Building Your Talent Pipeline

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Steve

Recruiting is an ongoing effort and when hiring for a rapidly growing company, it is important to keep your talent pipeline full of great quality candidates. Engaging top prospects, even when there is not an opening for them, will shorten your recruitment cycle when one opens up and is also a good way to stay ahead in the competitive talent war.

Building a strong talent pipeline can seem difficult to accomplish, but with a bit of effort- it is easy enough and the results will surly be worth it. Make it a part of your weekly routine, schedule time in your calendar and make it a point to meet new people within your industry.

Here are three things you should be doing to build up your pipeline:

Direct Outreach. Use LinkedIn, blogs and Twitter to target some of your top prospects. Consider upgrading your LinkedIn account and join relevant groups so that you will be able to send in-mail or have access to their contact information. However, avoid the hard sell and instead consider passing along an interesting article or ask them a question. This will open the lines of communication and you can further correspond about open opportunities at your organization. Continue reading →

3 Tools to Stay in Sync with Remote Employees

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Steve

Working at home and having remote employees has been quite a buzz this week with the announcement from Yahoo’s HR leader Jackie Reses that all of their remote employees will have to report to Yahoo offices by June 1st and working remotely will no longer be permitted. The official letter has been published and explains their feeling that “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together… Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.”

This of course has been a controversial subject around the HR space with numerous commentators including Richard Branson who explains, “To successfully work with other people, you have to trust each other. A big part of this is trusting people to get their work done wherever they are, without supervision.” Building a collaborative culture can be done, even with remote employees, as long as you are willing to put in the work to establish the best practices and finding the tools that work for your team.

Here are some three tools to use to encourage collaboration with your remote employees:

Skype is one of the most universal tools that can be used to engage remote employees, and is also helpful for teams working in the same space. There are numerous features including: 1-on-1 chatting, group chatting, video and phone calling, file sharing as well as screen sharing. Continue reading →

Improving your Candidate Experience by Building Trust

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Steve

I recently read an article on LinkedIn by Don Peppers about building trust with your customers by recognizing them and providing great service. Mr. Peppers recounted an experience he had at a hotel that he had booked eight weeks’ worth of advanced reservations. When he first arrived at the hotel, the hotel manager asked him if they could take his picture and explained that they wanted to be able to put the picture up on their employee bulletin board on days that he was going to check in, so that the employees on duty could recognize him when he arrived. After agreeing to the picture, on every subsequent visit- the moment he came through the door, the bellman smiled and greeted him by name, additionally the desk clerk, cashier and even the waitress at breakfast all knew him by name. Although the hotel was not an expensive one, the experience was on of the best he has encountered.

Peppers explains that one of the five requirements for being trustable as a business is to simply “demonstrate humanity.” In order to build trust with your customers, you need to build familiarity. As I read the article, I couldn’t help but think that there are many similarities to creating an excellent candidate experience.

Continue reading →

Four Tips for Out of the Box Hiring

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Steve

Great talent is difficult to find and there is always a scarcity. Companies of all sizes are competing against each other trying to hire the best engineers, sales and support teams- making it a very challenging environment. Of course, if you are not coming out ahead in your search for new talent, there is probably a reason… so take some time to look over your recruiting processes. If everything checks out and are having a difficult time finding your ideal candidates, you might need to step a bit out of your comfort zone and try a different approach.

Instead of competing in the talent war, find a way to work around it by considering these tips:

Hire Contractors: Hiring a person on a contract can be an expensive undertaking, but it is a great way to get strong talent into your company quickly. If everything goes well during the initial contact, consider offering them a position as fulltime employee. You will have first hand knowledge of the employee’s ability and know if they are a fit within your team. Alternatively, contractors also are a good way to avoid making a bad hire. Continue reading →

3 Tips to Recruit More Female Engineers

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Steve

Are you hoping to recruit more female engineers for your company? Etsy, a vintage/handmade e-commerce site, based in Brooklyn recently shared their recruiting secrets on how they were able to increase their female engineers by 500% in 1 Year. They offer great insight: it is difficult and costly to attract female engineers, lowering standards to hire is harmful, and technical interviews don’t always work. Instead, they made it a point to recruit top talent regardless of gender and by showing the benefits of working at their organization. Additionally, they also partnered with Hacker School to provide scholarships to women interested in advancing their technical backgrounds and found it to be a great recruiting opportunity. Following the school, they hired 8 new engineers- 5 of them women and have grown their 110 person engineering team to include 20 women.

