Of course the process of finding the right contractors and collaborating with them can be difficult to navigate, so let’s discuss the core principles involved, and the obstacles to be aware of as well.

Why Hiring Independent Contractors Makes Sense for Your Workforce Needs

Hiring independent contractors (ICs) is a great way to access skilled workers quickly and cost-effectively. ICs provide the flexibility of short-term or project-based work, allowing you to meet your workforce needs with greater agility than traditional employees.

Moreover, with an IC you may not have to worry about hiring costs such as training or benefits, as you can just pay for what’s needed on demand. Plus, bringing in specialized skills from outside sources can open up new opportunities within your organization that would otherwise be unattainable.

In today’s competitive landscape, having highly experienced professionals on tap makes all the difference when it comes to delivering results fast and efficiently.

What Types of Jobs Can Be Handled By Independent Contractors?

Independent contractors can provide a variety of services, ranging from IT programming and web development to writing, graphic design, marketing strategy consulting, and more.

Not only are ICs an ideal solution for short-term projects or dealing with deficits in your team’s skill set, but they can also be hired on a recurring basis for ongoing work that requires specialized expertise. From virtual assistants and copywriters to financial analysts and software engineers, the possibilities are endless when it comes to finding the perfect fit for your organization’s needs.

How to Find and Recruit Qualified Candidates for the Job

Finding qualified independent contractors can be a challenge, but there are a few strategies you can use to find the best candidates.

Start by asking your current team members if they know anyone who might be interested in working as an IC. Word of mouth referrals are often key when it comes to finding top talent.

You could also post on freelance job boards, or create targeted ads on social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Additionally, networking events and industry associations may be great places to meet potential candidates face-to-face.

Once you’ve identified some promising prospects, make sure to thoroughly vet them. Conducting interviews and reference checks is essential before bringing any new ICs onboard.

Best Practices for Onboarding a New Independent Contractor

Speaking of onboarding, it’s important to consider this carefully in order to forge successful relationships with independent contractors from the get-go.

Make sure that you have all the necessary paperwork in place, and provide your ICs with clear instructions on what’s expected of them. Communicate regularly and set expectations upfront, such as deadlines or any special skills they need to complete the job successfully.

Furthermore, you should establish trust by providing feedback throughout their contract period. This will help ensure that everyone remains on the same page while working together.

Finally, make sure you’re paying your ICs fairly and promptly so that they remain motivated to do great work for you. Given that the standard late fee for an overdue invoice is typically 1-1.5% monthly, you have a responsibility to take this into account and do your best to stick to your side of the bargain to keep them happy.

Crafting an Agile Working Agreement with Your ICs

When it comes to working with independent contractors, having a clear and mutually agreed-upon agreement is essential. Make sure that the document clearly outlines all expectations, as this will help ensure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities.

Also, consider setting up milestones or deadlines so you can track progress in real time. Be sure to include provisions for payment terms, as mentioned, and also cover dispute resolution procedures and termination clauses if needed, as well as data security measures if applicable.

Tips on Managing Performance & Output from Remote Workers

Managing performance and output from remote workers can be a headache, especially if they are not permanent team members. Thankfully there are strategies you can use to ensure successful outcomes.

First and foremost, ICs need an unambiguous understanding of what role they are to play in a given project. Without this, they could be unable to bring their full expertise to bear on the goals you are working towards.

As discussed, you also need to be liberal with feedback from start to finish so they always know how their work is progressing and are also on point when it comes to deadlines or deliverables.

Lastly, consider utilizing collaboration tools such as online project management systems, which will enable real-time communication between all stakeholders involved in the project. The less manual intervention that’s required to keep up the momentum, the better the eventual outcome.

The Benefits and Challenges of Building an All-IC Team

Building an all-independent contractor team can have its advantages, such as greater flexibility and cost savings compared to traditional employees. What’s more, you’ll be able to access top talent quickly without having to invest in long onboarding processes or extensive training sessions.

However, it’s also important that you consider the potential challenges, such as managing remote workers from different locations and a lack of team bonding due to the physical distance between members.

To ensure success when building an IC team, be proactive in providing them with the tools and feedback they need to thrive, and of course, listen to any issues or concerns that they raise rather than brushing them under the carpet.

Final Thoughts

Cajoling contractors into coming onboard for particular projects you want to complete without hiring full-time team members is a duty that recruiters are often faced with, and one which takes time and experience to master.

That said, if you know where to find the right talent, and you are comprehensive and conscientious about how you bring them into the fold, then the benefits will be obvious, and the potential pitfalls will get filled in.

The post The Ins and Outs of Working with Independent Contractors appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Many of these costs add up over time, so they often go unnoticed by employers.

The Variables That Impact Employee Cost

If you’re looking for a strict number regarding how much hiring an employee costs, you’re going to be disappointed. There are far too many factors that impact employee hiring costs, but you can use these variables to come up with an estimate.

These hiring variables include:

• Industry: Industry norms affect compensation, among other things. For instance, if it’s normal to offer paid health insurance in your industry, you’ll have to provide that to stay competitive.
• Location: Government-mandated minimum wage, state and local taxes, market supply, cost of living, and worker’s laws will greatly impact the cost of hiring workers.
• Role: A senior or high-level role will be more expensive to fill than a junior-level role, and it goes beyond salary. It takes longer to find a quality employee for a senior-level role.
• Turnover Rate: It costs 30% to 400% of an employee’s annual salary to replace them. If your turnover rate is high, you pay more to recruit employees overall.
• Market Conditions: If a skill is rare or we’re currently in a candidate’s market, you’ll need to improve your compensation package to attract the best local talent.
• Company Size: It’s cheaper for larger companies to hire new employees because a single employee in a larger company will perform more duties or oversee more people.
• Remote Work: An in-office employee is more expensive to hire because you need to factor in building-based overhead costs, such as rent, utilities, and office supplies.

