16 Aug, 2017

Want to be the best recruiter in Australia? Here’s the formula

16 Aug, 2017

Ambitious people strive to be the best they can be. The same is true for recruitment professionals with high aspirations – they ask themselves, "How can I become a great recruiter in Australia?" Though everyone has a different approach, there are a few important ingredients that must be added to the formula in order to truly excel as a recruiter.

Greg Savage, Australia's resident recruitment guru, claims that these three components are the key to being the best possible recruiter – and many other industry professionals agree with him. Want to know his secret? Here it is.

Finding your perfect candidate works best when you direct high-quality actions at the right people.Finding your perfect candidate works best when you direct high-quality actions at the right people.

1. Be active

Recruiters must be active. That means actively going out and chasing leads, networking, following up with candidates, getting to know clients – just constantly being on the move. Many recruiters build their candidate bases and then sit back, thinking, "Great – now the hard work is done." As a recruiter, the work is never done.

If you find yourself spending significant amounts of time sitting idly by at any point during the day, you might need to rethink your approach. Being active requires effort, so look up some networking events to go to, or create some engaging content – the more activity you involve yourself in, the more likely you'll be to strike gold at some point.

Luckily, many recruiters don't have any trouble being active – we tend to be full of energy, constantly looking for the next lead that could uncover our new star candidate. However, activity of the wrong kind can lead recruiters on a wild goose chase where they spend hours upon hours and get nothing in return. For that reason, you must also consider the next secret ingredient.

2. Act with quality

Being active is a key part of successfully recruiting, but that activity must be of high quality. Spending hours cold-calling or email-spamming an enormous list of potential candidates? That won't get you anywhere. Engaging in quality activity means creating genuine relationships, only spending time at events that are worth going to and making every person you interact with feel acknowledged and appreciated.

According to Greg Savage, acting with quality means developing your own skills – interpersonal, networking, communication, persuasion and more. If you're 'actively' recruiting, but haven't perfected your own approach, you won't be nearly as effective as you could be. Finally, it's important to take these quality actions and point them in the best direction.

3. Engage with the right people

"Recruiting isn't about large numbers – it's about one right employer and one right candidate!"

One of the most common (and tragic) mistakes Australian recruiters make is focusing their efforts on quantity of candidates and not quality. Many industry professionals agree that, while it's important to get out there and be active in seeking new candidates, honing in on a select few will be more rewarding in the long term.

"Recruiting isn't about large numbers – it's about one right employer and one right candidate!" claims Recruitment Systems CEO Neil Bolton. "If you're writing ads which return two hundred applicants, then your ads need to be better targeted."

Making sure that you're emphasising quality over quantity in your daily activities will help you maintain focus on what really matters: finding the one perfect hire for your client. For more tips on becoming a great recruiter in Australia, or to learn about how a recruitment software can help you, reach out to a representative at Recruitment Systems today.

09 Aug, 2017

Apps, bots and AI: What’s going on with recruitment software?

09 Aug, 2017

Recruiting sometimes feels like an age-old industry, especially given the rate at which it has evolved over the last few decades. Unlike years past, recruiters today have access to an unimaginable number of tools and platforms designed to help streamline their day-to-day processes.

For example, many agencies in Australia now use artificial intelligence and bots designed to hunt down quality candidates, as well as various mobile and desktop apps that do much of the dirty work for recruiters. As great as these developments are, there are a number of issues that have come with the rise of digitised recruitment.

One of the most pervasive problems facing the recruitment industry is the declining focus on human-to-human interactions.

So, what's wrong with recruitment technology today, and what's the future of recruitment software in Australia?

Pitfalls of contemporary recruitment

One of the most pervasive problems facing the recruitment industry – and the business world as a whole – is the declining focus on human-to-human interactions. More so than many industries, recruitment is about building personal relationships, and software should be aiding recruiters in this regard, not attempting to do it for them.

A good portion of agencies throughout Australia are caught up chasing big numbers and are using recruitment technology to do so. Recruitment Systems CEO Neil Bolton elaborates:

"It's all about quality, yet so many recruiters are still stuck in the "spray and pray" method of attracting applicants," he explains. "Put an ad on Seek, get 200 applications, somehow determine the top "best" applicants, send the ten "best" ten to the client and pray."

Finding the best candidates is hard when your scope is too big.Finding the best candidates is hard when your scope is too big.

This issue is further exacerbated by the impersonal nature of social media and the frequency with which recruiters are relying on it today. 

"As recruiters, I don't believe we should be chasing a social media presence – we should be building human relationships," Neil claims. "Human relationships are real. If they are good they last for years. Social media, on the other hand, can be fake, transient and low-touch."

