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25 Sep, 2017
4 recruitment KPIs to keep an eye on in your AU business
25 Sep, 2017
As much as recruitment is about the intrinsic building of interpersonal relationships, there are strategic factors to take into consideration if you want your agency to succeed. Known as key performance indicators, or KPIs, these tools will help Australian recruitment agencies measure their performance and drive their business forward.
There are four primary KPIs that recruiters should be monitoring. However, don't forget that there's more to recruiting than getting the numbers right on paper – Australian recruitment guru Greg Savage explains this in the video below.
With that said, what are the best KPIs recruiters in Australia should at least be paying attention to?
1. Quantity vs. quality of candidates
As recruiters slowly accumulate contacts and build their candidate database, one thing will become very apparent: Whether they're recruiting based on quantity or quality. Talent pools that are full of high-quality candidates are not built overnight, but they are undoubtedly more worthwhile pursuing.
If you find yourselves with too many contacts, it might be time to re-evaluate your approach.
If you find yourselves with too many contacts, not enough of whom are the cream of the crop, it might be time to re-evaluate your approach. Focusing on quality will increase your success rate in the long run.
2. Sourcing data
When measuring both individual and agency-wide performance, it's important to look at which sources are successful and which are not. This 'success' can be measured in terms of the sheer number of candidates you get, the highest quality contacts or perhaps the ones that stick around the longest.
Are these contacts people you got in touch with through Australian networking events? Job ads? Social media trawling? Regardless, knowing and utilising this information will help you better target your candidates in the future.
3. Time to hire
Getting a hire is a great achievement, regardless of how long it takes, but a drawn-out hire is worth making note of. Slow processes might be alright in the long run, but quick hires are also integral to the continuous success of a recruitment agency.
How long is the process of connecting candidate to client to the signing of an employment contract? How many of these potential hires fall through? Is there anything you can be doing better to expedite the process? This data will be helpful as you measure your own success.
TRIS5 will handle the daily administrative tasks, allowing you to focus on measuring those KPIs and building personal relationships.
4. Technology performance
As recruitment becomes more digitalised, it also becomes key to look at how your applicant tracking system and recruitment software impact the business. Recruiters rely on technology to help them manage and organise their day-to-day, so measuring the efficiency of your system is important.
Unfortunately, many recruitment software programs are still only desktop compatible – this prevents you from working on the go and will soon be outdated. Luckily, there are some companies out there that are paving the way for new and innovative ways to manage candidate bases, even from your mobile.
Recruitment Systems is one of these companies. We're soon releasing TRIS5, our mobile recruitment management app – this revolutionary system will allow recruiters to stay updated on their candidate pool at all times. Like TRIS Recruitment Software, TRIS5 will handle the daily administrative tasks, allowing you to focus on measuring those KPIs and building personal relationships.
For more information about TRIS5, please reach out to a Recruitment Systems representative today.
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.
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.
New! Why a great recruiter is like an iceberg. https://t.co/xj1EZVUWOC pic.twitter.com/DbDv6dCChb
— Greg Savage (@greg_savage) May 2, 2017
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.
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.
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:
- 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.
- Write out all of the questions you want to ask. The questions should be expressly related to the requirements of the job.
- 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 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.
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.
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.
28 Mar, 2017
The one unwavering element of recruitment: Relationships
28 Mar, 2017
You shouldn't forget an important part of a recruiter's role: To build trust in recruitment relationships. However, with the increasingly prevalent use of technological recruitment strategies, companies are neglecting good old human communication.
Consulting your clients makes you a better recruiter
It's hard for business leaders to keep up with the ever-adapting best practices for hiring candidates. This is where recruiters come in – their role is to update their clients on the latest changes that may affect hiring practices, Lauren Griffin, a senior vice president with Adecco Staffing USA, told HR Dive.
One tip for consultation in recruitment is to foster strong customer relationships so that they can regularly meet up with clients and educate them on the best way to get the most qualified candidates. Recruiters should therefore focus on strengthening their existing networks and expanding their contacts, Griffin advises. This will make a recruiter more knowledgeable and allow them to offer a human touch that is increasingly getting phased out with the rise of eRecruitment.
Keeping this essential human element in recruitment will give your business a competitive advantage, too. Consultants help your company move forward in your hiring practices, whereas eRecruitment can only make you more efficient at executing your current processes.
