Recruit to Retain

Table of contents

Chapter One: The Nuts and Bolts of Recruiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03

Chapter Two: Who to Hire? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06

Chapter Three: Four Facets of Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

Chapter Four: Types of Recruiting Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter Five: Recruiting Trends of 2015: Forbes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter Six: Best Practices: The Tried & True . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter Seven: Want to Be a Unique Recruiter? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter Eight: The Future of Recruiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chapter Nine: Recruiting Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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Chapter One: The Nuts and Bolts of Employee Recruiting

Recruitment is the process of finding and hiring new talent for an organization. Turnover (the process of replacing employees who depart either through termination or resignation) is an inescapable challenge for every business owner, forcing recruiters to be on a constant hunt for top talent. Recruiters are the backbone for most businesses, in charge of bringing in new, reliable, and hard-working employees when positions become available. Recruiting practices are a never-ending and ongoing process and should be approached in the same way you market to attract new customers. Be proactive and consistent in your recruiting approach and have a blueprint or plan as to how you will approach each potential employee. The cost of hiring an employee can be hefty, so invest wisely. The success of a business operation is often times characterized by its staff. This makes the recruiter’s role one of critical importance.

1. Create a Recruiting Plan: Do not wait until you need a new employee to implement a consistent process . Be proactive and expect changes in staffing to occur within your company before it’s too late . Make your plan well-defined, consistent and cost-effective . Remember that an employee has the potential to add immense value to a company; do not let salaries make you weary about adding a promising employee to the team .1

1 Sinclair Schuller, CEO of Apprenda (Computer Software Co .) Inc . http://www .inc .com/jeff-haden/talent-grow-your-own-or-hire-from-outside .html

2. Define Your Company Mission: Have a clear definition of the goals and aspirations of your organization . What are the most important values of your organization? Individuals hoping to commit to a company deserve an insight into the culture . “96% of job seekers say that it’s important to work for a company that embraces transparency .”2 Transparency, in a business setting, implies openness, communication and accountability . It is the ability for an outsider to “see inside” the company culture, into what was once a private domain .

2 Schuller, 4

3. Define Each Position: Candidates want realistic job descriptions when they apply to open positions . Being transparent about the pros and cons of your organization sets the entire team for long-term success . To start, define the open position—then decide what it means to be successful in that role . This should lead you to writing the perfect job description .

The Basics:

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The Cost of Recruiting:

Finding a new employee seems simple enough, but the cost of finding that perfect fit may be higher than you imagine . Turnover is a common worry of HR departments, which is why attention is paid to recruiting . Although recruiting requires an upfront investment, it has a quick return on investment and saves thousands on firing and hiring new labor . A solid recruiting process will continue to pay for itself with each new employee; a poor process will cost a company thousands each year . Recruiting costs include (but are not limited to): advertisements, labor cost of the recruiter reviewing resumes and conducting interviews, as well as drug screen and background check fees . It’s simple to see that recruiting is the better financial choice . “Even an $8/hour employee can end up costing a company around $3,500 in turnover costs, both direct and indirect .” Although recruiting costs the company precious profits, HR departments would end up breaking their bottom line over turnover costs without a streamlined recruiting process .3

3 How To Train Restaurant Employees . http://www .wikihow .com/Train-Restaurant-Employees

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Chapter Two: Who To Hire

What to Look For:

Look for an employee who has “trainable talent,” someone who will be easy to coach and bring onto the team . Typically, trainable talent will possess three major qualities: 1) Intelligence, 2) Work Ethic, and 3) Culture . An intelligent prospect is an individual who will prosper in an environment inundated with information . When searching for workers with great work ethic, pay attention to the willingness of individuals to invest the time in learning the talents they need in order to succeed . Recruiters focus on finding an individual who fits the company culture . If a new employee does not fit into the company culture, they may bring down employee morale and efficiency .

Hire Internally or Externally?