While these variables are more difficult to account for, you can more easily determine these costs if you keep track of your hiring data. This data will eventually lower your hiring costs.

The Factors That Play Into Employee Cost

Now that you have an idea of what other variables could potentially impact employee costs, you can look at factors that always play a role. Here are the factors that play into employee costs.

Base Compensation

The most obvious cost of a new employee is their salary. Base compensation is a person’s base salary or hourly wage. It typically makes up the largest part of an employee’s cost, but it’s far from being the only cost. A worker that acquires a lot of overtime will cost significantly more.

Payroll Taxes

Business owners are responsible for paying different types of payroll taxes if they hire employees. These payroll taxes include FICA, FUTA, state, local, and unemployment taxes.

• Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA): FICA covers Social Security and Medicare taxes for employees. As of 2023, the FICA rate for employees is 6.2% of taxable wages for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, for a total of 7.65%.
• Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA): FUTA helps pay for benefits for unemployed workers. Employers pay 6.0% on the first $7,000 of taxable wages per employee if an employee is paid more than $1,500 in a year. Some employers qualify for 5.4%.
• State and Local Taxes: Employers are taxed differently depending on the city, state, or jurisdiction they live in. (If you’re curious, North Carolina has the lowest corporate tax rate in the country, which is a flat rate of 2.5%. They’re also looking to phase out this tax.)
• State Unemployment: State unemployment rates also vary by state. (North Carolina also has the lowest tax rate in this bracket. Massachusetts has one of the highest.)

Worker’s compensation is a non-negotiable tax you pay to protect your workers. Riskier jobs will incur higher worker’s compensation costs (i.e., landscaping, painters, medical employees).

Benefits

Benefits do a lot to attract and retain employees, but there’s no denying they come at a cost. Health insurance is the biggest cost in this area, but it depends on what health plan you choose. On average, employers pay $6,440 to $16,253 per year per employee in premiums.

Additional insurance, such as dental, life, and disability insurance, comes at a lower cost than health insurance but can get expensive quickly if you’re insuring more than 50 employees.

Employers who match retirement plan savings may spend an extra $2,000 to $5,000 per year, depending on that employee’s salary. Paid vacation time andc sick days are other expenses. But in the end, paying for these benefits costs less than replacing employees.

Hiring and Training

Hiring and training include several employee-based costs, and many of them can’t be left on the table. If you phone in the hiring and training process, you’re increasing your chance of turnover. This cost will range depending on if you’re hiring internally or through an agency.

Either way, businesses will have to pay for the following:

• Recruitment Software and ATS Software
• Salaries for Your HR Department
• Fees for Job Postings
• Background Checks
• Onboarding Costs
• Training and Cross-Training

As mentioned, smaller companies will pay more to hire and train employees. The hiring and training process is only successful if you can train the new employee to be 100% productive.

Workplace Integration

Workplace integration is one of the most overlooked costs of hiring. However, if a new employee doesn’t get along with their peers, it could drive them to quit. A toxic culture pushes people out, but an inclusive, communicative, and inspiring culture will keep quality employees around.

Integration expenditures may change depending on the employee’s needs. For instance, if an employee develops carpal tunnel syndrome, they’ll need physical adjustments to their work desk. If an employee recently lost a family member, they will need time off and a reduced workload.

In Conclusion…

No matter your industry, location, or company size, hiring a new employee is going to be expensive. But answering the question “how expensive” requires a lot of research on the business’s part. Once you know the true cost of hiring, you can work it into your budget.

The post Understanding the Cost of Hiring a New Employee appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

But LinkedIn isn’t just useful for client acquisition. It also helps startups meet their recruitment goals. LinkedIn now has 850 million members and over 58 million registered companies. Fifty million of those members search for jobs on LinkedIn, and 60,480 are hired every single week.

These numbers have caused 40% of companies to rely on LinkedIn skills filters to identify high-quality candidates. It’s clear that LinkedIn can be a valuable resource for any company.

How to Use LinkedIn for Recruitment Marketing

For recruitment managers, even the free versions of LinkedIn can open doors to new hiring possibilities.

Here’s how any business can use LinkedIn to build a recruitment pipeline.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

The first step of recruitment marking is building a brand. This can take several months, as you’ll need to establish a positive brand reputation, build a talent network, and rework your website. But if you’re one of the 78% of companies that can’t fill their open job roles, it’s worth the effort.

Once you’ve done this, you can start working on your personal and business profile. Be sure to incorporate SEO, as it’ll help candidates find you and increase your chances of connecting. Try to utilize keywords or key phrases that are more likely to be searched by people in your industry.

Here are some other tips you should use to optimize your LinkedIn profile:

• • Write a LinkedIn headline that describes who you are and what you do
  • Write a 200-500 word summary that incorporates keywords naturally
  • On your personal profile, add your experience and job details
  • Ask for endorsements from your employees, colleagues and partners
  • Ensure you’re connected to your company page (and share content to it)

You’re allowed to invite 100 people to your company page each month, while a personal page can connect to 100 people per week. That means you can send messages to 500 extra people.

