For every person posting about their new job, three people post that their entire team got canned over Zoom or worse, had their email shut off unceremoniously. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with all of the back and forth, save for the viral moments (I’m looking at you, crying CEO guy), but overall, it feels like the Wild West out there.

Anything goes. 

Unfortunately, for those in the recruiting world, moments like this often hit them the hardest. Sometimes, you’re tasked with watching the fantastic candidates you worked so hard to hire lose the jobs they so desperately wanted.

In others, you’re at the receiving end of the bad news of layoffs. Given the disproportionate hit that recruiters take during market fluctuations, what can you do when the table turns on you? 

1. Don’t Panic.

I’m kidding. That’s terrible advice. You can – and should – absolutely panic. People don’t work for free. There are bills to pay and mouths to feed (including your own). Give yourself a chance to freak out a little bit. Let it out. Feel your feelings for as long as you need to; just don’t let the panic consume you. Tell the world what happened and embrace the care others show you. Revel in the nice things people say about you. Layoffs suck. It’s a shot to the pride even when it’s outside your control, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise (especially some suit getting high and mighty on his socials – what’s up with those guys?).

2. Assess the Situation.

Most of the time, recently laid-off recruiters rush to get back out there. They pop that little green “Open to Work” banner up on their profile before the severance check even clears. I get it, again, people don’t work for free. But before you put yourself back on the market, take a beat and think about what happened in your last role. What was behind the layoffs? Was it your industry? Your organization? Every executive’s favorite excuse about “over-hiring?” Before you jump into a new role, figure out what went wrong with your last one first. 

3. Size Yourself Up.

You, as a recruiter, know way more than the average job seeker. Review your career history and materials with a fresh perspective. Analyze what’s helped you get jobs and what’s hurt. Look at yourself from the outside in. If you were receiving your application, what would you think? Any glaring issues to address? This is your opportunity to start fresh. Maybe now is the time to bring in some outside support. Not everyone is a resume writer, nor should they claim to be. 

4. Tap Your Network.

One of the great things about recruiting is the community that surrounds it. Have you met #RecruiterTwitter? If and when you find yourself laid off, reach out to your peers. Everyone goes through this at some point in their career, and almost everyone has a story to tell, a shoulder to cry on, or a piece of advice to offer. Use this to your advantage. Don’t be a hero! Just because you know how recruiting works doesn’t mean you can’t learn something new or benefit from the power of a referral.  

5. Do Your Homework.

Often, when we get into the groove of a given job, we start to block out the rest of the world. We hyper-fixate on the task at hand and stop seeing what’s happening around us. This is especially true of some organizations over others. If this experience sounds familiar, or you’ve spent a lot of time in the same role, now is the time to step outside your routine and get caught up. Talent acquisition, especially TA tech, moves quickly and the platform you used at your last job might be out of vogue at your next. 

Look, at the end of the day, getting laid off feels awful. It’s a gut punch to your ego, makes you question your skills and abilities, and worst of all threatens your livelihood.

I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone, but reality tells us that most recruiters will get laid off at least once during their careers. Sometimes you will know it’s coming; other times, you won’t.

When it happens, let yourself freak out some before you refocus. If there’s anyone who can land a better job, it’s you. Make yourself proud. 

The post When Layoffs Hit Recruiting – What to Do… And What Not To appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

What are the Benefits of Background Checks?

There’s no denying that conducting a series of background checks is expensive, but there are numerous benefits of taking this route. 

Here are 5 benefits you’ll experience with these checks.

1. Make Fully Informed Hiring Decisions 

A candidate may look good on paper, but they could be hiding something that may affect your hiring decision. Even if they aren’t lying, it’s better to be safe than sorry. After all, a bad hire could completely disrupt your company culture or cause serious legal and/or financial issues.

2. Reduce Criminal Risks in the Workplace

Just because a candidate made a mistake, it doesn’t mean they won’t be a good employee. However, it would be very unwise to hire someone with a criminal record if they’re working with children or seniors or in key managerial roles, as that could spell disaster for your company.

3. Verify Candidate Claims and Information

It’s not uncommon for professionals to lie about their certifications, education or identity, and some even get away with it their whole lives. However, if you work in an industry with a lot of risks, like finance, you’ll need to check for different financial certifications to stay compliant.

4. Mitigate Negligent Hiring Lawsuits

A negligent hiring claim is typically filed when an employer knew or should have known that a new hire could pose a severe risk. Negligent claims usually occur in nursing homes, hospitality, delivery companies, the HVAC industry, real estate and healthcare, so do your due diligence.

5. Understand Aspects of Their Personality

It’s not always wise to judge a person by their credit score if they aren’t managing your finances, especially after the pandemic where wage losses were prevalent. However, you can get a read on a person’s personality based on what they post on social media and other notable websites.

7 Types of Employment Background Checks

When it comes to recruitment, transparency works both ways. If you’re able to stay honest with your candidates, the following background checks are more likely to benefit your company.

1. Basic Identity Checks/Verification

Typically, a person will use a different identity to skirt background checks or limit their tax burden. Either way that isn’t the sort of person you want at your company, so you should always verify a person’s SSN and if it’s been reported missing or if it belongs to a deceased person.

While a person’s name, address and date of birth may not be as important, it can intensify fraud or active duty alerts on file. If you see any suspicious flags on file, be sure to report them.

2. Criminal Background Checks

Most employers already conduct criminal background checks, especially in high-risk industries, but it’s a good idea to perform these checks regardless. That’s because these background checks can see if any arrests, misdemeanors, felonies or warrants are attached to a candidate.

Your employees probably don’t want to work with someone who may be a sex offender or a violent criminal, so it’s essential to look into these matters before you offer someone a job.

3. Educational Background Checks

Rarely do employers perform educational, license or certification background checks, but they should. Candidates may lie for years that they have a degree, so they may have ample experience in their industry. 

It’s illegal to hire certain people to work in specific fields without the right qualifications, but even when it isn’t, it’s a bad idea to hire a liar, as they could be lying about other things, as well. 

4. Motor Vehicle Record Reports

If you need to hire someone to drive a company car or truck, you need to issue a motor vehicle record (MVR) report. If you’re subject to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s car regulatory requirements, then an MVR report background check is mandatory instead of optional.

An MVR check will check a candidate’s driving history, license status and class, endorsements, past license status, vehicular crimes, DUI convictions, traffic citations and much more.

5. Credit Score Background Checks

While a credit score background check can offer insight into debt issues, tax liens, poor credit and other money issues, it’s unwise to rate a person’s trustworthiness based on these checks. Five percent of bankruptcies are attributed to reckless spending, while 62% are due to medical debt. 