How heavily do recruiters need to rely on resume experience versus personality and training potential? “Generally speaking, if we think an inexperienced employee can be at 90% in a year or so, because he or she is smart and aggressive and will drive to gain the skills required, we may take that chance .” 4 Companies tend to be attracted to individuals who prove to have amazing work ethic, are self-motivated, and are ready to prove themselves at the company . When considering the costs of the recruitment process, imagine the issue from a risk perspective . Do the risks of the employee outweigh the cost of their recruitment? If you hire an employee and they are not 100% prepared for the task at hand, mistakes will likely occur . Does the cost of the mistakes outweigh the cost of recruiting such individual? Many times, there is no concrete answer to the above question; rather, take your time to get to know the potential hires during the recruitment process in order to learn the true value of their work . Many times, individuals who are passionate, hard working and committed to their goals make themselves noticed . Do not hire someone who has no idea what the job at hand is, but also remember experience is not everything; true smarts and self-motivating qualities in an employee play a large role in slowing the rate of turnover at a company .

4 Schuller, 2

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Southwest Airlines Example:

Southwest Airlines is celebrated for upholding a strong, well-defined, customer-focused culture .5 Recruiters for the airline are looking for “Something far more elusive and much more important than a fixed set of skills or experiences…he [the recruiter] is searching for the perfect blend of energy, humor, team spirit, and self-confidence to match Southwest’s famously offbeat and customer-obsessed culture .”6 The challenge to hiring the perfect employee for Southwest starts by weeding through over 150,000 applications to fill a mere 4,500 positions . It is the job of the recruiter to face these vast application pools and identify the few elite, the few passionate enough to make the cut . This Southwest recruiter claims to look for “an attitude… a genuineness” when sifting through candidates . “The ultimate employee is someone whose devotion to customer and company amounts to ‘a sense of mission,’ a sense that the cause comes before their own needs .” 7 As seen in this example from Southwest, companies have specific attributes that make some candidates more desirable or fitting than others .

5 Peter Carbonara, Fast Company . http://www .fastcompany .com/26996/hire-attitude-train-skill6 Carbonara, 27 Carbonara, 3

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Chapter Three: Four Facets of Talent

It is essential for a company to streamline and define its recruiting strategy if it is not already set in stone . Without a plan of attack, major costs will be incurred by turnover and poor recruiting practices . The sad reality of some recruiting processes is that they are sometimes left on the back burner until it is too late . Many are poorly managed and not given the attention they need, resulting in the hiring of less-than-best candidates, ultimately having a negative effect on the bottom line . Many companies that follow recruiting plans pride themselves upon hiring “trainable” employees (those with natural talent and drive) . “It’s about finding people with the right mind-set . These companies hire for attitude and train for skill .”8 So, it appears that recruiting may depend more on work ethic than resume experience . Recruiters who take more time vetting employees in the beginning are more likely to hire a successful team filled with natural talent and motivation . As quoted from an industrial psychologist whose clients include Chevron, Merrill Lynch and the IRS: “The overarching idea is that you hire hard and then manage easy… that means doing a lot of work up-front .”9 Shortcuts taken in the recruiting process will inevitably exact a toll later . Recruiters need to stay away from cutting corners when choosing employees, for the effort put in at the beginning is what truly pays off in the long run . If employers take their time to select the best candidates, they are more likely to retain these employees instead of spending money and time on re-hiring new prospects . A great recruiter could save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars per year .

8 Carbonara, 59 Carbonara, 3

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Tips from Recruiting Leaders

1. Personality is Evergreen, Skills are Learned

ww “The single best predictor of future behavior is past behavior…your personality is going to be essentially the same throughout your life .”10 Skills can be learned but personality is inherent .