Post Relevant and Valuable Content

Content marketing is an essential part of inbound marketing. Businesses should get into the habit of posting content that’s valuable and relevant to their industry, such as blogs or videos.

Encourage recruiters to learn everything about new hires’ paperwork, or you can focus on content that helps candidates write resumes. This type of content can attract a specific type of worker (i.e., HR staff and recruiters) or benefits a wide range of candidates.

By posting regular updates and worthwhile content, you’re establishing yourself as an authority, which makes you more trustworthy. New posts show up on feeds, making it more convenient to interact with you. Both initiatives increase your exposure to new audiences and candidates.

If you’re unsure what to post, look at your competition and review their content. Once you have an idea of what your customers may like, review your analytics and adjust if it isn’t working. Create a content syndication strategy that will generate new leads and educate prospects.

Ensure Key Players are Active

Key players in your company, such as the CEO, CFO and COO, should maintain a strong LinkedIn presence. This shows that they’re willing to network with and engage with candidates.

Authenticity is very important for your brand, and several modern candidates expect it. If you’re an executive or essential shareholder, you may be too busy to post content or interact with others. Instead of doing this, hire a social media marketer to handle your LinkedIn account.

But if you’re a recruiter, ask yourself the following questions about your executives:

• • Are they joining enough relevant LinkedIn Groups?
  • If they are, should they be contributing more often?
  • Do they routinely post to their own LinkedIn feed?
  • What type of content are they posting? Is it relevant?

While company employees can help prop up what the executives are saying, your key players have to lead the way. Discuss with your executives the importance of posting consistently.

Join and Use LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups present multiple opportunities to interact with other industry professionals or talented individuals. You should participate in group discussions regularly to build your brand.

However, you can’t just choose any LinkedIn Group. Before joining a group, take a look around. Are the people commenting related to your target audience or company interests? Do your ideal prospects spend a lot of time here? Is the group large, and if it is, is engagement pretty high?

Once you’ve joined the group, commit to doing the following:

• • Post updates about your industry
  • Comment and share posts
  • Ask questions to encourage discussion
  • Be helpful by answering people’s questions
  • Don’t pitch all the time
  • Pay attention to common pain points in the group
  • Address these pain points by making new content

If you want to use LinkedIn Groups for talent acquisition, ask if you’re allowed to post a job directly to the group. If not, search for groups that act as a secondary job board for candidates.

Grow Your Following to 500+

Your success on LinkedIn hinges on how sizable and active your followers are. High-caliber content can do a lot to bring more eyes to your page, but it won’t make them log in. With that said, be careful when using automation tools to connect with potential candidates or clients.

LinkedIn’s Terms of Service prohibits the use of automation tools to send messages or post content. In some cases, LinkedIn will send a warning even if you aren’t using automation tools, so you have to slow down when adding new people or mass sending InMail messages.

It’s possible to use these tools if they mimic human behavior, but there’s still a chance you’ll get banned. It may be wise to spend 10 minutes a day manually adding people to your network.

When you run out of connection requests, visit other people’s profiles. If they have their “viewed” notifications on, they’ll see you looked at their page and they may send a request to connect.

The post How to Leverage LinkedIn for Lead Generation and Recruitment appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

Most businesses make the mistake of marketing their positions directly before a hiring need. By then, it’s too late. It’s extremely common for candidates to research you and your company before filling out an application. If you don’t take the time to build a brand, talent will avoid you.

This is backed up by various recruitment marketing statistics. 67% of companies don’t have a dedicated role in their talent acquisition team that focuses on recruitment marketing, and 78% state they can’t find enough candidates in the market to fill open roles at all, let alone quickly.

If you want to attract high-quality talent while improving your brand, you need to start investing in recruitment marketing. While it may take some time, the results are more than worth it.

What is Recruitment Marketing?

Recruitment marketing is the process of attracting and nurturing talent to your startup by marketing to them. The goal is to drive active or passive candidates to apply to your open positions once they’re available. Recruitment marketing is also the first step of talent acquisition. 

Talent acquisition includes six steps: Awareness, Consideration, Interest, Application, Selection and Hire. Recruitment marketing includes the first three while recruiting involves the last three.

If your business is starting at the application stage, you’re already missing out on hundreds of qualified leads. You’ll need effective lead generation tool, a group of qualified marketers and the right resources to make recruitment marketing decisions and attract a pool of candidates.

Why Invest in Recruitment Marketing?

According to Glassdoor, approximately 75% of active job seekers prefer to apply to a job if the employer is actively managing their brand. Your brand values are reflected in your content.

For example, a culture of employee recognition is important to your future and current team members. If you create blog posts that encourage the benefits of employee recognition and your employees back this up through reviews, you’ll attract more candidates than your competitors.

Passive candidates are more likely to convert into full-time employees if they see this content as helpful. Lead magnets such as case studies build your reputation and increase engagement.

If a candidate gives you their email at the end of the pipeline, you can add them to the candidate database and vet them before you give them an offer. A candidate that looks promising can be contacted at a later date, so long as you keep them interested and engaged with your content.

In the end, a recruitment strategy will save you time and money during the actual recruitment process. Some companies are so good at recruitment marketing that they don’t have to actively look for new hires. They simply refer to their candidate database or email subscriber list.

What to do Before Creating a Lead Magnet

Before creating content, like webinars that generate leads, you must conduct some due diligence. Recruitment marketing and lead generation are both practices and professions, meaning you’ll need someone to plan your campaigns and adjust them according to data.

