Here at Emerge Talent Cloud, we have over the years developed and refined a successful and repeatable process for screening and interviewing corporate-side, contract recruiters that has served us well.  I thought I’d share it with my readers so that you too can think about adopting it for your own organization. Let’s start with the obvious problem, and what I’m sure drew you here, which is the unhappy reality that only a very small percentage of recruiters, whether contract recruiters or otherwise, are truly exceptional. And because most recruiters, especially cloud recruiters, know the tricks of the trade, they are adept at turning the tables and selling us on their prowess. Step 1:  Boolean Syntax We believe that recruiters and sourcers must be proficient with basic Boolean search syntax in order to create effective search strings.  We administer an online test to every Emerge Talent Cloud and sourcer so they can demonstrate their knowledge of basic Boolean syntax.  This is not an advanced Boolean web search, but rather a knowledge of the basic syntax used to populate a search bar in, for example, LinkedIn or Monster.  We need to know that candidates understand the three basic Boolean operations (AND, OR, NOT), and the proper placement of parentheses “  “ and brackets ( ). If you are unsure about how to construct questions to test knowledge of basic Boolean syntax, feel free to contact me and I will give you a hand creating questions (and of course answers!). Step 2:  Resume Review Skills We administer a resume review test that involves analyzing a group of supplied resumes against job descriptions.  We are looking for an understanding of subject matter content (IT, Sales, Finance, etc), as well as general screening skills in regard to things like job gaps, career progression, job hopping, etc. We have altered the resumes so that they have predictable land mines that any recruiter worth their salt should catch. For instance, a resume may have considerable job gaps; or have a college graduation date of 1915, or have job titles or descriptions that don’t fit the job description, etc. Step 3:  Req Intake / Recruiting Plan We ask the recruiter to walk us through a recent req that they worked on, starting at Req Intake.  What exactly did they do and ask at the req intake meeting?  Do they have a standard template that they use?  If so, did they create it themselves?  After sharing with us the template and/or questions that they ask at intake, we then have them share with us the recruiting plan that they subsequently put together.  What was their approach?  What tools, resources, and strategies did they plan to use?  What was their timeline?  What metrics did they address, such as time-to-fill and/or cost-per-hire? Step 4:  Sourcing Skills We assign a mock job description and ask contract recruiters to identify LinkedIn profiles that align with the job description.  We then ask them to create a write-up for that candidate.  Although they are creating the conversation and write-up fictitiously, it allows us to gauge their ability to ask the right questions, to comprehensively and meticulously gather and present information, and to demonstrate that they know how to stand out by writing highly personalized, creative, and engaging in emails. We also ask contract recruiters to tell us which sourcing tools they have used or have at least researched, other than LinkedIn, job boards, and the company ATS (applicant tracking software).  A cloud recruiter who is truly passionate about their craft will research and use other tools.  For instance, if you ask this question to any recruiter or source on my team, you will hear a litany of tools such as Recruitment Edge, SwoopTalent, Source Hub, PropelIQ, Slideshare, Google+, Twitter, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Facebook, Lusha, Email Hunter, Connectifier Social, Prophet, Capture, Infogist, etc.  Yet, amazingly, when we ask candidates to tell us which tools they have used or have even just researched, other than LinkedIn and job boards, 90% of the time they have not a single answer. Step 5:  Candidate Management Skills While of course it’s critical that a Emerge Talent Cloud understands how to source candidates effectively, it is equally important that they know how to exercise best practices in candidate care. Do they understand the importance of a high-touch candidate experience?  Are they adept at using company messaging and branding to keep candidates interested and engaged?  We like to see that contract recruiters have a consultative, rather than a transactional, approach to recruiting and working with candidates. Step 6:  Working With Internal Hiring Managers The aforementioned consultative, rather than transactional, approach is also imperative in regard to working with internal hiring managers.  So, we ask questions to ensure that contract recruiters know how to establish and maintain healthy communication channels with internal hiring managers.  We want to know the size of the req slates that they have managed, and how they handle the pressure of every hiring manager claiming that all of their reqs are high priority. Step 7:  Soft Skills / Culture Fit Leadership IQ conducted a three-year study involving over 5,000 hiring managers from 2,400 companies during more than 20,000 hires and found that 81% of new hires fail.  Surprisingly, the reason for the high rate of failure was not due to a lack of job skills, but to the following: Coachability – 26 percent of new hires failed due to their inability to accept feedback from those they work with, including bosses, colleagues, and customers. Emotional Intelligence – A close second to lack of coachability is lack of emotional intelligence, with 23 percent of new hires failing due to their inability to understand emotions, their own and others. Motivation – 17 percent of new hires in Leadership IQ’s study failed because of a lack of motivation, defined as the insufficient drive to succeed and excel in the job. Temperament – 15 percent of new hires failed due to attitudes and personalities unsuited to the functions and tasks of the job and conditions of the work environment. We use the following behavioral style interview questions to assess what we feel are the important take-ways from the Leadership IQ survey: Coachability What could you have done differently to enhance your working relationship with your manager? What areas for improvement did your manager point out to you? Tell me about accomplishments or improvements that you made or achieved that were a result of feedback that was given to you What aspects of your job did you and your manager seem to be at odds with? If you could step outside of yourself and coach yourself, what suggestions or ideas would you recommend? Ability to Work Under Pressure Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure Can you give some examples of situations in which you had problems working under pressure? Can you give me some examples of situations in which you decided to ask for assistance when under pressure? Ability to Recognize and Learn from Mistakes Tell me about a mistake you made at work. What happened? What did you do about it? What’s the most out-of-the-box meaningful or significant thing you’ve ever done to remedy a mistake? Being a Team Player Tell me about your favorite team that you have ever worked on Tell me about your least favorite team that you have ever worked on What types of personalities do you work best with? What types of personalities do you prefer not to work with? Tell me about a time at work when you disagreed with someone. What did you do about it? Tell me about a decision that you made that wasn’t popular and how you handled it Think about someone at work that you don’t or didn’t get along with and tell me about that person and the situation Passion Tell me about your hobbies and interests What are you passionate about? What motivates you to come to work every day? Tell me about something that you focused on that took great courage and hard work to overcome What’s a big question in your field you’d like to solve and why? Tell me about a problem or issue at work that you decided to tackle without being asked to do so What was the last career-related book that you read? What magazines or trade journals do you read to stay current in your career? Step 8:  Check Candidate References Lastly, don’t be lazy – check those references!  We always ask for references of managers to whom the recruiter directly reported, as opposed to peer references which are far too likely to be biased.  And if a cloud recruiter is unable to provide direct supervisor references, then we will typically put that into the same category as negative references.  Every top-notch recruiter should be able to provide at least one or two glowing references from a direct supervisor. Interviewing any type of candidate, recruiter or otherwise, is an ambitious endeavor.  Nothing, unfortunately, is fool-proof, but you can increase the likelihood of hiring a winner by applying a well-thought-out methodology.  We have honed our screening process for contract recruiters , but our approach is 100% relevant for any corporate-side recruiter and is also somewhat relevant for agency recruiters.  Here’s to hiring top talent! #hiring #agencyrecruiter #interview #talentacquisition #RPO #EmergeTalentCloud

Are you looking for ways to reach your recruitment goals? Whether you’re a hiring manager, a recruitment specialist, or an HR leader, understanding the right strategies to reach your recruitment goals is essential. In this blog post, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step guide to help you reach your recruitment goals. We’ll cover the nine key strategies you need to consider, including headcount planning, defining your ideal candidate profiles, crafting your employee value proposition, developing your recruitment marketing strategy, and more. Recruiting and hiring are essential components of any business. It’s the process of attracting, assessing, and hiring the most qualified candidates for a job. It’s also a crucial part of building a strong and successful team. But how do you ensure that you’re effectively reaching your recruitment goals? You need to have a strong understanding of the recruitment process, as well as the strategies you need to consider in order to achieve success. In this blog post, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to reach your recruitment goals. We’ll cover the nine key strategies you need to consider, including headcount planning, defining your ideal candidate profiles, crafting your employee value proposition, developing your recruitment marketing strategy, defining your selection process, designing your onboarding process, choosing the right tools and technology, finalizing your recruitment budget, and more. By understanding and implementing these strategies, you’ll be able to successfully reach your recruitment goals. Let’s get started! 1. Set Your Recruitment Goals The first step in reaching your recruitment goals is to set them. You need to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you’re going to measure success. Your recruitment goals can be divided into two categories: short-term and long-term. Short-term goals are those that you want to achieve in the near future, such as filling a key position in the next month. Long-term goals are those that you want to achieve in the distant future, such as filling all positions in a department within the next year. Once you have set your goals, you can start to develop a plan to reach them. This plan should include the strategies you’ll use, the timeline, and the resources you’ll need. 2. Headcount Planning Headcount planning is an essential part of reaching your recruitment goals. It involves determining the number of people you need to hire and when you need to hire them. Headcount planning should be based on your current and future business needs. You need to consider the roles and skills you need, the size of your team, and the budget you have available. Once you have determined the number of people you need to hire, you can start to plan for how you’re going to reach your recruitment goals. 3. Define Your Ideal Candidate Profiles Once you’ve determined the roles and skills you need, the next step is to define your ideal candidate profiles. An ideal candidate profile is a description of the ideal candidate for a particular role. When defining your ideal candidate profiles, you need to consider the skills, qualifications, and experience they should have. You should also consider their personality traits and cultural fit. Once you’ve defined your ideal candidate profiles, you can start to develop your recruitment marketing strategy. 4. Craft Your Employee Value Proposition Your employee value proposition (EVP) is a statement that outlines the value you offer to potential employees. It’s an essential part of your recruitment strategy, as it helps you attract and retain the best talent. When crafting your EVP, you need to consider what makes your company different from its competitors. You should also consider the benefits you offer, such as career development opportunities, work-life balance, and competitive salaries. Your EVP should be unique, memorable, and engaging . It should also reflect the values and culture of your company. 5. Develop Your Recruitment Marketing Strategy Once you’ve crafted your EVP, you need to develop a recruitment marketing strategy. This strategy should outline how you’re going to market your company and roles to potential candidates. You should consider the channels you’re going to use to reach potential candidates, such as social media, job boards, and career sites. You should also consider how you’re going to promote your EVP, such as through content marketing, events, and webinars. Your recruitment marketing strategy should also consider the metrics you’ll use to measure success. This could include the number of applicants, the number of hires, and the cost-per-hire. 6. Define Your Selection Process The next step is to define your selection process. This is the process you’ll use to identify and select the best candidates for your roles. When defining your selection process, you need to consider the steps you’ll take, such as resume screening, interviews, assessments, and reference checks. You should also consider the criteria you’ll use to evaluate candidates, such as their qualifications, experience, and cultural fit. Your selection process should be consistent, fair, and effective. It should also be tailored to the specific roles you’re hiring for. 7. Design Your Onboarding Process Once you’ve identified and selected the best candidates for your roles, the next step is to design your onboarding process . This is the process you’ll use to introduce new employees to your company and to help them become successful. When designing your onboarding process, you need to consider the steps you’ll take, such as orientation, training, and team-building activities. You should also consider the tools and technology you’ll use, such as onboarding software and employee handbooks. Your onboarding process should be tailored to the specific roles you’re hiring for. It should also be consistent, efficient, and effective. 8. Choose the Right Tools and Technology The right tools and technology can help you streamline and automate your recruitment process. They can also help you save time, money, and resources. When choosing the right tools and technology, you need to consider your specific needs. This could include applicant tracking systems, recruitment software, and video interviewing tools. You should also consider the features and functionality you need, as well as the costs. You should also make sure that the tools and technology you choose are user-friendly and easy to use. 9. Finalize Your Recruitment Budget The final step in reaching your recruitment goals is to finalize your recruitment budget. This is the budget you’ll use to pay for recruitment activities, such as headcount planning, recruitment marketing, selection processes, and onboarding. When finalizing your recruitment budget, you need to consider the costs of each activity. You should also consider the resources you have available, such as your time, money, and staff. Your recruitment budget should be realistic, achievable, and aligned with your recruitment goals. Conclusion Reaching your recruitment goals can be challenging. But by understanding and implementing the strategies outlined in this blog post, you’ll be well on your way to success. The nine key strategies you need to consider are headcount planning, defining your ideal candidate profiles, crafting your employee value proposition, developing your recruitment marketing strategy, defining your selection process, designing your onboarding process, choosing the right tools and technology, finalizing your recruitment budget, and more. By understanding and implementing these strategies, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your recruitment goals. Are you ready to start reaching your recruitment goals? With the right strategies and the right tools, you’ll be well on your way to success.  Want to accelerate your way to success? Contact us and learn how we can help you do that.