2. Look to Your Best Performers for Inspiration

ww “Bill Byham, perhaps the world’s most foremost authority on hiring, is president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Development Dimensions International . He’s also the father of a hiring methodology that goes by many names (‘Targeted Selection’ is the most popular) but revolves around a simple idea: The best way to select people who’ll thrive in your company is to identify the personal characteristics of people who are already thriving and hire people just like them . In the Byham/Targeted model, companies work to understand their star performers in order to hire successful new employees .” 11

ww Ann Rhoades, a recruiter at Doubletree believes there are “seven dimensions for success on the job: practical learning, teamwork, tolerance for stress, sales ability, attention to detail, adaptability/flexibility, and motivation .” 12 When recruiting, focus on these factors in order to come to a decision .

3. Watch Them Work

ww An example of a company that promotes workers it has been taking notes on is Nucor, a steelmaking giant . Nucor takes this rule literally; “Nucor is an innovative, fast-moving company eager to break the rules… One of Nucor’s best sources of new steelworkers are the construction workers who build its plants .”13 Nucor hires from within, sifting through its star performers and promoting them to a higher paying position based on their work ethic and performance .

4. Look Close to Home

ww Companies that have a firm grasp on their recruiting efforts typically start “close to home—with their own people .”14 A massive pool of applicants is not nearly as important as a handful of carefully vetted and qualified hopefuls—quality over quantity .

10 Alan Davidson . Fast Company . http://www .fastcompany .com/26996/hire-attitude-train-skill11 Bill Byham . Fast Company . http://www .fastcompany .com/26996/hire-attitude-train-skill12 Ann Rhoades . Fast Company . http://www .fastcompany .com/26996/hire-attitude-train-skill13 Davidson, 714

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Chapter Four: Types of Recruiting Platforms

1. Career Websites: Website aimed at individuals searching for new careers . This site includes a good representation of your goals and company culture, as well as in-depth descriptions of your open positions .

2. Job Boards: Website designed for employers to post job requirements . For example, Indeed, SimplyHired, Monster, or CareerBuilder .

3. Craigslist Recruiting: Not considered a job board or career site, but instead an online newspaper publication . Craigslist recruitment takes time and patience for the vast amount of applicants one will typically receive through a job post .

4. Employee Referrals: When a current, successful employee refers a personal or business connection for an open position at your organization .

5. Applicant Tracking System: Engineered like a sales CRM, but for recruitment processes . This is a software system that enables the electronic handling of hiring and selection . This type of software is an investment, but will save recruiters time and money in the long run .

6. Social & Mobile Recruiting: Recruiting candidates through social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube .

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The Growing Popularity of Mobile Recruiting:

Mobile recruiting has become the dominant platform by which to recruit new employees in 2015 . “The best firms are now realizing that the mobile platform should dominate every area of recruiting, because of its versatility and incredibly high response rate .”15 Social networking and mobile devices have become the norm, if not the expected, form of recruiting employees . Employers who have a mobile strategy make it possible for potential employees to apply for positions via their smartphones or tablets . Desktop browsing was the most popular form of job searching in years past . However, in 2015, mobile is taking over as the preferred platform . Users have fueled the popularity of mobile recruiting due to its sheer convenience, “59% say it is important to be able to save a job from their mobile device and later apply to the job on a desktop .”16 Users enjoy being able to browse, apply or save jobs on the go and return to them at a later time if need be . A large digital trend of recruiters in 2015 is their use of social media to advertise open positions and connect with likely candidates . “79% of applicants are likely to use social media in their job search . Recruiters take advantage of sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to find top talent .”17 Let’s take a look at what Forbes considers to be the most popular recruiting trends of 2015 .

15 Dr . John Sullivan . http://www .ere .net/2015/01/12/the-top-10-bleeding-edge-recruiting-trends-to-watch-in-2015/)--the16 Glassdoor 2014 . http://employers .glassdoor .com/statistical-citations/ 17 Glassdoor, 6

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Chapter Five: Forbes’ Recruiting Trends of 2015

1. Corporate Talent Networks: With the growth of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Glassdoor and Indeed, companies are evolving from a candidate relationship model of management to a model of building a talent network of individuals from which to recruit .