Companies should do the following before creating lead magnets:

• • Create an employer brand and build brand awareness
  • Engage with brand followers and manage career websites
  • Manage your brand reputation and the candidate experience
  • Define candidate personas and create content for them
  • Determining and optimizing channels to recruit and advertise
  • Drive qualified applicants and convert leads to open roles
  • Build a talent network and generate a pipeline of leads
  • Managing recruiting and networking events online or offline
  • Generating employee referrals and amplifying employee ambassadors
  • Tracking, measuring, and reporting on campaign results via technology

This sounds like a lot of work, but without these steps, your lead magnets won’t be as effective. For example, If your brand doesn’t match what you’re saying or promoting in your lead magnet campaign, your recruitment strategy will fall apart when applicants start the research process. 

How to Create a Lead Magnet The Works

Recruitment-based lead magnets have a conversion path focused on turning passive onlookers into future employees. This path typically starts on your website’s homepage, resource page or thank you page. However, you can also use email/newsletter sign-up sheets or third-party sites.

Whatever you choose to use, make sure you add a button with a call-to-action (CTA) that entices visitors to click the lead magnet. For example, “Get Your Exclusive Career Guide.”

Don’t give up the lead magnet right away. While you can ask for someone’s email address before they click the CTA button, it’s not wise to do this if you’re aiming for talent acquisition. You’ll want to express the type of content they’re receiving and why that should matter to them.

Candidates like to be in the know. If you’re upfront now, they’ll place more faith in your brand.

Instead, you should lead the potential candidate through the following steps:

1. 1. The reader is taken to a landing page with a form they’re required to fill out. The form should include an email address or phone number, so you can stay in contact.
   2. The reader is taken to a thank you page with a download button.
   3. The reader is given a welcome email that locks them into the recruitment pipeline.

Never “set and forget” your recruitment marketing campaign. Keep potential candidates engaged by creating newsletters and sending updates pertaining to open positions.

7 Lead Magnet Ideas That Attract Talent

Now that you understand the basics of recruitment marketing and how lead magnets work, you can start creating your first lead-generation tools. 

Here are seven high-converting lead magnets.

1. Salary Guides

Active and passive candidates need information on hiring trends to leverage their skills. A salary guide can be useful for anyone looking for a promotion or a new company. You can attract hires by suggesting your company pays higher or offers better benefits than the rest of the market.

2. Career Guides

Career guides are similar to blog posts, except they’re much longer. They often discuss in-depth topics, such as “How to Ace a Job Interview” or “How to Write an Online Sales Resume.” These guides nurture candidates along the recruitment journey and position your brand as trustworthy.

3. Online Courses

An online course is a structured way of delivering educational content and is typically hosted on another website. They often contain worksheets, lesson summaries, quizzes and study guides. Your course’s training videos can reflect the quality of your onboarding process to new hires.

4. Live Webinars

Live webinars are useful for qualifying candidates because they can clarify your management style, policies and company culture. Or you can offer career tips and broadcast your current job vacancies. Create hype around your webinars by advertising them days before you go live.

5. Free Consultations

Free consultations are often used in the SaaS/B2B software industry to answer any questions or concerns their clients may have. They can be used similarly for your recruitment campaigns. For example, you could offer a free consultation related to career or mindset or about your company.

6. Case Studies

Case studies can be used to inspire people because they communicate a pathway to achieve success. You can build your batch of employee case studies by asking candidates and current and past employees why they applied to your company or how you contributed to their growth. 

7. Career Checklists

Checklists are 1 to 2 pages long, easy to make and are often useful to potential candidates. What’s more, you can create checklists by summarizing or simplifying blog posts you’ve already written. We recommend creating a resume, LinkedIn profile or job interview-inspired checklist.

The post Recruitment Marketing to Attract Better-Qualified Talent appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

According to Gartner, only 16% of new hires possess all the skills required to be prepared for their current and future roles, and only 29% of new hires have high current-skill preparedness. 

Further research finds that IT, finance and sales positions filled today will need up to 10 new skills within 18 months. In today’s job market, recruiters need to hire for potential, not experience, as highly gifted candidates are the first to be hired or develop key industry skills.

With that said, it’s hard to find a high-value candidate that doesn’t expect some degree of flexibility, which often comes in the form of remote work. As candidates become more choosy, employers should pay attention to how they present their own value to passive and active hires.

Recruiting Remote Employees

Recruiting for a work-from-home role isn’t that dissimilar to an in-person position. Modern onboarding always includes technology, but a remote employee will rely on it for everything.

Factor in Remote or Hybrid Work Experience

Candidates don’t have to have remote or hybrid work experience. In fact, the majority of your applicants won’t have it. In 2021, 26% of the American workforce worked remotely. That only accounts for 87.6 million people, most of which have limited work-from-home experience.

Still, experience in a hybrid environment and the ability to use remote work software can help your candidates onboard quicker, so long as they are productive while working from home.

It’s also important to treat your remote employee as such. Work-from-home staff often apply for remote roles because they have more freedom, and they won’t appreciate being asked to hop on a meeting suddenly or to take a “quick trip” to the office. If you do this, they’ll likely quit.

Remember that productivity should be tracked by output in a remote setting. Just looking at hours worked doesn’t tell the whole story, as workers are often more productive when they have minimal interruptions. Trust your remote employees will get their work done before the deadline.

