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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.

We are living in a world that is rapidly evolving with technology and automation. As more and more tasks are being automated, it is essential for those of us in the workforce to upgrade our skills in order to remain competitive and stay relevant. It is important to understand that automation does not mean that jobs will be eliminated, but rather that employers need their workers to retool so they can stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape. Now is a prime time to revitalize or develop skills that will help you ride the waves of automation with ease. Automation is the use of technology to automate tasks that used to be done manually by humans. Automation can happen in many forms, from simple machines such as washing machines to complex software and robotics that can complete complex tasks in the manufacturing and service industry. Automation has been around for centuries, but with the advancement of technology, it is becoming increasingly more accessible and efficient. There are many benefits to automation. Automation increases efficiency by reducing the need for manual labor, and it also reduces errors by eliminating the possibility of human error. Automation also reduces costs by reducing the number of workers needed to complete a task. Additionally, automation can free up workers to focus on more creative tasks and increase productivity. The Benefits of Automation Automation also has the potential to create jobs. For example, increased automation in the manufacturing sector can lead to new positions in the form of technicians and engineers. Additionally, automation can lead to the development of new products and services, which in turn can lead to the creation of new jobs. Automation and Its Impact on the Job Market The impact of automation on the job market is difficult to predict. On one hand, automation can lead to job losses in certain sectors, such as manufacturing and service industries. Automation can also lead to job creation in other sectors, such as engineering and software development. Automation has the potential to change the way we work and the types of jobs that are available. As technology advances, the skills required for certain jobs will also change. For example, in the manufacturing sector, automation has increased the demand for technicians and engineers, while in the service industry, automation has increased the demand for customer service representatives. The impact of automation on the job market is something that needs to be monitored closely. Automation has the potential to change the way we work, and it is important to stay informed of these changes so that we can adjust our skills and stay up-to-date with the latest advancements. Automation and the Need to Retool As automation advances, it is becoming increasingly important for workers to upgrade their skills to remain competitive and stay relevant. With the ever-changing landscape of the job market, workers need to retool to stay ahead of the curve. Retooling is the process of learning new skills or refreshing existing skills to keep up with the changing job market. Retooling can be beneficial for both employers and employees. For employers, retooling can help ensure that their employees are up-to-date with the latest advancements in the industry and can keep up with the changing job market. For employees, retooling can provide an opportunity to stay ahead of the competition and increase their value to the employer. What Skills Should You Upgrade? Some of the most in-demand skills in the job market today include: Software development Data analysis AI and machine learning Networking and IT Cybersecurity Cloud computing Robotics Project management These are just some of the skills that are in demand in the job market today. As technology continues to evolve, it is important to stay informed of the latest advancements and identify which skills you need to upgrade to stay ahead of the competition. Tips for Upgrading Your Skills Upgrading your skills is not an easy task, but with the right approach, it can be done. Here are some tips to help you upgrade your skills: Identify which skills are in demand in the job market . Take an online course or attend a seminar to learn new skills. Take advantage of free resources such as online tutorials and webinars. Utilize networking opportunities to gain new skills and knowledge. Participate in hackathons and other coding competitions. Join professional organizations to stay updated on the latest advancements in the industry. These are just some of the tips that can help you upgrade your skills. As technology continues to evolve, it is important to stay ahead of the curve and stay informed of the latest advancements in the industry. Online Resources for Retooling Numerous online resources can help you retool your skills. Here are some of the most popular online resources for retooling: Coursera – An online learning platform with various courses in software development, data analysis, AI and machine learning, and more. Udemy – An online learning platform with courses in programming languages, project management, and more. edX – An online learning platform with courses in software engineering, robotics, and more. Code Academy – An online learning platform with courses in programming languages, web development, and more. Khan Academy – An online learning platform with tutorials in mathematics, computer science, and more. These are just some of the online resources that can help you upgrade your skills. As technology continues to evolve, it is important to take advantage of these resources and stay ahead of the competition. Other Considerations When Retooling When retooling your skills, it is important to consider the following: Make sure that the skills you are learning are in demand in the job market. Ensure that you are taking the right courses and learning the right skills. Remember to stay motivated and disciplined. Utilize networking opportunities to build relationships with industry professionals. Stay informed of the latest advancements in the industry. These are just some of the things to consider when retooling your skills. As technology continues to evolve, it is important to stay ahead of the curve and ensure that you are learning the right skills to remain competitive in the job market. Conclusion – Embrace the Automated World and Stay Relevant! In conclusion, it is clear that automation is here to stay and those of us in the workforce need to upgrade our skills to remain competitive and stay relevant. Automation does not mean that jobs will be eliminated, but rather that employers need their workers to retool so they can stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape.  Now is a prime time to revitalize or develop skills that will help you ride the waves of automation with ease. Embrace the new era of tech and upgrade your skill set! Machine learning won’t take away human labor, but employers need their workers to retool so they can stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape.  Contact us today so we can help you attract the talent you deserve.