Build recruitment relationships to get better candidates
Another thing that recruitment software can't offer is the ability to authentically connect with and interview potential employees. Building recruitment relationships, however, is crucial to getting the best candidates out there and key to delivering business solutions.
Candidates expect better prepared recruiters these days and if you aren't prepared as a recruiter, you could potentially lose a very qualified worker to your competitors. The 2015 DICE Tech Candidate Sentiment Survey found that 50 per cent of candidates want recruiters to do more research before reaching out.
Plus, candidates have more power than ever in the recruitment process; they can choose potential employers because they're able to search the internet to see which companies have pleasant hiring techniques, and which don't.
Recruiters should also approach passive candidates. Passive recruitment involves discovering someone's blog or having a brief conversation on Twitter, according to Meghan Biro, a globally recognised Talent Management and HR Tech brand strategist. Biro says that research shows that 93 per cent of the top talent at companies didn't find the job from a job posting. Instead, they heard about the opening from a friend or networking contact. These are only things that humans can do because it requires relationship building and conversation.
A human touch to your recruitment is indispensable. A friendly, interested face will stick in the candidates and clients' minds and will keep them coming back for more advice and information about your company and the recruitment industry at large.
25 Jan, 2017
Demystifying millennials – What attracts the younger generation?
25 Jan, 2017
Millennial: The name given to the generation born between 1982 and 2004. The Millennial generation follows Generation X in order of demographic cohorts. This generation is often associated with technology and social media. It's also known as Generation Y.
The same way certain fashions go in and out of style based on current trends – recruitment tactics are heavily influenced by the current job market. What professionals are in the most demand? How can we respond to their needs? What attracts this kind of talent?
For years now, one demographic has been a major focus for recruiters and businesses alike: Millennials. The attention is understandable when you consider that by 2020 millennials will make up 50 per cent of the global workforce, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
By 2020 millennials will make up 50 per cent of the global workforce.
What do millennials want from their employers?
The mounting interest in millennials as a demographic has spurned ample research into what makes them tick. PwC's report Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace painted some pretty clear pictures of what motivates millennials, what defines them and what they look for in their job prospects.
First, it's useful to understand some general things about this professional group. For starters, they have a distinct distaste for rigid organisational structures. They value flexibility in the workplace and freedom to work in their own ways. They put a high value on career advancement and expect these opportunities to be readily available. And they hold organisations with strong levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in high esteem.
So what does this mean for businesses looking to attract more millennial prospects? There are a few key takeaways.
1. Showcase your flexible workplace policies – Many companies offer versatile work policies. Whether this means allowing employees to work from home occasionally or offering four day weeks as an option – businesses with these options should make them known to prospects.
2. Articulate your dedication to professional development – Studies have shown that millennials value development opportunities over financial reward. In fact, the Huffington Post found that the average millennial is willing to take a USD$7,000 pay cut for a job with a company that offers career development opportunities.
3. Build a socially responsible brand – Social values are important to millennials and they take this into consideration when choosing an employer. According to PwC, 56 per cent of millennials would consider leaving a company that did not have the CSR values they considered most important.
Recruiting for millennials
So what do these insights mean for recruiters? And what else is necessary knowledge to effectively attract millennials to you, as a recruiter?
Leverage these trends in placements – This information is critical for recruiters to understand. In order to place a millennial candidate in the best company and position, these general preferences are important to note. Younger workers will have a tendency to prefer companies with the traits mentioned in the section above.
BUT don't neglect individual needs – Online HR publication Personnel Today also noted that recruiters should put a considerable focus on creating meaningful dialogues with every candidate. While there are some generalisations that can be made about every demographic, this doesn't mean there is a one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment strategies when it comes to millennials. While many of the preferences listed above do ring true, millennials value recruiters that dig deeper to find out what unique qualities they are specifically looking for in a company.
Part of attracting millennials to your recruitment agency involves strategic marketing.
Market yourself effectively – Part of attracting millennials to your recruitment agency involves strategic marketing. With instant access to information, most young professionals will research recruiters and potential employers alike – meaning they are not just looking at you but all your direct competitors. In order to convince millennials to choose your team, you need to have the right kind of content in place. Make sure your website is mobile friendly, try to generate collateral around why you are the best in your field, offer up a 'meet the team' page to connect with your audience on a more personal level. All of these marketing tools can help attract millennial talent to you.