Consider Successful Remote Employee Skills

Both experienced and inexperienced hybrid candidates can still possess specific skills that make them perfect for remote work. Many people can work independently and stay productive without physically being in the office. With that said, don’t micromanage remote employees.

Here are seven essential skills remote job seekers should have:

• • Ability to work independently
  • Strong written communication skills
  • Self-motivated and organized
  • Comfortable using digital tools
  • Team player and culturally sensitive
  • Emotional intelligence and empathy
  • Reliability and secure equipment

If the candidate has never held a work-from-home position before, check their resume or cover letter for the above skill-based keywords. It also helps to add these skills to your job description, as modern candidates are taught to use keywords in job postings to score well on ATS software.

Keep in mind that network security is essential, especially when you have remote employees. IP whitelisting is a vital part of networking security and should be implemented in your startup.

Identify the Qualities of Your Ideal Candidate

A software developer could possess all remote-specific skills, but they won’t be able to finish projects if they’re missing three out of the four coding languages you need. While there’s no harm in hiring them and training them anyway, it’s better to hire a near-ideal candidate.

Defining the ideal candidate for the remote position will help you plan your recruitment strategy and access your candidates’ applications. Create a list of soft skills, hard skills, traits, technical proficiencies and personality characteristics that mesh well with the position and work culture.

If you’re stuck on this section, ask yourself how you would measure a candidate’s success once they’re on the job. There are many powerful ways to recognize employees, such as offering a thank you note when they finish a project or congratulating a team for signing 10 new clients.

Source Candidates From the Right Places

Finding a remote employee wasn’t easy five years ago, but the pandemic made the problem worse. Recruitment trends show that freelancers and independent contractors are going to be in high demand, and you won’t want to mix these professionals up with classified employees.

If you do want to find freelancers, consider reaching out to candidates on LinkedIn. Upwork, Indeed, ClearVoice, FlexJobs, Freelancer and Guru are other great sites to hire freelancers.

On the topic of employees, these five sites target employment-based remote opportunities:

• • We Work Remotely: Caters to multiple industries
  • Remote.co: Similar to We Work Remotely
  • AngelList: Focuses on roles for tech companies 
  • Stack Overflow: Focuses on tech roles, like a software engineer
  • Remotive: Focuses on IT support, marketing, product, and sales.

To build up your remote talent pool gradually, communicate with other websites in your industry and get placed on roundups like “X Startups That Hire Remotely.” It’s also a good idea to research remote startup directories and get listed, as more candidates will apply for your jobs.

While focusing on your outreach strategy is effective, that doesn’t mean you have to stay off of job boards like Monster of Glassdoor. Just make sure you aren’t overworking your recruitment department, as it’ll make it harder for them to find and interview the right candidates.

Offer a Realistic Preview of the Position

Candidates will self-select out of the job if your job postings are accurate, brief and descriptive. 

Many recruiters think that being too descriptive will make fewer people apply, but that’s not a bad thing. If you don’t disclose the salary for this position, candidates will ask anyway. If they have to wait until the interview to find out and they’re disappointed, they’ll leave or stick around.

Those who stick around will likely leave the moment they get a better offer. This process wastes everyone’s time and becomes pretty expensive. It costs 30% to 400% of a person’s salary to replace them, so it simply isn’t worth it to hire someone you know is unfit for the role.

When recruiting remote employees, be clear in the job listing about the position’s telecommuting requirements and make the ad easy to read. List all required skills in a bullet-point format and avoid industry jargon.

Assess the Candidate’s Company Culture Fit

You may have a hard time assessing how well a remote candidate fits into your workplace culture. At the same time, you may fall into the trap of overanalyzing a candidate because you have the option to record them. Only allow colleagues to review a taped interview for fairness.

It’s difficult to ignore unconscious hiring biases. We often prefer to hire someone who looks or acts like us, and we don’t always know we’re doing that. It can be even more challenging to accept an imperfect candidate, but you’ll never find the perfect employee, and that’s okay.

What’s more important is focusing on their values. If the person you’re interviewing is a coder, but doesn’t know three out of the four languages you need, hire them if they’re willing to learn.

But before evaluating a client’s culture fit, you need to define these values and lead by example. Then, develop specific interview questions that evaluate whether a candidate aligns with them.

Keep Candidates Engaged With the Process

In a survey of 2,800 job candidates, 65% halted the application process because they found some aspect of the company or job unattractive. It’s much easier for remote candidates to ghost recruiters, so making various recruitment mistakes could make you lose a potential employee.

Here are a few reasons why remote employees leave your process and what to do:

• • The Process is Slow: A candidate may disengage or be hired by the competition if your process is too slow. Respond quickly to applications and book them in for an interview.
  • No Follow-Up: A candidate that doesn’t follow up may not know what to do next. Tell candidates how the recruitment process will go and how long it will take. 
  • Too Many Contradictions: A candidate who feels you’re not living up to your values will leave the process. Revisit your content and see if you’re being honest and direct.
  • The Interview is Unstructured: A candidate can tell you’re unprepared. Don’t ask generic questions, focus less on hard skills, and fix any technical issues upfront.
  • Bad Reputation: A candidate will be concerned if a bad reputation follows your company. Address these concerns early to alleviate anything that could cause anxiety.

In summary, you need to keep candidates engaged with the process. If you manage to hold their attention, you’ll be considered their top choice and that’s a very good thing in this job market. 