2. Social Sourcing: Using the web as the first opportunity to vet candidates is a practice critical to business success today . The most popular of these social platforms is LinkedIn, which provides free access for users while also selling their recruiting tools to a number of HR departments . In the technology space, new tools include Entelo, Gild, TalentBin and RemarkableHire, which are out there looking at all your social footprints to evaluate your technical prowess .

3. Recruiters as Sources: With the growth of globalization (the process of international integration thanks to technological advances) and the search for specialized skills, the role of the recruiter has become incredibly difficult and time-consuming within every organization . Should recruiters be spending more time sourcing candidates or interviewing people? With such a large selection of potential employees available for them to view— all from the web, many from their mobile platform—recruiters face challenges today that they never dreamt of before . Having too large of a selection can be even more difficult than having no applicants at all!

4. New Assessment Science: From personality to skills and background testing, the assessment market is in full bloom . Most assessment tools are cloud-based, driven largely by the mobile revolution to fit the needs of the recruiter who needs real-time data at their fingertips .

5. Branding: Recruiters work alongside the SVP of Marketing to create a research-based, authentic brand for their company in order to promote their goods or services . In today’s competitive market, a brand must be specific, authentic and narrow—so you attract the right audience .

6. Applicant Tracking Software: Think of the jobs you have applied for via a job board or application website—sometimes the position has several fields for you to fill out . This is not to just give you a headache or learn that you have the commitment to sift through jobs but rather to make the tracking, managing and selection of applicants a smoother, cheaper and less tedious one .

7. A Great Candidate Experience: Make sure that you are not damaging your own brand when you react to an unsuccessful interview—call all applicants back, treat them with respect, and make it easily accessible to apply for an open position .

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8. Outsourcing and Staffing Firms: Talent recruiting is a $140 billion industry filled with experts who are trying to fit the right people to the right job . Outside recruitment practices or staffing firms are still around despite the growth of online job boards . Not all recruiting will be done straight from the company representative to the potential employee . Many times there is a middleman, or a staffing firm in the middle .

9. Big Data: Recruiting is the #1 application for Big Data in HR . Advanced thinkers in HR analytics start by measuring the recruitment process to find out where or how they are finding the best candidates . Firms should be analyzing their recruiting process in absolute detail—the tools are available for a recruiter to study data in order to better staff a business . Why not take advantage of the many new emerging tools, especially when looking to staff their ranks? The more important and costly aspect of a business lies in the recruiting process; however, keep in mind that it is nearly always cheaper to invest in the right people the first time . As turnover at a company increases, the cost of firing and hiring gets exponentially higher . The less you have to re-hire for the same position, the more money you are saving on labor .

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Chapter Six: Best Practices, Tried and True

1. Interview Guides: Pre-determined set of questions cultivated from analyzing top-performing employees .

2. Pre-Screening Survey: This is utilized to save time to measure an applicant’s interest, amount of experience, and eagerness to fill the position .

3. Behavioral Interviewing: This style is defined by the interviewer asking questions about the candidate’s past behaviors and experiences to predict future behaviors .

4. Uncommon Interview Questions: Offbeat, unique and sometimes shocking interview questions are used in order to measure the cultural fit of an individual . This practice was made popular by Google and Microsoft—an example—if you were a superhero, who would you be?

5. Zingers: Interview questions that are weighted heavier than the rest and can potentially take the candidate out of the running .

6. Skills Tests: A tool to measure a candidate’s skill set through a series of measurable tests .

7. Personality Profiling Tests: A tool to measure a candidate’s personality and attitude to determine their most productive and efficient work environment .

8. DiSC Testing: A behavior and personality assessment tool based on four different personality traits: dominance, inducement, submission and compliance .

