentations it would surely be a skill that would come naturally to the candidate. “Reading” is a favourite hobby for many people but unless someone specifies what genre he likes it is often considered as boring.
Someone who likes playing chess will be perceived as a strategic thinker with analytical skills. A person who loves playing computer games might be perceived as “less social” unless other qualities can be added to it. If a candidate would also mention that he organised gaming events (involving marketing and technical tasks) a recruiter would be more impressed.
Engaging in various community or charitable work is something that definitely catches a recruiter’s attention and is perceived as very positive. A candidate will be perceived as committed, responsible, proactive and motivated who knows how to use his skills on and outside his job.
Even if you are one of those recruiters who don’t believe in the usefulness of knowing a person’s hobbies, it still provides you with the opportunity to test a person’s honesty. Surely a character trait that should not be underestimated.
"},"publishedOn":"2014-07-31T19:02:01.340Z"}},{"node":{"url":"question-pooling","title":"New Feature - Question Pooling","description":{"description":"I've just released a new feature for Skillmeter Testing Platform that lets you configure your tests to either serve candidates the complete set of questions or pull randomly a number of questions from a larger pool of questions
"},"body":{"body":"\r\n\tI've just released a new feature for \r\n\tSkillmeter Testing Platform that lets you configure your tests to either serve candidates the complete set of questions or pull randomly a number of questions from a larger pool of questions.
\r\n\tThe set up is very straighforward: in your test settings page, go to \"Number of questions\" dropdown and select either \"Select all questions\" or \"Select by number\".
\r\n\tIt depends on what you want to measure and how many questions you have vs. how many you want the candidate to answer to, but in general \"Select by number\" works best for tests like IQ Tests or generic IT tests where you may have a bigger set of questions.
\r\n\tAs always, let us know what you think about this update, or if there's anything you would like to see improved.
"},"publishedOn":"2014-07-27T09:10:46.700Z"}},{"node":{"url":"15-mistakes-hiring-managers-should-avoid","title":"15 Mistakes Hiring Managers should avoid","description":{"description":"A job interview is an opportunity for both parties, HR manager and candidate, to find out whether the company and the candidate are a good fit or not. It requires therefore preparation from both sides and many things can go wrong during the interview stage. I would like to focus on the most common mistakes that recruiters are making when interviewing their future employees.
"},"body":{"body":"A job interview is an opportunity for both parties, HR manager and candidate, to find out whether the company and the candidate are a good fit or not. It requires therefore preparation from both sides and many things can go wrong during the interview stage. I would like to focus on the most common mistakes that recruiters are making when interviewing their future employees:
1) Making the job ad too specific or too generic.
If a job ad is too specific by mentioning qualifications, experiences and personal traits, it could put off a lot of good candidates. They might think that they don’t meet all the criteria and don’t see any reason to apply for that job. On the other hand, if a job ad is too generic and does not give any details with regard to job description and person specification, a recruiter might be faced with a flood of CVs. Shortlisting might become a time consuming challenge in this case. Thus, it is important to distinguish between essential and desirable requirements.
2) Not disclosing the salary in a job ad.
If candidates are not able to find out a job’s salary from your job ad you would miss out on a lot of good candidates. There are countries in which it is very unusual to disclose a person’s salary in a job ad. They prefer to discuss this matter during an interview. However, the chances that you will get a higher number of good candidates is if you provide this information straight away. Long discussions and negotiations in this regard can therefore be avoided. If the salary for a job seems to be too low the candidate would not apply in the first place. A recruiter would therefore be able to focus more on the tasks and responsibilities of the new hire during an interview conversation.
3) Not explaining the interview process in detail.
Potential candidates would appreciate it if the company would inform them in more detail about what they can expect: the type of interview, number of people they are going to meet, the number of interviews, the duration and when they will hear from the company again. Giving out this information in advance (without being asked by the candidate) would make your company look so much more professional! Or even better, publish this information already on your website.
4) Looking for a replica.
Often hiring managers are looking for a candidate who is currently doing the same job in a similar company. This approach will limit managers in terms of potential, creativity and innovation. Lots of good candidates might not be considered because they might not meet these criteria.
5) Doing it all alone.
It would be a missed opportunity to hold interviews on a 1-1 basis only. Getting the opinions of other company’s top executives can be very useful and eye-opening. Another good idea would be to include an employee who is working at the same level like the jobseeker. There is no harm in listening to other peoples’ personal opinions and thoughts. They might look at the candidate differently and see things that you might have not noticed or thought of. This additional feedback would help you to take the right decision.
6) Taking rushed decisions when the perfect candidate seems to be found.
It could be that in the middle of the interviewing process a manager might feel that he found the perfect fit. Even if that is the case, everyone should be given the same opportunity to attend the interview. Only after having interviewed all shortlisted candidates a decision and offer should be made.
7) Not coordinating the questions among panel members.
If the interview is a panel interview it would be advisable to coordinate the questions well in advance. Everyone should know what this task is: Who asks what questions? Who tests the candidates skills? Who checks the cultural fit? A well planned interview will also reflect more positive on the company’s image.
8) Not preparing the candidate about the company and the job in advance.
If the company would provide a candidate with detailed information about the company’s history and job role in advance, valuable time during the interview could be saved. The focus would be on the candidate’s skills, experiences and open questions rather than repeating the same general corporate information to every application.
9) Just asking questions.
A candidate’s suitability should not just be tested by asking questions but by making this part more interactive. For example, instead of asking “How well do you work with others?” you could offer the candidate a tour around your corporate premises. Letting the applicant talk with other employees or even giving a small task to do would give you instantly a more insightful idea as to how the person would interact with others.