Remember that you’re not just finding an employee; you’re searching for a loyal and productive team member. Consider using your hiring process to develop a relationship with potential new hires. Remote workers are less likely to quit when they feel connected to their coworkers.

The post 7 Tips for Recruiting Remote Employees appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

7 Common Mistakes That Negatively Affect Agent Recruitment

While implementing background checks can be helpful after you find the right candidate, you need to make sure you’re targeting the best applicants first by avoiding these recruitment mistakes.

1. Not Keeping the First Call Short

Unless you plan on sponsoring a new agent, the people you’re recruiting should already be familiar with or experienced in real estate. While a welcome call is a great way to create interest, revealing too much too soon could make them uninterested in pursuing an in-person meeting.

This seems like a good thing because if the agent isn’t interested, then it’s unlikely they’ll be a good fit. At the same time, an in-person meeting can give you and the candidate a better read on each other’s personality, which is important when assessing culture fit or sales skills.

What To Do Instead: Use a script on your first call, so you can ask everything you need in under 10 minutes. At the end of the call, set up an in-person meeting, but don’t be discouraged if they cancel. Try to set up another meeting at a later date that’s more convenient for them.

2. Not Listening to Prospective Agents

When starting a new real estate brokerage, it’s easy to assume that you and your agents will share similar goals or motivations. After all, you need to work as a real estate agent before becoming a broker, so you have first-hand experience with the industry and the people within it.

While this makes you a better boss, it doesn’t mean your recruited agents will want the same things you wanted when you were in their shoes. Some agents are motivated by the commission split, while others want more flexibility, remote options, mobile technology, or educational training.

What To Do Instead: If you want to recruit (and retain) the best agents, ask them what they expect out of the agent-broker relationship before the initial meeting. Not only does this help prospective agents assess their fit, but it also gives you an idea of what new agents want.

3. Not Giving Agents Access to Technology

According to the real estate website Home & Money, smart homeowners educate themselves to avoid common home purchasing mistakes. If a customer asks your agent a question about the neighborhood they’re unable to answer, the agent should be able to look this information up from their phone.

But, what if they don’t have that technology available, even if it was promised during recruitment? What if they use a calendar, reporting system or CRM that doesn’t link up with your back-office applications? It’ll only make their job harder and their clients more frustrated.

What To Do Instead: Modern brokerages use CRMs, management software and a knowledge base that agents can easily refer to. Be sure to adopt this and other types of technology to save your agents time and money. Plus, you can use technology to track agents who may require coaching.

4. Not Marketing Your Online Presence

Brokers understand that real estate agents exist in one of the most competitive industries on the planet, so the only way to separate yourself from other brokerages is through marketing. If a prospective agent looks up your company but can’t find you, they may avoid working with you.

Brokerages need to have a website that regularly features their agents and a social media profile (preferably on LinkedIn) that includes engaging content. You also need to explain your company culture clearly and practice what you preach, or it’ll affect your reviews on job sites.

What To Do Instead: Besides making content (i.e., blogs, podcasts and videos), get familiar with search engine optimization (SEO), as it’ll help clients and agents find you. Don’t forget to market your brokerage using local SEO and traditional advertisements, like flyers and billboards.

5. Not Attracting Passive Candidates

Most recruiters only pay attention to active candidates or candidates who are currently unemployed and actively looking for a job. However, since the unemployment rate for real estate agents is much lower than the national average, that doesn’t give you a lot to work with.

Not only that, but the best candidates tend to already be employed, since that proves they’re sought-after professionals. To find passive candidates, recruiters have to contact them directly (via email, job sites or social media) and convince them to work for your brokerage instead.

What To Do Instead: When you focus on passive candidates, you open yourself up to 95-98% of the currently employed agent population. But to convince agents to switch, you need to offer better incentives – like better commission, benefits or job security – than their current employer.

6. Not Streamlining the Recruitment Process

A prospective agent may remove themselves from the recruitment process at any point, for what can be narrowed down to two main reasons: process length and incompatibility. Neither active nor passive candidates are willing to sit through multiple rounds of interviews or long applications.

To improve hiring speed, a standardized application and interview process is key. For one thing, it will be difficult for you to compare candidates who don’t answer the same questions. Not only that, but an unstructured recruitment process could cause you to rely on your biases more often.

What To Do Instead: AI recruitment tools, like applicant tracking software, can prevent poor skill, experience or culture fits, but they can’t make up for other deficiencies. Make sure to keep applicants engaged by responding to them quickly and updating them on the hiring process.

7. Not Using Alternative Hiring Methods

If you’re using the same website to find talent but coming up short, you may need to review your job posting to ensure you’re attracting the right people. Despite that, you may still run into issues if you’re using the wrong job sites or attending only general networking events.

It’s also essential to target niche-specific agents, as a commercial agent may not be familiar with residential properties. If you work in a special sales-based or real estate-oriented industry, consider searching for a title, mortgage, insurance or escrow agent rather than just an “agent.”

What To Do Instead: To find high-quality real estate agents, try to recruit on websites they frequent, such as Zillow, Houzz, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Ask other agents to refer their friends, or speak to agents in your own network. Finally, attend agent-focused networking events.

The post 7 Common Mistakes When Recruiting Real Estate Agents (and What You Should Do Instead) 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.

What Does “Quality of Hire” Mean?

Quality of hire represents the value added by new employees to your organization over the long term. In this context, value is represented by how much an employee contributes to the success of a company. It can also be used to assess the effectiveness of a recruitment process.