While social media can occasionally be helpful, it's paramount that recruiters don't rely solely on the internet to build the relationships they should be chasing themselves, in person.

Where is recruitment technology headed?

As an industry, we need to redirect the focus from expecting technology to do the work for us to allowing it to help us. Recruiters are constantly bogged down by administrative tasks they have to do each day; this is one area in which recruitment software can be an enormous asset without compromising the foundation of recruiting – the human relationship.

We need to redirect the focus from expecting technology to do the work for us to allowing it to help us.

TRIS Recruitment Software is specifically designed to streamline workflow, manage candidate pools, improve communication and eliminate the administrative processes of the day-to-day. Since the beginning, Recruitment Systems has been striving to stay ahead of the pack with regards to technology, which is why we're in the process of developing the newest innovation in Australian recruitment software.

Known as TRIS5, our mobile app will expand upon our current software, allowing recruiters to work on-the-go with a speedier, more intuitive user interface. Neil explains:

"Apps are the future of computing – browser-based software is very old and very difficult to write. But companies who have everything invested in browser-based systems really cannot move to an app-based architecture the way Recruitment Systems has," he says.

TRIS5 should be hitting the market in the first half of 2018, so stay tuned.

The digital age has brought many benefits to the recruitment industry, but it's important to remember what truly matters, both to candidates and clients: the human touch. TRIS can help give recruiters the much-needed time to go out and build the relationships they need in order to find the best quality candidates. Reach out to Recruitment Systems today for more information.

06 Jul, 2017

Recruiting a recruiter: 3 tips for agencies

06 Jul, 2017

Recruitment agencies are in the business of hiring – however, that doesn't mean it's always easy for them to head hunt or hire the best recruiters on the market. In addition to ensuring that your daily administrative tasks are taken care of, it's important to be able to scout the best talent – not only for clients, but also for your own agency.

Here are some tips for finding, vetting and hiring another recruiter for your firm.

1. Keep your eye out

In the same way that recruiters are almost always looking for passive candidates, they should also be keeping their eyes peeled for potential new colleagues. There are many ways to find the best recruiters for your agency, including scouring unrelated talent pools – these can actually yield the most promising new hires for your agency.

Talent pools for unrelated job opportunities can yield the most promising new hires for your agency.

Neil Bolton, CEO of Recruitment Systems, claimed that he had better luck hiring personable non-recruiters who didn't come with bad habits and limited perspectives.

"When I was recruiting everyone 'knew' that a recruiter could only manage maybe 25 active contractors. But I hired someone from outside recruiting who did not have that internal restriction, and within two years she was running 70 contractors. She didn't know what the limit was."

If you encounter someone with the potential for recruiting, follow that instinct – you never know what could happen.

Recruiting another recruiter can prove to be a challenge in some cases.Recruiting another recruiter can prove to be a challenge in some cases.

2. Do some digging

Once you've located some quality candidates, the next step is to take a look at their track record. Entrepreneur suggests asking recruiters questions like, "How do you source and manage candidates?" and "How do you assess cultural fit for your clients" to see how engaged they are in their job.

Ask questions about how they build relationships, how thorough they are and how they work on their own personal development.

In cases where a candidate shows potential but doesn't have concrete recruiting experience, ask questions about the ways in which they build relationships and networks, how thorough they are in their jobs and how they work on their own personal development.

3. Give them the day-to-day treatment

Observing how a candidate handles the day-to-day responsibilities of being a recruiter can be a revealing step in the process, primarily because you're hiring them for essentially the same job you have. Consider setting up a faux phone interview, or seeing how they would write a specific job posting.

It might also be beneficial to show them how helpful administrative platforms, such as TRIS recruitment software, can be for agencies. For a demo of the product, reach out to Recruitment Systems today!

30 Jun, 2017

Remote recruiters: are they worth it?

30 Jun, 2017

Working remotely is one of the fastest growing workplace trends today, with one in three Australians now regularly working from home, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

One in three Australians now regularly works from home, according to ABS.

This type of employment has become easier in many industries with the growth and developments of technology, but how does it affect talent acquisition? Recruiters have started doing their jobs remotely as well, finding and interviewing potential candidates over the internet with recruitment software rather than in person. 

While this can be extremely beneficial in some situations, hiring a remote recruiter for your agency can also present a number of challenges. Let's look at some of the positive and negative aspects of incorporating remote recruiters into your agency. 

Advantages of managing a team of remote recruiters

One of the main benefits of bringing on remote recruiters in the recruitment industry is that agencies can pick and choose recruiters based solely on candidate management experience and talent rather than geographic location – this is an invaluable asset, as it means you will potentially have a much stronger team than you would otherwise.