What’s more, 60% of people who file for bankruptcy earn less than $30,000 per year, so it’s more likely that a candidate is bad with money because they don’t have enough of it.

6. Fingerprint Background Checks

Fingerprint background checks are similar to criminal background checks, except they’re more accurate and virtually fraud-proof. A candidate may lie about their name, SSN or other info that could link them to a crime, but everyone is born with their own unique finger and toeprints.

The only downside to fingerprint background checks is how long they take to perform. If you need to hire quickly, understand that your results can take up to two to four weeks to arrive.

7. E-Verify Background Checks

E-Verify background checks verify the information on Form 1-9 documents, which immigrants need to prove their eligibility to work in the United States. When you participate in E-Verify, you need to post a “Notice of E-Verify Participation” poster in your business or on your website.

If the employee has been authorized, it means they’re allowed to work in America. If you received a Tentative Non-Confirmation (TNC) results, you won’t be able to hire them legally.

The post Types of Employment Background Checks for Talent Acquisition appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Here are a few tips that candidates can reflect on to decide what opportunities are most aligned with their background, expertise and intended direction. This will ensure that all parties are showing up to the right interviews, in an honest fashion and using each other’s time wisely. 

Options and Best Fit

First, candidates should explore their options and clarify their best fit career direction.

The clearer you define what is right for you, the easier it will be for you to share that with recruiters and networking connections. This way, you can efficiently identify fitting opportunities, show up to interviews confidently and seamlessly find a strong role and company fit.

• • What role titles strongly align with your natural affinities? Is there more research, networking or reflection you can do to gain confidence in which role is the best next step for you? In my experience, if you still have options here, you have not yet done enough learning or reflection, or both. 
  • What industries align with your background or areas of interest? What mission, purpose or problem do you want to contribute your time towards? (This helps you get ahead of and authentically answer the interview question “Why do you want to work here?”)
  • What do you need or want out of a company’s environment? What should it look and feel like? What should it NOT look and feel like? (i.e. culture, values, style, personality, remote work, hours/flexibility, etc.)

Use your self awareness to assess the proper initial response to an interview.

While all interviews can be treated as practice, might it better serve you to be honest with the recruiter or employer if the role they proposed isn’t aligned with what you’re looking for? For all you know, they may have other open relevant roles at that company or at another. You can simultaneously be polite, professional and authentic in your response to mention your intended career direction and see what other relevant opportunities they may be aware of for you.

Be specific, creative, concrete and comprehensive with your interview questions. 

Remember that interviews are a two-way assessment of fit. Take the time you need to prepare and craft the phrasing of the questions you want to ask an interviewer so that you can get a full, accurate picture of the role, team, company and environment and thus, easily, adequately assess your fit.

When learning about a role, consider a few key topics: 

• • • Understand where this person would typically spend their time, as well as the ultimate goals and performance expectations. Understand who this person would typically interact with. First and foremost, understand the style and nature of their day to day and reflect on whether that aligns with what you are great at and enjoy doing.

When learning about a company, consider and ask about:

• • • The core of what they do, how they do it and why they do it. What’s their place/positioning in the industry and does that intrigue you?
    • Also consider how their teams and departments are organized, how they approach growth/career development, how/when they handle promotions, how they handle performance reviews and more.

When you ask about hot topics like their culture, management style or diversity/inclusion, get creative with how you ask your questions so that you can get accurate answers.

• • • First, get clear with yourself about the most specific key factors that are critical to you to have or see in this employer
    • Then, phrase questions in a way where you can elicit stories or examples
    • For example, instead of saying, “what’s your company’s culture?” you can say something like, “Tell me about a time when…[someone on the team brought up a new idea and how did that go?” (i.e. to assess how they empower employees, whether they are meritocratic and/or whether they are open to improving processes). 
    • By asking for real stories or examples about things that matter to you, it will “show” rather than “tell” how they operate so you can accurately understand and assess their style, versus hearing fluffy, generic answers. (They ask you for stories, and you can do the same).
    • Know that a fluffy answer can also be treated as an answer itself, if it seems like they are sugarcoating or not being specific enough.

Saying Yes or Holding Out

What should you do if you’re not sure if you should say yes to an offer or hold out?

Every job seeker is different in terms of their personal needs and timeline. Consider these factors to help you make a decision on an offer:

How much personal financial runway do you have? If you’re in a dire situation, any job will help you feel that sense of security and you can always consider your broader career plan and growth once you begin working in that role. That being said, if you have some more time on your side, consider how closely this role is in line with your intended goals. 

• • • Trick: Give 1-10 ratings for a) your fit with the role b) your interest in the industry c) your alignment with the company culture (given the people you’ve met so far).
    • If you’re at least a 7 on each category, it’s a safe enough bet to take the role. If there are any ratings below 7, ask yourself if these are areas where you can either go back to learn more or if they are deal breakers.

Do you have any key concerns or hesitations given everything you’ve already learned so far? (Consider role, industry and environment). 

• • • If so, any potential pro to the below questions may be irrelevant. Do not ignore red flags and if you’re not sure how serious they are, get perspective from a peer, mentor or coach.
    • Decide if there are things you need or want to ask more about.
    • Understanding what you want or need upfront before you job search is a key mechanism to ensure that when you learn about a role or company, it’s easier to notice red flags and assess if it falls in or out of line with your needs.

How long have you already been searching for? 

• • • If it’s been a while, could this be an interim step to get you closer to a better future step? If it hasn’t been, do you think given your background and your intended direction, you could see some more traction?

Do you have the right guidance or support to make your job search as efficient and effective as possible? If you’ve only used your own devices and strategies so far, perhaps with some career coaching or mentor support, you may strengthen the odds of nailing more interviews for roles that you’re excited about. 

Declining an Offer

Saying no takes courage, but it can open the door to so many more yeses.

Depending on your reflections to the above questions, if you feel that the role or offer isn’t the right fit for you at that time, here are some tips to handle it:

• • Get support so that you’re not just saying yes for convenience, but rather, finding a way to get comfortable with the difficult yet necessary act of saying no to something that isn’t right for you. (Remember you’re doing the employer a favor here too by being honest).
  • Thank each interviewer for their time and reiterate what was interesting about the conversations you had (if anything)
  • Be authentic about how your reflections or realizations changed along the journey and which roles you feel would be a better fit for you to explore at this point, could that lead to an introduction with a different team at their organization?
  • Mention that you’d love to explore other opportunities that are a closer fit at their organization, would appreciate any other personal or professional introductions they would be willing to make to help you in your job search, or that you’d be grateful to simply stay in touch for the future.