Recruitment scams are a rising menace in today’s digital world. Every day, unsuspecting job seekers fall victim to these schemes, losing their time and money in the process. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into recruitment scams, and provide useful tips for avoiding them. What Is a Recruitment Scam? A recruitment scam is an attempt to defraud job seekers by collecting personal information or money from them in exchange for a false job offer. It’s important to note that recruitment scams are different from job scams. In a recruitment scam, the perpetrator is posing as a legitimate job recruiter, while in a job scam, the perpetrator is posing as a legitimate employer. Recruitment scams are becoming increasingly common due to the ease with which perpetrators can create fake job postings and websites. Job seekers often fall victim to these scams due to their desperation, as they’ll do anything to land a job. What Do Recruitment Scammers Want? Recruitment scammers typically target unsuspecting job seekers by offering them false job opportunities. The scammer’s goal is to get the job seeker to provide personal information such as their address, bank account details, or Social Security number. The scammers then use this information to steal money or commit identity theft. In some cases, the scammers may even ask the job seeker to pay a fee to secure the job. Common Signs of a Recruitment Scam The best way to avoid a recruitment scam is to be aware of the common signs of one. Here are some of the most common signs of a recruitment scam: The job posting is too good to be true. If the job promises a high salary or other perks that are out of the ordinary, it’s likely a scam. The job posting offers an immediate start. Most legitimate recruiters don’t offer immediate starts, as they need to first verify the job seeker’s credentials. The recruiter requests personal information or money upfront. Legitimate recruiters don’t ask for money upfront, so if a recruiter does, it’s a sure sign of a scam. The recruiter is vague or evasive. If the recruiter is unwilling to provide details about the job or the company without a legitimate reason, it’s likely a scam. The recruiter offers to process your application through an email address. Most legitimate recruiters will have a website or other professional contact information. The job posting has grammatical or spelling errors. This is a dead giveaway that the job posting is fake. Who’s at Risk of a Recruitment Scam? Anyone who’s looking for a job is at risk of a recruitment scam. It’s especially important for recent graduates and those who are new to the job market to be extra vigilant, as they’re more likely to be targeted by scammers. It’s also important to note that recruitment scams don’t just target job seekers. Recruiters and employers can also be targeted by scammers. These scammers may attempt to steal money or confidential information from the recruiter or employer. How to Avoid a Recruitment Scam The best way to avoid a recruitment scam is to be aware of the common signs of one and to take the necessary steps to protect yourself. Here are some tips for avoiding recruitment scams: Do your research. Before responding to a job posting, take the time to do your research. Check out the company’s website and social media accounts to make sure they’re legitimate. Verify the recruiter’s credentials. If a recruiter is legitimate, they should be able to provide you with their contact information and other details about their company. Don’t provide personal information or money upfront. Legitimate recruiters don’t ask for personal information or money upfront, so if a recruiter does, it’s a sure sign of a scam. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If a recruiter is evasive or unwilling to answer your questions, it’s a red flag. Use common sense. If something seems too good to be true or just doesn’t feel right, it’s best to stay away. What to Do if You’ve Been Scammed If you think you’ve been scammed, it’s important to take immediate action. Here’s what you should do: Change your passwords. If you’ve provided any personal information to the scammer, it’s important to change the passwords for all of your accounts. Contact the police. If you’ve been scammed out of money, it’s important to contact the police and file a report. Notify your bank. If you’ve provided your bank details to the scammer, it’s important to notify your bank and keep a close eye on your accounts. Contact the FTC. You should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint. How to Report a Recruitment Scam If you think you’ve been targeted by a recruitment scam, it’s important to report it. You can report recruitment scams to the Federal Trade Commission , the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, and the Better Business Bureau . You can also report recruitment scams to the job website where the scammer posted the job listing. Conclusion Recruitment scams are a real menace in today’s digital world. It’s important to be aware of the common signs of a recruitment scam and to take the necessary steps to protect yourself. If you think you’ve been targeted by a recruitment scam, it’s important to report it and take the necessary steps to protect yourself. Wary of recruitment scams? Rest assured that our team of vetted recruiters is standing by to help you !