While every business faces unique challenges in their hiring process, none have quite the same array of difficulty as the non-profit sector. Hiring in non-profits is often restricted by tight budgets, meaning many of those working in the non-profit sector do so with low salaries. They stay in it “for the love of the game,” so to speak; many are even volunteers, not employees. Burnout has been rising amongst non-profit workers for decades. Recent crises in world health, politics, and judicial bias have made it more difficult than ever for many activists to maintain high spirits. There seems to be little or no reward for many of those working in the thankless realm of the non-profit sector. If you’re in charge of hiring for a non-profit operation, you want to gather the best candidates you can find. However, you’re likely working under tight restrictions. Likewise, the people seeking jobs in the non-profit sector have desires, interests, and goals of their own, which may make it difficult to find people with long-term prospects. The stark truth is that many non-profit employees only stay in any given role for 2-3 years. Luckily, with the proper perspective and a few tricks of the trade, you can kick your non-profit hiring to the next level and achieve greater alignment rates, longer careers, and better overall outcomes. Here are the 7 best practices for hiring non-profit organization employees.  #1: Strongly Emphasize Values and Mission Some people go through their lives and careers seeking nothing more than money. To them, work is a transaction; they sell their time and their energy for the money they need to live and thrive. Others go through life with a mission. They don’t want to “just” make a salary to survive; they want to tangibly change the world for the better. This second group of people tend to care a lot more about the culture, values, and mission of any organization they work for. Many of them will value working for a proactively beneficial organization over an organization that will pay them more but accomplish less. These people will also typically reject working for organizations and companies they feel are unethical. This is an opportunity. As a non-profit organization, you are most likely deeply involved in activism, whether it’s on a global scale or a scale focused solely on your local community. Whether you’re working towards prison abolition, reforestation, an end to factory farming, or support of the oppressed, there are people out there whose passion aligns with your organization’s mission. When recruiting for a non-profit and producing copy for that recruitment, you need to emphasize your values, mission, goals, and outlook. State your overall mission clearly and precisely. Promote the organization’s values as a whole, and of the individuals you already have on staff. Discuss the values, outlook, and drive you want your ideal candidates to have. Showcase examples of your successes, projects, and outreach your organization has accomplished. All of this is meant to do one thing: build a robust, tangible picture of the organization and the good it does. This helps to attract the people most interested in your area of activism. #2: Make Use of Non-Profit Hiring Websites Every industry and niche has its selection of job and career websites. As a non-profit, you have access to a range of specific sites and networks you can leverage for your recruiting . Here’s a list of both standard and niche sites to consider: LinkedIn. Networking via LinkedIn is very powerful, and the network tends to be an excellent resource for building both networking connections and referrals. More on that later. LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn has a system of group communities, which are often focused on a specific topic. You can create your own based on your area of focus or join those that align with your own and see if anyone is interested in joining your team. The Big Names. The largest job search portals, such as Indeed, Glassdoor, Monster, and CareerBuilder, are perfectly acceptable. They may not be focused on non-profit work, but they have such large audiences that you’re going to find some interested people regardless. Idealist. Idealist is probably the number one non-profit job portal online. They’re also multi-language and host career fairs regularly, further expanding your candidate pool . National Council of Nonprofits Career Center. As a national organization, this site has access to a broad pool of possible applicants. It also maintains many other resources that can be useful to a non-profit, so if you don’t already have a relationship with your local branch, this is an excellent opportunity to build one. Foundation List. Another sizable national resource for non-profit job seekers. You gain access to a broad candidate pool for various causes. Devex. This group is primarily focused on international NGOs, so while they maintain a presence in the U.S., they may be best for international organizations. Bridgespan. The Bridgespan Group is a great resource for non-profits. However, they tend to focus most on the coordinator, board-level, CEO, and other upper-level positions rather than ground-level roles. This list is just a selection of the sites available to a non-profit organization seeking new employees and volunteers. Whether you need to fill a board of directors or pick up a grant writer and fundraising expert, there are people out there of all levels using these sites and networks to find their next career. #3: Actively Encourage Word of Mouth Referrals People tend to build social circles centered around common interests and common ground. Sometimes, this means a shared hobby, the shared class for their children, or a shared community around a cultural interest. More often, though, people will build social circles around their passions and careers. That means that each employee you hire is, themselves, a resource. Chances are pretty good that they have friends, acquaintances, and connections to social groups focused on the same area of activism as your organization. After all, if they’re passionate about it, they’re probably doing more than just participating in your organization. They’re posting online, joining online groups, and socializing with others with shared interests. When you have an opening to fill, circulate it internally and ask anyone in your organization to refer anyone they know who might be interested in the role. You can then give any referred applicants a closer look; employees who have a built-in social connection when they are hired tend to last longer and work more productively, so it’s of net benefit to hire people with referred connections. #4: Look to Fill Higher-Level Roles Internally First The truth is, one of the strongest assets any non-profit has at its disposal is itself. Any time you have an opening to fill in the mid-level or higher range (from coordinators to directors to board to CEO ), consider looking internally. “‘All good organizations look to promote first before they look to hire; it’s smart business, it’s good for morale, and it’s cost-effective,’ said Friel. However, as organizations get bigger, promoting gets more difficult. ‘The bigger the organization gets, the more likely the talent will get hidden away,’ said Friel. Organizations can lose track of “young stars,” or department heads may not be willing to give up exceptional talent. ‘In a good organization, you look across the organization and move people around to their greatest need, and you give people opportunities to get promoted.’” – Tom Friel, via The Bridgespan Group . Promoting from within helps with retention and career satisfaction, maintains institutional knowledge and personal connections, and helps maintain continuity. It also shuffles a job opening downwards, and lower-level positions are often easier (and less expensive) to fill than upper-level positions. Plus, having worked with the individual for months or years before the promotion, you already have a solid grasp of their abilities, proclivities, and talents, so you can more accurately judge how well they will fit in a higher-level role. #5: Be Realistic and Up Front with Compensation Packages Appropriate compensation is one of the most significant challenges a non-profit organization faces. On the one hand, to maintain status as an effective organization, you want to put as high a percentage of your income as you can towards your activism to do the most good with the money you have available. All too often, charities, NGOs, and non-profits fall into the corporate trap of over-paying executives and under-paying ground-level workers who keep the organization running. It’s why sites like Charity Navigator exist to rank and grade organizations based on how much of their overall income and donations they spend on executive salaries. The truth is, a non-profit role will rarely be genuinely competitive in terms of salary. That’s why our #1 tip is to focus on the mission, values, and tangible benefit the organization brings to the world. To an extent, your employees will need to be invested due to their morals, ethics, and drive to better the world rather than their goal of making money. Set a firm upper limit on your salary and look for opportunities for benefits that can be compelling to potential hires. For example, remote work, sponsored childcare, education assistance, flexible hours, and even extra vacation time can all be notable benefits for your potential employees. #6: Keep in Touch with Candidates You Pass Over The people you don’t hire are nearly as important as those you do. “Say thank you to those who helped and to the candidates who weren’t chosen. “You may want to go back to both in the future,” said Friel. A well-conducted search should make the organization friends, not enemies.” – Tom Friel, the Bridgespan Group. When you hire for a position, you build a candidate pool of qualified individuals who are in the running for it. You can only hire one (or two, or however many open roles you have), but you have more people in the pipeline who could be perfectly qualified for the position as well. Keep this candidate pool warm. There’s always room for the situation to change. Maybe a higher-level role opens up, and you promote someone, opening up a position one of those candidates would be perfect to fill. Maybe the person you hire doesn’t work out or needs to leave for personal reasons unrelated to the role. Maybe someone else departs the organization, and you need to fill their shoes. Regardless of the reason, maintaining an active candidate pool allows you to fill those roles quickly. The two most important things to do are: Thank the candidates who don’t make the cut, inform them that the position is filled, but let them know that they’re first in line if another one opens up. Maintain contact with the candidates on an ongoing basis, even with something as simple as a monthly newsletter. This way, these people are primed and ready to go if you need a new employee and think they can fill the role. Of course, the longer it has been since they applied, the more likely they are to have found work elsewhere and may no longer be interested in your organization. Pool decay is a natural part of hiring, but it’s still better than abandoning the pool and starting over each time. #7: Keep the Motor Running Hiring ebbs and flows. Sometimes, you’ll only have the opportunity to hire a few new people throughout the year. Other times, you may have dozens of positions to fill in a matter of weeks. If you only rev up your hiring process when you have an active need for a candidate, your time-to-fill will skyrocket. Instead, keep your hiring channels open and your ear to the ground, even when you’re not actively hiring, to keep that candidate pool fresh and warm. That way, when you need to fill open positions, you can do so quickly and easily. Conclusion  Hiring for a non-profit organization is a unique challenge, but one that can be met with strategic thinking and a deep understanding of what drives individuals to commit to such meaningful work. By emphasizing your organization’s values and mission, making smart use of specialized hiring websites, encouraging word-of-mouth referrals, considering internal candidates for higher roles, being upfront about compensation, keeping in touch with past candidates, and maintaining an active hiring process, you can attract and retain the passionate, dedicated individuals who are the lifeblood of any successful non-profit. Remember, the individuals you are looking to hire are those driven by a sense of purpose and a desire to make a real difference. By focusing on these aspects, you create a magnetic pull for the right kind of talent. It’s about creating an environment where their passion for change is recognized and nurtured. Furthermore, always approach the hiring process with empathy and understanding. The people you are looking to hire are often those who are putting their ideals and values above personal gain. They are the ones who will carry your organization’s mission forward, who will fight tirelessly for the cause, and who will inspire others to join in the effort. Do you need help with hiring non-profit organization employees? Contact our team today and we will gladly help you.