The post How and When to Accept or Decline an Interview or an Offer appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Recruiting automation platform Fetcher raised a $27 million Series B round led by Tola Capital. The round brings the company’s total capital raised to $40 million. Fetcher said it will use the money to create qualified candidate pipelines for talent acquisition teams, along with outreach and diversity analytics, CRM functionality and global sourcing support

At least 80% of TA decision makers are focused on improving the quality and speed of hires, as well as confidence in their talent decisions, according to a survey commissioned by Talview and conducted by Forrester. Some 60% said better candidate insights and data are needed to improve TA decisions, experience and processes.

Recruiting platform Wedge announced a partnership with the assessment platform Plum. Together, Wedge and Plum will help companies improve hiring experiences and outcomes by taking the process beyond the traditional resume. Sean Paulseth, Wedge’s senior vice president, partnerships said the companies bring a “shared mindset” to organizations that want to close the gap between what candidates want and what employers deliver.

Eightfold AI and government IT provider Carahsoft Technology Corp. have been awarded a prototype contract for the Defense Department’s Innovation Unit to develop and deploy a talent intelligence platform that will identify currently undiscoverable expertise. Eightfold’s Talent Intelligence Platform will power a talent marketplace app called “GigEagle,” which matches DoD needs with reservists and National Guard members who are seeking short-term, project-based duties. The platform will help more easily and closely connect project managers with personnel who can best contribute to digital skill gaps on short-term projects.

WinTheView introduced new portfolio and video tools designed to give candidates a marketing advantage and interview confidence when competing for their next opportunities. WTV allows candidates to create videos and customized portfolios with a unique, easily shared website URL.

LiveHire and myBasePay formed a partnership, which they said will aim to improve the overall candidate experience and quality of hires by pairing LiveHire’s AI-powered direct sourcing technology with myBasePay’s employer of record services. LiveHire will deliver a direct sourcing platform to generate private, branded talent clouds that attract and engage permanent and contingent workers. MyBasePay will then manage the remainder of the employee lifecycle as the employer of record.

The post HCM Talent Technology Roundup May 20, 2022 appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

“We can confidently say this year’s report points to a significant labor force transformation happening in the mindset of American workers,” said Paul Cowan, FreshBooks’ chief marketing officer. FreshBooks published the findings in its Annual Self-Employment Report.

“A more entrepreneurial and independent population of workers will profoundly impact many things,” Cowan said, “from an increased need for digital tools and solutions to shifts in policy frameworks to how companies of all sizes attract and retain talent.”

Happy Days

The report found an unbridled sense of optimism among business owners. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 95% of self-employed Americans plan to continue working for themselves for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, two-thirds of entrepreneurs whose business is less than two years old said self-employment remains the best career choice when times are uncertain.

More than half (54%) of people under age 35 plan to be full-time self-employed within the next five years. Two in five potential entrepreneurs are already pursuing an active side hustle, and one-third of them are already brand building via social media. Seventy-two percent said they are happy being self-employed, compared to 68% of the traditionally employed.

The biggest obstacles to self-employment? Concerns about cash flow and inconsistent income (32%), worries about earning less income (28%), loyalty to employers (27%) and lack of a business plan (25%). Paradoxically, the more satisfied employees are with their traditional job, the more likely they are to contemplate self-employment. That, FreshBooks observed, will complicate corporate America’s response to the Great Resignation.

Gender Matters

Women face more obstacles to self-employment than do men, the report said. However, once they’re self-employed, women’s experiences support the notion that going out on their own is a positive experience. Almost 80% are happier with their careers, and 70% say they have much more career control vs. when they held traditional jobs.

The post Resigning to Job Hunt? Most Americans Want to Work for Themselves appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

All kinds of different research shows, on average, that Gen Z is more likely to go back to the office than Gen X and Baby Boomers, since building those relationships early on in your career is easiest done offline.

The one thing though everybody agrees on — getting the culture piece right in a remote or hybrid environment will be the biggest challenge.

So is this the time to start living our Employer Brand?

Company Culture

How do you keep your company culture alive in a remote or hybrid environment? How do you keep people engaged if they don’t show up to your building every day? How do you pass your corporate values to new hires?

Wait. Pass your values on to them?

Isn’t ‘not fitting the culture’ the number one reason for rejecting a perfectly suited candidate? And now you’re telling me we need to pass the culture on?

What is our employer brand worth if we cannot select based on our corporate values?

Hire on Value Fit

Every employer branding presentation I have seen in the past couple of decades, at every event I visited, started with “We did workshops in the organisation to learn the true values of our organisation.“

They usually end up with a pretty generic video that if you know the values you understand how they are in there.

In the ‘age of remote work’, this post-pandemic world — where we will be in the office a lot less — at least for most companies, shouldn’t we start living our Employer Brand? Our corporate values?

Shouldn’t we hire based on values fit — so our culture is embedded in the people not working at the office?

Why don’t we take Employer Branding to the next level and define the values like they really are? Not as a hollow term, but an answer to how do we deal with certain situations?

How do we expect a manager to react to a data breach or an employee mistake? Or how do we expect an employee to fix his or her mistake?

In assessments, we call these ‘situational judgment tests.’ You get a situation and you get three or four perfectly reasonable answers that show a totally different culture. 

To give you an example of culture-defining situations here’s one.

You get a call from your clients, the product is down. How do you react?

A) You gather your team right away and figure out what’s going on.

B) You look at what’s going on and try to fix it yourself.

C) You call your manager to decide if this is your issue or if the team needs to get involved

For all three answers, I have a client that will say that’s the perfect answer. It’s a very telling example of culture.

The new employer brand

The new employer brand is about the genuine values of the organisation. Measurable values that you can select on. Let’s stop rejecting people on cultural fit and start hiring or rejecting them on value fit.

Let’s get people in the door that share your corporate values and build a strong culture from there. In a remote or hybrid environment that’s the only way.

The post The Age of the Real Employer Brand appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Luckily, through my years of career coaching, I’m here to tell you how your job rejections can actually be a source of learning so you can strengthen your job search strategy and outcomes.

Think of job searching like a funnel. Depending on the point in the process where you’re seeing less optimal results, it can actually tell you a lot about how to improve.

Are you uncovering enough open opportunities?

Your first “job” in job searching is to uncover active, open roles. If you’re not finding out about any open roles, it is possible you’re relying too heavily on the online job boards.

Don’t sleep on the fact that 70-80% of jobs are landed through networking and that a large portion of open roles are not always posted online.

Be sure to find the right guidance, coaching or mentorship to understand how to network effectively and strategically to identify open roles.

Are you struggling to land first-round interviews? 

It is possible that either:

You are relying too heavily on the online job boards.

Networking can be a way to ‘get your foot in the door’ whereby an informational chat can lead to an internal referral and a first-round interview.

This allows you to be recognized as a candidate and not just an online application.