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Chapter Seven: Want to Be a Creative Recruiter?

1. Self-selection: To increase the likelihood of hiring the best-fit candidate, add another layer of recruitment between the face-to-face interview and resume review . For example, invite your candidates to an open house or group interview to see if any particular applicants stand out as great fits for an open position .

2. Group Interaction: Get applicants in a group setting to examine their communication skills, how well they work with others, and their fit within the company culture . This is a great technique to see how they function in a group or team setting; leaders may emerge during this examination .

3. Handpick Ideal Candidates: There are passive candidates—those who are not actively looking, and are currently employed—versus aggressive candidates—those seeking a job and submitting resumes . Special effort should be made to get attention from the passive candidates . They are often the ideal fit for an open position .

4. Look in Unlikely Places: Attend places to acquire new talent that are not job fairs, but rather unlikely places like local coffee or sandwich shops . Send recruiters out to local events, malls, or focus groups—you would be surprised the talent you can find at events that are not traditionally related to recruiting

5. Stand Out: Every job hunter can expect a written job description, but companies can impress candidates by utilizing nontraditional media such as videos, memes, images or podcasts within their recruiting practices . This gets them noticed by far more potentially qualified candidates .

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Chapter Eight: The Future of Recruiting

1. Referrals Are Here to Stay: The main reason referrals have proved a tried and true process for finding talent is because employees have had the opportunity to create the type of relationships with candidates that recruiters would never have the chance to . Friends, family members or business colleagues know each other on a level where they can quite accurately evaluate if the individual would fit into the culture . Not to mention, they know their work ethic and level of motivation and dedication .

2. Data-Based Recruiting: With almost all business processes relying on data to make serious decisions, recruiters have turned to metrics rather than human-based, intuitive decision-making . Some HR departments can rely on an electronic selection system, saving recruiters time and energy vetting potentials .

3. Startups May Be a Threat: Larger corporations may have issues competing with start-ups because they present themselves with perks, independence and nontraditional management style . Be sure to make a name for yourself and keep your brand and culture consistent .18

18 Dr . John Sullivan . http://www .ere .net/2015/01/12/the-top-10-bleeding-edge-recruiting-trends-to-watch-in-2015/

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Chapter Nine: Recruiting Mistakes

The following chapter explores a few tips and tricks on what not to do as a recruiter . Take a look at ten of the most notorious habits of recruiters and ensure you do not incorporate any of these poor practices into your recruiting plan .

1 . Relying too heavily on references to determine company fit .

2 . Making lowball offers that are below the standard market rates .

3 . Not returning phone calls for people who have interviewed at the company .

4 . An unclear or untrue job description .

5 . Taking an extensive period of time to make a decision on the hire .

6 . Poor communication skills for job or interview requirements .

7 . Quantity over quality .

8 . Little or no feedback to candidates .

9 . Not taking into account cultural fit, only basing the hiring decision on skill level .

10 . Making the selection because there was only one candidate in the salary range .

Taking note from the 10 faux pas seen above, recruiters need to take the time, energy and money to get to know their candidates . Without communication, trust and a true connection it is nearly impossible to properly place an employee within a company .

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So, What Does Zip Schedules Have to Do with It?

If you are hiring top talent, you should provide them with more than adequate resources in order to be successful . You are taking the time, energy and money to invest in great workers, so ensure that your team is equipped with the means to exercise their strengths . If you would like to see other tools that are on the marketplace that will help to retain your workers, visit www .zipschedules .com . In 2015, cloud-based software has become the preferred platform for employee scheduling—giving employees agency over their schedules, allowing individuals to call in sick, offer up/accept a shift all from their mobile phones using push notifications . It is essential to recruit the right people, but even more difficult to retain all of your power players . Insist on investing in software and applications that keep your company ahead of the competition . If you have the top talent, don’t forget to provide ample opportunities for their success and growth . In short, your employees represent the true value of your company .

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