Although quality of hire has always been a concern, the pandemic has shifted the job market in the employee’s favor. This is making quality talent harder to find and even harder to keep.

According to the experts at JobSage, employees judge employers and jobs based on inclusion, purpose, growth, feedback and flexibility. Quality hires won’t flock to your door unless you underscore the benefits of working for you, but a hire’s culture fit can’t be understated.

What Do You Need to Measure “Quality of Hire?”

No business can improve metrics they can’t measure. When you understand your quality of hire metric, you can pinpoint your shortcoming, which allows you to adjust your strategies and achieve the desired outcome. However, measuring the quality of hire can be complicated at best.

But once you develop a strategy, the results are worth it. Improved quality of hire scores can reduce recruitment overheads, drive revenue growth and assert the quality of your talent acquisition team. In the end, your company achieves a better overview of its hiring process.

To make sure the best candidates are on board, businesses must examine, track and measure the quality of hires over time. This includes data that isn’t directly tied to your hiring strategy.

How do you Measure “Quality of Hire?”

The quality of hire metric is made up of several other metrics in the pre-hire and post-hire stages. Here are the most important metrics that help you assess the quality of your hires.

Pre-Hire Metrics

• • Time to Hire: Evaluates the number of days since candidates entered the pipeline until their offer acceptance date. This locates inefficiencies in the recruitment process.
  • Source Yield Ratio: Evaluates a lead’s effectiveness. Measures return on investment.
  • Hiring Velocity: Evaluates how long it takes for an applicant to get to different parts of the hiring process. For example, how long it takes for a candidate to be interviewed.
  • Time to Fill: Evaluates how long it takes to fill a (usually urgent) open position.
  • Interview Scores: Evaluates a candidate’s performance in an interview. Recruiters typically make their own scoring system based on pre-selected criteria.
  • Cost Per Hire: Evaluates how much a company’s recruitment process costs.
  • Talent Assessment Score: Evaluates how well an employee may perform in their new role. You can use Applicant Tracking Systems to help you assess resumes.
  • Recruiting Experience: Evaluates the candidate’s experience throughout the process.
  • Offer Acceptance Rate: Evaluates hiring offers vs. acceptance rates. This can help recruiters address issues related to compensation, benefits, or work-life balance.

Post-Hire Metrics

• • End of Probation Review: Evaluates whether a candidate is comfortable in their new role. This metric can also evaluate how a new hire feels about your onboarding process.
  • Time to Productivity: Evaluates when a new hire achieved maximum productivity.
  • Job Compatibility: Evaluates how suitable a new hire is for a role. New hires should be asked how well the job aligns with their expectations and their career trajectory. 
  • Onboarding Survey: Evaluates if a new hire has gained the needed skills for their role.
  • Hiring Manager Satisfaction Survey: Evaluates if a hiring manager feels the new candidate is appropriate for their role. This helps determine improvement opportunities.
  • 360-Degree Feedback: Evaluates gaps in a person’s perception of themselves.
  • Rewards and Promotions: Evaluates a new hire’s career trajectory. A person who receives a lot of rewards and promotions is more likely to stay in the company.
  • Personality Assessments: Evaluates cultural fitment, performance, and trainability.

While you don’t need to apply all 17 metrics, it’s better to use as many as possible. The more you know about your hiring process, the easier it’ll be to improve, adjust or scrap altogether.

What Can Recruiters Do to Improve Their Quality of Hire Metrics?

Knowing what data to use is a great start, but your HR department also needs to simplify its workflow. Employers should equip their recruiters with tools that streamline the process.

Simplify Hiring Workflow With Assessment Software

Most HR staff have enough on their plates, so adding more steps to the hiring process could cause your talent acquisition strategy to suffer. You can streamline their workflow by expediting the screening process and analyzing job conversion rates. Be sure to reward your recruiters!

Re-Training HR Staff Using Education Tools

Hiring managers won’t be aligned with your quality of hire goals unless you train them. You can bulk train your HR staff by using collaborative learning tools like Teachfloor. In fact, learning in a group can help your employees retain information, especially if there’s a review process.

Initiate Cognitive Assessments With a Virtual Assessment Platform

A psychometric test can measure an individual’s aptitude, traits, intelligence, behavioral style and abilities. If the methodology is sound, businesses can use recruitment tests to match employees to roles. Cognitive assessment can also determine culture fit and behavior.

Create Non-Bias Technical Tests With Testing Automation

If you’re hiring for a skilled role, administering a paid skills test can help you find qualified hires immediately. Then, recruiters can issue another paid test to candidates that reach the interview stage. A second test can ensure that candidates stay honest when taking the first assessment. 

Conduct Social Listing With Social Media or Surveys

Listening to your candidates is the best way to deliver what they want. Your competition is already adjusting to current hiring trends and so should you. If you notice that you’re missing out on hires due to pay, benefits or culture, improve on these metrics to attract quality hires.

Maintain a Structured Interview Format With Interviewing Platforms

Interviewers should ask the same questions to all job candidates applying for the same role. That way, you can compare their answers fairly. An interviewing platform can also move interviews online by using collaboration tools, structure grading and digital record keeping.

Playing the Long Game is Worth It

Creating an incredible hiring process isn’t easy, but when it’s done right, employers will see a massive surge of quality applicants. However, measuring and assessing the quality of your hires is an ongoing process. To keep your employees engaged, show you care about their growth.

The post Playing the Long-Term Game of Measuring and Assessing Quality of Hires appeared first on RecruitingDaily.