When hiring a new candidate for a role in your business, what is the most important thing you should look for? Is it their skills? Their experience? Their personality and ability to mesh with the existing company culture? For many HR managers, one thing stands out. The candidate’s ability to adapt to new situations and learn new skills. This concept separates people who languish in their roles from people who pursue greater opportunities, who learn and grow over time. It’s called Learning Agility. The trouble is, how do you define it, how can you measure it, and how can you use it as part of your hiring process? Defining Learning Agility Learning agility is the ability of an individual to learn, adapt, and change according to the pressures of a situation. “In a nutshell, learning agility is a set of complex skills that enable us to learn something new in one place and then apply what we learned elsewhere, in a wholly different situation. Learning agility is our ability to learn, adapt, unlearn, and relearn to keep up with constantly changing conditions.” – Harver . As we all know, businesses don’t remain static. The requirements of a job, the tools used to perform it, the people you interact with; these all change from week to week, month to month, or year to year. People who get stuck in “the way we’ve always done it” tend to develop from a core of institutional knowledge into a roadblock to progress, all because of their inability to change. The best companies out there are the ones that can adapt to change. The company itself, and its leadership, are capable of changing according to outside pressures. They can only do this when the people they hire are, themselves, capable of adapting to change. Thus, one of the best long-term investments you can make in your workforce is emphasizing learning agility. “Columbia University and the Center for Creative Leadership defined learning agility as ‘A mindset and corresponding collection of practices that allow leaders to continually develop, grow and utilize new strategies that will equip them for the increasingly complex problems they face in their organizations.'” – AIHR . You’ve heard the metaphor before: “When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” Learning agility is how you surpass this problem. Moreover, learning agility is not just about finding a screwdriver to deal with a screw instead of a hammer; it’s about learning about new developments in screw design , different types of screws to use for different purposes, and different kinds of drivers with different features for different situations. Learning agility isn’t just about recognizing when you don’t know something and learning it; it’s about unlearning what you think is best and learning a new best practice, or about self-examining what you think you do know to verify whether or not it’s something you should know better. Why Learning Agility Matters for Business We’ve all experienced cases where a business refuses to adapt to the times. Despite the clear benefits of a newer method, they might stick with an old-fashioned and out-of-date way of performing a task. Consider businesses that, today, still refuse to get a website, refuse to use an Applicant Tracking System , or refuse to adapt to skills being taught in schools for new hires. “According to Korn Ferry , learning agility is a top predictor of high potential and long-term success, and companies with the greatest rates of high learning agile executives produce 25% higher profit margins than their peers.” – AIHR. Consider the case of COVID-19 and how businesses have needed to adapt to the pressures of a global pandemic. Consider how some companies were able to seamlessly transition to primarily or entirely remote staffing in a matter of days, while others took months of dragging their feet before the barest minimum implementation, and others resisted every step of the way and never made the change. Consider, too, how there are many tangible, measurable benefits to working remotely. Yet, despite experiencing those benefits first-hand, many companies are keen to push for a return to office work. What pressures lead to this? Often, it’s the inability of leadership or management to adapt; a lack of learning agility in the decision-makers responsible. It’s no coincidence that turnover is skyrocketed amongst the agile learners in the workforce when their employers refuse to adapt. Make no mistake: any change requires learning. New skills, new tools, new means of communication; it’s all essential to a significant shift like a change to remote work. Some people take to it quickly. Others grew up using it. Some resist it every step of the way. Guess which ones are the ones most likely to fail in a new environment? The case of Kodak is an example of a lack of agility ruining a company. Kodak was the #1 player in film cameras, with over 145,000 employees at its peak. Today, it’s a much smaller company with a tiny fraction of its former market share and under 5,000 employees. Kodak invented the digital camera years before it caught on, but rather than invest in new and exciting technology, they shelved it out of fear that it would crush their core business model. Well, crush that model it did, but rather than being on the forefront of innovation, they resisted it every step of the way and brought about their downfall because of it. We live in a world where technological development has increased at an unheard-of pace. Consider that humanity spent hundreds of thousands of years with virtually no technological development. Then, we went from harnessing electricity to landing on the moon to developing machine learning algorithms in under 200 years. The world of business, technology, and commerce is absolutely unlike anything it has been even a decade ago and will continue to change at an accelerating pace until the laws of physics get in the way. Looking for Agile Learners As part of your hiring process, you want to hire agile learners,  but how can you identify them? First, it helps to know what characteristics to look for. Agile learners often share characteristics such as: The ability to connect dots, draw conclusions, and make decisions with confidence, on the spot, without needing to dial back for extensive research or data harvesting. The ability to un-learn old ways of doing things and learn new ones, adjusting to the rapid pace of development in business. The vision to see the big picture and how a decision can have repercussions beyond the immediate fallout. The ability to adapt to changing pressures or new information, particularly when that information recontextualizes a decision or shows how a choice is incorrect. The confidence to deal with new situations head-on, rather than shy away from the unexpected. The drive not just to adapt to innovations developed by others, but to spearhead innovation themselves. These characteristics are formalized in the Burke Learning Agility Inventory, a set of nine dimensions used to measure and assess learning agility. Burke is one of several options for evaluating learning agility, but it is one of the most popular and well-recognized. The dimensions defined in it are: Speed . Speed is the ability to act quickly, discard ideas that aren’t working, and adopt new possibilities, accelerating your ability to pivot and adjust to newly-obtained information. Flexibility . Flexibility is a measurement of the ability to be open to new ideas and synthesize information into new proposals. Experimentation . Experimentation is the inherent or learned desire to try new things and see how they work, rather than a hesitation to try something new for fear of failure. Activity Risk . Activity risk is the drive to seek new ideas and try new things, taking calculated risks. Agile learners don’t shy away from risk, but neither do they take uninformed risks for no reason. Interpersonal Risk . Interpersonal risk is the personal ability to admit to being wrong, to learn, adjust, and change, and to know when to seek assistance from experts. In an individual, this is critical, but in a leader, it’s essential to guiding a team of agile learners. Collaboration . Collaboration is the ability of an individual to work with others, particularly others who have disparate opinions, lived experiences, and diversity of thought . Research . Research is the ability to gather information to inform new decisions. “Knowing what you don’t know” is a crucial component of this quality, but so too is the innate drive to question everything and verify whether what you think you know is accurate. Feedback . Agile learners are part of teams, seeking input from those around them to verify ideas, enhance performance, and adapt to external pressures they may not see from their perspective. Self-Reflection . Self-reflection is the ability to slow down and re-assess, to verify whether or not you’re on the right track. Sometimes, you may be in a position where the feedback you need can’t come from an external source but must originate within. All of this is critical, in various ways, to being an agile learner. Each quality is related to each other quality, of course, and the overall concept of agile learning is just one facet of what makes an employee great. How to Assess Learning Agility in Hiring If you want to use learning agility as a metric in your hiring, you need to know how to assess it in a candidate. One option is to use a pre-developed learning agility assessment. You are not breaking new ground by discovering learning agility; indeed, companies like IBM have developed assessments based on psychometric frameworks specifically designed to test learning agility. For example: IBM Learning Agility Assessment Mettl Learning Agility Test Burke Learning Agility Inventory Adding one of these assessments to your hiring process can be a good avenue to assess the learning agility capabilities of your candidates. Be aware, however, that for your company to retain the employment of agile learners, the company itself must be agile. A disconnect between agile learners and stagnating managers will lead to high levels of turnover, as those agile learners chafe at restrictions and identify problems they cannot solve due to resistance from management. Another option is to ask targeted interview questions designed to assess learning agility. Questions such as: How the candidate typically gives or receives feedback about their performance . You’re looking for people who are receptive to both giving and receiving feedback and who adapt their processes to the feedback they receive. How the candidate has learned from the people they interact with, especially those who report to them as a leader . Agile leaders need to be able to learn from those below them. Present them with a hypothetical problem and ask them how they might go about solving it . You’re not necessarily looking for a “right” solution, but rather, the process the candidate may go through to find that solution. Finally, it’s possible to hire individuals with the skills and experience you need and train learning agility later. Learning agility is a learnable skill, though some people will find it more challenging to pick up than others. The key to training agile learning is acknowledging that mistakes will happen and avoiding punishing mistakes with undue harshness. Treat mistakes as learning opportunities that can be recovered, teach the individual how to learn from them, and make sure they don’t repeat mistakes. Institute processes like cross-training, continued education, and sponsored training to help develop new skills and gain new experiences. The more you punish thinking outside the box or trying new things (especially when they may not work), the worse you suppress learning agility within your organization. However, that’s not to say that you should allow individuals to make obvious mistakes. If an action they promote is quite clearly a mistake, they are missing the context that would enable them to identify it as such; thus, your job becomes to provide them with that context, not to blindly deny them their opportunity to innovate. Learning agility is critical to the modern business; how you encourage it within your organization is for you to determine.

We’ve written quite a bit recently about bias in hiring . To sum up: Bias can take many forms, many of which are unconscious. Bias can be inherent to systems used; an ATS is not guaranteed to be without bias. Working to eliminate bias from the hiring process helps increase workforce diversity. It’s a complicated topic, with many strategies and considerations that are relevant to the hiring process. You want to minimize bias, though it’s impossible to remove entirely. Indeed, sometimes, removing one form of it introduces another. Luckily, some forms of bias are much easier to remove or counteract than others. One way to remove these “low-hanging fruit” biases is to implement a blind hiring process. What is it, and how can you do it? Read on to learn more. What is Blind Hiring? When hiring for an open role, you have to process your list of candidates and filter it down to the best possible people for the job. How do you do that? Often, you will start with broad filters. Anyone who doesn’t list the skills required for the role, doesn’t meet the experience minimums, or lacks required qualifications (such as a security clearance) can easily be eliminated from the running. However, that still leaves you with a large candidate pool. You need to prune it down somehow. So, perhaps you start eliminating candidates based on less relevant factors. Unconscious bias can manifest in choosing who you remove from the candidate pool. For example, you might remove someone you get a bad “gut feeling” about, despite having no data to back it up. This gut feeling could be based on something in their resume, but it could also be as simple as not liking their name. A common form of bias is associative bias. Imagine for a moment that you had a childhood bully named Tom. When it comes time to make your hiring choices, you find a candidate named Tom and remove them from the running because you have a bad feeling about them. Nothing about their resume indicated they were a bad fit; you simply have negative emotions tied to their name. This applies to more than just associative biases. Another common form of bias is eliminating candidates with “foreign” names, which is typically a form of racial bias. Many hiring managers will unconsciously pick Tom when choosing between Tom and Muhammad, even if both resumes are identical. So, what if you remove the names from resumes? In doing so, you can remove name-based biases. This is a basic form of blind hiring. Identify pieces of information that are not relevant to the hiring decision but are present on a resume. Remove those pieces of information from the candidate’s file, and make your determinations based on what remains. Once a candidate has passed the initial screenings and filters, you can return access to that information as necessary (such as needing their address to send paperwork or their name to address them in a phone interview.) Typically, blind hiring is implemented early in the screening process when more personal information isn’t necessary. For example, if you ask an applicant to take a skills assessment, you can judge them based on their performance in that assessment. Anyone who doesn’t pass it can be removed, regardless of their personal information. Anyone who does can move on to more personal interviews or other screening. What Information is Removed in Blind Hiring? Generally, the information removed in blind hiring has to meet two criteria. First, it is related to personal, protected information, usually the kind of information that is protected by labor laws. Second, it must be information not relevant to the hiring decision. What kind of information might this be?  Name. One of the most common forms of unconscious bias is bias against names outside the hiring manager’s typical societal experiences. This is often tied to racial bias as well. “Ethnic” names, or names from cultures outside of the regional culture, are often suppressed.  Ethnicity/Race/Nationality. While most job application processes don’t ask for ethnicity, if a candidate has a photo attached to their resume, or if you look them up on social media, it can come up. While national citizenship can be relevant for hiring later in the process (such as if a work visa is needed), it is irrelevant to the early screening phases.  Gender. Despite widespread equal rights movements and social pressure towards equality – and companies claiming to make commitments to that effect – gender is still a basis for hiring discrimination. Gender segregation is still widespread throughout hiring and work . This doesn’t even begin to get into non-traditional gender identities, including trans candidates, non-binary candidates, or agender candidates. Gender should not be considered in hiring and should thus be removed from the early screening process as part of blind hiring. Education. While a minimum amount of higher education may be significant to the hiring decision, the candidate’s school choice is not. Studies have shown that attending a prestigious university is not necessarily a predictor of job performance or success. It’s often more of a sign of nepotism and family connections than anything. Additionally, using educational institution can be a form of racial bias when you consider that there are many educational institutions that are predominantly black, for example. So, while you can judge an individual based on whether or not they achieved a degree of higher education, you should not judge them based on what school issued it. Even companies like Google are removing this information from their hiring process.  Age. One of the more overlooked categories in the protected attributes list is age. While age can potentially tie into experience levels, it is not a primary determining factor and should not be considered. Age discrimination against the young and the old is highly detrimental to a diverse workforce. Personal Interests. Some candidates may list their hobbies or personal interests on their resumes or as part of their applications. This information is largely irrelevant to the hiring process and a way to potentially discriminate in hiring. A simple bias might be “this person likes reading, so they must be smart” or assigning more or less value to certain hobbies that are traditionally relevant to women or minorities. Does someone preferring woodworking or knitting impact your choice to hire them? It shouldn’t.  Location. Location can be tied to discrimination based on, among other things, socio-economic status. Judging a candidate based on their location – even as broadly as zip code – can become a form of discrimination. Redlining and other geographic segregation of minorities (and income levels) is a real problem in many cities. We also live in a globalized society, where the nature of work can mostly be done remotely. Location may only come into play when you consider in-country versus out-of-country. Even then, it’s more relevant to the paperwork involved in finalizing a hire than it is in their initial consideration. How to Implement Blind Hiring The actual process for implementing blind hiring will vary from organization to organization. You need to determine what information is relevant and what isn’t and how to filter it. The easiest way to implement blind hiring is to use a hiring platform that includes it built-in. Such platforms include: Toggl Hire GapJumpers Blendoor Entelo Diversity Pymetrics Textio FairHire Today, many – if not most – applicant tracking systems have blind hiring methodology built into them. Smaller businesses that don’t want to invest in an ATS might instead use spreadsheets to aggregate information about candidates and hide or remove data fields that include irrelevant information. It’s more manual work but can be just as effective. Remember, blind hiring is generally best as part of the initial screening, not a later phase of the hiring process. You should also determine which pieces of information should be removed. Some platforms remove more than others, and some allow you to customize what you remove. Consider the list above. Another key to a successful blind hiring process is removing sources of bias before the candidate even enters your orbit. Specifically, you want to write a neutral and bias-free job posting. This can involve replacing traditionally masculine language with gender-neutral language and removing “requirements” that are not genuinely required for success in the role. You might be thinking, “this doesn’t leave much information to judge a candidate,” and you may be right. Thus, you will want to implement an additional, unbiased way to screen candidates. One standard option is to implement a skills assessment. The ability to judge a candidate based on their performance in tasks they would be doing in the actual job is invaluable to any hiring process. Some organizations also progress to anonymized initial interviews. These interviews may be conducted via a live chat or using one-way non-video interview questionnaires, though this is both more difficult and less valuable as an initial screening filter. Finally, you will want to track employee performance using this hiring process. For obvious reasons, you want to improve outcomes in terms of employee loyalty, performance, and success in their role; if your blind hiring process suppresses positive results, you need to analyze the situation and find out why, so you can solve the problem. Are There Drawbacks to Blind Hiring? In truth, blind hiring is not a perfect system. For one thing, it can only genuinely apply to the early phases of candidate screening. After that point, it becomes unavoidable to learn things like your candidate’s name, ethnicity, or gender presentation. To ensure that these qualities do not impact hiring, you need additional safeguards, such as: Bias training for your HR staff to build awareness and strategies to minimize bias. Interview scorecards  to provide a standardized and more objective rating for candidates. Multi-person interviews to reduce the impact of an individual’s unconscious bias. Additionally, blind hiring can get in the way of some diversity initiatives. For example, removing demographic information may lead to considerable difficulties if your company aims to hire more minority candidates. On top of that, if you don’t appropriately adjust your job postings, you may find your initial candidate pool – even subject to anonymization – can be skewed. “Some research has shown that making applications anonymous can have the reverse effect for minority groups, as this blocks the efforts made by affirmative actions. For example, one study found that anonymous hiring reduced the likelihood of women getting callbacks, as this anonymity “prevented the use of positive measures aimed at improving the representation of women.”” – Glassdoor Blind hiring is just one tool among many that helps build a less biased hiring process. Should Your Company Invest in Blind Hiring? Generally, yes. A blind hiring process helps to remove some easy forms of bias. However, it is not without context. Any system used for blind hiring is part of an overall hiring process and ecosystem. If your job posting, your company culture, or a machine learning algorithm are themselves biased, a blind hiring process will not be able to counteract that bias. Removing bias and creating a more diverse workforce has tangible benefits to most companies . Diverse teams consistently out-perform less diverse teams in every context and well-formed study looking into the subject. Companies emphasizing diversity also see higher profits, better outcomes, more engagement and loyalty, and better customer retention. There is no substitution for constant awareness, training, and review. Blind hiring can be one part of a more comprehensive solution, but it is not a complete solution itself. Implementing a blind hiring process can be highly beneficial, but only as part of a thorough dedication to diversity throughout the company. Do you or your company have any questions about blind hiring or how you can implement it into your hiring process? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we’ll get a conversation started. Changing up how your hiring process works might not be an easy task for every company, so we would be more than happy to assist you by answering any of your questions or clearing up any concerns that you may have.