Remote recruiters also tend to cost less than in-house employees, as the job comes with the same responsibilities but none of the liabilities. Ultimately, qualified remote recruiters have the same job as in-house recruiters and utilise the same recruitment databases – they just work on their own schedules and don't require the same infrastructure as the latter.

Drawbacks of employing remote recruiters

Although it might save you money and give you access to a larger talent pool, managing a team of remote recruiters can also have its challenges. One of the biggest ones is the potential for miscommunication; as with all online interactions, the lack of interpersonal contact can lead to frustration and gaps in correspondence, according to Juice.

The lack of interpersonal contact can lead to frustration and a lack of communication

Training can also be a particular challenge when managing a remote team, especially if your company has a very specific induction program. 

Organising a team of remote recruiters for your agency can be both beneficial and challenging. Regardless of whether you keep your employees in-house or expand outwards, all recruiters can benefit from specifically designed programs, such as TRIS recruitment software, that handle the day's administrative tasks and allow recruiters to focus on finding the best possible candidates.

For more information, reach out to Recruitment Systems today.

26 Jun, 2017

3 ways to sell the candidate on a difficult job

26 Jun, 2017

The specifics of each hiring process are different, but one thing remains the same: a candidate who is worth interviewing must be 'sold' on the open job. This process becomes significantly trickier when you're hiring on behalf of a client. Recruiters faced with this problem might wonder how they can sell a difficult job opening, especially for a third-party client.

It's the recruiter's job to ensure that the opening is presented in the most appealing way possible.

Here are three ways agency recruiters can convince a candidate that a particular job is worth taking.

1. Find the USP

Researching and getting to know the client is obviously an important part of recruiting for them, but it becomes even more essential when you're trying to recruit for a difficult job.

In these cases, recruiters need to find and highlight the client's unique selling point, or USP, by communicating with them. Perri Chase, CEO of Archively, gives an example on her Medium page of a poor recruiting experience to demonstrate the importance of communication with the client to fully understand (and sell) the job at hand.

""[The recruiter] should have asked […] to get an understanding of where we are and where we are going. It would be great for him to understand where our product is going and how our needs will evolve."

Although you're certain about a specific candidate, they might not be certain about the job.Although you're certain about a specific candidate, they might not be certain about the job.

2. Practice your pitch

Forbes suggests that before they begin the hiring process, agency recruiters should look at the job and ask, "Would I accept this position?" If so, great – if not, they should practice pitching the employment opportunity, even if it's a challenging one.

Recruiters need to find the client's USP: the aspect of the job or company that will keep candidates interested.

For example, if the day-to-day of the position in question isn't particularly compelling, it makes sense to highlight opportunities for growth, company culture or any other unique benefits that come with the job, according to Workable.

3. Be friendly and organised

It might seem obvious, but a personable and excited interviewer will transfer their passion to the candidate. Keep in mind that you are the only link between candidate and client – everything they know about the job they know from you, so put on your best smile and sell the job.

Recruiters who are frazzled or disorganised during the interview will also not present the best portrayal of the client to the candidate. To streamline your recruiting process and eliminate your daily administrative tasks, take a look at TRIS Recruitment Software, or get in touch with us today.

12 Jun, 2017

Talent or experience: which is more important in a candidate?

12 Jun, 2017

Is potential more important than experience in a job applicant? The age-old question plaguing recruiters has never been more relevant than it is in Australia's competitive business world today.

Recruitment agencies are often presented with a wide swathe of candidates, some of whom have rock-solid CVs and others who are fresh out university, full of untapped potential. How can Australian recruiters decide whether to hunt for talent or experience from their recruitment databases?

Is potential or experience more important in Australian recruitment?Is potential or experience more important in Australian recruitment?

Hiring for experience

Having an extensive CV never hurt a job applicant, and recruiters will naturally pay attention to candidates who boast impressive credentials. Experience is especially important when hiring for a leadership position; the risk of bringing on someone without solid leadership experience is much greater in this situation than it would be for an average job opening, according to Entrepreneur.

It pays to bring on someone who can hit the ground running without a great deal of direction.

It might also be a good idea to hire for experience if you think the client company lacks the time or resources to train a new employee from the ground up. In these cases, it pays to bring on someone who can hit the ground running without a great deal of direction.

Hiring for talent and potential

If you're in the recruiting process for a non-leadership position and have to choose between a candidate with potential and a great work ethic and another with an impressive CV but less personality, it might make sense to go with talent. Organisations that have the time to nurture and grow new talent often stumble upon gold mines when they bring on fresh graduates that show enormous potential.