The gig economy is a rapidly growing phenomenon that has been gaining traction in recent years. It is estimated to be worth 455.2 billion dollars and is expected to grow to over $715 billion by 2023. With such a large economic footprint, it’s no surprise that many people are curious about what the gig economy is and how it’s impacting the workforce.  In this blog post, I’ll provide a detailed overview of the gig economy, its history, its impact on recruiting, and examples of the gig economy in action. I’ll also look at the future of the gig economy and discuss the benefits and challenges associated with it. What is the Gig Economy? The gig economy, also known as the sharing economy, is an economic model where people are hired to perform short-term, task-based jobs. It’s different from traditional employment, which is usually long-term and involves a more permanent commitment. The gig economy is made up of independent contractors and freelancers who are hired to complete specific tasks or projects on a short-term basis. This could be anything from writing articles to delivering groceries. The gig economy is often associated with the emergence of online platforms like Uber and Airbnb which have enabled people to connect and find work more efficiently. These platforms have become an integral part of the gig economy, allowing people to find and complete tasks quickly and easily. History of the Gig Economy The gig economy has been around for centuries, but it has only recently gained widespread attention. In the past, people were hired on a project-by-project basis to perform specific tasks. This type of work was often referred to as “freelance work”, and it provided people with an opportunity to work on their terms and make their schedules. In recent years, the gig economy has experienced a surge in popularity as more people have embraced the idea of working as freelancers and independent contractors. The rise of the internet and digital technology has made it easier for people to find and complete tasks on a short-term basis and to connect with potential employers. The gig economy has also been boosted by the emergence of the sharing economy. Companies like Uber and Airbnb have made it possible for people to rent out their homes or vehicles or provide services to others. This has made it easier for people to make money on their terms and to find work quickly and easily. Impact of the Gig Economy on Recruiting The gig economy has had a profound impact on recruiting. For employers, the gig economy offers a flexible and cost-effective way to find talent. Companies can hire independent contractors to complete tasks on a short-term basis, allowing them to scale up or down their workforce as needed. This has enabled employers to become more agile and responsive to changing market conditions. For job seekers, the gig economy provides an opportunity to find work quickly and easily. People can search for and apply for gigs on a variety of online platforms, allowing them to find the right job for the right price. It also allows them to be more flexible in their schedules and to work on their terms. Examples of the Gig Economy The gig economy is made up of a variety of different types of work. Here are some of the most popular examples: Freelance writing: Freelance writers can write articles, blog posts, and other pieces of content for various companies and organizations. Web development: Web developers can create websites for clients or work on existing websites to improve them. Graphic design: Graphic designers can create logos, illustrations, and other assets for companies and organizations. Social media management: Social media managers can create and manage content for companies and organizations on various social media platforms. Video production: Video producers can create videos for companies and organizations to use in marketing campaigns. Virtual assistant: Virtual assistants can provide administrative support to companies and organizations on a short-term basis. There are many other types of gig economy work, but these are some of the most popular. The Future of the Gig Economy The gig economy is expected to continue to grow in the coming years as more people embrace the idea of working on their terms. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend, as more people are looking for flexible, short-term work to supplement their income. It’s also likely that the gig economy will evolve to include more advanced forms of work, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. The future of the gig economy will also depend on how governments react to the trend. In the US, the newly proposed gig worker exception could significantly change the future of the gig economy. This exception would allow companies to classify gig workers as independent contractors, which could have a major impact on the rights and protections they’re afforded. Benefits of the Gig Economy The gig economy provides several benefits for both employers and job seekers. For employers, the gig economy is a cost-effective way to find talent and scale up or down their workforce as needed. It also provides them with the flexibility to find the right person for the job without the need to commit to a long-term contract. For job seekers, the gig economy offers an opportunity to find work quickly and easily, and to work on their terms. It also allows them to have more control over their schedules and to work when and where they want. Challenges of the Gig Economy The gig economy is not without its challenges. For employers, the biggest challenge is the lack of control. With independent contractors, employers don’t have the same level of control over the work that’s being done, which can make it difficult to ensure that tasks are completed to the standards they expect. For job seekers, the biggest challenge is the lack of stability. While the gig economy offers an opportunity to find work quickly and easily, it also means that job seekers may not have the same level of job security as they would in a traditional job. Conclusion The gig economy is a rapidly growing phenomenon that is estimated to be worth $455.2 billion and is expected to grow to over $715 billion by 2023. It offers several benefits for both employers and job seekers, and it has had a profound impact on recruiting. While there are challenges associated with the gig economy, it’s clear that it’s here to stay and will continue to shape the workforce in the coming years. What is the gig economy? After reading this blog post, you should have a better understanding of what the gig economy is and how it’s impacting the workforce .