You may be applying to roles that are not the best fit for you.

If you’re applying online and your resume is being referred internally but you still don’t see any first-round bites, reflect on the level of role, the type of role, whether you need some upskilling, and how well your materials and personal branding aligns with your direction.

Are you landing interviews but not final rounds? 

Usually, these early screening rounds are a core assessment for your fit for the role. This could be a telltale sign that you’re applying to too great a variety of roles and that you’re not sure which is the best fit for you.

Or that you’re not clear enough in your explanation as to why they should be sure you would excel in that role. Consider pursuing career exploration to clarify your best fit role.

Are you landing final round interviews but not landing offers? 

Succeeding in Interview Projects & Presentations:

If you’re being given case studies, projects, challenges, presentations, etc. and you aren’t moving past these, consider whether the role you’re applying for is something you’re naturally aligned with and feel strong at doing.

• Do you have a strong understanding of what the role requires and entails?
• Can you present how you would handle this work in a way that proves that either you have handled similar challenges in prior roles or that your strengths, tendencies and inclinations make you a natural candidate who would excel at handling those specific types of challenges?
• Do you need to pursue a course or certification to strengthen and develop relevant skills? Or are you pursuing a path that isn’t the best fit for you?

Interview Practice:

Another consideration at this stage could be how you show up in interviews, i.e. answering questions in a way that is succinct and structured, choosing relevant stories to tell, having an energized tone and demeanor, having professional body language, building rapport with the interviewer, and more.

Interview practice is extremely underrated as a beneficial tool to help you succeed once you show up for that interview.

Find Culture Fit:

Remember that interviews are about assessing your skills and potential but also your culture fit. Try to proactively identify companies that align with your values and personality.

Try to make your interview as comfortable, natural, enjoyable, conversational, and fun as possible.

Prove your genuine interest in the role and company through your energy, but also let them get to know you as a person. Smile!

Do you believe you?:

At every stage, consider whether your story makes sense for why you want this role and why you genuinely believe you would excel and thrive in the role.

If you don’t understand the role’s expectations or genuinely believe that you would excel in it, why should anyone else?  Career exploration can clarify the right direction.

What feedback are you hearing or feeling?

You should always ask for feedback from interviewers but even if they don’t share it with you, your self-awareness and reflections are more than sufficient for you to know what you can do better next time.

After every interview, allow yourself to reflect on what you did well and what you can improve (i.e. how you target roles and companies, how you prepare, how you communicate, etc).

Know that things are sometimes outside of your control. 

If you’re genuinely applying to the right types of roles and companies, you have the skills to thrive in that role, the companies are a culture fit for you, and you are clearly and convincingly articulating why you are the best fit — Then just know that as long as you genuinely believe you are on the right path, you will find the right fit in a matter of time.

But if any of these pieces feel out of place, remember to reflect and act on whichever area of your approach can be improved in order to more efficiently land a fitting role.

The post How Can Job Rejections Strengthen Your Job Search? appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Outplacement services are standard fare for senior leaders when downsizing occurs. Partnering with specialized firms enables organizations to recognize corporate executives for their contributions, demonstrate a strong employment brand and ultimately, ease the transition for both the departing leader and the company.

However, companies often mistake this valuable benefit for a bargaining chip rather than a critical resource that helps both sides move forward.

This occurs when decision-makers view outplacement as a point of leverage, awarding it only after departing staff complete separation agreements or at the end of a rescission period.

Typically, a cautious outlook or excessive legal concern fuels this reaction. The problem with handling outplacement as a stick is that it hurts both the company and the employee.

For businesses, the result can be a poor separation that:

• Negatively impacts brand reputation in the market
• Reduces cooperation during the transition process
• Makes it more difficult for the organization to move forward

For individuals, this tactic can:

• Delay much-needed career support—sometimes for weeks or months
• Create unnecessary pressure to an already stressful situation
• Amplify an adversarial perspective

Extend the Carrot with Immediate Outplacement

When transition support begins immediately, it generally results in better outcomes for all involved. I recommend using transition services as an incentive and enabler—in other words, a “carrot” approach.

In the “carrot” scenario, the company grants access to outplacement support as soon it notifies senior leaders of an impending separation.

Outplacement services for Director, VP and C-Suite roles typically include personal discovery, career consulting and one-on-one coaching; tactical support such as resume development and LinkedIn training; collaboration on personalized job search strategies; as well as interview preparation and offer negotiation tips.

While it’s still necessary to complete the appropriate legal agreements and finalize a transition plan, leading with career resources shows good faith and smooths the way for these efforts.

Early access to outplacement is particularly important:

• With departing (or even retiring) C-suite executives
• When separation is a surprise for the individual
• If the notification is done early, leaving weeks or months of employment before a final separation date
• For staff expected to provide training, knowledge transfer or support to others prior to exit

In these instances, outplacement services can lessen the impact of departure, remove unproductive emotions from the transition and create an environment that fosters communication and cooperation.

Focus on Outcomes, Not Time-Based Services

Immediate support is just one important criterion when selecting outplacement services for key executives.

Other considerations for a successful separation include:

• Experienced consultants. Tenured leaders deserve equivalent expertise in their outplacement team, as well as resources who understand the unique challenges that executives face. There’s no substitute for the insights and rapport an experienced outplacement consultant can deliver.

• Outcome-based services. Time-based outplacement heightens the pressure for executives during an already stressful time, and usually expires long before senior leaders land their next opportunity. Outcome-based services provide the same support without time constraints.

• One-on-one support. Many firms rely on webinars and digital tools, when in reality, senior leaders find more benefit in peer-to-peer outplacement engagements. Opportunities for one-on-one coaching let each executive tailor career services to meet their specific goals.

Show Empathy, Dignity and Support

The right approach is especially critical in the current climate. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring, corporate executives have navigated numerous challenges, from pivoting business models and protecting worker safety, to managing through temporary closures and weighing issues of racial justice.

Many took sizable pay cuts to sustain their organizations.

While economic realities may still dictate eliminating some of these key positions, brand-savvy human resources teams (and even corporate boards of directors) should recognize the outsized efforts of key executives during the past few months.

A separation that’s conducted with empathy, dignity and adequate support is critical. Organizations that overlook crisis leadership risk appearing tone-deaf to current employees, potential new hires and even customers.

Every transition presents the opportunity to begin a new course. And while no organization enjoys making difficult choices about their workforce, when respect, compassion and appropriate resources accompany those decisions, it creates greater outcomes for all involved.

The post Outplacement Services for Departing Execs: Carrot or Stick? appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

According to CNBC, there were an estimated 35 million working mothers at the end of 2019. In 2020, 78.2% of families had at least one parent working. These statistics help to prove the point that parents are hard workers.