For companies that are looking to rebrand or appeal to a new demographic, hiring an inexperienced, yet talented candidate could provide the unbiased perspective needed to give the business an edge. 

Hiring for experience is best with leadership roles, and hiring for talent can be great in the long run.Hiring for experience is best with leadership roles, and hiring for talent can be great in the long run.

Which should I choose?

The decision between these two types of candidates depends entirely on the specific situation. If the client already has a team of competent and experienced employees, keep your eye out for fresh talent to balance out the ratio. With younger or smaller companies that lack such a team, it might be smart to invest in an experienced hire who can pave the way.

The most important component, according to Forbes, is to allow your human judgment to take control; if you believe one candidate would make the best hire, don't second guess yourself. Whether you're hiring for experience or talent, TRIS recruitment software can help with candidate management by removing the administrative tasks from your day to day. Get in touch with us today!

22 May, 2017

How to attract passive job candidates

22 May, 2017

Recruiters in Australia naturally want to attract the best, most qualified talent when looking to fill an open position. Unfortunately, many of the quality candidates out there are already employed – after all, they're in high demand. How can companies draw hidden talent out and efficiently recruit these quality candidates?

Sometimes, spreading the word that you're hiring isn't enough to reach the most qualified workers. Take a look at these ways to attract and retain passive candidates.

What is a passive candidate?

Passive candidates are defined as employees who aren't actively job seeking but who could potentially be open to another job opportunity if it presented itself. Naturally, they can be difficult to ensnare because they are likely comfortable in the position they currently hold.

While it would be easier for companies to stick to traditional recruiting methods and settle for active job seekers, these inactive candidates are often thought to have something of value that regular applicants might lack, like a higher education or extensive experience. Many companies without targeted strategies miss out on such candidates because they haven't taken the time to update their recruitment databases – doing so would allow them to locate and manage quality workers much easier.

Calling up a passive candidate is a great way to put your company on their radar.Calling up a passive candidate is a great way to put your company on their radar.

Many companies miss out on such candidates because they haven't taken the time to update their recruitment software.

Passive recruiting techniques in Australia

Though there are various methods for attracting passive job applicants in Australia, the easiest one is to find and capitalise on your company's unique selling points. In order to get a passive candidate to justify leaving their company and joining yours, you must first convince them that working at your business will benefit them more. They already have a job – you need to offer them something they don't already have.

Beyond that, it is important for companies to make the application process as easy as possible, as passive job hunters are less likely to dedicate a significant chunk of time to filling out a complicated application than active seekers. Recruitment software, such as TRIS, can help you design an efficient and effective application process for candidates.

TRIS allows you to focus on locating and pursuing passive candidates while the software takes care of the rest. Get in touch today to hear how you can better manage your recruitment system.

15 May, 2017

3 reasons why employer branding is important for recruitment

15 May, 2017

If you imagine the phrase 'employer branding', it is typically in the context of bringing in more business and improving the way potential customers view the company. In today's technical age, however, branding is equally important when it comes to scouting and managing quality job candidates.

Creating an employer brand in Australia can be difficult and time-consuming, but it's an important step to take if you want to hire the best. Why? Because the best want three things: values, company culture and tech-forwardness in their job. The easiest way to demonstrate that you have those things is by building a fantastic brand – read more here. 

58 per cent of millennials would take a pay cut if it meant working for a company whose values they aligned with.

1. The best candidates are looking for values

Young job seekers these days are driven by a different set of factors than many older generations. In particular, 58 per cent of millennials say they would take a pay cut if it meant working for a company whose values they aligned with, according to a 2012 Net Impact survey. 

For this reason, it is incredibly important for companies wanting to hire top new talent to immediately present candidates with their best features. This means making the company values a central aspect of the website (as well as the job posting) so everyone who visits has a clear picture of the impact your business has on the world.

2. They're looking for company culture and diversity

Most candidates today are also looking for businesses with diversity and a vibrant office culture – they want work to be ethically rewarding as well as fun. It is important for employers to tactfully advertise their culture, as well as the particular perks of the office (end of month drinks, table tennis, bean bags etc.) as these seemingly minute details could be make-or-break for the candidate.

Fresh young candidates are on the hunt for value-based, diverse and culturally vibrant workplaces.Fresh young candidates are on the hunt for value-based, diverse and culturally vibrant workplaces.

3. They're looking for tech-forward businesses

Business today is wholly centred around technology – it's the way of the future, and is therefore a big pull for millennials. It is important for you, as an employer, to demonstrate your digital aptitude to all potential candidates if you hope to compete for their employment.