Your company has an open role you need to fill. Maybe you have a handful of them, or it’s an ongoing process to fill low-level positions with constant churn. Whatever the reason is, you’ve put up a job posting, and the applications are starting to come in. There’s just one problem. There are thousands of them. You have a massive flood of job applications, which means thousands of people to filter through to find the right person for the job. Even if you’re spending just five minutes per application, that’s only a dozen applications per hour. That’s two solid weeks of 8-hour days doing nothing but looking through these applications. That’s not sustainable. Note: Obviously, we’re exaggerating somewhat here. The average job posting receives around 250 applications. Executive positions and upper management will receive fewer, as will highly technical or skilled positions. Front-line and entry-level may receive more, potentially thousands. The point is that you’re always going to be spending a lot of time filtering resumes, so it pays off to find ways to do it more effectively and efficiently. How can you handle this more efficiently? How can you filter your candidate pool down to something more reasonable without cutting out good candidates? Here are a dozen tips you can use to streamline the process. 1: Invest in a Good ATS The first thing you should do is invest in a suitable Applicant Tracking System , or ATS. Note that this is different from using an AI/Machine Learning powered filtering system. We’ll cover that more later. An ATS is a platform that accumulates all of the information from a job application and presents it in a standardized format. It makes it a lot easier to estimate how well a candidate might fit in based on the information they provide, the results of any assessments you ask them to take, and other factors (like the other items on this list.) While these systems might not necessarily help you filter applications, using one will help you streamline the process, letting you go through them more quickly and make decisions based on more relevant information. If you’re combing through resumes and application data raw, you run the risk of making judgments based on irrelevant data, which loses you good candidates and can create adverse impact . What about the filtering itself? What can you do to filter your candidate pool and dig through excess resumes? 2: Set Fast-Track Keywords You can do two kinds of keyword-based filtering: positive and negative. We’ll discuss both, but let’s start with the positive. Positive filtering is when you set keywords that would make a given candidate highly desirable. For example, if you’re hiring for a cybersecurity role, you might identify keywords that would indicate a great fit. Things like: Mentioning graduating from a top infosec institution. Earning high-level certifications in cybersecurity. Previous work for highly reputable infosec companies. If a candidate turns up that checks all the right boxes, you can prioritize looking at their resume and quickly get them in for an interview. With the right set of keywords, you can have a pretty good chance of identifying highly skilled candidates right off the bat. The trouble with this is two-fold. First, people might lie on their resumes. In an attempt to get past AI filtering, keyword stuffing is unfortunately common. Second, you might miss high-quality candidates who don’t have those resources but would be just as good to hire. And, after all, you can always pay to get a candidate certified if they have the right skills. 3: Set a Red Flag Keyword The other kind of keyword-based filtering you can do is negative filtering. These are keywords that, if present in a resume, mean that the candidate is almost definitely not what you’re looking for. These keywords don’t necessarily have to be negative. For example, a candidate whose previous work history includes top-tier organizations might be a poor fit for yours simply due to expecting higher compensation than you can provide. Sure, personal circumstances might mean they’d be willing to accept the role, but they might not enjoy it and might not last. Or, they might make it through the interviews and set a number much higher than you can offer when it comes time to discuss salary. Many industries also have specific keywords that might indicate that the candidate isn’t appropriate for the role. Mis-using specific terms, graduating from a low-quality educational institution, and other such indications might show that a candidate is worth removing from the pool. Keyword filtering is always tricky because keywords alone can’t tell the whole story. You always risk eliminating good candidates or fast-tracking poor candidates if you’re using keyword filtering alone. However, other filtering methods can augment these checks and help verify your decision. 4: Look for Minimum Qualifications Most jobs have minimum qualifications. You might need at least a basic certification, a certain number of years of experience, or particular skills. For example, you don’t want to hire someone to work as a back-end developer if they’ve never looked at PHP or SQL before. Generally, the idea is to put your minimum qualifications in the job posting. Then, anyone who doesn’t meet them can be removed from the running, both for not meeting them and for not paying attention to the job posting itself. This is generally most applicable to skilled roles and mid-level roles. Entry-level roles often don’t have tangible minimums, and upper-level roles will have fewer applicants and a greater onus on individual review of each candidate. 5: Look for Spam Submissions Another check you can run on your candidate pool is if any of the applications are spam. Unfortunately, some organizations will spam fake applications to businesses they dislike as a form of activism. There are also malicious actors who will spam applications just to disrupt businesses. On a less unsavory level, some low-quality recruiters will “represent” their candidates by putting their applications in pretty much anywhere they can. These recruiters don’t care about skill match, culture match, salary matching, or anything else. They’re in it for the commission. Most of the time, even if you hire someone one of these recruiters represents, they won’t work out. Often, you can identify these by specific characteristics. Maybe you got a dozen resumes that all look virtually identical. Maybe they were all using the same information as a referrer in a “how did you hear about this job” question, or they have apparent fake data. Regardless of how you identify them, removing them can save you the time you would otherwise spend combing through them. 6: Post a Salary Range Publicly There’s quite a bit of debate over whether or not to publish salary range information in a job posting. If you’re getting too many job applications, posting a salary range can be a great way to cut down on it. As previously discussed , posting a salary range will weed out candidates who think it’s either too high or too low, cutting back on the number of people who apply. The caveat here is that your salary should be competitive in the industry and commensurate with the job duties and expectations. Paying well under the market rate generally only works if your target audience is people desperate for a job or when you can spring it on them only after they’ve come too far to back out. Even then, it often doesn’t work. 7: Filter Incomplete Applications Sometimes, a job application process will send you the application and resume for a candidate even if that candidate has not finished the entire application process. This is often most relevant in cases where an application requests that the candidate fill out forms and additional fields on top of sending in their resume; some will fail to do the rest and hope their resume alone is enough. A good ATS should filter out any applications that are incomplete or unfinished. There’s no reason to waste your time on a candidate who can’t even finish the application process. 8: Include a Skills Test as Part of the Application Process Skill assessments as part of the application process can give you a better idea of the talents and knowledge of your candidate. It will also cut back on the number of people who apply because many people won’t want to take the assessment. Luckily, many of those people won’t be qualified or are some of the “spam” submissions mentioned above. If you include a skills assessment as part of the application process, you can do two things. First, you can ignore the applications of anyone who doesn’t take the assessment. After all, if they can’t complete the application, they shouldn’t be hired. Second, you can then use the assessment results as part of your review of the candidate. Assessments are graded, after all, so the candidate’s performance on the evaluation can give you good information about their quality as a potential hire. 9: Use a “Follows Instructions” Trap You may have seen a technique in action over the years, where a job application may have a unique question or field. This question may be something like “Write the word Octopus below” or something equally meaningless. The entire purpose of the question is to be non-standard. It helps filter out bots and people who aren’t paying attention to what they fill out. It is, essentially, a trap. Anyone who doesn’t fill out that field correctly, no matter how good their application looks, is ignored for being unable to follow instructions. There are pros and cons to using this method, not the least of which is looking unprofessional and resorting to what is essentially a DIY Captcha to solve a bot problem. Still, it can be a way to filter out some non-candidate applicants to avoid wasting your time. 10: Narrowly Target Your Job Posting A common mistake that companies make is throwing out job postings everywhere they can to rake in as broad a candidate pool as possible and then filter it down. Unfortunately, this either makes you reliant on an AI ATS system or puts the burden of weeding out hundreds of non-candidates from the pool manually on your HR team. There are two ways to target a job posting. The first is to write a relatively narrow post. Deciding what to include as required skills, what culture fit to look for, what certifications or education to require; the less general you can make it, the better. The second is to consider where you post your job. Sites like Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, and Glassdoor are all quite large and can get you a broad candidate pool, but are they worth it over more niche, industry-focused job boards? Probably not. 11: Consider Automated Screening Software Above, we mentioned the risk of using AI or machine learning to filter resumes. There are two main potential problems. The first is if the software is unsophisticated and operates primarily on keywords. Keyword-based filters can be baffled by keyword stuffing in resumes, which is common for precisely that reason. The second is that more machine learning can lead to unexpected decisions. A common example is basing a decision on an otherwise irrelevant part of a resume that the machine identifies as a pattern, like the length of a person’s name or other data. The computer can recognize it even when a human wouldn’t. AI-based filters can work if they have human oversight. Just don’t become overly reliant on them to make decisions for you. 12: Track Submissions by Platform to Optimize Later While it won’t help you with your current problem, one good idea is to track where your applicants come from and their overall job performance. When you hire someone, record where they applied from and see if they perform well and how long they stick with your company. Then, you can identify channels that have never referred a good candidate and stop using them in the future. It’s a great way to cut back on the number of meaningless applications you receive. Do you or your company have any questions about the possible solutions you can implement if you’ve received too many job applications? Would you like a little more clarification on anything? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we’ll get a conversation started! We’ll gladly assist you however we possibly can!