Some studies have even shown that parents are better workers. Yet, despite these statistics that point towards a growing workforce that is increasingly family-based, many employers still don’t seem to understand or believe parents can be good workers.

Some employers are even holding fast to stereotypes and stigmas. Some believe that parents are less productive at work because they’re distracted. Or, assume parents need more time off or have to leave unexpectedly for family emergencies.

Why do these biases still exist? Furthermore, how can employers move past them and create working environments for parents that help them to succeed instead of hindering their progress?

Why Parents are Productive

Letting go of the stigma that working parents are a hindrance is crucial for your business’s success. You could be missing out on some of the best possible employees for your company by not hiring people with children at home.

Multiple studies have showcased the value of working parents. Some of these studies show that parents are typically:

• More productive
• Great multi-taskers
• Empathetic
• Have better time management skills
• More likely to be in touch with the world and willing to research things

By supporting working parents, you’ll create a happier, less stressful work environment.

Your current employees won’t have to worry about what might happen to them if they decide to start a family. You’ll also retain better talent when your business builds a reputation for supporting all of your employees, no matter what their situations may be.

When you choose to let go of the stigma surrounding working parents, your business will benefit.

Letting Go of the Stigma

In most cases, the bias against parents is unintentional. You may not even realize that you’re letting your antiquated feelings steer your thought process. That’s why it’s so important to bring this stigma to light.

One study published in the Journal of Social Issues found that when people were told an employee was also a mother, they viewed her as less competent. Those in hiring positions had less interest in bringing her on or promoting her.

Another study from the American Sociological Review found that women can lose 7% of their earnings when they become mothers.

Some insist the discrepancies exist due to a decline in employee work ethic. They usually point towards a parent’s need to adjust their schedules when they become parents. They might need to cut back on their hours or ask for more flexibility when it comes to their job.

Although parents may do these things, it doesn’t invalidate their work ethic. Having children doesn’t lower anyone’s ability to do things the right way. It certainly doesn’t impact anyone’s competence.

Ultimately, it’s up to employers to fight back against these strange stigmas that suggest parenthood causes employees to somehow lose their skills. You can do that by supporting working parents, rather than buying into stereotypes.

How You Can Support Working Parents

One way to fight against these stereotypes is to offer appealing incentives to parents that can keep them on as loyal employees for years to come.

Oftentimes, the biggest incentive is offering support. Parents want equality along with every other employee, and that starts with supporting them and their needs. Talk to them. Have an open discussion about what they feel is important. It might include things like:

• Paid parental leave
• A family-friendly company culture
• A safe space for working parents

Those needs might look different for every parent, so creating a “parent policy” that includes flexibility. Oftentimes, this is a great place to start. Consider letting parents work remotely at least a few days a week. If they have the right equipment and home office essentials, they can be just as productive at home without having to leave their children.

It’s also important to understand the value of a working parent’s time. Everyone has a busy schedule, but parents have to deal with multiple schedules. Additionally, they can’t limit their children from doing things just because their working hours are rigid.

Make sure to hold meetings that have value, and don’t fall into the trap of putting a meeting together that could have been an email. Having brainstorming sessions, even via Zoom, is a great way to get everyone on the same page, be productive, and move forward with a new idea or project.

It allows everyone the opportunity to learn about their specific “jobs”, so they can then accomplish them independently.

Supporting parents at work is important for your business. Not only will it create more loyal employees, but you’ll build a positive and productive culture that will help to eliminate stigmas for years to come.

The post Working Parents Make Great Employees appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

But even though the introduction of vaccines is causing a renewed sense of hope and optimism, we’re not out of the woods yet – and parents will probably be the first to tell you that. Though the last year and then some have been trying for most folks, parents faced the unenviable task of balancing priorities without much in terms of support.

Organizations that previously provided perks like childcare and on-site fitness facilities shuttered. Daycares and schools bounced from remote to in-person and back again. Colleges required the careful orchestration of on-campus living, off-campus learning, and continual testing to try and keep students safe.

Caught somewhere in the middle of this were the parents, just trying to keep going.    

For some, the work-life integration act turned flaming tightrope walk proved to be too much. And in turn, a considerable number of parents, particularly women, left the workforce entirely.

However, this devastating loss shined a light on deep-seated issues affecting working parents – and what some companies have done to support these employees.

Parent-Friendly Programming

When COVID started spreading and lockdowns took effect worldwide, the CEO of MURAL, a digital workspace for visual collaboration, reached out to Head of Culture and Collaboration Laïla von Alvensleben and asked what the company could do for employees juggling work and homeschooling their children.

Recognizing the need to keep kids both entertained and educated, MURAL moved quickly to develop a homeschool program as an extracurricular activity. The program delivered weekly resources focused on specific themes to keep children engaged and offer parents some of the structure missing from their routines.

Partnering with bilingual content creators, MURAL stood up the program in one week, with options for children of different ages. von Alvensleben commented,

“The parents were really grateful. That’s the first word that comes to mind. And they were excited too. I think it helped parents feel a little less overwhelmed while they were juggling so many other things and so many changes.”

Communication Expectations

Doist, the company behind the productivity app, Todoist, and communication app, Twist, has been remote for over a decade, shared Brenna Loury, Head of Marketing. As such, she explained, Doist has perfected a set of tools and workflows that support remote work and built a culture based around asynchronous communication.

Loury said, “We’ve been operating under this type of methodology forever. That gives our team members, no matter their circumstances, the flexibility to never feel like they have to respond immediately. We’ve always had a company policy that you should respond within 24 hours, but even that’s pretty loose.”

She continued, “Building a team culture around asynchronous communication is really the best practice that companies should aim for. That way, you’re giving parents the opportunity to act like parents, allowing them to work odd hours and when they have a moment free. Then they’re not feeling this immense pressure to respond in real-time.”

Autonomy for All

Over the last year, we’ve heard endless talk about resilience, agility, flexibility, adaptability, and the like. But it isn’t easy to find the time to build these out when you’re one person just trying to get through the day. That’s why much of this conversation goes back to what employers can do for their workforce.

In the case of MURAL and Doist, both organizations empower parents through autonomy.

Beyond the homeschool offering, MURAL also created content about identifying the symptoms of burnout and introduced an Employee Assistance Program to connect employees with the support they need when they need it. von Alvensleben said, “We wanted to help managers understand how to identify burnout in a preventative way. We also opened this up to other employees just to help them understand their own wellbeing, both mental and physical.”

As a remote-first company, Doist spent much of the last year reinforcing its commitment to autonomy.

Loury noted, “I think it’s a huge mentality shift for a lot of people. But I think the sooner companies adopt this mentality, the faster the parents on their team will be able to work more efficiently. This isn’t just for parents but for the wellbeing and productivity of everybody on the team.”