10) Focusing only on skills and experiences.
Sometimes HR professionals seem to forget that specific knowledge and skills can always be taught but having the right work ethic, motivation and loyalty towards the company is often of major importance. Enthusiasm for a job can not be taught, neither bought. This aspect should therefore not be underestimated. Inviting a candidate to more than one interview would help to find out if a candidate is consistently motivated or whether the person just had a good day in the first interview.
11) Taking a rushed decision.
Sometimes there are jobs that need to be filled urgently. Companies decide to compromise and hire a mediocre candidate rather than waiting a bit longer for hiring the best possible candidate. This can have negative consequences, such as loss of productivity, decreased motivation among other staff members etc. It could be that the whole process of looking for a new hire would have to start again from scratch. In this case a considerable amount of money as well as time would have been wasted.
12) Relying on recommendations of other people.
Asking others for recommendations can be a good strategy and many people get jobs due to this approach. However, it would be advisable to still include some kind of assessment. A candidate’s career might look brilliant on paper and achievements might have been proven but if motivation seems to be low, it should not be ignored.
13) Not checking references thoroughly.
You should not just blindly rely on the references provided by the candidate but look beyond them. Try also to find additional professionals who are prepared to share their experiences with you as to how good the candidate really is.
14) Being too slow in taking a decision.
Recruitment is a fast-paced environment and great candidates apply at various companies at the same time. If you come across a great talent don’t waste too much time and let the person know you are seriously interested in them. It would be a pity to have found the perfect fit but too late, because the person already got an offer from another company. Speed nowadays can be considered as a competitive advantage and it doesn’t matter how big or small your company is. The quicker you are in attracting and hiring great talent the more successful your company will be.
15) Not disclosing the salary in a job ad.
If candidates are not able to find out a job’s salary from your job ad you would miss out on a lot of good candidates. There are countries in which it is very unusual to disclose a person’s salary in a job ad. They prefer to discuss this matter during an interview. However, the chances that you will get a higher number of good candidates is if you provide this information straight away. Long discussions and negotiations in this regard can therefore be avoided. If the salary for a job seems to be too low the candidate would not apply in the first place. A recruiter would therefore be able to focus more on the tasks and responsibilities of the new hire during an interview conversation.
Every job interview is different, not just for a job applicant but also for a Hiring Manager. It is not just important to know what to do but also what definitely not to do in order to get the best result.
"},"publishedOn":"2014-07-12T19:26:39.233Z"}},{"node":{"url":"how-to-create-an-impressive-job-ad-5-ideas","title":"How to create an impressive Job Ad - 5 ideas","description":{"description":"When was the last time you noticed a really impressive job ad? I mean a really memorable one? Most of the job ads look just ordinary, dull and with no eye-catching WOW factor. In order to get noticed instantly a company needs to apply different strategies.
"},"body":{"body":"When was the last time you noticed a really impressive job ad? I mean a really memorable one? Most of the job ads look just ordinary, dull and with no eye-catching WOW factor. In order to get noticed instantly a company needs to apply different strategies.
Usually an ad should be divided into a minimum of 4 sections: 1) Relevant information about the company, 2) Job responsibilities, 3) Required qualifications and skills 4) Steps how to apply. But there have been also companies who keep it very simple and short. In Steve Jobs’ words “Simplicity is the new sophistication”, so why not also applying this credo in a job ad?
Now if you want to stand out from the crowd and be perceived as a creative thinking company these are the points that you should consider:
1) Choose a great title!
Don’t underestimate the importance of choosing the right title! It can have an impact on the number of job applications and the quality of candidates you might hear from. You will have a higher response from candidates if your job ad title is also SEO friendly. If the headline of a job sounds original and unusual you get peoples’ attention and they will read the rest of the ad as well.
2) The VISUAL component.
Using a picture or an infographic in your job ad would instantly grab the attention of a jobseeker. Let’s assume you are looking for a person who needs to be a good team player or team leader. Every jobseeker would appreciate it if they could already see a picture of their future team colleagues. This would help to find out whether one would be a good fit for the team or not (even though only a follow-up meeting in person might give you the real answer.)
If you want to present the job responsibilities in a more creative way you can show them in form of an info graphic instead of listing them as bullet points. Also that would make it look different.
3) The corporate video.
If you can add a corporate recruitment video to your job ad you would really make it memorable and unique. You can describe the corporate culture of a company in words but a video would give you a real insight what it could feel like to work for that company. You could also make it specific to each job role and describe it for example as “A typical day in the life of a Front End Developer at company xyz”. The internet would make it easily accessible and shareable. Watch Apple’s or Google’s corporate videos and ask yourself: Who would not be motivated to apply for a job at those companies after watching it?
4) Focus on the candidate’s benefits.
Talk about the benefits that a future employee can expect from the new company and bear in mind that it should be a “job ad” and not a pure job/company profile description. Focus therefore on: compensation packages, attractive perks, corporate culture, working conditions rather than giving information about the person who needs to be reported to, details about the company (that can be researched on the corporate website too) etc. Put the candidate in the centre of attention!
5) Provide a challenge to solve!
If you want to expose jobseekers to a particular challenge then don’t hesitate to include a particular hands-on task in your job ad. This will help you to weed out the good ones from the poor ones.
One company tried to challenge potential computer engineers in a particular creative way. Instead of publishing the corporate phone number straight away it has been presented as a mathematical task. Only those who know the correct answer will be able to ring up the company.
Other tips that you should not ignore are as follows:
Remember, also when drafting a job ad the old AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) in advertising is still valid.
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