Recruitment is crucial to any organization’s success.  Hiring the right talent is essential for driving growth, achieving business objectives, and maintaining a competitive edge in the market. However, in order to make informed decisions and optimize the hiring process, you need to rely on data-driven insights. This is where recruitment metrics come into play. Recruitment metrics refer to the quantifiable measures used to assess and track various aspects of the hiring process. These metrics provide valuable information and help HR professionals make informed decisions when it comes to sourcing, evaluating, and selecting candidates. By leveraging recruitment metrics effectively, organizations can improve their hiring strategies, enhance candidate experience, and ultimately make successful hires. Recruitment metrics play a pivotal role in ensuring successful hiring outcomes. They provide you with the necessary data to evaluate the effectiveness of their recruitment efforts, identify areas for improvement, and align their strategies with organizational goals. By tracking and analyzing recruitment metrics, companies can optimize their hiring process, reduce time and cost per hire, and enhance overall talent acquisition. The Role of Recruitment Metrics in Modern Hiring Recruitment has always been a critical function within any organization. Still, with the landscape of hiring undergoing significant changes in recent years, the role of recruitment metrics in modern hiring practices has taken center stage. No longer are companies relying on traditional, instinct-driven hiring processes. Instead, we’ve seen a shift towards more data-driven approaches, driven largely by technological advancements, which have radically changed the way companies hire. Recruitment metrics are now integral to the modern hiring process, enabling organizations to transition from relying on resumes and interviews alone to using more comprehensive, data-driven assessment methods. The rise of innovative recruitment technologies, such as applicant tracking systems , video interviews, and online assessments, has made this possible. These technologies provide easy access to vast quantities of data at every stage of the recruitment process, making the evaluation of potential candidates more thorough and efficient. Through the effective use of recruitment metrics, companies can make more informed, data-driven decisions. They move beyond relying on personal biases or gut feelings, which can often skew the hiring process. These quantifiable data allow organizations to assess the effectiveness of their sourcing channels, the quality of their candidates, and the impact of their recruitment strategies. By replacing subjective judgments with hard data, organizations can identify areas of weakness in their hiring process, adjust accordingly, and make decisions that are backed by evidence. This results in hiring outcomes that are more favorable and likely to contribute positively to the company’s growth and success. Furthermore, metrics can shine a light on different aspects of the recruitment process that were previously difficult to measure. They can provide insights into candidate experiences, evaluate the effectiveness of different recruitment channels, and help organizations understand the time and cost implications of their hiring processes. Understanding these metrics and their impacts is critical for enhancing the overall efficiency of the hiring process, improving candidate experiences, and, ultimately, ensuring long-term organizational success. Moreover, recruitment metrics can also help identify trends and patterns in the hiring process. For instance, by examining the source of hire metric, companies can understand where their best hires are coming from and reallocate resources to those channels accordingly. Similarly, by analyzing the time-to-fill metric (more on this later), companies can identify bottlenecks in their hiring process and work towards streamlining it. In essence, recruitment metrics are more than just numbers or data points; they are key performance indicators that can significantly influence a company’s hiring success. By measuring these metrics consistently and accurately, organizations can continually improve their hiring processes , ensuring they attract the right talent and achieve their strategic business objectives. In this rapidly changing hiring landscape, understanding and leveraging recruitment metrics is no longer optional; it’s a necessity. It’s clear that mastering these metrics is the key to successful hiring in the modern world. This mastery is fundamental in improving the quality of hires, increasing operational efficiency, enhancing candidate experiences, and ultimately, driving organizational success. Therefore, the importance of recruitment metrics in modern hiring cannot be overstated. 6 Key Recruitment Metrics You Should Know To harness the power of recruitment metrics, you need to be familiar with key metrics that influence hiring outcomes. Let’s explore some of the most important metrics and their significance: Time to Hire: Time to hire measures the duration it takes to fill a position from the moment it is opened until a candidate is hired. This metric helps organizations assess the efficiency of their recruitment process. A shorter time to hire indicates streamlined processes and reduced costs associated with prolonged vacancies. Quality of Hire: Quality of hire assesses the performance and long-term potential of new hires. It involves measuring metrics such as employee productivity, engagement, and retention. By analyzing the quality of hire, organizations can evaluate the effectiveness of their selection methods and identify areas for improvement. Cost per Hire: Cost per hire calculates the expenses incurred throughout the recruitment process, including advertising, interviewing, screening, and onboarding costs. By tracking this metric, hiring professionals can identify cost-saving opportunities and optimize their recruitment budget. Source of Hire: Source of hire identifies the channels through which candidates discover job opportunities and eventually get hired. This metric helps organizations evaluate the effectiveness of their sourcing strategies and allocate resources to the most productive channels. Candidate Experience: Candidate experience measures the satisfaction and engagement levels of candidates throughout the recruitment process. A positive candidate experience not only enhances the organization’s employer brand but also attracts top talent. By analyzing this metric, hiring professionals can identify pain points and improve the overall candidate journey. Employee Retention Rate: Employee retention rate measures the percentage of employees who stay with the organization over a specific period. High retention rates are indicative of successful hires and effective talent management strategies. By tracking this metric, organizations can identify areas where employee retention can be improved and take proactive measures to enhance employee satisfaction and engagement. By understanding and effectively utilizing these recruitment metrics, HR professionals can make data-driven decisions that enhance the hiring process, attract top talent , and drive organizational success. How to Measure and Analyze Recruitment Metrics To effectively utilize recruitment metrics, you need to implement the right tools and processes for data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Modern HR technology, such as applicant tracking systems and human capital management software, plays a pivotal role in tracking recruitment metrics. These tools automate data collection, provide real-time insights, and generate reports that help hiring professionals understand the impact of their recruitment efforts. Collecting data is only the first step; analyzing and interpreting the data is equally important. Hiring professionals need to have a solid understanding of statistical analysis techniques to derive meaningful insights from recruitment metrics. This includes identifying trends, patterns, and correlations that can inform decision-making. Consider a scenario where a company implemented a new sourcing channel for attracting candidates. By tracking the source of hire metric, the HR team discovered that candidates from this channel had a significantly higher quality of hire compared to other channels. This insight allowed them to reallocate their recruitment budget and focus more on the successful sourcing channel, resulting in improved hiring outcomes. Understanding and leveraging these key recruitment metrics empowers you to make data-driven decisions that enhance the effectiveness of their hiring process, attract top talent, and drive organizational success. Utilizing Recruitment Metrics to Improve the Hiring Process Recruitment metrics are not only valuable for tracking and analysis but also for process improvement. You can leverage metrics to enhance the hiring process in several ways.  By closely monitoring metrics such as time to hire and cost per hire, you can identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the recruitment process. This allows you to streamline processes, eliminate unnecessary steps, and reduce the time and cost associated with hiring.  Candidate experience is a critical factor in attracting and retaining top talent. By analyzing metrics related to candidate experiences, such as application completion rates and feedback scores, you can identify pain points and optimize the recruitment process to provide a positive and engaging experience for candidates. Employee retention is directly linked to the quality of hires made by an organization . By analyzing recruitment metrics and their correlation with employee retention rates, hiring professionals can identify hiring practices that lead to higher employee satisfaction and longer tenures. This insight allows organizations to refine their selection criteria and ensure a better fit between candidates and job roles. Challenges and Limitations of Recruitment Metrics Despite the undeniable benefits of recruitment metrics, they are not without their challenges and limitations. It’s crucial for HR professionals to be aware of these obstacles to use recruitment metrics effectively and responsibly. One of the key challenges in using recruitment metrics is ensuring data accuracy. For metrics to be reliable, they must be based on accurate and up-to-date data. However, with the vast amount of data that organizations collect, ensuring the quality of this data can be daunting. Misinterpretation of data or basing decisions on outdated or incorrect data can lead to flawed conclusions and suboptimal hiring decisions. Moreover, data privacy has become an increasingly critical concern in the digital age. When collecting and analyzing recruitment data, organizations must ensure they are in compliance with various privacy laws and regulations. They need to handle sensitive candidate information with the utmost care, respecting the rights of individuals to their data, which can add a layer of complexity to the recruitment process. Another challenge is the risk of over-reliance on quantifiable data. While recruitment metrics provide valuable insights, they should not be used in isolation. They are tools to aid decision-making, not to replace human judgment. It’s essential to remember that hiring is ultimately about people. Numbers and data can tell you a lot, but they may not capture everything about a candidate’s potential or fit within the organization’s culture. Furthermore, there can be an overwhelming number of metrics to track, and HR professionals can sometimes struggle to determine which ones are the most relevant for their specific context. Not all metrics hold the same value for all organizations. As such, identifying the most meaningful metrics that align with the organization’s goals and objectives is paramount. While recruitment metrics offer many benefits, understanding their limitations and challenges is key to their effective use. Balancing data-driven decisions with human insight, ensuring data accuracy and privacy, and choosing the most relevant metrics are all critical aspects of an effective recruitment metrics strategy. Future Trends in Recruitment Metrics The field of recruitment metrics is continuously evolving, driven by advancements in technology and the increasing availability of data.  As technology continues to advance, organizations will have access to more robust and comprehensive data sets. This will enable hiring professionals to derive deeper insights , identify predictive patterns, and make more accurate hiring decisions. Data-driven recruitment will become the norm, empowering organizations to find the right talent more efficiently and effectively. Predictive analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasingly significant role in recruitment. These technologies can analyze vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and predict future hiring outcomes. By leveraging predictive analytics and AI, organizations can proactively identify high-potential candidates, optimize recruitment strategies, and reduce bias in the hiring process. Final Thoughts  Recruitment metrics are not just numbers; they are powerful tools that guide decision-making, optimize processes, and drive successful hiring outcomes. In an increasingly competitive job market, organizations that embrace data-driven recruitment strategies will have a significant advantage in attracting and retaining top talent. In conclusion, mastering recruitment metrics is crucial for you to master your hiring efforts. By understanding and utilizing key recruitment metrics, organizations can make informed decisions, improve the hiring process, enhance the candidate experience, and ultimately achieve their business objectives. If you’re looking for assistance in harnessing the power of recruitment metrics, reach out to us . Our team of experts is here to support you in optimizing your talent acquisition strategies and driving hiring success.

Benefits of Professional Staffing How Professional Staffing Agencies Work Challenges and Solutions in Professional Staffing Finding the Right Professional Staffing Agency Best Practices for Effective Professional Staffing Conclusion You’ve heard it before and I will say it again: finding the right talent is crucial for an organization’s success.  Hiring the best professionals who possess the necessary skills and expertise can significantly impact productivity, innovation, and overall business growth. This is where professional staffing plays a super important role for your company.  Professional staffing is a strategic approach to hiring that involves engaging the services of specialized staffing agencies to find qualified professionals for temporary, contract, or permanent positions. These agencies act as intermediaries between employers and job seekers, helping organizations identify and recruit top talent while ensuring candidates find suitable job opportunities aligned with their skills and career goals. Keep reading to explore the concept of professional staffing, its benefits, and how it can help organizations find the perfect fit for their staffing needs. Benefits of Professional Staffing The success of any organization relies heavily on the caliber of its workforce. Hiring the right professionals can enhance operational efficiency, drive innovation, and strengthen the company’s competitive advantage. Professional staffing provides access to a vast pool of talent, saving organizations valuable time and effort in their search for the perfect candidate. One of the key benefits of professional staffing is the streamlined hiring process. When organizations partner with professional staffing agencies, these agencies take on the responsibility of sourcing, screening, and selecting candidates. This allows organizations to focus on their core activities while leaving the recruitment tasks to experts who possess the knowledge and experience to efficiently identify suitable candidates. Another advantage of professional staffing is the access it provides to top talent. Professional staffing agencies have extensive networks and resources that enable them to attract and retain highly qualified professionals. Leveraging their industry expertise and understanding of market trends, these agencies can identify individuals with the right skills and qualifications, ensuring that organizations gain access to the most qualified candidates for their positions. Cost and time savings are also significant benefits of outsourcing the recruitment process to professional staffing agencies. These agencies have the necessary infrastructure and resources to handle candidate sourcing, screening, and onboarding efficiently. By entrusting these tasks to the agency, organizations can reduce the time-to-fill vacancies and minimize recruitment costs associated with traditional hiring methods. In summary, professional staffing offers organizations the opportunity to enhance their workforce by accessing top talent through a streamlined hiring process. The benefits include time and cost savings, as well as the assurance of finding highly qualified professionals. By partnering with professional staffing agencies, organizations can focus on their core activities while leaving the recruitment tasks to experts in the field. How Professional Staffing Agencies Work Professional staffing agencies operate through a systematic approach to ensure the best fit between job seekers and employers. Their process involves assessing the staffing requirements of clients, sourcing and screening candidates, and matching them to specific job requirements. To begin, professional staffing agencies thoroughly understand the needs of their clients, including their organization’s culture, values, and specific job requirements. This comprehensive understanding allows them to create a well-rounded recruitment strategy . Next, these agencies utilize various channels such as job boards, social media platforms, and talent databases to source potential candidates. They meticulously screen these candidates based on qualifications, experience, and cultural fit, ensuring that only the most suitable candidates are presented to the client. Once a pool of qualified candidates is identified, the agency matches them to the specific job requirements provided by the client. This involves assessing the candidate’s skills, expertise, and compatibility with the organization’s culture. The agency then presents a shortlist of the most suitable candidates to the client for further consideration. By following this structured approach, professional staffing agencies optimize the chances of finding the right talent that aligns with the client’s staffing needs. This process saves organizations time and effort, as the agency takes on the responsibility of sourcing, screening, and presenting suitable candidates. Challenges and Solutions in Professional Staffing While professional staffing offers numerous benefits, it also presents challenges that organizations and staffing agencies may encounter.  The biggest problem by far with staffing agencies is that they charge placement fees, usually around $20,000 per placed employee. This means that their incentive is to quickly and cheaply find your company an employee who is not the worst. Now I’m going out on a limb here, but I assume your goal is to have the best person for the job. And there are a lot more ways to determine if someone will be the best fit for your company other than being quick and cheap to hire. Since most staffing agencies charge placement fees, you should watch out for them.  Fortunately for you, we are a lot different. Our pricing model is extremely flexible so you can get the services you need, for only as long as you need them. Since we have three different methods of payment options, our incentives will be aligned with your incentives.  When working with us, you have the option to choose a fixed hourly or monthly rate, or our unique flexible subscription plan. You can read more about our solutions here . Some of the other common problems with staffing agencies are that the demand for certain skills often surpasses the available talent pool. To address this challenge, professional staffing agencies can collaborate with organizations to develop talent pipelines. They can invest in training and development programs to upskill candidates and proactively identify emerging skill requirements to stay ahead of the curve. Not only that but, retaining highly skilled professionals can be challenging in today’s competitive job market. To overcome this, organizations and staffing agencies should focus on creating a positive work culture that values employee satisfaction. Offering competitive compensation and benefits, providing growth opportunities, and implementing effective employee engagement strategies can contribute to retaining top talent. Technological advancements continuously shape the world of work. Staffing agencies must embrace technology and leverage innovative tools and platforms for candidate sourcing, screening, and talent management. Adapting to new technologies allows agencies to stay competitive, improve their efficiency, and deliver better results for their clients. By addressing these challenges head-on and implementing suitable solutions, organizations and staffing agencies can navigate the complexities of professional staffing more effectively. Finding the Right Professional Staffing Agency When choosing a professional staffing agency, several factors should be taken into consideration to ensure a successful partnership.  The biggest factor by far is whether or not your incentives and the staffing agency’s incentives are aligned. This is the best way to hire the best possible people for your company.  Look for agencies that specialize in your industry or have a proven track record of successfully placing professionals in similar roles. A deep understanding of industry dynamics and specific job requirements will enhance the chances of finding the best-fit candidates. Consider the agency’s reputation and track record in the staffing industry. Check for client testimonials and success stories to gain insights into their performance and ability to deliver quality candidates. Additionally, verify the agency’s credentials, certifications, and affiliations within the industry to ensure their professionalism and expertise. Each organization has unique staffing needs that may evolve. Assess the agency’s ability to adapt and customize its services to align with your specific requirements. A flexible staffing agency will be able to cater to your changing needs and provide tailored solutions that address your staffing challenges effectively. By carefully considering these factors, you can choose a professional staffing agency that not only possesses the necessary industry expertise but also has a proven reputation for delivering quality candidates. Their flexibility and ability to customize their services will ensure a seamless partnership that meets your organization’s evolving staffing needs. Fortunately for you, we are the best staffing agency available. Contact us today to learn how we can help ! Best Practices for Effective Professional Staffing Provide comprehensive job descriptions that clearly outline the desired qualifications, skills, and experience for each position. By providing detailed information, the staffing agency can better understand your needs and present candidates who meet your specific requirements accurately. Maintain open and regular communication with the staffing agency throughout the hiring process. This includes providing timely feedback on candidates and keeping the agency informed of any changes or updates to job requirements. Clear and efficient communication is crucial for building a strong working relationship with the agency and ensuring alignment in the candidate selection process. Take the time to review the performance of the professionals sourced through the staffing agency and provide feedback to the agency. This feedback loop is essential for continuous improvement in their selection process and ensures that the candidates presented align with your expectations effectively. By implementing these best practices, you can enhance the effectiveness of the professional staffing process. Clear job requirements, strong communication, and regular feedback foster collaboration between your organization and the staffing agency, ultimately leading to successful staffing outcomes. Conclusion Professional staffing provides a valuable solution for organizations seeking qualified professionals to meet their staffing needs. The strategic utilization of professional staffing can contribute to your organization’s success and drive long-term growth. Go ahead and reach out to us today so we can help you find all of your best teammates.