The future is bright for female engineers, and a resounding 41% of Harvard’s Computer Science majors in the class of 2013 are women. Partnering with Hacker School or another organization might not be possible for your company, instead follow these tips: Continue reading →

Five Questions to Ask on a First Interview

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Steve

Love is in the air and Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching. If you are looking for love, you might find similarities with screening candidates. In order to be successful, you have to ask the right questions to be sure that person is someone you would want to spend additional time with or advance to the next round of the hiring process. Much like the first date, a first interview is the opportunity for your organization to get to know candidates and decide who you are interested in learning more about. These interviews should break the ice and give you a strong background of the candidate.

The questions that you ask on a first interview will set the tone for the rest of the hiring process. These questions are important and need to be carefully considered, as the quality of the questions will impact the quality of your next hire. The opportunity to get to know candidates and see if they will fit in with your organization is a fun one, you want to uncover the best parts of a candidate and also understand their weaknesses.

Here are five questions to ask during a first interview:

Tell me about yourself. This is a quintessential first interview question. It allows a candidate to bring their resume to life and showcase their communication skills. When a candidate is replying, pay special attention to their tone and ability to keep you interested. Continue reading →

10 HR Metrics You Should Be Tracking

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Steve

Metrics Matter: 10 Your HR Department Should Track

In today’s world, metrics matter. Companies constantly need to cut costs and departments need to communicate the value they provide in quantifiable numbers that are easy for others to interpret. In the Human Resources, there are numerous values that can be calculated- focus on the most important to your company and goals. Adopting these metrics can take some adjustment, but after time- they will not only help you do your job better, but they will also let others know the success of your department.

Deciding the metrics to measure can be difficult. Choose those that will provide impact for your organization, your department’s goals, and that will help save your organization money.

Here are ten metrics you should be calculating and tracking for your company: Continue reading →

How to Make Your Job Descriptions Memorable

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Steve

Are you having a hard time making your job descriptions memorable? Take note of the Super Bowl. Companies pay nearly $4 Million for seconds of airtime during one of the most viewed television events of the year; these pitches need to make a statement. Surely there are some flops- but there are also break out hits that can have an impact on a brand that lasts for months. Similarly, your job description has just seconds to wow a candidate and entice them to prepare a cover letter and apply for your position, be sure to make it memorable.

Throughout the top Super Bowl Commercials of 2013 there are some themes that resonate and can be carried over to make your job descriptions brilliant:

Play to your demographic. Dodge used radio legend Paul Harvey’s famous “So God Made A Farmer” speech to not only advertise their trucks, but also to support their campaign for the Future Farmers of America. The commercial tugged on the heart strings of farmers and non-farmers alike, and is targeted toward their demographic. When writing your job descriptions, be sure to take the position into account. The language that you use for a marketer is not going to resonate in the same way for an engineer. Continue reading →

Is that Interview Question Legal?

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Steve

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently released their Strategic Plan for 2012-2016 to establish priorities and integrate all components of the EEOC’s enforcement. Their top priority is to eliminate barriers in recruiting and hiring. In their strategic plan, they note that the EEOC will target class-based recruitment and hiring practices that discriminate against racial, ethnic and religious groups, older workers, women and people with disabilities.

In order to comply with the EEOC, you must not ask questions about a candidate’s race, gender, religion, marital status, disabilities, country of origin, sexual preference or age. Most interviewers know this rule, however- these questions can sometime come up during interviews- especially when trying to break the ice and start the conversation. Remember, is always a good practice to refresh your memory and review the questions that you typically ask in an interview to make sure they follow the guidelines.

Here are some examples of illegal questions, as well as questions that are their legal counterparts: Continue reading →

How to Encourage Employee Development

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Steve

Professional growth is something that all great employees strive for in their daily routine, but it isn’t always the easiest thing to foster. There are always business deadlines and important meetings, along with a shrinking bottom line that makes some professional programs out of reach for even the largest organizations. Creating an employee development program that works is a fluid process that will require adjustments and changes, but retaining top employees and helping them progress in their career with your organization will make it worth the effort.

A strong employee development program starts on the employees first day of work. Make sure to have a great on-boarding process, so that your employees start off on the right foot and are able to hit the ground running. Provide new employees with a mentor so they are able to learn about your organization and the nuances involved in your industry. To help your employees grow within your team without breaking the bank, here are some tips on employee development:

Set SMART goals. Meet with your employees on a monthly or quarterly basis and set individualized goals. Make sure that their goals follow the SMART protocol and are: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. This will make sure that employees and managers are understanding of the goals and that there is a plan in place to help make sure they are accomplished.

Make their work engaging. Provide employees with meaningful and autonomous opportunities that make a difference within your organization. This will encourage employees to take ownership of their projects and take the steps necessary to learn more information to complete their projects. Continue reading →