She offered, “Instead of these crazy tactics of monitoring if people are at their desk or having people check-in at certain hours of the day, you should optimize their workflows to see, did this person commit to what they said they were going to commit to? Are they reaching their deadlines?

It’s pretty clear when that’s not happening and when that becomes a pattern of behavior. We’re talking about a lot of big mentality and cultural shifts. I recognize that that doesn’t necessarily happen overnight, but companies can take baby steps in this direction and ultimately convert their culture to a culture of trust.”

The post Work From Home and the Impact on Parenting appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

If your postings are anything like mine, you’re seeing a much larger applicant pool for the majority of your positions. These applicants range from those who do not meet the minimum qualifications of the position to executives applying for entry-level positions.

Those of us who have been in recruiting for twelve or more years have seen this before. In late 2007, the job market began to decline, and by the middle of 2008, we had entered a full recession. None of us saw it coming then. Just as no one saw the pandemic coming a year ago.

I’ve been in recruiting for almost fifteen years now, but when the recession began, I was the newest recruiter in my department, which meant that I was the first to be laid off. From December of 2007 to early 2011, I was laid off twice and eventually had to take contract roles to see my way through the recession.

It’s an interesting experience to be a recruiter and see this type of job market from the candidate side, and that experience gives me a different perspective on the job market today.

Candidate Experience

In talent acquisition, we talk a lot about the candidate experience, but as we approach the one-year mark of the pandemic, how has the candidate experience changed?

In the past year, we’ve moved more into phone and video interviews, and far fewer candidates make it to the in-person interview stage.

As recruiters, we need to do more to ensure that candidates still feel engaged in the hiring process rather than feeling like they are just names in the ATS. Each candidate’s needs are different, and each candidate has a different perspective on recruiters and the hiring process.

Some people see recruiters as helpful guides through the hiring process, some see us as a stepping stone to get to hiring managers, and others see us as roadblocks.

Of course, we all want to imagine that we are helpful guides for both the candidate and the hiring manager, so how do we ensure we’re in this group?

Empathy

We need to have empathy for the candidate and what they’re currently experiencing. The majority of the candidates who I’ve spoken to lately have lost their jobs or have been notified that they will soon lose their jobs due to the pandemic.

For those who have been out of work for several months, many times you can hear the anxiety and the desperation in their responses. Candidates might be reaching out for updates more often, asking for more introductions, and checking on their applications more.

Let them. Be responsive with candidates, take a little extra time to talk to them and to hear their stories, and let them vent a little.

They are going through a very difficult time, and many of them feel that they have no one to talk to about it. Don’t assume that because a candidate follows up a lot or they seem a little desperate that they are a bad candidate.

As recruiters, we have a lot more candidates to choose from than we did a year ago, but that’s because the candidates have fewer jobs to choose from now. Instead of assuming that someone is a bad candidate because they have been searching for a job for six months, give them the benefit of the doubt and be patient with them.

What is Overqualified?

Don’t consider any applicant to be overqualified for a position. People have different reasons for taking a step back in their career, and most times you won’t see those reasons in their application, resume, or even cover letter.

If someone with a director title applies for an administrative assistant role, but you still feel that they could do well in the position, give them the courtesy of a response. They may hear the salary or the details of the position and decide that it will not be a good fit, but they may be genuinely interested in taking a lower position than their previous role.

There are many reasons for this type of move – they may need more time to care for a family member, they may have transitioned to homeschooling their children, or they may simply be looking for more work-life balance.

Whatever the case may be, these candidates deserve equal consideration.

Keep an Open Mind

Be open-minded. Consider candidates who have more diverse experience rather than looking for “cookie-cutter” candidates. Many people are taking the changes in the job market as an opportunity to switch directions or focus on the parts of their jobs that they love but may not have gotten to do as much in their current or previous positions.

Often recruiters and hiring managers have such specific ideas of the candidate we’re looking for that we can overlook a great candidate who has a slightly different background. Keep in mind that diversity of experience and diversity of thought can add a lot to a department, project, or workgroup.

If everyone comes from the same industry, has the same work experience, and went to the same schools, then everyone will have the same ideas. Adding diversity of thought and backgrounds can bring positive change to a team.

There are many ways that we can make this job market more tenable to job seekers, but the most basic need most candidates have at the moment is for recruiters to be a resource.

The post Candidate Experience: A Recruiter’s Perspective appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

This two-part series looks at the impact of the pandemic on women’s careers and workplace equity. Part one spotlights recent findings and recommendations. Part two offers actionable insights and practical advice for leaders. 

The first part of this series leveraged research from the Rutgers Center for Women in Business (CWIB) to envision the impact of COVID-19 on women. While hardly a positive experience for anyone trying to navigate pandemic conditions, CWIB found a potential silver lining for women’s careers, particularly those who are mid-career: the benefit of increased support from partners and employers. 

With regard to current gender gaps, Adam Feigenbaum, a member of the CWIB advisory board, offered, “CWIB believes that while most CEOs – which data shows are predominantly white and male – agree there is a problem; they just don’t think it’s their problem.

To do so would require a CEO to outwardly acknowledge inequities in their business, opening oneself to at the very least reputational risk, and perhaps fear of financial or even legal risk at a corporate level. As a result, business leaders lean on HR to put in policies and processes to protect their business above all else. These are not conditions for progress – they reinforce the status quo as the standard for success is just keeping out of trouble.”

The Business Imperative

Knowing that women prosper when they have the right resources, consider what it takes to deliver more equitable experiences – and why this hasn’t been the case all along. It’s well-documented that women represent a large, highly skilled, and extraordinarily capable talent pool often underutilized.

The recent exodus of women leaving the workforce, at a rate four times more than men, amplifies that point. However, historically, diversity and inclusion initiatives have been HR’s responsibility, but what’s happening now, Feigenbaum says, is less of an HR issue and more of a CEO opportunity. 

He continued, “More progressive companies will think about this surplus of talent that’s available, specifically from women, that is beginning to go unutilized because they’re leaving the workforce. And it is incumbent upon CEOs, not just HR representatives, but CEOs to identify this as a potential competitive advantage, an inefficiency in the market that they could then leverage and focus on.

As more CEOs understand this, they will proactively transform their culture and policies, with the help of HR, to attract and engage women as a priority will earn themselves the talent advantage organizations needs to thrive.” 

The Redefinition of Resources

The path forward involves several factors, starting with a solid business case, buy-in from senior leaders, and alignment back to HR. If policies and processes designed to protect the organization are what led to this juncture, then develop policies and processes that safeguard workers, too.  