In years past, employers held the upper hand. When looking for a new employee, you had your pick of the litter; you could take your time to filter out a large pool of candidates and make your choice from the cream of the crop. Numerous pressures over the last several years have changed the balance of power. These days, there are more employers with open positions than potential candidates to fill them. Employers are forced to adapt and find a way to navigate this new normal. One part of the solution is developing and deploying a focused, authentic, and convincing EVP, or Employee Value Proposition. Keep reading this post to see 12 employee value proposition examples so you can fill your open positions with the BEST candidates on the market.  What Is the Employee Value Proposition? In business, a value proposition is a statement of what value you provide. A store being more convenient than their competitors, a product being easier to use, a tool offering more features; these are all value propositions. An employee value proposition, also known as an employer value proposition (conveniently both abbreviated as EVP), is similar. It’s the value proposition you offer to your employees. In other words, it’s a statement of the value an employee gets out of working for you over their other options. “Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is usually defined as a set of monetary and non-monetary benefits an organization provides to its employees, in return for the skills, capabilities, and experience they bring and the contributions they make to the organization. However, this definition is somewhat outdated. The modern definition of Employee Value Proposition […] is an ecosystem of support, recognition, and values that an employer provides to employees to achieve their highest potential at work. The key difference here is that EVP should not be looked at as a two-way transaction, but as a comprehensive set of employer offerings that boost employee engagement and bring out the best in employees.” – Smarp . In the past, when employers had the upper hand, the EVP could be as simple as a competitive combination of salary and benefits. Today, it needs to be something more. There are five primary components to a modern EVP: Financial offerings . This component is your salary and monetary benefits, including bonuses, stock options, and retirement matching. Pay is critical to get people in the door – too low a salary means no one will apply – but after a certain point, the returns diminish, and other parts of the EVP become more important. Non-monetary benefits . Your benefits package is often considered part and parcel with the financial benefits but is distinct enough to have a unique category. This component is your slate of offerings like health insurance, paid leave, flexible hours, remote work, moving or commuting stipends, and other benefits to working with your company. Training and development . Employees are done working in jobs with no opportunities for growth. They want to know that, should they want it, they can have a long-term career with your organization, or at the very least that they’ll be able to learn and grow their skills. This means offering training, mentoring, career guidance, promotion opportunities, leadership training, and more. Candidates want to see you invest in your employees. Positive work environment . This component has some overlap with benefits, such as flexible work hours and remote work. However, it also includes benefits such as a culture of recognition , effective communications and team building, conflict resolution, safe working conditions, and freedom from bigotry, discrimination, and harassment, particularly for minority employees. Positive company culture . This is very similar to the work environment but extends to the whole organization. Working for one compelling and friendly team might not be enough if the organization as a whole makes decisions the candidate disagrees with morally and ethically. Likewise, even if the employee’s team is positive, having negative leadership or broken communications across hierarchies can be devastating. The truth is, for hiring today and for the foreseeable future, the power is in the hands of the candidates who are in demand. Developing your EVP is just one part of it, though. You still need to be able to convey that EVP to your candidates, often before they’re even candidates. It becomes part of your employer branding. What does it look like? Here are a dozen examples of EVP content from top brands. 12 Employee Value Proposition Examples Example #1: HubSpot HubSpot is one of the world’s leading CRMs, and as a B2B company, they’re pushing the cutting edge. Check out their career benefits page . You can see immediate benefits, such as acknowledging work/life balance, promoting remote work, financial benefits like a vestment sabbatical, ongoing learning, and tuition reimbursement; everything mentioned on the list above, and more. Drilling down into specific sub-sections will give you even more information and a stronger impression of the company’s EVP. You’ll also notice plenty of photos, direct-from-employee interviews, and other content to support their focus on culture, balance, and benefits to their employees. Example #2: Gartner Gartner is one of the most respected research firms in business. Beyond the implicit value in working for a prestigious and reputable company, their careers page offers more. They promote the value they bring to their clients, the ongoing training and growth they offer to their employees, and have headings at the forefront of the page about diversity and inclusion within the company. More tangible benefits are also covered, with a section about healthcare, retirement, and more. “Work works better when life is lived well.” Like HubSpot, they cover all the bases of the EVP on their core page and offer more on every page you drill down into. Example #3: LinkedIn We all know LinkedIn as the go-to social network for job seekers, employers, and those looking to advance their careers. Most of us don’t necessarily think about the facet of the company behind the scenes, the people working for and running the social network. Yet, LinkedIn is a great place to work. They have an excellent work/life balance, they promote many benefits in both financial and non-monetary realms, and more. They’re also one of many companies turning to compact, concise videos to convey their EVP to interested parties. Based on how old this one is (from 2017!), they were among the first to adopt video for this express purpose. Example #4: &pizza Pizza is hardly a new industry, so how does a company stand out from the giants? &pizza answered the question by forming their company into a cultural movement. They’ve used the pandemic as a springboard to showcase the “future of work” via their environment and culture. They promote a variety of different benefits of interest to potential employees, ranging from paid time off for activism, to sponsored rides to polls on election day, to a “no ceiling” policy where anyone, from the managers to the front-line cashiers, has the potential to grow to the highest ranks within the company. Example #5: Canva Canva has been pushing the envelope for a SaaS program and spearheaded an entire industry of online graphic design platforms, mimicked by even large companies like Adobe. Their careers page is understandably focused on the graphical, but they make plenty of mention of their other benefits. They aren’t as upfront with many of them – you have to check specific job listings and other copy – but it’s all there. Many of their more ephemeral benefits, including company culture, are on the Why Canva page . Example #6: Innocent Drinks This UK-based beverage company is already heavily focused on activism and ethics, as seen by virtually everything on their website, including upfront discussions of gender pay gaps, human rights, inclusion, and more, available in the footer of every page. On top of that, Innocent does something unique: they promote career growth extremely heavily, to the point where they even promote things their employees have done after leaving the company . It’s not just about what they can do to keep you around; it’s what they can do to improve the world, with you and through you. It’s a powerful message as part of an EVP, though it’s more attractive to some kinds of employees than others. Example #7: Merck While many might not think of a pharmaceutical company as a paragon of ethical treatment, Merck is an excellent place to work. They reliably win awards for their working environment, push a narrative of ethics and accomplishments towards the common good, and promote and encourage diversity and inclusion throughout the organization. Overall, it’s a surprisingly compelling and personal level of engagement from a multinational corporation that likely has its pick of candidates, even in today’s climate. Perhaps especially because of today’s climate. Example #8: Netflix Netflix is another company that has produced a video EVP, though as a media company, this is less surprising. Their videos, along with a wide variety of content on their careers page, discuss how their organization focuses on “people over process.” They give employees a nearly unprecedented level of autonomy, promote communication and candid information sharing throughout the company, and, of course, compensate well. Example #9: Yelp Yelp facilitates educated decisions for millions of people every day, and the people behind it are tasked with maintaining the platform that does it. They discuss many of the same EVP benefits mentioned above, including diversity, a wide range of non-monetary benefits, cultural values, and more. Deeper down on their careers page , they even have direct testimonials and reviews from their employees, including some from new hires, which is rare. Example #10: Trader Joe’s Trader Joe’s is a well-recognized and beloved grocery chain with a unique sense of branding and aesthetic. That carries over into their careers page, layered with compelling imagery and depictions of their company culture. Their EVP, however, is more focused around their What We Offer page , which includes tangible and intangible benefits, including paid time off, a healthcare plan, job growth, leadership training, and more. They even include statistics about how most of their management was promoted from the front-line low-level roles. Example #11: Shopify One of the biggest names in eCommerce, Shopify promotes a unique EVP that showcases benefits you don’t usually get from a company. These benefits include everything from self-directed learning and skill-building, to catered meals, growth budgets, and even support for family members. They recognize that many employees are concerned about more than just themselves, and have families to think about, so they support the families as well. Example #12: Google The big G (or rather, their parent company Alphabet, now) is well known for pushing the boundaries of hiring culture and shaking up every aspect of the process. Their EVP is no different. They promote core values such as generous family support, employee wellness, community support like charity matching, and more. Those who stick with it can expect continued career growth and support as long as they work for the company. Your EVP Here Your company has an opportunity to break out from the pack and pick up the best candidates, but to do so, you need to develop your employee value proposition. Cover all the bases; financial, benefits, culture, growth, and positivity. Moreover, this is an opportunity to adjust your company to improve these aspects if you don’t currently have benefits or a culture that proves to be a compelling value to candidates. Perhaps it was acceptable to let those aspects of culture slide while focusing on profits in the past. Nowadays, however, employees want to know they’re getting more than just a job to fill their time and pay their bills. There’s a real financial incentive to promote a great EVP, and now’s the best time to get to it. Do you feel like your company has a great EVP? Do you want to show yours off and ask for critique? Are you just not sure as to what you should be doing? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we’ll get a conversation started. Creating an EVP may sound like a simple task to some, but it needs to be done correctly for the best possible results. We would love to give you and your company feedback and assistance throughout the process however we can.