There’s no doubt that AI is helpful, but when misused, both the candidate and employer suffer the consequences. Employers must know how to use AI recruitment tools to attract talent, whereas candidates have to understand how specific keywords can get them noticed.

In this article, we’ll help both parties understand AI and how they can leverage its benefits to overcome recruitment challenges. We’ll also examine the best AI tools industries should use.

What is AI Recruitment?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a science that trains machines to perform tasks initially given to humans. What results is automation and accuracy, which saves businesses time and money.

Since AI can be used to solve complex, repeatable problems, it’s endlessly useful for finding quality employees. Screening resumes and scheduling interviews takes time, but AI tools can speed up the process. This allows employers and HR staff more time to focus on other matters.

AI recruitment tools won’t replace sections of your human resources department. Instead, it helps recruiters discover passive candidates and utilize data-driven insights that allow their teams to make better decisions. When used appropriately, AI can build stronger teams.

Why is AI Important for Recruitment?

AI recruitment tools do more than save you time and money. They also help startups stay competitive because it introduces a wider candidate pool full of diverse choices.

Here’s how:

Artificial Intelligence and Automation

Recruiters are often asked to do more for less, but without automation, that isn’t always easy. When faced with tedious tasks like looking through resumes, recruiters may become less patient with unconventional candidates, meaning quality hires get lost in the process.

According to Dice’s Recruitment Automation Report, recruiters can spend 30 hours a week sourcing resumes. Why do that when you can use AI recruitment tools to do the following:

• • Schedule interviews via chatbots and calendar integration
  • Screen candidates based on a score of 1-100
  • Source potential employers based on culture fit

Keep in mind that your recruitment process will only be as good as the person using it. It’s essential to look up a few great resume examples that work with AI tools before using them.

Artificial Intelligence and Personalization

AI recruitment tools aren’t just helpful in attracting hires; they can also be beneficial for every stage of the employee lifestyle. With AI tools, you can help employees reach their goals faster.

• • Candidates will have personalized experiences and job recommendations based on their search history, profile, location, similar persona and similar job openings.
  • Employees can be offered the same features as external candidates by supplying job referrals in the employer’s network based on previous employers and references.
  • Recruiters can create their own personalized pipeline that matches a candidate’s compatibility automatically, which also helps them rediscover past candidates.

A fully customizable recruitment tool can still inject personality into talent acquisition.

Artificial Intelligence and Analytics

When an employer doesn’t use AI tools for recruitment, they’re missing out on valuable data that they could use to improve their talent acquisition process. By analyzing data, businesses:

• • Can discover best-fit job seekers and qualified candidates
  • Tap into cloud-sourced suggestions in the platform
  • Will obtain data trends and view more dynamic talent pools
  • Start to understand what candidates want in the recruitment process

With data and analytics, recruiters can lower their time and cost per hire metrics.

What Challenges Come With AI Recruitment?

While AI recruitment can be helpful in many ways, there are things that hold it back. When implementing AI recruitment software, make a plan that overcomes the following shortcomings.

Replacement Fears

Your employees are afraid of being replaced by AI software, and that fear shouldn’t be understated or laughed off. It’s essential to explain how AI tools help the HR department, rather than letting that fear fester, as it may make employees unwilling to accept the new change.

Training Challenges

You must train your staff on how to use AI programs effectively, as it increases their usefulness. HR staff and recruiters should be aware of SEO keyword practices and what a good score looks like. They should also know how to spot keyword stuffers or candidates who can game the system.

Acquisition Difficulties

AI software isn’t perfect. Your candidates may use synonyms of keywords you’re looking for, which makes them appear less qualified than another candidate. While it’s a good idea to add synonyms to your AI software, it’s also important to manually review some resumes.

Lack of Bias Control

While AI recruitment software was initially created to remove bias from the hiring process, employers may input keywords that unintentionally cause bias. For example, geographic or academic keywords may cause HR to gloss over qualified applicants immediately.

Unusable Data

When implementing AI software, you have to make sure that the data flowing into it is fed by a network of candidates, employees, recruiters and job descriptions. Not all technology partners will share data across multiple businesses, but you need this to improve your hiring practices.

What AI Recruitment Tools are Available?

Recruitment software comes in many forms, but they typically come with the following core functionalities: search, personalization, insights and conversational/automatic chatbots.

Search Functionality

For career sites to deliver relevant, accurate results, they need a quality search tool. Any tool that provides inconclusive or irrelevant results will populate candidates that don’t fit the job description. However, semantic search seeks to understand human language and context.

Chatbot Functionality

Recruitment chatbots are able to understand a candidate’s personality, which helps employers match them with their company culture. Job sites get a lot of use out of chatbots that can direct candidates to the right jobs, but it also allows HR to talk to candidates using natural language.

Insight Functionality

With fit-based and engagement-based scoring, AI cloud-based tools can discover and rediscover job seekers. AI tools are able to put candidates into different categories and save resumes for a later date, which shortens the talent acquisition process the next time around.

Personalization Functionality

Tools that offer personalization can deliver tailored content for employees and candidates who are looking for specific job titles or careers. Not only that, but recruitment teams can match skills and compatibility with a hands-off approach, which makes their talent pool even larger.

Conclusion

AI recruitment tools aren’t complicated, but they can take a bit of time and energy to set up. Once you and your teams are well-versed in the software’s features, you’ll be able to expand your talent pool and spend less time on talent acquisition. This gives you more time to onboard candidates.

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