Lisa Kaplowitz, the center’s executive director, said, “We see two sides of this issue. One is to remove barriers, structural barriers, systemic barriers, and the other is to empower women with the confidence and skills necessary to succeed as business leaders.” 

Specific to HR, the barriers Kaplowitz referred to exist throughout the talent lifecycle, from job descriptions that use words that prevent women from applying to certain jobs to inflexible practices for families and caregivers that cause women to stop working. 

Recognizing such challenges, Kaplowitz explained that CWIB is piloting new programs, including one that offers women mid-career mentoring. So far, she revealed, the response to sessions such as “Positioning Yourself for Promotions and Performance Reviews Virtually” has been incredibly positive, with measurable results.

During that particular event, participants were polled about their intent to ask for a raise or a promotion in the next six months. At the outset, 38 percent were thinking about it. By the end, 67 percent said they would. While just one example, Kaplowitz makes the point that, “When you see something that powerful in 55 minutes, it speaks to the impact that we’re making quickly.” 

The Future of Work (is Female)

Kristina Durante, the center’s director of research, commented, “One thing I stress when I talk about our research is that we need to be responsible for the conversation. Now that we’ve had this experience, now that we see what’s going on, let’s turn it into a positive and keep talking about it. Especially if that helps get the CEO or leadership team members to buy-in.” 

The pandemic’s strain is real for everyone. But as the labor data indicates, this is especially true for women. Without action, the workforce will lose a substantial talent pool, set to influence productivity and profitability for the foreseeable future. That goes beyond anything that exists today. It requires a rethinking of what work looks like and how it operates. 

Whether a small business or enterprise organization, HR and senior leaders need to advocate for their women workers by providing support for work-life overlap, offering increased flex time or leave options, promoting engagement and wellbeing, and ultimately, encouraging advancement.

Feigenbaum reiterated that the evidence is already out there, “If we’re thinking about it, this is in the best of interest of the workers as well as the business. It’s in everyone’s best interest to create and drive cultures that promote workforce diversity. That’s how organizations win time and time again.” 

The post The Pandemic’s Equity Impact, Part 2: The CEO Opportunity appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

This two-part series looks at the impact of the pandemic on women’s careers and workplace equity. Part one spotlights recent findings and recommendations, part two offers actionable insights and practical advice for leaders. 

The topic of gender equity in the workforce is not new. The disparity in representation and pay between men and women is not new. Yes, there have been some gains, but despite decades of awareness, meaningful progress remained slow. Most agree that these gaps need to be addressed, and initiatives started to gain serious momentum in recent years.

When COVID-19 hit, seemingly overnight, all issues beyond safety and survival went out the proverbial window. 

At first, no one knew where to focus their concerns. Would there be a recession? What would this mean for early-career workers? What about those approaching retirement?

Quickly, it became clear that while the crisis wasn’t going to discriminate, it might hit mid-career employees harder than most: Those working from home while managing households and caring for children, while schools, daycare facilities, and similar programs closed.

Recognizing this possibility, the Rutgers Business School Center for Women in Business (CWIB) launched a survey of dual-income households interested in understanding how gender roles in the home might impact gender equity in the workforce. 

Increased Contributions at Home

In May 2020, CWIB launched an online representative survey of roughly 1,500 adults, with 1,073 respondents living in dual-career households with opposite-gender partners. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results found that both men and women were taking on more unpaid labor and childcare because of COVID-19.

The percent of men who provided five or more hours of daily care for children nearly doubled, from 15 percent pre-pandemic to 29 percent, while for women, their share jumped from 23 percent to 37 percent. Time spent on household chores soared, too, with men who spent at least five hours a day rising from 11 percent to 20 percent during the crisis, compared to an increase from 15 percent to 28 percent for women. 

Over time, the hope is that men dedicating more time to childcare and chores will help destigmatize what’s been seen as “women’s work” and promote increased gender equity at home and in the workplace. From the study, CWIB believes there’s reason to suggest that this correlation already exists.

Kristina Durante, the center’s director of research, explained, “We found that the more men were contributing to unpaid household labor, when there are more hands-on-deck, this was positively related to women’s perceptions of their job productivity and their job satisfaction.” 

The authors’ of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace echoed this sentiment, revealing that when men do their fair share at home, it accelerates gender equity at work in three ways: women become more successful, children gain an egalitarian perspective and men participating in unpaid labor help normalize flexible work arrangements.  

Increased Support from Work

At the same time, while men may be doing more at home, there’s plenty of reason to be concerned. As several months into the pandemic, McKinsey discovered that 1 in 4 women are thinking about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce entirely, unable to balance work and life when there are no longer boundaries between the two.

Help outside the office won’t be enough to stem the tide, and the brunt of this burden can’t fall to individual workers. 

As Lisa Kaplowitz, executive director of the center, reinforced, “Everybody’s going through this. You hear kids in the background on the Zoom. You see kids in the background. That’s from the CEO down to the admin. We have to be mindful of that.” 

A larger, more systemic change needs to take place – and soon. According to NPR, “the pandemic’s female exodus has decidedly turned back the clock by at least a generation, with the share of women in the workforce down to levels not seen since in 1988.”

Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives need to be revived and refocused for both internal workforce development and external recruiting. Flexibility, agility, and adaptability are recurring themes that require immediate consideration on the part of employers of all sizes.

What’s Next?

CWIB sees ample opportunity through HR and senior leadership, creating new policies and systems that support women in the long run and not just at this moment.

Adam Feigenbaum, a member of the CWIB advisory board, shared, “To accomplish this, organizations have to be very purposeful about how they attract women to their business and how they mentor women for future roles. It’s going to be about women-first policies, and women are going to be able to see that there’s not only a place for them to start but a place for them to grow.” 

Durante concluded, “We’re hoping that our memories for this time period where we were all at home can be sustained so that the social norm around what comprises the traditional worker changes in a positive way, creating less stigmatization between balancing work and home life.

Because we were all part of it, we were all in the same boat. We’re hoping that that memory of what it takes to run a household will stick around. We may all have to actively make sure that it doesn’t fade.” 

The post The Pandemic’s Equity Impact, Part 1: Increased Lifeload, Increased Support appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Time For A New Model For Recruitment And Talent Management 

Virtual recruitment strategies and online recruiting events are the new currency in recruitment today. But the changes in the way we demand, pursue, and acquire tomorrow’s talent must go deeper into the planning process if an organization is to stay resilient and efficient.

The truth is that clinging onto our current methodologies and model of recruitment and talent management is foolhardy. It is true that they have been developed over many years of refinement and know-how.

But it is equally true that our work environment has changed dramatically during the past six months making many of these models irrelevant today. The organizations that will succeed in the future are those that most quickly embrace new ways of working. 