DevOps, short for Development and Operations, is one of the fastest-growing tech and engineering fields out there today. Professionals with DevOps training are in high demand, making it extremely important to hire the right people and keep them loyal. If you want to attract talented DevOps engineers, vet them properly, and hire the best candidates, you’ll need to implement these ten best practices. 1: Look for The Right Skills DevOps is not like some other tech fields, such as the Full Stack Developer, which end up as a catch-all for any tech skills that could be used to run a computer system. DevOps engineers have specific skills and abilities they need to train; if they aren’t what you’re looking for, you’re going to be disappointed in who you find. What skills are most relevant to a DevOps engineer? Familiarity with technologies such as Git, AWS, Bamboo, Puppet, Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes . Each of these represents a range of technologies, including cloud, version control, deployment, automation, and other operations. Understanding of scripting languages, such as Python, Ruby, Perl, and core Linux/Unix functionality . Most DevOps environments run based on some combination of these languages and frameworks, so familiarity is a must. Knowledge of IT security . DevOps aren’t necessarily security specialists – that’s DevSecOps – but your DevOps engineers should at least know the basics of good security practices. More importantly, your job posting should list the requirements specific to your company and environment. Don’t list familiarity with Git and Ruby if your company uses Svn and Python instead. 2: Look for Relevant Soft Skills If an employee doesn’t have the right soft skills for their position, they won’t thrive, no matter how good their hard skills are. In a DevOps environment, the most critical soft skills tend to be collaborative in nature. They focus on team-based empathy, good communication skills, the ability to work as a team, a drive for continuous improvement both for themselves and for their company, and an alignment with the overall vision, ethics, and goals of the company or project they’re working on. “On the ‘soft skills’ side, a DevOps engineer should be able to communicate and interact well with others, be service-oriented, and care about the ultimate end value of the project.” – ZDNet . Remember, hard skills can get trained, while soft skills often cannot. Thus, finding someone with the relevant soft skills and the drive to learn can be a more valuable investment than finding someone with the right hard skills but lacking in soft skills to fit in. 3: Look in the Right Places One of our most common pieces of advice for recruiting is to look for talented individuals where they spend their time. Since they’re in such high demand, many of the best candidates are currently employed and may never see your job advertising unless you reach out to them directly. In the case of DevOps Engineers, chances are you’re going to need to go to them, rather than the other way around. Where can you find these DevOps candidates? LinkedIn and LinkedIn Groups, Facebook Groups, Reddit subs, DevOps organizations, conferences, and other similar locations can be a great place to start. “DevOps professionals, like other ITers, often join forums and groups where they share ideas and develop networks. LinkedIn is one social media outlet where you are likely to find pockets of DevOps engineers, as are local DevOps chapters and even DevOps conferences. When you are faced with competitive hiring pressures, there’s nothing better than a well-developed network of DevOps engineers that you can tap for hires.” – ZDNet. Additionally, one of your best resources is the people you have already hired. People in similar professions often network with one another, and employee referrals can be an excellent way to gather new candidates. 4: Develop an Employment Pipeline In some cases, you need a high-level, high-skill DevOps Engineer immediately. In others, you can afford to take the time to set up a hiring pipeline and “grow your own,” so to speak. Build and foster relationships with educational institutions and certification agencies relevant to DevOps. Start working with students before they’ve even graduated, to groom their skills in the direction that is most beneficial to employment at your company. Offer paid internships to show them what they’ll need to know how to do in a professional environment before they’re facing down a real career decision. When you build your DevOps team from the ground up, you get a highly customized group of employees. This can be a powerful resource, though you do run the risk of stagnation if you’re constantly drawing upon the same well. That’s why it’s best to establish these relationships with various institutions and continue to hire from outside. 5: Make Your Brand Attractive Some companies have nothing going for them as employers of DevOps Engineers. Others, over time, develop a negative reputation and will find it harder and harder to attract the top candidates. Your company should strive to avoid this as much as possible. How? Encourage adaptation, not adherence . DevOps are at the cutting edge of new technologies and methodologies; if you’re forcing them to stagnate, they’ll leave and be harder to replace. Offer competitive benefits . Salary alone isn’t necessarily the driving factor, particularly for younger applicants. Competitive benefits, including flexible hours, time off, remote work, and healthcare, can all be more significant. Have a plan for advancement . In tech-focused fields like DevOps, the stereotype is that you need to change companies to advance. By offering a path of advancement within the company, you can attract and keep talented DevOps engineers. Unfortunately, some of this will take years to build up and circulate throughout the industry. Implementing such strategies isn’t a difficult matter, but it takes time to prove that you’re implementing them and get the word out amongst DevOps candidates. 6: Don’t Rely on Keyword Filtering One of the biggest risks with DevOps hiring is using automated resume filtering based on keywords. That is because DevOps is both a widely varied and a fast-evolving field. The most relevant keywords today are different from the ones that were relevant even just a year ago. Moreover, DevOps encompasses such a wide variety of skills, abilities, and experiences that keyword filtering can miss a lot of what you want to see. Keyword filtering can work fine for broader technology if you explicitly need familiarity with that technology. “Version control” is a better keyword to look for than “Git” because while familiarity with Git is good, a DevOps candidate who knows any version control software can learn any other with ease. Looking for “Cloud experience” is better than looking for “Azure experience” because experience with another cloud system, like AWS, is often “good enough” to put the candidate in a position to learn what you need them to know. Automatic filtering is likely to throw out the resumes of excellent candidates because they don’t quite match and may promote candidates who match the keywords but not the overall ethos you want to get out of your candidates. 7: Keep Culture at the Forefront of Hiring While skills, benefits, and advancement are all key to attracting a DevOps candidate, the key to keeping them around is culture. Your company culture is extremely important, and it needs to be expressed. Moreover, you need to understand it well enough to be able to look for candidates who will fit in. “Culture has a significant impact on employee satisfaction. Employees who don’t like a company’s culture are 24 percent more likely to leave within a year, which leads to churn, higher recruiting costs, and disappointment.” – Harrison Clarke. One common disconnect is the difference between companies that value processes and structure over companies that value agility, creativity, and innovation. DevOps engineers who value one over the other may not find a home at a company that doesn’t match their ideals. The key here is to be transparent and start discussing culture early – potentially even in the job posting. Don’t talk platitudes, either; be specific and open about your company culture. If you can’t spin it in a positive light, it might be a sign that you need to adjust your company culture to be successful in the future. 8: Consider Working with a Recruiter IT staffing agencies, recruiters, recruitment firms, and other groups can be very beneficial for finding and vetting qualified DevOps candidates. On the other hand, there are also a lot of recruiters out there who do the bare minimum of a LinkedIn keyword search, send out template-based direct messages, and put very little thought into it. “However, if you ink an agreement for a specific period with an IT employment company, do not make this agreement an exclusive one. As time goes by, you’re also likely to discover your own channels into the DevOps engineer market. You don’t want to rely solely on your employment agency because this constrains your opportunities.” – ZDNet. There are three important things to watch out for when working with a recruiter. Exclusivity agreements . Avoid these as much as possible; you want to have the ability to take advantage of every channel you can. Nuance . Look for recruiters who spend their initial discussions learning about your company, your teams, and your positions, so they know who to look for. Communication . A good recruiter will stay in constant communication with you to keep you updated and so you can keep them updated on your changing needs. Bearing these in mind is a great way to use recruiters as a resource rather than rely on them. 9: Expand Your Horizons DevOps engineering is not a geographically limited position. Talented, highly skilled engineers at all levels and stages of their careers can be found all over the world. A company limiting its search to people in a local geographic area – even if it’s state-wide – is still putting unnecessary restrictions on the candidates you can attract. Two things go hand-in-hand with this. First, offer some form of relocation service or package  to lessen the burden of hiring someone from across the country. You become more attractive to higher-quality candidates further afield when you make it easier for them to work with you. Alternatively, offer fully remote work. After all, DevOps doesn’t necessarily need to be working directly with physical hardware in your office. Most DevOps engineers are digital natives intimately familiar with online communication tools. Why not take advantage of that to build a remote team? Casting a wide net is the best way to get a broader and deeper candidate pool, which is a sure-fire way to have a higher-quality candidate list when all is said and done. 10: Refine Your Requirements One of the biggest turn-offs of the hiring process is a company that lists 25 different items in the “must-have” category of skills. Not only can this suppress certain kinds of applications, but it is also almost always unnecessary. Consider what skills are 100% necessary to success within your organization. The rest can either be trained or are optional benefits. “DevOps focuses on modernizing teams before technologies. They should be flexible enough to move from one area of software construction to another, be it integration, testing, releasing, or deployment. A DevOps engineer must have flexible working skills and adapt to the changing code, technologies, and the client’s needs.” – EngineerBabu . Because DevOps and DevSecOps are so variable, it’s difficult to pare down hard skills into hard requirements. More often, your requirements will be soft skills, perspectives, and ethics, while the hard skills are broad and generalized, like “experience with cloud platforms” and “familiarity with version control processes.” Everything else can get trained. Do you have experience in hiring qualified DevOps engineers? If so, what are the most important aspects and tips of the hiring process you would give to others looking to do the same? Additionally, if you have any questions or concerns about the DevOps hiring process, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we’ll get a conversation started. We’d love to assist you and your company however we can.

In traditional business, there’s often a level of tension between development teams and operations engineers. These two groups were often segregated; development working in their bubble, releasing products for the operations engineers to learn and use with no feedback, input, or recourse when something goes wrong. The two groups were at odds, working almost against one another, with an antagonistic perspective. Over the last decade or so, several different business forces have been coalescing into a “new” idea; perhaps each part of a business should work together, rather than against one another. It’s not a new idea, since successful businesses have been working in harmony for centuries, but it’s a shift in what had become the standard paradigm. In part, this comes from Agile and Lean; two operations paradigms that focus on aligning many moving parts and minimizing the bulk of time-consuming, low-productivity business operations. In part, it’s a synthesis of other business ideas, taking root and growing as larger businesses adopt techniques they can use to adapt to a changing ecosystem. It’s difficult to give a concrete definition for “DevOps” – in fact, many articles have been written about this exact topic, and for every expert that puts forth their own definition, there are businesses that are using DevOps techniques that don’t quite fit those descriptions. DevOps is not so much a team or a group within your organization. Rather, it’s an approach. It’s a methodology you use, from hiring to development to operations and beyond. It’s a new way to keep an entire organization working together, with agile and responsive systems in place to facilitate that teamwork. Needless to say, DevOps has become a key job position. Many businesses invest in the DevOps philosophy and use the term to attract new candidates who understand the environment. Others use DevOps as a buzzword and fail to fully espouse the processes involved. Nevertheless, if you’re interested in hiring people with DevOps training, experience, or authority, you’ll need to first understand the various roles and processes. Here are some of the most common DevOps job titles, what they do, and what you should consider when looking to hire them. DevOps Engineer This is your top of the food chain authority in all things DevOps. Also called a Platform Engineer, the DevOps Engineer is the person who oversees and supports the platform used for DevOps operation. Some companies treat DevOps as more of a process and an ideology, rather than a platform, so they may not hire a DevOps Engineer. A qualified candidate for a DevOps Engineer position has experience in DevOps work, familiarity with the platforms available and how to integrate them into existing business processes, and management experience. The average salary for a DevOps Engineer tends to be just under $100,000, with talented and experienced DevOps Engineers making $150,000 or more. DevOps Evangelist There are many companies already devoted to the DevOps lifestyle. Many more, however, are not. These companies need a DevOps Evangelist to guide them on the path. The Evangelist can be either a consultant or an employee, and they typically hold an upper-level position. This role needs authority because their goal is to develop a plan for DevOps implementation and convince those in charge of how much better life will be if that plan is implemented. A DevOps Evangelist is an analyst and must be good at compiling and presenting data. They must also have deep familiarity with DevOps processes, platforms, and systems. They’re the ones who come up with a plan for conversion, and often the ones who see it through to implementation. “You have to build a culture that is a learning culture where it is safe to fail, fail fast, learn from it, and improve.” This quote from Rohit Antao, DevOps leader with PwC, explains the value of an evangelist and how they can spot the cracks in your DevOps process. Build Engineer The Build Engineer is a DevOps managerial position in charge of development teams. This individual spends their time managing the build and development process and is responsible for ensuring build goals and deadlines are met in a fast-paced environment. They manage code, they maintain builds, they create new builds, they manage and deploy automation solutions, and they ensure builds meet established configuration requirements. The Build Engineer is occasionally a hybrid role that includes the responsibilities of other technical roles, such as the UX designer or the configuration manager. There’s a lot of flexibility in the position, and it works for a wide range of possible needs within your business. Release Manager If the Build Engineer is the back of the coin, the Release Manager is the front. The Release Manager is an oversight and managerial position that oversees the overall development pipeline, guiding both individual releases and overall release schedules. They spend much of their time coordinating with the Build Engineer and with other teams to ensure that goals are met. Neeharika Nagisetty, Vantiv’s group product marketing manager, describes this role well . “Release managers work to address the management and coordination of the product from development through production. Typically they work on more of the technical details and hurdles in which a traditional project manager would not be involved.” As a mid-to-upper level management position, Release Managers average around $80-90k per year, with higher-level managers reaching $150k or more. Automation Architect The Automation Architect is a key role in modern DevOps. Since a huge portion of DevOps relies on automated workflows and processes that streamline teams and minimize the need for intervention, the Automation Architect is a critical employee. The Automation Architect is responsible not just for researching and implementing automation systems, but for integrating those systems with other existing automation and non-automation systems. Their job isn’t simply to implement automation but to ensure everything works with as few obstacles as possible, graceful failure states, and redundancy as necessary. Essentially, they pave the road so the rest of the team can drive quickly and safely on it. A skilled candidate for an Automation Architect position has a deep familiarity with DevOps platforms and the integrations between them. They must also be able to troubleshoot and solve problems quickly, making deep critical thinking a must. This tends to average around $90,000 per year salary. Product Manager DevOps is largely focused on bringing operations systems into development, and as such, most DevOps roles are development roles with expanded responsibilities and skillsets. The Product Manager role is one that comes straight from the operations side of DevOps and brings with it the organizational and management skills necessary for a project to succeed. Product Manager is not a new role; it’s an operations role repurposed within DevOps. As such, there will be a large volume of product managers willing to apply who might not meet the DevOps philosophy. The goal is to find a Product Manager with management skills, but also with deep collaboration abilities that allow them to work directly with your development teams. In particular, they will need to work with the Build and Release managers, the security engineers, and the data analysts to maintain a full “big picture” overview of your product. DevOps Software Developer The role of the software developer is crucial for any software-focused company, but it’s even more important for a DevOps team. In DevOps, a software developer is not just responsible for developing code; they also test, deploy, monitor, and support that code. The role is, in essence, a combination of both the software developer and the QA roles. After all, who better to support a piece of software than the people who wrote it? DevOps Software Developers need to be fluent in coding and software development, but also DevOps practices for QA and maintenance. This often means a reliance on automated testing applications , thus a DevOps Software Developer needs to know and understand these applications. Security Engineer Modern software development is fraught with peril. Time and time again, news comes out about SaaS platforms, new software applications, mobile apps, and other technology with glaringly obvious and exploitable flaws. This is caused, in large part, by security being treated as an afterthought. Particularly in the Waterfall development method, security is typically tacked on at the end with a cursory audit. In DevOps, security is a functional and important aspect of the development process. As Antao says: “They build security into the product, not at the end.” Security needs to be baked into the product from the ground up, so it’s more difficult to exploit and harder to crack. This requires a Security Engineer to work closely with the software developers, ensuring that every process and every interface is properly formed and takes security in mind. Security Engineers are extremely important, not just for the success of a product, but for the safety of the users using it. They need to be fluent with modern security standards, ongoing attack vectors, and user behaviors that typically bypass security and create holes. Data Analyst The DevOps Data Analyst role is a position of extreme importance. While development takes theory into account when developing products and features, the Data Analyst takes real data from real users and distills it down into actionable intelligence. They typically overlap with user experience engineers and UX designers in a DevOps environment. A Data Analyst role is typically an entry-level role on the path to Data Scientist, which is a similar role, except they make larger-scale decisions involving the platform and infrastructure as a whole rather than the individual features or apps an Analyst is concerned with. Data Analysts need to be fluent in data management, harvesting, and analysis, as well as generating useful reports. Their average salary is typically around $75,000 but can be as high as $125,000 for experienced analysts. Tips for Hiring a DevOps Position DevOps is a relatively new environment, so definitions are loose and consistency is rare. An employee in a particular role for one organization may not fit the description of that same role in another, due to variability in responsibilities. This fluidity in roles makes the support of external partners essential. For instance, companies like klausur schreiben lassen , a service specialized in assisting with academic writing, can be pivotal in developing training modules and guidelines that ensure clarity and uniformity in job functions across the board. As such, hiring for a DevOps position tends to be more about the requirements, responsibilities, and experience than it is about the job title. Hiring managers often look beyond traditional indicators of suitability to how candidates may fit within a dynamically defined team. Look for specific skills. Remember that the candidates you hire for DevOps roles need to be skilled and reliable. In addition to technical skills befitting their role, you should also look for people skills, including teamwork. DevOps is all about collaboration, so the lone wolf or “Rockstar” developer is a disqualification. Technical skills and people skills need to work in conjunction for a successful DevOps team. Do your homework on job title variablility and trends. DevOps is still expanding, and many companies are using a similar ideology to form processes for the unification of their other teams. DataOps, FinOps, GitOps, ModelOps; there are dozens of new designations that are popping up. The truth is, specific roles and job titles are variable. What matters is the person, their skills, and their experience. Accurately delineate between preferences and requirements. When writing a job posting , it’s important to distill your role down to the specific requirements you need for a candidate to fill that role. Determine exactly what you need an individual to do; anything else is a bonus. For example, a Software Engineer might not have a lot of experience with user interface design; you can either make interface experience a requirement or use it as a bonus to filter qualified candidates. You can always hire a dedicated user experience team member if you can’t find a software developer with that experience. Emphasize diversity. Diverse teams make better products. Unfortunately, it’s very easy for something as simple as the language in a job listing to turn off entire categories of people. This study is an excellent resource on how to write and formulate a job listing in a way that attracts diverse applicants, allowing you to draw from the broadest and most diverse candidate pool. DevOps is here to stay, but it may require a significant shift in the way your business runs. If you’re ready for that investment, picking up a DevOps Evangelist to create a plan is a good place to start.