Many companies choose to revamp their websites to make them clearer and more user friendly. This will not only keep customers on your site longer, it will attract tech-savvy talent to your page and give them a reason to pursue a career with you. 

If you're rebranding and updating your website, it might also be smart to update your recruitment system. Check out some of our e recruitment options today to learn more about how you can attract and manage top talent.

27 Apr, 2017

How to effectively interview a job candidate

27 Apr, 2017

A lot of recruiters can lose sight of the most pressing questions to ask in an interview and this ultimately leads to hiring underqualified people. However, there are ways that recruiters can improve their interview tactics and candidate evaluation systems, which will ultimately help the business perform better.

Focus on what's important 

Two things that interviewers don't focus on enough are a candidate's intelligence and competence. This can be a major problem because you end up getting candidates who sound great because they embellish their skills, but the recruiter ultimately needs to be getting proof that they're fit for the job.

Charisma can blind you from carrying out an effective interview.Charisma can blind you from carrying out an effective interview.

In fact, Dan Moore, an associate professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, says that interviewers favour candidates who are articulate, sociable, attractive and tall. While sociability and articulateness are important, they shouldn't be the main measures for assessing a candidate's ability to do the job.

Skills and techniques for preparing for an interview

Following a structured interview process can help you avoid falling for a candidate's charisma rather than paying attention to their ability.

John Dooney, manager of strategic resources for the Society for Human Resources Management, outlines some steps:

  1. It is vital that you look at the candidate's CV before the interview. As obvious as this may seem, it will get you in the right mindset to ask detail-oriented questions specific to the candidate's intelligence and experience.
  2. Write out all of the questions you want to ask. The questions should be expressly related to the requirements of the job.
  3. After you have thought of questions about their competence for the position, ask some behavioural questions. These questions should be as specific as possible about past performance in previous jobs. 
It's important to carefully analyse a candidate's past experience. It's important to carefully analyse a candidate's past experience.

It also helps to have a good candidate management software system such as Recruitment Systems' TRIS when assessing the candidate. This sort of software standardises evaluations of candidates because it can:

  • Automatically convert CVs to a standardised template.
  • Bring up all candidates with the necessary skills.
  • Track candidates. This makes it so different recruiters are able to share notes more easily.
  • Set up automatic communications at key points in the recruitment process.
  • Automatically generate reference checks. 

Organisation and standardisation is key when it comes to assessing potential employees. Processes such as these will ensure that you are carrying out a more objective, and therefore reliable, interview.

19 Apr, 2017

Why and how to attract bilingual job candidates

19 Apr, 2017

Our world is becoming increasingly globalised, which is why hiring bilingual or even multilingual speakers is becoming more and more necessary. How can your business go about attracting these candidates and bringing your company one step further into our interconnected world? And why should you make this effort? In other words, what will be the rewards?

Why? One word: Globalisation 

Your company can be made more competitive with the addition of bilingual employees because they can help write your content, Nathalie Jansen, the CEO and founder of The Matching Group PLC explains. For example, if your company is creating content for consumers abroad, bilingual employees can read research local to that region and determine the regions that will most likely respond to posts and graphics.

Where will your business take you? Know how to be competitive moving into the global market.Where will your business take you? Know how to compete when moving into the global market.

In fact, Nieman Journalism Lab found that geo-targeted posts are six times more successful than those that are not, so bilingual workers could be of enormous help in this respect. 

Another marketing effort bilingual employees can help with is analysing how readers are responding to content on a website in a different language. Bilingual speakers can better analyse comments and tailor it according to their responses. 

For those who have grown up in a different culture, they may be more weary of cultural sensitivities for your company to look out for when selling services to a particular target population, Jansen adds. 

Hiring bilingual employees will only become more popular because of how they improve a company's competitive advantage. Researchers at the University of Phoenix Research Institute found that demand for bilingual employees will increase in the next ten years, as 42 per cent of American employers believe that Chinese speakers will be more necessary for improving interaction with customers and 70 per cent believe Spanish speakers will be.

How to attract bilingual employees

If your company is looking to attract the attention of bilingual job candidates, you should consider hiring HR professionals who specialise in the eRecruitment of talented bilinguals, according to the Small Business CEO blog.

Connect with candidates around the world in different languages using the latest software technology.Connect with candidates around the world in different languages using the latest software technology.

Software such as Recruitment Systems's Total Recruitment Information System makes it even easier to catch the attention of bilingual job candidates. Recruitment Systems's TRIS can conduct recruitment in a multitude of languages such as Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, German and Sanskrit. This information system can speak to people from all over the world with a push of a button.

To internationalise your company, consider taking advantage of these tools that will land your company on bilingual candidates's radars.