New Chapter in Human Development

It is also tempting to say that these changes are just the result of COVID 19. But many authorities saw them coming before this. The World Economic Forum identified the emergence of the “4th Industrial Revolution”, calling it a new chapter in human development. They explained that the turning of history’s pages was set to accelerate. Driven by the stream of recent technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and cloud computing.

They likened these changes to the dramatic shifts’ societies experienced in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Industrial Revolutions. Today’s advances are merging the physical, digital, and biological worlds to create enormous opportunities alongside daunting challenges. Standing still against this tide of change is not an option for ambitious business leaders.

It is against this backdrop, and the advent of the pandemic, that we developed the Talent Transformation Pyramid model. It was conceived to offer a view of talent in line with the thoughts and beliefs of the new world of work. As with any change, not everyone will be thrilled with their organization’s new direction and goals. This new model will help leaders and managers understand this resistance so they can move through inertia, gain momentum, and reach their goals.

The Pyramid Framework

This pyramid framework is designed to enable organizations to execute change and build a workforce capable of matching tomorrow’s needs. It provides a complete model for improving individual and team performance by building on technical skills, creativity, flexibility, and emotional intelligence.

The model highlights twelve critical factors for enabling employees, teams, and the entire organization within an easy-to-understand framework for predicting performance.

It also addresses environmental factors that impact performance, and it neatly incorporates technical competencies, tools, information, policies, and culture. It clearly illustrates how factors support each other and help you understand the puzzles of competence, performance, and working in teams.

The Talent Technology Pyramid brings together the 12 most important factors to enable organizations to get a clear view of the challenges and opportunities available to acquire and develop the talent they need for tomorrow

Combining these concepts with the wisdom of researchers, thinkers, and practitioners across a broad range of disciplines from management theory and psychology provides an engagement model to simplify complexity. The framework, supported with resources, thoughtful questions, and easy-to-understand charts that leaders can use to plan their way into the future with confidence and clarity.

Technology Driven Future

Encapsulated in the Talent Transformation book, we begin with a look at our technology-driven future and invite readers to recognize the challenges of change, glimpse new possibilities, and start planning for what’s ahead.

As such, it supplies a solid bedrock for recruiting policies of the future. Not just in terms of execution. By encouraging the assessment of situational and environmental factors, the pyramid recognizes the changing nature of work and how organizations work as corporate social responsibility, and employee wellness programs become increasingly important. 

The pyramid model also asserts that objective assessments will play a larger role in recruitment, onboarding, learning, credentialing, and certification. As recruitment becomes a more remote process, then real measurable data about candidates will become more critical.

Multiple studies have already shown that valid and reliable tests are better predictors of organizational fit, job fit, and job performance than interviews. The range of assessments is likely to grow with the increased adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence. 

The book includes templates, assessment recommendations, and other guides to ensure that its concepts are genuinely actionable rather than just an interesting academic exercise. This alone will make it a useful supplement to the recruiter’s playbook.

The post Time For A New Model For Recruitment And Talent Management appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, or NDEAM for short. NDEAM has been celebrated since 1945 and spotlights the challenges that people with disabilities face in securing employment, the benefits to companies who hire people with disabilities, and practical advice for organizations working to make their workplace more inclusive. 

In the United States, one in four adults has a disability, which means that disability employment concerns should be a concern for virtually every employer. Additionally, 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. 

The ADA provides protection specifically for workers with disabilities, as well as other protections. At the essence of the ADA, employers covered by the law (referred to as “covered entities”) must not discriminate against people with disabilities in the workplace, and also must provide reasonable accommodations for individuals coping with a disability. 

Basically, the spirit of the ADA is that if a person can do the essential functions of a job, the fact that they have a disability should not be a factor in hiring decisions and that people with disabilities should have the same employment opportunities as people without disabilities. 

There are many benefits for organizations that hire people with disabilities. 

Increase Diversity for Organizational Success

First, many employers report that retention for workers with disabilities is higher than that of non-disabled workers in many roles, leading to gains in business continuity, cost savings, and many other benefits. Second, accommodating a worker with a disability isn’t always expensive or challenging: a recent survey found that 58% of accommodations didn’t cost anything at all, and for the accommodations that did have an associated cost, the cost was only $500. 

Third, there’s plenty of evidence that a more diverse workforce contributes to organizational success by providing multiple perspectives, and hiring people with disabilities is one way to increase diversity. Lastly, there are certain tax credits available to employers that hire individuals with disabilities and make accommodations, including the Work Opportunity Tax Credit and the Disabled Access Credit. 

Despite these advantages for companies and the legal protections offered, people with disabilities are still underrepresented in the workplace and face many barriers to employment. 

So how can employers remove some of the barriers that people with disabilities face when seeking employment? Consider these tips for making your workplace more inclusive for people with disabilities. 

1. Make the workplace accessible. 

If your workplace isn’t accessible for people with physical disabilities, it’s obviously going to make it challenging to recruit and retain people with disabilities. Older buildings may not conform to today’s building codes and may have obstacles such as narrower doorways. 

Many things might be easier to retrofit (such as adding Braille signs around the office), but in other cases, it might make sense to move to offices that meet ADA standards. Additionally, accessibility extends beyond the building or facility to include things like the company website. 

Can people with disabilities access the career website to even apply for a job? In a recent study reported by SHRM, 89 of the Fortune 100 websites didn’t conform to at least one of the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. 

Companies have a lot of work to do to close the accessibility gap. However, accessibility is not a “nice-to-have,” but a necessity: it’s required by law.

2. Provide a mentor upon hire. 

For workers with disabilities, a business mentoring program can be a lifeline. A mentor can help a new employee navigate the organizational politics and norms, provide orientation and other job training, and emotional support. 

Feeling as though they “fit in” is an important concern for any employee, but it can be especially challenging for people with disabilities, as they can face stigma in the workplace. By pairing them with a mentor when they are first hired, it can help the new employee socialize into the organization. 

3. Seek out additional recruiting sources. 

Take a good look at how your company is sourcing for the majority of positions, and look for opportunities to cast a wider net. 

In nearly every job market, there are community organizations that support people with disabilities and connect with them to find qualified job candidates. In some cases, these organizations can provide other support to your organization, such as training on laws related to employing people with disabilities. 

4. Promote a supportive culture. 

No matter their background, employees aren’t going to stay at an employer long-term that isn’t respectful and doesn’t value them as people. Make sure all employees are valued, respected, and treated as equals. 

There are many benefits to organizations that focus on hiring people with disabilities. With a little bit of effort, companies can make their workplace more inclusive, helping ensure that workers with disabilities can be successful. 

The post How to Make Your Workplace More Inclusive For Workers with Disabilities appeared first on RecruitingDaily.