As with many modern technical fields, software engineers are in high demand. Companies around the world need them, so the best talent is snapped up so fast it’s astonishing. Of course, you don’t want your company to hire the dregs, right?  It’s better to go about the recruiting process the right way, to attract and hire the best candidates and keep them around. Understanding Developer Demographics The first thing you need to know before you start is that, while “developer” is a specialized field, it’s still quite broad. Developers, especially full stack developers , can assume many different roles such as web development, mobile development, software engineering, database or systems administrators, and more. Stack Overflow is a large site where developers can join a network, help one another, show off their projects, and generally participate in a broader community. They perform an annual survey of their audience, with over 90,000 respondents to their 2019 survey . This can tell us a lot about the demographics of developers, though it’s not entirely representative of the field as a whole. The majority of developers responding to the survey were located in the United States, Europe, and India, with Australia, Canada, and Brazil also representing sizable numbers of developers. Nearly every country in the world had at least a few respondents, however, proving that developers can originate anywhere. The most popular specialties amongst developers are web development, with full-stack developers making up the most common category. Desktop and enterprise developers come in second, with mobile developers third. Other popular roles include database and systems administrators, designers, and data scientists. Over 40% of survey respondents have under five years of professional experience coding. This doesn’t mean they’re not talented, just that many of them are young or have only recently brought a hobby into their professional lives. In terms of pure demographics, amongst professional developers, over 70% are white or of European descent, with South Asian, Hispanic, and East Asian following. This is more of a sign of the overall underrepresentation of PoC developers more than anything and can present an excellent opportunity if you look for candidates on a global scope. Check out the survey; while it’s not entirely representative of developers as a whole, it’s a good idea of the kinds of people you’re likely to see most frequently in your search to hire software engineers. Building a List and Sourcing Qualified Candidates Every good recruitment process begins with building a candidate pool . Your eventual hires are only as good as the people in your pool, so you will always want to find the best, most qualified candidates to populate that pool. The better your candidate pool , the faster you’ll be able to go from interview to hire, and the more satisfied both you and your new hires will be with their career. Where can you look to source candidates to fill your pool? Here are the best sources beyond “a job portal” or your website’s career page. Personal referrals. High-quality candidates tend to associate with other high-quality workers, and can recommend people they know would be a good fit for a role. Your existing employees likely have a better grasp of what they need in a coworker than your hiring department, as well. Technical blogs. Many professional and talented hobbyist software engineers maintain blogs where they discuss and show off their projects. Finding candidates who demonstrate talents publicly gives you an opportunity to reach out and invite them to apply. Open Source portals. Open-source software is increasingly popular, and the people who contribute to it have publicly visible proof of their talents. Whether you’re looking at individual projects on GitHub or professional contributors to large open-source companies , there are plenty of candidates out there. Of course, you’re not limited to these channels. Traditional channels can bring in plenty of qualified candidates as well. The above are simply great ways to recruit passive candidates and pull talent from many sources. Making Use of Code Assessments A good software engineer needs to know how to code. A great software engineer needs to know how to code as part of a team. You can test both as part of your interview process by using a combination of traditional interviews and code assessments. Code assessments are tests you can develop or purchase from companies that develop them. They can range from simple to complex and are meant to test a candidate’s ability to code on specific projects.  The idea here would be to work with your current lead developer, or whoever heads your development team, to identify tests that assess relevant skills. For example, if you need a software engineer skilled with web development, you want to avoid simple language-based testing. TestDome provides a wide variety of tests on different subjects, ranging from PHP, Java, and C to mobile tech, data science, and software engineering . Questions range from free and simple to complex and paid, with pricing based on the number of candidates you want to test. HireVue also offers code assessments, including coding language proficiency and soft skill analysis tests to evaluate candidates from all angles. HackerRank offers, among other things, CodeScreen. CodeScreen is a code assessment platform you can use to deliver tests to candidates for them to work on at their leisure, giving you data not just on their performance but on how quickly they complete the project. Of course, you can always develop tests of your own and deploy them in a manner of your choosing. All it takes is a member of your team to develop the test and to judge the results. Determining a Software Engineer’s Technical Abilities Speaking of judging the results, how can you do that? The obvious answer is to talk to an expert, whether they’re your current lead engineer or someone you bring in from the outside. That said, there are a few ways a non-technical person might judge technical abilities, albeit with a grain of salt. Review multiple answers to the same question from different applicants. Do any of them stand out as more elegant than others? Watch for issues like “reinventing the wheel” by writing code to do something a function in the language can do inherently. Issue a programming challenge with no language requirements. The choice of language and the accuracy of the resulting answer can say a lot about the candidate developing it. Try to break the code. If you ask a software engineer candidate to design a simple applet that performs a function, what happens if you were to add strange inputs, like letters instead of numbers, special characters, or code snippets? A good engineer should (as long as it’s part of the assignment) program to avoid these kinds of issues. Also, while it might seem obvious, consider issuing at least one skills test either in person or via a live meeting. On the job, a software engineer should use all of their available resources to develop quality software, but you want to make sure they aren’t wholly relying on external sources for their answers. Keeping the Interview Process Positive Evaluating a candidate involves investigating many facets of a person’s skills, personality, and communication abilities. Some of your best candidates might not do too well on a skills assessment, but work very well with teams and draw out the best in each of their coworkers. If you rely completely on one facet of the hiring process, you can unknowingly turn away many of these (otherwise) excellent candidates. “The age-old adage ‘people don’t remember what you say, but they remember how you made them feel’ is so true when it comes to interviews. When a candidate keeps the flow going in a friendly conversation, instead of making me feel like I am conducting an interrogation, I will remember our brief time together fondly.” Refael Zikavashvili, CEO of Pramp Part of keeping these candidates in the pool is making sure the interview process , from application to determination, is a positive experience. You don’t want to take a coding result and outright reject someone with a lower than average score. After all, they might be coachable, or they might specialize in another area that you would still find valuable despite their weakness. Encourage candidates despite their results, and move on to other phases of your interview process. Moreover, by making your application and interview process a positive experience, you can encourage candidates to work on their skills and apply again later. You can also encourage a positive reputation, and when the application process is a positive process, you’ll get more referrals from the people who partake. Deciding Compensation and Benefits Sooner or later, you have to discuss compensation . A software engineer, in demand, will likely be comparing offers from several different companies. They’ll pay attention not just to base salary, but other benefits as well. So what might be adequate compensation? A lot goes into it. Average salaries. Your candidates will know roughly what people in their position get. Going back to the Stack Overflow survey above, salaries range from $38k for an academic researcher to $95k for engineering managers, but that’s worldwide. In the United States, academic researchers average $95k and engineering managers reach as much as $152k on average. Compensating for location and relocating . A software engineer in rural Mississippi might expect to make less than if they lived in Silicon Valley. Regional cost of living and salary adjustments can be hugely important for candidates willing to relocate, as well. Benefits. Health coverage, stock options, 401(k) matching; it’s all part of the overall calculation. Time expectations. Do you expect your engineer in the office 9-5? Are they expected to work 50 or more hours per week? Are they flexible in when they can come in and leave each day? Do they get to work from home occasionally, or regularly? These can be important considerations, especially today. Know what the averages are for your area and for companies similar to your own, and be prepared to negotiate. The best software engineers might demand a premium, but if they perform well enough on the interviews, it may be entirely worthwhile to offer it. Reducing Your Time to Hire Software Engineers To hire software engineers and other developers can require a fast process from application to offer. The longer your evaluation takes, the more likely it is that another company will come in and snap up your candidates. So how can you reduce your time to hire ? First, consider pulling the hiring managers out of the process until later. Empower a recruiter or recruiting firm to form a quality pool and identify the best candidates, and bring in your own team when those candidates have passed the initial tests and proven themselves worth your attention. Second, make sure you have a firm structure in place for how your hiring process works. If your team is making judgments based on gut feelings and scheduling whims, you’re wasting time and turning off candidates. Third, look through your process from start to finish from the candidate’s perspective. How many hurdles do they need to leap, how many roadblocks stand in their way? Can you implement tech to streamline the process? Even something as simple as a more streamlined scheduling system for interviews can save a ton of time. Giving Them Room to Grow Hiring your software engineer isn’t the end, it’s the start. You need to keep that engineer, and a lot goes into keeping a talented employee satisfied. In particular, one of the biggest drivers of turnover amongst tech employees is growth. Specifically, you need to ensure that your developers have room to grow, from the scope of their projects to the size of their team to their compensation. If they feel like they’re stagnating, they’ll be more likely to look for opportunities elsewhere. How can you provide this room to grow? In part, it means having the flexibility to increase project scope and promote talented engineers to roles suiting their ambitions. In part, it means providing incentives or reimbursement for training, certifications, and trips to industry gatherings like seminars and conferences. In part, it simply means scaling their compensation to keep up with the cost of living and other expectations. Give your engineers a role they can grow with, and you’ll have a loyal engineer who can lead your company to new heights. Conclusion The journey to find and hire exceptional software engineers is multifaceted and requires a strategic approach. From understanding the broad spectrum of developer demographics to sourcing qualified candidates through various channels, each step is crucial for building a strong team. Implementing code assessments and carefully evaluating technical abilities are key components of the selection process. However, it’s not just about technical skills. Keeping the interview process positive, deciding on competitive compensation, and reducing the time to hire are equally important to attract top talent. Once hired, providing opportunities for growth and development is essential to retain these valuable team members. If this process seems daunting, you’re not alone. Many companies face challenges in navigating the complexities of hiring in the tech industry. That’s where professional help can make a significant difference.  Don’t hesitate to seek assistance in your recruitment efforts. Whether it’s refining your hiring strategy, accessing a wider talent pool, or streamlining the recruitment process, expert guidance can be a game-changer. Start building your dream team by reaching out to our team of professional recruiters today.